M A I N   N E W S

ISI recruiting youths from UP
Biswajeet Banerjee

Lucknow, September 22
If police reports are to be believed then the Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI, has started the recruitment of poor youths from the minority community in the name of “jehad”. Family members of these families are being given money and the youths are being taken to the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir for training.

The fact though known to police officials was kept a close secret. Raffiq Ansari, a resident of Bahraich village complained to the police that some persons had taken away his son on the name of protecting Islam and in turn the family had been paid Rs 50,000.

Ansari said he was approached by a local Maulana who asked him to send his son for three years in the service of Islam. The Maulana had come to his residence along with a man named Masood Bhai. “I got swayed by their greasy words. Now I want my son back,” Ansari has said in the report.

He has even offered to return the money and asked the police to launch a search for his 14-year-old son.

Raffiq is not alone. There are over 100 families in Bahraich and Gonda districts, bordering Nepal, who had sent their sons to some unidentified place. According to Ansari, many of their family members have started the search for their sons and many of them have been told that they are in Pakistan.

In a confidential report, the Uttar Pradesh police admitted that 24 districts of the state were affected by such terrorist activities and majority of these districts are in the eastern part of the state. The reports even confirm that in the Uttar Pradesh-Nepal border, number of mosques has increased by manifold in last 10 years. Not only these some families have acquired riches in no times in those areas.

Giving reason for sudden increase in ISI activities in the Terai region, a senior police official said after September 11 attacks and subsequent US attack on Afghanistan, Afghan and Arab terrorists have stopped taking interest in Kashmir. Faced with this sudden volte-face by Arab terrorists, the ISI is left with no option but to recruit youth from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and push them in terrorist activities in India.

The police has started vigil around the Indo-Nepal border and has sent its report to the Ministry of Home Affairs for further action.

Blast kills 16 in Hardoi
Our Correspondent

Lucknow, September 22
A blast ripped a three-wheeler near Madhavganj in Hardoi district, killing 14 persons (16 according to PTI) on the spot and injuring four others. The injured have been shifted to the district hospital where their condition is stated to be serious. Among those killed are three women and two children.

The incident occurred at around 3.10 p.m. The three-wheeler was overloaded and was going to Madhavganj, about 12 km from the Hardoi district headquarters. It is said to be one of the major incidents of this nature in this district. Senior police officials, including the DGP have rushed to the spot.

According to a report, the intensity of the blast was so high that the vehicle was reduced to smithereens.

DIG, Lucknow Range, Arun Kumar, who visited the spot, said the explosion occurred while the tempo laden with fire crackers was crossing the railway line.

He said prima facie it was concluded accident was not a result of criminal, communal or terrorist activities but was a mere accident.

Mr Kumar said fire crackers were produced on a large- scale in Mallawan town of Hardoi.