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Indo-Pak peace process hits new low: Experts
N-deal can be wrapped up before Bush leaves office
23 killed in fresh surge of violence in Pak’s NWFP
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Suicide bombers could use explosive-laden briefs
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Indo-Pak peace process hits new low: Experts
The on-going Pak-India peace process has hit a new low in the wake of recent bombings in India, incessant exchange of fire across the Line of Control (LoC) and low intensity violence in the occupied Kashmir, diplomatic observers here said. They noted that India had stopped short of suspending the peace talks, but the chill in the relations had already set in. “There is a lot of internal pressure on the Indian government due to terrorist attack on its embassy in Kabul and bombings in two major cities, and it will be difficult for the new coalition government of Manmohan Singh to sustain the pressure with the national election scheduled next year,” analyst Hasan Askry said. It is the second time that the peace process has come under stress in July; the first being in July 2006 after the Mumbai commuter trains’ bombing. The deadlock was removed by the meeting of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf in Havana, Cuba, in July the same year. There is a possibility of meeting of the two countries’ prime ministers on the sidelines of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) summit on August 2 in Colombo, but so far, the meeting has not been confirmed. But the two foreign ministers will meet, which can help reduce the tension.“But these meetings can only temporarily relieve the stress, as there is no quick fix to the terrorist activities and no substantial progress has been made to solve the major outstanding issues including Kashmir, Siachen and Sir Creek," Askry said. Meanwhile, the Indian High Commission spokesman in Islamabad, Sanjay Mathur, said the peace process was going on and the foreign secretaries had met recently to launch the fifth round of talks. “But we have certain concerns about recent happenings and our foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon conveyed these concerns to his counterpart,” he said. Pakistan foreign office spokesman Muhammad Sadiq, who is in Sri Lanka for the SAARC conference, said in a weekly briefing on Monday that the overall direction of Pakistan-India relations remained positive. “I hope negative incidents such as cross-LoC firing will not recur,” he said.
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N-deal can be wrapped up before Bush leaves office
Former undersecretary of state R. Nicholas Burns, who till recently served as President George W. Bush's point person on the US-India civilian nuclear agreement, is optimistic that the deal can still be wrapped up before Bush leaves office in January but says the onus is on the Nuclear Suppliers Group to speedily approve the deal.
Burns resigned from his state
department post on February 29 but continues to be involved with pushing the nuclear deal to the finish line at the request of secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. Pointing out that he had made eight trips to India as undersecretary and spent hundreds of hours negotiating with his Indian counterparts, Burns said he was all for the nuclear deal. He was speaking at the Brookings Institute in Washington on Wednesday. The International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors is scheduled to meet in Vienna on Friday to take up the India-specific nuclear agreement. Next, the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group has to approve the agreement by unanimous consent. Burns said both bodies must “act with great alacrity.” The former Bush Administration official said he hoped the deal could be wrapped up this year, but mindful of the fact that the agreement will face a tight Congressional calendar when it comes to Capitol Hill, said, “I hope there will be a rationale in India to understand that the Congress has already acted in 2006 in an overwhelmingly bipartisan manner. Now it is up to the NSG. The ball is in the NSG's court.” Once approved by the IAEA and NSG, the so-called 123 Agreement needs to sit before Congress for 30 legislative days before the Congress can vote on it. Given the fact that the Congress is off on recess for the month of August and then returns for a brief session expected to last from September 8 to 26, there will not be enough time left to meet the 30-day requirement. Robert Einhorn, who served as a key non-proliferation official in President Bill Clinton's
administration, said he was uncertain the deal could be wrapped up before the end of Bush's term. Einhorn expected the IAEA to take a “favourable decision” on Friday and noted the US was also working with the German chairman of the NSG to accelerate the process in that body. “A vast majority at the NSG does not want to disappoint India or the US” by voting against the deal, he contended.
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23 killed in fresh surge of violence in Pak’s NWFP
At least 23 persons were killed on Thursday, including 10 Taliban militants on the second day of the fresh surge of fierce fighting between the Army and the pro-Taliban militants in the troubled Swat area of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Forty-eight militants, including a commander, and five soldiers were killed and scores of others injured on Wednesday when militants attacked a security check post. Reports from Swat said the militants fired mortar shells that dropped on two houses in Swat killing 13 persons. They included a pesh imam (cleric), his wife and five children. Ten Taliban militants have been killed during the operation. They were killed in exchange of fire with security forces. The security forces targeted Taliban hideouts with mortar shells in the Sarbanda, Barmaba Khela, Peochar, Numl and Gutshor areas in Matta tehsil. The militants attacked Kabal police station and Wanai check post. They managed to flee after joint retaliation by the police and security forces. Fresh contingents have reached the Matta and Kabal areas.
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Suicide bombers could use explosive-laden briefs
Islamabad, July 31 Sihala Police College Forensic Lab, located near the capital, claims that the study of recent suicide attacks showed that suicide bombers used explosive-laden undergarments, briefs in particular, to carry out the attacks. The explosives could weigh between five to seven kgs, made deadly by adding glass splinters, metal ball bearings and bullets. The law enforcers normally search upper body parts sparing the ‘privates’. Hence assailants are increasingly using the lower body parts to dodge the searches. Sources said forensic experts were trying to devise methods to pre-empt suicide bombing and achieve successes in post bombing investigation.
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