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Showing posts from February 1, 2009

internal terror

Source: DNA INDIA For some time now, attacks by Maoist groups have been limited to parts of Central India -- Maharashtra, where Naxalites are known to operate has been quiet. This changed on Sunday and in a most brutal manner when a large group of well armed Naxalites stormed a village and massacred a posse of 15 policemen who had come to the village. window.google_render_ad(); Eyewitness accounts of the incident are chilling -- the Naxalites fired indiscriminately on the policemen and killed them; the bodies found were mutiliated with their eyes pierced and hand or legs chopped off. Some reports have claimed that women Maoists led the group. Chief minister Ashok Chavan has bravely claimed that the state will retaliate and that the army need not be called to manage the situation, but his words mean little if his police department finds itself without the weapons or strategy to fight back. Experts have talked about a 'Red Corridor' extending from Andhra Pradesh to Uttar Pradesh.

Tempt Maoists if you can't beat them

Source: INDIA TODAY If you can't beat them, join them. Or better still, make them join you! Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram perhaps wants the Jharkhand government to try exactly this by formulating an attractive surrender policy for the Maoists, one which can make the rebels join the mainstream. So far, almost 100 Naxalites have surrendered in Jharkhand during different regimes. But, in the absence of their proper rehabilitation, the remaining Maoists rebels have shunned the state's offer. Chidambaram, who was in Jharkhand recently to review the state's preparedness against the Naxalites, has suggested Jharkhand to work out its own surrender policy, "as only a state can evolve specific policy keeping in mind its specific geographical and social landscape". Obviously, the argument in favour of states preparing their own policies was that a national policy on surrender cannot carry the weight and complication of the extremist problem having local overtones. Chida

Maoist rebels kill 15 police in India: officer

Source: AFP 23 hours ago MUMBAI (AFP) — Fifteen police officers were killed in the western Indian state of Maharashtra in a shoot-out with leftist militants, police said Monday. They were ambushed Sunday in jungle near a village in the east of the state, a stronghold of so-called Naxalites -- Communist-, Maoist- and Marxist-inspired groups who claim to represent oppressed, landless rural dwellers. "The patrolling party was ambushed by the Naxalites and 15 of our men died. The encounter went on for nearly one and a half to two hours," state police chief A.N. Roy told AFP by telephone. "Our people also fired, killing and injuring some Naxalites." Roy said there were regular skirmishes between police and militants in the area, which is close to the border with neighbouring Madhya Pradesh and some 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) by road from the Maharahstra state capital Mumbai. Indian media on Monday said the militants fled with police weapons, including automatic assault

Terrorism will continue to threaten India: expert

Source: Dailytimes By M. Ziauddin LONDON, Feb 1: India will continue to face a serious jihadi terrorist threat but lacks military options that have strategic-level effects without a significant risk of a military response by Pakistan.This is one of the key conclusions arrived at by Brian Michael Jenkins of US-based think tank Rand Corporation in his testimony (Terrorists can think strategically lessons learned from the Mumbai attacks) presented before the US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last week (Jan 28). Another key conclusion of this testimony gleaned from RC’s website is: The focus on Pakistan in this case should not obscure the likelihood that the attackers had local assistance or that other recent terrorist attacks in India appear to have been carried out wholly or partially by Indian nationals. Local radicalisation is a major goal of the terrorists and will remain a major political and social challenge for India.Mr Jenkins believes that neither Ind

analysis: Dealing with a common enemy —Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi

Source: Daily times (Pakistan) Terrorism is a common enemy of Pakistan and India and this challenge cannot be addressed adequately if these countries do not abandon the current negativity in their interaction. There is a need to return to positive diplomacy and cooperation to combat terrorism. The Mumbai terrorist attacks were a tragic reminder of the growing threat of terrorism in South Asia, which has extremely negative implications for harmony and stability in the domestic, regional and global contexts. Some extremist groups have acquired the capacity to violently challenge internal order in a state and create extremely problematic situations in inter-state relations. Their actions aim at creating anarchy and undermine the state’s capacity to function as an effective political and administrative entity. Terrorism and democracy cannot co-exist. These transnational terrorist groups have to be neutralised if democracy and stability are to be secured. This is especially important for co

US think-tank warns of more attacks on city

3 Feb 2009, 0234 hrs IST, S Balakrishnan, TNN : MUMBAI: The Rand Corporation, a highly-respected US think-tank, has warned of more terror strikes in India in the "forseeable future''. It has also stated that the 26/11 Mumbai attack had "local assistance''. TOI was the first to report about the Lashkar-e-Taiba "fidayeens'' getting local support to carry out their operation. But the investigators are still to explore the local angle. The warning of future attacks came in the course of a testimony given by Brian Jenkins of the corporation before the US senate committee on homeland security and government affairs on January 28. It is titled `Lessons learned from the Mumbai attacks'. Jenkins said India will continued to face a serious jihadi terrorist threat from Pakistan-based terrorist groups. "India lacks military options that have strategic-level effects without a significant risk of a military response by Pakistan. Neither the India

'Pakistan must close Taliban bases that train anti-India militants'

31 Jan 2009, 1240 hrs IST, IANS WASHINGTON: Getting Islamabad's cooperation to close Taliban sanctuaries in its tribal areas may be Washington's single hardest challenge as Pakistan has always used them to train people to operate in Kashmir or India, says a leading US expert. Bruce O. Riedel, an expert on South Asia who has worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Pentagon and National Security Council, says new special envoy Richard Holbrooke needs to reverse the negative momentum in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Taliban's military successes in Afghanistan have to be reversed and Islamabad must help close their sanctuaries on Pakistani territory, he said in an interview at the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington think tank. But Riedel says "trying to get that cooperation out of the Pakistani government in my judgment will be the single hardest test that Ambassador Holbrooke faces and in fact may be the single hardest foreign policy challenge Pre