Tehrik-e-Taliban claim responsibility for attack on Aaj TV

Karachi: The terror group Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the firing attack which left 2 people injured including a security guard in Karachi.

In a sadistic statement issued over the phonecall to Aaj News, the TTP spokesperson said, “It is stated that Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan accept the attack on Media Channel Aaj TV for the firing attack”. The spokesperson for TTP further said that this was due to the reason that the Jihadi Movement event was not given full coverage and they will continue further attacks if proper coverages are not provided.

The dreadful incident rattled the media industry on Monday when Aaj TV office was targeted by four armed men who opened fire and fled the crime scene. The terrible incident resulted in two employees of the office being injured.

The incident marked another attack on media with several questions raised. The attacks have been condemned by the President and the Primeminister. Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, along with his condemnation, stated that proper measure would be taken to provide protection to media personnel within the country. The PM further ordered the apprehension of the miscreants by the earliest possible time.

Muslim woman barred from school parents' event for wearing veil

                               A Muslim woman walks in east London (Reuters/Stefan Wermuth)
A British Muslim woman was asked to leave a school's parents' night in Manchester for wearing the veil. The college cited "safety" and "security" reasons.

Maroon Rafique was stopped from entering Manchester College by security staff, who told her that for the security of teachers and pupils, there was a ban on any kind of face covering.

Although she offered to sit anywhere in the room where as few people as possible would see her, she was not allowed onto the campus.

“I’m born in this country and British. Why should what I wear offend anyone?” she told the British newspaper the Daily Mail. “I didn’t want to make any fuss. All I wanted was to find out the information to help my son go to university.”

The 40 year-old has worn the face veil, or niqab, for the last seven years.

Rafique eventually had to phone her husband to take her place.

A college spokesman defended the policy. “At all times we need to be able to identify all individuals easily in order to maintain safety and security and therefore we ask that faces are clearly visible while indoors. Our dress code is reviewed through our quality improvement group and we will take this situation into account at the next review.” He added that the school took Rafique's concerns “very seriously.”

A spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain told RT that it considers the decision to be authoritarian.

“Wearing the face veil is not obligatory, and is a freedom of choice issue. We understand if teachers are forbidden from wearing it as it can sometimes interfere with communication during the lesson. Children may also have to follow a particular dress code, but for a parent to be stopped doesn’t make sense.”

In March of this year, a Muslim woman was stopped from sitting on a UK jury in a murder trial because the judge ruled her facial expressions could not be seen.

Britain, unlike France, has not yet introduced a nationwide ban on face veils.

Seven Pakistani soldiers 'beheaded': Military

The military said 11 soldiers had also gone missing, "out of whom seven soldiers have been reportedly killed and then beheaded". PHOTO: REUTERS/ FILE

PESHAWAR: Pakistan said Monday that seven soldiers were beheaded by militants who infiltrated from Afghanistan, lashing out at Kabul over cross-border attacks.

The protests come with Pakistan under growing US pressure to act against al Qaeda-linked safe havens on its own soil and the anti-terror Islamabad-Washington alliance at its lowest ebb since the 9/11 attacks.

Pakistan already reported that six soldiers were killed in gunbattles with militants Sunday who crossed from Afghanistan into the northwestern district of Upper Dir, a key border transit route that neighbours the Swat valley where Pakistan defeated a local Taliban insurgency in 2009.

Intelligence officials blamed the attack on loyalists of Pakistani cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who fled to Afghanistan after losing control of Swat to the army.

But on Monday, the military said 11 soldiers had also gone missing, “out of whom seven soldiers have been reportedly killed and then beheaded”.

The bodies have not been found, but intelligence intercepts indicated that they had been killed, a senior military official told AFP in the northwest.

The army said more than 100 militants “from a safe haven across the border” attacked troops on patrol. It claimed to have killed 14 militants.

Pakistan said two rockets and sniper fire were also fired into Lower Dir on Monday.

The army “has strongly protested with their counterparts across the border for not taking action against miscreants present in safe haven in Afghanistan,” a military official said.

Pakistan’s new prime minister on Monday also condemned the attacks and said he would discuss the matter with President Hamid Karzai.

“Pakistan has strongly protested with Afghanistan on the cross-border attacks and I will also take up this issue with Karzai,” Raja Pervez Ashraf told reporters in Karachi.

His office, however, did not elaborate on when such a conversation might take place.

Pakistani troops have been bogged down for years fighting local Taliban but have resisted US pressure to carry out a sweeping offensive against Afghan Taliban fighters in its North Waziristan tribal area.

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Islamabad earlier this month that Washington was running out of patience over terror safe havens.

Islamabad imposed a blockade, now in its seventh month, on overland NATO supplies into Afghanistan since US air strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers along the Afghan border on November 26.

Pakistan was the Taliban’s chief backer when the militia was in power, and is accused by both Kabul and Washington of continuing to play a double game in supporting the insurgency despite its official US alliance.

Pakistanis have sought to deflect some of pressure, by saying the country has suffered more than any other from terrorism, and accuse Kabul and Washington of trying to find a scapegoat for the 10-year war in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan and Pakistan have long blamed each other for Taliban violence plaguing both sides of their porous, mountainous border.

Pakistan says rebels have regrouped in eastern Afghanistan. Afghan and US officials want Pakistan to eliminate Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked havens used to launch attacks in Afghanistan.

Militants kills 6 Pakistan troops near Afghanistan

Afghan militants on Sunday attacked a military convoy in Upper Dir, killing six Pakistani soldiers and wounding several others, reported private TV channels, quoting their sources.

Afghan militants ambushed the Pakistani convoy in Upper Dir, near Afghan border, killing at least six soldiers, while several others were also reported missing after the attack.

The sources further said that the security forces retaliated and killed 11 Afghan militants.

Meanwhile, Advisor to PM on Interior Rehman Malik has lodged a protest with Afghan government, maintaining that the authorities in Kabul were not taking any steps to stop the cross-border attacks into Pakistan. He ordered Interior Secretary to contact his Afghan counterpart on this issue.

It is to be mentioned here that militants from Afghanistan have attacked several times on the checkposts of Upper Dir.

The surge in cross-border attacks came amid tensions with the United States over Nato route closure. There were reports in the media that the US military and intelligence officials are so frustrated with Pakistan’s failure to stop local militant groups from attacking Americans in Afghanistan that they have considered launching secret joint US-Afghan commando raids into Pakistan.

But the idea, which US officials say comes up every couple of months, has been consistently rejected because the White House believes the chance of successfully rooting out the deadly Haqqani network would not be worth the intense diplomatic blowback from Pakistan that inevitably would ensue.

Israeli strike on Iran would lead to end of Zionist regime, Tehran general warnsDeputy chief of staff says Islamic republic has high capabilities

A high-ranking Iranian general warned Saturday that any attempt by Israel to take military action against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program would cause an “imminent end” to the Jewish state.

“The Islamic Revolution enjoys high capability, and if the Zionist regime wants to take an action against us, it will cause its imminent end,” said Major General Mostafa Izadi, the country’s deputy chief of staff. Izadi was speaking to the state-run Fars News Agency, which published his interview Saturday.

Talks between Tehran and six Western powers to curb Iran’s nuclear program ended last week, after several rounds and little headway. Western and Israeli officials have said they prefer diplomacy and sanctions to military action, but would leave all options, including a military strike, on the table.

Iran maintains its nuclear program is peaceful, a claim which Israel and most Western countries, including the US, challenge.

Israeli officials have urged the world to take action against the Islamic Republic, which it says would pose an existential threat to the Jewish State if allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

In the interview, Izadi added that Iran could outmatch Israel militarily and otherwise.

“In addition to military capabilities, we also have many other capabilities and possibilities which are way beyond the Zionist regime’s abilities and capabilities,” he said.

Iranian officials have issued several such threats in the past, including last month, when the second in command of the  Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that Tehran could hit anywhere in the Middle East.

New Bahrain crackdown: Opposition leaders wounded (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

Riot police in Bahrain dispersed protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets as disorder in the country’s capital Manana continued. The opposition claims its leaders have been wounded in the clashes.

The Opposition Al Wefaq organization claims its secretary-general Sheik Ali Salman was shot in the shoulder and back with rubber bullets during demonstrations in Manama. Another opposition leader, Hassan al-Marzooq, was shot and wounded in the chest.

The Bahraini Interior Ministry has yet to comment on the incident, but promised to prevent the Al Wefaq from organizing a protest in the Sehla suburb district of the capital Manana.

The ministry claims the rallies are obstructing traffic. The ministry further says Al Wefaq has already been licensed to conduct a number of protests this year.

“Security forces have been careful in dealing professionally with political leaders but this time was different. It seems a gradual crackdown is going on," senior Al Wefaq party member Matar Matar told Reuters. "They are closing the small margin for freedom of expression.”

There have been reports of a heavy police presence in the suburb. Protesters were reportedly throwing Molotov cocktails at police, who responded with teargas grenades and rubber bullets.

The uprising in the Kingdom of Bahrain, which hosts America’s Fifth Fleet, has been ongoing for 16 months. The country’s Shia majority is rallying against the Western-backed Sunni monarchy to get broader political rights and participate more actively in the governing of their country.

The ruling Sunni Muslim Al Khalifa family has made some concessions to the Shia protesters. The parliament's powers of scrutiny over ministers and budgets have been extended, although the key demands for full legislative powers and elected governments was turned down.

The government accuses Al Wefaq supporters of following a sectarian Shiite agenda. The opposition party insists the Bahraini leadership is making excuses to avoid giving up its privileges.

 Bahraini riot policemen take a position as Shiite protesters throw stones during an anti-government protest in the village of Musalla, West of Manama on June 22, 2012 (AFP Photo / Mohammed Al-Shaikh)

 A Bahraini Shiite medic removes small pellets from a wounded Bahraini Shiite demonstrator inside a house in Sitra village, south of Manama, on June 21, 2012 (AFP Photo / Mohammed Al-Shaikh)

 A Bahraini Shiite Muslim demonstrator shows his injured hand as he waits for treatment by Bahraini Shiite medics at a house in Sitra village, south of Manama, on June 21, 2012 (AFP Photo / Mohammed Al-Shaikh)

 A Bahraini Shiite protester throws a stone towards the riot police during an anti-government demonstration in the village of Musalla, West of Manama on June 22, 2012 (AFP Photo / Mohammed Al-Shaikh)

Russian-Built Frigate Arrives in India

 INS Teg is the first of three modified Krivak III classguided missile frigates being built under a $1.6 billion deal
 signed in 2006.

A new stealth frigate built for the Indian navy by Russia arrived in the port of Mumbai on Friday, a diplomat said.

The ceremony for the arrival of INS Teg involved senior Indian navy officers as well as Russian officials and diplomats, said a spokesman for the Russian consulate in Mumbai.

INS Teg is the first of three modified Krivak III class (also known as Talwar class) guided missile frigates being built at the Yantar Shipyard under a $1.6 billion deal signed in 2006.

The other two vessels will follow in about a year, a Yantar spokesman said in April.

The 3,970-ton frigate incorporates stealth technologies and is armed with eight 290-km BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles.

The Indian navy already has three Russian-built Talwar class frigates.