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Sunday,
February 16, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Osama —
from videos to audio tapes Kargil put
on airlink map RAW
ex-chief to be mediator on J&K Sansad
decision to be final,
says Singhal
President APJ Abdul Kalam waves to a gathering of students in
Mumbai on Saturday. The President regularly meets students, which is a part of his aim to interact and understand the needs and aspirations of the young.
— Reuters photo PM to
convene all-party meeting on women’s Bill |
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NDA coordination panel meeting today Raids on
MC PRO’s premises Protest
against war on Iraq Order on
security to Raja Bhaiyya
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Osama — from videos to audio tapes New Delhi, February 15 Counter-terrorism officials and terrorism-watchers here believe the post-September 11 global terrorism inc, better known as Al-Qaida, may be down but is definitely not out and is still active in as many as 60 countries. They said the fact that of late Bin Laden had been sending his messages through audio tapes rather than videos, as has been his wont, indicated the following: * Osama could be injured or seriously unwell and he does not want himself shown in that state. It is a known fact that Osama is suffering from a serious kidney ailment and he has to undergo dialysis regularly which may not be possible these days when he is on the run. * Osama could be in disguise and he does not want to reveal his new looks for obvious reasons. If he has shaved off his trademark beard and if he was to send a video message like that it would make a serious dent in his image of an Islamic hero. * Video recording requires more manpower, more skill which may compromise his personal security. It is a well-known principle of the world of covert operations that the less the number of people the terror protagonist interacts with the better it is for him. * A video recording can give away the backdrop against which it is shot no matter what precautions are taken to prevent this. An audio-tape, on the other hand, can be simple, safe and uncumbersome for a man like Osama, the most wanted man on earth. Sources say the latest Osama tape in which he talked of dying like a martyr while hitting at the ‘eagle’s belly’ (an obvious reference to the USA) may well indicate that an injured/ailing Osama could himself be leading a suicide operation against the USA. That may explain the USA stepping up its threat alert level to Orange, number two in their system of threat levels. It is interesting to note that since September 11, Al-Qaida carried out or thwarted attacks in several countries. This clearly demonstrates that the operational capability of Al-Qaida to carry out strikes still exist even though more than one third of the identified top Al-Qaida leadership has been killed or captured and the number of rounded up Al-Qaida detainees has now grown to over 3,000. |
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Kargil put on airlink map New Delhi, February 15 The IAF spokesman, Sqn Ldr Rajesh Dhingra said the AN-32 made the inaugural run from Srinagar to Kargil airport with 18 civilian passengers. The spokesman said Kargil would be airlinked to Chandigarh, Jammu and Srinagar on a regular basis. But unlike other scheduled airlinks, the authorities due to vulnerability of the Kargil airport to Pakistani guns, are keeping the flight timings and schedule under wraps. The Kargil airport lies very close to the Line of Control and some key heights ringing the take-off and landing flight path are in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. |
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RAW ex-chief to be mediator on J&K New Delhi, February 15 Speculations about Mr
K.C. Pant’s renomination were set at rest after clearance of Mr Daulat’s name as the Central interlocutor for Kashmir talks, sources said. Mr Daulat is serving as an OSD with the Prime Minister’s Office.
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Sansad
decision to be final,
says Singhal Gorakhpur, February 15 The ‘Dharma Sansad’ is a supreme body of saints, authorised to take a final decision on the issue. "And once a decision was taken, no government or power on earth would be able to change it," Mr Singhal said at the world Hindu Federation-sponsored conference here. Criticising the Centre, Mr Singhal said the present government came to power cashing in on the Ayodhya issue but subsequently started toeing the lines of secularists to enrich its vote bank. The VHP leader claimed that the rise of terrorist activities in the country was due to the policy of secularism. The government could not take strong decisions as it was scared of losing minority votes, he said reiterating that the ‘madarsas’ on the Indo-Nepal borders were being used to train anti-national elements. Mahant Dharamdas said eminent religious leaders of Muslim and Hindu communities would sit here on March 1.
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Kalam opposes human cloning
Mumbai, February 15 “Human cloning should not be done. However, cloning of important organs like liver and heart could be beneficial,” the President, himself a noted scientist, total students during an interactive session here. The session called “Rashtrapati Ke Saath” was organised jointly by the Sri Shanmukhananda Fine Arts and Sangeet Sabha and the South Indian Education Society. “By 2009 a personal computer that will cost Rs 25,000 will be able to perform one trillion calculations per second. By 2019 the computing ability will that of a human brain and by 2029 it will be 1,000 times faster than the brain. But we cannot replace the human brain,” he said. “I believe that human cloning should not be done.” The President who is on a day-long visit to the city, earlier visited Mani Bhavan, where Mahatma Gandhi stayed, and paid rich tributes to the Father of the Nation.
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PM to convene all-party meeting on women’s Bill New Delhi, February 15 The delay in bringing the Bill to Parliament has in the past sessions evoked strong reactions from women parliamentarians, at times leading to vocal protests in Parliament. The government, incidentally has no immediate plans to bring in a Bill banning cow slaughter. This was stated today by Ms Sushma Swaraj, the first-ever woman Parliamentary Affairs Minister, while talking to reporters over tea just two days before the commencement of the Budget session of Parliament. Ms Swaraj, who has already met several leaders including Congress President Sonia Gandhi, after taking charge of her new portfolio, said she had discussed the Bill with Ms Gandhi and her response on it was “positive”. She said the meeting on the Bill, which seeks to ensure 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies, may be convened before March 8, the International Women’s Day. The minister also plans to meet leaders of other parties, including the Samajwadi Party, RJD and BSP which are staunchly opposing the measure in its present form. Asked whether the government would “push through” the measure as the BJP and the Congress favoured it, she exuded confidence of evolving a consensus among political parties on it. “Anything else will follow the meeting to be convened by the Prime Minister,” she said. To a query whether a legislation banning cow slaughter would be introduced in Parliament, she said there was no such Bill on the agenda. Ms Swaraj said the Bill did not figure at the meeting she had with secretaries and senior officers of various ministries on February 10 to finalise government business for the three-month-long Session. Incidentally, Ms Swaraj’s meeting with Ms Gandhi was the first between the two woman leaders who had battled it out in the Lok Sabha elections in Bellary in 1999. Asked whether the government had plans to bring controversial legislations on labour reforms and power reforms as also the Lok Pal Bill and the Central Vigilance Commission Bill, Ms Swaraj said the first half of the Budget session would be devoted to financial business and motion of thanks to the President for his address on the opening day of the session. She said it depended upon parent ministries to decide when to bring legislations on labour and power reforms. On Ayodhya, an issue on which the Opposition is planning to press the government for a discussion, Ms Swaraj said the government had never shied away from debating any issue. She said a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of both Houses had been scheduled for the first day of the session. Asked if she expected the session to be a stormy affair in view of issues like Ayodhya, Ms Swaraj said: “Parliament is a forum for discussion and not raising storms.” The Railway Budget will be presented in the Lok Sabha on February 24, immediately after question hour and the General Budget on February 28 at 11 a.m. The government will give priority to a Customs Tariff Amendment Bill, which seeks to replace an ordinance. |
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NDA coordination panel meeting today New Delhi, February 15 Before the NDA meeting tomorrow evening, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, whose Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is extending crucial outside support to the NDA government, is meeting Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee over breakfast here tomorrow in the context of moves to defuse the Ayodhya crisis. The Prime Minister is expected to seek Mr Naidu’s support for the decision to move the Supreme Court seeking permission for religious activities on the undisputed land in Ayodhya, ahead of a VHP-set deadline this month-end. The Vajpayee-Naidu meeting assumes significance as the Telugu Desam Party leader, who was here last week to attend the Chief Ministers’ conference on internal security, had said that whipping up of the temple issue ahead of the elections would not help any political party. Because of Mr Naidu’s views, alarm bells had started ringing in the ruling party camp and Mr Vajpayee was advised to personally speak to the TDP leader. The NDA meeting, to be chaired by the Prime Minister, is likely to discuss a counter-strategy to the possible raising of the Ayodhya issue in Parliament in the backdrop of the government approaching the Supreme Court for permitting religious activities on the undisputed land in Ayodhya, sources said. The Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee may also lift its embargo on attending the NDA meeting tomorrow. |
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Raids on MC PRO’s premises Bhopal, February 15 The Lokayukta police raided nine premises owned by Khan or his close relatives a day when the BMC budget was to be announced and the corporation officials were busy with that. The search has so far yielded Rs 31 lakh in cash, receipts of fixed deposits worth Rs 21
lakh, gold jewellery valued at Rs 10 lakh and luxury items worth several
lakhs. Khan has been found in possession of a house at the Fatehgarh locality, an apartment at Betwa Apartments, a farmhouse at Khajuri spread over 12.5 acres, a
three-storeyed house at Kohe-Fiza and a private school run by his wife at Ashoka Garden. The Lokayukta police also seized about 100 foreign made watches and cash and
jewellery. Khan’s Betwa apartment house yielded 107 CDs of sleazy films, a large number of bottles of imported whiskey, pornographic magazines and several luxury items. |
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Protest
against war on Iraq New Delhi, February 15 Rajya Sabha member Kuldip Nayyar said, “The country which claims to be the torch bearer of war against terrorism is itself posing a great threat to world peace and flouting the established canons of justice with impunity.” Addressing the demonstrators against a possible US-led war against Iraq, he said, “This is not a conflict between Islam and Christianity but a war to claim dominance over oil reserves of West Asia.” The demonstration was organised by the Bachpan Bachao Andolan, and the South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude and the Global March Against Child Labour. |
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Order on security to Raja Bhaiyya Kanpur, February 15 Designated court Judge Shailendra Saxena issued directives on Wednesday during a hearing in the POTA case against the three accused.
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