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Monday,
January 7, 2002, Chandigarh, India   
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A question mark on Musharraf’s future
Debris bares Pak ultras’
link with Al-Qaida India against terrorism, not Pak: Lalit Mansingh |
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Pak media smitten by handshake Islamabad, January 6 Pakistani newspapers today hailed President Pervez Musharraf’s friendly gesture of handshake with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee at the SAARC summit in Kathmandu and criticised the Indian leadership for not positively responding to it.
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A question mark on Musharraf’s future AS the crisis in South Asia involving India and Pakistan continues to hog western media attention, one analyst has come out with the prediction that the days of President Musharraf are numbered. Mr Simon Henderson a London-based adjunct scholar of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, writing in the Los Angeles Times, says that confronting India to liberate the Muslims of the divided state of Kashmir is a basic ethos of the Pakistani army. Before September 11, supporting the Taliban had ensured that Pakistani rather than Indian influence was dominant in Afghanistan. “Since General Musharraf is now tainted with failure, his brother officers are almost certainly already selecting his replacement from among their ranks,” Mr Henderson adds. In his view, unless Pakistan’s current thinking can be changed, the next leader has a single card to play and only a short window of opportunity in which to play it. Mr Henderson, who has written extensively on Pakistan’s nuclear policy, has an interesting theory about Pakistan’s nuclear status. According to him, the US Government knows, but is careful not to say, that Pakistan’s small arsenal of atomic bombs is superior in design and efficiency to India’s. Pakistan’s Hiroshima-size bombs will work while India’s might perform disappointingly, as did the bomb it tested in 1998. Furthermore, Pakistan’s missiles work better than the Indian equivalent. Mr Henderson says Pakistan achieved this temporary advantage by, from India’s perspective, cheating. While India took pride in the largely indigenous development of nuclear weapons and missiles, Pakistan struck nuclear deals with China and arranged missile sales from North Korea (probably just for money). According to the columnist, the USA may have to acquiesce in the emergence of yet another military leader in Pakistan. “General Musharraf no longer has the standing to offer concessions in the talks with India that he is seeking. Combined with a more constructive policy on Kashmir by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, tension can be eased, giving time for the Afghanistan campaign to finish. India and Pakistan must be persuaded that their conflict is not a zero-sum game.” Another commentary in The Washington Times refers to the very different nuclear postures of India and Pakistan, pointing out that India is committed to a no first-use policy, while Pakistan is unwilling to subscribe to a no-first-use doctrine. The commentator, Mohammed Ayoob, Professor of international relations at Michigan State University, suggests that the only way to make South Asia and the world safe (from a nuclear catastrophe) is for the USA to have a strategy in place to forcibly decimate Pakistan’s rudimentary capability if the crisis worsens to a point where war becomes inevitable. “The existence of such a contingency plan and the sending of clear signals to Islamabad that it may be put into operation should be enough to persuade Pakistan to reverse course, both in terms of nuclear bravado and its support for terrorism in Kashmir.” |
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Debris bares Pak ultras’ link with Al-Qaida
Rishkor-Kargah (South Afghanistan), January 6 The two Al-Qaida training centres, about 15 km south of Kabul, and nearly a 30-minute drive from each other, could accommodate more than 6,000 trainees at a time who were taught the handling of tanks, grenade launchers, rocket-propelled grenades and explosives. Clinching evidence could be gathered from the debris of the camps after the US bombing. Although some important papers were already taken by security forces after the US bombing, some of the evidence was still left behind in the debris. Among these was a letter from an activist of the Harkat-ul-Jehad-el-Islami, which has its headquarters in Islamabad (P.O. box 1796, GPO, Islamabad). It exhorts the addressee to obey the Amir (Mullah Omar). The letter written in Urdu by Mian Zulfiqar Adil Rehmani on March 19, 2001 to Haji Inayatullah Rehman who was undergoing training in Rishkor, said “You are a lucky man that for a long time you have been working for upholding religion and fighting on the front. The most important thing is that you are working under the Amir (Mullah Omar).” An identity card issued by the Pakistan Government to Mohammed Rashid, son of Resham Khan, which was recovered from the debris, also reveals Pakistan’s link. The holder of the card was in all possibility killed in the US bombing, according to Commander Popal of the Northern Alliance (NA) who is in charge of the security around the destroyed Al-Qaida centres. A lengthy handwritten note, dated September 29, giving details of the arms and ammunition, reveals that thousands of AK-47 and Kalashnikovs of Chinese and Egyptian make, were hidden in Khandak Abu Bakr. Commander Popal said there was enough evidence to suggest that many people from Pakistan were trained for terrorist acts in Jammu and Kashmir. He said the NA men had come across many documents which proved that Lashkar-e-Toiba and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen men came to these camps from Pakistan, stayed for about three months and received training in handling of arms and ammunition, and went to various other places, including Jammu and Kashmir.
UNI |
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India against terrorism, not Pak: Lalit Mansingh Washington, January 6 He said both Washington and New Delhi were asking the same thing of Islamabad — ‘end terrorism from its territory.’ Appearing on the Fox news last night, Mr Mansingh pointed out that the USA itself had taken meaningful action by declaring many of the Pakistan-based groups engaged in terrorism as “Foreign terrorist organisations.” To a question, he said the long-term solution for Kashmir was to get rid of terrorism and then take care of the problems of the people through democracy. India is the world’s largest democracy “and we don’t see why democracy cannot find a solution to what the people want.” At present, he said, what the people want was being obstructed by terrorists who were going around killing innocent people. Asked whether he expected war between India and Pakistan, Mansingh said: “Certainly not.” He said India is not against Pakistan; she is against terrorism. If Pakistan cooperates in closing down the terrorist nests in Pakistan, there is no reason for any other measure to be taken. Asked what evidence India has for asserting that Pakistan be blamed for the attack on Parliament, Mansingh pointed out: “we have five dead Pakistanis on our hands. The two organisations responsible for the attack are based in Pakistan. So it is obvious Pakistan has to take responsibility for this.” Pakistan, Mr Mansingh said, has been harbouring terrorist groups for the last 15 years. The terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir is being engaged in by groups based in Pakistan. They are harboured and sheltered there. “We don’t want war,” he said. “We are trying diplomatic options. We have urged Pakistan, just as President Bush has done, to take decisive, meaningful steps to eliminate terrorism in Pakistan.” He said what Pakistan had done so far in that regard, was not enough. The UN Security Council in its resolution of September 28 called for the freezing of the assets of these organisations. The Pakistan Government gave them three months’ notice before taking any action. “Let us see whether there are any assets in the bank accounts” after this time lag,” he said Mansingh said Pakistan claimed to have arrested 20 terrorists or extremists. “We do not know who these 20 are, and we don’t know what action has been taken against them.” “We only know they have been detained under certain Pakistani laws. We have yet to see whether any meaningful action has been taken to smash the terrorist groups there. What we have seen so far is just band aid” not serious action.
PTI |
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Pak media smitten by handshake
Islamabad, January 6 While almost all newspapers here headlined General Musharraf’s gesture of extending a hand of friendship to India along with pictures of him shaking hands with Mr Vajpayee, the Nation, in its editorial, said the event appeared to be an opportunity lost as India spurned it. It said while many countries were trying to end the stand-off between India and Pakistan, Mr Vajpayee spurned the latest friendly gesture of General Musharraf. “This is another proof of India’s obduracy which is fast pushing South Asia to the brink of war, the daily commented. It said expectations were that Mr Vajpayee would reciprocate in the same friendly spirit but the subsequent speech of the Indian Prime Minister showed that India was not ready to budge from its “belligerent posture”. The newspapers said General Musharraf and Mr Vajpayee also met briefly and termed the meeting as a major breakthrough. The Dawn described General Musharraf’s gesture as command performance by the General laced with humility, eloquence, fair play and a firm resolve to seek peace with dignity. In contrast, the newspaper said, Mr Vajpayee’s response came as a damper but still Pakistani officials felt that the Indian Prime Minister’s speech had elements that were positive albeit revealed a bit grudgingly. The daily said the Pakistan President’s criticism of SAARC’s functioning appeared to have got the support of everyone except India and
Bhutan. PTI |
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Youth flies plane into building, dies Tampa, January 6 The pilot of the single-engine Cessna 172 was killed. But nobody else was hurt in an incident that — with its image of an aircraft lodged high in an office building — was a grim reminder of the September 11 hijacked aircraft attacks on New York and Washington. But officials said there was no indication of terrorism. Homeland security chief Tom Ridge was in touch with White House staff and President George W. Bush was briefed on the Tampa crash and two other small plane crashes yesterday — outside Los Angeles and Boulder, Colorado, said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. “None of these incidents appear to be related and there’s no indication of terrorism,” he said. The youth in the Tampa crash, Charles Bishop, was dropped off for a flying lesson by his grandmother at the St. Petersburg Clearwater airport, about 30 km from Tampa, said Pinellas County Sheriff’s spokesman, Sgt. Greg Tita. Bishop had a practice flight scheduled with his instructor on the single-engine four-seater Cessna, but took off alone when the instructor walked away after telling him to do a pre-flight check, Tita said. The airport notified the Coast Guard, which had a patrol helicopter try to signal the plane to land. Bishop died when the plane crashed into the 28th floor of the Bank of America building, said Tampa Police Department spokesman Joe Durkin. Tita said Bishop, a ninth grade honours student at East Lake High School, was from nearby Palm Harbour. There was no word on the youth’s motives for flying off with the plane and it was not yet known whether he deliberately flew it into the building or could not avoid hitting it. He had been learning to fly for some time but was not authorised to fly by himself, officials said. Bishop’s relatives and officials at the flight school were being interviewed last evening by FBI agents and other federal officials.
Reuters |
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