Attack part of larger ‘design’, says India, Rice for tough Pak action

AS US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made it clear today that Pakistan will have to take “direct and tough action” even if the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks were “non-state actors”, India went another step ahead, linking the Mumbai strikes to the blasts in Jaipur,Delhi, Bangalore and calling it a “design” to attack India.

Rice, who leaves for Islamabad tomorrow where she is expected to convey the same tough message, sought to underline US support and cooperation, asking the Indian establishment to work systematically through the investigations and assuring that Washington will do all it can to get Islamabad to extend help.

After her talks with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Rice said: “The fact is non-state actors perform from the confines of the state. There has to be direct and tough action (by Islamabad).” She made it clear that “non-state actors” were “still a matter of your (Pakistan) responsibility that somehow relates to your territory”.

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From Udupi: 3 calls, a ‘Bhai’ and 10 bombs

Mohammad Saif, who was arrested from L-18, Jamia Nagar, after an encounter last Friday, and Shadab Bhai, who is on the run, boarded Mangala Express from Udupi on August 29 with 10 bombs, investigators have discovered.

One of the bombs was defective the rest were planted in Delhi’s markets on September 13. The Delhi Police Special Cell took Saif to Udupi on Monday.

Saif and Shahdab reached Udupi on August 28 night by the Nizamuddin-Eranakulam Mangala Express. They travelled AC three-tier, one of them in the name of Rahul Sharma. At 2.30 am, they checked into room No 207 of New Broadway hotel, costing Rs 250/night .

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Traced to Goa, Nazi war criminal tried to enter Karnataka, arrested on way and flown to Berlin

An 88-year-old Nazi war criminal identified as Johann Bach was airlifted to Berlin yesterday after he was tracked down to the Goa-Karnataka border by German and Indian intelligence agencies on the basis of information provided by an Israeli group involved in the search for war criminals and investigations in Goa.

Though local police and intelligence agencies in Karnataka said they were “unaware” of the operation, Karnataka Additional DGP for Intelligence, Shankar Bidari, said his office had received information of the arrest on Saturday morning. He also said the alleged war criminal had been moved to Germany.

Officials at the German embassy, when contacted, said they had received no information of the arrest in Goa. The German consulate in Mumbai had also not received any information, embassy officials said.

Reports from Hubli and Goa quoting a press release issued by Perus Narkp, said to be the intelligence wing of the Berlin-based German Chancellor’s Core, said Bach had been involved in the killing of nearly 12,000 Jews at the Marsha Tikash Whanaab concentration camp in East Berlin under Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.

Bach has been identified as an absconding Waffen SS (Schutzstaffel) Colonel. He has also been identified as a senior adjutant at the East Berlin concentration camp.

Bach had been on the run over the last 50 years, hopping across countries like Argentina, Bulgaria, Yemen and Canada before arriving in Goa around five months ago. He had been under surveillance after people involved in the search for listed Nazi war criminals traced his location to Bardez in Goa, the Karnataka intelligence official said.

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