Karachi, February 22
Bodies of seven victims of the Samjhautha Express blasts - six from the same family - were flown into the port city today.

Relatives of the victims were inconsolable when the bodies landed at the Faisal base airport.

Among the relatives was Anwar Ali, who received six bodies of his relatives, including his brother and sister, in the blasts that killed 68 persons.

Anwar, whose elder brother Iftekhar was also a victim, said he lost half his family in the tragedy. “My brother, his wife, two children, my sister and her husband died in the blasts. I just thank god that we have got the bodies and we can bury them in our homeland in accordance with Muslim rituals,” a tearful Anwar said.

The seventh victim belonged to Gulshan-e-Iqbal in Karachi.

Anwar’s family was in India to meet his brother and sister in Farukhabad in Uttar Pradesh.

India handed over the bodies of 12 Pakistanis at the Wagah border.

Despite the tragedy, the residents are keen that the “Friendship Express” should continue to run.

“It is a real link that we have with our relatives in India,” a neighbour, Sajida Begum, whose sisters live near Delhi, said. — PTI 

Washington, February 22
The whole gamut of bilateral relations, the Indo-US nuclear deal and regional affairs came up for intensive discussions during talks Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon had with US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns.

On his first visit to Washington after taking over as Foreign Secretary, Menon yesterday held three-hour-long discussions with Burns, who is the key negotiator for the deal.

Menon and Burns are understood to have discussed in depth the gamut of bilateral relations over and beyond the civilian nuclear initiative to include regional issues, sources here said.
Following concerns in New Delhi over "certain elements" in the newly enacted US law on the deal, Menon was expected to present at the meeting India's proposals to be incorporated in the bilateral 123 agreement that is under negotiation to operationalise the deal.

The senior officials of the two sides are said to have had a candid exchange of views on Pakistan, the status of the dialogue, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Beyond the sub continent, Burns and Menon are also said to have discussed Iraq and Iran.

Details of the discussions would be available when the two senior officials come to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the evening and in the press conference the Indian Foreign Secretary has scheduled at the Indian Embassy tomorrow. Menon also met the Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky at the State Department and the Deputy Secretary of Defence for Policy Eric Edleman at the Pentagon.

Menon and his delegation will today attend the meeting of the High Technology Cooperation Forum starting off with a bilateral with the Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez followed by a breakfast meeting with the US Co-Chair of the USTG, Deputy Secretary of Commerce David Sampson.The Indian Foreign Secretary and members of his delegation will continue the HTCG meetings tomorrow that will include a session on Strategic Trade Issues and additional government-to-government meetings. — PTI 

Even as Britain, its largest ally in Iraq and two other nations had announced plans to withdraw troops from the war, the Bush administration on Wednesday had denied that its coalition was falling apart.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, on Wednesday, had told members of Parliament in London that 1,600 British troops would be pulled out of Iraq in the coming months. He had said that another 500 soldiers may be withdrawn by the end of summer.

Blair's announcement has coincided with US President George W.Bush's plan to send 21,500 more US troops to Iraq.

Besides Britain, Denmark had also announced that it would withdraw all of its 460 troops from Iraq this summer. The withdrawal of the Danish battalion will be carried out in August, and it will be replaced by a helicopter unit.

Lithuania too had said that it was seriously considering withdrawing its 53 troops from Iraq in August.

In Berlin, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had denied the reports that US-led coalition was crumbling."The coalition remains intact," Rice said. "It is the plan that - as it is possible to transfer responsibilities to the Iraqis - coalition forces would no longer be needed." White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, putting a positive spin on the British withdrawal plan, had said that it showed "that there's been some progress in Basra."

He added, "the fact that they have made some progress on the ground is going to enable them to move some of the forces out, and that's ultimately the kind of thing that we want to be able to see throughout Iraq." However, Blair did not share that opinion.

"What all this means is not that Basra is how we want it to be," Blair said, "but it does mean that the next chapter in Basra's history can be written by Iraqis."

Plans from Democrats and the Bipartisan Iraq Study Group, to set a time line for the withdrawal of US troops, have been criticised as "cut and run" proposals by Republicans and the White House. 

Islamabad, February 22
Pakistan's water ministry officials have informed the National Assembly that India's design of the Baglihar project met international standards and the government has no plans to move for arbitration to question the World Bank neutral expert's verdict.

The Members of the National Assembly (MNAS) were informed that India will be able to store 0.6 maf (mass air flow) at Baglihar dam as per the neutral expert's decision for its redesigning and Pakistan, for the time being, does not have any programme to move for the World Bank arbitration.

The water ministry officials, who briefed the members of the National Assembly yesterday, reportedly admitted that the Indian design of the dam was according to international standards.

Pakistan had raised four objections to the dam design in its case against the project. Its officials said Swiss neutral expert, Raymond Lafitte has conceded three of its objections but upheld India's design to build spillway gates, which Pakistan vehemently objected to.

Washington, February 22
Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaida network continue to operate from the area that straddles the Durand Line, says the US State Department without specifying whether the alleged Al-Qaida camps are on the Afghan or Pakistan side of the border.

“We continue to be concerned about the existence of Al-Qaida’s leadership that’s out there, Osama bin Laden among others,” the department’s deputy spokesman Tom Casey told a briefing in Washington.

“And we continue to be concerned as you know, about cross-border activities from Pakistan to Afghanistan,” he added.

Casey was commenting on a New York Times report earlier this week that Al-Qaida leadership had successfully revived the terror network, working from bases in North Waziristan.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry has already dismissed the report as ‘absurd’, noting that in the presence of 80,000 Pakistani troops in the tribal region it was not possible for any group to establish its bases in that area.

NWFP Governor Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai also dismissed the report as speculative. “Why should they come here looking for safe havens when the whole of Afghanistan is a safe haven?” he asked.
The State Department’s response, which confirms the presence of Al-Qaida network in the region without blaming Pakistan, conforms to the US policy towards Islamabad.

— By arrangement with the Dawn