Archive By Thread
Starting: Fri Nov 2 10:16:21 2001
Ending: Fri Nov 30 15:43:15 2001
Messages: 30
- [BJP News]: ISI does not give a damn about American Threat
- Posted by OFBJP Admin (BJP-News@ofbjp.org) - Rediff - Posted on
>>>Former Inter Services Intelligence operative in Kashmir Mir Khursheed claims he can organise the surrender of Kashmiri militants if the Government of India promises them amnesty. Chairman of the Jammu & Kashmir Muttahida Mahaz and the Kashmir International Foundation, Khursheed says there was a time he slept over US $1.5 million tucked under his bed because he did not have a place to keep the money safely. An advocate by profession, he also points out that the ISI is unshaken by United States President George Bush's threats of punishing countries that finance and train terrorists. "Believe me, the ISI has not given up its diabolical plan to destabilise India. It wants to break India," Khursheed told Onkar Singh in a rare interview. ExcerptRecently Sardar Abdul Qayyum [former prime minister of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir] said in a press statement that Pakistan is encouraging convicts to join the so-called jihad against India in Kashmir. Is it true? What he said is true. I am aware of the designs of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence. Pakistani jails are full of convicts [murderers, rapists and drug traffickers] and there is no place to keep more. Since the administration has to spend money on them, the ISI hit upon a new idea of roping in convicts, training them and sending them to Kashmir as jihadis. A large number of them were also sent to Afghanistan. .....
- [BJP News]: Know your valueabout NCERT controversy
- K R Malkani - Hindustan Times - Posted on
>>>Recently, the NCERT produced the National CurriculumFramework for School Education. Here was, in the words ofNCERT Director J.S. Rajput, "the first ever honest attempt tomodernise education by upholding not only the deepest butforgotten values of Indian civilisation, but also the sagely.....
- ‘Musharraf planned Kargil when I was PM’:Bhutto
- Vir Sanghvi - Hindustan Times - Posted on
>>>In an exclusive interview, Benazir Bhutto demolished General Pervez Musharraf's claim that Kargil was a mujahideen operation. Ms Bhutto confirmed that when she was Prime Minister, General Musharraf had presented the same blueprint for an invasion of Kargil in the shape of a 'war-game'. "I put my foot down," Ms Bhutto recalled. "I said that if anything like this happens, it will be a big setback for Pakistan. We will be forced to withdraw." Though she said that she wanted to be "careful" not to damage Pakistan's strategic interests, Ms Bhutto said that the army regularly presented such scenarios to her but that she always turned them down. In the event, General Musharraf went ahead with the Kargil invasion after she was ousted from office and he became Army Chief. The result, she said, was that "we were humiliated. We were forced to withdraw by the world community. We were shamed." Worse still, said Ms Bhutto, "so many young men lost their lives. And their bodies were not taken back by us. There should be an investigation as to who was responsible". .....
- [BJP News]: US and Pak: Sleeping with the enemy
- CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA - times of India - Posted on
>>>ASHINGTOIn all but name, the United States is at war with Pakistan. Despite all the protestations about military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s "bold and courageous stand" and Islamabad’s status as a frontline ally, there is a growing sense in Washington that Pakistan has worked against US interests in Afghanistan. There is also anger in sections of the administration over what is seen as Pakistani perfidy over issues ranging from deployment of its troops, agents and private militia in Afghanistan to its dangerous game of nuclear weapons proliferation. As a result, the Bush administration has begun to quietly punish Pakistan even while publicly upholding a facade of goodwill, just as Islamabad is also maintaining a pretense of cooperation in the fight against terrorism while pursuing its own agenda. Several incidents bear this out, including the latest episode involving two prominent Pakistani nuclear scientists, who have now been detained again at Washington’s insistence over suspicion that they were involved in planning an "Anthrax Bomb." The US has also allowed the Northern Alliance to decimate those euphemistically known as "foreign fighters" – who it now turns out are mostly Pakistani irregulars and jehadists with some serving army personnel and agents directing them. Western journalists in the region have now exposed the smokescreen that referred to these fighters as "Arab, Chechen and Pakistani," by reporting that they are almost exclusively Pakistani. In some cases, Washington itself has joined in by using air power to bomb the Pakistani fighters. US air power has also been directed against jehadis operating in the tribal areas within the Pakistani borders. While publicly continuing to endorse and applaud the military regime of Gen. Musharraf – to the extent of ignoring his announcement that he will continue to be Pakistan’s president even after the proposed October 2002 elections – Washington has begun to ignore a growing list of Pakistani gripes. Starting with Musharraf’s plea to shorten the bombing campaign to not to bomb the Taliban frontlines and not to allow the Northern Alliance to take over Kabul, it now extends to the request to allow evacuation of Pakistani fighters trapped in Afghanistan. .....
- [BJP News]: Rescuing the enemy
- Tunku Varadarajan - Wall Street Journal - Posted on
>>>Yes, Pakistan evacuated men from Kunduz. Why'd the U.S. let them? Last Thursday the Indian press carried reports that two helicopters of the Pakistani air force had landed in the heart of Kunduz--an Afghan town then under siege by the Northern Alliance, but still under Taliban control--and "flew out soon after carrying two chopper loads of personnel." These included two brigadiers of the Pakistani army. Two days later, the Indian press again carried reports, based on information supplied by Indian intelligence, that Pakistan's air force had "flown several missions since Sunday to evacuate top Pakistani military commanders."When I read these stories, I asked myself: What on earth is going on here? Of course, it occurred to me that the story could have been a bit of misinformation, perhaps a mischievous "feed" to journalists by Indian intelligence officers keen to stir things up against Pakistan. After all, the allegation was a serious one. Pakistan, a much-vaunted U.S. ally in the war against terrorism, stood accused of rescuing fighters who were on the side of the Taliban and al Qaeda, the very groups against which the U.S. is waging war. And what is more, these fighters were not freelance hotheads from Islamic seminaries in Pakistan--though, goodness knows, there's no shortage of those--but actual members of the Pakistani armed forces. In other words, these were men with ranks and commissions, men in line for Pakistani state pensions, disciplined, professional men who would be unlikely so much as to say "boo" to a goose without orders from above.If these reports were true, I was entirely justified, was I not, in asking, What on earth is going on here? .....
- [BJP News]: Time is running out for Musharraf
- T V R Shenoy - Rediff - Posted on
>>>What was the most earthshaking event of the past seven days? The conflictin Afghanistan? Or the war on and off the pitch in South Africa? I wouldaward the palm to a small American laboratory -- where they succeeded increating a human embryo by completely artificial means. The implications, both scientific and.....
- [BJP News]: Pakistan's anxiety grows as Taliban collapses
- John F. Burns - New York Times - Posted on
>>>ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 24 ó A senior Pakistani official watched in dismay today as the television in his office showed Taliban fighters, streaming out of Kunduz, Afghanistan, to surrender to the Northern Alliance. "I am sorry to put it in this way," he said, switching off the set, "but Rumsfeld's been extremely callous."For two weeks, Pakistan has been mesmerized by the situation at Kunduz. There were reports that as many as 1,500 Pakistanis were with the Taliban garrison at Kunduz, and that extremists in the Taliban were threatening to execute any who tried to surrender. People across Pakistan feared a blood bath that would reverberate in every mosque in this nation of 140 million Muslims.Pakistan's worst fears appear to have receded with the news tonight that many of the fighters surrendering were Pakistanis. Now, the concern will shift to the safety of prisoners in the hands of the alliance, which Pakistan has never trusted.Still, few here seem likely to forget that when Pakistan appealed for American intervention to work out an arrangement in Kunduz, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld responded, in effect, that the Pakistanis would face the choice of all defeated soldiers in war, surrender or death......
- [BJP News]: Pak losing opinion war over Kashmir
- CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA - Times of India - Posted on
>>>WASHINGTOPakistan's credibility and claim overKashmir is coming under great strain followingmounting evidence that the same set of terroristsand jehadis flit from Kashmir to Kandahar and Kunduz andback......
- [BJP News]: Wrong side of religion!
- C R IRANI - The Statesman - Posted on
>>>Ever since Americaís world-wide campaign against terrorism inearly October, we have been crying ourselves hoarse thatPakistan and Taliban are locked in an inseparable embrace andPakistani inputs would be misleading. They are now findingout for themselves, which is always the best way to learn!.....
- [BJP News]: The case against Pakistan's dictator
- Tunku Varadarajan - The Wall Street Journal - Posted on
>>>http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/tvaradarajan/?id=95001492 Which president, of a country that is ostensibly--and ostentatiously--a part of the international coalition against terrorism, made the following public remarks (and numerous others like them)? "Jihad is not terrorism. Mujahideen organizations are not terrorist organizations. Jihad had been revived during the Afghan war and now it is jihad in Kashmir. Muslims from different parts of the world are coming together to support their oppressed brothers and sisters." -- Feb. 5, 2000 "The Taliban are the dominant reality in Afghanistan, and the international community should engage rather than isolate them." -- Aug. 14, 2001The answer is Pervez Musharraf, the general who led a coup against the democratically elected prime minister of Pakistan--admittedly a corrupt man, but isn't that something the voters of that country might have been expected to address the next time around?--and who now swans about the world wearing a badge, "President of Pakistan," to which he has no moral or constitutional right. .....
- [BJP News]: Today's News Quiz: It is democracy, stupid!
- Thomas L. Friedman - New York Times - Posted on
>>>http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/20/opinion/20FRIE.htmlNEW DELHI -- So, class, time for a news quiz: Name the second-largest Muslim community in the world. Iran? Wrong. Pakistan? Wrong. Saudi Arabia? Wrong. Time's up ó you lose.Answer: India. That's right: India, with nearly 150 million Muslims, is believed to have more Muslim citizens than Pakistan or Bangladesh, and is second only to Indonesia. Which brings up another question that I've been asking here in New Delhi: Why is it you don't hear about Indian Muslims ó who are a minority in this vast Hindu-dominated land ó blaming America for all their problems or wanting to fly suicide planes into the Indian Parliament?Answer: Multi-ethnic, pluralistic, free-market democracy. To be sure, Indian Muslims have their frustrations, and have squared off over the years in violent clashes with Hindus, as has every other minority in India. But they live in a noisy, messy democracy, where opportunities and a political voice are open to them, and that makes a huge difference."I'll give you a quiz question: Which is the only large Muslim community to enjoy sustained democracy for the last 50 years? The Muslims of India," remarked M. J. Akbar, the Muslim editor of Asian Age, a national Indian English-language daily funded by non-Muslim Indians. "I am not going to exaggerate Muslim good fortune in India. There are tensions, economic discrimination and provocations, like the destruction of the mosque at Ayodhya. But the fact is, the Indian Constitution is secular and provides a real opportunity for the economic advancement of any community that can offer talent. That's why a growing Muslim middle class here is moving up and, generally, doesn't manifest the strands of deep anger you find in many non-democratic Muslim states." .....
- [BJP News]: Islamabad cannot justify jihad in Kashmir: Pak Media
- Press Trust of India - Indian Express - Posted on
>>>"Islamabad's exposure is far greater (than India's) because it cannotjustify support for jihad (in Kashmir) on national defence grounds.Complicity with the insertion of militants into Kashmir makes Pakistanaccountable for their actions," The News said in an article. In an editorial too, the daily said the Taliban fighters or "raw religious.....
- Outmanoeuvred, Mr Musharraf?
- Posted by OFBJP Admin (BJP-News@ofbjp.org) - Outlook - Posted on
>>>Sidelined internationally, in trouble internally and unlikely to play a future role in Afghanistan, Musharraf's cup of woes is brimful Never before in the last 52 years has Pakistan been left wringing its hands in anguish over a foreign policy debacle as it's doing now. With the Northern Alliance (NA) riding on US shoulders to occupy Kabul, and the Taliban on the run, it seems Islamabad's Afghan cards have been snatched away overnight. Pakistan now faces the grim prospect of isolation abroad and violent convulsions at home.Indeed, the fast unfolding events in Afghanistan illustrate vividly the perils of leaving foreign policy issues in the hands of those who graduate from military academy. Witness Musharraf's confusing, changing rhetoric on Afghanistan—he first justified Islamabad's support to the Taliban because they represented the Pashtoons who also inhabit the Pakistan border areas. Close ethnic ties between the people of border areas and those in Afghanistan were cited as compelling reasons for Islamabad's policy.Then came September 11 and Musharraf's about-turn, seeking only a role for 'moderate' Taliban in a post-Taliban government. Finding no takers for this nomenclature, Musharraf switched to moderate Pashtoons, provoking one Afghan leader to say: "There is no such thing as a moderate Pashtoon. Either you're a Pashtoon or you ain't."Strategic thinkers feel Musharraf can do nothing now other than sit back and watch the cataclysmic changes in Afghanistan, precisely what he did during the relentless bombing of the last one month. Just how overwhelmed and helpless Islamabad feels can be discerned from what additional secretary at the foreign office, Aziz Khan, told Outlook: "We have no presence inside Afghanistan and so have no means of verifying reports about what is happening there. We rely completely on media reports." .....
- [BJP News]: 'Taliban's fall precursor to peace in J&K'
- Sarabjit Pandher - The Hindu - Posted on
>>>AMRITSAR, NOV. 18. The Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, saw the defeat of religious fanaticism in Afghanistan as a trend- setting example to the rest of the world and hoped that the fall of the Taliban could well be a precursor to peace in Kashmir. He expected that the so called ``jehad'' would also meet a similar end in Kashmir as religion was not supposed to repress or deny people their freedom. Addressing a rally here this afternoon to mark the culmination of the celebrations for the bicentennial of the coronation of the legendary Sikh monarch, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who was known as the ``Sher-e-Punjab'' (Lion of Punjab), he called for an early end to the war in Afghanistan so that the task of reconstruction could be taken up at the earliest. As the entire world was united against injustice, the process of rehabilitation of refugees from Afghanistan would begin, which would ensure that the people of all communities, especially the Sikhs and Hindus, return to their homes. However, he surprised many by not making even an indirect reference to Pakistan. Quoting historic Indo-Afghan ties, the Prime Minister foresaw a role for India in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and the rehabilitation of the refugees after the war. He expected that the liberation of Kandahar would lead to the end of atrocities committed on the innocent people in the name of religion. Mr. Vajpayee complimented the courage of the Punjabi people who fought terrorism without any foreign assistance or ``international declarations''. He recalled the role of the administration, which stood by the people to turn the tables on the terrorists. ----------------------------------------------------------------------.....
- [BJP News]: PM sits pretty while the General fumes
- Vir Sanghvi - Hindustan Times - Posted on
>>>Two days after he returned from his three-nation tour, Prime Minister Atal BihariVajpayee has reason to feel satisfied at the way things have turned out. Vajpayee was originally only scheduled to visit Moscow. Then Colin Powell deliveredan invitation on behalf of President George W Bush and Washington was added tothe list. Given that he was going to be in America, Vajpayee reckoned he might as.....
- [BJP News]: Muslims in India must choose between Talibanic Islam and being true Indians
- Tavleen Singh - India Today - Posted on
>>>If it had not been for the hate mail my last piece on Indian Muslims provoked I might not have felt the need to write again on the subject. Let us say that the letters inspired me because they came as proof that what I wrote about Indian Muslims needing to distance themselves from Taliban-type Islam needed to be said. Let me give you just one small sample of the sort of prose that has filled my mailbox since that last article appeared three weeks ago. "It was the Britishers who brought all the 6,000 castes and combined them into one Hindu community. It was the Britishers who made them to stand because neither Hinduism had any base of religion nor any sane person will prefer this religion which worship mouse, elephants etc and inflicted worst crimes in human history for at least 5,000 years on Dalits and Shudras who in reality are real Indians."This letter was from a Muslim gentleman from Mumbai whose contempt for Hinduism was matched by his praise of Talibanic Islam. In his view, if there is a utopia on earth it is Saudi Arabia, where "Hindus, Muslims and Christians work and earn their livelihood peacefully without any Bal Thackeray". Other letter-writers expressed their contempt not just for the Hindu religion but for what they considered the physical inferiorities of Indians when compared with Arabs. Muslims, according to them, were tall and fair and handsome and could (naturally, therefore) easily conquer the small, dark, cowardly people of poor old Hindoostan.So, in my view, it is sad but alas true that although there are civilised, moderate Muslims in India who do not think this way, the semi-literate, madarsa-educated, lower middle-class Muslim is increasingly being encouraged to think along these lines. This image of himself and his religion as fundamentally superior to the local Indian product is, in our currently troubled times, taking a battering. So more and more Muslims are seeking refuge in what Salman Rushdie recently described as "paranoid Islam".In a recent article in the New York Times, Rushdie wrote, "This paranoid Islam which blames outsiders, 'infidels', for all the ills of Muslim societies, and whose proposed remedy is the closing of those societies to the rival project of modernity, is presently the fastest growing version of Islam in the world."Paranoid Islam is certainly our problem in India. A long, evil collaboration between the mullahs and "secular" political parties like the Congress has resulted in an atmosphere of extraordinary paranoia among ordinary Muslims. The mullah fed a sense of separateness and superiority-we have one God, one Prophet and look at those mad Hindus with their thousands-and the Congress fed post-Partition insecurity. Politically the result was-till the Yadavs crashed the tea party-a permanent, paranoid Congress vote bank. Reliable at election time and unquestioning afterwards, even if it was mainly Muslims who died in the communal riots that occurred under "secular" Congress governments. Paranoia rarely allows rational thought, so although the Babri Masjid came down under a Congress government, the average Muslim blames the mob (read: BJP, Shiv Sena) rather than those who should have protected the mosque from it......
- [BJP News]: Taliban's defeat victory of good over evil: PM
- Posted by OFBJP Admin (BJP-News@ofbjp.org) - Times of India - Posted on
>>>NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Atal Bihari VajpayeeThursday described the defeat of Taliban in Afghanistanas the 'victory of good over evil' and said a commonthread of religious intolerance ran through different instances ofterrorism like the destruction of Bamiyan Buddhas, the US.....
- [BJP News]: Tense dilemma in Islamabad
- Arnaud de Borchgrave - The Washington Times - Posted on
>>>For Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf it was an unmitigated disaster. Already the Pakistani media are accusing the U.S. of betrayal and Gen. Musharraf of being rolled by President Bush. Pakistan's enemies are now in Kabul.Hours after September 11, President Bush called Gen. Musharraf in Islamabad and asked him point-blank whether he was ready to join the U.S.-led war against transnational terrorism, i.e., against the Taliban regime and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.First Gen. Musharraf wanted to know whether this meant the U.S. was turning a new page in relations with Pakistan. Mr. Bush assured him he was not wedded to the anti-Pakistani positions of previous administrations and that relations would be restored to the close alliance that existed prior to Pakistan's nuclear buildup. Economic and military sanctions were to be lifted and a generous package of debt relief measures and other assistance would be put together as a matter of top priority. Gen. Musharraf then agreed to join Mr. Bush's coalition as a full partner without reservations.The acid test of a new military relationship was to be the delivery of 28 F-16 fighter-bomber that Pakistan paid for in the 1980s, but that were impounded and mothballed in Arizona when Congress cut of all aid and military sales in 1990. Pakistan's secret nuclear weapons program, that was a response to India's similar program that began in 1974, was cited as the reason.Gen. Musharraf brought up the matter last week in his talks in New York with both Mr. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell. He was turned down, which was interpreted in Pakistan as a victory for the Indian lobby in Washington. Adding insult to injury, another U.S. assurance was also violated. Mr. Bush told him that Afghanistan's Northern Alliance forces, backed by Russia, Iran and India, and more recently by the U.S., would not enter Kabul pending the formation of a broad-based coalition. .....
- [BJP News]: No change in Pakistan's attitudFernandes
- PTI - Rediff - Posted on
>>>India on Thursday said there had been no change inthe attitude of Pakistan even after the September 11terror attacks, which had made the world have arethink over terrorism, and questioned its intentions inmoving its troops close to border in Punjab and.....
- [BJP News]: Tilting again
- Richard Rapaport - SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, - Posted on
>>>AMERICA'S new best friend, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, has been a busy strongman since September 11. Weekly, U.S. Cabinet secretaries, the British prime minister, generals and diplomats arrive at Islamabad's President's House to pay court. Saturday, at a joint press conference in New York, Major Gen. Musharraf was given President Bush's public seal of approval and a billion dollars in aid. All tailored suits and crisp manners, Gen. Musharraf is very much the model of a modern major general, fitting Margaret Thatcher's characterization of former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev as a man with whom we can do business. Superficially, the match seems reasonable. Musharraf's Anglo-Saxon-isms and the Pakistani military's British personality have helped smooth the way for the West's "tilt" toward the Islamic world's sole nuclear power. But the United States might want to dampen its enthusiasm for Musharraf and his "good guy" status; conjuring, as it does, the Philippine's Ferdinand Marcos, Chile's Augusto Pinochet, South Vietnam's Nguyen Van Thieu, Indonesia's Suharto and Cambodia's Lon Nol, all authoritarian "new best friends" for whom American benediction and foreign aid did little to ensure their shaky governments or even further long-term American interests. Similarly, this latest manifestation of America's foreign policy propensity for taking the easy way out by aligning ourselves with the Pakistani dictator will not necessarily help the United States achieve its goals of stability and peace in South Asia or further the battle against Islamic radicalism. The deal with Pakistan indicates an inability on the part of the United States to think through long-term strategies, and is shameless in its transparency. Only last summer, Pakistan, the chief backer of Afghanistan's Taliban, was under international sanctions for violating the nuclear-test-ban treaty, supporting terrorists in Kashmir and for the anti-democratic coup that brought Musharraf to power. There is precedent for America's latest "tilt"; the phrase "tilting toward Pakistan" has been in the U.S. foreign policy lexicon since the Nixon administration, when the United States supported another modern major general, Yaya Khan, who declared himself president of Pakistan in 1969. .....
- [BJP News]: In Pakistan, It's Jihad 101
- THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN - New YOrk Times - Posted on
>>>PESHAWAR, Pakistan You need only spend an afternoon walking through the Storytellers' Bazaar here in Peshawar, a few miles from the Afghan border, to understand that America needs to do its business in Afghanistan — eliminate Osama bin Laden and his Taliban pro tectors — as quickly as possible and get out of here. This is not a neighborhood where we should linger. This is not Mr. Rogers's neighborhood. What makes me say that? I don't know, maybe it was the street vendor who asked me exactly what color Osama bin Laden T-shirt I wanted — the yellow one with his picture on it or the white one simply extolling him as the hero of the Muslim nation and vowing "Jihad Is Our Mission." (He was doing a brisk business among the locals.) Or maybe it was the wall poster announcing: Call this phone number if you want to join the "Jihad against America." Or maybe it was all the Urdu wall graffiti reading "Honor Is in Jihad" and "The Alliance Between the Hunood [Indians] and Yahood [Jews] Is Unacceptable." Or maybe it was the cold stares and steely eyes that greeted the obvious foreigner. Those eyes did not say "American Express accepted here." They said "Get lost."Welcome to Peshawar. Oh, and did I mention? This is Pakistan — these guys are on our side. Fat chance. This whole region of northwest Pakistan is really just an extension of Afghanistan, dominated by the same ethnic Pashtuns that make up the Taliban. This is bin Laden land. This is not a region where America is going to sink any friendly roots. In part it's because the Pashtuns here all, understandably, side with their brothers in Afghanistan; in part it's because they were jilted once before by the Americans — after the U.S. just dropped Pakistan like a used hanky once the Soviets left Afghanistan. But most important, it's because of the education system here.On the way into Peshawar I stopped to visit the Darul Uloom Haqqania, the biggest madrasa, or Islamic school, in Pakistan, with 2,800 live-in students — all studying the Koran and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad with the hope of becoming mullahs, or spiritual leaders. I was allowed to sit in on a class with young boys, who sat on the floor, practicing their rote learning of the Koran from holy texts perched on wooden holders. This was the core of their studies. Most will never be exposed to critical thinking or modern subjects. .....
- [BJP News]: No US mediation in Kashmir, No F-16s to Pakistan
- Pioneer News Service/New Delhi - The Pioneer - Posted on
>>>The flow of discouraging news for Pakistan from Washington continued with United States (US) Secretary of State Colin Powell ruling out supply of F-16s to Islamabad as also any role as "mediator" in the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.Mr Powell reiterated the well established American position that it would all it could to help India and Pakistan restart talks, but did not see a role beyond that.Reports from Pakistan suggested that Islamabad had sought to read a deeper meaning into President George W Bush's statement that the US would like the "wishes" of the people of Kashmir to be taken into account.That the US President was not stepping outside of established policy was made evident by Mr Powell who said in the course of a Meet the Press programme on NBC, that Pakistan and India need to enter talks over Kashmir region, but the United States would not play a key role in settling the dispute."To the extent that the United States could be helpful in fostering this dialogue, fine, but we cannot become the mediator, or the arbitrator or the intermediary between them," Mr Powell said. Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf had said Mr Bush has promised to facilitate any talks, and maybe pursue the Indian leadership to initiate such a dialogue. It would appear that the interpretation had a heavy overdose of "spin.".....
- [BJP News]: 'India Has the Resolve, strength and stamina to Resist This Terrorism': Vajpayee
- Posted by OFBJP Admin (BJP-News@ofbjp.org) - Washington Post - Posted on
>>>Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee responded to written questions submitted to him by Washington Post editors. Q: What concerns do you have about the American-led war against terrorism? Has the U.S. campaign been defined too narrowly, not taking fully into account India's concerns about terrorism?.....
- [BJP News]: A world upside down
- Francos Guitter - Rediff - Posted on
>>>Once you start seeing from the right inner perspective, you will notice thatthe world appears upside down, as if people were walking on their head,"often commented the Mother of Pondicherry. And indeed, if you look at theworld today, in this inauspicious beginning of November 2001, what do yousee? .....
- [BJP News]: US, India to fight terrorism together: Bush
- Tarun Basu in Washington - Rediff - Posted on
>>>President George W Bush declared Friday that theUS and India were determined to fight terrorismtogether and win the war come what may. Bush, addressing a joint press conference inWashington with Vajpayee by his side after their first.....
- [BJP News]: US designates LeT, JeM as terrorist organisations
- PTI - The HIndu - Posted on
>>>Washington, Nov. 3. (PTI): Fulfilling India's long-standing demand daysbefore Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit, the US bannedPakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad by designatingthem as "foreign terrorist organisations", to further the current campaignagainst global terrorism. .....
- [BJP News]: BJP seeks wider war on terrorism
- Reuters - Indian Express - Posted on
>>>Amritsar, November 2: Bharatiya Janata Party said on Friday thatthe global war on terrorism should be extended to Kashmir. Echoingthe government's view, BJP president Jana Krishnamurthy told a partyconclave that the US-led battle against terrorism was unlikely tosucceed if confined to the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan......
Last message date: Fri Nov 30 15:43:15 2001
Archived on: Fri Nov 30 21:00:06 2001
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