Indian ‘spy’ arrested

By Our Staff Reporter

LAHORE, Dec 24: Law-enforcement agencies claimed on Wednesday night to have arrested a man believed to be an Indian spy and found fake identity cards and other material in his possession.

The suspect, identified as Satish Anand Shukla, is believed to have been involved in Wednesday’s bomb blast in the Bahawalpur House here.

Sources said the man was arrested after law-enforcement personnel had intercepted his cellphone calls. They said Shukla had disguised his identity.

Indian ‘spy’ arrested -DAWN - Top Stories; December 25, 2008

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UN official praises Pakistan’s cooperation

By Anwar Iqbal
WASHINGTON, Dec 23: A senior UN official has said that Pakistan has extended full cooperation in implementing UN sanctions against Jamaatud Dawa and Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Richard Barrett, the Coordinator of Security Council’s Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Monitoring Committee, told CNN-IBN in New York that the United Nations had received “across-the-board” cooperation from all Pakistani civil and military agencies.

The committee is responsible for monitoring sanctions imposed by the Security Council on individuals and organisations declared terrorist.

Mr Barrett said he found “very good atmosphere of cooperation” in all his dealings with officials in Pakistan, “whether it’s the government, elected officials, ministries, the intelligence services or the army”.

UN official praises Pakistan’s cooperation -DAWN - Top Stories; December 24, 2008

India must admit tht unlike india, pakistan respects decisions taken by UN ... the above excerpt shows tht UN officials r satisfied with wht pakistan has done...

wht steps has india taken to act on UN resolution on Kashmir???

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A message of tolerance to MQM

THIS is apropos of your editorial, ‘Bloodshed once more’ (Dec 2). While expressing concern about the violence in Karachi, you have correctly observed that the MQM chief Altaf Hussain’s warnings about the possible Talibanisation of this city wasn’t the right thing to do.

Also, that, undoubtedly, one of the reasons behind his warnings could be the migration to Karachi of a large number of refugees from Fata. You are also right in noting that there is no evidence that all of them are arriving here or that none of them intends to return home after things return to normality.

Perhaps this is the reason for the concern of the MQM leadership. Actually they do not want the demographic balance to shift to their disadvantage. However, they are reminded that some among them and all their elders had come to Sindh as migrants from India, a large part of the city’s populace, including my family, are ‘muhajirs’ in this sense.

Therefore, if our unfortunate brethren from a battle zone of their own country wish to find shelter with their relatives, friends or acquaintances settled in another part of the country, it is not proper for us to object to that.

Emerson had said: “It is a beautiful compensation of life that we cannot help another without being helped ourselves”. Hence, whichever way one looks at it, ultimately it will be to our own advantage (if one must view it in business terms) to help these uprooted, destitute and desperate folks, many of whom have lost their family members and relatives.

Such a selfness and humane approach will definitely increase the goodwill and tolerance between communities and lead to peace and prosperity for the city, province and country. If we can tolerate millions of folks from Bangladesh, Afgahnistan, Burma and other places, why must we turn Pakistanis away?

F. SIDDIQI
Karachi

DAWN - Letters; December 07, 2008

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Humble vs Aggressive approach

NEW DELHI, Dec 7: Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Sunday that claims he had made a threatening telephone call to President Asif Ali Zardari over the recent terror attack on Mumbai were false and intended to divert the world’s attention from New Delhi’s case that a Pakistan-based terrorist group had planned the assault.

“I have seen several misleading stories about a hoax telephone call from me to President Zardari of Pakistan,” Mr Mukherjee said in a statement a day after the Indian foreign ministry said the affair was unworthy of comment.

“We were informed by friends from third countries that Pakistan President Zardari believed that he had received a threatening telephone call from me on Nov 28, after the attack on Mumbai. We immediately clarified to those friends, and we also made it clear to the Pakistan authorities, that I had made no such telephone call,” Mr Mukherjee said. He was commenting on a report in Dawn on Saturday, which was picked up by several Indian dailies. Mr Mukherjee said his last and only conversation with President Zardari was in Islamabad during a visit to Pakistan in May.

He said the only telephone conversation he had with a Pakistani leader since the attack on Mumbai was on the evening of Nov 28 when he spoke to Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi when the visitor was addressing a press conference at the Women’s Press Club in New Delhi.

“It is, however, worrying that a neighbouring state might even consider acting on the basis of such a hoax call, try to give it credibility with other states, and confuse the public by releasing the story in part. I can only ascribe this series of events to those in Pakistan who wish to divert attention from the fact that a terrorist group operating from the Pakistani territory planned and launched a ghastly attack on Mumbai.”

The Hindu said on Sunday that, while the Indian foreign ministry had refused to comment on the hoax call, it believed “the thinking within the Indian foreign office is that such disinformation stories could only mean that Inter-Services Intelligence’s dirty tricks department is very much at work. The ISI and the army are trying to divert internal and external attention from their complicity in Mumbai terror and thereby clawing their way into public acceptability in Pakistan.” The newspaper did not quote any source for its report.

“The Indian foreign office is of the view that even to dignify such a disinformation campaign with a comment or denial would mean helping the rogue elements within the Pakistani establishment. The foreign office’s anticipation, though, is that these elements would muddy the waters and the world would see more such acts of disinformation,” it said.“New Delhi is aware that the ISI will continue to make attempts to sow misinformation to bring about a situation in which western countries would lose sight of the main issue at hand -- bringing to book the culprits responsible for the Mumbai blasts and dissuading elements from planning terror attacks -- in favour of an approach that says: ‘Okay little boys, stop fighting.’”

‘Hoax call’ claim termed diversionary -DAWN - Top Stories; December 08, 2008

this is another illustration of offensive approach! ... might is right... no proof provided whtsoever and india still keeps defaming ISI... they have a phobia, i m sure tht ignoring their local extremist elements will hurt them later on... i m not sure how long can they fool their ppl by always blaming pakistan

i still recommend pakistan to respond properly i.e. aggressively instead of being polite n down to earth...

i remember iqbal's words: "hai jurm-e-zaeefi ki saza marg-e-mafajaat"

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US urges Pakistan to cooperate with India 'or else to face the use of force :)'

US intelligence officials, while talking to the US media, confirmed India’s claim that Lashkar-i-Tayyaba was involved in the Mumbai attacks.

They said that British intelligence agents had recorded conversations between the attackers and their backers in Pakistan.

In an editorial on Tuesday, The Washington Post also backed India’s claim that the LeT was behind the attack.

“The best way to salvage Pakistani democracy, and to prevent a slide toward war between two nuclear powers, is for Islamabad to shut down LeT and similar organisations swiftly, permanently and verifiably,” the Post wrote.

Also, a Post columnist, Robert Kagan, who is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment, Washington, suggested placing the tribal belt and the areas where terrorist groups allegedly had their bases under international control.

He suggested forming an international force to invade those areas and destroy the bases. Mr Kagan urged the US to convince China and Russia not to oppose the creation of such a force if and when the proposal goes to the United States.

He acknowledged that forming such a force to invade Pakistani territories would violate the country’s sovereignty but argued that “Pakistan and other states that harbour terrorists should not take their sovereignty for granted. In the 21st century, sovereign rights need to be earned.”

At the State Department, deputy spokesman Robert Wood said: “We’re going to continue to work with India and Pakistan … and to see what we can do to prevent these types of attacks from taking place and, of course, to get to the bottom of who carried out these attacks and bring those culprits to justice.”

US urges Pakistan to cooperate with India -DAWN - Top Stories; December 03, 2008

presure building on pakistan... for no reason!!! i still think pakistan needs to be more aggressive in order to earn its sovereign rights

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Karachi braves more violence, 24 arrested

The clashes broke out on Saturday between fringe elements within the city's Urdu-speaking community and ethnic Pashtuns from northwest Pakistan.

However, political leaders of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) - the major political party in Karachi which represents many Urdu-speaking residents - and the Awami National Party (ANP) - which represents many ethnic Pashtuns - continued to condemn the violence and blame it on 'hidden elements.'

MQM minister Shoaib Bukhari told PPI that the 'involvement of hidden elements in this phenomenon can not be denied.'

According to Reuters, some commentators in Pakistan have raised the possibility of Indian instigation of the violence in Karachi as a response to last week's militant assault in Mumbai, which India has linked to Pakistan.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said he was surprised by the timing of the Karachi violence.

'The killings in Karachi erupted suddenly after the Mumbai incident,' Sharif told reporters. 'I'm surprised how it erupted all of a sudden ... I think this needs to be looked in to thoroughly, which forces are involved in it.'

For the most part, violence has remained restricted to certain areas of the city such as Orangi Town, Sohrab Goth, Malir and to a lesser extent Gulistan-i-Jauhar.

However, many residents continue to be gripped by fear as a result of widely circulated yet unverified reports of violent mutilations being conducted by the rioters.

City police chief Waseem Ahmed said four people were killed in different incidents in the early hours of Tuesday but the city had been mostly calm since then.

'There has been no major incident since the morning,' Ahmed told Reuters.

At least 47 people have been killed and over 200 injured since Saturday, according to a tally of reports from police and hospitals.

Rivals fought gun battles and burned shops and cars in several parts of the city of 15 million people over the weekend and more disturbances erupted on Monday.

DAWN.COM | Sindh | Karachi braves more violence, 24 arrested

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Indian commandos killed Jews, says Israeli rescue group -DAWN

By Jawed Naqvi
NEW DELHI, Dec 2: A private rescue group from Israel has claimed that Indian commandos inadvertently killed some of the hostages in the terror attacks in Mumbai, and the claim has evidently embarrassed both governments, news reports said on Tuesday.

“Based on what I saw, (although) I can’t identify the type of bullets in the bodies (of the victims), I don’t think the terrorists killed all the hostages, to put it gently,” Mr Haim Weingarten, head of the six-member team of Zaka voluntary organisation dealing with rescue and recovery, told The Jerusalem Post.

Press Trust of India said from Jerusalem that the claim had embarrassed the Israeli government, which is worried about its fallout on ties with the Indian government.

According to PTI, Mr Weingarten told the Post from Mumbai that all the six Jewish and Israeli hostages found dead in the Chabad House were killed by either gunshot wounds or shrapnel from grenade blasts, or both, and that he didn’t know who threw or fired the grenades that wounded the hostages.

Although lacking forensic tools to determine the time of death, Mr Weingarten was quoted as saying that his team’s observations led him to believe that “some of the hostages were killed on Wednesday (when gunmen first entered the building), some on Thursday, and some on Friday morning (during the start of the commando raid)”.

Zaka officials believe that in a final act of love, the director of the Chabad House, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, wrapped the body of his wife Rivka in a tallit (prayer shawl) before succumbing to his own wounds during the final hours of the siege, it said.

The volunteers on the scene found the bodies of Israeli grandmother Yocheved Orpaz (62) and Jewish Mexican national Norma Shvarzblat Rabinovich (50) bound to one another with a phone cord.

Meanwhile, the Indian foreign ministry held a briefing “to convey the deepest condolences of the Government of India to those countries whose nationals were killed in the terrorist attack in Mumbai.” Heads of mission from these countries were present in the briefing. “They were also informed of details of the terrorist attack and the investigation so far,” the ministry said.

Possibly following the briefing, the Israeli government slammed the Zaka group for alleging that Indian commandos might have inadvertently killed one or more Jewish hostages during the Nariman House operation, saying the “irresponsible” comments could cause considerable damage to bilateral ties.
“They are causing all kinds of problems,” a senior Israeli foreign ministry official said about the six-member team of the Zaka voluntary group that flew on Thursday “on its own volition” to Mumbai for a rescue operation after the deadly terror strikes.

“They are selling all kinds of stories to journalists looking for stories, and taking credit for things they didn’t do,” the official told The Jerusalem Post. It remains a mystery why India has allowed a clearly unauthorised group from Israel to carry out its self-styled rescue at the site of a mind-boggling crime. Usually such sensitive sites are sealed off to visitors till official investigations are underway.

Commandos killed Jews, says Israeli rescue group -DAWN - Top Stories; December 03, 2008

i dont know why the world reacts so belligerently if indian forces are blamed... and at the same time the world asks pakistan to be calm and cooperating when pakistan or its departments are blamed without evidence...

i am also thinking why are such blames on indian forces called irresponsible comments, but none of the comments by the indian govt. officials have yet been labeled as 'irresponsible' by the international community???

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