Mastermind of Lahore attack identified

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has zeroed in on the alleged mastermind of last week’s terror attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, a media report said on Monday.

“The Lahore police have named the mastermind as Mohammad Aqeel. A raid was conducted on his hideout but he managed to escape,” Geo TV said.

“His accomplice Talat has been arrested,” the channel added.

Eight Pakistanis, including six security personnel, were killed and six Sri Lankan players as well as the team’s assistant coach injured March 3 when the team bus was on its way to the Gaddafi Stadium for the third day’s play in the second cricket test. The tour was immediately called off and the Sri Lankan team was flown home the same evening.

Without naming India, Pakistan first saw a “foreign hand” in the attack but soon retracted, saying the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror group could be involved.

Investigators have now been quoted as saying that the al-Qaida could be involved.

Source: www.nhatky.in

51% Stake of Sataym Selling Procedure Starts

Mumbai: Satyam Computer Services has begun the procedure of selecting an investor by inviting expressions of interest from bidders. SEBI has recently authorized Satyam to sell up to 51 percent stake.

Under the process that started on Monday, the bidders will have to submit detailed EoIs, along with proof of availability of funds of at least 1,500 crore rupees by March 20, Satyam said in a statement.

On Monday, the company issued an expression of interest, according to which there is no floor price for the bidders.

The interested investor may register with the company by March 12.

Based on the submitted EoIs, eligible bidders would be short-listed and given access to certain business, financial and legal diligence material of the company provided they sign a non-disclosure and non-solicitation agreement with Satyam, the company stated.

The process of the stake sale will involve 31 percent fresh equity shares and 20 percent open offer.

India Vs New Zealand 4th ODI At Hamilton

WELLINGTON: Captain Daniel Vettori will return to the New Zealand team and paceman Tim Southee has been dropped as the home side attempt to stop rampant India from sealing a one-day series victory.

Sachin Tendulkar’s brilliant unbeaten 163 led India to a 58-run win and a 2-0 series lead in Christchurch on Sunday, with two games left to play.
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Vettori was missing from that game as he joined his wife, Mary, for the birth of their first child, but he will be back for the Hamilton match on Tuesday.

Southee paid the price for posting the most expensive 10-over bowling spell by a New Zealander in a one-day international with figures of 0-105 as India smashed 392 runs.

Vettori’s tight bowling will be even more important than usual in the absence of seam bowler Ian Butler, the only other bowler who has posted consistently respectable figures against India.

Butler, who was recalled to the New Zealand team this year after a five-year absence, strained a thigh muscle while bowling in Christchurch but the home side hope he will be available for the final one-dayer in Auckland on Saturday.

Uncapped Central Districts allrounder Ewen Thompson — who made his international Twenty20 debut against the West Indies in December — joins the squad of 12.

New Zealand squad
Daniel Vettori (captain), Grant Elliott, Martin Guptill, Brendon McCullum, Peter McGlashan, Kyle Mills, Iain O’Brien, Jacob Oram, Jeetan Patel, Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor, Ewen Thompson.

Source: www.nhatky.in

India Linked in Bangladesh Mutiny: Islamists

Dhaka: As agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation arrived here to help probe last week’s mutiny, Right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami party on Sunday accused India of being behind the killings inside the Bangladesh border guards’ headquarters.

“The killing mission was executed from Indian intelligence headquarters through close monitoring,” Matiur Rahman Nizami, the chief of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, said while addressing a meeting of his party here.

“India pulled a masterstroke by destroying the border guards and trying to weaken Bangladesh’s Army and national security,” he said, claiming that Indian media ran the news of the carnage citing Indian intelligence sources before the local television stations could cover it.

Some Indian media, quoting intelligence sources, earlier pointed the finger at Jamaat claiming the Islamist group sparked the mutiny in Bangladesh to divert attention from the prosecution of Jamaat-e-Islami members on trial for war crimes committed in the 1971 war of independence.

Meanwhile, two agents of the FBI arrived here on Sunday to help Bangladesh probe the mutiny that left dozens of Army officers dead.

“They will sit with the Home Ministry officials on Monday to agree on terms of reference for their operation in Bangladesh during the investigation,” a ministry official said.

The agents are expected to visit the crime scene and examine the evidence along with investigators from the Criminal Investigation Department of the police, he added.

Source: www.nhatky.in

Former Israeli Prez Katsav with charged Sexual Offenses

Jerusalem: Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav will be charged with several serious sexual offenses including rape, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has announced.

Mazuz is ready to indict Moshe Katsav on charges stemming from sexual offenses, including rape, allegedly committed while he was President and Tourism Minister.

The Justice Ministry has been plagued by complications in the case since it first broke in July 2006, including a failed plea bargain attempt and a draft indictment that was retracted. Mazuz decided on Sunday, after consultation with State Attorney Moshe Lador, to submit the new indictment.

The current draft charge sheet also includes allegations against Katsav concerning
sexual offenses he allegedly committed against other female subordinates at the Tourism Ministry, as well as offenses committed while he was
president (2000 to 2007).

“The decision was made after Mazuz and Lador came to the conclusion that the plaintiffs’ testimony must be considered and that there is sufficient evidence in the case to justify filing an indictment,” a statement from the State Attorney’s Office said.

The former president’s media adviser, Ronen Tsur, downplayed the decision, saying it did not “surprise one person in Israel.”

“Moshe Katsav took into account that this would be the result when he rejected the plea bargain, and he’s happy for the chance to prove his innocence in a court of law,” Tsur said.

Source: www.nhatky.in

Pakistan Should Cooperate on 26/11: Musharraf

New Delhi: Pakistani government should cooperate in the Mumbai attacks case and those behind it should be punished, former President Pervez Musharraf has said even as he criticised India for “creating war hysteria” over the issue.

“It was most unfortunate. It was a terrorist act. Terrorists have no nationality,” Musharraf said at a seminar when asked for his comment on the Mumbai attacks which was different from earlier terror acts.

“Pakistan government should cooperate because a terrorist act has taken place and anyone who has done it should be punished,” the former military ruler said.

He, however, said he could not say whether the attack had originated from Pakistan as he was “not privy” to details furnished by India.

At the same time, he was critical of India for saying on the very next day of the attack that it had originated from Pakistan.

“Shall we say the same about Lahore (attack)? People here should give considered statements,” Musharraf said.

Accusing India of creating “war hysteria” amid suggestions for surgical strikes after the attacks, he said with a warning tone “These are serious situations. Pakistan also has armed forces.”

‘Change attitude towards Pak’

India and Pakistan must change the way they treat each other and bury a “dirty past” to tackle growing militancy in the region together, Musharraf said further.

“The past has been dirty, the past has been bad, but don’t put the blame on Pakistan,” Musharraf said. “You tried to do damage to us, we were not sitting idle, we tried to damage you.”

He said both countries were to be blamed for decades of mistrust and dispute, but now need to move ahead.

“There is a need for attitudinal change, more in India less in Pakistan,” the former Army General said, referring to India’s regular allegations that Pakistan’s spy agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), and the Pakistan Army were behind militant strikes in India.

Pakistan and India have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947 and came to the brink of a fourth after gunmen attacked the Indian Parliament in December 2001.

India also paused talks on a peace process between the two countries after it blamed Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba for the Mumbai attacks last November in which nearly 170 people died.

India says its nuclear-armed rival has done little to clamp down on militant activity on its soil.

Musharraf asked India to stop what he described as “Pakistan bashing” and instead urged New Delhi to help the ISI and Pakistan’s Army fight militancy in the region.

“Help the Pakistan Army and the ISI to tackle them (militants) and please don’t malign them,” the former Army Chief said, adding that Pakistan’s Army and the ISI wanted peace with India.

The former President, who stepped down in August last year, said the Army and the ISI were the best bets to fight the growing influence of the Taliban and militancy in Pakistan.

“Please don’t create misunderstanding in the world against the ISI and the Army,” he said.

Pakistani authorities have been criticized after gunmen fired at the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore on Tuesday.

“Pakistan is critical under the present circumstances to fight terrorism and extremism, Pakistan is critical to bring peace in the region,” Musharraf said.

The former Army General said the solution to end militancy in the region lay in finding a peaceful solution for Kashmir.

‘Handing over Dawood won’t help’

“Even if he (Dawood Ibrahim) is handed over, relations (between India and Pakistan) will not improve. I challenge,” Musharraf stated at the event when asked whether Pakistan could hand over Dawood as a confidence building measure.

When suggested that it may be given a try, the retired General said “if we fail, you will hand him over back to us.”

Musharraf, while interacting at the conclave, earlier claimed that he did not “know at all if he (Dawood) is in Pakistan”.

He made the claim, which was received with disbelief by the audience, even while underlining that India and Pakistan must not harbour each other’s terrorists.

Source: www.nhatky.in

LeT Instead off Al Qaeda as huge Threat to US

Islamabad: Indicative of the growing clout of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) despite an apparent crackdown by the Pakistani authorities, US security experts believe that the terror group and not Al Qaeda has emerged as the main threat and could well stage the next major attack on the American mainland.

“We are and should be concerned about the threat LeT poses, given its global network,” Juan Zarate, deputy national security adviser for counter-terrorism in the Bush administration, told the Chicago Tribune in an interview published Sunday.

According to Zarate, the FBI and other US intelligence agencies had been focussing on the LeT as the next big threat to US security even before the Nov 26-29, 2008, Mumbai terror attacks.

The Tribune quoted US authorities as saying that the LeT was in many ways a bigger threat than the Al Qaeda, whose leadership was on the run from numerous Predator strikes in the Pakistan’s northwestern tribal areas.

Zarate’s remarks come amidst reports that the LeT had got a new set of commanders to replace Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and Zarrar Shah who the Pakistani authorities detained after the Mumbai carnage that India has blamed on the terror group.

Pakistani investigators initially pointed to an LeT hand in last week’s attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore but later ascribed it to the Al Qaeda.

“We are and should be concerned about the threat LeT poses, given its global network,” Zarate told the Tribune.

“It doesn’t just reside in South Asia. It is an organisation that has potential reach all over the world, including the US,” he added.

Bruce Riedel, chairman of the Obama administration’s Pakistan-Afghanistan strategy review team, said he believed such a “global jihadist syndicate” of disaffected young Pakistanis was the most likely mechanism for launching an attack on US soil.

The Mumbai attacks, according to Riedel, was only the latest of several such by such militants on soft targets frequented by Americans, including hotels in Kabul and Islamabad.

The Mumbai mayhem had claimed the lives of over 170 people, including 26 foreigners - six of them American citizen. India had subsequently given the FBI access to Ajmal Amir Kasab, the sole terrorist captured alive during the carnage.

India says Kasab and nine other LeT operatives, all of whom were killed during the attacks that lasted for over 60 hours, had staged the assault.

India had also asked the FBI to examine evidence collected from five GPS phones used for coordinating the attack, requesting the FBI to analyse the data. The FBI established that the attack was mounted from the sea.

The Tribune said that Washington wanted Pakistan to not only dismantle LeT but also other similar groups founded during the Afghan war or later to participate in the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir.

Quoting US and allied intelligence sources, the report claimed that potentially tens of thousands of Pakistanis had been trained in the LeT’s guerrilla camps in Pakistan, many of whom had gone on to fight for the Al Qaeda.

This includes a small number of US residents, some of who are believed to have returned home. Nearly a dozen Americans, including many members of the so-called Virginia Jihad Network, have been convicted in US courts of training at LeT camps and conspiring to provide material support to the group.

The US is also concerned about the thousands of disaffected Westerners and Pakistanis in Britain and other countries in Europe who travel frequently to Pakistan, the newspaper said.

Citizens of these countries do not need a visa for coming to the US.

An unknown number of those have trained in LeT camps, and after getting “indoctrinated in its hatred of the West and returning home, they were free to travel to the United States with virtually no background check”, the Tribune said.

Source: www.nhatky.in