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The arrest of three Pakistani nationals hailing from Multan in connection with Mumbai siege has once again revealed the role of Lashkar-e-Tayiba in terror strikes in India after the Akshardham attack in 2002. Police and central security personnel have arrested at least three Pakistanis, including Ajmal Amir Kamal, a resident of Faridkot near Multan in Pakistan's Punjab province. All the three belong to the suicide squad of Lashkar-e-Tayiba. The terrorists told interrogators that 12 of them had left in a merchant vessel from the port city of Karachi, which was on its way to Vietnam, from which they got down...

Excerpt - Yesterday's suicide bombing at the Kamra Air Force Base in Punjab was not the first strike at a nuclear weapons storage facility. After a closer look at the bases struck inside Pakistan since August, at least two more strikes occurred either on or near nuclear weapons storage facilities, based on open source information on Pakistan's nuclear weapons programs. Since August 2007, there have been two suicide attacks at or near the Sargodha Air Force Base, a nuclear weapons and missile storage facility in central Punjab province. Other attacks in Punjab and the Northwest Frontier Province may be aimed...

Alexander's Afghan gold After establishing the Egyptian port city of Alexandria in 331 BC, Alexander the Great founded Greek garrison cities across Asia, including Afghanistan. His legacy is on show in a new Paris exhibition, writes David Tresilian "Sovereign and Dragon" pendant found at the Tillia Tepe treasure While not drawing quite the crowds making their way to the Grand Palais for Trésors engloutis d'Egypte, an exhibition of mostly Ptolemaic artefacts -- "submerged treasures" -- discovered off the coast of Alexandria and reviewed in Al-Ahram Weekly on 14 December, Afghanistan, les trésors retrouvés across Paris at the Musée Guimet should...

The Katasraj Temples have huge significance for the Hindus living in the country... Plans to celebrate the festival in Pakistan are part of a development project for Hindu sites at Katasraj. Both India and Pakistan had in June 2005 agreed on the project during a visit by the then BJP president Lal Krishna Advani and Shivshankar Menon, the then Indian high commissioner, to Katasraj. It was also agreed that arrangements would be made to allow more Hindu pilgrims to visit Katasraj Temples in the near future. Then, in September 2005, president of the ruling party in Pakistan, PML, Ch. Shujaat...

Shocking news has just hit the wires, as President Bush has backtracked on his previous strong support for illegal immigration. In a brief statement released by the White House, Bush has admitted mistakes he made concerning massive illegal immigration, including his willful failure to enforce our immigration laws resulting in millions of illegal aliens entering during his six years in office. Speaking in the Rose Garden, Bush made the following statement: "I hereby admit mistakes that I've made in the past, and I pledge to finally begin enforcing our immigration laws as I should have been doing these past years....

LONDON: In a case of racial assault, a group of white youths attacked a Sikh teenager and clipped his hair in a public park in the Scottish capital Edinburgh. The 15-year-old, who has not been named, was attacked by four youths in Pilrig Park on Tuesday evening in what police have described as an unprovoked and sustained assault. He was initially subjected to racist verbal abuse from the gang, police said, before being knocked to the ground. When the teenager's turban came off, the gang cut his hair - an act considered highly offensive to the Sikh community. "At around...

The USCIS announced on June 1, 2006 that the regular H-1 cap for Fiscal Year 2007 (FY2007) was reached on May 26, 2006. Those cases properly filed with the USCIS before the 26th are safe, with respect to the cap, as there are enough cap numbers for these cases. Cases that reached the USCIS on May 26th are in an uncertain situation and will be subject to a random selection process, as there are enough numbers for some, but not all of the May 26th cases. Any regular cap-subject cases received after May 26th will be rejected entirely.This information does...

The "lost city" of Gelanggi or Linggiu, claimed to have been hidden in the jungles of Johor for more than a thousand years, does not exist, said an archaeologist in the National Heritage Department... The search was launched following a claim made by an independent researcher Raimy Che Ros that he had found evidence of the "lost city" after 12 years of research. The claim, published in a newspaper in February last year, created public excitement because Linggiu was said to be older than the Borobudur Buddhist temple in Indonesia built between 750 and 842 A.D. and Cambodia's Angkor Wat...

KHOTHRAN, Punjab, March 1, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An Indian official’s personal campaign to halt the disastrous abortion rates of baby girls in the Punjab state has been successful. Khrishan Kumar, deputy commissioner in the Nawan Shahar district of Punjab state, began publicly shaming parents who aborted, or consider aborting, baby girls for no other reason than their gender. "What kind of society are we building?" said Mr. Kumar, reported the Telegraph. "One without any girls? One where parents kill their own child in the womb just because she's a girl?" Ultrasounds for gender determination have been illegal in India since...

U.S. Troops on Front Line Of Expanding India TiesPost-9/11 Shift Stresses Common Interests By John LancasterWashington Post Foreign ServiceWednesday, January 25, 2006; A01 CHAUBATIA, India -- More than half a century after independence, foreign soldiers have returned to this onetime colonial garrison of tin-roofed bungalows, stone churches and panoramic Himalayan views. But this time, the soldiers' accents are American, not British, and their purpose is not to subdue India but to cultivate it as an ally.In the latest of a series of such exercises, 120 U.S. combat troops have come here to train with their Indian counterparts in areas such...

ENSAAF today released its report, Punjab Police: Fabricating Terrorism through Illegal Detention and Torture (June 2005 to August 2005) (http://www.ensaaf.org/ft-report.html). This report details human rights violations committed by Indian security forces in recent militancy-related arrests. From June 2005 to August 2005, Indian police claim to have arrested several dozen individuals intent on reviving or supporting militancy in Punjab. These arrests center around the apprehension of Jagtar Singh Hawara, the main accused in the 1995 assassination of Punjab’s chief minister. In August and September 2005, ENSAAF documented 28 cases of detention of Punjabis accused of militancy-related activities. Its study reveals that,...

Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005 11:17 a.m. EDT 21 Terrorists Became U.S. Citizens Two new reports released today by the Center for Immigration Studies examine the role of immigration control in our efforts to prevent further terrorist attacks on American soil. Both point to the profound security challenges posed by a federal government policy of mass immigration and lax enforcement of the law. The first paper, "Immigration and Terrorism: Moving Beyond the 9/11 Staff Report on Terrorist Travel," illustrates how 94 Islamist terrorists used the immigration system to infiltrate and embed in the United States. The author is Janice L. Kephart,...

Imams held in Pakistan crackdown Mosques and madrassas are being put under close watch Police in the Pakistani province of Punjab have briefly detained over 100 prayer leaders for breaking a law on broadcasting sermons over loudspeakers.The arrests came amid a crackdown on suspected religious extremists in Pakistan, following bombings in London. Police said the government had ordered strict observance of a law which says loudspeakers must be used only for the call to prayers, and not for sermons. Sermons broadcast on loudspeakers are accused of helping fan sectarian hate. It was the first time the government had issued...

Vajra Shakti Military Exercise 9th May 2005 @ Near Jalandhar, Punjab, India Click here for Photographs ---------------------------- Exercise Vajra Shakti was jointly planned by the Indian Army's 11 Corps and the Indian Air Force's (IAF) 1 Tactical Air Centre, which is an integral part of the corps, said a defence ministry spokesperson. The army and the IAF regularly carry out exercises to improve interoperability. This was the first large-scale exercise in the Punjab sector after Operation Parakram, the mobilisation of forces on the Pakistan border following the terror attack on parliament in December 2001. Combat units from bases under IAF's...

The Amritsar police today booked 35 radical Sikhs including Khalistan supporter, Dr Jagjit Singh Chohan, Bhai H.S. Dhami, President Dal Khalsa and Bhai Satnam Singh Paonta Sahib, a hijacker, on charges of unfurling saffron flag, delivering inflammatory speeches and opening fire in the air. They had unfurled the ‘saffron flag’ similar to the one hoisted by Maharaja Ranjit Singh at Lahore Qila, on the occasion of Republic Day here yesterday. The Sikh youths also opened fire in the air and gave salute to the saffron flag with naked swords. Those arrested include Manjinder Singh, Avtar Singh, Kuldip Singh, Major Singh,...

January 26, 2005 The Honorable George W. Bush President of the United States The White House Washington, DC 20500 Dear President Bush: Congratulations on beginning your second term as President of the United States. Your leadership will continue to inspire America for another four years. Many people around the world, including the Sikh Nation, were very impressed with your Inaugural Address. We agree with you that “the survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world....

Lead story - Friday January 21, 2005 PAKISTAN : ENRAGED MUSLIM CHOPS OFF CHRISTIAN’S ARM Death threats force victim into hiding. Shahbaz Masih January 21 (Compass) -- A young Christian shopkeeper in Pakistan’s Punjab province had his arm chopped off by a Muslim customer who became enraged during a disagreement over a TV rental. Shahbaz Masih, 22, was approached last November 28 by a customer wanting to rent a television set from his video shop in Talwandi, a little village near Chak Jhumra in Faisalabad district. When Masih declined the request, his customer, a 26-year-old butcher named Ahmed Ali,...

PAKISTAN has tried, without much success, to crack down on the madrasses, religious schools, which are often subsidized by Islamic conservatives from Saudi Arabia. Now a weakness has been found; child abuse. Many of the madrassa students are children under 14, and its common knowledge that some of the clerics and teachers running the madrasses will sexually molest their students. In the past, not much attention was paid to this, because it was so shameful. In the province of Punjab (the largest in Pakistan), there have been 500 complaints about such abuse in the last six months. The government decided...

LONDON: At least 30 Sikh children in Paris and its suburbs are to keep their turbans on as they enter their school gates on Thursday in a showdown between the global Sikh community's right-to-turban campaign and a controversial French law. The new law makes it illegal to wear Sikh turbans, Muslim hijabs or Jewish yarmulkes to school. Outsize crucifixes are a no-no as well. The Sikhs, estimated at roughly 10,000 in France, are the smallest minority affected by the proposed ban, but their Europe-wide campaign has been the loudest. On Wednesday afternoon, Mejindarpal Kaur of the campaign group United...

TORONTO - An anti-terrorism probe that led to the arrest of 19 Pakistani men, including one who took commercial flight training over a nuclear power plant, highlights security holes that should have been plugged after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, Ontario officials said. The Public Security and Anti-Terrorism Unit, a federal national security task force, quietly arrested the group of mostly young men last week. The men appear to have used fraudulent student visas to enter Canada or to maintain their residency here. Federal authorities documented a pattern of suspicious behaviour that shows an interest in Ontario's nuclear generators...

WASHINGTON : Presidential hopeful and Massachusetts Senator John Kerry today announced he has offered Johnny Depp first refusal of the coveted VP spot in his Democratic bid for the White House. I first saw Johnny in that scissors movie, Kerry told reporters, and I’ve wanted to run with him ever since. A source close to the Kerry campaign stated that Kerry believes Depp’s charm, charisma and intense global popularity is just the thing needed to sway voter support of post-teen females, twenty-something housewives, every woman in middle-aged America and that ‘certain section of guys’ towards the Democratic ticket in November....

SWAMINATHAN S ANKLESARIA AIYAR Sunday, May 2, 2004| Updated at 16:35 hrs IST Searchin Indiatimes>The Economic Times >Columnists >Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar >Article Home News News By Industry Companies A-Z Economy Politics/Nation International Business ET Headlines Most Read Articles Markets Stocks Forex Debt / Money Commodities Money Matters Mutual Funds Insurance Savings Centre Loan Centre Credit Cards Tax Centre Law Corporate Law Tax Law Business Law Personal Law Property Law Notifications Opinion Columnists Abheek Barman Bodhisatva Ganguly Chidanand Rajghatta Janmejaya Sinha Jayaprakash Narayan Lubna Kably Manoj Pant M K Venu Mythili Bhusnurmath Narendar Pani Neeraj Kaushal Raghu Krishnan Raja...

Before anyone declares this article biased against the US, or leftist, please bother to read the following excerpts: "...The final lesson from Punjab is that armed forces cannot quell terrorism. The task requires skilled, ruthless police who will not stop at torture and extra-judicial killings. " "...In his book Punjab: Knights of Falsehood , Gill argues strongly that terrorism in Punjab was defeated not by some mystical force called popular will but by force of arms." Osama bin Laden must be delighted with American quasi-imperialism in Iraq. Instead of quashing terrorism, the US has surely created more terrorists. US troops...

Gunman shoots down 3 Sikhs PTI[ TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2004 03:37:32 PM ] WASHINGTON: A Sikh gunman opened fire on a group of elderly men of his community playing cards at a park in San Jose, killing three of them -- before the group turned on the attacker beating him to death, police said. The 43-year-old attacker walked up to the group of 15 men who were playing cards in the park on Sunday and hurled some abuses in Punjabi before opening fire on them. Two men died on the spot, and one died at San Jose Medical Center, San...

Indian Government Admits Its Responsibility for Massacre in ChithisinghporaEvidence a Fraud, Indian Soldiers Implicated Council of Khalistan Said India Was Responsible When Massacre HappenedContinues Pattern of Pitting Minorities Against Each OtherWASHINGTON, D.C., August 2, 2002–According to today’s Washington Times, the Indian government has admitted that its forces were responsible for the massacre of 35 Sikhs in the village of Chithisinghpora, Kashmir on March 20, 2000. India finally admitted that the evidence it used to implicate alleged Kashmiri “militants” in the murders was faked. This is a victory for Sikhs, including the Council of Khalistan, who have maintained that the Indian...