At a time when the Nepali media and political parties have been raising concerns over the alleged Indian encroachment upon the Nepali territory in various parts of the southern border, a senior Indian official said the issue had been hyped up beyond reality.

Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon first claimed that there was no border dispute between the two countries, but showed a bit of flexibility in his subsequent expression.

He said the issue had been exaggerated and been turned into a propaganda issue.

“If there is any dispute, exaggeration is not necessary”, Menon said, while speaking at a press conference on Sunday before wrapping up his visit to Kathmandu.

“We will settle it down through a local-level mechanism”, he said.

Menon also assured that India would look into all allegations of atrocities committed by the Seema Suraksha Bal (SSB) on the Nepal side.

The border issue was raised by the Nepal Prime Minister when Menon headed straight to the Prime Minister’s office from the airport on June 20.

According to Prime Minister’s foreign affairs adviser Rajan Bhattarai, Nepal urged Menon to take immediate initiative to resolve the dispute at the earliest saying it was necessary to avoid possible space for those wanting to spoil the bilateral relationship.

Menon brought with him good wishes and assurance of assistance that India would not be found wanting in whatever help Nepal wanted towards taking the peace process and constitution-drafting process to its logical conclusion.

“India and Nepal have common interest in the peace and stability here”, Menon told the media.

In an apparent rejection of Maoist leaders, Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda and Baburam Bhattarai’s, public statements that India was behind Madhav Nepal’s elevation as the Prime Minister, Menon said, “Nepal forms its government 
on its own. ”

Ridiculing diplomatically the Maoist allegation and the black flag demonstration that greeted him on arrival at the airport, the Indian foreign secretary said, “I do not think it’s strange in democratic practice…..Democracy contains noise as well”

Menon’s meeting with Prachanda on the day he arrived was apparently more focused on assuaging Maoists’ hurt feelings. Prachanda is believed to have told Menon that while he was keen to support the peace and constitution making process, all his party leaders did not think the same way.

In a message on her 56th birthday, President Asif Ali Zardari has vowed to carry forward the mission of slain former Premier Benazir Bhutto. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said Bhutto’s assassination would be avenged by elimination of extremism and terrorism.

Zardari urged the people to join hands against militancy to banish the menace.“To pay homage to her memory, let us, therefore, pledge to expose the militants and fight them till the end,” he said, adding that the militants and extremists wanted to destroy the country and the way of life in the name of religion.

“They are blowing up schools, butchering innocent people, killing doctors for administering polio drops, closing down businesses and digging out the dead and the buried from their graves to impose upon us their bigoted world view,” he said.

He said the fight against militants would not be complete if they did not win the hearts and minds of the millions driven out of their homes and forced to seek refuge in camps and elsewhere.

He assured them that the government would rebuild their houses and business places and rehabilitate them soon. In his message, Prime Minister Gilani said the nation would continue the war against terrorism till complete victory to honour the supreme sacrifice rendered by Bhutto. 

Islamabad, June 21
Pakistani security forces have wrested control of a key mountain peak in the restive Swat valley following fierce fighting with militants, Geo TV reported today.

It was indispensable for the security forces to gain control of the strategically important peak 1747 as the militants were taking advantage of the mountain to attack on the government troops, the report said.

The mountain stands between Peochar and Bihaa valley in North West Frontier Province. Peochar was the headquarters of Swat Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah, who has been on the run since the operations began.

A number of hideouts of the militants had been destroyed in the valley and militants had been forced to retreat to Bihaa valley, officials said.

The security forces approached the mountain from three sides and succeeded in gaining control over it after fierce fighting.

It was later discovered that militants had built many of their hideouts in dozens of feet-long tunnels in the mountain. The militants were forced to leave all these tunnels, said the report.

According to the military, close to 1,500 Taliban have been killed in the operations so far. There is, however, no independent verification of this since the media has been barred from the battle zone. — IANS

Melbourne, June 21
In the wake of a series of attacks on Indian students, the Australian government is planning to introduce a law under its counter-terrorism legislation that will make sending a text message to encourage racial assaults a federal offence.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s government, alarmed at the damage being done to the country’s reputation, is considering bringing forward aspects of its review of counter-terrorism legislation that included overhauling sedition laws.

It has set up a special taskforce, headed by the Prime Minister’s National Security Adviser Duncan Lewis, to look into the proposal, according to ‘The Age’ newspaper.

The Victorian government has moved to make racial hatred or prejudice an aggravating factor when sentencing an attacker.

The proposals being considered by the government will target those who incite violent attacks against overseas students because of their race or nationality, rather than the perpetrators of physical violence.

Attorney-General Robert McClelland told Parliament last week that the government was “examining the possibility of amending” an existing federal offence of inciting violence against people for their race, religion or ethnicity to include “inciting violence against an individual on the basis of that individual’s race, religion, ethnicity or nationality”.

The amendment was among a number of changes recommended by the Australian Law Reform Commission to the controversial sedition laws.

The proposed amendment to the existing legislation would strengthen the powers of the police to respond to attacks against Indian students. The original offence was considered too broad. — PTI