Taliban want Sharia law enforced throughout Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: A resurgent Taliban in Pakistan's northwestern Swat valley on Monday vowed to enforce Islamic laws across the country while ruling out
the possibility of laying down arms following the implementation of Sharia in the region.

The Sharia or Islamic law regime approved recently by President Asif Ali Zardari will not be confined to Malakand division, which includes Swat, and the Taliban wants the system to be enforced in other parts of Pakistan, Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said today.

"(Sharia) is not only for Malakand division, it is for all humanity, for all Muslims. So we will go more for implementation of Quran, Shariah-e-Muhammadi, not only in Malakand division (but) other parts of Pakistan also," Khan told Dawn News channel in an interview.

He was responding to a question on whether the Taliban believed they had achieved their goal following the federal government's approval for enforcing Sharia in Swat.

Islamic laws were enforced in Swat, located just 160 km from Islamabad, after religious hardliner Sufi Muhammad initiated peace talks with Taliban on behalf of government.

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NDA will cross magic figure of 272: Swaraj

BHOPAL: Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj today expressed confidence that the NDA would definitely cross the magic figure of 272 in the Lok Sabha elections.

Not only would the NDA get a majority on its own, the BJP would also emerge as the single largest party, Swaraj said while addressing a press conference at the Madhya Pradesh BJP office.

Asked to specify the number of seats that the BJP was likely to win, she said that the party would win anything between 180 to 200 seats on its own.

The senior BJP leader, who is the party in-charge for Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand said that her party can win all the 11 seats in Chhattisgarh, all the 29 seats in Madhya Pradesh and four out of six seats in Jharkhand for which polling was held in the first phase on April 16.

Sushma said that she was hurt at the type of language being used by leaders of some political parties during the campaign for the Lok Sabha elections.

She claimed that when BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate, L K Advani described Manmohan Singh as a weak Prime Minister, he did not attack him personally but only referred to his working style.

Similarly, Sushma said that when Narendra Modi called the Congress as old, he did not mean disrespect to any person but only spoke of the organization.

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Paswan defends Lalu on Babri statement against Congress

PATNA: Coming out in defence of his ally Lalu Prasad, locked in a bitter verbal duel with the Congress over Babri mosque demolition, LJP president Ramvilas Paswan today said that nobody can dispute what the RJD leader had said on the issue.

"Lalu ji has just said that there was a Congress government in Delhi led by P V Narasimha Rao when the Babri mosque was pulled down. Who can dispute this fact?," Paswan told reporters at the airport here before leaving for electioneering.

Paswan slammed the Congress for attacking him and Lalu ignoring the "sacrifices" they made for the party that heads the the UPA government at the Centre.

"It is only after Congress president attacked Lalu at an election rally in Jamui for misgovernance during the RJD rule that we retaliated," he said.

Paswan, also a union minister, said despite his party deciding against putting up a "winnable candidate" Shoaib Iqbal from Chandni Chowk constituency, "the Congress has not reciprocated the gesture and fielded a candidate against me who is not capable of fetching even 2000 votes."

"Babri masjid was razed to the ground and Congress cannot be absolved of responsibility," Lalu had said addressing an election meeting at Manigachi in Bihar's Darbhanga district on April 17, triggering a counter-attack by the Congress.

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I never said LTTE is not a terror group: Karunanidhi

NEW DELHI: A day after Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi called LTTE chief V Prabhakaran “a good friend”, he sought to clarify his remarks
saying his earlier comments had been twisted and taken out of context.

“I never said LTTE is not a terror group,” Karunanidhi said on Monday. “I expressed concern for the Tamil cause in Sri Lanka,” he added. “But the LTTE did not start as a terrorist organization, it became a terror group later,” he said. ( Watch )

“We cannot forgive the LTTE for killing Rajiv Gandhi,” he said in attempt to backtrack from his earlier remarks. “Sriperumbudur cannot be forgotten”.

The DMK chief on Sunday inflicted a serious embarrassment on Congress by calling Prabhakaran a good friend. "Prabhakaran is my good friend. I am not a terrorist," said Karunanidhi with a laugh of the LTTE boss who is treated as a terrorist by almost the entire international community.

Karunanidhi, who was speaking to a TV channel, also refused to describe the LTTE chief as a terrorist, though he faulted him for using "wrong methods". "Their goals are right, but method is wrong," he said of the LTTE, declared a terrorist organisation in India.

Congress, which supports the DMK government in Tamil Nadu, swiftly contradicted the UPA partner's remarks but, significantly, refrained from attacking Karunanidhi.

Asked specifically by his daughter and DMK Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi, who was present in the interview, whether he saw Prabhakaran as a terrorist, Karunanidhi said in Tamil, " Naan appadi paarkkalai (I don't see that way)."

He drew a distinction between Prabhakaran and his group which follows him reverentially. "May be, some people in his group are terrorists but that is not his fault." The chief minister also endorsed LTTE's objective to carve out a separate Tamil homeland from Sri Lanka. "The goals of the LTTE are great. They operate with the wonderful goal of establishing Tamil Eelam. However, somewhere along the line, terrorists entered the scene without their knowledge."

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