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Showing posts from May 3, 2020

ISI crackdown on activists continues in Pakistan: Pakistan assassinates exiled Baloch journalist, Pakhtun national leader

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Even during Ramzan, Pakistani agencies continue the killing spree of political dissidents, journalists and activists. In short intervals, the ISI has assassinated a prominent Pakhtun leader Arif Wazir and an exiled Baloch journalist Sajid Hussain. On the first Friday of the Ramzan, the ISI agents shot dead Pakhtun leader Arif Wazir near his house in Waza, the South Waziristan district of the country's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The Pashtun leader had come out on bail barely a month ago. He was arrested allegedly for his anti-Pakistan speech in Afghanistan. The deceased leader's cousin, Muhammad Ali Wazir, in a statement said that the PTM leader, had received three bullet injuries to his body, The News International reported. The killing of Wazir highlights Pakistan's sustained intimidation, censorship, arrests and persecution of Pashtuns and the crushing of the PTM, a movement advocating for the rights of ethnic Pashtuns. Wazir’s father and six o

Hizbul Chief Sayeed Salahudeen stunned with Riyaz Naikoo's death; threatens to burn Kashmir

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Syed Mohammed Yusuf Shah, commonly known as Sayeed Salahudeen, head of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, a Pakistan supported terrorist organisation operating in Kashmir, warns India that the Kashmir issue is a spark that could set off a fire that envelopes the entire region -Yatharth Sikka   Islamic terrorist and Hizbul Mujahideen top commander Riyaz Naikoo killed in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir Terrorist Riyaz Naikoo was a special and top commander to Hizb-ul-Mujahideen's kingpin Sayeed Salahudeen. Salahudeen has said that Naikoo's sacrifice will help him in achieving his mission. In a video message released by Hizbul, Salahudeen mourns at death of Riyaz Naikoo says" 80 terrorists have been killed in the valley since Jan this year, there has been an increase in India's strength and has a more significant hand on Kashmir, the death of Riyaz Naikoo deeply pains me." Stung after Naiku's encounter, Salahudeen warned India that the Kashmir issue is a spark tha

China brings anti-Racism regulation; tries to cover-up racist atrocities & cases of human rights violations of Africans in China

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China relationship with Africa is on the verge of collapse after numerous instances of institutioanlised racism came to the fore. With many countries already displeased China's increasing clout due to Belt and Road Initiative, the backlash can be severe for the Communist country.   Africans in Guangzhou city have been subjected to forced evictions, denial of services, testing and quarantine despite being tested negative Several news items and videos that have emerged from China show how foreigners especially those of African origin are being discriminated against in all aspects of daily life. The discrimination is so rampant that the victims have alleged institutionalised racism against them. With the spread of Corona virus, racism against foreigners in China has increased multi-fold. In April 2020, Chinese authorities in Guangzhou city of Guangdong province began a campaign to forcibly test Africans for the coronavirus. The tests were forced despite none f

China silencing relatives who lost their families to Wuhan Virus and want to sue CCP, through hush money and police interrogation

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A Chinese activist has revealed that residents of Wuhan where the virus originated want to sue the Chinese Communist Party but are either being lured away with money, interrogated or even threatened.   Yang Zhanqing, a New York-based Chinese activist, received messages from Wuhan residents who want to sue the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) due to the Coronavirus epidemic in the city in which they lost their families and loved ones. Yang Zhanqing told that "One of the Wuhan residents said his mother died from Coronavirus because being rejected from several hospitals, while another resident claimed that her father-in-law had died in quarantine. But seven of them suddenly altered their minds in late April or stopped answering. Yang discovered that lawyers cautioned them not to file suit against the Xi Jinping's government and local police started grilling their family members. And people who tried to expose the authentic scale of the epidemic, have vanish

Red terror in Chhattisgarh: 1 police officer martyred, 4 Left-wing terrorists killed in encounter in Rajnandgaon district https://www.organiser.org/Encyc/2020/5/9/Red-terror-in-Chhattisgarh.html

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In Chhattisgarh, a Police Sub Inspector martyred in an encounter with Leftwing terrorists. Four Maoists were also killed in the gun battle. A team of District Police Force launched a massive search operation in the forests of Manpur late last evening after confirming the presence of a large number of Maoists in the area. The Communist terrorists ambushed the police team near Pardhauni village and opened indiscriminate fire. Police Jawans retaliated the fire and in the exchange of fire, the In-charge of Madanwada police station Shyam Kishore Sharma lost his life, while 4 Maoists also killed in this encounter. Bodies of the killed Maoists along with one AK-47 rifle, 1 SLR weapon and two rifles recovered from the spot. Chhattisgarh Home Minister Tamradhwaj Sahu and Director General of Police D.M. Awasthi paid homage to the martyred Police Sub Inspector Shyam Kishore Sharma in Rajnandgaon police line today morning. Source: https://www.organiser.org/Encyc/2020/5/9/Red-terror-i

Khalistani groups funding terror activities in Kashmir through narcotic trade

In another notorious move, Pakistan'a intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has directed Khalistani terror groups which are active in Pakistan in smuggle weapons and drugs into India's Punjab and extend help to the terror groups active in Kashmir. According to the investigation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Pakistan based terrorist organisations are using narcotic trade to generate funds for terror activities in India. The agency said that Pakistani entities are smuggling narcotics from into the Indian territory by hiding it in sacks of rock salt which is imported from Pakistan. This is done through an elaborate network of importers, customs house agents, transporters and the operation is financed through illegal international hawala channels. The investigation also established that the seized consignment was a part of a total of five consignments of drugs, four out of which had been successfully smuggled into India. The proceeds of

TRF, Pakistan''s IT cell for terror groups in Kashmir?

New Delhi, May 9 (IANS) "We shall meet again, in Srinagar; by the gates of the Villa of Peace; our hands blossoming into fists; till the soldiers return the keys; and disappear." These descriptive lines are from Agha Shahid Ali''s poem ''A Pastoral'', published in his poetry collection ''The County Without a Post Office''. Shahid was an Indian American Kashmiri poet from an illustrious and influential family in Srinagar, who captured the loss and grief of Kashmiri people during the violent conflict in the Valley that began in 1989. In his collection, he bemoaned the loss of Kashmir''s syncretic culture and plural traditions following the exodus of the indigenous minority, Kashmiri Pandits, from the Valley. He dedicated the poem to one of his Kashmiri Pandit friends based in the US. Recently, Shahid''s lines were quoted by the newly formed ''The Resistance Front'' (TRF, a group that has fals

Covid-19 pandemic: the Secretariat of the Committee on Counter-Terrorism warns against the risk of bioterrorism

The Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated the vulnerability of modern societies to viral infections and their potential for disruption. There is no reason to believe that this lesson will be lost on terrorist groups, some of which have already been attempting or experimenting with bioterrorism. The intentional use of a pathogen or other biological agent for the purpose of terrorism may prove highly effective and cause damage – both human and economic – on a far grander scale than “traditional” terrorist attacks, paralyzing societies for prolonged periods, spreading fear and sowing distrust far beyond those communities immediately affected.   The response to bioterrorism must be a coordinated one. It must mobilise a wide range of human and material resources and therefore require interinstitutional action of the member States of the Council of Europe. The multiplicity and variety of the responders require an interconnection of communication systems, which are essential too

Home-grown terrorism intertwined with separatism poses great threat to Hong Kong

HONG KONG, May 8 (Xinhua) -- With a spate of cases involving homemade bombs and dangerous chemicals in recent months, Hong Kong is facing the rise of home-grown terrorism. Analysts pointed out that Hong Kong's home-grown terrorism, derived from radical groups involved in recent disturbances and intertwined with separatists advocating "Hong Kong independence", is posing a great threat to the security of the Hong Kong Special Administrative (HKSAR) as well as the nation at large. REPEATED WARNINGS ABOUT HOME-GROWN TERRORISM Warnings about the rise of terrorism in Hong Kong, which has long been dubbed one of the world's safest places, were repeatedly heard as the police have handled over 10 cases involving improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and dangerous chemicals since June 2019, with some of the homemade bombs being placed in crowded places including schools, hospitals, border crossings and metro train compartments. In one of the latest cases, the polic

No data, security breach by Aarogya Setu, says team after hacker claims privacy issues

The Aarogya Setu team, on Tuesday, issued a statement asserting that "no data or security breach had been identified" in the app, after Elliot Alderson, a French security researcher, claimed that there were privacy issues with it. The app has been developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to track possible COVID-19 cases. “Hi @SetuAarogya, A security issue has been found in your app. The privacy of 90 million Indians is at stake. Can you contact me in private? Regards. PS: Rahul Gandhi was right," the ethical hacker had tweeted. Hi @SetuAarogya , A security issue has been found in your app. The privacy of 90 million Indians is at stake. Can you contact me in private? Regards, PS: @RahulGandhi was right — Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) May 5, 2020 “49 minutes after this tweet, @IndianCERT and @NICMeity contacted me. Issue has been disclosed to them. To be super clear: I’m wait

ShardSecure Announces General Availability of Microsharding Data Security Solution

ShardSecure , the data protection company whose Microshard technology helps organizations eliminate the sensitivity of data to accelerate cloud adoption, announced the general availability of their ShardSecure Software Appliance. ShardSecure’s revolutionary approach to data security uses Microsharding to automatically shred, mix and distribute data in a way that makes it incomplete and unreadable. This ensures that data is protected in the event of a breach, separated from those with privileged access and that the sensitivity class is reduced for regulatory compliance. Marketing Technology News: Adam Morgan Joins SC as Partner The ShardSecure Software Appliance is used to: Automatically secure data with or without encryption, reducing risk caused by cloud misconfiguration or other human error Separate sensitive data from internal and third-party cloud administrators while eliminating the risk of compromised encryption keys or credentials Ensure data is protected prior

Legislators and Regulators Weigh in On Privacy and Data Security Protections for Healthcare Providers Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

As they work to combat the surging COVID-19 virus, healthcare providers recently were reminded by legislators and regulators of the importance of data security and privacy protections. On the data security front, U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal, Tom Cotton, David Perdue, and Mark Warner recently  wrote  to the Director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (“CISA”) and the commanding general of the U.S. Cyber Command to express their “profound concerns” that healthcare providers are “facing an unprecedented and perilous campaign of sophisticated hacking operations from state and criminal actors amid the coronavirus pandemic,” which “pose an alarming risk of disrupting or undermining our public health response at this time of crisis.” The Senators urged CISA and the Cyber Command to issue guidance and provide technical resources to deter these threats. Beyond their general call for action, the Senators offered s

Dutch Privacy Watchdog To Investigate TikTok Over Children's Data

Amsterdam: The Dutch privacy watchdog said on Friday it would investigate how Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, which has become hugely popular during the COVID-19 pandemic, handles the data of millions of young users. The move comes amid growing US scrutiny of the app, which allows users to create and share short videos of themselves with millions of people worldwide. Owned by Chinese company ByteDance, TikTok first gained popularity in Asia and now also has a massive following in the West. It is estimated to have between 500 million and 1 billion users worldwide. The company, which introduced parental controls last month, said it was cooperating with Dutch authorities. "TikTok's top priority is protecting our users' privacy and safety, especially our younger users," spokeswoman Gudrun Herrmann said in a statement sent to Reuters. In April, TikTok blocked the live chat and video streaming function for users under 16 and introduced parental controls to

'Locker Rooms' are Common in Juvenile Internet Users, But What Should be Done About it?

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Over the past one week, two separate instances of ‘chat rooms’ on Instagram have sparked off numerous debates about the issue of internet usage among children, adolescents and teenagers. This has further raised the question of who is to be held accountable — should the kids be directly held responsible for their actions, or should the parents be blamed? Should the social media platforms be actively doing more, or should the government establish more stringent laws and make legal procedures more accessible for all? On this note, what also comes to light is India’s existing legal infrastructure , and the aspect of mental health that is being impacted by kids being predominantly online. Why the bullying? “Cyber bullying is only one of the many problems that lead to mental health issues of this population. Bullying, in fact, has been a very common problem for kids for a very long time, well before the times of the internet. With the new platforms,

U.S. recognises India’s role in Afghanistan: Khalilzad

The U.S. recognises India’s “constructive contribution” to Afghanistan, said U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad, who came to Delhi on Thursday and met with External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar and National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval to brief them on progress in the peace process that has faltered in the past few weeks. Expressing “deep concern” about the increase in violence in Afghanistan, Mr. Jaishankar and Mr. Doval made a particular mention of the need to protect “Afghan Hindus and Sikhs,” and said India supported the call for a ceasefire to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Sustainable peace “The U.S. side recognised India’s constructive contribution in economic development, reconstruction and humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. They laid importance to India’s crucial and continuing role in sustainable peace, security and stability in Afghanistan,” a statement issued by the Ministry of External A

Wuhan market had role in coronavirus outbreak, but more research needed: WHO

Chinese authorities shut down the market in January as part of efforts to halt the spread of the virus and ordered a temporary ban on trade and consumption of wildlife. A wholesale market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan played a role in the outbreak of the novel coronavirus last year, as the source or possibly as an “amplifying setting”, the World Health Organization said on Friday, calling for more research. Chinese authorities shut down the market in January as part of efforts to halt the spread of the virus and ordered a temporary ban on trade and consumption of wildlife. “The market played a role in the event, that’s clear. But what role we don’t know, whether it was the source or amplifying setting or just a coincidence that some cases were detected in and around that market,” said Dr Peter Ben Embarek, a WHO expert on food safety and zoonotic viruses that cross the species barrier from animals to humans. It was not clear whether live animals or in

China supports WHO-led review of pandemic after it is over, says foreign ministry

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The review should be conducted in an “open, transparent and inclusive manner” under the leadership of WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, foreign ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying said at the regular ministry briefing on Friday. China supports a World Health Organisation (WHO)-led review into the coronavirus pandemic after it is declared over, the foreign ministry said on Thursday. The review should be conducted in an “open, transparent and inclusive manner” under the leadership of WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, foreign ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying said at the regular ministry briefing on Friday. Hua’s comments come in the backdrop of increasing global pressure to allow an international probe into the origins of the pandemic and the novel coronavirus, which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. Coronavirus outbreak: Full coverage China has dismissed US allegations that the virus came from a laboratory. More than 3

Milan a Ticking Coronavirus 'Bomb', Viroligist Warns

Lombardy region, which has recorded more than 80,000 infections, is the epicentre of Italy's outbreak, one of the worst in Europe in terms of deaths and infections The city in the northern Lombardy region is the epicentre of Italy's outbreak, one of the worst in Europe in terms of deaths and infections. More than 80,000 infections have been recorded in Lombardy -- almost 40 percent of Italy's overall cases -- according to official data. Only 33,000 of Lombardy's cases are considered recovered. The region's capital Milan, is "a bit of a bomb," said Massimo Galli, the head of the infectious diseases department at the renowned Sacco hospital in Milan. "We have a very high number of infected people returning to circulation," he said in an interview with the Repubblica newspaper, referring to the easing of lockdown measures on May 4. Photographs of youngsters sitting along Milan's can

Pool Re expert assesses impact of COVID-19 on terrorism threats and trends

ANDREW SILKE, Pool Re and Cranfield University’s Professor of Terrorism Risk Management and Resilience, has produced a detailed report assessing the short and long-term impacts and potential consequences of COVID-19 on terrorist actors, target types and methodologies. The detailed eight-page report asserts that the pandemic is already exerting a significant impact on terrorism in a variety of ways. As the international community continues to grabble with the COVID-19 pandemic, it's already clear that the economic and social impact of the Coronavirus outbreak will be deep and long-lasting. Evidence suggests that COVID-19 is already having an impact on terrorism trends across the globe, with Silke considering in more detail the potential impact of the pandemic on terrorism threats and trends not only at the height of the crisis, but also looking ahead to the medium and long-term. There's a mixed picture on the level of attacks in the short-term. Lockdown me