Washington, Dec.9 (ANI): US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said that the Pakistani establishment has had historic ties with Lashkar-e-Taiba, although now it's committed to fighting them.

In an interview to CNN on Sunday evening, Rice read out a charge-sheet against the Lashkar, spelling out the reasons for taking action against the group which, she said, was not only involved in the Mumbai attacks but also moved in "the same circles" as Al Qaeda.

"Well, there have been historic ties. There's no doubt about that," the Dawn quoted Rice as saying when asked if Lashkar leaders were trained and supported by Pakistani intelligence agencies.

But she quickly added that she believed Pakistan was no more involved with the group.

"Pakistan is a different place now with a civilian government and an army leadership that is working in concert to try to bring an end to extremism within Pakistan," she said.

"We have to remember that Pakistan itself has been suffering at the hands of extremism. So whatever the history here - and there is a history - the important thing is that Pakistan act against those who used Pakistani soil to perpetrate attacks," she added.

"I think there's no doubt that Pakistani territory was used by probably non-state actors. I don't think that there is compelling evidence of involvement of Pakistani officials. But I do think that Pakistan has a responsibility to act, and it doesn't matter that they're non-state actors. There were problems with this from Pakistani territory. There are historic problems from Pakistani territory in this regard," she said.

Secretary Rice also said that when she visited Islamabad last week she "emphasised to the Pakistani government" that Americans were also killed in this attack and the US government had "a special interest" in this matter because of that.

Rice dismissed a suggestion that President Asif Ali Zardari might not have complete control over all elements of his military and intelligence services. (ANI)

Chennai, Dec 9 (ANI): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi strongly condemned the alleged statement made by the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) Chief about the political leaders of Tamil Nadu.

While addressing a news conference, Karunanidhi said, "If an army Chief of some other country has spoken anything about our leaders, I condemn it. Talking about each other within the country is different from a person of other country talking about the leaders in Tamil Nadu."

On Sunday, SLA Chief Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka allegedly called Tamil Nadu politicians like Nadumaran and Vaiko "jokers'' and said the Indian Government should not listen to their demands for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanakan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on November 13 during his visit to New Delhi ruled out possibility of ceasefire till the rebels laid down Arms.

The Tigers say they are fighting to establish a separate homeland for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority, which they allege has been marginalised by successive governments in Colombo led by the Sinhalese majority since independence from Britain in 1948.

But the Sri Lankan government says the rebels must be destroyed, because they are on a host of terrorism lists including those from the United States, India and Europe, and adds that it is increasingly confident of defeating them soon. (ANI)

Darjeeling, Dec 9 (ANI): Members of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) have revived their demand by calling indefinite strike of all State Government's offices in Darjeeling Hills.

GJM claimed that their call for shutdown got an overwhelming response and all the State Government offices such as forest offices, banks, local council offices and others remained closed on the first day of the indefinite strike.

The protest comes in the wake of tripartite talks that were supposed to be held in November did not convene.

"The date for the tripartite talks was supposed to be out by last week of November, but it is still not fixed. Now, tripartite talks will not be held. We just demand separate 'Gorkhaland'. To support the 'Gorkhaland' issue, all the offices of the State Government like forest offices, banks, Panchayat offices, in entire Gorkhaland area will remain cl osed," said Raj Singh Diali, Secretary of Youth Wing of GJM.

The GJM, comprising about half a dozen parties, has been organizing protests over the past few months in the Darjeeling Hills over the statehood demand.

GJM is demanding that a separate state of "Gorkhaland" be carved out of West Bengal to protect their culture and heritage.

Gorkhas constitute one million of West Bengal's 80 million people, most of them concentrated in Darjeeling. (ANI)

New Delhi/Jaipur/Raipur, Dec 9 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) met here to analyze the results, as the ruling Congress party emerged victorious in three out of the five states.

The votes come before national elections in the first half of 2009 that will pit a ruling Congress-led coalition against an opposition alliance led by the BJP.

Arun Jaitley, general secretary of BJP, said that the party would form a committee to analyse the outcome of the polls.

"The parliamentary board has decided that BJP president Rajnath Singh will form a committee in two or three days, which would analyse the results of the polls and submit its report to the board," said Jaitley.

Jaitley also said that the loss in Rajasthan was because of having a large number of party rebels in the fray.

"Our weakness has been large number of party rebels in the fray, which have affected the results," he added.

Meanwhile, conceding defeat in Rajasthan, outgoing Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia said that people have the right to decide their future.

"People always vote rightly. They know what they want," she said in Jaipur.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said in Raipur that it was the victory of governance.

"It is the victory of the policies being carried forward for the last five years in Chhattisgarh, be it policies related to villages, poor and farmers. We will try better implementation of those policies in the next five years. This is the mandate," said Raman.

Accepting defeat in the state, senior Congress leader Ajit Jogi said it would work as a constructive opposition.

"We accept the mandate and would want to mention this that now when we will sit in the opposition, will play a role of constructive opposition. All the victorious legislators of the Congress will cooperate the government for the development of the state," said Jogi in Raipur.

The outcome of the assembly polls has been a boost for Congress, which has suffered a string of state election defeats against the BJP in the last year amid rising inflation and perceived weak leadership.

It is also a setback for the BJP, which had hoped its policy of criticizing Congress for being soft on terrorism would reap political dividends.

Criticism of the government for security lapses appeared to have little impact on voters.

Congress criticised the BJP leaders for diverting the attention of voters to terrorism rather than on governance.

"BJP leaders immediately diverted to terrorism, and diverted the issues on inflation and also national security. They totally failed to click the issue but of course we are to make introspection with regards to the Madhya Pradesh and also Chhattisgarh. Even it was all poised to win," said Congress spokespersoneerappa Moily in New Delhi. (ANI)