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Wednesday,
September 11, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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LETTER LEAK CASE MiG
crashes: George meets service chiefs Thackeray
to view ‘Ek Chhoti...’ CPI
condemns Modi’s remarks |
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Trained
by cops, traders take up arms Mirwaiz
leaves for New York A film
by bandit queen
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LETTER LEAK CASE New Delhi, September 10 Six months after the Air Marshal, who was AOC-in-C, Southern Command, Indian Air Force (IAF), and was asked to resign from the force for seeking political patronage for furthering his career, has alleged in an interview with a news portal, “It was a fallout of the court of inquiry that I conducted against Air Marshal Bhatia”. In the interview the Air Marshal has disclosed that Air Marshal V.K. (Jimmy) Bhatia’s plane was hit by a Pakistani missile after it had crossed the Line of Control (LoC) in the Batalik sector. He says that the plane remained in the Pakistani territory for almost 11 minutes before coming back into India. He further says that there were pressure on him to alter the facts of the report and when he did not comply, the next day the letter written by him to the former Punjab Chief Minister was leaked to the media. Air Marshal Sekhon was asked to conduct the court of inquiry into the incident which hit the headlines more because it was the AOC-in-C, Western Air Command, who was involved and had the plane gone down in the Pakistani territory it would have been very
embarrassing for India. Air Marshal Sekhon’s assertion assumes significance as it was the IAF which got affected the most in the entire episode. Not only was one senior Air Marshal asked to resign from the force, the other, equally experienced and brilliant tactician, was removed from his post and attached to the Air Headquarters for months before he reached superannuation. The needle of suspicion for the leaking of the letter was on two sources — the Congress in Punjab and from within the IAF itself. Although the source could not be traced but overall it reflected the Services in bad light. Incidentally, Air Marshal Sekhon recently joined the Congress in the presence of Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh. In the interview the Air Marshal has said he is not sure whether the Congress was behind the leaking of the letter, but it was the fallout of the court of inquiry. He said he had mentioned to the Air Force chief that in Services inquiries are not conducted against senior officers. But he (Air Chief) insisted for it. The Air Marshal says that as part of the inquiry he collected the black box of the aircraft, cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder. “I met the Army persons on ground, who saw the aircraft crossing over along the Batalik river. They saw the missile rising from the Pakistani post. Eight officers and 50 subedars and jawans saw the missile hitting the right wing of the aircraft.” The Air Marshal said, “Despite the hit the aircraft continued in the same direction into Pakistan and flew for about 11 minutes in their territory. Luckily, the missile did not explode and the aircraft came back and landed at Leh”. He goes onto say that there were pressures on him to delete some of the things from the report. Particularly that the aircraft did not cross the line and that it was hit by a missile within our own territory. “I was not ready to change that.” “The next day the letter which I had written to Mr Badal about six months ago after I had met him at a social gathering was released to the media”. He also says that it was an attempt to divert the attention from the court of inquiry. |
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MiG crashes: George meets service chiefs New Delhi, September 10 “We have discussed the matter at a meeting this morning...we are waiting for the inquiry committee report,” he said. The Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy, Army chief, General S Padmanabhan, Defence Secretary Subir Dutta were among those present at the meeting. The Navy chief, Admiral Madhvendra Singh, is away on a visit to the USA. The crashes of MiG-21 planes near Ambala and Jodhpur yesterday have once again accentuated the need for India acquiring Advanced Jet Trainers (AJTs). The IAF has ordered an inquiry into the two crashes. Preliminary reports suggest that the crashes occurred due to engine failure, taking the total number of MiG crashes this year to six. The crashes of two MiGs in April-May this year also occurred due to engine flame-out. According to reports, some 100 MiGs have crashed between 1991 and 2000. India has almost finalised the deal for the purchase of 66 Hawk AJTs from Britain. The deal is awaiting the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), which is expected to meet after Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee returns from New York. |
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Thackeray
to view ‘Ek Chhoti...’ Mumbai, September 10 A meeting to resolve the controversy on the film between actress Manisha Koirala and Nair was held at Mr Thackeray’s residence “Matoshree” in Bandra this noon. The closed-door meeting was attended by Nair, Manisha and her advocate Satish Maneshinde. A special show of the movie will be arranged for the Shiv Sena chief within a day or two at Rajkamal Theatre in central Mumbai, Nair told mediapersons after the meeting. RANCHI: The National Commission for Women will support Manisha’s stand on her controversial film and move the apex court for justice, its member Anushuiya Uikey said on Tuesday.
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CPI condemns Modi’s remarks New Delhi, September 10 “It has nothing to do with a legitimate election campaign. The VHP is now planning to launch another yatra of its own,” the CPI Central Secretariat said in a statement here. The CPI said Mr Modi’s personal attacks as well as his remarks against the minorities were aimed at denigrating them. Meanwhile, in a damage-repair exercise, the BJP today sought to downplay the reported anti-minority remarks of Mr Modi, with party President M. Venkaiah Naidu asking him to desist from making such comments. Mr Naidu spoke to Mr Modi over the telephone after seeing media reports regarding the Chief Minister’s address in Becharji in Mehsana district during his gaurav yatra, party general secretary and spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told newspersons here. “The party President spoke to Mr Modi and wanted to know if he had made comments attributed to him in the media to which Mr Modi said he had been misquoted. |
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Sonia performs Ganesh puja New Delhi, September 10 Amidst chanting of hymns and shlokas, she performed the pooja offering coconuts, sweets, flowers, garlands and incense sticks to a majestic clay idol of Ganesh, known as “vighnahurta” (remover of all hurdles). The occasion was “Pratishthapana Divas” (idol installation day) of the 10-day-long Ganesh Utsav. The Delhi Chief Minister, Ms Shiela Dixit, the Union Minister, Mr Ram Naik, Senior Congress leaders, Mr Natwar Singh and Mr Vasant Saathe, were among those who
offered their pooja at the Constitution Club here organised by Sarvjanik Utsav Samiti. Earlier, the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, performed the pooja organised by the Maharashtra Sanskrutik Samiti at a different place.
PTI |
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All-party meet on Cauvery issue Bangalore, September 10 |
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Trained
by cops, traders take up arms Lucknow, September 10 Such training camps have been held in Lucknow and Kanpur and soon the same will be held in Meerut and Saharanpur. One such camp was held in the Police Lines of Kanpur where a batch of 25 traders took part . All had their own licenced revolvers. “This training camp showed that a majority of the prominent traders have legal weapons but they do not know how to use them,” said Head Constable Akhilesh Tiwari. “After this camp the traders are confident they will be able to use firearms as and where the need will arise,” he said. Both members of the business community and officials are happy over the conduct of these camps. “The incidents of crime against traders were on the rise. In the past two months at least six businessmen have been abducted. Our life is not safe as the police seems to be unable to protect our life and protect,”said Mr RK Kundnani, a businessman. “With the nature of crime getting more and more complicated, it has become important for the people to extend their cooperation to the police,” said Kanpur Deputy Inspector -General of Police RR Bhatnagar. “We regard this kind of training as a positive step in that direction,” he said. Mr Bhatnagar said: “The recent years have seen an increased demand from industrialists and businessmen for the issue of firearm licences. But we discovered that many of them had no knowledge on the use of these weapons.” |
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Mirwaiz
leaves for New York New Delhi, September 10 Mirwaiz, who
did not attend the Hurriyat leaders’ meeting with senior diplomats of the Pakistan High Commission yesterday, will brief the OIC on the ongoing electoral process besides the conglomerate’s view on the political and security situation in Kashmir. In a significant statement, he has stated that the separatist conglomerate is ready to discuss an alternative to independence, including autonomy, if the talks process is initiated by the Centre to resolve the Kashmir issue. He said if a solution agreeable to India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir was arrived at, “jehadis will have to fall in line, otherwise we will rise against them”.
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A film by bandit queen Kanpur, September 10 Director Yash Chauhan has decided to make the film based on Seema’s life. The script has been written by Rishikant Sharma of Mumbai. A Nagpur-based Shiv Sena leader has reportedly agreed to finance the film. The director-producer had signed Seema on the Kanpur district court premises here yesterday where she had came to attend a court hearing. She will herself play the lead role in the film. Seema was a close associate of dacoit chief, Lalaram who was killed in an encounter with the police in nearby Kanpur Dehat district two years ago. Seema has been under judicial custody in Etawah district jail for over a year. She is facing trial in over a dozen cases registered at different police stations in Etawah, Auraiyya, and Jalaun even as she has been acquitted in a few cases at Kanpur Dehat district.
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