Pune blasts: 4 Kashmiri handicraft sellers arrested in Hampi

Pune link: 4 held in Hampi
Bellary, Feb. 17: Four Kashmiri men were taken into custody in Hampi on Wednesday in connection with Saturday’s terror attack on the German Bakery in Pune.

A police team from Pune, following specific clues in emails sent from IP addresses in Hampi, detained the four suspects who sources said sold artefacts at Virapura Gadde Island in the Tungabhadra river.

Investigating officials are looking for three other suspects in the heritage town that draws thousands of foreign tourists every year. In Virapura Gadde, where a franchise of the German Bakery is located and from where the emails were sent, seven Internet cafés were shut down since Tuesday evening.

Fearing for their safety, many foreign tourists staying in resorts on the island, a kilometre from Hampi by coracle, started moving to hotels in Hampi and Hospet after news spread of the suspects being taken into custody.

Investigators believe that a part of the Pune attack conspiracy could have been hatched in Hampi, sources said.

The Pune police team arrived in Hampi after carrying out investigations in Bhatkal in the Uttara Kannada district, the hometown of terror outfit Indian Mujahideen co-founder Riyaz Bhatkal.

The Kashmiri community in Hampi has been under the scanner earlier as well, with the Bengaluru police arresting a suspected Kashmiri terrorist, Imran Jalal, in Hampi in January 2007. Jalal established the now-defunct Kashmiri-Rajasthani Handicrafts Shop Owners’ Association that comprised over 35 Kashmiris.

Shivakumar G. Malagi

4 Kashmiris among 40 detained in Pune probe
TNN, Feb 18, 2010

BELLARY/BANGALORE: Four Kashmiri youths have been taken into custody in Hampi in connection with the February 13 explosion in Pune that left 11 persons dead. The detention was made by a team of the Maharashtra police near Virupapura Gaddi locality.

The Pune blast site was littered with handicrafts items, leading the Mumbai police to Hampi. The four Kashmiris are sellers of handicrafts. The police are looking for three other persons, according to sources.

Dozens of other detentions have been made in Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune on the basis of intelligence, call records and whatever ‘little information’ sleuths could glean from the CCTV footage containing images of activities on North Main Road, where the German Bakery’s entrance is located.

But superintendent of police Seemanth Kumar Singh denied the arrest of anybody in connection with the Pune blast. Another SP, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, told TOI no arrest or detentions had been made. “Neither we nor any other state police force has arrested or detained anyone.’’

The Maharashtra police team inspected various cyber cafes in Hampi, a popular haunt for foreign tourists. They questioned some foreigners, and enquired with the local police and hotel owners about people who had booked rooms for a week and left in a hurry. The police have visited some of the villages surrounding Hampi. More than 40 hotels catering to foreign tourists are located in Hampi.

Three years ago, a suspected terrorist, Bilal, from Kashmir, was arrested in Bangalore. An LeT operative, he had planned to attack the Bengaluru International Airport and Wipro and Infosys offices.

Open letter to Shahrukh Khan: Please do not ask us to love Pakistan

Please do not lump the people of India and Pakistan together. We Indians are proud to preserve our separate identity. And please do not insult the land that gave you your life, name and fame, by claiming that her worst enemy, who wants to break her into 1000 pieces, is a great neighbour.

Open letter to Mr. Shahrukh Khan

By: Bandyopadhyay Arindam
Jan-31-2010

Your name is a household phenomenon in Indian and even beyond her borders. Your fame has put you in the Newsweek “most powerful people list” recently. However, as you may recall from your recent experience in New Jersey Airport, real life is a little different – it does not always follow the path predicted by a scriptwriter or director.

Of late, we have been reading about your opinions and statements on matters beyond the celluloid world. Nothing is wrong in it. You live in a free, democratic country and are entirely entitled to your opinion. But as a common man, also from the same soil, I think I have the right too to raise a few points that may not conform to your views of the real world.

I hope you will read it out.

When recently, the Pakistani players were not selected for the IPL, it was almost predictable that NDTV, the award-winning, mouthpiece of our Indian liberal media select you for your views and you certified that “It (Pakistan) is a great neighbour to have. We (India and Pakistan) are great neighbours. They are good neighbours.”

I have a few words to say about those statements.

One may recall your effort to clarify the Pakistani team captain, Shoaib Malik”s apology to the Muslims, living all over the world, for failing to win the final T20 match against India, likely much to the embarrassment of a lot of Indian Muslims, as expressed by Shamin Bano, mother of the man of the match, Irfan Pathan. What was more embarrassing was your effort to try to defend Shoaib in a subsequent interview, “I don”t think he meant to segregate Muslims and Christians and Hindus and say this was a match between Islam and Hinduism. I don”t think that…”

I doubt whether Shoaib talked to you personally about his thought process at that time. You did not really have to respond for somebody else but perhaps you could not resist the temptation to show your brotherhood and solidarity.

This reminds us again of Dr Ambedkar”s observation that, “The brotherhood of Islam is not the universal brotherhood of man. It is brotherhood of Muslims for Muslims only.

Partition of India was what Pakistan wanted and got. It was painful to millions but many more millions in present India have been spared. Since then Pakistan has offered us only hatred. It has imposed on us three major wars, the Kargil insurgency, the Kashmir conflict, the series of serial blasts, the routine violation of border ceasefires, attacks on the Parliament House and the recent Mumbai 26/11attack.

Did you have these in mind when you talked about them being good neighbours?

In another interview you had tried to explain the concept of Islamic Jihad. “I think one needs to understand the meaning of jihad .. I”ve understood the essence that jihad is not about killing other people; jihad is about killing the badness in you.”

May be you understand jihad better and deeper than the superficial meaning of what we, the rest of the mortal mankind, overburdened and terrorized by the inter-religious, intra-religious and sectarian violence that is plaguing the world in the name of Islam today, do. For we, the less educated, cannot really make a difference between Jihad and Qatl, between Jihad by heart / soul, Jihad by pen and Jihad by sword or between lesser and greater jihad.

We wonder, whatever its meaning may be, does it minimize the significance of the mindless killings that we see today in the name of Islam, across borders, all over the world? Does it change the nature of the killers whether you call them holy warriors, mujahidins, fedayeens or plane suicide bombers?

We agree with you that terrorism has no religion. But hopefully you will also agree with the people who perceive that most terrorist in the world today happen to believe in the scriptures of Islam. They actually believe that they themselves are the true Islamists.

The so called “moderate” Islamist, perhaps does not want to contradict them or may be does not dare to speak out against them. You have probably not forgotten the FIR against you for listing Prophet Mohammed as one of the most unimpressive personalities in history, the threats from which you had to skillfully wriggle out. Others who are not so fortunate, famous or flexible are suffering lifetime, as Tasleema Nasreen or Salman Rushdie would testify. For blasphemy in Islam is punishable with death, even for a believer.

Do I have to spell out the fate if it is a non-believer?

It is due to the inherent intolerance and exclusivity of Islam itself despite your effort to convince us that there is an Islam from Allah and very unfortunately, there is an Islam from the Mullahs.

Here is an historical insight from writer Irfan Hussain, “The Muslim heroes who figure larger than life in our history books committed some dreadful crimes..all have blood-stained hands that the passage of years has not cleansed. Indeed, the presence of Muslim historians on their various campaigns has ensured that the memory of their deeds will live long after they were buried…Seen through Hindu eyes, the Muslim invasion of their homeland was an unmitigated disaster.”

So why should the “non-believers” care to accept them? Why should the majority of Indians like to welcome back such disasters again?

Since partition, India has come a long way in progress and development to her current status and is projected as an economic superpower in coming decades while Pakistan is perceived as a failed state on the verge of disintegration.

What does India have to gain by offering neighbourly friendship to such a hostile and failed state?

India has never been an invader and is not in conflict of any other Muslim country. None of the wars and conflicts with Pakistan was instigated by India. In the current geopolitical situation, one can argue for the Muslim world”s grudge and anger against Israel or the west and USA but one fail to fathom why India should also be at the receiving end and why Indians should be the second largest group of people to die from terrorists attacks. Indian majorities do not have anything to do with the Danish cartoon or the death of Saddam Hussain; so why should they suffer from Islamic havoc on those occasions.

In almost all occasions of terrorism, questions are raised about possible role of Pakistan, its terror bases and its terrorist organizations, as either directly or indirectly involved. Be it state sponsored (as recently admitted by President Zardari) or by non-state actors, Pakistan or Pakistani born are prime suspect in terrorist activities all over the world. ISI has been accused of playing a role in major terrorist attacks including 9/11 in the USA, terrorism in Kashmir, Mumbai Train Bombings, London Bombings, Indian Parliament Attack, Varanasi bombings, Hyderabad bombings, Mumbai terror attacks or the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul.

Do you believe these are marks of a good neighbour? Then what is the reason for your preaching of love towards Pakistan?

Perhaps, as you said, because it is your ancestor”s homeland, you have a soft feeling for Pakistan and cannot see the difference. On the eve of accepting an honorary doctorate from a British university, we heard you say, “I really believe we are the same ..when you come away from India or Pakistan you realize there is no Indian or Pakistani – we”re all together. We are – culturally, as human beings, as friends”

Which Pakistanis are you referring to?

The Pakistanis belonging to the land, admonished as the epicenter of global terrorism, not just by India or USA but even by its friendly allies like Iran or China.

Or is it the self-created, Talibanic Pakistan, who still imposes Jijya on the non believers or finds pleasure in blowing up girl”s schools.

Are you talking about its President class like the current Mr. Zardari, vowed to wage a 1,000-year war with India or the late Mrs. Bhutto who started Jihad in Kashmiri that lead to the exodus of Hindu minorities from the Muslim majority state of India, as refugees in their own country?

Are you referring to Pakistanis loyal to the ISI and the military who train their soldiers with only one objective, i.e. to fight Hindu India?

If your mind is concerned about the faceless mass of Pakistanis, does it also include the dwindling minorities?

Or are you just concerned about the celebrities and the social elites?

It is true SRK that we belong to the same human species but it is hard to stretch the similarities much further between “us” and “them”.

We from the same original land of Bharat but we want to keep her intact, they want to break it into thousand pieces.

Our ancestors happen to be the same. We acknowledge and adore the heritage but they abhor and decimate whoever is available in an attempt to wipe out the link.

We are culturally the same. We have created the culture over centuries what they dream to destroy in moments.

Ours is a 10,000 year old civilization, theirs is a 62 years old country undoing whole human civilization.

We extend our hands repeatedly to promote friendship and amity; they give us ISI, Lashkar, Harkat, Kashmir, Kargil and 26/11 in exchange.

Do you think that the Indians nationals who died in all the above wars, the Indian soldiers who lost their lives in cross-border ceasefire violations or the Indian civilians who are killed by the ISI trained Islamic terrorists and their affiliates, in all those serial blasts, all over the country, willfully sacrificed their lives as a friendly neighbourhood gesture?

Can you face the families of the victims of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus or the martyrs of the Kargil war and try to explain to them that “They are good neighbours. Let us love each other.”

Can you explain why the two gunmen at Cama hospital, during the Mumbai carnage, asked the man who gave them water, what his religion was, and shot him dead when he said he was a Hindu?

If you cannot, then perhaps you understand why the majority of India does not consider Pakistan as a good neighbour to have.

Perhaps you believe that the peaceful religious co-existence that you created in your home (and we appreciate that) can be extended to the large world outside. As you rightly said, we Indians trust and do accept everybody but what you did fail to mention was that it is the Indic tradition, essentially coming out of its pre-Islamic Hindu ethos.

If you think otherwise, show us a single Islamic country where the non-believers enjoy the same equality as the believers. Since partition, the Hindus left over in Pakistan and Bangladesh has suffered terribly. Strictly Islamic countries, like Saudi Arabia, do not allow any other religions to exist. Hindus working in the Gulf countries are not allowed to practice their religion in public. Saudi Arabia insists that India sends only a Muslim ambassador. Hindu Muslim unity by and large has generally been a matter of Hindus trying to please or accommodate Muslims. One cannot forget when Vajpayee was extending his hand for peace Musharraf was planning the Kargil insurgency.

Let us remind you, your own statement “I am a Muslim in a country called India .We”ve never been made to feel this is a Hindu country.”

Can you find me a Hindu in Pakistan who can reciprocate that sentiment?

Some years ago, another Mr. Khan, first name Feroze, from your fraternity was banned from entering Pakistan for saying, “India is secular unlike Pakistan”.

That is the basic difference of the land of “Hindu” India from the Islamic “pure land” of Pakistan.

So please do not ask us to love Pakistan.

Please do not lump the people of India and Pakistan together. We Indians are proud to preserve our separate identity.

And please do not insult the land that gave you your life, name and fame, by claiming that her worst enemy, who wants to break her into 1000 pieces, is a great neighbour.

Otherwise it would be sad if somebody accuses you of putting your religion ahead of your country.

Please give it a thought.
Regards,
Arindam Bandyopadhyay.

Azad Kashmir today: Mountain paradise turned into a hell by Pakistani Islamists

Azad Kashmir today

By Ahmad Faruqui

Monday, 15 Feb, 2010 Azad Kashmir’s future is as murky today as it was in 1947. —

Azad Kashmir was created within two months of Pakistan’s independence with high expectations. Nestled in the mountainous western region that abuts the vale of Kashmir, it forms an archer’s bow that is about 100 miles long and about 20-40 miles wide.

The Pakistani security elite hoped that an arrow fired from the bow would bring about the instant liberation of the vale of Kashmir from Indian occupation. The first arrow was fired almost within days of creation.

It plunged the entire region of Kashmir into armed conflict. Fourteen months later, a ceasefire sponsored by the United Nations took effect on Jan 1, 1949. The ceasefire line remained stationary despite several attempts to move it. But after the 1971 war which saw the secession of East Pakistan, it was renamed the Line-of-Control (LoC). That militaristic designation persists to this day since the line which separates the two Kashmirs has not been formalised as an international border.

‘Azad’ means free and Azad Kashmir was supposed to serve as a model state whose liberty and freedom would inspire rebellion in Indian-administered Kashmir. That did not happen for several reasons. Constitutionally, Azad Kashmir is not a part of Pakistan. But neither is it an independent state. For its entire 62-year history, it has depended on Pakistan for its economic and political survival. It does not even issue its own postage stamps.

Because Islamabad has always exercised its claim on the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir, Azad Kashmir is not counted as a fifth province of Pakistan. But for all practical purposes, Muzaffarabad lives under Islamabad’s shadow. Its first government was established on Oct 24, 1947 with Sardar Mohammed Ibrahim as president. On Nov 3, 1947, Azad Kashmir sought unsuccessfully to join the United Nations as a member state.

In March 1949, after the dust had settled along the ceasefire line, Azad Kashmir signed a power-sharing arrangement with the Government of Pakistan ceding all authority related to defence, foreign affairs, refugees and the plebiscite to Pakistan.

Pakistan created a Ministry for Kashmir Affairs to look after its newest asset. However, as events would show, the ministry was soon preoccupied with influencing political direction in Azad Kashmir. Not surprisingly, the ministry’s directives were not always well received by Azad Kashmiris. At times, they were met with stiff resistance.

In 1955, Pakistan declared martial law in some parts of Azad Kashmir to suppress street violence triggered by the Kashmir Act. In 1957, Pakistan resorted to police action to quell a public meeting that was seeking direct action to create a united and liberated Kashmir. In 1961, President Ayub Khan carried out indirect elections in Azad Kashmir through a Basic Democracies Ordinance which legally only applied to Pakistan, further straining ties with the Azad Kashmiris.

Subsequently, faced with Islamabad’s dominance in their day-to-day affairs, several Azad Kashmiri leaders started a movement for liberating Indian-held Kashmir not for Pakistan but for creating a separate Kashmiri state. This further aggravated ties with Pakistan. While all this was happening, Jammu and Kashmir was inducted into the Indian union.

In 1965, the Pakistani army launched a covert war inside Indian Kashmir seeking to instigate a popular rebellion. This arrow too missed its target. Instead, it enraged India which launched a strong counter-offensive along the international border with West Pakistan.

Under the weight of the Indian elephant, the Pakistani military hastily called of its operations in Kashmir. The war ended in an UN-brokered ceasefire along the international border with minimal changes in the Kashmiri line. After the war, Pakistan lost its urge to light a fire across the Line of Control (LoC). Matters changed in 1979 when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan and the Pakistani military, with US and Saudi assistance, began training legions of Mujahideen to evict the godless communists.

After a bruised and battered Red Army pulled out of Kabul in 1989, Indian Jammu and Kashmir found itself in the grip of a large-scale revolt. Whether this was a purely indigenous movement or a corollary to events in Kabul continues to enrich scholarly volumes.

Regardless of the cause, the uprising in the vale provided the Kashmir hawks in Pakistan’s security elite yet another opportunity to press on with their objective. They reactivated their bases in Azad Kashmir and once again decided to fire arrows into Indian Jammu and Kashmir. Soon, ‘freedom fighters,’ armed and trained allegedly by the Pakistan Army, were rolling across in droves across the LoC.

Azad Kashmir was again in the cross-hairs of armed conflict. Against this backdrop, Pakistan under Gen Ziaul Haq decided to legally separate the geographically much larger Northern Areas of Gilgit and Baltistan from Azad Kashmir. This caused almost as much consternation in the latter as it did in India. The separation of the Northern Areas by Pakistan eliminated all doubts about the sovereignty of Azad Kashmir. With the reactivation of conflict across the Line-of-Control, the quality of life of the Azad Kashmiris was trammelled. Those who did not want to take part in the proxy war became pariahs.

Most of the cross-border infiltration was halted in the wake of 9/11 and the US invasion of Afghanistan. The attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001 was designed to reinvigorate the Kashmir issue but all it did was bring India and Pakistan to the brink of full-scale war in 2002. For a while the Musharraf regime sought to differentiate the struggle for freedom in Kashmir from political acts of terror but its spin failed to gain traction with the world community. Cross-border terrorism was quiet for several years.

The attacks on Mumbai by a group linked to militant activities in Kashmir in November 2008 were an attempt to reignite the conflict but succeeded only in drawing widespread opprobrium. During the past 62 years, the people of Azad Kashmir have been unable to arise out of poverty in large measure because they are caught in the crossfire between India and Pakistan. The land which their elders knew as a mountain paradise has been turned into a living hell.

Of the four million people who inhabit the region, nine of 10 live in extremely impoverished conditions in rural areas. Population growth is excessive, at 2.4 per cent per year, and the average house holds no fewer than seven people. Sadly, Azad Kashmir’s future is as murky today as it was in 1947. And the objective for its creation, the liberation of the vale of Kashmir, seems increasingly remote.

ahmadfaruqui@gmail.com


My name is Khan And Here Is My List Of Terrorist Attacks in India

Major terrorist  attacks by Khans (Muslims) in India

The massacres perpetrated by Muslims in India are unparalleled in history. They are bigger in sheer numbers than the Holocaust, or the massacre of the Armenians by the Turks; more extensive even than the slaughter of the South American native populations by the invading Spanish and Portuguese.

Major recent attacks by Islamic terrorists in India:

March 12, 1993: 257 killed and more than 1,000 injured in 15 co-ordinated bomb attacks in Bombay. The blasts were orchestrated by an Islamic group headed by Dawood Ibrahim.

February 14, 1998: 46 people were killed and more than 200 injured in 13 car bombs in the city of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. The attacks were blamed on the “Al Umma” Islamist group

October 1, 2001: Militants belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Kashmiri group, attacked Jammu and Kashmir Assembly complex in Srinagar, killing 35 people.

December 13, 2001: Attack on the Indian Parliament complex in New Delhi led to the killing of a dozen people and 18 injured. Four members of the Pakistan-based Islamist group Jaish-e-Mohammed were later convicted for their part in the plot

September 24, 2002: 31 people killed, 79 wounded at Akshardham temple in Gujarat

May 14, 2002: Islamic attackers killed more than 30 people in an Army camp near Jammu.

March 13, 2003: A bomb attack on a commuter train in Mumbai killed 11.

Aug. 25, 2003: Twin car bombings in Mumbai killed at least 52 people and injured 150. Indian authorities blamed the Kashmiri Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba

July 5, 2005: Attack on the Ram Janmabhoomi complex, the site of the destroyed Babri Mosque at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh.

Oct. 29, 2005: Three explosions in busy shopping areas of south Delhi, two days before the Hindu festival of Diwali, killed 59 and injured 200. Islami Inqilabi Mahaz (Islamic Revolutionary Group) claimed responsibility, but authorities blamed Lashkar-e-Taiba

March 7, 2006: A series of bombings in the holy city of Varanasi killed at least 28 and injured over a hundred. Indian investigators blamed Pakistan-based Islamic terrorists.

July 11, 2006: Seven bomb blasts on the Mumbai Suburban Railway killed over 200 people. Police blamed Lashkar-e-Taiba and Students Islamic Movement of India.

Sept. 8, 2006: At least 37 people were killed and 125 were injured in a series of explosions near a mosque in Malegaon, Maharashtra. The Islamic Movement of India claimed responsibility.

Aug. 25, 2007: Forty-two people killed and 50 injured in twin explosions at a crowded park in Hyderabad by Harkat-ul-Jehad-i-Islami (HuJI).

May 13, 2008: A series of six explosions in Jaipur killed 63 people and injured more than 150.

July 26, 2008: Serial explosions in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad killed 45 people and injured more than 150. The Indian Mujahideen claimed responsibility.

Link:  India, Jihad’s Permanent Battleground

From Azamgarh, Islamic terrorism shifted base to Pune

“It was here that I learnt that most of the boys had gone to Delhi, Mumbai and Pune to pursue studies or work. It was in these cities that they came in touch with terror modules and were indoctrinated.”

From Azamgarh, terror shifted base to Pune
By: Ketan Ranga Date: 2010-02-16,  Midday

Ketan Ranga remembers the time in 2008 when Azamgarh was under the terror scanner, but all evidence hinted that the real terror hub was elsewhere

The serial blasts in Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Delhi and then the Batla House encounter in 2008 cleared up one thing.

Azamgarh had become the hub of terrorism in India.

Most of the terrorists whose names cropped in relation to these incidents were from Saraimeer, Sanjerpur and villages of Azamgarh.

On September 22, 2008, I went to Azamgarh to cover the arrest and deaths of some of the terrorists. In Saraimeer, I spoke to the families of the alleged terrorists. It was here that I learnt that most of the boys had gone to Delhi, Mumbai and Pune to pursue studies or work. It was in these cities that they came in touch with terror modules and were indoctrinated.

I was still in Azamgarh when the Mumbai police broke up the media wing of Indian Mujahideen (IM), which used to send terror mails before blasts. All those who were nabbed belonged to Pune, including Mansur Azhgar Peerbhoy, the software engineer who was responsible for hacking into unsecured WiFi connections to send terror mails. However, a number of people, including Mohsin Chowdhary, an accused in the Ahmedabad blasts and now a suspect in the Pune blast, went absconding and continued their work.

Further investigations revealed that many students and professionals came in touch with terror modules when they went for Arabic classes in Pune. Arif Bashir, another accused in the Ahmedabad blast, was the IM man who would identify candidates for indoctrination into terror activities at these classes.

The area in Pune where most students from Azamgarh were staying also came under the police scanner.

The police finally realised that the IM had its headquarters in Pune. It was discovered that IM modules from all over India came to Pune to hold meetings and recruit. In fact, even after various IM modules were broken and a number of terrorists were caught, the recruitment in Pune continued unabated.

This was 2008. Even then it was clear that the work on sleeper cells in Pune was progressing at great speed. The Azamgarh module was broken up, but Pune was fast becoming the next hub of terror.

Saturday’s blast at the German Bakery just sealed that conclusion.

Al Qaeda vows more Islamic attacks across India

Al Qaeda vows more attacks across India

February 16, 2010

Lahore: Just days after the deadly Pune terror attack, top al Qaeda terrorist commander Ilyas Kashmiri has vowed to continue attacks across India. 

In a message sent to a media group, Kashmiri, whose 313 Brigade is an operational arm of the al Qaeda, said that his group will attack India until the Army leaves Kashmir. 

He also issued a threat against the major sporting events like the Commonwealth Games scheduled to be held in Delhi later this year. 

“We warn the international community not to send their people to the 2010 Hockey World Cup, the Indian Premier League and Commonwealth Games – to be held in New Delhi later this year. Nor should their people visit India – if they do, they will be responsible for the consequences,” Kashmiri warned. 

The al Qaeda threat comes at a time when India and Pakistan are scheduled to hold bilateral talks on February 25 – first time since the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. 

Pakistan has all along been demanding that the Kashmir issue should be discussed during the talks, while India wants the counter-terror cooperation to be at the centre of all talks. 

With regard to the Pune blast, India has been pointing to the involvement of Pak-based groups like Jamaat-ud-Dawah and Lashkar-e-Toiba in the entire conspiracy. The actual attack may have been carried out by Indian Mujahideen but they could have been instigated by the LeT or JuD in Karachi as some arrested operatives had said they were shown videos made by David C Headley, wanted by India in 26/11 terror attacks and under American custody, including clips of the Osho Ashram in Pune. 

Home Secretary GK Pillai has also asserted that the Pune attack – which has so far claimed nine lives, including two foreigners – was part of the notorious Karachi Project which was aimed at attacking India. 

What has raised doubts about the involvement of the Qaida-LeT-JuD nexus is the mention of Pune attack during the so called Kashmir Solidarity Day conference held by terror groups in the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) on February 4. 

Hafiz Abdur Rahman Makki, leader of terror outfit amalgam Jamaat-ud-Dawah, in his hate India speech during the conference mentioned about attacks on Indian cities, including Pune. 

Makki, brother-in-law of LeT founder and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed, in his speech said three Indian cities, including Pune, would be targeted by the “Jihadis to teach India a lesson”. 

Saeed, one of the mastermind of the November 26, 2008 Mumbai attacks that were carried out by LeT, too vowed to renew terror attacks in India. JuD is the frontal outfit of Lashkar-e-Toiba. 

The Muzaffarabad conference was also addressed by Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, Al-Badr leader Bakht Zamin, United Jehad Council general secretary Sheikh Jamilur Rehman, senior JuD leaders Abdul Aziz Alvi and Abdur Rehman Makki, and former Inter-Services Intelligence agency chief Hamid Gul. 

Karan Johar, Khan and Bollywood distort reality and should be made to pay for Pune victims

“This is why you shouldn’t take Bollywood at face value. They are not on the side of the vast majority of Indian people nor the wider national interest of India.

The terror attacks in Pune over the weekend may or may not have been avoided, but one thing is clear if Bollywood had cared half as much about reality of Islamic Jihadis instead of making movie after movie distorting reality of how these people actually operate, we may have had more security forces, and more rigorous methods on the ground to protect the innocents who were killed in Pune yesterday. Not to ignore the possibility of a more immediate cause of this, diversion of national and state security forces for the stake of some Khan movie.”

Rest click www.ibosnetwork.com

Pakistan lover Shahrukh Khan mum on Pune terror attack which killed 9 and injured 60

Link

Khan felt that the youth should circumvent all that is said about India and Pakistan by the politicians and say, “It (Pakistan) is a great neighbour to have. We are great neighbours, They are good neighbours. Let us love each other.”

“Let me be honest. My family is from Pakistan, my father was born there and his family is from there,” he said.
Shahrukh Khan silent on Pune blast

February 15,  2010 By: Subhadeep Bhattacharjee

Terrorism doesn’t usually concern Bollywood but the recent bomb blast at the German Bakery in Pune couldn’t have come at a worst time for the Maharashtra Government and Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan. In the last few days there has been a ego clash been the Congress and the Shiv Sena over the release of the Shahrukh’s movie My Name Is Khan. The movie had released all across Maharashtra especially in Mumbai amidst tight security.

This after Shiv Sena had called for a boycott of the movie after Shahrukh has supported the cause of the Pakistani players in the IPL. Sena had termed Shahrukh as a traitor who supported the cause of the Pakistan whose hand has been confirmed in the Mumbai attack. If Pakistan’s hand in the Pune blasts is proven, Shahrukh will find it tough to save his face. For now the My Name Is Khan actor has been silent on the issue.

Shiv Sena which has been vocal in it’s opposition to Shahrukh Khan has criticised the government. In the party mouthpiece Uddhav Thackeray said “It is the sin of (Ashok) Chavan that killed nine innocents in the terror attack” Criticising the extra security cover given to Shahrukh’s movie instead of busy market areas he added “The bomb blast could have been avoided if the same security was given at appropriate places.”

JKLF terrorist Yasin Malik wants to be included on India, Pakistan dialogue

Link

Yasin Malik, the Butcher of Kashmir is a terrorist-turned separatist. He belongs to the terror outfit Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) which was banned by the Government of India till 2000. He has been lately been accused of being a double agent of Pakistan and India both.

There is a no crime known to mankind that Yasin Malik has not been involved in. You name it and he has done it all…killings, kidnappings, hawala, gun running. He is the one who along with Shawkat Bakshi pumped bullets into the then Director of Doordarshan (Srinagar) Lassa Kaul to silence the media once and for all. He and his JKLF goons are singularly responsible for the largest forced exodus of the modern history – that of the Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir Valley.

Kashmiri Hindus were not the only victims of his communal killings but he was also involved in the killings of 4 Indian Air Force officers in the valley. He was also involved in the kidnapping of Rubiya Sayeed, the daughter of then Union Home-Minster Mufti Mohd. Sayeed. It was this kidnapping and the resultant release of hardcore terrorists like Hamid Mir, Javed Nalka etc. that emboldened the terrorists operating in the valley.

Yasin Malik seeks a place on India, Pakistan dialogue table

Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Yasin Malik on Sunday sought a place on the dialogue table between India and Pakistan. He asked New Delhi to restore the credibility of institution of dialogue.

Speaking after a function here to release a book on JKLF founder Maqbool Butt, Mr. Malik said he was never against dialogue and believed that solutions came from this process only. But he asked how a solution could emerge without the participation of the basic party. India and Pakistan were holding talks without taking the people of Kashmir into confidence.

On the recently floated proposal of amnesty to militants returning from across the Line of Control, he said: “The surrender policy of the government may be a cause for dialogue between India and Pakistan, but to the Kashmiri people it is nothing but humiliation.”

Taking a dig at Pakistan, he quoted a recent statement by its Foreign Secretary in which he had termed the dialogue between the Kashmiri leadership and India as “treachery.” He said: “Then what will be this dialogue process called, if Kashmiris are kept away from it.”

“A must”
Mr. Malik said inclusion of the Kashmiri people in the dialogue process was a must, as they only had the right to decide their future.

The institution of dialogue had lost its credibility in Kashmir. “This needs to be restored.”

Paying tribute to Maqbool Butt, who was hanged in the Tihar Jail in 1984, Mr. Malik said: “He was not only a great leader but an ideology, which should be a source of inspiration for all Kashmiris.” “Bhat was romanticism, he was a dreamer, an ideology, who always thought that the Kashmiris should be left to decide their own future.”

“This is the reason he was termed double agent, as he dared to tell this to both India and Pakistan,” he said.

Islamic terrorist attacks have killed 780 in India since 2005

Terror trail in India: 780 killed since 2005

Sun, Feb 14 01:53 PM

Pune, Feb 14 (IANS) The Pune bombing, which killed nine people and left 57 injured, is the latest in a trail of terror strikes in India in recent years which have left at least 780 people dead since 2005.

Following is a chronology of major attacks in India in recent years:

Oct 29, 2005:  Sixty-six people were killed in three bomb blasts in New Delhi.

March 7, 2006:  Fifteen people were killed in three blasts in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi.

July 11, 2006:  Over 180 people were killed in bombings in seven local trains in Mumbai.

Sep 8, 2006:  At least 32 people were killed in Malegaon town in Maharashtra.

Feb 19, 2007:  At least 66 people were killed when two bombs exploded on the Samjhauta Express train between India and Pakistan.

May 18, 2007:  Eleven people were killed when a bomb exploded during Friday prayers at Makkah Masjid in Hyderabad.

Aug 25, 2007:  Forty people were killed when explosions rocked an amusement park and an eatery in Hyderabad.

May 13, 2008:  Over 60 people were killed when seven bombs ripped through the tourist city of Jaipur.

July 25, 2008:  One woman was killed and nearly two dozen injured when coordinated small bomb blasts hit Bangalore.

July 26, 2008:  Forty-five people were killed and over 150 injured when 16 small bombs exploded in Ahmedabad in Gujarat.

Sep 13, 2008:  At least 25 people were killed when five bombs exploded in crowded markets and streets in Delhi.

Oct 30, 2008:  Guwahati, the main city of Assam, was rocked by 11 bomb blasts triggered in quick succession killing nearly 70 people and wounding over 300 people.

Nov 26-29, 2008:  Ten Pakistani terrorists sailed into Mumbai and laid a terror siege on the financial capital of India, killing 166 people and injuring 244.

Feb 13, 2010:  Nine people were killed and 57 injured when a bomb blast ripped through a popular eatery in Pune.

Indo Asian News Service