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Saturday, July 27, 1998

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2 killed in Delhi bus blast
NEW DELHI, July 26 (PTI, UNI) — Two persons, including a woman, were killed and four injured in a powerful bomb explosion in a bus at the ISBT in North Delhi today, giving a blow to the city police which has been under severe criticism for the deteriorating law and order situation.
Rameshwari (65) of Faridabad and a hawker, Kasir Ahmed (25), who were seriously injured in the explosion, succumbed to their injuries at the Neurology ward of Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital this evening, doctors at the hospital said.
The blast occurred at 11.30 a.m. soon after the Haryana Roadways bus from Safidon near Panipat was parked in the terminus after dropping the passengers.
The explosive, suspected to be RDX and kept in the rear of the bus, also shattered glasspanes of five other buses parked nearby.
The injured included the driver of the bus, Bhim Sen, the conductor of another bus, Jai Bhagwan, Rameshwari’s son Ram Kishan and Sanjay (28) of Ambala.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Government, which has ordered a magisterial probe into the incident, announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 1 lakh each to next of kin of those killed and Rs 10,000 each to those injured.
The probe will be conducted by DCP (North) Jitender Narain with the assistance of DCP (North) S.N. Shrivastava and the report will be submitted within a fortnight.
"The blast was of high intensity and RDX material could have been used in the explosion," Joint Commissioner (northern range) S.S. Brar told PTI.
"We are in close contact with the Haryana Police", he added.
However, Central Forensic Scientific Laboratory Director S.R. Singh, who examined the site of the blast said though the blast was of high intensity, the exact nature of the explosion will be known only after tests. "We have taken samples and only tests will reveal the fact," he said.
Delhi Police Commissioner V.N. Singh, who also visited the spot, held a meeting with top police officials, including that of special branch, crime branch and the intelligence, to review the law and order situation.
He ordered intensified patrolling and tight vigil in all entry and exit points in the city and thorough screening of all inter-state buses at the border itself, police sources said.
Haryana Transport Minister Krishan Pal Gujjar who also visited the blast site and RML hospital said comprehensive guidelines for the conductors and drivers of Haryana Roadways were being issued to check the incidents of bomb blasts in the buses.
This was the third blast in the city this year. On January 9, 50 persons were injured in a blast near police headquarters while two were injured in another explosion at Kailash Colony in South Delhi on June 27.

India to bargain with USA
MANILA, July 26 (PTI) — India is expected to continue its hard bargaining with the USA on issues of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation as Prime Minister’s special emissary Jaswant Singh holds crucial talks with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) meeting commencing tomorrow.
The parleys assume significance as they come close on the heels of the third round of talks Mr Jaswant Singh had with US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott in Delhi on July 20 and 21.
Delhi has made it clear that it will not compromise on its security interests and has categorically ruled out any rollback of its nuclear weaponisation programme.
India has also voiced its stiff opposition to the USA and other western countries linking the Kashmir issue with the Pokhran nuclear tests.
Washington, which has announced a series of punitive steps against India, has insisted that Delhi should sign the comprehensive test-ban treaty without putting any conditions, a position termed as "unacceptable" by it.
Officials said the meeting between Mr Jaswant Singh and Albright, the second in recent months, would pave the ground for "clearer understanding" of each other’s concerns.
ASEAN members are under intense pressure from the USA, China and Australia to strongly condemn India at the ARF meeting for the nuclear tests and for "triggering" an arms race in the region.
Asked how India would respond to the USA and China raking up the issue of nuclear tests, Mr Jaswant Singh told Indian journalists here that Delhi has already made it clear that it was not interested in any nuclear arms race in the region.
As a step in this direction, India had offered to discuss a "no first-use" agreement with Pakistan as also with other countries bilaterally, he said.
Japan’s proposal for inviting Pakistan for the meeting to discuss the Indo-Pak nuclear tests had been rejected by a majority of ASEAN states who had opposed any move aimed at "India-bashing."
India had argued that the ARF should not adopt double standards as it had not reacted sharply to the nuclear tests conducted by China and France, contending that it should not do the same in the case of India also.
Albright, who arrived this afternoon, is slated to hold parleys with ASEAN leaders and also foreign ministers of dialogue partners of the grouping such as China, Japan and Russia.
Indications of the tough postures by Western countries at the meetings were given by Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer who said the "significant" issue of nuclear testing by India and Pakistan would figure prominently during the deliberations.

2 civilians killed in Pak firing
SRINAGAR, July 26 (PTI) — Two civilians were killed when Pakistani troops resorted to shelling in Teetwal and Keran sector of Kupwara district of north Kashmir last night, an official spokesman said here today.
The Pakistani troops also resorted to unprovoked firing at some places along the international border in Jammu division last night, forcing Indian troops to retaliate, he said.
The exchange of fire between the Pakistani and Indian troops continued till this morning but there was no casualty or damage from the Indian side, he said, adding that any casualty from the Pakistani side could not be ascertained.
He said the Pakistani troops, using light arms, opened intermittent fire on the Khora and Ballar outposts in Samba sub-sector and Nikowal post in Ranbir Singh Pora sub-sector yesterday. The Indian troops also retaliated.
BSF troops apprehended six nationals of Bangladesh at Bhula Chak post in R.S.Pura sub-sector last evening after they crossed over to India from Sialkot sector, a BSF spokesman said.
The army recovered three solar rockets from trees in the Balakote area of Poonch district, official sources said.
A rocket had exploded in the nearby field without causing any damage, the sources said, adding that militants had tied the rockets with the trees.
Meanwhile, eight persons, including six militants, were killed, 15 militants captured and six of their hideouts smashed since last evening.
Three persons were critically wounded, six shops and three vehicles damaged when an explosion ripped through a gas agency office in Rajouri, 477 km from here, today, an official spokesman said.
Five militants, including three mercenaries, were killed and another surrendered in two separate encounters with the security forces at Rashanpora and Arah Bahak-Lolab in the frontier district of Kupwara last night, he said.
Five AK assault rifles, a pistol, a wireless set, seven hand grenades and some ammunition were recovered from the killed militants, he said.
A militant was killed in an encounter with the security forces at Malpore in Badgam district of central Kashmir today, he said.
The spokesman said the police found the body of a person from Qazigund, 80 km from here, on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway in Anantnag district of south Kashmir today.
Another body was fished out from Nallah Phooru Kawhari village in Handwara in Kupwara district last night, he said.
He said Jammu and Kashmir police apprehended four persons, including a "guide", from a local hotel in Jammu.
A militant belonging to the Hizbul Mujahideen was arrested from Shamashwari last night. An AK assault rifle, one rocket projectile gun, a revolver and some rounds of ammunition were seized from him, he said.
Another self-styled battalion commander of the outfit was arrested at Acchru Nagbal in Anantnag, he said, adding that the rest of the nine militants were arrested from Srinagar, Kupwara, Poonch and Rajouri.
He said the security forces carried out searches in the Warsun forest area and Wuchhnar and Nutnusa in Kupwara and smashed militant hideouts which yielded four AK rifles, 11 magazines, 191 rounds of ammunition, a pistol, 10 rifle grenades, one rocket, six rocket projectile guns, two boosters, 15 kg of explosives, 10 detonators, 10 remote control devices, 10 mines and a wireless set.
The security forces also smashed a militant hideout at Kismar-Gali in Anantnag and recovered a point 12 bore SBBL gun and two hand grenades.
The police said a large quantity of explosives, including 6 kg of RDX with splinters, which were to be used against politicians and security personnel on the eve of Independence Day, was seized from a militant hideout here today.
A spokesman for the Special Operation Group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir police better known as the Task Force, said a militant hideout at Chhanpora in uptown Srinagar was raided and 6 kg of RDX, four detonators, a small gas cylinder, a stick grenade, an anti-pressure mine and some rounds of ammunition were seized.
He said militants of the Hizbul Mujahideen, who were using this hideout, have been identified and would be apprehended soon.
Jammu: Residents of Rajouri and Poonch districts in Jammu region are defying militants’ diktat and volunteering information to the police and the security forces about their activities, the police said.
"The success of our operations against the militants goes to the credit of the people of the twin districts of Rajouri and Poonch, who come forward to provide us information about Pakistan-backed militants and their activities,’’ IGP, (Jammu zone,) Kuldeep Khuda, said.
More than 30 militants, most of them foreign mercenaries, were killed in encounters with the security forces in Rajouri and Poonch districts during the past few months and operations were based on specific information provided by the dwellers, he said

N-blasts shadow Vajpayee, Sharif talks
From Shubhabrata Bhattacharya
Tribune News Service
COLOMBO, July 26 — The Sri Lankan capital is preparing to host a summit of the South-Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) under the shadow of the Pokhran and Chagai blasts.
The general provisions enshrined in the SAARC charter, which was adopted on December 8, 1985, in Dhaka, say that "bilateral and contentious issues are to be excluded from the deliberations". It is also laid down that "decisions at all levels are to be taken on the basis of unanimity".
While the summit itself may not be the occasion for bilateral squabbles, the focus will be on the meeting between Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan at the bilateral level.
Now that SAARC has two nuclear "haves" in its midst, the outcome of this meeting will cast a shadow on the summit itself.
From the indications available so far, neither India nor Pakistan are in a position to agree with each other. They can at best agree to disagree. And that by itself may be taken as a "forward movement" - at least Colombo will provide a forum for a dialogue.
In the meeting, scheduled for July 29, India will stress the virtues of bilateralism. Pakistan, on the other hand, is itching for internationalising the Kashmir issue. Egged on by its strategic ally, China, it is keen to have third party intervention in the Indo-Pakistan talks.
Thus, while India will try to reiterate its preference for bilateralism, Pakistan will have a no-holds-barred approach for discrediting the bilateral mechanism.
Thus, the very modality of Indo-Pak talks will be the first stumbling block which Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee and Mr Nawaz Sharif will have to overcome.
The current round of talks is taking place in the background of a letter written by Mr Vajpayee to Mr Sharif on June 14, after Pokhran-II and Chagai blasts, in which he reiterated India’s commitment fostering a peaceful and friendly relationship with Pakistan and developing a stable structure of cooperation between these two neighbours.
In his letter, Mr Vajpayee told his Pakistani counterpart that their presence at the Colombo summit would enable them to hold bilateral discussions on all issues of mutual interest and also to decide on how to proceed further with the dialogue process.
Mr Nawaz Sharif, in his reply of June 23, agreed with Mr Vajpayee’s suggestion to hold bilateral discussions during the SAARC summit.
There has been a gap of six months in meetings between the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan. In the past too multilateral events were used for holding bilateral meetings. This will be Mr Vajpayee’s first meeting with Mr Sharif. Last time the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan met was during the tenure of Mr I.K. Gujral who met Mr Nawaz Sharif in Dhaka in January 1998 (during the India-Pakistan-Bangladesh business summit). Earlier, Mr Gujral and Mr Sharif met in New York in September, 1997, (during the UN General Assembly session) and in Edinburgh in October, 1997 (during the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting).
During the bilateral meeting held between India and Pakistan Prime Ministers during the SAARC summit in Male on May 12, 1997, the revival of the hotline communication between the two Prime Ministers was agreed upon. Mr Gujral and Mr Sharif also agreed to hold Foreign Secretary-level talks in Islamabad which were held in June last year. That meeting issued a joint statement which identified eight sectors for discussions provided that a mechanism be set up for these discussions.
These included relaxation of visa regime, release of fishermen held by the two countries, and betterment of Indo-Pak trade. While India has granted the most favoured nation (MFN) status to Pakistan, the latter has not yet extended the MFN status to India. Pakistan restricts imports from India to 604 items.
With sanctions looming large over both the economies (and affecting Pakistan adversely) the SAARC summit could be an occasion for improving trade relations. Unofficial trade between India and Pakistan is estimated at around $ 1.5 billion annually.
India’s offer of discussing a no-first-use of weapons agreement with Pakistan will come up during the Vajpayee-Sharif talks. The resumption of the dialogue process between the two countries may see limited success in the economic field while the outcome of the political and diplomatic talks is anybody’s guess.

SAARC draft skirts N-issue
COLOMBO, July 26 (UNI) — The draft Colombo declaration of the SAARC summit skirts the explosive nuclear issue, even as it seeks to infuse renewed urgency to economic cooperation among the member states.
Though since its inception, the summit declarations have ritually called for nuclear disarmament and total elimination of nuclear weapons, the Colombo declaration, draft of which was seen by UNI, is silent on the issue.
The atomic tests by India and Pakistan have apparently created a serious dilemma for the officials who drafted the document as to how to address the issue.
But informed sources said the issue would most probably be incorporated in the final declaration, marrying the different perspectives of the member states, particularly the main players, India and Pakistan.
They said the issue would figure not only in the bilateral talks between Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and his Pakistan counterpart Mr Nawaz Sharif, but also during discussions among their talks with the other SAARC leaders.
It will be strange if the known stand of SAARC on disarmament suddenly does not find place in the Colombo declaration, particularly in the background of the atomic tests by India and Pakistan, one source said. The last summit in Male was held months before New Delhi and Pakistan carried out their tests.
The relevant chapter on disarmament in the Male declaration had stated "noting that the end of the cold war had created unprecedented opportunities in the field of disarmament, the heads of state of government recognised the need for the international community to pursue nuclear disarmament as a matter of highest priority."
"In this regard, they recognised the need to start negotiations through the conference on disarmament and to establish a phased programme for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons within a specified framework of time, including a nuclear weapons convention."
In fact, successive SAARC summits have supported the lofty ideal of nuclear disarmament.
Addressing a news conference on Friday, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar said though the nuclear tests were not on the agenda of the summit, it could figure during the discussions.
"I didn’t say the SAARC summit will avoid the nuclear issue. Whether it would be taken up or not is entirely up to the leaders," he said in response to a question.
"The obstacles and opportunities inherent in these fast evolving developments could best be met and the full potential of South Asia realised through effective, practical, regional integration as well as through continued bilateral cooperation among the member states," the draft declaration states.
It notes that the benefits of the liberalisation have been disappointingly "asymmetrical" with the process proceeding at much slower pace in areas of special interest to developing countries.
It says that the least developed countries have in particular been marginalised through a series of developments, including the shrinking of overseas donor assistance and concern about the erection of protectionist barriers and the tendency to impose arbitrary norms relating to labour conditions, environmental regulations, governance and other extraneous issues to regulate trade exchanges.
These would have the effect of restricting product access for developing countries into the markets of developed countries, it warns.
In this context, the draft declaration calls for collective strategies to promote a rule-based, non-discriminatory and equitable international trading system in which the interests and concerns of the developing countries would not suffer.
On the emerging issues relating to copyright, patents and marketing franchises, including foodgrains, plants and herbs indigenous to South Asia, the declaration calls for "firm, collective responses" to preserve the bio resources of the region from unregulated commercial exploitation by extra-regional interests.
According to the draft, the heads of state would see that potential efforts to formulate new multilateral investment agreement do not overlook the need to ensure the continued independence of developing countries to formulate specific investment policies.
In an obvious reference to the financial crisis in South East Asia, the draft declaration expresses concern about the shortcomings of the international monetary and financial system and their tardiness in anticipating impending financial market crises sufficiently in advance so that pre -emptive remedial action could be adopted.
The document also stresses the need to strengthen the individual financial systems of SAARC countries through enhancing institutional capacity, surveillance mechanism as well as through closer consultations on, and coordination of, macro-economic policies.
On the question of Sapta (South Asian Preferential Trade Agreement), the leaders are expected to decide to accelerate the progress in the next round of negotiations by extending deeper preferential tariff concessions to products which are being actively traded among the members.
They would also declare their decision to remove discriminatory practices, non-tariff barriers and structural impediments in trade. This would include items in respect of which tariff concessions have already been granted and rules of origin on the domestic content requirement.
The draft declaration says that the benefits of economic liberalisation would be more extensive and better balanced through the inclusion of trade-creating joint ventures,, investment and trade in-services such as tourism. The draft declaration also calls for strengthening regional cooperation and cultural unity and enhancing political cooperation among the member states. As a practical step towards making South Asia as a single telecommunication territory, the declaration calls for the implementation of the decision by the SAARC Communication Ministers recently to reduce the telecommunication tariffs to the lowest extent possible within the region during 1998.

40,000 brick-kilns face closure
By Sarbjit Singh
Tribune News Service
CHANDIGARH, July 26 — The sword of Damocles hangs over owners and workers of 40,000 brick-kilns as the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has proposed a ban on the excavation of top soil within a radius of 50 km from the coal-based thermal plants in the country.
In fact, the draft of the notification, which the central government proposes to issue in this connection, has been sent to all state governments and others concerned, inviting objections, if any, from the parties and persons to be affected.
While issuing the draft notification, the central government has stated that there is the need for restricting the excavation of top soil and promoting the utilisation of fly ash in the manufacture of building materials, construction activity and for other uses.
The operative part of the notification says: "No person shall excavate or cause to be excavated top soil within a radius of 50 km from coal or lignite-based thermal plants."
With the banning of the excavation of top soil, the brick-kilns falling within a radius of 50 km will have to stop their brick manufacturing activity. Brick-kiln owners allege that the notification was aimed at getting the brick-kilns closed to promote business interests of certain big industrialists engaged in the manufacture of building materials like cement, concrete, blocks, bricks, panels, etc from the fly ash available in coal-based power plants.
Mr Sahibjit Singh Sandhu, a spokesman of the Brick-Kilns Association, Punjab, and Mr Kuldeep Khanduja, vice-president of the All-India Brick-Kilns Association, said that with the issuing of the final notification the owners of about 80 per cent brick-kilns would have to stop the brick manufacturing activity.
They said that brick-kilns could not be relocated because of a heavy amount. They said that at least Rs 50 lakh was required to set up and operate a kiln. They alleged that as big industrialists wanted to monopolise the manufacture of construction material, they had succeeded in getting this proposed notification issued.
Thousands of labourers employed on kilns would become unemployed. Brick-kilns are a labour-intensive industry and each kiln provides direct and indirect employment to at least 500 persons.
Mr Sandhu said that the association would meet the Punjab Chief Minister soon to take up this issue with the Union Government. The All-India Brick-Kilns Association would meet the Union minister concerned, he added.