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Six more killed even with shoot-on-sight orders in Karachi:

News Round Up

By Imran Ayub in Dawn, Aug 7
KARACHI, Aug 6: Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s shoot-on-sight orders given to the Rangers and meetings with rival political parties persuading them to help establish peace in the city failed to bear fruit as six more people were gunned down and properties destroyed on Friday in the raging violence.
Though fear gripped the hearts of a majority of the Karachiites, it failed to inspire the authorities to take effective measures to remove this feeling.
Instead of action on ground, the authorities appeared more in designing new plans to avert targeted killings and its repercussions. Senator Rahman Malik and Dr Zulfiqar Mirza shared their thoughts on establishing a ‘new cell’ to counter targeted killings. The duo, however, did not divulge further details of the proposed cell.
“We have already arrested 195 people and at least nine of them are targeted-killing suspects,” said Dr Mirza.
Mr Malik joined him and came up with another resolve to handle the situation within no time. “The prime minister is already here and would meet the political leaders and security authorities. We are here to ensure peace for this city and no one should have doubt over that.” http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/local/shootonsight-orders-fail-to-stem-violence-780

2 .Presidency delaying execution of terrorists: By Ansar Abbasi in the News, Aug 7
ISLAMABAD: Dozens of convicted and condemned terrorists who should have been hanged are alive and well because the federal government and the Presidency are sitting over their mercy petitions, in some cases for over five years.
From amongst the mercy petitions of the terrorists, convicted under ATA, there are some whose execution has been blocked by the Presidency since 2005. Under the Constitution, it is the prime minister on whose advice the President rejects or accepts such mercy petitions.
According to official sources, in the case of Punjab alone, a total of 24 mercy petitions of condemned prisoners, sentenced to death under ATA, filed to the president are pending. There are almost 295 convicts, waiting on the death row but convicted in acts other than ATA, including Indian spy Manjeet Singh alias Sarbajeet Singh, are not being executed because of their pending mercy petitions.
In yet another category of such condemned prisoners, almost 49 convicts sentenced by the anti-terrorist courts in the Punjab but not under Section 7 of ATA, are also amongst those saved from execution because of their pending mercy petitions. http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=30561

3 .PM agrees to set up commission for Karachi killing:
By Shmaim-ur-Rahman in Dawn, Aug 7
KARACHI: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani accepted on Friday a proposal to set up a commission to investigate the recent target killings in Karachi and bring the culprits to justice.
Mr Gilani, who separately met ANP and MQM delegations at the Chief Minister’s House, urged the coalition partners to stop blaming each other and assured them that those involved in the killing of Syed Raza Haider and other innocent people would be brought to justice. http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/19-malik-hosts-anpmqm-talks-pm-agrees-to-set-up-commission-for-karachi-killing-probe-780-hh-10

4  Hard-Line Islam Fills Void in Flooded Pakistan: the NY Times, Aug 7
By ADAM B. ELLICK and PIR ZUBAIR SHAH
CHARSADDA, Pakistan — As public anger rises over the government’s slow and chaotic response to Pakistan’s worst flooding in 80 years, hard-line Islamic charities have stepped into the breach with a grass-roots efficiency that is earning them new support among Pakistan’s beleaguered masses.
The floods have opened a fresh opportunity for the Islamic charities to demonstrate that they can provide what the government cannot, much as the Islamists did during the earthquake in Kashmir in 2005, which helped them lure new recruits to banned militant groups through the charity wings that front for them.
In just two districts in this part of the northwest, three Islamic charities have provided shelter to thousands, collected tens of thousands in donations and served about 25,000 hot meals a day a since last Saturday — six full days before the government delivered cooked food.
“The West says we are terrorists and intolerant, but in time of need, we’re the ones serving the people,” said Maulana Yousaf Shah, the provincial leader of one of the groups, Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam.
Mian Adil, the vice chairman of another group, Falah-e-Insaniyat, said the aid he distributed at a center in one of the districts, Nowshera, came with a message attached — “not to trust the government” and its Western allies.
Falah-e-Insaniyat is the charity wing and the latest front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group behind the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India.
Jamaat-ud-Dawa is the political arm of Lashkar, which the United Nations has listed as a terrorist group. www.nytimes.com/2010/08/07/world/asia/07pstan.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

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