Andhranews

New Delhi, Sept. 25: The Army has so far not reacted officially to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s comments on the Kargil conflict in his newly-published book In the line of fire, but senior Army officials on Monday rubbished the Pakistani President’s claims that “freedom fighter groups” had received only “assistance” from regular units of the Pakistani Army during the Kargil conflict to “undo Indian adventurism”.

“Documents like identity cards, pay books, diaries and other identification papers fell into our possession that conclusively proved that it was only regular troops of the Pakistan Army’s Northern Light Infantry that infiltrated illegally into Kargil,” an Army official said. The official further said that two mountain divisions and two independent brigade-strength troops of the Indian Army had been used to dislodge the Pakistani forces from Kargil. The official also said that it was an established fact that there were thousands of Pakistani troops of the Northern Light Infantry involved directly in the conflict in which hundreds of Pakistani troops died.

Meanwhile, agency reports quoted top Indian Army sources as saying, “Indian Army had recovered 249 bodies (during the Kargil conflict), of which only five were accepted by Pakistan. In totality, there were 725 Pakistani casualties, including 45 officers and 68 Special Service Group personnel.”

Agency reports also quoted these sources as saying that seven battalions of the Pakistani Army’s Northern Light Infantry (more than 7,000) troops had been involved in the Kargil conflict. The reports also stated that arms recovered by Indian troops during the Kargil conflict included anti-aircraft guns, a stinger missile, heavy machine guns, high calibre mortars, rocket launchers and light howitzers.

Srinagar, Sept. 25: Suspected militants tossed a hand grenade into a running police jeep at Maharaj Bazaar here, on the first day of the fasting month of Ramzan on Monday, killing a woman police officer and wounding six others. The police and witnesses said that the assailants targeted the police Maruti Gypsy of the only all-women police station in Srinagar at crowded Naaz Crossing along Maharaj Bazaar at 1.40 pm killing officer Gulshan Akhter on the spot.

Her colleague, constable Shafee Akhter, policeman Shabir Ahmed, the driver of the vehicle, Zahoor Ahmed and three civilians, Shaboo, Mohammed Rafiq and Farooq Ahmed Gandroo were injured and were quickly taken to hospital by the police reinforcement. The condition of Ms Shafee is stated to be critical. The attack came amidst the talk of chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad pleading with the Centre to announce a unilateral ceasefire during Ramzan. He had, however, said recently that such a move could be possible only in case the militants publicly abjured violence and agreed to a negotiated settlement of the issues facing the State.

The Centre is reported to have rejected the ceasefire proposal in view of the strong opposition from the Army and other security forces combating militancy in J&K.Witnesses said that the grenade exploded inside the police Gypsy, causing the casualties. The police and paramilitary reinforcements laid siege to Maharaj Bazaar, adjoining Goni Khan, Hari Singh High Street and Sarai Bal in an attempt to catch the assailants but without any success.

Meanwhile, a gunmen abducted and subsequently murdered labourer Mohammed Ashraf Khan at Chatragul in southern district of Anantnag, the police said. A medical assistant, Mohammed Rafi, was also killed after seized at gunpoint by unidentified assailants at Gandoo.

Washington, Sept. 25: Pakistan Pervez Musharraf has said he joined the war on terrorism only because it was in the interest of the country and not because someone put a “gun” on his head and forced him into it. He also denied that he is essentially walking both sides of the line when it comes to fighting terror.

“No, not at all,” Gen. Musharraf said in an interview on NBC’s Today Show, responding to a query on whether he was forced to go along with the US in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. “That is not the case. It is very clear and explained in the book that we did whatever we did in the interest of Pakistan. I’m not doing anything specifically for the interest of others,” he said.

“Basically, it is in Pakistan’s interest that I took the decision and not — it’s not the case of somebody pointing the gun on my head or anything,” he said. “Because it’s in Pakistan’s interest, obviously it is — my heart is in it. The whole nation’s heart is in it... Obviously, I took a deliberate decision. It was a very serious decision that had to be taken.”

Islamabad, Sept. 25: Pakistan’s capital city of Islamabad remained abuzz with rumours of a coup on Sunday as a Pakistan-wide power outage affected normal life throughout the country. The fact that Gen. Musharraf underwent a medical check-up in Texas added to the speculation. Most people thought General Pervez Musharraf’s government had been dismissed in a coup, much like that of Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted from power while in New York.

President Musharraf was quick to respond in the US, saying there was no revolt to topple his government and that the unprecedented power outage in the country was not linked to any coup attempt. “Pakistan is not a banana republic and rumours about the overthrowing of the Pakistan government are nonsense, total nonsense,” he told reporters in Texas. “Such changes do not necessarily require a power breakdown,” he added.

Gen. Musharraf said he had talked to Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz about the power breakdown in detail and directed him to resolve the energy crisis at its earliest. Power supply has been restored to 80 per cent of the country and will soon be restored in the remaining areas, he said. Gen. Musharraf said he was in good health and had undergone a check-up. He strongly refuted all rumours about ill-health.

Experts say that in Pakistan breakdowns of such magnitude are very rare. In 2001, a similar power breakdown occurred but did not last as long as Sunday’s powercut. “This has never occurred before,” one could hear people telling one another. They attributed different meanings to this major breakdown. There were so many rumours that journalists made calls from newspaper offices to inquire about the “reality”.

Mr Shaukat Aziz told a reporter while visiting a Sunday bazaar in Islamabad that his question about a change of government did not warrant an answer. “Why do you ask about something that hasn’t occurred at all?” said Mr Aziz. According to Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) spokesman Shafqat Jalil, the power failure was caused due to a technical fault in the 500 KV transmission line from Mangla, which affected the supply line from Tarbela, Guddu and Jamshoro respectively.

It was due to this “technical fault” that the Tarbela and Mangla power stations could not supply power to Pakistan Punjab, NWFP and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, while a fault at the Jamshoro Power Station resulted in a suspension of power supply in Sindh and Balochistan, he said. Whatever the official version of this power breakdown, it was a good recipe for rumour-mongers.

They drew various conclusions, such as: Assemblies have been dissolved; or there was a coup against Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s government, or a major gas pipeline supplying fuel to power stations in Punjab and Sindh has been blown up by Nawab Bugti’s descendants. The situation remained uncertain as a result of which an overwhelming number of phone calls were received at newspaper offices.

The fact that transmissions of TV stations, both state-run and private, were also affected by this power failure also contributed to the uncertainty. “In people’s minds, pictures of the Thai Army taking over all major state buildings and offices were fresh,” said businessman Khalid Mehmood, adding, “Moreover, it has never happened before, especially in Islamabad, thus giving rise to rumours and misperception.”

New Delhi, Sept. 25: In a revolutionary first that pro-mises to solve India’s energy problems and reduce fuel bills along with its pollution levels, the Indian Railways are now running two trains on a home-grown mix of diesel and jatropha, the bio-fuel extracted from the jatropha shrub.

It could be the fuel of the future, given the current global energy shortages and rising fuel prices. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, who has set upon the task of growing jatropha with a missionary zeal, last year became the first Chief Minister to use jatropha diesel in his official vehicle. The state government also plans to replace imported diesel with jatropha fuel for all state-owned vehicles using traditional diesel and petrol by 2007.

All that is being done on a more macro scale by the Indian Railways, one of the world’s largest rail networks. The South East Central Railway is already running two narrow gauge trains in Chhattisgarh that travel 300 km a day, to and from the state capital Raipur to Rajim (about 120 km in total), and from Raipur to Dhamtari (about 180 km).

“The Railways has been mixing up to five per cent jatropha bio-fuel with traditional diesel since July 22 for two trains — the Raipur-Rajim and Raipur-Dhamtari. The experiment is proving to be a great success, and engines are working smoother and jerk free,” said Ajay Kumar Jaiswal, spokesman of SECR’s Raipur division.

“After a periodic review of three-six months, the railways will increase the quantum of bio-fuel mix with diesel and will seriously consider it for use on long-distance trains to save huge expenditure on imported diesel,” the spokes man said.

Lucknow, Sept. 25: Those with sons, daughters, wives and relatives better beware. The Bahujan Samaj Party does not relish leaders with relatives and more than half-a-dozen MPs and MLAs have lost their jobs in the party merely because they had overbearing relatives.

One of the first leaders to be expelled from the BSP because of his relatives was former MP and mafia don D.P. Yadav. Mr Yadav, who had been ushered into the party with much fanfare, made the “mistake” of announcing at a public meeting that his son Vikas — an accused in the Jessica Lal and Nitish Katara murder cases — would contest the Assembly elections as a BSP candidate. Ms Maya-wati, however, did not relish this overconfidence of the former MP and promptly showed him the door.

“This is a party policy and we will not flout it. If Ms Mayawati feels that a relative deserves to be promoted, she does so — after all she gave a ticket to former minister Ramvir Upadhya-ya’s brother, Mukul Upadhyaya. But Ms Mayawati will never promote family members at the cost of party interest,” says a senior BSP functionary.

New Delhi, Sept. 25: Sudden warming up of Janata Dal (United) leader George Fernandes with Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav has forced the SP’s ally, the CPI(M) to put the CPI(M)-SP ties under review.

The CPI(M) central committee has directed the UP State committee to meet and discuss the new situation that has arisen. In the light of the recommendations made by the UP state committee, the CPI(M) politburo would meet to decide on the issue.

Mumbai, Sept. 25: Designated Tada court judge Pramod Kode on Monday found two close associates of Tiger Memon guilty in the 1993 Mumbai serial bo-mb blasts case based on the evidence of eyewitnesses and the confessional statements that the two men ga-ve the police. Tiger Memon is the prime conspirator.

The guilty, Mohammed Iqbal Shaikh and Nasim Barmare, were accused of throwing hand grenades that failed to expl-ode at Sahar International Airport on March 12, 1993. No one was injured in that incident.

New Delhi, Sept. 25: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has denied claims by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi that the election to the Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat, vacated by its president K. Chandrasekhar Rao, will be a referendum on Telangana. CPI(M) state secretary for Andhra Pradesh B.V. Raghvulu, currently in the capital in connection with his party’s Central committee meeting, said this while interacting with mediapersons from AP on Monday.

Mr Raghvulu said that if the TRS and the Congress want this to be a referendum, then both the TRS and Congress should resign from all the Assembly and Lok Sabha seats in Telangana and then recontest to establish any referendum on this subject. He, however, ruled out his party contesting if and when the byelections for the Karimnagar seat takes place.

The seat had been vacated on Saturday by TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao after he met Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and confirmed his resignation. Mr Raghvulu also denied Mr Rao’s claims that CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury had tacitly agreed on the proposal to bring in the bill for a separate Telangana with the BJP’s support.

Mr Raghvulu said that Mr Yechury only explained to Mr Rao that “so many bills, like the creation of three States in the NDA regime and the bill for the Andhra Legislative Council, have been passed despite our opposition. And this is a fact that none can deny.”

Islamabad, Sept. 25: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is of the view that both he and the then Indian Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, had been “humiliated” at the Agra summit in 2001 “by someone above” the two of them.

Writing about the failed summit in his book In The Line of Fire, released in the US on Monday, Gen. Musharraf discloses that twice he had decided to cut short his stay in Agra after the Indians had “backed out” of what had been agreed earlier. However, he had been persuaded by his diplomats not to do so.

According to his account of the events in Agra, after two prolonged interactions with Mr Vajpayee, a “balanced” joint declaration acceptable to both of them was drafted. It contained a condemnation of terrorism and recognition that Kashmir needed to be resolved.

“The signing ceremony was scheduled for the afternoon (of July 17) in the hotel J.P. Palace, where Prime Minister Vajpayee was staying and where we held our dialogue. Preparations in the hotel were complete, down to the table and two chairs where we would sit for the signing ceremony,” the Pakistan President writes.

Barely an hour later he was informed by his foreign minister, Mr Abdul Sattar, that “the Indians have backed out” as their Cabinet had rejected the draft. There was no Indian Cabinet in Agra and “I became very angry, and my impulse was to leave for Islamabad immediately”, Gen. Musharraf writes.

After his diplomats calmed him down, Gen. Musharraf says he allowed them to try for a redraft and cancelled his visit to Ajmer that evening. “The redrafting took another two to three hours of intense haggling over words and sentences. But ultimately my team returned, signalling success. They showed me the new draft which I approved,” he writes, adding that he had told his wife that the Agra declaration would hit the headlines the next day.