Islamabad, October 27
Former premier Benazir Bhutto today made an emotional return to her ancestral home at Larkana in Pakistan’s Sindh province after eight years to offer prayers at the tomb of her father, vowing she would continue her fight to save democracy in the country.

Eight days after a devastating suicide attack on her homecoming motorcade killed nearly 140 and injured hundreds more in the port city of Karachi, she flew in a commercial flight to Sukkur with a large contingent of journalists and top leaders of her Pakistan People’s Party.

Bhutto was given a rousing welcome by hundreds of cheering supporters at Sukkur, a town near Larkana.

On the flight, she told reporters: “It’s been a long time since I have been here and I thank god for giving me the opportunity to put my feet on my homeland again and to see the love of my people.”

This was Bhutto’s first public engagement since the attack in Karachi and the PPP has restricted her movements, saying she faced threats to her life.

From the airport, she drove in an armoured SUV that was specially imported by the PPP through dusty village roads to Garhi Khuda Bux, 28 km from here, to pray at the tomb of her father, prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

Bhutto emerged through the SUV’s sun roof and waved to the crowds but appeared tense and nervous when the vehicle was surrounded by scores of people both at the airport and on the grounds of the tomb. — PTI

Islamabad, October 27
Militant supporters of a pro-Taliban radical cleric kidnapped and beheaded four security personnel in public, hours after troops attacked his seminary in the Swat region of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province.

“It was gruesome,” recounted a resident of Shakkardarra village who witnessed the execution of the security personnel, all in their mid-20s, by masked militants yesterday.

The militants, armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and assault rifles, brought the four men to the village at around 5 pm, fired a few shots in the air and then beheaded them, a newspaper reported said.

“Let this serve as a warning to all those who spy for the government or help the government. All sons of (US President) Bush will meet a similar fate,” the eyewitness, who did not want to be named, quoted one of the militants as saying before the execution.

The security personnel, three of them from the Frontier Corps and a policeman, had their hands tied and their heads were chopped-off, the witness said.

Maulana Naddar, a lieutenant of Fazlullah, in a radio broadcast said the men were executed to avenge the death of three militants killed in a clash with Pakistani troops backed by helicopter gunships yesterday. — PTI

Colombo, October 27
The Sri Lankan security forces could not avert the LTTE attack on Anuradhapura air base, which claimed over 30 lives earlier this week, despite the Indian installed radar system providing timely warning about the light rebel aircraft hovering over area, officials said.

Defence Ministry officials here said the LTTE’s light aircraft were spotted by the Indian installed radar system in Vavuniya, in the island’s embattled north, but in the prevailing confusion, no aircraft was able to intercept the two LTTE planes which managed to drop bombs in the Air Force base.

When asked whether the Indian installed radar picked the LTTE aircraft on time to enable the security forces to get on alert, Air Force Commander Roshan Goonatilleke told reporters that ‘it worked well’.

The deadly attack on Monday on the air base led to the death of 20 LTTE cadres and 13 security forces personnel.

“Our attack capability has not been reduced in any way (due to the attack), but we are hoping to replace the aircraft we lost in double quick time,” Goonetileke said. The defence ministry said the commando-style suicide attack on the key Air Force base destroyed eight air crafts worth $ 15 million.

“The loss is around $ 15 million,” Goonatilleke said stressing that the aircraft were damaged due to the rebel ground attack and not by the aerial attack.

The Naval chief said it would take about four months to replace the lost aircraft.
— PTI

London, October 27
A British man has been jailed for three years for urinating on a disabled woman as she lay dying, in an attack filmed by a friend on his mobile phone.

Anthony Anderson (27) was jailed for outraging public decency after the incident involving 50-year-old Christine Lakinski in Hartlepool, north-east England, in July
last year.

A court heard how Lakinski, who had a curved spine since birth and suffered bullying throughout her life, collapsed in the street near Anderson’s workplace. — AFP

New York, October 27
Reacting to the Tehelka sting operation on the 2002 Gujarat riots, a coalition of Indian-American organisations, the Indian National Overseas Congress and the Indian Muslim Council-USA have demanded action against theose who admitted on tape to participating in the post-Godhra massacre.

The Coalition Against Genocide (CAG), comprising several Indian-American organisations which had successfully agitated against the grant of US visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi after the 2002 riots, urged the government in New Delhi to take immediate steps to arrest those who are seen "proudly admitting on camera to these crimes against humanity".

In a statement, CAG expressed "outrage" at the "impunity with which Narendra Modi and his cronies" have been operating.

"In spite of the well-documented reports of the international human rights groups the perpetrators of these heinous crimes have not been punished," it said.

"We urge the Indian diaspora in the USA to unite against the supporters of Modi and the RSS who have been infiltrating institutions run by the Indian diaspora as well as gaining and buying influence in the political, media, educational and economic spheres of the USA," it added.

In a separate statement, Indian National Overseas Congress (INOC) president Surinder Malhotra expressed his "dismay and shock" at the "arrogant" admission of murder and mayhem from "perpetrators" themselves which, he said, "confirms the complicity of the Chief Minister, police officers and other high officials in the (state) government".

INOC general secretary George Abraham asked the NRI community to disassociate itself from the “Moditva ideology” that is “anti-democratic and anti-secular”.