Eight soldiers were killed and 32 wounded during fierce fighting in South Waziristan in which the army had used battle tanks for the first time since the operation was launched four years ago.

A press release by the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) claimed that forty militants have been killed in the last 24 hours and 30 apprehended while many were injured.

Militants were killed in a series of raids on Wednesday and Thursday during clashes with the army who were backed by artillery and helicopter, the ISPR said.

Security forces have moved three tanks in Jandola to protect military convoys that are on the move as the army advances in the area.

Security forces have carried out operations in Spinkai Raghzai, Nawazkot, Tiarza and its surrounding areas, where all militants have been reportedly cleared out of these areas.

The army sent reinforcements to the troubled South Waziristan tribal region on Wednesday after clashes between security forces and militants intensified in the Mehsud area.

Official sources and local people said the infantry, backed by tanks and heavy artillery, were seen heading towards the Spinkai Raghzai fort from a base in the adjoining Frontier Region of Jandola. Infantry units comprising 600 troops reached Spinkai Raghzai from Jandola amid fierce clashes.

The sources said the troops had launched an operation in three areas - Makin, Spinkai Raghzai and Tiarza - inhabited by Mehsud tribesmen. They have been pounding militants’ hideouts with heavy and light artillery since Tuesday night while helicopter gunship were also seen flying over the area.

Loud explosions caused by artillery, rockets and missile attacks rocked the area. Two soldiers and four militants were killed in a gun-battle while nine security personnel suffered injuries. Security forces arrested five wounded militants in the Razmak area of the adjoining North Waziristan region.

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said the defence budget would be debated in the next Parliament and the country’s armed forces would be held accountable for every penny they spend.

Talking to a select group of senior journalists here, Sharif said the army would have to act as a subordinate branch of the defence ministry and not the rulers. The defence budget cannot be allowed to be a taboo for the Parliament that has been made to pass it without scrutiny or debate in the past.

Sharif criticised western governments for buying Musharraf’s outlandish but self-serving assertions that people of Pakistan were not yet ripe for genuine democracy. He said past military rulers have destroyed democratic institutions and violated human rights while propagating similar notions.

“Nothing can be so remote to the ground reality,” Sharif said adding “People have made tremendous sacrifices to win back freedom and democracy from military dictators.”

He said he stands for friendly ties with the United States but is critical of several policies of President Bush, just like large number of Americans and rest of the world. He said President Bush must stop backing dictatorship in Pakistan and support the people of Pakistan who want real democracy and rule of law.

Sharif said restoration of independent judiciary, reinstatement of deposed judges, removal of curbs on the media and establishment of rule of law would remain top agenda items in the election campaign of his party as also after the elections.

He said Musharraf could not be trusted to hold free and fair elections. His track record was full of manipulations through intelligence agencies, corps commanders and bureaucracy. He had held a fraudulent referendum in April 2002 and the local government in 2005 was also massively manipulated to install his favourites.

Sharif said he considers Musharraf an “illegal president” and would not work with him after the elections. His party would strive for reversal of all illegal and unconstitutional actions undertaken since Musharraf’s coup in 1999 and particularly on November 3 last year when he subverted the constitution for the second time and made a devastating assault on the judiciary and media.

Earlier, Sharif had been stopped from visiting deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. Addressing a large crowd of party workers and others at the barrier, he vowed to reinstate the deposed Chief Justice and other deposed judges. “Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry is still the constitutional and legal Chief Justice of Pakistan and I don’t accept anyone else as the Chief Justice,” Nawaz said.

Chief of army staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani has said military operations, though part of a national effort, were only means to an end and need people’s support to succeed. He said the operation in Swat was almost complete and it was not for political and administrative segments of the local populace to restore normal life.

Kiani spoke to troops while visiting the forward posts in Swat, according to an ISPR press release. This was the first such visit in recent years by an army chief to advance positions in any operation. Musharraf was often criticised, while holding the office of chief of army staff, for never visiting conflict area of Waziristan where nearly 100,000 troops have been battling tribal militants for the past five years and suffered huge casualties.

Gen. Kiani acknowledged the support of the people of Swat, which he said had helped the army restore normalcy to the area. Talking to locals, he stressed the need for them to contribute to peace and welfare of the people. He said Rs 1 billion would be spent on relief work in the coming few months.

Gen. Kiani said miscreants from most parts of Swat had been flushed out and normalcy restored. He appreciated the role of security forces for successful completion of their task in Swat.

“With these enabling environments in place, it is important that political and administrative elements now take the lead to restore business as usual,” he observed. 

The Pakistan People’s Party has accused the Chaudharys of Gujarat of bringing absconders from India to create a law and order problem in their home district of Gujarat on the election day on 
February 18.

“The Chaudharys have brought Indian absconders in the guise of kabaddi team from India to create a law and order problem in Gujarat on February 18 to rig the elections,” said PPP finance secretary Senator Babar Awan and the PPP candidate Chaudhary Ahmed Mukhtar from Gujarat, while addressing a press conference. Mukhtar, traditional rival of Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain is contesting election against the PML-Q president.

The PPP leaders did not give further details about the number of absconders from India, but said a significant number of Indian fugitives had been brought to Gujarat.

Senator Dr Babar Awan also claimed that besides bringing fugitives from India, approximately 5,000 judicial absconders of the Gujranwala division were also being brought to Gujarat for the February 18 polling day. “We demand of the chief election commissioner to declare Gujarat a sensitive area and deploy paramilitary forces there on the polling day instead of the police, which is still working under the Chaudharys of Gujarat,” he added.

During the press conference, Senator Dr Babar Awan and Chaudhary Ahmed Mukhtar also presented documentary evidence of what they claimed was bogus voters list of NA-105.

They claimed that 65 per cent voters in the list of the Union Council, 55 of Gujarat either did not have their identity card numbers mentioned, or the names of their father/husband and even their addresses were missing.

“We have presented this evidence to the chief election commissioner and now he has to prove his impartiality,” said Senator Babar Awan.

He said the documentary evidence proved that Q-League was planning to steal the people’s verdict through such acts.

Babar Awan also said a parallel Election Commission office had been established at the office of DCO, Gujarat, which was issuing directives in favour of PML-Q candidates. “The Election Commission should clarify the situation.” He claimed that former Chief Minister Chaudhary Pervaiz Elahi had distributed cash awards among the polling staff in Gujarat despite the fact that he was no longer the Chief Minister. 

Jerusalem, January 24
Israel wants to cut its links with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip after militants blasted open the territory’s border with Egypt in defiance of an Israeli blockade, Israel’s deputy defence minister said today.

Israel, which occupied the Gaza Strip in 1967, pulled troops and settlers out in 2005 but still controls its northern and eastern borders, airspace and coastal waters, and has imposed a blockade it says is meant to counter militant rocket fire.

Deputy defence minister Matan Vilnai said Israel wanted to wash its hands of Gaza altogether by handing over the supply of electricity, water and medicine to others. An Israeli security official said Egypt should take over responsibility.

“We need to understand that when Gaza is open to the other side we lose responsibility for it. So we want to disconnect from it,” Vilnai said.

A spokesman for Hamas, which seized control of Gaza after routing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah forces in June, said Israel was not exempt from responsibility “since the Gaza Strip is still an occupied land”.

An aide to Abbas said the Israeli idea could be aimed at permanently severing Gaza from the occupied West Bank, the other territory Palestinians seek for an eventual state. — Reuters

A panel appointed by President Mahinda Rajapakse to come out with a proposals to devolve powers to minority Tamils in the north and east of the country has recommended an interim Council to administer the northern province to enable the people there enjoy the “fruits of devolution”.

The much-awaited report was presented to President Rajapakse on Wednesday and its contents were made public on Thursday. However, it did not contain any new proposals for devolution of power but had instead said the Provincial Council system that came into existence in the country in 1987 after the signing of the Indo-Lanka accord was fully implemented.

However, the LTTE which has asked for self-rule for Tamils in the north and east and has dismissed the Provincial Council system, as not going far enough to satisfy the aspirations of the Tamil speaking people, who make up the majority in the north as well as in certain areas in the east.

The panel, which was known as the All Party Representative Committee (APRC), said their recommendations to the President were not their final document, which was still under formulation and would be ready shortly. The main opposition United National Party (UNP) and the third largest party in Parliament, the People Liberation Front or JVP, both boycotted the committee.

It is unlikely the move by President Rajapakse to put some proposals for devolution on the table to appease, mainly the international community will see any let up in the heavy fighting between the troops and the Tamil Tigers raging in recent weeks. The government said: “It wants to first defeat the LTTE militarily and then devolve power.”

Government troops have taken control of the entire eastern province since middle of the last year, but are still fighting to gain control of certain areas in two northern districts of Kilinochchi and Wanni from the control of the Tamil Tigers.

London, January 24
The British government is planning to unveil sweeping proposals for toughening its terrorism laws today, the government said.

Home secretary Jacqui Smith was scheduled to formally introduce in Parliament the plans to increase the limit for detaining suspects without charge from 28 to 42 days, to allow the police to take DNA samples from terrorism suspects and to urge judges to impose stiffer sentences on criminals whose offences were linked to terrorism.

Proposals to increase the maximum time for holding terrorism suspects, by the police, are opposed by rival lawmakers, human rights groups and lawmakers within Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour party.

“We face a choice here,” Smith said on BBC radio. “We can either sit on our hands, failing to recognise where there is a broad consensus that this is a risk that is growing that we might well face in the future, we can risk having to declare national emergency in order to be able to do it. Or we can, as we are proposing, legislate now with the discussion that will be put in Parliament on the safeguards and on the circumstances in which it would be used and have that available in the future,” she said. — AP