String of blasts kill 2, injure 25 in Quetta

April 23, 2013 - Updated 206 PKT
From Web Edition



QUETTA: At least two people were killed and 25 sustained injuries after four successive blasts rocked the provincial capital within a short span of time on Tuesday, further increasing the security concerns ahead of May 11 elections.

As per initial reports, the first blast was reported from Gwalmandi area, the second explosion ripped through Jinnah Town, while the third one hit Gordat Singh area, which has long history of sectarian and ethnic violence. The police said that five people were injured in Gwalmandi.

A fourth explosion that struck near Khuda-e-Dad Chowk in Nechari area within an hour of three earlier back-to-back blasts, according to police, left at least two people dead and 12 injured. Reportedly heavy shooting also followed the blast, which the police said was a suicide one.

The News 

Seven hurt in four consecutive blasts, firing in Quetta

Tuesday, April 23, 2013 9:20:21 PM |






Staff Report

QUETTA: At least seven persons have been reported injured in four consecutive blasts and firing in Quetta, SAMAA reports.

Earlier, three blasts were reported within half an hour in capital city of Balochistan and now this fourth blast with heavy firing has been reported.

According to police, the first blast took place in a vacant ground at Jinnah Town area of the city and that caused no harm to anyone.

The second blast took place in densely populated area of Gawalmandi Chowk, where six persons sustained injuries.

Later on, just after few minutes another blast occurred near Ghazi Cinema on Gurudat Road, leaving one person injured.

Fourth blast was reported after one and half hour of first blast in the city and no harm was reported in that.

The injured were immediately moved to Civil Hospital for medical assistance, where one blast victim was reported in serious condition.

All injured have been identified as Surat Khan, Wahidullah, Sued Muhammad, Abdullah, Saddam, Iqbal, and Gul Nawaz.

Fear and harassment have gripped the city and people are preferring to stay at homes as rumors of more blasts are roaming in the city.

CCPO of Quetta, Mir Zubair Mehmood, visited Civil Hospital and enquired about health condition of the blast victims.

The CCPO said while talking to the media on the occasion that the terrorists are trying to spread panic and fear in the city but the police are fully alert to tackle them.

In the meantime, the police gathered proofs from the blasts sides after cordoning off the areas.

 SAMAA

Four blasts reported in Quetta, two killed

By Web Desk

Published: April 23, 2013

The nature of the blast is not known as yet.

QUETTA: At least two people were killed and 16 injured in four blasts within three hours in Quetta on Tuesday, reported Express News.

The first blast was reported in Jinnah Town, the second one in the Gawalmandi area and the third blast in Mali Bagh.

The fourth blast which took place on Pir Mohammad Road was followed by heavy firing.

According to Geo News, at least five people were injured in the Gawalmandi blast.

The nature of the blasts still remains unknown.

Note: This is a developing story and will be updated accordingly.

Express News 

Relatives seek news of Hazaras missing at sea

BY: NICOLAS PERPITCH AND PETER ALFORD
From: The Australian
April 18, 2013 12:00AM



Missing asylum-seeker Zahir Yusufi, second right Source: The Australian


HAZARA communities across the world are desperately seeking news about relatives who may have been aboard an asylum boat that sank in the Sunda Strait last week following the failure of Indonesian authorities to carry out a search.

More than a week after the sinking, Basarnas, the Indonesian search and rescue agency, has still not carried out a sea or air search for about 60 people still missing.

The accident is now believed to have happened in the southeast reaches of the Sunda Strait in the early hours of Wednesday last week; a report of a suspected sinking in the same area on Friday morning is now thought to have arisen out of confusion surrounding the first incident.

There were about 72 passengers on the Wednesday boat, all believed to be ethnic Hazaras from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Fourteen are now known to have survived the sinking and to have been picked up by local fishermen off the West Java coast.

Immigration officials at Pelabuhan Ratu have confirmed that late on Thursday police handed them the 14 survivors but the men escaped before they could be questioned.

Hazaras from at least five countries are searching for news about missing relatives. Refugee advocates say that in the absence of any help from officials, a Facebook page is serving as a sort of "clearing house" for families.

Yesterday, the page displayed 14 names, purportedly of those rescued after the small fishing boat they were in rapidly took on water. Some clung to pieces of wreckage for 24 hours before being picked up by the local fisherman. There are also photographs identifying those who have not been found yet.

Among them is Rahmatullah Mohammad Jan, a 17-year-old boy who is believed to have boarded the boat hoping his family would follow to escape the Taliban.

According to family friend Mehdi Sabir, who lives in Padua, Italy, the teenager had left Pakistan, where his parents, two sisters and brother now live, only two weeks ago.

The family were refugees who originally came from the Afghan city of Ghazni.

"They said on Wednesday Rahmatullah called them that they are on the way to Australia in an hour. That was the last time Rahmatullah contacted his family. After that his family did not get nothing, no good news. He is missing like this," Mr Sabir told The Australian.

Another photo shows Mohammad Dawood, aged in his 40s, and Mohammad Asif, 15.

Habib Akbari, from Brisbane, said he knew them from Pakistan and their families had asked him to help find them.

"Their family says they were on that boat," Mr Akbari said.

Perth man Daniel Rezaie said he was receiving lots of calls from fellow Hazaras worried that people they knew may have been on the boat.

"They are really distressed about those people," Mr Rezaie said. "Some are calling, saying, 'I'm not sure if my friend was on that boat or not'."

The Australian understands the national police have contacted at least one of the survivors since, but he was unable to give any information useful to searchers.

Basarnas officials say they have located no other survivors or bodies.

Basarnas did not respond to telephone calls from The Australian yesterday.

The Australian 

11th Expert Working Group releases recommendations for Safeguarding the Bamiyan Valley, Afghanistan

A group of Afghan and international experts working on the safeguarding of Bamiyan (Afghanistan), as well as representatives of the Afghan and Japanese governments and UNESCO, recently released a list of recommendations for further activities to preserve the Bamiyan site. The 11th Expert Working Group meeting for the safeguarding of the cultural landscape and archaeological remains of the Bamiyan Valley World Heritage property was successfully held in Aachen, Germany from 10 to 12 December 2012, in close collaboration with the Aachen University (RWTH), Germany, and the Afghanistan authorities.

Building on the previous meetings, officials from the Afghan Government, national and international experts formulated a list of recommendations regarding the future activities for the preservation of the Bamiyan site. They addressed various areas, including archaeology, management and cultural master plan, capacity-building as well as the conservation and interpretation of the Buddha niches and fragments.

The Expert Working Group was formed in 2002 to coordinate all cultural projects in the country entrusted to UNESCO by the Afghan government. This latest meeting aimed to advise UNESCO and the Afghanistan authorities on issues related to the conservation of the Bamiyan World Heritage property.

The discussion emphasized the central importance of a cultural development approach in Bamiyan that incorporates and demonstrates the contribution of culture to sustainable livelihoods, education and the promotion of peace in Afghanistan. The meeting also served as a vector for the coordination of international efforts and as a discussion concerning a range of issues that included infrastructure and development plans of the Afghan Government for Bamiyan in the short and long term and the broader spectrum of heritage management challenges facing Bamiyan and its population. Besides, the Bamiyan Expert Working Group recognised that the current initiatives for the conservation and sustainable management of the World Heritage property of Bamiyan are fully in line with the UNDAF (United Nations Assistance Development Framework) and the Afghan National Development Strategy. The participants considered that the conservation of this outstanding heritage site contributes to promoting peace and fostering sustainable development, for the people of Bamiyan in particular, and in Afghanistan as a whole, by demonstrating the possibility of building sustainable communities by fostering cultural diversity and an appropriate use of the natural and cultural environment.

UNESCO News