Pak man in US kills wife with Indian GF’s help

August 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

WASHINGTON: This was one India-Pakistan collaboration that wasn’t needed; it resulted in cold-blooded murder, rather than staunching bloodshed.

In a case that has stunned a placid suburban New Jersey community, a slick young Pakistani-American man allegedly plotted with his Indian girlfriend to kill his Pakistani wife. They pulled off the hit alright , but police was ripped open the case in no time.

Everything about the case stank from the time Kashif Pervaiz , 26, reported to the police about how his wife Naazish Noorani, was gunned down by three armed men as they were strolling with their three-year old son in the suburb of Boonton after a family Iftar dinner last Tuesday. He said the men, one black, one white and one unknown, had called them terrorists before shooting at them. He took bullets in his shoulders and leg, while Naazish , 26, was shot through the heart and died almost instantly . The child was unhurt.

But his story and the sequence of events kept changing all the time, leading police to rule out a race and ethnicity angle in an area that is a multicultural haven and hasn’t had a homicide in 10 years; especially after Naazish’s family updated them about their troubled marriage. In an email to her brother, Naazish had forewarned him about her possible death saying her husband could kill her. ‘I dont no wht to do. Cant talk to him cuz he abuse me than … he doesnt wanna live with me … i dont no kids get scared of him sometimes … im so tired of this … i dont no Im scared … someday u will find me dead because its cuz of kaski … he wants to kill me’ , the email read. Police also found that Kashif had lied to his wife’s family about studying at Harvard and had been two-timing her. He also had a sugar daddy in Manhattan from whom he hoped to inherit millions.

Indeed, Kashif did go to Boston frequently; that’s where he hooked up with Antoinette Stephen, an Indian immigrant from Kerala who lived next door to an apartment he had rented. Naazish visited Boston on weekends and seemed to have been aware of his relationship with Stephen, who Pervaiz called “Soni” . Police say Pervaiz and Stephen plotted Naazish’s murder – and they left a trail of text messages detailing their plans. They kept exchanging messages up to four hours before the murder.

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Factbox: What are the major issues between India and Pakistan?

July 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The talks between S.M. Krishna of India and Shah Mehmood Qureshi of Pakistan are widely seen as the first step in trying to revive a peace process broken off in the wake of the attacks on India’s financial capital.

Here are some of the main issues between the neighbors:

SECURITY

For India, security is the top issue. It has refused to resume a series of talks known as the composite dialogue until Pakistan takes more action against Pakistan-based militant groups.

In particular, India wants Pakistan to show it is serious in reining in the militants behind the Mumbai attacks, in which 166 people were killed.

This is complicated by Indian suspicions that the Pakistan security establishment backed the militants in some way. On the eve of the talks, Indian Home Secretary G.K. Pillai escalated the charges and directly blamed Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency for the attacks.

“It was not just a peripheral role,” he was quoted as saying by the Indian Express newspaper. “They were literally controlling and coordinating it from the beginning till the end.”

For its part, Pakistan accuses India of backing separatists in its Baluchistan province and providing weapons and funding to Pakistan Taliban groups, charges India denies.

KASHMIR

The divided, mostly Muslim Himalayan region of Kashmir is at the heart of hostility between the neighbors and was the cause of two of their three wars since independence from Britain in 1947. The third was over the founding of Bangladesh.

Separatists began an insurgency against Indian rule in 1989 — a movement almost immediately backed by Pakistan — and since then tens of thousands of people have been killed. Most fighters want all of Kashmir to become part of Pakistan but many ordinary Kashmiris want independence from both India and Pakistan.

Krishna and Qureshi will have to sidestep another danger — getting bogged down in a blame game over ongoing anti-government protests in a part of Kashmir held by India.

Violent anti-government protests have swept India-controlled Kashmir for almost a month. The region is under an army lockdown.

WATER

The two countries disagree over use of the water flowing down rivers that rise in Indian Kashmir and run into the Indus river basin in Pakistan.

The use of the water is governed by the 1960 Indus Water Treaty under which India was granted the use of water from three eastern rivers, and Pakistan the use of three western rivers.

Pakistan says India is unfairly diverting water with the upstream construction of barrages and dams. India denies the charge.

SIACHEN

Indian and Pakistani forces have faced off against each other in mountains above the Siachen glacier in the Karakoram range, the world’s highest battlefield, since 1984.

The two sides have been trying to find a solution that would allow them to withdraw troops, but India says it is unwilling to bring its forces down until Pakistan officially authenticates the positions they hold.

Pakistan has said it is willing to do so but on the condition that it is not a final endorsement of India’s claim over the glacier, a source of meltwater for Pakistan’s rivers.

AFGHANISTAN

Afghanistan has become a major source of friction, although Indian and Pakistani differences over Pakistan’s western neighbor have not been a part of their official talks.

The two countries have long competed for influence there and Pakistan is deeply suspicious of a rise in India’s presence after the fall of the Islamabad-backed Taliban government in 2001.

It accuses India of using Afghanistan as a base to create problems inside Pakistan, including backing separatists in its Baluchistan province. India denies the accusations, saying its focus is on development.

This rivalry is complicating U.S.-led efforts to end an intensifying Taliban insurgency and bring stability to Afghanistan more than eight years after the Taliban were ousted.

(Compiled by Chris Allbritton and Zeeshan Haider in Islamabad; Editing by Sugita Katyal)

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FACTBOX-What are the major issues between India and Pakistan?

July 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – The foreign ministers of nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India are holding their first substantive talks since the Mumbai attacks of 2008 in Islamabad on Thursday. [ID:nSGE66D0EY]

The talks between S.M. Krishna of India and Shah Mehmood Qureshi of Pakistan are widely seen as the first step in trying to revive a peace process broken off in the wake of the attacks on India’s financial capital.

Here are some of the main issues between the neighbours:

SECURITY

For India, security is the top issue. It has refused to resume a series of talks known as the composite dialogue until Pakistan takes more action against Pakistan-based militant groups.

In particular, India wants Pakistan to show it is serious in reining in the militants behind the Mumbai attacks, in which 166 people were killed.

This is complicated by Indian suspicions that the Pakistan security establishment backed the militants in some way. On the eve of the talks, Indian Home Secretary G.K. Pillai escalated the charges and directly blamed Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency for the attacks.

“It was not just a peripheral role,” he was quoted as saying by the Indian Express newspaper. “They were literally controlling and coordinating it from the beginning till the end.”

For its part, Pakistan accuses India of backing separatists in its Baluchistan province and providing weapons and funding to Pakistan Taliban groups, charges India denies.

KASHMIR

The divided, mostly Muslim Himalayan region of Kashmir is at the heart of hostility between the neighbours and was the cause of two of their three wars since independence from Britain in 1947. The third was over the founding of Bangladesh.

Separatists began an insurgency against Indian rule in 1989 — a movement almost immediately backed by Pakistan — and since then tens of thousands of people have been killed. Most fighters want all of Kashmir to become part of Pakistan but many ordinary Kashmiris want independence from both India and Pakistan.

Krishna and Qureshi will have to sidestep another danger — getting bogged down in a blame game over ongoing anti-government protests in a part of Kashmir held by India.

Violent anti-government protests have swept India-controlled Kashmir for almost a month. The region is under an army lockdown.

WATER

The two countries disagree over use of the water flowing down rivers that rise in Indian Kashmir and run into the Indus river basin in Pakistan.

The use of the water is governed by the 1960 Indus Water Treaty under which India was granted the use of water from three eastern rivers, and Pakistan the use of three western rivers.

Pakistan says India is unfairly diverting water with the upstream construction of barrages and dams. India denies the charge.

SIACHEN

Indian and Pakistani forces have faced off against each other in mountains above the Siachen glacier in the Karakoram range, the world’s highest battlefield, since 1984.

The two sides have been trying to find a solution that would allow them to withdraw troops, but India says it is unwilling to bring its forces down until Pakistan officially authenticates the positions they hold.

Pakistan has said it is willing to do so but on the condition that it is not a final endorsement of India’s claim over the glacier, a source of meltwater for Pakistan’s rivers.

AFGHANISTAN

Afghanistan has become a major source of friction, although Indian and Pakistani differences over Pakistan’s western neighbour have not been a part of their official talks.

The two countries have long competed for influence there and Pakistan is deeply suspicious of a rise in India’s presence after the fall of the Islamabad-backed Taliban government in 2001.

It accuses India of using Afghanistan as a base to create problems inside Pakistan, including backing separatists in its Baluchistan province. India denies the accusations, saying its focus is on development.

This rivalry is complicating U.S.-led efforts to end an intensifying Taliban insurgency and bring stability to Afghanistan more than eight years after the Taliban were ousted. (Compiled by Chris Allbritton and Zeeshan Haider in Islamabad; Editing by Sugita Katyal) (For more coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: here)

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India reimposes curfew in parts of Kashmir

July 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

India, July 10 (Reuters) – Indian authorities on Saturday re-imposed a curfew several hours ahead of schedule in some areas of Kashmir, including parts of the main city Srinagar, in response to protesters attacking security forces with stones, police said.

Authorities late on Friday had lifted a four-day long curfew that was introduced after some of the largest protests in two years against India rule. [ID:nSGE6682CY]

The curfew was to have come back into force later on Saturday evening, but was brought forward after police and protesters clashed in several places in the volatile region. In Srinagar, thousands of protesters led by separatist leader Mirwaiz Omar Farooq marched the streets demanding freedom.

The violence in Kashmir could affect efforts by India and Pakistan to revive a peace process that India suspended after the attacks in Mumbai in 2008, which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militants.

India has blamed Pakistan-based militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), of being behind the growing protests in Kashmir against Indian rule, but many locals believe the protests are mostly spontaneous.

The nuclear armed neighbours have fought two wars over the Himalayan region which they claim in full but rule in part. (Reporting by Sheikh Mushtaq; writing by C.J. Kuncheria)

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Afghanistan sees Pakistan border trade deal in weeks

July 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Afghanistan expects to sign a trade agreement with Pakistan this month in a move which could boost stability, but only if its neighbor drops opposition to forward-traffic with India, business leaders said on Saturday.

A long deadlock over Afghan demands for transit of exports to India via Pakistan through the sensitive Wagah land route was close to ending, clearing the way for Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) within weeks, Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce director Abdul Qadir Bahman told Reuters.

“It is not yet certain, but we have very strong hopes differences have been overcome,” Bahman said.

Landlocked Afghanistan is dependent upon transit countries for its foreign trade, with Pakistan having the nearest seaport. More exports would help President Hamid Karzai counter a Taliban insurgency by improving economic conditions.

Almost 50 per cent of Afghanistan’s trade is with its five neighbors Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Trade between Afghanistan and Pakistan is worth more than $1 billion.

But trade is very one-sided, the World Bank says, consisting for the most part by imports from Pakistan, as compared to very little formal Afghan exports.

Bahman said both sides would hold an eighth round of talks before an international conference in Kabul later this month in which donor countries and Karzai’s government will try to chart a path forward for the conflict-torn country.

“The main point is access to the sea for exports to India,” he said, promising a deal would also help combat the current thriving blackmarket trade between the two countries.

“If we sign this agreement, it will decrease that because we will have found a way for everyone to carry out business without any problems,” Bahman said.

Afghanistan, due to its strategic geographic position, hopes to become a regional transit hub for trade with Central Asia as well as South Asia, the Middle East and China, if the security situation in the country can be stabilized.

U.S. and NATO forces are currently preparing a major offensive against the Taliban in its southern strongholds, although the danger of the eastern border was underscored on Saturday when 11 Pakistanis were killed by insurgents as they entered Afghanistan.

Transit to Afghanistan through Pakistan is currently governed by the 1965 Afghan Transit Trade Agreement which specifies ports, routes, transport and customs transit procedures.

Both Afghanistan and Pakistan have agreed on the need for a new agreement to give Afghanistan sea access and provide Pakistan with direct routes to Central Asia.

But Pakistan says Afghanistan is refusing to agree to customs duty on Afghan cargo in Karachi and other measures to combat illegal smuggling such as compulsory licensing, bank credit guarantees and quarantine restrictions.

(Editing by David Fox)

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Afghanistan sees Pakistan border trade deal in weeks

July 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

KABUL, July 10 (Reuters) – Afghanistan expects to sign a trade agreement with Pakistan this month in a move which could boost stability, but only if its neighbour drops opposition to forward-traffic with India, business leaders said on Saturday.

A long deadlock over Afghan demands for transit of exports to India via Pakistan through the sensitive Wagah land route was close to ending, clearing the way for Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) within weeks, Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce director Abdul Qadir Bahman told Reuters.

“It is not yet certain, but we have very strong hopes differences have been overcome,” Bahman said.

Landlocked Afghanistan is dependent upon transit countries for its foreign trade, with Pakistan having the nearest seaport. More exports would help President Hamid Karzai counter a Taliban insurgency by improving economic conditions. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

For more on Afghanistan click [ID:nAFPAK]

or see link.reuters.com/syx62d

Afghan blog: blogs.reuters.com/afghanistan/ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> Almost 50 per cent of Afghanistan’s trade is with its five neighbours Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Trade between Afghanistan and Pakistan is worth more than $1 billion.

But trade is very one-sided, the World Bank says, consisting for the most part by imports from Pakistan, as compared to very little formal Afghan exports.

Bahman said both sides would hold an eighth round of talks before an international conference in Kabul later this month in which donor countries and Karzai’s government will try to chart a path forward for the conflict-torn country.

“The main point is access to the sea for exports to India,” he said, promising a deal would also help combat the current thriving blackmarket trade between the two countries.

“If we sign this agreement, it will decrease that because we will have found a way for everyone to carry out business without any problems,” Bahman said.

Afghanistan, due to its strategic geographic position, hopes to become a regional transit hub for trade with Central Asia as well as South Asia, the Middle East and China, if the security situation in the country can be stabilised.

U.S. and NATO forces are currently preparing a major offensive against the Taliban in its southern strongholds, although the danger of the eastern border was underscored on Saturday when 11 Pakistanis were killed by insurgents as they entered Afghanistan. [ID:nSGE669GBL]

Transit to Afghanistan through Pakistan is currently governed by the 1965 Afghan Transit Trade Agreement which specifies ports, routes, transport and customs transit procedures.

Both Afghanistan and Pakistan have agreed on the need for a new agreement to give Afghanistan sea access and provide Pakistan with direct routes to Central Asia.

But Pakistan says Afghanistan is refusing to agree to customs duty on Afghan cargo in Karachi and other measures to combat illegal smuggling such as compulsory licencing, bank credit guarantees and quarantine restrictions. (Editing by David Fox) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: here)

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FACTBOX-What are the issues between India and Pakistan?

June 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – The top diplomats of nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India hold their second meeting in three months on Thursday in Islamabad amid continuing efforts to normalise relations strained by the Mumbai attacks of 2008.

Here are some of the main problems between the neighbours.

SECURITY

For India, security is the top issue. It has refused to resume a series of talks known as the composite dialogue until Pakistan takes more action against Pakistan-based militant groups.

In particular, India wants Pakistan to show it is serious in reining in the militants behind the Mumbai attacks, in which 166 people were killed.

Pakistan accuses India of backing separatists in its Baluchistan province and providing weapons and funding to Pakistan Taliban groups, charges India denies.

KASHMIR

The mostly Muslim Himalayan region of Kashmir is at the heart of hostility between the neighbours and was the cause of two of their three wars since independence from Britain in 1947 (the third was over the founding of Bangladesh).

Separatists backed by Pakistan began an insurgency against Indian rule in 1989 and since then tens of thousands of people have been killed. Most fighters want Kashmir to become part of Pakistan but many ordinary Kashmiris want independence from both India and Pakistan.

WATER

The two countries disagree over use of the water flowing down rivers which rise in Indian Kashmir and run into the Indus river basin in Pakistan.

The use of the water is governed by the 1960 Indus Water Treaty under which India was granted the use of water from three eastern rivers, and Pakistan the use of three western rivers.

Pakistan says India is unfairly diverting water with the upstream construction of barrages and dams. India denies the charge.

SIACHEN

Indian and Pakistani forces have faced off against each other in mountains above the Siachen glacier in the Karakoram range, in the world’s highest battlefield, since 1984.

The two sides have been trying to find a solution that would allow them to withdraw troops, but India says it is unwilling to bring its forces down until Pakistan officially authenticates the positions they hold.

Pakistan has said it is willing to do so but on the condition that it is not a final endorsement of India’s claim over the glacier, an important source of meltwater for Pakistan’s rivers.

AFGHANISTAN

Afghanistan has become a major source of friction although Indian and Pakistani differences over Pakistan’s western neighbour have not been a part of their official talks.

The two countries have long competed for influence there and Pakistan is deeply suspicious of a rise in India’s presence after the fall of the Islamabad-backed Taliban government in 2001.

It accuses India of using Afghanistan as a base to create problems inside Pakistan, including backing separatists in its Baluchistan province. India denies the accusations, saying its focus is on development.

This rivalry is complicating U.S.-led efforts to end an intensifying Taliban insurgency and bring stability to Afghanistan more than eight years after the Taliban were ousted.

(Compiled by Chris Allbritton and Zeeshan Haider in Islamabad)

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ANALYSIS-As Pakistan stares at India, India eyes the world

June 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

ISLAMABAD, June 10 (Reuters) – When a senior security official here was asked why Pakistan was not developing long-range missiles, unlike in India, his answer revealed how these two nuclear foes’ geopolitical priorities may be diverging.

“We don’t have ambitions like India has, so we don’t need to develop any further long-range missiles,” he said. “Our missiles cover the entire India, so that’s it.”

Indeed, India has raised eyebrows developing a new long-range missile with a capacity to hit most of China, a signal of how New Delhi’s focus is tentatively moving away from an obsession with Pakistan to more global issues.

For decades, these two countries, which have gone to war three times since independence from Britain in 1947, have been synonymous with each other. Diplomats often like to talk of India-Pakistan as “hyphenated”.

But India is trying to move from that old beat, seduced more by its growing role in the global economy, its stellar growth and preoccupations with other security issues like China than dealing with what many Indians deride as a “failed state”.

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Key risks to watch [ID:nRISKIN] [ID:nRISKPK] ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Pakistan, meanwhile, often seems stuck in its obsession with India, mired in conspiracy theories, reflecting what critics say are decades-old fears that do little to bring regional stability.

It’s an imbalance that may help redefine how these nations reach for peace as well as create new risks, making an aspiring and globalised India more vulnerable to regional tension, while making Pakistan frustrated it is losing out to its neighbour.

“India sees itself as playing a global role and looks at the region as a stepping stone for its aspirations,” said Siddharth Varadarajan, strategic affairs editor for India’s The Hindu.

“Pakistan sees its ability to be noticed globally as related to its tensions with India.”

Take China. India is focused on boosting trade with China as part of its growing economic clout in Asia, while ensuring security over a disputed border. The two sides fought a brief but bloody border war in 1962. For Pakistan, China is simply source of diplomatic support and weapons to counter India.

In Afghanistan, where both countries are seen in a proxy war for influence, Indian officials laud $1.2 billion aid as their ability to help bring regional stability through “soft power”. Pakistan sees that as an effort to push it out and wants Indian aid scaled down.

The imbalance has already produced tensions with the United States. Washington wants Pakistan to stop worrying about India and focus more on Taliban militants on its Afghan border.

President Barack Obama hinted at frustration over Pakistan earlier this year when he said that (Pakistan’s) “obsession with India as the mortal threat to Pakistan has been misguided … their biggest threat right now comes internally”.

Those kind of comments irk Pakistan, where policy makers still see India trying to gain the kind of influence it has in its other South Asian neighbours, like Nepal.

“There are American efforts to persuade us to put troops on our Western border,” said Riffat Hussein, chairman of the department of defence and strategic studies at Pakistan’s Quaid-e-Azam University. “But no one here is fooled by that.”

The signing of a U.S. civilian nuclear agreement with New Delhi is another source of tension. For New Delhi, the deal was about having access to the global nuclear power market.

Islamabad looked on enviously as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was feted in Washington. Its request afterwards for a similar deal has fallen on deaf ears.

AN ARROGANT INDIA?

Pakistan worries India’s new global role will make New Delhi more arrogant, with fewer incentives for peace when it feels too important to ignore. Those fears may be exaggerated.

Singh, born in Pakistan before Partition in 1947, says India cannot really take its global place without peace in South Asia, with a second attack like Mumbai in 2008, which New Delhi blames on Pakistan-based militants, capable of derailing investor confidence in India’s globalised economy.

“The most cost-effective thing would be to engage Pakistan to improve the atmosphere to a point where you can reduce the possibility of another Mumbai,” said a senior Indian official on condition of anonymity.

“We know if we have to get on with it (India’s global push), we have to move beyond Pakistan.”

India is far more vulnerable to economic shock from another major border build-up than it was in 2002, the year of the last major border crisis that saw the countries nearly go to war again. It still has most of its army on the border and steep rises in defence spending are also linked to a perceived Pakistan threat.

So if India has one eye on global affairs, it always has the other on Pakistan, a fact not lost on Islamabad.

While former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf offered concessions over the disputed Kashmir region in a failed attempt to reach a peace deal with India a few years ago, his attempts to refocus away from an Indian threat may have proved just a blip.

Under new army chief Ashfaq Kayani — one of the most powerful men in Pakistan where the civilian government is weak — there has been a return to talk of the Indian threat, a sign critics say of Pakistan’s growing domestic problems.

Conspiracy theories about India, often linked to the United States, abound in Pakistan. With growing militancy, attacks and social problems, they won’t go away soon. “The more you lose on the economic front, on bad governance, the more you tend to externalise your problems and fears,” said Imtiaz Gul, chairman of Centre for Research and Security Studies. “Our conspiracy theories typify that tendency. (Added reporting by Kamran Haider in Islamabad and Krittivas Mukherjee in New Delhi; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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Border youth await Pakistanti pigeons’ arrival

June 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Daoke (Indo Pak Border), June 4 (ANI): Even as any intruder from the Pakistani side of border has to face the security forces, it is the Pakistani pigeons that bring a big smile in the border villages of Punjab on the Indian side.

The border village Daoke has become a safe place for the pigeons from Pakistan, which lose their way back to home.

Some of the pigeons belong to rare species of trained pigeons and all this offers an opportunity for the local youth here on the Indian side of the border to catch and sell them off at a good price.

Daoke village is located near the India- Pakistan international border and surrounded by barbed wire from three sides.

As most of the village youths have been living here since childhood, most of them have turned fully dependent on this trade for their livelihood.

The local traders keep their eyes on these pigeons arriving from the Pakistani side on any given day.

They hope that they deviate from their path and come into their captivity.

When a Pakistan pigeon comes near the village and see other pigeons on the ground, they land there and get trapped.

A Pakistani pigeon fetches thousands of rupees and the price goes up if it has the Pakistan traders” stamp on its feathers.

Sources say that the favorable time for holding pigeon flying contests in Pakistan is April, May, August, and September.

“ It is not that only Pakistani pigeons lose their way, many times our pigeons too land in the villages in Pakistan”, said Sucha Singh, a pigeon flyer.

“Here, on the Indo Pak border, the pigeon trade brings a golden opportunity to earn money for the poor and unemployed youth of villages and manage their two square meal,”said Pargat Singh, another pigeon flyer of this village. (ANI)

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Pakistan must stop supporting terrorism for talks to succeed: Farooq Abdullah

June 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, June 4 (ANI): Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Dr. Farooq Abdullah has asked Pakistan to stop supporting anti-India militant groups if it wants the Indo-Pak dialogue to succeed.

Talking to reporters here on Thursday, Abdullah said: “Controlling terrorist activities by Pakistan would benefit both countries immensely, as militant infiltration is on the rise since the beginning of the year.

“The biggest thing is to stop terrorism first. Only then will any talk with India become successful. Unless terrorism is stopped, all talks will be ineffective,” he added.

He also expressed happiness over the resolution of the Baglihar Dam dispute.

“There was a lot of commotion regarding the Baglihar issue which has been resolved now. They have agreed to Uri project (River projects). The other project, which we are making at Kargil, they have accepted that as well. Gradually, things will become better,” he said.

Members of India- Pakistan Permanent Indus Water Commission recently held talks on issues relating to the distribution of Indus waters, as Pakistan had earlier raised objections to India”s Baglihar and other water storage projects. (ANI)

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‘Not right time for India and Pak to address Kashmir issue’

May 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The US has said that this is not the appropriate moment for India and Pakistan to hold discussions on the Kashmir issue as they need to go for confidence building measures first.

“I think that’s not going to be an issue that’s going to be addressed right away,” Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake said in response to a question at a special news conference on India yesterday.

Blake emphasised that it was for India and Pakistan to take a call on it, but felt that it would be better for the two countries go for confidence building measures first.

“I think, again, that what’s most important is first to get these talks going again and to focus on — once they’ve gotten beyond the immediate counter-terrorism issues, to focus on some of the important opportunities like trade that exist between these two countries,” Blake said.

“Once they have developed a degree of confidence, they might then be able to take up some of these more sensitive territorial issues,” Blake said.

He was responding to the question: “Where does Kashmir and the line of control fit into this puzzle?” The State Department official also did not agree with the allegations coming from some of the top Pakistani officials about India’s role in Afghanistan, which he said is nothing but constructive.

“I am not sure that India’s providing that much training to the Afghan army,” Blake said when referred to the remarks of General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani that he was against India training Afghan Armed forces.

“The vast majority of the assistance that the Indians are providing to Afghanistan is in the form of economic assistance,” Blake said.

“I would say we’ve welcomed very much the assistance that India has provided and all of our cabinet-level officials have welcomed that and will continue to do so,” he said.

“We think that they’ve really played a very important role with the USD 1.3 billion in assistance that they provided to date, mostly in infrastructure and other kinds of reconstruction projects, but also capacity building and training and so forth.

And so we think that is a very important part of the international effort to help stabilise Afghanistan,” Blake said.

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Infiltration from Pak into India obstacle to relationship: US

May 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The US has said that the continued infiltration of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and other (Pakistani) Punjab-based terrorist groups into India is one of the most important obstacles to the Indo-Pak relationship and the dialogue between the two South Asian neighbours.

“One of the most important obstacles to expansion of those relations is the continuing infiltration from Pakistan to by Punjab-based groups, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM),” Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake said yesterday.

“The United States has consistently called for greater action on the part of Pakistan to stop the activities of these groups,” Blake asserted, thus putting on Pakistan the onus of success of the resumption of the dialogue between the two countries.

The State Department spokesman also refuted reports that the US is pressurising either India or Pakistan to continue with the dialogue process, as is being reported in the American and Indian media.

“We always have an interest in seeing our two friends have peaceful relations, but we are not pressurising either side,” Blake said.

The United States has consistently said that it is up to India and Pakistan to determine how to improve their relations and that the pace and the scope and the character of whatever talks they have is really up to those two countries to decide, he added.

“But we will always stand ready to help in any way that we can, because again, we see it very much in our interest to see improved ties between these two friends of ours,” Blake said.

Pakistan, he conceded, along with Afghanistan would be one of the major issues of discussions during the next week’s strategic dialogue between India and US; which would be co-chaired by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and External Affairs Minister S M Krishna. Blake said during the meeting the US will welcome the announcement that has been made by the Indians and the Pakistanis that their two foreign ministers will meet in Islamabad in mid-July.

“That meeting will be preceded by a very important meeting between the home ministers that will take place in late June.

Home Minister P Chidambaram of India will be, again,

visiting Islamabad. So those are very important opportunities to try to expand relations and to reduce some of the frictions between these two friends of the United States,” he said.

The State Department official said the US would like to see two of its friends — India and Pakistan — to get back on the days of 2004-2007, when Pakistan took actions against terrorists and that laid the basis for a very significant expansion in relations between the two countries.

“But one of the first things that has to happen is for there to be visible progress in stopping this,” he said.

“I think the point that the Secretary (of State) and(Defense) Secretary Gates and the (US) President himself has made is that increasingly, these groups are all operating together as a syndicate.

So it’s very much in Pakistan’s own interest to take on these groups as well,” Blake said.

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‘US consistently pressing Pakistan to rein in anti-India terror groups’

May 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 29 (IANS) The United States says it has consistently pressed Pakistan to stop the continuing infiltration into India by Punjab-based terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taeba and Jaish-e-Mohammed as this was a key obstacle to improved relations between ‘two friends of US’.

‘On Pakistan, I’m sure it will be a topic of discussion’ at the inaugural US-India strategic dialogue here next week Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert O. Blake told reporters Friday when asked what the US was doing to rein in Pakistan to allay India’s concerns about cross border terrorism.

Welcoming the announcement that Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers will meet in Islamabad in mid-July and Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram will be visiting Islamabad in late June, he said: ‘Those are very important opportunities to try to expand relations and to reduce some of the frictions between these two friends of the United States.’

But Blake acknowledged ‘One of the most important obstacles to expansion of those relations is the continuing infiltration from Pakistan to by Punjab-based groups, such as Lashkar e-Taeba and Jaish-e-Mohammed and others.’

‘And the United States has consistently called for greater action on the part of Pakistan to stop the activities of these groups,’ he said suggesting ‘Pakistan has done so in the past between 2004 and 2007, and that laid the basis for a very significant expansion in relations between India and Pakistan.

‘So we’d like to see these two friends get back on that same course again. But one of the first things that has to happen is for there to be visible progress in stopping this.’

President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defence Secretary Robert Gates have all made the point ‘that increasingly, these groups are all operating together as a syndicate. And so it’s very much in Pakistan’s own interest to take on these groups as well,’ Blake said,

Highlighting what he called ‘the unprecedented counterterrorism cooperation,’ between India and the US, he said they had raised the level of cooperation ‘because of the increasingly common threats that we face, particularly those in India faced by Lashkar- e-Taeba and other groups.’

Asked if the US will relay Pakistan’s concerns about India ‘training the Afghan army’, he said: ‘I’m not sure that India’s providing that much training to the Afghan army. The vast majority of the assistance that the Indians are providing to Afghanistan is in the form of economic assistance.’

And US ‘welcomed very much the assistance that India has provided and all of our cabinet-level officials have welcomed that and will continue to do so,’ he said describing it as ‘a very important part of the international effort to help stabilise Afghanistan.’

Denying reports that US is pressurising India to have its dialogue with Pakistan despite the fact that Islamabad has not taken any action against those responsible for the Mumbai terrorist attack, the official said while US ‘always have an interest in seeing our two friends have peaceful relations, but we are not pressurising either side.’

Asked where the Kashmir issue fitted into this puzzle, Blake said ‘What’s most important is first to get these talks going again and once they’ve gotten beyond the immediate counterterrorism issues, to focus on some of the important opportunities like trade’ before ‘taking up some of these more sensitive territorial issues.’

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Pakistan, Iran finalise gas pipeline deal – ministry

May 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Pakistan and Iran have finalised a deal for the construction of a much-delayed pipeline to pump Iranian natural gas to the energy-starved South Asian country, the Pakistan petroleum ministry said.

The $7.6 billion project is crucial for Pakistan to avert a growing energy crisis already causing severe electricity shortages in the country of about 170 million.

Pakistani and Iranian petroleum officials signed the agreement on Friday evening in Islamabad, the ministry said.

“The project is now ready to enter into its implementation phase,” the ministry said in a statement.

Pakistan said the first gas is scheduled to flow by the end of 2014 and expects its total cost on the project to be $1.65 billion, funded through private and state capital.

Under the deal, Pakistan will import from Iran 750 million cubic feet of gas daily for 25 years. The amount could be increased to 1 billion cubic feet a day and the deal could be extended five years if needed, the ministry said.

The ministry said the imported gas would help generate about 5,000 MW of power.

The pipeline would connect Iran’s South Fars gas field with Pakistan’s southern Baluchistan and Sindh provinces.

Iran has the world’s second-largest gas reserves after Russia. But sanctions by the West, political problems and construction delays have slowed its development as an exporter.

“U.S. OPPOSITION”

Dubbed the “peace pipeline” by the two countries, the project has been planned since the 1990s and originally would have extended from Pakistan to its old rival, India.

However, India has been reluctant to join the project given its long-running distrust of Pakistan, with which it has fought three wars since independence in 1947.

Under a previous deal between Iran and Pakistan, Islamabad holds the right to charge a transit fee if the pipeline is eventually extended to India.

The United States has tried to discourage India and Pakistan from any deal with Iran because of Tehran’s suspected ambitions to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies any such ambitions.

India has invested in civilian nuclear reactors to help fulfil its increasing energy demand. It also signed a landmark civilian nuclear deal with the United States in 2008.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan has long called for a similar deal with the United States, but Washington has been unwilling to make an agreement with its ally, which is battling an al Qaeda-linked Islamist insurgency.

(Editing by Chris Allbritton and Paul Tait)

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Obama elevated dialogue with ‘emerging global power’ India

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 27 (IANS) The US says the Obama administration felt it important to elevate its dialogue with New Delhi as India is a ‘a great and emerging global power’ with which the US has a significant range of interests.

‘I think the strategic dialogue speaks for itself,’ State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley told reporters Wednesday when asked to give a sense of US-India relations in the first 17 months of Obama Administration.

‘India is a great and emerging global power. Our range of interests are significant in terms of the environment, in terms of regional security, in terms of counterterrorism, economic issues,’ he said.

‘We have very strong cultural ties to India, so we look forward to the strategic dialogue,’ he said referring to the June 3-4 inaugural India-US strategic dialogue led by Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

‘It’s something that the Secretary and the President (Barack Obama) felt important to elevate the level of our coordination and cooperation,’ he said. ‘So we look forward to the dialogue.

‘I think our relations with India have never been stronger. We are talking about the relations between the largest and oldest democracies in the world. We have a great deal in common and we look forward to the meetings next week,’ Crowley added.

Asked about a report that Pakistan has asked for US help in bridging the trust deficit with India, the US official said trust deficit was essentially a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan, but US will continue to encourage both of its ‘friends’ to enhance their dialogue and cooperation.

‘Well, the trust deficit, as it’s been called, between India and Pakistan is most significantly a bilateral issue between Pakistan and India,’ he said.

The US, Crowley said, had ‘encouraged both Pakistan and India to enhance its dialogue in a cooperation’ as it was ‘friends with both countries’ and has ‘strong and strengthening relationships’ with both.

‘We are gratified that both countries seem to be moving in a direction that – to see that dialogue become deeper. So we will continue to encourage both countries to pursue the commitments that both have made and pledged publicly.’

Asked what role the US had played in India banning over 100 terrorist organizations and Pakistan arresting an army major in connection with the failed Times Square bombing, Crowley said: ‘First of all, these were steps taken by India and Pakistan.’

Security and counterterrorism were an ingredient of its dialogue in the US relationship with both countries, Crowley said describing it as ‘a shared challenge that the United States, India, Pakistan, other countries have.

‘It’s a global challenge. So we welcome the efforts of these countries to try to reduce the threat not only within the region, but more broadly.’

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)

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UN nuclear conference calls on India to joint NPT, CTBT

May 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Breaking the tradition of not naming countries, the first draft of the final document of 2010 Nuclear-Non Proliferation Treaty Review conference has asked India, Pakistan and Israel to join NPT and CTBT.

“The conference calls upon India, Israel and Pakistan to accede to the treaty as non-nuclear weapon States, promptly and without conditions, thereby accepting an internationally legally binding commitment not to acquire nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices,” the first draft of the document said.

“The conference also calls upon India and Pakistan to maintain moratoriums on nuclear testing and calls upon India, Israel and Pakistan to sign and ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) without delay and without conditions,” it said.

The NPT Review Conference is held every five years to assess the progress in reaching the goals set out in the 1970 treaty to disarm and stop the spread of nuclear weapons.

This year it started on May 3 and would end on May 28 when the final draft is expected.

India, Pakistan and Israel have not signed the treaty and do not attend. The last conference in 2005 ended in failure.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a Western diplomat said here that there were countries, which had accepted that India and Pakistan were not going to become part of the treaty and suggested a new track to reign them into the non-proliferation regime.

“We are going to try and put them in a cooperation system with obligations so that they would have the same obligations that NPT countries without being in the NPT,” he said, noting that such an agreement was better than doing nothing.

Several experts, however, have pointed out that by the time the final document was prepared the names of the countries may be replaced by a more general call for the universal acceptance of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Officials noted that naming Israel, for instance, would lead to the country not cooperating with the Arab nations on a plan to have a Middle East free nuclear weapons free zone.

“We want something so that all countries come to the table,” the Western diplomat said. “But it’s so fragile, it’s so difficult.”

Mark Hibbs, an expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who had attended the meetings noted that there seemed to be a “tacit agreement” not to retain the names by the end of the conference.

Yesterday, US also reiterated that its nuclear cooperation deal with India was a unique situation and did not set a precedent for the future, according to Reaching Critical Will, a project of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the oldest women’s peace organisation in the world.

While several states continue to criticise the special status given to India through the Civil Nuclear deal as weakening the NPT regime, diplomats here noted that it had not become a major bone of contention.

However, the senior Western diplomat noted that the international community would not accept Pakistan entering into a deal similar to the one the US and India had signed.

“We know exactly what India is doing,” he said, noting that Islamabad would not allow checks on its nuclear facilities even if entered into a similar agreement with China.

“Pakistan does not want to have any inspection of any kind.”

Meanwhile, the five permanent members of the Security Council have come under severe criticism for watering down the disarmament obligations in the document.

“The commitment to disarm are clearly weaker than what they have been till now,” Hibbs said.

The senior Western official also noted that the tussle in the conference was between the permanent members of the Security Council that were united and the Non-Aligned Movement countries that had divided positions on several issues including Iran’s nuclear program.

“The final document will be weak because it will be the only way to have a document,” the Western diplomat said.

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Iran may escape censure at nuclear treaty meeting

May 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Iran may escape censure at a meeting of the 189 signatories of a global anti-nuclear arms pact, despite growing concerns that Tehran might be developing atomic weapons, according to a draft declaration.

The United States and other countries say Iran is in breach of its obligations under the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a landmark arms-control pact that has been the focus of a month-long conference and review wrapping up this week.

A draft declaration prepared by conference president Libran Cabactulan of the Philippines fails to mention Iran or its nuclear program, though it names India, Pakistan and Israel as NPT holdouts. Diplomats said Iran had threatened to veto any final declaration if it was named.

The draft also names North Korea, which pulled out of the NPT several years ago.

Delegates say they hope a final version of the declaration, which calls for improved compliance with the treaty and further disarmament steps, can be agreed before the NPT conference ends on Friday. NPT decisions are made by consensus.

There is only an indirect reference to Iran in a paragraph of the 29-page draft declaration, obtained by Reuters, that says the NPT review conference “expresses its concerns with cases of noncompliance of the Treaty by States parties.”

In February 2006, the governing board of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) adopted a resolution that referred Tehran’s nuclear program to the Security Council due to what it said were “Iran’s many failures and breaches of its obligations to comply with its NPT Safeguards Agreement.”

Western officials say that IAEA resolution amounted to a finding of Iranian noncompliance with the NPT. Iran denies violating the NPT and says its nuclear program is peaceful.

The IAEA resolution also opened the door to three rounds of U.N. Security Council sanctions against Tehran for refusing to halt its uranium enrichment program. The council is currently negotiating a fourth round of sanctions against Tehran.

U.S., EGYPT HOPE FOR MIDDLE EAST DEAL

Ray Acheson of Reaching Critical Will, a nuclear disarmament group, said the Iranian delegation had insisted that if it were named, the United States and others should be as well for “serious noncompliance with Article I of the NPT.”

Article I of the NPT obliges the five nuclear powers — the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia — not to transfer nuclear weapons technology to other countries.

Diplomats said the reference to Article I violations was a dig at Western support for Israel, which is presumed to have a sizable nuclear arsenal but neither confirms nor denies it.

The draft calls on NPT holdouts Israel, India and Pakistan to sign the treaty and allow U.N. inspectors to inspect their atomic facilities. It also says the conference “deplores” nuclear tests by North Korea, which left the NPT in 2003.

A deal on a declaration, Western envoys say, now hinges on whether Arab delegates are willing to compromise on a possible conference to discuss ways of making the Middle East a zone free of weapons of mass destruction. Such a plan could eventually force Israel to give up any atomic arms it has.

The draft calls for a conference on creating such a zone in 2012 to be organized by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon involving all states in the region. But diplomats said any language on this issue would be drafted by the Arabs in agreement with the five permanent Security Council members.

“If we can’t get a Middle East deal, there will be no outcome document and we’ll have another failure,” a Western envoy said on condition of anonymity. “The Arabs have to decide whether they want something (on a WMD-free zone) Israel can participate in, or if they just want to beat up on Israel.”

As the meeting enters its final days, diplomats are hoping to avoid a repeat of the last NPT review conference in 2005. That one failed due to Egypt’s frustration at the lack of a deal to pressure Israel over its atomic program and developing nations’ anger at the U.S. repudiation of disarmament pledges.

Both Egypt and the United States are eager to avoid another failure. Cairo does not want to be labeled as a spoiler, while Washington wants an outcome that backs President Barack Obama’s determination to move toward a world free of nuclear arms.

(Editing by Philip Barbara)

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US wants START to span India, Pak

May 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan has figured during a Congressional hearings on the New START treaty between US and Russia.

For the past two days, during hearings on New START treaty held by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, lawmakers wanted to know from top US officials and experts, who were asked to testify before it to give their assessment of this treaty on other nuclear weapon countries like India and Pakistan and how it can motivate the two countries to reduce their nuclear stockpile.

“I wonder if you might comment on reduction in counter proliferation efforts more generally, that this agreement might have an effect on. I think specifically of India and Pakistan, for instance. To what extent might this agreement have the positive impact on causing other nations to begin to move in this direction?” asked Senator Chris Dodd on Tuesday.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton refrained from directly mentioning India and Pakistan in her answer, but did say that the US would soon explore the possibility of having a similar kind of dialogue with China.

“We want to explore beginning conversations with other nuclear nations, starting with China, and see what kind of opportunity for discussion could exist,” Clinton said.

Senator Benjamin L Cardin said the India-Pakistan issues are also ones of major concern to all of them and noted that that Russia and the US to work together on these issues that are important for the international community, including Iran and North Korea.

On Wednesday Senator Jim Risch said initially it was only between the US and Russia.

“We had the United States and we had Russia that had nuclear weapons. And we were doing the things that we did, and rightfully so, and it was important that we had the treaty,” he said.

“It seems to me, where we now have other countries, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, India, and the other issues out there, it seems to me that a missile defence is more important now than it’s ever been,” Risch said.

Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said: “The challenge that we face — India, Pakistan, North Korea, Iran now — while you succeeded in reducing the nuclearization of a number of States.

And while some other states have chosen to give it up since then. We still have this very significant moment at this point with respect to Iran and what the implications would be for the Gulf, and a number of Arab states.”

Testifying before the committee, the former Secretary of State, Jim Baker said if the US and Russia have a good arms control agreement that is being observed by both countries that will help them in dealing with the problem with Iran in the UN Security Council.

“That is extraordinarily important. I mean, Pakistan and India and North Korea and Israel now all have the bomb.

And — and some of them have it in — in violation of the NPT that they signed.

And some of them have it because they were never NPT countries to begin with,” Baker said.

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Terror to be core issue of talks between India and Pakistan: Krishna

May 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, May 20 (ANI): External Affairs Minister S M Krishna has said that terror continues to be the core issue of talks between India and Pakistan, and it would be one of the most important issues that would be taken up between the two nations during his forthcoming visit to Pakistan beginning July 15.

“Terror will continue to be the core issue for us even when I go to Islamabad. I will be talking to Foreign Minister Qureshi on terror, on terror instrumentalities and how those terror instrumentalities are operating from the soil of Pakistan,” said Krishna.

“But at the same time, Pakistan also says they are afflicted by terror. The Taliban and other terrorist outfits are active even in Pakistan against the establishment. So, that has to be factored in while making an assessment of the impact of terror on India and Pakistan,” he added in an interview to Raj Chengappa, Editor-in-Chief, The Tribune.

On efforts by Pakistan to dismantle the terror apparatus and cut off link with it, Krishna said: “In the light of the terror attacks they have been experiencing in their own country, they are in a position to assess what terror is all about. Terrorists can strike any country, anywhere, and, they can do it at will.”

“That is what they have proved in Rawalpindi. That is what they have proved in Swat and various other areas. So, I am sure, Pakistan would be looking at terror perhaps in the same prism with which India views it in,” he added.

On the prosecution of Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed, the suspected mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, Krishna said India has the evidence and Pakistan should proceed against him.

“We have been telling them that we have given you enough evidence to prosecute Hafiz Sayeed, who is the mastermind behind the Mumbai attacks. We have the evidence and that evidence is provable in a court of law. So, I think, they should proceed against him.”

“But both the times it was the court of law which let him out of custody. But, we still insist that Hafiz Sayeed is the brain behind the Mumbai attacks and he has to be brought to justice,” he added.

Krishna said the main mission of his Pakistan visit would be to foster friendly relations between the two nations and eliminate the prevailing distrust.

“But our efforts will certainly be to eliminate the prevailing distrust. The central theme of my visit to Pakistan is to make an effort to eliminate the distrust among us. I think, if we succeed, something would have been achieved,” he added. (ANI)

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Pak serves legal notice to India over Kishanganga dam construction issue

May 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Islamabad, May 20 (ANI): Pakistan has served a legal notice to India concerning the long pending issue of construction of the Kishaganga dam over the river Indus.

The Nation reported a private television channel, as saying that the notice has been sent by the Water and Power Ministry in consultation with the Indus Water commission with an aim to bring the issue before the World Bank’s court of arbitration.

It is worth mentioning here that the notice has been served at a time when Pakistan’s Indus Water Commissioner Jamaat Ali Shah is scheduled to visit India on May 29th to participate in the annual Indus Water Commission meeting.

The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), inked between India and Pakistan in 1960, provides appointment of a neutral expert by the World Bank as a last option to resolve water related issues between both the countries.

Pakistan has been blaming India for an unsporting attitude during bilateral talks, which were initiated to resolve the impending water dispute.

Pakistan has been opposing the construction of the Kishanganga hydropower project on the Ganga River in Kashmir, which is called Neelum upon entering Pakistan. Pakistan has said that the diversion of the waters of the Neelum is not allowed under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, and it will face a 27 per cent water deficit, when the project gets completed.

It also claims that India has almost completed a 22-kilometre long tunnel to divert Kishanganga waters to Wullar Lake in Jammu and Kashmir. (ANI)

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