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Friday,
January 25, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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India gives proof of ultras hiding in Pak India ‘protests’ to UK, USA |
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Hole in US air security
No US pressure on Phalcon sale |
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Iraq violating
N-treaty: USA Palestinians bury four,
vow revenge Half of Afghans paid
salary Quattrocchi seeks
return of passport
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India gives proof of ultras hiding in Pak Islamabad, January 24 The evidence relating to the 20, provided by India on January 18 to the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, included case sheets along with Red Corner notices from Interpol with two paged covering letter seeking arrest as well as request to hand them over to India. The case sheets also indicate that the Indian Government had made some requests for extradition to the UAE Government for these alleged criminals and terrorists, it said. The two-page letter begins with pleasantries such as “Government of India presents its compliments to the High Commission of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in New Delhi and has the honour to recall that from time to time, details of fugitives from law residing in Pakistan and wanted in connection with crimes committed in India, including those who were involved in the Mumbai bomb blasts of 1993 and the hijacking of IC 814 to Kandahar in December 1999, have been provided by the Government of India to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.” The letter further said “On December 31, 2001, India again handed over to Pakistan details of 20 fugitives wanted in connection with various crimes committed here. Fifteen of these fugitives have Interpol Red Corner notices issued against them. For the remaining five, the issue of Interpol Red Corner notices is in process”. The letter in the form of clarification said “According to Interpol norms, resolutions, decisions and procedures, red notices are documents intended for both the police and judicial authorities and can be considered valid requests for provisional arrest because they only issued on the basis of valid national arrest warrants”. It mentioned about the 1989 agreement between the Director of the CBI and the Director-General of Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to cooperate and work together in cases of this nature. The agreement specifically provides for the FIA in Pakistan and the CBI in India to act as nodal agencies in their respective countries to locate and trace out fugitives and to arrange handing over such wanted and absconding criminals to their respective counterpart without going through cumbersome and time consuming procedures, the letter said. Pakistan today said it is in the process of locating 14 Indian nationals figuring in the list of 20 criminals and terrorists wanted by India. On Islamabad’s reported counter-move to provide New Delhi with its own list of alleged criminals and terrorists in India, defence spokesman Rashid Qureshi said “We were told by the Indian Government that there existed no extradition treaty between the two countries, therefore nobody could be extradited to Pakistan.”
PTI |
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FBI chief meets Pervez Islamabad, January 24 Mr Mueller, who arrived here today from New Delhi, in his meeting with General Musharraf appreciated the role played by Pakistan in fighting terrorism in Afghanistan and discussed steps being taken by Islamabad following the military ruler’s January 12 speech in which he banned five militant outfits, media reports said. General Musharraf reportedly reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to fight terrorism in all forms and manifestations.
PTI |
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India ‘protests’ to UK, USA New York, January 24 Diplomatic notes protesting the airlift were sent to Britain and the USA. Neither responded, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh quoted Mr Mishra as saying in an article in New Yorker magazine. Mr Mishra said 5,000 Pakistanis and Taliban fighters were airlifted by Pakistan after the fall of Kunduz, describing it as “a ballpark figure.” He was quoted as saying that the Indian intelligence was convinced that many of the airlifted fighters would soon infiltrate into Kashmir. There was a precedent for this. In the past, Pakistan’s ISI had trained fighters in Afghanistan and then funnelled them into Kashmir. Referring to the December 13 Parliament attack, which took place three weeks after the airlift, Mr Mishra said if it had resulted in a more significant number of casualties “there would have been mayhem.” “Nobody in India wants war, but other options are not ruled out,” Mr Mishra said. The article quotes one of India’s “most senior intelligence officials” as saying that Pakistan President Pervez “Musharraf can’t afford to keep the Taliban in Pakistan. They’re dangerous to his own regime. Our reading is the fighters can go only to Kashmir.” The USA had denied reports of the airlift but the article quotes its intelligence and military officials as saying they indeed took place at General Musharraf’s instance. The article says operatives in RAW reported extensively on the Pakistani airlift out of Kunduz. RAW, it says, has excellent access to the Northern Alliance and a highly sophisticated ability to intercept electronic communications. An Indian military adviser was quoted as saying that when the airlift began “we knew within minutes.”
PTI |
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Hole in US air security Washington, January 24 Transportation Department Inspector General Kenneth Mead and several members of the Congress said at a House of Representatives aviation subcommittee hearing that the Transportation Department did not go far enough with its frontline security initiative by requiring airlines to only match passengers with their bags on originating flights — and not connecting ones. “This is unacceptable,’’ Representative James Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat, told John Magaw, the administration’s new transportation security chief. The checked baggage security programme began last Friday with airlines applying an array of strategies designed to make flying more secure and allay passenger fears about the safety of air travel after the September 11 hijack attacks. Carriers utilised a limited menu of screening techniques for explosives, including bomb-sniffing dogs, bomb detection machines, and hand searches by security personnel. The predominant feature of the programme, however, was bag matching. It was not meant to screen for explosives or weapons, but to possibly prevent the bombing of an airliner by someone who did not get on board.
Reuters |
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No US pressure on Phalcon sale Tel Aviv, January 24 “I do not see any problem with the Phalcon,” Israeli Defence Ministry Director-General Amos Yaron told a group of visiting Indian journalists here.
PTI |
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Iraq violating N-treaty: USA Washington, January 24 In a speech to the Geneva-based conference on disarmament, Undersecretary of State John Bolton vowed that Washington would use “every method at our disposal” to ensure terrorists do not acquire weapons of mass destruction after the September 11 attacks. The conference should also make this a priority, he said. In particular, Mr Bolton accused Iraq and North Korea of violating the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and interfering with monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Conspicuous by its absence was any specific reference in the speech to Iran, which the USA has accused of trying to acquire nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. The Bush administration has urged Russia to end its nuclear technology relationship with Iran but Mr Bolton’s speech avoided any direct finger-pointing at Moscow in this regard. He expressed alarm at the continuing spread of chemical weapons technology. Reuters |
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Palestinians bury four, vow revenge Jerusalem, January 24 With tensions and violence rising, the US ambassador to Israel called on Israelis and Palestinians to urge their governments to work for peace. Palestinian militants and mainstream activists marched together in a funeral procession in Nablus, burying the dead from Israel’s raid on a bomb factory a day earlier. Four Hamas activists were killed. The Israeli army commander in the West Bank said it was the biggest bomb factory ever uncovered, and the military displayed the range of explosives and timing devices found in the Nablus apartment. More than 15,000 persons marched in the funeral, led by activists from Hamas and the Al Aqsa brigades, a militia linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement.
AP |
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Half of Afghans paid salary Kabul, January 24 Fourteen of the 30 ministries in Kabul’s post-Taliban administration have now paid out one month’s salary to their staff, UN spokesman Jordan Dey told journalists yesterday. “Another 12 are expected to be paid tomorrow,” he added. The former Taliban government, swept from Kabul last November by US air strikes and by opposition forces on the ground, had stopped paying salaries in its last four months in power. The six-month interim government, whose forces entered Kabul in mid-November and which formally took power one month ago, had had to drum up $ 8 million to pay just one month’s salary to civil servants. The United Nations, which helped create the government, has promised to make a similar amount available and provide tens of millions more dollars to cover the previous five months of back pay, including to the military, according to the central bank official Abdul Qadir Fitrat. “Literally, this $ 8 million comes from the government budget which we managed to find with great difficulty,” he said. Most of the $ 8 million will be distributed among 19,000 government employees in Kabul while money for the provinces will be sent under armed guard by planes or overland if necessary.
Reuters |
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Quattrocchi seeks
return of passport Kuala Lumpur, January 24 Ottavio Quattrocchi, accused of taking kickbacks in India’s purchase of arms from Swedish artillery company Bofors in 1986, will seek his travel document from the Kuala Lumpur High Court next Monday.
Reuters |
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