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| July 06, 2007 | Friday | Jamadi-us-Sani 20, 1428 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
Large blasts and gunfire rock Lal Masjid ISLAMABAD, July 6 (AFP) Two heavy blasts and gunfire rocked Islamabad’s Lal Masjid Friday evening, as a dense cloud of smoke rose over the building in the latest clashes, AFP correspondents said. Armoured personnel carriers and troops on foot were seen moving towards the complex, although officials denied that forces were finally launching a raid on the compound. Television footage showed large chunks of debris, believed to be part of the mosque's perimeter wall, blown high above the surrounding treetops after one of the blasts. A senior security official involved in the operation said militant students had exchanged automatic weapons fire with troops and thrown several hand grenades. (Posted @ 20:06 PST)
President Musharraf in Turbat to oversee flood relief TURBAT, July 6 (PPI) President Pervez Musharraf said affectees of Mekran and Turbat will be provided full assistance and better facilities than earlier. He was addressing rain and flood stricken people here Friday. He told the affectees that the country “stands by you in this hour of trial” and relief operations will continue till the compensation for their losses is complete. The president announced rupees 15,000 for every affected family immediately so that they could arrange food and basic facilities for themselves. He also distributed Rupees five thousand per head among 400 persons on the occasion and said government would provide more relief assistance after reviewing their rehabilitation. President paid tributes to Pakistan Army, Navy, Air Force and Frontier Corps which immediately started assistance for the affectees. He said people of the entire country were participating in assistance of affectees and providing them with medical facilities. He asked the provincial government to pay compensation to Mirani Dam affectees so that they could shift to safer places. (First Posted @ 12:53 PST Updated @ 20:10 PST)
Blasts, gunfire hit besieged Lal Masjid as militants ignore surrender plea ISLAMABAD, July 6 (AP) Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi besieged by government forces in Islamabad’s Lal Masjid rejected calls for an unconditional surrender Friday, saying he and his followers were ready for martyrdom. As the siege of the Lal Masjid entered the third day, troops rocked the complex with gunfire and explosions but appeared to be holding back from a potentially bloody final assault. ''We will not surrender. We will be martyred, but we will not surrender,'' Abdul Rashid Ghazi told a television channel. ''We are more determined now.'' ''For the Pakistan army to go in is no problem, but safety is our foremost objective,'' government spokesman Tariq Azim said. ''We don't want to harm any innocent lives. We already know that these people are being kept as hostages.'' Two dozen parents and other family members waited anxiously Friday behind security barriers some 200 meters from the mosque, with about 10 allowed to approach the shrine's entrance. During lulls in the fighting, some parents approached the mosque, handed notes to those inside with the names of their children, who then emerged. More than 1,000 have fled the complex. Authorities relaxed a curfew imposed around the mosque for a few hours Friday so that residents could buy supplies and check on relatives. Gunfire rang out around the mosque before dawn and again later Friday morning. Armed troops and barbed wire coils on the streets near the mosque prevented journalists from going near the scene. There were no immediate reports of injuries and it was not possible to determine who initiated the latest bout of shooting. Azim told Dawn News television that soldiers had blasted holes in walls of the mosque ''so that if they bolted the door, to at least give a chance to people to be able to escape through those holes.'' (Posted @ 19:16 PST)
Six killed in Pakistan abduction attempt MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, July 6 (AFP) Six people were killed and at least 11 others injured in a gunbattle in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal region Friday after masked assailants abducted an official from a military college, officials said. Masked gunmen bundled into their car Faisal Islam, an official from a military cadet college, security officials said. The kidnappers sped away after the abduction in Razmak town but local tribesmen chased them and the ensuing gunbattle left six people dead, including four kidnappers and two tribesmen. (Posted @ 16:08 PST)
Suicide attack kills four Pakistani soldiers PESHAWAR, Pakistan, July 6 (AFP) A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a military convoy in northwestern Pakistan Friday, killing four soldiers, police and officials said. The attack took place while the convoy was driving from the town of Dir to Swat, they said. Two soldiers and two officers were killed, a police official said. (Posted @ 16:54 PST)
Lal Masjid: heavy gunfire, explosions all night despite heavy rains ISLAMABAD, July 6 (AFP) - Heavy gunfire and explosions rocked the besieged Lal Masjid in the heart of Islamabad early Friday after the government rejected a conditional surrender offer by cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi it accused of using women and children as human shields. There was no call for pre-dawn prayers from the mosque's loudspeakers, indicating the damage inflicted on the fortified complex by four days of intense gunfire and blasts. A mosque official, on condition of anonymity, said that there were casualties in the early Friday gunbattles and the building had been hit by further mortar fire from security forces. “There are casualties on our side, but I cannot tell how many,” he told AFP., However, no government official was immediately available for comments. The tense standoff erupted again during night despite the heavy rains and was intense at times, with students opening fire on troops and hurling hand grenades. Heavy gunfire and blasts erupted again early Friday as armoured personnel carriers moved closer to the mosque. “Explosive charges have been detonated by security forces to further damage and demolish the boundary wall,” a security official told AFP. Interior minister Aftab Sherpao earlier said there were up to 60 “hardcore” militants in the building. “They have AK-47s, grenades and petrol bombs; they are keeping women and children who want to come out of the mosque and are not allowing them to leave,” he told a briefing. At least 50 students left the mosque on Thursday but it was a trickle compared with Wednesday's exodus when about 1,200 fled. (Posted @ 09:38 PST)
Tennis- Venus reaches sixth Wimbledon final LONDON, July 6 (AFP) Venus Williams crushed Serbian sixth seed Ana Ivanovic 6-2, 6-4 Friday to reach her sixth Wimbledon final where she will be aiming for a fourth title. The 2000, 2001 and 2005 champion will take on either top seed Justine Henin or Marion Bartoli in Saturday's final. (Posted @ 22:28 PST)
U.S. repeats support for Pervez Musharraf WASHINGTON, July 6 (AP) The United States Friday repeated its support for President Pervez Musharraf as turmoil continued in Pakistan. State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters that Pervez Musharraf is working hard to address extremism and to build a moderate Islamic state in Pakistan. ''I certainly don't see anything in the current set of circumstances that changes our overall evaluation about him or about the government,'' Casey said. (Posted @ 21:08 PST)
Tennis- Federer closes in on fifth Wimbledon title LONDON, July 6 (AFP) Roger Federer moved just two wins away from a fifth successive Wimbledon title after a 7-6 (7/2), 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 quarter-final victory over Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero Friday. The world number one will take on America's Andy Roddick or Richard Gasquet of France for a place in the final as he continues his campaign to win a fifth successive Wimbledon crown and the 11th major of his career. (Posted @ 21:02 PST)
Tennis- Djokovic wins five-hour battle against Baghdatis LONDON, July 6 (Reuters) Novak Djokovic dug into his vast reserves of willpower to outlast Marcos Baghdatis and reach his first Wimbledon semi-final Friday. The Serbian fourth seed won 7-6 7-6 6-7 4-6 7-5 after five hours of riveting action on Court One. (Posted @ 20:34 PST)
Bilquees Edhi’s offer not responded to by Lal Masjid administration ISLAMABAD, July 6 (APP) Eminent social worker Bilquees Edhi Friday offered the Lal Masjid administration to hand over held up female students to her organization for safe return to their families but this was not responded by the mosque administration. “I have made six announcements from a close position through loudspeaker, but no response has so far come from the mosque”, Bilquees told a private television channel. She said she got the permission from the concerned quarters in this connection, but it has not been responded so far from inside the mosque. She said that Abdul Rashid Ghazi will have many opportunities to serve the cause of Islam in his life but keeping the innocent children in such a tense situation is by no way a service to Islam. She urged him to show flexibility in his attitude so that the innocent people could be evacuated from the high risk place. (Posted @ 20:24 PST)
33 Taliban killed in southern Afghan battle KABUL, Afghanistan, July 6 (AP) Afghan and U.S.-led coalition troops killed 33 Taliban fighters after the insurgents attacked a police checkpoint in southern Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province overnight, while 10 Afghan troops were wounded in clashes with militants, officials said Friday. The militants attacked two police vehicles with gunfire and rocket propelled grenades. Coalition and Afghan forces responded with artillery fire and airstrikes in what the coalition described as a ''sparsely populated area.” (Posted @ 19:54 PST)
US troop pullout would be a 'mess': commander in Iraq WASHINGTON, July 6 (AFP) Political pressure for an early withdrawal of US troops from Iraq would trigger a “mess” just as they are taking the fight to insurgents, a top US commander said Friday. Major General Rick Lynch, commander of coalition forces in central Iraq, said the addition of thousands more “surge” troops in recent weeks had enabled him to clear 70 percent of his territory south of Baghdad of insurgents. “Those surge forces have given us the capability that we have now to take the fight to the enemy,” he told Pentagon reporters via satellite from Camp Victory in Baghdad. “If those surge forces go away, that capability goes away and the Iraqi security forces aren't ready yet to do that,” Lynch said. (Posted @ 19:44 PST)
40 hurt as police clash with occupied Kashmir protesters SRINAGAR, occupied Kashmir, July 6 (AFP) Forty people were hurt Friday in occupied Kashmir when police fired teargas to break up protests over rights abuses as a strike paralysed much of the state, police said. Police said a crowd of 700 demonstrators shouting “Down with the Indian army” and “We want freedom” blocked a key highway northeast of Srinagar. “We had to fire shots in air and resort to teargassing and baton charges to disperse the protesters,” police officer Nazir Ahmed said, adding 30 people were hurt in the melee. Police reported no serious injuries. The unrest came after a soldier killed a civilian Thursday after shooting into an angry crowd who saw him embracing a teenager in Kangan town near Srinagar. Police said the soldier later killed himself with his rifle. (First Posted @ 01:00 PST Updated @ 19:32 PST)
Ousted PM Sharif holds opposition talks to 'rescue' Pakistan LONDON, July 6 (AFP) Former premier Nawaz Sharif will host opposition talks in London this weekend in a bid to “rescue” Pakistan from eight years of military rule and restore democracy, his spokesman said Friday. “Eight years of military rule has brought Pakistan to the brink of being a failed state,” Sharif's spokesman Nadir Chaudhri told AFP. “This initiative is really to rescue the state, to make it functional again and to re-empower it…for the first time the entire spectrum of Pakistan's political parties, from the liberal to the religious, and representatives of civil society will jointly endeavour to agree to a plan of action,” he said. “The APC will signal Pakistan's break with its dictatorial past and herald an era of institutional reform leading to establishment of permanent democracy and the rule of law,” he said. He said 37 political parties had been invited to the talks, including former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her Pakistan People's Party (PPP). He said Bhutto was currently in London but would not attend the conference and would instead send the PPP's vice chairman Amin Fahim. (Posted @ 19:08 PST)
17 students come out of Lal Masjid on Friday ISLAMABAD, July 6 (APP) Around 17 students including five female students, came out of Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa premises Friday during a break in exchange of fire between security forces and Jamia Hafsa squad. So far, 1,221 religious students out which 426 are female, have walked out of the Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa and surrendered before the security forces. Meanwhile, cross firing between security forces and students of Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa resumed at 5:45 p.m. (Posted @ 19:02 PST)
Five children killed in Mogadishu after they accidentally set off land mine MOGADISHU, Somalia, July 6 (AP) Five children, between the ages of 7 and 12, were killed in Mogadishu when one of them picked up a land mine and threw it against a wall, witnesses said. (Posted @ 18:10 PST)
Brown says Britain “getting to bottom” of bomb plot LONDON, July 6 (Reuters) Investigations stretching from Britain to Australia are “getting to the bottom” of a cell behind failed car bombings in London and Scotland, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Friday. Brown said he had spoken to Australian Prime Minister John Howard about the probe into the plot, in which eight Middle Eastern and Indian medics have been arrested. “This is an international investigation now,” Brown said of the hunt for those behind two failed car bombs in London and a botched but fiery attack on Glasgow airport in Scotland by two men who smashed a jeep into a terminal building. “I believe that, from what I know, we're getting to the bottom of this cell that has been responsible for what is happening,” he told the BBC. (Posted @ 17:36 PST)
Suicide car bomb wounds two UK troops in Afghanistan KABUL, July 6 (Reuters) A suicide car bomber attacked NATO-led forces near Kabul Friday, wounding two British soldiers, Afghan police chief General Ali Shah Paktiwal told Reuters. (Posted @ 17:08 PST)
Explosions rock Baghdad 'Green Zone' BAGHDAD, July 6 (AFP) At least five mortar shells crashed into Baghdad's fortified Green Zone Friday in an area near Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office and the US embassy. Five explosions rocked the area at around 2:00 pm during the capital's weekly vehicle curfew. (Posted @ 16:22 PST)
President Musharraf’s plane fired on: intelligence official ISLAMABAD, July 6 (AFP) Gunmen fired on President Pervez Musharraf's plane using an improvised anti-aircraft gun after it took off from a military airbase Friday, intelligence officials said. The president was unharmed and the shots did not hit the aircraft, the officials said requesting anonymity. “It was an unsuccessful attempt to shoot the president's plane,” one official told AFP. Pervez Musharraf flew from the Chaklala military base in Rawalpindi to the southern provinces of Sindh and Baluchistan to visit people affected by recent floods, the military said in a statement. Pakistani military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad denied that the shots had targeted President Musharraf's plane. “It was not related to the president,” he told AFP. But intelligence officials dealing directly with the incident insisted Musharraf's plane was the target. Security forces arrested a suspect and recovered the weapon and a crudely-made wooden tripod from the flat roof of a house in Rawalpindi, a security official said. “The shots were fired from a house that was rented by a couple some days ago. They have arrested one suspect and taken into possession a machinegun which was used as an anti-aircraft weapon,” one security official said. “The man and woman who rented the house fled by the time security forces got to the scene. The suspect (a third person) was arrested near the scene,” he said. (Posted @ 16:01 PST)
Lal Masjid siege enters third day ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 6 (AP) - The siege of Lal Masjid in Pakistan's capital entered its third day Friday after troops rocked the complex with gunfire and explosions as cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi and his followers holed up inside rejected government calls to surrender. Security forces appeared to be holding back from a large-scale assault as the government was keen not to storm the mosque while women and children were inside. Gunfire rang out around the mosque before dawn and again later Friday morning. Armed troops and barbed wire coils on the streets near the mosque prevented journalists from going near the scene. (Posted @ 10:08 PST)
Lal Masjid militants using heavy artillery: Durrani ISLAMABAD, July 6 (APP): Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani expressed concern that militants inside the premises of Hafsa madressah adjoining the Lal Masjid had started using heavy artillery which posed threat to the residents of that thickly populated area. Talking to a private TV channel he said the militants had started using explosives, rocket launchers and mortars. (Posted @ 11:18 PST)
Iraq: 24 bodies found Baghdad, July 6 (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed three Iraqi soldiers in the city of Hilla on Thursday. Meanwhile, police found 24 bodies in Baghdad on Thursday, mostly victims of roving sectarian death squads. Most had been shot dead. (Posted @ 11:25 PST)
Israeli troops pull out of Gaza after deadly raid GAZA CITY, July 6 (AFP) - Israeli troops withdrew from the Gaza Strip overnight after a commando-style incursion left 11 Palestinian fighters dead in heavy fighting, sources on both sides said Friday. (Posted @ 11:20 PST)
Afghan, Turkmen leaders discuss trans-Afghan gas pipeline ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, July 6 (AP) - Turkmenistan’s new President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov and Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai Thursday discussed prospects for a pipeline that would carry natural gas from energy-rich Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India via Afghanistan. At a joint Press conference Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov also promised to provide Afghanistan with electric power worth US$300,000 (euro220,000) at no cost. Karzai said the discussions focused on a potential trans-Afghan gas pipeline. “Afghanistan is interested in receiving income from the transit of Turkmen gas to Pakistan and India,” Karzai said. (Posted @ 10:40 PST)
IOC approves Youth Olympics; first set for 2010 GUATEMALA CITY, July 6 (AP) - Olympic leaders voted Thursday to create a Youth Olympics meant to drag youngsters from computer screens and onto the playing fields. The first is planned for 2010 for 3,500 athletes, ages 14-18, IOC president Jacques Rogge said Details remained to be worked out. (Posted @ 10:30 PST)
Colombians, a million strong, take to streets to protest kidnappings BOGOTA, Colombia, 26 (AP) More than a million people marched in protest through Colombia's major cities and drivers honked horns in unison to demand the liberation of the country's kidnap victims. Thursday's protest was organized after leftist rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, said last week that 11 state lawmakers the rebels had held for more than five years were killed in a “crossfire.” In all, some 3,000 Colombians are being held by kidnappers, among them former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. defence contractors. (Posted @ 10:15 PST)
Mass grave unearthed in Afghan jail: report KABUL, July 6 (AFP) - A mass grave containing hundreds of bodies has been discovered in an underground prison north of the Afghan capital, the BBC reported early Friday. Police General Ali Shah Paktiwal told the BBC the grave was unearthed in a former military base dating back to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s after an old man who recently returned to Afghanistan led police to the site where victims were apparently walled up in rooms and left to die. “He told us he worked as a driver when there was a Russian military base here,” Paktiwal told the BBC World Service. “They used to bring people here. They put them in these rooms, they shut the door and then they put bricks and stones and covered the door with earth.” Several hundred bodies have been discovered in the 15 rooms unearthed so far but it was not known how many were buried there in total, the report said. (Posted @ 09:45 PST)
Strong quake hits southern Mexico TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico, July 6 (AFP) - A strong 6.2 earthquake shook southernmost Mexico Thursday, knocking out power to large parts of Chiapas state, according to seismologists. However, there were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage. (Posted @ 09:20 PST)
Three NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan KABUL, July 6 (AFP) - Two NATO soldiers were killed on Thursday in eastern Afghanistan, the alliance said Friday. A third soldier with the NATO-led force was also killed on Thursday when a bomb struck a vehicle in southeastern Afghanistan. (Posted @ 09:18 PST)
Karachi Stocks up 43.89 points: KARACHI, July 6: At the close of trading the KSE-100 index was at 13985.89, up 43.89 points. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 16:02 PST)
Forex update: KARACHI, July 6: The Pakistani Rupee was traded at Rs 61.1 to the US Dollar in the open market. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 16:02 PST)
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