Zardari wants India to act more ‘maturely’

New York, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that being the largest democracy in the world, India should behave much ‘maturely’ than it has done in the aftermath of the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

In an interview to Newsweek magazine, Zardari said that people like Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving Mumbai attack gunman, are non-state actors and that states must not let them succeed in their only motive, which is to bring countries to the brink of war.

“I’m a little disenchanted with India. I expected the largest democracy in the world to behave much more maturely. We are facing a threat on the eastern and western borders. This new-age terror has created a phenomenon where a few people can take entire states to war. The fact that these people happen to belong to Pakistan or India or Bangladesh is immaterial.

They are non-state actors, and states should behave like states,” Zardari said.

Responding to a question, he ruled out any possibility of a full scare war with India, saying he is a liberal by nature and democrat by principles.

“I can never be a hawk. I’m a liberal by nature and democrat by principles. War is never an option, as far as I’m concerned,” Zardari said.

Zardari also made it clear that despite immense pressure from the international community, particularly the United States, to launch a military offensive in the terror hot bed North Waziristan, where the failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad is said to have received terror training from the Taliban, the final call on whether to open any new front in the lawless tribal regions rests with Islamabad only.

“One works with one’s own game plan. We are fighting to save Pakistan. So we’re working on it with a map in our hand. We’d like to know who is financing the Afghan Taliban, and who’s financing the Pakistani Taliban. We haven’t got any closer to knowing that,” he said.

India Maoist train sabotage toll climbs to 146

KOLKATA – Indian rescue workers completed search operations on Sunday after pulling out 146 bodies from the site of a train wreck blamed on Maoist saboteurs, a state minister said.

The precise cause of the derailment was still unclear

The crash occurred on Friday when a Mumbai-bound high-speed passenger express from Kolkata veered off the tracks into the path of an oncoming freight train in a remote part of West Bengal state.

If confirmed as a Maoist strike, it would be the deadliest attack by the rebels in recent memory.

The government has recently been severely criticised for its handling of the worsening left-wing insurgency.

“Teams have pulled 146 bodies from the damaged carriages of the train. Now we are concentrating on hospitals because more than 200 injured are still there,” West Bengal civil defence minister Srikumar Mukherjee told AFP.

Relief and rescue workers rushed to the site — a Maoist stronghold around 135 kilometres (85 miles) west of Kolkata — and used mechanical cutters to reach the injured and the dead inside the badly mangled carriages.

The precise cause of the derailment was still unclear.

Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee initially said Maoists had blown up the track with explosives, while police pointed to evidence that a section of rail had been manually removed.

The Times of India on Sunday said police believed a “rogue Maoist gang” was behind the carnage.

Mukherjee said many of the bodies were badly dismembered and identification of the remains by relatives was proving to be a big challenge.

“We have urged the next of kin of the victims to donate blood to the Central Forensic Laboratory in Kolkata so that the bodies can be identified” by DNA testing, he said.

The Indian Railways Board responded to the disaster by cancelling nighttime services in a number of Maoist-affected areas until further notice.

The rebels say they are fighting for the rights of landless tribespeople and farmers left behind by India’s rapid economic expansion.

The Maoist rebellion, which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has labelled the biggest threat to the country’s internal security, began in West Bengal in 1967 and has since spread to 20 of India’s 29 states.

Indian govt evidence not legally tenable: FM Qureshi

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has contradicted India’s claim that there was enough evidence to convict Hafiz Saeed.

‘The Pakistani judiciary is independent, their judgement must be respected’.

“The Pakistan Supreme Court had little choice in the matter as the Indian government had failed to produce evidence that was legally tenable,” he said in an interview with Indian news channel Times Now. “To pin someone down not only do you require evidence, you require legally tenable evidence,” he said.

Qureshi said that like the judiciary of India, the Pakistani judiciary is independent and their judgement must be respected.

“The Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram is expected on June 26 for the SAARC Home Ministers’ conference. I intend to meet with him and discuss this issue with him,” Qureshi said.

“I am expecting a meeting with the Minister of External Affairs SM Krishna on July 15 when we resume our dialogue. They are welcome to raise their concerns and we will sit and discuss them on the negotiating table.”

Qureshi added that the two prime ministers have given the responsibility of bridging the trust deficit to the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan.

“Yes, there is a trust deficit, we have to bridge it. We have to find a way of bridging this trust deficit. We also have to find a way of building confidence and that is exactly what I intend to do in the days to come.”

Qureshi stressed that the policy of the Government of Pakistan is very clear. “We condemn terrorism and will do our utmost to dismantle terrorist networks and not allow our soil to be used against anyone,” he said. “We are victims like anybody else. What you saw in Lahore was a very tragic incident. We are facing terrorists and fighting them. This fight will reach its logical conclusion and we will defeat them.”

Israel Keeping The World In Turmoil

By Gordon Duff

This week, newspapers around the world received reports and signed documents from South Africa. The reports said that, in 1975, Israel agreed to sell South Africa nuclear weapons. South Africa then released an arms agreement signed by current Israeli President Shimon Peres. This is the document “heard round the world.”

Meetings being held in New York to set up a conference for 2012 to guarantee that the Middle East is nuclear free. Israel has been informed that it will not be able to hide behind denials and that the nuclear arsenal put on the sale block by Israel in 1975 and nobody knows how many times since, has to go. When Israel was finally caught, it changed at least one part of a game, but the game will go on. South Africa’s willingness to come forward has shocked the world only because of the selfless honesty of the act, something unseen in today’s world.

What does it mean? Neither South Africa nor Israel are admitting that the nukes were delivered. General beliefs are that they were, a real shock to Nelson Mandela when he took office, from prisoner of apartheid to commander of a nuclear power. What is proven by this is that Israel was, even 35 years ago, a nuclear state, in direct violation of numerous international treaties. It also proves that Israel offered nukes to South Africa, a rogue nation under sanctions that covered not only any weapons but trade as well. This made Israel a criminal state and Mr. Peres a war criminal.

More than that, it makes any aid America gives Israel illegal. If Israel is nuclear, which is now official, and in violation of international treaties, just as with Iraq and Iran, then America has to demand inspections and disarmament. There is no choice. This is the law. Law for Iran, law for Iraq is also law for Israel. Israel has expected this day for years. The US can’t give or sell arms to any country with an illegal nuclear arsenal. Worse than this, we are sworn to defend the world from any nation that would spread nuclear weapons, a charge made by the South African government, one that has been made before, but can no longer be ignored.

THE ZIONIST HISTORY OF NUCLEAR DECEIT

How did Russia get the bomb? Americans gave Russia the technologies, not just Americans but Zionists, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Morris Cohen, Martin Sobell, David Greenglass, Klaus Fuchs and Harry Gold. This was a couple of years before the establishment of the State of Israel or we would have called them all Israeli-Americans. They believed that America couldn’t be trusted and that infamous mass murderer Josef Stalin could. From this point on, spying against America, everything from secret weapons to defense plans, everything America depended on to stay safe was stolen and sold to Russia, China or North Korea by spy organizations run out of Israel.

The Rosenbergs died, excuted for their crimes. They were communists and believed in what they were doing. Today this isn’t the case. America’s military secrets are being peddled around the world for money, to keep the world on edge and has built Israel into a military superpower based on stolen American technology and, we are told, a nuclear arsenal built from stolen American designs and fueled with 2.5 tons of “misplaced” plutonium, one of the great secrets of our era.

Today these famed nuclear spies, the ones who brought about the Korea War and more, would be sitting in Tel Aviv doing TV interviews with the famed “dancing Israeli” film crew tasked by the Mossad with filming the 9/11 attacks. Israel has no extradition. 40,000 Americans died in Korea. Can we call that a holocaust too?

PEDDLING NUKES

America’s nuclear program, Livermore Labs, Oak Ridge, Hanford, Rocky Flats, Fernald, Pantax, Portsmouth, Mound, Pinellas, Savannah River, Sandia Labs, Los Alamos and more, needed to enrich uranium, design and fabricate nuclear weapons is vast, covering enough area to encompass some states. Tens of thousands of employees, hundreds of billions of dollars and physical facilities so large they could be seen from the moon are involved. Yet, by 1975, not only was Israel armed to the teeth with nukes, a tiny country, but had so many they could sell them on the open market like gumdrops.

The only possible answer was that America was supplying Israel with weapons grade fissionable material, plutonium or uranium 235. A number of investigators and whistleblowers have tracked these shipments to NUMEC in Pennsylvania and to France. I have spoken with some who were involved in the investigation. No report has been made. Everyone involved has been discredited or silenced. Is it a rumor or did Israel kill the Kennedys for trying to create a “nuclear free” Middle East? As this is the only very strong motivation for the assassinations that has never been made into a movie or filmed in a TV series or documentary, I am putting my money on this. John F. Kennedy may have signed his own death warrant when he sent the final demand to Israeli President David ben Gurion on July 5, 1963 demanding inspection of the Dimona nuclear facility. Ben Gurion resigned rather than receive the letter and before a new demand could reach Tel Aviv, Kennedy was dead.

NO SCIENCE NEEDED, JUST STEAL IT

The world is a funny place. With 95% of the worlds weapons design and development being done in the US, why is it that American technologies show up in enemy hands continually? Could the long history of Israeli spying against the US be involved?

Case in point, the JA 10 Strike Fighter; Designed to go toe to toe with the F 16 at a third the cost, the Chinese JA 10 is a bargain. Problem is, it is also largely American. Is America upset that their design and avionics are showing up in Iran? Why has China built a plant to construct this advanced fighter in Paksitan, a fighter that is the result of a joint project between the governments of Israel and China?

Are you confused? You are supposed to be. With Russia building a plant in India to produce a new stealth fighter based on the stolen plans of the F 22 Raptor, why shouldn’t Paksitan be producing their version of the F-16? What do these two enemies have in common? “Their planes are largely American designs, designs stolen by spies, and distributed by Israel, even to Pakistan, Israel’s sworn enemy.

Every advanced technology given by the US to Israel is reverse engineered and peddled to Venezuela, North Korea, China or the highest bidder. Any technology not offered is stolen. The game? Just as with peddling nukes to South Africa back in 1975, it is all about business.

REALITIES OF THE ARMS BUSINESS, LIES AND COVER

Were it not for Israels power at media manipulation, there would be little outstanding about them. Watching, in recent weeks, Israel drop news stories about how they are accused of sinking the BP oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico or attacking South Korea is amusing. Israel has even planted stories that they caused the recent earthquakes in Haiti. Why spread these crazy “Men in Black” rumors, more “men from Mars” than reality?

The game is called “poisoning the story.” The real thing Israel is hiding is that it has been selling weapons to North Korea, including highly advanced Germany built diesel/electric submarines that, in some situations, are more advanced than Americas nuclear fleet. Because of the holocaust, Israel can buy anything. Peddling missile guidance systems or submarines to North Korea is simply business. If they don’t do it, the French surely will and probably have.

Whenever a story gets “too close for comfort,” our friends, sometimes the Israelis, sometimes the CIA, embellish it a bit. What reporter will look into a story with two paragraphs of “alien abduction” and “anal probe” added on. Thus, Israel is getting miles of cover for making fun of accusations that they sank the South Korean naval vessel. They didn’t do it, they just supplied the weapons.

The only reason Israel is on our radar is that their “games” played on the American stage with their puppet networks like Fox News and their political hacks, McCain, Lieberman, Waxman, Schumer and so many more, countless more, are ready to send a generation of American kids to war against Iran on the word of a proven liar, Israel, proven liar over peddling nukes, proven liar over Palestinian settlements, proven liar over Iraq’s nuke program lies told and retold by the master storytellers who daily reinvent themselves as victims.

Is Israel doing anything others wouldn’t? Think about it. France, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, China, Romania, Germany, all selling weapons to every country on earth. This isn’t a moral business. Billions a year are paid in bribes to government officials around the world. Nearly every country on earth would rather have a missile defense system than schools and hosptials for their children.

ARE THERE REAL LAWS AND WHAT IS THE U.S. OBLIGATED TO DO?

Whatever international law is on the books, it is generally dependent on the ability to enforce it through conflict. Thus, international tribunals are ineviably called “victor’s justice.” American law is something different. If Israel has nukes, we have legal obligations in accordance with treaty that change our relationship. This is why the “ignore the nukes” game that Helen Thomas has been playing with Washington’s spineless “elite” for years has been so important. “Queen of the White House press corps” for decades, Thomas recognized the duplicity and threat that may have brought down John Kennedy and ended an American rebirth of freedom.

The America nobody wants to live in but everyone wants to immigrate to, legally or not, is not what the constitution mandates, the people want nor what it was on its way to becoming. Everyone agrees on this part. We were hijacked back in November 1963. Every day since then has been something from an “alternative universe.”

Thus, we are back at June 5, 1963 again but with no John Kennedy around. The letter to Netanyahu won’t be written. The inspections won’t be demanded. America has everything in place to secure Israel, to press for a settlement of the Palestinian issue, a realistic one involving sacrifice on the part of every country in the region including the oil drenched Arabs that Israel enjoys parading in front of us. Nearly 2 decades of wars, occupation, “no fly zones” and our utterly transparent phony “war on terror” could, with honesty, diplomacy and good will, be directed into sustainable regional economic partnerships capable of ending extremism and ignorance.

Admissions of culpability by everyone involved, including both India and Paksitan, our drug dealing CIA along with Britains MI-6 and the oil company thieves proping up the corrupt states, have to hit the table. Without Chinese oil money and American and Israeli games, Iran would have been a democracy years ago. Similarly, raping Africa of its resources has cost the lives of millions and everyone is involved.

WHY ISREAL, WHY TODAY?

Israel has made a laughing stock of America, robbing America blind while living off our welfare. Israel is the consumate “welfare Cadillac state.”

They cash their ADC check while their kids rob banks, sell drugs and work to turn America into a hell on earth. They do the classic “step n’ fetchit” when we are looking, “poor Israel” the vicim of the holocaust, surrounded by enemies, then peddle hi-tech weapons to North Korea. The “tough love” we love to talk about for our own welfare mothers needs to be used on Israel.

Israel may be a friend, someday, but not now. Did we make them what they are by being bad parents?

Gordon Duff is a Marine Vietnam veteran. A 100% disabled vet. He has been a featured commentator on TV and radio including Al Jazeera and his articles have been carried by news services around the world. He has been a UN Diplomat, defense contractor and is a widely published expert on military and defense issues.

Indian government feels Maoist heat

By Pratap Chakravarty

NEW DELHI – Outrage over the latest in a series of deadly attacks by Maoist rebels will ramp up pressure on India’s government, already facing calls to deploy the military against the rebels, analysts say.

An Indian man carries an injured child to a military helicopter

Federal authorities had been severely criticised for their handling of the insurgency even before Friday’s disaster when a high-speed train packed with sleeping passengers was derailed on a remote stretch of track in West Bengal.

More than 90 bodies have been pulled from the wreckage, amid fears that as many as 70 more could still be trapped in the mangled carriages.

Stepped-up attacks in recent months had forced a review of the government’s counter-insurgency strategy, with Home Minister P. Chidambaram saying he would seek a firmer mandate for dealing with the rebel threat.

Until now, the government has resisted pressure to bring the army into the equation, insisting that paramilitary and state police forces were capable of flushing the Maoists out of their jungle bases.

“A cornerstone of India’s democracy has been not to use its military against its own people,” said Mallika Joseph, a Maoist expert from the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies in New Delhi.

“But there is a growing clamour to get the military involved and the government is going to feel the pressure to pursue a more aggressive option,” Joseph said.

“That means all ongoing social development initiatives could be put on the back burner,” she added.

Decades of official neglect of tribespeople and farmers in some of India’s most impoverished regions has been credited with swelling the ranks of the Maoists.

Their insurgency, which started as a peasant movement in 1967, has spread to 20 of 29 Indian states, especially the so-called “Red Corridor” covering Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh.

India’s Congress party-led government budgeted 661 billion rupees (14.6 billion dollars) for rural development in the current financial year, which officials hoped might help erode grass-roots support for the Maoists.

At the same time it launched a centrally coordinated offensive against the rebels in November using nearly 60,000 paramilitary and regular police.

“A political solution to the problem has to wait until the military force of the Maoists is crushed,” said Basant Ponwar, director of India’s elite Counter Terrorism and Jungle Warfare College.

“And for this, we need to arm our security forces with new skills and equipment,” Ponwar told AFP from his headquarters in the central state of Chhattisgarh, where Maoists massacred 76 policemen last month.

The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has been a fierce critic of the government’s record against the Maoists, said a mindset shift was needed.

“This brazen attack shows the enormity of the problem and it is time we take it as a national problem, a national challenge,” BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

But many observers say bringing the substantial might of the Indian military to bear on the rebels would be a step too far down a path riddled with possible dangers.

Excessive force would run the risk of sizeable civilian casualties in deeply forested areas where the dividing line between rebel fighters and innocent villagers is not always clear.

“The army could be roped in in an advisory role but there will be no military boots on the ground,” said Wilson John from the Observer Research group think-tank.

“The military may extend support in terms of more training, logistics and other such support, but that’s all,” he added.

Military chiefs have made it clear that they are opposed to involving the armed forces in any direct combat operations.

“The military — the army, navy and air force — are trained for lethal operations, maximum lethality,” air force chief P.V. Naik said recently.

“The weapons we have are meant for the enemy across the border,” he said. “For the present moment, we must leave (the Maoists) to the paramilitary forces because they are trained to undertake these operations.”

Outraged press reaction to Friday’s train wreck was aimed both at the rebels and the government.

“Does the centre lack stomach for an all-out war against the Maoists,” the Times of India asked Saturday.

Forces, jet fighters kill 42 Taliban in Orakzai

HANGU: Security forces backed by fighter jets killed 42 terrorists and injured another 13 in various parts of Orakzai Agency on Sunday.

Fighter jets bombed terrorist hideouts in Ghuz Garh, Ghalju, Tali, Tore Kandi and Kasha areas, killing 20 and injuring 13 Taliban.

Sources said five hideouts were also destroyed in the attacks.

Also, Swat Scouts killed 22 Taliban in a six-hour battle in Mulla Khel, Rangi Kandu, Mir Garh, Drai Choti and Sumpag and consolidated their position in the areas.

The security forces also destroyed 12 terrorist hideouts in these areas.

The military launched the ongoing offensive in Orakzai in mid-March to flush out Taliban who last year fled an army offensive in the nearby South Waziristan.

Continuous artillery and air attacks have killed hundreds of insurgents over the past two months, the military says.

On Friday, security forces backed by fighter jets and helicopters gunships had killed at least 80 Taliban and injured another 60 in the agency.

The forces had took control of Arha Guld, Knadao, Threy Sotay, Supaka Kandoi and Khatango Ghar areas of Upper Orakzai and consolidated their potions in the reclaimed areas.

Canada denies visa to ex-Indian army officer for IHK abuses

NEW DELHI: Just days after Canada refused visa to a retired Indian trooper of Border Security Force (BSF) on charges of involvement in human rights violations in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK), one more incident of a denial of visa to a retired Lieutenant General of the Indian army by the Canadian Home Office on the same grounds has come to light.

A retired Lieutenant General of the Indian army, AS Bahia, who served as a member of the Defence Appellate Tribunal, told the media that the Canadian Home Office refused to grant him a visa because he had served in the sensitive location of IHK and his unit, the Rashtriya Rifles (RR), was involved in human rights violations in IHK.

The issue first came to light when the Canadian High Commission denied visa last week to a retired Border Security Force (BSF) trooper Fateh Singh Pandher on grounds that he was associated with a notoriously violent force that indulged in human rights violations in IHK. Canada has denied visas to a member of the Indian Armed Forces Tribunal, three serving Brigadiers, a retired Lieutenant General and a former senior IB official on the grounds that their organisations have been engaging in violence. In another revelation, two Brigadiers were denied visas in 2008 and another in 2009. A retired Lieutenant General RN Bhatia was also refused visa in 2008.

Separately, India said on Thursday it had summoned Canada’s high commissioner and lodged a strong protest after several officials linked with its security establishment were denied Canadian visas.

The visa rejections, on grounds of human rights records, came to light just weeks before Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is to travel to Toronto for a G20 meeting. Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna expressed hope that Ottawa would solve the issue appropriately.

Torture inquiry should leave no stone unturned, says Amnesty

By: Ian Cobain

Investigation into human rights abuses promised by William Hague needs to be independent and must look at criminal responsibility, says organisation

The coalition government should “leave no stone unturned” in the search for the truth about the UK’s complicity in foreign torture, the head of Amnesty International has said.

The foreign secretary, William Hague, has promised an inquiry into the UK’s complicity in torture. Photograph: AP

An inquiry promised by William Hague, the foreign secretary, needs to be both independent and able to decide whether any individuals should be prosecuted, said Amnesty’s interim secretary general, Claudio Cordone.

“We look forward to an inquiry that is truly independent and looks not only at potential criminal responsibility but also at Britain’s co-operation agreements with the United States and other countries,” said Cordone. “It should leave no stone unturned.”

Launching its annual human rights report, Amnesty was highly critical of the last Labour government for “stonewalling” in the face of repeated calls for an independent investigation into the mounting allegations that UK intelligence officials were complicit in abductions, illegal detention and torture since the al-Qaida attacks of September 2001.

The organisation said it was also concerned about the UK relying on “diplomatic assurances” when carrying out deportations to countries such as Algeria and Jordan.

In London, Amnesty’s UK campaigns director, Tim Hancock, said Britain had lost the moral high ground in recent years, and that the new political era offered an opportunity for the UK to break free of the human rights abuses of the past.

“Both parties in the new government have criticised the previous government on human rights grounds and it’s vital that they live up to their fine words now they’re in office,” Hancock said.

“We’re stressing that ‘justice gaps’ – where people are cut off from accessing justice – need to be closed all around the world, and it’s only right that the UK delivers on law and order at home and abroad. While dozens of countries in the world have very poor human rights records, the truth is that ours has been nothing to write home about either.”

The Foreign Office was taken by surprise last Thursday when Hague said that an investigation would be held, and Whitehall officials later insisted that any such inquiry could not start while a number of court cases are ongoing. Several men who allege UK complicity in their rendition and torture are currently suing MI5, MI6 and the British government.

The same officials said that any inquiry would need to be held in secret – a proposal that has been condemned by human rights groups.

Those organisations say the inquiry should establish:

• who authorised the bilateral agreements with the US that led to Britain offering logistic support for the CIA’s rendition programme of kidnap and torture, and whether any other agreements led to human rights abuses;

• who authorised the secret interrogation policy, transmitted to MI5 and MI6 officers, telling them they could interrogate people who were being tortured, as long as they did not participate and were not “seen to condone it”;

• what Downing Street knew about the torture of Binyam Mohamed, and about the torture of several British citizens since 2001;

• and what the last foreign and home secretaries, David Miliband and Alan Johnson, knew about the UK’s involvement in torture and rendition.

Amnesty’s annual report for 2010, covering 159 countries, condemned a number of influential nations that it says attempt to stand above human rights laws. It accused these countries, including the US, Russia and China, of shielding allies from criticism and only taking action when it is politically convenient.

The organisation also criticised the EU for failing to live up to its commitments on human rights, citing the tolerance of the CIA’s rendition flights and secret detention program. It added that several European countries had repeatedly violated rulings by the European court of human rights against the return of terror suspects to countries where they are at risk of torture.

Amnesty also recorded torture, unfair trials and restrictions on free speech in dozens of countries, singling out Saudi Arabia, Iran, China, North Korea, Myanmar, Russia and Sri Lanka for criticism.

Pakistanis create rival Muslim Facebook

ISLAMABAD – Pakistanis outraged with Facebook over “blasphemous” caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed have created a spin-off networking site that they dream can connect the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims.

A group of six young IT professionals from Lahore launched www.millatfacebook.comon Tuesday

A group of six young IT professionals from Lahore, the cultural and entertainment capital of Pakistan, launched www.millatfacebook.com on Tuesday for Muslims to interact online and protest against blasphemy. The private venture came after a Pakistani court ordered a block on Facebook until May 31, following deep offence over an “Everyone Draw Mohammed Day” page considered “blasphemous” and “sacrilegious”. “Millatfacebook is Pakistan’s very own, first social networking site. A site for Muslims by Muslims where sweet people of other religions are also welcome,” the website tells people interested in signing up.

Dubbed MFB, after Facebook’s moniker FB, its founder says professionals are working around the clock to offer features similar to those pioneered by the wildly popular California-based prototype. Each member has a “wall” for friends to comment on. The site offers email, photo, video, chat and discussion board facilities. The Urdu word “Millat” is used by Muslims to refer to their nation. The website claims to have attracted 4,300 members in the last three days — mostly English-speaking Pakistanis in their 20s.

The number of aficionados may be growing, but the community is a drop in the ocean of the 2.5 million Facebook fans in Pakistan and there have been some scathing early reviews of the start-up. Neither has Facebook been immediately reachable for comment.

“We want to tell Facebook people ‘if they mess with us they have to face the consequences’,” said Usman Zaheer, the 24-year-old chief operating officer of the software house that hosts the new site. “If someone commits blasphemy against our Prophet Mohammed then we will become his competitor and give him immense business loss,” he told AFP, dreaming of making “the largest Muslim social networking website”.

Once signed up, members are a click away from debate on the bulletin board. For example, “Enticing Fury” wrote: “The reason is that this forum must be reserved for ALL MUSLIMS OF THE WORLD and not only Pakistan. So using the word MILLAT is very good! “Well done guys. You have made a great alternative for the whole muslim ummah (nation)!”

But the nascent quality of the work-in-progress website has preoccupied and dismayed some, as well as drawn at least one damning newspaper review. One member wrote: “they need 2 hav more info”. Another posted a mournful: “need games here as well. I missed cafe world” — referring to the popular Facebook page where members can run their own virtual cafe. “It was a good idea… as it can give us a forum to connect, but its reach is too limited,” Mohammad Adeel, a 31-year-old pharmacist told AFP in Karachi, who joined to keep up with friends he missed due to the Facebook ban.

Local newspaper The Express Tribune was crushing. “The quality of user experience is so abysmal that it does not merit the humble title, ‘Facebook clone’,” it wrote online. “To sum up, MillatFacebook is a bold effort… but it is unlikely to capture a large audience, judging by the online experience it offers currently.”

But Zaheer is pleased with his handiwork, saying the site has already attracted members living in Britain, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Russia, the United Arab Emirates and the United States. Pakistani law student Rana Adeel, 21, signed up to MillatFB in Lahore after receiving invites through SMS and email from friends.

“In two days, I got more than seven friends. If the Facebook ban is lifted, I’ll keep networking on both,” he told AFP.

Army to analyse Tribunal verdict on Kargil war officer

With the Armed Forces Tribunal indicting a top officer for falsifying Kargil war reports and showing bias towards a brigadier, the Army on Thursday said it will take action on the issue after analysing the verdict. Raising serious questions about the military leadership in the 1999 Kargil war, the Armed Forces Tribunal has indicted a former Lieutenant General for showing bias towards a Brigadier playing down his achievements and for falsifying accounts of battles.

The Tribunal, whose observation has come as an embarassment to the Army, directed that the affected officer Brigadier(Retd) Devinder Singh be considered for a notional promotion.

The matter came to light after Singh who led 70 Infantry Brigade in the Batalik sector in the Kargil war, filed a petition in the Delhi High Court complaining of wrong depiction of his battle performance. Several complaints similar to Singh are pending before the Tribunal.

“We have not yet received the copy of Tribunal’s judgement. Once we get it, it will be analysed and appropriate action would be taken,” a senior Army officer told PTI here.

The Principal Bench of the Tribunal, in its verdict, has held that Lt Gen (retd) Kishan Pal, former 15 Corps General Officer Commanding (GOC) showed bias against Brigadier Devinder Singh, former 70 Infantry Brigade Commander and belittled his achievements in the war besides falsifying accounts of battles during the Kargil operations.

The Tribunal has asked the Army to consider Singh, a former 70 Infantry Brigade Commander, for promotion to the notional rank of major general and to put the relevant records and documents pertaining to operations by his formation in Batalik sector written by him to be corrected and put in the right perspective.

“I feel vindicated,” said a visibly happy Singh recounting his long battle with authorities.

“One has gone through a number of stages of non-statutory complaints, statutory complaints, legal notices and several writ petitions…Finally the order has seen the light of the day.”

In its order, the Tribunal, headed by Justice A K Mathur, held that “the annual confidential reports (ACRs) were not written in an objective and unbiased manner” by Lt. Gen. Pal.