Enhanced cooperation between the USA and India is indicative of Washington’s dependence on New Delhi to balance the rise of China, but architects of this policy do not understand the regional power balance, according to a U.S. think-tank.

In a report released on Tuesday, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) cites David Kang of Dartmouth University, as saying that US support for an alignment with India involves “wishful thinking by people who think it will be a counterweight to China.” Mr Kang warns New Delhi does not have the weight to play a large role in East Asian affairs and serve as a balance to China’s influence.

Other analysts cited in the report see the U S alignment with India in the framework of regional democracies as flawed, given the resolution of Sino-India border disputes and closer economic ties between Beijing and New Delhi. “It would be a mistake to think that India is going to act on the behalf of anyone but India,” said Kenneth Lieberthal of the University of Michigan. Mr Lieberthal served as senior director for Asia at the National Security Council in President Bill Clinton’s administration.

The signing of a civilian nuclear agreement between the USA and India in July 2005 spurred speculation that Washington was forming an alliance to counter China’s rise in Asia. But India has publicly voiced its aversion to the suggestion of being used as a counterweight as ties between New Delhi and Beijing have thawed in recent years. Nevertheless, President George W. Bush has personally invested a lot in pushing the Indian deal toward the finish line.

Approval of a similar deal between the USA and China took more than a decade.

The CFR report notes that some see India as part of a US-aligned group of Asian democracies that includes Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines and Australia.

India, Japan and the US are to conduct trilateral exercises off Yokosuka near Tokyo Bay on April 17. The exercises are likely to be closely watched by China.

Since the September 11, 2001, attacks, US attentions have turned toward the Middle East and counter-terrorism efforts. “One of the major casualties of the war on terror has been a strategic policy toward Asia,” said Donald Hellman, director of the Institute for International Policy at the University of Washington.

Meanwhile, China bloomed as a major trading partner and diplomatic power in the region, in some cases displacing the USA economically. India, too, emerged as an economic force.

Spurning another conciliation attempt and the government offer to rebuild seven demolished mosques, two defiant clerics, administering capital’s central mosque and an attached seminary for girls, have vowed to persist with their occupation of children’s Library till the demand for enforcement of Islamic system and Shariah code in the entire country.

Nearly four thousand girls have occupied the library for last two months. Recently they also began raiding shops to destroy CDs and videos dubbing the as obscene. A ‘Qazi court’ has also been set up to deliver Islamic justice to wrong doers and alleged owners of brothels. The government says it is exercising utmost restraint to avoid an operation that may cause bloodbath. The clerics have threatened to unleash countrywide suicide attacks in that case.

Ruling party chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain again visited Lal Masjid on Tuesday night to hold talks with its administration to resolve the issue through dialogue. He met Maulana Abdul Aziz and Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi, Khateeb and Naib Khateeb of the mosque, respectively, and asked them to show flexibility in the ongoing row with government. It was his second meeting with them in four days.

Shujaat asked the clerics to vacate the children library and restrain their students from pressuring traders of audio and videocassettes and CDs to change their businesses. He offered to rebuild seven mosques earlier demolished by the authorities. Both insisted that they were waging struggle for a still higher cause. They said sixty years had elapsed and the government had failed to enforce Islamic system in the a country that was created in the name of Islam.

“It is now incumbent upon us and other religious leaders to take the matter in our hands and enforce the system in entire country,” Maulana Abdul Rashid said.

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said Kargil debacle proved to be the starting point of his break with General Musharraf, who had planned the attack without taking him into confidence and then asked him to seek US President Clinton’s help after the army began to lose most of the points it had seized.

He said he took the onus of Kargil debacle on himself to save the institution of the army. “Yet the same army, led by Musharraf, to whom I had elevated to the office, toppled my government and trampled the mandate of the people.”

In an interview with a private TV channel, part of which was telecast on Tuesday night, Nawaz Sharif said that despite being prime minister of the country the army kept him unaware of the factual situation on the matter of Kargil. He cited the conversation General Musharraf’s conversation from China with General Aziz at the GHQ in Rawalpindi in which he had asked if the Prime Minister had any clue about the Kargil plan that had already been set in motion.

He said that he had no plans to take action against General Musharraf on Kargil adventure but the conspiracy to unseat him had been launched several days ahead of the fateful day of October 12, 1999 when he removed Musharraf and his generals struck back to overthrow him.

Narrating his dismissal story, the former Prime Minister said on October 12 Musharraf’s close lieutenant, Lieut Gen Mahmood forced entry into residential quarters in the Prime Minister House along with about 20 dozen armed commandos.

“Mahmood was pointing a pistol towards me. I inquired what the matter was at which he asked me if I did not know that the army had taken over because I had removed the chief. He kept quiet when I asked him if he would fire at me. Later he told Shahbaz Sharif and I to go out with him to some unknown place. We were driven in a car with tinted glasses.”

He said after midnight three generals visited him and asked him to sign a paper advising the president to dissolve the assembly.

Dhaka, April 11
Bangladesh’s main opposition leader Sheikh Hasina Wajed has been charged with the murder of four people during political violence which racked the nation’s capital last October, the police said today.

Hasina, who is on holiday in the USA, “has been charged with the murder of four people during the political unrest last October,” police Deputy Commissioner Shahidul Haq Bhuiyan told AFP.

“The detective branch police submitted the chargesheet of the case to a Dhaka court today after carrying out investigations and taking evidence,” said Bhuiyan. — AFP

Islamabad, April 11 
In a bid to save their jobs, the entire top brass of the police here today tendered an unconditional apology in the Supreme Court for manhandling suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar M. Chaudhry last month, an incident which resulted in nationwide furore and protests.

Inspector-General of Police, Islamabad, Chaudhry Iftikhar Ahmed, Chief Commissioner, Khalid Pervez, and five other top officials, who were charged with contempt of court by the apex court after an inquiry by a high court judge held them responsible for manhandling Chaudhry on March 13, tendered the apology for the incident.

All the officers had earlier either denied knowledge of it or disowned responsibility blaming the men from intelligence agencies. — PTI