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Thursday,
February 14, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Iran ‘sheltering’ Al-Qaida fighters in camps
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Pak must prove ‘it doesn’t back ultras’ Shura rejects Karzai’s nominee Chinese company ‘shipped’
components for Shaheen
Hitler’s last secy dead
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Iran ‘sheltering’ Al-Qaida fighters in camps Kandahar, February 13 “We have received reports that special camps have been opened,” Khalid Pashtoon, a senior aide to the Governor of Kandahar province, Gul Agha, told newsmen. “One name I can reveal is Nusratabat, about 30 km west of Zahedan.” The Iranian town of Zahedan sits just across the border from Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Nimroz province, where officials say pockets of Taliban and Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaida network are still active. They say Taliban and Al-Qaida fighters are believed to be moving back and forth across the border. Kandahar’s post-taliban administration, dominated by Sunni Pashtuns, has frequently accused Iran’s Shia government of trying to destabilise the region. But Iranian authorities have emphatically denied interfering in Afghan affairs or seeking to undermine the six-month interim government that took office in December. Iran has also rejected US allegations that it was letting Al-Qaida members escape from Afghanistan through Iran. Complicating the situation is rivalry between Kandahar and the western Afghan city of Herat. Kandahar officials have accused Herat’s governing warlord Ismail Khan of working with a former Mujahideen faction leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and members of Iran’s Pasdaran militia to stir up trouble in southwest Afghanistan. Iranian media reported on Sunday that the Iranian authorities closed down Hekmatyar’s offices amid mounting calls for him to be expelled. The move, which the media said was made because Hekmatyar had acted against Iranian national security, was seen as Iran’s effort to demonstrate goodwill towards the UN-backed interim government in Afghanistan. “Iranian interference is continuing on a daily basis,” Pashtoon said. “Of course, we inform the central government in Kabul on a daily basis. It’s their job to take action and tell the Iranians not to interfere in Afghanistan.” He said Iran was providing opponents of the Afghan regime with “arms, ammunition, humanitarian aid, cash — all kinds of stuff”.
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USA gives Iran details London, February 13 According to an account of the interview on the BBC website, Zalmay Khalilzad said Washington had passed the information directly to Iranian diplomats during multilateral talks on Afghanistan. He said hardline elements around Iran’s spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and in the elite Revolutionary Guards were helping arm and finance groups in Afghanistan in a bid to establish pockets of influence and discourage co-operation with the interim government. Khalilzad said Washington was concerned that Iran had won policies on Afghanistan, driven by the moderate supporters of reformist President Mohammad Khatami and the hardliners, respectively. Khalilzad alleged that members of the
Al-Qods division of the Revolutionary Guards had been despatched to Afghanistan along with a group of Afghan Shiites trained in Lebanon known as Mohamed’s soldiers. He said he also believed that some elements of the Revolutionary Guards had had a relatively longstanding relationship with the Al-Qaida and had helped members of the group escape from Afghanistan to Iran following the defeat of the Taliban regime.
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Pervez speech in US Congress record Washington, February 13 Senator Richard Durbin placed the “historic speech” of the Pakistani leader in the US Congressional Record the day Musharraf arrived in Washington to begin a three-day visit to this country. He is scheduled to meet President George W. Bush later. The record is a very important document that chronicles the daily sessions of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. It becomes part of the Library of Congress. Musharraf spoke of a “day of reckoning” for his nation, Durbin said. “Musharraf told us that the public response to his revolutionary message has been positive even among the Muslim clergy who met him before it was given. If real peace and progress are to come to the Islamic world, we must help him succeed,” the senator pleaded. Most of the development and military aid that will go to Pakistan will need congressional clearance and Durbin may have been hinting there should be no hurdles or questions asked when aid starts flowing. “If Osama bin Laden could find justification for his hate-filled extremism in a corruption of Islamic belief, Musharraf found tolerance, universal brotherhood and peace in Islam,” the Illinois Democrat told his colleagues on the floor of the Senate.
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Pak must prove ‘it doesn’t back ultras’ Washington, February 13 “Pakistan must clamp down on dozens of fighters that cross daily into Jammu and Kashmir from the occupied Kashmir,” Congressman Jim McDermott said yesterday in a speech in the House of Representatives. McDermott said: “If, as the General (Musharraf) claimed last week, the fighting in Jammu and Kashmir is indigenous to India, will he order that his borders are tightly sealed against the radical Islamic militants who are based on Pakistani soil and wage war in India?” Commenting on Pakistan’s sincerity in the global fight against terrorism, he said: “There can be no doubt that terrorism is alive in Pakistan.... Without a sincere, public and tangible series of steps on the part of the General and his government, Pakistan’s commitment to fighting terrorism is questionable.” On Musharraf blaming New Delhi in the abduction of US journalist Daniel Pearl, Mr McDermott said, “until he (Musharraf) stops bizarre diversions like blaming India for the kidnapping of Pearl and gets serious, it is going to be hard for us to take Pakistan and its interests as anything but dubious.” Musharraf would gain tremendously in the international community if he divulges to the world the status of the “20 most wanted” that are accused of being sheltered in Pakistan, McDermott said.
PTI |
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Shura rejects Karzai’s nominee Islamabad, February 13 A spokesman for the Shura said it would not accept interim leader Hamid Karzai’s choice, tribal commander Padsha Khan, the Afghan Islamic Press news agency reported. The Shura had nominated its preferred candidate as Taj Mohammad Wardag, who was Governor of northern Badakshan province during the rule of ex-King Zahir Shah, he said. But the spokesman said Khan was opposing the new nomination and the Kabul authorities had not been able to convince him to accept the Shura’s decision. Karzai was strongly critical of Khan after the Pashtun tribal strongman tried to take up his post in Gardez by force two weeks ago, leading to bloody street fighting with the forces of a rival warlord.
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Chinese company ‘shipped’ components for Shaheen Washington, February 13 The study authored by Barbara Leitch LePoer of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Division of the CRS said China and Pakistan enjoyed a close and mutually beneficial relationship for over three decades. “Pakistan served as a link between Beijing and Washington in 1971 as well as a bridge to the Muslim world for China in the 1980s” the study said adding that China’s continuing role as a major arms supplier for Pakistan began in the 1960s. On India and Pakistan, the study said both countries had built large defence establishments - including ballistic missile programmes and nuclear capability - “at the cost of economic and social development.” According to the CRS, the US policy analysts consider the continuing arms race between India and Pakistan as posing the most likely prospect for the future use of nuclear weapons. India is believed to have enough plutonium for 75 or more nuclear weapons. Pakistan may have enough enriched uranium for 25 nuclear weapons. Both countries have aircraft capable of delivering weapons.
PTI |
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Free Arafat from house arrest: Annan United Nations, February 13 “Certainly the virtual house arrest imposed on Mr Yaser Arafat should be lifted,” Mr Annan said and told Israelis that there would no lasting security without addressing the issue of occupation. “The destruction of the Palestinian authority’s infrastructure will only increase the difficulty it has in meeting both its political and security commitments,” he warned. Mr Arafat is confined to his Ramallah headquarters by Israelis who say that he must do more to arrest militants and stop their activities. But Palestinians say the very act of confining Mr Arafat has put him in a position that he can do little. With the Middle East peace process mired in an “extremely trying period,” Mr Annan urged both Israelis and Palestinians to once again recommit themselves to returning to the bargaining table. GAZA: Israel sent tanks and troops into three Gaza Strip towns today, killing three policemen, after threatening to carve “security zones” in the Palestinian areas to put Israeli cities out of range of a new missile. The Israeli army said the night-time “anti-terror” raids on Palestinian-ruled Deir
Al-Balah in central Gaza and Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya further to the north came in response to the firing of Qassam missiles towards Israeli settlements. In a statement issued some five hours after the incursion began, the army said Israeli tanks, infantry and special forces had pulled out of Deir Al-Balah and Beit Lahiya but were still carrying out searches for militants and arms in Beit Hanoun.
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Hitler’s last secy dead Berlin, February 13 Junge died of cancer during the intervening night of Sunday and Monday aged 81, the spokesman said, quoting the maker of the film. Othmar Schmiderer’s film, “Blind Spot: Hitler’s Secretary” had been presented at the Berlinale on the same day in which Junge is simply interviewed and tells her story. Junge was Hitler’s private secretary at the Nazi chancellor’s office and saw the collapse of the Third Reich until his suicide in April 1945. She was young and unaware of what was going on around her. She explains: “Hitler was a veritable criminal. I didn’t realise it. Apart from me, millions of others did not see it either.” There is no music or war footage in the film. The interviewer in the film, Andre Heller, said the dying Junge told him in a final telephone conversation: “Now that I have let go of the story, I can let go of life too.” AFP
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Another US plane crashes in Afghanistan Kandahar, February 13 The cause of the MC-130P plane’s crash was unknown but US military officials said it did not appear to be the result of hostile fire. All crew survived and their injuries were not life-threatening.
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Nepal seeks action against Pak staffer Kathmandu, February 13 Shiraj Ahmed Shiraj, an upper division clerk of the Pakistan Embassy, was arrested by the Nepal police from Maharajgunj, Kathmandu, on January 3 on the eve of the 11th SAARC summit. Fake Indian currency totalling $ 9,200 and Rs 47,000 were found in his possession, he said.
PTI |
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Vaz suspended for contempt
of House
London, February 13 The House of Commons approved the penalty without a vote following a recommendation by the Committee on Standards and Privileges after it observed that Mr Vaz had shown contempt for the House by not giving full answers about his family’s financial ties with the Hinduja brothers.
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