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Osama says west DUBAI, Dec 27: In a bid to scotch reports that he was dead, the Qatar-based satellite television Al-Jazeera today broadcast excerpts from a new video message in which the terrorist mastermind accused the west of "loathing Islam." ....more ISI
made Afghanistan LONDON, Dec 27: Prominent Baluch and Sindh leaders have flayed the successive Governments of Pakistan for toeing the ISI policy of supporting ....more Afghan
war victims KABUL, Dec 27: Responding to an SOS from Afghanistan, India will airlift over 1,000 artificial limbs and dispatch technicians ....more |
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Powell speaks to Jaswant, Musharraf to head off crisis WASHINGTON, Dec 27: On a day when it banned two Pakistan-based terrorist organisations, America launched telephone diplomacy in a bid to avoid tension between New Delhi and Islamabad. ....more Stand-off between Kabul, Islamabad continues KABUL, Dec 27: The stand-off between Pakistan and Afghanistan after the collapse of the Pak-backed Taliban regime continued, with Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah refusing to set any timeframe for resumption of ......more Annan
calls on UNITED NATIONS, Dec 27: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has written to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and President Pervez Musharraf .....more |
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Osama says west "loathing Islam" DUBAI, Dec 27: In a bid to scotch reports that he was dead, the Qatar-based satellite television Al-Jazeera today broadcast excerpts from a new video message in which the terrorist mastermind accused the west of "loathing Islam." But it was not clear when and where the message was recorded but the US has dismissed the tape as a "terrorist propaganda". In his statement, Bin Laden said, he wanted to review "the fierce crusade against Islam, two months after it was launched." In the first official reaction to the tape from Saudi Arabia, its Defence Minister Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz said that he believed that the tape was "genuine." "Some people had doubts that the videotape was fake and fabricated by the us. This is untrue. The videotape is genuine," the Prince told Al-Iqtisadiah business daily. The Al-Jazeera’s telecast showed a tired but calm osama sporting a Russian make AK-47 on his side, saying that "the latest events have proved important truths. It has become clear that the west in general and America in particular have an unspeakable hatred for Islam." "Our terrorism against the US is worthy of praise to deter the oppressor so that America stop its support for Israel, which is killing our children," the bearded Osama in camouflage-like battle fatigues said in the tape which appeared to have been recorded around December 7. Four-minutes of extracts were transmitted from the 33-minute tape, received a few days ago from Pakistan, an official from the network said, adding the full recording will be telecast today evening. In the excerpts telecast by Al Jazeera, Osama, slammed the west for the severe bombings of Muslims in Afghanistan particularly in the holy month of Ramadan and charged that Washington had on purpose hit a mosque in khost when the devouts were praying. "Terrorism against America deserves to be praised because it was a response to injustice, aimed at forcing America to stop its support for Israel, which kills our people," he said. In his message, Laden spoke of errant US bombs. "All that you hear about mistaken strikes is a lie and a sheer lie," he said. In the tape, Laden also defended his group’s actions as a just sort of terrorism: "Let those who repeat words about terrorism be careful about what they say -that we condemn terrorism." "Our terrorism is against america. Our terrorism is a blessed terrorism to prevent the unjust person from committing injustice and to stop American support for Israel, which kills our sons." Meanwhile, in Washington, the White House spokesman Scott McClellan dismissed the tape as "nothing more than the same kind of terrorist propaganda we’ve heard before." He said he did not know whether the Government analysts had determined when the tape was made, or whether Bin Laden might be injured. (PTI) |
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Afghanistan epicentre of LONDON, Dec 27: Prominent Baluch and Sindh leaders have flayed the successive Governments of Pakistan for toeing the ISI policy of supporting fundamentalist forces in Afghanistan that made the war-ravaged country epicentre of terrorism in the world. "All Governments in Pakistan consolidated the extremists and fundamentalist forces in Afghanistan with the financial assistance of Saudi Arabia," said Baluch leader Sardar Attaullah Mengal at a seminar on ‘Positioning Pakistan in war against terrorism’ here. Mr Mohammed Anwar of the MQM and Ms Rubina Sheikh of the World Sindh Congress said western countries were fully aware of the designs of Pakistan. Mr Mengal also raised the question of rights of the Baluch people. He asked Pakistan to recognise the rights of the people of Balochistan. Mr Balach Marri, another Baluch leader, said war in Afghanistan had directly affected the people of Sindh and Baluchistan in many ways and its effects would surface in the years to come. The demography of these provinces was threatened by huge influx of refugees from Afghanistan, he added. In the past 52 years, Mr Marri said, dominent Punjabis have suppressed the basic rights of people of other provinces. Pakistan should be treated as a country of many nationalities to enable other provinces to achieve economic and political goals, he added. Ms Sheikh said the people of Sindh are victims of religious extremism and ethnic discrimnation. She said the military regime of Pakistan thrived on the politics of religious nationalism. Pakistan’s major problem is ethnic in nature where a dominent Punjabi ignored the genuine and basic rights of Sindhis, Baluchis, Seraikis and Pathans, who have remained economically very backward. For the past two decades Sindhis and other smaller religious minorities have strongly protested against religious extremism, but most of these protests were ignored by the authorities, she added. She urged the United States to neutralise Pakistan’s nuclear capability. The US must exert pressure on the military regime to restore democracy in Pakistan, she said. (UNI) |
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Afghan war victims await artificial limbs from India KABUL, Dec 27: Responding to an SOS from Afghanistan, India will airlift over 1,000 artificial limbs and dispatch technicians for fitting them on war victims whose limbs have been maimed. "A special flight from India by the week end would bring over 1,000 artificial limbs and doctors and technicians who would fit them into many who had lost their limbs during the two decade long civil war that left behind thousands of men and boys without legs and hands," said the acting Charge-de-affaires of Indian Embassy Azad Singh Toor. The doctors and the technicians would be bringing machinery for making adjustments in the limbs procured from India and they will be based in the Kabul Military Hospital, he said. Asked whether the limbs would be available only for the military, Toor said "it will be available more for the civilians than for the military". Toor, who has met the Civil Aviation Minister recently, said the Afghan Government has also requested the Indian Government to send equipments necessary for Air Traffic Control and Radars to facilitate early commencement of flights out of Afghanistan by Ariana Airlines. The Ariana Airlines was grounded during the Taliban regime following sanctions against it but the new Government is hoping to start flights soon out of the country. Ariana, which had around 20 planes- big and small, has now only a single boeing aircraft and leased out few small planes and started commercial flights out of Kabul to destinations like Kandahar, Mazar-e-Sharif and Herat. Other areas in which the Karzai Government has sought cooperation from India is health, education, preservation of national heritage and monuments and last but not the least the Kabul zoo. In the field of health, Toor said, Indian doctors have already made functional the Out Patient Department at the Indira Gandhi Hospital at the Wazit Akbar Khan area. However, he said a lot needed to be done in this area as in the last five years of Taliban regime the country’s health system has nearly collapsed. India has promised all necessary help in the field of education, he said. However, the Afghan Government was yet to give any concrete proposal as to in which manner they would like India to help revive the country’s educational system, which was made out of bounds for the women during the Taliban regime. (PTI) |
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Powell speaks to Jaswant, Musharraf to head off crisis WASHINGTON, Dec 27: On a day when it banned two Pakistan-based terrorist organisations, America launched telephone diplomacy in a bid to avoid tension between New Delhi and Islamabad. Secretary of State Colin Powell made two telephone calls yesterday to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and two to Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh to avert a conflict between India and Pakistan. These followed earlier calls Monday and Tuesday to Musharraf. "It is critically important there be a lessening of tensions between India and Pakistan," State Department Deputy Spokesman Philip Reeker said, adding Powell told both leaders that they need to resolve their differences through dialogue. While Powell gave tacit support to India by meeting the long-standing Indian demand that the US declare the Jaish e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba as foreign terrorist organizations, the State Department went out of its way to shower praise on Musharraf. "Musharraf has proved he is a capable coalition partner in the face of domestic opposition," Reeker said. A US official, meanwhile, said on condition of anonymity that the two terrorist groups Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Toiba trained in Afghanistan with tacit support from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence. The training of the fighters of these organizations, said the official, was carried out in Afghan camps run by Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network. The official said while the Bush administration did not have proof that the two groups carried out the bloody assault on the Indian Parliament on December 13, it had no reason to dispute India’s contention. Indicating that he supported India’s account, Powell said in his statement,"as the recent horrific attacks against the Indian Parliament and the Srinagar Legislative Assembly so clearly show, the Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed seek to assault democracy, undermine peace and stability in South Asia and destroy relations between India and Pakistan." Last week, President Bush announced he was moving to cut off financing to Lashkar and the group Umma Tameer-e-Nau or UTN, which is suspected of giving nuclear technology to Osama bin Laden. The UN Security Council, yesterday also ordered a global freeze on the assets of UTN. (PTI) |
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Stand-off between Kabul, Islamabad continues KABUL, Dec 27: The stand-off between Pakistan and Afghanistan after the collapse of the Pak-backed Taliban regime continued, with Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah refusing to set any timeframe for resumption of their diplomatic ties. Asserting that Pak-Afghan relations had to be now based on clear declaration by Islamabad for mutual respect of sovereignty and non-interference, the Afghan Foreign Minister insisted last night that the issue of reopening of Pakistan mission here was a bilateral one and under discussion. His remarks came, even as Islamabad’a persistent request to Kabul in this regard has made little headway. Pakistan has sent a number of feelers, with the latest one being made personally by Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar during his brief weekend visit here. Sattar handed a letter to Afghanistan’s interim leader Hamid Karazi from President Pervez Musharraf inviting him to visit Pakistan and expressing Islamabad’s keen desire to re-open its mission here. Pakistan closed their mission here as forces of the new Government advanced towards Kabul weeks before the fall of the Taliban regime. According to residents, the Pakistani diplomats here had moved out along with Taliban cadres as they fled in panic after continuous US bombing raids. During his media-interaction, Abdullah Abdullah said he wanted Pakistan to hand over all Taliban leaders and their ranks to the proposed US international war crimes court, which is being contemplated. "All persons who have indulged in war crimes, human right abuses and violations should be prosecuted," the Afghan Foreign Minister said adding that personally he felt anybody accused of such crimes irrespective of whichever side he is should be brought before such a court. (PTI) |
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Annan calls on India-Pak to avoid escalation of tension UNITED NATIONS, Dec 27: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has written to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and President Pervez Musharraf urging them to avoid actions and statements that would "escalate tensions" between India and Pakistan and to work for a "calmer atmosphere". In letters to Vajpayee and Musharraf sent on Christmas eve on December 24, Annan appealed to them to make calmer atmosphere" so that differences-"no matter how great" - could be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy. The international community as a whole had a great interest in improved and stable relations between India and Pakistan, Annan said while urging the two leaders to avoid "actions and statements" that would aggravate the situation. A UN spokesman said the texts of the separate letters sent to Vajpayee and Musharraf would not be made public. (PTI) |
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