Excelsior... Nation

MEN AND MATTERS
Pak isn’t ready to
ban Lashkar

From B L Kak

Pakistan is not ready-indeed, it has no formal plan-to ban the Lashkar-e-Toiba. It is clear that Gen. Parvez Musharraf, whatever his personal.......more

CEC favours amendment
in legal provisions for
holding Assembly polls
under President rule

BHOPAL, Mar 8: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Dr M S Gill has favoured amendment in the....more

‘Ensure smooth
screening of
‘Chori Chori"

NEW DELHI, Mar 8: Delhi High Court today directed city Government and Police Commissioner to...more

CRPF officer shot
dead by jawan

GUWAHATI, Mar 8: An Assistant Commandant of CRPF was shot dead by a jawan here....more

Advani not to
celebrate Holi

NEW DELHI, Mar 8: Home Minister L K Advani will not celebrate Holi this year to express......more

"Y-category" security
for Hrithik, Rakesh
Roshan demanded

NEW DELHI, Mar 8: BJP member of Rajya Sabha Rajiv Shukla today demanded "Y-category".....more

Prisoners, staff
of Tihar Jail
donate Rs 5,11,000

NEW DELHI, Mar 8: Prisoners and staff members of the Tihar Jail today presented a cheque for Rs......more

LCA may be co-produced
with foreign nations:
Fernandes

NEW DELHI, Mar 8: Government is exploring co-production of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) with friendly countries even as LCA’s technology demonstrator has successfully completed four test flights so far, Defence Minister George Fernandes informed the Lok Sabha today....more

MEN AND MATTERS
Pak isn’t ready to ban Lashkar

From B L Kak

Pakistan is not ready-indeed, it has no formal plan-to ban the Lashkar-e-Toiba. It is clear that Gen. Parvez Musharraf, whatever his personal inclinations, is unable to terminate the activities of groups such as Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Jaish-e-Muhammad.

Pakistan’s military Government is sharply divided on the question of imposing a ban on the Lashkar and other dreaded militant outfits. The division in the Pak Army is understandable, considering the fact that the number of hard-liners within the Armed Forces of Pakistan has registered a phenomenal increase in the last one decade or so.

Secondly, the mood of a section of the Pakistani population is in favour of jihadis. And the jihadis themselves have got entrenched so deeply that their reaction to any action against them can create commotion and confusion.

Doubts, if any in this connection, were set at rest recently by the Pakistani Government itself. If the Interior Minister, Lt. Gen. (retd) Moinuddin Haider, sought to take on the jihadi elements and groups by announcing a couple of measures against them, the military ruler, Gen. Musharraf, did not take long to prove his inability to come to the aid of his Minister in distress.

And the final result: Pakistan’s military Government, in a climb-down from its stance of an imminent crackdown on the extremist religious and militant outfits, let it be known that it only wanted to curb a public display of weapons and regulate the collection of funds for jihad.

Lt. Gen. Haider was left with no option but to adopt a more conciliatory tone after Pakistan-based extremist religious and militant organisations threatened to make impossible the Government’s smooth functioning. At the same time, Islamabad deemed it necessary to take cognizance of the US administration’s repeated warnings against Pakistani support and encouragement to terrorist organisations.

Obviously, for the consumption of the US State Department, Pakistan’s Interior Minister sent out the message, saying that religious and militant outfits had agreed to stop the public display of weapons and talks were on to regulate the collection of funds for jihad. Lt. Gen. Haider’s emphasis was on the "assurance" by these outfits that they "will not display weapons in public".

Significant, indeed, was the silence of Islamabad vis-à-vis the jihadi organisations’ continuing attempts to build up their respective stocks of arms and ammunition. Equally significant was Islamabad’s indifferent attitude towards the decision of the United Kingdom (UK) to ban the activities of a number of terrorist organisations, including the Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Jaish-e-Muhammad, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

New Delhi, on the other hand, welcomed the British Government’s response to India’s concerns over the activities of the UK-based extremist groups and hoped that the proposed ban on five Pakistan-backed organisations would send out a message to those sponsoring cross-border terrorism against Indian targets. The British Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, has announced the list of 21 to-be-banned groups.

Most of the anti-India groups, to be banned, have bases in Pakistan. And the most infamous of these are the Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Jaishe-e-Muhammad and the Babbar Khalsa International. The Lashkar-e-Toiba has been active in ethnic cleansing of the Hindus and Sikhs in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Jaish-e-Muhammad, formed by Masood Azhar after his release from a Jammu jail in exchange for hostages of a hijacked Indian Airlines plane in December 1999, has claimed responsibility for a number of acts, including the suicide bomb attacks in Srinagar in December last.

The Minister for Home Affairs, Mr LK Advani, has reasons to be satisfied with the British Government’s response to the Vajpayee Government’s concerns over the activities of UK-based extremist groups. Mr Advani had visited Britain last year. His visit was followed by the British Home Secretary’s visit to India for further discussion on how to proceed against extremist groups. The matter was also discussed at a meeting of the two countries’ joint working groups on terrorism, which met in New Delhi recently.

Britain’s Terrorism Act 2000, hailed as an important legislation and brings the earlier anti-terrorism law in line with the European convention on human rights, empowers the Home Secretary to proscribe any organisation which he believes is "concerned in terrorism"-if it commits or participates in acts of terrorism, prepares for terrorism, promotes or encourages terrorism or is otherwise concerned in terrorism either in UK or abroad.

Now, New Delhi is waiting to see if the United State will follow suit and declare the Lashkar-e-Toiba a terrorist organisation. The Clinton administration was, before the Governmental changeover, close to designating the Lashkar as an organisation sponsoring terrorism. Washington has already designated the Harkat-ul-Ansar and the LTTE as terrorist outfits.

According to latest reports from Washington, the Bush administration is due to submit its first report on international terrorism to Congress at the end of this month. Will the US State Department finally zero in on the Lashkar? A precise answer, it is expected, will emerge only after the US Congress is furnished with the Bush administration’s report on terrorism.

CEC favours amendment in legal provisions for holding Assembly polls under President rule

BHOPAL, Mar 8: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Dr M S Gill has favoured amendment in the existing legal provisions for holding State Assembly elections under the President’s rule.

"Such a system will increase credibility in the electoral process", he said while dedicating to people the newly-constructed building of Madhya Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer here.

Urging all the political parties to come forward to bring about electoral reforms., he said "institutional arrangements are more effective than individuals".

He said the Government in power should consult the opposition before making appointments on constitutional posts like CEC and Vigilance Commissioner.

Referring to Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), Mr Gill said the EC had 1.50 lakh machines at present while the equal number was being manufactured. The EC’s endeavour was to use EVMs in all parliamentary segments in the Lok Sabha elections, due three and half years from now, he added.

Pointing out that voters booklets were being prepared for each parliamentary seat, he said India was the first country in the world to have prepared a computerised list of 62.50 crore voters. A scheme to make its CD ROM was also under consideration, he added.

The CEC said the month of November had been fixed to revise voters’ lists to ensure the preparation of revised list by January. (UNI)

‘Ensure smooth screening of ‘Chori Chori"

NEW DELHI, Mar 8: Delhi High Court today directed city Government and Police Commissioner to provide adequate security to the capital’s cinema halls where the controversial film ‘Chori Chori, Chupke Chupke’ will be released tomorrow.

Justice Manmohan Sarin gave the direction on a petition by a distributor of the film, apprehending disturbance during the screening of the movie, financed by Bharat Shah and produced by Nazim Hassan Razvi who allegedly have links with the underwold.

Issuing show cause notices to the Delhi Government and city Police Commissioner on the petition by Manpreet Singh Chadha, proprietor of Ginni Arts, the court said "the Delhi Government and Police Commissioner will take steps to ensure that law and order is maintained and no obstruction is caused for screening the film unless there is a legal provision for the same."

Chadha’s counsel Rajiv Bansal claimed that his client had received threats from certain religious, political and fundamentalist organisations asking him not to exhibit the film in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

Bansal said Chadha had purchased the film’s distribution rights for Delhi and UP for Rs 1.75 crore of which Rs 50 lakh had already been paid to Rizvi’s company M R Films.

The court made it clear to the authorities that the film has to be exhibited under the control of a receiver appointed by a Mumbai special court, which was seized of the matter.

The Mumbai special court had on February 12 allowed the release of the film after appointing a receiver, who was given the right to sell, release and distribute the film. (PTI)