India a terribly soft state: US experts

India a terribly soft state: US experts
TNN 30 January 2009

NEW DELHI: India will be vulnerable to more terrorist attacks along the lines of Mumbai, terrorism analyst Brian Jenkins from RAND and Ashley Tellis  have told the US Senate’s committee on homeland security.

“India will continue to face a serious jihadi terrorist threat from Pakistan-based terrorist groups. However, India lacks military options that have strategic-level effects without a significant risk of a military response by Pakistan. Neither Indian nor US policy is likely to be able to reduce that threat significantly in the short to medium term,” they said.

Tellis said, “LeT represents a threat to regional and global security second only to al-Qaida. Although LeT is linked in popular perceptions mainly to the terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir, the operations and ideology of this group transcend the violence directed at India.” He cautioned that US should work with India to deal with terrorism from Pakistan, otherwise India would be tempted to take steps that could endanger regional security.

“To the chagrin of its citizens, India has also turned out to be a terribly soft state neither able to prevent many of the terrorist acts that have confronted it over the years nor capable of retaliating effectively against either its terrorist adversaries or their state sponsors in Pakistan,” the two experts said. Jenkins added that the poor quality of India’s response to the terror attacks, intelligence failure and inadequate counter-terrorist training and equipment added to India’s misery.

Pakistan now spreading Islamic terrorism to Himachal Pradesh, activating their spy cells around army cantonments

Pakistan trying to spread militancy to Himachal: Army

September 02, 2009

Dharamshala (HP): Pakistani intelligence agencies have activated their spy cells around army cantonments in Himachal Pradesh with an aim to spread the tentacles of militancy in the state, a top army official on Wednesday said.

“Pakistan intelligence organisations have got their agents to reconnoitre our cantonments for gathering vital military intelligence. In this direction, we have arrested two Pak intelligence spies here”, General officer Commanding (GOC), 9 Corps, Lt Gen G M Nair told reporters here.

“They are trying to spread the militancy from J-K to Himachal Pradesh but our troops are keeping a check and intense patrolling is going on,” he said.

The terrorists and their sympathisers have taken up temporary residence in the vicinity of cantonments, he said adding Pakistan is encouraging its agencies to subvert some of our unsuspecting people.

Police have arrested a former armyman Charanjeet Singh here for spying who revealed whereabouts of a Pakistani national living here and posing as a Hindu, Nair said.

These arrests were made in last two months, he said.

“They were involved in mapping of cantonments, stations and formations besides other vital areas and passing the information to Pakistan”, the GoC said.

The investigation is on to expose these sleeper cells in HP and around the cantonments, he said adding “we have initiated a number of measures to strengthen the security of our cantonments which include construction of security walls along the perimeters and enhanced security checks”.

He said the neighbouring country is also exploiting India’s telecom network to acquire sensitive military information and asked people in the area to cooperate with the army if some stringent measures are adopted.

“This will cause inconvenience to the civilian population as well as our families who are dependant upon civil infrastructure”, he said adding “we must bear the inconvenience to ensure national security and public well being”.

Nair had yesterday said that nearly 50 to 60 militants from PoK were waiting to sneak into Jammu sector prompting the army to keep a hawk-eye vigil at the borders.

Bureau Report

11,500 Pakistani terrorists had died in the jihad against India: Study

NDA govt’s hurry led to Kandahar fiasco: Former IB boss
S Balakrishnan, TNN 1 September 2009

MUMBAI: Back in December 1999, the NDA government unnecessarily asked the team negotiating with the Taliban during the Kandahar hijack to hurry up. Had it displayed some patience, the consequence could have been different.

This was stated by former director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) Ajit Doval, who was a part of the Indian negotiating team at Kandahar.

Doval told reporters at the sidelines of a seminar on terrorism organised by the SIES College and the US consulate on Monday, that the negotiating team was trying to buy time from the Taliban which had custody of a planeload of passengers. But the NDA government insisted on early resolution. He was also critical of the media for hyping up protests by the families of the kidnapped passengers in Delhi, but the NDA should not have succumbed to the pressure tactics. “If a surgery is being performed then doctors should not be influenced by the hysterics of the patients’ relatives outside the operation theatre,” he observed.

In his keynote address, Doval he has spearheaded several counter-intellience operations in J&K, Punjab and the north-east said there was lack of political will to counter terrorism. He said India had the capacity to deal with terrorists, but the political leadership did not muster up the necessary will to take on anti-national elements.

He quoted a study by Belgium-based institute which revealed that 11,500 Pakistani infiltrators had died in the “jihad” against India. Over 95,000 weapons and 7,000 quintals of RDX were seized from them. “If this not war, what is? This is Pakistan’s fourth generation war against India over the past several years,” he said, adding that unless the source of terrorism located in Pakistan was busted, the problem would remain. The ISI was not getting any recruits anymore from Kashmir, but it was getting other people to do its job.

Doval said in the past, 368 terrorist movements worldwide had failed. And 90% of these were because their leaders had been neutralised. This aspect needs to be kept in mind when we talk of dealing with terrorism in India. “If you do not surprise the terrorists, then they will surprise you,” he said.

Partition was a blessing for India

“Coming back to the idea of Partition, despite frequent lip-service to the idea of an undivided India by the Sangh Parivar and even secularists, the bitter truth is that it was the best thing to happen to us. An undivided India on Jinnah’s terms would have reduced the whole of the region to Pakistan-like chaos. We would have had not just three countries, but more than 20 of them, allowing none to survive as secular nations. By agreeing to Partition, Nehru and Patel saved the rest of the nation from the mess Jinnah created. They did the right thing.“

Partition was good

Here are the excerpts, to read the complete article go here.

Coming back to Jaswant’s book, what is truly surprising about the BJP’s response to it (and the rest of India’s, for that matter) is the assumption that Partition itself was a mistake. We are dead wrong. Partition could have been avoided only if the Muslim League and the Congress, then considered proxies for Muslim and Hindu interests, had agreed on the basic issue of secularism — where the state is driven by a constitution rather than communal vetoes. Jinnah wanted a Muslim veto everywhere and he demonstrated this in the interim government where League ministers opposed everything the Congress proposed, resulting in deadlock. Partition prevented this deadlock from becoming the future of undivided India. It allowed Pakistan to experiment with its Muslim identity and India with its Hindu-dominated, but secular, ideology. Today it is more or less clear which approach is right. It is also significant that Jinnah, who was so insistent on a Muslim veto in undivided India, did not give the same veto to minorities in Pakistan. His stand was thus totally hypocritical and self-serving.

But it is still too early to declare victory for secularism. The ideological battle will have to be fought to the bitter end, and only one can win. Jinnah’s ideological progeny in India continue to oppose secular laws in India and the army in Pakistan still believes in perpetual conflict with India. The only difference is that the ruling powers in Pakistan have shifted to indirect action — through jihadi terror in Kashmir and elsewhere — against India and secularism. That struggle is not about to end and our prime minister’s pusillanimity towards Pakistan is not going to help. Nothing emboldens Pakistan’s army and the ruling elite more than signs of indecisiveness and confusion in India.

Coming back to the idea of Partition, despite frequent lip-service to the idea of an undivided India by the Sangh Parivar and even secularists, the bitter truth is that it was the best thing to happen to us. An undivided India on Jinnah’s terms would have reduced the whole of the region to Pakistan-like chaos. We would have had not just three countries, but more than 20 of them, allowing none to survive as secular nations. By agreeing to Partition, Nehru and Patel saved the rest of the nation from the mess Jinnah created. They did the right thing.

The real tragedy is not that Indians have been unable to see Jinnah differently, as some secular historians would have us believe, but that we still hold rose-tinted notions about undivided India. It is time to abandon the idea.

Origin of fake currency in India: Islamic economic terrorism by Pakistan

It is estimated that around 1,69,000 crores of fake rupees are in circulation all over India. Both Banks and Government are in a denial mode, because probably they do not know what to do.

September 06, 2009

Fake currency and its linkage with crime
Origin of fake currency and its use
By Joginder Singh, IPS (Retd)

It is estimated that around 1,69,000 crores of fake rupees are in circulation all over India. Both Banks and Government are in a denial mode, because probably they do not know what to do.

India has become the victim of an other kind of terrorism from its neighbour, Pakistan. It is economic terrorism in printing and circulating counterfeit Indian notes. The Pakistani intelligence agency, ISI’s role in printing and circulation of fake Indian currency notes has never been a secret.

On its insistence, Pakistan Government has imported additional currency-standard printing paper from companies located in London to pursue its nefarious designs in India. Of late, Pakistan has been procuring currency-standard printing paper in huge quantities from London-based companies much higher than normal requirement of the country for printing its own currency. It is diverting it, to print fake Indian currency notes. It is believed that Pakistan Government printing press in Quetta (Baluchistan) Karachi’s security press, and two other presses in Lahore and Peshawar, are being used to print out counterfeit Indian currency.

The ISI has, been using Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to transport counterfeit currency to its conduits in Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The modus operandi of the ISI was revealed by two Nepali counterfeit currency traffickers who were arrested by Thailand police sometimes back. During interrogation, the accused disclosed that they were working for a prominent Nepali businessman. The fact that Nepali territory is being used by Pakistanis to smuggle counterfeit currency is well known. The first such expose was made when Pakistani diplomats were caught distributing fake Indian currency notes. One Naushad Alam Khan, arrested in Dhaka on April 24, 2008, with fake Indian currency notes worth Rs 50 lakh admitted his direct link with HuJI (Bangladesh) chief Mufti Abdul Hannan. It was found that both Khan and Hannan had fought for Taliban in Afghanistan.

Fake Indian currency notes racket is being carried out by using the network of underworld kingpin Dawood Ibrahim, not only in India but also in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal in close association with different terror outfits, according to one intelligence report. With Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh being active partners, with India in probing fake Indian currency notes (FICN) related cases, it is safe to assume that so far as the fake currency in India is concerned, its source is Pakistan.

Delhi police claims, to have busted a major ISI network, sometimes back, which was reportedly being used to pushing fake currency into our country. Three arrested men, by name, Nayeem, Wasim and Mohammed Muslim, have revealed that Thar Express, so called, friendship train, running between Munnabao in Pakistan and Jodhpur in Rajasthan, was being used to smuggle fake currency into India . Investigation, uncovered, that the fake currency was arranged in Dubai. Fake currency to the extent of Rs 33 lakh was seized from them. They have confirmed that the Indian currency is printed in Pakistan and illegally pushed in India through Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Thailand.

The menace of finely printed currency has achieved new heights, that quite often, the customers do get fake currencies through ATMs. The worst is that when they approach banks with the complain of receiving a fake note, bank official impound the notes. As per the law of land, the bank should lodge an FIR with police, which would investigate the source of the fake currency. Banks obviously have not been to cope with the problem.

According to one Government committee estimate, counterfeit currency amounting to Rs 169,000 crore is floating around in the Indian financial system. This has been denied by the Reserve Bank of India. From real estate transactions to ordinary grocery shopping, paying to sources and terrorist’s expenses, these bogus notes are being used. Even if this figure is taken 20 to 25 per cent, as correct, it is still a huge amount, and sufficient to damage India’s economy. “In 2008, the CBI registered 13 cases having international/ inter-State ramifications relating to the recovery/ seizure of fake Indian currency notes,”

According to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), between January and August 2008, 1,170 cases had been registered across the country in connection with fake currency. Bogus notes with a face value of Rs 3.63 crore had been seized. NCRB data shows 2,204 such cases were reported in 2007.

Investigations into the Mumbai 26/11 attacks have revealed that a large part of the money to fund the terror operation were obtained through fake currency rackets and hawala channels.

It is also believed that Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence raises Rs 1,800 crore (Rs 18 billion) annually to fund terror operations and that a major chunk of this amount comes in through fake currency rackets.

Intelligence sources believe that Rs 30 lakh of the Rs 50 lakh spent, on the attack on the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, in December 2005 was obtained through the fake currency racket. This is big menace, which should be tackled with no holds barred, even if it means walking with the devil till we have decimated this problem.

Fake currency and its linkage with crime

It is rightly said, that the poor of the world, cannot be made richer by redistribution of wealth. But, there are some, who seek a short cut, to riches through crime and use of counterfeit currency. Criminals believe, that whatever is worth doing is worth doing for the money. Nevertheless, the truth is that the wealth is the product of industry, ambition, character and untiring effort. The Special Task Force, (STF) of Uttar Pradesh, last year claimed to have busted a major international racket involved, in supply of fake currency notes.

It seized counterfeit Indian currency worth a face value of Rs 16 lakh. The gang leader, arrested in Lucknow with three of his aides, has confessed to have pumped into circulation over Rs 2 crore in counterfeit currency in India in about two months. The gang members arrested have been identified as Suhail Singh alias Ram Shanker Singh of Sikahira locality under Khodare police station of Gonda-the gang leader-along with Sharma Paswan, Vinod Kumar Misra and Sanjay Kumar Patel, all natives of Champaran in Bihar.

The gang was using a set of six women couriers from Champaran in Bihar and another set of four hailing from Nepal. The fake currency notes had a different serial number. It showed, that they had not merely been printed from a scanned image of a genuine note by using coloured scanners and printers. In case the miscreants scan a genuine note and print copies of it, the serial number of such counterfeit currency notes remain the same. Putting a different serial number on each note explains that the counterfeit currency was being printed at a very large scale.

During interrogation, the accused revealed that the counterfeit currency notes travelled to Uttar Pradesh from Nepal from two different routes: From Nepal to UP via Bihar and directly to UP particularly through Sidhartnagar and Maharajganj route. A Rs 1,000 denomination note was bought at the rate of Rs 500 to Rs 600 each while the Rs 500 denomination was bought for Rs 300 to Rs 400 each.

According to the accused, counterfeit currency notes of smaller denomination-like those of Rs 100 and Rs 50, were also available, but at a higher cost, as compared to the bigger denominations. The reason given was that putting the bigger notes into circulation was more risky. The gang used private vehicles to cross the Nepal borders while the rest of the movement was done preferably on public transport. To minimise suspicion, women couriers, particularly those with young children, were preferred to carry the counterfeit currency notes within India and were paid two per cent of the total face value of the counterfeit notes. A male shadow was also used to trail the couriers to ensure that they were not trapped by the police.

It is estimated that around 1,69,000 crores of fake rupees are in circulation all over India. Both Banks and Government are in a denial mode, because probably they do not know what to do.

(The writer is former Director CBI and can be contacted at jogindersinghfdips@hotmail.com)

Muslim mob attack Janmashtami procession, pelt stones at Hindus in Ahmedabad

Muslims attack Janmashtami procession in Ahmedabad
By our correspondent
Ahmedabad, DeshGujarat, 15 August, 2009

Police lobbed five tear gas shells to disperse the Muslim mobs who were pelting stones over minority Hindu population in Ahmedabad’s Muslim dominated Shahpur area on Saturday evening.

The trouble started when Muslims attacked a Janmashtami procession that was passing near a Muslim place of worship and then started pelting stones over Hindus who are in minority in this area. After Hindus reacted to this, Muslim mobs started pelting stones from all the directions in Nagorivad area. Around three to four persons received minor injuries during the clashes.

The situation was brought under control and heavy police deployment has been arranged.

It should be mentioned here that Shahpur area was originally a Hindu dominated locality of Ahmedabad. But thanks to Muslim mafias, and property riots sponsored by them, Hindus had to sell their properties and ultimately the whole area started becoming Muslim dominated. Last year, Muslims had burnt a Hindu temple in Shahpur area.

Kerala Islamists’ organized campaign to lure and convert non Muslim girls; 940 girls missing in Kerala in the past five years

Saturday, August 29, 2009 | Email | Print |

Islamists on conversion campaign

VR Jayaraj | Kochi

Islamists in Kerala have launched an organised campaign for converting girls belonging to other religions into Islam. Police believe that Islamist organisation NDF (presently Popular Front of India) and its student outfit Campus Front could be behind this campus-based campaign. An investigation is presently on into the matter on the instructions of the Kerala High Court.

Information about this planned campaign came out in the open after two girls in an MBA college in Pathanam-thitta, who had gone missing some days ago, were produced in the HC on a habeas corpus petition. Girls told the court that they were taken to a place in Kozhikode, where a group led by Campus Front activists Shehenshah and Sirajuddeen forced them to convert into Islam and sign marriage contracts.

Lawyer Muhammad Ansari, who appeared in the court for the Government, said there was a planned effort behind the forced conversion of the girls into Islam. In a petition, Jacob Thomas of Pallikkal, Kottarakkara, Kollam and K Madhavan of Peroorkada, Thiruvananth-apruam, parents of the girls, had alleged that their daughters were detained by one Shehansha of Pettah, Pathana-mthitta. Girls were doing a project after completing MBA.

The girls had left their homes informing the parents that they were going to convert into Islam. However, when they were produced in the court on the habeas corpus petition, they said that they were forced to convert into Islam in a deserted house at West Chelari, Kozhikode district where they were taken. Though the court sent the girls with their parents, it ruled that they could be taken to their homes but no restriction should be placed on their food and prayer.

According to Gopakumar, assistant commissioner of police, Cantonment, Thiruva-nanthapuram, who is in charge of the investigation into the campaign of the extremists to convert girls into Islam, as many as 940 girls had gone missing in Kerala in the past five years. He said the truth behind these cases could be brought only after probe.

The police are now in the process of verifying the reports that some Hindu organisations are preparing to counter the Islamists’ designs. A report regarding this would be submitted in the High Court early next month.

However, sources in the police refused to confirm reports regarding an Islamic group specialising in luring young girls for converting into Islam. Reports had appeared in a section of the media in January last that religious Romeos had converted more than 4,000 girls through such designs.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Islamists on conversion campaign

VR Jayaraj | Kochi

Islamists in Kerala have launched an organised campaign for converting girls belonging to other religions into Islam. Police believe that Islamist organisation NDF (presently Popular Front of India) and its student outfit Campus Front could be behind this campus-based campaign. An investigation is presently on into the matter on the instructions of the Kerala High Court.

Information about this planned campaign came out in the open after two girls in an MBA college in Pathanam-thitta, who had gone missing some days ago, were produced in the HC on a habeas corpus petition. Girls told the court that they were taken to a place in Kozhikode, where a group led by Campus Front activists Shehenshah and Sirajuddeen forced them to convert into Islam and sign marriage contracts.

Lawyer Muhammad Ansari, who appeared in the court for the Government, said there was a planned effort behind the forced conversion of the girls into Islam. In a petition, Jacob Thomas of Pallikkal, Kottarakkara, Kollam and K Madhavan of Peroorkada, Thiruvananth-apruam, parents of the girls, had alleged that their daughters were detained by one Shehansha of Pettah, Pathana-mthitta. Girls were doing a project after completing MBA.

The girls had left their homes informing the parents that they were going to convert into Islam. However, when they were produced in the court on the habeas corpus petition, they said that they were forced to convert into Islam in a deserted house at West Chelari, Kozhikode district where they were taken. Though the court sent the girls with their parents, it ruled that they could be taken to their homes but no restriction should be placed on their food and prayer.

According to Gopakumar, assistant commissioner of police, Cantonment, Thiruva-nanthapuram, who is in charge of the investigation into the campaign of the extremists to convert girls into Islam, as many as 940 girls had gone missing in Kerala in the past five years. He said the truth behind these cases could be brought only after probe.

The police are now in the process of verifying the reports that some Hindu organisations are preparing to counter the Islamists’ designs. A report regarding this would be submitted in the High Court early next month.

However, sources in the police refused to confirm reports regarding an Islamic group specialising in luring young girls for converting into Islam. Reports had appeared in a section of the media in January last that religious Romeos had converted more than 4,000 girls through such designs.

Nepal’s former prince Paras, kingpin of fake currency: ATS racket

Nepal ex-prince kingpin of fake notes racket?
Suchandana Gupta, TNN 1 September 2009

BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh anti-terror squad on Monday arrested two Nepalese with fake Indian currency notes interrogated, made the startling disclosure that the kingpin of the racket was none other than Nepal’s former crown prince, Paras, as well as the son of a former Nepalese minister, Salim Mian Ansari. ( Watch Video )

In fact, Rajesh Gupta and Ateeq Ahmad, both Nepalese citizens, alleged that former King Gyanendra Singh’s son was working with Pakistan’s ISI and Mumbai underworld don, Dawood Ibrahim, reportedly hiding in Karachi. Salim Mian Ansari is a former forest minister of that country.

Both Gupta (42) and Ahmad (43) were trying to board a Gorakhpur-bound train at Bhopal railway station on Saturday when the cops swooped down on them, and caught them with 22 FICN of Rs 500 denomination. The notes were printed in Nepal.

“This is the first time we have caught fake note smugglers red-handed in Madhya Pradesh,” said deputy inspector general, ATS, Pawan Shrivastava. Sources in the state police headquarters said that the finance ministry and Central investigating agencies have been informed of the stunning disclosures made by the arrested Nepali citizens.

The role of Paras and Yunus Ansari is being further probed. Both Gupta and Ahmad have told the police that Ansari is the main link to ISI and D-company in Nepal. He is also a business partner of King Gyanendra’s son Paras. Intelligence agencies in India have always been intrigued about the exact businesses of Ansari.

Rajesh and Ahmad are businessmen who are considered the third level operators in the FICN racket. Police said there are five-levels in the operation starting with the masterminds based in Pakistan and Nepal. The last line is mostly petty criminals in India’s metros and other cities. Ahmad was a resident of Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh. Twelve years ago, he married a girl in Nepal and got the citizenship of the Himalayan state. He settled sown in Birganj, the largest town in Nepal’s Terai region in the south-east part of the country close to Raxaul. Raxaul and Birganj have been known to be the transit points of FICN. Gupta, too, lives in Kathmandu.

“It’s an intricate network. The ISI has recruited large number of agents like Gupta and Ahmad who push crores of fake currency notes across the open borders of Nepal,” said ATS chief Shrivastava. Rajesh Gupta and Ateeq Ahmad brought the fake currency notes to Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. They were in touch with at least 40 persons in Madhya Pradesh who work as their last link in the racket. The two have been remanded in police custody until September 8.