5 Pak workers 
shot dead 
in Afghanistan
KANDAHAR: Five Pakistani construction workers have been shot dead in an ambush in southern Afghanistan, officials said Thursday.
Another Pakistani who was wounded in the ambush is in hospital, the senior doctor at the Mirwais hospital in Kandahar city said.
The workers were ambushed on their way to work, according to the governor of Kandahar's Panjwayi district, Shah Baran.
"The workers were on their way to Panjwayi district, where they work on a road construction project, when they were ambushed and these workers were killed," Baran said.
Abdul Satar, acting head of Mirwais hospital, said five bodies were brought in.
"Gunmen ambushed them...and now five bodies and one injured Pakistani worker have been brought to our hospital," he said.
The Pakistanis were believed to have been working for a Japanese road construction firm, the name of which could not be immediately confirmed.

Rehman Malik 
acquitted in 
corruption reference 
KARACHI: A court in Karachi acquitted Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Thursday in a corruption reference filed against him. 
Speaking to the media in Karachi, Malik said the corruption cases registered against him were absolutely baseless and that justice had finally prevailed.
The National Accountability Bureau had filed a reference (02/2004) against Rehman Malik for allegedly misusing his official position as an additional director of the Federal Investigation Agency in 1995 to give a special quota of 50,000 tonnes of bitumen without paying excise duty and other charges to NSR Company.
While addressing journalists on Thursday, Malik also touched upon the security situation in Sindh. He said Rangers or FC personnel can be deployed in the city if the need arises.

Another corruption 
case against
Latif Khosa
ISLAMABAD: Another application was filed against former Attorney-General Latif Khan Khosa for allegedly receiving US $5000 from his client in order to ensure a favourable verdict.
Malik Qamaruz Zaman filed an application before the Pakistan Bar Council accusing Latif Khosa of gross misconduct and of jeopardising his interests.
Khosa denied the charges, saying he could not be blamed if the court was not taking up the case of his client.
This has been the second case of misconduct against Latif Khan Khosa. 
A similar application related to the Haris Steel Mills case is pending before the Pakistan Bar Council. 

Gilani, Singh 
to attend 
nuclear summit
WASHINGTON: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is likely to attend an international nuclear summit US President Barack Obama is hosting in Washington next month.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is also expected to attend the April 12-13 conference.
The sources said that since Prime Minister Gilani now heads the National Command Authority, "it is only natural that he attends the meting as well".
Last month, the National Assembly passed a law transferring control of the National Command Authority from the president to the prime minister and effectively making Gilani the final authority on when, if ever, to activate the country’s nuclear power.
In Islamabad, foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told reporters that Pakistan will send a high-level delegation to the meeting but he did not know the composition of the delegation yet.

15 Pakistanis 
detained at 
Bagram airbase
LAHORE: At least 15 Pakistanis are being detained at the Bagram Air Base, 11 kilometres southeast of Charikar in Afghanistan’s Parwan province, the director of Reprieve.
Addressing a news conference along with Defence of Human Rights Chairwoman Amina Masood Janjoa in Islamabad, Clive Stafford Smith said Reprieve had asked for information on the Pakistani detainees through a legal notice sent to the US ambassador. 
He said at least 15 Pakistanis were detained at Bagram airbase, while six were detained at the Guantánamo Bay. Smith said that the detainees were deprived of basic human and legal rights. 
He said the US and the UK governments detained the Pakistanis in pursuit of their agendas. Smith said about 770 people from different countries were currently detained at the Bagram airbase, while 195 at the Guantánamo Bay.

Three militants 
arrested 
in Karachi
KARACHI: Three high profile militants were arrested in Karachi on Friday, police said, claiming to have foiled a major terrorist attack planned for the 12th Rabiul Awwal celebrations. 
Officials revealed that three suspects belonging to banned outfit Lashkra-i-Jhangvi were arrested from Karachi's Jamshed road. 
Police also claimed recovering over 20 kilogram of high intensity explosives from the militants. 
Investigators said militants had been planning to carry out the attacks on Saturday. Further investigations were underway.

Bangladesh 
arrests Pak 
militant suspect
DHAKA: Bangladesh has arrested a suspected Pakistani militant and four of its own nationals who planned to carry out attacks in the country, a spokesman for the elite force that made the arrests said on Sunday. 
Commander Mohammad Sohel of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) said the five, aged between 26 and 30, were members of Jaish-e-Mohammad, a Pakistan-based militant group blamed for terrorist attacks in India.
"They were picked up from a market in the capital Dhaka. The Pakistani citizen and four Bangladeshis have admitted of being the members of Jaish-e-Mohammad and they were planning attacks in the country," he said.
One of the four Bangladeshis has served ten years in prison in India, he added.
In November three Pakistani men were arrested in Dhaka on suspicion of plotting to attack US and Indian targets in the Bangladeshi capital.