GHALANAI: Three security personnel were killed and two others injured when miscreants attacked them near a post in Mohmand tribal region along the border with Afghanistan on Saturday. Sources said five personnel of Swat Scouts had gone to a nearby spring to fetch water and were returning to the Yara Khel security post in Biazai tehsil when they came under fire at around 3pm. Lance Naiks Mohammad Hanif and Nasir and soldier Mukhtiar were killed in the ambush. Injured personnel Farooq and Zaheer Khan were airlifted to Peshawar Combined Military Hospital in critical condition. Dawn.
KABUL: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif assured Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday of Islamabad`s support for Kabul`s efforts to seek peace with the Taliban. He also offered to arrange a meeting between Afghan negotiators and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban`s former commander who was released by Pakistan earlier this year. Talking to reporters along with President Hamid Karzai during his day-long visit to Kabul, the prime minister said: `Mullah Baradar has been released. We discussed this matter at length today and we have agreed on a mechanism and we will see it is properly implemented, and anybody who is sent by the (Afghan) president to Pakistan to talk to Mullah Baradar, we will carry out the instructions given to us by the president and make sure that such meeting takes place. Dawn.
PESHAWAR: Activists of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and its political allies vowed on Saturday to continue their campaign against the US drone attacks by blocking supplies to Nato forces in Afghanistan via Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. According to a PTI press release here, the protesters sent back three Nato containers from Khairabad Bridge on Saturday while other trucks carrying commercial goods were allowed to pass through Hayatabad and enter the adjacent Khyber Agency and then Afghanistan. Dawn, The News.
PESHAWAR: A policeman was killed and another sustained injuries when unidentified miscreants opened fire on an anti-polio vaccination team on Kohat Road near Garhi Qamardin on Saturday. The anti-polio campaign was halted after the attack as the volunteers refused to continue administering vaccine to the children fearing more attacks. A police official said two policemen, Zakirullah and Yaqoob, were guarding an anti-polio vaccination team in Gulshanabad near Garhi Qamardin when they came under attack. The News,The Nation.
LAHORE: Minister for Railway Khawaja Saad Rafiq has said drone attacks could only be stopped by a strong economy and not through protests. Talking to the media, he said a strong economy was the key to any country who wanted to live with respect and honour. He said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had raised the issue of drone attacks during a meeting with US President Barack Obama. He advised militants to drop guns and start dialogue. “If we can maintain peace in the region, the US would have no more option to stay here,” he added. The News.
PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) workers. Saturday blocked the Ring Road for all traffic as protest against police who they alleged had arrested six PTI activists for taking part in the sit-in against the Nato supplies.. The News.
NOWSHERA: Chief Minister Pervez Khattak said on Saturday that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had taken vital decisions to empower the Donors Coordination Cell (DCC) to put the province on the path to progress and prosperity. “We have removed all the bureaucratic bottlenecks and red-tapism so that the genuine international donor agencies are able to work freely for the development of the province,” the chief minister told reporters here before his departure to Islamabad. The News.
PESHAWAR: A unique vintage car show following the arrival of classic cars which took part in the Karachi to Khyber car rally attracted people of all ages here at Peshawar Services Club on Saturday. The Tourism Corporation of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa sponsored this fourth annual vintage car show and the National Bank of Pakistan sponsored the rally from Karachi to Khyber. The crosscountry rally was organised by the Vintage and Classic Car Club of Pakistan and hosted by Asim Durrani, CEO of Classic Land Rover. He was also one of the main participants whose vintage car and jeep collection was displayed at the show. `Cars as old as that of 1930 are on display. It is a very healthy hobby and the show would encourage people not to scrape their old and classic cars,` said Mr Durrani. Dawn, The News,The Nation.
NEW YORK: Recent drone attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan have again complicated their relations with the United States, as American military forces prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014, according to a report in an American newspaper on Saturday.
“Two separate but similarly bitter disagreements over drone strikes in Pakistan and Afghanistan have complicated relations between the United States and those two countries at a delicate moment, again highlighting the political complications from America’s persistent reliance on the lethal remote-controlled weapons,” The New York Times said. The Nation.
NEW YORK: Defying icy winds, a number of Pakistani activists, backed by American humanitarian organisations, held a demonstration in front of the UN building on Friday at which they denounced the US drone attacks on Pakistan’s territory and called on the world body to take steps to put an end to them. They raised slogans and carried placards saying that the drone campaign was killing women and children and fuelling terrorism. The Nation.
BATKHELA: Six persons, including three women, were killed in separate incidents in Malakand Agency on Saturday, sources said. The sources said that Said Karim was on his way to his shop in Dargai bazaar when Ayub and others intercepted him and exchanged harsh words with him. Trying to defend himself, Said Karim opened fire on them and Ayub sustained injuries. The News.
LAKKI MARWAT: Tension gripped Naurang city on Saturday morning when members of Dilkhozai tribe showed up and resorted to firing in the air in a bid to occupy a disputed land. Dilkhozai and Musakhel tribes lay a claim to the land reportedly owned by Pakistan Railways. On Friday, Musakhel tribesmen had pulled down some structures built by Dilkhozai tribesmen at the disputed land.They had also fired gunshots in the air. Afterwards, members of Marwat Qaumi Jirga, including Raees of Eesakkhel, Haji Muhammad Aslam Khan, Haji Ameer Nawaz Khan, MPA Anwar Hayat Khan and Maulana Bashir Ahmad Haqqani, stepped in to avert possible clash between both tribes and convinced their elders to resolve the issue through dialogue. Dawn.
KHYBER AGENCY : The Khuga khel committee on Saturday settled six-month old Qaumi (stand) Adda dispute with the mutual approval of all three sub-tribes of Khuga Khel Shinwari of Landi kotal. Addressing the media at the Landi kotal Press Club, President of the Qaumi committee Haji Zarab Jan alias Badai said, Torkham stand dispute has been settled with mutual will of all groups in a jirga held in the hujra of Chief of Shinwari Tribe Haji Malik Shafiullah. The Nation.
