Cops may face severe punishment for not registering FIRs...Will it work?

Cops may face punishment for not registering FIRs

Vishwa Mohan, TNN 30 December 2009, 03:28am IST
NEW DELHI: The Centre plans to build in checks and balances in its proposal to prod states to ensure the police registers all complaints as FIRs by proposing punitive action against cops who fail to register cases as well as deterrents for false cases intended to harass innocents.

Apart from amendments to the existing laws, Centre is also considering proposals like e-registration of FIRs through public kiosks to encourage transparency and better access to the police system. Cops who fail to register an FIR after receiving a complaint may even face imprisonment with the government mulling stringent measures.

At present an official can be suspended for dereliction of duty but a measure specific to registration of FIRs might be considered. The need for such penalties has also figured in PMO discussions on police reforms. Some experts feel changes might be needed in the IPC itself. In the case of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention) of Atrocities Act, a police official who "wilfully" neglects his duty in registering a case can face between six months to a year in prison.

Elaborating the Centre's proposals, a senior home ministry official said, "The idea is to ensure all complaints are treated as FIRs by cops if someone approaches them with information of a crime." Keeping in mind the possibility of motivated complaints and score-settling, the government is planning to amend the law to punish such offenders. "Besides contemplating changes in CrPC to act against erring cops, the government is also mulling the option of making more stringent the existing provision for deliberately making false and fabricated complaints to harass somebody," the official said.

Though the existing law under Section 154 of the CrPC makes it mandatory for cops to register an FIR, the absence of "stringent punitive action" fails to ensure its implementation. The cop who fails to register an FIR currently only faces action under departmental misconduct, which may even mean dismissal but hardly ever does. However, there is no provision of putting such cops behind bars in cases of non-registration.

Former Haryana Police chief B R Lall agreed. He said: "More stringent punishment will ensure implementation of Section 154 of the CrPC. Non-registration of an FIR by a policeman is a sin. Whosoever fails to register an FIR should certainly be punished severely."

Lall, who himself presented a detailed paper on compulsory registration of FIR during the All India Police Science Congress a decade ago, said the proposed amendment would certainly act as a deterrent.

Besides the amendment in the CrPC, the government is also mulling an option of bringing changes in IPC by inserting a clause of more stringent action so that people do not file false and fabricated complaints. At present, Section 182 and 211 of the IPC deal with this aspect. While Section 182 provides for jail term of six months in case of "false information", Section 211 talks about imprisonment upto two years in case of "false charge of offence made with intent to inure".

An official said: "More stringent punishment under these two sections will deter people to lodge any false complaint. As a result, only genuine complainants will come to police." He, however, admits that merely changes in law will not ensure that this system works effectively. "We are, therefore, also planning to introduce the system of filing e-registration of FIRs across the country taking all the states and Union Territories (UTs) on board."

Welcoming the move, retired IPS officer Kiran Bedi said: "Helping people to register crime is also important. We certainly need to finally include e-complaints as accepted FIRs". Bedi, as the then chief of Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), had also recommended the concept of e-registration of FIRs to the home ministry three years ago.

Taking a cue from the recommendations, including one made by the second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC), the home ministry will ask the states to explore this option. The ARC, in its fifth report, has recommended setting up outposts (kiosks) and also "call centres" to facilitate lodging of complaints.

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Govt to keep tabs on all gun owners.........Soon, private firms may get entry into ordnance sector

TIGHTENING NORMS
Centre To Rework Ammunition Policy To Curb Misuse
Vishwa Mohan /TNN
New Delhi: Amid reports of many arms licence holders misusing their legal weapons in one or the other way, the Centre has come out with a comprehensive draft to bring changes in the existing arms and ammunition policy for individuals — suggesting scores of new provisions ranging from setting up a national database of licensees to making the police verification exercise strict and mandatory. At present, the Centre has no data which can show how many people in the country have arms licences and what kind of weapons they have as the existing Arms Act does not any provision requiring a licensing authority to maintain the required records.... http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDkvMTIvMjcjQXIwMDgwMA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

Soon, private firms may get entry into ordnance sector
Vishwa Mohan /TNN
New Delhi: Big Indian private companies may soon be allowed to manufacture automatic and semi-automatic weapons for defence, central paramilitary and state police forces. The home ministry recently proposed that companies, with FDI upto 26% or without it, be allowed to manufacture arms on a limited scale. Such private companies will, however, not be allowed to sell the weapons in the local market through arms dealers. They will supply them to state agencies on tendering basis or may export them. At present, such weapons are only produced by public sector ordnance factories. Besides, the requirement of the forces are met through imports from various countries.....http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDkvMTIvMjcjQXIwMDgwMQ==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

War against Maoists...Change in tactics.....

Anti-Maoist op plan redrawn
Focus Shifts From All-Out Action To Precision Strikes To Spare Tribals

Vishwa Mohan /TNN

New Delhi: In a shift from its earlier plan to go all-out against Maoists after the Jharkhand polls, the Centre on Thursday asked states to go for “precision strikes” wherever needed without affecting the daily lives of tribals living in Naxal-infested zones.
Though ongoing operations against the ultras will continue, the intensity will not be stepped up as such a move is likely to alienate the local population, besides driving them towards Maoist ideology.
“Security forces will conduct operations in such a way that the rebels can think about surrendering instead of being on the offensive to save their own lives,” said a senior home ministry official, adding the idea is “not to alienate tribals”.
A change in strategy, giving impetus to development activities in Naxal-hit areas, was discussed in a meeting of police chiefs and chief secretaries of affected states with home minister P Chidambaram and home secretary G K Pillai.
Chidambaram is learnt to have told the state representatives to concentrate on development work as lack of it not only affected the local population but also made the areas vulnerable to Naxal violence.
Though the home minister also took stock of the preparedness of security agencies to continue with their ongoing joint anti-Naxal operations at junctions and tri-junctions of affected states, he is believed to have told them to intensify such action only in areas where the Maoists continue to indulge in violence.
An official said: “Against the earlier plan to first clear the area of Maoists before launching development activities, the chief secretaries were told to chalk out civic activities plan taking security forces on board so that both operational as well as economic activities can go hand in hand.”
It is believed that the Centre made the change after getting feedback from affected states where tribals found themselves caught between the rebels and security forces during operations. It is learnt that in such a situation, the local population was driven towards the Naxals for safety.
DGPs and chief secretaries of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Orissa attended the meeting. Later, Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh met Chidambaram and discussed progress on operational and development front......http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDA5LzEyLzI1I0FyMDE3MDE=&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

Nothing called a Green Hunt....

17000 more troops for anti-Naxal operations

Vishwa Mohan , TNN 19 December 2009, 04:58am IST

NEW DELHI: With Jharkhand assembly polls coming to an end on Friday, the Centre is set to send an additional 17,000 paramilitary personnel to states to step up their anti-Naxalite operations under its plan of a “major offensive” against Red ultras in all affected states.

Though the operation is underway in Chhattisgarh, the idea is to extend it simultaneously at the junctions and tri-junctions of the affected states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal and Maharashtra. A senior home ministry official said the states already had 58,000 paramilitary personnel — drawn from CRPF, BSF, ITBP, SSB and CoBRA — at their command. The additional deployment would increase the strength of central forces for the anti-Naxalite operation to nearly 75,000.

Stating that there is nothing called a “Green Hunt” as such, which could have possibly been coined by some state police for some local operation, the official said the home ministry was already on track to pursue its plan of a “major offensive” against the ultras. The Jharkhand polls, which saw the deployment of nearly 40,000 paramilitary personnel, made the Centre postpone the simultaneous operation for a couple of months, but there was hardly any period when the forces were not after Naxals in one or the other affected state, he added.

“Operations are supposed to be launched secretly so that the forces can catch the ultras offguard. We are on the job and we will expand the area of operation gradually,” said a senior CRPF official, adding its a “long haul”.

Moroccan wife (?) had visited suspect (David Coleman Headley aka Daood Gilani) in Mumbai

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Vishwa Mohan\TNN

New Delhi: Indian investigators trailing footprints of US-based terrorist David Coleman Headley have found that his then wife — a Moroccan national — had once visited him during his trip to Mumbai and stayed with him for one night at the Taj in 2007. Though sleuths have no definite information as to where this woman is currently located, they suspect that she had visited at the behest of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) to hand him “certain stuff” including fake Indian currency notes (FICNs) and collect something — possibly surveillance details of the terror targets — from him----- http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDkvMTIvMTgjQXIwMTUwMQ==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

Rana lauded LeT for 26\11: FBI...LeT operative claimed to be a Mahatma follower in bid to escape conviction

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Vishwa Mohan TNN

New Delhi: As effrontery goes, few can beat it. US-based Lashkar jihadi Tahawwur Hussain Rana, an accomplice of David Coleman Headley, has claimed to be a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi in order to escape conviction.
Rana, who along with Headley is at the centre of a widening probe into Lashkar’s jihadi network, has said that he believes in non-violence, is a member of Iqbal Society and his beliefs were similar to those of Gandhi.
The FBI document against him has demolished the facade by marshalling evidence that proves that Rana, just like Headley, was aware of the 26/11 plot and supported it. It also says that Rana knew the retired Pakistan army officer Abdur Rahman Hashim Syed alias Pasha who was Headley’s direct link to Ilyas Kashmiri.
The FBI has established this with recordings of Rana’s conversation with Headley post-26/11.....
And more (The Link):
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDA5LzEyLzE2I0FyMDE0MDA=&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

India irked by FBI caginess over Headley: "Why Didn't They Tell us When He visited India in March?'

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Vishwa Mohan TNN

New Delhi: India’s suspicion that the US is not coming clean on David Headley, the USbased Lashkar jihadi who facilitated 26/11 by providing Ajmal Kasab and others with precise information about their targets, has deepened.
The growing disquiet in the government, which believes that Headley was a US agent who went rogue, was expressed by a senior official. “It is very strange that the US did not inform us of Headley’s visit to India in March this year when, by their own account, he had been under their surveillance since at least September 2008,’’ the official said, pointing out that India would have arrested the terrorist had it known about his identity.
“We suspect that the reluctance is because Headley was a double agent and the Americans may not like him to be exposed to Indian agencies,’’ the official said.....
The Link:
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDA5LzEyLzE2I0FyMDAxMDA=&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom
AND MORE......
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDA5LzEyLzE2I0FyMDE4MDA=&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

Pakistan raises more bunkers along border

Vishwa Mohan, TNN 13 December 2009, 10:05am IST
NEW DELHI: Ceasefire may be in force between India and Pakistan along International Border, but the neighbouring country has built as many as 19 new fortified concrete bunkers and 39 observation towers along the border till Nov this year — a move which has caused lot of unease on the Indian side.

What bothers New Delhi more is the fact that these new bunkers are not those “defensive bunkers” which Islamabad claims to have built recently to ward off Talibans from within its own territory. The information about the new bunkers was shared with the Union home secretary G K Pillai who, accompanied by police chief of Jammu & Kashmir Kuldeep Khoda and senior BSF officers, on Saturday visited border areas of Suchetgarh and Abdullian in Jammu region to review situation along the border.......(You may please read the link)----

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Go to jail or join jihad against India: ISI tells surrendered Taliban

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Vishwa Mohan, TNN 7 October 2009, 12:13am IST

NEW DELHI: In a new shift in tactics, Pakistan is planning to push as many as 60 "surrendered" Taliban into Jammu and Kashmir to become part of the "jihad" against India. The ISI is said to have offered the extremists the option of either going to jail or crossing the Line of Control.
The "jail or jihad" option offered to the Taliban seems a useful diversion for ISI. The Pakistan military establishment has had to fight the Taliban, once its close allies in Afghanistan, but is looking to turn the situation to its advantage. Apprehensions in Indian security circles that the crackdown by the Pakistan army on Taliban — seen as a last resort after the jihadis turned their guns on the Pakistani state — could mean trouble in Kashmir are being proved correct. Not only have infiltration attempts by regular jihadi outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba gone up, the presence of Taliban poses a new threat. Highly placed sources said BSF and the Army had been alerted about the developments after intelligence intercepted talk about infiltration bids in the next 15 to 20 days.
"Although the Taliban is yet to successfully infiltrate into India, the coming days will pose a challenge as their attempts to sneak in are expected before the onset of winter," said a senior official. The infiltration is closely controlled and monitored by the ISI and Pakistan army which is often involved in the crossings. The issue cropped up as a major security concern during the two-day visit to Srinagar by a high-powered central team led by cabinet secretary K M Chandrashekhar and comprising home secretary G K Pillai, defence secretary Pradeep Kumar and other senior officials. Top security and intelligence officials deliberated over the move by state actors in Pakistan to utilize the Taliban for their objectives in Kashmir.
Taking note of the assessment, officials are learnt to have unequivocally noted during the reviews in Srinagar that there was no change in Pakistan's support to terror groups post 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks......http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDkvMTAvMDcjQXIwMDEwMA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

Is David Coleman Headley an American Agent who turned rogue?

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TNN 27 November 2009, 06:40am IST

NEW DELHI: It's a plot that could be straight out of the bluff-and-double-bluff worlds created by John le Carre and Frederick Forsyth. Only, it seems to have played out in real life, to the tragic misfortune of hundreds of innocent people. The tantalising possibility that David Coleman Headley may have been a US undercover agent who turned rogue is vexing many here as American authorities keep the US-based Lashkar jihadi out of the reach of Indian investigators. To make the tale even more dramatic, Headley may just have provided American intelligence agencies information that prevented a Lashkar attack on Mumbai in September. The theory -- and it's still a theory -- is that Headley was used to infiltrate the Lashkar, but gradually went astray under the influence of the very terrorists he was supposed to be spying upon. Torn between conflicting loyalties, he may have continued to give information to his American handlers, and a tip-off by him may even have helped avert a Laskar attack orginally planned for September. But he seems to have commited fully to Lashkar shortly after that, which could be one reason why American agencies were caught napping by 26/11.
During his interactions in India, Headley frequently introduced himself as a CIA agent. But suspicions that he's a rogue agent stem more from the just-released information that Headley, a man with one green and one brown eye, could straddle America and Pakistan with ease despite a run-in with the law in the US. A recent profile in the New York Times said that in 1998, Headley (then known as Daood Gilani) was convicted of conspiring to smuggle heroin into US from Pakistan. ``Court records show that after his arrest, he provided so much information about his own involvement with drug trafficking which stretched back more than a decade and about his Pakistani suppliers that he was sentenced to less than two years in jail and later went to Pakistan to conduct undercover surveillance operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)," the NYT report said. This suggests that Headley had a deal with authorities in the US who allowed him to get away with mild punishment in exchange for a promise of cooperation. To many here, that also implies that he was a known entity to the counter-terror and drug enforcement authorities in the US. After 9/11, the walls between these agencies had come down because of the links between drugs and terrorism, particularly in the context of Pakistan-Afghanistan where there is a huge overlap between the functions of the DEA and CIA. Surprisingly, the FBI affidavit against Headley doesn't mention his tryst with the DEA. FBI's affidavit against Headley says that he changed his name from Daood Gilani to David Coleman Headley in 2006 to hide his history as an offender. As he told border police in August 2009, it was to give himself the freedom to travel undetected -- he said the new name aroused much less suspicion when he travelled. It is a fact that terrorists are masking their religious identity to get past the counter-terror surveillance, with terror groups seeking to recruit Caucasians for fresh strikes. But many doubt here that the mere switching of names could have worked in Headley's case given his brush with law but more because of the destinations he was flying to.
Given Pakistan's unquestioned reputation as the hub of global terror, people travelling to and from the country automatically pop up on the scanner at airports across the globe. Headley, to boot, would often meet his contacts in UAE -- a known rezendevous for terrorists and smugglers and a place that is of immense interest to law enforcement agencies. The doubters found it intriguing that ultra-sensitive agencies in the US did not find anything amiss about the entries on Headley's US passport. While the sceptics don't think they have an answer yet, they are inclined to look at the possibility of Headley being an undercover agent who, torn between the competing demands of the jihadi outfits he had been asked to infiltrate and his American handlers, went astray. Headley, by his own confession, joined Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2006 and received training in one of the terror camps run by the jihadi outfit. Those who subscribe to the "rogue agent" theory are inclined to believe that this was known to the Americans, always anxious to ferret out information from hard-to-penetrate terror groups. They also feel that US agencies were perhaps aware that last year, Headley was in India to recce targets for a Lashkar attack that it had originally planned for September -- as confirmed by Ajbal Kasab in his testimony -- and which was finally carried out on 26/11. Rather, they also suspect that Headley might have been the source of information that helped Americans warn of the attack planned for September last year. In their warning, which was passed on to Maharashtra government by Intelligence Bureau, the Americans had said that prominent installations in Mumbai were on the jihadis' target. As a matter of fact, the FBI alert made a specific mention of Taj and other hotels -- Marriott, Land's End and Sea Rock. It is felt that Headley's defection happened immediately afterwards and that is perhaps one of the reasons why Americans could not, unlike in September, sniff 26/11. The suspicion is reinforced by the fact that it was around this time that FBI put Headley under its surveillance, leading to his arrest on October 3 this year.
Suspicions are getting stronger as Americans delay giving Indian investigators access to Headley. The hope here is that Indian agencies would get their turn to talk to the terrorist after charges -- indictment in the American lexicon -- are framed against him on Jauuary 1. There is also the possibility that Headley has promised to sing on the condition that he is not exposed to interrogators from India. But during interactions on the issue, FBI has been unusually cagey about discussing Headley in detail -- odd on the part of the agency which swiftly warned of the attack Lashkar had planned in September and without whose help the breakthrough in the 26/11 probe would not have happened.

Girlfriends of David Coleman Headley...wife of Daood Gilani..!!!!!

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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Headley-had-visited-Mumbai-with-Moroccan-woman/articleshow/5289070.cms

Headley-Rana: Dost dost na raha...

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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Rana-was-duped-by-Headley-says-lawyer/articleshow/5248727.cms

Headley: Buck stops at Pak PMO

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Question....It forced Pakistan to come out with more details, hitherto unknown to investigators.....

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Headleys-brother-PRO-of-Pak-PM-Gilani/articleshow/5276752.cms

Confirmation....clarification.....the interesting details....

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/Pak-PMs-PRO-admits-he-is-Headleys-half-brother/articleshow/5280451.cms

Link with 26\11...still a mystery....

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Direct link of Headley-Rana to the 26\11 Mumbai carnage is still unsubstantiated, but investigators (US FBI and India's NIA) do not have any doubt about the terror duo's being part of a "larger conspiracy"....

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Headley-Rana-may-have-been-part-of-26/11-plot/articleshow/5241252.cms

Visa firm as cover....the smart move of Headley....

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He could simply get away with so many things under the 'cover' of running a litimate immigration service company...no one could doubt that an American known as David Coleman Headley was a white jihadi looking for his targets..... A GOOD\SMART COVER INDEED!!!....idea to befriend Rahul Bhatt in Moksha Gym in Mumbai was yet anothr smart move....

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Headley-used-visa-firm-job-as-cover/articleshow/5237206.cms

Tahawwur Hussain Rana: Is he a bigger catch?

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Tahawwur Hussain Rana was a money-bag for Headley....Is he a bigger catch?.....

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-5227983,prtpage-1.cms

Headley and Bollywood: Poor Rahul Bhatt

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Headley's Bollywood connection...an attempt to cover his covert operation

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Headley-did-a-recce-of-defence-college-in-March/articleshow/5224301.cms
Rahul Bhatt's help is crucial......
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Rahul-Bhatt-may-be-used-as-witness/articleshow/5240816.cms

David Coleman Headley: Delhi visit

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Tracing his Delhi's footprints was real fun ----- cops did not know that Headley had visited\stayed in yet another hotel in Paharganj. Investigators knew that Headley had stayed in De Holiday Inn, but they didn't know about him moving to Hotel Anand....My visit to De Holiday Inn and interaction with the hotel staff could reveal more....His passport and visa details could come out in open for the first time...and so his subsequent visits to other cities....

Extradition buzz......Delhi Visit-----

1....http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDkvMTEvMDcjQXIwMDEwNw==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

2.....http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDkvMTEvMTMjQXIwMDEwMA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

3.....http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDkvMTEvMTMjQXIwMTUwMw==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

4.....http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDkvMTEvMDYjQXIwMTEwMA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

David Coleman Headley: Pakistan's link and Indian trips

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November 7 -- Headley's links....
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Headley-link-traced-to-Pak-2-LeT-men-arrested/articleshow/5205152.cms
Multiple trips to India.....for recce of terror targets??...
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-5216927,prtpage-1.cms
...And more....
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Headley-was-in-India-on-recce/articleshow/5208195.cms

November 13 -- the extradition buzz...
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-to-move-for-extradition-of-Headley-from-US/articleshow/5224592.cms

FBI's tryst with David Coleman Headley alias Daood Gilani

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Initial findings.......

Citizens’ profiling may be frowned upon in a free society. But had it not been there for security reason in US, the terror duo of Pakistani origin would have carried deadly attacks on multi-location in India and a newspaper office in Denmark.
Careful analysis of immigration records kept in the US points at one important aspect of a traveler who had not only changed his name from Daood Gilani to David Coleman Headley but also been frequently traveling to UAE, Pakistan, India, Denmark and other European countries since 2006 despite having no substantial income. He had, in fact, been on multiple trips only after changing his name and acquiring new passport and here the joint terrorism task force (JTTF) smelt the rat.
It happened in late 2008 and the Headley chase begun through tracking his emails and telephone conversations including calls placed using long distance calling cards. More and more information came on the way including Headley’s cell phone, which was registered in the name of a deceased individual, – making it certain for the US sleuths that they had been chasing a person who was upto some big terror project.
Constant scanning of his Emails led the investigators to another person Tahawwur Hussain Rana. The background check had raised equally strong suspicion. As the sleuths moved forward, they landed up with more leads – a pointer to their contacts with one of the most wanted terrorists Ilyas Kashmiri, the operational chief of the Azad Kashmir section of the Harakat-ul-Jihad-Islami (HuJI) with links to Al-Queda. That lead had come to them late last year.

The chase subsequently got new dimension and the rest is history. After chasing him for over a year, the FBI sleuths had arrested Headley on October 3 at O’Hare Airport in Chicago just before he was to board his scheduled flight to Philadelphia – the final leg of his terror plot to attack the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which had published 12 cartoons of Prophet Mohammed in 2005, enraging Muslims across the world.
FBI could have arrested Headley much before. But they did not want to lose the vital information, which he had been sharing\exchanging with US-based Rana and Pakistan based HuJI commander Kashmiri and LeT leaders Sajid Mir and Sheikh Abdul Rahman Saeed.
Though he was finally arrested on October 3, the FBI took care not to disclose the information till the time it could lay hands on the big fish of the entire network Rana who was the main financer of Headley.
They arrested Rana on October 18 in Chicago and told India what the US-based terrorists were upto. Besides attack on Danish newspaper, they had plan to attack on National Defence College in New Delhi in near future – most probably around the time of the 26\11 carnage anniversary.
Indian agencies, which had literally no clue of such big terror plan, suddenly came in action. Though the entire episode was made public by the FBI on October 27, the Indian agencies had done some ground work before. The probe, however, got some track when Headley’s Rahul (Bhatt) – son of film producer -- connection came into the media as stated by the FBI in its affidavits against the terror duo in Chicago court.

The mystery of Rahul continued till the time he himself approached the Mumbai Police and told them about the circumstances under which he met Headley through a gym trainer Vilas Warak. Headley had first befriended Vilas and through him he met Rahul whom he considered so important a ‘cover’ that he had repeatedly mentioned his name in the emails he exchanged with his Pakistani handlers.
The probe got new dimension when Headley’s Delhi visit came to light, high-lighting the inter-state ramification of the entire investigation. The probe, which had hitherto been done by Mumbai Police, was subsequently handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
With the trail gradually becoming clearer, the NIA sleuths with the help of different state police started reaching all the places, besides Mumbai and Delhi, where both Headley and Rana had stayed to finalise their nefarious design to attack India.
Kochi, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Agra and Pune have also come to the picture. While reconnaissance master Headley visited all these cities to carefully map his targets during his multiple trips to India between 2006-09, his boss Rana had landed in Kochi in November last year under the cover of immigration service provider.
This lead came clearer when police found that the terror duo had put out advertisements in different newspapers in Kochi and Mumbai, stating Rana’s expertise in providing jobs and visa to skilled and semi-skilled workers from India.
As the probe progressed, the sleuths even came across evidences which also pointed the terror duo’s role in larger conspiracy behind 26\11. Though concrete evidence to this end is need to be corroborated, the NIA sleuths and intelligence agencies are currently focusing more on busting sleeper cells which might have been set up by the terror duo for future terror attack.
A top home ministry official said: “Instead of doing post-mortem of the 26\11 attacks, the investigators are focusing more on cracking the deadly sleeper cells. Idea is to prevent future attack. The rest will follow in due course”.
The entire episode also threw light on the ongoing cooperation between US and India on terror related information. Once the FBI will file its final charges against the duo in January next, India will approach the US for extradition of the terror duo. Till then, it is the time to crack their Indian connection to eliminate the lurking danger.

Mystery behind US-based terror duo of Pakistani origin: Daviad Coleman Headley (Daood Gilani) and Tahawwur Hussain Rana

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FBI had arrested David Coleman Headley on October 3 and his accomplice Tahawwur Hussain Rana on October 18......USA, India, Denmark, Pakistan...and ofcourse Bollywood were their playgrounds...
Was Headley an American spy who turned rogue?...The mystery around this Jihadi is bugging Indian agencies...The stories are gradually being unfolded with number of missing links in between.

Will the true story ever come out in open?...Efforts are on with certain hits and misses.....

The terror duo's obsession with their Danish target----Has this obsession saved India?

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/LeT-torn-between-Denmark-India/articleshow/5201574.cms

Sitting Ducks

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Pit senior cops against Naxals: MHA

Vishwa Mohan, TNN 21 July 2009, 03:21am IST

NEW DELHI: Chhattisgarh IPS officer Vinod Kumar Choubey, killed in the naxal attack last week, was among the handful of senior cops who prefer leading from the front during operations. Most of the times, it is the lower-ranking cops and paramilitary personnel who die in the battle against Red Ultras with the seniors only making the operational plans.

With facts revealing the killing of over 1,000 lower-ranking security personnel in the past five years, the Union home ministry recently wrote to states asking them to depute senior cops (inspector and above) to lead the operations against naxals.

Coincidently, the ministry's stern message came much before the Orissa Havildar and Constable Federation raised the issue and demanded a similar commitment from the senior cops in the war against Maoists. In a rare expression of discontent in the wake of the killing of sub-inspector Ajit Bardhan by naxals in Sundargarh district, the Federation demanded that senior police officers lead the jawans during operation rather than sit in "AC chambers in Bhubaneswar".

Though home ministry officials frowned upon such an open expression of discontent by a disciplined force, they fully agreed with what the Federation reportedly said.

On the eve of the Maoists' call for bandh in five states in June, the home ministry while alerting states had asked them to depute senior cops for operations as part of the Standard Operationg Procedures (SOPs).

"Choubey possibly heeded to such an advice, but it is not the case with other senior cops in the most cases. The idea is to let the officers, who make plan, know the ground situation. If they will have to lead, they would be more careful about the entire operation instead of leaving jawans as sitting ducks in the field," said a senior home ministry official.

The ministry's statistics reveal that the number of casualties among security personnel has consistently been increasing — from 153 in 2005 to 230 in 2009 (till date). While 157 personnel were killed in 2006, 236 cops lost their lives in 2007 and 231 in 2008.

Obviously, the figure for Orissa of cops killed in naxal violence is no less. A total of 73, mostly lower-ranking cops, were killed in a single year in 2008 as compared to seven in three years — 2005-07.

Perhaps, the sharp increase in casualties might have been behind the Federation president, Sawarmal Sharma, demanding that the state chief minister order senior officials to lead the forces in combat operations instead of giving directions from their offices.

"We don't want to be sitting ducks anymore. Every time a Maoist attack occurs, a lowly policeman dies. This will not be tolerated anymore," Sharma said.

Even the CRPF personnel deployed in naxal-affected states have a similar grouse against the state police. Taking up the concerns of jawans, the paramilitary force — which has deployed over 37,000 of its personnel in Red Zones — too recently asked the state police to cooperate at the ground level by pitching in their senior cops for the job.

CRPF has even asked its field units to undertake an operation only when accompanied by a matching number of state police cops led by senior officers. The units have also been asked not to venture out beyond the known terrain in naxal-infested regions unless they are led by state cops....http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDkvMDcvMjEjQXIwMTAwMA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

P Chidambaram

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Somehow, I felt that Chidambaram wouldn't come back to the home ministry. I thought he would rather prefer to be in different side of the North Block which is now occupied by his senior Cabinet colleague Pranab Mukherjee....Har kisi ko mukkamal jahan nahi milta.... Anyway, it's good for the country to have tough HM like Chidambaram who can get works done from babus.
I am sure the home ministry's bureaucrats will find it tough as Chidambaram is not only a hard task-master but also quite thorough of what he does. No one can make him fool...poor babus!!!!


THIS IS WHAT HE TOLD US BEFORE GENERAL ELECTION:

Naxals not motivated by ideology, they're bandits: Chidambaram
TNN 18 April 2009, 04:17am IST
P Chidambaram took over as home minister in the aftermath of Mumbai attacks, and has helped fashion the government's counter-terror initiatives. With elections on, he has also been leading Congress's counter attack to BJP's "soft-on-terror" charge. In a conversation with Vishwa Mohan and Himanshi Dhawan, he tries to shift the battle to the rival's terrain. Excerpts:

Q. Is terrorism an issue in the election?

A. It is an issue but it is not the sole issue. Both in urban India and rural India, I acknowledge that it is an issue amongst the handful of issues that occupy the mind of the electorate.

Q. If several issues are in play, why did the Congress party feel the need to bring out a document on terrorism?

A. No particular reason to put out the paper, but we want everybody to know that we have done a lot of homework on this matter. I thought this was an opportunity to make the point that you cannot fight terror unless you're prepared to fight communalism. As far as Indian terror groups are concerned, both groups -- the jihadi terrorist groups and the Hindu militant groups -- perpetrate terror in the name of religion and therefore unless you are prepared to fight communalism, you can't fight terrorism.

Q. Many people will look askance at the equivalence you are seeking between jihadi terrorism and the one by Hindu militants.

A. Terror is terror. Anybody who perpetrates terror will have to be dealt with firmly and decisively. I am able to see that both kinds of terror groups commit acts of terror in the name of religion. They are not committing acts of terror in any other name, but they are doing so in the name of religion to advance what they believe is their religious cause. Therefore, one has to be able to fight communalism in order to be able to fight terrorism.

Q. How do you react to BJP's charge that the fight against terrorism has been a setback because of UPA?

A. Complete rubbish. What is BJP's record in fighting ULFA, in fighting naxalism, in identifying and fighting terror modules in India? These terror modules did not spring overnight. These terror modules have been in the making for the last many years.

As far as I am concerned, terror is terror. Terrorist is a terrorist. I do not recognise his religion. It is motiveless malignity, if I may borrow a Shakespearean phrase.

Q. Why no decision has been taken on Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru's mercy petition?

A. Afzal Guru is one amongst 28 cases who are on death row. His case is 22nd in the list of 28. Before him, serial number 14 is also terrorist offence -- assassins of Rajiv Gandhi. Is it not an important case?

Assassin of Rajiv Gandhi was sentenced on January 28, 1998. It was confirmed by Supreme Court on May 11, 1999. BJP was in power. Why didn't they carry out the sentence? Let me answer this myself. In this country, examination of a mercy petition is a well established but a slow procedure. So, what applies to case number one and what applies to case number 14 will apply to case number 22 also. Why did you pick out one case and say this has to be dealt with on a fast track. Then, I am entitled to say that you are picking up that case because you are looking at that case through the lens of religion. You are looking at the religious persuasion of that man, which I reject. All these cases are to be dealt with according to the established procedure.

Q. There is a perception that before 26/11 nothing substantial was done as a result of which the country had to face a series of terror attacks during 2005-08. How has the situation changed now?

A. I don't think you can divide our anti-terror efforts into post-26/11 and pre-26/11 and even if you divide in that manner, pre-26/11 would include NDA government's rule. When I looked at the situation, I found that all the elements were there. All the agencies were there. But they were not pooling together. Post 26/11, I decided to question the intelligence establishment and security forces on the strategy that they have adopted so far and goad them into rethinking their entire strategy.

Q. Has it resulted in important shifts?

A. Not only in the case of cross-border terrorism but also naxalism. For example, it was and it is even now believed that police action and development can go hand in hand in naxal-affected areas. To some extent, it is a naive theory. Development is important but development can take place only when police action has secured the area. If police action does not secure that area, whatever development you may do, will be wiped out by naxalites in a few days or few weeks.

Q. It marks a departure from what is considered the `root cause' approach?

A. Well I don't think naxalites are motivated by any ideology. Maybe one or two of them are ideologically motivated but most of them are simply bandits.

Q. Do you think the amended Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) is strong enough to fight terror, considering that it does not recognise confession before police as evidence?

A. It's strong enough. But, along with strong laws you also need fair laws. Two provisions are obnoxious. One, confession to a police officer will be made admissible. And second, if a public prosecutor opposes bail, court shall not grant bail. Given the reality of the policing system in this country, we all know that the confession to a police officer is invariably suspect and to say that if a public prosecutor opposes bail the judge should not grant bail is to make a mockery of the court. These two provisions are not there in our law. We have no intention of introducing these two provisions in our law. I think, the UAPA, as amended, is a strong and, at the same time, fair law.

Q. Congress party's document on terrorism remains silent on infiltration despite the fact that it poses a big threat. Why it is so?

A. This is only confined to cross-border terror. This plan does not deal with naxalites, it does not deal with insurgent groups in the northeast nor does it deal with infiltration from Bangladesh. We didn't want to distract from the core of the document, which is cross-border terror supported by home grown terrorist modules. There are separate strategies (to deal with naxalism, infiltration, immigration lapses and others) and if necessary we can put them together in the form of a booklet.

Q. Porous Indo-Nepal border also poses a big problem as there have been reports that the terrorists may take this route to sneak in. How will the home ministry address this issue?

A. Indo-Nepal border is a porous border. Indo-Pak borders in Punjab and Rajasthan are more or less secure. Earlier, infiltrators were coming through LoC and international border in Kashmir. They still make an attempt to come through the LoC in Kashmir but in recent times, they have found it feasible to come via Nepal. They come to Kathmandu and try and cross the border between India and Nepal. We are working with the Nepal government in identifying these potential infiltrators when they reach Kathmandu. There have been some successes, but I don't deny that it is possible that a few of them may have infiltrated the Indo-Nepal border.

Q. Ambitious Multi-Purpose National Identity Card (MNIC) scheme is billed as one of the steps to keep tabs on infiltrators or illegal immigrants. But, the pace of the project is quite slow.

A. It was a pilot project. We had to prove the concept. It was completed in March 2008. The period between April 2008 and March 2009 was the maintenance phase. That phase is also complete. Now the pilot has been proved. We have entrusted it to the Registrar General of India who is going to take it up. I have given a timeframe to all the coastal towns and villages as well as Andaman and Nicobar Islands for cards to be issued to all residents by 2009-2010. For the remainder in India, it will be done along with the National Population Register. So once the NPR is ready, side-by-side the cards will be issued.

Q. Police vacancies in states have become a major impediment in the fight against terrorism and naxalism. How will you tackle this problem?

A. We are addressing that. At the time of chief ministers' conference on January 6, there were 100,000 vacancies in the constabulary. But since that conference and since my review, every state is in a crash programme mode to fill vacancies. In fact, I am pretty confident that the bulk of the vacancies will be filled by December 31, 2009 and most certainly by March 31, 2010.

Q. Will the states adhere to the deadline?

A. They are all doing it. I know their programmes. I have got the numbers, I have got the calendar. They are now in a rush to fill the vacancies.

Q. Pace of modernisation of police forces has also been quite slow.

A. It is in a frantic pace now. Whether it is raising more India Reserve (IR) battalions, setting up more police stations, procuring more weapons, communication equipment, bomb disposal equipment, filling vacancies in the constabulary, every state is in a rush to address the pending issues.

Q. Are you seeing a new type of sensitivity that has been so far absent?

A. Well, there is a certain sense of urgency and CMs are now being asked to review the work of their home departments. I am holding review meetings in states and so far I have done it in 12 states. Therefore, there is a sense of urgency. DGPs are using this new awareness to pressure their governments. DGPs are also using their clout, which is another pressure point.

Q. What do you say about the Karnataka chief minister's allegation that the Centre neglected the state's cause as far as giving it a regional NSG hub is concerned?

A. Karnataka thinks it can reap dividends by peddling this sob story. Karnataka has no reason to complain. It is the first state which got an operational anti-terror hub. The NSG hubs have not become operational in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata or Hyderabad, but Karnataka's anti-terror hub is operational in Bangalore.

I have written to the chief minister telling him it is operational, you now coordinate between the DGP and the commander of the anti-terror force so that they can be deployed where necessary. Karnataka should in fact thank the government for setting up the first anti-terror hub and secondly, Army's special force unit is as good if not better than the NSG hub.
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDkvMDQvMTgjQXIwMTEwMA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

Al-Qaida connection?

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Al-Qaida tech used in Bangalore, Surat bombs

31 Jul 2008, 0021 hrs IST, Vishwa Mohan , TNN

NEW DELHI: Al-Qaida may not have a presence in India but its footprint was visible in the bombs used in Bangalore and Surat, according to
intelligence officials. ( Watch )

For the first time in India, Integrated Circuit (IC) chips were used to assemble bombs in Bangalore and Surat — a technique perfected by the Qaida-linked Indonesian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). Besides using the technique to bomb different places in Indonesia, JI — which aims to establish Islamic state in southeast Asia — has also exported it to Philippines where terrorists have used it effectively in a number of incidents. ( See Ninan’s cartoon )

Referring to the technique being put to use in India, intelligence officials said some local terrorists could have visited Indonesia for training via Bangladesh — a fact which the Special Task Force (STF) of Uttar Pradesh police had first got wind of during interrogation of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operatives last year.

"Links of LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) with Al Qaida is not a secret, and this leads to strong possibility of linkages of their Indian modules with JI in southeast Asia," said an official, adding that the IC explosive device — similar to the ones used by JI — found in Bangalore and Surat had only confirmed the suspicion.

While the jehadis were successful in their first attempt to use IC explosive devices in Bangalore on July 25, they could not make a similar impact three days later in Surat, where the chips used in the bombs had some fault.

None of the bombs in Surat exploded, averting another disaster. "It indicates origin of consignments from two different places for Bangalore and Surat — even though it could be the handiwork of a single group using different terror modules," said a senior official of the National Security Guard (NSG) which has sent its forensic experts to Gujarat.

The bombs in Ahmedabad were, however, of a different make. Timer devices were used there and the design was strikingly similar to those used to bomb courts in three UP cities — Varanasi, Faizabad and Lucknow — in November last year and in Jaipur on May 13 this year. Incidentally, a group calling itself Indian Mujahideen claimed responsibility for all three attacks by sending emails to media organisations prior to the blasts.

"Different modus operandi followed in these three cities and in Bangalore and Surat should not be misconstrued as it being the handiwork of different groups," a senior intelligence officer said.

He added that the timing of operations in Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Surat was an indication of meticulous planning and conspiracy by a single command structure from across the border which used different modules in different Indian cities comprising local contacts.

vishwa.mohan@timesgroup.com

Names of top-rung Red Ultras revealed

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http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDgvMDIvMTgjQXIwMDEwNA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

AND.......Red Terror Budget

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDgvMDIvMTgjQXIwMTUwMA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

Names of top-rung Naxalites revealed

18 Feb 2008, 0059 hrs IST, Vishwa Mohan , TNN

NEW DELHI: The Maoists may be striking with increasing impunity in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Orissa but the party’s top leadership is still dominated by leaders from Andhra Pradesh, with half of its politburo members coming from the state and as many as four of them from the banned outfit’s old bastion, Karimnagar district.

Identified as the single most important internal security threat by PM Manmohan Singh, the ultra-red leadership has been a shadowy entity for security forces. Not much has been known of the underground leadership that directs its cadres to commit violence in as many as 13 states and has links with associates in Nepal.

Investigators tracking Naxalite groups got a break when a top ultra, Misir Besra, fell into their hands. The politburo member's interrogation reveals not only details of the Maoist command structure, but also audacious plans to target big cities like Delhi and Mumbai.

Besra also indicated that more attacks like the one at Nayagarh in Orissa were in the pipeline. Besra, who was arrested in a joint operation of Jharkhand Police and CRPF, revealed that the Maoists had set up an "urban combat team" to target big cities like Mumbai, Delhi and states adjoining the capital like Haryana and Punjab.

Who’s Who in CPI (Maoist)

CORE LEADERSHIP

A 14-member CPI (Maoist) politburo is the main decision-making body of the ultras Seven out of 14 top leaders are from Andhra Pradesh — four of them from Karimnagar district Names of top leadership revealed by politburo member Misir Besra alias Bhaskar alias Sunirmal after his arrest in Jharkhand

POLITBURO MEMBERS

1.Muppala Laxmana Rao (15 aliases including Ganapathi, Ramana, Srinivas and Malanna) is party chief. The 58-year-old science graduate is from Karimnagar district, AP

2.Prashanth Bose (aliases Nirbhay, Mahesh, Kajal) is No.2 in the politburo. Belongs to West Bengal. Represents the outfit at meetings with international and Indian revolutionary organizations

3.Cherukuri Raja Kumar (aliases Uday, Parimal, Azad), aged 55 years. Belongs to Krishna district, AP

4.Mallojula Koteshwara Rao (aliases Prahallad, Ramji, Kishanji), aged 55 years. Belongs to Karimnagar district, AP. Responsible for merger of PWG and MCC. Currently looks after Bengal

5.Nambala Keshavarao (alias Ganganna, Basavraj), aged 53 years. Belongs to Srikakulam district, AP

6.Koppad Gandhi (aliases Saleem, Rajan, Kishore). In-charge of central propaganda bureau looking after party documentation

7.Pramod Mishra (aliases Ban Bihari, Janardhan). Belongs to Aurangabad, Bihar. Incharge of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and J&K

8.Sumanand Singh (aliases Sujith Da, Suman), aged 55 years. Native of Bihar. In-charge of ‘military’ activities in West Bengal. Considered very good in planning armed operations

9.Malla Raji Reddy (aliases Meesalanna, Sayanna, Sathenna), aged 55 years. Belongs to Karimnagar district, AP

10.Mallajula Venugopal (aliases Bhupathi, Sonu). Belongs to Karimnagar, AP Katakam

11.Sudershan (aliases Anand, Mohan, Birendar), aged 50 years. Belongs to Adilabad district, AP

12.Akhilesh Yadav (aliases Ramanaji, Prabodh, Bupesh), aged 65 years. Former school teacher and eldest politburo member. Belongs to Gaya, Bihar. His son too is a Maoist Balraj (alias BR), aged 50 years. Looks after publication. In-charge of north Bihar

13.Ashuthosh (aliases Bipul, Ashok), 45 yrs. Belongs to Jharkhand. Elevated to the top group after Besra’s arrest

ON MAOIST HITLIST (according to Misir Besra)

1.H J Dora Former AP police chief
2.Anil Palta IPS officer (led anti-Naxalite ops in Bihar)
3.Raman Singh Chhattisgarh CM Mahendra Karma Salva Judum founder
4.Babulal Marandi Former Jharkhand CM


vishwa.mohan@timesgroup.com

Red Terror - Budget

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http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDgvMDIvMTgjQXIwMTUwMA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

Naxalites have Rs 60-cr budget for 'struggle'

18 Feb 2008, 0025 hrs IST,

Vishwa Mohan, TNN

NEW DELHI: The CPI (Maoist) has a budget of no less than Rs 60 crore for carrying out its armed struggle during 2007-09. And of that, Rs 42 crore is earmarked for arms, ammunition and explosives, Rs 2 crore for intelligence gathering, an indicator of how Naxalites are prepared to pay an entrenched ring of informers.

The remaining amount is allocated for transportation, computer training, propaganda and documentation. The revelations came from Misir Besra, a top-rung Maoist leader who was arrested in Jharkhand recently.

The statements by Besra, also known as Sunirmal, are significant in view of Friday’s attacks in Orissa as Besra, a "politburo" leader, had specifically spoken of police stations in the state being on the Naxalite hitlist, along with a few individuals, politicians and officers in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

The Nayagarh attack points to the authenticity of Besra’s "product". If his comrades knew of his arrest, the determination to still go ahead with the attack speaks volumes of the confidence and gumption of the ultras.

Even though the Naxalites have of late taken a beating in Andhra Pradesh, the group’s leadership remains firmly in the grip of comrades from the state. As many of seven politburo members are from Andhra Pradesh, with four — including party general secretary Muppala Lakshman Rao alias Ganapathi — coming from Karimnagar, a district long affected by Naxalite presence.

The secretive ways of the Naxalite leadership and its success in avoiding identification despite on-off peace talks had put investigators at a disadvantage. But now, agencies have an exact idea of the structure headed by a politburo comprising 14 permanent members and six "alternate" members.

While Ganapathi is party general secretary, the permanent members include Mallojula K Rao, Cherukuri Raja Kumkar, Prashanth Bose, Nambala Keshavarao, Pramod Mishra, Sumanand Singh, Katakam Sudershan, Akhilesh Yadav and Balraj. Each has a responsibility with respect to 'military' operations, intelligence, propaganda, training, documentation, budget and procurement of arms and ammunition.

Officials believe that most of them might have even been taking shelter in urban areas with the help of unarmed sympathizers whose number could be anywhere between 50,000 and 70,000 across the country. "Disclosures made by Besra about the leadership will now at least help us launch our efforts in the right direction as he gave us feature-wise details of the commanders and politburo members," said an official.

Though the politburo is the top decision-making body, lower cadres are being managed by regional bureaus, zonal/state committees, district/division committees and squad area committees. The basic armed unit, called dalam, has eight to 10 guerrillas trained in using landmines and launching surprise attacks.

While extortion from contractors, miners, tendu leaf traders and other forest produce, including ivory and sandalwood merchants/smugglers, is a basic means of finance, arms and ammunition are usually looted from the police. Besides, they procure explosives, mainly gelatine sticks, from contractors in mining areas.

A particular politburo member, Pramod Mishra of Aurangabad, Bihar, was made operational in-charge of New Delhi during the 9th congress of the Maoists. In the congress, held in the forests of Bheemband in Bihar for 10 days last year, it was decided to put one urban combat team specifically to identify targets in Delhi and Haryana.

Ganapathi is the man who heads the CPI (Maoist) and its armed wing, People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA), having nearly 11,000 armed cadres spread over as many as 13 states. He is certainly not the only one who runs such a huge ‘army’.

There are nearly 100 others who are part of the Naxalite command structure with their central committee comprising a team of 14 dedicated full-time politburo members. Security and intelligence agencies, however, do not exactly know where Ganapathi or others live and operate from. They found out from Besra that the top leaders shift their bases depending upon their own intelligence.

Besra has hinted at locations which encompass dense forest areas of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar (along the Nepal border), AP, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Abujmad in Chhattisgarh, the Palamau-Chatra belt in Jharkhand and the dense Dandakaranya forests in north Telengana region of AP are, however, considered the three main hideouts.

...... vishwa.mohan@timesgroup.com

Pak bid to wash hands of Dawood foiled by TOI

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Pak bid to wash hands of Dawood foiled

16 Apr 2007, 0026 hrs IST

Vishwa Mohan, TNN

NEW DELHI: Acting on the basis of a TOI alert, the United Nations Security Council has frustrated Pakistan's attempt to get Interpol acquiesce to its claim that it was not sheltering India's most-wanted don, Dawood Ibrahim.

While Pakistan had pulled off a coup of sorts by getting the international police body to buy its protestation about Dawood not being present on its territory, UNSC — acting in response to a query from TOI — has ensured that Interpol continues to regard Pakistan as the place where the fugitive don could be holed up.

Pakistan's success in getting the Interpol records — Special Notice — airbrushed of any reference to Karachi as the possible hideout of Dawood, since designated global terrorist, would have caused a major setback to India, which has maintained that Dawood is being hosted by ISI.

Interpol records listed two Karachi addresses — House (NU-37), 30th Street, Defence Housing Authority, and White House, near Saudi Mosque, Clifton — as Dawood's possible shelters. This marked an endorsement of India's stance.

The expunction of the two at a time when all evidence strongly points to the continued presence of the don in Pakistan could have, however, almost reversed the situation to the latter's advantage. It was a close shave, as Interpol, for reasons not clear, suddenly found merit in Pakistan's disclaimer, expunging both the Karachi addresses.

UNSC, which came to India's rescue by ensuring that one of the addresses — White House, Clifton — was put back on Friday, confirmed the "glaring change" to TOI. It was TOI which alerted a UNSC panel — Committee 1267, which is entrusted with the task of listing people aligned with Al Qaida and Taliban — to the missing Karachi addresses.....http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDcvMDQvMTYjQXIwMDEwMQ==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

Black Money:........Germany offers black money data, India dithers.....the issue will remain live for years

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Germany offers black money data, India dithers

21 May 2008, 0044 hrs IST, Vishwa Mohan, TNN

NEW DELHI: Investigators in India might have their best chance yet to trace those Indians who have stashed away millions in the tiny tax haven of Liechtenstein, a small landlocked country between Austria and Switzerland, provided the Manmohan Singh government asks for the information on offer.

The dope on hundreds of rich Indians who have black money parked in Liechtenstein could be made available to the authorities here as the German government, which has obtained a list of account holders at Liechtenstein’s LTG Bank, is willing to part with the names.

Several countries including the US, the UK, Canada, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Ireland have already used the opportunity to zero in on their citizens who have evaded taxes and smuggled their wealth to the principality, the sixth-smallest country in the world. But Transparency International says India has maintained 'a stoic silence over the issue and has not approached the German government for this data'.

Expressing concern over the Indian government's apparently lackadaisical attitude in getting after offenders who have cheated the tax authorities of millions of dollars is quite surprising and the Indian chapter of TI - an organization campaigning to reduce corruption - has urged the government to take all necessary steps to seek the data.

Admiral R H Tahiliani, chairman if TI India and a former navy chief, said: ‘‘This money belongs to the people of India and it is possible that it has been tucked away in this distant country by those who have acquired it illegally and are now evading taxes.

"There should be complete transparency and accountability about this money and it is for the government to find this out and inform people," Admiral Tahiliani, said, referring to the black money stashed away abroad.

Indeed, the offer looks too good to refuse. It is a bit like being served secrets on a platter and if the government does not waste time looking a gift horse in the mouth, it could get data that might otherwise never be accessed given the laws that protect tax havens that often require specific proof of criminality. In fact, the dice is invariably loaded against investigators - for example the Hindujas were able to delay proceedings in the Bofors case by challenging each application filed by CBI.

Suspecting that the government's chariness could stem from fears that influential politicians and industrialists might be compromised by the Liechenstein data, TI has, in a statement, said: "It is alleged that this money belongs to rich and powerful politicians, industrialists and stock brokers and that is why the reluctance on the part of government of India (to get details from Germany)."

Liechtenstein, like Switzerland, St Kitts, Canary Islands, Antigua and Bahamas, has been a haven for wealthy people to hide their ill-gotten wealth away from the prying eyes of tax authorities. Referring to reports, TI mentioned that German intelligence agency - BND - has details of about 800 clients of LTG Bank - run by Liechtenstein’s ruling dynasty - and prosecutors are using this information to target suspected tax evaders.

"The ministry of finance and PMO have, however, not shown much interest in finding out about those who have their lockers on the secret banks of Liechtenstein which prides itself in its banking system," TI said. Referring to such banking systems, TI also said that secretive and non-transparent tax havens could be used for money that is related to drugs and terrorism. These accounts have been frequently used to channel money for purchase of arms....http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDgvMDUvMjEjQXIwMDEwMA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom