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US troops storm into Fallujah
Trafalgar Square celebrates festival of lights |
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Many Beslan abductors managed to flee, says soldier
Three accused of killing NRI family
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US troops storm into Fallujah
Fallujah, November 9 In the meantime, the Islamic Party quit the interim government in protest against the attack today. “They are less than a kilometre from the centre,” a high-ranking US military officer said. Thousands of US and Iraqi troops poured into Fallujah after Prime Minister Iyad Allawi authorised an all-out offensive to retake the Sunni Muslim city from rebels and restore order ahead of elections promised in January. Casualty figures were unavailable from the city, where estimates for the number of its 300,000-strong population which fled ahead of the long-threatened assault, vary widely from 20 to 90 per cent. Black and white smoke plumed skyward as US artillery, warplanes and tanks pounded the rebel stronghold west of Baghdad, meeting minimal resistance. The battle to reclaim the rebel enclave spread out through neighbourhoods and alleyways from the north towards the centre as marines knocked down walls, barged into houses or crouched outside. “As for casualties on the insurgents’ side I can tell you that they are dying. A lot of them are dying and this is a good thing,” marine spokesman Lieut Lyle Gilbert said. A leading Sunni Muslim political party pulled out of Iraq’s US-backed interim government in protest against the onslaught by American forces on the rebel-held city of Falluja. “The Iraqi Islamic Party has decided to withdraw from the government in protest against the attack on Falluja that is harming the people,” said Mr Mohsen Abdul Hamid, senior party official and member of Iraq’s provisional National Assembly. The party’s decision to quit the government highlights splits among Iraqi politicians over the government’s move to crush the bloody insurgency by force. But it was unclear what impact the withdrawal would have. The party’s one Cabinet representative, Industry and Minerals Minister Hajem al-Hassani, said he would leave the party but not resign. — AFP/Reuters
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Trafalgar Square celebrates festival of lights
London, November 9 Everybody who is anybody from among the Indians was there, and so were a large number of Britons savouring the happening event. Till a few years ago the square was known for thousands of pigeons to feed that was some sort of a tradition. They are no longer there but the arena played guests to as many Indians, if not more, to mark the festival of lights. Such was the enthusiasm for the event that even bitter cold and slight drizzle did not dampen it. What was unusual that despite the rain very few people opened their umbrellas. They were apparently soaking in the atmosphere. Not quite surprisingly, there were speeches galore by the community leaders in the presence of the Mayor of London, but once Union Minister Renuka Chaudhary released purple balloons into the air past the majestic Nelson's column, the mood changed into fun and frolic. There were dances galore, everything from bhangra to Gujarati, interspersed with typical Bollywood dances. Since the steps were patiently explained, many Britons joined in enthusiastically. It is another matter that the dances bore only distant resemblance to what one sees in India. Free Indian food was served to all spectators. No wonder the queue for it was more than a block long. But the typical British order was very much noticeable. After the function was over, the crowds spilled over to the numerous eating-houses nearby. The China Town was particularly packed and it was quite a sight seeing Tamil grandmas trying their hands at chopsticks. A hit at the function were a few young men carrying flat TV s as backpacks. They were advertising for a forthcoming film on India's culture. This will be the first Imex film on an Indian subject.
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Many Beslan abductors managed to flee, says soldier
THE Russian authorities captured one of the men who masterminded and led the Beslan school siege and are interrogating him although he has been officially declared dead, a newspaper claims.
A man, identified as Vassily K, who says he was in the botched operation to free the hostages on September 3, has also said the authorities dramatically played down the number of hostage-takers and that many of the mostly Chechen militants were able to flee. His revelations, in the daily Komsomolskaya Pravda, punch a gaping hole through the official version of events and are corroborated, in part, by a leading member of the parliamentary commission investigating the tragedy, and by witnesses. At the time, the authorities claimed that 32 rebels seized the school, that none escaped and that just one was captured alive. And they insisted that a man called Vladimir Khodov, said to have been one of the siege masterminds and a close associate of the Chechen warlord, Shamil Basayev, was killed when Russian special forces stormed the besieged school. “Throughout the questioning, he [Khodov] was insolent and self-confident. On the night of September 4, he was taken to Moscow and where he is now I do not know.” A female suicide bomber or “black widow” was also claimed to be among the detained, and Nur-Pashi Kulayev, the only person to be officially captured alive, is said to be the third detainee. Vassily K claimed that as many as 49 rebels were killed during the siege (not 32), that three were taken alive (not 1) and that 13 others managed to flee by disguising themselves in civilian clothes and blending into the crowds of local people. After the siege was broken, with the loss of at least 344 lives, more than half of them children, Vassily said some 47 assault rifles were seized. He also suggested the rebels were so organised that they had “cased the joint” weeks in advance and ensured all the tall trees surrounding the school were cut down, affording a clear field of fire. His claims coincided with an announcement from Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya’s Deputy Prime Minister, who said he and his fighters had killed 22 separatist rebels, including the man who masterminded his father’s death on May 9. Akhmad Kadyrov, Chechnya’s Moscow-backed President, was blown up as he reviewed a military parade in Grozny, the republic’s capital. They also insisted that the militants had made no demands; a detailed wishlist emerged soon afterwards. The number of dead— which has risen to 344 — has also been consistently played down. Questions also remain about the way in which Russian special forces broke the siege, with MPs claiming that tanks and flame-throwers were used after local men opened fire with their own weapons.
— By arrangement with The Independent, London. |
Three accused of killing NRI family
London, November 9 The NRI businessman Amarjit Chohan, his mother-in-law, wife and two children, were victims of a plot to besiege a firm and turn it into a front for drug smuggling, prosecutor Richard Horwell told the Old Bailey court on Monday. Chohan was lured into a trap at Stonehenge and held prisoner before being killed. His family members were then murdered to make it look as if Chohan had sold his business and gone abroad, he told the court. Their bodies were buried in Devon and later dumped in sea. — PTI
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