INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2016

India’s top court says Gandhis need to face trial in graft case

NEW DELHI: ’s Supreme Court said yes- But the court said it saw no justification helped shape the country’s institutions. Congress leader Kapil Sibal said the party terday that opposition leaders Sonia Gandhi for interfering in the trial conducted by the Detractors accuse the family of holding back welcomed the court’s decision to exempt and her son, Rahul, will have to face trial in a lower court. However it granted them leave economic development with socialist poli- the Gandhis from appearing in court and case involving the alleged misuse of party from attending regular hearings. The cies. would continue to fight Swamy’s “false alle- funds, but exempted them from appearing Gandhis deny any wrongdoing. Modi and his The legal case, brought by BJP leader gations”. Swamy has accused the Gandhis in court. The two members of the Nehru- Bharatiya Janata Party are bitterly opposed Subramanian Swamy against the Gandhis, of cheating and criminal breach of trust by Gandhi dynasty had approached the top to the Congress party, leading to a gridlock has further poisoned ties and there are no setting up a shell company to illegally gain court to throw out the case which their in parliament where key legislation such as signs of compromise, political analysts say. control of properties worth $300 million Congress party says is a vendetta carried out simplifying state taxes is stuck. The Nehru- “The main prayer for which they (Gandhis) that belonged to a company that published by a member of Prime Minister Narendra Gandhi dynasty ruled India for most of its came has been defeated,” Swamy told a newspaper founded by Rahul’s great Modi’s ruling group. post-independence era after 1947 and reporters after the Supreme Court decision. grandfather.—

Nepalese PM to visit India on mission to repair ties : ’s prime minister will travel to India next week on a visit aimed at repairing fractured relations between the neighbors after the end of a crippling months-long border blockade, Kathmandu said yesterday. Demonstrators in Nepal had obstruct- ed a major trade route since September in protest at a new constitution, sparking debilitating shortages of fuel and other vital supplies across the landlocked Himalayan nation. But slow movement of cargo across other check- points where no protests were taking place prompted Kathmandu to accuse , which has criticized the constitution, of imposing an “unofficial blockade”, a charge India denied. The strained ties meant that KP Sharma Oli, who became premier in October, put off visiting India-a traditional first stop for Nepali prime ministers heading overseas-until the blockade ended last week. “Prime Minister Oli is now in a position to improve the souring relationship with India after the promul- gation of the new constitution in Nepal,” said the prime minister’s foreign affairs adviser Gopal Khanal. “He hopes to end any confusion in bilateral ties that HYDERABAD: Pakistani policemen stand guard outside the Central Jail, where Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh is currently on has emerged in recent times,” he said. More than 50 death row for the murder of US journalist , in Hyderabad. ’s military yesterday said it had foiled a people have died in clashes between police and pro- prison break bid aimed at freeing British-born militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh. — AFP testers from southern Nepal’s Madhesi ethnic minori- ty and share close cultural, linguistic and family links with Indians living across the border. The unrest has Pakistan arrests 97 Al-Qaeda triggered concern in India, with New Delhi urging Kathmandu to hold talks with the Madhesis, who say the charter, adopted in September, leaves them politi- militants; foils jailbreak plan cally marginalized. India’s foreign ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup 3 commanders among those arrested in Karachi told reporters the visit was “expected to lead to a fur- ther strengthening of our age old, close and friendly ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has arrested 97 Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is an Islamist suicide bombers had been enlisted in relations with Nepal”. Slated for discussion were Al-Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi mili- group whose sectarian ideology is close- the attack plan, in addition to 19 developmental assistance, energy and connectivity, tants, including three commanders, in ly aligned with Islamic State, as it wants involved in facilitating it, Bajwa said. the southern city of Karachi and foiled a to kill or expel Pakistan’s minority Shiites More than 350 kg (772 lb) of explosives he said, as well as the resumption of commerce across planned attack to break US journalist and establish a Sunni theocracy. Al- had been recovered from a building the formerly blocked checkpoint. Lok Raj Baral, a for- Daniel Pearl’s killer out of jail, the army Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent was believed to be a hideout, he said. mer Nepali ambassador to India said that establishing said yesterday. The men are accused of formed by global Al-Qaeda chief Ayman The attackers planned to raid the a good rapport with Prime Minister Narendra Modi involvement in major attacks on two Al-Zawahiri in September 2014, and is prison compound with two vans filled would be vital for Nepal’s new prime minister on the Pakistani air bases, the Karachi airport, one of dozens of Islamist militant with explosives, and had a list of about visit, slated for February 19-24. several regional intelligence headquar- groups, some aligned against Pakistan 35 prisoners they planned to kill, Bajwa The small country is heavily dependent on India for ters and on police installations between and others against its neighbors, that said, displaying pencil sketches of the fuel and other supplies. “Nepal has serious limitations 2009 and 2015, the military said. operate in the country. Pakistan has prison allegedly made by the militants. because of its geography so our leaders need to be The LeJ’s Naeem Bokhari and Sabir been under domestic and international They had a separate list of about 100 realistic instead of chanting nationalistic slogans,” Khan, as well as Farooq Bhatti, deputy pressure to crack down on all such prisoners, including Sheikh, whom they Baral said. “Meanwhile India needs to realise that it chief of al-Qaeda in the Indian groups, and launched a renewed opera- were supposed to release, he added. cannot dictate terms to a sovereign country and Subcontinent (AQIS), were captured by tion against some of them in June 2014. Video images of the militants’ hideout micromanage its political affairs,” he said. The consti- Pakistani forces in recent raids, military Bajwa declined to give details of the showed blue plastic barrels filled with spokesman Lieutenant General Asim raids, including their timing. Several of explosives, washing machines that had tution, the first drawn up by elected representatives, Bajwa said. “Our conclusion is that all of those arrested, including Bokhari, were been used to transport arms and ammu- was meant to cement peace and bolster Nepal’s trans- the terrorist groups are trying to cooper- in the advanced stages of planning a nition, long lengths of detonating cord formation to a democratic republic after decades of ate with each other in order to carry out jailbreak attempt on the Hyderabad and dozens of ball bearings. The footage political instability and a 10-year Maoist insurgency. terrorist attacks,” he told a news confer- Central Jail, Bajwa said. Khalid Omar also showed several rifles that Bajwa But ongoing discussions between the government ence. The LeJ and AQIS had been work- Sheikh, who kidnapped and killed the said had been stolen from police in earli- and protesting parties over the charter have failed to ing “in collusion” with the Tehreek-e- Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Pearl in er targeted attacks. “This plan was 90 yield an agreement.—AFP Pakistan, also known as the 2002, is being held at that jail and was to percent ready for execution,” he Pakistani Taliban, Bajwa added. be released during the raid, he said. Six added.— Reuters