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Friday,
May 16, 2003, Chandigarh, India   
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Sodhi goes back on statement Pervez: Pak will never
sideline Kashmir issue
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USA, allies to revise Iraq resolution
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USA: No let-up in war against terrorism Saudi
Arabia acknowledges security lapse Man held
in Chohan murder case Bomb
blasts at petrol stations
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Sodhi goes back on statement Vancouver, May 15 Sodhi Singh Sodhi appeared to have identified the names of six persons who were involved in the Air-India conspiracy during police interviews in 1991 and 1992, defence lawyer David Crossin said in B.C. Supreme Court here. Police reports indicated Sodhi, a one time member of international Sikh Youth Federation, had “direct personal information” about the conspiracy, he said. However, Sodhi testified he did not know anything personally about the planning of the bombing on June 23, 1985. “I learned that from the media and from a reporter from The Province paper, Salim Jiwa. Nothing personally from myself.” Justice Ian Bruce Josephson was also told that the person who bought two airline tickets in Vancouver as part of the conspiracy to bomb Air-India aircraft provided Sodhi’s phone number as the contact number. The agent who sold the tickets, Gerald Duncan, subsequently identified a picture of Sodhi as a photo of someone who looked similar to the person who bought the airline tickets, Crossin said. But Sodhi also denied he was part of the conspiracy to blow up the Kanishka aircraft. Sodhi said he did not make the airline reservations, did not go to the CP Air ticket office on June 20, 1985 to pay for the tickets and did not go to the Vancouver airport on June 22, 1985, when the police say two bags with bombs were checked in for flights to India. Sodhi said Jiwa told him that his phone number had been left with CP Air travel agent before the police told him. He said the journalist also told him that the conspirators had wanted to bomb planes on the ground, not in flight. Two men Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri have been charged with murder for the death of 329 persons in a mid-air bomb explosion aboard the Air-India flight and the death of two persons in an explosion at Tokyo’s Narita airport. Sodhi had named Malik and Bagri as being among the six persons in the conspiracy, according to police reports. Sodhi told the court that he did not have direct involvement or knowledge to state, as he had to the police, that Malik was “the money man” in the conspiracy. “That is what the media called him, so we accepted it,” Sodhi said. During a police interview with Sodhi in 1998, a man named Daljit Singh Sandhu was identified as the person who picked up the tickets, Crossin said. Sodhi said the name of Sandhu was brought up by the police who were asking his opinion, not by him. Although he said he had no first-hand information, Sodhi also said he had been offered “a lot more” than $ 1 million to provide evidence about the conspiracy at the trial. The trial is now adjourned until May 20.
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Pervez: Pak will never sideline Kashmir issue Islamabad, May 15 General Musharraf said he would like to send a message to the Indian leadership that Pakistan would deal with India on all issues with sovereign equality and would not compromise on its honour and dignity. “Pakistan will never get coerced” and it would not sideline the Kashmir issue, he said at a dinner hosted in honour of the participants of the Pakistan Development Forum here last night. Meanwhile, General Musharraf is expected to meet US President George W Bush on June 24, Dawn reported today. The two leaders are likely to hold talks on important bilateral, regional and international issues, including the recent thaw in Indo-Pakistan relations, sources said. In another development, the Opposition, which will resume its talks with the government on the eight-month old constitutional crisis tomorrow, has hinted that it will accept General Musharraf as the President if he announces a timeframe for relinquishing the post of army chief. Washington: Assuring that it will do nothing to “queer the pitch” for the peace process, Pakistan has said chances of an agreement with India on the Kashmir issue are better than ever before. “Both India and Pakistan have come to the realisation that war will not solve any disputes between the two countries,” Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, said.
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Azhar defies ban, surfaces in PoK Islamabad, May 15 However, local officials denied that the Jaish leader, blamed for masterminding the December 2001 attack on Indian Parliament, had managed to enter PoK in connection with the the birthday celebrations of Prophet Mohammed. The TV channel said Azhar, who was released by India in 1999 for release of passengers of the Indian Airlines plane hijacked to Kandahar, appeared in Kotli much to the surprise of officials there. The Pakistan Government yesterday banned his entry into PoK and had ordered setting up of pickets to prevent Azhar from addressing a public rally in Kotli today. PTI |
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USA, allies to revise Iraq resolution United Nations, May 15 “For us, the most important point is that we think we need to move quickly, the sanctions need to be lifted as soon as possible,” the US ambassador to the UN, John Negroponte told reporters. Coalition members at the first Security Council session to consider a resolution on postwar Iraq issues co-sponsored by the USA, the UK and Spain also sought to address concerns on the control of Iraq’s oil wealth. The resolution would lift 13-year old economic sanctions and legitimise the allies occupation of Iraq for at least a year. It would also allow Iraqi oil income to be used to rebuild the country. The modified text is likely to be considered at an expert level meeting and American diplomats said they expected to put it to vote next week. For many Security Council members a key element in a new resolution is the role of the UN in postwar Iraq. Members want the world body to play a major role in formation of a new Iraqi government just as it did in Afghanistan but it was unclear whether the sponsors would go that far. Diplomats said the members are waiting for a revised text to see how the sponsors define the United Nations role. “The UN would have a central role but not the central role,” a coalition diplomat said yesterday explaining the position at the end of six hours of talks. “We see a role in facilitating the political process,” Negroponte said, adding that a coordinator for Iraq, appointed by Secretary General Kofi Annan “could have a very, very important role indeed.” Britain’s UN Ambassador Heremy Greensotck went further, telling the council that Britain would support holding a conference in Iraq to create a transitional government with UN involvement in a “strong role” that “should not be subordinate to the coalition,” council diplomats said.
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USA: No let-up in war against terrorism Washington, May 15 “President (George W) Bush is very firm in his commitment against terrorism. Wherever it is carried out, and against whomever it is carried out it is not a legitimate means for advancing a political agenda. All terrorism is wrong,” US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told reporters yesterday. She was answering a question whether the US stand of not taking terrorism against India as seriously as in the case of that against Americans was justified at a press conference at the Foreign Press Centre of the State Department here. “In fact, we have had very good cooperation with the Indian Government in the war against terrorism,” she said. “At the time of the attack on Indian Parliament more than a year ago, the USA spoke very strongly about that terrorism. It also listed a number of organisations that have been involved in terrorism against India... and it will continue to speak out against terrorism wherever it might occur,” Ms Rice said. She said the US relationship with India “is a broad and deepening” one. “It goes beyond security matters; it goes beyond proliferation issues; it goes beyond regional issues; and this President has been dedicated to strengthening and broadening relationship with India to make it in accordance with the fact that India is the world’s largest democracy”.
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Saudi Arabia acknowledges security lapse Riyadh, May 15 Prince Saud said those behind this week’s attack, which like the September 11, 2001, attacks on the USA was blamed on Al-Qaida, wanted to drive foreigners from the kingdom. But he stressed that his country was safer now than before Monday’s attacks on three residential compounds that killed 34 persons and injured nearly 200, according to a Saudi count. In the meantime, some foreigners went ahead with plans to leave Saudi Arabia, which has a population of expatriate workers of 6 million, including about 35,000 Americans and about 30,000 Britons. The British School in Riyadh, which occupied a section of one of the compounds hit, has closed for an indeterminate period of time and some teachers have left or plan to leave today, according to a British Embassy official. British Airways said yesterday it was canceling overnight stays in Saudi Arabia for crew on flights to the country. The US Embassy in Riyadh was closed for security reasons yesterday.
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Man held in Chohan murder case London, May 15 Scotland Yard said the 38-year-old suspect was detained in connection with the killing of Amarjit Chohan. The police refused to identify the suspect, or say where he had been detained. Scotland Yard had said it was searching for two men who might have fled to France, one a worker at the Amarjit Chohan’s company. Amarjit Chohan, 46, and his family vanished from their home in London in mid-February, and a police investigation was launched after an alarm was raised by relatives. Amarjit Chohan’s 25-year-old wife, Nancy; their sons, Devinder, 19 months, and Ravinder, four months; and Ms Chohan’s mother, Charanjit Kaur, 51, vanished from their home around February
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Bomb blasts at petrol stations Islamabad, May 15 Some 12 bombs exploded at Shell petrol stations, owned by multi-national companies, smashing glasses and causing slight damage to the building, provincial police chief Syed Kamal Shah said. Over the course of three hours, two men on a motorcycle went from one Shell station to the next, got gas and placed explosive devices in garbage cans, he said, adding the explosion beagan at 4 am local time. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks but authorities suspect the motive behind them was to target western interests. The Royal Dutch Shell group is an Anglo-Dutch company based in London but has a US-based arm.
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Islamabad, May 15
