Nepali transporters see red over bus pact with India

29 February 2004
The Times of India

Nepali transporters see red over bus pact with India

SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

NEW DELHI: If buses to Pakistan spell peace and goodwill, this week's Indo-Nepal bus agreement seems to have done just the opposite, fuelling traditional suspicions in the Himalayan kingdom that India is once again exploiting its big brother status to impose an unequal deal on its smaller neighbour.

On the face of it, there is no reason why the landmark Motor Vehicle Agreement (MVA), signed on February 24 during foreign secretary Shashank's visit to Kathmandu, should excite any controversy.

The agreement provides for direct bus services on 14 routes between Nepali and Indian cities through five border crossings — an improvement over the current situation where bus passengers must alight at the border, walk across, and sit in a new bus to reach their final destination.

In addition, the MVA provides for hassle-free entry of private vehicles from either country for a period of five days, fulfilling a long-pending demand of Nepal's hotel industry eager to attract affluent Indian road-trippers.

Nepali transporters, however, allege the MVA will favour Indian operators who, because of their lower costs, would force Nepali buses off the road.

"This reflects how India is directly trying to take control of Nepal's economy", the Kathmandu Post quoted Bishnu Shivakoti of the Federation of Nepalese Transport Entrepreneurs as saying.

Much has also been made of a clause allowing India to levy a surety on all Nepali private vehicles crossing the border if they are not Indian-made. This clause, Indian officials say, was inserted to ensure individuals do not exploit the lower customs duty on cars in Nepal to smuggle foreign-made vehicles into India.

In Nepal, however, the clause has been commonly understood to mean India will only allow Indian-made buses on the inter-city routes, and that Nepali operators will not be able to run buses manufactured elsewhere, say in China.

Worried by the "partial and selective reading of the provisions of the agreement", the Indian embassy in Kathmandu issued a statement on Wednesday denying the MVA discriminates between buses of Indian and third-country origin.

Indian officials say they are puzzled by the misgivings and blame vested interests among Nepal's transporters for spreading false information about the agreement.

They stress the agreement is "strictly reciprocal in nature", meaning that all privileges enjoyed by Indian operators will also be available to their Nepali counterparts. An equal number of buses from each country will ply along designated routes.

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Jat’s the way: Clansmen talk peace

28 February 2004
The Times of India

Jat’s the way: Clansmen talk peace

By Siddharth Varadarajan
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: South Asia’s largest clan of soldiers and farmers, the Jats, are set to become the latest recruits to the cause of peace between India and Pakistan.

The Second World Jat Convention, to be held in Talkatora stadium on Saturday, will take up greater interaction between about 50 million Jats on this side of the border and their 15 million-odd clansmen on the Pakistani side. The aim: to ensure ‘‘Jat blood’’ — as well as of any other type, presumably — will no longer be spilt in war.

‘‘The Jats are a massive chunk of the Indian and Pakistani army, and for 50 years we have been slaughtering each other. You have a clan on both sides which is basically the same,” says Amit Dahiyabadshah, the brain behind the meet.

Poets to interact

The Jat convention will feature Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, former interior minister of Pakistan, as a keynote speaker.

Ahsan, a prominent Jat leader from Gujrat in West Punjab, held the key interior portfolio in Benazir Bhutto’s first government from 1988-90 and is currently a member of National Assembly on a Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) ticket.

Also on the convention’s agenda is an interaction with Jat poets from Pakistan.

‘’When Alexander attacked India, he made a truce with our ancestors, the Dahiyas and Kangs, and then attacked Porus, who was also a Jat. Jat blood was spilt on both sides. Since then, we’ve learnt nothing,’’ he says.

Anxious to dispel the myth that Jats are ‘’backward’’, Dahiyabadhshah will move a resolution at the convention ‘’recognising that female foeticide is a dangerous trend that will eliminate the Jat kaum by eliminating the Jat woman’’.

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After Lahore, it’s destination Sindh

27 February 2004
The Times of India

After Lahore, it’s destination Sindh

By Siddharth Varadarajan
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: With technical talks on the Sindh-Rajasthan and intra-Kashmir bus service slated for next month, high-level consultations have begun here to work out the specific set of proposals India will take to the negotiating table in Islamabad.

And though the two sets of talks are being planned separately, Indian officials say a link between the Rajasthan-Sindh bus and the more tricky Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus is inevitable.
‘‘The PM had offered the two routes together and we hope both will come about without a hitch’’, a senior official told The Times of India on Thursday.

On Wednesday, officials from the external affairs, road transport and home ministries, as well as Rajasthan government and customs officials, met in South Block to discuss the proposed reopening of the road link between Munabao in Rajasthan and Khokhrapar in Sindh.

Technical level talks on the route are scheduled for March 8-9 but will almost certainly require a second round of meetings before a decision can finally be taken.

An inter-ministerial recce of the existing road condition and other facilities at Munabao is planned for early next week, though officials say the state of the road on the Indian side is ‘‘excellent’’.

Among issues to be looked at are the location of customs facilities.

Officials say, however, that all the details of the proposed bus service, including the frequency and points of origin and destination will have to be worked out in consultation with the Pakistani side. ‘‘We have various combinations in mind’’, said a senior official who will be involved in the talks, ‘‘but our brief is really to go there and see what exactly our Pakistani counterparts are visualising’’.

Among the questions to be settled are whether to run the bus service only between Munabao and Khokhrapar or to have an extended run between either Barmer or even Jodhpur on the Rajasthan side and Mirpur Khas or Hyderabad on the Sindh side.

Though both President Musharraf and Prime Minister Jamali have publicly supported the reopening of the traditional Sindh-Rajasthan road — closed to traffic since the 1950s — the proposal is not without its critics on the Pakistani side.

At a public meeting in Mithi, Sindh, on January 26, many speakers said the border opening would affect the province adversely. Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party leader Nand Lal Malhi said Sindh could be swamped by outsiders and ‘‘the Sindhis would be reduced to a minority’’.
The same sentiment was echoed by Awami Tehrik leader Obhayo Junejo.

But support for the reopening has come from Sindh’s mohajir community, with Altaf Hussain of the MQM speaking out in favour of the proposed bus service.

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How the cricket tour was cleared

21 February 2004
The Times of India

PASSAGE TO PAKISTAN
How the cricket tour was cleared

By Siddharth Varadarajan
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Islamabad: An eleventh hour meeting on Friday the 13th between Pakistani high commissioner Aziz Ahmed Khan and foreign secretary Shashank set in chain a sequence of meetings which led to Prime Minister Vajpayee decreeing that the Indian cricket tour of Pakistan should proceed as planned.

With news swirling around the city on February 13 that the home ministry had ordered the tour called off, Khan tried desperately to reach Shashank for an emergency meeting. The foreign secretary was, however, part of the discussions external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha was having with visiting French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin, and couldn’t take Khan’s calls.

Khan phoned again several times during the official lunch for Villepin and finally succeeded in prising Shashank out of Hyderabad House.

Khan conveyed to Shashank the fears Pakistan had that the Indian tour would be called off.
He said Pakistani president Musharraf was concerned at the impact this would have on the process that he and Vajpayee had agreed to embark upon during the Saarc summit. He also communicated Musharraf ’s assurances.

Meanwhile, in Islamabad, India’s high commissioner to Pakistan, Shiv Shankar Menon, was told the same thing by Pakistani foreign secretary Riaz Khokhar.

As soon as he was informed of the extent of Pakistan’s concerns, Sinha apparently decided to place matters in the court of the Prime Minister. He spoke to Vajpayee and a meeting was hastily convened.

Had Vajpayee ruled out the tour, say sources, Musharraf would likely have picked up the phone to counsel a rethink.

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Indo-Pak cricket: Seats reserved for Indian fans

20 February 2004
The Times of India

Cricket
Berths reserved for Indians

Siddharth Varadarajan
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

LAHORE, Feb 19: When Tendulkar goes out to bat during the forthcoming Indian cricket tour of Pakistan, he is likely to be greeted by the sight of the 'Tiranga’ being waved by spectators in the stands.

Under an innovative plan being worked out by the Pakistan Cricket Board for the three Test matches and five One-day games to be played, a minimum percentage of seats in each of the stadia is to be set aside for Indian spectators who will be sprinkled across the stands rather than being confined to one or two enclosures.

PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan told Indian reporters here at the Gaddafi stadium on Thursday that fans in India will either be able to book tickets online or purchase them through the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), in consultation with whom the PCB will finalise the ticket allocation plan. One proposal is for as many as 15 to 20 per cent of the seats to be reserved for Indians.

"Even if we manage to reserve 10 per cent of seats, that means some 4,000 Indian fans will be able to see the fixture in Lahore," said PCB media manager Saimul Hasan. In smaller venues like Peshawar or Multan, which seat a maximum of 20,000-25,000, the PCB is confident of accommodating 1,500 to 2,000 Indians.

These will be in all category of seats: VVIP, VIP, First Class and Ordinary. As for visas, the Pakistani foreign ministry informed the Indian delegation which visited Islamabad for talks earlier this week that a plan was being worked out to ensure every ticket-holder got a visa. In practice, however, this promise seems a difficult one given the current level of staff strength at the Pakistan high commission in Delhi.

On its part, the PCB is anxious that the BCCI confirms the tour itinerary without further delay. "The logistics are going to be difficult," said Hasan.

"We have to find fivestar hotel accommodation and suitable flights for some 100 people if we count the two teams and all the officials and support staff. The sooner we know the better."

Asked what would happen if the BCCI refuses to play any fixtures in either Karachi or Peshawar, PCB officials said they were confident such a situation would not arise. "Both of us have been flexible. Some compromise can be worked out. It will just not be fair to bypass these two venues."

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Pak books seats for Indian fans

20 February 2004
The Times of India

PASSAGE TO PAKISTAN
Pak books seats for Indian fans

By Siddharth Varadarajan
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Lahore: When Sachin Tendulkar goes out to bat during the tour of Pakistan, he is likely to be greeted by tricolourwaving spectators.

Under an innovative plan being worked out by the Pakistan Cricket Board for the three Tests and five one-dayers, a minimum percentage of seats is to be set aside for Indian spectators who will be sprinkled across all stands rather than being confined to one or two enclosures.
PCB chairman Shahryar Khan told Indian reporters at the Gaddafi stadium on Thursday that fans in India will either be able to book tickets online or purchase them through the BCCI, in
consultation with which the PCB will finalise the ticket allocation plan. One proposal is for 15 to 20 per cent of the seats to be reserved for Indians.

‘‘Even if we manage to reserve 10 per cent of seats, that means some 4,000 Indian fans will be able to see the fixture in Lahore,’’ said PCB media manager Samiul Hasan. In smaller venues like Peshawar or Multan, which seat a maximum of 20,000-25,000, the PCB is confident of accommodating 1,500 to 2,000 Indians.

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General in mufti blasts terror before ulema

19 February 2004
The Times of India

PASSAGE TO PAKISTAN
General in mufti blasts terror before ulema

By Siddharth Varadarajan
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Islamabad: It was just the kind of coincidence which prompts right-wing cynics here to cry betrayal: on the day Pakistan and India announced a schedule for the resumption of talks, Pervez Musharraf, dressed in battle fatigues, waded into a convention of ulema and proceeded to hector them about the evils of terrorism and extremism.

Echoing the warning he sounded to militants in Muzaffarabad on February 6 not to indulge in terrorism in the name of jehad and freedom struggle, Musharraf said their activities were giving Pakistan a bad name.

He urged the clerics in attendance to launch a movement against terrorism and extremism at the national and provincial levels. An impression has been created internationally that Pakistan is involved in terrorism and is also responsible for nuclear proliferation, he said, declaring that this was false and that everything had to be done to counter this damaging view.

If urgent steps were not taken, he said, the day was not far away when the world would turn on Pakistan militarily and bombs rained down on the country.

Pakistan, he said, was wrongly being seen as a country and society dominated by extremism and extremist elements. It was up to the ulema to counter this view because the terrorists defaming Islam are in a small minority while Islam itself is a religion of peace and harmony.

Barely a week ago, Musharraf took another cause dear to heart of Pakistan’s Islamists, the Zia-ul-Haq-era Hudood Ordinances which discriminate against women. The time was ripe, he said, for the laws to be debated afresh.

A major thrust of Musharraf ’s attack on Wednesday was on foreign militants operating from Pakistan, a clear reference to al-Qaida. Calling on these militants to surrender or return to their own countries, Musharraf threatened them with the full might of the Pakistani army if they resisted.

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New Delhi rejects charge Indian scientists might have leaked N-secrets

11 February 2004
The Times of India

New Delhi rejects charge Indian scientists might have leaked N-secrets

SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

NEW DELHI: It's only the cyber equivalent of a whisper campaign so far but officials here feel reports carried on a number of Pakistani websites linking a top former Indian scientist with Iran's alleged nuclear weapons programme are part of psy-ops — or 'psychological operations' — to equate India with Pakistan on the proliferation front.

The man at the centre of the controversy is Dr Y S R Prasad, former CMD of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL). After he retired from NPCIL in 2000, Prasad made at least two visits to Iran's Bushehr nuclear facility. But he firmly denies there was anything improper or clandestine in his visits.

"Most of the time, I went there as an expert of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)," he told The Times of India. Asked about any other visit he undertook, he said this was in the nature of a follow-up to the technical work he had done as part of IAEA panels.

Asked whether Prasad's role in Bushehr has ever been examined by the IAEA— as some Pakistani news reports are alleging —the agency's spokesman, Mark Gwozdecky, would only say: "For the IAEA, the important thing is obtaining information that helps us to complete our work in Iran and Libya... We have been in contact with and receiving the cooperation of a number of foreign governments of countries which are implicated in one way or another in the black market."

Reuters on Tuesday reported that the countries whose citizens or companies are being probed by the IAEA are Germany, Holland, Belgium, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, South Africa, Japan, Dubai, Malaysia, the US, Spain, Russia, China and Pakistan.

R Chidambaram, principal scientific adviser to the government and a former head of the Atomic Energy Commission, brushed aside reports that Prasad had done anything untoward. "He originally went to Iran as part of an IAEA assignment. Later, he went back to Bushehr under a private contract with the Iranians," he told this reporter. Asked whether the government knew in advance about the private contract, Chidambaram merely said, "He came back when we wanted."

Bushehr is a "fully safeguarded" facility. Most of the information that has surfaced about a covert Iranian effort on the gas centrifuge enrichment front pertains to the facility at Natanz.

MEA officials say Prasad is being unfairly vilified. "The IAEA has a technical cooperation (TC) programme approved by its board of governors for countries which have signed safeguards agreements. Normally experts are drawn from different countries. That is how Dr Prasad went to Iran," an MEA official said.

Although India has excellent relations with Iran, the US has frowned upon any cooperation in the field of civilian nuclear technology between the two countries. In the early 1990s, the US prevailed upon India to scrap a deal to provide Iran with an experimental 10 MW reactor at Moallem Kaleyah, northwest of Teheran. And it is likely US pressure was exerted to get Prasad extracted from Bushehr.

Last December, when external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha was 'ambushed' by Iranian reporters into saying "most certainly between Iran and India (in the peaceful nuclear energy field), there would be collaboration, there is collaboration", the Indian embassy in Teheran rushed to clarify that there was in fact no collaboration.

"Cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy with Iran has only been under the IAEA Technical Coopera- tion programme", the embassy said in a press release. "There is no existing bilateral nuclear cooperation with Iran, nor is there any proposal for initiating such cooperation."

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Interview with Louise Frechette

10 February 2004
The Times of India

UN in, US out

Interview with Louise Frechette, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General

Last year, the US went ahead with its invasion of Iraq despite failing to win a UN mandate. Since then, the failure to find any illegal weapons there has underlined the questionable nature of ‘pre-emptive war' and reopened the debate on what is permissible under international law. In Delhi recently, UN deputy secretary general Louise Frechette spoke to Siddharth Varadarajan on the Iraq situation, and the ability of the world body to deal with questions of peace and security. Excerpts:

Does the United Nations, which was bypassed by the US in its drive to war in Iraq last year, feel vindicated now that Washington has been forced to turn to it for assistance in stabilising the country politically?

One can continue to debate whatever happened around the Iraq question last year, especially the decision of the US and Britain to go to war without UN support. But the secretary general is clear that every country must close ranks today to find a path for the stability and prosperity of Iraq. In our discussions with the US authorities in Iraq, we have insisted that the UN's role be clearly defined.

So long as Iraq is under foreign occupation, do you think any institution other than the UN could organise free and fair elections?

That's going way ahead of the situation. The experts team of the UN will study the situation in Iraq with a view to assessing the suitability of holding elections. The team will hold discussions with the Iraqi Governing Council and the Coalition Provisional Authority, and others there. Whatever we do has to be in support of the Iraqi people. Everybody agrees there has to be an early end to the occupation and a full return to Iraqi sovereignty. The US has come up with various proposals, including caucuses. But some players in Iraq don't find them acceptable. They want regular elections. In any case, this is the main question the UN will examine: Whether a full election is possible or not.

Have you got an assurance from the US that the mission's recommendations will be binding? What happens if the US has a different assessment?

Well, the US was among the countries that wanted the UN to send this mission. Our role is not to arbitrate but to give advice. There is one caveat — the secretary general insisted that the mission be assured full protection while it is in Iraq.

Now that it is clear no weapons of mass destruction will be found in Iraq and that none have existed there for some years now, how will the UN achieve a closure on this subject?

This is a decision for the Security Council. I don't know what it will decide. But the investigations carried out over the years did find a lot of material. At least since the end of 1998, when Richard Butler pulled UNSCOM out under US pressure, it is clear there was nothing more to find. The Iraqis were saying they had no weapons, yet sanctions remained, and then this war took place.Well, the Security Council is really the body to look into all these issues. There is quite a lot of documentation. Still, some questions have not been answered.

There is much talk of Saddam Hussein being put on trial. What do you think would be an appropriate court?

No UN position has been adopted on this yet. This could also be something the Security Council will take a view on. We have welcomed that his status has been clarified as a prisoner of war. We'd hope justice is done in his case, insofar as the question of due process is concerned. It could be an international tribunal or a domestic or mixed one. Rather than this or that court, due process is the key.

You are among those who've called for a debate on the meaning of Article 51 of the UN Charter which allows countries the right to self-defence. Do you feel the Charter has too narrow a definition of self-defence? The US claimed the right to pre-emptive war but what happens when it is, as now, unable to provide supporting proof?

Every time there is a serious disagreement on a common framework, multi-lateralism is undermined. The international community has to debate some very difficult questions. The pre-emptive force issue is one. The logic of pre-emptive war could easily lead to a proliferation of unilateral use of force. But the UN Charter is also not a suicide pact. States cannot be expected to adhere to it unless they are convinced that genuine threats will genuinely be dealt with by collective action. Then there is also the question of what happens when the government of a sovereign state subjects its own citizens to genocide, or other grave violations of human rights. Does the international community has the right to intervene or must it merely look on? Is there a ‘responsibility to protect', as everyone now agrees the UN did in Rwanda? And if the international community does decide to intervene, do we have the resources to live up to our ambitions?

But there is a mechanism, which is the UN Security Council, and which the US failed to utilise. By that yardstick, wasn't the invasion of Iraq illegal?

The Secretary General has said the decision to go to war should have been taken by the Council. What we are talking about are the implications for the UN, for the Security Council, of divisions on such issues. These questions need to be debated and resolved.

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Talbott: India could have helped pressure Pak

6 February 2004
The Times of India

India could have helped pressure Pak: Talbott

SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

NEW DELHI: This will probably raise eyebrows here, but the Clinton administration's point man for India following the 1998 nuclear tests believes New Delhi's failure to follow US advice on export controls robbed Washington of the "leverage" it needed to crack down on Pakistan's nuclear proliferation activities.

Against the backdrop of A Q Khan's mea culpa on PTV on Wednesday night, Strobe Talbott, former deputy secretary of state, told The Times of India that the US had all along been "very aware that Pakistan was a major problem on proliferation on the supply and demand side".

"We made loads of representations to Nawaz Sharif and then Musharraf on A Q Khan. We knew the problem was there... We knew where the Ghauri came from, where all the magical equipment at Kahuta came from".

Describing the contents of his lengthy dialogue with Jaswant Singh, who was external affairs minister at the time, Talbott said, "One of the reasons we pushed export control benchmarks with India was not because we were worried India would proliferate. We wanted Pakistan to tighten up. You know the perverse dynamics of the subcontinent: you do Pokhran, they do Chaghai. So we thought there could be a benign version too. India signs the CTBT and agrees to export controls; and then Pakistan follows."

Talbott strenuously denied the Clinton administration had been complacent about the threat posed by Pakistan's proliferation. "Four years later, a lot of new information has come out. But no one who was involved in the Clinton administration's policies at the time is surprised.

"We certainly knew about A Q Khan's links to North Korea, his trips elsewhere. This was no surprise and what we were looking for was leverage. India could have given us the leverage if it had moved on the export control benchmarks. But it didn't. Finally, 9/11 gave the US leverage by bringing regime change right on Pakistan's western borders. I think Pakistan has begun to do the right thing on proliferation now."

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IC-814 case was most successful: Al-Qaeda

5 February 2004
The Times of India

IC-814 case was most successful: Al-Qaeda

SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

NEW DELHI: "The hijacking of the Indian aircraft (IC-814) is one of the most famous, successful operations which the Mujahidin undertook to free some of the Mujahid prisoners," notes a manual titled 'Most Superior Fundamentals in the Art of Kidnapping Americans', translated from pro-al Qaeda website Al-Palsam.

Sketching the details of the operation — which culminated in Jaswant Singh (who was external affairs minister at the time) flying out to Kandahar with three terrorists, including Masood Azhar and Omar Sheikh, as co-passengers — the manual says: "Thank God, the shaykh (Masood Azhar) and some of his brethren were released, whereupon they arrived at Kandahar airport in an Indian airplane. With the departure from the territory of Afghanistan of the shaykh and his brothers, the phases of this successful, difficult operation were completed."

Azhar and Omar Sheikh went on to found the Jaish-e-Mohammed, one of the deadliest of terrorist groups operating inside Kashmir and Pakistan.

The December 13, 2001 attack on Parliament and the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl were both the handiwork of the JeM.

The IC-814 hijackers, the manual says approvingly, "were clearly able to lend greater prominence to their cause. The whole world began to deal with the Kashmir issue anew and according to a new perspective", while the Indian authorities "were afflicted with broken spiritedness, submissiveness and grovelling as they carried out the demands of the Mujahidin in front of the whole world".

The manual identifies three factors as key to the hijackers' success:

"Beforehand, the UAE (where the plane stopped for refuelling en route to Kandahar) had stated that the hijackers had been Sikh, and neither India nor any other state could learn of the identity of the kidnappers until after they announced their demands and their identity. And thus the secrecy through which the operation occurred had a great impact on the success which was on their side".

The choice of target (an Indian plane leaving Kathmandu) and the "place of negotiations", ie Kandahar under Taliban control.

"Yet, the greatest success in the matter was the speed of decision-making and resoluteness in the event, when the Indian forces delayed in supplying fuel."

The last is a reference to the hijackers' decision to stab 27-year-old passenger Rupin Katyal and take-off from Amritsar before the plane could be refuelled because they feared a rescue operation.

Though the manual's language and specifics suggest it is intended for use mainly by Palestinians against Israel, the reference to the hijacking of IC-814 could possibly reflect a shift in Islamist attitudes towards India on the question of Kashmir.

It could, of course, also be the product of Israeli psychological operations aimed at getting New Delhi to make common cause with Tel Aviv on the Palestine issue.

Indian intelligence officials say the manual is proof of the interlinkages that exist across extremist groups worldwide.

"These groups have individual identities and localised agendas and causes, but there are linkages too", an official told The Times of India. "Anyone who tries to go deep into these links, who tries to investigate the relationships, like Daniel Pearl tried to do, they stop".

Intriguingly, the reference to IC-814 — and to kidnapping Americans in the title of the manual — also suggests the involvement of Omar Sheikh in its authorship.

The document is merely signed 'Hekmatyar', an obvious pseudonym. Before he became notorious for the Pearl killing, Omar Sheikh had been imprisoned in India on the charge of kidnapping Americans.

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