ISLAMABAD: Renowned Atomic Scientist Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan Friday said Pakistan’s nuclear assets are completely secure and that ‘even a group of a thousand terrorists together won’t be able to gain access to its atomic technology.’

Talking to journalists here, Dr. Abudul Qadeer Khan rubbished the impression that Pakistan’s atomic programme is not safe.

“The atomic technology is not a rudimentary thing and it is impossible for anyone, including terrorists, to gain access to it,” Dr. Qadeer ruled out in an unequivocal tone.

He said no one can steal the nuclear technology because its assembling and use requires highest level of sophisticated expertise. “Even a thousand terrorists together can’t gain access to it,” he added.

Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan said cooperation in the field of nuclear science can be enhanced with trustworthy friends like China.

Pakistan has 4 million Ahmadis and is the only state to have officially declared the Ahmadis to be non-Muslims, their freedom of religion has been curtailed by a series of ordinances, acts and constitutional amendments. In 1974 Pakistan’s parliament adopted a law declaring Ahmadis to be non-Muslims. The country’s constitution was amended to define a Muslim “as a person who believes in the finality of the Prophet Muhammad”. In 1984 General Zia-ul-Haq, the then military ruler of Pakistan, issued Ordinance XX. The ordinance, which was supposed to prevent “anti-Islamic activities,” forbids Ahmadis to call themselves Muslim or to “pose as Muslims.” This means that they are not allowed to profess the Islamic creed publicly or call their places of worship mosques. Ahmadis in Pakistan are also barred by law from worshipping in non-Ahmadi mosques or public prayer rooms, performing the Muslim call to prayer, using the traditional Islamic greeting in public, publicly quoting from the Quran, preaching in public, seeking converts, or producing, publishing, and disseminating their religious materials. These acts are punishable by imprisonment of up to three years.
As a result of the cultural implications of the laws and constitutional amendments regarding Ahmadis in Pakistan, persecution and hate-related incidents are constantly reported from different parts of the country. Ahmadis have been the target of many attacks led by various religious groups. All religious seminaries and madrasahs in Pakistan, belonging to different sects of Islam, have prescribed essential reading materials specifically targeted at refuting Ahmadiyya beliefs.
In a recent survey in Pakistan, pupils in private schools of Pakistan expressed their opinions on religious tolerance in the country. The figures assembled in the study reflect that even in the educated classes of Pakistan, Ahmadis are considered to be the least deserving minority in terms of equal opportunities and civil rights. In the same study, the teachers in these elite schools showed an even lower amount of tolerance towards Ahmadis than their pupils.

Gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed two Pakistani mosques belonging to a minority sect in Lahore, bringing carnage to Friday prayers and killing around 80 people.

Squads of militants burst into prayer halls firing guns, throwing grenades and taking hostages in the deadliest attack on the city of eight million, which has been increasingly hit by Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked violence.

Both mosques belonged to the Ahmadi community, which Pakistan has declared non-Muslim. Although the estimated minority of two million has been attacked by Sunni extremists before, the magnitude of Friday’s assault was unprecedented.

The United States condemned what it called “brutal violence against innocent people”.

“We also condemn the targeting and violence against any religious group, in this case the Ahmadi community,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters in Washington.

Pakistan’s leading rights group said the community had received threats for more than a year and officials blamed the attack on Islamist militants, who have killed more than 3,370 people in bombings over the last three years.

“Terrorists have attacked mosques. They are firing and using grenades. They have taken people inside the mosque hostage,” district civil defence official Muzhar Ahmed told AFP from the scene in the bustling Garhi Shahu neighbourhood.

The attacks sparked more than two hours of gun battles with police and commandos, as bursts of heavy gunfire rocked the neighbourhoods and rescue services raced through the streets to tend to the victims.

“The prayer leader was delivering a sermon inside the hall when I suddenly heard distant gunshots,” Bilal Ahmed, a worshipper, told AFP after fleeing with his life from the mosque in Model Town.

“Then the firing became louder and closer and people started running here, there and everywhere to save themselves. Gunmen had entered the prayer hall and they were moving towards upper floors.

“The attackers were youths with beards who were not covering their faces. The floor was full of blood and broken glass,” Ahmed said.

As the gun battles ended in both locations, officials spoke of scenes of carnage — particularly in Garhi, Shahu where dozens of bodies were found.

“Around 80 people have been killed,” Sajjad Bhutta, the top city administrative official in Lahore, told reporters.

Doctor Rizwan Nasir, head of the rescue services in Lahore, said 108 people were wounded as police continued to search for any remaining attackers.

Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants have orchestrated a three-year bombing campaign in Pakistan to avenge military operations and the government’s alliance with the United States over the war in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Friday’s attacks were the worst in Pakistan since a suicide bomber killed 101 people on January 1 at a volleyball game in Bannu, which abuts the tribal belt along the Afghan border that Washington calls an Al-Qaeda headquarters.

Nine attacks have killed around 265 people in Lahore since March 2009, a historical city, playground for the elite and home to many top brass in Pakistan’s powerful military and intelligence establishment.

The precise number of attackers at Garhi Shahu was not immediately clear, but police said there were at least three in Model Town.

“They came into the mosque from the back and started firing. They were armed with hand grenades and suicide vests and other weapons,” Rana Ayaz, a senior local police official, told AFP.

Officials said one of the attackers blew himself up and two were arrested — one of them a teenager. The other was seriously wounded.

Founded by Ghulam Ahmad, who was born in 1838, the Ahmadi sect has a number of unique views including that Ahmad himself was a prophet and that Jesus died aged 120 in Srinagar, capital of Indian-ruled Kashmir.

The 2009 US State Department report on human rights says that 11 Ahmadis were killed due to their faith during the year.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said it had warned of threats against the Ahmadi community centre in Lahore and demanded “foolproof security and protection” from the government.

It expressed concern over “the increasing sectarian dimension” of militancy in Pakistan, which it called “a big security threat to the entire society”.

Religious violence in Pakistan, mostly between majority Sunni Muslims and minority Shiites, has killed more than 4,000 people in the past decades.

To read more click…
80 dead as gunmen attack Pakistani mosques

Investigators in Pakistan and the US continue to pursue possible links between Faisal Shahzad, the New York bomb suspect, and fighters in Pakistan. The Pakistani Ambassador to Washington said that no such connection has yet been established. Pakistani’s and Pakistani Americans in Jackson Heights, New York, have been thrown on the defensive by recent events.

Pakistan on Tuesday made several arrests in connection with the failed Times Square car bomb attack in New York, security sources said.

World

“We have picked up a few family members” related to Faisal Shahzad, the chief suspect in the attempted attack, a security official in Karachi said. A friend of Shahzad was also arrested.

Shahzad, a 30-year-old Pakistani-American, was arrested late on Monday at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York after being removed from a plane as it was about take off for Dubai, American officials said.

Another intelligence official in Pakistan said Shahzad received militant training in northwest Pakistan near the garrison town of Kohat. The area around Kohat is a stronghold of Tariq Afridi, the main Pakistani Taliban commander in the region.

Pakistan, which could come under renewed U.S. pressure to crack down harder on militants after the Times Square incident, vowed on Tuesday to help the United States bring Shahzad to justice

Shahzad will appear in Manhattan federal court later on Tuesday to face charges “for allegedly driving a car bomb into Times Square on the evening of May 1,” according to a statement by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, FBI agent George Venizelos and New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

“We will cooperate with the United States in identifying this individual and bringing him to justice,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik told Reuters.

U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W. Patterson met Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Malik and talked about the issue, Pakistani government officials and the U.S. Embassy said.

“We have an ongoing cooperation with the United States on anti-terrorism efforts. If required by the United States, we will extend full cooperation to them in this regard,” Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said.

‘HE BELONGS TO PABBI’

Malik said Faisal’s family came from northwestern Pakistan which is mainly inhabited by Pashtuns and where Islamic militants are active.

“He belongs to Pabbi,” he said, referring to a small town near the main northwestern city of Peshawar about an hour’s drive from Islamabad.

“He has Pakistani identification documents. We are making further checks.”

He added there had been no arrests in Pakistan so far.

A source familiar with the investigation in the United States said Faisal was of Kashmiri descent.

Pakistan is a key ally of the United States and has arrested hundreds of al Qaeda operatives and handed over many of them to the United States after it signed up to the U.S.-led war on terrorism after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.

The Taliban in Pakistan said on Sunday it planted the bomb in Times Square to avenge the killing in April of al Qaeda’s two top leaders in Iraq as well as U.S. interference in Muslim countries.

Some officials voiced scepticism about the claim. But former CIA analyst Bruce Riedel, who last year oversaw an Obama administration strategy review on Afghanistan and Pakistan, cautioned against dismissing a possible role by the Taliban.

Source:Reuters

By Afshan Khan

The short footage of Abdulla Younus of Revolution Muslim on CNN about Islam preaching terrorism then immediately trying to justify it by saying that the meaning of terror is subjective sent chills down to my spines and I was forced to see the complete footage on the web. After seeing the footage and getting the sense of their motives, I could only conclude that it is nothing but a conspiracy to undermine and alienate growing support to Palestinian cause in USA.

The portrait of our President Obama in the likeness of Hitler was not only in bad taste, but completely ridiculous. President Obama is the only President in the history of USA, who is making the sincere efforts of peace in the Middle East in particular and in the Muslim World in general not only through his words, but also laying the ground work for Middle east Peace process, which is in no means an easy task considering all the pressure from different interest groups particularly from the powerful, well established Jewish lobby, who has great influence on our politics and Government as well as on Media.

For the first time in history of more than four decades of Israeli occupation and Palestinian struggle, American media is starting to question Israeli stands and activities to hinder the peace process. There is an strong, mainstream emerging minority who is questioning the basis of American foreign policies in the Middle East including the policy approach towards Iran which have been heavily guided my powerful Jewish lobby. Remember that, questioning the USA foreign policy approach towards Israel and Palestine was a complete taboo before President Obama.

During this critical juncture instead of contributing to this debate constructively , groups like Revolution Muslim undermines the Palestinian cause and play right into stereotypes which vested interest have been successful in creating through their vicious propaganda for years. One can not possibly expect things to change overnight, the change does not come easy, it may not even come at once. We need to be open for the change in piece by piece, bit by bit.

One more advise to groups like these and to Abdulla Younus, (who I call False Soldiers Of Islam), if you want to spread the true message of Islam and you also want people to listen to your message then please go to nations who calls themselves as Islamic states, you have a plain field to begin your revolution. These Islamic states, who only content to live in their glorious past, in these countries we have not seen any real scientific or other innovations in any field in centuries, where rampant religious as well as socio-economic corruption has stifled the progress and has created the Abject conditions for those who are already poor and miserable. Please go to these lands and lead the Islamic reformation movements , and give them message of true spirit of Islam.
-
Through your message of Islam, bring true peace and stability and get rid of the rampant corruption, let these nations be the true example of Islamic state where there is equality, prosperity along with peace and development. Until then my Brother you have right to speak but you have no validity in your Revolutionary speech.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, April 19 (Xinhua) — At least 18 people were killed as a second blast hit a crowded market in the Pakistani northwestern city of Peshawar on Monday, said local sources.

One police officer was also killed in the attack, hospital sources told Xinhua.

The blast was targeted on a protest rally against the electricity loadshedding in downtown Peshawar. It was followed by firing, eyewitnesses said.

Related:

Blast rocks school in Pakistan’ s Peshawar, 1 child killed

Seven people have been killed and more than 20 wounded in a car bomb attack in north-western Pakistan.
A senior police official in the city of Kohat said a suicide bomber had driven a vehicle into the rear wall of a police station.
He suggested the incident was a response to a military operation that is under way in the area.
On Saturday two suicide bombers killed more than 40 people and wounded at least 60 at a displaced people’s camp.
That attack occurred about 40km (25 miles) away from the site of Sunday’s attack.
On Friday a suicide attack at a hospital in the south-west Pakistani city of Quetta killed at least 10 people and injured 35 more.
The attacker detonated a bomb in a waiting room at the Civil Hospital where people had gathered following the fatal shooting of a Shia businessman.
To Read more click…
Car bomb in north-west Pakistan city of Kohat

LAHORE, Pakistan — Five young American Muslims detained in Pakistan last December on suspicion of seeking to join jihadists in Afghanistan were formally charged Wednesday, in a case that added to fears that Westerners might be increasingly be turning to Islamist-inspired terrorism.

The five men, friends from the Washington suburbs in their late teens and early 20s, pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include plotting attacks in Afghanistan as well as raising funds to commit terrorism and planning attacks against Pakistani allies and targets within the country, according to Hassan Katchela, a defense lawyer for the men. Some of the charges carry life sentences.

The five are Ramy ZamZam, a dental student of Egyptian descent at Howard University; Ahmed Abdullah Minni, a native of Eritrea; Aman Hassan Yemer, originally from Ethiopia; and Umar Farooq and Waqar Khan, who are of Pakistani background. They are next scheduled to appear in court on March 31, when the government is expected to present evidence in the case.

The filing of formal charges indicated that the men were not likely to be deported to the United States anytime soon, a possibility raised by American officials in the days after their arrest.

Pakistani authorities have said that the men, encouraged by Internet contacts with a Pakistani militant, traveled to Pakistan last year seeking to wage jihad against American troops in Afghanistan. They were arrested in mid-December in the city of Sargodha, and have been jailed there since.

At a closed-door hearing on Wednesday, a district judge in Sargodha read a three-page description of the five charges that have been filed against each of the men. In addition to plotting attacks in Afghanistan, they were accused of planning assaults on a Pakistani nuclear power plant and Pakistani air force bases in Sargodha and the central city of Mianwali, Mr. Katchela, the defense lawyer, said in a telephone interview.

The case of the five young men numbers among a handful of high-profile terrorism cases that have recently stirred concerns about the radicalization of Muslims in the United States.
To read more click…
Pakistan Charges Americans With Terrorism

The self-described “Jihad Jane” who thought her blond hair and blue eyes would let her blend in as she sought to kill an artist in Sweden is a rare case of an American woman aiding foreign terrorists and shows the evolution of the global threat, authorities say.

The suburban Philadelphia woman, Colleen R. LaRose, is accused in the indictment filed Tuesday of actively recruiting fighters, as well as agreeing to murder the artist, marry a terrorism suspect so he could move to Europe and martyr herself if necessary.

LaRose is “one of only a few such cases nationwide in which females have been charged with terrorism violations,” said U.S. Department of Justice spokesman Dean Boyd.

LaRose, 46, of Pennsburg but with close ties to south Texas, has been held without bail since her Oct. 15 arrest in Philadelphia.

Authorities said the case shows how terrorist groups are looking to recruit Americans to carry out their goals.

“Today’s indictment, which alleges that a woman from suburban America agreed to carry out murder overseas and to provide material support to terrorists, underscores the evolving nature of the threat we face,” said David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security.
LaRose had targeted Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks and had online discussions about her plans with at least one of several suspects apprehended over that plot Tuesday in Ireland, according to a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity because the official wasn’t authorized to discuss details of the investigation.

A U.S. Department of Justice spokesman wouldn’t confirm the case is related to Vilks, who angered Muslims by depicting the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog.

The indictment charges that LaRose, who also used the name Fatima LaRose online, agreed to kill the target on orders from the unnamed terrorists she met online, and traveled to Europe in August to do so. Court documents don’t say whether the person was killed, but LaRose was not charged with murder.

To read more click below…
Jihad Jane, No Color Terror