London, October 28
Pakistan was preparing to use nuclear missiles against India during the Kargil war, a new book has claimed, citing a conversation between US President Bill Clinton and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif eight years ago.

“When President Clinton met Sharif at Blair House (in July 1999), Clinton asked Sharif if he knew how advanced the threat of a nuclear war really was? Did he know, for example that his military was preparing to use nuclear missiles?” the book “Deception: Pakistan, the United States and the Global Nuclear Weapons Conspiracy” says.

Answering Clinton’s query, Sharif shook his head implying he was unaware of his military’s moves, investigative journalists Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark have claimed in their 586-page book.

Warning Sharif, the President said he had a statement ready for release that would pin the blame for Kargil on Pakistan if the Prime Minister refused to pull his forces back.

Clinton further questioned Sharif on whether the Pakistani leader could be trusted on anything.

The US President reminded Sharif that despite his promise to help bring Osama Bin Laden to justice, the ISI had continued to work with Bin Laden and the Taliban to foment terrorism and the Americans knew that.

The Americans were unsure as to who was really in control in Islamabad, the authors said, as confusion prevailed over whether Sharif was in reality pushed into a war by General Pervez Musharraf, or he attempted to diminish his role in the crisis. After his meeting with Clinton, Sharif briefly left the room to seek advice.

When he returned, “he was getting exhausted. He denied that he had ordered the preparation of their missile force, said he was against war but was worried for his life in Pakistan”, the book said, quoting Bruce Riedel, who was at the National Security Council.

“There was a break in the middle of the day: Clinton lying down on the sofa at Blair House while Sharif went to his hotel room for a nap.

“When they reconvened, Clinton placed the prepared statement on the table. Sharif left the room again to read it to his advisers and then returned finally ready to order a volte-face and call for his troops to withdraw back to the line of control”, Riedel said.

“The mood changed in a nanosecond,” he recalled. “Clinton told Sharif that they had tested their personal relationship hard that day but they had reached the right ending.”

Sharif pulled back the troops. The book claimed that in February 1983, a plan to strike at Pakistan’s nuclear project at Kahuta was at an advanced stage, and an Indian military team had undertaken a secret mission to Israel to buy electronic warfare equipment to neutralise Kahuta’s air defences. — PTI

Islamabad, October 28
One person stood out among the latest batch of smartly turned out cadets which graduated from the Pakistan Military Academy — the country's first Sikh army officer Harcharan Singh. Harcharan Singh, who was conspicuous due to his green turban and beard, marched in step with his fellow cadets before the army's vice chief, Lt Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani, during the passing out parade yesterday.

Once the official ceremony was over, the 21-year-old officer joined his relatives and friends from Nankana Sahib, the birthplace of Guru Nanak, in a spirited 'bhangra' dance to the beat of drums. He also became emotional on meeting his parents after the parade.

"It is a matter of great privilege and an honour for me that today I am standing in front of you in the khaki.

I have been given a great responsibility," he told reporters at the academy at Abbottabad in the NWFP.

"With the passage of time, I will prove that we (Sikhs) are more loyal than our Muslim brothers," said the cadet who first came to the limelight in 2005 when he became the first member of Pakistan's minority Sikh community to be recruited by the army.

Born in 1986 in Nankana Sahib, Singh was part of the Pakistan Military Academy's 116th Long Course. In December last year, Singh joined the first group of Pakistani women cadets to be posted for guard duties at the mausoleum of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. — PTI

Islamabad, October 28
Pakistan will join hands with India to combat extremism and work with other SAARC countries to develop a mechanism for exchanging information to curb terrorism and drug trafficking, interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao has said.

Sherpao said he had discussed measures to combat terrorism with his Indian counterpart Shivraj Patil during his visit to New Delhi to attend a meeting of interior ministers of the SAARC countries.

Pakistan will forge a strategy with India to combat extremism, he said.

Describing his meeting with Patil as constructive, Sherpao said they had decided to enhance confidence-building measures between the two countries.

Sherpao also invited Patil to visit Islamabad and the Indian minister was expected here after Pakistan's general election in January, he told reporters here on his return from Delhi late last night.

The member states of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) had agreed to develop a mechanism for exchanging information to combat terrorism and drug trafficking, he said.

The recommendations regarding the setting up of this mechanism were discussed during the meeting in Delhi. — PTI 

Former chief of Inter Service Intelligence (ISI), Lt-Gen (retd) Hamid Gul, has sent a legal notice to PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto for accusing him of plotting to kill her.

Gul, while talking to reporters here, referred to the letter that Bhutto had sent to the Gen Pervez Musharraf prior to her return, in which she had reportedly included his (Gul’s) name along with the names of the Punjab Chief Minister and the Intelligence Bureau chief, as people who posed a threat to her life. “This is preposterous because I could not even think of such a dastardly act against anybody, much less Bhutto against whom I have no personal grudges,” Gul said, adding that he has asked Bhutto to publicly recant or get ready to face a defamation case.

Gul said he differed with Bhutto's politics of cutting a deal with Musharraf to prop his one-man rule in return for pardoning her corruption cases. This self-serving deal has immensely damaged the democratic movement. He said the Americans supported Musharraf because he was pushing their agenda in this region in the name of combatting terrorism and had unleashed civil strife in Waziristan and now in Swat. Unfortunately, he said, Bhutto had entered this “unholy alliance” with him.

But, he said, the differences between him and her were not personal and could not provoke him to plot to kill her.

He said he was also convinced that militants in Waziristan could have resented her statements on Lal Masjid, Dr A.Q. Khan and Waziristan operation, but had no reason to send suicide bombers to carry out blasts in her Karachi rally merely because of empty statements. “If they have to target anybody it is those who are bombarding and killing them and the innocent people in the tribal areas,” he added.

Apparently referring to the MQM, Gul said Musharraf's staunchest ally that has a monopolistic hold on Karachi had disrupted the Chief Justice's welcome on May 12 and probably couldn’t tolerate any challenge from Bhutto as well. 

London, October 28
Prince Harry nearly got into a right royal rumpus when he threatened to kill a reveller at a night club he visited with some of his friends and girlfriend Chelsy Davy.

The 23-year-old Prince, an officer in the Blues and Royals, yelled, “I’ll kill him, I’ll kill him, where is he?”, when the unidentified reveller made a remark about the 22-year-old Zimbabwean blonde.

Harry was really smashed. When he came back from the toilet he was fuming. His bodyguards had to pull him away from some guy and guide him back to his table. The guy had made some comments about Chelsy and he reacted pretty strongly.

“Mind you, Chelsy was looking really sexy in a black low-cut mini dress which showed off her cleavage,” the News of the World reported here today, quoting an unnamed onlooker as saying.

Another reveller said, “Harry and his friends were partying hard. They were very touchy-feely and all hugging each other. They had a load of vodka shots on their table and Harry kept getting up to dance.”

Detectives finally whisked Harry and Chelsy away from the club at 3.30 am. — PTI