Two boys rescued from Mujahideen ISLAMABAD, July 25 — In a clear proof that militant groups in Pakistan are engaged in forceful recruitment of youngsters to fight the ‘jehad’ (holy war) in Kashmir, the police has rescued two boys, aged 10 and nine years, who were being ‘trained’ by one such group to become Mujahideen.

Of hero and heroines: Next to the poster of Saudi radical Osama bin Laden are posters of Indian film stars Kajol and Mamta Kulkarni at a wayside shop in Lahore in Pakistan. — AP/PTI

B’desh plans night bus to Calcutta
DHAKA, July 25 — Encouraged by the growing passenger response to the Dhaka-Calcutta bus service, the Bangladesh authorities are planning to introduce a night service, a top official has said.

King was clinically dead at hospital
RABAT, July 25 — Morocco’s King Hassan II was clinically dead when he arrived at a civilian hospital in Rabat on Friday, a medical source told AFP today ahead of the monarch’s funeral.

LTTE suicide bomber blows up boat
COLOMBO, July 25 — A 300-seat passenger boat was blown up and sunk in north-eastern Sri Lanka today by a suspected LTTE suicide bomber, officials said.

German honour for Ravi Shankar

Huge Jamaat protest against Sharif

LAHORE, July 25 (ANI): Thousands of Islamist and Kashmiri militants gathered here today for the biggest demonstration till now against the withdrawal of forces from the Indian side of Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir.

Security was tightened around the capital of Punjab province for the “million-man Kargil march” organised by the Jamaat-i-Islami.

Thousands of demonstrators poured into Lahore yesterday under the watchful eyes of the police and Rangers but it was too early to say whether Jamaat leader Qazi Hussain Ahmad would get the huge numbers the organisers had hoped for.

The demonstration, which started in the morning, is ironically being held in the same city where peace talks between the Indian and Pakistani Prime Ministers were held in February.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose home town is Lahore, shrugged off the demonstration while talking to reporters and said he had no choice but to seek the pullout of “Mujahideen” (holy warriors) from the Kargil region.

His July 4 pledge to President Bill Clinton to withdraw forces ended the most tense showdown between the two countries in 28 years but unleashed storms of criticism.

Jamaat accuses Mr Sharif of bowing to pressure from Washington, the party’s chief foreign target, and betraying Islam by undermining Muslim militants battling Indian rule in the Himalayan region.

“I think they should make their approach realistic,” Mr Sharif said of his critics. “Let them tell us what was the alternative to the Kargil affair,” he said. “To me there was no other formula or method.”

The demonstration flies in the face of government efforts to depict the Kargil pullout as a triumph for Pakistan because of Mr Clinton’s pledge to take a “personal interest” in getting Indo-Pakistani peace talks resumed.

Mr Sharif renewed a call on India to resume the dialogue on Saturday but India said trust has been ruined because Pakistan-backed infiltrators had invaded Indian territory three months after the pact was signed.

Pakistan’s Information Minister Mushahid Hussain has warned of more Kargils if India continues to deny the Kashmiris’ the right to self-determination.

Addressing a Lahore High Court Bar Association seminar on “Kargil and the Washington Accord” here yesterday, Mr Mushahid Hussain said the Nawaz Sharif government had effectively internationalised the Kashmir issue by adopting policies which were both rational and bold.

Reuters adds: Fired by sketchy reports of an imminent US Commando raid, Pakistan’s Islamic leaders are rallying around Saudi terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden, who is a “guest’’ of Afghanistan’s hard-line Islamic Taliban Movement.

Speculative, thinly sourced media reports of a US “snatch squad’’ raid on Bin Laden’s reported hideout have increased in the run-up to the August 7 anniversary of the US Embassy bombings in East Africa, of which Bin Laden is accused.

“Any attack on Osama will be considered an attack on Islam and Pakistan and that would be resisted with full force,’’ Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader of the small Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Party, told thousands of Islamists in Peshawar yesterday.

Qazi Hussain Ahmad, leader of the Jamaat-i-Islami party, said a fresh US Attack on Bin Laden would cause serious unrest in Pakistan following the “sellout’’ of Kashmiri militants this month under an agreement with Washington.

The agreement, under which Pakistan pledged to withdraw hundreds of Muslim militants fighting in Kashmir on the Indian side of the LoC, was branded a surrender by all opposition parties and a betrayal by the small but vocal Islamist lobby.

“Already the government has created trouble for itself by agreeing to the Washington accord and this development (an attack on Bin Laden) would sound the death knell for it,’’ the Jamaat leader said last week.

The Jamaat says it has several million members but no seats in Parliament because it boycotted the elections that brought Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to power.

US Officials have denied all knowledge of reports, which keep surfacing in different sections of the Pakistani media, that American commandos have gathered on Pakistan’s rugged borders with Afghanistan to attack the Saudi-born Bin Laden.

Pakistani officials also denied reports that US Warships were gathering off its coast for a fresh missile attack on Bin Laden’s reported hideout in eastern Afghanistan.

Taliban Information Minister Mohammad Khan Muttaqi said that Washington should negotiate with the movement, which the USA refused to recognise as the government of Afghanistan.

“We have always stated that the two sides should sit and negotiate with the honesty of purpose and without any precondition. Let there be no threat of force,’’ he said by telephone from the Afghan Capital, Kabul.

UK seizes N-material bound for Pak

LONDON, July 25 (Reuters) — British Customs have intercepted vital material destined for Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme, according to a British Sunday newspaper.

Customs investigators seized up to 20 tonnes of key components which could be used in the manufacture of atomic weapons, The Sunday Express said.

British Customs and Excise officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

The cargo was tracked from the USA to Themseport container terminal on the Isle of Grain in Kent, south-eastern England, the newspaper said.

It was unloaded, inspected and confiscated before it could be transferred to a ship bound for West Asia.

Documents accompanying the shipment purported to show it was destined for Dubai, but The Sunday Express quoted intelligence sources as saying that they believed its ultimate destination was the Pakistani city of Lahore.

The sources were quoted as saying that the shipment had been compiled from different points within the USA.

The shipment coincided with a period of heightened tension between India and Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir. Both countries held successful nuclear tests last year.

Customs officers seized the cargo because of the suspicions that it was intended for military use and therefore required an export licence, the newspaper said.

The paper quoted nuclear weapons experts as saying that the material was of such a high grade that it was much more likely to be used for military rather than commercial purposes.

Three British-based Pakistanis were arrested last week in connection with the shipment,which had been seized three weeks earlier, the paper said. They were later released on bail without being charged.

At least so some parts of the cargo contained high grade aluminium commonly used in making nuclear weapons, the newspaper said.

Taiwan’s explanations not enough: Albright

SINGAPORE, July 25 (AFP) — Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan today said the USA should act cautiously amid a political firestorm triggered by Taiwan’s “troublemaker” President Lee Teng-hui.

Mr Tang said he had told Secretary of State Madeleine Albright that “the USA should say little and act with great caution” on the Taiwan issue.

Mr Lee angered Beijing when he called for Taiwan’s ties with Beijing to be redefined as a “special state-to-state” relationship. China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province.

Mr Tang said he told Ms Albright: “The USA should have a clear understanding that Lee Teng-hui is a troublemaker in US-China relations.”

Mr Tang said he and Albright also discussed the May bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade by US-led NATO forces, which Washington called an accident. Three Chinese nationals died in the attack.

He said Ms Albright explained the US position and he told her that the bombing “seriously damaged US-China relations and left a big scar on the Chinese people.”

He said the USA should recognise the “serious nature” of the incident and take action to repair the damage.

Meanwhile, Ms Albright said that Taiwan must do more to explain a controversial “statehood” call which has angered China.

“I think that the explanations offered thus far don’t quite do it,” she told a news conference after talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan on the eve of an Asian Security Forum here.

“Foreign Minister Tang indicated they were listening very carefully to what President Lee is saying, that they also wish to have a peaceful resolution, but they also reiterated their standard position that they do not renounce the use of force,” Ms Albright said. “I have a sense that they are looking at it very carefully,” she added.

Referring to the Falun Gong sect which China had banned, Ms Albright said she raised the issue of human rights with Mr Tang.

When asked to comment on Beijing’s crackdown on the sect, she stated: “It is important for there to be a right of assembly and a possibility of peaceful expression of views”.

China launched a propaganda offensive against the sect founder Li Hongzhi in the toughest security measures since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown against pro-democracy protesters.

The US State Department had expressed disappointment at China’s decision to ban the sect, which describes itself as an exercise and meditation group.

Taipei: Taiwan today told a US Emissary sent to defuse cross-strait tensions that it was committed to dialogue and pursuit of democratic union with rival China.

In a sign of goodwill, Mr Koo Chen-fu, Taipei’s top negotiator with the Communist mainland, avoided the controversial references to ‘’two states’’ that has been perceived in Beijing and even in Washington as provocative.

Two boys rescued from Mujahideen

ISLAMABAD, July 25 (PTI) — In a clear proof that militant groups in Pakistan are engaged in forceful recruitment of youngsters to fight the ‘jehad’ (holy war) in Kashmir, the police has rescued two boys, aged 10 and nine years, who were being ‘trained’ by one such group to become Mujahideen.

The police rescued the two boys Arshad Amir (10) and Naseer Ahmed (9) from the training camp of a so-called Mujahideen group after more than two months of a complaint lodged by their father, Urdu daily Din reported yesterday.

The boys had disappeared while going to school in Jhelum from Chakwal following which the local police launched a search for them.

They were finally recovered from the custody of a Mujahideen group and handed over to their family, the report said without naming the group.

Earlier, there have been reports about young madrassa students being sent to fight either in Afghanistan or in Kashmir by these Mujahideen groups without the consent of their parents.

In several cases such students have been killed during fighting but their families are either never informed or simply told that their son had become a “shaheed” (martyr) for the cause, which is supposed to be a great religious honour.

B’desh plans night bus to Calcutta

DHAKA, July 25 (PTI) — Encouraged by the growing passenger response to the Dhaka-Calcutta bus service, the Bangladesh authorities are planning to introduce a night service, a top official has said.

“We are monitoring the service and the agreement between the two countries will be reviewed after three months. We are also planning a night service after that period,” managing-director of state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) Azmol Chowdhury said here today.

West Bengal State Transport Corporation (WBSTC), the Indian operators, had “already agreed in principle with our proposal (of a night bus) in this regard”, he said.

Expressing satisfaction at the operation of the Dhaka-Calcutta direct bus service in the past fortnight since its inception on July 9, Mr Chowdhury said passenger response was so far good and “no obstacles have cropped up till now”.

Although the bus created enthusiasm among travellers, especially those who could not afford the airfare as was evident from the fact that all seats had been booked till August 2, several passengers felt some hassles were yet to be removed for a smoother journey between the two cities.

Several passengers said the journey time could be shortened by an improvement in road conditions on both sides of the border and expediting the completion of the customs and immigration formalities at border points.

Moreover, time schedules were not maintained and often the 360-km journey that should be covered in 10 hours took 15 hours, the passengers said.

Merdha d’Costa, an Indian student who came to Dhaka for the first time said: “I thought the immigration and customs formalities would be done at the starting point. Had it been possible, the journey would be really fine.”

Bangladeshi national Darothy Bakul Baiddya, who travels to Calcutta several times a year, said “despite some hassles, the direct service is certainly much comfortable than the existing road journey in which one has to board to another vehicle after crossing the border.”

“It’s a great opportunity for the middle income group people to travel to Calcutta by direct bus service as the air fair is too high for them,” she said.

King was clinically dead at hospital

RABAT, July 25 (AFP) — Morocco’s King Hassan II was clinically dead when he arrived at a civilian hospital in Rabat on Friday, a medical source told AFP today ahead of the monarch’s funeral.

Officially, Hassan died of a heart attack at 4 p.m. (1600 gmt) on Friday following an acute lung infection.

But the medical source, who requested anonymity, said he was in “stage four” coma when he arrived three hours earlier at avicenne hospital — meaning his heart and lungs were no longer functioning.

The last hours of the man, who ruled Morocco for the past 38 years began on Friday around 3.50 a.m. at Skhirat Palace, 20 km outside Rabat.

Suddenly taken by shivers and pain around the throat, Hassan — who, only a few hours earlier had had dinner with visiting Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh — rang one of his doctors, an army officer named Boumehdi.

The King told him what was wrong, and asked him to come by around 8 a.m. Ten minutes later, according to the medical source, Hassan began to have trouble with his heartbeat. Straight away, he was taken into Rabat and to a well-equipped clinic inside the capital’s sprawling royal palace.

Later on Friday morning, Hassan suddenly went into a coma. His doctors, alarmed by an unexpected turn for the worse, decided to send him to avicenne hospital, where he was put on life-support systems.

LTTE suicide bomber blows up boat

COLOMBO, July 25 (PTI) — A 300-seat passenger boat was blown up and sunk in north-eastern Sri Lanka today by a suspected LTTE suicide bomber, officials said.

The bomber infiltrated the civilian section of the Trincomalee port and carried out the pre-dawn attack, the officials said.

The remains of the bomber were found floating in the water, but there were no other major casualties because the boat was empty at the time of the explosion. However, a watchman was slightly injured.

The boat Newco Endurance, was brought to Trincomalee, 260 km north-east of the capital Colombo six days and to operate a passenger series to the nearby Muttur town across the Koddiyar bay in Trincomalee.

The latest attack came despite a high-security alert by the police and security forces amid fears that the Tigers might carry out spectacular strikes to commemorate “black July” or the 16th anniversary of anti-Tamil riots here.

German honour for Ravi Shankar

BONN, July 25 (PTI) — Sitar maestro Pt. Ravi Shankar received the prestigious International Prize for Film and Media Music for 1999, instituted by the German government’s Art and Exhibition Centre at a solemn ceremony amid a sell out Explore India Millennium Concert here yesterday.

Barred from poll
MOSCOW: Ultra-Nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky was barred on Saturday from running for the post of Governor in Russia’s Urals region of Sverdlovsk after electoral officials said more than 2,000 supporting signatures had been forged. The flamboyant politician came third in an election for the governorship of the Belgorod region of south western Russia in May and vowed to contest other regions as they came up, including Sverdlovsk. — Reuters

Peru’s military chief
LIMA: President Alberto Fujimori named his Interior Minister as Peru’s armed forces chief on Saturday in a move expected to reinforce the powerful military’s support for the government in this pre-election year. The appointment of loyal Ally Gen Jose Villanueva to the top military post consolidates Mr Fujimori’s control over an institution that in the past few years has gradually lost its strong influence over the President, army sources said. — Reuters

Courageous boy
SEATTLE: A 13-year-old boy from Crane, Oregon, whose right arm had been cut off by farm machinery, drove himself to a friend’s house where he was picked up by an ambulance, the newspaper Oregonian reported. Michael Adam’s arm had been severed midway between his shoulder and his elbow. The boy carried the limb to his four-wheeler ATV (all terrain vehicle) and drove towards the town. — DPA

No coalition
TOKYO: Indonesian President B.J. Habibie has ruled out the formation of a coalition government with the party led by popular Opposition figure Megawati Sukarnoputri, a Japanese newspaper said on Sunday. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun quoted Habibie as saying that such an alliance would never happen despite the “speculation” that his ruling Golkar Party may share power with Megawati’s Indonesian Democracy Party of Struggle. — AFP

Nuns kill thief
BOGOTA: Two Roman Catholic nuns shot dead a thief on Wednesday who broke into their sanctuary in Central Colombia, authorities have said. The sharp-shooting nuns, who have not been named, blasted the intruder in the head with a 38-calibre Smith Wesson revolver after they heard strange noises in the corridors of the sanctuary of the Virgin of Miracles, the patron saint of aviators. — Reuters

Phil Collins weds
ZURICH: British rock star Phil Collins married his former interpreter Orianne Cevey on Saturday in an exclusive ceremony in Lausanne, Switzerland. The couple had already taken part in a civil ceremony away from the media glare on Friday in the nearby Begnins, Switzerland, the town where they had been living for the past few years. — Reuters