PRESS DIGEST - Pakistani Newspapers - Oct 12

These are the leading stories in Pakistan's newspapers on Monday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy:

DAWN

-- A pre-dawn raid by a crack commando squad of the army's Special Services Group on an intelligence building brought to an end traumatic hostage saga that began after a Saturday's militant attack on army's headquarters.

-- The United States took the lead in assuring the world that the militant attack on the army's headquarters posed no threat to the Pakistani state which was not only capable of defending its nuclear weapons but also of defeating the terrorists.

THE NEWS

-- The siege of the army's headquarters came to an end in early hours of Saturday after army commandos stormed the building, rescuing 39 hostages and killing four militants.

-- Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi leaves for Washington to apprise the Obama administration of Pakistan's government's point of view and people's reservations on the Kerry-Lugar Bill, the paper said quoting a private news channel.

DAILY TIMES

-- A long-planned operation to flush out the Taliban and al Qaeda from South Waziristan is imminent, Interior Minister Rehman Malik told Reuters in an interview in Singapore.