‘Killer’ alleges MQM has militant wing

by Ansar Abbasi ↔ THE NEWS

ISLAMABAD: One of the most dangerous alleged target killers, who confessed to have killed many, including police officers in Karachi, has reportedly claimed his association with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s “militant wing”, and has named Dr Imran Farooq as the contact person for many party militants. He further said that Ajmal Pahari was one of the MQM’s men.

Arrested and interrogated in 2010 before the murder of Dr Imran Farooq, the accused target killer, Muhammad Ishtiaq, alias Salman, alias Police Wala, confessed before the Joint Interrogation Team comprising representatives of the ISI, IB, Rangers, CID, Sindh Police and Special Branch, as reported in an official document, that Ajmal Pahari (who was arrested recently in Karachi and is alleged to have been involved in the killing of 100 people) also belongs to the MQM.

Taliban: From Madrassa to mass murder

This is the video of the attacked to the Kabul Bank in Jalalabad. The official count of the dead is 40, unofficially up to 75 people.  In this video you can see how he keeps assuring people that he would not shoot them, and goes ahead and shoots them at close range as soon as the come to pass by him. You can also see how he shoots people he has asked to stay on the ground. The level of brainwash is astounding, as he remains so unapologetic about it. He says he enjoyed killing all those “kaafars” in the interview (0:56) after they caught him.

In this exclusive interview, Susan Ormiston speaks with the jihadist in an effort to understand the motivation, and the malice, behind the attack, and what led this young man from a madrassa, to mass murder. – CBC

Courtesy: CBC, YouTube

Alleged plot to assassinate LHC CJ: ‘Special Branch officials sought to create political rift’

ISLAMABAD: The three-member judicial commission that probed into the alleged plot to kill Chief Justice Lahore High Court Khwaja Mohammad Sharif, has revealed in its report that the apparent objective of the Special Branch report, authored by additional Inspector General, Colonel Ehsanur Rehman and his deputy Shahid Mahmood, was to malign and defame persons associated with the ruling party and the party itself.

This was done, the Commission said, to pitch the Punjab government of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) against the federal government of the Pakistan Peoples Party.

The Commission also questioned the move by the Special Branch Punjab to send one copy of the source report to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif when he was in Murree. The Commission wondered why the report was sent to Nawaz Sharif, who did not hold any official position in the Punjab government. …

Read more : The Express Tribune

Songs of the Saints, With Love, From Pakistan

By JON PARELES

Hands waved overhead. Voices shouted lyrics and whooped with delight. Children were hoisted onto parents’ shoulders. In the tightly packed crowd a few dancers made room to jump. T-shirts were tossed to fans from the stage.

Yet in the songs that Abida Parveen was singing, saints were praised. They were Islamic saints, the poets and philosophers revered by Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam.

It was the first New York Sufi Music Festival, a free three-hour concert on Tuesday in Union Square, and it had music from the four provinces of Pakistan, including traditional faqirs who perform outside temples, Sufi rock and a kind of rapping from Baluchistan.

The concert was presented by a new organization called Pakistani Peace Builders, which was formed after the attempted bombing in Times Square by a Pakistani-American. The group seeks to counteract negative images of Pakistan by presenting a longtime Pakistani Islamic tradition that preaches love, peace and tolerance.

Sufism itself has been a target of Islamic fundamentalists; on July 1 suicide bombers attacked Pakistan’s most important Sufi shrine. Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations, Abdullah Hussain Haroon, spoke between sets on Tuesday. “What we’re here to do today,” he said, is “to be at peace with all of America.”

Read more >> THE NEW YORK TIMES