Two South Africans in Pakistani custody have told interrogators they had planned to attack tourist sites in Johannesburg, a security official alleged on Tuesday. ”They had hatched a plot to carry out terrorist attacks on Johannesburg’s main tourist sites,” said the official, who is familiar with the interrogation.
The Pakistani prime minister-designate has survived an attempt on his life by a suicide bomber who came close enough to his car to kill the politician’s driver and at least four other people, and spraying shrapnel into a crowd of his supporters. About three dozen people were wounded, some seriously, in the blast on Friday.
Three terror suspects who were captured in a raid on a suspected terrorist hide-out in eastern Pakistan were from Kenya, South Africa and Sudan, but it was not clear whether they had any links with al-Qaeda, a spokesperson said on Monday. The suspects were captured by police during a raid on a house in Gujrat early on Sunday after a 12-hour shootout.
Pakistan has turned to old ally Libya to purchase a fleet of Mirage fighter jets and spare parts, an air force spokesperson said on Monday. ”Libya had a fleet of Mirages, which was grounded for over a decade. We have purchased that fleet at a very reasonable price,” Air Commodore Sarfraz Khan said.
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the head of Pakistan’s ruling party and a loyal ally of the nation’s military ruler, was elected caretaker prime minister in a rubber-stamp vote in Parliament on Tuesday. Hussain is expected to stay in office only for a matter of weeks, until respected Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz assumes the premiership.
President General Pervez Musharraf on Thursday said Pakistan will use ”political or military means” to eliminate al-Qaeda from its lawless tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. His comments come as authorities are trying to get foreign militants to accept an amnesty if they renounce terrorism and agree to live peacefully.
At least six people were killed and 15 injured on Wednesday when a three-storey building was destroyed by an explosion in the Pakistani garrison city of Rawalpindi, police officials said. Rescue workers were trying to pull out at least two people still trapped under the rubble.
Pakistani troops battling suspected al-Qaeda fighters in Pakistan’s lawless north this week discovered a 1,6km-long tunnel running through the battlefield, through which senior al-Qaeda members may have escaped, officials said. Several tunnels were discovered leading from a huddle of fiercely defended mud fortresses near Afghanistan’s border.
Up to 55 militants may have been killed in Pakistan’s biggest assault to date against al-Qaeda-linked targets, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said on Thursday. About 7 500 army and paramilitary troops have been pounding the hideouts of an estimated 500 al-Qaeda-linked militants and their local tribal supporters.
Pakistan on Thursday rejected Nigerian claims that its armed forces chief offered this week to help the African state acquire nuclear power. "We are denying it. This is baseless. He said nothing of this kind," said military spokesperson Major General Shaukat Sultan.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=32158">Nigeria may become a nuclear power</a>
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/ 27 January 2004
Pakistan’s probe into the alleged sale of nuclear secrets to Iran and Libya has narrowed to three scientists and four military officers, as speculation mounted on Tuesday that ”national heroes” could be charged — those elevated to national hero status for their contributions to making Pakistan a nuclear power.
India and Pakistan agreed to talks this week to resolve their differences and expressed confidence about settling their dispute over the Himalayan territory of Kashmir, which brought them to the brink of war two years ago.
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/ 30 September 2003
The United States has approved the sale of -million-worth of modern military equipment to Pakistan, a senior official said in Islamabad on Tuesday. Pakistan has been seeking equipment to correct the imbalance it says has been created by rival India’s acquisition of high-tech weapons systems from Russia and Israel.
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/ 11 September 2003
Islamists in Pakistan have poured cold water on calls purportedly by al-Qaeda’s number two to rise up against President Pervez Musharraf for ”selling Muslims’ blood in Afghanistan”. The calls were broadcast by the al-Jazeera television network
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/ 14 September 2002
Islamic militants shot dead an Indian state minister and killed at least 15 other people in the disputed mountains of Kashmir on Wednesday in a mounting wave of violence in advance of state elections. The state Law Minister, Mushtaq Ahmad Lone, was gunned down as he spoke at an election rally.
Ten Pakistani soldiers were killed during an overnight raid on a suspected al-Qaeda hideout in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
Pakistan has taken its first ever anti-dumping action by imposing punitive taxes on tin imports from South Africa.