 |
Wednesday,
September 12, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
|
Australia told to accept asylum seekers Gen Fahim replaces injured Masood Pak decries attack on Masood USA pulls up ISI chief over Bin Laden US spy
plane shot down, claims Iraq |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lift sanctions on India: US Congmen Maharaja’s crowning: function in UK opposed 165 killed in Nigeria clashes Speight sent back to jail B’desh clashes toll 9 Lanka revives peace process
|
|
Australia told to accept asylum seekers Melbourne, September 11 The federal court, sitting in Melbourne, said the government had detained the mainly Afghan boat people illegally when it sent crack SAS troops on board the Tampa, and gave it until Friday afternoon to comply with its ruling. “The orders of the court will require that the respondent release the rescuees onto the mainland of Australia,’’ Judge Tony North said. The Tampa rescued the 433 asylum seekers from a sinking Indonesian ferry on August 26, but then ran up against a refusal by Canberra to allow them to land on the Australia’s Indian Ocean outpost of the Christmas island. Special Air Services troops boarded the Tampa during an eight-day impasse and the asylum seekers are on their way on a navy troop carrier, together with a new boatload of 237, to Papua New Guinea. From there, they were to be sent to Nauru and New Zealand. Meanwhile, Australia today turned away another boat carrying asylum seekers from Indonesia before it reached its migration zone as a court prepared to rule on the legality of a widening government fight against the people trade. Australia, determined to halt rising numbers of illegal immigrants, has already rejected two vessels in the past two weeks and on Monday struck a deal with the tiny Pacific island of Nauru to take the bulk in return for $ 10.2 million in diesel, a debt write-off, medical bills and scholarships. SYDNEY: Hundreds of asylum seekers will remain on board a troop ship while the government appeals a court decision ordering them to be brought to Australia, an immigration department spokesman said today. “While ever there’s an appeal on, the people stay on the boat,” said a spokesman for Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock. Earlier, the government refused to let the “tampa” disembark more than 400 asylum seekers on the Australian territory of Christmas Island, leaving the refugees stranded aboard the freighter for eight days. They are now being shipped to Papua New Guinea on board an Australian troop carrier. From there they are due to be flown to Nauru or New Zealand under a deal struck by the Australian Government before the court ruling. A spokeswoman for Attorney-General Daryl Williams said the judgment was being considered by Williams. “An appeal will be launched,” she said. Reuters,
AFP |
|
Gen Fahim replaces injured Masood Kabul, September 11 Rabani said by satellite telephone from northern Afghanistan that Masood was under treatment in a hospital in the area and there was no danger to his life from injuries received in the attack by two suicide bombers who posed as journalists. “Since the extent of the blast was severe ... doctors have barred him from speaking for some time,” Rabbani said. “He can walk to some extent and eat and the doctors’ advice was to send him to a European country for further treatment,” Rabbani said, adding: “He is fine”. Moscow: Leader of Afghanistan’s northern alliance Ahmad Shah Masood today refuted rumours of his assassination. Masood, who has been waging a protracted conflict against the Taliban movement, called up the Afghan Embassy in Dushanbe and said he was alive, reports Novosti. He is now in Hodja Bahauddin Hospital at Tahar within the Afghan territory, recuperating from the injuries sustained in the attempt on his life. Masood is expected to undergo further treatment in Tajikistan, Acting Afghan Ambassador to the country Muhiddin Mehdi said. “Judging by the tone of the conversation, he sounded fit,’’ the diplomat said. Military experts do not rule out the possibility of the two bombers being in league with international terrorist Osama bin Laden. This version was also confirmed by the official spokesperson of the Alliance’s Foreign Ministry on a television channel. He said Masood had been wounded in the head, left arm and leg, but these wounds were not life-threatening. Reuters,
UNI |
|
Pak decries attack on Masood
Islamabad, September 11 “Pakistan strongly condemns the assassination attempt on commander Ahmad Shah Masood ... in which he reportedly received serious injuries,” a Foreign Ministry statement said. Masood’s exact whereabouts and condition remained unclear today, with his supporters firmly denying reports that he had been killed in the Sunday bomb attack. “Pakistan is opposed to violence in Afghanistan, which may be aggravated by such acts of terrorism,” the ministry said.
Reuters |
|
USA pulls up ISI chief over Bin Laden The just-concluded US visit of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) chief, Lt-Gen Mehmood Ahmed, has been encouraging from the Indian point of view as Washington has taken the General to task for Pakistan’s brand of jehadi terrorism and unwillingness to persuade the Taliban to hand over Osama bin Laden to the USA. The ISI chief also found himself at the receiving end during his meeting with US officials over Pakistan’s Afghanistan policy and Islamabad’s lukewarm response to repeated US requests for Pakistani help in capturing Afghanistan-based terrorist Osama bin Laden, well-placed sources in South Block said today. Lt-Gen Mehmood Ahmed was sent to Washington by President Pervez Musharraf after a high-level dialogue started between the USA and Pakistan in the wake of failure of Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar’s recent visit to Washington. Sources said the USA had already made no secret of its displeasure with Pakistan regarding its relations with the Taliban and would like to see that Islamabad helps in the arrest of Bin Laden. General Ahmed, who is said to be close to General Musharraf, was the hand-picked choice for the Washington mission because of his close relations with certain Pentagon top officials. He, however, failed to cut much ice with the US top brass. His flopped Washington visit may also cast a shadow on his equation with General Musharraf, whose monolithic position has been diluted in a way. In the past few weeks, General Ahmed appears to have drifted away from Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf whose recent outbursts against the ISI — three in one month — were not without significance. General Ahmed’s position was also undermined when Major-General E. Zameer was recently appointed in the ISI — a move which is widely regarded in strategic circles here as General Musharraf’s ploy to keep an eye on General Ahmed. During his Washington visit, top US officials conveyed to General Ahmed the USA’s displeasure over Pakistan’s brand of jehadi terrorism and its failure to rein in Islamist fundamentalists, terrorists and sectarian-minded extremists. Among the officials General Ahmed met in Washington were the US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Mr Marc Grossman, officials of the State Department, Pentagon, and members of President George W. Bush’s National Security Council. General Mehmood was sent to Washington by General Musharraf after a high-level dialogue started between the USA and Pakistan in the wake of failure of Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar’s recent visit to Washington. Sources said the USA had also expressed concern that leaders of various militant outfits continued to make anti-United Nations, anti-US and anti-India statements. Recently, Hafiz Mohammed Syed, Amir Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), urged the Pakistan Government not to allow UN observers to use Pakistani soil. Condemning the decision to appoint UN observers on the Pak-Afghan border, he alleged that the USA was trying to play the role of a policeman everywhere and that it had always been using the UN Security Council as its “maid servant”. At the Ghazva-e-Hind seminar organised by LeT in Islamabad last month, Prof Hafiz Abdur Rehman Makki, foreign affairs secretary of the LeT’s parent body, Markaz-Daawa Wal Irshad, had announced that the Indian Prime Minister would be hanged at the Red Fort for opposing jehad. He had also stated that the “battle of Hind” had begun and as a result of their jehad in Jammu and Kashmir, India was going to disintegrate soon. Prof Makki had also charged that Pakistani rulers were afraid of US sanctions and the IMF. |
|
US
spy plane shot down, claims Iraq
Baghdad, September 11 Last month an unmanned
US plane went missing while flying over the “no-fly zone” in
southern Iraq. The US military did not rule out that it had been shot
down. “A second US spy plane has been brought down by Iraqi air
defences in the south today,” the official Iraqi News Agency
reported today. Reuters |
|
Lift sanctions on India: US Congmen Washington, September 11 Congressman mcdermott’s letter to President Bush co-signed by 50 other members of the India Caucus, also called for substantial changes in the “entities list” barring US companies from trading in so-called dual-use goods with several Indian companies, saying that the measure was hurting the American firms as they were losing valuable trade to their competitors. Stating that the Indo-US relationship had evolved substantially, the congressmen said India’s stability, commitment to democracy and human rights, its technical sophistication, and its desire to liberalise its economy all pointed to its strong prospects as a potential ally.
PTI |
|
Maharaja’s crowning: function in UK opposed London, September 11 A celebration dinner is to be held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, where the British kept some of Ranjit Singh’s most precious possessions after they annexed Punjab following his death in 1839. These possessions included the Kohinoor diamond, which was taken away by Lord Dalhousie and later found its way into the crown of Queen Elizabeth’s mother, and his famous chair, which is still lodged at the museum. The celebrations will be held right next to the halls where the famous chair and other relics of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh are kept. “The argument that the British advance is that they can keep Indian treasures here because of the large Indian community here,” Mr Bhaskar Ghorpade, president of ArchIndia (Association for the Restoration of the Cultural Heritage of India) said. “The move by the Indian community to celebrate his coronation at the very place where they keep his looted treasures will strengthen the British claims,” he added. Mr Ghorpade, a barrister who successfully fought for the return of a precious Nataraja statue to India, said the community “should be fighting for the restoration of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s possessions to Punjab rather than celebrate in the museum where his stolen heritage is kept.” Comparing Indian claims to those by Greece for the restoration of the Elgin marbles, Ghorpade said: “The Greeks do not come and have a party at the British Museum because their stolen treasures are kept there.” The Indian Government, which is backing the celebrations, is “weakening the case of groups like ours trying to win back India’s cultural heritage,” he alleged. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and other Punjabi leaders will travel to London next week for celebrations to mark the 200th anniversary. Federal Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister S.S. Dhindsa and Minorities Commission Deputy Chairman Tarlochan Singh will accompany Mr Badal. BJP leader Madan Lal Khurana, NRI committee chairman L.M. Singhvi, Punjab University Vice-Chancellor S.J.S. Ahluwalia and MP Kuldip Nayar are also expected to attend the celebrations.
IANS |
|
165 killed in Nigeria clashes Lagos, September 11 “We just received a report from our men in Jos that fighting spread to Langtang, Pankshin, Kuru and Heipang where people were killed yesterday,” Abiodun Orebiyi, acting secretary-general of the Nigeria Red Cross, told newsmen. Heipang and Kuru are on the outskirts of Jos and include its airport. Pankshin and Langtang are two major towns to the southeast of the capital of Plateau state, a region which is mainly Christian but has a large Muslim population.
Reuters |
|
Speight sent back to jail Suva, September 11 Speight told reporters shortly after the hearing that bail was “not an issue.” A newly elected member of Parliament, Speight said a decision would be made later today on whether his party would join the government. Asked what he thought of ousted premier Mahendhra Chaudhry who yesterday demanded seats in the Cabinet, Speight said: “he’s wily, he’s smart, he’s good.”
AFP |
|
B’desh clashes toll 9 Dhaka, September 11 Former Chief Justice Latifur Rahman, whose government is responsible for organising the election, made his request in person to President Shahabuddin Ahmed yesterday as clashes across the country killed at least nine persons. The police said today one of their officers was among those killed when activists of the Bangladesh Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
Reuters |
|
Lanka revives peace process Colombo, September 11 “I can confirm there was a meeting between Norwegian Ambassador John Westborg and Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar,” Mr Tomas Stangeland, a Norwegian Embassy spokesman said.
AP |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 121 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
