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Saturday,
September 13, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Indo-Israel friendship
dangerous, says Pak Israel warned of bloodshed if Arafat expelled Pak Islamists unmoved by Al-Qaida call Sodhi killer is mentally sick,
claim siblings
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Kanishka trial: Reyat
pleads ignorance Bali bomber, 19 others on UN sanctions list 
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Indo-Israel friendship dangerous, says Pak Islamabad, September 12 Asked if he believed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s recent visit to India was potentially threatening to Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf said on BBC’s Talking Point programme that “Well it’s extremely (threatening) the people here are taking it very seriously.” “We are watching whatever is happening and whatever statements are coming from across the border and I think it’s a very sensitive issue. I only hope that the leadership of Israel, Prime Minister Sharon, understands the sensitivity of Pakistan to whatever happens between Israel and India. “And I hope he is a straight man enough to understand the sensitivities of Pakistan and take all measures to address our sensitivity and maintain a degree of balance in relationships,” President Musharraf said. Asked whether the India, Israel and the US axis could be described as an anti-Muslim alliance and whether it was time to build a Muslim military-political alliance to counter it, he said, “No, no not at all. I don’t think they are meaning to create an anti-Muslim alliance. And if Israel and the USA are doing that it’s extremely sad I would say. “But if they are trying to unite to create an anti-Muslim military alliance it’s the saddest day in the history of the world. I think this ought not to be done and I don’t think Israel and the USA is doing that at all”, he said. “Now whether you are saying whether we would like to counter it with a Muslim military alliance - not at all, I think what we are trying to do is to bring this two-pronged strategy that I spoke of, that is the route forward and that is the part that we would like to take”, he said referring to his remarks on cementing relationships between Muslim countries and the West. He said the attacks on churches and Christian institutions in Pakistan last year was a fallout of happenings in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine. “I think this is a most unfair comment that we haven’t done anything (to prevent attack on Christians). First of all, attacks on Christians in Pakistan never happened before, they only happened in roughly about one year ... with some churches, schools of Christians and hospitals of Christians were attacked. “They were a fallout of whatever is happening around the world - Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine,” he said adding that almost all the persons involved in the attacks were apprehended. —
PTI |
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Israel warned of bloodshed if Arafat expelled Nablus, September 12 “If this decision is carried out, we promise to take on all Israel and strike everywhere without exception. There will be no red line and we will not make any distinction between great and small,” a statement sent to AFP said. “We tell the criminal (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon): your people will pay dearly because a wave of martyrs will blow up everyone living in Israel,” the statement added. Geneva: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan today spoke out against plans by Israel to expel Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. “It would be unwise to expel him,” Mr Annan said before going to a meeting with UN relief organisations, non-governmental organisation and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Meanwhile, Germany and Japan added its voice to those of a number of nations urging Israel not to expel Arafat, saying that such a move would not help bring stability to the Middle East. —
AFP, DPA |
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Pak Islamists unmoved by Al-Qaida call Islamabad, September 12 The calls were broadcast by the
al-Jazeera television network in an audiotape allegedly carrying the voice of Ayman
Al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in the global terror network. Pakistan’s largest Islamic party Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), embroiled in a protracted political battle with Musharraf over his unelected presidency and sweeping powers, rejected the exhortations. “Myself and my party do not endorse Zawahri’s views. We are trying to reform Pakistan’s internal matters in our own way,” JI Senator Khurshid Ahmed told AFP. “We have differences with Musharraf’s policies, but we are not working to launch a coup against him. We are striving to bring change through a political struggle.” —
AFP |
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Sodhi killer is mentally sick,
claim siblings Mesa, Arizona, September 12 Howard Roque was among the witnesses called to testify yesterday as public defenders began putting on their case in the murder trial of Frank Roque. Prosecutors accuse Roque of targeting Balbir Singh Sodhi (49), because of the way he looked. Sodhi wore a turban and long beard as part of his Sikh faith. Howard Roque testified he had several phone conversations with Frank on September 15, 2001 - the day Sodhi (49), was killed at his gas station in Mesa. He said his head was going to explode. ‘I am going to die; I am going to die. The voices, the voices; I am going to die,’’’ Howard said. “He said, ‘The devil is out there; we have to stop him.’’’ Roque’s attorneys are presenting an insanity defence, while conceding he did kill Sodhi. Attorney Daniel Patterson said Roque’s mental illnesses caused him to hear voices and that he didn’t have a history of racial or ethnic hatred before September 11. Police reports quoted Roque as saying
"I’m a patriot’’ and that he was "standing up for his brothers and sisters’’ in New York after his arrest on the day he is accused of shooting Sodhi at his gas station. Roque was loving, caring and obedient when he was young. But as he grew up he became a rebellious loner who often argued with their physically abusive father, Keneston said. Roque’s sister, Anna Keneston (54), also described her brother as delusional. Prosecutor Vince Imbordino tried to show that Frank’s behavior - being distant and rebellious as a teenager - was normal behavior for traumatic childhood experiences and was not the result of a mental illness. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Roque. —
AP |
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Kanishka trial: Reyat pleads ignorance Vancouver, (British Columbia) September 12 Relatives of the victims occasionally laughed yesterday as they listened in a Vancouver courtroom as Inderjit Singh Reyat gave contradictory statements about how he collected material used to make the bomb, and said he never bothered to ask the name of the person who actually made the bomb. Reyat was testifying at the murder trial of Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, who prosecutors allege were part of a Canadian-based plot of Sikh militants to destroy two Air India jets. Malik and Bagri have denied wrongdoing, but Reyat pleaded guilty in February to a reduced charge of manslaughter for acquiring the material used in the flight 182 bomb. He was sentenced to five years in prison. Reyat said he was “saddened’’ when he learned of the Air India explosions, but did not suspect his own involvement until months later when the police found evidence that the Narita bomb was built with a radio tuner he had purchased. Reyat earlier testified that a prominent Sikh militant, Talwinder Singh Parmar, had asked him to build a bomb, but he thought it was to be used in India as part of the fight for an independent Sikh homeland. Reyat paused silently for several seconds when asked by prosecutor Leonard Doust why he never pressed Parmar for information after the plane went down. “I don’t know,’’ he finally answered. Doust questioned Reyat’s claim of not knowing the suspected bomb maker’s name even though the man stayed at his house in Duncan, British Columbia, for several days in early June 1985 and borrowed money from Reyat. Doust has asked Reyat few questions about Malik and Bagri since his testimony began on Wednesday. Reyat has acknowledged meeting both men before the bombings, but said he did not know them well. —
Reuters |
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Bali bomber, 19 others on UN sanctions list United Nations, September 12 All nations are required to impose an arms embargo and travel ban and freeze the assets of individuals and groups on a list compiled by the UN Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaida and remnants of the Taliban. UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said yesterday that the committee added 20 individuals to the Al-Qaida list on Tuesday, primarily Malaysians, Indonesians and Filipinos. The list now includes 275 individuals and 99 groups, organisations and companies- 152 individuals and one entity with links to the Taliban and 123 individuals and 98 entities with links to Al-Qaida. Samudra, an Afghan-trained fighter, was sentenced to death by firing squad on Wednesday for planning last year’s Bali nightclub blasts, which killed 202 persons. —
AP |
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Nablus, September 12
