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16 militants killed in Swat valley
Mush to visit Saudi Arabia
Deposed Pak CJ to get Harvard Law School honour
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Symbol of Hindu-Muslim unity in ruins
Pak resents C’wealth ultimatum
23 seeking admission to Indian varsity duped
Sikh student stabbed lover’s wife: Prosecution
Indian sailor jailed for assault
Ira Levin dead
13 killed in Lankan clashes
Powerful quake rocks Chile
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16 militants killed in Swat valley Islamabad, November 14 A huge troop convoy moved from Malakand to Swat early morning as the Army prepared to launch a major offensive against Fazlullah, whose men have over-run most towns and villages in the valley and advanced towards the nearby Shangla district. Military spokesman Maj. Gen Waheed Arshad said 16 militants were killed in five separate attacks launched by the troops in Kabal, Matta and Shangla areas. An Army statement said eight soldiers were injured when militants targeted the troop convoy at Batkhela village with an improvised explosive device this morning. Security forces apprehended four militant leaders near Saidu Sharief airport in Kabal. Following this, the militants mounted an attack to rescue their leaders but were beaten back by ground troops and helicopter gunships. Six militants were killed and “many were injured”in the encounter, Arshad said. Arshad told the Dawn News channel that the arrested men are “ringleaders of Fazlullah’s men”. Four more militants were killed in an operation against a rebel position in Matta. Helicopter gunships also targeted Shangla Hilltop, a strategic point in Shangla district that was captured by Fazlullah’s men yesterday and killed six militants. Arshad said figures for casualties among the militants were based on intercepts of their radio communications. Meanwhile, militants owing allegiance to pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah have taken over a key town in northwestern Pakistan despite a renewed offensive launched against them by the army two days ago. After over-running most towns and villages in Swat district over the past few weeks, the militants have captured the district headquarters of Shangla in Malakand division, from where hundreds of Chinese engineers and workers were evacuated by the federal government last week. The militants have taken over Alpuri, the headquarters of Shangla district and home to political affairs minister Amir Muqam, the influential Dawn newspaper reported today. — PTI
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Bhutto’s life under threat: Govt
The Interior Ministry has warned that terrorists posed a threat to leaders, including former premier Benazir Bhutto.
The ministry’s spokesman, Brig Javed Iqbal Cheema, told a weekly press conference that terrorists could target the treasury as well as opposition leaders. He said the ministry had warned Bhutto’s security advisers that she was under a serious security threat. Cheema defended putting Bhutto under a seven-day house arrest in Lahore saying the government could not afford any risk to her security. “The government decided to put her under house arrest to ensure her security as well as that of the citizens.” President Gen Musharraf told New York Times in an interview that Bhutto was under house arrest for seven days because she had accused the Chief Minister of the province of Punjab, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, of plotting against her.
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Mush to visit Saudi Arabia
President Gen Pervez Musharraf is proceeding to Saudi Arabia shortly where he will have important discussions with King Abdullah.
President’s media adviser Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi, however, told The News that General Musharraf would not be leaving for Saudi Arabia immediately. Musharraf planned to leave for Saudi Arabia on Monday on a two-day trip but it was deferred. General Musharraf’s sojourn is significance in the backdrop of the fact that it is taking place for the first time after the forced deportation of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Sharif has since been living in a palace in Jeddah as a state guest of the royal authorities and King Abdullah has met him while Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud al Faisal is interacting with him on a regular basis. The Saudi authorities are also willing to facilitate the leader from Pakistan in this regard. President Musharraf and the Saudi king are expected to discuss issues relating to Sharif and his future arrangement with him. The Saudis are of the view that the Sharif brothers should not suffer politically at home and they must get a level playing field in the affairs of Pakistan . It would be discussed by them informally with the visiting President of Pakistan . Interestingly, President Musharraf’s major political ally in Pakistan, the Chaudhrys of Gujrat, are also urging the President to create a soft corner for the Sharif family as they are fellow Muslim Leaguers and have suffered much on account of political wrangling in Pakistan. The sources pointed out that the President would brief his royal hosts on the situation in Pakistan and would explain the steps that he took early this month. He will explain to them the circumstances that forced him to take these steps. President Musharraf’s administration is also under serious pressure from the West for these extra-constitutional acts and important western capitals are mounting pressure for withdrawing certain steps. The administration is sticking to the steps it has already taken. President Musharraf would like that the Saudi king, who has tremendous clout over the capitals in question, should use his good offices to soften their positions.
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Deposed Pak CJ to get Harvard Law School honour
Islamabad, November 14 The Harvard Law School Association decided to award the honour to Chaudhry following last week’s military crackdown in Pakistan and the detention of hundreds of lawyers, a statement said. Chaudhry was detained after he convened the Pakistan Supreme Court to declare the current state of emergency imposed by General Pervez Musharraf to be null and void. Chaudhry and several other Supreme Court judges who refused to endorse the emergency imposed on November 3 are currently under house arrest. Significantly, the Harvard Law School’s statement referred Chaudhry as the “Pakistani Chief Justice” and not as a deposed or former judge. The statement said, “Although Chaudhry has been placed under house arrest and is not free to leave Pakistan, Dean Elena Kagan has reached out to the chief justice regarding the award and hopes that he’ll be able to come to the Law School to receive it when the state of emergency is lifted.”
— PTI
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Symbol of Hindu-Muslim unity in ruins
Islamabad, November 14 Baba Mohan Das’s shrine at Kornali village in Rawalpindi district drew hundreds of followers and is steeped
in history. The mystic was so influenced by Muslim saints that Muslims thought he had embraced Islam, while Sikhs thought him to be a follower of Guru Nanak. According to the Rawalpindi Gazette, over 10,000 visitors from as far away as Delhi and Amritsar attended the Baisakhi fair organised near his cave at a particular time in the year. Sufi Arif Adeeb Kiani, a poet and resident of Kornali, told the Dawn newspaper, “I still remember that till the partition of India, Baba Mohan Das’s Baisakhi festival was a cynosure of all eyes. Oxen races, horse racing, kabaddi and weightlifting contests were the highlights of the fair. “I have heard from my elders that followers of all three religions - Islam, Sikhism and Hinduism -- tried to take the body of the mystic in their custody when he passed away. Muslims tried to bury him and Hindus wanted to cremate him.” Legend has it that the body of Baba Mohan Das miraculously disappeared after his death. “The followers had no option but to divide the blanket that he used to wear. The Muslims buried it, and the Hindus and Sikhs performed their rituals,” Kiani said.
— PTI
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Pak resents C’wealth ultimatum
Islamabad, November 14 The statement reflects ignorance regarding the ground realties and the enormity of the challenges faced by Pakistan and undermines the efforts vital for maintaining political stability and preserving the ongoing political process in the country, foreign office spokesman Muhammad Sadiq said in Islamabad. He said the emergency was imposed under 'extraordinary circumstances' to avert an institutional breakdown and internal crisis that could have paralysed the government.
— UNI
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23 seeking admission to Indian varsity duped
Kuala Lumpur, November 14 The students who had paid full fees in advance, on arrival found that there were no records of their admission, and that their acceptance letters and the letterheads were fake. According to the university, the signatory to the acceptance letter, who claimed to be the "registrar of admission", did not exist. The university said it had not appointed any agent in Malaysia to offer admission to students. Realising that they had been duped, the parents, who had allegedly paid the agents more than Rs 3 crore lodged a police complaint. Among them was M Parumal, 60, whose 21-year-old son had gone to India in September to get enrolled at the university. Parumal said at a press conference that the parents lost all the money they had saved for their children's education. Most of them had paid the agents between Rs 5,00,000 and Rs 20,00,000.
— PTI
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Sikh student stabbed lover’s wife: Prosecution
London, November 14 Dentistry student Harmohinder Kaur Sanghera allegedly knifed 11-week pregnant teenager Sana Ali of Pakistani origin nearly 42 times in her Greater Manchester residence in an act which was "borne of jealousy and desperation". After the murder, Sanghera coolly called up her lover from his home, who was attending Friday prayers at a mosque at that time, and discussed flying out to Milan or Paris with him for a weekend away, according to the government prosecution. "Sanghera had been having an affair with Sana's husband Sair Ali since July 2005. The relationship continued despite the Alis' arranged marriage in December last year, though Ali hid the fact from Sanghera for most of the time.The deeply personal element points unhappily and unequivocally to the identity of the killer being the defendant. It is the Crown's case that this was no murder by a random psychopath. This was borne of jealousy and desperation.You may conclude from the evidence that the defendant not only resented Sana Ali but resented that she was expecting the child of her husband," the Daily Mail quoted Prosecutor Peter Wright as telling the Manchester Crown Court. However, Sanghera has denied committing the murder which took place in May this year.But, Wright insisted that the defendant was a highly intelligent woman who was forensically aware. — PTI
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Indian sailor jailed for assault
London, November 14 30-year-old Cajetan Fernandes from Mumbai reportedly befriended the girl during a trip on the ship named Aurora and led her around the ship to a toilet cubicle, locked the door and sexually assaulted her, according to a report in the ‘Daily Echo,’ a leading daily published from Hampshire. Fernandes persuaded the girl to follow him while she was waiting for a friend, prosecuting lawyer James Kellam said. The girl eventually confided in a friend she met on the cruise ship who persuaded her to talk to a youth worker, the prosecuting lawyer said. Fernandes was arrested when the liner docked in Southampton. Fernandes sobbed and clutched a crucifix close to his chest when the Southampton Crown court sentenced him to 15 months.
— PTI
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Ira Levin dead
Washington, November 14 The New York Times reported that Levin died on Monday at his Manhattan home. It quoted his son Nicholas as saying the death was apparently of natural causes. “Rosemary’s Baby,” about a woman who believes she has been impregnated by the devil, was published in 1967 and made into an Oscar-winning movie the following year starring Mia Farrow and directed by Roman Polanski. Levin’s 1972 novel “The Stepford Wives” involved husbands in a Connecticut town replacing their wives with submissive robots. It was twice adapted by Hollywood — a 1975 film starring Katharine Ross, and a 2004 version with Nicole Kidman. “The Boys From Brazil,” published in 1976, featured the infamous Nazi doctor, Josef Mengele, seeking to clone a new Third Reich. The 1978 film version starred Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier. Levin’s first novel, “A Kiss Before Dying,” published in 1953, was twice made into movies. Levin also wrote for the stage, including “No Time for Sergeants,” starring a young Andy Griffith, and the long-running “Deathtrap.” Both were later adapted to the screen.
— Reuters
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13 killed in Lankan clashes
Colombo, November 14 In a separate incident, three LTTE cadres were killed in the Parappakandal area when a group of Tiger rebels clashed with the army, the ministry said adding four militants were killed by the army in the same area in another incident.
— PTI
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Santiago, November 14 Tocopilla, a city 75 miles (120 km) north of Antofagasta, was the hardest hit by the quake and Chile’s interior ministry said it had preliminary reports of minor injuries. Television images showed cars crushed under the concrete awning of a hotel in Antofagasta, where power was knocked out by the quake. Frightened residents stood in the streets. The United States Geological Service said the quake, 36.7 miles (60 km) deep, was centered 66 miles (106 km) west of the town of Calama and struck at 12.40 p.m local time (1040 EST/1540 GMT). — Reuters
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