Pakistani Taliban promise more blasts

Taliban vow more attacks, just hours after blast near Shia Ashoura commemoration in Dera Ismail Khan. inShare1 Email Print Share Feedback

Two people died in bomb blast near a Shia Mosque in Karach [EPA]

Just hours after a roadside bomb killed at least seven people near a Shia procession in Pakistan, the Taliban have claimed responsibility and vowed that more attacks will come. Security forces were on high alert over fears of large-scale attacks on the minority sect across the country after an attack occurred on Saturday in the city of Dera Ismail Khan in Pakistan's northwest. The Pakistan Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks in a telephone call to AFP news agency. "The government can make whatever security arrangements it wants but it cannot stop our attacks" - Ehsanullah Ehsan, Pakistan Taliban spokesman "We carried out the attack against the Shia community," spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location after the explosion. He said the group had dispatched more than 20 suicide bombers across the country for attacks against the minority community. "We have 20-25 fidayeen [suicide bombers] in the country to launch bomb blasts and suicide attacks," Ehsan said.

Mumbai Land Grab

Mumbai Land Grab

One activist is organising Mumbai's slum-dwellers as they face eviction to make way for upmarket developments.

Pakistan Taliban vow to attack Indian targets

Group threatens India to avenge hanging of Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, one of the fighters behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Last Modified: 22 Nov 2012 09:09 inShare0

Mohammad Ajmal Kasab's execution by hanging was celebrated in many parts of India on Wednesday [Reuters]

Pakistan's Taliban movement has threatened to attack Indian targets to avenge the country's execution of Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, the lone survivor of the fighter squad responsible for a rampage through Mumbai that killed 166 people in 2008. Kasab was hanged on Wednesday amid great secrecy, underscoring the political sensitivity of the November 26, 2008, massacre, which still casts a pall over relations between nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India. "We have decided to target Indians to avenge the killing of Ajmal Kasab," said Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan by telephone from an undisclosed location. Ehsan demanded that India return Kasab's body. "If they don't return his body to us or his family we will capture Indians and will not return their bodies," he said, adding that the Taliban will try to strike Indian targets "anywhere". The Taliban, who are close to al-Qaeda, are seen as one of the biggest security threats in Pakistan and are blamed for many of the suicide bombings across the country. They have not carried out major attacks abroad. Kasab was charged with 86 offences, including murder and waging war against the Indian state, in a charge-sheet running to more than 11,000 pages. It was the first time a capital sentence had been carried out in India since 2004. There was celebration on the streets of Mumbai and other cities as news of the execution spread, but armed groups in Pakistan reacted angrily, as did residents of his home village of Faridkot. People set off fireworks and handed out sweets in Indian cities. Some held up photos of Kasab with a rope noose superimposed over his head.

US envoy to leave Afghanistan-Pakistan post

Marc Grossman, who took over after the death of Richard Holbrooke in 2010, will step down in December.

Grossman assisted his predecessor, Richard Holbrooke, in the Dayton peace talks that ended the Bosnian war [EPA]

The US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan is set to step down from his post in December, his spokeswoman said in statement. Laura Lucas told the AFP news agency on Wednesday Marc Grossman, who has been in the job for two years, would return to private life. Grossman was appointed by Hillary Clinton, the outgoing secretary of state, after the sudden death of veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke in December 2010. "After almost two years in the position, and with Secretary Clinton's agreement, he will return to private life," the statement said. Clinton thanked Grossman for building "a diplomatic surge" and an intense global focus which "have put in place a network of regional and international support for Afghanistan post 2014 and into the next decade," the statement added. "His work also helped set the conditions for an Afghan peace process that will enable Afghans to talk with other Afghans in pursuit of a negotiated settlement to end decades of conflict." Grossman, 61, is credited with the behind-the-scenes efforts that helped persuade Pakistan to reopen its border crossings with Afghanistan to NATO convoys earlier this year after a row over the killing of 24 Pakistani troops in a US air strike. His work over the past two years had also supported Obama's "objectives to disrupt and defeat al-Qaeda and ensure that Afghanistan can no longer become a safe haven for terrorists", according to the statement. Ambassador David Pearce, currently principal deputy special representative, will serve as the acting special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Grossman served at the US embassy in Pakistan from 1977 to 1979. He also assisted his predecessor, Holbrooke, in the Dayton peace talks that ended the Bosnian war. From 2001 to 2005, he served as undersecretary of state for political affairs - the top position for a career diplomat - when he worked to mend US relationships overseas during the Iraq war.

Futures Steady Amid Mixed News

Capitalism Lives Here

U.S. stock-index futures were little changed Tuesday as traders weighed a positive outcome on Greek debt talks with the OECD's gloomy world economic outlook. Traders also awaited several key economic reports.

Today's Markets

As of 9:03 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 12930, S&P 500 futures were flat at 1403 and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 2.3 points to 2648. 

The European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund negotiated for weeks in a bid to agree on a Greek debt deal. An agreement finally came late Monday night. The group agreed to several measures to help Greece make its fiscal targets in coming decades. The actions included lowering the interest rate the country needs to pay on its loans, raising the debt-to-GDP target to 124% by 2020 from 120% and extending the maturity on certain loans. Now, the international lenders say they will be able to release the roughly $56.7 billion aid tranche Greece needs to avoid a default.

Lukoil to Increase Share of Gas in Overall Output to 27%

Russia's largest independent oil producer, OAO Lukoil Holdings (LKOH.RS), will increase the share of natural gas in its production to 27% from 16%, Deputy Chief Executive Andrey Gaidamaka said Tuesday, without giving a timeframe.

"We will grow on the liquid and natural gas side. Natural gas growth will come from non-Russian sources," he told a conference call, noting that production in Central Asia is more profitable.

Lukoil has for years fought declining oil production, which it has said will grow from next year. In results for the third quarter posted Tuesday, liquids production fell 0.3% on the year to 170.6 million barrels, while gas production rose 12.6% to 4.8 billion cubic meters.

Don't delay new bank rules too long, Asia urges Europe

HONG KONG/BRUSSELS –  Asian financial leaders warned Europe on Tuesday to limit any delay in stricter banking rules to months not years amid fears the United States' decision to shelve the controversial new global regime could derail it completely.

Europe is preparing to follow the United States in postponing the introduction of the Basel III reforms, EU sources told Reuters, and the delay could last six months or even longer if diplomats and lawmakers fail to break the deadlock.

"The fact is that the U.S. and euro zone are the most important regions where Basel III should have been implemented," Anand Sinha, deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India, told a Thomson Reuters Pan-Asian regulatory summit in Hong Kong.

"It would have been very helpful, even if there is a delay, if the U.S. and euro zone could have indicated a definite timeline, that is not there."

The global accord hatched by central bankers and regulators following the financial crisis demands that lenders set aside more capital to cover losses such as unpaid loans. It also lays down higher standards in determining what kind of assets a bank can use to meet these capital levels.

The European Union is struggling to agree on many aspects of the package, including what kinds of assets can be considered liquid, or available at short notice.

Sinha warned that some emerging economies could use the European delay to argue that the new rules, which are meant to safeguard against excessive risk-taking, should not apply to them.

Asian shares, euro rise on Greek debt deal

TOKYO –  The euro hit a one-month high and Asian shares climbed for a seventh consecutive day on Tuesday while commodities rose and the dollar eased after a deal on new debt targets for Greece and a political agreement on disbursing the next installment of aid.

After 12 hours of talks at their third meeting in as many weeks, Greece's international lenders agreed on a package of measures to cut Greek debt to 124 percent of gross domestic product by 2020, and pledged to take further steps to lower the debt below 110 percent of GDP in 2022.

Eurogroup Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker said ministers would formally approve the release of crucial aid for debt-stricken Greece, removing uncertainty over whether Athens could avoid a near-term bankruptcy.

Investors' focus is likely to shift now to another major concern hanging over markets, a looming U.S. fiscal crisis.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS> gained 0.6 percent to its highest level in nearly three weeks, led by a 1 percent advance in Korean shares <.KS11> and a 0.6 percent rise in Australian shares .

"The news of the Greek debt deal, plus U.S. fiscal cliff talks resuming this week, has spurred investor appetite," Kim Young-joon, an analyst at SK Securities, said of Korean stocks.

Republicans in the U.S. Congress on Monday called on President Barack Obama to detail long-term spending cuts to help solve the country's fiscal crisis, while holding firm against the income tax rate increases for the wealthy that Democrats seek.

"Now people will start focusing on the U.S. fiscal cliff and there could be some nervousness there, particularly if it drags on," said Burrell & Co dealer Jamie Elgar of Australian shares.

The euro gained as much as about 0.3 percent to $1.3010, its highest level since October 31, in reaction to the Greek news, before paring most gains to be up 0.1 percent at $1.2982.

People & Power travels to northern Myanmar where the Kachin people are fighting a life-or-death struggle for autonomy.

Deep in the wilds of northern Myanmar's Kachin state a brutal civil war has intensified over the past year between government forces and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

People & Power sent filmmakers Jason Motlagh and Steve Sapienza to Myanmar (formerly Burma) to investigate why the conflict rages on, despite the political reforms in the south that have impressed Western governments and investors now lining up to stake their claim in the resource-rich Asian nation.

Burma's hidden war

Vastly outnumbered and outgunned, the KIA depends on a steady stream of recruits to fill its ranks [Jason Motlagh]

Bald patches of dirt and shredded tree stumps speak to the artillery barrages that rained down on rebel Capt. Malang Naw Mai and his men when they arrived at their hilltop outpost nine months ago.

He has since lost about one-fifth of his unit in combat, but the veteran officer insists the Burmese Army’s ruthless treatment of ethnic Kachin civilians fuels his resolve to hold the frontline.

“I’m proud to be fighting their oppression and I will be satisfied if I die fighting,” he says.

The war in Kachin reignited last year when the Burmese Army attacked a Kachin Independence Army (KIA) post near a disputed hydropower dam site, ending a 17-year ceasefire

'Toxic syrup' kills many in Pakistan

At least 16 people have died in Pakistani city of Lahore after ingesting what police say was "toxic" cough syrup.

Health adviser for the province of Punjab has said the syrup would be confiscated from all pharmacies [AFP]

At least 16 people have died in the Pakistani city of Lahore after drinking what police say was toxic cough syrup, forcing authorities to close three pharmacies and a medicine factory.

The deaths occurred in the low-income Shahdra Town neighbourhood between Friday and Sunday with the victims mostly drug addicts who took the syrup to get high, local police station chief Atif Zulfiqar said on Monday.

The scandal comes after around 100 heart patients died in January in Lahore, Pakistan's second largest city, after taking faulty medicine made locally.

Owners arrested

"At least 16 people, mostly drug addicts, have died after taking the toxic syrup," Zulfiqar told the AFP news agency, updating an earlier death toll of 13.

"The cost of this laxness in human terms alone, leaving aside any business losses, is huge, but even that does not seem to produce any reaction beyond the initial outcry and indignation" - Pakistan's Dawn newspaper

"Some of the victims were found dead in a graveyard where addicts used to take different kinds of drugs," he said. Seven others died in

Deaths in blast as Pakistan Shia mark Ashoura

Attack claimed by Pakistani Taliban kills five in city of Dera Ismail Khan near Shia procession mourning Imam Hussein.

Five people killed and 83 wounded after device explodes inside a shop in the city of Dera Ismail Khan [AFP]

A bomb attack on a Shia Muslim procession has killed five people and wounded scores more in northwest Pakistan as the group marked Ashoura, a day of religious significance for Shia and some Sunni Muslims.

The bomb exploded on Sunday in the city of Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where another blast on Saturday killed eight people near a Shia Muslim procession.

"Five people were killed and 83 injured in the bomb blast," Shafeerulla Khan, a senior government official in regional capital Peshawar told AFP news agency.

Khan said preliminary investigations indicated the device was planted inside a shop but police were probing whether a suicide bomber was involved.

A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban said the armed group claimed responsibility for the bombing and threatened more attacks.

Pakistan acquits girl of blasphemy charges

Charges against Rimsha Masih of burning Quran have been thrown out after police accused cleric of framing her.



Police say Hafiz Chishti, right, the cleric who accused Masih of burning the Quran, should be sent to court [EPA]

 Pakistan court has thrown out charges against a young Christian girl accused of blasphemy in a case that drew international condemnation, lawyers said.
Rimsha Masih spent three weeks on remand in an adult jail after she was arrested on August 16 for allegedly burning pages from the Quran.
She was released on bail in September and police have since told the courts that she was not guilty and that a cleric who allegedly framed her should face trial instead.
"The court has quashed the case, declaring Rimsha innocent," her lawyer Akmal Bhatti told the AFP news agency.
Hafiz Mohammed Khalid Chishti, a cleric who first gave police the burned papers as evidence against her, was detained on September 1 for desecrating the Quran and tampering with evidence.
An official medical report classified Rimsha as "uneducated" and aged 14, but with a mental age

Two arrested over Facebook comments in India

Anger spread as two women criticise the large funeral of politician Bal Thackeray in Mumbai which caused shutdown.



Mmore than 1.5 million people attended Thackeray's funeral in Mumbai [AFP]



 Two women have been arrested in India over a comment posted on Facebook, sparking criticism from media and analysts who are accusing the government for attacking freedom of expression.

As India's financial capital shut down for the weekend funeral of a powerful politician linked to waves of mob violence, a woman posted on Facebook that the closures in Mumbai were "due to fear, not due to respect."
In her Facebook comment on Sunday, 21-year-old Shaheen Dhanda wrote: "People like Thackeray are born and die daily and one should not observe a 'bandh' [shutdown] for that."
Her 20-year-old friend Renu Srinivasan 'liked' the status.
For that, both women were arrested.

Day of mourning for Bangladesh fire victims

Police launch manhunt for fugitive boss of garment factory where at least 110 workers died in a blaze over the weekend.

Bangladesh has declared a national day of mourning following the Tazreen garment factory fire that led to the deaths of at least 110 workers in a blaze in the capital city, Dhaka, over the weekend.
Green and red national flags flew at half-mast on Tuesday alongside black flags over government offices and the country's 4,500 garment factories.
Shortly before the first mass burials for the victims, police declared a manhunt to find Delwar Hossain, the fugitive boss of the factory.
Habibur Rahman, Dhaka police chief, told the AFP news agency that Hossain would be interrogated about alleged violations of building rules after inspectors found the nine-storey factory had permission for only

Human Rights in central asia

Ashton has set herself a benchmark for human rights in foreign policy. Her visit to central Asia will be a tough test.

At the height of summer, when foreign ministers adopted the European Union's new human-rights strategy, Catherine Ashton, the high representative for foreign affairs, was eloquent in promising to make these issues a core ingredient in the EU's foreign relations.
“[I] am clear that we cannot succeed if we talk only about rights to those who want to hear it and otherwise keep silent” she wrote in a think-tank article. “That we cannot forget human rights just because we are talking to governments about commercial relations or energy links. Ethics are indivisible.”

Afghan unimpressed by Pakistan talk

Negotiators say they secured commitment from Islamabad to encourage insurgents to join talks.
Institute for War and Peace Reporting By Hafizullah Gardesh 23 Nov 2012
A visit to Pakistan by the Afghan body charged with talking to the Taleban has been hailed as a major step forwards towards ending the insurgency. But analysts in Afghanistan expressed grave reservations, saying the High Peace Council had achieved little at home, so the apparent breakthrough achieved in Islamabad was likely to prove illusory.

During a three-day visit ending on November 14, the High Peace Council delegation met Pakistan’s president, prime minister, foreign minister, the army’s chief of staff and

Upcoming facelift to Kabul streets

KABUL — On an ordinary weekday, the streets of Kabul are choked with traffic, fetid with clogged drains and crammed with carts displaying potatoes or used sweaters. Shoppers, school children and commuters on bicycles dodge and dart through the hazardous maze, often taking their lives in their hands.

As bad as that is, the ordeal just got much worse.
For the past two months, bulldozers and backhoes have been tearing up dozens of busy city streets, gouging deep gulches for new drainage pipes and dumping piles of gravel, dirt and tangled steel bars in the middle. Workmen swarm between lines of traffic, hopping in and out of ditches and shouting through the din.

Sri Lanka criticizes UN report

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s government has criticized a United Nations report on the conclusion of island’s civil war, saying the allegations against the government are “unsubstantiated and erroneous.”

In a response to an internal review of the world body released last week, the External Affairs ministry said Friday that the report “appears to be another attempt at castigating Sri Lanka for militarily defeating” the Tamil Tiger guerrillas, who fought for a separate state in the Indian ocean island nation.

Last surviving Mumbai attacker killed in India

India secretly hanged the lone survivor of the Pakistan-based militant squad responsible for a rampage through Mumbai that killed 166 people, sparking celebrations days before the fourth anniversary of the assault on the financial capital.
Pakistan national Mohammad Ajmal Kasab was the enduring image of the bloody assault, which traumatized India and raised fears of copycat attacks on foreign cities. Pictures of the boyish gunman wearing a black T-shirt and toting an AK-47 rifle as he strode through Mumbai's train station were published around the world.

Kasab was executed on Wednesday morning amid great secrecy, underscoring the political sensitivity of the November 26, 2008, massacre, which still casts a pall over relations between nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India.

Economic Problems in India

India's economic growth probably languished near a three-year low of 5.5 percent in the quarter that ended in September, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said on Saturday, a pace that will increase the pressure on the government to enact tough reforms.
Gross domestic product data for the July-September quarter is due on November 30.

A sub-6 percent growth rate, for the third quarter in a row, will add pressure on the government to boost economic activity by fast-tracking stalled tax and regulatory reforms. It will also bolster calls for an interest rate cut by the country's central bank, which has so far ruled out any before January, citing high inflation.

Taliban suicide bomber kills 23 in pakistan

ISLAMABAD - A Taliban suicide bomber struck a Shiite Muslim procession near Pakistan's capital, killing 23 people in the latest of a series of bombings targeting Shiites during the holiest month of the year for the sect, officials said Thursday.

The bomber attacked the procession around midnight Wednesday in the city of Rawalpindi, located next to the capital, Islamabad, said Deeba Shahnaz, a state rescue official. At least 62 people were wounded by the blast, including six policemen. Eight of the dead and wounded were children, the rescue official said.

Police tried to stop and search the bomber as he attempted to join the procession, but he ran past them and detonated his explosives, said senior police official Haseeb Shah. The attacker was also carrying grenades, some of which exploded, said Mr. Shah.

"I think the explosives combined with grenades caused the big loss," said Mr. Shah.

Iran criticizes Turkish request for Patriot missiles

BEIRUT — Iran lashed out at Turkey on Friday for requesting that NATO supply it with Patriot surface-to-air missiles to deploy along the border with Syria, denouncing the step by Ankara as counterproductive.
Iranian parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani made the remarks after a visit to Damascus, a show of support by Tehran to its increasingly diplomatically isolated ally.
‘‘The internal crisis in Syria cannot be solved through the deployment of such weapons,’’ Larijani, who is close to the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, said at a news conference in Beirut where he went after leaving Syria.
Turkey’s request earlier this week follows several incidents in which violence has spilled across the border from the civil war in Syria, frequently mortar rounds falling a short distance inside. Patriots would be useful in intercepting ballistic missiles — a much more serious but still hypothetical threat.

NATO said Wednesday it will consider the request ‘‘without delay.’’

How India mistreats Kashmir

Editor’s note: Kapil Komireddi is an Indian journalist. He has written from South Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. The views expressed are his own.

Returning home from a visit to Pakistan in 2009, I was invited to have tea with one of the Indian army officials stationed on the international border. Inside his office, I was introduced to another traveler, a middle-aged Kashmiri man who was also on his way back from Pakistan. The three of us spent the next two hours talking about Pakistan. I spoke fondly of Lahore, but the Kashmiri was full of scorn.
“Take my word on this, sir: Pakistan will break apart,” he told the officer. “They are all starving over there.” Later that day, on our way to Delhi, the Kashmiri

Asian shares rise on positive U.S. tone, yen slips

 TOKYO –  Asian shares rose on Monday, boosted by a positive tone in U.S. equities last week, while the yen fell to a near seven-month low against the dollar on expectations a new government after next month's election in Japan may deliver more stimulus.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS> was up 0.5 percent, recovering from a nine-week low marked on Friday.
Australian shares rose 0.6 percent while South Korean shares <.KS11> opened 0.5 percent higher.
Japan's Nikkei average <.N225>, which bucked the broad Asian downtrend on Friday and surged 2.2 percent to a two-week closing high, opened up 1.3 percent.
"The market bullish sentiment will continue today," said Takashi Hiroki, chief strategist at Monex Inc, adding that sentiment had changed as trading volume hit an eight-month

Asian factories perk up, U.S. shows improvement

NEW YORK/BEIJING –  Asia's large economies started to pick up steam last month after a year of slower growth, surveys showed on Thursday, while U.S. manufacturing showed modest improvement.

The jury was out on whether the data signaled sustained improvement in the fragile global economy, although analysts said strength in the United States and China, the world's two biggest economies, was essential to overall economic well-being.
That is particularly so at a time when a debt crisis in the 17-country euro zone has plunged several countries in the region into recession. Reports on major euro zone countries are due on Friday and expected to show continued economic contraction.
But the picture appeared to be brightening elsewhere.
The Institute for Supply Management said the pace of U.S. manufacturing growth picked up slightly in October, with its index rising to a five-month peak of 51.7. But hiring in the sector slowed.
A separate report from data firm Markit showed the slowest pace of growth in 37 months,

How India is treading its own path with Afghan ties

Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s visit this week to India highlighted the strengthening relationship between the two countries. While India has invested heavily in a range of development projects in Afghanistan since 2002, its emergence as a political player is relatively new, considering that as recently as January 2010, and under Pakistani pressure, India was excluded from a conference in Istanbul discussing security in Afghanistan. Deteriorating relations between the United States and Pakistan, and the subsequent announcement of 2014 as the year of “transition” changed the West’s attitude towards India’s role. By June of this year, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was urging India to play a more active role in Afghanistan.
While there had been speculation prior to Karzai’s India visit that the two countries would agree to scale up training of Afghan

Pakistan agrees to free ten Afghan Taliban

Islamabad prisoner release proposed in attempt to revive talks between Taliban and Kabul.

Pakistan has agreed to free several Afghan Taliban prisoners, officials from both countries said on Wednesday.

The talks between Pakistani diplomats and Afghan peace negotiators came as Salahuddin Rabbani, chair of the Afghan High Peace Council, is on a three-day visit to Islamabad. Rabbani's visit is seen as a bid to re-start the peace process, which has been stalling for more than a year. He is expected to meet Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and other high ranking officials.

The proposed prisoner release is the clearest sign that Pakistan will put its weight behind Afghan reconciliation efforts.

Afghan officials have long lobbied for the release of Taliban prisoners by Pakistan in the hope that direct contacts with top insurgent commanders could boost peace talks.

"We aren't too certain whether they can play an important role in peace negotiations but it is a positive gesture from Pakistan in helping peace efforts," an Afghan official told the Reuters news agency.

According to reports in the Dawn newspaper, it was unclear if

Death penalty request over Afghan massacre

US army prosecutors request court-martial and death penalty for Sergeant Robert Bales, accused of killing 16 villagers.

Army prosecutors have called for a US soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers to face a full court-martial and the death penalty.

Wrapping up their case in the pre-trial hearing, prosecutors described the "heinous and despicable" alleged massacre in March by Sergeant Robert Bales, details of which were given during an eight-day hearing at a military base south of Seattle.

"Based on the sheer brutality and nature of the crimes, it is our recommendation to proceed to a general court-martial," said prosecutor Major Rob Stelle at Joint Base Lewis-McChord outside Tacoma, Washington.

"Because of the heinous, brutal and methodical

Sri Lanka troops accused of prison 'massacre'

Opposition party demands independent inquiry into violence at country's largest prison that left 27 convicts dead.

Opposition party demands independent inquiry into violence at country's largest prison that left 27 convicts dead.

A soldier stands guard near prison in Sri Lanka following a weekend jail riot that killed 27 people. [AFP]

As government troops beef up security following a weekend jail riot, the country's main opposition has demanded an independent inquiry into the incident, which left 27 convicts dead. The United National Party (UNP) on Sunday called for a parliamentary investigation into the riot that erupted on Friday evening and carried on into Saturday morning at the maximum-security Welikada prison in the capital Colombo. "This is nothing but a massacre," UNP spokesman Mangala Samaraweera told the AFP news agency. "Most of the convicts appeared to have been killed