M A I N   N E W S

Bharat Shah arrested

MUMBAI, Jan 8 (PTI) — In a major development in the “Chori Chori Chupke Chupke” case diamond merchant and the film’s financier Bharat Shah was today arrested and remanded to police custody till January 18 by a special court here, sending shock waves in Bollywood and the Bombay Stock Exchange plunging 63 points.

Designated judge A.P. Bhangale rejected his plea for bail but allowed him to have home food subject to certain conditions.

The arrest comes in the wake of Shah moving a court and staking his claim on the negatives of the film, which have been seized by the police following the arrest of film’s producer Nazim Rizvi. Rizvi had allegedly acted as the front man of the underworld don and coerced leading stars to act in the film.

Shah has maintained that he had financed the film through recorded payments.

Meanwhile, the Mumbai police has found “concrete evidence” of diamond trader and film financier Bharat Shah’s “direct links” with underworld don Chhota Shakeel with the seizure of two tapes of conversation allegedly between the two, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal said today.

UJC terms for ceasefire

NEW DELHI, Jan 8 (UNI) — Pakistan-based United Jehad Council (UJC) has said it will agree to a ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir only if India accepts its three conditions.

A BBC (Urdu) correspondent reported from Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir last night that the three demands of the UJC were India’s reduction of troops in Jammu and Kashmir, release of all militants from jails and the inclusion of Kashmiri and Pakistani leaders in the negotiations.

The council also demanded that India should issue passports to all seven executive members of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference to visit Pakistan.

Earlier, when the Hizbul Mujahideen announced a unilateral ceasefire in July last year, the UJC not only rejected it but also expelled the outfit from the council.

The UJC had also rejected the Ramzan ceasefire, announced by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Indian envoy to meet Musharraf

ISLAMABAD, Jan 8 (UNI) — India’s High Commissioner, Vijay K. Nambiar, will meet Pakistan’s Chief Executive Gen Pervez Musharraf when the military ruler returns from the four-nation tour of the Middle East on Thursday.

In an interview to the daily ‘Jang’, Mr Nambiar, who returned from New Delhi recently, said a request for the meeting had been made to Pakistan’s Foreign Office.

General Musharraf, who is visiting Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, is to return to Islamabad on Thursday, three days before the start of the Hurriyat leaders’ proposed visit to Pakistan.

The Indian Government is yet to issue passports to six of the seven members of the Hurriyat Conference executive committee, who had applied for the travel documents to go to Pakistan.

Only Mr Omar Farroqi has so far received the documents.