Karachi violence toll mounts to 19

Karachi: At least 19 people were killed and 150 injured in fresh wave of violence between the ruling Muttahida Qaumi Movemment (MQM) and Pashtun nationalist Awami National Party in various parts of the Pakistani port city, Online news agency reported on Monday.

The Sindh provincial administration has issued a red alert in the city and deployed more than 500 security personnel to control the situation.

The Karachi city authorities have declared an emergency at all hospitals and all medical and para-medical staff on leave have been asked to report to duty.

Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies have arrested 35 miscreants from different parts of the city.

The rioters set shops on fire at the city's Timber Market and also torched vehicles in other areas of the city, witnesses said.

Authorities shut down petrol stations across the port city, fearing further damage after mobs set fire to cars.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani directed provincial authorities to take "strict action" against those who violate the law, saying "no one will be allowed to put at risk the lives and property of the people".

Political tensions between the ethnic Urdu-speaking MQM and Pashtuns from the North West Frontier Province who have settled in Karachi for jobs have led to clashes in the past.

Pakistan blames 'non-state actors' for attacks

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The terrorists who attacked India's financial capital had no links to any government, Pakistan's president said Monday amid claims that at least one of the gunmen belonged to a banned Pakistani militant group.

President Asif Ali Zardari called the attackers "non-state actors," and warned against letting their actions lead to greater enmity in the region.

Tensions between Muslim Pakistan and Hindu-majority India flared after the attacks last week in Mumbai that killed at least 172 people and wounded 239 others.

"Such a tragic incident must bring opportunity rather than the defeat of a nation," Zardari said in an interview with Arj television. "We don't think the world's great nations and countries can be held hostage by non-state actors."

A top Indian police officer said Sunday that the only gunman captured after the attacks said he belonged to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani militant group with links to the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir

Joint Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria added that the gunman, Ajmal Qasab, said he was trained at a camp in Pakistan.

Lashkar has long seen as a creation of the Pakistani intelligence service to help fight India in Kashmir. The group was banned in Pakistan in 2002 under pressure from the U.S., a year after Washington and Britain listed it a terrorist organization.

Other Indian leaders have blamed "elements in Pakistan" for the attack, but have not said whether they believe the terrorists had the backing of any state agencies.

Zardari's spokesman, Farhatullah Babar, said Islamabad has "demanded evidence of the complicity of any Pakistani group" but has received none.

The nuclear-armed nations have fought three wars since the subcontinent was divided at the end of British colonial rule in 1947, two over the Himalayan region of Kashmir.

The United States is watching the situation closely, knowing that any flare-up in tensions between the two countries could damage its hopes of defeating al-Qaida and the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she expects Pakistan to cooperate fully with any probe, something Islamabad has already said it will do so long as India gives it the evidence.

"What we are emphasizing to the Pakistani government is the need to follow the evidence wherever it leads," Rice told reporters in London. "I don't want to jump to any conclusions myself on this, but I do think that this is a time for complete, absolute, total transparency and cooperation and that's what we expect."

Rice is cutting short a European trip to visit India later this week

Pakistan's prime minister, president and foreign minister have reached out to their counterparts in Asia, the U.S. and Europe since the attack to talk about the tensions.

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has called for a meeting of all political party leaders Tuesday to reach consensus on post-Mumbai policy.

Parliamentary opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ahmed Khan urged the government to be firm with India, saying any evidence of involvement by a Pakistani citizen should be presented to the country.

"Put up or shut up," he said.

NATO trucks attacked in Pakistan; bomber kills 8

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Militants in northwestern Pakistan attacked trucks ferrying supplies to NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan on Monday, killing two people and destroying a dozen vehicles, witnesses and police said.

Meanwhile, a suicide bomber killed eight people and wounded 40 others at a military checkpoint in the region's Swat Valley, police said.

The spasm of violence comes amid a spike in tensions between Pakistan and rival India over last week's terror attacks in Mumbai, which New Delhi has blamed on Pakistani militants.

Pakistan has condemned the attacks and vowed to crack down on the perpetrators if New Delhi provides evidence. But there are fears that tensions could nevertheless boil over between the nuclear-armed rivals.

The attack on the U.S.-led coalition trucks took place at a terminal in Peshawar, which sits along the supply route from Pakistan to Afghanistan. The city has seen an upsurge in violence in recent weeks, including the slaying of an American working on a U.S.-funded aid project.

Several gunmen fired rockets and automatic weapons at the Faisal terminal, killing a driver and a clerk and destroying 12 trucks, said police officer Ahsanullah Khan.

An AP Television News reporter saw two Humvee military vehicles on board the trucks that were on fire following the attack.

Up to 75 percent of the supplies for Western forces in landlocked Afghanistan pass through Pakistan. Earlier this month, suspected Taliban militants hijacked several trucks carrying Humvees near the Khyber Pass.

Pakistan halted traffic along the road for several days while it arranged for armed troops to guard the slow-moving convoys.

Al-Qaida and Taliban militants in the northwestern border region are blamed for rising attacks in Pakistan and also in Afghanistan, where violence is running at its highest level since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

On Saturday, Pakistani security officials said they would withdraw troops from the volatile northwest if India were to mobilize its forces close to the Pakistan border following the Mumbai attacks — an alarming scenario for the West as it tries to get Islamabad to focus on the al-Qaida threat.

Pakistani troops are battling the insurgents in at least two regions, including the Swat Valley, the scene of Monday's suicide attack.

The bomber detonated his car while queuing up at the checkpoint, a military officer at the Swat media center said on customary condition of anonymity.

"Two passengers vehicles received the major thrust of the explosion and were badly smashed up," he said.

Police officer Dilawar Bangash said eight people were killed and 40 wounded.

The identities of the dead were not known.

Meanwhile, shooting and violence continued in parts of Karachi, the largest city and commercial hub of Pakistan, raising the death toll to 32 in three days of violence.

Riots on Monday forced authorities to close all educational institutions and postpone university exams as ethnic and political gangs clashed in different neighborhood.

City Police Chief Waseem Ahmed said 32 people were killed and 55 injured.

Pakistan not behind attacks’

LAHORE: Pakistan could not be involved in the Mumbai terrorist attacks, especially at a time when its foreign minister was in India, former Indian-held Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah said on Saturday.

A private TV channel quoted him as saying “Honestly speaking Pakistan government is not behind Mumbai carnage... with the presence of its FM in India, it can’t do so.” daily times monitor