 |
Sunday,
March 3, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
|
US planes bomb Taliban hideouts Hand over Jaish chief: USA
USA to give anti-terror
training to Yemen army |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Anti-India lobby active Editor of Pak daily resigns
|
|
US planes bomb Taliban hideouts Gardez, (Afghanistan), March 2 Residents said the fighting was taking place about 30 km from Gardez, capital of Paktia province, where the Pentagon says it has intelligence reports that pockets of Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network and followers of deposed Taliban leader Mullah Omar are seeking to regroup. “I can confirm that operations are ongoing in eastern Afghanistan,” US military spokesman Major A.C. Roper told a news briefing in the southern city of Kandahar. Roper declined to give further details of the operation or comment on reports that a large number of US troops had been moved from Kandahar air base to Bagram air base, north of Kabul. There was no indication that Bin Laden and Mullah Omar, both of whom Afghan officials say are still alive and on the run, were near the scene of the latest fighting. Gardez, about 150 km south of Kabul towards the Pakistan border, is often mentioned as a likely hideout for the two leaders. “There has been heavy US bombing since last night and it is still going on today,” Kamal Wazir, a spokesman for the province’s key warlord and former governor Padshah Khan Zadran, told Reuters today. “We started a ground attack by 600 of our fighters on the area at 2 a.m. this morning. There are 50 or 60 American advisers with us,” Wazir said. “The Taliban and Al-Qaeda men are fighting back by firing rockets and heavy weapons at us.” “The fighting is around the mountain village of Shahi Ko in Arma district.” More than 500 Arabs and other Al-Qaeda fighters along with their families are holed up in the area of Paktia province, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported. Top Pentagon officials said yesterday the US military had been watching the area for a long period after deposing Afghanistan’s Taliban leadership and sending remnants of Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda guerrillas, blamed for September 11’s attacks on the USA, into hiding in the rugged country. “For some time now, coalition and Afghan forces have been conducting operations in eastern Afghanistan to eliminate Al-Qaeda and Taliban groups that have been identified in the area,” Roper said.
Reuters |
|
Hand over Jaish chief: USA Islamabad, March 2 Besides Azhar and Sheikh Omar Saeed, a British passport holder whose extradition has already been sought by the USA in American journalist Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping and murder case, the third terrorist released by India to end the hijacking was Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar. Pakistani weekly Independent reported that besides Omar, the USA wanted the extradition of eight Pakistani nationals, including the terrorists released by India and the hijackers of the Indian Airlines plane. According to the weekly, those sought by the USA for extradition are Azhar, who is currently detained in a Pakistani prison, Zargar, Shakir alias Shankar, Mistri Zahur Ibrahim, Shahid Akhtar, Sunn Ahemed Qazi, Azhar Yoursaf and Ibrahim Athar. The USA is also reported to have handed over to Pakistan a draft MoU to formalise cooperation between the two countries to curb international terrorism and terrorist networks. Washington wanted Islamabad to sign the MoU that would enable the anti-terrorism agencies concerned of the two countries to work together in targeting international terrorism, Pakistan Daily The News said. The news of the USA circulating a draft comes amidst intense talks between Pakistan and the USA to extradite Omar, the self-confessed kidnapper of Pearl, who was believed to have been killed. “The extradition demand conveyed last week says that the Pakistani nationals in question had conspired to kill the American citizens,” the weekly said. There was no official comment on the weekly’s report so far. The News said the draft MoU on terrorism sent by the USA was being scrutinised by the ministries of Interior, Law and Foreign Office. It said the Pakistan Government would prepare its own version of the draft MoU keeping in view the national interests and also to ensure that the anti-terrorism cooperation was not misinterpreted in future. The USA is reportedly interested in formalising the anti-terrorism cooperation between the two countries with emphasis on the information-sharing mechanism.
PTI |
|
USA to give anti-terror
training to Yemen army Washington, March 2 “We are talking about training and equipment,” said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. Mr Boucher was speaking after a senior official in Yemen confirmed that US troops were scheduled to gradually enter Yemen to help train the nation’s military in tracking down suspected terrorists. The US operation in Yemen would be similar to one underway in the Philippines, where some 660 US troops are currently deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. The operation would come as part of the US-led war on terrorism launched after the September 11 terrorist strikes on the USA, it said. An October 2000 attack on the USS cole in Yemen’s Aden port is believed to have been carried out by members of the Al-Qaida network, whose leader Osama bin Laden is the suspected mastermind of the September attacks.
AFP |
|
Anti-India lobby active IT seems an anti-India lobby is working overtime on the Capitol Hill to put the Vajpayee government in an unfavourable light with allegations of Hindu hegemony and oppression of minorities. On a single day earlier this week, three Congressmen — two Republicans and a Democrat — took the floor of the House of the Representatives to charge that India was “tyrannising” the Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and Dalits — in the name of Hindu nationalism. They urged the Bush administration to use its influence with New Delhi, and if necessary, to resort to all peaceful means at its disposal, including stoppage of aid to India, until the “repression” of minorities ended. “It is clear that India intends to run its Hindutva policy down the throats of everyone in the sub-continent,” Republican Congressman Mike Pence, told his fellow-lawmakers. Democrat Edolphus Towns wanted the USA to openly declare its support for self-determination for all peoples and nations in South Asia. Of course, there was the chronic India-baiter Republican Congressman Dan Burton, whose parrot-like fulminations against the Indian Government are a recurring ritual in the House of Representatives. All Congressmen made their accusations invoking the American media reports on the situation in the sub-continent, highlighted by increasing tensions between the two neighbours, New Delhi and Islamabad. Mr Towns cited an article by Steve Forbes in the forthcoming March 4 issue of Forbes magazine titled “India, Meet Austria-Hungary”. In the article, Forbes compares present-day India to the old Austro-Hungarian empire. Mr Forbes says: “India is not a homogeneous state. Neither was the Austro-Hungarian empire. It attacked Serbia in the summer of 1914 in the hopes of destroying this irritating state after Serbia had committed a spectacular terrorist act against the Hapsburg monarchy. The empire ended up splintering, and the Hapsburgs lost their throne.” The article said: “Influential elements in India’s Government and military are still itching to go to war with Pakistan, even though Pakistan’s President
Pervez Musharraf has taken considerable political risks by moving against Pakistani-based-and-trained anti-India terrorist groups. Sure, General Musharraf made a truculent speech
condemning India’s occupation of Kashmir, but that was rhetorical cover for cracking down on those groups. Washington should send New Delhi some history books for these hotheads; there is no human activity more prone to unintended consequences than warfare. As cooler heads in the Indian Government well know, history is riddled with examples of parties that initiated hostilities in the belief that conflict would resolutely resolve outstanding issues.” |
|
Editor of Pak daily resigns Islamabad, March 2 The Editor, Shaheen Sehbai, said in his resignation letter addressed to the daily’s Editor-in-Chief that he was quitting due to pressure exerted on him by officials of the Pakistan Government, according to the Committee of Protection of Journalists. He accused the government of pressuring Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakeelur Rehman to fire him and three reporters -Kamran Khan, Amir Mateen, and Rauf Klasra - because their reports had angered the officials. Sehbai said he would rather quit than dismiss the reporters. His resignation came after Rehman held him responsible for an article that was perceived to be damaging to Pakistan’s national interests, which in turn elicited severe reaction from the government. Sehbai said trouble began after a story by Kamaran Khan appeared on February 17.
PTI |
 |
| 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 | | 122 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
(
