NEW DELHI: India on Saturday maintained it had given enough evidence to Pakistan to prosecute Jamaat-ud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, and it was now for Islamabad to proceed against him. The home ministry has also prepared a fresh dossier on the attack, which will soon be given to Pakistan.
"There is enough evidence to proceed against Saeed," home minister P. Chidambaram said at a press conference here to detail the activities of his ministry during July.
"The evidence provided in three dossiers is, in our view, sufficient to investigate role of Hafiz Saeed (in the Mumbai carnage)," the minister said, adding: "The investigations in Pakistan will also throw up enough evidence."
Chidambaram also said his ministry had formulated its latest response to the queries submitted by Pakistan on India's third dossier on the Mumbai attacks.
"Yesterday (Friday), we finalised our response. A seven page response with attachments has been handed over to the ministry of external affairs to be transmitted to Pakistan. I believe this will be done shortly," the home minister added.
Saeed, who had been placed under house arrest in December after the UN proscribed the JuD in the wake of the Nov 26-29, 2008 Mumbai attacks, was released by the Lahore High Court in June citing lack of evidence.
On July 28, a defiant Pakistan said it would not arrest Saeed till adequate proof was provided of his involvement in the Mumbai carnage.
"We cannot arrest him till adequate proof is provided. There is no proof," Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik had told a private TV news channel in an interview.
The latest flip-flop came 12 days after prime minister Manmohan Singh said on July 16 his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani had informed him that "common consensus" was being evolved and that "action will have to be taken against him (Saeed)".
Two days before that, on July 14, Pakistan's Punjab provincial government had disassociated itself from the case against Saeed, saying the federal government had not furnished "solid evidence" to warrant his continued house arrest.
The Punjab government's move came as a three-member Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was considering two identical petitions filed by the federal and provincial governments against Saeed's June 2 release by the Lahore High Court.
Punjab Advocate General Raza Farooq told the court that the provincial government had put Saeed under house arrest on the directive of the federal government.
Saeed is the founder of the Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror group that New Delhi accuses of also staging the Dec 13, 2001 attack on the Indian parliament. The LeT had morphed into the JuD after it was banned in the aftermath of the attack.
Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone gunman captured alive during the Mumbai mayhem, has admitted to being a Pakistani national and to being trained by the LeT for the Nov 26-29, 2008 Mumbai attacks that claimed the lives of over 170 people, including 26 foreigners.
Pakistan has charged five men, including LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi with involvement in the Mumbai mayhem.
Last month, Pakistan had handed over a dossier to India admitting its nationals were involved in the attacks. The dossier came days before the July 16 Gilani-Manmohan Singh meeting on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Summit at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Shaikh.
Speaking to reporters after the two-hour-long meeting, Manmohan Singh said he had raised the matter of Pakistan taking action against Saeed.
"The Pakistan prime minister told me that there is common consensus being evolved that action will have to be taken against him. The Punjab government, which is of the opposition party, is being persuaded," he said.
Government not to bail out private airlines
NEW DELHI: Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel on Sturday said that the government would not bailout private airlines. Private airlines ganged up and decided to suspend operations on August 18 if the government did not help them cut costs.
Patel advised the private carriers to withdraw their strike call on August 18. He stated, "Passengers interest would be safeguarded and DGCA would take action if needed."
Air India will increase the number of flights to reduce inconvenience to passengers, Mr Patel said. It is not known if Paramount Airways will join its private sector peers in the strike.
The minister said that the ATF tax was an issue even before the private carriers started operations. Painting a desperate picture of their situation, industry lobby body Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) said unless the government helps them by lowering taxes on jet fuel and bringing down airport charges, their survival is in doubt.
But the strike threat by Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines, SpiceJet, IndiGo and GoAir, which between them carry about one lakh passengers daily, was interpreted as a pressure tactic by a senior official in the civil aviation ministry.
Housing society hits out at Emraan Hashmi
MUMBAI: Nibbana, the Housing Society in the posh Pali Hill area of suburban Bandra in Mumbai has rubbished actor
Emraan Hashmi's allegation that he was denied NOC for flat ownership because he is a Muslim and said that proper procedures for acquiring the NOC had not been followed.
Society Secretary Capt J P Chhetry said that the actor with his baseless allegations and raking up the minority card had inflicted lot of damage on the society.
A meeting of the society residents held on Saturday has demanded an apology from the actor for making allegations of religious profiling.
"The owner had leased his flat to a German national. He had casually told us that after the lease term ends, he plans to sell his flat. He had not made a formal application that he wishes to sell the flat to the actor. The mandatory police clearance along with necessary documents had not been submitted to the society," said Chhetry.
He said that a meeting of the society residents was held on Saturday and it was decided that an apology will be demanded from the actor for making allegations of religious profiling.
"We will not take this lying down and we are also taking legal opinion" he said adding that the society was yet to receive the summons sent by the State Minorities Commission.
CBI to question Buta Singh, may invoke anti-corruption act
New Delhi: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sources said on Saturday that they would be questioning National Commission for the Scheduled Castes Chairman and former Union Home Minister Buta Singh in connection with the Rs 1 crore bribery case involving his second son Sarabjot Singh.
Sources said that Sarabjot Singh had told the CBI after his arrest, that he had informed his father about ‘settling’ the complaint against Nashik civic works contractor Ram Rao Patil that had been lodged with the National Commission for Scheduled castes.
The CBI has said that they need constitutional sanction to question Buta Singh, and once that is given, they plan to invoke Section 7 and 9 of the Prevention against Corruption Act (PCI) against the former minister.
Sarabjot was arrested on July 31 along with Anup Kumar Begi, Madan Singh Solanki and Dhukh Singh Chauhan for allegedly demanding a bribe of Rs one crore from Patil to close a case registered against him under the SC/ST Act. Later he was sent to CBI custody till August 5 along with three other persons arrested.
On Friday, Buta Singh termed the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) questioning of his son a political conspiracy against him and members of his family.
“It is a conspiracy against me and members of my family. This is not the first time that I have been targeted. Not just me, my family as well. There are political elements involved in this conspiracy. I know who they are, but I will not name them,” said the former Union Home Minister at a press conference here.
Pak mob attacks churches, houses of Christians
Islamabad: Muslim fanatics attacked churches and burnt down scores of houses of the Christian community in Pakistan's Punjab province, a news report said on Saturday.
A mob attacked two churches and gutted 75 houses of Christians over the alleged desecration of papers inscribed with Quran verses at a wedding ceremony in Punjab's Azafi Abadi village at Chak 95-JB on Thursday, Atif Jamil Pagaan and Ashfaq Fateh, leaders of the minority community was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper on Saturday.
Fearing attack, the members of the minority community fled the village that allowed the fanatics to attack the church, houses and cattle, the report said.
The station house officer of Gojra Sadar has been suspended by the District Police Officer (DPO) Inkisar Khan, the Pakistani daily said.
DPO Khan said a case has been registered against Mukhtar Maseeh, Talib Maseeh and Imran Maseeh, who were accused of desecrating the papers inscribed with Quran verses. it said.
Christians are the second largest religious minority community in Pakistan after Hindus. The total number of Christians in Pakistan is approximately nearly 3 million or 1.6 of the population.
Christians, like other minorities, have been targeted in Pakistan for flouting blasphemy laws. International rights groups have urged the government to change the law because it was being used to terrorize religious minorities.
Sajid Ishaq, the Interfaith League chairman, has expressed concern over the violence against the Christian minorities.
Christians in southern Pakistan held demonstration last Sunday against an attack in Sikendarabad in which four persons were injured, leading to forcible occupation of a primary school, The Christian Post reported.
Indian Business News|Business News
Hero Honda sales up 30.39% in July
New Delhi: The country's largest two-wheeler maker Hero Honda Motors Ltd reported a jump of 30.39 per cent in its sales at 3,66,808 units in July compared to the sales in the same month last year.
Hero Honda had reported a jump of 83.28 per cent in its net profit at Rs 500.11 crore for the quarter ended June 30 on account of robust sales amidst softening of input costs.
The company sold 2,81,317 units in July last year.
The net profit for the first quarter for the last fiscal was at Rs 272.87 crore.
The total income of the company had grown by 33.72 per cent to Rs 3,864.92 crore during the April-June period of this fiscal from Rs 2,890.25 crore of the same quarter a year ago.
The company had crossed 10-lakh units mark in a single quarter for the first time by selling 11,18,987 units from 8,94,244 units in the year-ago period, up 25.13 per cent.
Five BSNL officials suspended for fraud
Kanpur: Five BSNL officials have been suspended for their alleged involvement in a fraud case related to a call centre which did not pay a bill of Rs 95 lakh pertaining to international calls made from the ISD booth within a span of 22 days.
The owner of the call centre, Rohit Masiha, who acquired 24 connections allegedly using fake addresses, is still on the run, police said.
Four officials were suspended, while engineer B K S Senger, who was holding the post of SDO in the state-run telecom service provider, was suspended as soon as the fraud came into light on July 25, BSNL General Manager A K Bajpai told PTI, adding that the vigilance officers are also investigating the matter.
An FIR was registered against Masiha at Nazirabad police station for using fake addresses and not clearing the bill of Rs 95 lakh.
Masiha had closed down his Vertix Global Call Centre in this industrial city before fleeing, SP (Crime) O P Singh said adding connivance of some senior BSNL officials was suspected in the entire episode.
Indian Cricket News |Indian Sports News| Sports News
Sri Lanka beat Pak by 6 wickets
Dambulla (Sri Lanka): Chamara Kapugedera scored a composed 67 and shared an unbeaten 95-run partnership with Thilan Samaraweera on Saturday to guide Sri Lanka to a six-wicket win in the second limited-over match against Pakistan.
The victory gave the host team a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.
Chasing a modest 169 to win, Sri Lanka looked shaky at 74-4 when the Kapugedera and Samaraweera paired to take their side home without further damage.
Kapugedara faced 97 deliveries for his runs, hitting eight fours and a six while Samaraweera faced 69 balls for his 38, hitting two boundaries.
Sri Lanka lost Upul Tharanga early for 10 runs when the left-hander was caught at first slip by Nasir Jamshed off the bowling of Mohammad Aamer.
Sanath Jayasuriya made 30 in 33 balls with five boundaries and would be relieved that Sri Lanka got through despite him running out his captain Kumar Sangakkara early in the innings.
He called Sangakkara for a run after pushing Abdul Razzaq to short mid-off, but after the non-striker having sprinted almost half way through the pitch, he sent him back only to see him falling short.
Two balls later, Jayasuriya departed when he was caught by Umar Akmal at deep backward of point to give Razzaq a wicket. Mahela Jayawardene mistimed legspinner Shahid Afridi and was caught at mid-wicket by captain Younis Khan to leave his side 74-4.
Earlier Sri Lanka's left-arm seamer Thilan Thushara grabbed three wickets as Pakistan was bowled out for 168 in its innings. Asked to bat first, Pakistan's poor form with the bat in their winless tour continued as the hosts came up with a disciplined effort on the field.
Dope testing programme will be reasonable: Lorgat
Mumbai: In a bid to ease cricketers' concerns over the contentious "Whereabouts Requirements" clause of the WADA Anti-Doping Code, the ICC has assured its member boards that the dope testing programme would be "reasonable".
"The ICC has stressed at all IRTP (International Registered Testing Pool) education sessions, and continues to stress, that the ICC testing programme will be reasonable and that the majority of the Out-of-Competition testing will be based around team and FTP commitments and not whilst players are on holiday," ICC's Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat had written to its member boards some time ago.
But Lorgat had added a rider to this assurance saying the ICC must have the ability to test any cricketer at any time of the day and on any day for effective implementation of WADA's Anti-Doping Code to which it is a signatory.
"However, it is a fundamental requirement in any effective anti-doping regime (as well as a condition of compliance with the Code) that the ICC must have the ability to test any cricketer at any time on any day", he had said.
Explaining further the ICC CEO had said this was for a number of sporting reasons that included placing a deterrent on any doping practice in any off-season.
Lorgat explained that research into the fight against doping in sport has indicated that all sportsmen and women were most at risk of engaging in doping practices when they were not playing.
"The longer cricketers are away from their team and the longer their holiday the more at risk they become. This risk increases significantly if they are aware that they cannot be located", he had said in his communication.
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