Thursday, May 29, 2003, Chandigarh, India
Updated at 3:00 am (IST)

Atal rejects fresh decision on Kashmir

Berlin, May 28 Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today rejected suggestions for taking a fresh decision on Jammu and Kashmir as the people of the troubled state have rejected the talk of independence by voting overwhelmingly in last year’s Assembly elections and believed German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder would persuade Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to stop cross-border terrorism along with reaffirming India’s readiness to talk on all issues, including Kashmir.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder pose for the media in front of German Parliament Reichstag in Berlin on Wednesday. — Reuters photo

PM to retire if talks fail
BERLIN DIARY: German students recite Vajpayee’s poem

Blackwill's assurance
Pervez visit

BJP for mosque at temple’s side
Rampur (UP) May 28
Lashing out at the Congress for treating minorities as a vote bank, the BJP today charged the main opposition party with adopting double standards on the Ayodhya issue. It advocated the construction of a mosque adjacent to the Ram temple in Ayodhya and reservation for the economically most backward among the upper castes.

Fire on another train
Miraculous escape for passengers
Jalalabad, May 28
Passengers of 7FF train coming from Ferozepore to here had a miraculous escape, when a fire suddenly broke out in the engine of the train and soon spread to three other coaches. According to eyewitnesses the engine of the train caught fire at around 3 pm when the train was crossing Jiwaan Arian station, 10 km from here.

The charred engine and three coaches of the passenger train which caught fire between Ferozepore and Jalalabad on Wednesday. No one was injured.

Custodial death: 2 Army men held guilty
Srinagar, May 28
The Jammu and Kashmir Human Rights Commission (JKHRC), has held two Army officers responsible for the custodial death of Hilal Ahmad Nasti and recommended an ex-gratia payment of Rs 5 lakh to his family.

Rights violators will be punished: GOC
Srinagar, May 28
General Officer Commanding (GOC) 15 Corps Lt-Gen V.G. Patankar, admitting that things sometime did go wrong, today firmly asserted that human rights violators would have to face the law of the land.

Unity clinched, only announcement left: Badal
Ludhiana, May 28
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president and former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said unity between his party and the Sarb Hind Shiromani Akali Dal (SHSAD) led by Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra has been clinched and now only a formal announcement has to be made.