India-Pakistan |
NIA attaches UP-based property used by Al-Qaeda member to prepare for terror attack |
2023-09-16 |
![]() ...also spelt Ansar Ghazwatul Hind, it’s Al Qaeda’s franchise in Kashmir and beyond since splitting from Hizbul Mujahedeen in 2017. They’re on their fourth emir since then, which doesn’t bode well for long term success... to make preparations for carrying out terror attacks, an official said."The accused, Minhaj Ahmed, was using the property, situated on Ring Road, Dubagga, ...an up-and-coming area of Lucknow, which is in the center of the north of India, near Nepal, while Kashmir is waaaay over to the upper left of the thing as one looks at a map (yes, of course that means west, dear Reader — I’m not a total ignoramus!), which would have been a bit of a trek while carrying live bombs and such, so it’s just as well that the NIA johnnies picked him up just now.... Uttar Pradesh, for carrying out various terror-related unlawful activities, including fabrication of IEDs and petrol bombs, to carry out terrorist attacks in the state. The property is registered in the name of Minhaj's father, Siraj Ahmad and the latter's mother and brother," the official added.The NIA has found that Minhaj had provided funds to the co-accused for the purpose of carrying out ![]() Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there.... . The accused procured certain raw materials and components to fabricate an IED in a pressure cooker, which was recovered from the property attached on Monday. ...no doubt from that old Al Qaeda Magazine article “How To Make A Pressure Cooker Bomb In The Kitchen Of Your Mom” that the Tsarnaev brothers found so useful. Minhaj had also prepared a sample IED using materials in small quantity and carried out its controlled explosion (testing) on the roof of the said house, NIA investigations have revealed.The anti-terror agency has also found that Minhaj had recorded a video of the fabrication of IED as well as its controlled explosion and sent it to Musa. He had also prepared a petrol bomb and shared a video of its fabrication with Musa. Minhaj had also procured a pistol and live ammunition, and concealed it in his room on the first floor of the said house. The case was initially registered as on July 11, 2021, by the ATS, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow. It was taken over and re-registered by NIA on July 29 the same year. The NIA has so far arrested and charge-sheeted six accused in the case. Related: Uttar Pradesh: 2023-08-19 Arrested UP Resident Operated As ISI Agent, Sent Images Of Rafale Jets To Pakistan Uttar Pradesh: 2023-07-22 NIA Arrests 19-Year-Old AMU Student For 'Link' With ISIS Uttar Pradesh: 2023-07-20 Seema Haider Once Been To Jail, Now Out On Bail: UP Cop On Pakistani Woman Related: Dubagga: 2022-11-22 Forcible conversion: 19 year old Nidhi pushed to death by Mohammad Sufiyan in UP Dubagga: 2021-07-12 UP ATS busts al-Qaida module in Lucknow, foils major attack Related: Ansar Ghazwatul Hind: 2021-07-12 UP ATS busts al-Qaida module in Lucknow, foils major attack Ansar Ghazwatul Hind: 2021-04-11 J&K: 5 terrorists gunned down, 31 toes up thus far in 2021 plus 138 tied up Ansar Ghazwatul Hind: 2021-03-23 NIA charges Hizbul’s gun-runners who were sustaining political-terrorist nexus in J&K |
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India-Pakistan |
J&K govt sacks 11 employees including Salahuddin's sons |
2021-07-11 |
[OneIndia] As many as 11 Jammu and Kashmir![]() Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there.... Out of the 11 employees, four are from Anantnag, three from Budgam and one each from Baramulla, Srinagar, Pulwama and Kupwara. Sons of most wanted terrorist and founder of the terror outfit, Hizbul Mujahideen ... Party of Holy Warriors, founded by Muhammad Ahsan Dar in September 1989. One of the Pak sock puppets waging jihad in Indian Kashmir. It was originally organized as the armed wing of Jamaat-e-Islami. In 1990, Dar declared Hizbul as the sword arm of Jamaat. Hizbul murdered many of the pro-independence intelligentsia in Kashmir. After the organization was taken over by Syed Salahuddin Dar and several other ex-Hizb leaders were assassinated between 2001 and 2003... founder Syed Salahudin among those dismissed from service by J&K govt. Sons, Syed Ahmad Shakeel and Shahid Yousuf were also involved in terror funding. Salahuddin has been designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the United States. They were involved in raising, receiving, collecting and transferring funds through Hawala (non-banking) transactions for terror activities of the banned Hizbul Mujahideen, They were dismissed designated under Article 311(2)(c) of the Constitution. The designated committee in Jammu and Kashmir in its second and fourth meeting, recommended three and eight cases, respectively, for their dismissal from government service. Of the 11 employees dismissed, four were working in the education department, two in the Jammu Kashmir Police and one each in the agriculture, skill development, power and health departments, and SKIMS, the officials said. Earlier seven employees, including Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Davinder Singh and an assistant professor, were dismissed by the Union Territory's administration. |
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India-Pakistan |
'Pakistan Still Supports Militant Groups' |
2011-07-05 |
[Tolo News] The Pak military still support and train Islamic exemplar groups to use them as proxies against its neighbours and US troops in Afghanistan, The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reports. A prominent former Islamic exemplar commander has told The New York Times on condition of anonymity that he was supported by the Pak military for 15 years as a fighter and trainer of forces of Evil until he quit a few years ago. The former commander told the Times that bad boy groups, including Lashkar-e-Tayeba, Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen and Hizbul Mujahedeen are run by religious leaders with Pak military providing training, protection and planning. He said that system is still the same. Still Pakistain's military and intelligence establishment has not abandoned its policy of supporting the Islamic exemplar groups as tools in Pakistain's dispute with India and in Afghanistan to drive out American and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... forces, he has said. "There are two bodies running these affairs: mullahs and retired generals," he said. "These people have a very big role still." After the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001 there were about 60 people at the Taliban meeting, including Pak Islamic exemplar leaders, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistain, Abdul Salam Zaeef, and Muhammad Haqqani, a member of the Haqqani bad boy network. At the meeting the Islamic exemplar groups divided Afghanistan into separate areas of operations and discussed how to "trip up America," he said. The Pak military still supports the Afghan Taliban in their fight to force out American and NATO forces from Afghanistan, he said. "The (Pak) government is not interested in eliminating them permanently," he said. "The Pak military establishment has become habituated to using proxies." Referring to former al-Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden ... who was potted in Pakistain... he said: "The Taliban lost a whole government for one person." The commander called on the US that only a true projection of Islam would stop them, otherwise, the Pak military will keep using them against its neighbours, especially US troops in Afghanistan. "Pakistain, and especially America, needs to understand the true spirit of Islam, and they need to project the true spirit of Islam," he said. "That would be a good strategy to stop them." |
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India-Pakistan |
Kashmiri aimed for Indo-Pak war |
2011-06-09 |
[Bangla Daily Star] The Pakistani and the US authorities are reluctantly claiming the death of militant leader Ilyas Kashmiri for the third time in the last three years, but they still lack the knowledge about his network, aims and the capability of his 313 brigade despite the fact that Kashmiri was actually a genie created by the Pakistani establishment. He served the interest of the US in the 80s and of Pakistan's in the 90s, but today both American and Pakistani security establishments want to celebrate Kashmiri's death based on some confirmation. Pakistani security agencies have arrested a number of people, who were once close to Kashmiri, from different areas but the agencies are not ready to admit that the violation of the article 256 of the constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan by the Pakistani state actually made many people admire Ilyas Kashmiri. The Pakistani establishment mishandled Ilyas Kashmiri after the 9/11 and this turned him into one of the most dangerous threats for the security of not only Pakistan but the whole South Asia. He trained hundreds of young boys in the last few years in an aim to break out a war between India and Pakistan. He was leading the most lethal militant network with the support of many low-level retired army officers. Kashmiri was not the product of religious schools. He was a man who believed in modern education and used modern war strategies. I met Kashmiri first in mid-90s when he escaped from an Indian jail and came back to Pakistan. He was very popular in the Kashmiri militant circles and military circles. He became a darling to the military leadership when he attacked an Indian check post in LoC in Naushehra sector on February 27, 2000 and killed seven Indian soldiers. This operation was organised as a response to the Indian Army raid on a village in Nakial area of Pakistani Kashmir. Many civilians were killed in the raid. Kashmiri killed some senior Indian army officers in Tanda area of Jammu sector in 2003 but within a few months he was arrested by the Pakistani Army in connection with an assassination attempt on General Parvez Musharraf. He was declared innocent during the investigations and was released in February 2004. He was again arrested in 2005 but was released again on the pressure from Kashmiri militant outfits. Torture and humiliation in a Pakistani jail made him say to a senior leader of Hizbul Mujahedeen, "There is no difference between Pakistani and Indian jails; they don't trust us because we are people of Kashmir." He moved to North Waziristan after the Lal Masjid operation in Islamabad in 2007 but interestingly some militant groups always suspected him behind the operation because of his past connection with Pakistan Army. He was trusted more by the Punjabi Taliban rather than the Pashtuns but with the passage of time he developed good relations with Hakeemullah Mehsud group. On the other hand, he never had good relations with the militant groups which had an unannounced peace accords with Pakistani authorities in tribal areas and were fighting only against US troops in Afghanistan. It was reported last Friday that Ilyas Kashmiri was killed in a US drone attack at an apple orchard close to Wana area of South Waziristan. This area is under the control of Maulvi Nazir, who is considered a "Pakistan-friendly good Talib". It is not yet clear why Kashmiri decided to visit an area where another Taliban leader Hakeemullah Mehsud does not feel safe and where Hakeemullah's fighters were attacked by Maulvi Nazir group sometime back. Hakeemullah is now hiding somewhere in North Waziristan. Some sources claimed that perhaps the Pakistani authorities helped the US to track down Kashmiri, but his being in a non-friendly area is still a mystery. Kashmiri was very careful about his relations with those who have direct or indirect contacts with Pakistani establishment. He focused more on recruiting boys from English medium schools in the last four years. He planned to break out a war between India and Pakistan by organising attacks in big cities like Delhi and Mumbai and was more interested in the independence of Kashmir and wanted to take some advantages out of India-Pakistan war. He discussed his plan with some militant groups associated with Taliban but achieved no consensus because the other groups were keener to fight against the Pakistani state. According to some reports, Kashmiri managed to infiltrate dozens of his fighters into India in the last few years. Some of them came from India's Gujarat via Dubai or directly from Delhi. These boys came to Afghanistan undercover, as labourers and technicians, but slipped to eastern Afghanistan and entered North Waziristan to be trained with the 313 brigade. Kashmiri recruited a big number of boys not only from Rawalpindi and Islamabad but also from Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Most of them had no previous records of militancy. He abandoned the "seniors", who were having good relations with the Pakistani state. His mixture of young and fresh Pakistani boys with angry Muslim boys from India made him the biggest threat for peace in South Asia. Once I interviewed him in his big training camp near the mountains of Kotli where he showed me anti-aircraft artillery. I asked him about the need of heavy weaponry in guerrilla warfare. He said may be one day he would be attacked by the Indian Air Force and need to retaliate with anti-aircraft artillery. On another occasion, I asked for his opinion on formation of a private army which is a violation of article 256 of Pakistani constitution that says "no private organisation capable of functioning as a military organisation shall be formed and any such organization will be illegal". Kashmiri replied, "I am fighting for the liberation of Kashmir sitting in Kashmir. It's not Pakistan; it's Kotli." Kashmiri developed distance with Pakistani establishment when he was asked to join Jaish-e-Muhammad of Maulana Masood Azhar. I met with Kashmiri in Islamabad many times after he grew differences with Pakistani establishment. He had more than two offices in Islamabad and his frequent visitors were many known religious clerics of the capital. But he disappeared one day. He decided to take revenge for Pakistan but today the Pakistani establishment is trying to arrest all those who were close to him. The fate of Ilyas Kashmiri is a lesson for many "good Taliban" as well as the Pakistani establishment. The first lesson is, Pakistani establishment used thousands of youngsters in the name of Jihad and liberation of Kashmir but it can change its policy anytime under foreign pressure. They are not reliable. Secondly, Pakistani establishment must realise that creating private armies is a violation of the constitution. They must not create private armies and even if they had, they shouldn't mishandle them. They can become genies like Ilyas Kashmir. |
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India-Pakistan |
Fierce Kashmir gunbattle leaves seven dead |
2010-05-08 |
[Dawn] A fierce gunbattle between militants and Indian security forces in Indian-administered Kashmir left five insurgents and two soldiers dead, an army spokesman said Friday. Fighting erupted Thursday night in densely forested Rafiabad -- about 50 miles north of Srinagar -- after army troops and police received information about the presence of militants in the area, Col. Vineet Sood said. Five militants and two soldiers died in the clash, and search operations were continuing. In a telephone call Friday to Current New Service, a local news agency, a man who identified himself as a spokesman for Hizbul Mujahedeen, Kashmir's biggest militant group, said four of the guerrillas killed belonged to his group. The man, who gave his name as Ahsan Ilahi, told the news agency three soldiers were also killed in the fighting. Hizbul Mujahedeen is one of a dozen militant groups fighting Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan region. On Wednesday, militants ambushed an army patrol in the restive region, killing two soldiers. Both India and Pakistan claim all of Kashmir and have fought two wars over it. The militants have fought since 1989 for the Indian-administered portion's independence or its merger with Pakistan. India accuses Pakistan of funding and training militants in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, and facilitating their entry into Indian-administered Kashmir to fight government forces. Islamabad denies the charge, saying it only gives moral and diplomatic support to the militants. More than 68,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the uprising and subsequent Indian crackdown. |
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India-Pakistan |
Top separatist killed in IHK |
2008-02-11 |
![]() Farooq Ahmed Dar, the financial chief of rebel group Hizbul Mujahedeen, was one of two men killed in the battle on Saturday in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK), said Hemant Lohia, a senior police officer. His killing is a big blow to the militants, Lohia said. Hizbul Mujahedeen, which is believed to have been tied to dozens of bombings and violent attacks in a deadly campaign against Indian rule in the region, had no immediate response to the reported death. It was not possible to contact the group for confirmation of the report. The fighting began late on Saturday after police and soldiers cordoned off Noorpora, a village about 45 kilometres south of Srinagar, Lohia said, adding that no soldiers were injured or killed in the fighting. |
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India-Pakistan |
Top Hizbul guerrilla gunned down in Indian-administered Kashmir |
2006-10-25 |
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India-Pakistan |
Top commander of Hizbul surrenders in Indian-administered Jammu, Kashmir |
2006-10-16 |
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India-Pakistan |
Militant behind Hindu massacre in Kashmir killed |
2006-09-15 |
![]() Officials described the killing as a 'major success' as the security forces had been on his trail for a long time. The gun battle was still continuing with his accomplices holed up in the house, officials said. In two major successes earlier this month, security forces had killed Billoo Gujjar, a top commander of Hizbul Mujahedeen, in the Gool area of Udhampur district as well as a top militant of the Al Badr in Rajouri district. |
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India-Pakistan |
Kashmir Korpse Kount: 14 |
2006-07-04 |
![]() Also, Indian troops identified a group of suspected militants crossing the LoC late in the Gulmarg area on Sunday. The ensuing fight left four infiltrators killed, Juneja said. Later on Monday, two suspected militants were killed in a gun battle with paramilitary soldiers in Wangund, an eastern suburb of Srinagar, said Dileep Singh, a spokesman of the Central Reserve Police Force. A soldier was injured in the brief gun battle, he said. Elsewhere, police raided a rebel hide-out in the mountainous Sharekhi district late on Sunday, killing a senior militant, identified as Tariq Usman Sheikh, the district commander of the Hizbul Mujahedeen group, said local police chief Manohar Singh. Sharekhi. In another incident, police surrounded a group of militants in the Tramda Nari area, about 190 kilometres northwest of Jammu. Two militants were killed and police continued to battle others, said area superintendent Farooq Khan. Reinforcements have been called in, he said. Two suspected militants who laid siege to a mosque in Indian held Kashmir have been killed after a nightlong firefight with Indian security forces, an official said on Monday. The rebels had fled to the mosque after soldiers raided their hideout in northern Bandipora town late on Sunday, sparking a gun battle in which a soldier was killed and two others were injured. |
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India-Pakistan |
Hizbul Mujahedeen offers ceasefire if India includes them in talks |
2006-03-31 |
![]() Salahudin - who is also the chairman of the Pakistan-based Kashmiri militant alliance, the United Jihad Council wanted talks between India, Pakistan and Kashmiris before agreeing to a ceasefire. New Delhi has met moderate Kashmiri separatist groups in the past year as part of an effort to discuss the dispute and reduce violence. At least 44,000 people have been killed since the insurgency was launched in 1989. But Salahudin said those talks have not helped. The dialogue process initiated by the moderate leadership has so far failed to produce any breakthrough in terms of Kashmir resolution, he said. Salahudin, who tops the security force list of most wanted militants, said violence would decline as the dialogue process moves forward. In Afghanistan, Vietnam and other conflict areas war and dialogue have run side by side. Armed confrontation would automatically recede as serious dialogue process moves forward, he said. However, he said groups such as his would continue to boycott elections in Indian-held Kashmir. As we dont recognise the Indian constitution, taking part in Indian-held elections is immaterial, he said. |
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India-Pakistan |
Pakistans Double Dealing |
2006-03-04 |
By Frédéric Grare President Bill Clinton once called South Asia the most dangerous place on Earth, with two nuclear-armed countries locked in a seemingly intractable battle over Kashmir. Yet, as President George W. Bush visits South Asia this week, theres little urgency on Kashmir. This general calm is understandable: Talks between India and Pakistan are ongoing, the national cricket teams compete regularly, and a bus line now connects India and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. It is a false spring. Behind the facade are the very conditions that produced the 1999 India-Pakistan war and the 2002 border crisis. Both of those confrontations arose from Islamabads dangerous belief that it could talk peace with New Delhi and at the same time fuel a guerilla war in Kashmir. When he visits with President Pervez Musharraf this week, Bush should make clear that Washington is watching closely. Theres a lot to see. Terrorist infiltrations into Kashmir from Pakistan resumed during the summer of 2005. When pressed, the Pakistani authorities argued that its best efforts could not stop entirely the flow of Islamic militants into Indian Kashmir. Indias restraint is the only thing preventing against yet another escalation of tension with unpredictable consequences. But New Delhis patience cannot be taken for granted. Bush should make clear to Musharraf that he sees the Pakistan-funded jihadis in just the same way he sees al Qaeda. In the aftermath of 9/11, Pakistan understood that terrorism had become, at least temporarily, unacceptable. It joined the war on terror and turned itself, once more, into a frontline state. In practice, however, Pakistan drew a distinction between militants active in Kashmir and international terrorists. The latter could be traded for international goodwill, but the former had to be preserved to keep leverage in Kashmir. Pakistan employed some political theater to get Washington to accept this Faustian bargain. Specifically, Musharraf had to convince the United States that Islamic militants were growling at the gate of power in Pakistan and that only strong support would save him. Pakistans October 2002 legislative elections provided the opportunity. Voting was rigged in favor of pro-government parties and the requirement that candidates have a college degree was redefined to allow madrasa (religious school) graduates to compete in elections. This allowed religious parties obtain a representation much larger than their actual electoral weight. As a result, alone or in coalitions, the MMA, a coalition of six Islamists parties, obtained majorities in the legislatures of the provinces of Baluchistan and the North West Frontier Province while garnering only 11 percent of the votes at the national level. The message to the international community was simple: Dont pressure me too much, or I may be overthrown by Islamists. It worked. The West adopted a lenient attitude on the restoration of civilian rule and accepted that Pakistan only had a limited ability to control militants in Afghanistan and Kashmir. The apparent rise of Islamists made the military regime look like a moderate stalwart against extremism. The other key component of Musharrafs strategy was to make a show of peace talks with India. Pakistan took the blame for the 1999 Kargil war and the escalation of tensions in 2002. Contrary to Islamabads traditional belief, international interest in the Kashmir issue benefited India, not Pakistan. To reverse this trend, it was necessary to bring India back to the negotiating table without giving up anything substantive. To maintain credibility, Pakistan has been forced to reduce the violence in Kashmir measurably for a period of time. Jihadi organizations used this period of forced relative inaction to indigenize themselves by recruiting young Kashmiris. In the spring and summer of 2005, violence in Kashmir resumed, initiated by supposedly new terrorist organizations such as Al-Nasreen, Al Afreen, and Al Mansoor, cover names for the more traditional and Pakistan-supported groups, Hizbul Mujahedeen, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Jamaat-ul-Mujahedeen, and Al-Umar. But the real test of Pakistans commitment to ending terrorist infiltration comes every spring and summer, as Kashmirs winter snows melt. Last year, it failed that test. The Indian Army and even sources close to the militancy indicated that infiltration and terrorism had resumed on a large scale in Kashmir. In a particularly gruesome July incident, militants stormed a village and slit the throats of five Hindu men, while car bomb blasts appeared in the Kashmir Valley for the first time during the same period. After the October earthquake in Kashmir, terrorist outfits and radical organizations participated in relief operationsand helped legitimize their presence. The supposedly banned Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Jamaat-i-Islami and the Jamaat Ulema Islami are now operating freely in Kashmir. Pakistan will not change its position on Kashmir, so the United States must change its stance on Pakistan. When asked whether a paradigm shift on Kashmir is possible, Pakistani officials privately assert that nothing more than a cold peace can be expected. Given this environment, it is essential for Bush to understand that the Pakistani army is not the best protection against Islamic extremism but, rather, one of its causes. The fear of an Islamist takeover should stop distorting the administrations dealings with Pakistan, and Bush should make clear to his host that regional terrorism is no more acceptable than the global variety. Peaceful regime change in Pakistan is the only reasonable hope for sustainable peace in South Asia. Not only should Pakistans army get out of politics, it should promote the civilian institutionssuch as courts and legislaturesthat will cement democratic practices. The benefits of Musharrafs support in the war on terrorism are being cancelled out by military rule in Pakistan. Americas long-term interest in South Asia isnt served by support for a military regime that winks at terrorists. Frédéric Grare is a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. |
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