The US embassy on Saturday tried to paper over Defence Secretary Robert Gates’s diplomatic faux pas of confirming Blackwater presence in Pakistan by putting the blame on the media, but it found few takers. Secretary Gates’s impromptu comments in a television interview have renewed the focus on seething rage among Pakistanis about the involvement of private US security companies, particularly Blackwater, in the country.
The embassy, in a statement on Secretary Gates’s remarks, accused the television station and newspapers of inaccurate and dishonest reporting. “The television station and many newspapers chose to inaccurately portray his answer as tacit confirmation on the use of Blackwater in Pakistan instead of as a commentary on use of security contractors in general. At no time did Secretary Gates say that Blackwater is operating in Pakistan,” the statement said.
ISLAMABAD: Islamabad police in an early morning raid claim to have recovered 61 illegal guns and nine pistols from the offices of a private security firm providing security to the US Embassy. The raid comes after it was revealed that the Interior Ministry had issued licences of highly sophisticated assault riffles to the company with the Prime Minister’s special permission.
The police has registered a case of fraud against the owner of the company and arrested two persons from the offices of Inter-Risk.
Firm guarding US diplomats gets 80 arms licences
ISLAMABAD: A private Pakistani security agency being operated by a retired army captain, and providing security and protection to American embassy officials in the country, has imported over 80 sophisticated automatic prohibited bore weapons, following special permission granted by the prime minister.
The retired captain, who was picked up by a Pakistani intelligence agency a day earlier but soon released on the production of valid documents, acquired these licences for prohibited bore guns for Inter Risk, a company which has the contract to provide trained security guards for the Americans, highly informed sources told Dawn.
In the first part of this video, Nadeem Farooq Paracha is shown up for being utterly ignorant and naive. Barely able to string sentences together and mumbling his words, he tries to offer a counter-analysis to Zaid Hamid while exposing the dangerously limited understanding he has of history and geo-politics. We would honestly advise NFP to stick to his music reviews which no-one reads anyway.
The second part of this video is Zaid Hamid deciphering the truth from fiction and answering his critics who try to label him as a conspiracy theorist and a hate-monger. And not surprisingly, he does a fantastic job.
Senior U.S. diplomats have recently arranged a limited reception in Islamabad where senior civil servants were invited to meet an Indian diplomat suspected of being an intelligence officer. Is this the new mission of the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad?
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—While Pakistan is busy in battling a foreign-funded local proxy Taliban in Swat, Malakand and other areas, the Americans and the Indians are exploiting a distracted Pakistani state to recruit influential Pakistanis as spies.
The American embassy in Islamabad is acting as facilitator in hiring influential Pakistani government officials. U.S. diplomats in Islamabad are facilitating meetings between Pakistani officials and Indian intelligence officials representing RAW.
DAWN Report: The government has taken notice of officials attending functions hosted by foreign missions and diplomats in the federal capital without approval from their departments.
One such function held at the residence of a western diplomat was attended by CDA chairman Tariq Mahmood, PM secretariat’s joint secretary Amna Imran, police officer Mir Waiz Niaz, Prof Amar Bhatti of Quaid-i-Azam University, Lok Virsa director Khalid Javed and Pakistan National Council of Arts director-general Naeem Tahir. Indian diplomat Rajinder Kumar Sharma also attended the function..
The chief of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Baitullah Mehsud, has told the BBC his group was behind Monday’s deadly attack on a police academy in Lahore. [BBC]
It has emerged that atleast one of the terrorists arrested yesterday is an Afghan national [The News]. Meanwhile, the authorities continue to question the arrested terrorists captured during a police academy siege on the outskirts of Lahore. [Dawn]
According to news correspondents who are inside premises of the Academy, commandos of elite force and army have captured the terrorists alive.
Reports suggest that 4 of the terrorists were taken down by Police snipers, 3 blew themselves up while 4 have been captured alive.
Earlier, hundreds of local residents had gathered to form a security cordon around the area and the police helicopters and to provide refreshments and snacks to the policemen and news reporters. Some of these locals helped capture one of the arrested terrorists as he tried to lob a grenade towards the police helicopter on the ground.
After clearing the compound and arresting the terrorists, the commandos fired in jubilation and screams of “Allah Akber” and “Pakistan Zindabad” could be heard all over.
According to sources, the operation has been successfully completed after eight hours of intense gun battle.
LATEST: FOUR Terrorist Arrested
LAHORE: Security Forces have arrested four terrorists, described as Afghan nationals, during the operation against terrorists entrenched in Manawan Police Training Centre in Lahore. Official sources have not yet confirmed the arrests, however we have information that four terrorists have been arrested and sent to an undisclosed location by helicopter.
Time to cut off rail, air, and road links with India, including denying Indian airlines the right to use Pakistan airspace and denying Indian overland trade to Central Asia pending the investigations and a review by Pakistan of Indian activities inside and around Pakistan.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—A second Mumbai-style attack in Lahore in less than a month, both targeting Lahore, a city that has traditionally bore the brunt of Indian-inspired terrorism inside Pakistan.
The level of training of these people and the choice of targets leaves little doubt that someone is trying to teach Pakistan a lesson. It is baffling to see Interior Advisor Rehman Malik so eager to quickly pin the blame on groups such as Lashkar Tayyeba or Lashkar Jhangvi that were active in the Kashmir freedom struggle in the past and are dormant now. Accusing these groups is an indirect swipe at the Pakistani security and intelligence agencies that implemented State policy in the past of supporting the freedom fighters inside the disputed territory with India.
Pakistan’s leading English Daily DAWN has confirmed PKKH’s Report from March 4th that the weapons recovered in the immediate aftermath of the Lahore Attacks on Sri Lankan Cricket Team are of Indian origin.
According to a forensic report, four rocket-launchers and nine explosives seized from the scene are factory-made and used by Indian forces. Full Report
Came accross this piece written on Rense.com and would recommend all of you to read it, as it will help understand what Pakistan has gone through in the last couple of years. Written in 2004, this article sums everything we’ve seen in Pakistan since around 04-05.
1. Find some opposition…ANY opposition in the country. Your best bet is some rich members of a former oligarchy or former military. Begin giving them funds, and, start training some of them in case you need to move in the direction of military action. I understand there is a nice training facility in the Florida Everglades that is available as all the Haitian death-squadders who trained there are now busy destroying Haiti. (PKKH: Bugti, NS, BB, Ex Servicemen, TTP)
2. Come up with some reasons that the current government must go. The reasons could be true or not, that is irrelevant. A popular one to use would be economic issues, which goes well with number 4, below. (PKKH: Return to democracy, War on Terror, Border attacks, Lal Masjid, CJ Dismissal)
The pogrom in Gujarat, the targeting of Christian missionaries, all go unnoticed in the
western world because India is a major trading partner. —Reuters/File photo
ALMOST anything is digestible in the heat of the moment.
When Mumbai came under attack, most of Pakistan mourned as well. And why not, for who other than Pakistanis have been most brutalised by terrorism in the 21st century? We understand the pain, the trauma, the scarring of a collective psyche. When Indian leaders resorted to bellicosity, and when the media in that country went hysterical, most Pakistanis said let it be, they need to express their grief. Extreme anguish and irrationality can go hand in hand, and that is perfectly understandable even at a remove. But the dust has settled now and it is time to talk sense.
