Jihad murder videos big sellers in Pakistan

Jihad murder videos big sellers in Pakistan

FEATURE-Pakistani jihadi videos thrive on execution scenes

30 Apr 2006 01:08:22 GMT

Source: Reuters
By Arshad Sharif ISLAMABAD For less than a dollar apiece, some VCDs glorify the exploits of al Qaeda and Taliban fighters, promise 72 heavenly virgins for prospective suicide bombers and prescribe beheadings for informers. Musharraf has banned several militant organisations since 2002, and just last year he launched yet another campaign against groups stirring sectarian violence between Pakistan's majority Sunni Muslims and minority Shi'ites. "Spread the message of Jihad in every street.", April 30 (Reuters) - The movie salesman was selling jihad to the converted. The buyers thronging his stall on the sidelines of a late-night rally in the Pakistani capital belonged to a crowd organised by a sectarian Sunni Muslim group. "This is the latest video of the beheadings," he told his customers, as they pored over titles including "Slaughter of Americans in Iraq", "Slaughter of Traitors in Afghanistan" and "Taliban Celebrations". In Pakistan, compelled to join a U.S.-led global war on terrorism after al Qaeda's Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the United States, anger has risen over what many see as an attempt by the West to suppress Muslims around the world. But that is only part of the story. Pakistan is also locked in a long struggle with its own demons, particularly sectarian violence that has killed thousands. Three weeks ago, a suicide bomber killed at least 57 people at a prayer meeting in Karachi celebrating the birth of the Prophet Mohammad. At the other end of the country, in the Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan, the toll from weeks of fighting between security forces and pro-Taliban and al Qaeda tribesmen pushed towards 300. The video seller didn't have the latest action from the conflict on the Afghan border, but he had something just as gruesome. "This one is about the activities of mujahideen in Waziristan and Afghanistan," the seller said. Dated in December, and supposedly shot in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, it had footage of hangings ordered by influential militant clerics. The bodies of the hanged men, described as criminals and bandits, were then dragged through the streets by pick-up trucks, in a grisly demonstration of rough justice in an area where the civil administration has, according to tribesmen, collapsed.
HEAVENLY VIRGINS "The commentary in them makes no bones about who is producing them -- they are Pakistani Talibs," said Samina Ahmed, the Islamabad-based director of the International Crisis Group's South Asia project. There are also training films on how to run a guerrilla war, based on Islamist militants fighting the Russian army in Chechnya. Messages in the films put Presidents George W. Bush, Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan and Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan at the top of a hit list for would-be assassins in a war against what are described as the American "crusader forces". But some, such as Sipah-e-Sahaba (Soldiers of Companions of the Prophet), keep bouncing back, although they seem to be getting less space to put their message across. The group organised the recent late-night rally in Islamabad but under another name.
BAD FOR BUSINESS Irfan Ali runs an Islamic bookshop in Karachi and says Musharraf's policies since Sept. 11, 2001, have definitely been bad for business. "The fact is our business was doing very well when we were selling jihadi literature," Ali lamented. "Now our sales have come down drastically." The owner of another bookshop in Karachi said such material could always be arranged for trusted customers. "Jihadi literature, cassettes and VCDs are still available but you will not find it openly. This business has gone underground. It is only sold to known acquaintances or reliable people," he said. That said, it is not too hard to find the leader of one of the most feared militant groups in Pakistan. His message of radical Islam can be heard outside a number of well-known mosques. Maulana Masood Azhar, head of Jaish-i-Mohammad, has kept a low profile for some time because of pressure from Pakistan's security apparatus, according to some analysts. But outside Islamabad's Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, his voice blares out from speakers from among the stalls selling perfumes, skull caps, religious texts, cassettes and videos after Friday prayers. "Curse on the face of the Americans ... Mullah Omar and Osama are the light of our eyes. Whoever tries to steal this light, we will rob them of their peace," Azhar shouts. Not all Pakistani preachers of militant jihad are such shadowy figures. Some are members of the National Assembly, representatives of Islamist parties that form the largest opposition block. Maulana Mairaj-ud-Din, a legislator from South Waziristan, is captured on a video titled "Ghadaran", or Traitors, inciting tribesmen to take up arms for the cause.

US disallows direct flights from Pakistan

US disallows direct flights from Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: American aviation authorities have disallowed direct flights to the US from Pakistan quoting “inappropriate” security arrangements at the country’s airports, officials said. Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authorities (CAA) reviewed security arrangements in light of the concerns expressed by US authorities. The CAA and officials from Pakistan International Airlines, (PIA) confirmed the report to the Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. “We have started direct flights to Toronto (Canada), but US authorities are not giving us permission and are saying that we should continue to operate flights via Manchester,” a PIA official said. US embassy official Peter Kowach in Islamabad confirmed the reports but refused to comment. Online

US planes violate Pak airspace

US planes violate Pak airspace

Mohmand Agency (Sana) - Four American fighter planes intruded into Pakistani airspace at 12noon and kept flying for hours over the border village Plusy.
The planes hovered over a primary school building, spreading panic among the people. During the incursion, the residents of the area rushed for shelter. Pakistani forces, however, did not retaliate on this violation. No official comment was immediately available.
Afghan forces, the other day, violated Pakistani territorial jurisdiction in Bargua and Zooma areas. The over-drunk Afghan troops, tried twice to hoist their flag in Pakistani area. The Afghans opened fire on Pakistani forces when were stopped. They were, however, forced to retreat when security forces retaliated. An Afghan jeep was also damaged during the counter attack.

Pakistan facing Mexican-style financial crunch

Pakistan facing Mexican-style financial crunch

* Former WB vice-president points to nation’s current account deficit, ‘excessive’ speculative business activity and weak banking system

WASHINGTON: A former World Bank vice-president warned here that Pakistan was facing symptoms that preceded the Mexican financial crisis more than 10 years ago.

Shahid Javed Burki, who was in charge of the bank’s Latin American division when Mexico was hit by the crisis in 1994, cited the South Asian nation’s large current account deficit and what he called excessive speculative business activity and weak banking system.

“When I look at all these things that preceded the Mexican crisis, I can see all of them present in Pakistan today,” he told State Bank of Pakistan Governor Shamshad Akhtar at a Washington forum on Monday. “But I’m not saying it is likely to happen” in Pakistan, he said.

“So, essentially what I am saying to you is: It would be, I think, prudent on your part to worry about the worst case scenario,” Burki told the SBP chief, who is only three months into her job.

Akhtar, the first woman ever to head Pakistan’s central bank, replied that she was aware of the “downside risks” mentioned by Burki as well as the threat posed by inflationary pressures and escalating crude oil prices that could worsen the country’s trade deficit.

She said the country was already under a “monetary tightening phase” and that central bank and the national economic management team were monitoring the situation very closely. “Further escalation in oil prices could endanger the fragile balance that currently prevails between budget management and trade deficit. We have to walk a very tight rope,” she added.

Akhtar, a former senior official of the Asian Development Bank, said the overall medium term outlook for the Pakistani economy “is on track” based on an average economic growth of around 6.5 percent.

“I like to believe we do have the opportunity to make a difference along with my economic management team. The general view we have in the team is we would like to closely watch the situation almost on a week to week, and month to month basis and see what policy responses we can take,” she said.

Burki, citing what he called a “casino culture” prevailing in Pakistan which he said was fuelled by easy credit extended by banks, disputed an assessment by Akhtar that Pakistani banks were in a reasonably good shape. He said “one particular bank gave me some numbers which I find them horrifying in terms of their exposure to weak assets.” He hoped it was “not representative of the entire banking sector.”

Burki said after the forum that speculative business activity in Pakistan was “being financed by the banks which are doing it on the basis of not enough reflection on their long term health - which is what I saw in Mexico. “If these things go sour then it will be a very quick snowballing effect,” he said, adding that Pakistan’s relatively fixed exchange rate system was also under pressure.

Pakistan’s central bank has cut its year to June 2006 economic growth forecast to 6.0-6.6 percent, saying it was due to a sharp tail off in manufacturing and agriculture. Inflation is likely to remain at the projected 8.0 percent target, the bank said in December.

The 1994 economic crisis in Mexico was triggered by the sudden devaluation of the peso. A week or so of intense currency crisis was stabilised when US President Bill Clinton decided to grant Mexico a loan to bail the country out, to the tune of 50 billion dollars. AFP

Pakistan-born wrote terror manual, court told in Sydney

Pakistan-born wrote terror manual, court told in Sydney
SYDNEY, April 24: A Pakistani-born architect accused of plotting to bomb Sydney’s power grid and other sites wrote a “terrorism manual” and inquired about chemicals used in home-made bombs, a court heard on Monday.

On the first day of his trial, prosecutors told the Supreme Court in Sydney that Faheem Khalid Lodhi, 36, plotted to bomb Sydney’s electricity grid and various defence sites in October 2003.

The indictment said Lodhi, who denied four counts of preparing to commit a terrorist act, had “the intent of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause, namely violent jihad”.

Prosecutors have previously linked Lodhi, also known as Abu Hamza, to Frenchman Willie Brigitte, who was deported from Australia in late 2003 and has been accused in a leaked French intelligence dossier of planning a terrorist attack “of great size”.

Both Lodhi and Brigitte are alleged to have trained with Lashkar-i-Taiba, a militant group that Australia has banned as a terrorist organisation.

The court heard that Lodhi used a false name to buy two maps of the Australian electricity supply system and downloaded from the internet 38 aerial photographs of several military barracks.

Prosecutor Richard Maidment told the court that “fortunately, by late October 2003, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation... had got wind of some of the suspect’s activities and effectively disrupted his preparations”.

A search of Lodhi’s home and office found 15 pages Lodhi wrote which “could only be fairly described as a terrorism manual for the manufacture of home-made poisons, explosives, detonators and incendiary devices,” Mr Maidment said.

Lodhi had also used a false business name and address to inquire about chemicals capable of being used to make home-made explosives, the court was told.—AFP

Pakistani-American Georgia Tech students arrested for terrorism

AP: FBI Says 2 in Ga. Plotted Terrorism


Friday April 21, 2006 8:16 PM

By GIOVANNA DELL'ORTO

Associated Press Writer

ATLANTA (AP) - A 21-year-old Georgia Tech student and another man traveled to Canada to meet with Islamic extremists to discuss ``strategic locations in the United States suitable for a terrorist strike,'' according to an affidavit made public Friday.

Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, both U.S. citizens who grew up in the Atlanta area, met with at least three other targets of ongoing FBI terrorism investigations during a trip to Canada in March 2005, the FBI agent's affidavit said.

The affidavit said the men discussed attacks against oil refineries and military bases and planned to travel to Pakistan to get military training at a terrorist camp, which authorities said Ahmed then tried to do.

Ahmed, who was indicted on suspicion of giving material support of terrorism, was being held at an undisclosed location. The indictment was returned under seal on March 23 and unsealed by the court Thursday.

Ahmed's court-appointed attorney, Jack Martin, did not return messages left seeking comment.

Sadequee, 19, who is accused of making materially false statements in connection with an ongoing federal terrorism investigation, was arrested in Bangladesh and was en route to New York City to be arraigned.

``There is no imminent threat,'' said FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko, a spokesman in Washington.

Authorities said the two men spent several days in Canada, where they met with others being investigated by the terrorism task force.

Sadequee is accused of lying about the trip when he was interviewed at John F. Kennedy International Airport in August as he was about to leave for Bangladesh. The affidavit said Sadequee had said he had traveled alone in January to visit an aunt.

One day later, federal agents interviewed Ahmed, who was coming back from a monthlong trip to Pakistan, at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. He said he had gone to Toronto with Sadequee, according to the affidavit.

Student held on terror charge

From: Reuters
April 22, 2006
US AUTHORITIES in the southern state of Georgia have charged a 21-year-old engineering student at Georgia Tech in Atlanta with supporting terrorism.

An indictment returned by a grand jury on March 23 and unsealed on Thursday said that for the past year Syed Haris Ahmed had attempted to provide and conspired with others to provide material support and resources for acts of international terrorism, the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia said in a statement.
"The indictment is the first public result of an extensive and ongoing terrorism investigation...," said US Attorney David Nahmias in the statement. "The case against Mr. Ahmed is serious and involves national security, and it will be prosecuted with that in mind."

The US attorney's office said he was being held at an undisclosed location because of the nature of the offence and did not provide further details.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper reported on Friday that the FBI believed Ahmed, a mechanical engineering major at Georgia Institute of Technology, attended a training camp in Pakistan last year. His family, who immigrated from Pakistan in 1997, said he went there to attend a religious school Rolling Eyes , the paper added.

It said another person from the Atlanta area, 19-year-old Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, had been arrested in Bangladesh and was being flown to New York to face charges there.

Militants kill 7 Pakistani troopers in ambush

Militants kill 7 Pakistani troopers in ambush

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pro-Taliban militants killed at least seven Pakistani paramilitary troopers and wounded 26 in an ambush on Thursday in a troubled tribal region bordering Afghanistan, officials said.

Intelligence officials said five militants were believed to have been killed in a counter-attack after the military convoy the troopers were travelling in came under fire as it passed through a village in the mountains near Miranshah, the main town of the North Waziristan region bordering Afghanistan.

"Seven security personnel were martyred and 26 wounded," interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao told Reuters.

Residents said they saw helicopter gunships in the area after the ambush, and intelligence officials said five militants were killed but the bodies were carried away by their comrades.

Waziristan has been the scene of fierce battles between Islamist militants and security forces over the past two years. More than 250 people have been killed in clashes in recent weeks.

Many al Qaeda militants and their Taliban allies fled to Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt after they were chased out of Afghanistan by U.S.-backed forces in 2001.

Taliban killed 150 pro-govt Maliks in Pakistan

Taliban killed 150 pro-govt Maliks

By Zulfiqar Ghuman

ISLAMABAD: Taliban forces have so far killed 150 pro-government tribal Maliks in the North and South Waziristan Agencies and are openly challenging the writ of the government by engaging a number of security forces’ personnel in the area, the federal cabinet was told on Wednesday, sources told Daily Times.

US delivers message to Musharraf: Tribal areas of NWFP will be bombed

How the North-West can be won?

Are the Americans poised to go the whole distance in their search for 'terrorists'? The NWFP government is worried that this may be the case

By Behroz Khan


The news is quite disturbing for the people and the governmnet of the NWFP; it has been reported that the United States has warned that it will bomb any part of the province in pursuit of 'terrorists'.

The warning, it is said, was conveyed to the NWFP governor, Khalilur Rehman and of course to the chief minister, Akram Khan Durrani, by none other than President General Pervez Musharraf himself at a meeting in Islamabad. The tone of the message, an insider tells TNS, is tantamount to bullying.

"The president told the governor and chief minister that Americans have warned that those who are hiding in the Frontier and elsewhere will be bombed out," a source privy to the meeting revealed, requesing anonymity. The warning left the president angry as well as concerned, the source added, saying this could be an epilogue to increased target hitting by umanned Drones on Pakistani territory.

Apart from killing Commander Nek Muhammad in South Waziristan Agency, the US planes have targeted two suspected terrorist hideouts in Miramshah and Mirali areas of North Waziristan and Damadola in Bajaur Agency over the past few months. In Miramshah, all the victims turned out to be local tribesmen while mystery shrouds the president's claim that Hamza Rabia, al-Qaeda's No-3, was killed in a raid on Khisokhel village in Mirali sub-division of North Waziristan. Sources, having links with militant groups active in the tribal belt and across the border in Afghanistan, deny the claim.

Similarly, claims by the American media and Pakistani authorities that al-Qaeda's No-2, Aiman Al-Zawahiri, was the target of the air strike in Damadola, or that top al-Qaeda operatives have actually been killed, are still to be verified.

The clergy-led government in the Frontier, already on the defensive over its silence on military operations in tribal areas and US air strikes, is taking the new warning as a declaration of open war. Confirming that President Pervez Musharraf has informed him of the new dangers ahead, Akram Khan Durrani has said that the US has warned to go after the so-called 'terrorists' even in the settled areas of NWFP, if the attacks against the Americans and their allies continued in the neighbouring Afghanistan.

"What use is our strong defence if we cannot defend our innocent people against such naked aggression," said Durrani when approached for comments regarding the fresh US warnings. The US authorities, official sources said, are of the opinion that extremists and terrorists take shelter in the tribal areas along the Pak-Afghan border and parts of NWFP after carrying out terrorist attacks in the eastern and southern provinces of Afghanistan. Pakistani nationals have been identified carrying out suicide bombings and fighting the US and allied forces in Afghanistan.

"This is a conspiracy against Pakistan. The US believes that bombing can unite the Pashtuns on both sides of the Durand Line," said Durrani, adding that by doing so the Americans are making more enemies than friends.

In the wake of the warning, Pakistani officials foresee that the US air strikes against 'terrorists' might be more severe than the ones carried out in North Waziristan and Bajaur agencies. "The US action will not be limited to the tribal or border areas this time. It will engulf the whole of NWFP and even beyond," the sources said.

The president, a source said, actually read out the exact words sent to Islamabad by the US government. The president has directed the federal government and the NWFP governor to go after these extremists in the tribal belt while the MMA-led provincial government has been asked to make sincere efforts in identifying extremists and those who support them in the province, the source said.

At the same time, President Musharraf has questioned the validity of the list of wanted Taliban leaders that Kabul believes to be residing in Pakistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has handed over the list to Islamabad as Kabul asks Pakistan to do 'more' to stop cross border infiltration and to destroy hideouts of the Taliban and other extremists operating from Pakistan in Afghanistan.

Sources in intelligence agencies say religious seminaries and places of worship would be kept under strict watch and activities of hardline religious leaders monitored regularly. Already, extremist elements are being blamed and tracked down for explosions in the southern districts of the province and for encouraging mass uprising against the government policies in northern districts of NWFP. Swat and Dir districts are in the grip of a certain kind of preachers these days where the easily installed FM radios enable clerics to air their messages without much hassle.

Intelligence agencies as well as tribal sources believe that a sizeable number of the local Taliban and foreign nationals have moved out of the tribal areas and are believed to be hiding in settled districts of the province.

Independent economists forecast below 6% GDP growth

Independent economists forecast below 6% GDP growth

By Fida Hussain

ISLAMABAD: The missed targets of major crops and the lower growth of industrial sector could deprive the country of achieving the desired GDP growth of seven percent, as independent economists are forecasting the real growth something below six percent in the current financial year.

“The government must be jubilant if the GDP growth touches six percent against the last year’s achieved growth of 8.4 percent,” most economists in the private sector are of the view.

They have informed the government that the situation has changed considerably this fiscal, where the estimated cotton crop size could be around 13 million bales against the last year’s achieved production of 14.6 million bales. There is a difference of 1.6 million bales in cotton production this year and what was achieved in the last fiscal, an economist, who asked not to be named, told the Daily Times.

Similarly, the estimated wheat production could be around 20.4 million tons this fiscal against the last fiscal achieved production of 21.6 million tons, thus corresponding a decrease of 1.2 million tons. However, the ministry of food, agriculture and livestock (MINFAL) says that the projection of wheat size has been made on the basis of first estimates. Further estimates are coming in. The actual production of wheat would be known after the third estimates.

The GDP growth in the last fiscal was contributed by a 7.5 percent growth in agriculture, 15.4 percent in large-scale manufacturing (LSM) and 7.9 percent in the services sector. However, this fiscal the low output of cotton, though the second largest crop in the country’s history, has a direct bearing on the GDP growth. “Ours is agro-based economy. I would say that it is a cotton-based economy. The decline in cotton production has definitely a direct bearing on the growth,” said an economist.

This year the growth target for agriculture is 4.8 percent against the last year’s impressive achieved growth of 7.5 percent. If one analyzed the last year’s agricultural growth, it was only the bumper crop of cotton showing an increase of 45 percent over the 2003-04 production, which had pushed up the growth rate to 17.3 percent for major crops. This year the case is different as besides cotton the output of wheat and sugarcane is falling short of the target.

As far as the performance of the industrial sector is concerned, it gives a bleak picture in the current fiscal. The ministry of industries, production and special initiatives and the Federal Bureau of Statistics are giving different figures as far as the production in the LSM sector is concerned. Due to differences in the two, the government confirmed that figures for LSM production stand at less than six percent in the first three months of the current fiscal. Unlike the last fiscal, the Engineering Development Board has literally stopped publishing the LSM figures in its monthly bulletin. Overall, the LSM grew by 12.5 percent in the last fiscal while the growth target for the same in the current fiscal is 11 percent. The National Economic Council has already lowered the growth target for the current fiscal. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is also of the view that the real growth could be around 6.3-6.5 percent in the current fiscal. However, private sector experts are of the view that the ADB estimates have been made on assumption that the country would achieve a bumper wheat crop this fiscal.

$100m locomotives (made in China) can’t run in Pakistan

$100m locomotives can’t run in Pakistan

By Maryam Hussain

ISLAMABAD: An inquiry team constituted by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to investigate a $100million deal for the purchase of 69 locomotives from China has confirmed that top bosses of Pakistan Railways sanctioned the purchase even though the trains are too heavy for Pakistan’s railway tracks.

The 3,000-horsepower locomotives weigh 140 tonnes, but local tracks can withstand only up to 132 tonnes of weight and so the trains cannot be operated in Pakistan.

The deal with the Chinese firms, with suppliers credit of $100 million, was signed when General (r) Javed Ashraf Qazi was railways minister. Another retired general, Saeedul Zafar, was then chairman of Pakistan Railways and secretary at the Ministry of Railways.

The deal caused uproar in the Senate and after detailed discussions in the Public Accounts Committee, Prime Minister Aziz set up a team to investigate. The prime minister had originally asked former railways minister Dr Hafeez Sheikh to head the investigation team, but he declined. Dr Akram Sheikh, the deputy chairman for planning and development, was then appointed head of the investigating committee. The committee has reportedly finished its report and will soon submit its findings to the prime minister.

The disclosure that top railways bosses had sanctioned the deal despite the locomotives being unfit for Pakistani rail track came at the second meeting of the inquiry team. Railways Secretary Shakeel Durrani, Finance Member Javed Akthar Sheikh, Locomotives Managing Director Asad Saeed and Finance Ministry officials also attended the meeting.

According to documents made available to Daily Times, Dr Akram Sheikh was shocked when he was informed that railways bosses had not realised that the locomotives could not work on local tracks. Railways Secretary Durrani informed Sheikh that the Chinese locomotives could operate at a speed of 105-110 km per hour. However, from the operational point of view, this was not feasible since the railways system is not fit for trains operating at high speed.

Western companies lining up to buy Indian outsourcers.

Open Season On Outsourcers

More Western giants are snapping up Indian companies that specialize in back-office operations

Two years ago, many had written off tech services company Electronic Data Systems Corp. (EDS ) The Plano (Tex.) company had lost top clients because it lacked low-cost offshore capabilities, it faced deep financial trouble, and employee turnover was growing. Some even speculated that EDS might be taken out by an upstart outsourcer from India. But the company restructured, sacked its chief executive, and sold off noncore businesses. Now, instead of the hunted, it has become a hunter. On Apr. 3, EDS offered $380 million for 52% of MphasiS, a Bangalore software and back-office services company. If the deal goes through, EDS's staff in India will grow from 3,000 to 11,000. "MphasiS helps us play offensively in the markets we serve," says Stephen Heidt, an EDS vice-president. "It offers us capabilities that otherwise we'd have to develop ourselves."

Plenty of Western software and services companies are coming to a similar conclusion. On Mar. 20, Chicago printing giant R.R. Donnelley & Sons (RRD ), which has its own 2,000-employee back-office processing unit in India and Sri Lanka, acquired OfficeTiger LLC, a hot Indian analytics and accounting outsourcer, for $250 million. And last year, software house Oracle Corp. (ORCL ) paid $900 million for 61% of iflex solutions, a banking software company based in Bombay. "With outsourcing going mainstream worldwide, Western companies that want a global presence will be looking to acquire an India operation," says Sujay Chohan, researcher director for Gartner India. (IT )

INDIAN SUITORS
The industry expects all sorts of deals in coming months. IBM (IBM ), Capgemini, and electronics manufacturing and design giant Flextronics (FLEX ) have been scoping out potential targets, insiders say. And many Indian companies are looking for a marketing presence in the West in order to grow, while some of the country's early outsourcing entrepreneurs are ready to cash out, which will likely create new buying opportunities. Dozens of small and midsize outfits in India might prove attractive to the industry's giants. Second-tier Indian companies such as Polaris Software Lab, Hexaware Technologies, Zensar Technologies, and Patni Computer Systems, and niche players like telecom software maker Sasken Communications Technologies and back-office providers EXL Service and Datamatics could be prime targets. Even some bigger outfits could be in play. Bombay's WNS Global Services, a $200 million-plus company that specializes in clerical work for travel and insurance companies, is planning an initial public offering this year, but could also end up being taken over. "Either you are a billion-dollar business, or a really smart company, or you're up for grabs," says Sunil Mehta, vice-president of software association Nasscom.

The dealmaking is part of a broader consolidation of the info tech services industry. On Apr. 4, for instance, El Segundo (Calif.)-based Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) (CSC ) announced it was putting itself up for sale after struggling to rein in expenses. Providers need huge scale and low costs to compete for the multiyear, $1 billion-plus outsourcing contracts multi-nationals are offering in areas such as accounting, human resources, and research. In recent years, industry leaders such as IBM, Accenture, and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ ) have add-ed thousands of workers in India, but other players failed to see the opportunity. IBM, for instance, three years ago bought New Delhi call center operator Daksh for $150 million, and now has 38,500 employees in India. "We started late in terms of leveraging capabilities in India, but others were even slower," says Amitabh Ray, IBM's business consulting chief. "EDS, CSC, and others are just getting started."

Foreigners won't be the only ones buying. Genpact, the world's largest offshore back-office player, which is 40%-owned by General Electric Co. (GE ) but headquartered in New Delhi, could benefit from acquiring a company such as WNS to diversify its client base since it currently gets 85% of its work from GE. Homegrown champions such as Infosys (INFY ), TCS, and Wipro (WIT ) will likely want to bulk up further and are making acquisitions in the West to better compete against multinationals. They're "feeling the heat from the aggressive expansion of global rivals like IBM into India," says Sudin Apte, country head of Forrester Research Inc. (FORR ) in India.

PREMIUM PRICES?
One concern will be price. The Indian stock market has jumped from one record high to another this year as investors seek to cash in on the country's potential growth. Infosys, for instance, is trading at more than 35 times its expected 2006 earnings, and MphasiS' stock has shot up 15% in the past month alone. Some dismiss such valuations as unjustifiable, but the pressure to get an offshore presence in India is so great that Western companies might seize the opportunity now and pay such high multiples for fear of finding themselves out of the running.

It seems there will be no shortage of potential work. About $70 billion worth of outsourcing contracts will be up for renewal over the next two years, and billions more in new contracts will be signed, according to Forrester. And the range of activities that companies are willing to ship offshore is growing. "The back-office processing space is wide open," says Sid Khanna, Accenture's global partner for outsourcing. "Many areas like legal outsourcing and architecture back-office work are in their infancy and will make good, solid businesses."

The EDS deal will give MphasiS a global partner that can market its services worldwide. The company, an early entrant in the business, has been struggling lately due to lack of a strong overseas presence, high attrition, and tensions between large investors, leaving MphasiS far behind larger rivals such as TCS and Wipro. EDS, meanwhile, will benefit from the Indian company's lower cost structure and its expertise in finance and accounting. And Heidt, the EDS vice-president, says MphasiS may be just the beginning. The Texas company has only 3,000 workers in India without counting MphasiS. But Heidt says EDS had planned to double that number this year, and ultimately may end up with 20% of its global workforce of 120,000 outside of the U.S., a goal that could be met either by organic growth or acquisition. "We continue to look for stuff that fits our needs," Heidt says.

Others surely will do the same. And increasingly, the stars of the global outsourcing industry are likely to find that fit with companies in India.


By Manjeet Kripalani, with Steve Hamm in New York

SSP(Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan) rally in Islamabad: (sold video compact discs of the beheadings of American soldiers in Iraq)

SSP vows to establish caliphate worldwide

* Around 5,000 SSP activists rally in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: Activists of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) vowed to establish a global caliphate, beginning with Pakistan.

In a rally attended by thousands of activists of the banned group to commemorate the birth of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) on Friday, leaders of the SSP called for an Islamic theocracy in Pakistan. “The concept of nation state is an obstacle in the way of the establishment of Khilafat. We will start the establishment of Khilafat in Pakistan and then will do so across the world,” said Zaheerul Islam Abbasi, a former general who was sacked and arrested in 1995 for trying to topple the government of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Activists distributed pamphlets in Islamabad preaching jihad and hatred against Shias, as their leaders delivered fiery speeches to a crowd of around 5,000 late on Thursday.

They also sold video compact discs of the beheadings of American soldiers in Iraq, and militant activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan at the rally, which they said was convened to celebrate the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) this month. One of the organisers thanked the Islamabad administration for allowing the rally, which was held under floodlights in a bus depot, with hundreds of riot police watching on. SSP is known to have close links with Jaish-e-Mohammad, a militant group fighting in Indian-occupied Kashmir and with links to Al Qaeda.

Some of the crowd briefly chanted anti-Shia slogans, until they were told to refrain by their leaders. They also swore allegiance to their late leader, Maulana Azam Tariq, a fiery pro-Taliban cleric who was assassinated in Islamabad in 2003, and founder of the organisation Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, who was killed in 1980s.

Last July, President Pervez Musharraf ordered a major crackdown against clerics and organisations inciting sectarian violence. The SSP was banned by the government in 2002.

The SSP has often been blamed for violence against Shias, planting bombs in mosques or attacking religious processions. Thousands of people have been killed in tit-for-tat attacks by militants from the two sects over the past 20 years. Most of the victims are Shias, who account for about 15 percent of Pakistan’s predominantly Sunni Muslim population of 150 million.

On Thursday, a prominent Shia Muslim cleric narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in Karachi after his car was hit by a remote-controlled bomb Authorities have launched several crackdowns on militant outfits since Pakistan joined a US-led war on terrorism in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States, but critics say that the steps taken have been half-hearted and many groups have resurfaced under new names.

Like other groups, SSP remerged under the new name of Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan.

Founded in the 1980s, SSP wants Pakistan to be officially declared a Sunni Muslim state.

It had recently been reported in the press that the government might relax some restrictions on the group and allow it to commence political activities in a “very low profile”. Reuters

U.S. Military Secrets for Sale at Afghan Bazaar(including documents blaming Pakistan for supporting the taliban)

U.S. Military Secrets for Sale at Afghan Bazaar

By Paul Watson
Times Staff Writer

April 10, 2006

BAGRAM, Afghanistan — No more than 200 yards from the main gate of the sprawling U.S. base here, stolen computer drives containing classified military assessments of enemy targets, names of corrupt Afghan officials and descriptions of American defenses are on sale in the local bazaar.

Shop owners at the bazaar say Afghan cleaners, garbage collectors and other workers from the base arrive each day offering purloined goods, including knives, watches, refrigerators, packets of Viagra and flash memory drives taken from military laptops. The drives, smaller than a pack of chewing gum, are sold as used equipment.

The thefts of computer drives have the potential to expose military secrets as well as Social Security numbers and other identifying information of military personnel.

A reporter recently obtained several drives at the bazaar that contained documents marked "Secret." The contents included documents that were potentially embarrassing to Pakistan, a U.S. ally, presentations that named suspected militants targeted for "kill or capture" and discussions of U.S. efforts to "remove" or "marginalize" Afghan government officials whom the military considered "problem makers."

The drives also included deployment rosters and other documents that identified nearly 700 U.S. service members and their Social Security numbers, information that identity thieves could use to open credit card accounts in soldiers' names.

After choosing the name of an army captain at random, a reporter using the Internet was able to obtain detailed information on the woman, including her home address in Maryland and the license plate numbers of her 2003 Jeep Liberty sport utility vehicle and 1998 Harley Davidson XL883 Hugger motorcycle.

Troops serving overseas would be particularly vulnerable to attempts at identity theft because keeping track of their bank and credit records is difficult, said Jay Foley, co-executive director of the Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego.

"It's absolutely absurd that this is happening in any way, shape or form," Foley said. "There's absolutely no reason for anyone in the military to have that kind of information on a flash drive and then have it out of their possession."

A flash drive also contained a classified briefing about the capabilities and limitations of a "man portable counter-mortar radar" used to find the source of guerrilla mortar rounds. A map pinpoints the U.S. camps and bases in Iraq where the sophisticated radar was deployed in March 2004.

Lt. Mike Cody, a spokesman for the U.S. forces here, declined to comment on the computer drives or their content.

"We do not discuss issues that involve or could affect operational security," he said.

Workers are supposed to be frisked as they leave the base, but they have various ways of deceiving guards, such as hiding computer drives behind photo IDs that they wear in holders around their necks, shop owners said. Others claim that U.S. soldiers illegally sell military property and help move it off the base, saying they need the money to pay bills back home.

Bagram base, the U.S. military's largest in Afghanistan and a hub for classified military activity, has suffered security lapses before, including an escape from a detention center where hundreds of Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects have been held and interrogated.

Last July, four Al Qaeda members, including the group's commander in Southeast Asia, Omar Faruq, escaped from Bagram by picking the lock on their cell. They then walked off the base, ditched their prison uniforms and fled through a muddy vineyard.

The men later boasted of their escape on a video and have not been captured. The military said it had tightened security at Bagram after the breakout.

One of the computer drives stolen from Bagram contained a series of slides prepared for a January 2005 briefing of American military officials that identified several Afghan governors and police chiefs as "problem makers" involved in kidnappings, the opium trade and attacks on allied troops with improvised bombs.

The chart showed the U.S. military's preferred methods of dealing with the men: "remove from office; if unable marginalize."

A chart dated Jan. 2, 2005, listed five Afghans as "Tier One Warlords." It identified Afghanistan's former defense minister Mohammed Qassim Fahim, current military chief of staff Abdul Rashid Dostum and counter-narcotics chief Gen. Mohammed Daoud as being involved in the narcotics trade. All three have denied committing crimes.

Another slide presentation identified 12 governors, police chiefs and lower-ranking officials that the U.S. military wanted removed from office. The men were involved in activities including drug trafficking, recruiting of Taliban fighters and active support for Taliban commanders, according to the presentation, which also named the military's preferred replacements.

The briefing said that efforts against Afghan officials were coordinated with U.S. special operations teams and must be approved by top commanders as well as military lawyers who apply unspecified criteria set by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

The military also weighs any ties that any official has to President Hamid Karzai and members of his Cabinet or warlords, as well as the risk of destabilization when deciding which officials should be removed, the presentation said.

One of the men on the military's removal list, Sher Mohammed Akhundzada, was replaced in December as governor of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. After removing him from the governor's office, Karzai appointed Akhundzada to Afghanistan's Senate. The U.S. military believed the governor, who was caught with almost 20,000 pounds of opium in his office last summer, to be a heroin trafficker.

The provincial police chief in Helmand, Abdul Rahman Jan, whom U.S. forces suspect of providing security for narcotics shipments, kept his job.

Though U.S. officials continue to praise Pakistan as a loyal ally in the war on terrorism, several documents on the flash drives show the military has struggled to break militant command and supply lines traced to Pakistan. Some of the documents also accused Pakistan's security forces of helping militants launch cross-border attacks on U.S. and allied forces.

Militant attacks on U.S. and allied forces have escalated sharply over the last half year, and once-rare suicide bombings are now frequent, especially in southern Afghan provinces close to infiltration routes from Pakistan.

A document dated Oct. 11, 2004, said at least two of the Taliban's top five leaders were believed to be in Pakistan. That country's government and military repeatedly have denied that leaders of militants fighting U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan operate from bases in Pakistan.

The Taliban leaders in Pakistan were identified as Mullah Akhtar Osmani, described as a "major Taliban facilitator for southern Afghanistan" and a "rear commander from Quetta" in southwest Pakistan, and Mullah Obaidullah, said to be "responsible for planning operations in Kandahar."

At the time, fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, his second-in-command Mullah Berader, and three other top Taliban commanders were all suspected of being in southern or central Afghanistan, according to the military briefing.

Another document said the Taliban and an allied militant group were working with Arab Al Qaeda members in Pakistan to plan and launch attacks in Afghanistan. A map presented at a "targeting meeting" for U.S. military commanders here on Jan. 27, 2005, identified the Pakistani cities of Peshawar and Quetta as planning and staging areas for terrorists heading to Afghanistan.

One of the terrorism groups is identified by the single name "Zawahiri," apparently a reference to Ayman Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's deputy and chief strategist in Al Qaeda. The document said his attacks had been launched from a region south of Miram Shah, administrative capital of Pakistan's unruly North Waziristan tribal region.

In January, a CIA missile strike targeted Zawahiri in a village more than 100 miles to the northeast, but he was not among the 18 killed, who included women and children.

Other documents on the computer drives listed senior Taliban commanders and "facilitators" living in Pakistan. The Pakistani government strenuously denies allegations by the Afghan government that it is harboring Taliban and other guerrilla fighters.

An August 2004 computer slide presentation marked "Secret" outlined "obstacles to success" along the border and accused Pakistan of making "false and inaccurate reports of border incidents." It also complained of political and military inertia in Pakistan.

Half a year later, other documents indicated that little progress had been made. A classified document from early 2005 listing "Target Objectives" said U.S. forces must "interdict the supply of IEDs (improvised explosive devices) from Pakistan" and "interdict infiltration routes from Pakistan."

A special operations task force map highlighting militants' infiltration routes from Pakistan in early 2005 included this comment from a U.S. military commander: "Pakistani border forces [should] cease assisting cross border insurgent activities."

US government worried about Pakistan's nukes. Has plans to secure them.

Pakistan's bombs a dilemma for U.S.

Embattled ally's nuclear arms heighten risks

Friday, April 07, 2006

By David Wood

Newhouse News Service

WASHINGTON -- While the United States struggles to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions, a more frightening nightmare is simmering right now in Pakistan, where a weak but nuclear-armed government is being buffeted by radical Islamic influences, terrorism and several bloody insurgencies.

Among all the perils the United States faces, "Pakistan is the most horrific and the hardest one to do anything about," said Charles Furguson, a senior nuclear proliferation expert at the Council on Foreign Relations who served as a naval officer on a nuclear missile submarine.

The United States does not have enough troops to speedily and simultaneously "lock down" all of Pakistan's nuclear weapons sites if that became necessary because of civil strife, an attempted coup or a terrorist attack, officials and outside analysts said.

The president's only option might be nuclear -- a desperate attempt to destroy Pakistan's weapons rather than risk their falling into terrorists' hands and ultimately detonating in an American city.

Time a big factor

"To date we don't have anything that can get there quickly, except for a nuclear weapon," Assistant Defense Secretary Peter Flory told a panel of the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 29. He was speaking generally about targeting terrorists possessing nuclear weapons, not about Pakistan in particular.

By "quickly," officials mean one to four hours. "For that small, highly important set of targets . . . a goal we have set is to be able to address those targets in one hour anyplace" with ballistic missiles, Marine Gen. James Cartwright, who commands all U.S. strategic missiles and bombers, told the senators.

Pakistan's loss of control over some or all of its nuclear weapons has been quietly discussed and war-gamed at senior levels in the Defense Department. But given the political sensitivity of discussing possible armed intervention in an allied country, Pentagon officials declined to answer questions. A spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Tracy O'Grady-Walsh, said, "Unclassified answers do not exist."

Though Pakistan is considered a close ally in the war on terrorism, its military and secret intelligence service have worked closely with radical Islamic insurgents operating in Kashmir, and with al-Qaida and the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan before Sept. 11, 2001. Starting that fall, the United States began using Pakistan as a major base for the war in Afghanistan and demanded that Pakistan cut its ties with Islamic groups.

Delicate balancing act

Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, has tried since 2001 to gingerly rein in domestic Muslims who are violently opposed to Pakistan's cooperation with the United States. Musharraf's dilemma, analysts said, is to respond to U.S. pressure without provoking an open revolt.

Pakistan announced in May 1998 that it had successfully conducted five nuclear tests. It is thought to have between 30 and 52 nuclear bombs and missile warheads, according to data compiled by the Natural Resources Defense Council, a nonprofit research organization in Washington.

Pakistan is not as unstable as it sounds, said Ashley Tellis, who recently directed strategic planning for South Asia in the White House and was a senior adviser to the U.S. ambassador to India. The Pakistani military has tight control over its nuclear weapons and it is "highly unlikely" that anything could crack that control, said Tellis, who now works for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

But the risk must be considered, because failure would mean a "stealthy" terrorist nuclear attack on the United States, said John Gordon, a retired Army officer who is a strategic analyst at RAND Corp., a nonprofit think tank that works primarily for the Pentagon.

"If you fail to secure nuclear weapons in a country that may be torn by a civil war, coup attempt or insurgency, you fail massively," Gordon said.

Not up to task

According to analyses by operations experts, it would require tens of thousands of American troops to "kick in the door" and seize Pakistan's nuclear sites. The United States has neither the troops nor the airlift capacity to get to Pakistan within days, let alone the hours required in a crisis.

"We lack the military capability," said Bruce Nardulli, a specialist in ground warfare at RAND. "These sites would have to be brought down and secured, locked down, simultaneously, in the middle of a huge conflict and among a hostile population. You'd need an army much larger than what you have today."

Pakistan's nuclear weapons are believed to be kept, disassembled, at six separate missile and air bases. Other sites would have to be guarded in a crisis, including the nuclear reactor facility at Joharabad and the Kahuta uranium enrichment facility in northern Pakistan, which is believed to be producing plutonium.

Finding and securing such sites is a mission shared among the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the U.S. Special Operations Command and the U.S. Strategic Command under Cartwright. It requires fresh and precise intelligence, something the United States lacked in Iraq and elsewhere, U.S. officials acknowledge.

U.S. intervention could be complicated by opposition from elements of Pakistan's army, which is slightly larger than the U.S. Army. Pakistan's military is considered highly professional and well-equipped, and has well-developed air defenses that would make a U.S. air assault or paratroop landing risky.

"We'd be swallowed up in that country," said George Friedman, author of "America's Secret War" and founder of Strategic Forecasting Inc., a private intelligence firm.

"We'd have tremendous difficulty occupying it with speed, we'd have tremendous difficulty supplying our forces -- there are large cities and terrifically bad terrain, and we don't have enough troops," Friedman said.

"I can't think of a worse place to fight."

World Economic Forum Growth Competitiveness Index rankings(India 50, Pakistan 83)

Report here.

Economic growth may fall below 6 per cent

Economic growth may fall below 6 per cent

By Khaleeq Kiani


ISLAMABAD, April 5: Pakistan’s economic growth rate is likely to fall below six per cent during the current fiscal year against the budgetary target of seven per cent owing to a substantial shortfall in the agricultural output, it is learnt. “The country may not be able to achieve even six per cent growth rate if the estimates finalized by the federal committee on agriculture are correct,” said a senior government official.

He said the government had revised last month the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth rate to 6.5 per cent from the original target of seven per cent due to a reduction in expected share of major crops to 1.9 per cent instead of original 6.6 per cent, but now it seemed that even six per cent growth might not be realized.

The official said the GDP target was revised due to a reduction in cotton output target and factoring all other crops, but the government had expected to witness a bumper wheat crop. Wheat has a major share in GDP as it contributes over 13 per cent to value-added and about 3.2 per cent to country’s GDP.

He said that 20.5 million tons of wheat output meant that the share of value-added in agriculture would be zero and a definitely sizable impact on GDP. “One should ask the government as to what has been the outcome of support price,” a finance ministry official said.

A shortfall of about 1.5 million tons would have a significant impact on the growth rate, said the official but warned that it was just a first estimate and would be updated twice in May and June.

The finance ministry official questions the wheat output figures at 20.5 million tons on the ground that even two days ago the prime minister was informed about a bumper crop and resultantly price crash in Sindh. He said if the crop was not good, there was no need for the prime minister to announce: “If required, the government will buy the entire wheat crop and export the surplus.”

“There was no ‘magic disease’ that wiped out more than 1.5 million tons of wheat in just 24 hours,” the official said and added that economic targets might have to be revised after calculating the impact of wheat output.

He said the United States Department for Agriculture (USDA) last week had also predicted more than 21 million tons of wheat in Pakistan based on satellite imaginary of crops.

He said Minfal had deliberately understated the wheat output as a strategy to pre-empt collapse of wheat prices in Punjab where harvesting was to start by the end of this month. “If there was a shortfall of wheat, then why prices have declined in Sindh to Rs360-370 per 40 kg as against a support price of Rs415,” said an official at the Planning Commission.

He explained that wheat prices in Sindh crashed to Rs360 per 40 kg when the provincial authorities estimated the output between 2.8-3 million tons. The crop in Punjab was even better, he said.

The official said the ministry of food and agriculture was following a ‘price-centric policy’ which had met with complete failure.

He said historically, Pakistan’s wheat output had hovered around 19-20 million tons, and if there was a good rain in March, the output increased by one million tons.

He said last year the Minfal had set a target of 10.7 million bales of cotton, which was revised to 11.1 million bales, then 12.2 million bales, followed by 13.2 million bales and finally settled at 14.6 million bales. The cotton output estimates were gradually increased last year to maintain high prices of cotton. This year the same policy is being followed in wheat.

The government has been increasing the wheat support price for the last three years to encourage growers to bring more areas under cultivation but the result has been the same. “We will recommend to the prime minister to ask Minfal as to why the common man was forced to pay higher prices when the output did not increase, although wheat price was one of the major reasons behind the high inflation rate in the country.

Pakistan's actual reserves below 8 billion $

Actual reserves of SBP still below $8 billion

* SBP showing $1.2b deposits of foreign countries
* $500m from PTCL sell-off support the reserves

By Arshad Hussain

KARACHI: Despite the inflows of $4 billion in Pakistan during the last one year, the country’s actual foreign reserves stand below $8 billion this week.

“About three days back, the central bank has received a payment of $500 million against the sell-off of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) supporting the actual reserves to $8 billion,” a top banker said. “Before it, it was below $7.2 billion.”

Since 2000 the central bank has continuously been showing $1.2 billion deposits of Foreign Exchange Liabilities with the Pakistani government in its actual reserves. Sources in the banking sector claimed that such amount was a kind of support for the country, not the actual reserves.

There is another liability of $500 million of euro bonds in the country’s reserves, which have to be paid back. However, another $800 million 10-year and 30-year global bonds would come to the State Bank by the end of April this year.

The country’s total reserves had touched a all-time high at $13 billion in April 2005, but since then, the reserves are declining.

About two years back, the central bank had kept $3.2 billion country’s reserves with Europe, the UAE, the US and other countries to gain profit. “The State Bank is getting two percent profit per annum on such reserves, while the benchmark International LIBOR rates are moving around 5.2 percent per annum.”

“The lack of management is causing an approximate loss of $100 million per annum on the reserves deposited with foreign companies,” an official said.

After the second payments of $500 million against the sell-off of PTCL, the central bank’s reserves stand at $10.239 billion, the official said. The total reserves of the country are at $12.484 billion, while the banks have $2.245 billion. Of the total reserves held by the State Bank, around $1.2 billion are the deposits of foreign countries.

The country, during the last 12 months, has received an amount of $4 billion out of the privatization of the government entities and from international donor agencies.

Bankers claimed that the country’s reserves are declining only because of supporting rupee-dollar parity.

From April 1 2005 up to now, the greenback has appreciated by 71 paisas or 1.19 percent against the local currency. On April 1, 2005, the US currency was at Rs 59.38 for buying and today it stands at Rs 60.09.

The demand for the greenback is rising in the interbank market because of the rising trade gap to $7.4 billion in eight months, which was at $3 billion in the last full fiscal. The government in the last budget had given a target of above $21.79 billion while $17 billion for exports.

Market experts said the exports of the country would touch an all-time high this year to $18 billion and imports would be at $23 billion. Treasury officials claimed that the central bank is already short of $400 million to $500 million because of the forward buying. It is paying $350 million to $400 million against the oil import bills of the oil marketing companies.

“These huge payments for crude oil have disturbed the country’s reserves,” a banker said.

He said the reserves would further increase as the remaining payment of $1.2 billion for the PTCL sell-off has yet to come, while the country is still receiving donations for earthquake reconstruction activities. In the first quarter of 2004, the federal government had paid off above $1 billion of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to rid of its expensive loans.

Canda deports Pakistani terrorists for plannign to bomb a hindu temple

Canada deports men jailed for planning terrorist attack in 1990s

OTTAWA (CP) - Three men convicted of planning to bomb a Hindu temple in Toronto more than a decade ago were deported Wednesday under tight security.

The three members of Jammat ul-Fuqra, an extreme religious sect based in Pakistan, were arrested in October 1991 while attempting to enter Canada from the United States. Barry Adams, Amir Mohammed Ahmed and Abdul Baqqer were convicted in 1994 of conspiracy to bomb the temple and an East Indian movie theatre.

"They were sentenced to 12 years and immediately upon completion of their sentence were deported from Canada," Canada Border Services spokeswoman Anna Pape said Wednesday.

All three men had served their sentences in penitentiaries in the Kingston, Ont., area.

For security reasons, Pape would not divulge where the men were sent.

"Certainly in this case we've done our part to contribute towards safety and security for Canadians, from start to finish."

Jamaat ul-Fuqra seeks to purify Islam through violence, attacking Muslims its members regard as heretics as well as Hindus, according to the Federation of American Scientists, which tracks extremist groups.

Fuqra was established by Pakistani cleric Shaykh Mubarik Ali Gilani in the early 1980s.

Pakistani Government might allow Sipah-e-Sahaba activities

Government might allow Sipah-e-Sahaba activities

* Organisation must promise not to incite sectarian violence
* Millat-e-Islamia’s first public meeting on 6th

By Mohammad Imran

ISLAMABAD: The government might relax some restrictions on banned militant organisation Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and allow it to commence political activities in a “very low profile” under the name Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan, sources told Daily Times.

Sources said the decision was made after a recent meeting involving officials from law enforcement agencies, the National Crisis Management Cell and the Sipah. Officials have placed two major conditions on the Sipah to resume even low-key political activities, they said. “The government has stressed that the Sipah’s leaders cannot incite sectarian violence in any way nor abuse any person in a public meeting,” they added.

“Authorities decided to relax some restrictions on the Sipah after these assurances and allow it to restart political activities under the umbrella of Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan.”

Sources said Brig (r) Javed Iqbal Cheema, director general of the National Crisis Management Cell, had earlier arranged talks between the Sipah and Pakistan Islami Tehrik and security officials to stop sectarian violence. “The director general formed a committee consisting of six Sipah and Pakistan Islami Tehrik (PIT) members to set up a socially acceptable code of conduct for the organisations,” they added. “PIT members did not participate in the committee’s meeting and thus a decision wasn’t reached.”

After the committee’s failure, Dr Khadim Hussain Dhilon asked the president to allow the Sipah to restart political activities, sources said. They hinted that it was likely the government would not increase the duration of Millat-e-Islamia President Maulana Ahmed Ludhyanvi’s house arrest.

Millat-e-Islamia’s first public meeting will be held in Islamabad on April 6 and Ali Sher Haidry, patron-in-chief of the organisation, and Dr Khadim Hussain Dhilon will address participants.

Earlier termed Anjuman Sipah-e-Sahaba, the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) is a Sunni sectarian outfit that has been alleged to be involved in terrorist violence, primarily targeted against the minority Shia community in Pakistan. The outfit has also operated as a political party having contested elections and an SSP leader was a minister in the Coalition Government in Punjab in 1993. The SSP is one of the five outfits that have been proscribed by President Pervez Musharraf on January 12, 2002. The outfit is reported to have been renamed as Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan after the proscription.

SSP extremists have primarily operated in two ways: The first involves targeted killings of prominent opponent organisation activists. In the second, terrorists fire on worshippers in mosques operated by opposing sects.

American insurance carriers denying coverage or charging higher premiums to travel to Pakistan

Some life insurers deny coverage during overseas travel

By Stephen Singer, AP Business Writer | April 2, 2006

Bruce Ferguson, senior vice president of state relations for the American Council of Life Insurers, said travelers to countries considered dangerous have a higher mortality rate than others. "The question is how can we craft clear standards that allow life insurers to classify risks differently and in accordance with the risks they represent," he said.

Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and Pakistan are among more than two dozen nations considered hazardous by the State Department.

Saud Anwar, president of the Connecticut chapter of the Pakistani American Public Affairs Committee, asked Connecticut lawmakers to bar life insurance bans or higher premiums assessed to travelers to Pakistan.

Travel between the United States and Pakistan has increased in the last few years due to the south Asian nation's growing economy and humanitarian missions following the October 2005 earthquake, he said.

Insurers who determine that travelers to Pakistan are at greater risk are engaging in "lazy underwriting," he said.

Gallup poll: Favorability of Nations by Party Affiliation(India: 71% Republican, 62% democrat)

Republicans' Ratings of France up, but Still Lag Democrats' Republicans, Democrats rate Germany similarly for first time since 2003 by Joseph Carroll

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup's annual survey on World Affairs, conducted Feb. 6-9, finds that Republicans and Democrats differ in their views of a number of countries. Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to rate Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan, Taiwan, and Pakistan favorably, and Democrats are more likely than Republicans to rate France favorably. For the first time since the Iraq war began, Republicans and Democrats are now essentially even in their views of Germany. Ratings of France continue to improve among Republicans this year, but are still not back to pre-war levels. Favorable ratings of Iraq and Afghanistan are down among both party groups this year.

Overall Results

Republicans (including independents who lean toward the Republican Party) have significantly more positive views than Democrats (including Democratic-leaning independents) of a number of countries. The Republican-to-Democrat gap is largest in ratings of Israel (79% vs. 60%), Iraq (30% vs. 13%), Afghanistan (36% vs. 21%), Taiwan (73% vs. 62%), and Pakistan (36% vs. 25%). Republicans also view five other nations more favorably than do Democrats: India, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Great Britain, and the Philippines.

Democrats, meanwhile, are substantially more likely than Republicans to favorably rate France (64% vs. 45%).

Republicans and Democrats show little substantive difference in their ratings of 11 other nations measured in the poll -- Russia, Germany, Iran, Egypt, China, Libya, North Korea, Canada, Mexico, the Palestinian Authority, and Cuba.

For the most part, favorability gaps are small enough that majorities of Republicans and Democrats are in agreement in their views of each country. The major exception to this is France: 64% of Democrats view this country favorably, compared with 45% of Republicans.

Favorability of Nations by Party Affiliation Feb. 6-9, 2006
	Republicans (including leaners)	Democrats (including leaners)	Gap (Republicans minus Democrats)
	%	%
Israel	79	60	+19
Iraq	30	13	+17
Afghanistan	36	21	+15
Taiwan	73	62	+11
Pakistan	36	25	+11
India	71	62	+9
Saudi Arabia	36	27	+9
Japan	86	79	+7
Great Britain	92	86	+6
The Philippines	71	65	+6
Russia	61	57	+4
Germany	82	79	+3
Iran	9	6	+3
Egypt	59	59	0
China	44	45	-1
Libya	22	23	-1
North Korea	10	11	-1
Canada	89	92	-3
Mexico	64	67	-3
The Palestinian Authority	9	13	-4
Cuba	19	24	-5
France	45	64	-19

Partisan Views of Nations Changed in 2006

Democrats and Republicans alike downgraded their ratings of Germany and France in 2003, when the countries' leaders opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Germany has recovered its image among both party groups, while France continues to get lower ratings among Republicans.

Germany. Republicans rated Germany more favorably than did Democrats in 2001 and 2002 -- before the run-up to the Iraq war. But, Republicans' ratings of Germany plummeted to 37% about a week before the start of the war in 2003. Germany's favorable ratings also dropped among Democrats at that time, but only to 61%. In 2004 and 2005, ratings of Germany rebounded among both Republicans and Democrats, but Republicans continued to view Germany less favorably than did Democrats in both surveys. In 2006, Republicans and Democrats are essentially even in their views of Germany.

France. Republicans' and Democrats' views of France essentially did not differ in 2001 and 2002. Favorable views of France dropped substantially among both groups in early 2003, as France opposed the impending invasion of Iraq, but much more so among Republicans than Democrats. France's favorable ratings improved among both groups in 2004 and 2005. The latest poll shows no change in Democrats' views of France from last year, but an 11-point increase among Republicans, from 34% to 45%.

Iraq. Few Americans rated Iraq favorably prior to the start of the Iraq war. In 2004, after the invasion by U.S. and British troops and the capture of Saddam Hussein, Iraq's ratings increased among both party groups, with a 23-point increase for Republicans and a 9-point increase for Democrats. Republicans' favorable ratings of Iraq jumped again in 2005, from 28% to 41%, but there was essentially no change in Democrats' views in that period. Ratings of Iraq are down among both groups this year, but more so among Republicans (from 41% to 31%) than among Democrats (from 19% to 13%).

Afghanistan. In 2002 and 2003, Gallup found only slight partisan variations in views of Afghanistan. Favorable ratings of Afghanistan increased among Republicans in 2004, from 26% to 36%, while they remained unchanged among Democrats that year. In 2005, ratings increased among both groups, with nearly half of Republicans rating the country favorably and only about a third of Democrats doing so. Currently, ratings are down among both groups, with 36% of Republicans and 21% of Democrats rating the country favorably.

Iran, North Korea. Last year, a partisan division was evident in ratings of Iran and North Korea. However, the current poll finds no difference in ratings of these two countries among Republicans and Democrats, as was the case from 2001 through 2004.

Partisan Ratings of Iran and North Korea
	Republicans (including leaners)	Democrats (including leaners)	Gap (Republicans minus Democrats)
	%	%
Iran
2006 Feb 6-9	9	6	+3
2005 Feb 7-10	7	18	-11
2004 Feb 9-12	18	17	+1
2003 Mar 14-15	12	16	-4
2003 Feb 3-6	12	14	-2
2002 Feb 4-6	9	12	-3
2001 Feb 1-4	10	11	-1
North Korea
2006 Feb 6-9	10	11	-1
2005 Feb 7-10	8	18	-10
2004 Feb 9-12	13	13	0
2003 Mar 14-15	6	9	-3
2003 Feb 3-6	10	13	-3
2002 Feb 4-6	23	21	+2
2001 Feb 1-4	30	34	-4

Survey Methods

Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,002 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Feb. 6-9, 2006. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points.

For results based on the 455 Republicans and independents who lean toward the Republican Party and 453 Democrats and independents who lean toward the Democratic Party, the maximum margins of sampling error are ±5 percentage points.

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.