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(11/06/07 3:00am)
Police fired tear gas and clubbed thousands of lawyers protesting President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s decision to impose emergency rule, as Western allies threatened to review aid to the troubled Muslim nation. Opposition groups put the number of arrests at 3,500, although the government reported half that.\nMusharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup and is also head of Pakistan’s army, suspended the constitution on Saturday ahead of a Supreme Court ruling on whether his recent re-election as president was legal. He ousted independent-minded judges, put a stranglehold on independent media and granted sweeping powers to authorities to crush dissent.\nThe attorney general called Monday for the polls to be held on time, but Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz left open the possibility for a delay.\nUnder intense pressure from the United States and other Western allies to hold elections as scheduled in January, Musharraf said Monday he would relinquish control of the military and return the country to “the same track as we were moving” but he gave no indication when the vote would take place.\n“I am determined to remove my uniform once we correct these pillars – the judiciary, the executive, and the parliament,” Musharraf was quoted by state-run Pakistan Television as telling foreign ambassadors \nMonday.\n“I can assure you there will be harmony ... confidence will come back into the government, into law enforcement agencies and Pakistan will start moving again on the same track as we were moving.”\nPublic anger was mounting in the nation of 160 million people, which has been under military rule for much of its 60-year history, but demonstrations so far have been limited largely to activists, rights workers and lawyers – angered by his attacks on the judiciary. All have been quickly and sometimes brutally stamped out.\nSecretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington was reviewing its assistance to Pakistan, which has received billions of dollars in aid since Musharraf threw his support behind the U.S.-led war on terror after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.\nAt a news conference in the West Bank on Monday, she urged the army chief to follow through on past promises to “take off his uniform.”\n“I want to be very clear,” she said, as a team of U.S. defense officials postponed plans to travel to Islamabad for talks Tuesday because of the crisis. “We believe that the best path for Pakistan is to quickly return to a constitutional path and then to hold elections.”\nDefense Secretary Robert Gates suggested that military aid may not be affected because the Bush administration does not want to disrupt its partnership with Pakistan in fighting al-Qaida and other militants.\nBritain said it had no current plans to change the $493 million it has budgeted in aid to Pakistan over three years.\nThe Dutch government suspended development assistance, becoming the first country to do so.\nAssociated Press writers Zarar Khan in Islamabad, Ashraf Khan in Karachi, Khalid Tanweer in Multan and Zia Khan in Lahore contributed to this report.
(02/19/04 4:12am)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan and India laid out an aggressive timetable for peace talks on a wide-range of topics, including the hot-button issue of Kashmir and confidence-building measures regarding their nuclear arsenals, Pakistan's representative at the talks said Wednesday.\nA series of midlevel meetings will begin directly after the Indian elections in April, culminating in a summit between Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri and Indian External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha in August.\n"We do have a basic roadmap for a Pakistan-India peace process to which we have both agreed," Pakistani Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar told a press conference at the conclusion of the talks.\nEven before the Indian elections, technical-level talks will be held on transport links and other issues, Khokhar said after a face-to-face meeting with his Indian counterpart, Shashank, who goes by only one name. The two foreign secretaries will meet again in May or June, Khokhar said.\nKhokhar urged patience but expressed optimism that the talks would yield results.\n"We feel that the atmosphere is much better," Khokhar said. "There is a realization on both sides that war is not an option."\nIn New Delhi, Foreign Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said both sides had a "sincere desire to discuss and arrive at a peaceful settlement of all bilateral issues, including Jammu and Kashmir."\nThe exact dates and locations for the talks have yet to be worked out, he said.\nPakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf broke news of the breakthrough in a speech earlier Wednesday at a conference of Islamic clerics. Musharraf told the clerics he would never sell out the Kashmiri people, but a peaceful solution was a must.\n"I am hopeful that a solution for Kashmir, in accordance with the wishes of Kahsmiris, will be found," he said. "If there is no solution according to the wishes of Kashmiris then no solution will be found."\nThe speech was greeted with shouts of "Long Live Musharraf!" and "God is Great!"\nA deal on the timetable was reached Tuesday, but specifics were withheld until Wednesday. The delay in the next high-level meeting is largely due to desires to hold the controversial issues until after Indians go to the polls in April.\nIndian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is expected to win the vote and continue the dialogue.
(10/03/03 6:23am)
ANGORE ADDA, Pakistan -- Pakistan's army launched its largest offensive against al Qaeda and other militants in a rugged tribal region bordering Afghanistan Thursday, killing at least 12 suspects and arresting 18, military officials said.\nAn Associated Press reporter at the scene saw four bodies. Maj. Gen. Ameer Faisal, the commander of the operation, said eight other bodies were lying in an area about 100 yards away that was too dangerous to enter.\nTen al Qaeda suspects, blindfolded and with their hands tied behind their backs, were seen being led away from the area. The military said 18 suspects were detained in all.\nArmy officials said one Pakistani soldier was killed and two wounded in the operation in the South Waziristan area.\nFaisal said most of those killed and captured appeared to be foreigners. It was not immediately clear if any top-ranking al Qaeda operatives were among them.\nOn Monday, a U.S. soldier was killed in a gunbattle with anti-coalition forces near a base at Shkin, a town in Afghanistan's Paktika province, just across the border from South Waziristan. The base and several others along the border come under frequent attack.\nSeveral hundred Afghan troops moved earlier this week into Paktika, in apparent response to the soldier's killing.\nAbout 200 Pakistani troops reportedly took part in the operation, and Gen. Shaukat Sultan, an army spokesman, said it was the army's largest offensive against al Qaeda in the fiercely autonomous tribal areas.\nAt one point, gunfire could be heard coming from a group of compounds where Faisal said other al Qaeda suspects had taken refuge. At least four Pakistani helicopters circled the area.\n"Al Qaeda people have taken refuge in these five big compounds. We do not know how many people are hiding there," Faisal told AP.\nArmy helicopters and soldiers were organizing the operation from a base camp at Angore Adda, just a half-mile from the fighting and the last Pakistani town before the border with Afghanistan. The army brought several journalists to the camp by helicopter to observe the operation, then took them to the fighting area.\nThe troops moved into South Waziristan early Thursday after receiving word that al Qaeda operatives had sneaked into the area from Afghanistan, the army said in a statement.\n"The operation commenced early this morning and is progressing smoothly," the statement said.\nThe areas of North and South Waziristan, both in Pakistan's ultraconservative North West Frontier Province, have long been suspected as a possible hideouts for al Qaeda fugitives, as well as remnants of the ousted Taliban regime of Afghanistan.\nOsama bin Laden and his alleged No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, are believed to be hiding somewhere along the long border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.\nThe Waziristan area is home to Pashtun tribesmen who have for centuries maintained a fierce independence and who share the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islam.\nMaulana Fazl-ur Rahman, a pro-Taliban politician in Islamabad, condemned the operation.\n"This operation is not in the interest of the nation. al Qaeda may be against America, but they are certainly not against Pakistan and Muslims," he said. "This operation will give a negative impression about Pakistan in the Arab world."\nSultan told AP that the "operation is part of Pakistan's effort at combating terrorism."\nThe army said no foreign troops took part in the operation. Residents in the tribal areas have reported seeing U.S. special forces operatives in the past, but the presence of American forces has always been denied by Islamabad and Afghanistan.\nThe operation came on the same day that U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca had been due to arrive in Pakistan for talks on the war on terrorism, but Pakistan's Foreign Ministry announced the visit had been postponed for "scheduling reasons." Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali is in the United States to meet with senior U.S. officials.\nSeveral high-profile al Qaeda arrests in Pakistan have coincided with major international diplomatic events.\nExactly a year after Sept. 11, 2001, a suspected planner of the terrorist attacks, Ramzi Binalshibh, was captured in the southern city of Karachi. In June -- three days after President Gen. Pervez Musharraf met President Bush in the United States -- another al Qaeda operative was arrested and a videocassette seized that purportedly showed bin Laden warning of attacks against U.S. interests.\nAfghan and Western officials complain that Taliban fighters have received a safe haven in Pakistan and frequently cross the porous border to carry out attacks.\nAfghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali told the AP in a recent interview that he had received intelligence that al Qaeda fighters were in the tribal areas.\n"We have intelligence that the areas of Waziristan -- North and South Waziristan -- are being mostly used by al Qaeda," he said.\nMany areas in the Waziristan tribal region are extremely remote, requiring hours of travel by camel or four-wheel drive vehicle.
(11/06/02 4:07am)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Hardline Islamic parties and a pro-democracy block in Pakistan agreed to join forces Tuesday, giving them the parliamentary majority needed to form a coalition government and possibly choose a pro-Taliban cleric as prime minister.\nPolitical allies of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf refused to concede defeat and said they were also working to form a majority. In Pakistani politics, positions can be fluid and coalitions short-lived.\nThe religious and pro-democracy parties said they would announce their choice for prime minister on Wednesday, but officials in both camps say the top spot would likely go to Fazl-ur Rahman, head of Jamiat-e-ulema Islam, or the Party of Islamic Clerics.\nThe pro-Musharraf Quaid-e-Azam faction of the Pakistan Muslim League won the most seats in the Oct. 10 elections, but fell short of a majority, and the parties have been jockeying to form a coalition ever since.\nThe grouping of religious parties, called the United Action Forum, or Muthida Majlis-e-Amal, came in third on the strength of an anti-American, pro-Taliban platform.\n"We have reached an agreement with leaders of Muthida Majlis-e-Amal to form a coalition government," Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, head of the 15-party Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy said Tuesday after talks with leaders of the religious grouping. "We have a majority to form a coalition government."\nBoth groups agreed to support Rahman as prime minister, said Riaz Durrani, a spokesman for the Islamic cleric. On Monday, Khan also said Rahman would be the group's likely candidate for prime minister.\nThere have been reports that Pakistan People's Party leader Mukhdoom Amin Fahim would insist on the prime minister's spot in return for his group's support of a coalition. The party is the largest member of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy.\nAzeem Chaudhry, a spokesman for the pro-Musharraf-group, brushed off the coalition claim, saying a pro-Musharraf candidate, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, would be the next prime minister.\nThe United Action Forum has said it hopes to bring an Islamic revolution to Pakistan, eliminate Western influence, and kick out U.S. troops using the country as a base. Since its election, however, group leaders have toned down their rhetoric, saying they want peaceful relations with the U.S.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistani authorities arrested and turned over to American custody a Yemeni microbiology student wanted in connection with the bombing of the USS Cole, Pakistani officials confirmed Sunday. \nJamil Qasim Saeed Mohammed, 27, is suspected of being an active member of the al-Qaida network run by Osama bin Laden, the alleged organizer of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States, according to government officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. \nMohammed was secretly turned over to U.S. authorities as part of a broad investigation of Arab students suspected of having ties to al-Qaeda, the Washington Post said Sunday in an account of the handover. \nU.S. officials in Pakistan declined comment, as did a senior FBI official in Washington, the newspaper said. \nPakistani officials told the AP the handover had taken place Thursday at the airport in the Pakistani port city of Karachi. Airport authorities speaking on condition of anonymity said the plane arrived from Amman, Jordan. \nMohammad, who arrived in Pakistan in 1993, was a student in the microbiology department of Karachi University, classmates and university officials said. A classmate, who declined to be named, said he had abandoned his studies. \nAn official at the university, also speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Mohammad's school records were examined last week by the authorities. \nA Pakistani presidential spokesman, Maj. Gen. Rashid Quereshi, denied any knowledge of the handover. However, he said that "recently some U.S. security officials had visited Pakistan to share information about some Arab suspects." \n"We helped them in finding clues to combat terrorism," he added. \nOfficials at Pakistan's spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, confirmed Sunday that Mohammed had been turned over to U.S. officials. \nMohammed is the first person known to have been arrested outside Yemen for the October 2000 attack on the Cole as it refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen sailors were killed and 37 injured when suicide bombers brought a boat alongside the warship and detonated explosives. \nEight suspects were arrested in Yemen and are awaiting trial.
(11/09/01 3:57am)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- In a diplomatic crackdown on the Taliban, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said Thursday it ordered the fundamentalist militia to close its consulate in the port city of Karachi. \nTaliban diplomats also were told not to take part in nationwide protests by hard-line Islamic groups scheduled for Friday in Karachi, a center of Islamic fundamentalist activity, and protest organizers were warned against inciting violence. \nDespite the moves, Pakistani president Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Thursday that his military government had "no intention" of breaking diplomatic relations with the Taliban regime. \nPakistan is the only country to maintain diplomatic relations with the Taliban. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates severed their ties after the Sept. 11 attacks. \nThe ties with the Taliban provide "a useful diplomatic window," Musharraf said in Paris, where he met with French President Jacques Chirac to discuss the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism. \nThe Taliban embassy in Islamabad and consulates in Quetta and Peshawar remain open, said Aziz Ahmad Khan, a Foreign Ministry spokesman. Musharraf said there was little need for a Taliban consulate in the southeastern city of Karachi. \n"Having a Taliban consulate in Karachi is purposeless and it was having some negatives," Musharraf said. He noted that the Taliban consulate in Peshawar, near the border with Afghanistan, was useful because of Afghan refugees in the area. \nTaliban Ambassador Abdul Salam Zaeef told The Associated Press that the Pakistanis ordered operations ceased at the consulate by the end of the week. \nZaeef was also told to stop his regular news conferences, which he has used to condemn the United States and its coalition partners for the bombing campaign in Afghanistan. Broadcast live by CNN, the news conferences had made Zaeef the most visible Taliban spokesman. \nPakistan supports the U.S. campaign, launched Oct. 7 after the ruling Taliban refused to hand over terror suspect Osama bin Laden, wanted in connection with the September attacks. \nPakistan made the moves ahead of a nationwide strike called by the Afghan Defense Council, an alliance of 35 Islamic groups, to protest the government's support of the bombing campaign in Afghanistan. \nOfficials said the government has told Zaeef to make sure Afghan diplomatic staff in Pakistan do not take part in the rallies. Scores of Islamic activists and leaders also have been put under house arrest or travel restrictions. \nHaider warned hard-line Islamic groups Thursday against inciting violence. "We can't tolerate sedition. We can't encourage anarchy," he said. \nThe government also plans to stop funding and to monitor madrassas, or religious schools, that promote violence and extremism, Haider told The Associated Press. \nIn recent months, madrassa students in Karachi have rioted several times to protest support of the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan.
(10/15/01 5:01am)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Thousands of Islamic militants converged on a southern Pakistani town Sunday, fighting pitched battles with police and paramilitary troops as they surged toward an air base that U.S. personnel are reportedly using. \nOne person was killed and 24 were injured in daylong battles around Jacobabad, police said. The desert city is the home to one of two Pakistani air bases made available to U.S. forces to support the air campaign against Osama bin Laden and his Afghanistan-based terror network. \nAs anger grew over U.S. air strikes on Afghanistan, one militant leader exhorted followers to set Shabaz Air Base in Jacobabad on fire "at any cost,'' and another called on Pakistan's generals to overthrow the country's president, military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf. \nPolice and paramilitary troops from the Interior Ministry fired tear gas to repel hundreds of demonstrators marching toward the air base. Thousands of others massed along roads outside Jacobabad, prevented from reaching the city and base by a wall of armed authorities. Protesters also battled police in two villages outside the city. \nPolice said about 400 people had been arrested -- most in advance in an attempt to prevent the protests. Jacobabad, a city of about 200,000, was sealed off to outsiders. \nIn a related demonstration several miles outside Jacobabad, one demonstrator was killed and 10 were injured, authorities and protest leaders said. They said they were still gathering information about the protest. \nThe father of Mukhtar Khosio, the demonstrator who died, addressed protesters after learning about his son's death. "I have seven sons and just one has died,'' Maulana Shabir Khosio said. "I am ready to sacrifice six others too for the cause of Islam.'' \nIn the village of Shikar Pur, about 20 miles north of Jacobabad, police opened fire on a surging crowd of demonstrators, authorities said. Fourteen people, including a police officer, were wounded, said Raza Khan, a doctor at Shikar Pur Hospital. \nPakistan's military government has officially denied that U.S. armed services personnel and aircraft are in the country. The government insists it will not allow Pakistani territory to be used for attacks on Afghanistan. \nBut on Thursday, Pakistani officials confirmed on condition of anonymity that the country has allowed U.S. military aircraft to land inside its borders. They said Musharraf also granted the United States use of at least two air bases during airstrikes inside Afghanistan. \nProtest leaders have called for a nationwide strike on Monday -- the day Secretary of State Colin Powell is to arrive in Pakistan to discuss the anti-terror campaign. \nThe trouble in downtown Jacobabad started when a crowd that protest leaders from the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party said numbered in the thousands gathered outside a hotel and began marching toward the air base. \nHeavily armed police who had been patrolling Jacobabad's streets for days first warned them to stop, then fired tear gas shells into the crowd and bullets into the air. Protesters threw stones, then broke up into smaller groups that roved the city. \nAt a roadblock 15 miles south of town, nearly 2,500 demonstrators -- a caravan of buses and pedestrians that came from all over Pakistan -- waited at roadblocks. Police stopped them from proceeding to Jacobabad to join the protest. After a tense standoff that lasted for hours, they agreed to disperse. \nThe presence of U.S. personnel in Pakistan is extremely controversial in this Muslim country of 145 million people. \nIslamic religious parties sympathetic to Afghanistan's ruling Taliban consider it a betrayal that their government is helping U.S.-led attempts to destroy terrorist installations in Afghanistan that belong to bin Laden, the top suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. \nMilitant leaders have called for attacks on Shabaz and Pasni Air Base, another installation U.S. personnel are said to be using. \nIn Karachi, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, president of Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's largest religious party, addressed a rally of 12,000 Sunday and called on Pakistan's generals to topple Musharraf like he ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif two years ago. \n"Musharraf has become a threat to the country,'' Ahmed said. "If Musharraf is not removed within a week, he vowed, "millions of people will march toward Islamabad to kick him out.''