The Tribune – British MP to take up Bhullar issue with UN panel

P K Jaiswar, Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 2. Simon Hughes, Deputy Leader of Liberal Democratic Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons, Britain, today said he would take up the issue of clemency to Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar with the United Nation Human Rights Commission and the International Commission of Jurists.

Bhullar is facing death sentence in India in connection with a bomb blast in 1993 leading to the death of several persons. Various Sikh organisations have been demanding converting his death into life imprisonment.

Talking to mediapersons here, the British Member of Parliament pointed out that he would raise the issue within this week as it was the immediate issue concerning the Sikh community.

“I will also take up the issue with ministers and members of the British Government and convince them to consider to raise the issue with the Indian Government during the Commonwealth meet slated to be held in Perth this month-end,” said Hughes. He was here to pay obeisance at Golden Temple and also to talk with several organisations to gather more information about Bhullar’s case. “As the issue has also been highlighted in England by several Sikh federations and as I am a human rights lawyer and member of the International Commission of Jurists, I thought it appropriate to have more information about the case,” he said.

Hughes has arrived in India to interact with Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Answering media queries over the death penalty awarded to Bhullar, he said, “I personally oppose death penalty and it should be banned all over the world. Some other ways of severe punishment should be devised. There are instances in various parts of the world wherein persons were found innocent after awarding death penalty. There should be standard norms all over the world over death penalty.”

Hughes was accompanied by Dr Juias, senior lecturer in international relations, Paramjit Singh of the Sikh Students Federation and Mandhir Singh of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Panch Pardhani).

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20111003/punjab.htm#6

The Hindu – Benefits of economic growth should reach all sections: Pratibha

President pays homage to Mahatma Gandhi in Geneva

Geneva, 3 October 2011.

President Pratibha Patil on Sunday paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi in Geneva on the occasion of his 142nd birth anniversary.

Ms. Patil, drove to the tranquil Ariana Park on ‘Avenue of Peace,’ and offered flowers at the statue of the Mahatma Gandhi. A group of Indian children sang ‘Ram dhun.’ She later undertook a parikarma (round of the statue) in the misty morning.

Incidentally, the statue was unveiled in 1997 to mark the 60th anniversary of the August 1948 Treaty of Friendship and Establishment between India and Switzerland, the first such treaty signed by independent India.

The President is here on an eight-day state visit to Switzerland and Austria.

“Opportunities aplenty”

Later, at a reception hosted here by Indian Ambassador Chitra Narayanan, daughter of the former President, K R Narayanan, Ms. Patil said India had become an attractive destination for investments. “India’s growth offers many opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation. The Indian economy has recorded consistently high rates of growth since 2003 and even the global economic downturn had [only] a limited impact,” said the President, who is on a state visit to Switzerland.

“Today India is among the most attractive destinations globally for investments and business, and the Foreign Direct Investment has increased over the last few years,” she said.

“Since the Indian economy opened up in 1991, Indian companies have faced international competition rather well, and have expanded their global footprint.”

However, the overriding priority today was to ensure that the benefits of the economic growth reached all sections, in particular the poorer sections.

“We are also aware of the challenges of ensuring that the aspirations of our youth, who constitute more than 50 per cent of our population today, are met; that they have the opportunities to get education and training needed to allow India to garner the demographic dividend,” she said.  (PTI)

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2506980.ece

The Netherlands : Den Haag – Rotterdam – Amsterdam 2 till 12 September 2011

Mostly pictures of gurdwaras, trains and trams taken during my recent visit to the Netherlands

Today’s pictures were all taken on 5 September 2011 near NS Station Den Haag Holland Spoor

Tram 11 from Rijswijkseplein to Scheveningen

Tram 9 from Uithof to Scheveningen

Tram 12, Rijswijkseplein terminus, destination Duindorp

Tram 12, Rijswijkseplein terminus, destination Duindorp

Belgium and Netherlands public transport pictures at :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157622685920411/  

More Netherlands pictures to follow
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue

The Tribune – Pakistan army, ISI training us, says captured militant

Ehsan Fazili, Tribune News Service

Srinagar, October 2. Foiling a major infiltration bid in Machchil sector on the LoC, the Army has apprehended a militant of the Lashkar-e-Toiba outfit, a defence spokesman here said.

During preliminary interrogation, the militant Nissar Ahmed, who was arrested on Friday, revealed that he belonged to Karachi (Pakistan). The Army recovered one AK-47 rifle and a large quantity of ammunition from his possession.

According to Lieutenant General S A Hasnain, GoC, Chinar Corps, the arrest of the Pakistani militant has exposed the nexus between the ISI, the Pakistan army and militant organisations imparting training to Pakistani youth to carry out acts of terror in Kashmir.

He also highlighted the complicity between the ISI and the Pakistan army in setting up terror infrastructure in Pakistani hinterland and the PoK to spread militancy and disrupt peace and harmony in Kashmir.

The defence press release said Nissar Ahmed revealed that he had been recruited and initially trained at the LeT training facility at Manshera and was part of a group of 12 terrorists, who had been trained in use of various kinds of weapons, explosives, navigation and communication equipment by a group of trainers from the Pakistan army and the ISI. His training commander was Abdullah Shaheen.

The militant disclosed that after the initial training at Manshera, their group was transported to the LeT training camp at Jamgarh and, thereafter, they were moved to a training camp near Kel Military Garrison opposite the Machhil sector, where they received intensive training in use of weapons and explosives.

The militant has confirmed that seven members of the group under Abu Talha were selected for infiltration into Kashmir through the Machhil sector, the defence spokesman said. They were provided with arms, ammunition and other communication equipment and were moved forward to a launch pad in the vicinity of a Pakistan army Post, the spokesman added.

The number of infiltration attempts from across the LoC along Baramulla-Kupwar-Bandipore has been increased during the recent weeks ahead of winter when the high peak mountain areas remain snowbound, making infiltration difficult for the militants.

Last week, five unidentified infiltrators and four security personnel were killed in a five-day encounter, which began last Monday in the Shamsbari range on the LoC in Kupwara district of north Kashmir.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20111003/main4.htm

Dawn – Pakistan alone did not create Haqqanis: US

By Anwar Iqbal

Washington: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that the Pakistanis have a point when they say that Pakistan alone did not create the Haqqani network, which is now killing American soldiers in Afghanistan.

Also on Sunday, the former US military chief, Admiral Mike Mullen, said that attacks on US soldiers in Afghanistan had caused him to blame Pakistan for backing the militants who were behind those attacks.

The transcript of a Q & A session, released by the State Department, quoted Secretary Clinton as saying that the US relationship with Pakistan was critical to the ongoing stability and peace of the region, as well as the fight against terrorism.

“And I think it is important to remind ourselves that Pakistanis have paid a much greater price in the war against terrorism and in the violence perpetrated on them over the last 10 years than, thankfully, we have,” she noted.

“Nearly 30,000 people have been killed — civilians and military, scores of bombing attacks all over the country in places from mosques to markets to universities to police stations.”

Referring to Admiral Mullen’s Senate testimony last week in which he blamed the ISI for encouraging the Haqqani network for attacking US targets in Afghanistan, Secretary Clinton emphasised the need to look at the issue from a historical perspective.

“If you go on YouTube, you can see Sirajuddin Haqqani with President Reagan at the White House,” said the top US diplomat, noting that in the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, the US government, through the CIA, funded Jihadis like the Haqqanis “to cross the border or to, within Afghanistan, be part of the fight to drive the Soviets out and bring down the Soviet Union”.

“So when I meet for many hours, as I do, with Pakistani officials, they rightly say, ‘You’re the ones who told us to cooperate with these people. You’re the one who funded them. You’re the ones who equipped them. You’re the ones who used them to bring down the Soviet Union by driving them out of Afghanistan. And we are now both in a situation that is highly complex and difficult to extricate ourselves from’. That is how they see it.” The Pakistanis, however, also have used groups in the past to support their ongoing conflict with India over Kashmir, she added.

Secretary Clinton said that when she took charge of her office, the Pakistanis were also trying to basically appease the Pakistani Taliban who were attacking them — trying to draw a distinction between the good terrorists and the bad terrorists.

Since then, the US had been trying to convince the Pakistanis that it was not in their interest to permit terrorists to take over territory and succeeded in encouraging them to deploy troops in Fata.

“So I think it’s important that we appreciate their perspective about where we both are right now,” the secretary said.

“That in no way excuses the fact that they are making a serious, grievous, strategic error supporting these groups,” she added.

That’s why, she said, the US was “pressing and pushing on every lever that we have in the relationship” to achieve its strategic goals.

The aim was to prevent any attacks against the 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.

“Those are all extremely difficult, and we are learning it, each piece of that, every single day,” she said.

In an interview to CNN, Admiral Mullen said what made him go public with his grievances against Pakistan was an increase in attacks on US soldiers and other targets inside Afghanistan. “It’s not just about one country, it’s about both Afghanistan and Pakistan, and part of the biggest challenge is the safe havens that the insurgents enjoy in Pakistan,” he said. The admiral defined the Haqqani network as the most virulent terrorist group in Pakistan and a great supporter of Al Qaeda.

“The link between the Pakistan military and specifically the ISI is very well-known. And I have argued for the need to sever this link,” he added. “That also has to do with getting control of that safe haven.”

Admiral Mullen said that the intensity of the recent events and the strategic support that the ISI and the Pakistan military “both give to the Haqqani network directly and indirectly, is what I was focused on” in the Senate testimony.

When the interviewer insisted on knowing the real reason for the admiral to go public with his complaints against Pakistan, Mr Mullen said: “As a military leader and as somebody who feels responsible for the 2.2 million men and women in uniform, the effort or actions on the part of the Haqqani network to literally kill my people is something I just can’t tolerate anymore.”

He said he did not expect it to stop overnight but “a concerted effort on the part of responsible people could have a big impact”.

http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/03/pakistanis-alone-did-not-create-haqqanis-us.html