From B L Kak

NEW DELHI, May 11: The Union Home Ministry has alerted the Governments of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh against Islamic fundamentalists...more

Congress has long
way to go: Arjun

BHOPAL, May 11: Senior Congress leader, Arjun Singh today said although the results of Assembly ....more

India, US discuss security regime for the entire globe

NEW DELHI, May 11: Embarking on a new relationship, India and the United States today discussed a .....more

Migration & shift responsible for dearth
of scientists

NEW DELHI, May 11: Large-scale migration of science students to other countries and shifts from science career options.....more

Bollywood-
underworld nexus ?

LUCKNOW, May 11: Maharashtra Minister of State for Home Kripa Shankar Singh said here today his Government had constituted a 5-member .......more

EC orders re-poll in 206 polling stations in Assam

NEW DELHI, May 11: Re-poll will be held over the next two days in 206 polling stations spread over 32 Assembly constitutencies of Assam, where ....more

Haryana bans pvt tuitions, action against defaulters

CHANDIGARH, May 11: The Haryana Government having banned private tutions by college lecturers and threatened to take help of the Income Tax.....more

Hizb claims responsibility for Delhi blasts

SRINAGAR, May 11: Pro-Pakistan Hizbul Mujahideen, a front-ranking Kashmiri militant outfit, has claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s twin.....more

Insurgency reaches extreme stage
Delhi alerts J&K, Himachal against jihadi strikes

From B L Kak

NEW DELHI, May 11: The Union Home Ministry has alerted the Governments of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh against Islamic fundamentalists’ "proposed" attacks on soft targets like Hindus and Sikhs living in border areas of the two States.

This follows the receipt of highly sensational details of the "plot" hatched across the border to carry out selective killings in the districts of Doda, Poonch, Rajouri and Udhampur in Jammu region and Chhamba district of Himachal Pradesh.

Broad contours of the anti-Hindu plan became available in the wake of the sudden radio interceptions at three places in the Jammu region on two consecutive days. Call for the selective killings, a top Government source told EXCELSIOR, was repeated after sundown on Thursday, after the abduction of 11 Hindu villagers in Sajjar area in the Doda district.

Bodies of six of them killed by the jihadis were recovered from a forest area on Thursday afternoon. Heavily militant-infested is the Kishtwar tehsil. Hence, the offensive by the militants against the soft target did not come as a surprise.

Even as the Union Home Ministry was on Friday assured by the J&K Government that additional security measures would be made available in the panic-gripped localities in the Kishtwar tehsil, an official message was dashed off to the top police brass as well as to the Rashtriya Rifles and the BSF in Jammu, directing them to be on full alert in view of "proposed" attacks from jihadis on Hindus and Sikhs in unknown border villages.

The Home Ministry’s directive came after the Intelligence Bureau (IB) had received inputs about the "decision" taken by the jihadi leadership across the Line of Control (LoC) to organise "fresh" attacks on Indian establishments and carry out killings of Hindus and Sikhs in certain border villages in the Jammu region and Himachal Pradesh.

Presence of Pakistan-aided ultras in some high-altitude areas of Himachal Pradesh has already been confirmed by official agencies. Southern part of Doda district is also flanked by Chhamba valley of Himachal Pradesh. And in Chhamba valley, a number of Hindus have already received threats from the militants.

The fact that insurgency has also taken place-and, indeed, is on-in Himachal, too, has already been reckoned by the Government. Following the twin blasts on Wednesday near the Prime Minister’s Office, counter-insurgency experts sounded an alarm not only in J&K and Himachal Pradesh but also in several other areas of the country.

According to these experts, insurgency in India has reached its extreme stage. And the experts foresee that the Army could be the main target of the militants in the coming days in the coming days.

Brigadier Ashok Hak, former Deputy Commandant of Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School (Kashmir Wing), has stated that with the recent attacks on Army establishments, the militants want to prove that they can strike at will. He has posed that if the protectors of the people are themselves not safe, how would they protect the public?

Lt. Gen. Mathew Thomas, who raised the Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School in Mizoram in 1970, has highlighted six progressive stages of insurgency. The first stage is when a popular cause for insurgency is found. The next stage involves mobilising mass support. Third is raising of cadres. The fourth stage comes when the insurgents try to muster international support and tie up with a foreign agency for this. Creating terror in order to sustain insurgency is the fifth stage. And the last and the extreme stage is when the security forces are attacked in the heart of the capital of a country.

Congress has long way to go: Arjun

BHOPAL, May 11: Senior Congress leader, Arjun Singh today said although the results of Assembly elections in four States and Union Territory of Pondicherry may be favourable to his party, it still had a long way to go.

Singh told reporters here the results would indicate that the party was progressing in the right direction under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi.

‘The Congress has still a long way to go before it can regain the faith and trust of the people’, Singh said.

Asked what was the present status of the anti-Congress plank which brought together all the partners and allies of the National Democratic Alliance, he said no political outfit can sustain for long only on the basis of ‘anti-something or anti-somebody’.

A political party must always offer something constructive of its own although it will always gain a bit from the negative traits of its rivals, Singh said.

He said even his party, which had for sometime been busy only with ‘anti-BJPism’, should have explained its reasons for opposing the BJP.

‘Even today, the Congress is opposed to BJP but this is based on matters of principle and ideology and not simply for the sake of opposition’, Singh said. (PTI)

India, US discuss security regime for the entire globe

NEW DELHI, May 11: Embarking on a new relationship, India and the United States today discussed a path-breaking security regime for the entire globe.

"We are endeavouring to work out together a totally new security regime", External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh told reporters after an extended hour-long meeting with visiting US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage which was carried over a working lunch.

Emerging from the meeting with Singh, Armitage, the first high-ranking official of the Bush administration to visit India, said "it is the beginning of many consultations and it is the beginning of a new relationship between the US and India."

Armitage went on to add "this is something we highly value, high appreciate and work rigorously to pursue".

The US official, who arrived here last night on a day-long visit, said he had presented President Bush’s thinking on a new strategic framework which contained many elements including Washington’s willingness to unilaterally reduce US nuclear arsenals below the levels of Start-II.

The entire gamut of bilateral relations came up for review during the parleys between Armitage and Singh.

Singh parried a query on whether the issue of lifting US sanctions against India, imposed in the aftermath of the Pokhran nuclear tests, figured during the parleys.

Armitage, who has earlier served in the Pentagon as Assistant Secretary of Defence, said "I am honoured to have this oppportunity to exchange views with the External Affairs Minister".

Singh said the two sides discussed the "entire range of issues" that had followed upon the initiative taken by President Bush recently "which we welcomed and continue to welcome".

Underscoring the importance of consultations between the two countries, Singh said "I am glad I had an opportunity to exchange views at the meeting which, I am sure, is the first among many such meetings."

After the meeting stretched much beyond the scheduled 30 minutes, the two leaders had a working lunch starting with chilled melon soup to beat soaring summer temperatures.

The menu served at Hyderabad House included Jalpari Kabab, Murgh Rampuri, Pathari Gosht, Kathal Biryani, Chenna Rampuri followed by Kesar Rasmalai, Mango Ice cream and fresh fruits for desert.

During his brief stay, Armitage will call on Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and have meetings with National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra and Congress president Sonia Gandhi. (PTI)

Haryana bans pvt tuitions, action against defaulters

CHANDIGARH, May 11: The Haryana Government having banned private tutions by college lecturers and threatened to take help of the Income Tax Department, among other stringent measures to curb this menace among lecturers.

A Haryana Higher Education Department spokesman said yesterday it had been made mandatory for the managing committees, governing bodies and principals of private colleges to submit a duly signed certificate at the start of every academic session that none of their teaching staff was indulging in private tuitions.

The principals of Government Colleges, he said, would be required to submit such reports every six months.

The Government and private colleges have been directed to submit such certificates by May 23.

He warned that if these certificates, at any stage were found to be false, the college concerned would be liable to be suspended from Government grants.

The spokesman said that Haryana having adopted the code of conduct of the University Grants Commission had banned private tutions "as it was an evil that eroded the very foundation of the education system." (UNI)