 |
Friday,
June 28, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
|
378
Al-Qaida ultras arrested
NEWS ANALYSIS |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Pak
parties reject amendments Pak
Cabinet clears OIC resolution on terrorism Pervez
fires poll salvo at Benazir, Sharif
Another
woman in Karzai Cabinet
|
|
378 Al-Qaida ultras arrested Islamabad, June 27 The Al-Qaida militants captured included 87 Yemenis and seven French nationals. The rest were from Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Syria, Libya, Morocco and Chechnya, senior defence officials were quoted by the local daily, The Dawn, today. The officials said the arrested Al-Qaida militants were taken to unknown destinations by the American authorities. The arrests of the Al-Qaida men were made by the local authorities in close co-operation with US security agencies, they said, adding that raids were conducted by special forces in collaboration with the military intelligence in various parts of the country, including the tribal areas. The highest ranking Al-Qaida associate apprehended so far by the Pakistani authorities was Abu Zubaydah, who was considered to be the right hand man of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. Zubaydah’s capture in Faisalabad on March 28 during a midnight raid was the result of a joint Pakistan-US intelligence operation. He is now in the US custody at an undisclosed place and reportedly under intense interrogation. Reports from the Wana tribal agency, where 10 Pakistani soldiers were killed in the first major attack on them by the Al-Qaida inside Pakistan said they were killed from a close range when they tried to search a house. Meanwhile, hundreds of Pakistani troops fanned out in rugged mountains along the Afghan border today to hunt down fleeing Al-Qaida fighters involved in yesterday’s shootout, officials said. Around 40 mainly Chechen Al-Qaida men and women are believed to be on the run after the clash with army and paramilitary troops. “Army troops are conducting house-to-house searches in villages scattered throughout the difficult hilly terrain,” Brig Javed Cheema, the head of the Interior Ministry’s national crises management cell, said.
PTI, AFP |
|
NEWS ANALYSIS GEN Pervez Musharraf scored a hattrick of sorts between June 21 and 23 when he gave three interviews one after the other — to BBC Urdu (June 21), to Newsweek (June 22) and to London’s Independent (June 23). From the Indian point of view, the theme of all these interviews was the same — that he has made no promise to anyone to stop infiltration across the LoC. These interviews, which have been given wide publicity the world over, amount to saying that American officials, who told Indians that General Musharraf had promised them that he would stop infiltration once for all, were lying. “I have told President Bush nothing is happening across the Line of Control. This assurance I have given. I am not going to give you an assurance that for years nothing will happen.” Indians cannot claim to know what really transpired between General Musharraf and US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage when he visited Islamabad early this month. From there he flew to New Delhi to tell Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee that General Musharraf had promised to stop infiltration. Both print and electronic media gave wide publicity to this promise but General Musharraf did not react by denying it then. He did not even assure the protesting PoK-based United Jehad Council (UJC) that he did not make any promise to that effect. The UJC had protested that the whole Kashmir militancy would be stifled if Pakistan stopped cross-LoC infiltration. It was very clear that the Americans were not really telling a lie to the Indians about General Musharraf’s promise. He did make this promise without any intention of keeping it. Last month-end, during a PTV discussion, PPP leader Syed Iqbal Haider expressed surprise that the General had not announced further measures to control terrorism within Pakistan. This provoked cricketer-turned Jehadi politician Imran Khan to say that the stoppage of cross-border infiltration would harm the movement in Kashmir. Imran, who heads an unrepresentative party called Insaf Party, is a strong supporter of General Musharraf and Islamic fundamentalism. General Musharraf is an army General with a strong ambition to beat politicians in the game of politics. Going by his oft-repeated harangues against politicians, it seem that his perception of politics is a game of lying and duplicity. With complete administrative machinery at his command, he won the April referendum allegedly by massive rigging. He is happy that he could do that in spite of bitter resistance from political and religious parties. He wants the democracy-loving world to believe that his victory at the referendum was proof of his popularity among the masses. He has also begun to consider himself a better diplomat than the politicians. He told BBC Urdu on June 22 that no political government in the past was able to raise the Kashmir question in the world the way he had done. “The Simla Agreement mentioned Kashmir only once; the Lahore Declaration not even once , but at Agra I, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee and our Foreign Minister prepared a draft declaration (on Kashmir). However, it could not be approved because of the rivalry between hawks and doves within the Government of India.” General Musharraf’s three interviews indicate his message to the United States-led international coalition against terrorism that he cannot go whole hog with them in fighting terrorism. When he pledged “unstinted” support to the coalition on September 19, his own political survival was his most important concern. He remembered how Gen Zia-ul-Haq managed to keep himself in power by siding with the United States during the Afghan war in the 1980s. General Musharraf’s January 12 steps against Jehadis were announced under tremendous US pressure. In his address to the nation that day, he had admitted that Jehadis from his country were indulging in cross-border activities. Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Toiba were banned because of their involvement in the December 13 terror attack on Parliament House in New Delhi. However, there were hardly any signs of the implementation of these steps. The terrorist camps, which trained militants for operations in Kashmir, remained intact and infiltration increased. General Musharraf’s three interviews are an indication that as long as he is at the helm of affairs in Pakistan, there cannot be peace with India. His remark to the London’s Independent that if Kashmir is not resolved it could be turned into Palestine. That lets the cat out from the bag — that is if he continues in power. |
|
Pak parties reject amendments Islamabad, June 27 The package was announced last evening by the government, after the federal Cabinet formally approved it, and made public to seek the opinion of different sections. The people will be given a month to express their views on the amendments before they are formally incorporated in the 1973 Constitution. The main features of the amendments included reduction of Assemblies’ tenure from five to four years, formation of a national security council to serve as a constitutional forum that will be headed by the President himself and the enhancement of Senate seats from 87 to 100. Other amendments included reduction of voters’ age from 21 to 18 years, President to appoint Governors and not on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, nomination of any member of the National Assembly by the President for the post of Prime Minister, joint electorate system to be adopted and that all members of the Parliament and provincial Assemblies must be graduates. The main political parties — including the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD), Jamaat-i-Islami, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) — while rejecting the proposed amendments, declared them an attempt to impose one man’s rule and prolonging dictatorship in the country. The parties, which were also opposed to the military regime, charged the government with desiring to have a grip on the future civilian set-up. They said retired Generals were incompetent to amend the Constitution and laws relating to political parties. Veteran politician and ARD Chairman Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, while rejecting the proposed amendments, said they would resist the same. No dictator could be allowed to play with the nation’s destiny, he added. Mr Khan said the amendments were meant to alter the parliamentary system but there was a distinct procedure to amend the Constitution and unelected persons had no right to make changes in the same. Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad echoed the sentiment that Generals had no right to alter the nature of the Constitution. According to Mr Ahsan Iqbal, a prominent leader of the PML (Nawaz), the President’s having discretionary power to appoint any member of the National Assembly as Prime Minister would inaugurate an era of horse-trading.
UNI |
|
Pak Cabinet clears OIC resolution on terrorism Islamabad, June 27 At a cabinet meeting presided over by President Pervez Musharraf yesterday, the cabinet also approved the signing of the UN Convention on Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, an official statement said. The OIC convention on combating terrorism which was adopted at its Foreign Ministers meeting in 1999 in the context of
Mid East conflict, excludes from its terrorism definition people’s movements, including armed struggle against foreign occupation, aggression, colonialism and hegemony, aimed at liberation and self-determination in accordance with the principles of the international law. Pakistan says it condemns terrorism in all its “forms and manifestations” but at the same time attempts to fit its “Kashmir cause” into the OIC definition of terrorism by describing Pakistan-based militant organisations conducting violent operations in Kashmir as freedom fighters. The OIC resolution was at variance with the resolution of terrorism adopted by the UN in the aftermath of September 11 attacks on the USA.
PTI |
|
Pervez fires poll salvo at Benazir, Sharif Islamabad, June 27 "Those who have looted the national exchequer and transferred the money abroad will not be allowed to play with the fate of the nation again," General Musharraf was quoted in a report by the local daily The Dawn, today. Reiterating his government’s resolve to hold free-and-fair poll, General Musharraf told a delegation of seven-party pro-government National Alliance, led by former Prime Minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, that there was no truth in reports that he had tried to work out a deal with either Ms Bhutto or Mr Sharif. He also said he did not have any plan to meet either of these politicians, who were exiled abroad. General Musharraf’s comments followed a string of constitutional amendments proposed by his government to empower him with powers to nominate and dismiss elected governments. According to the proposals, "A person or his dependants, defaulting a loan of Rs 2 million or more for more than one year" or their loans written off, would be barred from contesting the poll. Political parties have argued that the new rule was aimed at barring Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif from contesting. Ms Bhutto was so far only charged with various cases of corruption but not convicted in any of them.
PTI |
|
Palestinian
HQ machinegunned
Ramallah/Bethlehem, June 27 Further south in the West Bank, Israeli army helicopters machine-gunned the Palestinian security headquarters in Hebron yesterday night, reports from the divided city said. Eyewitnesses said two Apache helicopters fired at the headquarters, which also houses the governor’s office and has been surrounded by Israeli troops since Tuesday. Up to 15 Palestinian militants sought by Israel are holed up in the compound, the sources said. Most of them were probably militiamen of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s ruling Fatah movement, they said. The sources said the men in the compound were holding a suspected Israeli collaborator as hostage. The Israeli army moved into Hebron on Tuesday night and took up positions throughout the town. GAZA CITY:
Six Palestinians were shot at and wounded early on Thursday near the Rafah refugee camp in the south of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian security and medical sources said. The sources said there was a fierce gunbattle between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians in the sector which was close to the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Earlier, two buildings in the Palestinian autonomous town of Beit Hanoun in the north of the Gaza Strip were damaged by shots fired by Israeli tanks.
DPA, AFP |
|
Another
woman in Karzai Cabinet Kabul, June 27 Ms Habiba Sorabi was appointed Minister for Women’s Affairs, replacing high-profile feminist and human rights activist Sima Samar, spokesman Tayeb Jawad said. Mahboba Hoqooqmal, a university professor, earlier tipped to obtain the portfolio, was given the junior post of Minister of State for Women’s Affairs, a non-Cabinet position. “There is much to be done for women. One position would not have been enough,” Mr Jawad told Reuters.
Reuters |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 122 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
