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| No prominent militant killed in drone attack |
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Thursday, June 25, 2009
By Mushtaq Yusufzai, Irfan Burki & Malik Mumtaz
PESHAWAR/WANA/MIRAMSHAH: There was no prominent militant commander among the 60-plus people killed in missile strikes by a US drone on funeral prayers in the violence-stricken South Waziristan on Tuesday.
People who helped in shifting the injured to hospital in Miramshah in North Waziristan told The News that the dead included 40 low-level militants and 35 local villagers.
They said majority of the people had left for their homes after attending the funeral prayers of the slain militant commander, Khwaz Wali Mehsud, and only relatives and close friends of the commander stayed there when the drone fired two missiles at them.
Commander Khwaz Wali was a close associate of Baitullah Mehsud and had died in a drone attack on Tuesday morning. Besides him, five other suspected militants were killed and seven others injured in the attack.
Later, when the villagers and the militants gathered for funeral prayers of the commander, two drones appeared and fired two missiles on the gathering, killing over 60 people on the spot.
Like other Mehsud people, family members of the slain militant commander had also fled their home and settled in the distant Dera Ismail Khan to evade losses in the military operation against Baitullah Mehsud in the region.
Among the 35 villagers who died in the drone attack on funeral, 10 were children aged five to 10 years and four local tribal elders. The sources at the ill-equipped Agency Headquarters Hospital in Miramshah said 58 people had been taken to the hospital, most of them in critical condition. Appeals were made through loudspeakers, asking the people to donate blood for the injured people at the hospital.
The Miramshah bazaar was immediately closed and shopkeepers and tribesmen in large numbers thronged the hospital for donating blood. The doctors said they could not manage the crowd that had come there for donating blood for the injured people.
According to the doctors, most of the injured brought to them were aged people. Tribal journalist, Nur Behram, who visited the Lattaka village, where the funeral prayer was attacked, told The News by telephone from Miramshah that gloom overwhelmed the deserted towns and its dwellers. He said majority of the people had already left their homes and villages due to the military operation and only elders remained there.
Behram said the villagers were critical of the Pakistan government for allowing the US to target their funeral prayers, where neither militant commanders were present nor the funeral was being offered at any training centre. He claimed majority of the people killed in the last drone attack were relatives of Commander Khwaz Wali.
Meanwhile, prominent Afghan Taliban commander, Maulvi Sangeen denied reports of his death in the drone attack in South Waziristan. He called The News from an undisclosed location to prove he was alive. “We have nothing to do with internal fighting in Pakistan. Our job is to fight Jihad against the occupation forces in Afghanistan,” said the Taliban commander.
He said neither he had travelled to South Waziristan to attend the funeral nor suffered any loss. Commander Sangeen said he will soon issue avideo statement to prove that he was safe. Maulvi Sangeen is affiliated with top Afghan Taliban Commander Sirajuddin Haqqani and is in-charge of Paktika province in Afghanistan.
Also, sources close to dreaded militant commander and master trainer of suicide bombers, Qari Hussain, denied his loss in the drone attack. Pleading anonymity, the sources said Qari Hussain was far away from the place of the attack.
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20 die as bomber hits Peshawar Judicial Complex
By Javed Aziz Khan
PESHAWAR: A suicide bomber blew himself up at the main gate of the Judicial Complex on the Khyber Road here on Thursday, killing 20 people, including three cops, and wounding over 50 others.
Hundreds of more |
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Finally, dreaded NRO list is out and official
By Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) presented to the government on Thursday a list of 248 politicians and bureaucrats, who were alleged to have plundered hundreds of billions of rupees but were more |
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Gilani to quit if wife proved NRO beneficiary
By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir
& Asim Yasin
ISLAMABAD: In what could be described as a clear message to the beneficiaries of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) to resign from their posts, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilan more |
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Multiple criteria agreed for NFC Award
By Imtiaz Ali
KARACHI: The Fifth National Finance Commission (NFC) meeting in the city on Thursday decided in principle to make population, revenue, backwardness and “inverse density population” (the less the population, the more |
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Karzai sworn in for second term
KABUL: Veteran Afghan leader Hamid Karzai was sworn in as president on Thursday, pledging to fight graft and take control of his country’s security before his five-year term ends, after a fraud-marred election more |
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US asked to take Pakistan into confidence on Afghan policy
KABUL: President Asif Ali Zardari has asked the US to take Pakistan on board regarding its new policy on Afghanistan, as it would also have an impact on Pakistan.
He expressed these views while talking t more |
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‘India failed to respond positively on peace talks’
KABUL: Reiterating his strong stance that India is not serious in the process of dialogue with Pakistan, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Thursday underlined that India had not given Pakistan a positive more |
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Dictators ruled for decades but civilians can’t complete tenure: Shahbaz
KARACHI: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Balochistan CM Nawab Aslam Raisani and Sindh CM Syed Qaim Ali Shah have vowed to make Pakistan a welfare state as envisioned by the Quaid-i-Azam.
Talking t more |
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Vehicle escorting CIA director overturns
By Shakeel Anjum
ISLAMABAD: A vehicle of a sensitive security agency escorting US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Leon Panetta, currently on a ‘secret’ visit to Pakistan, overturned near the KRL Chowk at Islamabad Ex more |
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Headley, Rana being probed for involvement in 26/11 attacks
By Sami Abraham
WASHINGTON: Two former students of Cadet College Hasan Abdal, currently living in Chicago, are being investigated for their possible involvement in Mumbai attacks last year in which more than 160 people were ki more |
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PM’s wife not NRO beneficiary: NAB
ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau Thursday clarified that Fouzia Gilani, wife of Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, was not a beneficiary of the National Reconciliation Ordinance as references agains more |
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Recovered billions can make real difference
By Mehtab Haider
ISLAMABAD: The 160 million people can be provided major relief and even increase in electricity tariff by 30 per cent can be avoided if Rs 165 billion (conservative estimate) are recovered from the beneficiarie more |
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China wants improved Indo-Pak ties
News Desk
BEIJING: The Chinese foreign ministry on Thursday gave the impression that it was merely interested in the gradual improvement in relations between India and Pakistan but was not trying to interfere with the pr more |
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US supports Pakistan-India dialogue
WASHINGTON: A senior American diplomat has said Washington is supportive of resolution of disputes between India and Pakistan through dialogue.
“Of course, we all share an interest in stability and peace more |
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Remarks on women pilots
News Desk
NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force (IAF) vice chief, Air Marshal P K Barbora, on Thursday offered his apologies if anyone’s feelings have been hurt by his remarks on induction of women fighter pilots, and stressed more |
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Nato must not walk away from Afghanistan, says chief
BUDAPEST: Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Thursday the alliance must not turn its back on Afghanistan as this would raise the threat from al-Qaeda and lead to insecurity throughout central more |
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BoP scam accused sent on 12-day remand
By our correspondent
LAHORE: An accountability court on Thursday sent two main accused of the Rs 9 billion Bank of Punjab scam on 12-day physical remand, directing the NAB officials to produce them again in the court along with oth more |
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briefs...
Eid holidays
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has announced Eid-ul-Azha holidays from November 27 to 30, said an announcement made by the PM Secretariat here on Thursday.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
