Indian jailed 13 years in Australia for rape

MELBOURNE: An Indian man who raped a university student in Australia then tried to flee the country has been sentenced to 13 years in prison.

Victorian County Court Judge Marilyn Harbison ruled Wednesday that Harjot Hundal Singh must serve at least nine years before being eligible for parole.

The 27-year-old accosted the 19-year-old woman while she walked home from a train station in June 2009. He dragged her into his van, tied her hands and raped her, the court was told.

Singh was arrested at the airport a few days later with a one-way ticket to Dubai and a connecting flight to India.

He is expected to be deported at the end of his sentence. —AP

Eleven killed in suicide attack on police in Baghdad

BAGHDAD: A suicide attacker blew up his vehicle at a police post in northeast Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 11 people and wounding 38, an interior ministry official said.

The attack took place around 8:00 am local time in Qahira neighbourhood, the official said.

The police and army are often the target of attack by armed groups in Iraq. —AFP

Eight-nation joint boxing camp gets underway

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is set to play host to around 100 foreign pugilists as a joint boxing camp gets underway at the Pakistan Sports Complex in the capital on Wednesday.

While several countries were extended an invitation to attend the camp ahead of the Commonwealth Games, seven (Central Africa, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Nigeria, Rwanada,Uganda, Kenya) confirmed their participation to the Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF).

“Pugilists from eight countries including Pakistan will participate in the month-long joint training session,” PBF General Secretary Mohammad Akram Khan said.

A six-member team, including five boxers and one official, from Sri Lanka arrived on Tuesday.

“The Sri Lankan boxers arrived today (Tuesday), while Mauritian pugilists will arrive on Friday and the rest are expected to arrive next month,” he said.

Akram said this will be a good opportunity for Pakistani boxers to prepare for the upcoming Commonwealth Games as the joint training camp would help them put up a good show.

A total of 22 Pakistani boxers have been named to train at PSC during the camp but only 17 will be present for the first four days. Five Pakistani boxers are currently competing at the Combat Games in China and will join the camp upon their return.

Meanwhile, PBF President Doda Khan Bhutto welcomed the arrival of foreign boxers for the second time in the year, after their participation in the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto International Boxing Tournament earlier this year.

“Hosting a joint eight-nation training camp is a big achievement on part of the PBF and we are thankful to Pakistan Sports Board for extending cooperation and financial assistance for this camp, which will serve the overall cause of boxing in Pakistan,” he said.

Doda expressed hope that a successful international training camp will boost the country’s image as a safe destination for sportspersons.

“We will provide top security to all the foreign teams and the best arrangements are in place for training,” Doda added. —APP

Pakistan probables: Mir Waiz Khan (91+kg), Nisar Khan (75kg), Adnan Hussain (60kg), Qadir Khan (56kg), Haroon Shahid (52kg), Mohammad Waseem (49kg).

Reserves: Naimatullah (56kg), Arshad Hussain (60kg). Manager: Iqbal Hussain.

Sri Lankan team

Boxers: Tennakoon Mudiyanselage, Wanniarachchi, Jayathilakage, RT. Jayathi Lake, Suranga Mudannayake

Coach: Julio Sanlana

Taliban take comfort in US withdrawal plans: general

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama's July 2011 deadline to start withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan has given Taliban insurgents hope they can prevail in the war, the top US Marine said in blunt remarks on Tuesday.

But General James Conway said the insurgents will be disappointed when they find that no major withdrawal is on the horizon among US forces deployed in the Taliban heartland of southern Afghanistan.

“In some ways, we think right now it's probably giving our enemy sustenance,” Conway said of the July 2011 target date.

“We think that he may be saying to himself -- in fact we've intercepted communications that say, 'Hey, you know, we only have to hold out for so long.'” Conway's frank assessment is sure to fuel debate over Obama's war strategy and the July 2011 date, providing ammunition for Republican lawmakers who have blasted the deadline as showing a lack of resolve in the nearly nine-year-old war.

Obama's fellow Democrats in Congress and White House officials defend the deadline as a way of pushing Afghan leaders to act quickly to take charge of their security.

The US president faces growing public opposition to the war and calls from the left-wing of his own party for a quick troop pullout.

Conway said Taliban foot soldiers would likely suffer a blow to morale after July 2011 passes with no dramatic departure of American forces, “and come the fall we're still there hammering them like we have been.” The general, just back from a visit to Afghanistan, said government army and police forces in key southern provinces will not be ready to take over from foreign troops for at least “a few years,” and that he had told his Marines to brace for a long fight.

“I honestly think it will be a few years before conditions on the ground are such that turnover will be possible for us,” Conway told reporters, referring to Marines deployed in the provinces of Helmand and Kandahar.

Conway said some Afghan units “somewhere” might be able to assume the lead for security in 2011 but not in the south, the birthplace of the Taliban.

“And I think there's a mindset that needs to accompany that on the part of our Marines, that it may be a while,” he said.

He acknowledged that public support for the US mission was declining but warned of the risks of any early withdrawal.

“I sense our country is increasingly growing tired of the war,” he said.

Conway appealed for patience, citing a fellow commander's assessment that “we can either lose fast or win slow.” The last units of a surge of 30,000 reinforcements only arrived in Afghanistan this month, he said, with the US force now at nearly 100,000.

“We have the momentum. We have the initiative, but that's different from declaring that security conditions are changed dramatically in Helmand,” he said.

The general said the administration needed to do a better job of explaining the mission to Americans and the importance of preventing Al-Qaeda from regaining a foothold.

He also said the Kabul government's efforts to promote reconciliation with the insurgents could be a “game-changer” that would dramatically alter the conflict.

Conway spoke a day after the US general in charge of training Afghan forces played down prospects for a major transfer of security duties to the Afghans for at least another year.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has suggested any troop reduction after mid-2011 would be modest, but he has also held out the possibility of Afghan troops taking over security in some districts by the end of the year.

The White House said Tuesday that Obama still planned a review of the Afghan war in December, shaping strategy for the next year. – AFP

Chilean miners not told rescue could be months away

COPIAPO, Chile: Chilean officials worked Tuesday to launch a gruelling, four-month rescue operation to save 33 trapped miners, while keeping the men in the dark about how long they will have to wait for deliverance.

Drilling of an escape tunnel through 700 meters (2,300 feet) of earth and rock will begin “by the end of the week,” the engineer in charge of the rescue mission, Andres Sougarret, told reporters.

In the meantime, he said he will be mapping out a path to the miners that aims to avert another collapse at the San Jose gold and copper mine like the one that sealed its exit on August 5.

The miners were shut off from the outside world in a hot, dank shelter deep underground until Sunday, when rescuers punched a three-inch (eight centimeter) diameter hole through to them and found that they were alive and in good spirits.

Sougarret's plan is to drill a new tunnel that will be 33 centimeters (13 inches) in diameter and then expand it outward to double the size, creating a chimney large enough to pull the miners out one by one.

But he has said that could take three to four months, raising concerns about whether the miners would be able to endure for so long.

Sougarret said he made the decision to not tell the miners they would likely have to sit tight in the shelter -- roughly the size of a living room tucked to one side of a lengthy tunnel -- until maybe Christmas.

Nutrients and water were being supplied to the miners through the narrow drill hole.

An intercom cable also has been threaded through the hole, enabling the miners to communicate with the surface, where their desperate but relieved families were camped.

President Sebastian Pinera Tuesday spoke with the trapped miners through the cable and heard one of them issue an anguished plea for a quick rescue.

“We're hoping all of Chile makes an effort to get us out of here by the 18th” of September, Chile's Independence Day, which this year coincides with the bicentennial of the end of Spanish colonial rule.

“Mr President,” said Luis Urzua, “we need you to be strong and to rescue us as soon as possible. Don't abandon us.” “You won't be left alone, nor have you been alone a single moment,” Pinera answered without letting on how very long the rescue operation would take.

“The government is with you, the whole country is with you and I want you to stay calm because your families are cared for and have all our support,” the president added.

Chilean officials said they had asked the US space agency NASA for help in supplying the miners with nourishment.

“The situation is very similar the one experienced by the astronauts, who spend months on end in the space station,” Health minister Jaime Manalich told reporters.

NASA sent an email to AFP saying it had received a request from Chile and was “prepared to provide such support as requested.” The space agency said it was asked “to provide technical advice related to NASA's life sciences research activities that might be of assistance in the current situation.” Manalich said two of the trapped miners had nursing experience, which will be a “tremendous asset” to keep the situation under control should the rescue operation take even longer than expected.

The miners, whose survival triggered a wave of national euphoria Sunday, said they were hungry after surviving on emergency rations of two tablespoons of tuna fish and half a cup of milk every 48 hours. Water had been trickling into the mine, too.

Paula Newman, a doctor in charge of monitoring the miners' health, said glucose solution and medication had been sent to them to prevent ulcers. Later, they were to be given high-protein, high-calorie foods.

“They are all in perfect health, and none are traumatized,” said Newman.

“Their complaints are much less than we could have expected.” It was thought the group had illumination from a lighting system rigged up to a truck engine.

The miners ranged in age from 19 to 63. Many were football fans, Chilean media reported. At least one had diabetes.

Friends and relatives keeping up an emotional vigil outside the mine sent personal messages to the miners to lift their spirits -- but avoided any talk of the long weeks and months that still lay ahead before any reunion.

“Hi daddy, it's Romina, I'm so happy you're well. This is one of the greatest joys of my life,” Romina, 20, wrote to her 63-year-old father Mario Gomez.

“We'd love to send you a football, but it won't fit in the drill hole,” said another, from Carolina to her father Franklin Lobos. – AFP

US funds restoration of global Islamic sites

WASHINGTON: The good will tour of the Middle East by the imam behind the proposed mosque near the former site of the World Trade Center is just part of the US government's efforts to reach out to the Muslim world.

This year, the Obama administration will spend nearly $6 million to restore 63 historic and cultural sites, including mosques and minarets, in 55 nations, according to State Department documents.

Under a program established by Congress in 2001, the department will fund at least five projects in as many countries at a cost of more than $271,000.

The contributions include $76,135 for the 16th century Grand Mosque in Tongxin, China, and $67,500 for the 18th century Golden Mosque in Lahore, Pakistan. An additional $62,169 will be spent on restoring a 19th century minaret in Mauritania's ancient city of Tichitt; $50,437 for the Sundarwala Burj, a 16th century Islamic Monument in New Delhi, and $15,450 to restore the 18th century Gobarau Minaret in Katsina, Nigeria.

The amount spent on mosque restoration projects is a fraction of the total in the 2010 Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, which also will fund projects to restore Christian and Buddhist sites as well as museums, forts and palaces.

Since 2001, the US government has spent almost $26 million on the program to fund about 640 cultural preservation projects in more than 100 countries.

''The fund has demonstrated America's respect for the world's cultural heritage,'' Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said last month in announcing the 2010 projects. ''Cultural heritage serves as a reminder of historical experiences and achievements of humanity. Ancient structures and objects offer important lessons for us today.'' – AP

Another Sindh town goes under water

LARKANA: Unchecked flow of floodwaters from Tori and Begari breaches inundated Qubo Saeed Khan, a thriving town of Qambar-Shahdadkot district, on Tuesday, cutting all road links and making it impossible for the affected people to move to safety.

District Coordination Officer Ghulam Yaseen Shar said evacuation of about 150 villages along a 51km dyke had been ordered and people had started moving out.

However, villagers have complained that warning had been issued at the eleventh hour. “How can we shift to safe places without transport.”

The Qubo Saeed Khan town with a population of about 20,000 is facing water surge from three directions — Shahdadkot, Chukhi and the FP embankment.

Waters gushing from six cuts in Saifullah Magsi branch at Chukhi joined the flow from Shahdadkot to submerge the entire town.

MNA Ramesh Lal and local landowner Mir Mithal Khan Mugheri said the entire taluka with a population of 150,000 had been inundated and floodwaters were flowing towards the Zero Point near Saroh lake and Hamal lake.

The water level at a temporary dyke around Shahdadkot has dropped by nine inches from 8.5 feet.

Mir Mugheri said about 6,000 people were marooned in Qubo Saeed Khan. The DCO said 100 people had been rescued by helicopters.

Floodwaters from breaches in Saifullah Magsi branch at Ghulam Mustafa Jarwar and Ishaque Mugheri villages are mounting further pressure on the town. The DCO said Shahdadkot town remained under threat.

In Qambar, Chandio tribe’s chief Sardar Khan accused the government of having failed to work out a plan to systematically fight the flood and evacuate people.

He told reporters that the Main Nara Valley Drain, Panhwaro shakh, Naseer shakh and Supro bund would not be able to withstand the mounting pressure and Warah, Qambar, Nasirabad, Khairpur Nathan Shah and Gozo areas were under threat.

He said heavy machinery was needed to fortify dykes on a war footing as had been done in Shahdadkot.

He said the floodwaters were likely to flow between Hamal lake and the Naseer and Panhwaro shakhs.

There are about 15,000 people in a relief camp set up in Larkana for families displaced from Qambar-Shahdadkot.

AQIL-AGANI DYKE
Water is receding after a 200-foot erosion in the dyke about 6km from Larkana.

However, local people said the Indus was more dangerous while receding than it was while in flood. Irrigation officials are dumping stones to strengthen the weakened portion of the dyke.

Sindh Assemby Speaker Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said the situation was under control. He said the National Highway Authority was helping in efforts to save the dyke.

Larkana DCO Hassan Naqvi said a 35-foot portion of the dyke eroded by flood torrents was yet to be repaired. A large number of trucks loaded with stones are dumping stones under the supervision of Mr Khuhro.

An irrigation official said the crisis would be over because the work would continue during the night.

The DCO said there were more than 100,000 displaced people in relief camps and at other places in the district.

Pano Aaqil’s General Officer Commanding Maj-Gen Nasrullah visited the dyke on Tuesday. Sukkur Barrage Right Bank Chief Engineer Agha Aijaz Pathan told him that two new spurs would be built after the flood season to minimise chances of erosion in future.

Our staff correspondent in Hyderabad adds: According to the Sukkur barrage control room, a flow of 938,438 cusecs upstream and 916,033 cusecs downstream was recorded at 8pm on Tuesday.

Off-taking canals of the barrage are getting 22,405 cusecs. Flood-fighting efforts are under way on the left bank of the Indus.

The barrage’s Chief Engineer Manzoor Sheikh said the water level at the Dadu-Moro location had dropped by three decimal points.

PANIC IN KOTRI
Panic gripped Kotri town as seepages were reported from a protective wall along the river. Immediate steps were taken by the administration to stop the seepages with the help of a large number of local people.

The kutcha area of Khanpur near Kotri has been inundated. Hyderabad DCO Aftab Ahmed Khatri said the situation was under control and there was no reason for panic.

MANJHAND
Efforts are being made to save Manjhand taluka and manage the water in Manchhar lake.

Sindh Finance Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said on Tuesday that floodwaters from Shahdadkot would fall into the lake in six or seven days.

He expressed the hope that the level of the river would drop by then to allow disposal of water from the lake into it. Otherwise, it would pose a threat to the lake’s banks, he said.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is scheduled to visit Hyderabad on Wednesday. According to officials he will be briefed at the Kotri barrage on the situation.

Incentives for flood-hit farmers

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided on a number of incentives for farmers to enable them to recover the losses caused by floods and grow essential crops to meet the country’s food requirements.

The incentives were discussed at a high-level meeting presided over by President Asif Ali Zardari at the Presidency on Tuesday.

Fears were expressed at the meeting that the country might experience a food crisis in near future because of widespread damage to crops from the floods.

The meeting was informed that over one million people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan had received no relief goods so far because the authorities concerned had failed to reach the areas, a source said.

These families are stranded on mountains and in far-flung areas where rescue and relief teams have no access.

Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the meeting had decided to encourage farmers to sow canola in flood-affected areas early next month and help them with seed and other inputs and land preparation to make optimal utilisation of land before the Rabi wheat season in November this year.

The meeting also decided to increase the purchase price of canola from Rs1,600 to Rs1,800 per 40kg.

The Solvent Plant Association has already given an assurance to purchase the crop at Rs1,800 per 40kg. Canola cultivation will not only relieve pressure on foreign exchange needed for import of edible oil but also improve fertility of the soil, the meeting was informed.

The meeting was attended by, among others, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Nazar Mohammad Gondal, Mir Humayun Aziz Kurd, Rana M. Farooq Saeed Khan, M. Salman Faruqui and Zaka Ashraf.

The meeting was informed that the canola crop would be followed by cotton. The president advised the government to provide free supply of seed to canola growers and help them to start early next month which is the right time to sow canola.

He asked the Ministry of Food & Agriculture to assess agricultural losses, including the loss of stored seeds and other agricultural items, and suggest measures to compensate the losses during the Kharif crop with the coming Rabi crop.

The meeting agreed that farmers in the affected areas should be provided maximum help in procurement of seed and other required items for their crops.

Mr Zardari asked the president of ZTBL to work out a scheme of providing financial assistance to farmers in affected areas to enable them to grow their crops and compensate their losses.

The Pakistan Agriculture Research Council was asked to carry out a study on the impact of climatic changes in the wake of the unprecedented floods.

Agencies add: Mr Zardari said that Pakistan could take years to recover from the floods. The president expressed concern that militants would try to exploit the chaotic situation in the country.

“I see always such organisations and such people taking advantage of the human crisis,” he said in an interview published in Britain’s Independent newspaper on Tuesday.

“It is again a challenge to not let them take advantage of this human crisis.”

Men posing as IDPs eye land, buildings: police

KARACHI: As flood-affected people continue to stream into relief camps here from different parts of the province, an organised campaign to grab government and private land has emerged as a serious challenge to the authorities to restrain land-grabbers masquerading as internally displaced persons.

Government officials, however, claim to have already wrested back more than half a dozen pieces of property in minor or major police operations.

A major incident was witnessed only on Monday when two young men were killed and nearly a dozen others, including four policemen, wounded in an exchange of fire between the police and gunmen in Safoora Goth.

A police team had gone to a new housing project near the Karachi Institute of Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine in Scheme 33 to get it vacated from the ‘land-grabbers’ who had occupied it pretending to be flood-affected people, where it came under attack.

“This was a major attempt of encroachment by persons pretending to be flood victims,” said a police official citing incidents so far reported to the police authorities for action. “Apart from that, a number of complaints were received in Bin Qasim and Gadap towns, where police successfully met the target and got the pieces of land vacated from the land-grabbers.”

He said so far only one such completed project was occupied by ‘land-grabbers’, as in seven other cases people set up camps on open land, mainly in the two towns, faking as internally displaced persons.

“Three such complaints were received each in Bin Qasim and Gadap towns while a single case was handled within the remit of the Maripur police station, where lands for different residential or other schemes were occupied by people pretending to be flood-affectees.

An attempt to encroach on land along the Malir riverbed was also foiled. All these activities were done within a week,” he added.

Currently more than 30,000 people displaced by the devastating floods in different parts of the province are living in nearly two dozen relief camps set up by the government across Karachi.

However, the latest situation sets alarms bell ringing in the quarters concerned as the builders who, after the Monday incident feared more such attempts by professional land-grabbers in the garb of flood-affectees, have approached the police authorities to coordinate prompt action in any other such case.

“Other than the Monday incident in Safoora Goth, so far we have not witnessed any attempt on any ready-to-occupy project,” said Farooq-uz-Zaman, the chairman of the Association of Builders and Developers (ABAD).

“But there are complaints of grabbing of private properties by professionals feigning to be flood-affectees. We have been coordinating with the police authorities to help curb such activities.”

The police high-ups, though satisfied with the recent performance of their force, admit that the scattered attempts to take over built-up property as well as land were planned and executed by organised groups, which enjoyed support of political parties.

“They are professional land-grabbers,” said Waseem Ahmed, capital city police officer. “They are very much political activists and associated with parties.

We have conveyed our message to ABAD asking them to point out those areas where such attempts are being made and assured them we would definitely take action.”

He said the police had so far managed to foil every attempt of encroaching private property and grabbing of land. He said the Monday action reflected the police’s resolve without any discrimination.

“Lately, a few attempts were also made on the land along the Malir riverbed by people pretending to be flood victims, but we moved fast and got it evacuated,” added the CCPO.

SC issues contempt notice to Pemra chairman

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a contempt of court notice to the chairman of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), Mushtaq Malik, for misleading the court over blocking of transmissions of two private television channels --- ARY News and Geo News --- in some cities of Sindh.

“The perusal of the apology tendered by the chairman Pemra in which he had changed his earlier stand prima facie indicates that he intentionally made an incorrect statement to undermine the authority of the Supreme Court and to obstruct the dispensation of justice,” said the order issued by a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday and Justice Ghulam Rabbani.

Mr Malik’s action, the chief justice observed in the order, fell under Section 3 of the Contempt of Court Act. Therefore, contempt of court notice was issued against him to show cause why action should not be taken under the contempt laws.

The bench had taken up three petitions moved by President of ARY Digital Network Dr Shahid Masood Khan, representatives of Royal TV and another on behalf of subscribers of the Geo News against four cable operators — WorldCall, Media Plus, City Communications and Karachi Cable Service.

The contempt notice against the Pemra chairman was issued after a statement submitted by provincial police officers (IGs) of Sindh and Punjab claiming no FIR had been registered in their respective provinces for attacking the offices of cable operators in Karachi and damaging broadcast equipment.

The court, however, decided to drop a similar allegation against Acting Secretary Information and Broadcasting Sohail Mansoor who also oversee the affairs of the Pakistan Television for airing a talk show on Aug 13 which according to the petitioner amounts to defaming the court. “No action is called for against the PTV,” the chief justice said.

After hearing the transcript of the talk show and reading the reply submitted by the acting secretary information the court find that nothing was uttered in the programme that undermines or belittles the dignity of the court.— Staff Reporter

Pressure rises on vulnerable embankments in Thatta

THATTA: The swelling Indus has increased pressure on vulnerable points of Surjani, Monarki, Aghimani, Sonda Hilaya and Gulail Indo dykes and the area people are not satisfied with the efforts being taken by the government and the PPP’s local leadership to strengthen the flood protective embankments.

The district administration, PPP activists and the Shirazi group are utilising their potential and concentrations to get strengthened the old Surjani protective bund, the most vulnerable site due to escalating pressure of Indus for the last 48 hours ending on Tuesday evening.

Located about one kilometre away from the officially declared vulnerable Surjani protective bund on left bank of Indus, the site is exactly the same where an 800-foot breach had occurred on 17th of August 1988, causing massive and irreparable losses to the urban and rural population of taluka Sujawal, Mirpur Bathoro and Jati.

The then Sindh government declared the area as calamity-stricken.

A media team, which visited the site found some 200 to 300 villagers with the staff of district administration dumping the mud containing gunny bags along the dyke under the supervision of the district president PPP Arbab Wazir Ahmed Memon.

In line, half a kilometre away former District Nazim Syed Shafqat Hussain Shah Shirazi and his elder brother Syed Aijaz Ali Shah Shirazi were also busy with an equal number of villagers to strengthen the vulnerable site.

Arbab Wazir Memon told Dawn that they had dumped over 5,000 mud filled gunny bags, wooden logs, and other material, but the site still required 15,000 empty gunny bags, to be filled with mud and dumped at the site.

PPP MPA Sadiq Memon, who was also present at the site, said that, a consignment of 10,000 empty gunny bags would reach the site soon.

He said in fact the irrigation department, since plugging the ruptured site in 1988, had not carried out its stone pitching and other maintenance.

Very calculative, PPP District President Arbab Wazir Memon, who is native of the nearby village Darro, said that the prevalent situation was absolutely different than of 1988, adding that the water quantum is comparatively high, and the velocity of wind was dangerous and the Indus water was eroding Surjani from RD 0/1 to 1/4 within the range of one and half kilometre and such a rapid way wash phenomenon was not a good sign, hence he was not confident the site would sustain the onslaught.

Meanwhile, the irrigation and RBOD authorities by strengthening the bunds of K.B Feeder lower and Indus bund along with National Highway, have succeeded in temporarily containing the water, overtopping the Indus from near Raju Nizamani for the last one and half day which has minimised the threat to National Highway and Keenjhar Lake.

So far 12 more villages near Ali Behar and Sonda Hilaya bund have been encircled by the Indus water.

PALIJO

Chief of Awami Tehreek Rasool Bux Palijo has said that the Surjani and Monarki vulnerable dykes were getting sensitive with every passing day and irrigation authorities would be responsible for any such disaster.

At a news conference at press club on Tuesday, Mr Palijo also spoke on issues like “MQM chief Altaf Hussain’s call for martial law” and others

In an obvious reference to the Shirazi group, Sindh Culture Minister Sassui Palijo, without naming anyone, said that the PPP rivals should voluntarily dismantle their private flood protective bunds if they are really sincere with the people of Thatta.

She said that the Sindh government was utilising its entire potential and resources to provide maximum relief to the flood-affected people. She said it was a great challenge and the nation would definitely face it with courage.