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Monday,
July 15, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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16 held
for attack on tourists in Pak India
won’t attack Pak: Pervez Indo-Pak
tension to figure in talks Bid on
Chirac’s life: 1 held |
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Iran counters
US criticism LTTE holds
two foreign monitors India
decries kidney removal of Keralite 3m US
teenagers ‘have suicidal bent’
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16 held for attack on
tourists in Pak
Islamabad, July 14 Javed Iqbal Cheema, who heads the crisis management cell in the Interior Ministry, told journalists that the suspects were being investigated for links with extremist groups. Cheema also offered to provide protection for the 24 German, Austrian and Slovenian tourists if they wished to resume their road journey to China which was disrupted by the explosion at Mansehra, 145 km north of Islamabad. Seven Germans, one Austrian and a Slovenian suffered minor cuts from flying debris when unidentified attackers hurled an explosive device at Buddhist-era rock carvings near Mansehra which the group was visiting on its way to China. German tourists in the group visited the German embassy in Islamabad today. Their Pakistani guide, known by the name of Naseem, went missing after the incident, according to the newspaper, The News. Cheema said tour operators were being instructed to inform the government authorities before taking foreign groups through tribal and other sensitive territories. After the incident at Ashoka Rocks in Mansehra, the group was taken to Rawalpindi, the twin city of Islamabad. Journalists were not allowed access to them. Mansehra police chief Ahsan Mehboob told Deutsche Presse-Agentur overnight that a tour guide reported hearing two explosions near the Buddhist rock carvings site, located on the ancient Silk Road. The blasts ripped a steel shed covering the monuments, showering the foreign tourists and three Pakistanis with metal splinters. “We cannot rule out the possibility of terrorists having wanted just to scare foreigners,” the police chief said. “The impact shows that the devices were little more than fire- crackers and less than a real bomb. If they wanted, they could have easily killed the tourists with high-intensity bombs or grenades.” Later, the police freed four of the 20 suspects after initial questioning, official sources said. Most of those detained were from Brady camp for Afghan refugees. The wounded tourists have been brought to Rawalpindi for medical treatment, the officials said. Medical Superintendent Qazi Shafiqur Rehman told reporters that there was no sign of bullet injuries on the bodies of the injured. Senior Superintendent of Police Mansehra Syed Ahsan Mehboob told journalists that the group had not informed the local administration about their visit. “We would have taken security measures had they informed the local police,” he said. Mehboob said he believed it was not a planned attack but apparently a locally-manufactured explosive was used. Police are investigating the incident, he said. Meanwhile, the German Government has decided to withdraw most of its diplomats from its consulate in Karachi due to security concerns, diplomatic sources said on Sunday. Those concerns include Saturday’s apparent grenade attack on tourists in northern Pakistan in which seven German tourists were injured, the sources said on condition of anonymity.
DPA, PTI |
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India won’t attack Pak: Pervez
Islamabad, July 14 “The reason is not that Pakistan is a nuclear power but that it is also equivalent to India in conventional military strength,” General Musharraf told a consultative meeting of newspaper editors and columnists in Islamabad yesterday. The military ruler said “India is aiming at destabilising Pakistan through this war hysteria but it will gain nothing by such tactics”. President Musharraf said there was much concern over the Kashmir issue as the international community was engaged in resolving it and there were chances that a serious dialogue might be pursued to solve the longstanding problem. He said exiled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was fully aware of the Kargil operation. To another query, he said former Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto went abroad of their freewill. Ms Bhutto, he said, would have to face the course of law on her return. About Mr Sharif, he said he had gone to Saudi Arabia with the consent of his family. On his contesting poll in October, he said he might consider contest the presidential election through the set procedure, adding that the government would hold free and fair elections. About the proposed National Security Council (NSC), he said it would be an effective check on the President, the Prime Minister and the Chief of Army Staff and would help prevent the country from martial law.
PTI |
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Indo-Pak tension to figure in talks
Beijing, July 14 Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan would urge his British counterpart Jack Straw to nudge India to agree to resume an early dialogue with Pakistan to ease the tension in South Asia, diplomatic sources here said. “China and Britain would discuss the situation in South Asia when Mr Tang meets Mr Straw for talks,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said. “The two sides will have an exchange of views on the regional issue. It will be conducive to the settlement of relevant issues,” he said. Mr Straw, who arrived here today on a three-day official visit, is scheduled to travel to India and Pakistan later this month as part of international efforts to ease the tensions in South Asia. “We hope the two sides could resume dialogues at an early date and settle the differences including the issue of Kashmir through peaceful means,” he said. Mr Liu said China had been supporting mediation efforts by the international community, especially the USA and Britain, to ease the tension in South Asia. China feels that the international community, including the USA and Britain, has been demanding more from Islamabad in easing the current military standoff with New Delhi, the sources said. Mr Tang, who recently met Pakistan vice Foreign Minister Inam-ul Haq, said China “highly appreciated the efforts made by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and his government to ease the tension in South Asia through a peaceful dialogue, which has gained the understanding and support of the international community.”
PTI |
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Bid on Chirac’s life: 1 held
Paris, July 14 Cries of alarm from the crowd lining the parade route apparently alerted the police, and the gunman fired a single shot as he was wrestled to the ground. Agents made him stand up, searched him and took him away in a van. The police said in a statement that the man was about 25 years old and was a member of a “neo-Nazi” and hooligan groups. Chirac crushed far-right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen in presidential elections in May. Members of the crowd said the man, who had short brown hair and looked to be in his thirties, took his gun out of a guitar case as the French President was being driven past, down the Champs-Elysees aboard an open jeep. Paris police said the gun was a .22 calibre. The guitar case was brown. It was not known whether Chirac was aware of the gunman. The military parade, a colourful pageant with troops, armoured vehicles and aircraft roaring overhead, continued uninterrupted. The parade is a highlight of celebrations marking Bastille Day, France’s national holiday. The man was arrested at the top of the Champs-Elysees where it empties into Place Charles de Gaulle, site of the famous Arc de Triumph. He managed to reach the flag-bedecked Champs-Elysees despite heavy security. Police lined the avenue and mingled with crowd along the route.
AP |
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Iran counters
US criticism
Tehran, July 14 Mr Bush on July 12 denounced Iran’s “uncompromising, destructive policies” and expressed the USA’s support for Iranians rallying behind a popular cleric who resigned last week in protest against the influence of hard-line clerics.
AP |
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LTTE holds two foreign monitors Colombo, July 14 The guerrillas did not allow the members of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) to leave the trawler they were navigating close to the islet of Iranativu off the northwestern coast of the island. Trond Furuhovde, the Norwegian head of the SLMM, called it “a serious violation” of the February ceasefire agreement brokered by Oslo between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. He described it as “a major blow to the trust of the SLMM in the LTTE” and said “this kind of behaviour is extremely counter-productive to the success we have had so far”. A SLMM statement said the Sri Lanka navy had Saturday intercepted two trawlers, at least one with Indian registration, which had entered Sri Lankan territorial waters in Palk Straits. One trawler slipped away by entering shallow waters where the navy’s fast patrol boats cannot navigate. SLMM members and navy personnel boarded the other trawler while it was close to Iranativu islet. The four LTTE rebels on board refused to leave the craft and leave it with the navy. When they started moving the boat towards mainland, the two naval personnel jumped off but “the two SLMM naval monitors were held against their will by LTTE cadres and hindered from leaving the trawler,” the statement said. The monitors were dropped off at Devil’s Point on the coast and later taken to the LTTE’s headquarters in Kilinochchi before being released on Sunday morning. SLMM has personnel from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland supervising the Oslo-brokered bilateral truce. The pact has halted all military offensives but the navy is empowered to stop the LTTE smuggling weapons into the island.
IANS |
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India decries kidney removal of Keralite Dubai, July 14 The protest letter was handed over yesterday by Indian Embassy Charge d’ Affaires S.L. Sagar to Foreign Ministry Assistant Under-Secretary for Political Affairs and International Cooperation Ahmed Al Haddad. D. Vinod Kumar, 28, who was critically injured in a road accident in Manama on June 27, was certified brain-dead by three separate teams of doctors on July 3 and 4.
UNI |
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3m US teenagers ‘have suicidal bent’
Washington, July 14 More than 13 per cent of young Americans between 14 and 17 years considered suicide in 2000, the report from the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found. Only 36 per cent of them had received mental health treatment or counselling, SAMHSA said. Depression is the main cause of suicide, SAMHSA administrator Charles Curie said in a statement. “We need to help teenagers make the link between untreated depression and the risk for suicide, and help them identify serious depression or suicide risk in a friend,” Mr Curie said. More than one-third of the 3 million teenagers aged 12 to 17 who said they thought about suicide in the past 12 months actually tried it, according to the survey.
Reuters |
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Paris, July 14
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