NEW DELHI: India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh branded Thursday's attack by militants on an Indian police station and army camp in disputed Kashmir as “barbaric” but - without mentioning Pakistan - said it would not derail efforts to pursue peace through dialogue.
“This is one more in a series of provocations and barbaric actions by the enemies of peace,” Manmohan Singh said in a statement. “Such attacks will not deter us and will not succeed in derailing our efforts to find a resolution to all problems through a process of dialogue.”
A group of militants dressed in Indian army uniforms attacked an Indian police station located near the main city of Srinagar before attacking an army camp and killing eight people, Indian officials said.
The attack triggered calls in New Delhi for talks between the rival nations' leaders at the weekend to be called.
Just a day before the attack, Singh said he would meet Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly for highly anticipated talks.
The Pakistani Prime Minister had also earlier expressed his wish to meet his Indian counterpart at the UN General Assembly to resume peace efforts between the two South Asian countries.
The talks are expected to discuss rising violence in the Kashmir region and to promote cordial relations between the neighbouring countries.
While Pakistani officials have not yet outlined the agenda for the Sharif-Singh meeting, Indian officials have said the issue of terrorism would figure prominently in the talks.
Pakistani officials, however, underlined Mr Sharif’s commitment to improving ties with India, pointing out that despite a downturn in ties after clashes at the Line of Control (LoC), the prime minister had been pushing for a meeting with Singh in New York.
SRINAGAR: Militants stormed a police station and an Indian army base in Kashmir on Thursday, killing at least nine in an attack the state's chief minister said was aimed at derailing peace talks between India and Pakistan.
“This attack in Jammu is aimed at derailing the dialogue process,” said Omar Abdullah, chief minister of the Indian administered Kashmir.
The group of militants who attacked a police station and army camp in India administered Kashmir on Thursday had crossed the border from Pakistan the previous day, the state's chief minister said.
Omar Abdullah told reporters that the raid appeared designed to upset plans for a meeting in New York this week between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
“Given the history, timing and location, the aim is to derail the proposed meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart,” Abdullah said. “There are forces that are inimical to peace and want to derail any peace process.”
The militants, all wearing army fatigues, lobbed grenades and opened fire at the Hiranagar police station near the border with Pakistan, police said.
Around the same time attackers struck at an army base in the nearby Samba district in the southern-most part of the the Indian-administered state where a fierce gunbattle with soldiers took place and Indian tanks were deployed.
The attacks are set to overshadow a meeting by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly this weekend, the first top-level dialogue in three years.
Manmohan Singh condemned “the heinous terrorist attack” in a statement but said that that it “will not deter us and will not succeed in derailing our efforts to find a resolution to all problems through a process of dialogue”.
Militant attacks have a history of stalling stop-start peace efforts between the two neighbours, who have fought three wars since independence, because New Delhi accuses Pakistan of abetting the groups which strike Indian targets.
The NDTV channel reported that Thursday's attackers may have driven from the police station to the army camp in a hijacked truck, but other security sources cautioned that there might have been separate groups.
“I was inside the dhaba (a roadside eatery) when I saw three men entering the camp firing a barrage of bullets. They opened the gates and entered,” one eyewitness told reporters outside the army camp in Samba.
Gunshots could be heard ringing out from inside the walled compound, while two officers could be seen running out carrying an injured man over their shoulder.
At least five policemen and two civilians were killed in the first attack on the police station in Kathua district, a police officer told AFP, and at least two soldiers including an officer died in the second assault, a separate army source who asked not to be named confirmed.
Indian premier Singh confirmed on Wednesday that he would meet his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif despite calls from the opposition to take a hardline with Islamabad.
Formal peace talks known as the Composite Dialogue are currently off and India has been keen to downplay any expectation they might restart as a result of Sunday's talks.
“Primarily we will see whether the dialogue process that started between the two countries, that stopped and got derailed, can that be brought back on track,” Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid told reporters at the UN on Wednesday.
Kashmir, a picturesque Himalayan territory, is divided between India and Pakistan by a de facto border known as the Line of Control (LoC) but it is claimed in full by both countries.
NEW DELHI: Disgraced Indian Premier League founder Lalit Modi was Wednesday banned for life from holding any cricket post, three years after being thrown out of his own popular, but tainted, Twenty20 league.
The general body of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which met in Chennai, accepted the verdict of its disciplinary panel that found Modi guilty of “serious” acts of indiscipline and misconduct.
“The BCCI resolved that Mr Lalit Modi is guilty of committing acts of serious misconduct and indiscipline, and therefore he is hereby expelled from the board,” BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel said in a statement.
“He shall forfeit all his rights and privileges as administrator. He shall not in future be entitled to hold any position or office, or be admitted in any committee or any member or associate member of the BCCI.”
Modi was found guilty, among other things, of rigging bids during the franchise auction in 2010, selling media and internet rights without authorisation and secretly trying to create a rebel T20 league in England without the knowledge of the Indian and England boards.
The BCCI announced its decision soon after a last-ditch effort by Modi's lawyers to get the meeting put off was rejected by the Supreme Court earlier on Wednesday.
Modi, who now lives in self-exile in London, currently holds no post in the BCCI, having already been removed as IPL chairman and BCCI vice-president after the conclusion of the third edition of the tournament in 2010.
The 49-year-old scion of a business family, who is also being investigated by the government on corruption and money-laundering charges, has in the past denied all allegations against him.
The life ban is unrelated to the spot-fixing and betting scandals currently swirling around the IPL which has led to players, book makers and others being charged over their alleged involvement.
Gurunath Meiyappan, son-in-law of current BCCI chief N. Srinivasan and a former team principal of IPL side Chennai Super Kings, was among those charged with cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy on Saturday over the betting scandal.
Two players from the Rajasthan Royals team, international fast bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and upcoming spinner Ankeet Chavan, have been banned for life by the BCCI, after they were among those charged over the spot-fixing scandal.
The IPL, which began in 2008, features the world's top players signed up for huge fees by rich business houses and individuals in a glitzy mix of sport and entertainment.
NEW DELHI: Indian premier Manmohan Singh confirmed Wednesday he will meet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif this weekend in a major step towards better relations following rising tensions.
Singh said he will hold talks with Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the first such meeting in three years, amid heightened friction over a string of deadly military attacks across their border in disputed Kashmir.
“During my visit to New York, I... look forward to bilateral meetings with the leaders of some of our neighbouring countries, including Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan,” Singh said in a statement before leaving for the United States.
Singh will first head to Washington to meet President Barack Obama to try to strengthen economic ties between the two world's largest democracies including on nuclear power, before leaving for New York.
“Over the past decade, our relationship with the United States, which is one of our most important relationships, has transformed into a global strategic partnership,” his statement said.
New Delhi and Islamabad have been working behind the scenes in recent weeks to secure a meeting, which was in jeopardy after deadly skirmishes in recent weeks between their militaries. The attacks repeatedly broke a ceasefire in place since 2003 along the de facto border in Kashmir.
The picturesque Himalayan region is divided between India and Pakistan by the UN-monitored Line of Control (LoC), but is claimed in full by both countries. Two of their three wars have been fought over Kashmir.
The deadly flare-ups followed an ambush in August that killed five Indian soldiers along the LoC. India blamed the Pakistan army for the attack, a charge that Islamabad denied.
Since winning a general election in May, Sharif has been vocal in his desire for better relations with India.
Last month he urged both sides to work swiftly to shore up the 10-year ceasefire after India's defence minister hinted at stronger military action along the LoC.
Analyst K. G. Suresh said the incidents in Kashmir, along with attacks by Pakistani militants on Indian soil, were among issues expected to be raised at the meeting — set to be held at a New York hotel on Sunday.
But Suresh told AFP that talk of a resumption of peace talks as a direct result of the meeting was premature. The talks were halted in January, shortly after they had resumed, following a deadly flare-up at that time along the LoC.
“The meeting is definitely a huge step forward (to improved relations),”said Suresh of the Vivekanand International Foundation think-tank.
“The Indian PM has taken a calculated risk by agreeing to meet Sharif ahead of elections next year,” he added.
India's embattled ruling Congress party faces national elections next year and is under domestic pressure not to be seen as too soft on Pakistan.
The premiers of India and Pakistan last met in 2010 on the sidelines of a regional summit in Bhutan's capital Thimphu, with both sides reaffirming the importance of moving forward with dialogue.
Peace talks were suspended for three years after the 2008 attacks in Mumbai which killed 166 people and which India blamed on Pakistani militants.
India has been demanding that Pakistan speed up trials for militants on its side thought to have been behind the attacks.
Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Khalid Mehmood has advised the present PCB set-up against accepting any BCCI invitation to play a proposed tri-series with Sri Lanka in India later this year.
"I would advise the PCB officials to not run after the Indians and not try to reschedule the coming "home" series against Sri Lanka for the sake of this tri-series which is apparently the brainchild of the BCCI," Mehmood said.
The top officials of Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka Boards reportedly discussed the possibility of such a tri-series sometime in December in India on the sidelines of the Asian Cricket Council meeting in Chennai yesterday.
Media reports said a final decision had been deferred until the BCCI officials meet their South African counterparts next week to iron out a dispute over the itinerary of India's tour to South Africa this season.
Mehmood said PCB should not make compromises on its home series for the sake of accommodating the Indian board.
"We shouldn't say yes just because it now suits India. The BCCI never supports the PCB and it will be detrimental for us to revise our home series for their benefit," he said.
"If the PCB wants to play the tri-series and agrees to it than it should only be on condition that BCCI plays us in a bilateral series in the near future and we organise it," Mehmood, who was PCB Chairman in the 90s, added.
Mahmood, who has also remained the manager of Pakistan under-19 and senior teams which toured India in the past, said Pakistan needs to have a long term agreement with India to benefit its cricket.
"The BCCI has not been very supportive to us and if I recall they didn't pay us anything for the one-day series we played in India in December. They also owe us compensation for not touring Pakistan in 2009. So, now it is time we benefitted financially from any agreement with them," the former PCB chief said.
Chance of the tri-series going ahead has brightened with the Indian government's decision to issue visas to Faisalabad Wolves team to play in the Champions League Twenty20.
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People in riot-hit Muzaffarnagar left their houses fearing the worst, and are now in relief camps. (IE Photo)
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Lisarh represented all that was good in Muzaffarnagar, dubbed the sugar bowl of India. It had the prosperity arising from the region's agrarian boom, and in its demographics, it had two communities living and working together in peace.
Haji Samiuddin, 65, of Lisarh represented all that Muzaffarnagar could have been. Having toiled in his fields for decades, he had ensured his children got a good education and saw them become owners of a saw mill. The family business was booming, and they were thinking of expanding.
Samiuddin and his wife are now dead, killed and dumped inside their burning home. And Lisarh, a village that was on the cusp of becoming a town, will now never be the place it was.
***
Samiuddin's eldest son Saeed Hassan remembers each detail of the last time he met his father. It was the morning of September 7. Things had been worsening, and they had heard of the Jat mahapanchayat being held that day in Sakheda, 35 km away. "The Jats have gathered in lakhs. Our friends are leaving and so should we. These are dangerous times," Hassan had said.
Samiuddin found this incredulous. "We have lived here all our lives, half the youngsters here have grown up sitting in my lap. Nobody will harm us here," he said.
Hassan says he told him that it was no longer about the villagers. "This is about politics and things we are not connected to."
However, Samiuddin insisted on staying. "You go son, you have your children to think about," he said. "You mother and I were born here and come what may, we will die here."
His mother Hamida, age 58, had added, "I cannot leave your father's side. Jahan bhi jao khuda to sab jagah hai (Wherever you go, god is everywhere)."
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| Arms seized from Maoists are displayed at the district police headquarters after a gun battle near Padia, on the border of Orissa and Chattisgarh states on September 14, 2013.—AFP Photo |
BHUBANESWAR: Security forces killed 14 Maoists in a firefight in eastern India on Saturday, police said, marking the latest bloodshed in a long conflict in which the rebels have been battling to overthrow the government.
It was the single biggest rebel death toll in Orissa state from one incident and came amid an intense anti-Maoist campaign in the area conducted over the past month, police said.
“Fourteen rebels, including one woman cadre, were killed. We are awaiting further information,” Orissa state police director general Prakash Mishra told AFP.
There were no immediate reports of casualties among security forces, Mishra added.
The Maoists have grown from a rag-tag band of ideologues into a potent insurgent force, creating a so-called “Red Corridor” that stretches throughout central and eastern India.
Saturday's battle occurred in the Padia forest area of mineral-rich but impoverished Orissa state some 650 kilometers (400 miles) southwest of state capital Bhubaneswar.
The security forces, acting on a tip-off, were conducting a sweep of the area for rebels when they came across the Maoist camp, police said, adding authorities now were looking for more insurgents in the area.
The area where the battle took place was close to rebel-hit Chhattisgarh state. Police said a cache of explosives, arms and ammunition and Maoist literature was seized from the camp site.
Local media reported the rebel group camping in the forest was suspected of involvement in a May 25 ambush by Maoists of a convoy of Congress leaders in neighbouring Chhattisgarh state.
That attack in a remote tribal belt killed some 24 people, including 12 local Congress leaders and supporters.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the Maoists as the country's most serious internal security threat and there are frequent outbreaks of violence in areas in which the rebels are present.
Maoist rebels have been fighting in the forests and rural areas for what they say are the rights of tribal people, who have some of India's highest rates of illiteracy and poverty, and landless farmers for decades.
They demand land and jobs for the poor, and want to establish a communist society by toppling what they call India's “semi-colonial, semi-feudal” form of rule. The revolt is believed to have cost tens of thousands of lives.
The Maoists are believed to be present in at least 20 states but are most active in Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand and Maharashtra, occupying thousands of square kilometers (miles) of land.
Critics believe attempts to end the revolt through security offensives are doomed to fail, saying the real solution is better governance and development.
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| The PCB wouldn't mind such series involving India and Sri Lanka as it would generate a huge amount of advertisement revenues and benefit all three boards. -Photo by AFP
CHENNAI: The Indian cricket board could explore the possibility of hosting an ODI tri-series involving Pakistan and Sri Lanka later this year and the modalities are likely to be discussed during the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) meeting on Friday.
The officials from the three boards will be present at the meeting and there is a strong chance that the BCCI might propose to have a tri-series sometime in December in India.
PCB’s chief operating officer Subhan Ahmed, SLC secretary Nishantha Ranatunga and ACC chief Syed Ashraful Haq have arrived in the southern capital of Tamil Nadu for the meeting.
The ACC is headed by BCCI's president-in-exile N Srinivasan.
The ACC meeting assumes significance as it has been scheduled just two days before the proposed meeting between Cricket South Africa chief Haroon Lorgat and BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel in Dubai on the sidelines of an ICC board meeting to resolve the impasse over India's tour of South Africa.
The BCCI is presently in disagreement with Cricket South Africa (CSA) over the number of matches to be played in the series in November-December. India will play a short series against the West Indies in November and New Zealand tour will start from Jan 19.
If the tri-series takes place in between these two tours, then the South African board would be left with no other option but to host India for two Tests, three ODIs and a Twenty20 international from December and ending with the New Year's Test.
The tri-series would lead to rescheduling of Pakistan's home series against Sri Lanka in the UAE in December-January. Sri Lanka and Pakistan are set to play two T20 Internationals, five ODIs and three Tests from Dec 11 to Jan 20. The limited-overs series concludes on Dec 27.
The PCB wouldn't mind such series involving India and Sri Lanka as it would generate a huge amount of advertisement revenues and benefit all three boards. It has been reliably learnt that Subhan will hold discussions with the BCCI officials on the issue during the meeting.—Agencies
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NEW DELHI: The fast-track court's decision to give death penalty to the four convicts in the Delhi gang-rape case was welcomed by the legal community, which said due process had been followed.
Lawyers were quick to point out that the court's primary duty is to dispense justice to the victim by punishing the accused, so that the next of kin find succour and closure. The wider message conveyed through the punishment, acting as a deterrent to future offenders, is only the second aspect of sentencing, they argue, stressing the need to differentiate between the two.
Revolted by the brutality of the crime, the court gave death sentence on Friday while observing that courts cannot turn a blind eye to the need to send a strong message to perpetrators of such crimes.
Indicating one of the reasons for the decision, it said the "increasing trend of crimes against women can be arrested only once society realizes there will be no tolerance for any form of deviance against women, and more so in extreme cases of brutality such as this one; hence, the criminal justice system must instil confidence in people, especially women."
Noted lawyer Mukul Rohatgi said the decision is fully justified. "If ever there was a rarest of rare case, this is it. I had no doubt the court will give maximum sentence as it is fully justified and appropriate."
Rohatgi said sentencing in such cases has to serve as a deterrent because the situation in most Indian cities is alarming. "Even foreign tourists feel totally unsafe and it is against the ethos of India and Indian-ness. I only feel that the judgment should have come even earlier. But the important point is that attention should be focused on hundreds and thousands of such cases which are going on unnoticed and unsung. I think this judgment should open the eyes of the public, judiciary and police."
Supreme Court advocate Surat Singh expressed his satisfaction at the death penalty. "Given the brutality of the acts of all the convicts, right from the intention to rob, rape and kill, to the intention to destroy the evidence, this case can be rightly described as rarest of rare and fit for capital punishment. It will send a deterrent message to potential offenders and restore faith in the investigation, prosecution and judicial systems. This case is exemplifies successful probe, prosecution and trial."
Lawyer Gaurang Kant felt the sentencing would go a long way in sensitizing people to crimes against women. "Not to mention that Nirbhaya would feel emancipated. I hope this acts as a deterrent to the rising offences against women."
Justice R S Sodhi, a retired HC judge, agreed with the sentencing, saying in this case the "balance easily tilts towards aggravating circumstances warranting death penalty". Sodhi pointed out how each convict was involved in the brutality, and said the judge must have weighed the pros and cons beforee deciding. He, however, added, "I am not sure if death sentence is a deterrent. But yes, it is a swift punishment that leaves the victim's kin and society relieved. In case of life term people eventually forget."
Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaisingh was sceptical if the death penalty would be a deterrent, but felt police and the prosecution had met expectations. "Any sentence by a lower court has to be confirmed in HC. The convicts have the right to appeal. The question is does death act as a deterrent? There have been death sentences given earlier for rape and murder but still this case happened. It makes you wonder what's the purpose of a death sentence."
Lawyers were quick to point out that the court's primary duty is to dispense justice to the victim by punishing the accused, so that the next of kin find succour and closure. The wider message conveyed through the punishment, acting as a deterrent to future offenders, is only the second aspect of sentencing, they argue, stressing the need to differentiate between the two.
Revolted by the brutality of the crime, the court gave death sentence on Friday while observing that courts cannot turn a blind eye to the need to send a strong message to perpetrators of such crimes.
Indicating one of the reasons for the decision, it said the "increasing trend of crimes against women can be arrested only once society realizes there will be no tolerance for any form of deviance against women, and more so in extreme cases of brutality such as this one; hence, the criminal justice system must instil confidence in people, especially women."
Noted lawyer Mukul Rohatgi said the decision is fully justified. "If ever there was a rarest of rare case, this is it. I had no doubt the court will give maximum sentence as it is fully justified and appropriate."
Rohatgi said sentencing in such cases has to serve as a deterrent because the situation in most Indian cities is alarming. "Even foreign tourists feel totally unsafe and it is against the ethos of India and Indian-ness. I only feel that the judgment should have come even earlier. But the important point is that attention should be focused on hundreds and thousands of such cases which are going on unnoticed and unsung. I think this judgment should open the eyes of the public, judiciary and police."
Supreme Court advocate Surat Singh expressed his satisfaction at the death penalty. "Given the brutality of the acts of all the convicts, right from the intention to rob, rape and kill, to the intention to destroy the evidence, this case can be rightly described as rarest of rare and fit for capital punishment. It will send a deterrent message to potential offenders and restore faith in the investigation, prosecution and judicial systems. This case is exemplifies successful probe, prosecution and trial."
Lawyer Gaurang Kant felt the sentencing would go a long way in sensitizing people to crimes against women. "Not to mention that Nirbhaya would feel emancipated. I hope this acts as a deterrent to the rising offences against women."
Justice R S Sodhi, a retired HC judge, agreed with the sentencing, saying in this case the "balance easily tilts towards aggravating circumstances warranting death penalty". Sodhi pointed out how each convict was involved in the brutality, and said the judge must have weighed the pros and cons beforee deciding. He, however, added, "I am not sure if death sentence is a deterrent. But yes, it is a swift punishment that leaves the victim's kin and society relieved. In case of life term people eventually forget."
Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaisingh was sceptical if the death penalty would be a deterrent, but felt police and the prosecution had met expectations. "Any sentence by a lower court has to be confirmed in HC. The convicts have the right to appeal. The question is does death act as a deterrent? There have been death sentences given earlier for rape and murder but still this case happened. It makes you wonder what's the purpose of a death sentence."
