theSun | TUESDAY DECEMBER 9 2008  15

news without borders

Pakistan nabs
Mumbai plot suspect
ISLAMABAD: One of the suspected
planners of last month’s attack by
gunmen in Mumbai was arrested by
Pakistani security forces in a raid on
a militant camp near Muzaffarabad,
sources in the capital of Pakistani
Kashmir said yesterday.
Islamabad has so far been silent
over Sunday’s raid at the camp used
by Lashkar-e-Taiba fighters in the
hills outside Muzaffarabad, but a
spokesman for the jihadi group
confirmed it had been targeted.
“Pakistani forces have attacked
our camps in Muzaraffabad under
pressure from the US and India.
We repeat that Laskhar-e-Taiba
has nothing to do with the Mumbai
attacks,” Abdullah Ghaznavi,
a spokesman for Lashkar, told
Reuters in a satellite telephonecall.
India and the United States have
pressed Pakistan to act against
militants suspected of being behind
the attacks, which killed at least
171 people, or risk an escalation
in tensions between the nuclear-
armed neighbours.
Intelligence officials, workers
with a charity linked to Lashkar
and people living nearby say the
area around the camp was sealed
off before security forces moved in
to make arrests.
An official with the Jamaat-ud-
Dawa charity said Zaki-ur-Rehman
Lakhvi, a Lashkar operations chief
named by India as a suspect, was
taken into custody.
“Yes, Lakhvi is among four
or five people arrested in a raid
yesterday,” said the official, whose
JuD charity is regarded as a front
for the feared militant group.
A former militant who now
has close ties to the JuD also said
Lakhvi had been arrested, as did
one intelligence official.
All of them were speaking on
condition of anonymity because
of the sensitivity of talking about
security matters.
Other Pakistani intelligence
officers said six men were arrested,
but gave no names.
The surviving gunman captured
in Mumbai named Lakhvi and
another Lashkar commander, Yusuf
Muzammil, as ringleaders in the plot,
according to Indian officials.
Indian police said they had
identified the nine dead gunmen, and
the places they came from in Pakistan.
Aussies
Rakesh Maria, the lead asked to
investigator for Mumbai police, spend
said three suspects including one in
custody were from Okara district,
A$8b
three from Multan, two from before
Faisalbad, one from Sialkot and he Xmas
identified the leader as Ismail Khan,
from Dera Ismail Khan. They were
pg 22
also questioning a man arrested in
northern India last February, and
investigating if there were any links
to homegrown militant groups.
The man being questioned is
an Indian citizen who was caught
with maps that highlighted several
targets hit in Mumbai.
If Lakhvi’s arrest is officially
confirmed, it will raise the question
of what the Pakistani authorities
will do with him, and whether it
will satisfy India. – Reuters

briefs sentenced to jail for 15 months

in September last year. – AFP
shut down the airport by
camping on the runway and
surrounding themselves with

Wife of ex-charity Not so hot Xmas security fencing.

chief admits
money laundering
HONGKONG: The wife
of the former chairman of
Singapore’s biggest charity
yesterday pleaded guilty in a
Hongkong court to money
laundering, her lawyer said.
On Shu Kio, wife of Richard
Yong, former chairman of the Na-
tional Kidney Foundation, admit-
ted dealing in money which she
knew was from the proceeds of
a criminal offence, barrister Toby
Jenkyn-Jones said.
The 64-year-old will be sen-
tenced on Dec 16, he said.
The guilty plea was the
latest fallout from a corruption
scandal that rocked the char-
ity and its senior officers.
Yong had earlier been con-
victed of illegally transferring
S$3.92 million (RM9 million)
into his wife’s account in
Hongkong, according to the
records of Singapore’s Com-
mercial Affairs Department.
Yong transferred the money
in an effort to avoid paying
damages ordered by a court in
a case brought by the charity’s
new management against him
for breach of duty.
On May 17, 2007 he fled
Singapore with his wife for
Hongkong just hours after a high
court declared him bankrupt.
He was later repatriated and
calendars
SYDNEY: Is a bare-all calen-
dar a sure-fire way for your
community group to raise
funds this Christmas?
An Australian researcher
said yesterday total expo-
sure was a turn-off and that
calendars leaving something
to the imagination were the
better sellers.
“Experience has shown
that in the successful
calendars the bodies must
be sanitised – non-erotic,
maternal, coy and covered,”
University of Tasmania
lecturer Dr Pamela Turton-
Turner said. “That is, they
are de-eroticised because
they are accepted as mater-
nal, giving and nurturing.”
She told Australia’s AAP
news agency that pubic hair
and nipples were out and
strategically held teacups
and flowers were in. – dpa
Environmentalists
block airport
LONDON: More than 50
activists blocked the runway
of London’s Stansted Airport
yesterday morning to protest
against the creation green-
house gases by planes.
Plane Stupid, a climate ac-
tion group, said on its website
that about 50 if its members
“We’re here because our
parents’ generation has failed
us and its now down to young
people to stop climate change
by whatever peaceful means
we have left,” one group mem-
ber, whose name was given as
Lily, said in a statement posted
on the internet.
The group plans to main-
tain the blockage as long as
possible to prevent the emis-
sion of greenhouse gases.
Police arrested four of the
protesters, the BBC reported.
– dpa
HK convicts get
right to vote
HONGKONG: A court ruling
yesterday set the stage for
prison inmates to be able to
vote in elections for the first
time in Hongkong’s history.
Justice Andrew Cheung
ruled that inmates have
the constitutional right to
register as voters and cast
their ballots while serving
sentences.
The case was brought by
two men, Chan Kin-sum and
Choi Chuen-sun, who are
currently in jail, and legisla-
tor Leung Kwok-hung, who
had previously served time
for offences against public
order. The government said
it would study the judg-
ment. – dpa