Press Trust of India / New Delhi November 28, 2011, 20:37 IST
A seven-member consortium led by state-run Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has bagged the development right to mine three out of four iron ore reserves at Hajigak in Central Bamiyan province of Afghanistan, sources in the know said.
However, when contacted SAIL Chairman CS Verma said there was no official communication from the Afghanistan government as yet.
"We are yet to get any official communication from the government of Afghanistan. I am in touch with the embassy," Verma said.
Sources said the Indian consortium had got the rights to mine B, C and D, having reserves of 930 million tonne, 357 million tonne and 175 million tonne respectively. Mine A has gone to a Canadian firm.
The mines, located across the Hindu Kush Mountains, between Bamyan and Maidan Wardak provinces, are known for rich source of iron ore. The cumulative reserves in the four mines are estimated to be over 1.8 billion tonne.
SAIL will have the majority 20% stake in the special purpose vehicle (SPV), which is to be created for the development of the mines, while two other state-run firms - Rashtriya Ispat and NMDC - would have 18% stake each.
Private players - JSW Steel and Jindal Steel & Power will have 12% stake each in the SPV. JSW Ispat and Monnet Ispat would have the remaining between them.
The Central Bamyan province is largely peaceful. However, the Afghan government has already started construction of security posts around the mine, sources said, adding that law and order would unlikely to cause any problem to carry out the mining job.
In fact, Verma had also earlier said he would not like to think security could be a concern as development stands always atop over terrorism. The $6 billion likely investment by the Indian firms would also be a boon for the cash-strapped and war-ravaged Afghanistan.
Business Standard
Monday, November 28, 2011
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Afghan National Tagged for Deportation Amidst Criticisms from Rights Group
By Erik Pineda | November 16, 2011 3:53 PM EST
The Australian government is set to deport an Afghan national, whose application for political asylum has been turned down by immigration authorities, soon, according to a statement issued on Tuesday by the Immigration Ministry.
In a statement, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen identified the Afghan deportee as 27-year-old Ismail Mirza Jan, who according to The Associated Press (AP) left his native country as a teenager at the height of the radical Taliban rule.
In his application for refugee protection, which AP added has been previously rejected in Ireland and the United Kingdom, Jan claimed that his life would be in extreme danger the moment he sets foot anew in Kabul, Afghanistan.
"I told immigration, it's OK ... if you send me, you can send my dead body to my country because either way, I am dead," Jan declared during an interviews with ABC earlier this week in a reaction about the government's decision to forcibly send him home.
Human rights group Edmund Rice Centre scored the latest immigration move to deny refugee status on Jan, who is part of more than 1000 Afghans currently detained in Australian detention facilities, despite the obvious perils that wait him in the war-torn Afghanistan.
As a member of the Hazara ethnic group, Jan, according to Edmund Rice Centre Phil Glendenning, is a natural target for liquidation by armed groups roaming the cities of Afghanistan and killing with near-impunity that only highlights the helplessness of the country's government under the leadership of President Hamid Karzai.
"We have very serious concerns about the safety of Hazaras in Afghanistan," Glendenning was reported by ABC as saying.
He added that by his group's latest findings, 11 Afghans who went home from Australia have been gunned down during the last seven years and a number of these victims, Glendenning noted were part of the Hazaras that Jan call as his ethnic group.
Bowen, however, remains adamant of his office's decision and insisted that Jan's safety has been assured by Karzai's government, which assured Canberra that voluntary returning Afghans do not face persecution in the country.
"It's a fundamental part of our immigration system that if people are found not to be genuine refugees, that they should be removed," Bowen was reported by AP as saying in justifying the government decision, scored by advocacy group Refugee Action Coalition as a chilling prospect for all refugee applicants seeking protection inside Australia.
"Jan's deportation sets a dangerous precedent and we're hoping that Afghanistan won't accept him," Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul told AP in expounding on the likely repercussions of the controversial government decision.
Supporting the group's stance is an assessment provided by Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commissioner Mohammad Farid Hamidi, who called on Canberra to reconsiders its action on the Jan case.
"The situation in Afghanistan is not good enough ... and the security (situation) is getting worse day by day," Hamidi told ABC.
To contact the editor, e-mail: editor@ibtimes.com
International Business Time
The Australian government is set to deport an Afghan national, whose application for political asylum has been turned down by immigration authorities, soon, according to a statement issued on Tuesday by the Immigration Ministry.
In a statement, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen identified the Afghan deportee as 27-year-old Ismail Mirza Jan, who according to The Associated Press (AP) left his native country as a teenager at the height of the radical Taliban rule.
In his application for refugee protection, which AP added has been previously rejected in Ireland and the United Kingdom, Jan claimed that his life would be in extreme danger the moment he sets foot anew in Kabul, Afghanistan.
"I told immigration, it's OK ... if you send me, you can send my dead body to my country because either way, I am dead," Jan declared during an interviews with ABC earlier this week in a reaction about the government's decision to forcibly send him home.
Human rights group Edmund Rice Centre scored the latest immigration move to deny refugee status on Jan, who is part of more than 1000 Afghans currently detained in Australian detention facilities, despite the obvious perils that wait him in the war-torn Afghanistan.
As a member of the Hazara ethnic group, Jan, according to Edmund Rice Centre Phil Glendenning, is a natural target for liquidation by armed groups roaming the cities of Afghanistan and killing with near-impunity that only highlights the helplessness of the country's government under the leadership of President Hamid Karzai.
"We have very serious concerns about the safety of Hazaras in Afghanistan," Glendenning was reported by ABC as saying.
He added that by his group's latest findings, 11 Afghans who went home from Australia have been gunned down during the last seven years and a number of these victims, Glendenning noted were part of the Hazaras that Jan call as his ethnic group.
Bowen, however, remains adamant of his office's decision and insisted that Jan's safety has been assured by Karzai's government, which assured Canberra that voluntary returning Afghans do not face persecution in the country.
"It's a fundamental part of our immigration system that if people are found not to be genuine refugees, that they should be removed," Bowen was reported by AP as saying in justifying the government decision, scored by advocacy group Refugee Action Coalition as a chilling prospect for all refugee applicants seeking protection inside Australia.
"Jan's deportation sets a dangerous precedent and we're hoping that Afghanistan won't accept him," Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul told AP in expounding on the likely repercussions of the controversial government decision.
Supporting the group's stance is an assessment provided by Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commissioner Mohammad Farid Hamidi, who called on Canberra to reconsiders its action on the Jan case.
"The situation in Afghanistan is not good enough ... and the security (situation) is getting worse day by day," Hamidi told ABC.
To contact the editor, e-mail: editor@ibtimes.com
International Business Time
Balochistan imbroglio
Published: November 18, 2011
Balochistan is both the largest and the least developed province of Pakistan. The terrain of this sparsely peopled part of the country is a blend of mountains and desert. This land of opportunity full of minerals and fossil fuels is dominated by the feudal lords. Moreover its demographics are diverse: tribes speaking different languages and holding different religious beliefs, including those who voyaged here to settle for good. The beauty of this land comes to life by incessant expanses of plains as they open up its allure through foothills, orchards, and valleys. From Quetta to Chaman, the train, moving on a narrow - gauge track, majestically passes through hairpin turns, tunnels, gorges, defiles and wilderness manifesting the nature in its true colors. The wild holds back when rolling through clumps of trees and small dwellings. It is a land fascination which is without any rovers to relish its splendor; as if life has ceased to exist.
And it is talk of the past when Quetta, that sits like a cup surrounded by hills, and where I did my professional course in 1980, would, one day be visited by series of misfortune. Oh! That was the “Waris”, a TV serial that would take the whole populace to their homes in the evening to watch it. No barriers of language, caste, color, and tribal leanings could hold back the shopkeepers and shoppers. A complete shutter-down phenomenon would prevail. It was peace, serenity, and tranquility that obtained there. Baloch, Pushtun, Hazaras, Hindu and Punjabi lived in harmony as one community. Not today! Quetta is studded with road blocks, check posts and security walls and fences, easily portraying a prison. You feel your soul is hostage to mysterious lug. The worsening law and order has gripped the province in its shackles.
Balochistan has large deposits of gas and coal and natural resources that could easily provide for half of Pakistan’s energy needs. Unfortunately, criminal activities and lawlessness have made the energy security extremely frail. But the poor is devastatingly poor. The famed jungles have disappeared. Disease has crippled already knocked down corrupted health sector where no doctors and paramedic staff are visible; especially at the hospitals encompassed in small cities and towns. Lack of proper education facilities, and rudimentary healthcare is providing fuel for radicalism. Drug paddling is also stoking up insurgency and inciting the Baloch insurgents to make extensive political capital out of it. Since government writ is not discernible, non-state actors have filled ‘the vacuum of non-governance and subverted the tribal system’.
The economy, which is free fall for years is grinding towards halt; consequently it has hit the rock bottom. Schemes like Waseela–e-Haq introduced by the government have met their fate. Families living for more than a century have fled. Social fiber has disintegrated. The bazaars are deserted and yearning for the customers. The business is down to trickle. The shops that boasted off the abundance of saleable items are almost empty. Ethnic cleansing has touched new heights and in the last few years more than thousand people have been butchered. Unfortunately leading businessmen have been killed or forced to migrate. New businesses are non-existent. A society which slays its teachers, locks its schools, slaughters its doctors and intellectuals has nothing to showcase in the arena of pride. Henceforth, something is amiss. Is dor kay sultan say kutch bhool hui hey. (The king has somewhat erred here). Target killings and kidnappings for vengeance and ransom have decimated the size of Balochistan society. Both ‘ethno-nationalist and sectarian’ militancy are all the rage. Shia–Sunni ethnic conflicts are norm of the day. The infighting has left large number of people dead including 380 Hazaras since 2001 and many more wounded. Militants like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and the nationalists Baloch have teamed up not only against the Hazaras but have merged with the mafias, and racketeers and gangsters.
BRIG (RETD) M NAZIR SHAMS,
Islamabad, November 16.
The Nation
Balochistan is both the largest and the least developed province of Pakistan. The terrain of this sparsely peopled part of the country is a blend of mountains and desert. This land of opportunity full of minerals and fossil fuels is dominated by the feudal lords. Moreover its demographics are diverse: tribes speaking different languages and holding different religious beliefs, including those who voyaged here to settle for good. The beauty of this land comes to life by incessant expanses of plains as they open up its allure through foothills, orchards, and valleys. From Quetta to Chaman, the train, moving on a narrow - gauge track, majestically passes through hairpin turns, tunnels, gorges, defiles and wilderness manifesting the nature in its true colors. The wild holds back when rolling through clumps of trees and small dwellings. It is a land fascination which is without any rovers to relish its splendor; as if life has ceased to exist.
And it is talk of the past when Quetta, that sits like a cup surrounded by hills, and where I did my professional course in 1980, would, one day be visited by series of misfortune. Oh! That was the “Waris”, a TV serial that would take the whole populace to their homes in the evening to watch it. No barriers of language, caste, color, and tribal leanings could hold back the shopkeepers and shoppers. A complete shutter-down phenomenon would prevail. It was peace, serenity, and tranquility that obtained there. Baloch, Pushtun, Hazaras, Hindu and Punjabi lived in harmony as one community. Not today! Quetta is studded with road blocks, check posts and security walls and fences, easily portraying a prison. You feel your soul is hostage to mysterious lug. The worsening law and order has gripped the province in its shackles.
Balochistan has large deposits of gas and coal and natural resources that could easily provide for half of Pakistan’s energy needs. Unfortunately, criminal activities and lawlessness have made the energy security extremely frail. But the poor is devastatingly poor. The famed jungles have disappeared. Disease has crippled already knocked down corrupted health sector where no doctors and paramedic staff are visible; especially at the hospitals encompassed in small cities and towns. Lack of proper education facilities, and rudimentary healthcare is providing fuel for radicalism. Drug paddling is also stoking up insurgency and inciting the Baloch insurgents to make extensive political capital out of it. Since government writ is not discernible, non-state actors have filled ‘the vacuum of non-governance and subverted the tribal system’.
The economy, which is free fall for years is grinding towards halt; consequently it has hit the rock bottom. Schemes like Waseela–e-Haq introduced by the government have met their fate. Families living for more than a century have fled. Social fiber has disintegrated. The bazaars are deserted and yearning for the customers. The business is down to trickle. The shops that boasted off the abundance of saleable items are almost empty. Ethnic cleansing has touched new heights and in the last few years more than thousand people have been butchered. Unfortunately leading businessmen have been killed or forced to migrate. New businesses are non-existent. A society which slays its teachers, locks its schools, slaughters its doctors and intellectuals has nothing to showcase in the arena of pride. Henceforth, something is amiss. Is dor kay sultan say kutch bhool hui hey. (The king has somewhat erred here). Target killings and kidnappings for vengeance and ransom have decimated the size of Balochistan society. Both ‘ethno-nationalist and sectarian’ militancy are all the rage. Shia–Sunni ethnic conflicts are norm of the day. The infighting has left large number of people dead including 380 Hazaras since 2001 and many more wounded. Militants like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and the nationalists Baloch have teamed up not only against the Hazaras but have merged with the mafias, and racketeers and gangsters.
BRIG (RETD) M NAZIR SHAMS,
Islamabad, November 16.
The Nation
Friday, November 25, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)