...ND-ND

Regd. DL(ND)-11/6110/2006-07-08RNI No. 1001/57

· TUESDAY, MARCH 29 , 2011 ·

30 Pages ! Rs. 4.00City EditionDelhi

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ISSN 0971 - 751XVol. 134 No. 75

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REBELS MOVEON TO SIRTEPAGE 15

HAPPY TIDINGSON TIGER FRONTBACK PAGE

BRIEFLY

YOUNG WORLD— 8 Pages (Tabloid)SUDOKU— Sports Page

ICC bars electronicmedia coverageMOHALI: The ICC onMonday barred theelectronic media fromcovering the remainingmatches of the cricketWorld Cup for breachingthe media guidelines. — PTISports Page

Find out source ofblack money: CourtNEW DELHI: The SupremeCourt on Mondaycriticised the governmentfor focussing its probeonly around Pune studfarm owner Hasan AliKhan in the black moneycase and directed it totrack the more “serious”aspect of source of moneyby incorporating the angleof national security. — PTIPage 11

SRI LANKA STARTSFAVOURITE PAGE 21

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minis-ter Sheila Dikshit called onPrime Minister ManmohanSingh on Monday evening toair her views on the V. K.Shunglu Committee report.

Ms. Dikshit is learnt tohave told the Prime Ministerthat there were a lot of dis-crepancies in the report andthat it was not accurate.Sources said the Chief Minis-ter claimed that her views hadnot been taken by the Com-mittee before it came outwith the report.

Earlier, Ms. Dikshit toldThe Hindu that the reportwas now in the public domainas the Shunglu Committeehad presented it to the PrimeMinister and it had also beenput on the governmentwebsite.

“There are some commentsin it against us. But the reporthas not come to us yet,’’ sheadded.

The Chief Minister said theChief Secretary had been toldby the Shunglu Committeelast Thursday to collect acopy of the report on Monday(March 28). “But on Fridayitself, it was splashed on thewebsite. Surely we should al-so be given an opportunity toput forth our views.’’

Ms. Dikshit said she wouldbe writing detailed letters,giving out the Delhi Govern-ment’s side of the story, to thePrime Minister, UPA chair-person Sonia Gandhi andUnion Home Minister P. Chi-dambaram.

Besides, the Delhi Govern-ment would give “a para-graph-wise reply to what hasbeen put on the website”.

Sheila meets PM Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

FEST DAYS INMOHALIPAGE 5

CHENNAI: United States offi-cials believed that a pinkfoam-covered box found atone of the 26/11 Mumbai at-tack sites was crucial to prov-ing the Pakistani links to theattacks, but complained thatIndia was “not forthcoming”about sharing informationabout it.

A U.S. Embassy cable fromIslamabad (204888: confi-dential) sent by Charge d’Af-faires Gerald Feierstein onApril 30, 2009, accessed byThe Hindu through Wiki-Leaks, spoke of Pakistani offi-cials handing over to theFederal Bureau of Investiga-tion a similar box from in-vestigations on Pakistan’sside.

The cable said this was“possibly the most importantpiece of evidence shared [byPakistan] with the FBI,” andthat an analysis of the boxescould help prove that the con-spiracy was hatched inPakistan.

“For successful analysis,the FBI still needs the GOI toprovide samples of the pinkbox in India,” the cable said,but pointed to India’s reluc-tance to do so as a “significanthurdle” in the successfulprosecution of the case in Pa-kistan. The cables do not sayif India finally shared this bitof evidence.

Pakistan’s Federal Investi-gation Agency (FIA) foundthe pink box at a trainingcamp the Mumbai attackersattended in the Sindh prov-ince. The cable did not men-tion the location of the camp.The investigators handed itover to the U.S. Embassy’s Le-gal Attache, a designated FBIofficial in U.S. diplomaticmissions.

The cable noted the turn-ing over of physical evidenceby the FIA to the FBI as asignificant development.

“The release of physicalevidence is a very sensitiveissue, and one that could af-fect the success of the GOP’sprosecution. The FIAstressed that this sharing ofevidence has to be kept quiet,as any leaks would endangerthe prosecution,” the cablecautioned.

Going by the cable, U.S. of-ficials also assisted the Pakis-tani investigators to preparethe prosecution case.

“Embassy Legatt [Legal At-tache] continues to meet withthe FIA investigative team onthe technical aspects of theMumbai investigation andprosecution. Currently Le-gatt is assisting FIA to pre-pare evidentiary materials forthe court trial and the filing ofa formal charge sheet,” thecable said.

The cable emphasised thatin order to successfully pros-ecute the five men in judicialcustody — LeT operationscommander Zaki ur-RehmanLakhvi, Hammad Ameen Sa-diq, Mazhar Iqbal (aka al Qa-ma), Abdul Wajid (aka ZarrarShah), and Shahid Jamil Riaz— “the GOP [Government ofPakistan] still needs signifi-cant evidence sharing fromboth the U.S. and India. Addi-tionally, U.S. legal expertisewill be important in helpingto frame third-country evi-dence in the most effectiveform for convictions.”

Under the sub-heading“Significant Hurdles,” the ca-ble said acquiring some of the

information that Pakistanneeded for a successful prose-cution would require “high-level intervention” from therelevant governments.

“The two pink boxes foundin Pakistan and India are astrong link that proves theconspiracy behind the attacksoriginated in Pakistan. TheGOP has passed its pink boxto the FBI. The FBI still re-quires samples from the foamand glue that make up the boxfound in India. The GOI hasnot been forthcoming withthis evidence.”

India did give the greenlight for sharing one piece ofinformation. On April 27, ac-cording to the cable, the Em-bassy Legatt shared FBIinformation about a Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT) subgroup be-lieved to be responsible forthe Mumbai attack.

“The information providedbiographic leads on LeTmembers for the FIA to pur-sue. According to the infor-mation, an LeT subgroup,headed by Saifullah Muzza-mil, and under the directionof LeT operation commanderZaki ur-Rehman Lakhvi, issuspected of planning, train-ing, and execution of theMumbai attacks. The infor-mation provided includes alist of suspected ‘Muzzamil’group members. SaifullahMuzzamil, the group leader,is responsible for LeT oper-ations in four districts ofKashmir and is also allowedto conduct independent at-tacks in other parts of India.The ‘Muzzamil’ group was es-tablished in late 2001, or early2002, after Muzzamil’s re-turn from fighting inKashmir.”

It is not known what, if any,action Pakistan took on thebasis of this information.

A pink box that Indiawould not give to FBI Nirupama Subramanian

More reports on Op-Ed pageCables at www.thehindu.com

ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS2011

Starting today, we bringyou two special electionpages three times a weekon the Assembly polls inTamil Nadu, Kerala, WestBengal, Assam andPuducherry. The pages,which will run onTuesdays, Thursdays andSundays from March 29to April 12, will contain amix of reports, news-features and in-depthanalyses.

NEW DELHI: India and Pakistanheld the first round of talkshere on Monday at the HomeSecretaries-level. They dis-cussed a number of bilateralissues, including progress inthe probe into the November26, 2008 Mumbai terror at-tacks.

Home Secretary G.K. Pil-lai told journalists that thetalks with Pakistani InteriorSecretary Chaudhary QamarZaman were “extremely pos-itive… Progress made in cer-tain direction, in the rightdirection.”

Echoing Mr. Pillai’s senti-ments, Mr. Zaman said thetalks were “very positive…Since we have another dayfor the talks to still followthrough, I am not going intothe specifics. But I can tellyou with good amount ofcertainty that it has been avery positive attitude dis-played on both sides.”

Mr. Zaman said therewere issues that were yet tobe discussed. “It’s been gen-erally moving on in a goodspirit and it has been a busi-ness like meeting,” he added.

Mr. Pillai indicated that ajoint statement would be is-sued on Tuesday.

Lasting nearly five hours,the talks also marked the re-sumption of a structuredhigh-level contact after thecomposite dialogue processwas suspended in the wakeof the 26/11 terror attacks.

The two delegations arelearnt to have covered a widerange of issues concerningthe two neighbours, includ-ing counter-terrorismmeasures.

India-Pakistan talksbegin on a positive noteProgress made in the right direction: Home Secretary Vinay Kumar

Home Secretary G.K. Pillai with Pakistani Interior Secretary Qamar Zaman(left) at a bilateral meeting in New Delhi on Monday. — PHOTO: R.V. MOORTHY

NEW DELHI: The much-anticipated summit meetingbetween the PrimeMinisters of India andPakistan will take place overan early dinner onWednesday, saidgovernment sources.

After watching the India-Pakistan Cricket World Cupsemi-final match for a briefwhile in the evening, PrimeMinister Manmohan Singhwill invite his visiting

Pakistani counterpart,Yousuf Raza Gilani, fordinner, during which bothsides are expected to touchon the future of bilateralties and the steps requiredto give them an impetusafter the Foreign Secretary-level meeting in Thimphu inFebruary, added thesources.

In line with the positionadopted by the foreignoffices of both countries, thesources maintained thatthere was no intention of

raising expectations, giventhe complicatedrelationship that has hadmany false starts. At thesame time, both sides wereavoiding comments thatwould invite a riposte. This,they pointed out, was inevidence on the first day ofthe Interior/HomeSecretary talks.

Dinner diplomacy at Mohali Special Correspondent

See Editorial Gilani’s hope: Page 10

NEW DELHI: She is famous in theworld of classical dance andchoreography, but the coun-try’s next film censor chiefhas never been on the silverscreen. The Union Informa-tion & Broadcasting Ministryhas selected veteran Bharata-natyam dancer Leela Samson,currently Chairperson ofSangeet Natak Akademi andDirector of Kalakshetradance school in Chennai, asthe new Chairperson of theCentral Board of Film Certifi-cation (CBFC), according tosources.

While Ms. Samson con-firmed that she has beenasked to take on the role, she

declined to comment untilshe is officially intimatedabout her appointment.While she is not familiar withthe film industry and made itclear that she already has anumber of responsibilities onher plate, her achievementsin the field of culture and aes-thetics could have led to herselection, she felt.

She will succeed veteranactress Sharmila Tagore.

Leela Samson newcensor board chiefPriscilla Jebaraj