February Month Article's

• Illegal Bangladeshis a threat to India: SC
• PTI, The Hindustan Times, February 27, 2002

Expressing Serious concern over the way illegal Bangladeshi migrants are pouring in, the Supreme Court on Monday said that they are a threat to both the economy and the security of the country. ......
 
• The Transformation of US-India Relations : A Status Report
• Robert D. Blackwill, US Ambassador to India, February 26, 2002

Ambassador Bajpai, Mr. Liberhan, honored guests, ladies and gentlemen. I want to thank the Delhi Policy Group for inviting me to this marvelous facility to discuss a dominant subject: the continuing transformation of US-India relations. ......
 
• A new page from history
• The Indian Express, February 24, 2002

In the district of Fatehabad in Haryana, close to the border with Punjab, lies the village of Kunal. A dirt track on the outskirts of the village, running through fields of wheat, leads to a nondescript mound spread over a few acres. Only a fence, a Department of Archaeology board, and the shards of pottery scattered all over reveal the presence of this most enigmatic of Harappan sites. ......
 
• Naipaul stirs up writers with couple of mutinies
• Express News Service, The Indian Express, February 22, 2002

Trust Sir Vidia to do the needful. It was supposed to be a cosy photo-op. Two days after the ICCR's herd of participants in its first ever festival of Indian literature were cocooned in Neemrana's multi-layered splendour, today they were supposed to gather themselves in a wide-angled frame and be the very picture of literary unity in diversity. ......
 
• Another 'Cultural Massacre'
• Melinda Liu, MSNBC, February 19, 2002

There's one thing that current pilgrims making the hajj to Mecca won't see when they visit the holy city. In early January, Saudi Arabian authorities allowed the partial demolition of a 222-year-old Ottoman fort on the historic Bulbul hill in Mecca, triggering a howl of protest from authorities in Turkey. (Turkey, led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, arose in its modern Westernized form in 1923 from the former Ottoman Empire.) Turkey insists that Saudi authorities had pledged not to raze the monument, built in 1780 by Ottoman rulers. A residential complex for hajj pilgrims is slated to be built on the site. ......
 
• Can we trust this man?
• M V Kamath, Organiser, February 17, 2002

Ultimately it all boils down to this: Can we trust General Pervez Musharraf His January 12 televised address to his own people leaves one very much in doubt. The man is forked tongued. Howsoever revolutionary he may have sounded to his own people, in the matter of Jammu and Kashmir his stubbornness shows. True, he has had over 2,000 jihadists arrested, but, according to the Sunday Telegraph, a respected' British paper, the offices of the Lashkar-e-Toiba were raided only after its activists had removed all incriminating documents. ......
 
• In true colours
• Shyam Khosla, Organiser, February 17, 2002

Twenty-four days after the wily fox duped the world with false hopes of changing course and distancing Pakistan from terrorism, General Musharraf is back in his true colours--a "jehadi" who is committed to wage a proxy war against India. His shrill address to a joint session of PoK Assembly and Council on February 5 has proved, if any proof was needed, that Pakistan remains a rogue state and that anti-Indianism continues to be its state policy-whosoever may be calling the shots in Islamabad. ......
 
• Echoes of Naipaul-Nadira affair
• V P Bhatia, Organiser, February 17, 2002

Conversion of the non-Muslim infidels of the entire world being a divine mission ordained by Islam, Muslim Tablighi (Proselytisation) organisations are surreptitiously working all over India towards that end since independence on an unimaginable scale with Gulf money, according to reliable sources. Add to this the mushrooming of militant Madrassa networks in most of our border areas and you have an insurrection like situation as in West Bengal just now where thousands of skull-caps have suddenly appeared in a Palestine-like Itifada (rebellion) to oppose ban on unauthorised jehadi education. ......
 
• Nehru wanted Kashmir war to be taken to Pakistan in 1947 itself
• Arabinda Ghose, BJP Today, February 16-30, 2002

It may shock the peacemongers at home and "restraintwalas" abroad, but the fact is that it was Jawaharlal Nehru himself who had proposed in December 1947 that India should attack bases within West Pakistan which provided sustenance to the "tribal raiders" who were fighting Indian armed forces in Jammu and Kashmir. ......
 
• Valentine's Day is not celebrated by Majority
• Fr. Dias, Afternoon Despatch & Courier, February 15, 2002

Many love stories have found expression in the college campuses and St. Valentine has found his loyal followers among young students who make the most of this day not caring whether hue and cry is made over V-Day celebrations giving rise to debates that it is against the Indian culture. ......
 
• Forged letter case: Dasmunsi refuses to face interrogation
• Dilip Singh, The Indian Express, February 15, 2002

The CBI will have to seek other alternatives to trace the origin of the alleged forged letter Cabinet Secretary T R Prasad wrote to Prime Minister's Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra on Air India's disinvestment. The reason being that the Congress party's chief whip Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, who raked up this controversy in the Lok Sabha, has refused to face interrogation. ......
 
• Worker's party in an empire, with millions in its kitty
• Aloke Banerjee, The Times of India, February 9, 2002

Imagine an income of Rs 2.27 crore every year. Add to this at least six cars. Add a three-storey places at a locality such as Alimuddin Street where land is priceless. And you begin to get only a faint idea of the amount of wealth the CPM has. This has been the amount shown by the West Bengal state committee of the party in its report to the central committee for the last financial year. ......
 
• The Wisdom of Polygamy: Islamic Clerics Explain the Rationale
• The Middle East Media Research Institute, February 7, 2002

Nearly every year, Egyptian television broadcasts special series for the month of Ramadan, which enjoy particularly high ratings. Frequently, these annual series make media waves in the Arab world. During Ramadan 2000, for example, the character of the Coptic woman married to a Muslim in one series sparked a heated debate on Christian- Muslim relations. More recently, the polygamist Hajj Mutawali, in a series for Ramadan 2001, engendered a storm about polygamy in the Islamic world. ......
 
• Honest intellectuals must shed their religious turbans
• Ibn Warraq, Aseemaa, February 2002

Aldous Huxley once defined an intellectual as someone who had found something in life more important than sex; a witty, but inadequate definition, since it would make all impotent men and frigid women intellectuals. A better definition would be a freethinker, not in the narrow sense of someone who does not accept the dogmas of traditional religion, but in the wider sense of someone who has the will to find out, who exhibits rational doubt about prevailing intellectual fashions, and who is unafraid to apply criicfal thought to any subject. ......
 
• Pakistan, Afghanistan and US Policy
• Geo-Political Affairs, February 2002

I'm going to focus on Pakistan today for three reasons. First, because Pakistani support has made the rise of the Taliban possible, and there is a danger that Pakistan will continue to play a destabilizing role in Afghanistan now. Second, because the United States has pressured General Pervez Musharraf into a marriage of convenience that has emboldened Pakistan to step up its pressure in Kashmir, which could lead to a new war with India. ......
 
• "Indian ideal will transform world culture" (Interview with Dr. Subhash Kak)
• Bhartiya Pragna, February 2002

Q. You are a practising electrical engineer who holds patents in leading-edge areas such as neural networks. Yet, you are also an established poet and writer, as well as a Sanskrit scholar and expert on ancient Indian science. You are a Renaissance man, in other words. How did all this come about?
A. I was interested in both writing and sciences in school but when I finished I was leaning toward becoming a writer. My mother warned me it was no way to make a living and she packed me off to an engineering college. I am glad for that because before long I discovered that literary and scientific imaginations are not all that different. For sure there is much that is tedious and mechanical in science, but the same is true of literature as well. ......
 
• Operation uprootment, the hidden agenda
• M. Promod Kumar, Bhartiya Pragna, February 2002

The Carmel Convent of Chandigarh punished over 100 Hindu girls studying in the convent for applying Mehendi on the occasion of Karva Chauth. The students were lined up and made to stand with their hands up for nearly 15 minutes apart from a fine ranging from Rs l00 for a higher secondary student to Rs l0 for a nursery kid! ......
 
• The meaning of freedom of religion
• Swami Nirliptananda, Bhartiya Pragna, February 2002

Freedom is an essential characteristic of Hinduism. Every Hindu has a freedom of choice and freedom to worship. This is implied by the concept of "Ishta" (chosen deity). No one has the right to interfere, condemn, or impose his own beliefs on others. That is the general outlook of the Indogenic religions. That is why there is hardly any conflict among them. ......
 
• Islam has been militant from the beginning (Interview with Dr.Koenraad Elst)
• Sundeep Dougal, Bhartiya Pragna, February 2002

Q. Why do you think Islam has turned increasingly militant?
A. I think Islam has been militant from the beginning. Later on, its degree of militancy fluctuated due to a number of factors, one of them being the power equation with its rivals. Today, Islam lives in the shadow of Western (and locally in South Asia, Hindu) economic and cultural supremacy, which gives it an incentive for militancy to transform its dissatisfaction into action. So we are seeing a peak in Islamic militancy. ......
 
• Sita Ram Goel
• Navratna S. Rajaram, Bhartiya Pragna, February 2002

In December 2001, Sri Sita Ram Goel, scholar, writer, publisher, and creator and mentor of a vigorous school of thought rooted in Sanatana Dharma, completed 80 years. It is not easy to describe this many-sided man, but the phrase 'intellectual kshatriya' first used to my knowledge by David Frawley appears most appropriate. ......
 
• Despicable terrorists against the US, but, venerable Jihadis against India?
• S Gurumurthy, The New Indian Express, February 28, 2002

Daniel Pearl was a journalist. And, more important to Islamic terrorists, he was a Jew and an American. That was his sin. The terrorists kidnapped him and after weeks finished him off, his throat slit like a goat's. The terrorists did not intend to do it secretly. ......
 
• 12 mosques demolished in Islamabad
• The Asian Age, February 22, 2002

Some 12 unauthorised mosques were demolished in different sectors of Islamabad on Wednesday. The operation was jointly carried out by the Capital Development Authority, Islamabad Capital Territory administration, district auqaf department and the Islamabad police. Official sources told Dawn that these mosques were razed as part of its ongoing drive against illegally constructed mosques and madaris in Islamabad. ......
 
• Social equality and Hindu consolidation
• Balasaheb Deoras, Aseemaa, February 2002

While broaching this subject, the first question that naturally poses itself before us is: "Who is a 'Hindu'?" Many definitions of the word 'Hindu' have been forwarded but none of them appears to be perfect, since every one of them, however carefully worded, suffers from the defect of being either 'too little' or 'too much'. But can we deny the very existence of the Hindu society just because it defies definition'? ......
 
• Honest intellectuals must shed their religious turbans
• Ibn Warraq, Aseemaa, February 2002

Aldous Huxley once defined an intellectual as someone who had found something in life more important than sex; a witty, but inadequate definition, since it would make all impotent men and frigid women intellectuals. A better definition would be a freethinker, not in the narrow sense of someone who does not accept the dogmas of traditional religion, but in the wider sense of someone who has the will to find out, who exhibits rational doubt about prevailing intellectual fashions, and who is unafraid to apply criicfal thought to any subject. ......
 
• "History books should be revised to reflect progress" (Interview with Dr. N.S. Rajaram)
• Aseemaa, February 2002

History books need to be rewritten because they are both obsolete and have material that are inappropriate for schoolchildren," says Dr. N.S. Rajaram. "Books written 25 or 30 years ago are using discredited material like the Aryan invasion. In all this there appears to be a consistent anti-national, colonial bias masquerading as 'objective,' and even 'Marxist,' as if they have a monopoly on objectivity and scholarship. ......
 
• The myth of the Hindu right
• David Frawley, Aseemaa, February 2002

In media accounts today, any group that identifies itself as Hindu or tries to promote any Hindu cause is immediately and uncritically defined as 'right-winged'. In the leftist accounts that commonly come from the Indian press, Hindu organizations are also routinely called militants and fascists. However, if we look at their actual views, Hindu groups have a very different ideology and practices than the political right in other countries. ......
 
• Killers of innocents for political motives are terrorists: US
• The Daily Excelsior, February 27, 2002

In a rebuff to those describing terrorists as "freedom fighters", the US today said those killing innocent people for political motives are terrorists and must be called "exactly that". ......
 
• Many in Islamic world doubt Arabs behind 9/11
• Andrea Stone, USA Today, February 27, 2002

A sweeping poll of attitudes in the Islamic world shows that most Muslims don't believe Arabs carried out the Sept. 11 attacks and disapprove of the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan. The Gallup Organization poll, released Tuesday, is the most comprehensive survey of Muslim countries taken since Sept. 11. It confirms anecdotal evidence of a huge gulf between the West and Muslim nations that existed before the attacks and remains deep. ......
 
• Physics & Vedanta: So much in common
• Mani Bhaumik, The Times of India, February 27, 2002

The ancient Vedantic concepts that we all cut our spiritual teeth on are a part of the grand reconciliation now going on between science and religion. ......
 
• Focus on new military diplomacy
• Ashok K Mehta, The Pioneer, February 27, 2002

When Arundhati Roy, the Goddess of small novels, began pontificating on nuclear theology, an agitated Army Colonel counselled her to stick to fiction. Similarly, it is time to wag a finger at some retired Admirals, Generals and Ambassadors for either writing off or picking holes in Operation Parakram-the country's biggest ever military deployment which has elevated coercive diplomacy to new heights. ......
 
• New Left inherits hatred
• Michael Gove, The Statesman, February 27, 2002

There is one form of hate which increasingly dares to parcel out blame. Far from this prejudice being met with resolute condemnation, action against its most virulent proponents is nugatory and the intellectual trends which favour it go broadly unchallenged. Why? Because this form of racism can be worn as a chic accessory to radical views, a badge of identification with "the oppressed". Anti-Semitism is the new black. ......
 
• Pearl's killing, skeletons in Pakistan's closet
• Husain Haqqani, The Indian Express, February 27, 2002

The barbaric murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl confirms my fear Pakistan's transition from an ally of extremist Islamists to a modern Muslim state will not come about without a fight. ......
 
• Don't withdraw yet
• Ajai Shukla, The Indian Express, February 27, 2002

Over the last fortnight, several articles have questioned whether any purpose is being served by the continued deployment of the Indian armed forces along the border with Pakistan. The show of force, goes the argument, has created the desired impact and since troops cannot endlessly remain at peak readiness they should now return to their peacetime cantonments. ......
 
• Bush Sr. wanted Pak. declared a terrorist state'
• The Hindu, February 26, 2002

In October 1994, a gleeful young kidnapper walked into a house in Saharanpur, near New Delhi, to tell three British tourists chained to the floor that he had sent authorities an ultimatum: "Release a group of Islamic militants from Indian jails, or the hostages will die." ......
 
• Is the space of Hinduism shrinking?
• T.R. Anandan, The Hindu, February 26, 2002

Is the space of Hinduism shrinking in India? If one looks at the history of India from the ancient and medieval times up to the present, the answer one would come to would be an emphatic `no'. When new religions like Buddhism and Jainism took shape and the most powerful and extensive empire of the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka formed the major part of the northern India around 250 BC ......
 
• Militants' new mantra in Valley: Kill them young
• Pradeep Dutta, The Indian Express, February 18, 2002

''Aj to baad terey bachey nahin darengey (From today onwards your children will not fear the knock on the doors),'' militants told Mithu Ram, killing four of his family members, including two daughters aged eight and 12. These words continue to haunt him even now. ......
 
• What is wrong with the PM's statement?
• Arvind Singh, Hindu Vivek Kendra, February 27, 2002

On 18 February, Prime Minister AB Vajpayee said that even without Muslims voting for his party, it can form the government in UP. He criticized opposition parties which had appealed to Muslims not to vote for the BJP. Addressing a rally, he said that his party had not done anything discriminatory against the minority community. ......
 
• History as present continuous
• Sandhya Jain, The Pioneer, February 26, 2002

American journalist Daniel Pearl's carefully planned and ruthlessly executed murder by men who felt no compunctions about filming the gory episode, is a grim reminder that both the ideology and ideologues behind the New York tragedy are alive and kicking. In our part of the world, the same forces pulverized the majestic Bamiyan Buddhas and persecuted Hindus and Sikhs in Kabul, and continue to sponsor the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus and brutalities towards Hindus in Bangladesh. ......
 
• Al-Qaeda lair in the Caucasus
• Fred Weir, The Hindustan Times, February 26, 2002

The next flashpoint in the global war on terrorism could be the rugged and remote Pankisi Gorge, a lawless district in the Caucasus nation of Georgia that abuts on rebel Chechnya, where both American and Russian officials say Al-Qaeda fighters from Afghanistan - possibly even Osama bin Laden - have taken refuge. ......
 
• Christian missionaries smell opportunity in devastated Afghanistan
• The Pioneer, February 26, 2002

Muslim for a millennium, this prostrate land now looks from far-off pulpits like a God-given opportunity for missionary work -to save Afghans from "an eternity without Christ," as one American charity chief put it. But Islam's roots run deep in Afghanistan's deserts and snowy highlands. Resistance would be formidable. ......
 
• Where is the outrage?
• Varsha Bhosle, Rediff on Net, February 25, 2002

Daniel Pearl is dead. The day before Bakri Eid, we were informed that Pakistani jihadis cut his throat with a knife, then laid him on the ground and chopped off his head with a blunt weapon. It was all videotaped, and just in case the Americans missed the action or the import, the scene of the beheading was spliced together several times to form a loop. ......
 
• China Censors Bush Speech in Print
• Henry Chu, The Los Angeles Times, February 25, 2002

The Chinese government responded to President Bush's call for religious tolerance Friday by promptly editing out his remarks on freedom and faith in its transcript of a speech that Bush delivered on live national television. ......
 
• 47 jailed for praying as Bush urged China to set religion free
• Indira A.R. Lakshmanan, The Boston Globe, February 25, 2002

Last Thursday at 11:04 a.m., as President Bush was welcomed to China in a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, police surrounded a home in the outskirts of Beijing and arrested 47 Christians holding a prayer meeting. ......
 
• Toronto Temple Desecrated, Meeting Called for February 24
• Press Release, Federation of Hindu Temples of Canada, February 24, 2002

According to this report on February 8th, 2002, the Gayatri Mandir of Toronto was vandalized. The sacred statues to which worship is dedicated were disfigured. The right hands on the icons of Lord Siva, Shri Hanuman, Devi Lakshmi and Devi Parvati were chopped off. ......
 
• Pak's Sheikh Skeletons Out
• K. P. Nayar, The Telegraph, February 24, 2002

Even as a debate rages in Washington about General Pervez Musharraf's ability to steer his country along the road of further reform, more details - worrying for the Americans - are emerging about how the Pakistanis went about investigating the Daniel Pearl kidnapping. ......
 
• This woman helps fell mercenaries in Kashmir
• Kavita Bajeli-Datt, Yahoo News, February 22, 2002

Rajni Sharma, an inspector with the Jammu and Kashmir police, has won commendation from the Indian Army chief for her role in an army-led operation where two Afghan mercenaries were tracked and gunned down in the insurgency-battered state. ......
 
• IT and the end of US hegemony
• Bharat Jhunjhunwala, The Free Press Journal, February 22, 2002

"We need to overcome the disdain of technological excellence. In the tenth Chapter of Bhagwat Gita, Lord Krishna enumerates that he is Skanda among the commanders, Pipal among the trees, Airawat among the elephants, king among human beings, vajra among weapons, etc. It is this striving for material excellence that we must also take from the Gita." ......
 
• A peep into Sir Vidya's noble mind
• Farrukh Dhondy, Mid-Day, February 22, 2002

Vidya Naipaul has a considerable though not vast collection of art. He asks his guests on occasion to share aspects of the paintings with him. He wants to point certain things out about a Japanese print he has bought, or about the line and craft of a miniature he has acquired, framed and mounted in the house. ......
 
• Pearl Murder Exposes Pakistan's Elite
• Jim Hoagland, Houston Chronicle, February 22, 2002

Heartbreaking to his family and colleagues, the ritualistic slaughter of reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan is more than a personal tragedy. This is a political murder that exposes the fractures and violence of a land that has escaped the control and influence of the Westernized, affluent elite that pretends to govern it. ......
 
• Arms haul at madrassas
• Neeta Sharma, The Hindustan Times, February 19, 2002

Large Caches of arms and ammunition have been seized from two madrassas in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh and Surat in Gujarat. Sleuths have zeroed in on a third madrassa in UP that is believed to be storing arms. ......
 
• 'New' China: Same Old Tricks
• Tony Carnes, Christianity Today, February 15, 2002

A Chinese Christian refugee in New York, working with Christians in China, has compiled an extensive new archive documenting brutal religious persecution that has caused more than 100 deaths and thousands of injuries. ......
 
• The Religious Intolerance in Pakistan
• South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre, February 12, 2002

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan remains one of the most glaring examples of religious intolerance in the world. General Parvez Musharraf's military dictatorship, barely a year old, has done little to protect the civil and political rights of non-Muslim minorities. With the continuation of the Blasphemy Laws and the Hudood Ordinances, it is clear that governmental and legal structures elevate Sunni Islam over all other religious beliefs while sanctioning discrimination against non-Muslims and Shiite Muslims. ......
 
• Not really a banana republic
• Ayaz Amir, The Indian Express, February 2, 2002

What's a banana republic? A state without a spine of its own, dependent on foreign capital, subject to foreign influence and politically unstable. A state where, typically, the predominate influence is that of the United States. This term originated from the Caribbean where small island states grew bananas, robbed and oppressed their people and listened carefully to the American ambassador. ......
 
• Indian hand behind the scene
• M L Kotru, The Pioneer, February 23, 2002

An apology is due to Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar for our having been harsh on him on his "discovery" that Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl was kidnapped in Karachi at India's behest and possibly by Indian agents. Like Mr Sattar, General Musharraf has made several amazing disclosures about the "Indian hand" that would send both Sherlock Holmes and Hercules Poirot running for cover. ......
 
• Naipaul lets rip at 'banality' of Indian women writers
• Fiachra Gibbons, The Guardian, February 22, 2002

Two of India's leading women writers were yesterday taught a very tough lesson. You must never, ever bore VS Naipaul with trifling matters such as colonialism or the enslavement of your sex. ......
 
• Pearl slaying could expose ISI's terrorist links
• Chidanand Rajghatta, The Times of India, February 22, 2002

The brutal slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl comes as a major embarrassment to Pakistan's military leader Pervez Musharraf and has turned the spotlight on Islamabad's possible back channel links with terrorists. ......
 
• Paramhans' clarion call: Arm Hindus
• Sanjay K. Jha, The Pioneer, February 22, 2002

The sant who has been the spearhead of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement and a major Hindutva protagonist has given a call for arming all Hindus "if India was to be saved from disintegration". Ramchandra Paramhans, who heads the powerful Digamabar Akhara in Ayodhya, feels it was high time India discarded the 'Soft State' tag. ......
 
• Pakistan police received a videotape of Pearl's murder
• Mid-Day, February 22, 2002

The Wall Street Journal reported early this morning that 38-year-old Daniel Pearl, their Mumbai-based reporter for south Asia, had been killed by his kidnappers in Pakistan. A message on the New York-based paper's website said the paper was basing its statement on reports from the US State Department and the Pakistani police. ......
 
• Declassified history puts Nehru in dock
• Jay Bhattacharjee, The Pioneer, February 22, 2002

The long arm of history, as recent events have shown, is relentless in its pursuit of truth and accuracy. However far dictators, tyrants and their defendants may seek to run, the past and its records have a habit of catching up with them. ......
 
• Cleric in Britain to Stand Trial
• The Associated Press, The New York Times, February 21, 2002

A Muslim cleric accused of inciting followers to murder "nonbelievers'' was ordered to stand trial and denied bail on Thursday. ......
 
• Asian boy's body is set alight after beating in London park
• Andrew Norfolk, The Times, February 21, 2002

An Asian schoolboy was brutally beaten to death and his naked body set alight in a north-west London park. The body of the Asian youngster, thought to be aged between 12 and 14, was discovered at the foot of a tree a few yards from a playground popular with children. ......
 
• Crucial choice
• Balbir K Punj, The Pioneer, February 21, 2002

With elections to the four State assemblies all but over, the media is working overtime to anticipate the outcome. The English language press always views an electoral battle in the Hindi heartland through caste-community-religion prism. So this time again it has polarised the Assembly elections along Mandir-Mandal lines. ......
 
• Interesting figures from Pakistan
• Editorial, The Hindustan Times, February 21, 2002

Plainly, the sample is small - 605 men and 634 women drawn from seven urban centres in Pakistan. Even then, a survey conducted by Herald, the Karachi-based monthly, to gauge the minds of Pakistanis is a revealing document. Most significantly, it tells us that only 4 per cent considered Kashmir to be the "most pressing problem facing Pakistan today". ......
 
• UNESCO: 3, 000 Languages Could Die Off
• The Associated Press, The New York Times, February 20, 2002

About half of the world's 6,000 languages are under threat of disappearing under pressure from more dominant tongues or repressive government policies, a new study says. ......
 
• London mosque was terror training base
• Vijay Dutt, The Hindustan Times, February 18, 2002

Finsbury Park mosque in north London was used as a base to impart arms training to British Islamic militants, intelligence sources were quoted in The Observer. ......
 
• Killings resurrect'99 fears
• Arun Joshi, The Hindustan Times, February 18, 2002

The massacre of eight Hindu villagers at Narala village of Rajouri district has cast a shadow over the February 21 by-poll for the Jammu-Poonch Lok Sabha seat. Fears of a low turnout in the hilly and thickly wooded areas now threaten to turn into reality. ......
 
• View from Raisina Hill
• Amulya Ganguli, The Hindustan Times, February 18, 2002

President K.R. Narayanan's preference for reservations in the private sector recalls the regressive views of the first head of State. Rajendra Prasad, too, had chosen to be a stumbling block on the road to modernisation by opposing the Hindu Code Bill. Indeed, Prasad had canvassed in favour of a wider scope for his powers beyond the constitutional framework. ......
 
• Imams in the act!
• Editorial, The Statesman, February 10, 2002

In what appears to be a coordinated move, Imams in mosques right across the city, declared on Friday 8th February that they preferred Jyoti Basu to Buddhadev Bhattacharya and threatened that their total support to the Left Front may be in danger. The Imam of Nakhoda mosque, Maulana Mohammed Sabir added that while during Jyoti Basu's tenure the two communities lived in amity, the situation changed after Mr Bhattacharya took over. ......
 
• Hoodwinking Muslims?
• C R Irani, The Statesman, February 10, 2002

On 8th August 1994, the West Bengal Board of Madrasa Education Act (39 of 1994) was passed to regularise what the CPI(M) government were already doing. It came into force on All Fools Day 1995; it provides for a Board of 27 members, wholly under government control. No elections have ever been held, because Government have not framed Rules. ......
 
• Astro Logical
• Amarnath K. Menon, India Today, February 25, 2002

It is a sacred science that helps one attain mukti." Andrew Foss, president of the British Association of Astrology, has no doubts the subject should be introduced as a course in Indian universities. On a lecture tour of India, he told audiences, "We have already introduced it in four universities in the UK. ......
 
• Mohammed goes to the Moutain
• A.K. Sen, Outlook, February 25, 2002

Just over a year ago, the question "Do you know who the head of the Pakistan state is?" flummoxed US President George W. Bush. A presidential candidate for the Republican Party at the time, Bush hadn't heard of Pervez Musharraf, nor could he have imagined how important this Pakistani general was to become for America. ......
 
• Cleric charged with inciting murder
• BBC News, February 21, 2002

A Muslim cleric who allegedly sold tapes urging his followers to kill Jews has been charged with incitement to murder. ......
 
• Patel vs Rasul: The great UK divide
• Rashmee Z. Ahmed, The Times of India, February 20, 2002

The great sub-continental divide is alive and well, 7,000 miles away from India and Pakistan as Britain digests the news that people like 12-year-old ethnic Indian Abhay Patel and his Pakistani classmate Ahmed Rasul will grow up to be painfully different. ......
 
• The Saudi Challenge
• Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times, February 20, 2002

I could tell that Saudi Arabia had undergone a big change since I last visited when I checked into the Sheraton Hotel here and the desk clerk was a Saudi. Five years ago, the hotel owner would have been a Saudi but the clerks and key hotel personnel all would have been imported labor from the Philippines, Pakistan or Lebanon. Not anymore. ......
 
• Pakistan cutting its spy unit's ties to some militants
• Douglas Jehl, The New York Times, February 20, 2002

In a significant signal of its change in course, Pakistan has begun to disband two major units of its powerful intelligence service that had close links to Islamic militants in Afghanistan and Kashmir, senior Pakistani military and intelligence officials said today. ......
 
• Pak rejects plea to repeal blasphemy law
• The Times of India, February 19, 2002

The military regime has rejected the US demand to repeal the blasphemy law and also to do away with the constitutional provision that declares Ahmadis (Qadianis) non-Muslim. ......
 
• "Post-poll torture tales haunt Bangladesh crime convention"
• Ershadul Haq, The Times of India, February 18, 2002

Tales of torture haunted a crime convention here, as the audience fell silent with horror on hearing sagas of rape and pillage allegedly by activists of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government. The convention on "Crimes Against Humanity" has been organised by the BNP's political rival, the Awami League, and focuses on post-election atrocities on nearly 20 million Hindu-dominated minorities in Muslim-majority Bangladesh. ......
 
• Columns Of Ignorance
• R.V. Pandit, Outlook, February 18, 2002

Prominent Indian newspapers today claim prime readership from the 20 to 40 age group, and their contents, including the luscious Page 3, are designed for that age group. Thus, the bulk of their readers would not be familiar with events of the '40s. The Pakistani newspaper report about Advani's alleged involvement in a 1947 plot to murder Jinnah was naturally big news in our newspapers, but not a single newspaper pointed out that the home minister was not even 20 when that plot was supposed to have been executed! ......
 
• Dangerous Delusion
• Tavleen Singh, India Today, February 18, 2002

America's South Asia policy since September 11 has often left me bewildered. I have attributed this to my inability to see the bigger picture from Delhi. So it came as something of a shock when I saw it last week from New York and discovered that if American foreign policy seems only puzzling from Delhi it seems surreal when seen from New York. ......
 
• Puppets on a star-spangled string
• Varsha Bhosle, Rediff on Net, February 18, 2002

So, how have we done since Op Enduring Freedom? Let's do a quick recap: As the US was readying to thram the Great Islamic Warriors, we turned down the advice of our military leadership to hit the jihadi bases in PoK in early October. In any case, between 9/11 and 9/15, most of the terrorist training camps even in Pakistan's FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) had been temporarily evacuated -- meaning, such forays should have been undertaken way before the WTC attacks. ......
 
• In Rural China, Mental Hospitals Await Some Who Rock the Boat
• Elisabeth Rosenthal, The New York Times, February 16, 2002

No one would dispute that Huang Shurong is stubborn and outspoken. She is also smart, confident and articulate, attributes that would seem to leave her poised for success. But not in rural China. ......
 
• Gujarat uses astrology to promote plantation
• Sajid Shaikh, The Times of India, February 14, 2002

If you are an Aries, plant 'amla' (emblica officinalis) and 'garmado' (cassia fistula). For Leos, the choice is 'peepal' (ficus religiose) and 'asopalav' (polyalthia longifolia) and for the moody cancerian 'ashoka' (saraca indica) and 'kher' (acacia catechu) are the most beneficial. ......
 
• Jaish takes a new name to beat the ban
• Times News Network, The Times of India, February 4, 2002

Unfazed by the ban imposed on it by the U.S. and Pakistan governments, Maulana Masood Azhar's Jaish-e-Mohammad, rechristened as Jamiat-ul-Furkan, threatens to shatter the lull in militant activities in the Valley. ......
 
• 'Lost' Taliban connection haunts Delhi
• The Telegraph, February 3, 2002

India today expressed concern over the disappearance of Taliban and al Qaida leaders after the US campaign in Afghanistan as "a matter of immediate security concern", saying Delhi would de-escalate troop mobilisation on the border only after getting "concrete evidence" of decreasing cross-border terrorism. ......
 
• Muslims cry foul against Nepal's bid to scrutinize madrasas
• Suman Pradhan, The Times of India, February 3, 2002

Muslim groups in Nepal have scathingly attacked the Sher Bahadur Deuba government's decision to regulate madrasas that dot the southern Terai plains of the world's only Hindu Kingdom. ......
 
• Pak Hindu leader wins ballot battle, falls to bullet
• Vivek Deshpande, The Indian Express, February 1, 2002

A Prominent leader of the Pakistani Hindu community, Sudham Chand Chawla, who successfully fought a legal battle to ensure voting rights for Pakistani minorities, was shot dead by unidentified assailants in the Pakistani city of Jacobabad on Monday. ......
 
• Terrorism Inc
• Swapan Dasgupta, India Today, February 25, 2002

Every book awaits its big moment. Ahmed Rashid's Taliban began life as a well-researched study on one of the most obscure and forbidding corners of the world-on a par with, say, Eritrea, Western Sahara and Myanmar-and was catapulted into the top of The New York Times bestsellers list by the events of September 11. ......
 
• "Ansari Had Pakistani Patronage and Sheikh is Linked to Al Qaida"
• India Today, February 25, 2002

Pleased at the success of the CBI  in securing Aftab Ansari from Dubai, P.C. Sharma, director of the investigating  agency, spoke to Special Correspondent Sayantan  Chakravarty about the arrest and the work put in by his team. ......
 
• Bridging the Gulf
• Shishir Gupta, India Today, February 25, 2002

The South Block officials are not known to get overly excited about anything. But the telephone call at 11.30 a.m. on February 5 virtually set the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA ) on fire. The caller, Indian Ambassador to United Arab Emirates K.C. Singh, informed Secretary (East) R.M. Abhyankar that the Kolkata shoot-out mastermind Aftab Ansari alias Farhan Mallick had been detained in Dubai. ......
 
• Four charged after teenager dies
• BBC News, February 17, 2002

Gavin Hopley died in hospital six days after the attack  Four men have been charged with the murder of a teenager in Oldham. ......
 
• Militants get AK-47 training in London mosque
• AFP, February 17, 2002

British extremists have been involved in weapons training with assault rifles at a mosque in London, a British Sunday paper said. ......
 
• Anand Sharma in Parliament security row
• Mohan Sahay, The Statesman, February 16, 2002

Many MPs have arrogated to themselves the right to insist on being treated as a class apart, particularly when asked to comply with security-related rules. ......
 
• Pro-jihad website draws readers
• Andrew North, BBC News, February 15, 2002

A website that has been prominent in its support for Osama Bin Laden, is now urging Muslims in America to leave the country. ......
 
• An assessment of the Musharraf visit
• Bill Nichols, USA Today, February 14, 2002

In his long-sought first official visit to the White House, the beaming Pakistani president won lavish praise Wednesday from a grateful President Bush, who said Pakistan's help has been critical to the U.S. war against terrorism. ......
 
• The real vote: for a true picture of UP
• Balbir K Punj, The Indian Express, February 14, 2002

Electronics to the four state assemblies including UP are due this month. The media is working overtime to anticipate the poll outcome. The English language press always viws an electoral battle in the Hindi heartland through the caste-community-religion prism. This time too, it has polarised the elections on Mandir-Mandal lines. ......
 
• Omar Sheikh arrested ahead of Musharraf's US visit
• Our Political Bureau, The Economic Times, February 13, 2002

In a tactical move that is I guaranteed to give President Pervez Musharraf good press as he flies into Washington on Tuesday, the Pakistani authorities suddenly cracked the Daniel Pearl case, by arresting chief suspect Omar Saeed Sheikh. According to agency reports from Pakistan, the British-born Sheikh was picked up in Lahore from where he will be taken to Karachi. ......
 
• Textbooks and the jihadi mindset
• Dawn, Karachi, February 12, 2002

A report prepared by the Centre for Information and Research (CIR) at SZABIST, Karachi, is quite an eye-opener. Intrigued by the growth of intolerance and violence in a society which had at one time been home to peace-loving sufis, CIR undertook to investigate the factors which have spawned the "jihadi" mindset in the people - to use its director's words. ......
 
• Gen points fingers, his police doubt Indian link
• The Indian Express, February 11, 2002

Despite Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf blaming India for the kidnapping of US journalist Daniel Pearl, police officials in Karachi have expressed serious doubts over the allegation. ......
 
• Washington's Waiting
• K Subrahmanyam, The Times of India, February 11, 2002

There was a widely-held misperception that General Musharraf had outsmarted India by joining the alliance against terrorism in September when, in fact, he had to surrender to a non-negotiable US ultimatum. There has been a similar sort of misunderstanding of his speech of January 12, 2002. ......
 
• In defence of the Defence Minister
• RV Pandit, The Hindustan Times, February 10, 2002

Ever since my booklet, "The Whole Truth with Documents, about the Aluminium Caskets Bought by the Defence Ministry in 1999-2000", landed in the mail boxes of editors and MPs two weeks ago, many recipients are wondering what George Fernandes is up to. ......
 
• The Islam Threat and the Enemy within
• Islamic Attacks in the UK

Nov 2001 :Churches under siege in the high Muslim population of Bradford  - A vicar  told how he was chased from his blazing church by a gang of masked Bin Laden thugs hurling stones and chanting racist abuse. ......
 
• Left conspiracy
• Rakesh Sinha, The Hindustan Times, February 15, 2002

The ongoing debate on Indian historiography will have a crucial impact on the definition of Indian nationality. The 'mainstream' historians and their apologists in the media easily find fault with non-Marxist social scientists; the neo-interventionists are called 'fascist' and 'communal'. ......
 
• Hajj pilgrims kill Afghan minister at Kabul airport
• www.sify.com, February 15, 2002

Afghanistan's minister for aviation and tourism Abdul Rahman died late Thursday after he was beaten by an angry mob of pilgrims who had been held up for two days at Kabul airport, sources in the interim government told AFP. ......
 
• 'India, Israel are in the same boat'
• The Indian Express, February 14, 2002

Israel's environment minister Tzachi Hanegbi, who has been visiting India, is among the young rising stars in the Israeli Cabinet. But what singles out the 44-year-old former Justice Minister are his hardline views on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. He's not just from the same Likud party as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, but he's also Sharon's ''friend'' and is said to have his ear. ......
 
• Is Vajpayee threatening me? (The Election Interview/Ramchandra Paramhans)
• Rediff on Net, February 14, 2002

There are two versions of Mahant Ramchandra Paramhans, head of the Ramnandiya Dighamber Akhara and, more importantly, chief of the Ram Janambhoomi Nyas, the organisation that spearheads moves to construct a temple at the site where, prior to December 6, 1992, stood the Babri Mosque. ......
 
• Terrorising the fourth estate
• Wilson John, The Pioneer, February 14, 2002

Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl was abducted by terrorists not because he was an American but because he was a journalist who was determined to dig out hidden links between a terrorist named Richard Reid (Shoe Bomber) and Pakistan's religious-terror network, functioning with the active assistance of the notorious intelligence agency, the ISI. ......
 
• The core issue
• Balbir K Punj, The Pioneer, February 14, 2002

It is never a bridge too long between Lucknow and Kolkata. So it's not surprising that West Bengal experiences a rumble when Uttar Pradesh goes to polls. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, the reformist face of the Left Front Government, had to eat crow in the face of concerted agitation by Islamic fundamentalists within his State. ......
 
• Danger in Kashmir
• Arvind Lavakare, Rediff on Net, February 13, 2002

With India and Pakistan having become nuclear powers after their historic tests in mid-1998, it has become fashionable for the USA, and therefore the Western world, to talk of the Jammu & Kashmir imbroglio as being the globe's "nuclear flashpoint" -- to be avoided at all costs. ......
 
• Islamic Group Snubs Peace Deal in Moluccas
• Zenit.org, February 13, 2002

Seventy Muslim and Protestant Christian representatives from the Molucca Islands have signed a pact committing themselves to abandon violence, but an Islamic paramilitary group says it won't abide by the accord. ......
 
• Imam Facing Court for Book on How to Beat Women
• Zenit.org, February 13, 2002

A judge will investigate a complaint by women's groups against an imam whose book gives advice to men on how to beat a woman without leaving any traces. ......
 
• Furor Over Death Sentences of 5 in Chinese Church Group
• Erik Eckhlom, The New York Times, February 13, 2002

An international campaign has begun on behalf of five leaders of a defiant evangelical Christian group who were given death sentences in December under China's 1999 anti-cult law. ......
 
• Bali culture in Basel
• Richard Dawson, Swissinfo, February 11, 2002

Basel's Museum of Culture is staging an exhibition of the most important permanent collection of Balinese cultural artefacts outside Bali. ......
 
• Why nobody loves Shankar Sharma
• Vir Sanghvi, The Hindustan Times, February 10, 2002

On Tuesday, Ram Jethmalani and Shanti Bhushan addressed a press conference that Tarun Tejpal described as 'historic'. Of course, Tarun is hardly a disinterested observer: the purpose of the press conference was to defend Shankar Sharma, the head of First Global and an investor in Tehelka who has been pursued by the authorities ever since Operation West End was made public. ......
 
• In defence of the Defence Minister
• RV Pandit, The Hindustan Times, February 10, 2002

Ever since my booklet, "The Whole Truth with Documents, about the Aluminium Caskets Bought by the Defence Ministry in 1999-2000", landed in the mail boxes of editors and MPs two weeks ago, many recipients are wondering what George Fernandes is up to. ......
 
• 'We were able to convince Saudi Arabia, Kuwait that there's a difference between Kashmir issue, terrorism'
• The Indian Express, February 9, 2002

Between the three of them, Najma Heptullah, Sikandar Bakht and R.L. Bhatia mapped the entire Islamic world for over a fortnight, seeking to advocate India's case against terrorism. Their success has been in getting countries in the region to unequivocally condemn the December 13 attack. There were, however, other issues too where the delegations did not create a manifest shift in policy or resolve long-held misgivings, such as Indo-Israeli relations and the Indo-Pak face-off over the Kashmir problem. ......
 
• Hindu carving knives are out
• H K Burki, The Jang, Pakistan, February 9, 2002

A new India is abroad. A muscular Hindu republic, overbearing, intransigent. It seeks to impose absolute domination over its South Asian neighbours and to assert itself as the big power. A bloodthirsty bellicosity, reflecting the transformation, accompanies the massive deployment of its forces on Pakistan's borders. And it demands compliance with its wishes, or else. ......
 
• Delhi rejects Pak formula on pull-out
• B L Kak, The Daily Excelsior, February 8, 2002

Pakistan President and military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf, has renewed his offer to New Delhi for talks on a phased withdrawal of troops to defuse the tension. ......
 
• Indian Muslims: Problems and prospects
• Ahmad Ali Siddiqi, Milligazette

History is witness to the fact that Indian Muslims have played a very important role in nurturing and upbringing this country, its beautification, construction ad development. Muslims gave this country arts and sciences, culture and civilization and nurtured it with their blood and toil. They have been equal partners along with other nations in introducing this country on the world map. ......
 
• Should Sharia laws be reconsidered?
• Sandhya Jain, The Pioneer, February 12, 2002

As Muslim nations, leaders and intellectuals begin responding to growing international concerns over fundamentalism, it may be worthwhile for the United Nations and human rights bodies to consider if the practice of religious-criminal law in several Islamic countries is consistent with the ethos and values of the modern world. ......
 
• I come face to face with Taliban leaders
• The Daily Telegraph, February 11, 2002

Christina Lamb in Baluchistan, meets senior members of the regime who escaped the American armed forces and are now living relatively comfortably across the border in Pakistan. They tell her of their plans to regain power. ......
 
• Islamists have hideouts in Virginia: Report
• PTI, The Times of India, February 11, 2002

A radical Muslim sect with ties to international terrorism is seeking to create a patchwork of hideouts in rural southern Virginia for would-be terrorists and other extremists, law enforcement authorities were quoted on Monday as saying. ......
 
• "Assume You Are a Muslim Soldier"
• Daniel Pipes, The New York Post, February 11, 2002

The book in question is "Across the Centuries" (Houghton Mifflin, 2nd edition, 1999), a 558-page history that covers the millennium and a half between the fall of Rome and the French Revolution. In the multicultural spirit, about half of its eight sections are devoted to the West, and the other four deal with Islam, Africa, Asian empires, and pre-Columbian America. ......
 
• Manufacturing believers
• The Hindu, February 10, 2002

ON A cold January morning, the Union HRD Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, told a captive audience of restive high school students from 12 institutions run by Vidya Bharati (the RSS' education wing) about the changes his Government had made to school syllabuses and textbooks. Pradeep (not his real name), a class 11 student from GLT ......
 
• PM's speech at the SAARC Summit in Kathmandu
• BJP Today, February 1-15, 2002

"I join my colleagues in thanking the government and the people of Nepal for the warmth of their welcome and hospitality. We appreciate the excellent arrangements for this Summit. ......
 
• There cannot be good terrorist and bad terrorist
• BJP Today, February 1-15, 2002

Home Minister L. K. Advani has said that he agreed with President George W. Bush that there could not be good terrorists and bad terrorists. President Musharraf, he said at a press conference on Dec. 9 in Washington Dec. thought otherwise. ......
 
• Resolutions adopted by Parliament Dated February 22, 1994
• BJP Today, February 1-15, 2002

Notes with deep concern Pakistan's role in imparting training to the terrorists in camps located in Pakistan and Occupied Kashmir, the supply of weapons and funds, assistance in infiltration of trained militants including foreign mercenaries into Jammu and Kashmir with the avowed purpose of creating disorder disharmony and subversion ......
 
• IB report warned of threat from Islamic radicals
• Chandan Nandy, The Hindustan Times, February 11, 2002

Warning bells of a resurgence in Islamic fundamentalism and the danger it posed to the country's security had been sounded way back in 1982 by the Intelligence Bureau in an exhaustive report now dug up by the Hindustan Times. ......
 
• Future Fire
• Raj Chengappa, India Today, February 11, 2002

It may go by the handle of India's most famous nuclear missile. But Agni I tested for the first time last week bears no resemblance to its cousins and heralds an entirely new genre of strike rockets for India. Just how different can be garnered from the fact that ever since the first Agni was successfully launched in 1989 with a range of 1,200 km the thrust was to build much longer range versions of it. ......
 
• Nurturing the Demon
• Tavleen Singh, India Today, February 11, 2002

This week finds me on a journey westwards to attend what is being called "Davos in New York". The World Economic Forum's annual meeting this year has shifted from snowy Davos to sunny (unusually) New York to show solidarity with this city in its battle to deal with the trauma of September 11. En route I spent a grey Sunday morning in London and was surprised to find the major newspapers filled with the Muslim problem. ......
 
• 'Colas Are Killing Local Drinks' (Interview - Pullela Gopichand)
• Savitri Choudhury, Outlook, February 11, 2002

Pullela Gopichand is an unusual sportsman whose motto could well be-no fuss, no fizz. The Hyderabad-based reigning All England Badminton champion is refreshingly different from most other sports superstars who have no qualms about endorsing a product as long as it brings them a fat cheque. While some players do say no to liquor and cigarette commercials, few face moral dilemmas when it comes to aerated drinks. ......
 
• Why India Won't Relent
• Prem Shankar Jha, Outlook, February 11, 2002

In his State of the Union message, US President George W. Bush has once again showered extravagant praise on Gen Pervez Musharraf for having become a born-again foe of terrorism. To Indians this praise is passing strange, for it is being showered on him for what he says he will do and not what he is doing. Musharraf and his canny advisors have seized upon this to try and put India on the diplomatic defensive once again. ......
 
• Dos and don'ts for Muslims
• Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui, The Times of India, February 10, 2002

One can call it ISI's dos and don'ts on assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. Audio cassettes, doing rounds in pre-dominantly Muslim pockets of the state, carry fiery speeches on jehad and fate of Muslims in India with bottomline on tactical voting during the forthcoming assembly elections. What has added an element of surprise to the propoganda is many cassettes carry speeches by women orators as well. ......
 
• Three options for Bangla Hindus'
• Statesman News Service, The Statesman, February 10, 2002

Hindus in Bangladesh, who comprise about 10 per cent of the population, are now left with three options. They can embrace Islam, leave the country or commit suicide, Mr Salam Azad, author and chief executive of Amity for Peace, a human rights organisation, said here today. ......
 
• We need to globalise wisdom too (Interview with Mahesh Yogi)
• T.R. Gopalakrishnan & N. Bhanutej, The Week, February 10, 2002

In the 70s, Mahesh Yogi was going around the country popularising his Transcendental Meditation. In Bangalore was a young man whose name-Pandit Ravi Shankar-made Mahesh Yogi's head turn. "Join me," said Mahesh Yogi to the young man, who jumped at the offer. The young man travelled the world as Mahesh Yogi's devotee. ......
 
• "Days of Haj are here"
• M. K. Gokhale, Tarun Bharat, February 9, 2002

In olden times, when there was no commutation facilities, it was a severe ordeal to travel through the desert of Arabia and return home. Now this ordeal is over.  But another danger has taken its place. Every year, events like fire to tents, stampedes etc. have become a common phenomenon. But there are some uncommon events also. ......
 
• Ethiopia hails return of sacred artefact
• Nita Bhalla, BBC News, February 9, 2002

Hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians have packed the streets of Addis Ababa to welcome home an ancient Ethiopian relic looted by British troops more than 130 years ago. ......
 
• Mafia gangs spreading tentacles around world
• The Navhind Times, February 8, 2002

They employ a whopping 4,000 men and women, and their multi-million-dollar empire stretches across the globe, from Hong Kong to North America, matching the dreaded Italian Mafiosi and Colombian cartels. ......
 
• Iran starts 'meddling' in Afghanistan
• Peter Baker, The Indian Express, February 8, 2002

IRAN has begun funnelling money and weapons to one of Afghanistan's most unpredictable warlords, a move that could further destabilise a country where order remains fragile at best, according to government authorities here. ......
 
• Pak playground for jehad's poster boy
• Manoj Mitta, The Indian Express, February 8, 2002

The hunt for Omar Sheikh by Pak authorities could become a test case for the seriousness with which President Pervez Musharraf is cracking down on terrorism. For Sheikh's resume, as jehad's poster boy, flaunts countless references to Pakistan including the safe passage and sustained support he got there. ......
 
• Delhi rejects Pak formula on pull-out
• B L Kak, The Daily Excelsior, February 8, 2002

Pakistan President and military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf, has renewed his offer to New Delhi for talks on a phased withdrawal of troops to defuse the tension. ......
 
• Not guns vs butter
• K Subrahmanyam, The Economic Times, February 8, 2002

Indian economists, policy makers and media may not recognise it but India will be formulating its defence budget in a new international security paradigm. ......
 
• 'Govt to probe Cong-ULFA nexus'
• The Indian Express, February 7, 2002

The Assam Government has decided to order an inquiry into the alleged nexus of some ruling Congress MLAs with the banned ULFA, according to Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. ......
 
• Nepal told to crack whip on madrasas
• Express News Service, The Indian Express, February 7, 2002

Expressing concern over the spurt in terrorist activity along the Indo-Nepal border, the Union Home Ministry today conveyed to Nepalese authorities the urgent need to crack the whip on a large number of illegal madrasas which have sprung up on their side of the border. ......
 
• Buddha's apology sought
• Arindam Sarkar, The Hindustan Times, February 7, 2002

Muslim community leaders here have demanded a "public apology" from Buddhadev Bhattacharjee for the anti-madrassa statements attributed to him. ......
 
• Clues pointing to the other 'evil axis'
• Arnaud de Borchgrave, The Washington Times, February 7, 2002

A book released in France this week documents, chapter and verse, the "axis of evil," but it's not the one President Bush had in mind. It is the axis between Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi clergy and al Qaeda. ......
 
• Buddha gets it Left and right
• Sabyasachi Bandopadhyay, The Indian Express, February 6, 2002

Mamata Banerjee, an ally of the BJP, is accusing the CPI(M)-the bastion of Muslim support in the state-for being anti-Muslim. West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's campaign against "unregistered" madrassas in his state has opened up a front his government is now hurriedly trying to close ranks around. ......
 
• Betrayal of Jinnah's dream
• Prafull Goradia, The Pioneer, February 5, 2002

As a follow-up of General Musharraf's call for turning Pakistan into a secular state, requesting his fellow countrymen to stay committed to the nation rather than the ummah, Dr Rafiq Zakaria's thesis on who divided India has proved to be ill timed. Some of the references made in course of his argument are particularly unfortunate, especially if one remembers that Indian Muslims are likely to face unprecedented pressure as a corollary of Musharraf's call for secularism in his January 12 television speech. ......
 
• Defending Hindu Sites & Hanuman's legal hassles
•  

I need some advice about how to solve the legal problems in which the Hanuman Temple in Taos, New Mexico has been mired.  This Hanuman Temple is the oldest Hanuman Temple in North America. It was founded by devotees of Shri  Shri Shri 1008 Param Pujaya Sant Neem Karoli Baba Maharaj-ji. ......
 
• Politics of crime
• Editorial, The Pioneer, February 8, 2002

The Union Home Minister, Mr LK Advani, hit the nail right on the head when he said on Wednesday that the major issue in the forthcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh was decriminalisation of politics. This is because the opposite of it, criminalisation of politics, has reached an alarming and unprecedented dimension in the state where as many as 169 sitting legislators, including ministers, have criminal records. ......
 
• 'Govt to probe Cong-ULFA nexus'
• The Indian Express, February 7, 2002

The Assam Government has decided to order an inquiry into the alleged nexus of some ruling Congress MLAs with the banned ULFA, according to Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. ......
 
• LeT militant reveals outfit's links with Hurriyat leader
• Sanjeev Pargal, The Daily Excelsior, February 7, 2002

The State Intelligence agencies have come across a very 'conclusive evidence' linking a top leader of All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) with a hardcore militant of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) outfit. ......
 
• Lawless in Karachi
• Tyler Marshall, The Indian Express, February 7, 2002

When Daniel Pearl's search for the underbelly of international terrorism led him last month to this Arabian Sea port, the Wall Street Journal reporter found himself in one of Asia's most volatile cities, where lawlessness and sectarian warfare have become part of life. ......
 
• News of a kidnapping
• Husain Haqqani, The Indian Express, February 7, 2002

The kidnapping of The Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and the infighting among Afghan tribal warlords serve as reminders of the fact that the world's war against terrorism is far from over. The American journalist was kidnapped from Pakistan's financial capital, Karachi, defying the purported crackdown on militants by the country's military regime. ......
 
• 7 Pakistanis caught in fake passport racket
• PTI, The Times of India, February 7, 2002

Seven Pakistani nationals were on Thursday arrested in Pretoria on charges of staying in the country illegally and of being involved in a major fake passport racket. ......
 
• On the Art of War
• Rajeev Srinivasan, Rediff on Net, February 6, 2002

As I write this on Republic Day, January 26, 2002, it is clear that despite the fuss and noise of the last six weeks, ever since the December 13 attack on Parliament, nothing has changed. Pakistani terrorists continue to massacre Indians every day. The Americans continue to advise restraint: this war on terrorism is not theirs, of course. ......
 
• Buddha gets it Left and right
• Sabyasachi Bandopadhyay, The Indian Express, February 6, 2002

Mamata Banerjee, an ally of the BJP, is accusing the CPI(M)-the bastion of Muslim support in the state-for being anti-Muslim. West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's campaign against "unregistered" madrassas in his state has opened up a front his government is now hurriedly trying to close ranks around. ......
 
• Gen goes ballistic, accuses Vajpayee of 'brinkmanship'
• The Economic Times, February 6, 2002

Striking a confrontationist posture, Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Atal Behari 'Vajpayee of 'brinkmanship' and asked him to accept the offer of dialogue for peaceful resolution of Kashmir and other issues. ......
 
• Pak's hypocrisy on plebiscite
• Arvind Lavakare, Rediff on Net, February 5, 2002

Hardly a week passes by without someone in Pakistan, or its Indian lackeys like the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference, calling for a solution to the J&K question via the plebiscite route recommended long ago by the United Nations. Why, even some of our byline journalists who've not even read the UN resolutions have cavalierly referred to India's unkept commitment to that plebiscite. ......
 
• Pakistani Police Make Arrests, Raids in Case of Kidnapped U.S. Journalist
• ABC News, February 5, 2002

Local police and the FBI made at least five raids on homes today, arresting three people and uncovering a key piece of evidence - a computer believed to have been used to issue e-mail demands in exchange for Pearl, the South Asia bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal. ......
 
• West Bengal CM becomes Advani's poster boy for polls
• Political Bureau, The Economic Times, February 5, 2002

It must have been one spectacle of its kind. Union Home Minister, L K Advani, on Monday hit the election trail in Uttar Pradesh, approvingly quoting the Marxist chief minister of West Bengal, Buddhadev Bhattacharya. ......
 
• FIR-power
• Editorial, The Indian Express, February 4, 2002

New Delhi's cops, the good people who man the city's law enforcement machinery, had better take a last deep breath. Busy days lie ahead. It's time to go on an FIR-filing spree, and they had better be prompt and meticulous with the paper work, and ingenious in working around a few tricky details. Like the fact that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto has been dead for more than two decades. ......
 
• It pays to be coercive
• Narendra Gupta, The Indian Express, February 4, 2002

Threats to use force are as old as the arts of warfare and diplomacy themselves. In 400 BC, there were instances of Athens and Sparta threatening to use power as a means of influence. Subsequently, there were others by Bismarck, Charlemagne and Richelieu. Frederick the Great once declared that diplomacy without power was like an orchestra without a score. ......
 
• A brave new world
• Jasjit Singh, The Indian Express, February 4, 2002

Nealy 11 years ago after the end of a war fought by the United States to restore Kuwait's independence the then US president, George Bush, had declared a new international order that signified the end of the bipolarity in evidence for nearly half a century. ......
 
• Singapore in scarf snare as minorities defy rule
• John O'callaghan, The Indian Express, February 4, 2002

Two young Muslim girls will put Singapore's government in a testing position on Monday if they wear headscarves to primary school as officials weigh the emotive issues of religious sensitivities and ethnic cohesion. ......
 
• "How Pakistan Avoided Plebiscite"
• Pranwa Deshmukh

It is a pity that Indian Media and Politicians have allowed Pakistan the claim that it provides 'Moral Support' to Kashmiris' Freedom Movement. ......
 
• The General's Elections
• C Uday Bhaskar, The Times of India, February 6, 2002

General Pervez Musharraf's announcement in late January that elections would be held in Pakistan as promised in October 2002 has not elicited the same degree of interest that his more historic January 12 speech did. Perhaps this is a reflection of the deep scepticism that attaches itself to the doughty general's statements in India and the perceived mismatch between word and deed. ......
 
• Omar Sheikh: A deadly whirlpool of terror
• Josy Joseph, Rediff on Net, February 6, 2002

Sheikh Ahmed Omar Sheikh, now the prime suspect in the abduction of The Wall Street Journal scribe Daniel Pearl, is a familiar face to the Indian security and intelligence agencies. ......
 
• 3 houses of massacre accused set ablaze
• Excelsior Correspondent, The Daily Excelsior, February 6, 2002

After killing the terrorist involved in the massacre of 11 civilians including eight children at village Behra Kund in Salwa area of Mendhar tehsil, the ultras last night torched three houses which belonged to slain terrorist's father and his two brothers. ......
 
• Pakistan will not get Kashmir: Vajpayee
• PTI, The Times of India, February 6, 2002

A day after Pakistan observed Kashmir solidarity day, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said on Wednesday Pakistan will not get Kashmir. ......
 
• There are Taliban in govt, Hasina iterates accusation
• News From Bangladesh, February 6, 2002

Awami League President and Leader of the Opposition Sheikh Hasina yesterday reiterated her accusation that there were Taliban in the BNP-Jamaat alliance government of Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia. ......
 
• Progress: Pakistani Police Make Arrests, Raids in Case of Kidnapped U.S. Journalist
• ABC News, February 5, 2002

Police in the Pakistani city of Karachi have taken several significant steps in the search for American journalist Daniel Pearl, who was abducted almost two weeks ago. ......
 
• Islam here
• Commentary, February 2002

In "The Danger Within: Militant Islam in America" [Commentary, November 2001, available at http://www.danielpipes.org/articles/article.php?id=77], Daniel Pipes accuses me and others of working to bring an Islamic revolution to the U.S. and thus of being no better than persons like Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, who is suffering a life sentence for no wrongdoing of his own but because of the Jewish lobby's prejudices against Islam and Muslims. ......
 
• Pakistan's Musharraf claims divine authority
• Reuters, February 5, 2002

Pakistani military ruler General Pervez Musharraf, who has vowed to turn Pakistan into a moderate Islamic state, invoked a verse from the Koran on Tuesday to claim divine authority for his rule. ......
 
• Historic Surankot temple again attacked by ultras
• Excelsior Correspondent, The Daily Excelsior, February 5, 2002

Three Special Police Officers (SPOs) were injured when a group of terrorists attacked their picket in Dundak temple in Surankot tehsil last night. The historic temple, which was targeted by the terrorists, didn't suffer much damage. Its 'pujari' also escaped unhurt. ......
 
• OIC to ask Musharraf to implement promises
• Rediff on Net, February 5, 2002

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra, who led a Parliamentary delegation to Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria to present the 'real picture' of Indo-Pak ties, said that OIC Secretary General Abdelouhed Belkeziz told them that he would urge Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to implement the assurances he made in his January 12 televised speech. ......
 
• Commission Urges President Bush to Raise Religious-Freedom Issues With Pakistani Leader
• U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent federal agency advising the Administration and Congress, wrote to President Bush January 31 to urge him to raise religious-freedom issues with Pakistani President Musharraf during the latter's upcoming visit to Washington. ......
 
• The Terror-Aiding Prof
• Daniel Pipes, The New York Post, February 4, 2002

Sami Al-Arian, a tenured professor at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, might lose his job any day now. Most coverage of his problems portrays the computer scientist as the victim of a political witch-hunt - and so misses the real story, which is about his links to terrorism. ......
 
• Indian Skeptics Point To 200-Acre Terror Base
• Sudha Ramachandran, Asia Times Online, February 2, 2002

Three weeks after Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf made his historic speech distancing himself from religious extremism and announcing steps to crack down on terrorist groups in his country, India remains unconvinced that he has taken concrete action to curb cross-border infiltration of terrorists into Indian-administered Kashmir. ......
 
• Bengal CM worried over Bangla influx
• Our Political Bureau, The Economic Times, February 2, 2002

Unfazed by criticism from the Left Front constituents in West Bengal, angry protests from Muslim organisations and madrasa students, and distinct uneasiness in the politburo of his own CPM, the West Bengal chief minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee today once again repeated his controversial remarks against madrasas and their curriculum. ......
 
• US vows to reform Pak madrasas
• Our Political Bureau, The Economic Times, February 2, 2002

From military bases, it is now curriculum. In what is seen as a marked enlargement of the US role in Pakistan, Washington has indicated that it will like to remain engaged with the reforms of the madrasa curriculum in Pakistan. ......
 
• What should Musharraf do next?
• Khaled Ahmed, The Friday Times, February 1-7, 2002

General Pervez Musharraf has finally reined in the jehadis. Immediately, the secret of the empowerment of the clergy through them in Pakistan is no longer a concealed fact. Religious extremism is engendered by jehad and is related to all religious parties and state institutions promoting Islam. ......
 
• Letter to Shri Lal Krishan Advani
• Kashmiri Overseas Association, February 1, 2002

Shri Lal Krishan Advani, Home Minister
The overseas community of Kashmiri Pandits (Hindus) has been keenly watching the situation as it has been unfolding in India after the recent terrorist attacks and is particularly interested in the situation in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. We are very much shocked and outraged at these terrorist attack......
 
• Press Release (Bangladesh) International Criminal Court Invites HRCBM as Partner
• HRCBM and Hotline Human Rights Visits, February 1, 2002

February 1, 2002 Human Rights Congress for Bangladeshi Minorities (HRCBM) and Hotline Human Rights Coordinator Rosaline Costa visited Bhola, Bangladesh. During an extensive visit of several regions within Bhola district of Bangladesh On January 23-25, 2002, HRCBM interviewed many minority victims of Islamic Fundamentalist assault after the October 1, 2001 General Elections of Bangladesh. ......
 
• "Unless the BJP gives Hindu sentiments importance, it has no future" (Interview with Ashok Singhal)
• Rediff on Net, February 1, 2002

For the last two decades Ashok Singhal, the international working President of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, has led a movement for the "restoration" of the birthplace of Lord Rama at Ayodhya. Instrumental in propelling the BJP into political power, the Ramjanambhoomi Mukti Movement has once again become a flashpoint in the approaching assembly election in Uttar Pradesh. ......
 
• Osama in PoK: US may give Pak proof
• HT Correspondent, The Hindustan Times, February 1, 2002

That Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) is now well known to the US. Bin Laden has been hiding in Astore in the Northern Areas after fleeing Afghanistan, according to intelligence intercepts made by US forces based in Pakistan. ......
 
• Suspect in Pearl's case claims links with Pak secret service, other officials
• Rediff on Net, February 1, 2002
Notwithstanding claims by Pakistan of Indian links to the kidnapping of US journalist Daniel Pearl, a key suspect in the case has said he had provided 'invaluable services' to Pakistan's security service agency in the past. ......
 
• Daily says officials looking hard for records implicating Advani
• Press Trust of India, www.expressindia.com, February 1, 2002

Pakistan officials carried out a major operation to search old court records "implicating" Home Minister L.K. Advani and 40 other RSS activists in a criminal case to assassinate Pakistan founder leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah and others, The News daily reported on Friday, a day after India ridiculed the report as "juvenile posturing". ......
 
• Hindu leader's killing in Pak evokes protest, town paralysed
• Press Trust of India, www.expressindia.com, February 1, 2002

The murder of a prominent Hindu minority leader and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) activist, Sadham Chand Chawla, who had successfully fought a legal battle to ensure voting rights for minorities, paralysed life for three days in Pakistan's southern town of Jacobabad. ......
 
• SC stays controversial J&K Resettlement Act
• Press Trust of India, www.expressindia.com, February 1, 2002

Taking note of the cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, the Supreme Court on Friday stayed implementation of a controversial Act passed by the state providing for resettlement of people migrated to Pakistan after Partition and threatening those who had been allotted their properties. ......
 
• Militants slit shepherds' throat in Jammu, warn villagers of similar fate
• Express News Service, www.expressindia.com, February 1, 2002

Militants struck early on Friday morning at Neeram Top in Mahore tehsil, Udhampur, killing two shepherds. Identified as Malik Shah alias Dilloo and Ghulam Hussain, both resident of Sui Batholi in Mahore, their throats were slit by the attackers. ......
 
• Kargil-tainted Pak will not give up: US think-tank
• T.V. Parasuram, www.expressindia.com, February 1, 2002

The Kargil crisis was a watershed in Indo-Pak relations, prompting India to reconsider engaging Pakistan on the Kashmir issue diplomatically and leaving an "ugly stability" as the best thing the two sides could hope for, says a US think-tank. ......
 
• Two jawans killed, 4 serious; bunkers damaged - Pak targets Poonch town, fires over 6000 shells
• Excelsior Correspondent, The Daily Excelsior, February 1, 2002

For the first time during over a month long border skirmishes, the Pakistan army this evening targeted Poonch town by firing airburst, artillery and mortar shells. About half a dozen bunkers were damaged on the Indian side while two army jawans were killed and four others were seriously injured and some casualties were also feared. Till tonight, four army soldiers had been hospitalised in the critical condition. ......
 
• E-mail claims U.S. reporter in Pakistan killed
• CNN, February 1, 2002

The fate of kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was unclear Friday as news organizations received word that he had been killed while Pakistani police said they received a demand for money for his release. ......
 
• Money murmurs refuse to go Away
• Sunando Sarkar and Alamgir Hossain, The Telegraph, February 1, 2002

It is the largest madarsa in Beldanga, the madarsa belt of Bengal's madarsa district, Murshidabad. It has around 250 residential students, none of whom needs to pay any monthly or annual fee. It maintains, besides the students, a large three-storeyed, L-shaped building in an area where three-storeyed buildings are talked about, not built. ......