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Saturday,
March 23, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Omar, 3 others indicted for Pearl murder
Is Pervez
hoodwinking the world? |
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Main
parties oppose referendum plan Talks
with LTTE outside Lanka
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20 Maoists
killed
in Nepal
Nepal SC’s no to Gurkhas’ pay parity
plea Israel boycotts security meeting
New twist to Mujib portrait controversy Rules laid to try Al-Qaida ultras
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Omar, 3 others indicted for Pearl murder Karachi, March 22 “All four accused have been charged with kidnapping for ransom, murder and terrorism,” Mr Raja Qureshi, chief prosecutor for the province of Sindh, told reporters outside the courtroom in Karachi. “These charges carry a normal sentence of death.” The chief prosecutor said Omar could not be extradited to the USA in the near future now he has been charged with the abduction and murder of Pearl. “Once a trial commences then the person cannot be extradited unless the trial has been concluded and, if convicted, he has served out the term, Raja Qureshi said. Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl was abducted in the port city of Karachi on January 23 while trying to contact radical Islamic groups and investigate possible links between alleged shoe bomber Richard Reid and Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaida network. Although his body has never been found, his kidnappers released a graphic video showing Pearl being murdered. Earlier Omar and fellow suspect Sheikh Adil were whisked into an anti-terrorist court in Karachi, capital of Sindh, in an armoured police truck amid tight security. There was no sign of the two other accused, Salman Saquib and Fahad Naseem. The case is seen a key test of Pakistan’s resolve in dealing with suspected Muslim hardliners as part of its role in the USA-led war on terror. Omar has also been indicted by a US court on one count of hostage-taking and one of conspiring to take hostages resulting in the death of Pearl. But the Pakistan Government has said it would only consider extraditing him once its own trial is complete. Mr Qureshi said the judge had fixed March 29 for the start of the trial, which would be held under a special anti-terrorism law. “The trial has to be completed within seven days,” he said.Mr Qureshi said the prosecution had 31 witnesses, including FBI officials. “Besides circumstantial evidence about Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping, the prosecution has produced a copy of the video tape showing the horrifying scenes of Pearl’s beheading and emails demanding ransom,” he said. During the hearing, at least 500 police officers surrounded the court building as others with high-powered weapons surveyed the scene from rooftops. Paramilitary rangers were also out in force. The police blocked off the usually busy roads around the court and the gate to the building with some two dozen vans. “It’s a high-profile case and we have stepped up security because of the incidents of terrorism in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad over the past two weeks,’’ a senior police officer said. Born in 1974, Omar is the son of a wholesale clothes merchant from Wanstead in northeast London who went to an expensive school but dropped out of one of Britain’s top universities, the London School of Economics. In 1994, Indian police arrested Omar and accused him of involvement in the kidnapping of three Britons and an American tourist. Omar and two other alleged militants were freed from jail in Kashmir in 1999 in exchange for 155 hostages held on an Indian airliner hijacked to the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. India has also accused him of involvement in the September 11 attacks on the USA. Reuters, AFP |
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Is Pervez hoodwinking the
world? THE international community’s assumption that the Musharraf government in Pakistan has made a fundamental strategic and philosophical shift in recent months cannot stand up under closer scrutiny. This is the conclusion reached by the International Crisis Group
(ICG), a Brussels-based organisation devoted to strengthening the capacity of the international community to anticipate, understand and act to prevent and contain conflict. In a report released earlier this month, the ICG says that far from being besieged by Islamic extremists with which Pakistan’s military and security services have had a symbiotic relationship in recent years, the military government has carefully used that phenomenon as an essential tool to justify its hold on power, improve its standing with the West, and resist restoring secular democracy and as a tactical means to advance its goals both in Afghanistan and Kashmir. The report adds, “Unless the international community more clearly recognises this, it will likely cede the current military government far too much latitude in delaying, or denying, long overdue moves to restore democratic governance and create a disturbing impression among the citizens of Pakistan that the West actually favours authoritarian governments over freely elected ones. “Giving the Musharraf government carte blanche will only likely drive the country further into its long spiral of corruption and economic malaise. Ultimately, instability in Pakistan would lead to
intensified regional insecurity and help create an environment in which terrorism could flourish.” Noting that Pakistani assistance had facilitated the American military campaign in Afghanistan, the ICG report says that given its central role in helping bring the Taliban to power, the withdrawal of direct support was bound to have a significant impact. Equally evident, Pakistan’s stability and economic and political prospects will be crucial in shaping South Asia’s security picture — no small matter in an area with two nuclear powers and several active terrorist networks. Given its importance in the regional equation, however, it is worth subjecting key assumptions of the international community’s approach to Pakistan to closer scrutiny. |
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Main parties oppose referendum plan Islamabad, March 22 Major parties like the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz Sharif) and the Jamaat-e-Islami have challenged it on legal and political grounds. Only a few have supported the move. Those opposed to it argue that a referendum is visualised in the constitution as an exercise to elicit public opinion on a particular issue and is not meant for electing a president. “The constitution has clearly laid down the procedure for electing the head of state and any appointment made contrary to the constitutional procedure is to be considered illegal,” says Jamaat deputy chief Ghafoor Ahmad. Makhdoom Amin Fahim, acting chairman of the PPP, said Musharraf could not hold a referendum till the constitution was restored. Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) chief Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan also rejected the plan to hold referendum saying it would be unconstitutional and a sign of lack of confidence in people’s wisdom. “Parliament would be an orphan house if the military held a referendum,” Khan told IANS. The ARD has planned to organise a rally tomorrow (Pakistan’s National Day) to demand the restoration of democracy as it existed before October 12, 1999, when General Musharraf staged his military coup. Nawabzada Khan said the rally would be held despite the government’s obstructions. General Musharraf’s decision to hold the referendum became confirmed after his long separate meetings with leaders of the breakaway faction of the Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam) now and the Pakistan Awami Tehrik. Zafar Ali Shah, a PML(N) leader, described the government plan to hold a referendum as “yet another joke with the nation.” Musharraf, in a five-hour meeting with the breakaway faction of the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-i-Azam) on Wednesday, revealed his decision to hold a referendum in May to seek public opinion on his continuation in office for a full five-year term. On Thursday, the president held two meetings with leaders of the Millat Party and Awami Tehrik. Millat Party chief and former president Farooq Leghari said his party would take up the issue of referendum at its next meeting in April. He said Musharraf needs a “referendum or election” to make his post “legitimate.” Awami Tehrik chief Tahirul Qadri said his party would “support” any move, including a referendum, to make the political system strong in the country. Musharraf will resume political consultations on March 26 when a five-member Awami National Party (ANP) delegation led by Asfand Yar Wali will meet him. A senior ANP leader said the team will be meeting the President but will not support his proposed referendum and constitutional amendments. “We have been supporting Musharraf over his post-September 11 actions in the larger national interest but cannot allow him to distort the constitution or suppress the will of the people,” he pointed out.
IANS |
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Talks with LTTE outside Lanka Colombo, March 22 He did not name the prospective venue, but there has been media speculation that it could be either in Thailand or Maldives. India, considered by the LTTE to be most convenient, is yet to respond to its request for allowing the talks to be held somewhere in south India. After Norway identified a venue, the Government of Sri Lanka will have to make a formal request to the host nation to allow talks there, he said. LTTE spokesman Anton Balasingham is due to arrive in Sri Lanka next Monday to explore the prospects of preliminary talks during which non-substantive issues like a suitable venue and steps the LTTE considers pre-requisites are expected to figure. Reacting to Mr Balasingham’s return from London after over three years, Mr Fernando said “he is welcome to return”. Preliminary talks will begin in the next few months, while substantive talks could be expected before the middle of the year, he added. Mr Fernando claimed that the ruling United National Front’s victory in the local council poll held two days ago confirmed the peoples faith in the new regimes peace efforts and a defeat to forces like the left-wing Janatha Vimukti Peramuna which campaigned against the truce with the LTTE. President Chandrika Kumaratunga should take note of this double mandate received by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, he said, referring to the successive victories for the UNF in the last parliamentary election and the latest local council poll. She is only a ceremonial President now, he added. He said the one-month-old ceasefire between the government and the LTTE was holding firm and Scandinavian monitors hardly had any work to do, as there had been no violations so far.
PTI |
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Local poll postponed Colombo, March 22 The new date has already been notified to the relevant Returning Officers or Government Agents by the Elections Secretariat, Tamil party sources said. The decision has been taken in view of strong representations made by Tamil political parties and the North and East Government Agents since they feel that it could undermine the ongoing peace process brokered by the Norwegian Government.
UNI |
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20 Maoists killed in Nepal Kathmandu, March 22 Defence Ministry spokesman Bhola Silwal, said a dozen rebels died in gunbattles on Friday in Syangja and Parbat in western Nepal and at Sankhuwasabha in the east. The others were killed elsewhere yesterday, Silwal said in a statement. India pledged yesterday to offer intelligence, equipment and training to help Nepal crush the insurgency. The offer was made during a visit by Nepal’s Prime Minister Sher Bahadur. Nepal mobilised its army last November after the guerrillas broke a truce and resumed their violent campaign to set up a one-party Communist republic.
Reuters |
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Nepal SC’s no to Gurkhas’ pay parity plea Kathmandu, March 22 Supreme Court official Sriprasad Pandit told newsmen the court, late on Thursday, refused to consider a petition from a former British Gurkha serviceman that pay and pension benefits for Gurkha soldiers should be equal to that of their British counterparts. “The writ was rejected on the ground that the issue must be settled diplomatically by the two countries and not through a court of law,” Pandit said. There are about 3,000 Gurkha soldiers on active duty with the British army and over 25,000 Gurkhas receive service pensions. Britain is due to raise the pensions for retired British service personnel and their widows by 10.9 per cent on April 1.
Reuters |
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Israel boycotts security meeting Jerusalem, March 22 Israel’s security cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, met last night to discuss a possible reprisal for yesterday’s Palestinian suicide bombing in a busy shopping area in Jerusalem’s King George Street and decided not to retaliate immediately with contained rage to give US-led peace efforts a chance, Israeli television reported. Warning that the policy or restraint would not apply indefinitely, Sharon’s office in a statement said Israel will not be able to sustain for long its one-sided effort to implement a truce. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a military wing of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah organisation, claimed responsibility for the blast which had quick impact on the diplomatic front with Israel suspending a scheduled US-sponsored security meeting with Palestinians last night. Yesterday’s bombing came hours after unsuccessful trilateral talks aimed at reaching a truce.
PTI |
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New twist to Mujib portrait controversy Dhaka, March 22 The main opposition, Awami League had staged a demonstration in the lobby of the Bangladesh Parliament last evening to protest the
passage. A Bill pertaining to the removing of the portrait of the slain founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from offices, educational institutes etc. On the other hand, the ruling four- party coalition without bothering about the demonstration by the Awami League adopted the Bill. Interestingly, in her speech in the House immediately after the passage of the Bill Prime Minister Zia proposed to adopt a Bill in future with the consent of all allowing the hanging of the portraits of Mujib and her husband assassinated, President Lt General-Ziaur Rahman in the offices and other institutes. She said this would put an end to controversies centering portraits for ever. She termed Mujib only as a national leader though the admitted his leadership in the Bangladesh liberation struggle. |
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Rules laid to try Al-Qaida ultras Washington, March 22 Mr Rumsfeld dismissed criticism that secrecy provisions, less demanding rules of evidence and the absence of a right of appeal to an independent body could lead to “kangaroo” verdicts, saying “that characterisation is so off the mark that I’m shocked.” The commissions will consist of three to seven military officers and will be headed by a military judge, he said.
AFP |
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