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Jawans' killing: India rejects Pak demand for UN probe
New Delhi/ Islamabad: India on Thursday outrightly rejected Pakistan’s proposal for UN investigation into Tuesday’s incident
at the Line of Control (LoC) in which two Indian soldiers were killed, with the body of one being badly mutilated.
The issue figured at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) which was briefed by Defence Minister A K Antony on the incident in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch sector on January 8 and subsequent developments.
“We are certainly not going to agree to internationalise the issue or allow the United Nations to hold an inquiry. That demand is obviously rejected out of hand,” Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told a press conference after the meetings of the Union Cabinet and CCS in New Delhi.
Pakistan had yesterday claimed that its troops were not involved in the attack carried out inside the Indian territory in Mendhar area of Jammu and Kashmir and said it was prepared to hold investigation through the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP). UNMOGIP has presence on both sides of LoC.
“We take a serious view of what happened...Whatever has to be done will be done,” Chidambaram said while describing the incident as brutal.
He noted that Pakistan High Commissioner Salman Bashir had been summoned by the Ministry of External Affairs yesterday and a protest lodged.
Chidambaram, who is a member of CCS presided by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, asserted that Indian troops had committed no violation of the ceasefire agreement as claimed in a media report.
He said the conduct of the Indian troops was within the guidelines that were agreed upon by the two countries.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said the action of Pakistani troops was inhuman and the government had taken the matter seriously.
“It was inhuman. We have condemned it,” he said.
Meanwhile, Pakistan today hoped that the ceasefire violations along the Line of Control would not be a set back to the peace process with India.
“You asked whether this will be a set back or derail the (peace) process. I hope not and I (do not) see it derailing or setting back the process,” Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said during a news conference at the Foreign Office in Islamabad this afternoon.
“I hope both the countries will show their commitment to correct (the situation) as we are showing our commitment to correct,” she said in response to a flurry of questions about two clashes along the LoC that left one Pakistani and two Indian soldiers dead.
Khar reiterated Pakistan’s offer to have the clashes investigated by the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan.
“We have asked for (a probe by) UNMOGIP and conveyed to the Indian side that this is an option which is on the table because we clearly have nothing to hide. We would want a third party to investigate the matter and set the record straight,” she said.
She said the two countries have mechanisms in place to deal with “challenges like the one we have been faced with in the last week...so that we can continue as normal neighbours”.
As part of these efforts, the Directors General of Military Operations of the two countries had been in contact and a protest had been lodged by Pakistan’s Foreign Office with the Indian Deputy High Commissioner, she said.
Khar repeatedly said that the government and people of Pakistan were committed to normalising relations with India and ruled out an official response to every statement being made by Indian political leaders on the clashes along the LoC.
“The Pakistan government and the Pakistani people have demonstrated a deep, abiding commitment to normalise and improve relations with India and to really start a journey of trust-building,” she said.
The Pakistan People’s Party-led government, she said, had been "walking the talk on giving India very pragmatic and specific messages, for instance through trade normalisation and visa liberalisation".
The Pakistan government is “leading towards a track which is of trust-building and normalising this region which has been very unstable because of irresponsible actions and statements”, Khar said.
The government would not do anything that would promote or contribute to instability, she added.
Khar said Pakistan had been “a bit appalled and unpleasantly surprised to see such strong statements emanating four days after (a Pakistani soldier) lost his life” in a clash along the LoC on Sunday.
She said it was also “unfortunate” that there were “contradictory statements” from Indian Army officials on whether an Indian soldier had been decapitated.
However, she acknowledged that there was now “a sense of trying to de-escalate on their (Indian) side from those statements and I think that is the right way to go”. — PTI
Docs detect bomb planted by Naxals inside
the body of killed CRPF trooper
RANCHI: Maoists cut open the stomach of a dead trooper to plant a bomb inside which was defused after doctors conducting an autopsy raised an alarm, police said on Thursday.
Eleven Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed on Tuesday in an ambush by Maoists in Latehar district, 110 km from Ranchi. The bodies of four men were recovered only on Wednesday.
When the bodies were taken to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Science in Ranchi for autopsy, "doctors found a cut mark on the stomach of a dead CRPF man", a police official told IANS.
Suspecting a bomb had been thrust inside the stomach, the doctors called police. A bomb disposal squad defused it.
Additional forces sent later on Tuesday rescued some of the injured CRPF personnel and also recovered some bodies. The Maoists killed two villagers on charges of assisting the CRPF.
Police said the guerrillas lured the security personnel into a trap near Amuatikar village in Latehar by sending them fake messages.
It led to a gun battle between security forces and Maoists Monday afternoon. It continued till Wednesday.
The guerrillas fired at the unsuspecting security forces from a vantage point.
Maoists are active in 18 of Jharkhand's 24 districts. — IANS
Gang-rape case: HC accepts status report
after Delhi Police apology
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday accepted a fresh status report disclosing the names of police officials patrolling the area in which a 23-year-old girl was gangraped in a moving bus in Delhi, after the city police tendered apology for not disclosing the names earlier.
“I tender my unconditional apology for not giving names of the policemen who were on duty in the PCR vans concerned, though their names have figured in the charge sheet as they are witnesses in the case,” Dayan Krishnan, counsel for Delhi Police told a bench headed by Chief Justice D. Murugesan before filing the fresh status report.
“The status report says that police personnel deployed on the PCR vans are the witnesses in the case and the charge sheet has their names. So, what was the difficulty in showing their names in the status report? You should have told us this earlier,” the bench also comprising Justice
V.K. Jain remarked.
The court had taken strong exception on Wednesday to the fact that only a junior police officer was suspended in connection with the case and that senior officers, including the police commissioner, were not made accountable.
“Why only ACP, why not DCP, why not the Commissioner have been put to task?” the bench had remarked.
During the hearing, the court also said, “We direct the police officials to ensure removal of dark film/tinted glasses and curtains from the vehicles in Delhi without any delay.”
The court, meanwhile, asked the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to take immediate steps to increase the number of Police Control Room
(PCR) vans in the Capital to ensure better safety of citizens, including women.
“We are also of the view that the Central government should look into the said issue and total number of PCR vans be increased from existing 617,” the court said, adding that the role of such PCR vans should also be revisited to use them for proper patrolling purposes also.
Krishnan told the high court that at present out of 617 PCR vans, 74 are off-road due to various reasons, including for repairs, and a recommendation on the issue was also pending with the
MHA.
On this, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Rajeeve Mehra, appearing for
MHA, said he will take up the matter with the government for “immediate measures.”
The ASG also told the court that a one-member committee has been constituted and it would look into the entire incident and suggest measures within three months to prevent their recurrence in future.
“You please keep us posted about the developments. Let it not go beyond three months” the court said and fixed the matter for further hearing on January 31.
The issue of medical treatment given to the victims will be dealt with later, the court said.
During the hearing, advocate Meenakshi Lekhi moved a petition on behalf of some journalists assailing the gag order passed by a lower court prohibiting the media from reporting pre-trial and trial proceedings in the Delhi gang-rape case.
“The whole nation wants to know about the proceedings in the case and the media, which undertakes to act responsibly, should not be gagged,”
Lekhi said, criticising the order of a Saket court for holding “in-camera” trial of the case.
The court refused to tag the plea of Lekhi saying “we cannot widen the ambit of this petition and let your petition be filed before a single judge bench for hearing tomorrow.”
Earlier, the court had slammed the police for not giving the names of the policemen who were on patrol duty on the evening of December 16.
On December 19, the court had taken suo motu cognisance of the gang-rape incident and had decided to monitor its probe by directing police to carry an investigation of “high standard” and file the charge sheet only after the court’s perusal.
The paramedical student was raped and brutally assaulted before being thrown out of the moving vehicle along with her male friend. She later succumbed to her injuries in a Singapore hospital. — PTI
Chidambaram justifies rail fare hike
NEW DELHI: Justifying the hike in rail fares, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday said it was a “sound economic decision” given the financial health of railways.
Chidambaram also sought to make light the opposition criticism of the decision saying it was fair game for them to oppose the fare hike for the sake of opposition.
“I think these are sound economic decisions. I think we should not politicise these decisions. Of course, economic decisions are taken by a political government but they do not cease to be economic decisions,” he told reporters here.
“Railway fare hike is an economic decision. Railway fares have not been hiked for 10 years,” he further said.
Chidambaram also said there was no proposal before the Cabinet to increase diesel prices. — PTI
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