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Pak CJ case: Key defence witness denied bail
Book on Pak military scam getting popular in UK
Imran to file case against MQM chief
82 killed in heavy fighting in Sri Lanka |
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Putin warns he will point missiles at Europe
Earthquake hits southwest China
Govt concedes forum’s demands
British troops may be pulled out of Iraq by December
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Pak CJ case: Key defence witness denied bail
A local court in Mirpurkhas has declined bail to the suspended deputy inspector general (DIG) Rana Salimullah Khan slated to be a key defence witness in the reference against Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.
District and Sessions Judge Kausar Sultana Hussain rejected the bail petition of Rana Salimullah who was arrested last week in Islamabad by the Sindh police and whisked away to Mirpurkhas.The police has charged him of several offences, including kidnapping, corruption and moral turpitude. Rana's name is mentioned in the reference against the CJ who is accused of going out of the way to put pressure on the provincial government to secure favours for Rana after he assigned him the task to investigate complaints of low caste Hindu tribesmen known as Bheel seeking justice against local feudal lords. CJ's defence counsel Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan said the Sindh police illegally arrested him in Islamabad and took him in a special plane to Mirpurkhas to face various charges. He said Rana was being pressurised to give evidence against the CJ. He had been granted bail in the first case registered against him in Mirpurkhas, but later a second case was lodged against him by Amrio Bheel, accusing him of kidnapping the complainant's wife, sister-in-law and other family members. Aitzaz said these persons were actually kidnapped by landlords of the area and kept in illegal confinement before Rana rescued them on orders of the Supreme Court. Salimullah has rejected the accusation and said the women had been taken for identification because it was suspected that they were daughters of Mannu Bheel. The Supreme Court, he said, had taken a suo motu notice of the Mannu Bheel case and he was carrying out the investigation on the orders of the apex court.
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Book on Pak military scam getting popular in UK
London, June 3 It is being said that she is the first person from a traditional society like Pakistan dare to write a well-documented and researched book on the Pakistani Army. The book claims to expose the Pakistani military's growing business and commercial interests. It was launched on Thursday in spite of an attempt by President Pervez Musharraf to stall it. Dr Ayesha fears a ban on the book because it has attracted a great deal of interest and exposes the Pakistan Army's commercial empire. The book is an effort to seek improvements in the army and not to give a bad name to it,
she said. The first edition of the book was out of stock on the day of its release. Dr Ayesha confirmed that all 1,000 copies were sold out on the day of release. Oxford University Press Managing Director Ameena Sayed was quoted as saying by the Daily Times that, she was amazed by the demand of the book. OUP will release more copies of the book within three days. The book is widely appreciated in the UK and the media has termed it as an attempt by General Musharraf to "suppress" the "scandalous exposures of the army. Two leading British newspapers, The Times and The Guardian, in their stories and comments have used harsh language against the steps taken by the Pak government to stop Dr Ayesha from launching her book in Islamabad. Dr Ayesha said she experienced tremendous pressure in the days leading up to the book launch. "Pakistan Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani called twice to persuade me to cancel the book launch," she claimed. The book clearly depicts the army's penetration of the Pakistan's economy. It gives details of the businesses and millions of acres of land owned by
the army. — ANI
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Imran to file case against MQM chief
Islamabad, June 3 Khan, who was recently barred from entering Karachi - the stronghold of MQM, told the media at the Lahore airport before his departure that he would assemble a team of lawyers by tomorrow to initiate legal proceedings against Hussain, holding him responsible for the Karachi violence in which 42 persons were killed. Khan did not directly say whether he would seek Hussain’s extradition as the MQM leader had the British citizenship, but added that he would pursue a case as per British laws. He said he would base his case on the May 12 incidents in Karachi in which some activists of his Tehrek-i-Insaf party were killed along with other opposition workers. The MQM, too, has said that several of its party workers were killed in violence, which erupted during the visit of suspended Chief Justice Iftikar M Chaudhry to address a convention of lawyers. Hussain has already sought services of Khan’s cricket rival and former pace bowler Sarfaraz Nawaz, also a lawyer, to counter his charges. Nawaz, who is in London, said he has collected a fair amount of material to counter Khan. Meanwhile, Laura Davies, a spokesperson of British High Commission, here said yesterday UK would initiate action if any evidence was furnished against Hussain.
— PTI
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82 killed in heavy fighting in Sri Lanka
Colombo, June 3 The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) attacked army defence lines between Mannar and Vavuniya districts since late last night inflicting heavy losses, LTTE spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiriyan said. He said the LTTE destroyed an army artillery launchpad and seized military hardware, including Buffel armoured personnel carriers. They also released pictured of the captured vehicles and locations. The LTTE said they killed 30 troops and captured the bodies of 16 of them in heavy fighting. However, the military said they were back in control of the area that separates the rebel-held territory from the rest of the country along a physical bunker line stretching from Vavuniya to Mannar. “The Army troops successfully repulsed and counter attacked inflicting heavy damages to the Tigers,” the defence ministry said in a statement. “In the retaliatory attack, 52 terrorists were killed and a large numbers were wounded.” “The terrorists who fled in the face of army retaliatory attacks had abandoned a haul of arms and ammunition.” Residents in Vavuniya said they heard heavy shelling in the area continuing today also. The upsurge in fighting came ahead of a visit to the region by Japan's special peace envoy to Sri Lanka, Yasushi Akashi, who is due to travel to Vavuniya during his four-day visit starting Tuesday. Akashi was expected to try and revive the island's stalled peace process, which has been deadlocked since October 2006.
— PTI
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Putin warns he will point missiles at Europe
Rome, June 3 In an interview reported in Italy's Corriere della Sera, Putin acknowledged Russia's response risked restarting an arms race but he said Moscow would not be responsible for the consequences because Washington had started it. Putin made the tough statement days before a Group of Eight summit in Germany on June 6 where, among other world leaders, he will come face to face with US President George W Bush. Russia has not expressly targeted its missiles at Europe since the end of the Cold War but, asked if it would do this again if the US missile shield plant went ahead, Putin said: ''Yes, naturally.'' ''If the American nuclear capability widens across European territory, we will have to give ourselves new targets in Europe,'' Italy's leading daily quoted Putin as saying. Russia's combative response to the US missile shield has prompted comparisons with the Cold War. Putin has directed angry rhetoric at the White House, last week calling US policy ''imperialist''. But Russia has gone further, test-launching a new ballistic missile in a move it tied to the US missile plans, and suspending its compliance with a treaty limiting the deployment of conventional forces near Russia's western borders. Political gesture
Putin's warning that missiles might once again be pointed at European targets carries a clear political message but it has few practical implications. Even after the Cold War ended, Russia retained the capability of hitting European and US targets. Training ballistic missiles on a particular target is a fairly simple technical task that can be done in a matter of minutes. The Corriere della Sera report was based on an interview Putin gave on Friday to selected media from G8 countries to set out Russia's position before the summit. Russia's response to the US missile moves would be to develop ''more effective offensive systems'', the Italian newspaper quoted Putin as saying. ''We know that that risks restarting an arms race, for which we will not be responsible. It was not us who started altering the strategic balance, it was not us who unilaterally abandoned the ABM (anti-ballistic missile) treaty.'' The United States pulled out of the 1972 ABM treaty in 2002 so it could begin deploying its missile defence shield. Washington wants to locate elements of its planned shield -- including a radar station and interceptor missiles -- in Poland and the Czech Republic. It says the shield is not a threat to Russia but is designed to protect against possible missile attacks from what it calls ''rogue states'' such as Iran and North Korea. Putin said that was not credible. ''There are no Iranian missiles with the necessary range,'' he said. ''So it becomes obvious that this innovation is about us Russians.''
— Reuters
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Earthquake hits southwest China
Beijing, June 3 The tremor shook the old downtown quake-prone area of Hani and Yi, autonomous County of Ning'er, in Pu'er city, at 5:34 am (2:56 am IST), with the epicentre at 23 degrees north and 101.1 degrees east, according to the China Earthquake Administration. Besides leaving three persons dead and over 290 injured, the quake forced the evacuation of 120,000 residents. The local seismic bureau had recorded 14 aftershocks of at least 2.5 magnitude by 10:50 am. The strongest occurred this morning with a magnitude of 5.1, centred at 23.02 degrees north and 101.06 degrees east. Some homes were destroyed and roads severely damaged. Communications, water and power supplies to the county were also affected, Xinhua news agency reported. Coal mines in Ning'er and surrounding areas were ordered to suspend operations with all workers evacuated from pits, a local official said. The government of Pu'er city has allocated one million yuan for emergency relief. The Ministry of Civil Affairs has sent a working group to the area and allotted 5,000 tents from neighbouring Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. Ning'er county, covering 3,670 sq km, has a population of 190,000. Pu'er City, originally called "Simao" before it was renamed on April 8, is prone to strong earthquakes. It has experienced 20 tremors above a magnitude of five since 1990. — PTI
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Govt concedes forum’s demands
The government negotiation team of Nepal has agreed to concede 20 of the 26 demands put forward by the Madhesi People's Rights Forum (MPRF), which has been launching violent agitation against the government in central and eastern Terai for their regional interests.
At the first phase official meeting between representatives of the government and the MPRF, led by Minister of Peace and Reconstruction Ram Chandra Poudel and MPRF president Upendra Yadav, held in Janakpur on Friday has also agreed to find a peaceful solution to the crisis by resuming the second round talks by mid-June. A joint press release issued after the talks said an understanding was reached to concede 20 of the 26 demands of the MJF. However, a member of the MJF talks team claimed that an informal understanding had also been reached to meet three more demands, but these could not be mentioned on technical grounds. MPRF chief Yadav said the first-phase dialogue with the government moved positively. "But a pact is yet to be made on a proportionate electoral system, autonomy coupled with the right to self-determination, formation of a high-level commission for restructuring the state, the issue of resignation of home minister K.P. Sitaula, an immediate end to monarchy and declaration of a republic, UN mediation in the government-MJF talks." He the MPRF would continue both dialogue and movement simultaneously unless the government fulfilled its demands.
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British troops may be pulled out of Iraq by December
London, June 3 The British commander in southern Iraq, Major-General Jonathan Shaw, had produced a ‘commander’s tactical advice’ in this regard, several weeks ago, The Sunday Times reported here today, quoting defence sources. British troops were due to pull back from two bases to one in the city but have been under constant siege from the mortar and rocket attacks by insurgents. Leaving a number of small training teams in the south to advise the Iraqi military forces, Shaw’s advice suggested withdrawal of the rest of the British troops by December end. The advice is also expected to win the backing of the chief of the general staff.
— PTI
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