Mumbai attack 'leader' wins Pakistan appeal

The alleged leader of the 2008 militant attacks on Mumbai has won an appeal against his detention in Pakistan.

Lawyers for Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi said a government detention order issued last week infringed his rights, as he had been granted bail by another court.
Analysts say he could be freed as soon as the paperwork is completed.
India says a Pakistani militant group carried out the attacks, which killed 165. Pakistan has not convicted anyone suspected of planning the attacks.
Mr Lakhvi is among seven suspects who have been in jail awaiting trial for six years. Nine others have been charged in absentia.
Analysts say the decision to grant him bail came at an embarrassing time for the Pakistani government.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif recently promised to crack down on militancy after the Taliban killed 141 people at a school in Peshawar
Mr Lakhvi was granted bail by an anti-terror court on 18 December, but hours later the government imposed a three-month detention order and said it would appeal against the bail decision.
Mr Lakhvi's lawyers argued in Islamabad's High Court that the detention infringed his rights.
The judge accepted the arguments and quashed the detention order.
The suspect is now technically free to leave jail, but has been ordered to appear in court for every hearing concerning his case.

 

 

Mr Lakhvi was accused of heading the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was blamed for the Mumbai attacks.

Correspondents say the charges brought against Mr Lakhvi and other suspects held in Pakistan were mainly based on a confession given by the only gunman captured alive after the attacks.
Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab was executed in 2012.
The attacks severely strained relations between India and Pakistan.
India has repeatedly criticised Pakistan for failing to prosecuted any of the suspects, and has summoned the Pakistani high commissioner to discuss Mr Lakhvi's case.

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Taliban declares 'defeat' of Nato

Taliban fighters in Afghanistan have declared the "defeat" of the US and its allies, a day after the coalition officially ended its combat mission.

A Taliban statement said the US-led force had "rolled up its flag" without having achieved "anything substantial".
Nato formally ended its 13-year mission on Sunday, but about 13,000 troops will stay to train the Afghan army.
Meanwhile, officials said four Afghan soldiers were killed in a Taliban attack in Helmand province on Monday.
Three other soldiers were injured during the attack on an army checkpoint in Sangin district. Eight insurgents were said to have been killed.
The US-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) marked the end of its mission by lowering its flag at a ceremony in Kabul on Sunday.
Mission commander Gen John Campbell said the Nato force had "lifted the Afghan people out of the darkness of despair and given them hope for the future".
'Demoralised' But in a statement on Monday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the Nato ceremony was "a clear indication of their defeat and disappointment".
He said the Taliban would establish "a pure Islamic system by expelling the remaining invading forces," adding that Western troops were "demoralised".
Nato's Afghan deployment began after the 9/11 attacks against the US.
At its peak, the US-led Isaf deployment involved more than 130,000 personnel from 50 countries.
But from 1 January, the force will consist of about 13,000 mostly-American troops and will shift to a training and support mission for the Afghan army.
The US will also have an additional force of a few thousand troops whose focus will be counter-terrorism operations.
While the US and its allies say the Afghan security forces have been able to prevent a Taliban offensive, violence has increased in recent months.
This year has been the bloodiest in Afghanistan since 2001, with at least 4,600 members of the Afghan security forces having been killed.
Nearly 3,500 foreign troops have been killed since the beginning of the Nato mission in 2001, including about 2,200 American troops.

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Al-Shabab militant Zakariya Ahmed Ismail Hersi 'surrenders'

A top al-Shabab militant, Zakariya Ahmed Ismail Hersi, has given himself up, Somali officials say.

Mr Hersi, a leading figure in the militant group's intelligence wing, surrendered to police in the Gedo region, they add.
In June 2012, the US state department offered $3m (£1.9m, 2.5m euros) for information leading to his capture.
It comes three months after al-Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane was killed in a US air strike.
A Somali intelligence officer, quoted by the Associated Press news agency, suggested Mr Hersi may have surrendered because of a dispute with al-Shabab members loyal to the former leader.
Mr Hersi fell out with Godane last year and has been on the run ever since but he is still a powerful figure, says BBC Africa editor Mary Harper.
'No fight' Police stormed a house Mr Hersi had been hiding in for six days, close to the border with Kenya, after receiving a tip off, the district commissioner of the town of El Wag told the BBC.
He said that although Mr Hersi had a pistol, he did not put up a fight.
"Al-Shabab leader Zakariya Ismail surrendered to government forces in El Wag, Gedo region. He is expected to be flown to Mogadishu tomorrow," an unnamed official told Reuters news agency.
There has been no immediate comment from al-Shabab.
Ahmad Umar was named the new leader of al-Shabab, days after Godane's killing last September.
The US has supported the African Union (AU) force that has driven al-Shabab out of the capital Mogadishu and other towns since 2011.
The al-Qaeda-linked fighters want to overthrow the UN-backed Somali government and frequently attack government targets as well as neighbouring countries that provide troops to the AU force.
Three members of the AU force and a civilian contractor were killed in an al-Shabab attack on its headquarters in the capital Mogadishu on Thursday.

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Pakistan bomb hoax man gets 26 years

A Pakistani man has been given a 26-year jail term for making two hoax bomb threats in two public places in Punjab province in July, prosecutors say.

The threats were made against a crowded market and children's park in the central city of Multan on the first day of the Islamic festival of Eid al-Fitr.
Police managed to track the man, named Rana Yousuf, via the sim card he used, which belonged to one of his friends.
They said Yousuf was trying to set up his friend over a business rivalry.
The hoax phone calls led police, bomb disposal experts and emergency workers to rush to the scene and search the area for several hours before discovering the warnings were fake.
Over 2,000 people were gathered in Shams park at the time of the call, Pakistan's Express Tribune reports.
The other man, whose sim card was used, was reportedly cleared of all charges due to lack of evidence.
In addition to the jail term, Yousuf was also fined 100,000 Pakistani rupees ($993; £638).

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Pakistan judge issues arrest warrant for Abdul Aziz

A judge in Pakistan has issued an arrest warrant for a cleric at a radical mosque in Islamabad who has refused to condemn the massacre of children at an army-run school.

Imam Abdul Aziz has been accused of threatening protesters outside the Red Mosque.
The cleric said the charge against him was insignificant.
Last week, Taliban fighters attacked the school in Peshawar, killing 152 people, including 133 children.
Mr Aziz said that the authorities should focus on arresting people accused of more serious crimes.
"My case is very small and even a sub-inspector can grant me bail," he said.
 Mr Aziz is well known for his pro-Taliban views.
Earlier this year, a school run by the cleric renamed its library in honour of the former al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden.
A spokesman for the Red Mosque said they would resist the arrest of Mr Aziz.
Civil society activists had lodged the complaint against Mr Aziz, saying that they had been threatened by mosque employees during a protest about his refusal to condemn the school massacre.
The demonstrators are also being investigated for holding an unlawful protest.
Pakistan has stepped up its anti-terror operations since the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar on 16 December.
Earlier this week, the government announced new measures to tackle terrorism, including the establishment of military courts to hear terrorism-related cases.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Wednesday that there was a "changed Pakistan" since the tragedy and that there would be "no place for terrorism, extremism, sectarianism and intolerance."

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Pope condemns Taliban attack on Pak students

Pope Francis issued a strident call in his Christmas day message to safeguard children who are victims “under our very eyes” of violence and trafficking, while also demanding an end to “brutal persecution” worldwide.
Killings and hostage-takings from the Middle East

to Nigeria and elsewhere must stop, he said in his annual Christmas “urbi et orbi” (to the city and the world) message.
Denouncing conflicts in Ukraine and Libya, and noting last week’s deadly attack against a school in Pakistan, the pontiff also lamented the thousands of victims of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.
“Truly there are so many tears this Christmas,” he said.
Delivering his second Christmas blessing, the popular Argentine pontiff, visibly moved and departing from his text, noted “the children massacred by bombardments, including where the son of God was born” and their “powerless silence that cries under the sword.”
Denouncing “indifference”, he explicitly condemned abortion, deploring the children “killed before seeing the light”.
“May Jesus save the vast numbers of children who are victims of violence, made objects of trade and trafficking, or forced to become soldiers.” “May he give comfort to the families of the children killed in Pakistan last week” referring to the 150 people, including 134 school-children, killed in Peshawar by the Taliban.
Speaking to a large crowd massed outside Saint Peter’s Basilica, the pope urged Ukrainians to “overcome tensions, conquer hatred and violence and set out on a new journey of fraternity and reconciliation”. He turned too to the violence wrought by Islamic State fundamentalists this year in Syria and Iraq.
“I ask him, the saviour of the world, to look upon our brothers and sisters in Iraq and Syria, who for too long now have suffered the effects of ongoing conflict, and who, together with those belonging to other ethnic and religious groups, are suffering a brutal persecution.”
There were “too many displaced persons, exiles and refugees, adults and elderly, from this region and the whole world,” he said.
He called for peace in “the whole Middle East” and continued efforts towards “dialogue” between Israelis and Palestinians.
The pope too urged peace in Nigeria “where more blood is being shed”, as well as in Libya, South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He noted the victims of Ebola in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea and thanked those who were “courageously” assisting the sick.
The Pope urged people not to be indifferent to the suffering of so many around the world. Pope Francis also appealed for an end to conflicts in African countries and urged dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians.
The 78-year-old pope spoke from the same balcony of St Peter’s Basilica where he first appeared as pontiff on the night of his election on March 13, 2013.
“May indifference be changed into closeness and rejection into hospitality, so that all who now are suffering may receive the necessary humanitarian help to overcome the rigours of winter, return to their countries and live with dignity,” he said, speaking in Italian.
On Christmas eve, Francis made a surprise telephone call to comfort Christian refugees in a camp in Ankawa, Iraq. “You are like Jesus on Christmas night. There was no room for him either ...” he told them.
The pope has a busy year ahead of him, with trips planned to Asia, Africa, Latin American and the United States.
Another key project for 2015 is the reform of the Curia, the Vatican’s central administration. In Christmas greetings on Monday to the Vatican’s top administrators, Pope Francis delivered a stinging critique of Vatican bureaucracy.
In his Christmas message, which was fairly brief, the pope traditionally calls for remedies to the world’s woes.
Francis however has put an end to a longstanding tradition of popes wishing a happy Christmas in dozens of languages.
At a Christmas Eve mass, he urged Roman Catholics to have greater empathy towards family and friends, saying the world needs “tenderness” and “warmth”.
Francis sent a video message to South Koreans recalling his trip to the country in August in which he said: “The great celebration in honour of the (Catholic) martyrs (in the 18th and 19th centuries in Korea), and the encounters with young people remain fresh in my memory.”
In Bethlehem on Christmas Eve hectic preparations preceded celebrations on the West Bank town’s biggest night of the year, culminating in midnight mass at the Church of the Nativity built over the spot where Christians believe the Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus.
Scouts playing bagpipes and drums marched to the church in a procession led by Jerusalem’s Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal, the top Catholic cleric in the Holy Land.
In his homily, Twal called for “peace in Jerusalem”, where violent clashes between Israelis and Palestinians rocked the city for months, and “equality and mutual respect” among all faiths.
He also asked for the rebuilding of Gaza, which was ravaged this summer during a 50-day war between Hamas and Israel in which more than 2,200 people died.

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