Bombs kill 13 in Pakistan, intel agency targeted

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Suicide car bombs tore through security offices in Pakistan on Friday, killing at least 13 people and heavily damaging the Peshawar headquarters of the country’s top intelligence agency.

The deadly assaults on Pakistan’s police and intelligence agents come with 30,000 troops pressing their most ambitious offensive to date against homegrown Taliban networks in their mountain strongholds on the Afghan border.

The three-storey Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) provincial headquarters in the northwestern city of Peshawar was heavily damaged, with huge clouds of smoke spewing into the sky and debris littering the ground, witnesses said.

The front and middle of the building collapsed, and five bodies lay on the road after the attack, said an AFP reporter in Peshawar, on the edge of Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt which is infested with Al-Qaeda and Taliban.

“I was busy at work then suddenly I heard gunfire. I saw a vehicle moving towards the ISI building and then there was a huge blast. I was thrown to the ground,” Azmat Ali, a 30-year-old mechanic told AFP in hospital.

“I don’t remember anything else, but there was dust everywhere,” he added after being treated for a broken shoulder.

The United States has put Pakistan on the frontline of its war against Al-Qaeda and has been increasingly disturbed by deteriorating security in the country where attacks and bombings have killed about 2,500 people in 28 months.

Pakistan’s military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said it was a suicide car bombing outside the intelligence office building.

“Five official personnel have been martyred,” Abbas told AFP.

Security officials put the overall death toll at 10 with more than 30 wounded.

“Ten people are dead… Up to 300 kilograms (661 pounds) of high explosives and mortars were packed into the car bomb,” North West Frontier Province police chief Malik Naveed told AFP.

“Our engineers are checking the rubble to see if anyone is trapped,” a senior military official told AFP.

A second suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into a suburban police station in the garrison city of Bannu, southwest of Peshawar, killing three policemen and wounding 12 others, police said.

“The number of casualties is likely to rise because the injured are being pulled out from the rubble,” police chief Iqbal Marwat told AFP from the garrison town.

Peshawar has become a target for major attacks by suspected Taliban militants.

The most devastating bomb attack in Pakistan in two years killed at least 118 people in a crowded Peshawar market on October 28 as militants put ordinary civilians in the crosshairs of their bloody campaign.

Pakistan’s powerful and shadowy intelligence agencies have a history of supporting Islamist groups in a bid to counter rival India, but militant attacks have increasingly focused on domestic targets in the last two years.

Friday’s bombing in Peshawar was the first major attack outside an ISI installation since May, when a suicide attack on a police building in the city of Lahore killed 24 people.

The government blames increasing attacks on Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which is the target of the ongoing offensive and which wants to avenge the killing of their leader Baitullah Mehsud by a US missile in August.

The latest attacks came after stiff Taliban resistance killed at least 17 Pakistani soldiers Thursday in the military’s deadliest day since launching a major offensive in South Waziristan, security officials said.

Pakistan has pressed around 30,000 forces, backed by war planes and attack helicopters, into battle in a US-endorsed mission to wipe out the chief strongholds of Tehreek-e-Taliban in the tribal district of South Waziristan.

On Tuesday, a Taliban spokesman told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location that the militia had embarked on a guerrilla war from the mountains of South Waziristan and would attack cities as a matter of course.

 

Source of news  –  http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jAvZIjvs5XbgmVtzxSiOztIMMcYA

Filed under: Pakisatan , bomb blast, google news, intel agency, pakistan, pakistan bombs

U.N.: 360,000 escape war-torn Pakistani region

Civilians continued to flee Pakistan’s northwest in droves Monday as government troops prepared to engage Taliban militants in the crisis-hit Swat Valley.

Thousands of displaced Pakistani civilians have flooded refugee camps.

More than 360,000 Pakistanis have fled their homes since May 2, the United Nations has reported.

“Obviously more people are on the move,” said Ariane Rummery, a spokeswoman for the U.N. human rights commissioner. “Not everyone is registered.”

Thousands of vehicles fled Swat Valley on Sunday, where up to 15,000 Pakistani troops are preparing to move against approximately 5,000 Taliban militants, a regional official said.

In neighboring areas, Pakistan’s military is continuing an offensive against the Taliban along its western border with Afghanistan, a military statement released Sunday said. Watch the latest on the conflict »

The military has been releasing regular reports saying it has killed Taliban militants in the region, but it has produced little evidence of the successes it claims. Journalists have not been permitted to observe the offensive and the army has not shown bodies of the militants it says it has killed.

Don’t Miss
Pakistan: 200 Taliban die in 24 hours
Source: Pakistan to scrap peace deal, launch offensive
Displaced Pakistanis crowd camps as they flee fighting
Pakistan’s president says nuclear arsenal safe
Curfews have been imposed in the conflict zone, but are relaxed periodically to allow civilians to travel. It is not unusual now to see rickshaws and cargo trucks filled with fleeing civilians, rolling down Pakistan’s main east-west highway.

Vehicles are not allowed back into the region, which has led to a shortage for those trying to leave.

Meanwhile, at least 25 boys stranded at the Khpal Kor Foundation orphanage in Swat Valley had to flee the district capital, Mingora, on foot Sunday, according to director Mohammed Ali.

He said local government officials told him there were no vehicles to evacuate the children.

The 175-kilometer (110-mile) journey from Mingora to the western city of Peshawar normally takes about three hours by car. The boys walked for several hours, but had to spend the night in a madrassa — a religious school — outside of Mingora, because authorities had re-established the curfew.

Camps for the displaced have sprouted up throughout the country’s northwest, with hospitals and humanitarian groups struggling to keep pace.

In other developments, a suicide car bomber attacked a Pakistani paramilitary checkpoint outside Peshawar on Monday, killing a Frontier Corps soldier and three civilians, said Ali Sher Khan, a Corps spokesman.

Troops fired on the suspicious vehicle as it approached, according to Khan.

Filed under: Pakisatan , 000 escape war-torn Pakistani region, pakistan, U.N.: 360, UN, war

Obama faces test on Afghanistan, Pakistan

President Obama’s ambitious strategy for Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, dubbed “Afpak” by administration officials, will face its first test Wednesday when he meets with the leaders of both countries — neither of which is seen as able to maintain stability and fight strengthening Islamic insurgencies.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari will meet with Afghanistan’s president and President Obama.

The president will meet separately with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari before holding a joint session with the two leaders. The leaders also will hold talks at the State Department, FBI, CIA and on Capitol Hill.

Obama will try to build an enduring regional alliance with both countries, enlisting them as full partners rather than treating them as battlefields for U.S. soldiers to fight extremists. But both leaders are seen as weak and are deeply unpopular back home.

The Taliban has re-emerged to retake large swaths of Afghanistan, and in recent weeks, Taliban fighters have made alarming advances in Pakistan.

Just last week, the State Department warned that al Qaeda continues to enjoy safe haven along the rugged border between the countries, where al Qaeda plots attacks against the U.S. and its allies.

U.S. concern has focused on Pakistan, which Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-New York, on Monday aptly warned has its “pants on fire.”

In Pakistan’s Swat Valley, the government’s recent peace deal with militants pushing for the establishment of strict Islamic law went awry, allowing the Taliban to advance within 60 miles of the capital, Islamabad. The government’s initial inaction prompted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to accuse Islamabad of abdicating to terrorists. Obama also expressed concern about the fragility of Zardari’s government.

Richard Holbrooke, Obama’s formidable point man for Afpak, insists Pakistan isn’t a failed state. Yet there is plenty of concern in Washington that Zardari’s government could fall, leaving Pakistan’s considerable nuclear arsenal at risk.

Don’t Miss
Half million expected to flee before offensive
Karzai worried about Taliban gains in Pakistan
Holbrooke: Let’s back Pakistani government
Afghanistan replaces Iraq as U.S. priority
Holbrooke also played down reports the U.S. is courting Zardari’s main political rival, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Rather, officials say the U.S. wants the two men to work together, which would divert Zardari’s attention away from domestic political squabbles and enable him to unite the country in the fight against extremists.

This is the U.S. main challenge — persuading Pakistan to focus on what it considers a “mortal threat,” and not on what Obama himself has called the Pakistani military’s misguided “obsession” with neighboring India.

The Taliban advances seem to have delivered a wake-up call to the government, which has launched an offensive against the militants. To help, Obama has asked Congress to quickly approve hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency aid to help the Pakistanis combat the insurgency and is supporting a $7.5 billion civilian aid package over the next five years.

Concerned about reports that the Pakistani military is working at cross-purposes and, in some cases, aiding the Taliban, Congress is trying to condition the money on progress made by Pakistani forces in rooting out extremists.

A key component of the U.S. strategy is a surge in civilian assistance to boost domestic support for both governments. In an effort to promote more economic development and cooperation between the U.S. and the two countries, the ministers of agriculture and finance from both countries have been invited to Washington to join the talks.

While the U.S. focus clearly has been on Pakistan, violence in Afghanistan has reached its highest levels since Taliban forces were driven from power after the U.S. invaded in the fall of 2001 in response to the 9/11 terror attacks.

The U.S. wants to ensure stability in the lead-up to August elections, which is why Obama has committed 21,000 additional troops, in addition to the much needed economic assistance.

Since talking office in January, Obama and other U.S. officials have been tough on Karzai, criticizing his government as ineffective and weak on corruption. Karzai further angered U.S. officials this week when he named Mohammad Qasim Fahim, a powerful warlord accused of violating human rights, as his vice presidential running mate, despite warnings from Secretary of State Clinton that Fahim would be a polarizing choice.

But despite the belief by many in Washington it is time for Karzai to go, the Afghan president arrived this week in Washington virtually assured re-election, having persuaded his main opposition not to run against him.

In a speech Tuesday, Karzai wisely said “money can’t buy you love” and “force won’t buy you obedience”

Those sentiments illustrate one of the deficits in Obama’s strategy.

While the U.S. hopes the additional assistance will turn both leaders into reliable allies, the administration has yet to unveil a plan for communicating directly to the Afghan and Pakistani populations, both of which are skeptical of the U.S. intentions toward their countries.

Additionally, the U.S. has focused its diplomacy so far on officials at the federal level, and efforts to establish strong and regular lines of communication with provincial government officials are in their infancy. That has contributed to the lack of U.S. influence in Pakistan during the Taliban’s recent advances in the Northwest Frontier.

Creating and implementing an effective strategy toward Afghanistan, and more importantly, Pakistan, is proving to be one of the most challenging, yet important, foreign policy issues facing the Obama administration. Wednesday’s talks will be the first indicator as to whether the U.S. has two partners in what has been dubbed “Obama’s war.”

Filed under: Afghanistan, Pakisatan , agghanistan, obama, obama faces test, pakistan

Pakistan’s most wanted man – Baitullah Mehsud – claims academy attack

The head of the Pakistani Taleban claimed responsibility today for the commando assault on the police academy in Lahore, and threatened further atrocities, not just in Pakistan but in Afghanistan and even in America.

Baitullah Mehsud, 35, said that yesterday’s attack was in retaliation for bombing runs by unmanned US drone aircraft in the frontier areas of Pakistan, targeting militant leaders.

Mr Mehsud took the unusual step of picking up the phone in person to call the BBC and Western news agencies, rather than issuing a statement through a spokesman.

Analysts say that his increasing self-confidence comes as he emerges as the leader of an ever-broader alliance of many of the main militant groups in Pakistan. The grouping has proved itself able and willing to strike not just in the troubled tribal areas but to attack high-profile targets in Pakistan’s economic heartland, a development that they say is both new and highly dangerous.

Related Links

• Obama: Pakistan is now part of our war

• Obama pumps $5bn into Pakistan

• Pakistan is ‘a nation at war with itself’

Multimedia

• IN PICTURES: terrorist attack in Lahore

Last week the US blamed Mr Mehsud for co-ordinating attacks on US forces across the border in Afghanistan and placed a $5 million price on his head, making him the most wanted Pakistani militant. At the same time, the US military also sent its first drone attack specifically targeted at him.

Today Mr Mehsud said that retribution had come in the form of yesterday’s assault in Lahore, when attackers with guns, grenades and suicide vests stormed the police training centre in Pakistan’s cultural capital, and held out during an eight hour gun battle with the army. Seven police cadets, a civilian and four attackers died.

“We wholeheartedly take responsibility for this attack and will carry out more such attacks in future,” he said. “It’s revenge for the drone attacks in Pakistan.”

Mr Mehsud said that he had set up a council of mujahedeen (holy warriors) bringing together different militant groups “to step up attacks on US and Nato forces in Afghanistan”.

He shrugged off the US bounty on his head, saying his militants would continue their assaults in Pakistan and Afghanistan and could even mount attacks in the United States.

“You can’t imagine how we could avenge this threat inside Washington, inside the White House,” he said. “The maximum they can do is martyr me. We will exact our revenge on them from inside America.”

Mehsud is the head of the Tehreek-e-Taeiban Pakistan (TTP), or Movement of Taleban Pakistan, a loose umbrella group of factions that has carried out attacks across the country, although so far mainly in the northwest.

He is influential in both North and South Waziristan as well as the Bajaur tribal district to the north, where Pakistani security forces carried out a major offensive last month.

Filed under: Pakisatan , Baitullah Mehsud, claims academy attack, Pakistan's, Pakistan's most wanted man

Iftikhar takes charge as Pakistan Chief Justice

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s top judge resumed his post at the Supreme Court on Sunday following two years of political turmoil over his ouster. Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry tackled routine duties such as approving dates for hearings in several criminal and civil cases and appointing several panels of jurists, according to a press release from the highest court in the al-Qaida-threatened, US-allied country. Then-President Pervez Musharraf deposed Chaudhry in 2007 after the independent-minded judge began examining cases that could have embarrassed the military ruler or threatened his legitimacy as he sought a new term in office. The justice’s firing sparked a wave of protests led by activist lawyers that helped force Musharraf to resign last year and to allow elections that brought his foes to power. Musharraf’s successor, Asif Ali Zardari, promised to restore the chief justice but kept stalling, apparently over fears that Chaudhry would examine a deal that granted him immunity from prosecution over corruption claims. Nawaz Sharif, head of the second-biggest party, joined the opposition because of Zardari’s failure to return Chaudhry to his post. Zardari gave in last week after activist lawyers and opposition supporters began a march toward the capital where they planned to stage an indefinite sit-in at Parliament. The political discord alarmed Western officials, who want Pakistan to stay focused on fighting al-Qaida and Taliban militants along its northwest border with Afghanistan. Chaudhry was formally back in office after midnight following the Saturday retirement of the chief justice who had replaced him. Lawyers planned to host a flag-hoisting ceremony at his home later Sunday. Chaudhry will be under a microscope in the coming months, especially when it comes to cases involving leading political figures. Many expect he will recuse himself from such matters to avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest. As part of an attempt to reconcile with the opposition, the government already has appealed to the court to review a judgment that declared that Sharif and his brother Shahbaz were ineligible for elected office

Filed under: Pakisatan , court, govrement, iftikhar, lawyers, military, pakistan

Pakistan judge regains top post

Pakistan’s sacked Supreme Court chief justice has formally returned to his post following months of mass protests by opposition activists.

Iftikhar Chaudhry’s reinstatement was marked by a ceremonial flag-raising.

Correspondents say the government’s decision to reinstate Mr Chaudhry on Monday was a response to opposition threats to call a huge rally.

Mr Chaudhry and 60 other judges were dismissed by former President Pervez Musharraf in 2007.

Most of the judges have since been reinstated.

‘Victory for judiciary’

Mr Chaudhry formally resumed his post at midnight on Saturday.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said on Monday he would return to his job after current Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar quit the post.

But the government clearly acted under pressure from the opposition, who had staged mass protest rallies for several days, the BBC’s Barbara Plett in Islamabad says.

Mr Chaudhry’s return has been hailed as a victory for an independent judiciary in Pakistan, our correspondent says.

One reason for the failure – until now – to reinstate Mr Chaudhry is thought to be the fact that he challenged an amnesty given by Gen Musharraf that enabled Asi Ali Zardari to return to Pakistan, where he won presidential elections last year.

If the amnesty was overturned, Mr Zardari, the widower of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, could be left exposed to corruption charges.

Mr Chaudhry’s return could open up new battles for the presidency, our correspondent says.

Government’s pledge

Our correspondent says the opposition have been jubilant at Mr Chaudhry’s return, regarding it as the triumph of two years of struggle against both military and civilian governments.

Q&A: Pakistan’s political instability Pakistanis hail reinstatement

The opposition protests and unrest had alarmed Western powers, and the US envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, hailed Mr Gilani’s decision.

Announcing Mr Chaudhry’s reinstatement, Mr Gilani also said opposition activists and leaders detained over the past week of mounting disturbances would be freed and a ban on demonstrations in the capital and several provinces lifted.

SOURCES BY BBC NEWS.COM

Filed under: Pakisatan , pakistan, pakistan's political, post

Nawaz Sharif: Pakistan’s comeback king

Daniel Berehulak/Getty ImagesPML (N) leader Nawaz Sharif addresses journalists at his residence whilst under house arrest on Mar. 15, 2009 in Lahore, Pakistan.

LAHORE, Pakistan — Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s opposition leader put under house arrest Sunday, has emerged from the political wilderness and a criminal record to become the country’s most popular figurehead.

A two-times premier who slunk off to Saudi Arabia disgraced by hijacking and corruption convictions, 59-year-old Mr. Sharif has silenced his critics and outwitted two governments in the 18 months since coming home from exile.

Bitterly opposed to ex-military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who ousted him from power in 1999, and determined to reinstate 60 judges Mr. Musharraf sacked, Mr. Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) came a close second in 2008 elections.

Putting aside decades of enmity, he joined the government formed by a Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) still reeling from the assassination of its leader Benazir Bhutto in December 2007, and demanded the judges be restored.

But PPP and President Asif Ali Zardari, Ms. Bhutto’s widower, did not live up to their promises to reinstate the judges and Mr. Sharif walked out of the coalition last August.

The latest crisis to hit Pakistan came about when the Supreme Court on February 25 disqualified Mr. Sharif and his brother Shahbaz from contesting elections and holding public office.

Tapping into broad public dislike for Mr. Zardari and disappointment with a government unable to rescue the economy and stop Islamist violence, Mr. Sharif stepped into the vacuum for a charismatic leader created by Ms. Bhutto’s death.

“Come and join me, I am leaving the house. The time has come to march hand in hand,” Mr. Sharif said, defying orders for his house arrest.

“Sharif has benefitted enormously from the blunders of Zardari,” said political and defence analyst Talat Masood.

“People appreciate the level of commitment he is showing to his principles. He is on a higher moral plateau. Sharif had problems in the past but one can say he is clearly a top leader and the most popular today,” he said.

Born in 1949 the son of an industrialist with a fortune in steel, sugar and paper, Mr. Sharif went into politics when military dictator Zia ul-Haq made him one of the youngest finance ministers in Punjab province in 1981.

In 1990, he was elected prime minister after Ms. Bhutto’s first term, until he was sacked three years later on corruption charges.

It was a turning point in Mr. Sharif’s career and he launched a scathing attack on then-president Ghulam Ishaq Khan, his former mentor and a top representative of the military-led establishment.

But Mr. Sharif was back in power again in 1996 after Ms. Bhutto’s second government was dismissed on corruption charges.

Filed under: Pakisatan , nawaz sharif, Nawaz Sharif: Pakistan’s comeback king, pakistan, pakistan comeback ring

Pakistan president faces growing challenges to his authority

Pakistan’s president, Asif Zardari, is under pressure from within his party, the opposition and the army Photo: AFP/GETTY

Protestors loyal to Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister and Mr Zardari’s main opposition, clashed with police while dissent grew within the ranks of the president’s own political party. Two senior ministers, including Sherry Rehman, the former information minister, have resigned, and there were reports of unrest within some sections of the army.

Meanwhile Mr Sharif defied what he described as house arrest on Sunday to join anti-government protests that quickly descended into chaos, with running battles between stone-throwing protesters and police.

 

Related Articles

• Zardari’s plan to tough out the pressure in Pakistan

• Pakistan’s opposition leader Sharif under house arrest

• Pakistan’s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif under house arrest

• Pakistan government arrests hundreds of activists ahead of mass protest

• Woman lawyer says she was ‘trussed like a chicken’ after arrest by Pakistan police

• Imran Khan goes into hiding as Pakistan stifles opposition protest

Hundreds of police surrounded Mr Sharif’s home in Lahore but he denounced the “arrest” order as illegal and later left the house in a convoy of vehicles. “These are the decisive moments,” Mr Sharif told supporters. “I tell every Pakistani youth that this is not the time to stay home; Pakistan is calling you to come and save me.”

Mr Zardari, the co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), has refused to bow under pressure to diffuse a political deadlock that has paralysed the country. The US and UK, increasingly alarmed at the situation in a country pivotal to efforts to contain international terrorism, have urged the two sides in Pakistan to find a way forward.

For much of the PPP’s one year in power Pakistan has been stymied by a power-struggle between the government and the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) of Mr Sharif.

On Sunday lawyers and opposition party supporters clashed with police in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, Mr Sharif’s political stronghold.

During the fifth day of unrest, several thousand protesters, many of them members of the Jamaat-e-Islami religious opposition party, threw stones at police outside the city’s high court.

Police have detained hundreds of lawyers and opposition activists in a crackdown launched on Wednesday to prevent their “long march” protest that is due to climax with a sit-in outside parliament in Islamabad on Monday.

Senior US and British diplomats have met all parties in recent days in an effort to work out a compromise, fearing that more political upheaval will yet again distract the country’s leadership from confronting a growing al-Qaeda and Taliban inspired campaign of violence.

“The message that he will be hopefully getting is that his legitimacy is increasingly in question and he is fighting a losing battle,” a senior Western diplomat told the Daily Telegraph.

However, Mr Zardari insisted that he would negotiate only once the march had blown over.

A senior PPP figure close to Mr Zardari, who is the widower of the assassinated former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, said: “Mr Zardari may have a popularity problem but he does not have a power-problem.”

“Mr Zardari has calculated that the army will not intervene and that he will win this one,” he added.

The all-powerful army chief, Gen Ashfaq Kiyani, has petitioned the prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, to push Mr Zardari to resolve the crisis.

Mr Zardari’s head of the interior ministry, Rehman Malik, has issued increasingly surreal statements, claiming that the president enjoyed huge popularity and that his government was “facilitating” the protesters”.

Filed under: Pakisatan , jardari, pakistan, pakistan president, Pakistan president faces growing challenges to his authority, preisdent

Pakistan TV station reportedly blocked in parts of country

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) — A Pakistani television station, which has been critical of the government, has been shut down in locations across the country, according to the station’s managing director.

Pakistan’s Information Minister Sherry Rehman resigned Saturday to protest media restrictions.

Government officials have instructed cable operators to remove GEO-TV from the airwaves or push it farther down in the channel order, Azhar Abbas said Saturday.

The channel signal has been blocked in certain areas, but other cable operators are still carrying it. The channel is functioning and broadcasting in some areas in Pakistan.

The reported media shutdown comes as thousands of demonstrators and lawyers were headed to Islamabad for a four-day “Long March” to demand that the government immediately restore judges the previous president had ousted.

Demonstrators also plan a massive sit-in at the parliament building Monday.

After sweeping into power in parliamentary elections last year, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) promised to reinstate the judges within 30 days of taking office. The deadline came and went.

GEO-TV, which is known to have an anti-establishment stance, has criticized the PPP-led government in recent weeks. The station has aired numerous reports on the recent lawyers’ movement.

Don’t Miss

• Lawyers arrested protesting Pakistan firings
• Opposition leader ban sparks Pakistan protests

The restrictions on local media has also led to the resignation of Pakistan’s Information Minister Sherry Rehman, a high-ranking source in the Ministry of Information told CNN on Saturday.

Rehman handed in her resignation to Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, the source said.

Repeated phone calls from CNN to the Pakistani government for comment were not returned.

Filed under: Pakisatan , country, pakistan, Pakistan TV station

Pakistan Must Take Actions Against Mumbai Attacks

India on Monday demanded Pakistan take “strong action” on those behind last week’s massacre in Mumbai, raising diplomatic tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals

India’s foreign ministry said it had summoned Islamabad’s chief envoy to New Delhi to reiterate claims that elements from Pakistan carried out the attacks that left 179 dead and 300 injured.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs told Pakistan’s High Commissioner Shahid Malik that it expects “strong action” against the those behind the siege.

Pakistani authorities say Islamabad has not received any evidence that militants from within its borders carried out Wednesday’s coordinated attacks in India’s financial capital

MOre infor visit – http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/12/01/india.attacks2/index.html

Filed under: Pakisatan , India, mumbai, Pakisatan, teror