KATHMANDU: They shared the dais but leave alone a handshake, there was no exchange of courtesies between Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan during the nearly three-hour SAARC Summit in Kathmandu on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif, who were sitting two seats away from each other, did not look at each other even when Sharif crossed before and after delivering his speech at the 18th meeting of the eight-member regional bloc.

Leaders of Maldives and Nepal were seated between Modi and Sharif.

Though there is no “structured” meeting scheduled between the two leaders, a brief exchange of pleasantries was expected given that they would be attending the same conference and the retreat on Thursday.

On Tuesday, Sharif had sought to put the ball in India’s court for an initiative for talks, saying, “cancellation of talks was New Delhi’s unilateral decision,” and “ball is now India’s court for talks between both the countries”.

India maintained that it was for “meaningful dialogue” which involves specifics.

“We have been shouting from the top of the roof that we are ready for meaningful dialogue. The emphasis was on meaningful. The meaningful dialogue has a meaning in diplomacy. In Pakistan, they know it very clearly what we mean by meaningful dialogue as they know us and understand us. They know everything,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said when asked about Sharif’s remarks. 

Meanwhile, MEA Spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said,"We don't have any plan for a structured meeting between our Prime Minister and the Pakistani Prime Minister simply because we have not received a request to that extent."

He said Prime Minister Modi will have a series of bilateral meetings where he will discuss substantive issues with the SAARC colleagues.

"These will be substantive meetings and we will share with you outcomes of these meetings," he added.

Modi's official itinerary did not mention any structured meeting with Sharif and only gave details of his meetings with other SAARC heads of the government, including Presidents of Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Maldives as also Prime Ministers of Bangladesh and Bhutan. — PTI

Pakistan blocks 3 key connectivity agreements

KATHMANDU: Pakistan on Wednesday stalled the inking of SAARC connectivity agreements, including the motor vehicle pact, saying it was yet to complete its "internal process", notwithstanding other countries, including India and Sri Lanka, who have been strongly pitching for strengthening the people-to-people contact and movement of goods in the region.

While Pakistan's blocking has created "disappointment" in the Indian side, which had initiated these proposals, sources maintain that India has already initiated bilateral connectivity pacts with countries within SAARC and Tuesday's Motor Vehicle Agreement with Nepal was an example of that.

Stressing the need for better connectivity in the region, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his speech at the 18th SAARC summit said, "Our relations become stronger when we connect the lives of the ordinary citizens of our countries. That is why connectivity and services by rail and road are so important. We should also connect ourselves more by air."

He further said that "for India, our vision for the region rests on five pillars — trade, investment, assistance, cooperation in every area, contacts between our people — and, all through seamless connectivity."

Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa said better connectivity will help economic integration and will boost people-to-people contact in the region.

In her speech at the summit, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said her country was in favour of early signing of the regional motor vehicle and railway agreements and said the pacts will help trade.

On the connectivity pacts, external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said these agreements were discussed at various senior levels and there was no objection from any country but one state has indicated that they need approvals of their internal processes.

However, he did not divulge the name of the county. — PTI

SAARC Summit 
PM seeks concerted efforts to combat terrorism

KATHMANDU: On the sixth anniversary of 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today sought concerted efforts to combat terrorism and trans- national crimes which were identified as a major challenge by most of the SAARC leaders at the bloc's 18th Summit here.

"We feel the endless pain of lost lives. Let us work together to fulfill the pledge we have taken to combat terrorism and trans-national crimes," the Prime Minister said, remembering the victims of Mumbai terror attacks that left 166 people dead and hundred of others injured.

During his nearly 30-minute speech at the Summit, Modi echoed the views of Presidents of Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, which described the menace of terrorism as "fundamental challenge, both regionally and internationally." Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said neutralising of terrorists groups in Sri Lanka in May 2009 vastly changed the environment in the region.

"Terrorism still remains fundamental security challenge both regionally and internationally. Sri Lanka cannot remain complacent," he said, adding that concerted efforts are required to deal with the menace.

He said it should be ensured that "radical views of few and misplaced agenda of some others do not undermine the security and well-being of large majority of peace loving people in the region." Refereeing to a recent suicide attack during a volleyball match that killed over 50 persons in his country, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai strongly criticised those countries which provide safe havens to terrorists.

"Collapse or failure of states result in ungoverned spaces that provide breeding ground for criminal enterprises in efforts of violence to form symbiotic relationship ... the relation becomes lethal when state actors embrace and sponsor these non-state actors provided them with resources and sanctuaries and use them as proxies in their competition against others," the Afghan leader said.

Underlining the need for united effort to curb terrorism, Ahmadzai asked all the SAARC leaders to work sincerely to eliminate the menace and assured that Afghanistan "will not allow our territories to be used against any of our neighbours. We will not permit anybody to conduct proxy wars on our soil." Bhutan Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay also called for collective efforts to curb the scourge of terrorism.

While Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif did talk about "dispute-free" South Asia where instead of fighting among themselves, the countries should fight against poverty and other social issues, there was no mention of terrorism in his nearly 15-minute speech.

Modi also outlined various initiatives in key sectors of health, science, visa regimes and connectivity for the SAARC region as he pitched to turn South Asia of "flowering hope into a rich field of peace and prosperity" by collective efforts which, he said, were "more urgent than in South Asia; and, nowhere else is it so modest." — PTI

KATHMANDU: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said India will give business visa for three to five years for SAARC countries and called for making procedures simple and facilities better.

"India will now give business visa for three-five years for Saarc countries," Modi said at the two-day Saarc summit that began Wednesday.

"I also believe that if we can light up each other's towns and villages, we can build a brighter tomorrow for our region," he added.

He noted: "India has huge trade surplus with Saarc countries. I believe that this is neither right nor sustainable." "Let's all make our procedures simple, our facilities better, our standards common and our paper work less burdensome." –IANS

KATHMANDU: Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday called for a dispute free south Asia and stressed on building "bonds of trust" during his address at the SAARC Summit here.

Sharif stressed a dispute-free south Asia where the member countries would fight poverty, disease and illiteracy. 

"We need bonds of trust so we can prosper," he said, also offering to host the next South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in Pakistan. 

The Pakistani prime minister said his country stands with the SAARC to promote regional cooperation, reported Xinhua. He was speaking at the two-day summit that kicked off Wednesday.

"Pakistan attaches high importance to SAARC. More than a fifth of the population is between the ages of 15-24 but attracts only three percent of the world's foreign direct investment and is one of the lowest integration area. Therefore, we must reach out to create a win-win situation," he said. 

He called for people to be made the centre of the bloc so that they can integrate with the economy and build trade surplus as well as promote cultural connectivity and build a common identity. 

People-centred policies can also reduce poverty and empower vulnerable groups such as women, he added. 

Sharif said all south Asian countries are vibrant democracies and called on them to share their experiences, best practices and institutional linkages for sustainable development. 

"The underdevelopment of south Asia is closely linked to lack of affordable energy. We need to collectively focus on harnessing indigenous energy as well as trans-regional gas and fuel pipelines. 

"Pakistan is actively pursuing this initiative to integrate south Asia, China... A soft visa process would facilitate this process," he noted. 

Eight Saarc members will hold discussions for collective development at the two-day summit theamed "Deeper Integration for Peace and Prosperity". 

Established in 1985 in Bangladesh, the Saarc is a regional association of eight south Asian countries, namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan joined Saarc as its eighth member state in 2007.-IANS

MUMBAI: Floral tributes were on Wednesday paid to the martyrs who laid down their lives while fighting terrorists on the sixth anniversary of the 26/11 attack.

Maharashtra Education Minister Vinod Tawde, Minister of Industries, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs Prakash Mehta, Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria and DGP Sanjeev Dayal were among dignitaries who paid homage at the 26/11 police memorial site at the Mumbai Police Gymkhana in south Mumbai.

"I pay homage to the brave policemen who fought for Mumbai's safety and laid down their lives for us on 26/11.

We are proud of them and we will strive hard for safety and security of our state," said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis could not attend the commemorative meeting as he is scheduled to attend various functions to be presided by President Pranab 
Mukherjee in Pune and Wardha in the state later today.

The chief minister in his message said, "We will strengthen police force with better equipment. It is out priority."

Family members of the policemen, who lost their lives during the November 2008 attacks, were also present during the ceremony.

On November 26, 2008, 10 Pakistani terrorists arrived by sea route and opened fire indiscriminately at people killing 166, including 18 security personnel, and injuring several others, besides damaging property worth crores.

The then Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare, army Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, Mumbai's Additional Police Commissioner Ashok Kamte and Senior Police Inspector Vijay Salaskar were among those killed in the attack. PTI

NEW DELHI: A Bill to amend a law on the appointment of CBI chief was passed in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday amid stiff resistance, with the Congress alleging that it was aimed at keeping the largest Opposition party out of the selection process, a charge denied by the government.

Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh, while moving the Delhi Special Police Establishment (Amendment) Bill, 2014, for consideration, insisted that there was “no ulterior motive” and the amendment was aimed only to “smoothen” the process of selecting the CBI Director.

The Bill provides for inclusion of leader of the single largest Opposition party in the three-member committee that selects the CBI Director since there is no recognised Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. The Committee has Prime Minister and Chief Justice of India as other members.

The amendment Bill also provides that “No appointment of a Director shall be invalid merely by reason of any vacancy or absence of a member in the committee.”

The Bill was passed by voice vote but not before a division of votes on its consideration as well as an Amendment moved by BJD member Tathagat Satpathy, which was rejected.

Leader of Congress Mallikarjun Kharge made a strong plea to the government to withdraw the measure even at this late stage and bring forward a comprehensive amendment. He was supported by BJD members Tathagat Satpathy and Bhartruhari Mahtab.

He alleged that the amendments have been brought by the government deliberately in order to “humiliate” the Opposition. — PTI

FERGUSON: Protests spread across the US late Tuesday and more than 2,000 National Guard troops were deployed in the St. Louis area to prevent a second night of rioting and looting after a grand jury declined to indict a white policeman in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager in August.

United States President Barack Obama appealed for dialogue, and his attorney general promised that a federal probe into the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown would be timely and rigorous, even as officer Darren Wilson, the policeman who shot him, said his conscience was clear.

Despite the beefed up military presence in Ferguson, a police car was torched near City Hall as darkness fell, and police fired smoke bombs and tear gas to scatter protesters. Elsewhere in the city, protests were smaller and more controlled than on Monday.

The killing in Ferguson, a predominantly black city with a white-dominated power structure, underscored the occasionally tense nature of US race relations and sometimes strained ties between African-American communities and the police.

Monday's racially charged protests were more intense than the unrest that followed the shooting itself, though were much smaller than the widespread rioting and looting that came after the acquittal of police officers in the beating of black motorist Rodney King in Los Angeles two decades ago.

In Ferguson, about a dozen buildings, including a pizza shop and a beauty parlor, were burned down late on Monday as protesters took to the streets in anger at the grand jury's decision. Police said protesters fired guns at them, set patrol cars on fire and hurled bricks into their lines. Police made 61 arrests.

On Tuesday, dozens of protesters chanted "No justice, no peace!" after dark outside the Ferguson police station, guarded by at least two armored vehicles, and police made a handful of arrests in several locations.

About a mile away, National Guardsmen surrounded businesses damaged in Monday's violence. Groups of men also gathered on the roofs of some boarded-up stores to protect the buildings from further damage. Armed with fire extinguishers and, one said, guns, they plan to stay all night.

Protests swelled from Los Angeles to Washington on Tuesday. In New York, police used pepper spray to control the crowd after protesters tried to block the Lincoln Tunnel and Triborough Bridge and marched to Times Square. In Oakland, California, and in Atlanta, protesters blocked traffic, while in Boston others marched past a correctional facility where inmates taped Brown's name on a window in solidarity with the marchers outside.

US attorney general Eric Holder told reporters he was disappointed by the violence in Ferguson and asked for a review to identify and isolate "criminal elements" from peaceful protesters.

Ferguson's mayor, James Knowles, lamented that the National Guard had not been deployed in enough time on Monday "to save all of our businesses."

"The decision to delay the deployment of the National Guard is deeply concerning," Knowles told a news conference. "We are asking that the governor make available and deploy all necessary resources to prevent the further destruction of property and the preservation of life in the city of Ferguson."

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon said about 700 guard troops were deployed on Monday to the Ferguson area and by late Tuesday that would be increased to 2,200 to protect homes and businesses. "This community deserves to have peace," Nixon said. "We must do better and we will."

Police were investigating as suspicious a body found in a car in Ferguson, and couldn't rule out a link between the death and the rioting. Schools in Ferguson and its surrounding cities were closed on Tuesday, as were Ferguson city offices.

"This is going to happen again," said Ferguson area resident James Hall, 56, as he walked past a smoldering building. "If they had charged him with something, this wouldn't have happened to Ferguson."

Attorneys for Brown's family condemned as biased the St. Louis County grand jury process that led to the decision not to bring charges, saying the prosecutor in the case had a conflict of interest and that Wilson was not properly cross-examined.
"The process should be indicted," lawyer Benjamin Crump said, adding the Brown family wants police to be equipped with body video cameras.

The grand jury decision shifted the legal spotlight to an ongoing U.S. Justice Department investigation into whether Wilson violated Brown's civil rights by intentionally using excessive force and whether Ferguson police systematically violate rights by using excessive force or discrimination.

Wilson, who could have faced charges ranging from involuntary manslaughter to first-degree murder, told ABC News there was nothing he could have done differently in his confrontation with Brown that would have prevented the teenager's death. "The reason I have a clean conscience is because I know I did my job right," he said, adding he would have acted no differently had Brown been white.

Wilson's lawyer, Jim Towey, later told CNN that his client's life as a police officer was over.

Documents released by prosecutors said that Wilson, who was placed on administrative leave after the shooting, told the grand jury Brown had tried to grab his gun, and that the officer felt his life was in danger when he fired.

"I said, 'Get back or I'm going to shoot you,'" Wilson said, according to the documents. "He immediately grabs my gun and says, 'You are too much of a pussy to shoot me.'" — Reuters

ISLAMABAD: The owner of Pakistan’s biggest media group, Geo TV, along with actor Veena Malik and her husband, was sentenced to 26 years in prison by an anti-terrorism court for allegedly airing a blasphemous programme.

Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, owner of Geo and Jang group, was accused of allowing the airing of a blasphemous programme by Geo television in May, which played a religious song while staging a mock marriage of Malik with Bashir.

Judge Shahbaz Khan also sentenced both Malik and Bashir along with TV host Shaista Wahidi for 26 years each.

The ATC also imposed a 1.3 million Pakistani rupees fine on the convicts and ordered that their properties should be sold to raise the fine, if they failed to pay it.

The judge said in his judgment that all four accused committed profanity.

The court in its 40-page verdict also asked the police to arrest the convicts, an official said.

He said the convict can appeal in the regional high court in Gilgit-Baltistan.

There are reports that all four are out of Pakistan.

Rahman resides in the UAE and the other three also went abroad after receiving threats by militant organisations.

It is not known when the arrests would be carried out.

Both Wahidi and the Geo group have tendered apology after the allegations were levelled but the extremists in the country refused to accept it.

Other blasphemy cases were also registered against them in various cities, including Karachi and Islamabad. — PTI

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear on Monday a petition filed by a group of journalists seeking a direction to the Centre and Haryana for ordering a judicial probe into alleged assault on them and other media persons during a police operation to arrest 'godman' Rampal in Hisar.

"List it on Monday," a bench comprising Chief Justice H L Dattu and justices Madan B Lokur and A K Sikri said.

The court's order came as soon as senior advocate Rajeev Dhawan, appearing for journalists, started his argument saying the matter pertained to assault on media persons in Haryana recently.

The plea filed by a group of media persons has sought punishment for "erring police officials" for resorting to lathi charge "without caution and care".

It has also alleged there was an increasing tendency to "muzzle the press" by government authorities and sought "appropriate compensation" for affected journalists and framing of guidelines to ensure "free and fair functioning of the media".

"The petitioners, who are media persons being victims and aggrieved to the unprovoked lathi charge on them in Hisar, during the stand-off between police and supporters of Rampal, are filing the present writ petition to seek justice for violation of their fundamental right guaranteed under Article 19 (1)(a) of the Constitution and freedom of press which means absence of interference by the State with the media, except in so far as it is authorised by the Constitution and by enactments which are constitutionally valid," the plea said.

Besides the incident at Hisar, it also referred to various recent incidents in which media persons have been attacked.

"It is surprising that, despite proper approval from their channels and local authority the journalists were targeted by police from behind and subjected to the unprovoked attack suddenly near Satlok Ashram near Barwala town of Haryana while they were covering the violent clash between sect followers and security forces...," it said, adding a superior police officer first allowed them to go near the site and later resorted to 'lathi charge'. -PTI