M A I N   N E W S

Jaish dangerous outfit
We’ll act if govts fail to curb terrorism, says Bush
T.V. Parasuram

President Bush delivers his State of the Union Address on Capitol Hill. Vice President Dick Cheney, left, and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R,-Ill, look on. — AP/PTI photo

Washington, January 30
Characterising the Jaish-e-Mohammad, responsible for terrorist attacks in India, including one on Parliament House, as one of the most dangerous terrorist outfits in the world, President George W. Bush today warned governments timid in the face of terrorism that the USA would “act” should they fail.

“Some governments will be timid in the face of terror. And make no mistake: If they do not act, America will,” Mr Bush said in his first State of the Union Address to a joint session of Congress. “Our military,” he said, “has put the terror training camps of Afghanistan out of business, yet camps still exist in at least 12 countries.

“A terrorist underworld, including groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jehad and the Jaish-e-Mohammad, operates in remote jungles and deserts, and hides in the centres of large cities.

“My hope is that all nations will heed our call and eliminate the terrorist parasites who threaten their countries and our own”, he said.

Mr Bush praised Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, who has been the target of intense pressure since the September 11 attacks on the USA, for cracking down on terror groups.

The US President said the USA was working with India, Russia and China “in ways we never have before to achieve peace and prosperity”.

Mr Bush warned that thousands of “dangerous killers”, schooled in the methods of murder, were spread throughout the world like “time bombs — set to go off without warning” despite successes in the US-led war against terror. “These enemies view the entire world as a battlefield, and we must pursue them wherever they are.

“In this moment of opportunity, a common danger is erasing old rivalries,” Mr Bush said.

“Together with friends and allies from Europe to Asia, from Africa to Latin America, we will demonstrate that the forces of terror cannot stop the momentum of freedom.”

Mr Bush said the USA would continue to be steadfast patient, and persistent in the pursuit of shutting down terrorist camps, disrupting terrorist plans, and bringing terrorists to justice.

Singling out Iran, Iraq and North Korea as “an axis of evil”, he said, “We must prevent the terrorists and regimes which seek chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons from threatening the USA and the world”.

Mr Bush said the USA would not permit the world’s most dangerous regimes to “threaten us with the most destructive weapons.”

“Our war on terror is well begun, but it is only begun. This campaign may not be finished on our watch... yet it must be and will be waged on our watch,” he added. PTI

No withdrawal of troops from border: PM
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 30
The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee today ruled out any immediate move from his government for the de-escalation of tension along borders with Pakistan by recalling troops to their peacetime locations.

“There is no such proposal at this juncture (abhi aisa vichar nehin hai)”, Mr Vajpayee told reporters here when asked if there was any move to withdraw or reduce troops deployed on the borders.

Mr Vajpayee called upon Pakistan to translate its promises on crack down on terrorism into action when he said.

Asked to comment on reports of resignation of Jharkhand Governor Prabhat Kumar, Mr Vajpayee declined to refuse or confirm such reports.

Advani’s name to be on Pak wanted list?

Islamabad, January 30
In a curious development, a Pakistan newspaper has said that Home Minister L. K. Advani will be among the names on the list of "criminals" it would seek from India and the Pakistan Foreign Office chose to say it was trying to ascertain the veracity of the report.

Hours after the report appeared in a national newspaper, The News, that Pakistan would ask for Mr Advani in connection with a case of an alleged assassination attempt on Muhammad Ali Jinnah and some others in 1947, Pakistan Foreign Office issued a press note about the item and said the veracity of the report was being ascertained.

It said the Foreign Office would not be in a position to make any comment on the subject before "the facts of the news story have been fully looked into".

The newspaper report, quoting unnamed sources, said an FIR was registered in September 10, 1947, by the Station House Officer of Jamshed Quarters against 18 persons for hatching a conspiracy to assassinate Jinnah, who was the then Governor General along with former Prime Minister Liaqat Ali Khan, Khwaja Nazamuddin and other top leaders of Pakistan.

The police could arrest only six wanted persons, while the remaining 12 accused, including Mr Advani, were declared absconding, it said. Those arrested, including Khan Chand, Nand Ram, Gobind, Hargobind, Santo and Tayken Das, were subsequently tried and convicted by the trial court in this case. They were awarded different penalties by the court, it said.

The case remained dormant against the remaining 12 accused. Later, an agreement had been reached between India and Pakistan under which six convicts were extradited to India on September, 19, 1948.

NEW DELHI: India on Wednesday dismissed as "juvenile posturing" by Islamabad a Pakistani newspaper report that Mr Advani will be in the list of "criminals" Pakistan would like India to hand over to it.

"If true, such reports are suggestive of little more than juvenile posturing by Pakistan," an External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said in response to a question on a report in the Pakistani daily.

It may be recalled that Mr Advani was a guest of the Pakistan Government when he had visited that country as Information and Broadcasting Minister in the late '70s. PTI

When Pervez almost quit

New Delhi, January 30
Pakistan’s Jamaat-e-Islami has claimed President Pervez Musharraf had threatened to quit three days ahead of his January 12 address in the face of vehement opposition by military commanders to his stand on terrorism, Indo-Pak relations and the Kashmir issue.

“There was a crisis-like situation at the General Headquarters (GHQ) as President Musharraf was faced with resistance from corps commanders on the steps he was about to announce in the speech because of their reservations with regard to the Kashmir issue and India,” the special issue of Jamaat mouthpiece ‘Jasarat’ said.

“These differences reached such an extent that President Musharraf even threatened to resign,” the article said.

It said “the corps commanders accepted President Musharraf’s decision after his threat of resignation” and added that the January 12 speech, in which he promised action against terrorist outfits among other things, “was recorded and edited” by the commanders and then telecast.

Admitting that all militant outfits barring the Tehrik-e-Nifas-e-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM) had links with Pakistan’s intelligence agencies, the article said top brass of the armed forces feared that the role of the ISI would be exposed if President Musharraf acted against these outfits.

The article named outfits like the Sipah-e-Sahaba, Sipah-e-Muhammadi, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Fiqa Jafferia, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad saying these were the “brainchild of the ISI”.

“These militant outfits were formed in the name of so-called national interests and to weaken religious parties and tarnish their image as well,” it said.

“The intelligence agencies supplied arms, resources and power to the banned parties and used them against each other. Governments provided Kalashnikovs, big headquarters, Pajeros and unlimited funds to them,” the ‘Jasarat’ magazine said.

It said President Musharraf “after fanning sectarianism and extremism, attacking of imam dargahs and masjids and perpetrating bloodshed by these outfits, held religious parties fully responsible for these acts”.

Despite the presence of “strong and large indigenous militant outfits in Kashmir, not only Pakistani groups were raised but their operations were also presented in an exaggerated manner .... (thereby) damaging Kashmir jihad”. PTI, UNI