Gunmen kill 13 bus passengers in Pakistan

QUETTA, Pakistan: Dozens of gunmen disguised in police uniforms shot to death 13 people they pulled off of a convoy of buses in southwest Pakistan and dumped their bodies in a nearby ravine, officials said Tuesday.

The motive for the attack Monday night was unclear since no one has claimed responsibility. But suspicion may fall on separatists who have been waging a low-level insurgency in southwest Baluchistan province for decades.The buses were headed to central Punjab province, and the separatists have a history of attacking Punjabis who they view as outsiders encroaching on their independence. The province is also home to many Islamic militants who have carried out attacks in the past, especially on minority Shiite Muslims.

Sikh delegation told to remove turbans at Rome airport

Sikh delegation told to remove turbans at Rome airport

NEW DELHI: Delhi's gurdwara management committee president Manjeet Singh GK and other members of a Sikh delegation were not cleared to board a flight from Rome after they refused to take off their turbans at the airport security check on Tuesday.

Manjeet Singh, who is also Delhi chief of Akali Dal (Badal), told TOI that the delegation had offered to let the staff touch their turbans and run a metal detector over it, but the Italian security insisted on them taking the turbans off.

Punjab govt to boost industrial activities

ISLAMABAD: Industries are being set up across Punjab and foreign investors would be provided investment opportunities in a bid to boost the economy.

This was stated by Chaudhry Mohammad Shafiq, Punjab Minister for Industries, Commerce and Investment during a meeting with a delegation of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI).

Fourteen including three security officers, killed in Mach

BOLAN: Rebel separatists Tuesday killed 14 people, including three security officers, after stopping vehicles at a fake checkpoint in Balochistan.

The attack happened in the Mach area of Bolan district, 70 kilometres (44 miles) southeast of the provincial capital Quetta. It appears to have targeted mostly people from the central province of Punjab ahead of Eidul-Fitr.

Three killed in blast inside Karachi-bound Shalimar Express

KARACHI: Three people were reported killed in an explosion that took place inside a bogey of the Shalimar Express near Punjab province's Toba Tek Singh district on Monday.

Fifteen people were also injured in the explosion that occurred inside the Karachi-bound train which had begun its journey from Lahore.

Mid-day meal deaths: principal absconding, no arrests yet

The principal of the government school in Chhapra whose 23 children died in the midday meal tragedy suspected to have been caused by poisoned food was absconding, as it emerged that the free food served did not undergo any quality checks.

Kuldip Singh Brar's attack in London was premeditated

London: Lieutenant General (retired) Kuldip Singh Brar was followed before his throat was slashed with a knife in a premeditated revenge attack in London, a UK court was told on Tuesday.

78-year-old Mr Brar, who commanded the Operation Blue Star in 1984, was on a private visit to London with his wife Meena when the suspected Khalistan sympathisers attacked the couple.

He sustained serious injuries while his wife escaped unharmed and was instrumental in raising an alarm to call the police.

Couple sentenced to nine months for racially abusing Sikh taxi driver

Melbourne: A couple has been sentenced by an Australian court to nine months in jail for a racial attack in which a Sikh taxi driver's turban was ripped off.

Angeline Kim Sollitt, 44, and Michael John Arbouin, 40, were handed down the nine-month prison-term for the "unprovoked" and "malicious" attack on taxi driver Jagroop Singh, 'NTNews' reported.

"The turban is the crowning glory of the Sikhs. For Sikhs, the head and the turban are sacred, they must not be touched or insulted in any way," Judge Stephen Southwood said.

Narendra Modi is our flag-bearer: Parkash Singh Badal

MADHOPUR (PATHANKOT): Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Sunday made a full-throated declaration of support for BJP election campaign committee chairman NarendraModi saying the NDA was a united and ShiromaniAkaliDal would contest the 2014 LokSabha polls under Modi's leadership.

"Punjab and I feel it's a privilege to have you addressing your first rally after taking charge. You are our flag-bearer now," the Akali patriarch said at a rally to mark the 60th 'martyrdom day' of Jan Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.

Pakistan defends allocation of funds to Jamaat-ud-Dawah

LAHORE: The government of Pakistan's Punjab province has justified its allocation of over Rs 61 million to the largest centre of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah, saying the funds are needed to continue the services being provided to people by the facility.

A spokesman of the Punjab government said the Punjab government had taken "administrative control of the welfare institutions being run by (the JuD) in compliance with Security Council resolutions of the United Nations".

India to take up with Pak financial aid to JuD: Khurshid

India today said it will take up with Islamabad the allocation of over Rs 61 million in Pakistan's Punjab province budget to a centre of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the parent body of terror group LeT that had carried out the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.

"I can't comment on what the state government in Pakistan is doing. Whatever comes to our knowledge and is a concern for our security will be taken up with Pakistan federal government," External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said.

Hafeez Saeed group gets 61 mn from govt

The government of Pakistan's Punjab province has allocated millions of rupees in its budget for fiscal 2013-14 for the largest centre of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah, considered a front for the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Besides a grant-in-aid of over Rs. 61 million for the JuD centre known as

'Markaz-e-Taiba', the provincial government has allocated Rs. 350 million for setting up a "Knowledge Park" at the centre and other development initiatives.

Details of the allocations were presented in budget documents tabled in the Punjab assembly on Monday by the PML-N government led by chief minister Shahbaz Sharif.