A fresh wave of violence blamed on political and ethnic tensions killed at least 12 people in Pakistan’s biggest city of Karachi overnight, officials said on Tuesday.

Pakistan’s military removed the chief of the paramilitary rangers on Tuesday over the filmed killing of an unarmed man in a public park that shocked the nation.

The Pakistan Government has formed a commission headed by a senior judge to investigate the abduction and killing of journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad, who went missing two days after he alleged the Navy had been infiltrated by Al Qaeda elements.

Pakistan’s refusal to the US to undertake joint military operations against Islamists can actually bring about a more meaningful bilateral cooperation, a newspaper said on Monday.

CIA Chief Leon Panetta held talks with top Pakistani military and intelligence officials and discussed ways to strengthen future intelligence sharing, the Pakistani military said.

Seeking a “quick” solution to Sri Lanka’s drawn out ethnic conflict, India on Saturday pressed the Mahinda Rajapaksa government to come to a “political arrangement” with the minority Tamils.

A petition has been filed in a Pakistani court to direct the government that President Asif Ali Zardari should not pardon Indian national Sarabjit Singh, currently on a death row following his conviction for alleged involvement in bomb attacks two decades ago.

CIA chief Leon Panetta arrived in the Pakistani capital on Saturday for talks with the country’s civilian and military leadership on the war on terror and US plans to cut troops in war-torn Afghanistan.

At least 16 people were killed in two separate bomb blasts in Afghanistan on Saturday, Xinhua reported quoting officials.

Pakistan and the US have resolved to ensure that Al Qaeda is “dismantled, disrupted and defeated”, though Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani wants a distinction to be made between the Taliban and Al Qaeda.