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INDIA ON Thursday   India not averse to map change WHATISINDIA June 11, 2004 External affairs minister K Natwar Singh has opened a long-jammed door by saying India is not averse to changing its border with Pakistan if that helps solve the Kashmir tangle. He told a BBC World interviewer that India would consider "the possibility of some sort of revision of boundaries, if that's what it takes to get a solution." Karan Thapar, anchor for the Hard Talk show, responded to Natwar Singh’s initial tentative remarks – “We will cross the bridge when we come to it” – by reminding him that the previous foreign affairs minister Jaswant Singh had ruled out any redrawing of maps. Singh replied: “We have drawn the map of the Indian subcontinent in 1971.” Singh, whose earlier remarks on the Shimla Agreement had sparked off a row with Pakistan, had blamed the media for misreporting. The BBC interview will be telecast on Friday night. Singh agreed India and US were "good friends," but would not go so far as to describe that country as a "natural ally." He also said relations with Israel could not be at the expense of sacrificing the legitimate rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people. In Kashmir today, militants belonging to the Lashkar e Taiba tortured to death four members of a family, including two women and a child, in Udhampur district. Police said a group of 10 militants barged into the house of Abdul Rehman and carried out the killings. A member of the family, Farooq, had recently quit the militant organisation and surrendered before the security forces. Eslewhere, the army shot dead two militants in Rajouri and Doda districts and said they had recovered a large quantity of arms and ammunition. In Srinagar, two militants remained holed up inside a mosque. One of their associates and an army man were killed in a shootout. ISLAMABAD: Pakistan president General Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday called for sincerity, flexibility and boldness to find a settlement to the Kashmir dispute. He told a seminar on prospects of peace, stability and prosperity in South Asia, that the "present time is ideal for a resolution of all Pakistan-India issues". He said even a limited conventional war in a nuclearized South Asia would be “untenable". KABUL: US-led troops carried out “sweeps” of former Taliban strongholds in Afghanistan Thursday. "The operation in the (south central) area is still going on," a military spokesman said. Around 70 suspected militants have been killed since the US-led operation in south central Uruzgan and south-eastern Zabul began last week. A US convoy survived a roadside bomb blast in south eastern Afghanistan on Thursday with no injuries, officials said. WANA (Afghanistan): Attacks on military and paramilitary forces continued for the second day in South Waziristan as bodies of four more suspected foreign militants were found on Thursday, taking the death toll to 41. KARACHI: Tribal leader Nek Muhammad has threatened to launch attacks throughout Pakistan in retaliation to the Wana operation, a news channel has reported. In a BBC Pushto service interview recorded on Thursday morning, Nek said his group's resistance to the Wana operation would spread throughout Pakistan and Karachi would see the results before evening. After the interview the Karachi corps commander's cavalcade was attacked. "And wait and see what happens in the other big cities in a few days," Nek was quoted as saying. KABUL: The United Nations on Thursday suspended voter registration in the northeastern province of Kunduz after 11 Chinese road workers were killed in an attack overnight. The murders, which follow a string of attacks targeting foreign and Afghan troops and aid workers, have again raised fears whether the war-ravaged nation can hold its first truly democratic elections as planned in September. Voter registration has been under way in phases since December but officials have been concerned about the slow pace, with so far only 3 million of an estimated 10 million eligible Afghans named on the electoral rolls. BEIJING: China condemned the terrorist killings of 11 Chinese workers in Afghanistan on Thursday, but said it had no plans to pull out its workers from the country.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has summoned the Afghan ambassador and called for an investigation into the attack. The provincial governor blamed the raid on radicals bent on destabilizing the government of President Hamid Karzai by attacking foreign and Afghan troops as well as aid and reconstruction workers ahead of elections in September. The Taliban, the main guerrilla group opposed to Karzai's government, has denied responsibility. CHITTAGONG: In Bangladesh, an Islamic zealot arrested Thursday was sent to jail yesterday after a three-day remand. Mohammad Tushar, a madrasa teacher, was nabbed during Thursday's bust of an alleged Harkat ul Jehad camp in a forest region near Rangunia. The training centre has reportedly been in operation for more than a year. An organisation named Islami Samajseba Parishad (Islamic social service committee) used to run it under the guise of an agricultural farm. The hilltop centre had a tall observation tower and trainees used to do farm work in the day to deceive villagers and take martial training during the night.  Overall: Natwar Singh broke new ground: The foreign affairs minister said India wouldn’t mind new borders if that could resolve the Kashmir tangle. Musharaff agreed: He told a seminar this was the right time for India and Pakistan to make up. Rebels killed Chinese workers: Afghan militants opposed to the Karzai government fired at a tent and killed 11 Chinese construction workers. Raids continued: US-led troops put parts of Afghanistan under the scanner as they searched for militants.

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