Above 40 injured in Sahiwal swing accident

SAHIWAL: More than 40 people were injured on Friday when a boat-shaped swing fell in a local park in Punjab's Sahiwal.

According to police, the incident occurred in the Kanaan park where the swing fell from the height of 15ft.

At the time of the incident, above 50 people were on the swing, out of which 40 got injured.

Two people were reportedly in a critical condition.

Mostly women and children were affected in the accident.

The wounded were shifted to the DHQ hospital where they were give medical treatment.

Following the incident, the park has been shut down.

 

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CTD arrests 26 people in Vehari operation

VEHARI: At least 26 people were arrested on Friday during a search operation conducted by police and the counter terrorism department.

Security forces raided restaurants and guest houses in the area to ensnare alleged financiers of banned militant outfits, sources said.

Police had received a tip off that militants who collects funds for the banned groups were holed up inside one of the hotels, the source added.

The accused have been taken to an undisclosed location for further interrogation.

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Justice Department opens criminal probe into black Louisiana man's death

BATON ROUGE, LA: The US Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into the fatal police shooting of a black man in Louisiana's capital, the state's governor said on Thursday, as two deadly encounters between law enforcement and black men triggered protests in the United States.

The probe comes as community leaders in Baton Rouge urged authorities to conduct a full-scale criminal probe of two white police officers over the slaying of Alton Sterling, 37, on Tuesday.

"I want you to know that a criminal investigation is under way. It is being led by the U.S. Department of Justice," Louisiana Governor Jon Bel Edwards told hundreds of people at Living Faith Cathedral in Baton Rouge on Thursday evening.

"We are going to come out of this tragedy stronger and more united than ever," he added.

Sterling was pinned to the ground and fatally shot in the chest outside a convenience store after the officers responded to what police said was a call about a black man reported to have made threats with a gun.

The Justice Department said on Wednesday it would conduct a civil rights investigation into Sterling's death.

The city's mayor and police chief welcomed the move, but community leaders said they worried the probe would be too limited and urged authorities to consider all possible federal and state criminal charges against officers Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake.

"We don't want this to be a narrow investigation," Edgar Cage, a spokesman for the community organization Together Baton Rouge, said at a church earlier on Thursday. "We plan to use this tragic event as a tool, a stimulant to change the culture."

President Barack Obama said in a statement he had full confidence in the Justice Department's ability to conduct a "thoughtful, thorough and fair inquiry" into Sterling's death.

Citing an unnamed law enforcement official, CNN reported on Thursday that a homeless man placed the 911 call after seeking money from Sterling, who was selling CDs outside the store.

The 300-pound (135-kg) Sterling showed the man his gun and said to leave him alone, the official told CNN. Reuters could not independently confirm that account with Baton Rouge police, who did not respond to a request for comment.

Sterling, a father of five, had several criminal convictions since the mid-1990s for battery, resisting arrest, burglary and other crimes. He was a registered sex offender after spending nearly four years in prison on a charge he had sex with a 14-year-old girl when he was 20.
 

Community-police chasm

Sterling's death was the first of two fatal police shootings of black men in two days. Philando Castile was shot and killed by a police officer during a traffic stop on Wednesday near Minneapolis.

The shootings and videos showing their bloody aftermath have sparked protests, including an overnight rally in Baton Rouge that drew about 300 people who stood in a peaceful vigil near the Triple S Food Mart where Sterling was killed.

Obama said that "all Americans should be deeply troubled" by the two deaths, which he said were indicative of wider problems in the U.S. criminal justice system.

At the Baton Rouge church on Thursday, Edwards said there would be a new focus on training and retraining in the police department, and stressed the need to introduce people to the police at an early age.

His words appeared to address concerns voiced by many community leaders in recent days about a chasm between the black community and the police.

Video recorded by a bystander's cellphone showed an officer confronting Sterling and ordering him to the ground. The two officers then tackled him to the pavement, with one pulling a gun from his holster and pointing it at Sterling's chest.

One officer shot Sterling five times at close range, and the other took something from his pants pocket as he was dying, another video recorded by Abdullah Muflahi, owner of the store where Sterling was killed in the parking lot, showed.

Police said Sterling was armed. Muflahi said in an interview that police took a gun out of Sterling's pocket after shooting him.

Officers Lake and Salamoni have been put on administrative leave, police said. In Lake's three years and Salamoni's four years on the force, both have been cleared by the police department after prior complaints against them regarding use of force, the Advocate newspaper reported, citing records.

The deaths of Sterling and Castile were the latest in a string of incidents in recent years involving police treatment of black men and boys in cities including Baltimore, Chicago, New York and Cleveland.

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Ten officers shot, three dead in US protest: Dallas police chief

WASHINGTON: Ten police officers were shot and three were killed when shots rang out during a protest against police racial bias in downtown Dallas late Thursday, authorities said.

"Tonight, it appears that two snipers shot 10 police officers from elevated positions during the protest/rally. Three officers are deceased, two are in surgery and three are in critical condition," Dallas Police Chief David Brown said in a statement.

"An intensive search for suspects is currently underway. No suspects are in custody at this time.

"Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers tonight."

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NATO countries willing to ´do more´ in Afghanistan: Pentagon chief

WASHINGTON: NATO members have indicated they will boost contributions to the Afghanistan security mission, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Thursday, a day after Washington announced thousands of US troops would remain in the war-ravaged country.

Speaking to reporters aboard a military plane as he flew to the biennial NATO summit in Warsaw, which President Barack Obama will also attend, Carter said alliance members have welcomed Obama's decision to keep 8,400 US troops in Afghanistan through the end of his term in office.

Obama had previously vowed to slash the troop numbers from the current level of 9,800 to 5,500 by the end of this year, but a resurgent Taliban -- coupled with an uptick in Al-Qaeda and Islamic State attacks -- made the reduction untenable.

Most US forces in Afghanistan are operating as part of NATO´s Operation Resolute Support. In all, 39 NATO nations and partners contribute to the overall force of about 13,000.

Many NATO countries have "indicated the need to stick with the Resolute Support mission and to do more than they might have anticipated in past years," Carter said.

"A number of them have indicated they will be making those contributions, and I think the president will hear from other heads of state in NATO about what they are willing to do also in the future years. That's going to be an important outcome of the summit."

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday said he supported Obama´s announcement.

Most of the NATO troops in Afghanistan are working as advisors to local Afghan security forces.

Despite having about 320,000 troops and police officers, the Afghan forces have struggled to control the Taliban and have at times buckled under institutional failings such as deeply rooted corruption.

Carter said the extra US troops will allow Afghan forces to "reset" at the end of this summer's fighting season and get extra training over the winter.

The Afghan issue is one of three main crises confronting NATO at this year´s summit.

Leaders must also grapple with the ongoing jihadist threat in Iraq and Syria and its concurrent refugee crisis, as well as aggressive posturing by Russia along the border with Eastern Europe.

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12 Pakistanis arrested over Saudi attacks including Medina

RIYADH: Nineteen people, including 12 Pakistani nationals, have been arrested in Saudi Arabia following suicide attacks on Monday, including one near Islam's second-holiest site in the city of Medina, the kingdom's Interior Ministry said on Thursday.

Four people are believed to have been killed and two wounded in the Medina attacks, at a mosque in Qatif and in western Jeddah, the economic capital, not far from the US consulate.

A 26-year-old Saudi man, Naer Moslem Hammad al-Balawi, who had a "history of drug use" had been identified as the perpetrator of the Medina attack, the ministry said in a statement.

The Qatif attack, it added, was carried out by three "terrorists," including one man named as Abderrahman Saleh Mohammed al-Amr, 23, who it said was known to the security services for taking part in protests. Other terrorists were identified as Ibrahim Saleh, 20, and Abdul Karim Muhammad Husaini

The Qatif attackers were Saudi nationals however they had never obtained the Saudi national identity card, the ministry said.

The Jeddah attacker was a Pakistani man identified as Abdullah Qalzar Khan, a driver who had been living in the city for 12 years, the ministry said earlier.

Four people were killed in the Medina explosion near the Prophet's Mosque, which came as Muslims prepared for this week´s Eid al-Fitr festival marking the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

The body parts of three people were found after another suicide bombing in the Shiite-populated Gulf city of Qatif, the ministry said earlier.

Two police officers were wounded the Jeddah attack. The US embassy in Riyadh reported no casualties among consulate staff during the attack, which coincided with the US July 4 Independence Day holiday.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the interior minister, said while visiting the wounded policemen in Jeddah that the attacks would "only increase our solidarity and make us stronger."

No group has claimed responsibility for Monday´s attacks so far. However, a series of bombings and shootings claimed by the Islamic State group (IS) in Saudi Arabia since late 2014 has targeted minority Shiites as well as the security forces, killing dozens.

Most attacks have taken place in Eastern Province. IS group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has called for attacks against Saudi Arabia, which is taking part in the US-led coalition bombing the jihadists in Syria and Iraq.

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Pakistan yet to confirm if Jeddah bomber was Pakistani

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Tuesday identified the suicide bomber who struck outside the US Consulate in Jeddah as a Pakistani resident of the kingdom who arrived 12 years ago to work as a driver.

An Interior Ministry statement issued on Tuesday identified the man behind the Jeddah attack as 34-year-old Abdullah Gulzar Khan.

It said he lived in the port city with “his wife and her parents.” The statement didn’t elaborate.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has started investigations in the wake of the Jeddah suicide blast which was believed to be carried out by a Pakistani citizen.

The Foreign Ministry on Tuesday asked the Interior Ministry and other authorities concerned to gather the bio-data of Abdullah Gulzar Khan.

It was not yet confirmed by Pakistani officials that Khan was a Pakistani national.

Speaking to a private news channel, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Manzoorul Haq said no Pakistani national was involved in the Jeddah attack and refused to comment any further.

The suicide bombing near the diplomatic post was the first of three targeting the kingdom on Monday, including one outside of the sprawling Masjid-e-Nabvi (SAW) in Medina that killed four Saudi security troops and wounded five.

Governor of Makkah Prince Faisal bin Salman was shown on the state television visiting security officers wounded in the Madina blast and the site of that explosion within hours of the blast.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the Jeddah and Madina attacks, nor another at a Shia mosque in the east of the country.

The nature of attacks and their apparently coordinated timing suggested that the Islamic State could be behind them.

Saudi officials reported that a Saudi national was involved in the suicide bombing outside the Masjid-e-Nabvi (SWA).

In the attack, the bomber detonated his explosives after two security guards approached him, killing himself and lightly wounding the two guards, the Interior Ministry said. No consular staff were hurt.

The Foreign Office of Pakistan said authorities in Islamabad were working to get more details about the man.

Monday’s bombings in Madina and Qatif took place simultaneously.

A witness, who gave his name only as Ayman, told AFP there were two explosions near the Shia mosque.

Pictures said to be from the scene and circulated by residents showed a small fire burning in the street, severed limbs and what appeared to be a head.

The ministry said in the statement published on the official SPA news agency that the bomber’s explosive belt had “partially” exploded.

The US embassy in Riyadh reported no injuries among the consulate staff.

There are around 9 million foreigners living in Saudi Arabia, which has a total population of 30 million. Among all foreigners living in the kingdom, Pakistanis represent one of the largest groups.

President Mamnoon Hussain, who had been visiting the kingdom for a religious pilgrimage, left Jeddah on Tuesday, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

The Saudi ministry said the attacker in the Madina assault set off the bomb in a parking lot after security officers became suspicious about him. Several cars caught fire and thick plumes of black smoke were seen rising from the site of the explosion as thousands of worshippers crowded the streets around the mosque.

Worshippers expressed shock that such a prominent holy site could be targeted.

Masjid-e-Nabvi (SAW) was packed on Monday evening with worshippers during the final days of the Muslim holy month of Ramazan.

Local media say the attacker was intending to strike the mosque when it was crowded with thousands of worshippers gathered for the Maghrib prayers.

Qari Ziyaad Patel, 36, from Johannesburg, South Africa, was at the mosque when he heard a blast just as people were breaking their fast with dates. Many at first thought it was the sound of traditional, celebratory cannon fire, he said.

“I actually felt the ground shake,” he said. “The vibrations were very strong. ... It sounded like a building imploded.”

â€"Originally published in The News

 

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