M A I N   N E W S

Mine blasts kill 16 Pak soldiers

Jaisalmer, February 17
More than 16 Pakistani soldiers have been killed and several injured in four landmine blasts near the Bikaner and Sriganganagar border, sources today said.

All four blasts took place yesterday and Pakistani ambulances were seen shifting the dead, the sources added. Two mine blasts in front of the BSF outpost on the Indo-Pak border in Bikaner district on Saturday morning left three soldiers dead.

Another explosion in the vicinity of Sriganganagar last evening saw four soldiers being killed and many wounded. Also, more than nine soldiers perished and several sustained injuries in a third blast last night, the sources added. UNI

Pak scientists want nod to testfire Shaheen II

Islamabad February 17
Pakistani scientists are reportedly seeking permission from the government to test-fire long-range nuclear missile Shaheen-II in retaliation to the recent testfiring of Agni-II by India.

The scientists told the government that experimental test of Shaheen-II, Pakistan’s long-range missile capable of carrying one tonne nuclear warhead, was very much necessary to conclusively test its parameters, Urdu daily ‘Jang’ today reported quoting officials as saying.

The test would help accelerate the production of this missile for defence purposes, it said.

Shaheen-II has a range of 2,500 km and is ready for testfiring. The missile works on solid fuel and has the ability to hit its targets in less than 12 minutes, it said. PTI

Pakistan defence spending up

Islamabad, February 17
Pakistan has announced an increase in defence expenditure for the current fiscal year, approved by the International Monetary Fund, and said it would charge the USA about $ 60 million a month for logistical support provided to American forces.

“The IMF has agreed to allow Pakistan an increase in defence allocation in the current financial year and the government is not going to charge any war-related tax as our economy has the potential to absorb it”, Finance Minister Shoukat Aziz told reporters here yesterday after a trip to Washington.

Mr Aziz declined to reveal the details of the hike but he said the IMF had agreed to revise the budget deficit target from 5.3 per cent to 5.7 per cent of the GDP.

The unspecified increase is significant because Pakistan had in the last budget for the first time announced a reduction in defence allocation.

The defence expenditure in the budget for 2001-2002 was pegged at Rs 131.63 billion against Rs 133.49 billion for the previous year.

“We will bill them monthly for certain things under the ACSA (Acquisition and Cross Services Agreement),” Mr Aziz said.

“The total amount due from them, including the backlog as of today, is around $ 300 million,” he said.

Pakistan would charge for fuel, food, water, transportation, medical services, repairs and other services provided to US forces, who had been engaged in Afghanistan since early October. PTI, AFP

Pearl’s kidnappers on move: Pak
Hunt continues in eastern province

Karachi, February 17
The Pakistani police said it was combing the eastern province of Punjab today for a man they suspect of playing a key role in the kidnapping of US reporter Daniel Pearl more than three weeks ago.

Known to Pearl under the alias Imtiaz Siddiqui, a senior Punjab police officer said the suspect had been identified as Amjad Hussain, a man who also used a variety of other names.

“The main one is Amjad. This will help us trace his whereabouts,’’ the official told Reuters. “We think Amjad has kidnapped him.’’

He added that Amjad’s two brothers — Amir and Javed Hussein —had been detained in the southern Punjab settlement of Chak 27GB 125 km east of Multan, and the police had also detained the relatives of several of Amjad’s associates.

The Pakistani police often detains relatives to put pressure on their quarry.

The police believes Amjad kidnapped Pearl in Karachi on January 23 in a plot masterminded by British-born Islamic militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who is now in police custody.

A senior official close to the investigation said the kidnap gang had been identified but they were proving elusive.

“We know they are very trained and tough guys,’’ he said. “They are on move...continuously moving from one location to another. It can take some time to hunt them down.’’

Before he disappeared, Pearl was working on a story about possible links between alleged shoe bomber Briton Richard Reid and Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaida network.

The precise motive for his kidnapping remains unclear but it appears to have been a protest at the US war in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s support for that effort. The police believes they are hot on Amjad’s heels, and are now trying to close down his escape routes.

“We have heightened vigilance at all entry and exit points of Punjab,’’ an intelligence source told Reuters. “Cars and vehicles are being thoroughly searched at these points.

“We are concentrating on southern Punjab because Amjad and his colleagues belong to this area,’’ he said.

The man using the name of Siddiqui phoned Pearl twice just before he disappeared, according to Jameel Yusuf, the head of the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee, who was with Pearl when he took the calls. Reuters