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Sunday,
June 30, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Pak
releases photos of 11 blast Pak denies removal of
top ISI official 15 die
as Israel blows up Palestinian building |
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Monitor
human rights in Lanka: Amnesty Indian musician
rejects Queen’s honour
Pak releases photos of 11 blast suspects Islamabad, June 29 The police also held the banned Sunni sectarian outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi as one of the gangs responsible for the car-bomb attack on the US consulate on June 14. This is the first time that the authorities have identified suspects in June 14 blast outside the US consulate that left 12 Pakistanis dead, and May 8 car bombing near the Sheraton hotel in the city killing 14 persons, including 11 French engineers working on a submarine project. The suspects’ photographs were published in main newspapers with the reward money. Topping the list of wanted men is Asif Ramzi in Pearl’s murder case as well as for sectarian killings. A reward of Rs 3 million was announced for his capture.
PTI |
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Pak denies removal
of top ISI official Islamabad June 29 A report in British daily The Guardian yesterday said Major Gen Ehtesham Zamir, head of the political wing of the agency, had been ordered back to regular army service. “The Guardian story is concocted and baseless. General Zamir is not going to be transferred”, Defence spokesman Major Gen Rashid Qureshi said. “The report is totally fabricated as there is no political wing in the ISI. Such reports appearing at a time when the elections are coming close might have some vested interests. Maybe the reporter wants to project as if the ISI is planning to manipulate the elections which is absolutely incorrect,” the Daily Times quoted him as saying. The Guardian reported that General Zamir played a key role in organising the referendum in April, the conduct of which deeply embarrassed General Musharraf. “He has now been ordered back to regular army duty after less than a year in the spy agency”, it said. LONDON: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has sacked a senior officer heading the ISI’s Kashmir division as part of a shake-up intended to curb support to militants fighting in Jammu and Kashmir. The officer, Brigadier Abdullah, has been removed after General Musharraf promised the US this month that he would stop the militants crossing over to Jammu and Kashmir, The Times reported on Saturday from Islamabad. As head of the agency’s Kashmir division, the Brigadier was the main handler of the Pakistani-based Islamic militant organisation, it said.
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15 die as Israel blows up Palestinian building
Jerusalem, June 29 The 15 were wanted men from the Hebron region who belonged to the Tanzim, a term Israel uses for fighters linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, the radio said, quoting army officers. They were accused of involvement in attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians, the radio said. Using explosives and armoured bulldozers, the army completely demolished overnight the massive three storeyed building, which housed administrative and security offices and had been under siege since Tuesday to flush out militants. An army statement said, “More than 20 wanted Palestinians, who were inside the besieged building since Tuesday, surrendered, while other terrorists involved in deadly anti-Israeli attacks remained bunkered inside”. It said the army had authorised “senior Palestinian officials to make a direct contact with the terrorists in the building to encourage them to surrender. But the terrorists refused to give themselves up, and the army then decided to destroy the building in a controlled manner.” For their part, Palestinian security officials said they were not sure if anyone was in the building when the final assault by army sappers took place after midnight. The explosions were so powerful that houses and vehicles several hundred metres were damaged, their windows blown in, witnesses said. “It was like an earthquake; all the furniture in my house moved,” said a nearby resident. Israeli army radio said two tonnes of explosives were used. WASHINGTON: Envoys from the international diplomatic quartet on West Asia — the USA, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia are to meet next week in London to discuss US President George W Bush’s new regional peace strategy, the State Department said. Spokesman Richard Boucher said on Friday that the meeting, likely to be held on Tuesday, would cover all aspects of the Bush plan which included a demand for new Palestinian leadership and radical reform.
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Monitor human rights in Lanka: Amnesty Colombo, June 29 “We believe there is some urgency in the need to monitor human rights during the peace process, as the present monitoring mechanism is focused only on the military aspects of the ceasefire,” Mr Derek Evans, head of the Amnesty delegation, told reporters here. Mr Evans and two other representatives from the London-based human rights body visited LTTE-held areas for the first time to discuss the rights situation under the rebels. They also met President Chandrika Kumaratunga, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and others in Colombo. “We are concerned that human rights are not seen as an integral part of the peace process, but as something competitive to it,” he said. However, both sides had accepted in principle Amnesty’s three-point suggestion to include human rights as a crucial component in peace efforts. The move from conflict to normalcy required the establishment of a clear and practical framework based on human rights, he said. These three points were the infusion of technical expertise at the proposed talks to work out operational practices for human rights protection, a mechanism for active rights monitoring as distinct from truce monitoring and establising a model to suit the Lankan situation for pursuing truth and reconciliation in the post-conflict phase.
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Indian musician rejects Queen’s honour London, June 29 “I personally don’t think it’s appropriate. I’ve never supported the honours system,” said John Pandit, known as Pandit G, co-founder of the Asian Dub Foundation, a London-based radical group which fuses Bollywood sounds, punk, raga with anti- racist lyrics. He also set up an educational project to promote the teaching of music and technology to young people and hosts workshops around London. “There is no point in giving an individual (an
honour). To bring people into the establishment won’t actually help the organisations”, Pandit said. Instead, he called for funding of community organisations he supports.
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