SRINAGAR, India — Government troops fired live ammunition and tear gas into crowds of anti-India protesters Monday, killing seven, police said as tens of thousands of people demonstrated across Indian-controlled Kashmir.

More than 60 protesters and almost 70 government forces were injured on one of the worst days in nearly two months of violent clashes between troops and residents who strongly oppose India’s rule over the predominantly Muslim region.

The top elected official in the predominantly Muslim region, Omar Abdullah, met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Monday to discuss defusing the crisis that has caused 40 deaths over seven weeks.

“The need is to end the cycle of violence. Some semblance of normalcy has to be a precursor for any political initiative,” Abdullah told reporters.

The recent unrest in the Himalayan region — divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both — is reminiscent of the late 1980s, when protests against New Delhi’s rule sparked an armed conflict that has since claimed 68,000 lives, mostly civilians.

Kashmiri Muslims have held massive street protests, attacked security camps with rocks and burned police stations. Government forces have responded by using live ammunition and tear gas to break up the protests.

Clashes erupted again Monday in dozens of places across the region, as protesters defied a round-the-clock curfew.

At least two people were killed and another three wounded when government forces fired to disperse protesters blocking a highway in Sangam, a village south of Srinagar, said a police officer on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

Government forces also fired on thousands of people holding street protests in the southern town of Kakpora, killing one and wounding five, the officer said.

As the news of the killing reached nearby villages, thousands more took to streets and burned a police station and scores of vehicles parked there, the officer said.

In the northern village of Kralpora, protesters set a security bunker on fire and ransacked a counterinsurgency police force camp, the officer said. Troops opened fire, killing one protester and wounding seven others, three critically, he said.

In another police shooting, one person was killed and another wounded in the southern village of Chawalgam, the officer said.

In the southern town of Kulgam, another protester was killed when government forces opened fire and used tear gas to control hundreds of marchers. At least 12 people were injured, four of them critically with bullet wounds, the police officer said.

One young boy was killed in a clash between the protesters and paramilitary forces in Srinagar, the officer said.

Local residents claimed that the boy was beaten to death by security forces. Police said they were investigating the cause of the death.

Another 20 people were injured in the southern town of Rajpora when police opened fire and used tear gas to quell the protesters who burned a police station, the officer said.

Protesters also burned a government building and a local intelligence office in Budgam, a town to the west of Srinagar, the region’s main city. Four protesters were injured there, the officer said.

The other injuries occurred in clashes elsewhere in the region, the officer said.

A state police statement said 39 police officers and 28 paramilitary soldiers also were injured in the daylong clashes with protesters.

In Srinagar, troops announced over public address systems mounted on their vehicles that stern action would be taken against those violating the curfew.

However, hundreds of protesters came out on the streets in several neighborhoods, chanting “Go India! Go back” and “We want freedom.” Troops fired warning shots and tear gas to disperse the protesters, the police officer said.

Abdullah, in New Delhi, described the situation in the Kashmir valley as worrisome and said that “some anti-social elements are hellbent to foment trouble, mayhem and bloodshed in the valley to satiate their political designs.”

On Sunday, he appealed to people of all shades of opinion, the media and religious heads to join the government in stopping the bloodshed, adding that he and his government cannot do it alone.

Last week, local authorities asked two retired judges to investigate the deaths of protesters, but the move has failed to calm the anger.

India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir since 1947.

Separatist politicians and militants reject Indian sovereignty over Kashmir and want to carve out a separate homeland or merge with predominantly Muslim Pakistan.

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Troops kill 7 protesters in Indian-ruled Kashmir

US says no to nuclear power plant to Pakistan

WASHINGTON: The US has categorically told Pakistan that it would not get any atomic power plant or civilian nuclear deal on the lines of the one signed with India.

“The United States is working closely with Pakistan to help meet its growing needs. Nuclear power is not currently part of our discussions,” a senior Administration official told PTI.

Leaders of Pakistan, who have been pitching hard for a nuclear power plant, have been told about in recently.

The senior Administration official, preferring anonymity, said the US has also told Pakistan that there is no way that they can get a civilian nuclear deal similar to the one the Obama Administration has signed with India.

The Indo-US civilian nuclear deal is specific to India only and there is no thinking going on in the administration to create a template for it, the official said.

Moreover, given the past experiences that the US had with Pakistan on nuclear proliferation issue and the episode of disgraced Pakistani scientist A Q Khan accused of transferring sensitive technologies abroad, the official said both the top American lawmakers and those in the US Government have serious concerns about the safety of Pakistani nuclear weapons.

Under these circumstances, it is quite difficult to consider “that (nuclear power)” option for Pakistan, the officials pointed out.

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US says no to nuclear power plant to Pakistan

Maldives on Sunday said some youths from the country are being recruited by militant outfits based in Pakistan and Afghanistan to wage ‘jihad’ and sought India’s cooperation in preventing “any passage” for these people through the country.

PUNE, India (Reuters) – A bomb ripped through a packed restaurant in the Indian city of Pune on Saturday, killing at least eight people including four foreign women in the country’s first big attack since the 2008 Mumbai massacre.

The explosion comes only a day after India and Pakistan agreed to meet for high-level talks in New Delhi on February 25. New Delhi suspended a four-year-old peace process with Islamabad after the Mumbai attacks, blamed on Pakistani-based militants.

At least 33 people were wounded on Saturday, police said. No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

“There has been a bomb blast,” senior police official Rajendra Sonawane told reporters. “There was an abandoned bag which seems to have contained some IED. (improvised explosive device).”

The explosion at German Bakery occurred in the evening, when the restaurant was packed with tourists and foreigners. “Four women foreigners were killed. Their nationality is not known.” Dilip Band, a senior police official, told CNN-IBN television.

Debris was strewn all around the bakery, located near Osho ashram, which is also frequented by foreigners, and also near a Jewish center. The impact of the blast knocked the bakery’s sign off, blew out windows and left a large crater inside the restaurant.

“It (the bomb) was under one of the tables … We transferred lots of people to the ambulances … there is no German bakery any more,” one foreigner, short of breath and resting against a wall, told local CNN-IBN television.

“There are eight dead and 33 injured in the blast at the German Bakery,” said Sonawane, a joint commissioner of police.

“We heard a big noise and we all rushed out. The impact was so much that there were tiny body parts everywhere,” said Vinod Dhale, an employee at the bakery.

Militants killed 166 people during a three-day rampage through the financial hub of Mumbai in November 2008, which raised tensions between nuclear rivals Pakistan and India.

Before Mumbai, a wave of bombs hit Indian cities in 2008, killing more than 100 people. Police blamed most of those attacks on home-grown Muslim militants, although some Hindu militants have also been suspected of carrying out several attacks.

Authorities have warned of renewed threats of attacks on Indian soil and have in recent months stepped up security across the country of 1.2 billion people.

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Eight die in Pune, India’s first big attack since Mumbai

New Delhi: For many Indian commentators, especially those on the right, Israel provides an inspiring example of how to deal with external threat. One could equally argue that notwithstanding its comfortable position as the regional hegemon, Israel and its citizens remain insecure, xenophobic and afflicted by a disturbing sense of victimhood. It’s a debate that continues, especially in that country.

What Israel unquestionably does illustrate for India — with this country paying hundreds of millions of dollars annually for the lesson — is a well-considered plan for building its defence industry. In becoming India’s biggest defence supplier, Israel has bared a hard-nosed strategy that our policy-makers must grasp and emulate.

Since Israel does not market aircraft or ships, its defence companies have focused on the lucrative market for upgrading India’s predominantly Russian weaponry, including MiG-21 fighters, ship-borne missiles and T-72 tanks. Their first step was to understand Russian technology, for which Israeli defence companies accepted initial contracts at cost price to build their engineers’ capabilities. With that experience gained — at India’s cost, one must note — Israeli systems designers progressively graduated up the complexity scale. Today, Israel’s defence industry, with capabilities honed across a generation of Russian platforms, can bid across the globe.

The opportunities for Israel are vast. Some 30,000 T-72 tanks are in service worldwide, including 2,500 in India. But Israel, not India or Russia, will feed off that upgrade market. India provided Israel with the tanks, the opportunity and the money for creating that capability. Ironically, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) ignored India’s own defence industry; its undeniable competence could have been as easily translated into capability.

Israeli industry garnered another windfall from its offer to build the Phalcon Airborne Warning & Control System (AWACS). This airborne radar mounted on a Russian IL-76 aircraft, allows airborne controllers to monitor and control airspace for hundreds of kilometres around. No Israeli company had ever designed such an AWACS before, but India handed over US $1.1 billion (Rs 5,000 crore) to Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Elta. Hundreds of Israeli designers learned on the job, building AWACS capability on Indian money. Israel will now build another three AWACS for India, several for the Israeli Air Force and export more to Chile and Singapore.

Another feeding trough is the ongoing upgrade of Indian Navy ships, especially the technologically-challenging system for “net-centric operations”. This digitally interlinks the fleet’s sensors and weapons — in the air, on the surface and underwater — into seamless information and command networks. The two Israeli companies bidding for this strategic contract, Rafael Advanced Defence Systems and IAI, began building capabilities while fitting Indian warships with the Barak missile early this decade. With detailed knowledge of the warships’ Russian combat management system, Israeli engineers are now ready to design the net-centric operations system, the crucial nerve centre in war.

In this, as in other upgrade contracts, India’s MoD has ignored the advantages of building indigenous capability. Precision Electronics Ltd, a Delhi-based company that engineers high-tech defence electronics, joined hands with US giant Raytheon to bid cheaper than Rafael and IAI. It seemed as if, at last, Indian capabilities would also be built. But, mysteriously, the MoD scrapped that tender last month. There is no way to verify the industry buzz that the Israelis contrived that cancellation; the only thing known for sure is that Rafael and IAI are being investigated by the CBI for corruption in the Barak sale. But it would be safe to bet that, when fresh bidding is ordered, the Israelis will come in with cheaper prices.

The Israeli strategy is: a financial loss is acceptable, to curb Indian defence industrial capability. Each time an Indian company develops capability in a strategically-vital domain, foreign companies will be shut out from that realm forever.

Strangling the competition at birth is business, not criminal activity. Israel can be expected to do that. What defies logic, though, is the MoD’s dogged refusal to nurture Indian R&D the way it has Israel’s. This is of a piece with the MoD’s approach to Russia during that country’s troubled 1990s. With Russia’s economy bankrupt and military design bureaus and manufacturing units in dire straits, India placed a string of equipment orders — Sukhoi-30MKI fighters, Talwar class frigates and T-90 tanks, among others — providing life support to that dying establishment. China, in contrast, simply bought over a bevy of top Russian design engineers, paying them to live in China and build capabilities within China’s defence industries.

Ashok Kanodia, the MD of Precision Electronics, admires and envies the Israeli companies. Admitting that his own strategy involves bidding at cost price, Kanodia explains, “My gain will be the engineering capability and experience that is created, with the MoD paying the bill. Monetary profits are for later.” But he ruefully admits that with the MoD apparently unconcerned with developing Indian capabilities, Israeli firms are now unstoppable. The MoD, it would appear, has failed to understand that the essence of defence indigenisation is about building domestic design capability. All that South Block seems to have is an oft-repeated target: moving from 70 per cent reliance on foreign equipment to 70 per cent supply from Indian companies. But how exactly this will be done, the MoD has never pronounced. Since a target cannot substitute for a strategy, it is time that South Block implements a clear policy that would allow Indian companies — especially in the private sector — to build their capabilities with some assurance of business. That might be the best thing that Israel has done for India.

Source: Business Standard , MSN.com

Dubai: China may replace India in the proposed India-Pakistan-Iran (IPI) gas pipeline project as New Delhi has been dithering over the deal, a media report has said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki claimed that Tehran was ready to start anytime the IPI “peace pipeline” project, originally conceived to include Iran, Pakistan and India. China might replace India in the proposed project soon as India has been dithering over the deal, Mottaki is reported to have said. All the details between Pakistan and Iran in this regard have already been finalised, according to a report in Tehran Times newspaper.

India still needed some time but “we can even start the project without India”, Mottaki was quoted as saying by the daily.

The IPI project was conceived in 1995 and, after almost 13 years, India finally decided to quit the project in 2008. India walked out of the proposed 2,775-km project, mainly due to the hefty transit fee demanded by Pakistan.

Mootaki blamed the US for trying to sabotage the gas pipeline project, saying: “Growing relations between the US and India should not affect the relations of India with other countries of the region.”

Source: Business Standard

Bhadrak: India Sunday tested its indigenous long-range nuclear- capable Agni-III missile, catapulting the country into a select group of nations that have intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM)-capability, defence sources said.

The 3,000-km range missile, which is capable of carrying warheads weighing up to 1.5 tonnes, was tested from the Inner Wheeler Island at Dhamra, a launch site in Bhadrak district, about 200 km from Orissa capital Bhubaneswar, at 10.46 a.m.

This is the fourth test of the missile. The first test, from the same defence base on July 9, 2006, was unsuccessful. The second stage of the rocket had failed to separate from the missile quickly enough and the missile had fallen short of its target.

The DRDO-developed missile was tested again on April 12, 2007, and May 9, 2008, respectively and both the tests were successful.

Munich: Taliban-linked extremism in Afghanistan is blossoming because of Western intervention there and is set to spread to India, Central Asia and Arab states, Iran’s foreign minister has warned.