SOUTH ASIA
Nine Die In Terror Attack At Pakistan’s Key Airbase
Islamabad: At least eight militants, wearing military uniform and lugging sophisticated weapons, were killed when they launched a brazen attack on a key Pakistani airbase in Punjab province.
The daring raid took place in Attock, a district which is considered to be one of the country’s nuclear arsenal storage sites.
The airbase commander, Air Commodore Mohammad Azam, was among those wounded in the assault by terrorists who broke into the heavily guarded area.
The early morning deadly attack came a year after militants struck at the Karachi airbase, destroying at least one US-made P-3C Orion plane and killing a number of security personnel.
The Thursday morning attack took place in Pakistan’s Punjab province at PAF Kamra airbase in Attock district, which is located some 70 km northwest of the capital Islamabad.
All the dead militants have been identified as foreigners, sources told Geo News.
“The aircraft parked at the base are safe and no JF Thunder planes were present at the facility,” the military said, referring to aircraft jointly developed with China.
About 30 aircraft normally remain parked at Kamra airbase, said a media report.
Authorities promptly beefed up security at military establishments across the country as security personnel battled the terrorists at Kamra, taking over 10 hours to secure the base.
According to a spokesperson with Pakistan Air Force (PAF), at about 2 a.m. Thursday, intense gunfire broke out between the militants and the security forces.
While media reports said that one aircraft was destroyed in the attack, the PAF spokesperson denied it and said that the attackers failed to reach any of the planes.
The attack was initiated when the militants were stopped at a checkpost. They had successfully crossed over three checkposts before they were stopped at the fourth one. They opened fire and hurled grenades. Huge smoke and fire were seen rising from the airbase following the attack, Xinhua quoted locals as saying.
Commandos were called in and paramilitary forces and police were quickly deployed outside the airbase to counter any second attack.
BBC said that Kamra is one of Pakistan’s biggest airbases with fighter jets, including new JF-17 planes, being assembled there.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf have strongly condemned the attack. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.
Thursday’s attack on the Kamra airbase is the second of its kind launched by militants in the country over the past year or so.
On May 22, 2011, a group of militants launched an attack on an airbase in the country’s southern port city of Karachi, in which at least one US-made P-3C Orion plane was destroyed and a number of security personnel were killed and wounded.
SOUTH ASIA
Pakistani Anti-graft body wants travel ban on Nawaz Sharif, kin
Pakistan’s anti-corruption watchdog has asked authorities to place ousted premier Nawaz Sharif, his daughter and son-in-law on the Exit Control List to prevent them from leaving the country.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) sent a formal request to the ministry of interior. The interior ministry officials confirmed that the NAB wrote that names of Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Capt (retd) Muhammad Safdar should be put on the Exit Control List (ECL), which listed individuals not allowed to leave Pakistan.
The NAB argued that as the trial of the three nears its conclusion, it is feared that they would leave the country.
Earlier, a similar request to place name of finance minister Ishaq Dar on ECL was not accepted, allowing him to go to London and never return.
Sharif, 68, and his family this week filed an application with the accountability court seeking a fortnight’s exemption from personal appearance from February 19 onwards to let them go to London to see Sharif’s ailing wife. Three cases were filed against Sharif and his family last year, including Avenfield properties, Azizia & Hill Metal Establishment, and Flagship Investments.
Maryam and Safdar are accused only in Avenfield properties case. The NAB had filed two supplementary references against Sharif, his sons Hasan and Hussain regarding Al-Azizia Steel Mills & Hill Metal Establishment and Flagship Investment cases.
SOUTH ASIA
Pakistan “breaches obligations’ on nuclear arms reduction, UN court told
The Hague: Pakistan is violating its “obligations” to the international community by failing to reduce its nuclear arsenal, the Marshall Islands told the UN’s highest court on Tuesday.
The small Pacific Island nation is this week launching three unusual cases against India, Pakistan and Britain before the International Court of Justice.
Majuro wants to put a new spotlight on the global nuclear threat, its lawyers said yesterday, by using its own experience with massive US-led nuclear tests in the 1940s and 1950s.
“Pakistan is in breach of its obligations owed to the international community as a whole,” when it comes to reducing its nuclear stockpile, said Nicholas Grief, one of the island nation’s lawyers.
DeBrum warned that even a “limited nuclear war” involving the two countries would “threaten the existence” of his island nation people.
Pakistan and India have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, two of them over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
In 1998, the rival neighbours both demonstrated nuclear weapons capability.
The ICJ’s judges are holding hearings for the next week and a half to decide whether it is competent to hear the lawsuits brought against India and Pakistan — neither of which have signed the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
A third hearing against Britain — which has signed the NPT — scheduled to start on Wednesday will be devoted to “preliminary objections” raised by London.
The Marshalls initially sought to bring a case against nine countries it said possessed nuclear arms: Britain, China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia and the United States.
Israel has never admitted to having nuclear weapons.
But the Hague-based ICJ, set up in 1945 to rule in disputes between states, has only admitted three cases against Britain, India and Pakistan, because they have accepted the ICJ’s compulsory jurisdiction.
Pakistan’s lawyers did not attend Tuesday’s hearings.
It did however file a counter-claim against Majuro’s allegations saying “the court has no jurisdiction to deal with the application” and insisting that the case is “not admissible”, said ICJ President Ronny Abraham.
SOUTH ASIA
Bangladesh to drop Islam as official religion following attacks on Hindus
New Delhi: Bangladesh is likely to drop Islam as its official religion following a series of attacks on people from other faiths in the country. The country’s Supreme Court is hearing a plea challenging the status of the official religion of the country to Islam.
Bangladesh, which was declared a secular country after its formation in 1971, was declared an Islamic country following a constitutional amendment in 1988.
According to a report in the Daily Mail, the plea has challenged the declaration of Islam as the national religion of the country.
The move is being supported by leaders from the minority communities like Hindus, Christians and Muslim minority Shiites.
Bangladesh has 90 per cent of Muslims, 8 per cent Hindus and remaining constitutes Christians and Muslim minority Shiites.
In last month, a Hindu priest was hacked to death following an attack on a temple in Panchgarh district. Two others were seriously injured in the attack. There have been several lethal attacks on writers and bloggers.
According to a report in the Independent, Islamist groups Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh and Ansarullah Bangla Team are believed to have carried out at least seven attacks on foreign and minority people in Bangladesh in the past year.
