* Three killed, 24 hurt in Peshawar Press Club suicide attack
* Bomber blows himself up after being challenged by guard at club’s entrance
* Journalists to observe three-day mourning
PESHAWAR: Three people, including a woman, were killed and another 24 injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the main gate of the Peshawar Press Club on Tuesday.
The building is situated on the Sher Shah Suri Road close to the Cantonment Railway Station. Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) officials confirmed the toll in the first ever suicide attack in the country aimed specifically at journalists.
They said two of the bodies were identified as police constable Riazuddin and a passer-by, Rubina.
Rubina, who died of a cardiac arrest, was travelling in a rickshaw close to the press club when the blast occurred.
Peshawar Press Club accountant Mian Iqbal Shah died at the hospital later.
Several passers-by, including those travelling in a minibus, were injured in the blast besides Peshawar Press Club employees Yasir, Ayub and Kamran. A photo journalist, Khurram Pervez, also sustained injuries in the blast.
Peshawar City Police chief Liaqat Ali Khan told reporters that the suicide attacker had tried to enter the premises. The police guard at the gate frisked the man and tried to overpower him when he discovered that the person was wearing a suicide vest, however, the bomber detonated his vest during the scuffle.
The press club employee Yasir Jamil, who was also injured in the blast, told Daily Times that the suicide bomber was trying to enter the press club when the police guard stopped him. He said the attacker had an argument with the guard, and blew himself up moments later. He said the bomber had a dark complexion and short height and seemed around 18 to 19 years of age.
Nadir Khawaja, a journalist, said he saw the guard and the bomber arguing from the opposite side of the road as he was approaching the press club.
NWFP Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain told reporters at the scene that targeting journalists was “militants’ compulsion”, as the journalists were exposing the terrorists to the public.
He said no one was safe in the country, as the terrorists were targeting mosques, graves and even funeral prayers. Hussain hoped that the journalists would become more organised after the attack and would not bow down to the terrorists.
Mourning: The Peshawar Press Club has announced a three-day mourning. “The press club was already receiving threats and warning letters – journalists here are practically working in a war zone,” Peshawar Presc Club President Shamim Shahid told AFP. manzoor ali shah/afp
Sourcedailytimes.com.pk/
Showing posts with label Help The Afghans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Help The Afghans. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Somali militants enforce Taliban-style dress code
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Residents of a southern Somali town say Islamists are enforcing a Taliban-style dress code.
Kismayo resident Abdulahi Omar Dhere says members of the al-Shabab insurgent group are targeting young men who have long hair, no beards and wear Western-style trousers below the ankle.
Dhere said Wednesday that Islamists are publicly cutting off parts of trousers that violate the order and giving haircuts to anyone with long hair. The group has ordered men to grow beards and shave mustaches.
Al-Shabab has already banned movie theaters, musical ringtones and dancing at weddings — echoing rules ones imposed by the Taliban when they ruled most of Afghanistan in the late 1990s, though the group didn't oppose long hair.
Source:http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g7OaI4_kjeHA-o4UhlmP7vlWmrrwD9CP1I2G0
Kismayo resident Abdulahi Omar Dhere says members of the al-Shabab insurgent group are targeting young men who have long hair, no beards and wear Western-style trousers below the ankle.
Dhere said Wednesday that Islamists are publicly cutting off parts of trousers that violate the order and giving haircuts to anyone with long hair. The group has ordered men to grow beards and shave mustaches.
Al-Shabab has already banned movie theaters, musical ringtones and dancing at weddings — echoing rules ones imposed by the Taliban when they ruled most of Afghanistan in the late 1990s, though the group didn't oppose long hair.
Source:http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g7OaI4_kjeHA-o4UhlmP7vlWmrrwD9CP1I2G0
Monday, November 30, 2009
Help The Afghans Defeat The Taliban
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has arrived in Kabul for the inauguration of Afghan President Hamid Karzai Thursday after an August election that was riddled with fraud. Clinton has said Karzai must "do better" in battling corruption and government mismanagement if he wants the U.S. to continue its support of an increasingly unpopular war. The visit comes at a crucial time, as President Obama is expected to announce a new strategy for Afghanistan in the coming weeks.
Obama has reportedly rejected four strategies for Afghanistan put forward by his staff. And rightly so. A surge carries the risk of vastly elevated American casualties and no guarantee of success, pulling our overstretched military deeper into the quagmire of an asymmetric conflict. A "focused mini-surge" concentrating only on securing major urban centers will almost certainly lead to internal chaos as tens of thousands of internal refugees flood into the supposed safe zones.
A withdrawal amounts to exactly what we have sworn for the last eight years not to do: abandon the Afghans and lose all that was invested in blood and money. And talking with the Taliban, at least under the present circumstances, is not a negotiation but a sell-out. These are not attractive choices, and it is not surprising that the president has not rushed to embrace any one of them.
There is, however, a fifth option. It won't necessarily be easy, but it does enable us to remain true to our principles, minimize our casualties and keep our promise to the Afghan people. It is also the most likely to succeed.
That option is to get behind the Afghans, rather than in front of them--to help them fight their own battle. This requires us to identify, mobilize, fortify and build up those (many) forces within Afghanistan that oppose renewed Taliban rule and that desire progress, practice clean governance and are intent on moving forward into the global community.
Not at all incidentally, this is the method that has worked for us before. It was the Afghan mujahedeen, a rag-tag band of local foot soldiers who, fortified by our training, tactical guidance and weaponry, drove out the vastly superior troops of the Soviet superpower. In 2001 it was the Afghan Northern Alliance, a nearly defeated army huddled at the outermost margins of their country, who with our help and weapons rallied to march in triumph across Afghanistan, overthrowing the then ruling Taliban.
Source:forbes.com
Obama has reportedly rejected four strategies for Afghanistan put forward by his staff. And rightly so. A surge carries the risk of vastly elevated American casualties and no guarantee of success, pulling our overstretched military deeper into the quagmire of an asymmetric conflict. A "focused mini-surge" concentrating only on securing major urban centers will almost certainly lead to internal chaos as tens of thousands of internal refugees flood into the supposed safe zones.
A withdrawal amounts to exactly what we have sworn for the last eight years not to do: abandon the Afghans and lose all that was invested in blood and money. And talking with the Taliban, at least under the present circumstances, is not a negotiation but a sell-out. These are not attractive choices, and it is not surprising that the president has not rushed to embrace any one of them.
There is, however, a fifth option. It won't necessarily be easy, but it does enable us to remain true to our principles, minimize our casualties and keep our promise to the Afghan people. It is also the most likely to succeed.
That option is to get behind the Afghans, rather than in front of them--to help them fight their own battle. This requires us to identify, mobilize, fortify and build up those (many) forces within Afghanistan that oppose renewed Taliban rule and that desire progress, practice clean governance and are intent on moving forward into the global community.
Not at all incidentally, this is the method that has worked for us before. It was the Afghan mujahedeen, a rag-tag band of local foot soldiers who, fortified by our training, tactical guidance and weaponry, drove out the vastly superior troops of the Soviet superpower. In 2001 it was the Afghan Northern Alliance, a nearly defeated army huddled at the outermost margins of their country, who with our help and weapons rallied to march in triumph across Afghanistan, overthrowing the then ruling Taliban.
Source:forbes.com
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