Pak plans fresh crackdown
Signing of ‘good-behaviour’ bonds must

Islamabad, March 20
Pakistan plans new moves to counter Islamic militancy that includes weaning adherents away from groups and making them sign “good behaviour’’ bonds, an Interior Ministry official said.

He said more militants would be detained in what he called the second phase of a crackdown that President Pervez Musharraf ordered in January.

Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led war on terror after the September 11 attacks on the USA, banned five hardline Islamic groups in January and detained more than 2,000 persons.

Two other Islamic groups had been banned in August.

“The second phase of the crackdown is likely to begin in light of an action plan which was discussed at Tuesday’s law and order meeting chaired by President Musharraf,’’ the official, who asked not to be named, said.

At the meeting, President Musharraf also removed Islamabad’s police chief and three of the most senior officers after a grenade attack on a church in the capital on Sunday killed five persons, including two Americans.

The official said the action plan for the new crackdown was prepared at an inter-provincial meeting last month “to root out extremism from the grass-roots level’’.

“A large number of arrests will be made of people suspected of their involvement in sectarian killings,’’ he said.

Some of the religious activists detained have since been released after they assured the authorities of good behaviour, official sources said.

The official said earlier arrests were made in haste and many hardline activists went underground.

“Now it’s a sustained plan and operation which will continue for several months,’’ he said. Reuters

Church attack: 4 cops sacked

Islamabad, March 20
The Pakistan Government yesterday removed four police officials in the wake of an attack on a church that killed five persons and injured 35.

Those removed include Inspector-General of Police Zaheer Ahmed, Senior Superintendent of Police Nassir Durrani, Deputy Superintendent of Police Chaudhry Liaqat and Inspector Ahmed Iqbal, an official spokesman said.

The action followed a marathon meeting that President Pervez Musharraf held with the country’s top security officials amidst mounting international condemnation of the church attack on Sunday.

Though the government has constituted a special task force for investigating the attack the authorities have so far not reached any conclusion about who was involved.

Meanwhile, The involvement of Al-Qaida men in Sunday’s terror attack on a church in Pakistan has surfaced after the investigation team concluded that US diplomats and not members of the Christian community were the targets of the terrorists. IANS

Chances of Indo-Pak war highest since ’71: CIA

Washington, March 20
In a grim assessment of the Indo-Pak situation, CIA Director George Tenet has said chances of a war between India and Pakistan are highest since 1971 and warned that a conventional war could escalate into a nuclear confrontation.

"The chance of war between these two nuclear-armed states is higher than at any point since 1971," Mr Tenet said yesterday while testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee with Defence Intelligence Agency Director Admiral Thomas Wilson.

“If India were to conduct large-scale offensive operations into PoK (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir), Pakistan might retaliate with strikes of its own in the belief that its nuclear deterrent would limit the scope of an Indian counter-attack,” he said.

He expressed concern that India and Pakistan might not have completed testing of their nuclear weapons and that they might deploy their most advanced systems without additional testing.

Mr Tenet said the attack on Parliament in December last proved very destabilising for relations between India and Pakistan as it resulted in new calls for military action against Islamabad and subsequent mobilisation on both sides.

“Both India and Pakistan are publicly downplaying the risks of nuclear conflict in the current crisis. We are deeply concerned, however, that a conventional war, once begun, could escalate into a nuclear confrontation,” he said.

The South Asian neighbours, Mr Tenet said, were working on the doctrine and tactics for more advanced nuclear weapons, producing fissile material and increasing their nuclear stockpiles.

Both countries also continued the development of long-range nuclear-capable ballistic missiles and planed to field cruise missiles with a land-attack capability, he said. PTI

Taliban attack allied forces

Bagram Air Base, March 20
Taliban and al-Qaida fighters attacked US and other coalition troops near an airfield in eastern Afghanistan overnight, a US military spokesman said today.

“Coalition forces in the Khost area were attacked by the Taliban and al-Qaida extremists using rocket propelled grenades, mortars and machine guns,” US Major Bryan Hilferty told a press briefing at this US military base.

“There are no casualties that we are aware of now.”

The attackers struck a camp of coalition soldiers in the vicinity of the Khost airfield just after midnight.

The forces returned fire in a gunfight that lasted several hours, Hilferty said, declining to reveal the number of troops involved.

“It was a known coalition camp that was taken under fire. We fired back,” he said, adding that no enemy fighter was captured.

Afghan commanders also said they only found dozen of corpses, while US military officials have put the death toll from Anaconda in the “hundreds.”

Hilferty defended the US figures again today, insisting the intensity of the bombing made a definitive body count impossible. AFP

Move for unity govt gains momentum

London, March 20
Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo has called for a period of reconciliation and the establishment of a coalition government in Zimbabwe after the hotly-disputed re-election of President Robert Mugabe.

Obasanjo, one of three Commonwealth leaders who suspended Zimbabwe from the organisation on Tuesday, said that simply calling fresh elections would not solve Zimbabwe’s crisis, but suggested a re-run could be called at some time in the future.

“There will be an election... We are talking about the short to medium term,” he said.

Western countries including Britain, Zimbabwe’s former colonial master, have refused to recognise the result of last week’s election which credited Mugabe with 56 per cent of the vote and extended his 22-year hold on power by six years.

“The problem of Zimbabwe — whether you run two elections or three elections is not the issue,” Obasanjo told BBC World Service radio. “The problem of Zimbabwe is the reconciliation, the revival of the economy, the shortage of food.”

“We are convinced that the polarisation that exists in Zimbabwe cannot resolve those essential issues. So the first thing that is needed is reconciliation,” he said.

“We are suggesting that, at the end of the reconciliation arrangements, that some form of coalition government...will emerge.”

Obasanjo that a coalition government should tackle the issues of “unity, security, the issue of division, the issue of polarisation and the essential issue of the economy”.

Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who has accused Mugabe of imposing a reign of terror to steal victory, has rejected pressure from Obasanjo and South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki to talk to Mugabe. Tsvangirai said Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party was launching a “mass retribution” against the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, making any dialogue pointless. Reuters

Suicide bomber kills 7 in Israel

Jerusalem, March 20
A suspected Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up on a bus in northern Israel today, killing seven people, including himself and wounding at least 35 others, Israeli security sources said.

An undated photo handed out by Islamic Jihad shows Palestinian suicide bomber Ra'fat Abu Dyak, who blew himself up in an Israeli bus on Wednesday. — Reuters

Suharto son's trial begins

Jakarta, March 20
The favourite son of former Indonesian autocrat Suharto went on trial for his life today, opening a legal process that represents a key test for President Megawati Sukarnoputri and a tainted judiciary.

Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, charged with masterminding the murder of a judge who sentenced him to jail in an earlier case, faces the maximum penalty of death. The case was adjourned until March 27 after a session of some two-and-a-half hours. Reuters

WORLD BRIEFS

Undercover journalist Gema Garcia Marcos, seen in this March 2, file photo, poses during a photo session for the Miss Spain pageant in Tunis, Tunisia. A television documentary is claiming that the undercover journalist exposed corruption in the qualification round for the Miss Spain pageant. The report shows a jury member accepting a 27,000 euro ($ 23,700) payment which producers said was a bribe. — AP

WORLD’S OLDEST PERSON DEAD
GRAND RAPIDS (MICHIGAN): Maud Farris-Luse, recognised last year by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s oldest living person, has died. She was 115. She died on Monday from complications of pneumonia. Guinness editors recognised her as the oldest living person whose age could be verified. AP

PEACEKEEPERS FREED IN GEORGIA
TBILISI: Four Russian peacekeepers captured on Monday in Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia were released late on Tuesday, the Georgian authorities said. Troops, including three officers, were ambushed on Monday by armed men in Gali district of the security zone patrolled by the Russian troops mandated by CIS. AFP

MAN TO PAY RECORD DIVORCE SUM
LONDON: A judge ordered a multi-millionaire to pay a record British divorce settlement of £ 26 million. Abdallah Masry had snatched his four youngest children from the UK and had taken them to the West Asia. Describing Masry as “cruel, insensitive and ruthless’’, Justice Munby also made a ground-breaking ruling by including £ 2.5 million in the award as a “war chest’’ for his former wife. Reuters