 |
Wednesday,
October 31, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
|
Tribesmen decide to open Karakoram
highway
Prepare for long fight, US marines told Pakistani
N-scientist picked up again
Bush-Musharraf
meeting on November 10 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Christian children raise their hands in prayers during a protest in front of the United Nations offices in Islamabad on Tuesday.
— Reuters photo Anthrax:
woman’s condition critical USA
lifts remaining curbs on Pakistan Perez
wants Musharraf to stay Ukraine
destroys last N-missile silo A Ukrainian soldier stands behind a destroyed SS-24 missile silo near the town of Pervomaisk in Ukraine's Nikolayev region on Tuesday.
|
|
Tribesmen decide to open Karakoram highway Islamabad, October 30 The road passes through Pakistan’s rugged Karakoram mountain range and links Pakistan with China, further to the north. Several thousand armed Islamists and tribesmen had taken positions on peaks overlooking the road. They were demanding that the Pakistan’s military government end its support for anti-Taliban air raids by US forces. At a meeting in Besham, a remote town on the road, the Islamic leaders gave President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s government time until November 7 to change his pro-US policy or face closure of the highway again. General Musharraf has allowed the USA use of Pakistan’s airspace, airbases and logistic support in Washington’s war against terrorists in Afghanistan, now in its fourth week. The protesters said General Musharraf should support the Taliban and renounce his calls for a broad-based government in Kabul to replace the ruling militia, a local journalist told DPA by telephone from Besham. They also demanded the Pakistan authorities drop the prosecution of pro-Taliban demonstrators. A one-time supporter of the Taliban, Pakistan now backs international efforts to establish a representative government in Afghanistan to replace the Taliban regime if it is overthrown. Meanwhile, Pakstan’s security personnel this evening evicted thousands of pro-Taliban supporters who had blocked the Karakoram highway for the past few days protesting against the government’s decision to support the US-led assault on Afghanistan, Pakistan TV reported tonight. Religious leaders of the tribesmen were holding a meeting at Besham to discuss their future strategy. If the Ulema decide not to open the road, the security forces might launch a big operation to open the highway, media reports here said. The Pakistani Government, reluctant to take action against hundreds of armed tribesmen perched on hilltops and beside the Karakoram highway that snakes along the ancient Silk Route, has sent delegates and clerics to persuade them to end the blockade, which entered its sixth day today. “They have brought Mufti Shamazai to talk to the local
Ulema (clerics), who would then persuade their followers to give up,” a resident of the small northern town of Besham said. The Karachi-based Shamazai is the most influential cleric in Pakistan, revered equally by Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban movement and local Sunni Muslims.
Agencies
|
|
Prepare for long fight, US marines told
On Board USS Peleliu, October 30 “The military campaign is part of a much bigger campaign,” Navy Secretary Gordon England told the crew of the USS Peleliu, one of the warships he visited today. “This is a campaign that will be diplomatic, it will be economic, it will be military, but the military part of it is crucial. “But don’t be impatient. This will go on for a long time. We have to be prepared to stay the course,” he said. The Peleliu is the flagship of the marine expeditionary unit in the Arabian Sea that carries 2,100 marines in three ships along with all vehicles, weapons, helicopters and equipment they might need for amphibious operations. “Morale is very high, they are all very enthusiastic and they are ready to do whatever the President asks them to do,” he told reporters. He addressed hundreds of marines and sailors in the hangar bay surrounded by helicopters and harrier jets and standing in front of a huge US flag draped from floor to ceiling. “It is not a war against a people, it is not a war against a religion, it is a war against terror,” he said. The Secretary said the marines were ready for whatever they were tasked to do, though he declined to comment on whether they would play a more active role on the ground in the future. The military limited itself to saying that the Peleliu and two other ships were training for and supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.
Reuters |
|
Pakistani
N-scientist picked up again Islamabad, October 30 Among those handed over is Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, Pakistan’s retired top nuclear scientist. Mahmood, along with two of his retired colleagues —former Chief Engineer of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) Abdul Majeed, and former PAEC scientist Mirza Yousaf — have been handed over to a joint team of FBI and CIA officials for further investigations, the Pakistan Observer daily reported. Quoting credible diplomatic and official sources, the paper said Mahmood was questioned by Pakistani intelligence agencies for alleged links with Taliban militia and Osama bin Laden. He was released on October 26 after being “cleared” by security agencies, but was again picked up from his home on the night of October 28. Quoting sources close to Mahmood’s family, the paper said the scientist returned home in a precarious state of mental and physical health. Mahmood, who was again picked up on October 28, told his family while leaving that if they did not hear from him in a few days, they must deem him dead, the paper said. He has even left behind a will advising his family how to share the property, it said. Mahmood, who resigned from the PAEC in protest when the Nawaz Sharif Government considered signing the CTBT, later founded an NGO — “Ummah reconstruction” — to carry out welfare activities in Afghanistan.
PTI |
|
Bush-Musharraf meeting on
November 10 Washington, October 30 Mr Bush’s meeting with General Musharraf forms part of the US President’s series of engagements with world leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Mr Bush is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in Washington on November 9. “One of those meetings with world leaders will include President Musharraf of Pakistan who will meet with President on November 10 while the two are up in New York”, spokesman for Mr Bush said yesterday. Mr Bush would also be attending a lunch hosted by UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan. PTI |
|
Taliban ‘using civilians as human shields’ Washington, October 30 “Their leadership is the one that is hiding in mosques and using Afghan civilians as human shields by placing their armour and artillery in close proximity to civilian schools, hospitals and the like,” Mr Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon news conference. “When the Taliban issue accusations of civilian casualties, they indict themselves,” he said. He said the US forces had started airdropping ammunition for Afghan opposition forces fighting the Taliban. He said only a limited amount of ammunition had been provided so far. “It’s been relatively few and it should increase as we go along. We drop it with parachutes,” Mr Rumsfeld said. “Responsibility for every single casualty in this war, be they innocent Afghans or innocent Americans, rests at the feet of the Taliban and al-Qaeda,” he said. Mr Rumsfeld said no country in history had done more to avoid civilian casualties as the USA had in Afghanistan. But the USA was committed to “the comprehensive defeat of the Taliban and the al-Qaeda and the terrorist networks operating throughout the world that threaten our people and our way of life,” he said. “We did not start the war, the terrorists started it when they attacked the USA, murdering more than 5,000 innocent Americans,” he said. Meanwhile, Mr Rumsfeld said US military strikes in Afghanistan had killed some leaders of the al-Qaida terrorist network but not the most senior ones. He said three weeks of the US airstrikes had taken a toll on the Taliban’s military and the al-Qaida network. Some mid-level terrorist leaders were also killed in the US bombing, he added. “To our knowledge, none of the very top six, eight, ten persons have been included in that,” Mr Rumsfeld said. Asked about reports that the Taliban had arrested Americans in Afghanistan, Mr Rumsfeld said, “There have been no American military captured. Whether someone else may have been ... I don’t think so.” Earlier, a Pentagon spokeswoman said the US military had extended its bombing of Afghanistan northward toward the border area with Tajikistan and was also trying to hit cave hide-outs of the Taliban and al-Qaida forces. Meanwhile, President George W. Bush today moved to tighten restrictions on immigration rules so that aliens who committed or supported terror would be barred entry in to the USA. Mr Bush planned to announce creation of a foreign terrorist tracking force that would coordinate efforts by government agencies to keep those with links to terror organisations out of the country, and locate, detain, prosecute or deport terror group associates who already live here, said White House spokesman Ari
Fleischer. AFP, AP |
|
Anthrax: woman’s condition critical Washington, October 30 New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said late yesterday that a 61-year-old woman who works in the stock room of a Manhattan hospital was in critical condition on a respirator at Lennox Hill Hospital, where she was admitted on Sunday. Mr Giuliani said a preliminary test for inhalation anthrax was positive, but definitive results would not be known until today. Inhalation anthrax is the most deadly form of the bacterial disease. In Washington, the authorities yesterday said that traces of the anthrax bacteria were found at several other sites, apparently due to the contamination of mail that went through the city’s main postal processing facility. Small amounts of anthrax were discovered in the mail rooms of the State Department, the Supreme Court and government buildings housing offices for the Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration and Voice of America. US Attorney-General John Ashcroft yesterday issued a second public warning that there may be additional attacks against the USA or US interests over the next week. He did not mention anthrax, saying he could not be specific about the type of attack or its targets. The ill woman in New York works for Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital. Mr Giuliani said the woman did not normally handle mail for her job but worked an office very close to the hospital’s mail room. Health officials have taken 40 environmental samples from around the hospital, conducted nasal swabs and issued antibiotic prescriptions to 25 persons. Staff at the hospital, which employs about 300 persons, will be tested today and given antibiotics as a precaution.
Reuters |
|
USA lifts remaining curbs on Pakistan Washington, October 30 The move was announced yesterday and came after Mr Bush dropped the sanctions last month that were imposed on Pakistan and India when the two countries tested nuclear weapons in 1998. Those sanctions barred economic and military assistance. Mr Bush signed the legislation that allows him to waive the last remaining sanctions by September, 2003. The Clinton Administration had imposed the sanction after Gen Pervez Musharraf took control of Pakistan’s Government in a coup. The USA has said that Pakistan could expect much more help from a US aid pipeline which will reach $1 billion, a highly visible dividend for President Musharraf’s support for the war on terrorism. “There’s a lot of money in the pipeline,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday. Despite stressing that final decisions on how to aid Pakistan had not yet been made, top officials here hope to supplement two $50 million disbursements previously announced by the White House. Mr Boucher noted that on September 26, the USA voted for the release of the final $135 million tranche of an International Monetary Fund lending for Pakistan, designed to bolster the country’s staggering economy. He said Washington also planned to support negotiation of a new three-year, $2 billion IMF programme for Pakistan. Washington also plans to support a range of programmes sponsored by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank in the next year and would also back Pakistan’s bid to have its $12 billion debt to Paris club countries, Mr Boucher said.
AP, AFP, Reuters |
|
Perez wants Musharraf to stay Washington, October 30 Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Perez told The Washington Post and Newsweek in an interview published yesterday that he prayed for Musharraf. Mr Perez said he told President George W. Bush: “We understand your strategy. I would have never dreamed that I would pray for the safety of Musharraf, the President of Pakistan. That is a most unexpected experience. But we understand and don’t want to have an agenda of our own.” Referring to his talks with President Bush over the Middle-East situation, he said the President changed his demand from “immediate” withdrawal to withdrawal “as soon as possible” after being told that Israel did not intend to remain there
(indefinitely). PTI |
|
Ukraine destroys last N-missile silo Pervomaisk, (Ukraine), October 30 The ceremony was a rare piece of good news for the struggling military. It came less than a week after Defence Minister Oleksander Kuzmuk resigned because his troops accidentally shot down a Russian airliner with a conventional missile, killing 78 passengers and crew. Standing in for Kuzmuk, Deputy Defence Minister Volodymyr Mikhtyuk joined US officials and children to turn keys that triggered a blast at the silo on a military base near the small town of Pervomaisk. A sheet of flame rose out of the concrete launch tube, filling it with debris. “The significance of today is that the last intercontinental ballistic missile silo in Ukraine is gone,” said Wayne Holcombe, an official from the US nuclear missile destruction programme. “There are no more. You are totally nuclear free. It is a historic event and all of Ukraine should be very proud.” The silo at the military base 300 km south of the capital Kiev is the last of more than 170 missile silos which in Soviet times stood poised to rain a deadly array of missiles on western Europe and the USA. Ukraine inherited the silos when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, but soon after independence pledged to give up all nuclear arms in exchange for economic aid. It sent the last of its nuclear warheads to Russia in the 1990s and earlier this year destroyed its last strategic bomber capable of being fitted with nuclear weapons. But in spite of its success in renouncing atomic weapons, Ukraine’s cash-strapped military has been slow to reform and is plagued by training accidents. The shooting down of a Sibir airlines jet flying from Tel Aviv to Siberia on October 4 highlighted the Soviet-style attitudes of the top brass, who denied for days that they lost control of a missile fired during exercises in Crimea.
Reuters |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 121 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Protests
against the US-led military campaign in Afghanistan are
continuing in Karachi.
(
