Flashback May 4: Prayers for Bin Laden, Tata Nano for Pakistan

On this date, Faisal Shahzad, the Tata Nano and an Indian spy dominate news.

Flashback is an experimental feature looking back at the top articles on this date featured on The Express Tribune website.

May 4, 2011

Lawyers denounce bin Laden killing

Groups of lawyers on Wednesday held protests over the US killing of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, denouncing America and saying prayers for their “hero”.

About 70 lawyers staged a rally in Abbottabad, condemning the US operation in their city, witnesses said.

Crossing borders : World’s cheapest car to be launched in Pakistan

Tata Nano, the world’s cheapest car, will be assembled and sold in Pakistan after business groups of Pakistan and India have completed initial talks to bring the car across the border.

IMGC Global chairman Shaikh Amjad Rashid told The Express Tribune that his group with an initial investment of $10 million will assemble the low-priced Nano in Pakistan amid coordination with Tata Group of India.

May 4, 2010

The hunt for Faisal Shahzad

Baharul Haque, a former vice air marshal with the Pakistan Airforce has been identified as the father of NY car bomb suspect Faisal Shahzad.

Meanwhile, in the US, prosecutors have formally filed terrorism charges against Shahzad. The 10-page criminal complaint accuses Shahzad of five charges, including that of attempting “to use a weapon of mass destruction” to kill people in the crowded centre of New York on Saturday.

An Indian spy in Pakistan

Columnist Farzana Versey critiques the arrest of Madhuri Gupta.

Is it just a fantasy to portray Madhuri Gupta as a hysterically vengeful mole? One has to be particularly naive to believe that spies can compromise a nation’s security, especially in a world of hackers and satellites that can count the number of hair in a politician’s ears. Opinion pieces and reports on the Indian diplomat’s case have been chauvinistic, besides being fairly lame.