Islamabad, October 24
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf today expressed satisfaction with the progress achieved by the Indo-Pak dialogue process to resolve the Kashmir issue but said Islamabad will not accept New Delhi’s “domination” in the region.

“The talks between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue are underway, which is a welcoming development. The two countries exhibited in this regard a positive attitude in the Havana Declaration. Now the process should move forward,” he said in an interview with a private TV channel.

“I respect Indian Prime Minister but it is regrettable that India wants to keep its domination in the region and wants Pakistan to be weaker force. Indian should come out of its phobia of being a greater nation and should talk to us at an equal level”, Musharraf claimed.

“We would not allow anyone’s interference in our internal matters and neither would be tolerate such things”, he said.

Apparently referring to Indian allegations of Pakistan fomenting terrorism in the country he said India should first set its own house in order before telling others what to do.

“There are 21 such places in India where violence continues. The situation in Assam is also visible. So, New Delhi should first correct its own matters and then talk to Pakistan”, he said.

To a query, Musharraf said the search for Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar was not an easy task because they were hiding in the mountains and enjoyed the sympathy of the local population.

On the recognition of Israel by Pakistan, he said: “We regret what happened in Lebanon and we need to review our policies especially with respect to Israel.”

To a question on the political scenario in the country, Musharraf said real democracy should first be introduced in political parties then in the country.

Ruling out the participation of former Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in next year’s poll, he said there was no need to change parties inside Pakistan but there was a need to change their leadership. Dismissing the impression that there was some pressure on Pakistan to crackdown on disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadir Khan, Musharraf said “our point of view on the issue has been clear and consistent. Pressure can be on someone who is suspected of hiding something but we have kept everything open in this case.” — PTI

Washington, October 24
While the Kargil war was continuing between India and Pakistan, former US President Bill Clinton had prepared a statement putting blame on Pakistan vis-a-vis Kargil, and also made public Pakistan’s role in supporting terrorists in Afghanistan and India.

This was disclosed by Bruce Riedel, special aide to Mr Clinton on South Asian affairs, in a paper on ‘America Diplomacy and 1999 Kargil Summit’. Mr Riedel was the only person to attend the Sharif- Clinton talks on the Kargil issue in Washington on July 4, 1999.

He said Mr Clinton got angry with Mr Sharif and warned him on July 2 not to come to Washington unless he was ready to withdraw without any precondition. President Clinton twice rejected Mr Sharif’s plea to have one-to-one talks without Mr Riedel being in the room.

He added: “ The President dismissed this with a wave of his hand. Mr Clinton said he had a draft statement ready to the issue that would pin all blame for the Kargil crisis on Pakistan tonight. The President was getting angry. He told Mr Sharif that he had repeatedly asked Pakistan to help bring Osama bin Ladin to justice from Afghanistan. Mr Sharif had often promised to do so but had done nothing. Instead the ISI worked with bin Ladin and the Taliban to foment terrorism.” Mr Riedel said: “Mr Sharif was getting exhausted. He denied that he had ordered the preparation of their missile force. But he was worried about his life back in Pakistan. The President suggested a break to allow each leader to meet with his team and consider next steps. He would also call Prime Minister Vajpayee to brief him on the discussions. After 90 minutes of intense discussion the meeting broke up”.

“The President put through a short call to New Delhi just to tell Mr Vajpayee that he was holding firm on demanding the withdrawal to the LoC. Mr Vajpayee had little to say,” added Mr Riedel.

Mr Riedel further said after agreeing to withdraw Pakistani troops without any conditions, Mr Sharif asked Mr Clinton to play a role in resolving the Kashmir dispute. Mr Clinton asked him to send an emissary to Washington once the Kargil crisis was over.

“Finally in September Mr Sharif sent his brother to Washington for the long-awaited discussions. Rick Inderfurth and I met with him for hours in his suite at Willard Hotel. “We tried to get a feel for how the Prime Minister wanted to pursue the Kashmir issue. Instead, Mr Shahbaz Sharif only wanted to discuss what the US could do to help his brother stay in power. He all but said that they knew a military coup was coming. On October 12, 1999, it came. Ironically, it was Mr Nawaz Sharif who provoked the coup’s timing by trying to exile Musharraf when he was on an official visit to Sri Lanka.” — ANI

Islamabad, October 24
Disgraced Pakistan nuclear scientist A Q Khan smuggled several nuclear centrifuges to Dubai, some of which might have been transferred to Iran and North Korea, a senior Pakistani military official has said.

He also claimed that Pakistan was willing to subject Khan to lie detector test but could not do so as the USA did not provide the lie detectors.

“If you ask for an educated and intelligent guess, I would say, yes, they (P-2 centrifuges) might have been sent to Iran too but we have no evidence to prove it,” an official, who did not want to be identified, was quoted by ‘Dawn’ newspaper as saying in an highly unusual briefing in Washington.

The briefing attended by the American and Pakistan was held amid the North Korean nuclear crisis and was aimed apparently at assuring the international community that Islamabad was not involved in any proliferation efforts and that the network allegedly run by Khan has been completely uprooted.

Iran denies receiving P2 centrifuges, but international inspectors have found evidence of Pakistani centrifuges at Iranian nuclear sites. — PTI

Islamabad, October 24
The police has arrested three key suspects in connection with a blast in a park near Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s army residence in Rawalpindi, the police said today.

‘’They are key suspects and were travelling in a car when we caught them at a temporary checkpost,’’ senior officer Sikandar Hayat told Reuters.

The latest arrests over the incident three weeks ago took place close to Islamabad’s boundary with of Rawalpindi.

One of those arrested was the son of a retired Brigadier, Hayat said. He did not say if the arrested men were affiliated to any known militant group.

The police had already arrested eight other suspects linked to a series of security scares, starting with the blast caused by a small homemade bomb in a Rawalpindi park on October 4. — Reuters

Stockholm, October 24
Convicted human smuggler Jagdeep Singh has brought about a virtual stop to Indian scholars from being legally admitted into Sweden and thus into Swedish academia.

After it became known that over 100 Indians entering Sweden with student visas sponsored by Swedish institutions had gone underground since April 2006, the Swedish Migrations’ Board (SMB) has threatened to impose an en masse embargo on granting such visas in future.

"A real tragedy for the long-standing vital inter-exchange between Indian and Swedish academic institutions," said Seshadri Seetharaman, Head of the Department of Metallurgy at Stockholm´s prestigious Royal Institute of Technology or KTH (Kungliga Tekniska Hogskolan).

"If the Swedish Migrations’ Board goes ahead with their threat to bar all Indian students applying for higher studies in Sweden, it will be a disastrous setback for a century of educational interaction between the two countries," Seetharaman told IANS.

Convicted on October 19 by the Swedish High Court in Nykoping, Jagdeep Singh is an alleged tool of human smugglers from Southeast Asia into the Schengen countries.

"Jagdeep Singh, during the period from July 2006 until August 9, 2006, in collaboration with others, has with commercial intent helped Indian citizens to illegally enter into and pass through Sweden as well as, with similar intent, helped them to illegally travel to other countries within the European Union," reads the judgement of the court made available to IANS.

"After serving six months in jail, Jagdeep Singh will be deported to India and barred from entering Sweden for lifetime," wrote the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter.

"Over 100 Indians, since last April, under cover of being 'invited Indian scholars' have come into Sweden and then disappeared," it added.

These "students", according to investigators, paid Indian agents posing as representatives of Swedish academic institutions between 60,000 and 70,000 Swedish kronor (approximately $8,000-9,500) for being sponsored by reputed Swedish institutions.

Though this is not a formal decision, we are going to be very restrictive even in cases where the Swedish sponsorships are serious. Most of the applications have already been rejected since we discovered bogus bank transactions or that the 'students' could not speak even a word in English." Singh was arrested Aug 9 at the Skavsta airport, south of Stockholm, when he was reportedly about to board a flight to Spain with four other non-Indian accomplices. — IANS

Beijing, October 24
China today successfully launched two space environment exploration satellites, which have entered their preset orbits, using one rocket.

The two satellites were launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in north China’s Shanxi province at 7:34 a.m. local time with a Long March-4B carrier rocket.

One of the satellite was detached from the rocket after about 11 minutes of take-off, followed by the other about one minute later. Both have successfully entered the preset orbits.

The two satellites, which form Group-02 of Shijian-6, were manufactured by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology and China’s DFH Satellite Co Ltd respectively.

Both have a designed life of more than two years.

They will replace two Shijian-6 satellites launched on September 9, 2004, to conduct exploration of space environment, radiation in space and their influence, parameters of physical environment of the space, and carry out other related space experiments. — PTI

Hong Kong, October 24
Hong Kong has detained a North Korean ship for safety violations, days after the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Pyongyang.

The 2,035-tonne cargo ship, Kang Nam I, arrived in the former British colony on Sunday from Shanghai and was due to head for Taiwan with a load of scrap metal today, the South China Morning Post reported.

The ship was detained yesterday after a Marine Department inspection turned up 25 faults, including 12 considered detainable under Port State Control regulations, ranging from faulty navigational, fire fighting and life safety equipment to obsolete nautical charts, the newspaper said.

Marine Department officials declined to comment, and a government spokeswoman said she had no information.

An official at the North Korean consulate in Hong Kong confirmed the ship’s detention. — Reuters