Eleven of the 12 men held in American custody in Kandahar on suspicion of being infiltrators from Iran are Afghans who fled to Iran many years ago, a spokesman for the provincial government said today. The identity of the 12th man remains a mystery, but the spokesman, Yusuf Pashtoon, said evidence indicated he was an Iranian general.
The men have been detained at Kandahar airport after their arrest by Afghans who accused them of seeking to promote Iranian. They were arrested in Zirikot, in Farah Province, brought to Kandahar, then taken into custody by American military officials, who appear to have spent the time since trying to establish who they are. Uhuh. Sounds like plausible deniability, Mr. Phelps. Our ambassador to Kabul was born an Afghan, too, so he's not "really" ours.
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India's Supreme Court banned hardline Hindus from holding a controversial religious ceremony in the northern town of Ayodhya, where Hindu zealots razed a 16th century mosque nearly 10 years ago. The ruling was a setback for the militant Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP - World Hindu Council), which has been spearheading a long and volatile campaign to build a temple to the Hindu warrior god Ram on or next to the razed mosque site. The VHP will now be barred from holding a symbolic ground-breaking ceremony in Ayodhya on Friday which had threatened to provoke an outbreak of sectarian violence. "No religious activities of any nature, by anyone ... shall be allowed till further orders," the three-judge court said Wednesday, adding that a further ruling would be made by an expanded five-judge bench in 10 weeks.
"We would like to see and study the judgement, after that we would like to decide (our next step)," said VHP Secretary General Praveen Togadia. What part of "NO!" don't you understand? If the motivation is purely to set off as much violence as possible, then they'll just go ahead and ignore the court. Since that's what the motivation is, betcha that's what they'll do.
I'm sure it won't do much for the neighborhood, but the Indian government ought to consider building a police station/Army recruiting station on the site of the previous mosque-proposed temple. Something permanent, with ugly architecture, to make everyone equally unhappy. Posted by Tom Roberts 3/14/2002 1:14:04 PM
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The defiant hardline Hindu organization, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP - World Hindu Forum), and other Hindu religious leaders have said that they will go ahead with their proposed puja (Hindu worship ritual) on Friday. Speaking after a meeting of VHP activists and religious leaders at Ayodhya on Thursday, the chairman of the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas (RJN - the trust that represents Hindu claims on the disputed site in Ayodhya), Ramchandra Das Paramahans, said that the activists and religious leaders were willing to court arrest. He has also said that he is willing to sacrifice his life if need be. Betcha that doesn't happen. The head cheeses only catch bullets by accident. It'll be the yokelsrubes faithful that abruptly begin decomposition.
The Supreme Court verdict has made any kind of puja or other activity on the acquired land illegal. However, giving its own interpretation to the judgment, the VHP's working president, Ashok Singhal, said that the verdict had not gone against them. Singhal told journalists in Ayodhya on Wednesday that the verdict only referred to two plots of land and not to the entire portion of acquired land. "There was nothing in the court's verdict to suggest that a puja could not be conducted on the remaining land," he said. That's why they pay their mouthpieces big bucks, to find those little loopholes...
Refuting Singhal's interpretation, the Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon swung back with a clarification that no puja could be performed on any part of the 67 acres around the disputed site. However, there are no restrictions on a puja being performed in any other part of the town, the apex court said. Ummm... Yeah. There's gotta be another loophole in there somewhere...
VHP leaders have been confirming and then denying in recent days that they would respect the court verdict. But few in the country trust them given their track record. After all, the VHP and the activists of its fraternal organizations in the Sangh Parivar destroyed the mosque in 1992 despite a written assurance that they would not do so. "Hey! Trust us! We're holy men. We want nothing but the well-being of our faithful. You look really tired. Why don't you let me hold your wallet for you?"
Some 10,000 police and paramilitary troops have fanned out around Ayodhya and Uttar Pradesh state in an attempt to prevent activists from converging on the site. Restrictions have been imposed on the entry of activists and religious leaders and security in the karyashalyas (the workshops where stone pillars are being carved) has been stepped up. 'Bout damned time the government took a strong stand... At least pretended to.
Of course, there is a possibility, too, that the VHP will make another vague statement late on Thursday night assuring the authorities of its intention to respect the court verdict - and leave the religious leaders and activists to steer the action on Friday. Yeah. It's a pretty good possibility. The Biggies will stand around and look pious, and they'll let their henchmen followers stir the pot - and take any bullets.
For if things do slide out of control into violence, the VHP and its friends in government can then hide behind a fig leaf, saying that what happened was a spontaneous action of the masses. Probably they'll "deplore" the violence and death, and of course point out how it's all the government's fault for being too aggressive.
Soon after the Supreme Court verdict, VHP president Hari Dalmia stated clearly that the religious leaders would determine the strategy the VHP adopts on Friday. What he did not say was that outfits such as the RJM and the religious leaders who will most likely march on Friday are controlled by the VHP. "Just ignore that man behind the curtain."
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US envoy Anthony Zinni was scheduled to begin a Middle East peace mission against a backdrop of continuing violence and mounting US-led criticism of Israel's biggest offensive against the Palestinians in decades. Let the slaughters begin!
Fred,
Gary Farber at Amygdala thinks you are advocating the slaughter of Palestinians here. I've been reading you for a long time, and that notion coming from you seems inconceivable to me. I think you're merely pointing out the propensity of Palestinian terrorists to step up their rate of atrocities (slaughters) whenever Zinni - or any other possibility of a truce - appears on the horizon. Care to settle the discussion?
I puzzled on this one also, but torqued it in the following manner:
1. The Mitchell plan espoused negotiations after a week of no violence, and everyone was officially backing that for over a year, except the PLO/PA thugs. Whither Arafat, nobody knows.
2. Instead of violence being ended or even attenuated, the "slaughters" have increased in frequency and effectiveness as both sides used the interim to train their front line operations units.
3. Now the "logic" of the Zinni trip is that the escalating violence requires a US intervention to get the negotiations to start up, despite the fact that this contradicts the policies stated above ( http://www.nzz.ch/english/editorials/2002/03/14_us_middle_east_ab.html is a fair summary of this).
4. As rhetoric is the mode here, and not concrete logic, we can easily extrapolate this equation and conclude that if the "slaughters" increase in frequency, then the US and Israel, and the PA thugs as well, will be begging for a ceasefire tommorrow.
Unfortunately this "logic" is about as likely as the Second Coming happening soon, but you can never tell for sure. Posted by Tom Roberts 3/15/2002 9:15:52 AM
Bill and Tom,
Your interpretations of what I mean are correct. I suggested on 3/9 that the exploder in the hotel lobby was a part of the Zinni welcome committee. The day before that, when it was announced that Zinni would be returning, I opined that "they'll be exploding by the dozens next week."
It's SOP for the Philistines to ratchet up the level of violence when there's any chance of talks. Even if Yasser wanted to tone it down, which I don't believe is so, Hamas and Islamojihad would go ahead, if only to demonstrate that he can't tell them what to do. Al-Aqsa will join in to show that they're Real Terrorists, too.
I've been wrestling with a particularly nasty problem at my real job, and haven't been putting the obsession into Rantburg for the past few days that I normally do. I should have expounded a little more.
Gary, I'm so disappointed you could think such a thing... Posted by Fred 3/15/2002 10:16:29 AM
Gary, I'm so disappointed you could think such a thing...
I'm sorry. Now I shall, presumably, know better. In retrospect, it would have been more respectful to have first queried you in e-mail as to your meaning. I apologize that your actual meaning didn't even occur to me, until Bill Quick suggested it in e-mail, as a possibility; I didn't spot any possible ambiguity, and that was my error and my responsibility.
I continue to recommend Rantburg as a valuable source of coverage of the Mideast, India/Pakistan, the war, and related topics. Posted by Gary Farber [www.amygdalagf.blogspot.com] 3/15/2002 4:05:44 PM
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A Scottish court rejected the appeal of a Libyan agent convicted of murder for planting a bomb aboard a US airliner that crashed over the Scottish village of Lockerbie in 1988, killing 270 people. Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, 49, will now serve out the life sentence passed on January 31, 2001 by a special Scottish court sitting on "neutral" territory in the Netherlands. I'm sure it's a very nice cell. It would be nicer if he remained in it until he died, even if he is probably just a fall guy.
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Training the guns on its own creation, police arrested the brother of counter-insurgent-turned-politician Kuka Parray in Varmul. Seven others were also taken into custody. The arrest comes as a sequel to recent crackdown launched against pro-government "Ikhwan"-the armed wing of MLA Kuka Parrayâs Jammu and Kashmir Awami League. Earlier this month the outfitâs supreme commander Rashid Billa was apprehended and booked under the Public Safety Act.
Police raided the house of Ghulam Rasool Parray alias Lassa Kak in Hajan last night. Believed to be Ikhwanâs chief organiser, Lassaâs seven associates were also picked up during the raid. They include Rashid Baccha, a prominent commander. "Six AK-47 rifles, 23 magazines, 1 UBGL, 5 pouches and some ammunition was recovered from their possession," a police spokesman said, adding that complaints of extortion and excesses were persistently pouring against Kuka Parrayâs brother. This is the second time this month that police arrested a bigwig of Ikhwan outfit-floated by the government in mid-90s to break the back of militancy which was till then in full-swing. On March 3 police arrested the outfitâs top commander Abdul Rashid alias Rashid Billa on charges of murder, robbery and extortion. Billa was also involved in the gruesome murder of seven members of a family at Sadrakote Bala in 1996. Officials had then blamed militants for the massacre.
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Two snuffies were snuffed in an encounter in Pulwama district. A residential house and a cowshed were destroyed in the process. Some live shells were left in the debris of the burnt houses. When some children fiddled with them, the explosives went off killing two children on the spot and injuring 25 others.
Two National Conference workers were killed by unidentified gunmen at home in Varmul district.
Two Jaish-e-Muhammad gunnies were killed in an shootout at Panchmulla Islamabad when joint units of army and Special Operations Group (SOG) conducted a raid.
Security forces also killed a gunny during search operations in Kupwara.
Reports from Jammu said an SPO was killed by militants in Gandoh Doda.
Police recovered body of Bashir Ahmed Drabu. He had been kidnapped by unidentified gunmen a few days back.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
