Taking a serious view of the growing tendency among battalions to publicise their ââkillsââ through photographs of slain militants, Army chief General Joginder Jaswant Singh has sternly directed all formations to immediately ban all such practices.
Such display of bodies of terrorists, akin to the "exhibition of wild animals killed by shikaris" of yore, is against the basic ethos of Indian Army, warns the new directive.
Army HQ issued the tough order to its six regional commands after it was noticed that some battalions engaged in counter-terrorist operations had printed photographs of killed militants in their in-house publications like "battalion routine ordersââ, "special orders of the day"and newsletters.
"As long as they are alive and kicking, the terrorists are our sworn enemies. But after their death, their bodies should be handled in a dignified manner like those of any other human beings. Thatâs the rationale behind this new directive,"said a senior officer.
While the top Army brass "understands"the photographs were being printed to publicise successes in anti-insurgency operations and boost the morale of soldiers operating under "tough conditionsâ, it feels such acts are in extremely "bad tasteâ.
Battalions can "justifiably feel proud"of killing militants out to spread terror and mention it in their publications. But printing photographs of dead terrorists is "inhumane", says the directive.
This new policy is in line with Gen Singhâs blueprint for the Army to "use minimum force"to avoid "collateral damage"while battling militancy in J&K and North-East, in keeping with the strategy to "win hearts and minds"of people.
This approach was dealt a serious blow on July 25 when soldiers "accidentally"killed three boys near Bagargund village in Kupwara district, sparking wide-spread protests in J&K. The Army, incidentally, has killed around 600 terrorists in J&K since January, while losing over 80 officers and soldiers.
Gen Singh wants the Army to present "a much more humane face", despite adverse conditions, since the force is "dealing with misguided youth of our own country".
Orders have also been issued that battalions will no longer be judged by the number of militants they kill. Instead, the Army will now award battalions which exhibit "good behaviour and conduct", based on civilian "feedback"from their operational area.
Posted by: john ||
09/01/2005 17:03 ||
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John I still have this link that you provided eairler this year.
http://www.armyinkashmir.org/v2/foreign_terrorist_killed/foreign_terrorist_killed.shtmlToo bad
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/01/2005 20:13 Comments ||
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Yes, no more pictures there.
A damn shame.
Posted by: john ||
09/01/2005 20:20 Comments ||
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From South Asia Analysis Group, an article by B. Raman, Distinguished Fellow, International Terrorism Watch Programme
The methods followed by Musharraf for hoodwinking the international community ... have again become evident in his recent admission in an interview to the Kyodo news agency of Japan that Dr.A.Q.Khan had supplied centrifuges for uranium enrichment to North Korea. ..... After Libya made a clean breast of the project, Musharraf came out with more details. .... He admitted the role of Khan in the supply of centrifuges to Iran only after Teheran admitted this to inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of Vienna, who found traces of enriched uranium in some of the centrifuges in the Iranian plant. The Iranian officials ... contended that the traces seemed to have come from the plant of the suppliers -- meaning Pakistan â- from whom it had bought them second-hand. ....
Musharraf and other Pakistani authorities had for long been denying any nuclear or missile supply relationship with North Korea, even though Mrs.Benazir Bhutto under whose prime ministership it started had been talking about it. .... Musharraf ... has now admitted that Khan did supply centrifuges to North Korea, but has insisted that Khan would have had no role in helping North Korea acquire a military nuclear capability since his expertise was confined to uranium enrichment. ....
For many months, the IAEA had been demanding that Pakistan should hand over to it some of its old centrifuges from the Kahuta plant in order to enable it to compare them with the centrifuges in the Iranian plant to see whether the Iranian contention was correct. Musharraf resisted this demand till March last, when Ms.Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, visited Pakistan. After the visit, Musharraf agreed to hand over some of the centrifuges to the IAEA. Media reports from Vienna indicate that the examination of the centrifuges handed over by Pakistan indicate that the Iranian contention was correct.
In the 1990s, Khan had got the centrifuges of the 1970 vintage in Kahuta replaced by new ones. Of the replaced old centrifuges, he supplied some to Iran and some to North Korea and allegedly some to Iraq of Saddam Hussein.
After the US invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, there were reports from reliable sources in Pakistan that before the US occupation, Khan had taken a plane to Damascus and airlifted from there to Pakistan some nuclear-related âmaterialâ, which had been moved by road from Baghdad to Damacus. .... those were second-hand centrifuges from Kahuta and documents relating to their assembling. It was said that the Saddam Hussein Government had not been able to install them .... To prevent their falling into American hands, Khan managed to have them brought back to Pakistan via Damascus. ....
In the hope of pre-empting a detailed enquiry, Musharraf has admitted the supply of some of the centrifuges to North Korea. He feels that while he could limit the damages, if any, to Pakistanâs relations with the US by admitting the supplies to North Korea, he may not be able to do so if the supply to Iraq is exposed. He is frantically trying to limit the enquiries to North Korea. ....
Pakistan's arms supply relationship with North Korea dates back to 1971 when the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, then foreign minister under the late General Yahya Khan, visited Pyongyang and sought North Korean arms supplies to strengthen the Pakistani armed forces in the face of a looming war with India. .... The visit led to the signing of an agreement on September 18, 1971, 10 weeks before the outbreak of the war with India, for the supply of North Korea-made conventional weapons to Pakistan. ....
Under the September agreement, Pakistan received from North Korea, in return for payment in US dollars, many shipments of items such as rocket launchers, ammunition, etc. In the 1980s, Pakistan also acted as an intermediary in facilitating arms supply agreements concluded by Pyongyang with Libya and Iran. During the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, North Korea became the principal supplier of weapons to Iran, which was the target of an arms embargo imposed by the Western countries.
To escape detection by Western intelligence agencies, North Korean arms shipments meant for Iran used to be received by sea at Karachi and from there transported in Pakistani trucks to Iran across Balochistan. Amongst the supplies made by North Korea to Iran via Karachi were more than 100 Scud-B (known as the Hwasong 5 in North Korea) ballistic missiles and equipment for the assembly, maintenance and ultimate production of these missiles on Iranian territory.
In this transaction, Pakistan played a double game. On one hand, the then ruling military regime of the late Zia-ul-Haq collaborated with the US Central Intelligence Agency and Iraqi intelligence in destabilisation operations directed at the Sunni Balochis living on the Iranian side of the border. At the same time, it clandestinely allowed the transport by road of North Korean arms and ammunition meant for use by the Iranian army against the Iraqis. Pakistani army officers were also sent to Libya to help train Libyan army officers in the use and maintenance of North Korean weaponry.
During the Zia regime, Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and its North Korean counterpart collaborated closely for the clandestine acquisition of nuclear- and missile-related equipment and technology from erstwhile West Germany and other Western countries. Since North Korea did not have either a presence or funds and other capability to indulge in clandestine procurement from the West, it gave lists of its requirements to the ISI, which procured them and passed them on. This co-operation between the two countries, the foundation for which was laid by Bhutto, was strengthened during the two tenures of Benazir Bhutto as prime minister (1988-90 and 1993-96). It was during this time that Pakistan failed in its efforts to develop indigenous missile production capability (the Hatf series) and sought Chinese and North Korean supplies of missiles as well as technology for their production in Pakistan.
In her second tenure, Benazir Bhutto visited Pyongyang during which the scope of the arms supply agreement concluded when her father was foreign minister was expanded to include co-operation in the nuclear and missile fields -- including the training of Khan Research Laboratories' scientists and engineers in North Korea, the training of North Korean scientists and engineers at the Pakistani uranium enrichment plant at Kahuta, and the supply of No-Dong missiles and related technology to Pakistan.
Earlier, during Nawaz Sharief's first tenure as prime minister (1990-93), Lieutenant General Javed Nasir, then director-general of the ISI, visited Pyongyang to sign a secret agreement with North Korea's intelligence organisation for joint production, through reverse engineering, of the US-made, shoulder-fired Stinger missiles and their batteries. Some of the missiles in the Pakistani army's stock were given to North Korean intelligence for this purpose. Iranian intelligence agreed to fund the project.
It is not known whether this project succeeded in producing an imitation of the Stingers and their batteries. The ISI was particularly interested in the batteries because it was unable to use a large number of the Stinger missiles in its stocks since the life period of the batteries supplied by the US before 1988 for use of the missiles against the Soviets in Afghanistan had expired.
Throughout the 1990s, whoever was at the helm in Islamabad, the trilateral co-operation involving Pakistan, Iran and North Korea in the development and production of the Scud-C (called Hwasong 6 in North Korea) and the No-Dong missiles continued without interruption, despite Tehran's anger against Pakistan for backing the Taliban and failing to prevent the periodic massacre of Pakistani Shias and Iranian nationals by the Sunni extremist Sipah-e-Sahaba and its militant wing, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
In 1992, when Nawaz Sharief was prime minister, a team of Pakistani scientists and engineers had visited North Korea's missile development centre, reportedly for joint examination of some technical problems encountered by the Koreans in the development of the No-Dong. The same year saw a visit by Kim Yong-nam, then North Korea's foreign minister and deputy prime minister, to Syria, Iran and Pakistan in July-August. Pakistani and Iranian scientists and engineers visited North Korea in May 1993 to witness the launching of one No-Dong and three Scud missiles (model not known).
Benazir's visit to Beijing and Pyongyang in December 1993 was followed by the visits of a number of North Korean personalities to Pakistan in 1994-95 to discuss bilateral nuclear and missile co-operation. Important amongst these were:
* In April 1994, Pak Chung-kuk, deputy to the Supreme People's Assembly, visited Iran and Pakistan with a team of officials from the North Korean foreign ministry and the nuclear and missile establishment.
* In September the same year, Choe Hui-chong, chairman of the State Commission of Science and Technology, visited Pakistan at the head of a team of North Korean nuclear and missile experts.
* In November 1995, a delegation of North Korean military officers and nuclear and missile experts headed by Choe Kwang, vice-chairman of the National Defence Commission, minister of the People's Armed Forces and marshal of the Korean People's Army, visited Pakistan. The delegation met senior officials of the armed forces and visited Pakistan's nuclear and missile establishments, including KRL. The team included senior officials of the fourth machine industry bureau of the second economic committee and the Changgwang Sinyong Corporation (also known as the North Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation).
During the visit, KRL and the Changgwang Sinyong Corporation signed an agreement to supply Pakistan with No-Dong missiles as well as fuel tanks and rocket engines. The agreement also provided for stationing North Korean missile experts in KRL to train their Pakistani counterparts in the use and maintenance of the missiles supplied by North Korea and for the supply and development of mobile erector launchers for the missiles.
These visits contributed to the speeding up of Pakistan's missile programme and culminated in KRL firing the Ghauri missile on April 6, 1998. Pakistan projected Ghauri as its own, indigenously developed missile. .... KRL and the North Korean corporation are State-owned entities, run and managed by officers of the armed forces of the two countries. Pakistan used a US-supplied aircraft from its air force for transporting the missiles. Missiles and other weapons sent by North Korea to Iran in the 1980s transited through Pakistan, escorted by Pakistani troops. Pakistan and North Korea have a joint project for reverse-engineering US-made Stingers.
North Korean scientists witnessed Pakistan's Chagai nuclear tests in May 1998. Pakistan has been helping North Korea in the development of its uranium enrichment facility. The two countries have been training each other's nuclear and missile scientists in their respective establishments. In return for North Korea's assistance, Pakistan diverted to it wheat purchased from the US and Australia, paying for the grain from its huge dollar reserves built up after 9/11, thereby enabling Pyongyang to withstand the economic boycott imposed by the West.
To hoodwink US intelligence, Pakistan transported some of the Chinese and North Korean missiles by road via the Karakoram Highway. Pakistan's diplomatic mission in Pyongyang is generally headed and staffed by serving or retired army officers, who had previously served in the ISI's clandestine nuclear and missile procurement set-up. The latest instance in this regard is Major General (retd) Fazle Ghafoor. ....
For the US to pretend, despite all this, that Pakistan's repeated violations of nuclear and missile-related regulations are the misdeeds of errant individual entities for which the State cannot be held responsible shows the extent to which it is prepared to close its eyes to what Pakistan has been doing. If there is one country in the world which has been systematically violating all regulations relating to nuclear and missile proliferation and from which there is a real danger of leakage of weapons of mass destruction and related technologies to pan-Islamic terrorists, it is Pakistan. US's double standards in this matter are evident from the alacrity and vigour with which it has acted against Iraq despite the lack of credible evidence against it and the care with which it protects the regime in Pakistan, despite all the evidence available against it.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
09/01/2005 00:41 ||
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Very interesting and useful article. Thanks for finding it, Mike!
From South Asia Analysis Group, an article by Anand Kumar
.... The Islamist group, Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) which was involved in the series of blasts [in Bangladesh] circulated its leaflets on most of the blast sites. .... Many of those detained and being interrogated by police and armed forces have also confessed that they are members of the banned group and that they acted under orders of the group's supreme leader Shaikh Abdur Rahman. They have also accepted that they became involved in the act to establish an Islamic rule in the country.
Bangladesh police has arrested suspects from across the country in the aftermath of the bomb blasts. Shamsul Alam, a regional leader of the Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) held by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in Chourhas, Kushtia soon after the serial explosions, confessed to his JMB membership and involvement in the bombing. He provided the interrogators with details of his military training by JMB Operations Commander Bangla Bhai in Natore three years ago. He organized JMB in his village after his return.
In Satkhira Nasir Uddin and Maniruzzaman Munna were held three hours into the bombings. Later, two more persons, Anisur Rahman and Ujjal were arrested from the same district. They admitted to police that they were trainers of the JMB and trained cadres in use of arms. Anisur told police that the attacks were planned in a meeting at his house on August 16. They also revealed that the attacks were made in a bid to free their leader Asadullah Al Galib. ....
In Bagerhat, Detective Branch of police arrested director of Al Markajul Islamic Madrasa and Orphanage Barkatullah Morshed from a madrasa at Kadia village. The madrasa reportedly trained more than 100 students for destructive activities. Morshed has also admitted that his students carried out the bomb attacks on instructions of JMJB operation commander Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai. ....
Overall, the police has detained nearly 160 people across the country. .... Police has also arrested six suspected militants from Dhaka airport. Among the arrested persons figure Moulana Fariduddin Mashud, a former director of government-run Islamic Foundation, and Moulana Abdus Sattar, a leader of radical Ahl-e-Hadis group. .... Mashud ... brought a huge amount of money ... from abroad but failed to provide any details of its source. .... During the interrogation, however, Masud, accused Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer and Industries Minister Motiur Rahman Nizami of being involved in the countrywide explosions. ....
It took Bangladesh government nine days to officially admit that the banned Islamist militant organisation Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) was responsible for the August 17 serial bomb blasts across the country though its cadres were arrested just three hours after the incident. ....
Satkhira police has now named Jama'atul Mujahedin Bangladesh (JMB) chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman as the main accused in five cases lodged on the same number of bomb blasts carried out in the district town on August 17. The charge follows confessions of four arrested JMB activists to their involvement in the terror attacks under the leadership of Abdur Rahman. ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
09/01/2005 01:00 ||
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Many of those detained and being interrogated by police and armed forces have also confessed...
Woah, Achmed. Might wanna put like a truckload of ice on that...
Pakistan and Israel are all set to have the first overt high-level political contact on Thursday. In what is seen as a major diplomatic development the foreign ministers of the two countries will meet in Istanbul, informed sources told Dawn on Wednesday.
The meeting between Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri and his Israeli counterpart Silvan Shalom is taking place in response to Israelâs keenness to establish contact with Pakistan, it is learnt.
However, there is no official word on the crucial meeting yet. Foreign Office spokesman was not available for comments when Dawn tried to contact him on Wednesday.
According to diplomatic sources, the meeting would focus on the developments in the Middle East peace process. They say the meeting ought not to be read as Pakistanâs recognition of Israel but seen as the opening of dialogue between the two countries which have no direct political disputes.
It is learnt that covert contacts between representatives of the Jewish state and Pakistan had been going on for several months through diplomatic and informal channels.
However, the decisive factor for the first open political contact between the two countries was the Israeli pullout from Gaza last month which in Pakistan is viewed as a positive move and has been welcomed by the government.
Apparently, the Israeli government had approached Pakistan several times in the last one year to make the contacts public. The response from Islamabad each time was that it would do so at an âappropriateâ time. After the Israeli pullout from Gaza, Pakistan signalled to the Israelis that it was ânow readyâ for an overt contact.
The two sides then decided to have the meeting on a neutral territory. Pakistan took the Turkish leadership into confidence and suggested Istanbul as the venue for the groundbreaking meeting. Turkey gave the green light and Israel also agreed to hold the first meeting there. It was decided not to make the meeting public till it had taken place.
Turkey which has excellent relations with Pakistan is among the several Muslim countries, including Egypt and Jordan, that have full diplomatic ties with Israel.
Successive Pakistani governments, including those led by Gen Zia, Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, also had contact with Israel.
On Tuesday, President Gen Pervez Musharraf telephoned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and informed him about the proposed meeting. The Palestinian presidentâs response was âvery positiveâ and he welcomed the initiative, it is learnt. It is believed President Musharraf also told his Palestinian counterpart that he would soon be sending a delegation to Gaza and Al Quds.
President Abbas during his visit to Pakistan in May had requested President Musharraf to send a delegation to Palestine. Later, the Foreign Office declared that in principle Pakistan had agreed to it. Subsequently, on several occasions the FO spokesman when asked about the timing of the visit as well as the size and composition of the delegation he had indicated that it was in the works.
The opening of Pakistan-Israel communication channels does not come out of the blue. It follows President Musharrafâs recent decision to address the American Jewish Congress in New York in September. He will be the first Muslim leader to do so.
About two years back President Musharraf had initiated a public debate on the controversial question of Israelâs recognition. The outcome of the debate led to the policy decision that the recognition of Israel would be linked to the total withdrawal of Israel from occupied Arab territories and establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Added to these factors are the strategic dimension and Pakistanâs national security considerations and the influence of the Jewish lobby and Israel in American policies.
Political analysts say each government in Pakistan had established covert contacts with the state of Israel.
However, with the Israeli pullout from Gaza the present government decided to go public with it.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/01/2005 04:23 ||
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Pakistan and Israel have actually had back channel ties to each other for decades. During parts of the cold war, Israel probably had better relations with Pakistan than it did with India.
The PLO was a friend of India's, in contrast to Pakistan's pro-American dictators. The PLO were allies of the Bhuttos who were against the Zia dictatorship in the 80's.
In fact, General Zia helped crush the Black September uprising in Jordan during the seventies when he was stationed there. So the Israelis have had dealings with the Pak Generals before, although it has been hushed up.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
09/01/2005 10:14 Comments ||
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#5
But a public tie is worth more in terms of the overall diplomatic and political momentum.
Afghan and US ground troops backed up by attack helicopters raided a Taleban camp in the mountains of southern Afghanistan, killing nine suspected militants, Afghan officials and the US military said yesterday. The camp in Uruzgan province had been used as a base by about 80 insurgents to launch guerrilla-style assaults on Afghan and US-led coalition forces in the area, said provincial Gov. Jan Mohammed Khan. The rest of the rebels fled during Tuesdayâs attack on the camp, which had been set up in several adjoining mountain caves, he said. American helicopters pounded the site with rockets before ground forces moved in. Several AK-47 assault rifles, rockets, as well as tents, kettles and other camping equipment were scattered around the area, the governor said. A US military statement said nine suspected militants were killed.
Separate fighting also broke out in Asadabad town, eastern Kunar province, when five suspected rebels tried to attack a joint patrol by Afghan troops and US Marines, the statement said. It said an assessment of the battle was ongoing and it wasnât clear how many militants were killed. No Afghan or US troops were hurt in either battles, it said. US and local officials have said they fear the rebels are intent on subverting the polls and have warned that a major upsurge in violence in recent months may further worsen in the next few weeks. A Taleban spokesman confirmed the latest fighting but, speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location, said 12 Afghan government troops and US soldiers had been killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2005 00:00 ||
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Just how I like my taleban, pounded with a missle up their arses, courtesy of the Red, White and Blue.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/01/2005 2:57 Comments ||
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A bomb explosion in the Southwestern Pakistani province of Baluchistan Wednesday killed one and wounded another. Meanwhile, unidentified assailants gunned down a tribal leader, said police. A powerful bomb, planted in a fruit cart, exploded on the main road in Mastung area, 50 kilometers southwest of the provincial capital Quetta, killing the owner of the cart on the spot and wounding three others, said Director General Levis, Shaukat Haider Chungazi. He said the explosion shattered windowpanes of the nearby buildings and also caused damage to a private vehicle of a security official. He said the forces have arrested a wounded suspect from the explosion site. But, he added, nothing can be said before investigations.
Meanwhile, unknown armed motorcyclists shot to death Sahib Khan Imrani, leader of Imrani tribe in Khuzdar area, another local police official told KUNA. It was not immediately clear who the attackers were.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2005 00:00 ||
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ISLAMABAD - Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led war on terrorism, said on Wednesday that it had acquired eight P-3C Orion surveillance aircraft from the United States, which would help boost its naval capabilities.
The Pentagon said at the time the aircraft would improve Pakistanâs border security and its ability to restrict movement of militants. However, Pakistan Navy spokesman Captain Aamir Naeem Baig said the aircraft were designed for maritime surveillance and could not be used for chasing militants along the land border with Afghanistan, where Islamic guerrillas are most active.
A statement from the Pakistan Navy said the aircraft, worth up to $970 million, were being provided free by the United States and would be fitted with modern avionics and missions systems by the manufacturer, Lockheed Martin Corp LMT.N. Admiral Shahid Karimullah, Pakistanâs chief of naval staff, said the Orions would âadd a new dimension to the offensive punch of Pakistan Navy fleetâ. Pakistanâs fleet of P-3Cs now stands at 10 with the induction of eight new planes.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/01/2005 00:00 ||
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and could not be used for chasing militants along the land border with Afghanistan, where Islamic guerrillas are most active.
I don't know much about this, but just by the way this denial is emphasized, I can only suspect that this is exactly what they will be used for.
#2
Agreed. DeNiles and DeFections are commonplace.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/01/2005 16:41 Comments ||
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#3
"I can only suspect that this is exactly what they will be used for."
Yup. We should also remember that we used P-3s in the Afghanistan war quite sucessfully. The unique combo of on board sensors (ISAR, IRDS, others) were ideal for detecting and localizing a small individual target in a large search area. Much like finding a periscope in the middle of the ocean. :)
Posted by: Dave ||
09/01/2005 20:41 Comments ||
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The Supreme Court (SC), in its detailed reasons for rejecting the Hasba Bill of the NWFP government, has ruled that no legislation could be made to interfere with the private life, personal thoughts and individual beliefs of citizens. In its 106-page detailed unanimous judgement, the SC has laid the onus on the rationale that Hasba was a discriminatory and unconstitutional legislation which gave discretionary powers to the newly envisaged office of âmohtasibâ, leading to interference in the personal life of citizens and establishing parallel offices of executive and judiciary. âIt is observed that private life, personal thoughts and the individual beliefs of citizens cannot be allowed to be interfered with. Islamic jurists are unanimous on the point that except salat (prayer) and zakat (alms) no other religious obligation stipulated by Islam can be enforced by the state,â states the detailed judgement.
The NWFP Assembly passed the Hasba Bill on July 14 with a majority of 68 votes against 34 opposition votes. The bill envisaged an office of mohtasib with special powers to implement Islamic laws in the province. However, President Pervez Musharraf filed a reference the next day seeking the SCâs opinion on the Hasba Bill under its advisory jurisdiction.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/01/2005 00:00 ||
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NEW DELHI - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hold his first-ever meeting with Kashmiri separatists next week after moderates accepted his invitation for talks on the future of the divided region, his office said on Wednesday. âThe prime minister has invited the Hurriyat chairman and other leaders for talks,â said Singhâs press officer Sanjaya Baru, who added that the meeting would be held in Delhi on September 5.
The leader of Hurriyatâs moderate faction, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, told AFP in Indian-Kashmirâs summer capital Srinagar that the group had not received the invitation yet but that they would attend the meeting. âWe have accepted the invitation in principle,â Farooq told AFP. âWe will discuss all aspects of the meeting tomorrow during a meeting of the working committee, executive council and the general council,â he said.
âWe had asked for the meeting at the highest level and our plea has been accepted. That is what we wanted a meeting with the prime minister,â he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/01/2005 00:00 ||
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I think this is the same eight noted in Fred's story tonight, but I'm not sure. Uruzgan province is such a big place and all ...
KABUL - US aircraft bombed a Taleban position in central Afghanistan killing eight militants in the latest violence in the run-up to a Sept. 18 election, a provincial official said on Wednesday.
US and Afghan troops, acting on intelligence reports that Taleban had set up a base in the mountains of Uruzgan province, were met with a hail of bullets when they went to investigate on Tuesday, provincial governor Jan Mohammad Khan said, adding an air strike was called later. âThe Taleban showed resistance ... the US aircraft bombed the base,â Khan told Reuters.
"After which the Taleban showed no resistance," Khan added.
A US military spokeswoman said she had no information about the fighting. A Taleban spokesman confirmed the latest fighting but, speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location, said 12 Afghan government troops and US soldiers had been killed.
"And don't disclose my location!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/01/2005 00:00 ||
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Hard to say if its the same as in Fred's article as they all look the same: dead
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/01/2005 16:22 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Afghan and US ground troops backed up by attack helicopters raided a Taleban camp in the mountains of southern Afghanistan, killing nine suspected militants, Afghan officials and the US military said yesterday. The camp in Uruzgan province had been used as a base by about 80 insurgents to launch guerrilla-style assaults on Afghan and US-led coalition forces in the area, said provincial Gov. Jan Mohammed Khan. The rest of the rebels fled during Tuesdayâs attack on the camp, which had been set up in several adjoining mountain caves, he said. American helicopters pounded the site with rockets before ground forces moved in. Several AK-47 assault rifles, rockets, as well as tents, kettles and other camping equipment were scattered around the area, the governor said. A US military statement said nine suspected militants were killed.
NEW DELHI - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hold his first-ever meeting with Kashmiri separatists next week after moderates accepted his invitation for talks on the future of the divided region, his office said on Wednesday. âThe prime minister has invited the Hurriyat chairman and other leaders for talks,â said Singhâs press officer Sanjaya Baru, who added that the meeting would be held in Delhi on September 5.
