Terrorism Watch

RAIPUR: English playwright William Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet, “What’s in a name?” For the outlawed CPI (Maoist), the answer is everything. Names, often assumed or symbolic, are a tool of survival, strategy, and connection with the communities in which they operate. “In the CPI (Maoist) movement, their key leaders mostly operated underground. Since maintaining anonymity remains a key part of their modus operandi, they continue their illegitimate pursuits under different pen names or aliases. Such names that are neither modern nor customary facilitate them to gel with the local population,” said Sundarraj P, who spent over nine years as inspector general of police in Bastar. One example is the name ‘Abhay’, used as the spokesperson for the Central Committee. The name continues to represent the group publicly, regardless of which leader issues the statement. Last week, two press releases bore the name previously used by Mallojula Venugopal Rao, alias Sonu, who had surrendered ...

Abdulrazzaq al-Zaim, 14, works at a garage in al-Bab, a city in the opposition-held northern Aleppo countryside. Al-Zaim attended school through sixth grade, but dropped out two years ago to work and help support his family, who are displaced from the southern Idlib countryside, 2/3/2024 (Syria Direct)  MERSIN — At his family’s secluded tent, set up on agricultural land in Syria’s northwestern Idlib countryside, 11-year-old Ahmad Amro has a simple dream: “to wear school clothes—to go to school.” Instead, the family’s harsh living conditions keep him and his older brother out of the classroom, selling daffodils to help their father. Ahmad’s family of 10 has lived on private land in the Ras al-Hosn area near Harem, a city in northern Idlib province ever since they were displaced from east Aleppo city’s al-Kalaseh neighborhood in 2016. Because they are not registered as residents of a camp, they receive no assistance, Ahmad’s father told Syria Direct. “My mother is sick, and my fat...

The United Kashmir People’s National Party (UKPNP) has renewed calls for international accountability against Pakistan for its decades-long illegal occupation of PoK and other occupied regions. Observing 22 October as ‘Black Day’, UKPNP organised rallies and seminars across multiple cities to condemn Pakistan’s 1947 invasion of Jammu and Kashmir. Party leaders highlighted ongoing human rights violations, arbitrary arrests, and suppression of political dissent under Pakistani control, urging the global community to act.  Source  PoK under siege: UKPNP demands action against Pakistan’s illegal occupation in occupied regions - The Economic Times Video | ET Now

In Syria, the southwestern governorate of al-Suwayda is collapsing under shortages of food, water, and fuel. The Druze , who follow a heterodox religion which is an offshoot of Islam, are the majority in al-Suwayda, with smaller communities of Sunni Muslim Bedouin and Christians. Traditionally the area was known as Jabal al-Druze (Druze Mountain). Al-Suwayda is a litmus test for whether the government of Ahmed al-Shara’a can avoid cycles of minority repression, extremist violence, and foreign intervention that have defined Syria in the past.  In July,  violence  erupted in al-Suwayda between Sunni Muslim Bedouins and Druze. Government forces sided with the Bedouins rather than protecting both communities, leaving over a thousand dead and a hundred thousand displaced. Regime-aligned forces allegedly executed hundreds of civilians. A  new agreement  between Washington, Amman, and Damascus promises investigations and reconciliation efforts, but offers no mechan...

Introduction  The recent visit of Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister to Darul Uloom Deoband in Uttar Pradesh, India, highlights that Kabul’s ideological foundations remain part of a broader web of transnational religious influence. Historically, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Deoband Islam played a significant role in the nation-building process through the movement of scholarly networks that extended from India via Afghanistan to the vast lands of the Arab world. Notably, the Cold War geopolitics and regional power rivalries complicated the scholarship of Deoband Islam with new interpretations and extreme ideas, especially those taught in Pakistan’s Darul Uloom Haqqania Madrassah in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Jamiat-ul Uloomi Islamiyyah Madrassah in Binori, Karachi. A significant portion of the Taliban's second-generation fighters received their education in these seminaries, and accordingly, their ideological orientation had largely been shaped/influenced by th...

Balochistan [Pakistan], October 24 (ANI): Amnesty International has denounced the Balochistan government for including 32 individuals, among them leading Baloch rights defenders, in Pakistan's terrorist watchlist under Section 11-EE of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997. The move has been described as a serious violation of due process and basic freedoms, as reported by The Balochistan Post.  Amnesty Raises Alarm According to The Balochistan Post, in its statement, Amnesty's Deputy Regional Director for South Asia, Babu Ram Pant, said the activists had been added to the Fourth Schedule in a completely arbitrary manner, without being allowed to challenge the decision. "Listing peaceful Baloch activists as terrorists without any legal recourse undermines their fundamental rights to liberty, privacy, and movement," Pant stated. The global rights body said it has repeatedly raised concerns over Pakistan's sweeping anti-terrorism laws that fail to comply with internatio...

Prominent Kurdish politician Ahmet Türk , a former co-mayor of Mardin in southeastern Turkey from the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), has been acquitted of terrorism-related charges that were used to justify his removal from office last year, the Mezopotamya news agency reported. Türk, 83, was removed from his post by the interior ministry in November 2024, marking the third time he had been ousted as mayor. The ministry cited an ongoing trial at the Ankara 14th High Criminal Court as justification for the move, saying he was being prosecuted for “disseminating terrorist propaganda.” The case stemmed from a speech Türk gave in the southeastern province of Siirt in March 2011, for which prosecutors accused him of promoting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.  The trial began in 2022. Türk’s lawyers attended the final hearing at the Ankara court on Thursday via video link from the...

A Turkish man known for helping refugees through a charity shop in Ankara has been arrested on charges of sexually assaulting several Syrian women on the pretext of offering aid, the BBC Turkish service reported on Thursday. Saadettin Karagöz, widely referred to as the “ grandfather of refugees ” for his work at the Umut Hayır Mağazası ( Hope Charity Shop ) in Ankara’s Altındağ district , was detained and subsequently arrested pending trial this week after several women accused him of sexual assault and harassment. The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office is conducting the investigation into Karagöz. The allegations concerning Karagöz were included in an exclusive report published on Monday by the BBC Turkish service based on its one-year-long investigation. Three Syrian women who spoke to the outlet said Karagöz had harassed or assaulted them, while seven others, including two former employees of the charity shop, said they had witnessed or heard accounts of abuse that allegedl...

Iran has ratified the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (CFT Treaty) in a move seen as a bid to ease international isolation and gain access to the global banking system. The decision comes as President Masoud Pezeshkian’s administration seeks to align with the  Financial Action Task Force  ( FATF ) requirements and improve relations with the West. Effort to Ease Economic Isolation Iran’s economy has long struggled under the weight of international sanctions, particularly from the  United States . Its placement on the  FATF  blacklist in 2020 — alongside countries such as North Korea and Myanmar — further restricted its access to international finance. President Pezeshkian, elected on a reformist platform, is seeking to rebuild Iran’s global credibility by adhering to anti-terror financing standards and promoting greater economic transparency. CFT Treaty The CFT Treaty, or International Convention for the Suppression of t...