Islamabad admits Fahim Ansari went to Pakistan on its fake passport 26/11

Pakistan has, for the first time, confirmed the role of one of the two Indians charged in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks although only partially.

In its dossier given to New Delhi on July 11, Islamabad has said that Mumbai-resident Fahim Ansari traveled to Pakistan in late 2007 using forged documents as accused by the Mumbai Police.

Ansari and Bihar's Sabahuddin Ahmed are alleged to be Indian operatives of Lashkar-e-Toiba and charged with surveying targets in Mumbai, making maps and videos and giving them to their Lashkar bosses in Pakistan to help guide the attackers who raided the city in November.

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Lashkar-e-Toiba founder set free, Pakistan Prime Minister invokes Kashmir word again

Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, who founded the Lashkar-e-Toiba which carried out the Mumbai terror attacks, was today set free by the Lahore High Court, triggering an angry response from India which accused Pakistan of not being serious about fighting terror.

Hours later, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, in a strident anti-India statement, asked “occupying forces” in Jammu and Kashmir to stop “repression”. He said the “indigenous uprising” in J&K ignited by the Amarnath shrine issue last year had added “another sad chapter to the sufferings of the Kashmiri people.”

In New Delhi, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon too was present at the meeting where they were said to have discussed options India could exercise to put pressure on Pakistan following the release of Saeed.

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Lahore again: 3 times in 3 months

Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Wednesday blamed the Taliban for the attack outside the ISI headquarters in Lahore, saying the strike could be a retaliation of the Government’s military offensive against the militant outfit.

“It appears to be a fallout of the ongoing military operations in Swat, Dir and other areas of NWFP,” said Malik. There would be no let up in the crackdown on these “anti-national elements”, he added. “They want to destabilise Pakistan.Threats have been held out by Tehrik-eTaliban chief Baitullah Mehsud,” the Interior Minister told reporters in Karachi.

“We are in a state of insurgency. There is a war inside the country and there were two options before the Government... either to cave in... or to confront and crush them,” Malik said.

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India, Pakistan rivals but they trained, helped us fight Tigers: Lanka Army

Behind the success of the Sri Lankan army’s operations against the Tamil Tigers — troops searching for LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran breached two rebel defence fortifications in the no-fire zone — is an interesting little detail of Indo-Pak cooperation against terror. Separately but consistently, the two countries have trained and equipped the Lankan army to prepare and fight its only enemy, the LTTE.

The Sri Lankan army says the reason for its success is that “we didn’t reduce the momentum”, planned the entire operation in advance and employed innovative counter-insurgency tactics to confront the Tigers.

“I got training in both India and Pakistan. Both have been helping us a lot,” said Brigadier Udaya Nanayakara, now the military spokesman. “We send our officers regularly to India and Pakistan for specialised training. I did four courses in India and three in Pakistan. The last time, I trained in Secunderabad.

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Teenage bomber kills 30 in Pakistan, third attack in 24 hrs

A teenage suicide bomber today struck a religious gathering of the Shia community, killing at least 30 people and injuring nearly 200 others in the town of Chakwal in Punjab province, hours after security forces were targeted near the UN office in the heart of Islamabad and 17 persons killed in another suicide attack in north Waziristan.

The suicide attacker detonated his explosives near the gate of an Imambargah or prayer hall in Chakwal, some 90 km south of Islamabad, when he was barred from entering the complex by persons guarding the entrance.

About 2,000 worshippers had gathered for majlis, a religious ceremony, at the Imambargah when the attack occurred a little after 12.30 pm local time.

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‘Badey daraawne naam hotey hain inke... Karimullah, Mazharullah... Varun Gandhi kaat daalega...’

The following are excerpts from speeches that Varun Gandhi is shown as delivering in at least two locations earlier this month in Pilibhit, from where he is contesting as the BJP candidate. The speeches figure in a video recording viewed by The Indian Express. On the directions of the Election Commission, the police today registered a criminal case against Gandhi.

Yeh panja nahi hai, yeh kamal ka haath hai. Yeh kat** ke galey ko kaat dega chunaav ke baad. Jai Shri Ram! Ram ji ki jai! Varun Gandhi kaat daalega! Kaat denge us haath ko, kaat denge, kaat daalega!

[This is not the (Congress symbol) ‘hand’, this is the hand of the ‘lotus’. It will cut the throat of the (derogatory reference to a Muslim) after the elections... Varun Gandhi will cut... Cut that hand, cut it, cut it.]

Apne jao, apne gaon mein jao aur halla karo ki saara Hindu ek tarfa ho jao, chhetra ko Pakistan hone se bachao, aur saara Hindu ek tarfa ho jao!

[Go to your villages and give the call that all Hindus must unite to save this area from becoming Pakistan…]

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Final decision on 2011 World Cup in April: International Cricket Council

The International Cricket Council (ICC) does not see cricket returning to Pakistan in the near future and said it will take a final call on the strife-torn nation’s status as a co-host of the 2011 World Cup in its meeting at Dubai next month.

“I believe that there is currently great reluctance — and rightly so — for players to return at this time,” ICC President David Morgan said at a news conference at Lord’s on Tuesday. “But the future situation needs not be perpetuated as it is today. We must not believe that Pakistan is going to be unsafe forever and ever, and we must hope that it won’t be unsafe for too long. Teams should not be expected to go there in the immediate future but things can change and change quickly,”Morgan said.

Regarding Pakistan’s chances about hosting the World Cup in 2011, the ICC chief said, “ICC World Cup is due to be staged in Indian sub-continent shared between four countries,

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Lakhvi, Zarar in custody, chargesheet soon

Top Lashkar-e-Toiba commanders Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah have been arrested and remanded in 14 days’ custody of Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in connection with the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, Pakistani media reported on Sunday. Lakhvi, Shah and several others — media houses differed on the exact number — were produced before judge Sakhi Mohammed Kahut at an undisclosed location on Saturday, the reports said.

Rehman Malik, chief of Pakistan’s interior ministry had announced on Thursday that six people had been arrested for “planning, financing and abetting” the Mumbai attacks. Lakhvi and Shah had been “located and were under investigation”, Malik had said.

According to Dawn, FIA, which has completed its preliminary probe, is expected to file a chargesheet against the suspects at the end of the remand. Seven people, including Lakhvi have been remanded, Dawn said.

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From Pakistan, says Pakistan

Denail after denial later and barely weeks after it sacked its National Security Advisor for saying that the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks could be from Pakistan, Islamabad took the first step today towards admitting the facts. Under intense international pressure for a response to the Indian dossier, Pakistan’s Interior Ministry acknowledged that the 26/11 terror attacks, that killed over 180 people, were launched from Pak shores and at least partly plotted on its soil.

Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik told a news conference that criminal cases had been opened against nine suspects on charges of “abetting, conspiracy and facilitation” of a terrorist act. He said six of them were already in custody, including Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah, Lashkar-e-Toiba leaders named by India as the masterminds of the attack, and a person who sent an e-mail claiming responsibility for the attacks. Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone Pakistani terrorist captured in the Mumbai attacks, is one of those named in the FIR. Pakistan wants his confessional statement made during his interrogation in Mumbai, Malik said.

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Army told to wait for Made-in-India night vision devices, Pakistan has the latest from United States

By the looks of it, the Army has an impressive Infantry, the second largest in the world, backed by a solid armoured thrust of over 3,000 tanks that can overwhelm the western front. But as soon as the sun goes down, the Army gets affected by a deadly case of night blindness.

For all practical purposes, the Army is fighting blind at night. Its soldiers face a glaring shortage of night vision devices, the ones in service are a generation behind what Pakistan already has and only 10 per cent of its tanks have a proven night-fighting capability.

In a modern scenario where most battles are fought under the cover of darkness, the inability to even see the enemy is crippling the war capabilities of the Army. While the top leadership is acutely aware of the shortcoming, efforts to procure new night vision devices for soldiers has been stuck in a tussle between the Army and the Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).

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Obama will want ISI under civilian control: Kerry in Delhi

With barely a month left for US President-elect Barack Obama to officially enter White House, influential Democrat Senator and likely next head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry today made it clear that the Obama Administration will ask the Pakistan government to bring the ISI firmly under civilian control.

When it was pointed out that Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari had to roll back an earlier decision to place the ISI under the Interior Minister, Kerry said this was a “young government” but was well intentioned and would make the change in the days ahead. The issue is being linked with the aid package being worked out for Pakistan.

Kerry, who hopes to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee tomorrow, will be briefing Obama once he returns from his trip that includes a stopover in Islamabad where he will hold talks with Zardari.

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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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Terrorists are at work in Jammu and Kashmir, India is not a threat: Zardari

Declaring that India is not a “threat” to his country, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has described the militants operating in Jammu and Kashmir as “terrorists”, the first such admission by any top Pakistani leader.

“India has never been a threat to Pakistan. I, for one, and our democratic government is not scared of Indian influence abroad,” Zardari told The Wall Street Journal in an interview.

He spoke of the militant groups operating in Kashmir as “terrorists,” the paper said noting that former President Pervez Musharraf would more likely have called them “freedom fighters.”

Indicating a major shift in Pakistan’s well known position, Zardari had, as chief of Pakistan People’s Party, said in March that the ties between two countries should not be held “hostage” to the Kashmir issue, which should be left for future generations to decide, raising hackles at home.

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Zardari sworn in as Pakistan President

Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday took over as Pakistan's President and swiftly pledged to come out with ‘some good news’ on Kashmir before this month-end.

The 53-year-old businessman-turned politician, who spent over a decade behind the bars on corruption and other charges, was administered oath of office by Chief Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar in a ceremony at the presidential palace attended by Afghan President Hamid Karzai among others.

Zardari, husband of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto, said he would work together with all neighbouring countries.

"We shall stand with each other, we shall not stand in each other's way."

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Terror holds Jammu family hostage in 17 hour gunbattle

After weeks of being on the boil over the Amarnath land issue, Jammu was gripped with fear today after at least three militants, suspected to have sneaked in from Pakistan yesterday, killed four persons, including an Army junior commissioned officer, and held eight persons — four children, their mother and grandmother and two men — hostage for over 17 hours in a house on the outskirts of the city. The men were the children’s tutor and a neighbour.

The gunbattle between security forces and the militants, which began around 6 am in Chinnore barely 20 km from the international border — ended around 11 pm tonight when the last of the three militants, according to Jammu SSP Manohar Singh, was shot dead.

According to a jawan who went into the house around midnight, the children were said to be safe while one “male” was dead and another man had bullet injuries in the leg. Both women were safe — the grandmother escaped in the morning and the mother came out of the house after the encounter.

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Judges must return today or I go: Sharif

Pakistan’s fledgling coalition government was plunged into crisis today after former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif threatened to pull out unless judges sacked by former President Pervez Musharraf were not reinstated by tomorrow.

Sharif, who heads the PML(N), the second largest constituent of the coalition, said, “If the judges are not restored we will perhaps be forced to sit in the opposition. We will not try to bring the government down. But, of course, then we have no choice but sit in the opposition.”

The PML(N)’s coalition with Asif Ali Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) “came into being on the basis that democracy would be strengthened and judges restored”, Sharif said.

“And, of course, we would restore the Constitution as it stood before Musharraf overthrew an elected government,” he added.

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Day after Musharraf goes, Pakistan army chief meets NATO in Kabul

Pakistan’s army chief rushed to neighbouring Afghanistan for meetings Tuesday, the day after Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf announced his resignation, Afghan officials said.

Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani spoke with President Hamid Karzai over the phone in Kabul on Tuesday, three officials told The Associated Press. Kayani’s visit was striking in that even Afghanistan’s top leadership did not know he was coming, officials said.

During his visit to Afghanistan, Kayani was to have met with the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, though NATO officials would not immediately confirm that.

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Pakistan, Khuda Hafiz

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf resigned from office today to avoid impeachment charges, nearly nine years after he seized power in a coup.

“No impeachment, no charge sheet can stand against me. Nothing can be proved against me. This much confidence I have. But I think this is not the time for individual bravado... this is the time for serious thought... After reviewing the situation and consulting legal advisers and political allies and on their advice, I have decided to resign... Whatever I did was for the people and for the country... I hope the nation and the people will forgive my mistakes,” said a grim-faced Musharraf in a televised address.

Tears welling in his eyes, he gazed at the draft of the speech and signed off “Pakistan, Khuda Hafiz”.

Celebrations broke out instantly in streets across the country. If “Banda number do, Amreeka ja kay ro, wardi la kay dho” had been doing the rounds ever since he sacked judges last year, his resignation had detractors chanting “Mukk gaya tera show (your show is over), go Musharraf go”.

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Pakistan bomber targets Danish embassy, kills at least eight

At least eight persons were killed and 24 injured when a suicide bomber today blew up his explosive-laden car outside the embassy of denmark,near the indian high Commisioner's residence in the Pakistani residence in the Pakistani capital. No group claimed responsibility for the blast but security officals said the attack could be linked to the row over caricatures of the Propher published in Danish newspapers.

Witness said the car drove up and stopped outside the embassy in the upmarket sector F-6/2, where several diplomatic missions are located, shortly before the blast occured at about 1 pm.

"It was most likely a suicide blast, said islamabad SSP Ahmed Latif, Other officials said evidence collected from the site included body parts and ball bearings, Over 30 kg of explosives were packed in the car, they said.

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Drop Iran gas transit fee or we walk out IPI

New Delhi plans to issue an ultimatum to Islamabad on the proposed Iran-Pakistan-Indian at- rural gas pipeline later this week: drop transit fee or else India may exit the project.

Murli Deora's brief for talks with his Pakistani counterpart Khwaja Muhammad Asif on April 25 is succinct: "If transit fee is further added on to the already high cost of gas, the whole project might become unattractive for India as it would result in unacceptably high levels of rate of power. So any loading of transit fees by Pakistan on India might literally be the last straw on the camel's back and then India might have to reconsider its continued involvement in the project."

The confrontational stance was phrased after a meeting of the technical teams of both sides at Islamabad on April 16-17 where Pakistan stuck to its demand that India pay 10 per cent of the gas price as transit fees. India's position was that the fee be "nominal" considering the value it brought into the project by its participation.

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Pak ready to lower transit fee for Iran gas to India

Ministers had expressed their keenness to put the pipeline project on stream as negotiations between the three countries have been stalled because of differences between Islamabad and New Delhi over transport and transit fee to be charged from India.

The trilateral has to be preceded by the bilateral meeting, but three fixtures were deferred due to the political conditions in Pakistan.

At the fourth bilateral in February 2007, Pakistan sought $1.57 per million British thermal unit (mBTU) for supply of gas over 1,035 km pipeline it would lay in Pakistan. India, using estimates prepared by consultant Gaffney Cline & Associates, offered a transmission charge of $0.69 per mBtu.

As for the transit fee, Pakistan wants it pegged at 10 per cent of the delivered price of gas to India which says it would pay 5 per..

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Article taken from the issue: 4 Feb 2008

Sikhs get a separate marriage law in Pakistan

DESPITE being a microscopic minority, the Sikhs of Pakistan can now boast of something which has eluded their Indian counterparts since 1980 - a separate law for registering Sikh marriages. On Tuesday, the Pakistani Cabinet approved an ordinance recommending Constitutional status for a Sikh marriage.

On the other hand, in India, the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Man agement Committee wondered why the Indian Government is still silent about a similar request. "We put the request of the Anand Marriage Act before the Indian Government for the first time in 1980. Till today, it has fallen on deaf ears. When India got its first Sikh Prime Minister in Manmohan Singh, our hopes surged, only to be disappointed. Recently, the Supreme Court ordered that all marriages be legally registered.

In the wake of this ruling, Sikhs demand a separate identity from Hindus, especially in matters of marriage, adoption and divorce. We have requested the Government again after Pakistan took the lead. Let's hope something positive comes out of this," said Paramjit Singh Saran, president of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee.

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Article taken from the issue: 25 Jan 2008