Indian Mujahideen penetrates Chennai college

November 28, 2011

• By V.P. Raghu

In an early morning operation in a sleepy rain-hit city suburb, security agencies picked up four college students and a man from Delhi, suspected to be members of a sleeper cell of terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM), from a house at Vijayaraghavan Nagar in Selaiyur on Sunday.

At least three other students and another man, however, escaped the dragnet. “All the students are from Bihar. Based on an input from intelligence agencies, the people staying in the house were picked up early on Sunday morning. Five of them were detained for further questioning while the others, including two software professionals, were let off after initial enquiry,” official sources said here.

“Detection of suspected terror modules gains significance particularly in the background of a pipe bomb being found on BJP leader L.K. Advani’s yatra route a month ago in Madurai. The anniversary of the Babri masjid demolition is also around the corner,” a senior police official said.

Of the four students picked up, one is doing MBA while the other three are students of engineering in private colleges, two of which are attached to Anna University. The 52-year-old man from Delhi who was also detained is said to be the uncle of one of the students.

“Another elderly man had also come to visit the students. He and three other students are now missing. The missing students are studying engineering,” said a police official.

Those in Indian intelligence circles believe that IM had branched off from Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) after the government banned the latter.

Taliban, artillery, and lies in Mohmand Agency

By Matt DupeeNovember 27, 2011

Image by The U.S. Army via Flickr

According to Pakistani officials. The heated diplomatic row between Pakistan and NATO over the incident has escalated, with Pakistan ordering the US to vacate a key airbase in Baluchistan and closing NATO’s supply lines through Jamrud in Khyber and Chaman in Baluchistan.

Senior Western and Afghan officials told reporters on Sunday that a small group of US and Afghan forces on patrol in Kunar province were fired on first from positions inside Pakistani territory, prompting calls for close air support which wiped out the two Pakistani mountain posts. However, the Pakistani military remains adamant that the attack should have been avoided. Major General Athar Abbas, chief spokesman for the Pakistan military, told the Guardian that he did not believe ISAF or Afghan forces had received fire from the Pakistani side. “I cannot rule out the possibility that this was a deliberate attack by ISAF,” Abbas said. Afghan officials maintain that US and Afghan forces retaliated with airstrikes after coming under fire from the direction where the two military forts are located.

Pakistan’s unprecedented response to the attack in Mohmand is curious, especially given the countless reports over the past six months of Pakistani military forts shelling Afghan territory from positions in Mohmand, Dir, and Chitral. One such incident took place on June 18, prompting a similar US gunship raid against a Pakistani military post one mile inside Pakistani territory, also in Mohmand. The June attack came after a number of artillery shells fired from Pakistani territory struck homes in the Shunkrai area of the Sarkani (Sarkanay) district in eastern Kunar province. At the time, Kunar’s governor, Syed Fazlullah Wahidi, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the areas of Dangam, Shigal, and Sarkani were fired upon by Pakistani military positions for the better part of a week, with one strike killing four children in the Shigal district.

The Salala security posts are located in the Taliban-controlled Baizai area of Mohmand, a well-known hotbed of militant activity that has significantly impacted security on both sides of the border. Since March, numerous Taliban swarm attacks have ravaged Pakistani outposts in the region, prompting violent reactions from Pakistani forces who frequently shell suspected militant positions located in eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar and Nuristan provinces. Pakistani forces reportedly killed 65 Taliban fighters in the Baizai area in June alone. On Sept. 1, however, the Pakistani military claimed that a massive security operation had secured 80-85 percent of Mohmand and that 72 soldiers, including three officers, had been killed in the offensive against militants in the tribal agency.

Security on coastline must be tightened: Narendra Modi – India

Published: Sunday, Nov 27, 2011, 17:36 IST
By DNA Correspondent| Place: Gandhidham| Agency: DNA

Image via Wikipedia

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi emphasised on the need to evolve a strategic consensus and agreement among different nations for a common legal and judicial framework to combat the growing menace of terrorism and piracy through sea routes.

Modi was inaugurating the two-day international conference on ‘Global Maritime Security & Anti-Piracy’ at Gandhinagar.

He stressed on the need to ensure that no terrorist attack takes place along the sea coast in a country like India which has a long coastline. Gujarat has a 1600km long coastline.

Modi said that the 26/11 attack on Mumbai cannot be forgotten and to avoid such incidents, coastal security has to be increased.

Justice Dancan Gaswagha, Seychelles Supreme Court, Ambassador for Denmark in India Freddy Swane, Ambassador for Somalia Coast, Ebyan Mahamed Salah and others were also present at the conference.

Afghan Parliament Approves Central Bank Governor, Spy Chief

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Saturday, 26 November 2011 16:48 Last Updated on Saturday, 26 November 2011 18:44 Written by TOLOnews.com

Afghanistan‘s House of Representatives on Saturday approved President Hamid Karzai‘s candidates for the posts of the head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the governor of the Central Bank and a member of the High Office of Oversight.

At total of 228 MPs attended the session and each of the candidates needed 115 “yes” votes to secure his position.
The new NDS director, Rahmatullah Nabil, got 208 votes in his favour; the new head of the Central Bank, Noorullah Delawari, got 173 vote of approval; and Mohammad Munir got 155 votes endorsing his membership of the High Office of Oversight.
At the session, the three officials outlined their future plans and strategies, and responded to the questions of the representatives.
Mr Nabil has serviced as the acting director of the NDS for the past year and President Hamid Karzai put him forward to continue in the role after MPs praised the security measures put in place during the four-day Loya Jirga earlier this month.
Mr Delawari worked as head of the Central Bank from 2004 to 2007.