India - Pakistan Crisis

Top 146. Mar 6, 2002 12:37 AM

» JenL_2 - Re: India turmoil

In response to message posted by BPyles:

Betty - found any substantiation for our ISI suspicions of instigating the India Muslim-Hindu riots? Apparently India hasn't as yet...from 3/5 Times of India:

No proof yet on ISI link with Sabarmati attack: Officials

SIDDHARTH SRIVASTAVA

NEW DELHI: There is no evidence yet of the ISI's involvement in the attack on Sabarmati Express in Gujarat, say intelligence officials.

Defence Minister George Fernandes on Tuesday blamed "outside forces, including the ISI" for engendering the attack on the train. Home Minister L K Advani, Minister of State for Home I D Swamy, BJP President Jana Krishnamurthy and the spokesperson of the Ministry of Extenal Affairs have in various forums talked of the role of the ISI and the underworld in the riots in Gujarat as well as the attack on the Sabarmati Express.

However, unlike the December attack on Parliament or the attack on the American Center in Kolkata where the involvement of international terrorist organisations was proved beyond doubt, there is no concrete evidence yet to link the Gujarat violence to outside forces, say intelligence officials.

Minister of State Omar Abdullah quickly withdrew his statement that the riots were due to "local factors" and later issued a clarification that his utterances were in a personal and not official capacity. There were reports from Kolkata that some terrorists linked to the Gujarat carnage had been arrested, but the reports were denied by the government.

Coincidentally, underworld don Aftab Ansari who was deported from the UAE recently is currently held by the Gujarat police, and according to sources, did not know about the attack.

Intelligence sources here say that while there are several indications that the attack on the Sabarmati Express was pre-medidated, they have nothing to link it to the ISI and the underworld.

Indeed, some officials privately admit that the government trying to play the "foreign hand" may be an attempt to shield itself.

Further, say sources, the ISI itself is not the force it used to be, given the recent purge in the agency carried out by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. The ISI is also reportedly starved for funds, with most underworld dons who financed its activities now shying away from the organistion. The Pakistan government too has reportedly cut financial support, given the huge expenditure being incurred for the deployment of forces along the Indian border.

....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Provocation Helped Set India Train Fire

Top 147. Mar 6, 2002 7:56 AM

» JenL_2 - Re: India turmoil

In response to message posted by BPyles:

Have talked with two more Indian cyberfriends in Yahoo chat, one Hindu and one Muslim, about the current Muslim-Hindu violence in India. Both are moderate and have said before that they're Indian first, and their religion second. Both said that although there is always the possibility of Pak ISI or militant group instigation.....the violence could have errupted spontaneously also....it's happened before. Both hope that the violence is stopped soon, and that an agreement is reached between the extremist Hindu and Muslim groups about Ayodhya. I agreed and wished them and India well, but I told them that I still suspected some Pak instigation of the violence.

This from 3/6 WashingtonPost.com:

Official Faults Hindu Actions, Muslim Reactions for Incident That Led to Carnage

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, March 6, 2002; Page A10

GODHRA, India, March 5 – For two days, as the Sabarmati Express snaked across northern India, some Hindu activists in cars S-5 and S-6 carried on like hooligans. They exposed themselves to other passengers. They pulled headscarves off Muslim women. They evicted a family of four in the middle of the night for refusing to join in chants glorifying the Hindu god Ram. They failed to pay for the tea and snacks they consumed at each stop.

When the train pulled into this hardscrabble town in western India on the morning of Feb. 27, the reputation of its rowdiest passengers preceded it. When they refused to pay for their food, Muslim boys among the vendors at Godhra station stormed the train.

When the confrontation was over, 58 Hindu passengers – mostly women and children – were dead, incinerated by a fire that consumed cars S-5 and S-6. In retaliation, mobs of enraged Hindus descended on Muslim communities across Gujarat state, igniting riots that killed more than 500 people, India's worst religious violence in a decade.

Indian officials have characterized the riots as Hindu rage for an attack on innocent activists. However, interviews with passengers on the train, witnesses to the incident and police and railway officials suggest that the train fire was not a premeditated ambush by young Muslims, but rather a spontaneous argument, provoked by the Hindu activists, that went out of control.

"Both sides were at fault," said a police official here, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The provocation was there and the reaction was strong. But no one had imagined all this would turn into such a big tragedy."

B.K. Nanavati, the deputy police superintendent in Godhra, said the investigation does not support the contention by Gujarat's chief minister, Narendra Modi, that the assault on the train was a "terrorist attack."

"It was not preplanned," Nanavati said. "It was a sudden, provocative incident."

The confrontation illustrates the volatile mixture of religion, history and extremist politics that plague India, a Hindu-dominated but officially secular nation of 1 billion people. In 1947, when India achieved independence and was partitioned to create the Muslim nation of Pakistan, thousands of Hindus fleeing Pakistan settled in Godhra. Enraged that Muslims in Pakistan had evicted them, they vented their anger at Godhra's Muslims, burning their homes and businesses with truckloads of gasoline.

Since then, government officials have deemed the city one of the country's most "communally sensitive" places. In the 1980s and again in 1992, it was wracked by riots, some started by Muslims and others by Hindus.

Today, the population of 150,000 is almost evenly split between Hindus and Muslims, who live in segregated communities separated in places by the train tracks. There is little interaction between the groups, which regard each other with suspicion.

Hindus, who question the depth of the Muslims' loyalty to India, refer to the other side of town as Pakistan. The Muslims contend they are mistreated by the local Hindu-dominated government.

Enter the World Hindu Council, whose cadres want to transform India into a Hindu nation with limited minority rights. The group, part of a coalition of Hindu-nationalist organizations that includes the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, favors a confrontational approach to push its agenda.

At council rallies, members brandish tridents and swords – symbols from Hindu mythology – and shout Hindu slogans. And in 1992, the group led a mob of Hindus who destroyed a 16th-century mosque in the eastern town of Ayodhya. Since then, the council's followers have made pilgrimages to Ayodhya, where they hope to build a temple to Ram on the site of the razed mosque.

Activists from Gujarat state, where the Hindu council has a strong base, often made the trip on the Sabarmati Express. Along the way, witnesses say, they frequently would scream out "Victory to Lord Ram" and "Victory to Hindus" as the train passed through Muslim neighborhoods.

"There was a history of provocation," said Syed Umarji, a wood trader who lives in a Muslim neighborhood near the tracks here. "They would say these things all the time."

On the train that left Ayodhya on Feb. 25, members of the Hindu council were particularly boisterous because of a government order that they vacate the Ayodhya grounds. Muslims who were on the same train say the activists walked through the cars shouting taunts such as "Wipe out every Muslim.

"The train was full of them," said Fateh Mohammad, a Muslim passenger who was traveling with his daughter and son-in-law. "They were shouting and dancing all the time. All the Muslims were very scared."

Savita Darbar, a member of the Hindu council who was on the train, insisted that her group was not confrontational. "We were just singing prayer songs to Lord Ram," she said. "We did not bother the Muslims."

As the train came to a stop in Godhra, however, all the elements were in place for a fight.

The train was five hours late, largely because the activists' behavior had forced the conductor to make several emergency stops. Instead of arriving quietly in the middle of the night, the Sabarmati arrived at 7:43 a.m., just as word of the group's behavior had trickled in from vendors at other stations.

The vendors in Godhra were resolved not to be victimized. The Hindu council members, too, were ready for action: Rocks collected from near the tracks were piled near the doors of their cars.

When the Hindus refused to pay for their tea and snacks, several young Muslims jumped on the train as it started to leave the station and pulled the emergency brake chain. With a piercing squeal, the Sabarmati ground to a halt a half-mile from the station, in the middle of a Muslim neighborhood. An argument ensued, drawing hundreds of residents.

Police and railway officials said they do not know who began throwing stones first. But the officials said they believe that after about 10 minutes, one or more Muslims poured a flammable substance on a mattress and ignited it between the S-5 and S-6 cars.

A few minutes later, a fire broke out at the other end of the S-5. Within moments, the car was engulfed by flames.

Police officials said they are not sure how that second fire began. Nanavati said the Muslims could have set another fire, or the Hindus, trying to respond in kind, might have accidentally sparked a blaze in their own car, which was filled with kerosene and cooking gas.

"It could have been an accident," Nanavati said.

Thus far, the railway police have arrested only Muslims – 41 of them – in connection with the fire, a fact that galls Muslim leaders here.

"They should arrest the Hindus, too," said Shoail Sadamas, an accounting student who witnessed the incident. "They were not innocent victims."

Special correspondent Rama Lakshmi contributed to this report.

I don't know - extremist rage and violence is hard for me to comprehend - whether it's provoked or not....I still think there is more to this than meets the eye....the tinder was already set....'twould be so easy for outside instigators to throw in the sparks....the ensuing flames burning out of control....until contained....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 148. Mar 6, 2002 4:07 PM

» BPyles - India turmoil

Jen: India turmoil...no, am not ready to concede that it was "Hindu actions-Muslim Reactions-both sides at fault-not preplanned" that the papers are all reporting; but if that brought it under control, more power to them. Have read all you posted plus all could find at news site around the world, but still have that suspicious feeling that it is not as reported.

For more insight about the INI's role with Pakistan/Taleban/alQaeda/Russians/CIA read Peter L. Bergen's Holy War. Have it about half finished and opinion of INI not improved at all. Know Pakistan had said they have fired 40% and trying to clean up their act. but...
----------
Here is an article found today about Danny Pearl's death. It is from Newsmax.com but quoted a Pakistan newspaper, Dawn. Could not find any such article at Dawn. Sorta stretchs the imagination.
-------------
NewsMax.com

Wednesday, Mar. 6, 2002 3:17 p.m. EST

Pakistani Police Doubt Pearl Death Video

Pakistani police investigating the murder of kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl say that a video showing his grisly execution may have been faked, a leading Pakistani newspaper claimed Wednesday.

Police sources in Karachi, Pakistan told DAWN that the tape accepted by U.S. officials as proof of Pearl's death was "of doubtful nature" and "could be fictitious."

Local investigators contended that because Pearl's body has not been recovered - and the tape showing his execution may have been staged - there is no legal proof that the American reporter is even dead.

"Without the recovery of (a) body dead or its remains, the death of a person remained doubtful in the eyes of law, they maintained," according to DAWN.

Law enforcement sources even cast doubt on Pearl's status as a kidnap victim. "They said technically Daniel Pearl was not kidnapped but he went somewhere to meet someone of his own free will where he was made captive," according to the report.

"If a person went of his own free will to meet someone somewhere and there he was confined illegally and there were apprehensions that he might have been killed," then different laws would apply under the Pakistani legal code, legal experts claimed.

The paper said it had interviewed "a number of senior police officials and prosecutors" currently probing the Pearl kidnap-murder case.

The report, if accurate, could ignite new tensions between the government of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and U.S. officials, who were informed on Tuesday that Pakistani law
enforcement officials had decided to try the leading suspect in the Pearl kidnap-murder themselves before even considering extradition.

-- posted by BPyles

Pakistan curbs units tied to extremists

Top 149. Mar 7, 2002 12:28 AM

» JenL_2 - Re: Terrorists not listening

More on Pak ISI & Militant Groups from 3/6 The Boston Globe:

By Colin Nickerson, Globe Staff, 3/6/2002

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's powerful military intelligence service is phasing out two elite units that for decades have stoked radical Islamic passions in South Asia, according to government sources and independent analysts.

The shakeup - one of the most significant moves to date in President Pervez Musharraf's crackdown on militant elements - has not been publicly acknowledged. But officials say the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, is disbanding its Kashmir and Afghanistan units, sending the more than 3,000 intelligence officers in them back to infantry, armor, artillery, and other mainstream military branches.

''It's a sea change in Pakistan's policy in the region,'' said Rifaat Hussain, chairman of the department of defense and strategic studies at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad.

''For years, we've been playing with fire, encouraging radical Muslims'' in Afghanistan and Kashmir, he said. ''The massive reorganization that appears underway at ISI is a healthy sign that Musharraf truly intends to shape Pakistan into a modern, progressive Muslim state. It signals that Pakistan is no longer interested in using [its] territory to launch `jihads' next door.''

The ISI's Afghan unit played a major role in helping the Taliban movement shoot its way to power in Afghanistan in 1996 and, until the Sept. 11 terror attacks against the United States, was the fundamentalist Islamic regime's closest ally in the outside world. By some accounts, operatives for the Pakistani spy agency fought beside the Taliban while American-supported Northern Alliance rebels - who now govern in Kabul - closed on the capital last November.

And to the fury of neighboring India, the Kashmir unit of the ISI has armed, trained, and provided sanctuary to Muslim insurgents in the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir, a guerrilla conflict that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of civilians in the past decade.

The disbanding of the units is a sensitive matter and sources in the government say Musharraf may be encountering resistance, especially in regard to withdrawing support from Kashmiri separatists. The proxy war against India is considered by some senior officers to be strategically necessary to keep the much mightier archenemy off balance.

But the same sources say the shutdown of the Afghan unit is virtually a done deal, with scores of intelligence officers forcibly retired and hundreds more transferred back to regular military services.

There have been accusations from officials of the government in Kabul, however, that some Pakistani intelligence officers have turned ''rogue,'' and are now helping Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters regroup in the rugged mountains of eastern Afghanistan and all-but-lawless tribal areas of northwest Pakistan. The charge has been hotly denied by Pakistan.

Meanwhile, high-ranking Pakistan officials say the intelligence service's ''dirty'' operations in Kashmir have been drastically curtailed if not yet entirely suspended.

''There is still a need for covert intelligence-gathering in Kashmir, but direct support for the separatists is through,'' said one high-ranking official of the military government. ''It's especially clear that Pakistan will no longer allow the radicals to use our soil as a staging for attacks - or even for conspiring.''

Musharraf's closest aides declined to discuss the shakeup. But tacit confirmation that a shift is underway came from Major General Rashid Qureshi, a member of Musharraf's inner circle and chief spokesman for the government.

''Pakistan is going in a new direction. And the ISI, as part of the military, has new orders and new aims,'' he said in an interview. ''There's nothing unusual in that.''

The size of Inter-Services Intelligence is a closely held secret, as is the nature of its operations. But Western military analysts estimate it has between 10,000 and 12,000 intelligence officers drawn from the regular military, nearly half of whom will be transferred back to regular military service as the Afghan and Kashmir units are shuttered. That doesn't count thousands of individuals on the spy agency's payroll as free-lance informants, saboteurs, and gun-runners.

In January, Musharraf pledged in a landmark speech that his country will fight terrorism in all forms. Since then, the government has banned five Islamic groups and announced the arrests of about 2,000 militants.

The shakeup of the intelligence service is described as a necessary next step in rooting out forces in government that have encouraged radical Islamic groups in Kashmir, Afghanistan, and at home.

''Muslim militancy has institutional roots in Pakistan,'' said Hussain. ''The radicals that have become the region's curse have in many case been nourished from on high.''

Pakistan is far from the only foreign power with complicity in bringing about Afghanistan's more recent miseries. Following the Soviet invasion of 1979, the US Central Intelligence Agency worked hand-in-glove with Pakistan to arm the mujahideen and warlords fighting the Red Army.

Following the Soviet rout, those same holy warriors turned on each other, plunging Afghanistan into a civil war even more bloody than the decade-long struggle against the communist occupiers. By the time of the Taliban's rise, the United States had lost interest in Afghanistan, and Pakistan supported the militants led by Mullah Mohammed Omar because they seemed to offer the best chance for stability on this country's western flank.

After coming to power in a 1999 coup, Musharraf apparently made little effort to curtail the more militant Muslim officers running the intelligence services. But last October, after stunning the Islamic world by allowing the US military the use of bases in Pakistan, Musharraf sacked the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency and replaced him with a moderate ally.

Said Qureshi: ''We want a stable neighbor with whom we can enjoy ordinary trade and diplomatic ties.''

....can ya believe 'em? Not!!....and unfortunately reporters will be less likely now to dare try to verify or dispute Pak's claims like Daniel Pearl did in the article above......Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

The First Abductee
British Backpacker Says Before Daniel Pearl, He Was a Victim of Militant

Top 150. Mar 7, 2002 12:38 AM

» JenL_2 - 1st Omar Saeed kidnapping

In response to message posted by BPyles:

At 2/28 ABC.com - an interview one of Omar Saeed's hostages in the 1994 kidnapping plot:

....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 151. Mar 7, 2002 8:25 AM

» JenL_2 - Re: Holy War, Inc.

In response to message posted by BPyles:

<img src="http://lookinside-images.amazon.com/Qffs..." width=350 height=635 align="left"> Betty - Thanks for the book recommendation:

For more insight about the INI's role with Pakistan/Taleban/alQaeda/Russians/CIA read Peter L. Bergen's Holy War. Have it about half finished and opinion of INI not improved at all. Know Pakistan had said they have fired 40% and trying to clean up their act. but...

Holy War, Inc.: Inside The Secret World of Osama Bin Laden
by Peter L. Bergen

From Publishers Weekly
There's a lot of new information in this well-written examination by CNN's terrorism expert on the man believed to be behind the events of September 11, though some of its revelations have already been reported elsewhere in the media.

What distinguishes this account is its depth: Bergen has long tracked the Islamic world the book opens with the account of his 1997 interview with bin Laden, the terrorist's first TV interview and it shows. He sheds light on several outstanding questions, arguing, among other things, that it's unlikely Iraq was involved in the September 11 attacks, and that it's a myth that the CIA directly funded and trained bin Laden during the war in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

According to Bergen, the CIA gave its money to Pakistan and then let that country's intelligence agency decide what to do with it, which was to fund those they viewed as the most strictly Islamic groups among those opposing the Soviet Union.

He also adds some details about bin Laden's rise from his wealthy childhood in Saudi Arabia to his current career, and the global spread of Al Qaeda's terrorizing tentacles.

The information on what is known about September 11 added hurriedly after the original manuscript was completed, as Bergen admits gives the book a slightly jagged feel. But those looking for a balanced, comprehensive look at bin Laden and his crew as well as an answer to the now preeminent question "why do they hate us so much?" will do well to start here....
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0...

....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 152. Mar 7, 2002 8:52 AM

» JenL_2 - Re: India turmoil

In response to message posted by BPyles:

This view on the India turmoil from 3/5 AsiaTimes:

Gujarat: A return of street politics?

By Sudha Ramachandran

BANGALORE - The wave of violence that has swept across the western Indian state of Gujarat is the worst the country has seen in a decade. As of Monday morning, the official death toll in communal violence was said to be over 450.

With the deployment of several columns of the Indian army across the state, the violence is said to be more or less under control in the cities. However, the bloodletting continues in rural areas, and tension persists, as does the thirst for revenge.

The brutal attack on the morning of February 27 at Godhra, allegedly by Muslim mobs, left 60 people, mostly activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Congress) dead. While this incident provided the spark that has left Gujarat burning for several days, it occurred against an increasingly vitiated and communally polarized atmosphere in the country. The VHP has been mobilizing activists to build a temple at Ayodhya in the state of Uttar Pradesh, at the site of a 16th century mosque which its activists had destroyed a decade ago. That incident sparked off nationwide Hindu-Muslim riots which killed over 2,000 people.

There are conflicting reports on what actually happened that morning at Godhra. Estimates of the size of the mob vary between 500 and 2,000. Whether it was a spontaneous attack or premeditated is being probed.

"Even if it was just 500 people attacking the passengers, that large a number at a small-town railway station could have been possible only if they had been brought together," a bureaucrat from Godhra pointed out to Asia Times Online.

An investigation into the Godhra attack is on and a few of those believed to be involved have been taken into custody. While the identity of those who masterminded the attack is yet to be firmly established, senior ministers in the Indian government have pointed an accusing finger at the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

A Godhra datelined report in the Deccan Herald said that police are looking for two Kashmiri maulvis (religious teachers), who arrived in the town after the September 11 terrorist incidents in the US. The two, believed to be members of an Islamic extremist organization, Tablig Jammat, that has taken root in Godhra, are said to have delivered inflammatory sermons at mosques in Godhra. So extreme were their speeches that they angered even moderates within Godhra's Muslim community.

Gujarat is among India's most communally polarized states, with a history of serious communal rioting. A hunting ground for communal forces, it is from Gujarat that the VHP and its sister organizations have been able to recruit most of their activists for the temple construction project at the disputed Babri Masjid site at Ayodhya. The VHP, in fact, considers Gujarat to be the "laboratory" for its Hindutva (Hindu primacy) ideology.

However, parallel to the spread of Hindu fundamentalism in Gujarat has been the increasing Islamic extremism in the state. Intelligence reports indicate the mushrooming of madarasas in Gujarat, some of which are said to be encouraging extremism.

Gujarat borders Pakistan. The ISI's role in Gujarat through its local recruits and the underworld is believed to be significant.

In the context of the Indian government's crackdown on Islamic extremism (while ignoring Hindu extremism in its own backyard) and the growing tension in the country in the run up to the VHP's March 15 deadline for beginning construction of a temple at Ayodhya, the situation was ripe for a communal conflagration.

The horrific incident at Godhra might have been the result of failure of Indian intelligence. What happened after that was the result of a failure of the Indian state to protect the life and property of its citizens. That Gujarat would explode in violence was expected. Yet the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-run government in the state failed to take preventive action.

For at least 48 hours after the Godhra killings, no effective steps were taken either by the state or central governments (both run by the BJP). They remained mute witnesses as Gujarat hurtled out of control. Within 24 hours of the Godhra attack, reports that mobs were targeting and torching Muslims and their property throughout the state while police stood by were pouring in. VHP and Bajrang Dal (an extremist fraternal wing of the VHP) activists were seen leading many mobs.

Gujarat's Chief Minister Narendra Modi even justified the post-Godhra violence targeting Muslims. "Five crore [50 million] people of Gujarat have been stunned and shocked due to the barbaric act committed by terrorists in Godhra. People have observed restraint as the authorities have been forced to impose curfew in only 27 of 200 towns of the state," he said.

In one incident, Ehsan Jaffri, a Muslim and a former member of parliament belonging to the opposition Congress party, and 19 members of his family, were burned to death. Jaffri had made repeated calls to the police for protection. It never came.

As mobs ran riot in Ahmedabad and other cities, the police looked the other way. Modi, meanwhile, sat back. On February 28, even as Gujarat was burning, he said, "I am absolutely satisfied with how the police and government handled the backlash ... I am happy that violence has largely been contained."

It was only after hundreds were killed that the state government, after much dilly-dallying, requisitioned the services of the armed forces. The government defended the delay in deploying the army - troops arrived only around noon on Friday - on the grounds that "there were no army columns in or around Ahmedabad" for immediate deployment. The explanation convinced no one since there is already a heavy deployment of troops along the India-Pakistan border in Gujarat.

It was only on Sunday, four days after Gujarat erupted in violence, that Union Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani, whose electoral constituency Gandhinagar is in Gujarat, visited the strife-torn state.

The events in Gujarat post-Godhra are a macabre replay of what happened in Delhi in 1984 soon after the assassination of then premier Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. The Congress government at that time allowed its hoodlums to "punish" the Sikhs. Around 2,000 Sikhs were killed in the carnage that followed.

"When a tree falls the earth shakes," said Rajiv Gandhi, her son and successor as prime minister, providing instant moral justification for the mobs lynching and burning Sikhs. A few months later, the Congress was swept to power in national elections on a sympathy wave.

Last week, the BJP lost two of the three constituencies in which by-elections were held in Gujarat. Its performance in other states too was dismal.

Having lost the electoral battle recently in Uttar Pradesh and other states and its poll prospects showing that it is unlikely to win any in the near future, is the BJP taking the battle to the streets?

....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 153. Mar 7, 2002 2:51 PM

» BPyles - Bookies and rioting

Am sure this helped the rioting along in its own way.
----------------
MARCH 07, 11:12 ET, The Washington Times

Bookies Held for Taking Bets on Riots

JAIPUR, India (AP) — Police have arrested 81 bookies offering bets on the likelihood of religious riots breaking out in a state bordering Gujarat, where hundreds of people were killed in Hindu-Muslim violence.

Two of the bookies, Genda Lal and Satyanarain, were offering odds of 1-to-4 to 1-to-6 in favor of riots taking place in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan state, Superintendent of Police Anand Shrivastav said Thursday.

Shrivastav said the bookies had created panic in Jaipur by spreading rumors of impending riots to drum up their business. They offered odds on a curfew being clamped in the old part of Jaipur as well as on estimated casualties, he said.

The bookies were arrested Wednesday and Thursday, Shrivastav said. Gambling is illegal in India, though underground bookies thrive. They face up to a year in jail if convicted.

At least 667 people were killed in Gujarat state since Feb. 27, when a Muslim mob set fire to a train carrying Hindu activists, triggering a Hindu backlash.

-- posted by BPyles

Pak plans amnesty for radicals: Report

Top 154. Mar 8, 2002 9:59 AM

» JenL_2 - Re: Terrorists not listening

More on Pak ISI & Militant groups from 3/8 IndiaTimesNews. Heck the Pak terrorists don't have to listen - those already detained are being released - just by signing a pledge that they won't associate with terrorist groups - Yeah Right!!

REUTERS [FRIDAY, MARCH 08, 2002 11:04:30 AM]

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will grant amnesty to possibly hundreds of detained members of banned radical and militant Islamic groups, provided they first sign a written pledge to have no further contact with their groups, official media reported.

Pakistan rounded up more than 2,000 Islamic radicals in January following the banning by military ruler General Pervez Musharraf of five hardline groups, including two blamed by India for the attack on Parliament.

"The government will not take any further action against those activists of the banned groups who were arrested but had no criminal charges...registered against them," APP quoted Haider as saying on a radio show late on Thursday.

Haider added authorities in Pakistan's four provinces were preparing lists of those who could be released on a written undertaking that they would sever links with their banned parties or groups.

Pakistan has long been grappling with sectarian violence between now-banned hardline groups from the rival Sunni and Shi'ite sects of Islam, and been under fire from India for policies seen to support militant groups fighting in Kashmir.

Haider said the crackdown against sectarian groups would continue, while other suspected militants who avoided January's dragnet were still being hunted.

Around 600 people from sectarian groups accused of murder were awaiting trial and hearings would begin once a new system of anti-terrorist courts was in place.

"We are fully determined to stamp out this menace," Haider said.

Haider said earlier this week that a rash of sectarian attacks showed banned radical and militant groups had failed to heed government warnings and would face stern action.

Late last month, gunmen burst into a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, killing 11 worshippers and wounding 14 others. On Monday, a Shi'ite doctor was gunned down and killed as he travelled to work in Karachi in a suspected sectarian attack.

Shi'ites make up about 15 per cent of the population in Pakistan, an overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim country.

Haider's brother, Ehteshamuddin Haider, was shot and killed as he left his Karachi office in December, an attack analysts saw as a warning to Musharraf to be careful with groups that oppose Pakistan's support for the US war on terrorism.

and from 3/8 CNN.comWorld:

Musharraf says Pearl 'over inquisitive'

By staff and wires

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan's president has said that Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, whose killing at the hands of kidnappers was confirmed last month, had been "over inquisitive" and got "over-involved" in pursuing his story.

Pervez Musharraf's comments came as the president was speaking about whether Pakistan will hand over the chief suspect in Pearl's kidnap-slaying to the United States.....

Pearl, South Asia bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped January 23 while researching links between Pakistani extremists and Richard C. Reid, who was arrested in December on a Paris-Miami flight he allegedly boarded with explosives in his sneakers.

The journalist was on his way to what he believed was an interview with Sheikh Mubarik ali Gilani, the head of the fundamentalist Islamic Jamaat ul-Fuqra group.

A videotape received a month later on February 22 by FBI and Pakistani officials in Karachi showed that 38-year-old Pearl had been killed.

The tape showed scenes of Pearl in captivity and scenes of his murder by the kidnappers. His body has not been found.

'Dangers'

Speaking on Thursday, Musharraf said the Pearl case shows the dangers facing journalists, although he did not directly refer to the correspondent's pursuit of Reid's alleged links to extremists in Pakistan.

"He was over inquisitive," Musharraf said of Pearl, and "got over involved."

"There is danger in this profession," he said. "We have to be careful."

But Steven Goldstein, a spokesman for the Journal and vice president of Dow Jones & Co., the newspaper's parent company, had earlier said that Pearl was an "extremely cautious reporter" who had turned down assignments he deemed too risky and would never have knowingly placed himself in a dangerous situation to get a story.

The chief suspect in the kidnap-slaying, British-born Islamic militant Ahmed Omar Saaed Sheikh, was arrested last month before the video tape was sent. He is expected to stand trial this month.

Hand over
U.S. officials have expressed interest in prosecuting Saeed, although he has not been indicted in the United States for the Pearl killing.

There is no extradition treaty between the United States and Pakistan but the two governments are said to be looking for legal ways to transfer Saeed to U.S. custody.

"We have our laws. We are investigating. We will see the extradition aspect," Musharraf said at a conference of regional information ministers.

"We will decide later whether he will be tried in Pakistan or handed over to the United States."

On Tuesday, Musharraf's spokesman, Maj. Gen. Rashid Quereshi, said the United States had already been informed that Saeed would be tried here first.

However, Quereshi did not rule out handing Saeed over later.

The terrorists & their ISI handlers are clearly in charge in Pak - and we're right there in the middle cooperating with this vipers nest.....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2