Governor of Punjab 'shot dead by his own bodyguard'

One of Pakistan's most senior and moderate politicians has been assassinated.

Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab province, was shot dead by one of his own police bodyguards in Islamabad. He had recently campaigned for the release of [Asia Bibi] a Christian woman facing the death penalty under the country's strict blasphemy laws.

Foreign Secretary William Hague called the killing shocking while US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she strongly condemned the assassination.

Source: BBC

Asia Bibi: Pakistan: Blasphemy: Death Sentence

Asia Bibi, a Christian woman and mother of five, has been sentenced to death for "blasphemy" in Pakistan, the first conviction of its kind for a woman, the AFP is reporting.

The case originated in Pakistan's Punjab province when a group of female Muslim laborers complained that Bibi had made derogatory comments about the Prophet Mohammed. According to CNN, the women alleged that Bibi said, "the Quran is fake and your prophet remained in bed for one month before his death because he had worms in his ears and mouth. He married Khadija just for money and after looting her kicked her out of the house." A police investigation was opened, which led to a trial and guilty verdict for Bibi. The AFP reports: "Sentencing her to hang, Judge Naveed Iqbal "totally ruled out" any chance that Asia was falsely implicated and said there were "no mitigating circumstances", according to a copy of the verdict seen by AFP."

Bibi is proclaiming her innocence and says that she is being persecuted for her Christian beliefs in a Muslim majority nation, says the Telegraph. Human rights groups are condemning the verdict, and her husband, Ashiq Masih, told the AFP that he would appeal the verdict.

Last July, two Christian brothers were shot dead after being convicted of blasphemy, the BBC reported.

Source: Huffington Post

Suicide Attacker in Pakistan Kills 18 Near Khyber Pass

Officials in northwest Pakistan say a suicide bomber blew himself up near a tribal police patrol Wednesday, killing at least 18 people, including 11 officers, and wounding more than 15 others. The officials say the attacker struck on the main highway leading to the Khyber pass, one of the busiest transport routes into neighboring Afghanistan. The wounded were taken to nearby Peshawar for medical treatment.

No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing, but Taliban militants frequently attack local Pakistani security forces as well as NATO trucks carrying supplies for troops in Afghanistan.

Separately, Pakistan's military said one of its attack helicopters crashed in a remote area of the Khyber region following a battle with militants. The fate of the crew is unclear.

Meanwhile, a senior Pakistani government official has confirmed there is "credible information" that Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud died last month of injuries he sustained in a missile strike in South Waziristan. Mehsud's death had been widely reported, but Wednesday's announcement by Interior Minister Rehman Malik was the most definite statement to date from the central government. Malik declined to give any further details about Mehsud's death. After an unmanned aircraft attacked the target in South Waziristan in mid-January, intelligence officials said they believed Mehsud was seriously wounded and later died.

Taliban spokesmen denied the reports and at one point released an audio recording intended to prove that Mehsud was still alive. But media reports have continued to quote anonymous Pakistani and U.S. intelligence officials who said they believe he is dead. Hakimullah Mehsud's predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in a U.S. missile strike in South Waziristan last August.

Source: Voice of America

Abu Sayyaf operative reported killed in North Waziristan

A wanted member of the Philippines-based, al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf Group is thought to have been killed in a US airstrike in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan last week. Abu Sayyaf operative and bomb-making expert Abdul Basit Usman is thought to have been killed in an airstrike on Jan. 14 in North Waziristan. Usman is believed to have died in the attack that targeted Taliban chieftain Hakeemullah Mehsud in the Pasalkot region in North Waziristan, an area close to the border with the neighboring tribal agency of South Waziristan. Ten Taliban and foreign fighters were reported killed in the attack, which hit a madrassa, or religious school, used by Taliban fighters from South Waziristan who dodged the Pakistani Army operation in South Waziristan.

Usman is wanted by the United States for his involvement in multiple bombings in the Philippines and also has links to Jemaah Islamiyah, al Qaeda's regional affiliate in Southeast Asia. "Because of his association with these US Government-designated international terrorist organizations, US authorities consider Basit to be a threat to US and Filipino citizens and interests," states the Rewards for Justice website. "He is believed to have orchestrated several bombings that have killed, injured, and maimed many innocent civilians."

The US has put a $1 million reward out for information leading to his capture and prosecution. It is unclear when Usman entered Pakistan. As of May 2009, the US believed Usman was hiding on the Philippine island of Mindanao. US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal would not confirm Usman's death, but did say they were investigating the reports. Usman's death in North Waziristan, if confirmed, would further reinforce the reports that Pakistan's tribal areas are a nexus for al Qaeda-linked groups across the globe. "It isn't just al Qaeda operating in the tribal areas," a senior US intelligence official told The Long War Journal. "You have Pakistani groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. You have the Uzbek terror groups. You have HuJI (the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, a terror group based in Pakistan and Bangladesh), Jemaah Islamiyah, Abu Sayyaf, you name it."

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has described this jihadist nexus in Pakistan as "a syndicate of terrorist operators" during his recent visit to India. US military and intelligence officials often privately refer to this alliance as AQAM (al Qaeda and allied movements, or al Qaeda and associated movements). US intelligence officials have spoken of AQAM's influence in Pakistan for years. "At times their [AQAM's] planning, allocation of resources, and operations are indistinguishable," a US intelligence official told The Long War Journal in October 2009. "Their goals are identical; they want to hit us here as well as carve out their caliphate there [in Pakistan and Afghanistan]."

Despite the growth of al Qaeda and its allies in Pakistan's tribal areas, the Pakistani military has stated it will not conduct further operations this year to root out the Taliban and al Qaeda safe havens. "We are not going to conduct any major new operations against the militants over the next 12 months," Major General Athar Abbas, the top spokesman for the Pakistani military told the BBC in an interview today. "The Pakistan army is overstretched and it is not in a position to open any new fronts," Abbas continued. "Obviously, we will continue our present operations in Waziristan and Swat."

Source: The Long War Journal

Pak anti-terror court declares Lakhvi as 26/11 mastermind

A Pakistani anti-terrorism court formally charged seven suspects, including LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, on Wednesday with planning and helping execute the Mumbai attacks, an action that came a day before the first anniversary of the brazen assault. The court also declared 16 people, including Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist, as "proclaimed offenders". The crew members of the two boats that ferried the 10 attackers to Mumbai are among them, sources said. Anti-terrorism court Judge Malik Muhammad Akram Awan, who is conducting the trial at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi for security reasons, framed the chargesheet against Lakhvi, Zarar Shah, Abu al-Qama, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jamil Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younas Anjum.

The court also rejected the bail pleas of some of the accused. The suspects protested as charges against them under the Anti-Terrorism Act and Pakistan Penal Code were read out, sources said. All seven pleaded not guilty, their lawyers said. The chargesheets came after an agonising spell of delays with India accusing Pakistan of not being serious in bringing to book the perpetrators of the 26/11 attacks. Shahbaz Rajput, one of the defence lawyers, said that the accused had pleaded not guilty as the charges against them were not backed up by evidence.

Lakhvi and the six other suspects were charged with providing accommodation and training facilities to the attackers as they prepared for the assault, the sources said. Kasab and nine others reached Mumbai through sea route on November 26, 2008 and targeted several places, including Taj Mahal Hotel and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, killing 166 people, including foreigners. The accused were also charged with arranging transportation, including boats, and communication equipment, including mobile phone sets and internet-based communication gear, for the terrorists, the sources said.

The court scheduled the next hearing of the case for December 5. At the last hearing of the case on Monday, the defence lawyers had contended that Kasab should be brought to Pakistan to face trial with the other accused. They had said that since Kasab is the lone surviving attacker and his confession to Indian authorities formed a crucial part of the case built by Pakistani authorities against their clients, he should be brought to Pakistan to face trial. Reporters are barred from covering the in-camera proceedings of the anti-terror court and there was no official word on today's proceedings. The indictment of the suspects had been expected for some time as the Federal Investigation Agency, which probed Pakistani links to the attacks, had drawn up its first chargesheet as far back as May. Since then, the judge has been changed twice.

The trial also became mired in confusion and controversy after the accused claimed the court had tried to indict them in the absence of their lawyers. They filed a petition in the Lahore High Court, which said the anti-terror court could proceed with the indictment only after addressing the grievances of the accused.

Source: BBC

Huge blast rocks Pakistani city

Rescuers are searching the rubble of a police building in the Pakistani city of Lahore after a bomb attack killed at least 23 people and injured 200. Gunmen reportedly opened fire on guards before detonating a car bomb which flattened the emergency response building at police HQ. Nearby offices of the ISI intelligence service were also damaged.

The interior ministry chief linked the attack to Taliban insurgents whom troops are battling in the Swat valley.

Source: BBC

Al-Qaeda chemical expert 'killed'

Reports from Pakistan say a leading al-Qaeda chemical weapons expert, Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, has been killed in a missile strike. Taleban officials in the tribal area of South Waziristan confirmed to the BBC that he was killed in a missile strike that left at least six people dead. The US, which has a reward of $5m on his head, said it had no information. He was wrongly reported to have been killed in 2006 in a strike aimed at al-Qaeda deputy head Ayman al-Zawahiri. The pre-dawn strike targeted a house near a mosque in the village of Azam Warsak, 20km (12 miles) west of the main town in South Waziristan, Wana. It was suspected to be a strike by US forces, with residents saying they had heard US drones, but this has not been confirmed. Pakistani military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas told the AFP news agency it was still awaiting "authentic information" from the area.

Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, 55, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, is an Egyptian national. The US government's Rewards for Justice website says he is "an explosives expert and poisons trainer working on behalf of al-Qaeda". It says he trained hundreds of militants in chemical and explosives operations at a camp at Derunta in Afghanistan.

The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Islamabad says the militant was considered part of Osama Bin Laden's inner circle and was said to be in charge of efforts to gain access to, or develop, weapons of mass destruction. Local residents said the house targeted belonged to a local tribesman and suspected militants used to stay there. The US is reported to have carried out a number of drone missile attacks in the tribal regions. Pakistan has complained the attacks could damage bilateral relations. The latest strike came shortly before Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was due to meet US President George W Bush in Washington.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said she had no information about the incident. In recent months the US and its allies have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in military and other forms of assistance to help Pakistan's new government tackle militancy in border tribal areas.

Source: BBC

CIA admit 'waterboarding' al-Qaida suspects

Interrogators used "waterboarding" on three men shortly after the September 11 attacks, the CIA admitted today, naming for the first time the victims of a technique widely perceived as torture.

The men subjected to waterboarding, which simulates drowning, were al-Qaida suspects Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the CIA director, Michael Hayden, told the US Congress. "We used it against these three detainees because of the circumstances at the time," Hayden said. "There was the belief that additional catastrophic attacks against the homeland were inevitable. And we had limited knowledge about al-Qaida and its workings. Those two realities have changed."

Hayden told the senate intelligence committee that Mohammed - the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks - and the other two men were subject to waterboarding in 2002 and 2003. "The circumstances are different than they were in late 2001, early 2002," Hayden said, adding that he opposed limiting the CIA to interrogation techniques permitted in the US Army field manual, which bans waterboarding. Hayden told the committee that fewer than 100 people had been held in the CIA's terrorism detention and interrogation programme, with less than one-third subjected to "coercive" techniques. The CIA said in December that it had destroyed videotapes depicting the interrogations of Zubaydah and Nashiri, prompting a justice department investigation. The tapes were destroyed as Congress moved to pass a ban on inhumane interrogations and a prosecutor is investigating whether US intelligence officials broke the law or violated court orders in destroying the tapes.

In waterboarding, the victim's mouth is covered and water poured over his face, making the victim feel as if they are drowning. "Waterboarding taken to its extreme, could be death - you could drown someone," McConnell acknowledged. He said waterboarding remains a technique in the CIA's arsenal, but it would require the consent of the president and legal approval of the attorney general.

At the same hearing, the US director of national intelligence said the Taliban, which was overthrown in Afghanistan in late 2001, has expanded its operations into once-peaceful areas of western Afghanistan and around the capital, Kabul, despite the death or capture of three top commanders in the last year. McConnell also said al-Qaida maintains a "safe haven" in Pakistan's tribal areas, where the group is able to stage attacks supporting the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan. The Pakistani tribal areas provide al-Qaida "many of the advantages it once derived from its base across the border in Afghanistan, albeit on a smaller and less secure scale", allowing militants to train for strikes in Pakistan, the Middle East, Africa and the US, McConnell said. "Al-Qaida remains the pre-eminent threat against the United States, both here at home and abroad," McConnell said, even though the terror network had suffered setbacks in Iraq. He expressed concern that al-Qaida in Iraq is shifting its focus elsewhere in the region. "They may deploy resources to mount attacks outside the country," McConnell said, although fewer than 100 terrorists have moved to establish cells in other countries. McConnell also told the senate panel that US officials believe that Osama bin Laden is hiding in Pakistan's tribal areas. A report released in London said nearly 400 militant groups now operate around the world and the greatest proliferation has been in the border regions between Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

The number of violent "non-state" groups has grown about 10% in the past year, according to the 2008 military balance report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Iraq and India, with more than 30 active guerrilla groups each, are the most volatile countries, the report said, with the Afghan-Pakistan border and the disputed Kashmir region between India and Pakistan the worst-affected areas.

Source: Guardian

Keen demand fuels global trade in body parts

Paul Lee got his liver from an executed Chinese prisoner; Karam in Egypt bought a kidney for his sister for $5Â 300; in Istanbul, Hakan is holding out for $30Â 700 for one of his kidneys.

They are not so unusual: a dire shortage of donated organs in rich countries is sending foreigners with end-stage illnesses to poorer places like China, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Colombia and the Philippines to buy a new lease of life.

Source: Mail & Guardian

Pakistan's Northern Areas dilemma

For over 50 years, the Northern Areas in Pakistani-administered Kashmir have been administered by Pakistan although they are not legally part of it. This curious position arises from what the Pakistani Government calls its unresolved dispute with India over the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. When a ceasefire was agreed between the two warring countries in 1949, Pakistan retained control of one-third of the state, India two-thirds. Of the area administered by Pakistan, a small strip of territory established its separate administration and became known as Azad (Free) Jammu and Kashmir.

The larger area to the north, through which the river Indus runs, was taken under the direct administration of the government of Pakistan. When a ceasefire was agreed between the two warring countries in 1949, Pakistan retained control of one-third of the state, India two-thirds. Of the area administered by Pakistan, a small strip of territory established its separate administration and became known as Azad (Free) Jammu and Kashmir. The larger area to the north, through which the river Indus runs, was taken under the direct administration of the government of Pakistan. It borders Pakistan's North-West Frontier to the west, Afghanistan and China to the north, Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir to the east, leading to the frozen wastes of the Siachen glacier.

The Northern Areas are, therefore, as strategically important to Pakistan as they were to the British in the days of empire. The issue of its status appears even more anomalous because, at the time of independence, the princes whose separate principalities comprised the area, had indicated their willingness to join Pakistan. That their accession has never been accepted has been a great disappointment to the majority of the approximately one million inhabitants, who are 100% Muslims (Sunnis, Shias and Ismailis). Unlike Pakistan's other four provinces, the Northern Areas therefore have no political representation and no status under Pakistan's constitution. Instead their affairs are subject to the control of a non-elected minister for northern areas who is selected by the federal government.

From Pakistan's point of view, the accession of the Northern Areas could not be accepted lest India interpret the action as validation of the status quo. The fear is that Delhi could see this as an indication that Pakistan was prepared to accept the ceasefire line as an international border and that the UN resolutions, requiring a plebiscite to be held throughout the state, were no longer relevant. Even so resentment among the local people remains. Relations were also strained when, following the construction of the Karakoram Highway in 1978, Pakistan set up a customs post at Sost - just south of the Khunjerab pass leading from China. The local inhabitants fiercely resisted any attempt at taxation and adopted the slogan "no taxation without representation".

Mirroring the movement for independence which began in Indian-administered Kashmir in the late 1980s, a movement for independence in the Northern Areas has now been gaining adherents. It is currently divided between those who are demanding independence of the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir and those who are calling for the independence of Balawaristan (from the old name by which the Northern Areas were once known, Boloristan). This movement has been given renewed impetus among the youth following Pakistan's incursion into Kargil in 1999. "You see many of the boys who died in Kargil were from the Northern Light Infantry which is based in Skardu," says a local journalist. "They are upset that initially they were not owned by Pakistan. Instead the Pakistani Government tried to pass them off as mujahideen." On the other hand, those who see the benefits of not paying taxes are less concerned about their lack of political rights than about the economic aid they are now being given to develop what is still a poor region. Recent initiatives by the Pakistani Government to encourage tourists to come and view an area which contains spectacular mountain peaks, almost equal in height to Mount Everest, are welcomed.

There is now some slight hope that if the Kashmir dispute is indeed resolved by India and Pakistan, it may pave the way for a resolution of the political status of the Northern Areas as well. Those, however, who support the independence movement are bound to be disappointed. Pakistan may have consistently supported the Kashmiris' right of self determination and continued to insist that the Northern Areas form part of the disputed territory, but, regardless of its lack of political representation, the government has always regarded the Northern Areas as ultimately part of Pakistan. There is, therefore, no question of Pakistan ever agreeing to relinquish control of the area, either to form part of an independent state of Jammu or Kashmir or as an independent state in its own right.

Source: BBC

South Africa's Arms Trade: Further Progress Needed

South Africa is not living up to its own high standards with respect to arms exports, Human Rights Watch charged. In a 45-page report, "A Question of Principle: Arms Trade and Human Rights," Human Rights Watch charged the South African government with selling weapons to countries with serious human rights problems, where an influx of weaponry could significantly worsen ongoing abuses.

In a 45-page report released today, "A Question of Principle: Arms Trade and Human Rights," Human Rights Watch charged the South African government with selling weapons to countries with serious human rights problems, where an influx of weaponry could significantly worsen ongoing abuses.

Human Rights Watch noted that after 1994, South Africa announced more restrictive policies on arms transfers. But the report charges that those policies are not always being followed. In 1994, a scandal erupted involving the sale by Armscor, the apartheid-era governmental arms export agency, of weapons to Yemen for probable on-shipment to the former Yugoslavia, then under U.N. embargo.

"South Africa has come a long way in overturning apartheid's awful legacy," said Joost Hiltermann, Executive Director of the Arms Division of Human Rights Watch. "In the arms trade, the country has committed to some very good human rights principles. But these principles are not consistently applied and are now under real threat."

The Human Rights Watch report cited examples of weapons sales since 1994 to governments engaging in repression against their own people or to countries involved in their own or others' civil wars. These sales clearly violated South Africa's own stated policies. Purchasers of South African arms include Algeria, Angola, Colombia, the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), India, Namibia, Pakistan, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

Hiltermann noted that South Africa has a strong record in other areas involving the nexus of military policy and human rights. The South African government has taken firm position on banning antipersonnel landmines, and has been one of the world's leaders in implementing the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. It has taken important steps to curb the proliferation and misuse of small arms and light weapons in southern Africa, and passed a law on mercenaries in 1998, which prohibited South African citizens from participating in either internal or international armed conflicts. But Hiltermann urged that the South African government do more to institutionalize the important policy reforms on arms sales made since the first democratic elections in 1994. "First and foremost, South Africa should formalize in law the arms export policies that the government has declared on paper, which include a code of conduct on arms transfers," said Hiltermann. He also urged a more significant role for parliament and civil society in arms trade decisions.

Human Rights Watch called on South Africa to:
· establish a legal framework for its arms export policy;
· enhance the capacity of government officials to assess the human rights implications of arms transfers;
· increase the participation of parliament and civil society in arms trade decisions;
· make a greater commitment to full transparency in arms exports.

Source: Human Rights Watch

Islamic Rebels Capture A Strategic Afghan City

Islamic rebels known as the Taliban captured the eastern city of Jalalabad today, gaining virtual control of nearly two-thirds of Afghanistan and sending Government troops retreating to Kabul, the capital.

At least 70 people were reported killed in the attack, but that figure could not be confirmed.

The capture of Jalalabad gives the Taliban control over a major ground route for supplies to Kabul from Pakistan and puts increased pressure on the ruling coalition of President Burhanuddin Rabbani, who has accused Pakistan of aiding the rebels.

The Taliban are the most conservative of the Islamic factions that have fought for control here since the communists lost power in 1992, and they have imposed strict religious rule in areas they control.

Source: New York Times