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Sikhs, Hindus make historic trip
ElBaradei, UN body share Nobel Peace Prize
Improve rights record, India told
Russian team in Pak for talks on gas pipeline
God told me to invade Iraq: Bush
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Gay men can be Catholic priests if celibate
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Sikhs, Hindus make historic trip to Muzaffarabad
Islamabad, October 7 The eight non-Muslims were among 24 new passengers from Jammu and Kashmir, who were travelling with 42 returning residents yesterday, according to media reports. This morning 20 new passengers left for Srinagar from Muzaffarabad, taking the total number of travellers from the PoK to 351 since the inception of the bus service, according to official figures. English Daily The Dawn quoted Jagdish Lal Tandon, 75, now settled in Jammu as saying he was 17 years old at the time of Partition in 1947. ''We were sent to the other side of the LoC by the International Committee for Red Cross six months after the Partition.'' Mr Jagdish arrived in PoK with his younger brother Basti Ram Tandon, 73, and son Subhash Tandon, 47, to meet their Muslim relatives in the town of Hattian Dopatta. ''Five of my cousins stayed back here and converted to Islam and it is their families whom we are visiting,'' he told the paper. Emotional scenes were witnessed on the occasion as the visitors and their relatives could not hold back their tears. ''My eyes can tell you how I am feeling today,'' Mr Jagdish said. Samina Mumtaz, wife of Mr Jagdish's nephew Sheikh Maqbool, said she was really excited to see the people whom she had heard quite often. Ms Mumtaz, a lecturer in Urdu, said her father-in-law was the first cousin of Mr Jagdish and would often talk about him. Mr Subhash, a businessman, said he had never imagined that he would one day be able to revisit the land of his forefathers. ''For the past 20 years we had been planning to visit this part of Kashmir through the Wagah border, but could not do so for one reason or the other. The bus service rekindled our hopes and we have made it today,'' he said. Mr Subhash said they had several inter-faith marriages in their family and, therefore, had not harboured any fears about the tour to this part of Kashmir. He said in future he would also bring his wife to show her the birthplace of his forefathers. PoK Prime Minister's adviser, Raja Farooq Haider Khan, also arrived at the bus terminal with his wife to welcome the visitors. Mr Khan's wife revealed that Mr Jagdish was a close friend of her father, Zafar Umar Khan. ''My late father would often remember Jagdish Sahib and he is already known to us,'' she told reporters. Sardar Autar Singh, a retired police officer in Jammu and Kashmir who was born near Muzaffarabad in 1941, said the visit was a long cherished desire. His views were echoed by Sardar Jameet Singh, 74, whom said he was equally eager to revisit his Rara village where he had spent 16 years of his life before the Partition. Mr Jameet Singh recalled that he was in Baramulla with his sister for admission in a college when the Partition occurred and tribesmen (from North Western Frontier Province) attacked his village and killed 25 members of his family. — UNI |
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ElBaradei, UN body share Nobel Peace Prize
Oslo, October 7 ElBaradei, an Egyptian lawyer, has headed the UN nuclear agency as it grappled with the crises in Iraq and the ongoing efforts to prevent North Korea and Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. “Everyone who has contributed to the IAEA has a part in this important prize,” Nobel committee chairman Geir Lundestad said as he announced the prize. The Nobel Committee was recognising “their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way.’’ ElBaradei and the agency had been among the favourites to win the prize in the dias leading up to the announcement as speculation mounted that the Nobel Committee would seek to honour the victims of nuclear weapons and those who try to contain their use. A record 199 nominations were received for the prize, which includes US $ 1.3 million, a gold medal and a diploma. ElBaradei and the IAEA will share the award when they receive it on December 10 in the Norwegian capital. In Vienna, where the agency is based, IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said: “This is the most proud moment of my career at the IAEA. I never thought we’d see this day. This is the proudest day for the IAEA. We are proud, astonished, elated. For an organisation like us there is no prouder award.”
— AP |
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Improve rights record, India told
Washington, October 7 The leader made these remarks at a hearing of the House International Relations Sub-committee on Global Human Rights and International Operations on “India’s Unfinished Agenda: Equality and Justice for 200 million victims of the caste system.” “As the world’s largest democracy, India must radically improve this terrible situation,” he said. “This hearing is important because it provides an opportunity for leaders in the struggle for human rights for India’s Dalits and tribals to describe the situation in India and to focus international attention to a problem that has oppressed millions of people,” Mr Smith added. He noted that while India’s government had made strides to open its economy and improve the lives of its citizens, the best laws in the world were useless unless there was vigorous enforcement. Enforcement of laws protecting human rights had been weak or non-existent, he said. We must not lose sight of India’s serious human rights problems. These problems have been amply documented in three State Department reports — the 2004 Human rights Report on India, the 2005 Report on Trafficking in Persons and the 2004 Report on Religious Freedom. All three, he said, were massive catalogues of human rights violations which the government of India condones, ignores and in some instances has even promoted. He said Dalits and tribesmen continued to suffer from the abhorrent practice of human trafficking. Over the years, many Dalits had converted from Hinduism to other faiths to escape widespread discrimination and to achieve higher social status. Converts to Christianity and Christian missionaries were particularly targeted as violence against Christians often went unpunished. Many states had adopted anti-conversion laws in violation of India’s constitutional protection for religious freedom, he noted. The leader said even though India had very good laws to protect the human rights of its citizens, it clearly needed to enact new and tougher legislation against human trafficking. “To keep nearly a quarter of one’s population in subhuman status is not only a grotesque violation of human rights, but is a formula for economic and political stagnation as well,” he said, adding that by
fulfilling its promises of equality and justice for all, India would also benefit in every way imaginable. — UNI |
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Russian team in Pak for talks on gas pipeline
Islamabad, October 7 Gazprom Chairman Alexey Miller Borisovich will meet President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Friday and sign a memorandum of understanding for the firm’s investment in the pipeline, gas storage, privatisation programme and LNG business. This is the first-ever visit to Pakistan by the Chairman of Gazprom — the world’s largest gas producing company with over 20 per cent share in global gas production. This time India is backing Gazprom to be part of the IPI project. Indian Oil Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar is understood to have discussed and welcomed Gazprom’s interest in the project during his visit to Russia last week. The IPI project is expected to yield between $ 8 billion and $ 21 billion in transit fee to Pakistan over a period of 30 years for allowing use of its territory to carry a 2,670-km gas pipeline. Gazprom with TotalFinaelf of France and Malaysian Petronas is the major shareholder of Iranian South Pars field, from where Iran will supply gas to Pakistan and India through the pipeline. The Russian energy giant has already held numerous rounds of talks with authorities in Iran and India to lead or at least become an active player in the consortium to lay a 2,670-km gas pipeline from Iran to India through Pakistan. The government officials attach great significance to the Gazprom chief’s visit to Pakistan within a month of the second meeting of the Pakistan-India Joint Working Group (JWG) on the pipeline project. Pakistan had established through Gazprom in the early 1960s its largest exploration and development company now called the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited. |
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God told me to invade Iraq: Bush
London, October 7 He made the claim when he met Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and then Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath in June 2003. The US leader also told them he had been ordered by God to create a Palestinian State, the ministers said. Mr Shaath said: “President Bush said all of us: ‘I’m driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, ‘George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan’.”
— AFP |
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Gay men can be Catholic priests if celibate
Vatican City, October 7 But the Vatican will ban men “who publicly manifest their homosexuality” or show an “attraction” to homosexual culture, “even if it is only intellectually,” Corriere added. “Candidates who show a homosexual tendency will not be allowed into priesthood unless they can demonstrate that they have been able to remain chaste for at least three years,” report said.
— Reuters |
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