‘How to Wage Holy War’: Mali's Islamic Radicals Recruited Child Soldiers at Schools
New Age Islam News Bureau
24
Feb 2013
Africa
• ‘How to Wage Holy War’: Mali's Islamic Radicals Recruited Child Soldiers at Schools
• 50 killed in Arab militia attack in Darfur: Residents
• At least 11 dead in clashes in southern Somalia, according to witnesses
Arab World
• Syria missile strikes in Aleppo leave 58 dead'
• Battle for Aleppo airport intensifies
• Syria opposition slams world powers inaction over slaughter
• Rivals’ ‘inner’ wish ... Mursi in outer space
• Poor residents in old Jeddah forced to continue living in dilapidated buildings
• Statue of Egypt’s famed classical singer gets Burqa, flag makeover
• ‘New influx’ of weapons in Syria fuelling fights against Assad, extremists
• Egypt Elections on April 22, Christian minority protest injustice
Pakistan
• Spiral of Karachi killings widens Pakistan's sectarian divide
• Militants kill six labourers in Pasni, Baluchistan
• 50 Lashkar-i-Jhanvi men detained in Punjab
• If the army steps in Quetta, so will international forces
• Hazaras demand joint parliamentary session over Quetta killings
• ‘War’ between PPP and MQM could be fake: Nawaz Sharif
• South Asia has no partition monument: historian Tariq Ali
• Grilling Mumbai attacks witnesses: FIA awaits green signal from Indian authorities
• Karachi Police arrest man on charges of rape of foreign worker
• Cleric targeted in Jacobabad last week teaches only the message of peace
• Pak Taliban renews talks offer; to approach political leaders
North America
• Saudis in America have the least legal problems among foreigners: ambassador
• Focus on Pakistani nation, not just terror fight, Munter tells US govt
• US peace activists call for end to drone strikes
India
• Hackers post bomb threat on Bihar Tourism website, say 'Pakistan Zindabad'
• I am here to share your pain, PM tells Hyderabad blast victims
• Another Gujarat cop arrested in Ishrat encounter case
• Karnataka Police picks up clues from Hyderabad student in custody
• Shehla Masood murder: CBI may question senior BJP MLA
• Pak-based outfit looks to revive J&K militancy
• Yasin Bhatkal walked out of Kolkata jail as 'Bulla Mallik'
• More powers in special zones: J&K police Bill has AFSPA ring
• Kashmiri students to start helpline for Marathi tourists
• Hyderabad blasts have Indian Mujahideen founders Bhatkal brothers' signature
• 300% rise in suspicious terror financing cases: FIU report
South Asia
• 17 Taliban militants killed in Afghanistan
• Three shot dead in Bangladesh protest over bloggers
• Two suicide bombings in Afghanistan kill three
• Maldives says no deal as Nasheed back in action
• Bahrain to recruit Bangladeshi workers
• Sri Lankan student Mohamed Naleer Yasi world’s best in maths
Mideast Asia
• They will kill me’: Austrian hostage in Yemen makes desperate video plea
• Iran says it has brought down a foreign spy drone
• Iran selects 16 sites for new nuclear plants
Europe
• Algeria army kills 12 gunmen, arms seized
Southeast Asia
• Malaysia: DAP denies it is anti-Islam
• End of Islam under Pakatan rule, warns Najib
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
Photo: Mali's Islamic Radicals Recruited Child Soldiers at Schools
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Africa
"How to Wage Holy War”: Mali's Islamic Radicals Recruited Child Soldiers at Schools
February 23, 2013
Associated Press
GAO, Mali – The radical Islamic fighters showed up at Mohamed Salia's Quranic school, armed with weapons and demanding to address his students.
The leader, named Hamadi, entered one of the classrooms, took a piece of chalk and scrawled his message on the blackboard.
"How to wage holy war," he wrote in Arabic. "How to terrorize the enemy in combat," the lesson plan continued.
Then his mobile phone rang, and he stepped away to answer. Salia urged his students to pose some questions of their own when he returned: Where had he come from and what did he want with a bunch of young people?
Hamadi told the students that people didn't ask questions like that where he was from. Islam knows no nationality, he replied and then left — and did not return before the French-led military operation ousted him and his fighters from power last month.
"I told my students to be careful: that these men may be well-versed in the Quran but their Islamic point of view is not the same as ours," the teacher recalled.
Nearly a month after the Al Qaeda-linked militants were driven out of Gao and into the surrounding villages, students are now returning to the city's Quranic schools.
Many classrooms, though, are still half full, as tens of thousands of people fled the fighting and strict Islamic rule the extremists.
However, other pupils left Gao not with their families but with the Islamic fighters when they retreated, say human rights activists and local officials.
The experience of the Gao schools illustrates how the extremists used madrassas in northern Mali to indoctrinate young people and to recruit child soldiers.
The Islamic radicals attacked Gao several times this week, their second assault on the strategic city since they retreated in the face of French and Malian military, and their young recruits appear to be part of the strategy of MUJAO, or Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa.
"MUJAO took many of the students from the Quranic schools because they speak Arabic and are easier to convert and manipulate," Gao Mayor Sadou Diallo told The Associated Press. "Between 200 and 300 children have disappeared with the jihadists."
"The schools were all complicit. They didn't have a choice — if you didn't collaborate with MUJAO you died," Diallo said.
An untold number of children are believed to have been killed in the January fighting in central Mali, he said, and when jihadist strongholds were bombed in Gao during the military intervention last month.
Dozens of child soldiers were believed to be living in a government customs building that was later bombed during the military offensive, residents say. The Islamic fighters took away their wounded before it could be determined how many casualties there were at the site.
The rubble of the building is littered with tiny children's shoes, and notebooks and pieces of wood on which the children copied Quranic verses. The children's writing in pen on notebook paper depicts verses seeking protection from evil.
Imams and directors of the Quranic schools in Gao say it was here that the youths were radicalized, while the existing schools continued their regular curriculum.
Students who were plucked from classrooms in Gao and the surrounding communities came to the customs building to study and prepare for war.
At the Adadatou Alislamiatou madrassa in Gao, pupils are now back in class after the disruptions caused by the fighting and a Feb. 10 attack when the militants re-invaded the city in a show of force before being forced back into the bush by French and Malian forces.
As the afternoon sun bakes the ground outside the classroom hut, 10-year-old Abdoulaye Ousmane leads his classmates in reciting Quranic verses while their teacher attends prayers at the nearby mosque.
Sporting a soccer jersey and flip-flops, Abdoulaye sings out the words as he traces the Arabic script in chalk with his pointer, and an exuberant group of nearly 50 other children loudly sing back to him loudly.
They sit cross-legged on mats on the sand floor of the thatched hut — the girls on one side all wearing headscarves with some carrying Hannah Montana backpacks, too.
As these students return to school after the MUAO occupation, their teachers say many have been traumatized by the gunfire and fighting. Religious instructors are also confronted with how best to guide their students who have been exposed to the extremist ideology of Al Qaeda-linked militants.
During the reign of the MUJAO, the Islamic fighters amputated hands of suspected thieves in public squares. Billboards displayed around town ordered women to cover themselves in public.
The Islamic militants capitalized on the city's poverty, offering sign-on bonuses and monthly salaries to those who joined their cause, imams said.
Abdourhamane Maiga, assistant director of the Adadatou Alislamiatou madrassa, recalls one student who dropped out of school after being asked to repeat a grade.
The next time Maiga saw the pupil, he was wielding a firearm with the Islamic fighters at their police headquarters downtown.
"They didn't come here to practice Islam," he says of the extremists. "The prophet never would have accepted a child of 10 years old waging jihad and taking up arms."
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/02/23/mali-islamic-radicals-recruited-child-soldiers-at-madrassa-schools-in-gao/#ixzz2LofPuXOz
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50 killed in Arab militia attack in Darfur: Residents
February 24, 2013
Members of an Arab militia, firing heavy machine guns, on Saturday killed more than 50 people in Sudan's Darfur region, residents said, in continuing unrest that has caused a massive displacement of people.
"They came on Land Cruisers, used Dushkas and burned 30 houses
killing 53 people," said one resident of El Sireaf town, to which most of the 1,00,000 people displaced or severely affected by the earlier tribal fighting had fled.
Another resident, who said he was wounded, also gave a figure of 53 dead.
The two said the attackers belonged to a militia of the Rezeigat tribe, which has been fighting rival Arabs from the Beni Hussein group since early January in the Jebel Amir gold-mining area of North Darfur state.
"We are in the cemetery burying these people," the first resident said, adding that the dead included two women and two children.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/restofasia/50-killed-in-Arab-militia-attack-in-Darfur-Residents/Article1-1016567.aspx
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At least 11 dead in clashes in southern Somalia, according to witnesses
Feb 23, 2013
MOGADISHU: At least 11 people were today killed in clashes between rival pro-government clan-based militias in the southern Somalian port of Kismayo, witnesses said.
"I saw at least 11 people, especially fighters, killed in these battles," a Kismayo elder, Mohamed Ga'al, told AFP, while Somali Prime Minister Abdi Said Shirdon called on the two clans to lay down their arms.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/At-least-11-dead-in-clashes-in-southern-Somalia-according-to-witnesses/articleshow/18649291.cms
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Arab World
Syria missile strikes in Aleppo leave 58 dead'
February 24, 2013
Three surface-to-surface missiles fired by Syrian regime forces in the northern city of Aleppo have left 58 people dead, among them 36 children, a watchdog said on Sunday, updating an earlier toll.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights revised its toll upwards after more bodies of women and children were removed from the rubble in Aleppo's Tariq al-Bab district, which was struck by the powerful missiles on Friday.
Activists say the missiles were fired from army base 155 near Damascus, though their reports could not be independently verified.
A security official in Damascus told AFP late last year the Syrian regime has developed its own version of the Scud, while NATO has since reported the use of ballistic missiles in the country.
According to the Observatory, the army's use of the missiles is part of a bid to overrun neighbourhoods east of Aleppo, which are almost completely under rebel control.
On Friday, the opposition Syrian National Coalition vented fury at world powers following the missile strikes and announced a boycott of international meetings.
Coalition chief Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib said the boycott was "a message of protest to all governments of the world..." who were merely looking on as the Syrian people were being killed.
The group had been due to attend a Friends of Syria meeting in Rome next Thursday, while Khatib had also been invited to Moscow, and to the United States.
"We cannot visit any country until there is a clear decision on this savage, aggressive regime," Khatib said of President Bashar al-Assad's administration.
The Coalition singled out Damascus ally Russia, saying its leaders were "ethically and politically responsible because they continue to support the (Syrian) regime with weapons".
On Saturday, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland condemned the missile strikes, saying they were "the latest demonstrations of the Syrian regime's ruthlessness and its lack of compassion for the Syrian people it claims to represent."
At least 110 people were killed Saturday nationwide -- 46 civilians, 35 rebels and 29 soldiers, the Observatory said.
The almost two-year conflict has cost the lives of more than 70,000 people according to the UN.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/RestOfAsia/Syria-missile-strikes-in-Aleppo-leave-58-dead/Article1-1016713.aspx
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Battle for Aleppo airport intensifies
24 February 2013
The battle for Syria’s second-largest airport intensified on Saturday as regime troops tried to reverse rebels’ strategic gains in the northeast recently.
Rebels have been trying for months to capture Aleppo’s international airport.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the Britain-based activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the fighting is now concentrated around a section of a highway that connects the city with the airport.
Full report at:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/battle-for-aleppo-airport-intensifies/article4446498.ece
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Syria opposition slams world powers inaction over slaughter
24 February 2013
BEIRUT: The umbrella opposition National Coalition yesterday condemned world powers for failing to act to stop the slaughter in Syria, as missiles killed at least 29 in second city Aleppo.
The remarks by spokesman Walid al-Bunni came after the Coalition had said it would form a government to run “liberated areas” of Syria and was pulling out of several international meetings in protest against world “silence”.
“We cannot continue listening to statements that are not accompanied by action,” Bunni said it remarks to France 24’s Arabic-language channel. “The world has a responsibility to protect (the Syrian people) from a butcher who has been slaughtering them for two years,” a reference to Bashar Assad.
Full report at:
http://www.arabnews.com/middle-east/syria-opposition-slams-inaction-over-slaughter
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Rivals’ ‘inner’ wish ... Mursi in outer space
24 February 2013
Opponents of President Muhammad Mursi are voting to send him where no Egyptian leader has gone before: Outer space.
Mursi yesterday was leading the field in Egypt in an online contest sponsored by Axe to send a lucky few on a shuttle operated by space tourism company Space Expedition Corp.
Egypt’s opposition movement April 6 entered Mursi into the competition. “With God’s help, and under His care, Mursi will soon be launched to the moon,” the group said on its Facebook page, along with a picture of the president in a spacesuit.
Full report at:
http://www.arabnews.com/middle-east/rivals%E2%80%99-%E2%80%98inner%E2%80%99-wish-mursi-outer-space
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Poor residents in old Jeddah forced to continue living in dilapidated buildings
24 February 2013
Poor residents in old Jeddah districts say they have to live in dangerous dilapidated buildings because they cannot afford higher rents in other areas.
Most of the people living in these buildings are from Sudan, Yemen and Pakistan.
“I know I’m living in an old, dangerous building. However, I cannot leave it and look for another apartment. Rents are very high elsewhere. I’m currently paying SR 12,000 a year. Most of my neighbours also have the same problem with money,” said Ali Al-Hajj, a Sudanese resident living in a dilapidated building in south Jeddah.
Full report at:
http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/poor-residents-forced-continue-living-dilapidated-buildings
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Statue of Egypt’s famed classical singer gets Burqa, flag makeover
24 February 2013
A number of activists in Egypt’s Delta province of al-Mansoura placed the Egyptian flag on the statue of the country’s late famed classical singer Umm Kolthoum on Friday, in a response to an earlier incident, when anonymous individuals covered the singer’s statue with a Burqa.
The statue’s face was seen covered last week with the black veil, in what is known in the Muslim world as “burqa.”
Full report at:
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2013/02/24/268050.html
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‘New influx’ of weapons in Syria fuelling fight against Assad, extremists
24 February 2013
Fresh batches of weapons have recently been sent to Syria in a “renewed effort by outside powers” to arm the Free Syrian Army, officials told the Washington Post in a report on Sunday.
In recent weeks, anti-tank weapons and recoilless rifles, among other arms, have been sent across the Jordanian border into the Syrian province of Daraa, the newspaper stated, citing Arab and opposition officials.
Full report at:
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2013/02/24/267991.html
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Egypt Elections on April 22, Christian minority protest injustice
23 February 2013
Egypt's parliamentary elections, previously scheduled to begin on April 27, have been brought forward to April 22, the presidential spokesman said on his Facebook page on Saturday.
Members of Egypt's Coptic Christian minority had criticized the planned timing of the elections because some voting would take place during their Easter holiday.
Andrea Zaki, vice-president of the Evangelical Church called on Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi to adjourn the voting until May 7.
Full report at:
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2013/02/23/267942.html
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Pakistan
Spiral of Karachi killings widens Pakistan's sectarian divide
Feb 24 2013
Karachi: When Aurangzeb Farooqi survived an attempt on his life that left six of his bodyguards dead and a six-inch bullet wound in his thigh, the Pakistani cleric lost little time in turning the narrow escape to his advantage.
Recovering in hospital after the ambush on his convoy in Karachi, Pakistan's commercial capital, the radical Sunni Muslim ideologue was composed enough to exhort his followers to close ranks against the city's Shi'ites.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/spiral-of-karachi-killings-widens-pakistans-sectarian-divide/1078903/
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Militants kill six labourers in Pasni, Baluchistan
24 February 2013
PASNI: Militants gunned down six labourers on the coastal highway in Pasni’s Shadi Kor area in Gwadar district of Baluchistan province on Sunday.
Six labourers, believed to be natives of Zhob, were shot at by unknown motorcycle-riding gunmen. All the labourers died on the spot after which the assailants escaped , according to Levies sources who also claimed that it was a ‘target killing’ incident.
Full report at:
http://dawn.com/2013/02/24/militants-kill-six-laborers-in-pasni/
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50 Lashkar-i-Jhanvi men detained in Punjab
24 February 2013
LAHORE: Police have so far detained 50 members of defunct Lashkar-i-Jhanvi in a crackdown across the province in the last few days. The arrests have been made in the wake of recent Quetta suicide blast and a direction issued by the interior ministry.
A senior police officer told Dawn that the members, including leaders, had been put under arrest for a month under 3-Maintenance of Public Order. He said the crackdown would continue.
Full report at:
http://dawn.com/2013/02/24/50-lj-men-detained-in-punjab/
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If the army steps in Quetta, so will international forces
February 24, 2013
ISLAMABAD: Handing Quetta to the army would ultimately pave the way for the arrival of international forces in the province, the former president of the Pakistan People’s Party in Balochistan Nawabzada Lashkari Raisani has argued.
The demand to hand control to the army came from the frustrated Hazara minority who recently lost 200 people in terrorist attacks. The Baloch reacted badly to demand as they regard the army as their oppressors.
Full report at:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/511673/if-the-army-steps-in-quetta-so-will-international-forces-lashkari-raisani/
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Hazaras demand joint parliamentary session over Quetta killings
24 February 2013
QUETTA: The Hazara Democratic Party (HDP) has demanded of the federal government to convene joint session of the parliament to discuss the killings of ethnic Shia Hazaras in Quetta.
Addressing a press conference on Saturday, HDP Central Chairman Abdul Khaliq Hazara said that Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf should summon the intelligence agencies to brief all political forces on what he called “the genocide of Hazaras in Quetta”.
Full report at:
http://dawn.com/2013/02/23/hazaras-demand-joint-parliamentary-session-over-quetta-killings/
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‘War’ between PPP and MQM could be fake: Nawaz Sharif
February 24, 2013
LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif said that the ongoing ‘war’ between the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and former coalition partner Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) could be fake.
Nawaz, speaking to the media in Lahore on Sunday, suggested that it is possible that the two parties are ‘fighting’ because the provincial assemblies are about to be dissolved, and a caretaker chief minister is to be elected by the government — the PPP — and the opposition, now led by the MQM.
Full report at:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/511884/war-between-ppp-and-mqm-could-be-fake-nawaz-sharif/
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South Asia has no partition monument: historian Tariq Ali
February 24, 2013
LAHORE: Acclaimed writer and historian Tariq Ali on Saturday lamented the fact that neither Pakistan nor India had built even a single memorial for the victims of partition.
“It’s a total disgrace that close to two million people died and there is not a single memorial in either country for the victims of partition,” said Ali at the keynote address of the Lahore Literary Festival on Saturday.
Full report at:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/511816/south-asia-has-no-partition-monument-ali/
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Grilling Mumbai attacks witnesses: FIA awaits green signal from Indian authorities
February 24, 2013
RAWALPINDI: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Saturday informed the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Mumbai that it was awaiting a response from Indian authorities on allowing defence lawyers to cross-examine Indian witnesses in the 2008 Mumbai attacks case.
Full report at:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/511671/grilling-mumbai-attacks-witnesses-fia-awaits-green-signal-from-indian-authorities/
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Karachi Police arrest man on charges of rape of foreign worker
February 24, 2013
KARACHI: The Clifton police have arrested a man for the alleged rape of a 30-year-old Filipina domestic helper, and are tracking down his accomplice.
On Thursday at around 1:15 am, M* was allegedly raped by a resident, Mumtaz Baloch, at her apartment in Gizri. The alleged rapist was accompanied by I*, who was also accused of attempted rape. Both the men escaped before the police arrived.
Full report at:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/511762/harassment-and-theft-police-arrest-man-on-charges-of-rape-of-foreign-worker/
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Cleric targeted in Jacobabad last week teaches only the message of peace
February 24, 2013
SUKKUR: Dargah Hussainabad is a place of learning for hundreds of students, who live there free of cost. Among the largest religious institutions in the country, the dargah has produced hundreds of clerics and Hafiz-e-Quran.
Religious cleric Syed Ghulam Hussain Shah Bukhari – popularly known as Saeen Hussain Shah Qamber Waro – who manages the institution, made sure that the dargah is free of all political associations. Given this ideology, it was hard to believe that a bomb was planted on the side of a road that Saeen Hussain Shah was supposed to take. While Shah survived the bomb blast, his grandson was not very lucky.
Full report at:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/511776/cleric-targeted-in-jacobabad-last-week-teaches-only-the-message-of-peace/
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Pak Taliban renews talks offer; to approach political leaders
Feb 24 2013
Islamabad : Pakistani Taliban will directly approach three political leaders, including PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, to become guarantors for the peace talks, as it renewed its offer of dialogue with the government.
The decision that Ihsan should approach Sharif, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman and Jamaat-e-Islami leader Munawar Hassan was taken at a meeting of the 'Shura' (council) of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan held yesterday.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/pak-taliban-renews-talks-offer--to-approach-political-leaders/1078977/
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North America
Saudis in America have the least legal problems among foreigners: ambassador
24 February 2013
The Saudi ambassador to the United States, Adel Al-Jubair, said that the U.S. Homeland Security sees the Saudi nationals living in America to have the least legal problems among foreign nationals living in the country, the newly-launched Al Arabiya Arab in America website has reported.
Full report at:
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2013/02/24/268032.html
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Focus on Pakistani nation, not just terror fight, Munter tells US govt
24 February 2013
WASHINGTON: In Pakistan, the United States was dealing with a government that was not always able to deliver, said a former US ambassador, Cameron Munter.
In an interview to CNN, Mr Munter also urged the US administration to consider how their policies would affect the people in Pakistan while making policies for that country.
Mr Munter is believed to have left his job because of differences with the Obama administration over its policies towards Islamabad, particularly its decision to increase drone attacks on targets in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).
Full report at:
http://dawn.com/2013/02/24/focus-on-pakistani-nation-not-just-terror-fight-munter-tells-us-govt/
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US peace activists call for end to drone strikes
24 February 2013
WASHINGTON: Peace activists on Saturday completed a week of protests against US drone attacks in Pakistan and other places, urging the Obama administration to end the strikes.
On Friday evening, they held a vigil outside the Pakistan Embassy, Washington, in remembrance of non-combatants killed in the drone campaign.
“Certainly we would like an end to drone strikes. Our position is very clear and unambiguous, we consider them a violation of our sovereignty,” said Ambassador Sherry Rehman while talking to the protesters.
Full report at:
http://dawn.com/2013/02/24/us-peace-activists-call-for-end-to-drone-strikes/
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India
Hackers post bomb threat on Bihar Tourism website, say 'Pakistan Zindabad'
Feb 23 2013
Patna: A threat of Hyderabad-like blasts to avenge the hanging of Afzal Guru was posted on the website of Bihar Tourism department after it was attacked by hackers this morning.
Bihar Tourism minister Sunil Kumar Pintu said the website www.bihartourism.gov.in remained hacked from morning till 2.30 pm.
The hackers posted the threat to repeat Hyderabad-like blasts, besides message like 'Pakistan Zindabad', he said.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/hackers-post-bomb-threat-on-bihar-tourism-website-say-pakistan-zind.../1078686/
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I am here to share your pain, PM tells Hyderabad blast victims
Feb 24, 2013
HYDERABAD: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday visited the Thursday's blast sites and hospitals where the injured are being treated to express "solidarity" with the people of the city and appealed for peace and calm.
He lauded the people of the city for refusing to be provoked by the "nefarious" act.
Singh visited the twin blast sites and Omni and Yashoda hospitals where he met some of the injured and their families, assuring them of all help.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/I-am-here-to-share-your-pain-PM-tells-Hyderabad-blast-victims/articleshow/18655330.cms
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Another Gujarat cop arrested in Ishrat encounter case
February 24, 2013
AHMEDABAD: The CBI has arrested one more police officer in connection with the 2004 alleged fake encounter of Ishrat Jahan and three others, officials of the agency said.
The CBI late last evening arrested police inspector, Special Operation Group (SOG), Gandhinagar, Bharat Patel in the case and he was produced today before the court, along with suspended DySP Tarun Barot, who was also arrested yesterday.
Full report at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/another-gujarat-cop-arrested-in-ishrat-encounter-case/articleshow/18659428.cms
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Karnataka Police picks up clues from Hyderabad student in custody
Feb 24, 2013
HYDERABAD: Claiming to have vital clues to identify those behind the Dilsukhnagar blasts, a top investigation team of Karnataka police, led by chief of the state's anti-terrorism cell (ATC) Jitendranath, reached here on Saturday to assist the city police as well as the NIA and other teams that are probing the serial terror attacks.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Hyderabad-blasts-Karnataka-Police-picks-up-clues-from-Hyderabad-student-in-custody/articleshow/18651340.cms
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Shehla Masood murder: CBI may question senior BJP MLA
Feb 24 2013
New Delhi : CBI is likely to question a senior BJP MLA of Madhya Pradesh next week in connection with his alleged association with Shehla Masood murder accused Zahida Parvez and his alleged role in the murder conspiracy.
CBI sources said the agency is awaiting report of Central Forensic Science Laboratory on the authenticity of a CD recovered by it from the residence of Parvez which is expected to be received by it on Monday.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/shehla-masood-murder-cbi-may-question-senior-bjp-mla/1078937/
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Pak-based outfit looks to revive J&K militancy
Feb 24 2013
Islamabad : Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, one of the three militants released by India in 1999 in exchange for passengers of a hijacked Indian Airlines flight, has decided to revive an “armed struggle” in Jammu and Kashmir while using Pakistan-occupied Kashmir as the base for his al Umar Mujahideen group.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/pakbased-outfit-looks-to-revive-j-k-militancy/1078752/
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Yasin Bhatkal walked out of Kolkata jail as 'Bulla Mallik'
Feb 24 2013
Bangalore : Ten days before the twin blasts struck Hyderabad, the Mumbai police announced a Rs 10 lakh award for information on Yasin Bhatkal. It was a desperate attempt for a breakthrough in the hunt for a 30-year-old who, since 2007, has been named almost every year in a terror attack in the country, but who has always managed to escape.
As the Indian Mujahideen is named in the Hyderabad attack, Yasin, its co-founder, is again among India’s most-wanted.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/yasin-bhatkal-walked-out-of-kolkata-jail-as-bulla-mallik/1078815/
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More powers in special zones: J&K police Bill has AFSPA ring
Feb 24 2013
Srinagar : While Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah frequently speaks out against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in force in the state, as per a Bill drafted by his own government, the state police could get powers quite similar to the controversial legislation.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/more-powers-in-special-zones-j-k-police-bill-has-afspa-ring/1078816/
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Kashmiri students to start helpline for Marathi tourists
Yogesh Joshi, Hindustan Times
February 24, 2013
Sent to Pune to complete their school education nine years ago, 50 students from Kashmir are set to go back to their native place, with the resolve to put what they learned to use. The students have decided to start a helpline for Marathi tourists in Kashmir.
Full report at:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/maharashtra/Kashmiri-students-to-start-helpline-for-Marathi-tourists/Article1-1016555.aspx
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Hyderabad blasts have Indian Mujahideen founders Bhatkal brothers' signature
Shishir Gupta, Hindustan Times
February 23, 2013
The metal shrapnel, type of burns (indicating use of ammonium nitrate in bombs) and blackening of body parts (pointing at boosters such as RDX) found in the victims of the twin blast in Hyderabad indicate the footprints of Indian Mujahideen (IM) co-founders and brothers Riyaz and Iqbal Shahbandri — from Bhatkal on the Konkan coast, now based in Pakistan — and the handiwork of mastermind Ahmed Zarar Siddibapa from the same town, say investigators.
Full report at:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/IndiaSectionPage/chunk-ht-ui-indiasectionpage-
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300% rise in suspicious terror financing cases: FIU report
Feb 24 2013
New Delhi : Over 1,400 instances of terror financing in country's economic channels were red-flagged by intelligence and security agencies last year, a latest report of the Finance Ministry says, marking a 300 per cent jump in such suspicious transactions.
The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), which functions under the ministry, has reported that it had received 1,444 reports during 2011-12 from agencies like the Intelligence Bureau, the Research and Analysis Wing and those in the economic domain and affiliated to the Income Tax and Customs departments.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/300--rise-in-suspicious-terror-financing-cases-fi.../1078911/
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South Asia
17 Taliban militants killed in Afghanistan
24 February 2013
As many as 17 Taliban militants have been killed during a series of security operations launched since Friday in Afghanistan, the government said on Saturday.
According to the country’s interior ministry, four militants were also arrested in the operations, carried out in the provinces of Nangarhar, Laghman, Kandahar and Logar, Xinhua reported.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/south-asia/17-taliban-militants-killed-in-afghanistan/article4446425.ece
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Three shot dead in Bangladesh protest over bloggers
Feb 24, 2013
DHAKA: Bangladesh police fired live rounds on Sunday in clashes with Islamists demanding the execution of bloggers they accuse of blasphemy, killing at least three protesters and injuring dozens.
Eighteen of the injured suffered bullet wounds in the unrest at Singair in the central district of Manikganj, as the Muslim-majority nation was hit by an Islamist-enforced strike.
Khalilur Rahman, residential medical officer of Singair Hospital, told AFP three young men died of bullet wounds there.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/Three-shot-dead-in-Bangladesh-protest-over-bloggers/articleshow/18657709.cms
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Two suicide bombings in Afghanistan kill three
Feb 24, 2013
KABUL: Two suicide car bombings in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday killed two intelligence agents and a police officer, officials said.
In the first attack, a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a spy agency facility in the eastern town of Jalalabad, 150 kilometres (90 miles) east of Kabul.
It was followed by a similar attack on a police base in Logar, 70 kilometres south of the capital, officials said.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/Two-suicide-bombings-in-Afghanistan-kill-three/articleshow/18654983.cms
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Maldives says no deal as Nasheed back in action
February 24, 2013
The Maldivian government Sunday denied any deal to allow ex-president Mohamed Nasheed to end his refuge at the Indian embassy in the capital and resume election campaigning without fear of arrest.
Presidential spokesman Abbas Riaz said Nasheed walked out of the embassy on Saturday
afternoon of his own will and there was no agreement with an Indian mediator who rushed to the Maldives last week to resolve a tense standoff.
Full report at:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/maldives/Maldives-says-no-deal-as-Nasheed-back-in-action/Article1-1016625.aspx
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Bahrain to recruit Bangladeshi workers
24 February 2013
Bahrain will recruit manpower from Bangladesh under the government to government process, Expatriate Welfare Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain said on Sunday.
Around 15,000 to 20,000 Bangladeshi workers will be able to go to Bahrain legally every year, the minister said while replying to queries of reporters at his office.
Full report at:
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=45000
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Sri Lankan student Mohamed Naleer Yasi world’s best in maths
24 February 2013
A Sri Lankan student in Jeddah got the highest marks in the world for mathematics at the recent International General Certificate Secondary Education (IGCSE) examination that the University of Cambridge held throughout the world.
Mohamed Naleer Yasir, the global topper of the IGCSE exams in Mathematics, received an academic achievement award from the Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Jeddah, Adambawa Uthumalebbe.
Full report at:
http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/sri-lankan-student-world%E2%80%99s-best-maths
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Mideast Asia
They will kill me’: Austrian hostage in Yemen makes desperate video plea
24 February 2013
An Austrian man, kidnapped in Yemen late last year with a Finnish couple, said in a video posted online that his captors will kill him in a week if their demands are not met.
“My name is Dominik Neubauer. I’m an Austrian citizen. I’ve been taken hostage on the 21st of December 2012 by a Yemeni tribe,” the hostage says in the video, a gun held to his head.
“I appeal to the Yemeni government, to the Austrian government and to all the governments concerned and to the European Union to give them what they want. Otherwise, they will kill me seven days after this video is published,” the 26-year-old Arabic studies student said in the video posted on Feb. 21, 2013.
Full report at:
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2013/02/24/268012.html
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Iran says it has brought down a foreign spy drone
Feb 24 2013
London : Iran's Revolutionary Guards have brought down a foreign surveillance drone during a military exercise, the official Islamic Republic News Agency said on Saturday.
"We have managed to bring down a drone of the enemy. This has happened before in our country," the agency quoted war games spokesman General Hamid Sarkheli as saying in Kerman, southeast Iran, where the military exercise is taking place.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/iran-says-it-has-brought-down-a-foreign-spy-drone/1078901/
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Iran selects 16 sites for new nuclear plants
24 February 2013
Iran has selected 16 locations for the construction of nuclear power plants as part of a plan to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity at multiple sites over the next 15 years.
State TV says on Saturday that experts at the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran have finished studies to select the best locations across the country. It added that sites were chosen in part for their resistance to earthquakes and military air strikes.
Full report at:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/iran-selects-16-sites-for-new-nuclear-plants/article4446379.ece
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Europe
Algeria army kills 12 gunmen, arms seized
Feb 23, 2013
ALGIERS: The Algerian military has killed 12 gunmen, including three wanted criminals, in provinces outside the capital, the defence ministry announced on Saturday.
The ministry, in a statement quoted by Algeria's APS news service, said the 12 gunmen were killed in clashes on Friday and Saturday in the governorates of Chlef and Boumerdes, after which weapons and a large amount of ammunition were seized.
Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb has been active in Boumerdes, 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of Algiers.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/Algeria-army-kills-12-gunmen-arms-seized/articleshow/18649075.cms
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Southeast Asia
Malaysia: DAP denies it is anti-Islam
24 February 2013
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 24 — The DAP has denied oppressing Islam, saying today Datuk Seri Najib Razak has no evidence to prove his claim.
DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said the Najib's "wild allegation" was grossly inaccurate, adding that it was unbecoming of a prime minister to play the race card and incite "racial extremist sentiments" just to woo voters.
Full report at:
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/dap-denies-its-anti-islam/
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End of Islam under Pakatan rule, warns Najib
24 February 2013
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 24 ― Voting PKR and PAS will divide the Muslim community and destroy their aqidah (faith), Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has said, in a warning to Malay voters against supporting the opposition in Election 2013.
Najib (picture) also added that supporting DAP would see “Islam oppressed” if the Chinese-dominated component of Pakatan Rakyat (PR) were to be voted into power, according to Sunday Star.
Full report at:
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/end-of-islam-under-pakatan-rule-warns-najib/
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/‘how-wage-holy-war’-mali/d/10540