theSun | TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 15 2009
news without borders
Four killed in missile
strike in Pakistan
MIRANSHAH (Pakistan): A sus-
pected US drone fired a missile
at a Taliban target in Pakistan’s
North Waziristan tribal region
yesterday, killing at least four
militants, intelligence officials
and residents said.
Pakistani Taliban chief,
Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in
a similar attack in the neighbour-
ing South Waziristan region last
month.
The latest attack took place
near Mir Ali, the second major
town of North Waziristan and a
sanctuary for militants linked to
Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
The blast was so huge that
it could be heard as far as
Miranshah, the main town of
the sparsely-populated region,
which is about 24km from Mir
Ali. Akhtar Rasool, a resident
of Mir Ali, said the missile ap-
peared to have struck a militant
vehicle.
“The vehicles is in flames
and we can see smoke rising
from the scene,” he said by
telephone.
An intelligence official said at
least four militants were killed
and that the death toll may rise.
He said the militants ap-
peared to be foreigners.
The strike came a day after
the government said the top
Taliban leader in the troubled
Swat region, Fazlullah, had been
surrounded and would soon
be captured. Pakistan officially
objects to the US missile strikes
saying they are a violation of its
sovereignty and cause civilian
casualties, which would bolster
militant support. But local media
reports have suggested that the
strike that killed Mehsud was
carried out with Islamabad’s
coordination.
Facing surging violence in
neighbouring Afghanistan, the
United States stepped up its mis-
sile strikes in Pakistan last year,
killing hundreds of militants.
Pakistani and US officials said
the militants were in disarray
after Baitullah’s death and their
attacks appeared to tail off.
Attacks by the Pakistani
Taliban early this year raised
fears over the stability of the
nuclear-armed nation but the
militants have suffered a series
of setbacks in recent weeks
including the killing of Mehsud.
Last week, the security
forces said they had captured
five Taliban leaders, including the
top spokesman for the militants
in the Swat valley.
Security forces launched an
offensive in the Swat, about
120km northwest of Islamabad,
in late April and killed more than
2,000 fighters, according to the
army. The security forces this
month launched an operation
in Khyber, a tribal region and
the main route for fuel and food
supplies to the Western forces
in Afghanistan, and have so
far killed nearly 150 militants,
officials say. There has been no
independent verification of that
casualty estimate. – Reuters
Uttar Pradesh CM halts
building statues
Mayawati
attends a
prayer in
front of
statues
of herself NEW DELHI: India’s Supreme Mayawati, who leads the pov-
(from left), Court has forced low-caste po- erty-ridden northern state of Uttar
Ambedkar litical icon Mayawati to halt her Pradesh, has stirred huge contro-
and Kanshi statue-construction spree aimed at versy by spending hundreds of
Ram in New celebrating the heroes on the lowest millions of dollars to build “statue
Delhi. rung of the country’s social ladder. parks” she says will boost the status
of India’s lowest castes.
The pugnacious politician
initially defied the court’s order last
month to stop construction of Greek
Parthenon-style memorials to po-
litical icons of the Dalits – those at
the bottom of the ancient Hindu
caste hierarchy. But after the court
warned that the state government
was “playing with fire” the 53-year-
old, known as the “Dalit Queen”,
ordered a halt last Friday to build-
ing and the construction sites fell
silent at the weekend.
The court order covers half a
dozen sites being developed into
memorials to leaders of the long-
oppressed Dalits – the 160 million
Indians who still face widespread
oppression despite legislation out-
lawing discrimination.
Many of the monuments are to
Kanshi Ram, founder of Mayawati’s
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), B.R.
Ambedkar who framed the Indian
constitution and also of Mayawati
AFPPIX
– whose statues show her carrying
11
her trademark handbag. The court
censured Mayawati for spending
an estimated 26 billion rupees
(RM1.8 billion) on what critics
have dubbed her “obsession” with
building statues.
Uttar Pradesh is India’s most
populous state where funds are
badly needed for hospitals, schools
and other public services.
Mayawati, who has used her
caste to mobilise voter support and
become India’s most important
Dalit politician, has stirred opposi-
tion by changing land use rules,
pouring concrete over green spaces
and demolishing public buildings
to create the memorials.
“Lifeless and insipid, they fail to
move the spectator because they
speak of nothing but their creator’s
lust for grandeur,” wrote column-
ist Amrit Dhillon in the Times of
India.
The top court said the state gov-
ernment could not “fritter away”
public money on such memorials
and promised to examine the
“constitutional validity” of such
memorials for political leaders us-
ing taxpayers’ money.
But the former school teacher,
who has proclaimed her desire to
be India’s first Dalit prime minister,
has denied accusations that she is
squandering public money. She
insists that the statues are meant to
celebrate the contribution to India’s
history of the Dalits. – AFP