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26/11 probe: FBI team to visit Pak
Pak to decide on sending FIA to India
Gilani defends Swat deal
Mission successful, say Tamil Tigers
Obama’s job approval rating falls
Radical UK Muslims help Taliban: Reports
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26/11 probe: FBI team to visit Pak
Islamabad, February 21
The visit by the FBI team has been cleared by the Foreign Office, diplomatic sources said. The team will interact with Pakistani law enforcement officials to discuss findings of their probe into the November 26 Mumbai attacks, the sources added. They said the FBI was also expected to question the six suspects detained by Pakistani authorities in connection with the attacks which left over 180 persons dead, including six Americans. These suspects include Lashkar-e-Toiba operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, its communication expert Zarar Shah and another member of the group Hamad Amin Sadiq. Interior ministry chief Rehman Malik had last week said Pakistani authorities had filed formal charges against nine suspects, including Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist captured alive during the attacks. He said six of the eight other suspects had been detained while two were still at large. Malik had also acknowledged that part of the conspiracy behind the Mumbai incident was hatched on the Pakistani soil. — PTI
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Pak to decide on sending FIA to India
Islamabad, February 21 Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, had told Pakistani leaders during his recent visit that India was willing to “let in Pakistani investigators to share further information on the Mumbai incident,” Gilani said. “So we are considering sending a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) team to India but no decision has been taken in this regard as yet,” he said here yesterday. The FIA conducted a probe into the Mumbai attacks after India handed over its dossier on the incident to Pakistan on January 5. Pakistan gave India a set of 30 questions seeking more information on the Mumbai incident along with its response, which was handed over on February 12.
— PTI
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Islamabad, February 21 He said the peace deal enforcing Islamic laws in the restive Swat region would only become operational after restoration of complete normalcy in the area. Gilani said the Nizam-e-Adl Ordinance would be signed by President Asif Ali Zardari only after the restoration of complete peace in the area. “What we are doing is within the ambit of the constitution and there is nothing to worry about,” he said. Gilani’s comments came as the US, NATO, India and Britain voiced concern over the pact with the Taliban-linked group, saying that it could be a ploy to enable the militant organisations to re-group. Hard line cleric Sufi Mohammad of Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariah Mohammadi has been closeted with his son-in-law and Pakistani Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah for the past two days to get the peace pact endorsed by the militant group, who have been waging a bloody campaign in the Swat valley for enforcing Sharia laws.Meanwhile, asserting that his government is committed to bringing the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice Gilani has called for the resumption of the composite dialogue with India. During a meeting with visiting British shadow security minister Baroness Pauline Neville Johns yesterday, Gilani reaffirmed his government’s commitment that “the perpetrators of those crimes will not be spared.” However, he “regretted that India, by refusing Pakistan’s cooperation, has only served the objectives of terrorist elements in the region,” said an official statement issued after the meeting. Gilani expressed the hope that both countries “would soon revert to the composite dialogue and undertake sincere efforts to resolve all issues, including the Kashmir issue, amicably,” the statement said. —PTI
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Mission successful, say Tamil Tigers
Colombo, February 21 While the authorities said both aircraft were brought down by anti-aircraft fire, the LTTE claimed that it was a suicide mission. The TamilNet website quoted the Tigers as saying that the dead pilots of the two lightwing aircraft were from the Black Air Tiger suicide squad and that the attacks were “successful”. It published a photograph of the two smiling pilots together with LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran, claimed to have been taken shortly before the mission began. The LTTE identified the two pilots as ‘Col’ Roopan and ‘Lt Col’ Siriththiran. One bomb fell over the headquarters of the Inland Revenue Department in the heart of the capital, causing a huge explosion and killing two persons and wounding, according to some reports, more than 50 people. The Tigers claimed the targets were Sri Lankan Air Force facilities in the vicinity and the main air base adjoining the country’s international airport at Katunayake, 28 km north of Colombo. But the defence authorities said the guerrillas had clearly missed the intended targets because of the swift action by the air force and intense anti-aircraft fire from the troops. One of the aircraft was shot down near the international airport while the other crashed into the multi-storeyed Inland Revenue Building, located close to the air force headquarters in Colombo. “Why should they attack the Inland Revenue Department building? They must have come for some other targets, but the successful anti-aircraft gunfire from the ground failed their mission miserably,” military spokesman Brig Udaya Nanayakkara said. A military official said the LTTE bombing would not impact the situation in Sri Lanka’s north where the guerrillas had been cornered in an area of less than 100 sq km in Mullaitivu district. The military has recovered the wreckage of the aircraft and a body of the LTTE pilot near the airport. The military said the body was intact and the aircraft had a large quantity of explosives and bombs. “The pilot was carrying two cyanide capsules and a powerful bomb with his seat,” a military statement said. All LTTE guerrillas carry cyanide vials so as to bite them to avoid capture. The planes are believed to have been dismantled and hidden as the LTTE retreated in recent months following military advances into their areas. This is for the first time the LTTE has lost an aircraft. The debris of the other plane was found between the third and 12th floors of the Inland Revenue Building. “Detection of parts of strewn pieces of flesh, said to belong to the Tiger pilot, found on some floors proved that the pilot would have lost control of it after being hit by air defence systems,” the statement said. “Investigating teams have so far collected one arm belonging to the Tiger pilot who had been blown to pieces along with the crash or counter-fire and the explosion that followed,” it said, adding that the extent of the damage to the building was yet to be evaluated. — IANS
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Obama’s job approval rating falls
Washington, February 21 Poll conducted on February 18-19 with 1,046 persons indicates that two out of three Americans approve the way Barack Obama is handling his job as President of the USA. Obama’s approval rating stands at 67 per cent in the new poll, which is 9 percentage points down from the most recent CNN poll conducted in early February. Fifty per cent of those polled said Obama had so far met their expectations, and another 16 per cent suggested that he had exceeded their expectations. Nearly one in four said that the President has fallen short of what they expected, The CNN/Opinion Research Corp survey said. Six in 10 support $787 billion economic stimulus package that Obama signed into law on Tuesday. “Sixty per cent of those questioned in the poll favoured the economic stimulus plan, with 39 per cent opposing the package,” survey said.— PTI
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Radical UK Muslims help Taliban: Reports
London, February 21 The devices, which enable Taliban fighters to detonate bombs by remote control, are either sent to sympathisers in neighbouring countries or carried in by volunteers who flew to Pakistan and crossed the border into Afghanistan, The Daily Telegraph newspaper claimed. Details of how British electronic components had been found in roadside bombs were given to David Miliband, the foreign secretary, when he visited British troops at their military compound at Lashkagar, in Afghanistan, this week. In a briefing on operations by Brig Gordon Messenger, the Royal Marine commander of the British battle group, Miliband was shown samples of the homemade devices that were being used in attacks. They included mobile phones filled with explosives used to attack foot patrols and more powerful devices used against vehicles. — PTI
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