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| Thursday, October 4, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Rally
against Pak support to USA Anti-Taliban
forces claim success |
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Laden
‘may have N-arms’ Masood’s
kin exposes Pak doublespeak
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USA
identifies 23 militant bases Washington, October 3 The US intelligence agencies have identified 23 militant bases in Afghanistan as well as some Taliban military forces as targets in President George W. Bush’s campaign against terrorism, the Washington Times reported on Wednesday. Russia
may no longer oppose NATO
Neerja
case: Pak extradites 5 Arabs
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Food convoys reach Kabul Kabul, October 3 “The convoys come without any problem.
The Taliban is fully cooperating with us at the distribution sites,’’
said Yosuf Yosufzai, a World Food Programme (WFP) logistical officer
in Kabul. “Along the way we didn’t have any problems... There is
no security problem for the transportation of convoys and no
restrictions in the distribution,’’ he said. At various feeding
points in the city, the WFP’s main beneficiaries — women swathed
in the mandatory all-enveloping burqa, children and elderly men —
lined up to receive their rations. After three years of drought and two decades of war, conditions have deteriorated further since the deadly September 11 hijack plane attacks on the USA, with people fearing US military reprisals fleeing the cities. Washington says Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden, sheltered by the Taliban in Afghanistan, is the prime suspect behind the attacks on New York and Washington that left nearly 6,000 persons listed as missing or dead. The United Nations has launched a $ 584 million emergency appeal as it prepares for up to 1.5 million Afghans who may try to enter neighbouring countries, with most believed likely to end up in Pakistan and Iran. The
WFP, which halted food convoys after September 11 when the Taliban
told all foreign aid workers to leave the country, says at least six
million of Afghanistan’s 24 million persons are dependent to some
extent on food aid. TEHERAN: The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and
the World Food Programme (WFP) will be sending an important
humanitarian aid shipment to Herat, western Afghanistan, Unicef
sources said on Wednesday. The 30-tonne shipment is scheduled to
arrive tomorrow in Iran’s northeastern city of Mashhad, near the
border with Afghanistan, and comprises 4,000 blankets, 309 medical
emergency kits, water and water-purification tablets, and 100 tonnes
of wheat. Unicef said the shipment would help some two million persons for a three-month period.
Reuters, AFP |
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Rally against Pak support to USA Karachi, October 3 The rally was organised
by the Mohib-e-Watan (Patriotic) Party in Keamari, the city’s port
area. The protesters, carrying placards, banners and flags, shouted
in support of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in
the September 11 terrorist attacks, and Afghanistan’s Taliban
regime. They also raised slogans against possible American strikes against Afghanistan which, Washington says, was harbouring Bin Laden. Leaders from religious parties, including the Jamiat ul Ulmai Islam, the Jamaat Islami, the Sipah-e-Sahaba, the Swad-e-Azam Ahle Sunnat, the Jamiat Ulma Council, the Jamiat Ittehad Ulma, the Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadis, and other jehadi parties addressed the protest rally. The main speaker was Maulana Asad Thanvi, president of the Jamiatul Ulmai Islam (JUI). “The
people of Pakistan will not allow the government to give airbase,
integration of intelligence system, air ways or water ways to the
American forces attacking brotherly Islamic country Afghanistan. This
battle is not against Osama bin Laden or Afghanistan. This battle is
against Islam,” said Maulana Thanvi. He also demanded concrete
proof about Bin Laden’s involvement in the attacks in New York and
Washington. “I request the humanity all over the world and the
people having any faith that they should stop America and they should
stop President Bush who has become mad by starting state terrorism,”
Maulana Thanvi added.
ANI |
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Anti-Taliban forces claim success Peshawar (Pakistan), October 3 Quoting an opposition spokesman Mohammad Habeel in Takhar, northern Afghanistan, the AIP said their forces made an advance of about 15 km to get closer to Chakcharan and are preparing to march on the town soon. Habeel said the movement was possible after three Taliban commanders with their 75 fighters also defected to the opposition, leading to the fall of the strategically located villages of Adham, Telak, Band-e-Amir and Tajakhaa. The spokesman also reported fighting on the Lolash frontline in another northern Faryab province but gave no further details. He, however, confirmed that the Taliban militia had recaptured the centre of the Lolash district on Tuesday. The rest of the district was under our control, Habeel said. The Taliban, under increasing international pressure to turn over Osama bin Laden still control some 90 per cent of Afghanistan.
DPA |
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Laden ‘may have N-arms’ Paris, October 3 Michael Moodie,
president of Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute, an
independent thinktank in Washington, said he had “no doubt” that
Bin Laden would use such weapons of mass destruction “if he could.” Moodie
is a former assistant director of the US Arms Control and Disarmament
Agency Bureau for Multilateral Affairs and a former senior negotiator,
under the Clinton administration, at talks to beef up a 1972 global
treaty on biological weapons. BERLIN: A total of 214 bank accounts containing deposits amounting to some $3.5 million have so far been frozen in Germany in efforts to crack down on financial support for terrorism, according to an announcement made by the economy ministry. In
a notice in Tuesday’s official government gazette, the ministry has
also ordered the closure of other accounts relating to 26 individuals
and entities which figured on a list issued by Mr George W. Bush last
week as being linked to terrorism, the statement said. THE HAGUE: The Netherlands has frozen assets worth a total of $500,000 in two bank accounts belonging to people or organisations believed to be linked to terrorism, the finance ministry has said. SYDNEY:
Australia’s central bank on Wednesday ordered a block on any
accounts held by suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and
his Al-Qaida group. AFP |
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Masood’s
kin exposes Pak doublespeak London, October 3 “These fighters have been going into Pakistan
within at least the knowledge of the Pakistani military,” Mr Ahmed
Wali Masood, who has been charge d’affaires of the pre-Taliban
government in London, said in an interview. Mr Masood said he had
authentic information on the movement of these fighters into
Afghanistan from key leaders of the Northern Alliance — that his
brother led for many years. Mr Masood was assassinated in northern
Afghanistan days before the September 11 U.S. terror attacks. “Our
people in the field have given us information about convoys coming
into Afghanistan from the Pakistan side and digging in,” Mr Masood
said. “The people going in are mainly Arab and Pakistani.” He
said the movement had picked up over the past two to three days. “We
have to watch Pakistan very carefully. General (Pervez) Musharraf
claims now to be committed to the alliance against terrorism, but it
is the same general’s, ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) that has
established a network of terrorists inside Afghanistan.” He
alleged the thousands of Arabs and Pakistanis already inside
Afghanistan “could only have gone in through Pakistan. There is no
other way they could have reached Afghanistan, and so we should be
very careful in believing that the Pakistani military and the ISI will
now fight their own people.” Mr Masood said he had warned western
governments before that they were being misled by Pakistan. “If they
had heeded such warnings, then all these tragedies would not have
taken place.” he said. General Musharraf was not the only
general in Pakistan, Mr Masood said. “There are other generals and
the ISI working hand in glove with the ISI, (Afghanistan’s ruling)
Taliban and (Saudi exile) Osama bin Laden,” he said. “They are a
part of the same deal and action.” Fighters from Arab countries
enter Pakistan with Pakistani visas before moving on to Afghanistan.
“They come to Pakistani airports, they cross the border from
Pakistan, they get their supplies, their weapons, their oil, their
food, their money all from Pakistan.” “Two months back, Musharraf
had said certain religious groups are holding all of Pakistan hostage.
Now he says these groups have no camps inside Pakistan. The general is
contradicting himself,” Mr Masood said. “Either he has lost his
memory or he gets away with lying all the time.” IANS |
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USA identifies 23 militant bases Washington, October 3 Citing US officials, the newspaper said the 23 training camps were located throughout the Central Asian nation and included sites near the cities of Kabul and Jalalabad. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told a group of former US government officials last week that numerous “high-value” targets inside Afghanistan had been targeted, the Washington Times said, citing a participant at the meeting. NEW YORK: The Pentagon plans to minimise the use of Pakistani bases in a military strike against Afghanistan so as not to destabilise a key ally. The New York Times reported on Wednesday in its online edition. The Pentagon fears that an extensive deployment in Pakistan could destabilise a critical but volatile ally that has tested nuclear weapons, the report quoting senior Bush administration officials said. A
senior Pakistani official said the USA had not asked to station ground
troops in Pakistan and he did not expect the US military to deploy
fighter jets, bombers or other aircraft for extended periods of time,
the newspaper reported. Reuters |
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Russia may no longer oppose NATO Brussels, October 3 Russia has, until now been opposed fiercely to the inclusion of the three former Soviet Baltic states in the 19-nation Western Alliance when NATO considers its next wave of enlargement next year. “As for NATO expansion, one can take another, an entirely new look at this...if NATO takes on a different shade and is becoming a political organisation. Of course we would reconsider our position with regard to such expansion if we were to feel involved in such processes,’’ Putin told a joint news conference with European Union leaders. In his most conciliatory comments so far, the Russian leader said it was essential to devise a joint mechanism for Moscow and the 19-nation Western Alliance to fight the common threat of terrorism. “They
keep saying that NATO is becoming more political than military. We are
looking at this and watching this process. If this is to be so, it
would change things considerably,’’ he said. Reuters |
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Khaleda stakes
claim to form government Dhaka, October 3 Begum Zia (56) who steered BNP-led four-party combine to two-thirds majority in the 300-member Jatiya Sangsad (National Parliament), requested the President to ensure the formal notification of election results at the earliest, BNP Secretary-General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan told reporters after the 50-minute meeting between the two leaders. Bhuiyan said the BNP and its allies, including the Jamaat-e-Islami, wanted the new government to be sworn in by October 7, a day before repolling is held in 42 centres spread across 16 constituencies. With results of 283 constituencies out, the BNP and its allies have secured 202 seats and the Awami League won 61. NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Wednesday greeted former Bangladesh Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia for her party’s emphatic electoral success and said he looked forward to working with her to promote Indo-Bangladesh cooperation.
PTI |
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5 Palestinians killed Gaza, October 3 Israel launched the operation after Palestinian gunmen killed two Israelis during a raid yesterday on a Jewish settlement in the area. Israeli soldiers killed the two attackers. The Palestinian officials said five Palestinians, four of them policemen, were killed when an Israeli tank shell hit their security post near the Palestinian town of Beit Lahiya at the northern end of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army said the aim of the incursion, about a km into a Palestinian-ruled area, was to protect Jewish settlements from attack. Meanwhile,
members of the hardline Palestinian group Hamas today announced over
loudspeakers at anti-Israeli demonstrations here that their members
carried out a deadly attack on a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip. Reuters |
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Neerja case: Pak extradites 5 Arabs Karachi, October 3 Official sources said the convicted man was taken out of his cell for
interrogation on Sunday but he did not return. His four colleagues contacted
their lawyers to file a petition with the court. IANS |
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Northern
Alliance soldiers have been moving up to frontline positions
north of Kabul, ahead of a possible US-led offensive against the
Taliban.
(
Hundreds
of people in Karachi took to streets on Tuesday to denounce the
military government for its "unstinted support" to the
USA.
