Forces demolish Hakimullah, Qari Hussain’s houses in Waziristan

The security forces continue to advance towards Laddah and Kotkai in South Waziristan while houses of Hakimullah Mehsud and Qari Hussain have been demolished, Dunya News Wednesday reported. According to the ISPR, the forces have strengthened their position in Jandollah and Sararogha while heavy weapon and explosives have been seized from Spinkai, Nazarkhel and other areas of North Waziristan. The forces demolished the houses of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Chief Hakimullah Mehsud and mastermind of suicide attacks Qari Hussain.

In an angry neighbourhood

We’ve been making people very angry lately. Not that I’d like to call Pakistan the bad guy in any scenario but lets face it, we need to acknowledge the fact that we’ve been seriously ticking off our neighbours lately.India and Pakistan have had a bitter relationship since the big breakup but the Mumbai attacks made things even worse. India keeps wanting us to hand over the bad guys, we keep asking them to handover the evidence and basically nothing gets done. Rehman Malik appears on our television screens looking frazzled but trying very hard to keep a calm face while he insists that Pakistan is doing everything it can – obviously India doesn’t think so. In fact India is not even willing to resume peace talks with us – and why should it? Switch over to the other side and you’ve got angry Afghans asking us to stop facilitating the various Taliban factions. Afghanistan continues to accuse the ISI for aiding the Taliban and hence suicide attacks across the Durand Line are often blamed on ‘foreign elements’ – and we all know what they mean by that don’t we? Granted Pakistan needs to continue its hard work to wipe-out these militants but in these troubled times, showing a bit of compassion to the neighbour would be nice too…. We are still home to some 1.7 million Afghans aren’t we? And not that I’m trying to perpetuate this blame game. As if pacifying these two neighbours wasn’t enough, now we have now Iran too. Pakistan's (Iran accused) involvement in the bombing on Sunday, which killed more than 40 people. The statements given by Iran regarding the Jundallah group which it holds responsible, were followed by reaffirmations of good ties and brotherhood between the two nations – necessary sugar-coating or sincere understanding between the two nations? US continues to condemn everything going down and our innocent citizens keep dying day after day. No doubt our A-team comprising Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Rehman Malik and the rest are trying very hard to address everyone’s concerns but can’t our neighbours take China’s cool silent stance for a bit while we try and sort things out? Or would that be asking for too much – we are neighbours after all aren’t we?

Afghanistan to hold poll run-off

Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's president, is to face a run-off vote against his main election rival following a ruling by the country's election commission. Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) announced on Tuesday that the run-off will be held on November 7. The IEC's ruling comes a day after the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC), investigating allegations of fraud in the election, demanded thousands of ballots be disallowed. The move took Karzai's share of the vote below the crucial 50 per cent mark. Noor Mohammad Noor, a spokesman for the IEC, announced: "It will go to a second round on November 7. The reason was Karzai's vote was 49.67 and could not reach above 50 per cent."

Deaths in Pakistan campus bombing

At least seven people have been killed and 29 others injured in twin bomb blasts at a university in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, police and witnesses say. The explosions occurred within minutes of each other at the International Islamic University in the eastern part of the city on Tuesday. The Pakistani Taliban has denied responsibility for the attack. The blasts at the university hit the women's cafeteria and the Islamic law department. Abdul Ghafar Quaiserani, a police official, said the two suicide bombers struck at about the same time.