PESHAWAR: At least 1000 persons including 36 Afghan refugees have been arrested during search operation in Peshawar.

According to sources, Peshawar police have arrested 36 Afghan refugees under Foreign Act 14 and 70 other anti social elements during search operation launched against illegal Afghan immigrants. Seventy other criminals also nabbed and three Kalashnikovs, three pistols and three kilogram of Charras recovered from their possession.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani said Pakistan was faced with many challenges caused by both external as well as internal factors.

Addressing a ceremony here at the PM Secretariat to mark the inauguration of a central processing facility set up at Manzalai in NWFP, the Prime Minister said he will discuss the Balochistan package with PML-N leader Mian Nawaz Sharif during a meeting scheduled tomorrow.

Replying to a question, PM Gilani said it was Supreme Court order to present NRO in National Assembly and government was not interested in it. About former President Musharraf’s statement against President Zardari, premier said it was expected from Musharraf. Current wave of terror attacks is a result of operation against militants, he added.

PESHAWAR: The Frontier government has directed government offices and educational institutions not to receive unknown parcel.

According to directives issued by NWFP government, terrorists are trying different techniques and they could use parcels as bomb. Therefore, the heads of schools, police offices, hospitals and government offices should not receive any parcel or gift from unknown person.

PARIS: Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is suspected of having received millions of dollars in kickbacks from the 1994 sale of three French submarines to the Pakistani Navy, a French daily reported.

In addition, investigators believe that the non-payment of the full amount of the agreed kickbacks may have led to the deaths of 11 French nationals in a 2002 terror attack in the city of Karachi.

The report says the French daily acquired documents that allegedly show that Zardari received 4.3 million dollars in kickbacks from the sale of three Agosta 90 submarines for 825 million euros (currently 1.237 billion dollars).

The documents were sent to the Pakistani National Accountability Bureau (NAB) by British authorities in April 2001 and indicate that Zardari received several large payments into his Swiss bank accounts from a Lebanese businessman, Abdulrahman el-Assir, in 1994 and 1995.

According to a former executive of the French naval defence company DCN, French authorities chose el-Assir to act as intermediary in the deal. He allegedly deposited a total of 1.3 million dollars in Zardari’s bank accounts between August 15 and 30, 1994, one month before the submarine contract was signed, and then 1.2 million dollars and 1.8 million dollars one year later.

According to DCN employees who testified in the terror attack investigation, the kickbacks to Pakistan in the deal totalled 10 per cent of the purchase amount, with 6 per cent, or 49.5 million dollars, going to the military and 4 per cent, or 33 million euros, being funneled to political circles.

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan Wednesday dropped the appeal of Justice (Retd.) Abdul Hamid Dogar.

According to sources, the apex court dismissed the plea of Justice (Retd.) Abdul Hamid Dogar against objections raised by the Registrar on the former’s petitions.

PESHAWAR: A suicide attacker detonated explosives on him in Matni, killing 13 people including Nazim Awaizai Abdul Malik and hurting 36 others.

The morning attack took place in the town of Adizai, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of the main northwest city of Peshawar. The market was crowded with shoppers and goats being sold to celebrate the upcoming Muslim festival of Eid.

The mayor, Abdul Malik, who was initially reported to have survived, died in the attack, said Sahibzada Anis, the top official in Peshawar.

Malik, who had once been a Taliban supporter, had later switched sides and formed a local militia to help fight the militants.

“Malik had survived several attacks on his life in the recent past, since he turned against the militants,”” said Anis. “But today the militants have finally killed him.””

Thirteen bodies and the injured people had been rushed to the hospital, police officer Abdul Sattar Khan said. A young girl Noreen was among those killed and several of the injured were in critical condition, officials said.

Khan Zamir was buying goats for the Eid celebration when an explosion ripped through the street.

“The blast site turned into hell with flesh and blood littered around,”” he said, adding that two of his relatives were badly injured. “Now we have our blood in this war,”” he said, vowing to avenge the killings.

Militants have struck numerous times in Pakistan in recent weeks, killing more than 300 civilians and soldiers in attacks aimed at weakening the government’’s resolve to continue a military operation against Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in South Waziristan.

About 350,000 people have fled the fighting.

NAWABSHAH: Two persons were killed and eight others sustained inures in an armed clash over a plot dispute between people of Channa community and supporters of a provincial adviser in Nanngar area of Nawabshah on Sunday.

DPO Rukhsar Ahmed told Geo News that a primary school teacher Abdul Ghaffar Channa and another man Rahoo were killed in an armed clash over a plot dispute between Channa community and supporters of the provincial adviser Ismael Dahiri in Nanngar village, whereas eight others including two bothers of the provincial adviser sustained injuries.

Injured have been moved to a local hospital.

Enraged people torched the vehicle of the provincial minister on the spot, DPO said.

Heavy contingent of police has surrounded the area; however neither any case could so far be filed, nor someone taken into custody.

RAWALPINDI: The spokesman of outlawed outfit Tahreek-e-Taliban Swat (TTS) Haji Muslim Khan has been arrested during Swat operation.

According to DG ISPR, Muslim Khan has been arrested with four other aides Mahmood Khan, Fazal Ghaffar, Sartaj and Abdul Rehman. The head money of Muslim Khan and Mahmood Khan was Rs. 10 million.

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama’’s national security advisor on Sunday hailed the reported killing of the Pakistani Taliban’’s leader as “a big deal” that has already has stirred dissension in the insurgent ranks.

US national security adviser Jim Jones put the level of US certainty that Baitullah Mehsud died Wednesday in a US missile strike “in the 90 percent category.”

“Pakistan has confirmed it. We know that there reports from the Mehsud tribe that he wasn”t. But the evidence is pretty conclusive,” Jones said in an interview with a US T.V. “This is a big deal,” Jones said.

He said it meant that US efforts to forge closer security ties with the Pakistani military were “moving in the right direction,” and that the Pakistanis were “doing quite well in terms of their fight against extremism.”

“Baitullah was the public enemy number one in Pakistan, so its their biggest target,” he said.

Jones said he could not confirm reports that another top Pakistani Taliban commander was killed in a shootout with a rival.

“It certainly appears there is dissension in the ranks. That’’s not a bad thing for us,” Jones told media.

“I won”t say it’’s a tipping point, but it certainly shows that we”re having some success,” he said.

The Pakistani government said it was investigating the report of a shootout between Hakimullah Mehsud, a deputy to Baitullah Mehsud, and Wali-ur Rehman, a senior commander in the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan movement.

Jones said US and Pakistani intelligence sharing has grown and that the US and Pakistani military are working more closely together on Afghanistan as well.

In a televised interviews, Jones also said the United States has not ruled out sending more troops to Afghanistan but should first see what effect its new strategy is having.

He confirmed an account in US daily that he told military commanders during a visit to Afghanistan in late June that if they asked for more troops now, “the president would quite likely have a Whiskey Tango Foxtrot moment.”

KARAHCI: The notorious gang leader who was the chief character in Lyari gang war Rehamn Dakate has been killed in an alleged police encounter here on Link road in Steel Town locality, according to Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Karachi Waseem Ahmed.

The infamous gangster Rehman was wanted by police in over 80 cases besides police had set Rs.5 million bounty money over his head, sources said.

The dead body of Rehman Dakate with his three injured accomplices has been moved to Jinnah Hospital, CCPO said.

Heavy police and Rangers contingents have been deployed across Lyari locality to avoid any possible reaction following Rehman Dakate’s murder, CCPO added.