Muslim
Washing Rite Goes Hi-Tech With 'Wudu' Machine
Indian composer Rahman wins two Grammy
Awards
Aligarh Muslim University Court members elected
Political violence in Karachi claims 12
lives
Taliban
bomb girls’ school
Darul
Uloom, Deoband nod to photo IDs without burqa
Egypt arrests 26 suspected of plotting
terrorism
Muslim outfits join agitation for Telangana
Muslim meet demands Telengana with Hyderabad
Protest
over death of Muslim leader in a shoot-out with FBI
Troops
snatch key Taliban area; 20 killed
Taliban-Pak army links deepening?
26/11 trial: Pak govt presents proof against Lakhvi, 6
others
Bangladesh hunts for fugitive Mujib killers in
Libya
'ISI, LeT getting Indian jihadis together in Karachi for
attack'
Terrorists giving youth lure of arms in
Jammu
Ceasefire offer in Yemen
Nigerian
group ends ceasefire
Lashkar
seeks brand-new charity avatar
Mumbai Police unable to trace Karkare's
jacket
Headley planned to set up Delhi base in Nov
Pak Taliban denies death of Hakimullah
Incriminating' evidence against Lakhvi: Pak
counsel
Forces
take control of militants’ stronghold after seven years
Afghan,
Iraq wars shape Pentagon budget, US strategy
Death
rate signals tough year ahead in Afghanistan
US drones killed 123 civilians, three al-Qaeda men in
January
Indian goods being taken to NATO troops via
Pakistan
Protester killed in Kashmir
Israeli
forces declare West Bank area ‘closed’
War
crimes in Gaza: Israel rejects Goldstone Report; Gaza accepts its
findings
Row over
9/11 terror trial site
Afghanistan: Much is at stake for India
This way lies disaster: Bribing Taliban will just not work
Photo: Science Museum unveils new Muslim Heritage
exhibition
Compiled by Aman Quadri
------
Science Museum unveils new Muslim Heritage
exhibition
01 February 2010
A brand-new exhibition entitled 1001 Inventions: Discover the Muslim
Heritage in Our World, was unveiled at the Science Museum today. Tracing the
forgotten story of a thousand years of science from the Muslim world, from the
7th century onwards, the exhibition which runs until 25 April 2010, looks at the
social, scientific and technical achievements that are credited to the Muslim
world, whilst celebrating the shared scientific heritage of other cultures. The
exhibition is a British based project, produced in association with the Jameel
Foundation.
Featuring a diverse range of exhibits, interactive displays and
dramatisation, the exhibition shows how many modern inventions, spanning fields
such as engineering, medicine and design, can trace their roots back to Muslim
civilisation.
One of the focal points of the exhibition is a six-metre high replica
of the ‘Elephant Clock’- a visually
striking early 13th century clock whose design fuses together elements from many
cultures and is featured alongside a short feature film starring Oscar-winning
actor Sir Ben Kingsley as Al-Jazari, inventor of the fabled
clock.
Other exhibits featured in this interactive exhibition
include:
* Model of an energy
efficient and environmentally-friendly Baghdad house.
* A large 3 metre
reproduction Al-Idrisi’s 12th-century world map.
* Model of Zheng He’s
Chinese junk ship – originally a 15th century wooden super structure over 100
metres long.
* Medical instruments from
a thousand year ago, many of which are still used today.
* Model of a 9th-century
dark room, later called Camera Obscura, which Ibn al-Haytham used to
revolutionise our understanding of optics.
1001 Inventions was created by the Manchester-based Foundation for
Science, Technology and Civilisation (FSTC). The exhibition will run from 21st
January until 25th April 2010 (with a short closure between 25th Feb and 12th
March 2010 inclusive).
1001 Inventions offers a fascinating backdrop for evening corporate
events for up to 250 guests. The exhibition can be hired exclusively for
receptions or in conjunction with one of the Museum’s other stunning interactive
galleries for gala dinners.
http://www.londonlaunch.com/newsArticle.asp?newsID=4064
------
Muslim Washing Rite Goes Hi-Tech With 'Wudu'
Machine
By Angie Teo
January 31, 2010
Malaysian Invents Machine to Help Muslim Purification Without Wasting
Water
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters Life!) - A Malaysian company has invented a
machine it says will help Muslims purify themselves before prayers without
excessively wasting water.
The ornate, green-colored machine comes with automatic sensors and
basins to curb water usage during wudu, an Arabic word used to describe the act
of washing the face, arms and legs before prayers.
The wudu, or ablution, rite precedes the five daily prayers Muslims
are obligated to perform. There are more than 1.7 billion Muslims in the world,
with the majority in Africa and the Middle East where water supplies are
scarce.
Inventors AACE Technologies is counting on rich countries in these
two regions to snap up the machines that will be available in the next six
months and cost
"Saving water is a motivation for people to adopt this system rather
than the conventional methods, where there's a lot of water wastage," AACE
Chairman Anthony Gomez told reporters while launching the product in the
Malaysian capital.
The device, which also emits recorded Koranic verses and is 1.65
meters (5 ft 4.96 in) tall, only uses 1.3 liters (0.3 gallons) of water compared
to the conventional methods, which usually involve leaving faucets running for
the duration of the washing ritual, which can last for several minutes, Gomez
said.
"During the Haj, two million people used 50 million liters water a
day for wudu. If they introduce this machine they are saving 40 million liters
per day," he said, referring to the annual Muslim pilgrimage to
Mecca.
The Gulf city of Dubai has shown interest in acquiring the product
for its airport, Gomez said, adding that the machine took two years to develop
at the cost of $2.5 million.
AACE also wants to target mosques and offices with new models that
can be wall mounted in a group of six.
Muslims heading for prayers in mainly Muslim Malaysia had mixed
feelings about the high-tech, but pricey, invention.
"The idea is good and it is built in line with Islamic teachings. But
water in this country is cheap, so it is still not worthwhile to have this
machine," an officeworker who gave his name as Aminuddin told
Reuters.
But a tourist from neighboring Singapore, which has little water
supplies, said the machine would help conserve natural
resources.
"Nothing is impossible. Of course we are trying ways and means to new
products, those that can save mankind, those that can save nature," Azman
Mohamed Noor
(Writing by Niluksi Koswanage, editing by Miral
Fahmy)
Copyright 2010 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or
redistributed.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=9713998
------
Indian composer Rahman wins two Grammy
Awards
1 February 2010
Indian composer AR Rahman has won two Grammy Awards at the
prestigious US music ceremony in Los Angeles.
Rahman received awards for best film song and best soundtrack, both
compositions for the Oscar-winning film Slumdog
Millionaire.
Rahman won two Oscars, a Bafta and a Golden Globe last year for his
soundtrack to the multi award-winning Slumdog Millionaire.
The composer is often called the Mozart of Madras, the city where he
works.
Rahman won in the best compilation soundtrack for a motion picture.
His Jai Ho song in the film also won in the best motion picture
song.
"This is insane, god is great again," Rahman said as he accepted his
award.
He later told the BBC it felt "so good, because the Grammies are
meant to be the greatest music awards".
Rahman beat such rivals as Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds
and rock star Bruce Springsteen in the soundtrack and best song categories
respectively.
Last month, Rahman was shortlisted for an Oscar nomination for his
Tamil song NaNa from the Hollywood film, Couples Retreat.
The song is vying with 62 others for the nominations which will be
revealed on 2 February.
The Grammy awards are further recognition of Rahman's enormous
talents, says the BBC's Soutik Biswas in Delhi.
The 44-year-old composer is a musician with a staggering range - from
raga to reggae to hip hop to Indian folk to jungle rhythms to western classical,
our correspondent says.
Seventeen years after he began writing music and songs for films, the
jingle maker-turned-musician finally got recognition as India's first truly
global film music composer with his score for Danny Boyle's sleeper hit Slumdog
Millionaire in 2009.
Sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, guitarist Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and tabla
player Zakir Hussain are the other Indian musicians who have won Grammy
Awards.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8490528.stm
-----
Aligarh Muslim University Court members
elected
February 1st, 2010
Aligarh: In the crucial annual meeting of AMU Court eminent
theologian and President of All India Muslim Personal Law Board, Maulana M. Rabe
Nadvi, former India’s Hockey Captain Zafar Iqbal, Prof. A. M. Pathan, Vice
Chancellor of Central University of Karnataka, former India’s Ambassador to
Saudi Arabia, Mr. Ishrat Azeez and eminent scientist Dr. Shahid Jameel were
elected as members of the Aligarh Muslim University Court, the supreme governing
body of the University.
The election of 42 representatives from the six different categories
to serve as members on the University Court was announced yesterday night.
Seventy six candidates were in fray. Eighty-nine members of the University Court
attended the annual meeting of the University Court. Some of the prominent
members who attended the meeting were Mr. Mohammad Shafi Quraishi, Chairman,
National Minorities’ Commission, Padma Bhushan Mr. Moosa Raza, Prof. R. P.
Singh, former Vice Chancellor of Lucknow University, Mr.Naseem Ahmad, ex-Vice
Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University, noted sociologist Prof. Imtiaz Ahmad,
noted educationist Mr. A. R. Sherwani, Mr. Shahnawaz Husain, former Union
Minister, Mr. Rashid Alvi, Mr. M. I. Shahnawas, Mr. Shafiqur Rahman Barq, Ms. Kusum Rai and Dr. Monajir Husain (all
MPs).
Noted industrialist Mr. Ameer Ahmad, Chairman, Teejan Groups of
Industries, Muscat, Oman, Mr. Nadeem A. Tareen, Educationist and Philanthropist,
Prof. Syed Khalifatullah, President, Niyamat Science Academy, Chennai, Mr.
Ishrat Azeez, former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Mr. Basheer Thangal, President,
Kerala Muslim Education Association, Ms. Parveen Talha, former Member of Union
Public Service Commission, Prof. Zakia A. Siddiqui, Khwaja Mohammad Shahid,
Director Institute of Secretariat Training and Management, New Delhi were also
declared elected as member of the University Court for a period of three years.
Padma Shri Professor Siddiqur Rahman Kidwai, Secretary, Ghalib Institute, New
Delhi and Professor Shamim Hanafi of Jamia Millia Islamia were elected to
represent Urdu language and literature.
The detailed result of the election is however given
below:
Election of six (6) persons representing Muslim Colleges
of
Oriental Learning in India under Statute 14(1)
(xxvi).
http://nvonews.com/2010/02/01/aligarh-muslim-university-court-members-elected-2/
------
Political violence in Karachi claims 12
lives
Jan 31, 2010
Karachi : At least 12 persons have been killed and over a dozen
injured in fierce clashes between supporters of two political parties here,
weeks after political violence claimed over 40 lives.
Tensions erupted between workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement
(MQM) and Awami National Party (ANP) following a clash between their supporters
late on Friday night.
Two political activists, Sharif Khan of ANP and Muhammad Javed of
MQM, were killed in target killings in Orangi town.
"The two activists were killed after trouble started over the opening
of a new party office (of ANP) and some wall chalking," senior police officer
Matiur Rehman said on Sunday.
Tensions between the ANP and MQM which are members of the coalition
governments at the centre and in Sindh province mounted yesterday and six more
persons were killed in clashes and shootouts.
Rehman said since then several incidents of aerial firing, torching
of vehicles and target killings were reported in areas where the ANP and MQM
have strongholds, taking the toll to 12.
Fierce clashes between party activists were reported from several
parts of Karachi, including Banaras Colony, Qasba Colony, Muslim Colony, Orangi
Town and Liaqatabad.
"According to reports we have around 15 people have also been wounded
in these incidents," Rehman said.
Armed men forced the closure of shops in some areas. They also
torched a mini-bus and fired in the air.
Other police officials said in Bukhari colony three poor labourers
were gunned down by armed men although they had no political
affiliations.
Full report at:
www.indianexpress.com/news/political-violence-in-karachi-claims-12-lives/573673/
------
Taliban bomb girls’ school
Monday, 01 Feb, 2010
BANNU, Jan 31: A girls’ school in the Muavia village of Ghoriwala
area was bombed late on Saturday night.
According to officials, militants placed explosives in the building
of Government Middle School for Girls and set them off.
The boundary wall and walls and roofs of two classrooms collapsed and
other rooms were damaged. Local people said windowpanes of nearby houses were
also shattered.
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/national/taliban-bo
------
Darul Uloom, Deoband nod to photo IDs without
burqa
Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui
1 February 2010
LUCKNOW: Within days of the Supreme Court stating that Muslim women
must get themselves photographed without their burqa for their voter I-cards,
Darul Uloom, Deoband, on Sunday set conditions under which they would comply:
The photographs must be taken by women; and, officials deputed for matching the
ID with its holder on polling day, too, must be only women.
A senior Darul Uloom office-bearer, Maulana Arshad Farooqui, said
that since conditions for getting oneself photographed for a passport were
exactly the same as that for the voter I-card, the solution will also be
identical.
The Supreme Court had, on January 22, reacting to some clerics' call
that Muslim women can be photographed only with their veils, had said their
voting rights would be cancelled if they didn't get photographed without veils.
Security was one of the important reasons cited for the move.
According to a source, the most rational argument at Darul Uloom for
supporting the move of Muslim women being photographed was that they get their
pictures taken without their veils for passports.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Darul-nod-to-photo-IDs-without-burqa-/articleshow/5522046.cms
------
Egypt arrests 26 suspected of plotting
terrorism
REUTERS, 1 February 2010
CAIRO: Egypt has arrested 26 suspects who the prosecutor said
belonged to a cell of militant group Islamic Jihad and were plotting terrorist
acts against tourists and state installations, the official news agency MENA
reported on Sunday.
The suspects, arrested in the provinces of Mansoura and Dakahiliya on
the Nile Delta, had firearms, ammunition and explosives, the agency said.
The public prosecutor ordered them placed in precautionary detention
for 15 days pending investigations, MENA wrote, adding that the prosecutor had
sent the arms and explosives for forensic investigations.
Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) emerged in the 1970s and carried out the
1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat.
Security analysts say it has been largely absorbed into al-Qaida, in
which former EIJ leader Ayman al-Zawahri is deputy to Osama bin Laden.
Egypt is concerned about the possibility that al-Qaida-inspired
militants could infiltrate the country after being forced out of the
neighbouring Palestinian enclave of Gaza by Islamist group Hamas, analysts told
a conference last week.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Egypt-arrests-26-suspected-of-plotting-terrorism-/articleshow/5522057.cms
------
Muslim outfits join agitation for Telangana
A Srinivasa Rao/ Hyderabad
FOR THE first time, many Muslim groups in Telangana have decided to
hop onto the separate statehood bandwagon.
While the Majlis- e- Ittehadul Muslimeen ( MIM) — which represents a
majority of the Muslim population in Hyderabad — has maintained a stoic silence
on the demand, other organisations of the community are ready to join major
political parties in the movement.
On Sunday, several Muslim organisations held a convention in
Hyderabad and resolved to support the Joint Action Committee ( JAC) of political
parties to fight for a separate state. The organisations include the Telangana
Muslim Advocates’ Forum, the Telangana Minority Employees’ Welfare Society, the
Mashayakeen Telangana JAC, the All India Tehaffuz Masaajid Board, the Telangana
Tehaffuz Urdu and the Telangana Muslim Women’s Joint Action
Committee.
The meeting was chaired by civil liberties activist M. T. Khan and
attended by a large number of Telangana leaders.
Among those present were TRS president K. Chandrasekhara Rao,
Telangana ideologue K. Jayashankar, civil liberties activist K. G. Kannabhiran,
Maoist sympathisers Gaddar and P. Vara Vara Rao, academic Mahboob Alam Khan and
Telangana JAC convenor M. Kodandaram.
The speakers claimed that the Andhra rulers had destroyed Muslim
culture.
They said Muslims would enjoy self- respect only in the separate
state.
Mail Today, New Delhi
------
Muslim meet demands Telengana with Hyderabad
01 Feb 2010
Prominent personalities and public representatives from different
political parties, at a meeting organised by Muslim leaders here today, declared
that the Telangana Muslim community would get justice only in a separate
State.
The meeting passed a resolution urging the Central Government to form
Telangana state by making Hyderabad its State capital.
The meeting decided to organise a massive rally and public meeting on
Nizam College grounds here on Feb 7. Prominent national leaders from the Muslim
community will speak at the public meeting.
Muslim minority leaders organised a convention on Telangana for the
first time in the city today.
The meeting got importance as leaders and intellectuals of a
cross-section of society shared the dais.
Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K Chandrasekahar Rao said
that in the separate Telangana State Muslims would be given 12 per cent
reservation in education and employment, and the Sachar Committee report would
be implemented.
``Capitalists from coastal Andhra are grabbing Wakf lands for
business development and such lands could be protected only in a Telangana
state. Besides, Andhara people spoiled the real Telangana culture and instigated
communal violence in and outside Hyderabad,’’ rao alleged.
Telangana JAC convener M Kodandaram said that Muslims had a great
history in the region and the historical monuments in several parts of the city
stood testimony to it. ``Muslims are living in about 40 percent area of
Telangana but are deprived of even basic facilities.
A section of political leaders are trying to separate the Muslim
community from the Telangana movement. Development and welfare of Muslims will
be possible only in a separate Telangana State,’’ he said.
Full report at: http://www.expressbuzz.com/
------
Protest over death of Muslim leader in a shoot-out with
FBI
By Niraj Warikoo
Feb. 1, 2010
A protest is planned for this morning outside the Dearborn Police
Department during a news conference to release the autopsy report of Imam Luqman
Ameen Abdullah, the Muslim leader who died in a shoot-out with FBI
agents.
"We want to let people know we won't tolerate this type of vicious
assault on citizens," Ron Scott, with the Detroit Coalition Against Police
Brutality, said today. "An assault on Muslims is an assault on
everyone."
Scott's coalition is holding the rally along with the Michigan
Emergency Coalition against War and Injustice, a Detroit-based
group.
"I've received numerous calls from average ordinary citizens who are
appalled and sickened by what happened," Scott said of the Oct. 28 shooting.
"The assault on Imam Abdullah was an assault on the entire community as a whole,
not just Muslims."
The FBI has said that Abdullah was an Islamic extremist who was
dealing in stolen goods. Federal officials say that Abdullah opened fire during
an Oct. 28 raid in a Dearborn warehouse by FBI agents seeking to arrest Abdullah
and 10 others on suspicion of buying and selling stolen items provided by an
undercover informant.
Andrew Arena, special agent in charge of the Detroit FBI office, said
last week that while the case ended tragically, his agents acted appropriately
in the two-year investigation of Abdullah and during the
raids.
"We did what we had to do," Arena said. The FBI has portrayed
Abdullah as a Sunni Islamic extremist who spoke against law enforcement and
followed Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, the Muslim leader formerly known as H. Rap
Brown in prison for killing a police officer.
The rally is set for about 10:15 a.m. across the street from the
Dearborn Police Department, Scott said.
http://www.freep.com/article/20100201/NEWS02/100201007/1004/news02/Protest-planned-over-death-of-Muslim-leader
------
Troops snatch key Taliban area; 20 killed
By Anwarullah Khan
Monday, 01 Feb, 2010
KHAR, Jan 31: Security forces gained control of Taliban’s
headquarters in the Sewai area of Bajaur Agency on Sunday after intense shelling
and clashes in which at least 20 militants, an important ‘commander’ among them,
were killed.
Artillery, jets and helicopter gunships provided cover when troops
advanced on Sewai, Jani Shah, Azarnau, Sapari, Khaza and Damadola areas of
Mamond tehsil.
Sources said that two personnel were also injured in fighting that
started when troops, accompanied by Mamond Lashkar volunteers, moved towards
Damadola, a stronghold of TTP ‘commander’ Maulvi Faqir Mohammad. Two children
were among the dead, they added. Security forces set up bunkers and checkpoints
and hoisted national flag in the areas.
AFP adds: The army action was stepped up after a suicide attack
killed at least 16 people in the area on Saturday. Two security personnel were
killed by another bomb on Sunday.
“Fighter jets and helicopter gunships are bombing militant hideouts
in Mamond and Salarzai,” administrative official Jameel Khan
said.
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/troops-snatch-key-taliban-area-20-killed-120
------
Taliban-Pak army links deepening?
TNN, 1 February 2010
NEW DELHI: More and more Pakistan army officers are being identified
with extremist beliefs, as well as with links to Taliban and other related
organisations which is the greater worry inside Pakistan.
In the most recent instance, one Colonel Shahid Nazir and two
colleagues, serving army and air force officers, were arrested in Balochistan
and court-martialled in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). They were charged with
passing on information to guide terrorist attacks on military establishments
inside Pakistan.
The charges were serious. The three officers are members of Hizbul
Tehrir, an extremist Islamist group. They were accused of passing on information
to the Taliban and later, two civilians were arrested trying to attack the
Shamsi air base in Balochistan.
Pakistan has been battling the steady ingress by Taliban sentiments
among its officer corps, even though its been long a fact that recruitment for
the Pakistan army and the extremist organisations happen from the same
provinces, sometimes same villages, making the connections much deeper than
otherwise appreciated.
The seriousness of this came to light when a group calling itself
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan actually protested against the court-martial of these
officers in Kotli, PoK.
This was unusual, specially since the TTP, for the first time, set
off explosions in PoK, raising worries about Taliban infestation in a province
that has been relatively free of them. In fact, a TTP spokesperson there said
they had set off the explosions as a mark of protest.
The reason why their trial for treason was moved to PoK from
Balochistan on January 15 was that under local laws, the accused cannot appeal
the decision in the appellate court. Only PoK residents are allowed to do so.
This means the military court would be the final arbiter.
Full report at:
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/Taliban-Pak-army-links-deepening/articleshow/5521997.cms
------
26/11 trial: Pak govt presents proof against Lakhvi, 6
others
PTI, 30 January 2010
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan government today presented evidence before an
anti-terrorism court against LeT operations’ chief Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and six
other suspects for their involvement in the Mumbai attacks.
The government's team of prosecutors presented evidence against the
accused in the court of Judge Malik Muhammad Akram Awan in Rawalpindi, sources
said.
The details and nature of the evidence could not immediately be
ascertained.
"Following the presentation of evidence, the judge adjourned the
matter till February 13," said Shahbaz Rajput, a lawyer for some of the accused.
Defence lawyers had boycotted the last hearing on January 23 in protest against
the failure of authorities to provide them security and facilitate their
meetings with their clients at Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail in line with an order of
the Lahore High Court.
Judge Awan is conducting the trial in Adiala Jail for security
reasons.
The seven accused - Lakhvi, Zarar Shah, Abu al-Qama, Hamad Amin
Sadiq, Shahid Jamil Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younas Anjum - are also being held in
Adiala Jail.
They were last year formally charged with planning and helping
execute the assault on India's financial hub in November 2008 that killed 166
people.
A Rawalpindi-based division bench of the Lahore High Court this week
reserved its decision on a petition filed by Lakhvi seeking his acquittal in the
case in the anti-terrorism court.
Lakhvi filed the petition in the High Court to challenge the
anti-terrorism court's decision dismissing an earlier plea for acquittal.
Another bench of the Lahore High Court last week dismissed a separate
application by Lakhvi seeking the transfer of his trial from the anti-terrorism
court in Rawalpindi to Lahore
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/26/11-trial-Pak-govt-presents-proof-against-Lakhvi-6-others/articleshow/5517461.cms
------
Bangladesh hunts for fugitive Mujib killers in
Libya
Manas Paul
TNN, 1 February 2010
Libya, or Benghazi to be precise, is the destination the Bangladesh
government is looking at to nab the fugitive killers of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
"We have specific information about the fugitives and are working to
bring them back to face justice,' Bangladesh law minister Shafique Ahmed said.
He added that diplomatic channels were working overtime to ensure the
arrest and extradition of the absconding Mujib killers. Once brought back, they
would face the gallows in Bangladesh.
Out of the 12 convicted for Mujib's killing, five were sent to the
gallows on Thursday, while one, Aziz Pasha, died in Zimbabwe in 2002. Rest of
the six are absconding. Sources said the Bangladesh government did not have the
exact locations of at least four fugitives, though they were believed to be
holed up in Libya or Pakistan.
A worldwide hunt led by Interpol is underway to track down the
condemned six. Various other intelligence agencies, including RA&W, Mossad
and Bangladesh's own NSI, are also part of the team looking for the absconding
killers of Mujib.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/Bangladesh-hunts-for-fugitive-Mujib-killers-in-Libya/articleshow/5521875.cms
------
'ISI, LeT getting Indian jihadis together in Karachi for
attack'
Shishir Gupta
Feb 01, 2010
New Delhi : The ISI has put together a team of Indian jihadis in
Karachi, and is waiting to launch them into the country on a terrorist project,
alleged terror suspects David Coleman Headley and Mohammad Amjad Khwaja have
told their interrogators.
Headley was arrested by the FBI in Chicago in October last year, and
is accused of recceing Mumbai and other Indian cities for the Lashkar-e-Toiba as
part of the preparations for 26/11. Khwaja, belonging to the Harkat-ul Jihad-i
Islami, was arrested on January 18, and is being held in
Hyderabad.
Headley has described the “Karachi project” to FBI interrogators,
details of which have been shared with New Delhi, sources said. He is believed
to have said that both the ISI and the Lashkar have been training Indian
nationals in terrorist activities, and using them for anti-India “projects” from
time to time.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has also been able to unearth
significant details about Headley’s movements in Pakistan through his e-mail
correspondence. Contents of his Gmail account were shared with New Delhi
following an official request to Google.
Details of Headley’s movements in and out of India, reported in The
Indian Express last Thursday, show that he flew into Mumbai from Karachi and
returned to the same city twice over the last three years — once in late 2006,
and then again in April 2008.
Evidence of the ISI-Lashkar Karachi project has also come
independently from HuJI man Khwaja, who was picked up by Chennai Police on his
return from Saudi Arabia on a Pakistani passport. Top sources said Khwaja has
told his interrogators that a large number of highly-indoctrinated jihadi Indian
nationals have been housed in the Pakistani port city.
Khwaja is understood to have revealed that he met alleged Indian
Mujahideen terrorists Amir Raza Khan and Riyaz Bhatkal in Karachi, both of whom
are staying in the city’s Defence enclave, probably under the ISI’s
protection.
Full report at:
www.indianexpress.com/news/isi-let-getting-indian-jihadis-together-in-karachi-for-attack/573878/
------
Terrorists giving youth lure of arms in Jammu
Jan. 31 2012
The terrorist groups, unable to “sustain their cadre in view of the
heavy attrition by the security forces”, are coercing the youth to recruit them
in various terrorist outfits to keep alive terrorism in Doda. This has been
claimed in an analysis of terrorist recruitment corresponding to terrorist
attrition conducted in Doda region by the Army. An official handout issued by
northern command maintained that with the growing disillusionment of the youth
with the terrorist cause, the rate of recruitment is just 32 percent of
terrorist casualties. The study revealed that in Doda district, in 2008, 98
terrorists were killed by security forces whereas 51 youngsters were recruited
by various terrorist outfits (52 per cent). In 2009, 58 terrorists were killed,
however, only 19 youth joined terrorist groups (32 per cent) mostly by force and
fear of reprisal. Out of these 19 terrorists, 7 have already surrendered or
either rescued or apprehended by the security forces. “Earlier, the youth was
misguided in the name of religion or jihad by senior terrorist leaders, but due
to pro-active security forces most of these self styled commanders who were
being actively supported and motivated by inimical forces across Line of Control
were killed or have fled to Pakistan or have surrendered. Elimination of senior
terrorist leaders has resulted in significant reduction in recruitment levels.
The terrorist groups are now finding it very difficult to sustain their cadres
in view of the heavy attrition by the security forces and are, therefore,
resorting to recruitment under coercion,” claimed the study. Decreasing levels
of recruiting is a clear indication of waning terrorism. Also, the parents are
unwilling to let their children join terrorist groups and are either willing to
pay to get their children back or approach overground workers to put pressure on
the terrorists to release their children. This is another method being employed
by terrorist groups which are cash starved to raise funds. Lure of easy money
and glamour of the gun is the primary motive to join terrorist groups. Majority
of youth joining terrorist groups are in the age group of 18 to 28 years and are
from poor economic background, are semi or illiterate and are invariable
unemployed, the study stated. *** Headley planned Delhi base in Nov. Sumir Kaul
Mumbai Jan. 31: American terror suspect David Headley was scheduled to visit
India aga-in in November last year ap-parently to finalise the next target for
LeT group and set up a base in Delhi. Full report at:
www.asianage.com/presentation/leftnavigation/news/india/terrorists-giving-youth-lure-of-arms-in-jammu.aspx
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Ceasefire offer in Yemen
Atul Aneja
DUBAI: A Shia group battling a Yemeni military offensive has agreed
to a ceasefire following a major international conference in London which has
listed key elements for bringing lasting peace to the strife-torn
nation.
Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, leader of the Houthi group, which has been
fighting Yemeni forces in the northern Saada mountains has declared that his
fighters will cease all military engagements if government forces stopped
attacking. He said the group would also accept the government proposed
five-point deal to end fighting.
“I announce our acceptance of the [government’s] five points, after
the aggression stops,” said Mr. Al-Houthi in an audio message released on the
Internet. “The ball is now in the other party’s court.” The government has said
fighting will end if the Houthis withdraw from official buildings, reopen roads
blocked in the north, return weapons seized from security forces and release all
prisoners, military as well as civilian.
Both sides had been clashing intermittently since 2004, but fighting
escalated in August, when the government launched its “scorched earth” military
campaign against the Houthis. Neighbouring Saudi Arabia also joined the fighting
in November, but calm has prevailed since January 25, when the Houthis announced
their withdrawal from Saudi territory.
The Saudis have said the group’s fighters had been forced out of the
country’s border areas.
Analysts say in case the ceasefire materialises, it would help
implement the international commitments towards Yemen proposed at the London
conference.
During deliberations on January 27, participants at the conference
expressed their keenness to see that Yemen remains focused on countering
Al-Qaeda, which has taken root on its soil, and work towards ending other
conflicts that have engaged Sana’a.
Full report at:
http://www.hindu.com/2010/02/01/stories/2010020161571400.htm
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Nigerian group ends ceasefire
Nairobi/Abuja: Nigeria’s main militant group has called off a
three-month ceasefire and warned that oil companies in the Niger Delta should
expect an “all-out onslaught” against facilities and
personnel.
Attacks by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta
(MEND) had slashed the West African nation’s oil production by around a quarter
and helped drive up global oil prices when MEND responded to a government
amnesty and laid down its arms last October.
However, MEND spokesman Jomo Gbomo said in an emailed statement that
his group had become disillusioned by the government’s failure to create real
dialogue.
MEND says it is fighting for a share of oil revenue for Niger Delta
residents. — DPA
http://www.hindu.com/2010/02/01/stories/2010020161561400.htm
------
Lashkar seeks brand-new charity avatar
Pranab Dhal Samanta
Jan 31, 2010
New Delhi: India’s frustration over Pakistan’s lack of action against
Hafiz Mohammed Saeed is only growing by the day with latest intelligence inputs
suggesting that the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) head has moved an application to
launch a social welfare trust in Lahore.
According to reliable inputs available with India, the now banned
Jamaat-ud Dawa (JuD) — which has served as a front for the LeT — has initiated
measures to register a society called Al Noor University (Trust) with its
headquarters behind Masjid Toheed, 114-E Johar Town,
Lahore.
The memorandum and rules and regulations of the trust state that
Hafiz Mohammed Saeed will be the founder-member and first chairman. And
interestingly, many among the 14 members of the Board of Governors are known JuD
or LeT functionaries. Consider them:
Hafiz Abdul Rauf: The director of JuD’s public welfare wing, he has
been named the trust’s general secretary.
Zafar Iqbal: He was director of JuD’s education wing and is going to
be the trust’s joint secretary.
Hafiz Abdul Rehman: He was director of JuD’s Justice & Fatwa wing
and has been given task of being the information secretary of the
trust.
Ameer Hamza: A former editor of JuD publication Ghazwa, he is also a
member of the trust.
This, for India, is a clear violation of the UN Taliban & Al
Qaida Sanctions Committee’s decision to ban the JuD after the Mumbai terror
attack. While the objectives of the trust are welfare-oriented, the same was the
case with the JuD when it was floated following the ban on the LeT after the
Parliament attack.
Already, the JuD has been working for rehabilitation of those
displaced in Pakistan’s troubled western theatre under the banner of
Falaah-I-Insaaniyat. This group is active alongside the Pakistan military and
has access to camps manned by them.
This Al Noor University (trust), sources said, is different from the
relatively better known Al-Noor trust that is also registered in Lahore. The
slight change in name is being seen as an attempt to avoid any immediate
detection. Just like the JuD, the objectives of this trust largely cover areas
like education and health.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/lashkar-seeks-brandnew-charity-avatar/573619/
------
Mumbai Police unable to trace Karkare's jacket
Jan 31, 2010
Mumbai: The disappearance of the bullet-proof jacket of Hemant
Karkare, who was killed during the 26/11 attacks, is turning out to be one of
the biggest mysteries for Mumbai police which continues to be clueless as to
where it vanished.
Running from pillar to post, personnel of elite crime branch of
Mumbai Police have been sweating to trace the remains of the jacket and have not
spared even the shops in South Mumbai's Chor Bazar. Sweeper of J J Hospital
Dinesh Gattar, who sprung a surprise last December by saying that he had dumped
jacket of Karkare along with the hospital waste, thus waking up Mumbai police
from a slumber who were caught napping over the mysterious disappearance of the
bullet proof jacket.
Recently, on a tip-off that the inside material including the steel
and iron caste used in the bullet-proof jacket might have been sold to vendors
in Chor Bazar, teams of crime branch searched virtually every scrap dealer in
the area but without any luck.
While already red-faced police was maintaining a studied silence over
the entire issue officially, sources within the department said that every lead
was probed thoroughly so that the jacket of the former Anti-terror chief
Karkare, killed by Ajmal Iman Kasab outside Cama hospital on 26/11, could be
traced.
The Crime Branch had registered a case against Kasab, the lone
surviving Lashker-e-Taiba terrorist out of 10 who carried out attack on Mumbai
in November 2008, for killing Karkare, Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok
Kamte and Inspector Vijay Salaskar.
Senior police officials, requesting anonymity, opined that
bullet-proof jacket is the first line of evidence which should have been taken
into the custody by the investigators. However, Mumbai police found this blooper
only after slain IPS officer's wife, Kavita Karkare, filed an RTI plea in which
the police admitted that the jacket was not traceable. This resulted in a furore
as the wife and other experts had leveled allegations of poor upkeep of jacket,
which could have been crucial forensic evidence in the probe of audacious terror
attack of 26/11.
The allegations also included that the poor quality of the
bullet-proof vest worn by Karkare and the disappearance could be one of the
cover up exercise by vested interests. The Mumbai Police, after facing flak for
missing the evidence, is looking for the traces of elusive jacket in the narrow
by lanes of the market infamous of trading stolen goods besides the Chor
Bazar.
Full report at:
www.indianexpress.com/news/mumbai-police-unable-to-trace-karkares-jacket/573671/
------
Headley planned to set up Delhi base in Nov
Jan 31, 2010
Mumbai: American terror suspect David Headley was scheduled to visit
India again in November last year apparently to finalise the next target for
Pakistan based Lashker-e-Taiba group and set up a base in
Delhi.
Sources privy to the investigations said that 49-year-old Headley had
told his friends in India that he was coming to the country in November for his
business. Headley's messages to his friends, who have recorded their statements
before the National Investigation Agency, stopped in the last week of September,
barely a few days before he was arrested by the FBI at O'Hare airport in Chicago
on 3rd October last year, the sources said.
After recording the statements, the sleuths believe that since
Lashker had postponed its planned terror strike on Danish newspaper
Jyllands-Posten because of international pressure following 26/11 attacks in
Mumbai, Headley, who was arrested just before he could board a plane for
Philadelphia en route to Pakistan, was coming to India for finalising the next
target.
The friends, which included some women, told the investigators that
Headley was constantly in touch with them from the US and before being arrested
he had said that he was coming to India and that they will have a
get-together.
According to the documents shared by the FBI, Headley had been asked
by his handler, a Pakistani Army official that he should wind up his office
First World Office in Mumbai and ‘open up a new business centre in Delhi to be
used as a cover for future activities’. The travel details of Headley, who is
now turning out to be the globe-trotting prize asset of Lashker-e-Taiba, was
being examined by various agencies, the sources said.
The investigators believe that the last visit of Headley to India in
March last year may have been to finalise synchronised terror strikes on Jewish
houses located in five cities. Piecing together the travel trail of Headley
during his visit to India in March last year, the investigators were of the
opinion that the US terror suspect was scouting only the Jewish targets
including the El Al airlines office here.
Full report at:
www.indianexpress.com/news/headley-planned-to-set-up-delhi-base-in-nov/573675/
------
Pak Taliban denies death of Hakimullah
Reuters, Feb 01, 2010
Peshawar : Pakistan's Taliban denied a report on Sunday that their
leader Hakimullah Mehsud had been killed in a US drone aircraft
strike.
"It is a total lie," a spokesman for the group told Reuters by
telephone from northwest Pakistan, referring to a report on Pakistani state
television.
Pakistan's military said earlier it was investigating the report that
Hakimullah died from wounds sustained in a drone attack and had been buried in
the Orakzai tribal region in the northwest of the country.
"We're inquiring further but so far there's no confirmation," said
army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas.
Hakimullah's death would likely create disarray in Pakistan's al
Qaeda-linked Taliban, analysts say, but it would not deal a major long-term blow
to the group, which is fighting to topple the pro-American
government.
State television did not give dates for the drone
attack.
Pakistani intelligence officials said they had received unconfirmed
reports that Hakimullah, the number one enemy of the Pakistani state, may have
died of wounds after a drone strike on two vehicles carrying militants in North
Waziristan on Jan. 17, days after surviving a similar
attack.
Hakimullah appeared in a farewell video with the suicide bomber
double agent who killed seven CIA employees in Afghanistan on Dec.
30.
The footage suggested his Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Taliban
Movement of Pakistan, which has focused on fighting Pakistan's government, had
become more sophisticated, taking part in the second deadliest attack in the
CIA's history.
Pakistan's Taliban issued an audio tape on Jan 16. purportedly from
Hakimullah denying he was killed in a US drone strike two days
earlier.
Full report at:
www.indianexpress.com/news/pak-taliban-denies-death-of-hakimullah/573985/
------
Incriminating' evidence against Lakhvi: Pak
counsel
Jan 31, 2010
Lahore : Pakistani authorities have 161 witnesses and ‘incriminating’
evidence to nail LeT operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and six other
suspects in the Mumbai terror attack case, a senior government law official has
said.
“We have 161 witnesses and incriminating material to prove the
involvement of Lakhvi and the other accused in the 2008 Mumbai attacks”, Special
Public Prosecutor Malik Rab Nawaz Noon told reporters. The interior ministry has
hired the services of Noon to head the prosecution team in the Rawalpindi-based
anti- terrorism court that is conducting the trial of Lakhvi and the other
suspects.
Noon also alleged that the lawyers of the accused were causing delays
in the court proceedings. Rejecting the defence counsel's objections to the
validity of the confessional statement made to Indian authorities by Ajmal Amir
Kasab, the lone attacker arrested in Mumbai, Noon said it was received through
proper government- to-government channels.
“We have got it translated by the head of the Hindi department of the
National University of Modern Languages in Islamabad”, he
said.
Lakhvi's counsel has filed a petition in the Rawalpindi bench of the
Lahore High Court challenging the anti-terrorism court's decision to reject his
plea for acquittal. In his petition, Lakhvi said the proceedings against him
should be quashed and he should be acquitted under Section 265-K of the Code of
Criminal Procedure on the grounds that there was no evidence or witness against
him. He also contended that there was no probability that he would be
convicted.
Full report at:
www.indianexpress.com/news/incriminating-evidence-against-lakhvi-pak-counsel/573684/
------
Forces take control of militants’ stronghold after seven
years
Monday, February 01, 2010
Clashes leave 20 militants dead in Bajaur
KHAR: Security forces on Sunday took control of the Sewai area and
hoisted the national flag in the erstwhile stronghold of the militants in
Bajaur’s Mamond subdivision after seven years, official sources
said.
Also, 20 militants and two tribesmen were killed while two soldiers
sustained injuries in the fighting. The sources also claimed that several
militants’ hideouts and bunkers were destroyed in the clashes, artillery
shelling and air raids in various areas of the agency.
The sources said security forces, backed by tanks, armoured personnel
carriers (APCs), gunship helicopters and fighter jets, took control of the Sewai
area after a brief but fierce clash with the militants early in the
day.
During the operation, gunship helicopters and fighter planes also
targeted and strafed the suspected hideouts in Sewai, the Taliban’s nerve
centre, where they had established a parallel judicial
system.
The sources said 20 militants were killed and two soldiers were
injured when gunship helicopters and fighter planes bombed Jani Shah and
Damadola areas in Mamond. Two tribesmen were also killed after an artillery
shell reportedly fired by security forces struck a house in Mamond Tehsil.
However, the identity of the slain civilians could not be
ascertained.
http://thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=26991
------
Afghan, Iraq wars shape Pentagon budget, US
strategy
Monday, February 01, 2010
WASHINGTON: The Obama administration plans to unveil a defence budget
on Monday (today) that pours billions into drones, helicopters and Special
Forces, reflecting a focus on fighting extremists rather than conventional
armies. The Pentagon’s spending priorities as well as its strategic vision —
which is also due to be unveiled this week — are a product of the
counter-insurgency campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan that have severely
stretched the military.
The proposed 2011 defence budget comes to more than $700 billion, a
modest two per cent increase, and unlike last year avoids sweeping cuts to major
weapons programmes, according to Pentagon officials and draft documents. Despite
alarm over the US government’s ballooning deficit, Obama has spared the military
from belt-tightening efforts and will ask for $33 billion for the current fiscal
year to pay for a surge of 30,000 reinforcements in Afghanistan, said officials,
who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have already cost one trillion
dollars since 2001, and the new budget calls for roughly $159 billion to cover
the costs of the US missions there — including about 11.6 billion to expand the
Afghan security forces, officials said. The budget asks for $9.6 billion for a
range of helicopters — a lifeline for troops fighting the Taliban in
Afghanistan’s rugged landscape — and $2.7 billion for unmanned drones and
sensors used to hunt down insurgents. The Pentagon sets a goal of nearly
doubling the fleet of MQ-9 Reapers, unmanned planes that can carry
precision-guided bombs, a coveted weapon that has transformed US
tactics.
With Special Forces seen as serving a pivotal role in helping hunt
down al-Qaeda figures and training allied troops, the budget provides $6.3
billion to provide equipment, training and 2,800 additional soldiers for the
service.
Full report at:
http://thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=221957
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Death rate signals tough year ahead in
Afghanistan
Monday, February 01, 2010
KABUL: The Afghan war has notched up another grisly record, with the
number of international troops to die in the fight against the Taliban the
highest for the month of January since the war began.
With tens of thousands more international troops being deployed to
Afghanistan this year, analysts and officials are warning the deaths of 44
foreign soldiers in January is a sign of things to come.
The record death toll comes as the Kabul government and its
international partners shift the war’s emphasis from battleground to
development, and start focusing on attempts to convince Taliban infantry to lay
down their arms. In the meantime, experts say more troop’s means more casualties
as foreign forces take the fight to the Taliban — with a major offensive planned
for this week likely to be the first of a battle-scarred
year.
“With more foreign forces, and the enhanced quality and quantity of
Afghan forces, the enemy will use all its capacity to show that the surge is
causing further instability,” said defence ministry spokesman General Zahir
Azimi.
“When the fight increases, the area of the fight expands accordingly,
so the casualties will increase,” he told AFP.
The 113,000 troops fighting the Taliban under US and Nato command are
being supplemented with another 40,000 arriving up to August, to fight with and
train up Afghanistan’s security forces.
January’s foreign troop deaths, reported by independent website
icasualties.org, which keeps a running tally, compares with 25 in January 2009.
The number of Americans who died last month in the conflict now in its ninth
year was almost double the number for January last year, at 29 compared with 15,
the website says.
http://thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=221961
------
US drones killed 123 civilians, three al-Qaeda men in
January
By Amir Mir
Monday, February 01, 2010
LAHORE: Afghanistan-based US predators carried out a record number of
12 deadly missile strikes in the tribal areas of Pakistan in January 2010, of
which 10 went wrong and failed to hit their targets, killing 123 innocent
Pakistanis. The remaining two successful drone strikes killed three al-Qaeda
leaders, wanted by the Americans.
The rapid increase in the US drone attacks in the Pakistani tribal
areas bordering Afghanistan can be gauged from the fact that only two such
strikes were carried out in January 2009, which killed 36 people. The highest
number of drone attacks carried out in a single month in 2009 was six, which
were conducted in December last year. But the dawn of the New Year has already
seen a dozen such attacks.
The unprecedented rise in the predator strikes with the beginning of
the year 2010 is being attributed to December 30, 2009 suicide bombing in the
Khost area of Afghanistan bordering North Waziristan, which killed seven CIA
agents. US officials later identified the bomber as Humam Khalil Abu Mulal
al-Balawi, a Jordanian national linked to both al-Qaeda and the Tehrik-e-Taliban
Pakistan (TTP).
In a subsequent posthumous video tape released by Al-Jazeera, Balawi
claimed while sitting next to TTP Chief Commander Hakimullah Mehsud that he
would blow himself up in the CIA base to avenge the killing of former TTP chief
Baitullah Mehsud in a US drone attack. The consequent increase in US strikes,
first in North Waziristan and then South Waziristan, specifically targeting the
fugitive TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud clearly shows that revenge is the major
motive for these attacks. The US intelligence sleuths stationed in Afghanistan
are convinced the Khost suicide attack was planned in Waziristan with the help
of the TTP. Therefore, it is believed Afghanistan-based American drones will
continue to hunt the most wanted al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders, especially
Hakimullah, with a view to avenge the loss of the seven CIA agents and to raise
morale of its forces in Afghanistan.
Full report at:
http://thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=221847
------
Indian goods being taken to Nato troops via
Pakistan
By Khawar Ghumman
Monday, 01 Feb, 2010
ISLAMABAD: Despite Pakistan’s refusal to let Indian products be taken
to Afghanistan through its territory under the Afghan Transit Trade (ATT),
Indian goods are being taken to the country via Pakistan under the tags of Isaf
and Nato.
Documentary evidence placed in the National Assembly library may have
failed to catch the attention of honourable parliamentarians, but International
Security Assistance Force (Isaf) and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato)
personnel are receiving Indian goods transported through Pakistan under special
arrangements.
Soon after the US attacked Afghanistan, the military regime of
General Pervez Musharraf offered a special concession whereby Isaf and Nato got
a blanket cover for importing their cargoes through Pakistani ports and
airports. The government issued the Customs General Order (CGO) 12/2002 for the
purpose.
Such goods were given customs duty exemption and Pakistani customs
officials were neither allowed nor they had any mechanism to check details of
imported items and had to accept the information provided by the countries in
the international alliance.
The present government made no changes in the arrangement introduced
by the Musharraf regime.
A recent information sheet of cargoes meant for Nato transported
through Pakistan carries the name Tata—a 66-seater bus—scores of other Indian
brand items which are mentioned only as ‘Provisions for Isaf and
Nato’.
Documents available with Dawn reveal that the facility was being
regularly used since the start of the war on terror and Pakistan playing the
role of a frontline state.
Full report at:
www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/13+indian-goods-being-taken-to-nato-troops-via-pakistan-120-za-07
------
Protester killed in Kashmir
Monday, 01 Feb, 2010
SRINAGAR, Jan 31: A Kashmiri youth was killed and eight others were
injured when police fired tear gas and used batons to disperse scores of
anti-India protesters in occupied Kashmir on Sunday, police and witnesses
said.
The violence broke out when protesters pelted police positions with
stones and bricks in downtown Srinagar.
The youth was critically injured when a tear gas shell hit his head,
a police officer said.
“He later died in hospital,” he said, adding that police were still
trying to establish the dead person’s identity.
The death sparked more protests in Srinagar, with demonstrators
burning tyres and blocking roads, residents said.—AFP
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/protester-killed-in-kashmir-120
------
Israeli forces declare West Bank area ‘closed’
Mohammad Mar’i | Arab News
RAMALLAH: Israeli forces on
Sunday declared the West Bank area of Al-Baq’a, east of Hebron, a closed
military zone in order to help Jewish occupiers plant
trees.
Palestinian sources said Israeli forces barred Palestinian farmers
and local and foreign journalists from entering the area. The sources said
“about 200 occupiers from nearby settlement of Kharsina arrived in the area and
started planting trees they brought with them.”
Hussein Al-Araj, the governor of Hebron, told Arab News that the
“occupiers’ move is a translation of Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu’s
remarks where he promised to create a park in front of every West Bank
settlement.”
Last week, Netanyahu planted trees in three major West Bank
settlements and called on occupiers in other settlements to follow suit. Al-Araj
said: “Al-Baq’a area is the most fertile land in Hebron governorate and planting
of trees there will deprive local farmers of their main source of
income.”
Israeli Minister without Portfolio Benny Begin on Sunday laid the
foundation stone for construction work in a new neighborhood in Beit Hagai
settlement, south of Mount Hebron.
Ahead of a three-day visit to Tel Aviv this week, Italian Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Israel’s settlement policy in the occupied West
Bank is a “mistake” which could be an obstacle to any peace settlement. “It will
never be possible to convince the Palestinians of Israel’s good intentions while
Israel continues to build in territories that are to be returned as part of a
piece agreement,” Berlusconi told the Ha’aretz newspaper, in an interview
published Sunday.
Full report at:
www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=132205&d=1&m=2&y=2010
------
War crimes in Gaza: Israel rejects Goldstone Report; Gaza accepts its
findings
Arab News
The Feb. 5 deadline for the Palestine Authority and Israel to respond
to allegations in the Goldstone Report that Israel committed war crimes and
possible crimes against humanity during last year’s Gaza war will most likely
come and pass. Israel roundly rejected the Goldstone Report; Gaza’s authorities
accepted its findings in full. So it would be better that the PA go all the way
and hold an independent probe to avoid being referred to the International
Criminal Court prosecutor in The Hague, as was recommended by the Goldstone
Report, should the two sides fail to carry out credible
investigations.
The Palestinians have nothing to fear. The Goldstone Report unearthed
damning evidence of Israeli war crimes. The Palestinians were at the end of what
the Goldstone Report described as an Israeli aim in Gaza not just to kill Hamas
fighters but to collectively “punish, humiliate and terrorize” an unarmed and
captive civilian population. They were the victims of man’s inhumanity against
man. Not surprisingly then, the Israeli investigations were conducted by their
military, which naturally exonerated itself of any systematic wrongdoing. It is
a mockery of justice to entrust the task of investigating Israeli war crimes in
Gaza to the Israeli government or an Israeli commission of inquiry. You don’t
ask the Gestapo to investigate Nazi crimes. Israel is a law unto itself and most
Israeli leaders and government operatives are themselves war criminals. Thus, it
is totally unacceptable that Israel be allowed to investigate itself. What is
needed is a credible third party to establish the truth about what Israel did in
Gaza, and what better neutral party than the Goldstone Report which documented
allegations of international crimes with meticulously collected evidence and
careful analysis? It is a report of the highest standard of professionalism,
commensurate with what one would expect from a group of leading legal
experts.
Full report at:
www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=132187&d=1&m=2&y=2010&pix=opinion.jpg&category=Opinion
------
Row over 9/11 terror trial site
Scott Shane
February 1st, 2010
For much of President Barack Obama’s first year in office, his
national security team worked to devise a secure plan to send dozens of Yemeni
detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — the largest single group at the prison
camp — home to Yemen, perhaps to a rehabilitation programme. Then came the
Christmas Day airliner bombing attempt, which was planned in Yemen, and the
President put all transfers there on hold.
Since November, the administration had been preparing to move the
highest-profile Guantanamo prisoners — Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four
accomplices accused of plotting the September 11, 2001, attacks — to Manhattan
for a federal criminal trial.
But overwhelming opposition from New York politicians concerned about
costs, disruptions and security has the Justice Department scrambling to come up
with a Plan B, even as Congress threatens to block money to pay for a criminal
9/11 trial altogether. That could force the administration to revive the very
option that the President and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. had rejected:
military commissions at Guantanamo for the 9/11 plotters.
“It’s obviously proven a lot more difficult than a lot of us expected
to close Guantanamo,” said Sarah E. Mendelson of the Centre for Strategic and
International Studies in Washington, who has studied the issue intensively. She
called the turnaround of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and other New York officials
“disappointing” and the costly security plan they proposed for Manhattan
excessive, given the major al-Qaeda trials held there in the past with far less
disruptive procedures.
For some who have always advocated military commissions for the 9/11
plotters, the demise of the Manhattan plan simply proved their point. “It just
shows what a dumb idea it was in the first place,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham in
an interview on Thursday. Graham plans to reintroduce legislation in a few days
to block criminal trials for the 9/11 suspects altogether.
Full report at:
http://www.hindu.com/2010/02/01/stories/2010020161330900.htm
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Afghanistan: Much is at stake for India
February 1st, 2010
Afghanistan has been a theatre of war and foreign involvement in its
internal affairs for three decades. A stable equilibrium is far from being
reached. Kabul is as yet a long way from generating its own resources to run a
modern state system, including its security vector, to fend off threats from
historically meddlesome neighbours, the most pernicious of which has been
Pakistan, seeking from the time of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to gain a foothold in
Afghanistan. On account of the military conflict imposed on Afghanistan by the
Taliban and Al Qaeda, which receive Pakistani state support, Kabul continues to
be badly in need of international assistance of a non-threatening variety. India
was absent from the scene for most of the time Afghanistan was in turmoil in the
past three decades, and returned to its historically friendly engagement with
Kabul only after the end of Taliban rule in 2001, following which the
international community entered the picture in a big way. India enjoys enormous
goodwill of the people of all regions of that country. The nature of its
involvement is viewed positively across ethnic divides, including very much the
Pashtuns among whom the Taliban are mainly to be found. However, India is one
among several foreign actors in Afghanistan. Different players approach key
issues differently, depending on how their long-term interests are impacted.
Vital questions of policy, politics, ideology and the path to be pursued will be
debated. Last week’s London conference on Afghanistan, which became the occasion
for discussing primarily British and European concerns, marks but an early stage
of that debate. It is necessary to view the outcome of London as a part of an
ongoing discussion involving Afghans and the internationals, and not some final
formula which all concerned must accept or be turned away from the table. The US
secretary of state, Ms Hillary Clinton’s non-endorsement of the basic British
idea of seeking to win over elements of the Taliban leadership with Pakistan’s
help is an indication that discussions on Afghanistan’s long-term stability are
at an incipient stage.
Full report at:
www.deccanchronicle.com/dc-comment/afghanistan-much-stake-india-467
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This way lies disaster: Bribing Taliban will just not
work
February 1st, 2010
What has till now been talked about by strategic experts and debated
in the columns of newspapers may soon become a reality. Last week’s conference
in London, attended by representatives of 70 countries and international
organisations, including Nato and the UN, to set in motion the process of what
has been described as a ‘grand reconciliation’ — but is in reality a grand
bargain — to ‘reintegrate’ the Taliban into mainstream Afghan society and
politics, has virtually resulted in a decision to legitimise ruthless Islamist
terrorists and their murderous ways. Worse, the path chosen to reach the goal of
defanging the Taliban is sure to lead to disaster. The proposed $ 500 million
‘Peace and Reintegration Trust Fund’, which will ostensibly be used for bribing
those Taliban fighters who accept the Constitution of Afghanistan, lay down arms
and disown Al Qaeda, we can be sure, will achieve little. It is more than likely
that Taliban fighters will come forward, swear allegiance to the Afghan
Constitution, collect the money, and then disappear into the badlands of that
country to rejoin the jihad being directed by Al Qaeda. The deal has been worked
out by Britain and other Nato members with America’s blessings and brings to
mind similar efforts by Pakistan to buy peace with jihadis in the tribal areas
of that country. Those efforts resulted in further emboldening the Taliban
instead of taming the brutal thugs. Yet, neither the US nor its tans-Atlantic
allies appear to have learned any lessons from that misadventure which is
primarily to blame for the subsequent surge in terrorism that has virtually sent
Pakistan into a free fall.
Full report at:
http://www.dailypioneer.com/232857/This-way-lies-disaster.html
10:11 AM
Sultan Shahin
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