Nepal: Small Blast Hits Kathmandu Shopping Area

Source: Times of India

2009-01-01 18:32

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  Nepalese police officers investigate the site of a bomb blast in Kathmandu. Photo courtesy: AFP.

1 Jan 2009, 1722 hrs IST, IANS

KATHMANDU: A 16-year-old Indian teenager was hurt as a bomb went off in a busy area of the capital Thursday, the third blast to disrupt life in
the city since last week.

Bimal Gupta, who came from Barganiya village in India's Bihar district to eke out his livelihood in the Nepali capital, was the only person injured by the bomb that went off near the post office at the Sundhara area of the capital, a busy commercial place teeming with shops, vehicles and people.

Gupta, a garments pedlar, was selling his ware on the pavement before the post office when the bomb, kept in a white plastic bag nearby, went off around 1 p.m., injuring him in the leg.

The Indian teenager was rushed to the nearby Bir Hospital where he was declared out of danger. The police said three people were detained for questioning.

Leaflets found scattered in the area proclaimed the blast to be the handiwork of an underground group, the Ranvir Sena.

Though the Sena is a powerful army of landlords in Bihar, in Nepal little was heard of the outfit till last year when it claimed to be behind some minor explosions in the Terai plains in southern Nepal adjoining Bihar.

The Sundhara explosion is the third such incident since Saturday.

On Saturday, a bomb went off near the cargo office of a domestic airline on the way to the international airport, injuring a woman.

Another blast occurred Sunday in front of a high school located in another busy commercial area of the capital. However, no one was hurt in the early morning explosion.

The Sena had reportedly claimed to be behind the Durbar High School incident.

The new urban guerrilla attacks have started at a time the Maoist-led government has opened negotiations with the armed groups active in the Terai.

The Maoists' success with the gun during their 10-year People's War has spawned dozens of copy cat underground outfits since the rebels laid down arms in 2006, resulting in new violence in Nepal.

Fighting terror the Krav Maga way

An Israeli hand-to-hand combat technique is finding more takers in the wake of the Mumbai attacks
Source: Livemint

New Delhi: There were many in Mumbai on those three nights it was hostage to ten terrorists who would probably have prayed for knowledge of some sort of self-defence. The Israeli technique of Krav Maga or Hebrew for Contact Combat, teaches how to fight off an armed kidnapping or defeat a potential rapist and even counter terrorists. It’s a technique that sharpens reflexes and reduces reaction time. The practical approach to a potentially violent situation, has suddenly seen more takers for Krav Maga.

Says Vicky Kapoor, director of Krav Maga India, “urban warfare is totally different, thinking is different, fight is different. You are not fighting regular soldiers, you are fighting only a surprise. So you have to prepared for everything.”

Learner Nitin Bhasin says, “it mentally prepares you to be aggressive in situations that demand you to be aggressive.” However, be warned that Krav Maga cannot help you survive bullets indiscriminately being fired at you. “If I am standing 10mtrs away from you and then I start randomly shooting, then there is no solution. But if somebody is only pointing a gun at you and is asking how many people are inside, and is holding you very close then Krav Maga is the ideal solution for that”, Kapoor says.

Bloodstained 2008 India’s decades old bloody tryst with terrorism can probably be compressed into 70 hours when death danced on Mumbai’s streets

Mehak Kasbekar and Nidhi Bhardwaj

Source: livemint
Mumbai: 2008 was when terror reigned supreme. About 60 bombs rocked eight key cities in 2008. It started with bombs exploding in Jaipur in May claiming 68 lives. In June blasts claimed 58 lives in Bangalore and Ahmedabad.

On September 13th Delhi was under fire. And in October 45 people died in Assam’s serial blasts.

But India’s decades old bloody tryst with terrorism can probably be compressed into 70 hours when death danced on Mumbai’s streets, its iconic railway station and its landmark hotels.

This time there were no bombs kept secretly to explode in packed trains and bustling neighborhoods. A combat-like situation was seen for the first time in a key metro city when terrorists took hundreds hostage in three separate buildings in south Mumbai- The Taj, The Oberoi Trident and Nariman House – a Jewish outreach center.

The multiple strikes, which left almost 200 people dead, finally got the government machinery into action.

23 days later two terror bills were passed. One on the formation of the National Investigating Agency or NIA and the other on the Unlawful Activities Prevention Amendment Act were introduced in parliament and passed the very same day on 19th December.

For many the swift passage of the terror bills is a sign of things changing for the better. But many think otherwise.“This is going to have absolutely zero impact on our capacities to fight terrorism. We have dozens of central dysfunctional agencies in existence. The government has been unable to provide them adequate resources, adequate manpower,” said Ajai Sahni, executive director at the Institute of Conflict Management. Existing agencies like the Intelligence Bureau, Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate suffer from a huge manpower crunch. There is a 15% to 40% deficit in all IPS cadres in most states as well.

Those opposed to the setting up of NIA point to the way India successfully dealt with terrorism in Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Tripura, within the existing infrastructure.

“If you see the model applied in all these three success stories it is a model of building up the strengths and capacities of local police. That is how you fight terrorism. The rest is symbolism,” said Sahni.

Two major trends emerged in the terror attacks this year in India. The country with the second largest Muslim population in the world, did not have a single home-grown jihadi. There were attempts to bust that claim by terror groups calling themselves the Indian Mujahideen and Deccan Mujahideen. The second more diabolical change in 2008, was the said birth of Hindu terror. On September 29th just a day before Eid, five people died after a bomb kept in a motorbike went off outside a Mosque in Malegaon, a little known town in northern Maharashtra.

“I don’t accept it (Hindutva terror), I don’t agree with this kind of terminology. If you say terror has no religion, then it cannot be Hindutva terror. But if you accept Hindutva terror then you will have to accept Islamic terror. Are we prepared for it?,” says the BJP’s Sheshadri Chari.

So in the end, our politicians have learnt little from the Mumbai or Malegaon attacks. The idea is to continue to play vote bank politics. But the writing is on the wall. Some of these walls are virtual, like on Facebook or on twitter, but some are real. The vengeance with which Jammu and Kashmir voted against extremism this year. That spontaneous demonstration in Mumbai should serve as a reminder to our administrators, times they are a changing… Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist who was captured alive in the Mumbai attacks was traced to be a Pakistani.

Tension continues to brew between India and Pakistan over the Mumbai attacks. The Pakistani army and political class continue to deny accepting Ajmal Amir Kasab as a Pakistani and dismissed India’s demand to hand-over 21 terrorists.

Experts feel the need of the hour is to better equip police forces and expand their budgets, as they are the first who come in contact when terror strikes. And that better implementation of existing laws across the country will go a long way in combating terror as well.

Serial blasts in Guwahati, several injured

1 Jan 2009, 1755 hrs IST, AGENCIES
Source: ECONOMIC TIMES
GUWAHATI: Three blasts have rocked Guwahati hours before home minister P. Chidambaram is supposed to land in the city. The serial blasts at Bhootnath, Birubari and Bhangagarh have left a trail of devastation over a wide area. Several people are suspected to be injured according to current count.

At least 12 people were injured when a suspected cycle bomb exploded at Bhootnath locality, which falls on the route Chidambaram was to take, shortly before his arrival here on a visit.

Three persons were injured in a blast outside a Big Bazar retail chain outlet at Bhangagarh, an upmarket commercial area near Guwahati Medical College.

One of the blasts that took place in the Birubari area injured three persons.

Official sources said the Improvised Explosive Devise (IED) kept in a Gauhati Municipal Corporation dustbin went off at around 3.30 pm.

The injured were admitted to the hospital and were identified as Altaf Ali, Fatema Begum and Raul Ali, sources said.

The dustbin was kept near A TB hospital. Police rushed to the area and investigations were on.

A police spokesman said that none of Assam's multiple ethnic or tribal militant groups had immediately accepted responsibility for the blasts.

In the past two decades, more than 10,000 people have lost their lives to terrorism in Assam, which is known for its tea, timber and oil reserves.

Earlier, the state witnessed serial blasts on October 30 killing 88 people.