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Fashionistas defied militant threats to celebrate couture culture in a Taliban-troubled conservative nation plagued with Islamic extremism as the Pakistani fashion fraternity gathered in the country's largest city for Karachi Fashion Week (KFW) that started on Wednesday. Intricate and colourful fabrics lit up the catwalk as bold models shrugged off all security fears as well as local social norms. The fashion week has attracted 35 top Pakistani designers including Deepak Perwani and Maheen Khan, who recently attended Milan Fashion Week. But staging the fashion week in Karachi was not trouble-free. It was postponed by almost a month due to the...

SNIPPET - Quote: Pak raids unravel Taliban-drugs link ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities arrested 13 Islamist militants in separate raids that police said on Monday foiled major terrorist attacks and provided clues to how drug sales help fund the Taliban.

Note: The following text is a quote: LAHORE: Twenty-five explosive-laden vehicles have reportedly entered various major cities of the country, as the intelligence services launched search operations across all four provinces, a private TV channel reported on Monday. According to the channel, the vehicles could target sensitive government installments and other important buildings. The channel cited a notification issued by the Interior Ministry stating that suicide bombers along with the vehicles had entered Peshawar, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Quetta and Karachi. The ministry ordered provincial authorities to immediately conduct search operations and impound the vehicles before any terrorist incident took place....

Note: The following text is a quote: June 14, 2009 Taliban shoots 11 year-old Christian boy in head Meanwhile, the Pakistani embassy in D.C. considers such stories "exaggerated." "Pakistan: Christians ready to die for their faith," from Spero News, June 14: An 11-year-old boy was shot in the head while attending church near Karachi. Christians live in dread of the Taliban, which is demanding conversion to Islam or death. ‘I am sorry I could not speak to you then because we were just about to begin the funeral service for Irfan, an 11 year-old boy who was shot in the...

The high-profile arrest of a group of Pakistani militants in mid-April in the restive Afghan province of Helmand by the Afghan army and their subsequent handover to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for grilling exposed a jihadi network running to the heart of urban Pakistan. In the course of interrogation, the militants confessed to being recruited, trained and then launched into Helmand after spending some time in places such as the southern port city of Karachi and Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province. They also gave details of their Pakistani leaders and their activities, including how these leaders could...

Irfan Masih, the 11-year-old boy wounded on 22 April during a Taliban attack against Christians in Tiasar Town near Karachi, has died. In critical conditions from the start, the boy slipped away after five, agonisingly long days. Fr Emmanuel Yousaf Mani, the director of the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), led a delegation to the site of the attack. The group, made up of clergymen and lay people, visited the wounded in hospital and then met leaders of the Muttahida Quami Movement(MQM), the only Pakistani party that is opposed to the introduction of Sharia in the Swat Valley....

Pakistan: Karachi churches vandalized with "Long live the Taliban," "Long live Islam," and "Christians, convert to Islam" Karachi (AsiaNews) – SNIPPET: "Fr Pervez Khalid, assistant parish priest at St Jude’s Parish Church, told AsiaNews that no one was killed in the attack but that six people had gunshot wounds. The situation is now under control, he added. Rangers and police and were patrolling the streets. Still people are very scared and dare not go out, especially after police advised them to stay in-door. Father D’Souza, parish priest at St Jude’s, visited the area where the attack took place. There, he...

Tonight (Friday a.m. US time) Pakistan gave its official answer to India on the request to turn over to India ASAP Islamic terrorists based on Pakistan soil and operating out in the open. Our friend and good ally India has ramped up the pressure and now banned the entry of Pakistani nationals into it's country by land, sea or air.The massive terrorist attack in Mumbai had a strong element of not only India being targeted, but the United States as well. Our fellow Americans were sought out, and some were killed.All intelligence points to Pakistan as the base for these...

Mumbai: The group of 11 terrorists involved in the Mumbai attacks had boarded a fishing boat near Karachi in Pakistan five days earlier, a senior investigating official revealed on Sunday. According to the investigation, the terror group loaded their arms and ammunition and boarded the boat on November 21 from a location near Karachi, said the official who declined to be identified. All the terrorists - in their 20s - are said to be members of the Lashker-E-Taiba (LeT), he said. They all had undergone rigorous training in terror camps in which they learnt all ways to create terror, especially...

Mumbai: At least 15 people have been injured in gunfights between two groups in at least three places in Mumbai on Thursday night. Details are sketchy but it is believed that two gangs fired at each other at outside CST Railway Terminus, Hotel Oberoi and the popular Café Leopold restaurant in Mumbai. The first shooting took place near the CST police station

Azam Amir, the terrorist who was held by the Mumbai Police, has made some striking revelations regarding the Mumbai terror attacks. Azam has disclosed that the Pakistan Navy had trained the terrorists in boating and swimming to carry out the attacks in Mumbai. Azam was arrested on Wednesday from Girgaum Chowpatty in an encounter with the police. Ismail Khan, an accomplice of Amir, reportedly died in the gunbattle.

The arrest of three Pakistani nationals hailing from Multan in connection with Mumbai siege has once again revealed the role of Lashkar-e-Tayiba in terror strikes in India after the Akshardham attack in 2002. Police and central security personnel have arrested at least three Pakistanis, including Ajmal Amir Kamal, a resident of Faridkot near Multan in Pakistan's Punjab province. All the three belong to the suicide squad of Lashkar-e-Tayiba. The terrorists told interrogators that 12 of them had left in a merchant vessel from the port city of Karachi, which was on its way to Vietnam, from which they got down...

Karachi, 26 Sept. (AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - A militant Al-Qaeda satellite cell linked to Pakistan's top Taliban commander, Baitullah Mehsud, and other jihadi organisations was targeted in a major raid by security forces in Karachi on Friday. Three key militants died during the raid on the cell, which was allegedly planning a campaign of destruction. Their targets are believed to have included the bureau of the country's intelligence services (ISI), NATO supply lines from two Karachi ports and anti-Taliban politicians. The satellite cell had direct links to Baitullah Mehsud and Qari Zafar, the alleged mastermind of the...

KARACHI: On average, 100 women are raped every 24 hours in Karachi city alone, and a majority of them are working women, said Additional Police Surgeon (APS) Dr Zulfiqar Siyal. A majority of them are working class women or those working as domestic help and are mostly up to 20 years old, he said. “I am saying with full authority that such a large number of rape cases happen in the city,” he told Daily Times on the sidelines of a discussion on sexual violence organised by the Aurat Foundation on Monday. “But very few rape survivors have the courage...

War On Terror: After 9/11, Pakistan promised to close its radical madrassas as part of anti-terror reforms. Now we learn they're not only still open, but also recruiting and brainwashing American boys.All told, 600 American children are being indoctrinated into jihad in 22 madrassas across Pakistan. A U.S. filmmaker stumbled on them while tracing the path of the London suicide bombers. He discovered they attended the same radical Islamic schools. A congressional delegation has confirmed his findings. One particularly radical school in Karachi freely displays a banner at its main gate urging Muslims to join the Taliban. At least 80...

Attacks on nuclear power stations, oil and gas terminals, Canary Wharf and Heathrow’s control tower were being considered by leaders of the plot to blow up seven transatlantic airliners in mid-flight, a court was told yesterday. Documents found on computer memory sticks at the home of an alleged terrorist ringleader contained a list of targets across Britain – including the gas pipeline between Britain and Belgium. The man, Assad Sarwar, was said to be in contact with terrorist leaders overseas and visited Pakistan a month before his arrest as preparations for the airline attacks were being finalised. Peter Wright, QC,...

KARACHI, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Security forces in the Pakistani province of Sindh have been issued orders to shoot violent protesters on sight as disturbances over the killing of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto flared, an official said. "Yes, shoot on sight anybody who wants to damage the life of innocent citizens and public property," provincial Interior Minister Akhtar Zaman told Reuters on Friday. (Reporting by Kamran Haider; Editing by Robert Birsel)

via translation - Mrs. Bhutto accuses supporters of the former military regime PARIS-Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto accused the supporters of the former military regime of General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq to have instigated the attack have referred Thursday in Karachi, in an interview broadcast Friday by online french weekly Paris Match. "I know exactly who wanted to kill me. These are the dignitaries of the former regime of General Zia who are now behind extremism and fanaticism, "said Mrs. Bhutto in the interview given in the night from Thursday to Friday Karachi and published on the website of the journal...

Excerpt - DUBAI, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was heading home on Thursday to end eight years in self-exile, making a comeback that could eventually lead to power sharing with President Pervez Musharraf. Waved off by supporters in Dubai, and accompanied by her sister, Sanam, Bhutto was due to land around 2:00 p.m. (0900 GMT) in Karachi, where al Qaeda-linked militants have threatened to assassinate her. For years Bhutto vowed to return to Pakistan to end military dictatorship, yet she is coming back as a potential ally for General Musharraf, the army chief who took...

A new overpass bridge collapsed in the southern city of Karachi on Saturday, killing at least four people and crushing vehicles under mounds of debris, officials said. Mayor Mustafa Kamal said officials were using heavy machinery and bulldozers to try to rescue injured people trapped in vehicles when the 330-foot-long curved section of the overpass crashed onto a road below. Azhar Faruqi, the city police chief, said authorities had taken two bodies to a hospital, while another two bodies could be seen inside a crushed car. At least five people were injured. The cause of the accident was not immediately...

Pakistan on brink of disaster as Karachi burns By Isambard Wilkinson and Massoud Ansari in Karachi, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 11:37pm BST 12/05/2007 Chaos gripped the streets of Karachi yesterday as gun battles left at least 31 people dead and hundreds more injured, threatening a complete breakdown of law and order in Pakistan's largest and most volatile city. With plumes of black smoke billowing over the city of 12 million people, there were extraordinary scenes as gunmen on motorbikes pumped bullets into crowds demonstrating against Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, while police stood by and watched. Gun battles left at least...

Dozens of Britain’s nuclear warheads will be scrapped under plans to replace Trident. Tony Blair is expected to announce the move when the Government unveils a white paper on the UK’s nuclear deterrent on Monday. The reduction will be seen as an attempt to win over Labour MPs opposed to spending up to £20 billion on a new nuclear weapons system. Labour reduced the number of warheads to below 200 when it came to power in 1997 and the latest cut is expected to be significant, in the dozens, but not halving the stockpile. However, Labour backbenchers are predicting up...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia has extended for two more years the imprisonment of a terror suspect linked to al-Qaeda's attempts to produce chemical and biological weapons, saying he has more information about terrorist operations. Yazid Sufaat, a U.S.-trained biochemist and former Malaysian army captain, was arrested in late 2001 as he returned home from Afghanistan, where officials say he was working on a biological and chemical weapons program for al-Qaeda that was ended by the U.S.-led war. Since then, he has been held without trial under Malaysia's Internal Security Act on accusations of being a member of Jemaah...

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) - Gunfire and rioting broke out for a fourth straight day Tuesday after the funeral service for a prominent tribal chief killed by Pakistani government forces. Two police were wounded and dozens of shops destroyed. More than 10,000 mourners attended the funeral of Nawab Akbar Bugti, who fought for decades for greater rights for the Baluch tribespeople. At least two people have been killed, dozens wounded and 500 arrested in rioting since his death Saturday. The service was held even though Pakistani authorities have not yet returned Bugti's body to his family. The government says it is...

U.S. law enforcement sources tell ABC News the FBI is investigating new leads that involve a possible connection between people in the United States, in major east coast cities, and the London bomb plotters. In an interview with ABC News this morning, White House Homeland Security Advisor Fran Townsend said while there is currently no indication of any plotting in the United States, she confirmed, "There are leads that the FBI is running." With at least five, and maybe more, suspects still at large, it is the missing plotters who are the greatest security concern. Among those still at large...

Karachi blast kills Shia leader Hassan Turabi was the target of an attack in April A prominent Shia cleric has been killed in a suicide bombing in Karachi in southern Pakistan, officials say.Shia leader Allama Hassan Turabi died in hospital after the attack, which also killed one of his relatives. Mr Turabi was approaching his house when the bomber approached him and detonated his device. Karachi has been the scene of bloody clashes between Sunnis and Shias since the 1980s. Mr Turabi had survived a previous attempt on his life in April. "Allama Turabi is dead," Salahuddin Haider, a...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A Pakistani cleric facing deportation was accused Friday during an immigration hearing of trying to incite followers to defend Osama bin Laden and kill Americans. Shabbir Ahmed, 39, seeking bail on a charge of overstaying his visa to head a Lodi mosque in the Central Valley, denied that he had made any speech against the United States. During the same hearing, a government attorney said another Lodi imam being held on immigration charges once had close ties to the Taliban. Justice Department attorney Paul Nishiie argued against releasing Ahmed on bail, saying he was linked to...

U.S. President George W. Bush said Thursday an American diplomat was among several people killed in a bombing earlier in the day near the U.S. Consulate in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi. "We have lost at least one U.S. citizen in the bombing, a foreign service officer," Bush said at a joint news conference with Indian Prime Minster Manmohan Singh in New Delhi. "Terrorists and killers are not going to prevent me from going to Pakistan," he said, two days before his scheduled arrival in Islamabad for talks with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. At least four people...

At least three people killed, 12 wounded in explosion at KFC restaurant KARACHI, Pakistan - A powerful car bomb exploded outside a KFC restaurant in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi on Tuesday, killing at least three people and injuring 12 others, police said. The blast struck at about 8:45 a.m., as commuters were heading to shops and offices in the crowded business hub, the scene of numerous bombings in recent months that have killed more than a dozen people. The blast badly damaged the restaurant, part of the global American fast food chain, burning and overturning several cars on...

Reuters - BLAST HEARD IN PAKISTAN'S KARACHI, CLOUD OF SMOKE OVER DOWNTOWN AREA-WITNESS KARACHI BLAST AT OFFICE BLOCK HOUSING OIL AND GAS COMPANIES -REUTERS WITNESS

The bloody attack on July 7 in London was a warning to the world to wake up against the evil of terrorism in all its forms. We have been hearing the cries of innocent victims of terrorism in so many countries, New York City, Karachi, Madrid, Beirut, Bosnia, Jakarta, Israel, Palestine and now London. Iraq is suffering from the sickness of suicide bombings every day. In 150 major terrorist attacks in the last 3 months, 2,400 Iraqis died and thousands more were wounded or handicapped. Mainstream Muslims helplessly find themselves as the main victims of terrorism. We still grieve the...

KARACHI, May 31 (Reuters) - Eleven people were killed in a night of violence in Karachi when a suicide attack on a mosque blamed on a group linked to al Qaeda spiralled into a riot that burned to death six at American fast-food outlet KFC. Angry Shi'ites set fire to the restaurant in revenge after five people were killed and 18 wounded in the Monday night suicide bomb blast at a mosque in Karachi's middle-class Gulshan-e-Iqbal district, police said on Tuesday. The KFC outlet was torched just minutes after the blast at the mosque. Angry Shi'ite youths also attacked a...

KARACHI (Reuters) - Six people, including three assailants, were killed in a suicide bomb attack on Monday at a minority Shi'ite Muslim mosque in southern Pakistan, the latest religious violence to rock the country, officials said. At least 18 other people were wounded, four seriously, in the attack at the Mandinatul Ilm mosque in a middle-class area of the port city of Karachi, hospital officials said. It was the latest incident of religious violence to hit a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism. It came after a suicide bombing at a Muslim festival in the capital Islamabad on...

KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) - At least five people, including two assailants, were killed in a suicide bomb attack on Monday at Muslim mosque in southern Pakistan, the latest religious violence to rock the country, officials said. ADVERTISEMENT Eighteen people were wounded, four seriously, in the attack at the a minority Shi'ite Mandinatul Ilm mosque in the middle-class Gulshan-e-Iqbal area of Karachi, hospital officials said. It was the latest incident of religious violence to hit one of Washington's main allies in its war on terrorism and came after a suicide bombing at a Muslim festival in the capital Islamabad on Friday...

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Security forces raid apartment complex in Karachi KARACHI, Nov. 1, 2004 Security forces, backed by at least one helicopter, raided an apartment complex in Karachi today, and intelligence officials said they could be trying to capture an important Al Qaeda figure. Government and security officials refused to comment after witnesses saw a military helicopter hovering over apartment buildings under construction in Gulistan-e-Johar. Troops cordoned off the area and prevented people from entering. An intelligence source, who declined to be identified, said the raid could be aimed at capturing an important al Qaeda figure. He refused to give further details. (Reuters)

KARACHI, Pakistan - It started with a robbery, but the gang that burst into a branch of Al-Habib Bank in this teeming port city had no interest in striking it rich, and the university graduate driving the getaway car was just getting started on a master plan for terror. The heist, carried out in daylight and with AK-47 assault rifles, is emblematic of a new brand of Islamic militant — more educated but less established and largely cut off from traditional sources of terror funding, Pakistani police and intelligence officials told The Associated Press. Atta-ur Rehman and his Jundullah gang...

...The official death toll at School No. 1 in Beslan stood yesterday at 335, more than one-tenth the number who died in the terrorist attacks on America three years ago this week.... Before their slaughter, by rigged explosives or sniper fire, their captors denied them so much as a sip of water. The depravity of this is hard to believe, but believe it we must. For it is the new reality of this current age in which innocents are specifically targeted by Muslim terrorists in the name of some Islamic cause. In Russia, the murderers were Chechens, aided by Arabs...

19 dead, dozens injured as bomb explodes in Karachi mosque 2 hours, 13 minutes ago Add World - AFP to My Yahoo! KARACHI (AFP) - The death toll from a bomb attack on a Shiite Muslim mosque in Pakistan's largest city Karachi rose to 19 overnight, police say. Four worshippers who had been wounded in the attack during evening prayers Monday died in hospital during the night, Karachi police chief Tariq Jamil said. Another three people were killed in shootouts between police and protestors as violence engulfed the troubled city of million people. The blast came a day after a...

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) - Gunmen riding in two cars and a motorcycle opened fire on a pick up truck carrying a senior Sunni Muslim cleric in this violence-prone city Sunday, killing him and wounding four other people, police said. The cleric - Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai - died of gunshot wounds in a nearby hospital. He was attacked while he was driving to an Islamic seminary that he headed in an eastern Karachi neighborhood, said Fayyaz Qureshi, a Karachi police official. A body guard of Shamzai returned fire wounding one of the six attackers, Qureshi said, quoting witnesses. Among the four...

CNN) -- Two car bombs have killed a police officer and wounded at least 22 people near a U.S. diplomat's residence in Karachi, Pakistani police have said. The first blast took place outside the Pakistan-American cultural center in downtown Karachi, not far from the residence of the American consul general. One man was injured, police said. The second explosion -- also believed to be a car bomb -- happened nearby 25 minutes later as police, bomb disposal experts, ambulance crews and reporters gathered in response to the first explosion. A police officer died in the second blast, while at least...

KARACHI, Pakistan - Two cars exploded minutes apart Wednesday outside the American cultural center in the southern city of Karachi, wounding at least seven people, police and witnesses said. A bomb planted in the first car detonated outside the gate of the Pakistan-American Cultural Center, and one injured person was sent to the hospital, said Ghulam Mohammed Dogar, senior superintendent of city police. Minutes later, a second car parked nearby exploded, billowing fire and smoke. Wreckage from the car flew in the air and hit bystanders, and an Associated Press reporter at the scene saw three photographers and three policemen...

WASHINGTON : Presidential hopeful and Massachusetts Senator John Kerry today announced he has offered Johnny Depp first refusal of the coveted VP spot in his Democratic bid for the White House. I first saw Johnny in that scissors movie, Kerry told reporters, and I’ve wanted to run with him ever since. A source close to the Kerry campaign stated that Kerry believes Depp’s charm, charisma and intense global popularity is just the thing needed to sway voter support of post-teen females, twenty-something housewives, every woman in middle-aged America and that ‘certain section of guys’ towards the Democratic ticket in November....

Mass al-Qa'eda jailbreak foiled by Karachi police By Massoud Ansari in Karachi (Filed: 02/05/2004) Pakistani police have foiled a plot by militants linked to al-Qa'eda to attack a high-security prison and help 30 of the country's most dangerous terrorist suspects to escape. Heavily armed paramilitary troops have been ordered to patrol the streets around the main prison in Karachi and police with assault rifles have been stationed on watchtowers and at its gates since the discovery last week of the plan to blow a hole in the outer walls. As a bomb on a lorry was to be detonated outside,...

Gunmen order police to pray, then kill 5 of them 05.04.2004 KARACHI - At least 10 gunmen stormed into a police station in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi last night, killing five policemen and wounding one after demanding that the officers recite Islamic verses. The attackers escaped by car after the attack, about 5km from the international airport. Karachi is Pakistan's largest city and the scene of frequent religious violence. The assault, one of the boldest on Karachi's police in years, comes as tension is running high following a deadly raid by thousands of Pakistani troops on 400 to...

<p>LONDON — Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, al Qaeda's purported operations chief, has told U.S. interrogators that the group had been planning attacks on the Library Tower in Los Angeles and the Sears Tower in Chicago on the heels of the September 11, 2001, terror strikes.</p>

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) -- Explosive experts defused a bomb Monday in a small van parked next to the heavily guarded U.S. Consulate in this southern Pakistani city, police said. Security guards at the consulate informed police about the van, which was parked close to a perimeter wall of the building, said Mohammed Irfan, a Karachi police official. Police found a water tank in the van that was filled with explosives. The experts disconnected a timer and detonators attached to the tank, Irfan said. "We saved this place from big destruction," he said.

WASHINGTON - American authorities investigating the killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan now believe that he was slain by the hand of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks. Authorities, who had previously cast doubt on reports of Mohammed's role, now have new information that leads them to believe he killed Pearl, said one U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The official declined to detail the evidence. The U.S. acknowledgment of Mohammed's suspected role was first reported in Tuesday's editions of the Journal. However, three senior Pakistani officials involved...

ARACHI, Pakistan — The nursery where they killed him, one year on, is oddly peaceful. Lush mango, palm and pomegranate trees are in bloom, their thick, green leaves whispering in a gentle breeze.The cinder-block storehouse where he was executed is empty, save for some flower pots, a cot and crumpled packs of cigarettes strewn across the floor. The 10-foot by 15-foot main room still has a metal door and metal shutters that can be padlocked. Sounds of life reach the room: birds chirping and cars driving past to a nearby religious school run by Al Rashid Trust, an organization...

Federal authorities expect to file terrorism charges soon against a detained Pakistani man with ties to the shipping industry and links to a senior al Qaeda leader, law enforcement officials said yesterday. Uzair Paracha, 23, has been secretly detained as a material witness since his arrest March 31 in the offices of a New York clothing import firm owned by his father, sources said. Authorities believe the Paracha family business may have been used as cover for attempts to smuggle al Qaeda operatives or weapons into the United States, according to several sources familiar with the case. Paracha's father, who...