The United States has issued a worldwide travel alert to its citizens including in South Asia where it said terrorist outfits like al-Qaeda, the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) might harm them.
Following the announcement of $10 million bounty on Lashkar-e-Tayiba founder Hafiz Saeed by the United States, religious groups across Pakistan have strongly condemned the decision, and have termed it as an attack over 'Islam' and 'Muslims'.
'We hope that the situation in Afghanistan does not pose a challenge to its neighbours and its territory is not used by terrorist groups'
In an interview to Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, Stephen Tankel, who is currently in India to study home grown terror, talks about Headley, co-accused Tawwahur Rana and LeT founder Hafiz Saeed.
India has been maintaining that Pakistan extends regular support to terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen, whose prime target is India, and has urged FATF to take action against Islamabad.
'India understands the situation of hostages by just remembering what happened to Baby Moshe as he was held hostage during the 26/11 terror attack'
The Lashkar-e-Tayiba, expert Stephen Tankel believes, is capable of operating on a large scale and some of its operatives have suggested that the organisation benefited in terms of recruitment following the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai.
The United States on Thursday slapped sanctions on India-based terrorist group Indian Mujahideen by designating it as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation and said it has significant links with Pakistan-based groups like the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.
Nangre Patil said the Mumbai cops were trained to handle law and order situations, the underworld and other sorts of criminals, but a 26/11-like terror attack was never anticipated.
Stephen Tankel, author of the book Storming the World Stage: The Story of Lashkar-e-Taiba, says that the bounty announcement validates India's repeated assertions that the LeT is a dangerous group and that Saeed plays a strategic role in guiding it.
The Punjab government on Tuesday warned that those found providing donations or aid to the banned organisations will be charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
United States prosecutors on Tuesday defended a plea agreement with David Headley, co-accused in the Mumbai terror attacks, saying that this helped the Federal Bureau to extract invaluable information from him about Laskar-e-Tayiba and other terrorist outfits and their leaders in Pakistan.
Pakistan has asked India to allow its judicial commission to visit Mumbai again for cross examination of witnesses of 26/11 case for gathering evidence against seven accused, including Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
Pakistan is a sovereign state and the Defa-e-Pakistan Council will not allow the country to become an "Indian market", Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Mohammad Saeed said on Saturday.
A statement issued by the Interior Ministry also said the crackdown on Jaish 'has been taken in line with the decision of the NSC meeting'.
Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba is making concerted efforts to carry out attacks in the country and to develop links in Maldives and other neighbours, the government said on Tuesday.
Singh, now a Bharatiya Janata Party member of Parliament from Bihar, said what was the reason for the change of the affidavit when the Intelligence Bureau had said that Ishrat had links with Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists.
In a report tabled before an anti-terrorism court, Pakistani investigators said there is "sufficient incriminating evidence" against the arrested terrorist, including Lashkar-e-Taiba's operations chief Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
A Pakistani anti-terrorism court conducting the trail of seven men charged with involvement in the Mumbai attacks on Tuesday adjourned proceedings till January 28 after the main accused, Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, sought time to appoint a new lawyer.
An imminent concern for India is the fact that disenchanted al-Qaeda cadres may shift their allegiance to the Islamic State and its regional affiliate Islamic State -Khorasan Province.
A top militant commander of frontline Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfit was killed in a fierce gunfight in the Gurura village of northern Kashmir Bandipore district Monday morning.
Terror groups Al Qaeda and the Lashkar-e-Taiba are looking for opportunities to target the ongoing World Cup cricket matches in India and vital oil installations along the coastline, prompting the home ministry to sound a nation-wide alert.
In the last three years, the Union Territory administration has invoked 311 (2)(c) of the Constitution to sack more than 50 employees, who were allegedly operating in shadows within the government and drawing a salary from the public exchequer, however, they were helping Pakistani terror outfits, providing logistics to terrorists, propagating terrorists' ideology, raising terror finances and furthering secessionist agenda, officials said.
It is learnt that the sympathisers of the Taliban who are targeting India are now active.
Six Lashkar-e-Taiba militants of Pakistani origin, who escaped from Triyath forest after a brief encounter three days ago, were killed by security forces after they tracked them down in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday.
Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed and Lashkar-e-Taiba's operations commander Zaki-ur- Rahman Lakhvi were running their terror groups while still in custody in Pakistan following the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, said US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks.
The United States government has asked a court in Chicago to deny Pakistan-born Canadian Tahawwur Rana's plea for a new trial in cases related to the Mumbai and Denmark terror plots, arguing that the court was right in convicting him for aiding Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The duo came under the scanner of the security forces during tracking of a local LeT terrorist, named Lateef Rather alias Osama, who was involved in terror incidents in Srinagar and Budgam in the last two months, the police spokesman said.
Police said Sajjad was active in the Valley for a long time.
The recoveries from their car included 10 hand grenades, two AK magazines and 27 AK rounds, a police official said.
The Kerala police is probing alleged links of radical PFI, blamed for the attack on a college lecturer, with terror outfits Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Al Qaeda, but not found any evidence so far, the state government informed the High Court on Monday.
The home minister will reach Islamabad on Wednesday and return to New Delhi the next day after attending the 7th meeting of SAARC.
Pakistan's powerful spy agency ISI continues to have close links with Lashkar-e-Taiba and has used the terror group's services to foment anti-India passion in Kashmir and elsewhere, a UN report has said.
In his book Lashkar-e-Taiba, From 9/11 to Mumbai, author Stephen Tankel points out that the 60-hour terror siege on Mumbai had catapulted the LeT to international notoriety.
Adequate police deployment has been made in the area around the hotel and entry and exit restricted on the roads leading to the hotel.
Pakistan based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba is spreading fast by taking in former Pakistani soldiers as recruits and may make a bid to replace Al Qaeda, post killing of its leader Osama bin Laden, US experts have warned, but said these plans are unlikely "to succeed".
Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil said on Tuesday that the National Investigation Agency has not approached the state government so far to question the 26/11 terror attack accused Ajmal Kasab on his possible links with alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives David Headley and Tahawwur Rana.
In a stinging indictment of Pakistan, European Parliament has said there is 'confirmed evidence' about the country hosting several terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and criminal mastermind Dawood Ibrahim and using them as an instrument of terrorism against India.Against the backdrop of the Mumbai attacks, the Parliament of the 27-nation grouping asked Pakistan to take urgent action to 'transform its polity to prevent the continuing calls for violent jihad.
Voicing India's disappointment over Pakistan not prosecuting perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks, Home Minister P Chidambaram today made it known to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that it expects tangible action on the terror issue.
For Lashkar-e-Taiba, Ajmal Kasab's conviction is nothing, but good news. At least that is what lawyers in Pakistan -- who defend the likes of Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi feel. "Kasab's conviction at Indian court means I have won the case of Lakhvi and other accused," a lawyer told rediff.com. Shahbaz Rajpoot, lawyer for Lakhvi and other accused said, "The verdict against Kasab has eased down my case, now there is no difficulty to prove my clients' innocence."
