10 Civilians Die And Many Militants Killed By Pak Jets
Militants Killed By Pak Jets
Pakistani jets and helicopter gunships targeted the rebels and their hideouts. In this firing, 40 got killed which include 10 civilians and the rest are militants. The target was the Pakistani tribal region near the Afghanistan border. The attack took place in the tirah valley of Khyber agency. This is one of the seven tribal districts and the prime hub of Taliban and the fighters of al Qaida.
Major Fazl Ur Rehman said –
“We don’t have confirmed figures about the civilian deaths, but 10 among those killed must be civilians.”
He further said –
The airstrikes destroyed 12 hideouts of the militants.
An official said –
Air raids were carried out after authorities obtained information about the presence of dozens of militants in the area who were planning attacks in neighboring Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
He continued –
“Some bombs also hit nearby houses and killed women and children.
Satyam Recruits Face Uncertain Future
Calcutta – 9.1.09 – Sensational discovery of huge financial scam ranging to thousand of crores of rupees in Satyam Computers makes the recruits all over face uncertain future. The impact of the revelation is not only causing the downslide of Satyam business but also having big impact on the career of the recruits.
Fate of thousands of engineering degree holders now hang in balance as a result. Some of them have been waiting since completion of their engineering degree course in May 2008. “I have received no official information. They just intimated that we will join the company by March 2009”, said Narayan Dutt Pandey, a student of Hooghly Academy of Technology who is waiting to join the company.
Not only Pandey but another 55 students who were recruited in the same process by the company from West Bengal face the same fate now. Despite being selected since March 2007, they are yet to be absorbed by the company. The worst part of it is that these 55 students constitute only a very small fraction of over one thousand recruits from West Bengal alone.
Incidentally, Satyam has been one of the largest recruiters besides TCS, Infosys and Wipro in the State that produces around 18,000 engineering graduates annually from the 60 engineering colleges in the State.
Saikat Basu, the placement officer for the West Bengal University of Technology or WBUT says that Satyam was the largest recruiter for the state engineering students.
“Last year, they recruited nearly 300 students in the IT sector alone,” said Basu. Other students come from divergent sectors.
The students recruited will have a tough time finding jobs say Sekhar Chowdhury, the placement officer of MCKV Institute of Engineering. “Colleges are helpless in such cases”, he says. Once again, Satyam was the largest recruiter for this college.
“If IITs and IIMs cannot do anything when Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, the students have to put up through these difficult times too. Thousands of our students will face the slowdown crisis, where jobs are not coming easily,” said Diptesh Chakraborty, supreme council member of the West Bengal Government Engineering and Technological Colleges Teachers Association.
“Moreover, engineering colleges and the WBUT make sure they are not caught in a situation where they are without jobs,” Chakraborty added.
Despite such bleak scenario, placement officials as well as faculties all over feel that a wrong doing organization has no moral rights to carry on recruitment processes in college campuses.
Omar Abdullah Faces Tough Task Ahead
Sreenagar – 06.01.2009 – Omar Abdullah took the oath as the Chief Minister of Kashmir on Monday. The occasion marked an end to the six month long Governor’s rule in the troubled state in the Sub-Continent. 
At only 38, Omar Abdullah is the youngest of the chief ministers of Kashmir. However the throne would not be a rose of beds for him according to his father.
“Omar has got a very difficult task cut out”, says his father. His reference obviously is to the troubled state of affairs in the northern most state in India. More trouble is expected with the relationship with Pakistan reaching the lowest ebb owing to the dispute regarding action against terrorists who masterminded the Bombay massacre.
While Omar is the third generation chief minister hailing from the same dynasty following grandfather Sheikh Abdullah and after him Farooq Abdullah who were chief Ministers of the state.
It came as a shock to the secessionist forces in Kashmir when the Pro-India NC party emerged as the single-largest party in the recent elections. It was the first election held in Kashmir after a wave of deadly protests caused panic all around. The party comes to power forming a coalition with the Congress party, according to Abdullah.
“Kashmir’s first election since a wave of deadly protest against Indian rule swept through the disputed region has resulted in a deadlocked legislature”, officials sources revealed, “sparking a scramble to form a new coalition government”.
“Our party is likely to approach Congress officials to discuss forming an alliance”, said Omar Abdullah.
With constant threats across the border from the neighboring country Pakistan, reinforced by their connection with China north of the troubled state, the task ahead for Omar Abdullah seems quite challenging. He has to revive the faith of the people on the administration, put the troubled house in order, and at the same time keep a close vigil on activities across the border.
Though the youngest chief minister of Kashmir puts up a brave front, only time can say how far he would succeed in accomplishing the hard task and carry out the responsibilities put on his shoulders.
Bhutan sounds massive security alert
Thimphu – 1.1.2009 – A massive security alert has been sounded in Bhutan consequent upon the killing of four forest rangers. The forest rangers were killed in a powerful landmine explosion masterminded by the Nepal-based Maoist guerrillas, official source of Bhutan Government said today. 
The landlocked kingdom country is plagued by Maoist subversive activities for quite some times now. Killing of the four forest rangers was one of such incidents. The explosion occurred near Singye village in the Southern district Sarpang in Bhutan on Tuesday.
“Six Bhutanese forest rangers were returning to their camp at village Phibsoo from Sarpang town after shopping when the tractor they were travelling in hit a landmine planted on the road”, said one of the spokesmen for the Royal Bhutan Police.
“After the explosion, four foresters were shot by the militants and later their dead bodies were dragged near the tractor and set on fire”, the Police spokesman went on to say.
Killing the foresters the Maoists departed with a couple of rifles and ammunitions that the dead rangers were carrying. However, two other forest rangers managed to escape despite sustaining serious injuries.
‘The attack could have been the work of the Communist Party of Bhutan based in Nepal,’ the police statement said.
Incidentally the Communist Party in Bhutan is composed mostly of Bhutanese ethnic Nepali refugees. These refugees are based in Nepal and fighting constantly for the restoration of democratic rights of the refugees. Thy have been waging violent campaigns opposing the monarchy rule. At the same time they are also opposing the newly elected Bhutanese Government.
These are believed in many quarters to be sequels of the pro-democracy agitations that the country witnessed in 1990s when a section of the Nepali-speaking residents of Southern part of the country revolted against the reigning monarchy. Subsequently, the crackdown forced thousands of such people to flee into Nepal. To day over 100,000 people are sheltered in relief camps.
Explosions gathered momentum when in 2008 the Maoist Guerrillas of the Community Party played role in more than a dozen explosions in the otherwise peaceful nation. There was a major shift from monarchy to parliamentary democracy last years.
‘We have intensified security operations in the area where the explosion took place and taking all possible steps to ensure that those responsible for the attack are nabbed,’ a senior Bhutanese police official said.
Government officials in Bhutan are hopeful but how far they succeed in their objective remains to be seen.
“We are not involved in troop build up along border”- India tells Pakistan
New Delhi – 28.12.08 – India informed Pakistan that it is not building up any troop along the borders while demanding firm action against terrorists operating from their soil by Pakistan. 
“We are not involved in troop building along the borders”, sources from the defense ministry said. “We had no plans for a military action, but we want a combination of executive action and judicial process against terrorist elements like the Lashker-e-Toiba and Jamaat-ud-Dawah since both is linked to Mumbai attacks”, he added.
The High Commissioner Satyabrata Pal was attending in a meeting with the Foreign Secretary of Pakistan Salman Bashir in Islamabad when the said message came up. Manpreet Vohra, the Deputy High Commissioner was also present in the said meeting.
On their part, Pakistan says that any strike by India in response to the attacks on Mumbai shall be considered as an “act of war”.
There was “no reason for the war hysteria” that is witnessed in Pakistan, was the response of Indian officials. They made it amply clear that New Delhi had no such plans for military attack on Pakistan.
“Words and commitments were not adequate in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks, which were just a symptom of the longer problem of terrorists operating from the Pakistani soil”, they commented. “There is a need for firm action against such elements. We don’t see the shutting down of terrorist camps. Armed militants with guns are still moving around and terrorist camps are still operational”, said the Indian officials.
Shutting down terrorist camps and placing a clamp on the terrorist activities originating from Pakistani soil, especially in the Pakistani occupied Kashmir requires executive action on the part of the Pakistani regime. Action taken in this line will be compliance to the UN Security Council resolution seeking action against militant and terrorist groups.
Mohammad Sadiq, the Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman said that there was need for India taking steps to defuse tensions. They are reportedly waiting for India’s response to their proposal for dealing with the fallout of Mumbai incident.
India, however, is waiting for more action by Pakistani authorities against the militants before proceeding with response to such proposals, defense sources informs.
In the meanwhile the Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that Pakistan will not initiate face-off with India but is prepared to defend itself from aggression on the occasion of the first anniversary of the murder of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
It is however difficult to believe that such stand taken by Pakistan would be appreciated either by India or a critical world as the country is time and again falling short of its commitment of combating and erasing terrorist elements.