London/Islamabad, August 28
Pakistan was “seriously focusing” on the investigation into the Mumbai attacks but its ties with India could not be held hostage to the 26/11 probe, President Asif Ali Zardari said during a meeting with British Premier Gordon Brown in London today.

Zardari, who is in Britain on a three-day visit, met Brown at 10, Downing Street and told him that Pakistan was “seriously focusing on the Mumbai attacks’ probe.” “...but as agreed in the joint statement at Sharm el-Sheikh (after a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani), the bilateral relations between the two countries could not be held hostage to the Mumbai probe,” Zardari said during the meeting.

A statement issued by presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar in Islamabad quoted Zardari as saying that the joint statement of Sharm el-Sheikh “should provide necessary impetus for the resumption of the Pakistan-India dialogue.”

The joint statement last month had said that “action on terrorism should not be linked to the composite dialogue process and these should not be bracketed.” The two Prime Ministers had agreed that “terrorism is the main threat to both countries.” They also decided that both would “share real time, credible and actionable information on any future terrorist threats.”

Five Lashker-e-Taiba operatives, including its operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, are currently facing trial in an anti-terrorism court following their arrest by Pakistani authorities on charges of planning and executing the Mumbai attacks that killed over 180 people. However, Pakistan has said the information provided so far by India is not adequate for arresting Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the founder of the LeT.

Zardari also apprised Brown of Pakistan’s successes in the fight against militants and the rehabilitation of people displaced by military operations against the Taliban. He said the international community should step forward and “help Pakistan ]in this arduous task.”

The two leaders discussed bilateral ties, the regional and international situation “with focus on economic rehabilitation and strategic support to Pakistan in the wake of the fight against militancy.”

Zardari also emphasised the need to carry forward the improvement of relations between Pakistan and Britain in the political, economic, investment, education, science and technology and cultural fields.

Referring to the regional situation, Zadari said Pakistan would work with international partners to promote the stabilisation of Afghanistan.

Zardari expressed the hope that trilateral consultations among the US, Pakistan and Afghanistan will gather impetus after the recent presidential election in Afghanistan.

A Downing Street spokesman also said that Zardari and Brown discussed a number of regional issues, including Afghanistan. — PTI

The US envoy in Pakistan Anne Wood Patterson has debunked persistent reports in Pakistani media that hundreds of US marines have been deployed in embassy in Islamabad that is being expanded at a cost of billion dollars.

She said, “Only nine marines are currently deployed in the embassy and this strength would rise to less than 20 after the expansion.” She further said about one thousand US marines have been providing internal security to 150 US embassies and consulates across the globe.

The ambassador also conceded that the impression about her country in Pakistan has been ‘very bad’ and it has been because of the poor public relations and undue US bashing by Washington’s critics here.

“We all are responsible for this bad image and are making efforts to remove this perception,” Patterson said, while talking to a group of Pakistani journalists. She said there has been a need to promote people-to-people contact to improve the trust between the two countries.

She said the expansion project of the US embassy in Islamabad has been needed due to an increase in the financial assistance being given by America to Pakistan and it requires expansion in the embassy infrastructure. But, the number of US marines would be less than 20 even after the completion of the expansion project six to seven years down the line. She emphatically denied the reports of a frightening increase in the number of US marines in Pakistan’s capital.

Patterson denied knowledge of presence of 'Black Water' mercenaries of a US private company that has contractual arrangement with the US administration.

Islamabad, August 28
Insisting that a federal India was the dream of both Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Mahatma Gandhi, former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh has said that the country would have been "a global power" now had it not been "cut up" to form Pakistan.

Singh, whose controversial new book 'Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence' led to his expulsion from BJP, repeated his claim that first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru along with the then Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and the Congress party had contributed to the partition of the Indian subcontinent.

A federal India was the dream of both Jinnah and Mahatma Gandhi but "we let the country be cut up. Patel and Nehru agreed to what Jinnah demanded but in a truncated form. Today we would have been a global power," he said in an interview to Pakistan's 'Dawn News' channel.

However, he also said the future envisaged for India by Nehru, especially on issues like secularism, is yet to be realised. The "destiny of India Nehru spoke of had not been realised," Singh said responding to a question on the fate of secularism in India.

Apart from being reviled by his party for his stance on Pakistan's founder Jinnah, Singh's book has been banned in the BJP-ruled state of Gujarat.

Singh referred to the ban and incidents of the burning of his book and said he felt "wounded" as if an "innocent child had been burnt."

The former External Affairs Minister also spoke on a wide range of issues during the interview, including relations between India and Pakistan.

Singh refuted the impression that the two countries came close to a nuclear war during a military standoff in 2002 that was triggered by an attack on Indian Parliament by Pakistan- based terror groups Lashker-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

He dismissed the impression as a "canard" spread by the then US envoy in New Delhi. "We did not come close to nuclear war," he said.

However, he acknowledged that relations between India and Pakistan had "experienced frequent fractures."

Singh also pointed out that he did not subscribe to "nuclear apartheid" and said India and Pakistan have the sovereign right to pursue their own nuclear doctrines.

Dubai, August 28
A key member of the Saudi Royal family, Prince Muhammad bin Nayef, today narrowly escaped an assassination bid when an al-Qaeda suicide bomber blew himself up inside his palace in Jeddah.

Prince Muhammad, according to official Saudi Press Agency, received only minor injuries. He is the nephew of Saudi Monarch Abdullah, who rushed to the hospital to enquire about him.

This was the first major bid on the life of a prominent member of House of al-Saud in last five years and comes in the wake of the Kingdom's special forces apprehending 44 al-Qaeda linked terrorists and recovering huge cache of arms including suicide vests, automatic weapons and explosives last week.

Hours after the attack, images of Muhammad, son of the Interior Minister Prince Nayef, were shown on Saudi Television, where he did not appeared to be much shaken up by the attack.

Muhammad, Saudi Arabia's assistant interior minister for security affairs and in-charge of anti-terror campaign, was injured when the attacker mingled with well wishers come to greet the prince on the occasion of holy month of Ramadan blew himself up.

The attacker was the only one killed in the blast which he triggered, SPA news agency reported. The al-Qaeda claimed responsibly for the attack in a statement posted on its website.

It is customary for the members of the Saudi Royal family to hold open meetings during the month-long Ramadan and the bomber timed his attack with the holding of the mass at 11.30 pm (local time) last night.

The Royal court said the bomber was a wanted terrorist who approached the prince on the pretext of giving himself up. Muhammad was appointed assistant interior minister 10 years ago and has been at the forefront of the country's campaign against terror.

The elusive al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden though born in neighbouring Yemen spent most of his childhood in Saudi Arabia and against whose royal family he holds an intense grudge.

The country is also home to 15 of the 9/11 attackers in United States. — PTI

Lahore High Court (LHC) Friday ordered to end restrictions on the movement of nuclear scientist Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan on pretext of "official protocol" despite earlier court order.

The LHC also issued contempt of court notices to district magistrate and Islamabad's police chief for flouting earlier order and summon them on September 4. Khan had complained that he continued to be virtually under house arrest even though the court had freed him.

Talking to a section of the media after the court ruling, Khan warned that he would reveal sensitive issues if the administration did not remove restrictions on his movements. He said he does not need any security and would prefer to move around freely instead of being confined to his home.

He lamented that the administration had maltreated him in violation of court orders. He said former military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf had threatened to try him in a military court (on charge of nuclear smuggling).