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Bush pours scorn WASHINGTON/KABUL, Dec 29: US President George W Bush poured scorn on Osama bin Laden and made clear Afghan calls for . ...more FDI grills Al-Qaeda detainees in Pakistan ISLAMABAD, Dec 29: A six-member American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) team, assisted by top Pakistan military ....more Afghan
Sikhs, KABUL, Dec 29: Long excluded from government, deprived of places of worship and exiled to far corners of the globe, ....more |
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Vajpayee-Musharraf
meeting possible if India agrees: Pak ISLAMABAD, Dec 29: Even as India rejected such a possibility, Pakistan today said that it would respond .. ....more Pak blacks out ISLAMABAD, Dec 29: Pakistan has taken all Indian television channels off its airwaves amid escalating......more US may send envoy WASHINGTON, Dec 29: American Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has spoken to Defence Minister George Fernandes amid reports that the US was considering despatching an envoy to the region to try to cool tensions between India and Pakistan......more |
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Bush pours scorn on Bin Laden, vows no end to hunt WASHINGTON/KABUL, Dec 29: US President George W Bush poured scorn on Osama bin Laden and made clear Afghan calls for a quick end to US bombing would not be met until the United States found the world’s most wanted man dead or alive. Bush also urged Americans yesterday to remain on the alert in case of new attacks by Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network saying he had intelligence reports that the group blamed for September 11 suicide hijack attacks was bent on more destruction. In disdainful comments, bush said the United States did not know Bin Laden’s fate or location but the Saudi-born Islamic Militant was a man on the run who in three months had swapped control of a country for control of a cave. Making his first direct remarks since Christmas holidays when a new videotape of Bin Laden set off reports that the chief suspect for the September 11 suicide hijack attacks had escaped to neighbouring Pakistan, Bush said Bin Laden’s main achievement had been to be on the losing side of a rout. Afghan Defense Minister Gen Mohammad Fahim on Friday added his voice to others saying Bin Laden may be in Pakistan. "After fleeing from Tora Bora (in eastern Afghanistan) there is a strong probability that Osama is in Peshawar (Northern Pakistan)," he said in an interview with newsmen and journalists from Japan. The mountainous Tora Bora region was thought to be the last redoubt of Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network before they were blasted from the region’s myriad caves by US bombing. Fahim said there would be no need for US bombing once a few remaining border areas were cleared of final resistance. Earlier, his spokesman said this would take no more than three days after which the bombing must stop. The United States, though, said it had received no request to stop the bombing, and declined to make such a promise. Bush and his military commander in charge of the Afghan operation said they were keeping all their options open. "We don’t know whether he’s in a cave with the door shut, or a cave with the door open. We just don’t know. There’s all kinds of reports and all kinds of speculation," Bush said of Bin Laden. "But one thing is for certain: he’s on the losing side of a rout." With operational commander Gen. Tommy Franks at his side at his Crawford, Texas, Ranch, Bush said he expected US forces to remain in Afghanistan "for quite a long period of time." "I think that it’s best for all of us to recognize that we will not be hurried," Franks said. "We will not be pressed into doing something that does not represent our national objectives, and we will take as long as it takes." Bush also declined to sign on to any suggestion that Bin Laden was no longer in a position to mastermind another attack on the United States or its allies. "I hope 2002 is a year of peace, but I’m also realistic," he said. "And I know full well that Bin Laden and his cronies would like to harm America again ... How do I know that? I receive intelligence reports on a daily basis that indicates that that’s his desires." In Pakistan, Maulana Fazalur Rehman, head of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Party which helped create the Taliban, denied Kabul claims that he was protecting Bin Laden and called it a ruse to divert the US campaign away from Afghanistan. Pakistan’s Government faced unrest when it put Rehman under house arrest as the US bombing began on October seven, but now has graver problems to deal with over Kashmir — a dispute which has twice sparked war with arch-foe India. (AGENCIES) |
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FDI grills Al-Qaeda detainees in Pakistan ISLAMABAD, Dec 29: A six-member American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) team, assisted by top Pakistan military intelligence officials, is interrogating 139 Al-Qaeda men at the Kohat central prison to get first-hand information regarding whereabouts of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and his activities. The FBI team will submit the findings to its headquarters in the US for a final action against the terrorist organizations all over the world, The Dawn said today. This will be the only first-hand report regarding the activities and members of the Al-Qaeda in other countries of the world, the newspaper quoted one of the interrogators as saying. "They (the Al-Qaeda men) will be the only source to tell the Americans what plans Bin Laden had in his mind before and after the September 11 terror attacks on the United States," the source confided to the newspaper on the condition of anonymity. So far they had only been able to know that Bin Laden was alive, and efforts were underway to get more information from them. The US authorities were very much satisfied with the progress so far made in this connection and appreciated the role of Pakistan in its war against terrorism, the source said. The FBI team comes to Kohat by AC-130 Army plane every night and after collecting information from a batch of 25 members of the Al-Qaeda, leaves for Islamabad in the same plane, the newspaper said. The military officials have hired the services of an Arabic-speaking man who translates the conversation between the FBI men and the Arab captives, including two French Muslims, it said. Earlier, a team from Islamabad had interviewed all the Al-Qaeda men and prepared a report and another report is being prepared by another agency to tally both of them before a final assessment. The source quoted the Al-Qaeda men as telling the FBI team that Bin Laden and Mullah Omar were still alive, inside Afghanistan and safe. "Till their (Al-Qaeda men’s) arrest last week both (Osama and Omar) were alive and survived the heavy us bombing in the tora bora area," the Al-Qaeda men said. They also told the FBI team that there were still 6,000 to 7,000 Al-Qaeda members inside Afghanistan or astride the long unmanned border. The source said that all Al-Qaeda men will be sent to their native countries for trial once the FBI got the required information about their links with the September 11 attacks. He said Pakistan was not in a position to conduct trial of such a large number of foreign terrorists involved in crimes outside Pakistan. The source said that some of the Al-Qaeda terrorists had sneaked into Pakistan in small groups and were sheltering inside the tribal territory, protected by some tribesmen. Efforts were underway to negotiate their handing over to the military authorities by the tribal elders but the terms and conditions had not been finalised yet. The Kohat Airbase and the central prison had been cordoned off by the Pakistan Army Special Services Group commandos (SSG). The FBI team had also hired the services of a handful of intelligence officers from the Arab countries who are assisting them in identifying the Al-Qaeda men and their connections with the hard-liners and terrorist organizations operating inside their countries, the newspaper said. The leader of the Arab intelligence team is permanently staying at the Kohat circuit house which had been declared as the operation and control headquarter of the SSG and military intelligence officers from Islamabad. (UNI) |
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| Afghan Sikhs, Hindus hope for an end
to persecution KABUL, Dec 29: Long excluded from government, deprived of places of worship and exiled to far corners of the globe, Afghanistan’s Sikh and Hindu minorities yearn for peace now that the dreaded Taliban regime has been ousted. The leader of the two communities, Utar Singh, consulted widely among them before seeking a meeting with the nation’s new leader Hamid Karzai. Topping the two communities’ list of requests is "the establishment of peace and the disarming of militias." "And then if we have time, we will ask him to rebuild our temples and help the poor and the orphaned among us," says the gentle giant who lost two brothers in the country’s long-running civil war. Singh, a professor of religion, explains why the Sikhs and Hindus, united in adversity, are "very close here in Afghanistan". In predominantly Muslim Afghanistan, they share the same temples as well as many religious ceremonies. Some 120 Hindu and Sikh families live in Kabul and in the rest of the country, mostly in Jalalabad, Khazni and Khost in the east, and Kandahar in the south. In the temple of Dharamsal, a large square building set around a vast court, old Sikh men with unruly beards sit in lotus positions on the marble steps, basking in the winter sunshine. They are among the remainder of some several thousand families who followed the faith in Afghanistan at the beginning of the 1990s, before the advent of the fundamentalist Taliban regime. The two religions began to thrive in Afghanistan several centuries ago when, under the Sultan Mahmoud Ghaznavi, it fell within India’s borders. But in recent decades their fortunes have clearly waned. Only since the Taliban were chased out of Afghanistan last month by opposition fighters backed up with massive US air support, have the two communities again tasted freedom. Taliban leaders earlier this year caused international outrage by ordering them to wear yellow badges and the "Tika", a small red mark on the forehead, to identify them. In directives reminiscent of the Nazi regime, they also required that yellow flags be hoisted on their houses. "The Taliban Ministry for the repression of vice and the promotion of virtue tried to impose these badges on us. But we refused," says Utar Singh. "Most of us are businessmen, and the marks would have exposed us to extortion," says Prem Chand, a guard at Piratanot, the second-biggest Hindu temple in Kabul. "We are already easily recognisable. It is impossible to confuse the beard and the turban of the Sikhs, even with those of the Taliban," laughs Utar Singh, gesturing towards his pointed turban. For the last five years, the Sikhs have been free to practise their religion in their temples, but were forbidden to celebrate the festival of Baisakhi, when they traditionally go from house to house to greet each other. "We are Afghans like any others, and we have excellent relations with everyone around us. Under the communists, we also rendered miltary service," Singh says. The hard times began in 1992 with the fall of Kabul to Mujahedin forces. As fighting between rival factions tore the city apart and plunged the population into despair, five Sikh temples in the old city wer destroyed. Only the poorest Sikhs and Hindus remained in the devastated city, while those who had run pharmacies, currency exchange and other business fled to India or the west. Utar Singh says he hopes they will return to Afghanistan after the swearing in a week ago of the new interim administration, which has just asked for a Sikh to participate in its new office of religious affairs. (AFP) |
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Vajpayee-Musharraf meeting possible if India agrees: Pak ISLAMABAD, Dec 29: Even as India rejected such a possibility, Pakistan today said that it would respond positively to any indication for a one-on-one meeting between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and President Pervez Musharraf at the SAARC summit in Kathmandu early next month. Addressing a press conference here, Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar said that " we are not requesting such a meeting. But Pakistan will respond positively to any indications from the Indian side". Asked why Pakistan did not make a request for such a meeting directly, Sattar said India has already made it clear that it was not willing to have it. " As such Pakistan does not want to give satisfaction to India to reject the offer," he said. Referring to last night’s remarks made by Musharraf that he was willing to meet Vajpayee in Kathmandu, if the Indian Prime Minister agreed, he said " we have made no request for any meeting but at the same time the meeting could take place if Vajpayee agreed for it." Answering questions about the arrests of Jaish leaders and cadre, he said his information was that so far 50 persons believed to be Jaish cadre, have been arrested but at the same time he did not know whether all of them belonged to the same group. But, at the same time, Urdu daily ‘Ausaf’ quoting Jaish sources said, 94 persons including four brothers of Jaish leader Masood Azhar have been arrested from the Bahawalpur headquarters in Punjab and taken to an undisclosed location. Azhar has already been arrested. Sattar said his Government had cracked down on some extremist groups even before the Sept 11 attacks for their involvement in sectarian activities in Pakistan while action has been taken against other groups based on a resolution of the sanctions committee of the UN against some other groups which have bases in Pakistan. He, however, did not to elaborate. (PTI) |
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Pak blacks out Indian TV channels ISLAMABAD, Dec 29: Pakistan has taken all Indian television channels off its airwaves amid escalating tensions between the two neighbours. "The Pakistan Government has banned showing Indian satellite channels as well as Star channels on cables for their poisonous propaganda against Pakistan," the official APP news agency quoted Major General Shahzada Alam Malik, Chairman of the state-owned Telecommunication Authority. He said some 800 private cable operators in Pakistan would risk unspecifed penalties and cancellation of their licences for defying the ban. The announcement came in the wake of growing border tensions triggered by the December 13 suicide attack on the Indian Parliament that New Delhi blames on Pakistan-based Kashmiri guerilla groups. (AGENCIES) |
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US may
send envoy WASHINGTON, Dec 29: American Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has spoken to Defence Minister George Fernandes amid reports that the US was considering despatching an envoy to the region to try to cool tensions between India and Pakistan. Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clark said the call was made yesterday but refused to describe the nature of the conversation. Rumsfeld’s talk comes close on the heels of telephone calls by Secretary of State Colin Powell to Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan, Jaswant Singh and Abdul Sattar, in the last few days as part of US efforts to ease tension between the two countries. According to US administration officials, US President George W Bush is likely to intervene personally by placing calls soon to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and President Pervez Musharraf urging them to deescalate rising tensions which, if unchecked, could lead to war. Bush said at a press conference at his ranch at Crawford yesterday that he had not yet spoken to the two leaders but would do so "if need be". A State Department official said the US may send someone like Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage or Director of the State Department policy planning board Richard Haas but not before mid-January. The official said two occasions in the next few days for conciliation would probably be given a chance to work first. The first is a SAARC summit in Kathmandu from January four to be attended by Vajpayee and Musharraf, and the second is a visit to India by British Premier Tony Blair a little later. According to the Washington Post, Powell in his calls to Musharraf and Jaswant Singh yesterday counselled restraint. Powell is urging Indian leaders to meet with their Pakistani counterparts on the sidelines of next week’s SAARC summit in Kathmandu, a US official said. The Post also quoted a US official as saying "we fear an Indian attack. We are not joking about this." Since the December 13 assault on the Indian Parliament by terrrorists, the Indian leadership has been under tremendous pressure to act against Pakistan, the official noted. (PTI) |
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