New Delhi - Giving a lie to Pak denials of its links with Northeast India 's insurgent groups, Sri Lankan navy seized a Panamanian registered vessel carrying Pak military supplies to ULFA.
The NE insurgent groups generally pick up their military hardware and weapons from the Chittagong port where these are dumped by the supplier. About a year ago, an arms dump was exposed in the Chittagong port area rather accidentally and the then pro-Pakistan BNP government did its damnest to over up the expose.
This time around, Pakistan and Bangladesh are not that lucky. Vigilant Sri Lankan Navy foiled the plans. Also seized a ship carrying a consignment of explosives from Pakistan Ordnance Factory (POF) which are for delivery at Chittagong area for the use of Indian Insurgent groups, according to delayed reports.
The ship MV MOL Admiration left Karachi on August 14, carrying nearly thirty tonnes of high-grade explosives and arrived in Colombo harbor on August 22. The ship's manifest listed the consignment as "Steel Helmets, Bullet Proof jackets and DMS Boots" but has no documents showing the end users. As the consignment is much heavier than the items declared, Srilanka Naval authorities boarded the ship and opened the consignment ignoring the objections of the Defence Attaché of the Pak High Commission in Colombo. He argued with the naval authorities that the material wad a diplomatic cargo for use of Bangladesh Ordinance Factory (BOF). And tried to exert diplomatic pressure.
To his dismay, Sri Lankan authorities sought confirmation from the Defence Attaché of Bangladesh High Commission. He denied any knowledge of the cargo being ordered by BOF and termed as forged the manifest declaring BOF as consignee. An embarrassed Pakistani High Commission and Pak ordinance factory POF officials wanted to wriggle out and sought release of the consignment. But Colombo refused to oblige them unless the BOF certifies that it is meant for them.
The Defence Attaché in Pakistani High Commission in Dhaka had put in the rescue act, to quote sources in Dhaka familiar with the episode. He approached the Bangladeshi authorities with a request to issue a certificate that the seized consignment was meant for their country. Initially, Dhaka demurred and tried to duck but finally yielded to pressure 'from a brotherly country', as a local media report said. The Bangladesh Ordinance Factory issued the necessary documentation and Colombo cleared the release for the consignment, which was ferried to Chittagong on a Chinese vessel, Yong Yue-8, on August 25.
http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/7405
Taxi drivers linked to gangs (Norway)
Monday September 17 2007
A large number of Oslo taxi drivers already have been charged with tax evasion and welfare fraud. Now Oslo police suspect around 40 drivers and even more taxi owners of having close contact with Pakistani gangs, and operating as couriers of arms and drugs.
Excerpted
AL-Qaeda called on Islamists to sow terror in the West to create a climate of fear, in a third video marking the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US, which was posted on the internet today.
Called "reasons and motives for the attacks on New York and Washington," the video features a montage of images of the burning World Trade Centre towers and scenes from Islamist training camps.
"We must take Islamist terrorism to Western countries so that it becomes a normal part of life like natural disasters," a voiceover says. "In that way, we will have acts of mass extermination in which people will feel that their affluence also brings death... and we will have created a balance of deterrence between us and them," the unidentified voice adds.
The new video also includes clips from old voice recordings of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his Egyptian deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, as well as a short video clip of Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid, also known as Sheikh Said, the group's commander in Afghanistan.
Al-Qaeda already released a videotape and an audiotape featuring bin Laden earlier this month to mark the sixth anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3000 people in the US.
A third release had been trailed by al-Qaeda's media arm, As-Sahab. In the event the new video was issued in the name of al-Tanzem, prompting suggestions the network has launched a new media arm.