Militants abduct Pakistani government workers

[maddezmom]

Source: Reuters

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, May 19 (Reuters) - Pro-Taliban militants have kidnapped eight Pakistani government development workers in a tribal region on the Afghan border, a senior official said on Saturday.

The workers, including five women, were abducted on Friday evening while visiting sites for aid projects in North Waziristan, where the government signed a controversial peace deal aimed at ending militant violence last September.

"More than 100 militants ambushed their vehicle and took the eight officials with them," security chief for the tribal region, Arbab Arif, told Reuters.

The kidnappers freed several guards accompanying the workers and the guards reported the abduction.

"We have engaged tribal elders of the area for their release," Arif said.

No demands had been made, another official said.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL134515.htm

[maddezmom]

1. Pakistan's mosque students refuse to free police

ISLAMABAD, May 19 (Reuters) - Pakistani authorities were trying on Saturday to secure the release of four policemen who radical Islamic students detained in Islamabad in their latest challenge to the government's authority.

Taliban-supporting clerics and students at the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, have undertaken a series of provocative stunts since January to press for various demands. They have even threatened suicide bomb attacks in support of their cause.

The government, struggling with a judicial crisis that is sapping its popularity, has tried to mollify the radical Islamists and said last month all issues with them had been settled amicably.

But on Friday, religious students apprehended four plainclothes policemen outside the fortified mosque compound in a central Islamabad neighbourhood and were holding them at their religious school, police said.

more:http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL133313.htm

[ohio2007]

2. "the radical Islamists ..issues ...had been settled amicably.".... translation;

deals cut to make peace with radicals only strengthen their hand in the next round of 'negotiations'.
So they currently grabbed a few women aid workers. Women outside of the home unescorted by a father or husband is forbidden if you go by "the book" that is preached and practiced.

Those madrassas could still dry up if foreign investment were cut off. Unfortunately, the world will spin it as a mass genocide. The stavation of (male) children.

/screed

[Eugene]

3. Pakistan mosque frees two police

Source: BBC News

Last Updated: Saturday, 19 May 2007, 22:06 GMT 23:06 UK

Pakistan mosque frees two police

Clerics at a hardline Islamic seminary in Pakistan have released two
of four policemen they seized in Islamabad on Friday, police officials
have said.

Earlier, a judge released three seminary students who mosque officials
said had been illegally detained by Pakistani intelligence agents.

The Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) seminary, has campaigned for strict Islamic
law to be enforced in Pakistan.

The police say two officers are still being held in the seminary.

Dozens of students from the Lal Masjid seminary seized the four
policemen and took them inside, demanding the release of 11 students
detained by intelligence agents.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6673461.stm

[ohio2007]

4. " Clerics at a hardline Islamic seminary " ? I suppose if they called it

a madrassas, that would be showing a bias ?
PC word for madrassas is seminary.....

Sounds less hostile, comparing it to an Italian monestary tucked a way up in the Alps imo.

lol

"The Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) seminary, has campaigned for strict Islamic
law to be enforced in Pakistan."

[maddezmom]

5. Forty arrests as Pakistani police held hostage

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistani authorities have detained around 40 Islamist students amid a stand-off over two policemen held hostage at an extremist mosque in the capital Islamabad, officials said Monday.

The men were arrested Sunday as they tried to go to the Red Mosque, where hardline students are locked in a three-day confrontation with armed security forces, Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema said.

"The 40 or so arrests that have been made were of potential troublemakers," Cheema told AFP. "Security has been beefed up at entry and exit points of the capital to make sure that unwanted people do not enter."

Cheema said that the government was not planning to launch an operation to free the policemen. "We want to resolve this issue with the mosque through negotiations," he said.

more:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070521/wl_sthasia_afp/pakistanmosquepolice_070521102633