by Viswasambad Kendra Orissa
Vedanta Keshari Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati (84) is known as second incarnation
of Lord Parsuram. He took the vow to develop the downtrodden class of
the society and made his centre of activities at Chakapada in tribal dominated
Orissa's Kandhmal district. .....
by Ashok Sahu
On the 23rd August, while doing pooja on Janmasthami, the most sacred
day for Hindus, militant Christians entered into the Ashram premises at
about 8.00 p.m. and pumped bullets from an AK-47 assault rifle on the
frail body of an 84 years old Swamijee (Vedanta Keshari Swami Laxanananda
Saraswati) at Jaleshpeta Vanabashi Kalyan Ashram in Kondhmal District
of Orissa. .....
by Dr. Shreerang Godbole
The gruesome murder of 84-year old Swami Laxmanananda in Kandhamal, Orissa,
has exposed the ease with which evangelical groups can access guns, grenades,
and other murderous weapons in the pursuit of their agenda to impose their
own religion by annihilating local faiths and cultures everywhere. .....
by Rediff.com
The agitation in Jammu over revocation of the allotment of land to the
Shri Amarnath Shrine Board has taken an unprecedented turn. The only similar
mass upsurge was during the Praja Parishad movement in 1952 to end the
two dual constitutional provisions (thanks to Article 370) in Jammu and
Kashmir that allowed two flags, a separate head of the state and separate
laws. .....
by News Today
In the aftermath of the well-planned brutal murder of Swami Lakshmanananda
Saraswathi he was a constant target of Christian groups and had around
10 attempts on his life before he was killed a few Churches and Christian
prayer houses have been attacked and burnt to ashes. .....
by Onkar Singh
Ravi Shankar Prasad, spokesman of the Bharatiya Janata Party, has asked
the Kashmiris demanding Azadi to find out how their counterparts and particularly
those living in Gilgit and Baltistan are treated by Pakistan and how the
people from the Northwest Frontier are being brought and settled to alter
the demography in so-called Azad Kashmir. .....
by SupportAmarnath.org
Nilamata Purana: Ka means "water" and Shimir means "to
desiccate". Hence, Kashmir stands for "a land desiccated from
water". .....
by Navhind Times
Was there an economic blockade of' Kashmir valley as some of its leaders
are alleging? There are conflicting, stands on economic blockade of the
valley, with Jammu's traders terming it a "blatant lie" bandied
by separatists to whip up passions while the authorities, in the valley
admit there were "some disruptions" in supplies. .....
by The Pioneer
Wednesday's horror story which unfolded in a middleclass house in Jammu
has once again highlighted the threat posed by cross-border terrorism
aided and abeted by Pakistan. This is not the first time that terrorists
have take hostages or used innocent civilians as a human shield. .....
by The Hindu
Mystery behind the gruesome murder of VHP leader Swami Lakshmanananda
Saraswati and his four associates has deepened. The Bajrang Dal and VHP
activists as well sections of the media have received a suspected Maoists'
letter where they claim that their central committee had no role in the
murder. .....
by M.V.Kamath
If the Hindus of Jammu have erupted in volcanic fury, it has nothing to
do with politics; but it has everything to do with the anger of a people
who have for years been feeling betrayed and hurt by an effete and spineless
government in Delhi run by a foreign-born Congress president and a smug
bureaucrat, both of whom seem indifferent to Islamic brutality. .....
by Ravik Bhattacharya
While violence rages across Kandhamal district, in the ashram, where its
spark was lit when Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati and four others were
killed on August 24, the adults are angry, the children traumatised. .....
by NDTV.com
BJP on Tuesday cautioned "eminent journalists and writers" against
speaking in favour of "separatist forces", suggesting that the
freedom of writing and speech cannot be at the cost of the country's sovereignty.
.....
by Rajib Chakraborty
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and the West Bengal Police
have been accused of shielding two policemen ~ Mr Arabinda Kusari and
Mr Biman Chatterjee, who are the prime accused in the kidnapping of Mr
Partha Majumdar, a resident of Belghoria and the younger son of late freedom
fighter Dwijendranath Majumdar. .....
by Sandhya Jain
In a virtual replay of the post-Godhra riots of 2002, the secular and
foreign media has worked overtime to delink the ugly, provocative murder
of 80-year-old Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and four disciples on Krishna
Janmastami day with the violence that subsequently rocked some districts
in Orissa. This is simply not on. .....
by Kwang-Tae Kim
Tens of thousands of South Korean Buddhists took to the streets of Seoul
on Wednesday to protest what they say is pro-Christian bias in the administration
of President Lee Myung-bak. .....
by Krishnakumar P
Even the top brass of the state police say it is improbable that Maoists
were responsible for the murder of the Swami and four others at his remote
ashram in Orissa's Kandhamal district on Saturday night. A senior state
police officer said the modus operandi of the murders do not provide substantial
evidence that the Maoists may be involved. .....
by Sankarshan Thakur
They live eight, often ten or twelve, to a room. To call them rooms is
a stretch; hovels is more appropriate - barely six by eight, the asbestos
ceilings knocked low over them, a vast and suffocating narrow-laned warren.
They do with temporary power pulled on illicit lines, they have little
access to water, they share unsanitary community bathrooms. .....
by S Ahmed Ali
Dawood aide Karimullah Habib Khan is singing. A day after being arrested
from Nalasopara, where he had assumed a new name and a new vocation, the
man who shepherded the RDX consignment to their deadly end in March 1993
has spilled details of his boss' lifestyle in Pakistan. .....
by Rediff.com
The agitation in Jammu over revocation of the allotment of land to the
Shri Amarnath Shrine Board has taken an unprecedented turn. The only similar
mass upsurge was during the Praja Parishad movement in 1952 to end the
two dual constitutional provisions (thanks to Article 370) in Jammu and
Kashmir that allowed two flags, a separate head of the state and separate
laws. .....
by M.V.Kamath
If the Hindus of Jammu have erupted in volcanic fury, it has nothing to
do with politics; but it has everything to do with the anger of a people
who have for years been feeling betrayed and hurt by an effete and spineless
government in Delhi run by a foreign-born Congress president and a smug
bureaucrat, both of whom seem indifferent to Islamic brutality. .....
by Praveen Swami
Investigators believe a top Students Islamic Movement of India operative
arrested in Lucknow on Monday was the author of a series of e-mail manifestos
issued by the terror cell responsible for a series of attacks across northern
and western India. .....
by Uday Mahurkar with Subhash Mishra
As India celebrated her 61st Independence Day, police officials of the
Ahmedabad crime branch were busy in their office in Gaekwad Haveli. .....
by Aijaz Hussain
In the beginning, Omar Abdullah was widely seen as a victim of PDP's "foul"
politics of twisting most of its rhetoric into anti-Abdullah diatribe.
.....
by Aijaz Hussain
It was the most blatant volte face in recent history. The May 26 order
that okayed the transfer of land for use of the Sri Amarnath Shrine Board
was approved by the then forest minister Qazi Mohammad Afzal, a PDP leader.
.....
by Prabhu Chawla
Let there be no dispute over this simple fact: India is being banished
from the Valley of Kashmir. Separatism is the mildest of words one can
use to describe the soaring hate, which continues to be further accentuated
by the flags of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan fluttering over erupting
streets. .....
by Shankkar Aiyar
The stench of rotten politics is wafting down the Kashmir Valley but the
nausea has gripped the whole nation. Defiance without logic is the reigning
dialect and stridency bordering on lunacy the calling card. .....
by Rohit Parihar
The grasslands had long since ceased to exist. As the black bucks remaining
in the Tal Chapar sanctuary in Churu district of Rajasthan-around 1,800-struggled
for fodder on this barren land, they were also endangered as they ran
the risk of being run over by passing vehicles or being attacked by stray
dogs. .....
by KA Shaji
She fails to suppress her emotions while recalling that horrific night.
She wept like a child when her husband spoke of the way she and three
other women were abducted and brutally raped inside the godown of a plantation
company they had agitated against. .....
by Tehelka
Samajwadi Party rebel Ateeq Ahmed, in jail for the murder of BSP MLA Raju
Pal, tells NEHA DIXIT through his lawyer why he wants to join the BSP
.....
by Pranab Dhal Samanta
The Centre is deeply worried about the security of the Hindu community
in the Valley after intelligence reports of militant outfits planning
to target them to create communal unrest. .....
by Muzamil Jaleel
Searching for top separatist leaders, the J&K Police late last evening
raided the Srinagar homes of National Conference's Kashmir chief Mehboob
Beig, People's Democratic Party leader and Mehbooba Mufti's political
secretary Mansoor Ahmad, Kashmiri IAS officer Azad Lone and Shujaat Bukhari,
correspondent of The Hindu newspaper. .....
by Claude Arpi
In the past fortnight, several senior commentators have decided it is
time to accept the separatists' demand for self-determination in the Kashmir
Valley. One commentator has written, "As a liberal, I dislike ruling
people against their will... Let Kashmiris decide the outcome, not the
politicians and Armies of India and Pakistan... The parallels between
British rule in India and Indian rule in Kashmir have become too close
for my comfort." .....
by News Today
Almost every media house has reported the alleged burning of a 'Christian
nun' in a 'orphanage' in Bargah district of Orissa, by VHP cadres, in
its front page and prime time. .....
by The Pioneer
The revelation by the Crime Branch of the Gujarat Police on Saturday that
banned Islamist outfit SIMI had held a full-fledged training camp at the
jungles near Vagamon in the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border in Idukki district
has put the Kerala Police in a spot though Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan
tried to put up a brave face by saying the police had been in the know
of this. .....
by P.V. Ramana
Naxalites of the Communist Party of India Maoist (CPI-Maoist) have condemned
the extension of the proscription on the Students Islamic Movement of
India (SIMI), which has been involved in a series of bomb blasts in India.
According to media reports, Azad, spokesperson of the Central Committee
of the CPI-Maoist, said "it was a reiteration of the (government's)
policy to continue its brutal war on Muslims". .....
by The Times of India
No one knows the exact number of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in
India but the number of Bangladeshi nationals who disappeared after entering
India on valid travel documents is pegged at 12 lakh. .....
by The Statesman
The Sarvabharatiya Prachyavidya Academy will hold a nine day extensive
Durga Puja training camp for priests. The training will begin from tomorrow
and continue till 3 September. .....
by The Time of India
A prominent ashram of Haridwar has received a letter purportedly written
by the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) threatening to blow up
places in Haridwar, Rishikesh and other religious spots in Uttarakhand.
.....
by Tara TV
Rubinisa had a dream of becoming an engineer. But instead of helping her
make it a reality, her father turned her dream into a nightmare. .....
by The Pioneer
Political parties may appear to be a long way off from corporate excellence.
But BJP's attempt to marry the two seems to have paid off as its IT wing
has won the CIO 100 enterprise excellence award for this year. .....
by B.R.Haran
PDP president Mehabooba Mufti refusing to accept the suggestion of giving
the 100 acres of land to the SASB even for three months has said, 'This
solution has already been rejected by the Kashmiris. The only solution
is to either dissolve the Shrine Board or curtail its powers to the minimum
and let the Jammu and Kashmir government conduct the Yatra. .....
by Arun Joshi
The People's Democratic Party (PDP) has decided to expel its founder and
former deputy chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Muzaffar Hussain Baig
from the party, PDP sources said on Saturday. .....
by Kajari Bhattacharya
In a crucial break for anti-terror agencies in the country, Shahbaz Husain,
the said "successor" to Students' Islamic Movement of India
(Simi) chief, Safdor Nagori, was arrested in Mouliviganj of Lucknow's
Aminabad area around 3.05 p.m. today. Hussain was arrested in connection
with the Jaipur serial bomb blasts carried out on 13 May. .....
by Lily K. Kaul
"J&K on the edge". "Jammu on the boil". "
Paradise is burning". "Who can stop this mayhem ?". "Separatists
on the rise in the valley". "Situation back to 1989"….
. These are some of the responses of the visual media that tried to analyze
the reasons that led to the agitation in Jammu and Kashmir region of the
J&K state. .....
by Swapan Dasgupta
The past few weeks have seen the most vile assaults on Indian nationhood.
In the Kashmir Valley, emboldened separatists have desecrated the Indian
tricolour with glee. The hitherto ambivalent slogan of azadi has become
a defiant, full-throated acceptance of Pakistan. .....
by Kumar Uttam
Her husband - Kuldeep Verma - consumed poison at Jammu's Parade Ground
after National Conference leader Omar Abdullah's "spirited"
speech in Parliament on July 22. He had vowed to oppose the revocation
of land transfer to the Amarnath shrine board. Shilpi now wants the Government
to restore the land to the board, if not for anything else at least to
honour the 'martyrdom' of her husband. .....
by Free Press Journal
The continuing unrest in the Kashmir valley has made a number of editorialists
so desperate that they seem to have lost faith in the innate ability of
the Indian State to offer a viable solution. Not unlike the surgical chopping
off a human limb wasted by gangrene, these worthies have suggested that
India should let go of Kashmir. .....
by B Raman
Sixteen border police guards of China's Ministry of Public Security were
killed and 16 others injured when two unidentified terrorists, who came
in a truck, jumped out of it outside their barracks compound near Kashgar
(Chinese name Kashi) in the Xinjiang province at 8 am on Monday, and hurled
grenades at police guards doing their morning physical exercise. .....
by Barry Rubin
A nineteen-year-old man is to be beheaded for a bad joke interpreted as
blasphemy. A father is accused of killing his son because he converted
to another religion. They are not Muslims but Christians; the place is
France in the mid-1700s. .....
by Sandhya Jain
Jammu continues to burn as Hindu nationalists struggle alone but undaunted
against sabre-toothed partisans of Allah who seek to efface all vestiges
of civilisational heritage from the land of Rishi Kashyap. .....
by Tathagata Roy
A long time ago, I saw the rather controversial film 'Zabriskie Point,'
directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. It tried to relate to the 'counterculture'
movement of the 1960s and 70s, mainly opposing America's role in the Cold
War and the Vietnam War. The dialogue was largely trite and incomprehensible,
and possibly for that and other reasons it bombed at the box office. .....
by Ravindra Saini
Around 150 families from several villages, who had reportedly converted
to Christianity a few years ago, were welcomed home in a ceremony recently
at a village, 15-km from Roorkee under Haridwar district. Dharma Jagran
Samanvaya Vibhag of RSS led by Shri Shiv Prakash, Prant Pracharak of Uttarakhand,
organised a purification camp at Sadhauli village for these. .....
by Aziz Haniffa
There is deep concern among leading South Asia watchers in Washington
over the volatile situation in Kashmir and the renewed cry for independence
by the separatists which they fear could revert to the Intifada-like agitation
of the 1990s. .....
by The Indian Express
Criticising Congress, BSP and SP for their "minority appeasement
policies", the BJP on Friday said visit of MPs of these three parties
to the house of Abu Bashir, the SIMI activist allegedly arrested for Ahmedabad
serial blasts, showed they were "cheerleaders of terrorism".
.....
by Mick Hume
Have you heard about the first novel by a young American woman that has
become the "new Satanic Verses", sparking terrorist attacks
on the publishers and riots by Islamic militants that make the protests
against Salman Rushdie's book look like an English tea party? .....
by Ranjit Roy
Hindus in West Bengal are now under attack from Muslim fundamentalists,
who are mostly Bangladeshi infiltrators, with an active support from the
ruling CPM. The communists in the state are desperate to woo Muslims after
their humiliating defeat in the recent Panchayat and civic body elections.
.....
by Vishwa Mohan
Fugitive Mumbai mafiosi Dawood Ibrahim has been identified as one of those
funding banned jihadi outfit SIMI's terror campaign against India, in
what is seen as disturbing disclosure of the jihadi-underworld nexus.
.....
by The Telegraph
Christians in the state have demanded that the state government sponsor
their pilgrimage to Jerusalem on Good Friday and Easter. .....
by Josy Joseph
Was Kenneth Haywood, whose cover was blown by an extremely savvy terrorist
group that hacked into his internet connection, an undercover operative?
Was his intention in India just to evangelise people on behalf of his
radical church group, or was he up to something more sinister? And who
helped him flee the country despite a lookout notice?Were there higher-ups
in the Indian establishment facilitating his exit? .....
by Dhananjay Mahapatra
Its ministers Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan and their fresh ally, Mulayam
Singh Yadav, may consider SIMI to be innocent, but the UPA government
at the Centre holds the fundamentalist outfit to be a threat to "peace,
integrity and secular fabric of India". .....
by Vicky Nanjappa
When Students Islamic Movement of India chief Safdar Nagori and his ten
key associates were arrested in Indore in March, security agencies claimed
that terror operations in the country would come to a grinding halt as
the masterminds were now behind bars. .....
by The Times of India
VHP leader Pravin Togadia along with Delhi BJP MLAs and hundreds of Sangh
Parivar activists on Thursday courted arrest in New Delhi as part of the
'Jail Bharo' agitation demanding transfer of land to the Amarnath shrine.
.....
by Sharat Pradhan
Prominent Islamic clerics led by the Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid,
Maulana Ahmed Bukhari on Sunday came out in a big way to the defence of
the recently arrested madrasa teacher Mufti Abu Bashar, in connection
with last month's serial blasts in Ahmedabad. .....
by The Indian Express
Militant groups that were banned during the tenure of former President
Pervez Musharraf, have again become active and reopened their offices
in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi. .....
by Nancy Kaul
The People's Democratic Party started a shrill cacophony against the Shri
Amarnathji Shrine Board and the land transfer for making arrangements
for pilgrims for the duration of the yatra, and finally withdrew from
the Government on the same pretext. The then Chief Minister, Mr. Ghulam
Nabi Azad, on 25 June 2005 addressed a Press conference in Srinagar to
clarify issues pertaining to the controversy over the land transfer. .....
by S Gurumurthy
A few publicly known facts expose the state of the Indian debate on- Islamist
terror. The Ahmedabad serial blasts of July 26 killed over 50 people and
injured over 200. The serial blasts in Bangalore, a day before, did not
yield the same rich harvest of blood. After the blasts, day after day,
the Gujarat police kept uncovering and defusing dozens of live bombs in
Surat that fortunately did not explode. .....
by Shravan Krushna Chaturthi
Muslim leaders from Kashmir are now making false propagation that agitation
started by Hindus has created financial barrier for them. Even then, the
agitation will continue. About a lakh of Hindus got themselves arrested
as a part of the agitation. .....
by Shravan Krushna Chaturthi
Support Amarnath Campaign calls worldwide Hindus to a day of prayer on
Sunday, August 24 2008 for the victims of Amarnath struggle. Janmashtami,
the birthday of Lord Krishna, which falls on the eight day of Shravan,
has been chosen for the purpose. Some may also wish to fast. .....
by Srdja Trifkovic
Parties comprising Pakistan's ruling coalition continue to be deeply divided
in the aftermath of former president Pervez Musharraf's sudden resignation
last Monday. The late Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and
ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), which
lead the coalition, were able to agree on impeachment charges that forced
Musharraf out of office. .....
by Brahma Chellaney
Those who egged on the prime minister to take the nuclear deal to the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board even if it meant breaking
the governing alliance didn't have much to do: Manmohan Singh himself
led the charge. .....
by Kumar Uttam
The sun is about to set on the city and the roundabout is deserted. A
youth suddenly emerges from one of the bylanes, carrying a National Flag
in his hand and shouting slogans of "Bharat Mata Ki Jai". Soon,
the solitary protest at Kacchi Chhawani Chowk in 'paralaysed' Jammu turns
into a mass frenzy as hundreds join him to express solidarity for a cause
that has gone far beyond the Amarnath land row. .....
by The Pioneer
Claiming that officials from Jammu were facing intimidation in Kashmir,
the BJP on Wednesday demanded that they be temporarily withdrawn from
the valley in the wake of the agitation over Amarnath land issue. .....
by NDTV.com
Unruly mobs set on fire the vehicle of Pradesh BJP General Secretary Ajay
Jamwal on Wednesday and tried to torch his official residence in Gandhi
Nagar area, eyewitnesses said. .....
by Suchandana Gupta
By all reckoning, that Madhya Pradesh has been linked to the Ahmedabad
shouldn't come as a surprise to cops who've tracked SIMI terror on Indian
soil. Five batches of SIMI radicals received combat physical training
in MP in 2006-07, the police say. .....
by Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui
On the evening of August 14, when a middle-aged man knocked at the door
of a dilapidated house in Sarai Meer police circle of Azamgarh district
in UP, the house owner, Abu Bakar, was a bit surprised. Introducing himself
as Qudus Alvi of Jalaun, the stranger expressed his desire to meet Abdul
Bashar, the eldest son of Abu Bakar, for a marriage proposal. .....
by Pradeep Thakur & Vishwa Mohan
With the Ahmedabad blasts case, sleuths have also successfully cracked
the IM code. Indian Mujahideen (IM) is the hardline faction of Students
Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) that broke away in 2005 to protest against
the moderate faction's diffidence about declaring a full-scale war on
India. .....
by Vishwa Mohan & Pradeep Thakur
Had it not been for 'human intelligence' (the most basic aspect of intelligence
gathering mechanism) at work, the Ahmedabad-Surat terror cases would not
have been solved. It was through this painstaking method of keeping an
eye on unusual details-unlike technical intelligence using interception-that
the police managed to track down the mastermind and his entire group by
tracing their mobile phones. .....
by J N Raina
There is no end to the scourge of terrorism, being perpetrated from across
the border. Now 'jihad' has been indianised. India is being systematically
targeted by hitherto unknown terrorist organization, styling itself as
the "Indian Mujahideen". .....
by Spoonfeedin.blogspot.com
Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Monday demanded the
merger of Jammu and Kashmir with Pakistan, as leaders of the moderate
Hurriyat faction spoke about independence and a dialogue over the state.
.....
by The Pioneer
Mufti Abu Bashir, the alleged mastermind of the serial blasts here, has
admitted that he was involved in the July 26 bombings that left 55 people
dead, Crime Branch sources said on Tuesday. .....
by King C Bharati
The controversy regarding the construction of concrete structures at Baltal
by Shri Amarnath Shrine Board is all set to deepen further with the revelations
that Muslim community of the area is constructing a huge Jamia Masjid
exactly inside the camp site at Baltal prompting Hindus to ask whether
only Hindu structures were a threat to ecology. .....
by Ruth Dudley Edwards
Railing against Israel and blaming the West for Muslim alienation, liberal
opinion-formers are refusing to face the truth that western civilisation
is not just under threat, but will not survive unless it wises and toughens
up. .....
by Suchandana Gupta
By all reckoning, that Madhya Pradesh has been linked to the Ahmedabad
shouldn't come as a surprise to cops who've tracked SIMI terror on Indian
soil. Five batches of SIMI radicals received combat physical training
in MP in 2006-07, the police say. .....
by The Times of India
The name is Mufti Abdul Bashar Kasmi. He's also known as Abdus Suban and
Shaukeer and is being called the man behind the wave of terror strikes
across India. Though not much was known about the man before his arrest
on Saturday, the SIMI activist had appeared on the police radar in Karnataka
and Andhra Pradesh a few times. .....
by The Times of India
The 10 arrests in the Ahmedabad terror strike case on Saturday could help
crack four other blast cases where similar modus operandi was used to
set off bombs in public places to create maximum impact. .....
by Parth Shastri
The Khumtir dargah, sometimes pronounced Khuntmir by locals, was where
SIMI activists set up a terror training camp in January 2008 to plan the
bomb attacks on Ahmedabad and Surat. The shrine was attacked and partly
damaged during the Gujarat riots of 2002. .....
by The Pioneer
Intensifying their struggle for restoration of nearly 100 acres of land
to Amarnath shrine board, thousands of protestors on Monday courted arrest
after holding demonstrations in front of police stations in the Jammu
region. .....
by Ashok Chowgule
A Hindu finds it very uncomfortable to talk bad about others. And this
characteristic is often treated as a sign of weakness by his opponents,
and serious attempts are made to bully him into submission. A Hindu tolerates
it all -- but only up to a certain point. When he reacts, he reacts ferociously.
.....
by Bharti Jain
The kerala link to the Ahmedabad blasts confirms that Gujarat has only
paid for the failure, or worse, reluctance of the LDF government to act
against fundamentalist elements thriving in the state. .....
by Free Press Journal
The All India Minority Front on Friday said it had evidence that the outlawed
Students Islamic of Movement of India had links with terror outfits in
Pakistan. .....
by Gautam Mukherjee
India is its own worst enemy because it artificially denies the sentiments
and inclinations, if not the rights, of the majority of the people in
the name of a bizarre and unsustainable 'secularism'. This has been so
from the birth of this nation, 62 years ago, grown out of a desire to
differentiate ourselves from Islamic Pakistan, even though we often disguise
this arrogant perversity as robust democratic discourse. .....
by Radha Rajan
In a move strikingly reminiscent of Gandhi in riot-torn Bengal in 1946-47,
which he visited a full three months after Direct Action Day, by which
time jihad had burnt itself out, to realize a peculiar and unrealistic
Hindu-Muslim unity, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar announced his intention to travel
to riot-torn Jammu & Kashmir to "bring back peace by mediating
between communities." .....
by Rahul Karmakar & Sobhapati
Samom
TH Brajabhushan Singh thought his teenaged son was old enough to go to
school on his own. But a growing list of unescorted children vanishing
from his native town in Manipur made him change his mind. .....
by Shreerang Godbole
Another Independence Day, a seasonal outpouring of patriotism. The Prime
Minister will deliver a lacklustre speech from the ramparts of Red Fort;
loudspeakers will blare out patriotic Bollywood numbers; the Father of
the Nation and the First Dynasty will be invoked. We shall be told that
the mighty British Empire was brought to its knees by a frail saint from
Sabarmati without shedding a drop of blood, a feat unparalleled anywhere
in the world. .....
by The Times of India
Dozens of New Yorkers converged from all directions to lift a 5-tonne
bus off the body of a pregnant woman pinned underneath-a superhuman effort
that managed to save the life of her child but was too late for her. .....
by Tavleen Singh
As always I woke early on Independence Day to hear the Prime Minister
speak. I listened carefully as he reiterated that the priorities of his
government in the past four years, its 'seven sutras', had been agriculture,
water, education, healthcare, employment, urban renewal and infrastructure.
I wondered if he noticed that this could be a list of his biggest failures.
.....
by The Indian Express
The plan for the serial blasts in Ahmedabad and the proposed one in Surat
was hatched in Vadodara, said the Commissioner of Police Rakesh Ashtana
on Saturday. While the explosives were procured from Madhya Pradesh and
Ahmedabad, the meetings took place in Vadodara and were attended by Safdar
Nagori, the mastermind of the blast amongst other SIMI activists. .....
by Muzamil Jaleel
All roads in Kashmir on Saturday led to Pampore - a small saffron town
and home to slain Hurriyat leader Sheikh Abdul Aziz. And when thousands
marched towards Sheikh's home to pay homage, the colour of this mammoth
rally was green, its content separatist. The Hurriyat said "we are
not enemies of Jammu and want no division of the state", but warned
the mainstream Kashmiri politicians to resign or face social boycott.
.....
by The Indian Express
Seeking to put an end to rumours doing the rounds in the Kashmir valley,
the Centre on Saturday made it clear once again there was no 'economic
blockade' of Kashmir and reiterated it was Pakistan, and not New Delhi,
which was preventing the opening of trade links between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad.
.....
by Syed Khalique Ahmed
Four of the ten alleged SIMI activists arrested in connection with the
July 26 Ahmedabad serial blasts - all were remanded to police custody
for 14 days by an Ahmedabad metropolitan court today (nine were produced
in court while Mufti Abu Bashir, the alleged mastermind who was brought
from UP to Ahmedabad late Saturday night, was taken to the magistrate's
residence late in the evening and the remand obtained) - also figured
in a case registered against SIMI activists in Surat in 2001. .....
by Balbir K. Punj
The contrast between the agitators in Jammu, holding the Tricolour and
shouting "Bharat Mata ki jai," and the separatists in Kashmir
Valley, marching across the LoC to Pakistan, with the Pakistani flag,
sums up the crisis in a way which will remain in the nation's consciousness
for years to come. The clash is not between two regions, but two value
systems. .....
by NDTV.com
A man committed suicide over the Amarnath land controversy. A 70-year-old
doctor reportedly poisoned himself in front of several members of the
Amarnath Sangarsh Samiti. .....
by Sandhya Jain
It must be poetic history that the fight to give the Hindu community voice
and weightage in the state of Jammu & Kashmir should begin from Jammu
, from where a valiant Dogra once pushed the boundaries of India into
Tibet and Xinjiang, and brought her close to Central Asia and Afghanistan.
.....
by The Pioneer
Security forces are on the look-out for over one lakh Bangladeshis who
had entered the country legally and have gone missing, a senior police
officer has said. .....
by CNN News
In a single, tragic day, Chandrasekhar Sankurathri lost everything he
loved. "Nobody should go through what I've been through in my life,"
he says. .....
by The Telegraph
The All Assam Students' Union (AASU) today announced that it was gearing
for another Assam Agitation to take the "oust-Bangladeshi mission"
it had started in the eighties to its logical conclusion. .....
by N.V. Subramanian
About eight-thirty last evening, the army took over some tall buildings
in Connaught Place as part of Independence Day security measures. The
sight was not reassuring, although the contrary is suggested when soldiers
take position. .....
by Vicky Nanjappa
Sheikh Nayeem, one of the men assigned the role of transporting men into
India from across the border, was picked up by the West Bengal police
four months prior to the Mecca Masjid blasts. .....
by Daniel Pipes
Aafia Siddiqui, 36, is a Pakistani mother of three, an alumna of MIT,
and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Brandeis University. She is also accused
of working for Al-Qaeda and was charged last week in New York City with
attempting to kill American soldiers. .....
by Claude Arpi
August 15 is a special day for me. It is not only the day that India became
independent some sixty one years ago, but it is also the birthday of the
person I consider the greatest Indian of modern India: Sri Aurobindo.
.....
by Shobhita Naithani
Q.: What do you mean when you say you have "documentary proof"
against Amar Singh in the cash for vote scam?
A.: This crime of bribery comprised three stages. The first was the offer
to MPs, the second was their meeting with Amar Singh, and the third is
the actual payment of money through his assistant Sanjeev Saxena. All
three stages are on the videocassette. Additionally, the cameraman and
reporter of the channel that recorded it are corroborative witnesses.
.....
by The Times of India
Sajid Mansuri, an important SIMI leader being hunted since 2001, has finally
landed in the Gujarat police net, raising hopes of some breakthrough in
probes into Ahmedabad and Jaipur blasts. .....
by The Indian Express
The leader of China's restive far-western region of Xinjiang has warned
of a "life and death struggle" against terrorism, following
a series of attacks that raised fears of threats to the Olympic Games.
.....
by Praful Goradia
The Manmohan Singh Government has been candidly pro-Muslim from the day
it was formed in 2004. Soon it appointed four committees for minorities,
the leading one headed by Justice RS Sachar.By 2007, 'Muslims first' became
a slogan often voiced by the Prime Minister. This year the UPA Government
has turned from being pro-Muslim to Anti-Hindu. .....
by François Gautier
Instead of calling an all-party meet to resolve the Jammu and Kashmir
row, the government would do well to try to understand the fury of Hindus
and not limit the scope of the introspection to the Amarnath issue. Are
Hindus angry only with the hypocrisy of the government on the land issue?
Are there no other topics that make them furious? .....
by Yahoo News
Yoga guru Ram Dev on Thursday jumped into the thick of a raging shrine
row in Jammu and Kashmir, by demanding that forest land taken away from
the Amarnath Shrine Board be restored to it. .....
by News Today
Addressing the nation on the occasion of the 61st Independence Day Parade
from the ramparts of the Red Fort, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said
that divisive politics would lead the country nowhere and appealed to
the political parties to keep the long-term interests of Jammu and Kashmir
in view. .....
by The Hindu
Communist Party of India (Marxist) district secretary P. Sasi has accused
the National Development Front (NDF) of attempting to use mosques for
keeping weapons. .....
by Rediff.com
As Jammu and Kashmir continued to be on the boil, senior Bharatiya Janata
Party leader L K Advani alleged on Thursday that the United Progressive
Alliance government was lacking seriousness to resolve the problem and
accused it of 'discriminating' against Jammu and 'alienating the nationalist
opinion.' .....
by Mohammed Siddique
When Andhra Pradesh goes to poll some time early next year, its electoral
map would have completely changed by the process of delimitation of the
Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies. Along with this, its demographic
map would have also undergone a major change giving a clear edge to the
weaker sections and minorities in a much larger number of assembly and
Parliamentary constituencies. .....
by Vishwa Mohan
As the agitation in the Kashmir valley against a "non-existent"
economic blockade continues, Pakistan's intelligence agency, ISI, may
be hoping to get through what it has failed to achieve all these years
- project its loyalists in the Hurriyat Conference as the real representatives
of the popular sentiments in the Valley. .....
by The Indian Express
Even as the Amarnath issue shows no signs of abating, the BJP demanded
that delimitation of constituencies should be conducted in Jammu and Kashmir
as done in the rest of the country. "We demand that the delimitation
process should be started at the earliest in Jammu and Kashmir. It has
been due for a long time," BJP senior leader Venkaiah Naidu said.
.....
by The Statesman
Sixty-year-old Md Ismail and his family members have threatened to fast
unto death in front of the Writers' Buildings in protest against alleged
police inaction. Ismail's family said that they were driven away from
their house by a promoter and his musclemen three years ago when he protested
against an illegal construction in the locality. .....
by Brahma Chellaney
Vision, consistency and tenacity are critical to good diplomacy. Pragmatic
foreign policy, as legendary French diplomat Talleyrand said, has to shut
out personal whims and fancies as well as too much zeal. In that light,
Sonia Gandhi's sudden decision to go to the Beijing Olympics runs counter
to the central precepts of sound diplomacy. .....
by Pervaiz Sultan
The BJP, on Saturday, reiterated that there was no question of agreeing
to anything less than reallocation of land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board
(SASB). .....
by Dr. Richard L. Benkin
Bikash Halder has been traversing West Bengal for months looking for help
in protecting the more than 15 million Bangladeshi Hindus from Islamist
radicals. His concern at the moment is the fate of those refugees now
living in camps that dot the Indian border areas with Bangladesh, and
who remain stateless as a result of decisions in New Delhi and Kolkata.
.....
by Assam Tribune
Twenty-two students' and youth organisations today joined hands in Tinsukia
to demand immediate detection and deportation of illegal Bangladeshis
in the district, and served a 72-hour deadline to the illegal immigrants
to leave the district voluntarily or face dire consequences. .....
by The New Indian Express
Pakistan's ISI is setting up a TV channel in Bangladesh as a part of its
war over airwaves in the region, says the US based Global Geopolitics
Network. .....
by Joginder Singh
Terrorists have struck again -- this time in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, and
Surat -- sending a reminder that they can strike at will at any place
at any time. They have used integrated circuits, timers and chips for
the first time in their attacks, revealing that those behind the mayhem
are highly educated and technology-savvy. .....
by Amarnath Tewary
A day after Janata Dal(U) Bihar president Rajiv Ranjan Singh exposed how
Railways Minister Lalu Prasad has become a landlord worth Rs 100 crore
in just four years by giving away jobs in lieu of land and property, the
RJD leaders on Wednesday jumped into the ring to save their master the
ignominy. .....
by The Pioneer
The Congress has defended RJD chief Lalu Prasad in the land-for-job scam,
saying there cannot be any comparison between the Railway Minister and
BSP chief Mayawati as far as receiving gifts is concerned. .....
by Piali Banerjee
Prof K Ramasubramanian of IIT-Bombay has news for us that we'd all love
to hear. His recently released two-volume translation of the Ganita-Yukti-Bhasa
by Jyesthdeva points to the fact that some subsets of calculus existed
in Indian manuscripts almost two centuries before Isaac Newton published
his work. .....
by protectreligions.org
Hindu Human Rights groups such as Protect Religions Organization, Save
Temples Organization and advocacy groups such as Indo-American Kashmir
Forum, participated in New Jersey India Day parade highlighting the human
rights violations of Hindus in India after 60 years of independence. .....
by The Hindu
The Army has claimed that it was ensuring the movement of vehicles on
the Srinagar-Jammu highway for over a week. Ever since troops were deployed
on the only direct surface link with the Kashmir Valley on August 4, there
had been "smooth movement" of petrol tankers and trucks carrying
fruits and essential commodities, it said. .....
by Pramod Kumar
"Lord Ram belongs to not any one community, but to the whole Bharat.
Whenever there is an attempt to vilify the characters of Ram and Sita,
I am as hurt as everyone else. Those who are distorting the history and
insulting the faith of the nation cannot be pardoned," said former
Deputy Chairperson of Rajya Sabha Dr Najma Heptullah. .....
by bjp.org
We have put up with this for 60 long years all in the name of national
unity. Those who have blackmailed the nation with threats of separation
have been pampered and those who are loyal have been ignored. This is
the reaction of people of Jammu region. .....
by Syed Shahnawaz Hussain
Through this Dharna, BJP Minority Morcha expresses its protest against
the cancellation of allotment of land to Amarnath Shrine Board by the
State Govt. of Jammu & Kashmir. .....
by NS Rajaram
In response to the requests by the Governments of Rajasthan and Gujarat
to approve special laws for dealing with terrorism, the Union Home Minister
Shivaraj Patil retorted that existing laws would suffice. This highlights
a profound misconception about jihadi terrorism prevailing in the Government
and the intelligentsia -- that terrorists are lawbreakers who can be dealt
with by law enforcement authorities. .....
by NDTV.com
Rail and road traffic across the country was badly hit on Wednesday as
activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) blocked roads and railway
tracks to protest the cancellation of land transfer to the Shri Amarnath
Shrine Board (SASB). .....
by T.S. Subramanian
It took the Bangalore and Ahmedabad bomb blasts to jolt the police in
Tamil Nadu into action. They unravelled a conspiracy by Islamist militants
to set off a series of explosions in different parts of the State on August
15. .....
by S Gurumurthy
The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, must have witnessed with his family
the grand opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics on the TV screen in
his Race Course Road residence in Delhi, like all ordinary Indians did.
.....
by The Pioneer
The 300-km long national highway linking Jammu with Srinagar and the lifeline
for people living in the Kashmir Valley has been cleared of all disruptions
by the Army from August 4 onwards to help movement of goods to and fro
from the Valley in the backdrop of the ongoing Amarnath shrine land agitation.
.....
by Nava Thakuria
The influx from Bangladesh to Assam (India) remained a major issue of
concern for the Assamese civil societies and advocacy groups since early
Seventies. The All Assam Students Union (AASU) led historic Assam Agitation
to the outcome of the prolonged anxiety of the indigenous people of the
State against the illegal Bangladeshis living in Assam. .....
by Assam Tribune
Observing that influx of illegal migrants from other countries poses a
"threat to the integrity and security of India", the Delhi High
Court today allowed the Foreigners Regional Registration Officer (FRRO)
to deport five members of a family to Bangladesh, reports PTI. .....
by Jamie Glazov
Frontpage Interview's guest today is Moorthy Muthuswamy, an expert on
terrorism in India. He grew up in India, where he had firsthand experience
with political Islam and jihad. He moved to America in 1984 to pursue
graduate studies. In 1992, he received a doctorate in nuclear physics
from Stony Brook University, New York. .....
by The India Express
Indian intelligence agencies have uncovered at least 800 terrorist cells
in the country operating with "external support," and are now
looking for the brains behind them within India, National Security adviser
M K Narayanan has said. .....
by Swapan Dasgupta
A fortnight ago, the very personable Omar Abdullah was being feted in
the drawing rooms of metropolitan India for his brief but passionate speech
on the Trust vote in the Lok Sabha debate. .....
by Ramesh Naidoo
The unfortunate events in Jammu & Kashmir regarding the transfer of
land by the government to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board call for each one's
urgent attention and involvement. .....
by The Pioneer
The CNN-IBN on Monday telecast the much-awaited tapes of the 'cash-for-vote'
scandal. The tapes were telecast more than 20 days after the channel carried
out a sting operation to expose the alleged horse-trading that took place
before the July 22 trust vote in Parliament. .....
by M.J. Akbar
Identity wars are raging both on and just below the surface of India.
A few acres of land for pilgrims to Amarnath is not the real issue. The
hyperventilation of Kashmir Valley's politicians is even less so. These
politicians, whose concern for Jammu is, to put it politely, less than
emotional, are merely seeking to fertilize the shrunk seeds of a now arid
insurrection. .....
by TwoCircles.net
While Muslim organizations have opposed the comeback of controversial
writer Taslima Nasreen to India, the Central government has allowed her
in reminding her that guests should not create problems for host. .....
by Sandeep Unnithan and Uday Mahurkar
When Safdar Nagori was a 15-year-old teenager studying at the Ujjain Polytechnic,
he came in contact with Hafiz Nehmatullah Nadvi, the imam of Ujjain's
Fateh Masjid and a known leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH). .....
by Scribd.com
The christian church of India is seen stooping so low in morality that
they are willing to claim rape of the christian nuns to defame the Hindus
of India. These dastardly criminals are a threat to India and show their
true Syrian nature of treachery and deceit. .....
by K.P.S. Gill
The objective appears to be to gradually transform the predominantly terrorist
movement into a more wide-based movement of political extremism, backed
by calibrated terrorist operations, to secure a stronger position at the
negotiating table and achieve what has not been possible on the ground
through terrorism alone. .....
by Rhys Blakely
Separatist factions in Indian-controlled Kashmir will today embark on
an unprecedented test of the volatile border that splits the disputed
region between India and Pakistan. .....
by Priyanka Dube
Lalu Prasad Yadav is a man many laud for Indian Railways' massive turnaround,
but a year-long IBN7 investigation has revealed that he misused his position
as the Union Railway Minister to help his relatives acquire land. .....
by KolkataMusing.com
Sometime back a co-passenger in the Metro coming from Hyderabad was narrating
his surprise when he found there were no 3-wheeler autos at the filling
stations. .....
by TrikutaSamwad.blogspot.com
When the Anti-Indians (the Kashmiris) campaign for Pakistan in their slogans,
our Tiranga is burnt in Lal Chowk (a famous chowk in Srinagar), Pakistani
flags are raised in Lal Chowk, instead of putting them behind bars or
throwing them out of our revered Bharat, our Government has always patted
them for one reason or the other; Why? .....
by Mitu Singh
The turmoil in Jammu has not been pacified yet. Widespread protests, police
and army action have worsened life. Beyond the contentious Amarnath land
row, ideological mutations among people of J&K are equally responsible
for the entire fuss. .....
by Sanjeev Pargal
A 40 member delegation of Rashtravadi Muslim Munch (RMM) comprising 16
women, which was on way from New Delhi to Jammu and Srinagar to tell the
Muslims to restore 800 kanals land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB),
was detained and sent back by police from Ravi bridge at Lakhanpur .....
by Daily Excelsior
Former J&K Governor Lt Gen (Retd) S K Sinha today took on the PDP
for its so-called anti-national role while blaming the media for "misleading
and misinforming" the public on the sensitive Amarnath land row.
.....
by Sankarshan Thakur
This might sound like an exaggeration, but that's perhaps because you've
been tuned too finely to pervasive political correctness. The trouble
in Jammu isn't merely over 80-odd acres of land around a faraway mountain
shrine, it is over reordering the entire political landscape of a state
that doesn't care being polite about its bitter and visceral faultlines
any more - Valley versus the rest, Kashmir versus Jammu, Hindu versus
Muslim, if it comes down to that. .....
by Kanchan Gupta
For the past five weeks Jammu has been witnessing a veritable uprising
against the pro-Muslim, anti-Hindu politics and policies of the establishment
in Srinagar and the Government in New Delhi. At the heart of the dispute
is the contrived controversy over the allotment of 97 acres of land to
Sri Amarnath Shrine Board for creating temporary facilities for Hindu
pilgrims who trek to the hill cave shrine every summer. .....
by The Indian Express
An Islamic group that has threatened to attack the Summer Games released
a new video claiming the communist regime's alleged mistreatment of Muslims
justifies holy war, a US group that monitors militant communications has
said. .....
by D K Singh
While the Congress has sought to blame the Sangh Parivar and the BJP for
the Amarnath agitation, a delegation of party leaders from Jammu led by
Udhampur MP Choudhury Lal Singh, who met AICC general secretary in charge
of the state Prithviraj Chavan on Friday, stated that they believed it
to be a people's movement. .....
by Suman K Jha
The Shri Amarnath Sangarsh Samiti (SASS), the umbrella group leading the
protests in Jammu against the decision to revoke the order transferring
land to the Amarnath Shrine Board, has decided to boycott the 18-member
all-party delegation, headed by Home Minister Shivraj Patil, visiting
Jammu tomorrow. .....
by The Times of India
Turning the heat on the Manmohan Singh government over its "slack"
approach to internal security, the BJP on Wednesday said a "nationalist"
backlash was building up against the UPA for its poor handling of issues
like the Amarnath land transfer case and the ban on SIMI. .....
by The Times of India
The government on Wednesday managed a frail consensus on an all-party
delegation visiting the troubletorn J&K but could not mask sharp differences
over the Amarnath land-for-pilgrims issue with the PDP and the National
Conference opposing the BJP's demand for restoration of the land and recall
of governor N N Vohra. .....
by The Indian Express
Terming the controversy over the revocation of land transfer order to
the Sri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) as a national tragedy, former Jammu
and Kashmir governor Lt General S K Sinha (retd) has said the transfer
of land was not an unusual decision as huge tracts of forest land have
been transferred for various purposes, including starting hydel project,
setting up communication towers and starting educational institutes. .....
by Swapan Dasgupta
There is a facet of the turmoil in Jammu and Kashmir that is both puzzling
and revealing: why did it take the government so long to begin talking
to the protestors in Jammu? .....
by Andrew Jacobs
Li Tianchao is an itinerant worker who has spent his adult life toiling
long hours, living in bleak worksite dormitories and chasing the next
construction job from boomtown to boomtown. A no-nonsense, weatherworn
man, he is not quick to grouse. .....
by The Pioneer
BJP leader LK Advani on Tuesday demanded convening of the monsoon session
of Parliament "at the earliest" to discuss pressing issues like
rising terrorism, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and spiralling prices.
.....
by Kumar Uttam
The cash-for-vote controversy continues to create ripples in the political
circles with a new UPA CD alleging that the BJP was behind the bribing
of MPs and the main Opposition party releasing fresh evidence against
Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh. .....
by Maddss123.sulekha.com
Jammu seems to have finally woken up! all along past 60 years, ignored
and taken for granted, the people of Jammu seems to have realized the
flip side of being patriotic Indians and how secessionist & communal
forces have been dictating the agenda for the nation and J& K in particular.
At least now they have woken up! After nearly two decades of slumber!!
.....
by Ashok Malik
It is tempting to compare the Hindu protests in Jammu to the Ayodhya movement.
Certainly, anybody who saw the television images of impassioned activists
jumping into the Tawi river in an attempt to enter Jammu town, cordoned
off by the Army, would have recalled the inspirational kar seva of 1990.
.....
by Vikram Chowdhary
Despite all the politicisation of the Amarnath land row, the people of
Jammu feel this is a movement that has started from them. .....
by The Pioneer
The Sri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti, which is spearheading the ongoing protest
in Jammu, cannot be faulted for dismissing Wednesday's all-party meeting
as "meaningless". In retrospect, it would appear that the meeting,
called by the Prime Minister, was meant to provide a platform to Muslim
leaders of Kashmir Valley to criticise the protesters and reiterate their
communal views under the garb of 'secular' concern. .....
by Arun Kumar Singh
The government's recent decision to set up a panel of experts, headed
by Dr R.K. Pachauri, to look at alternate routes for the Sethusamudram
Shipping Channel Project (SSCP) is indeed welcome. Given Dr Pachauri's
experience and reputation, it can be expected that this six-member panel
will take a holistic view of the project, which includes security concerns
raised by the Director General Coast Guard recently. .....
by Swapan Dasgupta
A fortnight ago, the very personable Omar Abdullah was being fêted
in the drawing rooms of metropolitan India for his brief but passionate
speech on the trust vote in the Lok Sabha debate. .....
by Shri Amarnath Yatra Sangarsh Samiti
The all-party meeting, convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Amarnath
land transfer row and protests in Jammu, has decided to send an all party
delegation to Jammu to assess the situation and talk to Shree Amarnath
Yatra Sangarsh Samiti (SAYSS). It is welcome. SAYSS believes that solution
to any problem lies in dialogue. But the dialogue has to be in a proper
spirit and atmosphere. .....
by R Dutta Choudhury
The process of detection and deportation of foreigners from Assam has
turned into a major farce with only a small number of persons declared
as foreigners by the tribunals could be deported and with no provision
to detain the suspected foreigners, they manage to escape easily to avoid
deportation. .....
by Kanchan Gupta
Images can have a profound impact and make a lasting impression even on
the most cynical among us. They can also act as a force multiplier in
a conflict zone. Recall the photographs and television footage of teenaged
Palestinian boys in Gaza and the West Bank confronting Israeli tanks armed
with no more than shepherd's slings .....
by Charles Hutzler
Two men rammed a truck into a clutch of jogging policemen and tossed explosives,
killing 16 officers Monday, state media said, in an attack in a restive
province of western China just days before the Beijing Olympics, the state-run
Xinhua News Agency reported. .....
by Wilson John
Sleeper cells of the ISI are thriving all over India using Bangladeshi
infiltrators as local contact points. Result: The signature of HuJi on
most bomb blasts in recent times .....
by Col. (Ret'd) T.K. Tikoo
IAKF foreign correspondent and Retired Indian Army Colonel, T.K. Tikoo,
responds in detail to the outrageous claims of the separatist Kashmiri
elements regarding the recent proposed land allotment for Amarnath pilgrims.
.....
by RN Chawla
As usual the Congress led Government at the Centre has yielded to pressure
from Islamic fundamentalist forces in the Valley. After taking over his
post, the new Governor of Jammu & Kashmir, Mr NN Vohra, buckled under
pressure and cancelled the transfer of 97 acres of land to the Sri Amarnath
Shrine Board, which had been previously cleared by the State Cabinet and
his predecessor. .....
by The Pioneer
The Supreme Court has done the right thing by ruling on Wednesday that
the ban on the Students' Islamic Movement of India will continue, thus
staying Tuesday's astonishing order of a special tribunal which lifted
restrictions on this jihadi organisation's activities while rejecting
the Government's case. .....
by IBNLive.com
A dangerous crisis is brewing in Jammu and Kashmir. The Amarnath yatra
land controversy is slowly turning out to be a conflict between Hindus
and Muslims in a state supposed to be the showpiece of Indian secularism.
.....
by The Hindu
West Bengal is being increasingly used as a transit route by operatives
of militant outfits sneaking in through its borders with Bangladesh and
Nepal and heading for different parts of the country, according to Army
intelligence. .....
by Daily Excelsior
The BJP has planned a nationwide "Jail Bharo" programme from
August 11 to 13 to protest the appeasement attitude of the authorities
with their "total surrender" before separatist and fundamentalist
elements by revoking the land allocated to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board(SASB)
in the Kashmir valley. .....
by The Times of India
In the last few weeks, terrorism in Kabul has hit both Afghanistan and
India, driving it to the top of the agenda in the talks between Hamid
Karzai and Manmohan Singh here over the past few days. In an exclusive
interview with The Times of India, Karzai tells Indrani Bagchi why its
imperative for the world to weed out terrorists from Pakistan. .....
by The Pioneer
The situation in Jammu region continues to worsen with each passing day.
In the absence of any meaningful political intervention, and on account
of mounting police atrocities on protesters, the people of this region
are more determined than before to continue with their agitation against
the biased attitude of Srinagar .....
by The Pioneer
Supporting the BJP's stand on the migration of Bangladeshis to the country,
NCP General Secretary PA Sangma has accused the Congress and the Left
of appeasing the illegal migrants. .....
by Tarun Vijay
None should say Omar is not allowed in Jammu. Let him come, listen and
speak. Like any other Indian should feel free to visit Kashmir or any
other part of the nation. He is welcome to visit my home even if he denies
me a piece of land in Kashmir. .....
by Rediff.com
The Congress on Wednesday supported the demand of the Samajwadi Party
and Rashtriya Janata Dal to ban the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
.....
by EastIndiaWatch.blogspot.com
The All Assam Students Union (AASU) has raised alarm once again over the
infiltration of Jehadi elements through porous Indo-bangladesh border
and warned that the whole country has to bear the brunt of infiltration
in the form of terror strikes if it is not stopped immediately. .....
by Rediff.com
Blaming the incompetence of the Central government for the revocation
of the ban on the Students Islamic Movement of India, the Bharatiya Janata
Party on Tuesday said that it reflects the 'real face' of the United Progressive
Alliance. .....
by B.R.Haran
'What type of people are you? Are you above the law? You are not above
everything. Will you dictate this court also? The Chief Minister is not
above the law. We will issue arrest warrant against the Chief Minister
and seek his personal appearance in the court'. .....
by News Today
A special designated tribunal of the Delhi High Court, headed by Justice
Geeta Mittal has revoked the ban on SIMI, the Students Islamic Movement
of India. .....
by NewsonNortheast.blogspot.com
Issue of illegal immigration is nothing new for the Indian government.
With increase in population and lack of job opportunities, this matter
has now reached its zenith point. Besides immigration harbours causes
for more terrorist activities. .....
by B Raman
Beijing's apprehensions of terrorist strikes during the Olympic Games
appear to be coming true. Monday's slaughter of 16 Chinese border guards
by two terrorists could be a precursor to further attacks. The killers
are presumed to be Uighur Islamists .....
by The Pioneer
Echoing the voice of protesters on the streets of Jammu, veteran Congressman
and party's deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha Karan Singh has sought the
removal of Jammu and Kashmir Governor NN Vohra and reconstitution of the
Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB). .....
by KN Pandit
The relentless protest in Jammu is reminiscent of the historic Praja Parishad
agitation, the first mass movement against discrimination by rulers in
Srinagar. The protest began after the Congress-led Government in Jammu
& Kashmir succumbed to communal pressure and cancelled the allocation
of land to the Sri Amarnath Shrine Board. .....
by Charles Allen
For most Indians the word Wahhabi means Saudi Arabian fundamentalism.
When told that Wahhabism has deep roots in the Indian sub-continent, the
first response is usually denial often followed by claims that Indian
Wahhabism was a British invention. .....
by Uday Mahurkar and Sandeep Unnithan
Plausible deniability-a political doctrine that originated in the 1950s
allowed the US president to deny the covert operations and assassinations
carried out by the CIA. .....
by Mihir Srivastava
For Mohammed Afzal Guru, it's the waiting that's the hardest part. So
hard that the prime accused in the Parliament attack case hopes that L.K.
Advani becomes the next prime minister. .....
by India Today
Gujarat: The Gujarat Control of Organised Crime Bill was passed by the
State Assembly and the draft bill was approved by the Central Government
in 2003. It is pending presidential approval since June 2004 after the
current UPA Government came to power. .....
by Ambreesh Mishra
Flinging coins in rivers out of reverence is an ancient Indian practice
that most of us have indulged in. However, it is a tradition that the
Reserve Bank of India frowns upon, owing to the high cost of metal and
minting process of the coins. .....
by Indrani Bagchi
While Afghan President Hamid Karzai spent the weekend thundering away
at Pakistan and its deepening terrorist roots, India has taken a more
measured response. .....
by The Indian Express
The BJP on Sunday ratcheted up its pressure for early disclosure of details
of the cash-for-vote scam by releasing what it called irrefutable technological
evidence of SP general secretary Amar Singh's attempt to bribe its MPs,
and by declaring that it had a copy of the CD of the sting carried out
by a channel. .....
by Shekhar Gupta
For nearly five years now the world media had been celebrating India's
rise. From the state of its stock market to its demographic advantage,
from the strength and depth of its democracy to the vast reservoir of
talent that flourished in its diversity, it was as if the world could
see nothing wrong with India. There are now signs that some of that is
changing. .....
by Ananthakrishnan G
Could precious lives have been saved in Jaipur and Bangalore had the Kerala
police not "bungled'' in a case involving some senior SIMI activists
arrested by them in 2006? If the sloppy manner in which the police handled
the issue involving hardline jihadi cadres-who later went on to mastermind
the May 13 Jaipur blasts and believed to have played a major role in the
July 25 Bangalore serial explosions-is any indication, the answer is in
the affirmative. .....
by Radha Sharma
His heart-rending wail will be heard no more. Rohan Vyas (12) is dead.
The hopes of his family now hang precariously on his younger brother Yash
(9), who misses Rohan on the bed alongside him but is unaware that he
died on Thursday. .....
by Sami Abraham
US President George W Bush expressed his concern and some annoyance with
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani over the role of the ISI in
Pakistan. .....
by Samudra Gupta Kashyap
Around thirty years ago, when the All Assam Students' Union (AASU), led
by its then president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, launched an agitation demanding
detection and deportation of Bangladeshi infiltrators, the then government
as well as the people in the rest of the country thought it was a non-issue
being raised by a students' body. .....
by Pranab Dhal Samanta
As India and Afghanistan investigate the suicide bomb attack on the Indian
mission in Kabul, it's learnt that on four occasions, both sides had specific
prior information of attacks on Indian assets in Afghanistan. Of these,
one was foiled at an advanced stage in 2006 and two terrorists were also
arrested who, in their interrogation, are said to have revealed links
with Pakistan. .....
by Arun Sharma
Jammu has been burning for over a month now. As the bandh in the city
entered its ninth day on Friday, hundreds of protesters laid siege to
the airport here, leaving NC patron Farooq Abdullah and PDP chief Mehbooba
Mufti stranded. .....
by The Times of India
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was handed a "chargesheet"
by CIA chief Michael V Hayden on Pakistani intelligence agencies' links
to militant activities and was told to "rein in the ISI" during
their meeting in Washington. .....
by Mark Mazzetti & Eric Schmitt
US intelligence agencies have concluded that members of Pakistan's powerful
spy service helped plan the deadly July 7 bombing of India's embassy in
Kabul, Afghanistan, according to US government officials. .....
by Ranjan Roy
The case of Kafeel Ahmed, the man who drove a burning jeep in a bid to
crash into the main foyer of the Glasgow international airport, may not
have a direct relation with the Jaipur, Bangalore and Ahmedabad bombings.
But it points to one key departure from the way terrorism is traditionally
viewed - only through the prism of a war launched from foreign soil. .....
by Rajeev Deshpande
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai broke a brittle silence over Islamabad's
role in supporting terrorism by bluntly telling the Saarc summit here
on Saturday that institutional backing has led to terrorists striking
deeper roots in Pakistan. .....
by The Times of India
The UK faces serious security threats from British Muslim extremists returning
from Afghanistan after fighting alongside Taliban, a top British commander
has said. .....
by The Times of India
In a virtual indictment of ISI's involvement in the bombing of Indian
embassy in Kabul, the US on Sunday asked Pakistan to get its intelligence
network to work towards tackling terrorism that is affecting its neighbourhood.
.....
by The Indian Express
The Pakistan government has abruptly backtracked on a decision to place
the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency under the control
of the Interior Ministry apparently due to pressure from the army and
President Pervez Musharraf. .....
by The Telegraph
Police recovered a suspected improvised explosive device fitted with a
timer from the bank of the Ganga in Malda's Biharitola village on the
Bengal-Jharkhand border this morning. .....
by Ram Madhav
"Medvedev practises Yoga everyday", screamed Moscow Times, the
prominent English daily of Russia the day I landed in Moscow in mid-April
for meetings with various Government and non-Government agencies. Quoting
the wife of the 42-year old President-elect the paper went on to add that
over 10 per cent Russians have been attracted to yoga, meditation etc.
.....
by Mark Magnier
If there was ever a subject tailor-made for China's film industry, it
would seem to be Kung Fu Panda. The panda is a national symbol, kung fu
was developed here, China is all the rage globally and animation is a
state priority. .....
by Sudheendra Kulkarni
If there is a hung Parliament next time and a coalition government whose
survival hangs by a thread, do not be surprised if New Delhi becomes a
bigger bazaar of horses than it was when Dr Manmohan Singh won the vote
of confidence on July 22. .....
by Tavleen Singh
This is a topical column so I cannot avoid writing about terrorism in
the week after three major Indian cities were attacked by jihadi terrorists.
But, since nothing has changed since the last round of Islamist violence
the only point worth repeating is that we do not know who we are looking
for. .....
by D P Bhattacharya
Rohan is dead. So is his father Dushyant. A week after the serial blasts
that rocked the city, Geeta Vyas is struggling to cope with the deaths
of her husband and elder son. Her younger son, Yash, 8, has been shifted
to a private hospital. But back at the Civil Hospital, people are still
praying for him. .....
by Pranab Dhal Samanta
Evidence is piling up against Pakistan's ISI as the mastermind of the
attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul last month. Forensic investigations
carried out by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force have
shown that the three mines and a tank shell which were also in the car
that exploded bear markings of Pakistan Ordnance Factory, Wah. .....
by Ramaswamy R. Iyer
During the last year or so, one has been watching with growing dismay
the debate on the Sethusamudram project getting increasingly focussed
on one single aspect, namely the question of the sacredness of the site,
to the exclusion of all others. .....
by The Indian Express
The BJP upped the ante in "Cash-in-House issue" on Sunday by
releasing "new evidence" in a 17-page letter written to the
chairman of the parliamentary committee probing the "scam".
.....
by The Indian Express
With the Gauhati High Court judgment of last month rocking the state over
the dangers posed by large-scale infiltration of Bangladeshis to the state,
the Assam Government is finally set to take action. .....
by Desh Gujarat
26th of July, 2008. At 6:30 I was watching news channel on TV at my quarter.
My quarter is in Civil hospital campus at walking distance from trauma
center. In fact Trauma center can be seen from my gallery. Suddenly on
TV screen, I watched a news flash about serial bomb blasts in Ahmedabad.
.....
by The Pioneer
For more than a month, Jammu has been on the boil with violent street
protests against the decision to cancel the allocation of 97 acres of
land to the Sri Amarnath Shrine Board for setting up temporary facilities
for Hindu pilgrims. .....
by Diptosh Majumdar
In a startling revelation, CNN-IBN has in its possession, 98 letters of
historic significance that show how there was a dual power centre in the
UPA regime. .....
by P K Debnath
Bangalore or Bangaluru, the capital of the southern Indian state of Karnataka,
is a city of 6 million people. It is also the hi-tech capital of India
and is the home of software superpowers like Infosys Technologies and
Wipro. .....
by Mohit Kandhari
Angry Jammu continued to fight mother of all agitations triggered over
Amarnath land transfer without showing any signs of exhaustion. .....
by M.J. Akbar
In the general elections of 2004 the irrepressible and sometimes irresponsible
Lalu Prasad Yadav used to tow around a maulvi when in campaign mode. Nothing
particularly wrong with that. Politicians have this tendency to turn mullahs
into best friends at election time. .....
by The Pioneer
The mass movement over the Amarnath land transfer issue showed no signs
of abating when, on the 10th day of protests on Saturday, protestors defied
curfew to hold demonstrations demanding the ouster of Governor NN Vohra.
.....
by Swapan Dasgupta
In the wake of the terror strikes in Bangalore and Ahmedabad and the discovery
of some 20 bombs in Surat, the police and counter-terrorism experts are
agreed on one point: That the Indian Mujahedeen (IM) which claimed responsibility
for these, and earlier attacks in Uttar Pradesh and Jaipur, is actually
a smokescreen for ISI-sponsored groups, notably SIMI and Lashkar-e-Tayyeba.
.....
by The Pioneer
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has decided not to support the
"illegitimate" Manmohan Singh Government in carrying forward
its economic reforms agenda. .....
by Vicky Nanjappa
The Indian Mujahideen was conceived at a meeting of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba
and the Harkat-ul-Jihad-i-Islami, held in Kotli, Pakistan occupied Kashmir,
on May 3, which was attended by top leaders of the terror outfits. .....
by The Times of India
As the violence over the Amarnath land controversy rages, Jammu administration
on Sunday blacked out two local TV news channels and sealed offices of
two Hindi dailies. .....
by Satbir Singh Bedi
I remember 31st August, 1995 vividly. On that day, my father died but
I do not remember it because of that event but a much more sadder event
in the Indian history for on that day, the gutsy Chief Minister of Punjab
who rooted out terrorism from the face of Punjab, died. .....
by Vicky Nanjappa
Rasool Khan Parti, 34, and Mohammad Sufiya Ahmed Patangiya, 36, identified
as masterminds behind the Bengaluru and Ahmedabad blasts by the Intelligence
Bureau and investigating agencies, are operatives of the Bangladesh-based
Harkat-ul-Jihadi-al-Islami. .....
by Firoz Bakht Ahmed
Ahmedabad and Bangalore, like many others, are global cities and the terror
that struck these two State capitals on consecutive days too is a global
phenomenon. As a human being and an Indian Muslim, I literally wept over
the needless deaths of those who died or were maimed. .....
by Outlook
Two persons, one of them a Bangladeshi national and believed to be linked
with a Gujarat blasts suspect, were arrested today by a team of Delhi
Police in Bhaktinagar area. .....
by Sunanda K. Datta Ray
With Mr Omar Abdullah's impassioned "I am a Muslim and I am an Indian"
ringing in my ears, I am loath to write this. But I do hope the sound
of exploding and non-exploding bombs will not drown the small voice of
Gauhati High Court's Justice BK Sarma who warned last week about illegal
immigration from Bangladesh. .....
by Zahid Hussain
A newspaper editor has received death threats from militant groups for
publishing a cartoon of a radical woman Islamic leader encouraging her
pupils to wage holy war. .....
by Sumanta Ray Chaudhuri
Underground Islamic fundamentalist terrorist groups have extended their
network in several Bengal districts along Indo-Bangladesh border under
the garb of frontal welfare organisations, a Bengal police report says.
.....
by The Pioneer
Justice BK Sarma of Gauhati High Court was perhaps being cautious with
his words when he declared that "this can happen only in Assam"
after providing details of how a Pakistani national, Mohammed Kamaruddin,
had managed to contest the Assembly election of 1996, albeit unsuccessfully,
posing as an Indian citizen. .....
by Ranjan Roy
The case of Kafeel Ahmed, the man who drove a burning jeep in a bid to
crash into the main foyer of the Glasgow international airport, may not
have a direct relation with the Jaipur, Bangalore and Ahmedabad bombings.
But it points to one key departure from the way terrorism is traditionally
viewed - only through the prism of a war launched from foreign soil. .....
by The Telegraph
Lack of education and poverty sustain shalishi sabhas in the state, economists
and sociologists said in the wake of the beheading in Murshidabad. .....
by The Indian Express
Accusing the Congress of using 'money power' to win the trust vote, the
CPM said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had 'bettered the record' of his
predecessor P V Narasimha Rao for indulging in 'immoral and shady practices'
to remain in power. .....
by Mohit Kandhari
Curfew was reimposed in two districts of Jammu region on Friday as the
agitation by the Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti intensified resulting
in injuries to 35 activists of the samiti and a few policemen. .....
by The Pioneer
As an old Chinese proverb goes, "When the finger points to the moon,
the idiot points to the finger." The response of sections of the
media and the army of so-called civil society leaders to the declaration
of war by terrorists against the citizens of Surat has been reminiscent
of the old Chinese injunction. .....
by Outlook
A Hindu man who married a Muslim girl was beheaded after a kangaroo court
ordered his 'execution' at a village in Murshidabad district of West Bengal.
.....
by The Sikh Times
Former finance minister Manmohan Singh, Congress candidate for the Lok
Sabha from South Delhi, today accused the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
[R.S.S.], ideological parent of the Bharatiya Janata Party [B.J.P.], of
being involved in the 1984 anti-Sikh carnage in the capital. .....
by Saurav Basu
The UPA government smooth switch of allies from lal to dalal has been
hailed by most sections of our popular media proving how corrupting tendencies
has invaded even the fourth estate. .....
by Hindustan Times
Amnesty International Claims. There has been no progress towards fulfilling
these promises, only continued deterioration. Chinese authorities had
targetted human rights defenders, journalists and lawyers to "silence
dissent" ahead of the Games, jailing the likes of Hu Jia, Ye Guozhu
and Yang Chunlin and often intimidating their families .....
by Vikram Sood
It has been a bad and bloody month for all of us. Four Indians, including
a brigadier, a senior diplomat and two paramilitary jawans, were killed
in a suicide attack on our embassy in Kabul. Around the same time, terrorists
in Jammu & Kashmir struck against the Indian Army twice, and there
were several border violations. .....
by Premen Addy
Pakistan has been at war with India since the partition of the subcontinent
in 1947. Its raison d'etre has been the destruction of 'Hindu' India,
and the restoration of pristine Islamic power and glory. .....
by News Today
Secularism is fine as long as it remains a political philosophy, but gives
a confused picture when it includes the social order, for the society
is mostly made up of people following religious faiths. .....
by Tarun Vijay
It is not enough. The formation of R K Pachauri committee to look into
the feasibility of Setu Samudram and relocation of channel in a way that
Ram Setu can be protected looks attractively reasonable and yet shows
a skin deep respect and knowledge about Hindu beliefs. .....
by Praveen Swami
One still afternoon in March 2002, Feroze Abdul Latif Ghaswala watched
40 victims of the anti-Muslim pogrom being buried near his aunt's home
in Ahmedabad. Back home in Mumbai, the automobile mechanic saw a printout
of a Lashkar-e-Taiba pamphlet, which purported to show a riot victim begging
for his life: "Do you think he should have a gun," it asked.
.....
by The Times of India
Curfew was clamped in the winter capital of the state on Friday in view
of the high tension prevailing in the area over the Amarnath land row.
.....
by Assam Tribune
The State unit of the BJP today alleged that Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi
was involved in anti-national activities by helping foreign nationals
to obtain forged papers to stay in Assam and he should be punished for
that. .....
by Irfan Husain
Questions about identity and loyalty among the Muslims who have chosen
to live in the West have been recurring themes since 9/11. As the number
of suicide bombings and attempted attacks has mounted, so too has suspicion
about the large and growing population of immigrants from the Muslim world.
.....
by Outlook
Gujarat government and the police believe that there was substantial local
support for the blasts that took place in the city and several bombs planted
in Surat. .....
by IBNLive.com
Four days after the blasts that ripped through Ahmedabad killing 49 people
and injuring 180 others, the investigators have claimed a breakthrough
in the case. .....
by Sadanand Dhume
In recent years few countries have changed their public image as dramatically
as India. But though pictures of starving peasants and rutted roads have
given way to those of svelte supermodels and bustling call centers, in
at least one respect India remains more a basketcase than a potential
great power. .....
by Josh White
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates says that even winning the conflicts
in Iraq and Afghanistan will not end the "Long War" against
violent extremism and that the fight against al-Qaeda and other terrorists
should be the nation's top military priority over coming decades, according
to a new National Defense Strategy he approved last month. .....
by Rediff.com
The arrest of suspected Pakistani terrorist Shakil from Lucknow by the
Uttar Pradesh police a few days ago has exposed the shocking vulnerability
of the chief minister's office to which he had access for several days.
.....
by Rediff.com
The Gujarat police believe that there was substantial local support for
the blasts that took place in Ahmedabad and the planting of several bombs
in Surat. .....
by WorldNetDaily
If ignorance and poverty are responsible for the growth of extremist views
in the Islamic world, someone needs ask to Muslim students, privileged
enough and bright enough to attend some of the United Kingdom's best universities,
why one-in-three of them endorses killing in the name of Islam. .....
by The Pioneer
The serial bombings in Bangalore and Ahmedabad and the subsequent discovery
of bombs in Surat have served to highlight a fact which has been known
for long: Our counter-terrorism mechanism, including intelligence-gathering,
is in a shambles. In the recent past, this point was driven home by terrorists
who set off bombs in Jaipur. .....
by News Today
The government of India has abided by the direction of the Supreme Court
to consider an alternative alignment for the implementation of the Sethusamudram
Ship Channel Project and has constituted a six-member committee headed
by Dr R K Pachauri to study the feasibility of an 'another line'. .....
by Gladson Dungdung
Acommunity that has always been on the receiving end of dubious 'development'
efforts undertaken in their name, the Adivasis of Jharkhand can now add
the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) to the long list
of their torments. The latest victim is 34-year-old Tapas Soren of Sarwaha
village in Hazaribagh district, a small-time NREGS contractor whose death
by self-immolation was reported across the country. .....
by Teresa Rehman
Subadani, 40, a distraught mother lies in her bed, insensate. At times
she whispers plaintively "I want my son back". While conducting
a frenetic search for her youngest son, AK Ajay, missing since July 6,
she fainted and had to be hospitalised. .....
by Rahul Tripathi
SIMI activist Abdul Halim, arrested by the Ahmedabad police in connection
with the serial blasts, belongs to Pilkhuwa town near Ghaziabad. Pilkhuwa
was once the hotbed of low-intensity bombmakers, with Abdul Kareem Tunda
being the most prominent among them. .....
by Kingshuk Nag
Four days after the Ahmedabad blasts, Bangladesh is emerging as the deadly
link to the bloody affair. The connection is not only through the Harkatul-Jihad-al-Islami
(HuJI), the Bangladeshbased outfit which is believed to have masterminded
the operations in cahoots with SIMI. The link is also through the over
two million illegal Bangladeshi immigrants who have crossed over to India
in the last three decades. .....
by The Times of India
For an organization that has emerged as the cat's paw of Pakistan's efforts
to ''indigenize'' its covert operations in India, including terror strikes
against civilian targets, not much is known about Students Islamic Movement
of India's (SIMI's) networks and organizational bases. .....
by The Times of India
As the committee of the Lok Sabha on Wednesday began its investigation
into the cash-for-vote scam, its first tentative finding seemed to undercut
Congress's assertion that the entire amount allegedly offered to three
BJP MPs as advance of Rs 9 crore bribe to switch their votes had been
taken out from the State Bank of Indore's New Market, Bhopal, branch.
.....
by The Times of India
He is a slightly built man with a flowing, gray-flecked beard. He has
been a guerrilla for nearly three decades, except for a stint as a government
minister. He is an Islamic scholar, equally comfortable firing shoulder
fired Stingers and negotiating with American or Saudi paymasters. .....
by Mark Mazzetti & Eric Schmitt
On a secret trip to Pakistan this month, a senior CIA official, Stephen
R Kappes, presented new evidence of an unholy nexus between the ISI and
militants in Pakistan's tribal areas. .....
