PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — Pakistani security forces battling to clear militants from the area along a key NATO supply route into Afghanistan on Sunday seized a van packed with 1,000 kilos of explosives, an official said.Seven suspected Taliban militants were also arrested in the operation in the northwestern town of Jamrud, the gateway to the famed Khyber Pass linking Pakistan and Afghanistan, the senior security official told AFP."The van was packed from floor to ceiling with explosives weighing around 1,000 kilogrammes," or 2,200 pounds, the official said, adding that detonators were attached to the explosives."The van could have been used during Muharram and caused many deaths if this huge amount of explosives had been detonated," he said, referring to the Muslim mourning period currently being observed in Pakistan.
Security forces launched the operation in the rugged Khyber tribal area near Jamrud last week, following a series of attacks on truck depots in and around the city of Peshawar that saw hundreds of NATO vehicles and containers torched.The anti-militant offensive forced the closure of the highway from Peshawar to the border town of Torkham, blocking NATO supply trucks from reaching Afghanistan.But the road has been open for a few hours a day since Friday during daylight breaks in the curfew that has been imposed on Jamrud until the military operation is complete.The security official said the seven men arrested were members of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, the country's umbrella Taliban group led by militant warlord Baitullah Mehsud.Mehsud was accused by the previous Pakistani government and US officials of plotting the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who was killed in a gun and suicide attack in Rawalpindi in December 2007
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Brazilian writer’s novel translated into Pashto
ISLAMABAD: The internationally acclaimed novel titled ‘Alchemist’ has been translated into Pashto language.Authored by internationally Brazilian renowned novelist Paulo Coelho, the ‘Alchemist’ has been translated into 67 languages. Prominent Pashto poet and journalist Rashid Khattak translated the novel from English into Pashto.Earlier, Rashid translated Afghan writer Saaduddin Shapon’s novel titled ‘Yaraan-e-Ghaar’ in Urdu. The ‘Alchemist’ has been translated in Pashto for the first time with title of ‘Kimya Gar’ and it got popularity in a short span of time in Pakhtun community.According to renowned Pashto poet and writer Mushtaqurahman, the novel of Brazilian author has been translated accurately. Lauding the work of Rashid Khattak, he said that a reader could get guidance through the novel.A young journalist, Tariq Aziz said that reader could enjoy the reading in Pashto. He lauded the work of Rashid and said that it would promote the culture of the novel writing. He said it is essential for the young to understand the literature of other regions.Another journalist, Riyaz Khan also lauded the work of the translator and termed it a good addition to the Pashto literature.
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President, PM urge nation to follow Bhutto’s philosophy
Monday, January 05, 2009
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, in their separate messages on the 80th birth anniversary of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto falling today (January 5), have urged the nation to follow Bhutto’s philosophy who brought power to the people and fought for the rights of the dispossessed.
In his message, President Asif Ali, who is also the PPP co-chairman, said, “Shaheed Bhutto was a colossus who towered over national politics for more than four decades.”He said, “By undoing an iniquitous status quo and snatching power from the elite and transferring it into the hands of the masses Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto has become a legend in Pakistan around whose name the country’s politics still revolved.”
At a time when dictatorship had brought disintegration and defeat to the nation in 1971, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto picked up the pieces of a truncated Pakistan to build it anew, raised the morale of a defeated and demoralized people, recovered 5,000 square miles of territory and brought back tens of thousands of prisoners of war, he said.
“It is a measure of his greatness that today the politics of the country revolves around his name.”The president said, “Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto helped the people shape their own destiny,” adding that he shall live forever in the pages of history.
The PPP co-chairman said, “As the nation pays tribute to one of its greatest sons, let us join hands to defeat militancy and extremism and move forward in the spirit of federalism, democracy, and egalitarianism which he lit through his example of courage in the defence of principles and ideals.”
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, in his message on the 81st birth anniversary of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, said January 5 would always be remembered as a day of great historical significance as a courageous and towering personality like Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was born. The prime minister said ZA Bhutto set the guiding principles for political, social and economic spheres, foreign relations, non-violence and religious tolerance. “And these same principles were adopted as manifesto by Benazir Bhutto Shaheed who laid down her life in the struggle to turn Pakistan into a democratic, progressive and welfare state,” he noted.
He said Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had left lasting and indelible imprint on the pages of the world history, which will not only guide the students of politics of coming generations but will also be a lesson adding to social consciousness.
The emergence of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will be remembered as an important turning point in the political history of South East Asia, he said, adding the PPP was the only party which gave socially deprived people consciousness and taught them how to get their snatched rights.
Calling Shaheed Zulfikar Bhutto the first democratic and popular leader, he said the martyred visionary gave Pakistan its first unanimous federal and democratic constitution. He said, “On this day, we vow that in the coming days we will rid Pakistan of all kinds of terrorism and parochialism and in the true sense will make the country a democratic and welfare state.”
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