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/ 9 September 2007
Pakistani authorities tightened security at Islamabad’s airport after detaining more than 2 000 supporters of exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his party said on Sunday, the eve of his planned return. Sharif, ousted by army chief General Pervez Musharraf in 1999, says he is determined to fly home from London on Monday.
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/ 5 September 2007
Pakistan’s Supreme Court began hearing legal challenges to President Pervez Musharraf’s rule on Wednesday, adding to the woes the embattled United States ally faces as he prepares to secure another term. Musharraf hopes to get re-elected by the national and provincial assemblies between September 15 and October 15.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif can return home after seven years in exile, the chief of the court said. Sharif, a two-time prime minister, has vowed to oppose a bid by President Pervez Musharraf for another term in office. Sharif (57) was overthrown by army chief Musharraf in a 1999 coup.
Several thousand Pakistani Islamists rallied on Friday to denounce the government for ordering an army crackdown on a radical mosque in the capital, Islamabad. Protests were held in several towns and cities across the country after Friday prayers but none was very big and there were no reports of trouble.
Pakistani forces stormed a mosque compound in the capital on Tuesday, killing at least 40 militants who were believed to be holed up with hundreds of women and children. With more than two-thirds of the complex cleared, commandos had yet to encounter any of the women and children.
Isolated shots rang out as a group of worried parents entered a besieged mosque in Islamabad on Friday to collect children caught up in a deadly stand-off between Islamic radical students and security forces. A cleric leading the Taliban-style movement at Red Mosque said overnight that he and hundreds of followers were willing to surrender.
Small groups of radical students trickled out from Islamabad’s besieged Red Mosque on Thursday, despite warning blasts overnight, raising fears hardcore militants were keeping some children as human shields. The captured leader of the mosque’s Taliban-style student movement said there were 850 students inside.
Pakistani security forces fired a series of ”warning blasts” before dawn on Thursday near Islamabad’s radical Red Mosque, stepping up pressure on hundreds of militant students inside to surrender, a security official said. There were about eight explosions at intervals of several minutes, witnesses said.
Pakistan on Monday deplored Britain’s decision to award a knighthood to author Salman Rushdie, whose novel The Satanic Verses outraged many Muslims around the world. Rushdie was awarded a knighthood for services to literature in Queen Elizabeth’s birthday honours list published on Saturday.
Eighteen people were killed in Karachi on Saturday in clashes between pro-government and opposition activists over the arrival of the country’s suspended top judge to rally support for his cause. Opposition leaders said Karachi was under siege by supporters of the pro-government Muttahida Qaumi Movement.