|
|
Thousands of JeM NEW DELHI, Dec 19: Between 1,000 and 2,000 Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) members—many involved in Kashmir insurgency—are trained every year at.....more POTO
should include NEW DELHI, Dec 19: Highlighting corruption in defence as the biggest threat to the country’s security, former Prime Minister V P Singh has stated that ...more PM
takes a dig at NEW DELHI, Dec 19: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today took a dig at senior member Chandra Shekhar in....more Winter
session of HYDERABAD, Dec 19: Amid unprecedented security, the brief winter session of Andhra Pradesh Assembly ....more |
|
Vajpayee declines to pen NEW DELHI, Dec 19: Apparently hurt by the betrayal of Pakistan, poet Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today declined to pen yet another poem ..more Change
of guard, GUWAHATI, Dec 19: Assembly poll, change of Government, charges of bigamy against former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta....more NEW DELHI, Dec 19: Shocked by the audacious attack on Parliament, opposition members in Lok Sabha today said they were unitedly......more Communists
forging KOLKATA, Dec 19: The All India Forward Bloc has accused the country’s two major.......more |
 |
Thousands of JeM terrorists trained at Balakot mosque NEW DELHI, Dec 19: Between 1,000 and 2,000 Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) members—many involved in Kashmir insurgency—are trained every year at the Balakot mosque in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, an American newspaper has reported quoting JeM members now in jail in Afghanistan. JeM is the Pakistani group that initially claimed responsibility for the October one attack on the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly building and afterwards tried to recant. It is one of the groups the United States regards as a terrorist organisation and India has asked Pakistan to ban. In a report from Charikar, 65 km north of Kabul, the New York times yesterday quoted JeM member Ishtaq Ahmad as saying that his year-long "political and military training" took place at the Balakot mosque. The paper quoted him and his three JeM comrades in a Northern Alliance (NA) compound as saying that 1,000 to 2,000 JeM members were trained at the mosque each year. Ahmad was quoted as saying that many went to Kashmir, where Pakistan-trained fighters have been stirring up an insurrection. What took him to Afghanistan was a call for a ‘holy war’ against the Americans, which he heard while he was in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir where, too, JeM has training camps. "They told us there is a Jihad in Afghanistan because the americans had come to oppress the Afghans. It was a Jihad against the USA." The recent string of NA victories has produced a flood of prisoners, the paper said. The largest jail is at sheberghan west of Mazar-i-Sharif, with more than 3,000 prisoners. A makeshift jail on the grounds of an old summer palace near Kabul has more than 70 prisoners—mostly Pakistanis and the rest Afghan members of the Taliban. Some of the Pakistanis, most in their late 20’s, had been sent from Madrasas, or religious schools, in Raiwind, a town south of Lahore, the paper said. An NA guard was quoted as saying that some prisoners were likely to be bartered for NA fighters still held by remnants of the Taliban. Others were quoted as saying that some prisoners may be held until their families buy them freedom, a business that gives jailers no incentive even to report captives to higher authorities. The paper said the issue was especially sensitive in the case of Arab, Pakistani, Chechen, Uzbek and other foreign fighters, who have links to Islamic fundamentalist or terrorist organisations and are presumably the sort of fighters India, the US and Russia would like to question before the Afghan authorities decide if they should be freed. The US is getting ready to house large numbers of prisoners at a base near Kandahar, the paper said. It noted that JeM, led by Maulana Masood Azhar, was essentially a spinoff of another militant Pakistani group, Harkat ul-Mujahedeen and suspected of receiving support from Osama bin Laden. Azhar was released from jail in 1999 at the demand of hijackers who took over an Indian Airlines jet and diverted it to Kandahar. JeM has been blamed for a series of rocket and grenade attacks in India and the paper said it has also been suspected in the killing of 16 Christians in Pakistan in October. The group’s fighters include Pakistanis and Arabs and its main bases are in Pakistan’s Peshawar and Muzaffarabad areas. It has reportedly operated training camps in Afghanistan, where its fighters are schooled in the use of automatic weapons, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, it said. (UNI) |
|
POTO should include
corruption in NEW DELHI, Dec 19: Highlighting corruption in defence as the biggest threat to the country’s security, former Prime Minister V P Singh has stated that Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO) should incorporate a provision for including those found guilty in the defence deals. "I would support POTO if it includes a provision for implicating those involved in the corruption at the defence. Terrorists can destroy some buildings and kill individuals but corruption in defence will destroy the nation," he told UNI here last evening. The Government has been following a soft policy towards corruption in defence deals and it was high time that a strong stand is taken against those who were putting the security of the nation at stake, he added. The former Prime Minister called for revamping of the entire defence system making it more accountable. He also came down heavily on the BJP-led NDA Government for failing to take adequate security measures even after being aware of the possibility of an attack on Parliament house complex. Mr Singh said Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was answerable to the nation on what steps he and Home Minister L K Advani had taken after the intelligence agencies warned them of a possible attack on Parliament. "Nowhere in the world the Government remains a mere spectator after having the information that its own existence was being jeopardised," the former Prime Minister noted. Mr Singh said if Kargil was an intelligence failure, this was worse. "The Government seems to be inactive on all fronts, be it defence, internal security or finance the centre springs into action only after the harm has been inflicted," he added. Asked whether there was a need for POTO to avert such a situation, Mr Singh said much more than such a ‘draconian law’ was needed to wipe out terrorism from the country. He said the economic security of the country was threatened with Government "surrendering to the dictates of the World Trade Organisation (WTO)." about the alternative to the NDA and the Congress, he said there was a strong possibility of the re-emergence of third front and a lot depended on the coming Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh. (UNI) |
|
PM takes a dig at Chandra Shekhar NEW DELHI, Dec 19: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today took a dig at senior member Chandra Shekhar in Lok Sabha likening him to Arjun standing in the midst of ‘Mahabharat’ battlefield reluctant to fight. Vajpayee in his intervention in the debate on Thursday’s terrorist attack on Parliament house, referred to the former Prime Minister’s remark that he did not favour a war with Pakistan and said "war or no war... This is not the question. "In what circumstances a war should be fought and whether it is needed or not is the issue being debated," he said, adding nobody wanted a war. Vajpayee recalled that shortly before the Kargil conflict, he had written a poem portraying the horrors of a war but still India had to get engaged in the Kargil operations. (PTI) |
|
|
|
|
|
NEW DELHI, Dec 19: Shocked by the audacious attack on Parliament, opposition members in Lok Sabha today said they were unitedly behind the Government in whatever action it takes in national interest to counter Pakistan-backed terrorism. Participating in the resumed discussion on the terrorist attack on Parliament, they wanted Government to keep aside contentious issues like Anti-Terrorism Bill replacing POTO. NCP leader Sharad Pawar said there was need for all political parties to come out in full support of whatever decision the Government takes in national interest to tackle the situation. "It is not proper for members to give their views on the issue publicly as it will do more herm than good." Pawar and G M Banatwala (IUML) expressed themselves against attempts to raise communal atmosphere by targeting a particular community and said such attempts would be against national interest. Stating that India was a mature democracy, Pawar hoped Government would decide its response by deliberating deeply on all pros and cons. He said given the situation in which the attack had taken place, it would be wrong to say that there was a security lapse. Devendra Prasad Yadav (JD-U), an ally of BJP, said Government should not hesitate to admit security lapses, if any, at Parliament house. Accusing Pakistan’s ISI of having made the plan to attack Parliament, Vaiko (MDMK) said with the Taliban on the run in Afghanistan, they would be encouraged by ISI along with various other terrorist groups to carry out similar strikes. He said the country has shown enough restraint and it is time that some appropriate action was taken in dealing with this situation. Expressing full support to whatever steps the Government may be contemplating to counter the terrorist menace, Sanath Kumar Mandal (RSP) and Amar Roy Pradhan (FB) cautioned the Government against taking any hasty step and asked it to mobilise world opinion through diplomatic channels. Adopting a tough posture, Mohan Rawale (Shiv Sena) wanted attack on terrorist training camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir so that the menace is settled once and for all. Members were unanimous in their praise for the security personnel of Parliament whose act of bravery had ensured that the terrorists were unable to enter inside Parliament. U Venkateswarlu (TDP) said Pakistan has to pay a price for promoting terrorism and sought enhancement of ex-gratia amount for those killed in the attack to Rs 50 lakh. Prabodh Panda (CPI) said the Government should inform the house about steps taken before the December 13 attack as there was prior information. Sushil Kumar Indora (INLD) said it is time for launching a decisive battle to wipe out terrorism and stressed the need for further strengthening intelligence mechanism. CPI(M) leader Nilotpal Basu attacked Government for not sharing the information about possible attack on Parliament, received from Maharashtra Government, on the floor of the house and instead choosing an industrial lobby to make the information public. Home Minister L K Advani’s statement at Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) "is not only a breach of convention but downgradation of role of Parliament," Basu said. Such role of the Government has actually weakened India’s case in front of international community. Basu also raised the issue of security lapse in Parliamant and said it was Advani and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan who went on air immediately after the attack on Parliament on Decmeber 13 claiming there was no security lapse. Opposition never raised this issue. But a logical question one would like to ask now was whether the Centre took any special steps after knowing from Maharashtra Government twice that Parliament could be a target of terrorists, he said. Basu said the if the controversial POTO could be invoked against terrorists, then why it should not be invoked against organisations like the VHP who were spreading poison in the name of religion. K M Saifullah (TDP) said at this crucial juncture there was no need for discussing whether India should seek us help or not, but certainly there was a lot to learn from the way Washington handled Taliban forces in Afghanistan. (PTI) |
|
||
Communists forging tie-ups
to savour KOLKATA, Dec 19: The All India Forward Bloc has accused the country’s two major communist parties of trying to get closethat such a National Democratic or People’s Democratic Front could have helped in ushering in the revolution, it said "the two communist parties have always tried to get close to the bourgeoise, reactionary and pseudo-democratic parties only to savour the fruits of power at all levels". The Bloc condemned the attitude of the two communist parties and asserted that people would not lend their full support to the anti-autocratic movement in the country until the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre unfolded its ‘ugly’ Hindutva agenda. "In such a scenario, the two communist parties’ bid to form an anti-communal front with the pseudo-secular and reactionary parties will be a bigger blunder," it said. Pointing out that the leftist parties had a token presence in states other than West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, the Bloc said the slogan of forging a third alternative led by the leftists would remain a ‘pipe-dream’ if the CPI and CPI-M continued to shun organised mass movements to pursue ‘unethical alliances’. "Lack of far-sightedness in policies and programmes, deliberate ignorance of social reforms, dogmatic evaluation of on all issues and lack of coordination among the parties is the biggest hurdle in forming the alternative," it said. In this context, the Bloc called for promoting communal amity and fostering good relations among people of different faiths to cobble a movement-oriented alliance. Referring to the United Front, which ruled the country from 1996 to 1998, the resolution said that for the first time in India’s parliamentary history the principle of ‘unity in diversity’ had been reflected during its tenure. "It not only brought together leftist parties like AIFB, CPI-M, CPI and RSP, but also other secular and democratic forces under a common minimum programme. This is not in conformity with the class structure and interests of these bourgeiose parties," it said. (PTI) |
||
|
||
|
| home | state | national | business| editorial | advertisement | sports | |
