 |
‘Operation
West End’ by Tehelka.com creates ‘tehelka’ NEW DELHI, Mar 13: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government today faced perhaps its biggest crisis so far following the ‘damning expose’ by the news portal tehelka.Com of alleged involvement of some top NDA leaders, including BJP president Bangaru Laxman and Samata Party chief Jaya Jaitly, in shady defence deals. The opposition, pouncing on the opportunity, demanded the resignation of the Vajpayee Government and threatened to disrupt the proceedings of Parliament tomorrow. The Lok Sabha was adjourned half an hour before schedule when the opposition demanded a statement on the issue. All the major opposition parties said the evidence clearly showed the involvement of the Prime Minister, National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra, Mr Laxman, Defence Minister George Fernandes and others of the Sangh Parivar. A clandestine operation carried out by two reporters of tehelka.Com over an eight-month period claims to lay bare a sinister nexus of top politicians in the present Government, serving officers and fixers. Mr Laxman strongly denied his involvement in any arms deal and termed a ‘well-conceived political conspiracy’ the claim of the news portal about his taking Rs one lakh ‘bribe’ from an "arms dealer." however, the BJP chief accepted that he did receive donations from a businessman towards party fund about two months ago, almost the same time as specified by portal ‘tehelka.Com’ in ‘Operation West End’. ‘Operation West End" by tehelka, shown to a large audience, which included former Army chief Gen Shankar Roy Choudhury, former Foreign Secretary J N Dixit and other eminent people, here today showed the BJP president taking Rs one lakh in cash to facilitate the prospects of a fictitious arms firm West End which is hawking a non-existent hand held thermal camera for the Indian Army. Ms Jaitly, close aide of Defence Minister George Fernandes, was seen taking a payment of Rs two lakh albeit for party purposes. Samata’s treasurer R K Jain, who was paid Rs 50,000 by the Tehelka team, reveals that he has collected Rs 50 crore for the party. Lt Gen Manjit Singh Ahluwalia, Director General Ordnance Supply, Maj Gen P S K Choudhary, Additional Director General, Weapons and Equipment, Brig Anil Sehgal, Director, Directorate General of Ordnance and Supply, Brig Iqbal Singh, Prospective Procurement Officer, Retired Additional Director-General, Quality Assurance Maj Gen S P Murgai and Defence Middleman Lt Col Sayal have also been caught on camera as falling into the trap of the ‘suitcase people’ who are compromising Indian defence. But there was no immediate reaction from Jaitly or others named in the expose by tehalka.Com which organised a four-hour screening of the tapes shot with a hidden camera, as it had done last year to expose betting and match-fixing in cricket. Even before screening of the tapes at a press conference at a leading hotel here was over, the issue rocked both Houses of Parliament forcing their adjournment with the opposition demanding an immediate Government statement on the issue. The eight-month operation started in August last with Tehelka floating a fictitious arms manufacturing company based in London and called West End International. "We wanted to get an entry into the lowest end of the defence chain and work our way upwards through the Indian scenario of graft," Tehelka said. Tehelka alleged that it had paid over Rs.10 lakh including Rs. One lakh to Laxman, Rs. two lakh to Jaitly and amounts varying from Rs.2,000 to Rs one lakh to officials and others. One official was given a gold chain. According to the web portal, it began with a senior section officer in the Defence Ministry "wanting to make some money from arms dealers". He took the undercover Tehelka team to the house of a serving Brigadier in Delhi from where it traversed through officials of various ranks and politicians. At one point, the tapes show the BJP president accepting money which he puts in a drawer without saying anything. But a Tehelka reporter is heard mentioning that the money is for the "new year party fund". The transcript released by the portal has Laxman discussing how he could help the company. Besides Laxman and Jaitly, Tehelka named R K Jain, national treasurer of Samata Party, two officials in Laxman’s office, Additional Defence Secretary, two Major Generals, two Brigadiers, a Lt Colonel, some retired service officers and defence middlemen. Calling it "Operation West End", tehelka.Com’s Executive Producer Tarun Tejpal said the undercover operation was intended to expose "how suitcase people are compromising India’s defence". Congress chief whip Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, former CBI Director Joginder Singh, former Foreign Secretary J N Dixit, former Army chief Gen Shankar Roy Chowdhry, retired Gen Satish Nambiar, writer Arundhati Roy were present at the screening of the tapes. Strangely, the Public Relations Officers of the three services were also present but till late tonight there was no comment by the Defence Ministry on the sensational allegations. However, the ministry sources said senior officials were studying the tapes. Defence Minister George Fernandes avoided the media which tried to seek his reaction outside Parliament house. The 145-page transcript of the tapes released at the press conference brings out the role of politicians, serving and retired defence officials and middlemen in fixing defence deals for cash rewards. The fictitious company sought to sell hand-held thermal cameras and other equipment for the Army. Even the equipment was non-existent. The tapes show officers brazenly demanding money, gifts and seeking to be entertained in five-star hotels. A retired colonel became a conduit to many officers concerned with procurement of equipment. A Brigadier allegedly agreed to lobby with a Lt General and other officials to swing the deal. He took the undercover team to a Major General, who allegedly accepted to take a token bribe of Rs.50,000 which was never delivered to him. A Deputy Secretary in the Defence Ministry allegedly took a bribe of Rs.20,000 and told the undercover team that a Major General’s wife and daughter acted as his middlemen. Tehelka said a top IAS official in the Defence Ministry even issued a letter to a Major General in the second week of January in relation to the deal and then asked for Rs.two lakh in cash. He was paid Rs.50,000 by the Major General as advance in his office and the rest was promised upon receipt of the letter, it alleged. "Of course, we just planned to collect the letter and run," Tehelka said adding "you see we could not go any further. We couldn’t produce hand held cameras and submit them for trials." The Major General issued a 26-page trial evaluation order in the third week of January and a General collected it for the portal. The IAS official’s dilemma was that he could not organise an evaluation letter just for West End and had to include three or four more companies. He did that. The website said in the meantime around January 10 its cover had already blown with two senior politicians figuring in the tapes expecting money and were desperately looking for West End representatives. "We kept our fingers crossed so that our cover remained for some more time," it said adding "but it was not to be. We delayed by 24 hours our visit to the General to collect the letter. Our cover blew. For three days we tried to ambush the General at his home. On each of those occasions the cars of two officials were parked outside. The trio have been in constant consultation to plan a damage limitation exercise." The portal said it had been nearly two months since the letter was issued and it has been told that the officials have doctored the files. Key RSS trustee R K Gupta has been recorded as boasting of his proximity to the Prime Minister and claiming that he pays Rs 3 to 4 crore of commission money to the BJP. The spy camera also caught R K Gupta’s son Deepak Gupta, reportedly one of the middlemen in the recently-concluded Sukhoi fighter plane deal worth Rs 36,000 crore, as saying he operates from the Prime Minister’s Office. The men who cast the most light on defence corruption on the tapes were the middlemen and they included Lt Col (Retd) Sayal, Lt Col (Retd) Berry, Mr Mohinder Pal Sahni, who is honorary Consul General Belize, and Maj (Retd) S J Singh. Mr H C Pant, Deputy Secretary in the Defence Ministry, senior Section Officer Sashi Menon and Additional Financial Advisor Narendra Singh were also seen taking ‘bribes’ from the Tehelka reporters. The expose showed Jain explaining how he lobbied for the MiG advance jet trainer and how he got Rs one crore in advance from arms dealer Suresh Nanda to get the Israeli missile system Barak which Scientific Adviser A P J Abdul Kalam had severely objected to. Jain claimed Mr Fernandes overruled Dr Kalam. In another case, Nanda paid Jain Rs one crore to get an order passed for the sale of 250 Slovakian armoured recovery vehicles to the Indian army. Defence middleman S J Singh also talks of how he fixed a Rs 50 crore deal for Krasnopol for the sale of a Russian laser guided missile which during trials in India had failed five of its six tests. The Tehelka team allegedly also paid Rs one lakh to industrialist Surendra Singh Sulekha who took them to Ms Jaitly and Rs 10,000 to Mr Bangaru Laxman’s PS Raju Venkatesh and a gold chain to Additional Secretary in the Defence Ministry L N Mehta. For ‘Operation West End’, Tehelka spent a total of Rs 11 lakh which they gave away as ‘bribe’. According to Tejpal, "if we had a little more money we could have ripped open the entire system end to end. We were just a groups of amateurs, a leanly funded media organisation with limited resources." He said six months into the sting, a point arrived where all the parties contacted—the suitcase people—were getting tired and suspicious of being given just a small fraction of the amounts that they had been promised. "Amazingly, we did ultimately manage to get a trial evaluation letter issued (for the non-existent hand-held thermal camera). We could have gone no further for it would have meant getting in the product to India and submitting it for trial." "We at Tehelka.Com managed to sell the Lepage 90, the Alion and the Krueger 3000 to the Indian defence establishment- ostensibly fourth generation hand-held thermal cameras and, needless to add, non-existent," Tejpal said. Meanwhile, with all opposition parties demanding the resignation of the Government following revelations of acceptance of bribes in defence deals provided by tehelka.Com, the stage seems set for a major confrontation between the treasury and opposition benches when Parliament meets tomorrow. The Lok Sabha was adjourned half-an-hour before schedule, with the opposition led by the Congress demanding a statement from the Government. Challenging the Government to disprove what they described as ‘inscrutable evidence’, the major opposition parties said the nation’s security had been put into jeopardy and the cassettes showed the involvement of politicians in defence deals. Congress spokesman S Jaipal Reddy told newspersons that the evidence clearly showed the involvement of the Prime Minister, National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra, BJP president Bangaru Laxman, Defence Minister George Fernandes and others of the Sangh Parivar. Expressing deep concern, he said it was not the matter of any individual, but the Prime Minister himself was accountable. Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee organised a demonstration here to voice their protest. DPCC president Subhash Chandra and senior leader Jag Pravesh Chandra were among the demonstrators. Mr Reddy said the evidence also showed that the Defence Department was totally porous. Not only had money changed hands, but the security of the country had been battered away. It was the first time in the history of independent India that such a scandal had been exposed, he said, terming it ‘Pokhran three.’ The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Nationalist Congress Party threatened to disrupt the proceedings of both Houses of Parliament if the Government did not resign on the issue. Reacting to the charges, RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said the Government had no moral right to continue in office. Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh said he had not seen the contents of the Tehelka tapes and would only react after he went through the cassettes. However, if the allegations turned out to be true, the party will decide its stand. Major Left parties also demanded the resignation of the Government in the backdrop of "shocking revelations linking some central ministers with defence deals". The Communist Party of India (Marxist), the CPI, the Revolutionary Socialist Party, and the Forward Bloc also demanded that the guilty be brought to trial as the issue pertained to national security. (Agencies) |
|
|
NEW DELHI, Mar 13 : Bangaru Laxman tonight resigned as BJP president, Party sources said. Laxman, who was shown by a Website portal as accepting money for allegedly fixing a fictitious defence deal, took the decision to quit his post after a meeting with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the sources said. Laxman is understood to have told the Prime Minister that he was willing to face any inquiry in the matter. Pending the inquiry, he has taken the decision, the sources said. Laxman, the first Dalit president of the BJP was elected to the post last summer and was credited with attempts to give a new direction to the Party by seeking to expand its social base with focus on minorities. Before assuming BJP presidentship, he was Minister of State for Railways. (PTI) |
|
Govt ready for inquiry into expose: Mahajan NEW DELHI, Mar 13 : Government tonight said it was prepared for an inquiry into the expose involving BJP and Samata Party presidents and a number of army officials accused of receiving bribes in a fictitious arms deal. "Government is ready and willing for a thorough debate in Parliament on the issue and an inquiry, if necessary," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan told reporters here after a nearly three-hour meeting of the Union Cabinet. Mahajan said the Government had nothing to hide. "No guilty will be spared and no innocent person’s reputation will be allowed to be tarnished," he said. The attention of the Government had been drawn to the Tehelka tapes, he added. Though the formal Cabinet meeting was over in 90 minutes, the ministers continued their discussions informally in the wake of the expose. A serving Brigadier named by the portal dismissed the allegation as absolutely baseless and said he would take "appropriate action" against the dotcom company. Another senior officer named by the portal said he would react later. While Tehelka had named a national trustee of RSS in its expose, the RSS itself said that there was no question of the existence of a national trustee as the organisation was not a trust. (PTI) |
|
Pak indifferent to J&K
cease-fire From B L Kak NEW DELHI, Mar 13: The Union Home Minister, Mr LK Advani, has declared that Indian authorities are determined to defeat Pakistani ISI’s designs to destabilise India. While admitting that the ISI has spread its activities almost all over India, the Home Minister reiterated that while coordination among all security and intelligence agencies had become need of the hour, a series of measures had been taken to meet the threat from the ISI in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere in the country. Responding to questions in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday on the ISI penetration in various sensitive areas of India, Mr Advani observed: "ISI is a continuing activity. It has spread its activities almost all over the country". Mr Advani, in fact, was forced to take the floor when the Congress member and former Union Minister, Mr Santosh Mohan Deb, chose to enter into a heated argument with the Minister of State for Home, Mr Vidyasagar Rao. Mr Advani briefly explained the operational aspect of the ISI and said that the Pakistani organisation continued to try to recruit agents in India. The ISI, he remarked, "is a dangerous organisation" having undertaken the task of creating chaos and destabilising India. Mr Advani did not see eye to eye with the remark of Mr Santosh Mohan Deb against the Government’s role in tackling the militancy and insurgency in the North-East region. The Government, Mr Advani insisted, had succeeded in neutralising a number of ISI modules in the last three years. If the Samajwadi Party leader and former Defence Minister, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, opposed attempts at giving wide publicity to the ISI activities in India as, in his opinion, it triggered panic among the people, Mr Advani argued that the Government could not be prevented from playing its role of keeping the public informed about what the ISI planned to do in India. "We don’t want to create any panic. But the people have to be cautioned against the dangerous organisation, namely, ISI", Mr Advani said. "We are determined to defeat ISI’s gameplan", Mr Advani reiterated. That the Indian authorities continued to be fully conscious of their role against the ISI can be illustrated by the success in neutralising ISI modules in different parts of the country, he said and added that the number of ISI modules neutralised in Delhi alone was well over 30 in the past three years. Replying to another question, the Home Minister said that the Government monitored activities of various associations supporting terrorism and action was taken if and when required. In this connection, he made a pointed reference to the activities of ‘Deendar Anjuman’, which appeared to be acting at the behest of the ISI. Mr Advani highlighted the ISI’s three-point agenda-first, to intensify the proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere in the country; second, to use territories of Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar for anti-India purposes; and, third, to continue its disinformation campaign at the international level vis-à-vis human rights situation in India. On the relevance of the on-going cease-fire experiment in Jammu and Kashmir, the Home Minister said in the House that the Government of India’s peace initiatives in the States had generated support from the common man in Kashmir. Mr Advani also noted with satisfaction the encouraging response from the international community to "our peace efforts" in J&K. But Pakistan’s response, he said, was by no means satisfactory and positive. |
|
42 hurt in mine-blast,
grenade attack Excelsior Special Correspondent SRINAGAR, Mar 13 : One civilian got killed and 42 others, including ten jawans injured in a series of mine and grenade blasts in the Kashmir valley since last evening. In other militancy related incidents two Jaish-e- Mohammed militants were among five people killed in Kashmir during the past 24 hours. Informed official sources told EXCELSIOR that a powerful explosion occurred at Alasteng Wayiloo, in Kokernag area of Anantnag district this morning when a road observation party of 4-Madras were checking a drum this morning. The explosive device, which seemed to have been planted inside the drum, went off and all the six troopers around it sustained critical injuries. They were quickly airlifted to Army’s 92 Base Hospital situated at headquarters of 15 Corps in the capital city here. The wounded personnel have been identified as Lt Jha, Naib Subedar Rajindran, Naik Suresh, Rifleman Ram Babu, Sunil Kumar and Elhi Raja. However, the Defence spokesman here claimed that only four personnel had sustained injuries. In a statement, he described the blast as yet another attempt of the "terrorists and their mentors" to derail the peace process initiated by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee through the current move of non-initiation of combat operations by security forces. He said that the blast was triggered with a remote control device. A Police spokesman said that slight damage was also caused to an army vehicle. No militant organisation has owned up the blast till late this evening. Meanwhile, militants today lobbed a hand grenade at bus stand of Bandipore in north Kashmir where two civilians sustained injuries. They were rushed to hospital. Reports from Kupwara said that an unidentified hitman targetted a cart-driver, namely Nazir Ahmed Dar S/o Ahsan Dar, at Pohru-Peth village near Handwara and he sustained gunshot wounds. He was rushed to SMHS hospital. Thirty-four people, including four BSF men, were injured when militants hurled a hand grenade near busy Hanuman Mandir Amira Kadal last evening. An injured civilian, Gulam Mohammed Sodagar, died at hospital this morning, the spokesman said. Security forces gunned down two militants of Pakistan based Jaish-e-Mohammed in an encounter in the woods of Kharyat Bandipora in north Kashmir last evening. Some arms and ammunition including two AK rifles,four magazines and ten rounds were seized from the slain militants. The slain militants have been identified as Faisal Khan alias Noman and Sher Khan of Pakistan, the spokesman said. Militants kidnaped and later killed one Gujjar boy namely Mangu Kataria, S/o Faqeer Kataria of Lolab. People at Magam took to streets this morning, alleging that Shamas-ud-din, a shopkeeper, died in custody after he was arrested by security forces some days ago. Police, however, said Shamas was a militant who was killed when an explosive device went off in a hide-out where they had gone for seizing arms recovery after his arrest. One ak rifle, one magazine and 30 rounds were seized from the hide-out, police said. Militants laid an ambush at Chandilora, Tangmarg and fired at a Police vehicle, injuring a constable and an SPO. Both of them have been hospitalized. A civilian, Mohammed Ashraf Mir of Hariwantoo, Tangmarg was killed in this incident. Meanwhile, a militant killed in Pattan area yesterday, has been identified as Walheed Adam of Lashkar-e-Toiba of Faisalabad, Pakistan, the spokesman said. Reports from Kupwara added that a large number of people gathered at Handwara township and continued their protest against the killing of Shams-ud-din Wani S/o Abdul Ahad Wani of Zab Magam. While the Police bulletin today described him as a militant and claimed that he died "in an explosion" at Palapora, residents have been alleging that the "innocent shop-keeper with no militant connections" had been arrested by troops of RR’s Sirajpora camp and later eliminated in a "fake encounter". According to reports, total shutdown was witnessed today as well at Handwara and adjoining localities. Police have reportedly registered a murder case under FIR 37/2001 under sections 302 and 304 of RPC. |
|
|
From B L Kak NEW DELHI, Mar 13: India has, once again, charged Pakistan with aiding and abetting activities of various terrorist and militant organisations in India. In fact, there is no let-up in Pakistani design to foment trouble in India, the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Mr Vidyasagar Rao, informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. Mr Rao said during question hour that available inputs indicated that some attempts were also being made to revive militancy in Punjab. In his reply to a question by Mr Chandrakant Khaire and Mr Ganta Sreenivasa Rao, Mr Vidyasagar Rao stated that the Government had adopted a well-coordinated and multi-pronged approach for tackling the activities of Pakistan’s ISI. The Central Government, Mr Rao reiterated, had also been sensitising the State Governments about the threat perception and activities of ISI in the country. Various security agencies belonging to the Central Government and States had been working together to check the activities of ISI, he said and added that as a result of coordinated action, a number of ISI-backed modules had been neutralised. In his reply to a question by Dr Sushil Kumar Indora and Mr Ramji Lal Suman, Mr Rao said that while the Government was aware that ISI of Pakistan was involved in aiding, abetting and supporting terrorism in various parts of India, activities of the ISI had been noticed mainly in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, certain North-Eastern States, areas along Indo-Nepal border and also in certain other parts of the country. Mr Rao informed the House that the multi-pronged approach of the Government included strengthening the border management, galvanising the intelligence machinery, neutralising plans of ISI by well coordinated intelligence based operations, setting up of outposts of security forces in vulnerable areas and modernisation and upgradation of police and security forces with advanced sophisticated weapons and communication system. Mr Vidyasagar Rao said that Pakistan continued to recruit misguided youth, train them, arm them, finance them and make them create disorder and disruption in various parts of India. Mr Rao stated that as many as 66 ISI modules had been neutralised between 1998 and 2000. He put the number of captured ISI operatives and agents at 253 (64 in 1998, 61 in 1999 and 128 in 2000). At least 7 ISI agents were killed during the period. Replying to another question, Mr Rao said: "It is an established fact that Pakistan uses terrorists as State policy against India. Pakistan’s strategy is to intensify its proxy war from Kashmir to North-East in India". A number of measures, he added, had been taken to deal with the situation arising from the unabated activities of the ISI and militant organisations. Referring to the demand by Mr Ramji Lal Suman for immediate publication of White Paper on the activities of ISI in India, Mr Rao said: "All aspects vis-à-vis White Paper in ISI are under active consideration of the Home Ministry". On the recent killing of six Sikhs in Srinagar, Mr Rao said in reply to a question by Mr YS Vivekananda Reddy and Mr G Mallikarjunappa that the five-member team, which was deputed to J&K by the Prime Minister, had given a detailed account of the tragedy to Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee and the Home Minister, Mr LK Advani. The team, according to Mr Rao, had emphasised the need to improve the security situation in the area as well as to undertake confidence-building measures for the affected people. The Minister of State for Home, Mr ID Swami, said in reply to a question by Mr T Govindan and Mr V Vetriselvan that under the provisions of Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990, the areas falling within 20 km of the Line of Control (LoC) in the districts of Rajouri and Poonch and the entire districts of Anantnag, Baramulla, Badgam, Kupwara, Pulwama and Srinagar had been declared as ‘disturbed areas’. The entire States of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur, entire areas under 22 police stations and partial areas under another 5 police stations in Tripura, districts of Tirap and Changlang in Arunachal Pradesh and a 20-km belt from Assam border in the States of Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, Mr Rao informed the House, have been declared as ‘disturbed areas’ in the North-East under the provisions of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958. Mr Vidyasagar Rao put the number of security personnel killed in Jammu and Kashmir during January and February this year at 61. The number of security personnel killed in 2000 was 397, as against 356 in 1999 and 232 in 1998. Answering a question by Mr Ramesh Chennithala, Mr Rao said that as many as 151 civilians were killed in January and February this year, as against 762 in 2000, 821 in 1999 and 867 in 1998. |
|
Two brothers gunned down near Kalakote Excelsior Correspondent RAJOURI, Mar 13: Militants gunned down two brothers at village Taali in Kalakote tehsil last night engineering strong protests from the public. Civil and police officials have rushed to the spot following tension in view of the killings. Official reports reaching at the district headquarters said a group of three to four heavily armed militants struck at village Taali under the jurisdiction of Kalakote police station last mid-night. They forced their entry into the house of Raj Mohd and fired indiscriminately killing his son Aashiq Hussain on the spot. Before fleeing, the militants abducted Aashiq Hussain’s brother Liaquat Hussain and took him to a forest area, where he too was gunned down in the captivity after being brutally tortured. Liaquat’s body was recovered from a forest area surrounding village Taali this afternoon. Tension, which was simmering in the village following Aashiq Hussain’s killing, flared up this evening when the report of his abducted brother’s brutal killing spread. People took to streets and demonstrated shouting anti-militant and anti-Pakistan slogans. Deputy Commissioner, Rajouri K A Khan and SP Rajouri Rajesh Kumar reached the spot alongwith re-enforcement of police and security forces. A search operation has been launched in surrounding forest areas of the village to hunt down the militants involved in killings. Reports indicated involvement of some local militants behind the killings. The militants, reports said, wanted both the brothers to join their ranks, a demand which they had turned down earlier. This provoked ultras, who last night attacked their house and when the duo again refused to accompany them, they were shot dead. Police said the militants belonged to Hizbul Mujahideen outfit. |
|
PM orders inquiry into alleged burning of Quran NEW DELHI, Mar 13: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has ordered an inquiry into alleged burning of a copy of Quran here last week and the probe, being conducted by the Home Ministry, would be completed within a day or so, the Lok Sabha was told today. Home Minister L K Advani would take the House into confidence once the inquiry was completed, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan said while responding to members’ concern on the issue. This decision was also conveyed to the top Muslim religious scholars and political leaders when they met Vajpayee demanding stringent action against those involved in the incident, official sources said. The delegation members told reporters that they showed to the Prime Minister photographs of a copy of the stripture being burnt by agitators protesting against demolition of Buddha statues in Afghanistan in front of the UN office here. They said Vajpayee assured the Muslim leaders that the culprits would not be spared. Meanwhile, senior VHP leader Acharya Giriraj Kishore termed as "baseless" reports that his organisation’s activists had burnt the copy. Responding to the concern of Muslim League member G M Banatwala on the issue in the Lok Sabha, Mahajan appealed to political parties not to make statements which could fan communal sentiments in the country. Banatwala alleged during the zero hour that Government was maintaining silence on the incident and demanded immediate action. (PTI) |
|
Officers break down during Insp’s cremation Excelsior Correspondent UDHAMPUR, Mar 13: A young and dynamic Inspector of Special Operations Group (SOG) Kanwal Singh Jamwal, who was killed alongwith two other officials in an encounter with militants at Baramulla yesterday, was given a tearful adieu with full police honours here this afternoon. Several senior police officers including former IGP Operations P S Gill (presently Director of Police Academy, Udhampur) broke down when four year old Kanav Singh son of the deceased Inspector lit the pyre of his father. Besides IGP Gill, DIG Udhampur-Doda range S K Mishra, SSP Udhampur Deepak Kumar, SSP Farooq Khan, SSP T Phungchok and senior citizens attended the funeral. Police officers later also visited the house of deceased Inspector and offered condolences to the family. They assured full help to Inspector’s wife and other family members. |
|
|
SRINAGAR, Mar 13: Pakistan-based militant outfit Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) has warned contractors and suppliers of the Army’s Engineering and Signal’s division to desist from catering to Army camps failing which they would be "dealt with severely". Contractors and suppliers to the Military Engineering Service (MES) and Army Signals Corps (ASC) should desist from catering to Army camps in the Valley or else "they would be treated as Indian forces are being treated", Salah-ud-Din Ayoubi, a LeT spokesman was quoted as saying in a statement published in some local dailies today. (PTI) |
|
|
Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Mar 13: The Government have ordered promotion of three Selection Grade KAS officers Abdul Shakur, Ghulam Rasool Ghani and TP Singh to the Special Scale of Rs 14300-18300. |
|
Vajpayee willing to resume talks: Musharraf ISLAMABAD, Mar 13: Pakistan’s military ruler, General Parvez Musharraf has said he sees "flexibility and willingness" on the part of Indian Prime Minister A B Vajpayee’s attitude towards resuming the stalled Indo-Pak dialogue to resolve the Kashmir issue. In his address to the editors of newspapers at Lahore yesterday, Gen Musharraf said "I see flexibility in Indian Prime Minister’s attitude, the official newsagency, APP reported. "The Indian Prime Minister seems willing to resolve the dispute. We are nearing a solution as the SAARC has been made effective again", Pakistan newspaper `The News’ quoted him as saying. Gen Musharraf said he had a detailed discussions on the Kashmir issue with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan who promised to discuss the issue with Vajpayee when he meets him in New Delhi later this week. Interestingly the Pakistan press reported divergently on Gen Musharraf’s comments on the Lahore declaration. While the nation quoted him as saying that he hoped that the Lahore process would be restarted soon, ‘The News’ said according to him the Lahore declaration was not enough to resolve the dispute. According to APP Gen Musharraf said much has been said about the Lahore declaration but "few people knew that initially Kashmir was not being mentioned in the document." He said, when he noticed this, he made it certain that it be included in the declaration. Even then the Kashmir issue was given only a passing reference in the declaration, he claimed. His references to Lahore process and the declaration were significant as these followed UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s comments in Islamabad on March 11 that India and Pakistan should resolve their differences in the spirit of the declaration. (PTI) |
|
Security tightened in Sikhs inhabited 136 villages: Rao NEW DELHI, Mar 13: Security arrangements have been tightened in all the 136 villages, inhabited by Sikhs in the Kashmir valley following killings of six members of the minority community in Srinagar last month, Minister of State for Home Ch Vidyasagar Rao told the Lok Sabha today. Additional pickets had been set up in the Sikh populated areas and patrolling intensified among other confidence-building measures taken by the Government to prevent the migration of Sikhs from the Valley, he said while replying to several supplementaries during Question Hour. On the recommendations of the five-member central team that visited Srinagar following the massacre of Sikhs on February three there, the Government stepped up the recruitment of persons belonging to the community in security forces and other civilian services of the State, the minister added. (UNI) |
|
|
|
|
|
| home | state | national | business| editorial | advertisement | sports | |