Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has warned that militant attacks such as this week's storming of a disputed religious site in northern Ayodhya town could disrupt the peace process with Pakistan, media reports said yesterday.
"Certainly these incidents, [if] they get repeated -- have the potential to disrupt the peace process. All concerned have a commitment to make it irreversible," Singh told Indian reporters on board a flight to Scotland to attend the G8 summit.
Six people were killed Tuesday when militants blasted their way into a heavily-guarded religious complex in Ayodhya and attempted to attack a makeshift temple to Hindu deity Ram built by Hindu zealots in 1992 after they demolished an ancient mosque.
PHOTO: AP
While police had said the six were all militants, media reports yesterday, quoting family members and local police, said one in fact had been a local tour guide who had been hired by the attackers to show them around the compound.
Police have not disclosed the identities of the gunmen, saying they have yet to determine which militant group was behind the assault.
Singh, who termed the incident a "terrorist attack," stopped short of directly blaming Pakistan but said India's arch rival had to do more to dismantle the "infrastructure for terrorism."
"The terror attack in the makeshift temple in Ayodhya was a major incident and there is no doubt that the infrastructure for terrorism [in Pakistan] is by and large intact," he was quoted by Indian newspapers as saying.
He asked Pakistan, with whom India has been engaged in peace talks over disputed Kashmir since January last year, to honor its commitment to end "terrorism" in India.
"Both the President [Pervez] Musharraf and I have committed ourselves ... to make the peace process irreversible. I sincerely hope the commitment is honored. The major element in this is that terrorism should be under control," Singh said.
India accuses Pakistan of sponsoring Islamic rebels who have been waging an anti-India rebellion in Kashmir since 1989 at the cost of at least 44,000 lives, but Islamabad merely says it offers moral and diplomatic support to militants it regards as freedom fighters engaged in a struggle for self-determination.
In the past, New Delhi has blamed militant groups it alleges are backed by Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) for armed strikes not only in Kashmir but in other parts of the country as well.
Pakistan condemned Tuesday's temple attack and a dominant Kashmiri militant group, the Hizbul Mujahideen, has also denied any role in the assault. No group has yet claimed responsibility.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
RSS