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Saturday,
October 27, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Ultras strike at puja
pandal, 4 killed
Ordinance draconian, say rights bodies CBI asks UAE to confirm
Salem’s arrest |
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Centre to hold substantial talks on Nagaland Special Shatabdi extended till November 17
INFANTRY DAY TODAY Combines leave labourers jobless Don’t take USA for granted: Gen Rao Badrinath temple to close on Nov 16
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Ultras strike at puja pandal, 4 killed Guwahati, October 26 Official sources said here today that three persons died on the spot and 29 were injured, five seriously, in an explosion at a pandal in Gauripur of Dhubri district. The injured were shifted to hospital. Senior civil and police officials rushed to the spot. Investigation was on to apprehend the extremists. The jawan was killed when suspected NDFB militants fired on an Army patrol near a crowded puja pandal at Pakarkhuli in Nalbari district. Meanwhile, two unidentified rebels were killed in an encounter with the Army in Goreswar of Kamrup district yesterday. A Pistol, a grenade and a wireless set were seized from the slain militants, the police added. Meanwhile, reports said the victims included a 12-year-old boy and two women. The explosion was triggered by a time device at about 10 p.m. The device was planted by suspected NDFB militants in the Mahamaya Children’s Park Durga Puja Pandal, the police said. In another incident the police arrested an ULFA militant at Gauripur bus stand on Wednesday and produced him in the court yesterday.
KOHIMA: The police resorted to blank fire to disperse a gang of anti-socials harassing Durga puja revellers at Dimapur town on Thursday night. Official sources said the miscreants gathered at the new overbridge and began harassing and assaulting the revellers. Some even attempted to outrage the modesty of a few women.
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Ordinance draconian, say rights bodies Chennai, October 26 In a joint statement here, the Campaign for Custodial Justice and Abolition of Torture (CCJAT) and the Human Rights Advocacy and Research Foundation (HRF) expressed shock at the President giving assent to POTO. Alleging that the ordinance was worse than the previous TADA, they said even TADA had failed to serve its ostensible purpose with a conviction rate of less than one per cent. As many as 52268 persons were arrested under TADA and no one was convicted by a court. The Review Committee had said that it had insufficient evidence to detain them under TADA. “The consequences of POTO would be worse, detaining and arresting thousands of innocent victims,’’ the two organisations said. Stating that external exigencies could not be a basis for deciding a human rights programme, law or policy, they appealed to the jurists to condemn the “repressive” law, which they said would victimise the “innocent Muslims and other minorities, political dissidents, Dalits and tribal leaders, human rights defenders, ethnic-indigenous people’s liberation activists, cadres of revolutionary and national liberation organisations.’’ CCJAT state convener S Pandian and HRF Director Ossie Fernandes called upon the political parties to stage nation-wide protests, including a bandh to defeat the ordinance. Meanwhile, the Human Rights-Tamil Nadu initiative condemned the Union Government’s ban on 23 organisations as ‘’terrorist organisations.’’ Stating that the ban would only help the ‘’extremist’’ organisations to grow, initiative convener T.S.S. Mani, in a statement here, said at a time when the Muslims of the country were unsettled due to various factors, including America’s war against terrorism in Afghanistan, promulgation of POTO and bans would only alienate them further.
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CBI asks UAE to confirm
Salem’s arrest New Delhi, October 26 While the top officials of the Union Home Ministry remained tight-lipped over the reported arrest, a top official of the CBI, which is the nodal agency handling the issue, told The Tribune that the agency had, through the Interpol, forwarded the fingerprints of Abu Salem to the UAE authorities and had requested them to confirm his arrest. |
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Centre to hold substantial talks on Nagaland New Delhi, October 26 “Talks have been going on for ensuring that people of Nagaland got enduring peace. Now it has been agreed we will enter into a phase of substantial talks,” Union Home Minister L.K. Advani said after inaugurating “Art Panorama North-East 2001”, a week-long art and cultural event here. The Home Minister said the talks were aimed at fulfilling through peaceful means the “legitimate” political aspirations of the people of Nagaland. According to Home Ministry sources, the government’s interlocutor for the Naga peace talks has established preliminary contacts with the NSCN(I-M) leadership in the Netherlands. The Centre had in July this year extended the ceasefire with the NSCN(I-M) For a year. But the inclusion of three words “beyond territorial limits” in the ceasefire agreement sparked off violent protest in some north-eastern states, especially Manipur, forcing the government to delete those controversial words. The government’s somersault on the agreement had resulted in sharp differences between the Centre and the NSCN(I-M) as the latter had threatened to withdraw itself from the ceasefire agreement. In this context, today’s announcement of the Centre is significant. On the development in the North-East, the Home Minister pointed out that though development essentially was the subject of the state government, the appointment of Mr Arun Shourie as the minister in charge for north-eastern development would enable the Centre to ensure that there were no bottlenecks in the speedy implementation of development programmes. Over 200 artistes from the interiors of Nagaland have come here to take part in the week-long festival. |
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Special Shatabdi extended till November 17 New Delhi, October 25 The 469 Special Shatabdi which departs from New Delhi at 11.30 a.m. and reaches Chandigarh at 2.40 p.m. and 470 Special Shatabdi which departs from Chandigarh at 5.20 p.m. and reaches New Delhi at 8.30 p.m. will be in addition to existing two Shatabdi services available to commuters. The Special Shatabdi has a new IRY-designed AC executive class and seven AC chair cars, the release added. |
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INFANTRY DAY TODAY THAT the infantry has the final say in a battle cannot be denied even today, despite the modern warfare having gone hi-tech. This should bring focus back on the basic fighting arm — the infantry — on October 27, which is Infantry Day. The veracity of the statement that the importance of infantry has not diminished and it has still to close in on the enemy to destroy it was proved in the Gulf war as well as in the Kargil conflict and will undoubtedly be proved in the on-going Afghanistan war. Air power did in the Gulf war in 1991, what had never been done before in any war. General Norman Schwarzkopf, who led the multi-national forces to victory in the Gulf war had said that heavy bombardment with B-52s and other bombers seemed to have achieved a 50 per cent attrition rate on the frontline and 75 per cent attrition rate of units behind the frontline. Besides, air power completely cut the Iraqi command and communication lines and destroyed their reconnaissance capacity. Notwithstanding, the destruction caused by the Allied air forces in the Gulf war, it was the ground battle that ended the war. And it was the infantry that bore brunt of the battle. Col Bob Harkens of the 18th Airborne Corps said during this war: “The only way an army buys real estate and wins wars is with the infantry on the ground”. In the Kargil war too, it was the infantry that had to close in on the enemy to capture high peaks, in spite of the air force and artillery having played their part well. No doubt, the infantry while carrying out this arduous task suffers the maximum casualties in any war as compared to other arms. Incidentally, in the Kargil war the Army suffered 527 killed and over 1000 wounded and 90 per cent of these casualties were from the infantry. In Kabul, the air action is a repeat of what happened in Iraq. The American and British air forces have targeted command posts, air defences, aircraft, key installations and terrorists’ training camps to cripple the Taliban’s war potential. Though the air force has already done colossal damage in Kabul, Kandahar and other key towns in Afghanistan, this is only one part of the war. It is the ground action that will finish off the war. Mercifully, the Northern Alliance which is well-versed in the terrain, Taliban’s weaponry and capabilities have come in handy to carry out the ground action. But this alone will not clinch the war in Afghanistan. The public reaction in America to the excessive casualties in the Vietnam war was so strong that the USA had to suspend its operations there. With modern warfare having become more sophisticated, its concern for casualties has increased manifold. Most military analysts in the USA had argued in January 1991 that air power alone would not be able to defeat the Iraqis and a ground war with at least 40,000 to 50,000 Allied casualties in the Gulf war would have to be fought. This put so much caution on the Americans that the ground battle was delayed till such time as the build-up of ground forces was as complete as possible. In the meantime, air power went whole hog in destroying the enemy, so that the casualty figure did not raise any eyebrows in the USA. It is one thing to rain bombs from the air, but quite another to fight ground action by facing enemy bullets during the assault. This is the reason why it is said that it is the man behind the gun who matters. At what stage will the USA commit its forces for ground action in Afghanistan? Knowing that the ground action in Afghanistan will be a formidable task and will invite heavy casualties, the Americans will avoid this commitment as far as possible. No wonder then that President Bush had given another chance to the Taliban at the time of writing (October 12) to hand over Osama bin Laden so that further destruction of Afghanistan is avoided. The Americans are well aware of the disappointment that the British and the Russians had faced in invading Afghanistan. It seems they will only commit their special commando forces to follow the “green berets” aided by the British special forces, now operating incognito in Afghanistan. Finally, the crucial part of any war is the infantry action because for an infantryman to survive in an intense battle is like having a second birth. This is the reason why very few opt for infantry in today’s materialistic world. And this is the reason why the infantry should be given special status with much better terms and conditions of service than other services. |
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Combines leave labourers jobless Hanumangarh, October 26 Many families from Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh come to region during the harvesting season to earn their livelihood, but the increasing use of machines has forced them look for other jobs. The number of migrant labourers visiting the region has also declined in the past few years. Not only in harvesting of crops, but in spraying of insecticides and other agricultural jobs machines have replaced the
labourers. Ramdev, a labourer from Uttar Pradesh said about five years ago he used to get job of harvesting almost every day, but for the past two or three years he had become jobless. Another labourer of the area said they were now taking up construction works as few opportunities were left in the agricultural sector. The owners of combines are also suffering losses because of increasing competition. A combine owner said cultivators hire combines from neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana for harvesting which had been affecting their business. |
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Don’t take USA for granted: Gen Rao Hyderabad, October 26 One should also not take for granted the US-led global coalition to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan as its complexion may change according to circumstances, General Rao warned. The present dependence of some countries (whose track record in fighting terrorism was suspect), on the USA in its war, was a pointer in this direction, he said. He also said that India should extend help to the USA in its current fight against terrorism only if asked for. General Rao was making a presentation on “Afghan war: strategic issues of importance to India and modern
weaponry in Afghan war”, organised by the Andhra Pradesh press academy at the administrative staff college of India here. He said one should now realise that terrorists had the grit to strike in any part of the world and the September 11 attacks in the USA were ample proof of this capability. However, the attacks could also be mainly attributed to the failure of the US intelligence agencies, he opined. He said the USA being the sole superpower today, had wrongly presumed that it was not vulnerable to any military or terrorist attack. But these attacks had proved otherwise. The main aim of the September 11 attacks was to cause maximum damage not only to the USA but to the entire world, he said. One positive factor arising out of these attacks was that these had woken up the major powers to the threat of terrorism and strengthened their resolve to crush the menace jointly, he said. The attacks launched by the USA-led coalition in Afghanistan were not directed against the people of that
country. They were only against the world’s most wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden, his Al-Qaida network and the Taliban, which were spreading terrorism across the globe, the General reasoned. The main aim of the USA was to dislodge the Taliban regime and replace it with a more broad-based regime which would take into account the aspirations of the Afghan people, he said.
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Badrinath temple to close on Nov 16 Shrinagar (Garhwal), October 26 Temple committee president Vinod Nautiyal said the decision on the closing date was taken today after the traditional ‘Vijaydashami’ puja was performed by the dharmadhikari of the temple, Acharya J.P. Sati. |
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