VOLEUM-24 NO. 3 APRIL-2014 PHONE-510-677-4488 WWW.FIJISUN-USA.COM Email : fijisun@gmail.com

hayderabadi elders Sharif andwife admire FijiSun

INSIDE

Three way fight for key post in Indian ElectionAs national elections in Indian draws nearer, a three-way fight for the

top postions has begun generating serious heating in all quarters.

Ahmadi Muslims at Masih –e- Maoudday at bay point darrusalam Mosque

Vinod Baba at his Kumar Sanu Show

wahid Alipasses away

VINodbAbA fans

FREddy hUSSAINwITh ThE opENING

NUMbER

Supreme love forAllah: promisedMessiah

INSIDE

If anything thatstands out in hisprose and poems is

an in-depth supremelove for Allah and Hisprophet. His passionand style is unmatchedthat have drawn mil-lions of converts to theAhmadiyya MuslimJamaat from around theworld.(“Aye Khuda AyeKarsazoAibPoshoKirdegar” is one of manypoems people fanatical-ly recite at all events.

SEE phoTo GALLERy FoR MoRE pICTURES.

REpoRT INSdIE oN INdIA NEwS pAGES

Arvind kejriwal (AAp) Narendra Modi (bJp) Rahul Gandhi (CoNG)

Mundair JatinderSingh to sing at

UF FIJI GIRMIT

FIESTIVAL REpoRT by

ZAhId bUkSh

Iam pleased to reportthat I am getting enor-mous support from Fiji

Business community, FijiAmericans and otherimmigrant Americans forthe US FIJI GIRMIT FESTI-VAL. With growing supportI am getting. This US FIJIGIRMIRT FESTIVAL willrock with presentations,quiz competition andentertainment by Vinodbaba , Babu Lal and otherswith food and sweets toenjoy. No one will go hun-gry. Hall and food bycourtesy of SANDHUBROTHERS FARM in Tracy.

the government in suvasaid in a statement, it"always believed the

sanctions were ill conceivedand served only to discouragetalented and qualified individu-als from serving fijian peo-ple." "the removal of sanc-tions is a positive step towardsrestoring normal relationsbetween out governments,"the statement said. the liftingof the travel sanctions wereannounced by Australia andnew Zealand earlier today.the bans have been in placesince December 2006, follow-ing the military coup thatbrought Mr bainimarama topower. the recent move is thelatest by the Australian

foreign Minister, Julie bishop,to restore relations with fiji inrecognition of progresstowards a democratic election.Ms bishop said the decisionwas in line with the Australiangovernment's policy of re-engagement and normaliza-tion of bilateral relations withfiji.

her new Zealand counter-part, Murray Mccully, said theremoval of remaining bansrecognised the progress beingmade in fiji towards holdingfree and fair elections. he saidthe long-awaited electoralDecree has been published,an elections supervisorappointed and more than halfa million people have been

registered to vote. the sanc-tions affected interim primeminister frank bainimarama,

his ministers, senior militaryand judicial figures and theirfamilies and have been in

place for seven years. earlierthis month, Mr bainimaramastepped down as commanderof fiji's military in order to con-test the elections. Ms bishopsaid Australia welcomed theopportunity to support fiji'sreturn to democracy within thepacific family. she said theAustralian government wasconfident that lifting travelrestrictions would lay a frame-work for closer dialogue andcooperation with fiji on bilater-al and regional issues. Msbishop has promised Australiawill work with the interim gov-ernment of fiji and otherdonors to support fiji's elec-tion preparations.

opposition foreign affairs

spokeswoman, tanyaplibersek, said the Australiangovernment must keep thepressure on fiji to ensuredemocratic reform does notstall. "labor wants fiji toreturn to democracy and thisincludes independence of thejudiciary, reinstatement of ruleof law, democratic elections,freedom of speech, freedom ofassociation, and a freemedia," she said. "this isAustralia's long-held position,in line with regional andcommonwealth views, andlabor expects Julie bishop toreinforce it." on friday, theinterim governmentannounced fijians will go tothe polls on september 17.

FIJISUN2 EDitORiAl April-2014 www.fijisun-usa.com

Teachers in Fijiin the 60s tookto rod to

instruct studentsthrough instillingfears in them.Learning took placeunder compulsivefear of corporal pun-ishment. Barely 30%of learning happened

much less to sayenabled us to passany public exams.Laws regardingabuse and assault ofchildren in the mainremained in thebooks. Unless it wasan aggravatedassault, police did nottake actions in suchcases. For the mostpart the incidentswere not reported.

To err was like a

violation of a law ofcrime that called foran immediate chas-tisement. If you didnot know the rightanswer you better beready to get thestrikes of stick cutfrom the branches oftamarind tree flexibleyet unbreakable. Ifyou lacked in disci-pline coupled withfailure to compre-hend any subject, you

were the black sheepand run the risk ofgetting punished sev-eral time in thecourse of a day.

Depressed anddisillusioned, you didnot have the will andmotivation to learnany more. Can youimagine 70% of thestudents did not passmany exams due tothe punishment driv-en approach.

DISILLUSIONEDDepressed and

disillusioned, youdid not have thewill and motiva-tion to learn any

more. Can youimagine 70% of the

students did notpass many examsdue to the punish-

ment drivenapproach.

Vinod Bab extends thanks to allfor outstanding success of his

KUMAR SANU SHOW

Appreciating the great suc-cess of his sold-outKumar sanu show held

saturday March 29, 2014 atchandni restaurant, fijiAmerican singer Vinod baba sentout his thank you note to all hisfans, friends of fiji, indian andpakistani communities. heexpressed his deepest thanks tohis band members for a perform-ance per excellence that audi-

ence enjoyed most and paid ahuge tribute to them. baba saiddespite a bad rainy day, peoplethronged for the show and feltthat some of them had to bereturned for want of space. heregretted the fact there was somemisunderstanding and confusionabout payment issue with themanagement that delayed theshow by at least one hour. peoplein the back waiting for food serv-

ice overheard senior managerAlam buksh ay that show may becancelled that baba said wasdeeply concerning baba said, “ichose chandni over another pop-ular restaurant for a $20 plate din-ner in contrast to $17. i had myshow manager Zahid buksh andmy own presence at the restau-rant to take care of any situation.i am must say i am hurt by thestatement.”

YAADENMy next big show

will be yAADen.

wAtch for the DAte,

tiMe AnD plAce.

VinOD BABA

Dr. rAju FIjI COnsulATE (CEnTEr In WHITE) WITH HOnOrED guEsTs).

FIJI SUN IS NOWON FACEBOOK

FOR ALL

Robbie Michaelson Contributing writer

FIJI SUNEDITORIAL

STAFF

H. Koya (PhD)Editor-Publisher

PO BOX 54691 Hayward, CA 94544

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Fiji welcomes lifting of travel bans by Australia, NZ

MALAYSIAN PLANE MYSTERY

MH370 searcH:

australia to deploy

flying air traffic

controller

Australia will deploy a modifiedBoeing 737 to act as a flying airtraffic controller over the IndianOcean to prevent a mid-air colli-sion among the aircraft searchingfor the Malaysia Airlines jet thatwent missing over three weeksago, an official said on Tuesday.The E-7A Wedgetail equippedwith advanced radar will bedeployed “in the near future” tomonitor the crowded skies overthe remote search zone, said for-mer Australian defence chiefAngus Houston, who heads thejoint agency coordinating themultinational search effort.

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Girmit Day award for quiz competitionO

f the two teamsthat will competeat the US FIJI

GIRMIT DAY, the winningteam will be awarded LateMaster Masla ManiTrophy. A fine sportsman,Masla Mani was arenowned school teacherat Sabeto Sangam Schoolwho live across from farmhouse located in Nasoso.He taught my younger

brothers and sisters andseveral of their kids. Hewould stop by our homeon his way to the smalltemple or fishing at theNasoso seafront. LateMaster Masla Mani waslover of Fiji community anda great supporter of lateHon. S M Koya. He wasknown for being just andfair in his dealings andstood for our rights.

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sudden passing away ofMr. Wahid Ali, the Directorof Voicenet IP (Fiji) Limited& Prabha Holdings (Fiji)Limited of Lot 23, TheCove, Denarau, Fiji. Mr.Wahid Ali was called toeternal rest on Thursday20th March, 2014 in San

Francisco, USA. He is sur-vived by his wife Mrs.Prabha Wati Ali, two sons –Victor Ali and Alvin Ali andgrandchildren, RachanaAli, Kaajal Ali, Shekhar Aliand Shaneel Ali.

Wahid ali

May 30, 1943

March 20, 2014

Wahid ali passes aWay

FIJISUN6 fiji newsApril-2014 www.fijisun-usa.com

Prime Minister, VoreqeBainimarama todayreceived elders from thevillage of Taci in the Rewaprovince.

While meeting with thehead of government, vil-lage elders thanked thePrime Minister for his lead-ership since 2006 andcommended government’scommitment to developingrural communities.

The courtesy visit thismorning provided an

opportunity for the villageelders to highlight variousconcerns including theneed to implement variousdevelopment projects with-in their village.PMBainimarama has reas-sured village elders thathis office will look into theirrequest for assistance andhighlighted Government’scommitment to improvingthe lives of ordinary Fijiansparticularly those in therural communities.

PRIME MINISTER RECEIVES REWA ELDERS

The Paramount Chiefof the Province ofNamosi, Ratu

Suliano Matanitobua, hascommended theBainimarama Governmentfor those developmentprojects carried out in theprovince.

The Tui Namosi madethe comments as he deliv-ered his statements at theopening of the NamosiProvincial Council Meetingin Navua this morning.

“Government has doneso much to our province,pouring millions of dollarsin various developmentprojects of which we are sothankful,” he said. “To allgovernment officials work-ing in the province I wouldlike to thank you all forserving the people ofNamosi and enduring theharsh condition and roughterrain for the sake of mypeople,” Ratu Matanitobuasaid. Ratu Matanitobuaalso reminded the peopleof Namosi that civil ser-vants working in theprovince should be regard-ed as members of theirprovince even thoughmost are from differentparts of the country. The

Namosi Chief said that thisattitude would foster unityin the process of develop-ment in Namosi.

“Make them feel athome so that they can con-duct themselves with confi-dence in serving the peo-ple of our province,” RatuMatanitobua said. The TuiNamosi also thanked theCommissioner Central foravailing himself at themeeting this morning at theNamosi Provincial Office inNavua. The 2 day meetingwill cover developmentissues for the 5 districtsand 24 villages and 8 set-tlements in the province.

NAMOSI CHIEF COMMENDS

GOVT’S POSITION ON RURAL

DEVELOPMENT

The Ministry ofEducation has announcedthat all schools in Navuawill close due to flooding inmost low lying parts.

The Ministry is remind-ing school heads in Navuato ensure that students areprovided the necessaryassistance when travellingback to their homes.

Authorities includingparents are reminded tomonitor the movements ofthe students outsideschool premises and toensure that all studentsreturn home safely.

The Ministry will adviseon the date for students toreturn to school.Meanwhile, the Weather

office has advised that aflood warning is in force forall low lying areas inNavua, in particular thoselow lying areas adjacent toand downstream of theWaibogi and SabataStation.

NAVUA SCHOOLS TOCLOSE DUE TO FLOODING

Fiji joined the interna-tional community today tocelebrate “WorldMeteorology Day” with thetheme “Weather andClimate Engaging Youths”.

The Minister for Worksand Transport TimociNatuva said the themecaptures the important rolethat Fiji’s youth play in thedevelopment of the nation.

“Our youths can bepowerful agents of change.Climate action is not justabout greenhouse gas

emissions, it is about peo-ple, about the values weshare and what each of uscan do to promote them,”Minister Natuva said.

“Young people are asource of innovation and offresh insights into prob-lems and their possiblesolutions. They call for justand equitable solutions,”Minister Natuva said.

Oratory competitionswere organised for stu-dents that were part of thecelebration.

FIJI JOINS INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

TO CELEBRATE WORLD METEOROLOGY DAY

After solar electrify-ing all the housesin her village, 44

year old female solar engi-neer Mrs Lautani Nabua ofWaikubukubu Village inTavua has taken the initia-tive a step further by shar-ing her skills on solar elec-trification with the womenand youths.

A recent visit by theMinistry of Women officialsto the Waikubukubu villagerevealed that following theinstallation of solar electri-fication in June last year,positive impacts are nowbeing felt by the villagers.

Each of the 60 housesthat had been solar electri-fied has a solar panel, a

lantern each, along with 3solar home light system.

“The solar lights havemade it easy for women todo their household choreseven late at night they cando their cooking and clean-ing. The children now havethe freedom to study forlonger hours and even inthe women centre we havetwo solar bulbs there andwomen usually love to dotheir weaving, sewing andbaking even at night.

“There are 300 peoplein Waikubukubu who nowenjoy solar lights and sofar I have also trained 6women and youths onsolar installation. We evenhave a solar committee in

the village and it actuallyhelps me to carry out themaintenance work. Wehave done away with thecandles and kerosenelamps and solar helped vil-lagers to save money aswell. Being the solar engi-neer has earned me ahigher status in my com-munity and especiallybeing a grandmother, myfamilies actually look up tome” Mrs Nabua said.

The Waikubukubu tura-ga-ni-koro (village head-men), Mr Peceli Natusorosaid solar energy is con-venient source of energy inrural and remote villageslike Waikubukubu.

“We are indeed grateful

to the government forchoosing Waikubukubu forsolar installation, it is afterlong years of wait, that’sfor 120 years we didn’thave any lights till last yearwhen our solar granny puther skills to use that gaveus access to solar systemthat is cost effective andeasy to manage,” MrNatusoro said.

In 2012, the Ministry ofWomen and BarefootCollege identified 10women aged 45 and 60 toundergo six months ofsolar electrification trainingat the Barefoot College inRajasthan, India.Following their return,these engineers had solar

electrifications in theirrespective villages in Fiji.

The solar villagesinclude Dama Village in Raand Waikubukubu villagein Ba and for EasternDivision the 4 villages inKadavu areBaidamudamu, Lawaki,Nabouwalu and Naioti vil-lage. Similarly for theNorthern division, the 6 vil-lages are: Vunidogoloa inCakaudrove, Lutukina andNabouono village inMacuata, Yasawa andNakorovou village in Buaprovince. The rollout of thesolar electrification hasbeen conducted under theflagship of the Ministry ofWomen, the UN Women,

Barefoot College and theFiji Locally ManagedMarine Areas Network(FLAMMA).

The Barefoot Collegehas provided training toover 52 countries aroundthe world and over 650women have been trainedas solar engineers, reach-ing over 350, 000 peopleworld-wide. There areplans in place to build aRegional Barefoot Centrein Fiji, through which morethan 200 grandmothersfrom the Pacific IslandCountries will be trained assolar engineers, reachingout to 10,000 people andexpected to save about 1billion litres of kerosene.

SOLAR ENGINEER SHARES SKILLS

The importance ofinformation man-agement in Fiji is

gaining momentumthrough the FijiGeospatial InformationCouncil meetings.

The first meeting forthis year looked into Fiji’sdraft National GeospatialStrategy under the chair-manship of the Ministry ofLands and MineralResources permanentsecretary, TevitaBoseiwaqa.

Mr Boseiwaqa urgedthe stakeholders to con-tinue to support the estab-lishment of the council asFiji is seen by the UN-GGIM (United NationsInitiative on GlobalGeospatial InformationManagement) as a leadplayer in this area in thePacific region.

“We will see where weare moving from the inter-national level, regionallevel and it is important forus that we keep abreastwith geospatial develop-ment as the Pacific islooking at us. “The UNbody is looking at Fiji tobe the catalyst for thedevelopment of geospa-tial in the Pacific. MrBoseiwaqa highlighted

that the national strategywill promote and allow thesharing of centralizeddata from socio-economicand physical data i.e.land, sea, undergroundand air for decision mak-ing under 5 areas;» Strengthening of the

existing governmentstructures,

» improvement of the fun-damental geospatialdata,

» enabling access to fun-damental geospatialdata that we can shareaccess to ,

» enabling inter-operateability with fundamentalgeospatial data and

» Strengthening thehuman technical capac-ity of the industry. The stakeholders dis-

cussed the strategy anddecided for further con-sultations with ministriesand institutions on otherissues. The strategyshould be taken to cabi-net around June, 2014.

FIJI TAKES LEADROLE IN GEOSPATIAL

DEVELOPMENT

KORONIVIA BRIDGE

OPEN TO LIGHT

VEHICLES ONLY

The Fiji Roads Authority hasadvised that the KoroniviaBridge on Koronivia Road,Nausori, will be closed to alltraffic at 6pm tonight but iscurrently open to only lightvehicles. This follows an inci-dent this morning where dam-ages were sustained to thebridge by a bus travelling ontothe bridge. The FRA assuresthe public that buses will con-tinue to service the area fromboth sides of the bridge andtheir contactors Fulton HoganHiways will carry out urgentrepair works this evening.

FIJISUN 7fiji news April-2014www.fijisun-usa.com

Her Excellency the FirstLady, Adi Koila Nailatikauhosted members of the FijiAlliance for Mental Health(FAMH) at Governmenthouse this morning.

This occasion wasorganised to raise moreawareness amongst cor-porate entities on the workthat organisations such asthe FAMH are carrying outto raise the profile of men-tal health in the country.

The First Lady who isalso the Patron of thisbody said the organisationaimed to create a mentallyhealthy Fiji through a com-bination of strategic educa-

tion, advocacy, research,awareness and raising pol-icy development.

“We wanted to combatthe stigma and discrimina-tion associated with mental

illness and improve thedelivery of mental healthservices,” Adi Koila said.

“FAMH’s membership isbroad consisting of sur-vivors of mental illness andtheir careers, individualsworking in mental health,academics, mental healthNGO’s and related profes-sions,” Adi Koila said.

FAMH president DrOdille Chang urged moreFijians to support efforts increating awareness on theeffects of mental illnessand to support any individ-ual that is diagnosed withthis disorder with love andcompassion.

FIRST LADY HOSTS FIJI ALLIANCE FOR MENTAL HEALTH

The Department ofFisheries today receivedover $400,000 worth of grantaid equipment from theOverseas FisheriesCooperation Foundation ofJapan (OFCF).

Permanent Secretary forFisheries, Inoke Wainiqolosaid that the Fijian govern-ment was grateful to theOFCF for the assistance pro-vided over the years. “Thisassistance is in accordancewith the FisheriesDevelopment Assistance forPacific Island Nations(FDAPIN) Memorandum ofUnderstanding which wassigned last year by the Acting

Minster for Fisheries,Joketani Cokanasiga and theOFCF resident representa-tive, Shima Fukuda,” PSWainiqolo said. “We havebeen fortunate that duringthe past two decades, OFCFhas donated 19 ice plants toFiji.” He added that the

OFCF has also been instru-mental in the training of fish-eries officers. The OFCF res-ident representative, ShimaFukuda said that FDAPINproject for Fiji includes icemachines, deployment oftechnical experts and 1 twincab vehicle. “For Fiji it israther difficult to maintainfisheries facilities so OFCFwill bring in technical expertsto assist in this area,” MrFukuda said. “The FDAPINproject implements technicaltransfer and capacity build-ing through repair andrestoration of fishery relatedfacilities. The OFCF wasestablished in 1990.

JAPAN ASSISTANCE TO BOOST FIJI FISHERIES SECTOR

Fiji’s bilateral rela-tions withMalaysia in

health development willsoon see a boost follow-ing the recent signing ofa Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MOU).

Fiji’s envoy toMalaysia, HighCommissioner Ratu MeliBainimarama signed theMOU on behalf of theFijian Government withMalaysia’s SecretaryGeneral for Health,Datuk Farida Binti MohdAli. The ceremony tookplace this week at theMinistry of Health head-quarters in Putrajaya,Malaysia.

“This MOU willstrengthen our relation-ship and collaborationwith Malaysia whichalready exists in a num-ber of areas. I am grate-ful for the MalaysianGovernment for allowingthis to extend to healthand Fiji has a lot to gainfrom it. Amongst others,Malaysia has a thrivingmedical tourism industryand this is one of the

areas that can be con-sidered by Fiji”, saidHigh CommissionerBainimarama.

“Under the MOUMalaysia and Fiji will setup a Joint Task Force todiscuss ways of advanc-ing cooperation underthe various areas identi-fied in the MOU.”

During the ceremony,HC Bainimarama briefedDatuk Farida on thework carried by out byFiji’s Ministry of Healthespecially in combatingdengue fever. He addedthat Fiji can also learnfrom Malaysia inaddressing Non-C o m m u n i c a b l eDiseases.

FIJI AND MALAYSIA SIGN

MOU TO BOOST HEALTH

DEVELOPMENT

Pregnant women livingin rural or maritime commu-nities across the countrywill no longer pay for travel-ling costs when visitingmedical facilities to deliverbabies.

This new developmentfollows the recent tour tothe Lau Group by the PrimeMinister VoreqeBainimarama and is adirect response raised bywomen there on the highcosts involved in travelingto clinics to give birth.

In most parts of Fiji’srural and maritime commu-nities, pregnant womenoften travel long distancesto health centres to give

birth. For most pregnantwomen living in maritimecommunities, travelling to aclinic located on anotherisland is often met with highcosts by transportproviders. In the absenceof any midwifery or nursingassistance, many youngwomen often incur financialdifficulties and risk seriouspregnancy complications.

However the concernsraised by the women in Lauhas prompted the Head OfGovernment to organise anew initiative where trans-portations costs will now bereimbursed at health clinicsor centres across the coun-try. This new initiative

applies to those womenwho have to travel long dis-tance to a separate healthfacility to give birth.

This development, the

Prime Minister said, willalleviate the financial bur-dens that young women inrural communities havehad to endure. “If the

women in these communi-ties don’t have the meansto travel to health centres todeliver their babies, it’s theresponsibility ofGovernment to make surethat this is addressed”, thePM said. This new develop-ment also compliments cur-rent assistance programsfunded by the State foryoung pregnant mothers.This includes theExpanded Food VoucherProgramme which isdesigned to benefit morethan 4,000 young womenacross rural parts of thecountry. With an allocationof $1.4million, the programis a coordinated response

by several key agenciesincluding the Ministry ofSocial Welfare and theMinistry of Health to provid-ing adequate and safeassistance to young preg-nant women in rural or mar-itime communities.This pro-gram translates to the pro-vision of vouchers foryoung women before andafter deliveries. A total of 7vouchers are provided witheach valued at $30.00each.

Health authorities areworking closely with rele-vant agencies to registerthose women in rural andmaritime communities whorequire medical assistance.

PM ANNOUNCES FINANCIAL INITIATIVE FOR PREGNANT WOMEN IN RURAL

The Minister for Foreign Affairs andInternational Cooperation, Ratu InokeKubuabola is in Brussels to attend theInternational Conference on GenocidePrevention to be held on March 31 andApril 1.

The Conference is being attended byGovernment Ministers and many distin-guished experts on Genocide from all overthe world including leaders of major inter-national organisations such as the UnitedNations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.The Conference aims to address the issueto repeated cases of mass atrocitiesdespite the exposure of these crimesagainst humanity in the internationalarena. The Conference will focus on thestatus of academic research on genocide,an integrated international human rights

law from an international criminal law per-spective, the role of civil society, and par-liament and institutional responses togenocide. Upon arrival into Brussels, theMinister was briefed by Fiji’s Ambassador

to Belgium, H.E. Peceli Vocea at Fiji’sEmbassy in preparation for theConference and on the key areas of workthe Mission is currently engaged in,including an update on work of the newlyappointed Honorary Consul inLuxembourg and outcomes of the recentmeeting with European External ActionService. Mr. Phillip Thomas, Fiji’sHonorary Consul in Luxembourg will bemeeting the Minister on Sunday to providea more in-depth brief on the various antic-ipated projects of interest for Fiji. TheMinister was also updated on the progressof the new mission being setup in Geneva,Switzerland due to open in May this yearA brief was also provided to the Ministeron key ACP-EU meetings envisaged forthe coming months.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER IN BRUSSELS TO ATTEND

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON GENOCIDE PREVENTION

FIJIAN

PRESIDENT

LEADS NATIONAL

HEALTH WALKHis Excellency the President,Ratu Epeli Nailatikau led amorning walk organised by theWestpac Bank as part of effortsto encourage healthy lifestyleamongst Fijians. HisExcellency led the morningwalk in Suva today and wasjoined by close to 2000 peopleincluding officials representingvarious organisations such asthe Ministry of Health, theWestpac Bank and the FijiPhysiotherapy Association.Association president, UshaKrishna, said the morning walkwas to kick start the year forpeople who wanted to do someform of exercise but do notknow how. “This is to raiseawareness on the need to carryout some form of physical activ-ity and also to help combat non-communicable diseasesbecause there are many peo-ple in Fiji suffering from dia-betes and high blood pressure,”she said. Ms Krishna said peo-ple in Fiji were now also leaningtowards healthy eating as theyrealise that physical activitydoes not work on its own butneeds to be backed by the rightnutrients and a proper sleepingpattern. Fifty one year mother ofthree, Verenaisi Dokomuavaluof Nasese, was happy with thefree health checks providedbefore the walk and hopes tostart her weight loss journeywith the walk.

FIJIAN GOVE.

STATEMENT ON

THE REMOVAL OF

SANCTIONS

The Fijian Government ispleased with the decision ofthe Australian and NewZealand Governments to liftall existing sanctions againstFiji. The Fijian Governmenthas always believed that thesanctions were ill conceivedand served only to discour-age talented and qualifiedindividuals from serving theFijian people. We havealways maintained that ourthree governments can worktogether if it is on the basisof a mutual respect fornational sovereignty and onequal terms.

FIJISUN08 InDIa nEWsapril-2014 www.fijisun-usa.com

Soldier killed as troops foil fidayeen attackkathua. Six persons,including two civilians, a sol-dier and three militants, werekilled on Friday in a fidayeenstrike in Kathua district ofJammu and Kashmir, closeto India-Pakistan internation-al border.

Sources said three gun-men in combat fatigueshijacked a Bolero at DayalaChak, about 45 km fromhere, on the Jammu-DelhiNational Highway when thevehicle was going towardsRadha Swami Satsang Biasaround 5 a.m.

The gunmen held thedriver, Jeet Singh, captiveand opened fire at the otherfour persons in the car,killing one of them, TarseemSingh, on the spot. The threeother injured persons werelater rushed to GovernmentMedical College Hospital,

Jammu. The hijacked Bolerothen headed towards anArmy camp in the Janglotearea. The gunmen tried toenter the camp through itsback entry, but alert sentriesopened fire. In the encounterthat followed for 10 hours,the three gunmen werekilled by the troops. Mr.Singh was found killedbeside the abandoned vehi-cle with a piece of cloth in hismouth and his throat slit.One soldier also died in thegun battle while three otherswere injured. securitymen take position during an encounter with militants in kathua district of Jammu and kashmir

Militants hideoutunearthed in Manipur,arms seized

A joint team of police com-mandos and central paramili-tary forces unearthed a mili-tant hideout and seized a largenumber of sophisticated armsin interior Thoubal district ofManipur, police said onSaturday. Commandosattached to Thoubal policestation and personnel of 22ndbattalion of Assam Rifleslaunched a massive searchoperation at Khoidum lakearea in the district followingreports of movement of mili-tants. They busted a hideoutof militants in the area onFriday evening, they said,adding that the militants fledbefore the forces reached thespot. Sources said the forcesseized one lethod gun, one AK56 rifle, one M 16 rifle, severalexplosive materials includingabout 100 detonators, over 10magazines of differentweapons, several rounds ofammunitions of different riflesand one radio set.

Objects spotted floating in anew search area for debris fromthe missing Malaysian jetlinerneed to be recovered andinspected before they can belinked to the plane, Australianofficials said on Saturday. Planesfrom China and Australia werecombing the newly targeted areaoff the west coast of Australiaafter several objects were spot-ted on Friday, including two rec-tangular items that were blueand gray, and ships on the scenewill attempt to recover them, theAustralian Maritime SafetyAuthority said.

“The objects cannot be veri-fied or discounted as being fromMH370 until they are relocatedand recovered by ships,” theauthority said in a statement. “Itis not known how much flotsam,such as from fishing activities, isordinarily there. At least one dis-tinctive fishing object has been

identified.”Australia’s Bureau of

Meteorology said a cold frontwould bring rain, low clouds andreduced visibility over the south-ern part of the search area, withmoderate winds and swells of upto 2 metres (6 feet). Conditionswill improve on Sunday, althoughrain, drizzle and low clouds arestill likely. Newly analyzed satel-lite data shifted the search zoneon Friday, raising hopessearchers may be closer to get-ting physical evidence that Flight370 crashed in the Indian Oceanon March 8 with 239 peopleaboard.

The newly targeted zone isnearly 1,130 kilometres (700miles) northeast of sites thesearchers have crisscrossed forthe past week. The redeploy-ment came after analysts deter-mined that the jet may havebeen travelling faster than earlier

estimates and would thereforehave run out of fuel sooner, offi-cials said. During the earliersearch, hundreds of objectshave been seen in the water bysatellites, but so far not a single

one has been confirmed asbeing from the missing Boeing777. Search planes are beingsent out from Perth, Australia, ina staggered manner, so at leastone plane will be over the area

for most of the daylight hours.The Australian statement

said five P-3 Orions three fromAustralia and one each fromJapan and New Zealand plus aJapanese coast guard jet, aChinese Ilyushin IL-76, and onecivilian jet acting as a communi-cations relay were taking part inthe air search Saturday.

The shift to the new zonecould be a break for searchersbecause it is a shorter flight fromland and has much calmerweather than the remote stretchpreviously targeted.

But Australian Prime MinisterTony Abbott told reporters inSydney that the job of locatingthe debris was still difficult.

“We should not underesti-mate the difficulty of this work itis an extraordinarily remote loca-tion. There are inhospitableseas, it’s an inaccessible place,we are trying to find small bits of

wreckage in a vast ocean,” hesaid.

The new search area isabout 80 per cent smaller thanthe old one, but still spans about123,000 square miles (319,000square kilometres), roughly thesize of Poland. In most places,depths range from about 6,560feet (2,000 metres) to 13,120feet (4,000 metres), although themuch deeper Diamantina trenchedges the search area.

Flight 370 disappearedMarch 8 while bound from KualaLumpur to Beijing. The huntfocused first on the Gulf ofThailand, along the plane’splanned path. But when radardata showed it had veeredsharply west, the search movedto the Andaman Sea, off thewestern coast of Malaysia,before pivoting to the southernIndian Ocean, southwest ofAustralia.

in this image made from tV, released by aMsa (australia Maritime safetyauthority), a marker flare is deployed into the indian ocean from a royalnew Zealand air Force (rnZaF) plane searching for debris from the miss-ing Malaysian airlines Flight 370, off the west coast of australia

Searchers checking latest objects for link to MH370

saharanpur. CongressLok Sabha candidate ImranMasood was on Saturdayarrested for his hate speechin which he allegedly threat-ened to “chop” NarendraModi “into pieces”, remarksthat had sparked an out-rage. Mr. Masood, 40, whowas arrested in the earlyhours by police from hisresidence in Saharanpur,said he had done no wrong.“It is all BJP’s plotting. Idon’t have any remorse as Idid no wrong. I will not apol-ogise either to NarendraModi or to the BJP,” said theCongress leader, who hadon Friday expressed regretfor his remarks. Mr. Masoodwould be produced in aDeoband court later in theday.

Meanwhile, Congressvice-president RahulGandhi cancelled hisscheduled rally inSaharanpur on Saturday inthe wake of party candidate

Mr. Masood’s arrest.“Rahul Gandhi’s rally is

being postponed. The nextdate for it will be decidedlater on,” CLP leaderPradeep Mathur said.

The decision to cancelthe rally comes after Mr.Masood was arrested bypolice for allegedly threat-ening to chop BJP’s PrimeMinisterial candidate Mr.Modi “into pieces”. A videofootage of the election rallyin Saharanpur, showing Mr.Masood attacking the BJP

Prime Ministerial candidate,had gone viral on the web.SSP Saharanpur ManojKumar said, “We received avideo footage of Masood.Based on its review a casewas registered in DeobandPolice Station against him”.

“Cases have been regis-tered against him undersection 295 A (deliberateand malicious acts, intend-ed to outrage religious feel-ings or any class by insult-ing religion or religiousbeliefs), 504 (Intentionalinsult with intent to provokebreach of peace), 506(criminal intimidation) ofIPC, Section 125 (promot-ing enmity between classesin connection with election)of Representation ofPeople Act, and 310 SC/STAct,” he said. Necessaryprobe is being carried outand legal proceedings willbe held, Mr. Kumar said.

The Congress candidatewas seen in the video as

saying that “If Modi tries tomake Uttar Pradesh intoGujarat, then we will chophim into tiny pieces...I amnot scared of getting killedor attacking someone. I willfight against Modi. Hethinks U.P. is Gujarat. Only4 per cent Muslims arethere in Gujarat while thereare 42 per cent Muslims inU.P.” Defending Mr.Masood, Congress leaderRita Bahuguna Joshi said,“His statement is not aboutelections.... Also newspa-per reports say the state-ment is six months old. Theperson standing next to him(in the video) has alsopassed away. Now whatwas said in some othertime, I don’t know how cer-tified it is.” “It is a legal mat-ter. What has been regis-tered against him, what isthe truth in it will be seen bythe party high commandwhich will decide the futurecourse of action.

Imran Masood arrested for hate speechBJP seeks

strict actionBJP had sought strict actionagainst Mr. Masood by theElection Commission for viola-tion of the Model Code andasked the poll body to ensurethe safety and security of all itsleaders including Modi. “BJPstrongly condemns ImranMasood’s statement. The lan-guage used is clearly promot-ing violence. We expect theElection Commission to takeeffective note of the remarks.The incident is important asUttar Pradesh is going througha phase which is very commu-nally sensitive.“We are goingto approach the ElectionCommission by lodging a for-mal complaint with it today.The Election Commission andthe Centre should take seriousnote of this,” BJPSpokesperson SudhanshuTrivedi had said.

Police tell court IM hadplans to attack Delhi,Jaipur and Jodhpur

Indian Mujahideen (IM)operation chief TehsinAkhtar had plans to attackDelhi, Jaipur and Jodhpurduring March, the SpecialCell of the Delhi Policehave told a Delhi court.

In their remand papersseeking Tehsin's custody,the police also told thecourt of additional sessionsjudge Daya Prakash thatthe interrogation of previ-ously arrested IM operativeZia-ur-Rehman aliasWaqas had helped themunearth the outfits plan's tocarry out terror attacks inthe three cities.

The police also claimedWaqas told them he andTehsin had visited Jaipurand Jodhpur and taughtthree other members of theIM –-- Saqib, Maroof andMohd Waqar Azhar --- howto use explosives andother weapons.

FIJISUN 09INDIA NEWS April-2014www.fijisun-usa.com

FIJISUN10 ART & ENTERTAINMENTApril-2014 www.fijisun-usa.com

Chairperson Zahid Buksh is spearheading theteam with a view to holding the 3rd Girmit

Festival at Legion hall in Tracy. Food and snackswill be prepared by the chairperson and his vol-unteers nearby at his home and catered free at

the dining hall later at night.

dATE, PlAcE ANd TIMETO BE ANNOUNcEd.”

Call Mr. Zahid Buksh 209-629-0913Free! Admission to the dinner will be free.

Any donations will be most welcome.

youth Talent/quiz competitionThe show will also have a youth quiz competition

basedon Fiji Girmit to keep our abreast with sacrifices their great grandparents made in

developing their new homeland Fiji.

Exhibitions and displaysThe committee is pleased to announce that anyonecan send or bring old pictures of our dear Girmit.

lAhREN RAdIO ShOWAT PUNJABI RAdIO USA

lISTEN TO lAhREN PROGRAM FROM 1 PM TO 3 PM

cAll BABU lAl

510-706-5013

MASTER OF MUSIc BABU lAl *RIGhT) WITh cO-hOST BIMlESh (cENTER) INTERVIEWING FIJI

SUN USA EdITOR, dR. h. KOyA

Kumar Sanu Show by Vinod Baba was a blast!PRojeCT MANAGeR: ZAhid BUKSh

His Master’s Voice Band as good Bollywood musicians

Amir Shankar: all praises for the band. Keyboardist and drum players mesmerizing perform.

Inclusion of Freddy Hakim smart move by Baba

The Kumar Sanu show byVinod Baba, Sat night March29 at the great Chandni

Restaurant was a sold-outshow.What was most thrilled was apredominant Fiji audience was a

super performance by their musi-cians and singers. This show shat-tered all misconceptions that Fijisingers and musicians are lousyand do not know their job.

Pleases with the show, lead gui-

tarist Amir Shankar praised his Fijimusicians for a wonderful perform-ance. Fiji SUN USA, however, ratesthe heart of the musical team – thekeyboardist as the best artist whoshow a marvelous .

US FIJI GIRMITDAY UPDATE

Chairman ZahidBuksh convincesDinesh Lal have

his 80 year old dadspeak during the OpenMike session. The eventwill not carry the titleFestival. Instead it willbe referred to as US FIJIGIRMIT DAY. It will avoid

the notion of festivity andcelebration to giveemphasis to our originrooted in what wasfrankly a slavery systemabout which our greatgrandfathers were laidand misled into signing adubious agreement for alabor contract.

quiz competition winnerswill receive late Master

Masla Mani trophyAnnouncing the event at Baba’s KumarSanu Show, the editor revealed the chil-

dren’s quiz competition winners willreceive trophy in the memory of late

Master Masla Mani.

FIJI SUN’S TWOMAJOR EVENTS

IShq SUFIyANI a Sufi Ghazal program featuring Fiji artists.

BATTlE OF ThE GIANTSfeaturing only the best of the soccer

teams is coming up late summer.

Lal Rupen diehard soccer king lives with a dreamA

real soccer fanatic and per-haps no one else in the Fijicommunity who has risked a

fortune in soccer like Lalla Rupen. Over more than 2 decades Lalla

Rupen gave his all; time, time moneyand skills to build and lead Fiji soccercommunity in SFO Bay Area.

Soft-spoken and not often leastvocal and reactionary, Lalla survived aprolonged competition within the soc-cer administration and lost more than$90, 000 and his leadership.

His fanatic love for soccer took atall on his business and to an extent

on his family ties that in recent forcedto the background. Although he ismore resigned to focusing on his Limobusiness, looks like Lalla’s love forsoccer will never die. A plan to includea soccer match in this year’s US FIJIGIRMIT DAY could not be accommo-dated. However, we have suggestedhim to refrain from investing moneyinstead to have a plan where costsmust be borne by the soccer commu-nity. It has become harder to obtainsoccer fields from city agencies whotend to look at past history beforegranting the ground.

FIJISUN 11PAKISTAN NEWS April-2014www.fijisun-usa.com

Pakistan once againsought US inter-vention in settling

the Kashmir dispute onMonday, complaining thatIndia was hesitant when-ever it wanted to talk onthe vexed issue.

to help us personaliseyour reading experience.

Speaking to Pakistanijournalists after holding ameeting with USSecretary of State JohnKerry at the Hague, on thesidelines of a two-daynuclear summit, PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharifsaid the Kashmir issue

should be resolved.He said that India hesi-

tated every time Pakistanapproached it for talks onKashmir. “We have saidsomebody else can alsohelp us in resolving theissue. But India is also notin agreement on that. Sohow can talks proceed?How can such issues besolved? I said this is forthe US also to think.When you tell us that nor-mal relations should bethere, we understand thatbut your role comes inalso. “If we cannot solvean issue with India bilater-

ally, a third power shouldbe there to play a role inmoving the dialogue for-ward,” Sharif said.

This is not the first timethat Pakistan has soughtUS intervention in solvingthe Kashmir issue. Ahead

of his meeting with USPresident Barack Obamain October last year,Sharif had sought USintervention to settle theKashmir issue. However,a senior US official hadthen said, “On Kashmir,our policy has notchanged an iota”.

In India, the govern-ment and political partieshad condemned Sharif’scomment in onevoice.External AffairsMinister Salman Khurshidhad said, “Jammu andKashmir is an integral partof India – there is no ques-

tion of anybody interferingwith this idea. The USknows this very well”.

Even though Pakistanis keen that the US inter-venes, Washington hasrepeatedly said it is forIndia and Pakistan todetermine the “pace,scope and character” oftheir cross-border dia-logue.

The Pakistan PrimeMinister is accompaniedon the trip by his SpecialAssistant Syed TariqFatemi and ForeignSecretary Aizaz AhmadChaudhry.

Pakistan again seeks US intervention on Kashmir

This is not the first time that Pakistan has sought US intervention in solving the Kashmir issue

Five militants killed, 8 arrestedin Balochistanprovince

At least five militantswere killed and eightarrested on Saturday

during an encounter withsecurity forces in southwestPakistan’s Balochistanprovince. Local mediareports said security forceslaunched a search opera-tion in the Pidrak area ofTurbat in Kech. There wasan exchange of firebetween militants andsecurity forces, anunnamed official told theDawn daily. “The forcesquickly responded andkilled five militants duringthe exchange of fire,” headded. Eight suspects werealso picked up from Pidrakand were being interrogat-ed by security personnel,the official said. He said theforces also recovered armsand ammunition from themilitants. The bodies wereyet to be identified, thedaily reported. Balochistanhas seen an upswing inviolence recently, sufferingfrom a separatist insur-gency, sectarian violenceand Taliban militants.

Hundreds of peoplehave died since rebels roseup in 2004 demanding polit-ical autonomy and agreater share of profits fromthe region’s natural oil, gasand mineral resources.

Baloch rebels armedwith automaticweapons and

dressed in security forces’uniform gunned down 13passengers after kidnap-ping them from buses inrestive south-westernprovince ofBalochistan,officials saidtoday. The incidentoccurred last night inMachh area of Bolan dis-trict when rebels stoppedvehicles going from Quettato Punjab province and

took 26 passengershostages. “They took away13 of them to nearbymountains and killedthem,” Niaz Ahmad fromlocal police station inMachh told Press Trust ofIndia on telephone.”Therest of passengers wereset free and allowed to go.”

He said in a separateincident in the same arearebels killed one soldier ofpara military Frontier Corps(FC). An official of FC saidthey are trying to confirm if

some security personnelwere also among the vic-tims,as media reported thatat least three FC soldierswere also among the killedpassengers. BalochistanLiberation Army,a sepa-ratist militant group,tookresponsibility of the attack.The Baloch nationalistsaccuse federal governmentof usurping the naturalresources of the provincelike natural gas and usingthem for the benefit ofPunjab province.

At least 35 peoplewere killed andseveral others

injured on Saturday in anaccident involving twobuses and a truck in insouthwest Pakistan’sBalochistan province.

The accident occurredafter a tyre of a speedingtruck burst sending itcrashing into a bus comingfrom the opposite side.Another bus too crashedinto them.

The second bus wascarrying among otherthings, containers of illegalpetrol which burst into

flames upon collision.The accident happened

on RCD Highway in Hubtown. The victims wererushed to nearby hospitalswith reports saying thatmany bodies were burntbeyond recognition.

“The passenger bustried to overtake a vehicleand collided with a truckcoming from the oppositedirection. There was ahuge explosion after thecollision as the bus wascarrying oil,” District PoliceOfficer (DPO) AhmedNawaz Cheema toldExpress Tribune daily.

35 killed as buses, truck collide in southwest Pakistan

13 civilians and a paramilitary mankilled by Baloch rebels in Pakistan

An anti-polio drive willbe launched by healthworkers on Sunday to vac-cinate nearly 7,50,000 chil-dren in Pakistan’s restivenorthwest under heavysecurity to guard againstany attack by militants whoregard the practice anti-Islamic.

The ninth phase of thedrive will be limited toPeshawar district andareas in its outskirts. Dueto frequent attacks by mili-tants against polio drives,the campaign is being held

under a programmenamed ‘Sehat Ka Insaf’.

Under the programme,instead of running polio-specific drive, health work-ers will target all nine vac-cine-preventable diseases,including polio. Tomorrow’scampaign will target nearly7,50,000 children, mediareports said.

In 2005, Swat-basedcleric Maulana Fazlullah,who is now Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chief,started delivering mes-sages on radio telling peo-

ple that vaccine was‘haram’ (forbidden) inIslam and those using itwere infidels.

He also said that it wasa ploy by the Westerncountries to render therecipients sterile and impo-tent. According to localmedia reports, over 32people had been killednationwide in attacks onpolio workers sinceDecember 2012 andmajority of these victimswere from KhyberPakhtunkhwa.

The World HealthOrganisation has warnedthat Peshawar is theworld’s “largest reservoir”of polio. The campaign is amove by the provincialgovernment to eradicatepolio in Pakistan, whichalong with Nigeria andAfghanistan, are the onlycountries where the dis-ease remains endemic.Pakistan recorded 92cases in 2013, including65 in Fata, 10 in KhyberPakhtunkhwa, nine inPunjab and six in Sindh.

Pakistan to vaccinate 7,50,000 children as part of anti-polio drive

Four Pakistani sol-diers on Wednesdaywere killed in an IEDblast in Hangu district inthe country’s restivenorthwest.

A convoy of securityforces was travellingfrom Hangu to Kurramtribal area when it wastargeted near Warmagalon the Hangu-Kurramborder. Three soldierswere killed whereas 11

others sustainedinjuries. One soldierlater died of his injuries.

Sources said thevehicle the soldiers weretravelling in was alsodamaged in the attack.

They said the blastwas carried out using anImprovised ExplosiveDevice (IED) and mighthave been detonatedthrough a remote con-trol.

4 Pakistani soldierskilled in IED blast

FIJISUN12 PAKISTAN NEWSApril-2014 www.fijisun-usa.com

The long discussed Indo-Pak electric-ity deal has moved closer to reality withenergy- starved Pakistan handing overdraft of an initial power trade deal toIndia. The move comes as the WorldBank has offered to finance the feasibili-ty study and transmission line to import1,200 megawatts (MW) of power fromIndia. “Now, the World Bank has alsooffered to finance a feasibility studyalong with the (installation of) transmis-sion line to import 1,200 MW power fromIndia,” an unnamed government officialtold the Express Tribune daily.

The official said a draft ofMemorandum of Understanding (MoU)was handed over to Indian authorities ina recent meeting held in New Delhi.India would respond to Pakistan aftergoing through the draft of the initial deal,

the official said. Indian diplomats saidPakistan and India have constitutedtechnical working groups which wouldreview the aspects of the export of 500MW of electricity to Pakistan. ThePakistani cabinet had decided inJanuary to import electricity from India.“The cabinet gave approval to the sign-ing of an MoU between Pakistan andIndia for trade of electricity,” an official

statement had said. The Water andPower Ministry had initiated negotiationswith India in this regard, it said, addingthat the World Bank had undertaken tofinance feasibility study of the project.The issue of electricity trade had comeup for discussion during the meetingbetween Indian Commerce MinisterAnand Sharma and Chief Minister ofPakistani Punjab Shahbaz Sharif duringhis visit to India in December. ChiefMinister Sharif had visited MahatmaGandhi Power project in Haryana afterwhich he had said Pakistan would wel-come India’s offer for supply of electricityto Pakistan at a reasonable rate. Indiahas expressed its intent to export elec-tricity to the tune of 500 MW to Pakistanimmediately if infrastructure for transmis-sion of power is made available.

Lt gen Ahmed ShujaPasha, when he was chiefof Pakistani intelligenceagency ISI, knew of Osamabin Laden’s hideout in hiscountry and Lashkar-e-Toiba founder Hafiz Saeedwas in regular contact withthe al-Qaeda chief, theNew York Times reportedWednesday.

Soon after the US NavySEAL raid on bin Laden’shouse, “a Pakistani officialtold me the US had directevidence that the ISI chief,Lt Gen Ahmed ShujaPasha, knew of BinLaden’s presence inAbbottabad,” the newspa-per said in an article bysenior journalist CarlottaGall. Bin Laden was shotdead by US commandos in

May 2012 in a unilateralraid that caught thePakistanis by surprise.Pasha was ISI chief fromOctober 2008 to March2012. “The informationcame from a senior US offi-cial, and I guessed that theAmericans had intercepteda phone call of Pasha’s orone about him in the daysafter the raid,” Gall wrote inthe article headlined ‘WhatPakistan Knew About binLaden’, adapted from thebook The Wrong Enemy:America in Afghanistan,2001-2014, to be publishednext month. Gall coveredAfghanistan and Pakistanfor the paper from 2001 to2013. “He knew ofOsama’s whereabouts,yes,” the Pakistani official

was quoted as saying.“Pasha was always theirblue-eyed boy,” the officialsaid, adding he was sur-prised to learn this.Pakistani intelligencesources dismissed the NYTreport as “baseless”.“There is no truth in theNYT report. It is a totallybaseless story. Nobody inPakistan knew about thepresence of Osama bin

Laden,” a Pakistani intelli-gence source said. Thereport added that the haulof handwritten notes, let-ters, computer files andother information collectedfrom bin Laden’s houseduring the raid revealedregular correspondence“between bin Laden and astring of militant leaderswho must have known hewas living in Pakistan,

including Hafiz MuhammadSaeed, the founder ofLashkar-e-Toiba, a pro-Kashmiri group that hasalso been active inAfghanistan, and MullahOmar of the Taliban”.

“Saeed and Omar aretwo of the ISI’s most impor-tant and loyal militant lead-ers. Both are protected bythe agency. Both cooperateclosely with it, restrainingtheir followers from attack-ing the Pakistani state andcoordinating withPakistan’s greater strategicplans. “Any correspon-dence the two men hadwith bin Laden would prob-ably have been known totheir ISI handlers,” it said.

Saeed, who is wantedby Indian security agencies

in connection with the 2008Mumbai attacks, alsodenied the report. Heappeared live on TV chan-nels in Pakistan besidesusing his Twitter handle todeny the charges. Therehas been strong suspicionthat some in the Pakistaniestablishment knew binLaden’s whereabouts as hewas living a stone-throwaway from a military acade-my in Abbottabad.“According to one insidesource, the ISI actually rana special desk assigned tohandle bin Laden. It wasoperated independently,led by an officer who madehis own decisions and didnot report to a superior. Hehandled only one person:bin Laden,” NYT reported.

‘ISI’s Pasha knew where Osama hid, Lashkar’s Saeed was in touch with him’

Pak girl gangrapedto avenge broth-er’s elopementA Pakistani girl was allegedlykidnapped, forcibly marriedtwice before being gan-graped and stripped naked toavenge her brother’s elope-ment with a woman from thesame village in Punjabprovince. Sanaullah, 22, hadallegedly eloped with thedaughter of a man, whobelongs to the Mallah caste,of the same village in Chiniotdistrict after the familiesrefused to marry them. Thegirl’s family called aPanchayat which ruled thatSanaullah’s sister would haveto marry Zahid Ali, brother ofthe girl who had eloped, theDawn daily reported today.After the decision ofPanchayat, accomplices ofZahid kidnapped Sanaullah’ssister from her house, held‘nikah’ with her and divorcedher after five days, the reportsaid. Later, the victim wasforcibly married to Zahid’scousin Noor Ahmad. Somedays later, four members ofZahid’s family gangraped herand subjected her to torture.“They stripped her naked,tied her with a tree in the vil-lage and called her parentsto get their daughter back inreturn for their girl.

The police chief ofPakistan’s southern Sindhprovince on Mondayordered for security to bebeefed up in areas inhabit-ed by members of theminority Hindu communityfollowing tensions overalleged desecration of aholy book. The orders cameafter a Hindu temple and adharmashala were set onfire on Saturday night by afrenzied mob in Larkanacity, the hometown of the

Bhutto family and thestronghold of the PakistanPeople’s Party. The incidenttook place over allegeddesecration of a holy book,marring Holi celebrationsand prompting authoritiesto impose a curfew in thearea.

The mob surrounded thehouse of a Hindu manaccused of burning thepages of the holy book,prompting police to firewarning shots and teargas

shells. In his directives,Sindh Inspector GeneralIqbal Mahmood ordered

special measures to beadopted for security of all

temples as well as com-munity halls and other facil-ities frequented by mem-bers of the Hindu communi-ty across the province. TheSindh police chief said nocomplacency could beallowed in providing protec-tion to members of the com-munity in particular and thepublic in general. He alsoordered coordinatedpatrolling and snap check-

ing to be adopted as essen-tial components of thesecurity plan developed forareas across the province.Mahmood said securitymust also be immediatelystrengthened across theboard at all mosques,imambargahs, seminaries,mausoleums and other sen-sitive buildings, includinggovernment installations,educational institutionsmanaged by missionariesand public places.

Security to be beefed up in Hindu areas in Pak’s Sindh

A Hindu temple and adharmashala have been seton fire by a frenzied mob inPakistan’s southern Sindhprovince over alleged dese-cration of a holy book, mar-ring Holi celebrations andprompting authorities toimpose a curfew in the area.

The mob attacked thetemple overnight in Larkanacity, the hometown of theBhutto family and thestronghold of the PakistanPeople’s Party. It surround-ed the house of a Hinduman accused of burning the

pages of the holy book,prompting police to firewarning shots and teargasshells. A local police officialsaid that soon after thenews of the man desecrat-ing the book spread, angrystudents and followers oflocal religious seminariesstarted gathering in groupsand demanded the man behanded over to them. “Theyset on fire the main Hindutemple in the Jinnah BaghChowk area which alsocompletely gutted theadjoining dharmashala,” the

official said. “Curfew hasnow been imposed in thearea with heavy patrolling bythe paramilitary rangers andpolice who had to batoncharge and use teargasshells to disperse the mob,”he said. The Hindu man,who was accused of blas-phemy, has been taken intoprotective custody.According to local mediareports, initial investigationindicates that the man hadrented the house from aMuslim family and cleaned itbefore he moved in.

Hindu temple set on fire inPak over alleged blasphemy

Pakistan to import electricity from India: report

Arguing thatPakistan willremain a key play-

er in counter terrorismpost-2014, the US hasproposed USD 280 millionin military assistance tothe country, although itwants to cut civilian aid inan effort to acknowledgeIndia’s concerns aboutmisuse of the funds.

Marred by financialconstraints, the Obamaadministration has pro-posed to substantially cutcivilian aid to Pakistan toUSD 446 million for thenext fiscal year as againstUSD 703 million in 2013,which among other thingsthe State Departmentargued is aimed atimproving ties with India.

“The OCO (OverseasContingency Operations)resources will support crit-ical US activities such assustaining close coopera-tion with Pakistan, ensur-ing the safety of Pakistaninuclear installations,working with Pakistan tofacilitate the peaceprocess in Afghanistan,and promoting improvedrelations with India,” theState Department said as

it proposed USD 446 mil-lion in civilian aid toPakistan. “FY 2015 fund-ing for Pakistan is crucialto meeting key US strate-gic priorities of combatingterrorism, strengtheningsecurity in both Pakistanand the region, and main-taining stability inAfghanistan post-transi-tion,”the Department said.

“Pakistan will remain akey player in US counterterrorism and nuclearnonproliferation efforts inFY 2015, as well as in ourlong-term objectives ofeconomic developmentand stability in the region,”the State Department saidin its annual budget pro-posals to the Congress.

“Developing an endur-ing and collaborative rela-tionship with an increas-ingly stable and prosper-ous Pakistan that plays aconstructive role in theregion will therefore con-tinue to be a priority forthe United States,” theState Department saidproposing USD 100 mil-lion to Pakistan under theEconomic Support Fund(ESF) for the fiscal year2015.

US plans 280 mn military aid to Pakistan,

cuts civilian aid

FIJISUN 13April-2014www.fijisun-usa.com

FIJISUN14 April-2014 www.fijisun-usa.com

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FIJISUN20 bollywoodApril-2014 www.fijisun-usa.com

BHARATI DUBEYbharati.dubey@mid-day.com

WITH Rajinikanth’s filmKochadiyaan releasing roundthe corner, a film titled MainHoon Rajinikanth has justbeen announced by filmmakerFaisal Saif. He is not the onlyone — nor the first one — to becashing on or using an actor’sname in a film. There havebeen instances in the past too.Faisal defends himself sayingthat his film will only be a trib-ute to the legendary actor.

“It is about Rajnikanth andyou will get to see those thingswhich you have only read it asSMS jokes. The comedy is on

the lines of The Dictator andBorat,” he says. When asked ifhe sought permission from thesuperstar, he says, “We are notmaking a film on MahatmaGandhi or any historic figure .My film is also not a biopic. Itis a tribute and for that we onlyneed his blessings. We wantour film to be a pleasant sur-prise for him.’’

Trade analyst KomalNahata rubbishes the claimsthat it is just a tribute. “Thefilmmakers are obviously cash-ing on the actors or at timeseven characters’ popularity.The idea is to get instantrecognition and attention. Weeasily remember movies titledBasanti ki Shaadi HoneymoonGabbar Ka, because of thepopularity of those iconic char-acters. It is a ploy to getpublicity,” he says.

Filmmaker JankiVishwanathan’s film Yeh HaiBakrapur which is slated torelease in May too has a‘Shahrukh’ in it. The filmmakerhas been seeking audiencewith the Shah Rukh Khanbecause a goat in her film isnamed after him. She justifiedit by saying, “Since the goat isthe protagonist of the film, wewent hunting for the rightgoat. We ‘auditioned’ at least400 goats before we found theright one. Call it a divine coin-cidence but the goat that wasapproved was called ShahRukh. I was told the goatresponds to that name since hewas one year old. I thought

best not to change the name.’’She adds, if you go to the goatmarket in Bidar which falls onthe border of Karnataka andMaharashtra, most goats thereare either called Shah Rukh orSalman. “I wanted that trendto be reflected in my film. Notso long back there was thisgoat called Saifeena, which wassold for R4 lakh. I won’t be sur-prised if there is a goat namedSachin in the market too. Thereason is to show how things inrural India works.” she says.She is keen on showing thefilm to SRK because she wantsthe actor to know that “there isno malice intended” and thatshe utmost respect for him.

We don’t know how ShahRukh is taking this piece ofnews, but Salman Khan wasevidently not too happy when afilmmaker, Muazzam Beg,

launched his film, MunnaBhai Sallu Bhai on

Salman Khan’sbirthday on

December 27last year.SalmanKhan’s officeis said tohave

promptly sent mails to Begwarning him against misusingthe star’s name. Beg had toshelve the film. He says, “Ourstory was about two fans ofthese actors. We had shot 30per cent of the film, but decid-ed to shelve it after thewarnings came,” he says. Inhindsight, he says he shouldhave sought Sallubhai’s per-mission before even startingthe film.

Some time back, MadhuriDixit, who was then living inthe USA, got anxious whenRam Gopal Verma announceda project called Main MadhuriDixit Banna Chahti Hoon,without speaking to her aboutit. Her then business managerRikku Rakeshnath explains,“We took an objection to thetitle and only after we under-stood what the script is, andgave him a No ObjectionCertificate did he begin shoot-ing.” Whatever the intention ofthe filmmaker, do these dra-matic naming result in morebusiness? No, says Nahata. “Itjust becomes a point of discus-sion for a while and then somefront benchers get taken in, butthat’s about it.”

Piggybackriding

All in the name

� R...Rajkumar (2013) triedits best to cash in on SlyStallone’s memorableonscreen character —Rambo — before aHollywood took notice andsent legal notice.

� Makrand Deshpande’sShahrukh Bola “Khoobsurat

Hai Tu” was a 2010comedy.

� Gabbar Singh, the iconiccharacter from Sholay(1975), is also the name ofthe Telugu remake ofSalman Khan-starrerDabangg. Pawan Kalyanstarred in it.

Rajinikanth

Superstars are finally takingnotice and action against peoplewho use and misuse their namesto promote films

Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon (2003) follows a poor,uneducated woman who is a huge fan of famous Bollywood actressand attempts to join the Bollywood film industry

There have been several instances in Bollywood where astar’s name/character got tagged along for impact...

Shahid Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha in R...Rajkumar

The poster of Main Hoon Rajnikanth, directed by Faisal Saif

A goat in the film YehHai Bakrapur is namedafter Shah Rukh Khan(right); Sanjay Dutt’sname was milked fora film titled MunnaBhai Sallu Bhai.

'P Se PM Tak' GiveS inTo CenSor'S deMandSProducer

Jayantilal Gadagives in to CensorBoard's diktat, ed-

its out objection-able dialogues

from the trailer ofhis upcoming film

'P Se PM Tak' -

The trailer ofJayantilal Gada'supcoming film, 'P Se

PM Tak', has run into trou-ble. It turns out that theCensor Board of FilmCertification (CBFC)objected to some offensivelines in the promo, andGada had to give into theirdemands. Says Gada,"My film is a political satire;it's similar to the films

Kundan Shah wouldmake. The film revolvesaround a sex worker whobecomes the PrimeMinister for four days.Accordingly, the trailer fea-tured some bold com-ments, but after watchingthe preview, the boardasked us to cut out somedialogues." Gada then metRakesh Kumar, the recent-ly appointed CEO of the

Censor Board. "We didn'twant to delete some ofthese lines as they conveythe essence of the film. Sowe approached Mr Kumarwho then allowed us toretain them. However, wechopped out the rest inkeeping with the CensorBoard's instructions," hesays. The filmmaker alsoagrees that he got theirfilm's timing wrong. "We

had to face this issuebecause of the upcomingelections. Then again, wewanted to release our filmnext month. Our film has apolitical backdrop and itwould have been the righttime to release it.However, since our post-production work is pend-ing, we have pushedahead the release date,"adds Gada.

I would be doing the film

with Sujoy GhoshKanGana Ranaut

Actress KanganaRanaut has replacedVidya Balan in Sujoy

Ghosh's next film after the lat-ter opted out of the project'Durga Rani Singh'. "I would be doing the film withSujoy. I am excited about it. Itis a suspense thriller andbeyond this I cannot revealanything," Kangana said herelast night. Reportedly,Kangana will play a 35-year-old mother to a 14-year-oldparalytic girl in the film whichis apparently titled 'Durga

Rani Singh'. Earlier, Sujoy of'Kahaani' fame had roped inVidya for the role, butKangana joined the projectafter she walked out.Kangana is happy with theresponse she garnered for herlast release 'Queen', which isdirected by Vikas Bahl. "I amvery happy with the responseto 'Queen'. We had notexpected this kind of appreci-ation... we are overwhelmed.We are thankful to the audi-ence for this love for the film,"Kangana said.

"I would be doing the film with Sujoy. I am excited about it. It is

a suspense thriller and beyond this I cannot reveal anything

FIJISUN 21bollywood April-2014www.fijisun-usa.com

Meeting the thespianTelly producerManish Goswamimade his buddy,former cricketerSunil Gavaskar’sdream come truewhen he got him tomeet the legendaryactor Dilip Kumarrecently.

Katrina Kaif may miss hermaiden Cannes red carpetappearance in May, due to thedelay in the shooting of herfilm, Bang Bang. The actress,who is now also the brandambassador of the same

beauty brand endosed byAishwarya Rai Bachchan,Sonam Kapoor and FreidaPinto was expected to bepresent at the festival as part of her commitment to the brand.

Out of hospitalAmit Sadh,who hadbeenhospitalisedafter a leginjury duringthe shoot ofhis filmGudduRangeela, isnow almostback on hislegs. He isback homefrom thehospital, butstill needsthe supportof a walkerto movearound.Looks like itwill be awhile beforethe lad’s backon the sets.

Ouch, it hurts!

Suniel Shetty injured his legs while performinga stunt on the sets of Ashu Trikha’s film based onthe coal mafia. The macho man that he is evenoff screen, he didn’t tell anyone about it and onlywhen he came limping the next day with theimpact of the injury, the unit came to knowabout it.

Akshay Kumar has shaved off the beard hehas been sporting for a while. The startweeted, “Uh Oh!!! Enjoy the last glimpse of‘The Beard’ guys & girls,as its coming off aswe speak. Who’s sad.” ISIC) Later, after

Akshay was done shaving, he revealed,“Well?I may miss it, but my kids are gonna be happy ;) My daughter hated the beard coz ittickled.” The Khiladi had grown the fuzz forhis film, Gabbar.

Amit Sadh

Katrina Kaif

From left: Filmmakers SATISHKAUSHIK and DEVBENEGAL bagged theNetwork of AsianFantastic Film Awardat the 12th HongKong–Asia FilmFinancing Forum fortheir film script DeadEnd. The forumconnects Asianfilmmakers and their upcomingprojects with filmfinanciers worldwide.

From left: SunilGavaskar, TV producerManish Goswami andDilip Kumar

then

now

From left: Sisters SHAHEEN and ALIA BHATT with their half sisterPOOJA BHATT. While Alia followed Pooja’s choice of career of acting,Shaheen is a writer. Since Pooja also produces and directs films, someday the three girls might work together. PIC/YOGEN SHAH

We are family

Write honour

Bear-d and grin Actress Yami Gautamattended the Polio FreeConclave 2014 in New Delhiyesterday as a guest speaker.She shared the dais withgovernment officers andrepresentatives of the WorldHealth Organisation.

Skipping Cannes? Speaking up

Suniel Shetty

Akshay Kumar

Yaami Gautam

FIJISUN22 HINDUISUMApril-2014 www.fijisun-usa.com

Baisakhi is one of the majorfestivals of Sikhs and iscelebrated with lot of

enthusiasm and gaiety in thestate of Punjab and all through-out the world where there is a sig-nificant Sikh population. For thelarge farming community ofPunjab, Baisakhi Festival marksthe time for harvest of rabi cropsand they celebrate the day byperforming joyful bhangra andgidda dance. For the Sikh com-munity, Baisakhi Festival hastremendous religious significanceas it was on a Baisakhi Day in1699, that Guru Gobind Singh,the tenth Sikh Guru laid the foun-dation of Panth Khalsa-the Orderof the Pure Ones.

DAte of BAisAkhi

Baisakhi Festival falls on thefirst day of Vaisakh month (April-May) according to Nanakshahi orSikh Calendar. For this reason,Baisakhi is also popularly knownas Vaisakhi. According to Englishcalendar, the date of Baisakhicorresponds to April 13 everyyear and April 14 once in every36 years. This difference inBaisakhi dates is due to the factthat day of Baisakhi is reckonedaccording to solar calendar andnot the lunar calendar. The auspi-cious date of Baisakhi is celebrat-ed all over India under differentnames and different set of ritualsand celebrations. Baisakhi datecoincides with 'Rongali Bihu' inAssam, 'Naba Barsha' in Bengal,Puthandu in Tamil Nadu and'Pooram Vishu' in Kerala.

BAisAkhi celeBrAtions

People of Punjab celebratethe festival of Baisakhi with exu-berance and devotion. As the fes-tival has tremendous importancein Sikh religion, major activities ofthe day are organized inGurdwaras. People wake upearly to prepare for the day. Manyalso take bath in the holy river tomark the auspicious occasion.After getting ready people pay avisit to their neighbourdood gurd-wara and take part in the specialprayer meeting organized for theday. At the end of the Baisakhiardas, congregates receive spe-cially prepared Kara prasad orsweetened semolina. This is fol-lowed by a guru ka langar orcommunity lunch. Later, duringthe day people of Sikh faith takeout a Baisakhi procession underthe leadership of Panj piaras. Theprocession moves through themajor localities of the city amidstthe rendition of devotional songsby the participating men, womenand children. Mock duels,bhangra and gidda performancesmake the procession joyous andcolourful.

celeBrAtions By fArmers

For the large farming commu-nity of Punjab and Haryana,Baisakhi marks a New Year’stime as it is time to harvest rabicrop. On Baisakhi, farmers thankgod for the bountiful crop andpray for good times ahead.People buy new clothes andmake merry by singing, dancingand enjoying the best of festivefood.

Cries of "Jatta aai Baisakhi",rent the skies as gaily men andwomen break into the bhangraand gidda dance to express theirjoy. Everyday farming scenes ofsowing, harvesting, winnowingand gathering of crops areexpressed through zestful move-ments of the body to the accom-paniment of ballads and dhol

music. In several villages of Punjab

Baisakhi Fairs are organizedwhere besides other recreationalactivities, wrestling bouts are alsoheld.

Baisakhi or Vaisakhi Festivalis celebrated as the Sikh NewYear and the founding of theKhalsa Panth. History of Baisakhitraces its origin from the BaisakhiDay celebrations of 1699 organ-ized by the Tenth Sikh Guru,Guru Gobind Singh to formKhalsa - Brotherhood of SaintSoldiers to fight against tyrannyand oppression.

history of BAisAkhi

The story of Baisakhi Festival

began with the martyrdom ofGuru Teg Bahadur, the ninth SikhGuru who was publicly beheadedby the Aurungzeb, the Mughalruler. Aurungzeb wanted tospread Islam in India and GuruTegh Bahadur stood up for therights of Hindus and Sikhs andthe Mughals therefore saw himas a threat.

After the death of Guru TegBahadur, his son, Guru GobindSingh became the next Guru ofthe Sikhs. Guru Gobind Singhwished to instill courage andstrength to sacrifice among hisfellow men. To fulfil his dream,Guru Gobind Singh called on thehistoric Baisakhi Day congrega-tion of Sikhs at Keshgarh Sahib

near Anandpur on March 30,1699. When thousands of peo-ple assembled for Guru’s bless-ing, Guru Gobind Singh came outof the tent carrying anunsheathed sword. He gave apowerful speech to infusecourage amongst fellowmen. Atthe end of the speech he saidthat every great deed was pre-ceded by equally great sacrificeand demanded that anyone pre-pared to give his life come for-ward. On the Guru’s third call, ayoung man offered himself. TheGuru took the man inside a tentand reappeared alone with abloodied sword. Guru GobindSingh asked for another volun-teer. This was repeated another

four times until a total of fiveSikhs had gone into the tent withthe Guru. Everyone present wasworried and though that GuruGobind Singh has killed fiveSikhs. At this point Guru present-ed all the five men before thepeople. Every one present wassurprised to see all five men aliveand wearing turbans and saffron-coloured garments. These fivemen were called Panj Piara or'Beloved Five' by the Guru. TheGuru blessed them with a Pahulceremony. In an iron vessel, theGuru stirred with a sword calledKhanda Sahib, the batasha thathis wife, Mata Sundari Ji had putinto water. The congregationrecited verses from scriptures asthe Guru performed the sacredceremony. The water was nowconsidered the sacred nectar ofimmortality called amrit. It wasfirst given to the five volunteers,then drunk by the guru and laterdistributed amongst the crowd.With this ceremony, all thosepresent, irrespective of caste orcreed, became members of theKhalsa Pantha (the Order of thePure Ones).

The Guru regarded the PanchPiaras as the first members of theKhalsa and the embodiment ofthe Guru himself. With the consti-tution of the Panj Pyare the highand low castes were amalgamat-ed into one as among the originalPanj Pyare, there was one Khatri,shopkeeper; one Jat, farmer; oneChhimba, calico printer; oneGhumar, water-carrier; and oneNai, a barber. The Guru gave thesurname of Singh (Lion) to everySikh and also took the name forhimself. From Guru Gobind Raihe became Guru Gobind Singh.This was seen as a great step innational integration becausesociety at that time was dividedon the basis of religion, caste andsocial status.

Jatta aai

BaiSakhiCries of "Jatta aai Baisakhi", rent the skies as gaily men and

women break into the bhangra and gidda dance to express theirjoy. everyday farming scenes of sowing, harvesting, winnowing

and gathering of crops are expressed through zestful movementsof the body to the accompaniment of ballads and dhol music.

Baisakhi

CeleBration

in indiathe auspiCious dayof Baisakhi is Cele-Brated all overindia though underdifferent names andwith different set ofrituals. people ofassam CeleBrateapril 13 as rongaliBihu, while those inwest Bengal Cele-Brate it as naBaBarsha. Bihar Cele-Brates Baisakhi asvaishakha in hon-our of the sungod, surya whilekerala CeleBrates itas vishu and tamilnadu as puthandu.in kashmir, a Cere-monial Bath andgeneral festivitymark Baisakhi whilein himaChalpradesh devoteesfloCk to the templeof Jwalamukhi andtake a holy dip inthe hot springs.

Vibrant Festival of Baisakhi isconsidered to be anextremely important festival

in India for number of reasons.Apart from being important for thefarmers as a harvest festival, thefestival is of prime importance inSikhism as a foundation day ofKhalsa Panth. Besides, auspiciousBaisakhi day is of importance forastrological reasons too !!

AstrologicAl significAnce

The festival of Baisakhi falls onApril 13 every year and April 14once in every 36 years. Change in

date is because of the fact thatdate of Baisakhi is reckonedaccording to the solar calendar.Astrologically, the date of Baisakhiis significant as marks sun’s entryinto Mesh Rashi. For this very rea-son, many people also knowBaisakhi as Mesha Sankranti. Theauspicious date of Baisakhi is cele-brated all over India under differentnames and rituals. It is celebratedas 'Rongali Bihu' in Assam, 'NabaBarsha' in Bengal, ‘Puthandu’ inTamil Nadu, 'Pooram Vishu' inKerala and ‘Vaishakha’ in the stateof Bihar.

Significance of Baisakhi

Other ReligionsThe day of Baisakhi is of signifi-cance for the Hindus as it wason this day in 1875 that SwamiDayanand Saraswati foundedthe Arya Samaj - a reformedsect of Hindus who are devotedto the Vedas for spiritual guid-ance and have discarded idolworship. Besides, Baisakhi dayis of relevance for the Buddhistsas Gautama Buddha attainedenlightenment and Nirvana onthis auspicious day.

FIJISUN 23bAnglAdesh news April-2014www.fijisun-usa.com

A Bangladeshi court onMonday rejected a libelsuit filed against formerpremier Khaleda Zia oncharges of “distorting thehistory” by claiming thather late husband ZiaurRahman was the nation’sfirst president.

Dhaka’s ChiefMetropolitan MagistrateShamsul Arefin said thepetition against Zia, thechairperson of the mainopposition BangladeshNationalist Party (BNP),lacked substantial ele-ments and could not there-fore be accepted as acase.

On March 27 at a dis-cussion on theIndependence Day, 68-year-old Zia had said thather husband was the firstpresident of the country

and the proclaimer of theindependence fromPakistan.

Complainant ABSiddique, who heads a

pro-Awami League‘Jananetri Parishad’,alleged that Zia’s state-ment “intended to distortthe history and defame

Bangladesh’s founderBangabandhu SheikhMujibur Rahman beforethe international communi-ty”. Siddique had also

sought an arrest warrantagainst Zia, the archrival ofPrime Minister SheikhHasina and daughter ofMujibur Rahman.

BNP’s founder GeneralZiaur Rahman emerged asthe strongman ofBangladesh after theAugust 15, 1975 coup, inwhich Mujibur Rahmanwas assassinated alongwith most of his familymembers. Ziaur Rahmanwas killed in another coupin 1981.

“When real and true his-tory is written, it will sayZiaur Rahman proclaimedour independence as thefirst president ofBangladesh,” Zia had toldthe party. Her commentscame a day after her elderson Tarique Rahman, whotook refuge in London to

evade justice in a numberof criminal and graft cases,made the identical claimthat his father was the firstpresident as he had draft-ed the declaration of inde-pendence. Yesterday’sParliament session saw aheated debate over theclaims and several MPswere in favour of chargingZia with sedition. Both thetreasury and oppositionbenches demanded Zia besummoned to facedefamation motion for thecomments.

Ruling Awami Leaguelawmaker SuranjitSengupta told the parlia-ment “earlier they (BNP)used to say Ziaur Rahmandeclared independence,now it (their claim) hasturned into the first presi-dent”.

Bangladesh court rejects libel plea against Khaleda Zia

Banglawoman helpspolice rescue27 girls

Bangladeshi womanhelped the police res-cue 27 girls and arrest19 persons from a citybar Tuesday.

The woman wasbrought to the city withthe promise of provid-ing a job but wasforced to work as abar dancer . The girlswere allegedly forcedto work as bardancers and bar-tenders at the bar andrestaurant. TheBangladeshi womancontacted her brotherKulakarn Ray over thephone and informedhim that she wasbeing subjected toharassment, policecommissionerRaghavendra HAuradkar said. TheCentral Crime Branchpolice conducted araid on the barTuesday night. Therescued women hailfrom Bangladesh,Nepal, Punjab,Mumbai, Haryana,Patiala, Haridwar,Rajasthan, Jalandarand Kolkata.

The ruling AwamiLeague took the lead overmain oppositionBangladesh NationalistParty in the fourth phase ofBangladesh’s local gov-ernment body election thatwitnessed stray violence,claiming four lives.

According to unofficialresults of the staggered‘upazila’ or sub-districtcouncil elections, AwamiLeague candidates won

chairmanship of 171 sub-districts while BNP won in144, as the ElectionCommission (EC) wrappedup the fourth phase in 91upazilas in 43 districts lateyesterday.

Candidates backed byBNP’s crucial ally funda-mentalist Jamaat-e-Islamiwon chairmanship in 32 inthe four phases while con-tenders supported by theruling Awami League’s

partner Jatiya Party hadonly three posts. The ECsaid “violence and irregu-larities” forced it to sus-pend voting at 32 centresin 11 sub-districts but mostnewspapers reported stuff-ing of ballot boxes, captureof polling stations, andsuspension and boycottduring the polls. Violenceclaimed four lives in subur-ban Munshiganj, south-western Jhalakathi and

central Comilla andBrahmanbaria. Accordingto media reports, two per-sons were killed duringclashes between rivalactivists while in Comillaand Brahmanbaria, twoothers were killed as policefired gunshots to tame theviolence.Acting ChiefElection CommissionerAbdul Mobarrak said can-didates’ desperateattempts to secure victory

led to violence in someplaces, but it was largelypeaceful in most areas.“Barring stray incidents ofviolence, the voting wasfair and peaceful. We aresatisfied with the votingatmosphere,” he toldnewsmen. With the latestround, polls at 385 of 487sub-districts are over andvoting will be completed inthe first week of May withtwo more rounds of polling.

Awami League wrests lead from BNP in Bangladesh local body polls

He said such action is‘unsupportable’.

Addressing a press confer-ence at his Secretariat office,on Monday he said that anuntoward situation was creat-ed due to doctors’ strike inRajshahi city on Thursdayand Friday. The ministerwarned the physiciansagainst such abstention.

He also talked toughagainst members of the lawenforcing agencies for theiraction on the physicians inRajshahi. Nasim said thathundreds of patients inRajshahi had sufferedimmensely as medical servic-es at government and privatehospitals and clinics in the cityremained suspendedbecause of a strike called bythe physicians in protestagainst imprisonment of aclinic owner cum physician.

Anwarul Haque Tipu, abusinessman, died onJanuary 29 while he wasundergoing treatment of hisfractured leg at local DolphinClinic, which is owned by DrSamiul Haque Shimul, a sen-ior physician of theorthopaedic department atRMCH. Shimul is the JointGeneral Secretary ofBangladesh MedicalAssociation (BMA) andOrganising Secretary ofRajshahi Medical College andHospital (RMCH) unit of pro-Awami League Swadhinata

Chikitsak Parishad.Tipu’s wife Sharmin Akter

filed a case against threephysicians of the clinic,including Dr Shimul, at theBoalia Police Station overTipu’s death, allegedly due towrong treatment. The court ofRajshahi Chief MetropolitanMagistrate sent Shimul to jailafter rejecting his bail petitionon March 27.In protestagainst the court order, doc-tors of public and private hos-pitals and owners of clinicsand diagnostic centres calledthe non-stop strike.

Shimul, however, wasreleased on Sunday in face ofthe movement. The ministerregretted doctors’ workabstention.

He said the ministry wouldhave taken measures‘promptly’ had the doctorslodged any complaint withoutgoing for such a tough pro-gramme. “Work abstention

without giving time is not sup-portable. I don’t support it asminister.” He said anyonecould make a mistake.“Doctors can be primarilyblamed for any death due tonegligence. But it’s a matter ofinquiry.”

Nasim said: “Whateverhappens, law-enforcing agen-cies would take measuresand let us know. Then we’lltake steps over that. But itcannot be that delivery ofmedical service will bestopped by work abstention”.He, however, asked the agen-cies not to harass any physi-cian over any complaintagainst them.

“We don’t want any doctorto be harassed unnecessarily.We also don’t want anypatient to be affected due tonegligence.” The ministerthanked Bangladesh MedicalAssociation leaders for theirintervention to end the strike.

‘Strike by doctors unsupportable’

Gold haul at

Jhenaidah

The Rapid Action Battalion(RAB) has detained a suspectedgold smuggler from Jhenaidahwhile he was trying to cross intoIndia through the Maheshkhali bor-der. Twenty-four bars of 100g eachwere said to be found on him. Hehad hidden the bars in his shoes.RAB-6 Jhenaidah camp command-er Squadron Leader NiazMohammad Faisal said the marketvalue of the seized gold wasaround Tk 10 million. The man heldhas been identified as SarowarHossain, 28, a local inhabitant.

Ahead of the LokSabha elections, twohardcore extremists, whofled from their hideouts inBangladesh, surrenderedto the Border SecurityForce (BSF), an officialtold IANS in Tripura's cap-ital Agartala on Saturday.

Tripura Police alsoarrested six Bangladeshinationals from the out-skirts of Agartala Fridaynight.

"Two NLFT (NationalLiberation Front ofTripura) militants surren-dered to the BSF atAcharjeepara border out-posts in northern TripuraFriday evening," BSFchief spokesmanB.S.Rawat told reporters.He said the surrenderedmilitants - self-styled war-rant officer AmritDebbarma and self-styledsergeant Jugal Debbarma- joined the NLFT in 1998and 2002 respectively,and were involved inmany violent activitiesand abductions of civil-ians in Tripura. Both theterrorists took arms train-ing in Bangladesh and arebeing interrogated by sen-

ior police and intelligenceofficials. Amrit Debbarmasurrendered along withhis wife and two children.

The union home min-istry had banned theNLFT and anotherextremist outfit, All TripuraTiger Force, in 1997.Meanwhile, in a separatedevelopment, sixBangladeshi nationalswere arrested fromNandannagar, on the out-skirts of the capital cityAgartala.

All of them are beinginterrogated by seniorpolice and intelligenceofficials, and will be pre-sented before a localcourt Saturday. The unionhome ministry on theadvice of the ElectionCommission has askedthe BSF to be on highalert along theBangladesh border inview of the Lok Sabhaelections.

Two rebels surren-der in Tripura

The ParliamentaryStanding Committee of theMinistry of Law, Justice andParliamentary Affairs hasrecommended a 'doubleshift' or 'evening shift' in thehigher and lower courts totackle growing number ofpending cases.

The committee will workon a draft of a new law tointroduce the extra shift inthe higher court, theCommittee's Chairman

Suranjit Sengupta told apress briefing at theParliament media centre onMonday. The committee dis-cussed the issue at a meet-ing on Sunday.

Sengupta said a whop-ping 2.6 million cases werepending in both higher andlower courts."The justicesystem needs to be restruc-tured to ease the backlog. Itis not possible to end thelogjam with the existing

number of judges," said theruling Awami League MP.

He cited examples ofIndia's Chennai and WestBengal. "Courts run eveningshift in Madras and WestBengal."

Sengupta said no law isrequired to introduce thesystem in the lower court,but a law is needed to intro-duce it in the higher court."The committee can draft alaw if necessary and send it

to the cabinet," he said.Sengupta said Bangladeshcan follow India's system ofreappointing retired judges.

He stressed on a salaryhike for judges. "The judgesare not administrative offi-cers. They have separatepay scales," he said.

Sengupta said, "What isthe problem if the salary ofHigh Court judges are morethan that of the Presidentand Prime Minister?" He

said the remuneration of thechief justices in India,Pakistan and Sri Lanka ismuch more than inBangladesh.

Sengupta said bureau-cratic hurdles would have tobe removed to improve thepay structure in the HighCourt Division. "The com-mittee will discuss the issuewith those concerned," hesaid. The ParliamentaryStanding Committee had

recommended passage of'Supreme Court Judges(Remuneration andPrivileges) (Amendment)Bill 2014' aiming at raisingthe allowances of SupremeCourt judges by 50 percent,according to a press releaseof the ParliamentSecretariat issued onSunday. The bill was placedin Parliament on Mar 18 andthen it was sent to the com-mittee for evaluation.

FIJISUN24 BANGLADESH NEWSApril-2014 www.fijisun-usa.com

Although argumenta-tive Indians wenton screaming at

one another about whatwas at stake in Bangladeshand what must be doneabout it, in appropriate cir-cles clarity had begun todawn by the end of June.The first indication was ahighly anguished speechby Indira Gandhi after avisit to refugee camps innortheastern states to meetthe victims of the Pakistaniarmy’s unspeakable atroci-ties that were soon docu-mented thoroughly in thebook of a London-basedPakistani journalist,Anthony Mascarenhas,The Rape of Bangladesh,for which he was brutallythrashed by a group ofPakistani goons.

On seeing the physicalcondition of the refugeesand hearing their tales ofwoes, Gandhi was so shak-en that on arrival at RajBhavan in Calcutta (nowKolkata) she declared grim-ly and firmly: “The worldmust know what is happen-ing here and must dosomething about it. In anycase, we cannot allowPakistan to continue itsholocaust, and thus convertits own problem into ours.”She also made it clear thatshe had absolutely nointention of “absorbing” theluckless refugees in India.“Conditions must be creat-ed in their country for themto go back in safety and

with dignity.”A few days later,

Pakistan’s military rulerYahya Khan respondedwith a dirty trick.Encouraged presumably byAmerican support and bythe lack of any pressure onhim from either the peopleof West Pakistan or theinternational community, heannounced a fraudulentplan to “transfer power tocivilians in East Pakistan”.

He appointed a hand-picked Bengali civilian,A.M. Khan, as governor ofEast Pakistan with a man-date to hold elections toNational Assembly seats“vacated” by members ofthe banned Awami Leaguewho had since “disap-peared”. Nothing of thekind happened, of course.But arriving in New Delhi aweek later, HenryKissinger, PresidentRichard Nixon’s nationalsecurity advisor, dismayedhis Indian interlocutors bycommending Yahya’s moveas a “conciliatory gesture”.He had to be told that as aJew he should have somerevulsion againstPakistan’s Nazi-like barbar-ities on the people of

Bangladesh and somesympathy for the 10 millionpitiable refugees.

It was in this atmos-phere that a closed-doorseminar on Bangladesh,attended by a select group,on July 3 acquired extraor-dinary importance. For, atit, K. Subrahmanyam, thedoyen of the slowly devel-oping Indian strategic com-munity, presented a paperarguing that Pakistan’s mil-itary junta would “preferdefeat at India’s hand to asettlement with the AwamiLeague”. The crisis had,therefore, presented India“an opportunity of a lifetimeto cut Pakistan to size andliberate the people ofBangladesh”. The paperwas strictly confidential

but it was leaked andpublished in full in TheTimes, London, on July 13.

Sultan MohammedKhan, an outstandingPakistani diplomat whowas foreign secretary atthat time, has recorded inhis memoirs that, along

with statements by thenIndian foreign ministerSwaran Singh and defenceminister Jagjivan Ram, hehad cited theSubrahmanyam paper tothe Soviet foreign minister,Andrei Gromyko, inMoscow and to ChinesePremier Zhou Enlai inBeijing to drive home thepoint that India’s objectivewas to “destroy Pakistan”.

On July 16, a Sunday,the Indian ambassador tothe United States, L.K. Jha,returned home after a visitto some bookshops. Thesecurity guard told him, inHindi, that “Dr KishenSingh had telephoned andleft his phone number.” Theambassador thought thatthe security man had erredand that the phone musthave come from KishenChand, his Delhi-basedcolleague in the ICS. Whenhe asked his social secre-tary to connect him to DrKishen Chand immediately,she pointed out that thenumber she was given was

that of Kissinger on thewest coast.

Jha returned the call andKissinger asked him: “LK,where will you be justbefore eight o’ clock in theevening because I want totalk to you then?” Jhareplied that since they weretalking already they shoulddispose of the subject “rightnow”. Kissinger: “No. I can’tspeak to you until then.”

Precisely at five minutesto eight, the telephone rangat the house of Jha’s hostfor dinner. The butlerannounced: “Phone forMista Jaa.” Kissinger toldhim: “LK, the president isabout to make a broadcast.He is announcing that Ihave already been toBeijing and the presidentwould be going to China inFebruary 1972. We wantyou to assure your govern-ment that this has nothingwhatever to do with India.”Jha listened to Nixon’sbroadcast, excused himselffrom dinner, phoned hisdeputy, M.K. Rasgotra, andasked him to come to theIndian chancery, togetherwith a “competent stenog-rapher”.

What Nixon hadannounced was a tectonicchange in the world orderthat created a huge sensa-tion across the globe. Thetwo countries that had beenbitter enemies for 22 yearsbecame virtual allies almostovernight. Japan spoke of“Nixon Shocku”. The Soviet

leaders knew that theAmericans were exploitingto the hilt the Sino-Sovietsplit at their expense.Pakistan was in cloverbecause it had been thego-between for Washingtonand Beijing. With theBangladesh crisis at itsheight, there was alarm inIndia; the country had tonow face a triangular US-China-Pakistan axis.Things worsened two daysafter Nixon’s broadcast. Ina private conversationbetween them, Kissingertold Jha that if China inter-vened in a “warlike situa-tion between India andPakistan”, Delhi should notlook to Washington “forassistance”. This was aclear accentuation of threatto Indian security. Worriesof the Indian people mount-ed. However, one Indianwho was perfectly calm andcollected was the country’sprime minister. She simplysummoned one of herclose confidants, D.P. Dhar,who had returned fromMoscow only a few weeksearlier after serving asambassador there and washer advisor on Bangladeshas chairman of the PolicyPlanning Committee of theministry of external affairs.She told him to go back toMoscow to conclude atreaty with the Soviet Unionbecause the US move tobefriend China required a“countervailing internation-al linkage”.

How clarity dawned on BangladeshOPINIONIN TESTING CIRCUM-STANCES, INDIRAGANDHI MADE UP HERMIND TO ACT.

More shifts to clear cases

A labour organisation hasprepared a draft list of workerswho went missing after the col-lapse of Rana Plaza lastyear.The list compiled by‘Bangladesh Garments SromikShonghoti’ on Saturday providedthe full identities of 146 out of183 missing workers who havebeen named. The leaders of theorganisation said it was gather-ing information on more missingworkers. The labour body madeseven demands while revealingthe list at a press conference atDhaka’s Topkhana Road. Thearmy, which led the rescue oper-ation in the wake of one of themost devastating man-made dis-asters, could not account for 261people who were employed atthe building’s various garmentfactories. More than 1,100 life-less bodies were pulled out of

the debris while numerous sur-vivors have been left maimed.

Taslima Akhtar, a leader ofthe labour group, said they alsobegan efforts to identify themissing while the army and ateam of government assignedinspectors were doing the same.They combined their own find-

ings with information gathered bythe army and the government tocome up with the list of 146 miss-ing workers. The government’slist has more names but theaddresses provided there werefound to be incomplete, she said.The families of the workers couldnot be found in the addressed

mentioned there. “But we areworking on this,” said Akhtar. Webelieve there are actually morewho are missing. We will soonprovide a full list with their com-plete identities.” Nine workers,whose names did not find men-tion in any other list, have beenlisted among the missing per-sons by the labour organisation,she said. The organisationdemanded that ill-fated day, April24, be declared a nationalmourning day and WorkersSafety Day. Their other demandsare – to clear discrepancies inthe list of the dead and missing,to provide proper compensationto all victims and the DNA testingof all the mortal remains that hadbeen recovered from the debris.

The labour leaders alsowanted prompt punishment forbuilding owner Sohel Rana

Identities of 146 missing Rana Plaza workers listed

Police have recov-ered 75 crude bombsand some 1,500 sticks atChhagalnaiya Upazila,in Feni district, on Friday,three days before thefifth round of the UpazilaParishad election is heldthere. The law enforcersrecovered the crudebombs during a raid instorehouse owned byone Mohiuddin inBashpara in the morn-ing.Officer-in-Charge ofthe Chhagalnaiya PoliceStation MoazzemHossain told

bdnews24.com that act-ing on a tip-off, they con-ducted a raid in thestorehouse and recov-ered the explosives andsticks. Police detainedtwo people for interroga-tion in this connection.They are the night guardof the area Abul KalamAzad, 48, and sweeper‘Babul’, 50. Filing of acase under theExplosive SubstancesAct was underway. Theelection to ChhagalnaiyaUpazila council is slatedfor March 31.

75 crude bombsrecovered in Feni

FIJISUN 25April-2014www.fijisun-usa.com

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If the couple is not in astate of mental stabilityand calmness, even if

they are physically fit, theycannot give birth to ahealthy child. This mentalcalmness and stability("Sathwa Guna") of mind isclosely related to onesfood habits and manyother factors. Abstinencefrom spicy foods andaddictive substances isadvised.

Mother’s bond with thechild starts right from thetime of conception. Themother can shape upbaby’s first impressions.The positive thinking andattitude promotes physicalwellbeing of the motherand the baby throughoutthe pregnancy and after.The advantages of Garbhsanskar are not only thatyou educate your child butthere is development of abond between the motherand the child.

Chants, Meditation, andMantras are most impor-tant during the process ofGarbh Sanskar. From theseventh month, foetus canhear the sounds frommother’s womb and fromthe surroundings of motherand also responds tothem. Sound of mother's

heartbeats is the first andnearest sound heard bythe foetus and hence whenthe mother takes her cry-ing child close to her thechild stops crying andbecomes calm. It is possi-ble to give energy for thedevelopment of body mindand sole of the child in thewomb by listening to spe-

cial kind of music. Forexample, the sound of theveena, flute andSamaveda mantras giveshealth to the pregnantwoman and the child with-in. There are various musiccassettes and CDs of“Garbha sangeet” avail-able in the market.

Garbha sanskar can be

traced back to ancientHindu texts like the Vedaswhich date to 1500-500BC. It also finds referencein the Mahabharata whichwas written roughly around400 BC. It finds a place intraditional ayurvedic medi-cine as a guide for preg-nant women in prenataleducation Indian mytholo-gy is littered with storiesthat illustrate the power ofGarbha sanskar. Here aresome of the best known…

One of the most famousand well-known tales isthat of Abhimanyu from theMahabharata. WhenArjuna's wife was pregnantwith their son Abhimanyu,he told her about how topenetrate the Chakravyuh,a particular war formation.When Abhimanyu becamea young man and a warriorin the Kurukshetra war, heremembered his father'sstory. He was able toemploy the strategy thathe had heard his father tellhis mother while he was inher womb. The story ofPrahlad is from thePuranas. Prahlad wasborn into a family ofdemons who were wreak-ing havoc on the Gods inheaven.

ConTinuES in nExT iSSuE

FIJISUN26 STAR AGEApril-2014 www.fijisun-usa.com

The sciencebehind Garbh

Sanskar!

THE POPULARITY OF GARBH SANSKAR IS ALSO BECAUSE

RESEARCHERS HAVE PROVED ITS RELEVANCE AND IMPORTANCE IN THE

DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD.

SAGITTARIUSNOV 23-DEC 22

You can expect thebeginning of month tobe extremely intense for

you on an emotional level andin connection with a generalsense of wanting to be moresecure. But the fact is that youare prepared to put securityon the line to experience amore authentic and rewardinglife. Your appetites are strong,and relationships tend to beall or nothing now.

CAPRICORNDEC 23-JAN 20

This period is an intensetime for the restructur-ing of important rela-

tionships, both personal andsocial, as you prepare to gothrough a long period ofgrowth and outgoing activity,which is aimed at consolidat-ing your position in society.Time is on your side now, andyour motivations are pure.This combination of timingand motivation leads to suc-cess in many of your endeav-ors over the next year.

CANCERJUNE 22-JULY 23

This should be a positive andoutgoing month for you – atime when you can display

what you are worth and get paidfor what you are worth too. It is agood time for innovative thinkingin your career with the focus oninternational aspects of your work.New moves around August 7thopen up a range of exhilaratingpossibilities for you.

LEOJULY 24-AUG 23

With Mercury enter-ing your sign on the8th, you emerge

from a low-key period con-nected with communicationand embark on a periodwhen you promote your ideas.Don’t expect everyone toagree with your views, at leastnot members of your family,but there is nothing wrongwith a little resistance, if youwant to improve your presen-tation.

VIRGOAUG 24-SEPT 23

The first week of month isspent enjoying the fruitsof your labors in your

social life and with friends andgroups, which have had morethan their fair share of upsets inJuly. You can relax and enjoy thepleasurable company of loyalfriends, who are willing to fightbattles on your behalf. The peri-od from 8th to 23rd, when yoursign ruler Mercury is in Leo, is aperiod when you prefer to keepyourself to yourself.

TAURUSAPR 21-MAY 21

The month starts on a harmo-nious note for relations withchildren and loved ones, espe-

cially if you are engaged in practicalprojects which keep everyone busyand productive. Partners may needsome tender loving care because ofunexpected upheavals, however, andit might be your job to soothe wor-ries and keep everyone down toearth, when things don’t quite seemto be under control.

AQUARIUSJAN 21-FEB 19

The new moon falling inyour solar 7th house ofrelationships in the

first week of the monthbrings a very sociable andexciting period togetherwith friends and partners.This trend continues up toand beyond the full moon ofthe 21st, suggesting that youwill be meeting a lot of peo-ple and getting involved insome exciting communitiesand cultural activities.

PISCESFEB 20-MAR 20

With Jupiter now in thewater sign of Cancer,and therefore very har-

monious to your sign, you are ina positive period which will con-tinue for many months, and youhave the opportunity for self-expression and success in manyof the areas you dream of. Havingsaid that, early August is anextreme period when there maybe some psychological con-frontations with people you areworking creatively with.

ARIESMAR 21-APR 20

As the month of August starts,you may be wondering whathas hit you in recent days. Your

sign ruler Mars has activated theUranus/Pluto square – a configurationwhich has been having a long termimpact for everyone and in all areas ofworld affairs. For you this specificallyaffects your family roots and plans forchange. Currently you have expan-sive plans which initially have a dis-ruptive effect on family stability.

SCORPIOOCT 24-NOV 22

The beginning ofmonth sees youscrambling to adapt

to unpredictable changeswhich may have forced youto change plans, especiallyin connection with travel orstudies. This is an extremelydynamic period for you, andyou tend to be guided bygut feelings in your judg-ments. You are attracted tostrong ideological view-points and invest a lot ofemotional energy in them.

LIBRASEPT 24-OCT 23

Up until 16th your sign rulerVenus is in Virgo, which isnot a period when you are

especially motivated to be outgo-ing and sociable. The more timeyou have to yourself, the moresatisfying life will be… there areall sorts of odd jobs you wouldlike to get finished off withoutbeing disturbed by the demandsof others. Everything changes inmid of month when an tremen-dous amount of things happen inquick succession.

GEMINIMAY 22-JUNE 21

This is going to be a dynamic andinteresting month, and far moreharmonious in comparison with

last month, which was a stressful andunreliable period, with lots of stops andstarts. You have got everything undercontrol as the month starts, especiallyin the economic department, but initial-ly you are not immune to unpredictableevents and surprises which may forceyou to cut some losses, especially inconnection with friends.

FIJISUN 27AfghAn news April-2014www.fijisun-usa.com

Taliban militantsattacked theheadquarters of

the IndependentElection Commissionof Afghanistan onSaturday in Kabul,opening fire on thecompound with rocket-propelled grenadesand heavy machineguns from a houseoutside its perimeterwall, according topolice.

It’s the latest in aseries of high-profileattacks that come asthe Islamic militantmovement steps up acampaign of violenceto disrupt presidentialelections, which aredue to be held in aweek.

A spokesman forthe IndependentElection Commissionsaid security hadalready beenincreased around thecompound because an

attack had been widelyexpected, and nocasualties have beenreported.

Explosions wereheard when the attackstarted, according tothe spokesman NoorMohammed Noor, buthe did not know whatcaused them.

Kabul police chiefMohammad ZahirZahir said three or fourattackers were holedup in a neighbouringhouse that had beenempty when theyoccupied it. He saidthe house is about 800meters away from theheadquarters, which isinside a walled offcompound guarded bya series of watch tow-ers and checkpoints.

Taliban spokesmanZabihullah Mujahidclaimed responsibilityfor the attack butdescribed what wouldhave been a much

more ambitiousassault, claiming a sui-cide bomber and gun-men had stormed theIEC compound. Hesaid there was a meet-ing between the IEC

and electionobservers, includingforeigners, at the timeof the attack. TheTaliban frequentlyexaggerate in theirstatements and a

meeting could notimmediately be con-firmed.

It would have beenextremely difficult forthe attackers to pene-trate the tight security,

but the Taliban havestaged a number ofassaults aimed atshowing they are ableto strike at will.

On Tuesday, theTaliban also struckanother IEC office onthe edge of Kabul, witha suicide bomber deto-nating his vehicle out-side while two gunmenstormed into the build-ing, killing four peopleand trapping dozens ofemployees inside.

The Taliban alsohave stepped upattacks on foreignersin the Afghan capital,suggesting that theyare also shifting tacticsto focus on civilian tar-gets that aren’t asheavily protected asmilitary and govern-ment installations.

The Taliban target-ed an American chari-ty, the Roots of Peace,and a nearby day carecenter late Friday in

the Afghan capital,sending foreignersincluding women andchildren fleeing whileAfghan security forcesbattled the gunmen.Officials said twoAfghan bystanderswere killed a girl and adriver.

Gunmen slippedthrough security lastweek into a luxuryhotel in Kabul onMarch 20, 2014 withpistols and ammuni-tion hidden in theirshoes, then openedfire, killing nine people,including two Afghanchildren who were din-ing in the restaurant.

A Swedish journal-ist was shot to deathon the street in a rela-tively affluent area ear-lier this month, and aLebanese restaurantpopular with foreignerswas attacked by a sui-cide bomber and gun-men in January.

Taliban attack Afghan election office in Kabul

An Afghan man receives his voter registration card from an employee of theIndependent Election Commission of Afghanistan (IEC) in Jalalabad, east of Kabul onSaturday. Taliban militants attacked the headquarters of the IEC on Saturday in Kabul.

The deadly 2008 terror attackon the Indian Embassy inKabul was sanctioned and

monitored by senior officials ofPakistan’s ISI, according to a newbook. The suicide car bomb attackon the Indian Embassy in Kabul onJuly 7, 2008 left 58 people — includ-ing two top Indian officials — killedand over 140 injured.

“The embassy bombing was nooperation by rogue ISI agents actingon their own. It was sanctioned andmonitored by the most senior offi-cials in Pakistani intelligence,” wrotesenior journalist Carlotta Gall in herlatest book ‘The Wrong Enemy:America in Afghanistan 2001-2004′,to be out next month.

The then Bush Administration,that received advance intelligenceinformation, mainly through inter-cepts of phone calls, could not pre-vent the deadly attack, wrote Gall,one of the only women Westernreporters on the ground in

Afghanistan after 9/11 and coveredthe Afghan-Pak conflict for 10 years.

The bombing of the IndianEmbassy in Kabul “revealed theclearest evidence of ISI complicity inits planning and execution”, accord-ing to excerpts from the book.“American and Afghan surveillanceintercepted phone calls from ISI offi-cials in Pakistan and heard themplanning the attack with the militantsin Kabul in the days leading up to thebombing. At the time, intelligenceofficials monitoring the calls did notknow what was being planned, butthe involvement of a high-level offi-cial in promoting a terrorist attackwas clear. “The evidence was sodamning that the Bush administra-tion dispatched the deputy chief ofthe CIA, Stephen Kappes, toIslamabad to remonstrate with thePakistanis. The bomber struck, how-ever, before Kappes reachedPakistan,” she said.“Investigatorsfound the bomber’s cell phone in the

wreckage of his exploded car. Theytracked down his collaborator inKabul, the man who had providedthe logistics for the attack. That facil-itator, an Afghan, had been in directcontact with Pakistan by telephone,”Gall wrote. “The number he hadcalled belonged to a high-level ISIofficial in Peshawar. The official had

sufficient seniority that he reporteddirectly to ISI headquarters inIslamabad. The embassy bombingwas no operation by rogue ISIagents acting on their own. It wassanctioned and monitored by themost senior officials in Pakistaniintelligence,” she claimed in herbook, running into more than 300

pages. While Pakistan has repeat-edly denied its involvement in theIndian Embassy attack, severalmainstream US newspapers, includ-ing The New York Times, and thegovernments of India andAfghanistan have accused the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of beingbehind the attack. In her book, Gallsaid the choice of attack was reveal-ing. She wrote: “An attack on theIndian Embassy and the militaryattache, longtime foes of Pakistan,could be explained by Pakistan asstemming from 60 years of antago-nistic relations. “But this was not asubtle attack needling an old foe. Itwas a massive car bomb detonatedin the centre of a capital city;designed to cause maximum injuryand terror. Theplan was also to terri-fy and undermine the confidence ofthe Afghans and their government,sending a message not just to Indiabut to the forty-two countries thatwere contributing to the NATO-led

international force to rebuildAfghanistan.” “The aim was to makethe cost too high for everyone tocontinue backing the (AfghanPresident Hamid) Karzai govern-ment.“The ISI wanted them all to gohome,” she wrote.

According to Gall, as the Afghangovernment investigated the attackon the Indian Embassy, theybecame convinced that the “ISI wasworking with al Qaeda, the Taliban,the Haqqanis, and Pakistani groupssuch as Lashkar-e-Taiba,” whichwas behind most of the attacks onIndian targets. “You think after somany years of this, we don’t knowwho our enemy is?” a senior Afghansecurity official retorted when I ques-tioned his findings. His Americancounterparts knew as well but justcould not admit what Pakistan wasdoing, out of hubris, he said. “Theyalways have the evidence, but theythink the viability of Pakistan is moreimportant,” Gall wrote.

2008 Indian Embassy attack in Kabul sanctioned by ISI, according to new book

An Indian security guard stands inside the embassy premises aftera suicide attack at the Indian embassy in Kabul July 7, 2008.

The director of theKabul airport says therunway has been

closed because of possibledangers to planes posed by aTaliban attack on the Afghanelection commission’s head-quarters. Attackers are firingrocket-propelled grenadesand heavy machine guns atthe Independent ElectionCommission’s main com-pound, which is on the south-ern edge of the airport. Nocasualties have been report-ed. to help us personaliseyour reading experience.Yaqoub Rassouli saysauthorities tried to reopen therunway after two hoursSaturday but decided the risk

was too high and closed itagain. He says flights onEmirates Airline and Air Indiahave been diverted.

Taliban attack closesAfghanistan’s airport

Among the other policeofficers, she stands out.No short back and sides;no hobnail boots; no beltedcombats. Instead – nailpolish, three–inch heels,aviator sunglasses. Andhijab. Police Officer PariGul is stationed at a check-point on a key route intoKabul, Afghanistan. Herjob is to stop and searchwomen in cars that looksuspicious. Aged 28, shehas a husband and threeyoung children. More thana few members of her fam-ily think that she is out ofher mind: every time shestands at the checkpoint,she is facing death on somany fronts.

The face of the AfghanNational Police (ANP) ischanging. More and morewomen are being recruited

to take on the fight againstinsurgents when Natoforces withdraw inDecember this year. Theirbrief is to do the jobs thatmen can't – in the segre-gated, strictly religiousworld of Afghanistan,

women can be searchedonly by women. TheTaliban has exploited thisin a string of attacks inwhich men have dressedas women to concealweapons or to gain entry.One of the worst was onJune 22 2012, when 18people were killed at ahotel at Qargha Lake, apopular tourist resort nearKabul. The Taliban mili-tants emerged from a mini-van with machine gunsand suicide vests hiddenunder blue burkas. Not thatwomen are blameless. OnSeptember 18 2012 aBritish woman and eightother civilians were killedby a female suicidebomber near KabulInternational Airport.

Five days a week PariGul stands at the police

checkpoint, amid the dinand the fumes, scrutinisingthe battered Toyota taxis,armour–plated Humveesand Ladas from bygoneSoviet days as they barrelpast. So far she has foundnothing more than pistolsand drugs. 'This road is notsafe,' she says, speakingthrough Saman Basir, mytranslator, a 28–year–oldbusiness studies graduatefrom Kabul University. 'Andthis checkpoint is one ofthe most dangerous inKabul,' she adds. Runningfrom the capital to the cityof Jalalabad, 100 miles tothe east, the Kabul end ofthe Jalalabad Road, as it isknown, is notorious for ter-rorist attacks because it isin a neighbourhood of Natobases and foreign con-struction companies.

The Afghan policewomen taking on the Taliban

FIJISUN28 AFGHAN NEWSApril-2014 www.fijisun-usa.com

10 policement killed, as Taliban besiege Afghan police stationTaliban insurgents car-

ried out a brazen earlymorning assault onThursday on a police stationin the country’s east, killing10 police officers and a civil-ian, officials said.

The spectacular attack inJalalabad, the capital of theeastern Nangarharprovince, was the latest inthe countdown to nextmonth’s presidential elec-tions.

The assault involved asuicide bomber, tworemotely detonated bombsand seven insurgents andset off a four-hour gunbattlewith the police.

By the time it was over,all seven insurgentsinvolved in the multi-pronged attack were killed,said Deputy Interior MinisterGen Mohammed AyubSolangi.

The attack began with asuicide bomber detonatinghis explosives-laden caroutside the police station,

located near the palatialresidence of the province’sGovernor Attahullah Ludin.

After the blast, six gun-men stormed into the sta-tion simultaneously as twobombs were detonatednearby, presumably byremote control one hiddenin a motorised three-wheelrickshaw and another in avegetable cart.

Solangi said the insur-gents were armed withheavy weapons and auto-matic machine guns. Thebattle was fierce with theAfghan troops fighting theirway out and chasing theattackers down the streetand when it ended, 10policemen, including a dis-trict police chief, were dead.The one civilian who waskilled was a university stu-dent caught in the cross-fire, said police. Doctors atnearby hospitals said asmany as 20 civilians werewounded, mostly fromshrapnel from the initial sui-

cide car bombing, but thatthe majority were treatedand released quickly. Two ofthe wounded were said tobe in serious condition.

The nearby state-runAfghan radio and televisionbuilding was badly dam-aged in the first suicidebombing.

In an email in Pashto thelanguage most often spo-ken by the Taliban the insur-gent group’s spokesmanZabihullah Mujahid said theTaliban had staged theattack in Jalalabad. TheTaliban have carried outnumerous attacks inJalalabad and the country’seast, which is their tradition-al stronghold, along withsouthern Afghanistan.

They have threatened acampaign of violence to dis-rupt the April 5 vote, whichwill choose a new Afghanpresident to lead the coun-try as foreign troops prepareto end their combat missionby the end of the year. Afghan army and police gather around the area after an attack on a police station in Jalalabad

In his final address toAfghanistan’s parliamentSaturday, President HamidKarzai told the UnitedStates its soldiers can leaveat the end of the yearbecause his military, whichalready protects 93 percentof the country, was ready totake over entirely.

He reiterated his stancethat he would not sign apact with the United Statesthat would provide for aresidual force of US troopsto remain behind after thefinal withdrawal, unlesspeace could first be estab-lished.

The Afghan presidenthas come under heavypressure to sign theBilateral SecurityAgreement, with a council

of notables that he himselfconvened recommend thathe sign the pact. The forcewould train and mentorAfghan troops, and someUS Special Forces wouldalso be left behind to huntdown al-Qaeda. All 10 can-didates seeking the presi-dency in April 5 electionshave said they would signthe security agreement. ButKarzai himself does notappear to want his legacy toinclude a commitment to alonger foreign troop pres-ence in his country. Karzaiwas brought to power in thewake of the 2001 US-ledinvasion and subsequentlywon two presidential elec-tions — in 2004 and againin 2009. But he has inrecent years espoused a

combatative nationalism,with his hour-long speechSaturday no exception. “Iwant to say to all those for-eign countries who maybeout of habit or because theywant to interfere, that theyshould not interfere,” hesaid.

Karzai said the war inAfghanistan was “imposed”on his nation, presumablyby the 2001 invasion, andtold the United States itcould bring peace toAfghanistan if it went afterterrorist sanctuaries andcountries that supportedterrorism, a reference toPakistan. Pakistan has acomplicated relationshipwith the Taliban. It backedthe group before their 2001overthrow, and although

now it is at war with its ownmilitants, Afghan insurgentssometimes find refuge on itsterritory.

Karzai told parliament,which was holding its open-ing session for this term,that security forces werestrong enough to defendAfghanistan without thehelp of international troops.Karzai steps down afternext month’s presidentialelections. UnderAfghanistan’s constitution,he is banned from seeking athird term. He came topower in December 2001following an internationalagreement signed in Bonn,Germany, and was con-firmed by a Loya Jirga orgrand council. He subse-quently won two elections.

US soldiers can leave, Afghanistan does not need them: Karzai

As Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, aveteran of the jihad againstSoviet occupation and a hard-line Islamist once close to al-Qaeda, steps to the micro-phone through a phalanx ofarmed guard the crowd of 5000takes up a familiar cry. Oneman raises his fist and shouts:"Death to America, death toEngland." Hundreds of handsare thrust into the air as theresponse echoes around therally in Parwan province, allcaptured on video. "Death,death, death," they shout.

Sayyaf is the man who invit-ed Osama bin Laden toAfghanistan and was mentor tothe mastermind who planned9/11. Yet 12 years after interna-tional troops forced the Talibanfrom Kabul and after billions ofdollars has been delivered inaid, he is a contender for pres-ident and one of a handful ofwarlords well-placed to act as

kingmakers. As PresidentHamid Karzai's term draws toan end the April 5 electionremains wide open. The resulttherefore rests with horsetrad-ing between men who rose toprominence during the coun-try's brutal civil wars. As well asSayyaf, General Abdul RashidDostum, the notorious Uzbekstrongman is lined up to be

vice-president of one of thefrontrunners. He standsaccused of allowing hundredsof Taliban prisoners to suffo-cate to death in shipping con-tainers as well as a string ofother alleged war crimes. Ofthe 11 candidates who enteredthe race, six of their candidatesor their running mates areregarded as a warlord. Men

like Sayyaf could have a deci-sive role to play. Althoughunlikely to win he would garnerdecisive votes to put behindone of the two candidates thatmake it to a run-off, accordingto Fabrizio Foschini, of theAfghanistan Analysts Network."He will not win but he will beone of the next on the list," hesaid."That means his part in arun-off will be very important."Sayyaf, who is in his 60s, hasbeen keen to broaden hisappeal. The 9/11 CommissionReport described him as men-tor to Khalid SheikhMohammed, the mastermindbehind the attacks on the TwinTowers, but today is one of thestrongest anti-Taliban voices inthe country. He has even saidhe will work with the West,signing a deal to allowAmerican forces to stay in thecountry beyond the end of theyear.

Warlords to decide outcome of Afghan electionYoung Army medic

Sinead Dodds ignored herown injuries and fear to savethe lives of two colleaguesafter their vehicle wasdestroyed by a suicide carbomb. Lance CorporalDodds, 21, fought throughpain and temporary deaf-ness to treat the two gravelyill soldiers in choking smokeand darkness, not knowingwhether help was coming.

She was awarded theQueen’s Commendation forBravery for her heroics.L/Cpl Dodds, who has beenin the Army since she was16, broke down with emo-tion as she retold the storybut insisted: “Anyone wouldhave done it. I was the onlyone (of the three) who wasable to do it.” The trio werein a Mastiff in Afghanistanlast year when a car packed

with explosives drove in tothe side of it. The blast liftedthe 25 tonne vehicle off theground and spun it 180degrees in to a ditch. A dis-orientated L/Cpl Dodds,from the Royal ArmyMedical Corps, was leftdeafened by the blast andsuffered arm and backinjuries. But she cut herselffree from the wreckage toattend to the driver, who wasscreaming in agony, andthen her commander, whosetwisted body was trapped.

Army medic receivesbravery award

No Indian killed

in Kabul hotel

attack: India

India on Monday saidnone of its nationals werekilled in a Taliban attack ona heavily fortified luxuryhotel in Afghanistan’s capi-tal.Afghan Interior Ministryspokesman Sediq Sediqqihad said that four foreign-ers — one each from NewZealand, Canada, to helpus personalise your read-ing experience. Pakistanand India — were killed inthe attack on Serena Hotelwhich is used by UN staffand foreign diplomats. Butin New Delhi, Ministry ofExternal Affairs officialssaid no Indian was killed inthe attack.The attackersentered the hotel at 8:30p.m. yesterday in tradition-al Afghan clothing andstarted shooting.

Ahmadiyya (/ɑɑmɑɑdi(j)ɑ/; Arabic: ɑɑɑɑɑɑɑ;Urdu: ɑɑɑɑɑɑɑɑ) is an Islamic religiousmovement founded in British India

near the end of the 19th century. It originatedwith the life and teachings of Mirza GhulamAhmad (1835–1908), who claimed to have ful-filled the prophecies of the world's reformerduring the end times, who was to herald theEschaton as predicted in the traditions of vari-ous world religions and bring about the final tri-umph of Islam as per Islamic prophecy. Heclaimed that he was the Mujaddid (divinereformer) of the 14th Islamic century, the prom-ised Messiah and Mahdiawaited by MuslimsThe adherents of the Ahmadiyya movementare referred to as Ahmadis or Ahmadi Muslims.Ahmadi thought emphasizes the belief thatIslam is the final dispensation for humanity asrevealed to Muhammad and the necessity ofrestoring to it its true essence and pristineform, which had been lost through the cen-turies. Thus, Ahmadis view themselves asleading the revival and peaceful propagation ofIslam. The Ahmadis were among the earliestMuslim communities to arrive inBritain andother Western countries.[7] Ahmadiyya adher-ents believe that God sent Ghulam Ahmad, inthe likeness of Jesus, to end religious wars,condemn bloodshed and reinstitute morality,justice and peace. They believe that he divest-ed Islam of fanatical beliefs and practices bychampioning what is in their view, Islam’s trueand essential teachings as practised by theProphet Muhammad. Ahmadi Muslims aredivided into two branches; the AhmadiyyaMuslim Community and the Lahore AhmadiyyaMovement for the Propagation of Islam. MirzaGhulam Ahmad founded the movement on 23March 1889 and termed it the AhmadiyyaMuslim Jama'at (community), envisioning it tobe a revitalisation of Islam. Ahmadis considerthemselves Muslims and claim to practiceIslam in its pristine form; however, someAhmadiyya-specific beliefs have been thoughtof as opposed to contemporary mainstreamIslamic thought since the movement's birth,and some Ahmadis have subsequently facedpersecution.

SplitSoon after the death of the first successor

of Ghulam Ahmad, the movement split into twogroups over the nature of Ghulam Ahmad'sprophethood and his succession. TheAhmadiyya Muslim Community believed thatMirza Ghulam Ahmad had indeed been a "non-law-bearing" subordinate prophet toMuhammad and that mainstream Muslims whocategorically rejected his message rejectedone who was foretold in Islamic prophecy. TheLahore Ahmadiyya Movement, however,affirmed the contemporary mainstream Islamicinterpretation that there could be no prophetafter Muhammad (except the return of Jesus)and viewed itself as a reform movement closerto mainstream Islam. The question of succes-sion was also an issue in the split of theAhmadiyya movement. The Lahore AhmadiyyaMovement believed that an Anjuman (body ofselected people) should be in charge of thecommunity. The Ahmadiyya MuslimCommunity, however, maintained that Caliphs(successors of Ghulam Ahmad) should contin-ue to take charge of the community and should

be left with the overall authority.The largerbody of Ahmadi Muslims belonging in theAhmadiyya Muslim Community however con-tend that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad himselfreceived a revelation by God concerning afuture split in his Community and that it wouldbe concerning his Promised Son: God has con-veyed to me that there would be a great split inmy Movement as well, and mischief makersand those who are the slaves of their owndesires will depart... It will be the time of myPromised Son (Mirza Bashir-ud-Din MahmoodAhmad). God has decreed these events in con-nection with him... Be sure to recognize thePromised Son. tadhkirah pg. 1066–1067

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community hasestablished centres in more than 200 countriesand states that its membership is in the tens ofmillions and also 10 million, while the LahoreAhmadiyya Movement states it is establishedin 17 countries of the world. Other sources(e.g. Human Rights Watch) estimates theworldwide population of Ahmadiyya to nearly10 million. Overseas Ahmadiyya missionaryactivities started at an organised level as earlyas 1913 (the UK mission in Putney, London).For many modern nations of the world, theAhmadiyya movement was their first contactwith the proclaimants from the Muslim world.The Ahmadiyya movement is considered bysome historians[20] as one of the precursors tothe African-American Civil Rights Movement inAmerica. According to someexperts,[21]Ahmadiyya were "arguably themost influential community in African-AmericanIslam" until the 1950s. The Ahmadiyya faithclaims to represent the latter-day revival of thereligion of Islam. Today, the Ahmadiyya com-munity has a presence in more than 200 coun-tries,[7][8][22] and in every country butPakistan and Saudi Arabia, they are legallyidentified as Muslims. In Pakistan they are pro-hibited by law from self-identifying as Muslims,and are not allowed by Saudi law to make Hajj(a pilgrimage that is a basic tenet of faith byMuslims).

Origin Of the nAme

The Ahmadiyya movement was founded in1889, but the name Ahmadiyya was not adopt-ed until about a decade later. In a manifestodated 4 November 1900, Ghulam Ahmadexplained that the name did not refer to himselfbut to Ahmad, the alternative name of theprophet Muhammad. According to him,"Muhammad", which means "the most praisedone", refers to the glorious destiny, majestyand power of the prophet, who adopted thename from about the time of the Hegira; but"Ahmad", an Arabic elative form which means"highly praised" and also "comforter", standsfor the beauty of his sermons, for the qualitiesof tenderness, gentleness, humility, love andmercy displayed by Muhammad, and for thepeace that he was destined to establish in theworld through his teachings. According toGhulam Ahmad, these names thus refer to twoaspects or phases of Islam, and in later timesit was the latter aspect that commandedgreater attention.The myriad of distinguishingnames adopted by various sects in Islam, hethus considered as innovations, for the Prophetof Islam had only these two names.

Accordingly, in Ghulam Ahmad's view, thiswas the reason that the Old Testament prophe-sied a Messenger "like unto Moses", whichreferred to Mohammad, while according to theQur'an, Jesus foretold a messenger namedAhmad.[Quran 61:6]

In keeping with this, he believed his objectwas to defend and propagate Islam globallythrough peaceful means, to revive the forgot-ten Islamic values of peace, forgiveness andsympathy for all mankind, and to establishpeace in the world through the teachings ofIslam. He believed that his message had spe-cial relevance for the Western world, which, hebelieved, had descended into materialism.Ghulam Ahmad also called it the Ahmadiyyamadhab (school of thought within Islam):

OverviewAhmadiyya shares beliefs with Islam

in general and Sunni Islam in particular,including belief in the prophethood ofMuhammad as the last law-bearingProphet, reverence for historicalprophets, and belief in the oneness ofGod (tawhid). Ahmadis accept the Qur'anas their holy text, face the Kaaba duringprayer, accept the authority of Hadiths(reported sayings of and stories aboutMuhammad) and practice theSunnah.[27] These are the central beliefsconstituting Ahmadi thought.

Also important to the Ahmadiyya is thebelief in Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as thePromised Messiah and Mahdi.

Ahmadisemphasise the implementation ofthe Kalima (the fundamental creed ofIslam) as essentially linked with theIslamic principles of the rights of God(Arabic: Haqooq-Allah) and the rights ofHis creation (mankind) (Arabic:Haqooqul-Ibād).

Ahmadis believe that Mirza GhulamAhmad was divinely commissioned as atrue reflection of Muhammad's prophet-hood to establish the unity of God and toremind mankind of their duties towardsGod and God's creation.Ahmadisemphasise both aspects of reli-gion, which Ahmadis believe is the needof the present age. As such Ahmadis holdthat Ghulam Ahmad was the representa-tive and spiritual readvent of all previousprophets.[29] From the Ahmadiyya per-spective, the Christians have erred withregards to the rights of God in that theyhave attributed divine status to a mortalhuman,[30] and it is on this account thatin Islamic eschatology the promisedreformer has been named the Mahdi (the"Guided One"—a title meaning "one whois naturally guided and is an heir to alltruths and in whom the attribute of 'guide'of the Almighty is fully represented").Ahmadis also hold that some Muslimshave erred with regard to the rights ofcreation for they, unjustly raising thesword and calling it Jihad, have misun-derstood the concept and purpose ofjihad in Islam; it is on this account that hehas been called the Isa Masih ("Jesus theMessiah")—a term which relates to hisfunction in re-establishing the rights ofpeople by reforming their distorted, vio-lent notion of "Jihad" just as Jesus Christcame principally to reform the hearts andattitudes of the Jewish nation. Givingprecedence to faith over worldly pursuitsis also a fundamental principle inAhmadiyya Teachings, with emphasisedrelevance to the present age of material-istic prevalence.

DiStinct AhmADi beliefSAlthough the central values of Islam

(prayer, charity, fasting, etc.) and the sixarticles of belief of Ahmadis are identicalto those of mainstream Sunni Muslimsand central to Ahmadi belief,[32] distinctAhmadiyya beliefs include the following:

• That the prophecies concerning thesecond coming of Jesus were metaphori-cal in nature and not literal becauseJesus is in their belief dead, and thatMirza Ghulam Ahmad fulfilled in his per-son these prophecies and the secondadvent of Jesus, that he was the prom-ised Mahdi and Messiah.

• The continuation of divine revelation.Although the Qur'an is the final messageof God for mankind, He continues to com-municate with his chosen individuals inthe same way he is believed to have donein the past. All of God's attributes areeternal.

• That no verse of the Qur'an abro-gates or cancels another verse. AllQur'anic verses have equal validity, inkeeping with their emphasis on the

"unsurpassable beauty and unquestion-able validity of the Qur'ān". The harmo-nization of apparently incompatible rul-ings is resolved through their juridicaldeflation in Ahmadī fiqh, so that a ruling(considered to have applicability only tothe specific situation for which it wasrevealed), is effective not because it wasrevealed last, but because it is most suit-ed to the situation at hand.

• That Jesus, contrary to main-stream Islamic belief, was crucified andsurvived the four hours on the cross. Hewas later revived from a swoon in thetomb.[35] Ahmadis believe that Jesusdied in Kashmir of old age whilst seekingthe Lost Tribes of Israel.[36] Jesus'remains are believed to be entombed inKashmir under the name YuzAsaf.Ahmadis believe that Jesus foretold thecoming of Muhammad after him, whichChristians have misinterpreted.[37]

• That the "Messiah" and the"Imam Mahdi" are the same person, andthat it is through his teachings and influ-ence and through his prayers and thoseof his followers that Islam will defeat theAnti-Christ or Dajjal in a period similar tothe period of time it took for nascentChristianity to rise (see also: Ahmadiyyarelationship with Christianity) and that theDajjal's power will slowly melt away likethe melting of snow, heralding the finalvictory of Islam and the age of peace.

• That the history of religion iscyclic and is renewed every seven millen-nia. The present cycle from the time ofthe Biblical Adam is split into sevenepochs or ages, parallel to the sevendays of the week, with periods for lightand darkness. Mirza Ghulam Ahmadappeared as the promised Messiah at thesixth epoch heralding the seventh andfinal age of mankind,[38] as a day in theestimation of God is like a thousand yearsof man's reckoning.[Quran 22:47]According to Ghulam Ahmad, just as thesixth day of the week is reserved forJumu'ah (congregational prayers), like-wise his age is destined for a globalassembling of mankind in which the worldis to unite under one universal religion:Islam.

• The two Ahmadiyya groups havevarying beliefs regarding the finality of theProphethood of Muhammad. TheAhmadiyya Muslim Community believesthat Muhammad brought prophethood toperfection and was the last law-bearingprophet and the apex of humankind'sspiritual evolution. New prophets cancome, but they must be completely subor-dinate to Muhammad and cannot exceedhim in excellence nor alter his teaching orbring any new law or religion. They arealso thought of as reflections ofMuhammad rather than independentlymade into Prophets, like the Prophets ofantiquity.[39] The Lahore AhmadiyyaMovement believes that Muhammad isthe last of the prophets and no prophet,new or old, can come after him, alsorejecting any notion of Jesus returning toearth as a Prophet.

FiJisUn 29islAm todAy April-2014www.fijisun-usa.com

Promised messiah’s day in an interactive session by imam salman shaikh

Oakland/SFO chapter to merge with AMC Silicon Valley "Ahmadi" redirects here. For the surname, see Ahmadi (surname). For other uses, see Ahmadi (disambiguation).

HistoryAt the end of the 19th century, MirzaGhulam Ahmad of Qadian proclaimedhimself to be the "CentennialReformer of Islam" (Mujaddid),metaphorical second coming of Jesusand the Mahdi (guided one) awaitedby the Muslims and obtained a con-siderable number of followers espe-cially within the United Provinces, thePunjab and Sindh.[12] He and his fol-lowers claim that his advent was fore-told by Muhammad, the Prophet ofIslam, and also by many other reli-gious scriptures of the world. In 1889,Mirza Ghulam Ahmad laid down thefoundation of his community, whichwas later given the name of the"Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at".Ahmadiyya emerged in India as amovement within Islam, also inresponse to the Christian and AryaSamajmissionary activity that waswidespread in the 19th century.

FIJISUN30 April-2014 www.fijisun-usa.com

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