Tribune News Service
Amritsar, December 19. Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) chief Paramjit Singh Sarna said there had been no transfer of ownership of the DSGMC hospital on Gurdwara Bala Sahib premises in New Delhi.
He refuted all the allegations in this regard. He said the DSGMC under him has been managing the gurdwara affairs in the capital with complete transparency. Sarna said this while responding to a news report.
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, December 19. The Vidhan Sabha today unanimously adopted a resolution urging the Centre to help the state in promoting diversification and demanded a technology mission with an allocation of Rs 5,000 crore for Green Revolution states on the pattern of “Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India (BGREI)” during the 12th Five-Year-Plan.
A resolution to this effect was moved by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. The resolution also requested the Centre to release the promised relief package forthwith to bail out the Punjab farmers and the state government in the wake of the near drought-like conditions during the kharif 2012.
The package envisages a relief of Rs 3,000 per hectare to rice growers and Rs 1,530 crore to the state government as compensation for supplying additional power to the farmers for irrigating paddy.
The resolution said the constant increase in the cost of agriculture inputs and the subsequent non-remunerative minimum support price (MSP) had rendered the wheat-paddy cycle non-profitable.
Punjab farmers were reeling under a heavy debt to the tune of Rs 35,000 crore. Repeated sowing of paddy had resulted in the depletion of ground water and it was the need of the hour to switch over to other alternative crops.
The resolution said that the state farmers should be motivated to opt for diversification and that it was payback time and the Centre must acknowledge the “services rendered by our farmers (in making the country surplus in foodgrain) by giving them their due share.
Thufail P.T. and Teena Thacker, Asian Age Correspondents
New Delhi, 20 December 2012. “Mother, I want to live,” the victim of the gangrape whispered in her mother’s ears.
The 23-year-old, whose condition remains critical, opened her mouth for just a few minutes to express a strong desire to live.
Lying in Safdarjung Hospital’s ICU, with tears trickling down her eyes, she mumbled these words to her mother and brother. Her family is now in New Delhi.
Afterwards, she was wheeled away for a second surgery Wednesday morning. She was operated on Sunday night after admission.
Re-exploration was done Wednesday and her gangrenous intestine area removed. Doctors said “she is left with hardly any intestine now”. At least 150-200 cm intestine is needed for survival to absorb food.
Despite this, a ray of hope flickered as her vital organs continued to function properly.
Babanpreet Singh taking picture, Mandeep Singh queuing to pay respects to Guru Granth Sahib
More Singhanis with dastar or patka
Langar
Mandeep Singh taking picture
Kirtanis
Sikhs from other areas of Belgium and from the UK were also present
Guru Nanak Prakash Gurdwara
625 Rue Saint Leonard
B-4000 Liège
To see more Belgium and Netherlands gurdwara pictures :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157622147381380/
More Luik – Liège pictures to follow
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue
Three accused produced in court – PM terms incident very disturbing – High Court HC steps in
Tribune News Service & PTI
New Delhi, December 19. The police has detained one more person in the Delhi gang rape case. Akshay Thakur, one of the bus cleaners, was
detained in Aurangabad in Bihar and is being brought to Delhi. Another cleaner Raju is still at large.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described the assault against the girl in a moving bus here on Sunday night as “very upsetting”.
The 23-year-old girl, who was also tortured, underwent a fifth surgery and “continues to be critical but stable”, doctors attending on her at Safdarjung hospital said.
Taking suo motu cognisance of the dastardly crime, the Delhi High Court decided to monitor its investigation by directing police to carry a “high standard” probe and file the chargesheet only after the court’s perusal. “Nobody is safe,” the court said, as it pulled up the police, noting such incidents repeatedly happen in the city.
While the bus driver and main accused, Ram Singh, was yesterday sent to five-day police custody, the police produced Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta alias Kaloo and Ram’s brother, Mukesh in a local court today. Metropolitan Magistrate (MM) Namrita Aggarwal remanded Pawan, a fruit-seller, and Vinay, an assistant gym instructor in police custody for four days. Mukesh, who was allegedly driving the bus when the girl was being gang-raped, was sent to to 14-day judicial custody.
Before Aggarwal remanded Mukesh, Pawan and Vinay in different custodies, she sent them to Metropolitan Magistrate Sandeep Garg, who asked them if they wanted to be a part of a Test Identification Parade. Pawan and Vinay, however, refused to undergo the test, but Mukesh agreed to undergo the TIP tomorrow.
Doctors remove victim’s intestines
The victim underwent a fifth surgery and “continues to be critical but stable”, doctors attending on her at Safdarjung hospital said. Doctors performed an elective abdominal surgery to remove her gangrenous small intestine. They said she has lost most of her intestine and remains on “ventilatory support”.
Hang me, says one accused
Pawan Gupta, a fruit-seller and one of the six accused in the case, reportedly told the judge: “We did a horrible thing.” Another accused Vinay, an assistant gym instructor, told the magistrate: “Hang me till death. I beat up the boy, but I didn’t hit the girl.” The sixth accused, Raju, is still at large and police are looking for him in UP.
Washington, 19 December 2012. The US State Department has informed a New York court that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and two of its former directors general “enjoy immunity” and cannot be tried in the Mumbai terror attacks case.
“Upon consideration of this matter, and after a full review of the pleadings, the Department of State has determined that defendants Ahmed Shuja Pasha and Nadeem Taj are immune from suit in this case,” said an official letter sent to the US Department of Justice.
The State Department also pointed out that its determination was “not subject to judicial review”.
India, however, rejected the determination, saying that the US affidavit was “a matter of deep and abiding concern” and contradicted Washington’s public commitment to bringing “those responsible for the Mumbai terror attacks to justice”.
Six Americans were among the 166 killed in the Nov 26, 2008, terrorist attacks in the Indian city and later their relatives filed a case in a New York court, listing two former ISI chiefs among the accused.
Lashkar-e-Taiba leaders, Mohammed Hafiz Saeed, Zakiur Rahman, Sajid Mir and Azam Cheema are on the same list.
The complainants claimed that since the ISI was involved in the planning and execution of the attack, Mr Pasha and Mr Taj should be asked to appear before the court.
But on December 17, a State Department legal adviser, Harold Hongju Koh, informed the Department of Justice of its determination that both Mr Pasha and Mr Taj enjoyed immunity and, therefore, could not be called to a court in the United States.
“The residual immunity of a former official is based upon that official’s conduct and extends only to acts that individual took in an official capacity,” explained Mr Koh in a letter addressed to the US Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart Delery.
On December 17, Mr Delery submitted a 12-page affidavit in the court, saying: “In the view of the United States, the Inter-Services Intelligence is entitled to immunity because it is part of a foreign state within the meaning of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.”
The Department of State has also determined that the two former ISI chiefs were also “immune because plaintiffs’ allegations relate to acts that these defendants allegedly took in their official capacities as directors of an entity that is undeniably a fundamental part of the government of Pakistan,” he said.
“Because foreign sovereign immunity and foreign official immunity provide an adequate basis upon which to dispose of this case … the United States takes no position on the political question doctrine issues that are also presented in this case,” he added.
“In making this immunity determination, the United States emphasises that it expresses no view on the merits of plaintiffs’ claims. The United States strongly condemns the terrorist attacks in Mumbai and continues to believe that the Islamic Republic of Pakistan must take steps to dismantle LeT and to support India’s efforts to counter this terrorist threat,” the affidavit said.
A lawyer representing the ISI and its two former chiefs informed the court that the agency was a part of the Pakistani government and functioned under the Ministry of Defence.
The lawyer disagreed with the plaintiffs’ claim that the ISI was “not governed or authorised by Pakistani law” and was “not under the control of the Pakistani government”.
The US executive and legislative branches had “consistently treated the ISI as part of the Government of Pakistan,” the lawyer pointed out.
“The executive branch holds official meetings with representatives of the ISI, issues them diplomatic visas consistent with their status as Pakistani government employees and in all respects recognises the ISI as part of the Government of Pakistan,” the lawyer said.
“Congress likewise has specifically recognised that the ISI is part of the Pakistani government,” he argued.
The attorney also noted that so far no US court had concluded that a component of a foreign state lacked immunity because the foreign state allegedly did not control its actions.
“Plaintiffs’ theory is particularly unusual in the context of an intelligence agency, which, like a foreign ministry or defence ministry, serves a quintessentially sovereign purpose,” he argued.
http://dawn.com/2012/12/20/isi-and-its-former-chiefs-enjoy-immunity-says-us/
