Major General Athar Abbas has been appointed as spokesperson of the Pakistan army and director-general Inter- Services Public Relations replacing Maj. Gen. Wahid Arshad in the first significant change in the army since the new army chief Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani assumed office about six weeks ago.

Abbas will assume charge on January 15 while Gen. Arshad has been appointed director-general (planning) at the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Secretariat. General Abbas is currently director-general (quartering and lands) in the general headquarters.

Maj General Wahed Arshad, who had served as director (military operations) with General Kiyani when he was director-general (military operations), has been shifted to COAS Secretariat as DG (planning), a position that was kept vacant by Gen. Musharraf for eight years after his military coup. It acts as a think tank for the army in planning its operations.

In a related development, Lt Gen Jamil Haider, will replaced Gen. Abbas as DG (artillery) in the general headquarters in place of Maj General Mohammad Farooq. Farooq has been appointed DG (quartering and lands) in place of Major General Athar Abbas. Traditionally, the new army chief makes the first change in the military intelligence after assuming the office. Present MI chief Lt. Gen. Taj is closely related to President Musharraf but is likely to be assigned some other responsibility.  

Islamabad, January 9
Slain former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto’s widower Asif Ali Zardari will be given “VVIP security” in view of threats to his life. The interior ministry has decided to accord “VVIP security” to Zardari, who was appointed co-chairman of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party following her assassination on December 27.

The ministry has directed the authorities in all four provinces to provide VVIP security to Zardari during his movements.

The police and the paramilitary Pakistan Rangers personnel will be a part of his security detail, Geo News channel quoted sources as saying.

Meanwhile, Bhutto’s security adviser Rehman Malik, who came under a cloud due to apparent lapses in her security, will function in the same capacity for Zardari.

Malik, a former chief of the Federal Investigation Agency, said he would liaise with the government for Zardari’s protection.

“My assignment remains the same to act as a go-between in order to ensure security and protection of Zardari that I used to carry out for Bhutto,” Malik told 
The News.

Malik was holding meetings with the PPP’s youth wing to train activists so that four workers could be deployed at every polling station during the February 18 general election to avert rigging.

He said he had asked interior secretary Syed Kamal Shah to provide at least 50 police personnel and four mobile squads to protect Zardari.

Malik said he had also sought sniffer dogs to detect explosive devices and a bulletproof screen for Zardari’s public addresses. — PTI 

Islamabad, January 9
Pakistan today rejected IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei’s comments about the possibility of its nuclear weapons falling into extremist hands, saying its atomic arsenal is “fully secure and under multi-layered safeguards”.

“As head of the IAEA, which is a UN body, he has to be careful about his statements which ought to remain within the parameters of his mandate,” Pakistan foreign office spokesman Mohammad Sadiq told reporters here.

ElBaradei’s remarks “ignored the fact that the strategic assets of Pakistan are fully secure and under multi-layered safeguards and controls exercised by the National Command Authority”, he said.

Pakistan had been in touch with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the issue and officials had spoken to ElBaradei’s chief of staff. Sadiq, however, said ElBaradei’s remarks would not have implications for Pakistan’s relationship with the nuclear watchdog.

Pakistan has extended cooperation and assistance to the IAEA on “many important issues” and its civil nuclear programme is under the watchdog’s safeguards, he said.

The IAEA, Sadiq pointed out, was only concerned with safeguarded civilian nuclear facilities and ElBaradei’s comments should remain with this mandate.

ElBaradei had been “briefed about the structure and control mechanisms” put in place by Pakistan to ensure the “complete safety” of its nuclear assets, Sadiq said.

Pakistan is a “responsible nuclear state” whose atomic weapons are “as secure as that of any other nuclear weapon state”. Statements expressing concern about the safety and security of the nuclear arsenal are “unwarranted and irresponsible,” Sadiq said.

There have been numerous reports in the Western media on the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal in the wake of the political uncertainty created by the imposition of emergency last year by President Pervez Musharraf.

Scientist A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear programme, is currently under house arrest for proliferating nuclear technology and Islamabad has refused to allow IAEA investigators to question him.

But Sadiq said a section of the Western media was running a “propaganda campaign against Pakistan, its national institutions and strategic assets” while analysing the aftermath of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. — PTI  

Warsaw, January 9
A gurdwara, said to be the first in Eastern Europe, will come up in Warsaw as the authorities here have finally given their green signal.

The proposed gurdwara has been registered as a religious institution.

Respecting the religious identity of the Sikh community here, the authorities have also allowed them to wear turban and keep a kirpan.

“This is a glorious day for the Indian community in Poland,” Singh Sabha chief administrative officer J.J. Singh said.

“Unlike France, where the Sikh community is facing many difficulties in maintaining its identity, the Polish authorities have given us what we had asked for here. The rights of a minority community are being respected which is most gratifying,” Singh told IANS.

“Now our job is to collect funds not only in Poland but also from other European countries to construct a beautiful gurdwara. Incidentally, it will be the first gurdwara in eastern Europe,” he added.

For the past three years, the Singh Sabha Community had been using a rented house in Warsaw to perform religious ceremonies.

It had been bringing religious teachers and singers from the Amritsar-headquartered Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) for religious activities. In Poland, apart from a small number of Sikhs, there are 1,200 Sindhis who too have faith in the teachings of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, and Guru Granth Sahib.

Janusz Krzyzowski, president of the India-Polish Cultural Committee, said: “This was a long- cherished demand which has been accepted very gracefully by a largely Catholic-dominated country. In the era of globalisation people everywhere should have the right to practice their religion.” Indian ambassador to Poland Chandra Mohan Bhandari also expressed satisfaction and said it was a positive step to strengthen Indo-Polish relations. — IANS 

Tehran, January 9
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards accused the USA of fabricating footage claiming to show Iranian speedboats harassing US warships in the Strait of Hormuz, state television reported.

“The footage released by the US Navy are file pictures and the audio has been fabricated,” state-run English language channel Press-TV quoted a source in the naval section of the Revolutionary Guards as saying.

The state-run Al-Alam Arabic language international channel also ran a similar denial quoting a source from the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s elite military force.
The Pentagon released a video and audio tape yesterday that it said confirmed US charges that Iranian speedboats swarmed US warships in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday and radioed a threat to blow them up.
The video, which the Pentagon said was taken from the bridge of the destroyer USS Hopper, showed fast boats approaching the warships at high speeds and racing around the Hopper, the USS Port Royal and the USS Ingraham.

A man’s voice is heard in an audio recording speaking in English amid a sailor’s urgent warnings to stay clear of the ship. “I am coming to you... You will explode in a few minutes,” the voice is heard to say.

Iranian officials had already dismissed the US version of the incident as anti-Iran propaganda ahead of President George W. Bush’s visit to the Middle East, saying what happened was an everyday occurrence. The Revolutionary Guards have said the Iranian forces merely identified the US vessels before both sides went on their way without any disturbance. — AP