A huge cache of explosives, which was seized by the Patna police during raids conducted over the weekend, was sent by Bangladesh-based terrorist outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami to the Maoists operating in Jharkhand, say Intelligence Bureau officials."The huge consignment of explosives, firearms, live cartridges and chemicals were brought here from Bangladesh, through the bordering districts of Kishanganj and Purnia, to supply to Maoists," said IB sources.
The United States of America and the United Nations declaring the Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami as a terrorist organisation recently has come as a welcome relief for India, especially where this dreaded outfit has been spreading its tentacles like cancer. Vicky Nanjappa takes a look at the inception of HuJI and also the major attacks that it has been involved in prior to this ban.
A local court in Ahmedabad on Thursday acquitted six persons accused of hatching terror conspiracy to avenge the 2002 communal riots.
The Delhi police claimed before a court in New Delhi that the Indian Mujahideen (IM) had allegedly carried out the Delhi serial blasts in 2008 at the instance of its founder now Pakistan-based Amir Raza Khan, was an off-shoot of terror outfits like Students Islamic Movement of India, Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Harkat-ul-Jihade-Islami.
Viqar, who as per the dossiers of the Hyderabad police, is a member of the Harkat-ul-Jihadi. His name has been cropping up several times, but the last time that the police stepped up the manhunt was after an incident in which one constable was shot dead recently.
An Army captain and two jawans were killed and a militant was gunned down in an encounter between terrorists and security forces in Sopore, the 'apple town' of North Kashmir, which recently witnessed increased incidents of violence.
Asserting that Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami operational chief and Al Qeada commander Ilyas Kashmiri cannot dictate India, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday said India is not deterred by his threats.
According to US intelligence sources, Kaashmiri was killed in a missile attack carried out by unmanned aircraft in South Waziristan on September 7.
S R Darapuri, a retired Indian Police Service officer has been fighting for several innocents picked up and tortured by the police in several cases of terrorism,explains how the police force is beset with bias and what needs to be done to tackle it.
Khwaja is a self styled commander of the HuJI and had concentrated largely on operations in south India. The police say that he is likely to have information on the manner in which the HuJI had masterminded the Hyderabad twin blasts.
Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on Monday said there was strong possibility of Islamic extremists establishing "sleeper cells" in the state with the help of active members of National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isaac-Muviah).
Suspecting the hand of Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami commander Ilyas Kashmiri in coordinating the suicide strike on the top secret Central Intelligence Agency base in eastern Afghanistan, United States authorities have asked Pakistan to hunt down and extradite the dreaded terrorist.
'There is no parallel in UN history of an individual terrorist being bailed out by a world power,' points out Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
The Hyderabad police are studying the pattern pertaining to the shootout that took place on Friday in which one police constable was killed. The pattern is very similar to what happened last year, and there could be more attacks of a similar nature in future, fear both the Hyderabad police and the Intelligence Bureau.
Bangladesh's two former ministers, who aided banned extremist group the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami in its botched attempt to kill Premier Sheikh Hasina in 2004, also helped the outfit procure arms for use against India, a Dhaka court was told.
A Pakistani-origin taxi driver, with suspected links to Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami chief Ilyas Kashmiri, has been indicted on charges of "knowingly" attempting to aid the Al Qaeda.
A Chicago taxi driver of Pakistani origin, who claims to have known HuJI chief Ilyas Kashmiri for 15 years and arrested on charges of providing material support and funds to Al-Qaida, was on Tuesday produced before a US court.
An advisory issued by the American Embassy warned its citizens of an increased threat in places frequented by Westerners in the country.
A convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case, Jalees Ansari, who went "missing" while on parole, was arrested on Friday from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, an official said. Ansari (68), a Mumbai resident who was serving a life term in a Rajasthan jail, was nabbed in a joint operation by Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorism Sqaud and the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF), he said.
Three Harkat-ul-Jehadi militants were killed in a gunbattle with troops in Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir early on Thursday.
As the interrogation of self-styled Harkat-ul-Jihadi commander, Abdul Khwaja progresses, the Hyderabad police have stumbled on vital clues regarding his sinister plans for South India. Khwaja, it is learnt, has told the police that his main target was Chennai and the purpose behind his visit to India was also to recruit more youth for terror operations.
Security agencies told rediff.com that this year Al Qaeda will team up with the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi to set up India operations. Intelligence Bureau officials point out that this would be the end of the SIMI and the Indian Mujahideen and all their cadre would be accommodated into there three outfits for their Indian operations.
The arrest of Shakatullah Ghauri, an Imam who was arrested from the Hyderabad Airport could help police join the dots relating to several cases of terror in the country, especially the attack on the Akshardham temple at Gujarat. Ghauri, the brother of hardcore militant Farhatullah Ghauri is said to have played a major role in financing outfits such as the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and the Harkat-ul-Jihadi.
In the wake of reports of terrorist groups holding a rally in Pak-occupied-Kashmir, India slammed Pakistan on Thursday for allowing a congregation of banned terror outfits saying it amounted to giving a "license" to them to operate.
Pakistan's latest claim -- about the Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jihadi planning the terror attacks in Mumbai -- may have a boomerang effect. Sabahuddin Ahmed has revealed that the HuJI carries out its operations with the patronage of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayiba. In his confessional statement, Sabahuddin clearly states that Lashkar operatives use the porous Bangladesh border whenever they are fleeing.
Raja Lahrasib Khan, a naturalised citizen of the US who worked as a taxi driver in Chicago is alleged to have discussed a plot to attack a stadium in the US and is to be produced in a Chicago court on Friday, officials said. The investigation in the case was not related to the case of Lashkar-e-Tayiba operatives David Coleman Headly.
A Pakistan-based conglomerate of militant groups active in Kashmir, headed by Syed Salahuddin, has temporarily dissolved itself with its leaders going underground in the wake of the crackdown on Jamaat-ud-Dawa and other banned terrorist outfits, a media report said on Saturday.The United Jehad Council -- which comprises Hizbul Mujahideen of Salahuddin, Harkat-ul-Ansar, Jamiat-ul- Mujahideen, Al-Jihad, Al-Barq, Ikhwan-ul-Mussalmin and Tehrik-ul-Mujahideen -- has closed offices
A suspected Harkat-ul- Mujahideen militant, who allegedly aided Pakistani militants to smuggle RDX into the national capital seven years ago, was arrested in New Delhi on Tuesday.Habibur Rehman, trained in Pakistan in handling improvised explosive devices and other explosive devices, was caught from Sarai Kalekhan locality on Monday evening. Rehman, hailing from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, was on the run since September 2001.
Fears of a possible attempt by Al Qaeda-linked terrorists in Pakistan to hijack an Indian passenger jet and crash it into a British city may have prompted the UK to raise its terror alert to its second-highest level, a media report claimed on Sunday.
According to Pakistani newspaper Daily Times, outfits like Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Hizbul Mujahideen and Al-Badr have established new offices in the port city and have carried out wall-writing, hoisted flags and displayed posters to inform the public about their activities, including gatherings in mosques in Karachi. The banned terrorist outfits were active under new names and they recently held large rallies in Karachi, the paper said.
Gateway of India, Andheri, Oberoi Hotel and Navi Mumbai were places where these militants had already carried out dry runs -- a chilling reminder of 2006 Mumbai serial blasts.
According to the IB, SIMI has recruited nearly 25,000 members across the country, of which 6,000 were recruited through the new agency which has come in handy since the crackdown by security agencies and their constant monitoring had made things difficult for the SIMI cadres.
Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor said on Tuesday there is no "trace" of Taliban in the country amid reports some of these elements have infiltrated but women are being "trained" on the other side of the Line of Control to cross over for terror acts.
Various theories are being attached to the constant targetting of India's north eastern states. Intelligence Bureau officials confirm that the mantle of infiltrating into the north eastern states is in the hands of the Bangladesh-based Director General of Forces Intelligence.
The prosecution on Friday told a Delhi court that a Pakistan-based Harkat-ul-jehadi Islami terrorist, who along with five others are accused of plotting to kidnap Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, had confessed that he came to abduct the cricketers and then bargain the release of two members of the outfit.
Bangladesh based Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, a militant outfit responsible for a series of terror attacks in the country and India was trying to mobilise foreign funds by setting up a charity to carry out subversive activities under its garb.
Several theories but no evidence yet. This is the status of the investigations into the twin blasts at Hyderabad exactly a year back. When the twin blasts rocked Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat in Hyderabad, it was largely believed that the investigations would be taken over by the Central Bureau of Investigations, which was already looking into the Mecca Masjid blasts. However that did not happen.
Investigating agencies have also found several books and notes belonging to Nasir in which he has scribbled 'jihad is in my blood' and 'jihad mix my blood'.
The arrested reportedly confessed to their links with terror groups and their plans to trigger explosions in about 20 places in Karnataka.
The chief of Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami was on Tuesday sentenced to death along with two of his associates for a 2004 grenade attack on the then British envoy to Dhaka that killed three people. A trial court tribunal set up in Sylhet, 190 km northeast of Dhaka, sentenced HuJI leader Mufti Abdul Hannan and two other members of the terrorist outfit Shahid Shahidul Alam and Delwar Hossain Ripon to death by hanging.
