W O R L D

Pak says not responsible for deadlock
Islamabad, March 4
Pakistan today said it was not responsible for the lack of progress in the recent Foreign Secretary-level talks and that the ball was now in India’s court to respond to its proposals like participation of the political leadership in the dialogue process to normalise ties.

Key Taliban leader held in Karachi
Islamabad, March 4
A key Afghan Taliban leader, who was once in-charge of the outfit's political affairs, was arrested today in Karachi by Pakistani intelligence agencies, weeks after the capture of the group's number two Mullah Baradar from the port city.

A recruit of the China’s Paramilitary Policemen does a flip during a break in the training session at a military base in Yinchuan on Thursday. — Reuters

A man looks at broken statues inside a temple damaged by a quake of 6.4 magnitude that hit Shanlin township in southern Taiwan on Thursday. — Reuters

Benazir Killing
Search for 4 ex-Armymen on
Investigations into the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto have taken a new turn as Interior Ministry officials have revealed that they were looking for four retired military personnel who had disappeared just before the December 2007 killing.

China boosts defence budget to $77.9 bn
Beijing, March 4
Vowing to step up modernisation of its military, China today announced a 7.5 per cent hike in defence spending in 2010 boosting its military budget to $77.9 billion, almost double that of India.

Pak says not responsible for deadlock

Islamabad, March 4
Pakistan today said it was not responsible for the lack of progress in the recent Foreign Secretary-level talks and that the ball was now in India’s court to respond to its proposals like participation of the political leadership in the dialogue process to normalise ties.

“We are not responsible,” Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said during a weekly news briefing, when asked who was responsible for the perceived deadlock in the foreign secretary-level talks that were held in Delhi on February 25. He hastened to add that it would be incorrect to describe the talks “in terms of success or failure” but made it clear that it was now up to India to respond to Pakistan’s roadmap for future engagements between the two sides.

Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir had presented the roadmap to Indian leaders during meetings in New Delhi last month.

“We are not happy that India is not yet ready to come back to the composite dialogue process whereas Pakistan yesterday again said it is not interested in talks for the sake of talks,” Basit said. “There are proposals on the table and we will see how the Indian leadership responds to the roadmap which Pakistan suggested at New Delhi. It will be our desire that, for the sake of this region and peace between our two countries, India does revert to the dialogue process,” he said.

Asked to give details about the roadmap, Basit said, “At this point, India wants to engage with Pakistan only at the foreign secretary-level as well as to have other issues discussed at the working level, whereas we would like this process to go beyond that and also involve the political leadership on both sides of the border,” he said.

Basit made it clear that there would be “no point” in engagements between the two sides if officials only met to reiterate their positions.

Gilani, Manmohan to meet in US?

Basit said he had no information on whether the Indian and Pakistani prime ministers would meet on the sidelines of a nuclear safety summit in the US next month.

“I do not know yet... I have not seen any proposal (for a meeting) as yet. So let’s see how things evolve in the run-up to the summit in Washington,” he said. — PTI

Key Taliban leader held in Karachi

‘ISI knows where Osama bin Laden is’ New York: The Pakistani intelligence agency the ISI knows the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden but is keeping his location a secret and wants to use the Al-Qaida chief as leverage over the US as it is wary of America's closer ties with India, noted military historian Stephen Tanner has said. “We got to make a deal with Pakistan because I'm convinced that he (bin Laden) is protected by the ISI,” said Tanner, the author of “Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the War against the Taliban.” — PTI

Islamabad, March 4
A key Afghan Taliban leader, who was once in-charge of the outfit's political affairs, was arrested today in Karachi by Pakistani intelligence agencies, weeks after the capture of the group's number two Mullah Baradar from the port city.

Motasim Agha Jan was held along with several of his accomplices during a raid on a house in Ahsanabad area of Karachi, official sources said.

He was arrested as part of an ongoing crackdown on the "Quetta Shura" or council of the militants led by Mullah Muhammad Omar, the elusive chief of the Afghan Taliban.

Agha Jan, who was earlier in-charge of political affairs of the Afghan Taliban, is the seventh senior leader of the outfit to be arrested in Pakistan in the past two months. He is believed to have led Taliban leaders in the recent talks in Saudi Arabia.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, considered to be Mullah Omar's deputy in the Afghan Taliban hierarchy and head of the group's military operations, was arrested in Karachi last month in a joint operation by the CIA and Pakistani intelligence agencies.

Mullah Abdul Kabir, operational commander for the four eastern Afghan provinces of Nangarhar, Laghman, Kunar and Nuristan, was arrested near the northwestern city of Nowshera. Mullah Abdul Salam and Mullah Mir Mohammad, the Taliban "shadow" governors for the northern Kunduz and Baghlan provinces respectively, were also nabbed in Nowshera district. Another Afghan Taliban leader, who was arrested in Pakistan much earlier, is Younis Akhundzada, alias Akhundzada Popalzai. He served in important positions in the Taliban government in Afghanistan during 1994-2001 and was reportedly made "shadow" Governor of Zabul province.

Syed Tayyeb Agha, ex-spokesman of Mullah Omar, too was arrested in Karachi this month, according to official sources. Reports from Afghanistan said Agha is the son-in-law of Mullah Omar. Agha had introduced himself to investigators as Tayyeb Popalzai to hide his identity, sources said. — PTI

Benazir Killing
Search for 4 ex-Armymen on
Afzal Khan writes from Islamabad

Investigations into the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto have taken a new turn as Interior Ministry officials have revealed that they were looking for four retired military personnel who had disappeared just before the December 2007 killing.

According to TV channel Dawn News, officials are searching four of the eight ex-army officials associated with the main accused and proclaimed offender in the case, Ibad ur Rehman. The four other soldiers are still serving in the army. The four personnel had never been mentioned in legal proceedings before an anti-terrorist court in Rawalpindi.

This is the first time that the investigators are probing into the possibility of army soldiers' involvement in Bhutto's assassination. The UN commission probing the murder is likely to submit its final report to the Pakistan government on March 31. Its findings would be submitted to UN Secretary General Ban ki Moon and would also be shared with the Pakistan government.

China boosts defence budget to $77.9 bn

Beijing, March 4
Vowing to step up modernisation of its military, China today announced a 7.5 per cent hike in defence spending in 2010 boosting its military budget to $77.9 billion, almost double that of India.

But the hike was the smallest increase in defence expenditure in more than two decades and could be a fallout of financial constraints. “The increase will be used to enhance the China's military capabilities and ability to meet various threats,” Xinhua quoted Li Zhaoxing spokesman for the China's Parliament, the National Peoples Congress as saying. “China is committed to peaceful development and military posture that is defensive in nature,” Li said after the Budget was placed before the Parliament. He claimed that China's defence spending accounted for just 1.4 per cent of the GDP as compared to more than 4 per cent in the US.

China has the world's largest standing army of more than 2.3 million soldiers in arms and Li said the bulk of the expenditure would go towards salaries and improving living conditions of the troops. — PTI