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Friday,
April 5, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Plot against Karzai foiled UN Council defers vote on draft Arab resolution
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Check J&K ultras, USA tells Pak Media reports alarm Dhaka Nepal King eases curbs on press Suu Kyi's house
arrest may end
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Plot against Karzai foiled
Kabul, April 4 The plot, the most serious threat yet to Mr Karzai’s fledgling administration, included plans to set off bombs throughout the capital, said Gen Din Muhammad Jurat, Director-General for Security, Interior Minister. He said most of the arrested were members of the Hezb-e-Islami, a hardline Islamic group headed by former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. He said about 300 people had been arrested by the Afghan authorities in the past six or seven days, including 12 arrested last night. Gen Jurat said Hekmatyar’s son-in-law, Sabawon, was among those arrested in swoops that found several large arms caches to be used in the plot. He described Hekmatyar as an ally of the ousted Taliban who wanted to bring down Karzai’s western-supported government and bring back the Taliban’s fundamentalist rule. “He has good and close relations with the Taliban. There is no difference between him and the Taliban. He was planning a coup to bring back the Taliban,” he said. The police chief also said the plotters possibly planned to assassinate ex-King Zahir Shah, whose return home from exile in Rome has been expected for several weeks. They also planned a bombing campaign to disrupt Afghanistan’s mid-June Loya Jirga (grand tribal council) which will decide whether to endorse Karzai’s leadership or install a new government. The present whereabouts of Hekmatyar, who fled to Iran after the Taliban took control in 1996, are unknown. Sabawon was Defence Minister in 1995 when Hekmatyar became Prime Minister at a time of civil war under President Burhanuddin Rabbani. When the Taliban took over in 1996, Sabwon joined Burhanuddin’s Northern Alliance as Finance Minister. The alleged plot was announced on the day Karzai left for Turkey for discussions about Ankara taking over control of the International Security Assistance Force from Britain. ISAF was not involved in the crackdown but was tipped off that a major security operation was underway and advised to stay away from certain areas, ISAF spokesman Lieut-Col Neal Peckham told reporters. |
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UN Council defers vote on draft Arab resolution
United Nations, April 4 Earlier, Palestinian and Israeli envoys clashed in the Security Council blaming each other for the deteriorating situation in the occupied territories and struck to their known positions, indicating that chances of reconciling them are as dim as ever since the start of the current violence. As the council debated the situation for the second time in less than a week yesterday, Palestinian representative asked it to press Israel to withdraw its forces from the West Bank and Israeli Ambassador Countered, saying that the suicide bombings were hindering the peace efforts. As many as 58 speakers took part in the debate and speeches were on expected lines. The USA, after initial hesitation, joined others in informally discussing the resolution, one version of which would express concern over the deterioration in the situation since Saturday and again demand cessation of hostilities and ask parties to start a "meaningful" dialogue. Since no consensus was reached, the members decided to put off the vote to allow for more consultations. The Arab-sponsored resolution submitted by Syria — acting on behalf of the Arab group — calls upon parties to immediately implement the Saturday's resolution. Meanwhile, India has asked the UN Security Council to work with Palestinians and Israelis to bring an end to violence in West Asia and stressed "immediate and effective" implementation of a resolution designed to increase pressure on the Jewish state to end its siege of West Bank. In a brief intervention in the debate yesterday, Indian Deputy Permanent Representative A. Gopinathan said it stood ready to do what it could to advance the cause of peace in the region. Meanwhile, a report from Jerusalem said Israeli President Moshe Katsav came out in favour of building a fence between Israel and the West Bank, in remarks broadcast on Israel Radio today.
PTI, AP |
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No Gulf oil cut to USA: Iran Moscow, April 4 Kharrazi, talking to reporters at the start of a delay Moscow visit due to focus on the partitioning of the oil-rich Caspian Sea, was responding to an Iraqi call on its neighbours to stifle the US economy by halting oil shipments overseas. “This is not a decision that one country alone can make for itself. It has to be a collective decision for it to be effective. If Muslim oil producers take such a decision, it will be an effective weapon,” Kharrazi said. The Iraqi initiative was effectively jettisoned after Saudi Arabia refused to consider cutting U.S. oil sales. Reuters |
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Check J&K ultras, USA tells Pak Washington, April 4 “We hope India and Pakistan will agree to resume dialogue on all issues, including Kashmir, and we are urging Pakistan to curb militant infiltration and urge restraint in Kashmir,” US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Donald Camp said yesterday. Addressing a gathering at the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies Foreign Policy Institute, he said: “We are encouraging India to address Kashmiri grievances and ensure the widest possible participation in the upcoming state elections.” Mr Camp said India and Pakistan could only resolve their differences through direct dialogue. “We can encourage, but they must act.” He said the USA was urging both sides to lessen the danger of war by toning down rhetoric, restoring full diplomatic relations and reducing military postures. American ambassadors in the region had been active on these issues and “you will have noted the active involvement as well of Secretary of State Colin Powell and the President George W. Bush,” he added. Nearly a million Indian and Pakistani troops have been deployed along the long, winding borders of the two countries following the December 13 attack on India’s Parliament, creating tensions that experts fear could trigger war. Amid the change in the region since September 11, he said one thing had remained a constant. “This is the ever-broadening and strategically important US relationship with India.” He recalled that Mr Bush had made it clear when he first came to office that improving ties with India was a top priority, and that had not changed. “We continue to promote intense cooperation with India on a broad array of issues. They range from economic dialogue and business ventures to collaboration on new international strategic and security frameworks to countering terrorism.”
IANS |
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Pak arrests 21 Harkat men Peshawar, April 4 They were picked up yesterday in a raid on their safe-house in a northwestern city, police official Ilyas Khan said by phone. The militants are now being interrogated at Mansehra, 300 km northwest of Peshawar, Mr Khan said. The Harkat-ul Mujahedeen, formerly called the Ansar Movement, and its members are believed to have received training at Osama bin Laden’s camps in Afghanistan. During last week, the authorities have arrested more than 75 persons in Pakistan for their links with the Al-Qaida, including Abu Zubaydah, a close aide to bin Laden who is now in American custody.
AP |
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Pearl case: plea for open trial rejected
Karachi, April 4 Two high court judges dismissed the motion filed by Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and his three co-defendants, clearing the way for the case to begin tomorrow. Lawyers for the four had argued that a closed trial would violate Pakistani law. Pakistani officials cited security concerns in their decision to hold the trial in Karachi’s Central Jail rather than transfer the defendants to and from court. But defence attorney Abdul Waheed Katpar had argued that the government had conducted high-profile terrorism trials in open courts before and that Saeed and the others should be given the same opportunity.
AP |
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Media reports alarm Dhaka Dhaka, April 4 In her speech in the Bangladesh Parliament last evening, mentioning the Opposition Awami League as spreading canards, warned that appropriate legal action would be taken against those engaged in such a campaign. On the other hand, Opposition leader and President of the Awami League while inaugurating the national council of the party’s student wing, Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), yesterday blamed the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its coalition partner, Jamat-e-Islami (JI) for tarnishing the image of the country the world over as “a nation of fundamentalists”. She said Bangladesh had been known as a “moderate secular democratic” country. The news in the FEER drew attention of the people when it was lifted first by Bangla daily Janakantha on April 2 and on the following day by The Bangladesh Observer. The later carried today the second part of the report. The government came out with a ban order on the Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) issue of April 4. The report from New York mentioned that the report in the WSJ had created panic among Bangladeshis residing in the USA because they feared that the immigration authorities would now look at them with suspicion. The cover story in the FEER by its staffer Bertil Lintner from Dhaka with a heading ‘A cocoon of ‘Terror’ mentioned “rising fundamentalism and religious intolerance are threatening secularism and moderate Islam. The implications for the region and beyond are grave, but it’s not too late for a counter revolution.” The second part of the report with the heading ‘Militants find recruits and guns in the lawless southeast’ mentions ‘Guns and religion form a recipe for trouble. And there are plenty of guns and plenty of religious zealots in this lawless corner of southeast Bangladesh’. The report narrated how Ruhingya refugees from the neighbouring Myanmar and local youths trained by Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami were recruited for the Taliban forces and Al-Qaida forces of Osama bin-Laden. The report gave another information alarming for India. The recruits have fought in Kashmir, Chechnya and Afghanistan, it said. |
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Nepal King eases curbs on press Kathmandu, April 4 King Gyanendra issued an order allowing free publication and broadcast of any subject, except those which directly or indirectly help terrorist activities. But no public comment can be made which may adversely affect the security operations or demoralise the security personnel, a Royal Palace statement said. Political parties have been allowed to organise public meetings, gatherings, conferences and interaction that do not directly or indirectly help the terrorists. However, prior to organising such programmes, permission is to be taken from the Chief District Officer, the statement said. Following the declaration of the state of emergency in November 26 last year, the Nepal Government issued an ordinance curtailing some individual rights, press freedom and normal functioning of political parties. Meanwhile, the long-running conflict between Maoist insurgents and government forces in Nepal has become a human rights crisis, endangering civilians and placing the future of the Himalayan kingdom at risk, Amnesty International said. Human rights have been swept aside as both the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and the security forces engage in disappearances, abductions, torture and unlawful killings,” a statement from the global human rights group said.
PTI |
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Suu Kyi's house
arrest may end Yangon, April 4 Foreign Minister Win Aung made the comments in an interview late on Thursday, but gave no indication of when the Opposition leader might be freed.
Reuters |
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Kabul, April 4
