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Musharraf says won't start war with India: Armitage
Islamabad, June 6 (ANI): President Pervez Musharraf said he will not initiate a war with India and made it clear he was searching for peace, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said on Thursday. "President Musharraf has made it very clear that he is searching for peace and he won't be the one to initiate a war, and I will be hopefuly getting the same type of assurances tomorrow in Delhi," Armitage told reporters. "...the conversations we had with President Musharraf, he made it very clear to me that he wants to do everything which he can to (search for peace)...that is a very good basis on which to proceed," Armitage said. Armitage arrived in Islamabad on Thursday in a bid to initiate fresh efforts to evert a war between India and Pakistan. Armitage also met Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar, a foreign ministry official said. The US official is likely to fly to India on Friday on the second leg of his South Asia tour. Armitage's visit was planned after US President George Bush appealed to leaders of both India and Pakistan to de-escalate tensions.(ANI) Badly tortured diplomat returns with family
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to top Wagah Border, June 6 (ANI): The expelled Indian diplomat, who arrived in the border post of Wagah in Punjab on Thursday said he was badly tortured by his abductors before being released. Pakistan, locked in a tense military standoff with India, on Wednesday ordered expulsion of Kulwant Singh after accusing him of spying. They said Singh was found involved in "activities incompatible with his official status", diplomatic jargon for spying. "Kulwant Singh was intercepted by the Pakistani security authorities while receiving sensitive documents from a Pakistani contact on June 1st, 2002," the foreign ministry was quoted as saying in a statement. Singh, who arrived on a stretcher with his wife and son, said Indian officials were being hassled by the Pakistani authorities. "All of us were really hassled there. They tortured me physically and hit me on the back and on the neck. They hit my backbone also and I still get fits. My family is very tense as they follow us everywhere, be it the marketplace or anywhere else," Singh said. His son Rahul Singh, said men in a taxi came and forcibly took his father along. "They abducted my father and took him away in a taxi. One of their men in the taxi gave me the keys of our home and then I just watched the taxi driving away from my sight," Rahul said. India said on Saturday, the official was abducted by intelligence operatives in retaliation after New Delhi picked up a Pakistan embassy official on a spying charge. The row came as the two countries were locked in a military standoff over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir that has sparked fears of war between the nuclear-armed rivals. Singh's wife Kamla Kaur said the physical torture had badly hurt her husband's back. "He was forcibly taken away. They hit him on his back and that's why his backbone has been damaged. They tortured him very badly. I was at home when the incident took place," said Kaur. Singh arrived in New Delhi in the evening and is undergoing treatment in a local hospital in the capital. India expelled Pakistan's ambassador last month and both countries halved their diplomatic representation as ties rapidly deteriorated after a December attack on Parliament blamed on Pakistan-based militants. The two countries often accuse each other's intelligence agencies of abducting embassy staff, who are later accused of spying. India had threatened to close Pakistan's already thinly staffed diplomatic mission if Islamabad failed to address its concerns over Islamic militants fighting Delhi's rule in Kashmir.(ANI)
TDP to go by Vajpayee choice for President Go to top New Delhi, June 6 (ANI): Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee met Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday to decide on the NDA's nominee for the upcoming Presidential election. After the 90-minute meeting with Vajpayee, Naidu said the TDP has authorised Vajpayee to decide the president's name. "I had discussion with the Prime Minister and the Home Minister on the presidential candiadte. We have discussed so many things, ultimately TDP has authorised to the Prime Minister to decide the presidential candidate," Naidu added. When asked about the name being proposed by his party, Naidu said, "names are not important, but ultimately we are authorising the Prime Minister to choose the candidate." The meeting was attended by Home Minister Advani, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan and TDP's Parliamentary leader in the Lok Sabha K Yerran Naidu. The opposition, especially the Congress, had earlier said they were in favour of a second term for President KR Narayanan. This was ruled out when Vajpayee met Narayanan on May 30 and categorically stated that the NDA was against the President running for a second term. As chief of the Telegu Desam Party, Chandrababu Naidu plays a until role in deciding who the next President could be. Since the TDP holds 5 per cent weightage in the arithmetic of party votes, if Naidu decides to back an opposition party candidate, the NDA's combined vote could fall to 48 per cent - which would be less than the required majority.(ANI)
Big jolt to Congress in Maharashtra
Go to top Mumbai, June 6 (ANI): The Congress in Maharashtra suffered a big jolt with party MLA Padmakar Walvi on Thursday claiming that he had withdrawn support to the Democratic Front coalition Government. Walvi, the first Congress MLA to switch sides, was produced before the media by leader of the opposition in the state assembly, Narayan Rane, who claimed he had withdrawn support to the DF Government. BJP leader Gopinath Munde on the occasion presented 17 MLAs including four NCP MLAs and claimed they had switched loyalities to the opposition camp. He said he had also received letters from two Congress MLAs and 11 NCP MLAs pledging support to the saffron combine. However, he said he could not produce the letters right away as the said legislators would come under heavy attack and pressure from the DF government. (ANI)
PWG holds first round of peace talks in Hyderabad
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top Hyderabad, June 6 (ANI): Heralding signs of a breakthrough to the protracted problem of left-wing extremism in Andhra Pradesh, the first peace talks have been resumed somewhere in Hyderabad. The talks followed suspension of combing operations against the outlawed People's War Group (PWG), waging an armed struggle for peasant rights for the last 30 years. They are aimed at working out the modalities for the actual peace talks and are being held without the involvement of intermediaries. The provincial government had announced on March 22 after an all-party meeting its offer to hold peace talks with the PWG. T. Sitaram, Minister for Excise, and K. Vijaya Rama Rao, Minister for Commercial Taxes and former CBI director, represented the state government. The PWG had already named revolutionary writer Vara Vara Rao and Baladeer Gaddar as its representatives. The PWG demanded lifting of the ban imposed on it under the federal draconian law, Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) to facilitate the talks to proceed. PWG's Vara Vara Rao later told reporters that they have sought an end to police operations against them to sustain the peace talks. "We have discussed at length about the fake encounters also. They have assured (us) that there will not be any fake encounters". State government representative Rama Rao, himself a distinguished police officer and former director of Central Bureau of Intelligence, hoped the talks would encounter hurdles but make slow and steady progress. "The main theme of the discussions was that we want an end to all this for once. This has been going on for long time. We want the PWG to put an end to all the activities to enable peace to be brought to the region so that peace be established in the region leading to a permanent solution to this problem," Rama Rao said. The next round of talks will be held on Sunday (June 9). The PWG is the most active of radical left-wing extremist groups in Andhra Pradesh. Besides Andhra Pradesh, the PWG is active in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar and has pitted its campaign against landlords and the state administration whom it accuses of exploiting the poor. Commonly called Naxalites, the PWG believes in the Maoist ideology of violent struggle for the establishment of peasant rule. It wants radical redistribution of land, an issue which is bitterly opposed by the upper caste landlords. Last year the PWG mounted violent attacks on multinational companies and business establishments run by politicians after the state government took stern measures against them.(ANI)
Ailing families migrate to R.S.Pura medical camp
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top R.S.Pura (J-K), June 6 (ANI): As civilian casualties mounted in this border area of Jammu and Kashmir, residents of Ranbir Singh Pura sector moved to medical camps. The villagers are braving twin battle against heat and continuous shelling from across the border with Pakistan. Housed in a school building, the camp provides round-the-clock medical facilities to the ailing migrants. "The migrants coming into these camps mainly complain of dehydration, gastroenteritis, muscle pain, and fever as even the weather too is very hot," said field demonstrator of Community Health Centre Rajkumar Sangda who is treating patients in the camp. He said the patients are given first aid for minor injury or ailment and referred to the district hospital if they are seriously ill. The camp has provided succour for the mostly poor residents of the border villages. "We have migrated to these medical camps as they are really helpful to us. We don't have money but we get medicines free of cost here. It's very difficult to manage with kids during summer. Therefore, these camps are a real help," said Dipu Devi, who migrated from village Maliyan. All along the international border and the military ceasefire line in Kashmir thousands of villagers have moved to safer places to escape shelling. Indian officials say dozens of people were either killed or wounded in the past three weeks of border firing which has intensified after the May 14 militant attack in Jammu, in which 31 people were killed.(ANI)
India to "sensitise" US about its concerns
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to top New Delhi, June 6 (ANI): India will "sensitise" the U.S. authorities about its concerns over the prevailing situation in the region during their visit, spokesperson of the External Affairs Ministry Nirupama Rao said here on Wednesday. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are due to visit New Delhi this week as part of a fresh diplomatic initiative to avert war between India and Pakistan. Armitage will be arriving in New Delhi on Friday from Islamabad after consultations with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. Nirupama Rao said India and the US will share their perception on the India-Pakistan border situation. "We have a constant open channel of communication between the two governments in regard to a number of issues and the situation in the region has also figured in that discussion. Therefore the visits of Deputy Secretary Armitage and Defence Secretary Rumsfeld are part of this process of consultation and they enable us to sensitise the US administration about our concerns, about our latest assessments of the situation. Whether it pertains to infiltration, whether it pertains to cross border terrorism, we are able to share information, share intelligence with the US administration," said Rao. "So we look forward to this continuing exchange of views and certainly diplomatic efforts to reduce tension are something that we as a democracy have always pursued and we have not given up on," added Rao. Washington and New Delhi, on opposite sides of the Cold War fence, have moved to build a new friendship and ties have grown stronger since George W Bush became the President last year. Since the September 11 air attacks, India and the US have been closely interacting on intelligence matters, particularly on issues relating to counter-terrorism. Armitage will try to persuade both Indian and Pakistani leaders in an effort to ease tensions. The two nuclear-armed neighbours have massed around one million troops, backed by armour and artillery, on their border in a dispute over Kashmir, which intensified after a December attack on parliament that New Delhi blamed on militants based in Pakistan.(ANI)
Pak N-strategy not acceptable: UK Go to top London, June 6 (ANI): British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has said that Pakistan's stance of not ruling out first use of nuclear weapons in case of a war with India was "not tolerable". The foreign secretary on Thursday was quoted as saying: "All of us can comprehend why Pakistan does not rule out first use of nuclear weapons. They are very much less strong than India". He added, "however, we cannot tolerate it because a nuclear exchange is no way to resolve this conflict". In an interview to BBC radio, Straw said the world community needed to obtain an undertaking from both sides that they won't, under any circumstances, use a nuclear weapon. "That already has happened in respect of India. It hasn't yet happened in respect of Pakistan," he added.(ANI)
LCA test-flight a success Go to top Bangalore, June 6 (ANI): India has successfully carried out a 30- minute test flight of the light combat aircraft (LCA). It is the second time that the aircraft has been tested. The first series of tests of the LCA, described by officials as the "world's smallest, lightweight supersonic fighter," was conducted last year. Defence Minister George Fernandes, while calling it "a landmark event for India's aviation and as a consequence for our national security," said it had nothing to do with ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan. "It's an ongoing development and has has nothing to do with what's going on in the border," he told reporters here on Thursday. Meanwhile, Aeronautical Development Agency, which designed the LCA, and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd have signed a deal to make eight such aircraft, the first one of which is slated to be delivered by 2006. (ANI)
Air France cancels New Delhi flight
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top London, June 6 (ANI): An Air France flight to New Delhi was cancelled on Thursday in view of the current Indo-Pak tension, a company spokesman said. He said the scheduled flight was cancelled because of the prevailing tension and also after receiving a recommendation from the foreign ministry. However, Air France's scheduled flight to Mumbai on Friday was expected to take off as normal, the spokesman added. (ANI)
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