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Sunday,
May 19, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Benazir, seven others proclaimed offenders USA to work for easing tensions WINDOW ON PAKISTAN FBI was ‘aware’ of terror pilot training 11 suspected Al-Qaida men killed Cannes favourite Winterbottom bids for top honours |
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Benazir, seven others proclaimed offenders Islamabad, May 18 Accountability Court (Number two) Judge Mansur Ali Khan yesterday also directed a co-accused, A.R. Siddique, former chairman, Central Board of Revenue, who appeared in the court, to produce a Rs 1 million bank guarantee, The News reported today. Siddique was also ordered to give an undertaking that he would be available to the prosecution and appear in the court regularly, the newspaper said. Later the case was adjourned until May 30. The court also decided to proceed against the proclaimed offenders under Section 512 of the CrPC during their absence on the next date of hearing. It further said cases against two accused, Asif Ali Zardari (Ms Bhutto’s husband) and A R Siddique, who had appeared in the court, would be heard separately. The court declined a request of Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa, an advocate who wanted to represent Ms Bhutto in her absence. The court directed that Ms Bhutto first appear in person in the
National Accountability Bureau Prosecutor-General Raja Muhammad Bashir is representing the state while Farooq Naik is the defence lawyer in the case. The Ehtesab (Accountability) Bench of the Lahore High Court,
However, the Supreme Court had set aside the conviction and sent the case for re-trial in the Accountability Court. Those who had been declared proclaimed offenders include Jens
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USA to work for easing tensions Washington, May 18 “We are concerned about the situation there, about an increase in tensions. As you know, the USA has been working all along with both of these nations to try to see if we couldn’t contribute in some way to an easing of tensions between the two,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters yesterday. He said Secretary of State Colin Powell had been in close touch with the leaders of the two countries and Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca had been recently in the region. She had some very detailed, “and we think fruitful,” discussions with both parties, he said. “And we do have excellent relationships with both India and Pakistan, and we want to make sure that on that basis we do everything we can to any easing of tensions,” he said. “So we will continue to be involved. I am sure we will continue to be involved at a high level and see what we can do.” Asked about the report that Mr Armitage will be going to India and Pakistan in the next two weeks, Mr Boucher said no further decisions had been taken at this point to travel to the region.
PTI |
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WINDOW ON PAKISTAN Reports from Multan say that a dreaded terrorist, Riaz Basra, has been killed in an encounter with the police. The incident occurred in a village on May 15. He carried on his head a reward of Rs 5 million ($83,000). He headed the banned
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Before joining the Lashkar he was a prominent member of the
Sipah-e-Sahaba. The two organisations are well known for sectarian and terrorist killings. Basra, around 34, was a Sunni Muslim. His targets, obviously, were Shias. Born at Chak Chah Thandiwala, Sargodha, he had over 100 murder cases registered against him. Among his victims were Iranian diplomat Sadiq Gunji. But is he really dead? The encounter report has it that the police raided the village when it learnt that one of the most dreaded terrorists and leader of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi was hiding along with his associates in the house of a local religious figure. Now contrast this fact with what a detailed piece carried in the April issue of The Herald magazine says. The very first paragraph of the well-researched report by Azmat Abbas reveals: "It has been more than five months since Riaz Basra's arrest was first reported in newspapers, but, surprisingly, the government has neither denied these reports nor brought the arrest on record. Given the administration's persistent efforts to score points on the law and order front, its silence on the arrest of the country's most wanted terrorist is rather unusual and puzzling." One way to look at the story is that the Pakistan Government had made up its mind to get rid of Basra by enacting a police encounter. The Herald report supports this theory. This means that he is dead. However, there are a number of ifs and buts. There was a strong rumour that certain members of the Pervez Musharraf regime were lobbying for his release on the plea that this course might lead to a considerable improvement in the law and order situation in Pakistan, particularly Karachi. The strange logic was given keeping in view the growing incidents of violence involving Basra supporters and sympathisers after his reported arrest. A peep into Basra's past gives an idea about the people behind the terrorist networks spread throughout the length and breadth of Pakistan. According to The Herald, he was the youngest of four brothers and two sisters. "Basra was admitted to Government Primary School, Mauza Khurshid, but he dropped out within a few months. Later, he started receiving religious education from Hafiz Atta Mohammad, and about a year later Basra's brother-in-law, Maulana Mohammad Feroze Madani, brought him to Lahore where he was admitted to Madarsa Darul Uloom Islamia, Allama Iqbal Town. Basra studied here for two years before shifting to Madarsa Jamia Usmania, Wahdat Road. It was here that Basra learnt the entire Quran by heart and started teaching children at home. "He joined the Sipah-e-Sahaba in 1985 and was initially elected as the Lahore district secretary. He participated actively in organising rallies and was instrumental in arranging funds for setting up the organisation's office on Lytton Road. Later, after becoming the central information secretary, Basra contested the provincial assembly election in 1988. Around this time he also started visiting Afghanistan and, according to police reports, received military training at camps run by the banned jehadi group Harkatul Mujahideen. He also took part in the Afghan war and suffered an injury in the left leg. By 1990 Riaz Basra was actively involved in various criminal and terrorist activities. "Basra was arrested for the first time on June 5, 1992, on charges of killing Shia leader Syed Sikandar Shah and the Director-General of Khana-e-Farhang, Lahore, Sadiq Gunji. Nearly two years later on April 30,1994, he was brought before a special court on Mall Road from where he escaped. A year later he formed the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. It took enforcement agencies almost eight years and the loss of hundreds of innocent lives to arrest Basra again in 2001." He had turned such a hardened criminal that the police initially failed to force him to admit his real identity despite using all the known torture techniques. It was his mother who helped the police identify him as Riaz Basra. |
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FBI was ‘aware’ of terror pilot training Washington, May 18 The FBI knew by 1996 of a potential suicide attack by Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaida network against the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) headquarters and other federal buildings in and around Washington, The New York Times quoting court records and federal law enforcement officials reported. The FBI, however, had dispelled the idea of a suicide attack using aircraft because of the failure to gather much evidence of Al-Qaida men receiving pilot training, the paper reported. Earlier this week, a FBI memo from its Phoenix office had come to light, which had warned last year that Al-Qaida was planning to enroll students in US flight schools and had named at least two individuals.
UNI |
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11 suspected Al-Qaida men killed Bagram Air Base, May 18 The US spokesman, Maj Bryan Hilferty, told reporters here that “approximately 10” persons had been killed in an attack by an AC-130 gunship in the early hours of yesterday on an uninhabited ridge north of Khost.
AFP |
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Cannes favourite Winterbottom bids for top honours
Cannes, France, May 18 Michael Winterbottom’s riotous music biopic is one of the three British films competing for the Palme d’Or in Cannes and, like his compatriots Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, he has always been a Cannes favourite. Winterbottom, still only 41, has served on the Cannes jury judging his peers and ‘’24 Hour Party People’’ is the third film he has had in competition. It chronicles 16 rollercoaster years in the Manchester music scene in northern England from the founding of Factory Records to the rise and fall of the legendary Hacienda dance club. The tale is told by television presenter turned club promoter Tony Wilson, played with great panache by British comedian Steve Coogan who delights in off-the-cuff asides to camera. The music of the Sex Pistols, Joy Division, New Order and the Happy Mondays offers a pile-driving soundtrack to a saga of rock excess. The film, which has grossed almost £ 1 million pounds since it was released in Britain last month, received mixed reviews from the influential trade magazines in Cannes. Screen International called the film ‘’anarchic, exasperating and ambitious... It is a real oddball item whose eventual cult status — like that of the music that it portrays — could outstrip its commercial performance by miles.’’ Variety said the movie was ‘’a rough, gritty, often scabrously humorous tribute to a period when Manchester, England was the epicentre of punk rock.’’ But critics were united in agreeing that the film ran out of steam in the second half and could prove to be a major marketing challenge in the international arena. However there is no doubting that Winterbottom’s output has been both prolific and varied, ranging from the serial killer road movie ‘’Butterfly Kiss’’ to the western ‘’The Claim’’ and the Bosnian war film ‘’Welcome to Sarajevo.’’ Hollywood’s Dreamworks studio launched their box office smash ‘’Shrek’’ at Cannes last year and they hoped the same magic would rub off this year on ‘’Spirit,’’ their animated feature tale of a mustang horse’s bid for freedom in the Old West. Dreamworks’ Jeffrey Katzenberg told a Cannes press conference after a special screening: ‘’It is incredibly prestigious to be here at Cannes. Cannes is always a first for filmmakers, filmgoers and innovators in the industry.’’ And the film offered a demanding but delightful challenge for Canadian rocker Bryan Adams who provides the soundtrack: ‘’I had to be not just a songwriter but to try and move the story along with my songs. I had to be the voice of the horse.’’
Reuters |
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