Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram tell Indian Express
Excerpts from interaction with editors of the daily
•AMITABH SINHA: What were the specific results achieved during your recent US visit?
Much has been made of the Hafiz Saeed chapter but it was only one small part of the agenda. The main purpose of the visit was to work out an arrangement by which we can share intelligence on a real time basis and then to share analysis of intelligence. We also discussed access to technology. We need technology; we need to improve the skill sets of our people. Then there was the very important need to get to know the important people in the US on a personal basis. I believe the objectives were substantially achieved.

•RITU SARIN: Is there a qualitative difference in the nature of evidence we have against Hafiz Saeed and the evidence we have handed over to Pakistan on other 26/11 accused?
Yes, because Hafiz Saeed did not come to India. All his overt actions were done on Pakistan soil. So all I can give are leads as to what he did. The evidence is on Pakistan soil. If the Pakistan government throws up its hands and says it cannot or it is unwilling to investigate on Pakistan soil, that is a very sad commentary on the Pakistan police.

•AMITABH SINHA: You mean there is no evidence against him as of now and Pakistan will have to investigate further?
There are leads which amount to evidence. For example, when Kasab said Hafiz Saeed asked a man to set up 10 targets and asked each one of them to hit the targets and he was given target No 4 and he hit target No 4 and Hafiz Saeed personally complimented him on his accurate firing, that is a lead bordering on evidence which has to be substantiated by locating the place where the target practice took place, by talking to the people involved, by investigation. If these are confirmed, it is hard evidence.

•PRANAB DHAL SAMANTA: Is there any possibility of a joint investigation with Pakistan?
No more investigation needs to be done on Indian soil. We have filed the chargesheet, the trial is well on its way and is about to be concluded. All the investigation that has to be done now is on Pakistan soil. FBI asked for access, they (Pakistan) denied it. If they did not give access to FBI which is obliged to investigate the attacks since six American nationals were killed in 26/11, what chance do we have?

•AMITABH SINHA: So what is the way out?
I see the tunnel. I don’t see the end of the tunnel yet. We have a Letter Rogatory for Hafiz Saeed. We will follow the processes of law which are available to us. At some point of time, the Pakistan Government, I hope, will fall in line and investigate and help us gain access to the evidence of that investigation.

•RITU SARIN: At some stage, India will have to take a call on the nine bodies of the 26/11 perpetrators lying in cold storage in Mumbai.
What do we do? No Muslim organisation is willing to take those bodies and bury them. Pakistan has grudgingly accepted that some of them maybe Pakistani nationals. There must be some organisation which is willing to come forward to bury them and we are willing to work with them. They are dead and deserve a decent burial.

•MANU PUBBY: There has not been any major terrorist strike since the Mumbai attack. What has changed on the ground?
I don’t think there is any let-up in the plans of militant organisations in Pakistan, especially LeT and JeM. I think they continue to plan and plot. What has changed is that our intelligence sharing is now on a real-time basis and the level of alertness, vigilance of states is much better. We are proactively seeking out cells and modules to neutralise them. Let me say very candidly that while effort plays a big part, luck also pays a big part. We have to be ever vigilant and we have to raise our level of preparedness.

•VAIBHAV VATS: Is there any thought being given to repealing the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA)?
We are proposing amendments to the AFSPA. As far as the presence of security forces in Jammu and Kashmir is concerned, I have said on the border, the army will be present. The paramilitary will be deployed in the hinterland to aid and assist the state police. And the state police will take the frontline in maintaining law and order.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/521990

The Indian Express, Sept 26
NEW DELHI: One reason why Pakistan doesn’t appear to be sincere in its against t Lashkar-eToiba founder and Jamaatud-Dawa chief Hafiz Sayeed is slowly emerging.
It’s been learnt here that some of the LeT’s top commanders, spearheading its violent campaign in India, have now joined the Pak Army’s campaign against the Taliban.
Sources said they have been moved from Punjab in Pakistan to set up and lead Army-sponsored armed “vil- i lage defence committees” in the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP).
Sources said LeT commanders Sad Baba, Asad Khan, Bilal, Gazi Sultan and Huzefa have moved to NWFP where the Pak Army is encouraging local tribesmen and their el- i ders to form armed groups to fight the Taliban. l Local tribesmen are said to have told the Pak Army not to deploy its forces because their presence helps build support for the Taliban. Hence, the committees.
This anti-Taliban resistance has a parallel with the “Sunni awakening” in Iraq, where tribesmen took on al-Qaeda militants in Anbar province and elsewhere.
The village defence groups rely on tribal customs and i widespread ownership of guns to raise traditional private armies — interestingly, these are also called Lashkars — each with hundreds of volunteers from local tribes.
These armies, launched last autumn, are not aimed at preventing individual acts of terrorism — suicide bombings etc — but to create a local defence system that prevents the Taliban from setting up an “extremist mini-state” in the lawless north-west.
Such Lashkars have already been established in Bajaur, Dir and Buner in NWFP .
The biggest anti-Taliban Lashkar had been set up by Sulthankeil tribe in Khall town with 10,000 local recruits who came along with their weapons.
Sources reveal that the LeT’s support for setting up and leading these tribal groups has two main reasons.
One, the LeT belongs to a different ideological sect, theologically opposed to the Taliban and an armed rebellion against the Pak army.
Two, LeT’s commanders are experienced in guerilla warfare and most of them have been operating in Kashmir or directing terror acts in various cities across India.
Security agencies monitoring Lashkar operations have found that the geographical location of many of these LeT commanders is being concealed via “spoofing” of their satphones.
“When a satellite phone is spoofed, it means its Lat (latitude)-Long (Longitude) is misrepresented by highly sophisticated sensors thus preventing surveillance,” a senior official told The Indian Express.
The official alleged that there were instances where the service provider was “giving inaccurate information.”
“We worked on two numbers, one belonging to an LeT commander and another used by a Hizbul man. Both were spoofed and in both cases we knew the actual location of the users. The service provider gave us the correct information about the Hizbul man while it misled us on information about the phone used by the LeT.” http://epaper.indianexpress.com/IE/IEH/2009/09/26/ArticleHtmls/26_09_2009_001_007.shtml?Mode=1

By Bari Baloch
QUETTA – Chief Minister Balochistan has started efforts to soothe those ministers in his Cabinet who were angry for not having portfolios or their departments were not attractive enough after sacking of PPP Minister Ali Madad Jattak from the Cabinet.
Ali Madad Jattak was devoted worker of PPP and he was elected as member of Balochistan Assembly for the first time in the general elections of 2008.
His success became possible because of boycott of elections by nationalist forces of Balochistan.
He was amongst the most loyal people to Chief Minister of Balochistan Nawab Muhammad Aslam Khan Raisani and his brother Senator Nawabzada Lashkari Raisani who is also the President of PPP Balochistan.
Formation of coalition govt under the leadership of PPP was the top priority of central leadership of party therefore all important and lucrative departments were given to JUI (F), Balochistan National Party (Awami) and the independent group because they had assured their support to Nawab Muhammad Aslam Khan Raisani for formation of the govt.
This is why PML(Q) could not form govt in Balochistan despite being the largest party in the Provincial Assembly.
PML(Q) not only failed to form govt but after failure its all members supported Nawab Muhammad Aslam Khan Raisani for the office of Chief Ministership except Sardar Yar Muhammad Rind who had a feud with Raisani tribe.
Because of this situation, PPP Ministers got less important Ministries while some of them were Ministers without portfolios causing anger amongst them. However Ali Madad Jattak was allocated the Department of Food which was better as compared to the departments of some other Ministers of party.
It may be recalled that Food Department is amongst the allegedly notorious departments in Balochistan like Communication and Works. Annually around 600 million to 1000 million rupees are allocated for subsidy of wheat but a major portion of this amount goes in the pockets of officers of the department.
Though parliamentary leader of PPP in Provincial Assembly Muhammad Sadiq Umrani and some other Ministers of PPP were not happy and they were alleging that Chief Minister was not giving due importance to ministers of PPP as compared to ministers of other parties.
Majority of PML(Q) ministers were also making the same complaint.
However, Ali Madad Jattak joined the camp of critics of Chief Minister and his brother when provincial President of party Nawabzada Lashkari Raisani tendered his resignation from his office as he had not only made the central leadership of party subject of criticism but he had also said that Ministers of PPP in Balochistan were not solving problems of the workers.
He had also levelled charges of corruption on some of his party ministers.
Ali Madad Jattak caused rebellion and became the leader of that group which doesn’t want to see Senator Nawabzada Lashkari Raisani as provincial President of the party following the statement of latter.
Few months back Jattak visited Islamabad alongwith Agha Irfan Karim who tendered his resignation as a protest against dismissal of the former from the Cabinet.
Following these meetings some reports appeared in local Press that central leadership of party was considering change of entire provincial leadership because there were serious differences between Nawabzada Lashkari Raisani and party’s provincial General Secretary Bismillah Khan Kakar.
Alongwith these reports this was talk of the town that Ali Madad Jattak would be given an important position in the party following change of provincial leadership.
Besides meetings with central leadership, Ali Madad Jattak had also met some PML(Q) leaders including PML Parliamentary leader Sheikh Jafar Khan Mandokhel in Quetta.
Some reliable sources said that these moves had annoyed Chief Minister Balochistan. He changed Secretary of Food during Eid holidays.
Following this step Ali Madad Jattak issued a statement that he had support of 28 members of Balochistan Assembly and they would make a protest in the next session of Balochistan for interference of junior officers of CM secretariat in the departments of PPP ministers.
Chief Minister dismissed him from Cabinet with a charge that Ali Madad was creating distrust between PPP and provincial government and his moves were tantamount to destablising the provincial government.
After his dismissal Chief Minister is making efforts to compensate other PPP and PML ministers who were without portfolios or their departments and were not lucrative.
He allocated Food Department to PPP Minister Asfandyar Kakar and the Excise and Taxation Department to other PPP Minister Baboo Muhammad Amin Umrani. While Zakat and Ushar Department was taken from Agha Irfan Karim and was allotted to PML (Q) Minister Salim Khosa who had earlier a less important department.
Political observers are of the view that so far there was no big threat to govt of Nawab Aslam Khan Raisani ,however, he would have to face a difficult situation as a large number of his Ministers are not satisfied with their portfolios.
He has to also face another difficult situation because a large number of Balochistan Assembly members have announced to move a no-trust motion against Speaker of Balochistan Assembly Muhammad Aslam Bhootani.
Some political observers also believe that the rise of sudden differences by the PPP leaders with their own CM heralds an attempt between the establishment to pave the way for mid-term elections in Balochistan. http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online//Politics/27-Sep-2009/Political-situation-heats-up-in-Balochistan