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Pervez in nuke cover-up,
says Benazir Seven killed, 60 hurt in suicide bomb attack
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Window on Pakistan Massacre in Uganda Pilot killed French film award for ‘Barbarian Invasions’
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Pervez in nuke cover-up, says Benazir London, February 22 Speaking in Britain where she lives in exile, Ms Bhutto said President Musharraf’s decision to pardon the top scientist at the centre of the scandal — Abdul Qadeer Khan — only fuelled suspicion that the President himself was involved. “It seemed to me to be a big cover-up,” said Ms Bhutto, an arch-rival of President Musharraf. “I know Qadeer Khan, and I find it very hard to believe that he could have exported nuclear technology on his own... One person could not do it because of the enormous security,’’ she told BBC television. In a dramatic televised confession earlier this month, Abdul Qadeer Khan, who was revered as the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb, said he acted independently in leaking secrets as the Head of Pakistan’s nuclear programme from the 1970s. A day later, President Musharraf pardoned the scientist, that President Musharraf has said neither the government nor the military were involved in leaking secrets and rebuffed calls for an independent inquiry into any military role in the leaks. But Western diplomats, local commentators and Opposition say Abdul Qadeer Khan could not have acted alone and say he is being used as a scapegoat for the army, which President Musharraf heads. Ms Bhutto, Leader of the Opposition Pakistan People’s Party, said she believed President Musharraf himself was behind the scandal and called on him to resign. Asked why Abdul Qadeer Khan had confessed, Ms Bhutto noted that he had only done so after his arrest. “We believe that he is covering up for Musharraf,” she said. “And we think that if the President has endangered our nuclear arsenal and endangered our country’s reputation by involving himself in the export of nuclear technology, he has no business to remain in power.” Ms Bhutto said Abdul Qadeer Khan might even be killed by Pakistani authorities wishing “to silence him forever because he knows too much about the people who ordered him to export the nuclear technology”.
— Reuters |
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Seven killed, 60 hurt in suicide bomb attack
Jerusalem, February 22 The blast occurred at 8:30 am local time (12 noon IST) during the morning rush hour as the bus drove past a gas station in downtown Jerusalem The suicide bombing was claimed by the radical Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah Movement. It came just a day before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague, the Netherlands, is to begin hearings on the legality of the barrier Israel is constructing to “keep suicide bombers at bay”. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said “this attack shows that the construction of the security fence is indispensable. Where there is no fence; it’s horrible. Where the fence has been built, results are clear-cut”. “That is why we will go on building this fence because it saves lives,” he said on the military radio. Israel Defence Forces (IDF) clamped closure on the entire region around West Bank city of Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem, in response to the bombing. “It was like an earthquake,” Ora Yairov, who was at a gas station close to the site of the blast, told Channel One television. “The station was filled with shattered glass and pieces of flesh.” Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia condemned the attack and called for an end to violence in the region. “The Prime Minister denounces targeting civilians on both sides and calls on the Israeli government to immediately (endorse) a mutual ceasefire and resume the implementation of the roadmap...to stop the bloodshed faced by both people,” a statement released by his office said.
— PTI  |
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Pak turns heat on Al-Qaida
in tribal areas Islamabad, February 22 The operation will be the fourth of its kind since the September 11, 2001 attacks, the security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press. It would center on suspected Taliban and Al-Qaida men who Pakistan believes have married Pakistani women and are living in the tribal areas - the remote and historically autonomous regions that have never really been brought under the control of the Pakistan Government. It will be conducted in the Waziristan tribal region in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province, intelligence sources said. Bin Laden was not the immediate target of the operation, said one senior Pakistani intelligence official. “Right now, we are not chasing Bin Laden, but the purpose of all past efforts was to capture him,” he said. “We are now tracking al-Qaida fugitives to get clues from them about him.” Many of the reports have speculated that the operation would spill over into Pakistani areas bordering Afghanistan, where the inhabitants are linked by language and culture to Afghan Pashtuns, the ethnic group that was the Taliban’s power base.
— AP |
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Window on Pakistan Lurching from crisis to crisis, some of its own making and the rest tailor-made, Pakistan is faced with trouble in both the domestic and external spectrums. At one level the extremism, despite effort to curb it, is still very strong. This effort is marked by more rhetoric. At another level, what newspapers call, is the deepening credibility gap. Most of the mainline newspapers happy at the peace effort by two long time warring countries, India and Pakistan, see this is as the only silver lining. Ayaz Amir, the celebrated columnist had a dig when he wrote in the daily Dawn: “After 9/11 Gen Musharraf warned India to ‘lay off’, his military way of saying India should not fish in muddy waters. Siding with the United States, he said, would protect Kashmir policy and the country’s nuclear assets. Two years down the road he is singing a totally different tune. The current rapprochement with India is proceeding apace on the understanding, conveyed to India in the clearest possible terms, that Pakistan was ending military support to the Kashmiri resistance. The grin on Indian faces, which Indians are having a hard time concealing, flows from this recognition.” Writing in Nation Ikram Sehgal was happy at the structured talks, but feared that these may not be lost. He wrote: “The recent agreement in Islamabad for structured talks starting June 2004 on all major issues including Kashmir and nuclear weapons, has been an acknowledged success. Instead of supporting the government in its success in engaging India in a reasonable, well-structured dialogue, we are now bracing for the Opposition to denounce the whole process. Some of our problems have their genesis in our five decades-old feuds with India. Unless these problems are solved, we have a pot boiling with issues but without the means (or the will) to solve them. Who says we do not live in interesting times?” The News [Jang] was more forthright in stating, “President Pervez Musharraf’s reiteration of his firm commitment to fight against extremism and terrorism will be greatly appreciated by a nation haunted by extremists who have scant respect for human life. They not only pit Muslim against Muslim but in the long haul severely jeopardise the unity of the country. In fact any kind of hatred between sects and communities is untenable as Pakistan was created as an independent state for Muslims and was not designed to become the preserve of a particular sect. Dawn’s hopes were soaring very high as its editorial made it abundantly clear. “The first structured dialogue between Pakistan and India in two-and-a-half years has ended with agreement on what is described as a basic roadmap to a peaceful and cooperative relationship. Obviously, it is political will on both sides that can eventually make India and Pakistan establish normal ties, and one can only hope that it will not flag. The foreign secretaries also ruled out war as a solution to disputes, and Pakistan made a suggestion for instituting a strategic restraint regime.” |
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Massacre in Uganda Kampala, February 22 “I have just been there, and I have managed to confirm that 173 people were killed, of which 57 had already been buried while others were still burning in their houses,” Roman Catholic missionary Sebat Ayala told AFP by telephone from the northern town of Lira.
— AFP |
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Pilot killed Kandahar, February 22 A spokesman for the US Embassy in Kabul initially said the pilot was British, but subsequently said there was confusion over his nationality. The attack happened around 60 km south of Kandahar at about 11 a.m. (1200 hrs IST). The helicopter belonged to a US construction company.
— Reuters |
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French film award for ‘Barbarian Invasions’ Paris, February 22 Denys Arcand, the Quebec-born director of “The Barbarian Invasions”, a French-language movie co-produced by Canada and France, easily swept the Cesars awards ceremony held in Paris yesterday, walking away with the best picture, best director and best original screenplay prizes. “Mystic River”, a powerful story of violence and vengeance directed by Clint Eastwood, was given the Cesar for best foreign film, beating out US productions “Elephant”, “Gangs of New York” and “The Hours” and the Russian movie “The Return”.
— AFP |
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London, February 22
Sunni cleric shot dead