Mounting tensions in Kashmir has come as a shot in the arm for the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, which has been looking desperately for a reason to keep the Valley on the boil.
Giving a clean chit to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the Centre said "unruly mobs" were behind the violence in the Kashmir Valley and asserted that the government would not cow down to the separatists' tactics.
Terming Thursday's attack on a passenger train in Jharkhand as a 'cowardly act', Union Home Secretary G K Pillai said on Friday that Maoists were terrorists and he had no sympathy for them.
As an immediate fall-out of the Federal Bureau of Investigation foiling a Lashkar-e-Tayiba plot to use United States nationals to carry out major terror attacks in India, the Indian Embassy in Washington has tightened visa approval norms for Pakistan-born American citizens, whose applications would now have to be cleared by New Delhi. An instruction in this regard has recently been issued by Union Home Secretary G K Pillai.
Union Home Secretary G K Pillai has said the home ministry insists that state police should play a key role with assistance from central security forces to tackle the Maoists menace.
Union Home Secretary G K Pillai on Tuesday said the West Bengal government had committed a mistake by negotiating the release of an abducted police official in exchange of releasing tribal women, who were reportedly supporters of Maoists. "I think they (the state government) did make mistake. They should have acted a little tough," Pillai said when asked by a TV channel whether the West Bengal government made a 'fatal mistake' while carrying out the swap.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday wanted to know whether there was any substance in the reported statement of Home Secretary G K Pillai who said that what has come into the public domain from the Niira Radia tapes in connection with 2G spectrum was merely the 'tip of the iceberg'. "We don't know whether it is true or not or whether he has given an interview at all," a bench comprising Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly said.
India on Monday said Pakistan's move to take ahead the prosecution of masterminds of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks is nothing but a 'facade' as it is doing nothing to pursue the people who were instructing the group of terrorists from the 'control room' on that day.
Notwithstanding the negative response of Maoists to its peace offers, the government is optimistic that the Left extremists would agree to talks once they "feel the heat" of the ongoing security operations.
The government on Friday said the probe into bulletproof jackets scam, in which a home ministry officer has been arrested, is on and it was trying to find out whether any other official was involved in it.
"If there are other offences, which are not covered under the plea agreement, then of course extradition is still possible," Home Secretary G K Pillai said when asked about chances of India being able to get Headley's extradition.
A security official attached to an international team was on Sunday detained at the entrance of a five star hotel in New Delhi after a firearm was recovered from him during a security check.
Addressing a meeting of the India-US Strategic Partnership in New Delhi, Pillai said: "This is more like a semi-final. The high court judgment comes out on Friday afternoon. It is well timed after 3.30 pm so that the Friday prayers are over. Saturday and Sunday are holidays and it is only on Monday that one can go to the Supreme Court and get a stay. By the time you really decide what you want to do, you are back to status quo."
Was there a foreign hand in the Pune blasts? That is the key question facing investigators now. Though intelligence inputs clearly point at Indian Mujahideen's role, investigators are not ruling out a foreign hand completely. Union Home Minister, G K Pillai had told rediff.com on Monday that the picture would become clear in another day or two.
The Centre will not conduct a 'separate inquiry' into the death of Maoist leader Azad in an encounter with security forces in Andhra Pradesh, Union Home Secretary G K Pillai has said.
The board of approval, headed by commerce secretary G K Pillai, will also consider requests from realty major DLF for de-notification of its IT-ITeS SEZs in Gujarat, Haryana, West Bengal and Orissa. Larsen and Toubro has proposed to set up an IT SEZ in Mumbai, while Gulf Oil Corporation has moved application for a similar tax-free zone in Bangalore.
Prasad, additional secretary in the home ministry, will inquire into the circumstances in which the files related to the case of Ishrat Jahan, who was killed in an alleged fake encounter in Gujarat in 2004, went missing.
On the recommendation of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, former director general of police S P S Rathore on Monday lost his police medals.
The fourth round of tripartite talks on Gokhaland issue on Monday failed to come to an agreement in the absence of a consensus and the organisation spearheading the movement for a separate state has sought political dialogue at the next round of talks within 45 days.
The Centre on Friday clarified that it intends to go ahead with the creation of a separate Telangana state in spite of wide-spread opposition, with Home Secretary G K Pillai stating that Hyderabad will be the capital of Telangana and the process to create a new state will commence soon.Telagana Rashtriya Samiti chief K Chandrashekhar Rao has chosen to stay silent on the issue and watch the political developments unfold.
It is "too premature" to talk about the extradition of US national David Coleman Headley to India for his alleged role in Mumbai terror attacks, a top Obama Administration official has said.
The Army deployed in Kashmir valley in the wake of recent violence will go back to barracks in the "next few days", the Centre said late Friday night.
The government on Monday said there was no immediate need to deploy army in Maoist-hit regions and it could take nearly seven years to get rid of the menace.
India indicated the possibility of gaining access to terror suspects David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Rana, both arrested by FBI, once they are "indicted" by the US.
The next course of action against the Naxalites, who blew up a rail track in West Bengal that resulted in a collision between a passenger train and a good train, would be taken shortly following a high-level meeting, Union Home Secretary G K Pillai said.
The Indian government said on Thursday that the use of Indian Air Force helicopters in any offensive against Naxals is not part of a strategy in its new plan to deal with rising Maoist violence.
The government on Tuesday said that Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist arrested during the terror siege on Mumbai who was sentenced to death by a special anti-terror court last week, may be hanged by the end of this year, provided there is no legal bar."If there is no petition from him (Kasab) challenging the sessions court verdict in the higher court, he can be hanged by the year-end," Union Home Secretary G K Pillai told a TV channel.
The Centre's decision to constitute a one-member panel headed by former Union Home Secretary G K Pillai to consider the demand for a separate Bodoland state has triggered fresh unrest in the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council areas of Assam.
"Whatever we have given in the affidavit is a fact available with the Home Ministry...we are not backtracking from the affidavit," Home Secretary G K Pillai told media-persons in New Delhi. However, he went on to add that "terrorists cannot be killed in cold blood", indicating that due process of law had to be followed.
Falling sugar production in the European countries would provide an excellent opportunity for Indian sugar exports to the European Union market, says a top government official.
Home Secretary G K Pillai said if Headley gets severe punishment and comes out of the judicial process, it would be easier for India to get access to the Pakistan-born American national in jail. "If he is given a light sentence, it would not only be disappointing but we will be registering a very strong protest with the US," Pillai told NDTV hours ahead of the hearing against Headley in Chicago.
Union Home Secretary G K Pillai has given a missive to Kerala DGP and the Kochi city police commissioner on the possibility of a Lashkar terror attack in the city in the near future.
A day after Union Home Secretary G K Pillai said Maoists had plans to overthrow the Indian state by 2050, top Naxal leader Koteswar Rao alias Kishenji on Saturday claimed it would be achieved much before that date.
Preliminary information suggests that this "seems to be some sort of a blast," Chavan said. Forensic experts have reached the spot, he said. The Pune police commissioner has said that till the entire place is searched, it won't be all right to comment, he added
With the US economy in recession, the Obama administration is coming under a domestic pressure to protect its economy by restricting outsourcing of manufacturing and services. Newly appointed US trade representative Ron Kirk said in Geneva on Wednesday that countries like India and China which are seeking leadership position in WTO should agree to give improved market access.
India's exports in March fell below $12 billion, showing negative growth for the sixth month in a row, as demand for merchandise slumped in the world's major economies, which are battling recession.
David Headley and Tawahur Rana who had surveyed several targets in Mumbai which were attacked by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba were in Pakistan at the time of the Mumbai attack, Home secretary G K Pillai said.
Making it clear that no clean chit has been given to anyone so far in the Headley-Rana terror case, the government on Sunday said the probe to complete the duo's trail in India will take four to six weeks.
The FBI has provided access to agents from India's domestic and external intelligence agencies to the information it has gathered on David Headley and his associate Tahawwur Husain Rana, who is also in the FBI's custody.
David Coleman Headley, arrested by the FBI for plotting a major terror attack in India at the behest of the LeT, had visited the country, including Mumbai, several times, Home Secretary G K Pillai said today.
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