Lashkar elements behind J&K trouble: PC

Raghvendra Rao 

New Delhi : A day after saying there were “reliable reports” that “anti-national elements” were “trying to exploit the situation” in Kashmir, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram today said these elements were “clearly linked to the LeT”.

“Anti-national elements are clearly linked to the LeT. We think it is the LeT that is active in Sopore area. Two militants were killed in an operation on June 25 in Sopore. We think that those two militants also belong to the LeT,” Chidambaram said.

Asked if he planned to visit J&K any time soon, Chidambaram said, “Not immediately. At the moment, the chief minister, the entire administarion and the police are engaged in restoring law and order. Today has been a relatively quiet day, except for one incident of minor stone pelting.”

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today chaired a high-level meeting to review the situation in the Valley.

Chidambaram was present, along with Defence Minister A K Antony and top government officials.

“We are reiterating our instruction to the paramilitary, the CRPF, to exercise maximum restraint,” Chidambaram said. However, when the state government imposes curfew, the curfew must be enforced. The state government does not enforce a curfew for the curfew to be violated. The curfew must be enforced. Therefore the CRPF will assist the J&K police in enforcing curfew.”

Chidambaram underscored that the Centre stood “committed to support the state government in restoring law and order”.

The minister also promised “full protection” to the Amarnath Yatra. “Adequate security forces will be provided and I sincerely hope that no one in Jammu and Kashmir will allow himself or herself to be misled into doing anything that will even remotely disrupt the yatra. We are sincerely hoping that the Amarnath Yatra will go on peacefully and we are committed to providing full security to the Amarnath Yatra,” he said.

“We are asking the chief minister and the minister of the state government to visit the disturbed area so that there can be some political action along with action taken by the security forces. We are confident that the state government will be able to restore law and order.”

On the direction to paramilitary forces to exercise restraint while faced with stone-pelting mobs, Chidambaram said that though the government was of the view that people had “no right to pelt stones” and “no right to riot”, “we should handle the situation sensitively”.

“In three of the incidents, according to preliminary inquiries, the CRPF had to fire rubber bullets or fire in self-defence,” Chidambaram said. “In two cases, their camps were attacked, they fired in self-defence. In one case, the vehicle was burnt, they jumped out of the vehicle and had to fire in self-defence. In every other case, the CRPF was working jointly with the J&K police, not independently, and they were under the control of the J&K police. It was a J&K police officer who would have issued the command... At the same time we have made it clear the curfew will be enforced. That means, no rioting, no stone-pelting.”

Talking terror in Pakistan

Raghvendra Rao

Islamabad : All it takes is an hour-long drive across Islamabad to illustrate that if there is one common concern that binds India and Pakistan today, it is the looming spectre of terrorism. And having suffered a spate of bomb explosions in the past couple of years, Islamabad is not taking any chances.Having replaced Karachi as Pakistan’s capital in the 1960s, Islamabad is a present-day fortress with a police checkpost every few hundred metres, particularly in the area surrounding the Pakistan Secretariat. In an hour’s drive around the city, one’s vehicle is likely to be halted at least a dozen times. Each time, a policeman goes through the drill of checking the vehicle, and questions the driver about the identities of the passengers.
Hotel Serena, where the recently concluded SAARC Interior Ministers’ Conference took place, is an example of how Islamabad has responded to the possibility of terror attacks. To thwart any future attempts of a repeat of the 2008 Marriott Hotel bombing, an elaborate multi-layered security mechanism has been put in place. Besides manual checking, this includes electronic sensors to run a complete scan on vehicles, right at the outer perimetre of the complex.
Guests are made to disembark a fair distance away from the main entrance to the hotel lobby. They have to clear multiple security checkpoints including manual frisking and baggage screening. Only a handful of privileged guests, mostly politicians and foreign diplomats, get the facility of being driven right upto the entrance to the lobby.
Clearly, the 26/11 Mumbai carnage is still the biggest talking point in Pakistan whenever the strained ties between the two neighbours make their way to a discussion table. Many in Pakistan still believe that their country had nothing to do with what happened in Mumbai in November 2008.
“The day 26/11 attacks happened, there were only two theories that were being talked about in Pakistan. One, that the attack had been orchestrated by the US to jeopardise the significant strides both the neighbours were taking towards normalisation of relations at that point in time. Two, that India itself had engineered the strikes to discredit Pakistan in the international community,” says a Pakistani journalist, adding that Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist from the 26/11 attacks, is not a Pakistani national. “His father was a peon in the Foreign Ministry who served in Nigeria for some time, where Kasab was born. So technically, he is a Nigerian national,” he reasons.
But terror, 26/11, mistrust and hostilities apart, the mere mention of your Indian nationality gets the red carpet rolled out. “Isme koi shaq nahin ke dono mulkon ke awaam ek doosre se mohabbat kartey hain. Yeh sirf dono taraf ki siyasat hai jo dilon ko judne nahin dena chahti,” says Maqbool, a cab-driver from Rawalpindi who also runs a rent-a-car service in Islamabad.
Tell a local shop-owner that you have come from India and chances are that you will walk away with substantial discounts. A visit to Saeed Book Bank, probably Islamabad’s biggest and most well-stocked bookstore, in the Jinnah Supermarket area, reveals that terror continues to dominate the mindspace of the thinking Pakistani. Rows after rows of books dealing with terrorism in Pakistan and Afghanistan line up the shelves. Interestingly, late Benazir Bhutto’s niece Fatima’s book Songs of Blood and Sword: A Daughter’s Memoir is available here in Indian currency since the edition has been printed in India. Jaswant Singh’s book on Jinnah has already sold over 4,000 copies in English and is now available in Urdu. Oxford, in fact, has now come out with a Pakistani edition of the book which is still doing brisk business.
The word “Kashmir”, too, pops up every now and then across Islamabad — from signboards indicating the direction of the “Kashmir Highway” to a “Kashmir Chowk” in Islamabad city to a “Kashmir Restaurant” in a quiet upmarket shopping area to the AJK (Azad Jammu and Kashmir) numberplates on vehicles.

Intentions fine, outcomes key: Chidambaram to PaK

Raghvendra Rao 

Islamabad : Asking Pakistan to hunt down and prosecute more people behind the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram today said the two countries had agreed to “address the situation with the seriousness it deserves” and he was returning home “with the conviction that this will be done”.To try and reduce the “trust deficit”, both sides sought to present a united front against terror.
Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik promised a “logical end” to the 26/11 trial currently underway in his country. And Chidambaram said: “We are both agreed that the outcome will be good for both countries. Nobody is questioning the intentions. We are looking at the outcomes. Outcomes alone will decide if we are on the right track.”
Addressing the media with Malik at the conclusion of the SAARC Interior Ministers’ Conference, Chidambaram listed the “outcomes” as vigorous investigation and follow-up of 26/11 leads, bringing to book the masterminds and handlers of the attack, and ensuring that terrorists don’t have a free run.
Malik said the FIA of Pakistan and CBI of India would interact on terror and the 26/11 attacks.
Chidambaram did not say whom New Delhi wants to be prosecuted in Pakistan. But Indian authorities had earlier pointed to Lashkar-e-Toiba founder Hafiz Saeed.
“We know that seven people are being prosecuted in the case. How far the prosecution has progressed is for the Pakistan government to say.” Observing that the trial was adjourned for a week today, Chidambaram said: “We think more people were behind the attacks and more people should be prosecuted. That point has been made to the Pakistani government and as I said, I wish to remain positive on the outcome of the meeting with Rehman Malik.”
When a Pakistani journalist pointed out that there was a view within the Pakistani establishment that India was taking a “myopic view” of Indo-Pak relations by just concentrating on Hafiz Saeed, Chidambaram said: “Recognising that the process was interrupted was not myopic by any standards. That is a reality. Now, we are trying to pick the threads again. The Foreign Ministers are talking to each other, the Prime Ministers have met. When Home or Interior Ministers meet, obviously the focus will be terrorism.”
Minutes after Chidambaram’s remarks, Malik stated that “no act of terrorism will be allowed from Pakistan”.
In what appeared to be comments on Pakistani-American terror suspect David Coleman Headley and failed Times Square bomb plotter Faisal Shahzad, Malik said:”Even a father cannot control a son sometimes. If some Pakistani, or for that matter Indian or Bangladeshi, has gone to Europe or any other country at the age of three or four and if he becomes a terrorist, what is the fault of that country or that family?Unfortunately, it is the mindset. President Zardari has often said the mindset in the regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan need to change.”
Addressing the SAARC meeting, Malik said “terrorism knows no political boundaries” and “Pakistan is the worst victim of terrorism”. Listing the sacrifices made by Pakistan Army and other law enforcers, Malik said that but for them, India and Bangladesh would have been exposed to Taliban designs.
On the terror dossiers handed over by India, Malik said action will be taken against whoever is found guilty. “We are not here to create hurdles in investigations. India has extended the hand of friendship to Pakistan and we accept it. We have also extended our hand of friendship.”
Stating that Pakistan authorities respected decisions of Indian courts, Malik said India should also reciprocate by respecting judgments of the Pakistan judiciary.
He dismissed the charge that the trial of seven 26/11 accused, including Lashkar’s Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah, was “too slow”.
Earlier, in his opening remarks, Chidambaram noted with “satisfaction” that Malik “devoted a considerable part of his opening remarks to the subject of terrorism, especially to the fallout of the 9/11 attack in New York and the 26/11 attack in Mumbai”.
He said only “fullest cooperation” among SAARC countries would place them in a position to “effectively tackle the grave threat of terrorism in our region”.
“It is incumbent upon us to ensure that the instruments and resources at our disposal are put to best possible use in our fight against terrorism. We need to examine whether existing conventions at our disposal have been effective and, if not, we need to understand why. We also need to cooperate with each other in sharing information on potential terrorists and planned acts of terrorism, and all other forms of criminal activity, in order to create a more secure environment,” he said.
Chidambaram said India was ready to host a meeting of the high-level group of experts to strengthen the SAARC Anti-Terrorism Mechanism. The meeting is slated to be held in New Delhi in January 2011.

Pak too seeks voice samples — for trial of Lakhvi & Co

Raghvendra Rao Posted online: Sun Jun 27 2010, 02:27 hrs

Islamabad : Unable to secure conviction of several terror accused in recent months, Pakistan, which is trying seven people, including Lashkar’s Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, for their involvement in the 26/11 attacks, is suggesting that India help in bringing this case to a “logical conclusion”.The Sunday Express has learnt that the Indian demand for voice-samples of these seven accused, who are lodged in Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, has been met with an almost identical demand by Pakistan.
Arguing that it needs all the evidence it can to get the seven convicted, Pakistan is seeking voice-recordings of the men who were talking to the 26/11 gunmen.
“Around 350 people have been acquitted in Pakistan in terror-related cases in the past one year. Despite a tough law against terror, the Pakistan government is finding it difficult to secure convictions,” sources said.
India is learnt to have conveyed its “anguish” over the pace of the trial of Lakhvi and others.

Chidambaram in Pak with 26/11 reminder: Need for a response

Raghvendra Rao Posted online: Sat Jun 26 2010, 08:20 hrs

Islamabad : Hours before his scheduled meeting with Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram today said he intended to convey to Islamabad the “gravity of issues”, the “need for a response” and that “the time had come for Pakistan to address issues with the seriousness they warrant”.Speaking to reporters on board a special flight to Islamabad, Chidambaram, referring to the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, said: “I intend to take the opportunity to discuss the matters that have concerned us for 18 months or more.”
He, however, stressed that India was not going to say anything in its bilateral interaction with Pakistan that could cast a shadow on the SAARC Interior Ministers’ Conference.
Asked whether he intended to deliver a message to Pakistan during this visit, the first by an Indian Home Minister in over three decades, Chidambaram said he only intended to raise some matters “politely and firmly”.
On whether Lashkar-e-Toiba founder Hafiz Saeed was likely to figure in his talks with Rehman, he said, “Hafiz Saeed is one among them. There were controllers, there were handlers (during the 26/11 attacks). We need to know what action they (Pakistan) intend to take against them. These matters cannot be ignored forever. Somebody has to address these issues sometime or the other.”
Confirming that India was hoping to get voice samples of LeT leaders like Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, so that it could match them with the handlers who were in touch with the 10 terrorists who attacked Mumbai, Chidambaram said, “Surely they can give us the voice samples of the handlers. It is universally acknowledged that the handlers were in Pakistan. We think we know who the handlers were. Surely, they can give us voice samples. We have recordings on our side.”
On the matter of voice samples, he also said that the Pakistan government had, in the past, conveyed that some of the people “had declined to give their voice samples”. Stating that the matter was likely to discussed during the talks, he recalled that at one point of time he suggested that Pakistan give the voice samples to a third country for forensic analysis.
Asked whether he would raise Pakistani-American terror suspect David Coleman Headley’s role in the 26/11 strikes, Chidambaram said, “Not directly. We have got information on Headley. I will use that information subject to the limits under which we have gathered it.
Chidambaram, who flew into the Chaklala air base on VT-BSF (the special plane of the BSF), was received by Rehman Malik who then escorted him out in a chopper.
A while later, Malik received Chidambaram at the Interior Ministry office in the Pakistan Secretariat where the latter inspected a police guard of honour. Both leaders then had a one-on-one meeting for 40 minutes.
Chidambaram also visited the Pakistan Foreign Office where he met Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

Ahead of Indo-Pak talks, MHA terror alert

Raghvendra Rao

New Delhi : Two days before the Home Ministers of India and Pakistan meet for bilateral talks on the sidelines of the SAARC Home Ministers’ Conference in Islamabad, the Indian government on Wednesday issued an advisory to state governments cautioning them against possible terror strikes by “groups inimical to the ongoing Indo-Pak dialogue”.Sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) told The Indian Express that while a general advisory, based on intelligence intercepts and reports suggesting a credible terror threat in the run up to the Indo-Pak bilateral engagement, was issued on Wednesday, the Ministry was likely to dispatch a “more specific and detailed advisory” on June 24.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram is slated to fly to Islamabad on June 25 and have a bilateral meeting with his Pakistan counterpart Rehman Malik the same day. Union Home Secretary G K Pillai and Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, along with Intelligence Bureau Chief Rajiv Mathur, reached Islamabad on Wednesday to engage in talks with their respective counterparts on the Pakistan side.
“There are intelligence reports that indicate that certain groups inimical to the ongoing Indo-Pak dialogue are planning major terror strikes in the days leading to the meeting of the Home Ministers of both the countries with an objective of derailing the talks. We have advised the states to take all caution,” an MHA official said. The advisory has been sent to all the states except those in the Northeast region, sources said.
The specific advisory which the MHA plans to issue on Thursday will list out the “potential targets” and is also expected to have more details about what to look out for, sources said. “The information we have got is being analysed right now. The second advisory will be detailed in nature and will offer security agencies a much clearer picture about what to anticipate and prepare for,” a source said.
Significantly, the February 13 bomb blast in Pune’s German Bakery had raised similar concerns in the country’s security establishment since the incident happened just 11 days before the Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan were to meet for bilateral talks in New Delhi. This time, too, there is a view that some groups may go all out to perpetrate a terror strike in India in a bid to jeopardise the talks.

PC to do 'straight talk' with Malik

Raghvendra Rao 

New Delhi : India will engage in some “straight talk” with Pakistan when Union Home Minister P Chidambaram meets his Pakistan counterpart Rehman Malik in a one-on-one meeting on June 25 on the sidelines of the SAARC Interior Ministers’ Conference.According to sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), matters related to terrorism are expected to dominate the bilateral engagement between the two Home Ministers. “We will have to see what the Pakistan side has to say on terror-related issues. The 30-40 minute interaction between both the Home Ministers is likely to witness some straight talk from the Indian side,” sources told the The Indian Express, adding that “too much” should not be expected in terms of “concrete outcomes” from this meeting.
In addition to reiterating its demand for the voice samples of Lashkar-e-Toiba founder Hafiz Saeed and commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi so that it could match them with the voices of the handlers of the 10 terrorists who attacked Mumbai on November 26, 2008, the Indian side, sources said, was also likely to renew its demand seeking the trial of Hafiz Saeed for his alleged role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
Chidambaram is also expected to drive home the message that Pakistan needed to expedite the process of bringing the real perpetrators of the 26/11 attacks to justice. “If they do not bring the others to trial, then I would have to conclude reluctantly and regretfully that they are dragging their feet,” Chidambaram had said in January this year. “Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi is one of the masterminds. There are others. We know their names and Pakistan also knows their names.”
Pakistani-American terror suspect David Coleman Headley, too, is likely to figure in the talks between the two Home Ministers, with Chidambaram expected to share fresh information on Headley’s Pakistan link and his role in the 26/11 strikes. With the National Investigation Agency (NIA) having recently questioned Headley in the United States, sources said the Indian side was now armed with fresh information on Headley, who has already pleaded guilty to his involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
With Indian security agencies reporting a sharp rise in the infiltration attempts across the Line of Control in Jammu & Kashmir, Chidambaram is expected to take up this matter with his Pakistan counterpart as well.
Chidambaram, who will fly to Islamabad in a special plane on June 25, is slated to make a courtesy call on Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmoud Qureshi.
Home Secretary G K Pillai along with Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and other government officials will fly to Islamabad in a special plane on June 23. Both Pillai and Rao are slated to have meetings with their Pakistan counterparts on June 24.