| KARACHI:
Police kill suspected bandit
By Our Staff Reporter
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| KARACHI, July
16: An alleged bandit was shot dead and a policeman was injured in
what police described as an encounter in F.B. Area on Wednesday. Police
said two bandits were fleeing on a motorcycle after committing a robbery
in a shopping centre in Joharabad. Two policemen on a motorcycle chased
the suspects.The pursuit ensued an exchange of fire resulting in the
death of one of the suspects,
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and the other one managed to escape.
Policeman Ajaz got injured in the fire exchange. The dead suspect
was identified as Ramchander. His body was shifted to Abbasi Shaheed
Hospital for the postmortem examination. Police claimed recovery
of a pistol from his possession.DIES: A private security guard died
in mysterious circumstances when he was on duty in F.B Area on Wednesday
morning.Police said that Manzoor Ahmed, 22, died after suffering
a bullet from his 12-bore service rifle. His lower jaw was blown
away. According to the initial investigation, the incident occurred
either as a result of accidental firing or it was a suicide.A duty
officer of the Gulberg police station said that the victim might
have been cleaning the chamber of his rifle when the gun went off.
Police said they were questioning
the family of the deceased to ascertain his state of mind at the
time of the incident. His body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed
Hospital for the postmortem examination.
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| League hails the end of Arafat rift |
The Arab League
yesterday welcomed the settling of differences between Yasser Arafat
and his Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, and blasted Israeli efforts
to further sideline the Palestinian leader.
League spokesman Hisham Yusef hailed "the end of the differences
between Mr Arafat and Mr Abbas," in a statement issued.
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"It is necessary that Palestinian
leaders do their best to foil any attempts to provoke discord between
them," Yusef said, calling on both men to "work to maintain
the unity of Palestinian ranks." Arafat and Abbas settled an
increasingly public dispute between themselves late on Monday. It
was their first meeting since Abbas offered to resign from the central
committee of the Fatah movement last week.
Abbas had faced charges from fellow members of the Fatah central committee
of being too soft in peace talks with Israel, especially on the issue
of Palestinian prisoner releases.
Yusef, meanwhile, blasted statements "by certain Israeli leaders
on a possible sidelining of president Arafat," saying it was
an attempt to "abort peace efforts." Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon ended yesterday a three-day visit to Britain during which
he hit a brick wall trying to clinch British support to further sideline
Arafat.
Sharon has been arguing that Arafat - isolated for over a year in
his West Bank headquarters - has been undermining the peace efforts
of Abbas.
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| Musharraf urges Muslim world to coordinate
position |
| TUNIS: President General
Pervez Musharraf has urged the Islamic countries to hold regular consultations
for coordinating their position on all major issues including Palestine,
Kashmir and Iraq."The Islamic countries must regularly consult
each other at the United Nations and all other International fora
to coordinate their position on all important regional and international
issues including Palestine, Kashmir and Iraq," he told the Tunisian
Arabic daily "Al-Sharooq". |
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In the interview the president expressed
his views on a host of current regional and international issues,
including the struggle for UN-accepted rights by Kashmiris and Palestinians.
He said in the past, many nations across the globe have successfully
waged struggle against foreign occupation with the support of the
international community and the struggle of the Palestine and Kashmiri
people is not in any way different from the struggles, he added. "The
fact that the Palestinians and Kashmiris happen to be Muslims should
not in any way affect their basic fundamental rights, including their
right to self-determination," he said.
In reply to a question, he said terrorism has nothing to do with any
particular religion. "The actual causes of terrorism can be found
in poverty, illiteracy, underdevelopment and political deprivation,"
he added.
President Musharraf emphasised that religious and cultural diversity
in the world needs to be used as a vehicle for complementary creativity
and dynamism and not as rationale for any ideological or political
confrontation.
Responding to a question about realisation of Islamic solidarity,
Musharraf said it would require a strong political will and unequivocal
commitment of the leaders of the Islamic countries. "The re-invigoration
of the OIC would be an important step forward in this direction. It
is high time to further strengthen the OIC and make it more effective
to meet the contemporary challenges, facing the Ummah. Pakistan, he
said, would be putting forward some concrete and specific proposals
for this purpose in the forthcoming OIC Summit Conference in Kuala
Lumpur in October this year.
"As a first step, the OIC members states should settle their
inter-state disputes in the spirit of the Islamic brotherhood and
in the larger interest of the Ummah. "Secondly, the OIC will
have to put greater emphasis on socio-cultural contacts and economic
and trade cooperation."
The president also asked the Muslim world to present the true image
of Islam to the world. "Islam, as we all know, is a religion
of universal peace and harmony. While the Muslim world has to take
the direction of enlightened moderation, the West too needs to exhibit
an understanding of Islam. Dialogue, understanding and mutual respect
among religions and cultures is necessary for peace and prosperity
in the world," he said.
He said the OIC has always called for a resolution of the issues of
Palestine and Kashmir by addressing the root cause of these problems,
which is the subjugation of people by occupying powers against their
free will. "The OIC resolutions have consistently called for
giving the right of statehood to the people of Palestine and right
of self-determination to the people of Kashmir, on the basis of relevant
UN resolutions."
Musharraf, however said, unfortunately, after the tragic events of
September 11, countering terrorism has become a more immediate and
an overriding concern for the western world. "While the OIC Member
States are partners in the international fight against terrorism,
the OIC has time and again underlined the need to differentiate terrorism
from the struggle of peoples for independence from foreign occupation
and alien domination.
"The fight against terrorism needs to retain its high moral ground.
That could be achieved only when care is taken to ensure that counter-terrorism
measures are not used to justify the denial or violation of inalienable
human rights of the peoples."
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| Egypt banks on tourism despite Iraq war
fallout |
| Egypt expects only a slight
decline in tourist visits to its pharaonic treasures and beach resorts
this year, despite a sharp drop in tourism due to the war on Iraq,
Egypt's tourism minister said yesterday.Mamdouh el-Beltagi also said
war-related financial losses in Egypt's vital tourism industry were
far less than the $2 billion he had forecast just before the war began
in March, but he declined to give a figure for the actual shortfall. |
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"The second part (of 2003) will be better than the
first," he told a Foreign Press Association briefing.
"We are going to receive maybe five million visitors by the end of
this year."
Egypt had some 5.2m foreign tourists in 2002, after attracting a record
5.5m in 2000. Bringing in roughly $4 billion a year, tourism is one of
its top hard currency earners, along with Suez Canal revenues, expatriate
remittances and oil exports.
The number of tourists visiting Egypt, famed for its Red Sea diving and
archaeological treasures, dropped by 22 per cent year-on-year in March,
when the war against Iraq began.
April figures were down 15pc year-on-year, while May numbers were off
10pc. But by June, the sector had recovered, Beltagi said."We were
expecting in June we would have between five and seven percent minus.
"But actually June saw a good result of five per cent up," he
said, without giving the number of visitors.
"Still, there will be losses," he added.
Analysts say Egyptian tourism statistics are of limited value, because
the number of tourists does not necessarily reflect revenues.
Palestinians, Egyptians
See Eye-to-Eye on ‘Roadmap
Press Release: Palestine Media Center - PMC
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President Yasser Arafat
briefed President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt on the developments in occupied
Palestinian territories after a meeting in Ramallah Tuesday with Mubarak’s
envoy Omar Sulaiman, which discussed ways of reinforcing Palestinian
– Egyptian coordination towards the implementation of the US-sponsored
“roadmap” peace plan.
Arafat in a telephone call to Mubarak thanked the Egyptian President
for Cairo’s unrelenting efforts in supporting the truce with the Israeli
Occupation Forces (IOF), unifying Palestinian ranks and making progress
in the implementation of “roadmap.”
Sulaiman delivered a message to Arafat from Mubarak, the Palestinian
daily Al-Ayyam reported.
Earlier on Tuesday Arafat and the Palestine National Authority (PNA)
Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen) held a meeting with the Egyptian
intelligence chief minister Sulaiman in Ramallah.
Both sides stressed the need for “a comprehensive plan for the implementation
of the roadmap, which comprises a stop to (Israeli) settlement activities,
(re) opening Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem, lifting of the
(IOF) siege, release of detainees, |
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and the establishment of the independent Palestinian state”
as a one integrated whole, Palestinian MP and former chief negotiator
Saeb Erakat said.
Palestinians and Egyptians also stressed the need for the IOF “withdrawal
to the lines of pre-September 28, 2000,” AFP quoted Erakat as saying.
“Palestinian and Egyptian positions on these issues are identical,” Erakat
said.
The Egyptian minister Omar Sulaiman confirmed that his country “will exert
intensified efforts with the United States, the Quartet (of US, UN, EU
and Russia), Israel and other concerned parties to implement the roadmap
as one integral piece,” he added.
The meeting stressed the “Palestinian – Israeli negotiations must lead
to the Israeli withdrawal to the lines of 4 June 1967 and to the establishment
of a Palestinian state,” Erakat indicated.
Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) Ahmad Qurei, member
of the PLO executive committee Ghassan El-Shaka’a, PNA Minister of Finanace
Salam Fayyadh, Erakat, member of Fatah central committee Sakhre Habash,
Arafat’s political adviser and editor of the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam
Akram Hanniyah, and public security chief in Gaza Strip Abdul-Razeq el-Majaidah
attended the meeting, the official news agency WAFA reported Tuesday.
Arafat told reporters after the meeting: “We confirm our commitment to
the implementation of the roadmap.”
Sulaiman on his part made no statements after the meeting.
Hate Crimes Against Muslims
Still Rising
News Report, Jul 16, 2003 |
| San Francisco – Two Pakistanis
were killed this week near Washington D.C. prompting concerns from
an American Muslim group that the victims may have been targeted because
of their race.
The students were shot dead just outside of the capital by unidentified
gunmen. While police say robbery could've been a motive, others
say the incident should be classified as a hate crime.
"Because the motivation for this attack is not clear, and
because there have been a number of bias-related attacks nationwide
on Muslims, Arab-Americans or those perceived to be Middle Eastern,
the
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intervention of the FBI is warranted in this case," said Seyed
Rizwan Mowlana, executive director of the Council on Arab Islamic
Relations (CAIR) in Maryland.
Since the beginning of this year, CAIR has received reports of
physical assaults against Muslims or those perceived to be Muslim
in California, Georgia, New Jersey, South Carolina and other states.
One incident in Yorba Linda, Calif., left a Muslim teenager badly
beaten by a group that allegedly included white supremacists. In
Arizona, a Sikh man who may have been mistaken for an Arab was shot
in Phoenix. In Illinois, an explosive device destroyed a Muslim
family's van. And just last month, a pizza delivery man in New Bedford,
Mass. was kidnapped, beaten and stabbed, apparently because his
attackers thought he was Muslim.
CAIR just released its eighth annual report on the status of American
Muslim civil rights indicating that anti-Muslim incidents increased
by 15 percent over the previous year. Numbers rose from 525 confirmed
incidents in 2002 to 602 this year. The CAIR report - the only annual
study of its kind - details incidents and experiences of anti-Muslim
violence, discrimination and harassment. Excerpts from the complete
report are available online at:
CAIR>www.cair-net.org/asp/crr2003.asp
CAIR is America's largest Islamic civil
liberties group and has 16 regional offices nationwide and in Canada. |
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