Vicky Nanjappa reveals how the low intensity serial blasts in Bodh Gaya that injured two monks were orchestrated
Top Indian Mujahideen operative Tehsin Akhtar alias Monu, one of the alleged masterminds of a string of terror attacks in India, was on Wednesday remanded to police custody till April 2 by a Delhi court.
Acting on reports of the Intelligence Bureau about his movement, Delhi police had been hot on Tehsin's trail for a few weeks, says Vicky Nanjappa
'If you put colour-coded internal security maps of India in May 2014 and now, the picture won't be flattering to Modi.' 'Failures on internal security are now piling up and can break Modi's momentum,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal sought the help of Nepal-based Maoists for procuring arms and ammunition but it did not fructify as they quoted very high rates, the National Investigation Agency has said in its charge sheet filed in a Delhi court.
The Delhi police has filed its charge sheet in a local court against Indian Mujahideen (co-founder Yasin Bhatkal and his associate Asadullah Akhtar for allegedly setting up an illegal arms factory in New Delhi from where huge quantity of arms and ammunition were recovered.
Pronouncing the verdict, the special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court judge Yatin Shinde sentenced to death Faisal Sheikh, Asif Khan, Kamal Ansari, Ehtesham Sidduqui and Naveed Khan who planted the bombs in various trains.
The winter session that begins on Thursday is likely to be a stormy with the Opposition stacking up a lot of ammunition to attack the government and it could be visible from day one.
National Investigation Agency on Friday told a special court that suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorists Tehsin Akhtar and Zia-Ur-Rahman are "still conspiring" to carry out terror strikes at various prominent places in India, especially the national capital, with the aid of Pakistan-based handlers.
Two suspected operatives of Al Qaeda have been arrested in New Delhi and Odisha and Delhi Police on Wednesday claimed to have busted a module of the terror group's Indian sub-continent wing operating out of the country.
The Congress party on Saturday moved the Election Commission over Narendra Modi's controversial khooni panja (bloodied hand) barb at the party during a poll rally in Chhattisgarh, seeking "stern action" against Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate.
Meeting the families of six persons killed in serial bomb blasts during his Sunday rally, BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Saturday assured them all help from the party.
Intelligence agencies probing Sunday's serial blasts in Patna believe that with the arrest of Yasin Bhatkal in August, Tehsin Akthar from Bihar is the new leader of the terrorist organisation, reports Vicky Nanjappa.
Wednesday's arrest of four terror suspects including that of SIMI mastermind Haider Ali signals the end of the road for organised terror modules in India, claims the Intelligence Bureau. But what's worrying is thatthe Al Qaeda and Taliban are taking keen interest in the terror operations in India. Vicky Nanjappa reports
Yasin Bhatkal was 22 when he had his first tryst with terror. The same is the case of his boss Riyaz Bhatkal too. What motivates these operatives? Is it money or ideology?
The road to becoming India's most dreaded terrorist has been a long one for Yasin Bhatkal.
Arrested Lashkar-e-Tayiba bomb-maker Syed Abdul Karim Tunda has told his interrogators that banned Sikh separatist outfit Babbar Khalsa International has deep ties with Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence, and is waiting for an opportunity to strike in Punjab. Vicky Nanjappa reports
What does Pakistan mean for a young Indian? Devanik Saha attempts an answer.
He said 90 IS sympathisers had been arrested across the country.
Nine out of ten terror cases that are reported have had a hawala transaction, reports Vicky Nanjappa
Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal was on Saturday arrested by the National Investigation Agency Hyderabad in connection with the February 2013 Dilsukhnagar blast case after a Delhi court allowed its plea and granted the probe agency his two-day remand.
'Dalvi, you are saying you asked a question, but don't remember the answer?' asks Pasbola incredulously. 'Yes.' 'You are lying.'
'They have the same pet peeves, the same ruse, the same beliefs, the same justifications.' 'All terrorists thrive on the premise that by perpetuating violence and bloodshed on innocents, they are justifying the injustices done to their community.'
Intelligence agencies draw a list of terror outfits that pose the gravest threat to India. Vicky Nanjappa reports
Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal and his close aide were sent to custody of the Delhi police for 15 days after a court allowed the plea of the probe agency to arrest them in a case lodged in 2011 for allegedly setting up an illegal arms factory.
Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal and his close associate Asadullah Akhtar were on Friday remanded to 12-day police custody by a Delhi court after the National Investigation Agency said their custodial interrogation was required to unearth larger conspiracy of terror attacks.
Unlike Al Qaeda, ISIS recruiters are proactive and internet savvy. They know there is angst among Muslims about their helplessness even in a vibrant democracy like India, leave alone other parts of the world where Muslims live. So ISIS feeds them a regular diet of the golden age of the Ummah, creating for these youngsters a live yet make-believe world which is completely disconnected from the reality around them, says Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
The National Investigation Agency has accused the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad of planting evidence and coercing witnesses, but its own investigation is incomplete and leaves many questions unanswered.
'It is still God's own country. Nobody needs to worry about coming here. Anybody can come to Kerala without worry because bad elements will be kicked out of the state mercilessly... These terrorists visited many places and not only Kerala,' says Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, reacting to the fears that Kerala has become a terror hub.
A Delhi court on Tuesday extended till September 17 the National Investigation Agency custody of Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal and his close associate Asadullah Akhtar after the agency claimed they were involved in a deep rooted conspiracy and had executed various blasts in India.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who as then Home Minister monitored the probe into the Batla House case, said he felt the gunfight between police and the Indian Mujahideen terrorists was genuine and was satisfied that the prosecution could prove the case in court.
Slamming Narendra Modi for his charge of 'criminal negligence of security' at his rally, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday dubbed his Gujarat counterpart as an "expert in cultivation of falsehood" and said terrorists in a way helped the Bharatiya Janata Party in its "otherwise flop" rally.
Strobe Talbott's tweet that hijackers may have wanted to use the missing Malaysian flight to attack Indian cities should be seen in the context of Lashkar-e-Tayiba's long standing plans to attack Indian cities like Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai from the skies. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
Through its early days to the 1980s, Pakistan sought to expand its sphere of Islamic influence through Afghanistan to Central Asia and got Pakistani citizens recruited in the Afghan government institutions in the 1990s when the Taliban were power. Now, it is looking eastward through India to Bangladesh and Myanmar to establish an imaginary caliphate.
What happened to us should not happen to anyone else in future. A strong message has to be sent by our judicial system that such acts will not be dealt with lightly," said one of the victim's father.
While the government's new Central Monitoring System looks extremely impressive on the technological front and could be a vital tool to fight terrorism, there are several questions regarding the privacy aspect that are being raised. Vicky Nanjappa reports
Ravindra Shukla picks out his best option.
'History will never forgive Manmohan Singh for having ended the Indian growth story and created a culture of entitlement instead of creating a culture of hard work and development,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The Congress has kept quiet on the way the Union home ministry has handled innumerable blast cases under its rule. It has not openly condemned the bias that pervades within its government and the security agencies, says Neeta Kolhatkar.
As far as India is concerned, the danger is the potential of the IS to create mischief rather than its actual capability as of now, says Rajiv Kumar