Two persons were shot dead and another injured by Afghan security forces personnel after they crossed the Pak-Afghan border in Kurram Agency on Monday, official and tribal sources said. Sources said six Afghan security personnel intruded into the Darga area near the Pak-Afghan border and opened indiscriminate fire on local people. As a result, local tribesmen Lahore Khan and Khwaja Din were killed on the spot while Gul Wazir was wounded. Taking prompt action, the tribesmen chased the assailants but they managed to escape and crossed the border. Following the incident, officials of the political administration reached the village and started investigation. The News, Dawn.
Afghanistan on Tuesday threatened Pakistan that it would report to the UN Security Council for what Kabul alleges is shelling of its villages along the border between the two countries. Authorities in the eastern province of Kunar, a hotbed for Taliban militants, have complained for weeks of being bombarded from across the frontier, blaming the barrage on Pakistani security forces. Thousands of villagers in Kunar fled their homes as a result of “Pakistani rocket shelling” in recent weeks, officials said last week. Foreign Ministry spokesman Faramarz Tamana said Kabul was discussing the attacks with Islamabad and President Hamid Karzai would raise the matter with Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf when he would visit the country in the coming weeks.“If our bilateral discussion regarding this issue brings no result, we will refer this issue to the United Nation’s Security Council,” he told AFP. The News.
Fewer civilians have died in US drone strikes in Pakistan so far this year than at any other time in the last four years, a report said on Monday. Three to 24 civilians were reported killed by American CIA drones in Pakistan from January to June, according to the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Reported civilian casualty rates have not been so low since the first half of 2008, when 12-21 civilians reportedly died under former US president George W Bush, it said. It was also a marked decline on the 62-103 civilians reported killed by drone strikes in Pakistan in the first six months of 2011, the bureau added. The decline in casualties correlates to a decline in attacks as relations between Islamabad and Washington deteriorated since Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan in May 2011. According to an AFP tally, 101 US drone strikes were reported in Pakistan in 2010, 64 in 2011 and only 24 so far this year. According to the bureau, between 2,496 and 3,202 people have been reportedly killed by drones in Pakistan since 2004. Among them are 482-832 civilians, 175 of them children. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay last month called for a UN investigation into US drone strikes, questioning their legality and saying they kill innocent civilians. The News.
The United States has accepted the new terms of engagement with Pakistan covering all aspects of bilateral ties between the two countries as enumerated by Islamabad, possibly bringing to an end the acrimonious relationship between the two countries created in the wake of the Salala attack last November. Pakistan accepted the set of proposals handed to it by the high-powered US mission during the two-day talks that ended here on Monday evening. The draft of the understanding will come up for formal approval in the meeting of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC) that is scheduled for today (Tuesday) with Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf in the chair, following which the federal cabinet will endorse the decisions of the DCC tomorrow (Wednesday). The News.
The Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC) will meet today (Tuesday) to give a green signal to reopen Nato supply routes and streamline other bilateral matters with the US after successful meetings between Pakistan and the United States, the last one chaired by Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and including US Undersecretary of State Thomas Nydes. At the military level also, successful talks took place in Rawalpindi between Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and the International Security Assistance Force Commander in Afghanistan General John Allen. The DCC meeting will be chaired by Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and attended by heads of all three forces, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, DG ISI as well as federal ministers of Defence, Interior, Foreign Affairs, Finance and Information ministries. The News, Dawn, Express Tribune.
The Government Primary School for Boys in Darra village was damaged in a bomb blast on Monday; police said.The device planted in the veranda of the school went off at 3:30am. The blast destroyed two rooms and cracked the boundary wall and other structures. A watchman of the school informed the in charge of the school and police soon after the blast. The City Police Station personnel reached the spot, cordoned off the building and collected pieces of evidence.The officials of the Education Department also visited the school and met the in-charge of the school to know the details of the incident. The News, Dawn.
Ongoing military operations in Khyber Agency have forced hundreds of families to evacuate from the area, an international charity group said in a report on internally displaced persons. More than 240,000 people have been registered as displaced from Khyber Agency so far and the number is expected to increase as the registration process continues, according to a report by Save the Children International. Families in Khyber Agency continue to receive instructions from the military to evacuate the area. Express Tribune.
Tahir Amin, Sharafat Ali Chaudhry
