September Month Articles
India has announced a financial
assistance of US$ 100 million for Afghanistan. Of this assistance, US$
31.5 m has been operationalised (details below) in the Current Financial
Year and the balance, US$ 68.5 m will be utilised in project related assistance
to Afghanistan during 2003-04 (US $ 38.5 m) and 2004-05 (US$ 30m). India
has also decided to contribute US $ 200,000 to the World Bank managed Afghan
Reconstruction Trust Fund. .....
A radical London-based Islamic
sect that described the September 11 hijackers as the "magnificent 19"
is warning all Muslims, particularly those in Iraq, not to offer support
to either the British or American troops in the region. .....
Few days after a similar threat
by his French counterpart, Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu warned
Saturday, September 27, that "either mosques respect the law or they close."
.....
An influential British MP says
the continuing insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir "could not have happened
without Pakistan at the very least turning blind eye to what's going on".
.....
A prominent American Muslim leader
in Washington was arrested yesterday after arriving from a trip to the
Middle East in which he allegedly tried to transport $340,000 from a group
tied to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. .....
A strict Muslim who slit his daughter's
throat because he believed she had become too Westernised pleaded with
a judge yesterday to sentence him to death. .....
Season’s first snowfall on 16,000
ft high altitude ridges has splashed smiles on the faces of regular Army
soldiers for a different reason this year: It coincided with killing of
15 Pakistani infiltrators and, simultaneously, the visit of the military
attaches and defence diplomats of 24 countries. More opportune time to
establish Pakistan’s hand behind 13-year-long Kashmir insurgency and the
current drive of infiltration was never possible. .....
The Americans have concluded that
General Pervez Musharraf is a “good man” — a pet expression of President
George W. Bush — but that he is incapable of implementing the US agenda
in Pakistan, Afghanistan, or for that matter, on relations with India.
.....
It was a bloody Independence Day
in Tripura this year with the outlawed All Tripura Tigers Force (ATTF)
attacking two villages in West Tripura District, killing 30 people and
injuring several others. In both villages, Borolunga and Daspara, each
about 50 km from Agartala, the attacks were launched on the night of August
14 with sophisticated firearms and the victims were all Bengalis. .....
Al Qaida has recruited hundreds
of Islamic agents from such countries as Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria
to fight the U.S. in Iraq by offering young men far more than they could
earn at home. .....
In spite of 500 years of
powerful suppression by three foreign powers, Buddhism still could not
be destroyed due to the reverence paid to the Buddha chivara, the presence
of Buddhist temples and monks and the love of poetry, observed Deshamanya
Dr. P. R. Anthonis in his address at the second E. A. Wijesooriya Memorial
Oration organised by the Mahinda College O.B.A (Colombo Branch) at the
SLFI auditorium on Tuesday. .....
More than elation, there was a
sense of quiet satisfaction at home with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's
powerful rejoinder to General Pervez Musharraf's outburst at the UN General
Assembly. Pakistan's president needed to be told a few home truths about
his brazen duplicity and his penchant for blackmail. .....
This Weekend, An Unusual encounter
is taking place at MIT: The Dalai Lama meets the human brain. Along with
the Dalai Lama, prominent Tibetan and western Buddhists are joining neuroscientists,
psychologists, and other academics in a conference called "Investigating
the Mind," where topics ranging from consciousness to the emotions are
being brought under the group's collective microscope. .....
In a new audiotape released by
Al Qaeda, the group has appealed to Pakistani soldiers to 'topple' President
Pervez Musharraf before he 'hands them over' to the Hindus. .....
In a palatial room, about 100 mostly
Indian-born business leaders discussed long-term strategies for uplifting
India's masses this weekend. About two miles away, those masses spiraled
around a stadium, waiting for a short-term uplift - a hug, and a few whispered
words of reassurance - from a small and, some say, divine woman in white.
.....
The news last week that two Muslim
military personnel, James Yee and Ahmad al-Halabi, had been arrested on
suspicion of aiding Al-Qaeda prisoners at Guantánamo Bay (with another
three Muslim servicemen under watch) seemed to prompt much surprise. It
should not have. .....
Instrumental in turning the tide
of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir in mid-1990s, surrendered ultras in the
state are a "demoralised" force today, with many of them going underground
fearing elimination at the hands of ISI-backed Jehadi outfits after slaying
of top counter-insurgent leader Kuka Parray early this month. .....
The parents of slain American journalist
Daniel Pearl were angered yesterday by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's
suggestion that their son died because he was getting too close to Islamic
extremists. .....
For a number of Indians, including
those born in Bangladesh and Pakistan, the lure of Russia proved fatal.
They were drawn to Bolshevism by Lenin and his famous thesis on the National
and Colonial Question at the Second Congress of the Comintern 1920. They
met their end at the hands of Jossef Stalin. .....
As someone who dislikes military
dictators in general and Pervez Musharraf in particular let me begin by
conceding that the man has one quality that makes him quite unique. He
must be the only military dictator in history who has spent so much time
lecturing the world on democracy. .....
The Supreme Court has adjourned
its hearing on a writ petition seeking the scrapping of Article 370 of
the Constitution, giving special status to Jammu and Kashmir, on the ground
that it was contrary to the basic structure of the Constitution. .....
The Indian text books written by
secular historians, have often highlighted the fact that the Hindu armies
crumbled like fresh cookies against the armies of the Moslems, and the
Moslems more or less easily occupied India. What they fail to tell us is
the valor of the Hindus in their spirited struggle against the Moslems.
We need to repeatedly remember these great unsung heroes of the Hindu struggle.
.....
A Christian group in Fiji called
today for a month-long boycott of the biggest national daily newspaper,
The Fiji Times, over its coverage of a faith healer and alleged discrepancies
in church accounts. .....
The farmers of Maharashtra didn’t
need Chandrababu Naidu to tell them Israel was the Promised Land. Long
before the Government task force decided to tap the country’s knowhow,
thousands from the state have been making the trip to Israel to learn about
its ‘‘superior agricultural practices’’. .....
"'The attitude of looking towards
Muslims in this country should be humanitarian and not of appeasing them'
is the opinion of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh", said Shri Indresh ji All-India
Sahaprachar Pramukh of RSS and there was a thunderous applause by the prominent
Imams and Maulvis gathered in the Sunhari Baug Masjid as their reaction.
.....
Mention the words "evangelical
missionary," and many Americans conjure up an image of redneck zealots'
forcing starving children to be baptized before they get a few crusts of
bread. .....
A gang of youths attacked a 13-year-old
girl as she played with a toddler on swings in a Keighley park. .....
Congress has always demoralised
the Indian soldiers and always tried to break the confidence and conviction
of our security forces who have sacrificed their lives for the country",
said Union Defence Minister George Fernandes in Karnal on Thursday. .....
Dashera is one of the most widely
observed festivals in India and around the world, for its history, mythology,
individual perception, and geographical community philosophy. It is a season
full of communal festivities. This festival marks the victory of good over
evil and brings glowing happiness and a touch of sparkle all around by
upholding the true values of life and acknowledging that ultimately good
prevails over evil. .....
It would be unfortunate if Mrs
Sonia Gandhi's reported request to President K. R. Narayanan to spare the
life of Nalini, who along with three others has been sentenced to death
for killing Rajiv Gandhi, is dubbed as a political gimmick by her detractors.
.....
The Nigerian Supreme Court has
upheld the death sentence for Amina Lawal, condemned for the crime of adultery
on August 19th 2002, to be buried up to her neck and stoned to death. Her
death was postponed so that she could continue to nurse her baby. .....
Mediapersons need to retain their
objectivity and exercise responsibility to avoid damaging the national
interest, visiting chief editor of the Pioneer newspaper Chandan Mitra
told journalists in London. .....
On Monday February 26, 2001, Afghanistan's
Taliban militia supreme leader Mulla Mohammad Omar, an Islamic scholar
himself, issued a decree: "Based on the verdict of the clergymen and the
decision of the supreme court of the Islamic Emirate (Taliban) all the
statues around Afghanistan must be destroyed."(1) .....
Close on the heels of a "gold and
land'' scheme launched by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Kerala
to collect donations, yet another fund raise of the party has come under
public scrutiny. .....
Search of 'Path' for peaceful coexistence
in society has all along been the endeavour of human beings. They have
however differed in identification of such path, which often turned into
civilisational confrontation among them. .....
The arrest of two Muslim-American
servicemen based at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, (a developing story originally
broken by this newspaper), raises some complex questions about the conflicting
loyalties of Muslim-American soldiers in the war against radical Islamic
terror. .....
I remember laughing out loud, in
what was admittedly a mirthless fashion, when Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, one
of Osama Bin Laden's most heavy- duty deputies, was arrested in Rawalpindi,
Pakistan. Straining to think of an apt comparison, I fail badly. But what
if, say, the Unabomber had been found hiding out in the environs of West
Point or Fort Bragg? .....
Dear Soniaji - Recently you asked
the Government a series of questions, using the instrument of the no-confidence
motion. You seemed to have expected the Prime Minister alone to give you
the answers, exactly as you wanted them. Your complaint is that the treasury
benches gave you no answers. Subsequently, from a platform in Rajasthan,
you also derisively accused the Government of being afraid of you. .....
Today, Canada has the distinction
of welcoming the leader of what, by any fair reading of mounting evidence,
is a state supporting terrorism. That is disturbing to say the least. But
Canadians may soon be among the victims of this terrorism. .....
Ahead of his tour of the Line of
Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday, the visiting British Chief
of Defence Staff General Michael Walker today agreed with India’s assessment
that infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir was continuing unabated. .....
In yet another clash between militant
groups, two Hizbul Mujahideen militants were shot dead by Lashkar-e-Taiba
militants in the border district of Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir, official
sources said on Thursday. .....
Notwithstanding its self-professed
role as a frontline state in the war on terrorism, Pakistan finds itself
cornered on the issue. The US, India and Afghanistan have come together
to warn Pakistan's military government not to mess around in its neighbourhood.
.....
Journalist, film-maker, writer
and human rights activist Shahriar Kabir was in India recently to mobilise
support for the South Asian Coalition Against Communalism and Fundamentalism.
In and out of jail, Kabir spoke to Amitabh Shukla on the conditions prevailing
in his country and need for a platform to fight fundamentalism. .....
The Malaysia Hindu Sangam is outraged
over the sale of imported statues of the Lord Ganesha which were altered
and had additional accessories. .....
The Israeli government has vowed
to expel Yasser Arafat, calling him an "obstacle" to peace. But the 72-year-old
Palestinian leader is much more than that; he is a career terrorist, trained,
armed and bankrolled by the Soviet Union and its satellites for decades.
.....
That was my first reaction when
I came across the article in Embassy Row, the Washington Times column.
.....
"You will sooner or later pay for
your pack of lies," read one threatening message last week to the author
of The Trouble with Islam: A Wake-up Call for Honesty and Change. .....
I'm Glad to find more and more
organisations holding regular heritage lectures and the latest I caught
up with was the monthly series being arranged by the Tamil Nadu Department
of Archaeology. Its most recent lecture, a fascinating narration of a court
case in London that let to the return of a bronze to Tamil Nadu, was by
perhaps the Department's best-known Director in recent times, Dr. R. Nagaswamy,
whom the London Court had described as being "an unequalled expert in Chola
bronzes". .....
Exploring the roots and reason
of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists attacks, two television specials, "Searching
for the Roots of 9/11," hosted by The New York Times' Tom Friedman on the
Discovery Channel, and "Why U.S.?" on the Discovery Times Channel, aired
on Sept. 10 and Sept. 11, respectively. .....
The recent arrest order issued
against controversial Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) member of parliament Md.
Shahabuddin triggered oft battle between the MP and DP Ojha, Director General
of Police, Bihar. While the DGP wanted the MP to surrender in an
old arrest warrant, the MP declared the move as Ojha's personal grudge
against him since he had opposed his elevation to the DGP post. .....
The Vivekananda Kendra Institute
of Culture (VKIC) was established as envisaged by Eknathji to study the
traditions and customs of various communities in the Northeast from the
Indian point of view, and also to discover and focus on commonalities among
all communities. .....
The State Government had taken
measures to counteract saffronisation of history and social sciences textbooks
in schools long before Congress President Sonia Gandhi's recent fiat to
the 14 Congress chief ministers in the country to carry out such an exercise.
.....
In the programme entitled 'Cry
Freedom' (aired on the news channel NDTV 24x7 on Sun 21 Sept. 2003 at 2230
hrs IST) it was shown that there is great unrest and opposition to pakistan's
occupation of POJK. .....
Brutally assaulted Khasis women
suffer in stoic silence. Hollywood and Bollywood crime thrillers will drift
aside before the most inhuman and barbaric sexual exploits of three Khasi
women by a notorious criminal identified as Mona Mia and his associate.
.....
In a revolutionary step, Muslim
women religious scholars in Hyderabad have started issuing fatwas or religious
decrees on the legal, personal and marital problems of the Muslim women.
.....
Dozens of opposition lawmakers
staged a demonstration Tuesday against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf,
saying an "unelected, unconstitutional" man has no right to speak at the
U.N. .....
Of late there has been strident
criticism in the media and by some former IPS officers that the Mumbai
police have no clue to the chain of bomb blasts that have hit the city
and that there is massive intelligence failure in the force. I strongly
disagree with this perception. .....
An islamic militant leader, arrested
along with more than a dozen others of an extremist group aiming to wage
an armed religious struggle in Bangladesh, has confessed that he received
arms training in Pakistan. .....
The war against the fury of the
Ganga in Malda has to be fought on two fronts. One, it is an annual scourge
calling for preventive action well before swirling waters overrun hundreds
of villages leaving thousands homeless every year. The fact that floods
have been particularly severe this year is no excuse for lack of preparedness.
.....
That was my first reaction when
I came across the article inEmbassy Row, the Washington Times column. .....
A witness on Friday alleged before
the two-member Gujarat riot probe panel that his son was whisked away by
a mob of armed people of the minority community and killed. .....
'You will sooner or later pay for
your pack of lies," read one threatening message last week. It went to
the author of "The Trouble with Islam: A Wake-up Call for Honesty and Change."
.....
In a surprising development, radical
women’s organisation, Dukhtaran-i-Millat (daughters of nation) today came
down heavily on the veteran separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani for
heading the breakaway group of Hurriyat Conference. .....
In the gunbattle that occurred
during the night intervening Friday and Saturday at Harmain village in
Shopian, security forces have achieved what they are still unaware of:
South Kashmir’s most wanted Lashkar-e-Toiba commanders, Abu Zubair and
Abu Ma’az, are both among the six militants killed. .....
Infamy, clout and money power notwithstanding,
Karachi-based underworld don Dawood Ibrahim is no better than a golden
goose in Pakistan, officers in Mumbai feel. .....
Hezbollah is on the Bush administration's
official list of terrorist organizations. But when the group invited me
to speak to a conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict here last
week, I accepted -- on the theory that it was a chance to learn about the
group and that more information, even about alleged terrorists, is better
than less. .....
Intercepted phone calls show Taliban
commanders have been orchestrating deadly attacks here and in other parts
of Afghanistan from a safe haven across the border in Pakistan, a senior
Afghan intelligence official told The Associated Press. .....
There has been "a quantum jump"
in infiltration across the Line of Control (Loc) as well as terrorist violence
in the hinterland in Jammu and Kashmir in the last three month-Army officers
claim Pakistan is desperate to push in as many heavily armed militants
as possible before snow blocks the mountain passes and traditional infiltration
routes along the 740-km-long LoC. .....
Zahid Patni (26), who has reportedly
been detained in Dubai in connection with the August 25 twin blasts, will
be made a key witness in the case once he is deported to India in the next
few days, police officials on Wednesday. .....
Conservative scholar-warrior David
Horowitz has the left in apoplexy over his ingenious proposal for
an Academic Bill of Rights that would forbid university faculty from
hiring, firing, and granting or denying promotion or tenure on the
basis of political beliefs. .....
In the struggle between Israelis
and Palestinians, Thuraya Eshbear wields a powerful weapon. .....
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, mastermind
of the Sept. 11 attacks, has told American interrogators that he first
discussed the plot with Osama bin Laden in 1996 and that the original plan
called for hijacking five commercial jets on each U.S. coast before it
was modified several times, according to interrogation reports reviewed
by The Associated Press. .....
In an unique project, 101 militancy-affected
children - children whose parents have been slain by terrorists and also
children of terrorists - will study together in an Army school. .....
Long after he kept his silence
and retired, former commissioner of police R H Mendonca, has spoken up,
powerfully. "It is time to set the record straight." .....
Is Islam incompatible with multicultural
democracy? Many people point to the fact that few Muslim societies are
democratic and conclude that Islam must be inherently undemocratic. They
point to Muslim rhetoric suffused with hatred of the West, and deduce that
Muslims cannot be good citizens of Western democracies. .....
Ahead of President Pervez Musharraf’s
US visit, an influential American daily today said Pakistan continues to
provide Kashmiri terrorists with sanctuary and access to areas bordering
India and considers violence a "legitimate toll" to achieve its goal of
wresting control of Jammu and Kashmir. .....
Loyalist Labour MPs and ministers
who backed the war in Iraq face a backlash from Muslim voters, say community
leaders. .....
Years after India claimed that
underworld don Dawood Ibrahim was based in Karachi, a senior Pakistani
minister has for the first time admitted his presence in the country and
that he had acquired "substantial interests" there, according to media
reports. .....
In the the dust raised over the
red carpet to Ariel Sharon, in the noisy buzz of the war on terror, drowned
was this little story. It’s an Indo-Israeli cooperation story but it has
almost nothing to do with New Delhi. It began in Manipur in the North-
East and now plays out every day in the West Bank. .....
Family of Army chief Gen Nirmal
Chander Vij has been shifted to Army Cantonment from his ancestral house
in Naraniyan Mohalla near Kachi Chawni, close to the BJP headquarters in
heart of the City following a sensational disclosure made by a militant,
recently arrested by the security forces in Mendhar, that the house was
on "hit list" of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militants. .....
Drugs are being introduced into
the deadly cocktail of arms, ammunition and indoctrination handed out to
jihadis in Kashmir by their Pakistani backers. .....
A French convert to Islam was sentenced
to life in prison on charges of trying to organize an uprising in the North
African kingdom. .....
Continuing with the efforts to
rebuild bridges with Muslims in Uttar Pradesh, Congress president Sonia
Gandhi has now decided to enlist the services of the influential Deobandi
clergy. Ms Gandhi has been invited by the Jamiat-ul-ulama-e-Hind, an organisation
of Deobandi clerics who have considerable influence in UP, Bihar and Assam,
to address a gathering in Lucknow on Sunday. .....
Pakistani security officials detained
15 Southeast Asian Islamic students in Karachi on Saturday, saying they
had ties with Muslim militants and were involved in activities damaging
to Pakistan's interests. .....
Taking an "adverse view of unsatisfactory
and vague" reply furnished by the Jammu and Kashmir Government regarding
enforced or involuntary disappearances of people in the State, National
Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has asked the State to furnish all details
in regard to such cases. .....
While the Best Bakery in Vadodara
undergoes renovation, a relative of one of the key witnesses has added
another twist to the case. Yasmin Sheikh, who has taken up the renovation
of the bakery, is Zaheera's sister in law. .....
Osama bin Laden is directly financing
over 400 madaris in Bangladesh which are training more than 25,000 people
to become part of suicide squads, says former Lok Sabha Speaker P.A. Sangma.
.....
A French convert to Islam was sentenced
to life in prison on charges of trying to organize an uprising in
the North African kingdom. .....
An Army Islamic chaplain, who counseled
al Qaeda prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, naval base, has been charged
with espionage, aiding the enemy and spying, The Washington Times has learned.
.....
Atlanta - The Roman Catholic Archdiocese
of Atlanta has filed a lawsuit accusing a network of Spanish-speaking churches
of falsely claiming to be Catholic - with priests who conduct Mass, hear
confessions and offer Communion to immigrants who mistakenly think the
churches are tied to the Vatican. .....
Deposing before the two-man riot
probe panel, a majority community witness from the sensitive Amraiwadi
area today alleged that "Muslims had unfurled the national flag of Pakistan
on a public tank and raised pro-Pakistani slogans ten days after Godhra
riots" and added that till date, the Hindus are being tormented by them
in the area. .....
‘Over 400 madrassas in neighbouring
Bangladesh are being directly funded by Bin Laden, the most hounded terrorist
on the globe. In those madrassas about 25,000 youths are being trained
to become members of a suicide squad. It is an ominous development as far
as North East is concerned,’ said P A Sangma, the founder of the North
East People’s Forum (NEPF). .....
Cancun is a beautiful seaside resort,
with all the major international hotel chains registering their presence
there. It also gets very, very hot if you are under the sun and very, very
cold inside the air- conditioned conference and hotel rooms! .....
The Archaeological Survey of India,
by submitting a self-contained report within five months of excavation,
has set a precedent that is commendable by any standard. This is particularly
so when one considers the pressure of a judicial mandate to complete the
excavation by a specific date, and continued hostile remarks about its
competence to carry out its work by historians like Professor Irfan Habib
and archaeologists like Mr Suraj Bhan. .....
The jacket of "Who Killed Daniel
Pearl?" describes the author, Bernard-Henri Lévy, as "France's leading
philosopher." This may well be true, but such a claim could have the effect,
among non-French readers, of prompting more doubt than trust. And yet I
commend this book. .....
On the 25th anniversary of the
signing of a peace treaty framework between Israel and Egypt at Camp David,
a lesson in leadership that you won't soon forget. .....
Though Kolkata Police's attempts
to trace the owner of the truck that carried a cache of ammunition to Kolkata
has drawn a blank, Intelligence agencies have intensified their operations
along the Indo-Bangla border to track down terrorist outfits operating
here. .....
I first met the Dalai Lama almost
20 years ago when I was a teenager studying at a college run by Roman Catholic
monks. He had come to see a Christian monastery in action. Although the
Dalai Lama was not a globally famous figure at that time, I was captivated
immediately by his charisma, and by the tragic plight of the Tibetan people.
.....
The Army says it has photographic
evidence of functioning of terrorist training camps in Pakistan despite
the Pakistan President, Pervez Mushharaf's claim about curbs on all terrorist
activity directed against India. The Army also maintains infiltration attempts
have continued unabated this year. .....
Mahant Avaidyanath, the former
Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Gorakhpur, now heads the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's
committee for the proposed construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. .....
That cold statistics cannot provide
a true picture of crime rates in different states is confirmed by the latest
findings released by the National Crime Records Bureau. The organisation
has to go by recorded crimes making it impossible to take into account
elements of fear, harassment, incompetence, corruption and ignorance that
have a telling impact on record books and lead to some distorted impressions.
.....
Fearing a backlash from radical
Muslims, the author of a book called "The Trouble with Islam" is staying
in close contact with police ahead of the title's scheduled release tomorrow.
.....
SHAMALA Sathiyaseelan, 30, got
married in November 1998 in a Hindu ceremony. Four years later, her husband
left her to marry a Muslim woman. .....
Describing international terrorism
as a 'global monster', Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Tuesday flayed
the 'selective approach' and differing standards of some countries in combating
the menace. .....
Cat Stevens has urged American
Muslims to start religious schools in their communities. The former pop
star, who now uses the name Yusuf Islam, said he got the idea to establish
school soon after converting to Islam in the 1970s when the prayer leader
at his mosque asked him for a donation. .....
Indian police today arrested two
men and two women - including a married couple and their daughter - and
charged them with three Bombay bombings to avenge the deaths of Muslims
in religious riots. .....
Coming from India, I lack the Indianess
that most of the people from India expect; denounce Pakistan as an enemy
state or support the Indian team in a match against Pakistan or support
India on the Kashmir issue. For reasons beyond description, I could do
none of that. .....
Various political parties on Wednesday
marked the 55th Liberation Day of erstwhile Hyderabad State but the ruling
Telugu Desam Party kept away from the celebrations. .....
A woman on Tuesday alleged before
the two-member Nanavati Commission that an armed mob of Muslims, led by
a Congress councillor, attacked Hindus in Bapunagar area in Ahmedabad during
the post-Godhra riots. .....
"We are emotionally tied up with
God. We have devotion unto Him. Those who do not have devotion to God,
their sins will not be washed away even if they bathe in Ganga Maiyya."
.....
It was meant to showcase Athens
as a modern, multi-ethnic city in the year that it stages the Olympic Games.
Instead, a plan to erect the first mosque serving the capital since the
end of Ottoman rule has unleashed a row pitting the reform-minded government
against the Greek Orthodox Church. .....
It is the certitude of all the
Dharmacharyas of the High-power Committee of the Sri Rama Janma Bhumi Temple
Construction Movement that "Sri Rama Janma Bhumi is at the very spot where
Sri Ram Lala sits today". It is one of our articles of Dharmic belief,
faith and devotion. Now all the irrefutable evidences excavated by the
Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) under the orders of the Lucknow Bench
of Allahabad High Court have put their signatures on this article of faith
of 850 million Hindus. .....
On September 1, 2003, the Uttar
Pradesh Government refused Dr Pravin Togadia the permission to enter Ghaziabad.
Earlier, he as well as Acharya Giriraj Kishore were sent back from Patna
airport by the Bihar Government. A few days even prior, the Government
of Andhra Pradesh expressed apprehensions if Mr Narendra Modi inaugurated
a Ganesh Chaturthi programme at Hyderabad. .....
Two events took place this week
which must be carefully studied. The first was General Pervez Musharraf's
appearance on a Q&A programme on the BBC (shown on PTV Tuesday) in
which he made some interesting remarks. The second was a lecture in Islamabad
by an ex-ambassador to Pakistan and current president of the US-based and
influential Asia Society, Mr Nicholas Platt. .....
I had to attend a wedding at Patna
and managed a side trip to Nalanda. As I walked into the ruins, a huge
dark sadness descended on me. Nalanda, the greatest ever Buddhist university,
with its hundreds of monks and thousands of books, was destroyed by Bakhtiyar
Khalji’s Turki troops around 1200 AD. .....
Archaeology forms part of the discipline
of History but it is also very much different from it. There is a
reason for it. Historians deal primarily with the written records
found in the form of books, manuscripts and inscriptions, etc, which they
get in libraries and museums, but not archaeologists who necessarily have
to go for field-work, explore ancient sites and excavate them slowly and
gradually, uncovering every layer and the material remains associated with
them. .....
The Archaeological Survey of India
(ASI), in its final excavation report submitted to the Lucknow bench of
Allahabad High Court, has substantiated the fact that Hindus have been
claiming for so long. The ASI informed the Court that a temple-like
massive structure existed beneath the disputed site before the construction
of the so-called Babri mosque in Ayodhya and that there are sufficient
evidence of continuity in structural activities for over 3300 years. .....
When Kolkata Police seized 25,000
rounds of 7.62 ammunition from a commercial truck, Chief Minister Buddhadev
Bhattacharjee instantly commended them. However, the fact is that they
bungled the investigation because of their delayed and clumsy response
to intelligence received from Delhi. .....
Trouble could be brewing between
long-time strategic allies China and Pakistan. Recent statements by a senior
Chinese official that separatist forces in the country's restive Xinjian
Autonomous Region have had training in several camps in Pakistan have led
to speculation on the ties between the two nations, according to Strategic
Forecasting (Stratfor). .....
More than 50 percent of Americans
recognize Islam is not a peaceful religion (as described in our children's
textbooks,) according to an ABC News Poll. .....
The lure of instant publicity and
stardom is turning out to be dangerously infectious. The virus now appears
to have spread to the judiciary. There has been an alarming increase in
the frequency with which various courts of law are making pronouncements
on politicians and the political system. .....
We shall wage a "jihad" for the
cause of Islam, not only in Pakistan but anywhere in the world, if required.
If Muslim blood has been mercilessly shed in India, you cannot just wring
your hands. .....
This is a close up view of what
the Pakistani Mohammedans (actually, all Mohammedans) deem as legitimate
war and a valid reason to wage it. As we go on, we will see radical departure
from the Geneva Convention of today when comparing Pakistani codes of war.
If the Pakistanis had not used the 'Quranic concept of war' in their wars
in the past, that was because the Pakistanis were not capable of giving
shape to their intentions. .....
The situation in Jammu & Kashmir,
which was showing definitive signs of normalisation since the coming into
office of a new coalition Government headed by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad
Sayeed in October last year, is again giving cause for concern, with a
deterioration in the ground situation. .....
The Mumbai blasts are yet another
display of hate-in-action. Intelligence agencies feel more such attacks
could take place in other metros soon and there is little they can do about
it. .....
On Saturday, 6.30 pm (US time)
India's claim that Pakistan had a role to play in masterminding twin car
bombing in Mumbai will get American support from some independent quarters.
Pakistan's role in terrorist activities in Indonesia and Saudi Arabia is
also expected to be exposed. .....
Four residents of Pak-occupied-Kashmir
have petitioned the Supreme Court seeking release from a jail in Uttar
Pradesh, saying they could not be detained under the Foreigners' Act as
they were residents of PoK, which was an integral part of Jammu and Kashmir
and India. .....
Border Security Force (BSF) personnel
apprehended two Kashmiri youths who entered Roranwala from Pakistani village
of Wagah after fleeing from the arms training camp running at Muzaffarabad
in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK), informed Darbara Singh, Officiating
DIG, BSF while talking to media on Sunday. .....
A meeting of Muslim intellectuals
and Ulemas with deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal on Sunday to promote
communal harmony in the city ended in a fiasco. .....
Maulana Fazlur Rahman’s visit to
India has brought a breath of fresh air into Pakistan’s politics of religious
fanaticism. It may not have changed much the rhetoric of it, but what the
Maulana said in India has indeed dealt a blow to the rigid view deeply
embedded in the minds of the common people that jihad means no more than
fighting to kill and, in turn, get martyred. .....
Top government officials paid them,
so did the police, businessmen, contractors and ordinary citizens. Even
mighty groups like the Tatas couldn't escape them. For the last three decades,
militant groups in the Northeast have been brazenly running a parallel
government, and collecting 'taxes'. With militancy so well-entrenched,
the people had virtually reconciled to living with the militants. Until
now. .....
Lush forests are not the only bounty
that Uttaranchal got in its kitty after it became a state in November 2000.
It also got close to 45,000 NGOs— mind-boggling for a state so tiny, with
a population of only 84.7 lakh. Records from the offices of the chief commissioner
of income tax and the registrar of societies confirm this huge NGO presence.
.....
Give a woman an inch and she takes
a mile. Or in the case of Chhattisgarh’s Rajnandgaon district, a milestone.
The illiterate, impoverished and politically untutored women of this remote
backwater have emerged as thekedars (contractors) in their own right, supplying
the PWD with milestones and road-building materials. They are, in fact,
the first women’s collective to be registered as contractors with the PWD.
.....
Who is British? What is Britishness?
These are questions that have been plaguing the Home Office and it is trying
hard to set down some rules for wannabe British citizens. A new proposal
by a government advisory group-Life in the United Kingdom Advisory Panel
chaired by scholar Bernard Crick-has proposed that immigrants should pass
a new "Britishness test" in which they have to master English and history.
.....
The inquiry ordered by National
Women's Commission Chairperson Poornima Advani into the affidavit filed
by a Madhya Pradesh schoolteacher accusing five IAS officers of exploiting
her sexually for seven years is embarrassing for Chief Minister Digvijay
Singh. The five officials in the dock are considered close to him. .....
Omar Abdullah president J&K
National Conference said the killing of Javed Shah and Kukka Parray is
a great set back to the process of return of peace in Kashmir. Addressing
a public gathering here, he said the killing of the duo is a great blot
on the security apparatus of the State and is likely to discourage those
militants who are willing to shun the gun and join the national mainstream.
.....
Attributing the recent spurt in
terrorist violence in Jammu and Kashmir to turmoil in the militant ranks
caused by killing of Jaish top commander Gazi Baba, the Army today said
this loss of confidence was making the ultras to come overground leading
to killing of over 60 militants in the last fortnight. .....
Where Is The Battlefield in America's
war on terrorism? In this solemn anniversary week, there are many possible
answers. .....
We are really touched by the apex
court’s concern for the victims of Vadodara’s Best Bakery case. We salute
it for having spoken so very eloquently for them. After all, those guilty
of burning alive fellow human beings needs must be administered the stiffest
punishment prescribed under the law. .....
On a perfect morning in Srinagar
last week as I sat on the roof of a houseboat on the Dal Lake listening
to happy, hopeful tales of the Valley’s first real tourist season in a
decade, news came of the explosion in Sabzi Mandi. Six people were killed
and a Brigadier was among those injured. .....
In 1939, the late Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman
launched the Daily Jang from Delhi. Last month, his son was in town seeking
partners to distribute his one-year-old Geo TV channel, a private news
and entertainment channel that uplinks from Dubai. Mir Shakil-ur- Rahman
is chief executive and editor-in-chief of the Jang Group, Pakistan’s largest
media house. .....
On September 12, 2003, the Supreme
Court commented that it does not have 'faith' in the Government of Gujarat
that the guilty of the post-Godhra riots of 2002 will be prosecuted.
This was made in context of the acquittal of the accused in the Best Bakery
case. .....
She wears her right-wing credentials
on her sleeve and believes that there is no room for compromise with fundamentalism.
Israel's culture and education minister Limor Livnat, recently in Delhi
as part of prime minister Ariel Sharon's entourage, spoke to Lalita Panicker
about how India and Israel can cooperate to deal with the common terrorist
challenge facing the two countries .....
‘‘We had specific information that
the terrorists will attack certain installations. We enhanced security
but apparently the terrorists changed their plan.’’ .....
How reliable are opinion polls?
How much trust can you put in them? A year ago, prior to the Assembly elections
in Gujarat, there were half a dozen polls on who will win and except for
one, the others were wide off the mark. Outlook even predicted that Congress
could win. And what happened later does not have to be stressed. .....
In the spring of 1992, out of the
blue, the fax machine in Richard Davidson's office at the department of
psychology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison spit out a letter
from Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama. Davidson, a Harvard-trained neuroscientist,
was making a name for himself studying the nature of positive emotion,
and word of his accomplishments had made it to northern India. .....
The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan
Williams has extended his support to madrassas and said they were "nothing
to apologise for". .....
Brainwashing the young minds and
motivating them to jump into Jehad on the pretext of securing freedom
for their Muslim Kashmiri brethren's in India, appears to be still
the 'ace card' strategy for Pakistan's notorious intelligence agency,
Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), in furthering its incessant anti-India
campaign. .....
Since the editor is filling this
page with its former occupants, I naturally responded to his invitation
by looking back to the days 20 years ago when I filled this hole. In most
respects, the subject matter was the same — why doesn’t the health service
work, how to make peace in Northern Ireland, how the government is ignoring
Parliament, why can’t children read and write, the problems of tax, crime,
roads, housing, defence and, of course, Europe. .....
Britons are abandoning churches
in droves, replacing traditional religion with activities that focus on
themselves. .....
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr
Rowan Williams, has been making earnest efforts to defuse the growing international
tensions between Christians and Muslims following the September 11 attacks
on the US in 2001. He has been the first to fully extend his support to
madrassas that some others regard as teaching obscurantism and making the
young unfit for the British society. .....
I had just joined the University
of Michigan-Ann Arbor as a doctoral student. I was given accommodation
in the International Student Housing on campus in what was called an ``efficiency,''
a one-room, furnished facility that doubled as living room as well as bedroom,
with a small kitchen and a large walk-in closet. .....
A Muslim air force reservist told
a military tribunal Friday that he refused to serve in Iraq, fearing that
he would be consigned to hell. .....
It is not often that a bold foreign
policy initiative brings domestic faultlines to the fore. The truncated
visit of the feisty Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, did just that.
On the one hand was the silent applause of a self- confident India — not
least in the diaspora — impatient with the inherited baggage of the Cold
War and anxious to strike new alliances on the strength of shared values
and common interests. .....
Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani
today said that the world should realize that Pakistan’s ISI was promoting
terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda and Taliban and should stop helping
any such country which aids and abets terrorism. .....
Ignoring strong protests from China,
US President George W Bush met Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama
at the White House on Thursday. .....
In this tormented city, responding
to terror attacks has become a grim medical specialty, and Dr. David Applebaum
was known as "the first man on the scene." .....
An 11-year-old girl who has become
a singing sensation in India is using the money she makes from her performances
to help children who are desperately ill. .....
Is national defence in safe hands?
Not an inappropriate question to ask on the eve of what, through a process
of some self- bluffing, we choose to call the Defence of Pakistan Day.
.....
What did the terrorists expect
to get out of their wanton bomb attacks at Zaveri Bazaar and the Gateway
of India? An end to peace efforts between India and Pakistan? A recurrence
of Hindu- Muslim riots such as occurred in 1993? .....
Peace means Kataragama, Sri Lanka's
six-headed God of War, is busier than ever. Drawn by Kataragama's supposed
unending power to grant wishes , the devoted walked on burning embers and
bathed in a holy river in a centuries-old religious festival that drew
throngs of pilgrims to this small town in southern Sri Lanka. .....
India has the reputation of being
a thinking nation. Indian minds are great minds. But what about our mindsets?
That is a matter of concern. We are perennially in a state of self-doubt.
.....
Americans’ suspicion of Islam has
more than doubled over the last year and fewer than half now call it a
peaceful religion, a poll says. .....
There have been reports recently
in the American press concerning the probability that the government of
Pakistan has traded nuclear secrets and maybe even technology with Iran.
Such disclosures were welcomed by those of us here in France who consider
ourselves part of the "anti-anti-American society" and who have long wondered
why the United States doesn't seem more concerned with the character of
its major ally in the war against terrorism. .....
The Border Security Force on Friday
said a Harkat-ul-Ansar terrorist killed recently in south Kashmir was a
cousin of Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi. .....
Violence-extolling Islamists target
the US, Israel and India as their principal enemies. Yet, these three democracies
are no more secure against terrorism today than before President George
W. Bush launched his war on terror. In fact, the US, despite shared goals,
has left India in the lurch against Pakistan-directed terrorism. .....
TTD marketing officer G. Surendra
Babu told TNN that human hair had been classified into five varieties depending
on its quality. The first quality called 'Remi', popularly known as 'Black
Gold', is over 16 inches and costs about Rs 7,000 a kg. .....
Some months ago when the 31st volume
of Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, Second Series, was published, the
country learnt for the first time of a remarkably revealing feature of
the epoch-making maiden visit to India of the Soviet leaders, Nikolai Bulganin
and Nikita Khrushchev, way back in 1955. .....
It is difficult to understand why
a controversy on Ahmad Shah Abdali's role during his Indian campaigns is
being raised these days and the Afghan king being presented as a hero by
some and an invader and a marauder by others. .....
The aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001,
led Aasma Khan to Pakistan, where the onetime corporate lawyer studied
Arabic so she could read the Koran without the barrier of a translation.
.....
Prominent Saudi clerics and academics
warned Wednesday against calls for equality and increased rights for women,
saying such efforts aim to make Muslim women more like "infidel" Western
types. .....
New Jersey State Prison does not
have to provide its Muslim inmates with meals containing meat prepared
according to Islamic dietary law, a federal appeals court has ruled. .....
Separatists in China's Muslim northwest
are getting help from international terrorists - including instruction
in "several training camps in Pakistan,'' the region's Communist
Party secretary said Thursday on the second anniversary of the Sept.
11 attacks. .....
The five Pakistani militant outfits,
including Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, which were banned last
year by President Pervez Musharraf following mounting international pressure,
are back in business with changed identities, a media report said on Wednesday.
.....
Some two month ago after my third
visit to the valley in a year, I had had occasion to speak of the remarkable
change of mood I had noticed during extended trips to Pahalgam, Gulmarg,
Srinagar and some other parts of southern Kashmir. The streets were
fuller than they have every been these past thirteen years. .....
Americans are a good people, and
it is not in their nature to believe that a religious group like Islam
can be an enemy to our country and our way of life. But Paul Weyrich notes
that Islam has opposed Christianity and Judaism for centuries. This
article appeared on the website of the Free Congress Foundation. .....
How do you reconcile between Bhakthi
and Reason? Can spirituality be sustained on empty stomachs? And
what is the role of religion? These are profound questions baffling humankind.
These are questions that only a man who has a deep understanding of traditions
and culture and also a vision for future can tackle with authority. .....
It is a truism that sometimes it
is more important how we are looked upon than how we really look. And despite
India being the most open and free country in terms of religious practices,
it is still being projected as a place where there is religious discrimination.
.....
Ayodhya. For those who skim the
surface, it may be a communal issue. But it is not. It is about India and
Indianness. In how we are going to resolve it may lie the pointer where
the country is headed to. .....
A religious teacher of supreme
wisdom, Swami Dayananda Saraswati is also extremely articulate, a combination
that is very rare, given the stereotype of a Hindu protagonist that often
raises the hackles of the 'intellectuals'. .....
In a major success, Kathua police
have arrested the district’s "most wanted" militant, Mohd Shabir, a ‘supreme
commander’ of Hizbul Mujahideen outfit from a Guest House in Srinagar where
he was recuperating from a bullet injury. A Sarpanch of Marmat, a domestic
servant of a VIP and seven other persons, who were part of the militant
outfit’s network, have also been arrested by the police. .....
The extremist Islamic group al-Muhajiroun
is organising four rallies across Britain this week to commemorate what
it calls "The Magnificent 19" hijackers who carried out the September 11
atrocities. .....
The five-party coalition government
led by Mufti Mohammed Sayeed has fired a bombshell that could hurt the
credibility of civil libertarians in Kashmir. .....
The BJP hit out at the anti-Sharon
propaganda sponsored by the Left parties and Muslim outfits saying that
“the position of these groups, as usual, are out of sync with national
interests.” .....
Pakistan has decided not to grant
most favoured nation (MFN) status to India for the time being, leaving
businessmen fuming. "This has become an emotional issue for Pakistanis
and we don't want to take any hasty decisions that hurt our people," a
commerce ministry official said on condition of anonymity. .....
Fighting between rival Sunnite
and Shiite Muslim villagers in Western Mali over the construction of a
new mosque recently left 13 people dead and about 20 wounded, police and
court sources said. .....
Premature ageing and premature
death, unnatural death, high incidence of serious and potentially fatal
diseases, affliction with multiple disease syndromes, poor medical aid,
economic bankruptcy and lack of desire to live, are some of the factors
that have contributed to an already high death rate among them. .....
The boss of the D-Company, Dawood
Ibrahim Kaskar's sprawling illegal businesses in the city continue to give
him leverage within the city's law enforcement community. .....
Ten years ago when the King of
Lalbaug wove through a tense Muslim thicket of Duncan Road, a modest group
in skull caps had waited by the ringside, with garlands for Mumbai’s favourite
Ganesha. .....
Just after she swaggers through
the thumping disco anthem 'Song for the Lonely' and right before she makes
a dramatic entrance atop a giant, gaily painted mechanical elephant,
chart-topping diva Cher gets spiritual -to the calming tones of the Gayatri
Mantra. .....
Home Secretary David Blunkett was
welcomed with a garland of flowers in a traditional Hindu ceremony today
when he visited one of the UK's oldest temples. .....
It is a good idea now and then
to lift our eyes from the minutiae of the present and look at the big picture
further ahead. .....
The long arm of the US “war on
terrorism” employs remarkably tender gloves when it comes to Pakistan,
the original backer of the Taleban movement that offered Osama bin Laden
sanctuary as he plotted the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and the only state in
the Muslim world certainly known to possess weapons of mass destruction.
.....
"An outrageous Israeli, Martin
Kramer, uses his website to attack everybody who says anything he
doesn't like." That's Edward Said speaking, in an interview in a
new collection entitled (predictably) Culture and Resistance. I would
take it as a compliment, if I didn't already know how easily Professor
Said is outraged. But it's a valuable testimonial nonetheless, and
one worth quoting as Sandstorm marks its first anniversary. .....
The Hindu-hating media and the
grandstanding National Human Rights Commission have gone overboard on the
Best Bakery verdict holding 21 Hindus as not guilty of torching Muslims.
The verdict and Zahira Sheikh's emergence on the front page soon after
have so inflamed the NHRC and an NGO that they have belligerently gone
to the Supreme Court. .....
No two events in recent times have
saddened me so much as the media response to the Archaeological Survey
of India's report on Ayodhya and Saturday's car bomb in Srinagar which
killed six persons, including a senior army officer, and injured twenty-nine
others. Even though the pro-Pakistan Hizbul Mujahideen claimed responsibility
for the attack, some major newspapers in the capital did not consider the
event worthy of front-page coverage. .....
Digvijay Singh has alleged that
he has evidence of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh training its cadre on
how to make and plant bombs. .....
Scientists report they have found
evidence of the oldest human habitation in India, dating to 2 million years,
on the banks of the Subarnarekha River. .....
After the Mumbai blasts of August
25, the chattering classes of India have subjected the rest of the country
to unending bouts of gratuitous sermonising. .....
Padma Shova Chakma stared vacantly
at her burnt-out house, holding a charcoal of a betel nut tree. Piles of
coal of what constituted her property a few days ago were strewn all over.
.....
The police and security officials
here are closely monitoring the developments surrounding the controversial
British Muslim conference dedicated to "The Magnificent Nineteen"
- the hijackers who killed more than 3,000 people in the US on September
11 two years ago. .....
With the CBI still not getting
access to Taliban leaders or receiving copies of documents recovered by
US troops in Kandahar, New Delhi has told Washington that it’s still waiting
for the promised help on the IC-814 hijack investigation. .....
It is not the merciful God who
disposes of what the people of Kashmir propose; to ensure durable peace.
On the contrary, it is Pakistan's military dictatorship which is backing
Islamic fundamentalism and scores of jehadi outfits, opposed to restoration
of normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir. .....
Two Florida papers revisit their
refusal to call Hamas and Islamic Jihad "terrorists"; from one only, a
policy change. .....
Recent reports about the emergence
of educated terrorists have got both instant sociologists and newspaper
pundits in a tizzy. They haven't stopped spewing half-baked theories and
rationalisations for the alleged involvement in terrorist acts, such as
the recent bomb blasts in Mumbai, of the young educated Muslims with university
degrees. .....
Having established more than thrity
five camps in chittagong hill-tracts and all subdivisions bordering Tripura
and posh living spaces in Dhaka and Chittaong town , banned NLFT rebels
have now set up a hospital in Khagaracherri town in the chittagong hill-tracts
of Bangladesh for treatment of sick and injured members of the outfit.
.....
The CPM and the BJP-led Centre
today locked horns again over the Saraswati vandana with Bengal higher
education minister Satyasadhan Chakaraborty boycotting the opening of a
book fair by Murli Manohar Joshi. .....