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The Sunday Times International - South Asia

Indian police on guard for mosque bomb reprisal attacks
NEW DELHI, Saturday (AFP) - Security was stepped up at Hindu temples in the Indian capital to guard against reprisal attacks as police began hunting for suspects behind two bombs planted at the country's largest mosque.

Officials said it was too early to say who was responsible for the explosions, which occured after Friday evening prayers at the crowded 17th century Jama Masjid in the old quarter of the capital. Indian police often suspect Islamic guerilla groups of attacks on religious sites aimed at fomenting violence between Hindus and Muslims.

Alok Kumar, deputy police chief of the Jama Masjid area, said there was tight security at all temples in the city, and authorities had met with local residents to cool tempers. Investigations into the blast had been handed over to a special cell of the New Delhi police responsible for terrorism-related cases in the capital. Of 14 people injured in the blasts, 10 had been discharged from hospital and the rest were out of danger, Alok Kumar said.

Police were questioning the injured for possible clues about the suspects.
"The investigation is in a very initial state. We will examine the witnesses first. We are waiting for them to come forward," Ajay Kumar, chief of the investigating cell, said.

Police said the bombs were crude devices and of low intensity.
"Normally, the bigger terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba use high-intensity explosives such as RDX. So it seems it is not the work of an established group," Ajay Kumar said.

The Lashkar-e-Taiba or "Army of the Pious" is one of the guerrilla groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir and was initially suspected of being behind triple bomb blasts in the holy Hindu city of Varanasi which killed 23 people on March 7.

Officials ruled out any link in the mosque blasts with Varanasi or last year's New Delhi explosions which killed 66 people and injured more than 200.
Kumar said that although the bombs at the mosque were not powerful enough to kill, they were intended to terrorise people.

"It was certainly a terror attack, but the group may not have had the capability to cause more damage," Kumar said. Police estimated 4,000 people were inside the complex at the time.

41 Taliban, six police killed in major Afghan battle
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Saturday, (AFP) - Forty-one suspected Taliban and six policemen were killed in a major battle in southern Afghanistan in an area where the Taliban leader once lived, a governor said.

The battle southwest of Kandahar city lasted almost the entire day Friday, with helicopters from the US-led coalition firing rockets in support of Afghan forces on the ground.

"In the result, 41 Taliban were killed, a big number of them were wounded," Kandahar governor Assadullah Khalid told AFP. "Six police were martyred, nine police were wounded," he said, adding that three civilians were wounded and 13 Taliban were arrested.

The dead included a district police chief while a district governor was among the wounded, he said. Khalid said Taliban fighters had gathered in the area, which includes the Panjwayi and Ziari districts about 40 kilometres (24 miles) southwest of Kandahar city, for about three days after fleeing an offensive in neighbouring Helmand province.

"Police surrounded them. The fighting started yesterday (Friday) morning and it continued up to the evening. In the evening, Afghan army and coalition forces came to support police," he said.

By the time coalition forces had started firing rockets, civilians had left, Khalid said. The area includes the village of Singesar where fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar lived for several years.

It was in the village that, according to reports, he rallied a group of Taliban religious scholars to take up arms in 1994 to free two teenage girls who had been kidnapped and raped. This in effect launched the radical Taliban movement.

Under the one-eyed Omar, the Islamist Taliban movement rose from Kandahar to take power of most of Afghanistan in 1996 and brought to an end a bitter four-year civil war.

The hardline government was toppled in a US-led offensive in late 2001 after it refused to hand over Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden for the September 11, 2001 attacks on US cities.

Since then, remnants of the Taliban and other Islamic militants, including those from bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, have been waging a bloody guerrilla-style insurgency targeted mainly at government and foreign troops. The violence is blamed for most of 2,000 deaths since the beginning of 2005, with most of the dead militants.

Nepal anti-king protests to intensify-activist
KATHMANDU, Saturday (Reuters) - A top leader of Nepal's pro-democracy campaign vowed today to step up peaceful protests against the absolute rule of King Gyanendra, despite the monarch's pledge to hold elections.
At least four people have been killed and hundreds wounded since an alliance of seven political parties launched a general strike 10 days ago, bringing the impoverished Himalayan kingdom to a standstill.

Amrit Kumar Bohra of the Communist Party of Nepal (UML) said anger had mounted after Gyanendra's New Year's message to the nation on Friday repeated proposals for elections and talks with the opposition but offered no new concessions.

"We will further intensify our strike," Bohra, who is wanted by police, told Reuters at a hideout in a western suburb of Kathmandu. "We will make it more effective and more people will come out on the street. We are not afraid of the suppression and the repression.

"The general strike will cause some inconvenience to the people, but the royalist regime is causing bigger problems. Therefore, let's bear trouble for some more time and establish peace and democracy and that will usher in prosperity for ever."

Little traffic was on the streets on Saturday in the capital city of 1.5 million people, though several shops were open. Vegetable and fruit sellers were surrounded by crowds, apparently stocking up for what could be a long, drawn-out campaign. In the Kalanki suburb of the capital, hundreds of people staged a sit-down protest, waving red flags and chanting: "Our protest continues, down with autocratic rule".

Riot police watched but did not intervene. A few hundred metres away, soldiers stood with machine guns, backed by an armoured car.
"We are trying to make our protests more and more peaceful," said Gagan Thapa, a student activist who was leading the slogan-shouting. "We have to be careful because we are being infiltrated by government-sponsored vigilantes." Asked how long the campaign could last, since both sides appear unlikely to back down, he said: "This is the people's movement and history shows people never lose. We have the confidence we are going to win, but it may take time."

Gyanendra, who sacked the government and seized absolute power 14 months ago, promised on Friday to hold elections by April 2007. But he has said so before, and has made no response to demands that he immediately allow a representative government to take charge and end the crackdown on political parties.

"The king has to restore democracy and establish peace," said Bohra. "He wants to win militarily, but it cannot be done." Nepal, the world's only Hindu kingdom, launched multi-party democracy only in 1990, after a sustained campaign against Gyanendra's predecessor and brother, King Birendra.

Moral police hit Mumbai nightlife
There was jubilation at Topaz, a popular dance bar in India's entertainment capital, Mumbai, after the High Court overturned a ban on bars which hire dance-girls to entertain customers.

Dancing, whistling and joyous screams could be heard over the loud music and for a change, dancing girls here were performing not for an audience but for themselves.

But many were still apprehensive, fearing the state government might impose other bans or bring forward a recent curfew on bars and clubs.
To get round the curbs, many fun-seeking night birds now organise their own private parties to liven up the nightlife.
Recently, I invited myself over to one.

'Gone to sleep'
It was a perfect setting for an all-night bash. A huge bungalow on the edge of the Arabian Sea in Mudh Island, a weekend getaway for the rich and famous of Mumbai.

There was a spacious floor in the middle of the house, where more than 50 people were dancing.
Music was loud, the enthusiastic DJ was trying to be even louder.
Outside on the veranda, couples were busy chatting. They seemed to be enjoying the light cool breeze from the sea

It was no A-list celebrity media event. But such parties are common in Mumbai, especially after the government began its drive last year against bars and clubs, saying they corrupted young people.

Not so long ago, people in Mumbai boasted the city was open round the clock, now young people complain nightlife has become deadly dull.
"It's almost gone to sleep," says Amit Tyagi, who has swapped clubbing in Mumbai for private all-night parties on Mudh Island.

Bollywood newcomer Ashmit Patel shares his views.
"I don't go out much because of the deadline," the actor says.
"I'd rather meet close friends and hang out with them than being shunted out from discos at 1.30am."

Curfew woes
Bollywood actress, and regular party-goer, Kashmira Shah is also upset with the 1.30am deadline.
"Three or four years ago, we would go out after midnight and party till 4am.
"That was an actual night out. Earlier, we would have dinner and then party - now we party and then go eat something," she said.

Indeed, clubbing was part of the city's thriving night culture. Its pulsating nightlife brought people from as far as the Middle East.
Parties organised by the city's gay community had travellers attending from Israel, the UK and the US.

Not any more. The manager of Rock Bottom discotheque, Subhash Bhonsle, says: "The liveliness that used to be there doesn't exist any more. If you go out after 1.30-2am, it's all so quiet."

Asim Khanna, who runs an events management company, laments the dwindling numbers in discos. "There was a time when 900 people used to come to my parties. Today, even if you want to call 300, they will not come because they feel that the 1.30am deadline is like a curfew where everything shuts down."

Flesh row
The state government's argument is that dance bars and discos are breeding grounds for prostitution and crime. Home Minister RR Patil has been instrumental in cracking down on bars and discos and police are enforcing his orders with enthusiasm.

One enthusiastic senior police officer even suggested waitresses should leave for home by 6pm. "Women don't need to work in bars. Why do they have to employ female waitresses? They are exploiting women," says Ravindra Sengaonkar.

"Our action is right. I am confident the exploitation will stop."
Moral policing does not stop with the government. Various politicians and political parties supported shutting the dance bars.

They enthusiastically endorsed the curfew hours fixed for discos and bars.
A recent fashion show in Mumbai - where models' costumes slipped or split revealing the breasts of one and the bottom of another - handed the city's moral brigade an opportunity to rant about India's degenerating culture.
A debate in the state assembly on the matter followed two police investigations into what many believe were just accidents.

Moral policing makes Kashmira Shah angry. "Who are they to tell us to be moral? We come from a land that introduced the Kama Sutra to the rest of the world!

"The cops don't have the right to tell me what to wear, whose hand to hold or what I can do." All the same, regular party-goers say it'll take more than just lifting a ban on dance bars to breathe life back into Mumbai's dying night scene.

-BBC News, Mumbai

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