Akhbar Farosh Union ends Jang Group’s boycott

LAHORE: The Akhbar Farosh Union, Lahore, has announced to end the boycott of Jang Group newspapers in Lahore, according to a press release issued by the union. The announcement came asa result of a meeting between the Jang Group’s Sarmad Ali and the president of the Akhbar Farosh Union, Lahore, Ch Nazir. The meeting was held in a cordial and positive environment.

Operation to clear Karachi airport ends

 

KARACHI: Flight operations at Karachi’s international airport resumed after 16 hours on Monday afternoon after all 10 terrorists were killed in a joint operation by the security forces while the authorities confirmed the martyrdom of 19 persons, including 10 security personnel, and injuries to around 26 others.
However, seven employees of a private cargo service at the Karachi airport were still trapped inside a cold storage on Monday night. According to an ISPR statement, the army has launched an operation to rescue them.

According to the Jinnah Hospital administration, the martyred included ASF personnel Tariq Mehmood 32, Abdul Maalik 30, Muhammad Sarwar 45, Muhammad Hayat 40, Muhammad Azam 35, Muhammad Iqbal 35, Hafeez 32, Irfan 25, Ghulam Murtaza 30, Tanveer Anwar Khan 40, Islam-ud-Din 32, personnel of Pakistan Rangers Sindh Dil Murad Ali 35, PIA employees Muntazir 45, Fakhrul Hassan 30, Muzaffaral Hassan 30, Fazal Mehmood Zuberi 52, Syed Muhammad Ilyas 50, employee of Shaheen Airline Abdul Khaleeq Siddiqui 65. One of the deceased had not yet been identified.

The injured include ASF personnel Asad 22, Rajab Ali 40, Pervez 45, Faheem 26, Naseer Ahmed 35, Abid Hussain 35, Munawar Khan 35, Hafeez 35, Yousuf 45, Sikandar 35, Shabab Hussain 32, Muhammad Qasim 50, Muhammad Jamal 26, Ghulam Mustafa Shah 29, Rana Muhammad Afzal 22, Akhtar Hussain 45, PIA employees Ahmed Sheikh 45, Khawaja Muhammad Hassan 59, Special Security Unit (SSU) policeman Nisar Ahmed 28, police constables Naveed and Liaquat Ali 30, Pakistan Rangers Sindh personnel Zawar Ahmed 28, Ikramullah, Muhammad Imran 27, Muhammad Aqil and Faizullah.

The operation clean-up at the airport, headed by Corps Commander Karachi Lt. Gen. Sajjad Ghani, DG Rangers Rizwan Akhtar and IGP Sindh Iqbal Mehmood, started at 11:45 pm on Sunday night and ended at 4:30am after 10 heavily armed terrorists donning suicide vests and carrying Kalashnikovs, rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades entered the airport and held hundreds of PIA and CAA personnel hostage at gunpoint.

Army contingents, including Special Services Group (SSG) commandos, also assisted the police and Rangers in the battle, officials said.DG Rangers Sindh Major General Rizwan Akhtar on Monday morning announced the completion of the operation, saying all 10 heavily armed militants had been killed.

Talking to newsmen, he said the terrorists killed in the operation appeared to be Uzbeks, but DNA tests would ascertain their identity.He said no aircraft was either destroyed or damaged in the attack. He said fire erupted at some places when the terrorists used hand grenades and other inflammable material.

DIG East Karachi Police Munir Shaikh said terrorists attacked the airport at 11:10pm with plans to take hostages and keep control of the airport for a long period but security forces immediately launched a counter attack and completed the operation in five to six hours by killing all the terrorists.

“The police and Rangers along with the ASF launched the airport was handed over to the CAA on Monday for flight operations,” DIG East Munir Shaikh told The News.He said terrorists entered the airport premises in two groups and took positions at Ispahani Hanger and International Cargo terminal.

“Terrorists didn’t appear to be Pakistanis and their features show they are citizens of some Central Asian country. They were carrying several AK-47 assault rifles, RPGs, rifle-grenades, hand-grenades and home-made bombs. Their backpacks also carried dates, water and militant literature,” he informed.

He said militants were also wearing suicide vests and some of them blew themselves up when they were encircled and besieged by the security personnel, causing some casualties and injuries to police and the Rangers.

He said terrorists had held at least 300 staff members of PIA and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) as well as the staff of some other airlines hostage and after locking them in some rooms deployed some of their members as guard to prevent them from escaping.

“When the police, Rangers and ASF reached there to confront the terrorists, terrorists guarding the hostages joined the battle and were either killed or they blew themselves up during the fight,” DIG East added.

He said DG Rangers and IGP Sindh Iqbal Mehmood were jointly commanding the operation on the ground while he (DIG East), SSP East Pir Muhammad Shah and SSP Malir Rao Anwar as well as several SPs, DSPs and Jawans took part in the operation.

DIG East said one of the police personal, who was the gunman of SSP East Pir Muhammad Shah, embraced martyrdom and two others including SSP East were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up near their APC at the airport during the clean-up operation.

Bodies of 10 terrorists, including one in pieces, were brought to JPMC mortuary, MLO Dr. Rohina said, adding that post-mortem examination of the bodies was yet to be performed.Meanwhile, PIA flights from Jinnah International Airport resumed at 1600 hours on Monday, a PIA spokesman said.

Around 20 flights were disturbed due to the terrorist attack. One domestic flight was diverted to Nawab Shah while three flights coming from abroad were diverted to Lahore. The passengers of the diverted flights were well looked after at Nawab Shah and Lahore.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Aviation Shujaat Azeem said Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif had commended the bravery of security forces for containing and eliminating terrorists attack.

Shujaat personally supervised the resumption of flight operations at Jinnah International Airport and visited all areas of Karachi airport along with DG CAA, Air Marshal (R) Muhammad Yousaf and DG ASF Brigadier Muhammad Azam Tiwana.

Security has been increased to the highest level at all airports.In a condolence message, Shujaat Azeem expressed his deep sorrow and grief over the killing of PIA engineers during the terrorist attack.

“The entire PIA family is deeply saddened at the loss of four employees of PIA Engineering — Fakhir Laghari, S.M Ilyas, Tanveer A Khan and Fazal Zuberi. May Allah Grant them eternal peace and strength to the family members of the departed souls”.

“Our prayers go out for the speedy recovery of all injured. We are grateful for the patience and discipline shown by the passengers present at the airport which helped in the success of the operation”, he said.

Ceasefire ends, talks process to go on: TTP

 

 PESHAWAR: Announcing to end the 40-day ceasefire, the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Wednesday said they would not extend the truce and threatened to give a ‘tit-for-tat’ response to the government if it used force against them.
However, the Taliban expressed willingness to continue the peace talks with the government if it showed sincerity and seriousness.“It’s not good news for the common people as they may have been expecting something different from us. But we are forced to end our 40-day ceasefire as the government, despite having a ceasefire, continued violence against our people in the whole country,” said Shahidullah Shahid, the spokesman for the outlawed TTP.

He called this correspondent from somewhere in the tribal areas, along the Afghan border, and argued that the decision to end the ceasefire with the government was made in the central Shura of the Taliban on Wednesday.

“You may know that majority of our people were not happy when we announced the ceasefire initially on March 1, 2014. But despite their opposition, we followed the ceasefire and in return we made some demands from the government such as release of civilian prisoners, ending the crackdown on our people and stopping torture on Taliban prisoners in jails and secret detention centres. And the last demand was about a peace zone for us within thetribal areas,” the Taliban spokesman explained.

However, he alleged that the government and its law enforcement agencies had violated the ceasefire and accelerated actions against their people all over the country.“During this 40-day ceasefire, the government forces and agencies killed our 50 people during raids and in jails and threw out their bodies. Most of our people were arrested and tortured to death in Karachi and others were taken from the Punjab,” the Taliban spokesman claimed.

He said they were not expecting any crackdown in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal areas, but claimed the police and secret agencies conducted operations against them in Swabi and Hangu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and in Kurram and Orakzai regions in the tribal areas.

“Only in the Kurram Agency, they arrested 107 civilians during the ceasefire for suspicion of having links with the Taliban. Seven tribesmen disappeared from one home in Thana village in Kurram Agency for providing stay to me at their home. I can swear that I have not been able to go to Kurram during the past one year. These are the issues that made it difficult for us to prolong the ceasefire with the government,” Shahidullah Shahid recalled.

He said it was difficult for them to convince all the TTP factions on the ceasefire as, according to him, some of them were not willing to cease fighting against the government.“Besides our own people, we even approached other militant groups in the country and requested them to stop the attacks during their ceasefire. Though they weren’t part of us, they cooperated and honoured our ceasefire,” the TTP spokesman said.

Shahidullah said they had extended the ceasefire till April 10 and wanted to see if the government would come up with practical steps.“The Shura members discussed all these issues in detail and found that the government didn’t accept even a single demand of the Taliban during the 40 days of ceasefire, then why they would extend it,” he said. The spokesman said they were free now and would give a ‘tit-for-tat’ response in case the government used force anywhere in the country.

“Previously our hands were tied due to the ceasefire but now there is no restriction on us,” he said.Even that the ceasefire no longer existed, Shahidullah said, the Taliban Shura had decided to continue the peace talks with the government if it was sincere and serious.

“We felt during these 40 days that the government is powerless in making important decisions. The power of making decisions lies somewhere else,” the Taliban spokesman noted.The Taliban had given a list of 800 prisoners, whom the militants claimed were all civilians.

They wanted the government to release them from jails and secret cells of security agencies. They also wanted to have a separate place in Fata, especially in South Waziristan, without the presence of security forces, where they could live along with their families and meet the government negotiation committee.

The Taliban had disowned the 19 civilian prisoners whom the security forces had freed in Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan, on March 31.Omar Khalid Khurasani, a feared militant commander and the TTP leader in Mohmand tribal region, also issued a statement on Wednesday saying that it was the unanimous decision of the Shura to end the ceasefire.

Omar Khalid Khurasani had earlier announced that his faction would not extend the ceasefire and threatened to launch fresh attacks on the government and its installations when one-month-long ceasefire expired on March 31.