Terrorist attacks escalated sharply on Monday across the country leaving more than 12 civilians dead and over 20 others injured as Sri Lanka celebrated 60 years of independence from British rule.

In the worst attack, 12 civilians were killed when suspected Tamil rebels exploded a claymore mine targeting a passenger bus in Welioya in north eastern Sri Lanka.

There were at least three other smaller bomb attacks in several other towns in the country but there were no fatalities in them.

The violence came as the government put on a grand show of force of its military capabilities in the Independence Day parade held in Colombo amidst unprecedented security. Several roads were closed in the morning and services on mobile phones were restricted due to the security concerns.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in his address to the nation at the ceremony, reiterated the government’s tough stance against terrorism. He said it was committed to carrying on this battle while safeguarding human rights, adding that his government has the support of the international community in its endeavour against terrorism. “The civilised world today, accepts that Sri Lanka is putting one full-stop to world terrorism,” he said.

On Sunday, a bomb explosion at the main railway station in Colombo left 12 civilians dead and a bomb attack on a bus on Saturday in north central Sri Lanka killed 19 others.

The government has closed schools in Colombo for this week and heightened security checks but violence is likely to escalate as the government forces continues its operations in the north to take control of areas under the control of the LTTE.

Islamabad, February 4
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf today advocated the need for creating an “enabling environment” for the success of the Indo-Pak peace process and said the Kashmir issue could be resolved through “sincerity, courage and flexibility”.

In a message on the eve of the “Kashmir Solidarity Day” to be observed tomorrow across Pakistan, Musharraf said: “We firmly believe that an enabling environment is necessary for the success of the peace process.” “We remain engaged in a sincere, sustained and purposeful dialogue with India on Kashmir. We believe that with sincerity, courage and flexibility, we can achieve a solution to the long-standing Kashmir dispute,” he said.

Referring to his four-point proposal aimed at breaking the decade-old deadlock, he said this demonstrated Pakistan’s “readiness to work constructively to find a solution acceptable to all parties, especially the Kashmiris”.

The proposal envisages the demilitarisation of Kashmir and joint control of the region by India and Pakistan.

Several Kashmir-related confidence building measures initiated by Pakistan had brought “some relief” to the Kashmiris living on both sides of the Line of Control, he said. Pakistan always stressed the need to end violence and human rights abuses in the Indian part of Kashmir, he added. — PTI

The interior ministry has denied a widely circulated report that it has not renewed visas of top officials of the International Republican Institute (IRI).

In a press release here, the ministry said the government of Pakistan has issued visas to around 900 foreign election observers and reporters. It said several of them had already arrived in Pakistan.

“Their visas have been issued with validity up to February 25, 2008, so that they can cover the general election being held in Pakistan on February 18, 2008. The visas of IRI officials are also valid till that date,” the ministry said.

The government has stopped the IRI from performing exit polls at the upcoming parliamentary elections, while refusing to issue new visas to the institute’s top in-country officials.

According to a report released on Chicago Tribune website on Saturday, critics said the government was taking such actions because a recent survey by the institute indicated that President Pervez Musharraf’s popularity had fallen sharply.

Earlier reports quoting Robert Varsalone, the country director for the IRI, said the Pakistani government has told the two US citizens responsible for the IRI public opinion polls that they will have to leave the country in three weeks because their visas will not be renewed. The report said the government had tried to end their visas in January, but extended them for a month after coming under diplomatic pressure.

“We’ve been told essentially, this is it for you,” said Varsalone, who has been in Pakistan for more than a year. “We always tried to be honest brokers of information.”

The other IRI official, Stephen Cima, has been in the country for two-and-a-half years, and the institute has worked in Pakistan for five years.

The institute, headed by Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain, also has reversed a decision to send election observers for the February 18 vote because of fears that the increasingly volatile situation would prevent them from accurately gauging the elections. It was the only US group planning to send observers, although European teams still plan to be in place.

London, February 4
In a major blow to highly-skilled foreign employees working and seeking to settle in the UK, the British government has claimed it never made a promise that the Highly Skilled Migrants Programme (HSMP) would lead to settlement in the country.

Responding to points raised by Lord Navnit Dholakia, a leading NRI and deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, Lord Hunt, parliamentary under-secretary in the ministry of justice said, “The government does not accept that the rules changed have been applied retrospectively. Existing grants of leave are not affected by either the change in the criteria for extensions of leave under HSMP, or the increase in the qualifying period for settlement. Nor did the government make a promise that the HSMP would lead to settlement in the UK.” Hunt said application under all categories of the Immigration Rules would be treated according to the rules in place at the time of application. — PTI

Amid serious division among the Bhutanese refugees, who have been sheltering in eastern Nepal for the past 17 years, over the latest scheme for third country resettlement in the US, Canada, Australia and some European countries, the Nepal government has decided to issue exit permit to those refugees who voluntarily opt for resettlement.

Welcoming the Nepal government’s decision to issue exit permits to Bhutanese refugees, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva on Monday said, “This allows refugees to leave eastern Nepal’s camps for third countries once their cases are accepted, and is an important step toward finding solutions for over 107,000 refugees who have been in Nepal for 17 years (in seven refugee camps in Morang and Jhapa districts in eastern Nepal).” “We are very thankful to the Nepalese government for the exit permits,” said Daisy Dell, the UN refugee agency’s representative in Kathmandu.

“Resettlement offers a way out for thousands of refugees who see no future in the camps. At the same time, we continue to advocate for voluntary repatriation for those who wish to do so.” The resettlement process is a long one. Last November, the UNHCR started a mass information campaign on durable solutions throughout the camps. Since then, it has interviewed thousands of interested refugees and submitted the names of nearly 10,000 individuals to several countries. However, the refugees are sharply divided over the resettlement issue.

“Remember, God gives life, and God takes life. I will be safe until my time is up,” former premier Benazir Bhutto told her children before leaving Dubai for Karachi to end her eight-year exile.

Extracts from her soon-to-be-published book “Reconciliation: Islam, democracy and the West” in Sunday Times, London, said she was well aware of the dangers that she would have to face on her return. So her husband was to stay back to take care of the children if something happened to her.

She writes, “Indeed, many of the same people who had collaborated with an earlier military junta in the judicial murder of my father were now entrenched in power in President Pervez Musharraf’s regime and the intelligence apparatus. There could have been no more dramatic statement to me than Musharraf’s recent appointment as attorney-general of the son of the man who had sent my father to the gallows.”

She confirmed Musharraf telling her to return after the elections, but when she decided otherwise, “he sent messages to my staff that I should have no public demonstration or rally and I should fly directly by helicopter from the airport to Bilawal House … He said he was concerned about my security and my safety, but his supporters did very little to provide the necessary protection we needed …”

Benazir wrote that she had “become aware, through messages sent by Musharraf, that suicide squads might be sent from the North West Frontier Province and federally administered tribal areas to try to assassinate me immediately on my return. I had actually received from a sympathetic Muslim foreign government the names and cell phone numbers of the designated assassins. I was told by the Musharraf regime and the foreign Muslim government that four suicide bomber squads would attempt to kill me. These included the reports that said, squads sent by the Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud; Hamza Bin Laden, a son of Osama Bin Laden; Red Mosque militants; and a Karachi-based militant group.

Musharraf’s regime knew of the specific threats against me, including the names and numbers of those who planned to kill me, and the names of others, who were in his own inner circle and in his party - whom we believed were conspiring.

Despite our request, we received no reports on what actions were taken before my arrival as a follow-up to these warnings.”