Watch Gunmen in Pakistan torch nearly 30 NATO fuel tankers

Gunmen in Pakistan torch nearly 30 NATO fuel tankers


QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) – Gunmen in southwestern Pakistan set fire to nearly 30 tankers carrying fuel for NATO troops in Afghanistan on Saturday, an official said, two days after the United States apologized to Pakistan for a cross-border air raid that killed two Pakistani soldiers.
Suspected Islamist militants have stepped up attacks on convoys carrying supplies for NATO forces since the September 30 NATO air strike in northwestern Pakistan described by the U.S. ambassador as a terrible accident.
About 20 gunmen set fire to around 30 tankers parked outside at a roadside restaurant near the southwestern town of Sibi in a pre-dawn attack, the official said.
The tankers were on their way to the border town of Chaman.
"The attackers first fired shots and then fired small rockets at the tankers. Twenty-eight to 29 tankers caught fire," local government official Naeem Sherwani told Reuters. He said one of the paramilitary soldiers escorting the convoy was wounded.
The U.S.-backed Pakistani government is battling Taliban insurgents who remain effective despite military crackdowns on their strongholds in the northwest near the Afghan border.
Two suspected suicide bombers struck at a crowded Sufi Muslim shrine in the Pakistani city of Karachi on Thursday, killing at least seven people and wounding 65.
The U.S. apology for the September 30 cross-border raid had raised the hopes that Pakistan would reopen a vital supply route in the northwest for coalition forces which Islamabad shut after the NATO strike, citing security reasons.
A second supply route passing through southwestern Pakistan has remained open.
Pakistan's foreign ministry said after the U.S. apology that security was being evaluated and a decision on reopening the supply route through the famous Khyber Pass would be taken "in due course," but also emphasised Washington and Islamabad were "allies in the fight against militancy."
Trucking routes through Pakistan bring in around 40 percent of supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan, according to the United States Transportation Command. Of the remainder, 40 percent come through Afghanistan's neighbors in the north and 20 percent by air.
The helicopter strike was the most serious of recent cross-border incidents involving NATO-led forces fighting in Afghanistan, which have stoked tensions with Pakistan.
The United States has been pressing Pakistan to take a harder line against militants launching cross-border attacks from their Pakistani safe havens on Western forces in Afghanistan.
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Strugling Eight killed in Pakistan shrine bombing

Eight killed in Pakistan shrine bombing

KARACHI — Two bombs ripped through a Sufi shrine in Karachi killing at least eight worshippers, including two children, as Pakistan battles a wave of violence linked to Taliban and Al-Qaeda extremists.
Senior police official Hamid Parhial said 65 people were also wounded in the suspected suicide attack late Thursday in Karachi, a teeming port city that is a maelstrom of communal and criminal violence.

The bombs exploded at the entrance of the shrine to Abdullah Shah Ghazi, a saint in the Sufi mystical strain of Islam, as devotees packed it for a weekly gathering in the city’s seaside Clifton district.

Witness Gul Mohammad said he was outside the shrine when two huge blasts were heard in quick succession. “I rushed inside and saw blood and human flesh,” he said.

“Some bodies were lying on the ground and several people wounded in the blasts were crying in pain. Then ambulances started arriving and moving the injured to hospitals.”

Doctor Seemin Jamali of Civil Hospital Karachi said 10 women and seven children with serious injuries were among those admitted.

“It was a terrorist attack,” said Sindh provincial home minister Zulfikar Mirza, who said the government had decided to seal all shrines in the city immediately over security fears.

A bomb attack in July at a popular Sufi site in the eastern city of Lahore killed more than 40 people. Militant Islamists see visits to Sufi shrines and some rituals as un-Islamic.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the Pakistani Taliban has been blamed for similar bombings in the past.

More than 3,700 people have been killed in a series of suicide attacks and bombings, many of them carried out by the Taliban and other Al-Qaeda-linked extremists, in Pakistan during the past three years.

The United States, whose intensifying drone strikes against Islamist militants in northwest Pakistan have raised tensions with Islamabad, condemned the attack.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Washington stood “shoulder-to-shoulder with Pakistan in its struggle against terrorism”.

The United States has dramatically increased drone strikes against militants in the lawless tribal areas allegedly at the centre of a plot to carry out Mumbai-style attacks on European cities.

On Sunday, the United States warned that its citizens may be at risk of terrorist attacks while travelling in Europe, followed by similar alerts from Britain, Japan and Sweden.

Pakistan’s ambassador to Britain however said Washington’s alert may have been politically motivated, ahead of mid-term US elections next month.

“I will not deny the fact that there may be internal political dynamics, including the forthcoming mid-term American elections,” High Commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan was quoted as saying in Friday’s Guardian newspaper.

“If the Americans have definite information about terrorists and Al-Qaeda people, we should be provided (with) that and we could go after them ourselves.”

Hasan further said recent US attacks inside Pakistan had “set the country on fire” and warned that mounting public anger could lead to American personnel in Pakistan being attacked.

“There is a figure that there are 3,000 American personnel in Pakistan. They would be very easy targets.”

Pakistan’s US envoy had said Wednesday the increased drone strikes were linked to the alleged European terror plot.
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Watches this 26 NATO tankers torched in new attack in Pakistan

26 NATO tankers torched in new attack in Pakistan

PESHAWAR—At least 26 NATO oil tankers were torched when militants opened fire on a convoy of dozens of vehicles parked in Nowshera in northwestern Pakistan, senior police officials said Wednesday.

The attack was the second of the day after militants opened fire on a terminal on the outskirts of the southwestern city of Quetta earlier, killing a staff member and destroying at least 18 vehicles.

The Nowshera attack was the fifth of its kind in a week, and both were claimed by the Pakistani Taliban "to avenge US drone attacks" in the northwestern tribal region on the Afghan border.

There were more than 70 vehicles including oil tankers and containers at the depot in Nowshera, and so far 26 tankers have been gutted, local police chief Nisar Ahmed Tanoli told AFP.

"Militants opened fire and also lobbed rockets which triggered fire," he said. "We have summoned fire brigades and efforts are underway to extinguish the fire."

There was no immediate report of casualties, he said.

Siraj Ahmed, a doctor at a state-run hospital near the depot, said he heard gunfire and several explosions.

"I went out and saw fire is raging at two places in a long row of NATO supply vehicles parked in the area. Firing was also heard," he said.

Another police official Imtiaz Ali said more than 25 tankers were destroyed.

"We are trying to remove other tankers to prevent fire from spreading further," he said.

Local Taliban militants have launched five attacks on NATO supply vehicles in Pakistan in the past week to avenge the new wave of US drone strikes targeting Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants.

Pakistani authorities have reported 25 drone attacks since September 3 which have killed more than 140 people in the region, a hub for homegrown and foreign militants fighting in Afghanistan.
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Ancident More Nato trucks burnt in Pakistan

More Nato trucks burnt in Pakistan
At least eight trucks are set on fire and one driver killed in the Pakistani city of Quetta, police officials say

Armed men in Pakistan have burned up to eight tankers carrying fuel for Nato forces in Afghanistan, killing a lorry driver, according to Pakistani police.

Shah Nawaz Khan, a police official, said on Wednesday that the attack, the latest on supply convoys since Pakistan closed a key border crossing to Nato forces last week, occurred in the parking lot of a roadside hotel on the outskirts of the southwest city of Quetta.

The attacks have raised tensions already elevated by Pakistan's decision to close the Torkham crossing in an apparent protest against alleged Nato helicopter strikes on its territory. One of those strikes killed three Pakistani soldiers.

The torched tankers are believed to have been on their way for a smaller border crossing that remains open.
Coppied by http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/10/20101063176915658.html

Secrifice this Angelina donates $100,000 to Pakistan for flood relief

Angelina donates $100,000 to Pakistan for flood relief

Angelina has expressed her desire to visit Pakistan and communicate with the people directly on the ground zero. Justifying her stature, the actress has once again won the hearts of millions with her noble gesture.

HOLLYWOOD'S LEADING actress, Angelina Jolie has set great example for others once again when it comes to express sympathy and compassion for calamities across the world. The leading celebrity of silver screen poured her heart out for the victims of devastated flood across many parts of Pakistan. The devastating natural calamity according to official resources has claimed over 2000 lives and left over two million people homeless.

The actress has donated $100,000 for the rehabilitation of flood victims. Besides, she has also asked her fans across the globe to come forward and donate wholeheartedly for the flood victims, who need immediate assistance in terms of food, shelter and medicine.

Angelina is also a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations; she is one of those actors in the world, who are often seen playing key role in the rehabilitation of victims affected by war, flood or any other calamity. The actress recently donated $1 million to help the survivors of devastated earthquake that rocked Haiti. To build a girl school in war ravaged Afghanistan the actress contributed $75,000.

The flood has displaced over 20 million people; however donations are far below than expected. World is slowly realizing the gravity of the catastrophe and donations are pouring in from the countries across the world.

Angelina has expressed her desire to visit Pakistan and communicate with the people directly on ground zero. Justifying her stature, the actress has once again won the hearts of millions with her noble gesture. Hats off to you Angelina for your great move.

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Watch Pakistan orders nearly half a million to evacuate

Pakistan orders nearly half a million to evacuate

Filed Under: Flood, Weather, Disasters (general), Evacuation(General), Foreign Aid, Relief & Aid Organisations
THATTA—Pakistan ordered nearly half a million people to evacuate towns on Thursday as rising floods threaten further havoc in a country straining to cope with its worst humanitarian disaster.

Torrential monsoon rains triggered massive floods affecting a fifth of the volatile country – an area roughly the size of England – where a US official warned that foreign aid workers are at risk from Taliban attacks.

Villagers in the south fled from where the Indus delta merges with the Arabian Sea, trailing north in vans laden with furniture or crowded into buses, or in carts pulled by oxen. Some people were on foot, leading their livestock.

Water lined the road from Hyderabad to Thatta town, as workers frantically used bulldozers to dig embankments only just higher than the flooding, and where people camped out under open skies or in makeshift tents.

The catastrophe has already affected more than 17 million people and left eight million dependent on aid to survive.

The Pakistani government has confirmed that 1,600 people have been killed and 2,366 wounded, but officials warn that millions are at risk from diseases and food shortages.
Coppied by http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20100827-288993/Pakistan-orders-nearly-half-a-million-to-evacuate

Watch Pakistan Taliban planning aid attack, says US official

Pakistan Taliban planning aid attack, says US official


Millions of Pakistanis have been displaced by the floods
The Pakistani Taliban are planning to attack foreigners helping with flood relief efforts in the country, a senior US official has warned.

The official also said "federal and provincial ministers" may be at risk.

Some UN agencies say they are now reviewing their security procedures.

It has now been four weeks since the start of the flooding, described as the region's worst humanitarian crisis. The UN says more than 17 million people have been affected by the floods.

Continue reading the main story
Pakistan's Monsoon Floods

Born amid the floodwaters
Aid effort painfully slow
In pictures: Pakistan's flood crisis
Forgotten humanity
As floods sweep down from the north, they are threatening to breach an embankment in the Kot Almo area in Sindh province, forcing thousands of people in the southern Thatta district to flee from their homes.

Throughout Pakistan, about 1.2 million homes have been destroyed in the monsoon floods, leaving 5 million people homeless.

Aid agencies are focusing on providing emergency relief such as shelter, food and medical care.

'Plans to attack'

The militant group Tehrik-e Taliban "plans to conduct attacks against foreigners participating in the ongoing flood relief operations in Pakistan", a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the BBC.

There have been no such attacks so far, but Tehrik-e Taliban is considered the most radical and violent militant group in Pakistan.

A retired Pakistani general, Talat Masood, told the BBC that the militant group would seek to counter any gains in public support for Western governments helping with relief and aid work.
Protection and security

The warning came hours after a top US general involved in the military relief effort said his men had not encountered any security problems in flying aid to Pakistan.

It has been nearly a month since the flooding began
"We have seen no security threat whatsoever in the three weeks we have been operating here," Brigadier General Michael Nagata was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.

He added that the Pakistani military had done a "highly effective job in providing our force protection and security".

Various nations have pledged more than $700m (£552m) for relief efforts in Pakistan.

Workers have begun clearing up as the floods recede in the north and the UN has appealed for more helicopters to reach 800,000 people who are cut off.
Coppied by http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11092868

Pakistan to seek IMF help for flood-battered economy

Enjoy Pakistan to seek IMF help for flood-battered economy


A boy walks into his family house which was destroyed by floodwaters in Mehmood Kod village in Pakistan's Muzaffargarh district of Punjab province August 23, 2010. (REUTERS/Reinhard Krause)
SUKKUR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan braced for more flooding in the south as officials were due to hold talks in Washington on Monday with the International Monetary Fund on how to shore up the battered economy to maintain stability.


A boy walks into his family house which was destroyed by floodwaters in Mehmood Kod village in Pakistan's Muzaffargarh district of Punjab province August 23, 2010. (REUTERS/Reinhard Krause)
The IMF said it would review Pakistan's budget and economic prospects because of the magnitude of a disaster that has ravaged crops and infrastructure, left more than 4 million homeless and raised concerns that Islamist militants may exploit the chaos.

Estimates for economic growth this year range from zero to 3 percent -- below the official target of 4.5 percent -- with Pakistan's ally the United States worried that a weak economy could destablise a key nation in the war against militancy.

Agriculture, the mainstay of the economy, has been hit hard.

The floods have destroyed or extensively damaged crops over 4.25 million acres (1.72 mln hectares) of land -- including cotton, rice, sugarcane, maize -- Food Minister Nazar Muhammad Gondal told Reuters.

The total area under cultivation is about 23 million hectares, food ministry officials say.

The IMF talks will evaluate the economic impact of the flooding, assess the measures needed to address the damage and discuss ways in which the IMF can help. [nSGE67M04A]

Help may come in the form of lowering some of the targets of the loan programme or allowing the government to abandon it and take on another disaster-relief loan.

Either way, the government is under intense pressure to deliver assistance to a public that is seething at its handling of the crisis.

Any unrest could fuel a Taliban-led insurgency that the military had said it had made serious progress against before the floods hit three weeks ago.

(For a slideshow: Pakistan flood relief, click http://in.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?articleId=INRTR2GZF5)

Authorities have been accused of moving too slowly and Islamist charities, some with suspected links to militant groups, have rapidly provide relief to Pakistanis, already frustrated with their leaders' track record on security, poverty and chronic power shortages.

Since the floods struck, the Taliban had not staged any major attacks, but on Monday a suicide bomber killed pro-government cleric Noor Mohammad and 21 others in a mosque in South Waziristan on Monday, officials said.

"People were leaving the mosque after prayers when the bomber moved ahead to shake hands with my father and exploded the device," said the cleric's son, Noor Khanan, adding that the bomber was a young boy.

South Waziristan, a semi-autonomous ethnic Pashtun region, was a stronghold of al Qaeda and Taliban militants before the government launched a military offensive in October last year and largely cleared the region. Taliban militants often melt away when they are under pressure and return to former bastions.

Hours earlier, a bomb blast at a meeting of tribal elders killed seven people in Kurram tribal region near Afghanistan, a government official said.

In a third attack, a bomb planted under a cart went off in a market on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing three people and wounding six, police said.

SOUTH ON ALERT FOR FLOODS

The worst floods in decades have been spreading through the rice-growing belt in southern Sindh province district by district, breaking through or flowing over embankments.

International Organisation for Migration (IOM) spokesman Saleem Rehmat told reporters about 80 percent of the 3.9 million people in Sindh affected by the floods have been displaced.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled cities, towns and villages in the province for safer ground, disaster management officials said, adding that growing water pressure in the Indus River was one of their biggest concerns.

Food is running out in remote villages. Two exhausted-looking men wading along a flooded road in Sindh in search of supplies said they had walked for three days from their flooded village.
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Pakistan flood recovery could take years

enjoy Pakistan flood recovery could take years




Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari warned his beleaguered nation could take years to recover from devastating floods as global pledges topped 700 million dollars and waters refused to relent.
The near month-long floods have killed 1,500 people and affected up to 20 million nationwide in the country’s worst ever natural disaster, with the threat of disease ever present in the camps sheltering desperate survivors.
“Your guess is as good as mine, but three years is a minimum,” Zardari told reporters on Monday when asked how long it would take Pakistan to go through relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation after the floods.
“I don’t think Pakistan will ever fully recover but we will move on,” the president said, adding the government — under fire for its slow relief response — was working to protect people from similar disasters in future.
Senior US official Dan Feldman, the deputy special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, told reporters in Washington that a UN General Assembly meeting last week was “a real galvanising moment” in the aid effort.
“By our count, we’ve seen over 700 million dollars pledged, including our own 150 million dollar commitment, from over 30 countries,” Feldman said, without giving a country-by-country breakdown.
He said there are an “additional 300 million dollars in as yet undefined commitments” from a variety of countries.
The United States has made nuclear-armed Pakistan a key ally in the fight against Islamic extremism with fears militancy could benefit from the instability after the flooding and fury at the government.
Zardari was strongly criticised for failing to cut short a visit to Europe at the start of the disaster and while he defended that decision, he acknowledged that some criticism of the government’s response was justified.
“There will always be a ‘could have been better, would have been better, should have been better’... (but) you have to understand how enormous the issue (the scale of the disaster) is,” he said.
Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from flood-threatened areas in the south since Saturday, including most of the 100,000 residents in the city of Shahdadkot, which authorities were battling to protect.
Dozens of villages around Shahdadkot were inundated, district administration official Yasin Shar told AFP Monday, as floodwaters threatened the city.
Nearly 90 percent of people living in the area had left and the remaining were being rushed out, he said.
Similar efforts were being made to save Hyderabad, a city of 2.5 million people on the lower reaches of the Indus river, where at least 36 surrounding villages have been swept away.
Pakistani officials on Monday began talks with the International Monetary Fund in Washington amid reports Islamabad was asking the fund to ease the terms of a loan worth nearly 11 billion dollars.
Last week Pakistani officials said Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh would ask the IMF to restructure the current loan or consider new financing.
There are fears that losses as a result of the floods could reach 43 billion dollars.
Millions of survivors are in desperate need of food, shelter and clean drinking water and require humanitarian assistance to survive, as concerns grow over potential cholera, typhoid and hepatitis outbreaks.
Disaster management officials say that the scale of the flooding is much larger than Pakistan’s 2005 earthquake, which killed 73,000 people and made 3.3 million homeless.
Maurizio Giuliano, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Islamabad, said that 1.5 million people were being treated for everything from respiratory and skin infections to diarrhoea
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Pakistan floods leave millions hungry - U.N.

Enjoy Pakistan floods leave millions hungry - U.N.

A child cries during the evening meal at a road-side camp for flood victims near Shabar Jangi on the outskirts of Peshawar in Pakistan's northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province August 22, 2010.
SUKKUR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan's worst floods in decades have left millions hungry, the United Nations said on Monday, while parts of the south were on high alert for rising waters that could further tax aid groups.


A child cries during the evening meal at a road-side camp for flood victims near Shabar Jangi on the outskirts of Peshawar in Pakistan's northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province August 22, 2010. (REUTERS/Tim Wimborne)
"We cannot talk about starvation yet but I think we can talk about millions of people being hungry," Maurizio Giuliano, the U.N. humanitarian spokesman, told Reuters.

"I think we have millions of people who are hungry, and hunger is clearly a factor that contributes significantly to vulnerability."

The flood has been spreading through the rice-growing belt in southern Sindh province district by district, breaking through or flowing over embankments.

Waters have been rising in southern Sindh and hundreds of thousands of people have fled cities, towns and villages for safer ground, disaster management officials said.

For a graphic on Pakistan's floods, click

http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/RNGS/2010/AUG/PAK5.jpg

For a story on agricultural costs of floods

For an analysis of risks to watch in Pakistan, click

http://r.reuters.com/pyj83n

For a slide show, click http://link.reuters.com/sum54n

Sindh is home to Pakistan's biggest city and commercial centre Karachi, but the floods have affected mostly rural areas and far smaller urban centres.

Over 100,000 people have fled the Sindh city of Shahdadkot, and officials say one of their biggest concerns now is growing water pressure in the Indus River along the southern cities and towns of Hyderabad, Jamshoro and Thatta which could lead to more flooding.

Saleh Farooqui, head of the Sindh Provincial Disaster Management Authority, said over 100,000 people have been evacuated from Thatta alone.

The worst floods in decades have destroyed villages, bridges and roads, made more than 4 million homeless and raised concerns that militants will exploit the misery and chaos.

The government has been accused of moving too slowly and Islamist charities, some with suspected links to militant groups, have moved rapidly to provide relief to Pakistanis, already frustrated with their leaders' track record on security, poverty and chronic power shortages.

More than $800 million has been donated or pledged to help Pakistan's flood victims, the foreign minister said on Sunday. Long-term rebuilding will cost billions of dollars, pressuring a government that was already constrained by a fragile economy before one of the worst catastrophes in its history struck.

The International Monetary Fund said it would review Pakistan's budget and economic prospects in light of the disaster in talks with government officials starting on Monday.

The meetings in Washington will focus on a $10 billion IMF programme agreed in 2008, and the budget and macroeconomic prospects will be reviewed because of the magnitude of the flood disaster, officials said.

Half a million people are living in about 5,000 schools in flood-hit areas of Pakistan. The cramped, unhygienic conditions, as well as the intense heat, raise the spectre of potentially fatal disease outbreaks, such as cholera.

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Floods Force Thousands From Homes in Pakistan

Watch Floods Force Thousands From Homes in Pakistan


A Pakistani woman displaced by flooding, living on a roadside in Sukkur in southern Pakistan.
SUKKUR, Pakistan — Floodwaters surged deeper into areas of southern Pakistan on Sunday, forcing thousands more people to abandon their homes in haste and flee to higher ground. Attention has now focused on the province of Sindh as the floods that have torn through the length of the country for three weeks finally move toward the Arabian Sea.

Water reached within half a mile of Shadad Kot, a town of 150,000 people, on Sunday afternoon, and several nearby villages were already cut off when a protective embankment began to give way, Yasin Shar, the district coordination officer of Shadad Kot, said by telephone. Most of the population had been evacuated and more were still leaving, he said. “We are trying to save the embankment and keep on repairing wherever it is damaged, but the water is flowing with a lot of pressure,” Mr. Shar said. “We hope the embankment won’t break. We are praying.”

Nearly five million people have been displaced from the worst flooding ever recorded in Pakistan. Hundreds of thousands are being housed in orderly tented camps set up in army compounds, schools and other public buildings, but thousands more are living on roadsides and canal embankments, spreading out mats under the trees or making shade over the simple rope beds they brought with them.

The town of Sukkur is overflowing with an influx of displaced people. On the edge of the town, a group of 15 families with scores of children are camped along the Dadu Canal. Their mood is edgy, and they race in a horde after any vehicle that slows in the hope that it bears food or assistance. One woman showed her fractured arm, the result of a tussle for food.

“People are looting, people run after trucks snatching things,” said Shad Mohammad, 28, a shopkeeper and father of five, who came here after his town, Ghospur, was flooded 15 days ago. “People come, sometimes the government comes, or charities with food. Sometimes you get something, sometimes not.”

The children are often hungry and crying, Mr. Mohammad said. “We don’t know what will happen to us; we have lost everything,” he said. “We have nothing here, just the clothes we are wearing.”

He and others spoke of their anxiety that because Sindh is so low-lying, it will take months for the waters to subside, and for them to return home. And they know they will return to nothing. The water was up to their necks, so their mud-brick houses will have collapsed and their animals drowned, they said. Surviving would be difficult without assistance, and few expressed confidence they would receive much.

The older people were more resigned. “We will sit under the sky, and God will provide what he wills,” said Qaim Din, 50, a father of eight, who had to abandon his donkey and a buffalo as the family fled the rising waters.

The younger men expressed anger and impatience. “We are not living here happily,” said another man, also named Qaim Din but not related. A fertilizer dealer, he came here after his village 125 miles away was flooded. “We are angry, and they are treating us like animals,” he said.

“You are talking of anger, we are sometimes thinking of killing this government,” he said. “If you go further along this road, you will see people, you will see their faces, they are hurting.”

Jamshaid Khan Dasti, a member of Parliament from a neighboring constituency in Punjab Province, said, “Food is creating a law-and-order situation because there is no proper system to look after these people.” There were already episodes of looting and burglary, and Mr. Dasti said he had asked the government to deploy paramilitary rangers to prevent the situation from further deteriorating.

The majority of the displaced were falling outside the humanitarian net, he said. In his district, 800,000 people were displaced, but only 100,000 were being provided for in camps. “The rest are scattered, stuck in different places and they don’t have food or water,” Mr. Dasti said.

A former prime minister, Zafarullah Khan Jamali, a member of Parliament whose constituency in neighboring Baluchistan was 90 percent underwater, warned that the mood would only worsen. “These people will be out in the streets, this is what I see,” he said. “I have been through many floods, in ’56, ’73, ’76 and 2007, but I have never seen a government less bothered.” He added, “The state is a failure, and the people will come out, and naturally nothing can stop the wave of people.”

Asked if he was talking about a revolution, he said: “Yes. We are heading toward that, very fast.”

Waqar Gillani contributed reporting from Sukkur, and Salman Masood from Islamabad, Pakistan.
Coppied by http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/world/asia/23pstan.html?_r=1

Pakistan braced for more flooding

Enjoy Pakistan braced for more flooding

Flood victims cross a flooded road at Karamdad Qureshi village in Dera Ghazi Khan district of Punjab province. Photograph: Reuters/Asim Tanveer
Floods are threatening to wreak havoc in more areas of south Pakistan in a catastrophe that has made the government more unpopular and may help Islamist militants gain supporters.

Pakistan's worst floods in decades have toppled villages and bridges, ripped apart roads, killed at least 1,600 people, made more than four million homeless and raised concerns that militants will exploit the misery and chaos.

Saleh Farooqui, director general of the disaster management authority in southern Sindh province, said floods have hit at least four districts, including urban areas, forcing about 200,000 people to flee for higher ground in the last 24 hours.

"The south part of Sindh is our focus. We have diverted our resources for rescue operations towards that area," he said.

Officials expect the floodwaters will recede nationwide in the next few days as the last river torrents empty into the Arabian Sea, state news agency APP reported.

But when that happens, millions of Pakistanis will almost certainly want the government, which was already constrained by a fragile economy before the flood, to quickly come up with homes and compensation for the loss of livestock and crops.

The government has been accused of moving too slowly and Islamist charities, some with suspected links to militant groups, have moved rapidly to provide relief to Pakistanis, already frustrated with their leaders' track record on the economy, security, poverty and by chronic power shortages.

Pakistan has said it would freeze some development projects in order to divert resources to flood relief and reconstruction.

But if plans to spend on infrastructure, schools, factories and security forces in former Taliban insurgent strongholds, such as those in the northwest, are scrapped, that could set back government efforts to win public support.

The flood has been spreading through the rice-growing belt in the north of Sindh district by district, breaking through or flowing over embankments. People have also cut through dikes and roads hoping to divert the water away from their homes.

Half a million people are living in about 5,000 schools in flood-hit areas of Pakistan where poor hygiene and sanitation, along with cramped quarters and the stifling heat, provide fertile ground for potentially fatal diseases such as cholera.

The United Nations has warned that up to 3.5 million children could be in danger of contracting deadly diseases carried through contaminated water and insects.

Militants have proven resilient despite a series of army offensives the government said hurt them.

The United States, eager to ensure stability in a frontline state in the fight against militancy, has led a chorus of aid pledges and provided helicopters for rescue operations.

The EU will also urge countries next month to support trade breaks for Pakistan as worries grow about the impact of the floods on the stability of the country.

The International Monetary Fund said it would review Pakistan's budget and economic prospects in light of the disaster in talks with government officials on Monday.

The meetings in Washington will focus on a $10 billion IMF programme agreed in 2008, and the budget and macroeconomic prospects will be reviewed because of the magnitude of the flood disaster, officials said.

Flood damage to agriculture is widespread, raising the possibility of long-term damage to a pillar of the economy.
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Pakistan accepts $5m flood aid from India

We are enjoy Pakistan accepts $5m flood aid from India

Tens of thousands have been made homeless by the floods in Sindh province
Pakistan has accepted $5m (£3.2m) in aid from its rival and neighbour India, as donors pledged more money for the flood-hit country.
Abdullah Haroon, Pakistan's UN Ambassador, welcomed the offer saying the disaster transcended any differences the two countries had.

Meanwhile, officials say the province of Sindh is now the worst hit, with more than two million people affected.

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Pakistan's Monsoon Floods

Battle for survival
Feuds and sickness in camps
Who cares about Pakistan?
In pictures: Pakistanis await aid
New warnings are being issued and villages evacuated, they said.

Mr Haroon welcomed the latest offers of help, which followed a two-day special meeting of the UN Security Council in New York to discuss the crisis.

UN figures showed on Friday that $490.7m had been raised for the relief effort, with another $325m pledged. The total tops the $460m sought in the UN emergency appeal.

Mr Haroon described the new donations as "indeed heartening" and "a good beginning", but added that Pakistan will need support for years to come.

India's UN Ambassador, Hardeep Singh Puri, said the donation of $5m in relief supplies was an initial offer and his country was ready to do more if needed.

"We are willing to do all that is in our power to assist Pakistan in facing the consequences of floods," he said.

"We extend our wholehearted support to the government of Pakistan in its efforts for relief and rehabilitation of the... population."

The offer came after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke to his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani on Thursday.

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We had no way to save our goats and buffaloes, stranded in the water and crying”

Qasim Bhayyo
Refugee from Sindh province
Pakistan and India have slowly been improving ties since the Mumbai militant attacks of 2008 put relations between the two nuclear-armed rivals at a new low.

Homes lost
The floods began last month in Pakistan's north-west after heavy monsoon rains and have since swept south, swamping thousands of towns and villages in Punjab and Sindh provinces.

About one-fifth of Pakistan's territory is underwater and an estimated 20 million people are affected.

Officials estimate that about 1,600 people have been killed.

In the southern province of Sindh, hundreds of thousands of people have been left homeless as the Indus river overflowed, swamping homes and valuable farmland.

"Everything has been wasted. Nothing is left," said Qasim Bhayyo, 45, a refugee from Qayyas Bhayyo village in Sindh.

"I saw my house of wood and mud washed away. I saw grain and flour - we stockpiled food for months. It was all destroyed. We had no way to save our goats and buffaloes stranded in the water and crying."

As aid agencies stepped up the relief effort, the UN said on Friday that more helicopters were urgently needed to reach communities cut off by the water.

Experts warn of a second wave of deaths from water-borne diseases such as cholera unless flood victims have access to supplies of fresh drinking water.

If you would like to make a donation to help people affected by the floods in Pakistan, you can do so through the UK's Disasters Emergency Committee at www.dec.org.uk or by telephone on 0370 60 60 900

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Pakistan vows clampdown on Islamist charities

Enjoy Pakistan vows clampdown on Islamist charities
Global community has expressed fear that militants are using flood relief efforts to exploit anger against the government
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan said on Friday it will clamp down on charities linked to Islamist militants amid fears their involvement in flood relief could exploit anger against the government and undermine the fight against groups like the Taliban.
Islamist charities have moved swiftly to fill the vacuum left by a government overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster and struggling to reach millions of people in dire need of shelter, food and drinking water.
It would not be the first time the government has announced restrictions against charities tied to militant groups, but critics say banned organizations often re-emerge with new names and authorities are not serious about stopping them.
"The banned organizations are not allowed to visit flood-hit areas," Interior Minister Rehman Malik told Reuters. "We will arrest members of banned organizations collecting funds and will try them under the Anti-Terrorism Act."
But Pakistan's courts have yet to convict a single person in any of the nation's biggest terrorist attacks of the past three years. That record, a symptom of a dysfunctional legal system that's hurting the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida at a critical time, could blunt the country's threat of arrests and prosecution.
Pakistani lawyers and law enforcement officials said weak investigations conducted by poorly trained and resourced police officers made it very difficult for prosecutors and judges to convict. Another daunting challenge: Judges and witnesses often are subject to intimidation that affects the ability to convict.
The legal system's failure to attack terrorism is critical because it robs Pakistan of a chance to enforce a sense of law and order, which militants have set out to destroy.
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Live - England v Pakistan - Third Test, The Oval

Watches this Live - England v Pakistan - Third Test, The Oval


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Pakistan finally accepts Indian flood aid offer

Watches this Pakistan finally accepts Indian flood aid offer

WASHINGTON: Pakistan has finally accepted the USD five million aid offered by India for flood relief victims and said such a gesture was appreciated.

"I can share with you that the Government of Pakistan has agreed to accept the Indian offer (of USD 5 million aid)," Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on the sidelines of the special session of the General Assembly on Pakistan at the United Nations headquarters.

The US had yesterday asked Pakistan to accept USD five million in flood aid from India as politics should have no role in disaster response.

The foreign minister asserted that Pakistan was not playing any politics on aid offer from India.

"We are not playing politics. Let me acknowledge the fact that the minister for external affairs, Mr (S M) Krishna, called me in Islamabad and he expressed sympathy, he condoled with me on the loss of life, and offered assistance to Pakistan," he said in an interview.

Qureshi was at the United Nations headquarters in New York to attend the special session of the General Assembly on Pakistan.

Qureshi thanked Krishna, Indian Government and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, for this very "positive" gesture.

"It's highly appreciated by Pakistan and we have recognised it. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called Prime Minister Gillani and they have also exchanged views on the evolving flood situation in Pakistan.

"He has reiterated the offer made by the foreign minister, and I can share with you that the government of Pakistan has agreed to accept the Indian offer," Qureshi said.

"I think this initiative of India is a very welcome initiative and I'm looking forward to further engagements with my counterpart to improve the environment, to build confidence and to bridge the trust deficit between the two countries," the Pakistan foreign minister said.

When asked about reports that Islamic extremist groups might take advantage of this opportunity to win over hearts and minds, Qureshi asserted this will not happen.

"I think what we saw today and the UN will not permit them to take advantage of the situation. I think the international community is now forthcoming and the international community is responding and they are responding quickly, and we will not allow them to exploit that situation,"

Read more: Pakistan finally accepts Indian flood aid offer - Pakistan - World - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/Pakistan-finally-accepts-Indian-flood-aid-offer/articleshow/6369785.cms#ixzz0x8sxNRYs
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Watches this Millions tune in to Pakistan lifeline

We are enjoy now Millions tune in to Pakistan lifeline
Millions in Pakistan began tuning in to emergency lifeline radio programming yesterday, as BBC Urdu launched a new service to people in the most severely flooded areas of the country. Transmitting crucial up-to-date information, the programmes will be broadcast six times daily to reach the hundreds of thousands of people currently cut off from humanitarian aid.

By establishing a platform for people's voices and stories, we aim to rebuild a sense of community and morale as well

The first day of programmes, broadcast on Monday 9th August, included updates on affected flood areas - from food distributions to weather forecasts and a spotlight on relief efforts, as well as testimonies from displaced people, a 'hero of the day' feature and an interview with Pakistan's President Zardari. Receiving over 800 calls in the first five hours, the lines were instantly inundated by stranded residents who highlighted disease and hunger as the main issues faced by the almost 14 million people affected.

The UN says 1,600 people have died to date, a number which could rise if waterborne diseases such as cholera begin to spread rapidly. The broadcasts will include information on basic hygiene, which could slow the spread of disease, and how to access aid.

Speaking from Pakistan, the BBC Urdu service's Shafi Naqi Jamie says:

"We provide the millions whose lives and homes have been destroyed with a radio lifeline. Listeners hear about where to get food and shelter and how best to survive. But as important, by establishing a platform for people's voices and stories, we aim to rebuild a sense of community and morale as well."

Lisa Robinson, the BBC World Service Trust's infoasaid representative, flew to Islamabad this morning to coordinate the response.

The infoasaid lifeline service has been developed by BBC World Service Trust and Internews, with funding from the UK's Department for International Development.

Pakistan Millions tune in to Pakistan lifeline

Watches this enjoy Millions tune in to Pakistan lifeline
Millions in Pakistan began tuning in to emergency lifeline radio programming yesterday, as BBC Urdu launched a new service to people in the most severely flooded areas of the country. Transmitting crucial up-to-date information, the programmes will be broadcast six times daily to reach the hundreds of thousands of people currently cut off from humanitarian aid.
The first day of programmes, broadcast on Monday 9th August, included updates on affected flood areas - from food distributions to weather forecasts and a spotlight on relief efforts, as well as testimonies from displaced people, a 'hero of the day' feature and an interview with Pakistan's President Zardari. Receiving over 800 calls in the first five hours, the lines were instantly inundated by stranded residents who highlighted disease and hunger as the main issues faced by the almost 14 million people affected.

The UN says 1,600 people have died to date, a number which could rise if waterborne diseases such as cholera begin to spread rapidly. The broadcasts will include information on basic hygiene, which could slow the spread of disease, and how to access aid.

Speaking from Pakistan, the BBC Urdu service's Shafi Naqi Jamie says:

"We provide the millions whose lives and homes have been destroyed with a radio lifeline. Listeners hear about where to get food and shelter and how best to survive. But as important, by establishing a platform for people's voices and stories, we aim to rebuild a sense of community and morale as well."

Lisa Robinson, the BBC World Service Trust's infoasaid representative, flew to Islamabad this morning to coordinate the response.

The infoasaid lifeline service has been developed by BBC World Service Trust and Internews, with funding from the UK's Department for International Development.
Coppied by http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/trust/whatwedo/where/asia/pakistan/2010/08/100810_pakistan_floods_lifeline_broadcast_begins.shtml

Want to change populer US seeks Pakistan PR triumph

Watches this enjoy US seeks Pakistan PR triumph



Obama administration wants to change popular Pakistani perceptions of their country's role in 'America's war', but this may take more than grand gestures [GALLO/GETTY]
A preacher I once knew said something which has resonated with me ever since. "There is no end to the good you can do," he said, "provided you are willing to give someone else the credit."

No doubt, a substantial amount of good will come from the $500mn in new, large-scale US-funded infrastructure projects announced by Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, in Islamabad this week. But the secretary and other senior US officials have made it clear: They want to be sure the US gets the credit.

Ever since 9/11 and Pakistan's abrupt - if partial - policy shift in favour of cooperation with the US against al-Qaeda and associated militants, US officials have been seized of the fact that the US' overwhelming unpopularity among the Pakistani public was making it all the more difficult for Pakistani officials to vigorously prosecute a campaign against militancy.

Try as he might, Pervez Musharraf, the former Pakistani president, though genuinely convinced of the domestic necessity to combat extremism, could not develop popular support for what was seen as "America's war".

Grand gestures

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The Obama administration has made it clear that it wants to fundamentally change the Pakistani perception of its relationship with the US, both at the leadership and popular levels.

The administration sees the need to move beyond the "transactional" nature of past US-Pakistan relations, in favour of a "broad partnership" which it hopes will overcome the "trust deficit" and convince Pakistanis that the US will remain committed to them and the region long after the current unpleasantness with the Taliban and al-Qaeda have ended.

In conducting this uphill fight, the US has opted for the grand gesture. Not only is the absolute amount of civilian developmental aid contained in the so-called Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill impressively high - some $7.5bn over five years - but in implementing this programme, the US has decided to place considerable emphasis on mega-infrastructure projects including dams, hydroelectric power plants, irrigation projects, and large hospitals.

These projects make a great deal of sense in their own right. Pakistan is beset with crushing deficits in water and electric power; addressing them is key to economic growth and long-term political stability in a nuclear-weapons state in which extremism exerts a substantial appeal.

Moreover, moving beyond the uni-dimensional pattern of the Bush administration, which largely limited itself to military aid, counter-terrorism assistance and military reimbursement for Pakistani troop deployments, promises to expand the US relationship to encompass the civilian side of the leadership class, again with long-term benefits.

However, if US leaders believe that investment in high-profile development projects is likely to fundamentally alter popular Pakistani perceptions of the US, they are likely to be disappointed.

That is not to suggest that Pakistani perceptions of the US must always remain deeply negative; nor does it suggest that popular views of the US cannot be improved. That notion was strongly rebutted by the popular reaction to rapid US disaster relief assistance - much of it delivered by the US military - to Pakistani earthquake victims in the Northern Areas and Kashmir in 2005.

The images of US helicopters carrying desperately-needed humanitarian assistance to devastated areas produced a very marked, though temporary, upswing in popular perceptions of the US. But large-scale, multi-year projects whose impact on the lives of ordinary Pakistanis will be incremental and difficult to trace will simply not have a commensurate impact on popular perceptions.

In these more ambiguous circumstances, which lack the emotional impact of placing food into the hands of a hungry child, the reflexive reaction of many Pakistanis will be that US largesse toward Pakistan must be meant to serve US interests, and that the benefit to ordinary Pakistanis is incidental to that larger purpose.

Even the $100mn earmarked to expand bank credit to small and medium-sized businesses is likely to be so heavily intermediated by Pakistani institutions as to blunt the public relations benefit to the US.

This is precisely in line with the current US experience in Afghanistan, where the local political impact of US development assistance seems to be inversely proportional to the size and ambition of the project.

For example, all the money invested by the US in newly-refurbished road systems in Afghanistan has generated very little gratitude on the part of Afghans, either toward the Americans or toward the Afghan government. Conversely, very modest projects selected and conducted with determinative input from people at the village level, and with local engagement in their administration, have had a far greater political effect, especially in terms of the return on dollars invested.
Misaligning cause and effect

Finally, it must be said that the US is not aided in its efforts by the fact that its interest in Pakistan is substantially - perhaps fundamentally - transactional.

While the US has a clear national interest in a more stable and prosperous Pakistan, the impetus for its current aid programmes - transparently so - is provided by the situation in Afghanistan and by the war on terror, of which the Afghanistan counterinsurgency campaign is currently the preeminent part.

Here too, the US is misaligning cause and effect: Pakistani policy toward Afghanistan will be driven by Pakistani perceptions of its interests across the Durand Line; and the domestic Pakistani campaign against extremists will be driven by Pakistani perceptions of threat, greatly changed by the recent Taliban infestation of Swat and the mass terror attacks on Pakistani civilians, and not by perceptions of the US.

This is not to suggest for a moment that the US investment in Pakistani economic and social development is a mistake: Far from it. But like so much of US policy, its ultimate benefit to US interests will necessarily be indirect, and will take the form of bolstering responsible Pakistani politicians whose stock is dependent on their ability to deliver for the people, and who are better served politically when seen at least to be gaining a dividend for Pakistan when providing support for "America's war".

Coppied by http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/07/201072073415371952.html