Wednesday, February 13, 2002, Chandigarh, India
 Updated at 3:00 am (IST)

Flag marches in Punjab on poll eve
Chandigarh, February 12
Security forces and Punjab police personnel today staged flag marches in a number of townships and villages of Punjab falling in the highly sensitive constituencies of Tarn Taran, Patti, Valtoha and Naushera Pannua, Beas, Majitha, Ajnala, Batala, Moga, Baghapurana and Jandiala to instill confidence among the electorate on the poll eve.

Editorial: It’s voters’ day Trucks parked at the Fatehgarh Sahib polling material distribution centre to carry election material to different polling booths along with tight security on Tuesday. — Tribune photo Karam Singh

Order on voter I-card stayed
New Delhi, February 12
Staying the Allahabad High Court order allowing the casting of votes without any identity card, the Supreme Court today ordered that the Election Commission’s 18 alternative identity provisions to establish voter identity during the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections would stay valid.

• Sena-BJP emerge triumphant

Prime suspect in Pearl case held
Karachi, February 12
The Pakistani police has arrested the prime suspect in the case of kidnapping US reporter Daniel Pearl, British-born Islamic militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Pakistan’s state news agency APP reported today.

• Scribes protest kidnapping

E-mail points to Al-Qaida links
Ansari’s secret messages to Laden man found
New Delhi, February 12
Even as the CBI has asked two leading e-mail service providers, Yahoo.com and hotmail.com, to furnish the printouts of all e-mails sent by Aftab Ansari in the past one year, The Tribune today got an exclusive account of some of the damning e-mails which hint at his possible linkage with Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaida network.

• Ansari accomplice admits to giving money to ISI

APHC forms poll panel
Tapan Bose, Pak ex-Chief Justice are co-chairmen
Srinagar, February 12
Announcing the constitution of a parallel “election commission”, separatist Hurriyat Conference Chairman Abdul Ghani Bhat here today urged the Indian and Pakistan leaderships to play their role in the “democratic approach to resolve the Kashmir issue”.

• Hurriyat panel has ‘different’ purpose

FBI issues new terror warning
New York, February 12
The FBI has issued a warning to all law-enforcement agencies and the American public that a Yemeni man and several of his associates may be plotting a terrorist attack on US targets as early as today.

117 killed in Iranian plane crash
Teheran, February 12
All 117 persons on board an Iranian passenger plane were killed when the aircraft crashed into a mountain while trying to land in western Iran today, a government official said. “All 117 are dead,” said the official, declining to be identified. Those killed included four government officials and two foreigners.

Fresh summons to Badal in land-grab case
Bathinda, February 12
Chief Judicial Magistrate, Surinder Mohan, today issued fresh summons to Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, Science and Technology Minister, Mr Chiranji Lal Garg, and Mr Ajaib Singh Bhatti, Additional Chief Administrator, PUDA, in a civil suit filed against them in connection with the alleged grabbing of 400 acres, for securing their personal appearance on March 7. 

Avalanches threaten higher reaches in HP Shimla, February 12 Avalanches threaten the higher reaches in the tribal belt following a heavy snowfall in the hills of Himachal Pradesh early this morning. Shimla town had the season’s heaviest snowfall which was nearly 35 cm in the Jakhoo area. The snowfall, which started last evening, continued till early this morning covering the town with a thick white mantle.