After a March 18 bombing attack which seriously wounded Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, reports reveal that Abu Alaa Afri, a former physics teacher from Mosul, has taken over temporary command of the dreaded group.
'The majority of Indian Muslims abroad -- like their counterparts in India -- have kept a distance from extremist and jihadi activities.'
'ISI-backed jihadi groups like the Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Tayiba are now prepared to cross the International Border and attack targets in Punjab at will,' says Ambassador G Parthasarathy, India's former high commissioner to Pakistan.
Politicians on either side of the secular fence should tell people that Pakistan has now attacked the heartland and peninsular India after targeting the northeast, Punjab and Kashmir, says former IB official Maloy Krishna Dhar.
The operation was still on when reports last came in from the area.
'The very idea that Kamal Haasan would retire from active acting for active politics is as ridiculous as to suggest that Lataji would give up singing to weave handloom dupattas for destitute girls in Muzaffarpur,' declares Subhash K Jha.
'We demonise the Others.' 'We are constantly reminded that they are different and are an existential threat to Us.' 'The toxin of Nellie in 1983, Delhi in 1984 and Gujarat in 2002 is not yet flushed out of our body politic,' says Shreekant Sambrani.
The Al-Qaeda and its patrons seems to have outsourced, for the time being, the achieving of that larger, civilisationally retrograde goal of establishing an Islamic Caliphate in the Middle-East, to the ISIS. The symptoms are all similar; the difference lies only in the expressions, says Dr Anirban Ganguly.
Today, hour-long, high-pitched 'debates' at prime time, replete with inflammatory visuals and captions, using half-truths, insinuations and lies, pour venom against Muslims and seek to divide Hindus and Muslims, notes Jyoti Punwani.
Police also pressed into service Jammers to avoid any untoward incident.
The most strident criticism of UP's anti-conversion ordinance has come from the judiciary with several retired Supreme Court and high court judges having described it as being violative of Article 14 (Right to Equality), 15 (Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion), 21 (Right to Life) and 25 (Freedom of conscience) of the Constitution, points out Rashme Sehgal.
Agencies like the Tauheed Jammat have been set up in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana to radicalise the youth and recruit them to carry out terror activities in other countries. Vicky Nanjappa reports
The IAF 'evidence' shows that the S-2000 laser-guided munition hit the intended targets causing significant 'internal damage', sources said.
Life took a cruel turn for the family of V N Sudarshan when he was killed in the ghastly attack by the jihadis in the ongoing Nairobi mall terror strike.
Brussels-based International Crisis Group cited the rigged local election and said there was little faith that Musharraf will restore democracy and that failure to do so will only provide political space to jihadi outfits.
'For the Hindutva lobby, there is cause for worry.'
'No more than 43 per cent of the people who were asked by Sushma Swaraj to say whom they supported stood by the trolls.' 'As many as 57 per cent do not approve of the minister's traducers,' says Amulya Ganguli.
'The person who carried out the London attack... was a fighter from the Islamic State, and did so in response to calls to target citizens of coalition countries,' the ISIS statement read.
'The residual historical hostility against India was certainly a factor,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
In a bid to lure wannabe jihadists, the Islamic State has come out with a bizarre 'holiday brochure' online offering travellers swimming, sunshine and beekeeping in war-torn Iraq.
Army Chief Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag on Thursday slammed Pakistan for giving "candid support" to terror groups like Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiyba as he called on the international community to join hands in combating the menace.
Tunisia is on a manhunt for the third attacker in the Bardo Museum in Tunis last week that left more than 20 people dead.
'As India and Pakistan observe the 50th anniversary of the 1965 war, the one lesson that ought to have been learned by Pakistan is how vulnerable its heartland is to a sudden attack. The only alternative to this inherent geographic weakness is to have a policy of peace with India. In an extreme scenario, India can destroy Pakistani strategic targets by just artillery shelling, crossing of the border is not even necessary,' Colonel Anil A Athale (retd)
Carl Paladino, a 70-year-old entrepreneur who ran for New York governor in 2010, writing on the website Artvoice, an alternative newspaper in Buffalo, described the three things that he would like to see happen in 2017.
In a crackdown ahead of Republic Day, the National Investigation Agency has arrested 13 suspected Islamic State sympathisers for plotting attacks in different parts of the country.
'In this regard, the future stability of Pakistan remains a wild card,' said the report.
