 |
|
Japanese minister meets Jaswant New Delhi, May 31 (ANI): Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Saiken Suigura on Friday met Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh as part of his intensified diplomatic effort to defuse military tension between India and Pakistan who are on the brink of war. Suigura refused to divulge details about the meeting. He is due to address a press conference in the evening. Suigura who was in Islamabad earlier this week had said that Pakistan had assured him it would step up efforts to curb militants infiltrating into the Indian-ruled part of disputed Kashmir. Islamabad denies New Delhi's charges that it is sponsoring a 13- year-old separatist insurgency in Kashmir by Islamic militants seeking independence or union with Pakistan, and says it only gives moral and political support to Kashmiri "freedom fighters". India has said it is running out of patience over attacks by Islamic militants whom it accuses Islamabad of supporting. The two countries, which have fought three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947, have massed nearly a million men on their borders after a December raid on Parliament that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militants. A May 14 raid on an army camp in Kashmir by what India called Pakistan-based Islamic militants stoked tensions further, triggering a flurry of diplomatic activity in the region. Japan lifted sanctions on Pakistan and India last October after the two countries offered support for the U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks on the United States.(ANI) Russia backs India's stand
Go
to top London, May 31 (ANI): Russia has supported India's demand for an end to cross-border attacks by Islamic militants in Kashmir which otherwise have the potential of breaking out into an all-out war. Interfax news agency in Moscow quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov as saying,"Pakistan must take the first step in calming the situation surrounding its relations with India." Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered to mediate between India and Pakistan on the sidelines of the June 3-5 regional conference in Almaty, Kazakhstan, which will discuss confidence building measures in South Asia. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and President Pervez Musharraf are both ready to meet Putin in Kazakhstan next week to discuss the dispute over Kashmir. But India, a close ally of Russia, has rejected the idea of talks between Vajpayee and Musharraf or three-way negotiations.(ANI)
Indo-Pak situation not worrisome : Fernandes Go to top Singapore, May 31 (ANI): Defence Minister George Fernandes said here on Friday that there was nothing to worry about the mounting tension between India and Pakistan. Talking to reporters, Fernandes said that troops of both the countries have been in an eyeball-to-eyeball situation for the last six months and so there is no cause for immediate concern on what is likely to happen. "The situation right now is stable," he said after a meeting with U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz just ahead of the regional security conference to be held here. Earlier on Friday, while addressing a news conference, Wolfowitz said that war between India and Pakistan would lead to great destruction and cause a setback to the much improved relations between the United States of America and the South Asian neighbours. (ANI)
Five policemen injured in Poonch grenade attack
Go to top Jammu, May 31 (ANI): At least five police officers were injured when militants threw a grenade at them on Friday. The attack occurred near Khanetar in Poonch district, 255 km north of here. According to a senior police official, the policemen were returning to a camp when militants hurled a grenade in which they received splinter injuries. No one was killed in the incident, he added. (ANI)
Shell-shocked villagers want Delhi to do something concrete
Go to
top Rajouri , May 31 (ANI): Daily shelling by Pakistani troops across the ceasefire line in Jammu and Kashmir state has made life miserable for the villagers near the border town of Rajouri. And they are unhappy with what they feel is official inaction. Officials said several people have died and dozens wounded in mortar and artillery firing from across the LoC which intensified in the past two weeks as fears of war mounted in the region. Thousands of people have fled the border areas, taking refuge in make-shift relief camps which are invariably cramped and have little sanitation facilities. As troop movement in the area increased, farming operations came to a halt. According to Anoop Kaul, a school teacher, "Studies have been disturbed. Cattle, on which much of the villagers' livelihood depends, have been badly hit. Agricultural work has almost come to a halt, also because of the rain. We have not had rain here for the last few years. On top of it, there is the inept civil administration." Fed up with violence and regular firing, villagers say that New Delhi should mount a major operation to end their agony. "We will be satisfied only when our Prime Minister and other leaders who talk about giving it back to the enemy actually do what they say," said Rafiq Alam, whose wife died in cross-border shelling. After the May 14 raid in Kaluchak, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee asked the troops on the border to be prepared for a "decisive action". Anticipating a major conflict, the men who stayed back in the border villages of Nyaa and Patni, decided to dig in for a long haul. "The continuous shelling effects at least two of our villages, Nyaa and Patni. We have told the people to dig trenches and make bunkers to shield themselves from this shelling. We have told them to do this otherwise they might die," said Om Prakash, chief of Nyaa village. Local police said they were trying their best to help the villagers overcome the hardships in this hour of crisis. "We try our best to cooperate with the villagers. We provide them with all the help that they require, such as accommodation. We also acquaint the civil administration with their problems and if they can't help them, we go to them to help them ourselves," said Champa Sharma, a woman police constable. (ANI)
Pakistan welcomes Rumsfeld mission
Go to
top Islamabad, May 31 (ANI): Pakistan has welcomed the visit next week of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld amid continued tensions over Kashmir, reports BBC. Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan was quoted on Friday as saying "We will expect him [Rumsfeld] to tell India to stop its belligerence and talk peace." Rumsfeld is expected to spell out to both India and Pakistan the terrible cost of any nuclear conflict for the two countries and the entire region. Exchanges of mortar and artillery fire between Indian and Pakistani forces have been continuing across the Line of Control in the disputed region. Pakistan is considering moving more troops to the region. The fear is that Pakistani troops will be moved from the Afghan border - where they are playing a vital role in the allies' hunt for al-Qaeda - to the Indian border. Rumsfeld's mission is a measure of the Americans' concern about any impact on the military campaign against al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters. Lt-Gen Hamid Gul Haq, the former head of Pakistan's security service, told the BBC: if Pakistani troops are removed then they [Al-Qaeda] will have a chance to regroup. The allies do not want that, but the responsibility is entirely with the Indians." He denied that Pakistan was blackmailing the US. "It is not blackmail when you are talking about your security. The US understands that." President Bush has warned Pakistan that it must do more to prevent attacks by militants crossing into Indian-administered Kashmir. He said President Musharraf had promised to stop the incursions and had to keep his word. (ANI)
Indus talks conclude
Go
to top New Delhi, May 31 (ANI): Indian and Pakistani officials concluded their three-day talks on sharing of waters of the Indus rever which flows between the two nuclear arch-rivals Pakistani delegation members said many issues remained unresolved at the meeting. "This (Indus water sharing) is an issue, we have to resolve this. What about Bugliar project? That is also an issue. We have to resolve this," Sheraz Jamil Mammen, heading the Pakistani delegation, told reporters. A.C. Gupta, Commissioner, Indus Water Commission, leading the Indian delegation, said both sides discussed the future plan of action as well. "We submitted our annual report. We have signed that. We discussed about future tours and meetings. We also discussed the flood warning messages which we give to Pakistan. We also discussed the Bugliar project," Gupta said. When asked about the unresolved Bugliar project, Gupta said India could go ahead without any permission from Pakistan. "No there is no such consent. We need not have any permission for Pakistan to build the project. India is already going ahead," Gupta said. The Indus Water Treaty was signed in 1960 to share water from the mighty Indus and five other Himalayan rivers. India and Pakistan have discussed a range of issues at the talks, part of regular consultations on the treaty and its operation, including sharing data on possible floods.(ANI)
Five of a Dalit family gunned twon in Bihar village Go to top Patna, May 30 (ANI): At least six people, five of them children, of a lower caste family were gunned down by suspected rebels of the outlawed People's War Associate in a Bihar village late on Wednesday night, police said today. The PWA is a breakaway group of the People's War Group which operates in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Jharkhand besides Bihar. The heavily-armed intruders fired indiscriminately on a family in Lakhnaur village near state capital Patna. "I was alone here and my brothers were sleeping when those people hit them with slippers and then killed them," said Radha Devi, an eyewitness. The PWA has over the years used force to terrorise the state's "Dalits" to gain a hold over the region. Amit Kumar, Rural Superintendent of Police, Patna, said old enmity is believed to be the reason behind the massacre. "It looks as a revenge for the killing of relatives of Sunil Kranti, who was killed by one of the members, Jainandan Yadav, of today's massacred victims of the family," said Kumar. The killings came barely days after five members of a lower caste family were lynched by the PWG in a nearby Masoudi village in Patna. Three Dalits were gunned down in a similar incident about six months ago. Nearly 15 people have become victims of the PWA over the past one year in the state.(ANI)
Three-day Jamuna clean-up drive launched in Delhi Go to top New Delhi, May 31 (ANI): The Delhi government launched on Friday a three-day campaign to clean the Jamuna. The entire administrative staff will spend two hours every day on the task during this period. The six-member state cabinet would lead elected representatives, resident welfare associations, voluntary organisations, school students and corporate groups to clean up the river from seven different points on the eastern and western bank of the river. The Jamuna is the lifeline of Delhi, quenching 60 per cent of the capital's thirst. It now receives 60 per cent of untreated domestic as well as sewage, industrial effluents, fly ash and other chemicals, becoming as a result a highly polluted river.. Interestingly, the government last year had spent about 10 hours on the same job. Claiming to have cleared 200 truckloads of garbage and cleaned 3.5 kilometre stretch of the Jamuna. This year, it says, there is better coordination with the civic bodies for removal of slush and garbage. As in 2002, the ministers have been given charge of seven points between Wazirabad bridge and ITO along the river.(ANI)
|