M A I N   N E W S

Pak cellphones active in Jammu
S.P. Sharma
Tribune News Service

Jammu, November 15
Fearing that terrorists might misuse the facility, the Defence Ministry took almost a year to give clearance to the BSNL to start its mobile phone service in Jammu and Kashmir two months ago, but two cellular service providers of Pakistan are now beaming their signals right into the heart of the city here from across the international border.

Anyone having a SIM card of these Pakistan cellular services can talk directly to his contacts there without being monitored anywhere in the telephone exchange here by Intelligence men.

In fact, signals of a Pakistan mobile service were reaching here at least three years before the BSNL introduced its service in this border state. Recently, another mobile service provider of that country has stepped up its range and is beaming its signals into the old city.

The mobile companies are learnt to have installed their towers in Sialkot town of Pakistan.

The security forces have recovered mobile phone sets from terrorists killed in various encounters. This indicates that the terrorists were using the facility to get in touch with their mentors, including ISI officers, across the border. Satellite telephones were recovered from some top militants killed while infiltrating here.

Intelligence sources suspect that with a large number of families having been divided during Partition, the opportunity could be misused, with the visitors smuggling SIM cards of that country as this would enable them to talk to their relatives and others across the border on local rates applicable there.

The Defence Ministry has laid the condition that the BSNL will not relay its mobile phone signals towards the villagers 10 km away from the border as a precautionary measure.

Pak bans regrouped militants

Islamabad, November 15
Pakistan, a staunch ally in the US-declared war on terror, slapped a new ban today on three outlawed Islamic militant organisations which had regrouped under new names.

The ban came two days after the US Ambassador to Pakistan voiced concern over the re-emergence of the militants groups.

‘’No militant or sectarian organisation will be allowed to function in Pakistan,’’ said an official statement reported by state-run APP news agency.

The decision to ban the three — a militant group active in Jammu and Kashmir and two organisations involved in domestic sectarian violence — came at a meeting attended by President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali.

The statement said the new ban was imposed on these organisations ‘’for flouting the earlier ban order’’.

Last year, Gen Musharraf banned five militant groups, including the Jaish-e-Mohammad and the Lashkar-e-Toiba, in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001 and an assault on the Indian parliament.

The new orders banned Khudam-ul Islam, formerly Jaish-e-Mohammad, and outlawed radical Sunni Muslim Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and rival Shi’te Muslim Tehrik-e-Jafria Pakistan groups which have also regrouped under new names.

The banned Lashkar-e-Toiba has been put on the ‘’watch list’’ of the country’s militant groups.