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LTTE-seized vessel sunk
Maldives president thanks PM for help
New Delhi, May 22
Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has thanked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for India's swift dispatch of naval aircraft amid a firefight at sea that sunk a vessel believed to be loaded with Tamil Tiger guerrillas and weapons.

Shumail Raj (left) and his wife Shezina Tariq arrive at the Lahore High Court on Tuesday. A Pakistani court sent the couple to jail on the ground that the husband was actually a woman and that same-sex marriages were against Islam. — Reuters

Ruling PML leaders flay Musharraf
“He should find an honourable way out”
In a fractious meeting of the central executive committee of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) several senior party leaders criticised the sacking of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and the government handling of the Karachi carnage while former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali stunned the party by resigning from its office and basic membership after making a highly abrasive speech.

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LTTE-seized vessel sunk
Maldives president thanks PM for help
Manish Chand

New Delhi, May 22
Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has thanked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for India's swift dispatch of naval aircraft amid a firefight at sea that sunk a vessel believed to be loaded with Tamil Tiger guerrillas and weapons.

Maldivian foreign minister Ahmed Shaheed said over the telephone from Male that his country had sought help from New Delhi on the night of May 16 after spotting a suspicious vessel near the Exclusive Economic Zone at sea.

The vessel turned out to be Sri Krishna, an Indian fishing trawler the LTTE had seized off Tamil Nadu on March 12 while detaining its dozen occupants.

“We asked for the Indian government's assistance,” the Maldivian minister said, adding, “The Indian response was swift.”

As the Indians provided aerial reconnaissance, Maldivian security forces engaged the occupants of the trawler in a fierce gun battle that ended with the vessel getting sunk.

Four of its occupants were killed and five detained, including Simon Soza, who was one of the dozen Indian fishermen abducted by the LTTE in March.

Minister Shaheed said he was not sure if the dead and captured men were from the LTTE but added that investigations were on.

In a coincidence, within days of the incident, 11 of the dozen missing fishermen returned to Tamil Nadu and alleged that the Tamil Tigers had held them captive in northern Sri Lanka.

On May 18, Gayoom reportedly rang up Manmohan Singh and appreciated the Indian Navy's quick response to a request by the Maldivian government for aerial reconnaissance.

The PM told Gayoom that it was the responsibility of India to help a friendly country like the Maldives.

“An investigation is underway. Krishna was doing about 8 or 9 knots, was believed to have been hijacked for over two months, and made no attempt to leave Maldivian waters even after it was spotted by local fishing boats,” Shaheed said.

Interestingly, Huravee, the Maldives Coastguard ship that sank the trawler, was given to the Maldives by India when then defence minister Pranab Mukherjee visited Male last year.

In its earlier avatar, Huravee was called INS Tillanchang.

According to Shaeed, Simon Soza, who jumped from the trawler, told them that “Tamil-speaking persons” who hijacked Sri Krishna first threw out its fishing equipment and later brought in arms including AK-47s and RPG launchers. Soza, who is from Kerala, said he was kept on board because he was the trawler’s mechanic.

Sri Lanka too is awaiting details from the Maldives about the incident. New Delhi is in touch with Male over the identity of the dead and arrested men. Sri Krishna's crew of 12 included one man from Kerala and 11 from Tamil Nadu. The boat had been reported missing since March 12 from its last known position of south east of Pamban island. — ANI

Ruling PML leaders flay Musharraf
“He should find an honourable way out”
Afzal Khan writes from Islamabad

In a fractious meeting of the central executive committee of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) several senior party leaders criticised the sacking of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and the government handling of the Karachi carnage while former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali stunned the party by resigning from its office and basic membership after making a highly abrasive speech.

The members expressed the apprehension of a severe setback to the electoral prospects of the ruling coalition and its public standing.

In a rare spectacle, some leaders even criticised Gen. Pervez Musharraf for triggering the judicial crisis, mishandling it from the start and his blatant defence of the strong arm tactics used by a coalition partner, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), to block the Chief Justice’s rally in Karachi on May 12 that resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and PML chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain were present. Gen. Majeed Malik, Syed Kabir Ali Wasti, Manzoor Wattoo and Mir Zafrullah Jamali led the assault on the policy and handling of the judicial crisis. Kabir Wasi even went further to question Musharraf’s claim that the reference against Justice Iftikhar was initiated by the Prime Minister and he simply passed it on to the Supreme Judicial Council in discharge of his constitutional obligation.

Wasti said the entire initiative was taken by the presidency while law secretary and a top figure in Punjab judiciary were involved in drafting it. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz kept a discreet silence and did not refute Wasti’s claim.

He said the President justified MQM ‘s violence in Karachi while saying that it had a right to disrupt the rally that was designed to contest its hold on the city. He even declared that the route of the rally passed through “no go areas” of MQM supporters who could then have justifiably hit back to establish their strength.

Former Punjab Chief Minister, Manzoor Wattoo, recalled that he had cautioned against the repercussions of counter rallies by the government and its allies, in the previous meeting presided over by the President.

He said the President should find an honourable way out of the current judicial crisis which is fast turning into a grave political upheaval. The MQM should not have been encourage to stage a counter rally and take city administration into its hand by immobilising police and para-military Rangers during the bloodletting.

Jamali presented a four-page ‘charge sheet ‘against PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and the government, saying they had mishandled the chief justice issue, failed to ease law and order problems in Balochistan. and stop the carnage in Karachi on May 12, and were unable to maintain the state’s writ. 

Pranab, Kasuri likely to meet during ASEM
Afzal Khan writes from Islamabad

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