Pakistanis claim Bush is now off their back
NEW YORK: Despite the growing tensions in the rugged Fata battlefields between the US and Pakistani armies, diplomats and politicians of the two count
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An accident waiting to happen
ISLAMABAD: Over the past few days, Pakistani soldiers have fired shots at two Nato helicopters; Pakistani troops have exchanged fire with the soldiers
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Reference against Hamesh, 11 others for Rs 9bn fraud
LAHORETHE National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Punjab has filed a reference in an accountability court against 12 people including six officia
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High turnout in mosques despite terrorism threats
RawalpindiDespite looming threats of terror acts, the faithful Friday offered Jumatul Wida, the last Friday of the holy month of Ramazan, with
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Pakistan News
Pakistan tribesmen vow to fight US ”until the last soul”
RAGHAGAN: Toting rocket launchers and Kalashnikovs, the bearded tribesmen say they back the Pakistani government — yet pledge they will fight to the death against US incursions on their soil. The Pakistani military took reporters to the Pashtun tribal fighters in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan in a bid to show they have the support of locals for a month-long operation in the area, an Al-Qaeda and Taliban hotspot. But there was also a strong message for US forces over the border, who have caused anger in Pakistan with a string of alleged territorial violations, including a raid by US ground troops on September 3 that left 15 people dead. “We will fight against America until the last soul if they come to our country,” said Malik Manasib Khan, the leader of a “lashkar”, or tribal force, called up to help Pakistan’’s army expel the militants — and anyone else. “For us, the Taliban, NATO and the United States are all equals,” the burly tribal chief told journalists in the bazaar at Raghagan, about 12 kilometres (eight miles) northeast of Khar, the main town in Bajaur region. Fiercely independent, religiously conservative and obsessed by revenge, the tribes along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border have repelled all invaders for centuries and still hold the key to stability in the region. When thousands of Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants fled the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the tribes sheltered them, viewing them as successors of the “mujahedeen” who fought the Soviet occupiers of Afghanistan in the 1980s. In 2003, Islamabad launched army operations at Washington’’s behest in the tribal belt, especially the notorious Waziristan area, but civilian deaths helped to radicalize and fire up many more tribesmen against the government. Pakistani authorities have in recent years made major efforts to win the support of leading tribesmen in a bid to drive out foreign Al-Qaeda militants and isolate the most hardcore Taliban commanders. Yet that policy — combined with US and Afghan suspicions that elements in Pakistan’’s intelligence agencies still back the Taliban — has caused tensions with Washington, which wants Islamabad to launch an all-out offensive. Pakistan complied and in August launched a military push in Bajaur, the smallest but increasingly the most dangerous of the country’’s seven tribal regions. The army said Friday the operation had left 1,000 militants dead. But the deaths of 11 Pakistani soldiers in a US air strike in June, a series of missile strikes and, on Thursday, an exchange of gunfire after Pakistani troops fired at US helicopters, have raised tensions to boiling point.
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GST on computers hurts users, traders
KARACHI: The rise in computer prices due to imposition of 16 per cent General Sales Tax (GST) by the government has discouraged the use of computers i
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All private schools to be registered
LAHOREThe Punjab government has decided to evolve a uniform registration policy for private schools of the province according to which all the
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World stands behind Pakistan
UNITED NATIONS: Major world powers on Friday pledged to assist the Pakistani democratic government in its efforts to overcome economic and security ch
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Flour requirement of each dist sought
LAHORETHE Punjab food department has asked district coordination officers (DCOs) to submit flour requirements of their respective districts to
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Obama vows to ”take out” terror targets in Pakistan
OXFORD: Democratic White House contender Barack Obama said Friday he would launch military strikes on extremist targets inside Pakistan if the Islamabad government is unwilling or unable to act. At their first presidential debate, Obama’’s Republican opponent John McCain said such threats were unhelpful. “You don”t say that out loud,” he said. But Obama insisted: “If the United States has Al-Qaeda, (Osama) bin Laden, top-level lieutenants in our sights, and Pakistan is unwilling or unable to act, then we should take them out.” McCain countered by calling for a “new strategy” against Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.”We”re going to have to help the Pakistanis go into these areas and obtain the allegiance of the people. It’’s going to be tough,” said the Arizona senator. Obama repeated his favored strategy for Afghanistan: to take US troops from Iraq and send them to Afghanistan to better deal with a reconstituted Al-Qaeda. “Al Qaeda and Taliban (are) crossing the border and attacking our troops in a brazen fashion. They are feeling emboldened,” he said. “We cannot separate Afghanistan from Iraq because what our commanders have said is we don”t have the troops right now to deal with Afghanistan.”
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