A leading international human rights group has alleged that the Orissa government is recruiting children under 18 years of age as Special Police Officers to fight Naxalite insurgents, and asked the state to take measures to stop the practice. In a letter to Orissa Chief Minister Navin Patnaik, the Human Rights Watch asked the state government to develop and put into practice measures to ensure that children are not recruited as SPOs.
US President Barack Obama has decided to send 300 additional American Special Operations troops to assist in Iraq's fight against the advancing Sunni, Al Qaeda-inspired extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, which has captured several cities and has its sights set on Baghdad.
Two terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces in Sopore area of north Kashmir, taking the toll to eight in the last four days of counter-insurgency operations.
Several insurgents, including 28 members of the banned United Liberation Front of Assam, laid down their arms at the Dinjan Army base in Tinsukia district of eastern Assam on Tuesday.The Army informed that besides the 28 ULFA cadres, seven members from Naga rebel groups and three members from a tribal outfit called Karbi Longri North Cavhar Hills Liberation Front also gave up their arms.The rebels deposited a huge cache of arms and ammunition.
In his last column for Rediff.com, Praful Bidwai joins issues with those lauding India's covert operation against Naga rebels based in Myanmarese territory.
'In the short to medium term, the Myanmar raid will impose caution on Pakistan in planning another 26/11-like adventure. As a result of this caution, even if the proxy war ebbs, it will reduce the danger of escalation to a nuclear stand-off,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'As Mumbai showed, and the Nairobi Westgate Mall attack reinforced, "guerrilla-style terrorism" has increasingly become the method-of-choice for terrorist groups,' says terrorism expert David Kilcullen.
They were all charged with criminal association in connection with a terrorist enterprise, a sweeping charge widely used in terror cases in France that carries a maximum 10-year sentence.
A senior cabinet minister in the Punjab government and his delegation came under attack in New York as hundreds of Sikhs protesting his visit allegedly threw stones and hurled a shoe at the leaders, following which the police took two youths into custody.
The 14-year-old star kid is joined by debutants Josh Hutcherson, Isabel Lucas and Edwin Hodge.
Resettlement of refugees elsewhere is not the morally correct solution to the problem for it lets the perpetrators off the hook.
Two personnel of the Border Roads Organisation were killed and another injured as National Democratic Front of Bodoland insurgents fired at them in upper Assam's Dhemaji district, on Monday night.
In yet another brazen attack on a Pakistani airport, heavily-armed militants on Sunday stormed an aerodrome and destroyed its radar system, killing two engineers in the restive Balochistan province.
Talk of a blackout by other news channels in solidarity remained inconclusive because of the heavy news agenda on that day.
Sixteen militants were killed in two United States drone strikes within last 24 hours in Pakistan's restive tribal region, ending a five-month hiatus.
The question really is whether the US can be persuaded to embark on a path of calibrated and stronger sanctions on Pakistan.
The government is nevertheless worried about continuing violence and the insurgents' strategy of triggering bomb blasts in commercial centres and crowded places. Shriprakash Jaiswal, minister of state for home, admitted that though the situation in the north-east, Jammu & Kashmir and even in some areas affected by Naxalite terror was under control, the level of violence continued to remain the same as before.
The attack is believed to be targeting the Shiite Hazara ethnic minority community.
Continuing the momentum of its offensive, Sri Lankan troops on Friday captured another 4 km stretch and closed on to the Tamil Tigers stronghold of Kilinochchi as it also beat back a group of insurgents who tried to infiltrate one of its defence lines
A senior officer of the elite counter-insurgency Rashtriya Rifles was killed and a member of the special operations group critically wounded in two continuing north Kashmir encounters on Friday.
Rediff.com lists a few other dramatic and frightful hostage situations that sent governments and security agencies into a tizzy.
The holed-up militants have so far ignored appeals to surrender.
Pakistan's former Ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani said that in WSJ article.
The terrorists have been identified as Raqib Ahmad Sheikh, a resident of Shiganpora in Kulgam, and Pakistani nationals Waleed and Numan, a police spokesman said.
Altogether 58 militants, including 52 from the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and six from two Naga rebels groups, gave up arms before the Army in two separate surrender ceremonies on Tuesday.
Three masked men on motorcycles threw the firebombs into the club in the Agouza district early Friday morning and fled.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh likely to visit Jammu and Kashmir tomorrow.
Pakistani negotiators on Monday cancelled a scheduled meeting with the Taliban after the insurgents claimed they had killed 23 soldiers kidnapped by them in 2010, dealing a severe blow to the fledgling peace process.
A crack team of about 70 commandos from 21 Para of the Indian Army carried out the surgical strike inside Myanmar territory in the thick of the night that killed 38 insurgents belonging to NSCN(K) and KYKL militant groups on Tuesday.
One of the slain militants were identified as Wasim, a Pakistani national and self-styled district commander of JeM.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Wednesday asked the banned United Liberation Front of Assom to come forward to find a solution to the insurgency problem plaguing the state. Gogoi said the banned outfit had lost the opportunity to initiate a political dialogue last year when the government had declared a unilateral ceasefire during August-September. "Still, we are keeping our doors open for talks with the ULFA provided it wants a political solution," he said.
The report said India continues to experience attacks by 'Pakistan-based terrorists'.
On the Islamic State-style video sent by the ULFA-I to TV news channels, the DGP said it was the first time that such a video has been received.
Their release comes a day after the Taliban announced that it would free all 19 hostages after South Korea's pledged to withdraw its military from Afghanistan and ban missionary groups from the country
The Government of India has failed Kashmiri Pandits as they are still living as refugees in their own country. The state as well as the central government has not taken substantial measures till date for the return of Kashmiri Pandits back to the valley, says Varad Sharma
A commanding officer of the counter insurgency Rashtriya Rifles, a cop and two militants were killed and a soldier was seriously wounded in a fierce encounter in south Kashmir's Tral area on Tuesday afternoon.
'Washington is well aware that the Haqqani group was responsible for terrorist attacks on the Indian diplomatic establishments in Afghanistan.' 'But today US self-interest dictates that Sirajuddin Haqqani's mainstreaming in Afghan political life and a potential elevation eventually to a leadership role at the national level is useful and necessary, since he can deliver peace,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'If UAV technology is used by the adversary to target VIPs or strategic targets it would be a different ball game altogether,' says Group Captain Murli Menon (retd).
The Emergency greatly influenced the RSS' makeover from a fringe force in the Indian political imagination to one that could have its own man sworn in as prime minister in two decades' time. A riveting excerpt from Christophe Jaffrelot and Pratinav Anil's India's First Dictatorship: The Emergency, 1975-1977.
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