Dhaka, December 21 The army was called out while the riot police lobbed tear gas shells at activists of the Awami League-led 14-party alliance, who smashed cars and pelted stones at security personnel during a strike. A policeman hurls stones at activists during a general strike in Dhaka on Thursday. Troops and riot police fought pitched battles with protesters as a strike aimed at forcing electoral reforms in Bangladesh turned violent. — Reuters

Pakistan, India to jointly survey Sir Creek 
Islamabad, December 21
India and Pakistan are set to work out a mechanism for undertaking a fresh joint survey on Sir Creek, enabling both the countries to demarcate the maritime zone, during their two-day talks on the issue commencing here tomorrow.

Pak not concerned about Indo-US nuke deal: Durrani
Washington, December 21
Pakistan Ambassador to the United States Mahmud Ali Durrani has said the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal does not “worry” Islamabad, although there is recognition that the uninspected Indian reactors could be used to produce weapons-grade material.

Dhaka, December 21
The army was called out while the riot police lobbed tear gas shells at activists of the Awami League-led 14-party alliance, who smashed cars and pelted stones at security personnel during a strike to push for a level playing field in the January 22 poll.

There was no report of any casualty, but at least 12 activists and at least six policemen were injured in sporadic clashes.

Witnesses and the police said the army was deployed to prevent further violence in the Shyamoli area here.

The 14-party alliance’s activists torched a police vehicle to enforce the day-long strike and several activists were arrested from the scene.

The army also clashed with rival political activists in suburban Munshiganj as the alliance’s workers had a face-off with supporters of former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led four-party combine.

Supporters of former military dictator Hussain Muhammad Ershad’s Jatiya Party had joined the 14-party combine of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed.

President Iajuddin Ahmed’s interim government intensified security vigil, deploying at least 10,000 extra police, Bangladesh Rifles, paramilitary and army personnel as the strike supporters staged street marches, chanting reforms, no elections.

The blockade came amid the interim government’s move to meet the alliance’s demands, but steps taken by it had so far failed to woo the alliance into participating in the parliamentary elections.

As per the previous election schedule, the last date for filing nomination papers was today, but the election commission yesterday extended the date to December 24, keeping the January 22 polling date unchanged.

Haj pilgrims, newspaper vendors, ambulances and garbage trucks were the only ones to remain outside the purview of today’s shutdown.

Only a few vehicles were seen on the streets as schools, most private offices and businesses remained shut while banks operated with skeletal staffing. — PTI

Islamabad, December 21
India and Pakistan are set to work out a mechanism for undertaking a fresh joint survey on Sir Creek, enabling both the countries to demarcate the maritime zone, during their two-day talks on the issue commencing here tomorrow.

The survey was expected to be completed by March next year, 'Dawn' newspaper quoted an official as saying. He pointed out that the two sides during their talks on Sir Creek in New Delhi, in May, had agreed on the plan to conduct a survey between November, 2006 and March, 2007.

This will be second survey to be undertaken by the two countries in the history of the 22-year-old dispute over a 60-mile-long strip of water between the Rann of Kutch in India and Sindh in Pakistan.

The first joint survey on Sir Creek had been conducted by hydrographers of the two countries in January, 2005.

An Indian defence delegation, led by Rear Admiral B.R. Rao, Chief Naval Hydrographer, is due to arrive here today. The Pakistani side will be headed by Surveyor General of Pakistan Jamil ur Rahman Afridi.

Sir Creek dispute is one of the eight subjects being discussed under the composite dialogue process and is considered a relatively less complicated issue. Pakistan and India have had several rounds of talks at both technical and governmental levels since 1969 on the Sir Creek issue.

The UN Convention on Law of the Sea to which both Islamabad and New Delhi are signatories requires that all maritime boundary disputes be resolved by 2009 failing which the United Nations would declare them international waters. The UN convention has also called upon the parties concerned to submit their claims by next year so that by 2009 these claims could be settled.

The history of the issue dates back to 1914 when an agreement was signed between the then government of Sindh and Rao Maharaj of Kutch. According to the agreement, both the sides agreed to a boundary line running through the middle of the creek as a border between the two states. The final demarcation was completed in 1925 in which the boundary was shown by a ''green line'', depicted on the eastern side of the creek. One side of the creek is under Pakistan's control whereas there are naval installations of India on the other side. — UNI

Washington, December 21
Pakistan Ambassador to the United States Mahmud Ali Durrani has said the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal does not “worry” Islamabad, although there is recognition that the uninspected Indian reactors could be used to produce weapons-grade material.

In an interview to the Washington Post, Mr Durrani said, he had talked to Pakistan senior nuclear military expert and was told that “the pact does not worry him”.

“We have a strong deterrent,” the Ambassador said he was told, and as India appears to progress, “we will too”.

Earlier, he said it was “premature” to say that tribes along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border were not living up to an agreement to prevent crossings by Taliban and Al-Qaida fighters.

“Give it more time,” Mr Durrani said of the September pact with tribal elders of North Waziristan, which he noted covers only a small part of the much longer border between the two countries.

“It is premature to say the agreement is a failure,” he said in response to a question about Director of US National Intelligence John D Negroponte’s statement last week that back-and-forth travel by the Taliban and others “causes serious problems”.

Mr Durrani, a former senior Pakistan army officer, said his country was increasing the number of its troops at border crossings and was seeking US weaponry, including night-vision and listening equipment. — UNI

Kabul, December 21
Word has swirled for some time now that the Karzai government has been seeking to establish contact with the Taliban or a section of it with a view to their co-opting in the apparatus of governance.

However, there has not been any official confirmation of this, though President Hamid Karzai has obliquely said in a media interview that he was ready to talk to the Taliban who might be Afghan but not to the Pakistani Taliban.

There was also a further condition - that the government will only seek to entertain contact with the Afghan Taliban if they cut themselves off from being the tutelage of external elements, a euphemism for Pakistan in the current political vocabulary of Afghanistan.

In his hard-hitting speech at Kandhar a week ago in which Mr Karzai went after the Pakistani establishment, charging it with seeking to "enslave" Afghanistan, the Afghan leader made subtle remarks in referring to the Taliban.

He said those who were infiltrating the border and using terror and violence against the people of Afghanistan were not really the Taliban. These elements, he said, were only defaming the Taliban who were sons of the soil.