Six Indian security forces wounded in Kashmir clashes

SRINAGAR: Protesters defied a round-the-clock curfew in Indian-administered Kashmir on Thursday and attacked government forces with rocks, wounding six of them, police said.

On the outskirts of Srinagar, teenagers stoned a vehicle of paramilitary soldiers that overturned, injuring five soldiers. In the town of Baramulla, one police officer was wounded as government forces fired tear gas and swung batons to disperse scores of rock-throwing protesters, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to reporters.

Violent civil unrest against New Delhi's rule in Kashmir has roiled the disputed Himalayan region for the past three months and killed at least 94 people, including 22 who died from police fire this week. The unrest prompted authorities to declare the curfew, under which violators can be shot.

There is little sign of the unrest abating. The All Parties Hurriyat Conference, an umbrella organisation of separatist political and religious groups, is calling for people to march on Indian military camps on September 21, which could escalate the protests.
An insurgency seeking the region's independence or merger with Pakistan that broke out in 1989 has waned in recent years, but the continuing Indian military presence is widely resented by Kashmiris. Wide scale street protests have broken out for three consecutive summers.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met with top Indian politicians in New Delhi and decided to send a cross-party delegation to assess the situation in Indian-administered Kashmir, but separatist leaders dismissed it as a public relations ploy and Kashmiri analysts were sceptical it would achieve much.

India and Pakistan have fought two wars over control of Kashmir, which is divided between them, since they won independence from Britain in 1947.

UN calls for world to support new Pakistan appeal

CHARSADDA: The head of the UN refugee agency on Thursday urged the world to do far more to help Pakistan recover from catastrophic floods that hit millions, on the eve of a major new UN appeal.

“My hope is that the international community will understand the need and fully respond to the dramatic situation,” Antonio Guterres told AFP in the northwestern town of Charsadda, where he saw aid handed out to survivors.

Pakistan's worst floods in history have left 10 million people without shelter, and vulnerable to hunger and malnutrition. More than eight million are reliant on aid handouts for survival.

The United Nations is to launch a new appeal for funds in New York on Friday, although UN figures show that donors have met only about two-thirds of an initial appeal for 460 million dollars issued on August 11.

“All entities working in Pakistan, including the United Nations and government of Pakistan need much stronger support from the international community,” said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

“If we see Pakistan's generosity to Afghan refugees, I would say that the international community is not doing enough particularly in view of the level of devastation.”

Pakistan is home to 1.7 million Afghan refugees - 1.5 million of whom live in areas affected by the country's worst humanitarian disaster, which has affected up to 21 million people overall and hit terrain the size of England.

In Charsadda, an AFP reporter saw some 200 men and women queuing up at a UNHCR distribution point to receive quilts, mats, buckets and soap.

“My house, crop and cattle were destroyed by floods. I cannot support my family without help now,” local resident Shamroz Khan told AFP.

People in the town have started rebuilding damaged houses, an AFP reporter said.

Guterres ruled out any forced repatriation of Afghans, saying the floods destroyed 16 Afghan refugee villages in Pakistan and that 15 will be rebuilt.

He visited Azakhel, the largest Afghan refugee camp that the floods destroyed. It had a population of 22,000 people, who lost everything.

“The government of Pakistan has guaranteed that despite this tragedy Pakistan will not force these refugees to go back to Afghanistan,” Guterres said after meeting elders from the devastated northwestern village.

“Some Afghan families wanted to go back and we will support their repatriation, but nobody will be forced to go back to Afghanistan.”

Guterres acknowledged there were “doubts” about Azakhel being rebuilt because of its “dangerous location” prone to future flooding.

“UNHCR will do everything to support the people if this Afghan refugee camp is to be relocated,” he said.

Village elders said their children wanted to return to Azakhel.

“We want to come back to the village. Our children want to come back because we have deep associations with it as we have been living here for the past 30 years,” village representative Sharaft Hussain told Guterres.

Nearly two months after the floods first struck, Azakhel is still a wreckage of flattened mud-brick houses and rubble. Stagnant flood waters emitted a foul smell, an AFP reporter said.

UN officials said they will distribute some 40,000 temporary houses across Pakistan - each costing 500 dollars and capable of accommodating a family of up to seven people. – AFP

Pakistan must raise billions after floods: Holbrooke

KARACHI: Pakistan's allies will only do so much to rebuild the country after devastating floods so the government must raise tens of billions of dollars for reconstruction itself, US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke said on Thursday.

The floods, triggered by heavy monsoon rain in late July, killed more than 1,750 people, forced at least 10 million people from their homes and caused up to $43 billion in damage.

“The international community is not going to be able to raise tens of billions of dollars,” Holbrooke told a meeting of newspaper editors in Karachi.

“You have to figure out a way to raise the money,” he said.

A massive cascade of waters swept through the country, washing away homes, roads, bridges, crops and livestock, sending the vital US ally in the campaign against militancy reeling in one of the worst natural disasters in recorded history.

Pakistan's economy was already fragile and the cost of rehabilitation will likely push the 2010/11 fiscal deficit to between six and seven per cent of gross domestic product (GPD) against an original target of four per cent.

The floods are “going to put your government to the test”, Holbrooke said.

Reconstruction worry

Pakistan's tax to GDP ratio is about 10 per cent, one of the lowest in the world, and while the government has called for greater revenue collection, it has done little to broaden a very narrow tax base.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday approved as expected $451 million in emergency funding to help the country rebuild. That amount is separate from an $11 billion IMF-backed economic programme agreed in 2008.

The IMF programme includes energy sector reforms and measures to boost revenue.

If Pakistan does not increase its tax revenue and eliminate energy subsidies to cut expenditure, future IMF funds could be in danger.

For now, the focus is on getting help to flood victims, 10 million of whom are in urgent need of food and shelter. Aid agencies warn that water-borne diseases and hunger could kill many more.

“I've never seen anything on the scale of this,” Holbrooke, who also visited flood-hit areas, said at a meeting with the American Business Council, including representatives of major US companies such as IBM and Procter & Gamble.

“This is what we need to convey to the international community. It's the reconstruction stage that I'm most worried about.”

The United Nations says it has received $307 million, or about 67 per cent, of $460 million it appealed for in emergency aid last month, and plans to a launch a new appeal this week in New York.

The United States has taken the lead in providing emergency aid, contributing $261 million for relief and security.

The United States wants to make sure the floods do not create political turmoil in Pakistan, which faces a Taliban insurgency at home and is under US pressure to tackle militants who cross the border to attack US-led Nato troops in Afghanistan.

EU leaders eye S.Korea, Pakistan trade deals

BRUSSELS: European leaders scrambled Thursday to break an impasse on giving Pakistan trade-linked aid and to convince Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to unblock a trade pact with South Korea.

Britain and Germany were pushing the 27-nation European Union at a summit in Brussels to offer Pakistan trade advantages to help the country battle flood devastation and fears of rising Islamist extremism.

In a letter to EU partners, British Prime Minister David Cameron called for a “concrete political commitment from the EU to Pakistan to enhance significantly its access to the EU market.”

The deal, however, faces a welter of obstacles, including concerns that it would be challenged at the World Trade Organization and fears in the European textile industry.

EU chief diplomat Catherine Ashton called for a “comprehensive approach on how we can support Pakistan.”

The floods in Pakistan have affected some 21 million people and left 1,760 dead. The country is also battling extremists at its western border with Afghanistan.

EU leaders will decide whether to offer Pakistan “ambitious trade measures essential for economic recovery and growth,” according to newly-adapted conclusions obtained by AFP.

The heads of government and state of the EU, which represent the world's biggest border-free trading bloc and home to half a billion consumers, will be asked to agree “in principle” to grant “significantly increased market access... through the immediate reduction of duties on key imports.”

Nevertheless, illustrating the depth of feeling among opponents, a watered-down version calls only on the European Commission, the EU's day-to-day executive, to “come forward with proposals including increased market access.”

"It's very important that we provide aid and help to Pakistan by all means possible," said Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb. “To me it means humanitarian aid, development aid and trade.”

"It's a question about the stability of the region and all instruments should be used," he said.

Stubb also said he was “convinced” that a deal would be reached on South Korea and that the free trade pact would be “up and running within a few months.”

The South Korea trade deal was forced onto the summit agenda after Italy used its veto power to stall the agreement over concerns that it would damage its auto industry, dominated by car giant Fiat.

“I think the free-trade agreement with South Korea could be announced some time today,” said Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency.

Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi is struggling on the domestic political front and Rome has warned that it could veto the deal, which requires ratification by all 27 EU member states and the European parliament.

Diplomats have suggested that Berlusconi wanted to bring home a victory by securing compromises in Brussels.

Rome fears its auto sector - particularly Fiat's range of small cars threatened by the lowering of tariffs on rival Hyundai models - would suffer badly under the planned accord with Seoul.

Italy wanted to delay the deal's implementation until the middle of next year, instead of January. – AFP

Taliban call on Afghans to boycott election

KABUL: The Taliban called Thursday for a boycott of Afghanistan's parliamentary election after waging a campaign of violence and intimidation that has left three candidates dead.

“We call on our Muslim nation to boycott this process and thus foil all foreign processes and drive away the invaders from your country by sticking to jihad and Islamic resistance,” the group said in an emailed statement.

More than 2,500 candidates are contesting Saturday's election for the 249 seats in the lower house of parliament in the second poll of its kind since the Taliban were ousted from power in a 2001 US-led invasion.

The insurgents have been fighting the Kabul government for almost nine years, have spread their footprint across most of the country and are widely perceived as having momentum in their favour.

Styling themselves as “the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” as during their 1996-2001 rule, the Taliban said they were “striving to foil these colonialist plans of the invaders including this deceptive process with the help of Allah and your Muslim countrymen”.

Implying threats against the election process, the statement said the Taliban have drawn up “certain measures...to frustrate this American process and will implement them on the day when the illegitimate process is conducted”.

The militants issued threats last month saying anyone associated with the vote was a target.

In dozens of attacks, they have since killed three candidates, and in the worst incident so far shot dead five campaign workers in Herat.

Voting is set to take place at more than 5,000 polling centres across Afghanistan, though more than 1,000 will not open because security cannot be guaranteed, according to the Independent Election Commission.

FIA denies investigating spot-fixing scandal

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) will take no part in probing the players allegedly involved in a spot-fixing scandal, officials confirmed on Thursday.

Officials of the Interior Ministry and FIA told DawnNews that they were ‘least concerned’ in the spot-fixing scandal and denied to have investigated the players involved.

Minister for Interior Rehman Malik announced on August 29 that a three-member team would travel to the UK to assist Scotland Yard in the investigations but the team never left for the UK.

Inam Ghani, the proposed head of the investigative team, confirmed to DawnNews that the FIA has not quizzed the three players, who returned from the UK last week.

Pakistan’s Test captain Salman Butt and fast bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif were alleged to have been involved in a spot-fixing scandal by British tabloid News of the World.

The tabloid alleged that the trio took money from their agent Mazhar Majeed to bowl three no-balls during Pakistan’s fourth Test match against England at Lord’s.

The players were quizzed by Scotland Yard before being allowed to return home, only on the condition of being available for further questioning, if necessary.

No forced return of Afghans from flood-hit Pakistan: UN

AZAKHEL: The head of the UN refugee agency, Antonio Guterres, called Thursday for more global relief to help Pakistan after catastrophic floods and ruled out any forced repatriation of Afghans.

Pakistan is home to 1.7 million Afghan refugees —1.5 million of whom live in areas affected by the country's worst humanitarian disaster, which has affected up to 21 million people overall and hit terrain the size of England.

“The government of Pakistan has guaranteed that despite this tragedy Pakistan will not force these refugees to go back to Afghanistan,” Guterres said after meeting elders from the devastated northwestern village of Azakhel.

Azakhel is the largest Afghan refugee camp that the floods destroyed. It had a population of 22,000 people, who lost everything, a UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) official said.

“Some Afghan families wanted to go back and we will support their repatriation, but nobody will be forced to go back to Afghanistan,” Guterres told reporters.

Guterres said the floods destroyed 16 Afghan refugee villages in Pakistan and that 15 will be rebuilt. But he said there were “doubts” about Azakhel because of its “dangerous location”.

“Pakistan government has already warned that possible flood can again create problem in the area,” Guterres told village elders.

“UNHCR will do everything to support the people if this Afghan refugee camp is to be relocated.”

The refugee agency chief praised Pakistan for hosting such a large number of Afghans for nearly three decades -- an exodus precipitated by the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and called for more global support for Pakistan.
“International community needs to show similar generosity with Pakistan by extending maximum possible help and support,” said Guterres, adding that Pakistanis were facing an “unprecedented crisis”.

Village elders said their children wanted to return to Azakhel.

“We want to come back to the village. Our children want to come back because we have deep associations with it as we have been living here for the past 30 years,” village representative Sharaft Hussain told Guterres.

Nearly two months after the floods first struck, Azakhel is still a wreckage of flattened mud-bricked houses and rubble. Stagnant flood water emitted a foul smell, an AFP reporter said.

Punjab govt rejects ISI role in CJ Sharif report leakage

LAHORE: The Punjab government on Thursday rejected reports that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had any kind of involvement in the leakage of a report pertaining to a plan to assassinate Chief Justice Lahore high Court Khawaja Sharif.

A spokesman of the provincial government in a handout said that it was just an allegation.

He said the report came from the special branch and according to a set procedure the provincial government contacts the ISI after receiving such kinds of reports. Therefore, the ISI was contacted, but the agency had no role in the leakage of the report to the media.

Water dispute claims 13 more lives in Kurram

PESHAWAR: The ongoing water dispute in the Kurram tribal region deepened on Thursday as 13 more tribesmen were killed and 19 others were injured in clashes between the two rival groups.

According to sources, the dispute had taken a new turn after the involvement of militants in the clashes which took place in the tribal region’s Salozan and Tungi areas.

So far, 48 people have been killed and more than 80 injured in the past 13 days

India to try 'new strategy' to pacify Kashmir

SRINAGAR: Indian security forces said they have drawn up a new plan to tackle deadly unrest in Kashmir amid criticism of the government on Thursday over its handling of the crisis.

The army, police and paramilitary forces said Wednesday they had formulated a “joint strategy” to restore peace in the valley where scores of anti-India protesters have been shot dead.

“The meeting discussed the measures to effectively counter the protest calendar,” a statement by the military said, referring to a list of demonstrations set by separatists in the region.

No details were given about the strategy, which is to be implemented immediately.

The death toll from three months of unrest rose to 94 on Thursday after the cousin of top separatist Yasin Malik, who was injured in a clash last month, died in hospital, Malik's spokesman told AFP.

In New Delhi, the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh faced criticism from some commentators after a five-hour crisis meeting between political leaders held in the capital on Wednesday.

The meeting broke up with a decision to send a fact-finding mission to the area.

“Wars are won and insurrection defeated by leaders, not committees,” wrote commentator Manoj Joshi in the Mail Today newspaper.

“The Manmohan Singh government seems bent on defying this logic.” Samar Halarnkar, writing in the Hindustan Times, said “the all-party meeting in Delhi has utterly failed to address the (Kashmir) valley's realities.”

He warned of the danger of a new surge in violence in Kashmir, where the insurgency is at its lowest level in two decades, unless the grievances of local people are addressed.

The Express newspaper was more supportive of the government, saying that “no one would have expected the all-party meeting to end with a concrete consensus on how to move forward.”

It said the fact-finding mission was “welcome” and an indication that the nation's political energy was directed “towards dealing with one of India's most intractable problems.”

All major towns in Kashmir remained under curfew on Thursday for the fifth day. There was no report of any violence during the night from any part of the region, police said.

Court indicts four Khmer Rouge leaders for genocide

PHNOM PENH: Cambodia's UN-backed tribunal on Thursday indicted four former Khmer Rouge leaders for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the regime's most senior surviving member.

The court has decided to “send forward these four accused for trial”, judge You Bunleng said at a press conference, before listing a long series of charges against the former top regime members, including torture, murder and rape.

Nuon Chea, 84, who was known as “Brother Number Two” and served as deputy to Khmer Rouge founder Pol Pot, will face trial in 2011 alongside former foreign minister Ieng Sary, his wife and ex-social affairs minister Ieng Thirith and former head of state Khieu Samphan.

International judge Marcel Lemonde said the investigation into the case, the tribunal's second after the July sentencing of former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch to 30 years in jail, had taken so long because it was much more complex.

US supports civilian set-up in Pakistan: Holbrooke

KARACHI: US Special Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke categorically stated on Wednesday that his country supported a civilian and democratically-elected government in Pakistan.

Answering a question at a press conference which he addressed after meeting Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah following a visit to some flood-affected areas, Mr Holbrooke also said the US supported the civilian government and “also worked closely with the army which was part of that government”.

The chief minister gave a detailed briefing to the US official on the devastation caused by floods in Sindh.

Referring to his visit to Thatta where he met displaced persons in camps, Mr Holbrooke said that he had extended discussion with leaders in Karachi and Islamabad about the disaster.

He said Pakistan needed massive support and said the US which was the first to come to Pakistan’s help, had opened its heart to the people of Pakistan.In reply to a question, Mr Holbrooke said the Kerry-Lugar Act provided $7.5 billion assistance which was meant for water, power, health and education with priorities to water and power projects. However, he said, the Congress had allowed $15 million for emergency assistance.

Washington has donated $261 million for relief and recovery of the flood-hit people.

He recalled that in July this year he and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had come to Islamabad and announced how “we want to spend that money with emphasis on energy and water projects”.

Mr Holbrooke said the US was helping Pakistan to overcome the effects of flood not because of the war on terror or Afghanistan, but because Pakistan needed it. He said the US government would fully participate in every phase of rehabilitation and reconstruction of flood-hit people. The governments in Islamabad and Karachi would have to come up with priorities, he said.

The US envoy also said that if there was a risk of floods in future new dams should be built and old dams should be improved.

Answering another question, Mr Holbrooke said: “We have no troops in Pakistan. Your country is dealing with the situation in tribal areas.”

Five UCs, fuel pipelines face flood threat

DADU: A 400-foot “controlled cut” was made in a dyke at Dadu’s Bagh-i-Yousuf on Wednesday to reduce water level in Manchhar lake.

The breach between RD-11 and 12 was made after water level in the lake rose to 121.5RL and overtopped at RD-96, 97, 98, 99 and 100.

Irrigation officials made the cut to drain 250,000 cusecs of water from the lake into the Indus through Karampur. About 15,000 cusecs was flowing into the river through Aral canal.

Up to 40,000 cusecs was flowing into Manchhar from the Main Nara Valley drain.

The heavy flow caused leakages in the lake’s dyke at Zero Point.

The cut will inundate the Dal, Pakka Channa, Talti and Bubak union councils.

The Jamshoro district administration alerted people of Dal area before breaching the dyke, but did not inform the residents of Pakka, Talti and Bubak.

About 250,000 people will be affected by the breach and Bakhtiarpur, Arazi and Talti towns in Sehwan taluka will be inundated.

People started vacating villages in the area, but faced a shortage of vehicles.

The waters diverted through the cut will pass over the Jamshoro-Larkana section of the Indus Highway and railway tracks at different places.

PIPELINES: The floodwaters may damage four pipelines of Parco and the SSGC and submerge an oil station in Bubak and the Shahbaz airport in Sehwan.

The main valve and two high pressure pipelines of the SSGC and two of Parco were under threat.

SSGC Chief Engineer Kazi Anwar Keerio said that since the pipelines supplying petrol from Karachi to Faisalabad and gas to Karachi / Hyderabad were three kilometres from the breach, these were likely to be affected. Dadu SSGC Senior Manager Mumtaz Bughio said the pipelines would be damaged if the valve was affected, leading to suspension of gas supply to a number of towns from Sehwan to Karachi.

Hyderabad GOC Maj-Gen Shaukat Iqbal told reporters at the breach site that the step had been taken to reduce the water level in Manchhar and pressure on its embankments because breaches in them could inundate Bhan Syedabad and other towns.

Jamshoro DCO Samiuddin Siddique claimed that a warning had been issued to people of Bhan, Bubak, Dal and Talti and the administration was helping them leave the area. But people were reluctant to move to camps because arrangements had not been made for their animals.

The administration and Wapda have decided to raise the height of the Indus link canal’s embankment to protect Bhan Syedabad.

Former UC nazim Roshan Buriro said the town was under threat of flooding from the MNV drain and Manchhar lake, but the administration had not provided transport to local people to leave the area.

The flow in the drain at Chhandan near Dadu remained dangerous, while the water level rose along the Johi and Mehar embankments.