AMRITSAR: India on Saturday lodged a strong protest with Pakistan over the firing of three rockets from across the border that exploded two kilometres inside Punjab.
The issue was raised at a flag meeting between the BSF and Pakistani Rangers in the wee hours after the missiles landed in open fields in Modhey and Dhoneya Khurd villages in Attari sector on the Indo-Pak border, prompting retaliatory gunfire from the Indian border troops.
There was no damage or casualty on the Indian side due to the Pakistani action last night, BSF Inspector General Himmat Singh said.
"We held a flag meeting at about 1 am and made a very strong protest to them (Pakistani Rangers) about this incident," he told reporters here.
"Yesterday night, at about 10 pm, the BSF troops posted at Pulkanjini border outpost saw flashlights and firing from Pakistan territory and after a very short gap, they heard explosions," Singh said.
"Our troops on the border retaliated immediately, very strongly...after that no incident of fire from Pakistani side was reported," he said.
"Three rockets were fired from Pakistani side. There was no damage but it raises suspicion about developments on the other side of the border," a BSF official said.
During the meeting, the Rangers "feigned ignorance (about the incident) but said they will look into it," he said.
New Delhi suspects that the border incidents were mainly aimed at diverting attention of the Indian forces to push in infiltrators.
In the flag meeting, which was held at the Joint Check Post at the international border in Attari, Commandant H S Dhillon led the BSF delegation while Wing Commander Akbar Bhatt was leading the delegation of Pakistan Rangers.
"The firing from Pakistan may be an attempt to demoralise the villagers as well as newly-deployed woman BSF constables," Baljit Singh, panchayat member of a border village, said.
For the first time in the history of BSF, 16 women constables of the force were deployed yesterday at Rorawali village near Attari border to facilitate frisking of ladies.
The step was taken following demands from farmers to let village women pass the barbed fencing wire on the border to their agricultural fields within Indian territory.
Pakistani forces fire rockets at India, BSF retaliates
Amritsar: Pakistani forces on Friday night fired two rockets towards Indian territory which fell in agriculture fields in two adjacent villages, drawing retaliation from BSF using machine guns.
There was, however, no casualty on the Indian side in the Pakistani action, BSF Inspector General Himmat Singh said.
Singh said Pakistan fired rockets which landed in an open area at villages Modhey and Dhoneya Khurd at around 10 pm after which the BSF troops hit back by opening fire from machine guns.
He said BSF authorities got in touch with their Pakistani counterparts for a flag meeting where India would lodge a strong protest against the action.
The attack happened on a day when the BSF deployed its first batch of women constables at the border to facilitate frisking of women going for work in fields.
Sixteen of a batch of 178 women constables of the force were deployed at Rorawari village near Attari border in Punjab on Friday.
Jet-pilots talks fail, no end to strike yet
MUMBAI: The stalemate in the discussions between Jet Airways and the agitating pilots continued on Saturday, with no indications of the resolution of the five-day old impasse on the right of pilots to form a union.
"We are trying our level best to come to an amicable settlement," said Girish Kaushik, president of the newly-formed National Aviators Guild (NAG), which has been the bone of contention with the management
that has sacked four pilots. The NAG wants reinstatement of the pilots.
Kaushik said Jet executive director Saroj Dutta addressed the pilots on Saturday and has given some proposals which he has to discuss with the agitating pilots. "We are ready to fly this evening or night if an agreement takes place."
Three killed in Srinagar blast
SRINAGR: Two policemen and a woman were killed and several people injured in a massive blast outside the central jail in this Jammu and Kashmir
summer capital on Saturday evening, officials said.
Senior police officials, who rushed to the spot, blamed the bombing on separatist guerrillas.
The explosion took place when a police vehicle was passing by the jail, killing at least two policemen, a woman and injuring several people, they said.
The bomb was possibly hidden in a car but investigations are on, police said.
The area was immediately cordoned off and the injured were being rushed to hospital.
Asked whether they were close to an agreement, he said he was not in a position to say anything on this. "No sooner does the agreement happen, no sooner do the two teams agree to settle amicably, then the pilots will start flying."
"We are trying to modify and make a draft acceptable to both sides," he said, adding Dutta has not asked for dissolution of the guild.
But Dutta wanted the pilots to resume duty and promised to take back the sacked pilots immediately.
Pak's latest flip flop: No Baloch dossier given to India
In yet another evidence of Pakistan’s flip-flops, Islamabad, for the first time has admitted that it has not handed any dossier regarding Baloch insurgency to India.
In an interview with a news weekly, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, in an apparent volte-face, said Pakistan actually never handed any dossier to India during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s meeting with Yousuf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of the NAM summit at Sharm-el-Sheikh in July.
“No, we didn’t. Actually, we flagged the issue on Balochistan. We asked for a positive attitude and asked for non-interference inside Balochistan,” ‘The Nation’ quoted Qureshi, as saying.
While Islamabad, till now, has continuously been claiming that it has handed a dossier to India regarding latter’s involvement in the Baloch insurgency, New Delhi has out rightly rejected the claims.
Following Pakistan’s ‘baseless’ claims, the UPA Government faced severe criticism from the opposition for allowing some damaging concessions to the neighbour country.
Prime Minister Manmohan had to clarify the government’s stand in parliament and he said that no such dossier were given by Pakistan during the meeting in Egypt.
“No dossier on Balochistan has been handed over to me,” Singh said during his speech during the monsoon session of the Lok Sabha.
Trying to corner the government over the alleged ‘sell off’ to Pakistan in Egypt, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yashwant Sinha alleged that India has committed a blunder by agreeing to de-link action against terror by Pakistan to the resumption of the composite dialogue.
Pakistani media had described that the Baloch dossier’s claims as true and added that it had been presented to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with details of India’s alleged role in fomenting trouble in Balochistan and other areas.
Indian Business News
Indices hit 15-month high
Mumbai: Indian bourses turned green as both the benchmark Sensex and Nifty hit a 15-month high during the week following sustained capital inflows in view of improvement in business confidence and revival of monsoon coupled with firm global cues.
The main market mover, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) went on buying spree and pumped in Rs 3,275.67 in the week, including provisional data of September 11.
A survey carried out by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce (FICCI), for the month of September 2009, suggested that the confidence level of India Inc is on the rise.
Strong response to the initial public offer of Oil India also boosted the market sentiment.
The Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share barometer ended the week higher at 16,264.30 as against the last weekend's level of 15,689.12, a net rise of 575.18 points or 3.67 per cent.
US imposes 35% duty on Chinese tyres
Washington/Beijing: US President Barack Obama has imposed a whopping 35 per cent additional import duty on Chinese tyres in a bid to protect the domestic market, drawing the ire of Beijing which described the measure as ‘protectionist’ and violation of WTO rules.
The additional import duty would be in force for three years, however, it would decline by five per cent each in subsequent years.
"The additional duty to passenger vehicle and light truck tires complementing the existing four per cent duty will be set at 35 per cent ad valorem for the first year, 30 per cent ad valorem the second year, and 25 per cent ad valorem the third year," the White House said in a statement.
"In the context of the global economic crisis this sets a very bad example. China reserves the right to retaliate," a top Chinese official said in Beijing.
Obama signed a presidential determination in this regard after reviewing recommendations from the United States Trade Representative (USTR).
"China is firmly opposed to this measure of serious commercial protectionism by the United States, which not only violates world trade rules but also the undertakings given by the US at the G20," commerce ministry spokesman Yao Jian said in statements posted on the ministry of commerce website.
"The US had violated WTO rule by this decision and
also relevant commitments made on the G-20 financial summit," the ministry was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
Indian Sports News|Sports News
Colombo: There were a few tense faces as Team India took the field after skipper MS Dhoni lost the toss in their tri-series opener against New Zealand, at a venue where teams batting second generally end up on the losing side. But as the day progressed, the worry lines were replaced with broad smiles as Dhoni and Suresh Raina completed a tricky chase with plenty of authority.
India eased past the target of 156 in 40.3 overs to beat New Zealand by six wickets, and break the Premadasa jinx as well — for teams batting first had won the last 11 games played at this venue. The Kiwis have been knocked out of this short tournament, while India’s game against Sri Lanka on Saturday is a dress rehearsal for Monday’s final.
If India win their next two games against Sri Lanka, they will be the undisputed No 1 in the ICC rankings.
There were several positives that India can take from this game, with handy contributions from all corners. If anybody doubted the credentials of India’s ‘new’ pace spearhead Ashish Nehra, those suspicions were proved to be unfounded. The comeback man showed what it took to be among the wickets on slow, low Sri Lankan pitches, bowling just short of a length and not allowing the batsmen to come onto the front foot. He got rid of Jesse Ryder and Brendon McCullum leg-before, and when RP Singh got rid of Ross Taylor, New Zealand were reduced to 19/3 in 5.5 overs.
Paes-Black lose final to American wild cards
New York: Leander Paes will have to wait for his 10th Grand Slam title as the Indian and his partner Cara Black failed to defend their US Open mixed double crown, suffering a shock 2-6, 4-6 defeat at the hands of local wild cards Carly Gullickson and Travis Parrott in New York.
Cara proved a weak link in the Indo-Zimbabwean combo as all she could do was play some feeble shots.
She failed to make any impact as not even once she held her serve in the final match, which lasted just 66 minutes.
Paes and Cara struggled to find their touch as numerous unforced errors flew from their racquets while their rivals played a fascinating game, especially at the net.
Thanks to brilliance of Paes, the second seeds saved a match point in the eighth game of the second set and also got their first and only break in the match.
Carly was serving for the match but Paes played an amazing cross court winner to earn that break.
The Indian then held her serve in the game to narrow the lead to 4-5 but by then it was too late as Travis served out the match in the 10th game.
Paes still can return with a title from the US Open if he and Czech Lukas Dlouhy win their men's doubles final against Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles.
The match did not start the way Paes and Cara would have liked as they struggled with serve and shot-making due to windy conditions and were facing two break points in the opening game.
Del Potro beats Cilic to reach US Open semis
New York: Sixth seed Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro roared into his second grand slam semi-final of the year with a 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-1 victory over Croatian 16th seed Marin Cilic at the US Open on Thursday.
After winning the first set and holding a 3-1 lead in the second, Cilic started spraying his groundstrokes and the demoralised Croat lost 17 of the final 20 games of the match.
Cilic had 53 unforced errors, compared to just 24 for Del Potro. The Argentine, one of tour's hottest players, converted all eight of his break-point opportunities.
Del Potro, who reached the last four at the French Open, will face the winner of the match later on Thursday between third seed Rafael Nadal and number 11 Fernando Gonzalez.
Five-times champion Roger Federer and fourth seed Novak Djokovic will contest the other semi-final of the year's final grand slam tournament.
Rain interrupts Nadal-Gonzalez contest
The quarter-final between Rafael Nadal and Fernando Gonzalez was stopped for the second time because of rain. Nadal was leading 7-6 2-2 when rain first stopped play but upon resumption, they managed to go on for another 35 minutes before another shower burst halted proceedings with Gonzalez serving at 2-3 down in the second-set tiebreak.
The first interruption lasted for 75 minutes in what was the first rain stoppage of the championships after 10 days of dry weather.
World number three Nadal and the 11th-seeded Chilean were kept on court for a few minutes before leaving Arthur Ashe Stadium for the locker room, just as they did in the first suspension of play in the last quarter-final match.
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