Pak Army takes over patches of Afghan
territory: Diplomats

NEW DELHI, Nov 17: Amid reports of Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar hiding in tribal areas along the Pak-Afghan border, Pakistan Army units are reported to have intruded into and captured parts of Afghan territory last month prompting Kabul to lodge strong protests with Islamabad, diplomatic sources said today.

The latest reported act of intrusion was on October 30 when a battalion of Pakistan Army seized a big part of afghan territory near Khost, seven kilometres deep and 15 kms wide, with Islamabad claiming ownership, the sources said.

They said instances of Pakistani forces violating the durand line, which demarcates Pakistan and Afghanistan, also occured on October 10 when they set up two posts near Mushtri Kandan inside the Afghan territory.

On October 23, the forces again entered four kilometres inside the Afghan territory and hoisted Pakistani flags, they said.

Afghan foreign office and the Army have both lodged strong protest with Islamabad and a meeting of defence personnel from both sides could take place in the near future to resolve the issue, the sources said.

The Pak-Afghan border was demarcated by the durand line under a 100-year agreement which lapsed in 1983. The agreement had come into being after the third Afghan war which saw Britain acquiring vast tracts of Pashtoon territory that was later merged with the North West Frontier Province when Pakistan was formed.

Even before the agreement lapsed, successive Afghan Governments attempted to renegotiate the boundary but failed. During the Taliban rule, Islamabad also wanted to renew the agreement but later decided against it.

The sources said Islamabad was now trying to convert the border into a Line of Control kind of arrangement so that it could lay claim to areas on the other side of the border in search of a strategic depth.

A desperate Hamid Karzai regime could now be expected to be more anxious to renew the border agreement as Islamabad was likely to make demands for adjustments in areas along the border, they added. (PTI)

Saddam hiding weapons in mosques,
hospitals: Iraqi dissidents

LONDON, Nov 17: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is hiding chemical and biological weapons in hospitals and mosques to thwart the UN Inspection Mission to Baghdad.

Saddam Hussien was moving documents and materials from weapons laboratories and a ballistic-missile site into hospitals, schools and mosques in the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, said Ayad Alawi, the leader of Iraqi National Accord (INA), an opposition group close to the regime.

The concealment operation was being co-ordinated by Brig Gen Walid Al-Nasri, a trusted aide from Saddam’s home region of Tikrit who reports directly to Qusay Hussein, Saddam’s second son and head of his powerful state security organisation, Alawi was quoted today by a media report as saying.

Saddam was building underground vaults to hide chemical and biological weapons laboratories, Adnan Al-Haideri, an Iraqi Civil Engineer who defected to US last year claimed, the report said.

Giving credence to Al-Haideri’s claims were US spy planes, fitted with a device that detects underground voids -such as bunkers and tunnels - through variations in the earth’s gravitational field.

The device found a void where Al-Haideri said there was a subterranean nerve-agent laboratory.

Several scientists responsible for Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) programme have been shifted out of the country on false passports already to prevent the inspectors questioning them, ‘The Sunday Telegraph’ said quoting leading exiles.

In the past fortnight two scientists have been sent to yemen, two elsewhere in the Middle East and one each to Romania, Malaysia and Singapore, according to INA.

The Iraqi dictator has set up highly trained "clean-up" squads at his most sensitive secret weapons sites to hide evidence and "sanitise" key facilities even as inspectors are on their way, the report quoted an official of the US Defence Intelligence Agency as saying. (PTI)

Musharraf’s Presidency still controversial: Legal experts

ISLAMABAD, Nov 17: Notwithstanding Pervez Musharraf’s swearing-in as president for a five-year term, the legal status of his Presidency continued to be mired in controversy, legal experts in Pakistan said.

Legal luminaries opined that though he had taken oath as the President, Musharraf has not assumed the constitutional status as he has not been elected by the Parliament under the manner prescribed in the constitution, media reports said.

The legality of Musharraf’s Presidency was questionable as the constitution has been restored without inserting the Legal Framework Order (LFO) - issued by the military ruler ahead of the polls to give legitimacy to his election as president through referendum - Hamid Khan, president of the Supreme Court bar association has said.

The military Government has made the constitution a controversial document and the LFO would only be accepted after approval of the two-thirds majority of the Parliament, Khan was quoted as saying by the local daily the nation.

Khan said the text of the oath embedded in the constitution has also not been amended as the words "under the constitution of 1973" were not replaced with the words "under the amended constitution of 1973."

Earlier, some parliamentarians had protested before the swearing in ceremony that the members were being administered oath under the original constitution and not the 1973 constitution, he said.

The members of the National Assembly took oath under the original 1973 constitution according to the clarification given by proterm speaker Elahi Bukhsh Soomro, Khan said. Pakistan’s Chief Justice Riaz Sheikh Ahmad, who administered oath of office to Musharraf, has also violated his oath by administering oath for a President in military uniform as the constitution does not allow a person to hold the constitutional office without properly following the prescribed procedures, Pakistan Bar Council member Hafiz Abdur Rehman Ansari said.

The military Government has damaged the sovereignty of the Parliament, he said, adding now it was the duty of the Parliament to take concrete steps for restoring true democracy in the country. (PTI)

Zardari held after end of parole, lodged
in Karachi hospital

ISLAMABAD, Nov 17: Asif Ali Zardari, husband of Pakistan’s former Premier Benazir Bhutto, has been arrested again at the end of his weeklong parole granted to attend his mother’s funeral.

Zardari was picked up by police from his native Nawbshah town yesterday and was taken to a Karachi hospital, which was declared as a sub-jail, official reports here said.

The former senator has been in custody since 1996 on corruption and criminal charges.

He was shifted a week ago so that he could travel to Karachi from Islamabad to meet his ailing mother in a hospital in the country’s commercial capital and was later granted parole to allow him to attend his mother’s funeral.

His re-arrest comes in the midst of a continuing stalemate between Pakistan’s mainstream political parties, including Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party and the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) to form an elected Government.

The PPPP and the six religious party alliance, the Muthahida Majlis Amal (MMA) and deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Shairf’s PML-N have demanded that Musharraf quit as President and abrogate his constitutional amendments. (PTI)

Al Qaeda said to have sent another warning to US

WASHINGTON, Nov 17: The Al-Qaeda terror organization has reportedly sent a warning of new attacks on the United States, news reports said.

The US television network CNN late yesterday reported that Yosri Fouda, the Chief Correspondent of the Arabic-language Al Jazeera broadcast station, said he had received a six-page letter believed to have been written by the Al-Qaeda leadership that warned of such attacks. In a CNN interview, Fouda said he believed the message was genuine.

The letter demanded that the US halt its support for Israel in the conflict with the Palestinians and for Russia to stop battling the Chechens.

"Leave US (the Muslims) alone, or expect US in Washington and New York. Do not force us to put you in coffins," the letter was quoted as saying.

Fouda said he had received the letter from reliable sources who had provided him with Al-Qaeda information on several occasions in the past.

He said the letter was another attempt by the Osama bin Laden-led led terrorist organization to make its goals and demands clear and to warn what the results of ignoring them would be.

The letter explained Al-Qaeda’s hostility toward the US and Israel and verbally attacked US President George W Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

"If Bush and Sharon are men of peace, then we too are men of peace," Fouda quoted the letter as saying.

The letter for the first time emphasised the Israel-Palestinian conflict as the central point of Al-Qaeda concerns. Previously the emphasis had been on the withdrawal from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states of US military forces, Fouda said. (DPA)

American authorities monitoring Iraqis

NEW YORK, Nov 17: The Bush administration has begun monitoring iraqis in the United States in an effort to identify potential domestic terrorist threats posed by sympathisers of the Baghdad regime.

Next week, federal authorities plan to begin interviewing Arab-Americans, asking them to report suspicious activity related to Iraq, a senior Government official said. The interviews will be voluntary, but in the past, such efforts have been criticised by Arab-American groups.

The previously undisclosed intelligence programme, a media report said today, involves tracking thousands of Iraqi citizens and Iraqi-Americans with dual citizenship who are attending American universities or working at private corporations, and who might pose a risk in the event of a United States-led war against Iraq.

Some of the targets of the operation are being electronically monitored under the authority of national security warrants. Others are being selected for recruitment as informants, the officials told ‘The New York Times’.

In the event of an American invasion of Iraq, the paper said officials would intensify the programme’s mission through arrests and detentions of Iraqis or Iraq sympathisers if they are believed to be planning domestic terrorist operations.

The Government officials who confirmed the outlines of the programmme did so in an apparent effort to rebut critics in Congress and elsewhere who have complained in recent days that American intelligence agencies are failing in their war against terror, the report said.

The Iraqi domestic intelligence programme, the times said, is an addition to the Government’s continuing effort since the attacks on the world trade center and the Pentagon to identify citizens of Middle Eastern countries who represent a potential threat. Those efforts have also been stepped up as the country prepares for the possibility of war.

The F B I is planning to meet with Arab-American civic leaders to explain the nonclassified aspects of the operation, officials said.

Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the White House office of homeland security, declined to comment on the surveillance programme, which is classified, the paper said.

The effort by intelligence agencies, particularly the FBI, to strengthen and expand their counterterrorism programmes comes at a time of serious discussion in Congress and in the Bush administration about whether to create a domestic intelligence agency like MI-5, the British agency that collects information about internal threats, the report noted.

No one in the administration has formally proposed creating a domestic intelligence agency. Several officials told ‘The Times’ that dismantling the FBI remained an uncertain prospect, but they said a wide range of ideas were likely to be considered with the creation of a Homeland Security Department. (PTI)

‘India, Pak need focus on trade not Kashmir to ease tensions’

SILICON VALLEY (US), Nov 17: As Pakistan looks set for a return to the civilian rule and India sees new hopes of peace in Jammu and Kashmir where a popular Government has recently assumed office, the US should start pushing the two countries to reopen talks in which trade, not Kashmir, dominates the agenda, a US expert has said.

Underlining the need for an Indo-Pak dialogue, Selig S Harrison, Director of the Asian Program at the Washington-based Center for International Policy, said instead of trying to resolve the emotion-laden Kashmir issue, the two countries should explore other ways of reducing tensions in the region, especially through trade.

Historically, civilian leaders in Pakistan have been much more open to accommodation with India than military regimes that have fanned tensions with New Delhi to justify their rule, he wrote in ‘International Herald Tribune’.

Describing Pakistani elections as window dressing for the continuation of the military regime, Harrison said President Pervez Musharraf did his best to ensure that none of the opposition parties would win enough seats to form a stable Government.

Lacking a popular mandate and facing widespread instability, Musharraf will be more dependent than ever on his fellow generals and would be unable to challenge them by softening his stance on Kashmir even if he wanted to do so, he said.

In India, on the other hand, the ouster of long-ruling dynastic National Conference in J&K elections showed that the elections were free and fair, resulting in a coalition government with greater popular acceptance, harrison, an authority on the region, said.

He urged the ruling coalition in J&K to include the more moderate separatists in the Government to broaden the base and politically isolate Islamic militants.

"Negotiations on the long-term future of Kashmir," he said, must await a successful dialogue on greater Kashmiri autonomy between New Delhi and the State Government.

While urging India to show flexibility in negotiating the terms of autonomy, the United States should press Pakistan to resume the effort to open up trade with India.

This would require that India agree to terms for the removal of tariff barriers.

In both countries, the majority of the people live below the poverty line, and the leaders of both have an overriding obligation to move towards economic cooperation that will jump-start progress towards more rapid development, Harrison wrote. (PTI)

Israel tightens grip, Sharon for territorial continuity

JERUSALEM, Nov 17: Two days after a double ambush killed 12 Israelis in Hebron, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon today toured the area and called for strengthening of the Jewish settlements there as his security forces tightened grip over the West Bank city arresting dozens of Palestinians in sweeping military operations.

Sharon visited the scene of ambush that took place on Friday along with Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz and top Army commanders

As Israel contemplated further military response to the killings, Sharon called for exploiting the opportunity to establish territorial continuity between the settlement of Kiryat Arba, on the eastern fringe of the divided West Bank city, and the Jewish section of Hebron, including the tomb of the patriarchs, Israel radio reported.

Israeli security forces arrested at least 41 Palestinians for questioning in Hebron and took control of strategic buildings following the deadly attack on Friday night, Army sources said

Israeli military response came after Palestinian gunmen ambushed a group of Israeli security forces and Jewish settlers on Friday night, killing at least 12 people and wounding 16 others. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

Mofaz also spoke with US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld about the situation. "There is no difference between Islamic Jihad, Hamas and the Tanzim; They are all trying to perpetrate horrific attacks," the Israeli Defence Minister said, telling Washington that "Israel is now in the midst of a wave of terror against it and will, therefore, do whatever is necessary to protect its citizens. In no case will we compromise on security of citizens of the state of Israel."

After Mofaz met Premier Sharon and his Army Commanders, the green light was given to the army to increase pressure on the Palestinian territories.

Following a cabinet meeting, the Government is expected to propose further action against Palestinian targets.

Earlier today, Israeli helicopters raided and destroyed a metal workshop in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip saying the workshop had been used to manufacture weapons that to be used by Palestinian militants against Israel.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is posing a stiff challege to Sharon’s leadership of right-wing Likud Party, termed the Hebron incident a "massacre."

"There can be no diplomatic track so long as Palestinian terrorists continue to carry out such actions," a spokesman for Netanyahu said.

In Hebron, hundreds of Jewish settlers held a demonstration last night to honour the slain Israelis. (PTI)

Ranil sends emissary to invite India to Oslo aid meet

COLOMBO, Nov 17: Sri Lanka will send a senior minister to New Delhi next week to urge India to participate in a fund-raising conference in Oslo for development of the island’s north-east, amidst reports that India is averse to attending a forum at which the ltte is a participant.

Economic Reforms Minister Milinda Moragoda, one of the Government’s negotiators at ongoing peace talks with the rebels, would meet Indian leaders and ask for India’s participation at the Oslo aid meet due to take place on November 25, the ‘Sunday Times’ reported today.

The main opposition party, President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s People’s Alliance, had two days ago hailed India’s decision not to go to a conference at which the LTTE was being introduced to the global stage on a level of parity with the Government of Sri Lanka.

India is yet to make its position clear, although a media report said here that it had decided not to attend the Oslo conference, as it would amount to conferring legitimacy on the LTTE.

The US and Britain, among other countries, are sending senior representatives to the conference and are expected to announce aid packages for rebuilding the north and east.

The PA has indirectly criticised the two western powers for their enthusiasm in sharing a platform in Oslo with LTTE negotiator Anton Balasingham, who will be making the appeal for aid jointly with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The Tamil tigers are listed as a terrorist organisation in both the US and Britain, but US Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage and Britian’s Minister for Overseas Development Clare Short are among the leading names listed to participate in the Oslo conclave.

Norwegian Ambassador in Colombo, Jon Westborg, was also due to leave for New Delhi next week in fwhat seems to be a desperate bid to canvass India’s support for the forum, the ‘Sunday Times’ said.

Meanwhile, Norway, which is under attack from the People’s Alliance for its alleged transgression of the limits of its peace facilitation role, has opened crisis talks with the opposition party to keep peace efforts on track.

The PA’s lengthy statement assailing major aspects of the peace process, especially the attempt to elevate the status of the LTTE before the eyes of the international community, has come as a major setback to Norway’s efforts.

Westborg met PA MP and former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar yesterday in an apparent bid to mollify the party, which is furious with the nature of the Norwegian involvement, and also believes that the direction of the present process would lead to creation of a separate state.

Kadirgamar is reported to have reminded westborg that the President had twice in the past conveyed her dissatisfaction with some aspects of the peace talks, especially the lack of consultation with the opposition and the ground situation in the north and east.

Moragoda had briefed Kumaratunga on the status of the peace talks two days ago, just hours after the PA released its critique of the peace process. Kumaratunga had voiced her concern about the future direction of the talks and asked for wider consultation in the matter.

Wickremesinghe is likely to call on the President and discuss these concerns with her after his return from Oslo. The third session of the peace talks will also take place in Oslo early in December. (PTI)

Dialogue with Maoists soon: Minister

KATHMANDU, Nov 17: Mepalese Government and Maoist rebels have agreed to soon hold peace talks after a massive offensive by guerrillas left over 200 people dead, a minister in the caretaker administration has said.

The Maoists and the Government have agreed to initiate formal dialogue soon to end the problem, Minister for Women and Social Welfare, Gore Bahadur Khapange, said yesterday.

Khapange, however, did not specify any timeframe for initiating the talks.

"The Maoists are also Nepalese and cannot go against the welfare of the country. So the two sides will hold dialoge and soon peace, law and order will be restored," Khapange was quoted as saying by space times daily.

No confirmation regarding peace talks has been received yet from the Maoists who launched a massive offensive on friday in two Nepalese districts leaving over 200 people dead.

Khapange also ruled out a unilateral ceasefire, saying the Maoists would have to lay down weapons before the army suspends operations.

Last November, the Maoists broke the ceasefire after holding third round of talks with the Government and launched a series of attacks, which led to mobilisation of Army across the country.

Both the Government and the Maoists should stop violence and initiate dialogue to restore peace, Khapange said.

Friday’s attacks by the Maoists in Jumla and Gorkha districts will in no way put barrier in holding talks between the Government and the Maoists, he said.

The Maoists recently issued a statement offering to hold dialogue with the Government on their three point demand.

Forming an interim Government, holding a constituent Assembly election and drafting a new constitution are their major demands.

Meanwhile, Nepali Congress general secretary Shushil Koirala has cautioned that the achievements of the people’s movement may be lost if the constituent Assembly election is held as per the Maoists’ demand.

The present constutiton can be improved by correcting mistakes committed during the past 12 years of democratic exercise through appropriate amendments, said Koirala addressing a workers’ gathering in Kathmandu.

Yuvraj Gyawali, Nepal Communist Party (UML) office secretary, alleged that the Government has not taken serious initiative to hold dialogue with the Maoists.

The caretaker Government led by Lokendra Bahadur chand possesses no executive power to initiate dialogue, he told a gathering in Janakpur yesterday.

Meanwhile, Chinese Ambassador to Nepal, Wu Chong Yong, has said that there is a need to forge unity and understanding among all the nepalese people to seek long term solution to the current Maoist problem facing the country.

Speaking at the inaugural function of Nepal China study society in Butawal yesterday, he said the problem will be resolved if the Nepalese people unitedly move ahead. (PTI)

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