Salman Taseer’s son Shahbaz kidnapped from Lahore

LAHORE:-
                      Shahbaz Taseer, the son of slain Punjab governor Salman Taseer, was kidnapped in Lahore on Friday, police and the family said.
Four men on motorbikes intercepted Shahbaz Taseer in his car in the upscale Gulberg area and took him to a nearby street before whisking him away, police said, quoting witnesses.
“Shabhaz was out with a friend when four unidentified people kidnapped him,” his brother Shehryar Taseer told Reuters.
“Our family has been receiving threats from the Taliban and extremist groups,” he said, adding they could be behind the abduction.
No one has yet claimed responsibility.
The governor, Salman Taseer, was killed by his own bodyguard early this year after he came out in support of Aasia Bibi, a woman accused of committing blasphemy

Gilani approved Operation in Karachi

PM made the decision in the meeting of Sindh Government which was discussed the law and order situation in the Pakistan Biggest city Karachi.

The Meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday. He said now time to take action against Anti peace elements that were destroyed the peace of the city.

Prime Minister stated that there is no need of Pak Army to settle peace in the city. Pakistan Rangers and police can handle the situation of the city.

Manzoor Wasan – Sindh Home Minister said that in the first phase of the operation carry out in nine areas of the city include Lyari Town, Korangi Area, Qasba Colony, and Kathi Pahari.

Manzoor Wasan also ordered the Rangers and Police for action against criminal suspects and make security for the citizens.

More then 100 citizens were killed in last week in the month of Holy Ramadan. Citizens of the city are not look happy due to violence in the city.

Karachi life cripples on ‘day of mourning’

KARACHI:-

                      Karachi faced a complete shutdown on Tuesday as traders, transporters and fuel station owners decided to keep their regular operations closed after the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) announced that a ‘day of mourning’ would be observed against the ongoing wave of violence that has claimed nearly 100 lives in less than a week.
Moreover, four people were killed and two others injured in incidents of violence in the city on Tuesday morning, DawnNews reported.
Two bodies trussed up in gunny bags, bearing torture marks and gun shots, were found dumped in Pak Colony and at Orangi Town’s Qasba Mor.
Separately, a resident of the Marwari Lane was kidnapped, shot at, and thrown in the Lyari river. He was shifted to the Civil Hospital subsequently.
In another incident, two people were injured when their car came under attack by unknown gunmen in the city’s Gulastan-i-Johar area.
The associations of transporters, wholesale and retail markets and fuel stations on Monday evening announced one by one that they would stay away from regular business on Tuesday, blaming police and security administration for failing to protect their businesses in such a situation.

Only two weeks back life in the city had come to a halt due to the shutter-down strike mainly called by the nationalist parties against the restoration of the 2001 local body system that also witnessed armed and arson attacks.

Libyan crowds celebrate as Qadhafi defences collapse

TRIPOLI:-

                    Libyan rebels raced into Tripoli Sunday and met little resistance as Moammar Qadhafi’s defenders melted away and his 42-year rule rapidly crumbled. The euphoric fighters celebrated with residents of the capital in Green Square, the symbolic heart of the fading regime.
Qadhafi’s whereabouts were unknown, though state TV broadcast his bitter pleas for Libyans to defend his regime. Opposition fighters captured his son and one-time heir apparent, Seif al-Islam, who along with his father faces charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands. Another son was in contact with rebels about surrendering, the opposition said.
“It’s over, frizz-head,” chanted hundreds of jubilant men and women massed in Green Square, using a mocking nickname of the curly-haired Qadhafi. The revelers fired shots in the air, clapped and waved the rebels’ tricolor flag. Some set fire to the green flag of Qadhafi’s regime and shot holes in a poster with the leader’s image.
By the early hours of Monday, rebels controlled large parts of the capital. They set up checkpoints alongside residents – many of them secretly armed by rebel smugglers in recent weeks. But pockets of pro-Qadhafi fighters remained: In one area, Associated Press reporters with the rebels were stopped and told to take a different route because of regime snipers nearby.
“We were waiting for the signal and it happened,” said Nour Eddin Shatouni, a 50-year-old engineer who was among the residents who flowed out of their homes to join the celebrations. “All mosques chanted ‘God is great’ all at once. We smelled a good scent, it is the smell of victory. We know it is the time.”
The seizure of Green Square held profound symbolic value and marked a stunning turn in the tide of the 6-month-old Libyan civil war. The regime has held pro-Qadhafi rallies there nearly every night since the revolt began in February, and Qadhafi delivered speeches to his loyalists from the historic Red Fort that overlooks the square.
The sweep into the capital came after the rebel fighters advanced 20 miles from the west in a matter of hours. They took town after town and overwhelmed a major military base meant to defend Tripoli, 16 miles from the city. All the way, they met little resistance and residents poured out on the streets to welcome them.
In a series of angry and defiant audio messages broadcast on state television, Qadhafi called on his supporters to march in the streets of the capital and “purify it” of “the rats.” He was not shown in the messages.
His defiance raised the possibility of a last-ditch fight over the capital, home to 2 million people. Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim claimed the regime has “thousands and thousands of fighters” and vowed: “We will fight. We have whole cities on our sides. They are coming en masse to protect Tripoli to join the fight.”
But it appeared that Qadhafi’s military was abandoning him quickly.
The rebels’ way into Tripoli was opened when the military unit in charge of protecting Qadhafi and the capital surrendered, ordering his troops to drop their weapons, the rebel information minister Mahmoud Shammam said.
In a sign of the coordination among rebels, as the main force moved into the city from the west, a second force of 200 opposition fighters from the city of Misrata further east landed by boat in the capital. They brought weapons and ammunition for Tripoli residents to join the rebellion, said Munir Ramzi of the rebels’ military council in Misrata.
Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Qadhafi’s regime was “clearly crumbling” and that the time to create a new democratic Libya has arrived.
The sooner Qadhafi “realizes that he cannot win the battle against his own people, the better,” he said in a statement, adding that Nato will continue to strike his troops if they make “any threatening moves toward the Libyan people.”
In a statement early Monday, President Barack Obama said the way to prevent more bloodshed was for Qadhafi “to relinquish power once and for all.” Obama said the rebel leaders must pursue a peaceful transition to democracy.
It was a stunning reversal for Qadhafi, who earlier this month had seemed to have a firm grip on his stronghold in the western part of Libya, despite months of Nato airstrikes on his military. Rebels had been unable to make any advances for weeks, bogged down on the main fronts with regime troops in the east and center of the country.
Qadhafi is the Arab world’s longest-ruling, most erratic, most grimly fascinating leader – presiding for 42 years over this North African desert republic with vast oil reserves and just 6 million people. For years, he was an international pariah blamed for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people. After years of denial, Qadhafi’s Libya acknowledged responsibility, agreed to pay up to $10 million to relatives of each victim, and declared he would dismantle all weapons of mass destruction.
That eased him back into the international community.
But on February 22, days after the uprising against him began, Qadhafi gave a televised speech amid violent social unrest against his autocratic rule. In the speech, he vowed to hunt down protesters “inch by inch, room by room, home by home, alleyway by alleyway.” The speech caused a furor that fueled the armed rebellion against him and it has been since mocked in songs and spoofs across the Arab world.
As the rebel force advanced on Tripoli, taking town after town, thousands of jubilant civilians rushed out of their homes to cheer the long convoys of pickup trucks packed with fighters shooting in the air. One man grabbed a rebel flag that had been draped over the hood of a slow-moving car and kissed it, overcome with emotion.
Some of the fighters were hoarse, shouting: “We are coming for you, frizz-head.” In villages, mosque loudspeakers blared “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great.”
“We are going to sacrifice our lives for freedom,” said Nabil al-Ghowail, a 30-year-old dentist holding a rifle in the streets of Janzour, a suburb just six miles west of Tripoli. Heavy gunfire erupted nearby.
As rebels moved in Tripoli, thousands celebrated in the streets of Benghazi, the rebels’ de facto capital hundreds of miles to the east. Firing guns into the air and shooting fireworks, they cheered and waved the rebel tricolor flags, dancing and singing in the city’s main square.
Rebel chief Mustafa Abdel-Jalil in Benghazi confirmed to the AP that the rebels arrested Qadhafi’s son Seif al-Islam but refused to give the details of the capture.
“We have captured Seif al-Islam and he is in safe hands,” he said.
In the Netherlands, the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, said his office would talk to the rebels on Monday about Seif al-Islam’s transfer for trial. “It is time for justice, not revenge,” Moreno-Ocampo told the AP.
Seif al-Islam, his father and Libya’s intelligence chief were indicted earlier this year for allegedly ordering, planning and participating in illegal attacks on civilians in the early days of the violent crackdown on anti-regime protesters.
Another son, Mohammed, was in contact with the rebels and was asking for guarantees for his safety, said rebel spokesman Sadiq al-Kibir. Mohammed, who is in charge of Libyan telecommunications, appeared on the Arabic satellite channel Al-Jazeera, saying his house was surrounded by armed rebels.
“They have guaranteed my safety. I have always wanted good for all Libyans and was always on the side of God,” he said. Close to the end of the interview, there was the sound of heavy gunfire and Mohammed said rebels had entered his house before the phone line cut off.
A rebel spokesman based in London said Qadhafi’s prime minister, Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi, was in a Tunisian hotel, indicating he had joined a growing list of defecting officials.
The day’s first breakthrough came when hundreds of rebels fought their way into a major symbol of the Qadhafi regime – the base of the elite 32nd Brigade commanded by Qadhafi’s son, Khamis. Fighters said they met with little resistance. They were 16 miles from the big prize, Tripoli.
Hundreds of rebels cheered wildly and danced as they took over the compound filled with eucalyptus trees, raising their tricolor from the front gate and tearing down a large billboard of Qadhafi. From a huge warehouse, they loaded their trucks with hundreds of crates of rockets, artillery shells and large-caliber ammunition.
One group started up a tank, drove it out of the gate, crushing the median of the main highway and driving off toward Tripoli.
“This is the wealth of the Libyan people that he was using against us,” said Ahmed al-Ajdal, 27, pointing to his haul. “Now we will use it against him and any other dictator who goes against the Libyan people.”
At the base, the rebels also freed more than 300 prisoners from a regime lockup, most of them arrested during the heavy crackdown on the uprising in towns west of Tripoli. The fighters and the prisoners – many looking weak and dazed and showing scars and bruises from beatings – embraced and wept with joy.
“We were sitting in our cells when all of a sudden we heard lots of gunfire and people yelling ‘God is great.’ We didn’t know what was happening, and then we saw rebels running in and saying ‘We’re on your side.’ And they let us out,” said 23-year-old Majid al-Hodeiri. He said he was captured four months ago by Qadhafi’s forces crushing the uprising in his home city of Zawiya. He said he was beaten and tortured while under detention.
From the military base, the convoy sped toward the capital.
Mahmoud al-Ghwei, 20 and unarmed, said he had just came along with a friend for the ride .
“It’s a great feeling. For all these years, we wanted freedom and Qadhafi kept it from us. Now we’re going to get rid of Qadhafi and get our freedom,” he said.
The uprising against Qadhafi broke out in mid-February, and anti-regime protests quickly spread. A brutal regime crackdown quickly transformed the protests into an armed rebellion. Rebels seized Libya’s east, setting up an internationally recognized transitional government there, and two pockets in the west, the port city of Misrata and the Nafusa mountain range.
Qadhafi clung to the remaining territory, and for months neither side has been able to break the other.
In early August, however, rebels launched an offensive from the Nafusa mountains, intending to open a new, western front to break the deadlock. They fought their way down to the Mediterranean coastal plain, backed by Nato airstrikes, and captured the strategic city of Zawiya.
On Saturday, they consolidated control of Zawiya, then launched their furious rush on the capital.
At the same time, rebel “sleeper cells” inside Tripoli rose up and clashed with Qadhafi loyalists. Rebel fighters who spoke to relatives in Tripoli by phone said hundreds rushed into the streets in anti-regime protests in several neighborhoods on Sunday.

“We received weapons by sea from Benghazi. They sent us weapons in boats,” said Ibrahim Turki, a rebel in the Tripoli neighborhood of Tajoura, which saw heavy fighting the past two days. “Without their weapons, we would not have been able to stand in the face of the mighty power of Qadhafi forces.”

Army ready to help govt on Karachi: Kayani

ISLAMABAD:-

                            Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has said that the Army is ready to help the government for restoring peace to Karachi.

Talking to the media men here on Saturday, he said paramilitary forces and other law enforcement agencies were working efficiently and the Army would also play its maximum role in this regard. But it would be the government to take the decision of deployment of Army in Karachi, he added

7 more dead as death reigns in Karachi

KARACHI:-

                     Another seven people lost their lives on Saturday in the current wave of violence that began on Wednesday, bringing the death toll in just four days to 80.

The government is struggling for solutions to the worst kind of unrest to sweep the city in 16 years as extra deployments of police and paramilitary officers appear unable to end the trouble.

On Saturday, an Air Force employee, Zafar Ali Nazir, was shot dead near Mona Dental Clinic, Khokharapar. Police said the 36-year-old deceased came to Karachi from Nawabshah to visit his sister residing in Fasial Base. In another incident gunmen intercepted a bus near Malang Hotel, Bakrapiri, in the remits of SITE-A Police and disembarked Nadeem Harron, 28, and shot him dead. Police said Nadeem was a resident of Sector 1-C, Orangi Town. Unidentified gunmen also killed Sakhi Dad, a driver of a route Z bus, near Daba Chock, Islam Nagar, Orangi Town.

In the limits of Joharabad Police, armed men shot dead a man a near Hussainabad, Block 14. Deceased 30 years old Gull Aallam was a resident of Block 10, a slum area. Mochko Police found a bullet-riddled body near the route N-5 bus stop. One more unidentified body was found from Qalandriya Chock, Shahrah-e-Noorjahan. Ibrahim, an injured of Chakra Goth ethnic violence, succumbed to his injures. He was wounded late Friday. In Orangi Town an ambulance was attacked by unknown men, leaving three persons wounded.

Police high ups claimed of arresting two attackers involved in the attack on police van in Chakra Goth, Korangi. But sources said that the injured men, who are affiliated with Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), were detained during treatment at JPMC and they had been admitted to the hospital an hour before the incident of police van attack.

The current wave of violence started from Lyari on Wednesday after the arrival of mutilated bodies of five men who were abducted, and spread out across the metropolis like a wildfire. Medico legal officers in three major hospitals of Karachi while describing the brutality said that the victims were drilled multiple times, burnt and then their heads were chopped down.

The affected areas included Saeedabad, Balida, Korangi, Orangi, New Karachi and Landhi. Markets in the downtown remained closed on the fifth consecutive day because of the precarious law and order situation.

On

Deal will see US troops in Afghanistan until 2024

LONDON:-

                     The US and Afghanistan are close to signing a pact which would allow thousands of United States troops to remain in the country until at least 2024. The agreement would allow not only military trainers to stay to build up the Afghan army and police, but also for American special forces soldiers and air power to remain, reported Daily Telegraph.

The prospect of such a deal has already been met with anger among Afghanistan’s neighbours including, publicly, Iran and, privately, Pakistan. It also risks being rejected by the Taliban and derailing any attempt to coax them to the negotiating table, according to one senior member of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai’s peace council.

A withdrawal of American troops has already begun following an agreement to hand over security for the country to Kabul by the end of 2014. But Afghans wary of being abandoned are keen to lock America into a longer partnership after the deadline. Many analysts also believe the American military would like to retain a presence close to Pakistan, Iran and China.

Both Afghan and American officials said that they hoped to sign the pact before the Bonn Conference on Afghanistan in December.

US President Barack Obama and Karzai agreed last week to escalate the negotiations and their national security advisers will meet in Washington in September. Rangin Dadfar Spanta, Karzai’s top security adviser, told Daily Telegraph that ‘remarkable progress’ had been made. US officials have said they would be disappointed if a deal could not be reached by December and that the majority of small print had been agreed.

Spanta said a longer-term presence was crucial not only to build Afghan forces, but also to fight terrorism. “If [the Americans] provide us weapons and equipment, they need facilities to bring that equipment,” he said. “If they train our police and soldiers, then those trainers will not be 10 or 20, they will be thousands.

“We know we will be confronted with international terrorists. 2014, is not the end of international terrorist networks and we have a common commitment to fight them. For this purpose also, the US needs facilities.”

Afghan forces would still need support from US fighter aircraft and helicopters, he predicted. In the past, Washington officials have estimated a total of 25,000 troops may be needed. Spanta added: “In the Afghan proposal we are talking about 10 years from 2014, but this is under discussion.” America would not be granted its own bases, and would be a guest on Afghan bases, he said. Pakistan and Iran were also deeply opposed to the deal.

Andrey Avetisyan, Russian ambassador to Kabul, said: “Afghanistan needs many other things apart from the permanent military presence of some countries. It needs economic help and it needs peace. Military bases are not a tool for peace.

“I don’t understand why such bases are needed. If the job is done, if terrorism is defeated and peace and stability is brought back, then why would you need bases? “If the job is not done, then several thousand troops, even special forces, will not be able to do the job that 150,000 troops couldn’t do. It is not possible.”

A complete withdrawal of foreign troops has been a precondition for any Taliban negotiations with Karzai’s government and the deal would wreck the distant prospect of a negotiated peace, Avetisyan said.

Abdul Hakim Mujahid, deputy leader of the peace council set up by Karzai to seek a settlement, said he suspected the Taliban had intensified their insurgency in response to the prospect of the pact. “They want to put pressure on the world community and Afghan government,” he said