DUSHANBE, Tajikistan: More than 650 Islamic militants who fought against the government during Tajikistan's 1992-97 civil war have been released from prison as part of a presidential amnesty, officials said Monday.
Late last month, parliament approved the measure proposed by President Emomali Rakhmon, pardoning militants and warlords imprisoned for crimes committed during the war that took about 100,000 lives and made the ex-Soviet nation one of the world's poorest countries. Khudomon Muborakkadamov, a prison official with the Justice Ministry, said 685 inmates — including 291 women — had been released since the amnesty went into effect.
Even though the amnesty did not apply to those convicted of terrorism, Muborakkadamov said 17 of the pardoned women had been convicted of participating in Hizb-ut-Tahrir, a group seeking to create a worldwide Islamic state that is banned in Tajikistan. The official said it was done "out of humane considerations."
Last week, Tajikistan celebrated the 10th anniversary of a U.N.-brokered power-sharing agreement that ended the five-year war between Rakhmon's hard-line secular government and the mostly Islamic opposition. Opposition and critics say Rakhmon has tightened his grip on power by jailing former loyalists as well as wartime opposition leaders on various criminal charges.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/02/europe/EU-GEN-Tajikistan-Amnesty.php
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani forces have arrested 11 militants and recovered huge cache of weapons including rocket launchers and missiles in special security operations in the country's restive Balochistan province.
The insurgents were arrested with weapons including 2 rocket launchers with 40 missiles and 23 kg of explosive material in special operations during the last two days in Sui sub division area in Baluchistan’s Dera Bugti district, the Online News said.
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8 militants arrested with explosives, bomb-making equipment
Monday July 02, 2007
Security forces on Sunday arrested eight suspected militants of a banned group and foiled their plan of 'terrorist activities', a senior police officer said. The suspects were arrested during a raid on a house in the central Pakistani city of Lahore, police officer Malik Muhammad Iqbal said at a news conference.
Leader of the group, Safeer Ahmed alias Muhammad Aziz, was wanted by the police for his involvement in terrorist activities, Iqbal said. The government had announced one million rupees reward for information leading to the arrest of Safeer Ahmed, he said. The police officer said that Mufti Sagheer, one of those arrested, was an expert of making explosives.
He added that explosives and equipment used in bomb-making were recovered from the suspects. Iqbal did not mention the name of their organization but said they were linked to the Taliban.
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http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0707013888193459.htm