Attack
Militant who killed 101 at Pakistan mosque wore uniform
A suicide bomber who killed 101 people at a mosque in northwest Pakistan this week had disguised himself in a police uniform and did not raise suspicion among guards, the provincial police chief said on Thursday.
Moazzam Jah Ansari said the bomber had been identified and police were close to arresting members of the network that was behind Monday's attack, one of the deadliest ever in Peshawar, the capital in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
“We will avenge the martyrdom of each and every policeman," Ansari told a news conference.
The blast collapsed the roof of the 50-year-old mosque, killing 101 people, mostly policemen. Two hundred twenty-five people were injured.
Ansari spoke a day after dozens of police officers in a rare move joined a peace march organized by the members of civil society groups in Peshawar, demanding protection for themselves.
Also read: Pakistan blames 'security lapse' for mosque blast; 100 dead
Hours after the bombing, Pakistan's Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif accused the Pakistani Taliban, known by the acronym TTP, of carrying out the attack, saying they were operating from neighboring Afghan territory. Pakistan wants the Afghan Taliban to take action against the TTP group.
Shortly after the bombing, a TTP commander claimed responsibility, but more than 10 hours after the attack the chief spokesman for the group distanced the TTP from the carnage, saying it was not its policy to attack mosques.
On Wednesday, Afghanistan’s Taliban-appointed foreign minister, however, had asked Pakistani authorities to look for the reasons behind militant violence in their country instead of blaming Afghanistan. The comments from Amir Khan Muttaqi came after Pakistani officials said the attackers who orchestrated Monday’s suicide bombing were using Afghan soil to target civilians and security forces.
More than 300 worshippers were praying in the Sunni mosque, with more approaching, when the bomber set off his explosives vest. Ansari said the attacker was not searched because guards assumed that he was one of their colleagues.
“Yes, I admit that it was a security lapse and I take responsibility for it," Ansari said.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif visited a hospital in Peshawar after the bombing and vowed “stern action” against those behind the attack. Pakistan, which is mostly Sunni Muslim, has seen a surge in militant attacks since November when the Pakistani Taliban ended a cease-fire with government forces.
The violence has increased in Pakistan since the Afghan Taliban seized power in neighboring Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops pulled out of the country after 20 years of war.
The TTP is separate from but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban.
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Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed contributed to this story from Islamabad
Palestinian teen wounds 2, day after 7 killed in Jerusalem
A Palestinian attacker in his early teens opened fire in east Jerusalem on Saturday, wounding two people, officials said, a day after another assailant killed seven outside a synagogue in the deadliest attack in the city since 2008.
The shooting in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in east Jerusalem, near the historic Old City, wounded a father and son, ages 47 and 23, paramedics said. Both were fully conscious and in moderate to serious condition in the hospital, the medics added.
Police said they shot and overpowered the 13-year-old attacker, wounding him. He was taken to a hospital, they said, and there was no further word on his condition. Video showed police escorting a wounded young man, wearing nothing but underwear, away from the scene and onto a stretcher.
Authorities taped off the street and emergency vehicles and security forces swarmed the area as helicopters whirled overhead.
Saturday's events — just a day before U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was set to arrive in the region —raised the possibility of even greater conflagration in one of the bloodiest months in Israel and the occupied West Bank in several years. On Friday, a Palestinian gunman killed at least seven people, including a 70-year-old woman, in a Jewish settlement in east Jerusalem, an area captured by Israel in 1967 and later annexed in a move not internationally recognized.
The attacks pose pivotal test for Israel’s new far-right government. Its firebrand minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has presented himself as an enforcer of law and order and grabbed headlines for his promises to take even stronger action against the Palestinians.
The Israeli army said it had deployed another battalion to the West Bank on Saturday, adding hundreds more troops to a presence already on heightened alert in the occupied territory.
Prime Minister Benjamin said he would convene his Security Cabinet on Saturday night, after the end of the sabbath, to discuss a further response to the attack near the synagogue. Security forces launched a crackdown early Saturday, fanning out into the neighborhood of the 21-year-old Palestinian gunman, who was shot and killed at the scene. Police arrested 42 of his family members and neighbors for questioning in the At-Tur neighborhood in east Jerusalem.
Police Chief Kobi Shabtai moved a force analogous to a S.W.A.T. team in the city and beefed up forces, instructing police to work 12-hour shifts. He urged the public to call a hotline if they see anything suspicious.
The earlier Friday attack, which occurred as residents were observing the Jewish sabbath, came a day after an Israeli military raid killed nine Palestinians in the West Bank that prompted a rocket barrage from Gaza and retaliatory Israeli airstrikes.
Although calm had appeared to take hold after the limited exchange of fire between Israel and Gaza militants, tensions were running high in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Thursday's raid, deadliest single incursion in the West Bank since 2002, followed a particularly bloody month that saw at least 30 Palestinians — militants and civilians — killed in in confrontations with Israelis in the West Bank, according to a tally by The Associated Press.
Israel says most of the dead were militants. But youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in the confrontations also have been killed.
Israel says its raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart attacks. The Palestinians say they further entrench Israel’s 55-year, open-ended occupation of the West Bank, captured along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians demand east Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state, and much of the world considers it illegally occupied. Israel claims as its united, sovereign capital.
Home to archaeological ruins and shrines of all three major monotheistic religions, the contested capital been the centerpiece of spiking tensions between Israelis and Palestinians for years.
Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem hold permanent residency status, allowing them to work and move freely throughout Israel, but they are not allowed to vote in national elections. Residency rights can be stripped if a Palestinian is found to live outside the city for an extended period or in certain security cases.
Although their standard of living is generally better than in the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinian residents of Jerusalem receive a fraction of the services that Jewish residents do. They complain of home demolitions and the near impossibility of obtaining Israeli building permits.
4 BCL leaders arrested over attack at Barishal University dormitory
Four leaders of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) were arrested on Wednesday over attacking two other leaders at a dormitory of Barishal University.
The arrestees are- Alim Salehi, Riaj Uddin Molla, Shamim Shikdar and Shiekh Refat Mahmud, students of the university.
Barisal Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Ali Ashraf Bhuiyan said they arrested them after conducting drives at different places in Barishal in early hour of today.
Read more: 2 BCL leaders injured in attack by helmet-wearing miscreants at Barishal University dormitory
“We are interrogating the arrestees,” he said adding, efforts are on to arrest the others who were involved in the attack.
Provost Abu Zafar of Sher-e-Bangla Hall said a group of 10-15 miscreants, wearing helmets, swooped on BCL leader Mohiuddin Ahmed Sifat while he was asleep and stabbed him in the dead of night on Tuesday.
Later, they also entered the room of Fahad and stabbed him indiscriminately. Hands of Fahad were broken.
Before the attack, the miscreants put the rooms of other students under lock and key from outside.
They were taken to Sher-e-Bangla Medical College and Hospital Tuesday morning.
Read more: Barishal University student succumbs to injuries suffered in road crash
Some students alleged that Sifat established reign of terror in the area and he had many rivals for these activities.
Those who have been arrested are organizing members of university unit BCL. All the victims and accused in the attack are followers of Barishal City Corporation Mayor Serniabat Sadiq Abdullah.
AL leaders among 3 killed in buffalo attack in Tangail
Three people, including an Awami League leader, were killed in an attack by a buffalo at Delduar upazila in Tangail district on Sunday and Monday.
The deceased were identified as Hasmat Ali Khan, President of Lauhati union unit Awami League, one Kitab Ali, and Hazera Begum, wife of Azgar Ali of Tarutia village in the upazila.
Nasir Uddin Mridha, officer-in-charge of Delduar Police Station, said Sharif Mia of Baropakhia village of the upazila purchased two buffaloes for farming on Sunday.
Of these, one buffalo managed to tear off its noose.
Read more: Sherpur man killed in wild elephant attack
At one stage, the buffalo started to attack people, leaving 25 injured. They were taken to different hospitals.
Among the injured, Hazera succumbed to her injuries at Mirzapur Kumudini Hospital around 3 pm on Sunday while Hasmat died at Savar Enam Medical College and Hospital and and Kitab Ali on the way to Dhaka, both on Monday night.
Several hurt in Paris station attack, attacker 'neutralized'
French media are reporting that people have been stabbed at a Paris train station and the interior minister says several people were injured before police “rapidly neutralized” the attacker.
Media reports, quoting unnamed police sources, say police opened fire early Wednesday morning on the attacker who was armed with a knife and injured several people.
Paris police say the incident at the Gare du Nord station is now over but are offering no other immediate details.
Read more: US warns of possible attack in Islamabad amid security fears
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin also says the attacker injured several people at the station but his tweet gives no other details on their number or the extent of the injuries.
He says the attacker was “rapidly neutralized."
Israeli missile strikes put Damascus airport out of service
Israel’s military fired missiles toward the international airport of Syria's capital early Monday, putting it out of service and killing two soldiers and wounding two others, the Syrian army said.
The attack, the second in seven months to put the Damascus International Airport out of service, caused material damage in a nearby area, the army said, without giving further details.
Israel has targeted airports and ports in government-held parts of Syria in an apparent attempt to prevent arms shipments from Iran to militant groups backed by Tehran, including Lebanon's Hezbollah.
Read more: Israel indicts soldiers for trying to bomb Palestinian home
An opposition war monitor reported the Israeli strikes hit the airport as well as an arms depot close to the facility south of Damascus. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four people were killed in the strike.
There was no comment from Israel.
On June 10, Israeli airstrikes that struck Damascus International Airport caused significant damage to infrastructure and runways. It reopened two weeks later after repairs.
In September, Israeli airstrikes hit the international airport of the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest and once commercial center, also putting it out of service for days.
In late 2021, Israeli warplanes fired missiles that struck the port of Latakia hitting containers and igniting a huge fire.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations.
Read more: 4 Palestinians killed in flare-up as Israel counts votes
Israel has acknowledged, however, that it targets bases of Iran-allied militant groups, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.
Thousands of Iran-backed fighters have joined Syria's 11-year civil war and helped tip the balance of power in Assad’s favor.
Israel says an Iranian presence on its northern frontier is a red line that justifies its strikes on facilities and weapons inside Syria.
UP member, his rival survive attacks in Narail
A union parishad (UP) member was attacked with sharp weapons followed by one of his rivals being similarly attacked, in an apparent sequel to a longstanding feud over establishing political dominance in Kalia Upazila in Narail.
The injured UP member was identified as Enamul Haque Ena, 50, a member of ward no.7 of Purulia Union, also a former cooperative affairs secretary of Kalia upazila BNP.
A person named Himu Sheikh (40) from Ena’s rival camp was then attacked with sharp weapons and the group leader Khairul Islam’s house was vandalized.
Two assailants hacked Enamul indiscriminately around 2pm on Sunday, according to locals, when he was returning home from the mosque.
The assailants fled the scene leaving him seriously injured after the intervention of locals.
He was rushed to Narail Modern Sadar Hospital and later transferred to Jessore Medical College and Hospital in critical condition.
According to the police and locals, there had been enmity between Ena and Khairul’s group over establishing dominance in the area.
After Safu Sheikh, the candidate from Khairul Islam’s group, lost to Ena in the UP election last year, the conflict took a major turn.
Himu Sheikh was attacked around 4pm, two hours after the attack on Ena. People from the Ena group vandalised and looted Khairul Islam’s house in another incident.
Sheikh Tasmeem Alam, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Kalia Police Station said, they are investigating the attacks.
“Additional police have been deployed in the area. The situation is calm now,” he added.
Read more: Cox's Bazar-Teknaf highway blocked protesting detention of UP member 'found with yaba'
US warns of possible attack in Islamabad amid security fears
The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad on Sunday warned its staff of a possible attack on Americans at a top hotel in Pakistan's capital as the city was already on high alert following a suicide bombing earlier in the week.
The U.S. government is aware of information that “unknown individuals are possibly plotting to attack Americans at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad sometime during the holidays," the embassy said in a security alert. The advisory banned its American personnel from visiting the popular hotel over the holidays.
Read more: Afghan forces shell border town, killing 6: Pakistani army
The U.S. mission also urged all personnel to refrain from non-essential travel in Islamabad during the holiday season.
The embassy directive came two days after a suicide bombing in a residential area of the capital killed a police officer and wounded ten others. The explosion happened when police stopped a taxi for inspection during a patrol. According to the police, a rear seat passenger detonated explosives he was carrying, blowing up the vehicle.
Militants with the Pakistani Taliban, who are separate from but allied with Afghanistan's rulers, later claimed the attack.
Read more: Pakistan launches operation to free officers held by Taliban
Islamabad's administration has since put the city on high alert, banning public gatherings and processions, even as campaigns are ongoing for upcoming local elections. Police have stepped up patrols and established snap checkpoints to inspect vehicles across the city.
A suicide bombing targeted the capital's Marriott Hotel in September 2008, in one of the deadliest such incidents in the capital. Attackers drove a dump truck up to the hotel's gates before detonating it, killing 63 people and wounding over 250 others.
Pakistani Taliban overpower guards, seize police center
Several Pakistani Taliban detainees have managed to overpower their guards at a counter-terrorism center in northwestern Pakistan, snatching police weapons and taking control of the facility, officials said Monday.
The militants at the detention center in Bannu, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and part of a former tribal region, also took police and others inside the compound hostage, according to Mohammad Ali Saif, a spokesman for the provincial government.
Officials say at least 30 Taliban fighters are involved in the takeover and that there could be as many as 10 hostages being held.
The brazen action reflected the Pakistani government’s inability to exercise control at all times over the remote region along the border with Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban are a separate group but also allied with the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in the neighboring country last year, as U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from Afghanistan.
Few other details have emerged about the incident, which started late on Sunday — apparently while police were interrogating the Taliban detainees, according to Saif.
By Monday morning, Pakistan had dispatched military troops and special police forces to the area as security official were trying to negotiate with the hostage-takers. Saif said the place was surrounded and that an operation was underway. He did not elaborate.
Read: Taliban official: 27 people lashed in public in Afghanistan
Authorities were still in talks with the hostage-takers, enlisting the help of several relatives of the Taliban insurgents, security officials told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.
The officials said some soldiers were also among the hostages. There were concerns that the military could storm the facility if negotiations fail. In a video message circulating on social media, the hostage-takers threatened to kill the officers if their safe passage was not quickly arranged by the government.
Mohammad Khurasani, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban — also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP — confirmed the incident. He said some of the hostage-takers were members of the Pakistani Taliban who had been detained for years. Khurasani said the TTP fighters were demanding safe passage to North or South Waziristan.
Those areas were a Taliban stronghold until a wave of military offensives over the past years declared the region cleared of insurgents. Since then, TTP’s top leaders and fighters have been hiding in neighboring Afghanistan though the militants still have relatively free reign in patches of the province.
Earlier, in a video message, the hostage-takers had demanded they be airlifted to Afghanistan but Khurasani said that demand had been made by mistake, since their fighters were not aware — due to their prolonged detention — that TTP now “enjoys control in some” parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, near the Afghan border.
Read: Taliban captured, bound and shot to death 27 men in Afghan province: Report
The Pakistani Taliban have stepped up attacks on security forces since last month, when they unilaterally ended a monthslong cease-fire with the Pakistani government. The violence has strained relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, who had brokered the cease-fire in May.
The TTP has waged an insurgency in Pakistan over the past 15 years, fighting for stricter enforcement of Islamic laws in the country, the release of their members who are in government custody and a reduction of Pakistani military presence in the country’s former tribal regions.
Patuakhali HSC examinee stabbed in front of test centre
A Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSC) examinee was stabbed by some unidentified people in front of his exam centre in Patuakhali Thursday.
Md Faisal Akon, 18, is from Hajikhali village in Madarbunia union of Patuakhali Sadar upazila and a student of Patuakhali Government College. He is taking this year's HSC examination from the Science group.
The incident took place in front of the Abdul Karim Mridha College exam centre in Patuakhali municipality around 12:45pm and Faisal was taken to Patuakhali Medical College Hospital with serious injuries.
Read: Rohingya leader shot, stabbed to death in Cox’s Bazar
Faisal said he went to the test centre to sit for his Biology Second Paper exam. "When I came out after the exam, five to six people forcibly took me from the gate of the centre and started beating me up as I tried to scream. At one point they stabbed me with a knife."
Although the 18-year-old said he managed to flee the scene to the college principal's room, he could not tell the reason behind the attack.
Md Moniruzzaman, officer-in-charge (OC) of Patuakhali Sadar Police Station, said: "Police visited the spot. No one has filed a complaint over the incident. We will take action if anyone files a complaint."
Read: Chandpur teen stabbed to death after argument over World Cup match
Acting principal of Patuakhali Abdul Karim Mridha College ANM Saifuddin said: "Foysal's hands were badly wounded in the attack that happened outside the college. He ran to my room to take shelter and was bleeding profusely."
"Foysal has an exam on Sunday. We will make an alternative arrangement, as per the rules, if he cannot write with his hands," Gazi Jafar Iqbal, secretary of the Teachers' Association of Patuakhali Government College, said. "Also, the college will take action against the attackers."