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Sunday,
May 5, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Al-Qaida
men may have sneaked in: Pervez Over 390
Maoists slain, claims Nepal
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USA, EU
freeze ultras’ assets in 161 countries
Scandinavian
monitors head for Lanka Awami
League sees red in White Paper End
death by stoning: Pak women
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Al-Qaida men may have sneaked in: Pervez
Islamabad, May 4 Musharraf said any action would be taken by Pakistani, not American, forces, but said U.S. and FBI assistance was useful, especially in communications and electronic tracking. “If you think they have come here and taken over whole chunks of territory and established themselves, no, this is just out of the question, this is not possible at all, zero possibility,’’ he told a group of foreign journalists. “We have plugged the routes, but it is impossible to plug the entire area,’’ he said. “Therefore, a small number of infiltrators, in terms of four or 10 or eight people, small groups or parties, is a possibility.’’ US officials said last month a small number of special operations forces were in Pakistan pursuing Taliban and Al-Qaida remnants, but Musharraf said there were “hardly a dozen’’ U.S. communications experts in the country. “What we are sensitive to is action taken by anyone other than Pakistani troops,’’ he said. “We want information, we want assistance in information by anyone, especially the USA, but the action will be carried out by us.’’ The sensitivity of having U.S. troops on Pakistani soil was underlined on Saturday. Thousands of tribal militiamen attended a rally in a remote border region to demand the troops’ immediate withdrawal. The rally in Miranshah, near the Afghan border, where residents reported seeing small numbers of U.S. troops and say they were involved in a raid last month on a local seminary set up by a former Taliban cabinet minister. Maulvi Abdur Rahman, a leader of the fundamentalist Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam party, told the militiamen the U.S. presence was a threat to Pakistan’s security. “They should leave our soil. We can not accept their presence on our holy land,’’ he said. “If they will not go immediately, we will use force to throw them out.’’ Rahman said only Pakistani soldiers and tribal militia should be allowed to search for Al-Qaida in the area. Yesterday anti-U.S. posters appeared in the area, threatening death to anyone who helped US troops.
Reuters |
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Over 390 Maoists
slain, claims Nepal
Kathmandu, May 4 “It is estimated that up to 350 terrorists may have died in the forceful action by security forces at the hideout and training centre in Rolpa,” the ministry said in a statement. Rolpa district lies 450 km west of Kathmandu. The ministry had earlier put the rebel death toll in the district at 50. Another 40 insurgents were gunned down in Doti, 550 km (340 miles) west of Kathmandu, it added. Guerrillas of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) have been fighting the government in a six-year campaign in which more than 3,700 people have been killed. The ministry said the estimate was based on information given by local people and injured rebels who were arrested during the operations. Meanwhile, thousands of people from various villages in Surkhet district fled to escape Maoist-imposed conscription, the Nepali language daily Kantipur, reported today. They arrived at Surkhet district headquarters of Birendranagar about 400 km west of the capital, last evening to find safety, the newspaper said. According to the report, they fled their villages after the Maoist rebels started forcing them to join the rebel group as human shields. More than 1,000 young men and women from Tilpur, Parseni, Manikapur, Allarechour and Masurikhet villages came to Birendranagar in groups after the Maoists began forcing each family to send at least one member to join the Maoists. Security forces in the area began intensifying their patrols in Birendranagar and surrounding areas, the report said.
Reuters,
DPA |
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Arabs nearly isolate Israel at UN
United Nations, May 4 “The military option has been totally discredited,” Annan said yesterday, adding that both sides had been caught up in the middle of the “disaster and tragedy ... in the region” in the 19 months of the Israeli-Palestinian violence. UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, who participated in the talks in Washington, said the peace conference was tentatively set for early summer. Arab members, meanwhile, almost isolated Israel in the Security Council during a public debate over a UN fact-finding mission with only the USA providing some relief to the Jewish state, saying that “there is no evidence that a massacre occurred in Jenin”. Describing the Israeli refusal to allow the mission as “regrettable”, US Deputy Ambassador James Cunningham yesterday said the USA supported Annan’s decision to disband the team. Strongly criticising the Security Council for failing to support Annan over the mission, Palestinian envoy Nasser al Kidwa said it had caved in to Israeli governments blackmailing and that Tel Aviv’s position clearly showed that its armed forces had committed atrocities. Egypt’s ambassador to the UN, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said the council had suffered a loss of credibility and authority following the Israeli refusal.
AP, PTI |
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USA, EU freeze ultras’ assets in 161 countries Washington, May 4 It said the EU list of 18 terrorist entities includes the radical Islamic organisation Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya, two extremist groups in Turkey and the militant Peru-based Shining Path organisation. London: The European Union blacklisted the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba, accused by India in the December 13 Parliament attack, and two Sikh organisations — the Babbar Khalsa and the International Sikh Youth Federation in its ongoing fight against terrorism. An enlarged list of the blacklisted terrorist organisations was announced by the EU on Friday in its ongoing efforts at drying up all sources of finance to the groups and their networks following the September 11 attacks on the USA.
AFP, UNI |
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Scandinavian
monitors head for Lanka Colombo, May 4 Hagrup Haukland, deputy head of the mission, monitoring truce between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels, said they had called for reinforcements to deal with hundreds of complaints pouring in. Haukland said the new monitors are likely to include personnel from Denmark and Iceland, besides Norway, Finland and Sweden, which already have members on the 23-man Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM). The present team is battling to process numerous complaints, which are swamping the SLMM’s six offices in the island’s north and east. “Not all the complaints turn out to be ceasefire violations. But we have to listen to all of them. We cannot turn anyone away.” Meanwhile, Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka have freed an 82-year-old man after kidnapping him twice past month amid adverse publicity about their ransom demand, a London-based human rights group said.
IANS, AP |
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Awami League sees red in White Paper
Dhaka, May 4 The release of the third volume of the White Paper by the government of four-party alliance led by Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which came to power in October, is certain to step up confrontation and further drag the political stand-off even as the government is making efforts to urge the main Opposition to attend the Parliament. The Awami League, led by former Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina alleges that while the ruling party leaders urge the Opposition to attend the Parliament, some machinery of the government does something to discourage it. Several top ranking leaders of the party dismissed the White Paper as a move to divert public attention from the issues like growing law and order problems and price spiral which the alliance government had “failed” to address.
PTI |
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End death by stoning: Pak women Islamabad, May 4 Zafran Bibi was sentenced under the Hudood Ordinance, which penalises adultery with death by stoning. Bibi allegedly gave birth to an illegitimate child. However, she is likely to be released after her husband gave a statement on Wednesday that he was the father of the baby.
ANI |
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