Brother of ANP leader shot dead in Karachi

KARACHI: Two people have been killed in a shooting incident in the Sachal area of Karachi. Among the dead was Asif Khan, brother of ANP MNA Pervaiz Khan.

The shooting which took place near Karachi airport is most likely another incident of target killing.

Several injuries have also been reported.

One shop and one office set ablaze in Safora Goth area of Karachi, while several shops have been burnt in Gulistan-e-Jauher.

Riots and firing incidents have been reported in several areas of the city.

Fear rises as firing and unrest continues

Pakistan floods destroy crops over 4.25mn acres

ISLAMABAD: Floods in Pakistan have destroyed or extensively damaged crops over 4.25 million acres (1.72 million hectares) of land, Food Minister Nazar Muhammad Gondal said on Monday.

The total areas under cultivation is about 23 million hectares, food ministry officials say.

“The floods have destroyed or extensively damaged crops, including cotton, rice, sugarcane, maize and others over an area of 4.25 million acres,” he told Reuters.

According to an estimated breakdown of losses prepared by the food ministry, rice was the worst hit with an area of 1.51 million acres (614,157 hectares) destroyed by the floods.

Industry officials say that translates into a loss of 1.5 million tonnes of rice. Less output means Pakistan will have a smaller surplus for exports.

Pakistan had a bumper crop of 6.7 million tonnes of milled rice in 2009/10 and exported about 4.5 million tonnes, traders say.

But a US Department of Agriculture attache in Pakistan said in a report this month that the country exported 3.75 million tonnes of rice in 2009/10. -Reuters

Tajik borders tightened after deadly extremist jailbreak

DUSHANBE: Twenty-five extremist militants serving long jail terms in Tajikistan have escaped from prison, killing guards and sparking fears they could cross into neighbouring Afghanistan, officials said Monday.

The inmates broke free late Sunday from a detention centre of Tajikistan’s State Committee of National Security in the capital Dushanbe, attacking guards and seizing their arms, a representative of the committee told AFP.

“As a result, one of the guards was killed, 25 armed inmates escaped from jail, changing into fatigues,” the official said, citing a statement.

Officials, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, described the inmates as Islamic militants convicted of terrorism and drug trafficking many of whom were serving sentences ranging from 30 years to life.

Following their prison break, the inmates raided a nearby detention centre of the justice ministry in the early hours of Monday where they killed four guards and fled, the official said.

An official at the country’s interior ministry, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the escapees went to the Rasht Valley in the east of the country, adding that most of them are from that region and know it well.

Authorities have beefed up security across airports, railway stations and roads and are planning to deploy armoured vehicles and special forces in the east to recapture the escapees, officials said.

Tajikistan, where a bloody civil war between extremist forces and backers of Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, shares a porous 1,300-kilometre border with Afghanistan.

Military officials, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, expressed concern that the 25 criminals may attempt to illegally cross the border into northern Afghanistan.

Border guards were put on high alert to prevent the escaped militants from crossing the border, a spokesman for border guards told AFP.

Posts on the border with Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and China have also been put on high alert, the spokesman said.

The escaped militants include nationals of Afghanistan and six Russian citizens, all of them natives of the volatile North Caucasus region, where Russian authorities are battling an extremist insurgency.

Last Friday Tajikistan’s Supreme Court handed down prison sentences of 19.5 years to each of the five Russians, while the sixth was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

The men were part of the militant group the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and had been accused of seeking to topple the government in a riot in the east of the country last summer.

Earlier Monday, Rakhmon convened an extraordinary meeting with law enforcement and military officials, ordering them to capture the escaped militants.

The United States, which fights the Taliban militants in Afghanistan, has been sending non-lethal US supplies for its troops there through Tajikistan and is planning to build a 10-million dollar training centre for armed forces in the country to boost its hand in the region. —AFP

Pakistani athletes get two-year bans for doping

ISLAMABAD: Seven Pakistani track and field athletes have been suspended for two years for doping after testing positive for banned steroids.

Pakistan Amateur Athletics Federation secretary Khalid Mehmood says all seven athletes can appeal the suspensions.

Javelin thrower Mohammad Imran, who is due to compete in Commonwealth Games, is among the suspended athletes. Rozina Shafqat, Nadia Nazir, Shagufta Naureen, Zahra Razzak, Asif Javed and Mohammad Waseem are the others.

Mehmood said Imran will be replaced in javelin event of the Commonwealth Games, scheduled to be held in New Delhi from Oct. 3-14.

Last month, an appeal tribunal of Pakistan Olympic Association upheld sprinters Sadaf Siddique and Javeria Hassan’s two-year suspensions.

Protester killed, 31 policemen hurt in Kashmir

SRINAGAR: A protester wounded during clashes with Indian security forces in Kashmir died on Monday, stoking fresh tensions after 31 policemen were hurt in weekend clashes, police said.

The latest death brought to 63 the number of protesters and bystanders killed in two months of violent protests in the mainly Muslim region, most of them young men or teenagers shot dead by security forces.

The 28-year-old who died on Monday had been wounded during clashes in northern Baramulla district on August 14 and died in hospital, police said.

Residents said the death had led to new protests, where hundreds of people blocked the main highway in the dead man's village of Singhpora.

The scenic Kashmir region has been under rolling curfews to contain deadly protests that were sparked by the killing June 11 of a teenage student in Srinagar by a police teargas shell.

Anti-India demonstrations at five places in southern Pulwama district late Sunday left 31 policemen injured, including the district police chief, police said. One protester was also hurt.

Heavily militarised Indian-administered Kashmir has been the scene of a deadly anti-India insurgency for the past two decades.

Many commentators attribute the latest protests to frustration among the young generation because of deadlock in talks about the status of disputed Kashmir and high unemployment.

The government in New Delhi has suggested unrest is being whipped up by separatists and militants.

US, Nato soldier killed in Afghan attacks

KABUL: Two Nato soldiers, one of them American, were killed in attacks on Monday in volatile regions of Afghanistan, the alliance said, a day after four US troops died in violence.

Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement that two of its soldiers had died in separate improvised bomb attacks in the north of the country and in the south. It gave no further details.

An ISAF spokesman told AFP the soldier who died in the south was a US national.

The deaths bring to 453 the total number of troops to die in the Afghan war so far this year, according to an AFP tally based on a count kept by the independent icasualties.org website.

Most of the troops in the north are German, Norwegian and a small contingent from Sweden, being reinforced by Americans as violence in the northern provinces escalates.

The United States and Nato have 141,000 troops in Afghanistan fighting to quell the Taliban insurgency grinding towards the end of its ninth year.

The number is set to peak at 150,000 in coming weeks, with most new deployments heading to the southern hotspots of Kandahar and Helmand provinces, Taliban territory where fighting is fiercest. —AFP

Iran hangs three drug traffickers: report

TEHRAN: Iran has hanged three men, including an Afghan, convicted of drug trafficking in the central city of Isfahan, a newspaper reported on Monday.

The Iranian men, identified as Akbar Z., 33, and Hamid Reza H., 28, and the Afghan Shah S., 38, were hanged on Sunday in a prison in Isfahan, hardline newspaper Kayhan said.

The latest hangings bring the number of executions in Iran to at least 108 so far this year, according to an AFP count based on media reports. Last year, at least 270 people were hanged.

Iran says the death penalty is essential to maintain public security and is applied only after exhaustive judicial proceedings.

Murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking and adultery are all punishable by death in the Islamic republic. —AFP