M A I N   N E W S

India rejects Pak extradition treaty offer
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 11
India today dismissed Pakistan’s offer to have an extradition treaty as “yet another delaying tactic” on the Indian list of 20 fugitives.

New Delhi also rejected Islamabad’s another proposal for signing an agreement to the effect that the two neighbours do not use their territories for cross-border terrorist activities against each other.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs made these remarks in response to questions about Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar’s remarks in an interview that Pakistan was ready to sign an extradition treaty with India and Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider’s averment on an Indo-Pak treaty on ending cross-border terrorism against each other.

The spokesperson said there was no need for talking about such treaties and agreements and advised Pakistan to implement the already existing arrangements, like the 1972 Simla Agreement. She also pointed out that several practical mechanisms were existing on the extradition of the 20 terrorists in a similar manner in which the CBI and Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency had cooperated with each other in 1989.

The spokeseprson pointed out that the laid down composite dialogue process covered all aspects of the bilateral relationship.

India also welcomed the Saudi Arabian “land-for-peace” proposal to resolve the Middle East problem and said this proposal was to be discussed at a forthcoming meeting of the Arab League. The spokesperson said MEA Special Secretary R.M. Abhyankar had just arrived from Cairo after discussions on the Middle East situation.

Pak says it fired at Indian plane
Reuters and TNS

Islamabad, March 11
Pakistan today said it had fired at an Indian plane that crossed into its airspace about two weeks ago, but did not shoot it down.

Presidential spokesman Major-Gen Rashid Qureshi told a news briefing here that the plane crossed back into Indian airspace, where it was fired upon by Indian forces.

“It did cross...and it did take fire,’’ General Qureshi said.

“It...crossed back into Indian airspace. Their own troops fired at it. I think a very senior Air Force officer was on board.’’

When contacted by Reuters after the briefing, General Qureshi said the incident occurred ‘’around two weeks ago’’.

“When forces are so close to the borders, eyeball to eyeball...there are chances of mishaps,’’ he told reporters.

“Such incidents will happen once you get forces so close to each other and that’s why Pakistan has insisted time and again that in order to de-escalate, the first thing that must be done is withdrawal of these forces,’’ he said.

NEW DELHI: The government today denied that the AN-32 transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) being flown by Air Marshal V.K. Bhatia, Air Officer, Commanding-in-Chief of the Western Air Command (WAC), had come under fire from the Indian Army last month in the Kargil region of Jammu and Kashmir.

Air Marshal Bhatia’s aircraft had been hit by a surface-to-air missile on February 19 while he was on his way to inaugurate the extended airstrip at Kargil. The incident brought out by a news magazine later turned into a controversy as there were various versions as to what really happened with the government maintaining a complete silence on it.

The government had also instituted a court of inquiry into the incident, which had the Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal S. Krishnaswamy very upset. The government is waiting for the report from the court of inquiry to ascertain where the firing came from.

While the initial reports said that the Air Marshal’s aircraft had come under fire from across the border, a recent news report attributed the firing to the Army troops stationed in the region.

An official press note issued by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) while denying the Army’s role in the incident regretted that speculative and inaccurate reports on various aspects of the incident were appearing in the media even as the matter was still under investigation.

The note said: “There is no evidence whatsoever, attributing the incident, directly or indirectly, to ground fire by the Indian Army”. It added that the Army was in fact assisting the IAF in every possible way in the investigations to establish all facts relating to the incident.

The news report which attributed the firing to the Army had created bad blood between the two arms of the Indian military. The Army was particularly upset as the news report quoted senior IAF officers.

2nd stage of US war against terrorism

Washington, March 11
US President George W. Bush today declared that the international coalition had entered its “second stage” of the war against terrorism covering battles beyond Afghanistan and asked the countries to take seriously growing threat of terror on a catastrophic scale if nuclear weapons reached “wrong hands.”

Marking six months of the September 11 attacks on the USA, Mr Bush told a solemn ceremony at the White House South Lawn “we have entered the second stage of the war on terror — a sustained campaign to deny sanctuary to terrorists who would threaten our citizens from anywhere in the world.”

Warning countries that sponsor terrorism, he said they must not provide refuge or safe haven to terrorists.

“Every terrorist must be made to live as an international fugitive, with no place to settle or organise, no place to hide, no governments to hide behind and not even a safe place to sleep,” Mr Bush said.

“The battle in Afghanistan,” Mr Bush said, “will not be the last battle against terrorism. There will be other battles. For terrorists fleeing Afghanistan and looking for a base of operations, there will be no refuge, no safe haven.”

He made it clear that “there can be no peace in the world where differences and grievances become an excuse to target the innocent for murder.”

However, Mr Bush said, in fighting terrorism, “we also fight for conditions that will make lasting peace possible. We fight for lawful change against chaotic violence, for human choice against coercion and cruelty and for the dignity and goodness of every life”.

Stating that September 11 had stirred the civilised world into anger and to action against terrorism, Mr Bush told a gathering of 1,300 persons, including envoys of 130 countries, that it was also the day of reckoning for terrorists.

“But that day of reckoning will remain elusive if countries fail to act decisively to keep terrorist outfits from getting weapons of mass destruction,” he said.

“Every nation in our coalition must take seriously the growing threat of terror on a catastrophic scale, terror armed with biological, chemical or nuclear weapons,” Mr Bush said.

He said terrorist groups were hungry for these weapons and would use them without a hint of conscience. These weapons in the hands of terorists would unleash blackmail, genocide and chaos. These facts could not be denied and must be confronted. PTI