QUETTA: The death toll from a suicide attack on a Shia Muslim procession rose from 56 to 65 overnight as critically wounded people died in hospital, police said.

Police official Mohammed Sultan said Saturday that about 150 people were wounded and some remain critical after the attack claimed by the Pakistani Taliban in the southwestern city of Quetta. A triple suicide attack Wednesday night killed 35 people at a Shia procession in Lahore.

Leaders of the minority sect called a general strike in Quetta and all schools are closed for a day in mourning, police said.

Pakistan's government is struggling to deal both with massive flooding and the incessant militant violence aimed at overthrowing the administration. — AP

QUETTA: At least 53 people were killed and 197 injured on Friday in a suicide bombing targeting a Shia Muslim rally in Quetta, the latest in a string of sectarian attacks.

“According to the reports collected from hospitals, 53 people have been kiled and 197 have been injured,” Sardar Khan, chief of Quetta's police control room told AFP by telephone.

Police said the bomber was among the 450-strong crowd and detonated on reaching the main square in the city, triggering chaotic scenes, with people setting fires as others fled or laying on the ground to avoid ongoing gunfire.

A doctor in Quetta's main hospital said the toll of wounded was higher, with more than 80 people receiving treatment for injuries sustained in the attack.

The rally was being held to mark Al-Quds day, an international event staged every year by the Shia community, opposing Israel's control of Jerusalem and showing solidarity with Palestinian Muslims.

Malik Iqbal, police chief for Baluchistan province, said rally organisers had been warned to use a different route in case of terror attacks.

Police were forced to quell unrest following the attack, said Khan.

“An angry mob tried to set on fire a private building and vehicles. Some of the participants were armed and they were firing in the air. They also set on fire some bicycles and motorcycles,” said Khan.

Local television channel Aaj said one of its drivers had been killed in the blast, while there were reports of several other journalists injured in the incident.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani strongly condemned the bomb blast and called for an immediate inquiry into the incident.

The US embassy also condemned the attack. It was the latest in a string of attacks as Muslims marked the final days of the holy month of Ramadan.—AFP

MIR ALI: Pakistani officials say suspected US missiles have killed five people in a tribal region near the Afghan border.

Two intelligence officials say three missiles hit a house in a village near Miramshah, the main town in North Waziristan, on Friday evening.

They say the identity of the slain is not yet clear. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information to the media.

The region is dominated by the Haqqani network, a militant group bent on driving US and Nato troops out of Afghanistan.

ISLAMABAD: The United States has apologised to Pakistan over “mistreatment” of a Pakistani military delegation at a US airport this week, the Pakistani defence ministry said Friday.

US undersecretary of state for defence Michelle Flournoy apologised during a telephone call to Pakistan's top defence ministry official, Syed Athar Ali, the ministry said in a statement.

Flournoy “apologised for the mistreatment meted out to Pakistan's military delegation at the Dulles airport, Washington”, the statement said.

Pakistan had ordered the delegation to return from Washington to protest “unwarranted” airport security checks imposed after the delegation was invited to a meeting at the US military Central Command.

“Syed Athar Ali expressed serious concern over the incident and emphasised the need for an institutionalised mechanism where such like incidents are averted,” the statement said.

“Ms. Flournoy assured secretary defence that all necessary measures will be institutionalised after mutual consultations to avoid recurrence of any untoward incident in future.”

The nine members of the delegation were about to fly to Tampa, Florida from Dulles when they were pulled off the plane and questioned for over two hours.

The United Airlines flight crew had become concerned over a remark by one of the officers, a Pakistani official told AFP on Wednesday.

The Pakistanis showed security authorities their passports and letters of invitation to the conference at Central Command, but by the time they were released they had missed their flight, the official said.

Washington sees Pakistan as integral to winning the war in Afghanistan, as Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents targeting coalition forces roam the mountainous region dividing the two countries.

Pakistan receives more than one billion dollars a year from Washington for its help in fighting the Islamist militants. -AFP

LAHORE: The death toll from suicide attacks that targeted a busy procession in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore rose to 31 on Thursday as six people succumbed to their injuries, officials said.

Three suicide bombers targeted a Shia mourning procession made up of thousands of people on Wednesday at the moment of the breaking of the fast in the holy month of Ramazan, wounding hundreds.

It was the first major attack in Pakistan since devastating floods engulfed a fifth of the volatile country over the past month in its worst disaster yet.

“Thirty-one people have died and a total of 281 were injured,” Fahim Jehanzeb, a spokesman for Lahore's rescue agency told AFP, adding that he feared more would die from their injuries.

Sajjad Bhutta, a senior local administration official, also confirmed the new death toll.

A mass funeral was hastily arranged for later in the day with police and paramilitary providing tight security, while local authorities announced a day of mourning with all public and private institutions closed.

An AFP reporter said that all markets were closed and the roads were quiet on Thursday, after the attacks provoked an outpouring of fury in the city a night earlier, with mourners trying to torch a nearby police station.

Police fired tear gas to force back the surging crowd as furious mourners beat the bodies of the suicide bombers with sticks and shoes, while others beat their own heads and chests at the site of the attacks in frustration.

The emotional crowd chanted slogans against the police and the provincial government over their failure to protect the Shia procession, an AFP correspondent on the scene said.

Lahore, a city of eight million, has been increasingly subject to Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked attacks in a nationwide bombing campaign that has killed more than 3,600 people in three years.

The procession hit by the blasts was being held to mark the anniversary of the martyrdom of Hazarat Ali, who is revered by Shia Muslims and is the son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed.

Shias account for around 20 per cent of Pakistan's mostly Sunni Muslim population of 160 million.

Religious violence in Pakistan, mostly between Sunni and Shiite groups, has killed more than 4,000 people in the past decade, and it is not the first time Lahore has seen bombers target religious gatherings.  – AFP

THATTA: Relief efforts in flood-ravaged Pakistan are being stretched by the “unprecedented scale” of the disaster, with the flow of international aid almost at a standstill, the UN said Thursday.

A month of catastrophic flooding has now killed 1,760 people and affected more than 18 million, including eight million who are dependent on aid handouts to survive, it said.

Although the initially slow pace of aid had improved since a visit by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in mid-August, the UN said it has “almost stalled” since the beginning of last week, rising from 274 million dollars to 291 million dollars - about two thirds of funding needs.

“Given the number of those in need, this is a humanitarian operation of unprecedented scale,” Manuel Bessler, head of the UN's coordination agency OCHA said in a statement.

“We need to reach at least eight million people, from the Karakoram Mountain Range in the north to the Arabian Sea in the south.”

Thousands of people were trapped by floodwaters in towns in the southern province of Sindh, while others are complaining of going without food or water for days, some forced to live in the rubble of their ruined homes.

The World Bank raised its emergency funding for Pakistan to one billion dollars amid dire warnings about the threat to the country's food supplies.

The floods have ruined 3.6 million hectares (8.9 million acres) of rich farmland and the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said farmers urgently needed seeds to plant for next year's crops.

“Unless people get seeds over the next few weeks they will not be able to plant wheat for a year,” Daniele Donati, director for FAO emergency operations in Asia, the Middle East and Europe, said on Wednesday.

“Food aid alone will not be enough. If the next wheat crop is not salvaged, the food security of millions will be at risk,” Donati warned.

The World Food Programme has warned that Pakistan faces a triple threat to food supplies - with seeds, crops and incomes hit.

In southern Pakistan, hundreds of hungry and desperate families from a relief camp in the city of Thatta blocked the highway to Karachi for three hours Wednesday, demanding the government provide more food and shelter.

“No food or water has been provided to us for the past two days,” Mohammad Qasim, a 60-year-old resident of the flooded town of Sujawal, told AFP.

The protest came as under-fire Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani warned the country faced inflation of up to 20 per cent and slower economic growth because of the floods, warning of job losses and social unrest.

Gilani said an inflation target of 9.5 per cent for 2011 would now likely be in the range of 15-20 per cent, spurred by food shortages, while GDP growth would also slide to 2.5 per cent from the predicted 4.5 per cent.

World Bank chief Robert Zoellick announced an extra 100 million dollars to add to an existing 900 million dollar loan as he met Pakistan's Finance Minister Hafeez Shaikh in Washington on Wednesday.

Zoellick said he and Shaikh discussed plans for institutional and governance reforms in Pakistan in the wake of the disaster.

The World Bank pledged to help Pakistan set up systems for tracking aid flows, and monitoring and evaluating the whole process to tackle waste and corruption.

Floodwaters moving south through Sindh province on their way to the Arabian Sea entered the town of Jati and threatened nearby Choohar Jamoli town on the east bank of the swollen Indus.

Several thousand people were trapped in the two towns, city official Hadi Bakhsh Kalhoro told AFP, and power cuts were hindering rescue efforts.

Most of the 300,000 population of Thatta have returned home, according to officials, after troops saved the city by fixing a breach in river defences.

Sindh is the worst-hit province, with 19 of its 23 districts ravaged as floodwaters have swollen the Indus to 40 times its usual volume.

One million people have been displaced over the past few days alone.

Initial relief efforts are still underway in the country's militant-troubled northwest, nearly two weeks after torrential rains stopped in the region.

The head of the UN refugee agency in Peshawar, the main city in the northwest, said shelter would be provided by next week for 80,000 people cut off from their villages by flooded roads and damaged bridges.

Khalid bin Waleed, a resident of Charsadda, said most of the 350 homes in the village had been destroyed and no government help was forthcoming.

“Now people are living on the rubble of their houses and those better off are camping on their roofs,” Waleed said.

“We have not received any help from the government yet. Only charities are helping people in our area and they are doing a really good job.” – AFP

LAHORE: The death toll from three suicide bombings in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore rose to 31 on Thursday as six people succumbed to their injuries, a rescue official said.

Three suicide bombers targeted a Shia mourning procession  near Karbala Gamay Shah, made up of thousands of people on Wednesday at the moment of the breaking of the fast in the holy month of Ramazan.

“Thirty-one people have died and a total of 281 were injured,” Fahim Jehanzeb, a spokesman for Lahore's rescue agency told AFP, adding that he feared more would die from their injuries.

Reacting violently to the explosions, people in the procession attacked a police building, set public property on fire and fought with riot police for more than an hour.

The blasts, two of which the police confirmed were suicide attacks, took place in a span of 20 minutes despite what appeared to be tight police security.

Witnesses said a suicide bomber blew himself up at a security barrier at Karbala Gamay Shah chowk at around 7pm when a large number of people were there after the culmination of the main procession.

According to the website of an Urdu newspaper, the group named Lashkar-i-Jhanghvi Al Aalmi claimed responsibility for the attack. Police said they had no information about any such claim.

The attack came at a time when all those connected with the procession must have been looking forward to relax after a day of fasting and mourning. They had broken the fast and the Maghrib prayers were to be offered.

The procession had reached the destination and the law-enforcement personnel must have heaved a sigh of relief at having seen the rally through.

The attack was followed five minutes later by another blast, said to be caused by a timed device, around the nearby Bhati chowk.

The third blast, again a suicide attack, took place at the traffic signal at the chowk.

People, including women and children, fled in all directions in panic.

Deputy Inspector General of Police (operations) Rao Sardar Ali Khan told Dawn that the two bombers had exploded themselves after having been stopped at barriers by policemen. At least seven policemen were injured.

The DIG said police had found two skulls and limbs believed to be of the suicide bombers and sent them for forensic examination.

He said police were uncertain about the nature of the third blast which also could have been a suicide explosion.

He said police had anticipated that such attacks could take place and maximum security measures had been taken for the procession.

People started raising slogans against police after the second blast.

As soon as the third blast took place, they divided into groups, pelted police with stones and set government and private vehicles on fire.

A large number of policemen, who were also divided into groups to counter the protesters, first acted in a defensive manner. But after the mob let off a volley of stones on the Lower Mall police station and set some motorcycles and vehicles on fire, they hit back.

Riot police fired in the air to disperse the mob.

The protesters damaged both gates and lights of the city division police building.

Police managed to disperse the mob at about 8.30pm.

The protesters criticised police for failing to maintain security and chanted slogans against the PML-N leadership and the Punjab police.

“A bearded suicide bomber managed to sneak past the first barrier and blew himself up at the second,” Mohammad Waseem of Pakpattan, who was serving drinks to people after the Iftar, said.

Soon after the first blast, police cordoned off the area and did not allow people to leave, he said.

A young woman running away from the area with a child in her arms cried out aloud: “Policemen are saying that a transformer has exploded, but my sister has been killed in the blast. She had small children.”

Ambulances of Rescue 1122, Edhi and other services shifted the injured to the Mayo, Services and Ganga Ram hospitals where a state of emergency was declared.

The fires were extinguished after the protesters had been dispersed.

Some Rangers’ vehicles also arrived at the place.

Two cases have been registered by the New Anarkali and Bhatti Gate police under the Pakistan Penal Code and the Explosives and Anti-Terrorism Acts.

Police and Rangers personnel maintained strict security in the area till late in the night.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif announced a compensation of Rs500,000 for the heirs of each of those killed and Rs75,000 for each injured person.

Police said two suicide bombers blew themselves up in a crowd, after a lull in violence during the floods, the type of attack that Pakistani Taliban militants have claimed in the past.

Sajjad Bhutta, a senior Lahore official, told Reuters the death toll had climbed to 20, with at least 170 wounded. Rescue services said 25 were killed.

Some sources have said that the death toll has risen to 28.

Soon after the Lahore blasts, a mob set fire to a police station. People also beat policemen, witnesses said.

Pro-Taliban Sunni militants frequently attack Shi'ites as part of a campaign to destabilise the US-backed government.

The renewed violence came as millions of Pakistanis continued to struggle for food and water more than a month after the worst floods in the country's history, deepening concerns over the stability of the country.

The floods have ravaged Pakistan’s economy, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said, with massive job losses and soaring inflation expected to hurt a nation whose stability is vital to the US war against militants in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“The floods have inflicted damage to the economy which may, by some estimates, reach $43 billion, while affecting 30 percent of all agricultural land,” Gilani said briefing the cabinet.

Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, with cotton the main cash crop. The sector is a major source of employment.

Facing the prospect of long-term economic pain, Pakistan hopes the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will soften the terms of an $11 billion loan. Pakistani and IMF officials are meeting in Washington to work out the impact of the floods.

“This economic loss will translate into massive job losses affecting incomes of thousands of families, which may have serious social implications,” said Gilani, whose government was heavily criticised for its slow response to the catastrophe.

Pakistan’s military has taken charge of relief efforts, but some charities, some linked to militant groups, have also stepped in, raising concerns they may exploit public anger.

The United States on Wednesday formally added Mehsud’s Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or Taliban Movement of Pakistan, to its blacklist of foreign terrorist organisations subject to travel and economic sanctions.

The TTP is the main Pakistani militant alliance which operates from Pakistan’s northwest.

It is suspected of being behind most bomb and suicide attacks across Pakistan.

Before the floods struck a vast swath of the country, the army said it had scored major gains against the Taliban. In renewed air strikes in the northwest, Pakistani forces killed up to 62 militants, their family members and other civilians with no ties to the fighters, officials said on Wednesday.

Washington has repeatedly urged Pakistan to go after militant sanctuaries in the northwest saying these have helped boost the Afghan insurgency, now at its deadliest. Pakistan says it is doing all it can to fight the militants.

Testing ties further, Pakistan’s army said on Wednesday it scrapped talks with US military officials after a military delegation sent to Washington had to go through “unwarranted” airport security checks.

British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said it could take Pakistan years to recover from the floods with threats from water-borne disease and opportunistic militants.

“The danger always is that you get groups who have an ulterior motive who provide aid to try to curry favour,” he said after visiting an aid camp. – Reuters/Dawn News

PESHAWAR: Pakistan army jets and helicopters targeted militant hide-outs near the Afghan border, killing 60 people identified as insurgents or their family members, including children, security officials and a witness said Wednesday.

The deadliest strikes hit an area where army fire had killed 60 civilians earlier this year.

Accounts of civilian casualties in army airstrikes make it harder for the military to win the support of local tribesman in the border region, something crucial to flushing out Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who have found sanctuary there.

The attacks occurred Tuesday and Wednesday in different parts of the region.

There was no independent confirmation of the casualty figures because the area is too dangerous for outsiders to visit.

The raids Tuesday took place in several villages in Teerah Valley in the Khyber region and killed 45 people, the officials said. One official said some vehicles rigged with explosives had also been destroyed. He could not say how many.

He described the dead as insurgents, but said it was possible that people living with them could also have been killed. Separately, an intelligence officer said some women and children had been killed in the attacks.

Jihad Gul, who lives near one of the villages, said he had seen the bodies of at least 20 women and children.

Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said reports of civilian casualties were unconfirmed.

The security officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

An air attack Wednesday in the adjoining district of Orakzai killed 15 suspected militants and wounded 10 others, according to local government official Jamil Khan and a brief army statement.

In April, the Teerah Valley was hit by army airstrikes that killed about 60 civilians. The army, which initially described the victims as insurgents, ended up paying compensation to the victims’ families and its chief issued a rare public apology.

Pakistan’s army has been fighting militants in different parts of the northwest for more than two years.

Militants who fled major operations in the South Waziristan and Orakzai tribal regions are believed to have set up new bases in Khyber, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of the main city in the region, Peshawar. – AP

KARACHI: Floodwaters that have devastated Pakistan for five weeks headed to the Arabian Sea on Tuesday after swallowing two final towns, but the challenges of delivering emergency aid to 8 million people remained.

The floods have moved down from the mountainous northwest, submerging or affecting almost 1/5 of the country at their peak.

Waters have begun to recede in the north and in Punjab, but they have been submerging towns in southern Sindh province close to the Indus River over the last 10 days.

Government official Hadi Bakhsh said the last two towns in the path of the floods were hit late Monday.

''The floodwaters hit Khahre Jamali and Jati towns last night, and now there is no other village or town in the way of the deluge,'' he said, adding that people had already fled the towns, parts of which were under 10 feet (3 meters) of water.

''The floodwaters are now heading to the Arabian Sea,'' he said.

Authorities have struggled to feed, house and arrange medical care for the survivors of the floods. Foreign countries and the United Nations were slow to respond to the disaster, in part because it took a long time for its extent to become clear.

Aid is slowly reaching the worst-affected areas by army helicopter, road and boat, but millions have received little or no help.

The UN warned that additional funding for emergency food was urgently needed to ensure supplies into next month.

Once all the floodwaters recede, the country will be left with a massive relief and reconstruction effort that will cost billions of dollars and take years. An estimated 1 million homes have been damaged or destroyed, five times as many as were hit by this year's earthquake in Haiti. – AP

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on Tuesday said that the Prime Minister's role in the appointment of judges cannot be eliminated. He further said that the court should be properly informed on the parliamentary committee in this regard.

Chief Justice Iftikhar made these remarks during the hearing of petitions challenging the 18th Amendment.

A 17-judge full court was hearing the petitions challenging certain clauses in the amendment.

During the hearing, Chief Justice Iftikhar said that Pakistan will continue to have the parliamentary form of government.

Meanwhile, Attorney-General Pakistan Maulvi Anwarul Haq said that the procedure of judges' appointment detailed in the 18th Amendment does not infringe upon the judiciary's independence.

The hearing of the petitions was adjourned till Wednesday.