|
|
| Pak hasn’t closed down
training camps US-based body calls for quasi-independent Kashmir From B L Kak NEW DELHI, Feb 19: America’s new dispensation under the stewardship of President, Mr George W Bush, is reported to have adopted friendly attitude towards the New York-based Kashmir.......more Punjab
has fewer CHANDIGARH, Feb 19: Census enumerators in the country’s one of the richest states - Punjab, have been asked to specially find out percentage of....more GOC-in-C
central DEHRA DUN, Feb 19: General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Central Command Lt Gen P S Joshi is currently.....more
President
asks parties NEW DELHI, Feb 19: President K R Narayanan today asked the political parties to arrive at...more |
|
‘Our Kashmir is PUNE, Feb 19: "Our Kashmir is the greatest place on earth but we don’t like the militancy there." Anguish is written large on the faces of Razda Sadiq and Razia Hassan — ninth class students of Rural Mission Public High School in Badgam.......more Highlights
of NEW DELHI, Feb 19: Following are the highlights of President K R Narayanan’s address to the joint sitting .....more
Neither
commission NEW DELHI, Feb 19: Former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, appearing before the Liberhan Commission of inquiry probing the demolition of the ...more Rajasthan police to JAIPUR, Feb 19: The Rajasthan Police is formulating a comprehensive strategy to combat Pak-sponsored militant...more |
Pak
hasn’t closed down training camps From B L Kak NEW DELHI, Feb 19: America’s new dispensation under the stewardship of President, Mr George W Bush, is reported to have adopted friendly attitude towards the New York-based Kashmir Study Group (KSG), an organisation which shot into prominence during the Clinton era. Emboldened by the "encouraging response" from the US State Department, the Kashmir Study Group has chosen to highlight the relevance of its proposal seeking creation of a quasi-independent Kashmiri State carved out of the Muslim majority areas of Jammu and Kashmir. According to diplomatic sources, the KSG has submitted to the US President, Mr Bush, proposals for a settlement of the Kashmir issue. These proposals also include ideas for minor adjustments to the existing Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir in the event that its acceptance as an International Border could be secured. Kashmir Study Group is headed by furniture tycoon, Mr Farooq Kathwari. Sources pointed out that even after the exit from White House of their "friend", Mr Bill Clinton, both Mr Kathwari and Mr Mansoor Ijaz had been found quite active on the ‘Kashmir front’ in the United States. Mr Ijaz, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology-trained nuclear physicist, is chairman of the New York based Crescent Equity Investment Bank. He as well as Mr Farooq Kathwari have, in recent days, stepped up their efforts to initiate a dialogue on the future of Jammu and Kashmir. US intervention in Jammu and Kashmir, it appears, has not been restricted to covert dialogue with New Delhi and Srinagar. Kashmir’s All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has been a major target of efforts to initiate a dialogue on the State’s future. Just what a dialogue with the APHC will achieve is even less clear than how it might come about. As recent killings in Jammu and Kashmir illustrate, terrorist groups have no intention of stopping their campaign in J&K. That the Government of India is deeply distressed by Islamabad’s support to the jihadi elements and organisations has been clearly explained by the President, Mr KR Narayanan, in his address to both Houses of Parliament on February 19. And when he referred to the killings of innocent people in J&K, he was blunt in his expression: "Pakistan bears the responsibility for these acts against humanity, which are a travesty of religion". According to estimates of Indian Military Intelligence, Intelligence Bureau and Jammu and Kashmir State intelligence organisation, the infiltration from across the border declined during the cease-fire period. However, in the past 7 to 10 days, more foreign and Kashmiri-origin terrorists have reportedly moved across the LoC in Jammu region. It has been officially admitted that certain terrorist outfits carried out violent acts more ferociously during the cease-fire period than before, and many people have been victims not of frontal engagement but improvised explosives, mines and suicide attacks. The military Government in Pakistan has, in recent days, repeatedly referred to its peace initiatives such as the ‘withdrawal’ of its troops from the LoC. But there is no sign of the training camps in Pakistan being closed down or pushed back from the LoC. According to intelligence reports, since the commencement of New Delhi’s unilateral cease-fire experiment in Jammu and Kashmir, 10 to 15 new camps have been established across the LoC and the International Border in J&K. Much appears to depend on just what kind of leverage the US has on the Pakistani Government, and that in turn on the far-Right groups on its soil. Hardliners within Pakistan’s Armed Forces have defended the term jihad. And if Gen Parvez Musharraf has some vested interests in maintaining good relations with Pakistan’s principal sponsor, most terrorist groups appear unconcerned with what the US wants or does not want. |
 |
Punjab has fewer women engaged in economic activity CHANDIGARH, Feb 19: Census enumerators in the country’s one of the richest states - Punjab, have been asked to specially find out percentage of women participating in economic activity as the state ranked the lowest in 1991 in this regard with their percentage being only 4.4. The Census Directorate finds the 1991 percentage unbelievable in view of 80 per cent of the state’s land being under cultivation with 75 per cent people engaged in agricultural activity and women being seen participating in the agricultural, household and other economic activities. Besides the figures show a disturbing decline in their percentage of participation from 6.1 in 1981, the directorate of census operations in Punjab said in a background paper. The women’s position in Punjab is in sharp contrast to Haryana, which has a dismal sex ratio of 860 women per thousand men, but women’s participation in economic activities in the state was more than double than in Punjab at 10.7 per cent and it also recorded an improvement over the 1981 position, the paper said. As per the results of the 1991 census there were 1300 villages in Punjab where not a single woman was reported as "worker." The Census Directorate attributes low percentage of women’s participation in economic activity to a rigid mind-set which refuses to acknowledge their activities as "economic work". In 3500 villages no woman was recorded as main worker (occupied throughout the year in economic activity even without compensation, wages or profit), while in little over 11,000 villages which is over 80 per cent of total villages, not even a single female was reported as a marginal worker (who has worked for less than six months). (PTI) |
|
GOC-in-C central command visits IMA DEHRA DUN, Feb 19: General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Central Command Lt Gen P S Joshi is currently on a visit to the Indian Military Academy (IMA) here. He arrived at the academy today and will be taken around the campus where he will be shown a photograph gallery "down memory lane" which portrays the history of the academy. Gen Joshi was commissioned into the Army in December 1962 in the first battalion of the eight Gorkha Rifles. During his visit, Gen Joshi will hold discussions with IMA Commandant Gen. Yuvraj Mehta on administrative matters. Gen Joshi has held various important instructional and staff appointments including those of directing staff at the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, the Higher Command Wing College of Combat, Mhow, and at the Army headquarters. He was also commandant of the prestigious College of Combat, Mhow. He took over as the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Central Command, on October one, 2000. The General is accompanied by his wife, Mrs Prabha Joshi who has done a lot of work for the disabled. She is the president of the Central Command Army Wives Welfares Association. (UNI) |
|
|
|
|
Neither commission nor counsel want to examine Rao NEW DELHI, Feb 19: Former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, appearing before the Liberhan Commission of inquiry probing the demolition of the disputed structure at Ayodhya found himself in a curious situation as neither the counsel on whose application he was summoned nor the commission wanted to examine him. Mr Rao was summoned following the application of former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh’s counsel K B Saxena. He, however, refused to examine Mr Rao while the Commission said it had no clarifications to seek from the former Prime Minister. Mr Justice Liberhan clarified that Mr Rao was summoned and given many dates on the application of Mr Saxena. At this moment the Commission has not formed any opinion and do not want to seek any clarification or statement from Mr Rao regarding the demolition of the disputed structure on December 6, 1992. So it would not examine him as the Commission’s witness, he said. However, the lawyers present refused Justice Liberhan’s offer to examine Mr Rao as defence witness stating that they were under the impression that the former Prime Minister was summoned by the Commission. They said since Mr Rao had appeared before the Commission they would like certain clarifications from him regarding his role in the demolition episode. The Commission granted the request. Meanwhile, the Muslim personal law board filed two applications today urging the Commission to issue notices to Mr Rao under 8B as being the Prime Minister at the time of demolition he had played a crucial role in the happenings. However, Justice Liberhan said he saw no point in issuing notices to Mr Rao under 8B and the applications would be decided at an appropriate date later. The Commission has till date issued notices under 8b to 49 persons including Union Ministers L K Advani, Ms Uma Bharti and M M Joshi to explain their position. Mr Rao appeared before the Commission almost two hours late. (UNI) |
|
||
Rajasthan police to combat
Pak backed JAIPUR, Feb 19: The Rajasthan Police is formulating a comprehensive strategy to combat Pak-sponsored militant outfits in the cyber-war unleashed by the ‘Jehadis’. Talking to UNI here, Inspector General of Police (Crime) Madan Lal Sharma said the state police would solicit the services of computer experts to combat the nefarious and lop-sided campaign by Pak-backed outfits. "We will soon seek the services of software experts to effectively tackle the menace," he said. This initiative of the state police comes in the wake of reports that such organisations are using internet as a medium to secretly communicate their messages and spread their ideology. Sources said, till now, the police was keeping a watch on the PCO booths in the border areas of Barmer and Jaisalmer, but with the terrorists adopting the new modus operandi, counter-intelligence experts have suggested that the state police and its itelligence agencies too needed to reshape its crime-combat operation policies. IGP (Intelligence) Kanhaiyalal told UNI that the state police is ill-equipped to deal with this sort of situation, primarily due to paucity of funds and lack of sophisticated and hi-tech gadgetries. "But the state police too needed to gear up to deal with the situation," he said. He said Rajasthan’s border with Pakistan was 1040-km-long, most of which was fenced except for a stretch of 39 km known among the locals as ‘Sagar Bulge’. Mr Kanhaiyalal said though infiltration from across the border has been contained to a considerable extent, infiltrators continue to use the ‘Sagar Bulge’ as a safe corridor to enter India as the area is open. Moreover, owing to the shifting nature of the sand dunes, fencing in this area was virtually impossible, he reasoned. Intelligence sources here pointed out that espionage agents earlier used telephones and fax machines to convey their messages, but with the internet revolution, their work has become easy. The sources pointed out that all the intelligence operatives of the police would be alerted on the cyber-war launched by anti-India elements, especially the ISI. The IGP said, "Pakistan, in order to divert India’s attention from Kashmir, was activating ISI operatives in many states including Rajasthan...The police is now also has to concentrate on the e-crime being committed by such elements." He warned that the problem of infiltration is aggravating day by day. In the light of this, he has decided to tour the border areas of Jodhpur and Jaisalmer. He said proper coordination has been initiated between various intelligence outfits in the border areas. Mr Kanhaiyalal said half-a-dozen cases of foreign nationals illegally entering the border areas and marrying local girls have surfaced and the local police are inquiring into the matter. He conceded that the state police has no list of foreign nationals overstaying in the state even after the expiry of their visa while neighbouring Madhya Pradesh has prepared a comprehensive list of all such persons. The IGP said with the security personnel mounting a strict vigil in the border areas, the intruders were devising newer routes to enter India. There were reports that infiltrators entered India through Nepal and have reached the border areas of Rajasthan, he added. However, he claimed that the police were leaving no stone unturned in ensuring the conviction of such persons and informed that two dozen people have already been convicted. He said about 200 people, allegedly working for Pakistan, from the border areas reportedly crossed the border frequently. Media reports say that when these people cross back into India, they carry contraband, arms and fake currencies given to them by the Pakistani intelligence agencies. Mr Kanhaiyalal cited that two Pak nationals, Aklakh and Sulaiman, were nabbed from a border area recently and on interrogation, they revealed that they had entered the country through Rajasthan borders and that they had toured India extensively and collected sensitive information. (UNI) |
||
|
||
|
| home | state | national | business| editorial | advertisement | sports | |
