New Delhi, Oct. 5: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) favours a "unified command" under the Centre to fight Maoists, instead of leaving the task to governments in the affected states.
"At no cost must the challenge to the integrity and prestige of the State be allowed. Maoist insurgency is as serious a challenge today as terrorism," an RSS source said.
Although the RSS sources did not refer to the proposed anti-Maoist offensive being planned by the Centre, the comments suggest the Sangh will be in agreement, at least in principle, with the UPA government if it takes tough measures. As the CPM has also more or less supported a crackdown, chances of a consensus across political spectrums on the need for an offensive appear bright.
Well-placed Sangh sources told The Telegraph that in the absence "of a central combat structure", the Maoists tend to concentrate their cadres and resources near the borders of states in which they operate. "If there is a major strike by them, the normal tendency is for the governments of the two states sharing a border to pass the buck to each other. The perpetrators take advantage of the confusion and escape the police net," one of the sources said.
A "unified command", on the other hand, will minimise, if not do away with, the state government's role in security deployment and allow the Centre to take over, the source added.
At present, a unified command is not in force in the fight against the Maoists. A multi-agency committee provides inputs for the Union home ministry which co-ordinates with the state governments concerned.
The Sangh's interest in a Naxalite policy arises from the fact that one of its premier "service" organisations, the Vanavasi Kalyan Parishad, shares a turf with the Maoists because it works largely in the tribal-dominated areas deep in the forests of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh.
The nearly 14,000 projects carried out by the Vanavasi Kalyan Ashrams are supposed to be "non-political".When the Vanavasi Parishad was conceptualised in 1952, it was with a political goal to "make the Vanavasis (the RSS's nomenclature for tribals) aware of their rights to water, forest and land and unexplained "social rights".
However, with the growth and spread of the Maoists, the Vanavasi units downplayed "awareness creation" and concentrated on "service" to avoid a confrontation with the Left extremists. "Our largest area of work is in Jharkhand but we are able to carry on because the Maoists know we will never cross their path. Of course, there are instances of threats and small attacks but nothing serious has happened so far. The children of some Maoists study in the Ekal Vidyalayas we run, they use our dispensaries," a source said.
Nobody in the Sangh was willing to speak on a perception that conversion was an unstated objective of the Vanavasi Parishad – an allegation the Maoists have also levelled once in a while.
The sources said the RSS had decided to make its stand clear because authority of "the State" could not be allowed to be challenged by extremists. "Out nationalist policy does not allow us any longer to remain silent," a source said.
The RSS had a piece of advice for political parties, including the BJP: don't strike deals, "covert" or otherwise, with the Maoists because they rejected the existing political system.
The Sangh is all praise for the Salwa Judum, a controversial counter-insurgency operation the Chhattisgarh government started in 2005 to arm civilians take on the Naxalites. "It is a manifestation of people's anger against the Maoists. The state had to support it," a Sangh source said.
JU campus under police scanner
Senior cops held a high-level meeting on Monday in the presence of DGP Bhupinder Singh, ADG (CID) Raj Kanojia, city police commissioner Gautam Mohan Chakrabarti and home secretary Ardhendu Sen to discuss ways to check Maoist activities on campus.
The Union home ministry has informed the state government that a student from JU is directly involved in providing support to the Maoists and that the Red rebels have been able to increase their support base in the city considerably over the past few months. Many of these students stay in and around Jadavpur and in other parts of south Kolkata.
PCPA leader Chhatradhar Mahato reportedly named some students and teachers of JU who have supported the Lalgarh movement.
While the DGP declined comment on the matter, a senior officer said they are planning to arrest Maoist sympathizers on the JU campus.
Police are also keeping tabs on some human rights organizations. The officer said a section of students of Presidency College and Calcutta University are also under the scanner.
Cong must accept TMC supremacy in Bengal: Mamata
Three days after the Congress snubbed her by taking the support of the Left to clinch the mayoral post of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Sunday sought to send a strong message to the Congress — that if it wanted the TMC's support at the Centre, it would have to treat the Trinamool Congress as its big brother in Bengal politics.
Addressing a rally at Bagha Jatin Park here, she said that without the blessings of the Congress top brass the developments at Siliguri could not have happened.
"We gave support to the Manmohan Singh government because of our earlier commitments (for support) and for stability. As we accepted the Manmohan Singh government at the Centre, the Congress will have to accept Trinamool's supremacy in Bengal," she said amidst thunderous applause.
"One cannot stop Mamata Banerjee by joining hands with the CPM. TMC is the only way in Bengal. Our friends (Congress) are greedy. May God pardon them. They have sold themselves," she added.
Training guns at her alliance partner as well as the CPM for hobnobbing with each other, the Trinamool Congress chief said, "In my understanding, the Congress-CPM alliance at the corporation will soon fall like a pack of cards," she added. "Our fault was that we went for an alliance. If we were alone, no one would have ditched you people."
Referring to recent statements by Congress leaders that letters of support during the mayoral contest were issued to every councillor, she said, "Some people are saying that they had issued a letter to our councillors for support. They are our ally. Issuing a letter to Trinamool councillors and to those of CPM is as different as is heaven from hell."
... contd.
"I condemn this cold-blooded murder. The Naxal menace is a growing menace and this incident proves they kill in cold blood, Chidambaram told CNN-IBN.
Chidambaram was commenting on the murder of Jharkhand Police's special branch officer Francis Induwar, who was abducted a week ago and was found dead on the Ranchi-Jamshedpur highway on Tuesday morning.
The Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) left a pamphlet claiming it had killed the officer, a police official said. "Francis has been awarded death to protest the police repression," said a pamphlet left near Induwar's body.
Chidambaram said the Naxalites were probably retaliating after the arrest of three of their leaders recently. "Naxalite threat is the gravest to internal security. Since we have arrested some leaders of the CPI-Maoist it is possible that they are using violence," he said.
"Let me tell them that their scheme will not succeed," said Chidambaram, who assured Induwar's family compensation and support.
"I want to assure the special branch officers of Jharkhand that we deeply grieve for the family of the officer who has been killed."
In an interview to CNN-IBN on September 28, Chidambaram had said he believed development is the best solution to the Naxal problem.
"The point is we believe that development is the ultimate answer to the problems that are espoused by the Naxal leaders on behalf of the poor people," he had said.
A Reuters report earlier this year estimated that the Maoists have an estimated 22,000 combatants in more than 180 of the country's 630 districts. They operate across a "red corridor" stretching from Andhra Pradesh to Chhattisgarh and into West Bengal.
Claiming that the Left Front government in West Bengal was targetting intellectuals by alleging that they had links with PCPA leader Chharadhar Mahato, the Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday dared it to arrest her since she supported the tribal movement.
"Why is (theatre personality) Saonli Mitra and other intellectuals being targetted for their support to the tribal cause? Let the Government arrest me too since I support the tribal movement," Ms. Banerjee, the Railway Minister, told a TV channel.
"Support to the tribals' cause does not mean supporting Maoists," she said renewing her warning that there would be trouble if the government dared to act against the intellectuals.
Alleging that a conspiracy had been hatched by the state Government against the intellectuals, she said "this government had even framed charges against me in the past.
"If our respected intellectuals are touched by the police, people will take to the streets in protest", Ms. Banerjee said.
Ms. Banerjee said the state Home Secretary and the DGP should apologise to the people for allegedly dishonouring intellectuals, including eminent writer Mahasweta Devi who had supported the tribal movement at Lalgarh.
"If you even touch their hair, the people of Bengal won't spare you," she thundered on Monday morning while speaking to a Bengali television channel.
The 54-year old Trinamool supremo dared the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government to persecute the likes of author Mahasweta Devi, 83, actress Aparna Sen, 64, and Saonli Mitra 61, poet Joy Goswami, 55, theatres personalities Bibhas Chakravarty, 73 and Kaushik Sen painters Jogen Chowdhury, 70, and Samir Aich, 52.
"We are watching the situation and ready to respond if required," went out Mamata's veritable warning.
"We have nothing against the intellectuals. But if somebody is found to be helping a front orgaanisation of the Maoists, law will take its own course," said Bengal chief secretary Ashoke Mohan Chakravarty soon after Banerjee's outburst.
During the weekend director general of Bengal Police Bhupinder Singh and the Chief Secretary had said in tandem that several intellectuals of this state, apart from students and professors of an university, had regularly been in touch and helped the movement of People's Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) in Lalgarh and that they could be summoned for interrogation.
Describing the intellectuals as assets of the country, Mamata argued, "The intellectuals had supported the democratic movement of tribals in Lalgarh. So had we. The government hasn't yet banned PCAPA. So, where is the problem is someone supports them or keeps in touch with them."
"Don't play with fire," she warned "for if you do, you would be starting a conflagration that will be difficult to douse.
The police arrested PCAPA spokesperson, Chhatradhar Mahato, 44, on 26 September. Mahato is being interrogated by the police.
The Orissa government has sounded high alert in the border districts of Malkangiri, Rayagada, Koraput and Sundargarh following a bandh call given by the CPI (Maoists) on Saturday.
The red rebels have given the bandh call in protest against anti-Maoist operations in seven states, lack of treatment to Kobad Ghandy, a politburo member of the CPI-Maoist who was recently arrested in Delhi, and the arrest of Chhatradhar Mahato, leader of People's Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) spearheading the Lalgarh agitation in West Bengal. While the Central forces have already stepped up security measures in Malkangiri district to thwart any move by the leftwing guerillas, CoBRA Battalion and Special Operation Group personnel have been deployed in sensitive locations in Koraput district.
In Malkangiri, the ultras have felled trees and blocked roads which disrupted communications on Friday. Alleging that the security forces are harassing innocent tribals branding them as rebels, the red rebels have demanded immediate withdrawal of CRPF.
http://orissadiary.com/CurrentNews.asp?id=14716
ndia's surge against the Maoist insurgency in the so-called liberated zone of Dantewada in Chhattisgarh grew stronger with the deployment of four battalions (4,000 soldiers) of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), normally used only along the border with China.
As that happened, Maoists on Saturday blew up a rail track in West Bengal and called a 24-hour shutdown to protest the arrest of tribal ideologue Chhatradhar Mahato, who police said was linked with professors and students at the state's Jadavpur university.
The surge will peak after the Maharashtra polls with at least 75,000 paramilitary and other state forces becoming part of the first coordinated, nationwide offensive against the 40-year-old Maoist insurgency. In comparison, western forces fighting to stabilise Afghanistan do not exceed 100,000.
The ITBP has joined the offensive against the Naxals, as the Maoist rebels are called, for the first time.
It will assist the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in the forests of Dantewada, where a Maoist administration has pushed out the Indian state.
For more than 10 years, Dantewada has been a battleground with security forces and a government-sponsored armed village militia (Salwa Judum or Peace March) ranged against the Maoists.
"The Home Ministry had asked us to deploy four battalions in Chhattisgarh as of now. But as the offensive intensifies," said an ITBP officer who did not want to be identified, "we may send more forces."
Of the 455 people killed in Naxal violence in the first six months of 2009, 285 died in Chhattisgargh, the ministry said.
"The Centre is preparing for a decisive battle to systematically flush Naxals out of their strongholds," the official said.
While seven states — Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Bengal, Andhra, Jharkhand, Maharashtra — are Naxal hit, a ministry estimate suggests the extremists have pockets of influence in nearly 20 states, affecting 223 of India's 625 districts.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Border-police-join-Naxal-battle/H1-Article1-461015.aspx
As the West Bengal police interrogated top tribal leaders of Lalgarh and suggested their links with some city-based intellectuals and human rights activists, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Monday threatened a people's agitation if any intellectual was harassed.
The police top brass, which has been quizzing tribal leader and People's Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) chief Chhattradhar Mahato and assistant treasurer Sukh Shanti Baske in Kolkata, said the PCAPA had received funding from some Kolkata based intellectuals and some of the money landed in the hands of the Maoists.
A senior officer of the state police's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) said the PCAPA received huge funding through some NGOs and the money was utilised to bear the cost of rallies and other expenses to keep the agitation alive.
Besides, Mahato purchased a car for Rs.1.45 lakh which was later found to have been registered under another person's name.
He said Mahato also used to come to the metropolis often and hold meetings with the NGOs, whose office-bearers also made periodic visits to Lalgarh where the Maoists had set up a virtual free zone since November last.
Police officers conducting the questioning said a South Kolkata-based veteran intellectual had hosted Mahato several times, in what is being perceived as a reference to Magsaysay Award winning litterateur Mahashweta Devi.
Mahashweta conceded that she had met Mahato several times, but claimed she was totally opposed to violence.
"I told Mahato to agitate against SEZ, against improper distribution of BPL ration cards. I said tribal areas should not be handed over to industrialists. But I have never supported violence," she said.
Mahashweta has repeatedly opposed the state's Communist-led Left Front government for the last two years on issues like Singur and Nandigram under the platform of 'Swajan', which has other intellectuals like dramatist Bratya Basu, theatre personalities Shaonli Mitra and Kaushik Sen and filmmaker Aparna Sen as members.
"Our objective was clear and transparent. We had no intention of helping the Maoists," Kaushik Sen said.
Mitra said during a visit to Lalgarh this year, the Swajan members made it clear to Mahato that it would be difficult for them to support the movement if he kept truck with the Maoists. A police officer said several NGOs under the banner of the Lalgarh Solidarity Committee had also been helping the Maoists through its open forum PCAPA.
"We will first summon them for questioning. Based on what we gather from the initial questioning, we will consider arrest or slapping of charges," he said.
Taking strong exception to the police bringing anti-Left Front intellectuals under the scanner, the Trinamool president said: "People of Bengal will launch a virulent protest if people like Mahashweta Devi or Saonli Mitra are touched."
"The PCAPA is not a banned organisation. We all supported the tribal movement that began as a protest against police torture. These intellectuals also supported the tribal agitation. The state government is trying to browbeat the intellectuals opposed to it who want a change in the state," Mamata Banerjee said.
"It's a matter of shame. I condemn it," she said.
State Chief Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakraborty said the administration has no issues with the intellectuals.
"But Maoists are banned. And under the centre's Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), anybody who helps forces like the Maoists are also guilty. The law will take its own course".
"There is obviously no evidence of their links with Maoists. Otherwise, they would have been arrested," Home Secretary Ardhendu Sen told newsmen when asked whether there was any proof of Maoist links against the two intellectuals.
Mahato also had no connection with the killing of 70 persons in Lalgarh during the Maoist violence there, he said.
Sen said that Maoist leader Kishenji alias Koteswar Rao would also be arrested though it would be a more difficult task.
Railway Minister Banerjee, on the other hand, asked "why is (theatre personality) Saonli Mitra and other intellectuals being targeted for supporting the tribal cause? Let the government arrest me too since I support the tribal movement."
"Support to the tribal cause does not mean supporting Maoists," the TC chief told a local TV channel, renewing her warning that there would be trouble if the government dared touch intellectuals.
Banerjee demanded that the state Home Secretary and the DGP apologise for dishonouring intellectuals including Mahasweta Devi who had supported the Lalgaarh tribal movement. To a question, she reiterated that she had no knowledge if Chhatradhar Mahato had Maoist links.
"I have no knowledge if Chhatradhar has Maoist links or not. The government should investigate it ... We supported the tribal movement at Lalgarh, but that does not mean we support Maoists."
Mahasweta Devi also denied links with Maoists.
"I am unaware whether Chhatradhar is a Maoist. Once, he came to my house with a group of women and a TV channel crew. When I was told that the women were Maoists, I drove away all of them, including Chhatradhar," she told agency.
Stating that she had, however, met Mahato several times, she said, "in all the meetings, I asked him to campaign against SEZs, or to demand ration cards for the poor."
The home secretary, meanwhile, said there was 'enough evidence' to proceed against Raja Sarkhel and Prasun Chatterjee, the human rights activists who were arrested last night from Jadavpur area here on charges of having links with Maoists and the PCPA.
"The DGP (Director General of Police) has told me that there was no demand for a swap of prisoners. Besides, we are governed by the rule of the law. Prisoners are under the custody of the court, we cannot swap prisoners with those who are outside the law, who take the law into their own hands. There is no question of swap of prisoners," Chidambaram said.
The decapitated body of Francis Induwar, Jharkhand police officer who was abducted by Maoists and was sought to be swapped for three of their leaders including senior Communist Party of India-Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy, was found on the Ranchi-Jamshedpur highway Tuesday morning.
Induwar, who worked as an intelligence official in the Special Branch, was kidnapped Sep 30.
"If there were any other genuine developmental demands... that could have been considered. But the DGP tells me that no demand was placed upon the government. And all that they found was the mutilated body... they had killed him in cold blood," Chidambaram told an English news channel Tuesday.
Near the body, a note was found in which the banned CPI-Maoist claimed responsibility. "Francis has been awarded death to protest the police repression," stated the pamphlet.
Mahato today refused to identify any youth shown in Maoist training video clips.
The police, however, said all the youth in the videos were from Lalgarh and its adjoining areas.
Those who are working at the grassroots level are important," Ghandy told TOI inside the courtroom while replying to a query. Ghandy was produced before chief metropolitan magistrate Kaveri Baweja a day before expiry of his 14 days in judicial custody on a production warrant. The court, after hearing the police's contention, granted remand for three days, till October 8.
Meanwhile, there seems to be no takers in home ministry for the Naxals' reported demand to release three of their top ultras in exchange for freeing the cop — Francis Indwar — who was abducted by them in Khunti district last week. The ministry on Monday asked the state to check the veracity of the reported demand and step up efforts to rescue the police inspector, posted in the intelligence wing.
Although ministry officials, who have been in touch with state cops over the issue, termed the hostage-taking a "new and dangerous strategy", they ruled out the possibility of giving in to pressure tactics.
An official said, "The abduction is quite unfortunate. We are worried about the cop's security. But there is no question of heeding to such a demand."
As the West Bengal government insists that arrested PCPA leader Chhatradhar Mahato has links with Maoists, Magsaysay awardee writer Mahasweta Devi said on Tuesday that she was not aware of his Maoist connections.
"I am unaware whether Chhatradhar is a Maoist. Once, he came to my house with a group of women and crew of a TV channel. When I was told that the women were Maoists, I drove away all of them, including Chhatradhar," she said.
Mahasweta said she had, however, met Mahato several times and "in all the meetings, I asked him to campaign against SEZs, or to demand ration cards for the poor."
On Sunday, the writer had said the intellectuals would organise a rally in the city in support of Mahato.
Yesterday, asked whether intellectuals like Mahasweta Devi would be arrested for their reported links with Mahato, state Home Secretary Ardhendu Sen had evaded a direct reply, saying if evidence was found of anyone's association with Mahato, he or she would be questioned.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/i-am-unaware-of-chhatradhars-maoist-identity-mahasweta/525760/
Times f India tells another story very intresting!
Mahato was sidelined in PCPA
Maoists behead cop kidnapped to secure Ghandy's release
The body along with the severed head of 37-year-old Induwar, who worked in intelligence wing of the state police, was found near Raisha Ghati under Namkom police station area, about 12 km from here, Superintendent of Police (Ranchi Rural), Hemant Toppo, said.
Induwar, who is survived by his wife and three sons, had been kidnapped on September 30 by the Maoists from Hembrom Bazaar in Khunti district, about 70 km from here. The Maoists later reportedly demanded release of three rebels - Ghandy, Chhatardhar Mahato and Bhushan Yadav - in exchange for the officer.
The demand was said to have been conveyed to the authorities by outfit's South Chhotanagpur Committee Secretary Samarji by a telephone call to a local newspaper.
In Delhi, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said that there had been no demand from the Maoists for any swap of the arrested Naxalites but termed the beheading as not acceptable.
"The cold blooded murder is simply not acceptable. I condemn it," he said.
Ranchi Senior Superintendent of Police, Praveen Kumar also denied any communication from the Maoists for the release of the officer of the Special Branch of Jharkhand police.
"The act was perpetrated out of sheer frustration following the arrests of several Maoists, including their central leaders," he said.
Police said a poster pasted on a tree on the Ranchi-Jamshedpur highway under the Bundu police station stated that the body was that of the police officer.
Induwar has become the 339th policeman to be killed in Naxal violence in Jharkhand between January 2003 and October this year. The state's 20 of the 24 districts are Maoist-infested.
The Jharkhand Men's Police Association took the body of the officer from the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences to the police headquarters after a post mortem.
Condemning the killing of their colleague, the association office bearers renewed their pledge to continue their fight against ultra left extremists. A two-minute silence was observed as a mark of respect to him.
Inspector General of Police Bibhuti Bhushan Pradhan described as "barbarous" the act of beheading Induwar, who belonged to Gumla.
The family of the slain police officer, who was on duty when he had been abducted by the ultras, would get compensation as per the police rules, the association said.
Maoist leader Ghandy was arrested by Delhi Police on September 21 and is presently in police custody, while Chhatradhar Mahato, a Maoist-backed tribal leader, was nabbed by West Bengal CID sleuths from Lalgarh on September 26.
Another Maoist leader Bhushan Yadav, facing several Naxal-related cases, was arrested by the West Bengal police on October 2 from Chinsura in Hooghly district and has since been handed over to the Jharkhand police.
"The Indian Army is capable of looking after and ensuring the defence of the country. It would take care of any aggression against Indian territory," General Kapoor said.
"The charter of the Army is to defend Indian territory at all costs. This talk of repeat of 1962 is totally incorrect and uncalled for," he said.
Stating that "offensive action" could not be part of any credible defensive posture, the Army chief added that his force was "sincere to ensure the defence of our country to the last drop of our blood."
The Army, Kapoor said, had the requisite capability to defend the Indian territory even if it means deployment of force multipliers. Strengthening and modernisation of the forces was a dynamic process, he added.
"It is an ongoing process and modernisation of the Army is going on. The Chinese too are modernising People's Liberation Army. We need to build our capabilities to be able to meet the challenges whenever it appears," he told Times Now.
On the incursions by Chinese military personnel on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between the two countries, Kapoor said the transgressions by the PLA continued to be at the same level as last year.
"In 2009, so far, the number of transgressions have been almost exactly at the same level as during the corresponding period in 2008," he said. Claiming that the Chinese military incursions were not under political orders from Beijing, Kapoor said: "There is no provocation (through incursions) per se. There is nothing to be alarmed about it."
The Army Chief said the Chinese have mentioned during Border Personnel Meeting about Indian Army patrols entering their side of the LAC. "Similar charges are made against our patrols," he said.
Blaming the non-demarcation of the LAC as a reason for differing perceptions on both sides, Kapoor said these kind of complaints would keep cropping up time and again till the time the demarcation took place.
Admitting that Indian Army patrols too went into areas perceived to be within their side of the LAC, he said the personnel do leave behind signs of their presence there, such as used food cans and water bottles.
"Obviously, our Army patrols do not carry back the used food cans and water bottles. They are left behind," he added. On the reports of PLA helicopter dropping food cans in Ladakh in June this year, the Army chief said the Chinese claimed the helicopter was flying within their side of the LAC.
Kapoor said apart from raising the transgressions at Border Personnel Meetings, the Army also took up these issues up through the diplomatic channels.
Talking about China's space capabilities, the Army Chief said India too needed to improve its use of space for military applications "to defend ourselves and to our advantage."
Favouring a dedicated military satellite for Indian armed forces, Kapoor said it would not be wise to use foreign nation's satellites, as there were chances for error.
"When we use others' satellites, then the data could be slightly displaced. If it is our own satellite, we are sure the dimensions are correct," he said.
"We do not have (a dedicated military satellite). But we need to look at space and therefore we need to develop our equipment," he added.
RIL refuses gas to RNRL
Replying to RNRL's petition seeking Supreme Court to direct RIL to supply gas as already ordered by the Bombay High Court, RIL said the Anil Ambani group firm "does not have a single power plant since the demerger (of the Reliance empire) and the ADAG owns just one gas-based plant."
"RNRL does not have existing plants capable of using the gas and it is necessarily seeking to trade in gas over (which it is not entitled to do at all) and make enormous profits based on the below market acquisition price of USD 2.34 per mmBtu," RIL said in its affidavit.
RNRL is demanding 28 mmscmd of gas from RIL for 17 years at a price of USD 2.34 per mmBtu, which is 44 per cent lower than the Government-approved rate.
Apprehending that the gas could only be used by RNRL to trade, RIL said trading in gas is also barred by the Government policy, under which KG-D6 gas can only be sold to priority end users which have existing facilities to consume gas and users identified by the government.
RIL also noted that while the demand for supply was 17 years, the fact was that the life of production from KG-D6 fields was only 12 years.
06/10/2009
No respite from Andhra floods, Karnataka seeks rehab help
Hyderabad/Bangalore: The centre Tuesday assured Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka that funds were not a constraint to rehabilitate the flood-ravaged people in the two states, even as fresh flooding inundated dozens of villages in Krishna and Guntur districts in Andhra Pradsh.
Tuesday's flood was caused by the Krishna river breaching its embankment but a major tragedy was averted as most of the people in the affected villages had moved to safety. Several who had stayed back were rescued.
The rain and flood havoc that began Sep 30 in the northern districts of Karnataka and moved to engulf neighbouring areas in Andhra Padesh have so far claimed around 260 lives in the two states and left millions homeless.
The toll in Karnataka is 206, an official statement said Tuesday. Fifty-two deaths have been reported in Andhra Pradesh.
The Karnataka government has estimated the loss to property and crops at Rs.20,000 crore. Andhra Pradesh has put its losses at Rs.12,500 crore.
"We were deeply moved by the scale of the calamity," Home Minister P. Chidambaram said Tuesday, a day after he accompanied Congress president and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi on an aerial survey of the trail of death and destruction in the two states.
"The loss of life, property, cattle and standing crops is enormous. Lakhs of people have been accommodated in camps," he said in a statement in New Delhi and told the two state governments that the central government was ready to give more help
"I wish to assure the state governments that availability of funds will not be a constraint and that they should focus on providing relief to the affected people," Chidambaram said.
He promised further measures after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherji returns Wednesday from his foreign trip.
| Mamata fuels burning issue - Minister issues dire warning if the 'learned' are touched by state | ||
| OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT | ||
Calcutta, Oct. 5: Mamata Banerjee today said "Bengal will burn" if the state government slaps the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act on writers and artistes like Mahasweta Devi and Aparna Sen for sympathising with the tribal agitation in Lalgarh. "Banglay aagun jalbey jodi biddajaner keshagra sparsha kara hoy. Banger manush eshob bardasta karbena. (Bengal will burn if even the tip of a hair of any intellectual is touched. The people of Bengal will not tolerate this)," the Trinamul Congress chief told STAR-Ananda this afternoon. Reacting to Mamata's statement, chief secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti said: "I have heard what the honourable railway minister said. We have nothing against intellectuals. But those who had helped Maoist groups are equally guilty and liable to be punished under the UAPA. Whether a person is less known or well known is not the consideration. Neither you nor me is above the law." Left partner Forward Bloc slammed Mamata for the statement. Bloc veteran Ashok Ghosh said her threat that Bengal would burn was an "unconstitutional" statement. Mamata's words were a reaction to Chakrabarti's warning two days ago when he said: "Those who are helping any banned outfit are making themselves liable for punishment under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act." Mamata, who classified Mahasweta Devi, Aparna Sen, writer Joy Goswami and actors Shaoli Mitra and Kaushik Sen as "intellectuals", said they had nothing to do with Maoists or Chhatradhar Mahato, the leader of the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities. "They helped the tribal movement that was started in Lalgarh, Belpahari and Garbeta because the state government deprived the adivasi people. There is nothing wrong in supporting the movement (in Lalgarh)," she said. Aparna Sen, Shaoli Mitra, Joy Goswami and Kaushik Sen had visited Lalgarh and met Mahato earlier. Mamata today also warned the government "not to play with fire by linking the tribal movement with the Maoists". "The Bengal government has neither banned the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities, nor the Maoists. Then what is the harm if somebody helps such a committee to step up a movement against the deprivation of tribals?" she asked. "The people of Bengal will protest if any attempt is made to harass intellectuals by linking them with the Maoists." Reacting to Mamata's statement, Forward Bloc's Ghosh said: "She should step down as a central minister before making such unconstitutional statements." But the Bloc leadership spoke in two voices on the possibility of questioning artistes sympathising with the Maoists. Ghosh didn't find anything wrong with it, but Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas was critical. "The BJP government in Chhattisgarh jailed Dr Vinayak Sen as a Maoist sympathiser. Now, we are talking of grilling Mahasweta Devi.... But she has supported tribal causes not only in Lalgarh but across the country. She knows the reality about the lack of development in tribal areas," he said. |
Naxalism: A Rs 1500 crore red corridor empire
CPI (Maoist) and especially its splinter groups, which extort the money hardly pump it back for running the movement but instead use it to maintain luxurious life-styles for their masters, the officials said.
The Naxal literature and documents seized by central security agencies and state police forces during their operations have revealed intricate details of "levy" extorted by groups which run in several hundred crores every year.
The 'levy' is not only paid by the contractors working in the areas dominated by the Naxals but also by the industrial houses including some of the nationally reputed ones, the officials said.
Though, CPI (Maoist) still remains the prominent Naxal group in Jharkhand, there are other splinter groups which too have now started imposing 'levy' besides indulging in kidnapping, looting and narcotics trade, which results in around Rs 300 crore as annual income from the state.
If a conservative estimate is taken of the income generated from 'levy' in the seven most Naxal-infested states -- Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal and Maharashtra -- security agencies feel the collection from these areas, which are commonly referred to as 'red corridor', amount to nearly Rs 1,500 crore.
The Naxals have even come out with a card, recovered by forces, which clearly shows the exact amount of 'levy' to be paid by contractors, petrol pump owners and land owners.
It usually ranges from 10% of the project cost for those making unpaved roads to five per cent for small bridges and others.
Besides the fixed levy, the left-wing extremists groups also demand money from industries functioning in the areas "as and when they need" and even issue receipts for the same.
"There are six left-wing extremists groups operating in the state out of which the People's Liberation Front of India, earlier known as Jharkhand Liberation Tigers, is mostly made up of criminals. The groups operate no longer for ideology but purely for extortion," CRPF DIG (Jharkhand) Alok Raj said.
Interestingly, it is not just the Naxals who approach contractors for money but in some cases even the contractors approach the Naxals with money.
"It has come to our notice that in certain incidents, contractors have themselves approached the Naxals to blow up the roads built by them because they had used inferior material at first place. As the roads are blown away, no quality inspection takes place," Director General of Police (Jharkhand) V D Ram said.
Officials say, in most cases, the amount generated in the form of levy usually goes into a "luxurious lifestyle" of Naxal chiefs.
"The chiefs lead a luxurious life with all modern facilities. Though, they forcibly recruit children in their cadre, their own kids study in good public schools," officials said.
The Naxals also encourage local villagers to undertake opium cultivation, just like insurgents in Northeast states.
Of the total 1.07 lakh kg of ganja or marijuana seized in the country in 2007, heavy quantity of it was from Nagaland (15,489 kg), Madhya Pradesh (14,815 kg), Maharashtra (12,551 kg), Chhattisgarh (7,470 kg) and Andhra Pradesh (7,059 kg).
Extremist in trap
SUHRID SANKAR CHATTOPADHYAYin Kolkata
| Chhatradhar Mahato's arrest is the first major breakthrough since Central forces were deployed in Lalgarh. |
Chhatradhar Mahato. His PCPA was used by the Maoists to spread their influence in Lalgarh.
IT looked like a scene out of the cinema screen. The Chhatradhar Mahato, convener of the Maoist-backed People's Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA), who had been dodging arrest for over three months, was outfoxed on September 25 by police officers disguised as journalists, at Birkanr village near Lalgarh in West Bengal's trouble-torn West Medinipur district. This was the first major breakthrough achieved by the police and the joint forces since the operations against the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) in Lalgarh began on June 18.
Chhatradhar came into prominence after an assassination attempt by Maoists on Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on November 2 last year at Kalaichand in West Medinipur district near the forested Lalgarh area. The PCPA's violent agitation, which followed the arrests made in the area after that attempt, paved the way for the Maoists to strengthen their position. At their instigation, the tribal agitators refused to allow the police to enter Lalgarh, and this gave them enough time to entrench themselves in the region.
Beginning in November last year, the PCPA and the Maoists established a reign of terror not only in Lalgarh but beyond, systematically killing not just local leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or the CPI(M), but also ordinary CPI(M) supporters and those who resisted their diktat. They burnt down houses, ransacked CPI(M) offices, held kangaroo courts and carried out executions in the name of the area's impoverished people.
As of September 30, as many as 62 people, mostly CPI(M) leaders and workers, had been murdered by the Maoists and the PCPA, 80 people were kidnapped and 160 injured, many of them critically, in the violence. "It is quite clear in the way one particular party is being targeted that the Maoists are using terror to create a political vacuum in the region, which they intend to fill," a senior police source told Frontline.
Police trapChhatradhar Mahato, who organised violent rallies in the tribal belt in the past 11 months, was also the most familiar public face of the Maoists – he held press conferences and updated the media on the situation in Lalgarh.
Taking their cue from this, two police officers claiming to be journalists from a Singapore-based news channel established contact with Chhatradhar and a few local journalists who were in touch with him. They finally secured an appointment for an interview and were taken to his hideout in Birkanr, where they arrested him after the interview.
Though this has queered the pitch for the media, particularly the local press, who may henceforth be looked upon with suspicion by the Maoists, the State police insist that there was nothing wrong or illegal about the trap laid for Chhatradhar. The Jhargram court, where Chhatradhar was produced after his arrest, remanded him in police custody.
Manoj Kumar Verma, Superintendent of Police, West Medinipur, told Frontline: "For us this is a very important breakthrough. Chhatradhar Mahato was responsible for a lot of the law and order problem that exists in Lalgarh today. He was responsible for the entry of the Maoists into the region and for recruiting people; instead of books he gave guns in the hands of children. He also ordered killings and oversaw executions in the so-called jana adalats [people's courts conducted by Maoists]."
There are 22 criminal cases pending against Chhatradhar in which he is the main accused, including charges under Sections 16, 18, 30, 38 and 39 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967, for his links with a terrorist organisation.
More cases are likely to be added to the pending ones as, according to Verma, a large number of people who have been arrested recently have named Chhatradhar as the person who gave orders for various crimes. The Government of India decided on June 22, 2009, to include the CPI (Maoist) in the schedule of organisations banned under the UAPA.
Soon after Chhatradhar's arrest, Maoists called a 24-hour countrywide bandh on October 3, and CPI (Maoist) polit bureau member Koteswar Rao (alias Kishenji) reportedly warned of "dire consequences" if Chhatradhar was not "unconditionally released". The PCPA announced a 48-hour bandh on September 30-October 1 in the Jangalmahal.
Senior PCPA leader Asit Mahato, who has taken charge of the outfit's activities in the Lalgarh area after Chhatradhar's arrest, told Frontline: "The intensity of our agitation has doubled. We wanted to conduct a peaceful agitation of the oppressed people in the region, but the way the administration and the combined forces are behaving we are left with no other option except a bloody confrontation. It is the people of the region who feel this way. We are also thinking of an indefinite strike in Jangalmahal at some point."
As the news of the arrest spread, miscreants set off a landmine in Kantpahari, a few kilometres from Lalgarh. Four of the six people arrested in connection with the incident are suspected Maoists. In Salboni, not far from Lalgarh, a mob vandalised the houses of three CPI(M) leaders.
On the evening of the same day, two police constables, Sisirkanti Nag and Siteswar Prasad Singh, were abducted, allegedly by Maoists, in Belpahari. Though they were set free the next day, the kidnappers were reported to have initially threatened to kill them if Chhatradhar was not released. Sporadic incidents of violent protests were also reported on September 28, and there have been a few instances of blocking roads by felling trees.
However, the district police chief does not expect too much trouble. "Because of the atrocities committed by Chhatradhar, the people of the region are no longer with him. In the last five days [September 25-30], there has not been much protest in the Jangalmahal, unlike in November last year," Verma told Frontline.
Is Chhatradhar a Maoist?
Policemen stop A rally of the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities at Lalgarh on August 26.
In Kolkata, however, there have been some protests led by a group of eminent intellectuals, including writer and social activist Mahasweta Devi, poets Shankha Ghosh and Joy Goswami, theatre artistes Kaushik Sen and Bibhas Chakraborty, and others. They insist that Chhatradhar is a leader of a "people's democratic movement".
Earlier too, on June 21, three days after Central forces began their operations, a group of leading artists and intellectuals, including film director Aparna Sen and theatre personalities Shaoli Mitra and Kaushik Sen, held talks with Chhatradhar in the affected area, ignoring a government request and defying a ban under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
Chhatradhar himself has never professed to be a Maoist. But the organisation he led, the PCPA, was certainly used as a vital tool by the Maoists to spread their influence in and around Lalgarh. In fact, Chhatradhar served as the political front for the Maoists.
"Chhatradhar has always claimed that he has nothing to do with Kishenji and the Maoists; then why are they calling a bandh and clamouring for his release? He is part and parcel of the Maoist atrocities. We do not differentiate between him and other Maoists, and we have a lot of evidence to prove that Chhatradhar is a Maoist," Verma told Frontline.
Police claimsBhupinder Singh, the Director-General of Police, West Bengal, while speaking to the media on September 30, revealed that Chhatradhar admitted, in police custody, to having "links" with the Maoists. He also confessed, the DGP said, that he had a life insurance policy worth Rs.1 crore, that he recently bought a house at Mayurbhanj in Orissa, and that he received funds regularly from Kolkata and outside.
Confessions made in police custody are, of course, inadmissible as evidence in a court of law, according to the Indian Evidence Act. The police, however, were guarded in their statements and said they were still verifying the details of the insurance policy and the accounts held by the PCPA in different banks.
Questions are being raised as to why Chhatradhar, known to have travelled to Kolkata on two occasions earlier this year, was not arrested before. State Home Secretary Ardhendu Sen explained that it was because Chhatradhar's political activities had undergone an "evolution" since those visits to the city and that he progressed increasingly along the extremist path.
Trinamool standMamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress seems to have undergone a metamorphosis as far as its stand on Chhatradhar is concerned. In February, Mamata Banerjee, not yet Railway Minister, shared a dais with Chhatradhar. Earlier, too, she had extended unequivocal support to his cause.
But she gradually distanced herself from the movement he represented, and after her significant success in the Lok Sabha elections, she has had practically nothing to do with Chhatradhar and the PCPA.
In July this year, when a team of senior Trinamool leaders, including the Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Partha Chatterjee, Union Minister of State for Shipping Mukul Roy and Union Minister of State for Rural Development Sisir Adhikari, went to Lalgarh, they did not even meet Chhatradhar. Soon after Chhatradhar's arrest, Mamata Banerjee held a press conference in Kolkata on September 30. Chhatradhar was not even mentioned.
Chhatradhar Mahato's arrest assumes special political significance in the light of the recent announcement by Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram highlighting the urgent need for a nationwide counter-terrorist initiative against the Maoists before they became an uncontrollable force. Chhatradhar's arrest may well be a precursor of things to come.
Two officers, claiming to be journalists, secured an appointment with Mahato.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/stories/20091023262102300.htm
One-third of world's child brides from India :UNICEF
Mumbai: More than a third of the world's child brides are from India, leaving children at an increased risk of exploitation despite the Asian giant's growing modernity and economic wealth, according to a UNICEF report.
Nearly 25 million women in India were married in the year 2007 by the age of 18, said the report released on Tuesday, which noted that children in India, Nepal and Pakistan may be engaged or even married before they turned 10.
Millions of children are also being forced to work in harmful conditions, or face violence and abuse at home and outside, suffering physical and psychological harm with wide-reaching, and sometimes irreparable effects, the report said.
"A society cannot thrive if its youngest members are forced into early marriage, abused as sex workers or denied their basic rights," said UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman.
Despite rising literacy levels and a ban on child marriage, tradition and religious practices are keeping the custom alive in India, as well as in Nepal and Pakistan, the report said.
More than half the world's child brides are in south Asia, which also accounts for more than half the unregistered births, leaving children beyond the reach and protection of state services and unable to attend school or access basic healthcare.
Only 6 percent of all births in Afghanistan and 10 percent in Bangladesh were registered from 2000-08, the report said, compared to 41 percent in India and 73 percent in the tiny Maldives.
Also, about 44 million, or 13 percent of all children in south Asia, are engaged in labour, with more than half in India.
Children in the region have also been seriously affected by insurgency and instability, as well as natural disasters.
Especially in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal, past or ongoing conflicts have broken down most child protection systems, leaving children especially vulnerable, the report said.
Trafficking of children for labour, prostitution or domestic services is widespread, especially within Bangladesh and India, and within the region, as well as to Europe and the Middle East.
"Insufficient emphasis has been placed on protecting child victims of trafficking and ensuring that any judicial proceedings brought against them are child sensitive," the report noted.
Source: Reuters
Maoists kill kidnapped policeman
 Maoists have a presence in more than 200 districts of India |
The body of a policeman, kidnapped last week by Maoist rebels in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, has been found, police and the rebels say.
Inspector Francis Indvaar, 52, was taken last week from Khunti area as he shopped in a local market.
The rebels later offered to release him in exchange for three of their leaders who are in police custody, a demand rejected by the authorities.
The rebels operate in more than 200 districts across large parts of India.
They say they are fighting for the rights of poor peasants and landless workers.
More than 6,000 people have died during the Maoists' 20-year fight for a communist state in parts of India.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the Maoist insurgency as the "single biggest threat" to India's security.
'Arrest'
Inspector Indvaar's body was recovered from the dense forests of Taimara on the Ranchi-Jamshedpur highway on Tuesday morning, police said.
They said he was killed on Monday night.
The rebels had offered to release him in exchange for Kobad Ghandy, Chhatradhar Mahato and Chandra Bhushan Yadav - three senior Maoists who are currently in custody.
"We did not kidnap the inspector, we arrested him," a senior Maoist leader, Samarji, told BBC Hindi.
Samarji warned of more similar "arrests" of policemen unless three Maoist leaders currently in police custody were released.
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Sun, 04 Oct 2009
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=107811§ionid=351020202
Israeli police have fired tear gas at Palestinians protesting the closure of Al-Aqsa holy compound (Temple Mount) in the occupied Jerusalem.
Israeli security forces beefed up security in the Old City Sunday and denied entry to the compound where the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine are located, said Adnan al-Husseini, the Palestinian-appointed governor of Jerusalem.
"The situation is very tense in the Old City," Husseini said.
An Israeli police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, also confirmed that the compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, had been "shut to visitors."
Some 150 Palestinians protested the closure of the site, hurling stones and bottles at riot police.
Palestinian medical officials said nine people were treated for minor injuries including tear gas inhalation. Israel said one policeman was hurt by a rock.
Israeli police claim that the decision to close the site was made following calls, spread on the Palestinian media on Saturday evening and throughout the night, to "come protect the Mount."
Many Jewish visitors are also expected to flock to Jerusalem during the holiday of Sukkot, particularly to the Old City and the Western Wall.
Last week, 30 people were injured in similar clashes near the Al-Aqsa mosque, as Palestinians warned of a possible new uprising.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during a 1967 aggression and later annexed it. The status of the city is among the thorniest issues of the peace process with the Palestinians, underscoring the reality that any Palestinian state should include the city as its capital.
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Gold price rises to all-time high
 Gold prices have been rising for eight years |
The price of gold has hit a new all-time high of $1,040.15 an ounce after a decline in the dollar boosted the attractiveness of metals to investors.
Copper prices also rose above $6,000 a tonne, as the weaker dollar made metals cheaper for non-US investors.
The dollar fell after a newspaper report - later denied - said that Gulf nations wished to replace the greenback as the main oil currency.
The rise in metal prices lifted shares in mining firms.
In afternoon trading on the UK's main FTSE 100 share index, mining stocks were among the biggest risers, with both Kazakhmys and Vedanta up 7.2%, and Fresnillo adding 6.3%.
Dollar influence
Analysts said concern about the possibility of higher inflation in the US as its economy recovers was another factor in lowering the price of the dollar, further boosting the appeal of gold.
 |  Now a lot of investors are buying gold because they are concerned about the impact of higher inflation  Adrian Ash, head of research at UK gold brokerage Bullion Vault.com  |
The last time the spot price of gold hit a new high was in March 2008, when it reached $1,032.80 an ounce.
Analysts said the price of gold could rise still further towards the end of the year if the dollar remained weak.
The price of gold is also typically strong in the October to December period because of the higher demand for jewellery in the run-up to Christmas and the Indian festival of Diwali.
Demand for gold is also currently strong in India, and Indian communities around the world ahead of the festival of lights, which this year falls on 17 October. This is because gold jewellery is typically given as presents.
Haven purchase
Adrian Ash, head of research at UK gold brokerage Bullion Vault.com, said a growing number of private investors were buying the precious metal as a haven against both instability in the financial markets and fears over inflation.
"The bottom line is that after Northern Rock and the wider crisis in the financial markets, more and more people really started to move into gold," he said.
"Gold is a physical investment, they own it outright, so they are not exposed to any bank's financial survival.
"Now a lot of investors are buying gold because they are concerned about the impact of higher inflation - they are fearful about how much governments are borrowing, and how much money central banks such as the Bank of England are putting into the economy."
Mr Ash predicts that gold prices will continue to rise, but does caution that it can be a volatile commodity.
Other precious metals also saw their prices rise on Tuesday, with silver up 3% to $17.11 an ounce, and platinum adding 0.9% to $1,305 an ounce. The price of copper was up 2.4% to $6,060 a tonne.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8292736.stm
Palestinians Stand Up to Israeli Attempts to Desecrate Al-Aqsa
Mohamad Shmaysani
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=105704&language=en
04/10/2009 Residents of the Al-Aqsa Mosque region gathered on Sunday to stand up to scores of Israeli occupation forces who have circled the sacred mosque, part of Israel's continuous bids to desecrate the Muslim site.
Israeli occupation police closed the Mosque to worshipers and Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat likened the Israeli move to that of former PM Sharon's visit to site in 2000, which sparked the second intifada.
Israeli settlers have been trying to desecrate the Aqsa Mosque under the protection of occupation security forces which brought in dozens of armed vehicles outside the site. "Providing police escort for settlers who are against peace at all costs is not the act of someone who is committed to peace,' Erekat said.
On Saturday evening, calls spread on the Palestinian media and throughout the night to protect Al-Aqsa. Occupation forces have been working on getting out dozens of Palestinians who have been staying inside the Mosque anticipating attacks by settlers.
On the 27th of September, Ultra-Orthodox Israelis tried to desecrate the holy Mosque and a confrontation with worshipers and resident ensued and left 17 Palestinians wounded.
The Mosque was closed as many Israeli settlers are to flock into occupied Jerusalem during the "Sukkot" holiday. Similar provocative "visits" by settlers have sparked tension and confrontations with Palestinians on many occasions.
Muslim clerics, senior Palestinian officials and heads of Islamic movements have called on Muslim worshippers to arrive in masses at the al-Aqsa Mosque "in order to curb the police's attempts to allow Jewish settlers to enter the compound," and desecrate the holy site.
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Heavy security around al-Aqsa
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/10/200910572553875419.html
The shutdown of the al-Aqsa compound sparked sporadic unrest in Jerusalem's Old City [AFP]
Israel has deployed large numbers of police officers around the Old City of Jerusalem after sporadic clashes with Palestinian worshippers around the al-Aqsa mosque compound.
Muslim men under the age of 50 were prevented from entering the compound as thousands of Jews gathered at the nearby Western Wall on Monday for prayers marking the week-long holiday of Sukkot.
The area, known as the Haram al-Sharif to Muslims and the Temple Mount to Jews, is the third holiest location in Islam and Judaism's most important site.
Some scuffles were reported to have broken out between Israeli police and Palestinian worshippers at the Damascus Gate after people were refused access.
Worshippers restricted
"There were Palestinian worshippers who turned up for morning prayers. They were told by the police force that anyone under the age of 50 would not be allowed through," Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros, reporting from Jerusalem, said.
"There are [at present] about 7,000 Jewish worshippers attending a prayer, a blessing at the Wailing [Western] Wall, which is just at the foot of the Haram al-Sharif.
"This is one of the three times during the year in which Jewish worshippers are told to go to Jerusalem and pray."
Justifying the restrictions on entry to the mosque, Micky Rosenfeld, an Israeli police spokesman, said: "These measures were taken to avert new incidents on the compound and the Old City and to prevent stones being thrown at the Jewish faithful who come to pray at the Western Wall."
He said "hostile elements are inciting to violence", pointing the finger at the Islamic Movement, an Arab-Israeli group that regularly calls the faithful to rally to the defence of al-Aqsa.
For its part, the Palestinian Authority urged the international community to "immediately intervene and bring the question of the al-Aqsa mosque before the UN Security Council".
Jordan, meanwhile, summoned Israel's ambassador in Amman to demand a halt to "repeated violations" by Israel at the al-Aqsa compound.
Sunday's clashes
Skirmishes broke out near the Lion's Gate entrance to the Old City on Sunday after Israeli security forces closed off Haram al-Sharif to prevent Palestinians from joining about 200 worshippers who had staged a sit-in at the site.
The Palestinians had gathered at the mosque on Saturday night, saying they intended to prevent Jewish hardliners from gaining access.
The Palestinian group Hamas, which effectively governs the Gaza Strip, has warned that an "aggressive assault" by Jewish worshippers on the compound risks sparking a new wave of unrest in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
"... we will not sit on our hands as we will rise in defence of our sanctities. Prejudice to al-Aqsa Mosque is not only a red line, but it is a ticking time bomb that will explode in the face of the Zionist aggressors," Hamas said in a statement.
'Flock to al-Aqsa'
Hamas also urged Palestinians to "flock to al-Aqsa" to offer their prayers in defiance of the Israeli blockade.
"We call on the brave fellow Palestinians and all the Arab and Muslim peoples to rise in defence of our sanctities, to spark another Intifada [uprising] to defend Jerusalem and al-Aqsa mosque," the group's statement said.
At least 13 Palestinians were injured and seven detained in clashes the previous Sunday after a group of non-Muslims entered the mosque compound.
Israeli police said the group was made up of French tourists, while the Palestinians said they were Israeli extremists.
Israel captured and annexed the Old City with its holy sites, along with the rest of Arab East Jerusalem and the West Bank, in the war of 1967.
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Students and staff prevented entry, several arrests and assaults at Mosque
04.10.09
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7234
Jerusalem / Maisa Abu Ghazaleh for PNN - Israeli authorities have imposed a total since the middle of last night on Al Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem's Old City, preventing the entry or exit of citizens and journalists.
Israeli forces have also arrested Hatem Abdel Qader, the official in charge of the Jerusalem file in the Fateh movement, Tariq Al Hashlamon, a guard at Al Aqsa, and Professor Nazmi Abdel Aal, a professor at a local high school for girls.
Those who reside around the area of the gate, Bab Hatta, are unable to move. The Al Aqsa Mosque kindergarten, the Islamic School for Boys, and the Girls' School are all blocked. Teachers and students cannot get in or out. At the same time a number of people have been beaten, including the deputy governor of Jerusalem.
In a telephone conversation with Sheikh Azzam Khatib, director of the Jerusalem Awqaf, the official told PNN, "The situation is very tense and we are prevented from entry into the Mosque." Israeli forces eventually did allow the official entry to Al Aqsa, but he refused until the staff of the Awqaf was also allowed.
For his part, the mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, said, "The situation is very serious and Al Aqsa is closed and under siege. The military presence at the gates is not reasonable. Citizens are preventd access to the Mosque. This is contrary to all international and humanitarian norms."
In an urgent statement the Al Aqsa Foundation for the Protection of Islamic Heritage is calling for worshippers to attempt to reach the Mosque. However, Israeli forces have set up barriers in Wadi Ara, Umm Al Fahm, Barta'a Village, Highway 6, Nazareth and Haifa. These are all parts of the route used by the buses provided by the Al Aqsa Foundation to transport Palestinians from within Israeli boundaries to the Mosque.
Dozens of people are now attempting to reach Jerusalem on foot, said Sheikh Ali Abu Sheikha.
Aqsa Mosque, and we here reiterate the appeal to people of Jerusalem and the Palestinian people inside, must be permanent and Rabat early in the Al Aqsa Mosque.
La Via Campesina
International peasant movement
Movimiento campesino internacional
Mouvement paysan international
secretaria operativa/operative secretariat:
Jln. Mampang Prapatan XIV no 5 Jakarta Selatan, Jakarta 12790 Indonesia
Tel/fax: +62-21-7991890/+62-21-7993426 Email: viacampesina@viacampesina.org
__________________________________________________________________________________
CALL FOR THE STRUGGLE AGAINST MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS, THE MAIN THREAT FOR PEASANT AND INDIGENOUS FAMILIES AND FOR HUMANITY.
16th of OCTOBER 2009, first day of international action
The transnational corporations are our common enemy; they constitute the present form of capital which exercises control over our economies.
In the rural areas we are witnessing a savage offensive by capital and by the transnational corporations on agriculture and natural resources. It is a privatisation war of plunder directed against peasants and indigenous people, a privatisation robbery of the land, biodiversity, water, seeds, production, and agribusiness trade.
We are talking not only about the agribusiness corporations but also about those companies involved in mineral extraction, monoculture tree plantations, big dams, those controlling the distribution markets, and in general, all of those which are involved in the expansion of the contaminating industries, and the dispute and appropriation of land, water and territory.
At a time when we the people are exercising our rights and resisting widespread plunder, or, when we are obliged to join the flow of emigration, the answer has been criminalisation, repression, political prisoners, murders, walls of shame and more military bases.
This is why we Via Campesina call for the struggle against multinational corporations in general and in particular against Cargill, Monsanto, Nestle, Syngenta, Wal Mart, which are threatening directly our farming communities and indigenous people. As part of the struggle for the coming years, we have declared war on transnational corporations.
Therefore we call upon all organisations integrating the international peasant movement, Via Campesina, our partners and friends, city workers and citizens in general to focus our rejection and discontent against MONSANTO and against GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS (GMOs) on this coming 16th of October.
With all the creativity of struggle of which we are capable, let's make our cry to the world heard;
MONSANTO OUT, NO TO GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS (GMOs)!
FOOD SOVEREIGNTY NOW!
GLOBALISE THE STRUGGLE, GLOBALISE THE HOPE
| Action on Maoist 'helpers' - Crackdown in Calcutta after Mamata warns govt |
| A STAFF REPORTER |
| Calcutta, Oct. 5: Police today arrested two "Maoist sympathisers" from Calcutta for collecting money to help the Lalgarh movement, enforcing a government threat to pin down financial sources through the first such crackdown in the city in recent memory. The arrests came on a day Mamata Banerjee warned the government that "Bengal will burn" if it moved against writers such as Mahasweta Devi and artistes who are sympathetic to the Lalgarh movement. The government retorted that nobody was above the law and it could not differentiate between "less-known" and "well-known" persons. The two arrested today — Prasun Chatterjee, 34, from Jadavpur and Raja Sorkhel, 46, from Garia — do not fall in the category of "intellectuals", the term Mamata uses to refer to writers and artistes. But their arrest suggests that the government will focus on the nuts and bolts of the support base before — and if at all — action is contemplated against the high-profile personalities Mamata defended. The two arrested have been slapped with the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) — the law Mamata cautioned the government against using on the writers and artistes. Against the usual 14-day remand under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the UAPA permits custody up to 90 days. Under the UAPA, a chargesheet can be filed in 180 days, instead of 90 in the IPC. Chatterjee and Sorkhel have been charged with collecting around Rs 1.25 lakh over the past six months for the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities, which has been spearheading the tribal protest in Lalgarh. The two belong to the Ganatantrik Adhikar Manch, an organisation that provides "a platform to pro-Maoist activists", according to the police. It had lined up a rally at Esplanade on October 8. It is part of a larger platform called the Lalgarh Manch that is backed by Mahasweta Devi. "We have specific information that the two had been helping the Maoist-backed committee in Lalgarh," said Niraj Jain, the inspector-general of police (CID). The arrests are the first against alleged Maoist sympathisers in the city since the Lalgarh stand-off began. On June 23, Gour Chakraborty was arrested while stepping out of a television studio but he had been directly linked with the Maoists as their spokesperson. Last week, the police had said they had drawn up a list of 160 people, including 50 from Calcutta, who had allegedly helped the Maoist-backed committee. The list was apparently prepared on the basis of information provided by the arrested committee leader, Chhatradhar Mahato. On Saturday, chief secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti had warned that those "helping any banned outfit in any way are making themselves liable for punishment under the UAPA". The committee is not banned — a point stressed by Mamata and those supporting it — but the police say it is "controlled and guided" by the Maoists. The police said Chatterjee and Sorkhel used to hold street-corner meetings in the city to mobilise support for the Lalgarh movement and the Maoist operations there. "They were especially active in areas like Maniktala, Patipukur, Dum Dum and Ultadanga," an officer said. The police claimed that the two were frequent visitors to Lalgarh and were in touch with Maoist leaders. |
COMMITTEE FOR THE RELEASE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS
185/3, FOURTH FLOOR ZAKIR NAGAR, NEW DELHI-25
Condemn strongly the malicious media trial of Chhatradhar Mahato!
The West Bengal Government cannot violate laws and procedures to deny Chhatradhar Mahato his right to all legally guarenteed safeguards until proven guilty!
The Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners notes with great concern that the government of West Bengal has started unleashing a vivcious character assassination campaign against Chhatradhar Mahato, the leader of the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities, that have been spearheading the Lalgarh movement. It is this vicious media trial indulged in by sections of the media and the administration, particularly by Bhupindar Singh, DG Police, Ardhendu Sen, Home Secretary and Ashok Mohan Chakraborty, Chief Secretary, Government of West Bengal, ever since he was abducted and arrested by the Special Task Force of WB police on 26 September 2009 from Lalgarh.
While arresting him, the police had broken law on two grounds. It had violated section 50-A of the Cr.PC by arresting him without providing the arrest memo, explaining reasons of arrest and nine other things which are mandatory under Supreme Court order(Justice D.K. Basu vs. Government of West Bengal, 1996); by posing themselves as scribes which is not permissible under the law, thereby acting as imposters which is punishable under the law; and by planting 20 to 22 cooked-up cases against him and booking him under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. The CRPP strongly condemn such actions made by the administration and assert that the WB government is indulging in such slander campaigns with the aim of maligning the Lalgarh movement that had already drawn universal acclaim from different parts of the world.
Very recently, it has started another vicious campaign—that of character assassination of this leader of the people's movement. The information that police claimed to have got from Chhatradhar are:
1) Mahato has a life insurance policy of Rs.1 crore;
2) He owns a house in Mayurbhanj in Orissa;
3) That the PCAPA has a bank account;
4) A person from Calcutta donated Rs.1.25 lakhs to Mahato's committee;
5) Police have got names of 160 sympathizers of the committee, including over 50 from Kolkata.
The DGP said that Mahato made these confessions in custody and also admitted to Maoist links. Rights activists and intellectuals in Kolkata were quick to debunk the claim, saying that the 'confessions' were extracted through coercion(The Times of India, 01-10-09; The telegraph, 01-10-09).
It goes against the law of this land to leak to the press the so-called confessions made by Chhatradhar Mahato. No confession can stand in a court of law as evidence against the accused. So it is the criminal intent of the senior police officials and the home secretary and the chief secretary to influence the court and the public opinion even before the commencement of the legal proceedings on Mahato in the court of law. This is nothing but condemning someone as guilty through the media even before he is given a chance to defend himself. Besides the violation of the law of the land it is also violation of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights to which India is also a signatory. This vicious media trial would stigmatize the right of Chhatradhar Mahato to be presumed innocent until proven guilty on charges before a court of law. CRPP strongly condemn such vicious propaganda of the state and demand criminal proceedings against all such elements who have misused their positions of power to incriminate illegally a leader of a people's movement. We also demand legal action against all such media houses who have facilitated this despicable act of the governemnt with criminal intent.
Many of these 'charges' that the administration in a despicable manner have been raising through a section of the media have been proved to be patently false with the facts about Chhatradhar Mahato pouring in. First, Chhatradhar does not have such an insurance policy. He himself owns some bighas of ancestral land and used to sell saal leaves. His hut is a broken one; the tube-well in front of his house, like many other tube-wells, hardly works. As he got busy with the movement, he was forced to send his two sons—one reading in Class VI and VII—to sell leaves, which means that the business was not going well. He has an ancestral house in Mayurbhanj. It is a two-storied house, and after division among the members, he was left with only one room in that house. There were times when he literally had to depend on monetary help from the committee to have daily meals. He wears spectacles, one band of which got broken, and he had to go without glasses for days until the committee helped him with money to buy a fresh pair of bands. Journalists who went to his house in Amlia village know how 'rich' he is. Second, that the committee has a bank account is quite natural and only betrays its transparency. It was well-known and there was nothing secretive about it. Third, the Lalgarh Manch(forum) has categorically declared at a press conference held on 1 October in Kolkata that they did try to express their solidarity with the movement by various means, besides sending some money; they are sorry to say that they could not do more. Didn't people send assistance to Spain during the fight against fascist Franco, or to Cuba or to Vietnam? What is illegal then about sending money or medicine to Lalgarh? Fourth, if Mahato maintained contact with the Maoists before ban was imposed on the Maoist party, there was nothing illegal about it. What the administration is actually trying to do is somehow to establish the link between Mahato/PCAPA and the Maoists and then to extend that link with the urban intellectuals , students and the Maoists.
That vicious game became clear in the last one or two days. The government officials went on declaring that some Kolkata intellectuals had assisted Mahato not only by donating money, but also by giving advice on the direction of the movement. Those intellectuals would be called for questioning, to be brought to book and might be booked under the UAPA. These are pure threats, acts of intimidation which should not go unprotested and unchallenged. In fact, the WB government has taken the cue from P.Chidambaran, Central Home Minister, who had recently threatened those who, in his eyes, are sympathetic to the cause of the Maoists and arrogantly declared that the government would utilize the services of the media to start a vilification campaign to show how cruel and bad the Maoists are. That is why they have picked up Mahato and through him are trying to tie the link between the urban intellectuals and the Maoists. In this way they have started a sinister campaign not only to demean the Lalgarh struggle but also to force the intellectuals to dissociate themselves from the people's movement in Lalgarh by constant threats of arrests and other forms of intimidation.
The CRPP strongly denounces such despicable attempts launched against the Lalagarh people and the urban intellectuals and calls upon the people both in India and abroad to raise their voice against such attempts and put pressure on the government to release Chhatradhar Mahato and all others prisoners from Lalagarh.
In Solidarity,
Gurusharan Singh Amit Bhattacharyya SAR Geelani
President Secretary General Working President
Rona Wilson
Secretary Public Relations
Nasa Prepares To Bomb The Moon This Friday!
Submitted by Strange Brew on Mon, 10/05/2009 - 12:11 ![]()
*UPDATE: You can follow the mission at: http://twitter.com/LCROSS_NASA
The planned October 9, 2009 bombing of the moon by a NASA orbiter that will bomb the moon with a 2-ton kinetic weapon to create a 5 mile wide deep crater as an alleged water-seeking and lunar colonization experiment, is contrary to space law prohibiting environmental modification of celestial bodies.
NASA's LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) mission
The NASA LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) mission, which departed on Earth on June 18, 2009. According to one report, "Flying over the moon's southern hemisphere, LCROSS will use its high-precision instruments, as well as close-up images of the terrain gathered by the lunar orbiter, to seek out a crater just shallow enough and dark enough to be a prime bombing target.
"There, acting as what the Ames team calls its "shepherding spacecraft," LCROSS will guide an empty Centaur rocket weighing two tons toward its target. The rocket will crash into the crater at 5,600 mph, creating a new crater - perhaps as large as 5 miles wide. The crash is scheduled to occur Oct. 9."
The two-ton Centaur rocket qualifies as a space-based kinetic weapon. The reason alleged by NASA for the mission is that "the [LCROSS} probes will map possible landing sites and search for water sources that could be used by a future lunar colony."
According to NASA, "The Mission Objectives of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) include confirming the presence or absence of water ice in a permanently shadowed crater at the Moon's South Pole. The identification of water is very important to the future of human activities on the Moon. LCROSS will excavate the permanently dark floor of one of the Moon's polar craters with two heavy impactors in 2009 to test the theory that ancient ice lies buried there. The impact will eject material from the crater's surface to create a plume that specialized instruments will be able to analyze for the presence of water (ice and vapor), hydrocarbons and hydrated materials."
References:
NASA.gov
Telegraph
Scientific America
*UPDATE: You can follow the mission at: http://twitter.com/LCROSS_NASA
The planned October 9, 2009 bombing of the moon by a NASA orbiter that will bomb the moon with a 2-ton kinetic weapon to create a 5 mile wide deep crater as an alleged water-seeking and lunar colonization experiment, is contrary to space law prohibiting environmental modification of celestial bodies.
NASA.gov
Telegraph
Scientific America
EXCLUSIVE: Obama agrees to keep Israel's nukes secret
By Eli Lake
President Obama has reaffirmed a 4-decade-old secret understanding that has allowed Israel to keep a nuclear arsenal without opening it to international inspections, three officials familiar with the understanding said.
The officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because they were discussing private conversations, said Mr. Obama pledged to maintain the agreement when he first hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in May.
Under the understanding, the U.S. has not pressured Israel to disclose its nuclear weapons or to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which could require Israel to give up its estimated several hundred nuclear bombs.
Israel had been nervous that Mr. Obama would not continue the 1969 understanding because of his strong support for nonproliferation and priority on preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The U.S. and five other world powers made progress during talks with Iran in Geneva on Thursday as Iran agreed in principle to transfer some potential bomb fuel out of the country and to open a recently disclosed facility to international inspection.
Mr. Netanyahu let the news of the continued U.S.-Israeli accord slip last week in a remark that attracted little notice. He was asked by Israel's Channel 2 whether he was worried that Mr. Obama's speech at the U.N. General Assembly, calling for a world without nuclear weapons, would apply to Israel.
"It was utterly clear from the context of the speech that he was speaking about North Korea and Iran," the Israeli leader said. "But I want to remind you that in my first meeting with President Obama in Washington I received from him, and I asked to receive from him, an itemized list of the strategic understandings that have existed for many years between Israel and the United States on that issue. It was not for naught that I requested, and it was not for naught that I received [that document]."
The chief nuclear understanding was reached at a summit between President Nixon and Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir that began on Sept. 25, 1969. Avner Cohen, author of "Israel and the Bomb" and the leading authority outside the Israeli government on the history of Israel's nuclear program, said the accord amounts to "the United States passively accepting Israel's nuclear weapons status as long as Israel does not unveil publicly its capability or test a weapon."
There is no formal record of the agreement nor have Israeli nor American governments ever publicly acknowledged it. In 2007, however, the Nixon library declassified a July 19, 1969, memo from national security adviser Henry Kissinger that comes closest to articulating U.S. policy on the issue. That memo says, "While we might ideally like to halt actual Israeli possession, what we really want at a minimum may be just to keep Israeli possession from becoming an established international fact."
Mr. Cohen has said the resulting policy was the equivalent of "don't ask, don't tell."
The Netanyahu government sought to reaffirm the understanding in part out of concern that Iran would seek Israeli disclosures of its nuclear program in negotiations with the United States and other world powers. Iran has frequently accused the U.S. of having a double standard by not objecting to Israel's arsenal.
Mr. Cohen said the reaffirmation and the fact that Mr. Netanyahu sought and received a written record of the deal suggest that "it appears not only that there was no joint understanding of what had been agreed in September 1969 but it is also apparent that even the notes of the two leaders may no longer exist. It means that Netanyahu wanted to have something in writing that implies that understanding. It also affirms the view that the United States is in fact a partner in Israel's policy of nuclear opacity."
Jonathan Peled, a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, declined to comment, as did the White House National Security Council.
The secret understanding could undermine the Obama administration's goal of a world without nuclear weapons. In particular, it could impinge on U.S. efforts to bring into force the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, two agreements that U.S. administrations have argued should apply to Israel in the past. They would ban nuclear tests and the production of material for weapons.
A Senate staffer familiar with the May reaffirmation, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, said, "What this means is that the president gave commitments that politically he had no choice but to give regarding Israel's nuclear program. However, it calls into question virtually every part of the president's nonproliferation agenda.The president gave Israel an NPT treaty get out of jail free card."
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, said the step was less injurious to U.S. policy.
"I think it is par for the course that the two incoming leaders of the United States and Israel would want to clarify previous understandings between their governments on this issue," he said.
However Mr. Kimball added, "I would respectfully disagree with Mr. Netanyahu. President Obama's speech and U.N. Security Council Resolution 1887 apply to all countries irrespective of secret understandings between the U.S. and Israel. A world without nuclear weapons is consistent with Israel's stated goal of achieving a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction. Obama's message is that the same nonproliferation and disarmament responsibilities should apply to all states and not just a few."
Israeli nuclear doctrine is known as "the long corridor." Under it, Israel would begin to consider nuclear disarmament only after all countries officially at war with it signed peace treaties and all neighboring countries relinquished not only nuclear programs but also chemical and biological arsenals. Israel sees nuclear weapons as an existential guarantee in a hostile environment.
David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, said he hoped the Obama administration did not concede too much to Israel.
"One hopes that the price for such concessions is Israeli agreement to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty and an acceptance of the long-term goal of a Middle East weapons-of-mass-destruction-free zone," he said. "Otherwise, the Obama administration paid too much, given its focus on a world free of nuclear weapons."
A Loose Coalition Of Pro-American Politicians, Writers, Academics To Promote US Goals, Isolate Pak Military
A US Counteroffensive In Pakistan
By Ahmed Quraishi
WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM
http://pakalert.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/a-us-counteroffensive-in-pakistan/
Forget US diplomacy with the Pakistani government. The Americans are now setting the policy agenda in Pakistan in direct talks with Pakistani political parties. To ensure privacy, these talks are being held in Washington, away from prying eyes and ears in Pakistan. Pakistani politicians, writers and some academicians are being recruited to promote US policies and isolate the Pakistani military and intelligence. This is how a superpower occupies a nuclear-armed nation.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—US political and military officials go on the offensive inside Pakistan, boldly confronting critics and seeking to build a coalition of pro-American supporters across Pakistani politics, media and the academia. The goal is to create a domestic counter to the entrenched Pakistani policymaking establishment [read 'the military'] that is resisting American efforts to force Pakistan to become a voluntary full-fledged second theater of war after Afghanistan.
Signs of the new American aggressiveness abound from increased willingness of US diplomats in Pakistan to confront their local critics, to sweet-talking Pakistani politicians, media and academicians into openly promoting the US agenda through sponsored visits to Washington and Florida.
This is similar to a Plan B: using local actors to force change from within. Plan A, which was focused on coercive diplomacy and threats of sending boots on the ground into Pakistan, failed to yield results over the past months.
In essence, the United States is covertly raising an army of special agents and soldiers on Pakistani soil, with the help of local Pakistani accomplices, but without the full knowledge of the Pakistani military to avoid a confrontation.
This counteroffensive began with Ambassador Anne W. Patterson's attempt to intimidate a Pakistani columnist and a known critic of US policies. Ms. Patterson did not seek a public debate to counter criticism. Instead, she resorted to backchannel contacts to have the writer blocked. In so doing, Ms. Patterson unwittingly broke a new barrier for US influence, creating precedence for how the US embassy deals with the Pakistani media. This is something that the Ambassador's counterparts could never imagine pulling off in places like Moscow, Ankara, or Cairo.
Buoyed by this, the Ambassador went on the offensive. This month, she held a press conference, released a long policy statement, and met Prime Minister Gilani to reassure him after reports suggested her government did not trust Islamabad with the expected aid money. She also appeared on primetime television, carefully choosing a nonaggressive TV talk show as a platform to address Pakistanis glued to their sets in peak evening hours.
Pakistan's `New Capital': The gigantic expansion of the US embassy in Islamabad. The US ambassador [left] kicking off her counteroffensive on Sept. 19, telling her Pakistani host she intervened to stop a columnist from writing against her government and affirmed she will do this again because criticism endangers the lives of US citizens in Pakistan.
The television appearance coincided with an interview she gave to a US news service accusing Pakistan of refusing to join the US in eliminating one of the Afghan local parties – the Afghan Taliban – whom her own government and military failed to wipe out in Afghanistan in eight years of war. The statement played on the usual American accusations, backed by no evidence, that seek to explain the growing disenchantment of the Afghan people with the failed American occupation of their country by linking it to alleged Pakistani sanctuaries and covert support.
But hours before her television appearance, on Sept. 19, Pakistani police raided the Islamabad offices of Inter-Risk, a Pakistani security firm representing American defense contractor DynCorp, where a huge quantity of illegal sophisticated weapons was confiscated. According to one news report, the Pakistani owner of the firm, retired Captain Ali Jaffar Zaidi, escaped from his house hours before the police arrived. A Pakistani journalist, Umar Cheema, who works for The News, confirmed in a published statement that Mr. Zaidi told him a day before the raid that "the US embassy in Islamabad had ordered the import of around 140 AK-47 Rifles and other prohibited weapons in the name of Inter-Risk" and that "the payment for the weapons would be made by the embassy."
[The News reports today that the government has "disbanded" Inter-Risk, voiding its contract with both the US embassy and with DynCorp. The company director Capt. Zaidi remains at large.]
In other words, Pakistani security authorities have found American and Pakistani citizens working for the US embassy involved in suspicious activities.
What Really Happened?
US ambassador Anne Patterson used her goodwill to seek the personal intervention of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Interior Minister Rehman Malik to obtain licenses for prohibited weapons.
Sixty-one pieces of sophisticated weapons were seized by the police at the Inter-Risk/DynCorp facility.
The question is: Why did the Pakistani police confiscate the weapons if they were duly licensed by the government?
The only logical answer is that the licensing procedure, which includes clearance from the country's intelligence and security departments, was not followed.
Apparently, Washington's staunch allies inside Pakistan's elected government helped their friends with advanced weapons into the country without the knowledge of important national security departments of the government.
This raises serious questions because of several reports recently that implicate Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's ambassador to Washington, in issuing a large number of visas to US citizens without proper clearance from Islamabad. Since US tourists are not exactly flocking to Pakistan, Amb. Haqqani is suspected of having facilitated private US security agents to enter Pakistan. A spate of recent reports have exposed the presence of private American security firms on Pakistani soil.
When the country's security departments finally paid attention to Ambassador Haqqani's indiscretions, the ambassador, who is a former journalist, is suspected of leaking a protest letter he wrote to his country's intelligence chief, apparently attempting to clear his name before his American friends. Of all places, the letter, which is a classified government communication, surfaced in New Delhi, on the screen of an Indian television news channel.
Ambassador Haqqani's letter secret that blasts the ISI surfaces in New Delhi. Pakistanis joke that Mr. Haqqani is `the US ambassador to the United States, stationed at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington DC.'
PATTERSON'S LIE EXPOSED
On Sept. 30, Mr. Ansar Abbasi of The News published the full content of a letter written by Ambassador Patterson to Interior Minister Rehman Malik, dated March 30, seeking his "intervention" to grant Inter-Risk and DynCorp "the requisite prohibited bore arms licenses to operate in the territorial limits of Pakistan and as soon as possible."
The letter creates a new dent in the US embassy's counteroffensive that seeks to downplay the presence of private US security firms in the country. A Web news portal, PakNationalists/AhmedQuraishi.com released fresh evidence this month showing the infamous US security firm formerly known as Blackwater recruiting military-trained agents fluent in Urdu and Punjabi.
A screen shot from the secure server of BlackwaterUSA.com that shows the American defense contracter hiring Urdu- and Punjabi-speaking agents to serve in Pakistan, where the pro-US government and the US ambassador are vehemently denying the presence of American mercenaries on Pakistani soil.
To quell the controversy, Ambassador Patterson went on record confirming that five million US dollars will be spent by her government to build new living quarters for US Marines within the embassy compound in Islamabad. But the number of marines utilizing this facility will not exceed 20, she assured Pakistanis recently.
The Sept. 19 raid, however, proves there will be a far larger number of armed Americans on Pakistani soil eventually than the figure given by Ambassador Patterson.
US MERCENERARIES IN PAKISTAN?
The strong denials of US officials on the presence of private US security firms in Pakistan do no tally with the circumstantial evidence. At least three verified incidents have been reported in Islamabad alone over the past few weeks that involve armed US individuals in civilian dresses. In two incidents, Pakistani police officers arrested and then released armed civilian Americans after intervention from the US embassy. In one incident, a Pakistani citizen reported being assaulted by armed Americans in civilian clothes. Police officers refused to register a complaint against the Americans for fear of being reprimanded in case of intervention by the US embassy.
US DOLLARS RECRUITING PAKISTANIS
TO WORK AGAINST PAKISTANI MILITARY
Private US security agents sneaking into Pakistan is one level of the current US engagement with Pakistan. Another level is political and seeks to isolate the Pakistani policymaking establishment, and especially the Pakistani military and the country's powerful intelligence agencies, from within, after months of incessant one-sided US media campaign demonizing the country's military and intelligence services.
On the political front, Washington's Pakistan handlers have launched a new bout of US meddling in domestic Pakistani politics. The US government has put into high gear its contacts with Pakistani political parties. Washington is now conducting direct diplomacy with these parties.
A high level delegation of MQM, which controls the port city of Karachi, the starting point of US and NATO supplies headed for Afghanistan, is in Washington meeting US political and military officials.
A similar exercise is planned with the ANP, the small ex-Soviet communist ally currently governing the NWFP, the Pakistani province bordering Afghanistan.
Both parties came to power thanks to former President Musharraf's secret `deal' brokered by Vice President Dick Cheney and his State Department officials in 2007. The deal sought to create a pro-American ruling coalition in the country that would ensure that the Pakistani military is aligned with the US strategic goals in the region.
The Americans are trying to accentuate what they see as pro-Indian, pro-American strains within the two parties.
Codename Operation Enduring Turmoil Exposed! – Zionist Neocon Plans for Pakistan and rest of the World
Washington began this program quietly in 2007 after getting a green signal from President Musharraf to increase US involvement in Pakistani politics. There are reports that nazims of several districts in Sindh, Balochistan and NWFP were invited to Washington to meet US government and military officials over the past thirty months. But these were very low key visits. In fact, they were so secretive that ANP chief Asfandyar Wali refused in early 2008 to confirm or deny a visit he made to Washington after the Feb. 2008 elections in Pakistan. In contrast, no effort was made this time to downplay the current visits by MQM and ANP delegations to Washington and their meetings with US and NATO officials. And as in all of these covert visits, the federal Pakistani government, the Foreign Office and the country's security departments are not privy to what is being discussed between US officials and the leaders of the two Pakistani political parties on US soil. In fact, US officials arranged the meetings on US soil precisely in order to circumvent the Pakistani government.
While there is no immediate evidence that Pakistan should be alarmed by Washington's direct diplomacy with Pakistani political parties outside Pakistan's territory, Islamabad needs to be wary of strong strains within Washington's policy establishment that have been focusing on exploiting Pakistan's ethnic and linguistic fissures in order to support its so-called `Af-Pak' agenda.
A lot of work has been done over the past three years in several Washington think tanks on Pakistan's linguistic and ethnic fissures and how these can be exploited by Washington to weaken Islamabad and force it to follow the US agenda in Afghanistan and the region.
During Pakistan's worst domestic instability in 2007, mainstream US media outlets were leaking policy and intelligence reports focusing on alleged separatism in several Pakistani regions. This week, some of the most ardent American supporters of separatism inside Pakistan – the usual suspects from the US think-tank circuit – came together in Washington to launch a political action committee that seeks independent status for a Pakistani province, Sindh. The ceremony for the launch of the `Sindhi American Political Action Committee' was addressed by Selig Harrison and Marvin Weinbaum, two think-tank types with extensive links to the US intelligence community and both advocates of engagement with Pakistani separatists as a leverage against Islamabad.
The new American confidence in openly meddling in Pakistani politics should raise alarm bells in the Pakistani capital. This is the strongest sign yet of how weak the federal Pakistani government, and in turn Pakistan itself, appears to outsiders.
The weakness of Pakistan's ruling elite is inviting American hounding at a time when the American bully is on the retreat elsewhere.
A condensed version of this report was published by The Nation of Lahore on Saturday.
===
A pro-US fifth column inside Pakistan is now talking about southern Punjab as the hub of Al-Qaeda just as it earlier pointed to Balochistan in the same manner. For those who had failed to connect the dots to the US grand design of targeting Pakistan a year ago, it should be easier today. There are covert US operatives now spread across the length and breadth of Pakistan; drone attacks have increased in frequency since Obama took office; aid packages are demanding unacceptable conditions; the military is being pushed on all fronts, with India increasing its deployments along the western border with Pakistan and aiding low intensity conflict through Afghanistan.
US Plans Will Lead To A Pakistani Civil War
By THE NATION
WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—The US design to destabilize Pakistan is becoming clearer by the day, even for the most blinkered Pakistani.
As the US continues to be stalemated in Afghanistan, it has sought to move the centre of gravity of the "war on terror" to Pakistan. Initially it was assumed that this shift would be restricted to FATA, but now it is evident that the US is seeking to engulf the whole of Pakistan in an asymmetric conflict, which will eventually pit the people against the state, especially the military.
Reports of a US plan to target Balochistan, including its capital city Quetta are, in all likelihood, correct – more so because the US has not issued even a half-hearted denial on this count.
Pakistani officials are admitting that the US has sought to extend drone attacks to Balochistan, especially Quetta. Given the present government's proclivity to accede to all US demands, it should not come as a surprise to soon see these drone attacks taking place.
However, for Pakistan such a development will be suicidal, given the prevailing instability in Balochistan and the continuing lack of trust between the Pakistani Baloch people and the Pakistani federation. Worse still, Quetta is an urban centre with a concentration of population. It is also a major military station with the Command and Staff College as well as other formations present in the heart of the city.
How far is our military prepared to accommodate the US desire to undermine the country's sovereignty?
After all, the drones will push the separatists closer to their goal, while the US will think it can move towards its concept of Greater Balochistan through the breakup of Pakistan and Iran.
Unfortunately for the US, the Iranian leadership shows no signs of falling prey to such US designs, unlike their Pakistani counterparts.
Again, if today drones are allowed to target an expanded area of the country, what will stop the US from expanding into southern Punjab next? With receding red lines, the whole country could be up for targeting by the US in its growing despair over the inevitable failure in Afghanistan.
There are many fifth columnists in our midst now talking of southern Punjab as the hub of Al-Qaeda just as earlier they pointed to Balochistan in the same manner. For those who had failed to connect the dots to the US grand design of targeting Pakistan a year ago, it should be easier today. There are covert US operatives now spread across the length and breadth of Pakistan; drone attacks have increased in frequency since Obama took office; aid packages are demanding unacceptable conditionalities; the military is being pushed on all fronts, with India increasing its deployments along the western border with Pakistan and aiding low intensity conflict through Afghanistan, and the US demanding we withdraw more troops from the eastern border to FATA and begin a premature conventional operation there; and the US-dominated IMF and World Bank pushing through threatening price hikes and taking charge of policy making in Balochistan and NWFP.
This editorial appeared today under the title, US War On Pakistan.
| Vulgar? But pay yet to cross the limit | |
| OUR BUREAU | |
Oct. 5: Business chambers and the Centre are debating the pros and cons of regulating corporate salaries but many big companies appear to be paying their top guns way below the legal limit set by the government. The Companies Act of 1956 permits all business entities to pay a managerial remuneration of up to 11 per cent of its net profits. The managerial remuneration is the sum of all payments made to the chief executive and its whole-time directors. Reliance Industries, the country's largest private conglomerate, paid out just 0.35 per cent of its net profit of Rs 19,548 crore in 2007-08 as managerial remuneration to four directors holding executive responsibilities: Mukesh Ambani, the Meswani brothers Nikhil and Hital, and executive director Hardev Singh Kohli. The total payout by RIL in 2007-08 was Rs 67.53 crore – with Mukesh Ambani receiving Rs 44 crore while the Meswani brothers (cousins of Mukesh) got Rs 11.12 crore each. Kohli was paid Rs 1.26 crore. A CMIE analysis of 14 Nifty-listed companies that have already filed their annual reports for 2008-09 shows that 13 paid a managerial remuneration of less than 1 per cent of their net profits. Only one – Cairn India – paid 3.7 per cent of its net profit with its managerial remuneration capped at Rs 28.46 crore. Among professional chief executives, engineering and construction giant L&T's chairman and managing director A.M. Naik ranked high with a total remuneration of Rs 12.55 crore. There's a catch: experts at several pay and compensation consultants said it would be difficult to compute the value of stock options that companies dole out these days in the absence of adequate data for evaluation. Take the case of Reliance Industries: the Meswani brothers received stock options of 7 lakh each in 2007-08. The company issued stock options on three different dates and at three different exercise prices. A day after corporate affairs minister Salman Khursheed set a cat among business high-fliers,corporate chieftains in their individual capacity chose to stay mum as the government appeared to ratchet up pressure to trim the "vulgar" salaries. Khursheed, who on Sunday asked companies to stop paying hefty salaries to their top managers, clarified today that the government had no desire to control remuneration in India Inc but there would have to be some regulation. "I am not for control. I am for regulation…It is impossible to say that we will shut our eyes and let anybody do what they please," he said. "The display of affluence is unacceptable," he added. "We follow the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi and are trying to lead our life with simplicity." Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia joined the debate by saying that there was a global concern over what companies paid their top managers. Ahluwalia said governments worldwide had spoken about the need to cap the pay packets and hefty bonuses of top managers, especially banking and financial entities, on the ground that they encourage risky behaviour. While most chieftains declined to comment, Venugopal Dhoot, chairman and managing director of Videocon Industries, came up with a cryptic riposte: "The Bhagvad Gita has suggested that a person should be rewarded in accordance to his deeds. Similarly, executives should be paid as per their contribution to the profits of a business entity." India Inc left it to the chambers of commerce to articulate its deep misgivings about any attempt to trammel the companies' rights to pay market-determined salaries to retain talent. Ficci and Assocham said any move to place curbs on the remuneration package would lead to a flight of talent from Indian shores. "We might see flight of talent from the country. We have already seen that 15 to 20 years ago there was massive brain drain from the nation as our best and brightest got opportunities to earn many times more in foreign countries, particularly the west," said Ficci president Harshpati Singhania. He added: "On an average, Indian executives gets about one hundredth of the amount earned by their western counterparts. Any move to push this ratio even further down would be detrimental to the performance of our companies." "The Confederation of Indian Industry has always believed corporates have a social responsibility and always supported self-regulation," said chamber president Venu Srinivasan. "We would broadly support the idea of self-regulation. In other countries, institutional investors and the broader stock markets tend to regulate executive compensation. This is what India should be heading towards," said Watson Wyatt country manager Dhritiman Chakrabarti. |
| Imagine 20-storey houses in area as big as Salt Lake under water: the story of a close shave in Andhra |
| G.S. RADHAKRISHNA |
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| Hyderabad, Oct. 5: As Andhra Pradesh reeled under floods on Friday, its administration had a bigger headache than the continuing rain — the threat of a man-made deluge. Neighbouring Karnataka, hit equally badly by floods, was going to release a huge volume of water from its dams and barrages into the Krishna, which flows into Andhra. The release — 26 lakh cusec or 26 lakh cubic feet per second — was nearly twice the rate at which the rain itself was dumping water in the river's immediate catchment area in Andhra. One hour of such release is equivalent to the entire water supply to Calcutta for six years. Over 12 hours — which is how long Karnataka released at that rate — the entire water, if accumulated, would be enough to submerge all 20-storey buildings across an area as large as Salt Lake. Andhra irrigation secretary S.P. Tucker said the state government had anticipated such a release from Karnataka about eight hours before it started on Friday evening. "We were driven to the wall — how do we manage so much water that was expected to reach Srisailam reservoir (on the Krishna?" he said. Such a huge inflow had never happened before. "We call it 'probable maximum flood' (PMF)," he said, referring to a hypothetical scenario that can happen if every meteorological and hydrological factor is at its worst at the same time. "It's a one-in-10,000-years possibility," Tucker said. For three hours, experts, politicians and administrators racked their brains at their war room in Jala Soudha, the irrigation department headquarters in Hyderabad. At this point, retired chief engineers and irrigation experts came up with an idea: why not use the "freeboard capacity" at Srisailam? The freeboard is the distance between the maximum permitted water level in a reservoir behind a dam and the top of the dam wall. "The freeboard capacity is normally kept free. It is used for shifting water flow from one canal region to another, but for a very short period," said M.K. Rahman, engineer-in-chief of the irrigation department. Storing water at this level beyond four to five hours carries the risk of damage to the reservoir's masonry embankments, which can cause a disaster. But now there was no option. The war room decided to open the emergency gate at Srisailam to let out 13 lakh cusecs downstream — the maximum that could be released without a catastrophe downstream in Kurnool town and hundreds of villages — and store the remaining half of the Karnataka release. Srisailam has a freeboard capacity of 12 feet over and above the full reservoir level (FRL) of 891 feet. "We did not need all the 12 feet but only five feet — up to 896 feet — to save the situation," Rahman said. Chief minister K. Rosaiah gave his permission hesitantly — a second expert opinion had said such heavy storage might breach the masonry embankment. Fearing the worst, Rosaiah, cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats spent a sleepless Friday night huddled at the secretariat. But the embankments held up. One factor that helped, officials said, was that the inflow from Karnataka wasn't a steady 26 lakh cusec but kept fluctuating. On Saturday morning, once the Karnataka release eased off, the water in the Srisailam freeboard was released downstream at 13 lakh cusec. "Thanks to the design of the Srisailam reservoir and the alertness of our officials, the lives of thousands of residents of Kurnool and Krishna districts were saved," Rosaiah said. Officials said a PMF was no longer a one-in-10,000-years scenario — climate change had taken care of that. Tucker said the denudation of parts of the Nallamala forest, which lies in the catchment region around Srisailam, had worsened matters by speeding up the local inflow from the rainwater, as distinct from the Karnataka release. "The heavy deforestation of the area for irrigation projects and to demolish Maoist hideouts in the past few years was a factor," he said. |
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Palash Biswas
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