The Tribune – Worrying rise in dengue cases in state

Anupam Bhagria, Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, October 1. Dengue is fast spreading its tentacles in Punjab and so far as many as 532 cases have been reported in various districts of the state. Notably, the development assumes significance in view of the fact that the problem of dengue fever has assumed alarming proportions in the neighbouring Pakistan, the nation that shares border with Punjab at several places.

Already, over 120 deaths have been reported in the neighbouring nation, most of them in Lahore.

An alert has also been issued at Attari to keep tabs on passengers entering India from Pakistan. Blood tests of suspected cases were also being conducted, officials said.

According to the Principal Secretary, Health Department, Satish Chandra, “Till now, as many as 532 dengue cases have been reported in the state, though no deaths have occurred.”

Health and Family Welfare Minister Satpal Gosain said he had issued “strict instructions” to the officials concerned, including in various municipal corporations, to remain alert and do the needful to check the spread of the disease.

Gosain met dengue patients at Mohan Devi Oswal Hospital here yesterday.

Dr Gurvinderjeet Singh, medical superintendent at Oswal Hospital, said, “Of the 120 people tested for dengue in the hospital in the past three months, the report of the 70 per cent of them has come out to be positive. At present, 20 patients are receiving treatment here.”

Meanwhile, the government has ordered the Amritsar health authorities to fumigate the trains coming from Pakistan and thoroughly screen the passengers entering India from land or rail route in order to prevent the disease from penetrating into the country.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20111002/punjab.htm#6

The Asian Age – Terror in J&K : ‘Pakistan making big mistake’

Lalit K. Jha, Asian Age Correspondent

Washington, 2 October 2011. Stating that Pakistan has used terror groups in Kashmir against India, the US has cautioned Islamabad that it is making “a serious, grievous, strategic error” by supporting these outfits.

Pakistan believes that it can keep a “wild animal in the backyard” and it will only go after its neighbour, secretary of state Hillary Clinton said. But there are too many stories where that doesn’t turn out like that, she said.

“We are pressing and pushing on every lever that we have in the relationship, and we have to be effective in trying to achieve our strategic goal, which is to prevent any attacks against us emanating from Pakistan, as well as to try to help stabilise Pakistan against this internal threat, and to create the best possible circumstances for Afghanistan to be able to have control over its own future,” Ms Clinton said.

“Those are all extremely difficult and we are learning it, each piece of that, every single day,” she said in response to a question after she delivered her remarks at the “Kumpuris Distingui-shed Lecture Series” here.

“And I like to remind myself and my colleagues of that because they have a great stake in trying to end terrorism against themselves, but they bring to their fight against terrorism deep concerns about the relationship with India, about what happens in Afghanistan after US and coalition troops draw down, what happens in the greater region that could destabilise them further,” she said. (PTI}

http://www.asianage.com/india/terror-jk-pak-making-big-mistake-357

My visit to Italy from 18 July till 5 August

4 August, Gurmat Camp, San Bonifacio Gurdwara

Ranjit Singh, Duisburg Wala, teaching the Italian naujawan

Ranjit Singh, Duisburg Wala, teaching the Italian naujawan

Class taught by Granthi Naginder Singh and his friend Kashmir Singh

Montecchia girls

Associazone Guru Nanak, Mission Seva Society
Via Ritonda 81b
37047 San Bonifacio
Verona province, Veneto region

More pictures of Italy to follow !
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue

The Tribune – PIL in HC against Punjab transport policy; Hearing before a Division Bench tomorrow

Saurabh Malik, Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 1. Immediately after The Tribune exposé on how the transport policy was manipulated for driving private players in Punjab towards profits, a Barrister-at-Law today moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation or a High Court Judge.

In his petition based on the series of investigations carried out by The Tribune, city-based Barrister Himmat Singh Shergill has made Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and son Sukhbir Singh Badal a party, along with two other respondents.

The petition filed in public interest is expected to come up for hearing before a Division Bench on Monday.

Referring to the news reports “Badals, buses and public losses”, “How the Badals hijacked Punjab’s luxury bus business”, “How the transport policy was manipulated for private profit” and “Public losses private profits”, Shergill has submitted “a thorough independent investigation is required to punish the guilty”.

Giving details, Shergill has asserted if the newspaper reports project the true picture, the Chief Minister and son Deputy Chief Minister “have breached their oath of office”.

He has added if the contents of these newspaper reports are true, the father and son have “prima facie manipulated the policy in the Department of Transport, thereby causing huge losses to the state exchequer”.

He has further contended the two have illegally benefited “luxury and super luxury private bus operators”, specifically when they “are themselves the major beneficiaries” and are “directly and indirectly owning maximum number of buses in the sector”.

Shergill has asserted: “It is in utmost public interest that the truth should be presented before the public”. Therefore, an agency like the CBI, or any other agency not under the direct or indirect control of the two respondents, or a sitting or a retired High Court judge, “after investigation should bring out the truth in an objective and independent manner in the present circumstances”.

Shergill has added: “The Chief Minister is a public servant, who has to function within the confines of the rule of law and his actions should not be arbitrary or be taken with a motive to serve his own business interests, thereby causing loss to the state exchequer.

“The Chief Minister is a trustee of the people who elect him, and quick, independent and effective action should be taken against him if he breaches the trust of the people; and it is submitted that only that agency or official can hold independent investigation against the Chief Minister who is not under his or her direct control…..”

Liberally quoting from The Tribune, he has asserted: “By 2011 when the new transport policy was fully implemented, the companies controlled by the Badals had acquired or taken over 150 such luxury buses”.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20111002/main6.htm

BBC News – Afghanistan Haqqani militant Haji Mali Khan captured

1 October 2011

A senior leader of the militant Haqqani network, Haji Mali Khan, has been captured in Afghanistan, the Nato-led international force Isaf has said.

He was detained during an operation by Afghan and coalition forces in Paktia province on Tuesday, Isaf said.

He was heavily armed but did not resist, it added.

Haji Mali Khan is the senior commander in Afghanistan for the Haqqani network, blamed for some recent Afghan attacks and accused of links to Pakistan.

He is also a revered elder of the clan, the uncle of the network’s leader, Siraj Haqqani, and served as an emissary between the Haqqanis and Baitullah Mehsud, the former head of the Pakistani Taliban who was killed in a suspected US missile attack in 2009.

He is accused of setting up bases in Paktia and coordinating the transfer of money for militant operations.

The BBC’s Paul Wood in Kabul says Afghan officials describe him as the brain of the network.

The Haqqani are affiliated to the Taliban and have pledged allegiance to their spiritual leader, Mullah Omar. However, some in the West believe the Haqqani also have links to Pakistan’s intelligence agency, an accusation Islamabad denies.

Change of focus

Isaf said the capture was a “significant milestone in the disruption of the Haqqani network”, adding that the network remained a top priority for Afghan and coalition forces.

A large number of other insurgents was captured in the operation, in Jani Khel district, including Mali Khan’s deputy and bodyguard.

A senior Afghan intelligence official in Paktia province told the BBC that agents had information of a major attack that was being planned on Jani Khel.

A joint Afghan-Isaf force arrested Haji Mali Khan, whose real name was said to be Ali Khan, in the village of Mana, the official said.

A senior counter-terrorism official in Kabul told the BBC: ”Haji Mali Khan was in charge of suicide attacks, other attacks, money, finance and operations. He was not as brutal as other Haqqanis when it came to dealing with locals. For that he was liked and protected from time to time.”

US officials say they are close to deciding whether to label the Haqqani as a foreign terrorist organisation, and on Thursday the treasury department announced new sanctions on five individuals it said were linked to “the most dangerous terrorist organisations operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan”.

Mali Khan’s capture came days after the assassination of former Afghan president and negotiator Burhanuddin Rabbani, which was blamed on the network.

The killing prompted Afghan President Hamid Karzai to say on Friday that he was focusing on talks with Pakistan rather than the Taliban.

Afghan police said an attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul in June that left nine attackers, two police and 11 civilians dead, “bore the hallmarks” of the Haqqani.

The Haqqani network was also accused of carrying out a 20-hour attack last month on the Isaf headquarters and the US embassy in Kabul in which some 25 people died.

The US military accused Pakistan of helping the Haqqani in that attack.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said the network was a “veritable arm” of Pakistani intelligence service the ISI.

Pakistan has long denied supporting the Haqqani group, but BBC correspondents say it has a decades-old policy of pursuing foreign policy objectives through alliances with militants.

Although Islamabad denies the network has safe havens inside Pakistan, the country’s former national security adviser told the BBC that it was operating in North Waziristan, in Pakistan’s restive tribal belt.

“Today North Waziristan is a hot bed,” said retired Major General Mahmoud Durani.

The army was too overstretched to take on the Haqqanis, he added.

Analysis, Paul Wood, BBC News, Kabul

The Haqqanis are thought, by their detractors anyway, to be as much a crime family as a group of Islamist ideologues.

They are accused of running protection rackets, smuggling gemstones, carrying out kidnappings for money and of being guns for hire for the Pakistani intelligence services.

If they are behind recent attacks in Afghanistan, that may be about securing a place at the table in any future peace negotiations and a slice of any future spoils.

Whatever the truth, they’re said to have access to an almost limitless supply of young men in the tribal areas of Pakistan willing to carry out suicide attacks. If confirmed, the capture of Commander Khan, while undoubtedly a success for Nato, won’t change that.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-15136007