The Elusive Terror Mastermind of India’s Mujahideen: A Profile of Ahmed Siddibaba a.k.a Yasin Bhatkal

Ahmed Siddibaba, also known as Yasin Bhatkal, notorious for his various aliases such as ‘Saharukh Khan’, ‘Sivanand’, and ‘Dr. Imran’, is believed to be in charge of the IM terror group since the top leaders of the homegrown terror group have fled to Pakistan and to the Gulf region following countrywide crackdowns.

Government and Negligence: Are they Synonyms?

On May 25 an explosion was reported outside the Delhi High Court in the scorching heat of the afternoon. It led to terror and fear amongst the people and without delay authorities set off high alert in the capital and tighten the security at public places. This has been the scene after every blast. Fortunately, no one was injured. May 25 blast was the second in the preceding eight months that happened on September 19, 2010. Many security measures were taken and made sure that further no such explosions would take place.

MALLIKA SINHA

Islam under Siege

Review by Niraj Kumar ( August 08, 2010):  The world has changed a lot since September 11, 2001. A new government under the leadership of Hamid Karzai is ruling Afghanistan, which was earlier ruled by the Taliban and acted as a haven for Al-Qaeda. Iraq is under US control, and Libya has agreed to mend its ways. The initial knee-jerk reaction of revenge for the death and destruction caused by the September 11 attacks by the Americans has given way to a desire to understand the reasons behind these attacks.

Transnational Terror: Lashkar-e-Taiba’s Chicago Plot

Three names have been doing the rounds in India these days: Maulana Ilyas Kashmiri, David Coleman Headley (a.k.a Dauod Geelani) and Tahawur Hussein Rana; one hard core veteran Jehadi and two motivated ‘would be’ terrorists. They are in the news for plotting major assaults in India. Among them, Ilyas Kashmiri who was rumored to be dead early this year, in fact survived three drone attacks in Pakistan’s Waziristan region, belongs to the Al Qaeda- Harkat-Ul- Jihad- Al-Islami (HuJI) lineage and heads Al Qaeda’s deadly 311 brigade. He still carries a head money of US $ 600,000 dollars.

Animesh Roul

Hacking: Novel Threat

Of late, the menace of computer ‘hacking’ has become a punishable offense when it compromises national security. Of course not all acts of hacking will be amounting to terrorism, and sometime used as a tool for pranks or profit. This could be regarded as terrorist action only if the hacking is designed to disrupt government’s activities, or to advance anti- national causes, or to intimidate its citizens. Either a threat or real use of it, is a potential act of terrorism, or rather can be regarded as cyber-crime or cyber-terrorism in a broader context.

Dr. Niranjan Barik

Gems, Timber and Jiziya: Pakistan's Taliban Harness Resources to Fund Jihad

The Taliban resurgence in Pakistan’s lawless provinces and its unhindered march towards the heartland of the restive country is fueled by an ever increasing economic life-line. Unlike Afghanistan’s Taliban, which depends on the poppy trade for revenues, the robustness of the Pakistan Taliban’s financial strength depends on a variety of sources, ranging from the timber trade, precious stone mining and now, the imposition of a religious/protection tax collected from minority religious communities.

India, Bangladesh: Joint Task Force for Countering Militancy

The Government of Bangladesh has recently accepted India’s proposal to set up a Joint Task Force to deal with militancy and other anti-national elements. However, modalities of the Task Force are yet to be decided. As of now, India will be assisting Bangladesh with intelligence inputs only without any direct involvement in any joint military operations to flush out militants taking shelter in Bangladesh.

Dr. Mansi Mehrotra