New Delhi, Jan. 6: Leading the charge of NDA chief ministers, the Gujarat chief minister, Mr Narendra Modi, on Tuesday attacked the UPA government for setting up the National Investigation Agency, saying that its constitution was contrary to the country’s federal spirit and an attempt at "sidetracking" the states in the fight against terror.

Speaking at the two-day national conference on terrorism, Mr Modi said, "By setting up the NIA, the Central government now obviously wants to take over upon itself the responsibility of fighting terror by sidetracking the states."

Mr Modi stated that the UPA government has made a mockery of the anti-terror law as confessions before the police were not taken as evidence. "How will Pakistan accept our testimony when our own law does not accept Mumbai blasts accused Kasab’s confession as evidence?" he asked.

Though he offered his government’s support in the fight against terrorism, he said that the need of the hour was a tough Pota-like anti-terror law. He said had Kasab been caught in Gujarat, the law of the land could hardly deal with him strongly because of non-existence of a stringent act.

He pointed out that his state had sent GUJCOCA for the Centre’s approval but the government had not taken a decision on the law. Mr Modi also called for the creation of an all-India cadre of intelligence based on the lines of the Indian Police Service. He also suggested that the Centre should develop one of the small states as a model to fight terrorism.

While speaking at the conclave, the Bihar Chief Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar, also stated that NIA should be barred from taking up any case not relating to terrorism without the consent of the state government. Kumar pointed out that though the new laws appeared to be dealing with the defence and security of the country, "a deeper analysis leaves no doubt that in their application, these laws virtually deal with public order, law and order and policing".

Continuing Mr Modi’s charge against the Centre, the Madhya Pradesh chief minister, Mr Shivraj Singh Chouhan, stressed on the urgent need to introduce national identity cards for all citizens to combat terror. "We need to stop vote bank politics and prevent Bangla-deshi migrants from entering our country. It will be effective in curbing heinous crimes, other than keeping a check on terrorism," he said.

Mr Chouhan said Centre should have consulted states before bringing in central legislations against terrorism. "There have been no terror related incidences in Madhya Pradesh. But there are many challenges in front of the state government to  combat terrorism like concerns," he said.

Meanwhile, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh too stated that there was confusion on the part of Central government which has on the one hand tried to being in a anti-terror law, while at the same time made the police’s power of arrest weak in the CrPC.

Lucknow, Jan. 6: Even before the other controversies had died a natural death, UP BSP minister, Avadh Pal Singh, has kicked up another row — this time a seemingly serious one. The minister, who was in Etah on Monday, convened a press conference during which he said that it was wrong to term BSP MLA D.P. Yadav as "mafia."

"If you people are terming him as a mafia just because he has a few criminal cases against his name, then Mahatma Gandhi should be the first mafia in this country. And why only Mahatma Gandhi, even Subhash Chandra Bose, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri can be put in the category of mafia," he said.

Continuing to defend his colleague D.P. Yadav, the minister said that D.P. Yadav started his career by selling milk and then got elected as a pradhan after which he worked his way up in politics.  Singh also said that the likes of Yadav and Aruna Shankar Shukla a.k.a. Anna Maharaj were courageous people and should be lauded.

Singh, who holds the animal husbandry portfolio in the Mayawati government, has a criminal background himself and his defending other criminal politicians seems understandable. However his statement has left the Opposition parties baying for his blood.

The state Bharatiya Janata Party president Dr Ramapati Ram Tripathi said that the minister’s statement was anti-national in spirit and was aimed at insulting the great leaders of the country.

"Mayawati should immediately dismiss the minister and submit an unconditional apology to the nation," he said.

The Congress legislature party leader, Pramod Tiwari, said that the minister’s statement amounted to blasphemy and he should tender an apology for the same.

"The greatness of these leaders is unquestionable and to equate them with a criminal can only be termed as blasphemy. The chief minister should ensure that her party workers do not exceed their limits," he said.

Bengaluru, Jan. 6: The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will launch four foreign satellites this year as it seeks to make further inroads into the international satellite-building and launch services market in 2009.  Two weeks ago, communication satellite, W2M, built by the Isro on a commercial basis in partnership with EADS-Astrium of Europe, was successfully launched by the European Ariane-5 launch vehicle from the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou in French Guiana.

Managing Director of Antrix Corporation Ltd, the commercial arm of the Bengaluru-headquartered Isro, K.R. Sridhara Murthy, said the Indian space agency is gearing up to launch four satellites of Singapore, the Netherlands, Italy and Algeria. a (These contracts were bagged by Isro independently and not in partnership with EADS-Astrium).

"We have four commitments for Singapore, the Netherlands, Italy and Algeria. We want to complete it in 2009," he said. "It (the four spacecraft) is a mix of nano and small satellites".

Contractual obligations bar the Isro from talking about specific launch price but Sridhara Murthy said that the space agency’s charge per kg of satellite (to be launched) is around euro 20,000 per kg, quite cheap than prevailing international prices. But, he stressed that the launch price is guided by competition, market conditions and demand-supply scenario.

Shillong, Jan. 6: The Mumbai terror attacks may have given a lot to think about to defence experts, but a child scientist from Orissa has already invented a way to secure hotels. "It is very simple. Just mount a gun on the CCTV, and you can shoot at terrorists from inside a control room at your will without wasting any time or putting soldiers at risk," said Tufan Kumar Samal, a Class XII student of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Bhubaneswar.

Samal has stunned many defence technocrats with his model of CCTV fitted with a "toy gun" at the Rashtriya Kishore Vigyanik Sammellan (Children’s Science Congress) in Shillong. The event was inaugurated by eminent scientist M.G.K. Menon as a part of the ongoing Indian Science Congress at the Northeastern Hill University on Monday.

Referring the live visuals of televisions after Mumbai attacks, Tufan said: "I was really terrified to see how terrorists at the Taj hotel and CST managed to move around freely spraying bullets. The horrifying experiences gave me this idea."

The young scientist who is aspiring to be a commercial pilot said: "Normally most of the hotels use rotating cameras which can only watch the terrorists. But if we attach guns to cameras, then we can shoot them down the moment we see them on CCTV. And that too without risking our lives and wasting any time."

The boy has also developed a model of an unmanned light aircraft by using plastic that can not only target the enemy’s location but can also distribute relief material.

Sabarimala, Jan. 6: Security at Sabarimala Ayyappa temple has been stepped up and security forces put on alert following a bomb threat, police said here on Tuesday. The state police and Central security forces have been keeping strict vigil at Sabarimala following an anonymous call, stating that a bomb would explode at Sabarimala temple, received at a police station in Tamil Nadu, police said.

Tamil Nadu police passed on the message to their counterparts in Kerala, they said. All vehicles to Sabarimala were checked at two points as part of security measures, they said adding pilgrims were allowed inside only through metal detectors installed at different points en route to Sannidhanam (sanctum sanctorum). Heavy rush of Ayyappa pilgrims continued resulting in long queue stretching up to two kilometres.

Mumbai, Jan. 6: Stray dogs, usually considered as a menace, may now be put to productive use by training them to detect explosives to fight terror. As a suggestion toward helping state agencies to combat the menace, the Bombay Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BSPCA) has asked the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to help them train at least a few dogs to detect explosives.

The BSPCA would submit the pilot project to the civic body next month. In the project, it is seeking for financial assistance and manpower from the BMC to train these dogs.

"We would submit the project to the BMC next month. We would require some help from the body in terms of finance and manpower to train the dogs. We already have the infrastructure in place and hope the project to be successful," said BSPCA secretary Lieutenant Colonel (Retd) J.C. Khanna. Earlier, Khanna had tabled a proposal to the BMC for providing explosive detection training to stray dogs.

The BSPCA expects that NGOs would also come forward to help provide training to dogs. "Once the pilot project is approved by the BMC, NGOs would also bring in five-six dogs to provide training. We are not looking for huge number of dogs for training. At our hospital we have nearly 300-350 dogs of which 50-60 dogs are abandoned by people. Of them eight to 10 dogs would be trained. Later we would increase the numbers," said Khanna.

"The dogs would have to go through obedience test for at least three months and once they clear this test they would be eligible for the nine months specialised training," said Khanna.

Special breed of dogs like the Labrador, German Shepherd and the Doberman are intelligent enough to detect explosives but it is expected that stray dogs, after being trained, would provide a helping hand to agencies. 

New Delhi, Jan. 6: The Congress high command will consider revoking the suspension of Mr Narayan Rane only after the rebel leader "surrenders" to it and expresses regret.  This was made clear by the party and the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr Ashok Chavan, here on Tuesday.

The Congress high command is not showing any interest in repealing the suspension of Mr Rane, who had openly criticised the party chief minister despite being a state Cabinet minister, and later made sarcastic remarks about Mr Chavan. He did not even spare the central party leadership.

But a section of the party is working hard to have the action repealed after realising that the Congress cannot face the coming Lok Sabha elections without Mr Rane, also a former Shiv Sena chief minister.

Answering questions on the move to bring Mr Rane back to the party, AICC media department chairman M. Veerappa Moily said, "They (persons like Rane) should give strength to the party. Those who want to come to the Congress should add sugar and not spill milk," he said.

Mumbai, Jan. 6: A 26-year-old Pune-based doctor was arrested by the Mumbai police’s crime branch on Monday evening for his involvement in the Ahmedabad blasts as an Indian Mujahideen (IM) operative.

The police said that the doctor had got two flats in Pune on rent in his name that were used by the IM’s media wing and for sheltering their men. He provided IM operatives with tranquillisers and taught them how to use them for kidnapping a Pune-based builder and jeweller.

Dr Anwar Ali Bagwan, 26, did his MBBS from B.J. Medical College in Sasoon Hospital in Pune in 2006 and had been practising medicine there.

"Bagwan had joined Arabic classes in Pune. The classes were also attended by Mansoor Ali Peerbhoy, a software engineer and head of the IM’s media wing who along with 19 others was arrested earlier. It was here that Asif Ali Sheikh, a mechanical engineer and an IM operative spotted him. Sheikh indoctrinated Bagwan into terrorism," said Rakesh Maria, joint commissioner of police, crime.

According to Mr Maria, Bagwan then left for Karnataka to train in the use of arms under Riyaz Bhatkal, the founder of the IM, who is presently on the run.

"Bagwan, who is originally from the Deolali Rahouri district in Ahmednagar went to Hyderabad and started his own practice after learning about the arrests," said Mr Maria.

For money, the IM operatives were to kidnap Pune-based builder and jeweller.

Lucknow, Jan. 6: Yogendra Dohrey a.k.a. Bhatia, an accused in the murder of PWD engineer last month, surrendered in a district court in Aurraiya on Tuesday, reports our special correspondent.

Bhatia was an office bearer of the local BSP unit and was removed from his post when BSP president Mayawati dissolved the local party unit, a day after the murder. He had been absconding after the lynching of the engineer Manoj Gupta.

The state police had announced a reward of Rs 2,500 on Dohrey’s head on January 3. Another accused in the murder, Hoshiyar Singh, the then station house office of the Dibiapur police station, is still absconding.

He also carries a reward of Rs 2,500 on his head. The main accused Shekhar Tiwari, BSP MLA, is already in jail in connection with the incident along with four other co-accused.

New Delhi, Jan. 6: The much-touted Bill to provide 33 per cent quota to women for seats in Parliament and state assemblies is unlikely to be passed during the term of the present Lok Sabha which comes to an end in a few months.

This became clear with the parliamentary standing committee getting the third extension to complete its task of scrutinising the Women’s Reservation Bill.

The Committee headed by senior Congress MP, Mr E. M. Sudarshana Natchiappan, has been given the latest extension till the end of the next session of Parliament which is likely to commence sometime in February.

The Committee, to which the Bill was referred in May last year, got two extensions — the last being till the end of the Monsoon session of Parliament which went on till December 23.

"The Rajya Sabha chairman has granted further extension to the Committee till the end of the next session of Parliament for presentation of report on the Bill," the Rajya Sabha Secretariat said.

The passage of the Bill involves certain technicalities as it is a Constitution amendment Bill. Besides, the requirement of Parliament passing the Constitutional amendment Bill with two-third majority, the measure would have to go to state legislatures as at least 50 per cent of the state legislatures are needed to ratify it.

Guwahati, Jan. 6: The alleged hoisting of Pakistani flag during ethnic clashes in northern Assam in October and delay in completing the fencing along the international border with Bangladesh were the two issues that rocked the Assam Assembly on Tuesday.

The matter of hoisting the Pakistani flag cropped up during a question on status of victims of the ethic clashes in Darrang and Udalguri districts.

Leader of the Opposition, Mr Chandra Mohan Patowary, referring to repeated telecast of video footage on the alleged hoisting of Pakistani flag during the clashes, asked for a clarification from the state government.

He also pointed that the Pakistani media had reported extensively with jubilation on the matter. The issue witnessed heated arguments, especially among the minority legislators, with a section of them maintaining that the flag shown in the video footage and the photographs were of an Id flag and not a Pakistani one.

The state revenue and rehabilitation minister, Dr Bhumidhar Barman, who was replying on the status of victims of the clashes, said the CBI has already been requested to investigate the matter and as such, pending a probe, a statement in the Assembly would be premature.

The issue of fencing the international border also came up during the question hour as opposition was not satisfied with the reply of the government that blamed New Delhi for delay.

The opposition leader advised the government to take an all party delegation to meet the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh so that fencing work could be expedited.  All the political parties were unanimous in their views that fencing along the international border should be completed without any further delay.

The Assam United Democratic Front leader, Mr Badruddin Ajmal, said that majority of the bombs and explosives are alleged to have been smuggled from Bangladesh so these loopholes should be plugged once for ever.

New Delhi, Jan. 6: Chaos and confusion hit the BJP on Tuesday with 85-year-old former vice-president, Mr Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, indicating he wanted to contest the coming Lok Sabha election if his "health permits".

The BJP is still in suspense over the plans of the former Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, 86, with his close associate, Mr Lalji Tandon, claiming that party workers wanted him to stand for the Lok Sabha from Lucknow once again. Mr Vajpayee himself has not spoken, but the party has been unable to decide its candidate from Lucknow.

If either Mr Vajpayee or Mr Shekhawat do join the fray, there would be questions raised about the projection of Mr L.K. Advani as the party’s prime ministerial candidate. The BJP was caught slightly off-guard recently when Mr Shekh-awat was reported to have told Mr Advani, 82, that they were of the "same age group".

Trouble for the BJP does not end there. A factional war has also erupted between the supporters and rivals of the party president, Mr Rajnath Singh. One section, which is hostile to him, claims that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which commands the loyalty of a large number of BJP leaders, has asked Mr Advani to "put Rajnath Singh under his thumb", while this theory is refuted by others loyal to the party chief.

Anti-Rajnath leaders allege that the BJP chief was trying to "steal the thunder from Advaniji by doing exactly the opposite", on issues ranging from the arrest of Sadhvi Pragya Thakur to Hindutva in general. The rift between the factions is now so visible that Mr Advani, who tends to avoid commenting on organisational infighting, openly declared there were "no differences" between him and Mr Rajnath Singh.

With the BJP’s national executive scheduled for the first week of February, the Shekhawat salvo has caught the party unawares. Asked if would return to active politics, Mr Shekhawat said he intended to return for the "service of the public, not politics."

Mr Shekhawat has not yet indicated which constituency he wants to stand from, but only said he would launch a campaign against corruption.

New Delhi, Jan. 6: A 24-year-old MBA student who had gone to a shopping mall with her friend was waylaid by 10 youth, taken to a desolate spot and gang raped in Noida around 5 pm on Monday.  While some of the youth dragged the girl, a resident of Lajpat Nagar, out of the car, others kept her friend, Amit Pawar, pinned to the ground.

The men then took turns raping the victim. This is the second case of kidnapping and sexual assault in Noida within 48 hours. The police managed to arrest five of the youth. The others were still at large. Those arrested, undergraduates in their early 20s, belonged to the families of local farmers.

They were identified as Husain, Srikant, Sanjay, Sudhir and Gautam.  The police recovered cricket bats, a cricket kit and stumps and three mobile phones from them. Sanjay, one of the accused, claimed one of their friends saw the girl and the man inside the car in an intimate position. "We were 10 people. We were returning after playing cricket. One of us saw the girl and the boy inside the car and then we forced ourselves inside the car in turns to attack her," he was quoted as telling reporters.

The victim and her batchmate Pawar, a resident of Hauz Khas, had gone to the Great India Place shopping complex (opposite Noida’s Sector 18) and were returning in the victim’s Maruti WagonR when, at around 5 pm, they were waylaid by 10 youth riding motorcycles nearly a kilometre from the complex. The attackers, who were carrying a cricket bats and stumps, forced their way into the car and then drove towards a "jungle" where they allegedly raped the girl.

New Delhi, Jan. 6: After the Mumbai terror strikes, anti-India elements in Pakistan are now planning an attack on Indian computer networks, intelligence agencies have warned. Already Pakistani hackers are trying out a dry run against Indian networks through popular websites registered there after the Mumbai terror strikes, home ministry sources said on Tuesday.

"Every time the relations between the two countries dampen, Pakistanis start attacking Indian computer networks and this has increased after the Mumbai terror attacks," a home ministry source said. Pakistani hackers have created websites such as the www.songs.pk, which are infested with software to hack data from the targeted computers, it said.

"The website www.songs.pk has over 12 lakh Indian users who are downloading stuff from these websites daily," said a cyber expert in the ministry. With these websites being highly popular, it will take only a few minutes for the hackers to take command of over 12 lakh computers in few minutes and the number of such computers can multiply in every minute, sources said.

"Instead of the existing less harmful virus, new ones such as Botnet and Zoombie can be easily released into the Indian computers, which later on replicate and make the entire server vulnerable," the expert said. "Now a days, new virus and worms are detected while downloading songs from these websites, which could be just a dry run to manage a bigger attack," he said.

Government websites have been highly vulnerable to hacking and they have been intruded many times by the Pakistani hackers. "Most of the time, these cases are not reported as the server is based in Pakistan and we cannot do anything in this regard," the expert said.

The anti-virus software, too, cannot work in such situation as the virus used in such cyber wars are usually new and the anti-virus software cannot identity and detect it, he said.

Jammu, Jan. 6: As the gunbattle in Bhati Dhar forest in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district entered the sixth day on Tuesday, the army said it has adopted a "wait and watch" strategy to take on the holed-up terrorists in cave hideouts in the area. While an exchange of fire took place this morning, there was no casualty.

"We are adopting a ‘wait and watch’ strategy in view of the heavy fog, dense forest and cave-type hideouts providing a major shield to terrorists hiding there. We have put entire area under cordon and choked their supplies," said a senior army officer of 16 Corps.  "Let us see how long they can survive without food and water. They will be forced to come out and fight or surrender," he said.

Owing to the heavy winter fog, thick vegetation and difficult terrain conditions, the operation is being undertaken with due care and precautions, he said. Reports available with the security forces suggested that there were about seven militants trapped in the area out of which four have been killed, he said. Three security force personnel have also laid down their lives.

The ravine-like terrain along with several natural caves are providing cover for the ultras, he said, denying presence of any fortified bunkers in the area. "The militants have reportedly stored food. We got some literature and provisions from those places. They had a tin sheet and covered it with earth to convert it into a shelter. Because of these ravines, it is a difficult operation and the poor visibility is causing hindrance," said Poonch range DIG, Mr Kamal Saini.

The encounter began at 4 pm on January 1 and is still continuing, the army officer said.  Mr Saini further added, "continuous assaults were being launched in the cave-type hideouts to neutralise the terrorists." The intercepts decoded by the army have revealed that some top commanders of Jaish-e-Mohammad, al-Badr and LeT are holed-up in the hideouts, he said.

Jaipur, Jan. 6: The growing tension between India and Pakistan could not stop Karachi’s Zameel Ahmed, 46, from coming to India for treatment after he was bedridden for a year. Doctors operated on his spinal cord on December 31, 2008. "I am very happy after the operation. It has enabled me to sit on the bed," he says.

His spinal cord suffered a fracture when he met with an accident in Karachi. It left him bedridden for a year. "One of my relatives invited me here for treatment. Initially I was a bit hesitant to come here given the tension. But the people and doctors here were so cooperative and helped me a lot," Mr Ahmed said.

Doctors performed three operations on Mr Ahmed in Karachi but it could not help him.

"I feel proud to have treated a patient from the neighbouring country," says Dr Kamal Goyal, who performed the surgery on Mr Ahmed. "He is now able to sit up to three hours on the bed." "I wish this process of curing patients from Pakistan should go on. Not only that, doctors should be allowed to train their counterparts in Karachi too," Dr Goyal says.

According to doctors, Mr Ahmed may be able to walk with the help of callipers. His wife Rehana also came here to help her husband. "I will go back with a message of friendship and inform other patients in Pakistan to opt for India for treatment," she said.

"Both the countries should spend money on the welfare of people, not on arms," says Mr Ahmed. Terrorists could be everywhere, but it is the innocent people who become victims of this," Mr Ahmed said.

It was Jaipur’s Annu, a close relative of Mr Ahmed, who informed his about the treatment in Jaipur.

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 6: A day after the Catholic nun identified two persons allegedly involved in her rape, the Orissa police began search for three others for their complicity in the crime on Tuesday.  "We are looking for at least three more people involved in the rape case. We have sent our teams to different places to arrest them," a top official of crime branch told this newspaper on condition of anonymity.  The nun was allegedly raped at K. Nuagaon in Kandhamal district during communal violence on August 25.

New Delhi, Jan. 6: After a brief respite, foggy conditions returned to the capital affecting air and rail traffic with over 100 domestic and international flights being delayed and 18 others cancelled while 40 trains were running behind schedule on Tuesday.  Flights were delayed by up to four hours at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport as general visibility dropped to below 50 m while runway visibility was 125 m, much below the 150 m mark required for planes to take off.

Most of the morning flights to Coimbatore, Bangalore, Mumbai, Shimla, Lucknow, Aurangabad, Jaipur, Chennai were either delayed or cancelled.  Some flights were clubbed with other flights, sources at the airport said, adding 12 domestic and international flights were also rescheduled.