Terrorism Watch

How do I describe Kanwar Pal Singh Gill? A friend? Not really. His goal, like mine, was to put a stop to Khalistani terrorism, but his approach to the problem and philosophy of policing was diametrically opposed to mine. He once ventured to tell my wife that I was too soft to be a policeman in Punjab! Only a Jat Sikh, like him, knew how to handle other Jat Sikhs, who incidentally formed the bulk of the terrorist cadres we were fighting. KPS was certainly not an enemy. We were brothers-inarms, fighting on the same side for the same cause. Besides, nobody, including me, would dare to count among his opponents a man called K P S Gill. Every police officer and man I met in my three years and a half in Punjab was afraid of him, to a greater or lesser extent. Apart from his physical presence, which was imposing, he had the seeds of ruthlessness that his juniors smelt and dreaded. For their own good they obeyed and followed. When KPS first approached me with his offer to serve with me

Vicky Nanjappa Sat, May 27, 2017, 11:44 [IST] They will come dressed as Sadhus and carry out attacks in India. They will take shelter in religious institutes run by Hindus and then carry out strikes, an Intelligence Bureau report had read. Many Pakistanis disguised as Sadhus and pretending to be Hindus have entered India, the report also states. On Friday, the police busted a Pakistani national living as a Sadhu in Iskcon temple in the Delhi-Haryana border town of Bahadurgarh. From his the police recovered a Pakistani passport from him in which his name has been mentioned as Raja, a resident of Hindu Colony in Larkana, Pakistan. He had come to Indian in 2013, and his visa has expired. He has allegedly been living in the temple from past few months. The police said they have recovered an Aadhar card and a PAN (permanent account number) card from him in which he has a different date of birth from his passport, and his name is changed to Raasraj Das Rajput. Jhajjar SP Satheesh B

ATHENS: Greek police scrambled Friday to determine how a letter bomb wounded former PM Lucas Papademos despite security checks being beefed up after a wave of similar attacks in March. “We want to determine whether security procedures were followed,” a police source told AFP, hours after Papademos and two guards were injured by the bomb that exploded as they rode in an armored car in Athens. “The fact that the attackers managed to get past security is worrying,” the source said, adding that experts were trying to determine the nature of explosive used. Papademos sustained superficial injuries to the chest, abdomen and legs, Evangelismos Hospital in Athens said, after he apparently opened his mail while riding in the car. The 69-year-old economist was in stable condition but is expected to remain in intensive care for at least two days, doctors said. A later statement from Evangelismos Hospital said the former PM had undergone surgery to address a thigh injury. One of his guards has tr

ILIGAN CITY, Philippines: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte appealed to militants on Friday to abandon hostilities and start dialogue in an effort to end their bloody occupation of a southern city that experts called a major blow to regional security. Duterte said the presence of foreign fighters in street battles that have raged since Tuesday in Marawi City was proof that Daesh had gained a foothold on the restive island of Mindanao, but there was still a chance for peace. “You can say that the ISIS is here already,” Duterte told soldiers in nearby Iligan City, referring to Islamic State. “My message mainly to the terrorists on the other side is we can still solve this through dialogue. And if you cannot be convinced to stop fighting, so be it. Let’s just fight.” Special forces commandoes were deployed to drive out the remaining 20 to 30 Maute group rebels holed-up in Marawi but encountered heavy resistance on Friday. The army said 11 soldiers and 31 militants have been killed.

JAKARTA: Indonesian police arrested three people on Friday suspected of being linked to suicide bombings in Jakarta, as the Daesh claimed responsibility for the attacks that killed three police officers at a bus station and wounded 12 others. The attack was the deadliest in Indonesia since January 2016, when eight people were killed, four of them attackers, after bombers and gunmen attacked the capital Jakarta. After visiting the site of Wednesday’s attacks, President Joko Widodo said Indonesia needed to accelerate plans to strengthen anti-terrorism laws to prevent new attacks. “If we make a comparison with other countries, they already have regulations to allow authorities to prevent (attacks) before they happen,” Widodo told a news conference. The president said he had ordered the chief security minister to get the revisions done as soon as possible. Long-standing plans to reform Indonesia’s 2003 anti-terrorism laws have been held up by opposition from some parties in parliament a

The first thing I read on Friday morning was that 28 Egyptians in the Sinai had been murdered by terrorists, with more than 20 others wounded. And my first thought was clear and to the point: Maybe this will finally wake up the Egyptian authorities. The grisly attack, carried out with firearms, took place on an isolated road in the Sinai desert – a sparsely populated region of Egypt where some believe ISIS is setting up a new base of operations in the wake of their losses in Iraq and Egypt. The victims belonged to a church group of Coptic Christians and many of them were children. They were on their way to pray at the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor. The victims belonged to a church group of Coptic Christians and many of them were children. They were on their way to pray at the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor. Coptic scholar Samuel Tadros described the scene in the  New York Times , “The terrorists waited on the road like game hunters. Coming their way were th

BEIJING: Chinese activists say they fear intensified state surveillance after a draft law seeking to legitimize monitoring of suspects and raid premises was announced last week, the latest step to strengthen Beijing’s security apparatus. Half a dozen activists contacted by Reuters say they already face extensive surveillance by security agents and cameras outside their homes. Messages they post on social media, including instant messaging applications like WeChat are monitored and censored, they said. The draft of a new law to formally underpin and possibly expand China’s intelligence gathering operations at home and abroad was released on May 16. However, the law was vaguely worded and contained no details on the specific powers being granted to various state agencies. “State intelligence work should...provide support to guard against and dispel state security threats (and) protect major national interests,” the document said. The law will give authorities new legal grounds to moni

MINYA: Egyptian fighter jets carried out strikes on Friday directed at camps in Libya which Cairo says have been training militants who killed dozens of Christians earlier in the day.  President  Abdel Fattah al-Sisi  said he had ordered strikes against what he called terrorist camps, declaring in a televised address that states that sponsored terrorism would be punished.  Egyptian military sources said six strikes took place near Derna in eastern Libya at around sundown, hours after masked gunmen attacked a group of  Coptic Christians  travelling to a monastery in southern  Egypt , killing 29 and wounding 24.  The Egyptian military said the operation was ongoing and had been undertaken once it had been ascertained that the camps had produced the gunmen behind the attack on the Coptic Christians in Minya, southern Egypt, on Friday morning.  "The terrorist incident that took place today will not pass unnoticed," Sisi said. "We are currently targeting the camps where th

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump wished Muslims “a joyful Ramadan,” on Friday, urging them to use the holy month to reject violence by Islamist extremists. “On behalf of the American people, I would like to wish all Muslims a joyful Ramadan,” said Trump, who is winding up a first overseas trip as president that included a stop in Saudi Arabia. “This year, the holiday begins as the world mourns the innocent victims of barbaric terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom and Egypt, acts of depravity that are directly contrary to the spirit of Ramadan,” said the US leader, who campaigned last year on a pledge to ban Muslims from entering the United States. “Such acts only steel our resolve to defeat the terrorists and their perverted ideology,” he said in his message to the world’s estimated 1.6 billion Muslims. Trump said that when he met dozens of leaders of Muslim countries in the Saudi capital Riyadh, he had vowed to stand with them to counter “terrorism and the ideology that

According to sources, the bodies of two slain BAT members were lying in “no man''s land” along the LoC. ALTAF BABA  Uri(Baramulla)  |  Posted : May 27 2017 1:23AM | Updated: May 27 2017 12:10AM   File Photo Army on Friday claimed to have foiled an attack of Border Action Team of Pakistan by killing two BAT members near Line of Control in north Kashmir’s Uri sector.   Addressing a news conference at 12 Brigade in Uri, Baramulla, Colonel Bhanwar Singh of 4 JAKLI said: “The attempt of the BAT was aimed to inflict maximum damage to the Indian Army. However, the alert troops on the LoC foiled their bid.” He said: “The hunt is on to nab other members of BAT if present in the area. The attempt of the intruding BAT members was retaliated with heavy machine guns and other arms available with troops on the LoC.” Colonel Singh said: “Whenever BAT action takes place, it happens close to LoC and their major aim remains to inflict maximum damage and return safely. Usually B

Across a field from the unfinished concrete house where she lives, Suad Thabet can see the spires of the Abu Qarqas monastery. The 70-year-old Coptic Christian grandmother has had trouble sleeping since she was attacked in her nearby Egyptian village of Karm a year ago. She says living near the monastery makes her feel safe. Since the toppling of former President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and in the wake of a security vacuum that followed, there have been dozens of attacks on Egypt's Christians. Friday's  attack on buses  carrying Coptic Christians in Minya province, home to most of Egypt's estimated 9 million Christians, left at least 28 dead and was the latest in a recent string of assaults on this minority. Last month, suicide attacks at churches in two Egyptian cities killed 46 people attending Palm Sunday services.  In February , murders claimed by ISIS militants forced many Christians to flee their North Sinai hometown. And in December, a suicide bombing left 29 dea