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Pak must ‘take out’ LeT, other terror groups following ‘fair’ Kasab trial: Editorial

May 5, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Islamabad, May 5 (ANI): Terming the trial and the verdict of the special anti-terror court against Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving gunman who along with his nine other associates unleashed a reign of death and destruction for nearly three days in November 2008 in Mumbai, as ‘fair’, an editorial in one of Pakistan’s leading English dailies has stressed that after the verdict it has become more important for Pakistan to nab people like Hafeez Muhammed Saeed and Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi if it really wants peace talks with India to succeed.

The Daily Times editorial pointed out that the Kasab’s verdict highlights the ‘impartality’ of the Indian judiciary and that Pakistan must “gain a little wisdom from the whole episode both politically and judicially.”

“If the resumption of dialogue and mutual understanding is to be demonstrated with India, we must accept this verdict for what it is: one that is fair and an example of the impartial Indian judicial tradition,” the editorial said.

It said that as the Indian court has held both the Jammat-ud-Daawa (JuD) chief Hafeez Muhammed Saeed and Lashkar-e-Taiba’s (LeT) operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi responsible for the terror attacks, it was for Pakistan’s own interest that it nabs these terrorist leaders.

“In the interests of justice and regional harmony, any lingering sympathy for these terrorist organisations should not allow anyone to escape the long arm of the law. No matter where the trail leads, we ought to take a cue from judicial structures that have a history of more respect and independence than ours and translate charges and accusations into full-scale investigations and trials,” the editorial went on to add.

While many Pakistanis may have denounced the verdict against Kasab, saying he has been specially targeted, the editorial said that people’s reaction over the court’s decision was due to the fact that Pakistan does not have a definite benchmark of legal standards.

It added that Pakistan’s judiciary system has been highly politicised, however, in India politics and judiciary have stayed clear of each other.

“Pakistan is the victim of a judicial system that has unfortunately been highly politicised in our history, but India is starkly different, as the judiciary has steered clear of politics,” the editorial said. (ANI)

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Canada will not allow Khalistani movement from its soil: Obhrai

April 24, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Vowing to crush the activities of Sikh terrorist organisations in the country, a top Foreign Ministry official said Canada will not allow its soil to be used by the separatists.

“The government of Canada will not tolerate any separatist Sikh organisation that poses a threat to the sovereignty and integrity of India,” Deepak Obhrai, Parliamentary Secretary to Canadian Minister for Foreign Affairs told PTI.

Obhrai was commenting on recent concerns expressed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to his counterpart Prime Minister Stephen Harper over growing support by Canadian Sikhs for militants in Punjab.

Ujjal Dosanjh, a former Liberal cabinet minister and onetime British Columbia premier, has said Sikh extremism was on the rise in some parts of the country and nothing was being done about it.

That militancy is worse now, he said, than a generation ago when extremists blew up an Air India flight, killing 329 people, most of them Canadians.

Ironically, Dosanjh said separatist extremism is more entrenched in some Canadian Sikh communities than in Punjab, the Indian region where the Khalistan movement named after the theoretical Sikh country originated.

“It’s getting worse,” Globe and Mail quoted Dosanjh as saying.

“The number of people who have continued to perpetuate that kind of hatred has become smaller, but more consistent and more long-lasting,” he said.

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PPP-S chief urges Pak Govt. to use surgical strikes against Punjab terrorists

March 22, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Peshawar, Mar. 22 (ANI): Pakistan People’s Party-Sherpao (PPP-S) chief Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao has said that surgical strikes should be conducted on the basis of credible intelligence against terrorists in the Punjab province.

“Denying the presence of terrorists and ignoring the local facilitators of the terrorists in the country would not help the elimination of terrorist organisations in any way,” the Daily Times quoted Sherpao, as saying.

Sherpao also urged the Pakistan Government to produce all suspects arrested under the Anti-Terrorism Act before the courts.

“Security personnel had arrested thousands of people including the top leadership of the Taliban under the Anti-Terrorist Act 2009, but had yet to be produced before courts of law,” he said. (ANI)

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Pakistan not keeping its promise to dismantle terror infrastructure: Rao

March 16, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 16 (ANI): Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao has made it clear that Pakistan is not doing its part to follow through on promises to dismantle terrorist organisations, adding that some of the leaders of these groups continue to have access to the airwaves to make threats against India.

Speaking at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, Rao said that Pakistan-Afghanistan situation would not be resolved soon as she felt that the problems between Pakistan and Afghanistan is one obvious, where the U.S. and Indian interests converge.

She urged Washington to see India as a mature partner with a powerful economy and that the challenge to the relationship is to take the current interaction to a higher level.

Rao was, however, cautious on the issue of Iran. She saw the situation as complicated and did not want to see sanctions currently under discussion to harm the Iranian people.

She also felt that Iran should have both rights and responsibilities if it wants to use nuclear power.

Rao addressed other regional issues such as China and said that India wants to view their large neighbour with the widest possible lens.

With China openly investing in Africa, she pointed out that the US and India can work together on helping boost development for the continent.

She promised that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh would participate in the upcoming Nuclear Security Summit, set for April in Washington while downplaying concerns that the legislative process is delayed on the Indian side to fully implement the Indo-US civil nuclear cooperation process.

Rao did not appear worried that the demands of the U.S. domestic political scene will take away from Washington”s growing relationship with New Delhi; instead, she repeated the position that it”s time for India to take full responsibility on the world stage in organizations such as the United Nations Security Council and G-20. (ANI)

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Gordon Brown to appoint Britain’s first cyber security chief

June 26, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, June 24 (ANI): The British Prime Minister is set to announce the appointment of the nation’s first cyber security chief who will be responsible to protect the country from terrorist computer hackers and electronic espionage.

Brown’s decision comes amid fears that the computer systems of government and business are vulnerable to online attacks from hostile countries and terrorist organisations.

Neil Thompson, a senior civil servant, will be charged with protecting the national computer network, The Independent reports.

Just a month back, US President Barack Obama had declared that he was making it a “national security priority” to protect the US computer network from attack, and that he would set up a “cyber security office” in the White House.

Brown’s plans were endorsed by the Cabinet on Monday, after a presentation by the Security minister, Lord West of Spithead.

Concern has grown in Whitehall that hackers are targeting its computer systems, and those of Britain’s largest companies.

In August 2008, the Government’s first national risk register highlighted Britain’s vulnerability by cyber spies.

“The UK does remain subject to high levels of covert non-military activity by foreign intelligence organisations. They are increasingly combining traditional intelligence methods with new technical attacks,” it said.

The security services are also fighting a constant war in cyberspace against extremist Islamist Internet sites, that attempt to radicalise young people or co-ordinate attacks.

Officials have said the biggest threat comes from China, but they have also expressed worries about the activities of criminal gangs based in Russia.

Britain has discussed ways of boosting computer security with foreign allies including the US. (ANI)

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Pakistan to accede to pact against terror funding

May 22, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 22 (IANS) Pakistan will accede later this year to an international convention against terror funding, even as it draws up a multi-layered plan to eradicate the scourge, the country’s envoy to the UN says.

“We fully recognize merits of the global counter-terrorism strategy,” APP quoted Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon as saying of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism that Pakistan would ratify in September.

The 1999 convention aims at enhancing the effectiveness of global criminal bars on terrorist financing and preventing terrorist organisations from obtaining resources to support their activities.

In this context, Haroon said Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari had been pursuing a three-D approach of dialogue, development and deterrence to counter extremism and terrorism.

“We used dialogue to win public support and attain moral high ground, which was earlier monopolized by our enemies,” he said.

“We used the moral capital to expand the military offensive for the restoration of the writ of the government,” he added while delivering the keynote address at the release of a report on “Countering Terrorism in South Asia: Strengthening Multilateral Engagement”.

Pakistani security forces are currently engaged in a bitter struggle against the Taliban in Swat, Buner and Lower Dir districts of the country’s restive North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

The operations had begun April 26 after the Taliban reneged on a controversial peace accord with the NWFP government and moved south from their Swat headquarters to occupy Buner, which is just 100 km from Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.

The operations had begun in Lower Dir, the home district of radical cleric Sufi Mohammad who had brokered the peace deal and who is the father-in-law of Swat Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah.

The operations subsequently spread to Buner and Swat. Close to 1,100 militants have so far been killed in the action, the military says. No consolidated figures have been released of casualties among the security forces but these are believed to be around 60.

The fighting has seen some 2.5 million civilians, including large numbers of women and children, fleeing the conflict. The UN said Friday $543 million would be required for their rehabilitation. On Thursday, Pakistan had won pledges of $244 million at a donors conference in Islamabad.

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Israeli intelligence warns on internet use

May 21, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Israel’s domestic intelligence agency issued a rare public warning on Monday that terror groups were using popular social networking Web sites like Facebook to recruit, and possibly kidnap, Israeli citizens.

The Shin Bet security service said in its statement it had “received many reports of terror groups approaching Israelis on the internet offering to recruit them and possibly kidnap them”.

The statement mentioned one incident in which an Israeli citizen had been approached on Facebook by a man who described himself as a Lebanese merchant and then offered to pay for classified information.

“The option exists, it’s easy, since many Israelis, not only young ones, sit at the computer a lot,” Elkana Har-Nof of Israel’s counter-terrorism headquarters later told Channel Two television. “It is a weapon for terrorist organisations.”

Israel has warned against reprisals from the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah after its military mastermind, Imad Moughniyeh, was killed in a 2007 car bombing in Damascus.

Hezbollah blamed Israel for the attack and has vowed revenge. Israel has denied involvement in Moughniyeh’s death.

The Shin Bet said that in the past several years a number of Israeli citizens and residents were arrested after being recruited by terror groups over the internet.

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Nabbed militant says Indian militants have no link with Taliban

April 26, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Srinagar, Apr 25 (ANI): Syed Moinullah Khan, a Pakistan-based militant who was arrested by the Indian Army, disclosed that militants operating in Jammu and Kashmir have no links with the Taliban.

“People of Taliban are in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They don’t come to this side. Each outfit a has separate training centre of their own. Nobody belongs to Taliban in this, they have their own training centre and setup and those organisations, which work in Kashmir have their own setup. These setups in Kashmir have nothing to do with the Taliban and they don’t work along with the Taliban,” Syed claimed.yed, Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist, was brought before the media for the first time on Saturday.

Shah confessed how he received imparted intense training before infiltrating into India from the Gurez Sector along with 30 others.

“I was trained in a jungle in a place called Mansehra in Jammu and Kashmir. There is a place named Sunar in the border area of Kashmir and we entered via that route. In totality there were people belonging to four terrorist organisations, who infiltrated Kashmir, including Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and PPR,” Shah said.

When asked about the motive behind him becoming a terrorist, Syed said, “Kashmiris come to Pakistan and claim that they are being illtreated, they are not given passports, the Indian Army has captured their houses and that they are misrespected. So they tell us to come along with weapons and we come here in the name of jihad. This is my motive behind becoming a terrorist.”

However, he added that on arriving he saw there was no kind of disrespect towards Muslims.

“On arriving here, I realised that people are involved in their own work and I did not see any kind of restrictions in the lives of Kashmiris. Everyone is living their lives in full freedom and is doing their own work. There is no need of jihad as such over here,” Shah said.

Shah informed there was not a set target or mission for any outfit.

“There was not set target or mission given to us. We were just sent to attack. It depends from the commanders as to where they send us and for what; we have no say in it. We have three types of training. One is for 21 days, one is for 30 days and the third one lasts for 3 months.”

Syed also informed that he had met the Hizbul Mujhahideen commander.

“The commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, who came to Gurez Sector, to talk about jihad, from that time onwards I, wanted to get into this. I met that person and took the address of the training centre and landed myself there. The one who becomes a commander is the person who spends almost 4-5 years in the area,” Syed added. (ANI)

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LTTE using Tamil civilians as human shield: UK, France

April 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

UK and France on Thursday asked Sri Lanka to offer another truce to the LTTE to enable Tamil civilians to make a safe exit from the rebel held areas, even as the European nations blamed the Tigers for “forcefully preventing” people from leaving the conflict zone.

“It is clear that the LTTE has been forcefully preventing civilians from leaving the conflict area and we deplore their determination to use civilians as a human shield,” said a joint statement issued by the British and French ministers on the Sri Lankan situation.

Both the countries have asked Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to offer another truce to the LTTE so that the trapped Tamil civilians could make a safe exit from the conflict zone.

“We urge President Rajapakse to announce a new pause . Democratic governments are rightly held to higher standards for civilian protection than terrorist organisations. We also urge the LTTE to allow civilians to move to safety,” it said.

They also asked the LTTE to lay down arms while stating that the outfit has been preventing civilians from leaving the conflict zone.

“We do of course continue to call on the LTTE to renounce terrorism and lay down their arms as a necessary element for a long-term solution,” British Foreign Secretary

David Miliband and his French counterpart Bernanrd Kouchner said on Thursday.

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Miliband, French counterpart accuse LTTE of using civilians as human shields

April 16, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Apr.16 (ANI): British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner have accused the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) of using civilians as human shields in the conflict zone.

In a joint statement issued in London, both Miliband and Kouchner urged Colombo to declare a new ceasefire to allow aid in and civilians out.

“We are deeply concerned that there was no large scale movement of civilians away from the conflict area to safety as we had hoped to see, in the short period allowed for the pause. It is clear that the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) have been forcefully preventing civilians from leaving the conflict area and we deplore their determination to use civilians as a human shield,” The Telegraph quoted the joint statement, as saying.

“We urge President (Mahinda) Rajapakse to announce a new pause. Democratic governments are rightly held to higher standards for civilian protection than terrorist organisations. It is vital that a pause in the fighting should be long enough to give civilians the opportunity to leave the conflict area, and for the UN to build confidence among the population that they will be safe if they leave,” the statement added.

Miliband and Kouchner urged both sides to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law and to do everything they could to protect civilians, including allowing “unimpeded access” to humanitarian agencies. (ANI)

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Threat levels up in India, militant outfits working together: Chidambaram

April 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, April 10 (IANS) Threat levels in India are high with Pakistan-based terror outfits deciding to work in tandem even as there are reports of infiltration again increasing across the Kashmir Valley, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said Friday.

‘We simply have to keep our powder dry. Make sure that we remain on high alert because four organisations are working in consort. That means the level of threat is pretty high,’ Chidambaram told the NDTV news channel in an interview.

He said the four terrorist organisations – Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Jamat-ul-Mujahideen (JuM) and Hizbul Mujahideen – were earlier operating separately but had come together now.

Intercepted conversations of LeT terrorists pointed to their presence in Kashmir but Chidambaram said that there was no reliable proof of Taliban presence in India yet.

‘I don’t think anyone has captured anyone to identify him as a Taliban. All that we know is that there is a serious attempt to infiltrate into India,’ he said.

However, Chidambaram admitted he did not know whether the militant groups were under the control of the Taliban or other state or non-state actors.

In an interview to another news channel this week, Chidambaram while talking on the security situation in the country said infiltrators would try to cause ‘mayhem’ during the April-May elections.

‘We have specific intelligence that infiltrators will try to disrupt elections.. will try to cause violence when the election process is on in this country.’

‘You see infiltrators will come to India in order to cause mayhem here and what better time to do that than when elections are on? Many leaders are moving, travelling and more exposed.’

The home minister said because of these threats ‘we thought it was wise to caution political leaders about their movements and request them to take precautions’.

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Pak intelligence agency fears Al-Qaeda attack during long march

March 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Karachi, Mar.12 (ANI): Pakistan intelligence agencies have warned about a possible Al Qaeda attack on the lawyers’ long march in Sindh.

“Security agencies have been specifically warned that terrorist organisations can strike during the long march, with March 14 and 15 being sensitive days,”The Daily Times quoted a Sindh Home Department official, as saying.

Following the intelligence report, security in and around sensitive installations such as the Governor’s house, Chief Minister’s house, courts, hotels and restaurants has been tightened and Rangers have been deployed in Karachi.

Police officials have also briefed political leaders about the probable attack.

Meanwhile, over 500 police personnel from Karachi have been sent to Islamabad to maintain law and order amidst fears of violence during the long march. (ANI)

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Lashkar-trained Australian named

January 15, 2009 By Rajesh Leave a Comment

Sydney, Jan.13 (ANI): An Australian man known as Abu Asad trained with Lashkar-e-Taiba at a camp in Pakistan in 2001 after the terrorist attacks on the US on September 11, 2001, a man who met him at the camp told a Sydney court today.

Yong Ki Kwon told the trial of five Sydney men accused of conspiring to plan a terrorist act that he left his home in Virginia in the United States shortly after the attacks to defend Afghanistan against the expected US invasion.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, he also told the court via video-link from the US today that he arrived in Pakistan and went to a training camp organised by Lashkar-e-Taiba, where he learned about weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades, machineguns and anti-aircraft guns.

Lashkar-e-Taiba, which means Army of the Pious, is on the US watch list of terrorist organisations.

Kwon said that he trained for 45 days, and in the last few days he met an Australian known to him only as Abu Asad. (ANI)

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