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Monday,
September 29, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Commonwealth
extends shut out order on Pak 18 Maoists
among 23 killed in Nepal
Saddam’s
missiles found: US troops No
compromise on N. programme: Iran |
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Musharraf’s
remarks rile Daniel Pearl’s parents Pak
outburst may jeopardise SAARC Summit RAW
behind blast, says Pak police Pakistan
bids adieu to Nasarullah Khan
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Commonwealth extends shut out order on Pak
New York, September 28 Making it clear that more needed to be done to restore democracy in Pakistan, the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group yesterday said in its decision that Pakistani Parliament remains deadlocked over the legal framework orders, which are an obstacle to the country’s full return to democracy. External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha also attended the meeting. Pakistan was suspended from the Commonwealth after President Pervez Musharraf toppled the democratically-elected Nawaz Sharif government and established a military rule. The group had received a letter from former Prime Minister and Pakistan Peoples’ Party chief Benazir Bhutto, saying that suspension should not be lifted as it would help maintain pressure on the military regime to return the country to democracy. President Musharraf’s government has been campaigning for lifting of suspension. The grouping said it hopes that the ongoing negotiations between the government and the Opposition would lead to an agreement on all outstanding issues in the spirit of Commonwealth parliamentary practices. If such an agreement is reached, the group would recommend lifting of Pakistan’s suspension from the Commonwealth, it said.
— PTI |
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18 Maoists among 23 killed in Nepal
Kathmandu, September 28 Twelve maoist militants were killed yesterday in a clash with security forces at Chhitapokhari in Khotang district of eastern Nepal, the Radio Nepal said quoting defence ministry sources. The Maoists were killed when the police patrol team retaliated to an attack by the rebels. The security forces also recovered socket bombs, pipe bombs and a large amount of logistic materials from the site of the clash, it said. Similarly, security forces killed four others in an encounter in the Dhading and Panchthar districts, respectively, and one insurgent each was killed in Nuwakot and Ramechhap districts, the radio added. In the Baseri area of Dhading district, the rebels retaliated by killing a security personnel, it said. In another incident, two policemen and a local woman were killed when a group of Maoists opened fire indiscriminately at the policemen on duty at a vehicle check post at Jaljale in Udayapur district yesterday. The radio said. Meanwhile, the Nepal Government today ended a 27-day ban on public gatherings in Kathmandu, saying that the threat by Maoist rebels had eased, although 18 more deaths were reported in fighting across the kingdom. “The prohibition order has been withdrawn from the Kathmandu Valley as the situation is under control now,” a home ministry spokesman said.
— PTI |
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Saddam’s missiles found: US troops Tikrit, (Iraq), September 28 A US military spokesman described the haul as one of the most significant weapons seizures of recent weeks and a sign of how Saddam loyalists were still equipped to pose a threat to US forces. He said 23 SA-7 (surface-to-air missiles) were found besides as 1,000 pounds of plastic explosives, 500 hand grenades, dozens of mortar bombs and hundreds of detonators. Also discovered were rocket-propelled grenades similar to those used yesterday in an attack on a Baghdad hotel housing officials of Iraq’s US-led administration.
— Reuters |
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No compromise on N. programme: Iran Dubai, September 28 “Abandoning nuclear activities or enrichment is not something that Iran is ready to compromise on,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi was quoted as saying ahead of a visit this Thursday by representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to discuss the legal and technical issues concerning non-proliferation treaty. Iran and the IAEA are at loggerheads over signing the additional protocol to non-proliferation treaty. “We don’t have anything to hide, because we do not have a programme for producing nuclear weapons. Therefore, we are ready to be quite transparent. But, we cannot let others deny our rights,” Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told The Washington Post.
— PTI |
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Musharraf’s remarks rile Daniel Pearl’s parents Toronto, September 28 Reached at their home in California yesterday, Pearl’s parents denounced the suggestion that their son somehow shared responsibility for his own death. Judea Pearl said Musharraf was obviously “trying to exonerate himself and the people he works with, the ISI.” Musharraf, during a special session Friday of the Commons foreign affairs committee, was asked about reporter’s slaying last year. He replied that the death was a very sad case — but it came about because Pearl fell in with groups that had dangerous connections.
— PTI |
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Pak outburst may jeopardise SAARC Summit Zurich, September 28 General Musharraf and his officials began and ended their visit by defending themselves for shielding terrorists, whether indigenous or of the Taliban. Kashmir was not a cause, it was a tool for General Musharraf. He used the tool to insult India in every media interview he gave in his four days in New York. India knew that this would be his tactic and reacted in a manner that frustrated the General — it refused to react. The Indian Foreign Secretary termed Pakistan’s raising of the Kashmir issue as Pakistan’s annual itch — nothing more nothing less. In passing, he even mentioned that the neighbouring country needed to fast before coming to the UN to raise the Kashmir issue, meaning that introspection before an event of significance or the failure to do so could have far-reaching consequences on the fragile relationship. Pakistan had no clue that India would not react in a similar abusive manner, not even when General Musharraf, hours before leaving New York, said India was the mother of all terrorism. The Prime Minister reacted by saying it was most regrettable that such words were being used in a debate. It did not bode well for bilateral relations, he cautioned. In the next three months, attention would be focused on whether General Musharraf made any more intemperate comments, which could cast a shadow of doubt about the Indian Prime Minister’s visit to the Pakistani capital for the SAARC Summit. Diplomats who had observed Indo-Pak mud slinging in the past at the UN said India’s calibrated and cautious response was indicative of the fact that India would not be provoked into
one-upmanship with a country that had acknowledged that the world’s most wanted man roamed in its streets, terrorist training camps operated in its interiors and it had encouraged secessionists in its neighbouring country. Sources said the restraint in the face of a barrage of insults hurled by the Pakistani President and his five-member team in three days was an example of how a country ought to conduct itself at multilateral forum. Neither at the heads of government level, nor at the minister and foreign secretary level talks, did the Indian side make intemperate remarks.
— ANI |
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RAW behind blast, says Pak police
Karachi, September 28 Sindh province police chief Syed Kamal Shah said India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) secret service could be behind the blast, which follows a string of arrests of Malaysian and Indonesian students, including a brother of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) alleged top operative Hambali, in Karachi. “RAW could be behind the blast to give a bad name to Pakistan and portray Karachi as a troubled city after the President’s visit to the USA,” Sindh police chief Syed Kamal Shah told reporters late yesterday.
— AFP |
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Pakistan
bids adieu to Nasarullah Khan Islamabad, September 28 Thousands of grief-striken people attended the funeral of the 85-year-old politician, who was laid to rest at his home town at Khangarh near Lahore. The funeral prayers were led by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, a senior leader of Islamist alliance Muthahida Majlis Amal, which closely co-ordinated its agitation Musharraf’s rule with the 15 party ARD headed by Nasarullah Khan. “Democracy in Pakistan has been orphaned with Khan’s death,” Mr Rehman said.
— PTI |
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US troops said they had found
surface-to-air missiles and hundreds of other weapons, including plastic
explosives buried in an orchard near Saddam Hussein’s hometown today.
