Internal Security Watch

[Sanjay M]

Japanese Embassy in India Receives Bomb Threat Email

I'm curious as to why they sent it to the Japanese embassy. Is it because they see Japan as a large aid donor and growing economic partner? Are the terrorists again going after the economic angle?

[Avinash R]

Patil for new anti-terror law
Mumbai: Making a complete turnaround in the background of the recent terror attacks in Bangalore and Ahmedabad having their nerve centre in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil on Thursday pressed for an anti-terrorism law to strengthen the hands of investigative agencies.

Patil told Deccan Herald in his chamber at the state secretariat that his party, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), had supported the repeal of the anti-terror law POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) after the UPA came to power at the Centre as it had several lacunae.

However, he emphasised the need for a new anti-terror law and pointed out that every country, including the US and UK, had enacted tough anti-terrorist measures after they were targeted by terrorists. He said it was ironical that whenever there is a terror strike, the security agencies are pulled up for their failure, but when the agencies catch terrorists after painstaking efforts hardly anybody gets convicted.

In this connection, he said most of the accused involved in the 1992-93 Mumbai riots were either acquitted or roaming scott free. While it took almost 15 years for convicting the guilty involved in the 1993 Mumbai serial bombings, many of the guilty were free on bail.

Patil, who is incharge of the sensitive home department, said the existing laws like the IPC and the CrPC (Code of Criminal Procedure) were inadequate in dealing with the scourge of terrorism.

For how many days should agencies continue to gather evidence and prosecute offenders on basis of these old acts, he wondered, emphasising the need of law to strengthen the hands of investigative agencies and providing harsh punishment to terrorists.

When asked about the effectiveness of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), Patil said that law is adequate to deal with gangsters, but not with terrorists.

He came out in whole hearted support for a federal agency to deal with terrorism-related incidents and inter-state crimes.

He said many times local police may be biased or ill-equipped in their investigations, and a federal agency could do a better job.

He said investigations were continuing over the Navi Mumbai connection with the Ahmedabad and Bangalore blasts, although no breakthrough has been achieved so far.

Now that congress party members are openly saying that stronger laws are needed to fight terror the other patil at centre must wake up and enact such laws rather than burying his head in the sand.

[Avinash R]

This the second time that mayawati has been targetted. She has been marked for elimination by jehadis. After WB, UP has a large popuation of bangladeshi muslim illegal migrants.

BID TO BLOW UP MAYA'S OFFICE FOILED
Lucknow : Exposing chinks in Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s security, a suspected Pakistani terrorist with LeT link, who was arrested a few days back in the city, has revealed that he frequented the high security secretariat annexe building which houses the offices of the Chief Minister and her secretaries.

The suspected terrorist Shakil, who had been living here in the name of Ramesh Chaudhary, found a job with a glass showroom company, which was assigned the job of renovating the secretariat annexe building.

As part of the company, Shakil had a pass for entering the building and visited it many times, highly placed sources in the police said on Thursday.

His arrest has averted a major terrorist strike, sources said. His cell phone records revealed that he had made several calls to Pakistan and Bangladesh during the past few months, they added.

[svinayak]

Now that congress party members are openly saying that stronger laws are needed to fight terror the other patil at centre must wake up and enact such laws rather than burying his head in the sand.

After so many Indians died they want to change the laws now. More than 300-400 people have died now since previous laws were removed. Are the lawmakers responsible.

[sum]

I'm curious as to why they sent it to the Japanese embassy. Is it because they see Japan as a large aid donor and growing economic partner? Are the terrorists again going after the economic angle?

Today's paper reports that a mentally unstable guy sent the mail.

[shyamd]

Shell-shocked Guj tries to grasp new bomb tech

Ahmedabad: The diamond capital of the nation is under seige. More and more live bombs are being defused with the police hoping that the count would end soon. Clearly, the idea was to strike Gujarat and strike hard.

After another bomb was found in Mahidarpur area, very close to Railway Station in Surat, the police are now left wondering about the new technology terrorists are using.

Surat Commissioner of Police, R M S Brar says, "These are new kind of bombs with integrated circuits, which we have heard from the past in Jaipur and Bangalore, but we have seen this for the first time here. Mostly bombs planted on Saturday and Sunday. We found them as we were on high alert. Most of the bombs in Surat were planted on the either before the Ahmedabad blasts or on the same day."

Meanwhile, the Surat Police face one big question - how is it possible that not even a single bomb went off?

Brar says, "Why exactly didn't the bombs blow up? FSL is checking whether there are any manufacturing defects. Nothing can be said before the report comes."

Embeded chips were used in the bombs found in Surat, suggesting a common link with the ones found in Bangalore and Ahmedabad. The other common features are:

* The explosive material used was ammonium nitrate

* Containers were similar to the ones used in Bangalore and Ahmedabad

* Batteries were used to produce the spark for setting off the bombs

Ammonium nitrate, gelatin sticks, nuts, bolts, iron filings, batteries and wires are very easily available, as are devices with integrated chips - watches. Watches are functional only because they are fitted with integrated chips.

The mechanism of an integrated chip bomb

In an integrated chip bomb batteries are attached to wires to generate spark and power. Once the circuit closes at a designated time, the chip generates a pulse, which in turn creates pressure between ammonium nitrate and the iron filings or the nut and bolts. The pressure followed by a chemical reaction leads to an explosion.

"We don't have any idea of which group is involved. But we do know for sure that local people were involved as without local help, such a mammoth operation would have been very difficult," says Brar.

Surat Police might well believe that luck saved them, but only investigations will show if it was their luck or the failure of the terror outfits by design or default.

(With inputs from Raksha Shetty in Surat)

[Rupesh]

Internal insecurity
Shekhar Gupta Posted online: Saturday, August 02, 2008 at 0207 hrs
lThe use-by date on the Kandahar excuse is over. It won’t work when UPA faces the voters




For nearly five years now the world media had been celebrating India’s rise. From the state of its stock market to its demographic advantage, from the strength and depth of its democracy to the vast reservoir of talent that flourished in its diversity, it was as if the world could see nothing wrong with India. There are now signs that some of that is changing.

And no, it is not just because of those thousand-rupee bundles displayed in the Lok Sabha. It is because of something much more serious, in fact a failure so serious it could, by itself, lose the UPA the next election. These four and half years are the worst in India’s history of fighting terrorism. Surely somebody in the UPA will bring out statistics to show that overall deaths were more in some other regime’s five years. But this is not just about numbers. It is a spectacular four and a half years of mayhem when not one terrorist has been caught, not one major case solved. Even by the modest standards that Shivraj Patil’s home ministry may have set for itself, this is a spectacularly disastrous record.

The world press, if anything, has been late in catching this. Last week, Somini Sengupta of The New York Times quoted a stunning fact from a report of the Washington-based National Counter-Terrorism Centre. It said, between January 2004 and March 2007, India had lost 3,674 lives to terrorism, second only to Iraq. And we can’t even claim that this is happening because some imperialist occupation army is running amok here. In fact that number, by now, must have crossed 5,000. If this notion spreads globally, it would do more to damage India’s image as an oasis of democratic stability, pacifism and economic growth than any twists in its politics, or even a half-decade reform holiday.

So far the UPA government has had one standard response: compare this with the record under the NDA: Kandahar hijack, Parliament attack, Akshardham. But there is a short use-by date on these arguments. You cannot take them into your next election campaign. Soon enough, the memory of those incidents would have faded, been replaced by new ones: Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kabul, Mumbai trains, Samjhauta Express and so on. And then the unchecked Naxalite attacks.

Most amazing is the sense of cool with which this government, particularly its home ministry, has responded to these losses. While they can pretend that Naxalite strikes are some sinister happenings in places that are out of sight, out of mind, somebody — most likely the voter — will soon remind them that, while those managing internal security may not care for the lives of policemen in faraway states, never in the history of insurgencies have we suffered casualties like these. In fact, if you go over our five-decade history of insurgencies, the 38 lives lost in the Naxalite attack on the police boat were perhaps the second-largest loss of life by security forces in a day in internal security operations after only the army’s casualties on the night of Operation Bluestar. It is rare for security forces to suffer double-digit casualties in insurgencies. Even during the Kargil conflict it was a rare day’s fighting on which the army lost so many lives, against an entrenched foreign army. The two most striking things here have been the equanimity — frankly, cynical and sometimes sanctimonious indifference — with which this security establishment has treated it.

The talk of Naxalism in a week when two of our most important cities saw serial-bombings and a third had 23 unexploded bombs recovered, is not a digression. It underlines the unmoving, thick-skinned, incompetent and pusillanimous response to terror from this government. What is worse, it is even politically loaded. And while, ultimately, the UPA may be made to pay for it electorally, too many lives are being lost meanwhile, and too much damage is being done to India’s image. The government cannot ride out an entire five years claiming that their predecessors’ record was worse.

Soon enough people will also start reminding them that the NDA’s six years coincided with a state of near-war with Pakistan, when ISI support to terror in India was unabashed and comprehensive and when an active proxy war was on in Kashmir. It is the four years of relative peace with Pakistan that make the UPA’s failure even more striking.

Over the past year or so we have all got focussed on what we saw as the communalisation of our foreign policy: don’t vote against Iran at the IAEA because our own Shias would get upset, don’t sign the nuclear deal with Bush as that will irritate all our own Muslims, conduct your relations with Israel by stealth for the same reason, even stop the two missile development projects with them, no matter how badly your armies may need them. Last week we saw the prime minister fight back on this, and successfully too. But can he do the same with internal security?

The odds are steeper because that issue was communalised first. It began with the last election campaign and the composition of this alliance. There may have been a sound case against POTA because it was misused, but both in public discourse and political action its repeal was made to look like a favour to the Muslims. Then, the same “communalised” politics interfered in police investigations following the serial blasts in Mumbai trains and Hyderabad. Ask senior police officers there — even Congress chief ministers if they’d dare to speak the truth — and they will tell you how they pulled away in fright, under pressure from the Centre for targeting and upsetting Muslims (voters) in their investigations. This proceeded neatly alongside the utterly communalised discourse on the Afzal Guru hanging issue. Each time this government and its intellectual storm-troopers proffered the minority argument in support of this soft policy, it emboldened the terrorists. They figured they were dealing with a political leadership which had already committed a self-goal by equating counter-terror with Muslim alienation and which had, in the process, totally demoralised its intelligence agencies and police forces. And if it is not guilty of communalising our internal security policy, how does it explain sitting on special anti-terror laws in all BJP-run states when exactly similar ones have been passed for the Congress states? Now you can say special laws are good or bad, but they must be equally so for all citizens in all states. If these laws are good, or necessary, then citizens in BJP-run states have as much need — and right — to get their protection as those in the Congress states. Unless the message is: you want protection, you better vote for us. You vote for others, you are on your own.

It is not going to work. It is morally wrong and politically suicidal. Protecting the citizens’ life is the first responsibility of any government. Surely no government can ensure no terror attack would ever happen. But it has to be seen to be trying, fighting, and being even-handed. This government fails on all three counts so far, no matter how nicely ironed its chief-spokesman’s bandh-galas, how neatly combed his hair. If the prime minister does not fix this in time, his party will be asked really tough questions in the next election.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/343687._.html

[vsudhir]

Good article by Shekhar Dupatta Gupta.

A welcome change. Hope is the current dispensation will listen when its own media cheerleaders are having to talk truth to power.

Long shot, I know. But hey, hope springs eternal and all that.

[Avinash R]

SIMI activist arrested
8/2/2008 8:34:00 PM

Karnataka Police today (August 2) arrested a man identified as an activist of SIMI and recovered three CDs with information on bomb-manufacturing and a cylinder filled with chemical gas from him. Tanvir Mulla, found moving in a suspicious manner at Indala tank, was arrested from Shingoli in Belgaum, Superintendent of Police Sonia Narang told reporters.

The CDs recovered from his residence at Kustunagar contained provocative speeches on Jehad, attack on Muslims in Gujarat, besides detailed information and sketches on bomb manufacturing, including chemical bombs, Narang said. The mini cylinder recovered from him by the police is believed to have been used for making cylinder bombs.

Tanvir confessed that he had plans to trigger explosions in one of the polling booths in Tilakwadi area in Belgaum during the assembly elections in May but could not execute it, Narang said.

His arrest from the Shingoli area near Belgaum follows the arrest of another suspected SIMI activist Liaquat Ali from the same area. He had links with terror suspects -- Liyaqat Ali, Nasir Patel, Imtiaz and Dr Manroz -- whom police had arrested a few months ago. They are currently lodged in Hindalga jail. Police have seized his passport.

In recent days hubli and belgaum are becoming hubs of jehad. last month citizens protested about the illegal bangladeshi migrants who are being sheltered in muslim areas in belgaum.
in hubli the recent arrest of muslim medical students of kims proves the existence of jehadi mentality in the local population.

[Avinash R]

Maharashtra has shown the way
Link

By Parag Rabade
One argument which was strongly in favour of continuing with the MCOCA was the high conviction rate and a reduction in extortion cases since the Act came into force in 1999.

Yet again the terrorists struck in Bangalore and Ahmedabad and shook Surat with a series of unexploded bombs last week. Within hours, the Mumbai police traced the terror trail to Navi Mumai. The stolen cars used for planting explosives in Ahmedabad and the sending of an e-mail to a TV channel warning of the impending blast had their origin at Navi Mumbai, a satellite city of Mumbai.

The Mumbai police, supposed to be the best force in the country, has in place an Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) to deal with terrorist crimes. It was created in July 2004 and has jurisdiction over the entire state. The ATS coordinates with the Central agencies as well as similar agencies of other states.

The ATS was instrumental in nabbing the culprits behind the Mumbai train bombings as well as Malegaon blasts. The same ATS is now investigating the Navi Mumbai connection with the Ahmedabad and Bangalore blasts. It has set up 25 units to investigate the two terror attacks in tandem with the state agencies of Gujarat and Karnataka.

The Mumbai police also has a cyber-crime cell. It was to the credit of this cell and the ATS that within hours of the Ahmedabad blasts, they could detect from where the terror e-mail was sent, and raided an apartment rented by an American national. His unsecured WiFi network provided by the VSNL is believed to have been hacked by terrorists to send email from another laptop in the vicinity.

Great success

After TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Prevention Act) was allowed to lapse, there was no anti-terror law available for the security agencies in the country for four-five years. Maharashtra was then ruled by the BJP-Shiv Sena govt and Mumbai was rocked by mafia wars as well as extortion killings. To deal with the organised crime, the then BJP-Sena government enacted the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in 1999. MCOCA has been an exraordinary success in Maharashtra, with conviction rate as high as 78 per cent in some years.

this is the reason why special legislation to fight terror are needed. atleast patil should wake up and frame laws rather than blaming intel agencies.

The MCOCA provides for establishment of special courts, authorises interception of wire, electronic or oral communication, admits certain confessions made to police officers as evidence, protection of witnesses, forfeiture and attachment of property, no easy bail, and stringent punishment if held guilty.

In the absence of any particular anti-terrorism law, the Mumbai police have been applying MCOCA to terrorist suspects. A person is presumed guilty under the MCOCA unless he is able to prove his innocence. MCOCA does not stipulate prosecution of police officers found guilty of its misuse. Any offence that results in a person's death is punished with a lifer or a death penalty and the minimum fine is Rs one lakh under the MCOCA.

One argument which was strongly in favour of continuing with the MCOCA was the high conviction rate and a reduction in extortion cases since the Act came into force in 1999. There are special designated courts which deal only with MCOCA cases.

MCOCA & terror

While the accused in terror attacks up to the Gateway of India bombings are being held and prosecuted under the POTA, which was repealed by the UPA government in 2004, those involved in subsequent terror attacks like
suburban train bombings or Malegaon mutliple blasts are held under the MCOCA.

Maharashtra deputy chief minister R R Patil has supported a proposal by the union home ministry to establish a federal agency to deal with terrorist related crimes.

[Vasu]

Avinash, is Patil not 'waking up' because his own incompetence or because there is a method to it? Surely the article by Shekhar Gupta will already hint at the latter. Blaming somebody else, including NDA's policies and intelligence agencies is just a convenient cover.

It will be good for the nation if such a party is voted out en masse. Otherwise their return will only reinforce their own belief that abetting terrorism is the only way to power, and the terrorists' belief that they have the state's support in spreading terror in India.

[sum]

LeT setting up coommn nodes!!!!

Lashkar tech expert identified as son of Pakistan bureaucrat

Praveen Swami

NEW DELHI: A top Lashkar-e-Taiba electronic communications specialist, tasked with setting up a high-technology communications hub, has been identified as the son of a senior Pakistani science bureaucrat.

Sikandar Azam, an Islamabad-trained engineer who the Lashkar assigned to set up an encrypted cyber-communication facility in the Thanamandi forests of the frontier district of Rajouri, was arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir Police last month.

Azam’s father, Mohammad Khalid Bhat, works as Additional Director of Administration and Accounts at Pakistan’s Ministry of Science and Technology. He is resident of the Gulistan Plaza in Islamabad’s Sector G-10.

Police sources said a Rajouri-based Lashkar commander — so far identified only by the code names Azasa Shah and Abu Huzaifa —called for the setting up of the new communications hub in the wake of the recent interdiction of several of the organisation’s cross-Line of Control infiltrating groups.

‘Abu Huzaifa,’ who commands a sector critical to the Lashkar’s cross-border operations, believed these losses were the outcome of successful Indian electronic intelligence operations. On the orders of the Lashkar’s headquarters in Pakistan, Azam flew into Dhaka in mid-July, and then made his way across the India-Bangladesh border to a Lashkar safe house in Lalgola, near Murshidabad.

Thanamandi residents Khalid-ul-Haq and Shafiq Ahmad picked him up there, and the three men then travelled back by train to Jammu, through Rishikesh. Abu Huzaifa himself succeeded in escaping a botched June 20 raid on his safe house which followed this successful intelligence-led operation.

Along with three bodyguards, Abu Huzaifa succeeded in shooting his way through a poorly-laid security force cordon at Jarh Wali, near the shrine-town of Shahdara Sharif; 43 Rashtriya Rifles officer Major Bhanu Partap, and Jammu and Kashmir Police Special Operations Group Havaldar Anjeev Rana lost their lives in the shootout.

How do we manage to botch up inspite of such precise intel?

[svinayak]

http://www.hindu.com/2008/08/05/stories ... 310400.htm

http://www.hindu.com/2008/08/05/stories ... 310400.htm

Absconding ‘SIMI activist’ brought to Belgaum

Staff Correspondent



In police net: The alleged SIMI activist Iqbal Jataki being taken to the JMFC-IV Court in Belgaum on Monday.

Belgaum: The Belgaum police arrested yet another alleged activist of the banned Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).

He has been identified as Iqbal Ahmed Shauqat Ali Jakati.

He was wanted in connection with terrorist plots hatched allegedly by SIMI activists Munroz and Liyaquat Ali.

Iqbal Jakati, who was absconding since May 15, was detained at Sahar Airport in Mumbai on his arrival from Sharjah on August 2.

A Belgaum police team arrested Iqbal Jakati on Sunday and brought him here the same day. He was produced in JMFC-IV Court here on Monday and was remanded in police custody for four days.

Cases under Section 153 (A) (B) of the IPC and Section 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 have been registered against him.

According to Superintendent of Police Sonia Narang, the police had issued “Lookout circular” to all airports in the country, anticipating Iqbal Jakati’s return to India. The accused is a resident of Azad Nagar in Belgaum city and had fled to Sharjah after a case was registered against him at the APMC police station on May 15.

The team which arrested Iqbal in Mumbai comprised police inspectors Shankar Marihal and S.M. Nagaraj. The police have seized Iqbal Jataki’s passport and his mobile phone.

With the arrest of Iqbal Jakati, the number of alleged SIMI activists arrested in the district has gone up to eight. The others arrested since May 15 are Munroz, Liyaquat Ali, Nasir Patel, Imtiyaz Dalayat, Nadeem, Izaz Khan and Tanvir Mulla.

Except Iqbal Jakati, all other accused are in judicial custody.

[Gerard]

Dacoit Thokia killed in encounter with UP cops

[Gerard]

Delhi High Court lifts ban on SIMI

The Delhi High Court single judge tribunal lifted the ban on the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), saying that not enough evidence was found against it

[Baljeet]

How do we manage to botch up inspite of such precise intel?

Failure of Intel Anyone? Indian lexicon does not have operational failure, tactical failure, poor planning what we have is Intel failure. Precise strength of enemy was not provided by intel agency.

[svinayak]

http://www.scribd.com/doc/4516155/iMuj-Manifesto

The full text of the e-mail sent by the Indian Mujahideen minutes before the Ahmedabad Blasts which includes specific taunts against Narendra Modi. The document has many images and quotes from the Quran. It also bears 2 signatures Al-arbi and Guru-AlHindi. The email content is a PDF document. A cursory examination of the properties of the PDF file indicates it was created on 25th July the friday and further modified the same day.

Some Text excerpts below “The Rise of Jihad, Revenge of Gujarat”

Released by Indian Mujahideen, In the Land of Hind

Here we are back - the Mujahideen of India - the terrorists on the disbelievers – the radicals of Islam - after our triumphant and successful assault at Jaipur, once again calling you all, who disbelieve in Allah and His Messenger Muhammad (peace be upon him) to accept Islam and bear witness that there is none to be worshipped except Allah, and that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the Messenger of Allah. Accept Islam and save yourselves.

….

O leader of disbelieving cowards and eunuchs, Narendra Modi! O you base-born of illegitimate birth! O you spineless coward! You boast of the pride of Gujarat and pride of Gujaratis. You brag of your filthy faith and conviction in Hindutva. You are the one who claims to be committed and devoted to Gujarat. You sick politician who used Hinduism to complete your evil desires. Look! We are back with the Will of Allah, striking in your own land. With the Will of Allah, assaulting and ruining your own cities, raiding and ravaging your own territory! Show us where has all your Gujarati asmita (pride) gone? Look, you have incurred Allah’s Wrath, You have provoked the Mujahideen to massacre you and your five and a half crore multitude of pathetic infidels who tortured us in the post- Godhra riots asking “where is your Allah”?

Here He Is, The Most Supreme, The Most Sublime, with His Punishment to chastise you by our hands. We swear by Allah in Whose Hands are our lives, we wiare will make you, O Modi, an example and a lesson, that the enemies of Islam should learn from. This is our beginning! Our commencement! Our Opening Launch! To burn you alive in your own Hell - your own Gujarat.

…..

Here are our demands that you must fulfill if you hope for your well being.

a) You agitated our sentiments and disturbed us by arresting, imprisoning, and torturing our brothers in the name of SIMI and the other outfits in Indore, Ujjain, Mumbai, and in other cities of Karnataka. We hereby notify you, especially the ATS and the STF and the governments of Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, to release them all, lest you become our next targets and victims of our next attack. Don’t consider us heedless about the crimes you have committed in recent Indore riots and all this will be, Insha-Allah brought to account very soon.

b) We warn the Andhra Pradesh government, specifically the Hyderabad Police, to release the imprisoned Muslim youth immediately, and to be wise with yourselves. We are watching you, and our ground-work to gun you down has already begun. Insha-Allah, we will be rid of you very soon.

c) To the Maharashtra government and the rascals like Vilasrao Deshmukh and R.R. Patil, we announce the deadline to take heed before it is too late. Don’t think we are unaware of the SRPF attacks on our Masjids and our homes, the insult of our Qur’an and your enmity with the Muslims in Digras and the nearby areas in Yavatmal and of the burning alive of three Muslims in Jalna with the backing of police. Yes! It is all being recorded and you will face the ill consequences thereof. And also the troubles faced by the Madrasa students and Muslim women in Mumbai Western Railways. We wonder at your memory.

Have you forgotten the evening of 7/11/2006 so quickly and so easily? You try to fool us in the name of fast-track courts made for ’93 riot cases, through which you wish to free the actual Hindu culprits like Madhukar Sarpotdar who was caught red-handed with illegal firearms while the innocent Muslims arrested in the bomb blast case are being tried in the courts for years and years. Is this the hellish justice you speak of? I urge all the Muslims of Maharashtra to denounce those Muslim MLA’s who prove themselves to
be the loyal dogs of Congress and NCP. Beware! O you criminals! you are already on our hit-list and our cross-hair now! We also alert Mukesh Ambani to think twice before
usurping and building a citadel on a land in Mumbai that belongs to the Waqf Board, lest it turns into horrifying memories for you which you will never ever forget.

d) The news of the lawyers of the Bar Council in UP denying to fight the cases of our Muslim brethren has already reached us. Remember, you are provoking us to repeat the same blasts in civil courts that blew up your bodies into pieces.

e) Lastly, we intimidate and threaten the Media and the News channels, especially the TIMES OF INDIA and the TIMES NOW to be extra cautious in their propaganda
war against the Muslims. Your biased and impartiawar impartial approach to the news and the noise and the politics you make of ‘Islamic Terrorism’ indicates your hostility,
hatred and fear that you grudge against Muslims and your loyal allegiance to the cunning ones who call themselves the “Intelligence Bureau”. You become dumb when it comes to the oppression and torture of the Muslims, faced in riots, firing, encounters, police custodies, remand homes and civil courts and your propaganda turns violent to project the ‘brutality’ of ‘Islamic terrorists’ and their ‘ruthlessness’ and their ‘merciless mentality’ and so on. We warn you to end this hypocrisy or get ready for a bloody slaughter.

The Indian Mujahideen hereby claim the sole responsibility of the Gujarat serial blasts, planned and executed by Indians only and it is our request to Lashkar-e-Toiba and other organizations, for the sake of Allah, not to claim the responsibility for these attacks.

This message is a declaration of hostility towards all those who fight Allah, His Messenger, and His Religion. While hoping for the Help and Victory from Allah we declare that such and more severe attacks shall continue irrespective of what the blamers blame us for.

[ramana]

Seems very delusional. Can some of our piskology gurus deconstruct the above e-mail!

Meanwhile Pioneer op-ed 5 August 2008

For us, once is not enough

Ashok K Mehta

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is good with words. At the recently concluded SAARC summit he said: "Terrorism remains the single biggest threat to the stability of South Asia." Twice earlier he had categorised Maoism as the single biggest threat to India's internal security. On several occasions in the past he has condemned the terrorist attacks in India with fulsome resolve to meet the challenge. It is clear that after Kabul, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Surat -- you could go on adding places -- the time has come for action not words.

It is embarrassing, even shameful to claim India is the oldest victim of terrorism. People outside marvel at our tolerance and high octane debates on law and order being a state subject. Both the print and electronic media this time have not disconnected from the aftermath of bombings and instead maintained pressure on Government and civil society to act. Disparaging comments like India is a soft and fatalistic state, hopelessly unstrategic, woefully woolly and horribly inept in handling internal security have been freely tossed around.

Surprisingly, the Home Minister and the bureaucracy have escaped unscathed from the bombings. Sample this gruesome terrorist toll. Between January 2004 and March 2007, the Washington-based National Counterterrorism Centre figure is 3,674; between October 2005 and today 12 major attacks have occurred in 34 months; overall since 1989, 36 major and minor attacks have accounted for 5,650 victims outside Jammu & Kashmir. Yet, not a single head in the Home Ministry has rolled.

On one of the TV channels a hapless Indian citizen stated: "Only when some politicians are killed will something happen", and added ruefully, "but they have special guards". Times Now attributed to Home Minister Shivraj Patil this statistical gem: "10,000 terrorists in a country of one billion is no big deal." One newspaper demanded: "Mr Patil, Go Home". All the events of the last 10 days were encapsulated in a column with the headline: "National Insecurity".

The primary task of any elected Government is to protect its citizens at home and abroad. The failure to provide internal security -- human security, if you like -- and be seen to be doing nothing about it is the ultimate electoral sin. The fear, panic and insecurity the bombings have generated among "unintended victims" can no longer be wished away. It is a mystery why absolutely zero effort has been shown in tackling this menace by means other than words.

Social scientists, internal security experts and legal luminaries have been suggesting measures to combat what has become a home grown terrorist menace. But as is any Indian Government's wont, it will act only when the threat has turned into a crisis. Travel advisories by many countries have eroded the credibility of the state. The Government must act to meet the challenge of terrorism with the same resolve it displayed in promoting the 123 India US Nuclear Agreement. Mrs Margaret Thatcher used to say, "If there is a will, there is a way."

Here is a checklist of what Government, civil society and ordinary people need to do. First, take politics out of national security; instead create a national consensus on internal security to protect citizens of the country. Heed the latest Supreme Court judgement which rules that terrorism is not a law and order issue as it transcends State and national borders. Ideally, an act of terrorism must be pre-empted and prevented through actionable intelligence collated top down and vice-versa. As this may not always be feasible in the messy geostrategic space that India occupies, the potential terrorists must know that they will not get away after the crime. Inherent in this deterrence is effective policing, investigation and conviction.

The current debate seems to be fixated on a federal investigating agency and whether the Constitution has to be amended for empowering the CBI or a mere amendment to its charter will do. Though currently understaffed, its charter is mainly political intelligence. For a country ridden with Maoism, separatism and terrorism, only a national counter-terrorism grid, locked within a central internal security mechanism preferably under the PMO, will serve a nation aspiring to grow at nine to 10 per cent annually. In 2001, the Kargil Review Committee had recommended the establishment of a central mechanism for dealing with threats to internal security under a unified command. Citizens have to be sensitised to the various threats as they will be the first to encounter the different faces of terrorism.

Any mechanism is only as good as the parts that make it. Policing constitutes the basics of any counter-terrorism or internal security apparatus. The police-population ratio in India is 126 for 100,000 whereas the global average varies from 250 to 500 per 100,000. The paucity of funding relevant equipment and trained manpower is a big problem. Money gets used in establishment costs leaving little for intelligence and surveillance. For a population of one billion, IB has only 30,000 field personnel with few focussed on counter-terrorism.

Besides sharpening policing, intelligence, investigation, the legal framework has to be tightened too. We have moved a long way from TADA to POTA to PTA to UAA, MCOCA in some States, that few alphabets are left to coin an effective counter-terrorism acronym. A special bench of the Supreme Court must come up with appropriate laws to deal with threats to internal security which are insulated from political mischief. Laws must be buttressed by fast track courts to dispense justice speedily.

How ill-equipped India is in dealing with the growing challenge of terrorism can be gauged by the absence of any comprehensive database on terrorist networks operating in India, the lack of a unified command and a networked communication set-up between the Centre and the States. India really shines when a Bangladeshi national with a Pakistani passport can contest elections in Assam.

The pointsperson on internal and external security -- NSA -- is a former policeman and a former IB Director. He seems focussed almost entirely on fixing parliamentary arithmetic and big ticket issues like the 123, not hands on on national security, especially internal security which is his forte. One hopes he will kickstart a counter-terrorism mechanism culminating in a National Internal Security Agency to stop the quarterly strikes by terrorists in the heart of India.

The US was attacked once on 9/11; it has since invested political resolve and enormous resources to create a Department of Homeland Security to avoid a repeat. And it has. The UK, the world's oldest democracy, has introduced draconian laws enmeshed in an internal security network to stamp out terrorist attacks. After the Madrid bombings, Spain spruced up counter-terrorism measures. For them, once is enough.

I once called Mr Narayanan as the National Insecurity Adviser long before all this mess.

[ramana]

Op-ed.. pioneer, 5 August, 2008

A year later, bombers at large


Omer Farooq

Police are still clueless about the Hyderabad bombings

May 18, 2007. 1.30 pm: A powerful bomb explodes in the jam-packed courtyard of Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid. Five worshippers are blown to pieces, creating panic and terror. Another nine are killed outside the mosque when police open fire to control the mob.

August 25, 2007 6.45 pm : A powerful bomb explodes in the crowded Laserium of Lumbini Park in the high-security zone opposite the State secretariat. Within minutes another bomb goes off at a popular eatery Gokul Chat in congested Kothi area of Hyderabad. 40 people lie dead in the twin blasts, which turn out to be well planned and synchronised attack.

The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy described it as a "terrorist act" involving foreign elements. The Union Home Minister also said terrorist groups from outside the country were responsible for the twin blasts as they were for the blast in Mecca Masjid.

The police were more specific and pointed towards the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyeba and Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul Jihad-e-Islami, and a local youth Abdul Shahed alias Bilal, who is absconding for four years, emerged as the key suspect.

Within a month of the twin blasts, in which explosives like ammonium nitrate and timers were used, the police picked up about 100 youth from different parts of the city suspecting their hand in the blast. Finally thirty of them were booked, and other were released. But none of the arrested was directly charged in the blast. Instead, they were booked in a criminal conspiracy case under section 121, 121 (b) and various other sections charging them with conspiring to wage war against the State and other Asiatic powers.

Now as the city has already observed the first anniversary of the blast in Mecca Masjid and is about to mourn the victims of the twin blasts on their first anniversary next month, the investigators have not yet been able to make any headway in the probe.

The identity of the organisations and elements behind the blasts still remains in the realm of speculations and conjecture in the absence of any concrete evidence. The police could not get any major clue from those arrested on the suspicion of helping the terrorists. Only one person Nayeem alias Sameer from Mumbai emerged as a significant player who reportedly admitted before the police that he had brought a consignment of RDX to Hyderabad from Bangladesh. But where did this consignment go still remains a mystery. RDX was not used in any of the blasts in Hyderabad.

On the other hand, many of those arrested are now out of jail either on bail or have been acquitted. A group of five persons, including Abdul Kaleem and Imran, was acquitted and released by the additional sessions court of Secunderabad on July 22, saying that the prosecution could not produce any evidence of their involvement in the criminal conspiracy and providing SIM cards and other helps to the perpetrators of the blast.

The Hyderabad police commissioner B Prasad Rao said that the police had established the involvement of HUJI in the blast and arrested a few conduits, but the main culprits remain at large.

Soon after the blast in Mecca Masjid, the case was handed over to the CBI. "The Mecca Masjid blast case and the case of an unexploded bomb found in the mosque was handed over to the CBI but it has neither arrested anybody nor has it filed any chargesheet," Mr Rao said. Even in twin blasts case, the police could not achieve any breakthrough. "The case is still under investigation and we are trying to cull out clues from the suspects."

However, one significant development was the death of the prime suspect, Abdul Shahed alias Bilal, in Pakistan. The Hyderabad police have now confirmed that Shahed, with his brother Samad, was killed by unknown armed persons at a busy junction of Chowrangi in Karachi on August 30, within five days of the twin blasts in Hyderabad.

The reports in Pakistani media were initially dismissed by the Indian intelligence and security agencies as an attempt by Pakistan's ISI to mislead the Indian Government, but now police say his death was confirmed. "The family is aware that Shahed was killed", said Mr Rao.

Police officials associated with the probe defend the lack of any breakthrough on the grounds that the brains behind these terror attacks were operating from Pakistan or Bangladesh.

They say that the narcoanalysis test of some of the suspects like Abdul Kaleem and Imran threw up crucial clues as they admitted to having helped the terrorists with logistics, no clinching evidence could be found. Similarly Abdul Majid, younger brother of Abdul Shahed, is also believed to have provided some important clues to the police about the person who planted the bomb at Gokul Chat. Now Majid is out on the bail while the police has failed to make any progress in the case.

What is significant is that the investigators have found similarities in the improvised explosive devices used both in Hyderabad, Jaipur and Ajmer. Now they say even the explosives used in Bangalore and Ahmedabad were also similar to those used in the earlier attacks. The question doing the rounds in the intelligence and security agencies is whether the latest serial blasts have any links with last year's bombings in Hyderabad.

[Rupesh]

Ban on SIMI to continue: Supreme Court
6 Aug 2008, 1520 hrs IST,AGENCIES


NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the controversial order of a special tribunal lifting ban on activities of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). ( Watch )

A petition challenging the tribunal's verdict was mentioned before the bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, which agreed with the Centre seeking a grant of interim stay.

The Court issued a notice to the SIMI and posted the matter for hearing after three weeks.

The tribunal headed by Delhi High Court judge, Justice Geeta Mittal, had on Tuesday quashed the February 7 notification issued by the government extending the ban on SIMI under the Unlawful Activities (prevention) Act.

The Tribunal had held that the Centre has failed to come up with any new evidence to justify the ban on the organisation.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Ban_ ... 333217.cms

Finally some good news thanks to Supreme Court

[Rahul M]

sanity prevails, for the moment.

[sum]

Orissa losing to Reds?

Orissa faces defeat at the hands of increasingly powerful Maoist groups.

Its leaders don’t seem to care.

Under the benign gaze of a bright silver statue of Bhimrao Ambedkar, improbable numbers of passengers were being packed in a battered jeep for the ride home in forest hamlets. Neither a month of horrific violence nor the annual week-long general strike called by Maoist guerrillas to commemorate the martyrdom of their comrades deterred thousands of Chitrakonda’s Adivasi residents from showing up at the weekly market. Chitrakonda in Orissa seemed strangely cheerful f or a place which, this summer, witnessed some of the most horrific violence ever recorded in India’s Maoist insurgency. Across the road, from the market, the police station didn’t even have a guard.

In mid-July, a 100-kg landmine ripped through a specially designed mine-proof truck, killing 17 policemen near Motu, on the southern fringes of the violence-scarred district of Malkangiri. Earlier, 38 Andhra Pradesh police personnel died when a boat ferrying them across the Balimela Dam’s reservoir, just a few minutes drive from Chitrakonda, was ambushed. The panicked personnel ran to one side of the boat to escape, causing it to tip over, and all those on board were drowned. .

India’s National Informatics Centre, with a virtual grasp of reality, counts Motu and Balimela — where the ravaged hull of the sunken boat has now been salvaged and dragged ashore — as tourism draws. Not surprisingly, though, visitors aren’t queuing up to sample the region’s delights.

“Kandahar,” policemen call the forests around a bombed-out culvert on the road to village MV79 — home to Hindu refugees from East Pakistan, who were rehabilitated in this place without a name. On their way back from an operation near MV49, where they hoped to gather evidence linking a local politician to the CPI-Maoist, the tired police personnel — some of whom had served in the violence-scarred region for over two years on end — failed to execute a mine search before crossing the bridge. Now, besieged police personnel at Motu village, at the end of the road that runs south through the district to the confluence of the Sileru and Sabari rivers, have renamed the landmarks: “Peshawar,” “Khyber Pass,” “Kabul.”

Just why have things come to this? Put simply, the Orissa police are outmanned and outgunned. In addition to a strength of hundreds — perhaps thousands — of military-trained supporters active in villages, the CPI-Maoist is believed to have at least two companies of forces active in the area. Six months ago, the CPI-Maoist harvested over 1,100 rifles and machine guns in a raid on police stations and armouries in and around the town of Nayagarh. Ill-armed and poorly trained police guards did not even bother to put up a fight.

In what the former Punjab Director-General of Police K.P.S. Gill calls a “war of small commanders,” ground-level leadership is key. But while the Malkangiri police ought to have 49 sub-inspectors to command their constables, just 17 are in place. Where they should have three Deputy Superintendents, they have just one. Superintendent of Police Satish Gajabhiye is also the sole officer of his rank in place — a stark contrast with Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab which have waged successful counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency campaigns.

On ground, the Malkangiri police’s offensive counter-insurgency capabilities are pathetic. They have five SOG sections, each with 20 personnel, backed by six companies of ill-trained local police — a total of 700 men to operate in 5,791 square km of some of the most dense, mountainous tropical forests in India. Backing them are four companies of the Central Reserve Police Force — well under 500 men. Dantewada, across the border in Chhattisgarh, is twice as large as Malkangiri but has eight times as many CRPF personnel.

Back in 2001, well before the CPI-Maoist established itself in Orissa, the State sanctioned plans to create three new police stations in Malkangiri. But just one of them has become functional, that too on an ad hoc basis, without a proper building or housing for its staff. At least two police stations, Paparmetla and Jodambo, are unconnected by road, and have no reliable means of communication — not even electricity. In addition, the district’s criminal justice system has collapsed. Inadequate investigation and the complete absence of modern forensic resources, combined with the fact that judges and prosecutors are afraid of reprisals, have made securing convictions of CPI-Maoist leaders next to impossible.

Early this year, a Malkangiri court released Salven Mukta, a Chhattisgarh resident thought to be responsible for at least 49 killings in the course of the CPI-Maoist’s brutal war with Salwa Judum vigilantes. His rapid acquittal startled observers, who note that his trial in Chhattisgarh is still under way. Last year, the police in Malkangiri arrested Andhra-Orissa Border Special Zonal Committee member Srinivas Sriramaloo, along with a senior commander from Chhattisgarh, Madvi Sukal. Sriramaloo is now in a Medak jail — but Sukal, who was fortunate enough to face trial in Malkangiri, was released. He has, the police in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa say, gone on to lead several attacks against the informers the CPI-Maoists believe were responsible for the arrests.

Cases like these are depressingly common. Sariam Dora, code-named Santosh, was released from prison in July 2007, and is now a member of the CPI-Maoist’s Malkangiri district leadership. Katam Mala, acquitted in 2008, and Sapan Bala, released a year earlier, are already back on the district police’s wanted list.

All of this is symptomatic of a wider malaise. Last year, official data obtained by The Hindu shows, Orissa had just 10,839 armed police personnel instead of the 14,891 who should have been in place. It had 252 officers ranking from Deputy Superintendent to Senior Superintendent instead of the 304 needed, and only 4,542 inspectors instead of the 5,933 sanctioned. In 2005, the State was 12,000 personnel short of the sanctioned strength — a sanctioned strength based, it bears mention, on the three decades-old population data and no suggestion that an insurgency was brewing.

Last year, Orissa hired 6,000 cadets to fill the gap. It turned out, though, that its police training centre could process just 300 students at a time. Training was slashed from 12 months to six months— at which rate it would have taken a decade to complete the process — and meanwhile, untrained personnel were assigned to police stations. Earlier this year, the recruitments themselves were quashed, after credible allegations of corruption surfaced.

Bibhu Prasad Routray, a leading expert on Orissa’s Maoist insurgency, notes that while the State needs around 1,000 police stations, it has just 482. Most of these have neither proper infrastructure nor manpower. Even armed police contingents, which ought to constitute the cutting edge of the Orissa police’s counter-insurgency operations, are grossly underequipped. “For example,” Mr. Routray wrote earlier this year, “the 4th Battalion of the Orissa Armed Police located at Rourkela, close to the Orissa-Jharkhand border, stationed on a 143-acre plot of land, does not even have a boundary wall. The suggestion to erect a wall to protect the facility was made way back in November 2006. The battalion authorities are still awaiting approval of the Police Headquarters, after four subsequent reminders.”
Crack counter-insurgency force

Orissa is now focussing its energies on creating a crack counter-insurgency force, the Special Operations Group, modelled on Andhra Pradesh’s successful anti-naxalite police, the Greyhounds. It is unclear, though, whether what some critics call the ‘Rambo Model of Police Reform’ will work.

In Andhra Pradesh, the Greyhounds successes came in the context of thoroughgoing institutional reform of the police. Police stations were fortified to protect them from attack; incentives were introduced for the police to serve in troubled areas; and a massive programme of grass roots hiring was initiated. Critically, police intelligence was upgraded. Today’s Andhra Pradesh’s Special Intelligence Bureau has more direct-recruit Indian Police Service officers of the rank of SP than the Operations Directorate of the Intelligence Bureau, which handles all nationwide counter-terrorism intelligence. CPI-Maoist leaders have publicly acknowledged that the SIB’s intelligence capabilities were central to breaking the back of its campaign in Andhra Pradesh.

Just across the border in Chhattisgarh, there is evidence of how dangerous seeking shortcuts — instead of implementing proper police reforms — can be. Faced with a situation similar to that in Malkangiri, the State threw its weight behind the Salwa Judum militia. Not surprisingly, better-off Adivasi groups of Chhattisgarh dominated the vigilante organisation. Salwa Judum used to settle vendettas and feuds with the poorest tribes like the Koyas, who today make up the backbone of the CPI-Maoist in Malkangiri.

It will take more than policing, of course, to address the Maoist insurgency. As long as Malkangiri Adivasis continue to be excluded from economic development and are subjected to social discrimination, the conditions for violent protests will continue to exist.

Malkangiri, as the work of the eminent historian Biswamoy Pati teaches us, has a long history of rebellion. Back in 1879, the Koya rebels led by Tomma Dora rose in revolt against the authorities to protest slave labour and forcible extraction of supplies for the government. The rebels captured the Motu police station, and even annihilated a military detachment sent from Hyderabad to put down the uprising. In 1920-24, Adivasi unrest lent momentum to an uprising led by Alluri Sitarama Raju. And in 1942, Laxman Naiko led a massive movement for justice that is still in popular memory.

Orissa needs to provide justice if the Maoists in Malkangiri are to be defeated. But the fact is that Orissa has been evicted from Malkangiri, leaving the State government with no instrument with which it might deliver development and progress. Orissa’s political leadership seems to have neither the will nor the vision to win this war.

Another depressing news:

SIMI, which was banned in 2001, has been under the scanner of security and intelligence agencies since then for terror attacks in various parts of the country including the recent blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad. “SIMI is against Indian nationalism and works to replace it with the International Islamic Order,” the petition said.

SP, Cong differ

Strangely, even as the government moved the SC, two key UPA allies — RJD and Samajwadi Party — welcomed the tribunal’s order while the Congress had to do the job of defending the Home Ministry.

RJD supremo Lalu Prasad and SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said there should be no ban on SIMI, an outfit which the government has blamed for several terror attacks in the country. The Congress said that the lifting of the ban on SIMI was not a setback for the party-led UPA government’s fight against terror.

News like these makes me sad and worried about the future of our country....

Potential ministers who might be the heads of police or intel welcoming SIMI is open arms is a very depressing thought!!!!

[Avinash R]

Militant killed in encounter
Link
Fri, Aug 8 02:25 PM

Srinagar - An unidentified militant was killed in an encounter with security forces in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir today, official sources said.

The encounter took place at Bawan-Watsar village of Handwara when a joint party of Police and Rashtriya Rifles launched a search operation in the village following information about presence of militants, the sources said.

The sources said hiding militants opened fire and in the ensuing gunbattle, a militant was shot dead.

The identity and group affiliation of the deceased could not be ascertained immediately as the operation in the village was still continuing when last reports were received, the sources said.

[svinayak]

Something serious here

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ie=UT ... 1233618633

Fake currency: CBI, ED step in
Times of India, India - 16 hours ago
LUCKNOW: A startling revelation on Thursday that the fake Indian currency notes (FICN) seized from the Dumariaganj chest of the State Bank of India (SBI) ...

Fake notes in bank: CBI steps in
Times of India, India - 18 hours ago
LUCKNOW: A startling revelation on Thursday that the fake rupee notes seized from Dumariaganj chest of State Bank of India had the numbers of genuine notes ...

Fake currency found in private bank branch in Agra
Hindu, India - 19 hours ago
LUCKNOW: As the total amount of fake notes in the currency chest of the SBI’s Domariaganj branch touched the Rs. 1.25-crore mark on Thursday, ...

SIT to probe fake currency note racket in SBI branch
Expressindia.com, India - 20 hours ago
Lucknow, August 07 The state government handed over the probe into the recovery of a large number of fake Indian currency notes from a State Bank of India’s ...

After SBI, fake notes found in ICICI Agra branch
Economic Times, India - Aug 7, 2008
7 Aug, 2008, 1939 hrs IST, PTI LUCKNOW: After recovery of fake currency notes from a State Bank of India branch in Siddharth Nagar in Uttar Pradesh, ...

Rs 1 cr worth fake currency seized so far
Times of India, India - Aug 6, 2008
LUCKNOW: Though the total count of fake Indian currency notes from the State Bank of India's Dumariaganj branch chest crossed the Rs 1 crore mark, ...

More fake currency tumbles out of bank
Hindu, India - Aug 6, 2008
LUCKNOW: With more fake currency with a face value of Rs.46.24 lakh found in the currency chest of the State Bank of India’s Domariaganj branch in ...

Rs 46.24L in fake currency found in SBI chest
Times of India, India - Aug 5, 2008
LUCKNOW: In what may end up as the country’s biggest counterfeit Indian currency notes’ seizure, a team from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) assorted fake ...

Uttar Pradesh a nerve centre of fake money racket
Hindu, India - Aug 5, 2008
LUCKNOW: Fake currency with a face value of Rs.20 lakh (20 wads of notes of thousand-rupee denomination) has been recovered from the currency chest of the ...

[ramana]

Yes. Trend watching shows that there is something odd about fake currecny rackets in UP. Could be local or imported.

Meanwhile Pioneer reports on 9 August 2008

Meet on security skips issues like setting up of federal probe agency

Rakesh K Singh | New Delhi

The first high-level exercise, after the back- to-back terror strikes in Bangalore and Ahmedabad, skipped the issues of setting up of a federal investigative agency and demands to put in place tough anti-terror laws. The twin issues did not even find mention in the agenda of the meeting of Chief Secretaries and Directors General of Police held here on Friday.

Sources said that the issue of federal investigative agency came up for brief discussion and the delegates from the States were advised by the Centre to convince their political bosses that such an agency was in the national interest and would not encroach upon the rights of the State as it would probe only a certain type of cases. However, officials who attended the meet said that the discussion lacked seriousness of purpose as the Centre even failed to present a concrete proposal on the issue.

Director of Intelligence Bureau PC Haldar made a presentation about the overall security scenario in the country but did not mention the need for tough anti-terror laws as has been articulated by the agency in the recent past, sources said.

The deliberation, however, resulted in vesting the Intelligence Bureau with a nodal agency status for coordinating and sharing the flow of the information between different central agencies and the States about terror modules operating in different parts of the country.

Formalising a mechanism for coordination and intelligence sharing was stressed upon through vertical flow of information from Central agencies to State police and horisontal sharing of intelligence between different wings of State police and other State agencies were also discussed.

The discussions at the meeting, chaired by the Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta, largely centered on the classified three-page agenda paper circulated to the Chief Secretaries and DGPs of the States, besides Director of CBI.

The discussions were divided into five sessions including Strengthening Police Response Mechanism, Prevention of and Response to Terrorist Activities/Incidents, Intelligence Coordination and Sharing, Harnessing Technology for Countering Terrorism and Community Involvement.

The need for strengthening police forces by filling up of vacancies and enhancing manpower, creating uniform and inter-operable structures, issues related to capacity building and enhancing access to difficult areas including zones of urban congestion as well as new and illegal settlements were discussed.

Systematic scheme for response to terrorist attacks covered issues like identification of sensitive points/areas, bandobast, integration of other services with the police and media management.

Identification of vulnerable areas like crowded places, religious sites and congregations, iconic buildings and personalities, infrastructure and mass transportation systems were also emphasised during the deliberations.

The officials also stressed upon the need for implementation of Explosive Rules and Regulations by putting in place mechanisms for control on manufacture, monitoring of transportation and storage and checking retail and distribution network.

Development and implementation of regulations in respect of telecommunication networks and cybercafes and retail network of mobile telephony also came up for discussion as part of the ways for harnessing technology for countering terrorism. Harnessing image intelligence through CCTVs, back-up material, analysis and response was also disccused.

Besides, monitoring of traffic on highways and important traffic junctions, standardisation of technologies for interoperable use and enlisting involvement of community as an information channel to counter terror was also discussed.

"We have discussed the overall security scenario of the country. Various kinds of challenges that we are facing and how the response mechanism can be strengthened in any kind of situation that challenges the internal security," Gupta told reporters after the meet.

Except for the new agecny everythig was discussed. And the agenda was classified but the subjects that were disussed looks like it was not.

[Bharati]

Seems very delusional. Can some of our piskology gurus deconstruct the above e-mail!

Surely delusional. Of all newspapers, they had to target TOI!

[Bharati]

in hubli the recent arrest of muslim medical students of kims proves the existence of jehadi mentality in the local population.

Hubli has a sizable muslim population concentrated in certain localities. This 'gettoisation' means they interact with they community only and have developed a hatred to other communities. They do not allow hoisting the tri-colour in their localities. If educated youth are involved in such activities, the theory of oppressed minority goes down the drain. Hubli made headlines for its communal riots. The hatred factor had always been there. Now they are getting support from outside to carry out terrorist activities. This support channel has to be curbed before things can get very bad. Intelligence agencies should concentrate in places where there have been communal riots. It is these areas that Jihadis target when they go their recruitment drive and all the logistic support comes from here. A stitch in time saves nine.

[Avinash R]

in hubli the recent arrest of muslim medical students of kims proves the existence of jehadi mentality in the local population.

Hubli has a sizable muslim population concentrated in certain localities. This 'gettoisation' means they interact with they community only and have developed a hatred to other communities. They do not allow hoisting the tri-colour in their localities. If educated youth are involved in such activities, the theory of oppressed minority goes down the drain. Hubli made headlines for its communal riots. The hatred factor had always been there. Now they are getting support from outside to carry out terrorist activities. This support channel has to be curbed before things can get very bad.

just returned from a visit to 2 places in kar'taka which were once the jihadi infested areas. one of these was hubli.
the picking up of economic activities since mid 90's seems to somewhat slowed the pace of jehadisation but not by much. hubli as an jehadi centre seems to have cooled down a bit compared to the other place in kar'taka which is still very much a saudi arabia on indian soil.

[Avinash R]

Intelligence agencies should concentrate in places where there have been communal riots. It is these areas that Jihadis target when they go their recruitment drive and all the logistic support comes from here. A stitch in time saves nine.

there is a limit to what intl agencies can do. the main body of work to fight jehadism has to taken up by common people like you and me. we should make others, who are ignorant of jehad, understand what jehad means and why it gives rise to terrorists but this should be done in such way that it not turn into an anti-muslim rant session. only by empowering common people with the knowledge of jehad that jehad as an tool for terrorists can be destroyed.

[archan]

SIMI has terror links with Pakistan: Indian Muslim body

[SSridhar]

CPI defends Naxalites

In a contrasting note, his CPI counterpart A B Bardhan said the mainstream Left should fight against the Government's attempt to "club our naxalite brothers" who work for the welfare of the poor with extremists.

"We must also recognise that the established Left's goals and those of naxalites were the same but the latter adopt a different method to achieve it. We must lend them support and condemn government's attempt to club them together with extremists," he said.

Is there a possibility of arresting AB Bardhan under any provision of law ?

[Singha]

in a saner country this guy would never dare and if he did, would be locked up
in a cell for 10 years on stale bread and water.

[SSridhar]

Tribunal questions GoI's seriousness on banning SIMI

Shivraj Patil has been a singular disaster as bad as Mufti Mohammed Saeed earlier. Strong words from the Judge.

"I would fail in my duty if I need not comment on the manner in which deposition has been made by witness appearing for the government (senior Home Ministry officials)," Justice Geeta Mittal, a Delhi High Court Judge who headed the Tribunal, said in the 263-page order.

"It is equally sorry state of affairs when a senior officer of the Central government appears before the tribunal to submit that he is not aware with regard to matters which are put to him," Justice Mittal said.

It took strong objection to government's notification of February seven extending ban on SIMI without making any effort to put new grounds as it was copied version of the 2006 notification, in which deficiencies were pointed out by the earlier tribunal.

"It is shocking to know that for a minor re-arrangement of some words for a few words at the end of the notification, the notification of 2008 is almost a verbatim reproduction of the notification which was issued in 2006," the tribunal said.

"With deep pain I would say that this is the most callous disregard of the statutory duty," Justice Mittal said while pointing out the infirmities showed by the earlier tribunal were not only repeated, the notification was also reproduced verbatim.

[Gerard]

We must also recognise that the established Left's goals and those of naxalites were the same but the latter adopt a different method to achieve it. We must lend them support and condemn government's attempt to club them together with extremists

At least he is honest about it. He seeks the destruction of the Indian state.
The onus is on those in power to respond.

[ramana]

Op-ed In Pioneer, 11 Aug., 2008

Bullet-for-bullet is the only way

Joginder Singh

Terrorists have struck again -- this time in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, and Surat -- sending a reminder that they can strike at will at any place at any time. They have used integrated circuits, timers and chips for the first time in their attacks, revealing that those behind the mayhem are highly educated and technology-savvy.

Another new factor is the use of gas cylinders placed with the bombs that killed 26 persons at the emergency ward of the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad. A similar technique was used last year at Glasgow airport when Indian engineer Kafeel Ahmed, indoctrinated by Al Qaeda, and his accomplice rammed a jeep laden with explosives and gas cylinders into the terminal's wall. The use of integrated circuit chips and gas cylinders has confirmed the suspicion of intelligence agencies that the attacks, though planned and executed by local outfits, have been inspired by an organised, technically-oriented mastermind

The Union Government claims that State Governments were advised to take preventive measures about the likelihood of such terrorist attacks. Unfortunately, all such advisories are only general sermons which anybody without even being in the intelligence set-up can envisage. No specific or actionable intelligence has been provided.

The first salvo was fired by a non-Congress Cabinet Minister after the Union Cabinet Meeting that followed the blast. The Minister was so perturbed that he did not even care for conventional niceties. Another Minister told mediapersons, "I think there is more information in newspapers than what the Home Minister told us (in the Cabinet meeting)."

The political response of the country determines its response to militancy. The only person to come out against terrorism and advocate a bullet-for-bullet policy, apart from Mr LK Advani, is Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. He has said, "How can you initiate talks with terrorists who after attaining training from across the border come to kill you? Either you have to kill them otherwise you will be killed... We may have talks with the neighbouring country, but as far as terrorism goes, there can be no tolerance towards terrorists and they should be dealt with a stern hand."

Unfortunately, whenever a terror incident happens, you can anticipate the standard response and even the language of the leaders. They use the same tone and tenor like "It is a cowardly act" and that "innocents have been targeted" and "very strict action will be taken against the perpetrators". But the ground reality is that such statements and announcements of compensation by the Government to salve its own conscience and to pay for its failure have become a routine affair till the next terrorist attack.

But the sufferer of all such terror attacks is the common man as the leaders are safe with their huge paraphernalia of security. Steps to improve the situation need to be taken -- at legal, diplomatic and people's level.

At all the sensitive places close-circuit television cameras should be installed. New York has more than 50,000 such cameras. Incidentally, perpetrators of the London bombings in 2005 were nabbed with the help of CCTV recordings. These cameras, apart from keeping a record of suspicious activities of likely terrorists, can also help in detecting incidents of traffic violation, eve-teasing and other crimes like pick-pocketing, chain-snatching and rash driving.

The Union Government should set up world class forensic science laboratories in every State capital, of which there is a woeful dearth, apart from pulling up intelligence agencies for their failures. Tech-savvy terrorists need to be met on their own turf.

The Government is giving an impression of being soft on terrorists. All over the world, including in the oldest democracies, laws have been turned upside down to deal with terrorists. But in India, we still have laws framed by the British on the ground that the old laws are sufficient. It is time to bring in new laws on terrorism, thus putting the onus on suspected terrorists to prove their innocence. Every arrested terrorist must be subjected to narco-analysis test to find out his other colleagues and associates involved in the crime. Political parties naturally play politics in every thing they do. It is for this reason that a MCOCA-type law, which is in force in Maharashtra, has not been allowed in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.

It is imperative that national security should be kept outside the ambit of politics and terrorism should be treated as a national threat and not an excuse for vote-bank politics. We have been hearing for a long time about the need to have a Federal Investigating Agency to investigate crimes like terrorism. The Centre-State conflict over the proposed agency seems specious: If the US can have the FBI despite a full-fledged federal system in which States have far greater autonomy than they do in India, why cannot we have a similar agency?

In fact, the top priority of the FBI is to "protect the US from any terrorist attack". There is simply no such agency in India mandated to take on terrorists at the national level. The CBI, which is primarily meant to deal with corruption, comes in if and when a State refers a case of terrorism to it.

The Union Government can issue an Ordinance creating a federal agency which will function in the States with their consent. In today's situation, there is hardly any State which will not give its consent. The Centre should strike while the iron is hot.

It must be clearly understood that in a country of our size and population it is almost impossible to reach consensus on any issue. But it is the job of the leaders to lead the country and show the will in the national interest.

Has the use of gas cylinders in Ahmedabad been discussed earlier? The disturbing thing is that is a minin FAE bomb that can casue a lot of damage. Such Improvised Explosive (IE) techniques are taught in special forces of advanced countries. So there is some R&D work going on in covert action wings of intelligence agencies. This is not the work of mis-guided youths or miscreants.

[SSridhar]

Dawood's brother, Anees Ibrahim, detained at Jeddah Airport

We have to see if Riyadh will hand him over to us, or Pakistan or quietly let him go.

[Avinash R]

Indian intelligence agencies have uncovered at least 800 terrorist cells: NSA
Link

Tuesday, 12 August 2008 16:08 IST

Kuala Lumpur, Aug 12: Indian intelligence agencies have uncovered at least 800 terrorist cells in the country operating with "external support," and are now looking for the brains behind them within India, National Security adviser M K Narayanan has said.

"We are concerned that there is a great deal of external inspiration and support, we are also concerned and are looking at a mastermind within the country," Narayanan said in an interview here, when asked about investigations into the blasts that rocked Bangalore and Ahmedabad on consecutive days.

Narayanan said intelligence agents had "disrupted" several modules, some of which are "not entirely foreign." "Clearly, there is some kind of organisation. We have to find out if that organisation is localised or there is an external group or module operating," he said without elaborating.

He also expressed concern over the bombing of hospitals by terror outfits in Ahmedabad - the first instance of a hospital being targeted by terrorists in India.

"Copycat systems are coming up," he said.

"Like putting bombs in vehicles near hospitals soon after blasts, knowing that large congregations will be there and impact will be much greater," Narayanan said.

[Avinash R]

now every state wants to copy MCOCA act which has a high conviction rate of 78 per cent. better alternative would be if patil copies the MCOCA act word to word and enacts an law called ICOCA at the centre.

Karnataka Govt plans to issue ordinance on KCOCA

Bangalore: The State Government has finally decided to strengthen the hands of police to effectively deal with terrorism.

The Government is contemplating to issue an ordinance on the Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act in next 10 days by making necessary changes in the provisions. “We are planning to promulgate an ordinance on the KCOCA.

It will get very late to to amend the existing Act as it has to be done in the next legislature session,” Home Minister V S Acharya told reporters on Monday.

Though KCOCA got the President’s assent in 2002, rules are not properly framed under it. Besides, certain changes need to be made in the existing Act to make it effective. “We are studying the similar Act existing in Maharastra (MCOCA). If necessary, certain MCOCA rules will be adopted in KCOCA, Acharya explained.

Besides, Acharya said, a separate intelligence department will be set up in the State. Officials posted to this department will be non-transferable and they will be given special training in intelligence. “If necessary, we will send officers abroad to get specialised training,” he added.

On the progress made into the serial blast case, the Home Minister said the police have got certain vital clues and they are working on them. As many as 500 people are questioned in connection to the blasts. But he refused to divulge more information in this regard.

[sum]

Guess any word(or variants) other than those invented by the big,bad BJP like POTA,POTO or TADA will be fine for a very draconian law....This will be readily accepted by all our "secular" parties.

So much for our seriousness in the fight against terror...

[ramana]

Dr. P.C. Alexander in Deccan Chronicle, 13 August 2008

States unable to fight terror, onus on Centre
By Dr P.C. Alexander

The reason given by the Delhi high court tribunal while quashing the ban on the Student Islamic Movement of India (Simi), on August 5, 2008, has come as a rude shock to all those who believed that the government would be vigilant in its fight against terrorism. The ban on Simi, imposed in 2001, was being extended every two years based on information furnished by the government before the court. But this year, the court was not satisfied by the material given by the government. The court found it inadequate to justify continuation of the ban. No doubt the Supreme Court’s interim stay has given another opportunity to the government to come up with proper justification for extension of the ban. But the entire episode has cast a doubt on the alertness and even seriousness with which crucial issues like internal security are being handled by the government. The primary duty of all governments in all circumstances is to maintain peace and order in the territories under their charge. In fact, every other duty can be discharged by governments successfully only if they are successful in their duty to protect people from anarchy and violence.

There are now three major sources of challenge to the authority of the State:

* The Naxalite or Maoist terrorism
* Insurgency in certain areas of the northeast mainly instigated by racial antagonisms
* Jihadi terrorism inspired by religious fanaticism.

Let us examine how far the governments, both at the Centre and the states, have been able to meet these challenges.

The Naxalite or Maoist movement in India was, till a few years ago, limited to three-four states like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand, though it had a limited presence in some neighbouring states also. The Naxalites were then operating under different leadership in different states, without much coordination in the planning and execution of their attacks. However, with the merger of People’s War Group (PWG) and the Marxist Communist Centre of India (MCCI) in September 2004, nearly 90 per cent of Maoist activities have come under a united leadership. The ideological garb these terrorists wear — that their fight is for the rights of the exploited and weaker sections of society — has given the movement a philosophical justification for their war against the State. In the last few years, the movement has gained followers in several more states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. And today, 157 districts in the country are affected by varying degrees of Naxalite terror. Some of their operations have exposed the utter weakness of the governments in the states concerned to cope with this challenge. In November 2005, an armed Maoist group of about 1,000 attacked the jail at Jehanabad in Bihar and took away several weapons and 390 terrorists lodged there. The recent incidents in Chhattisgarh and Orissa, where several police personnel were massacred by Maoists, illustrated the audacity with which they can strike anytime and anywhere they want to.

In several areas of the north-eastern region, insurgency is inspired by racial antagonisms, but it is also thriving on the easy money being acquired through extortion, kidnapping for ransom and protection fees. It is no secret that some senior government employees, including police and revenue officers in these areas, have been "buying peace" by meeting demands for money without resistance. The rule of the gun rather than the rule of law prevails in these troubled areas. Insurrection in these economically-backward areas has brought development to a standstill. Cynics say that the only industry that is thriving there is the extortion industry as it needs no capital investment and involves no risks!

The third group of terrorists, namely jihadi terrorists, seem to have gained so much striking power in recent years that they are now emboldened enough to explode serial bombs in crowded places of their choice, killing several innocent people and spreading insecurity among citizens. Starting with the serial blasts in Mumbai in 2003, the jihadis have now extended their programme of death and destruction to several cities such as Jaipur, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.

After every terrorist strike, government agencies come out with familiar statements — "security has been beefed up" and a "massive manhunt has been launched to nab the culprits". People who have been hearing these phrases for over a decade now know that the culprits are very rarely nabbed and that the government’s record of bringing them to book has been dismal.

The irresistible conclusions to be drawn from the state governments’ inability to deal effectively with terrorism are that the task is too much for them, that they are not equipped to cope with the terror threat, and that it is time Centre takes on the direct responsibility to meet this danger. Whenever such suggestions have been made in the Parliament in the past, the stock reply of the home ministry has been that "law and order" and "police" (except the Centre’s armed police) are, according to the 7th Schedule of the Constitution, included in the "state list" and therefore the Central government cannot take direct action and responsibility. The Central government has taken the stand that its role is limited to providing advice and financial and other support to the state governments, and that it is ready and willing to give more such assistance to the states. Several constitutional experts have disputed the veracity of this claim in the Parliament itself and have expressed the view that the Centre can, without any amendment to the Constitution, take on such responsibilities. If, however, an amendment is necessary then that can be done with the cooperation of the states, without diluting their authority and responsibility.

The need for suitable legislative measures to deal more effectively with terrorists has been pressed by several state governments. In fact, bills submitted by about half-a-dozen state governments for the Centre’s approval have been pending for long periods, ranging from two to five years. Several advanced democracies like the US and the UK have already brought into force new laws in order to enable the government to deal with anti-national forces expeditiously. No one has questioned the commitment of these countries to democracy because of the new laws they have introduced to fight terrorism. But the Indian government appears to be overly apprehensive about misuse of such powers by government agencies. If fear of misuse becomes a reason for not having a law then that argument can apply to several existing laws also. What is at stake now is the security and integrity of the nation and hesitation to do what is necessary today can prove to be very costly tomorrow.

The slide of States to the level of "soft States" may take a long time, but the fall from "soft States" to "failed States" is always very quick. We should not ignore that five of the 20 countries that have been listed as "failed States" — Pakistan, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Nepal — are our close neighbours and the danger India faces today is what our neighbours had failed to handle adequately and in time.

Dr P.C. Alexander was the Governor of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra

He was also Cabinet Secy and Principal Secy to Mrs Gandhi. So he knows what he is talking about. the interesting thing is the double whammy of jihadis and the unified Naxals started in 2003.