Pakistan Information & News

PM Of India

EZHIMALA (Kerala): Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has fated the divergence in the Gaza Strip and called for the instantaneous termination of fighting.

“I strongly censure the hostilities taking place in Gaza and express disappointment at the ill-fated killing of hundreds of blameless civilians,” he said inaugurating the Indian Naval Academy here on Thursday.

Describing the Gulf as part of India’s valuable comprehensive neighbourhood alienated only by the Arabian Sea and India as one of its sentinels, he said India and the countries of the Gulf had a shared view of peace and wealth in the region.

PENTAGON

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon has had ancient contacts with India on missile protection topic but is not in talks to put up for sale it missile defense systems, a defense spokesman said.

“The United States and India recently are not talking about the auction of any U.S. missile defense systems to India,” said Lieutenant Colonel Stewart Upton.

A U.S. daily, citing U.S. embassy officials in New Delhi, said the United States was in first round talks about sales of U.S. missile defend systems to guard New Delhi against nuclear threats.

A U.S. defense official explained the communication with the Indians as being on “a very elementary level.”

“We have called them to scrutinize two tests this year to make easy discussions of the two countries’ ballistic missile defense test programs,” the official said.

But the official said the summons was comprehensives with the understanding that it did not signal “U.S. purpose or eagerness to sell the systems caught up.”

Lalu Prasad Yadav

To expedite the work of Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), railway minister Lalu Prasad will undertake a week-long trip to Japan for a detailed discussion on the 450 billion yen Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) loan.

“Though JICA has agreed in principle to provide 450 billion yen soft loan (Rs 17,000 cr) for the 1480 km long Western Corridor of the DFC, there are still some issues which needs to be addressed and the same will be taken up during the visit,” a source in the Railway Ministry said.

Besides Lalu, a high-level railway delegation, including minister of state for railway R Velu, chairman Railway Board K C Jena and three senior Railway Board officials are scheduled to leave for Tokyo on January 11.

Currently JICA is conducting an environmental impact assessment on the Delhi-Mumbai Western Corridor. The report is likely to be submitted in March.

While Railways have agreed for the electrification of the Western Corridor route by Japan, it has also decided to buy electric locos from that country.

“Railways has to utilise 30 per cent of the loan amount for buying equipment for the DFC project as per the JICA condition,” said the source.

It is expected that railways will buy about 160 high powered electric locos from Japan for the DFC.

According to the plan, Railways will procure high speed locos with 9,000 horse power capacity from Japan.

Besides locos, the ministry is also likely to purchase signalling system from Japan.

After the successful Malaysian tour, Prasad is leading the high-level delegation to Japan to fine tune the JICA loan for the DFC.

The importance of the loan for Railways can be understood from the fact that two ministers from the same ministry are visiting together a foreign country for it.

They will meet the concerned ministers in Japan and some agreements are likely to be signed during the visit, said the source.

The railway delegation will return on January 17.     

DFC aims to decongest the existing rail corridor while at the same time improve the freight movement.

Railway freight target for the current financial year is 850 million tonnes (MT) and is projected to touch 1100 MT by the end of 11th Five-Year Plan.

INDIA

While Pakistan keeps saying it does not permit terrorist bases in its country, violent fight is on for a week now with Indian troops combating 10 Jaish-e-Mohd terrorists from crossways the border plainly hold up by Pakistan.

There was a bright swap over of fire on Tuesday night and on Wednesday morning the Army again deprived of reports that the terrorists had erected bunkers and said that they were hiding in usual caves in the forest.

INDIA

NEW DELHI: At least 10 million Indians will lose their jobs by March as the economic slowdown in North America and Europe hits India’s exports, a key exporters’ association predicted Tuesday, according to a report.

The gloomy forecast comes despite two economic stimulus packages unveiled by the Indian government, including one on Friday, to boost growth in Asia’s third-largest economy.

“There will be 10 million job losses by March,” said A. Sakthivel, president of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

“I can safely say that negative growth trends will continue in December and in the next couple of months… I hope we will end the fiscal year (to March 31) with exports of about 175-180 billion dollars” said Sakthivel, lower than New Delhi’s target of 200 billion dollars for 2008-2009.

India’s exports, which totalled almost 160 billion dollars last year, account for about 20 percent of gross domestic product and the sector employs 150 million people, according to FIEO.

INDIA

Noida :A 24-year-old MBA student was kidnapped and allegedly raped by a group of youngsters, five of whom were arrested by the police on Tuesday on a complaint filed by the girl’s friend.

The girl was returning home with her friend in their car after shopping at Great India Palace mall in Sector 39 of Noida when the incident took place at around 5 pm on Monday in Sector 121, police said.

Five youngsters identified as Vijay, Srikant, Sanjay, Sudhir and Gautam were arrested on Tuesday morning in connection with the case while police is on a hunt to nab five others who are believed to be involved in the crime.

All of them were picked up from Ramgarhi Choukandi village, where they reside, within 12 hours of committing the crime, Superintendent of Police (Noida City) Ashok Tripati said.

The accused were in the age group of 18 to 25 years and some were under-graduate students.

In an FIR lodged with Noida Police early Tuesday morning, the friend of the second-year MBA student, residing in South Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar, claimed the motorcycle-borne youths waylaid them near a drainage.

“Amit Talwar, the friend, said that while they had travelled about 900 metres from the mall, some motorcyclists overtook them and waylaid them. They forcibly entered the car and one of them started driving,” Tripati said, adding the youngsters were carrying cricket bats and wickets.

After driving for some time, the official said, the youngsters reached an isolated place where they allegedly raped the girl.

They left the girl and her friend there after taking away their mobile phones, he said.

However, Tripati claimed that the accused during questioning had told that the victim and her friend were not driving the car but were talking to each other when they intercepted them near the drainage.

“There has been some contradictions in the statement given by the complainant and that of the accused,” Tripati said, adding they will investigate the matter.

Initial medical examination of the girl has revealed no internal injuries, Tripati said.

“We are waiting for the final pathological report. We will not spare anyone in this case as this crime is unpardonable,” he said.

Asked how police zeroed in on the culprits, the senior police official said the youngsters were coming back after playing cricket and were carrying the cricket kit with them.

“We investigated which all are the local teams playing cricket and zeroed in on the suspects,” Tripati said adding two motorcycles, cricket bats, wickets, helmets and three mobile phones were recovered from the accused.

He said the arrested youth have no past criminal records.

The victim is admitted to a hospital and her condition is stated to be stable.

A case has been registered and further investigations are on.

In New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police Vikram Singh said police will ensure that all culprits will be booked.

“We have arrested five persons in this regard. We will ensure that all culprits are booked,” Singh said on the sidelines of Chief Ministers Conference on internal security.

A test-identification parade of the accused is likely to be conducted on Monday, a senior police official said adding the accused have confessed to the crime.

Sanjay, one of the accused, claimed that one of their friends saw the girl and the man inside the car in an intimate position.

“We were ten people. We were returning after playing cricket. One of us saw the girl and the boy inside the car and then we forced ourselves inside the car,” he said outside a court.

Manmohan Singh

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday squarely blamed the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba for the Mumbai terror strike and pointed out that there was enough evidence to show that the attack, executed with military precision, had the support of some official agencies of Pakistan.

The Prime Minister said terrorism was largely sponsored from outside the country, mainly Pakistan, which “utilised terrorism as an instrument of State policy.”

“We must convince the world community that States that use terrorism as an instrument of foreign policy must be isolated and compelled to abandon such tactics. We must engage vigorously in debates to press the point that ‘soft’ support for terrorism cannot any longer be endorsed,” Dr. Singh said at a conference of Chief Ministers on internal security, the first such meet after the November 26, 2008 Mumbai carnage.

While admitting that India’s problems were compounded by the fact that “we have a highly unpredictable and uncertain security environment in our immediate neighbourhood,” he said the governments in some of our neighbouring countries “are very fragile in nature.”

He cautioned that the “more fragile a government, the more it tends to act in an irresponsible fashion. Pakistan’s responses to our various demarches on terrorist attacks are an obvious example.”

The Prime Minister’s tough talk came a day after New Delhi handed over evidence to Islamabad on Pakistan’s involvement in the Mumbai attack.

Dr. Singh was categorical about Pakistan’s complicity in the attack. Pakistan was mentioned eight times in his four-page speech that also dwelt at length on the recent initiatives to combat terror, Left wing extremism and the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

He stressed that inheritance of a great historical experience of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-caste and multi-lingual society contributed to India’s sense of nationhood. “Today, even as Pakistan engages in whipping up war hysteria, our nation remains steadfastly united and, if anything, the process of national consolidation is becoming stronger.”

Mumbai Attacks

ISLAMABAD: India said Monday it has handed over several real proofs on the Mumbai attacks to Islamabad with six photographs of believes spoiled in Mumbai plot.

It also said the given credentials on Mumbai bloodshed exposed that the perpetuators belonged to Multan, Okara, and Faisalabad, cities of Pakistan’s Punjab.

According to sources, it also revealed the Internet telephones; one amid others was of U.S’s VOIP, supposedly used in the Mumbai plot.

Proofs also built-in information sought from Ajmal Kasab during investigation.

India

New Delhi: India on Wednesday nearly ruled out any hot pursuit on terrorists operating from Pakistan’s soil by taking a leaf out of the Israeli air strikes on Gaza strip.

“So that incident or that event, (Israeli air strikes) we cannot draw any lessons for the way we deal with Pakistan,” Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said when asked whether New Delhi can draw lessons from the Israeli air strikes to pursue terrorists in Pakistan.

He recalled that India had strongly criticised the Israeli strikes and urged the country to stop those attacks on Palestine.

Chidambaram said India’s position has been made clear by Ministry of External Affairs.

National Investigative Agency (NIA) Bill and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill on Wednesday became law as President Pratibha Patil gave her assent to these legislations which were passed in the last session of Parliament.

Home Minister P Chidambaram said that the Presidential assent has been received on Wednesday.

“The regulations have come into effect from today,” Chidambaram said.

He said the NIA will get its Director General in a few days.

“NIA will be established to investigate terrorist offences. As and when any case is assigned to NIA, it will take up investigation,” he said.

Chidambaram said the work is in progress to set up 20 counter insurgency and anti-terrorism schools in the country which will train personnel to tackle cases involving terrorists.

The Home Minister also announced that a round the clock information gathering and sharing centre on terrorism has come into effect from Wednesday.

He said the Ministry will soon bring before the Cabinet a note on establishing NSG hubs in four main cities of the country and more such hubs will be set up in other cities as well.

Asked about the cooperation from Pakistan in investigation of Mumbai terror attacks, Chidambaram said, “they are in a state of denial. Everything that we will give will be denied.”

He said the father of Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist in the Mumbai attack, has appeared on the television saying that he (Kasab) is his son.

“Kasab himself has written to the Pakistan Government seeking legal help. What more evidence Pakistan needs,” he said.

To a question on the NIA, Chidambaram said the Director General of the new agency for investigating terror-related cases will be appointed in ‘next few days.’

Chidambaram said new appointments will be made paramilitary forces for the number personnel drawn for the new NSG hubs coming up in the four cities.

On the execution of Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru, he said the ministry was examining the case.

“There are 27 persons in the deathrow. Afzal Guru is one among them. We are examining it,” he said.

Asked about Home Ministry’s course of action in the cash-for-vote scam case which was referred to it by the Lok Sabha Speaker, he said the Ministry will look into the report and decide on how to go about it.

He said he was ‘not aware’ whether the report has reached the Ministry.

Sherry Rehman

KARACHI: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Sherry Rehman Wednesday said India has so far-flung botched to give proof concerning Mumbai attacks while the U.S. has also not handed over a list of people hunted to India.

Talking at Meet-the-Press here at Karachi Press Club, the Minister said administration is dedicated to protection the country while the law enforcing agencies concur that terrorism must be ingrained out from the country.

She said that the administration will follow a procedure to depiction the killers of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto in such a way that no one could challenge it.

Replying to a question, she said that Sanam Bhutto never said that the secrecy will stay unsettled and get masked in the history.

She said that Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was a leader of worldwide stature and not a single day passes when the government and every one in the party is not thinking about exposing her killers.

She explained that UN has a process to follow in such cases and it has told the Government to hold investigation. She said that both UN and the Government have decided to share the lumber of investigation as to the procedures and finances concerned.

She affirmed that terrorists concerned in the October 18 Karsaz calamity too would be uncovered.

She said that even at that time, it was the faith of Mohtarma that they should be out in the open through UN and she still remembers her words ” we must depiction the perpetrators, organisers and financiers behind this schemes”.