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Caravan
of peace will continue: Jaswant AGRA, July 17: Squarely blaming Pakistan’s unifocal approach on Kashmir for the deadlock in the Vajpayee-Musharraf summit, India today asserted it was not a failure and made it clear that efforts would continue to engage Pakistan for carrying forward the dialogue process. "To say that everything has collapsed in Indo-Pak relations is wrong. I am not treating it as the end of the exercise. The caravan of peace will continue its journey and on some auspicious day, it (another meeting between Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf) will be picked up," External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh told a crowded press conference. Musharraf’s invitation to Vajpayee to visit Pakistan, which has been accepted, "is in place", he said. Dates would be decided according to mutual convenience. He also did not rule out a meeting between the two leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York in September, saying "it will be determined in due time". Making it clear that he was not willing to engage in open sparring with either Pakistan President or his spokesmen on the reasons for the deadlock, he said "it will not be a breach of confidentiality to clarify that this (impasse) was on account of the difficulty in reconciling basic differences in bilateral relations. In an apparent reference to Islamabad’s insistence on centrality of Kashmir, he said "India is convinced that narrow, segmented or unifocal approaches will simply not work". He said the relationship has to be "broadbased". New Delhi would continue to address issues of cross-border terrorism and violence in Kashmir which were not acceptable to it. Singh strongly refuted the suggestion of differences among ministers in the Indian delegation saying all of them worked wholeheartedly and unitedly. He also maintained that the confidence building measures announced prior to the visit of Musharraf would be "fully implemented" on India’s part on the conviction that they would make an important contribution to the relations. Relations between India and Pakistan should not be defined by differences and "we have to move beyond and transcend these differences for the sake of welfare of peoples of the two countries". Stating that India recognises Kashmir as an "issue" and that it was committed to addressing it, he said "conceptual differences" persisted. "We do not recognise it as the only issue or the core issue". On Pakistan’s insistence that unless Kashmir was resolved there could be no improvement in bilateral relations, the minister said "we don’t believe that bilateral relations ought to be or can be held hostage by any single issue". Giving details about the summit, he said negotiations for an agreed text of a document were "seriously pursued" when India did not shy away from any issue. "In keeping with the confidentiality, which is necessary for the negotiations, and the maintenance of which is essential for the future of bilateral relations themselves, it would not be proper to go into details. "However, it needs assertion that, during the negotiating process, India fully respected all established international norms. As a mature and responsible democracy, we negotiate to improve bilateral relations with our neighbours not to indulge in public relations". "We are of course, disappointed that the two sides could not arrive at an agreed text," he said adding "it will not be a breach of confidentiality to clarify that this was on account of the difficulty in reconciling our basic approaches to bilateral relations." Singh said India’s focus has to "remain on the totality of relationship; Our endeavour to build trust and confidence, and a mutually beneficial relationship even as we address and move forward on all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir; Building upon the existing compacts of Simla and Lahore" accords. Emphasising that India would pick up the threads from Musharraf’s visit, he said "we will unceasingly endeavour to realise our vision of a relationship of peace, friendship and cooperation with Pakistan." Virtually disapproving of the manner in which Musharraf went public with his views during an interaction with senior Indian editors yesterday, Singh said this was not the way negotiations are conducted between high dignitaries. The Indian side did facilitate such an interaction on the understanding that it would be an off-the-record briefing, he said adding serious negotiations between heads of Government are not held through media. He also dismissed a suggestion that Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj spoke out of turn to media on Sunday which was taken exception to by the Pakistan President. He said as a minister she spoke with authority of the Government and her remarks had no bearing on the summit. Singh also rejected a Pakistani allegation that Musharraf was prevented from talking to media after his farewell call on Prime Minister late last night and said "pure security considerations" made it impractical. To a question whether in the wake of the deadlock Government would consider bringing in a third party for negotiations, he said "two parties are more than enough. Three is a crowd". Maintaining that India and Pakistan were enough to negotiate bilateral problems, he said "there is no question of a third party involvement". Asked whether the invitation to the Pakistan ruler was given without adequate preparations, Singh said Government was engaged in intense preparations ahead of the summit. In fact, India wanted to send officials to Pakistan to discuss the agenda but Islamabad did not respond to it. To a question why the Prime Minister’s opening remarks were released only yesterday after a delay of 24 hours, he said in the wake of the Pakistan President going public on television, India had to make its position clear on issues raised by Vajpayee. Dismissing the suggestion that the summit was a "sudden dialogue", despite lack of progress, he said there was now a "better understanding" of each other. He did not agree with a questioner that the summit was a futile exercise. The minister announced that as part of revival of the SAARC process, Foreign Secretary Chokila Iyer would be going to Colombo for consultations. (PTI) |
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CRPF man dies in
misfire Excelsior Correspondent SRINAGAR, July 17: While as no casualty of civilians or security forces has been reported in Kashmir valley since last evening, paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF) eliminated three militants of pro-Pakistan Al-Badr organisation in a gunbattle, in Ganderbal outskirts of the capital city. Official sources told EXCELSIOR that, on the basis of a specific information, troops of BSF 113 Bn raided a militant hideout at Rangil (Baba Darya Deen), near Pandachh, in Ganderbal outskirts of the capital city. According to the tip-off, a group of Al-Badr militants, including a dreaded Pakistani commander, were present at Water Point. As the troops zeroed in on the hideout, militants opened gunfire and made unsuccessful attempts to escape. Troops retaliated, killing three militants on spot. They included Al-Badr’s top-wanted "district commander" of Hazratbal-Ganderbal belt, Nadeem Khan, who was reportedly a resident of Karachi. Two more militants killed in the gunbattle were identified as Javed Ahmed Taploo and Bashir Ahmed Guru, residents of Anchaar, Soura. Officials said that after the arrest of a dreaded Pakistani commander of Al-Badr, Salah-ud-din, in 1999, Nadeem Khan had re-organised the militant outfit in Hazratbal-Ganderbal area and carried out over a dozen attacks on security forces. He had also recruited a number of local youth, including the two killed today, as members of his organisation. They were suspected to be behind a number of grenade attacks in Soura locality. Three AK-56 rifles, one wireless set and six hand grenades were recovered from the site of encounter. According to an official handout, security forces have apprehended two scooter-borne militants from Buchhwara, Dalgate, and recovered from them a large quantity of arms and ammunition, including 5 RDX packets, one grenade-launcher, four rifle grenades, two remote-control devices, 20 detonators, two wireless sets, one pistol and fake currency worth Rs 29,500. Sources said that this evening militants lobbed a grenade on a patrol of Rashtriya Rifles 2 bn at Narbal. One soldier and one civilian sustained injuries. Earlier today, militants exchanged gunfire with troops of BSF 63 Bn at Rajouri Kadal, in downtown here. Nobody got killed or injured. Reports from Uri said that a civilian, Mohammad Hussain S/o Faqeer Mohammad, resident of Gohalan sustained gunshot wounds when Pakistani security forces fired on Bahak Chandan Barian, near LoC. He was rushed to hospital. Meanwhile, reports from Budgam said that a CRPF soldier, R D Verma, died in his own SLR misfire at DC’s office, Budgam. He had just returned to duty from 15-day leave. |
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Musharraf-Vajpayee may
meet in New York ISLAMABAD, July 17: In total contrast to the assumption among the media, Pakistan today joined India in denying that the Agra summit was a failure and said valuable progress has been made for a sustained dialogue on Kashmir and a host of other issues which could be taken up at a possible Vajpayee-Musharraf meeting in New York in September. Addressing a press conference less than 24 hours after the summit collapsed last night, Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar said contrary to the bleak picture painted by the media, "valuable progress was made at Agra on evolving a structure for sustained dialogue process that would take Jammu and Kashmir, peace and security, terrorism and drug trafficking at the political level". "The Agra summit remained inconclusive but it did not fail. In fact, the two leaders succeeded in covering a broad area of common ground in the draft declaration. That will provide valuable foundation for the two leaders to reach full agreement at their next meeting," Sattar said. Sattar said while Vajpayee has accepted the invitation to visit Islamabad to pay a return visit, "the two leaders are expected to meet in New York in September and continue efforts to promote agreement". The Foreign Minister said "the two sides came very close to bringing the declaration close to adoption and approval. In fact, twice yesterday it appeared we had succeeded in arriving at a mutually acceptable formulation." "It is unfortunate that the fruition of the exercise was aborted," he added. Significantly, Sattar agreed with a questioner that better preparations prior to the summit on the declaration could have ironed out the differences. His remarks mark a departure from Pakistan’s earlier stand on having an unstructured agenda for the summit and disinclination to have an Indian team of officials for this purpose in Islamabad. There was no bitterness or frustration in Sattar’s account of what went wrong that prevented finalisation of a joint declaration at Agra. Virtually agreeing with India on its insistence on a composite dialogue instead of a focussed dialogue on Kashmir, Sattar said even though time did not permit the delegations of the two countries hold "substantive discussion" on wide range of subjects including the Jammu and Kashmir. He said it has also been agreed that issues like economic and commercial co-operation, Siachen, Wullar Bridge, Sir Creek and promotion of friendly exchanges, the issues that were brought in for discussion by India would be addressed at the level of high officials. Sattar said "all these issues need to be addressed purposefully, constructively and in an integrated manner with a sense of urgency". Recalling Musharraf’s remark in his interaction with the media in Agra that he was forthcoming for discussion on any issue of concern to India, the Foreign Minister said the President has repeatedly said that "realism requires a focus and that progress on settlement of Kashmir issue would be conducive to normalisation of bilateral relations". (PTI) |
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J&K plan approved at Rs 2050 cr Excelsior Correspondent NEW DELHI, July 17: The annual plan of Jammu & Kashmir for the current year was finalised at Rs.2050 crore. This is a stepup of Rs 300 crore over the last year’s annual plan for the State. The state’s outlay for 2001-2002 was finalised in a meeting between the Dy.Chairman, Planning Commission, Mr. K.C. Pant and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Dr.Farooq Abdullah held at Yojna Bhawan here this afternoon. The Jammu and Kashmir Government had asked for step up over the last year plan, which was static for 3 years, to accelerated the pace of development in the militancy prone border State. The state’s performance during the last 4 to 5 year has been good, despite the challenges of the situation. The Chief Minister and the State team apprised the Dy. Chairman of the several measures taken by the State Government to further improve revenue collection. The state’s revenue receipt which stood at Rs.2004. 29 crore in 1998-99 has increased to Rs.3936.37 crore during 2000-01. The steps taken to further mopup the internal resources has started given good dividend. For example the power tariff recoveries have increased from Rs.58 crore to 80 crore. This still leads behind gap of about Rs. 400 crores on account of purchase of power. The Chief Minister assured that drive to collect power tariff would be intensified further, besides taking other steps like metering of the consumer’s and effective supervision and monitoring of billing etc. Steps are also being taken for reducing non-plan expenditure. The Chief Minister also apprised the Planning Commission of the steps taken to tap Hydel resources for power generation. Power projects having gestation period of about 5 years are being taken up. The State Government apprised the Planning Commission of the new areas being explored for improving revenue, these include diversification of agriculture production and stress on commercialization of medicinal plants and other cash crops. Appreciating the efforts of the State Government for achieving average annual growth of 4.9 per cent during first two years of ninth plan as against 4.7 per cent during the eight plan period, Mr. Pant asked for checking of non-plan expenditure and interest liability. He suggested that State should undertake all possible measures to control it, and to improve power generation, specially hydel power. The State Government team comprise of the Finance Minister, Mr. A.R.Rather, Chief Secretary, Mr.Ashok Jately, Financial Commissioner Planning, Mr. K.B.Pillay, Financial Commissioner finance, Mr. J.A.Khan, Principal Secretary Power, Mr. Ajit Kumar, Resident Commissioner, Mr. Pankaj Jain and other officers of the Planning Department. |
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4 cops’ houses burnt
in Banihal Excelsior Correspondent UDHAMPUR, July 17: Five militants involved in Sunday night’s massacre of four members of a family in Sumbar area of Ramban have been identified by police. Refusal of Fatima Beevi wife of Mohd Shaffi to allow a militant to have sexual relations with her led to the killing of family at the hands of sex maniac militants. Meanwhile, militants last night burnt four houses of police constables and Special Police Officers (SPOs) at Halfneel in Banihal. Official sources said the militants involved in the killing of Mohd Shaffi, his 22-year old wife Fatima Beevi, brother Mian and sister Jannu used to forcibly stay in the house of Shaffi. Shaffi’s grandfather Ghulam Rasool, a Sarpanch had been killed by the militants in March. The killing terrorised Shaffi, who had no option but to give shelter to the militants in his house at Bajmasta in Sumbar area. Police identified the militants as Mushtaq Ahmed, Roshan Din, Bashir Gujjar and Abdul Karim, all locals of Sumbar and one Kashmiri militant of Hizbul Mujahideen, whose identity couldn’t be ascertained immediately. Police investigations and eye-witness account gathered by security agencies revealed that Mushtaq Ahmed, a ring leader of the militants, used to harass Fatima Beevi to force her to have sexual relations with him. Fatima Beevi, however, refused to oblige the militants. Fatima’s refusal angered the sex maniac militant Mushtaq Ahmed, who alongwith his associates took the family to a forest area and massacred them. Militants were absconding since then. Fate of Bashir-ud-Din, uncle of Mohd Shaffi, who too had been kidnapped by the militants, remained uncertain so far. Police said all five militants used to stay in Shaffi’s house during the night and shift to forests during the day. All of them were activists of Hizbul Mujahideen’s group and were known as HM’s Mushtaq Group. They were not traced in the forests and might have left Sumbar for another destination in view of searches launched by police and security forces to nab them, the sources said. Meanwhile, a group of seven to 10 militants struck in village Halfneel, about 40 kms from Banihal last night and set ablaze four houses of police constables and SPOs. The militants allowed house inmates to come out before setting the houses on fire. Burnt houses belonged to Ghulam Abbas son of Mohd Hussain Naik and Mohd Issaq son of Abdul Rashid Malik, both police constables, Mohd Ashraf son of Abdul Qayoom and Pervez Ahmed son of Mohd Shaffi, both SPOs. Abbas and Issaq had recently been recruited as constables in direct recruitment rally of the Director General of Police. Reports said the militants had been issuing threats to cops and SPOs to quit Police Department or face consequences. Militants escaped after burning the houses. A police party visited the spot today for investigations. |
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Two civilians killed in Samba explosion Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, July 17: Two civilians were killed in an explosion in army firing range at village Chandi Taki in Sumb area under the jurisdiction of Samba police station this morning. The explosion occurred in an area, declared ‘out of bound’ for the civilians as it fell under army firing range. Police identified the deceased civilians as Nazir Ahmed Bakerwal, 45, son of Makhan Din and Puran Chand, 42, son of Kainth Ram, both residents of Chandi Taki. Reports said that civilians inadvertently walked into the ‘out of bound’ area where a shell, fired by army as a part of their exercise, fell and exploded. Puran Chand died on the spot while a critically injured Nazir Ahmed Bakerwal succumbed to his injuries while being shifted to hospital. Police took bodies of both civilians in its custody and sent them for post-mortem. Bodies were handed over to family members of the deceased this afternoon. Police have started investigations under Section 174 RPC in the case. Meanwhile, Pakistan army also continued firing on the International Border in Samba, Hiranagar and other sub sectors in Jammu and Kathua districts overnight. Heavy firing was reported from nine posts between Samba and Hiranagar sub sectors, which was replied by the Indian side with equal force. Exchange of firing between Indo-Pak troops was also reported from Kanachak, Akhnoor, RS Pura and Suchetgarh sub sectors, official sources said. There was no report of any casualty or damage on Indian side in the firing, which was officially described as ‘a routine attempt to disrupt border fencing at some places and push infiltrators in other areas’. India side didn’t allow Pakistani designs to succeed, they said. Our Rajouri correspondent adds: Pakistan Army also continued heavy firing on the Line of Control (LoC) at several places in the twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri. However, no casualty or loss was reported on Indian side. |
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Surankot encounter toll 21 Excelsior Correspondent POONCH, July 17: Alongwith a huge quantity of arms, ammunition and explosives, army have also effected a big haul of pornographic literature from four concrete hideouts of the militants that were destroyed in Hill Kaka area of Surankot late Sunday night. Death toll in the encounter today rose to 21 with the recovery of one more dead body of the militant. Defence sources said a thorough search of the militants’ concrete hideouts, located at a height of about 9400 feet from sea level, yielded recovery of a huge quantity of pornographic literature including photographs, five cassettes and 250 condoms. Photographs and cassettes were of foreign make, they said. Besides pornographic literature, few packets of narcotics were also recovered from the hideouts. "Though the recovery of narcotics and condoms had been effected from the possession of militants earlier also, this was for the first time that pornographic literature was recovered from their hideouts", the sources said. "Recovery of pornographic literature clearly indicated the motive of militants’ jehad", they asserted. About 30 combat dresses were also seized from the hideouts. According to sources, the militants used to wear these dresses while committing criminal activities like killings, kidnappings, rapes and extortions to create doubts among the people. This was also for the first time that such a big number of army dresses were recovered from the militants, the sources pointed out. Besides this, troops had recovered 90 kg RDX, 213 mortar bombs, 3500 kg ration, three sophisticated wireless sets and a number of rifles, their ammunition and explosive devices from the concrete hideouts, which had been constructed by the militants at a height of 9400 feet. Militants were in the process of constructing more concrete hideouts in the heights, which was evident from the recovery of about 20 quintals of iron bar and about 200 cement bags from the hideouts. Police was investigating as to how the militants could manage to take cement and iron bar atop the hills without being noticed. Meanwhile, one more body of a militant, killed in Sunday night’s operation, was recovered by army from under the debris of a hideout this morning. With the recovery of body, death toll of the militants has gone upto 21, which was the biggest ever figure of casualties inflicted on the militants in a single operation, the sources said. They said a number of top leaders of Azhar Masood’s Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Toiba were among the slain militants but their identity couldn’t be established. All of them were foreign mercenaries from Pakistan, Afghanistan and some other countries. |
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ISLAMABAD, July 17: Pakistan today said it was hopeful that Indian Government would allow Hurriyat leaders to visit Islamabad for consultations. Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar told reporters here that he was hopeful in the context of President Pervez Musharraf’s meeting with Hurriyat leaders in Delhi, they would be given travel documents by Indian Government to come here for consultations. Asked whether the involvement of Hurriyat leaders in dialogue figured during the talks, Sattar said, it was raised at some level but it was not part of the draft declaration. In reply to a question, Sattar emphatically said that there was no mention of a no war pact or involvement of a third party in resolving the Kashmir issue in the draft declaration. When his attention was drawn to commentators opinion that the Agra summit was a disaster and that it could spill over to a war, Sattar said they were "wrong" and "we hope we are right."(PTI) |
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LAHORE, July 17: One of the strongest militant groups active in Kashmir today vowed to take its fight beyond the borders to target Government installations throughout India. "As of today we will take our activities outside the borders of Kashmir. Our freedom fighters will start targeting Indian Government facilities everywhere in India," Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, chief of Lashkar-e-Toiba, told a news conference in Lahore. The threat comes a day after India and Pakistan failed to reach agreement on Kashmir issue at a summit in India. Saeed said Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf returned home from the summit a "hero". The summit ended without a declaration after neither nation could agree on how to tackle the protracted Kashmir dispute. Saeed said war was the only way to settle the dispute. He said diplomacy had failed and urged the Pakistan military, still headed by Musharraf, to abandon diplomacy and embrace war. "We should not worry about war because through war we will liberate Kashmir," he said. (AP) |
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Surjeet says summit not a failure NEW DELHI, July 17: Veteran Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet today outrightly rejected the perception that the Agra summit had failed and observed that a beginning had been made. Talking to UNI here, the CPI(M) general secretary said positive side of the Vajpayee-Musharraf summit was that it had opened a fresh gate for future dialogue between the two countries on various issues. "Both sides have come to realise that peace is the only option left for normalising ties between the two countries," Mr Surjeet said hoping that the Agra chapter would turn a new leaf in the future. The summit was useful as both India and Pakistan had understood the futility of conflicts and realised that only dialogue across the table could help. "They might have realised as well that peace is the only way for development of both the countries," the CPI(M) leader said. In reply to a question whether the Pakistan President had emerged as a "hero" as reported in a section of the press, the veteran Marxist said if that was the case "why did he wait for some sort of solution until Tuesday mid-night. "Now on his return to Pakistan, what will he offer to his countrymen who clamour for peace?" Mr Surjeet asked. Mr Surjeet said even if the Agra talks had not brought about immediate results, but India’s emphasis on cross border terrorism would help ultimately. On resumption of talks, the veteran CPI(M) leader said it would have to be done as both the Governments were under increasing pressure of the people for establishing peace, amity and good neighbourly relations. The Governments are also under pressure from people on both sides to resolve the outstanding issues to pave way for normalising ties as the problems of under-development, unemployment and poverty hit them the most, Mr Surjeet added. (UNI) |
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LUCKNOW, July 17: The Secretary, Small Industries and Export Promotion, Harminder Raj Singh, has been appointed Joint Secretary in the Union Home Ministry, an official announcement said here today. Singh, a senior IAS officer in the UP cadre, is also the honorary Secretary of the UP IAS Association. He would assume his new charge on Wednesday next. (PTI) |
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