Shahzain Bugti Admits He Smuggled Military-Grade Weapons From Afghanistan

click here to see the video

A politician smuggles landmines and anti-aircraft guns from Afghanistan. His cousin runs a terror group protected by foreign governments. Are politicians and political parties allowed to do this in a democracy or is it time to correct these flawed practices in Pakistan?


A video has surfaced that shows politician Shahzain Bugti telling the police he smuggled sophisticated military-grade weapons into Pakistan hours after misleading the media by saying the weapons were planted in his convoy.

The video was recorded by cellphone at around noon on Dec. 22, 2011.  Bugti is shown sitting on a sofa in what appears to be the office of a police official, telling the men in the room he did smuggle the weapons, including anti-aircraft guns and landmines. He also admits he lied to the media, claiming the weapons were planted in his convoy that traveled from the Afghan border to the outskirts of the provincial capital Quetta where Bugti was caught.

The video was filmed a few hours after Bugti was arrested at dawn, around 0430 hours, trying to smuggle lethal weapons in a convoy of sixteen cars. Tipped off by Pakistani intelligence, the Frontier Corp stopped Bugti’s convoy at Quetta’s entrance. The FC, treating Bugti with respect as a politician, negotiated with him for three hours to grant permission to check the convoy. Finally, the police and FC searched the cars and netted a dazzling list of weapons.

The weapons included:

50 Sub Machine Guns [SMGs]
4 Light Machine Guns [LMGs]
2 12.7mm Anti-Aircraft guns [See here]
2 14.2 mm Anti-Aircraft guns
1 SPG-9 [See details here]
1 9mm pistol
1 AUG assault rifle [See here]
46,000 rounds of SMG
1,600 rounds of 12.7/14.5
570 rounds of AUG
880 rounds of sniper rifle
39 rounds of 9mm pistol
17 mobile phones
Landmines
Explosives
Anti-personnel landmines
16 vehicles

Shahzain is the son of Tala Bugti, the chairman of the Jamhooro Watan Party, or JWP, and a grandson of Akbar Bugti.

Akbar launched an armed rebellion against the state in January 2005, unleashing a private army laced with sophisticated weapons smuggled from Afghanistan. He committed suicide in late 2006 inside a cave to avoid capture by soldiers who came to arrest him. He is known to have worked with the intelligence services of three countries operating in Afghanistan to help break Balochistan away from the rest of the country. 

For this purpose, Bugti and his foreign backers revived a terror group called BLA, or Balochistan Liberation Army. The terror outfit was first created by India and the Soviet Union in the 1970s to carry out bombings in Pakistan.  The group was re-launched after the United States landed in Afghanistan as a joint operation involving Indians, the CIA and Afghan warlords.

The BLA is led by Brahamdagh Bugti, Akbar’s grandson and Shazain’s cousin, who has been hiding in Kabul for several years, protected by CIA and Afghan intelligence. 

Brahamdagh’s cover was blown in early 2009 after his terror group kidnapped a UN official in Quetta who turned out to be a US citizen.

Several local Baloch supporters of Brahamdagh broke away from their boss and cooperated with Pakistani authorities in blowing his cover. [The episode was an embarrassment for CIA and opened the eyes of other parts of US government to what their main spy agency was doing in Afghanistan.]

Instead of handing him over to Pakistani authorities, the CIA negotiated an asylum deal for Brahamdagh in Switzerland, to keep him there as a tool to blackmail Pakistan.

In March 2012, Pakistan has warned Britain and Switzerland over their roles in supporting terror in Pakistan by giving asylum to BLA terror chiefs who orchestrate bombings that kill innocent citizens.

Unfortunately, the Balochistan High Court released Shahzain Bugti in January despite the huge cache of weapons that indicate Shahzain’s intent to wage war against his country and people in cohorts with foreign powers in Afghanistan. But the Supreme Court intervened and cancelled his bail on April 4. Despite this, Shahzain refused to appear before the court. The court waited for him for three weeks before finally issuing his arrest warrant over the weekend.

The case raises serious questions about federal government’s practice of giving tribal chiefs like Shahzain and his family millions of dollars of gas royalties instead of directly spending them on the impoverished people of the province. Tribal chiefs like Shahzain spend the money on building private properties abroad and recruiting and arming private armies that indulge in abduction of businessmen for ransom and killing citizens.

The case also raises questions about the involvement of almost all Pakistani political parties in creating and running private armies, in direct violation of the Political Parties Act and the laws. The State is yet to ban or disarm any of these parties.

Pakistani investigators should probe the role of BLA and its secret supporters like Shahzain Bugti in smuggling advanced weapons from Afghanistan to Karachi, where three armed ‘political parties’ are holding the country’s business hub hostage for years.

Spying devices' found in vegetable consignment from India: Report

The devices hidden inside a crate of tomatoes included sound recorders and other equipment

A vegetable consignment from India was seized on Wagah border on Friday and “spying equipment” was recovered during security screening, Express Newsreported.

The devices hidden inside a crate of tomatoes included sound recorders and other equipment.

Express News quoted sources as saying that four men, transporting the consignment have also been detained and are being investigated. Their nationalities could not be ascertained as yet.

The devices have been sent off to experts for inspection.

Bizarrely enough

In December 2011, Pakistan captured a monkey, found wandering in Cholistan, all the way from India.

In 2010, Indian police held a pigeon under armed guard after it was caught on an “alleged spying mission” for Pakistan.

Quebec premier victory speech: Shots fired, 1 dead, gunman detained (PHOTOS)

Quebec’s newly-elected Premier Pauline Marois has been rushed off stage during her acceptance speech, after shots were heard inside Montreal's Metropolis concert hall. One man is reported dead.

Another person is in a critical condition and one more witness is being treated for shock, Montreal police have informed Canadian media.

Ian Lafrenière stated that the dead man was in his 40s and that two guns were recovered at the scene, but there was no reason to believe there was more than one shooter.

After firing shots the gunman started a fire behind the downtown Montreal venue where Marois’ supporters had gathered, Reuters reports.

Video has emerged, reportedly showing a man in a blue bathrobe and black balaclava with a gun on the ground surrounded by police. Video footage showed a high-powered rifle, which Twitter users identified as an AK-47 or Valmont Hunter weapon.

The gunman is said to be 62 years old and was apparently shouting “the English are waking up” in French with a Canadian-English accent before adding in English that there would be "payback."

Marois heads the separatist Parti Quebecois, which seeks independence for the French-speaking province of Quebec.

The premier-elect returned to the stage a few minutes after she left it, urging her supporters who packed the hall to leave calmly, stating that "there was a little unfortunate incident," so as not to create panic. Everyone was evacuated and police are investigating.

"We don't know what was [behind] that event," police spokesperson Dany Richer told CBC. "Our investigators are going to meet with [the detained] overnight."

Quebec’s election

This event comes as the separatist Parti Quebecois (PQ) won Quebec’s provincial elections and will form a new government there, once again raising the possibility of a referendum on independence being held in Canada’s French-speaking province.

According to the latest results, PQ has won or was leading in 57 ridings in Tuesday’s election, just shy of the 63 needed for a majority in the 125-seat legislature.

The party’s leader Pauline Marois, 63, will replace the head of the Liberal party, Jean Charest, and will become the province's first female premier.

Just before the shooting incident took place Marois took the stage for her acceptance speech telling her supporters that she hopes to put aside all the difference for a united Quebec.

"Voters have made a choice and we will respect it, and we will govern with all other parties at the national assembly,"she said.

PQ’s win is a significant loss for the Liberals, who governed the province for almost a decade.

Jean Charest miscalculated the mood of the electorate, believing voters would support the Liberals for a fourth term. He ended up losing his own riding of Sherbrooke to a PQ candidate.

"This is not the result I would have wanted. This is not a battle that I backed away from. I now have the firm conviction that our party will continue to serve Quebec, and will do it together," Charest told his supporters.

Independent journalist Robert Harneis told RT that the shooting in the Metropolis concert hall will not affect PQ’s policies in the future.

In his opinion, a “province the size of Quebec could easily be a country.”

“The difficulty of course is that you have English-speaking Canadians on both sides of Quebec, like in Nova Scotia for example, and they are definitely not interested in a French autonomous Quebec,” he added.

Attack on Shaheens

Washington DC - The holy night of 27th Ramadan is also known as “Lailatul-Qadr” or “The Night of Power”. According to Muslim beliefs, it is when the Noble Qur’an descended. Believers devote much of their time praying, reciting the Qur’an, and remembering God. Lailatul Qadr is better than a thousand months and peace reigns until the rising of the sun.
But not in Kamra. Around 2:00am PST, 9 heavily armed militants with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and explosives strapped to their bodies stormed Pakistan Air Force Base Minhas (named after Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas Shaheed, Nishan-e-Haider) located only about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of Islamabad, host of fighter jets including F-16s, and a factory that makes aircraft and other weapons systems.
Two hours of intense firefight left a security officer (Shaheed) and nine insurgents dead. One of the rockets hit and damaged a Ukrainian built transport plane parked inside the hangar. The commander in charge of the base was wounded in the attack. After a few hours, without any surprise, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesperson Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed responsibility for the attack.
This is not the first time that TTP/Militants attacked a military facility inside Pakistan. On May 2011, in the Southern port city of Karachi, 6 Taliban militants attacked Mehran naval base, killing at least 10 people and destroying two US-supplied surveillance aircraft. In October 2009, in the city of Rawalpindi, 10 militants attacked army headquarters (GHQ), killing nine soldiers and 2 civilians. Ironically one thing is common in all the attacks--ex-servicemen were involved along with Taliban fighters.
Some Defense Analysts do not consider the May 2011 raid by US Navy SEALs on Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad a direct attack on Pakistani security forces or institutions. The relationship between US and Pakistan after the raid demonstrates otherwise.
Minhas Air Force base is also linked to Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. According to western media, the facility is widely believed to store some of the country’s estimated 100 nuclear warheads, even though Pakistani military denies any connection between the base and the nuclear programme.
Almost all the foreign offices of many countries including UK, USA and France issued statements and condemned the attack. They also showed their concern over the safety and security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.
On the other hand, Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, also an ally of Imran Khan’s PTI, requested Taliban leader Mullah Omar to allow Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) to take his march to Waziristan.
TTP (Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan) spokesperson Ahsanullah Ahsan promised the safety of Imran Khan and his march to Waziristan. After few hours of Minhas base attack, Imran Khan became a mouthpiece for TTP and claimed that Minhas attack was a preemptive strike by TTP in reaction of planned military operation in North Waziristan in September and warned security forces about future suicide attacks.
The Pakistani Taliban and its allies have waged a bloody insurgency against the government that has killed over 30,000 people. This is almost 10 times more than the number of deaths in the World Trade Center attack.
They are attacking our military facilities, causing harm to national security, stability and endangering nuclear arsenals. Our leaders are asking for safety and protection from these criminals. Enough is enough; financial and moral support for these criminals should be stopped.
All parties should unite against this clear and present danger. Support for our security forces is the need of the hour and our security forces needs to follow strict policy of “no criminal left behind”. I hope next Lailatul Qadr will bring Peace and Prosperity until the rising of the sun and beyond, Insha’allah.

Iran to close Strait of Hormuz if its security is threatened, warns naval chief

Naval commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard, says Iran can stop even 'a single drop of oil' passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

The Strait of Hormuz is a strategic shipping route through the Persian Gulf. 

Photo by AP

Iran could prevent even "a single drop of oil" passing through the Strait of Hormuz if its security is threatened, a naval chief said on Saturday, as tensions simmer over Tehran's nuclear program.

Tehran will increase its military presence in international waters, said Ali Fadavi, naval commander in Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

"If they (the U.S.) do not obey international laws and the IRGC's warnings, it will have very bad consequences for them," Fadavi said, according to Iran's Fars News Agency.

"The IRGC's naval forces have had the ability since the (Iran-Iraq) war to completely control the Strait of Hormuz and not allow even a single drop of oil to pass through."

Fadavi added: "IRGC special naval forces are present on all of the Islamic Republic of Iran's ships in the Indian Ocean and to its east and west, to prevent any movement.

"This IRGC naval force presence in international waters will increase."

Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said his office has drawn up plans to make newly tightened sanctions against the Islamic Republic ineffective.

His remarks, carried by ministry website shana.ir on Saturday, did not elaborate on the plans. Qasemi's comments come two weeks after an EU oil embargo went into effect against Iran for its refusal to halt its uranium enrichment program.

Iran has repeatedly threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz shipping channel, through which 40 percent of the world's sea-borne oil exports passes, in retaliation for sanctions placed on its crude exports by Western powers.

The sanctions were imposed over Iran's nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at creating an atomic weapon. Iran says the program is for peaceful energy purposes.

The United States has beefed up its presence in the Gulf, adding a navy ship last week to help mine-clearing operations if Iran were to act on threats to block the strait. Tehran said last month it was building more warships, in part to guard Iranian cargo ships from pirates, and Iranian military leaders often assert Iran's strength in the region and dominance in the Strait of Hormuz.

Military analysts have cast doubt on Iran's willingness to block the slender waterway, given the massive U.S.-led retaliation it would likely incur.

Dangerous game: 'US almost daring Tehran to strike first'

With sanctions against Iran gradually showing their ineffectiveness, Washington is escalating the situation in the Persian Gulf, as if encouraging Tehran to attack first, a US politics professor told RT.

Amid pressure mounting on Tehran, a major Indian company, United India Insurance Co., has agreed to provide insurance for tankers carrying oil from Iran. Insurances are vital for sea transportation. Without insurance, tankers are unable to deliver oil from one destination to another.

The decision of an Indian company means a serious blow to the effectiveness of the US sanctions against Iran in a bid to crank up the pressure over the country's nuclear activities. The sanctions target companies accused of breaching a European ban on buying oil from Tehran.

Simultaneously, to give their sanctions policies some military support, the US is sending fourth air carrier to the Persian Gulf region. It has also been announced that America deploys underwater drones to deal with sea mines Iran might plant in the Strait of Hormuz to block the vital route.

“The more warships the US moves [to the region], the more threatened Iran is going to feel and there is more chance of triggering some kind of mistake,” explains Patricia DeGennaro, professor of politics at New York University.

She says the act of sending more warships to the region is a dangerous game of “dare”.

“I don’t know what they are going to achieve by putting more warships in the region. This is a very bad move. Maybe they are trying to make Israel feel safer, but in fact again that is a very dangerous game that is almost daring somebody to strike first,” the professor believes.

‘Mrs. Clinton should better promote peace instead of war’

A naval clash in the Persian Gulf region is very real, DeGennaro told RT, because military communications do not often go as they are expected to.

“The Iranian military is organized a bit differently than the American military. They can get orders not normally understood… within a context of a country being threatened.”

“We should do more negotiations and more diplomacy,” the professor concluded. “I’d like to see Mrs. [Hillary] Clinton lead the State Department as Secretary of State instead of really promoting more war in the region.”

Western intelligence claims Iran might be just a year away from building a nuclear weapon, while Tehran denies allegations of developing nuclear power for military use. This confrontation need to be resolved given neither side wants to lose face, which means negotiations in the first place, believes Patricia DeGennaro.

“Let’s sit down and talk before we start pointing weapons at each other, which should really facilitate a really large scale conflict in the region.”

Iran lawmakers prepare to close Hormuz Strait

An oil tanker cruises towards the Strait of Hormuz off the shores of Khasab in Oman (AFP Photo / Marwan Naamani)

Iranian lawmakers have drafted a bill that would close the Strait of Hormuz for oil tankers heading to countries supporting current economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

"There is a bill prepared in the National Security and Foreign Policy committee of Parliament that stresses the blocking of oil tanker traffic carrying oil to countries that have sanctioned Iran," Iranian MP Ibrahim Agha-Mohammadi told reporters.

"This bill has been developed as an answer to the European Union's oil sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran."

Agha-Mohammadi said that 100 of Tehran's 290 members of parliament had signed the bill as of Sunday.

Iran's threats to block the waterway through which about 17 million barrels a day sailed in 2011 have grown in the past year as US and European sanctions aimed at starving Tehran of funds for its nuclear programme have tightened.

The Strait of Hormuz is a vital shipping route through which most of the crude exported from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq and nearly all the gas exported from Qatar sails.

An EU ban on Iranian oil imports came into effect on Sunday

Quit smoking with a shot? New vaccine might cure addiction

                      Scientists think they are on the right track to treating nicotine addiction

Scientists are saying they could be closer to curing cigarette addiction than ever before: researchers at a New York lab have developed a vaccine that they think curbs the need for a fix and so far their tests are being considered a success.

Research is still in its early stages at a Weill Cornell Medical College lab, but so far scientists think they are on the right track to treating nicotine addiction. If their tests continue to return positive results, the doctors behind the development say they might be able to eliminate addiction, and all with just a simple vaccine.

By injecting humans with a harmless virus that modifies liver cells, scientists are able to change the body’s chemistry so that it is tricked into generating a steady stream of nicotine antibodies. From there, nicotine fixes could be nixed immediately as the antibodies seek to steer the body away from wanting another drag of a cigarette.

“The antibody is like a little Pac-Man floating around in the blood, and it grabs onto the nicotine and prevents it from reaching the brain, so there’s no reward,” Dr. Ronald Crystal, chairman of Genetic Medicine at Weill Cornell, says in a statement.

"As far as we can see, the best way to treat chronic nicotine addiction from smoking is to have these Pac-Man-like antibodies on patrol, clearing the blood as needed before nicotine can have any biological effect," Dr. Crystal adds.

So far scientists have tested the vaccination on only mice, but researchers believe that the results are putting them on the right track to someday save humans from their addictions.

“With a single administration of the vaccine, we converted the liver to make the antibody, and it lasts for the life of the mouse,” Dr. Crystal continues. "While we have only tested mice to date, we are very hopeful that this kind of vaccine strategy can finally help the millions of smokers who have tried to stop, exhausting all the methods on the market today, but find their nicotine addiction to be strong enough to overcome these current approaches," he adds in a report published in the Science Translational Medicine journal.

Around one-out-of-five Americans currently smoke regularly, despite diseases linked with cigarettes being tied to one-out-of-five of each casualty in the country.

Russia halts plans to supply S-300 missile system to Syria - reports

                             S-300 missile system (RIA Novosti/Mikhail Fomichev)
Russia’s main weapons producer has allegedly suspended its contract with Syria to supply S-300 long-range missile systems. Russia’s ‘Vedomosti’ daily published the report, citing unnamed sources within the military-industrial complex.

The very fact of the contract’s existence was not known until it was revealed in an annual report made only last week and published online by the makers of the S-300 systems, Almaz-Antey.

The report states that the company’s largest contracts are with Algeria (which is paying $39 million for a long-range missile defense system), and Syria, which signed a contract for the same system for $105 million.

The report also says that deliveries on the Syrian contract are expected to be made between 2012 and 2013. But ‘Vedomosti’ claims two separate sources, who chose to remain anonymous, have said deliveries have been put on the back-burner “after a direct order from above.”

It’s unclear whether these reports are true, but many are already speculating on the potential reasons for such a step. Some have suggested that Moscow has decided to placate Washington and Tel Aviv, drawing parallels between this situation and the one back in 2010, when Russia cancelled its contract for the same missile system with Iran.

However, the circumstances in 2010 were rather different. If Russia had fulfilled its contractual obligations back then, it would have been violating an international embargo. But no such embargo currently affects contracts between Russia and Syria.

Others have suggested that Damascus may be strapped for cash, and simply cannot afford the S-300 complex. This claim is also open to speculation as military cooperation between the two states is basically founded on the fact that Russia forgave Syria its $10 billion debt in return for future arms contracts.

No officials have yet commented on the matter, so it will be some time before light is shed on the situation. But President Vladimir Putin had previously said the arms that Russia delivers cannot be used in civil conflicts, and Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, stated the supplies were merely defensive weapons sold in contracts signed long ago.

“We are sending no battleships to Syria. We have been saying publicly that we have been implementing contracts under which we have to supply arms to Syria. These armaments are entirely defensive and they mostly consist of air defense systems, which cannot be used against the population and can only be used to respond to outside aggression,” Lavrov told RT.

Russia's military trade with Syria

Attention has been focused on military ties between Russia and Syria for some time, ever since international media claimed Russia was supplying helicopters to Bashar al-Assad’s regime. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at first even lashed out at Russia, but later backtracked and was forced to admit that the shipment that had got the West’s blood boiling merely consisted of some old helicopters sent back to Russia for repairs.

Although the Russian Ministry of Defense does not disclose the total value of the arms supplied to Syria, outside estimates exist. The US Congress says Russia has outstanding contracts to supply arms for $3.5 billion, while the Swedish think-tank SIPRI puts the figure at between $5 and $6 billion.

Among the widely reported shipments are two K-300 Bastion coastal defense batteries, equipped with supersonic Yakhont missiles. Two anti-aircraft systems, BUK-M2 and PANTSYR-S1, have also been purchased by Syria, though it is unclear if the orders have been fulfilled.

A $550 million contract for 36 Yak-130 planes was signed between the countries earlier this year. While nominally a sophisticated training jet, it can also serve as a light combat aircraft. Russia has also promised to deliver 24 modernized Mig-29 destroyers. It is assumed that neither of these contracts has been fulfilled.

Arabs awakening - so is Al-Qaeda

An undated handout photo released on May 23, 2012 shows Abdelmalek Droukdel, aka Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, a leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), with his fighters in Azawad, an unrecognized state in northern Mali (AFP Photo/Al-Andalus)

  The head of UK intelligence, Jonathan Evans, says the turmoil that followed the Arab Spring allowed extremists to gain a foothold in the Arab world. Middle East peace activist, Franklin Lamb, believes that this warning is not groundless. The head of the MI5 Security Service, Jonathan Evans, has highlighted Yemen, Libya and Egypt as being among the countries that most concern the agency. Up to 200 young extremists from the UK, aged between 18 and 30, are thought to have joined forces with heavily armed terror groups in these countries. Evans says Al-Qaeda militants are training radical Western youths for potential attacks on Britain. “Today parts of the Arab world have once more become a permissive environment for Al-Qaeda,” Evans said on Monday according to Reuters. “A small number of British would-be jihadis are also making their way to Arab countries to seek training and opportunities for militant activity, as they do in Somalia and Yemen. Some will return to the UK and pose a threat here.” RT spoke to Middle East peace activist, Dr. Franklin Lamb, to get his views on the subject. RT: Western countries supported what they called a move towards democracy in the Arab countries. But now, according to Britain's top spy, some of these states could be turning into terrorist training grounds. Is this exactly what London and its allies were bargaining for? Franklin Lamb: Taking the case of Libya, where there was a rush to enter and to topple the regime, I think that was a classic mistake. I spent four months there, got to know a number of different factions, and it was clear Al-Qaeda was there. In some cases they were training the same militia that the British were training and the Americans and the French were training. So, when there’s an opportunity, Al-Qaeda is going to be there and they took it, and now they are increasing their ranks. Three months ago, a CIA analyst told the Congress that there were 300 maximum Al-Qaeda in Syria. Now they estimate there are 3,100. They are coming in from Jordan, they are coming in from the Gulf Co-operation Council countries, they are coming in from Lebanon and Turkey. So because NATO got this thing going in Libya, there was this opportunity – and Al-Qaeda will respond to an opportunity – that’s what we are seeing now. But there maybe a little panic by the intelligence in the UK about them coming and attacking the Olympics – who knows what evidence they have of that – but there’s no question, even here in Libya Al-Qaeda is growing and is active, and they are well-trained. RT: What pushes people inside Western countries to get radicalized and join militant movements? There have been a few high-profile people recently who could fit that category. FL: I think that there’s a lot more that we don’t know about who haven’t made it public. You mentioned earlier terrorist training camps. Well, of course that’s one point of view: are they terrorists or are they liberators? They have a strong program and strong ideology. But my point is why they even exist. Either for dignity and to overthrow some dictators, but when you’ve got an operation like NATO slaughtering civilians in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, of course it’s going to activate them and give them the opportunity. As you know, Al-Qaeda’s leadership has urged people to go to Syria and get training, and to go to southern Turkey and also in Libya. Libya’s become a major training center, and I saw that as a fact. And I went meeting with some of the rebel militia against Gaddafi. They used to say “One Al-Qaeda member is worth 10 of us. We admit that. And they are worth six of Mutassim [Gaddafi’s] special forces.” They are very well disciplined. Rather than lecture people, they go out there and show them how to do something. And they are very effective. So I think that the threat is real, their numbers are growing, their competence is well known, and I do think there’s a problem. RT: Islamists have come to power in Egypt. The country was one of those named by Britain's security service chief as at risk from turning into Al-Qaeda training grounds. But how much should the West be concerned with the direction Egypt is taking? FL: Frankly, no, not particularly. I think what we see in Egypt is, believe it or not, a government that represents the majority of the population. I think, for the first time in Egypt’s history it was a democratic election. I respect the word of people. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Egypt and there are concerns about the Brotherhood. Do they keep their word, for example? Mohamed Morsi seems to be very sophisticated – as the Brotherhood has been – at playing the political game. So I think there’s going to be some consequences that the West doesn’t like. I think we are frankly going to see the end of the Camp David agreement. I don’t think that the Israelis, who are now complaining that they can’t even rent an office for their embassy, are going to have much luck in the future – not just because of the Brotherhood, but because those values are greater, and deeper, and broader than the Brotherhood. They represent the Egyptian people. Camp David was [Egypt’s President] El-Sadat. It was a private contract between the Americans and the Mubarak family and their associates, and the Israelis. That doesn’t reflect the view of one Muslim or one Arab that I know, or anybody of good will who wants peace in the Middle East. So I think we are seeing a fundamental change, but I wouldn’t put it on Al-Qaeda. I think the Arabs are awakening. They are standing up. Islam is rising, and we see that here in the Middle East, we see that in Lebanon. The Americans are diminishing, the Iranians are increasing. You see that all over in every aspect – from who is buying the real estate, who is organizing the next campaign, who is doing the training, who is supplying the arms. It’s a new era. It’s the era of resistance that we are entering, and things are going to be different.

Anti-Taliban Commander Killed

Fahim-ud-Din’s body has been found on the outskirts of Peshawar along with three of his associates.

The bullet-riddled bodies of an anti-Taliban militia commander and three of his associates were dumped in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar on Wednesday, police said.

 

The bodies of Fahim-ud-Din, 50, chief of a 1,500-strong vigilante force in Bazidkhel on the outskirts of Peshawar, and three of his associates were found in a Toyota Land Cruiser on the city’s ring road. “We found the bodies around 7:00 a.m. Four of them had been shot at close range,” said Asif Iqbal, a senior police official.

 

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. According to police, relatives had not heard from Din since Tuesday when he went to Islamabad for work.

 

Police said Din had survived at least three suicide bombings and several roadside bomb attacks blamed on the Taliban and warlord Mangal Bagh, the leader of the Lashkar-e-Islam militia from the adjoining Khyber tribal district.

 

On June 12, two of Din’s bodyguards were killed in a suicide attack that targeted his vehicle. Din survived because he had not been in the car.

 

Pakistan is on the frontline of the U.S.-led war on Al Qaeda. Since July 2007, a Taliban-led insurgency has been fighting against the U.S.-allied government. In the last five years, attacks blamed on Islamist bombers have killed more than 5,000 people according to estimates. Pakistan says 35,000 of its people have been killed as a result of terrorism in the country since the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

Pakistan releases 311 Indian prisoners

KARACHI: Pakistan has released 311 Indian fishermen including 21 juvenile prisoners lodged in Karachi jails Wednesday, Geo News reported.

According to District Malir jail sources, 311 prisoners out of 315 have been released. Three prisoners are still serving the sentence while one is not in good health that is why they were not released today.

The 21 juvenile prisoners were lodged in Youthful Offenders’ School adjacent to Karachi Central Jail while others were kept in District Jail Malir.

After the release of 311 prisoners, the number of Indian prisoners in Malir jail would be 127, official jail sources said on Monday.

The Indian prisoners were released at 8:00am today and sent to Wagha border from where they would be handed over to Indian authorities.

Sindh law minister Ayaz Soomro had also announced recently at a function at Youthful Offenders’ School that Indian prisoners including Juveniles would be sent back home. He had expected that India would reciprocate and release Pakistani fishermen.

Women soldiers for border drill at Attari-Wagah

AMRITSAR: Women soldiers of India andPakistan will soon perform the ceremonial beating retreat held every evening at the Attari-Wagah border of the two countries.

Border security forces of the neighbours - India's Border Security Force (BSF) and Pakistan Rangers - agreed to have women platoon commanders for the daily flag-lowering ceremony held simultaneously by the two forces at the Attari-Wagah border.

BSF Inspector-General (Frontier) Aditya Mishra told TOI on Monday that Pakistan has also agreed to women platoon commanders for the beating retreat ceremony.

The platoon commander seeks the permission of the company commander to conduct the parade and then shakes hands with their Pakistani counterpart at zero line.

Initially, Indian women platoon commanders would conduct the drill and Pakistan Rangers followed.

After shaking hands, the platoon commander informs the company commander that flag-lowering ceremony was over and again shakes hand with the Pakistani counterpart as a goodwill gesture.

Though both sides have decide to have female platoon commanders, they are likely to begin conducting the parade after they develop perfect coordination.

Three years ago, for the first time, the BSF posted women at the India-Pakistan border. The women personnel of the BSF guard the force's border outposts and are also posted along the barbed wire fencing at the international border.

Mumbai attacks 'handler' arrested in India

NEW DELHI: Indian police have arrested a key suspect accused of coordinating the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which 166 people were killed and more than 300 wounded, the Indian government said on Monday.

Abu Hamza, also known as Zabiuddin, an Indian-born member of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, was detained at Delhiinternational airport on June 21 when he arrived from the Middle East. Hamza was allegedly one of the handlers based in Karachi, who issued instructions by telephone to the 10 gunmen as they stormed two luxury hotels, a Jewish centre, a restaurant and a train station in Mumbai.

"The Delhi police has done a magnificent job. I am sure that the investigations will take place and we will wait till the investigations," India's External Affairs Minister SM Krishna told reporters.

Hamza, who has used a string of aliases, had been living in Saudi Arabia in recent years and is now being held in police custody in Delhi, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported. Indian media citing police sources said that Hamza was aged 30 and came from the western state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital.

Pakistani national Muhammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, the gunman caught during the 2008 Mumbai attacks, was handed down a death sentence by the Bombay High Court last year.

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