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Sunday,
September 16, 2001, Chandigarh, India   |
Anti-Taliban commander Masood dead
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Russia: it may be Jamaat
Islamia
Long wait for missing kin |
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I saw it happening: Indian cafe owner Punish terrorists, says Putin Sharon stops Peres from meeting Arafat Malaysia calls for world conference Oil, gas companies stop work Dalai Lama gives $ 30,000 to USA
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Anti-Taliban commander Masood dead Peshawar (Pakistan), September 15 The last rites for Masood were performed in the presence of ousted Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani and thousands of Masood’s fighters in Panjsher town, the Pakistan-based news agency reported. Known as the “Lion of Panjsher” for forestalling several attacks of Soviet forces on his native town during their occupation of Afghanistan in 1980s, Masood was critically injured last weekend in an assassination bid by two Arabs posing as journalists in northern Takhar province. Masood, 49, was the chief commander of the opposition Northern Alliance which controls about 10 per cent of territory in northeastern Afghanistan. General Fahim Khan was appointed chief commander two days ago when the condition of the important resistance leader worsened. Masood’s death is a big blow to the alliance of the non-Pushtoon tribes of Afghanistan resisting the domination of the mostly Pushtoon Taliban. ISLAMABAD: Masood was the main military obstacle to the Taliban goal of rule over all of Afghanistan and his fate had been unclear ever since the announcement last Sunday that he had been the target of an assassination attempt by two Arabs posing as journalists. The anti-Taliban alliance has blamed the suicide bomb attack on a “terrorist triangle” of the Taliban, Pakistan intelligence and Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden. The assassins had the explosives either concealed in a camera or wrapped around the body of one of the men. The attack came just two days before hijackers killed thousands of people in New York and Washington in sophisticated suicide attacks for which increasing evidence is pointing towards Bin Laden, who has been given refuge by the Taliban. Masood, the chief military obstacle to the Taliban’s conquest of all of Afghanistan, had been hit in the head by shrapnel. The two attackers and Masood’s translator were killed, and the Afghan opposition’s ambassador to India seriously injured. Masood was the most famous of the guerrilla leaders who battled the Soviet invasion that began late in 1979, repeatedly mauling their forces as they tried to capture his stronghold in the Panjsher valley. A major Taliban offensive was launched north of Kabul two days after the attack and on Friday Afghan Islamic Press reported other Taliban forces in the far north of Afghanistan had made their biggest gains against the opposition in two years. The Taliban denied it carried out the attack, but emphasised its hatred for the man they drove from Kabul in 1996 when he was the Defence Minister in the government of President Burhanuddin Rabbani. As an ethnic Tajik in a country where the majority are Pushtun, he was never able to gain a national following. Mr Rabbani’s government is still recognised by the United Nations, to the anger of the Taliban. Only Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates recognise the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan. MOSCOW: Meanwhile, Russia today pledged its continued support to the new military leader of anti-Taliban Northern Alliance in Afghanistan following the formal announcement of the death of the opposition commander Ahmad Shah Masood. “I am confident that our cooperation in establishing peace and stability in Afghanistan will continue,” Russian Defence Minister Sergei ivanov said in a condolence message sent to Masood’s successor Gen Mohammed Fakhim. According to Russian state TV ‘RTR’, Mr Ivanov also expressed his “heartfelt sympathies” to the military leadership of the Islamic State of Afghanistan and Masood’s family on his tragic death in a terrorist attack. They said Moscow was seriously taking Taliban threats of vengeance at neighbouring countries if they would felicitate US retribution attack on Taliban-held Afghanistan. DPA, Reuters,
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Army controls airport Karachi, September 15 “The action is part of security measures being intensified at all important places across the country in the wake of possible U.S military strikes against Afghanistan” following Tuesday’s terror attacks in New York and Washington, it said. Pakistan has come under pressure from both the USA and the Taliban regime in neighbouring Afghanistan following the Tuesday bombings that killed thousands of people.
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Russia: it may be Jamaat
Islamia
Moscow, September 15 Experts of the Federal Security Service (FSB) said the group commands vast financial resources sufficient for preparation and perpetration of large-scale and well-coordinated acts of terrorism in any part of the globe. According to the experts, the organisation in all likelihood, had masterminded and sponsored the explosions that demolished residential blocks in Moscow and the town of Volgodonsk (southern Russia) two years ago, reports Novosti. Comparing details of the terrorist attacks in Moscow and the USA, FSB experts pointed out that the terrorists in both cases attempted to intimidate the state and population to achieve political goals.
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59 bodies identified in New York
New York, September 15 New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik told a news conference that 19 emergency services workers were among those whose bodies had been identified. He said 23 New York policemen were among those who were still missing and presumed dead following the terrorist attack on Tuesday that destroyed the WTC. Seventyseven Indians were being treated in various hospitals here of injuries received in the terrorist strikes at the WTC, according to the latest figures available with the Indian Consulate. US President George W. Bush saw at first hand today the devastation left by the strikes that destroyed the WTC here in history’s worst terrorist attack. Mr Bush, who circled over lower Manhattan by helicopter before being taken to ground zero of Tuesday’s strikes, moved immediately to meet rescue workers in the still smoking rubble of what was once the famous twin towers of New York. “I appreciate you, I appreciate you,” he said repeatedly as he shook hands with firefighters who lost an estimated 300 of their own in the disaster. Mr Bush, was accompanied to the site by New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and the Governor of New York state, George Pataki. On a cool and drizzly afternoon, the President made several thumbs-up signs as he mixed freely with firefighters and workers from other emergency services. Using a megaphone, Mr Bush spoke briefly to the assembled emergency services, saying: “The nation sends its love” to a fist-pumping audience itself chanting “USA, USA”. “Thank you for your hard work,” he said, adding: “Thanks for making the nation proud. May God bless America.”
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Long wait for missing kin New York, September 15 Mr Clinton and his daughter Chelsea stopped at the armoury in lower Manhattean on Thursday where a missing persons center has been set up. “He said my mission was to go back and help teach the students not to have blind hatred,” on recalled. “Just because people are of a race or a religion, do not believe they all act one way, and do not succumb to racism.” One student’s mother worked in the towers. Another girl’s sister, brother-in-law and cousin were employed there. In another incident, red-eyed, a New York Yankees cap pulled low over his forehead, Ed Kearns stood in the rain outside a New York crisis center waiting for word on whether his wife is dead or alive. “It’s not knowing that’s the hardest part,” said Kearns. Kearns (40) is among the countless husbands, wives, children, brothers and sisters streaming to New York hospitals and makeshift crisis centers hoping to find loved ones missing since two hijacked jets struck the World Trade Center earlier this week, destroying the landmark twin towers, killing hundreds and leaving nearly 5,000 people missing. Since Tuesday’s attack, Kearns has visited every major hospital around New York City looking for Donna Bernaerts Kearns (44) who worked on the 94th floor of the World Trade Center. He last heard from her at 8.43 a.m. on Tuesday when she sent him one of their joking e-mails. It was minutes before the first plane slammed into the towers. PEMBROKE PINES:
Muslims hoisted the starts and stripes banner ove rthe entrance to their south Florida mosque before Friday prayers — a sign, they said, that they were loyal Americans as well as followers of Islam. Still, two police cruisers waited outside the Darul Uloom Mosque in Pembroke Pines, Florida, as a security precaution and two uniformed officers sat in their stockinged feet inside the prayer hall as the faithful kneeled to face Mecca. “We have had threats. People are stressed out, very upset, the mosque’s imam Maulan Shafayat Mohamed said. People arriving for Friday prayers at the nondescript building in this town north of Miami, said it was unfair that their Muslim faith was now under a cloud of suspicion and enmity from some quarters.
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I saw it happening: Indian cafe owner New York, September 15 He would not have known that he was witnessing the worst terrorist attack in modern times, one that claimed thousands of lives in the USA on Tuesday. “I saw it live. I saw the plane coming and hitting the tower! I am looking at it, and I knew, and I thought, oh my god,!” said Himani, scared out of his wits. For the Mumbai-born Himani it all started at 8.50 a.m. when he received a call from his general manager, Hanish Bhojwani, informing him that the fire alarm panel of their shop, Akbar Café, had come off. “I was worried. I had supervised the installation of the alarm two years ago,” Himani said. When he went to inspect the rear of his shop, he saw the entire ceiling coming down. Himani and Bhojwani then started calling the police and the Port Authority Management Service. When no one responded, they got alarmed. After all, there was a command post right next door. “Then I said - drop everything and let’s get out of here. Get all the employees out, all of them.” Himani had 40 employees to worry about, at least half of them Indians. His mind raced as soon as he got off his mobile phone. Was it an accident? Was it a bomb blast? Something told him things were not quite right somewhere and he switched on the television. “I saw the World Trade Centre on fire. They were saying that a small plane must have hit it. No one knew what was going on, but there was a fire coming out of the twin towers,” recalled the Indian businessman. “I thought it was some kind of an accident, I did not know it had been attacked by a plane.” He immediately called his general manager again and asked him to evacuate the building within 30 seconds. The next minute, he saw, horror-struck, the second plane coming and ramming into the north tower. “At that moment, I knew I was looking at it and I thought, oh my God!” The tower came crashing down like a pack of cards. Himani had no time to think. All he hoped, as he scrambled for safety, was that his workers could get out in time. They all did, though some were injured by the debris. Amid the countless people wandering about in the ruins of Tuesday’s tragedy were three Indo-Guyanese women who were searching for their sister, Sita Sewnarain. She worked on the 97th floor of the doomed twin towers and was talking to her family approximately at the time of the attack. “She talked to her niece from her mobile phone and said she heard the explosions and was trying to come out of the building — then she got abruptly disconnected,” Mary Sewnarain said. That was the last they heard from her. “Please tell us where to contact,” Jenny Ali, the eldest sister asked a New York policeman showing him a photograph of Sita. “We have searched every place we could.” Even as Jenny spoke, her sister Lisa got a call from a man at a New York hospital, who was with their sister when the building collapsed. “We got to go — the hospital is asking for her dental record,” said Lisa, her voice choking with anticipation of bad news. “I hope it is not that. She loves me very much,” Lisa said, eyes welling up with tears. “Please pray for our sister.”
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Punish terrorists, says Putin Yerevan, September 15 “Evil must be punished,” Putin told a press conference at Yerevan, where he was making an official visit to Armenia, Russia’s key ally in the southern Caucasus. “However we must not let ourselves be provoked by terrorists,” he said. Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, accompanying Putin, earlier lent implicit support for a possible US armed intervention in Afghanistan in reprisal for the terror attacks in which more than 5,000 people are believed to have died. “In the fight against terrorism, we cannot rule out the use of force,” he said, though he too warned that force was an extreme measure and it would be necessary “to measure the consequences.” LONDON: Britain is considering stringent new security measures on aircraft including on-board security guards and sealed cockpits for pilots, Transport Secretary Stephen Byers said today. Byers comments followed a meeting of European Transport Ministers in Brussels last day night which agreed to boost airline security standards across the European Union in response to Tuesday’s attacks in New York and Washington. Last night’s meeting moved to make compulsory a range of measures to tighten security around airports after hijacked planes ploughed into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. The 15 EU states decided to implement the so-called Document 30 which sets out minimum standards for airport security. |
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Sharon stops Peres from meeting Arafat Jerusalem, September 15 The US President, Mr George Bush, called Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Mr Sharon yesterday to make the point, U.S. officials said. However, Mr Sharon does not want Mr Peres to meet with Mr Yasser Arafat at this time, said Mr Sharon’s adviser Raanan
Gissin. Mr Sharon believes the Palestinian leader has done nothing to rein in Islamic militants and that some of his security forces have participated in attacks on Israelis. Earlier this week, Mr Sharon compared Mr Arafat to Osama bin Laden, the Saudi millionaire named as a prime suspect in the terror attacks in the USA this week. “Arafat has not stopped being a bin Laden,” Gissin said yesterday. Meanwhile in new violence, a 17-year-old
Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire, doctors said, and two Israeli border policemen were wounded by a hand grenade thrown at their post. Later last night, Israeli tanks entered the town of Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip, triggering an exchange of fire. Four Palestinians were wounded, one of them seriously, a hospital official said. The emerging argument over the truce talks could heighten tensions between
Israel and the USA at a time when the Sharon government expected to win greater international understanding — in the wake of the terror attacks in the USA —for its harsh strikes against Palestinian militants.
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Malaysia calls for world conference Kuala Lumpur, September 15 He said the world leaders should look at terrorism as a crime that had to be addressed by the whole world. Dr Mahathir said all countries should also not take sides in dealing with terrorism. “Islamic countries should not take sides with fellow Islamic countries, while non-Islamic countries should not take sides with non-Islamic countries,” he told reporters after signing a condolence book opened for the public at the US embassy here for victims of Tuesday’s terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Dr Mahathir said if not addressed, it would be followed up by retaliation and then by further retaliation. The Prime Minister said he does not agree with such a violent manner for resolving an issue. Instead, he said, a solution should be sought to resolve issues which were the root of such incidents. As such, he said, the whole world should sit together to discuss the matter seriously. On the rising anti-Islamic sentiments in the USA, he said, “That is a natural reaction. I hope it can be coped as quickly as possible because it is not the right thing”.
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Oil, gas companies stop work Islamabad, September 15 It quoted “highly placed sources” as saying although the Interior Ministry had requested the companies not to quit Pakistan, these firms have stopped their operations in the country. The companies include British Petroleum, BHP, Australia, and OME Austria, all of which have ordered their staff to leave Pakistan. “An American company LASMO, British company Premier Oil and Malaysian company Petronas are also engaged in consultation to stop their work,” a source added. The widespread fears follow escalation of tension in Pakistan in the wake of US moves to target Afghanistan for sheltering Saudi renegade Osama bin Laden, who is being blamed for Tuesday’s terror attacks in Washington and New York that killed thousands. The USA is also considering reducing its embassy staff in Pakistan, Online said. A source said: “There is every likelihood the US Embassy staff would be cut down.” The Embassy shut its visa office in Islamabad for two days following the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
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Dalai Lama gives $ 30,000 to USA New York, September 15 The spiritual leader, a Nobel Peace laureate, also urged President George W. Bush in a condolence letter to refrain from taking retaliatory measures against those who sponsored the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington. “I believe violence will only increase the cycle of violence,” he said in the letter yesterday. “But how do we deal with hatred and anger, which are often the root causes of such senseless violence?” New York-based Tibetan representative Nawang Rabgyal will, in the coming days, hand the cheque to Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
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White House
cordon pulled back Washington, September 15 But police officers were still on the street and said security could be heightened at any time.
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Mosque firebombed
in Australia Sydney, September 15 The police in the eastern state of Queensland said two petrol bombs were thrown at the mosque in the city of Brisbane but there were no injuries and only minor damage.
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