India says Pakistan will pay for Kashmir ‘misadventure’

Kabul hosts anti-terror confab

NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR, India Feb 13, (Agencies): India has warned Pakistan that it would pay for a deadly militant attack on an Indian army camp in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, the latest violence in the disputed region to stoke tension between the nuclear-armed rivals.

Pakistan responded by saying it was “fully committed and capable of defending itself against any act of aggression” and India had unfairly blamed it for the attack “without a shred of evidence”.

Saturday’s attack on the camp near Jammu, in the Indian-controlled part of the Muslim-majority Himalayan region, was the worst in months with six soldiers and the father of a soldier killed. At least three militants were killed, according to Indian officials.

Indian Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters the army had evidence the attack originated from Pakistan.

Sitharaman

Fire on ship kills 5:

A blast caused by a fire on a ship under repair at India’s Cochin Shipyard Ltd killed five people on Tuesday, and injured around 11, a company spokeswoman said, prompting the government to call for a quick enquiry.

The spokeswoman said smoke hampered rescue operations initially and that an investigation would be launched soon. The ship belongs to the country’s top energy explorer, Oil and Natural Gas Corp Ltd, she added.

An ONGC official said the ship was undergoing maintenance at staterun Cochin Shipyard on the country’s southwest coast.

Pak bans attack suspect:

Pakistan has quietly amended its anti-terror laws to ban those listed as terrorists by the United Nations, a move which paves the way for Islamabad to proceed against suspected masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

The change was made by President Mamnoon Hussain on Friday, and published by the law ministry late Monday.

The move comes after Washington piled pressure on Pakistan last November to take action against Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai attacks which killed 166 people, after he was released from house arrest in the eastern city of Lahore.

Kabul hosts confab:

The Afghan capital is hosting military chiefs from several neighboring countries, including Pakistan’s army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, for a conference to plot a course on how to deal with escalating terrorism in the region.

The army chiefs will also look at the region’s burgeoning narcotics trade as Afghanistan hits record levels of poppy production. Afghanistan is the world’s largest producers of opium, the raw material used to make heroin.

Tuesday’s meeting in Kabul will also include US and NATO representatives.

Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Daulat Waziri says military chiefs from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are also attending the conference.

Farewell to Jahangir:

Pakistan has bid farewell to rest one of the country’s most prominent human rights activists, Asma Jahangir, who died this week of a heart attack in the eastern city of Lahore.

Thousands attended the funeral service at the city’s Gadhafi Stadium — including Jahangir’s family and relatives, friends, prominent lawyers, judges, politicians and human rights activists.

A Muslim cleric led the prayers. Jahangir is to be buried at a more private ceremony later Tuesday.