The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Special to the tribune Shyam Bhatia in London UK’s anti-terror strategy a ‘failure’ British police failures to engage with local Pakistani families have been highlighted following the conviction of three Islamic extremists who planned a bombing campaign against UK targets. British-born Pakistanis “Mota” (146 kg) Irfan Naseer, and co-conspirators “Chhota” Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali have each been convicted on 12 counts of committing acts in preparation for a terrorist attack. Born and brought up in the city of Birmingham, north of London, the three men were planning eight suicide bombings, as well as gun and poison attacks. As India’s intelligence agencies try to discover the perpetrators of Thursday’s bomb atrocities, the conviction of these three Birmingham bombers is a useful reminder that terrorism does not respect any national or international boundaries. It remains to be seen who was behind the Hyderabad bombings, but UK intelligence experts say the Pakistani masterminds who trained the Birmingham trio were also behind the attacks on India’s Parliament and other urban centres. Naseer, Khalid and Ai made at least two lengthy visits to Pakistan in recent years, visiting the North-West frontier, where they were trained in bomb-making, and Karachi, where they attended two mosques with links to the Jaish-e-Mohammad and the Lashkar-e-Toiba. Their plan was to disrupt last year’s London Olympics and wreck Queen Elizabeth II’s diamond jubilee celebrations. It was when they returned from their last trip to Pakistan that British spooks decided to bug their homes and cars. In one of the recorded conversations “Mota” Naseer talks about the destructive effects of a one-kg bomb. “One kg will make the kuffars’ ‘pishab’ come out,” he says. “Probably die of heart attack because of the noise.” He goes on to describe British women as “slags” and “whores”, saying they want to have “sex like donkeys on the street”. As for the rest of the British population, he comments: “Pigs, you know those red-nose bastards. I hate them.” Counter-terrorism experts say if the men had carried out their planned attacks-aimed at soldiers and civilians-they would have turned 2012 into a year of shambles. What has really worried opinion-makers is that the friends and families of the convicted men made no effort to tip-off the authorities, even though their nefarious aims were widely suspected. One small consolation is that the families of the three pressured them into returning home from Pakistan-evidence that Birmingham’s Pakistani Muslim community was keen to “self police” the problem. But the community’s reluctance to contact the authorities shows the British Government’s failure to overcome the sense of alienation that prevails in Birmingham’s Muslim heartland. Awareness of this sense of alienation prompted the government to invest tens of millions of pounds in a failed strategy called “Prevent”, which was meant to build bridges with local Muslims in Birmingham. Commenting on this failed strategy, Dr Usama Hasan of the London-based Quilliam Foundation was quoted as saying, “Millions of pounds has gone to Birmingham in ‘Prevent’ but it seems much more needs to be done to persuade people to open up. This is a community which isn’t integrated. The police is often seen as outsider and the state as the enemy-that sort of feeling is very influential.” THE plan that failed Families of the convicted men made no effort to tip-off the authorities, even though their nefarious aims were widely suspected The community's reluctance to contact the authorities is being seen as the British Government's failure to overcome the sense of alienation that prevails among Muslims The British Government had invested tens of millions of pounds on a strategy called "Prevent" to build bridges with local Muslims
	Afghanistan not to hand over Maulvi Faqir to Pakistan Islamabad, February 22 Afghanistan today refused to hand over senior Pakistani Taliban commander Maulvi Faqir Mohammad hours after Islamabad requested his extradition following his capture by Afghan forces. Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar had taken up the handing over of Faqir Mohammad during a phone conversation with her Afghan counterpart Zalmai Rassoul on Wednesday night but Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Musazai ruled out his extradition. The Taliban commander was captured by Afghan intelligence operatives in the eastern part of Afghanistan on Monday. During a weekly news briefing yesterday, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Moazzam Khan had said: "We hope that he would be handed over to Pakistan as soon as possible because he has the blood of many innocent Pakistanis on his hands." Hours later, the Afghan Foreign Ministry shot down Pakistan's request, saying there was no agreement between the two countries for exchanging prisoners. The Afghan government's investigation into the recent capture of Mohammad "is still ongoing", Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Musazai said. In a statement, Musazai indicated the refusal might be a tit-for-tat move as Pakistan had rejected Afghanistan's request to hand over certain Afghan Taliban prisoners during a recent tripartite summit in London. — PTI
	Damascus bombings toll reaches 90 Beirut, February 22 Ninety people died in Thursday's four bombings across Damascus, a violence monitoring group said, making it one of the bloodiest days in the Syrian capital since the outbreak of a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad nearly two years ago. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, quoting figures it said were compiled from hospitals and other medical sources, said at least 60 of the dead were killed in a powerful car bomb blast in the Mazraa district of central Damascus, near the Russian Embassy and offices of Assad's ruling Baath Party. The others were killed in three coordinated bombings in the north-eastern district of Barzeh, the Britain-based group said. Syrian state media put the death toll from the Mazraa bombing at 53, with more than 200 wounded. Both activists and officials said most of those killed were civilians, including children. In addition to the violence in the capital, more than 200 people were killed elsewhere including in the Damascus suburbs, the southern city of Deraa and northern commercial hub of Aleppo, bringing Thursday's death to around 300 - one of the highest in a single day, the Observatory said. The United Nations says 70,000 people have died in Syria's conflict, the bloodiest and most protracted of the uprisings which have convulsed the Arab world in the last two years. Russia, a staunch ally of Assad's, accused the United States on Friday of having double standards over the violence in Syria, saying Washington had blocked a U.N. Security Council statement condemning the Mazraa car bomb. "We ... see in it a very dangerous tendency by our American colleagues to depart from the fundamental principle of unconditional condemnation of any terrorist act, a principle which secures the unity of the international community in the fight against terrorism," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. There has been no claim of responsibility for the attacks, but the al Qaeda-linked hardline rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra has said it has carried out dozens of attacks in the past year, including devastating bombings in Damascus and Aleppo. — Reuters
	Kerry reaffirms value of ties with India Says he is looking forward to take India-US relationship to a new high during his stint Washington, February 22 Newly appointed US Secretary of State John Kerry today met visiting Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai and stressed that there would be no change in India-US relationship, which he is looking forward to take a step forward during his stint at the Foggy Bottom. During his brief meeting with Mathai, Kerry said that he is looking forward to not only his visit to India for the Strategic Dialogue this summer, but also an earlier one-o-one meeting with his Indian counterpart Salman Khurshid. Officials of the two countries would now work on the dates of a possible early Washington visit of Khurshid. India is believed to have proposed June 17 as the date for Strategic Dialogue for which Kerry would be travelling to New Delhi. None of the dates have been confirmed yet. Soon after his meeting with Mathai, Kerry wrote his first tweet as the Secretary of State. "Saw friend/Foreign Secretary Mathai- discussed importance of relationship w/#India, expressed sympathies to brave people of #Hyderabad -JK," Kerry wrote on the micro blogging site under his personal signature JK, which stands for John Kerry. According to sources familiar with the meeting, Kerry "reaffirmed the importance he attaches to relationship with India" and noted that he is looking forward to further strengthening the bilateral ties. "He was conscious of the need that there would be no change in relationship (with him being the Secretary of State). He stressed that," sources said, adding that the Secretary of State seemed "keen to engage" with India. Briefing Kerry on the status of the relationship, Mathai is understood to have told him that cooperation in the energy sector (in particular clean energy and shell gas) and education could be the next big ticket item or game changers for the India-US ties. Mathai had a series of meetings throughout the day including those with Deputy Secretary William Burns, wherein the two diplomats reviewed the ties including defence, while Under Secretary of State for Energy, Economic Growth and the Environment Robert Hormats hosted him for lunch during which the two delegations discussed economic and trade issues. Soon after meeting Kerry, Mathai had a three-hour long meeting with Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy R Sherman, during which they discussed a whole range of bilateral, and regional issues, setting the tone for the second term of the Obama Administration, which sources described as "very very substantive". A State Department spokesperson, familiar with the talks, said Sherman and Mathai "enjoyed a warm and positive" meeting today at the State Department. "The Under Secretary and Foreign Secretary discussed a broad range of issues, including our bilateral cooperation on energy, climate change, defense, civil nuclear issues, education, regional dynamics, and joint collaboration in Afghanistan, Africa and Asia. Both look forward to another round of the US-India Strategic Dialogue later this year," the State Department spokesperson said. Earlier in the day, Mathai, in his address to the Carnegie Endowment, a Washington-based eminent American think tank, yesterday said, "Our mutual investment in the India-US partnership is actually all about making our people safer and more prosperous," "It is also about jointly addressing the growing complexities of a world in which the people of India and their American partners face many of the same global challenges. And it is in working towards addressing this strategic reality that our partnership will be defined in the decades ahead," Mathai said. — PTI
	India: ‘Forward movement’ in resolving crisis over Nasheed Male, February 22 India today said there was "forward movement" in the resolution of the situation arising out of Mohamed Nasheed remaining holed up in the Indian mission for the tenth day even as Maldivian Prosecutor General stood firm and ruled out dropping charges against the ex-President. The "forward movement" came after a high-level team, headed by Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs and officials of its legal division, arrived in Male two days ago and met with top Maldivian ministers and various other stakeholders in a bid to end the stalemate. "These interactions have provided some forward movement and the team continues to work further on the available inputs so that the matter could be resolved to satisfaction," the Indian High Commission said in a statement here. From February 20, 2013, when they arrived, the delegation along with the High Commissioner D M Mulay, have held discussions with several senior representatives of the Maldivian government, leaders of all major political parties and heads of independent institutions. "The delegation has received cooperation from the Government of Maldives and all other stakeholders, who have agreed to work in the spirit of understanding and the close cooperation that exists between the two countries," it said. The statement came even as Prosecutor General Ahmed Muizzu said despite discussions with Shringla, no decision has been made to drop the charges against Nasheed. Muizzu insisted that he is not even considering to drop the charges against Nasheed, according to a daily here. When asked whether Shringla had pushed to drop the charges against Nasheed, Muizzu said "we all know what their stand is don't we?" But he refused to publicly comment on the subject. Muizzu further said the decision to delay Nasheed's trial was up to the court and stressed he would not interfere in the matter, the daily said. President Mohamed Waheed had yesterday refused to meet the Indian foreign office team citing "busy schedule". Nasheed has been in the Indian Mission since February 13 to evade arrest after he failed to appear in court on charges of detaining Chief Criminal Judge Abdulla Mohamed while he was president, which his party considers politically motivated and designed to disqualify him from politics. — PTI Male turmoil The ‘forward movement’ has come after a team, headed by HV Shringla, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, arrived in Male two days ago and met top Maldivian ministers and various other stakeholders in a bid to end the stalemate Mohamed Nasheed remains holed up in the Indian mission for the tenth day The Maldivian prosecutor general has ruled out dropping charges against the former President
	China provides Rs 136-bn loan for Pak N-plants Islamabad, February 22 China has provided a loan of Rs 136 billion for two nuclear power plants that Pakistan expects to commission by 2016, the state-run media reported today. The power plants of 340MW each are being built with Chinese assistance at the Chashma nuclear complex in Punjab province. The "construction of these power plants became possible after a long-standing agreement", official sources said. The total cost of the two plants is Rs 190 billion and these will be partially funded by a Chinese loan of Rs 136 billion. The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission has allocated Rs 34.6 billion for the C3 and C4 nuclear plants at Chashma. — PTI