11 killed in Pearl Continental blast in Peshawar

* Attackers fire at security guards from one vehicle, blow up second inside hotel’s compound
* 60 injured, 2 foreigners including Russian UN official among dead

PESHAWAR: A massive truck bomb ripped through the five-star Pearl Continental hotel in Peshawar on Tuesday killing 11 people and wounding 60.

The attackers entered the compound on two vehicles at about 10:30pm, spraying the security guards at the hotel gate with bullets from one and blowing up the other in the hotel parking.

“It was a suicide attack,” city police chief Sefwat Ghayur told AFP. “There are two foreigners among the dead,” provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said. He did not reveal their nationalities.

A witness said he first heard shooting and then there was loud bang that left the area in thick smoke. The explosion was followed by a power failure.

Forty vehicles parked in the compound were destroyed and the building was seriously damaged. A large crater was seen in the parking area. A portion of the building was completely destroyed.

The explosion was heard several kilometres away from the site and shook nearby buildings, shattering the windows of many of them.

Khyber Road is a sensitive locality with the NWFP Assembly and several government and military buildings.

A number of foreigners, most of them associated with aid agencies, were staying in the hotel.

UN official: A private TV channel said the dead included UNHCR official Alexander Joseph from Russia. Sixteen other UNHCR officials were injured and one was missing. The injured also included an official from the World Food Programme, another from the World Health Organisation and two from UNICEF, it said. Another TV channel said a foreign female journalist was also injured.

Edhi sources claimed receiving dead bodies of three foreigners.

News channels said that hotel manager Kamal Ahmad was missing. Two PIA hostesses were also injured and a captain was missing.

A Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) official told reporters at least 500 kilogrammes of explosives were used in the attack.

Police cordoned off the area following the explosion and closed Khyber Road for traffic. The hotel was evacuated and an emergency was imposed in Peshawar’s hospitals.

There were unconfirmed reports that employees of a private American company had hired a portion of the hotel.

The NWFP information minister condemned the attack and told a private TV channel it would not affect his government’s resolve against the Taliban.

Most of the injured were hotel employees and were taken to Lady Reading Hospital.

The Associated Press said US officials were in negotiations to make the premises an American consulate. Citing two senior US officials in Washington, it said the State Department had been in negotiations with the hotel’s owners to either purchase the facility or sign a long-term lease there to house a new American consulate in Peshawar. The officials said they were not aware of any sign that US interest in the compound had played a role in it being targeted.

Lou Fintor, spokesman for the US Embassy in Islamabad, said all diplomatic personnel were accounted for. “At this point we have no reports that any Americans were at the scene,” he said.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the attack and grieved the loss of innocent lives, and resolve to continue the government’s commitment to eradicate terrorism.

Pak military has the capability, capacity to crush insurgency in Swat, adjoining areas: Masood Khan

The Pakistan army has the capacity and capability to protect the sovereignty, independence of its mother land as well as to crush the threat of terrorism, said Ambassador Masood Khan in a television interview here. Participating at CCTV Asia Today’s programme on Monday, while responding to a question, he made it clear that it is wrong to say that we have succeeded to recapture the Swat valley or Malakand areas. In fact, the valley and all parts of the region were always with us. What the army did was to confront the elements who had challenged the writ of the state.
“As the defiance from militants became too aggressive, too outrageous, the government decided to send army into these areas to flush them out”, he said.

Khan said that local government had a peace agreement with the militants, but they defied it. As a last resort it was decided to take them out as well as to dismantle the apparatus that was supporting them.

“We are determined to eliminate militants from our soil to ensure peace and stability” as these outlaws were posing threat not only to Pakistan, but to the entire neighborhood.

Regarding continuous bomb attacks by militants, in spite of the fact that army is achieving successes in Swat valley, Khan said these acts on the part of militants were in retaliation to the army operation.

“Militants are targeting civilians and government institutions. Our security forces are vigilant. Security arrangement has been strengthened”, he said.

He said that government is working on 3-pronged strategy to face the threat of militancy: anti-militancy operation; humanitarian relief for the internally displaced persons; and win over the moderate but misguided elements who were supporting the Taliban.

On displaced persons, he said that the figure of IDP had reached a staggering 3.3million and was growing.

However, Khan said, Pakistan is determined to provide food, shelter, health, education and to meet their daily needs, but it was so massive, that my country could not manage it by its own resources, therefore Pakistan had asked the international community for help.

In this regard, he specially mentioned the Chinese government and the people for coming forward in a big way to elevate the suffering of the IDPS.

He said that to meet by our own resources, the Pakistan Embassy here had also organized a Meena Bazaar Fundraiser on Sunday, and the Chinese as well as member of the international community participated in it in a big way.

The anchor person of the programme Zhou meanwhile said that Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani has expressed the resolve to flush these elements which is a good sign for Pakistan .

Sindh Cabinet discusses ongoing spate of target killings

KARACHI: The ongoing spate of target killings in the city had so far claimed 31 lives, Sindh Cabinet which met here today under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Syed Qaim Alil Shah, was informed during discussion on obtaining law and order situation.
Briefing newsmen about the Cabinet proceedings, Sindh Minister for Information Shazia Marri said the Cabinet expressed concern over continued target killings in the city and said the Provincial Home
Minister Dr. Zulfikar Mirza will be holding a meeting with IGP, CCPO and heads of other law enforcing organizations to review the situation. She said the Chief Minister, too, has convened a meeting to be held today at 5 p.m. to solely focus on law and order. The Home Minister, she said, told the Cabinet that situation has remained sensitive since June 1 and those 31 killed so far belonged to various political parties.
She said that government effort is to assure strict monitoring in various areas through the meetings of Core Committee and help improve the law and order situation.
She said that situation had been quite disturbing in Landhi, Shah Faisal Colony and Malir areas where police deployment has been increased from 2000 to 3000 cops besides an increase in the number of Rangers as well. Shazia Marri said that the Cabinet was of the view that there is need to improve the political reconciliation process and for this purpose it was imperative that all the political parties which are part of Sindh Government take a united stand to control law and order. She said the Chief Minister asked all the political parties to strive together to overcome law and order situation.

Why Taliban cannot take over Pakistan

* For reasons of geography, ethnicity, military inferiority, and ancient rivalries, Taliban represent neither the threat often portrayed, nor the inevitable victors that the West fears


The Taliban are within 60 miles of Islamabad, it was reported. And David Kilcullen, a counter-insurgency expert, said that Pakistan could collapse within six months. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said if the country were to fall, the Taliban would have the “keys to the nuclear arsenal”. Senator John Kerry warned: “The government has to ratchet up the urgency.”

The military has since launched a major counteroffensive that has sent nearly 3 million people fleeing their homes. Yet Pakistani analysts and officials believe that the infamous threat of an imminent Taliban takeover is overblown.

True, the Taliban threat remains serious. They maintain a presence in more than 60 percent of the northwestern Pakistan and control significant sections along the Afghan border.

But even if the current operation stalls, or the Taliban return to the areas they’ve been ousted from, a Christian Science Monitor report concludes, they may not significantly expand their footprint in the country anytime soon. For reasons of geography, ethnicity, military inferiority, and ancient rivalries, they represent neither the immediate threat that is often portrayed, nor the inevitable victors that the West fears.

“The Taliban have been able to operate in certain [mountainous areas] because of the terrain and the sympathy factor,” says Rifat Hussain of Quaid-e-Azam University. “The moment they begin to move out of the hideouts, they are exposed. If you have 100 truckloads of Taliban on the Peshawar Highway, all you need is two helicopter gunships” to wipe them out.

Coming down from the hills would also expose the Taliban to a more secular, urban world that views them as “a bunch of mountain barbarians”.

It’s a common saying these days that all Taliban are Pashtuns, but not all Pashtuns are Taliban.

The grievances that the Taliban exploit, such as unemployment and tribal feudalism, are not as prevalent even in Haripur. Lush farmland and an industrial centre support relative prosperity.

The notion of a Taliban conquest of Pakistan also bumps up against some simple arithmetic. The Taliban in Swat numbered 5,000, and the total from all factions in Pakistan is estimated in the tens of thousands, at most. The Pakistani military, meanwhile, numbers more than half a million. Until the latest counteroffensive, some analysts questioned the military’s resolve in fighting the insurgency. But the counteroffensive in Swat has convinced many that the Army is serious. The mass displacement of civilians offers grim confirmation of heavy engagement.

Karachi target killings toll reaches to 19

(Updated at: 0915 PST)

KARACHI: A slew of gun attacks and sporadic incidents of violence claimed 3 more lives in the provincial metropolis on Sunday night.

According to police sources, a man shot dead near Gol Market in Nazimabad whereas two others killed in Azizabad and Liaquatabad. The toll of target killing reaches to 19 during the past two days.