Pakistan:
CNN: An explosive device on Saturday has killed eighty-three people near Quetta, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has claimed responsiblity. “The explosion targeted Shiite Muslims in Hazara, on the outskirts of the southwestern city of Quetta, authorities said.
Police now say a suicide bomber, driving an explosive-laden water tanker, rammed the vehicle into buildings at the crowded marketplace.
The water tanker carried between 800 and 1,000 kilograms (1,760 to 2,200 pounds) of explosive material, Quetta police official Wazir Khan Nasir said.”
BBC: Ethnic Hazara women in Quetta are refusing to bury their dead in an act of protest against perceived poor-protection from sectarian violence. “As many as 4,000 women began a sit-in in Quetta, in south-west Pakistan, on Sunday evening.
The blocked a road and refused to carry out the traditional ritual of burying the Hazara dead until action was taken against the bombers, the AFP news agency reported.
One local Shia leader, Qayyum Changezi, told AFP the protesters ‘will not bury the dead until a targeted operation is launched.’”
Dawn: An attack on a political agent’s office in Peshawar has killed five people. “At least two suicide attackers entered the office of the political agent where a jirga (meeting of tribal elders) was being conducted. The attackers opened fire when some prisoners were brought to the political agents office.
At least five people were killed and seven others were injured in the incident, according the Lady reading Hospital’s (LRH) media cell in-charge. The dead included three personnel of the Khasadar forces and one Line officer were killed whereas the identity of the fifth victim was not clear.”
Afghanistan:
Global Times: Two Taliban insider attack “facilitators” have been killed in Kumar province. “‘Afghan and coalition forces confirmed today the death of the two Taliban insider attack facilitators, Mahmood and Rashid, during a security operation in Ghaziabad district, Kunar province, Wednesday,’ said the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in a press release.
Mahmood was responsible for the death of one American service member during the May 11, 2012, insider attack in the province 180 km east of Afghan capital Kabul, the press release said.
‘Rashid was Mahmood’s associate and a former Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier who facilitated and assisted with insider attack planning and execution,’ it noted.”
New York Times: There is a renewed, and public, push for peace talks with the Taliban. “Within the Taliban, a fierce debate is under way between commanders who support talks and those who have never given up on seeking military victory, instead biding time until the Americans are mostly gone, Taliban watchers say. The group’s leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, widely presumed to be sequestered at his hide-out inside Pakistan, has been silent on the subject. Even if he were to support a deal, it is unclear whether his movement is sufficiently united to stick to it.
The Americans have quietly pledged not to move forward without the Afghan government’s benediction, so previous efforts to build confidence with the Taliban by releasing some of their prisoners from the Guantánamo Bay prison camp are on hold, although the Americans retain the right to consider a prisoner release for strategic reasons of their own. An American soldier is being held by the Taliban, and there has been talk of a prisoner exchange to free him.”
India:
The Times of India: Terror charges have been brought against an Indian Mujahideen operative in connection with the 2010 Jama Masjid attack.
“A suspected terrorist accused of involvement in the 2010 Jama Masjid attack was chargesheeted on Saturday. Police say Fasih Mahmood is one of the founding members of the banned outfit, Indian Mujahideen (IM). He was deported from Saudi Arabia last year. Fasih has been charged under the Indian Penal Code for forgery and possessing fake currency, besides the Explosive Substances Act and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act…Fasih has been described as a ‘motivator’ for driving youths to join IM, which has been instrumental in carrying out a series of terror activities across the country since 2008.”
“Three People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI) militants were lynched on Friday by a mob of 100 villagers near Darntoli-Sanwariya villages in Gumla…‘On Thursday they reached the village looking for Mana Baraik’s daughter who had gone to work in a brick kiln. They threatened Baraik’s daughter in-law and also abducted two schoolgoing boys of the village including Champa Oraon at gun point,’ said police inspector Amish Hussein…[the] villagers had lynched the trio as they had threatened the villagers with dire consequences if police was called over and said they would take revenge after coming out of jail. This enraged the villagers who attacked the three with sticks killing them on the spot. Two boys whom they took with them at gun point were to be inducted into PLFI, sources said.”
Daily News and Analysis: Police are looking for a group of Maoists who are reported to be hiding near the Kerala-Karnataka border.
“Locals in Chittari colony near the border have been quoted as saying that the Maoists, including a woman and three men, gave them Rs.2,500 recently to buy food for them. But the Maoists disappeared into the jungles after sighting a team of excise personnel. Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said that Kerala Police is conducting the search with help from Karnataka Police.”
Bangladesh:
BBC News: Bangladesh’s parliament has amended a law which will allow the state to appeal against the life sentence of an Islamist party leader.
“Tens of thousands of demonstrators in the capital, Dhaka, cheered the news. The legal amendment also paves the way for the prosecution and potential ban of the Jamaat-e-Islami party. Jamaat chief Abdul Kader Mullah was given life for his alleged role in crimes in the 1971 independence war. The ruling sparked nearly two weeks of angry mass protests in Dhaka and other cities.
Demonstrators – mainly young men and women – demanded the death penalty for Mullah and 10 others accused of committing crimes against humanity during the country’s war of independence war with Pakistan in 1971.”
The Financial Express: At least 40 people have been injured in “fierce” clashes between police and Jama’at-Shibir activists in the city of Sylhet on Saturday.
“Witnesses said the Jama’at-Shibir activists brought out a procession in the area at about 11.00am protesting the deaths of their four workers by police in Cox’s Bazar. As the processionists were passing by Nayasarak point, police chased them from behind, triggering the clash, which lasted for 15-20 minutes.
The activists then hurled brickbats at the law enforcers, who also retaliated by firing shots and lobbing tear gas shells. They also set off three ‘sound grenades’ to disperse the Jama’at-Shibir activists.”
Nepal:
Shanghai Daily: The Chieftain of an armed outfit which calls itself the Communist Party of Nepal has been arrested in Sindhupalchowk district, some 100 km north of Kathmandu.
Police detained Sonam Lama, 43, from a hideout in an animal shed in Golche village along with a pistol and 20 homemade guns on Friday, according to media reports on Saturday. Lama set up the outfit last year and had been extorting money from locals at the gunpoint. He also used to hit people and businessmen who refused to cough up money.
Lama’s group used to train people on developing improvised explosive devices and spreading terror. Only a few weeks ago, they had attempted to explode bombs in a meeting attended by leaders of the ruling UCPN-Maoist, including Finance Minister Barsaman Pun.
Sri Lanka:
The Sunday Leader: The Civil Security Department (CSD) has recently recruited 3,500 former LTTE cadres despite requests by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) that rehabilitated cadres should be given a chance to lead normal lives as civilians and not be recruited into any military or paramilitary organizations.
The Sunday Leader: At least 50 Muslim shop owners in Narammala in the Kurunegala District have received death threats by mail. They have been warned to close their shops by March 31 or face death, Kurunegala district organizer of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Abdul Sathar said.
Sathar said that he was not sure from where the death threats had come to the Muslim shop owners in Narammala. He also said the issuing of Halal certificates was being made to spread fear in the country among Muslims.