W O R L D

Benazir hits out at Musharraf
Islamabad, September 30
In a hard-hitting attack on President Pervez Musharraf’s book, In the Line of Fire, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has described the memoirs as a cheap attempt to gain popularity at the cost of Pakistan’s vital national interests.

US bounties made Pak detain people illegally
Lured by enormous American bounties, Pakistan unlawfully detained hundreds of its citizens and foreigners and sold them to the U.S. as “terrorists,” according to Amnesty International.

Suicide bomber kills 12 in Kabul
Kabul, September 30
A suicide bomber today detonated himself next to Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry, killing at least 12 persons and wounding more than 40, an official said. The Interior Ministry spokesman, Zemeri Bashary, said 12 persons were killed, including two policemen, and that 42 were injured.

Benazir hits out at Musharraf
By arrangement with The Dawn

Islamabad, September 30
In a hard-hitting attack on President Pervez Musharraf’s book, In the Line of Fire, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has described the memoirs as a cheap attempt to gain popularity at the cost of Pakistan’s vital national interests.

In a statement issued on Friday, she said it was regrettable that General Musharraf was abusing his official position to boost his personal interests. Millions of rupees from the state exchequer were spent on financing the visit to the United States, which virtually became a publicity tour of his book. “It is unprecedented that a head of state spends three weeks along with an entourage of more than 60 persons on a personal publicity trip. The military ruler must account for the precious public money being used to finance a book launch,” she added.

Benazir said it was even more regrettable that the general was undermining Pakistan to peddle his memoirs. “By leaking secret and classified information about issues of national interest, General Musharraf stands accused of violating the Official Secrets Act. No serving army chief is permitted to speak on these matters while on job. By violating the Official Secrets Act, General Musharraf is jeopardising Pakistan’s national security.

US bounties made Pak detain people illegally
Ashish Kumar Sen writes from Washington

Lured by enormous American bounties, Pakistan unlawfully detained hundreds of its citizens and foreigners and sold them to the U.S. as “terrorists,” according to Amnesty International.

The human rights organisation said more than 85 per cent of detainees held at the U.S. detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were arrested by the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan and in Pakistan at a time when rewards of up to $5,000 were paid for every unidentified terror suspect handed over to the Americans. ?

The routine practice of offering rewards running into thousands of dollars for unidentified terror suspects facilitated illegal detention and enforced disappearance, the rights group contends. Often the only grounds for holding these people were the allegations of their captors, who stood to gain from their arrest.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam denied her country illegally detained people in exchange for money.

In his memoir, “In the Line of Fire,” Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf says his government received “millions of dollars” from the U.S. in bounties for terrorist suspects it had nabbed.

“Those who habitually accuse us of not doing enough in the war on terror should simply ask the CIA how much prize money it has paid to the government of Pakistan,” he writes. In an interview with CNN this week, Gen. Musharraf backtracked, saying, “I don't think I wrote the government of Pakistan.”

Asked whether he wanted to revise that, Gen. Musharraf replied, “Yes. I think that, if it is written 'government of Pakistan,' yes.”

U.S. leaflets distributed in Afghanistan sought to recruit locals in the war on terrorism with dreams of getting “wealth and power beyond your dreams” if they helped “rid Afghanistan of murderers and terrorists.”

“You can receive millions of dollars for helping the Anti-Taliban Force catch Al-Qaida and Taliban murderers,” the leaflets said, adding, “This is enough money to take care of your family, your village, your tribe for the rest of your life. Pay for livestock and doctors and school books and housing for all your people.”Angelika Pathak, South Asia researcher at Amnesty International, said enforced disappearances were almost unheard of in Pakistan before the start of the U.S.-led war on terror. “Now they are a growing phenomenon, spreading beyond terror suspects to Baluch and Sindhi nationalists and journalists,” she said.

Suicide bomber kills 12 in Kabul

Kabul, September 30
A suicide bomber today detonated himself next to Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry, killing at least 12 persons and wounding more than 40, an official said.

The Interior Ministry spokesman, Zemeri Bashary, said 12 persons were killed, including two policemen, and that 42 were injured. Salam Jalali, a Public Health Ministry official, said 54 had been injured. He said the wounded had been taken to six different hospitals in Kabul, complicating officials’ efforts to keep track of the casualties.

The explosion occurred a little before 8 am (local time), as the ministry employees were reporting to work, near a narrow dirt road where employees and civilians pass through a security gate.

Bashary said the suicide attacker had been acting suspiciously, then tried to get close to a big gathering of people just beyond a police checkpoint.

“The police warned him to stop, and then he detonated himself,” Bashary said.

A witness said he saw the bomber run from the police, who had tried to search him.

“The bomber ran into the area (past the checkpoint), and the policeman took out his gun, this all happened very fast, and then the guy detonated himself,” said Ahmed Ramin, 18. “We saw lots of people killed and injured on the streets.” Ambulances rushed to and fro from the bomb scene, which the police cordoned off. Windows of nearby shops were shattered, and tables were overturned and thrown to the back of the shops by the blast.

At least three shops were destroyed. — AP

Missing Brazilian jet located

Brasilia, September 30
The Brazilian Air Force today found the Gol Airlines jet that went missing a day earlier with 155 persons on board during a flight from an Amazon jungle city to Brasilia, Globo television reported.

It was not immediately known if there were any survivors, Globo said citing government officials.

Flight 1907 left Manaus yesterday at 6 pm (IST), bound for Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro, but it was found in a remote area of Mato Grosso state early today.

Earlier, authorities were trying to establish whether the airliner had collided with a Legacy executive jet whose pilot made an emergency landing on Friday in Cachimbo, near the area of northern Brazil where the Boeing was reported missing.

Defense Minister Waldir Pires had said the Legacy was seriously damaged in what appeared to be a collision. “The collision was, presumably, with the GOL Boeing,” he told Bandeirantes television.

But the National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) said there was no evidence to support that hypothesis.

Officials said there were 149 passengers and six crew members aboard the GOL airliner. Two Radiobras journalists, three aviation officials and several Aeronautics Ministry staffers were among the passengers, according to the ANAC.

Created in 2001, GOL is Brazil’s leading discount carrier. Its 53 planes serve some 50 domestic destinations as well as neighbouring Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. — AFP