India to ask US, Pak to extradite nine 26/11 accused
New Delhi, Jan 30: India is all set to ask the
United States and Pakistan to extradite nine persons involved
in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack that include Pakistani-
American terrorist David Headley, LeT founder Hafiz Saeed and
two ISI officers.
Government sources said the extradition requests to the
US and Pakistan will be sent "very soon" as all the nine
persons were directly involved in the conspiracy as well as
executing the India's worst terror strike.
The move comes a month after the National Investigation
Agency chargesheeted LeT operative Headley, Hafiz Saeed,
Mumbai attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Headley's
accomplice and Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Rana and al-Qaeda
operative Illyas Kashmiri for plotting terror attacks in India
including the 26/11 strikes.
Sajid Malik, handler of Headley, and Abdul Rehman Hashmi,
former Pakistani Army officer, were also named in the charge-
sheet besides two officers Major Iqbal and Major Samir Ali who
believed to be working for Pakistan's spy agency.
The extradition requests will be sent to the US despite
the fact that Headley had entered into a plea bargain with
American authorities to escape harsh sentence. Both Headley
and Rana are at present in custody of US authorities and NIA
has only got a limited access to Headley.
The seven others are believed to be in Pakistan and New
Delhi does not have any extradition pact with Islamabad.
"We hope that American and Pakistani courts will take
cognisance of our requests and give judgements in favour of
their extradition as all the nine were involved in one of the
gravest crime in the world in recent time," a source said.



Kashmir shivers as Kargil freezes at -25

Srinagar, Jan 30: At minus 25 degrees Celsius, Kargil town in the Ladakh region Monday recorded the lowest temperature of the season anywhere in Jammu and Kashmir so far as severe cold continued across the Valley, an official said.

“The present cold wave conditions are likely to continue for another three to four days across the Valley and the Ladakh region, although some cloudiness will develop Tuesday," Sonam Lotus, director of the local meteorological office said in Srinagar.

At minus 25 degrees Celsius, Kargil recorded the lowest anywhere in the state this season.

The minimum temperature was minus 5 degrees Celsius in Srinagar, minus 14.2 degrees in Pahalgam, minus 12.5 degrees in Gulmarg, minus 10 degrees in south Kashmir's Qazigund town, minus 23.4 degrees in Leh and minus 25 degrees Celsius in Kargil town Monday.

The highly slippery road conditions in the mornings and freezing of water taps due to sub-zero temperatures are some problems faced by the locals these days.

Kupwara frontier town in north Kashmir recorded a low of minus 6.3 degrees Celsius, the official said.







People will act if govt fails to stop conversion: Grand Mufti

Srinagar, Jan 30: Kashmir’s Grand Mufti, Mufti Bashir-ud-Din has said that missionary activities have to be halted to ensure communal harmony.

Here are the excerpts of an interview Grand Mufti had with Delhi based magazine, Tehelka.

Q. The Sharia court headed by you has passed strictures against alleged missionary activity in the Valley. What was the provocation?

A. Yes. We want the three Christian priests, MC Khanna, Jim Borst and Gayoor Messah, who have been involved in conversions, to leave the Valley immediately. We are still investigating the case against the principal of Tyndale Biscoe School, Parvez Samuel Koul, and we will soon announce the judgment on him.

The Sharia court has also decreed that the state government involve itself in the management of the missionary schools. Besides, we also want a prayer written by Sir Muhammad Iqbal to be read in these schools and a class allotted for Islamic studies.

Q. You say that missionaries are forcibly converting people. What is the proof?

A. They use methods that force people to convert. There are several missionary agencies charged with harvesting souls for Christianity. People are deployed outside schools to lure students. They usually start with impressionable children or vulnerable people with problems and offer solutions. We also have reports that during the 2005 earthquake, Christian missionaries built houses worth Rs 7.5 crore and they were given to people who were willing to convert. Our Sharia court is still investigating the matter.

Q. But will the Sharia court be able to execute its decisions?

A. Yes, if there has to be communal harmony in Kashmir, then the decisions of the Sharia court have to be implemented. Kashmir is a very sensitive state. We already have problems of our own, of a very complicated kind at that. So we hope the government will carry out the court judgment. It would be for the good of the state.

Q. Is there any way the Sharia court can ensure that its orders are implemented?

A. If the state government doesn’t fulfil its obligation, then the people of the state will do it for themselves. In fact, the people are waiting to see what the government does. And if it fails to act, then the people will act.

Q. What will you do if there is violence?

A. That is why we are warning the government in advance. In case the government fails to do its duty, things can go out of our hand. Violence is but natural under the circumstances. We are not for violence and want it averted. So, in the interest of peace and communal harmony in the state, we feel the missionary activities need to be stopped forthwith.

Q. What is the number of converts in the Valley?

A. In the course of our investigation, Khanna said that 10 people have converted. He would have revealed more but he was arrested soon. We questioned many persons who had first converted and then returned to the Islamic faith. In fact, it is their account that has helped us understand the full scope of missionary activity in the Valley. We learnt that the persons who convert are given money, all their needs are met, they are taken to California, provided accommodation and jobs and settled there.

Q. How will you deal with those who have converted and won’t return to their original faith?

A. I call upon them to return and revive their faith in Islam. And if they don’t, then we will respond in the light of what Islam says on apostasy.









US, Taliban prisoner release talks fail: report

Washington, Jan 30: The initial talks between the US and Taliban in Qatar on the release of five of the militant group's prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay detention center have failed, a media report said today.

The failure of the talks is being attributed mainly to the refusal of Taliban to accept the US demand of a ceasefire before these five Taliban prisoners could be released, the MSNBC news reported quoting its sources in Taliban.

For record sake the United States has neither confirmed nor denied the reports of such a peace talks with Taliban.

Special US Representatives for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Marc Grossman, was recently in Qatar, which is being widely speculated for such talks, but the State Department has kept quiet on the issue so far.

"According to the sources, the US demanded that Taliban announce a ceasefire in Afghanistan before any prisoner swap, which they said their central leadership had turned down," MSNBC news reported in its news dispatch from Islamabad.

According to the report, the US was willing to release five Taliban leaders currently in prison in Guantanamo in exchange of release of American soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, captured by Taliban militants in Afghanistan's Paktika province in June 2009, bordering Pakistan's South Waziristan.

"Our stance is the same. We will announce a ceasefire when the foreign forces start their withdrawal from Afghanistan," a Taliban source was quoted as saying.

Earlier, former minister of vice and virtue for the Taliban Maulavi Qalamuddin had said "there are no peace talks going on."

"The only thing is the negotiations over release of Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo, which is still under discussion between both sides in Qatar. We also want to strengthen the talks so we can create an environment of trust for further talks in the future," he had said.













‘US 'bunker-buster' not powerful enough against Iran's tough N sites’

NEW YORK, Jan 30: The United States has intensified efforts for a more powerful bomb after acknowledging that the it's largest conventional bomb is not capable of destroying Iran's most heavily fortified underground facilities, according to a media report.

The 13.6-ton "bunker-buster" bomb, known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), was specifically designed to take out the hardened fortifications built by Iran and Northern Korea, The Wall Street Journal said in a report on Monday.

In an interview with the Journal, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, while acknowledging, the bomb's shortcomings against some of Iran's deepest bunkers, said more development work would be done and that he expected the bomb to be ready to take on the deepest bunkers soon.

"We're still trying to develop them," Panetta was quoted as saying.

The efforts for boosted "bunker busting" capability have been speeded up as part of contingency planning for a possible strike against Iranian nuclear sites, the newspaper said, quoting US officials.

But early tests indicated that the bomb as currently primed was not fully capable of destroying some of Iran's facilities, because Tehran had added new fortifications to protect them.

Doubts about the MOP's effectiveness prompted the Pentagon this month to secretly submit a request to Congress for funding to enhance the bomb's ability to penetrate deeper into rock, concrete and steel before exploding, the officials said.

Within the president's new defence budget plan is funding for an intriguing new item: a floating drone base that also could be used as a launching pad for commandos.

The Defence Department has spent about $330 million so far to develop about 20 of the bombs, which are built by Boeing Co. The Pentagon is seeking about $82 million more to make the bomb more effective, according to government officials briefed on the plan.

Some experts question if any kind of conventional explosives are capable of reaching facilities such as those built deep underground in Iran. But U.S. defense officials say they believe the MOP could already do damage sufficient to set back the programme.



The U.S. has sought in recent weeks to tamp down tensions with Iran, but the Pentagon is at the same time pushing ahead with contingency planning.

"The development of this weapon is not intended to send a signal to any one particular country," Pentagon press secretary George Little said. "It's a capability we believe we need in our arsenal and will continue to invest in it."

Officials said the planned improvements to the MOP were meant to overcome shortcomings that emerged in initial testing. They said the new money was meant to ensure the weapon would be more effective against the deepest bunkers, including Iran's Fordow enrichment plant facility, which is buried in a mountain complex surrounded by antiaircraft batteries, making it a particularly difficult target even for the most powerful weapons available to the U.S.

Developing an effective bunker-buster is complicated in part because of the variables, experts say. Penetration varies depending on factors such as soil density and the types of stone and rock shielding the target.

Boeing received a contract in 2009 to fit the weapon on the U.S.'s B-2 Stealth Bomber. The Air Force began receiving the first of the bombs in September, a time of growing tensions with Iran. The Air Force has so far contracted to buy 20 of the bombs, and more deliveries are expected in 2013, after additional tests are made.

Should a decision be made to use the MOP as currently configured, it could cause "a lot of damage" to Iran's underground nuclear facilities but wouldn't necessarily destroy them outright, Panetta said.

"We're developing it. I think we're pretty close, let's put it that way. But we're still working at it because these things are not easy to be able to make sure that they will do what we want them to."

Panetta added: "But I'm confident, frankly, that we're going to have that capability and have it soon,"

The decision to ask now for more money to develop the weapon was directly related to efforts by the U.S. military's Central Command to prepare military options against Iran as quickly as possible, according to a person briefed on the request for additional funds.

The Pentagon was particularly concerned about its ability to destroy bunkers built under mountains, such as Iran's Fordow site near the Shiite Muslim holy city of Qom, according to a former senior U.S. official who is an expert on Iran.

The official said some Pentagon war planners believe conventional bombs won't be effective against Fordow and that a tactical nuclear weapon may be the only military option if the goal is to destroy the facility. "Once things go into the mountain, then really you have to have something that takes the mountain off," the official said.

Israel has large bunker-buster bombs but the U.S. hasn't provided the MOP to any other country.