India has much paranoia in India about a new 'Terroristan' coming up between Pakistan and a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Pakistan has zero ability economically, diplomatically, geostrategically or militarily to create one. If they try, it will be great for India as they will destroy themselves yet again, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Shekhar Gupta, who heads The Indian Express Group, says his entry into journalism happened by chance. It showed him an alternative that was more attractive than botany.
Al Rubaie also said on Saturday that the people who are afraid of the democracy in Iraq were funding extremism.
The Manipur government has initiated to sign a memorandum of understanding with Apunba Lup, a banner organisation of 20 groups that led protests against the alleged fake encounters on July 23, last year, to end the agitation in the state.
'If Myanmar falls to China, let it.' 'Sooner or later the rulers of the country will have to call New Delhi.'
The United Liberation Front of Asom is trying to re-group, after it suffered a setback recently when a faction of the banned extremist outfit broke away to participate in peace talks with the Centre.Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has stated that though the law and order situation in the state is currently under control, the government has information about the anti-talks faction of the banned ULFA, led by commander-in-chief Paresh Barua, trying to regroup.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has refuted the whining of Pakistan's Ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani who had contended in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal that the main reason Pakistan's counter-insurgency efforts this far against the Taliban and other extremist groups was because it had not been provided with proper equipment --attack helicopters and night visions goggles -- by the United States as promised.
However, the US praises India for its significant counter-terrorism actions.
'If religious scholars and preachers declare suicide attacks as un-Islamic and decree that suicide bombers will be denied an Islamic burial and funeral rites, it may dissuade some would-be terrorists who dream of an afterlife in heaven,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Two policemen were killed and as many injured when a police team was ambushed by anti-talk militants of National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songjibit) faction at a remote place between Paneriguri and Makrijhara in Dhubri district on Thursday, the police said.
'The win in Assam is likely to have a ripple effect in other north-eastern states like Manipur and Nagaland which have been reluctant to embrace the BJP in the past,' says Nitin A Gokhale, the distinguished commentator on strategic affairs, who lived and reported from Assam between 1983 and 2006.
"Two militants of Jaish-e-Mohammed hiding inside the house began indiscriminate automatic gunfire at the security forces. The cordon around the house was further tightened, resulting in a sustained firefight at the end of which both militants were killed," a senior police officer said in Srinagar. Arms and ammunition,including two AK-47 rifles and two magazines were recovered from the encounter site.
The United Liberation Front of Asom doves, the pro-talks faction of the ULFA, has demanded full autonomy for Assam within the framework of the Constitution, after detaching itself from the banned militant group's demand for the 'restoration of Assam's sovereignty'.Mrinal Hazarika, president of the ULFA doves, submitted a 18-point charter of demand to Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, to resolve the insurgency problem in the state.
'The Bodos and the Assamese were at each other's throats, the Assamese Muslims and the Bengali Muslims were at each other's throats, the Bengali speaking Muslims and Hindus were coming together against the Assamese speaking caste Hindus and the plains tribes and vice versa.'
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.
The Congress on Thursday came down hard on Union ministers for making "boastful and jingoistic" statements on the Army operation in Myanmar and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give them "mentoring and counselling".
A bandh called by All Bodoland Minority Students' Union and eight other non-Bodo organisations in protests against killing of at least eight innocent non-Bodo persons by Bodo militant group National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Sangbijit) since Friday has night paralysed life in the violence-affected Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council areas in Assam on Monday.
A bandh called by the All Bodoland Minority Students' Union and eight other non-Bodo organisations since Friday night has paralysed life in the violence-affected Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council areas in Assam on Monday.
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.
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 year after the Narendra Modi government took charge India still finds itself among nations that face a high risk of terror and political violence.
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.
Farooq Ahmed Dar said he was yet to be called by the police or the army -- which has instituted a court of inquiry into the incident of April 9 -- for his side of the story.
The 14-year-old star kid is joined by debutants Josh Hutcherson, Isabel Lucas and Edwin Hodge.
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.
'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).
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.
'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.
4 civilians were also killed and dozens of others injured in clashes that broke out between protestors and security forces following three separate encounters.
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.
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.
Ahead of Sushma Swaraj's visit, Myanmarese soldiers take over Indian territory.
Director of US National Intelligence said that Islamabad's failure to curb terrorists and the rise in number of cross-firing incidents was the cause for increasing tensions.
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.
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 holed-up militants have so far ignored appeals to surrender.
Rediff.com lists a few other dramatic and frightful hostage situations that sent governments and security agencies into a tizzy.
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.
