Homegrown terror ... it shows India's vulnerability

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Karnataka terror plot: ‘Ultras went to Pak via Iran, met ISI men’

Vishwa Mohan |TNN | Sep 4, 2012, 02.14AM IST 

NEW DELHI: With the interrogation of terrorists picked up in Karnataka shedding more light on their network within and outside the country, central agencies have come to know that two of the suspects went to Pakistan via Iran and met three ISI officers in Karachi before getting in touch with their handlers in Saudi Arabia. 

On the basis of their questioning, it was learnt that the ISI officers were in touch with the Saudi-based handlers, including Indians and Pakistanis, who not only used to pass on 'directions' to the Bangalore and Hubli-based modules but also sent money to them through the 'hawala' network. 

Sources privy to details of the interrogation as well as the probe of the money trail, said the duo - Abdul Hakkim alias Abdulla and Zafar Iqbal Sholapuri alias Zakir - had first visited Iran on valid travel documents including Indian passports and one-month visa. They, however, entered Pakistan illegally and met three ISI officers in Karachi. 

"It must be a deliberate move to visit Pakistan illegally as the Pakistani spy agency did not want to leave a trail of their visit," said an official, claiming that the three ISI officers whom they met were identified by the terrorists as Abdul Wahab, Hamid and Mustafa. 

Officials were, however, tightlipped about any corroborative evidence the agencies might have over the claims made by the arrested terrorists during their interrogation. 

This is the third recent case where anti-India elements were found to be operating from Saudi Arabia. Deported LeT terrorist Abu Jundal and Indian Mujahideen activist Fasih Mahmood, who is still in the custody of Saudi authorities, were running their terror modules from there. 

An official said, "The handlers who were in touch with the arrested Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh youth have nothing to do with Jundal's or Fasih Mahmood's network. It is suspected that the different networks were being looked after by different sets of ISI officers." 

Karnataka police has so far arrested 14 persons after busting the terror module. Besides being asked to eliminate identified politicians and journalists, the arrested youth were also given the task of gathering information about various terror targets including defence establishments and nuclear installations in southn India. 

"We believe that more people are part of these busted modules. Some more arrests will follow soon," the official said......... 

Politics behind this trust deficit ........ Why can't Mumbai Police follow the law

http://t.co/gjFny63i

Mumbai cops violated law over Bihar arrest

Vishwa Mohan |TNN | Sep 3, 2012, 12.56AM IST 

NEW DELHI: Mumbai Police may have acted within the law by arresting Azad Maidan vandal Abdul Qadir Ansari from Sitamarhi in Bihar without taking the state police in the loop but it violated legal provisions by not producing the accused before a 'local' magistrate or senior police officer after his arrest. 

Ansari - a Jogeshwari resident who allegedly vandalized the Amar Jawan memorial during the Azad Maidan riots on August 11 - was taken to Mumbai where he was produced before a city court which remanded him to police custody till September 4. 

The episode, which triggered a war of words led by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray who took offence to Bihar's move of flagging the mistake to Mumbai Police, is, however, not the only one which saw such inter-state squabble. 

JD(U)-ruled Bihar had indulged in a similar tussle with BJP-ruled Karnataka when the latter's police arrested Indian Mujahideen terrorist Kafeel Ahmed from Darbhanga district in May for his alleged involvement in the blasts at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore in 2010. Instead of informing Bihar police before arresting Ahmed, Karnataka police picked him up and produced him before a court in Jharkhand. 

The incident was not only picked up as an episode of 'trust deficit' between different states ruled by different political parties but also highlighted poor coordination among states on tackling terrorism. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had taken strong objection to Karnataka's action and had written to the Union home ministry highlighting the violation of law over jurisdiction. 

Taking note of Kumar's protest, the ministry had on May 16 written to all states reminding them of the provision under Section 80 of CrPC. 

In a detailed note to chief secretaries over the legal provisions, the ministry had said, "A person arrested must be produced before executive magistrate or deputy superintendent of police or commissioner of police within whose jurisdiction the arrest was made unless the court which issued the warrant (for arrest) is within 30 km of the place of arrest." 

The law clearly shows that Mumbai police violated the legal provision by not 'producing' Ansari before the local magistrate or police after it arrested him in Sitamarhi. Bihar police came to know about the arrest only through media reports. 

Mumbai police, however, did nothing illegal in arresting Ansari without 'informing' the local police. Citing legal provisions, the home ministry's note mentioned such exceptions if the delay in executing the arrest warrant may turn out to be counterproductive. 

Referring to Section 79 (3) of CrPC, the ministry said if there was reason to believe that delay in obtaining endorsement (from the local authority) will prevent arrest, the warrant may be executed without going through such process. 

This provision may give Mumbai police a breather in its response to Bihar which highlighted the unilateral act of Maharashtra in carrying out such arrest. The assumption that Mumbai police did not want to waste time in taking endorsement from local authorities as the delay could have allowed Ansari to flee to Nepal may hold some ground. But the explanation may not absolve the city police from its responsibility of producing the accused in a court in Bihar after the arrest.........http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDEyLzA5LzAzI0FyMDA2MDE=&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom 

Homegrown terror ...... major concern before India

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Defence, nuclear units were on Karnataka terror radar

Vishwa Mohan |TNN | Sep 1, 2012, 12.56AM IST 

Families of suspects addressing the media at press club in Bangalore on August 31, 2012.

NEW DELHI: Vital Army, Navy and nuclear installations in south India were on the terror radar of the suspects arrested in Bangalore and Hubli for allegedly plotting to target MPs, MLAs and journalists in Karnataka. During interrogation, they apparently said Saudi Arabia-based handlers of these terrorists are Pakistanis and Indians.

"Most politicians who were in the hit list of these suspected terrorists belong to BJP, one of them a party Rajya Sabha MP," said an official.

Karnataka Police recovered photographs and sketches of South Indian defence installations from the suspects. DRDO claimed "no sensitive or classified information was compromised" after the busted terror plot revealed involvement of one of its scientists Aijaz Ahmed Mirza.

Police suspect there must be some connection between these recovered photographs and sketches and Mirza, who might have been in touch with others in defence establishments over the months.

Though the police did not find any details relating to nuclear establishments during the raids in Bangalore and Hubli, three of the 11 terrorists - linked to Pakistan-based outfits Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Harkat-ul-Jihad-Al-Islami (HuJI) - admitted during interrogation that they were also asked to do surveillance of these installations by their handlers in Saudi Arabia. Central agency sources said two of the arrested suspects had also visited Tehran before going to Pakistan.

It is learnt that the inputs about these two modules, operating out of Hubli and Bangalore, had come from Andhra Pradesh during technical surveillance on some of the 'remnant' groups of the slain HuJI terrorist Shahid Bilal.

Although Bilal, who had set up network in Hyderabad and other cities in Andhra Pradesh before fleeing to Pakistan, was reportedly shot dead in Karachi, some people belong to the modules created by him are active in many southern states. "Arrest of some more persons of these modules cannot be ruled out at this juncture", said the official.

These details emerged even as DRDO on Friday said that Mirza had been placed as Junior Research Fellow (JRF) for the past few months at the Centre for Air Borne Systems (CABS), a DRDO laboratory, after a thorough background check. "Verification of his antecedents including by police was conducted in the process of Mirza's placement on the temporary position of JRF," the DRDO said in a statement.

West Bengal and Bihar show the way ..... security measures should be backed by better politics

http://t.co/hm2LKMkd

Vishwa Mohan |TNN

NEW DELHI: Even as Red menace continues to be a major internal security challenge affecting almost one-third of total districts in the country, West Bengal — parts of which was once a hotbed of Maoist activities — has shown a remarkable improvement with none of its naxal-affected district reporting any casualty in the first seven months this year.

Bihar comes next, reporting significant improvement in terms of reduced incidents and casualties in the past one year. Both these states have moved closer to what Andhra Pradesh had achieved by reporting zero casualty consistently in past so many years.

Home ministry's latest figures, comprising details of Maoist incidents and casualties, show that 203 districts in the country are under naxals' influence in varying degree.

While 84 of them are categorized as "violence-affected districts", 119 others, including seven districts of the national Capital, have some kind of left wing extremists' (LWE) influence due to "over-ground activity of front organizations" of the CPI (Maoist) and other similar groups.

These 119 districts have, however, not reported any kind of violence. Even the 84 violence-hit districts have a different degree of LWE activities. Around 50 of them are moderately to highly affected, while the rest (34) are partially affected.

Figures of Bengal show that none of three highly Maoist-affected districts - West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura — had reported any killing in the past eight months. The period, which incidentally coincides with CM Mamata Banerjee's rule in the state, had also seen elimination of senior naxal leaders including top CPI(Maoist) politburo member Kishenji and arrest of many others during joint operations of state police and central paramilitary forces.

West Midnapore, which witnessed as many as 360 deaths of civilians and security personnel during 2009-11, has reported zero casualty this year. Purulia, Bankura, Birbhum, Murshidabad and Malda have also not reported any casualty.

Officials in the home ministry feel that human intelligence-based specific operations as well Banerjee's approach to reach out to people directly in the Maoist-affected districts had played an important role in improving the situation in Bengal.

"Mamata Bannerjee is the only chief minister who holds regular meetings and rallies right in the naxals' dominated districts. This political move to fill the vacuum created by the retreating Maoists proves to be a boon for West Bengal", said a senior home ministry official.

Bihar, too, has reported minimum deaths in the Maoist-hit districts in the state this year. West Champaran, Lakhisarai, Banka, Jehanabad, Arwal, Kaimur, Vaishali and West Champaran are among the naxal-affected districts which that reported zero death this year.

In the national Capital, the districts which have come under the influence of LWE due to presence of overground front organizations of the Maoists are: Central Delhi, New Delhi, South Delhi, North West Delhi, South West Delhi, North and North East Delhi.

The ministry data show that significant spatial reduction in Maoist violence has also been noticed in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh since 2009.

Hate web pages: Are Indians vulnerable to the extent of killing their fellow countrymen over the incidents elsewhere?

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Shinde: India to confront Pak on hate pages

Vishwa Mohan |TNN | Aug 30, 2012, 02.46AM IST 

"We will definitely share evidence with Pakistan," Indian home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may have decided not to raise with Pakistani President Asif Zardari the contentious issue of morphed images and inflammatory videos, which were purportedly uploaded in Pakistan and were among the triggers for the exodus of northeasterners, but his government is sticking to its plan to confront Islamabad with the evidence of uploading of hate web pages in that country.

"We will definitely share evidence with Pakistan," Indian home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said on Wednesday even as Union home secretary R K Singh asserted that the majority of the doctored videos and morphed images were indeed uploaded in Pakistan.

The comment came a day after the country's foreign policy establishment said that the PM would not take up with Zardari the issue of Pakistan-based groups or individuals, who circulated fake content on the web to fan hatred against people from the northeast, leading to their exodus from different parts of the country.

Sources in the foreign ministry have expressed discomfort with Singh's plainspeak with some even suggesting that he may have "spoken out of turn".

In contrast, Shinde stood by the home secretary, stressing that he had raised the issue of doctored videos being uploaded in Pakistan with Pakistani internal security advisor Rahman Malik. "I have also asked him to take action against those Pakistani elements who were involved in it," Shinde added.

The suggestion that the home secretary spoke out of turn has baffled the home ministry, with sources maintaining that Singh had kept the foreign policy establishment in the loop.

Although Singh himself refused to comment on Wednesday on the criticism that he fluffed his lines, he emphasized that New Delhi wanted Islamabad to take action against those who were responsible for uploading doctored videos that incited communal tension.

The home secretary did, however, clarify that he never blamed Pakistan for the SMSes which were circulated calling for retaliation against alleged atrocities on Muslims. "I have never said SMSes originated in Pakistan. But yes, majority of doctored videos and morphed pictures on the web uploaded from Pakistan."

He also said India never claimed that Pakistani government or its intelligence agency ISI was responsible for the inflammatory pictures but that it was the handiwork of some individuals in that country. He, however, declined to indicate any timeframe when India would share the details with Pakistan.

The MEA-MHA divergence on Pakistan is not new. Foreign ministry mandarins had also looked askance at the statements of Singh's predecessor G K Pillai. Known for his straight talks, Pillai would not mince his words when speaking about Pakistan's use of terrorism as a weapon against India, often discomfiting the foreign ministry officials, who revel in a nuanced approach to their formulations.

Government has already blocked over 300 web pages where these contents were uploaded. The host sites whose servers are located in USA have, meanwhile, been contacted to share details with India.

"It will take some time to get all those details. Once we get it, we will share it not only with Pakistan but also with other countries," said an official.

Officials in the ministry said that there were also evidence that some of the hate videos were uploaded in countries like Egypt, the US and UAE.

Thousands of people from the northeast living in cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai and Pune left their workplaces last fortnight following rumours of reprisal attacks after the ethnic violence in lower Assam.

The rumours spread after morphed images and inflammatory videos were uploaded in several hundred websites, falsely suggesting that atrocities were committed on minorities living in Assam during clashes between Bodos and Muslims.

Assam: Politics of violence ...... inaction is another crime

http://t.co/aOw4oyZA

Tarun Gogoi govt asked to act tough against mischief makers
Vishwa Mohan |TNN | Aug 29, 2012, 02.45AM IST

NEW DELHI: As Assam continues to be rocked by sporadic incidents of violence, the Centre on Tuesday asked the state to act tough and explore the option of taking into preventive custody all those who indulge in making provocative statements.

Amid growing feeling that CM Tarun Gogoi is not taking enough measures to handle the situation, Union home secretary R K Singh spoke to Assam chief secretary N K Das and director general of police J N Chaudhury asking them to take strict action against anti-social elements.

Singh is learnt to have told them that any possibility of social unrest must be nipped in the bud by taking all preventive measures including custody of ring leaders.

Sources said that the matter would shortly be taken up by home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde with Gogoi.

Though the state police have so far registered 1,442 cases and arrested 170 people - including an MLA Pradeep Brahma — for their alleged involvement in violent clashes, none of the ringleader had been taken into preventive custody despite apprehensions of disturbances during the bandhs.

"Had it been peaceful bandh, no one would have bothered much. But, the leaders of all the groups indulged in making provocative statements that led to inflaming passions in the violence-hit districts," said an official.

While the Bajrang Dal had observed a bandh on Monday, the All Assam Minority Students' Union (AAMSU) had a similar lockdown on Tuesday. Leaders of both these groups were allowed to roam free and make speeches during the bandh period.

Officials here fear that if the flare-up is not contained immediately, the situation may further worsen. An official said, "Instead of merely urging political parties and outfits to refrain from making provocative statements, the state police should have taken the leaders of different groups into preventive custody".

Violence spread to new areas other than the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) when local leaders tried to impose bandh in Tezpur, Barpeta Road, Nagaon, Morigaon and Sibsagar in the past two days. One person was reportedly killed at Barpeta Road in an attack when he refused to shut down his shop on Tuesday.

Assam : Politics of violence ...... just hope that the probe should not be guided by politics

http://t.co/KNo4gFxy

CBI preliminary probe shows bigger conspiracy behind Assam violence

Vishwa Mohan |TNN | Aug 28, 2012, 02.53AM IST 

NEW DELHI: The CBI's preliminary investigation into the lower Assam violence has pointed to a bigger conspiracy behind the ethnic clashes. More arrests are expected soon as the agency is learnt to have zeroed in on certain people who might have been involved in the July 20 incident that sparked off the communal conflagration.

The agency, probing seven of the total 1,442 cases registered, has found enough evidence which shows that the first incident — that occurred on July 6 when the Kamtapuri Liberation Organization (KLO) militants killed two Muslims — had nothing to do with what happened later on July 19 onwards.

Two persons — Mahibul Haque Ratul and Mohammed Abu Siddique — were injured in an incident of indiscriminate firing by motorcycle-borne attackers in the same area in Kokrajhar on July 19. Both the incidents were more due to personal animosity and were unconnected. Details of both these incidents and statement of one arrested KLO militant were shared with local Muslim residents.

Still, four Bodo youth were attacked and killed at Jaipur under Kokrajhar Police Station by some unidentified Muslims with sharp weapons on July 20. That incident acted as a trigger that turned out to be a full-fledged communal violence, killing 88 people over the next one month.

Sources in the investigating agency said that the interrogation of all those arrested in connection with subsequent incidents showed that the killing of four Bodo youth on July 20 was a planned act. The CBI has some corroborative evidence.

"Despite being shared details of previous incidents, a group within the minority community simply chose to ignore the police\administration version. They planned to retaliate amid opposition from other Muslims from the area," said an official.

All these matters and progress of probe came up for review during a meeting, chaired by Union home secretary R K Singh, here on Monday. Assam police chief J N Chaudhary shared details of cases registered in the state. Chaudhary told Singh that total 170 people have been arrested in connection with the communal violence.

"Since conspiracy angle is being probed, more cases - including ones relating to the arrested Assam MLA Pradeep Brahma — will be handed over to the CBI soon," said an official, adding the state government would conduct a judicial inquiry into the incident.

Brahma, MLA of the Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF), which is an ally of the ruling Congress in Assam, has been named in seven cases. The BPF is the ruling party in Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District (BTAD).

Home ministry officials also reviewed the ongoing relief measures in the meeting. Assam government conveyed to the ministry that the number of relief camps has gone down from 340 to 218 and the number of people in relief camps has also reduced from over 5 lakh to 2.3 lakh as on Monday.

Later, some BTAD members met Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde. It was the first meeting of people from that area with the minister since Brahma's arrest. Shinde is learnt to have told them to cooperate in restoring normalcy in the area. It was also decided to set up a coordination committee comprising members from all communities to improve relations.