September 12, 2014

Islamabad: A judge in Pakistan (click here) has ordered a murderer to be hanged next week, officials said on Friday, in what would be the country’s first civilian execution in six years.

The country has had a de facto moratorium on civilian hangings since 2008. Only one person has been executed since then, a soldier convicted by court martial and hanged in November 2012.

“A judge has passed an order that a murder convict be hanged,” an official at Adiyala Prison in Rawalpindi, the garrison city adjoining Islamabad, said.

“Arrangements for the execution on September 18 are being made,” the official said on condition of anonymity....

September 11, 2014

ISLAMABAD: In a setback (click here) to Pakistan's former president Pervez Musharraf, an investigation has concluded that the ex-military ruler imposed the 2007 emergency as army chief and was guilty of violating the constitution, the special court hearing his treason trial was told on Thursday. 

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) which probed the case informed the court that 71-year-old Musharraf must be held accountable for high treason. 

A three-member bench headed by justice Faisal Arab heard Musharraf's treason case in the Federal shariat court building....

September 14, 2014
By Tahir Kahn

Islamabad: A key faction (click here) of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Saturday announced cessation of violent attacks in Pakistan, in the best interests of both ‘Islam and the nation’. The announcement by Punjabi Taliban was accompanied by an appeal to all other militant groups “to stop their violent activities in Pakistan”.

The group, however, says it would continue to fight in neighbouring Afghanistan where the Afghan Taliban have been fighting a deadly insurgency against US-led foreign forces since 2001.

The Punjabi Taliban is the first group in the TTP, an umbrella of several militant organisations, that has decided to disengage. Analysts say renunciation of violence by the Punjabi Taliban would encourage other extremist groups to follow suit. The Taliban militancy has killed and maimed thousands of people, mostly innocent civilians, in the country over the past 10 years.

“We have decided to give up militancy in Pakistan. I’ve taken the decision in the best interests of Islam and the nation. I also appeal to all other armed groups to stop violent activities in Pakistan,” Asmatullah Muaweya, the chief of the Punjabi Taliban, said in a three-minute video message released to the media on Saturday. He added that his group would now focus on Dawah (Islamic preaching) for the “supremacy of Islam and protection of the system.”...

Summer offensive overruns checkpoints as Afghan security forces struggle to contain insurgency
September 13, 2014

...Hundreds of civilians have been killed or injured (click here) and thousands have fled their homes because of the fierce fighting, less than a year after David Cameron declared "mission accomplished". The military setback in an area that became symbolic of the wider battle for Afghanistan raises uncomfortable questions about Helmand's future and the British sacrifices meant to secure it from insurgent fighters.

"These attacks have been going on for around three months now," said Sulaiman Shah, Sangin district governor, after reluctantly agreeing to a telephone interview. He had been ordered not to speak to journalists. "There are some places which are under Taliban control," he said, naming several villages and warning that the situation was deteriorating. "We have had security problems over the last two or three years, but now it is much worse – the Taliban are getting stronger."

Sangin became a death trap for foreign forces from the moment they arrived in 2006. The first unit in the area endured the most intense ground fighting British soldiers had seen since the Korean war....