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Two Held on Charge of Receiving Secret Funds from Pak Envoy NEW DELHI: Two Kashmiris, arrested on charge of receiving from Pakistani high commission substantial amount of money meant to finance militant activity in Jammu and Kashmir, were remanded by an anti-terrorism court to 10-day police custody on Friday. Following an intelligence tip-off on Thursday, the Delhi police arrested Anjum Zamarul Habib, chief of Muslim Khwateen Markaz (Muslim Suffering Women), who possessed Rs 3 lakh allegedly received from Pakistan's deputy high commissioner Jaleel Abbas Gilani. Shabir Ahmed Dhar, chief of Kashmir Awareness Bureau, an affiliate of Kashmir's main separatist alliance, was later picked up following Habib's statement and another Rs 2 lakh was recovered from his residence. LN Rao, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) said the duo admitted before the judge that they had received money from the Pakistani mission. Both were booked under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). According to the police, Habib was working as a conduit between Pakistan high commission and the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), Kashmir's main separatist alliance. She was referred by Hurriyat chairman Abdul Ghani Bhat and Dhar, the police claimed. However, Bhat denied receiving any funds and termed the arrest of its spokesman and the woman activist as politically motivated. The chairman of the 24-party conglomerate said the "genuine" money was meant for running day-to-day activities of the Hurriyat in the national Capital. Pakistan also rejected the allegations that its high commission in the Indian Capital had passed on the money to the two activists. A statement from the Pakistan high commission said the mission lodged a strong protest with the external affairs ministry for what it termed "an uncalled for and lamentable propaganda campaign." India, France Must Jointly Oppose Force Against Iraq: Raffarin (Go To Top) NEW DELHI: Paris and Delhi need to speak up against use of force to disarm Iraq, according to French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who is on a three-day visit to India. Speaking to reporters after his ceremonial reception at the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday, Raffarin said that the positions of the two countries on the possibility of a US-led attack on Iraq were "extremely similar". During talks with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, the French premier is likely to push the case for Airbus sales to India. When asked whether the Indian Government would give the go-ahead to purchase of Airbus by the Indian Airlines, Vajpayee said: "Talks are going on and we hope a decision will be taken." Russia Not to Sell ABM System to Pakistan (Go To Top) MOSCOW: Pakistan is not getting Russia's Patriot class S-300 anti-missile system. The Putin Government has refused to sell it even as Islamabad made a request for a second time in a month. President Vladimir Putin reportedly said 'no' to the plea during his talks in Moscow with President Pervez Musharraf, it was reported. Putin has expressed Moscow's willingness to develop ties with Islamabad "purely" on bilateral basis, without accepting any references to Russia's relations with other countries. The sources added that earlier last month Islamabad had mooted the idea of purchasing S-300 ABM system at the meeting of the working group on strategic stability. At that time Russia had indicated that it had "not that level of trust" with Islamabad, which could enable the supply of this state-of-the-art anti-ballistic missile system. Indo-Pak Talks on Indus Treaty Fail (Go To Top) ISLAMABAD: Indo-Pak talks on the Indus Waters Treaty, 1960 have ended in failure. Pakistan announced it would refer the dispute over the construction of Baglihar power project on Chenab river by India to a neutral expert for resolution. "Due to the reluctance of India to resolve the issue at the level of the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC), in accordance with Article IX(1) of the treaty, Pakistan will be left with no option but to invoke Article IX(2)(a) of the treaty for the appointment of a neutral expert for the resolution of the issue," an official declartion issued at the end of the talks said, according to Dawn. This would be the first time since the ratification of the treaty 43 years ago that a dispute on river waters would be referred to a neutral expert for resolution. The treaty, brokered and guaranteed by the World Bank, has even survived the 1965 and 1971 wars between the two countries. An official said that under the treaty the Indian side cannot refuse visit by a Pakistan team to the project site and so agreed to arrange one "as soon as possible". But there were unbridgeable differences over the project design, and Pakistan was left with no option but to demand appointment of a neutral expert, the newspaper added. Dhumal's Criminal Complaints Against Three Cong Leaders (Go To Top) SHIMLA: Care-taker chief minister of Himachal Pradesh Prem Kumar Dhumal on Friday filed criminal complaints against three senior leaders of main Opposition Congress party, accusing them of levelling "false and defamatory" charges against him. Dhumal filed complaints against chief minister of Punjab Amarinder Singh, general secretary Moti Lal Vohra and the party's spokesperson Anand Sharma for allegations made by them at a public meeting at Hamirpur. The Congress had released a list of assets accumulated by Dhumal and his immediate family members worth Rs 40 million. In his complaint, he alleged that the Congress had started a campaign of "character assassination and mudslinging" against him to win the elections by "hook or crook". He is seeking re-election from Bamsan constituency in Hamirpur district. Bihar Doctors Extend Strike as Patients Die (Go To Top) PATNA: The doctors' strike entered its second day on Friday with as many as three people dying for want of proper medical facilities. Members of the medical fraternity are agitated over the kidnapping of a senior doctor three days ago. The State unit of the Indian Medical Association said the strike would continue till the doctor is released. The secretary of Bihar IMA, Dr Sahaj Nand Singh, said, "We have decided to observe the strike indefinitely ... till the kidnapped doctor is released." With the doctors not budging from their stand, poor patients continue to bear the brunt. In the absence of adequate medical care, a large number of them are either shifting to private clinics or staying put at the Government-run hospitals. Suicide by LTTE Rebels, But Peace Talks Unaffected (Go To Top) LONDON: Sri Lankan peace talks resumed in Berlin just hours after three Tamil Tiger rebels committed suicide when caught smuggling arms. The rebels blew up their boat after Scandinavian truce monitors had boarded it off the northern coast of Jaffna, reports BBC. The peace delegates released a joint statement regretting the "tragic loss of three lives". It said the Sri Lankan Government and the Tamil Tigers would review the existing procedures to avoid similar incidents. Mediators in Berlin said the boat incident was caused by an "apparent communication failure" between the three rebels on the boat and Tamil Tiger commanders. Officials from the Lankan monitoring mission said two monitors and a translator who were aboard the boat to investigate weapons, including an anti-aircraft gun, ammunition and hand-grenades, jumped overboard to escape the explosion. The rebels set the boat on fire and blew themselves up, according to the News. -ANI |