The Hindu – Sarabjit killing; Pakistan orders judicial probe

Anita Joshua

Islamabad, 2 May 2013.  Hours after Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh was declared dead at 1 am on Thursday, the Punjab Police slapped murder charges on the two inmates of Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail who brutally attacked him on April 26.

Punjab’s caretaker Chief Minister Najam Sethi also ordered a judicial enquiry into the attack and has asked for the report to be submitted within 15 days. He also assured Indian High Commissioner Sharat Sabharwal – who met him in Lahore during the day – that the guilty would be brought to book.

What transpired within the jail premises is still unclear with several versions being reported in the media.

However, from what the Foreign Office has been saying all week, Singh was injured during a “scuffle’’  with fellow inmates. In the statement put out on his death this morning, too, the Foreign Office mentioned the incident as a scuffle with fellow inmates.

According to the Foreign Office, Singh – who had been in a comatose state and on a ventilator for the last few days – died due to cardiac arrest. With Singh’s family raising doubts about the quality of treatment given to him, the Foreign office maintained that the best treatment available had been provided. “The medical staff at Jinnah Hospital had been working round the clock since his hospitalization to save his life. However, despite their best efforts, they could not save him.’’

Soon after Singh breathed his last, his body was shifted to the mortuary and post-mortem conducted this morning. Later, the body was handed over to officials of the Indian High Commission who have been stationed in Lahore since the attack. Meanwhile, landing clearance was granted to the special flight sent by India to take the body to Amritsar.

The Sarabjit story remained on the headlines through the day despite the country being in the midst of elections due on May 11. In a related statement, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said it was impossible to believe that a prisoner like Singh in a death cell in jail could be targeted in such a manner by prisoners without the “knowledge and support’’ of prison guards and the authorities.

“It was no secret that Sarabjit faced more threats than other prisoners on account of the charge that he was convicted of and yet his security was so completely compromised…. Those in Pakistan who take pride in their vengefulness must feel some shame today, if they are capable of that. Those elements in India who are no less vengeful, intolerant and fond of jingoism than their Pakistani counterparts would no doubt write
their own script now,’’ HRCP said in its statement.

Articulating the concern of the peace-with-India-lobby, HRCP said Singh’s death might undermine the hard work done by both countries to normalize relations. Stressing the need to work doubly hard to undo the damage caused to bilateral relations by Singh’s killing, HRCP added that if both countries could treat each other’s prisoners with some compassion instead of “exposing them to the worst of treatment reserved for
prisoners in their jails’’, then some good could come from the brutal murder.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/south-asia/pakistan-orders-judicial-probe/article4675967.ece

The Hindu – I’m sure Pakistan won’t fail to take note of verdict: Krishna

After Indian official sources pointed to the slow pace of prosecuting 26/11 masterminds

Special Correspondent

Tehran, 30 August 2012. On a day the Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence on Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunman in the Mumbai attacks, Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan, here to attend the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit, expressed their views on the issue of prosecuting the masterminds of the 2008 massacre.

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, when asked for his reaction, said: “I am sure Pakistan will not fail to take note of this” and added that he was sure the judiciary in Pakistan was similarly active. Mr. Krishna’s observations follow Indian official sources saying on Tuesday that the slow pace of prosecuting the Pakistani masterminds of the Mumbai attacks showed there was a “serious difference in how the Indian state reacts and how the Pakistani state fails to react.”

Hina Khar optimistic

Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar prefaced her comments by expressing optimism about possible talks on Thursday between Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the NAM Summit here.

“We are moving out of the trust deficit zone, and that is a pre-requisite for us to be able to really sit on the negotiating table and solve most important issues,” she told newspersons.

On Pakistan acting against the masterminds of the Mumbai attacks, Ms. Khar said: “Recently, the Pakistani High Commissioner in India had clearly articulated what the requirements are to move forward in that.

“Both India and Pakistan need to tackle their disputes and other issues in a more mature manner, so that they don’t continue to haunt the two countries and their governments,” she added.

“We’ve to move beyond”

But perhaps basing her comments entirely on reports by a section of the Indian media which put the entire blame for SMS and web images at Pakistan’s door for creating panic among people of the northeast working elsewhere in India, she said: “I think simply that we need to really find a more mature way to be able to handle all of these issues because they will continue to haunt us.”

“So, I am, in my position, very disappointed every time something reaches Pakistan through the media, because we believe that we have been able to invest in this relationship enough to expect a call from any counterpart if any such concern, suspicion arises. Because we have to move beyond this. You know, really, giving more fuel to a hostility type of narrative in each other’s media, I think, your media, really needs to become more positive,” she added.

But the official Indian reaction has been otherwise. Official sources have said the issue would not be raised in Thursday’s meeting as it was not a state-to-state issue. The answer lay in keeping a tab on web trends as the images had started circulating a week before panic set in leading to people from the northeast working and studying in some parts of the country, rushing back to their home States.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3836930.ece

The Hindu – Siachen was almost a done deal in 1992

Special Correspondent

Chennai, 9 June 2012. Pakistan and India had reached a near agreement in 1992 on the Siachen dispute after Islamabad assented to recording the existing troop positions in an annex, but the deal was never operationalised because the Indian political leadership developed cold feet.

Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said recently that it was time the two countries resolved the dispute. He said this during a visit to the region after an avalanche earlier this year on the Pakistani side killed more than 100 soldiers and civilians.

The text of the 1992 negotiating drafts — obtained and reproduced by The Hindu — shows just how close the two sides were to such a resolution two decades ago: the Pakistani delegation offered a proposal that met India’s demand of recording existing ground positions before withdrawal of troops from a proposed zone of disengagement.

The talks that year, the sixth round both countries had held on the issue, took place in New Delhi from November 2-6, 1992.

Pakistan’s proposal of indicating in an annexure the areas the armed forces of the two sides would vacate and redeploy to found immediate acceptance among Indian officials. The Indian delegation was led by N.N. Vohra, then the defence secretary.

“We had finalized the text of an agreement at Hyderabad House by around 10 pm on the last day”, Mr. Vohra, who is now the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, told The Hindu. “Signing was set for 10 am. But later that night, instructions were given to me not to go ahead the next day but to conclude matters in our next round of talks in Islamabad in January 1993”. “Of course, that day never came”, Mr. Vohra added. “That’s the way these things go,” he said.

Narasimha Rao was Prime Minister at the time and the BJP’s campaign against the Babri Masjid was in high gear. Siachen quickly receded from the government’s list of priorities.

The 1949 ceasefire agreement delineated the Line of Control until point NJ9842, after which, it said, it would run “thence north to the glaciers”. In 1984, fearful of adverse Pakistani moves, Indian soldiers moved north and eventually occupied most of the highest points on the glaciers. The ‘Siachen conflict’ was born.

The Indian side’s proposal dated November 3, 1992 contained the following elements: delineation of the Line of Control north of NJ 9842; redeployment of troops on both sides to agreed positions, but after demarcating their existing positions; a zone of disengagement subsequent to the redeployment, with both sides committing that they would not seek to intrude into this zone; a monitoring mechanism to maintain the peace in the ZoD.

Pakistan’s proposal was as follows: Both sides would vacate their troops from the triangular area between Indira Col in the west, Karakoram Pass in the east and NJ 9842; troops on both sides would withdraw to a point south of NJ 9842, to the pre-1972 Simla Agreement positions; neither side shall attempt to alter the status of the demilitarised triangle pending delineation of the LoC north of NJ 9842 by a joint commission.

The refusal to authenticate ground positions and the reference to Karakoram Pass — a point well to the east of NJ9842 and a red rag to the Indians — led to an impasse. As a way out, the Pakistani side, led by its defence secretary, offered the following compromise: “The armed forces of the two sides shall vacate areas and re-deploy as indicated in the annexure. The positions vacated would not for either side constitute a basis for legal claim or justify a political or moral right to the area indicated”.

Mr. Vohra said that by the time the talks concluded, an agreement had been reached which fully adhered to the Indian negotiating brief of troop positions being recorded one way or the other and that the Pakistani proposal that the LoC would run to the Karakoram Pass had been dropped. But the agreement was never signed.

In 2005, the two sides were once again said to be nearing agreement to demilitarize the region, but the deal fell through — Pakistan was no longer interested in demarcating the ground positions. After Pakistan’s Kargil adventurism, such a demarcation became for the Indian side a non-negotiable, especially to the Indian Army, along with a mechanism to monitor any intrusions into a demilitarized zone in the Siachen region.

On Monday, the two countries will hold yet another round of talks on Siachen with no sign of a softening of attitudes on either side.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3509787.ece?homepage=true

The Hindu – Solution to all issues through dialogue, says Gilani

“Pakistan willing to discuss all matters with India — Kashmir, Siachen or terrorism”

Anita Joshua

Islamabad, 24 April 2012. Amid calls for the demilitarization of the Siachen glacier, Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Monday reiterated his government’s belief in finding a solution to all issues through dialogue.

Addressing a conference in the capital, he said: “I strongly believe that better sense will prevail on both sides and we will resolve these issues through dialogue.”

Of the view that the “era of wars” is over, the premier said Pakistan was willing to sit with India and discuss all matters: be it Kashmir, Siachen or terrorism. It is in pursuit of this policy that he took the initiative and met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at an international conference, he pointed out.

In a related statement in Lahore on Sunday, cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan called for demilitarization of Siachen but differed with political rival and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s contention that Pakistan should take the initiative in withdrawing troops from the glacier that is the world’s highest battlefield.

Ever since an avalanche buried 135 soldiers of the 6 Northern Light Infantry in the Gayari sector of Siachen on April 7, demands for demilitarization of Siachen have gained currency within Pakistan with even the Chief of Army Staff Ashfaq Parvez Kayani weighing in. But the majority opinion is against a unilateral withdrawal by Pakistan with President Asif Ali Zardari himself speaking against it last Friday.

Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front leader Yasin Malik — who is on a visit to Pakistan — said in Lahore that his organisation would step up efforts to resolve the Kashmir issue with or without Pakistan’s help.

Apprehensive that the Kashmir issue was being put on the backburner, he expressed disappointment with India and the international community for their apathy; warning that Kashmiris would be forced to take up arms again if the two countries failed to resolve the issue.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3346651.ece