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Pak stage-managed snub to US officials: Report
‘LTTE chief may not surrender fearing extradition to India’
US destroying Pak to see India rise: Minister |
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Pak seeks $30 b more from US
26/11 attackers may be Pak citizens:
Zardari
End ban on turban, Sikh group to US army
NRI’s recipe to beat recession
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Pak stage-managed snub to US officials: Report
Washington, April 8 By this, establishment in Islamabad is trying to limit one-to-one contact between Washington and the various key Pakistani institutions, especially the ISI, the US think tank Stratfor said. Such display, the Stratfor said, will complicate the Obama administration’s strategy on the Taliban. The observations by the influential American think-tank come in the wake of reports that ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha had refused to meet US Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen yesterday. An ISI spokesman in Islamabad had denied such a report. Stratfor, however, said it had learned that the top US military commander and Washington’s point man on Afghanistan and Pakistan had requested a separate meeting with the ISI chief, which was not granted. Holbrooke and Mullen were in Islamabad yesterday during which they met President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and army chief Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani. The think-tank listed among the issues of resentment by ISI include criticism by Mullen and the US CENTCOM chief Gen David Petreaus, who had said ISI was still dealing with the Taliban and Al-Qaida and the increasing US drones strikes in Pakistan’s tribal belt. “The snub is also part of an emerging consensus between Pakistan’s military and civilian government that Islamabad needs to increase its bargaining power with the US as an ally in the war against militants,” Stratfor said. Observing that the view in Islamabad is that US pressure and air strikes by American drones are undermining Pakistan’s ability to combat a raging jihadist insurgency, Stratfor said. Pakistan is also now saying that any national counter-terrorism strategy or cooperation with the US will have to receive parliament’s approval. “The ISI chief’s refusal to meet with top US officials visiting the country is also informed by the need to counter the view on the home front that Pakistan is subservient to US interests - a view that jihadists are exploiting to advance their agenda,” Stratfor said.
— PTI
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Osama hiding in Pak tribal areas: US
Taliban and Al-Qaida leaders, including Osama bin Laden, are hiding in Pakistan’s tribal areas, where the US is fighting a war on terror, Vice-President Joe Biden said today.
“In FATA, the western part of Pakistan in the mountains on the Afghan border, there is a war on terror. That’s where the Al-Qaida lives. That’s where bin Laden is. That’s where the most radicalised part of the Taliban is,” Biden told Wolf Blitzer of the CNN in an interview. “The situation we have as it relates to problems that exist in other parts of the world, they aren’t all related to terror,” he said in response to a question if the Obama Administration has stopped use of the phrase “global war on terror”.
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‘LTTE chief may not surrender fearing extradition to India’
Colombo, April 8 “Surely he will not commit suicide” as he is a billionaire and would want to live longer, nor will he surrender “as it would open the way for India to seek his extradition for the killing of (former Prime Minister) Rajiv Gandhi,” military sources were quoted as saying by the ‘Bottom Line’ newspaper. Ever since the fall of Kilinochchi, the political headquarters of the Tamil Tigers, in January, Sri Lankan navy has been put on alert to prevent any attempt by Prabhakaran or other senior LTTE leaders to flee the country. A naval blockade has been imposed in northern Mullaittivu, perhaps the only remaining area where the LTTE has some presence. According to officials, the navy has thrown a security net around the coast off Mullaitivu. “We have our fast attack craft, speed boats, radars and other equipment keeping round-the-clock watch,” an official said, adding the navy personnel have been deputed in four rings along an area of 25 nautical miles off the coast. Earlier on Monday, Sri Lankan army chief Sarath Fonseka had told US ambassador Robert Blake that Prabhakaran, despite the loss of so many of his chieftains, might still be hiding, either inside the 20 sq km-long ‘No Fire Zone’ in Pudukudiyirippu or in an underground hideout. It is widely believed that Prabhakaran’s son Charles Anthony, injured in the clashes with security forces last month, could also be hiding in the No Fire Zone. LTTE commander-turned-parliamentarian Vinayagamoorty Muralidaran alias Karuna Amman believes Prabhakaran cannot escape to any other country as the authorities abroad would not permit his stay.
— PTI
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Pottu leading LTTE: Lanka
LTTE’s dreaded intelligence chief Pottu Amman has taken the overall command of the outfit amid the “fast deteriorating mental health condition” of its supremo V Prabhakaran who is hiding in the no-fire zone in Sri Lanka’s north, the Defence Ministry said today.
The no-fire zone in Pudukudiyirippu area of Mullaittivu, though demarcated by the government as a safety zone for civilians held by the Tamil Tigers, has now also become the sanctuary for the top rebels leaders, including LTTE supremo Prabhakaran, it said. “Pottu Amman, the so-called intelligence leader of the LTTE, has now taken the overall command of the terror outfit” with Prabhakaran’s mental health condition “fast deteriorating,” the ministry said in a statement. Amman is also a wanted key accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case in India.
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US destroying Pak to see India rise: Minister Islamabad, April 8 He further said NATO’s presence in the region was a great threat to the very existence of Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and Iran as well. “American policies are not of a friend but of a foe and Richard Holbrooke and Mike Mullen are in Pakistan to put a price on our loyalty to our religion and the Islamic State of Pakistan but we are not a saleable commodity,” Swati said. Commenting on the recent visit of the US military and political leadership to Pakistan, he said Obama’s administration was following the conspiracy hatched by then President George W Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and would lead America towards destruction. Swati added the US policy aimed to destroy Pakistani armed forces, marginalise state-of-the-art security agency, ISI, and ruin Pakistan. “To achieve its objectives, Americans are spreading hatred in the mind and heart of the people of world by portraying Islamists as cruel, inhuman and threat to humanity, and are trying to divide Pakistan on religious basis,” he said. Swati added the people of Pakistan would foil their nefarious designs, as the people of NWFP and FATA were peace-loving and practical Muslims and would never succumb to the pressure of foreign forces. “Let’s not sell our country and destroy ourselves for $10 billion or any other amount because peace in country is priceless,” suggested the minister. Swati said it was a matter of concern for each and every Pakistani to figure out the price of peace that the country had lost in Swat, Malakand and Fata. — ANI
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Pak seeks $30 b more from US
Washington, April 8 In an interaction with the editors and reporters of The Washington Times, Haqqani argued this $30 billion is far less than the current stimulus packages being doled out to banks and other US companies. “Despite the economic issues that the world is facing, the cost of a Marshall Plan for Afghanistan and Pakistan is going to be minuscule (compared) to the bailouts being given to American car companies and AIG (American International Group),” Haqqani was quoted as saying by the newspaper. “And the impact in terms of American security and in terms of the longer term stability of the world in a very precarious region will be far greater. Pakistan has the will to fight terrorists, it needs the means and the United States should provide those,” he said. While the Kerry-Lugar bill has proposed tripling of the non-civilian aid to Pakistan to $1.5 billion a year, he said Pakistan needed $5 billion a year for the next five years from the US and its allies to build local law enforcement of about 1,00,000 men, strengthen counter insurgency against the Taliban and Al-Qaida and persuade its average citizen that the US-led war on extremism is Pakistan’s war and essential for the country’s survival.
— PTI
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26/11 attackers may be Pak citizens:
Zardari
London, April 8 In an interview to The Independent, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari said that Islamabad was fully co-operating with New Delhi in the 26/11 investigations, which were still on. When enquired about the nine militants whose bodies still lied in a morgue in Mumbai as Pakistan refused to accept them as its citizens, Zardari said: “Our investigation is on. Some of these terrorists may in fact have been born in Pakistan. But we believe that this operation was international, with significant support from within India itself.” Commenting on the Swat peace deal, he said: “I think it would be premature to call it a bad deal.
It's an evolving situation.” — ANI
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End ban on turban, Sikh group to US army
Washington, April 8 Sikh Coalition, an advocacy group for the Sikh community, yesterday said it would file a formal complaint with Department of Defence’s Inspector General on April 14 on behalf of two Sikh medical professionals, who have been told by the US army to remove their turbans and cut their unshorn hair and beards when they report for active duty in July. Captain Kamaljit Singh Kalsi, a doctor, and Second Lieutenant Tejdeep Singh Rattan, a dentist, were part of an army programme that pays for medical education in return for military service, Sikh Coalition said in a media release. At the time of their enrolment, military recruiters assured both men that their turbans and unshorn hair “would not be a problem”, claimed the group. Captain Kalsi and Second Lieutenant Rattan maintained their Sikh identity throughout graduate school, during specialised army training at army ceremonies and in army medical facilities. Four years later, the army was telling the two Sikhs that the recruiters’ assurances were false and that they would have to forsake their religious practises, said the statement by Sikh Coalition. “After four years of training in army facilities, I was shocked to learn that the army would go back on its promise, and expect me to choose between my faith or my service to my country,” said Captain Kalsi. In 1981, Sikh Coalition said, the US army banned “conspicuous” religious articles of faith for its service members. However, Sikhs and other soldiers of faith who were part of the army before the 1981 rule change were allowed to stay.
— PTI
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NRI’s recipe to beat recession
London, April 8 Priya Lakhani, a Cheshire-based law student, set up the Masala Masala company six months ago and her freshly-made sauces are already selling in more than 30 countries. A former finalist of the Make Your Mark entrepreneur competition and the Shell Livewire Grand Ideas Award earlier this year, she last week scooped the Daily Mail Entrepreneur of the Year Award, where she was presented with her trophy by Chancellor Alistair Darling. “I loved working as a lawyer but I had a long commute across London to where I was living. By the time I got home I was too tired to cook a curry from scratch and I couldn’t find any pre-made sauces that had the fresh ingredients I would
normally use to cook a curry. So I thought that if no-one else will create a fresh sauce I
might as well do it myself,” Lakhani said. Priya, who learned to cook from her parents, created authentic Indian karahi, shahi and daal stir-in sauces using fresh, non-anglicised ingredients. “All you need is the chicken, or whatever it is you want in your curry. You don’t even need onions or tomatoes as these are all in the sauce,” she said.
— PTI
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digitally reissued India to clean up
Gulf War oil spills ‘Gene alteration may
cause schizophrenia’ Big B at Hong Kong
Madame Tussauds Sources: Agencies 
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Poudel all set to become Nepal’s envoy to India