Targeted Elimination of Hassan Nasrallah: Strategic Deployment of Technology in Modern Day Counterterrorism

Israel faced a major setback on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led Palestinian militant groups launched a successful attack. After this successful terror attack, many questions were raised concerning Israeli technological superiority and robust defence mechanisms in place. Despite Israel's technological superiority, Hamas managed to bypass these defences. The issue likely wasn't with the technology itself; the surveillance systems along the Israel-Palestine border were reportedly functioning as expected.

AJEY LELE

Reemergence of Terror Networks in Jammu and Kashmir: Evaluating the State's Response Mechanisms

Following major crackdown on terrorists in the Kashmir Valley and the redeployment of troops from the southern Pir Panjal range to Ladakh due to the ongoing border standoff with China, terrorists have shifted their base from Kashmir to the Jammu region. This shift is particularly evident in areas such as Rajouri, Poonch, Doda, Kishtwar, and Kathua, where dense forests and steep mountains offer militants ample cover.

R. BHANU KRISHNA KIRAN

MLM: Qasim Gujjar: Lashkar-e-Taiba Militant Behind Attacks in Kashmir Designated as Terrorist by India

August 02, 2024

Executive Summary: On March 7, India’s Ministry of Home Affairs designated 41-year-old Kashmiri militant Mohammad Qasim Gujjar as a terrorist. Gujjar has been involved in multiple high-profile attacks, financed and supplied arms to terrorists, and is a major recruiter for the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba. Gujjar has been especially effective at radicalizing relatives of deceased militants.

ANIMESH ROUL

Abdul Mateen Taha: Islamic State Fugitive Figurehead in India

April 26, 2024

On October 23, 2022, a suicide car bomb exploded outside the Kottai Eswaran Hindu Temple of Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu State, India. The perpetrator, Jameesha Mubeen, died in the explosion. A month later, on November 19, 2022, a homemade improvised explosive device (IED) detonated in an auto-rickshaw in the city of Mangaluru in Karnataka State. The driver, Mohammed Shariq, was burned in the attempt.

ANIMESH ROUL

TM: NIA Dismantles Remaining Islamic State Cells in India

March 04, 2024
  • Executive Summary: India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested over 180 people in 2023 for involvement in jihadist terror cases, 65 of which were associated specifically with IS, as part of a broader strategy to disrupt IS’s influence in India. 
  • In December 2023 alone, the NIA conducted widespread raids across the country, arresting dozens of individuals linked to Islamic State (IS) networks and seizing weapons, explosives, and propaganda materials.
ANIMESH ROUL

China Tightens Noose on Uyghurs' Faith in Xinjiang Region

The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of China is in the news again. In the fourth week of December last year (2023), Chinese authorities in the strategic northwestern region of Xinjiang brought about a set of new Chinese rules, norms and regulations on religious affairs. These measures, duly approved by the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Xinjiang on  December 22, have subsequently come into effect on  February 1, 2024.

MAHESH RANJAN DEBATA

TM: New Hizb ut-Tahirir Networks Uncovered in Southern India

December 16, 2023

The transnational Islamist political movement Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) has increased its India-centric propaganda. HT is often described as a non-violent extremist group seeking to unite the global Muslim community under one Islamic caliphate. The arrests of several HT operatives from Central and South Indian states, including Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu, confirmed HT’s shadowy presence in the country. HT is attempting to revive the group’s past pro-Islamic state and anti-India discourses through its preaching campaigns.

ANIMESH ROUL

MLM: "Tahawwur Hussain Rana: Nearer to Extradition to India and a Revival of the Mumbai Attacks Investigation"

December 08, 2023

Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Canadian businessman originally from Pakistan, was convicted in a US court in 2011. Rana was charged with providing material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Pakistan and for conspiring to attack the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten’s offices in Copenhagen and Aarhus. This followed their publishing of controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammed in 2005. In 2013, Rana was sentenced to 14 years in a US prison. [1] Rana, however, was acquitted of a third charge, which had alleged his involvement in the November 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks.

ANIMESH ROUL

Securing Our World: Countering Chemical Terrorism in the Age of New Technologies

On November 27, 2023, the Twenty-Eighth Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CSP-28) opened in The Hague, Netherlands. This five-day meeting discusses various aspects associated with implementing the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which has been in effect since April 29 1997. Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is responsible for fulfilling the Convention’s mandate.

AJEY LELE

Diminishing Red Shadows: Assessing the Descent of Left Wing Extremism in India

The trend of Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in India demonstrates a downward trajectory. Despite this, sporadic incidents of violence result in casualties, and the evolving tactics employed by insurgents are being met with adept responses from the security apparatus. Against this backdrop, the current paper aims to integrate the strategies used in counterinsurgency operations against Indian Maoists into a broader framework. This includes examining their implications within the wider spectrum of global non-state and conventional military engagements.

UDDIPAN MUKHERJEE
November 17, 2023