Tag Archives: tsi
Car bombs, shootings in Iraq cities claim 79 lives
Car bombs, shootings in Iraq cities claim 79 lives Sinan Salaheddin (AP) / 20 May 2013 BAGHDAD — A string of car bombs and shootings tore through Shia and Sunni areas of Iraq on Monday, killing at least 79 people, officials said. The attacks, some of which hit market places and crowded bus stops during the busy morning hours, are the latest in a recent spike in violence in Iraq that has targeted civilians and pushed the death toll over the past week to more than 200 people. The worst of Monday’s violence took place in Baghdad, where nine car bombs ripped through open-air markets and other areas, killing at least 33 people and wounding nearly 130, police officials said. Civilians gather at the scene of a car bomb attack in Kamaliyah neighborhood, a predominantly Shia area of eastern Baghdad, Iraq, on Monday, May 20, 2013. – AP The officials said the latest car bomb struck on Monday afternoon in a busy market in the Shaab neighborhood of Baghdad which killed 13 people. A police officer said 25 people wounded in the explosion. The surge in bloodshed has exasperated Iraqis, who have lived for years with the fear and uncertainty bred of random violence. “How long do we have to continue living like this, with all the lies from the government?” asked 23-year-old Baghdad resident Malik Ibrahim. “Whenever they say they have reached a solution, the bombings come back stronger than before.” “We’re fed up with them and we can’t tolerate this anymore,” he added. The city of Basra in southern Iraq was also hit on Monday, with two car bombs there — one outside a restaurant and another at the city’s main bus station — killing at least 13 and wounded 40, according to provincial police spokesman Col. Abdul Karim Al Zaidi and the head of city’s health directorate, Riadh Abdul Amir. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but such large-scale bombings bear the hallmarks of Al Qaeda in Iraq. The violence also struck the city of Samarra, north of Baghdad, and the western province of Anbar, a Sunni stronghold. A parked car bomb in Samarra went off near a gathering of pro-government militia who were waiting outside a military base to receive salaries, killing three and wounding 13, while in Anbar gunmen ambushed two police patrols near the town of Haditha, killing eight policemen, police and army officials said. Also in Anbar, authorities found 13 dead bodies in a remote desert area, officials said. The bodies, which included eight policemen who were kidnapped by gunmen on Friday, had been killed with a gunshot to the head. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media. Continue reading
Pakistan’s Imran blames rival for killing
Pakistan’s Imran blames rival for killing (AFP) / 19 May 2013 Pakistani politician Imran Khan on Sunday blamed a rival political leader for the killing of a senior member of his party, who was gunned down outside her home in the violence-plagued city of Karachi. The body of Zahra Shahid Hussain, a senior female politician from cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party, is carried at a hospital in Karachi, in this still image taken from video footage, May 18, 2013. – Reuters The killing of Zohra Hussain, 59, vice president of the women’s wing of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Sindh province, came on the eve of a partial re-run in the southern city of the May 11 election. Security was tight for Sunday’s re-polling in one constituency following allegations of ballot-stuffing, with troops, police and paramilitary rangers backed up by armoured personnel carriers. Hussain was targeted by three gunmen on a motorcycle outside her home in an upmarket part of Karachi late Saturday, the latest killing following an bloody election campaign marked by more than 150 violent deaths. Former cricket star Khan was quick to pin the blame on the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party, which represents the Urdu-speaking majority, and specifically its boss Altaf Hussain, who lives in exile in London. ‘I hold Altaf Hussain directly responsible for the murder as he had openly threatened PTI workers and leaders through public broadcasts,’ Khan said on his Twitter feed, describing the killing as ‘a targeted act of terror’. ‘I also hold the British Govt responsible as I had warned them abt Br citizen Altaf Hussain after his open threats to kill PTI workers,’ he said, adding that he was ‘shocked and deeply saddened by the brutal killing’. Altaf Hussain condemned the attack in a statement and demanded a ‘judicial inquiry to get to the culprits’. Firdous Shamim, a local PTI leader, said that Zohra Hussain ‘was leaving her home for some work when three gunmen attacked her. She thought they wanted to snatch her purse and handed it over to them but they killed her’. Police said all three gunmen escaped after the attack. ‘They shot her with one bullet near her chin and she could not survive,’ senior police official Nasir Aftab said. The motive behind the shooting was unclear and there was no immediate claim of responsibility. PTI spokesman Jamal Siddiqui said a large number of party leaders and workers would attend Zohra Hussain’s funeral, which would take place in the city’s Defence area Sunday afternoon. Tensions have been running high between the PTI and the MQM, Karachi’s dominant party, after Khan’s party accused it of widespread vote-rigging. The MQM has denied the charge and announced a boycott of the re-run. The PTI and the right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami party have staged nationwide protests against the alleged irregularities. The election commission ordered the partial re-run due to allegations of ballot-stuffing in a constituency known as NA-250 — a largely affluent neighbourhood of the country’s financial capital. Karachi last year suffered record violence linked to ethnic and political tensions. The May 11 election marked Pakistan’s first democratic transition of power after an elected government had completed a full term, a milestone in a country with a history of military coups. Partial official results confirmed centre-right former prime minister Nawaz Sharif as the winner nearly 14 years after he was deposed in a coup. His PML-N had 123 of the directly elected seats, with the outgoing Pakistan People’s Party on 31 and Khan’s PTI on 26. Continue reading
Karachi voters back at polls after ballot stuffing
Karachi voters back at polls after ballot stuffing (AFP) / 19 May 2013 Hundreds of people queued up at 43 polling stations in a constituency of Pakistan’s port city of Karachi on Sunday where a re-vote had been ordered over allegations of ballot stuffing. The re-poll of an eligible 86,000 voters in a constituency known as NA-250, largely an affluent neighbourhood, started at 8:00 am (0300 GMT) under tight security involving army, police and paramilitary rangers. The voting came a day after three gunmen on a motorbike killed Zohra Hussain, 59, vice president of the women’s wing of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), in the province of Sindh, outside her home in an upmarket part of the city. PTI chief and former cricket star Imran Khan blamed the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party, which represents the Urdu-speaking majority, and specifically its boss, Altaf Hussain, who lives in exile in London. Karachi was the focus for allegations of fraud during Pakistan’s landmark general elections on May 11 that saw some 50 million Pakistanis vote, with centre-right former prime minister Nawaz Sharif emerging the winner nearly 14 years after he was deposed in a coup. The MQM and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had already announced they would boycott Sunday’s vote after the election commission rejected their demands of a re-do for the entire constituency instead of just 43 polling stations. “We want a change — a real change in our country because we are fed up with the current political set up, which is just disappointing,” housewife Arifa Aslam said as she waited in a long queue at one station to cast her vote. PTI’s Arif Alvi, who is contesting the election for a national assembly seat from NA-250, was content with the heavy security presence. “I am quite satisfied with the security arrangements. People are casting their vote without any fear as polling stations are well guarded by security forces,” he said. The official partial results released on Tuesday by the election commission gave Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (N) 123 out of the 272 directly elected seats while the PPP suffered a crushing defeat, dropping from 95 seats to 31. Khan’s PTI moved into third place on 26 seats compared to none in the last assembly. Continue reading
