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Violence erupts again in Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad, June 10 (ANI): Juharpur area of Ahmedabad, the main commercial city of riot-racked Gujarat, remained tense on Monday. Rioteers ran through streets with axes in their hands and pelted stones at police personnel keeping guard. The area's streets were littered with stones which were used by the mobs. Police and paramilitary forces have been deployed in the area to prevent the situation from getting worse. At least one person was killed and 35 injured in Juharpur after fresh riots broke out between Hindus and Muslims. A Muslim mob had attacked a police post after police arrested two Muslims for their alleged role in the religious violence that began in February. Curfew has been imposed in the area and over 60 people arrested after the incident. The religious violence began in late February when a Muslim mob torched a train, burning alive 59 Hindus. That triggered a wave of reprisal killings and clashes in which officials say nearly 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, died. Human rights groups say, however, more than 2,500 people were killed. Nearly 100,000 people, mostly Muslims, still live in relief camps, too petrified to return to their neighbourhoods for fear of more attacks. Survivors of the violence have accused police in Gujarat of failing to protect victims, and in some cases, encouraging Hindu mobs to attack Muslims.(ANI) Situation normal after curfew, arrests
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to top Ahmedabad, June 10 (ANI): Juhapur area of Ahmedabad, the main commercial city of Gujarat, remained under curfew on Monday after fresh riots between Hindus and Muslims left one person dead and 35 injured. Rapid Action Force personnel maintained a strict vigil to prevent any trouble in Ahmedabad, which had witnessed the country's worst religious violence in over a decade. On Sunday a Muslim mob attacked a police post on the outskirts of the city after police arrested two Muslims for their alleged role in the religious violence that began in February. Authorities have imposed an indefinite curfew to avert further violence. Police personnel are stationed at street corners which wear a deserted look. Satish Sharma, Additional Commissiner of Ahmedabad police, said more than 35 persons were arrested and some crude weapons recovered from the area after Sunday's violence. "Situation is under control. We have imposed curfew here. We are going to search more houses. Yesterday more than 35 persons were arrested. Some crude weapons were recovered. The search will continue," said Sharma. There is fear amongst the people that the violence could again disrupt their lives. "Yesterday two three houses were searched. These incidents should not have happened. There was peace all along and we were able to do our business," a local Muslim man said. The religious violence began in late February when a Muslim mob torched a train, burning alive 59 Hindus. That triggered a wave of reprisal killings and clashes in which officials say nearly 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, died. Human rights groups put the figure at more than 2,500. Nearly 100,000 people, mostly Muslims, still live in relief camps, too petrified to return to their neighbourhood for fear of more attacks. Survivors of the violence have accused police in Gujarat of failing to protect victims, and in some cases, encouraging Hindu mobs to attack Muslims.(ANI)
India reopens airpace to Pak flights Go to top New Delhi, June 10 (ANI): India has reopened its airspace to Pakistani flights to third countries in a gesture acknowledging that Pakistan is acting to stop Muslim militants from infiltrating its territory. "The government of India has decided that with effect from today, the 10th June 2002, all restrictions placed since 1st January this year on Pakistani aircraft and Pakistan airlines to overfly Indian territory are lifted," Nirupama Rao told reporters. Rao said further Indian steps to ease tensions would follow when India saw more evidence that the infiltrations had come to a permanent halt. "This is an ongoing process of verification and monitoring that we are engaged in. There has been a certain announcement made by the government of Pakistan in recent days about putting a permanent end to infiltration and cross-border terrorism. Obviously our response to these measures will be sequenced," she said. Rao said the lifting of sanctions was one of the steps the Indian government had taken to move towards peace with Islamabad. "There is a menu of options available to the government and today's announcement should be seen as an indication of our continued monitoring of the situation and our desire for peace because to peace there is no alternative, we believe. And to see the situation as a fluid one in which over the next period of time, the assessment will continue. It is not that we have stopped our assessment or we have come to a definite conclusion that there is a tangible, palpable, change in the situation, but certainly, certain changes in the situation are taking place and we continue to be seized of what is happening and this is a sequenced reaction," she added. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan said his government would make a detailed response on Tuesday. "This is a step in the desired direction, but a lot more needs to be done," he said. Information Secretary Anwar Mahmood said Pakistan would "certainly consider" lifting its own ban on Indian overflights, which was only imposed in response to India's ban. "I would emphasise the most important thing is that the process of dialogue should commence," he said. "It is the only way to resolve all issues." India and Pakistan have massed one million troops on their border since an attack on the Indian parliament last December that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militants. Tensions rose further after an attack on an army camp in Kashmir in May. India closed its airspace to Pakistani overflights after the December attack. Both countries have also scaled back their diplomatic presence in each other's capital.(ANI)
Now militants turn against Musharraf
Go to top New York, June 10 (ANI): Many fundamentalist parties in Pakistan have vowed to oust President Pervez Musharraf even as militants have decided to resist Pak soldiers' attempts to block Kashmiri fighters from crossing over to the Valley, reports Dawn. A report in the June 17 issue of Newsweek quotes militant leaders as saying "our men manage to sneak past the Indians, so how can the Pakistanis stop us?", adding "we will continue to fight". Gen Musharraf has already inflamed the passions of a large segment of the population by joining the United States in its campaign against the Taliban and Al Qaeda and vowing to lead his country to a more moderate path. Next week, the country's largest fundamentalist party is planning to lead a rally in the occupied Kashmir that some people here believe is intended to mark the beginning of a campaign to oust Gen Musharraf, the paper said. The Kashmiri militants themselves say they feel betrayed by the new efforts to block their movements into India. "People are angry," Sher Khan, a senior leader of Harkat Mujahideen, told The Times, "We have reason to be angry." The paper said that this week, Gen Musharraf summoned Kashmiri leaders to his office to reassure them that he was not walking away from the Kashmiri cause, a deeply-felt issue for many Pakistanis. One of the Kashmiri leaders who attended that meeting said the president appeared concerned about the possibility of a takeover by fundamentalists. "It will be difficult for him to survive," Altaf Qadri, leader of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference, which represents 23 Kashmiri groups, was quoted as saying by The Times. Newsweek said that Gen Musharraf's order was conveyed to two dozen commanders by a major-general from the Inter-Services Intelligence agency during a meeting at a Pakistani army base 25 miles from the front lines. But one commander of militants told Newsweek that the commanders denounced President Musharraf by name. "After ditching the Taliban, Musharraf has now betrayed the Kashmiri cause," shouted one commander. "How can we accept this?" The New York Times in a similar report said that the Kashmiri leaders maintained the Pakistani government appeared to be fulfilling a key condition laid down by Indian leaders, who have threatened to launch a strike into Pakistan unless infiltration into Kashmir is halted. "We have not sent anyone across for the past month," Hussein Rizvi, leader of Hizbul Momineen, one of the groups battling Indian rule in Kashmir told the New York Times. "Now we have two armies against us, the Indian and the Pakistani. Our problems have doubled." Rizvi, who claims that his group has hundreds of fighters in both parts of Kashmir, said he was able to send a small group of activists across the border in early May, just as the Himalayan passes had begun to clear of snow, but now he has given up even trying. "We are trying to devise a new strategy," he said in an interview with The Times on Sunday. The Times said that the claims of difficulties by the Kashmiri militants fit into recent assurances by Gen Musharraf and statements from Indian leaders, who acknowledge a reduction in the number of fighters coming from across the border. The paper noted that with the threat of Indian military action looming, the Pakistan government had begun to press the militants to declare a ceasefire inside the occupied Kashmir, militant leaders said. But some groups, including Hizbul Mujahideen, have vowed to carry out new attacks against India.(ANI)
Kashmir not India's integral part: Jamaat
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top Karachi, June 10 (ANI): Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad has said that India should be told to accept the fact that Kashmir is a disputed territory and not its "integral party", and urged the government to pressurise the United Nations to implement its resolutions on Kashmir. It was not correct the UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir had become outdated. "They can still be implemented." The JI chief pointed out the Indian government and the opposition both were unanimous that Kashmir was an integral part of India, but here in Pakistan different elements had been displaying different views over the issue, which could spell disaster for the country. Former ISI head Hamid Gul said that Kashmir belongs to the Kashmiris. But still Pakistan was unjustly pressurized. Now India is being asked to accept mediation. Putin has also made efforts in this regard. The US itself wants to play a role. "All this process seems to be drama or something artificial." To a question whether Musharraf has changed his stand on Kashmir, Gul said, "there is no change in our stand of giving moral and political support to the Kashmirs but the way we have started suppressing Kashmiris in their own region is not just." "Pakistan has no right to do that. Though Kashmir is being administered by Pakistan but still it belongs to the Kashmiris and Pakistan or any other country has no right to suppress their freedom movement which is supported by the historical facts and UN resolutions."(ANI)
Ranil keen to step up economic ties with India
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top New Delhi, June 10 (ANI): Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is on a three-day visit to India, began his engagements in New Delhi on Monday with a thrust on accelerating economic ties while hoping to slowly sort out political issues. Arriving from Bangalore where he interacted with Indian IT entrepreneurs, Wickremesinghe met Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and discussed India's experience of a decade with liberalisation. "We discussed generally the reform programme that the government of Sri Lanka is going to launch very shortly. Our experience of economic reforms therefore is of particular relevence to Sri Lanka. So we spent some time discussing those issues," Sinha told reporters. Wickremesinghe is due to seal several trade deals during his visit including an agreement to lease about 100 oil tanks in the strategic Sri Lankan port of Trincomalee to state-run Indian Oil Corp and expand a free trade pact. The island's imports from India totalled 559 million dollars last year compared to exports of 66 million dollars, a gaping trade imbalance Wickremesinghe hopes to address. Congress president Sonia Gandhi later called on Wickremesinghe. "I briefed the leader of opposition Madam Gandhi both on Indo- Lanka relations, the steps we have taken. You must remember that India and the Indian oil companies here, thanks to the Indo - Lanka agreement and vision which late President Jayawardhene had of having increased economic relations between India and Sri Lanka. I also briefed on the peace process in Sri Lanka," said Wickremesinghe. Wickremesinghe said he was confident New Delhi would continue to support Sri Lanka's bid to end a 19-year bloody ethnic war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who were once armed and trained by India. His three-day visit to India is the second in the last six months and is considered crucial ahead of Colombo's plans to lift a ban on the LTTE-- a key condition of the rebels to start peace talks expected in early July. The LTTE was outlawed in India after a woman suicide bomber killed former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. New Delhi accused LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran of ordering his killing and charged top LTTE leaders of plotting the assassination. The Congress party has kept up its demand for LTTE leader Prabhakaran's extradition. Last month, India extended its 1992 ban on the group for two years saying the LTTE remained a "terrorist" group even as it reiterated support to the island's peace process. India has a complex history of involvement in the island's ethnic war that has killed more than 64,000 people and displaced more than 1.3 million people.(ANI)
Abdul Kalam another Prez candidate?
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to top New Delhi, June 10 (ANI): Contest for the presidential election is now inevitable as consensus has eluded the NDA partners. With the arrival of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday, the name of defence scientist A P J Abdul Kalam has emerged as a possible candidate for President. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan had a one-on-one meeting with Naidu earlier in Hyderabad and it is understood that the space scientist's name emerged during the talks, sources said. The two leaders also had telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and it is believed that the name of the scientist from Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu would be agreed to by NDA partners, the sources added.(ANI)
Pilot project of Hepatitis B vaccination launched Go to top New Delhi, June 10 (ANI): Prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Monday launched the Pilot Project of Hepatitis B vaccination in the capital. This is a step towards the Alma-Ata Declaration "Health For All by 2000". The project will initially cover around two million infants in the country. The project will mainly cater to the need of the children of the slum areas in 15 cities and 32 rural districts. Hepatitis B is an infectious disease spread by virus which attacks the liver,and eventually may cause death due to cirrhosis,primary cancer of liver or liver failure. Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister said the vaccine will reach out to the masses in the shortest possible time. "It is our national determination to make India a nation of healthy people.This is the overridding objective of the National Health Policy that we have adopted recently. The policy underscores our commitment,especially,to address the healthcare needs of our poor.For it is the poor who are the most vulnerable to infectious and contagious diseases.We have seen it in the case of tuberculosis and malaria.We have seen it in the case of HIV/AIDS. The same is also true for Hepatitis B.We know that Hepatitis B is many times more infectious than HIV/AIDS and is the main cause of liver cancer," said Vajpayee. He added,"I am therefore,happy that the Ministry of Health has started a universal immunization programme for Hepatitis B. Although this is a pilot project, I am confident that the Ministry ,with the cooperation of the state governments, will succeed in its goal to cover the entire country during the Tenth Plan period. I urge them to reach out in the shortest possible time frame to all the vulnerable sections of the population in rural as well as urban areas," said Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. Hepatitis B is a significant public health concern in India .It is estimated that 60 percent of liver diseases are due to Hepatitis B infection and 80 percent of liver cancer cases in India are due to Hepatitis B.(ANI)
Ganga changes its course, causes massive erosion Go to top Siliguri (West Bengal), June 10 (ANI): With the river Ganga changing its course, the residents of the villages along the embankments are facing a tough time. Most of the land is under water and a massive soil erosion is going on. The villagers are now shifting to safer places. But this is not an easy job. Most of them have to build their houses once again, which is a herculean task for these poor villagers. " We are facing a lot of problems. A good portion of our land has been washed away by Ganga" ,said Anjar Ahmed, a local resident. "And now we have to move away from this place. It is very difficult, Where will we go? We have got such a big family", he added. Some of the well-off villagers have already shifted to safer places. "This is a new village. Since our house and land has been washed away by the river, we have shifted to this village. We are around 4000 to 5000 people who have shifted to the village", said Zulemat Hussain, a new settler at Ghasitola. The Ganga enters Malda district just below, "Rajmahal hillocks" in Bihar and leaves the district about 14 km downstream of Farraka barrage. It has a bank line of about 157 km. in the district. Being surrounded by the Ganga, the district is subjected to inundation as well as erosion every year. Last year 25000 hectares of land was washed away. Panchanandpur, K.B Jhuabana, Bangitola, Sakullaparia etc are some of the areas affected by the wrath of the Ganga. Embankment erosion along these villages and vast tract of land is already in progress. An official statement says that approximately 2 lakh houses will get badly affected. River beds have been silted up rising them to levels higher the surface. As a result the river has lost the capability of carrying this normal water through its course. Even "Gangabhawan" a building of West Bengal irrigation department, is also in the clutch of erosion. Confronted with this situation the state government has fully used its limited financial resources. This issue of erosion of Ganga has already been recognised as a national level problem. A national level committee has recommended 927 crore rupees for anti-erosion measures.(ANI)
Panic exodus hits Jaisalmer
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top Jaisalmer, June 10 (ANI): Indo-Pak military tensions have cast a shadow on the tourism industry in the fort city of Jaisalmer. Foreign tourist arrivals in the desert town have declined drastically since the December attack on Parliament after which India and Pakistan have massed nearly a million men on the borders. Rajasthan with its Middle Age fortresses, golden sand dunes, ethnic music and tasty cuisine attracts thousands of foreign tourists every year. But the latest figures released by the government show a drop of 12 percent in foreign tourist arrivals in May. A government statement said the arrivals dropped to 132,988 in May from 151,098 a year earlier and were down 14.4 percent in May from April arrivals of 155,378. Scores of foreigners have left India in the past few days after being ordered out by their governments, fearful of an escalation of the conflict between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan. "So much army, so we are a little bit afraid. So, we are leaving one day earlier. But I cannot really know if it is really dangerous or only such military rhetoric to scare Pakistan," said Kaiza, a German tourist. "I think the tensions are very old. And there is more tension than before. I hope there won't be a war," said Albrecht, another tourist from Germany. The slide in tourism hit foreign exchange earnings in January- May, which fell 14 percent to 1,182.93 million dollars from the same period last year. Tour operators, airlines and hotel managers said the stand-off between India and Pakistan would hit the tourism industry. In Jaisalmer, more than 70 percent of local population depend on tourism for their livelihood and they are feeling the pinch. "There is no business. Even to run house has become difficult. 70 percent of people in Jaisalmer depend on tourism. But now business is totally finished," said Gopal Yadav, a local shopkeeper. "Because of the army buildup in and around the borders near Jaisalmer, because of movement of army vehicles and the buildup in the media foreign tourist arrivals have fallen," said Nand Kishore Sharma of the local desert culture centre. The tourism industry is already fighting to shake off the impact of religious violence in Gujarat earlier this year which prompted many to cancel holiday plans. India's peak holiday season is between the cooler months of October and March. Tourism drops in the summer months when temperatures soar as high as 47 degrees Celsius (116 degrees Fahrenheit). Despite being home to the Himalayas and jungles and boasting a rich history and sun-soaked beaches, India attracts just 0.4 percent of the global tourist market. About 2.6 million foreign tourists, mostly budget travellers and backpackers, visited India in 2000. Tourists numbered 2.4 million in 2001.(ANI)
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