Bomb suspects flee Maldives for Pak, say police

Islamabad: The daughter of sacked Pakistan Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, currently under house arrest, was not allowed to step out of the house to take her A-level examinations. Policemen guarding the house of Chaudhry, who was detained shortly after the imposition of Emergency by President Musharraf on November 3, did not allow his daughter Ifra Iftikhar to step out of the house to write her A-level tests here yesterday. When her pleas fell flat on the guards’ ears, she turned to the British Council for help. Though the Council could not persuade the authorities to allow Ifra to take the exam at the centre, it arranged for her to write the test at home. Athar Minallah, a Supreme Court lawyer, confirmed: “The authorities did not allow Ifra to appear in the A-level exam. But the British Council was later allowed to conduct the examination at the residence.”

Gunmen kill Shiite cleric

Peshawar: Masked gunmen on a motorcycle today shot dead a minority Shiite Muslim cleric in a northwestern Pakistan town already reeling from violence by pro-Taliban militants, police said. Ghulam Abbas, 50, was shot dead outside his home in Tank, a town adjoining the restive South Waziristan tribal district, police official Sultan Khan said.

Activists held under Anti-Terrorist Act

Islamabad: A top women’s rights group in Pakistan has flayed the arrest of peaceful and unarmed human rights activists under the Anti-Terrorist Act by the government, which had imposed Emergency last week “under the pretext of dealing with extremists.” “Having imposed Emergency under the pretext of dealing with armed extremists,” the Womens Action Forum (WAF) said, “the state has instead chosen to arrest peaceful, unarmed human rights activists and the legal fraternity.”