Karachi News


DAWN/The News International, KARACHI	19 August 2006, Saturday, 23 Rajab 1427

www.karachipage.com (click on underlined key-words/dates to get more details)
6 arrested for US consulate bombing
Man beats neighbour to death
Defence, Clifton stink with stagnant water
Landmine blast toll rises to 7
‘Maulana Radio’rules Swat airwaves
Musharraf says cities purged of terrorists
London terror plotter hiding in Afghanistan
‘Pakistani heritage raised US security alarm’
US lauds Pak action against terror outfits
6 arrested for US consulate bombing
KARACHI: The Capital City Police have arrested six activists of the banned Jaish-e-Muhammad militant outfit for their involvement in a suicide bombing on the US consulate, sources told The News on Friday.

The March 2 blast near the gates of the US consulate in Karachi had killed US diplomat David Foy, his driver Iftikhar, a law-enforcer and the bomber on the eve of a visit to Pakistan by US President George W Bush.

An intelligence agency had arrested the militants on a tip-off a few days ago, the sources said, adding that the terrorists were handed over to the Karachi police after a thorough interrogation.

“Six suspected militants have been handed over to the Karachi police,” a senior police officer told the News on condition of anonymity. “However, more arrests are expected as the police are searching for their accomplices.”

The official said, “Jawaid, one of the arrested terrorists, identified the March 2 suicide bomber as Raja Muhammad Tahir.” He said investigations so far revealed that the terrorists have close links to the banned Jaish-e-Muhammad militant group. He added that details would be made public through the media within the 24 hours.

Man beats neighbour to death

KARACHI: A young man was killed while six others lost their lives in different incidents on Friday.

Rasool Bukhash, 35, a labourer by profession, and a resident of RKV Rahim Khan Village, lost his life, when he picked in a quarrel with Noor Zaman, one of his neighbours, who attacked him with a stick, following an exchange of hot words in limits of Model Colony police station.

The police said that Rasool Bukhash and Noor Zaman were discussing devastations caused by the rain. During the dialogue, Rasool Bukhash asked Noor Zaman to remove an electric pole that was mounted near their residences. At this, an argument arose between them and Noor Zaman started beating Rasool Bukhash with a stick, which proved fatal.

The police have registered a case against Noor Zaman, on complaint of Rahim Bukhash, the brother of the deceased, and started investigation.

Zulfiqar, 24, a resident of Awami Colony, was killed when unidentified gunmen opened fire upon him after entering his house in Korangi Industrial Area police jurisdiction.

The medico-legal experts said that Zulfiqar, received a single bullet on his head and died on the spot.

DROWNED: Waqar and Umair, two teenagers, drowned in a storm water drain after receiving an electric shock in Benazeer Colony, within Pakistan Bazaar police precincts.

BODY FOUND: Decomposed body of an unidentified 40-year-old man was found on a garbage-dump, near Al-Asif police-post in Sohrab Goth police locality.

Meanwhile, body of a 50-year-old woman was found floating in a storm water-drain, within Mouchko police limits.

Similarly, body of a 45-year-old man was found near the shrine of Hazrat Abdullah Shah Ghazi, in Clifton locality of Boating Basin police precincts. The deceased was identified as Saleh Muhammad, a drug-addict.

‘No fault in design of KPT underpass’

KARACHI: The Karachi Port Trust (KPT) administration on Friday claimed that there was no fault in the design or pumping system of the KPT underpass at Schon Circle, Clifton as it remained functional even after heavy downpour.

Addressing a press briefing here at the KPT underpass site, Senior PRO KPT, Rahima Nazeer, Project Engineer and GM Planning Hanif Abdullah and Project in- charge Saeed Soomro, said that despite heavy rainfall on Thursday, the underpass was clear for vehicular traffic.

They said that the pumping system of underpass was also working properly.

They said that in recent downpour, rainwater drains of Teen Talwar, Do Talwar, Schon Circle, Bath Island and its surrounding areas and Naher-e-Khyam (Nullah) were choked and rainwater, instead of flowing in these drains, had entered in the KPT underpass.

The administration said that rainwater still accumulated on streets in the surrounding areas of underpass, while it was clear for traffic.

Defence, Clifton stink with stagnant water

KARACHI, Aug 18: The stinking stagnant rainwater in Defence and Clifton continued to cause miseries to tens of thousands of people in the two salubrious neighbourhoods, with most of the roads and streets remaining submerged with water.

The Gulshan-i-Faisal in Bath Island was again the worst-hit where knee-deep to waist-deep filthy water wreaked havoc on roads and streets, forcing the residents to remain indoors without potable water as rainwater streamed into their underground water reservoirs.

Dr Shahab Osto, a resident, said the entire locality was flooded by rainwater which instead of receding continued to increase with the passage of time on Friday though the city did not receive a single drop of rain. Nehr-i-Khiyam is blocked and the rainwater is being redirected to our area, he said.

The first spell of monsoon showers had inundated Gulshan-i-Faisal, which is under the control of the City District Government Karachi, and it took civic agencies 12 days to drain out the stagnant water.

“Apparently, we will have to wait for two weeks”, the doctor added.

“We are left with little drinking water and we don’t know where this situation would take us because authorities are doing nothing”, he said.

Dr Agha Hameed, another resident, their locality had been cut off from rest of the city. “No vehicle can go out or come in the vicinity due to waist-deep water”, he added.

He urged the authorities to supply drinking water to the trapped residents as all shops and general stores nearby are closed.

He deplored that the authorities were turning a deaf ear to their frantic calls for rescue.

Roads and streets in other parts of Clifon, under the control of Clifton Cantonment Board, remained flooded as the civic agency apparently did nothing to drain out rainwater.

Ms Durdana Sial, a resident of Clifton’s Block-7, told Dawn by phone that her locality had been submerged in waist-deep water.

“I have moved to my parents’ home as level of water is increasing”, she said.

The woman alleged that water being pumped out from the Clifton underpass was being redirected to her locality which had turned into a lake.

“We lodged several complaints with the Clifton Cantonment Board, but to no avail.”

We are now disillusioned and we don’t expect anything from them as they are useless”, she deplored.

“We are just praying and waiting for some miracle to happen here”, she added.

The roads and streets in the adjoining Block-8 also remained flooded with stinky stagnant rainwater. One of the carriages of the Shahrah-i-Iqbal, better known as Clifton Road, remained submerged, suspending traffic on it.

Similarly, one of the carriages of Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman Road remained inundated with knee-deep water as the authorities did not make any effort to clear the road.

Several roads, streets and lanes remained submerged in parts of Defence Housing Authority, and there was no major civic operation in sight during the day.

In Phase 5 of the DHA, the 27th Street remained flooded and it caused problems in traffic flow. Rainwater also remained stagnant near McDonald restaurant and D-Mart in Phase 5 Extension.

A vast area near Circular Avenue in Phase 2 of the DHA gave the look of a lake.

A number of cars were struck in Streets Nos 16, 17 and 18 in Phase 1, DHA. The 4th Street in phase 4, DHA was also submerged causing a great deal of hardship to motorists and pedestrians.

Residents of Phase 5, DHA said the rainwater streamed into their underground water tanks. The street No. 6 was inundated with ankle-deep water. The portions of Khiyaban-i-Tanzeem and Tauheed Commercial were also submerged, while the road in front of Abdullah Shah Ghazi’s shrine also remained flooded.

Fareen Shirazi, a resident of DHA phase 5 Extension, told dawn that the Street 28 was submerged in knee-deep water. “In the morning, a garbage truck came to the area and disposed of a heap of filth and garbage on the street which is now stinking”, she said.

Landmine blast toll rises to 7

Quetta, Aug 18: The death toll in Thursday’s landmine blasts in Dera Bugti district rose to seven after two more critically injured soldiers died on Friday.

“Two more security personnel succumbed to their injuries in a military hospital,” officialss said.

The Frontier Corps’ soldiers, identified as Mohammad Ziyad and Umar Zeb, had been injured in an anti-tank landmine blast in the Bhambhore area in Dera Bugti district on Thursday evening. Officials said that the condition of at least four more injured was also serious.

Five security personnel had been killed and 12 were wounded in two landmine explosions in Karmo Wadh and Bhambhore areas.

ACCIDENT: Two armymen were killed and another was seriously injured in an accident in Loralai on Friday.

Police said that the accident occurred as an army truck overturned on its way to a workshop.

‘Maulana Radio’rules Swat airwaves

PESHAWAR, Aug 18: It is not uncommon for popular disc jockeys to have a huge following. So there is nothing extraordinary about a large fan club of a cleric, known as Radio Maulana, who has hit the airwaves of Swat, except that his female admirers are making their husbands grow beards and abandon what the Maulana describes as ‘un-Islamic’.

Women in increasing number attentively listen to the sermons of Maulana Fazlullah, a leader of the outlawed Tehrik Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Muhammadi, on illegal FM radio stations in and around Swat. The proscribed organisation has restarted its campaign against obscenity in the Malakand Agency and its neighbouring areas.

“He speaks our language and talks about our issues. It’s better to listen to him than watch irrelevant TV programmes,” says a woman listener.

“In one of his speeches, Maulana Radio warned women that their nikah would be invalidated if they did not make their husbands grow beards,” says another woman in Saidu Sharif. She does not want to be named in the story.

Salma Khatoon, a 26-year widow, attributes her changed lifestyle to the eye-opening sermons on FM radio.

A resident of Sharifabad, she avidly tunes into the programmes of Maulana Fazlullah and Maulana Ishaq every morning and evening. She thinks it is the best way for illiterate rural women to acquire a smattering of religious knowledge.

“Even a poor family can afford a radio and listen to the sermons. Speeches of knowledgeable religious scholars on FM radio have changed my life. And I have started telling other women to get their husbands abandon their un-Islamic ways,” says Salma.

Mohammad Aman, who lives in Saidu Sharif, says his sister took to the burqa when she became influenced by the sermons she listened to on FM radio.

“My aunt was given to using foul language. But now, influenced by the sermons, she has become completely unfamiliar with the profanities that she previously rattled off with remarkable ease,” he recalls.

Activists of the proscribed organisation financially compensate those who voluntarily close their audio-video shops. But they are known to resort to ‘strong-arm method’ when persuasion fails to work.

Police, last week, arrested 24 TNSM activists for trying to set ablaze CDs, TV sets, video and audio cassettes in Mingora.

“An FIR was registered against them. They were apparently waging a campaign against obscenity,” said an official of the Mingora police station.

Musharraf says cities purged of terrorists

ISLAMABAD, Aug 18: President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Friday declared that the country’s cities had ‘generally’ been cleansed of terrorists but stressed that a strategy was needed to deal with extremism because it required a change in the mindset.

Launching the National Public Safety Commission (NPSC), the president praised the police and other law-enforcement agencies for ‘neutralising’ terrorist networks and unearthing terror plots.

He said that since 9/11 the country’s police department had lost its 400 men in action against terrorists.

The president said that about 140 terrorists had been killed in the past five years during operations conducted by security agencies, adding that some 600 foreigners and 500 sectarian terrorists had been arrested. He termed it a big achievement.

He described extremism as the greatest danger facing the nation and said it must be countered with strong hands. “Terrorism has also to be met with force and law-enforcement agencies are doing a great job to tackle it, but a strategy is needed to deal with extremism as it involves change in the mindset.

“In case of crimes like car-snatching an individual suffers but if we don’t control extremism, the entire nation will suffer,” he pointed out.

Gen Musharraf said the government had outlawed extremist organisations, issued a list of some 400 leaders of these outfits and identified 89 books and pamphlets to stop the preaching of hatred and violence.

London terror plotter hiding in Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has told the US military that an Arab al-Qaeda operative who masterminded the London jetliner terror plot is hiding in mountainous terrain in north-eastern Afghanistan, an intelligence official said on Friday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the investigation, said the al-Qaeda member is believed to be moving between Afghanistan’s Nuristan and Kunar provinces, which border Pakistan.

The information was obtained by interrogators questioning a British suspect in the plot to blow up trans-Atlantic passenger planes, Rashid Rauf, who was arrested in Pakistan and is regarded as a key figure in the foiled plot. The information has already been shared with the British and coalition forces operating in Afghanistan, the official told The Associated Press.

The official said the unnamed al-Qaeda member of Middle Eastern origin was a close aide to Egyptian-born al-Qaeda No 2 Ayman al-Zawahri. Detained terror suspects have told interrogators al-Zawahri likely approved the plan to blow up passenger planes leaving London for the United States, the official said.

When asked if the US-led forces stationed in Afghanistan were chasing the individual, another official said: “Obviously we are working very closely, and cooperation among the coalition partners is excellent.” He would not divulge if there had been any progress in the hunt.

Rauf was in touch with the al-Qaeda operative through a courier from Afghanistan who would cross the porous, mountainous frontier separating Afghanistan and Pakistan to deliver messages, the official said.

The official said the Arab al-Qaeda mastermind has developed links with several Pakistan-based militants, including Rauf. A US military spokesman in Afghanistan said Pakistan routinely shares terror-related information with American counterparts, but he could not comment on whether Islamabad had notified US authorities about the al-Qaeda mastermind.

Rauf, who officials claim once belonged to the outlawed militant group Jaish-e-Muhammad, is among at least seven people detained in Pakistan in a roundup that helped foil the plot. Security sources told AFP on Friday that Rauf’s father Abdul had also been detained in recent days.

British investigators are in Islamabad working closely on the investigation with Pakistani counterparts. British and Pakistani officials have also been discussing the prospect of extraditing Rauf to Britain. But Pakistan’s Interior Ministry spokesman said any imminent extradition was unlikely.

“I think extradition at this point of time is not under consideration because the investigation is still ongoing,” said Brig Javed Iqbal Cheema. “But we are not ruling it out.” Afghanistan, which has quarreled with its “war on terror” ally for months over militancy along their rugged and porous border, said Pakistan was trying to shift the blame.

“As we’ve said in the past, we believe that information coming from the Pakistani intelligence services is diversionary,” said Daud Muradiaan, a senior adviser in the Afghan foreign ministry. “We in Afghanistan believe that Afghanistan is no longer a safe haven for al-Qaeda. As a result of ours and the international community’s efforts, Afghanistan doesn’t remain a safe haven for al-Qaeda.”

‘Pakistani heritage raised US security alarm’

CEREDO, West Virginia: A Pakistani woman whose daughter’s carry-on luggage caused an airport to shut down for 9 1/2 hours says it was her ethnic background, not a few bottles of suspicious liquids, that set off security officials.

Initial laboratory testing by the FBI turned up no evidence of explosive materials in the bottles carried at Tri-State Airport in West Virginia by Rima Qayyum, a 28-year-old Pakistani woman. No charges were filed against the woman, who was never detained and was cooperative when interviewed by the FBI.

Qayyum’s mother of Jackson, Michigan, told The Associated Press that her daughter is four months pregnant, lives in Barboursville and is innocent. ìIt was not only a false alarm, it was racial discrimination because there was nothing,î Mrs Qayyum said.

They should clear her name and apologise on national TV.î The FBI did not return messages on Thursday night seeking comment on the allegations. A screener noticed a bottle in Rima Qayyum’s carry-on bag as she was going through security before her 9:15 am flight on Thursday to Charlotte, North Carolina, airport authority president Jim Booton said.

The terminal was evacuated at 11:25 am after two bottles of liquid in the bag initially tested positive for explosives residue twice, and a canine team also got a positive hit. Chemical tests of the bottles’ contents later turned up no explosives, said Capt Jack Chambers, head of the State Police Special Operations unit.

The woman had purchased a one-way ticket to Detroit by way of Charlotte on Wednesday. The flight eventually left for Charlotte without her. Rima Qayyum planned to return to the airport on Friday to take another flight, her mother said.

She just had water to drink because she is pregnant and she had a face wash that had a drop of bleach on it,î Mrs Qayyum said. The FBI plans to perform additional tests on the bottles, Killeen said.

US lauds Pak action against terror outfits

NEW YORK: Brushing aside criticism that Pakistan is not doing enough to crack down on militants, a senior US official has credited President Pervez Musharraf with having kept his promise to “break” with the Taliban and their al-Qaeda allies.

Richard Boucher, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, said although the Taliban have reorganised inside Pakistan, Musharraf’s government is trying to gain control of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. “They’ve closed some camps; they’ve outlawed some groups,” he said in an interview with The New York Times published on Friday in the course of a lengthy despatch on the political situation in Pakistan.

“You have to understand how deeply rooted extremism is in Pakistan,” Boucher said. Of the general’s cooperation with Washington, he added: “I think we’ve seen plenty. We certainly work with Musharraf.”