Four killed in held Kashmir, say police

HELD SRINAGAR: Suspected militants on Sunday killed two policemen guarding the home of a pro-India politician in held Kashmir.

Two militants sprayed bullets towards the home of a National Conference politician who was inside meeting party workers in the town of Khrew, 25 kilometres south of the main city of Srinagar, an officer and a party official said.

“The two policemen died before reaching hospital,” the officer at the scene told AFP on the condition of anonymity. The attack sparked a gun battle with forces on patrol in the area that left both of the militants dead, the officer said. Yawar Masoodi, a youth leader of the National Conference and the party workers were unharmed. The militants fled into nearby mustard fields after snatching the police officers’ weapons.

Government forces chased them, sparking the gun battle as reinforcements from a nearby army camp also moved in, the officer said. “Both the attackers were later neutralised and the snatched weapons also recovered,” Inspector General Nalin Prabhat from the federal Central Reserve Police Force said.

At the time, Masoodi was in a “closed door meeting” with party workers discussing election campaign plans, said National Conference spokesman Junaid Azim Mattu. “These two individuals arrived at the gate. On being stopped for frisking by the police guards they suddenly took out weapons from under their ferans (traditional Kashmiri tunics),” Mattu said.

Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, from the National Conference party, said the attack highlighted security concerns for all politicians in the region. The fighting has left tens of thousands, mostly civilians, dead in the past 25 years. “The attack on Yawar’s residence is evidence of the continued risk associated with being a mainstream politician in Kashmir,” Abdullah said on Twitter.

Seminaries to help Taliban attack Islamabad, say police

 

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani Taliban will coordinate with Islamist activists at major seminaries in or near the capital, Islamabad, to launch attacks if the peace talks with the government fail, police said in a report obtained by Reuters.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took power last year promising to end the insurgency through negotiations. Talks got going in February but have achieved little.The Pakistani Taliban, allied with but separate from the Afghan Taliban, are fighting to overthrow the government and impose a strict version of Islam on the 180 million people.

They called a ceasefire beginning on March 1 to facilitate the talks but it officially ended on Thursday. It is unclear if the ceasefire will be extended.

Police said in the report that two well-known seminaries would support the attacks in the capital and its twin city of Rawalpindi if the talks break down and the military moves against the Taliban bases in areas bordering Afghanistan.

“If talks between the government and the Taliban fail ...like-minded religious seminaries and mosques have been given the target of fully contributing in carrying out attacks,” police said in the report, which was prepared last month.

Police identified two well-known seminaries, or madrasas, on the outskirts of Islamabad. They said the two had already helped launch several attacks, including a 2009 assault on the army´s headquarters in Rawalpindi. One provides “brainwashing courses and lessons on sacrificing oneself for Jihad,” police said in the report.

In the other seminary, commanders provide “Jihadi weapons training classes” to students from the ethnic Pashtun tribal areas which have long been militant recruiting grounds, police said. The two seminaries also host fighters who come to carry out attacks and help with “all last minute preparations”, they said.

Militant fighters have set themselves up with activists at hardline mosques in Islamabad before.Police and government spokesmen declined to comment on the report but security officials who requested not to be identified said the information was correct. One police officer said 20 seminaries in Rawalpindi were being investigated for similar Taliban links.

Head of one seminary denied any connection with the Taliban and said his seminary was being threatened by insurgents for being pro-government.“We openly believe that any attacks against Pakistan are wrong and against Islam,” he told Reuters. “Ask the police to show me one arrested person who is linked to my seminary.”

The head of the other seminary identified in the report was not available for comment.The Pakistani Taliban spokesman was also not available to comment but a member of the Taliban leadership council said fighters were present in all major cities and would be “unstoppable” if the talks with the government broke down.

“If the government attacks us in the tribal areas, we will kill them in the cities,” he said. “By the grace of Allah, the Taliban today are more united and present everywhere.”A bomb in a market on the outskirts of Islamabad on Wednesday killed 24 people. The Taliban denied responsibility.

Muneebur Rehman, the chairman of an alliance of seminaries (religious madaris), dismissed the findings of the police report and asked, if it were true, why had the authorities not done anything?“If this report carries evidence of seminaries collaborating with Taliban for attacks, the government must go ahead and take action,” Rehman said.

hyam Ramsay: People say the ghosts in my films were not scary

Patcy N in Mumbai

'People criticise me saying that the ghosts in my films sometimes wore canvas shoes and were not scary. That is true. In those days, we were not technically sound.'

'Films were made on a very low budget, so if there was a small defect, we would let it pass, and audiences often didn’t catch those defects.'

Shyam Ramsay tells us his 'horror' story.

The pioneers of horror cinema -- the Ramsays -- are making a comeback with yet another horror film, Neighbours.

And it’s themed on the topic of the day -- vampires.

Producer-director Shyam Ramsay talks to Patcy N about his new film, and also looks back at his classic scary movies that have made us associate his name with horror.

He also tells us just who the Ramsays are, how they got into the movie-making business and why sex is so important in horror movies.

Early days

My father F U Ramsay and his family came to Mumbai from Pakistan after Partition.

He financed a film called Shaheed-E-Azad Bhagat Singh in 1954. The film did well, and he wanted to make more films.

He made a historical drama called Rustom Sohrab (1963), with Prithviraj Kapoor, Premnath, Mumtaz and Suraiya.

In Prithviraj Kapoor-starrer Ek Nanhi Munni Ladki Thi (1970), all the Ramsay brothers, including me, assisted. I was 22 then.

In a robbery scene in the film, Prithviraj Kapoor steals an antique from a museum. He uses a face mask to disguise himself.

The mask was imported. It was so horrifying that the film’s publicity was based entirely on this one mask. Posters of the mask were made and published everywhere.

Before that, nobody had seen a horrifying face on the big screen. People went to the theatre just to see Prithviraj Kapoor in that scary mask.

That’s when we thought that if audiences love to watch such scary faces, why not make a full-fledged horror film?

I directed India’s first horror film, Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche (1972).

After that, we made approximately 32 films, and all of them were horror films.