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Lanka bans LTTE, closes doors for talks
Manmohan’s remarks disappointing: Qureshi
Was ready to travel to India, says ISI chief
JuD claims no alliance with LeT
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660 Palestinians killed in Gaza: medics
Qaida deputy urges Muslims to attack Israeli targets
‘Divorce hit Imran hard’
Bruce Lee’s home set to become museum
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Lanka bans LTTE, closes doors for talks
The Sri Lanka government announced a ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on Wednesday night closing any prospects for future talks with the Tigers.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa proposed the ban, which won the endorsement of his entire Cabinet, a senior government minister Maithripala Sirisena said. The ban comes hot on the heels of the military successes against the LTTE by the government troops in the north and less than a week after the military wrested control of the LTTE’s de facto capital of Killinochchi. The LTTE is already banned is several countries, including the USA, the UK, the EU and India as a terrorist organisation. However, the Sri Lanka government had refrained from for several years from taking the move to keep the door open for peace talks with the Tigers, but with the recent military successes, the government had toughened its stance against the LTTE. There had been speculation for several weeks that a ban was imminent particularly after President Rajapaksa warned the LTTE in mid December that he would proscribe the organisation unless it released the “innocent” Tamils it was holding as hostage, in bondage and using them as human shields. Meanwhile, the US embassy in Colombo in a statement issued on Wednesday said the USA did not advocate that the government of Sri Lanka negotiate with the LTTE, a group designated by the USA since 1997 as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation, but that the USA believed that a lasting, sustainable peace could best be achieved if the Sri Lankan government works now to reach a political solution that addresses the aspirations of all Sri Lankans, including Tamils, Muslims, and Sinhalese. The LTTE was banned on January 27, 1998, after it bombed the one of the most sacred Buddhist sites in the country, the temple of the Tooth relic of the Buddha in the central Kandy district. The ban was lifted after a Norwegian brokered Ceasefire Agreement was signed in February 2002 by then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe with the LTTE and the ban lifted in September that year at the start of peace talks between the two sides.
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Manmohan’s remarks disappointing: Qureshi
Islamabad, January 7 Qureshi, who is in Kabul accompanying President Asif Ali Zardrai on his maiden official visit to Afghanistan, said Singh’s statement yesterday about the Mumbai attacks having the backing of “some official agencies” in Pakistan was disappointing. “In Manmohan Singh, I see a thinking man and an academic. A statement of that nature coming from such a mature, seasoned statesman is rather disappointing,” he said at a news conference in the Afghan capital. The two countries will have to cooperate at the operational level to get to the bottom of what happened in Mumbai, Qureshi said. This objective cannot be achieved by closing channels of communication Qureshi said Indian politicians had “fallen prey to the Mumbai situation” and were indulging in a blame game. Replying to a question, he said the ISI is an important national institution that has made “tremendous contributions” in the war on terror and this role is being recognised the
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Was ready to travel to India, says ISI chief
Afzal Khan writes from Islamabad In an interview carried by the German magazine, he said he was ready to travel to India after the attacks as requested by the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a telephone call to his Pakistani counterpart, but remarked that "many people here are simply not ready" for the visit for undisclosed reasons. He has denied talks of any war between Pakistan and India. "There will not be a war," he said confidently. "We are distancing ourselves from conflict with India, both now and in general." In an attempt to allay misgivings in the West about Pakistan, he emphasised: "We may be crazy in Pakistan, but not completely out of our minds. We know fully well that terror is our enemy, not India." Pasha also explained to the magazine as to why he was unwilling to crack down on the Taliban leadership. "Shouldn't they be allowed to think and say what they please? They believe that jihad is their obligation. Isn't that freedom of opinion?" he asked in a rhetorical tone. He claimed that India has so far failed to prove the involvement of Pakistani groups sponsored by the ISI in the attacks. "They have given us nothing, no numbers, no connections, no names," he said. In reply to a question about the longevity of the present government, he said the transition to civilian rule must succeed. "It is completely clear to the army chief and me that this government must succeed. Otherwise we will have a lot of problems in this country," he said in a solemn tone. "The result would be problems in the West and the East, political destabilisation and trouble with America," he warned. "Anyone who does not support this democratic government today simply does not understand the current situation." And then, giving an innocuous yet significant information, he added: "I report regularly to the president and take orders from him." He told the magazine he wanted to re-establish the ISI's credibility. Lt-Gen Pasha refuted conjectures that army chief Gen Kayani and US military officials had, in a meeting onboard USS Abraham Lincoln, in August reached a tacit understanding that Pakistan would allow the US military to carry out drone attacks in its tribal area. "We never discussed that, nor did we agree to it," he explained, shaking his head. "But to be honest, what can we do against the drone attacks? Should we fight the Americans or attack an Afghan post because that's where the drones are coming from? Can we win this? Does it benefit Pakistan?" He defended Pakistan's cooperation with the West in the "war on terror", asserting that "by working together, everyone will be able to defeat terror".
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JuD claims no alliance with LeT
Islamabad, January 7 "We are engaged in educational and welfare activities inside Pakistan while the LeT is fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir," JuD spokesman Abdullah Muntazir said. The JuD has "no alliance with LeT," he claimed in an interview to a private Indian channel, when asked about Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's remarks that the group's members are linked to the LeT. "It is totally a misconception," Muntazir said of Gilani's comments. He alleged that the Indian media was engaged in "false propaganda" against the JuD and termed the recent interview of the outfit's chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed to 'Outlook' magazine as "fake". "On the basis of these media reports, the US went to the UN Security Council and that (banning of JuD) was a biased move by the Security Council," he told CNN-IBN. On the whereabouts of Saeed, he said the JuD leader is under house arrest in Lahore. The JuD spokesman also lashed out at the Pakistan government and said the kind of crackdown it had unleashed on his organisation was not even demanded by the UN. "It has gone far ahead than what was asked by the UN and has put 10 of our leaders under house arrest", he alleged. — PTI
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660 Palestinians killed in Gaza: medics
Gaza City, January 7 Another 2,950 people have been wounded, according to Gaza emergency services chief Moawiya Hassanein. He said the toll includes 43 people who were killed and 100 wounded when a school in Jabaliya in northern Gaza was struck. Seven Israeli soldiers have been killed during Operation Cast Lead, while three civilians were killed in Israel by rockets fired by Gaza militants, according to the army. — AFP
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Qaida deputy urges Muslims to attack Israeli targets
Washington, January 7 "O Muslims everywhere: fight the Zionist crusader campaign. Strike its interests everywhere you can reach them," Zawahiri said in an audio statement made yesterday available by the US-based monitoring company, SITE Intelligence Group. Zawahiri said the 11-day-old Israeli offensive, which has killed 660 Palestinians since it was launched on December 27 to halt Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel, was part of a western campaign targeting Islam. He also accused US President-elect Barack Obama of being complicit in the attacks. "What we face today ... is a link in the chain of the crusade against Islam and Muslims," he said. "These raids are Obama's gift to you (Palestinians) before he takes office. This is Obama whom the American machine of lies tried to portray as the rescuer who will change the policy of America. He kills your brothers and sisters in Gaza mercilessly and without affection," Zawahiri added. Obama has been criticised for not speaking out forcefully against the Israeli offensive, but he vowed yesterday that he would have plenty to say about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict once he takes office on January 20. — AFP
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‘Divorce hit Imran hard’
Islamabad, January 7 Khan told his official biographer that his marriage with Jemima was happy and “he is nostalgic introspecting about all the pleasures of friendships and the enjoyment of sense and reason that Jemima brought in his life”. “Imran vs Imran: An untold story”, the biography by Indian national Frank Huzur, is scheduled for worldwide release in spring. Huzur told a British magazine that Khan “did not mind any kind of inquiry into his life, including needling him over the ‘love-child’ controversy Sita White slander campaign’. “When I told him I needed information from Jemima Khan, he was a little amused. I explained that the biography wouldn’t be a credible work... (so) Imran convinced her to speak to me...” Huzur, who visited London twice to speak to Jemima, told the magazine. Asked as to why Khan’s marriage with Jemima failed, Huzur said, “There is a saying in South Asian folklore about marriage: An old man who marries a young wife grows younger, but she grows older... the marriage suffered in the first year. Radical Islamists hit hard at him for marrying a woman of Jewish descent”. — PTI
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Bruce Lee’s home set to become museum
New York, January 7 More than 35 years after the death of Lee, his 5,600-square-foot town house, the last home of Bruce Lee, where he lived with his wife Linda Lee-Cadwell will be thrown open for public viewing. Hotel tycoon Yu Pang-lin decided last year in the month of July to donate the house to officials of Hong Kong’s Kowloon Tong district. — PTI
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