Women tortured and buried alive in Baluchistan

The Balochistan Police have registered cases against the four people accused of burying five women alive, under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), after new evidence established that the girls were first severely beaten with clubs and then injured with sharp blades of a farm tractor before they were buried.

The arrests of more politically connected tribesmen is also expected within the next two days, as the police gets more evidence of their direct involvement in this crime against humanity. Meanwhile, members of the Jirga, who had held a court (Jirga) a night before burying the girls in the desert sand, are said to have quietly disappeared from their houses. They had come to know that Balochistan Police were after them. The police were also looking for those people who had decided to subject those girls to such inhuman violence, which is unheard in the honour killing cases in Pakistan.

This is the first case of its nature that blades of a tractor were used to injure the girls, which shows the barbarity of the murderers. These sharp blades were also used to push bodies of the girls inside the ëgraveí while they were bleeding profusely because of the serious injuries caused by the sharp blades of the tractor.

Talking to The News, top Police Cop Tariq Khosa confirmed that new clauses in the FIR were added under the ATA against the accused. Khosa said the perpetrators had actually committed a crime against the whole of Pakistan, as everybody was shocked to know how those girls were brutally tortured before they breathed their last. The criminals used tractor blades to further torture and injure them. Khosa said the registration of cases under the ATA would also greatly help the law enforcement agencies working on the case to get speedy justice as this barbarian act had terrorised the whole nation.

Meanwhile, information collected from different sources revealed that after being captured by their relatives in Usta Muhammad, where the girls had gone to marry before a court, they were brought back to their homes in Baba Kot to decide about their fate.

A small Jirga was held the same night in which some powerful tribesmen, having political clout, decided to give maximum punishment to them so that others would learn a lesson from their sorry tale.

It was, therefore, decided that the girls should not be merely gunned down according to the traditional mode of killing in such cases of honour. Someone came out with the barbaric idea that the girls should first be beaten severely with clubs, slaps, fists, kicks. Another one suggested something more cruel saying that they should also be made to stand before a farm tractor with its front blades swinging fast.

Thus, the whole act was done as it was conceived in the meeting. The girls were taken out of their detention in the open and made to stand before the farm tractor with its blades swinging. The man sitting on the driverís seat used the sharp blades on the frightened girls whose skulls got fractured due to full swing of the blades. The girls fell on the ground almost half conscious because of the injuries on the head and on the body. Someone then opened indiscriminate fire on them.

While the girls were lying on the ground, profusely bleeding, the tractor driver again used the sharp blade to distort their faces and pushed blades into their bodies. The same blades were then used to drag and push their blood-soaked bodies towards the ditch in which the bodies were once again pressed with full force of the blade so that they were not uncovered in case there was rain or swift winds.

The same tractor blades were then used to fill the two-foot deep grave with stones and sand. The same people came again the next day to rebury the bodies after some hunters, who had walked past the place where those girls were buried, reported that they saw some wild animals of the desert eating the body of a girl. These murderers again used the tractor to push the bodies inside the same grave and finally pressed it to the level of the ground.

Pakistan fury over 'US assault'

Tension in Pakistan's north-west has increased in recent months

Pakistan has summoned the US ambassador to protest at an alleged cross-border raid which officials say killed at least 15 villagers in the north-west.

A number of civilians were reported killed in the raid, which Pakistan says was a violation of its sovereignty.

Correspondents say the raid appears to have been the first ever ground assault by foreign forces based in Afghanistan.

US-led and Nato forces said they had no reports of any such incursion. Border tensions have risen in recent weeks.

The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Islamabad says US aircraft have carried out air strikes in the region, but a ground assault would be unprecedented.

It is not clear who the target of any attack might have been.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Pakistan would not allow any foreign power to carry out attacks on its territory.

He was speaking hours after his motorcade was hit by sniper fire near the capital, Islamabad. Senior government officials say he was not in the car at the time.

'Act of aggression'

Pakistani military and political officials say ground troops brought in by US-led coalition helicopters launched the attack in the South Waziristan tribal area near the Afghan border early on Wednesday morning.

Locals say soldiers attacked with gunfire and bombs. Women and children were among those reported killed.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Sadiq said a "very strong protest" had been delivered to the ambassador, Anne Paterson.

"The ambassador said that she would convey it to her government," he said.

The army called the attack an act of aggression which undermined the fight against militancy.

North West Frontier Province (NWFP) Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani, who is in administrative charge of the tribal areas, called the attack "cowardly".

"At least 20 innocent citizens of Pakistan, including women and children, were martyred," he said in a statement.

There is mounting US pressure on Pakistan - a key ally in the "war on terror" - to crack down on militants, who use the border region to launch raids into Afghanistan.

The Afghan government and Nato say the border region is a haven for al-Qaeda and the Taleban. Pakistan says it is doing all it can to curb militancy.

On Monday, Pakistan's military suspended its operations against Taleban militants in the neighbouring Bajaur tribal area.

The government said this suspension of fighting was to respect the fasting month of Ramadan.

Taleban spokesman Maulvi Omar welcomed the announcement, but he said militants would not lay down their arms.

In pakistan first Ramadan would be on 2nd September Tuesday

Sighting Reports

August 30, 2008 (Saturday):

No sighting reports are expected on August 30. However, Nigeria has claimed to see the moon on Saturday.

Maulana Sultan Alam (MCW member) from Karachi Pakistan reported: Not Seen
I tried to sight the moon in Karachi but not sighted, it was partially cloudy and polluted. On my request, members of personal moon-sighting committees of our institute (Jamia-tur-Rasheed) and my friends tried to sight the moon at 23 places all over Pakistan, but result was nil. Nearly, all reporters are religious scholars. They tried at these places, weather was different at different places :Karachi (at 5 places), Tando-Allah yar, Peshawar, Multan, Pishin, Malakand, Hyderabad, Shorkot, Sargodha, Sheikhopura, Muzaffarabad, Swabi, Badeen, Battal, Abbotabad, Kohat, Quetta. Gujranwala, Mansehrah.
Note: It was certain that the crescent would not be sighted anywhere in Pakistan tonight because moonset occurred before sunset and conjunction was after nearly 6 hours of sunset. In spite of these facts, we tried to sight the moon only to increase the trust of common people upon the Science of Moon-sighting and because the people becomes confused due to the 29th day according to the Ummul-Qura calendar.

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