This picture shows the flag of the Democratic Republic of Congo.—Photo by Reuters

NEW DELHI: The British intelligence services abducted and assassinated Patrice Lumumba, Congo’s first democratically elected prime minister whose Pan-African nationalism and pro-Moscow leanings alarmed the West, The Hindu reported on Monday, quoting a British peer in London.

The revelation came from Lord David Edward Lea, who first made the claim in the London Review of Books and later confirmed it to The Hindu correspondent in London Hasan Suroor.

In a letter to the editor in the latest issue of the London Review of Books (LRB), Lord Lea responded to the claim in a new book on British intelligence, Empire of Secrets: British intelligence, the Cold War and the Twilight of Empire by Calder Walton, that the jury is still out on Britain’s role in Lumumba’s death. “The question remains whether British plots to assassinate Lumumba … ever amounted to anything. At present, we do not know,” writes Walton.

Lord Lea retorted: “Actually, in this particular case, I can report that we do. It so happens that I was having a cup of tea with Daphne Park… She had been consul and first secretary in Leopoldville, now Kinshasa, from 1959 to 1961, which in practice (this was subsequently acknowledged) meant head of MI6 there. I mentioned the uproar surrounding Lumumba’s abduction and murder, and recalled the theory that MI6 might have had something to do with it. ‘We did,’ she replied, ‘I organised it.’”

According to Lord Lea, she contended that if the West had not intervened, Lumumba would have handed over Congo’s — now called Democratic Republic of Congo — rich mineral deposits to the Russians.

When contacted by The Hindu, Lord Lea confirmed the contents of his letter to the LRB and that the conversation over tea took place a few months before Ms Park died in 2010.

“That’s the conversation I had with her and that’s what she told me. I have nothing more to add,” he said when asked if he had any other independent confirmation of Ms Park’s claim.

Ms Park was a career intelligence officer who served in Kinshasa  (then Leopoldville) between 1959 and 1961, The Hindu said. On retirement, she was made a ‘Life Peer’ as Baroness Park of Monmouth. Her fellow peers in the House of Lords referred to her as a spokesperson for the Secret Intelligence Service. She was also briefly head of Somerville College, Oxford University.

There has been no comment from MI6 on Lord Lea’s revelation. “We don’t comment on intelligence matters,” an official said.

Lumumba, hailed as “the hero of Congolese independence” from Belgium in 1960, was shot dead on Jan 17, 1961 after being toppled in a US-Belgian backed military coup barely two months after being in office.

Lumumba had been sheltered by Rajeshwar Dayal — the Indian diplomat who was the UN Secretary General’s representative in the Congo — for several days but was captured and killed soon after he chose to leave the compound.

“This heinous crime was a culmination of two inter-related assassination plots by American and Belgian governments, which used Congolese accomplices and a Belgian execution squad to carry out the deed,” wrote Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, a specialist on African and Afro-American studies and author of The Congo from Leopold to Kabila: A People’s History.

Declassified American documents from the time have established Washington’s role in covert assassination plots — the most famous being a CIA plot to poison Lumumba’s toothbrush by smuggling poisoned toothpaste into his bathroom, The Hindu report said.“The toothpaste never made it into Lumumba’s bathroom. I threw it in the Congo River,” Larry Devlin, the CIA station chief in Leopoldville, later said.

Not much is publicly known about UK’s role. But, in 2000, the BBC reported that in the autumn of 1960 — three months before Lumumba was murdered — an MI5 operative in the British embassy in Leopoldville suggested “Lumumba’s removal from the scene by killing him.”

DENPASAR: Construction workers in Bali have discovered what is thought to be the biggest ancient Hindu temple ever found on the Indonesian island, archaeologists said.

The workers were digging a drain in the island’s capital Denpasar at a Hindu study centre when they came across the remains of the stone temple.

They reported the discovery to the Bali archaeology office, which then unearthed substantial foundations of a structure that the excavation team believes dates from around the 13th to 15th centuries.

“We think this is the biggest ancient Hindu temple ever discovered in Bali,” Wayan Suantika, the head of the team, said late Wednesday.

He said the excavation was still in progress and the team did not yet know whether enough stones would be unearthed to allow them to reconstruct the temple.

The construction workers on Sunday found the first stone one metre (yard) underground, which was one metre long, 40 centimetres (16 inches) deep and 40 wide, said Ida Resi Bujangga Wisnawa Ganda Kusuma, owner of the Hindu centre.

The excavation team then found what they believe is the foundation of the structure’s 20-metre-long east wing, Suantika said.

The popular resort island is a pocket of Hindu culture in a country with the biggest Muslim population in the world.

Navratri, the nine-day festival, is held twice a year during the spring and autumn seasons and symbolises the triumph of good over evil being celebrated with worship and dance. Devotees worship various forms of Hindu goddesses during the festival, whose name literally means nine nights. – Photos by Agencies

According to historians Thatta may have been the main port on the Indus in the time of Alexander the Great’s invasion. The river Indus has changed its course many times since the days of Alexander, and this ancient site of Patala has been subject to much conjecture (the river changes course slowly due to a process called “siltation” which is essentially water pollution by fine silt particles).

Thatta was the capital of three successive dynasties, the traces of which are evident in the Makli necropolis, which spreads over a twelve square kilometer area. These dynasties are: Samma (1335-1520), Arghun  (1520-1555) and Tarkhan (1555-1665).

There are archeological sites in the city and on its outskirts. The most famous of these sites is the Makli Hill, which is the biggest necropolis in the world and about three kilometers from Thatta.

Because of its cultural and archeological importance, in the 1980s UNESCO listed the Makli necropolis as a World Heritage Site. The most preserved area of the necropolis is Makli Hill, which comprises about 35 monuments and contains four different schools of architecture and art made from stone to brick and glaze.

The monuments here also tell the story of external cultural influences in Lower Sindh, including Hindu, Central Asian and Persian cultures.

Later on, the city of Thatta was ruled by the Mughal emperors of Delhi through its governors, leaving an indelible mark on the shape of the monuments there. The most famous example of Mughal architecture is the Shah Jahan Mosque, constructed in the latter half of the seventeenth century.

Thatta played an important role in the history of Sindh and the city was constantly renovated from the 14 to 18 century. But in 1739, when the province of Sindh was taken over by Nadir Shah of Persia, Thatta entered into a period of decline. However the four centuries that comprise the golden age of Thatta have left their traces on the form of monuments in the region. – Text by Mukhtar Azad

The Sant Satram Das Temple, with its sprawling grounds is overlooked by multiple statues of Hindu deities and is located close to the Bharchundi Sharif Shrine.

The shrine is a Sufi centre with a madrassah that has been mentioned in the media in connection with a high number of alleged forced conversions of members from the Hindu community in the area.

The administrators of the madrassah, including the local MNA Mian Abdul Haq also known as “Mian Mitha” maintain that the conversions are not forced but a result of the individual’s own choice and convertees approach the shrine as a safe haven in cases where their family doesn’t approve of their conversions. – Text by Zehra Naqvi/Dawn.com, photos by Zehra Naqvi and Salman Haqqi/Dawn.com

Pakistani Hindu pilgrims arrive at the India-Pakistan border border post in Wagah – Photo by AFP

SUKKUR, Aug 16: Leaders of Jacobabad’s Hindu community have accused president of the Hindu Panchayat, Babu Mahesh Lal, of making an issue of the Hindus migrating to India and blowing it out of proportion to serve his own vested interests.

Addressing a joint press conference, former president of Hindu Panchayat Jacobabad Lal Chand Seetlani, ad other leaders Jay Chand Kasturi, Mukhi Raj Kumar, Roshan Lal, Comrade Ajeet Kumar and Dr. Kanwal said that Hindu families had gone to India to visit holy places but Babu Mahesh Lal called it migration in order to gain his personal vested interests.

They said that during his recent meetings with Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and MNA Faryal Talpur, Mahesh Lal sold the honour of Hindu girls by getting license for wine sale.

Instead of talking about protection to Hindus and urging the government to stop kidnapping of girls, Babu Mahesh fell for the wine license and made the heads of Hindu community people hang in shame, they said.

They appealed to the chief minister and MNA Faryal Talpur not to allow themselves to be hoodwinked by Babu Mahesh and take back the license issued to him.

They said the tenure of Babu Mahesh as president of the Hindu Panchayat had ended on July 16 but he managed to whip up the issue of migration of Hindus and tightened his grip on the Panchayat .

They alleged that Babu Mahesh had misappropriated million of rupees of the Citizens Community Board funds and called for his resignation and formation of an interim set-up for the election of a new Panchayat .

They urged the government to provide funds to elected representatives to enable them to carry out development schemes and provide jobs and scholarships to the young male and female Hindus.

They said that Panchayat was rich in resources and had no need of donations.

The house Babu Mahesh lived in was the property of Panchayat while he had sold off a shop given to him by Mukhi Chaman Lal, they said.

They appealed to Hindu community not to leave Sindh, a land of Sufis who preached love, peace and affection, and urged them to face the situation with courage. They demanded an end to kidnappings of Hindu girls and complete safety and protection to Hindus.

They appealed to President Asif Zardari, Sindh chief minister and MNA Faryal Talpur that if the license for wine sale issued to Babu Mahesh was not withdrawn immediately and protection was not provided to Hindu community people, especially girls then they would launch a movement after Eid.

They said that Hindu community was facing excesses in Sindh and Balochistan and said that many Hindu families had migrated to India from different cities including Jacobabad.

Meanwhile, a large number of Hindu community people took out a procession in Jacobabad on Thursday in protest against betrayal of Babu Mahesh and injustices with the community in Jacobabad and adjoining areas. Former president of Panchayat Lal Chand Seetlani led the protest.

Our Bureau adds: Institute for Social Movements, a civil society organisation and an umbrella for several rights movements, community organisations and NGOs have expressed concern over reports of migration of Hindus from Sindh.

In a statement issued here on Thursday, ISM spokesman Zulfikar Shah said that Hindus who were over seven million in the province were forced to migrate because of harassment, forced conversions, abductions and murders.

He said that protection of honour, lives, property, faith and culture of all citizens was government’s responsibility under the constitution and international law.

Takahashi is on Japan’s most wanted list for his suspected role in the 1995 attack, which killed 13 people and injured more than 6,000.      — File Photo by AFP

TOKYO: Police say they are closing in on the last fugitive suspected in a doomsday cult’s deadly nerve gas attack on Tokyo’s subways 17 years ago.

Some 5,000 officers mobilized Friday to hunt for Katsuya Takahashi, handing out photos and monitoring transportation hubs to keep him from escaping the Tokyo area, where they believe he is hiding.

Takahashi is on Japan’s most wanted list for his suspected role in the attack, which killed 13 people and injured more than 6,000.

The long-cold search took a major step forward earlier this year, with the surrender of Makoto Hirata, 47, a former Aum member who gave himself up to officers at a police station in central Tokyo minutes before midnight on New Year’s Eve. That led to Monday’s arrest of another suspect Naoko Kikuchi, a former senior member of Japan’s Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth) doomsday cult, who had been on the run for 17 years, leaving only Takahashi.

Nearly 200 cult members have been convicted in connection with the sarin attacks and other crimes.

Kikuchi’s reported arrest would leave only one person, Katsuya Takahashi, 54, still at large on the Aum wanted list.

Aum guru Shoko Asahara preached a blend of Buddhist and Hindu dogma mixed with apocalyptic messages, and developed an obsession with sarin gas, becoming paranoid that his enemies would attack him with it.