Pakistan’s helicopter gunships pounded militant hideouts in North Waziristan tribal region, killing at least four and injuring many others, a private TV channel reported on Monday.
According to reports, the helicopters gunships attacked militant hideouts in Mir Ali area of the North Waziristan Agency.
The 2-day curfew has been lifted in the area. An IED blast on Sunday killed two officials of the security forces and damaged a tank in the region. The Frontier Post, The Nation, Daily Times.
Mortars fired from the Afghan side of the border killed a girl and injured three others in tehsil Nawagi of Bajaur tribal region on Monday.A woman and a child were among three injured. Locals said four mortars were fired from across the border at the Hilal Khail Charmang, a border village of Nawagi tehsil, 40km from the Agency headquarters Khar.The residents said that five-year-old Fitima bibi was killed on the spot while three people including Gull Haia bibi, Inamullah Khan and Mohammad Iqbal were seriously wounded. The Frontier Post, The Nation, Dawn, Daily Times.
An unwitting comment by Marc Grossman last month may have triggered heated debate in Kabul and Islamabad over the Durand Line, but for the thousands who throng across the border on foot every day, the boundary line between Khyber Agency and Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, is irrelevant. Few, if any, of the locals have paperwork; many have businesses and families on both sides of the border; and several hundred schoolchildren come across every morning from the Afghan side to attend schools in Landi Kotal, the local tehsil. So irrelevant is the border here that the exact point at which Pakistan ends and Afghanistan begins is difficult to discern amidst the jumble of trucks, cars, pushcarts and pedestrians. There are a handful of khasadars on the Pakistani side and border police on the Afghan side; there are small customs checkposts on both sides; and there are immigration offices on either side of the border — but finding any of them can be an ordeal. Torkham is less an international border and more a chaotic bazaar. Dawn.
Jamaat-i-Islami’s former chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed escaped unhurt after a suicide attack by a woman near his motorcade in Mohmand tribal region on Monday. Three people suffered minor injuries. The JI termed the incident handiwork of CIA’s agents allegedly active in the area. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa JI chief Prof Muhammad Ibrahim said in a statement that his party would continue its efforts to end what he called US meddling in Pakistan’s affairs.
According to Assistant Political Agent Jamshed Khan, the JI caravan was going to Haleemzai tehsil where Qazi Hussain Ahmed was to inaugurate the party’s office and announce at a rally the nomination of Qari Fazal Subhan as JI’s chief of Mohmand chapter. The attacker blew herself up at Ghiba Chowk near a security post manned by Khasadar and Levies personnel on Khapakh Road. Witnesses said Qazi Hussain was in the second vehicle in the caravan while the car hit by the attacker was behind it. Dawn, The News, The Frontier Post, The Nation, Daily Times, Daily Mashriq.
Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar declined on Monday to disclose various aspects of Pakistan’s Afghan reconciliation strategy, including the recent release of around a dozen Taliban leaders and a plan to free Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar — co-founder of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan. “The reconciliation effort in Afghanistan has suffered from talking too much and doing nothing in the past,” she said, adding that Pakistan would do the opposite this time. Addressing a press conference, primarily meant to discuss the D-8 Summit, she stressed the importance of confidentiality and refused to share even the number of Taliban released so far in the hope that they would help negotiate peace in Afghanistan. She, however, said Pakistan would do whatever it could for the sake of peace in the neighbouring country. Dawn.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department has decided to focus its anti-polio efforts in the province on Peshawar as the city has turned out to be a reservoir of the crippling virus. Also, the department has asked vaccinators to record the number of children missing vaccination against polio unlike the past when only the children immunised were reported. According to an official, Health Secretary Ishfaq Khan recently chaired a meeting, which ordered the start of special anti-polio vaccination campaigns in 42 high-risk union councils of Peshawar after learning that at least 10 new polio cases reported in the province’s five districts had originated in the capital city. Dawn.
President Asif Zardari on Monday launched the reconstruction of Peshawar-Torkham Highway, which serves as a major trade route with neighbouring Afghanistan. US Consul General Robert Reed, whose country is providing up to $70 million to reconstruct the 46km road over the next two years, joined the president in the launch. The launching ceremony was held at the Governor’s House in Peshawar instead of Torkham apparently for security reasons. In a statement issued here, the US Consulate in Peshawar said the Fata Secretariat would manage the project, with oversight from the National Highway Authority. Dawn, The News, The Frontier Post, Daily Mashriq.
Differences have cropped up in Khyber Agency chapter of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) as top slot of the party has become a bone contention among local leaders. The differences deepened when Hazrat Wali, who claims to be president of PPP in Khyber Agency, dissolved all the three tehsil cabinets of the party and said that new cabinets would be formed by December 15. “There is dearth of discipline among the lower cadres and party workers in Khyber Agency as the previous cabinet miserably failed to organise the party at grassroots level,” he told Dawn when asked about dissolution of PPP local cabinets. He said that his predecessor failed to organise party workers, who had either parted ways with PPP and joined other political parties or remained dormant owing to inefficiency of the former cabinet. Dawn.
Despite of the approval of upgradation of girls school in Lwar Meena area of Jamrud to middle level, the upgradation has not been done yet.
According to the details, MNA Alama Noorul Haq Qadri had approved the upgradation of the school to middle level from his funds in 2010-11, but the political administration was delaying the upgradation of the school.
Residents of the area said that Lwar Meena was peaceful and populated area of Khyber Agency and there was no threat to the writ of government in the area. The Frontier Post.
FATA students’ federation protested against the ongoing military operation in tribal belt here at Peshawar on Monday and blocked Saddar road for all type of traffic. They demonstrated by holding play cards and banners inscribed with slogans against the military operation and the arrest of students and teachers belonging to fata. They demanded of the government to stop the military operation in FATA and release all the arrested students and teachers. Daily Mashriq.
FRC REPORT
Parrachinnar: An Attempt of delivering wine to Parrachinnar through Cargo service from Peshawar was foiled by the Political Administration. As per details of political administration the attempt of transferring two drums of wine, amounting hundred bottles, to Parrachinnar from Peshawar through cargo service was made unsuccessful and the culprits numbering five were arrested on the spot. Intelligence sources informed the administration about the transferring attempt which was successfully foiled by the latter. Unas Zahid the Mahal Tehsildar trashed the deliverables in the presence of media and local Qaumi committee persons.
Meanwhile Political Agent of Kurram Agency Yusuf Rahim said that journalists should serve the nation by encouraging the promotion of positive activities in the country and through their writings. He was addressing the media persons after plantation in the Parrachinnar Press Club. On the occasion he appreciated the role of Parrachinar journalists for their active and positive reporting and its positive impact in establishing peace in the area.
Khyber Agency: In Khyber Agency, ill timed transfers of Political Administration and Educational Officers have been started FRC Filed Reporter learnt. The transferred officers can appeal to the courts against their transfer orders. Agency Education Officer has been changed and the officials of the administrations are trying to fill the position of grade nineteen with grade eighteen officer.
NAWAF KHAN, CHAUDHARY SHARAFAT ALI
