The Pakistani government said yesterday it would push ahead with its fight against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants despite a deadly suicide attack at a mosque near the Afghan border that killed at least 50 people.
Former Pakistani interior minister Aftab Khan Sherpao, the apparent target of Friday's bombing, escaped unhurt. Sherpao, who was heavily involved in operations aimed at eliminating al-Qaeda and the Taliban, survived a similar attack eight months ago.
Information Minister Nisar Memon said yesterday that the latest attack, which hit during prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, was a "shameful act" that would not stop the nation from persisting in its fight against terror groups.
"Pakistan is a front-line state in the war on terror, such attacks cannot deter our resolve," he told state-run Pakistan Television.
Pakistan is a key US ally in the war on terror, and suspicion for the mosque attack fell on pro-Taliban or al-Qaeda militants active in northwest Pakistan -- near the Afghan border -- where the attack occurred.
The blast also shook up the campaign for Jan. 8 parliamentary elections.
Memon said Pakistan would hold the vote as scheduled, and the government would take all possible measures to ensure the safety of candidates across the country.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, has asked the security agencies to find those behind the attack on Sherpao, who is a candidate in the election.
Police have collected pieces of clothing, shoes, prayer mats and two severed legs of a man from the scene, and investigators were examining them for clues to identify the bomber, an official involved in the probe said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Security forces also said they arrested seven students from a nearby Islamic school.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
One of Japan’s biggest pop stars and best-known TV hosts, Masahiro Nakai, yesterday announced his retirement over sexual misconduct allegations, reports said, in the latest scandal to rock Japan’s entertainment industry. Nakai’s announcement came after now-defunct boy band empire Johnny & Associates admitted in 2023 that its late founder, Johnny Kitagawa, for decades sexually assaulted teenage boys and young men. Nakai was a member of the now-disbanded SMAP — part of Johnny & Associates’s lucrative stable — that swept the charts in Japan and across Asia during the band’s nearly 30 years of fame. Reports emerged last month that Nakai, 52, who since
RSS