Dara Singh encounter case: CBI names minister in Raje government

Jaipur:  The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has presented the chargesheet in the Dara Singh fake encounter case.

 
It names a former minister in the Vasundhara Raje government Rajendra Rathore as an accused.

"The name of former Minister of Rajasthan has been mentioned in the charge sheet but not as an accused. His role is still under investigation," CBI sources said.
    
Dara Singh, a known criminal in his area and part of the liquor mafia was killed in a police encounter in October 2006 in Jaipur.

Later, his family alleged that the encounter was staged. On their plea, the Supreme Court handed over the case to the CBI in April 2010.

The CBI has already arrested four police officials in connection with

Jayalalithaa stops Karunanidhi's projects

Chennai:  DMK today put up a brave face over Jayalalithaa government's decision to set up a commission of inquiry into alleged irregularities in construction of the Rs. 1000 crore new Legislative Assembly complex, saying facing such commissions was not new to the party.

"DMK has seen and faced many inquiry commissions. We are not bothered about this one and we are ready to face it," party's Legislature Leader and former Deputy Chief Minister, M K Stalin told reporters.

The AIADMK government has announced a Commission of Inquiry under a retired High Court judge, saying, "There have been allegations of excess and wasteful expenditure and deficiency in the standards of new Secretariat building."

The Commission would "inquire into the alleged irregularities like excess expenditure, inordinate delay and deficiency in standards of construction," Governor SS Barnala had said in his address to the Legislative Assembly today while outlining the policies of the AIADMK.

The previous DMK government had held the last session in the new complex, a pet project of party chief Karunanidhi.

It was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the presence of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi last year.

Jayalalithaa had earlier flayed the lack of aesthetic appeal and the design of the new complex describing it as a "circus tent".

She had justified the decision to stick to the 17th century Fort St George building citing administrative considerations and denied any political bias.

This couple jailed, abused girl for 18 years

Placerville, California:  A California couple was jailed for life on Thursday for kidnapping a schoolgirl and sexually abusing her for 18 years, an ordeal which the victim said "stole my life."
          
In an emotional statement read out in court by her mother, Jaycee Dugard said she "hated every second" of her abuse at the hands of Phillip and Nancy Garrido, telling them: "There is no God in the universe that would condone your actions."
          
"To you, Phillip, I say that I have always been a thing for your own amusement. I hated every second of every day of 18 years because of you and the sexual perversion you forced on me," she said.
          
"As I think of all of those years, I am angry because you stole my life and that of my family. Thankfully I am doing well now and no longer live in a nightmare," Dugard added, in the statement read in court by her mother.

          
Phillip Garrido, who fathered two children with Dugard after kidnapping her aged 11 in 1991, was given 431 years, while his wife was jailed for between 36 years and life, after a plea bargain.
          
Nancy Garrido's lawyer, Stephen Tapson, said he read a statement to the court on behalf of his client, acknowledging that "what she did was evil," that she was sorry and that "words are not enough."
          
Tapson, who said Nancy Garrido would have to serve at least 20 years, added that he had asked that Nancy be allowed to see her husband one last time before they start their sentences, but the request was denied.

 

US to consider giving India further access to Headley

Washington:  The US would consider giving India access to David Headley, who has confessed to his involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks, for additional questioning by its investigating agencies, the State Department has said.

"In the past we've given India full access to Headley, and I think that when a case is in litigation it's impossible to do that. But moving forward, I think we would look for... or consider further access," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said at his daily news conference.

Headley, a Pakistani-American LeT operative, has completed his testimony before a Chicago court conducting the trial of his childhood friend Tahawwur Rana, another key accused in the Mumbai attacks.

Headley has pleaded guilty to 12 terrorism charges related to Mumbai attacks and other plots in the wake of his 2009 arrest in the US.

However, Rana, a Pakistani-Canadian, has maintained that he is not guilty in the charge of "support to terrorism".

During Rana's trial, Headley testified that he had conducted a surveillance of the German Bakery in Pune and identified Chabad houses in Delhi, Pushkar and Pune as potential bombing targets.

Osama death 'a curse for US', warns Al Qaeda

Cairo:  Al Qaeda released a statement on militant Web sites on Friday confirming the death of Osama bin Laden, news agencies reported.

The statement, dated May 3, was signed by "the general leadership" of the group, the Associated Press said.

"We stress that the blood of the holy warrior sheik, Osama bin Laden, God bless him, is precious to us and to all Muslims" the statement said according to the A.P., adding that his death would not "go in vain." The statement also said, "We will remain, God willing, a curse chasing the Americans and their agents, following them outside and inside their countries."

Bin Laden was killed by a United States raid early Monday morning in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

The statement said a voice recording that Bin Laden made a week before his death would be released soon, Reuters reported. The statement also called on the people of Pakistan to rebel against their government and warned of reprisal attacks against America.

"Soon, God willing, their happiness will turn to sadness," the statement said, according to the Associated Press, "their blood will be mingled with their tears."

Support for Osama; anti-US protests across Pakistan

Abbottabad/Peshawar/Quetta:  Thousands of protesters took to the streets across Pakistan on Friday, denouncing the US raid which killed the al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

In Kuchlak near Quetta, close to the Afghan border, protesters chanted "Osama is alive", holding aloft placards with pictures of bin Laden.

"After the martyrdom of Osama, billions, trillions of Osamas will be born," warned Abdullah Sittar Chishti, who works for the pro-Taliban Jamiat Ulema Islam political party.

Some protesters set fire to an American flag.

Further north, in Peshawar, hundreds of people marched through the town after Friday prayers.

Protestors were seen carrying green flags of the Jamat-e-Islami political party, who organised the demonstration.

A local Jamat-e-Islami leader called for "proof or evidence" about the US Special Forces raid on bin Laden's Abbottabad compound, accusing US President Barack Obama of using the raid as part of a ploy to win a second term in office.

"What they want more is to put pressure on the Pakistani government, and Obama wants to win his next election by using this drama," said Shabir Ahmed Khan.

In Abbottabad, the town where bin Laden was captured and killed, another protest saw hundreds taking part.

Waving Jamat-e-Islami party flags, and carrying homemade placards, some people chanted "Osama is alive" and "burn the US parliament".

The leader of Jamat-e-Islami, Mohammad Ibrahim, said supporters had come "on the highways and roads" to Abbottabad to take part in the protest, and condemn "the American assault and attack upon the solidarity and sovereignty of Pakistan"

Protesters also burned tyres in the streets.

Bin Laden, the face of global Islamist militancy, was killed in a firefight in Abbottabad with elite American forces early on Monday, then quickly buried at sea in a low key finale to a furtive decade on the run.

ISI chief Shuja Pasha may step down: Reports

Islamabad:  Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt General Ahmad Shuja Pasha may step down in the wake of widespread criticism of the Pakistani establishment over US special forces killing Osama bin Laden near a key military facility in the garrison city of Abbottabad, according to a media report.

Pasha may quit as the Pakistan government "looks for a fall guy for the bin Laden debacle", unnamed senior officials were quoted as saying by 'The Daily Beast', a news website affiliated to Newsweek magazine.

The senior officials said "they recognise that an important head has to roll and soon" to allay domestic and international anger over bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad, located close to the federal capital of Islamabad.

The officials said the "most likely candidate to be the fall guy is Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha". They said it was "nearly a done deal". Pakistani analysts with close connections to the military agreed. "It would make a lot of sense...It's in his (Pasha's) personal and the national interest to take the heat off," said Lt Gen (retired) Talat Masood, one of Pakistan's leading defence analysts.

An official statement issued after a meeting of Corps Commanders chaired by Army chief Gen Ashfaq
Parvez Kayani said the military admitted its "own shortcomings in developing intelligence on the presence of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan".

 It added that "an investigation has been ordered into the circumstances that led to this situation".

The Daily Beast reported that Pakistanis were furious that the ISI and the powerful military, which control national security policy, "could have been so incompetent not to know that the al Qaeda leader was comfortably holed up in Abbottabad", only 80 km north of Islamabad.

"Never before have the military and the ISI come under such criticism," said Masood.

People are angry that the military, which gets the lion's share of the budget, could be totally unaware that US helicopters had violated Pakistani airspace during the raid that killed bin Laden on Monday.

Pakistani officials, both from the civilian government and the military, have said the US did not inform them about the raid.

"People are outraged...They see this as the fault of the military in which they have invested so much trust," Masood was quoted as saying.

However, a senior ISI officer told The Daily Beast he could not confirm the report and he had no knowledge of Pasha being "pressured into resigning". 

According to some reports in the Pakistani media, Pasha left on Friday for Washington to explain Pakistan`s position on the presence of bin Laden in the country before he was killed in the US raid on May 2.