12 killed, 20 hurt in Peshawar market blast

Several shops destroyed in Matni area

Peshawar—A deadly explosion in a busy market in the outskirts of provincial metropolis Friday evening left 12 people dead and around twenty others seriously injured. The bomb blast which was carried out in Matani area on main Kohat Road, also destroyed several shops. The condition of same wounded persons was described as precarious and doctors at the Peshawar’s main hospital apprehended the death toll might go higher.

Taliban release video showing severed heads of Pak soldiers

Khar—The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) released a video on Friday showing what appeared to be the severed heads of a dozen Pakistani soldiers. Pakistani security officials had already confirmed that 15 of their soldiers went missing three days ago after a clash with the militants. TTP Spokesman Sirajud Din sent AFP a video showing a militant commander posing with 12 heads arranged on the ground.

Visit to Pak only at suitable time: Singh

On Board Special Aircraft—Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday said he was keen to visit Pakistan but for this a “proper atmosphere” has to be created and a “crucial test” for Islamabad is to bring to book the perpetrators of the heinous Mumbai attack. “I am very keen to visit Pakistan and I am grateful for the invitation. But I also told to President Asif Ali Zardari “ we have to create a proper atmosphere,” he said while responding to questions of media persons accompanying him on his way back home from Tehran.

PPP sending wrong-coded signals to all rivals for survival

Islamabad—After successfully taking breather till September 18 in Supreme Court on August 27, the PPP-led government has started playing their other cards to get floated till the announcement of scheduled elections early next year. PPP is sending wrong-coded signals to all its rivals in the country, sources privy to such developments told this scribe.

18 Taliban enter Rawalpindi, Islamabad

Islamabad—Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan dispatched a group comprising 18 terrorists — young Pathans and Punjabis — to twin cities Rawalpindi and Islamabad to act against high profile military and civil officers, a report issued by national crisis management cell of the Ministry of Interior said. The report was sent out to all home departments, law enforcement agencies and Islamabad chief commissioner. They may resort to killing or abduction for subsequent bargain for their high profile prisoners, the contents of the report stated.

PML-N wants change in new provinces commission

Islamabad—Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Friday put forward their demand for change in the parliamentary commission formed to carve out new provinces. The PML-N demanded that a former judge of the Supreme Court (SC) should be appointed to head the commission. It should be mentioned here that Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar has been unanimously picked up in the first session of the commission to lead it.

‘Osama’s body was identified by a young girl’

London—Osama bin Laden’s dead body was identified by a young girl who was in the room with him when he died, a former US Navy SEAL has revealed. In his explosive book about the operation, titled No Easy Day, 36-year-old Matt Bissonnette, writing under the pseudonym Mark Owen, described how the Navy SEALs made their way through the terrorist leader’s private quarters on the third floor in his Abbottabad compound.