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Ex-Gurkhas wage KATHMANDU, Oct 18: If the United States and the western coalition against terrorism decide to commit ground troops in Afghanistan, the......more Anthrax
scare WASHINGTON, Oct 18: The anthrax scare sweeping the United States since the plane attacks on New York and Washington last month closed....more ‘Bin
Laden, Taliban KABUL, Oct 18: Osama Bin Laden and the leaders of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban are all alive and well on the 12th day of the US bombardment, ....more 11
LTTE rebels among COLOMBO, Oct 18: Sri Lankan troops today killed 11 LTTE rebels in two separate attacks in the northern part of the country, a military situation ........more |
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US plans to wrap up NEW YORK, Oct 18: The United States intends to wrap up its widespread bombing of Afghanistan in a month’s time and is planning air campaign against terrorist camps outside the country, starting with Somalia, a media report said today......more Taliban
fighters eager JALALABAD (AFGHANISTAN), Oct 18: A multiple rocket launcher hanging off his left shoulder and a Kalashnikov rifle in his right hand, Taliban soldier Khanzada spits defiance as he invites the United States.....more UN
cautious about any UNITED NATIONS, Oct 18: Exploring a new U.N. role in Afghanistan, a key U.N. official discounted taking over the country’s administration and ......more NEW DELHI, Oct 18: For these ten odd afghans of Indian origin, the escape from the land of Taliban has been a close shave........more |
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Ex-Gurkhas wage relentless war on Britain for pension parity KATHMANDU, Oct 18: If the United States and the western coalition against terrorism decide to commit ground troops in Afghanistan, the diminutive but fierce Gurkhas who form a part of the British Army are thought most likely to land there first. A recent newspaper report quoted a British Embassy official in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu as saying that "British Gurkha soldiers could feature as a part of the British infantry if a ground military operation were to begin in Afghanistan". Said Lieutenant Colonel Adrian Grifft, the military attache at the Embassy, "wherever the British soldiers go, the Gurkhas go as they are an integral part of the British units". The British Gurkhas were the first to land in the Falkland Islands in 1982, were with the British troops during the gulf war in 1991, and were among the first North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops to land in Kosovo in 1999. Known the world over as among finest fighting men, the British Gurkhas hail from the highlands of Nepal. Nepalese youths who join the British or the Indian armies under a treaty signed in 1947 come from poor families of the hills and mountains of Nepal. Should the British Gurkhas be deployed for ground action in Afghanistan, this will not be the first time that they will be fighting there. The British Gurkhas fought there for Britain in the second Afghan war in 1879 and again in 1919. Yet at home in Nepal, the ex-British Gurkha soldiers are fighting the British for what one ex-soldier calls "justice". A large number of former British Gurkha soldiers are clamouring for pay and pension equal to those of the British soldiers of same rank and service period. "We are supposed be to an integral part of the British Army but there is a so much discrimination by the UK Government against US", says Yam Bahadur Gurung who saw action in the Gulf War in 1991 along with the British Gurkhas. Yam Bahadur Gurung is the general secretary of the Gurkha Army Ex-servicemen’s Association (GAESO) that is campaigning for equal status for the British Gurkhas at par with the British soldiers. He served 24 years with the British Gurkhas before retiring. "Wwe are not against the British Army recruiting the Gurkhas but want them to go on recruiting. What we want is the same service conditions and pay structure as those of British soldiers," he says. The first soldiers from Nepal were recruited into the British Indian Army following the Nepal-British India war in 1815 and since then these soldiers called Gurkhas have been an integral part of the British and Indian armies. When the British left India in 1947, the Gurkhas were shared by the Indian and British armies with the Indian Army retaining a large number of them. Britain and India agreed on the terms of payment and recruitment of the Gurkhas and allegedly put the paper before the then autocratic Rana rulers for their signature. Even then the Ranas had added the clause in the document, known as the tripartite treaty, which said, "in all matters of promotion, welfare and other facilities, the Gurkha troops should be treated on the same footing as the other units of the parent Army so that the stigma of ‘mercenary troops’ may for all time be wiped out". The strength of the Gurkhas in the British Army has been reduced from more than 8,000 just over two decades ago to the present strength of just more than 3,000. Though the Indian Army does not admit it, it is thought in Nepal that the number of Gurkhas serving in the Indian Army number exceeds 60,000. Says Yam Bahadur Gurung, "as far as the Indian Gurkhas are concerned, there is no discrimination in pay or promotion but the same cannot be said of the Gurkhas serving in the British Army." it is estimated that there are some 30,000 ex-British Gurkhas in Nepal who want to get pension and other benefits at par with their British counterparts. The British Army has recruited a few Nepalese as queen’s commissioned officers and they are treated at par with their British counterparts in terms pay and other benefits including accommodation. However, the highest a Nepalese commissioned officer has been able to rise in the British Army has been up to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and so far in almost 200 years only two Gurkhas have made that grade. The death in 1999 in Kosovo of a British Gurkha along with his British superior officer focussed attention on the disparity between the casualty compensation for the British soldier and the Gurkhas. The embarrassed British Government constituted a committee to study the case and more benefits were announced for the Gurkha soldiers. "But the pension for the Gurkhas is still ten times lower than that for the British soldier," says Yam Bahadur Gurung. (DPA) |
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Anthrax scare closes US capitol, unnerves nation WASHINGTON, Oct 18: The anthrax scare sweeping the United States since the plane attacks on New York and Washington last month closed down much of the US capitol in an extraordinary precautionary move days after the nation’s top-ranking senator received the potentially deadly biological warfare agent in the mail. It was the second time in just over a month that the capitol has been closed since the Sept. 11 hijacked plane attacks on New York and Washington that killed more than 5,400 people. US officials have said they suspect but have no firm evidence the anthrax scare could be linked to Saudi-born Osama Bin Laden, accused of masterminding the September attacks. Thirty-one US congressional staffers tested positive for anthrax exposure as republican and democratic leaders yesterday closed much of the US capitol complex. In announcing the abrupt jump in the number of those affected in the broadening nationwide anthrax scare, the nation’s top-ranking senator, majority leader Tom Daschle, said none of the capitol hill staffers, 23 of them his own employees, showed any sign of infection. "The good news is that everyone will be ok," the South Dakota Democrat said, noting all had been on antibiotics since shortly after the potentially deadly anthrax bacteria was found in a letter opened in his office on Monday. The anthrax letter opened in Daschle’s office was similar to one sent to NBC Anchor Tom Brokaw in New York. Both were postmarked trenton, New Jersey. A third letter was sent to a Tabloid newspaper in Florida, where anthrax spores killed a photo editor and sickened a mail room worker. Preliminary genetic tests showed the strains of anthrax that infected people in New York and Florida are the same, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said yesterday. Leaders of the Republican-controlled US House of Representatives decided to close at the end of business yesterday for anthrax testing on their side of the capitol hill building. It marked an unprecedented halt to business for an environmental safety check. The last time there was such a closure was on the day of the September attacks. The nearby library of Congress also announced it would close today for an examination of its ventilation system and, like the house, would probably reopen on Tuesday. Daschle said the Senate would remain at work though three senate office buildings would be closed for expanded environmental examinations. "There is no risk here at the capitol," said Senate minority leader Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican who joined Daschle at a news conference in a show of bipartisan unity. Daschle announced the extent of the exposure two days after the nationwide anthrax scare reached the capitol. For a third straight day, Congressional staffers stood in line for anthrax tests. Deputy US Surgeon General Ken Moritsugu announced tests found that anthrax exposure in the capitol complex has been confined to a "very specific area" of the southeast wing of the senate hart office building, where Daschle’s office is housed, and a mailroom that serves the building. In addition, Republican Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee, a physician, and other health authorities said the potency of the anthrax in the daschle letter may be less than first feared. Although all tests results are not yet in, they backed off such terms as concentrated and said it seems to be a common variety of the bacteria responsive to standard antibiotics. The reaction in the nation’s capital reflected the jumpiness around the country. Baltimore police went on high alert after reports of a possible anthrax attack but found nothing. Tests were also ordered in the Manhattan office of New York Gov. George Pataki but he said neither he nor his staff tested positive. Preliminary tests on powder sent to an abortion clinic in Stuart, Florida, showed anthrax but officials called it "extremely unreliable" and speculated it was talcum powder. The US Attorney for Rhode Island filed charges against one man accused of mailing a threatening letter that purported to contain anthrax. In Boston, US Postal Inspectors who usually get 80 threats of anthrax through the mail a year, reported that on Saturday and Monday alone more than 100 such reports came in. Some 30 postal facilities were evacuated and more than 100 workers underwent decontamination. No anthrax was found. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson tried to calm fears by announcing an expanded 1.5 billion federal drive to stockpile drugs and vaccines to counter anthrax and other potential agents of germ warfare such as smallpox. Overall 31 congressional staffers tested positive for anthrax exposure. In addition to 23 daschle staffers, they included five capitol police who came to Daschle’s office after the letter was opened, and three employees of Sen. Russell Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, whose office is next to Daschle’s. Daschle announced that the senate hart office building and two others would be closed for further environmental testing. He said there was no indication that anthrax had spread, but authorities wanted to make sure. House Speaker Dennis Hastert announced earlier that his chamber would close at the end of business on Wednesday for anthrax screening, and would reopen next Tuesday. The illinois republican also said one of his offices had been quarantined for testing after a suspicious letter was received. About a dozen of Hastert’s staffers were tested and the FBI took away for examination a few bags of mail. The house speaker initially said anthrax spores had been found in the senate ventilation system. But a number of senators and health officials said he was mistaken. Hastert later backed off, saying he had been told there was a possibility anthrax had entered the ventilation system. "Everybody should calm down. I think there is initial, significant overreaction," said Sen. Joseph Biden, a Delaware Democrat. "There is no evidence this stuff was released in ventilation systems. There is no evidence of that at all." Assistant House Republican leader Tom Delay of Texas, however, defended the decision to close the chamber pending test results as a prudent one."Nobody panicked. We’re finding out what we’re dealing with," Delay said. In a show of bipartisanship, house democratic leader Dick Gephardt joined hastert at a news conference later and defended the decision to close the house. "This is the prudent and cautious approach," Gephardt said. "We don’t know if there’s been involvement of any our buildings. We don’t think so but we need to make sure." (REUTERS) |
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‘Bin Laden, Taliban leaders alive’ KABUL, Oct 18: Osama Bin Laden and the leaders of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban are all alive and well on the 12th day of the US bombardment, Education Minister and top Government spokesman Amir Khan Muttaqi told Reuters today. "They are all safe. None of the leaders of the Islamic Emirate (Taliban) and nor our guests have been hurt since the start of the American attacks," Muttaqi said. US warplanes saw fresh action over Afghanistan early in the day, targeting the Taliban’s southern stronghold of Kandahar, which was rocked by a series of powerful explosions, witnesses told Reuters. The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said five people were killed and many injured in the morning raids, after officials told Reuters that 12 civilians were killed and 20 to 30 wounded in overnight raids. Education Minister Muttaqi again dismissed reports that Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil had left the country or that rifts had opened up in the Taliban, saying he was still in Kandahar and promised to find some way for reporters to talk to him. "There is no rift. He is doing his normal work, but due to the failure of communication links with Kandahar, he has not been able to give statements so far," he said. Sources close to the Taliban said leaders and officials were in hiding or moving about rapidly to evade the strikes. They were also switching off satellite phones for fear of being pinpointed for attack, the sources said. Satellite phones are the Taliban’s only reliable link with the outside world in a country that even before the attacks lacked modern telecommunications systems. "The leadership and our guests are mobile and safe and Americans can’t find them," Abdul Hanan Himat, an Information Ministry official, told Reuters. The overnight raids had struck the Taliban guesthouse in Kandahar, its main prison and a high school, Himat said. "Four residential houses were destroyed while many more were damaged slightly," he said. In addition to Kandahar, the eastern city of Jalalabad and the capital, Kabul, also came under intense bombardment during the night. Muttaqi told Reuters as many as 12 people had been killed in the missile and bomb attacks on Jalalabad and its vicinity. "In Chaparhar district, a truck carrying people fleeing was hit and all people on board died," he said. He did not say how many people were in the truck, and the report could not be independently confirmed. Referring to the many Arabs and other foreigners in Afghanistan with Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda — the base — network, Himat said their casualties had been low. "Since the start of the attacks, only three Arab loyalists of osama have been killed," he said. Both Muttaqi and Himat dismissed reports that the opposition were making advances toward the strategic northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. Muttaqi dismissed reports from the world food programme that Taliban fighters had occupied their warehouses inside Afghanistan, a land ravaged by three years of devastating drought that has raised fears millions may not be able to feed themselves through the coming long, harsh winter. "The Taliban have not occupied WFPs warehouses," he said. "On the contrary we have given them additional guards for the protection of their activities. WFP can distribute its materials to people without any hindrance and all NGOs can work freely," he said. UN sources have said some of the raids on their stores and offices in Afghanistan have been carried out by the Arab or other foreign fighters loyal to Bin Laden. Muttaqi appealed to the United Nations to halt its reports of difficulties at its offices, from which all foreign staff have been evacuated since shortly after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. "For the maintenance of good relations, they must stop their propaganda about the seizure of warehouses and deterioration of security," Muttaqi said. (REUTERS) |
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11 LTTE rebels among 12 killed in Lanka fighting COLOMBO, Oct 18: Sri Lankan troops today killed 11 LTTE rebels in two separate attacks in the northern part of the country, a military situation report said. Soldiers attacked a stronghold of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at Kokkutuduvai, 17 km north west of Pulmoddai in the Weli Oya (Manal Aru) area, and killed eight rebels while wounding several others, it said. The ground troops attacked the rebels hours after three militants were shot dead in the same sector while moving towards Janakapura, the report said. Earlier in the day, two police posts in the east of the country came under heavy attacks from LTTE rebels, who used machine guns and 81 mm mortars. A home guard was killed, while five policemen and two soldiers were injured in the attacks. The attacks were repulsed and reinforcements rushed from a nearby military detachment and the situation brought under control, the Army said. (PTI) |
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US plans to wrap up Afghan
bombing in NEW YORK, Oct 18: The United States intends to wrap up its widespread bombing of Afghanistan in a month’s time and is planning air campaign against terrorist camps outside the country, starting with Somalia, a media report said today. The US intended to continue widespread anti-terrorist bombing for another month and wrap it up in mid-November before the beginning of Ramadan, NBC Television network quoted unidentified officials as saying. The network said, at the same time, the military planners were drawing up a list of potential targets for US action outside Afghanistan, beginning with terrorist camps in Somalia. Observers say opposition to the US air attacks, already strong in Arab and Gulf States, was likely to intensify if the campaign continued into Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting beginning November 17. The military planners, NBC said, are looking beyond Afghanistan and commanders have been given orders for the first time to draw up battleplans for potential assaults in other countries on the bases of Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Queda network.(PTI) |
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Taliban fighters eager for US to send in troops JALALABAD (AFGHANISTAN), Oct 18: A multiple rocket launcher hanging off his left shoulder and a Kalashnikov rifle in his right hand, Taliban soldier Khanzada spits defiance as he invites the United States to send ground troops into Afghanistan. Khanzada, who patrols between Jalalabad and the Torkham border with Pakistan, said other hardened Taliban fighters were just like him and as defiant as their leaders. "We grew up in war. Let the United States send its troops into Afghanistan. We will teach them a telling lesson," he said. Some 20 heavily armed Taliban fighters were on guard with Khanzada not far from the Torkham Post that has been closed from the Pakistani side since last month to stem a possible influx of Afghan refugees. The others shared the same hardened view that the Taliban should not hand over Osama Bin Laden, wanted by the United States for the attacks last month on New York and Washington. "Osama is our guest. We will protect him until the last," said Mohammad Zahid, standing guard in the dark at a post outside Jalalabad. The United States launched the air strikes on October 7 to punish the ruling Taliban, which analysts believe can call upon 40,000 fighters, for refusing to turn over Bin Laden. Jalalabad, surrounded by militant training camps, including some belonging to Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda group, has seen a particularly heavy bombardment. Ahmed Jan, a well-built fighter sporting a long grey beard, even laughed as US planes could be heard screaming over the city. "Let them come down, then we will see," he said, as he guarded a recent group of journalists taken on a heavily scripted trip to visit a village near Jalalabad that the Taliban said had been destroyed by US air strikes. "Our morale is very high," he said, as the sound of a bomb explosion reverberated over the curfew-bound city. "The US just wasted another 1,000," Jan said as a second bomb fell near Jalalabad. Ever since the United States started to threaten to attack the Taliban last month, there have been forecasts in Afghanistan and from Taliban supporters in Pakistan that any US ground troops would quickly founder in the tough conditions as Soviet troops did during a dismal occupation in the 1980s. "All of Afghanistan is filled with mountains and rocks. There is nothing else. America will find nothing," he added. Afghanistan has terrain ranging from scorching-hot deserts to rough snow-capped mountains. Bin Laden and the reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar have been rumoured to be hiding in several locations, including mountain caves. "We are waiting for orders of our leader," said fighter Gul Mohammad, referring to Mullah Omar. "Whatever he tells us to do, we will do it," he said. Mullah Omar told his supporters on Wednesday that they were fighting a Jihad, or holy war, and would defeat the "great infidel", the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said. "It is Jihad against the infidel like the one we waged against the soviets," he was quoted as saying by AIP. "I am confident that, with the grace of Allah, we will force to his knees and defeat the great infidel," he said, speaking on the 11th day of US-led attacks. All commanders in the field heard the speech via their walkie-talkies, which they have been ordered to keep open at all times. He also urged his men not to fear death. "Death will definitely come one day. We are not worried about death. We should die as Muslims," he said. "We will succeed whether we live or die," Omar said in a defiant speech apparently intended to show that he was still alive after 11 days of withering strikes on militia installations and cities across his war-ravaged country. (REUTERS) |
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UN cautious about any outside force in Afghanistan UNITED NATIONS, Oct 18: Exploring a new U.N. role in Afghanistan, a key U.N. official discounted taking over the country’s administration and cautioned against any foreign troops, whether U.N. peacekeepers or Muslim fighters. "The United Nations would welcome the possibility of helping the Afghan people reconstruct the country. But that is a different thing from actually providing a direct administration for the country," Lakhdar Brahimi, the top U.N. Point man for Afghanistan told a news conference yesterday. He questioned whether the independent Afghans would welcome outside troops of any kind whether from the United Nations or a Muslim Security Force Turkey has offered to lead. "What we are recommending is that the United Nations should never rush into sending a peacekeeping operation," he said. "I would like to know what countries are rushing forward to offer troops." "It is unclear why foreign Muslim troops would be more acceptable," said Brahimi, himself a Muslin. "Afghans don’t like to see foreigners there, especially in military uniforms." Brahimi, a veteran U.N. trouble-shooter and former Algerian Foreign Minister, has the primary role in shaping a future Government from the factions of the Afghan resistance and probably elements of the Taliban. He is also in charge of getting massive humanitarian aid into the country before winter snows make roads impassible and for getting a future reconstruction program underway. With U.S. bombs raining on parts of Afghanistan, the United Nations is considering a variety of contingency plans but cannot move on any one of them until the future of the ruling Taliban has become clear — whether it collapses, breaks into armed groups or cooperates with its opponents. Brahimi is meeting Richard Haass, a senior State Department official in New York on Monday to see what plans the United States is formulating. On Friday he goes to Washington to meet Richard Armitage, the Deputy Secretary of State, officials in the National Security agency as well as U.S. Senators. "We are in contact with everyone, here and elsewhere what needs to be done is being done, but we cannot produce a solution out of a hat," Brahimi said. "It is with the Afghans that we are going to examine what is going to work for them," he said. Brahimi resigned in frustration two years ago as the U.N. Special Envoy for Afghanistan, saying that the Taliban and its Northern Alliance opponents were bent on war not peace. He also blamed Afghanistan’s neighbors for negotiating one day and then supplying one side or the other with weapons. Pakistan helped organize and keep the Taliban in power while Russia and Iran are said to supply arms to the squabbling Northern Alliance resistance. "I hope they have learned their lesson," Brahimi said. "There is a new situation. Hopefully because of this new situation we will be more successful. All options are open (but) please don’t rush into any solutions." The United Nations, Brahimi said, has had experience over the last 10 years in setting up peacekeeping forces and administration in a failed state. But he noted the world body, too, had learned its lessons in sending in troops, such as in Bosnia, in the middle of a civil war. One plan, considered by the United States, is that Afghanistan’s former 87-year-old exiled king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, would act as a figurehead to convene a grand council of elders or Loya Jirga. The idea is supported by elements of the Afghan resistance, the Northern Alliance, but diplomats said they had not taken the most elementary steps to actually organize such a conference, which has been considered for about 15 years. (REUTERS) |
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NEW DELHI, Oct 18: For these ten odd afghans of Indian origin, the escape from the land of Taliban has been a close shave. Being the first group to reach the country after America launched its attack against terrorism, Pratap Singh, Nand Lal and Chajju Singh consider themselves lucky to have reached the land of their ancestors a few days ago. According to them, about 1500 Indian Afghans are still stranded in Afghanistan while 400 of their community are awaiting the issue of travel documents in Pakistan. As there is no Indian Embassy in Kabul, the applications for visas are to be submitted at the Embassy at Islamabad and the procedural delay is painstaking, says Chajju Singh who reached Delhi with his family of seven including his aged parents last week. Singh left Kabul two days before the US strikes started and reached Torkham border via Jalalabad. They were denied entry to Pakistan though they had valid Pak visas. "We managed to enter Pakistan by trekking a mountaneous stretch for three hours and bribing some guards on the way," he says. They reached Peshawar and sought refuge at Gurudwara Panja Sahib near Islamabad, and got visas from the indian embassy soon. Businessmen Pratap Singh and Nand Lal, whose families were in India since 1992, have a similar story to tell. "We started from Kandahar on September 16 and reached Islamabad through the Quetta-Chaman-Lahore route." "We didn’t have much problem in getting visas as we had applied for it two years ago," says Pratap Singh. However, there are about 250 Indian origin people staying at Gurudwara Panja Sahib, Hasan Abdal - 30 km from Islamabad, and about 150 others at Gurudwara Bhai Joga Singh in Peshawar awaiting the issue of travel documents by the Indian Government, he points out. Manohar Singh, president of Khalsa Diwan Welfare Society, a society of Afghan Sikhs, also says that about 400 people are stranded in Pakistan while almost 1500 others in Afghanistan are either trying to enter Pakistan or living in precarious conditions in the war-ravaged country. According to Manohar Singh, the Ministry of Home Affairs has given a list of 112 out of the 400 stranded people in Islamabad to the Afghan Hindu Sikh Welfare Society for verification so that travel documents could be issued to them. The Khalsa Diwan Welfare Society and Afghan Hindu Sikh Welfare Society are working together to contact the relatives of those in the list for providing information to facilitate the return of their relatives. "We have also approached the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Home Affairs to introduce a new system for easily providing visas for the refugees," he says. Even as the returnees pick up the threads afresh, they are very concerned about those left behind in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Chajju Singh’s brother Harmohan Singh’s family is still held up in the war-torn country. "He didn’t have enough money to come with US. He wanted to do business for some more days to save for the travel. But he couldn’t make it before the October 7 US strike and the closure of Pak-Afghan border". The concern is further compounded for they know that life for minorities under the Taliban regime is miserable. "Life was not at all peaceful there. Taliban troubled us a lot because of our religion. A yellow badge had to be worn so that Muslims won’t greet the Hindus. We had to close our shops five times per day during `Namaz’. There was not an inch of freedom. My Muslim friends advised me to escape and lead a peaceful life," recalls Raj Kumar who was a businessman in Kandahar. An owner of nine shops and two houses in Kandahar, Raj Kumar fled Kandahar a week prior to the ‘Black Tuesday’ on the advice of his Muslim friends. "We will do our level best to arrange for the settlement of the new arrivals," says Manohar Singh. (PTI) |
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