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Friday,
September 20, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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19 Al-Qaida militants held in Karachi India ‘buying’ neighbours: Pervez Positive start to J&K poll: USA |
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9/11 attack: Indian to be freed after time served
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Separatist Sikhs’
convention today Bill to nip Chandrika’s powers tabled
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19 Al-Qaida militants held in Karachi Islamabad, September 19 Interior Minister, Moinuddin Haider said 19 militants of Harkatul Jihad al Alami had been arrested in overnight raids in Karachi yesterday and were being questioned for their suspected role in Pearl’s kidnapping and the June 14 attack on the US consulate. “We are taking steps to end terrorism from Pakistan,” Haider told reporters at the opening of a two-day seminar on peace and security in South Asia at the Institute of Strategic Studies (ISS) adding that “terrorist hideouts would be raided wherever found. “The government was following a scorched earth policy against terrorists,” he said adding that the raids against the suspected terrorist were conducted solely by Pakistani security forces and the American Federal Bureau of Investigation provided only technical assistance. Musharraf’s spokesman Brig Rashid Qureshi, denied a TV report that the arrested militants had made an attempt to assassinate the military ruler during his visit to Karachi two days ago. Observing that militants used e-mail for communication, Haider said, “It was difficult for Pakistani agencies to track e-mails where FBI provides assistance.” Another militant arrested after a shootout in Karachi last week was a suspect in the murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl, but there was no concrete evidence. He said the authorities estimated 57 al-Almi members were in the port city, 19 of whom were under arrest. Three are on trial for the June 14 consulate bombing. Security officials were interrogating seven “most wanted terrorists”, one of whom is suspected of masterminding a suicide car bombing which killed 11 French engineers. The government said the seven persons it described as “most wanted terrorists” were arrested during a six-hour operation in different areas of Karachi yesterday. A large quantity of arms and ammunition, including explosives, grenades and rockets, was seized, it said in a statement. Police sources identified two of them as Sharib and Mufti Zubair, who were arrested at a house in the southern Bahadurabad district yesterday. They were living in an apartment block and had secretly installed a rocket launcher on the rooftop, the sources said.
PTI, AFP |
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India ‘buying’ neighbours: Pervez Islamabad, September 19 “Over the years India has developed an extraordinary doctrine of bilateralism, which seeks to buying its neighbours to a one-to-one relationship with it to resolve differences exclusively through bilateral negotiations,” General Musharraf said while addressing a two-day conference on “Peace and security in South Asia” here. He said New Delhi, through this “high-sounding mechanism” unabashedly leveraged its superiority on its smaller neighbours. India desires to mould South Asian relations to suit its own great power ambition and has unresolved bilateral differences with practically all its neighbours, General Musharraf claimed. Referring to the Indo-Pakistan tension, General Musharraf said Pakistan had made “major” commitments and taken significant steps to ease the current crisis. “India’s continued intransigence in the hope of further concessions is totally misplaced,” he said, adding that there would be no more “concessions” from Pakistan without New Delhi taking “substantive reciprocal steps” if it wanted to walk on the “high road” to peace. General Musharraf said the key to normalisation of the Indo-Pakistan relations lay in progress towards the resolution of the Kashmir issue. He said a principled resolution of the Kashmir issue in accordance with the wishes of Kashmiri people would unlock the doors of normalisation of ties. On allegations of Pakistan sponsoring cross-border terrorism, General Musharraf said Islamabad neither allowed, sponsored, nor encouraged any kind of movement across the LoC, the working boundary and international border. “Any claims to the contrary are motivated and false,” he said. Claiming that between 1998 and 2001 India purchased weapons worth seven billion dollars, General Musharraf said it increased its defence budget by 50 per cent and had earmarked $ 4.5 billion for defence purchases this year. He said Pakistan did not intend to get involved in an arms race and invited India to join in a competition to cut defence expenditure.
PTI |
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Positive start to J&K poll: USA Washington, September 19 Voting for the state Assembly, which is being boycotted by separatist parties, got under way on September 16 with the authorities reporting a turnout of more than 47 per cent. “We do have reporting from our US Embassy in New Delhi that indicates a positive start to the process,” said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher yesterday. “There was violence that was disturbing, but it was relatively at a low level. Against the sporadic violence and the threats that were issued, we actually applaud the courage of the voters who’ve chosen to participate in the first round of voting”, said Mr Boucher.
AFP |
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9/11 attack: Indian to be freed after time served New York, September 19 Thirtysix-year-old Mohammed Jaweed Azmath of Hyderabad was arrested a year ago on a train heading for San Antonio, Texas, along with a compatriot, Ayub Ali Khan, identified by the government as Syed Gul Mohammed Shah. Federal agents detained the men as the Amtrak train neared Fort Worth, Texas, on September 12, 2001, demanding they show identification and ordering both to open their luggage. Box-cutters similar to those used by the perpetrators of the September 11 suicide attacks were found inside, plus $ 5,500 in cash. Both men were eventually charged with operating a credit card fraud scheme, although the authorities failed to bring them before a judge until November 8, 57 days after their arrest, with charges finally brought last December. Yesterday, US District Court Judge Shira Sheindlin said the nine months in which Azmath was held in jail while the authorities investigated if he had ties with terrorism had been sufficient sentence. Sheindlin also ordered Azmath to pay back $ 76,000 in restitution for the money he stole.
AFP |
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Bush for maximum flexibility on Iraq Washington, September 19 Mr Bush was expected to send to Capitol Hill his language for a proposed resolution this morning. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the resolution would lay out Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s repeated violations of United Nations resolutions to destroy weapons of mass destruction. The resolution will ask Congress for ‘’maximum flexibility’’ with a specific endorsement for military action in the event it is needed, the official said. Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has suggested that a decision by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to leave the country and go into exile would help avoid US military action against Iraq. “Now, if Saddam Hussein and his family decided that the game was up and we’ll go live in some foreign country like other leaders have done,” Mr Rumsfeld said in an interview with PBS’s “The News Hour with Jim Lehrer” programme yesterday when asked what, if anything, could satisfy the administration of Mr Bush short of military action against Baghdad. “There have been any number of leaders who have departed recognising that the game was up, that it was over, that they had run their term. So that could happen,” said the Defence Secretary citing the examples of former Shah of Iran Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Ugandan President Idi Amin and Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier. Mr Rumsfeld said that, in his view, it was entirely possible that the people of Iraq could decide that Saddam Hussein’s time was up and change the regime from inside.
Reuters, AFP |
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Bomb blast in Israeli capital Jerusalem, September 19 The blast went off during lunch hour while the bus was on Allenby Street, in the heart of a restaurant and business district. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Yesterday’s attack, in which a suicide bomber blew himself at a bus stop in northern Israel and also killed an Israeli policeman, was claimed by the militant Islamic Jihad group. Today’s explosion went off just after 1 p.m. (1530 IST) outside one of the major synagogues in Tel Aviv. “We heard an explosion, very big,” a witness, identified only as Sarit, told Israel Army Radio. “We saw a large cloud of smoke and immediately lots of police came. People came out to help with first aid. We’re trying to give them water. We saw the front of the bus and it apparently caught on fire.” The blast scorched the bus and blew out its windows. One man with blood over his bare chest was wheeled away by paramedics. Another man sat on the sidewalk, crying.
AP |
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Separatist Sikhs’
convention today London, September 19 The convention at Wolverhampton in the Midlands, about 190 km north of London, is being organised by the Sikh Secretariat, a group formed last year by members of the All India Sikh Youth Federation and the Babber Khalsa, banned by the UK Government. The Sikh Secretariat is pursuing a separatist agenda in Britain rather than in Punjab. It does not want Sikhs to be categorised as Indians in Britain.
IANS |
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Bill to nip Chandrika’s powers tabled Colombo, September 19 Justice Minister W.J.M Lokubandara tabled the 19th amendment, which will make it impossible for the President to dissolve Parliament without the support of two-thirds of its members, officials said. The new legislative measure is not expected to be taken up for consideration and passage until next month, but the opposition People’s Alliance is likely to challenge it in the Supreme Court before that. The amendment is important for the ruling United National Party and its allies as they have made it clear that they cannot pursue their peace initiatives with the threat of arbitrary dissolution looming large over them. It needs a two-thirds majority in the 225-member House for passage, and the government is pinning its hopes on some 20 votes from the opposition ranks to bolster its numbers. The Sri Lanka Freedom Party, the main party in the PA, has threatened likely defectors with expulsion, but prominent PA dissidents are not worried. Senior rebel MP, Richard Pathirana, has repeatedly said the government would muster at least 20 Opposition votes.
PTI |
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100 Indian fishermen taken captive Colombo, September 19 A spokesman for the police in Mannar, 312 km north of Colombo, said irate local fishermen believed the Indians were poaching and captured 24 boats carrying 105 men last night.
AFP |
SHAHBAZ CONTESTS DISQUALIFICATION PAKISTANI WHO GAVE I-CARDS FLEES BHUTTO BLASTS MILITARY REGIME |
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