MMA to go soft on US campaign, wants JeM,
LeT leaders released

ISLAMABAD, Oct 20: Pakistan’s hardline religious alliance, which posted major gains in the Oct 10 general elections, have promised to go soft on the US crackdown on Al Qaeda militants in the country but demanded the release of leaders of banned militant outfits, including the Lashkar-E-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Mutthahida Majlis-e-Amal leader and chief of the Jamat Ulema Islamic Maulana Fazlur Rehman told the British High Commissioner to Pakistan that the alliance would let the US and UK complete its agenda against international terrorism on Pakistani soil, MMA sources said.

Diplomats of the US, British, Canadian and European Union have been calling on MMA leaders, especially Rehman ever since the alliance posted impressive victories in the polls.

However, another major component of the MMA, the Jamat-e-Islami (JI) has demanded the Government release the leaders of LeT, JeM and Sepha-e-Sehbha of Pakistan, an extremist Sunni group which was banned by President Pervez Musharraf in February during the height of Indo-Pak standoff.

JI’s deputy leader Liaqat Baloch said that JeM leader Masood Azhar, who was released by India to end the hijack of the Indian Airlines flight in 1999, former LeT chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and SSP chief, Azim Tariq should be released as the Government "failed" to produce any evidence against them, `Daily Times’ quoted him as saying.

"We will press for their release. The state says they’re involved in terror, but these people are behind bars without justification. This is state-sponsored terrorism," Baloch said adding there was no justification to ban the outfits.

Baloch said Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a sectarian Sunni outfit, which the Government holds responsible for the recent parcel bombs in Karachi, is an organisation run by "the agencies".

The three leaders have been kept in preventive detention which was periodically extended. Saeed was released briefly and reportedly taken into custody again. The Government denies his detention but his family claimed he was taken into custody again.

He said that MMA has been the target of a smear campaign ever since its strong showing at the polls, adding the party would nevertheless be a likely candidate of the coalition Government in Islamabad.

"Since we will form the Governments in NWFP and Balochistan, we will have to share in the Federal Government to protect the provinces," he said.

Baloch said the MMA Governments in the Frontier Province and Balochistan would check illegal immigration and prevent cross-border infiltration from across the Durand line.

He also said the party would once again call for an end to US military and intelligence presence on Pakistani soil. (PTI)

UN investigator visits Afghan mass graves

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, AFGHANISTAN, Oct 20: A UN expert probing mass killings in Afghanistan visited graves today of men, women and children killed under the former Taliban regime.

Pakistani lawyer Asma Jahangir, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, travelled to the site about 30 km west of the city of Mazar-i-Sharif after meeting officials of rival factions in the northern capital.

Sardar Sayedi, a representative of the Hezb-i-Wahdat Party, told newsmen Jaghal can contained the bodies of ethnic Hazaras killed by the Taliban about four years ago.

"There were thousands of them, all civilians, most of them Hazaras, forced out of their houses and then killed," he said.

The Wahdat party is largely made up of Hazaras, who suffered particularly under the Taliban because they mainly followed the minority Shi’ite Muslim creed. The hazaras themselves have been accused of atrocities against prisoners during factional fighting in Kabul in the 1990s.

Reuters television journalists who visited Jaghal can yesterday were shown pits containing dozens of piles of human bones and scraps of clothing.

At another site closer to Mazar, villager Masir Ahmad said he had helped bury eight bodies dumped in a mud-walled compound there by the Taliban. "After that, for quite a while, we saw many more bodies getting dumped here,’ he said.

Jahangir is to prepare a report with recommendations for submission to the UN Human Rights Commission in March. About 200 km West of Mazar is Dasht-e-Leili, a site that reportedly contains the bodies of up to 1,000 fighters of the former Taliban regime.

The men suffocated in container trucks last year on their way to prison in the custody of US-backed forces of regional warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, who is also Deputy Defence Minster in the current US-backed Government.

Dostum has said that around 200 may have died during transportation, but that most of them succumbed to wounds sustained during fighting or to hunger and exhaustion.

This issue is a potential embarrassment for the US-led coalition which allied with the forces of regional warlords like dostum to drive out the Taliban after the September 11 attacks on the United States last year.

Jahangir said last week she would not be limiting her probe. "I shall be looking at everything, as many places as I can go to. I am not just concentrating on one incident."

Dostum’s rival for control of the north, Ustad Atta Mohammad, head of the Jamiat-i-Islami faction in the region, told newsmen it was clear some of those buried at Dasht-e-Leili had been deliberately killed.

"I know that some of those people were deliberately killed by military individuals, by throwing them in containers with the lack of oxygen," he said in an interview.

"We want these kind of teams to come and investigate these sort of atrocities in Afghanistan," he said.

"If they fail to complete their investigation, due to a lack of cooperation from authorities in the north, it would be a matter of infamy, not only for the northern region but for the country as a whole."

Jahangir arrived in Afghanistan a week ago and has visited the provinces of Herat and Kandahar. From Mazar she heads to the central town of Bamiyan. (AGENCIES)

Iraq begins releasing all political prisoners

BAGHDAD, Oct 20: Iraq began releasing political prisoners under an unprecedented amnesty issued today by President Saddam Hussein to inmates and exiles to mark his perfect 100 percent win in an uncontested election last week.

The move to free all political prisoners and most other inmates was seen as part of Saddam’s campaign to rally Iraqis behind his leadership at a time when he faces the prospect of US military action to topple him.

Witnesses said they saw scores of prisoners leaving a prison in Baghdad.

"With our blood and souls we redeem you Saddam," prisoners chanted as they were freed.

"May God protect Saddam, I’ll never do wrong again," one jubilant prisoner told news agency.

Other witnesses said inmates were also being released from Abu Gharib Jail on the outskirts of the capital, where most political prisoners are believed held.

The amnesty, which could lead to the release of thousands of people, is the first time Saddam has pardoned all political prisoners in his 23-year rule.

Over the years he had ordered the release of small numbers of prisoners or cut the jail terms of others.

"All jailed prisoners, detainees and sentenced fugitives for political reasons are granted a complete, comprehensive and final amnesty," Saddam declared in the decree.

The amnesty also covered most criminal prisoners. "Prisoners and detainees will be set free immediately except in the case of those who are sentenced or detained because of murder, then they would be set free only if the families of victims would forgive them or if they pay back their debts to the Government or people," it said.

The amnesty was issued in a statement released to the Iraqi state media.

Official results, dismissed by Washington, showed every one of the nearly 11.5 million Iraqis eligible to vote in Tuesday’s presidential referendum turned out to cast a yes ballot, giving Saddam another seven-year term in office.

"In light of these results...We show mercy rather than punishment, and amnesty rather that implementing the law and legal persecution," Saddam said in a statement read on Iraqi television by Information Minister Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf.

Saddam urged Iraqis who were victims of the prisoners to also show mercy and forgive them.

He said circumstances in Iraq since the 1990-91 Gulf crisis over Kuwait allowed "some parasites" to flourish but dissidents could not harm the strong ties between the leadership and the people.

The main opponents of Saddam’s rule are either outside Iraq or in a Kurdish enclave in the north outside his control. The main exiled groups hope to play a role in any post-Saddam era.

Washington accuses Saddam of developing weapons of mass destruction — nuclear, chemical and biological — and wants to topple him. Iraq denies having such weapons. (AGENCIES)

New Govt formation in Pak may be delayed till next month

ISLAMABAD, Oct 20: With Pakistan’s military regime stating that transfer of power to civil administration may be delayed till completion of senate elections next month, the efforts to form a new Government were further complicated as pro-Musharraf PML-Q failed to elect a leader who could be its Prime Ministerial candidate.

Federal Law Minister Khalid Ranjha said here yesterday that election of new Prime Minister may be delayed due to preparations for Senate elections.

Ranjha said that previously the new Prime Minister used to be elected in the presence of the Senate. It is generally felt that the new PM should be elected after the Senate elections, he added.

The Senate elections are due to be held on November 12.

Meanwhile, complicating the efforts to form a coalition Government at the Centre, Pakistan Muslim League - Qaide Azam (PML-Q), which won 77 seats in the October 10 general elections to the National Assembly, failed to elect a leader who could be the Prime Ministerial candidate of the party. Instead, the meeting of its legislator party, held here yesterday, ended on a chaotic note.

Amid open differences, Sujat Hussain was recently elected as the party leader and he was empowered to nominate the Prime Ministerial candidate.

The party, which is being branded as "king’s" party for its support to the Musharraf Government, does not have a leader of national stature.

Former Premier Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) and the six-party religious alliance Muthahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) have no leadership problems but they are unable to cobble a coalition that could last for some time.

PML-Q, which tried to woo MMA to form the Government, was bogged down with MMA leaders’ reservations over the constitutional amendments brought in by President Pervez Musharraf.

Judging by MMA leaders’ open pronouncements, they would not accept the amendments and insist on taking oath under the 1973 Constitution, which has been amended by Musharraf through an ordinance.

The PPPP shares MMA’s reservations on amendments but has some ideological differences with it, including on MMA’s hard-line stance on war against terrorism, imposition of Shariat law and issues relating to women.

The PPPP leaders were currently in Dubai to discuss the strategy to be followed, which included the party’s demand to provide a safe passage to Bhutto to return to the country without the threats of arrest in connection with the cases of corruption registered against her. (PTI)

Iraq says new resolution would harm UN credibility

BAGHDAD, Oct 20: Iraq warned today that any new UN Security Council resolution on arms inspections would violate earlier agreements with the United Nations and deal a blow to the credibility of the international body.

But the Iraqi Government, after a meeting chaired by President Saddam Hussein, did not say whether it would withdraw its decision to readmit weapons inspectors if a US compromise resolution was passed by the Security Council.

"Regarding the ongoing consultations at the Security Council and outside it, we don’t see the need for a new resolution," a Government spokesman said.

"Passing any new resolution that contradicts (earlier) agreements represents a retreat from the stand that the security council should take," he said.

On October one Baghdad reached a deal with weapons inspectors allowing the UN officials to return to iraq after a four-year break, and invited them to return yesterday. But the United States has sought tougher inspection guidelines in a new Security Council resolution before the inspectors return.

"We warn against passing such a resolution...Because it means that the Security Council doesn’t respect its commitments at the time it asks others to fulfil theirs," the Iraqi official said.

The spokesman said washington was to blame for the failure of the inspectors to return to Iraq yesterday as invited.

It was the first Iraqi comment since the Security Council started debate on the resolution last week.

Diplomats say key UN Security Council members are likely to resolve their deadlock over Iraq and reach a deal on the US compromise resolution in days.

French diplomatic sources said talks on a revised US draft which drops an explicit authorisation to use force against Iraq were still progressing. France has led opposition to initial US proposals which called for the immediate use of force against Iraq if any Security Council member judged it to be impeding arms inspections to determine whether Baghdad was developing weapons of mass destruction. Iraq denies having such weapons.

Earlier, Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan, quoted by local media, said Iraq maintained its position on the return of arms inspectors in line with the deal with the United Nations.

"Iraq is prepared to foil any evil American aggression that targets its national sovereignty and the free will of its people," Ramadan said.

Baghdad’s official newspaper Al-Thawra said the United States would fail in its efforts to rally world backing for an attack on Iraq.

"The American administration has exposed itself, for at the time that it claims to have resorted to the United Nations, its senior officials are releasing aggressive statements threatening Iraq and putting pressure on countries that oppose the aggression," it said in an editorial.

"But these threats will fail as nations around the world including states that are permanent members of the security council have come to realise that the United States...Is trying to spread chaos in the world," Al-Thawra said.

The daily said the United States should abandon any plan for military action because any attack on Iraq "will not be a picnic...And the aggressor will pay a heavy price". (AGENCIES)

Bangladeshi miscreants kidnap Indians

AGARTALA, Oct 20: Armed Bangladeshi miscreants abducted two Indians, including a twelve year old boy, from bordering Kamalpur in Tripura’s Dhalai district late last night.

Police today said about sevensarmed men, comprising tribals and non-tribals,’stormed into the house of one Shiv Narayan Gaur at Chulubari and abducted him and his neighbours Dulal Deb and his 12-year-old son Biplab at gun point.

After crossing the border the miscreants released Dulal with a letter saying that Rs 20 lakhs should be given to the miscreants for releasing the captives.

The Border Security Force (BSF) and police have taken steps for the release of the hostages with the help of the Bangladesh Rifles, the sources added.

This was the third such incident in the bordering viplages of North Tripuja and Dhalai districts of the state since October two. On October two, armed Bangladeshi miscreantsshad raided bordering villages in Dharmanagar under North Tripura district and kidnapped nine Indians at gun point. BSF officials held a series of flag meetings with the Bangladesh Rifles to rescue the villagers, but the efforts have been in vain.

On October 17, armed Bangladeshi nationals shot dead a woman and injured four others at Raghna in North Tripura district. (UNI)

Annan says N Korea admissions worrisome

ALA ARCHA, KYRGYZSTAN, Oct 20: United Sations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today said US declarations that North Korea had admitted to proceeding with a nuclear weapons programme were "a worrisome development".

US officials said last week that North Korea, confronted with US evidence, had admitted it had a uranium-enrichment program in violation of a 1994 non-proliferation pact.

The revelation threatens to upset a delicate balance on the divided peninsula.

"Obviously, this does not help with non-proliferation and it is a worrisome development," Annan told reporters after talks with Askar Akayev, President of Ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan.

"Consultations are going on around capitals to work out measures to be taken due to this new development in North Korea," he said at Akayev’s residence in the foothills of the Tien Shan mountains outside Bishkek.

A top US Envoy began talks in Tokyo on Sunday to gather international support for pressure on Pyongyang Po put a halt to its nuclear weapons programme.

North Korea has so far made no comment on the US announcement.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday the 1994 agreement, under which Washington provides energy aid to North Korea in exchange for its pledge not to develop nuclear weapons, was effectively nullified after Pyongyang’s admission. (AGENCIES)

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