W O R L D

Rights’ Violations
UN proposes panel, Rajapaksa disposes
Says it’s unwarranted and uncalled for, asks Banki-Moon not to interfere in Lankan affairs
President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Saturday reacted strongly to a decision taken by UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon to set up an expert panel to look into alleged human rights violations during the last phase of the civil war in Sri Lanka.

From left to right, demonstrators disguised as former South African President Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr, at a protest against Israel’s separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin, near Ramallah. Israel says the barrier is needed for security, but Palestinians consider it a land grab. — AP/PTI

Villagers wait to collect water provided by the local government in the drought-hit Guangnan county of Yunnan province in China. The province has been facing water shortage due to a prevailing drought. — Reuters

Australia calls for calm over Indian boy’s death
Sydney, March 6
Melbourne police on Saturday urged the Indian community not to jump to conclusions over the death of a three-year-old Indian boy whose body was found in a Melbourne street six hours after he went missing from his home. A spate of racist attacks in Australia’s second-biggest city is testing bilateral ties, with the Indian government openly calling for greater security for its citizens in Australia.

Parents see body for first time
Cops clueless

Two Taliban among 30 ultras killed in Pak
The security forces killed 30 militants on Friday, including two senior Taliban commanders, in an operation at the Mohmand Agency in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

Kandahar plotters came from B’desh
Dhaka, March 6
Suspected top JeM militant Nannu Mia, alias Billal Mandal, has told investigators that he facilitated the movement from Bangladesh to India of several militants linked to the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane in 1999 to Kandahar.

No schooling for half of Afghan kids: Karzai
Kabul, March 6
Almost half of school-age children in Afghanistan do not have access to education, President Hamid Karzai said today as he inaugurated the new school year.Despite a seven-fold increase in the number of children going to school in the eight years since the repressive Taliban regime was overthrown, 42 per cent still do not attend or have access to schools, Karzai said.

LeT involved in Kabul attack: Afghan govt
Kabul, March 6
As investigations into last week’s attack here gain momentum, Afghan authorities are increasingly getting convinced that the terror strike was carried out by Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) in collusion with its masters in Pakistan.

Manipur Advocate General shot at by ultras
Imphal, March 6
Suspected militants tonight shot at and seriously wounded Manipur Advocate General Nongmeikappam Koteshwar when he was returning here in a convoy that also had two ministers in it.

Rights’ Violations
UN proposes panel, Rajapaksa disposes
Says it’s unwarranted and uncalled for, asks Banki-Moon not to interfere in Lankan affairs
Chandani Kirinde writes from Colombo

Australia calls for calm over Indian boy’s death

Sydney, March 6
Melbourne police on Saturday urged the Indian community not to jump to conclusions over the death of a three-year-old Indian boy whose body was found in a Melbourne street six hours after he went missing from his home. A spate of racist attacks in Australia’s second-biggest city is testing bilateral ties, with the Indian government openly calling for greater security for its citizens in Australia.

“We need to be mindful that regardless of any opinions or anything like that, the key element is the investigation side of things,” Victoria Police spokesman Marty Beveridge said. “We need to give the homicide squad detectives the time and space to conduct our investigation.”

The fully clothed body of Gurshan Singh Channa was found by the side of the road 20, km from where he went missing on Thursday. There were no marks on the body and an autopsy has failed to establish a cause of death. “We’re still awaiting further tests on the boy’s body to try and establish the cause of death,” Beveridge said. The boy’s parents, who were on holiday in Australia and were to have returned to Punjab this week, have been interviewed by the police.

Parents see body for first time

MELBOURNE: Grieving parents of Gurshan, who died under mysterious circumstances, saw his body at a city morgue today for the first time. Harpreet Kaur Channa and her husband Harjit Singh Channa were taken to the Coroner's Court at 11 am (local time) to see the body of their child, who was found dead on the side of a road in Melbourne's northern suburbs on Thursday, president of the Federation of Indian Association of Victoria Vasan Srinivas told PTI. Indian consulate officials accompanied the couple to the morgue. They spent an hour with the body of their child, local media reports said. — Agencies

Cops clueless

Melbourne, March 6
The mystery behind the death of three-year-old Indian boy Gurshan Singh has deepened despite in-depth police interviews lasting several hours with parents and relatives of the toddler. Gurshan’s body was found on Thursday night at Oaklands Junction, 30 km away from the Lalor home he had been staying in with his parents and several other adults.

It is being claimed that the infant, who was on a three-month vacation in Australia with his parents, vanished while his mother was having a shower. Victoria Police has said that an autopsy has not determined the cause of death, and there was no evidence of violence on his body, which was found fully-clothed in blue jeans and a gray shirt.

Police hoped further testing, including toxicology tests, could provide answers.

In the only clue revealed, a family friend Sim Kaur said the three-year-old had been screaming in the Lalor home because his father, Harjit Singh Channa had gone to the library.

Detectives followed the route from the family home to the Lalor Library, and door-knocked residents along the street looking for anyone who had seen the boy, News.com.au reports. — PTI

Two Taliban among 30 ultras killed in Pak
Afzal Khan writes from Islamabad

Kandahar plotters came from B’desh

Dhaka, March 6
Suspected top JeM militant Nannu Mia, alias Billal Mandal, has told investigators that he facilitated the movement from Bangladesh to India of several militants linked to the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane in 1999 to Kandahar.

“Billal told us during interrogation that he helped 12-13 militants enter India from Bangladesh. He knows one Abdur Rahman among them,” an official was quoted as saying by The Daily Star newspaper today.

Billal (35) was among five operatives of the Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), including its Pakistani coordinator in Bangladesh Rezwan Ahmed, nabbed here by the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) last Sunday. Four of the five operatives, including Billal, are Bangladeshi citizens.

Pakistani national Rezwan was believed to be a recruiter for operations in India.

Billal told the special interrogation team that he was introduced to Rezwan around seven to eight months back through another Pakistani national and suspected JeM militant Zawad.

“And he (Billal) again started working for the Jaish-e-Mohammed around three months ago and has already received Taka 60,000 from Rezwan,” the official, who quizzed the JeM militant, told the Bangladeshi daily. — PTI

No schooling for half of Afghan kids: Karzai

Kabul, March 6
Almost half of school-age children in Afghanistan do not have access to education, President Hamid Karzai said today as he inaugurated the new school year.Despite a seven-fold increase in the number of children going to school in the eight years since the repressive Taliban regime was overthrown, 42 per cent still do not attend or have access to schools, Karzai said.

“Five million school-age children in our country do not go to school, some because of war or because their schools have been closed by the Taliban or others, some because they do not have the ability to go to schools,” he said.

In early 2002, fewer than one million children - only boys - attended 3,400 schools across the country, taught by 20,000 male teachers, said Education Minister Mohammad Farooq Wardak. By contrast, seven million students -37 percent of them girls - attend 12,500 schools, where 30 per cent of the teachers, or 175,000, are women. — AFP

LeT involved in Kabul attack: Afghan govt

Kabul, March 6
As investigations into last week’s attack here gain momentum, Afghan authorities are increasingly getting convinced that the terror strike was carried out by Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) in collusion with its masters in Pakistan.

Progress of probe into the attack was one of the key issues that NSA Shivshankar Menon discussed with President Hamid Karzai, his counterpart Rangin Dadfar Spanta and Foreign Minister Zalmai Rasoul during his visit here that concluded today. Menon was told that the probe was progressing well, sources said.

The Afghan authorities are convinced that the attack was carried out by LeT, saying there were “clear signatures” of the Pakistan-based outfit whose sworn agenda is to target Indian interests, the sources said.

According to Afghanistan, Taliban, which reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack, was not even aware of the strike for a long time, the sources said. — PTI

Manipur Advocate General shot at by ultras

Imphal, March 6
Suspected militants tonight shot at and seriously wounded Manipur Advocate General Nongmeikappam Koteshwar when he was returning here in a convoy that also had two ministers in it.

The militants opened fire at the 50-year-old top law officer of the state at around 8 pm when Koteshwar, Works Minister Ranjit Singh and Tribal Minister DD Thaisi were returning from Ukhrul after attending a function there, police sources said.

Koteshwar received the bullets on his chest and arm and his condition in a private hospital was stated to be serious.

It was not immediately clear if the ministers or the Advocate General were the target of the ambush. — PTI