Gadkari gives a little to quell revolt

New Delhi, March 20: A worried BJP chief, Mr Nitin Gadkari, rushed to New Delhi on Friday night following reports of the revolt brewing in his party. Mr Gadkari held parleys with the RSS bosses and senior leader L.K. Advani to tackle the situation. The BJP’s Bihar brigade, comprising Mr
Shatrughan Sinha, Dr C.P. Thakur, Mr Shanawaz Hussain and Mr Uday Singh, have come out against Mr Gadkari over the formation of his new team. Mr Hussain, who had skipped the meet of party spokespersons on Friday complaining of ill health, got himself admitted to Batra Hospital in the national capital.
Mr Gadkari, who left for Pathankot around noon Saturday, reportedly spoke to other leaders, including Mr Arun Jaitley, Ms Sushma Swaraj and Mr Rajnath Singh, sources said. It was after these deliberations with senior party colleagues, and in a bid to placate the Bihar brigade, that two leaders from the state were appointed special invitees to the party’s national executive. Former Bihar BJP unit president Nand Kishore Yadav, who is also the health minister in Mr Nitish Kumar’s government in Bihar, and outgoing Bihar BJP president Radha Mohan Singh are the special invitees.
A section in the BJP has also started talking about Mr Gadkari’s long absence from Delhi after he took over as party chief. “Most of the time he is in Nagpur,” a senior party functionary complained. Incidentally, Nagpur houses the national headquarters of the RSS and is also a place of business interest for Mr Gadkari. Sources disclosed that both Mr Jaitley and Ms Swaraj tried to stay out of the mess and said they would try talk to the angry BJP members.
Sources disclosed that BJP strategists were trying to extricate Mr Gadkari from the mess “he got himself into”. He has reportedly been asking close associates about the reasons for his “sudden fall in the organisation and in the media”.
Sources disclosed that Mr Shatrughan Sinha was also breathing fire against the party chief for including actor-turned-saffron-politician Vinod Khanna’s wife in the party’s national executive. Mr Sinha, sources said, wanted his wife included as well.
A section in the BJP is also asking Mr Gadkari to make Dr C.P. Thakur a party vice-president. Of the 13 vice-president posts, Mr Gadkari has kept two vacant, one reportedly for Mr Sanjay Joshi, his close friend and former general secretary (organisation), who was forced to quit the post following a CD controversy. This particular section has also asked him to shift Mr Vijay Goel from the post of general secretary to become the Delhi state unit chief. They want Mr Gadkari to bring in Mr Yashwant Sinha as a party general secretary.

Yojna Gusai

PC tells NIA to prepare for Headley

New Delhi, March 20: India is preparing to send a team of Indian officials to the US to interrogate Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayyaba operative David Headley following assurances from the US government that Indian sleuths can question him on American soil.

The US assurance came after Headley struck a plea bargain and agreed to cooperate with the US and any foreign government which wants to question him on American soil. US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia Robert Blake on Saturday said Indian investigators would be allowed access to Headley to learn more about his involvement in the Mumbai attacks. “The answer to that is yes,” he said.
On the other hand, the US has said a formal “no” to India as far as Headley’s extradition is concerned. It has also not given any assurance to India on access to Headley’s Canadian accomplice and co-conspirator in the 26/11 terror attack, Tahawwur Rana. Rana is in federal custody in the US since his arrest in October 2009.
Following the assurance from US attorney-general Eric Holder, Union home minister P. Chidambaram on Saturday directed the National Investigating Agency (NIA) and other agencies to “quickly prepare the documents necessary to start a judicial proceeding in which Indian authorities could require Headley to answer questions and to testify”.
“It is my understanding that India would be able to obtain access to Headley to question him in a properly-constituted judicial proceeding. Such judicial proceeding could be pre-trial or during an inquiry or trial,” the Union home minister said, adding he had a long conversation with the US attorney-general who called him to clarify India’s doubts about seeking access to Mr Headley. “It is also my understanding that Headley is obliged to cooperate fully and truthfully in such proceedings,” Mr Chidambaram said in a statement.
Government sources said the “mode” of availing the access provided by the US government is yet to be worked out. “It is more or less clear that a team will go. There are procedures provided in US law and the plea bargain by which we will have access to Headley. The Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty between the US and India will also be involved,” a government official told this newspaper.
Ruling out Headley’s extradition to India, Mr Blake said the plea bargain holds that “the US would not extradite Mr Headley either to India, Pakistan or Denmark on the charges for which he has now admitted guilt”. The home ministry, however, believes that if it can gather new evidence against Headley to charge him on “fresh” counts, it will again approach the US for his extradition. Mr Blake did not refute such a possibility. “That does not mean that at some future date some additional charges could not be brought and so I don’t want to speculate too much about the possibility of future extradition. But at least on these charges he cannot be extradited,” he maintained.
Mr Chidambaram said there was another aspect of the “plea agreement” which was of enormous significance as it “is the most damning indictment of the role played by certain persons in Pakistan”. He said that the “plea agreement should spur Pakistan to take action against all the conspirators and bring them to justice. Nothing short of that will be acceptable to India or will satisfy world opinion.”
The home minister said Pakistan had been in a state of denial for many months after 26/11. Thereafter, grudgingly and bowing to pressure applied by India through the dossiers and otherwise, Pakistan initiated proceedings against a few of the persons involved in the conspiracy, even while key conspirators remain at large, he said.

Namrata Biji Ahuja and Ramesh Ramachandaran

Lahore: Blaze Ravages Chemical Factory In Industrial State

Chemicals and machinery worth of millions of rupees were destroyed when a huge fire broke out in a chemical factory in Green Town, Lahore. Fire brigade is trying to contain the fire.

Fire brigade sources said that the blaze broke out late night in the factory, they added that the cause of the fire could not be immediately ascertained, though an electric short-circuit was believed to have caused it.

10 to 12 fire brigade engines were pressed into service to contain the fire; however it is feared that the fire cannot be put out until the entire quantity of chemical is burnt. The fire fighters are trying to stop the fire from reaching neighboring factories.

---

Lahore: Blaze Ravages Chemical Factory In Industrial State was first posted on March 19, 2010 at 11:09 am.
Copyright @ A Pakistan News

David Headley Admits Role In Mumbai Attacks

US citizen of Pakistani origin David Headley has admitted 12 counts of conspiracy. He pleaded guilty to scouting targets for the 2008 attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai.

Prosecutors will therefore ask for a lesser sentence since Headley was cooperating with the prosecutors, but US District Court Judge Harry Leinenweber said Headley could still be jailed for life. David Headley, at his trial in Chicago, also admitted plotting to attack a Danish newspaper that published a cartoon many Muslims deemed offensive.

Headley, 49, had denied the charges but changed his plea to avoid the death penalty or extradition to India, Pakistan or Denmark.

---

David Headley Admits Role In Mumbai Attacks was first posted on March 19, 2010 at 11:12 am.
Copyright @ A Pakistan News

US Suspect Headley To Plead Guilty In Mumbai Bombings

Mumbai bombing suspect David Coleman Headley is set to change his plea to guilty in a US court on charges of helping to plan the deadly 2008 attacks, court records showed Tuesday.
Headley, 49, is accused of being a scout for two different Pakistan-based terrorist groups who used a friend’s immigration company as a cover for surveillance activities in India and Denmark. Headley, who has been cooperating with prosecutors since his October arrest, was to appear in a Chicago federal court Thursday for a change of plea hearing, court documents showed. It was not clear whether Headley would plead guilty to all or just some of the charges against him and prosecutors declined to comment on what a deal might entail. He could face the death penalty if convicted of all 12 charges laid against him in Chicago. The Washington-born son of a former Pakistani diplomat and American mother, Headley reportedly befriended Bollywood stars and even dated an actress during his lengthy surveillance trips to Mumbai. Headley and his friend Tahawwur Hussain Rana were arrested on terror charges related to a plot to attack Denmark’s highest circulating daily, Jyllands-Posten, and kill an editor and the cartoonist. They were later charged in the Mumbai attacks. Headley had pled not guilty to the charges but has long been expected to eventually reach a plea deal with prosecutors.

NAB Asks Interior Ministry To Place NRO Beneficiaries On ECL

TrendPK.com NAB Asks Interior Ministry To Place NRO Beneficiaries On ECL:The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has requested the interior ministry to place the names of all NRO beneficiaries on the Exit Control List (ECL), DawnNews reported.
The NAB has issued arrest warrants for declared proclaimed offenders and convicts and has ordered the freezing [...]

Level Operative:David Headley Was No Low

TrendPK.com Level Operative:David  Headley Was No Low:The extensive use of terrorist tradecraft by Pakistani American terror suspect David Headley makes it evident that he “was not merely a low-level cannon fodder-type operative”, according to US strategic think tank Stratfor.
The December 7 indictment of Headley, charged with scouting targets for the 26/11 [...]

NIA Carries Out Mumbai Raids:Headley Probe

Full Story And Original Content.Thnewspk.comNIA Carries Out Mumbai Raids:Headley Probe:Mumbai: Intensifying its investigation into the possible involvement of Pak-born US national David Coleman Headley in the 26/11 attacks, the Nation Investigating Agency (NIA) on Saturday carried out raids at several places in Mumbai.

Full Story And Original Content.Thnewspk.comNIA Carries Out Mumbai Raids:Headley Probe:Mumbai: Intensifying its investigation into the possible involvement of Pak-born US national David Coleman Headley in the 26/11 attacks, the Nation Investigating Agency (NIA) on Saturday carried out raids at several places in Mumbai.
As per latest reports NIA raided places in Bandra, Goregaon and Khar in [...]

Oil prices stable in Asian trade

SINGAPORE: Oil prices were flat in Asian trade Friday with investors spooked by an unexpected rise in US crude inventories, analysts said. New York’’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, fell three cents to 76.91 dollars per barrel

SINGAPORE: Oil prices were flat in Asian trade Friday with investors spooked by an unexpected rise in US crude inventories, analysts said.
New York’’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, fell three cents to 76.91 dollars per barrel. Brent North Sea crude for December delivery was unchanged at 76.02 dollars.
Data released [...]

Mumbai police Have Questioned Mahesh Bhatt’s Son On Headley Link

Mumbai police Have Questioned Mahesh Bhatt’s Son On Headley Link:Mumbai police have questioned Bollywood filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt’s son Rahul for his alleged friendship with David Coleman Headley, the Pakistan-born US national who is in FBI custody as a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) suspect.

Mumbai police Have Questioned Mahesh Bhatt’s Son On Headley Link:Mumbai police have questioned Bollywood filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt’s son Rahul for his alleged friendship with David Coleman Headley, the Pakistan-born US national who is in FBI custody as a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) suspect.
Rahul Bhatt, a fitness instructor, was let off after questioning as he was unaware of [...]