This Months Article

Starting: Sat December 1, 2001
Ending: Sun December 30, 2001

Messages: 153

• Tribal leader accuses missionaries of ‘terrorist’ activities
• Times News Network, The Times of India, December 30, 2001

Chand Lok, a tribal leader from the north-cast, alleged that Christian missionaries in Meghalaya are engaging in terrorist activities. Mr Lok alleged that the missionaries were forcefully converting the tribals to Christianity. ......
 
• UK suspends 3 Muslim clerics
• The Times of India, December 30, 2001

Britain's prison service said on Friday it had suspended three Muslim clerics for making inappropriate comments about the September 11 attacks in the U.S. ......
 
• India faults U.S. perception of Musharraf
• Siddharth Varadarajan, The Times of India, December 30, 2001

The Vajpayee government is aware that the "nuanced difference" which exists between Washington and New Delhi about the sincerity of Gen Pervez Musharrafs "conversion to the anti-terrorism cause" could influence the diplomatic and military steps India takes in the weeks ahead. ......
 
• ‘We could take a (nuclear) strike, survive and then hit back, Pakistan would be finished’. (Interview with Fernanded)
• The Hindustan Times, December 30, 2001

Union Minister for Defence George Fernandes is gung-ho... ready to take on all comers, Pakistan, the United States and even the defence bureaucracy. My autobiography will be called “George: My life as an obstacle course” he says laughing. In a wide-ranging interview with Swati Chaturvedi, Fernandes speaks about the clouds of war, defence procurement, the coffin scam and his return to the Cabinet. ......
 
• Al-Qaeda leaders are in Pakistan, heading for Kashmir: Indian diplomat
• Agence France-Presse, December 30, 2001

India's ambassador to the United States said Sunday al-Qaeda leaders were already in Pakistan and may soon be carrying out terrorist activities in the disputed border areas of Jammu and Kashmir. ......
 
• The military’s grip on Pakistan must be loosened
• Brahma Chellaney, International Herald Tribune, December 29-30, 2001

The border skirmishes and the largest military build up between India and Pakistan since their last war in 1971 could escalate to a full-blown confirmation unless Pakistan is willing to go beyond symbolic steps against the terror groups that its military and intelligence service have nurtured and directed for years. ......
 
• Pak. not to act against LeT, JeM
• B. Muralidhar Reddy, The Hindu, December 29, 2001

Pakistan today made it clear that it had no intention of proceeding against the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammad - accused by India as the main culprits behind the December 13 attack on Parliament - despite the decision of the United States to declare them as terrorist. ......
 
• The mosque as beacon
• Editorial, The Times, UK, December 27, 2001

Courage, vigilance and quick thinking averted a catastrophe aboard the American Airlines fight to Miami. But the discovery that the man accused of trying to blow up the plane came from Bromley is further alarming evidence that terrorists based in Britain still pose a deadly global threat. ......
 
• Beware the General across the border
• Wilson John, The Pioneer, December 26, 2001

Let us not underestimate Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. After finding himself cornered within his country by jihadi Generals and militant mullahs and from outside by the rampaging forces of the Northern Alliance and the United States, Musharraf ran to Beijing for shelter. That's what he did when he engineered the Kargil War. He was sitting pretty when his troops intruded into the Indian territory. ......
 
• Hurriyat in quandary over Pak funds
• Press Trust of India, The Indian Express, December 26, 2001

Curbing of funding by some groups in Pakistan of Hurriyat Conference has worsened the growing infighting within the amalgam with some of the leaders making frantic calls to Islamabad for the release of funds, intelligence sources said today. ......
 
• India-Pakistan Confrontation (PBS interview: Sumit Ganguly)
• PBS, December 26, 2001

Betty Ann Bowser reports on the latest in the escalating conflict between India and Pakistan. Gwen Ifill gets three perspectives on the recent flare-up between the two nuclear-capable countries and the possible consequences on the war against terrorism. ......
 
• Buddha weeps silently as recession comes home
• Aloke Banerjee, The Times of India, December 24, 2001

The economic slowdown that has been devastating millions of homes in West Bengal for the last couple of years has now invaded the home of none other than the chief minister of the state, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. ......
 
• Terrorism against India: Who’s to blame?
• Chidanand Rajghatta, The Times of India, December 23, 2001

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf might deny it. The Bush administration might refuse to acknowledge it. But as far as the world media is concerned, Pakistan's role in nurturing and fomenting terrorism is beyond doubt. ......
 
• ‘Given a chance, I’d do it again’
• Neeta Sharma, The Hindustan Times, December 21, 2001

“Given a chance, I would do it again. I have no qualms,” says 30-year-old Afzal the main co-ordinator for Jaish-e-Mohammad in Delhi. ......
 
• Rising from the Rubble (Q & A Masood Khalili)
• The Times of India, December 18, 2001

On December 22, Afghanistan's interim government will take office. One of its key men, the Afghan ambassador to India, Masood Khalili, will, however, not be there to see it. Khalili, who was badly injured in the blast which claimed the life of Commander Masood, is still recovering from his injuries. A key player in the Northern Alliance in the past, he continues to play an important role even from New Delhi. Here he speaks with Aunohita Mojumdar of his hopes and anxieties for his war-ravaged country: ......
 
• ‘Who is the US to restrain us?’
• Narendra Kaushik, Mid-Day, December 18, 2001

“RESTAINT, what restraint? America did not wait in Afghanistan. How can it tell us to be restrained?” ask leaders in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance after US Secretary of State Colin Powell advised India to observe restraint with regard to military action against terror camps in Pakistan. ......
 
• Taliban and Indian Muslims
• Ramesh Patange, Organiser, December 9, 2001

The discussion is raging on several levels all round on the likely consequences of the Afghan war on India. How it will affect the Kashmir issue? Will it end terrorism that is proving a scourge in Kashmir? How will it affect the Indo-Pak relations? Will it help India and the USA to come closer? Are some of the questions raised by the aftermath of the terrorising Tuesday in September. ......
 
• India read Afghan wicket correctly
• Chidanand Rajghatta, The Times of India, December 8, 2001

Perhaps it has to do with the dicey pitches back home, but as the end game approaches in Afghanistan, India appears to have read the treacherous wicket there better than any other country and has come out on top of the political situation. ......
 
• ‘9-11 will haunt an entire new generation’
• Martha Groves, The Times of India, December 8, 2001

Franklin Delano Roosevelt called it a “date which will five in infamy”, words that resonate even now for those who remember the bombing of Pearl Harbour 60 years ago. ......
 
• Pakistan’s liberal folly
• Ayaz Amir, Mid-Day, December 1, 2001

The Afghan situation has presented a unique opportunity to draw a line in the sand against a tiny minority of unenlightened, obscurantist and backward-looking religious extremists who hold the majority of moderate, dynamic and futuristic-looking Pakistanis hostage.” – General Pervez Musharraf in New York ......
 
• Civilizational War
• Dr. M.K. Teng, Kashmir Herald, December, 2001

The sudden and surprise attack which ripped through the World Trade Center and tore down the part of the complex of buildings of the Pentagon in the United States, evidently administered a rude shock. American administration, had for more than three decades used the Muslims as their allies in the Cold War. ......
 
• Wanted in Pakistan, a little bit of humility
• Ayaz Amir, The Indian Express, December 1, 2001

Accepting our weakness and bowing to the inevitable is one thing. But can we please stop pretending that by acting the way we have done in this Afghan crisis. We have somehow rescued Pakistan's defences? ......
 
• Christian Unholy Deeds - Blatant Vandalism By Christian Missionaries
• Seetanagaram, Krishna River bank, Andhra Pradesh India

On the banks of Krishna River, during the Holy season of Pushkara, Christian Pastors from the local church resorted to vandalism on Hinduism. The Christian Pastors encouraged the local and newly converted Hindus to spit on the photographs of several Hindu gods. They further stamped on the idols, photographs of Hindu deities and threw them in Krishna River. The police was a mute spectator for this entire drama, which took few hours. ......
 
• Johnny Walker Green
• Daniel Pipes, The New York Post, December 24, 2001

John Walker Lindh's case may seem eccentric and unique. How many 20-year-olds from Marin County, Calif., especially ones named after a Beatle and children of a convert to Buddhism, end up in a dank cellar in Afghanistan fighting with the most fanatical of al Qaeda terrorists? ......
 
• CE urges Chinese Muslims to be patriotic
• Dawn, December 23, 2001

President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Saturday urged Chinese Muslims to be "very patriotic" and work for the betterment of their country. ......
 
• Translation of bin Laden tape may embarrass Saudi Arabia
• www.tehelka.com, December 22, 2001

ABC translation has bin Laden's visitor, Khalid al Harbi, a Saudi dissident, claiming he was smuggled into Afghanistan by member of Saudi religious police New York, Dec 21 (PTI): An independent translation of the videotape of Osama bin Laden talking about Sept 11 terror attacks is potentially embarrassing for the US ally Saudi Arabia and also raises questions why the Bush administration omitted certain parts of the tape in the official release. ......
 
• Uneasy Ally in Terror War Suddenly Feels More U.S. Pressure
• John F. Burns, The New York Times, December 21, 2001

By adding two more Pakistan-based groups to Washington's terrorism list, President Bush sharply increased the political pressures that have gripped Pakistan's military leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, ever since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, according to Pakistanis with close links to the Musharraf government. ......
 
• ‘Bengal is ISI hub for plotting terror attacks’
• Rahul Das, The Asian Age, December 20, 2001

Intelligence sources have said that Bengal is more than, a transit for international terrorists as the Left Front government has described it. The state has also been the plotting centre for several terrorist attacks executed across the country, intelligence sources say. ......
 
• Did Vedic Hindus really eat cow?
• Sandhya Jain, The Pioneer, December 20, 2001

Under the pretext of disseminating true knowledge about the past to young, impressionable school children, a perverse assault has been launched upon the religious sensitivities of the Hindu community. Marxist historians allege that ancient Hindus ate beef, that this is recorded in their sacred scriptures, and that this should be taught to school children. ......
 
• History meets Dharma in politics
• Sandhya Jain, The Pioneer, December 18, 2001

An inscrutable destiny, Mahakaal, has presented modern India with a strange paradox. Punjab, land of the Vedas, and Uttar Pradesh, quintessential Aryavarta where Vedic civilization reached its pinnacle, are caught in a peculiar face-off between History and Dharma, even as both states prepare for assembly elections in the forthcoming year. ......
 
• Communist Party of India (Talibanist), West Bengal Unity
• Our Special correspondent, BJP Today, December 1-15, 2001

“Those who selected such a film for exhibition are idiots”, thundeted Biman Basu, top leader of the ruling party of West Bengal after two shows of “Taurus” at the Kolkata Film Festival raised the hackles among Leftist” intellectuals” who even took to the streets against this film. ......
 
• POTO: approve swiftly, and then toughen it (Part II of II)
• Arun Shourie, BJP Today, December 1-15, 2001

The provisions of TADA were much more stringent than those of the new Ordinance. The constitutionality of those provisions, of TADA itself had been challenged in the courts. The Supreme Court specifically upheld TADA, and declared its provisions -the much more stringent provisions - to be in accord with the Constitution. ......
 
• POTO: interception, confession, confessions, torture (Part I of II)
• Arun Shourie, BJP Today, December 1-15, 2001

“But look at Chapter V. It allows the police, the intelligence agencies to listen in to and intercept communications between any of us whatever means we use: electronic, wire, oral, paging devices, tracking devices. This wasn’t there in the Law Commission draft. It is a clear license to police, IB, CBI, anyone the Government fancies to invade our privacy.” ......
 
• PM’s speech at the chief minister’s conference on internal security
• BJP Today, December 1-15, 2001

The Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee inaugurated Chief Ministers’ Conference on Internal Security here on Nov 17. Apart from Chief Ministers of various States, Union Home Minister Shri L.K. Advani, Defence Minister Shri George Fernandes, Union Minister for Law, Justice & Company Affairs Shri Arun Jaitley, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Shri K.C. Pant Minister of State in PMO, Shri Vijay Goel, Ministers of State, Home Shri I.D. Swami and Shri Vidya Sagar Rao were also present on the occasion. ......
 
• Cardinal principles
• Vijay Kumar Malhotra, The Hindustan Times, December 14, 2001

The issue of deletion of some select paragraphs from the history texts published by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) needs to be understood in the context of the desperate struggle for self-preservation by a group of scholars. ......
 
• Advantage: No One
• Rahul Shivshankar, The Times of India, December 11, 2001

A day after Terrible Tuesday and before anyone in the US administration had even thought about “hunting down” Osama bin Laden, an Indian security expert had predicted that events after 9-11 would impact on Pakistan the most. ......
 
• Arabs fear the war against terror may strike home
• Vasantha Arora, The Economic Times, December 11, 2001

As the war in Afghanistan draws to a close, there is reportedly increasing fear in Iraq and other Arab countries that the US and the West might be out to ‘suppress the Muslim world. The Arab League and several Arab governments have given a clear warning to the West: ‘Attack any Arab country, and you’ll lose our support for the war on terrorism. The international coalition will unravel. ......
 
• Indo-US working group on terrorism to meet early ‘02
• Indrani Bagchi, The Economic Times, December 11, 2001

With terrorism emerging as top priority among key nations in the world, the next India-US joint working group (JWG) on terrorism will meet again in the early weeks of next year, in what sources call an ‘accelerated schedule’. The two countries will also work on expanding the ambit of the co-operation to include a military component for the first time in the talks. ......
 
• Wadgaon Wins the Battle
• Vinita Deshmukh, The Indian Express, December 9, 2001

Think of a small village about 45 kms north-west of Pune on the Pune-Mumbai National Highway no.4. Think of the all-conquering British Empire. Think of a Maratha chieftain valiantly guarding his land and folk. Think Wadgaon in 1779. ......
 
• Terrorism, historians & literary feuds
• Soli. J. Sorabjee, The Times of India, December 9, 2001

Discussions on terrorism, human rights and POTO should bear n mind certain essentials. Firstly, the Security Council Resolution adopted on November 12, 2001 which “reaffirms its unequivocal condemnation of all acts, methods and practices of terrorism as criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, in all their forms and manifestations, wherever and by whomever committed”. ......
 
• With Poca in place, Leftist lose out on anti-Poto drive
• Aloke Banerjee, The Times of India, December 9, 2001

Two women in their early 2081 Deepa Sarkar and Kakoli Mandi, are languishing in jail for the last five months for daring to carry a pamphlet calling upon former U.S. president Bill Clinton to ‘go back’. Both the women were arrested in July this year in Midnapore. ......
 
• World media blames Pak for terrorism
• Chidanand Rajghatta, The Times of India, December 21, 2001

General Musharraf might deny it. The Bush administration might refuse to acknowledge it. But as far as the world media is concerned, Pakistan's role in nurturing and fomenting terrorism is beyond doubt. ......
 
• Single Doctrine, Double Standards
• K.P. Nayar, The Telegraph, December 20, 2001

And now, the Bush doctrine. The White House has conceded under increasing pressure from the US and the international media that as long as India does not "retaliate harshly" for the attack on Parliament, the Americans would look the other way. ......
 
• Stop Building Up Pakistani Military Capacities Against India
• Selig S. Harrison, The International Herald Tribune, December 20, 2001

The unconditional American embrace of General Pervez Musharraf as an ally has emboldened government-sponsored Pakistani terrorist groups to step up pressure on India, increasing the danger of a new war over Kashmir. Secretary of State Colin Powell has responded decisively to the attack on the Indian Parliament last week by placing two of these groups, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, on the official U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations. ......
 
• India must respond to Pakistan-backed terrorism
• Tunku Varadarajan, The Wall Street Journal, December 19, 2001

Last Thursday, five Islamist terrorists--bent, to a man, on suicide-by-jihad--attacked the Parliament building of the world's largest democracy. They murdered eight policeman and one hapless gardener (shot up in a bed of chrysanthemums, a sickle clutched to his side), before being killed in the intense firefight. ......
 
• Holes found in Pakistan’s ‘sealed’ border
• Arnaud de Borchgrave, The Washington Times, December 18, 2001

Oghaz Pass On The Pakistani-Afghan Border — Pakistan's tribal areas are free-passage zones for Taliban and al Qaeda's foreign legionnaires escaping from Afghanistan, a weeklong visit showed. ......
 
• The Muslim cause
• Pran Chopra, The Hindustan Times, December 4, 2001

It is wrong to take a distorted view of Islam or of Muslims. Or of any religion or community. To do so deliberately is vile, and an invitation to trouble. Unfortunately, this happens most when it is most important to avoid it. That is, in times of tension and anxiety, when the broad brush of prejudice is most often used to paint those we disagree with. ......
 
• Christmas Symbols Don’t Make the Grade in U.S. Schools
• Zenit.org, December 14, 2001

Despite the rise of religious sensibilities in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Christmas is an unwelcome holiday in many U.S. public schools this year, reports the Washington Times. ......
 
• POTO Pin-up (Interview with Arun Jaitley)
• Bisheshwar Mishra, The Times of India, December 13, 2001

Q.: Despite TADA diluting the trial procedure for suspected terrorists by making confessions admissible, etc, the conviction rate was only 1.5 per cent. Don’t you think that POTO — which has watered down these provisions because of the ‘safeguards’ you have introduced — will lead to an even lower rate of conviction? If so, how does having such a law help fight terrorism? ......
 
• Divisions over faith schools
• BBC News, December 12, 2001

Education ministers' desire to see more faith schools in England continues to cause controversy, following the reports on the riots in northern towns this summer. ......
 
• Turn out the party-poopers
• Rakesh Sinha, The Hindustan Times, December 4, 2001

The change of guard in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh carried out this year was done smoothly by the BJP. However, in the past, the party had experienced serious trouble in both these states. The party had to witness embarrassing revolts by two senior leaders, Kalyan Singh and Sankarsinh Vaghela. Thus the predicament of controlling the ‘power elite’ remains a major concern for the BJP. ......
 
• Tipu Sultan:Villain or Hero?
• Edited by Sita Ram Goel, IndiaStar Review of Books

In 1989, the national Indian TV, Doordarshan, ran a serial on Tipu Sultan, ruler of Mysore from 1782 to 1799 A.D. With the lofty objective of national integration and communal harmony, the national TV presented Tipu Sultan as a hero of Hindu-Muslim amity and a staunch freedom fighter against the British. ......
 
• The Religious Beginnings of an Unholy War
• A "Best Seller" by Avro Manhatten

Avro Manhatten was the world's foremost authority on Roman Catholicism in Politics. A resident of London during World War II , he operated a radio station called "Radio Freedom" broadcasting to occupied Europe. ......
 
• Malegaon Riots - Unlearnt Lessons from the Past
• Asghar Ali Engineer, Economic & Political Weekly, December 1, 2001

The communal riots in Malegaon were the most serious in Maharashtra after the post-Babri masjid killings in the state in 1992-93. The riots have underscored once again the role of politicians in fanning communal tensions and the failure of the police and the administration to contain the violence in time and prevent it from spreading. ......
 
• ULFA camps along Bangla border run by Osama outfit
• Prabin Kalita, The Hindustan Times, December 15, 2001

At Least six camps of ULFA situated at Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) along the Tripura-Bangladesh border are being run by Harkat-ul-Jehad. ......
 
• America’s double standard on terror
• Michael Moran, MSNBC, December 14, 2001

Two nations, two democracies: both key American allies, both nuclear powers plagued by Muslim extremists and instability on their borders. Israel just got a green light from America to turn its guns on Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority, if not the source of the terrorism, certainly the source of instability. ......
 
• Terrorism has to go at all costs
• Arun Jaitley, The New York Times, December 8, 2001

In the last 15 years, we have lost 61,000 civilians and 8,700 security personnel to terrorism. Compare this to the number of lives lost in the four wars India has fought: 5,400. What we have lost to terrorism, which we regard as low-intensity conflict, is several times more than what we lost in those high-intensity wars. ......
 
• Pakistan, an ally or enemy: Pak ended aid to Taliban only hesitantly
• Douglas Frantz, The New York Times, December 8, 2001

One month after the Pakistan government agreed to end its support of the Taliban, its intelligence agency was still providing safe passage for weapons and ammunition to arm them, according to Western and Pakistani officials. ......
 
• India Rally Fails to Yield Widespread Christian Conversions
• Andy Butcher, Charisma News Service

A highly publicized rally at which leaders of India's millions of downtrodden "untouchables" planned to renounce their Hindu faith went ahead yesterday, but without the widespread turning to Christ anticipated by some Christian groups. ......
 
• Germany bans extreme Islamic caliphate
• The Times of India, December 13, 2001

The German government cracked down on Wednesday on an extreme Islamic organisation regarded as a "state within a state", banning the so-called caliphate and mounting raids on some 200 premises across the country. ......
 
• On balance, Musharraf loses
• J N Dixit, The Indian Express, December 13, 2001

Two visual clippings on CNN broadcast over the last week brought out the confusing and critical predicament in which Pakistan finds itself in, two months after the US-led military campaign commenced against the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda. One clipping showed an Afghan Pushtun lamenting the destruction caused by the US bombing. He said it is the common people who are the greater sufferers. ......
 
• Hizb tells Lashkar, Jaish to ‘dump terrorist elements’
• Press Trust of India, www.expressindia.com, December 13, 2001

Differences have cropped up in the militant groups operating in Kashmir with Hizbul Mujahideen accusing Pakistan-based militant groups of having some "terrorist elements" in their rank and file and warning of retaliation if suitable action was not taken against them by their respective heads. ......
 
• Bin Laden detected by US intelligence in Tora Bora
• Agencies, The Indian Express, December 13, 2001

US intelligence services believe they have detected Osama bin Laden and members of his inner circle in Afghanistan's mountainous Tora Bora region, a US government official said. ......
 
• 2 Nuclear Experts Briefed Bin Laden, Pakistanis Say
• Kamran Khan and Molly Moore, The Washington Post, December 12, 2001

Two Pakistani nuclear scientists reportedly have told investigators they conducted long discussions about nuclear, chemical and biological weapons with suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden in August in the Afghan capital of Kabul, according to Pakistani officials familiar with the interrogations of the men. ......
 
• Loyalty oath urged for immigrants
• Philip Johnston, The Telegraph, December 12, 2001

Newcomers to Britain should swear or affirm an oath of allegiance to show their "clear primary loyalty" to the nation, a report into the causes of last summer's inner city riots said yesterday. ......
 
• Pak’s dream of American backing on J&K shattered
• Chidanand Rajghatta, The Times of India, December 12, 2001

As Pakistan fights an uphill  battle to be relevant in a post-Taliban Afghanistan, it has suffered the biggest blow from the country expected to be its chief patron - the U. S.. ......
 
• Almost flushed out of Tora Bora, Al Qaeda cracks
• The Indian Express, December 12, 2001

Afghan fighters chased Osama bin Laden’s forces to ‘‘one last base’’ in the mountains on Tuesday. Tribal forces, aided by a rain of American bombs, said they pushed diehard fighters from Al Qaeda network into a final stronghold near Tora Bora in the east. ......
 
• Race ‘segregation’ caused riots
• BBC News, December 11, 2001

Reports into the summer riots in Bradford, Oldham and Burnley have urged government action to bring together Britain's "shockingly" divided communities. ......
 
• What is the chosen path?
• T V R Shenoy, Rediff on Net, December 11, 2001

Did anyone catch United States Vice-President Dick Cheney being interviewed on NBC this past Sunday? [Its sister channel MSNBC is available on Indian cable networks.] If you didn't catch it, let me quote the relevant portion: "[The Palestinians] are led by someone who can't control terrorists. ......
 
• Pakistani Islamic leaders disoriented by rout of Taliban
• The Times of India, December 6, 2001

The weakness of Islamic religious parties, and radical groups in Pakistan has been exposed following the rout of the Taliban in Afghanistan and about-face by Islamabad, analysts said. ......
 
• Fears over ‘double agents’ in Rajasthan’s border districts
• Statesman News Service, The Statesman, December 2, 2001

The double agents in the bordering districts of Rajasthan, who are on the ‘pay rolls’ of both the Indian intelligence agencies as well as Pakistan’s ISI, are becoming a menace for Central intelligence agencies and local police alike. ......
 
• Joshi swears by right to rewrite textbooks
• Rajesh Ramachandran, The Times of India, December 2, 2001

Amidst a raging controversy over the 'saffronisation' of education, Union human resources minister Murli Manohar Joshi, speaking from a Sangh Parivar platform on Saturday, announced an “intellectual freedom struggle” and pledged to continue with his programme of changing the curricula until the country became “intellectually free”. ......
 
• Hurriyat blasts Pak’s bid to create a parallel amalgam
• Press Trust of India, www.expressindia.com, December 12, 2001

Fresh differences have cropped up between the Hurriyat conference and Pakistan with some of the senior leaders of the amalgam criticising "moves by certain agencies" to create a parallel to the 23-party conglomerate in the state. ......
 
• Musharraf begins to clean up Pak, LeT HQ shifted to PoK
• Press Trust of India, www.expressindia.com, December 12, 2001

Under growing pressure reportedly from the Musharraf government, Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba has shifted its headquarters from Lahore to Muzafarabad, capital of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). ......
 
• US to withdraw from 1972 ABM treaty
• The Times of India, December 12, 2001

President George W Bush has decided to give Russia notice that the United States will withdraw from the 1972 nuclear treaty that bans testing of missile defence systems, US government officials said on Tuesday. ......
 
• Foreigners hide along Pak border
• John Pomfret, The Indian Express, December 11, 2001

A Red pickup truck packed with fighters and guns rolled up on the mud outpost where Abdullah Mohammed was guarding Pakistan’s border on Saturday night. When the men began firing, Abdullah dove into the dirt, ripping a hole in his left cheek. He fired back twice, driving off the truck. ‘‘The men weren’t Afghans,’’ Abdullah said. ‘‘They were lighter skinned. They wanted to sneak in.” ......
 
• Rebel groups fighting in Kashmir lying low after Taliban surrender
• The Daily Excelsior, December 11, 2001

After the devastation faced by the Taliban, major Pakistan-based rebel groups fighting in Kashmir are said to be "fearful" about their future, a report from Lahore has said. ......
 
• Taliban, al-Qaida troops slip away
• MSNBC, December 11, 2001

Hundreds of Taliban and al-Qaida troops -- including many of the remaining leaders -- have slipped out of Afghanistan into neighboring Iran and Pakistan, alarming military officials, Pentagon sources told NBC News on Tuesday. As U.S. soldiers tried to block escape routes, America's Afghan allies waited to see if a group of al-Qaida fighters near Tora Bora would surrender by a deadline just a few hours away. ......
 
• Pakistani Taliban returning home get cold shoulder
• Juan O. Tamayo, Knight Ridder Newspapers, December 11, 2001

The roughly 200 Taliban fighters who have come home to the apple-growing oasis of Pishin on Pakistan's border with Afghanistan are not getting the hero's welcome they might have expected when they set off across the border to fight the holy war. "People blame them for the destruction of Afghanistan," said shopkeeper Mohammed Akhram. ......
 
• Tape Surfaces With Remarks by bin Laden
• David E. Sanger, The New York Times, December 10, 2001

A tape of Osama bin Laden found recently in Afghanistan shows him recounting how he listened to news reports on the radio of the first plane crashing into the World Trade Center three months ago and quickly told others around him "there will be more" as he awaited the second attack. ......
 
• Immigrants ‘should try to feel British’
• BBC News, December 9, 2001

UK Home Secretary David Blunkett has urged people from ethnic minorities to develop what he calls a "sense of belonging" in Britain. ......
 
• The Peacemaker of the Pashtun Past
• Karl E. Meyer, The New York Times, December 7, 2001

As the Afghan war enters into what may be its final days, and the international community begins discussing its next steps, Americans will be learning more about the warrior people known to the British as Pathans, and more correctly nowadays as Pashtuns. Most of the Taliban were Pashtun — as is the new interim leader of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, to whom Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban leader, has ceded power. ......
 
• Does Indian history need to be rewritten? (Part II of II)
• Sumit Sarkar, The Times of India, December 2, 2001

The Prime Minister has justified the deletion of ten passages from NCERT history textbooks (to be followed soon by their replacement and then the abolition of history as a separate subject till Class XI) on the ground that these books are “one-sided”. ......
 
• Does Indian history need to be rewritten? (Part I of II)
• Tarun Vijay, The Times of India, December 2, 2001

The British wrote history to suit their empire and the Leftists distorted it to further their 'ism'. It's time now to correct these wrongs in a transparent and objective manner so that India benefits, not any 'ism' or party. Hence, Prime Minister Vajpayee is right in saying that distortions in history have to go. ......
 
• Pak hurt most by attack on Afghanistan
• The Times of India, December 1, 2001

The Pakistani economy, already in crisis since 1998, has been hit particularly hard by the U.S.-led military offensive launched in Afghanistan. With investors more leery, tourism oft manufacturing orders down and production costs on the rise, Pakistan has suffered more than its share of economic grief from Washington's Afghan venture. ......
 
• Publicly defiant Taliban were planning their escape
• Kathy Gannon, The Times of India, December 1, 2001

It was 6 p.m. on Monday, November 12. The U.S. bombing had been punishing. The fighting outside Kabul was intense. In the capital, the Taliban decided it was time to go. ......
 
• Taliban image tarnished in Indian Kashmir
• Izhar Wani, AFP, December 11, 2001

The swift rout of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan has left Kashmiri supporters of the radical Islamic militia angry and disillusioned. ......
 
• Taliban resurface in new political party
• Jack Redden, The Indian Express, December 10, 2001

Several officials of the defeated Taliban, including their envoy to the United Nations, surfaced on Sunday to announce the formation of a new political party to help bring peace to Afghanistan. ......
 
• ‘Pak settlers can’t come to J-K’
• ENS & Agencies, The Indian Express, December 10, 2001

The Union Government will not allow the controversial Jammu and Kashmir Resettlement Act, permitting people who migrated from Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan in 1947 to return to the state, to be implemented, Minister of State I.D. Swamy said here today. ......
 
• Taliban ties: B’lore firm under microscope
• www.sify.com, December 10, 2001

The Karnataka government has despatched a team of officials to a Chinese IT facility here to investigate reports that it had developed equipment for the Taliban in Afghanistan, an official said Monday. "We have sent officials of the Software Technology Parks of India to investigate the report," said Vivek Kulkarni, Karnataka's secretary of Information Technology. ......
 
• Happiness is...
• Varsha Bhosle, Rediff on Net, December 10, 2001

Happiness is... President Bush freezing the assets of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a "charity" that has funneled millions of dollars to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Said Treasury Secretary Paul H O'Neill: "This organization exists to raise money in the US to promote terror. Last year, Holy Land raised $13 million in the US." Heeheehee! ......
 
• Temple desecrated, tension in Kodagu
• Our Staff Correspondent, The Hindu, December 10, 2001

Tension prevailed in Kodagu District on Sunday evening after the desecration of Sri Satya Harishchandra Temple at Palur, about 20 km. from here,by some miscreants. Hundreds of people gathered at Napoklu, Kottamudi, Bettageri, and Madikeri, to protest against the vandalism. ......
 
• Indian parties plead Hindu refugees’ cause
• Shaikh Azizur Rahman, The Washington Times, December 10, 2001

More than 17,000 supporters of the defeated Awami League government in Bangladesh have fled to India in the past two months, the great majority of them Hindus who complain of murder, rape and looting at the hands of fundamentalist Muslims backing the newly elected Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. ......
 
• Jihad’s Lost Battalions Mourned by Pakistani Kin
• John F. Burns, The New York Times, December 10, 2001

From this lush valley alone, a sinuous reach of sugar cane fields and citrus groves that runs a morning's drive north of the old frontier city of Peshawar, villagers say 10,000 to 15,000 men marched off to Afghanistan to fight America in October, and 2,000 to 3,000 have not returned. ......
 
• US imposes curbs on Pakistan banks: Day-to-day cash transactions
• Masood Haider, Dawn, December 10, 2001

All Pakistani banks operating in the United States have been asked to stop day to day financial transactions in accordance with new laws enacted by the United States following Sept 11 attacks which endeavour to stop flow of money to the terrorist organizations. ......
 
• Britain condemns Pakistani support of terrorism in J & K
• PTI, Rediff on Net, December 10, 2001

Britain will continue to condemn cross-border support of terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir and the "Pakistan government can be under no illusion on this matter", Sir Rob Young, the United Kingdom's high commissioner for India, said on Monday. ......
 
• Pakistan ill-treating scribes of Indian descent: Report
• Rediff on Net, December 10, 2001

The Washington Post on Monday hit out at Pakistan for expelling its correspondent Rajiv Chandrasekaran, saying the treatment meted out to journalists of Indian descent raised doubts over the country's commitment to press freedom. ......
 
• Let’s leave John Walker to the justice he chose
• Mark Steyn, The Telegraph, December 9, 2001

A Fortnight ago two Americans met in the northern Afghan desert, at the Qala-i- Jhangi prison. One was a CIA special-ops man, Mike Spann. The other was a prisoner he was interrogating, a Taliban soldier called "Abdul Hamid", the nom de guerre of John Walker, formerly of northern California. ......
 
• Press Release - Bomb Explodes in Hindu Religious Center during Prayer Session
• The Daily Janakantha, December 9, 2001

In the capital's Swamibagh Ashram (a famous Hindu religious center), a bomb explosion occurred during the prayer (kirtan) session on December 88th, 2001. The sound of the explosion was very loud, however no one was reportedly injured.  The temple administrator explained to this reporter that the prayer sessions occurred every Saturday evening and this was no exception.  Suddenly, a bomb was hurled inside the center. ......
 
• Arafat’s Suicide Factory
• Daniel Pipes, The New York Post, December 9, 2001

In declaring his own war on terrorism last week, Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made a surprising claim. He said that Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, "is responsible for everything that is happening here," a reference to the onslaught of four suicide operations that had just left 26 Israelis dead and some 200 wounded. ......
 
• Kashmir militants hit by shortage of money
• Press Trust of India, The Indian Express, December 9, 2001

Militant groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir have lately been hit by shortage of arms and funds prompting them to make distress calls to their mentors across the border in Pakistan, defence sources said on Sunday. ......
 
• Goan Muslims alert officials on provocative speeches in mosques
• Mayabhushan Nagvekar, Herald, December 7, 2001

"All of you should be waging jehad in Kashmir." "What are you Goan Muslims doing here, sitting quiet, while your brethren die in Afghanistan?" ......
 
• No noise pollution is permitted on the grounds of religion
• Raju Z Moray, The Indian Express, December 6, 2001

Incantations calling the 'beuevers' to prayer often also wake up the 'nonbelievers', way ahead of normal schedules. God is great but must that be proclaimed on loudspeakers? Whether it is the azaan of the muezzin or the midnight mass conducted by Christian priests, supporters argue on the basis of their "fundamental rights". ......
 
• Mullahs criticised for lurign young Pakistanis into battle
• Kim Murphy, The Indian Express, December 5, 2001

Mohammed Youssef tried to stop it, first calling the local religious leader on the phone, then following his convoy of young jihad recruits into Afghanistan and confronting him in person. Don't take them, he said. They're just boys. They don't know how to fight. If it gets bad, they don't know how to run. ......
 
• Pakistan and Northern Alliance: new ‘friends’, older adversaries
• Khaled Ahmed, The Indian Express, December 4, 2001

The entry of the Northern Alliance into Kabul has unleashed fears in Pakistan. Jamiat Islamabad its allies ruled in Kabul from 1992 to 1996, during which period it killed 50,000 Kabulis and raped and pillaged the hapless population of the city. Commander Ahmad Shah Massoud ordered the bombing of Pakistan embassy in 1996, climaxing his bad relations with Pakistan. ......
 
• Israeli experts put disease killer garlic under scrutiny
• Megan Goldin, Rehovot, The Indian Express, December 4, 2001

Garlic, a key ingredient of folklore, is being put to the test by some of Israel's leading scientists out to unlock the herb's secrets. Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science are focusing on allicin, a pungent compound that is nature's way of protecting garlic from insects, fungi and bacteria in the soil. ......
 
• When Terror Strikes
• Prakash Nanda, The Times of India, December 4, 2001

The Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO) has predictably generated an uproar in this country, with Parliament devoting considerable attention to the subject. Opposition parties say that the "extraordinary provisions" in POTO have no place in a liberal. democracy like India and that the existing laws are adequate to deal effectively with the terrorists and subversive elements. ......
 
• Indian connection’ emerges from Mazar hell hole: report
• Rashmee Z Ahmed, The Times of India, December 4, 2001

Two days after 85 foreign Taliban soldiers emerged blinking into the world from their subterranean hell hole in Qalai-Jhangi fort near Mazar-i-Sharif, reports say there is an India connection of sorts among some of the fighters and those they fought. ......
 
• America looks to put Al Quaida’s sleeping units to rest
• The Times of India, December 4, 2001

With the military campaign in Afghanistan in its final stages, the Bush administration has increased its focus on uncovering and eliminating AI Qaida "sleeper cellls" and the groups directly involved with them around the world. ......
 
• Lutherans Accused of ‘Idolatry’
• Stephanie Simon, The Washington Post, December 2, 2001

To the Rev. David Benke, the ceremony at Yankee Stadium was a blessing, an opportunity to join other religious and civic leaders in offering comfort to a nation raw from the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. He joined the celebrities and politicians on stage to sing patriotic songs and to pray. ......
 
• Lashkar, Jaish in new US ‘terrorist exclusion list’
• Reuters, www.expressindia.com, December 8, 2001

The US State Department said that it had put 39 groups, charities and companies on a newly created "terrorist exclusion list," giving authorities the power to deport members or deny them visas. Most of the groups are already on other US lists of "terrorist organisations" and subject to financial controls, but were not specifically subject to US visa restrictions. ......
 
• US no longer believes in zero sum game between India-Pak
• Press Trust of India, www.expressindia.com, December 8, 2001

The US no longer believes in playing a zero sum game in choosing between India and Pakistan and wants the two countries to bring down the tensions and begin a dialogue to resolve the Kashmir issue, US Ambassador to Islamabad Wendy Chamberlen says. ......
 
• 56 cases of assault on Indian diplomats reported in Pakistan
• Rediff on Net, December 7, 2001

As many as 56 cases of assault, harassment and intimidation against Indian diplomats in Pakistan has been reported over the past three years, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Friday. ......
 
• Salem’s Lot
• Stephen F. Hayes, The Daily Standard, December 5, 2001

Just hours after President Bush shut down the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development because of its support of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, his energy secretary, Spencer Abraham, co-hosted a fly-by photo-op with the group's lawyer, George Salem. ......
 
• Bechare, battered and besieged
• Varsha Bhosle, Rediff on Net, December 3, 2001

Going through the articles missed while abroad, I found this nugget by that high priest of liberals, Mushirul Hasan, in The Indian Express: "For Gandhi, non-violence consisted in refraining from exercising the power to hit back and was a virtue of the brave... He would have, therefore, appealed to the American people to eschew the path of retribution. ......
 
• In a Desolate House, Vestiges of a Violent 1999 Hijacking
• David Rohde, The New York Times, December 6, 2001

The tiny piece of paper is inscribed with the names, ages and nationalities of the hostages. Four Spaniards at first. Then an American. A 71- year-old Frenchman wrote his name and his wife's, the last name in capital letters, the first name in cursive. One captor, for some reason, kept this reminder of the lives he once held in his hands. ......
 
• Northern Alliance handed over J&K terrorists to India: Report
• Rediff on Net, December 6, 2001

The Saudi newspaper Ar-Riyadh on Thursday reported that the Northern Alliance extradited a group of Kashmiri terrorists, captured while fighting for the Taliban, to India on November 28. ......
 
• U. S. Forces Pakistan to usher in broad reforms.
• Chidanand Rajghatta, The Times of India, December 6, 2001

Pakistan is being compelled to initiate wide-ranging reforms, including changes in its strategic posture, under relenting pressure from Washington to abandon its failed militaristic policies, according to U.S. officials monitoring the fast changing dynamics in the region. ......
 
• FBI Tied Islamic Charity to Calls to Kill Israelis
• Lisa Getter, The Los Angeles Times, December 6, 2001

A prominent Islamic charity raised $207,000 at a 1995 Los Angeles event at which the keynote speaker exhorted the crowd to "Finish off the Israelis. Kill them all," according to an FBI memo obtained Wednesday. ......
 
• If Pak’s nukes are safe, why are scientists in detention?
• The Times of India, December 6, 2001

If Pakistani officials insist loudly their nuclear secrets are safe from terrorists, they talk in whispers about two of their top nuclear scientists who have been detained for weeks. ......
 
• Al Qaeda had plans to attack Parliament House: Advani
• Rediff on Net, December 5, 2001

Al Qaeda had plans to attack the Parliament House in New Delhi, besides places in Britain and Australia, along with the September 11 strikes in the United States, Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani said on Wednesday quoting confessions by an arrested terrorist. ......
 
• As US shuffles deck, Arafat is joker in the pack
• The Indian Express, December 5, 2001

It has become a ritual over the years: after every new round of bloodletting between Israelis and Palestinians, a senior US official somberly urges both sides to exert maximum restraint to prevent further violence. Not on Monday. With buildings still ablaze near the Gaza headquarters of Yasser Arafat after an Israeli rocket attack, the Bush administration had few words of sympathy for the Palestinian leader. ......
 
• Top Taliban defectors flee to Pakistan: Report
• The Times of India, December 4, 2001

In the first major split, senior Taliban officials have fled Afghanistan to set up a moderate splinter group in Pakistan, a British daily reported on Tuesday. ......
 
• Foot In Mouth
• Richard Johnson, Yahooo News, December 4, 2001

Whoops! Sen. Chuck Schumer - thinking his microphone was off yesterday - made a crack about a pesky reporter that was heard clearly by other journalists. At a press conference outside Pace University, Schumer said PLO strongman Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) should be held personally responsible for the latest suicide bombings in Israel. ......
 
• Washington must target Pak madrasas: US media
• Press Trust of India, www.expressindia.com, December 4, 2001

Islamic schools in Pakistan, charitable institutions in Saudi Arabia and immigrant ghettos in European cities should be targeted in the post-Taliban phases of the anti-terror war, even as efforts should be taken to change the leadership in Iraq, The Washington Post said. ......
 
• Fascists prefer red to saffron
• Priyadarshi Dutta, The Daily Pioneer, December 4, 2001

In June 1940, the Soviet Red Army marched into the Baltic state of Latvia and bullied this independent democracy into the fold of Communist USSR. The move was part of a secret treaty between the Communist Russians and the Nazi Germans to divide up militarily inferior Eastern Europe as a plume cake. ......
 
• More missionaries for India, Pakistan, Afghanistan: report
• Vasantha Arora, Indo-Asian News Service, December 3, 2001

Missionaries -- often called by their euphemism of aid workers -- are being sent by countries like the U.S. and Britain to spread Christianity in regions where most Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists live, a newspaper report said. ......
 
• Nigeria death sentence reprieve
• BBC News, December 3, 2001

A court in northern Nigeria has ordered a stay of execution to a woman sentenced to be stoned to death despite saying she was raped. ......
 
• Do not trust Pakistan
• Editorial, The Free Press Journal, December 3, 2001

Though the vast paraphernalia of terror which the Taliban and its spiritual leader, Osama bin Laden, had gathered over the years is yet to be completely destroyed, there is no doubt any more that the US-led alliance would finish the task at hand. The total annihilation of the Talibans, al Qaida and bin Laden would automatically mean a big blow to Pakistan which was the surrogate father of all three. For sure, the fall of Kabul and other areas in Afghanistan was a great setback for Pakistan. ......
 
• ‘This war is not our war, I didn’t want my son to fight in Kabul’
• Susan B. Glasser, The Indian Express, December 3, 2001

In the courtyard of a home high on a Pakistani mountaintop, a congregation of village men has arrived to congratulate Azaker Abbasi on the death of his son. They shake his hand, they smile. Abbasi’s son, Zia ul-Haq, has died a martyr, they say, in the faraway north of Afghanistan. ......
 
• ‘If we had a choice between India and Pakistan, we would not be part of Pakistan’
• Abdul Hamid Khan, www.tehelka.com, December 3, 2001

Q.: Why is the movement for Balawaristan not known to the world? Is the Pakistan government's suppression of political activity in Gilgit and Baltistan responsible for this?
A.: International attention is focussed only on those political concerns that appear in the international media. Unfortunately, the international press, particularly Western press, is not bothered with a peaceful struggle. Only when a struggle turns into an armed struggle does it attract media attentio ......
 
• Israel answers terror as India holds back
• Chidanand Rajghatta, The Times of India, December 5, 2001

The US war on terrorism in Afghanistan has been temporarily eclipsed by the turbulent events in the Middle-East where Israeli forces struck back violently against the Palestinian establishment on Monday following a series of terrorist attacks on Israeli territory over the weekend. ......
 
• A history of impotent rage
• Sandhya Jain, The Pioneer, December 4, 2001

Anybody with a nodding acquaintance with the ideas of His Holiness Karl Marx (peace be upon him) would know that he analyzed Europe's declining feudalism and rising mercantilism and propounded the theory that economic forces have independent power to change societies, and that the politics of individual rulers play only a superficial role in making history. ......
 
• The P & R of Indian history
• Arvind Lavakare, Rediff on Net, December 4, 2001

History has created history. For the first time, an ephemeral evil concept has been transported to events of ancient times. Some of India's parliamentarians have accused the Vajpayee government of "Talibanising" our education, and pseudo-secularists of all hues and hubris have gleefully joined in. ......
 
• Arabs Have Never Accepted Israel
• Daniel Pipes, The Wall Street Journal Europe, December 3, 2001

In June of this year, Palestinian television broadcast a sermon in a Gaza mosque in which the imam, Ibrahim Madi, made the following statement: "God willing, this unjust state [of] Israel, will be erased; this unjust state the United States will be erased; this unjust state Britain will be erased." ......
 
• Evangelism in Srilanka (by A. Amarasekera)
• December 3, 2001

While every one focusing their minds at the LTTE problem, we  Sinhalese Buddhists are pitted against another force as dangerous as  the LTTE but only a few realize the dangers that the Sinhalese  Buddhist way of life will have to face in the near future. ......
 
• On To Baghdad?: Yes - The Risks Are Overrated
• Daniel Pipes & Jonathan Schanzer, The New York Post, December 3, 2001

The Bush administration has dropped some heavy hints about the need to rid the world of the Saddam Hussein regime. In response, some are denouncing this prospect. Their dissenting views, which fall under six main rubrics, need to be taken very seriously. ......
 
• Bangladesh : Attacks on members of the Hindu minority
• Amnesty International, December 1, 2001

Amnesty International has been concerned about the situation of members of the Hindu community in Bangladesh over the past several months. Following the general elections on 1 October which were won by a coalition led by Bangladesh Nationalist Party(BNP) with a large majority, BNP supporters reportedly attacked Hindus because of their perceived support for the rival Awami League party during elections. ......
 
• Getting at the Roots of Arab Poverty
• Alan Schwartz, The New York Times, December 1, 2001

Since the terrorist attacks, Americans have learned that in many Arab and Muslim nations there are large numbers of angry young men with time on their hands, unable to find jobs — or jobs that make use of their education — because of their countries' poverty. We've also learned that many Muslims blame us for their poverty. ......
 
• Dubious thing called ‘popular support’
• KPS Gill, The Pioneer, December 1, 2001

It is interesting to discover, in the rout of the Taliban and the resurgence of a free Afghan people, the anatomy of a terrorised society. At the end of under two months of war, we discover only two pockets of serious resistance to the US-Northern Alliance (NA) blitz-Kunduz and Kandahar. The largest estimates of total Taliban forces in these locations stood at under 30,000. ......
 
• Housewife killed, 3 kidnapped in Tripura
• The Times of India, December 1, 2001

A housewife was killed and three school students were kidnapped by insurgents of the banned National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) in separate incidents in the state, police said on Friday. ......
 
• Taliban will handle US, our target is Kashmir: Lashkar
• Press Trust of India/Agence France-Presse, www.expressindia.com, December 1, 2001

The US must stockpile bodybags if American troops try to launch a ground assault on the Taliban's stronghold of Kandahar, according to a recruiter of jihad fighters belonging to the terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba. ......
 
• 6 Hindu women, girl allegedly gangraped in Bagerhat
• Staff Correspondent, The Daily Star Internet Edition, December 1, 2001

At least five women and a girl belonging to the Hindu community were gangraped by an armed gang at Gopalpur village under Kachua upazila in Bagerhat district on November 16, some of the victims and their family members alleged while talking to this correspondent on Thursday. ......
 
• Hizb commander among 8 militants killed in Kashmir
• Press Trust of India, www.expressindia.com, December 1, 2001

Eight militants, including a self-styled area commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, were killed in separate encounters with security forces in Kashmir Valley, where a militant surrendered and 20 kg of RDX were seized, official sources said on Friday. ......
 
• America urges Bangladesh to respect religious freedom
• Press Trust of India, www.expressindia.com, December 1, 2001

The United States has urged Bangladesh to respect religious rights and human rights and practise tolerance. Replying to questions over minority Hindus recently coming "under attack" in Bangladesh, the US State Department Deputy Spokesman Philip Reeker said: "I am not aware of the particular situation there in recent weeks... I think we have been clear in our calls... for tolerance ......
 
• No more Pak support to J&K terrorism: UK
• Rashmee Z Ahmed, The Times of India, December 1, 2001

Even as rumours abound of Pakistani intelligence officers joining the Western coalition's hunt for Osama Bin Laden, British ministers have said that they believe the so-called war on terror will change the nature of Pakistan's support for terrorism in Kashmir. ......
 
• Pak to close down madrasas
• The Times of India, December 1, 2001

The Pakistan government has decided to close down religious seminaries or madrasas in the country providing military training to their students. ......
 
• George Leaves Ashes For Ganges
• Amit Roy, The Telegraph, December 1, 2001

Before he died in Los Angeles of cancer at the age of 58 yesterday, George Harrison expressed a wish to be cremated and his ashes to be tossed in the holy waters of the Ganges, devotees at Bhaktivedanta Manor in Letchmore Heath, Hertfordshire, said today. ......
 
• Muslim terrorists convicted on firearms charges in the US
• Jen McCaffery, The Roanoke Times, December 1, 2001

They did not hear that Vincente Pierre has been linked by federal authorities to Al-Fuqra, a radical Islamic group whose members have been convicted of the firebombing of a Hare Krishna temple in Colorado, and the murder of an imam in Tucson. They did not hear that Pierre pleaded guilty in Colorado in 1993 to workers' compensation fraud in an Al-Fuqra scheme. ......
 
• Looking at Ram
• Anuradha Dutt, The Pioneer, December 1, 2001

Swami Chinmayanand, the BJP Lok Sabha member from Jaunpur, is one of the most outspoken proponents of Hindutva, both in Parliament, and outside it. He is also the convener of the coordination committee of the Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir Nirman Samiti, set up by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. His association with the VHP dates back to 1981. ......
 
• Questions over Bangladesh detention
• Subir Bhaumik, BBC News, December 1, 2001

The High Court in Bangladesh has directed the government to justify the detention of leading journalist and writer Shahriar Kabir who was arrested last month on charges of anti-state activities. ......
 
• Editorial on David Frawley’s Work in the European Business Review
• Editorial on Indic Studies

When a journalist asked Mahatma Gandhi what he thought of Western civilisation, he famously replied that it would be a good idea. Like so much humour, this remark had an underlying seriousness, which is why it is remembered and quoted so often. I doubt that Gandhi regarded the West, or Westerners, as wholly barbarous, or that he dismissed every aspect of Western culture. ......
 
• Pakistan’s Jihad factories
• Ben Barber, The World and I Online, December 2001

Afghanistan's Taliban studied in the madrasahs-the Islamist religious schools-of Pakistan, where some 1.75 million students are currently preparing to fight for Islam around the world. ......

Last Article date: Sun December 30, 2001
Archived on: Tue December 31, 2001