26/11 Saga Continues: Sid Harth
bademiyansubhanallah
9 Comments
Posted: Tuesday , Jul 21, 2009 at 1743 hrs
Single Her and single HimBJP and HindutvaDo we follow the law ?Give
this a thought The 26/11 terror attack trial may not conclude soon
despite the confession by prime accused Mohammed Ajmal Kasab in the
court as he has only "partially" admitted to his guilt, special public
prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Also, there are many other important aspects of evidence which
prosecution has to adduce to expose terrorist infrastructure of
perpetrators of the crime, he said, adding they will not let Kasab
succeed in his "motive" of escaping with lesser punishment.
"What Kasab has told the court is not the entire story. He has
partially admitted his guilt," Nikam said.
Although Kasab has given a confession, it is the discretion of the
prosecution to marshall further evidence, he said.
"Kasab has not fully disclosed his involvement. He has played with the
sentiments of the common man by minimising his role in the crime and
throwing responsibility on slain terrorists for the mayhem on November
26 last year," the prosecutor said.
Kasab had earlier admitted his guilt before a magistrate but later
denied his role in the November 26 terror attacks. Now he has
confessed in the trial court about his participation in the terror
strikes but has deviated from his earlier confession.
"He is like a joker in a circus and should not be taken seriously,"
Nikam, who has handled several high profile cases including that of
the 1993 Mumbai blasts in his career spanning three decades, said.
Kasab, Nikam claimed, has not disclosed in his confession to the court
yesterday that he had killed police constable Tukaram Omble although
he had said this earlier before a Magistrate.
On the other hand, he confessed that terrorist Abu Ismael had led the
terror attacks in Chhatrapati Shivaji railway terminus and Cama
hospital killing many people, thereby shifting the blame on him, Nikam
said.
Kasab has said that the trial should be wound up and he should be
punished. "This clearly indicates that he wants lesser punishment but
prosecution will jeopardise his motives," Nikam said.
"Unfortunately, some politicians, while reacting to Kasab's
confession, have been swayed by admission of his guilt but they must
be careful to see through his designs," the prosecutor said.
All those things which Kasab has omitted in the confession made to the
court yesterday would have to be proved by the prosecution. "Kasab
would be confronted with these contradictions and if he does not admit
then prosecution would lead evidence to prove them in the court,"
Nikam said. The November 26 trial is not only against Kasab but also
against Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed who allegedly gave maps of
target spots to the perpetrators of the crime, the lawyer said.
The trial is also against the 27 absconding accused believed to be in
Pakistan who had planned and executed the November 26 terror attacks
in Mumbai. Hence, Kasab's confession at this stage would not put an
end to the trial, Nikam asserted.
Kasab Confessed
By: Dr. Ram Chander Sharma | 21-Jul-2009 Reply | Forward
Don't worry Mr. ujwall Nikam, give Kasab one anothe chance, he will
confess all. He is feeling the stink of solitary confinement of Arthur
Jail and want to go to the comforts of Thiar jail. Please try.
Don't be a stupid churan chor
By: Anand | 21-Jul-2009 Reply | Forward
Any person in his sense won't compare VHP and Al-qaida. Please do a
enquiry the noble services RSS
Only the devil can breed terrorists like Kasab.
By: Dr.Mangal | 21-Jul-2009 Reply | Forward
Only the devil can breed terrorists like Kasab.I agree with Dr. Churan
Chor that we Hindus too should clean our house and dismantle VHP,
Bajrang Dal etc. because these sorts of organisations are unacceptable
in the modern era.
Shame on indian legal system
By: Devji kumar | 21-Jul-2009 Reply | Forward
Its evident that the lawers and judges prefer for the trial to
continue, as its new business especially during this economical
downturn. What is regretable is that the legal profession normally
makes a tamasha, natak and private profit out of the human tragedy,
public accident and victims relatives' misery. It would be fair
judgement going by the evidence, to clasify these types of lawyers and
judges in the same group as insect parasites, which suck the blood of
and thrive their hosts, who inturn are also charged fees for this type
of exploitation. Shame on the indian legal system.
Minority appeasing
By: Suchithra | 21-Jul-2009 Reply | Forward
Its utter ignorance of Dr.Churan Chor to compare vhp likes with Al-
qaida.Plz make a research before commenting.Plz go through what good
works Vhp
@Suchithra
By: DR.CHURAN CHOR | 21-Jul-2009 Reply | Forward
Suchithra, here in the USA, many of us comes from many different parts
of the world, and we live together with harmony, but facist
organisations like vhp, rss, bajrang dal (all from sanghparivar) are
in the proccess of inciting religion based hatred. These people are
definately not better than the likes of Kasab.Kasab used ammunition,
but others use words to create hatred.We Hidus must also stop such
elements as well.
stupit suchithra
By: Sikander | 21-Jul-2009 Reply | Forward
SHIV SENA, BJP RSS
...and I am Sid Harth
bademiyansubhanallah
The special court trying the lone surviving terrorist in 26/11 Mumbai
terror strikes, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, on Tuesday said the Pakistani
gunman's statement pleading guilty before it was not a confession but
an admission of guilt. Judge M L Tahaliyani said Kasab's statement
before the court was "broadly speaking not a confession but an
admission of guilt."
Tahaliyani's observation came after Kasab concluded his version of
events related to November 26 terror strikes. In a dramatic turn of
events, Kasab yesterday confessed to his involvement in the terror
strikes at CST and other locations, apart from giving a detailed
description of his training by Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan.
Kasab was free to plead guilty at any point of time during the course
of the trial, the court observed. The court would need to verify
whether Kasab was genuinely pleading his guilt as there were many
charges against him, Judge Tahaliyani said. The court could then
accept or reject Kasab's statement or accept his plea and continue
with the trial, the judge said. Kasab, who was caught alive during the
Mumbai attacks, had already recorded a confession before a magistrate
but later withdrew it alleging it was obtained through coercion by
police. The gunman had earlier pleaded not guilty to the charges
framed against him.
bademiyansubhanallah
Family members of the slain cops who fell prey to the bullets of lone
surviving 26/11 terrorist Mohammad Ajmal Kasab and his group of nine
others feel the court should expedite the trial and punish Kasab.
Vinita Kamte, wife of additional commissioner of police Ashok Kamte
who was killed by Kasab and his partner Abu Ismail near Cama hospital,
said that the court should try to conclude the trial at the earliest
and Kasab should be awarded the capital punishment.
"Although Kasab had denied his involvement initially, it was obvious
that he was part of the group of terrorists which carried out the
dastardly attack. What he did cannot be undone. But the court should
award him the death sentence thus setting a precedent," said Vinita.
Supporting this view, Smita Salaskar, wife of slain police inspector
and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar, said that the confession may
speed up the legal process.
bademiyansubhanallah
Posted: Tuesday , Jul 21, 2009 at 1433 hrs
Lone surviving gunman of the 26/11 terror attack Mohammad Ajmal Kasab
has said in his confession that he and nine other slain terrorists
were confined to a house in Karachi for 45 days where Lashkar-e-Toiba
operative Abu Hamza gave them lessons in navigating a boat.
Kasab also said that the house in which they were confined was the
same that was shown on a Pakistani news channel Geo TV after the
terror attack.
"Geo Tv ne jo dikhaya tha na 'Aatank ka Ghar' kehkar..humko wahi par
rakha tha dedh mahine ke liye (The house shown by Geo TV addressed as
the 'House of Terror' was the same one where we were kept for one and
a half months)," Kasab told special Judge M L Tahilyani.
When the judge asked Kasab how he knew that the house was shown on Geo
TV, he said, "Mujhe pata hai sir. (I know sir)."
Kasab said that Hamza and one more LeT operative Abu Kaahfa gave them
lessons in navigating a boat and how to survive on a boat for a week.
"The house was near a creek and we were also given ammunitions,
pistols and guns there in a bag," he said. After 45 days, Kasab and
the others were taken to the creek and were made to board the 'Al-
Hussaini' boat. Kasab further said that LeT operatives, Zaki-ur-Rehman
Lakhvi, Kaahfa and Hamza were present to see us off at Karachi.
bademiyansubhanallah
TNN 21 July 2009, 03:49am IST
NEW DELHI: Just how seriously Pakistan is taking India's
investigations into Mumbai attacks, as also the pitfalls of taking
terror out of the
composite dialogue process, became evident again on Monday after
Pakistan's defence minister Chaudhary A Mukhtar suggested that Ajmal
Amir Kasab's confession came "under pressure" from Indian
authorities.
The Manmohan Singh-led government has been at the receiving end of
bitter criticism for the alleged "sell-out" to Pakistan in drafting
the joint statement and this is only going to pile on the agony.
"The statements are one-sided and they were made by a person who is
under the custody of Indian jail authorities. If he has stood up and
given this statement, I don't know under what pressure he was,"
Mukhtar told reporters, adding that the interior ministry was in touch
with Indian authorities over Kasab's confession.
In more bad news for the government, former NSA Brajesh Mishra
described the joint statement as "a very big mistake". He went on to
add during the course of a TV interview that it made India appear
"weak" and like a "supplicant".
Mishra, despite his saffron leanings, had come out openly in favour of
the UPA government over the Indo-US nuclear deal making the Congress
party take him seriously. Mishra now castigating the government for
what he described as "another U-turn" on terror will come as a blow to
the government.
According to Mishra, this was the third U-turn by the government on
terror from Pakistan. Despite it being made clear that talks could not
proceed if violence from Pakistan didn't end, the government did a
turnaround next year in New York, when Singh met Pervez Musharraf,
saying that terror would not be allowed to disrupt talks.
Again in 2006-07, Mishra said, the government went back to the 2004
stand. Mishra went on to suggest that Singh was responsible for the
Sharm el-Sheikh joint statement by claiming that officials and
bureaucrats were not part of the process.
Security expert K Subrahmanyam, even though he said that he did not
share the perception that the government sold out to Pakistan, said
the joint statement was marred by ambiguities. "One can say that
Pakistan has moved forward to some extent but the very fact that it
has described LeT as a defunct organisation means that India needs to
pursue the matter further. The fact that they carried out such an
attack proves that they are not defunct but very much active,"
Subrahmanyam told TOI. While naming it in the dossier for involvement
in Mumbai, Pakistan has described LeT as a defunct organisation.
"One can say that the joint statement is not very well drafted or that
there are certain ambiguities, but people who are accusing the
government of a sell-out are not displaying maturity. After all,
Pakistan has acted against Lakhvi and Shah," added Subrahmanyam.
bademiyansubhanallah
Kartikeya, TNN 21 July 2009, 04:00am IST
THE KILLINGS
Mujhe gunah kabool hai (I admit my crime). We fired on the public at
CST — Abu Ismail and I. Ismail lobbed grenades
and I fired with the gun. We went a little ahead and entered a hall
where we had a skirmish with the police. After another exchange of
fire, all was quiet. The photographs shown of us at CST are genuine.
We went back towards the platform, crossed an iron footbridge and
descended into an alley. I checked vehicles parked there so that we
could drive off in one. The CCTV footage shown of us around those cars
is correct. However, none of the cars could be opened and we proceeded
on foot. Ismail and I loaded our AK-47s. On walking a little ahead, we
saw a man running. I fired at him and Ismail fired inside a house.
When we reached the gate of Cama Hospital, we saw that the wall was
not too high and jumped over it. Ismail told me to wait while he
checked the premises. I heard the sound of gunfire. Ismail returned
and asked me to follow him. A man dressed in white was lying dead. I
did not see his face. Another man was lying on a stretcher in a pool
of blood. We went up a flight of stairs to the fifth floor. We stopped
three persons in the ward, including a witness in the present case,
and asked him to lie down so that we could frisk him. We then locked
up five others, one of whom was lying in a pool of blood, in a
bathroom, warning them not to make any noise. We went up to the
terrace. As soon as we entered, we saw a man. I asked him to show us
the way out. He indicated that policemen were around — when we went
down the staircase, we saw them for ourselves. I ran back and told
Ismail.
He asked me where they were, but by then we could hear a commotion
that the police had arrived. Ismail was near the door. He asked me to
keep a watch on the terrace and asked for a grenade. I removed all the
weapons from my bag and put them in Ismail’s bag. Firing started. I
kept a watch on the terrace. Then we started running downstairs and
someone fired upon us. I returned fire and came down. Ismail went out
first. We could see policemen near the gate, but they didn’t notice
us. Ismail said we should hide. There was a door near the wall, and a
person was sitting outside the hall of the hospital. I warned him to
keep mum, and we managed to get out of the hospital.
On the road, we saw a big blue vehicle coming towards us. We hid
behind a small stall. The blue vehicle came nearer and Ismail lobbed a
grenade at it. We then walked up to a bank and hid in some bushes. We
saw the headlights of a vehicle, and as it came nearer to us there was
firing from it. Ismail started firing back. I was injured on my right
forearm, left wrist and right elbow. (Shows his injuries in court). My
gun fell out of my hand and I also fell down. The firing continued,
and Ismail walked towards the vehicle. He went to check it and kept
firing on it. By then I got up and took my gun in my hand. I opened
the doors of the police vehicle and found its occupants dead. We
removed their bodies. Ismail started the jeep and I sat next to him.
In the meantime there was firing on the vehicle but none of the
bullets hit us. Ismail started driving with his left hand and firing
with the other one. We took a right turn. Maine kaha main chal nahin
sakta (I said I wouldn’t be able to walk). Ismail said ‘ Tu hausla mat
haar. Mujhe bhi goli lagi hai ’ (Don’t lose courage. I have also been
shot). He said he had been shot in the knee. I could tell from the
noise of the wheel that it had been punctured. We did not know the
roads. We saw policemen in a motor vehicle, and on seeing weapons in
our hands they started firing at us. We fired in retaliation and the
cops left the spot to hide. We decided to stop a vehicle. A Skoda car,
with two men and a woman in it, was passing, and we stopped it and
made the occupants get out. I told Ismail that we should conceal our
weapons somewhere so that nobody would be able to recognise us. We
continued to drive on the same road and reached the same spot where we
had hijacked the car. We saw the owner telling the police that it was
his car. We started following a white car. A little ahead we could see
barriers on the road. The white car went past them but policemen
directed us to stop. I asked Ismail to slow down. A policeman came in
front of the car. Ismail tried taking a U-turn. We could not
understand anything and suddenly the wipers also started. Policemen
came to the car, and one of them caught me by the collar. He pulled me
out of the car. I was surrounded by policemen and one of them snatched
my AK-47, which was in my hand. They started hitting me in my stomach
and also with the butt of my gun. I did not fire. When I regained
consciousness I was in hospital. I had not fired because I could not
hold my gun.
HUM DUS THE (WE WERE TEN)
We travelled from Karachi in a small boat. Four persons came to see us
off — Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, Abu Hamza, Abu Kafa and Abu Jundala. I
did not know the others personally but I can tell their names. Abu
Ismail (he was our boss), Abu Akasha, Abu Umer, Abu Shoaib, Abu Ali,
Abdul Rehman Chhota, Abdul Rehman Bada, Hafiz Arshad and Abu
Fadaullah, who had a finger missing. A small boat from Karachi
transported us to a big boat, which we used to get on to the high
seas. There were three people on the small boat. I only remember the
name of Hakib. On the big boat called ‘Al Huseini’ we slept and said
our namaaz. When it sailed there were seven people on it — Murshad,
Aqib, Usman... I don’t remember the other names. Murshad was the
boss.
We were looking for another boat and spotted one. At 4 pm, it was
brought to ‘Al Huseini’ and we started loading it with oil, blankets,
rations and other things. The remaining articles were thrown into the
sea. Murshad asked the five crew members of the other boat who their
‘naqva’ (navigator) was, and Amarjit Singh Solanki said it was him.
The other four were taken to ‘Al Huseini’ and Singh remained on board.
Murshad told us to take blankets and go to sleep. He told Ismail to
take Solanki’s help in case of difficulty. A big GPS set was also
given to Ismail, which we threw into the sea when we reached India.
THE TRAINING
Last year, when I was working as a decorator in Jhelum city, my
colleague, Muzaffar, suggested that we turn to dacoity for better
money. I left the job, went to Rawalpindi with him and took a room on
rent. We decided to commit dacoity at a certain bungalow. I was
roaming alone at Rawalpindi’s Raza market when I saw some Mujahideens
buying animal skins. From my childhood, I had been hearing of these
Mujahideens. They are known by their long hair and beards. A few days
later, Muzaffar returned and we both visited the same market and were
discussing our plans to rob the bungalow. I repeatedly asked him where
we would get the weapons and how would we pull it off. I told him then
that I had seen Mujahideens at the market, and that we could get
weapons training from them, to which he agreed. We found out where
their office was, and went there. A man asked me what I had come for.
I told him we had come for Jihad, so he let us in. One person asked me
my name, address and asked me to return next morning with extra
clothes.
We returned with our baggage and we were given a chit on which was
written the address of a training camp in Muridke. Three weeks later,
I was sent from there to another camp. In the evening we went to
Buttal jungle, where I met Muzaffar. We were given 21 days of
training. After his training was over, Muzaffar’s brother took him
back home but I was told that I was going for bigger training.
Here, I was taught exercises, operating weapons like AK-47, guns and
pistols. Three months went by like this. My trainer Abu Abdul Rehman
asked me to bring my identity card from my native Okara district. I
visited an office in Model Town there and was asked to go to
Muzaffarabad in Azad Kashmir. Once in Muzaffarabad, I was asked to
look for Saeed Bhai’s office. I told them that I had come for Daura-E-
Khaas (special training), and filled up a form. The next morning, we
reached a training camp, where Abu Maaviya was our trainer and trained
me for three months in operating rocket launchers, grenades, AK-47s
and other sophisticated weapons. Then I was sent to my Faridkot home.
I was told to return to Saeed Bhai’s office after a week, which I
did.
Ten days later, Saeed bhai, Abu Kafa and Abu Hamza came there and
selected 15 of us. We were taken to Muzaffarabad and then to Muridke.
Kafa was with me and we were trained to swim. A month later, we were
taken to Karachi’s seashore from where we were taken in small boats to
big ones. The idea was to check if we could adjust to the sea’s rough
weather or not, and to see if we suffered from sea-sickness. We were
then brought back to the same place and then two days later, we were
again taken to Muzaffarabad where we met Hamza.
Of the 15 of us, two had run away, while six were sent to Kashmir. So
seven of us were left, to which three other boys were added, making us
ten in all. Hamza had a separate room, to which he would call us in
pairs. On two occasions, he showed Ismail and me movies and pictures
of CST station on his laptop. We were then taken to forests, trained
further in firing, and were brought back. Two days later, we were
given trousers and T-shirts, and our photographs were taken and our
fake ID-cards made. Kafa took us to Karachi and gave us small bomb
kits. We were asked to note down the time when the bomb kit’s battery
would turn on.
We stayed there for more than 90 days. We were trained to use an
inflatable boat. It is the same boat produced in court. In Karachi we
stayed in the same house that was shown on Geo TV. Two or three days
before November 22, 2008, Hamza again came and played the same CST
video to us. We were given arms and ammunition. Those bags were
transported to Al-Huseini.
Kafa took us to the Karachi shore where Al-Huseini was anchored.
Lakhwi, Hamza and Abu Jundal joined Kafa on the shore, while we were
to leave for Mumbai. Jundal Hindustani hai, unhonein hi humein Hindi
sikhaaein . My wish is that you should end this trial and punish me.
I wanted to confess much earlier but could not do so as Pakistan had
disowned me. Now Pakistan is saying that I am a Pakistani.
They are also going to prosecute the offenders. Don’t ask me how I
know all this. I just do. You
should accept my confession and punish me.
bademiyansubhanallah
PTI 20 July 2009, 10:00pm IST
MUMBAI: Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist in the 26/11 Mumbai
attacks, on Monday claimed an Indian named Abu Jindal had taught him
and the
nine slain terrorists Hindi during their training in Pakistan.
Kasab, who confessed to his crime before a special court, said during
their training in Pakistan, Jindal taught them Hindi in the camps.
Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said, "I have asked the police
to verify the name Jindal and his involvement in the case."
Kasab told the special court that he decided to confess to his crime
as he came to know that Pakistan has admitted that he was its
national. ( Watch )
Following is the excerpt between judge M L Tahilyani and Kasab:
JUDGE: "Aaj achanak aapne kyun confess kiya? Jab pehle charges frame
hue toh tab kyun nahi kiya? (Why are you suddenly confessing? Why did
you not confess when the charges were framed earlier?)"
KASAB: "Pehle Pakistan ne yeh nahi mana tha ki main unka hoon. Aaj
maan liya hai. Isiliye main bayan de raha hoon. (Initially, Pakistan
had not accepted my nationality. Now that they have, I am
confessing)"
JUDGE: "Aapko kaise pata chala ki Pakistan ne maan liya hai? (How do
you know that Pakistan has admitted?)"
KASAB: "Bas mujhe pata chala. Maine suna ki Pakistan ne kaha ki Kasab
yahan ka hai. (I just came to know. I heard that Pakistan has said
that Kasab is from there.)"
JUDGE: "Kya tum kisi tarah ke dabav main ho bayan dene ke liye. (Are
you under some pressure to confess?)"
KASAB: "Nahi. (No.)"
bademiyansubhanallah
IANS 20 July 2009, 04:12pm IST
MUMBAI: Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, the main accused in the Mumbai
terror attacks, on Monday confessed to his role, admitted he was a
Pakistani and
narrated in chilling detail the events leading to the killing spree
that left 180 people dead in the boldest terror assault India has
seen.
In a dramatic twist to the 26/11 case, Kasab also recounted how he and
his associates undertook the sea voyage from Karachi to Mumbai to
strike at 13 locations here on the night of Nov 26, 2008.
His sudden and unexpected confession took Special Judge M.L. Tahilyani
and others by surprise. Kasab started by addressing Tahilyani in Urdu:
"Sir, I want to make a confession in the court. I plead guilty to the
crimes for which I have been charged."
The confession, which comes as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
is in India for a five-day visit, could prove to be a boost for
India's stand vis-à-vis Pakistan on the issue of terror.
Kasab's confession included minute details of his role in the attacks
on the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) and Cama Hospital nearby.
He revealed in the court names of his Pakistani handlers, including
Abu Hamza, Abu Jindal, Abu Kafa and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who saw
them off when they boarded a ship at Karachi.
Hamza, who Indian intelligence agencies believe was behind the attack
on the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore in December 2005,
advised them on how to go about the terror attacks, said Kasab. He
also described how he placed a bomb in a taxi that later exploded at
Mazagaon, a south Mumbai area.
Naming Lakhvi of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) as "the mastermind" behind
the Mumbai mayhem, Kasab recounted how he and his associate Abu Ismail
(who was shot by the police) went to a CST public toilet and assembled
one of the bombs by installing a timer on it for use later.
He stunned the courtroom by giving details of his encounters with then
Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare and his associate
Vijay Salaskar inside Cama Hospital and how he finally killed him.
It was in the same firefight that the terror duo killed another senior
police official, Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte, before
hijacking a police jeep and escaping toward Girgaum Chowpatty.
Kasab was arrested by a group of police who had set up a road block
there on the morning of Nov 27. The siege of the city that began Nov
26 night finally ended on the morning of Nov 29.
Kasab described how the entire journey from Karachi to Mumbai was
completed in four different boats at various locations in the Arabian
Sea and how they finally landed in South Mumbai's Colaba in an
inflatable rubber dingy, opposite Badhwar Park, the residence of top
railway officials.
Finally, they hailed public taxis to go to different locations that
night (Nov 26) to carry out the biggest terror strikes on the
country.
Kasab interspersed his shocking confessional with the statements given
by several of the 124 witnesses already examined by Special Public
Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam to prove his point.
All through his confession, he kept naming his handlers and his
associate Abu Ismail, who gave detailed instructions, maps, weapons
and other equipment to the 10-member group for the terror attacks.
According to Nikam, Kasab's confession came after he discussed the
entire issue with his government-appointed lawyer S.G. Abbas Kazmi.
"This is a victory of truth, and a victory for the prosecution. His
confession came all of a sudden and he has admitted to all the crimes
against him," Nikam said.
Sid Harth
Rahi Gaikwad
Mumbai: “We have to see whether he [Ajmal Amir] is really pleading
guilty to all the charges levelled against him. Accepting or rejecting
his plea comes at a later stage,” Judge M.L. Tahaliyani said on
Tuesday at the special sessions court in the Arthur Road Jail.
He noted that there were three options before the court. One — to
accept Ajmal’s plea, two — to reject it, and three — to let it remain
on record and continue with the trial. He said, since a precedent in
this regard in a case of such a nature was less likely to be found,
the prosecution would have to find out how to proceed legally.
Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said outside the court that on
Wednesday the prosecution would table a detailed submission after
discussions with the investigators.
“It is important to probe ‘Kasab’s’ intention behind confessing and
what exactly he is hiding. Ajmal had not mentioned the name Jundal to
the police or the magistrate; that too has to be investigated. The
police are minutely examining his statement,” he said.
Mr. Nikam said, in the opinion of the court, Ajmal’s plea falls under
Section 229 of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.PC), but “we object to
that.” The Section states: “If the accused pleads guilty, the judge
shall record the plea and may, in his discretion, convict him
thereon.”
The Special Public Prosecutor also said leaking of information to
Ajmal would to be looked into, although there was nothing wrong in it.
The prosecution does not see Ajmal’s sudden decision to confess as an
unguided move. “He is well advised and well practised,” Mr. Nikam told
the media.
Commenting on his client’s confession for the first time, Ajmal’s
lawyer Abbas Kazmi said even he was taken by surprise. The defence
lawyer refuted the prosecution’s persistent allegations that he was
delaying the trial. “The fact that I allowed Ajmal to confess shows
[that I am not making any such attempt].” As for the discrepancies
between Ajmal’s version and that of the police, he said, “Since Ismail
is no more, his actions have been thrust on ‘Kasab’.”
While Ajmal has confessed to firing, he has denied killing Assistant
Sub-Inspector Tukaram Ombale. Moreover, he has said it was Ismail who
fired at top police officers Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte and Vijay
Salaskar. He has also denied any knowledge of the maps.
Sid Harth
bademiyansubhanallah
July 21, 2009
Reporting from New Delhi and Islamabad, Pakistan -- The only suspected
gunman still alive after last November's deadly attacks in Mumbai,
India, who for months denied any involvement in the three-day siege,
on Monday calmly told the judge at his murder trial, "Sir, I confess
to all my crimes."
With that surprising admission, Ajmal Amir Kasab began explaining in
precise detail how he and nine fellow attackers journeyed from
Karachi, Pakistan, to Mumbai on a boat, then laid siege to India's
financial capital with a rampage of violence that paralyzed the city,
left 166 people dead and frayed the already strained relations between
the two nuclear-armed nations.
Terror in IndiaThe 21-year-old Pakistani also recounted how he became
a terrorist. Unhappy with his meager wages as a shop assistant in
Jhelum, Pakistan, he became a thief, and asked Islamic radicals in the
Pakistani city of Rawalpindi for help finding weapons. Those Islamists
put him in touch with the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba,
Kasab said, which then gave him weapons training and eventually
readied him and the other attackers for the assault on Mumbai,
formerly Bombay.
Kasab's confession in Mumbai came days after Pakistani authorities
handed over to India a dossier acknowledging that Lashkar-e-Taiba, an
Islamist group founded about 20 years ago by cleric Hafiz Saeed, was
behind the Mumbai attacks. It remained unclear how Kasab, who is not
supposed to have access to media reports, apparently knew he was named
in the dossier.
In the weeks after the attacks, Pakistan had expressed skepticism
toward India's repeated assertions that Lashkar-e-Taiba had
masterminded the siege. Last month, a Pakistani court freed Saeed, who
has not been charged, from house arrest, a move that angered Indian
leaders.
In light of Kasab's admission, Indian authorities probably will urge
Pakistan to clamp down on Lashkar-e-Taiba and arrest its leaders,
analysts said.
"India probably will send the [confession] to Pakistan and ask for
immediate action against those who recruited him, trained him and sent
him," said Lahore-based political analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi. "India
will monitor very closely how Pakistan deals with the leaders of
Lashkar-e-Taiba -- those who are in prison and other activists who
remain free."
The case of the Mumbai attacks has become yet another challenging test
of relations between Pakistan and India, which have regarded each
other as archenemies for decades. After the attacks, leaders in
Islamabad said they doubted that any Pakistanis were involved, while
the Indian media suggested that Pakistan's intelligence agency played
a role in the rampage. Relations between the countries broke down,
with each accusing the other of not cooperating in the investigation.
Recently, however, tensions have eased. Pakistan is readying a trial
of five men accused of involvement in the Mumbai case, including the
man said to have masterminded the attacks, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.
Following Pakistan's acknowledgment of Lashkar-e-Taiba's involvement
in the Mumbai violence, the Indian and Pakistani prime ministers met
in Egypt last week and pledged to resume dialogue.
Kasab's confession surprised everyone in the courtroom, including his
lawyer, Abbas Kazmi.
"I had no idea. It was shocking for everyone," Kazmi said. "I had no
clue he was going to confess."
Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said he was about to call as a witness another
victim of the rampage when Kasab interrupted and asked to speak to the
judge.
"Kasab got up and accepted he was guilty," Nikam said. "It's a victory
for the prosecution and the investigative agencies. Ultimately, the
cat is out of the bag."
Kasab told Judge M.L. Tahiliyani that, after training with Lashkar-e-
Taiba, he spent a month and a half with several other young men in a
house in Karachi. Before they took the boat journey from Karachi to
Mumbai, each of the men was given a bag with an AK-47, a pistol, eight
hand grenades, cellphones and several magazines of rounds.
Once they arrived in Mumbai, Kasab and a partner he called Abu Ismail
attacked Chhatrapati Shivaji railway station. Both men fired at people
on the platforms, while Abu Ismail also threw hand grenades.
Prosecutors say 52 people were killed at the station, and an
additional 109 were injured.
The two then moved on to Cama hospital, where they raced up to the
fifth floor and began spraying people with bullets. Authorities say 16
people were killed at the hospital.
Kasab said he and Abu Ismail then left the hospital and exchanged
gunfire with police in a squad car. He said all three officers in the
car died in the shooting.
Both men jumped into the car and drove off. According to authorities,
they encountered more police at Mumbai's Chowpatty beach, where Abu
Ismail was shot and killed. Kasab then surrendered.
The rest of the gunmen attacked Mumbai's famed Taj Mahal hotel and
another luxury hotel, the Oberoi, as well as the Nariman House, a
Jewish center. The siege ended at the Taj Mahal, when Indian commandos
killed the gunmen holed up inside. Kasab said Lakhvi was the group's
leader, but he did not name Saeed as being involved.
Kasab, who last year confessed during police interrogation to being
involved in the attacks, but then recanted, told the court Monday that
he was confessing without any pressure from authorities.
Asked by the judge why, Kasab replied that he could no longer put
forward a defense after Pakistani authorities acknowledged that he was
a Pakistani citizen.
"I want to confess, as now everything is clear and out in the open,"
Kasab said. "Now I ask the court to punish me and end the trial."
Tahiliyani said the trial would resume today. The judge said Kasab
will be expected to sign a transcript of his statement. If convicted,
Kasab could receive the death penalty.
Rana is an assistant in The Times' New Delhi Bureau
Sid Harth
; Statesman News Service
MUMBAI, 22 JULY: In yet another outburst of passion, captured
perpetrator of 26/11 Mumbai terror mayhem Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab
today urged the special trial judge to hang him as he sought to set at
rest all misgivings that his “I plead guilty’’ statement on Monday was
under duress or pressure to get away with a lifer instead of capital
punishment. The 21-year-old native of Faridkot in Pakistan said
whatever crime he had committed was here and, therefore, it was up to
this court ~ and not for the God ~ to sentence him without further
delay.
Defence counsel Mr Abbas Kazmi pleaded with the judge Mr ML Tahilyani
not to put off his ruling ~ whether to accept or reject ~ on his
client’s statement pleading guilty indefinitely lest it would be
exploited by the prosecution as the trial proceeded. The special judge
said he would hand down his ruling on Thursday. Mr Kazmi insisted that
Kasab’s plea was the result of mental torture and harassment by jail
guards.
Chief prosecutor Mr Ujwal Nikam requested the judge Mr Tahilyani to
accept Kasab’s confession and take the same on record. He said the
trial should proceed since more details about the conspiracy to
devastate Mumbai were yet to come on record . “Kasab is not the only
accused in this trial. We have to examine whether Kasab pleaded guilty
to his offences to protect his handlers based in Pakistan ,” argued Mr
Nikam. The prosecutor said he should be hanged once the complete
investigation/evidence was placed in the court. Mr Nikam brought to
the notice of the court a glaring contradiction in what Kasab said in
his first testimony in the court of a metropolitan magistrate and
before this special court. As the court resumed its proceedings today,
Kasab at the outset contradicted the defence lawyer Mr Abbas Kazmi in
open court denying that he was mentally tortured or harassed by jail
staff to come up with a voluntary confession. Kasab’s “hang me my
Lord” plea to the judge came when Mr Nikam through court wanted to
know from the defence counsel whether his client knew the consequences
of his confession.
Mr Nikam said the trial has to proceed even after Kasab has pleaded
guilty because he was not the only accused in the Mumbai terror attack
trial. His handlers including Lashkar-e-Toyyaba founder Zaki-ur-Rehman
Lakhvi and his associates like Abu Hamzha, Zarar Shah and over 30
others have been charged with the conspiracy of plotting the terror
attack on Mumbai.
Meanwhile, a leading English daily in Islamabad today claimed that
Pakistan has handed over to India a dossier allegedly containing
“comprehensive evidence” of Indian involvement in several terrorist
acts on its soil, including the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team.
Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Quresh said Kasab’s stunning
confessions will not set back the peace process.
Sid Harth
Jul 23, 2009
Jihadi confession rocks India, Pakistan
By Neeta Lal
NEW DELHI - Just hours after the visiting United States Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton had praised the "sincerity" of Islamabad's anti-
terrorism policies, a Pakistani dramatically confessed to taking part
in one of the worst terror attacks in India, that in Mumbai last
November.
Mohammad Ajmal Amir "Kasab", the lone surviving gunman of the 10 that
killed 166 people in a three-day rampage across the city, on Monday
after 65 days on trial for among other things murder and waging war
against India suddenly reversed his not-guilty plea with the words,
"Mujhe gunha kabool hai." (I admit to the crime). "I want to confess,"
the 21-year-old said to a stunned courtroom.
The Mumbai attack, which from the outset India blamed on
Pakistanis, severely strained relations between the two countries,
especially as Islamabad initially refused to acknowledge any Pakistan
connection. Delhi froze peace talks that were at the time underway
between the fractious, nuclear-armed neighbors.
However, last week the Pakistan government handed over a dossier to
India providing evidence of the role in the attack played by the
banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, and also named Kasab as a
participant.
Kasab said on Monday he had decided to change his plea - even his
lawyers did not know he was going to - as a result of this
development, "Please accept my confession, close the case and give the
sentence," he said, clearly feeling betrayed by his country.
The strange twist in the case will certainly ease tension between
Delhi and Islamabad. The former will feel vindicated in its early
finger-pointing, while the latter can use its cooperation as an
example of what Clinton described as Pakistan's "commitment to
fighting terrorism that permeates the entire government".
Judge M L Tahilyani adjourned the case to allow prosecutors time to
study the confession. The charges carry the death sentence.
Following the confession, in a chilling account, Kasab told of his
part in the attack that targeted two luxury hotels, a Jewish center, a
restaurant popular with tourists, a hospital and the main railway
terminal. The men carried automatic guns, grenades and explosives.
Kasab and a partner (Abu Ismail) had been assigned to kill people in
and around the railway station. "I was firing and Abu was hurling hand
grenades ... I fired at a policeman after which there was no firing
from the police side," Kasab said.
From the railway station, where they killed more than 50 people, the
two went to Cama Hospital, killing more. They then went to Chowpatty
beach, where Abu was killed and Kasab was captured after a shootout
with police.
Kasab also named four members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba whom he said saw
off the gunmen from the Pakistani port city of Karachi. Among them was
Zaki ur-Rehman Lakhvi, chief of operations for Lashkar-e-Taiba. Lakhvi
had been identified by India as the attack's chief plotter.
Kasab said it was his desire to get rich quickly as a trained robber
that took him down the path of terrorism as he was introduced to
jihadis in his quest to receive "specialist" training.
No sooner had Kasab confessed than the media and pundits were abuzz
with theories about his sudden decision. According to one theory, the
admission was the result of a hush-hush meeting with a senior
Maharashtra state minister who told him that it was futile to fight
the case as Pakistan had disowned him and his family. According to
this theory, when the minister asked Kasab why he had become a
terrorist, he stated, "Our leaders in Pakistan kept telling us that
Indians were responsible for the blasts in our country, and so we had
to take revenge."
According to another theory, Kasab preferred death in India as he was
shocked by Pakistan's decision to prosecute five alleged accomplices.
Public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam reacted by calling Kasab's confession a
"ploy" because, according to him, at this late stage - eight months
after the attack and 65 days into the trial - the gunman has forfeited
his right to plead guilty.
Questions will also be asked over any possible coercion. Soon after
being captured, he admitted to the attacks, then he changed his mind,
saying he had been pressured.
Pakistan's Defense Minister Chaudhary A Mukhtar told an Indian TV
channel, "The statements are one-sided and they were made by a person
who is under the custody of Indian jail authorities. If he has stood
up and given this statement, I don't know under what pressure he
was."
Despite these reservations, the acrimony between Pakistan and India
caused by the case may be laid to rest and the trial can come to a
speedy conclusion, leaving the door open for the countries to move
forward and get back to the peace talks that were so sensationally
disrupted last November.
Neeta Lal is a widely published writer/commentator who contributes to
many reputed national and international print and Internet
publications.
(Copyright 2009 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
bademiyansubhanallah
PTIThursday, July 23, 2009 16:30 IST Email
Mumbai: The Fallen Star is among the books that captured 22-year-old
Pakistani terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Kasab has read in jail while
undergoing trial in the 26/11 attacks.
Mumbai Under AttackSitara Jo Toot Gaya is one of the four Urdu books
that the terrorist has read while lodged in the high-security egg cell
at Arthur Road Jail in Central Mumbai. He was given the book by his
lawyer Abbas Kazmi.
Kazmi, who presented the books to Ajmal through the jail authorities,
did so after receiving permission from the court. The book of stories
had a major impact on the Pakistani national, a source said.
The terrorist, who by his own admission has only had a primary
education, has been influenced by the book and has been reading it
over the past few days in his specially constructed cell in the jail,
they said.
The other books the terrorist has on his reading list are a book on
magic and magicians titled Talsim Kadah, Tibbe Nababi Aur Jadded,
which deals with modern and traditional science, and a book on
Mohammed bin Qasim, the first Arab to invade Sindh.
Qasim was a mere 17-year-old lad when he was ordered by the caliph to
attack Sindh. Qasim had conquered Sindh and the Punjab. The conquest
marked the beginning of Islamic rule in the region and in India.
Ajmal had sought Urdu newspapers in the initial stage of the trial,
but he was denied permission by the court and he did not have the
money to pay for the papers.
Ajmal said he had been carrying over Rs4,000 in Indian currency at the
time of his arrest on November 27 and that money should be returned to
him to buy newspapers and rations from the jail canteen.
But judge ML Tahaliyani ruled that the currency was among the articles
presented as evidence in court and could not be returned to him during
the trial.
Earlier, with the court's permission, Kazmi had given Ajmal a book of
jokes, a comic book, and a book of stories. After reading these books,
Ajmal came across the other titles which he asked for and was given by
his lawyer.
bademiyansubhanallah
Education may wean away youth like Kasab from terror: Clinton
PTIThursday, July 23, 2009 19:38 IST Email
Phuket: The confession of lone surviving 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab
shows that he was "a young man without much purpose in life", US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said, pitching for good
education and jobs to wean away the youth from "blandishment" of
terrorist groups.
Mumbai Under AttackClinton, who just concluded a five-day visit to
India and was here to attend the ASEAN Regional Forum meeting,
referred to "the very dramatic trial" of Kasab during an interview
with The Nation, a partner of the Asia News Network.
"What I found so interesting about his confession is that he was a
young man without much purpose in life, he was in a job he did not
find satisfying and he was susceptible to the blandishment of
terrorist organisations: This will make you feel strong and powerful,
this will give you a meaning and purpose in your life; and he bought
into that and joined this group that was trained for the Mumbai
attacks," she said.
Listening to the confession as she heard on Indian television, the 61-
year-old felt "this was not someone who had some deep, overriding
ideological commitment; this was somebody who got swept up in it."
"So we want to convey to families and communities across the world
that there's a better way... Now, we have to put some meat onto the
bone of that statement, we have to make sure people get good
education, we have to make sure that the people do have jobs," she
said.
These will be part of a more positive alternative to what the
"terrorists are selling", Clinton said.
bademiyansubhanallah
Posted: Friday , Jul 24, 2009 at 1753 hrs
A police officer and sole survivor of a November 26 gunbattle between
gunmen and police near Cama Hospital, in which three senior police
officials including Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare were
killed, on Friday recounted the sequence of events to a special
court.
Arun Jadhav, assistant to slain Inspector Vijay Salaskar, emotionally
described how arrested gunman Mohammed Ajmal Kasab and his dead
accomplice Abu Ismail had fired at the police jeep carrying Karkare,
Salaskar, Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte and three
other constables.
Describing the events on the night, Jadhav said when they reached Cama
Hospital the senior officials, Karkare, Kamte and Salaskar, decided to
confront terrorists at the main gate of the hospital and instructed a
group of policemen to stay in position at the rear gate.
They took a Qualis jeep of Pydhonie division and the three senior
officials sat in the front two seats, while three other constables
Yogesh Patil, Jaywant Patil and Dilip Bhosale along with him (Jadhav)
sat in the rear seat.
bademiyansubhanallah
Menaka Rao / DNASaturday, July 25, 2009 3:13 IST Email
Mumbai: The usually cocky and bemused Mohammed Amir Ajmal Kasab, the
lone surviving terrorist from the 26/11 attack, turned into an angry
young man in court on Friday.
Mumbai Under AttackThe reason was the deposition by constable Arun
Jadhav, who was in the Qualis with three police officers -- Hemant
Karkare, Ashok Kamte, and Vijay Salaskar -- when they were sprayed
with bullets.
Jadhav was the only one to survive the firing by Ajmal and his
accomplice Abu Ismail. He played dead in the back seat when Ajmal and
Ismail seized the car and drove off.
What really got Ajmal's goat was Jadhav's "revelation" that he used an
expletive before throwing Karkare's body from the car.
"The butka [short man, referring to Ajmal], while pulling out Karkare,
said, '********, isne bulletproof jacket pehna hai,' Jadhav said
during his cross-examination by defence advocate Abbas Kazmi.
Ajmal sprang from his seat. Additional sessions judge ML Tahaliyani
asked him to sit down immediately. He was then seen speaking angrily
to co-accused Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Shaikh.
Jadhav's statement that Ajmal fired at the police officers after
sustaining an injury on his hand is significant in the light of the
terrorist's statement earlier this week, pleading guilty to the
shooting at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus but denying opening fire
on the police vehicle near Cama Hospital.
Another important statement that emerged in Jadhav's cross-examination
was that it was a bullet from Ajmal's gun that may have killed one of
the constables in the car. "The mobile phone of Yogesh Patil, who was
unconscious, rang. Kasab fired from his seat in the front, which
ripped the middle seat and hit Yogesh Patil, who was still gasping.
[He] died of the injury."
Ajmal was seen angrily whispering in his lawyer Kazmi's ear. Later,
just before the lunch break, Ajmal told the court, "Gadi main firing
ka zikar statement mein nahi hai [There is no mention of firing in the
car in Jadhav's police statement]." Kazmi later told DNA that Ajmal
got angry because in Pakistan that particular expletive is not used.
Later after lunch, Ajmal told the court to check Jadhav's statement.
When judge Tahaliyani asked him if he felt Jadhav's statement
contradicted his deposition, Ajmal said, "I don't feel that. I know
that. A lie is a lie."
The judge observed that the terrorist has been following the
proceedings carefully.
Sid Harth
PAKISTAN V/S HAFIZ SAEED = INDIA V/S LK ADVANI - By Ghulam Muhammed
Saturday, July 25, 2009
PAKISTAN V/S HAFIZ SAEED = INDIA V/S LK ADVANI
Since 26/11/2006, not a day has passed when India has not been
haranguing Pakistan to publicly punish the perpetrator of that ghastly
carnage that has bedeviled any move from both the neighbours to start
on a reconciliation dialog.
Indian people could only derive from the public announcements of their
leaders and form media analysis of the various turns and twists of
Pakistan government's prevarication on the matter.
However, analysts feel the limits of the authority of both governments
to take steps in such matters, without first taking into account of
the opposition from a section of their own public.
No sooner Prime Minister returned from Sharam al Sheikh NAM meeting,
bring in an agreement between India and Pakistan, Advani made so much
noise on the very idea of signing an 'agreement' without first getting
Pakistan to move over 26/11 culprits and see them hanged. His whole
party walked out of Lok Sabha over the Prime Minister's replies.
In fact, Advani has set his mind against any rapprochement towards
Pakistan. It was this single person, that sabotaged Agra summit
agreement, even though it was finalized by his own party's leader,
Prime Minister Vajpayee. All he did was to ask Pakistan President
Parvez Musharraf, to show his bona-fide on Indo-Pak rapprochement, by
handing over Dawood Ibrahim to India. Advani was fully aware that
Musharraf cannot accede to his spur of the moment demand and still he
used this ploy to sabotage a landmark moment in history, when both
sides could have delivered on their agreements, without having to
bother with any opposition in both camps. But unfortunately, for
Vajpayee the opposition was in his own camp.
It can be argued that just as India has Advani to be tackled in case
it decides to move towards any agreement with Pakistan, Pakistan too
has to contend with stumbling block like Hafiz Saeed and his hold on
masses. Both democratically elected governments are seriously weakened
by ideological oppositions that refuse to give any quarters to each
other on the basis of pathological hatred. The whole nations are
hostage to the belligerence of opposition that threatens the
democratic elected governments on both sides of the borders. People on
both sides, should take this factor into account, before resorting to
automatic mistrust of the other side.
It is time, we give peace a chance to see how the people in the
subcontinent could rise above their differences and their short
history of separation and join hands and minds to march towards a new
future of mutual respect, peace and prosperity.
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
bademiyansubhanallah
'Blood-thirsty 26/11 attackers should be brought to justice'
New Delhi The US on Wednesday demanded that "blood-thirsty" terrorists
responsible for Mumbai attacks, including Jamaat-ud Dawa chief Hafiz
Saeed, should be brought to justice.
Noting that terrorism was the "common enemy" of the US and India, new
American ambassador to India Timothy Roemer said his government is
pressing Pakistan "hard" on bringing to justice the suspects involved
in the 26/11 strikes.
"We have a common enemy with India. And we are pressing Pakistan hard
on Mumbai suspects and we are very grateful for the close cooperation
that we have with Indian government on counter-insurgency, fighting
terrorism, intelligence sharing.....," said Roemer in his first media
interaction after assuming office.
He said India, with the close cooperation with the US, was better
placed in fighting the "common enemy", which can sometimes be seen in
Pakistan, such as al-Qaida, LeT and other terrorist outfits.
To a question whether Washington believed that there was enough
evidence against Saeed, he said, "We want to bring blood-thirsty
perpetrators of Mumbai attacks to justice, wherever they are."
He said he has been communicating with his government that people held
in Pakistan in Mumbai attacks case need to be brought to justice and
that includes Saeed also.
Describing the position of the US towards combating terrorism as
"firm, resolute and bold", Roemer said, "We are committed to shutting
down terrorist networks around the world and shutting down financing
of those networks. We want to work with India and enhance our
cooperation to achieve these results."
He also noted that both the US and India have common understanding on
the issue of regional stability.
The US ambassador said, "the US stands firmly with India against
terrorism. FBI officials are testifying this week in Mumbai in the
26/11 trial.......We will continue to seek justice for those killed in
Mumbai and we will work closely with India to share with you the
lessons learned in the wake of our tragic attacks of September 11,
2001."
Home Minister P Chidambaram has been invited to visit the US for
additional discussions on precisely how our two nations can cooperate,
Roemer said, adding the US and President Barack Obama gives "high-
priority" to work with India.
He said one of his tasks as ambassador would be to broaden and deepen
the bilateral strategic ties.
On travel alerts issued by the US ahead of Independence Day, the
ambassador said it was only reiteration to ensure the well being and
safety of its citizens and was based on the past incidents that
occurred in various places including Islamabad and Jakarta.
bademiyansubhanallah
Arundhati Roy: Mumbai Was not India’s 9/11
Aug 15th, 2009 by admin.
Http://www. guardian. co. uk / world / 2008/dec / 12/mumbai- Arundhati
Roy —
The attacks in Mumbai have been called "India of the 9 / 11 ', and
calls for a 9/11-style response, including an attack on Pakistan.
Instead, the country must fight terrorism with law, or face civil
war.
We have lost the rights of our own dramas. As the bloodshed caused
havoc in Mumbai, horrible day after day, our 24-hour news channels has
informed us that we were watching "of India 9 / 11." Like actors in a
Bollywood rip-off of an old Hollywood movie, they are called to play
our games and say our lines, but we know that everything said and
done.
As the tension built in the region, U.S. Senator John McCain warned
that if Pakistan does not act quickly to stop the "bad guys" who had
information that India could launch air strikes on terrorist camps in
Pakistan and that Washington could do nothing because Mumbai, India
was the 9 / 11.
November, but September 2008 is not 2001, Pakistan is not Afghanistan
and India is not America. So perhaps we should let our tragedy and
choose among the debris of our own minds and our hearts broken, so we
can reach our own conclusions.
It is strange how in the last week of November, thousands of people in
Kashmir, which is controlled by thousands of Indian troops lined up to
cast their vote, while the richest of the richest city of India
finally seems Kupwara torn by war - one of the most devastated
districts of Kashmir.
Mumbai attacks are only the latest in a series of terrorist attacks
against the towns and cities in India this year. Ahmedabad, Bangalore,
Delhi, Guwahati, Jaipur, Malegaon and have seen all the serial
bombings in which hundreds of people were killed and injured. If the
police are right about the people we have detained as suspects, two
Hindus and Muslims, all nationals of India, of course, indicates that
something is very wrong in this country.
If you watch TV, you may not have heard that people died in Mumbai
too. That fell in a busy train station and a public hospital.
Terrorists do not distinguish between rich and poor. They killed the
two with the same sang-froid. Indian media, however, was transfixed by
the rise of horror that have breached the barricades of the India
Shining bright and propagation of the stench in their lobbies with
marble and glass two ballrooms of luxury hotels incredible and a small
Jewish center.
He said one of these hotels is an icon of the city of Mumbai. It is
absolutely true. It is an icon for the installation, obscene injustice
suffered by Indians routine every day. The day the newspapers were
full of beautiful passing through the obituaries in the hotel rooms
were in the restaurants they loved (ironically, was called in
Kandahar), and the staff that serves a small box in the upper left
corner in the pages of a national newspaper (sponsored by a pizza, I
think) said: "Hungary, Kya?" (hunger, no?). Then, with the best
intentions, I am sure that your readers informed on the International
Index of hunger, under the India ranked Somalia and Sudan. But of
course this is not war. If one is always fought in the Dalit Basti of
our people on the banks of river Narmada and Koel Karo, in the rubber
Cheng, in the villages of Nandigram, Singur, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand,
Orissa, West Bengal and the districts of Lalgarh slums and slums of
our cities great.
This war is not on television. Yet. Therefore, perhaps, as the whole
world, we find that.
There is a fierce, ruthless fault line that runs through the discourse
on contemporary terrorism. On the one hand (called Side A) are those
who see terrorism, particularly "Islamic" terrorism, as a hateful,
evil mad that rotates on its axis in its orbit and not has nothing to
do with the world to around, nothing to do with history, geography or
economics. Therefore, one side says, trying to put it in a political
context, not even try to understand, and it is to justify a crime in
itself.
Side B is estimated that if nothing can excuse or justify terrorism,
there is a time, place and political context, and to refuse to see
that will only aggravate the problem and put more people at risk. That
is a crime in itself.
The words of Hafiz Saeed, who founded the Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the
Pure) in 1990 and belongs to the Salafi tradition of Islam certainly
strengthens hard for side A. Hafiz Saeed supports suicide bombings,
hates Jews, Shiites and democracy and believes that jihad must be
performed until Islam, Islam rules the world. Among the things he
says: "There can be no peace while India is still intact. Cut, since
kneeling is cut before and ask for clemency. "
And: "India has shown us this path. We want to give India a tit-for-
tat response and returning the same way by killing the Hindus, as is
killing Muslims in Kashmir. "
But when they side with the words of welcome Babu Bajrang Ahmedabad,
India, who sees himself as a democrat and not a terrorist? He was one
of the main pillars of the genocide in Gujarat in 2002 and said (on
camera): "We did not spare a single Muslim shop, we have made a great
fire … We hacked, burned, fire … we believe in setting the fire
because these bastards do not want to be cremated, they are afraid of
him … I have one last wish … I would be sentenced to death … I'm not
if I'm hung … Just two days before the suspension and I'm going to go
for a day in Juhapura where seven or eight lakhs [seven or eight
thousand one hundred] of these people stay … I will finish … a little
more of them die. .. at least 25,000 to 50,000 deaths. "
And when, in the scheme of things the other hand, have put the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Bible, We or our country is determined by
the Member States Golwalkar, who became head of the RSS in 1944. He
said: "Since the evil day, when the first Muslims in Hindustan, so
far, the Hindu nation has been brave to take on the fight against
these despoilers. The Race Spirit has been taken. "
Or: "To maintain the purity of race and culture, Germany shocked the
world by her purging the country of the Semitic races - the Jews.
Pride in his career as the highest has been manifested here … A good
lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and benefit. "
(Of course, Muslims are not the only ones targeted by the Hindu right.
Dalits have been systematically addressed. Recently in Kandhamal in
Orissa, Christians have been subjected to two months and a half of
violence that left over 40 dead. Forty thousand people were expelled
from their homes, half of those living in refugee camps.)
All these years, Hafiz Saeed has lived the life of a respectable man
in Lahore at the head of the Jamaat-ud Dawa, which many believe is a
first for the organization Lashkar-e-Taiba. It continues to recruit
young boys for their own sectarian Jehad with his twisted, fiery
sermons. On December 11 the United Nations imposed sanctions on Jammat-
ud-Dawa. The Pakistani government has succumbed to international
pressure and Hafiz Saeed put under house arrest. Bajrang Babu,
however, is on bail and lives the life of a respectable man in
Gujarat. A few years after the genocide, which left the VHP to join
the Shiv Sena. Narendra Modi, Bajrang former mentor, is still the
Prime Minister of Gujarat. The man who presided over the genocide in
Gujarat was reelected twice, and is deeply respected by India, the
largest business houses, trust and Tata.
Suhel Seth, a businessman and spokesman for the television company,
said: "Modus is God." Police officers who have supervised and
sometimes even assisted the Hindu mob in Gujarat have been rewarded
and encouraged. The RSS has 45,000 branches, its own range of
charities and 7 million volunteer to preach their doctrine of hate
across the India. They include Narendra Modi, but also former Prime
Minister AB Vajpayee, the current leader of the Opposition LK Advani
and a host of other senior politicians, bureaucrats and police
officers and intelligence.
If this does not complicate the image of our secular democracy, we
must place on record that there are many Muslim organizations in India
to preach their own narrow sectarianism.
So ultimately, if I had to choose between side A and Side B, Side B.
Pick need context. Forever.
In this context is the nuclear sub-partition. Radcliffe Line, which
separates India and Pakistan and torn states, districts, villages,
fields, communities, water systems, houses and families, is based
almost overnight. United Kingdom separation was final blow for us.
Partition unleashed the slaughter of over a million people and the
largest population migration in human history. Eight million people
fleeing the new Pakistan Hindus, Muslims fleeing the new nature of
India, have left their homes with nothing but the clothes on their
backs.
Each of these individuals sends a door and the story of unimaginable
pain, hatred, horror, but also the nostalgia. This lesion, but
unsevered torn muscles, blood and bone chips are still locked in an
embrace of hatred, terror, but also the knowledge of love. Kashmir was
trapped in a nightmare that can not exit, a nightmare that has claimed
over 60,000 lives. Pakistan, the land of cigars, became an Islamic
republic, and then very quickly corruption, military violence, openly
intolerant of other religions. India, on the other hand, is a broad,
secular democracy. This is a beautiful but Babu Bajrang his
predecessors had been in force since the 1920s, drops of poison in the
blood in India, which undermines the idea of India, before they are
born.
In 1990, they were prepared to bid for power. In 1992, he urged the
crowd Hindu LK Advani attacked the demolition of Babri Masjid and him.
In 1998, the BJP in power at the center. The war against terrorism in
the United States that the wind in its sails. They are allowed to do
exactly what they pleased, even to commit genocide and then submit
their fascism as a legitimate form of democracy chaotic. This happened
at a time when India opened its huge market of international finance
and is in the interest of international companies and the media had
for this project as a country that can not hurt. This gave all the
Hindu nationalists and the momentum of the impunity they need.
Therefore, the broader historical context of terrorism in the
subcontinent and the train bombings in Mumbai. It should not surprise
us that Hafiz Saeed of Lashkar-e-Taiba is Shimla (India) and LK Advani
of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh is Sindh (Pakistan).
In the same way as it did after the attack on Parliament in 2001,
2002, the burning of Sabarmati Express and the 2007 bombing of the
Samjhauta Express, the Government of India announced that it had
"undeniable" evidence that the Lashkar -e-Taiba claimed by the
Pakistani ISI was behind the strike Mumbai. Lashkar has denied
involvement, but it remains the principal defendant. According to
police intelligence and operations of the Lashkar in India by an
organization called Indian Mujahideen. Two Indian nationals, Sheikh
Mukhtar Ahmed, an official of the Police Force of Police of Jammu and
Kashmir and Tausif Rehman, a resident of Calcutta, West Bengal, have
been arrested in connection with the bombings in Mumbai.
Therefore, since the mere accusation against Pakistan is becoming a
little messy. Almost always, when these stories unspool, revealing a
complex network of soldiers, trainers, recruiters, intermediaries, and
against infiltration and intelligence-Intelligencer and cooperative
work, not only on the two sides of the India-Pakistan border but in
several countries simultaneously. In today's world, trying to identify
the source of a terrorist attack and isolate within a single nation-
state is trying to identify the source of the money business. It is
almost impossible.
In circumstances like these, the air strikes to "take" terrorist camps
in May to take the camps, but certainly not "have" to terrorists.
Neither is war. (Also, in our bid for moral superiority, let us not
forget that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the LTTE neighboring
Sri Lanka, one of the most lethal terrorist groups, have been trained
by the Indian Army.)
Thanks in large part to the game, was forced to play as the first
American ally in its war in Afghanistan and supporting the Islamists
in the war against them, Pakistan, whose territory is shaken in these
contradictions, is careening towards war civil. As recruiting agents
for America's jihad against the Soviet Union, is the use of Pakistani
army and ISI to promote and channel the funds to Islamic
fundamentalist organizations. After the cable Frankensteins and
published in the world, the United States could slow mastiffs pet when
wanted.
Certainly did not expect to enter the heart of the home September 11.
So, once again, Afghanistan has become violent. Now the remains of a
ravaged Afghanistan was stranded on the borders of Pakistan. Nobody,
especially the Pakistani government does not deny that presides over a
country that threatens to implode. The terrorist training camps, fire
breathing and mad mullahs who believe that Islam, or should, the world
is more often the remains of two wars in Afghanistan. His anger of
rain on the Pakistani government and Pakistani civilians as much as
India.
Therefore, if India decides to go to war may be declining throughout
the region into chaos is complete. The debris of bankruptcy, Pakistan
has destroyed aground on the coast of India, put us in danger as never
before. If Pakistan collapses, we can expect to have millions of "non-
state actors with an arsenal of nuclear weapons available to them as
neighbors. It is difficult to understand why those who steer the ship
of India are so eager to repeat the mistakes of Pakistan and called
for the condemnation of the country, inviting the United States to
awkwardly and dangerously interfere in our affairs extremely complex.
Never a superpower allies. Have the players.
On the positive side, the advantage of going to war is the best way
for India to avoid facing the serious problems on the basis of our
house. Mumbai attacks will be broadcast live (and exclusive!) In all
or most of our 67 hours 24 new channels and god knows how many
international. Television anchors in their studies and journalists to
"zero" to maintain an endless stream of enthusiastic reviews. During
three days and three nights, we saw in disbelief that a very small
group of young men armed with guns and gadgets shown the impotence of
the police, the elite National Security Guard commandos and Shipping
supposedly powerful nuclear nation .
All they did, were indiscriminately massacred unarmed people in train
stations, hospitals and hotels, unconscious of their class, caste,
religion or nationality. (Part of the impotence of the security forces
had to do to have to worry about the hostages. In other situations,
Kashmir, for example, their tactics are not as sensitive. All the
buildings are blown up. Shields are used. U . S and the armies of
Israel, do not hesitate to send cruise missiles into buildings and
drop daisy cutters marriage in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan.) But
there was no different. And it is on television.
The indolent boy terrorists willing to kill - and die - the surprised
audience. Have delivered something different from the usual diet of
suicide bombings and rocket attacks that people have become accustomed
to the news. Here is something new. Die Hard 25. The performance was
awful and so on. TV ratings soared. Ask any television magnate with
the advertiser or the company that measures the transmission time in
seconds, not minutes, so it's worth.
Finally, the murderers are dead and are tenacious, all except one.
(Perhaps in the chaos, some fled. What you never know.) Along the dead
terrorists do not demand and did not express any willingness to
negotiate. Its aim was to kill people and cause as much damage as they
could before being killed themselves. That has left us totally
bewildered. When we say "nothing can justify terrorism," which most of
us say that nothing can justify the taking of human life. We say this
because we respect life, because we believe it is valuable. So what
should we do for those who care nothing for life, not even yours? The
truth is that we have no idea what to do with them, because we can not
sense before he died, he traveled to another world where they can not
reach.
A television (TV India) broadcast a telephone conversation with one of
the attackers, who called himself Imran Babar. I can not guarantee the
veracity of the conversation, but the things he says things in the
'terror e-mails that were sent by several other bomb attacks in India.
The things we do not want to talk about everything: the demolition of
the Babri mosque in 1992, the genocidal massacre of Muslims in Gujarat
in 2002, the repression in Kashmir. "You are surrounded," said the
anchor. "You are certainly going to die. Why not? "
"We are dying every day," he replied in a strangely mechanical. "It is
better to live one day as a lion, and die this way." There seems to
change the world. That just seems to want him.
If men were members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, why not ask a large number of
its victims are Muslims, or that its action may cause a severe
reaction against the Muslim community in India, whose rights they
claim fighting for? Terrorism is an ideology of heart, and like most
of the ideologies that have an eye on the table, people are not
included in their calculations, except that the collateral damage. It
has always been part of, and often the target of the terrorist
strategy of exacerbating a situation in order to expose the hidden
defects. The blood of martyrs is fueling terrorism. Indian Hindus need
terrorists dead, the dead terrorist communist proletarians need
Islamist terrorists killed Muslims need. Death becomes the
demonstration, evidence of the victim, who is in the heart of this
project. A single act of terrorism is not to achieve military victory,
at best, it is intended to be a catalyst that triggers something else,
something much bigger than itself, a tectonic realignment. The act
itself is the drama, spectacle and symbolism, and at present the scene
in which turns and acts of bestiality is Live TV. Even if the attack
was condemned by television anchors, the effectiveness of the
terrorist attacks have been amplified by a thousand times on
television.
Through countless hours of analysis and testing of the final editorial
in India, at least, there was very little talk about the elephant in
the room Kashmir, Gujarat and the demolition of the Babri Mosque.
Instead, he had retired diplomats and experts in the strategic
discussion of the pros and cons of a war against Pakistan. We were
rich with the threat of not paying their taxes, unless their safety is
guaranteed (it is good for the poor remain unprotected). We have had
people suggest that the government resigns and all states of India
should be given to an independent company. We had the death of former
prime minister VP Singh, the hero of the Dalits and lower caste and
upper caste Hindus villain pass without mention.
We Suketu Mehta, Maximum City author and co-author of the Bollywood
film Mission Kashmir, gives his version of the famous George Bush:
"Why do they hate us" rhetoric. They analyze fanatiques des raisons
religieuses, à la fois et musulmans haineux Mumbai hindous: "Peut-être
est parcels that Mumbai synonym for profit, profane Blind rêves et une
ouverture d'esprit. Sa prescription ": " The meilleure
réponse aux terrorist biggest dream is to make even more money and a
visit to Mumbai, more than ever. "No to George Bush asked Americans to
go to the store after 9 / 11? Ah yes. 9 / 11, the day when we can not
leave.
Although one chapter of the horror ended in Mumbai, another may have
only just begun. Day after day, a powerful, vicious elite of India,
led by marauding Fox News television that seem almost radical left and
took mindlessly attacking politicians, all politicians, praising the
police and army feasible applying for a police state. Not
surprisingly, those who grew up plump in the gains of democracy (as
is) should be in favor of a police state. The era of "harvesting" is
over ido. We are now in the era of the Force by hoarding and democracy
is a terrible habit of doing on the road.
Dangereuses, comme télévision flashcards stupid the police are
politiciens sont bons of Bad / Good sont des chefs des principaux
ministres sont secrétariat Bad / Armée de terre est de bon
gouvernement est Bad / Good Bad Pakistan Inde est le sont par les
brandit television channels that have plagued its viewers in a state
of almost uncontrollable hysteria.
Unfortunately, this intellectual regression in childhood at a time
when people in India have begun to see that in cases of terrorism,
victims and perpetrators sometimes exchanging roles. It is understood
that the people of Kashmir, due to its terrible experience of the past
20 years, have perfected the art of exquisite. On the mainland, we are
still learning. (In case of Kashmir is not ready to integrate India,
begins to seem as if India were up / breakup eaten in Kashmir.)
It was after 2001 that the Parliament of the first attack of the
questions began to be asked. A campaign by a group of lawyers and
activists described how innocent people were framed by the police and
the press, how the evidence was manufactured, how the witnesses had
lied, how a criminal procedure has been violated every stage of
research. Finally, the court acquitted two of the four accused,
including SAR Geelani, whom the police said that the brains of the
operation. A third, Showkat Guru, was acquitted of all charges against
him, but was then convicted of a new, relatively minor. The Supreme
Court upheld the death sentence of another of the accused, Mohammad
Afzal. In its ruling, the Court has recognized that there is no
evidence that Mohammed Afzal belonged to a terrorist group, but have
to say, quite scandalous, "The collective conscience of society will
only be satisfied if the sentence of capital grants for offender.
"Even today we do not really know who the terrorists who attacked the
Indian Parliament, and that worked for them.
Plus récemment, le 19 septembre de cette année, nous avons eu très
controversée the 'rencontre' à la Chambre Batle in Jamia Nagar, New
Delhi, where the special Cellule the Delhi police abattu deux élèves
musulmans dans leur appartement in Loue des Vertu circumstances are
serious, saying that they were responsible for the series of bombings
in New Delhi, Jaipur and Ahmedabad, in 2008. A Deputy Commissioner of
Police, Mohan Chand Sharma, who played a key role in the attack
research, has died. India was one of many "experts at the" known and
honored to have been summarily executed several suspected
"terrorists." There was an outcry against the special cell of a number
of people, ranging from eyewitnesses in the local community to senior
Congress Party leaders, students, journalists, lawyers, academics and
activists who have demanded a judicial inquiry the incident. In
response, the BJP and LK Advani Mohan Chand Sharma hailed as a
"Braveheart" and launched a concerted campaign aimed at those who had
dared to question the integrity of the police, saying he was
"suicidal" and called " anti - national. Of course, there was no
investigation.
A few days after the event Batle House, another story of the
"terrorists" have appeared on the news. In a report to a judge of the
sessions, the CBI said a special team of Delhi from cells (the same
team that led the House Batle reunion, including Mohan Chand Sharma)
had abducted two men, Irshad Ali Qamar and Moarif in December 2005,
planted in 2 kg of RDX and two pistols on them, and then arrested as
"terrorists" belonging to Al-Badr (which operate from Kashmir). Qamar
Ali and spent years in prison, are just two examples of the hundreds
of Muslims were also jailed, tortured and even killed on false
charges.
This model was changed in October 2008, when the Maharashtra squad to
combat terrorism (ETA), which studied the Malegaon blasts in September
2008 adopted a Hindu Sadhvi Pragya preacher, the man of God called
Swami Dayananda Pande and Lieutenant Colonel Purohit A part of the
Indian army officer. All those arrested belong to Hindu nationalist
organizations, including a group of Hindu supremacy Abhinav Bharat.
The Shiv Sena, the BJP and RSS condemned the Maharashtra ATS, vilified
and his boss, Hemant Karkare, saying it was part of a political
conspiracy, and claims that "the Hindus were not terrorists." LK
Advani has changed his mind about its policy on police and has given
speeches to large enthusiastic crowds in rallies denouncing ETA for
daring to attack the holy men and women.
On November 25 the newspapers reported that ETA was the high profile
investigation into the VHP leader Pravin Togadia possible role in the
Malegaon blasts. The next day, in an extraordinary twist of fate,
Hemant Karkare died in the attacks in Mumbai. Chances are that the new
leader of any kind will be difficult to resist political pressure is
bound to take over the investigation Malegaon.
While the Sangh Parivar does not seem to have reached a final decision
as to whether or not it is anti-national suicide and the question of
the police, Arnab Goswami, anchorperson Times Now TV, accelerated to
the plate. Il a pris à Nomme, ouvertement protestations of diaboliser
et des personnes qui ont osé doute put in the integrity of the police
et des forces armées. Mon nom et le nom de l'avocat well Prashant
Bhushan ont connu à plusieurs reprises. A given moment, while
interviewant an ancien officier de police, Arnab Goswami turn the
camera: " Arundhati Roy and Prashant Bhushan, dit-il, "which
j'espère Regardez ce que vous. Nous vous êtes pensons that
dégueulasse. Pour une d'" TV ancrage pour le faire dans une
atmosphère de l'accusation et celui qui frénétique that prévaut
aujourd'hui, à une incitation the equivalent, as well as the menace,
and probably in other circonstances d'un journaliste, ont cost are
noted.
Ainsi, selon un homme qui aspire à être le prochain premier ministre
de l'Inde, et un autre visage qui est le grand public d'une chaîne de
télévision, les citoyens n'ont pas le droit de poser des questions à
propos of police. Cela dans un pays à l'ombre d'une histoire des des
attentats terrorist suspects, trouble des enquêtes, rencontres et de
Fausse " ". Cela dans un pays qui possède le plus grand name
of gardiens décès dans le monde et Pourtant, le refus de ratified the
International Covenant on Torture. One pays où ceux qui font les
chambres de torture sont les plus chanceux, car ils ont au moins à
être échappé " " interviewed par de notre rencontre les
specialists. One of the countries where the line between démarcation
Souterraine le monde et la rencontre specialists practically n'existe
pas.
Comment devrions of us dont ceux dégoûté les coeurs ont été par la
connaissance de l'ensemble de ce point de vue des attentats Mumbai, à
faire et que leur sujet? Il ya ceux qui font remarquer que la
stratégie américaine a été un succès dans la mesure où les États-Unis
n'a pas subi une attaque majeure sur son sol depuis le 9 / 11.
Cependant, certains diront que ce que l'Amérique est aujourd'hui la
souffrance est bien pire. Si l'idée derrière le 9 / 11 attaques
terroristes a été à inciter l'Amérique en montrant ses vraies
couleurs, ce qui pourrait le plus grand succès des terroristes ont
demandé? L'armée américaine est enlisée impossible dans deux guerres,
qui ont fait les États-Unis le plus haï dans le monde. Ces guerres ont
largement contribué à la unraveling de l'économie américaine, et qui
sait, peut-être, l'empire américain. (Serait-il possible que battues,
ont bombardé l'Afghanistan, le cimetière de l'Union soviétique, sera
l'effondrement de celle-ci aussi?) Des centaines de milliers de
personnes y compris des milliers de soldats américains ont perdu la
vie en Irak et en Afghanistan. La fréquence des attaques terroristes
sur le U. S alliés / agents (y compris l'Inde) et U. S dans le reste
du monde a augmenté de façon spectaculaire depuis le 9 / 11. George
Bush, l'homme qui a dirigé la réponse des États-Unis à 9 / 11 est un
chiffre non seulement méprisés international, mais aussi par son
propre peuple. Qui peut prétendre que les États-Unis est en train de
gagner la guerre contre le terrorisme?
Homeland Security a coûté au gouvernement américain des milliards de
dollars. Peu de pays, et certainement pas l'Inde, ne peut se permettre
ce genre de prix. Mais même si nous le pouvions, le fait est que ce
vaste pays d'origine de la nôtre ne peut pas être garantie dans la
police ou de la façon dont les États-Unis l'a été. Ce n'est pas ce
genre de pays. Nous avons un état d'hostilité des armes nucléaires qui
est lentement tourner hors de contrôle en tant que voisin, nous avons
une occupation militaire au Cachemire et d'une honteuse persécutés,
pauvres minorité de plus de 150 millions de musulmans qui sont ciblés
en tant que communauté et poussé contre le mur , dont les jeunes ne
voient pas la justice à l'horizon, et qui, si elles étaient totalement
perdre espoir et radicaliser, à la fin comme une menace non seulement
pour l'Inde, mais pour le monde entier. Si dix hommes peuvent retarder
le NSG commandos, et la police pendant trois jours, et si elle a un
demi-million de soldats pour maintenir la vallée du Cachemire, faire
les calculs. Quel type de la sécurité peuvent garantir l'Inde?
Ni d'ailleurs, aucune autre solution miracle. Anti-terrorisme, les
lois ne sont pas destinées à des terroristes, ils sont pour les
personnes que les gouvernements n'aiment pas. C'est la raison pour
laquelle ils ont un taux de moins de 2%. Ils sont simplement un moyen
de mettre les personnes à l'écart sans inconvénient mise en liberté
sous caution pour un long moment et finit par les laisser. Les
terroristes comme ceux qui ont attaqué Mumbai ne sont guère
susceptibles d'être découragés par la perspective de se voir refuser
la libération sous caution ou d'être condamné à mort. C'est ce qu'ils
veulent.
Ce que nous avons rencontré aujourd'hui est Blowback, le résultat
cumulatif de plusieurs décennies de solutions rapides et sales actes.
Le tapis de réprimer sous nos pieds.
The only way to contain (it would be naïve to say end) terrorism is
to look at the monster in the mirror. We're standing at a fork in the
road. One sign says Justice, the other Civil War. There's no third
sign and there's no going back. Choose.
bademiyansubhanallah
Posted: Thu, Mar 5 2009. 9:07 PM ISTLounge
Too soon to understand
What are the myths surrounding the terror attacks in Mumbai? This
collection tries to shatter someSidin Vadukut
The chronicling of terrorism in our lives poses special challenges for
writers, journalists and even film-makers. How does one interpret
terror attacks, especially in fiction? Can the enormity of the attacks
on the World Trade Center in New York or Mumbai translate well on to
the comparatively minuscule canvas of the life of one person, a family
or even many families?
Vantage point: An NSG commando takes position near Nariman House to
fight terrorists. Satish Bate / Hindustan Times
Even a reportage-driven account of such events, shorn as it is of the
fiction writer’s judgements, is difficult to pull off. How does one
balance scale and depth?
But perhaps the most important—and humane—question is this: Is it too
soon to explain? Are we even ready to investigate and understand?
This is a question that confronts both reader and writer.
Thankfully for 26/11 Mumbai Attacked, a collection of reported essays
and commentary edited by Harinder Baweja, one simple fact helps ease
these crises of conscience: There is still no authoritative
explanation of the events that rocked India with their brazenness more
than three months ago.
Baweja, an editor with news magazine Tehelka, brings together several
voices—mostly journalists—each one of whom picks up an individual
thread in the story of the Mumbai attacks. So while TV anchor Rahul
Shivshankar chronicles the events at Nariman House, magazine
journalist Ashish Khetan describes the carnage at the two five-star
hotels.
26/11 Mumbai Attacked is a book in two parts. The first half is a
straight, factual narration of what happened at various places in the
city on and from the evening of 26 November. The second comprises
essays by names such as Julio Ribeiro, Bachi Karkaria and Baweja
herself.
There is little to complain about in the first half of the book. The
stories are narrated in reasonable detail and from several
perspectives. The reporting is so shorn of ornamentation that the
prose sometimes unsettles with its matter-of-fact tone: “What he did
not anticipate was that there was one more terrorist hiding inside the
Palm Lounge who had positioned himself along the front wall. As he
stepped into the lounge the second terrorist opened fire. Major
Unnikrishnan retaliated but he had lost the initiative. After heavy
firing from both sides Unnikrishnan was killed.” And then the story
continues without a break. Not even in the paragraph.
While the narrative is largely unemotional, the stories read one after
the other give a vivid image of the chaos among the security forces
that night. Police officers had hardly come to terms with one scene
when reports flashed in of shots somewhere else.
Mumbai residents, as is their way, initially brushed off the news as
stray incidents. And then the chilling pattern began to reveal itself.
This wasn’t the faceless, random death of bombs or floods, but a
clinically planned pogrom. A stunned city hunkered down for an ordeal
that would go on and on for hours wearing thin its famed resilience.
Meanwhile officers scrambled, constables stumbled into war zones with
World War II-era weapons, and the terrorists went about their
business, their resolve reflected in transcripts of telephone calls
they made to handlers:
“Handler: Aag lagi ki nahi? (Has the fire started or not?)
Terrorist: Nahi, aag nahi lagi. (No, the fire has not started.) Woh
gadde-shadde… parde-warde… ikattha kar raha hun aag lagane waaste (I
am making a heap of the mattresses and curtains for the fire).”
Which is where even the most stoic essay cannot suppress the tragedy
of what happened in Mumbai. The terrorist, as he goes about killing
and pillaging, speaks in the same language and even the same rhyming
slang that countless Indian Punjabis do.
The book sours somewhat in the second half when reportage gives way to
analysis. While there is nothing really wrong with the analysis, the
essays slow the relentless, tragic momentum of the first half. And
here, one must find fault with the scope of the book. One is left with
the feeling that the first half of the book, on its own, would have
left a deeper impact than the combined package. In film terms, it is
like watching back-to-back shows of United 93 and Fahrenheit 9/11.
There are a few other minor quibbles with the book: It is woefully
short of explanatory diagrams and maps. The only map in the book is
vague and pointless. With so many people and locations involved,
readers could have used some visual aids to help them along. The
editing of some of the essays could have been much tighter—marring the
otherwise well-paced narration.
Overall, Baweja’s book is comprehensively researched and earnestly put
together. While it may not be the best book to emerge from the 26/11
attacks—there are many more scheduled for this year—it is a notable
effort that shines with its sincerity.
bademiyansubhanallah
Posted: Sun, Dec 14 2008. 11:46 PM ISTHome
Facing ostracism, lawyers defend right to represent terror suspects
On 12 March 1993, a series of bomb explosions across Mumbai left
nearly 250 people dead and hundreds injuredMalathi Nayak
New Delhi: Should we conduct an SMS poll to decide whether we should
hang (Mohammed Ajmal) Kasab?” city-based lawyer Trideep Pais asks
rhetorically.
He was reacting to a Mumbai-based lawyer group passing a resolution
that forbids members from representing the only surviving member of
the terrorist group involved in the Mumbai attack on 26 November.
No bar: Trideep Pais. Sudhanshu Malhotra / Mint
The Bombay Metropolitan Magistrate Court’s Bar Association (BMMCBA)—
that passed the resolution—comprises 1,060 lawyers who practise in
that city’s courts.
Pais’ argument is simple: Every criminal has the right to be
represented in court. But lawyers such as Pais who represent alleged
terrorist groups or terror suspects face social ostracism and
political harassment.
This must change, they say.
Pais and others who have represented terror suspects say that with the
rise of terrorism and the strong public sentiment against it,
situations such as Kasab being boycotted by lawyers will test India’s
criminal justice system.
“Criminal justice in our country has to reach a point where no one is
denied his right to be represented. And when I say I am representing a
terrorist, one will merely gasp—but that’s all. There should be no
value judgement on whom the lawyer is representing,” says Pais.
According to Suraj Narain Prasad Sinha, chairman of the Bar Council of
India, such resolutions by lawyer groups are “unethical” since they
are not in the “spirit of the law”.
“As per the Indian Constitution and criminal laws, an accused is
innocent until proven guilty in court, and the presumption is that he
should not be condemned unless he is convicted,” Sinha says. “A lawyer
could personally decry such acts but all legal assistance must be
given.”
Duty first: Mumbai-based advocate Farhana Shah says that lawyer groups
must not pass resolutions such as boycotting terror suspects. Abhijit
Bhatlekar / Mint
To be sure, not every lawyer buys that argument.
Says Rohini Wagh, president of BMMCBA, “They (terror suspects) must
not be defended. Besides the human right of a terrorist, we (also)
have to look at the human rights of the innocent victims as well.”
In 2006, Pais represented the Students Islamic Movement of India
(SIMI) in a litigation challenging a ban on the group before a special
tribunal constituted to hear the lawsuit.
The Union government first banned SIMI in 2001 under the Unlawful
Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, after the 11 September attack on
the World Trade Center in New York. The Act mandated the ban be
reviewed after two years.
He recalls how his friends used to jokingly ask him if his fees came
from Pakistan. “It is fun to joke but everyone in the country must
understand that every criminal has the right to be represented by a
lawyer in court,” Pais maintains.
bademiyansubhanallah
Posted: Mon, Aug 18 2008. 12:44 AM ISTEconomy and Politics
Serial blasts: SIMI activists sent to 14-day custody
Fifty-five people were killed in the blasts that left several people
injured
PTI
Ahmedabad: Nine activists of the banned Students Islamic Movement of
India, or SIMI, arrested in connection with the 26 July Ahmedabad
serial blasts, were on Sunday remanded in police custody for 14 days
by a local court.
Fifty-five people were killed in the blasts that left several people
injured.
Tragedy: A blast site in Gujarat. Photograph: Amit Dave / Reuters
Metropolitan magistrate J.K. Pandya passed the order after the police
sought their custody for interrogation.
All the accused — Jahid Sheikh, Yunus Mansuri, Shamsuddin Sheikh, Arif
Kadri, Gyasuddin, Imran, Usman Agarbattiwala, Iqbal Sheikh and Sajid
Mansuri — are in the age group of 20-25.
Mufti Abu Bashir, who the Gujarat police said was the mastermind
behind the blasts, was arrested in Uttar Pradesh and brought to
Ahmedabad on Saturday night on a three-day transit remand.
Earlier, a lawyer representing some of the accused submitted in the
court that his clients were innocent.
“The police have shown arrests of all my clients on Saturday but they
were in police custody since 31 July. So the court should not give
further remand,” lawyer Hasim Qureshi said.
Earlier this month, a tribunal had lifted the ban on SIMI, saying the
government had been unable to supply any new evidence of illegal
activities. The next day, the Supreme Court reversed the decision,
saying the ban would stay in place until it could consider further
evidence to be presented by the government within three weeks.
Set up in 1977 near the Aligarh Muslim University in Uttar Pradesh,
SIMI was formed to “free Islam” from what its founders called, modern-
day distortions. Obeidullah Fahad, one of the founders, had been
quoted in the media as saying that SIMI was formed to provide Islamic
education to the youth “because what was being implemented in society
is not pure Islam”.
(Sunil Raghu contributed to this story.)
bademiyansubhanallah
Navy covers intelligence, synergy gaps exposed by 26/11
29 Aug 2009, 1631 hrs IST, PTI
NEW DELHI: With the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks exposing gaps in
intelligence sharing and synergy among maritime forces, the latest
Navy's doctrine has laid greater emphasis on these two critical
aspects of security.
"There are subtle, but notable changes in the 'principles of war'
outlined in the revised Maritime Doctrine, released yesterday, with
the inclusion of 'synergy' and 'intelligence' as key factors," Navy
officials said here on Saturday.
The doctrine, first brought out in 2004, lays down its task as an
armed force furthering Indian security interests and also provides the
fundamentals for readiness and response planning for the Navy.
"The chapter on India's maritime environment and interests has been
significantly revamped and expanded to include the geostrategic
importance of India's location and the Indian Ocean Region, maritime
terrorism, piracy and coastal security," they said.
Outgoing Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta released the 2009 edition of
the doctrine that would provide a common understanding of universally
applicable maritime concepts not only to the uniformed fraternity, but
also to the public at large.
The review of the doctrine, Navy officials said, was necessitated by
the ongoing changes in the geostrategic environment, the growing needs
of the nation and consequently the navy, evolving operational
complexities and transformational changes sweeping the maritime
domain.
However, the new edition of the maritime doctrine continues to cover
the fundamental framework of the principle practices and procedures
that govern the development and employment of the military maritime
power, they added.
The chapter on concepts of maritime power was also revamped
considerably to reflect the contribution of the government and the
people through a maritime attitude and consciousness, and economic
factors such as ship building, they said.
"Since doctrines evolve over time, the present edition maintains its
temporal relevance, addressing the tenets of contemporary maritime
thought, with emphasis on the Indian maritime environment," they
said.
An entirely new chapter called Naval Combat Power highlights the ever-
changing demands on conceptual, physical and human concepts emerging
from rapid transformational changes in technology and consequently
tactics, they said.
"The laws governing armed conflict have been covered for a better
understanding of the legal aspects covering combat," they said.
A conscious effort was made to move forward from the commonalities of
maritime thought, as applicable to most sea faring nations, to address
specific maritime concepts, concerns and developments applicable to
India and the Indian Navy, the officials said.
bademiyansubhanallah
Global Terrorism: 'Pre-emption' is the recourse
Dr VN Arora
In the wake of long drawn terror strikes, particularly the tragic
events of 26/11 and a perceived threat from our neighboring country
Pakistan, India has been forced to promulgate a New National Security
Strategy. One critical element of this strategy is the concept of ‘Pre-
emption’- the use of military force in advance of a first use of force
by the adversary. In its New National Security Strategy purportedly
discussed and approved by the Political Affair Committee on Sunday
last, this critical element has been approved with a modifications –
India may go for unilateral precision strikes if the situation
warrants. It’s a contentious doctrine under International Law, the
claim of a sovereign country to use pre-emptive course.
Although, traditional International Law required to be “an imminent
danger of attack” before pre-emption would be permissible, the
situation forces that “India must adapt the Concept of Imminent Threat
to the capabilities and objectives of today’s adversary”. The world
public opinion approves that Pakistan has become epicenter of Global
Terrorism and its political objectives against India are also not
under veil.
In fact greater the threat, the greater is the risk of inaction and
more compelling the case for taking anticipatory action to defend
ourselves.
Under the U N Charter paradigm for the use of force, unilateral
preemptive force without an eminent threat is clearly unlawful. But
this charter framework is for the states. What about those outfits,
which are controlled by ‘non state actors’ and operating from
adversary’s soil. I repeat by non state actors operating from
adversary’s soil.
From the age of Kautilya to Machiavelli to Clausewitz to Quincy Wright
phenomenon of war has been linked to politics but now the trend is
deviating from the state. Horizontal expansion of terror strikes,
globalization of violence and world discourse affecting peace and
security is not on the line of age-old direction – the ‘direction of
armed conflict’. The academics like us know that war is an act of
violence which permits to carry on armed conflict by two or more
states. But this act of violence now stands transformed into a Global
phenomenon almost de-linked with politics.
Yes the phenomenon of present day terrorism called International
Terrorism has transformed the concept of use of violence by state. If
we accept Clausewitz’s famous dictum that war is politics by other
means, then we ought to conceptualize terrorism as war by other means.
Terrorism wages war by intimidation, by seeking to provoke mass fear
and demoralization so as to undermine public confidence in governments
and break the public will to resist. Terrorism applies violence for
political ends.
The present day Terrorism manifests two frameworks. 1- Age old
terrorism: Terrorists strikes inside or outside country for
essentially national objectives. 2- Global Phenomenon: Not directed
specifically against any territory or any regime but is transcendental
in aiming to transform the belief system.
This new form of terrorism emanates from a belief system of one
community, but seeks through mass violent means to transform the
belief system of their targets; a belief system which is global. This
new terrorism is essentially global in its purview rather than
national or country specific. This is the reason world leaders landed
one after another in Indian capital after 26/11.
The international peace and security have seldom felt so far away as
it is today. Today the peace and security stands threatened worldwide.
The impotence to understand the dynamics of conflict has paved the way
for this monster – global terrorism. Now every suffering nation is
busy in promulgating a pre-emptive policy having a shift from conflict
prevention, diplomatic management and deterrence be it a developed
country like U S or developing country India.
The discussion of peace and security today is stale. It is also
dangerous. Though the dynamics of conflict since 1989 has vigorously
changed but states still believe in mechanism of joint action. By
using wrong mechanisms and by reacting to fear we are playing into the
hands of those whose only skill is management of fear.
The need of doctrine to be used against Global Terrorism is: The macro
violence can only be addressed through micro-control.
bademiyansubhanallah
Security prompts checks on telecoms gear in India
By Bappa Majumdar
Reuters
Tuesday, September 1, 2009; 9:04 AM
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India is considering a new law allowing strict
checking of all imported telecommunications equipment, the latest move
to plug security holes after last year's Mumbai attacks.
Officials said on Tuesday the government also wants to set up a
telecoms equipment testing center, where all imported gadgets and
technology sold by private operators could be first tested to ensure
they do not compromise India's security.
"Discussions have been held with telecom operators on the security
aspects," said Bharti Vaid, telecoms ministry spokeswoman.
She said the complex nature of the negotiations with multiple telecom
companies and trading issues means it could take some time before the
stage is set for the new legislation.
Already, the government has asked the heads of India's top mobile
companies to issue self-regulatory guidelines in sourcing telecoms
equipment from abroad.
Operators including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Vodafone
and Idea have been asked to come out with guidelines on sourcing
equipment, Indian newspapers said last week.
Equipment suppliers must register with the Department of
Telecommunications, allow monitoring and checking by security
officials and get a clearance from the home ministry, said a home
ministry official, who could not be identified because he is not
authorized to speak to the media.
The government has embarked on an overhaul of its security systems
after Islamist militants killed 166 people in Mumbai last November.
The militants used a satellite phone while traveling to Mumbai by sea
and kept in touch with their handlers in Pakistan on mobile phones and
Internet telephones.
Police intelligence bureau officials have also suggested that only
Indians head all top telecom company posts to reduce the threat of
phone calls being intercepted or monitored, officials said.
As part of the security drive, the government has put restrictions on
state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd placing equipment orders with
Chinese vendors, officials said.
A decision on banning Chinese telecom equipment altogether is now
pending.
The National Security Council also wants to arm the government with
powers to cancel or suspend foreign direct investments that it may see
as linked to militant groups and stop acquisitions that are viewed as
against New Delhi's interest.
The council in its report last week said it wants to scrutinize FDI
particularly from countries such as China, Hong Kong, Afghanistan,
North Korea, Mauritius and the Cayman Islands before being approved.
(Editing by Krittivas Mukherjee and Bill Tarrant)
chhotemianinshallah
Despite Promises to Bolster Defenses, India Remains Vulnerable
Months After Terrorists Shocked Mumbai, Experts Cite Persistent Gaps
in Security
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, August 22, 2009
MUMBAI -- After nine months of political grandstanding and a high-
profile trial of the lone, surviving gunman from last year's terrorist
assault on this city, India's security gaps remain so wide that
counterterrorism experts and high-ranking police officials fear the
country is still vulnerable to a similar attack.
India's police and armed forces have yet to receive the promised boost
in manpower and modernized equipment needed to stave off another
strike, security experts say. Of particular concern are the persistent
lapses in monitoring India's coast, which should have been the first
line of defense when the attackers sailed here from the Pakistani port
city of Karachi and then killed more than 170 people.
With extremist violence growing in Afghanistan and Pakistan, India's
ability to prevent attacks through intelligence gathering and
defensive measures has become more urgent than ever, say security
experts and diplomats. The Obama administration sees India as an ally
in containing the spread of Islamist militancy in South Asia, and the
issue is one of the central sources of tension in India's relations
with its neighbor, Pakistan.
The November attack exposed India's inability to protect its financial
capital from 10 young, well-trained gunmen who brought the city to a
standstill for three days by taking hundreds of hostages in two luxury
hotels and a Jewish center. The outrage many Indians felt then has
since shifted from the government's security failures to the surviving
gunman, Ajmal Amir Kasab. Kasab is on trial, and the 21-year-old could
be sentenced to death by hanging.
"The real issue is whether the attack could happen again. And yes, of
course it could," said Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute
for Conflict Management. "There's been no substantial changes in
security since the attacks, just more speeches. The gaps are huge. Our
national bird is the peacock. But it should be the ostrich, because we
are burying our heads in the sand."
One of the biggest gaps is technological, security experts say. The
gunmen who came ashore were equipped with assault rifles, Global
Positioning System navigators, BlackBerry phones loaded with
switchable SIM cards, Google Earth maps and VoIP applications to
pinpoint their targets and talk to their Pakistani handlers under the
radar of conventional surveillance. By contrast, the first police
officers they encountered were armed with World War II-era bolt-action
rifles. According to a confidential police report, most police
officers had fewer than five rounds of ammunition and few of them had
access to working cellphones.
Still, some terrorism experts say the real key to stopping similar
attacks is ramping up security along the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean
coast. Unlike its heavily guarded land borders, India's coastal waters
are sparsely monitored, with fewer than 100 boats and 45 aircraft for
about 4,700 miles of shoreline.
"Do the math. It's frightening," said Uday Bhaskar, director of the
National Maritime Foundation, a New Delhi-based think tank. "With
terrorists using technology, the whole ballgame has changed on sea and
land. India is way behind."
The expense of acquiring better technology is only part of the
problem, he said. Finding enough tech-savvy police officers and
intelligence agents is a big hurdle in India, especially now that most
potential recruits -- including those with degrees in engineering or
information technology -- are snapped up by the country's lucrative
outsourcing industry.
Since the Mumbai attacks, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has vowed to
overhaul the country's intelligence and police forces and upgrade
their weapons and training. On Monday, he told the country's chief
ministers at an internal security meeting in New Delhi, the capital,
that cross-border terrorism was still a "pervasive threat." He said he
had received "credible information" about militant groups in
neighboring Pakistan planning more attacks on Indian soil.
"We need to be prepared for encountering more sophisticated
technologies and enhanced capabilities. We also need to guard our sea
frontier as vigilantly as our land border," Singh said.
India's defense spending is expected to surge by 25 percent this year,
to $29 billion, with some of that earmarked for weapons upgrades.
India is creating a federal investigations unit similar to the FBI as
well as four regional hubs for the country's top commando unit, the
National Security Guard. The New Delhi-based NSG was criticized for
its slow response to the Mumbai attacks: It took the commandos at
least eight hours to find a flight to Mumbai, and two hours in heavy
traffic to get from Mumbai's airport to the besieged hotels. It is
working closely with a 10-member team from the FBI, which is
investigating the attacks. Six Americans were killed during the
siege.
At the security meeting, Home Minister P. Chidambaram told the
governors of India's 28 states that they have grown lax on security
since the November attacks and should begin filling the 150,000
vacancies in police departments nationwide. "There are inadequate
training facilities for intelligence gathering and intelligence
analysis," Chidambaram said, according to a transcript of the
meeting.
His office did not respond to repeated requests by fax and telephone
for an interview.
Vikram Sood, a retired chief of India's intelligence service, said in
an interview that street-level intelligence across India has grown so
weak that most police have little knowledge of goings on in the
country's increasingly transient and teeming urban centers. The police
did not even know that a Jewish center was in the Nariman House, one
of the sites taken over by the gunmen, Sood said.
"The beat constable system has completely eroded in India," said Sood,
who is now vice president of the Center for International Relations at
the Observer Research Foundation, an independent think tank. "India is
one of the most under-policed countries in the world. We really need
on-the-ground intelligence."
He also said more interagency cooperation is needed.
"Mumbai was a defining moment when for 60 hours we were watching this
unfold and nobody seemed to know who was in charge," he said. If there
was information that a similar attack was imminent, "there still won't
be enough boats or manpower to stop it."
The lack of quality policing is only getting worse as India's economy
and public transportation systems grow, said Meenakshi Ganguly, a
researcher at Human Rights Watch, which released a recent report
detailing India's police deficiencies. India has roughly one police
officer for every 1,000 people, less than half the U.S. average. Many
are underpaid, overworked and under-trained, according to Ganguly and
other watchdog groups that monitor India's police.
"The truth is everyone was caught unaware," said B.N. Raut, a director
and the second in command of Mumbai's 56,000-strong paid civilian
auxiliary forces. "At least now we are talking about these things.
Maybe in memory of those who died we should be doing more than just
talking."
Inside the city's main train station, which was attacked by Kasab and
an accomplice, security remains lax. Most visitors pass through metal
detectors amid a crush of bodies, and backpacks and purses are rarely
checked.
"It's pretty useless. We have new security guards at the entrance, but
you see them doing crosswords," said Manoj Khan, a manager at a coffee
shop that was attacked.
He said he was unable to eat for days after the attacks. "And then,"
he said, "everything returned to normal."
...and I am Sid harth
bademiyansubhanallah
Don't doubt our sincerity in 26/11 probe, give proof: Pak
Agencies
Monday , Sep 07, 2009 at 1945 hrs
Islamabad:
With India accusing it of "deliberately stifling" the probe into
Mumbai attacks, Pakistan on Monday said New Delhi should assist it in
investigation by giving "concrete proof" instead of making allegations
about its sincerity.
"India should not doubt our sincerity in handling this case. Instead
of levelling allegations, they should provide us with concrete proof
so that we could take this case forward in a meaningful way," Foreign
Office spokesman Abdul Basit said.
Basit said Pakistan's judiciary would decide on the dossiers provided
by India with information regarding the Mumbai attacks. "We want to
make it clear to India that this is a purely judicial matter and the
governments of Pakistan and India cannot do anything about this," he
told BBC.
"Only the courts can take a decision on the dossiers," he said, adding
that court proceedings had begun against five suspects arrested by
Pakistani authorities in connection with the attacks. "The matter is
now in the court and it is incorrect to comment on this," Basit said.
Asked about Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram's remarks about
Pakistan's "unwillingness" to prosecute Laskhar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz
Saeed, Basit said such comments went against the spirit of the joint
statement issued by the Pakistani and Indian premiers after their
meeting Sharm el-Sheikh in July. India put its composite dialogue with
Pakistan on hold in the wake of Mumbai attacks, blamed on LeT.
Chidambaram had on Saturday accused Pakistan of "deliberately
stifling" the 26/11 probe.
Comments (25) |
ridiculous
By: ahmed | 08-Sep-2009
do not doubt our sincerity.we are sincere downplayer.
It is always NEXT TIME!!!
By: Umesh | 08-Sep-2009
I request Laskhar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed to summon a press
conference before he sent his man to India for another episode like
Mumbai next, preferably the BBC and state that "Mr, Hafiz Saeed,
founder of LeT is sending a batch of somany lads to India to kill
people and keep killing unless they get killed". The video should
flash across the world, so that the Pakistani authorities will feel
that this is a genuine acceptance by Mr Saeed and they may think od
prosecuting him. Or will they still claim that the video is a fake
one? who knos!
wicked rotation
By: sv | 08-Sep-2009
All we know that from the birth of Pakistan, it is giving trouble to
India unnecessarily.The nuisance value of Pakistan is equivalent to
continuous war between the two countries.It is jelous about the
progress of Inda and always tried to harass Inida by way of anything
by its choice.26/11 incidence is one of the part of it.This malign
rotation will rotate until Pakistan is on the map of earth.
Jokers
By: Rajesh | 08-Sep-2009
Its useless to speak to Pakistan, the Politicians are jokers who do
not enjoy any responsibilty They are just puppets who act as per their
ushers. They do not have enough political knowledge. Let all people
pray together for justice. That is the only solution for uneducated
Congress leaders are below par far, too below
By: Sajjan Pandit | 08-Sep-2009
Congress by its timid approach to any international issue is bringing
the country's honour level down to a pitiable state. Let the voters
topple their cart of "Vote Bank" and bring in some other intelligent
party. Earlier, the better.
VOTE BANK POLITICS
By: Dr rC Dikshit | Tuesday , 8 Sep '09 8:17:30 AM
It is time so called liberal secular Hindus wake up to the reality of
the damages inflicted on Hindu Society by Congress Government's
selfish votebank politics.Let Hindus unite and show the Unscruplus
Political Association the way out
No one is doubting
By: Shiva Gopalakrishnan | Tuesday , 8 Sep '09 7:51:11 AM
I do not think any Indian is doubting your sincerity. We just know
that you are NOT. The only problem is that you are just the tail of a
snake, and it is not wise to hit a snake on the tail.
Avoid pakistan
By: nv | Tuesday , 8 Sep '09 7:32:21 AM
Pak is a useless country. Avoid it at all costs. Its good that the
filth got separated in the beginning itself. Garbage is always thrown
out of the house, not kept inside.
Why feed intelligence reports to Pakistan?
By: Kumar | Tuesday , 8 Sep '09 7:21:17 AM
Why Pakis want more proof? Simple. They want to learn the strength and
weakness of our intelligence. Once they learn it, they can improve
their future attacks. Our govt. is fool to believe that Pakis will act
on people whom they trained to attack India.
Pak sincerity
By: Azeez | Tuesday , 8 Sep '09 5:33:12 AM
If you need concrete evidence it is very easy! Just ask your ISI!!
They can provide you with all the evidences including names and
addresses, photos of all the terrorists they chose for training and
also provide the audio/video evidences of the actual training they
gave the terrorists to attack India covertly. India is wasting time
and resources in trusting NAPAKIS! They will never punish the ones
whom they themselves trained!!!
No to Appeasement
By: Ponkoh Sivakumaran | Tuesday , 8 Sep '09 4:28:05 AM
If Pakistan doubts the evidence, this can be quickly settled by
submitting it to an international tribunal or the International Court.
Why not try this? Then, it will put an end to the squealing of
Pakistan about the lack of evidence.It is a sufficient violation for
Pakistan to permit its territory to be used as a place from which
hostility towards India is aimed. Pakis are stealing a march on India
on several fronts. India lacks an aggressive foreign policy. It is
still embarking on appeasement rather than assertion of rights.
God save pakistan
By: ganesha | Tuesday , 8 Sep '09 3:30:54 AM
Protecting and training poisonous snakes in pakistan will eventually
lead to their self destruction. Leave pakistant to ruin itself. let us
concentrate on putting our house in order by creating best security in
the world.
More Proof
By: Pebi | Tuesday , 8 Sep '09 3:18:06 AM
Justice delayed is justice denied. The whole world has seen the proof
on CNN IBN and other networks in realtime. Hiding behind excuses of
proof to stand up in Pak phoney court systems is just that.India need
to ramp up its diplomatic and economic might to enforce justice and
the world will start looking up to India as being a responsible
International player.
"Sincerity" joke
By: Hero Vaz | Monday , 7 Sep '09 22:10:27 PM
Paki "sincerity" is the joke of the millennium. The Pakis don't even
feel bad that the world holds them in contempt. In fact, they love to
wallow in that contempt.
Did you hear the crack of the slap?
By: Shobha Deodhar | Monday , 7 Sep '09 22:10:02 PM
Now, this is exactly the dose (slap?)Congress
Pakis sincerity in doubt.
By: kk | Monday , 7 Sep '09 21:34:45 PM
Abdul Basit the arrogant minister expressing his dismay at Indian
reaction at Pakis response to dossier and telling us the Pakis
sincerity. What a joke the Pakis are and they keep repeating not
enough evidence with out even acting on what they have got. No more
dossiers to Pakis. Pakis are untrust worthy. Thay bark and bark and by
telling us don't level allegation at Pakis. What have they done over
the last year since the massacre nothing but denial denail and denial.
Pakis keep shifting the goal post delibrately and once they got the
dollars from US they will forget like all those previous pending
cases. They are trying to fool the world about Pakis sincerity which
is non existance towards Indian. Hell with Pak and just get on with
out any further embarrasment.No more dialogue with the Pakis.
26/11
By: Dr. Ram Chander Sharma | Monday , 7 Sep '09 21:14:27 PM
It is the Indian politicians who are falling into trap and right from
the begining the congress vetran Sh. AR Antulay spread the
assasination theory into the death of ATS Chief of the Mumbai police.
He was given the congress ticket. Now the elections of three assemlies
of three states due next month the UPA parteners dearly need the
minorties votes including that of Maharashtra. India at present must
leave the 26/11 case as Pakistan has come out of the possible military
strikes mooted at that time into the terrorists camps inside POK.
Pakistan has nicely faced this terror strike for her advatage with the
assistace for America both politically and financially. The only
things now remain how to tackle the clever Kasab who knows the
handicaps of Indian democracy and the judiciary. Well he will have his
way in getting the choicest perfumes, news papers and of course the
Basmati rice baryani.
PAKISTAN
By: Vinod Kumar | Monday , 7 Sep '09 21:08:26 PM
SONIA'S UPA UNDER THE SO CALLED PM AND THEIR ALLIES..THE PAKIS ARE
BOTH MOTHER FUCKING BASTARTDS...BOTH ARE SINCERELY FOOLING THE HINDUS
OF INDIA...THE INDIAN EXPRESS WHICH BOASTS OF "FEARLESS
JOURNALISM"...AND THE NDTV..ALSO FALL UNDER THE SAME CATEGORY...FUCK
THEM ALL
PAK /India
By: Varinder | Monday , 7 Sep '09 21:07:31 PM
How can India have normal relations with Pak in such a state of
affairs? Only fool will trust Pak and Indian government is
biggest.....
Pak prevarications on 26/11
By: RJ Khurana | Monday , 7 Sep '09 21:01:59 PM
I do not have a shadow of doubt that from day one the government of
India knew that Pakistan was not sincere in pursuing the culprits of
26/11 Mumbai attacks and yet, for reasons unknown, it went on sending
dossier after dossier to Pakistan in the belief that Pakistan was
going to act on them. Every time Pakistan responded by saying that it
was keen to act but the evidence supplied by India was insufficient
and asked for more proof. Till now 5 dossiers have already been given
to Pakistan and the 6th may be on the way and all of them have been
rejected on the grounds of insufficient evidence. Tired of Pak's
identical response since the submission of first dossier, the Home
Minister of India admitted on September 5 that Pak was not sincere in
punishing the culprits. Valuable time has been lost. How one wishes
this wisdom had dawned on the government earlier and it had taken
recourse to other means to make Pakistan act!
Pakistan sincerity?
By: SR | Monday , 7 Sep '09 20:49:27 PM
Pakistan and sincere?Is it a joke?.10 months of denials and double
talk.What about the Islamic(Muslim) terror camps/factories across the
border,what are they doing about that.Indian authorities should
completetly stop talking and responding to Pakis verbal diarrhea.Do
what the Israelis do,take appropriate action first.Isnt Hamas
terrorists quiet now after a good pounding they got.
think before you speak
By: jk | Tuesday , 8 Sep '09 14:57:55 PM
Pakistan is not palestine, any Indian war plane coming into pakistani
territory will not go alive.
Kicks from Pakis
By: Hero Vaz | Monday , 7 Sep '09 20:16:13 PM
Pak's "sincerity" is not "doubted"; only its insincerity is
confirmed !!! The Paki scoundrels are continuing to play their dirty
game. India has to learn how to treat the Pakis like dirt. When they
are treated like dirt, they may begin to behave in a sensible and
civilised way. It is India's gutlessness that has encouraged the Pakis
to keep fooling India. Every kick the Pakis have given India is fully
earned.
Sincerity of Pakistan
By: ramkesav | Monday , 7 Sep '09 20:15:33 PM
The greatest joke of the year. Pakistan was born out of lies and
insincere leadership of the then Congress. Its creator Jinna was
insincere both in his public and private life. May be sincereity is a
sin in Pakistni language. We have not forgotten the Kargil trespass,
Mr. Abdul Basit. It was only two days after his cordial meeting with
the then Indian PM Mr Atalji, your insincere PM Nawas Sherief ordered
for Kargil aggression. You can try to fool your American friends, who
are using Pakistan to undermine India's supremecy in the continent.
You can not fool Indians. We may be silent and not taking any actions
against the intruders from your land. That does not mean all Indians
believe you. The ruling establishment here may have both compulsions
and conveniences in letting free all crimes from Paksitan land go scot
free. But these things will not last long. The moment we have a true
patriotic leader at the helm, which is sure to happen soon, your true
face will be shown to the world.
Hypocrites
By: Taneja | Monday , 7 Sep '09 20:11:36 PM
These Pakistanis will never try the Muslim terrorists inside their own
country. This is their bread and butter. They will keep lying and keep
making excuses.
bademiyansubhanallah
Create international pressure on Pak, China: BJP
STAFF WRITER 17:3 HRS IST
New Delhi, Sep 8 (PTI) In the wake of reports of Chinese intrusion
into Indian territory and Pakistan's reluctance to co-operate in the
26/11 case, BJP today said government should create international
diplomatic pressure on the two neighbours to make them fall in line.
"Our neighbours China and Pakistan keep challenging us.
But we are not even able to register our protest and keep
procrastinating (instead of taking up the issue). We should create
international diplomatic pressure on these countries," BJP President
Rajnath Singh said.
He further said that if Pakistan does not comply with our request for
co-operation, then India should snap diplomatic ties with it.
Though there were reports of Pakistan enhancing its nuclear arsenal
despite US warning to it, the government lacked strong will-power to
take tough diplomatic measures.
bademiyansubhanallah
Bomb planted by terrorists was powerful: 26/11 witness
STAFF WRITER 19:16 HRS IST
Mumbai, Sep 18 (PTI) A bomb planted by 26/11 terrorists in a bag near
Nariman House on November 26 last was so powerful that a huge crater
was created by the explosion, a witness told the trial court today.
Sripat Hate, who had drawn the panchnama of the blast site as well as
Nariman House where terrorists had shot dead hostages, said he saw
pools of blood, shattered glass pieces, empty revolvers and cartridge
shells all over.
According to prosecution, the slain terrorists, Abu Akasha and Abu
Umar had planted two bombs which exploded before entering Nariman
House where they killed hostages.
Eight persons, including three women and a security guard Gajendra
Singh were killed by terrorists.
The witness said that on every floor of the five-storyed building he
found blood stains, empty shells of cartridges, bullet marks
bademiyansubhanallah
Pak must probe Saeed's role in 26/11: Chidambaram
STAFF WRITER 18:51 HRS IST
New Delhi, Sept 18 (PTI) Pakistan must question Hafiz Saeed, prime
suspect in the Mumbai terror attacks, and even "half a step is a good
step", Home Minister P Chidambaram said today while regretting that no
trial has been started against the perpetrators in that country in the
last 10 months.
Asked whether Pakistan's move to slap two cases on Saeed was a face-
saver, Chidambaram said,"We should take it at face value. Let us see
what they do now. Do they interrogate him, do they investigate his
role. Let us wait and see. I think it is too early to reach any
conclusion. But for me even a half step is a good step."
The Home Minister in an interview to Times Now said "solid" evidence
has been provided to Pakistan against Saeed and other accused based on
which they can be investigated.
bademiyansubhanallah
US Ambassador to India Timothy J Roemer after a meeting with Union
Home minister in New Delhi on Friday. PTI Photo
Take swift action against those behind 26/11: US to Pak
STAFF WRITER 17:7 HRS IST
New Delhi, Sept 18 (PTI) Mounting pressure on Pakistan, the US Friday
asked it to ensure "swift and lengthy" punishment to the perpetrators
of Mumbai attacks, including Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz
Saeed, and dismantle terror infrastructure existing there.
US Ambassador Timothy J Roemer, who met India Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram here, said that going after
Saeed, described by India as the mastermind of the 26/11 attacks, and
ending terror infrastructure were "extremely important".
During his first meeting with Singh since his appointment here, Roemer
discussed issues related to the Prime Minister's visits to the US for
G-20 meeting in Pittsburg next week and subsequently to Washington in
November.
Singh will be the first foreign dignitary to undertake a bilateral
visit to Washington since President Barack Obama assumed office in
January.
Sid Harth
Crack commando unit to guard pigs?
This is the plot where Force One, set up after 26/11 on the lines of
the National Security Guards, is supposed train from October.
Deeptiman Tiwary unearth our most shameful scandal
By Deeptiman Tiwary
Posted On Tuesday, September 08, 2009 at 06:22:36 PM
Look at this picture. This is where the government has put up the
country’s elite anti-terror force, NSG, which is here to counter
another possible 26/11.
In about a month’s time, another special force - Force One - will
jostle for space with the NSG (and the pigs) after it completes its
training in Pune.
Ten months after the 26/11 - and creation of regional NSG hubs and
Force One to protect Mumbai - the government has still not provided
these elite forces the infrastructure and facilities they need.
In fact, Force One has not yet been allotted the requisite piece of
land wherein it can build its accommodation and training centre. Even
the money promised to raise infrastructure is stuck in red tape…
No land, no money
At present, the government has allotted 30 barracks at the 40-acre
Kalina Police Headquarters to Force One’s 220 men who will arrive in
the city in October.
These men will have to share resources with NSG’s 200-odd personnel,
who are already struggling with the meagre training facilities there
(training area is actually not more than three football grounds).
Also, there is no sign of the Rs 16 crore that the government pledged
to Force One to set up its centre. Sources disclosed that the
government has now asked Force One to utilise money out of the DGP’s
fund, which itself is thin.
Lack of protective anti-terror gear, coupled with manpower shortage,
and the State’s elite force looks to be on the verge of collapse, even
before it has begun operations.
Weeks after the 26/11 attacks, the government had announced the
formation of Force One, a special anti-terror state force to be raised
on the lines of the NSG.
And even though special forces such as the NSG need at least 100 acres
to set up their training infrastructure, Force One - owing to the
supposed scarcity of land in Mumbai - had asked for just 60 acres.
The government, however, has not even been able to find that much,
despite the fact that 2,500 acres of land are lying vacant with the
Department of Animal Husbandry.
NSG itself, has only been allotted 25 acres of land within the city,
in Marol.
Still, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Chandra Iyenger manages
strict officialese when she says, “We are providing each and every
facility needed by our forces. It is true that Force One has not got
its land and money. But be assured, we will not let them sleep in the
rain.”
But former NSG DG Ved Marwah begs to differ.
“If you do not give proper infrastructure and facilities to your elite
force, it will be demoralised over time and will not function with the
expected ferocity when the time comes. Such forces need to train
continuously and be motivated on a daily basis even in peace time.
They not only need to be physically fit and mentally tough, but also
need to upgrade their skills daily. For that you need elaborate
infrastructure and facilities, which should actually come up before
the force is commissioned,” he said.
Ideal facilities
According to experts, a special force should be given facilities
comparable to those at NSG headquarters in Manesar, Haryana.
The Manesar campus, spread across hundreds of acres, has elaborate
facilities, which not only include training grounds and firing ranges,
but also AC storage facilities for weaponry, a hospital, swimming
pool, gymnasium, canteen, conference rooms, a library, and even an
auditorium and theatre (for entertainment and motivational films).
Of the lack of infrastructure here, Ajai Sahni of Institute of
Conflict Management in Delhi says, “There is no political will. I
can’t understand how an Assembly that regularly debates which land can
be given to a particular builder for development can’t find 60 acres
of land for security. It is absolute dishonesty.”
The NSG is forced to train at badly maintained grounds at the Kalina
police HQ. Later, in October, Force One will share the same premises
Manpower, weaponry problems
If the tussle over land is not enough, Force One is also held back by
manpower shortage. Of the sanctioned strength of 352 men, the force
has been able to fill only 220 vacancies, to speak nothing of the
acute shortage of officers.
Once the force moves into the Kalina barracks, there will be another
human resource problem staring it in the face - that is, keeping the
morale up.
Most of the men in Force One come from the State Reserve Police Force
(SRPF) as it promises double salary and a location-specific job.
“A location-specific job like in the Force One promises the soldier a
family life. But if he is made to stay in the Kalina barracks for too
long, that advantage will be negated and dissatisfaction in the force
will rise,” the source said.
When it comes to weaponry, while both the forces have acquired good
assault weapons, protective gear such as blast-proof eyewear and
technologies like radar imaging equipment to see through walls, anti-
material rifles to penetrate them, situational awareness equipment
like radio sets with in-built GPS chips, and specialised explosives
are still lacking. Also, there are no helicopters for speedy
transportation and some of the hi-tech weaponry is still locked in red
tape.
State not concerned with security, but symbolism
Experts believe that the real problem is with the government’s
attitude towards security.
“It is generally knee jerk. A 26/11 happens and the CM and DCM resign;
NSG regional hubs and the Force One are announced - all this without
any proper assessment of how they are going to shape up, or help. The
government is only indulging in symbolism to pacify angry voters. In
fact, even with all these forces in place, we are no more secure than
we were before 26/11,” Sahni says.
“With similar fervour, it set up the NIA (National Investigating
Agency) as a central agency to investigate all terror cases. What is
NIA doing today? It hasn’t even got a proper office as of now. At
present, it has just eight officers with 94 vacancies. One of the two
cases it has investigated so far is related to fake currency. It’s not
only a mockery of these agencies, but also of the public faith in the
government,” he adds.
Do we need NSG, force one?
Security experts believe there is need for reverse assessment on
security before the special forces can be put to any use.
Marwah even questions the need for NSG hubs and Force One. “We should
instead have Greyhounds who are integrated with the State forces and
have proven their abilities against naxals. The problem with
specialised forces is that the Centre and State keep fighting over
finances and responsibilities and the forces suffer.”
Sahni explains the government response to security threats as barely
incremental. He says, “There is a need for complete overhaul of the
security apparatus. The government is barely increasing the number of
men and weapons. You need 225 policemen per 1,00,000 of population. If
you increase your present strength of 100 by just 25, it is not going
to help. Ninety per cent of your force is still using 303 rifles and
your training is pathetic. Unless you set that right, no specialised
force can do anything. In any case, most of the damage in a terror
attack is done in the first half hour. And only local police can stop
that.”
bademiyansubhanallah
Pak should solve 26/11 to resume peace talks: US analystsAccording to
a US think-tank, Indo-Pak peace process can resume only if Pakistan
brings the perpetrators to justice. Lisa Curtis, an analyst, of the
Heritage Foundation of US, says that Pakistan needs to do more to
close terror camps operating from its soil. Appreciating India's
handling of the post 26/11 Mumbai attacks, Curtis added that US too
needs to bring terrorist organisations such as such as Lashkar-e-
Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed under its scanner, other than Al-Qaeda and the
Taliban.
ANI September 17, 2009
Pak asks India to share information on possible terror strikes
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YOU WERE READINGPress Trust Of India
Islamabad, September 18, 2009
First Published: 20:30 IST(18/9/2009)
Last Updated: 21:21 IST(18/9/2009)
Pakistan on Friday asked India to share any "credible information" it
has about possible terrorist attacks on India so that such incidents
could be pre-empted.
"Pakistan has once again asked the Indian government to share any
credible information that they may have on alleged plans of any future
terrorist attacks against India," said a statement by the Foreign
Office spokesman, following reports that Israel has warned that
Pakistan-based LeT was planning terror strikes across India especially
in Jammu and Kashmir.
The government of Pakistan "believes that terrorism is a common threat
and requires concerted efforts by the international community to
effectively counter and especially pre-empt terrorist attacks," the
spokesman said.
Israel's Counter-Terrorism Bureau at the National Security Council
(NSC) in a travel warning for Israeli tourists in India rated the
threat as "imminent and concrete", putting special emphasis on Jammu
and Kashmir.
Pakistan's stance is "entirely consistent with the understandings
reached between the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan" in their
meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh in July, the spokesman said.
During that meeting, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani
counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani had agreed to share credible
information to prevent terrorist attacks.
bademiyansubhanallah
Hide and seek
Barkha Dutt
June 19, 2009
First Published: 22:43 IST(19/6/2009)
Last Updated: 19:46 IST(25/7/2009)
Remember how angry India seemed in the days right after 26/11? The
anger back then had an almost anarchic quality to it. It was
understandably primal, sometimes incoherent, often applied
indiscriminately and marked by the dangers of self-combustion. Even
so, we had all hoped then that the public anger might be channelised
into a productive push for genuine change. Instead, the big bang
really seems to have ended with a mute little whimper. We appear to
have forgotten all the questions we sought answers to as a people. We
seem to have erased the horrific memories of our own vulnerability.
That must explain why there’s hardly any outcry over the Maharashtra
government’s decision to keep a crucial 26/11 report far away from the
public eye.
How did ten terrorists hold an entire city to ransom for over 60
hours? Were the brave policemen of Mumbai let down by obsolete
weaponry and sub-standard bulletproof jackets? What of the nine cops
who fought Ajmal Kasab’s AK-47 with just their wooden lathis? Or the
extraordinary assistant sub-inspector Tukaram Ombale who was riddled
with bullets when he leapt unarmed on Kasab’s rifle, pushing its
barrel down and thus making his arrest possible. Did a lack of clear-
headed leadership botch up the operation? Who was manning the police
control room and calling the commands? Was there even a centralised
command structure in place? These were some of the fundamental
questions that the Ram Pradhan Committee set out to answer.
Now, Ram Pradhan has been a former governor and home secretary. His
colleague, V. Balachandran, has worked with Research and Analysis Wing
(R&AW). Presumably, these credentials alone should be enough to
testify that these are men who understand the many sensitivities of
‘national security’. And yet, that’s exactly the euphemism the state
government has been hiding behind to justify its decision to keep the
original report secret.
Instead, it’s released an ‘action-taken’ report in the state Assembly,
underlining the fact that the Congress-NCP regime rejects several of
the conclusions in the original report. In effect, all this makes a
mockery of the principle of transparency. And even worse, it
trivialises the need to learn from the mistakes we made as a country
on 26/11 by pushing everything back into the quagmire of competitive
politics.
The BJP-Sena’s conspiracy theory has it that the secrecy shroud is to
protect three state ministers in an election year. Congress
politicians privately say that Pradhan’s report has unfairly singled
out the former Commissioner of Police, Hasan Gafoor.
But frankly, all this is a matter of political squabbling and, so,
beside the point. In any case, much of the original report has already
leaked its way into the public domain, albeit in dribs and drabs. And
Pradhan has gone on record to say that there were no ‘sensitive’ bits
that justified any censorship.
So, why does the Maharashtra government want to look like it has
something to hide? Why does it want to undermine its own credibility
by disregarding the findings of a committee that it had appointed to
begin with? If it’s Assembly elections they are worried about, doesn’t
verdict 2009 show them they needn’t worry?
Parties that seek to politicise terror don’t touch a chord; but surely
nor do parties that obfuscate facts and hide them from their people.
The Congress shunted out its chief minister right after the attacks
and still swept the city of Mumbai in the general elections. If
nothing else, the mandate should have given its state government the
confidence to be open, accessible, and brave.
Mumbai also draws parallels with another great city, New York. And not
just because both are financial capitals of their countries. They are
cities that share the characteristics of extraordinary energy and
grit. Not to mention the commonality of a grimy underbelly that has
fascinated countless authors and moviemakers. So, we even borrowed the
syntax of the New Yorker to describe our own doomsday. 26/11 became
our 9/11 despite protests from so many others who thought the analogy
was an association with George Bush and a war gone terribly wrong.
Yet, we failed to learn the most precious lesson that the Americans
could teach us — transparency.
In 2001, the US Congress voted to create a bipartisan, independent
9/11 commission also known as the ‘National Commission On Terrorist
Attacks Upon the US’. The Commission held more than 12 public hearings
and its 570-page report is available to anyone who wants to download
it from the internet or buy it off a bookshelf. For two years,
Americans watched their country and government come under microscopic
scrutiny on subjects ranging from political oversight to intelligence
failure. At the end of the hearings, the Commission’s findings were
unsparing.
Terrorists had been able to force passenger planes into the twin
towers because a ‘failure of imagination’ had prevented America from
understanding the al-Qaeda threat. “The United States government was
simply not active enough in combating the terrorist threat before
9/11,” it said. Of course the findings of the commission were fiercely
debated, including by CIA veterans and it was another few years before
its proposed reforms were implemented. But the fact is that neither
the process nor the conclusion were kept hidden from American
citizens.
So, if Ashok Chavan’s government had put Pradhan’s report in the
public domain and then opened it up for public debate, that would have
been acceptable, maybe even wise. It’s not disagreement that’s the
problem; it’s opaqueness and secrecy. In fact, I think it would have
been reassuring to watch the testimonies of officials and experts on,
let’s say, national television — held in a controlled, but uncensored
atmosphere. It would have certainly been a whole lot more comforting
than watching the same still images of a faintly smiling Ajmal Kasab
embracing his AK-47.
Barkha Dutt is Group Editor, English News, NDTV.
Sid Harth
Hafiz should be booked in 26/11 attack case: Krishna
STAFF WRITER 18:17 HRS IST
New Delhi, Sep 19 (PTI) India today said it will continue to build
pressure on Pakistan to ensure that a case is registered against
Jamaat-ud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed in the Mumbai attack case.
"We are concerned immediately with the terror attack on Mumbai. As
long as that doesn't find any place in FIR, India certainly would
impress upon Pakistan," External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said in
Turkmenistan.
He said Pakistan must bring to justice the perpetrators of the attack
on Mumbai.
Pakistan has filed two cases against Saeed for inciting people for
jehad and inviting donations for the same. However, no mention has
been made in the FIRs to Mumbai attacks, for which India holds him
responsible.
India has been saying that it has given ample proof about Saeed's
involvement in Mumbai attacks but Pakistan maintains that there is no
evidence against him.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/291038_India-s-info-on-Saeed--sketchy---Pak
India's info on Saeed 'sketchy': Pak
STAFF WRITER 20:8 HRS IST
Rezaul H Laskar
Islamabad, Sep 19 (PTI) Pakistan today said the information given by
India on JuD chief Hafiz Mohd Saeed's involvement in the Mumbai
attacks is "sketchy" and will not hold in court to prosecute him.
"The information we have received (from India) is sketchy," Interior
Minister Rehman Malik told reporters here.
The minister also ruled out extraditing Saeed to India.
"We need statements of forensic experts and authentic mobile reports
reestablishing connection of terrorists with militants. We need more
information from India to make our case solid," he said.
This is required so that prosecution is carried out in such a way that
the culprits do not get the benefit of doubt in court, he said.
India has been accusing Pakistan of not acting against Saeed and other
accused in the 26/11 attacks despite six dossiers having been given to
it.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/290847_Malik-briefs-Sabharwal-on-probe-into-26-11-attacks
Malik briefs Sabharwal on probe into 26/11 attacks
STAFF WRITER 18:28 HRS IST
Islamabad, Sep 19 (PTI) Interior Minister Rehman Malik today briefed
Indian High Commission Sharat Sabharwal on progress in Pakistan's
probe into the Mumbai attacks and conveyed the government's commitment
to bring the perpetrators of the incident to book.
Sources said Malik briefed Sabharwal on Pakistan?s response to India's
latest dossier on the Mumbai attacks, which had called on Islamabad to
take action against Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the
alleged mastermind of the assault.
No further details were immediately available. There was also no
official word on the meeting.
Pakistan has already said the evidence provided so far by India is
inadequate for arresting or prosecuting Saeed.
Seven suspects arrested by Pakistani authorities in connection with
the Mumbai attacks, including five Lashker-e-Taiba operatives, are
currently facing trial in an anti-terrorism court.
Earlier in the day, Malik discussed Pakistan's probe into the Mumbai
attacks with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
chhotemianinshallah
I live in daily dread of another 26/11, says NSA
IANS 20 September 2009, 06:23pm IST
NEW DELHI: National Security Advisor M K Narayanan has said that he
lives in "daily dread" of a repeat of the Nov 26 Mumbai terror
attacks, though he added that now India is better prepared.
In an interview to Karan Thapar on the news channel, he also
questioned the credibility of the police first information reports
(FIRs) Pakistan has filed against Jamaat-ud-Daawa (JuD) chief Hafiz
Saeed, the alleged mastermind of Mumbai terror attacks.
Asked how seriously scared was he that there could be a second major
'Mumbai-like' strike on India, Narayanan said: "Here you are asking me
a question that I live in almost daily dread that something that I am
looking at or home minister P. Chidambaram."
"The home minister takes a daily meeting at which I am also present
and when he is not there I take that meeting. We get so many pieces of
intelligence which pass across our table, many you can sort of weed
out but as I said there are quite a few which if they are not able to
nip in bud can turn dangerous."
"However, it is difficult to say whether we will have another Mumbai
because I think we are better prepared perhaps for that kind of
situation, but it could be quite serious," Narayanan said.
Asked whether Pakistan scares him, Narayanan said: "Pakistan may not
scare me, but some of Pakistan's actions scare us, because I don't
think this really adds to anything except creating problems for us."
In an apparent contradiction to the stand taken by Chidambaram who
said that the FIRs against Saeed was Pakistan's first positive step in
booking the perpetrators of the Mumbai mayhem, Narayanan said it does
not add any credibility to Pakistan's commitment to act.
"If you take the Saeed dossier that has been provided to Pakistan, I
think we have marshalled what I would call Grade 1 evidence. You have
the evidence from three people, three human beings, three admittedly
terrorists - Kasab, Fahim Ansari, Soharabuddin - who talked of what
Saeed had come talked to them, what he had said etc."
"This is apart from other connecting evidence. I agree one can never
be as sure what a court would (do) with that kind of evidence but if
you are not even willing to test that, it certainly leaves in our mind
a big question mark about where Pakistan stands on terrorism," he
said.
"I think the latest one doesn't really add to any credibility in my
opinion."
Sid Harth
September 20, 2009
Pakistan and Hafiz Saeed
Two interesting developments in Pakistan, possibly linked, offer some
hope that sections of that country’s leadership understand India’s and
the world’s concerns about Hafiz Saeed and may want to address them.
He is the leader of the Jamat-ud-Dawa, a group that fronts for the
Lashkar-e-Taiba. In the nationalist mythology of Pakistan, LeT is a
defunct group that ceased to exist after it was banned in 2002; JuD is
a charity organisation that educates children and offers free health
services; and Hafiz Saeed is a harmless preacher-teacher-
philanthropist. Much of this mythology was derived from the Pakistan
security establishment’s patronage of Mr. Saeed and LeT for the jihad
in Kashmir. Forced by the United States to act against LeT and other
jihadi organisations after 9/11, General Pervez Musharraf reluctantly
banned the group in 2002. But Hafiz Saeed’s re-emergence as the leader
of JuD indicated that he continued to enjoy some state indulgence. In
recent days, a few red lines around him have been breached. First, on
September 16, police in the Punjab province registered two cases
against him in Faisalabad for glorifying and soliciting funds for
jihad, unconnected to the Mumbai attacks. Since 2002, he has been a
veteran of house arrests, including after the Mumbai attacks. But this
is the first time Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Act has been used against
him. At the risk of being accused of bending to Indian pressure,
Interior Minister Rehman Malik even announced that Mr. Saeed was under
investigation for the 26/11 attacks.
From this there is no need to jump to the conclusion that justice is
at last being done. Going by the reported contents of the two First
Information Reports, the case against Mr. Saeed seems weak. He has not
been arrested yet. The invoked section of the law is meant for
organisations proscribed under the terrorism Act, and it is not clear
if JuD has been banned at all. The question is whether the FIRs and
the announcement that Mr. Saeed is under investigation also for his
alleged role in the Mumbai attacks will go any further. Ahead of the
Sharm-el-Sheikh summit, the Pakistan government went to the Supreme
Court against the Lahore High Court’s order releasing the JuD leader
from house arrest. But nothing came of it. Similarly, the recent
actions against Mr. Saeed have come just before the foreign
secretaries and foreign ministers of India and Pakistan are to meet on
the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. But despite
the doubts, and given the known constraints on Pakistan’s elected
leadership when it comes to touching some holy cows, it would be
premature to dismiss these small steps as meaningless. New Delhi’s
cautious welcome was the right response.
Sid Harth
Saeed is in custody, says Pak PMSeptember 22nd, 2009
PTI Tags: Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, LeT, Yousuf Raza Gilani JuD chief
Hafiz Mohd Saeed, who has been blamed by India for masterminding the
Mumbai attacks, is "in custody" of Pakistani authorities, the Prime
Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani announced on Tuesday but did not make it
clear whether he has been arrested.
Asked by reporters if Saeed had been arrested, Mr Gilani replied: "The
interior ministry can tell you the actual position but I believe he is
in custody."
"A decision on his case will be taken on the basis of laws and
evidence (against him)," Mr Gilani, who spoke in Urdu, said in his
hometown of Multan.
Mr Gilani also said Pakistan is conducting an investigation into the
Mumbai incident "in an honest manner."
"Action will be taken on the basis of evidence that we get and I want
to assure you that Pakistan will not allow any terrorist to use its
soil and no one will be given an opportunity to carry out terrorist
activities directed against another country from Pakistan," he said.
The police in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore imposed
restrictions on Saeed's movements on Sunday night. Though no formal
written order has been issued to detain Saeed or restrict his
movements, the Lahore police chief Pervaiz Rathore on Monday said that
the JuD chief was "under house arrest."
India expects Pakistan to act swiftly against Saeed, also the founder
of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT).
Ahead of his meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood
Qureshi in New York on September 27, the external affairs minister, Mr
S.M. Krishna, said India would be interested to see how Pakistan
proceeds with reference to the Mumbai terror attacks.
"He (Saeed) was the brain behind that attack on India. So I think we
expect Pakistan to act swiftly," Mr Krishna said in New York.
The foreign secretaries of the two countries are also meeting on
September 26 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
Pakistan's action against Saeed came days after police in Faisalabad
city registered two cases against him under the Anti-Terrorism Act for
inciting people to wage 'jehad' and seeking funds for his banned
group.
Observers have said that it is significant that Pakistani police have
registered cases against Saeed under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997.
In the past, Saeed has been detained under the Maintenance of Public
Order (MPO) law, which allows authorities to detain people for up to
90 days without any charges.
Saeed was put under house arrest under the MPO in December last year
after the UN Security Council declared the JuD a terrorist
organisation. He was freed on the orders of the Lahore High Court in
June
bademiyansubhanallah
bademiyansubhanallah
bademiyansubhanallah
This couple tackles terror together
Nitasha Natu, TNN 27 September 2009, 04:57am IST
MUMBAI: Nothing about the Rao couple is ordinary. A four-feet tall
Doberman is their sentry, army insignias adorn most walls of their
house, a gun finds space among newspapers on the tea-table and
conversation is interspersed with ‘maiming, paralysing and killing the
enemy.’
Kandivli-based Dr Deepak and Seema Rao, in their forties, have been
training Indian forces in commando warfare and counter-terrorism
training for the past 15 years. They specialise in close quarter
combat. And after the 26/11 terror attacks, they are being
increasingly asked to impart skills in urban operations.
“The Taj, Oberoi and Nariman House attacks show that terrorists are
being trained rapidly in unconventional methods, which regular forces
are not used to. Forces, in large numbers, cannot enter and
effectively function in small urban built-up areas. They need to
explore newer, out of the box methods to win the war against terror,’’
Deepak said.
The Raos have imparted training in modern close combat techniques to
the NSG, Garud Air Commandos, Marine Commando school, Army Special
Forces and Quick Reaction Teams of various states. “In an urban
situation, there are hurdles like concrete walls, bullets ricocheting,
hostages, dispersed civilians and unknown layouts of rooms and
buildings. During our training sessions, we simulate a terror attack
by putting in mock terrorists and coach forces to cordon and search
buildings, stair and corridor intervention, hostage rescue, anti-
ricochet protocols, back ups and spot paramedics,’’ explained Deepak.
The Raos have also come up with their own technique of shooting called
Reflex Fire, where they teach a special aiming manoeuvre to enable
quicker reaction time and greater hit rate. “It can be used to shoot
terrorists with precision, while avoiding shooting hostages,’’ Seema
said.
Nothing has come easily for the couple; they have escaped random
insurgent fire a few times and travelled to inhospitable locations.
Deepak has had his knee dislocated, suffered from a slip disc, damaged
his vision, even torn his kidney while Seema has fractured her
vertebrae during wrestling. The Raos haven’t charged any fees for the
training imparted by them. Additional commissioner Jaijeet Singh, who
worked with the Raos, said they were very professional in their
training and the force has benefited from their service.
bademiyansubhanallah
One-third of all sleuths to focus on terror?
Sachin Parashar, TNN 27 September 2009, 03:19am IST
In a clear attempt to dispel the notion that intelligence agencies in
India are governed only by political exigencies as also to meet the
acute
shortage of staff in the face of mounting threat perception, the
Centre is considering a proposal to earmark one-third of the staff of
all central intelligence organisations like IB, RAW, DIA and NTRO to
deal exclusively with terrorism.
India’s most prominent intelligence agency IB has a strength of about
25,000-30,000 out of which only about 4,000 are field agents or
handlers. These field agents do the most important work of dealing
with informers and gathering information at the ground level. Many
field agents too are involved more in gathering political
intelligence. The number of those assigned the task of focusing
specifically on activities of terror groups like LeT is hardly 50% of
what is the basic requirement.
‘‘Apart from organisations operating out of Pakistan there are other
terror groups based in India who have to be constantly monitored. Once
this staff is separated, they can be imparted special training to keep
a check on terror groups and their financial transactions,’’ said an
intelligence official. Sources said that the proposal has been sent to
the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) by the joint task force on
intelligence which is headed by former joint intelligence committee
chief S D Pradhan and comprises retired IB director P C Haldar and
scientist Roddam Narasimha as members.
In fact, the government is also considering the task force’s proposal
to bring the Multi Agency Centre (MAC), which was established to
facilitate joint analyses of intelligence data coming out from all
organisations, out of the purview of IB and provide it with
operational planning capabilities. The government, sources said, is
trying to take a leaf out of the book of US’s National Counter-
Terrorism Centre (NCTC) and also Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre of UK
who have similar capabilities.
This proposal got a fillip after union home minister P Chidambaram’s
recent visit to US where he got first-hand information about the
functioning of NCTC and was visibly impressed. Sources said
Chidambaram is in favour of MAC having operational capabilities and
the proposal to make it independent from IB. Operational capability to
MAC will ensure that is transformed into a more pro-active
organisation and won’t just be responsible for analysing intelligence
data.
bademiyansubhanallah
A file photo of Hafiz Saeed, JuD chief accused of masterminding 26/11
attacks. AP/PTI Photograph (1)
Pak doesn't want 'half-baked' case against Saeed: Qureshi
STAFF WRITER 13:2 HRS IST
New York, Sep 27 (PTI) Pakistan does not want to take to court a "half-
baked" case against JuD chief Hafiz Mohd Saeed, blamed by India for
masterminding Mumbai attacks, and needs "legally tenable" evidence
against him, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Sunday hours
ahead of crucial talks with his Indian counterpart S M Krishna.
"We will certainly not hesitate for taking action (against Saeed), but
we got to have a case which is legally tenable because if we take a
case into court which is a half-baked case and if the court sets him
free, you'll say 'collusion', 'drama'. No we are not in a mood to
collude with terrorists," Qureshi told NDTV here.
He was responding to a question about Pakistan not taking action
against Saeed, also founder of the LeT, despite being provided with
evidence by India against him.
chhotemianinshallah
We, the people, the farce
As the nation tries to reconcile with the horrifying tragedy that
India in general, and Mumbai in particular has had to face, Tom
Alter, one of India’s finest actors, who also has great credits as a
writer, a stage and TV compere, a sport-based show host and much more,
shared with us something about his play on Maulana Abul Kalam Azad,
saying, “(here’s) something for you to read as the world goes mad —
but it will not remain mad — we will not let it — this is a lesson for
us all — that only truth and love can win eternal battles”.
Yes, we too believe that only TRUTH can – and should – prevail
eventually. However, we believe that MOST people have lost the ability
to speak that. “To each his / her own truth”, seems to have become the
dictum of our time. While criminals are being just that – criminal,
most of the people who are routinely ’sought for’ and ‘presented with’
the opportunity to ‘offer’ views or/and solutions are doing everything
that they can, to not only mess up issues further, but also snatch
away any remaining credibility attached with terms like ‘experts’,
‘thinkers’, ‘intelligentsia’ etc.
It is an emotional opinion that cannot be expressed in its entirety
via a mere editorial. But, it would be pertinent to would cite here, a
wound as forceful as the water that is being pumped into Taj to clean
up the ravaged heritage of us all:
Mallika Sarabhai, in a column ‘I AM’ of Sunday TOI (November 30, 2008,
TODAY) writes:
“My providential escape from the terror attacks at the Taj in Mumbai
makes me believe in destiny even more and the fact that there is
protection for people who have a conscience and try to do the best for
everybody.”
We, at THE INDIC POST, post reading her words, are shattered to learn
of “the truth” that 22 foreigners; 160 Indians; 14 policemen of
Maharashtra Police; ATS Chief Sharad Karkare and Major Sandeep
Unnikrishnan & Gajendra Singh of NSG did not have a conscience, and
probably never tried to do the best for others; and hence, were not
provided protection (by destiny, presumably) from terror attacks.
Similarly, Shobha De had recently said “I like Raj (Thackeray) but not
his style of working”. Didn’t someone, sometime back, say that a man
is known by his actions? Don’t Raj’s action make up the man that he is
-and hence be considered while liking or not liking him? What is this
“let’s ensure my physical safety, while I come out as good in social
circles too” approach all about? What if Asif Ali Zardari says that he
likes the very handsome and suave Ajmal Amir Kamal – who, by the way,
speaks fluent English; and was incidentally moving around the streets
of Mumbai with an AK-56 and grenades – but not “his style of putting
his point across”. Any idea, what Ms. De would write in her column
about Zardari?
Self-styled custodians of one community (and their own territory),
like Teesta Stetalvad would cry hoarse about violence in Gujarat, but
would say – on national television (NDTV) - that “Mumbai bomb blasts
were a reaction to riots in Mumbai”. She even has the gumption to call
that “that reaction” was ‘different’ from the “action-reaction theory”
of Narendra Modi. Furthermore, she would not be heard anytime,
anywhere about the MNS violence. Why should the nation attach any
credibility with such self (territory)- centric public figures?
Ditto for Mahesh Bhatt, who had largely lost his voice when Biharis
and UP-ites were being beaten away from his home city.
Add to the farce list SP politician Abu Azmi, who wanted to get inside
the Taj or Oberoi to “meet someone stuck inside”; Narendra Modi, who
had to make an absolutely ill-timed announcement of 1 crore while the
operation was still going on; Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil, who
said “itne badey shaher mein ek-aadh haadsa ho jaata hai …”; Chief
Minister of Maharashtra, well, what’s that?; Dummy-PM Manmohan Singh
and living-on-for-being-PM L K Advani, who could not come together to
Mumbai even after proclaiming to be doing so and …
As written earlier, criminals are going to be just that – criminals.
What makes the future of India unimaginably dangerous is that the
people who are supposed to be the vehicles of the nation’s evolution
are no less submerged in their own, personal agendas.
We, the people, are becoming we, the farce. Everyone is talking, but
no one is saying anything. People, places and issues have all been
coloured by us. Everyone and everything have become coins with just
one side – their own side. A lot of posturing gains with every cup of
coffee that we have at plush cafes. And then, we go to sleep.
Sometimes with our parters. But mostly with those that we revile on
camera.
Yes, as Mr. Alter, one of India’s finest sons, says, the world is
going mad. But we believe that the decay is not entirely because of
the mad men.
Sid Harth
PC sceptical on Pak action against 26/11 accused
STAFF WRITER 16:52 HRS IST
New Delhi, Sep 28 (PTI) Home Minister P Chidambaram remained sceptical
on Pakistan's action against 26/11 accused saying he would welcome the
step only when the trial begins as there have been flip-flops in the
past.
"When it starts, I will say it is a positive step," he said when asked
to comment on Pakistan's declaration that the trial of 26/11 accused
would begin on October three.
Chidambaram said a date for the trial to begin had also been set in
the past by a Pakistan court only to be told later that the concerned
judge was on leave.
"So, when it starts it is a positive step," he told CNN-IBN.
The Home Minister stressed that the trial must begin and Lashkar-e-
Toiba founder Hafiz Saeed must be arrested, interrogated and
investigated.
"All the evidence against Hafiz Saeed is on Pakistani soil. That has
to be gathered," he said.
Sid Harth
'India wants credible action against 26/11 attackers'
STAFF WRITER 15:7 HRS IST
Betwa Sharma and Lalit K Jha
New York, Sep 28 (PTI) Rejecting Pakistan's demand for going beyond
the issue of terror, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna today said
the least India expected from that country was "tangible results" in
the Mumbai attacks probe which would help build an atmopshere for
purposeful talks.
The minister said India has not set a "benchmark" for Pakistan but
expected it to deliver tangible results in the investigations and
prosecutions.
"We have suggested to the Government of Pakistan that the perpetrators
of that attack on Mumbai must be brought to justice within the
framework of the Pakistan law," Krishna told PTI.
"That is the least that we expect from them," said the minister who
had a two-hour long meeting here on Sunday with his Pakistani
counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi, during which he focussed on the
terror issue.
chhotemianinshallah
Little hope for India-Pakistan dialogue, for now
Reuters
Posted: Sep 28, 2009 at 1812 hrs IST
Islamabad Ties between bitter rivals India and Pakistan will not
improve while the cloud of last November's militant assault on Mumbai
hangs over their interactions, Pakistani and Indian analysts said on
Monday.
India was using the Mumbai attack to pile pressure on Pakistan and
distract attention from the issues that have soured relations for
decades, a Pakistani analyst said.
An Indian analyst said India had yet to see a strategic shift in
Pakistan's dealing with the terrorists who carried out the Mumbai
attack, and public anger over Mumbai would prevent any early
resumption of their nearly five-year-old peace process.
The Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers met in New York on Sunday
with Pakistan signaling its desire to mend fences with a hesitant
India, but the ministers stopped short of announcing a resumption of
full-fledged peace negotiations.
"India is using this time to bring Pakistan under the maximum pressure
that it can on the question of terrorism," said Shamshad Ahmed Khan, a
former Pakistani foreign secretary.
Pakistan has acknowledged that the coordinated attacks on Mumbai in
which 166 people were killed were plotted and partly launched from its
soil. It is prosecuting seven suspects in a closed-door hearing that
resumes on Oct. 3.
India, however, is pressing Pakistan to prosecute Hafiz Mohammad
Saeed, the founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba group India says was behind
the Mumbai attack.
Saeed was detained in Pakistan in December, after a UN Security
Council resolution put him on a list of people and organisations
supporting al Qaeda.
But in June, a court released him on grounds of insufficient evidence,
prompting the Pakistani government to lodge an appeal with the Supreme
Court for his re-arrest. That case is pending while Saeed remains
under virtual house arrest.
‘STRATEGIC SHIFT’
That's not enough for India.
"I don't think the Indian side has got the sense that Pakistan is
serious about doing something," said Manoj Joshi, a foreign affairs
commentator in India.
"You can't get anywhere unless there's a feeling in India that there's
been a strategic shift in Pakistan's manner of dealing with religious
extremists."
The United States wants the rivals to reduce tension and resume
dialogue on a range of issues. After Sunday's talks, Pakistani Foreign
Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said he had made a proposal to India on
how they might improve relations, including a timetable, but he gave
no details.
bademiyansubhanallah
Kasab confessed voluntarily: Magistrate
STAFF WRITER 15:1 HRS IST
Mumbai, Sep 30 (PTI) A city Magistrate today told the special trial
court that prime accused in 26/11 terror case Mohammed Ajmal Kasab had
given a voluntary confession before her as he wanted others to draw
inspiration from his action.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Rama Vijay Sawant Vagule,
said Kasab expressed his desire to confess when he was produced before
her on February 17.
He was given 24-hours to reconsider his decision, she said.
"On February 18, when Kasab was again produced before me, he
reiterated his desire to confess. He showed no remorse for his crime
and told me that he wanted to confess so that others may derive
inspiration from his action," she told the Court.
"I asked him whether there was any promise or force exerted upon him
to confess.
Sid Harth
PC's take on Pak's 'half-baked' Saeed case claim
STAFF WRITER 19:27 HRS IST
New Delhi, Sep 30 (PTI) "If it is half-baked, they (Pakistan) are
welcome to bake it fully," Home Minister P Chidambaram said when asked
about Pakistan's dilly-dallying tactics on its probe in the Mumbai
terror attack.
Chidambaram was reacting to questions by reporters on Pakistan Foreign
Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi's latest remarks that he could not take
to the court a "half-baked case" on Lashker-e-Taiba(LeT) founder
Hafeez Saeed, the suspected mastermind behind 26/11.
"If it is half-baked, they are welcome to bake it fully.
All the baking ingredients are in Pakistan. The entire evidence is on
Pakistani soil. They are most welcome to bake it fully and take it to
court," a smiling Chidambaram said.
The Home Minister said all the evidence on Indian soil has been shared
with Pakistan. "The remaining evidence is on Pakistani soil," he
added.
Chidambaram has been sceptical on action assured by Pakistan against
the 26/11 accused.
Sid Harth
Pak probe concludes LeT behind 26/11 attacks: NYT
STAFF WRITER 16:37 HRS IST
New York, Sep 30 (PTI) Pakistan's investigation into the Mumbai
attacks has concluded "beyond any reasonable doubt" that it was LeT
militants who carried out the brazen assault, according to a media
report, which also said some people in the ISI knew about the plot but
"closed their eyes".
Quoting a dossier compiled by Pakistani investigators, The New York
Times said Lashkar recruits for the attack were vetted and trained in
different parts of Pakistan including at well-established camps in
Muzafarrabad in PoK and in Mansehra in NWFP.
"A core group, the 10 chosen for the Mumbai assault, was eventually
moved to Karachi and its suburbs, where the real drilling began and
where Pakistani investigators later retraced the plotters' steps," it
said.
Sid Harth
'Malegaon Blast Could be Prevented if Police Acted'
Sunanda P/Mumbai | Sep 29, 2009
The Malegaon blast that shook the powerloom town in Maharashtra on
this day exactly one year back leaving seven people dead could have
perhaps been avoided had the police acted on a complaint by one of the
victims.
On September 29 last year, 50-year old Ansari, who runs a transport
shop in Malegaon's crowded market had noticed an unattended scooter
which was parked in front of his shop. The blast was allegedly planned
and executed by self-styled Hindu radical group Abhinav Bharat.
At first sight, the two-wheeler looked like an innocuous scooter
routinely parked by a shopper, Ansari recalled.
"I first saw it at seven in the evening. When even after one hour no
takers came, I felt suspicious about it. It was just 10 feet from my
shop which made me even more worried," Ansari told PTI over phone from
Malegaon, 280 km from Mumbai.
Ansari asked his assistants to look for the owners of the scooter but
to no avail. Later, he decided to inform the police about the same.
"We keep hearing that whenever unattended things are spotted, we
should inform the Police. I decided to inform the officials at the
nearby police post which was quite close. I approached them at 8:20
p.m but no one came," he said.
The result! an hour after he drew the attention of the policemen, a
powerful blast occurred in the vehicle injuring him and many others
who came in the direction of the flying shrapnels.
chhotemianinshallah
26/11 trial: Pak court rejects bail plea of suspect
STAFF WRITER 12:46 HRS IST
Islamabad, Oct 6 (PTI) A Pakistani anti-terrorism court has rejected
the bail application of one of the seven suspects facing trial in
connection with the Mumbai attacks, which India has blamed on the
banned militant outfit LeT.
Judge Baqir Ali Rana, who is conducting the trial of the seven
suspects booked under the Anti-Terrorism Act, denied bail to Younas
Anjum yesterday. The court noted that it had already declined bail to
another suspect named Jamil Ahmed.
Anjum, a resident of Khaniwal in the south of Punjab province, claimed
in his bail application that he was implicated in the Mumbai attacks
case.
He also claimed he was a poor milkman with eight children and
therefore did not have resources to finance the terrorists involved in
the attacks.
? ? ?Judge Rana has been conducting the trial of the seven suspects in-
camera in the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.
chhotemianinshallah
Something’s got to give
Rajdeep Sardesai
December 25, 2008
First Published: 19:52 IST(25/12/2008)
Last Updated: 02:24 IST(26/12/2008)
One of the more joyous moments of fatherhood was taking my son, then
all of nine years, to watch an India-Pakistan one-day match in Lahore
in 2004. Our Pakistani friends had rolled out the traditional Punjabi
hospitality: from the waiting limousine at the airport to the best
pavilion seats, we were treated as honoured guests. In a sea of
competing blue and green, my son was caught up in the excitement of
the occasion. Through the day, he had been furiously waving the
Tricolour.
In the last overs, as it became clear that India was winning, some
visibly frustrated Pakistani supporters handed over a Pakistani flag
to my son. The offer was promptly accepted, and on our way home he had
two flags in his hand: the Tricolour and its Pakistani equivalent.
Call it the innocence of a nine-year-old, but the Indo-Pak equation
has always had a romantic edge. No relationship has been as
schizophrenic as that between the two subcontinental neighbours. Where
else can you have a heated argument on Kashmir one moment, and then
proceed to draw up an all-time best Indo-Pak cricket eleven the very
next? How does one explain travelling to the headquarters of the
Lashkar during the day, and sitting in the evening in the hotel lobby
listening to a pianist play a Lata-Rafi melody?
The dualism was starkly driven home when I was interviewing then Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif in the midst of the Kargil war in 1999. The
interview saw a few sharp, testy exchanges over just who was
responsible for the war. With the camera off, Sharif was back to being
his gregarious self. As we ate a several course feast in the luxurious
prime ministerial gardens overlooking the Margalla hills, the tone was
anything but bellicose. Instead, Sharif proceeded to reminisce on his
favourite Hindi film star, Rajendra Kumar. “Waah, kya actor
tha!” (perhaps the only time anyone has recognised ‘Jubilee’ Kumar’s
acting capabilities). The conversation then drifted to Sharif’s other
great obsession, cricket, and he appeared awe-struck by Tendulkar’s
batting. Finally, while leaving, I mentioned that I hadn’t eaten
better kebabs. Sharif, the foodie, smiled, “Not as good as the ones I
once ate in Purani Dilli. And the gajar halwa was something else!”
Perhaps, the food and conversation was only meant to soften an Indian
journalist in a time of war, but the affection has always felt just as
real as the enmity over the years. Has 26/11 changed that? Are we now
as a people less inclined to give our Pakistani counterparts the
benefit of doubt, less prepared to distinguish between the Pakistani
State and its civil society, less willing to get carried away by
nostalgia and shared interests?
At one level, the end of the jhappi-pappi culture in the Indo-Pak
relationship is to be welcomed. Candlelight at Wagah and the sound of
guns along the Line of Control were always colliding images that
discomfited those whose minds were less cluttered by sentimentalism.
Geography and generational change had perhaps something to do with
contrasting attitudes. For those who had been affected by Partition,
the love-hate relationship with the ‘other side’ was connected with
their collective memories of childhood. But for those who lived south
of the Vindhyas, with no real connect with Pakistan, the obsessive
relationship always seemed a little incongruous.
The romantics were looking for a Veer Zara equation; while the
extremists on both sides were keen for a Gadar-like confrontation. The
more mature approach lies somewhere in-between, based on a more
pragmatic and less emotional assessment of the relationship. Take
cricketing ties for example. In the afterglow of that heady 2004
series when chants of “Balaji zara dheere chalo!” were heard across
Pakistani stadiums, the romantics believed that there had been a
tectonic shift in attitudes, with the average Pakistani ready to
embrace the idea of India.
The truth is that cricket has its limitations beyond the boundary.
Cricket matches cannot be a substitute for statecraft, an Indian
cricketer being cheered by a Pakistani crowd does not mean that the
terror infrastructure has been dismantled. It is too much in the first
place to have ever expected our cricketers to achieve what politicians
on both sides of the border cannot: a permanent peace. You cannot, for
example, have a situation where cricket is expected to compensate for
our failures to work out a meaningful joint mechanism against terror.
It is no use for Pakistan to claim that it, too, is a victim of
terror, and then use that as an excuse not to act against Masood Azhar
or Dawood Ibrahim. What 26/11 has done is driven home the double-
standards of a feeble Pakistani State to the average Indian citizen:
how can you play ‘normal’ cricket with a country which is living
through an ‘abnormal’ situation by denying the links between a section
of its State apparatus and terror groups?
And yet, it is difficult to accept the extreme view that all Indo-Pak
sporting and cultural contacts be abandoned as a demonstrable measure
of our anger post-26/11. The idea that the social isolation of
Pakistan could have the same effect as that of the ostracism of South
Africa during the apartheid years is misplaced. The campaign against
apartheid worked because it was a global effort. Moreover, apartheid
was institutionalised by the South African government while Islamabad
retains the fiction of terror being a ‘non-State’ act. Importantly,
the only hope for a stable Pakistan lies in the strengthening of its
civil society as was seen during the anti-Musharraf lawyers’ protest.
We haven’t seen the same kind of nation-wide movement against the
jihadis yet.
The challenge then is to strike the right balance. We must hold the
stick of sanctions — economic, sporting and cultural — if Pakistan
refuses to cooperate with the 26/11 investigation but also offer the
carrot of even greater interaction if there is concrete proof that
Islamabad is acting against the jihadis. Above all, we must all live
in hope that sanity will ultimately prevail. My now teenaged son
certainly does: he still has the Pakistani flag in his room.
(Rajdeep Sardesai is editor-in-Chief, IBN Network)
chhotemianinshallah
Mainstream, Vol. XLVII, No 41, September 26, 2009
Latest Moves by Islamabad and Beijing
Editorial
Saturday 26 September 2009, by SC
Recent developments in Pakistan relating to Hafiz Saeed, the founder-
leader of Jamat-ud-Dawa-cum-Lashkar-e-Taiba, have been cautiously
welcomed by India.
On September 16, the police in Pakistan’s Punjab province registered
two cases against him in Faisalabad for glorifying jihad and
soliciting funds for it. The cases were unconnected to the Mumbai
terror attacks in November 2008. But what is significant is that for
the first time cases were filed against him by the Punjab Government
under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
What is more, on September 19 Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman
Malik told a press conference in Islamabad that Pakistan was pursuing
the leads provided by India on Hafiz Saeed, adding:
I have not rejected the leads… if there is evidence against (him)
during our investigations… he will not get out of the clutches of law.
And on September 21 the police in Lahore confined Hafiz Saeed to his
house, but did not arrest or detain him; however, he was prevented
from leaving his home to lead the Id prayers at the Gaddafi Statium in
the city.
All these constitute a half-step. And given the Pakistani
administration’s past record there is no guarantee “that justice is at
last being done”, as has been observed in The Hindu. Nonetheless it
would be futile to dismiss this half-measure as of no consequence
whatsoever. In the words of Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram,
He (Hafiz Saeed) has been charged under two FIRs unrelated to 26/11.
If this is a face-saving technique, I have no objection. My demand is
that he be interrogated… on his role in the 26/11 attacks.
This a correct and appropriate response shorn of any trace of jingoism
and deserves to be acclaimed.
However, the government’s sharp criticism of the media for expressing
legitimate apprehension on Chinese intentions in view of Beijing’s
latest activities on the Sino-Indian border is inexplicable, to say
the least. In this context the words of former Chief of Army Staff
General Shankar Roy Chowdhury in The Asian Age are noteworthy:
India’s responses (to Chinese moves—S.C.) have been non-
confrontational and even passive, sometimes to the point of apparent
deference. The psyche of the Han race… is another factor to be
understood when interacting with China, irrespective of the political
system prevailing… Xenophobic by natural mindset, the Han consider
China as the “middle kingdom” of the world, superior to those
countries and peoples on the periphery, which in current perspective
includes India. The underlying inflexibility in matters of territory
considered national, no matter how long ago in history, has its
origins in this perception, and applies to territorial frontiers,
whether Taiwan, Vietnam, the South China Sea, or in India’s case the
Sino-Indian border in Tibet…
…the “trust but verify” mantra needs a little modification in the
context of China. How about an alternative: “Speak softly but carry
the big stick”?
The words merit serious consideration of all concerned.
September 23 S.C.
Sid Harth
Assembly Elections 2009
India Today Assembly Elections 2009 Story Maharashtra polls: PM
attacks Raj Thackeray
Nishika Patel
Mumbai, October 11, 2009
On the last day of election campaigning in Mumbai, Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh urged voters to select the alliance of unity and
development rather than the divisive politics of the Shiv Sena-BJP
alliance and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.
Disapproving of Raj Thackeray's politics, Singh was convinced the
Marathi leader would get a correct reply from the Maharashtra
electorate in the Assembly Elections to be held on October 13.
"Your vote for us…will be a vote against the agenda of dividing
society and creating tensions in it," he said.
Singh touched on various issues as he addressed the media at the
National Center for Performing Arts in Mumbai on Sunday.
Despite the massive backlash over high inflation, triggered by one of
the worst droughts in recent memory, Singh was optimistic that "the
worst is over". He said a good rabi crop would ease inflation in the
coming months.
Singh admitted the alliance had fallen short in improving the
infrastructure of Mumbai and said developing the city would be the
party's biggest priority if re-elected. Urban transport, the metro
rail system and the next phase of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link would all
be on top of the government's agenda.
On the rising Naxal menace, Singh ruled out the use of armed forces to
tackle the problem and said he would be willing to talk to Naxals if
they shed violence. But as well as stepping up the security response,
he said the government would also look at the causes of tribal
alienation.
Nearly one year after the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai, Singh was
unwilling to admit that the government's policy to force Pakistan to
act against the perpetrators had failed. Instead, he said for the
first time ever Pakistan had admitted the terror attack had been
hatched in Pakistan by its citizens.
The government's policy in uplifting the welfare of the common man was
also praised by Singh, who said nine lakh rural families in the state
were guaranteed 100 days of employment in the last year while 42 lakh
farmers in the state had benefited from the debt waiver scheme.
chhotemianinshallah
I have no faith in Indian court: Kasab
PTI 12 October 2009, 08:10pm IST
MUMBAI: After facing trial in the Mumbai attack case for nearly six
months, the lone surviving Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab today said he
had "no faith" in Indian court and made a dramatic plea for transfer
of the case to an international court.
But Judge M L Tahaliyani rejected 22-year-old Kasab's plea saying "it
is misconceived".
"I have no faith in Indian court and this case may be transferred to
an International court", Kasab said in an application to the court. He
had moved the application written in his own hand in Urdu.
The application was filed through jail authorities who translated it
into Marathi and produced before the court.
The judge asked Kasab whether he had written the application and he
replied "ji huzoor" (Yes, Sir).
The trial of Kasab, whom police formally charged in February with
several offences including "waging war" against India, began on March
23 via a video link with his Arthur Road prison in Mumbai. Kasab and
other suspected Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives killed 166 people in
a three-day rampage in the city on November 26 last.
In another development, the judge also rejected the plea of co-accused
Fahim Ansari to stay the proceedings on the ground that he had filed a
petition in the Bombay High Court seeking transfer of the 26/11 case
to some other court alleging that the recording of evidence was
incorrect.
"This is yet another attempt by the accused to delay the trial", noted
judge Tahaliyani while rejecting Fahim's plea to stay the
proceedings.
bademiyansubhanallah
26/11 suspects charged by Pakistani Anti-Terror Court
Nirupama Subramanian
ISLAMABAD: The seven suspects arrested here in connection with the
November 26, 2008 Mumbai attacks were formally charged by a Pakistani
Anti-Terror Court on Saturday, but the defence lawyers accused the
judge of making a “mockery” of the law. They said they were
considering asking for a transfer of the case to another court.
Judge Baqir Ali Rana of the Anti-Terror Court 2 in the Adilala prison
at Rawalpindi framed the charges. The case has been adjourned to
October 17.
The seven include Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, operations commander of the
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), and Zarar Shah, described as a communications
expert in the outfit.
But their indictment came after the team of three defence lawyers left
the court, apparently at the urging of the judge. It is not clear yet
what charges the court has framed out of the multiple charge sheets
presented by the Federal Investigations Agency, which is in charge of
the 26/11 investigation.
Khwaja Sultan, the seniormost lawyer in the team, told The Hindu that
as the defence counsel were not present, the seven suspects refused to
“sign the charges,” that is, they declined to plead guilty or not
guilty.
“We are considering challenging the manner in which this was done at
the next hearing, and we are also considering asking for a transfer of
the case from this court,” he said.
The charges were read out to each of the accused, Mr. Sultan said, but
they refused to sign them as required, as the document was in English,
a language they did not understand, and because their lawyers were not
present.
According to Mr. Sultan, the judge asked the lawyers to leave the
court following the attack at the military headquarters in Rawalpindi,
telling them that they would be stranded if the city were to be shut
down later.
Earlier in the day, the defence team moved a petition before the court
on the manner of arrest and detention of the suspects.
Judge Rana asked the prosecution to respond to the objections raised
in the petition immediately.
After arguments on both sides, the lawyers were waiting for the judge
to make a ruling in the matter. It was that point that they heard
about the trouble at Rawalpindi.
“I told the judge that courtesy demands that I should stay on until
the court remained open, but the judge asked me to leave,” Mr. Sultan
related.
“But the judge asked the prosecution lawyer to return and for the
suspects to be produced before him again, and he framed the charges,”
the Lahore-based lawyer said.
bademiyansubhanallah
India to convey unhappiness to US over Pak delay in action against
Hafiz Saeed
PTI 15 October 2009, 01:53pm IST
NEW DELHI: India is expected to convey its unhappiness over the dilly-
dallying by Pakistani authorities in taking action against JuD chief
Hafiz Saeed to US under secretary of state William Burns, who has
arrived here for a two-day visit.
New Delhi considers Saeed as the mastermind of the 26/11 attacks
though Pakistan has been claiming that there is not much evidence
against him, as a result of which he continues to be a free man.
The status of investigation into the Mumbai terror strikes is expected
to be discussed when the two sides review bilateral ties.
Burns will meet external affairs minister S M Krishna and national
security advisor M K Narayanan and hold talks with foreign secretary
Nirupama Rao.
During the meetings, the two sides will also discuss aspects related
to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Washington next month.
While sharing India's concern over the terrorist threat that could
emanate from Pakistan, US ambassador Timothy Roemer yesterday sought
prosecution of seven suspects of the Mumbai attacks, including Saeed.
"It is very important that Pakistan prosecutes successfully the seven
suspects of the Mumbai attacks, take the facts and evidence about
Hafiz Saeed and prosecute him," he had said.
chhotemianinshallah
India's challenge now: Keeping US's focus on 26/11
Seema Guha / DNA Friday, October 16, 2009 2:51 IST
New Delhi: Even as the government watches the Taliban's growing clout
in Pakistan with concern -- aware of its long-term threat to India --
the ministry of external affairs is also worried about another
challenge: How to keep the focus on 26/11, when the rest of the world,
mainly the US, is watching Islamabad take on the militants with its
back to the wall?
Pakistani security forces are under a frontal attack by the Taliban
and other terror outfits working in a loose syndicate with the al
Qaeda. Islamabad can legitimately claim it is a victim of terrorism
and is doing its best to fight the menace.
The international community, which needs Pakistani forces to take on
the jihadis in Waziristan, will be far more sympathetic to Islamabad
and may think that now is not the time to pressure the Pakistani
government on India's concerns.
India's diplomacy will have to rise to the occasion to ensure that the
world does not forget what happened in Mumbai and that unless the
establishment in Pakistan stops its "selective approach" on terror
groups, the entire region, including the Pakistani state, can
collapse.
US under-secretary of state William Burns is on a two-day visit to
India. He has already met with external affairs minister SM Krishna
and will hold talks with foreign secretary Nirupama Rao. The Indian
side will be pushing the point that pressure on Pakistan -- to act
against the 26/11 perpetrators and other anti-India groups -- needs to
continue.
For the moment, however, India cannot be seen as whining about Mumbai
when the neighbour itself is under attack from the Taliban-al Qaeda
forces, who have already declared their intention of turning Pakistan
into their version of a strict Islamic republic.
New Delhi will also be under added pressure to renew the stalled peace
parleys as a way to strengthen the hands of Pakistani president Asif
Ali Zardari, who has openly supported the Kerry-Lugar bill.
bademiyansubhanallah
India will the walk extra mile if Pak acts against 26/11 attackers:
Tharoor
PTI Friday, October 16, 2009 11:51 IST
New York: India is prepared to walk the "extra mile" to normalise
relations with Pakistan if it takes action against the perpetrators of
the Mumbai attacks and dismantles terrorism infrastructure, minister
of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor has said.
Tharoor, who is on a visit here, said India was not interested in an
environment of conflict and hostility with its neighbour and asked
Pakistan to step up efforts to combat terrorism in a "holistic way".
"The action that is expected from Pakistan has to take place before we
can engage once again in the kind of comprehensive dialogue process
that we want," he told PTI here.
"We are prepared to walk the extra mile but the first step should come
from them because what happened in Mumbai came from their side," the
former UN diplomat said.
He also recalled prime m nister Manmohan Singh's statement in July
that India would meet Pakistan more than half way if it took decisive
action against terrorism.
Tharoor also said India is "certainly disappointed" on the lack of
progress in any action against JuD chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed and in
the Mumbai attack case in Pakistan.
Based on the testimony given by Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist
captured alive during the 26/11 attacks, Tharoor said India believes
that Saaed had masterminded the strikes, "given exaltation and
operational guidance to the killers"."We believethis is a man (Saeed)
who should not be running loose in Pakistan free to preach his sermons
of hatred and incite violence and murder in our country," Tharoor
said.
"We want the infrastructure of terrorism from which assaults have been
launched in India to be dismantled," he said.
The minister said Pakistan should also shut down training camps, crack
down on terrorist organisations and stop them from being reinvented
under different names, arresting their leaders and closing down their
bank accounts.
He noted that Pakistan has so far arrested only seven suspects,
including LeT operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, in connection
with the Mumbai attacks. "I believe they're still looking for others
but we will not be satisfied with just these seven."
While a crack down on the terrorists behind 26/11 attacks remains
paramount, Tharoor said, India hopes that Pakistan would root out the
scourge of terrorism in a more "holistic manner".
"We were engaged in a peace process when 26/11 happened. India is not
the country that has been found wanting when it comes to making
overtures of peace. Governments in India envisioned prosperity for the
sub-continent.
"As we would like these things for our own people, we would like them
for the people of Pakistan," he added.
Sid Harth
bademiyansubhanallah
Hillary Clinton impressed by Pak commitment to fight terror
PTI 17 October 2009, 12:06pm IST
WASHINGTON: Notwithstanding India's dissatisfaction with the steps
taken by Islamabad to punish perpetrators of Mumbai attacks, the US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said she is "impressed" by the
commitment shown by Pakistan in fighting terrorism within its
territory.
Earlier this year, when the Taliban had captured the Swat Valley,
Clinton during a Congressional hearing had raised serious question
over the commitment of both the Pakistani government and its army to
launch an all out war against all the terrorist and extremist elements
in the country.
"Well, I am very impressed with the commitment that the Pakistani
government - both the civilian leadership and the military - have
made," Clinton told the CNN in an interview, when she was referred to
her statement a few months ago that Pakistan was in danger of falling
to the terrorists.
"When I said what I said some months ago, there was not the full
commitment of going after those who were threatening territory and
authority inside Pakistan. There is now. And I think the military in
Pakistan has proven its effectiveness in going into Swat," Clinton
said defending the change in her opinion about both the democratically-
elected government of Pakistan and its army.
"From what I read in the paper, they're very much focused on also
going into the heartland of where the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaida
are located and where these plots and these attacks are planned and
directed. So I think that they understand that there is a direct
threat to them, which they are addressing, which I think is all to the
good," Clinton said.
chhotemianinshallah
NIA probes Headley's role in terror acts, conducts raids
Press Trust Of India
Mumbai, November 14, 2009
First Published: 20:58 IST(14/11/2009)
Last Updated: 21:54 IST(14/11/2009)
Intensifying its probe into the alleged role of suspected American
terrorist and LeT operative David Headley in the Mumbai terror
attacks, a team of National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday
conducted raids at several places in the city.
The NIA carried out searches at various places in south Mumbai and
western suburbs of the city, sources said.
Two hotels in south Mumbai have also been searched, they said, adding
the team is in the city as part of its probe in the Headley case.
The NIA has registered a case against Headley and his Canadian
accomplice Tahawwur Hussain Rana in connection with terror attacks in
India including the 26/11 Mumbai attack.
chhotemianinshallah
Headley's phone number in India found; probe makes headway
Press Trust Of India
Mumbai, November 10, 2009
First Published: 22:50 IST(10/11/2009)
Last Updated: 23:20 IST(10/11/2009)
Central security agencies have located the mobile phone number used by
David Headley, arrested by FBI for his involvement in an LeT plot to
carry out attacks in India, during his stay in Mumbai.
The clue to the mobile phone used by Headley was given by a 38-year-
old Parsi lady who was working with him at his immigration services
office set up in Mumbai, official sources said.
The security agencies have already started analysising the call
records of Headley who has been arrested by FBI on October three for
allegedly hatching a conspiracy with Pakistan-based terror group
Lashker-e-Taiba to carry out strikes inside and outside the US.
This may also help the security agencies to ascertain whether
disappeared cadres of banned SIMI and Indian Mujahideen had used
Headley's immigration services.
The phone number had come as a boost to the sleuths who were rattled
by the fact that Headley, who came to India nine times since 2006-07,
had wound up the entire immigration business in April this year and
they could not get a single information about the functioning of his
business and clients.
The mysterious disappearance of many terror accused from Gujarat,
Madhya Pradesh and Hyderabad including that of Rahil Sheikh, an
alleged mastermind in the 2006 Mumbai serial blasts that left 187
people dead, was also being looked into.
chhotemianinshallah
Mahesh Bhatt's son questioned on Headley link
Indo-Asian News Service
Mumbai/New Delhi, November 13, 2009
First Published: 14:11 IST(13/11/2009)
Last Updated: 16:18 IST(13/11/2009)
Mumbai police have questioned Bollywood filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt's son
Rahul for his alleged friendship with David Coleman Headley, the
Pakistan-born US national who is in FBI custody as a Lashkar-e-Taiba
(LeT) suspect.
Rahul Bhatt, a fitness instructor, was let off after questioning as he
was unaware of Headley's terror links, said sources in the Mumbai
Police.
According to sources, during questioning Rahul admitted to having
known Headley and also helping him rent a flat near Breach Candy
Hospital.
However, the filmmaker's son was unaware of Headley's actual
background and took him to be a foreign national in India on a job.
There were several references to "Rahul" in Headley's e-mail exchanges
with his Pakistani handlers that sent the security establishment into
a tizzy.
Information provided by the FBI has revealed that Headley operated a
visa agency in Mumbai for almost two years until July 2008 and had
travelled to India on business visas nine times between 2006 and
2009.
When contacted, Mahesh Bhatt neither confirmed nor denied that his son
had been questioned by police in connection with the Headley case.
"This is an issue of national security and not something trivial
related to Bollywood. Ask the agencies that deal with national
security. I will not say anything more," Bhatt told a television
channel.
Investigators initially feared that the 'Rahul' reference was to
Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi but Home Minister P
Chidambaram promptly denied this. There was even speculation that it
could be a code name for Shah Rukh Khan, who has played characters
named Rahul in several films.
Headley and his alleged accomplice Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Canadian
citizen of Pakistani origin, are being held on charges of plotting
attacks in India at the behest of Lashkar.
Intelligence shared by the FBI following the interrogation of Headley
revealed that two of India's most prestigious boarding schools -- Doon
in Dehradun and Woodstock in Mussoorie -- and the National Defence
College in New Delhi were supposed Lashkar targets.
India will ask the US to extradite Headley after the FBI files its
report in January.
chhotemianinshallah
Headley had stayed in a Delhi hotel before 26/11 attacks
Press Trust Of India
New Delhi, November 13, 2009
First Published: 13:14 IST(13/11/2009)
Last Updated: 13:40 IST(13/11/2009)
Suspected American terrorist David Headley had stayed in a hotel in
the national capital just months before the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai.
According to the passport details of Headley, he had visited the
national capital and Mumbai during April last year. He had then left
for Pakistan.
Headley was arrested by the FBI for suspected links with the banned
terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which had carried out the Mumbai carnage
last year that left about 180 people dead.
Sources said Central security agencies are also investigating
Headley's suspected links to terror outfit Indian Mujhaideen, which
had carried out a series of bomb attacks across the country, including
in Rajasthan and Delhi, that left over 170 people dead.
Home Minister P Chidambaram had said on Thursday that besides Headley,
the National Investigating Agency had registered a case against his
Canadian accomplice Tahawwur Hussain Rana.
The duo was booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and
for conspiring to wage war against the country.
Maintaining that Headley had visited India several times before 26/11
and once after the Mumbai terror strikes, Chidambaram had said, "We
are conducting investigations in the cities he visited to find out
whom he met and what he did."
The Mumbai attack last November left 183 persons dead. A top Home
Ministry official has claimed that the investigators had enough
evidence to show Headley's link with LeT and the Government is all set
to produce the documents before a US court in January next and press
for his extradition to India.
"We will press for his extradition to India with the evidence," the
official said. The investigators were now trying to find out whether
Headley and his accomplice Rana, also arrested in the US, were
involved in the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai and whether handlers of the
duo and Mumbai attackers were the same.
chhotemianinshallah
Is Headley the missing link in 26/11 conspiracy?
Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi/Mumbai, November 13, 2009
First Published: 21:25 IST(13/11/2009)
Last Updated: 23:17 IST(13/11/2009)
With David Coleman Headley's travel itinerary and the persons he met
up with during his nine visits to India becoming increasingly clear,
investigators believe that the Pakistan-born American, now in US
custody, could have played a role in planning the Mumbai terror
attacks.
Top intelligence officials said Headley, a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)
suspect, is now turning out to be one of the prime suspects in the
probe into 26/11 - India's biggest terror attack whose first
anniversary will be observed in a fortnight - and was also looking at
other potential targets in the country.
"Look at the reconnaisance missions he carried out. Why do you think
he was travelling to Kochi, Ahmedabad, Pune, Mumbai and Delhi? Clearly
it was not for sightseeing," a senior intelligence official told IANS
on condition of anonymity.
Investigators say that Headley could well be the missing link in the
26/11 conspiracy.
Headley, say intelligence agencies, had visited India nine times on
his US passport (No. 097536400), issued March 10, 2006 that was valid
for 10 years.
According to officials probing Headley's connections, he had an eye
for detail and was capable of meticulous planning.
Headley, who changed his name from Daood Gilani in 2006, and his
alleged accomplice Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Canadian citizen of
Pakistani origin, were arrested in the US last month by the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The FBI later informed the Indian intelligence agencies that the two
were plotting terror attacks on behalf of the LeT against India and
the National Defence College in New Delhi and two premier educational
institutions were on their hit list.
An FBI team is expected in India next week to probe the Indian links
of Headley and will be joined by security agencies in Mumbai.
"The FBI investigation shared with Indian investigators reveals that
Headley has played an important role in conspiring the Mumbai attack.
We are probing this link," the officer said, pleading anonymity.
"The criminal complaints the FBI has so far shared expose a serious
plot against overseas targets by the two working for the LeT," the
official said.
Intelligence agencies were also investigating Headley's suspected
links to terror outfit Indian Mujahideen, which had carried out a
series of bomb attacks across the country, including in Jaipur, Delhi
and Bangalore last year.
Headley and Rana have been charged by the FBI of plotting to attack a
Danish newspaper whose cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that led to
violent protests by Muslims.
Headley, according to investigators, also travelled to Pakistan where
he met with a militant having ties with Al Qaeda, Harakat-ul Jihadi
Islami, and communicated with members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba about
their plans to conduct fresh attacks in India.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram Thursday said Headley was in India before
and the after the 26/11 terror carnage that left over 170 people dead
in India's financial capital.
India's National Investigating Agency has already registered cases
against Headley and Rana and has sought their deportation.
Headley's passport details, a xerox copy of which police got from a
Delhi hotel, revealed he had come to the capital from Abu Dhabi March
6 this year - the ninth and his last visit to India. He is also
suspected of having a Pakistani passport, the officials say.
According to Delhi Police, during his recent visits to the capital he
stayed in two hotels of Delhi in crowded Paharganj, a popular
destination for foreign backpackers.
On March 6, he stayed at Hotel Holiday International and then for the
next two days at Hotel Anand, from where he checked out saying he was
leaving for Rajasthan, according to hotel records.
Meanwhile, Mumbai Police have also questioned Bollywood filmmaker
Mahesh Bhatt's son Rahul for his alleged friendship with Headley.
Rahul, a fitness instructor, was let off after questioning as he was
unaware of Headley's terror links, said sources in the Mumbai Police.
"How would you think that a white American had anything to do with
terror," Mahesh Bhatt told reporters when asked about his son was
questioned.
In Mumbai, Headley also met realty broker Sunny Singh to rent a flat
through a former French client. However, since he could not provide
proper documents, he did not help him get a flat, the property dealer
said.
"I asked him for copies of his visa, passport and other identity
papers, which he was not ready to provide," he said.
Sid Harth
Kerala police verifying reports on Headley's visit to Kochi
Press Trust Of India
Thiruvananthapuram, November 14, 2009
First Published: 13:45 IST(14/11/2009)
Last Updated: 13:47 IST(14/11/2009)
Kerala Police is looking into reports that Kochi was one of the places
visited by American terror suspect David Headley before the Mumbai
carnage.
Director General of Police Jacob Punnoose said central agencies
investigating the case had so far not passed on any information on the
matter to the state police.
However, state police was "verifying" reports including those in the
media that Headley had stayed in a hotel in the city.
The State police is also verifying documents at the airport on arrival
of foreign passengers by domestic and international flights for the
last three years, he said.
Headley was arrested by US investigating agency FBI for planning
terror attacks in India.
Sid Harth
My son does not require clean chit from anyone: Mahesh Bhatt
Press Trust Of India
Mumbai, November 14, 2009
First Published: 18:49 IST(14/11/2009)
Last Updated: 19:07 IST(14/11/2009)
Upset over reports attributed to security agencies that they have not
cleared his son of any wrongdoing in connection with his dealings with
terror suspect David Headley, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt on Saturday said
he is hurt and that his son does not require a clean chit from anyone.
"I have read news reports attributed to security agencies wherein they
have said that Rahul has not been given a clean chit for his Headley
connection. I am deeply hurt. He is a true and responsible Indian who
himself volunteered to share the information with the agencies.
Rahul's heart is clear and he doesn't require any clean chit from
anyone," Bhatt told PTI.
He also accused the security agencies of not keeping their word and
leaking selective information to the media.
"We were asked to maintain silence, but see now what is happening. I
kept my word (by remaining silent) and look what the security agencies
are doing?" Bhatt said, adding that the investigating agencies were
clueless about the identity of Rahul, who figured in Headley's e-mails
to his LeT handler, until his son volunteered the information.
"It was my son who approached Rakesh Maria (Joint Police Commissioner,
Mumbai) and shared details after which the investigations have gone on
the right track. The agencies should acknowledge this truth," he said.
Sid Harth
Gujrat Police probe Headley's visit to state
Press Trust Of India
Ahmedabad, November 14, 2009
First Published: 17:23 IST(14/11/2009)
Last Updated: 17:24 IST(14/11/2009)
Gujarat Police on Saturday said it was investigating into US-based LeT
operative David Coleman Headley's visit to the state.
"We had some information about that and we are working on it. Headley
had come for a couple of days with one of his accomplices to
Ahmedabad....that information seems to be almost confirmed," Director
General of Police S S Khadwavala said.
He said that they are yet to receive any official information in this
regard from the Central security agencies.
"Our anti-terrorist squad and other police officials are investigating
into the visit," he further said.
On Headley having any local support here, the DGP said, "Until and
unless there is local support, no terrorist can operate."
In the backdrop of Headley's several visits to India between 2006 and
2009, the Centre has issued alerts to five states, including Gujarat,
Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, as a precautionary measure.
During investigations, it was found that Headley had visited Mumbai,
Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Agra and Delhi and done a recce of vital
installations in other cities.
Headley (49) was arrested last month by FBI for allegedly hatching a
conspiracy with LeT to carry out strikes inside and outside the US.
Sid Harth
A homing instinct
Rajdeep Sardesai
October 29, 2009
First Published: 21:07 IST(29/10/2009)
Last Updated: 21:11 IST(29/10/2009)
In the corridors of North Block, the shadow of Sardar Patel, India’s
first home minister, looms large. Every person who has since occupied
the office is constantly reminded of the Iron Man of India: a life-
size portrait of the Sardar stares down at them. It’s a burden which
has weighed heavily on his successors, which is perhaps why the
country’s roll call of home ministers is littered with notable
failures.
There was SB Chavan who fiddled while the Babri Masjid was brought
down; Brahmanand Reddy who silently acquiesced in the Emergency; Buta
Singh, whose act in bowing his head at the feet of VHP mentor Deoraha
Baba was a new low in Indian politics; Charan Singh who was constantly
plotting on how to become prime minister; Indrajit Gupta, who like a
good leftie spent more time on pay commission hikes than on fighting
militancy; and, of course, the serial dresser Shivraj Patil who
changed his wardrobe every time there was a terror attack. Even L.K.
Advani, who claimed to be inspired by the Sardar, was a rather rusted
home minister in the end, his rhetoric on Dawood Ibrahim and the ISI
hardly being matched by concrete action on the ground.
Enter P. Chidambaram. A little less than a year ago when PC took over,
it was the worst of times. The 26/11 terror attacks had shaken the
security establishment, the state had been exposed as effete and
inept. The home ministry had been pushed into bureaucratic
irrelevance, one reason perhaps why even Chidambaram was self-
confessedly reluctant to take up the job.
And yet, 11 months into office, PC is poised to be recognised as
perhaps the toughest home minister the country has had, if not since
Patel, then certainly in the last three decades. In a sense, PC’s no
nonsense persona — his critics term it as arrogance — is ideally
suited for the ministry that needs a tough talking jailorsaab at the
helm. As finance minister, PC’s style of functioning appeared at times
ill-suited to the demands of coalition politics. But in the home
ministry, the combativeness has been rewarding.
Take for example the recent conference of directors-general of
police: PC used the opportunity to lambast states for treating
policemen as ‘political footballs’. Similarly, PC’s repeated
questioning of Pakistan’s blatant attempt to protect Lashkar boss
Hafiz Saeed may yield little, but at least it sends out a strong
signal that New Delhi isn’t a wimpish state which will allow Islamabad
to win the propaganda war once again.
But there is another, more complex challenge that faces PC: tackling
the Naxal menace. Unlike Pak-based terrorism where the enemy is clear,
the Maoists cannot be seen in black and white. Yes, those who behead
police constables, who mine roads and blast bridges must be seen as
armed militias who have to be either disarmed or eliminated. But
should every armed tribal be seen as an ‘enemy of the state’ who must
be shot dead?
In a recent speech, PC had warned against romanticising Naxalism: “If
the Naxalites accuse elected governments of capitalism, land grabbing,
exploiting and displacing tribal people, what prevents them from
winning power through elections and reversing current policies? We
have not heard a logical answer to this question, not from naxalites,
not from left-leaning intellectuals, and certainly not from human
rights groups that plead the naxalite cause but ignore the violence
unleashed by Naxalites on innocent men, women and children. Why are
the human rights groups silent?”
It’s a question that has enraged human rights groups who believe that
it’s not just their ideology, but their patriotism that is being
challenged. It’s equally the kind of remarks that have drawn applause
from a vocal, middle-class constituency driven by the ‘enough is
enough’ slogan that echoed after 26/11. In the process, the debate
over how to tackle Naxalism is being polarised into a ‘them’ and ‘us’
binary conflict that offers no solution. Yes, we must condemn the cult
of violence spawned by Naxalism in the strongest terms. But does that
mean we turn a blind eye to the random violence of our own forces?
Francis Induwar’s killing must make the headlines and his family must
get justice. But what of Dudhi Muye, 70, who was murdered after her
breasts were cut off in a security ‘operation’ in Dantewada on
September 17? Does her family too not deserve justice?
If the cycle of violence is to end, then Naxals who murder in cold
blood must be dealt with as murderers but equally security forces who
believe they have a unbridled licence to kill cannot be let off under
the guise of inevitable ‘collateral damage’. Who better than a home
minister who started life as a trade union activist and then became a
senior lawyer to understand the primacy of the rule of law and
justice?
Postscript: In the last month, both Chidambaram and Arundhati Roy have
been interviewed separately in our TV studios. Next time, they should
consider coming together in the spirit of encouraging a meaningful
dialogue as the way forward.
Rajdeep Sardesai is Editor-in-Chief , IBN Network
bademiyansubhanallah
Indian investigators got good info on Headley: PC
Agencies
Posted: Saturday , Nov 14, 2009 at 1820 hrs
New Delhi:
The Indian team of intelligence officials which went to the US in
connection with probe into LeT operative David Coleman Headley's
terror designs has come back with "good information", Union Home
Minister P Chidambaram said on Saturday.
He, however, refused to share details, saying investigations were
still underway.
"The team had a good visit. They have come back with good
information," Chidambaram told reporters here when asked about the
trip that officials from Intelligence Bureau and RAW undertook to the
US last week to obtain details of the terror plan of Headley.
Asked whether Headley was linked to the Mumbai attacks, the Home
Minister snapped, saying "This is not a cricket match which gives a
ball-by-ball description. Investigation is on and once the
investigating agency completes investigations, we will share whatever
has to be shared."
Headley, 49-year-old Pakistan-born US citizen, was arrested in Chicago
last month by the FBI which said he was part of an LeT plan to carry
out terror attacks in India.
Officials of IB and RAW went to the US last week and met FBI
counterparts to get details of the plot and Headley's contacts in
India on the basis of his interrogation.
After the return of the Indian team, investigators in New Delhi have
begun unravelling details of Headley's visits to the capital and
identifying people whom he had met in Mumbai, Delhi and other places.
In praise of HM PC
By: anil bharali | Saturday , 14 Nov '09 22:44:46 PM
As an ordinary citizen we feel ashamed of on our honourable HM
minister' s appreciation to the inefficient intelligent deparment.
Separate Bombay from Maharashtra and deal Marathis with iron hand
By: Mona Sharma | Saturday , 14 Nov '09 22:31:06 PM
First arrest Marathi terrorists in Maharashtra. These anti-nationals
and traitors should be shot down before they become risk to our
national integrity.
IB-RAW visit to US
By: Kalpathy Venkataraman | Saturday , 14 Nov '09 22:20:30 PM
Chidambaram's statement is aimed at justifying the wasteful expenses
related to the recent US trip by his puppet IB-RAW lieutenants. Even
if the IB guys know the Headley's local contacts in India, what is
that they are going to do? Nothing. The joint owners of the criminal
enterprises in India are the politicians, bureaucrats and the
criminals. Learn from Koda's experience. In the end , he will go free
with all the looted money.
Indian investigators got good info on Headley: PC
By: sunit | Saturday , 14 Nov '09 20:28:33 PM
Very nice to know they got 'good information'
Go to the root!
By: Firdos Mewawala | Saturday , 14 Nov '09 19:06:27 PM
The Headley affair is indeed an eye opener because the chinks in our
armor are many & unpredictable. Why is it that nobody is bothered to
go at the root of the question as to how & why these terrorist
operators get so much local support?
Chidambaram is right
By: Naveen kUMAR | Saturday , 14 Nov '09 18:48:57 PM
I am no fan of congress or for that matter chidambaram. But his
statement is right. Details to media or public should be released only
after investigation is complete otherwise terrorists will know where
police are going search/raid based on their progress and accordingly
cover their tracks. Revealing step by step progress of an
investigation is just like sharing a LeT plot information with
pakistan so that they can plan better next time.
Indian investigators got good info on Headley: PC
By: Hemant | Saturday , 14 Nov '09 18:06:17 PM
In this internet world, wouldn't it save time and money of Indian tax
payers if these info. was exchanged through email rather than sending
a team of investigators for this thing!!??
investigation by email
By: rajneesh sharma | Saturday , 14 Nov '09 20:33:55 PM
hemant this is not a office matter where your boss can email you or
vice versa. this is an investgation where one has to go through
hundreds of documents and other pieces of evidence. Also investigators
have to interview the accused to extract any valueable information.
your world of internet is good to share information without knowing if
it is true or not. Investigations are carried out in a systematic way
otherwise everyone who can operate a computer would be a police
officer or agent of raw.
It is a cricket match.
By: B.K.Kumar | Saturday , 14 Nov '09 17:44:29 PM
Yes it is nothing but a cricket match, fixed in Mumbai's Bollywood and
played out as per script with apt support of socalled watchful secular
media. And ultimately as in Cricket , India will loose by yards. HM
will sy Cricket game is unpredictable.Jai Ho, Mera Bharat Mahan.
national security
By: Thomas | Saturday , 14 Nov '09 17:42:51 PM
Our polititians are busy supporting anti india elements within india
for e.g. anti vandematharam group.
Vandemataram
By: Surendra | Saturday , 14 Nov '09 19:57:28 PM
I fully support singing Vande Mataram but also believe that anti
Vandemataram groups are not necessarily anti national. They are
uneducated religious enthusiastes. Just dismiss it as their personal
opinion instead of making it a front page news.
Uneducated
By: Henry | Saturday , 14 Nov '09 20:35:58 PM
Surender, Things need to be seen in proper perspective. There's no
need to be complacent and call others "uneducated" religious
enthusiasts. The simple logic is Musims can't bow before anything but
one God. so if the song says bowing before the land, some object to
it. I agree with you though they are not less patriotic.
PC: we got good info
By: Ashok | Saturday , 14 Nov '09 17:28:52 PM
PC for get to mention: "..........alongwith the info, our people also
did some good shopping, of course, with tax-payer's money"
bademiyansubhanallah
Police records statement of Rahul and Headley's common friend
Agencies
Posted: Saturday , Nov 14, 2009 at 1817 hrs
Mumbai:
As part of efforts to trace the movements of David Headley, who was in
Mumbai five days prior to the LeT attacks there on November 26 last
year, police has recorded the statement of a common friend of the
suspected American terrorist and Rahul, son of film director Mahesh
Bhatt.
According to police sources, Rahul came into contact with Headley
through one Vilas who also worked at the gym Moksha in Breach Candy
area in south Mumbai.
Rahul, whose name was reportedly mentioned in the emails sent to LeT
handlers by their operative Headley, used to work as a fitness
instructor in the gym.
"It was Vilas who met Headley first and introduced him to Rahul. We
have recorded the statement of Vilas," the sources said, refusing to
divulge further details.
Mahesh Bhatt confirmed that Vilas is a mediator through whom Rahul
knew Headley but the noted film maker dismissed the possibility of his
son's involvement in any terror activities.
Headley has been arrested by US investigating agency FBI for planning
terror attacks in India.
Comments (3) |
SLEEPER UNITS
By: NAVIN ASTI | 14-Nov-2009
After 26/11 some leaders suggested that over and above dealing with
Pakistan,Indian Govt. should also track down on sleeper units, without
whose support the operation was not possible.At that time the so
called Congress managed Media as well as pseudo-secularist political
parties and similar NGOs denounced them as communal.With the news
coming on the surface,it is quite necessary that all these people who
showed soft corner in words as well as action to Batla House
terrorists should be subject to full investigation(including NARCO-
TEST) over and above Bhatt family as well as Amar and Arjun.They
should comply in NATIONAL interest.They need not worry if they are
clear.Even Mr.SG of IE must come out with an Editorial on this,as he
is prompt for opposition parties' denouncement.
Is the Rahul connection really that surprising?
By: khandu patel | 14-Nov-2009
Reports had been circulating for some time that Mahesh Bhatt though
ostensibly Hindu through marriage alliances with Muslims of the film
community pose threat no different to national security than other
extremists. That is the case with Mahesh Bhatt. We saw that with
Sanjay Dutt. It should not be surprising that Headly sought out Rahul
for these reasons. Rahul would have provided good sounding board for
the opinions of those Headly intended to recruit for missions. The
intelligence agencies will be kept very busy finding out what aid
Rahul gave.
Kill the Terrorist Supporters
By: Jay | 14-Nov-2009
I think all the terrorists and terrorist supporters should be
summarily killed. Mahesh does not mince words when seeking punishment
for others. Now that his son is involved, he wants secular justice
which he can then manipulate. If he was in Saudi Arabia, he would have
been killed by now. An eye for an eye is what they practice. So why is
he so apologetic now? He can always rent a crowd, when the matter goes
to court in secular system, like Teesta Setalvad and seek secular
justice. But what of the numerous victims of terrorist violence? What
of the numerous security personnel killed? We want justice and one way
is to make it abundantly clear to sympathisers of terrorists is that
no quarter shall be given. Kill them both- father and son. Good
riddance.
bademiyansubhanallah
26/11 terror attack: BJP demands extradition of Headley, Rana
Agencies
Posted: Saturday , Nov 14, 2009 at 1641 hrs
Hyderabad:
The duo had stayed in Mumbai before terror attacks, Prakash Javadekar
said.
The BJP on Saturday demanded the initiation of extradition process
against suspected American terrorist David Headley and his Canadian
associate Tahawwur Hussain Rana for their alleged role in the 26/11
attacks.
The Central government should take steps to extradite Headley and
Pakistani-origin Rana, who are in custody of the US investigating
Agency FBI. The duo had stayed in Mumbai just five days before the
terror attacks last November, BJP national spokesperson Prakash
Javadekar told reporters here.
Central government should also probe thoroughly the alleged logistic
local support in the Mumbai attacks, he said.
The Mumbai strike was a well planned attack carried out with local
support, BJP leader said, adding there was a need to probe thoroughly
who had assisted the terrorists to work out the attack plan.
bademiyansubhanallah
26/11 fallout: Chavan orders probe on faulty bullet-proof jackets
Agencies
Posted: Saturday , Nov 14, 2009 at 1433 hrs
New Delhi:
Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said on Saturday that he will
"find out the truth" in the claims that ATS chief Hemant Karkare was
killed in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks because of a faulty bulletproof
jacket he was wearing.
"I will find out what is the truth in the matter," Chavan told
reporters here when asked about claims that the jacket worn by Karkare
was defective.
A PIL filed in the Bombay High Court had claimed that the bullet proof
vests worn by Karkare and two other senior officers while fighting
terrorists on November 26 last belonged to the batch of 110 defective
pieces purchased by the police way back in 2002.
This comes in the wake of revelations by Karkare's widow Kavita that
the bullet proof jacket worn by her husband was missing. She had filed
an RTI request in this regard.
Chavan said he had heard about the claims and would look into them.
The Chief Minister was talking to journalists after inaugurating the
Maharashtra Pavilion at the India International Trade Fair in New
Delhi.
On allegations by SP leader Amar Singh on threat to party MLA Abu
Azmi's life, he merely said "Amar Singh is a big national leader, I am
a small leader from a state."
Chavan had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister Pranab
Mukherjee and Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday. "These were
courtesy meetings," he said.
Comments (2) |
Secuity is just to tell the media that we are prepared
By: freddie | 14-Nov-2009
This is second time I am writing here. It looks like when you speak
the truth even IE doesn't like it. It is all media and politician
handinglove. So we can trust you that we are prepared for all terror
attack in Mumbai. When I was on holiday in september in Mumbai and
have been to Gorai beech. I seen only two officers at the beech corner
chatting with out dated guns in their hands. No goggles, no
birnorcules, no bullet proof helmets
How to believe you politicians - Provide autonomy for Police.
By: Indian | 14-Nov-2009
Dr Mr Chavan, with due respect to an elected leader I would like to
ask how can we believe you? Yesterday you proclaimed any further
terror attacks will be tackled by your government. But looks like
almost an year you dont much details and root cause why we lost such
good people in the last terror attack. What kind of enquiry was
conducted, what strategies has been worked out. How can we believe the
police forces will be very effective this time. Indian need a white
paper and strong action. Do it we will believe you and PC.
bademiyansubhanallah
India second worst terror-hit country, says NGO
Agencies
Posted: Saturday , Nov 14, 2009 at 1102 hrs
Mumbai:
'According to the report, terror attacks in India have increased in
the past few years and claimed 3,674 lives.
India is the second most worst terrorism-afflicted country - behind
only war-ravaged Iraq - facing eight terror attacks in 2008 alone and
losing over 3,500 lives in the last few years.
Quoting a recent United States (US) report, city-based NGO "Bombay
First", said India follows Iraq in the number of lives lost in terror
attacks last year.
"According to the report, terror attacks in India have increased in
the past few years and claimed 3,674 lives, which is second to that of
Iraq," NGO Chairman Narinder Nayar said on Friday at a security summit
organised at Hotel Trident, one of the sites of the last November's
assault in Mumbai.
The NGO is working to make the metropolis, which has seen some deadly
attacks, a better and safe place.
Nayar said India, battling terrorism for nearly three decades now, has
been attacked from outside and within. The summit saw global security
experts, including those from the US and United Kingdom, discussing
various aspects of terrorism and sharing their experiences.
"The 26/11 terror attacks, as the Indian Prime Minister said, was an
attack on the aspirations and dreams of making Mumbai a global city,"
Nayar said.
He stressed the need to modernise the police and review the criminal
judicial system. Besides Mumbai, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and New
Delhi were also among terror targets last year.
Comments (10) |
citizen
By: johna | 14-Nov-2009
This should be a wakeup call for the corrupt politicians,who managed
to divide and rule for their political ambitions with the help of the
"goons" with religious connections. RSS??These jokers made the country
more divided than united.. Mumbai(Bombay) now is the dirt place.
Bombay polits " jobs only for Maratis" even they told that to State
Bank of India clerical job tests?Maratis did not build Bombay,Indians
did,which include all from north,south,east and west -in whichever way
they want to put it.It is now even scary to travel through Mumbai
airport.Well Air India monopoly..Look where AI is now?Average Indian
do not travel on AI.. Why? it is a monopoly for the Babujis of Mumbai??
We need change. Only the young generation can accomplish this beyond
any religious beliefs. Leave religion alone - In a demoractic society-
treat them separate - Politics and religion. PEACE.
indian
By: sindu | 14-Nov-2009
What are you congress people do all these years making all Hindus
cowards and slaves still u want these RSS people to be hanged wiped
out Well done just finish that also
Corrupt JAI HOs to go...
By: TTR | 14-Nov-2009
We need patriotic JAI HINDs but not corrupt JAI HOs. As long these
corrupt HAND JAI HOs exist there is not future for India! Only Sh
Advani like leader could solve our problem but media is corrupt and
they give wrong information about BJP.
Incorrect
By: John | 14-Nov-2009
I do not think it is correct statement. Pakistan is the worst hit
country followed by Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel. India could be the
fourth or the fifth worst hit country.
Hindu fascism is the cause of terrorism in India
By: George Orwell | 14-Nov-2009
The main reason for India suffering from terrorism is communalism
advocated by the Hindu fascist and terrorist organization 'RSS' and
pro-RSS Hindu fanatic police forces that support Hindu hooligans and
rioters. RSS orchestrates communal riots and the Hindu police forces
blindly support RSS activists in destroying the lives and properties
of Muslims and Christians.After the riots the pro-RSS police officials
arrest,torture and jail the affected members of the minorities.Thus,
all the doors of justice are closed against the affected Muslims and
Christians.Then, RSS activists like Pragya Thakur,
Pandya,Col.Purohit,etc.with the support of police and IB personnel
launch terrorism dramas - bombings - in the name of Muslims further
giving opportunities for the same police personnel to continue
persecuting the minorities, looting their money(taking bribes),
depriving them employment and education,torturing them after stripping
them naked and jailing them or killing them in fake encounters.
Not religion
By: Squid | 14-Nov-2009
It's only because of the extremist views of muslims in neighboring
jealous countries like pak, afghan, iran, etc who can not see India
doing so well even after being a secular nation. They are just jealous
and want to spoil our harmony. I agree with Vijay on this point. Well
said. Stop being racial.
Yes Christianity is best, they imposed apartheid
By: Vijay | 14-Nov-2009
Yes Christianity is the best; they colonized Asia, Africa, America,
imposed slavery. Thousands of native populations were wiped out in
genocide. Christian white South Africans imposed apartheid on native
majority populations. Christian white took away children from
Australian aborigines. The pope never said a word. Come on who are you
kidding. Please respect all religions
We need a sensible and visionary leader
By: squid | 14-Nov-2009
We really need leaders who care for the country and want to do good.
Offcourse there is no one perfect but another Indira Gandhi is what we
need! Jai Hind!
VISIONARY LEADER
By: Rajesh Vyas | 14-Nov-2009
The morass actually set in with Ms. Indira Gandhi who perfected the
art and science of DIVIDE and RULE to a TEE. BE IT THE BHINDRANWALE,
SATEIST LEADERS, MINORITIES ETC>) The other politicians (PLEASE DO NOT
CALL THEM OUR LEADERS) sharpened the art further and we are now paying
a heavy price.
Not that way
By: Squid | 14-Nov-2009
Don't get me wrong. What I meant was, we need some leaders who can
actually 'ACT'. IG was one such lady who could at least act. I've
already pointed out 'no one perfect'. But in these days of coalition
govt. no one wants to even think, let alone discuss or act about any
issues facing India. I'm not supporting what IG did, what I meant was
we need someone so strong to do something single handed. MMS and his
jokers can not act, they are busy pulling their own hair over
controversies.
bademiyansubhanallah
Headley's coded messages 'hint at HuJI link'
Vijay V Singh, TNN 15 November 2009, 10:08am IST
MUMBAI: Officials privy to the David Headley case say the coded
communication between Headley and his Pakistan-based counterparts
indicate they wanted to use terror group Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami
(HuJI) for fresh attacks on Mumbai and other Indian cities. Pakistani
handlers had used the LeT for the 26/11 attacks.
Ilyas Kashmiri of HuJI was in regular contact with Headley for some
time and their communications suggested that they were in the process
of plotting fresh attacks in India.
FBI documents submitted in the US court, for the proceedings against
Rana and Headley, reveal their handlers were keen to launch a series
of terror attacks in India and had directed Headley to visit the
country to locate fresh targets (in Mumbai and elsewhere).
Officials here said a National Investigation Agency (NIA) team was in
Mumbai, looking for possible leads into the case, at the places
Headley and Pakistan-born accomplice Tahawwur Rana frequented in
Mumbai. "They are following their own line of probe and, so far, have
not asked us for any help,'' a senior official said.
Headley suggested to his handlers that they "revisit'' Mumbai.
Officials also believe that he played a key role in the selection of
26/11 targets and collected "inside information" about them.
Both NIA and Mumbai police officials say solving the codes would give
them a clearer idea of what Headley, Rana and their Pakistan-based
handlers were trying to achieve.
"The people with whom Headley was in touch seem to be senior members
of Pakistan's terror-exporting establishment,'' an official said.
bademiyansubhanallah
They're making a villain out of a hero: Bhatts
Anil Singh, TNN 15 November 2009, 12:27am IST
MUMBAI: "They’re making a villain out of a hero," said filmmaker
Mahesh Bhatt, referring to media reports about his son Rahul, who is
being treated as a suspect in the David Coleman Headley case.
Bhatt had taken Rahul — a trainer at Breach Candy’s Moksh gym — to the
office of Mumbai’s crime branch chief Rakesh Maria as soon as the
Headley story broke in October-end. "Rahul gave the police the first
lead," sister Pooja Bhatt told TOI on Saturday. "But instead of
lauding him, the media has put him in the dock."
Pooja is upset that the investigating agencies first let Rahul’s name
slip to the media, then didn’t step in to prevent speculation. "We
abided by their instructions and did not reveal details of the case to
reporters," she said. "But they are just sitting back, watching us get
mauled by the media."
Pooja is also particularly angry with an author and former journalist
for having called the Bhatts a ‘dysfunctional family’ on a social
networking website. "I have seen my father age over the last two
days," she said. "It’s cruel. You throw a man to the lions with his
hands tied and sit back and watch."
Pooja also clarified the circumstances under which Headley met her
mother. "Headley and another trainer Vilas Warak (whom Rahul knew)
were going to Bandra together. Since Rahul was taking some time to get
ready, he asked Headley to come to his apartment instead of waiting
downstairs. Those were the five minutes when he met my mother."
As for the references to Rahul in the email Headley sent his handler
in the LeT, Pooja says that even the cops have come to the conclusion
that Rahul was a code for Mumbai and not her brother. "I want
everybody indulging in speculation about my brother to refer to the
link www.scribd.com/doc/21700864/Headley-Complaint and read what the
FBI has to say about the matter on page 22."
She also read out a text message sent to her by Rakesh Maria: "We have
found no connection of Rahul with Headley apart from peripheral
friendship. One cannot rule out the possibility of him being
questioned again. NIA is likely to call him for questioning. His name
has been used only in indicating the city of Mumbai. We have done a
thorough check in the last three weeks on the Rahul angle and it is
true that Rahul Bhatt himself came to us."
Pooja also denies media reports that Rahul helped Headley rent an
apartment. "Let the police speak to all others associated with Headley
and find out for themselves. My brother is being targeted because his
father is famous."
Bitter at the whole experience, Pooja wonders if citizens should
actually come out to help investigating agencies at all. "Even one
year after 26\11, we were clueless about Headley. Now when the FBI and
citizens like Rahul are helping Indian agencies unravel his role, they
are trying to cover up their inefficiency by projecting the
information as their victory."
bademiyansubhanallah
Woman may be involved in Headley-Rana terror trail
PTI 15 November 2009, 08:42pm IST
NEW DELHI: Did Tahawwur Rana, an associate of American terror suspect
David Coleman Headley, travel to Kochi with his wife?
Investigations into the visits of the two terror suspects have led
sleuths to know about the presence of a woman who claims to be the
wife of the latter and had visited India along with him, official
sources said here on Sunday.
Samraz Rana, a Canadian national born in Bahawalpur of Pakistan, had
accompanied Rana to Kochi on November 16, 2008.
Ahead of his Kochi visit, Rana had given an advertisement in a
prominent English daily asking youths willing to immigrate to US and
Canada to appear for interview at a five-star hotel located in Kochi,
they said.
The duo had left Kochi next day. Rana and his school friend Headley
were arrested last month by the FBI on charges of being part of a plan
by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) to carry out terror attacks in
India and Denmark.
chhotemianinshallah
No clean chit to anyone in Headley case, probe on: Home Secy
Agencies
Posted: Sunday , Nov 15, 2009 at 1305 hrs
New Delhi:
Security agencies probing the David Headley terror case have not given
a clean chit to anyone, including filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt's son Rahul,
who had an acquaintance with the US national, arrested by FBI for
plotting attacks in India at the LeT's behest.
"We have not given clean chit to anyone. Investigation is still on,"
Union Home Secretary G K Pillai told reporters on the sideline of a
function here.
Meanwhile, a team of National Investigating Agency reached Mumbai
yesterday to probe the activities of Headley and Tahawwur Hassan Rana,
a Canadian of Pakistani origin who has also been arrested by FBI in
connection with the plot.
The duo were arrested for suspected links with Pakistan-based terror
group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which had carried out the Mumbai carnage last
year that left 183 people dead. Asked about police failure to get an
inkling about the plot while the two were in Mumbai to do a recce
ahead of the 26/11 attacks, Pillai said, "Primarily they had come
before November 26, 2008, that is why."
Why to wait - Here you do not need permission from othehr countries.
By: Dee | 15-Nov-2009
Mahesh Bhatt and his extended family including the cousin who just can
not live without liplocking young women, should be punished harsh.
People like Mahesh, M F Hussain are the traitors and they can do
anyting to make happy their bosses in other countries.
So called Right Acvities are the Quesslings of India.
By: KIurrupkar Davis | 15-Nov-2009
Not only Rahul should be investigated for anti-national activities but
also his father Mahesh Bhatt and his wifeand his daughter Pooja and
alll their pseudo secularists like Testa Setalwad,Reis Khan,Nandita
Das and the entire Management of NDTV 24x7 including Burkha Dutt for
admittedly attempting to negotiate free passage for the Pak Terrorists
on the alleged basis that the said Terrorists were motivated because
of Gujrat Riots which aws not even the clain ofthe Terrorists.Only
Indian Moles could have provided Burkha Cell No and visa versa to the
terrorists by the Indian Moles like Bhatts,Antulayand all others like
them.The Sharabuddin Episode has been the creation of Sriraj,and other
like Mukul Sinha and Bharatsing and others with help of Sharad Power
and his gang.
What is the reason
By: Arun | 15-Nov-2009
I want to ask this question to all my secular friends and I seek an
honest reply. In their opinion why does Pakistan have enemity with us.
Is it not true that the only reason for their total hatred towards us
is because we are a Hindu majority nation. Just to cause harm to us
they are even willing to die for their religion. Why can we not live
for the same? Therefore why we can not live like a Hindu? As it is
being thought and believed by these secular breed of Hindus being a
Hindu does not make me anti-Muslim or anti-Christian.
We survived and we will be here forever - there is none who can
destroy the 'hasti of Hindustan'
By: Dee | 15-Nov-2009 Reply
We are Hindus and Inda is a Hindu nations. After seeing how far people
can go for a stupid and low IQ ideology, our faith becomes even more
stronger. we gave others two chances to go wherever they want
(Pakistan and Bangladesh)..
Scrutinize all anti nationals
By: Thakare | 15-Nov-2009
Wake Up ALL!! Please scrutinize all anti nationals, especially
celebrities! The darn movie industry has links with the underworld
that is why they come on the US radars with recent incident of
ShahRukh Khan. The Indian Home Land Security needs to watch all these
desh drohis.
Investigate Mahesh connection with anti national elements
By: Anand | 15-Nov-2009
Instead of probing Rahul and his connection the investigators should
put Mahesh under scrutiny and find out the nexus with the militants
across the border.Mahesh frequent Pakisthan and keep in touch with
anti Indian groups and stoke up their feeling against our country.Put
Mahesh behind the bar and find out the truth.all his recent activities
and attitudes are against the national interest and anti Hindu.
Anti National Elements
By: Nayak | 15-Nov-2009
I fully agree with Anand.Anti National and underworld nexus of these
people must be put under scrutiny.they can go to any extent to harm
our nation in general and Hindu religion in particular.
Anti Nationals
By: B.K.Kumar | 15-Nov-2009
Congress should disband UPA. There are many anti national within
congress and within UPA.
chhotemianinshallah
Thahawwur Rana visited Kochi last year: DGP1
Agencies
Posted: Sunday , Nov 15, 2009 at 1402 hrs
Thiruvananthapuram:
Tahawwur Hussain Rana, who was arrested with suspected LeT terrorist
David Coleman Headley, had visited Kochi in November last year before
the Mumbai terror strikes, Kerala police said.
"A man named Tahawwur Hussain Rana had stayed in a hotel in Kochi on
November 16," state Director General of Police Jacob Punnoose said
here.
Kerala police had not received any official communication on the
matter from Central investigating agencies, but was collecting
information and verifying it, Punnose said.
According to sources, the hotel records showed Rana checked in at a
five-star hotel in Kochi on November 16 and left for Mumbai the next
day.
Police and intelligence agencies were investigating whether the
purpose of Rana's visit was for recruiting youth for militant
activities, the sources said. The sources said there was no evidence
now about reports that Headley might also have visited Kerala.
Officials of IB and RAW visited the US last week and met FBI
counterparts to get details of the plot but had failed to question
Headley, who is lodged in a Chicago jail.
Headley, 49-year-old Pakistan-born US citizen, was arrested in Chicago
last month by the FBI which said he was part of an LeT plan to carry
out terror attacks in India, including Delhi's National Defence
College, Dehradun's Doon School and Woodstock in Mussoorie.
Along with Headley, Canadian-born Tahawwur Hussain Rana was also
arrested.
Comments (1) |
Kerala, the new hub of anti national activities.
By: Aniyan | 15-Nov-2009 Reply | Forward
Kochi and northern Kerala is the hub of stepped up anti national
activities. The hands of Police are tied whether it is under the
marxist led LDF or Congress led UDF. This is only for political
mileage that both compromise national issues in Kerala. When the
national flag was replaced with a green flag on top of Calicut
airport, the Congress CM of the State, looked to the other side,
because he survives with the support of those green flag holders.
Kerala has passport offices where, passport is issued without
verification and scores of criminals left the country after committing
serious crimes during the past 7 years. Thanks to E.Ahmed, the
earstwhile Minister of State for External Affairs.
chhotemianinshallah
Cop's advice kept Kasab, hope of solving 26/11 mystery alive
Agencies
Posted: Sunday , Nov 15, 2009 at 1254 hrs
Mumbai:
Kasab's capture has helped pin the blame on terror merchants operating
from India's restive neighbourhood. "Yala maru nako. Ha evidence ahe.
(Don't shoot him. He is evidence)," recalls a Mumbai policeman having
told his colleague after catching hold of 26/11 Pakistani gunman Ajmal
Amir Kasab.
These words of wisdom from Sanjay Govilkar, Assistant Police Inspector
of D B Marg police station, helped the Mumbai police capture alive
Kasab, one of the 10 Pakistani terrorists who attacked the country's
financial capital on November 26.
"I cannot claim I had given the issue any thought. The thought crossed
my mind and I blurted it out just when Boudhankar was about to shoot
Kasab," says Govilkar, who despite taking a bullet in the abdomen, did
not let go of the terrorist.
Kasab's capture has helped pin the blame on terror merchants operating
from India's restive neighbourhood.
The wound inflicted by the bullet a year ago has healed but the 40-
year-old policeman continues to have nightmares.
"I avoid passing by Girgaum area where the shootout occurred because
faces of slain colleagues and seniors --- Tukaram Omble, Hemant
Karkare, Vijay Salaskar and Ashok Kamte appear before me and I feel
depressed," Govilkar said.
While Omble was killed by Kasab at Girgaum Chowpatty, the other three
police officers were gunned down by Kasab and Abu Ismail near Cama
hospital.
Govilkar, who was recently honoured with the President's medal for
bravery, said: "Omble was treated at the hospital in my presence after
we both took the bullets fired by Kasab. I saw Omble succumb to his
injuries right in front of me. My mind is scarred forever.
Recounting the incident, Govilkar said the encounter lasted barely
about three minutes.
"We saw a Skoda car approaching us. When the driver (Abu Ismail) saw
us, he took a U-turn, crashing into the road divider."
Policemen Hemant Boudhankar and Bhaskar Kadam, armed with pistols,
shot at Ismail, fatally injuring him, while others, armed barely with
batons, moved towards Kasab who sat beside the driver, he said.
"None of us suspected that Kasab had an assault rifle as he had hid
the weapon between his legs. As he got down, we pounced on him. In a
flash, he picked up the gun and began firing. Omble was there in front
and took many bullets. I too was hit in the abdomen," said Govilkar.
Just as the policemen showered baton blows on Kasab, Boudhankar came
from the other side and was about to fire when Govilkar stopped him.
Although the self effacing Govilkar terms it as a team work, his
colleagues at D B Marg police station feel that it was his presence of
mind which ensured that Kasab was made to stand trial for his crime.
He, however, has a word of advice for his countrymen.
"The terrorists attacked us because they were misguided by
conspirators that the minorities in India were suffering. Therefore,
we have to break religious barriers and unite," he said.
chhotemianinshallah
Strong case against Kasab: Nikam
Agencies
Posted: Sunday , Nov 15, 2009 at 1145 hrs
Mumbai:
The 26/11 attack trial is nearing its end with the prosecution
claiming a strong case against Ajmal Kasab.
As the first anniversary of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks nears, all
eyes are set on the special court where the prosecution is gearing up
to wrap up the case against Pakistan gunman Ajmal Kasab and two others
who are charged with killing 166 persons.
With the testimony of 250 witnesses and strong forensic evidence, the
prosecution has prepared a water-tight case against Kasab, Special
Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said.
The keenly-watched trial, which began in April, is expected to be over
this month end with just a few witnesses left to depose before Judge M
L Tahaliyani. Kasab is confined to a specially-built isolated cell in
the high security central prison and is guarded by a strong posse of
Indo-Tibetan Border Security Force round the clock.
Altogether 30 eye witnesses have identified Kasab in the
identification parade and in the court. Forensic experts have also
given their opinion that the DNA of articles found from Kuber boat (in
which terrorists landed in Mumbai) matched with the DNA of Kasab and
five other slain terrorists.
The prosecution has also screened in the court CCTV footages of
terrorists from cameras installed at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
(CST), Times of India Building (opposite CST), Hotel Taj and Hotel
Oberoi-Trident.
Besides CCTV footages, other articles such as weapons and RDX seized
from Kasab and slain terrorists have also been placed as evidence. The
prosecution is also relying upon the confession made by Kasab before a
Magistrate wherein he revealed about the conspiracy hatched in
Pakistan to commit terror strikes on November 26 last year.
The Magistrate has told the special court that Kasab had made a
voluntary confession and that he had been given three opportunities to
consider whether he wanted to reveal the information which was within
his knowledge.
The prosecution is also banking on a plea made by Kasab in the court
partly accepting his guilt in the crime. Kasab has accepted in the
court that he was a part of the conspiracy but said he played a
secondary role in the terror attacks as Abu Ismael was his leader. The
gunman has denied that he had fatally shot police officers Hemant
Karkare, Vijay Salaskar, Ashok Kamate and Constable Tukaram Omble.
The prosecution is relying upon evidence tendered by foreign experts,
who said the mobile phones, used by nine terrorists while talking to
their Pakistan handlers during the assault, were imported by a
Pakistan firm from China. The dingy brought by terrorists in hijacked
'Kuber' fishing boat has also been placed as evidence before the
court.
The court has issued non-bailable warrants against 27 absconding
accused, including founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba Hafeez Sayeed and LeT
chief of operations Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi. The warrants have been
forwarded to the Interpol for execution but so far no one has been
arrested.
The accused are facing charges under IPC, Unlawful Activities
(Prevention) Act, Foreigners Act, Passport (Entry into India) Act,
Arms Act, Explosive Substances Act, Damage to Public Properties Act,
Indian Railway Act and Customs Act.
A total of 166 persons, including foreign nationals from the UK, the
US and Israel, were killed and 304 others injured when terrorists
struck at Hotel Taj, Hotel Oberoi-Trident, Nariman House, CST, Cama
Hospital and Cafe Leopold. The terrorists also planted bombs in two
taxis which exploded. Loss on account of destruction of properties was
estimated to the tune of Rs 41 crores. Besides Kasab, the other two
arrested accused are Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, both alleged
LeT operatives.
Comments (8) |
KASB CASE SHOULD BE ON PRIORITY AND NO KIDGLOVES TO USE
By: B S GANESH BANGALORE | 15-Nov-2009
When a total of 166 persons, including foreign nationals from the UK,
the US and Israel, were killed and 304 others injured when terrorists
struck at Hotel Taj, Hotel Oberoi-Trident, Nariman House, CST, Cama
Hospital and Cafe Leopold. The terrorists also planted bombs in two
taxis which exploded. This has made many innocent families as orphans
also. Loss on account of destruction of properties was estimated to
the tune of Rs 41 crores. Besides Kasab, the other two arrested
accused are Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, both alleged LeT
operatives. This is a fit case for capital punishment and it would be
ridiculous to think Human lives are valuable and precious and protect
them in jails at the cost of the exchequer making innocent hungry.
This is my humble opinion. B S GANESH BANGALORE
But how can he be, there is waiting list for hanging....
By: Amit | 15-Nov-2009
The Home minister of this country had informed us that there is
waiting list of persons to be hanged and his Afjhal Guru's number is
22 in the list and Kasaab will have further down so countrymen please
dont expect them to be so fast on punishing the minority criminals.
Lets talk about sadhvi, Col Purohit, Sanatan sanstha, since they are
from Majority and their waiting list is not too big. Till this cancer
in the form of Congress is there expect nothing from them except
appeasement and dirty tricks.Middle class Hindus are made fools.
The criminal rights in INdia
By: Rakesh | 15-Nov-2009
You views seems correct! After spending huge amount of energy by our
security personal and very long comedy trail by Indian Judiciary(or we
have to call the Indian system of Judiciary something other name) the
court will punish hang upto death. Then this case will go to
president, before going to president it hold by the govt. long
procedure to hand a criminal. But for criminals to kill innocent very
easy task in India... govt seems to protect the right of criminals not
aam aadmi!
kasab
By: Rammi | 15-Nov-2009
Oh great news -Nikam thinks they have strong case. While whole India
new this one year back. I do not know how you'll make news of this
sort
Kasab's Trial
By: C.Swaminathan | 15-Nov-2009
There should be no second thought or second opinion about Kasab's
punishment. On 26th Nov one year is going to complete.That day should
be obseved as The Black Day and Kasab should be H A N G E D.No mercy.
Kasab's Trial.
By: Cswaminathan. | 15-Nov-2009
26th Nov will be the sorrowful black aniversary for Mumbai
attack.Kasab should not be spared. He should be hanged without any
mercy. Then only the Morties who sacrificed their lives will go to
heaven with peace and satisfaction
chhotemianinshallah
I was sold to Lashkar by my father: Mumbai attacker Kasab
16 Nov 2009, 1116 hrs IST, IANS
WASHINGTON: Ajmal Amir Kasab, the sole surviving terrorist of the
group of ten sent by the Pakistan based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba
to attack Mumbai, says his father essentially sold him into the
group.
Kasab, who was part of the pair that killed 50 and wounded more than
100 at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the city's main railway station,
makes the suggestion in tapes included in a new documentary, "Terror
in Mumbai" airing on Thursday.
Snatches of cellphone conversations - many never heard before between
the gunmen and their controllers in Pakistan, as well as video footage
of the police with Kasab were aired on Sunday in a preview of the
documentary by narrator Fareed Zakaria in his GPS programme.
One of the tapes of Kasab's interrogation points to how he got
involved with the LeT terror group:
Kasab: He said, "These people make loads of money and so will you.
(Inaudible) We'll have money, we won't be poor any more. Your brothers
and sisters can get married. Look at these guys living the good life.
You can be like them," he said.
Unidentified Male: Your dad said this?
Kasab: Yes. So, I said, "Fine, whatever."
Unidentified Male: What does he do for a living?
Kasab: He used to sell yogurt and potato snacks in the street.
Unidentified Male: How much did they give you? Did they put it in your
account?
Kasab: There is no account. They gave it to my dad.
Unidentified Male: How much did they give him?
Kasab: I don't know. Maybe (ph) a few hundred thousand.
In another tape, Kasab recalls how the terrorist group was trained.
Police: How long were you in training?
Kasab: Three months. There were 24 or 25 in our class.
Police: Where were the people from?
Kasab: They don't tell you. I only knew about one. He said he was from
Lahore. He became my friend.
Police: Didn't they allow you to speak to each other?
Kasab: We were forbidden to speak to each other. It was very strict.
The proper training where they say, "This boy is ready now" - that
only takes three months. That's it.
Police: Did you ever ask, "Won't I feel pity for the people I'm
killing?"
Kasab: I did, but he said you have to do these things if you're going
to be a big man and get rewarded in heaven.
Police: So you came here for jihad? Is that right?
Kasab: (crying) What jihad?
Police: It's no use crying. Tell me the truth. Is that right or no?
Kasab: You wouldn't understand.
Locked in a bathroom at Mumbai's Trident Oberoi hotel, another young
Pakistani terrorist named Fahadullah knew the end was near. He was out
of food, water, energy and ammunition, and could hear the steady
stream of police gunshots getting closer.
He and nine other terrorists were winding down from a gruesome, 36-
hour killing spree through the city, and he was talking on the phone
to a handler far away in Pakistan.
"You mustn't let them arrest you, remember that," the controller
insisted.
"Fahadullah, my brother, can't you just get out there and fight?"
Fahadullah could not. "I am out of grenades," he weakly offered.
"Be brave, brother. Don't panic. For your mission to end successfully,
you must be killed. God is waiting for you in heaven."
chhotemianinshallah
Headley probe: NIA asks Rahul Bhatt not to leave Mumbai
16 Nov 2009, 1657 hrs IST, PTI
MUMBAI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has asked filmmaker
Mahesh Bhatt's son Rahul, who came in contact with terror suspect
David Headley during his stay in Mumbai, not to leave the city
"The NIA team is in Mumbai since Saturday and is gathering details
pertaining to the activities of Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana. The
NIA has recorded the statements of those who were in touch with
Headley during his stay here," a senior police source said.
The source said three other persons, who were also in contact with
Headley, have been asked to stay put in the capital for "some time".
He, however, declined to reveal the identities of the three in view of
the sensitivity of the case.
"Rahul Bhatt and the other three are fully cooperating with the police
and NIA. All of them have been asked not to leave Mumbai for some
time," the source said on condition of anonymity.
The NIA has registered a case against Laskhar-e-Taiba operatives
Headley and Rana after their arrest by the US investigating agency FBI
for allegedly plotting terror attacks in India.
bademiyansubhanallah
More Headley links in city; no clean chit yet for Rahul Bhatt
DNA Monday, November 16, 2009 1:00 IST
New Delhi: Rahul Bhatt, who recently admitted to his association with
David Coleman Headley, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative being
probed by the FBI for plotting terror attacks in India and elsewhere,
has not yet been given a clean chit. He will be further questioned by
the National Investigation Agency (NIA), confirmed Union home
secretary GK Pillai on Sunday, even as two more persons from Mumbai
came under the scanner for their links with Headley.
Mumbai under attackThe duo, a man who collected a suitcase belonging
to Headley and a professional photographer who was closely acquainted
with the American citizen, will prove crucial in taking the case
forward, sources said.
Apparently, when Headley was leaving India after shutting down his
Immigration Law Centre at AC Market, Tardeo, he had left the suitcase
with his secretary, a Parsi woman. A man had subsequently collected
it. "We want to know the contents of the suitcase and the kind of
relations the man had with Headley," a source said.
Home ministry sources also revealed that the NIA and other
investigating agencies were keeping a close tab on three of Rahul's
friends and could interrogate them in the coming days. Two of them are
reportedly connected with Bollywood and their interrogation could
throw more light on Headley's operations in Mumbai, the sources added.
Turn to p10
Adding another twist to the case was a phone call made more than two
weeks ago, between Sheikh Abdul Rehman Saeed, the Pakistan-based LeT
commander who was in touch with Headley and his associate Tahawwur
Hussain Rana, and a Keralite, who shuttles between his state and Saudi
Arabia.
Shameer, the Keralite, received the call on a local mobile number, and
sources believe it was Saeed at the other end. Headley and Rana are
said to have travelled to Kochi, in Kerala; if home ministry sources
are to be believed, Rana had in fact visited Kochi with his wife,
Samraz, and had returned to Mumbai 10 days before the 26/11 attacks.
Sources said the phone call also poses crucial questions regarding
LeT's links to Kerala. Pillai said a team of NIA sleuths will be
visiting Kerala for further investigations.
Meanwhile, Pillai emphasised that the home ministry has "not given a
clean chit to anyone. Investigations are still on".
bademiyansubhanallah
Headley fallout? High alert at N-facilities
17 Nov 2009, 0456 hrs IST, TNN
NEW DELHI: Even as investigating agencies are trailing the arrested US-
based Lashkar terror duo's footprints in India, the Centre has on the
basis of fresh intelligence input put nuclear installations across the
country on high alert.
Though the input is specifically meant for Bhabha Atomic Research
Centre (BARC) in Trombay (Mumbai), the alerts have been sent to all
the states having nuclear plants. They have been asked to step up
patrolling and vigil around the facilities as a precautionary
measure.
Besides putting BARC on highest alert, the government has also
directed the Navy, Coast Guard and all other security agencies to take
precautionary measures to protect such installations as most of them
are located on the coast.
"The step is precautionary in nature. The states have been asked to
increase the vigil and patrolling to thwart any sabotage attempt aimed
at these vital facilities," a senior home ministry official said.
"The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) had conducted a security
audit about a month ago and suggested a number of additional measures,
which are being taken care of," the official said.
The government had earlier placed anti-aircraft guns in some of the
atomic facilities, including BARC, besides a multi-layered security in
and around the premises.
There are six major nuclear plants operational in the country, Narora
in Uttar Pardesh, Kaiga in Karnataka, Tarapur in Maharashtra,
Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu, Kakrapar in Gujarat and Kota in Rajasthan,
besides several other research and development centres like BARC.
The government, however, said the atomic facilities were absolutely
secure. "All nuclear installations are very secure. They are
absolutely secure, no question about it. There are multiple layers of
security," minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office Prithviraj
Chavan told a news agency.
...and I am Sid harth
bademiyansubhanallah
Issuance of visas to Rana to be probed
Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI: The Centre has said it will look “very carefully” into
reports that the Indian Consul-General in Chicago granted visas
without the Home Ministry’s clearance to terror suspect Tahawwur Rana
and his woman accomplice.
The duo is alleged associates of American David Headley, who was
arrested by the FBI last month for links with the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
“All these issues are going to be looked into very carefully from the
point of view of security angle and perhaps in the days to come, you
might see more on this,” External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna told
journalists on Tuesday.
According to reports, Pakistani-Canadian Rana and the woman, Samraz
Rana Akhthar, were issued multiple entry visas under the discretion of
the Consul-General in violation of norms that mandate the Home
Ministry’s clearance for any person born in Pakistan. Rana and Akhthar
were born in Pakistan’s Punjab Province.
bademiyansubhanallah
No clear picture on Rana’s stay
Anand Haridas & S. Anandan
His six-hour transit in Kochi perplexes investigators
State police are trying to downplay the incident
NIA official was in Kochi on Monday to probe Rana’s trail
KOCHI: Even as the national investigators are sieving through
available evidence for linking the visit of Tahawwur Hussain Rana, an
associate of the terror suspect David Coleman Headley, to India with
terrorist outfits, the State police are trying to downplay the
incident.
Rana had come to the city as part of a business trip related to his
First World Immigration Services and put out advertisements announcing
his presence in the city on November 16 and 17, 2008. He had given two
Mumbai-based contact numbers. Since the advertisement appeared on
November 17, nearly 10 calls from different parts of the State were
logged to his local number. The police have checked these numbers and
ruled out the possibility of the callers being part of a terrorist
network.
A senior police officer said the chance of Rana directly involving in
recruitment process would be less, as he was more of a financier with
a genuine immigration consultancy. The numbers mentioned in the
advertisement did not receive any calls on November 16. Rana and his
wife, Samraz Akhtar, left on November 17 afternoon.
The Cyber Cell of the city police also checked the Internet log
records of the wi-fi network at Gateway Hotel (formerly Taj
Residency), where the couple stayed. No log-in has been recorded using
the password assigned to the room which the couple used, the police
said.
FBI findings
But it has been confirmed by probes made by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) that Rana’s professional profile was used as a
cover by Headley, a U.S. citizen linked to the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The investigators have still to form a clear picture of the activities
of Rana on November 17. Though the city police officers rule out
possibilities of Rana’s involvement in the Collectorate blast citing
its crudeness and low intensity, there has not been any confident
denial on their part about Rana getting in touch with sleeper cells of
fundamentalist groups in the neighbourhood.
Records available with the investigators showed that Rana and his wife
checked in at the hotel by 6 p.m. on November 16 and checked out by
2.45 p.m. on November 17. They took a private jetliner to Mumbai at 9
p.m. What Rana might have done during the six-hour transit is what
perplexes the investigators, who are probing for leads on the same.
A National Investigation Agency (NIA) official was in Kochi on Monday
on Rana trail. The NIA has already registered a case against Headley
and Rana for plotting terror attacks in India. The officer, of Deputy
Superintendent of Police (Dy.SP) rank, is part of a team formed within
the NIA to unearth details pertaining to the visits made by the two to
different parts of the country. The NIA officer is also learnt to have
tied up with a special intelligence team here to ascertain identity of
Rana’s local contacts on the basis of the calls he made.
bademiyansubhanallah
Business jargon masked words of terror
Soumya Menon / DNA Tuesday, November 17, 2009 10:06 IST
Bangalore: Extracts from conversations between suspected Lakshar-e-
Taiba members Tahawwur Hussain Rana and David Coleman Headley, who are
currently in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),
speak volumes on the code words - mostly corporate and business jargon
- that were used to pass on information to each other.
According to senior police officers, the two used corporate jargon
during conversations because they did not figure on the intelligence
agency radar, even when sleuths were looking for clues.
It was only after the FBI started tapping into telephonic
conversations, emails and personal meetings between Rana, David
Coleman Headley, 'Individual B' and 'Individual A' (an LeT member)
that the duo were trapped and their schemes revealed. Serious 'spying'
began soon after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and continued till October
this year.
Interestingly, Rana used to run an immigration services business, for
which Headley - at times - claimed to work. After his arrest, Headley
made it clear that words like 'property' and 'investments' were used
as cover terms for violent actions.
From a copy of the criminal case filed by the FBI against Rana, which
is currently in the possession of DNA, it can be deciphered that in
addition to the 'Mickey Mouse Project', which referred to a plot to
target a Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet
Mohammed, the co-conspirators referred to targets through words like
'investments', 'projects', 'business' and 'action'. They described
theirs hopes for success through terms like 'rich', 'richer' and
'profit'.
The document stated that in July and August 2009, Headley exchanged a
series of emails with 'LeT member A'. The emails specifically used
businesslike statements (quite literally, at that) such as 'I need to
see you for some new investment plans', the reply for which was 'What
do you want me to do? Where are you interested in making investments?'
The conversation further mentioned 'Rahul', which was reportedly found
to stand for Rahul Bhatt, son of film veteran Mahesh Bhatt.
They also used a lot of business jargon while discussing the death of
Harkat-ul-Jihadi-Islami (HUJI) chief Ilyas Kashmiri, who was killed on
September 14, 2009. The most striking part of the conversation was the
liberal usage of the word 'doctor'. Kashmiri was referred to as
'doctor' while Rana was labelled 'Dr' or 'doc'.
After the initial conversation between Headley and the other members,
which spoke on 'the doctor getting married' (referring to him getting
killed), the FBI found Headley checking for information on Kashmiri's
death through the Google search engine.
During an interrogation, Headley revealed that after Kashmiri's death,
Rana had sent out a cryptic message stating: "There is some sort of an
arrangement that is very accurate...I mean that of these guys... all
their estimates are so accurate....The estimate...whatever assessment
they do for any property is always accurate, so that have a very
discerning eye, a very discerning eye on the market."
Headley had then replied by stating that he "will be coming to
Pakistan soon, but there is nothing to do there. Now, let us quit the
company. When a company goes bankrupt, it starts laying off its
employees." Through this, Headley was referring to Kashmiri's death as
a major loss to the jihadi cause.
The person, referred to as Individual B, then said, "When a
businessman wants to do something, he has to contend with the risk
factor also. Most people don't want to take risks but be praised for
whatever little they have done."
To this, Headley responded: "Then there will be no profit because when
you have high aims, the investment will be as risky as the chance of
profit. At the same time, there will be a great chance of loss. I am
telling you, other companies competing with us are running losses in
terms of profit as well as the market. In these conditions, we will
have to face bankruptcy within six months. By the end of twelve
months, our companies will be done for."
On September 20, 2009, Headley was found telling another associate in
Pakistan that the "business must go on. The main thing is that I
should have a steady income. I don't care if I have to work for
Microsoft or GE or Philips."
Through the names of multi-national companies, the alleged militant
was referring to terror groups such as LeT and HuJI.
bademiyansubhanallah
Rana, Headley had prepared a star hit-list
Soumya Menon / DNA Tuesday, November 17, 2009 10:09 IST
Bangalore: Intercepted phone conversations and e-mail messages
accessed by the US investigation agency, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, have revealed that there was a large cast of famous
figures who were on the hit-list of suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba member
Tahawwur Hussain Rana and David Coleman Headley. Among the people with
whom the two were in communication is someone identified only as
Individual A.
Rahul Bhatt, son of veteran filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, has been asked not
to leave Mumbai without first informing the National Investigation
Agency of his travel plans as his name has been linked to the
suspected plotters of terror strikes. Rahul, Mumbai-based gym
instructor, had reportedly spent time with Headley during his visit to
Mumbai just days before the attack of November 26 last year.
FBI documents reveal that in an email on July 8, 2009, Headley told
Individual A of a 'new investment' and said, "I think when we get a
chance we should revisit our last location again and say hi to Rahul."
Individual A replied, "To see Rahul is a good idea; ... work for you
there too. Matters are good enough to move forward..." There is
suspicion that the 'work' might have referred to the Mumbai attacks.
Many names have cropped up in conversations between the men held by
the FBI. A project codenamed the 'Mickey Mouse Project', a strike on
the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten that carried the 12 controversial
cartoons lampooning Islam and Prophet Mohammed in 2005, was being
planned. The cartoons had raised a storm of protest across the Muslim
world.
The men allegedly planned to kill Flemming Rose, the cultural editor
of the newspaper, and Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist. Among others
on the hit-list is author Sherry Jones, whose book Jewel of Medina, a
fictionalised account of the life of Aisha, one of the wives of
Prophet Mohammed, also was the subject of controversy.
The document obtained from the FBI states that on October 29, 2008,
Headley posted a message to the Yahoo group, 'abdalians' (from Cadet
College Hasan Abdal, a military school in Pakistan's Punjab, to which
Rana and some other members of the gang belonged).
The message read: "Everything is not a joke. We are not rehearsing a
skit on Saturday Night Live. Making fun of Islam is making fun of
Rasoosallah (messenger of Allah, peace be on him)...call me old-
fashioned, but I feel disposed towards violence towards the offending
parties, be they cartoonists from Denmark or Sherry Jones or Irshad
Manji (a Canadian feminist who seeks to make homosexual orientation
acceptable in Islam)...they never started debates with folks who
slandered our Prophet, they took violent action..."
The FBI reveals that the men had also, in a message sent in December
2008, mentioned the name of Lady Naipaul, who until her marriage to VS
Naipaul, was a Pakistani journalist who wrote columns in the name of
Nadira Alvi. She is also the sister of Amir Faisal Alvi, a retired
Pakistani General who was killed in November 2008. soumya menon
chhotemianinshallah
India gives fresh dossier on Mumbai terror attack to Pakistan
17 Nov 2009, 2214 hrs IST, PTI
NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday handed over to Pakistan a fresh dossier of
evidence on last year's Mumbai terror attacks containing statements of
key witnesses, including a magistrate and FBI officials, with the hope
that the prosecution in Pakistan would be expedited.
The 7th dossier was handed over by Y K Sinha, Joint Secretary
(Pakistan Division) in the Ministry of External Affairs, to Pakistan's
Deputy High Commissioner Rifat Masood who was called to the South
Block for the same.
The new dossier is believed to consist of statements of witnesses,
including the deposition of a Mumbai magistrate before whom the lone
captured Pakistani gunman Mohammad Ajmal Kasab had given a voluntary
confession of his alleged involvement in the attacks.
In his statement to the magistrate, Kasab had confessed that the
conspiracy for the 26/11 attacks was hatched in Pakistan by terror
group Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives including alleged mastermind Zaki-ur-
Rehman Lakhvi.
Lakhvi has been arrested by Pakistan and is facing prosecution along
with six others.
The dossier is also believed to include deposition of FBI officers who
told the trial court in Mumbai that mobile phones recovered from
terror sites were used by terrorists to communicate with their
handlers in Pakistan during the terror siege.
Deposition of foreign nationals and seizures of some articles
recovered from terror sites such as Hotels Taj and Oberoi and Nariman
House are also believed to be part of the dossier.
Sid Harth
Mumbai attack suspects should be brought to justice in Pak: US
PTI 18 November 2009, 07:32pm IST
NEW DELHI: Ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to
Washington, the US on Wednesday pressed Pakistan to act against
perpetrators of Mumbai attacks, including Jamaat-ud Dawa chief Hafiz
Saeed, saying it wants to see results.
Describing Lashkar-e-Taiba as a global threat, US Ambassador to India
Timothy J Roemer said Pakistan should recognise the dangers and
dismantle the terror infrastructure existing on its soil.
Situation in Pakistan, the Mumbai attacks and cooperation in counter-
terrorism will be high on the agenda of Singh's meeting with President
Barack Obama in Washington on November 24, amid the US' keenness to
work "hand-in-hand, shoulder-to-shoulder" with India in preventing
terror strikes.
The two leaders will also discuss implementation of the historic civil
nuclear agreement, regarding which a few issues like liabilities,
licensing and reprocessing, remain to be sorted out.
Climate change, education and poverty-alleviation would also be among
the issues of discussion of the Singh-Obama meeting during which the
two sides are expected to unveil a "new relationship based on
strategic global partnership" and chalk out path of cooperation for
meeting global challenges.
"The seven Mumbai suspects should be brought to justice in Pakistan...
We need to see action and results from our partners in Pakistan,"
Roemer told a press conference here, adding even Saeed should be
brought to justice.
Equating 26/11 with 9/11, the US Ambassador said the Mumbai attack was
"tragic and heart-rending" incident, which will be discussed by PM
Manmohan Singh and Obama.
Talking about the already-existing unprecedented cooperation in
counter terrorism between India and the US, Roemer said collaboration
like information sharing is taking place even on hourly basis.
He also highlighted the fact that FBI had testified against "blood-
thirsty" attackers of Mumbai.
Referring to the visit of Home Minister P Chidambaram to the US
recently, he said it was successful and he had "captured the best" the
coordination between the two countries.
Asked whether the US would extradite to India David Coleman Headley,
an LeT operative held by FBI, he said it was a hypothetical question.
On the delay in implementation of Indo-US civil nuclear deal, Roemer
said four-five issues had remained to be resolved when he arrived in
India as Ambassador earlier this year.
"Tremendous progress" has been made on this issue but three issues
were yet to addressed, he said. These issues are -- enactment of a
Liability legislation by India, negotiations on setting up of a
Dedicated Reprocessing Facility in India and licensing aspects.
"We are optimistic that all the three issues will be resolved soon...
We are pushing hard to implement the agreement," he said.
Sid Harth
An actress went out for dinner with Headley?
TNN 18 November 2009, 01:30pm IST
MUMBAI: After Rahul Bhatt, the names of few other film personalities
have cropped up in David Headley case, including an actress who went
out for
Sources said they came in contact with Headley through Rahul Bhatt and
other common friends. Most of them met at Moksh fitness centre at
Breach Candy where Headley used to work out. However crime branch
officials said they have no information about any Bollywood
personality being associated with Headley.
The source indicated that these film personalities will be questioned
along with Rahul Bhatt by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Headley befriended the actors and partied with few of them, sources
said. It could be possible that they were not aware of his terror
links.
The actress in question was paired with some of the leading Bollywood
actors. However, her family members told TOI that the actress was
never introduced to Headley. "Its just a coincidence that they went to
the same gym. My daughter has never heard about Headley," her mother
said.
The other actor known as a serial kisser had also reportedly met
Headley. The actor told TOI all questions about his links with Headley
be directed to NIA. Rahul landed in a controversy after American
investigating agency FBI found that Headley had used his name in his
communication with his Pakistani counterparts. Rahul was a codename
used for Mumbai.
bademiyansubhanallah
Did Rana, Headley visit Ahmedabad for potential recruits?
Roxy Gagdekar / DNA Wednesday, November 18, 2009 11:18 IST
Ahmedabad: The Gujarat police has finally got some lead in the
investigation about US national David Coleman Headley and Tahawwura
Hussain Rana's visit to the city.
The duo, believed to be members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), was
arrested by the FBI in the US for terror acts. It has been found that
during his visit to the city, Rana had interviewed people, who were
keen on going abroad, on November 18 and 19, 2008.
The Gujarat police is now busy tracing all the people whom Rana
interviewed and even those who might have managed to get a 'job'
somewhere.
Sources in the police department told DNA that the police is currently
investigating the people who were interviewed by Rana during the
interview held on November 18 and 19, 2008.
"The police are trying to trace the people who were interviewed to
find if any of them were given any specific input by Rana and
Headley," the source said.
The police so far has no clue about whether Rana managed to send
somebody abroad or was able to get the sort of recruit he was looking
for.
Primary investigations have revealed that Rana along with Headley had
also stayed in a Kalupur Hotel near the railway station. The police is
also trying to get information about people who might have helped the
duo and provided logistic support.
Though the police is yet to zero in on any one particular person,
several people have been interrogated in this connection. Rana and
Headley are believed to be in contact with the agents of the sleeper
cells of the Indian Mujahideen in the city.
Detection of Crime Branchmay soon interrogate the accused arrested in
connection with the Ahmedabad serial blasts.
A source close to the development told that the DCB apparently wants
to know if Headley and Rana had contacted any of the arrested or
helped them in the blast. Officials of DCB are yet to confirm the
development. The police are investigating Headley and Rana's link with
the Ahmedabad blasts.
bademiyansubhanallah
Strong Headley links discerned in 26/11
Anil Anand / DNA Wednesday, November 18, 2009 10:31 IST
New Delhi: David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana laid the
groundwork for last year's terror strikes on 26/11 in Mumbai. They
were the point men in the city for the planners and handlers in
Pakistan.
This was established by records of phone calls made by Headley to his
contacts in Pakistan in the run-up to the attacks, said highly-placed
home ministry sources on Tuesday. "Efforts are on to procure the
records and transcripts of the conversations that took place between
them to establish the link," the sources added.
Thus far, the role played by the duo had been more of a question mark.
But the National Investigation Agency confirmed that it has found
vital clues establishing links between Headley, a Lashkar-e-Taiba
(LeT) operative, and his Canadian accomplice Rana with the larger
module that had planned and executed the November 26 strikes. The
investigations around 26/11 had seemed to hit a roadblock in recent
times, and these revalations could be the missing link in the broader
conspiracy behind the attacks.
While the duo's role in the terror strikes becomes clearer, clouds
have also lifted from over the Bhatt residence. The investigating
agencies have given a clean chit to Rahul Bhatt, son of filmmaker
Mahesh Bhatt, who was being questioned for his self-confessed
association with Headley. "Rahul is only a witness and not a suspect.
But efforts are on to ascertain if he had unwittingly helped Headley,"
the sources in the home ministry said.
Planners of 26/11, the sources said, had been in touch with Headley
and Rana ahead of the strikes as the duo gathered information about
possible targets.
They had reportedly conducted an extensive survey of the areas and
supplied photographs and videos related to the targets to the
terrorists, leaving Mumbai before the attack.
As the investigating agencies plays its role, the ministry of external
affairs has also issued a probe into how Headley was given a visa by
the Indian consulate general in Chicago without getting home ministry
clearance. "The issue is being looked into very carefully from the
security angle and you will soon hear on this issue," external affairs
minister SM Krishna said.
bademiyansubhanallah
Headley hunting in Bollywood!
Prithwish Ganguly / DNA Wednesday, November 18, 2009 19:16 IST
Mumbai: Whether or not Rahul Bhatt had any connection with terror
suspect David Headley, the backlash of the revelations is already
being felt not just by the Bhatt family, but several others as well.
Mumbai under attackRight-wing radicals have stopped the screening of
Bhatt's film Tum Mile, and now trouble could be brewing for Pritish
Nandy (who owns Moksh gym, where Rahul worked as trainer and Headley
is said to have worked out), Emraan Hashmi and even Arti Chhabria.
Blogs and social networking sites are abuzz with the unravelling web
of information that traces a path to the 26/11 terror attacks. Even
writer Shobhaa De has posted her candid views --- she's called the
Bhatts a 'dysfunctional family'.
Needless to say, Mahesh isn't taking anything lying down. "What's
worse is that people like Shobhaa, a thinking individual, can write
that our family is dysfunctional. It clearly sends out a signal that
she too feels that since Rahul knew David, he must have been up to
something. This is worse than any political party's reaction to us as
it shows that even urban, educated people can believe things without
finding out whether accusations are true or not. It is a lynch mob
reaction. Celebrities bring in the media spotlight and this case shows
how news is being trivialised."
On another tangent, Mahesh and Pooja pointed out that while they were
being targeted, no one was questioning Pritish Nandy, who owns the gym
where Headley used to work out and where he met Rahul Bhatt in the
first place. The Bhatts also alleged that Pritish has sacked Rahul's
fitness trainer Vilas soon after the case came to light.
But Nandy defended himself by telling After Hrs, "Moksh is independent
from Pritish Nandy Communications. I've asked the managers there and
they've told me that no one has been removed from their job. So, I
guess the so-called facts are wrong. I feel issues of national
security are being ignored. What we are having, alas, are celebrity
debates in the media."
In the end, both Pritish and Mahesh feel that the media is using the
celeb angle to the Headley case as a TRP grabber -- to the detriment
of a more serious look into the security breach.
Shobhaa De sums it up: "Unfortunately, this is the way media and
intelligence agencies operate all over the world.For instance, had,
Woody Allen's son's name been linked to 9/11, even in an oblique way,
do youthink the international press corps wouldn't have gone to town
with the information? There is the upside to celebrity and a downside.
The David Headley case is an extremely sensitive matter involving
national security and has just begun unraveling. We don't know all the
ramifications and it's best not to prejudge or trivialise the issue by
focusing attention on non-entities." Well, well, now.
bademiyansubhanallah
Pink Panther strikes
R Jagannathan / DNA Thursday, November 19, 2009 1:01 IST
Mumbai: If there is any chance that terrorism will ultimately be
defeated in India, we can safely rule out effective policing and good
intelligence as being the reasons for it. Exhibit A is the
incompetence with which the Headley-Rana investigations are being
handled. It has all the hallmarks of Inspector Jacques Clouseau of
Pink Panther fame. A bumbling, fictional French detective, Clouseau
survives through sheer luck and incompetence even while his enemies
trip.
Mumbai under attackThis has been our story, too. The latest one began
with a case being registered by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation
in Chicago against David Coleman Headley (aka Daood Gilani) and
Tahawwur Hussain Rana, who were apparently plotting incendiary stuff
in India. A few strategic leaks later, India' s panthers are all over
the place, looking under dungheaps and turning over anthills in the
hope that something will turn up.
It has. Barely a few days after the starter's gun went off, we have
discovered that Headley has been on a Bharat Darshan, scouting for
things to blow up, cosying up to the Bhatts of the world. His
excursions took him from five-star gyms to five-star hotels to five-
star Osho communes. In short, he operated right under our noses and
our Clouseaus had no clue.
Now, of course, we seem to know everything about him: who he met, what
he intended to do. All previously unsolvable crimes are soon likely to
be reported solved. After sending dossier after dossier to Pakistan
and grumbling about what they did, or didn't do, to Hafiz Saeed, the
Lashkar-e-Taiba's mentor, we have now happily discovered that Headley
and Rana contributed their mite to 26/11. It's a small world.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA), barely a few months old,
seems to have learned all the tricks of the trade. The game is to be
seen to do something rather than really delve, probe and find out.
Over the last few days, our intelligence agencies have been leaking
like sieves, generating scoop after scoop for journos, when it should
have been obvious to anybody that such leaks, if genuine, can
compromise investigations.
No professional sleuthing agency goes around bandying all its
conspiracy theories even before its probe is completed, but this is
precisely what we have been witnessing. Little wonder, the FBI did not
share much with the Indian officials who turned up in the US to seek
access to Headley and Rana. The reports are that they were politely
told no, but home minister P Chidambaram put a brave face on it by
claiming that they didn't go there for this purpose.
The embarrassment is one thing, but didn't the officials think about
using the telephone? A routine call to their FBI counterparts would
have told them that there was no need to pack their bags for the US
when they were not to be given access to the terror duo. If this is
the kind of spadework they do before rushing off here and there to
investigate, god help us.
There is only one reason for our failure to get anywhere with our
terror investigations: we are taking short-cuts all the time. Whenever
there is public pressure to deliver results, our politicians expect
out sleuths to come up with answers instantly -- and they do. The
answers are usually dubious, if not downright misleading, but our cops
have learnt the hard way that shoddy work will be forgiven as public
memory is short. But there is a heavy price to be paid for making
politicians appear like they can't deliver.
The police deliver what the politicians want. If there is a public
outcry against a terror act, they will generate arrests and float
conspiracy theories. If the heat gets worse, they sometimes deliver
dead bodies in encounters. What we don't ever seem to get is a
professional investigation, with all the loose ends tied and resulting
in convictions. One is hard put to find any success after the 1993
blasts which ended in lots of convictions almost 15 years after the
event. We might also manage to convict Kasab, thanks to the individual
heroism of a lathi-wielding Omble and the good fortune we had in
capturing Kasab's antics on camera.
Which brings us back to the Pink Panther analogy. The role that luck
plays in our police and criminal investigation system is simply too
large -- as the Kasab capture personifies. Given the pathetic security
we provide our citizens -- whether at the Taj or CST -- the only thing
to be said is that India is too big a country to frighten for longish
periods of time. We are simply too many people having too many diverse
identities to be collectively terrorised by anyone. 9/11 changed
America, 26/11 did nothing to us.
For a few days, 26/11 brought out the candlelight-wallahs, but Mumbai
is about future dreams, not last week's nightmares. Apathy is a kind
of dubious strength for us. Terror is failing in spite of the best
efforts of our Pink Panther investigative agencies.
bademiyansubhanallah
Terror track
Friday, November 13, 2009 21:28 IST
Just as the first anniversary of the November 26 terror attacks
approaches, we have received new information about the planning that
went into those attacks as well a series of terror alerts about
possible strikes in some western Indian states.
Mumbai under attackThe arrest of David Coleman Headley, the US
national of Pakistani origin who is suspected of being a Lashkar-e-
Taiba terrorist and of his colleague Tahawwur Hussain Rana, who is a
Canadian national, has thrown up information about how they travelled
around India, reconnoitering sites, checking facts and laying the
groundwork for the 26/11 attacks.
Unfortunately, this shows the extent to which our intelligence
agencies were unable to pick up the signs before the attack. Headley
lived in Mumbai for almost two years, set up a business, went out
around town and made friends with many people. Details are emerging of
his associations with locals leading to the conclusion that he may
have had something to do with the attacks. At the very least he would
have got a sense of the way the city worked.
Indian investigating agencies have not yet got the opportunity to talk
to him but they are getting inputs from the FBI. What this shows is
that the shadowy terror organisations go about their business with
meticulous planning. Recall the first ever bomb blasts in Mumbai (then
Bombay) in 1993 which too were planned down to every small detail and
involved many people.
More than just looking back at the sins of omission and commission
that led to 26/11 it is important to ask what lessons have been learnt
and what measures have been taken to ensure that nothing like that
ever happens again. Terrorism doesn't come with a warning so it helps
to be prepared. Do we have systems at every stage, from intelligence
to coordination of various agencies and finally, the handling of the
aftermath? A new counter-terrorism outfit Force One has been set up
but is still struggling to find a home. Coastline patrolling by the
Mumbai police is still not at optimum level. And, sadly, many of the
victims have yet to receive compensation.
We have seen how Pakistan has mocked India's dossier on the attacks
and its dilly-dallying on the trial of one of the key accused. In
India the case of the lone terror accused of 26/11 is moving apace.
That is the difference between a true democracy and a sham one. But we
have to do much more. The authorities have to take steps that assure
citizens that their safety is in good hands. The first anniversary of
those bloody days and nights is approaching and should be a good time
to take stock of our preparedness. The picture we see so far is hardly
rosy.