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Monday,
December 17, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Mann: get
Sikh youths released from Pak jail
Experts warn against
‘hot pursuit’ Act or face action, BJP tells Pakistan |
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Minister: stop playing politics over terrorism
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Mann:
get Sikh youths released from Pak jail New Delhi, December 16 The 29 Sikh youths hailing from middle and upper class peasant families were bound for Lebanon and Greece along with recruitment agents. Abandoned midway, they were arrested for illegal entry and incomplete travel documents by Turkish authorities who pushed them into Iran. They were then illegally transported to Pakistan and thrown into jails in Quetta, Baluchistan and North West Frontier Province. According to a list made available by SAD (Amritsar), the released youths include Sarbjit Pappu Tonny (Amritsar), Boota Singh (Baba Bakala), Kulwinder Laddi, Gurdip Singh and Des Raj (Fatehgarh Sahib), Pritpal Singh Fauji, Jhujhar Kharkoo, Davinder Amali, Gurnam Laddi and Tirath Singh (Hoshiarpur), Narinderpal, Sewa Singh, Harjinder and Makhan Giani (Jalandhar), Paramjit Singh (Kurukshetra) Mehar Singh (Ludhiana), Harmesh Jatkala, Satwinder Bitta and Surjit Singh (Nawanshahr), Jagmail Singh, Baldev Singh Giani, Harbans Kali, Lakhbir Singh (Moga), Sajjan (Mukerian), Paviter Singh, Gurpal Pala and Manjit Singh Balla (Ropar) and Dayal Singh (Udham Singh Nagar). The identity of the remaining is not known. The SAD (Amristar) president and MP from Sangrur, Mr Simranjit Singh Mann, told TNS that the matter was brought to his notice by relatives of the youths in July. A member of the Consultative Committee of the External Affairs Ministry, Mr Mann sought Mr Jaswant Singh’s intervention in the matter. In October end, he received a letter from Mr Jaswant Singh, informing him that “following unrelenting efforts made by the government, the detainees had been released and repatriated to India on October 1.” Mr Mann said the party planned to move the National Human Rights Commission as well. |
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Experts warn against ‘hot pursuit’ New Delhi, December 16 “ ‘Hot pursuit’ is not a solution to terrorism and it will not solve the problem, rather New Delhi will lose the politico-diplomatic advantage that we gained by not crossing the Line of Control during Kargil,” Air Cmdr Jasjit Singh (retd.), a former Director of Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) said. Besides, going across in pursuit of terrorists could escalate into a full scale war between the two countries, Commodore Jasjit Singh said wondering further “where does one go in ‘hot pursuit’... Does one go and bomb entire Pakistan?” “I don’t think it should be done at present,” said former Army Chief General V.N. Sharma, noting that “taking harsh action is very easy, but are we prepared to be in control of the actions (read outright open war) that will result from it?” He further pointed out that the situation now is not very conducive, especially when Pakistan is itself “collapsing” because of the war in Afghanistan. At this stage US forces are also in Pakistan and they are not going to take kindly to another flashpoint,” said the General. “An offensive action, on our part, will unite the forces, which will not work to our advantage... It would be more beneficial for India to allow them to collapse,” said the General, who was in favour of the Army crossing the Line of Control during the Kargil operations two years ago. When India did not follow that policy at a time it could have helped, why now, when there is a distinct international advantage in exercising restraint. Mr B. Raman, a former Additional Secretary, Research and Analysis Wing, noted that a la American or Israeli style of open air raids against Pakistan wouldn’t work in this situation as both adversaries were nuclear powers. However, there are few takers for Raman’s radical approach. Senior security analyst K. Subrahmanyam pointed out the ruling party should now take the Opposition into confidence, share intelligence information with it regarding terrorist attacks and then consider the steps to be taken. Commodore Jasjit Singh asserted that “cross-border terrorism is now a fact of life and is going to carry on, so we need a long-term, short-term and medium-term policies to tackle it”. A distinct advantage, now available to India, is that the Taliban are decimated and other terror organisations are also facing the pressure, said Cmdr Singh asserting that the Thursday attack on Indian Parliament, reflected the desparation of the militants and showed that India was getting the upper hand in fighting terrorism.
PTI |
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Act or face action, BJP tells Pakistan Chennai, December 16 Taking exception to the comment of Pakistan that the December 13 attack on Parliament was stage-managed, he said Pakistan’s remarks were “flippant”. “I accuse Pakistan of state managing terrorism. So long as it shields terrorist organisations it cannot escape from the accusation that it is sponsoring terrorism”, he said. Meanwhile, Mr krishnamurthi today set at rest speculations that the party was all set to revive its alliance with the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu. VARANASI: Former BJP President Kushabhau Thakerey on Sunday asked the Centre to attack and destroy terrorist training camps in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). PTI, UNI |
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’71 martyrs remembered New Delhi, December 16 The Defence Minister and the three chiefs, Gen Sundararajan Padmanabhan, Admiral Sushil Kumar and Air Chief Marshal A.Y. Tipnis, laid floral wreaths on the Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate here this morning. Hundreds of ex-servicemen also paid homage to the martyrs of 1971 ‘Operation Cactus Lily’ at the Teen Murti Bhavan here. On this momentous day in Dhaka, Pakistani forces under Lieut Gen A.A.K. Niazi surrendered to the Indian forces. A ceasefire was declared on the same day ending the Indo-Pak conflict resulting in the birth of a new sovereign country, Bangladesh. A report from Pune said Southern Command GOC-in-Chief Lt Gen G.S. Sihota laid a wreath at the National War Memorial there. Air Chief Marshal (retd) H. Moolgaonkar laid a wreath on behalf of ex-servicemen while Capt V. Ajit Kumar laid a wreath on behalf of all ranks of the Navy. Air Cdr Rakesh Kakkar represented the IAF. Meanwhile, in Vishakhapatnam the Eastern Naval Command (ENC) celebrated ‘Vijay Diwas’ by paying tributes to the martyrs at the Navy War Memorial on the beach road. The headquaters, ENC, naval ships, submarines and establishments here celebrated this day and recalled the role played by the country’s defence forces, especially of the Navy. Floral wreaths were laid this morning at the Amar Jawan Jyoti of the Navy war memorial. A two-minute silence was observed as a mark of respect to the martyrs. At the war memorial in Chennai, wreaths were placed by Maj Gen A.S. Jamwal, General Officer Commanding and senior officers from the Air Force, Navy and the Coast Guard. Later, Maj Gen Jamwal distributed cash assistance to war widows to mark the occasion.
UNI |
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Minister: stop playing politics over terrorism New Delhi, December 16 The Punjab Governor, Lt-Gen (retd) J.F.R. Jacob said able leadership, guidance, patriotism and self-confidence were main factors responsible for winning any war. He said India won the 1971 war against Pakistan because in that war India had the right mixture of all these factors. In his address, Mr A K Ray, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, disclosed that from the Indian administration point of view, the seeds of Bangladesh had been sown in 1965 itself when then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri had instructed him to work for creation of Bangladesh. The seminar was organised by the Delhi Study Group. |
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LALOO DENIED BAIL BY CBI COURT UGC MEMBER K.N. SARMA DIES COLD WAVE CLAIMS 6 MORE LIVES IN BIHAR VENUGOPAL IS NEW AIIMS DEAN |
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