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Right intensifies From B L Kak NEW DELHI, Jan 30: Adopting an even more hostile position following the Government of India’s announcement extending the cease-fire ....more Bhuj: Vast canvas of BHUJ, Jan 30: Once a lively town of over 1.50 lakh people and bubbling commercial centre of the Kutch region of Gujarat, Bhuj today stands as a...more Fernandes fears toll NEW DELHI, Jan 30: Defence Minister George Fernandes today apprehended that the death toll in the earthquake that devastated Gujarat.....more 5 senior journalists NEW DELHI, Jan 30: Five senior journalists of a leading english daily in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) were taken into "protective......more |
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reserves order on NEW DELHI, Jan 30: A designated court today reserved its order till February one on an application of three Hinduja brothers, accused in the Rs 64 crore Bofors payoff case, seeking permission to go out of the country.....more Rajasthani tableau bags NEW DELHI, Jan 30: The Rajasthan tableau "Maru Mein Swar Lehri Ki Bahar" has bagged the first prize in the Republic Day parade this year followed by the Railway Ministry’s "Darjeeling Himalayan Railway."...more Chances of formation of KOLKATA, Jan 30: The chances of a ‘Mahajot’ emerging against the CPI(M)-led ruling Left Front in West Bengal appear to have brightened with veteran Congress leader A B A Ghani Khan Chowdhury expressing willingness to join such a grand alliance, inspite of the presence of the BJP, according to sources in both Congress and BJP......more First batch of quake KOLKATA, Jan 30: His face gaunt with fear and fatigue, Santosh Barui was among those who alighted in Howrah station today...more |
Islamic
Right intensifies anti-India campaign From B L Kak NEW DELHI, Jan 30: Adopting an even more hostile position following the Government of India’s announcement extending the cease-fire period in Jammu and Kashmir by another month beyond January 26, Pakistan-based key anti-India militant outfits have proclaimed, once again, that jihad "is the only way of liberating Kashmir". These outfits include the Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and the Jamait-ul-Mujahideen. And that the situation is going to be pretty disturbing has clearly become evident with the announcement by the Pakistan-based Tanimul Ikhwan, a far-Right organisation led by retired officers of the Army, to intensify jihad in Kashmir. Equally disturbing is the intelligence report, pointing to the "assurance" held out by hundreds of Pak Army reservists of their support to the Tanimul Ikhwan’s programme with regard to Kashmir. The Tanimul Ikhwan has also announced the "readiness" of more than 30,000 supporters to accomplish two "immediate" tasks, namely, to pressurise the Pakistan Government to impose Islamic Shariah and to extend the jihad in Kashmir. According to the intelligence inputs, at a time when the leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, has described Gen. Parvez Musharraf as a "security risk" and asked Pak Army Generals to sack him because of his "soft line on Kashmir", the Tanimul Ikhwan has let it be known that Gen. Musharraf, in the event of being perceived as weak or seen to succumb to pressure from the United States to abandon Pakistan’s Kashmir agenda, will face serious internal threats to his legitimacy. Gen. Musharraf has been charged by his critics, including a set of ex-servicemen, with his failure to retain his original tough Kashmir agenda in his scheme of things. On the other hand, Gen. Musharraf and his men, significantly, seem to be reading events in Jammu and Kashmir in a manner far-removed from how strategists in New Delhi view them. While Indian officials claim that the cease-fire and the dialogue process have isolated Pakistan and will compel it to reduce the levels of violence in J&K, Gen. Musharraf has been reported to think that events are moving his way. Gen. Musharraf recently told the editors of Islamabad-based newspapers that Pakistan’s offer of talks between that country, India and the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) had exposed the cease-fire. The entire dialogue process, he argued, was brought about by the Kargil war, which made Kashmir the focus of international attention. Islamabad’s conviction, apparently, is that New Delhi, at some stage, will have to engage in dialogue with it on the Kashmir issue. Indian politicians, particularly the famous trio (Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, Mr LK Advani and Mr George Fernandes), have stated that this cannot come about until there is a meaningful decline in the level of violence. The response of the Islamic Right in Pakistan shows that is unlikely to come about in the foreseeable future. Maulana Farooq Kashmiri recently told a gathering of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen members at the Madrassa Shah Ismail Shaheed at Muzaffarab, capital of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), that while jihad was the "only way of liberating Kashmir", those who believed that this can be achieved through dialogue "are deluding themselves". Significance requires to be attached to the warning from Pakistan-based editor of Friday Times, Mr Najam Sethi: "There is no doubt in my mind that a radicalised Islamic national security leadership in Islamabad would provoke India into a conflict with Pakistan". The Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Dr Faroor Abdullah, cannot be faulted for his advocacy of the resumption of pro-active measures against the militants and terrorists in his home State. There is little evidence that the Vajpayee Government’s unilateral cease-fire has led terrorist organisations to de-escalate. The number of security force personnel killed by terrorists has shown no meaningful decline from the month before the cease-fire. Already, the J&K Police seems to be losing patience. |
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Bhuj: Vast canvas of nature’s destruction BHUJ, Jan 30: Once a lively town of over 1.50 lakh people and bubbling commercial centre of the Kutch region of Gujarat, Bhuj today stands as a vast canvas of nature’s destruction. Since the quake rocked the city on Friday last, people have started leaving for other parts of the state en masse as fears of more jolts loom large over everyone’s mind. Moreover, every passing day reduces the chances of survival of relatives buried under the debris, making despondents survivors shift to safer places. "I am left with nothing, my shop, my relatives, my family members everything perished in the quake," J M Sodha, a Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation employee, said. While Bhuj resembles a haunted town in the night, the day brings into focus the devastation unleashed on the fateful day. Not a single building has been left without cracks and fit for habitation. Residents are seen collecting whatever is left of their belongings from the debris and leaving the city by any mode of transport. Highways at intersection points have been joined with trucks, lorries, cars and jeeps. The magnitude of the tragedy is beyond the imagination of human mind, Kirti Khatri, editor of the Kutch’s vernacular daily "Kutchmitra" said. According to him earthquake completely devastated the entire Kutch, its people, economy, infrastructure which will take at least five years to reconstruct. Meanwhile, interior villages of the districts have yet to receive anyform of aids and relief as most of the relief work was focused in Bhuj and adjoining towns. (PTI) |
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Fernandes fears toll could be as high as one lakh NEW DELHI, Jan 30: Defence Minister George Fernandes today apprehended that the death toll in the earthquake that devastated Gujarat could be as high as a staggering one lakh. Fernandes, who visited the worst affected areas including Bhuj, Anjar, Rapar and Ahmedabad, told PTI here "if my worst fears come true, the death toll could be in six figures." Fernandes said the old city of Bhuj has been totally ravaged and "we don’t know how many people are lying under the debris." Bhuj, which has a population of 150,000, has been totally ravaged and is non-existent, he said. Anjar, the second most populous town with a population of 80,000, was under debris except for some new buildings which are outside the township. "People there are in an ugly mood complaining that nothing by way of relief has come to them. Their assessment was minus a few thousands which are injured, rest of the people were under the debris", he said. The minister said in Bachau, which has a smaller population of 40,000, the situation was no different. He said situation in other badly affected areas of Rapar town in Kutch region where already 370 deaths have been reported, and from nearby smaller villages, the casualty figures were going up. Fernandes said the commercial city of Ahmedabad was also in a bad shape where bodies were still trapped in many buildings. Fernandes said alongside Anjar there are a number of villages like Lakdia, Hadoi, Vandiah, Somakali and Wondh which have been flattened. Same is the situation in the villages surrounding the satellite town of Bachau, which has been badly affected. "Looking at the overall situation, if the picture is the same as one had witnessed in Bhuj, Rapar, Anjar and Bachau then the casualties could be in six figures," he said. He said it was now the fifth day of the disaster and it was also winter and so it would only be a miracle if survivors could still be pulled out. Fernandes, who also visited Morbi, Rajkot and nearby villages and flew over some of the areas like Jamnagar and Jodiah, said some of these places have been completely demolished by the quake. He said while rehabilitation of the people affected by the quake would take a long time, the immediate need now was tents to provide shelter to the homeless. Fernandes said even people, whose houses have not been affected, were now living in the open and were not entering their homes for fear of more such quakes. So there was an immediate need for tents to house all these people, he said. Fernandes said another important thing was that all these people had been deprived of their belongings except the clothes they were wearing at the time of the quake. "They need succour in every sense. There is need for common kitchens, plates, tumblers, blankets and other daily necessities," he said. Thereafter, he said, many of them also need treatment for which medicines and medical equipment were necessary. Fernandes said Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel talked to him a little while ago today and said there was need for smaller bulldozers and cranes to work effectively in narrow lanes of the areas worst affected by the quake. He said permanent rehabilitation would take a very long time. (PTI) |
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5 senior journalists taken into protective custody in Pakistan NEW DELHI, Jan 30: Five senior journalists of a leading english daily in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) were taken into "protective custody" following publication of a letter to its editor which, the provincial authorities said, could arouse religious passions. Jamait-ul-Ulema-Islam demanded the closure of Frontier Post, which published the letter yesterday, saying the letter was "blasphemous". The 1995 laws passed by the then regime of General Zia Ul-Haq provide for death penalty for blasphemy. BBC (Urdu), which reported the arrests last night, however did not mention the contents of the letter. The newspaper management said it had been made a victim of some conspiracy. In the past, the daily has been targetted by all Governments in pakistan for its independent views on democracy, human rights and foreign relations. Its Lahore edition was forced to close down during Mr Nawaz Sharif’s regime due to denial of Government advertisements. (UNI) |
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First batch of quake survivors return KOLKATA, Jan 30: His face gaunt with fear and fatigue, Santosh Barui was among those who alighted in Howrah station today from Ahmedabad Express, the first train to bring survivors here since the quake that ripped apart Gujarat three days ago. The 32-year old Bengali goldsmith from Saleipur in Hooghly has returned alive from Bhuj but is yet to come to grips and fumbled to answer the barrage of questions directed at him by reporters. "I have not seen anything like this ever before. The whole ground shook terribly for one and half minutes when I was bathing .... I scampered out...With barely my towel around me along with 14 of my friends. I saw huge buildings all around crumbling....It was shattering. The remaining days were spent out in the open," he said haltingly. Like Barui, Sanjib Paul, another goldsmith from a Howrah village and 12 others with them were not aware of the fate that might have befallen other Bengali youth. "We managed to arrive in Ahmedabad in car somehow in ten hours. Many other goldsmiths like us are lying under the debris...Few were resuced and taken to the hospital," Paul said. Twenty-five persons, many of them from Bhuj, arrived at Howrah, while 38 others got off at Kharagpur, Panskura, Bagnan stations en route, Station Superintendent M M Mukhopadhyay said. The survivors were whisked away by railway personnel and three of them, two with minor injuries and one afflicted with jaundice were taken to the South Eastern Railway Hospital in the city in separate ambulances. For Sheikh Shaira another quake survivor from Debgram in Hooghly, the redeeming feature is that her three-year old son is safe. "There was swirling dust everywhere...It created a darkness which appeared never ending. We somehow managed to get out of our dwellings unscathed.....We felt some hope only after boarding the train," the woman, still overwhelmed by the nightmarish experience, said haltingly. Naryan Halder from Pandua almost fainted after seeing his son Krishnadas, also a goldsmith who was working in Bhuj, being taken in an ambulance with injury on his leg. Krishnadas’ injury was not serious, the leader of attending team of physicians Dr A P Patnaik said. All the 25 were in a traumatic state, he said. Tears of joy rolled down K Shroff’s cheeks, who had boarded Ahmedabad Express for Howrah on that fateful day barely minutes after the quake, when he saw his wards alighting, apparently fit. "I had no idea that a devastation of such a magnitude had struck ... Even the train left on time on that day while i could see cracks appearing on station walls. Only when my relatives called me from Guwahati after I reached here that I came to know what a miraculous escape I had," he said. Old Mohammed Rahmatullah was not so lucky as his four sons, who were in Bhuj, did not return by the train. "There is no news of my sons. I do not know what awaits me. I will return here tomorrow," he said. (PTI) |
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