By K Subramanyam
Attacks on supplies show up vulnerability of NATO troops
Yet another convoy carrying essential supplies to the US and NATO forces deployed in Afghanistan has been attacked near Peshawar. This is the second attack in the past week and took place close to the corps headquarters and the provincial capital. These attacks happened when successive visits by the US secretary of state, defence secretary, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and deputy secretary of state were taking place in Islamabad. It appeared as though it was being clearly demonstrated to the US at the highest levels how vulnerable the supply lines to the US and NATO forces deployed in Afghanistan are.
One wonders whether it is a coincidence that this message is being communicated to the US even as General Petraeus is preparing his plans for a surge in Afghanistan with additional US forces. It is possible that the US and international community are being told that they need the Pakistani army’s cooperation for their campaign against the Taliban and therefore there are limits to what the US and its NATO allies can do to curb international terrorism originating from Pakistani soil. Surges of forces and increased missile strikes by the US and NATO forces can be countered by strangulation of supply lines from Karachi port to Kabul. General Petraeus did not face similar problems while sustaining surges in Iraq.
If the US and NATO do not take adequate steps to respond to such devastating attacks on supply convoys it would have an adverse impact on the truck operators leading to further disruptions in the US and NATO logistics. It would also embolden the Taliban to step up its attacks. It would appear that the leadership of the Pakistani army and the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) are testing the will of the incoming Barack Obama administration. The international crisis foreseen by vice-president-elect Joseph Biden within the first 100 days of Obama’s presidency may well prove to be Pakistani disruption of supply lines to US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Pakistanis, as evidenced from the pronouncements of their defence minister, are sensitive to the consequences of their being branded as a terrorist state and its impact on their country’s already crippled economy. They should also have taken note of the fact that the resolution in the UN Security Council declaring the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) a terrorist organisation did not face any reservations from China and Russia. Even as the Pakistani government nominally accepted the Security Council resolution, the Pakistani army and ISI appear to be testing how the US and NATO would react to the disruption of convoys to Kabul.
The trap they set out to provoke India into a military confrontation on the Operation Parakram model has not worked and therefore they cannot use the Indian alibi not to fulfil their obligations to cooperate with the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. President Asif Zardari’s pathetic denial that the captured terrorist in Mumbai is not a Pakistani has been rebuffed by the Pakistani media itself. More evidence of Pakistani involvement in the Mumbai terrorist attack will be available not only from Indian but also from US and UK sources, largely from communication intercepts.
In these circumstances Pakistan may try to bargain for being let off the hook on terrorism against India, ask the US and the West to put pressure on India to make concessions in Kashmir and pledge continued large-scale military and civil aid to Pakistan in return for uninterrupted supply lines to Kabul to aid US and NATO operations. The Pakistani army’s interest is not in allowing an early military victory for US and NATO forces. Its interests are served by a prolonged war, which would provide Pakistan aid over a longer period of time. It would also tire US and NATO forces in Afghanistan compelling them to consider the withdrawal option. That will only lead a triumphalist al-Qaeda and its associates — such as the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba and JuD — to step up their Islamist jihad all over the world.
Terrorist cadres recruited for jihad believe that they are destined to win as a civilisation though individually they may become martyrs. The jihadi fanatic poses threats to Russia and China as well. The stabilisation of Afghanistan is in the interest of not just the US, NATO and India but also of Russia, China and Central Asian republics and most of the Islamic world. In this context, the war against terrorism — of which Pakistan is now the epicentre — has become a global war. The attacks on Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Hyderabad and other Indian cities fall into the same category as those on New York, Washington, Bali, Madrid and London and constitute a jihadi offensive against civilised nations and values.
A major mistake was committed in the global war on terrorism by attention being diverted to Iraq. The beneficiaries of this mistake are the supporters of jihadi terrorism. Obama has advocated that Afghanistan and its neighbourhood should receive primary attention in battle against terrorism. The crucial need today is for him to build a coalition including NATO, Russia, China, India and moderate Islamic countries to contain terrorism in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region and then lend global support to Pakistan so that it can salvage its much-mauled democracy.
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query terrorism. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query terrorism. Sort by date Show all posts
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Held To Ransom
By K Subramanyam
Attacks on supplies show up vulnerability of NATO troops
Yet another convoy carrying essential supplies to the US and NATO forces deployed in Afghanistan has been attacked near Peshawar. This is the second attack in the past week and took place close to the corps headquarters and the provincial capital. These attacks happened when successive visits by the US secretary of state, defence secretary, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and deputy secretary of state were taking place in Islamabad. It appeared as though it was being clearly demonstrated to the US at the highest levels how vulnerable the supply lines to the US and NATO forces deployed in Afghanistan are.
One wonders whether it is a coincidence that this message is being communicated to the US even as General Petraeus is preparing his plans for a surge in Afghanistan with additional US forces. It is possible that the US and international community are being told that they need the Pakistani army’s cooperation for their campaign against the Taliban and therefore there are limits to what the US and its NATO allies can do to curb international terrorism originating from Pakistani soil. Surges of forces and increased missile strikes by the US and NATO forces can be countered by strangulation of supply lines from Karachi port to Kabul. General Petraeus did not face similar problems while sustaining surges in Iraq.
If the US and NATO do not take adequate steps to respond to such devastating attacks on supply convoys it would have an adverse impact on the truck operators leading to further disruptions in the US and NATO logistics. It would also embolden the Taliban to step up its attacks. It would appear that the leadership of the Pakistani army and the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) are testing the will of the incoming Barack Obama administration. The international crisis foreseen by vice-president-elect Joseph Biden within the first 100 days of Obama’s presidency may well prove to be Pakistani disruption of supply lines to US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Pakistanis, as evidenced from the pronouncements of their defence minister, are sensitive to the consequences of their being branded as a terrorist state and its impact on their country’s already crippled economy. They should also have taken note of the fact that the resolution in the UN Security Council declaring the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) a terrorist organisation did not face any reservations from China and Russia. Even as the Pakistani government nominally accepted the Security Council resolution, the Pakistani army and ISI appear to be testing how the US and NATO would react to the disruption of convoys to Kabul.
The trap they set out to provoke India into a military confrontation on the Operation Parakram model has not worked and therefore they cannot use the Indian alibi not to fulfil their obligations to cooperate with the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. President Asif Zardari’s pathetic denial that the captured terrorist in Mumbai is not a Pakistani has been rebuffed by the Pakistani media itself. More evidence of Pakistani involvement in the Mumbai terrorist attack will be available not only from Indian but also from US and UK sources, largely from communication intercepts.
In these circumstances Pakistan may try to bargain for being let off the hook on terrorism against India, ask the US and the West to put pressure on India to make concessions in Kashmir and pledge continued large-scale military and civil aid to Pakistan in return for uninterrupted supply lines to Kabul to aid US and NATO operations. The Pakistani army’s interest is not in allowing an early military victory for US and NATO forces. Its interests are served by a prolonged war, which would provide Pakistan aid over a longer period of time. It would also tire US and NATO forces in Afghanistan compelling them to consider the withdrawal option. That will only lead a triumphalist al-Qaeda and its associates — such as the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba and JuD — to step up their Islamist jihad all over the world.
Terrorist cadres recruited for jihad believe that they are destined to win as a civilisation though individually they may become martyrs. The jihadi fanatic poses threats to Russia and China as well. The stabilisation of Afghanistan is in the interest of not just the US, NATO and India but also of Russia, China and Central Asian republics and most of the Islamic world. In this context, the war against terrorism — of which Pakistan is now the epicentre — has become a global war. The attacks on Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Hyderabad and other Indian cities fall into the same category as those on New York, Washington, Bali, Madrid and London and constitute a jihadi offensive against civilised nations and values.
A major mistake was committed in the global war on terrorism by attention being diverted to Iraq. The beneficiaries of this mistake are the supporters of jihadi terrorism. Obama has advocated that Afghanistan and its neighbourhood should receive primary attention in battle against terrorism. The crucial need today is for him to build a coalition including NATO, Russia, China, India and moderate Islamic countries to contain terrorism in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region and then lend global support to Pakistan so that it can salvage its much-mauled democracy.
Attacks on supplies show up vulnerability of NATO troops
Yet another convoy carrying essential supplies to the US and NATO forces deployed in Afghanistan has been attacked near Peshawar. This is the second attack in the past week and took place close to the corps headquarters and the provincial capital. These attacks happened when successive visits by the US secretary of state, defence secretary, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and deputy secretary of state were taking place in Islamabad. It appeared as though it was being clearly demonstrated to the US at the highest levels how vulnerable the supply lines to the US and NATO forces deployed in Afghanistan are.
One wonders whether it is a coincidence that this message is being communicated to the US even as General Petraeus is preparing his plans for a surge in Afghanistan with additional US forces. It is possible that the US and international community are being told that they need the Pakistani army’s cooperation for their campaign against the Taliban and therefore there are limits to what the US and its NATO allies can do to curb international terrorism originating from Pakistani soil. Surges of forces and increased missile strikes by the US and NATO forces can be countered by strangulation of supply lines from Karachi port to Kabul. General Petraeus did not face similar problems while sustaining surges in Iraq.
If the US and NATO do not take adequate steps to respond to such devastating attacks on supply convoys it would have an adverse impact on the truck operators leading to further disruptions in the US and NATO logistics. It would also embolden the Taliban to step up its attacks. It would appear that the leadership of the Pakistani army and the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) are testing the will of the incoming Barack Obama administration. The international crisis foreseen by vice-president-elect Joseph Biden within the first 100 days of Obama’s presidency may well prove to be Pakistani disruption of supply lines to US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Pakistanis, as evidenced from the pronouncements of their defence minister, are sensitive to the consequences of their being branded as a terrorist state and its impact on their country’s already crippled economy. They should also have taken note of the fact that the resolution in the UN Security Council declaring the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) a terrorist organisation did not face any reservations from China and Russia. Even as the Pakistani government nominally accepted the Security Council resolution, the Pakistani army and ISI appear to be testing how the US and NATO would react to the disruption of convoys to Kabul.
The trap they set out to provoke India into a military confrontation on the Operation Parakram model has not worked and therefore they cannot use the Indian alibi not to fulfil their obligations to cooperate with the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. President Asif Zardari’s pathetic denial that the captured terrorist in Mumbai is not a Pakistani has been rebuffed by the Pakistani media itself. More evidence of Pakistani involvement in the Mumbai terrorist attack will be available not only from Indian but also from US and UK sources, largely from communication intercepts.
In these circumstances Pakistan may try to bargain for being let off the hook on terrorism against India, ask the US and the West to put pressure on India to make concessions in Kashmir and pledge continued large-scale military and civil aid to Pakistan in return for uninterrupted supply lines to Kabul to aid US and NATO operations. The Pakistani army’s interest is not in allowing an early military victory for US and NATO forces. Its interests are served by a prolonged war, which would provide Pakistan aid over a longer period of time. It would also tire US and NATO forces in Afghanistan compelling them to consider the withdrawal option. That will only lead a triumphalist al-Qaeda and its associates — such as the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba and JuD — to step up their Islamist jihad all over the world.
Terrorist cadres recruited for jihad believe that they are destined to win as a civilisation though individually they may become martyrs. The jihadi fanatic poses threats to Russia and China as well. The stabilisation of Afghanistan is in the interest of not just the US, NATO and India but also of Russia, China and Central Asian republics and most of the Islamic world. In this context, the war against terrorism — of which Pakistan is now the epicentre — has become a global war. The attacks on Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Hyderabad and other Indian cities fall into the same category as those on New York, Washington, Bali, Madrid and London and constitute a jihadi offensive against civilised nations and values.
A major mistake was committed in the global war on terrorism by attention being diverted to Iraq. The beneficiaries of this mistake are the supporters of jihadi terrorism. Obama has advocated that Afghanistan and its neighbourhood should receive primary attention in battle against terrorism. The crucial need today is for him to build a coalition including NATO, Russia, China, India and moderate Islamic countries to contain terrorism in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region and then lend global support to Pakistan so that it can salvage its much-mauled democracy.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Failure of Indian intelligence: The buck stops nowhere!
By M H Ahssan & John Wilson
The increasing failure of the intelligence agencies, both at the sate and the federal level, to prevent such attacks has emboldened the terrorists groups which have struck back, despite security measures...
Almost a dozen state police units and intelligence agencies were tracking down terrorist groups across India for the past two years but missed to detect the activities of the men who were involved in the Mumbai terror attack.
Though there were reports, based mainly on the interrogation of terrorists arrested in the recent past, about Mumbai being the next target, there were no specific leads about how the terrorists will strike.
The increasing failure of the intelligence agencies, both at the sate and the federal level, to prevent such attacks has emboldened the terrorists groups which have struck back, despite large scale arrests and security measures, at a frequency of two months in the recent past - Ahmedabad in July, Delhi in September and now Mumbai in November. These attacks were not carried out by the same group of terrorists but by a loose coalition of groups located in different parts of the country, activated and coordinated by a central command, likely to be outside India.
This singular inability is not caused by lack of information but a deep reluctance to share data and resources among the police and intelligence agencies and the pitfall of having a multiplicity of organisations, with separate command and control which, in essence, means the buck stops nowhere.
The most debilitating factor in the Indian intelligence war on terrorism has been the reluctance, and even refusal, to share information among the intelligence and security agencies. Along with an inept information-sharing architecture at the national level, this reluctance has proved to be the most critical flaw in counter-terrorism intelligence operations.
The problem came to the fore early this year when police in the Karnataka state of southern India arrested one Riyazuddin Nasir on charges of vehicle theft. Nasir would have been let out on bail for these minor charges but for a single intelligence official in New Delhi who decided to search the database for connections with terrorist activities. Nasir was found to be a Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami's (HuJI) operative and one of India's most wanted men.
It is not really difficult to see where the problem is: an intelligence structure which has yet to emerge from its debilitating colonial legacy and a complementary stranglehold of bureaucracy. The structure and operational philosophy of state police and intelligence units have not changed much since British days. They are mostly structured as agencies to protect law and order and spy on rivals rather than act as investigative and intelligence units. Criminal investigators are usually inserted into terrorism investigations only after an incident takes place. There are no independent anti-terror units carrying out both intelligence and investigations into terrorist groups at the state level.
At the top of the intelligence pyramid is the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), headed by an all-powerful, politically-appointed National Security Advisor (NSA), who often has much more than terrorism on his mind. Intelligence operations within the country are carried out by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and its wide network of officers and men, all reporting to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The ministry is headed by a cabinet minister and one or two ministers of state - besides a secretary and other senior officials - who often get tempted, at least close to the elections, to utilize the IB for assessing the electoral chances of their party while spying on their rivals. The IB is grossly under-staffed and the field operatives, numbering 3000, and analysts need to be updated on skills urgently.
External intelligence is the responsibility of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), working directly under the cabinet secretary but reporting to the NSA for all practical purposes. The RAW keeps a sharp eye on the activities of terrorist groups with bases in foreign countries. According to former IB joint director Maloy Krishna Dhar, RAW's reluctance to share information with the IB is legendary. There have also been instances where personality clashes have deterred effective coordination between the NSA and RAW chiefs. The RAW, for the moment, is riven with dissensions in the top rung and afflicted by unsavoury mud-slinging between various officers which have seriously affected its capability.
The second set of intelligence agencies are the military ones, led by the Directorate General of Military Intelligence (DGMI) with a network of field offices and forward posts in the border areas as well as representatives in diplomatic missions. Since the DGMI has been historically part of the army, the air force and navy have individual intelligence units collecting and collating information relevant to their operations and bases. The Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), created in 2002 to correct this anomaly, is entrusted with the task of coordinating the whole spectrum of military intelligence but is presently short-staffed, poorly funded and burdened with an ambitious and expanding circle of objectives.
Paramilitary organisations like the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Border Security Force (BSF) maintain their own intelligence units to support counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir and elsewhere. Their intelligence operations have often been stymied by the army's reluctance to share intelligence tapped from its wide network of informers and sources. Other government agencies providing physical security, like the Special Protection Group (SPG), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and National Security Guards (NSG), all maintain their own intelligence units.
At the bottom of the pyramid are the state police, whose intelligence networks remain the primary source of information and main agency for implementing action on the ground. The most critical element in this structure is the investigative branch of the local police forces. These go by various names, such as the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), the Special Branch or the Crime Branch. There is no uniformity in responsibilities or operational duties. Typically, these units carry out the investigation and prosecution of terrorist, and arms and counterfeit cases, placing them in the unique position of being able to detect the emergence of terror networks or coalitions.
Unfortunately, they remain the weakest link in the intelligence chain as these units carry the burden of acting as colonial-style law enforcement agencies and not as modern units capable of organising preventive measures based on intelligence collection. These forces are commonly afflicted with poor morale and problems related to accountability, pay and training. Even in metropolitan centres like New Delhi and Mumbai, the police-criminal nexus and pervasive corruption have rendered effective intelligence from federal agencies worthless.
There was clear intelligence available about terrorist attacks in Mumbai at least a month before the July 2006 commuter train blasts. This intelligence was not followed up on, nor were preventive measures put in place at railway stations. A week after the Mumbai bombings, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was quoted by the media as saying that "past responses have been inadequate in dealing with these problems which are of a different intensity, magnitude, scale and scope".
Of the several steps taken in recent years to overcome these outstanding difficulties, two held great promise. One was the creation of the National Technical Research Organization (NTRO), with a focus on collecting technical intelligence (TECHINT), cyber intelligence and cyber counter-intelligence. Beginning with RAW's Aviation Research Centre (ARC) assets, NTRO is rapidly expanding and strengthening its intelligence capabilities to fulfil this mandate.
On the other hand, the NTRO mandate adds one more agency to the mix, as the IB, RAW and the Indian Army's Signals Directorate will continue to maintain autonomous TECHINT units.
The second step was the establishment of a Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) and a Joint Task Force on intelligence within IB as a hub of India's counter-terrorism effort. The mission objective was to run an umbrella organization comprising state-level units called SMACs and the development of a national counter-terrorism database supported by state-level police-intelligence Joint Task Forces and inter-state Intelligence Support Teams. Conceived after the pattern of the US Central Investigative Agency's (CIA)Counter-Terrorism Center, the MAC was to be responsible for the joint analysis of intelligence flowing from different quarters and coordinating relevant follow-up actions.
Five years after MAC was approved, it is today composed of a skeletal staff and five SMACs, using a database hosted on a bare-bones computer system designed in-house, with no real-time links to state police forces or other intelligence agencies. There is no sign of the development of the comprehensive database on terrorists on which the entire counter-terrorism information grid was to be built. Senior intelligence officials have pointed out that the interrogation reports of 16,000 Islamist terrorists caught between 1991 and 2005 could prove to be a gold mine of actionable intelligence.
These inadequacies can be overcome by beefing up the present staff strength and widening the recruitment base to include the qualified technical personnel needed to develop, integrate and man the information grid. But progress is delayed due to unseemly bureaucratic wrangling over funding for an additional 140 positions at MAC. Added to this problem is the army's refusal to depute officials to the agency, citing disciplinary and administrative problems.
Difficulties like these and the tepid response of the state governments to a 2007 Supreme Court directive ordering improvements in the functioning of police and intelligence agencies continue to bedevil India's attempts to fashion an effective counter-terrorism strategy. Meanwhile, terrorist groups continue to display a marked advantage in adapting to newer technologies and modes of operation, allowing them to function more quickly and quietly than the Indian intelligence community.
The increasing failure of the intelligence agencies, both at the sate and the federal level, to prevent such attacks has emboldened the terrorists groups which have struck back, despite security measures...
Almost a dozen state police units and intelligence agencies were tracking down terrorist groups across India for the past two years but missed to detect the activities of the men who were involved in the Mumbai terror attack.
Though there were reports, based mainly on the interrogation of terrorists arrested in the recent past, about Mumbai being the next target, there were no specific leads about how the terrorists will strike.
The increasing failure of the intelligence agencies, both at the sate and the federal level, to prevent such attacks has emboldened the terrorists groups which have struck back, despite large scale arrests and security measures, at a frequency of two months in the recent past - Ahmedabad in July, Delhi in September and now Mumbai in November. These attacks were not carried out by the same group of terrorists but by a loose coalition of groups located in different parts of the country, activated and coordinated by a central command, likely to be outside India.
This singular inability is not caused by lack of information but a deep reluctance to share data and resources among the police and intelligence agencies and the pitfall of having a multiplicity of organisations, with separate command and control which, in essence, means the buck stops nowhere.
The most debilitating factor in the Indian intelligence war on terrorism has been the reluctance, and even refusal, to share information among the intelligence and security agencies. Along with an inept information-sharing architecture at the national level, this reluctance has proved to be the most critical flaw in counter-terrorism intelligence operations.
The problem came to the fore early this year when police in the Karnataka state of southern India arrested one Riyazuddin Nasir on charges of vehicle theft. Nasir would have been let out on bail for these minor charges but for a single intelligence official in New Delhi who decided to search the database for connections with terrorist activities. Nasir was found to be a Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami's (HuJI) operative and one of India's most wanted men.
It is not really difficult to see where the problem is: an intelligence structure which has yet to emerge from its debilitating colonial legacy and a complementary stranglehold of bureaucracy. The structure and operational philosophy of state police and intelligence units have not changed much since British days. They are mostly structured as agencies to protect law and order and spy on rivals rather than act as investigative and intelligence units. Criminal investigators are usually inserted into terrorism investigations only after an incident takes place. There are no independent anti-terror units carrying out both intelligence and investigations into terrorist groups at the state level.
At the top of the intelligence pyramid is the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), headed by an all-powerful, politically-appointed National Security Advisor (NSA), who often has much more than terrorism on his mind. Intelligence operations within the country are carried out by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and its wide network of officers and men, all reporting to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The ministry is headed by a cabinet minister and one or two ministers of state - besides a secretary and other senior officials - who often get tempted, at least close to the elections, to utilize the IB for assessing the electoral chances of their party while spying on their rivals. The IB is grossly under-staffed and the field operatives, numbering 3000, and analysts need to be updated on skills urgently.
External intelligence is the responsibility of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), working directly under the cabinet secretary but reporting to the NSA for all practical purposes. The RAW keeps a sharp eye on the activities of terrorist groups with bases in foreign countries. According to former IB joint director Maloy Krishna Dhar, RAW's reluctance to share information with the IB is legendary. There have also been instances where personality clashes have deterred effective coordination between the NSA and RAW chiefs. The RAW, for the moment, is riven with dissensions in the top rung and afflicted by unsavoury mud-slinging between various officers which have seriously affected its capability.
The second set of intelligence agencies are the military ones, led by the Directorate General of Military Intelligence (DGMI) with a network of field offices and forward posts in the border areas as well as representatives in diplomatic missions. Since the DGMI has been historically part of the army, the air force and navy have individual intelligence units collecting and collating information relevant to their operations and bases. The Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), created in 2002 to correct this anomaly, is entrusted with the task of coordinating the whole spectrum of military intelligence but is presently short-staffed, poorly funded and burdened with an ambitious and expanding circle of objectives.
Paramilitary organisations like the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Border Security Force (BSF) maintain their own intelligence units to support counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir and elsewhere. Their intelligence operations have often been stymied by the army's reluctance to share intelligence tapped from its wide network of informers and sources. Other government agencies providing physical security, like the Special Protection Group (SPG), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and National Security Guards (NSG), all maintain their own intelligence units.
At the bottom of the pyramid are the state police, whose intelligence networks remain the primary source of information and main agency for implementing action on the ground. The most critical element in this structure is the investigative branch of the local police forces. These go by various names, such as the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), the Special Branch or the Crime Branch. There is no uniformity in responsibilities or operational duties. Typically, these units carry out the investigation and prosecution of terrorist, and arms and counterfeit cases, placing them in the unique position of being able to detect the emergence of terror networks or coalitions.
Unfortunately, they remain the weakest link in the intelligence chain as these units carry the burden of acting as colonial-style law enforcement agencies and not as modern units capable of organising preventive measures based on intelligence collection. These forces are commonly afflicted with poor morale and problems related to accountability, pay and training. Even in metropolitan centres like New Delhi and Mumbai, the police-criminal nexus and pervasive corruption have rendered effective intelligence from federal agencies worthless.
There was clear intelligence available about terrorist attacks in Mumbai at least a month before the July 2006 commuter train blasts. This intelligence was not followed up on, nor were preventive measures put in place at railway stations. A week after the Mumbai bombings, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was quoted by the media as saying that "past responses have been inadequate in dealing with these problems which are of a different intensity, magnitude, scale and scope".
Of the several steps taken in recent years to overcome these outstanding difficulties, two held great promise. One was the creation of the National Technical Research Organization (NTRO), with a focus on collecting technical intelligence (TECHINT), cyber intelligence and cyber counter-intelligence. Beginning with RAW's Aviation Research Centre (ARC) assets, NTRO is rapidly expanding and strengthening its intelligence capabilities to fulfil this mandate.
On the other hand, the NTRO mandate adds one more agency to the mix, as the IB, RAW and the Indian Army's Signals Directorate will continue to maintain autonomous TECHINT units.
The second step was the establishment of a Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) and a Joint Task Force on intelligence within IB as a hub of India's counter-terrorism effort. The mission objective was to run an umbrella organization comprising state-level units called SMACs and the development of a national counter-terrorism database supported by state-level police-intelligence Joint Task Forces and inter-state Intelligence Support Teams. Conceived after the pattern of the US Central Investigative Agency's (CIA)Counter-Terrorism Center, the MAC was to be responsible for the joint analysis of intelligence flowing from different quarters and coordinating relevant follow-up actions.
Five years after MAC was approved, it is today composed of a skeletal staff and five SMACs, using a database hosted on a bare-bones computer system designed in-house, with no real-time links to state police forces or other intelligence agencies. There is no sign of the development of the comprehensive database on terrorists on which the entire counter-terrorism information grid was to be built. Senior intelligence officials have pointed out that the interrogation reports of 16,000 Islamist terrorists caught between 1991 and 2005 could prove to be a gold mine of actionable intelligence.
These inadequacies can be overcome by beefing up the present staff strength and widening the recruitment base to include the qualified technical personnel needed to develop, integrate and man the information grid. But progress is delayed due to unseemly bureaucratic wrangling over funding for an additional 140 positions at MAC. Added to this problem is the army's refusal to depute officials to the agency, citing disciplinary and administrative problems.
Difficulties like these and the tepid response of the state governments to a 2007 Supreme Court directive ordering improvements in the functioning of police and intelligence agencies continue to bedevil India's attempts to fashion an effective counter-terrorism strategy. Meanwhile, terrorist groups continue to display a marked advantage in adapting to newer technologies and modes of operation, allowing them to function more quickly and quietly than the Indian intelligence community.
Monday, May 11, 2009
FAKE CURRENCY MEANCE GRIPPING INDIA
By M H Ahssan
A country’s currency is one of its cornerstones. Its value against other currencies reflects the strength of its economy and is also a matter of national pride. What it buys is of great importance to its citizens. Consequently, its effective management is a great concern for any government.
Today this pillar of our country is under attack from an insidious and invisible enemy. A proliferation of fake currency over the last three years has grown to dangerous proportions.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 2,204 cases of counterfeiting were reported in 2007. Small states like Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh witnessed an average increase of 185 per cent in counterfeiting cases between 2006 and 2007.
Today this pillar of our country is under attack from an insidious and invisible enemyThere have been seizures of fake Indian currency in Colombo, Bangkok and Nepal. There are reports of fake currency notes now being dispensed by banks and ATM machines.
As India grapples with a financial downturn, the spread of counterfeit notes leads to greater uncertainty, undermining a country’s confidence in its financial system and the strength of its currency. Counterfeit currency has always been used to fund criminal activity, be it drugs or arms smuggling. Today it is being used by India’s enemies, namely by Pakistan’s ISI, to carry out what can only be called economic terrorism against our country.
Indian intelligence agencies have traced the routes used by counterfeiters, all of which lead back to Pakistan. The money is printed across the border, stocked in Dubai and then shipped out to our neighbours, from where it is moved into the Indian market through our porous borders. These fake notes spread through the economy and are also used to fund the operations of terrorist groups. Today it is estimated that eight or nine notes of every thousand in circulation in India are counterfeit.
HNN story on fake currency was put together by Senior Editor Malini Bhupta along with our correspondents from all across the country who spoke to officials at the Reserve Bank, private and public sector banks as well as intelligence sources. Bhupta found that the impact of the fake currency racket was being felt at all levels. Staff at a bank told her that they get about a dozen dud notes in a day. The owners of very small shops were investing in currency detection machines, tired of having their earnings destroyed by banks because the notes had turned out to be counterfeit. Our story tells you how to recognise a fake note from a real one and what to do if you happen to be given a counterfeit currency note.
Everyone in the Government understands just where this problem can lead. In the course of our investigation, we found that just like in our response to conventional terror, there was no co-ordination between various agencies involved in this case. It is an appalling state of affairs.
Our economy, the foundation of India’s strength and confidence, is under attack and this situation requires an intelligent and swift response. The currency notes may be fake but their consequences are very real.
Fake Currency: Terror’s Tool
When a thief enters a house the watchdog barks. If the inmates do not wake up, it barks again, and then again. If the inmates still do not awaken, should the watchdog stop barking? This scribe is facing a similar dilemma. According to official sources the threat of terror has reached new heights. The amount of fake Indian currency in existence today is huge. According to one national daily, in UP alone over Rs 40 crore is estimated to be in circulation.
The CBI has confirmed that two sets of currency notes with the same serial numbers have been seized in branches of nationalized banks. It has claimed that the fake notes were brought into India through Nepal by Pakistan's ISI. The CBI has also confirmed that the fake currency notes are of such fine quality that they are indistinguishable from genuine notes. That is why branches of the State Bank of India can pass off fake notes as genuine currency. But, all said, can this happen if some bank officials are not complicit with anti-national elements? Elements that use the fake currency for crime and terrorism?
Every single element of this information has been written about explicitly and repeatedly by this scribe: he wrote these facts in March 2000, in June 2000, in March 2002, in July 2004 and in August 2006. All this time, the fake currency racket was expanding, but had not reached its present dimension. It was pointed out that fake currency greatly facilitated terrorism – that it was masterminded by foreign powers. Indeed, it was pointed out that the sheer volume of fake currency, indistinguishable from genuine notes, could destroy India's economy without terrorism! It was pointed out, too, that the Reserve Bank's admission that it could not authenticate currency notes in a particular fake currency police case meant that, for all practical purposes, there was no legal tender in the country. Finally, it was pointed out that using the same machines to print currency notes and stamp paper was a procedure followed for both fake currency notes and fake stamp paper. The money thus generated in both scams was of course exploited by terrorists.
This scribe's involvement in the subject originated in 1995. A section of the bureaucracy made available to him information regarding the government's decision to purchase inferior and unreliable printing machines for manufacture of currency notes, thereby replacing machines of a tried and tested firm which had served the country well for over a hundred years. He filed public interest litigation against the RBI in the High Court of Judicature in Mumbai to prevent use of the new machines for printing currency notes. His plea was that the proven record of the new machines, Komori of Japan, endangered national security because fake notes not distinguishable from genuine notes could be easily manufactured for deployment by terrorists. To cut a long story short, the RBI accepted every single argument of the petitioner. It conceded that Komori machines presented "a risk factor" and "teething troubles". It admitted that the earlier machines, Giori of Switzerland, which printed currency for ninety per cent of the nations in the world, were markedly superior. It confirmed that the use of Komori machines in Russia had ended in disaster. The machines had to be abandoned for printing currency.
Despite these admissions, all on record, the court rejected the petition. RBI's main argument was that the monopoly of Giori needed to be ended! Without a thought for national security, and the facts marshaled by the petitioner's counsel, the court rejected the petition.
An eminent lawyer argued for RBI. This scribe was acquainted with him. The lawyer impertinently suggested that this scribe's petition was in some way linked to those who were contesting the award to Komori on behalf of its Swiss rival, Giori. When the national security angle was drummed into his ears he said: "Why did you not approach me earlier?" Had that been done would he have changed his view of the case? Was that all that the case meant to him – a clash of sordid commercial interests? My respect for him fell many notches. The judiciary and the legal fraternity failed miserably in this case.
The politicians fared no better. Even before the public interest litigation was filed, Parliament had discussed the government's proposal to buy these new untried machines for printing currency. Among the several MPs who criticized the government's move was Somnath Chatterjee. But once Komori got the award the MPs lost interest. It seemed that they were interested mainly in the commercial aspects of the case. A Kolkata based industrialist was rooting for Giori to get the award. Dr Manmohan Singh was the Finance Minister when Komori got the contract to print currency notes. He maintained silence throughout the controversy. When a few years later it transpired that fake notes with the same serial numbers as genuine notes could not be differentiated even by the RBI, rendering the notion of legal tender defunct, Yashwant Sinha was the Finance Minister. He too remained silent on this affair. So, regardless of party affiliation, the politicians as a class failed miserably in this case.
During the decade or so when this scribe fought the case in court and wrote about the danger of fake currency in the media, not one newspaper highlighted the scandalous manner of awarding the contract to Komori for printing currency notes, and how this endangered national security. This scribe personally phoned and requested colleagues better placed than him, and occupying key positions in the media, to take up the matter. Not one obliged. So, in this case the media also failed miserably in this case.
The National Security Adviser has revealed that there are over 800 terrorist cells operating in the country. With the kind of easy money floating around, should that cause any surprise? And with the easy attitude evident in the establishment to matters related to national security, as revealed by the fake currency scam, was not escalation of terrorism inevitable? The government took security steps to prevent exact replication of currency notes. These steps became effective after 2005. The fake currency notes therefore are dated before 2005.
Politicians, experts, retired bureaucrats and media pundits favor the enactment of tougher new laws to fight terrorism. They sound pathetic. Considering the approach to fighting terror revealed by the fake currency racket, do they seriously believe that new laws would help solve the problem of terrorism?
Fake currency notes, new mode of terrorism?
Barely weeks have passed since we lost hundreds of innocent lives in Ahmedabad and Bangalore terror blasts. In the recent days, several live bombs have been found in the ’diamond city of India’, Surat. Terrorism is changing its face; sometime, it’s in a radio, sometime it’s in a pressure cooker and sometime it’s on a bicycle.
Indians are being terrorised by such acts. People are killed and probes are done. Our economy is hoped to reach the eight to nine per cent growth. But, what will happen to an economy, which is being flooded by fake currencies? Somebody has termed as ‘economic subversion’ while others call it as ’economic terrorism’. When ‘legal tender’, the ‘fiat money’ of a country is quietly being replaced by good quality ‘paper’ but sometimes have the same numbers and series (as real one), who can question the ‘legality’ of those ‘papers’, which are in huge circulation in this country?
An estimate suggests that stupendous more than Rs 1,69,000 crores of fake currencies are in wide circulation in our country and out of which more than Rs 40 crores may be in Uttar Pradesh itself.
Recent acts of economic terror has been found in Abid, in Doomariaganj of UP where from a bank’s currency chest fake notes have been seized. Though quantum of currency note is officially seized is not more than Rs 5 lakh, the deadliest part of this seizure is the modus operandi of this conspiracy, which is having enough potential to derail our bugging economy.
Look, the serial numbers on the fake money lying in the currency chest of the bank were the same as that of genuine notes. This establishes the two facts, the gang members would have known the number of currency notes lying in the currency chest of the bank and at their ‘printing press’ these numbers would have been informed. Second fact is more dangerous that there must be collusion between these gang members and the bank officials handling cash of that branch. If the hands of terrorists are spread to an institution which is nerve of economy, the catastrophe may not be far away.
Apart from that it has been told that the quality of papers, the quality of printing are of such a fine quality that it is not possible to differentiate between a genuine and a fake one. It also highlights the facts that advanced technology is being used to print such fake notes.
The fake currency notes are certainly posing grave threat to the Indian economy and the government is also aware of these facts.
Fake Currency: A Threat
More than a quarter of the currency in the hands of the public in India currently may be counter-feit. Intelligence Bureau (IB) estimated that fake currency amounting to a mind-boggling Rs 1, 69,000 crore is floating in India. It appears that this fake currency is being pumped in through the official banking system. In Uttar Pradesh in the first week of August, fake currency amounting to nearly Rs 3 Crore was found stashed in chests of the SBI and ICICI Bank.
The banking system is now being used by insiders to circulate fake currency. This was corroborated by what the suspects held in Uttar Pradesh had told police. The central bank has been largely ineffective in monitoring the banking system to check the circulation of counterfeit currency. They have not been able to put in place any comprehensive mechanism to check the entry and spread of fake currency.
Intelligence inputs that Pakistan’s Infer Services Intelligence (ISI) pumps in over Rs. 13 crore annually to fund terrorist activities in Mumbai alone has startled the city police. The fact that this funding is being carried out by dumping fake India currency has put both the anti-terrorism squad (ATS) and the crime branch on alert. Obviously the ISI is cleverly fighting a proxy war in India, that too with Indian money, bleeding our financial system while spilling blood on the streets. The counterfeit currency smuggled in by air and land is handed over to local agents for distribution.
This money is used to finance terror-related activities and make payments to cadres of terrorist organizations and underworld outfits close to the ISI. According to the crime branch, small amounts of fake currency are smuggled in by Bangladeshi nationals through India’s porous eastern borders from places like Murshidabad and Bashirhat. The larger quantities arrive from Dubai, Kathmandu, Bangkok, Karachi and Kolkata.
The entire terrorist network is sustained using genuine currency acquired from within India. A key sector where intelligence and security officials believe that large amounts of fake currency have entered the system is the property market. Unless the property market is regulated it is very easy for an individual to pump a few lakh rupees into the official economy every few days. Many of the officials are now calling for immediate measures to flush out fake currency from the system. Random checks across India in currency chests and bank branches should be the first step. Simultaneously state governments have to put in place a system to curtail the movement of large amounts of cash into the system and from the system in the form of, say, property deals.
The amount of fake currency being pumped in overland has come down over the years. But the state is still to take strict action at sea. The Jhakhau and Mendhi stretches near Kutch are considered the most vulnerable sea routes. These counterfeit notes are hard to identify and come in handy for terrorists while arranging logistic like rented accommodation and vehicles for travel. The money is being pumped in from almost all over the country which is a big threat to the country and need to be checked.
A country’s currency is one of its cornerstones. Its value against other currencies reflects the strength of its economy and is also a matter of national pride. What it buys is of great importance to its citizens. Consequently, its effective management is a great concern for any government.
Today this pillar of our country is under attack from an insidious and invisible enemy. A proliferation of fake currency over the last three years has grown to dangerous proportions. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 2,204 cases of counterfeiting were reported in 2007. Small states like Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh witnessed an average increase of 185 per cent in counterfeiting cases between 2006 and 2007.
Today this pillar of our country is under attack from an insidious and invisible enemyThere have been seizures of fake Indian currency in Colombo, Bangkok and Nepal. There are reports of fake currency notes now being dispensed by banks and ATM machines.As India grapples with a financial downturn, the spread of counterfeit notes leads to greater uncertainty, undermining a country’s confidence in its financial system and the strength of its currency. Counterfeit currency has always been used to fund criminal activity, be it drugs or arms smuggling. Today it is being used by India’s enemies, namely by Pakistan’s ISI, to carry out what can only be called economic terrorism against our country.
Indian intelligence agencies have traced the routes used by counterfeiters, all of which lead back to Pakistan. The money is printed across the border, stocked in Dubai and then shipped out to our neighbours, from where it is moved into the Indian market through our porous borders. These fake notes spread through the economy and are also used to fund the operations of terrorist groups. Today it is estimated that eight or nine notes of every thousand in circulation in India are counterfeit.
HNN story on fake currency was put together by Senior Editor Malini Bhupta along with our correspondents from all across the country who spoke to officials at the Reserve Bank, private and public sector banks as well as intelligence sources. Bhupta found that the impact of the fake currency racket was being felt at all levels. Staff at a bank told her that they get about a dozen dud notes in a day. The owners of very small shops were investing in currency detection machines, tired of having their earnings destroyed by banks because the notes had turned out to be counterfeit. Our story tells you how to recognise a fake note from a real one and what to do if you happen to be given a counterfeit currency note.
Everyone in the Government understands just where this problem can lead. In the course of our investigation, we found that just like in our response to conventional terror, there was no co-ordination between various agencies involved in this case. It is an appalling state of affairs.
Our economy, the foundation of India’s strength and confidence, is under attack and this situation requires an intelligent and swift response. The currency notes may be fake but their consequences are very real.
Fake Currency: Terror’s Tool
When a thief enters a house the watchdog barks. If the inmates do not wake up, it barks again, and then again. If the inmates still do not awaken, should the watchdog stop barking? This scribe is facing a similar dilemma. According to official sources the threat of terror has reached new heights. The amount of fake Indian currency in existence today is huge. According to one national daily, in UP alone over Rs 40 crore is estimated to be in circulation.
The CBI has confirmed that two sets of currency notes with the same serial numbers have been seized in branches of nationalized banks. It has claimed that the fake notes were brought into India through Nepal by Pakistan's ISI. The CBI has also confirmed that the fake currency notes are of such fine quality that they are indistinguishable from genuine notes. That is why branches of the State Bank of India can pass off fake notes as genuine currency. But, all said, can this happen if some bank officials are not complicit with anti-national elements? Elements that use the fake currency for crime and terrorism?
Every single element of this information has been written about explicitly and repeatedly by this scribe: he wrote these facts in March 2000, in June 2000, in March 2002, in July 2004 and in August 2006. All this time, the fake currency racket was expanding, but had not reached its present dimension. It was pointed out that fake currency greatly facilitated terrorism – that it was masterminded by foreign powers. Indeed, it was pointed out that the sheer volume of fake currency, indistinguishable from genuine notes, could destroy India's economy without terrorism! It was pointed out, too, that the Reserve Bank's admission that it could not authenticate currency notes in a particular fake currency police case meant that, for all practical purposes, there was no legal tender in the country. Finally, it was pointed out that using the same machines to print currency notes and stamp paper was a procedure followed for both fake currency notes and fake stamp paper. The money thus generated in both scams was of course exploited by terrorists.
This scribe's involvement in the subject originated in 1995. A section of the bureaucracy made available to him information regarding the government's decision to purchase inferior and unreliable printing machines for manufacture of currency notes, thereby replacing machines of a tried and tested firm which had served the country well for over a hundred years. He filed public interest litigation against the RBI in the High Court of Judicature in Mumbai to prevent use of the new machines for printing currency notes. His plea was that the proven record of the new machines, Komori of Japan, endangered national security because fake notes not distinguishable from genuine notes could be easily manufactured for deployment by terrorists. To cut a long story short, the RBI accepted every single argument of the petitioner. It conceded that Komori machines presented "a risk factor" and "teething troubles". It admitted that the earlier machines, Giori of Switzerland, which printed currency for ninety per cent of the nations in the world, were markedly superior. It confirmed that the use of Komori machines in Russia had ended in disaster. The machines had to be abandoned for printing currency.
Despite these admissions, all on record, the court rejected the petition. RBI's main argument was that the monopoly of Giori needed to be ended! Without a thought for national security, and the facts marshaled by the petitioner's counsel, the court rejected the petition.
An eminent lawyer argued for RBI. This scribe was acquainted with him. The lawyer impertinently suggested that this scribe's petition was in some way linked to those who were contesting the award to Komori on behalf of its Swiss rival, Giori. When the national security angle was drummed into his ears he said: "Why did you not approach me earlier?" Had that been done would he have changed his view of the case? Was that all that the case meant to him – a clash of sordid commercial interests? My respect for him fell many notches. The judiciary and the legal fraternity failed miserably in this case.
The politicians fared no better. Even before the public interest litigation was filed, Parliament had discussed the government's proposal to buy these new untried machines for printing currency. Among the several MPs who criticized the government's move was Somnath Chatterjee. But once Komori got the award the MPs lost interest. It seemed that they were interested mainly in the commercial aspects of the case. A Kolkata based industrialist was rooting for Giori to get the award. Dr Manmohan Singh was the Finance Minister when Komori got the contract to print currency notes. He maintained silence throughout the controversy. When a few years later it transpired that fake notes with the same serial numbers as genuine notes could not be differentiated even by the RBI, rendering the notion of legal tender defunct, Yashwant Sinha was the Finance Minister. He too remained silent on this affair. So, regardless of party affiliation, the politicians as a class failed miserably in this case.
During the decade or so when this scribe fought the case in court and wrote about the danger of fake currency in the media, not one newspaper highlighted the scandalous manner of awarding the contract to Komori for printing currency notes, and how this endangered national security. This scribe personally phoned and requested colleagues better placed than him, and occupying key positions in the media, to take up the matter. Not one obliged. So, in this case the media also failed miserably in this case.
The National Security Adviser has revealed that there are over 800 terrorist cells operating in the country. With the kind of easy money floating around, should that cause any surprise? And with the easy attitude evident in the establishment to matters related to national security, as revealed by the fake currency scam, was not escalation of terrorism inevitable? The government took security steps to prevent exact replication of currency notes. These steps became effective after 2005. The fake currency notes therefore are dated before 2005.
Politicians, experts, retired bureaucrats and media pundits favor the enactment of tougher new laws to fight terrorism. They sound pathetic. Considering the approach to fighting terror revealed by the fake currency racket, do they seriously believe that new laws would help solve the problem of terrorism?
Fake currency notes, new mode of terrorism?
Barely weeks have passed since we lost hundreds of innocent lives in Ahmedabad and Bangalore terror blasts. In the recent days, several live bombs have been found in the ’diamond city of India’, Surat. Terrorism is changing its face; sometime, it’s in a radio, sometime it’s in a pressure cooker and sometime it’s on a bicycle.
Indians are being terrorised by such acts. People are killed and probes are done. Our economy is hoped to reach the eight to nine per cent growth. But, what will happen to an economy, which is being flooded by fake currencies? Somebody has termed as ‘economic subversion’ while others call it as ’economic terrorism’. When ‘legal tender’, the ‘fiat money’ of a country is quietly being replaced by good quality ‘paper’ but sometimes have the same numbers and series (as real one), who can question the ‘legality’ of those ‘papers’, which are in huge circulation in this country?
An estimate suggests that stupendous more than Rs 1,69,000 crores of fake currencies are in wide circulation in our country and out of which more than Rs 40 crores may be in Uttar Pradesh itself.
Recent acts of economic terror has been found in Abid, in Doomariaganj of UP where from a bank’s currency chest fake notes have been seized. Though quantum of currency note is officially seized is not more than Rs 5 lakh, the deadliest part of this seizure is the modus operandi of this conspiracy, which is having enough potential to derail our bugging economy.
Look, the serial numbers on the fake money lying in the currency chest of the bank were the same as that of genuine notes. This establishes the two facts, the gang members would have known the number of currency notes lying in the currency chest of the bank and at their ‘printing press’ these numbers would have been informed. Second fact is more dangerous that there must be collusion between these gang members and the bank officials handling cash of that branch. If the hands of terrorists are spread to an institution which is nerve of economy, the catastrophe may not be far away.
Apart from that it has been told that the quality of papers, the quality of printing are of such a fine quality that it is not possible to differentiate between a genuine and a fake one. It also highlights the facts that advanced technology is being used to print such fake notes.
The fake currency notes are certainly posing grave threat to the Indian economy and the government is also aware of these facts.
Fake Currency: A Threat
More than a quarter of the currency in the hands of the public in India currently may be counter-feit. Intelligence Bureau (IB) estimated that fake currency amounting to a mind-boggling Rs 1, 69,000 crore is floating in India. It appears that this fake currency is being pumped in through the official banking system. In Uttar Pradesh in the first week of August, fake currency amounting to nearly Rs 3 Crore was found stashed in chests of the SBI and ICICI Bank.
The banking system is now being used by insiders to circulate fake currency. This was corroborated by what the suspects held in Uttar Pradesh had told police. The central bank has been largely ineffective in monitoring the banking system to check the circulation of counterfeit currency. They have not been able to put in place any comprehensive mechanism to check the entry and spread of fake currency.
Intelligence inputs that Pakistan’s Infer Services Intelligence (ISI) pumps in over Rs. 13 crore annually to fund terrorist activities in Mumbai alone has startled the city police. The fact that this funding is being carried out by dumping fake India currency has put both the anti-terrorism squad (ATS) and the crime branch on alert. Obviously the ISI is cleverly fighting a proxy war in India, that too with Indian money, bleeding our financial system while spilling blood on the streets. The counterfeit currency smuggled in by air and land is handed over to local agents for distribution.
This money is used to finance terror-related activities and make payments to cadres of terrorist organizations and underworld outfits close to the ISI. According to the crime branch, small amounts of fake currency are smuggled in by Bangladeshi nationals through India’s porous eastern borders from places like Murshidabad and Bashirhat. The larger quantities arrive from Dubai, Kathmandu, Bangkok, Karachi and Kolkata.
The entire terrorist network is sustained using genuine currency acquired from within India. A key sector where intelligence and security officials believe that large amounts of fake currency have entered the system is the property market. Unless the property market is regulated it is very easy for an individual to pump a few lakh rupees into the official economy every few days. Many of the officials are now calling for immediate measures to flush out fake currency from the system. Random checks across India in currency chests and bank branches should be the first step. Simultaneously state governments have to put in place a system to curtail the movement of large amounts of cash into the system and from the system in the form of, say, property deals.
The amount of fake currency being pumped in overland has come down over the years. But the state is still to take strict action at sea. The Jhakhau and Mendhi stretches near Kutch are considered the most vulnerable sea routes. These counterfeit notes are hard to identify and come in handy for terrorists while arranging logistic like rented accommodation and vehicles for travel. The money is being pumped in from almost all over the country which is a big threat to the country and need to be checked.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Saudi Success in Combating - Terror Relevant to India
By Javid Hassan
In a major development that should be of interest to India, an expert committee set up by the Saudi government is vetting a draft law to punish those who threaten the national security of other countries.
The new law, which also deals with organized crimes and terrorism-related offences, will carry the maximum sentence of capital punishment for the convict, according to the Saudi media, which have quoted Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, as saying. He described such crimes as “haraba,” a Qur’anic term meaning “sowing corruption and chaos on earth.”
Since both India and Saudi Arabia have been victims of terrorism, now is the time to share information on how they could combat this menace in their mutual interest. There are two broad areas of cooperation from India’s point of view. One is a Saudi proposal mooted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for establishing an international centre on combating terrorism
The other one is the launch of an institute for training imams and khatibs (those who lead prayers in mosques or deliver sermons before the start of Friday prayers). Both these developments are significant, since there many poorly educated preachers who misinterpret Islamic teachings, emphasizing certain aspects and playing down others. They represent a growing trend that has seen preachers well versed in their own field but woefully lacking even basic knowledge of science.
On the issue of combating terrorism, King Abdullah had proposed the setting up of an international center during a major conference three years ago. The proposal met with a lukewarm response despite attempts to take it forward. Subsequent events since 9/11 have warranted the need for reviving this initiative with all the seriousness that it deserves.
The leaders of both countries, together with their experts, could work out the modalities of fine-tuning the proposal from the conceptual to the operational stage. The starting point of the exercise should be to arrive at a global definition of terrorism and the root cause of this phenomenon that has cost the international community trillions of dollars in cumulative damage with no end in sight.
What is important is to identify the various terrorist outfits, their modus operandi and how they indoctrinate the recruits. This is where the Saudi government’s strategy seeks to prevent extremist ideas from infecting immature minds. To this end, the government has drawn up a plan that will bring together religious scholars and social scientists on a common platform to explain the true teachings of Islam as a religion of peace and moderation. They will also explore the problem from a socio-economic perspective to get an overall picture.
In the Saudi context, which is equally relevant to India’s, terrorists draft recruits from the unemployed youth who are lured by monetary incentives. In fact, Prince Naif has urged all Saudi universities to fight terrorism at the academic level by conducting research on why and how some young Saudis fell into the trap.
The Interior Ministry recently launched a campaign in Hafr Al-Batin, a conservative stronghold in northeastern Saudi Arabia, where preachers and experts are working towards reforming individuals arrested on terror charges. They counter the influence of extremist teachings by emphasizing the sanctity of life in Islam, its stress on kindness, compassion, accountability for one’s acts of omission and commission on the Day of Judgment, etc.
At another level, imams and Friday preachers in the Kingdom’s mosques are instructed to be careful in their sermons. “A preacher should know that it is his religious duty to speak out against terror and misguided ideologies as he is aware of what the Shariah (Islamic law) says on the matter,” Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance Saleh Al-Ashaikh said during an address at the Islamic University of Medina recently.
To this end, a Higher Institute for Imams and Khatibs has been set up at Taiba University, near Jeddah. The institute will graduate preachers who will be skilled not only in modern methods of communication but also moderate in their outlook. It will also strive to erase warped ideas among traditional preachers. Some 55 imams and preachers, besides several members from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (religious police) attended the course.
The need for such educated and moderate Imams could go a long way in weaning the Muslim youth away from the path of extremism. Many of these preachers, even if well-versed in Islamic teachings, lack even elementary knowledge of science. In one of Bangalore’s mosques, a preacher, who was extolling the spiritual and health benefits of zamzam water that pilgrims normally bring with them after performing Haj, explained how rich it is in ‘vitamins’ (sic)..
A nephew of mine, who has just landed a job in the UAE, narrated the case of a Pakistani expatriate working there. The latter, who happens to be his acquaintance, insists that this youth should attend all religious congregations, which should take precedence over everything else, including job. How can Muslims progress with such a mindset?
In a major development that should be of interest to India, an expert committee set up by the Saudi government is vetting a draft law to punish those who threaten the national security of other countries.
The new law, which also deals with organized crimes and terrorism-related offences, will carry the maximum sentence of capital punishment for the convict, according to the Saudi media, which have quoted Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, as saying. He described such crimes as “haraba,” a Qur’anic term meaning “sowing corruption and chaos on earth.”
Since both India and Saudi Arabia have been victims of terrorism, now is the time to share information on how they could combat this menace in their mutual interest. There are two broad areas of cooperation from India’s point of view. One is a Saudi proposal mooted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for establishing an international centre on combating terrorism
The other one is the launch of an institute for training imams and khatibs (those who lead prayers in mosques or deliver sermons before the start of Friday prayers). Both these developments are significant, since there many poorly educated preachers who misinterpret Islamic teachings, emphasizing certain aspects and playing down others. They represent a growing trend that has seen preachers well versed in their own field but woefully lacking even basic knowledge of science.
On the issue of combating terrorism, King Abdullah had proposed the setting up of an international center during a major conference three years ago. The proposal met with a lukewarm response despite attempts to take it forward. Subsequent events since 9/11 have warranted the need for reviving this initiative with all the seriousness that it deserves.
The leaders of both countries, together with their experts, could work out the modalities of fine-tuning the proposal from the conceptual to the operational stage. The starting point of the exercise should be to arrive at a global definition of terrorism and the root cause of this phenomenon that has cost the international community trillions of dollars in cumulative damage with no end in sight.
What is important is to identify the various terrorist outfits, their modus operandi and how they indoctrinate the recruits. This is where the Saudi government’s strategy seeks to prevent extremist ideas from infecting immature minds. To this end, the government has drawn up a plan that will bring together religious scholars and social scientists on a common platform to explain the true teachings of Islam as a religion of peace and moderation. They will also explore the problem from a socio-economic perspective to get an overall picture.
In the Saudi context, which is equally relevant to India’s, terrorists draft recruits from the unemployed youth who are lured by monetary incentives. In fact, Prince Naif has urged all Saudi universities to fight terrorism at the academic level by conducting research on why and how some young Saudis fell into the trap.
The Interior Ministry recently launched a campaign in Hafr Al-Batin, a conservative stronghold in northeastern Saudi Arabia, where preachers and experts are working towards reforming individuals arrested on terror charges. They counter the influence of extremist teachings by emphasizing the sanctity of life in Islam, its stress on kindness, compassion, accountability for one’s acts of omission and commission on the Day of Judgment, etc.
At another level, imams and Friday preachers in the Kingdom’s mosques are instructed to be careful in their sermons. “A preacher should know that it is his religious duty to speak out against terror and misguided ideologies as he is aware of what the Shariah (Islamic law) says on the matter,” Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance Saleh Al-Ashaikh said during an address at the Islamic University of Medina recently.
To this end, a Higher Institute for Imams and Khatibs has been set up at Taiba University, near Jeddah. The institute will graduate preachers who will be skilled not only in modern methods of communication but also moderate in their outlook. It will also strive to erase warped ideas among traditional preachers. Some 55 imams and preachers, besides several members from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (religious police) attended the course.
The need for such educated and moderate Imams could go a long way in weaning the Muslim youth away from the path of extremism. Many of these preachers, even if well-versed in Islamic teachings, lack even elementary knowledge of science. In one of Bangalore’s mosques, a preacher, who was extolling the spiritual and health benefits of zamzam water that pilgrims normally bring with them after performing Haj, explained how rich it is in ‘vitamins’ (sic)..
A nephew of mine, who has just landed a job in the UAE, narrated the case of a Pakistani expatriate working there. The latter, who happens to be his acquaintance, insists that this youth should attend all religious congregations, which should take precedence over everything else, including job. How can Muslims progress with such a mindset?
Saudi Success in Combating - Terror Relevant to India
By Javid Hassan
In a major development that should be of interest to India, an expert committee set up by the Saudi government is vetting a draft law to punish those who threaten the national security of other countries.
The new law, which also deals with organized crimes and terrorism-related offences, will carry the maximum sentence of capital punishment for the convict, according to the Saudi media, which have quoted Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, as saying. He described such crimes as “haraba,” a Qur’anic term meaning “sowing corruption and chaos on earth.”
Since both India and Saudi Arabia have been victims of terrorism, now is the time to share information on how they could combat this menace in their mutual interest. There are two broad areas of cooperation from India’s point of view. One is a Saudi proposal mooted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for establishing an international centre on combating terrorism
The other one is the launch of an institute for training imams and khatibs (those who lead prayers in mosques or deliver sermons before the start of Friday prayers). Both these developments are significant, since there many poorly educated preachers who misinterpret Islamic teachings, emphasizing certain aspects and playing down others. They represent a growing trend that has seen preachers well versed in their own field but woefully lacking even basic knowledge of science.
On the issue of combating terrorism, King Abdullah had proposed the setting up of an international center during a major conference three years ago. The proposal met with a lukewarm response despite attempts to take it forward. Subsequent events since 9/11 have warranted the need for reviving this initiative with all the seriousness that it deserves.
The leaders of both countries, together with their experts, could work out the modalities of fine-tuning the proposal from the conceptual to the operational stage. The starting point of the exercise should be to arrive at a global definition of terrorism and the root cause of this phenomenon that has cost the international community trillions of dollars in cumulative damage with no end in sight.
What is important is to identify the various terrorist outfits, their modus operandi and how they indoctrinate the recruits. This is where the Saudi government’s strategy seeks to prevent extremist ideas from infecting immature minds. To this end, the government has drawn up a plan that will bring together religious scholars and social scientists on a common platform to explain the true teachings of Islam as a religion of peace and moderation. They will also explore the problem from a socio-economic perspective to get an overall picture.
In the Saudi context, which is equally relevant to India’s, terrorists draft recruits from the unemployed youth who are lured by monetary incentives. In fact, Prince Naif has urged all Saudi universities to fight terrorism at the academic level by conducting research on why and how some young Saudis fell into the trap.
The Interior Ministry recently launched a campaign in Hafr Al-Batin, a conservative stronghold in northeastern Saudi Arabia, where preachers and experts are working towards reforming individuals arrested on terror charges. They counter the influence of extremist teachings by emphasizing the sanctity of life in Islam, its stress on kindness, compassion, accountability for one’s acts of omission and commission on the Day of Judgment, etc.
At another level, imams and Friday preachers in the Kingdom’s mosques are instructed to be careful in their sermons. “A preacher should know that it is his religious duty to speak out against terror and misguided ideologies as he is aware of what the Shariah (Islamic law) says on the matter,” Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance Saleh Al-Ashaikh said during an address at the Islamic University of Medina recently.
To this end, a Higher Institute for Imams and Khatibs has been set up at Taiba University, near Jeddah. The institute will graduate preachers who will be skilled not only in modern methods of communication but also moderate in their outlook. It will also strive to erase warped ideas among traditional preachers. Some 55 imams and preachers, besides several members from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (religious police) attended the course.
The need for such educated and moderate Imams could go a long way in weaning the Muslim youth away from the path of extremism. Many of these preachers, even if well-versed in Islamic teachings, lack even elementary knowledge of science. In one of Bangalore’s mosques, a preacher, who was extolling the spiritual and health benefits of zamzam water that pilgrims normally bring with them after performing Haj, explained how rich it is in ‘vitamins’ (sic)..
A nephew of mine, who has just landed a job in the UAE, narrated the case of a Pakistani expatriate working there. The latter, who happens to be his acquaintance, insists that this youth should attend all religious congregations, which should take precedence over everything else, including job. How can Muslims progress with such a mindset?
In a major development that should be of interest to India, an expert committee set up by the Saudi government is vetting a draft law to punish those who threaten the national security of other countries.
The new law, which also deals with organized crimes and terrorism-related offences, will carry the maximum sentence of capital punishment for the convict, according to the Saudi media, which have quoted Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, as saying. He described such crimes as “haraba,” a Qur’anic term meaning “sowing corruption and chaos on earth.”
Since both India and Saudi Arabia have been victims of terrorism, now is the time to share information on how they could combat this menace in their mutual interest. There are two broad areas of cooperation from India’s point of view. One is a Saudi proposal mooted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for establishing an international centre on combating terrorism
The other one is the launch of an institute for training imams and khatibs (those who lead prayers in mosques or deliver sermons before the start of Friday prayers). Both these developments are significant, since there many poorly educated preachers who misinterpret Islamic teachings, emphasizing certain aspects and playing down others. They represent a growing trend that has seen preachers well versed in their own field but woefully lacking even basic knowledge of science.
On the issue of combating terrorism, King Abdullah had proposed the setting up of an international center during a major conference three years ago. The proposal met with a lukewarm response despite attempts to take it forward. Subsequent events since 9/11 have warranted the need for reviving this initiative with all the seriousness that it deserves.
The leaders of both countries, together with their experts, could work out the modalities of fine-tuning the proposal from the conceptual to the operational stage. The starting point of the exercise should be to arrive at a global definition of terrorism and the root cause of this phenomenon that has cost the international community trillions of dollars in cumulative damage with no end in sight.
What is important is to identify the various terrorist outfits, their modus operandi and how they indoctrinate the recruits. This is where the Saudi government’s strategy seeks to prevent extremist ideas from infecting immature minds. To this end, the government has drawn up a plan that will bring together religious scholars and social scientists on a common platform to explain the true teachings of Islam as a religion of peace and moderation. They will also explore the problem from a socio-economic perspective to get an overall picture.
In the Saudi context, which is equally relevant to India’s, terrorists draft recruits from the unemployed youth who are lured by monetary incentives. In fact, Prince Naif has urged all Saudi universities to fight terrorism at the academic level by conducting research on why and how some young Saudis fell into the trap.
The Interior Ministry recently launched a campaign in Hafr Al-Batin, a conservative stronghold in northeastern Saudi Arabia, where preachers and experts are working towards reforming individuals arrested on terror charges. They counter the influence of extremist teachings by emphasizing the sanctity of life in Islam, its stress on kindness, compassion, accountability for one’s acts of omission and commission on the Day of Judgment, etc.
At another level, imams and Friday preachers in the Kingdom’s mosques are instructed to be careful in their sermons. “A preacher should know that it is his religious duty to speak out against terror and misguided ideologies as he is aware of what the Shariah (Islamic law) says on the matter,” Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance Saleh Al-Ashaikh said during an address at the Islamic University of Medina recently.
To this end, a Higher Institute for Imams and Khatibs has been set up at Taiba University, near Jeddah. The institute will graduate preachers who will be skilled not only in modern methods of communication but also moderate in their outlook. It will also strive to erase warped ideas among traditional preachers. Some 55 imams and preachers, besides several members from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (religious police) attended the course.
The need for such educated and moderate Imams could go a long way in weaning the Muslim youth away from the path of extremism. Many of these preachers, even if well-versed in Islamic teachings, lack even elementary knowledge of science. In one of Bangalore’s mosques, a preacher, who was extolling the spiritual and health benefits of zamzam water that pilgrims normally bring with them after performing Haj, explained how rich it is in ‘vitamins’ (sic)..
A nephew of mine, who has just landed a job in the UAE, narrated the case of a Pakistani expatriate working there. The latter, who happens to be his acquaintance, insists that this youth should attend all religious congregations, which should take precedence over everything else, including job. How can Muslims progress with such a mindset?
Saudi Success in Combating - Terror Relevant to India
By Javid Hassan
In a major development that should be of interest to India, an expert committee set up by the Saudi government is vetting a draft law to punish those who threaten the national security of other countries.
The new law, which also deals with organized crimes and terrorism-related offences, will carry the maximum sentence of capital punishment for the convict, according to the Saudi media, which have quoted Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, as saying. He described such crimes as “haraba,” a Qur’anic term meaning “sowing corruption and chaos on earth.”
Since both India and Saudi Arabia have been victims of terrorism, now is the time to share information on how they could combat this menace in their mutual interest. There are two broad areas of cooperation from India’s point of view. One is a Saudi proposal mooted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for establishing an international centre on combating terrorism
The other one is the launch of an institute for training imams and khatibs (those who lead prayers in mosques or deliver sermons before the start of Friday prayers). Both these developments are significant, since there many poorly educated preachers who misinterpret Islamic teachings, emphasizing certain aspects and playing down others. They represent a growing trend that has seen preachers well versed in their own field but woefully lacking even basic knowledge of science.
On the issue of combating terrorism, King Abdullah had proposed the setting up of an international center during a major conference three years ago. The proposal met with a lukewarm response despite attempts to take it forward. Subsequent events since 9/11 have warranted the need for reviving this initiative with all the seriousness that it deserves.
The leaders of both countries, together with their experts, could work out the modalities of fine-tuning the proposal from the conceptual to the operational stage. The starting point of the exercise should be to arrive at a global definition of terrorism and the root cause of this phenomenon that has cost the international community trillions of dollars in cumulative damage with no end in sight.
What is important is to identify the various terrorist outfits, their modus operandi and how they indoctrinate the recruits. This is where the Saudi government’s strategy seeks to prevent extremist ideas from infecting immature minds. To this end, the government has drawn up a plan that will bring together religious scholars and social scientists on a common platform to explain the true teachings of Islam as a religion of peace and moderation. They will also explore the problem from a socio-economic perspective to get an overall picture.
In the Saudi context, which is equally relevant to India’s, terrorists draft recruits from the unemployed youth who are lured by monetary incentives. In fact, Prince Naif has urged all Saudi universities to fight terrorism at the academic level by conducting research on why and how some young Saudis fell into the trap.
The Interior Ministry recently launched a campaign in Hafr Al-Batin, a conservative stronghold in northeastern Saudi Arabia, where preachers and experts are working towards reforming individuals arrested on terror charges. They counter the influence of extremist teachings by emphasizing the sanctity of life in Islam, its stress on kindness, compassion, accountability for one’s acts of omission and commission on the Day of Judgment, etc.
At another level, imams and Friday preachers in the Kingdom’s mosques are instructed to be careful in their sermons. “A preacher should know that it is his religious duty to speak out against terror and misguided ideologies as he is aware of what the Shariah (Islamic law) says on the matter,” Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance Saleh Al-Ashaikh said during an address at the Islamic University of Medina recently.
To this end, a Higher Institute for Imams and Khatibs has been set up at Taiba University, near Jeddah. The institute will graduate preachers who will be skilled not only in modern methods of communication but also moderate in their outlook. It will also strive to erase warped ideas among traditional preachers. Some 55 imams and preachers, besides several members from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (religious police) attended the course.
The need for such educated and moderate Imams could go a long way in weaning the Muslim youth away from the path of extremism. Many of these preachers, even if well-versed in Islamic teachings, lack even elementary knowledge of science. In one of Bangalore’s mosques, a preacher, who was extolling the spiritual and health benefits of zamzam water that pilgrims normally bring with them after performing Haj, explained how rich it is in ‘vitamins’ (sic)..
A nephew of mine, who has just landed a job in the UAE, narrated the case of a Pakistani expatriate working there. The latter, who happens to be his acquaintance, insists that this youth should attend all religious congregations, which should take precedence over everything else, including job. How can Muslims progress with such a mindset?
In a major development that should be of interest to India, an expert committee set up by the Saudi government is vetting a draft law to punish those who threaten the national security of other countries.
The new law, which also deals with organized crimes and terrorism-related offences, will carry the maximum sentence of capital punishment for the convict, according to the Saudi media, which have quoted Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, as saying. He described such crimes as “haraba,” a Qur’anic term meaning “sowing corruption and chaos on earth.”
Since both India and Saudi Arabia have been victims of terrorism, now is the time to share information on how they could combat this menace in their mutual interest. There are two broad areas of cooperation from India’s point of view. One is a Saudi proposal mooted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for establishing an international centre on combating terrorism
The other one is the launch of an institute for training imams and khatibs (those who lead prayers in mosques or deliver sermons before the start of Friday prayers). Both these developments are significant, since there many poorly educated preachers who misinterpret Islamic teachings, emphasizing certain aspects and playing down others. They represent a growing trend that has seen preachers well versed in their own field but woefully lacking even basic knowledge of science.
On the issue of combating terrorism, King Abdullah had proposed the setting up of an international center during a major conference three years ago. The proposal met with a lukewarm response despite attempts to take it forward. Subsequent events since 9/11 have warranted the need for reviving this initiative with all the seriousness that it deserves.
The leaders of both countries, together with their experts, could work out the modalities of fine-tuning the proposal from the conceptual to the operational stage. The starting point of the exercise should be to arrive at a global definition of terrorism and the root cause of this phenomenon that has cost the international community trillions of dollars in cumulative damage with no end in sight.
What is important is to identify the various terrorist outfits, their modus operandi and how they indoctrinate the recruits. This is where the Saudi government’s strategy seeks to prevent extremist ideas from infecting immature minds. To this end, the government has drawn up a plan that will bring together religious scholars and social scientists on a common platform to explain the true teachings of Islam as a religion of peace and moderation. They will also explore the problem from a socio-economic perspective to get an overall picture.
In the Saudi context, which is equally relevant to India’s, terrorists draft recruits from the unemployed youth who are lured by monetary incentives. In fact, Prince Naif has urged all Saudi universities to fight terrorism at the academic level by conducting research on why and how some young Saudis fell into the trap.
The Interior Ministry recently launched a campaign in Hafr Al-Batin, a conservative stronghold in northeastern Saudi Arabia, where preachers and experts are working towards reforming individuals arrested on terror charges. They counter the influence of extremist teachings by emphasizing the sanctity of life in Islam, its stress on kindness, compassion, accountability for one’s acts of omission and commission on the Day of Judgment, etc.
At another level, imams and Friday preachers in the Kingdom’s mosques are instructed to be careful in their sermons. “A preacher should know that it is his religious duty to speak out against terror and misguided ideologies as he is aware of what the Shariah (Islamic law) says on the matter,” Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance Saleh Al-Ashaikh said during an address at the Islamic University of Medina recently.
To this end, a Higher Institute for Imams and Khatibs has been set up at Taiba University, near Jeddah. The institute will graduate preachers who will be skilled not only in modern methods of communication but also moderate in their outlook. It will also strive to erase warped ideas among traditional preachers. Some 55 imams and preachers, besides several members from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (religious police) attended the course.
The need for such educated and moderate Imams could go a long way in weaning the Muslim youth away from the path of extremism. Many of these preachers, even if well-versed in Islamic teachings, lack even elementary knowledge of science. In one of Bangalore’s mosques, a preacher, who was extolling the spiritual and health benefits of zamzam water that pilgrims normally bring with them after performing Haj, explained how rich it is in ‘vitamins’ (sic)..
A nephew of mine, who has just landed a job in the UAE, narrated the case of a Pakistani expatriate working there. The latter, who happens to be his acquaintance, insists that this youth should attend all religious congregations, which should take precedence over everything else, including job. How can Muslims progress with such a mindset?
Monday, July 17, 2017
Animal Trafficking Is Helping Terrorism Grow Despite Demonetisation
“United Humans Against Atrocities on Animals” was the theme of the rally, which started at Kasturba Gandhi Marg and made its first stop at the office of the resident commissioner for West Bengal at Baba Kharak Singh Marg - moving on to Bihar Bhawan in Chanakyapuri.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Saudi Success in Combating - Terror Relevant to India
By Javid Hassan
In a major development that should be of interest to India, an expert committee set up by the Saudi government is vetting a draft law to punish those who threaten the national security of other countries.
The new law, which also deals with organized crimes and terrorism-related offences, will carry the maximum sentence of capital punishment for the convict, according to the Saudi media, which have quoted Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, as saying. He described such crimes as “haraba,” a Qur’anic term meaning “sowing corruption and chaos on earth.”
Since both India and Saudi Arabia have been victims of terrorism, now is the time to share information on how they could combat this menace in their mutual interest. There are two broad areas of cooperation from India’s point of view. One is a Saudi proposal mooted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for establishing an international centre on combating terrorism
The other one is the launch of an institute for training imams and khatibs (those who lead prayers in mosques or deliver sermons before the start of Friday prayers). Both these developments are significant, since there many poorly educated preachers who misinterpret Islamic teachings, emphasizing certain aspects and playing down others. They represent a growing trend that has seen preachers well versed in their own field but woefully lacking even basic knowledge of science.
On the issue of combating terrorism, King Abdullah had proposed the setting up of an international center during a major conference three years ago. The proposal met with a lukewarm response despite attempts to take it forward. Subsequent events since 9/11 have warranted the need for reviving this initiative with all the seriousness that it deserves.
The leaders of both countries, together with their experts, could work out the modalities of fine-tuning the proposal from the conceptual to the operational stage. The starting point of the exercise should be to arrive at a global definition of terrorism and the root cause of this phenomenon that has cost the international community trillions of dollars in cumulative damage with no end in sight.
What is important is to identify the various terrorist outfits, their modus operandi and how they indoctrinate the recruits. This is where the Saudi government’s strategy seeks to prevent extremist ideas from infecting immature minds. To this end, the government has drawn up a plan that will bring together religious scholars and social scientists on a common platform to explain the true teachings of Islam as a religion of peace and moderation. They will also explore the problem from a socio-economic perspective to get an overall picture.
In the Saudi context, which is equally relevant to India’s, terrorists draft recruits from the unemployed youth who are lured by monetary incentives. In fact, Prince Naif has urged all Saudi universities to fight terrorism at the academic level by conducting research on why and how some young Saudis fell into the trap.
The Interior Ministry recently launched a campaign in Hafr Al-Batin, a conservative stronghold in northeastern Saudi Arabia, where preachers and experts are working towards reforming individuals arrested on terror charges. They counter the influence of extremist teachings by emphasizing the sanctity of life in Islam, its stress on kindness, compassion, accountability for one’s acts of omission and commission on the Day of Judgment, etc.
At another level, imams and Friday preachers in the Kingdom’s mosques are instructed to be careful in their sermons. “A preacher should know that it is his religious duty to speak out against terror and misguided ideologies as he is aware of what the Shariah (Islamic law) says on the matter,” Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance Saleh Al-Ashaikh said during an address at the Islamic University of Medina recently.
To this end, a Higher Institute for Imams and Khatibs has been set up at Taiba University, near Jeddah. The institute will graduate preachers who will be skilled not only in modern methods of communication but also moderate in their outlook. It will also strive to erase warped ideas among traditional preachers. Some 55 imams and preachers, besides several members from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (religious police) attended the course.
The need for such educated and moderate Imams could go a long way in weaning the Muslim youth away from the path of extremism. Many of these preachers, even if well-versed in Islamic teachings, lack even elementary knowledge of science. In one of Bangalore’s mosques, a preacher, who was extolling the spiritual and health benefits of zamzam water that pilgrims normally bring with them after performing Haj, explained how rich it is in ‘vitamins’ (sic)..
A nephew of mine, who has just landed a job in the UAE, narrated the case of a Pakistani expatriate working there. The latter, who happens to be his acquaintance, insists that this youth should attend all religious congregations, which should take precedence over everything else, including job. How can Muslims progress with such a mindset?
In a major development that should be of interest to India, an expert committee set up by the Saudi government is vetting a draft law to punish those who threaten the national security of other countries.
The new law, which also deals with organized crimes and terrorism-related offences, will carry the maximum sentence of capital punishment for the convict, according to the Saudi media, which have quoted Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, as saying. He described such crimes as “haraba,” a Qur’anic term meaning “sowing corruption and chaos on earth.”
Since both India and Saudi Arabia have been victims of terrorism, now is the time to share information on how they could combat this menace in their mutual interest. There are two broad areas of cooperation from India’s point of view. One is a Saudi proposal mooted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for establishing an international centre on combating terrorism
The other one is the launch of an institute for training imams and khatibs (those who lead prayers in mosques or deliver sermons before the start of Friday prayers). Both these developments are significant, since there many poorly educated preachers who misinterpret Islamic teachings, emphasizing certain aspects and playing down others. They represent a growing trend that has seen preachers well versed in their own field but woefully lacking even basic knowledge of science.
On the issue of combating terrorism, King Abdullah had proposed the setting up of an international center during a major conference three years ago. The proposal met with a lukewarm response despite attempts to take it forward. Subsequent events since 9/11 have warranted the need for reviving this initiative with all the seriousness that it deserves.
The leaders of both countries, together with their experts, could work out the modalities of fine-tuning the proposal from the conceptual to the operational stage. The starting point of the exercise should be to arrive at a global definition of terrorism and the root cause of this phenomenon that has cost the international community trillions of dollars in cumulative damage with no end in sight.
What is important is to identify the various terrorist outfits, their modus operandi and how they indoctrinate the recruits. This is where the Saudi government’s strategy seeks to prevent extremist ideas from infecting immature minds. To this end, the government has drawn up a plan that will bring together religious scholars and social scientists on a common platform to explain the true teachings of Islam as a religion of peace and moderation. They will also explore the problem from a socio-economic perspective to get an overall picture.
In the Saudi context, which is equally relevant to India’s, terrorists draft recruits from the unemployed youth who are lured by monetary incentives. In fact, Prince Naif has urged all Saudi universities to fight terrorism at the academic level by conducting research on why and how some young Saudis fell into the trap.
The Interior Ministry recently launched a campaign in Hafr Al-Batin, a conservative stronghold in northeastern Saudi Arabia, where preachers and experts are working towards reforming individuals arrested on terror charges. They counter the influence of extremist teachings by emphasizing the sanctity of life in Islam, its stress on kindness, compassion, accountability for one’s acts of omission and commission on the Day of Judgment, etc.
At another level, imams and Friday preachers in the Kingdom’s mosques are instructed to be careful in their sermons. “A preacher should know that it is his religious duty to speak out against terror and misguided ideologies as he is aware of what the Shariah (Islamic law) says on the matter,” Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance Saleh Al-Ashaikh said during an address at the Islamic University of Medina recently.
To this end, a Higher Institute for Imams and Khatibs has been set up at Taiba University, near Jeddah. The institute will graduate preachers who will be skilled not only in modern methods of communication but also moderate in their outlook. It will also strive to erase warped ideas among traditional preachers. Some 55 imams and preachers, besides several members from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (religious police) attended the course.
The need for such educated and moderate Imams could go a long way in weaning the Muslim youth away from the path of extremism. Many of these preachers, even if well-versed in Islamic teachings, lack even elementary knowledge of science. In one of Bangalore’s mosques, a preacher, who was extolling the spiritual and health benefits of zamzam water that pilgrims normally bring with them after performing Haj, explained how rich it is in ‘vitamins’ (sic)..
A nephew of mine, who has just landed a job in the UAE, narrated the case of a Pakistani expatriate working there. The latter, who happens to be his acquaintance, insists that this youth should attend all religious congregations, which should take precedence over everything else, including job. How can Muslims progress with such a mindset?
Saudi Success in Combating - Terror Relevant to India
By Javid Hassan
In a major development that should be of interest to India, an expert committee set up by the Saudi government is vetting a draft law to punish those who threaten the national security of other countries.
The new law, which also deals with organized crimes and terrorism-related offences, will carry the maximum sentence of capital punishment for the convict, according to the Saudi media, which have quoted Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, as saying. He described such crimes as “haraba,” a Qur’anic term meaning “sowing corruption and chaos on earth.”
Since both India and Saudi Arabia have been victims of terrorism, now is the time to share information on how they could combat this menace in their mutual interest. There are two broad areas of cooperation from India’s point of view. One is a Saudi proposal mooted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for establishing an international centre on combating terrorism
The other one is the launch of an institute for training imams and khatibs (those who lead prayers in mosques or deliver sermons before the start of Friday prayers). Both these developments are significant, since there many poorly educated preachers who misinterpret Islamic teachings, emphasizing certain aspects and playing down others. They represent a growing trend that has seen preachers well versed in their own field but woefully lacking even basic knowledge of science.
On the issue of combating terrorism, King Abdullah had proposed the setting up of an international center during a major conference three years ago. The proposal met with a lukewarm response despite attempts to take it forward. Subsequent events since 9/11 have warranted the need for reviving this initiative with all the seriousness that it deserves.
The leaders of both countries, together with their experts, could work out the modalities of fine-tuning the proposal from the conceptual to the operational stage. The starting point of the exercise should be to arrive at a global definition of terrorism and the root cause of this phenomenon that has cost the international community trillions of dollars in cumulative damage with no end in sight.
What is important is to identify the various terrorist outfits, their modus operandi and how they indoctrinate the recruits. This is where the Saudi government’s strategy seeks to prevent extremist ideas from infecting immature minds. To this end, the government has drawn up a plan that will bring together religious scholars and social scientists on a common platform to explain the true teachings of Islam as a religion of peace and moderation. They will also explore the problem from a socio-economic perspective to get an overall picture.
In the Saudi context, which is equally relevant to India’s, terrorists draft recruits from the unemployed youth who are lured by monetary incentives. In fact, Prince Naif has urged all Saudi universities to fight terrorism at the academic level by conducting research on why and how some young Saudis fell into the trap.
The Interior Ministry recently launched a campaign in Hafr Al-Batin, a conservative stronghold in northeastern Saudi Arabia, where preachers and experts are working towards reforming individuals arrested on terror charges. They counter the influence of extremist teachings by emphasizing the sanctity of life in Islam, its stress on kindness, compassion, accountability for one’s acts of omission and commission on the Day of Judgment, etc.
At another level, imams and Friday preachers in the Kingdom’s mosques are instructed to be careful in their sermons. “A preacher should know that it is his religious duty to speak out against terror and misguided ideologies as he is aware of what the Shariah (Islamic law) says on the matter,” Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance Saleh Al-Ashaikh said during an address at the Islamic University of Medina recently.
To this end, a Higher Institute for Imams and Khatibs has been set up at Taiba University, near Jeddah. The institute will graduate preachers who will be skilled not only in modern methods of communication but also moderate in their outlook. It will also strive to erase warped ideas among traditional preachers. Some 55 imams and preachers, besides several members from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (religious police) attended the course.
The need for such educated and moderate Imams could go a long way in weaning the Muslim youth away from the path of extremism. Many of these preachers, even if well-versed in Islamic teachings, lack even elementary knowledge of science. In one of Bangalore’s mosques, a preacher, who was extolling the spiritual and health benefits of zamzam water that pilgrims normally bring with them after performing Haj, explained how rich it is in ‘vitamins’ (sic)..
A nephew of mine, who has just landed a job in the UAE, narrated the case of a Pakistani expatriate working there. The latter, who happens to be his acquaintance, insists that this youth should attend all religious congregations, which should take precedence over everything else, including job. How can Muslims progress with such a mindset?
In a major development that should be of interest to India, an expert committee set up by the Saudi government is vetting a draft law to punish those who threaten the national security of other countries.
The new law, which also deals with organized crimes and terrorism-related offences, will carry the maximum sentence of capital punishment for the convict, according to the Saudi media, which have quoted Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, as saying. He described such crimes as “haraba,” a Qur’anic term meaning “sowing corruption and chaos on earth.”
Since both India and Saudi Arabia have been victims of terrorism, now is the time to share information on how they could combat this menace in their mutual interest. There are two broad areas of cooperation from India’s point of view. One is a Saudi proposal mooted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for establishing an international centre on combating terrorism
The other one is the launch of an institute for training imams and khatibs (those who lead prayers in mosques or deliver sermons before the start of Friday prayers). Both these developments are significant, since there many poorly educated preachers who misinterpret Islamic teachings, emphasizing certain aspects and playing down others. They represent a growing trend that has seen preachers well versed in their own field but woefully lacking even basic knowledge of science.
On the issue of combating terrorism, King Abdullah had proposed the setting up of an international center during a major conference three years ago. The proposal met with a lukewarm response despite attempts to take it forward. Subsequent events since 9/11 have warranted the need for reviving this initiative with all the seriousness that it deserves.
The leaders of both countries, together with their experts, could work out the modalities of fine-tuning the proposal from the conceptual to the operational stage. The starting point of the exercise should be to arrive at a global definition of terrorism and the root cause of this phenomenon that has cost the international community trillions of dollars in cumulative damage with no end in sight.
What is important is to identify the various terrorist outfits, their modus operandi and how they indoctrinate the recruits. This is where the Saudi government’s strategy seeks to prevent extremist ideas from infecting immature minds. To this end, the government has drawn up a plan that will bring together religious scholars and social scientists on a common platform to explain the true teachings of Islam as a religion of peace and moderation. They will also explore the problem from a socio-economic perspective to get an overall picture.
In the Saudi context, which is equally relevant to India’s, terrorists draft recruits from the unemployed youth who are lured by monetary incentives. In fact, Prince Naif has urged all Saudi universities to fight terrorism at the academic level by conducting research on why and how some young Saudis fell into the trap.
The Interior Ministry recently launched a campaign in Hafr Al-Batin, a conservative stronghold in northeastern Saudi Arabia, where preachers and experts are working towards reforming individuals arrested on terror charges. They counter the influence of extremist teachings by emphasizing the sanctity of life in Islam, its stress on kindness, compassion, accountability for one’s acts of omission and commission on the Day of Judgment, etc.
At another level, imams and Friday preachers in the Kingdom’s mosques are instructed to be careful in their sermons. “A preacher should know that it is his religious duty to speak out against terror and misguided ideologies as he is aware of what the Shariah (Islamic law) says on the matter,” Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance Saleh Al-Ashaikh said during an address at the Islamic University of Medina recently.
To this end, a Higher Institute for Imams and Khatibs has been set up at Taiba University, near Jeddah. The institute will graduate preachers who will be skilled not only in modern methods of communication but also moderate in their outlook. It will also strive to erase warped ideas among traditional preachers. Some 55 imams and preachers, besides several members from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (religious police) attended the course.
The need for such educated and moderate Imams could go a long way in weaning the Muslim youth away from the path of extremism. Many of these preachers, even if well-versed in Islamic teachings, lack even elementary knowledge of science. In one of Bangalore’s mosques, a preacher, who was extolling the spiritual and health benefits of zamzam water that pilgrims normally bring with them after performing Haj, explained how rich it is in ‘vitamins’ (sic)..
A nephew of mine, who has just landed a job in the UAE, narrated the case of a Pakistani expatriate working there. The latter, who happens to be his acquaintance, insists that this youth should attend all religious congregations, which should take precedence over everything else, including job. How can Muslims progress with such a mindset?
Saudi Success in Combating - Terror Relevant to India
By Javid Hassan
In a major development that should be of interest to India, an expert committee set up by the Saudi government is vetting a draft law to punish those who threaten the national security of other countries.
The new law, which also deals with organized crimes and terrorism-related offences, will carry the maximum sentence of capital punishment for the convict, according to the Saudi media, which have quoted Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, as saying. He described such crimes as “haraba,” a Qur’anic term meaning “sowing corruption and chaos on earth.”
Since both India and Saudi Arabia have been victims of terrorism, now is the time to share information on how they could combat this menace in their mutual interest. There are two broad areas of cooperation from India’s point of view. One is a Saudi proposal mooted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for establishing an international centre on combating terrorism
The other one is the launch of an institute for training imams and khatibs (those who lead prayers in mosques or deliver sermons before the start of Friday prayers). Both these developments are significant, since there many poorly educated preachers who misinterpret Islamic teachings, emphasizing certain aspects and playing down others. They represent a growing trend that has seen preachers well versed in their own field but woefully lacking even basic knowledge of science.
On the issue of combating terrorism, King Abdullah had proposed the setting up of an international center during a major conference three years ago. The proposal met with a lukewarm response despite attempts to take it forward. Subsequent events since 9/11 have warranted the need for reviving this initiative with all the seriousness that it deserves.
The leaders of both countries, together with their experts, could work out the modalities of fine-tuning the proposal from the conceptual to the operational stage. The starting point of the exercise should be to arrive at a global definition of terrorism and the root cause of this phenomenon that has cost the international community trillions of dollars in cumulative damage with no end in sight.
What is important is to identify the various terrorist outfits, their modus operandi and how they indoctrinate the recruits. This is where the Saudi government’s strategy seeks to prevent extremist ideas from infecting immature minds. To this end, the government has drawn up a plan that will bring together religious scholars and social scientists on a common platform to explain the true teachings of Islam as a religion of peace and moderation. They will also explore the problem from a socio-economic perspective to get an overall picture.
In the Saudi context, which is equally relevant to India’s, terrorists draft recruits from the unemployed youth who are lured by monetary incentives. In fact, Prince Naif has urged all Saudi universities to fight terrorism at the academic level by conducting research on why and how some young Saudis fell into the trap.
The Interior Ministry recently launched a campaign in Hafr Al-Batin, a conservative stronghold in northeastern Saudi Arabia, where preachers and experts are working towards reforming individuals arrested on terror charges. They counter the influence of extremist teachings by emphasizing the sanctity of life in Islam, its stress on kindness, compassion, accountability for one’s acts of omission and commission on the Day of Judgment, etc.
At another level, imams and Friday preachers in the Kingdom’s mosques are instructed to be careful in their sermons. “A preacher should know that it is his religious duty to speak out against terror and misguided ideologies as he is aware of what the Shariah (Islamic law) says on the matter,” Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance Saleh Al-Ashaikh said during an address at the Islamic University of Medina recently.
To this end, a Higher Institute for Imams and Khatibs has been set up at Taiba University, near Jeddah. The institute will graduate preachers who will be skilled not only in modern methods of communication but also moderate in their outlook. It will also strive to erase warped ideas among traditional preachers. Some 55 imams and preachers, besides several members from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (religious police) attended the course.
The need for such educated and moderate Imams could go a long way in weaning the Muslim youth away from the path of extremism. Many of these preachers, even if well-versed in Islamic teachings, lack even elementary knowledge of science. In one of Bangalore’s mosques, a preacher, who was extolling the spiritual and health benefits of zamzam water that pilgrims normally bring with them after performing Haj, explained how rich it is in ‘vitamins’ (sic)..
A nephew of mine, who has just landed a job in the UAE, narrated the case of a Pakistani expatriate working there. The latter, who happens to be his acquaintance, insists that this youth should attend all religious congregations, which should take precedence over everything else, including job. How can Muslims progress with such a mindset?
In a major development that should be of interest to India, an expert committee set up by the Saudi government is vetting a draft law to punish those who threaten the national security of other countries.
The new law, which also deals with organized crimes and terrorism-related offences, will carry the maximum sentence of capital punishment for the convict, according to the Saudi media, which have quoted Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, as saying. He described such crimes as “haraba,” a Qur’anic term meaning “sowing corruption and chaos on earth.”
Since both India and Saudi Arabia have been victims of terrorism, now is the time to share information on how they could combat this menace in their mutual interest. There are two broad areas of cooperation from India’s point of view. One is a Saudi proposal mooted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for establishing an international centre on combating terrorism
The other one is the launch of an institute for training imams and khatibs (those who lead prayers in mosques or deliver sermons before the start of Friday prayers). Both these developments are significant, since there many poorly educated preachers who misinterpret Islamic teachings, emphasizing certain aspects and playing down others. They represent a growing trend that has seen preachers well versed in their own field but woefully lacking even basic knowledge of science.
On the issue of combating terrorism, King Abdullah had proposed the setting up of an international center during a major conference three years ago. The proposal met with a lukewarm response despite attempts to take it forward. Subsequent events since 9/11 have warranted the need for reviving this initiative with all the seriousness that it deserves.
The leaders of both countries, together with their experts, could work out the modalities of fine-tuning the proposal from the conceptual to the operational stage. The starting point of the exercise should be to arrive at a global definition of terrorism and the root cause of this phenomenon that has cost the international community trillions of dollars in cumulative damage with no end in sight.
What is important is to identify the various terrorist outfits, their modus operandi and how they indoctrinate the recruits. This is where the Saudi government’s strategy seeks to prevent extremist ideas from infecting immature minds. To this end, the government has drawn up a plan that will bring together religious scholars and social scientists on a common platform to explain the true teachings of Islam as a religion of peace and moderation. They will also explore the problem from a socio-economic perspective to get an overall picture.
In the Saudi context, which is equally relevant to India’s, terrorists draft recruits from the unemployed youth who are lured by monetary incentives. In fact, Prince Naif has urged all Saudi universities to fight terrorism at the academic level by conducting research on why and how some young Saudis fell into the trap.
The Interior Ministry recently launched a campaign in Hafr Al-Batin, a conservative stronghold in northeastern Saudi Arabia, where preachers and experts are working towards reforming individuals arrested on terror charges. They counter the influence of extremist teachings by emphasizing the sanctity of life in Islam, its stress on kindness, compassion, accountability for one’s acts of omission and commission on the Day of Judgment, etc.
At another level, imams and Friday preachers in the Kingdom’s mosques are instructed to be careful in their sermons. “A preacher should know that it is his religious duty to speak out against terror and misguided ideologies as he is aware of what the Shariah (Islamic law) says on the matter,” Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance Saleh Al-Ashaikh said during an address at the Islamic University of Medina recently.
To this end, a Higher Institute for Imams and Khatibs has been set up at Taiba University, near Jeddah. The institute will graduate preachers who will be skilled not only in modern methods of communication but also moderate in their outlook. It will also strive to erase warped ideas among traditional preachers. Some 55 imams and preachers, besides several members from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (religious police) attended the course.
The need for such educated and moderate Imams could go a long way in weaning the Muslim youth away from the path of extremism. Many of these preachers, even if well-versed in Islamic teachings, lack even elementary knowledge of science. In one of Bangalore’s mosques, a preacher, who was extolling the spiritual and health benefits of zamzam water that pilgrims normally bring with them after performing Haj, explained how rich it is in ‘vitamins’ (sic)..
A nephew of mine, who has just landed a job in the UAE, narrated the case of a Pakistani expatriate working there. The latter, who happens to be his acquaintance, insists that this youth should attend all religious congregations, which should take precedence over everything else, including job. How can Muslims progress with such a mindset?
Saudi Success in Combating - Terror Relevant to India
By Javid Hassan
In a major development that should be of interest to India, an expert committee set up by the Saudi government is vetting a draft law to punish those who threaten the national security of other countries.
The new law, which also deals with organized crimes and terrorism-related offences, will carry the maximum sentence of capital punishment for the convict, according to the Saudi media, which have quoted Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, as saying. He described such crimes as “haraba,” a Qur’anic term meaning “sowing corruption and chaos on earth.”
Since both India and Saudi Arabia have been victims of terrorism, now is the time to share information on how they could combat this menace in their mutual interest. There are two broad areas of cooperation from India’s point of view. One is a Saudi proposal mooted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for establishing an international centre on combating terrorism
The other one is the launch of an institute for training imams and khatibs (those who lead prayers in mosques or deliver sermons before the start of Friday prayers). Both these developments are significant, since there many poorly educated preachers who misinterpret Islamic teachings, emphasizing certain aspects and playing down others. They represent a growing trend that has seen preachers well versed in their own field but woefully lacking even basic knowledge of science.
On the issue of combating terrorism, King Abdullah had proposed the setting up of an international center during a major conference three years ago. The proposal met with a lukewarm response despite attempts to take it forward. Subsequent events since 9/11 have warranted the need for reviving this initiative with all the seriousness that it deserves.
The leaders of both countries, together with their experts, could work out the modalities of fine-tuning the proposal from the conceptual to the operational stage. The starting point of the exercise should be to arrive at a global definition of terrorism and the root cause of this phenomenon that has cost the international community trillions of dollars in cumulative damage with no end in sight.
What is important is to identify the various terrorist outfits, their modus operandi and how they indoctrinate the recruits. This is where the Saudi government’s strategy seeks to prevent extremist ideas from infecting immature minds. To this end, the government has drawn up a plan that will bring together religious scholars and social scientists on a common platform to explain the true teachings of Islam as a religion of peace and moderation. They will also explore the problem from a socio-economic perspective to get an overall picture.
In the Saudi context, which is equally relevant to India’s, terrorists draft recruits from the unemployed youth who are lured by monetary incentives. In fact, Prince Naif has urged all Saudi universities to fight terrorism at the academic level by conducting research on why and how some young Saudis fell into the trap.
The Interior Ministry recently launched a campaign in Hafr Al-Batin, a conservative stronghold in northeastern Saudi Arabia, where preachers and experts are working towards reforming individuals arrested on terror charges. They counter the influence of extremist teachings by emphasizing the sanctity of life in Islam, its stress on kindness, compassion, accountability for one’s acts of omission and commission on the Day of Judgment, etc.
At another level, imams and Friday preachers in the Kingdom’s mosques are instructed to be careful in their sermons. “A preacher should know that it is his religious duty to speak out against terror and misguided ideologies as he is aware of what the Shariah (Islamic law) says on the matter,” Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance Saleh Al-Ashaikh said during an address at the Islamic University of Medina recently.
To this end, a Higher Institute for Imams and Khatibs has been set up at Taiba University, near Jeddah. The institute will graduate preachers who will be skilled not only in modern methods of communication but also moderate in their outlook. It will also strive to erase warped ideas among traditional preachers. Some 55 imams and preachers, besides several members from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (religious police) attended the course.
The need for such educated and moderate Imams could go a long way in weaning the Muslim youth away from the path of extremism. Many of these preachers, even if well-versed in Islamic teachings, lack even elementary knowledge of science. In one of Bangalore’s mosques, a preacher, who was extolling the spiritual and health benefits of zamzam water that pilgrims normally bring with them after performing Haj, explained how rich it is in ‘vitamins’ (sic)..
A nephew of mine, who has just landed a job in the UAE, narrated the case of a Pakistani expatriate working there. The latter, who happens to be his acquaintance, insists that this youth should attend all religious congregations, which should take precedence over everything else, including job. How can Muslims progress with such a mindset?
In a major development that should be of interest to India, an expert committee set up by the Saudi government is vetting a draft law to punish those who threaten the national security of other countries.
The new law, which also deals with organized crimes and terrorism-related offences, will carry the maximum sentence of capital punishment for the convict, according to the Saudi media, which have quoted Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, as saying. He described such crimes as “haraba,” a Qur’anic term meaning “sowing corruption and chaos on earth.”
Since both India and Saudi Arabia have been victims of terrorism, now is the time to share information on how they could combat this menace in their mutual interest. There are two broad areas of cooperation from India’s point of view. One is a Saudi proposal mooted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for establishing an international centre on combating terrorism
The other one is the launch of an institute for training imams and khatibs (those who lead prayers in mosques or deliver sermons before the start of Friday prayers). Both these developments are significant, since there many poorly educated preachers who misinterpret Islamic teachings, emphasizing certain aspects and playing down others. They represent a growing trend that has seen preachers well versed in their own field but woefully lacking even basic knowledge of science.
On the issue of combating terrorism, King Abdullah had proposed the setting up of an international center during a major conference three years ago. The proposal met with a lukewarm response despite attempts to take it forward. Subsequent events since 9/11 have warranted the need for reviving this initiative with all the seriousness that it deserves.
The leaders of both countries, together with their experts, could work out the modalities of fine-tuning the proposal from the conceptual to the operational stage. The starting point of the exercise should be to arrive at a global definition of terrorism and the root cause of this phenomenon that has cost the international community trillions of dollars in cumulative damage with no end in sight.
What is important is to identify the various terrorist outfits, their modus operandi and how they indoctrinate the recruits. This is where the Saudi government’s strategy seeks to prevent extremist ideas from infecting immature minds. To this end, the government has drawn up a plan that will bring together religious scholars and social scientists on a common platform to explain the true teachings of Islam as a religion of peace and moderation. They will also explore the problem from a socio-economic perspective to get an overall picture.
In the Saudi context, which is equally relevant to India’s, terrorists draft recruits from the unemployed youth who are lured by monetary incentives. In fact, Prince Naif has urged all Saudi universities to fight terrorism at the academic level by conducting research on why and how some young Saudis fell into the trap.
The Interior Ministry recently launched a campaign in Hafr Al-Batin, a conservative stronghold in northeastern Saudi Arabia, where preachers and experts are working towards reforming individuals arrested on terror charges. They counter the influence of extremist teachings by emphasizing the sanctity of life in Islam, its stress on kindness, compassion, accountability for one’s acts of omission and commission on the Day of Judgment, etc.
At another level, imams and Friday preachers in the Kingdom’s mosques are instructed to be careful in their sermons. “A preacher should know that it is his religious duty to speak out against terror and misguided ideologies as he is aware of what the Shariah (Islamic law) says on the matter,” Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance Saleh Al-Ashaikh said during an address at the Islamic University of Medina recently.
To this end, a Higher Institute for Imams and Khatibs has been set up at Taiba University, near Jeddah. The institute will graduate preachers who will be skilled not only in modern methods of communication but also moderate in their outlook. It will also strive to erase warped ideas among traditional preachers. Some 55 imams and preachers, besides several members from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (religious police) attended the course.
The need for such educated and moderate Imams could go a long way in weaning the Muslim youth away from the path of extremism. Many of these preachers, even if well-versed in Islamic teachings, lack even elementary knowledge of science. In one of Bangalore’s mosques, a preacher, who was extolling the spiritual and health benefits of zamzam water that pilgrims normally bring with them after performing Haj, explained how rich it is in ‘vitamins’ (sic)..
A nephew of mine, who has just landed a job in the UAE, narrated the case of a Pakistani expatriate working there. The latter, who happens to be his acquaintance, insists that this youth should attend all religious congregations, which should take precedence over everything else, including job. How can Muslims progress with such a mindset?
Saudi Success in Combating - Terror Relevant to India
By Javid Hassan
In a major development that should be of interest to India, an expert committee set up by the Saudi government is vetting a draft law to punish those who threaten the national security of other countries.
The new law, which also deals with organized crimes and terrorism-related offences, will carry the maximum sentence of capital punishment for the convict, according to the Saudi media, which have quoted Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, as saying. He described such crimes as “haraba,” a Qur’anic term meaning “sowing corruption and chaos on earth.”
Since both India and Saudi Arabia have been victims of terrorism, now is the time to share information on how they could combat this menace in their mutual interest. There are two broad areas of cooperation from India’s point of view. One is a Saudi proposal mooted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for establishing an international centre on combating terrorism
The other one is the launch of an institute for training imams and khatibs (those who lead prayers in mosques or deliver sermons before the start of Friday prayers). Both these developments are significant, since there many poorly educated preachers who misinterpret Islamic teachings, emphasizing certain aspects and playing down others. They represent a growing trend that has seen preachers well versed in their own field but woefully lacking even basic knowledge of science.
On the issue of combating terrorism, King Abdullah had proposed the setting up of an international center during a major conference three years ago. The proposal met with a lukewarm response despite attempts to take it forward. Subsequent events since 9/11 have warranted the need for reviving this initiative with all the seriousness that it deserves.
The leaders of both countries, together with their experts, could work out the modalities of fine-tuning the proposal from the conceptual to the operational stage. The starting point of the exercise should be to arrive at a global definition of terrorism and the root cause of this phenomenon that has cost the international community trillions of dollars in cumulative damage with no end in sight.
What is important is to identify the various terrorist outfits, their modus operandi and how they indoctrinate the recruits. This is where the Saudi government’s strategy seeks to prevent extremist ideas from infecting immature minds. To this end, the government has drawn up a plan that will bring together religious scholars and social scientists on a common platform to explain the true teachings of Islam as a religion of peace and moderation. They will also explore the problem from a socio-economic perspective to get an overall picture.
In the Saudi context, which is equally relevant to India’s, terrorists draft recruits from the unemployed youth who are lured by monetary incentives. In fact, Prince Naif has urged all Saudi universities to fight terrorism at the academic level by conducting research on why and how some young Saudis fell into the trap.
The Interior Ministry recently launched a campaign in Hafr Al-Batin, a conservative stronghold in northeastern Saudi Arabia, where preachers and experts are working towards reforming individuals arrested on terror charges. They counter the influence of extremist teachings by emphasizing the sanctity of life in Islam, its stress on kindness, compassion, accountability for one’s acts of omission and commission on the Day of Judgment, etc.
At another level, imams and Friday preachers in the Kingdom’s mosques are instructed to be careful in their sermons. “A preacher should know that it is his religious duty to speak out against terror and misguided ideologies as he is aware of what the Shariah (Islamic law) says on the matter,” Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance Saleh Al-Ashaikh said during an address at the Islamic University of Medina recently.
To this end, a Higher Institute for Imams and Khatibs has been set up at Taiba University, near Jeddah. The institute will graduate preachers who will be skilled not only in modern methods of communication but also moderate in their outlook. It will also strive to erase warped ideas among traditional preachers. Some 55 imams and preachers, besides several members from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (religious police) attended the course.
The need for such educated and moderate Imams could go a long way in weaning the Muslim youth away from the path of extremism. Many of these preachers, even if well-versed in Islamic teachings, lack even elementary knowledge of science. In one of Bangalore’s mosques, a preacher, who was extolling the spiritual and health benefits of zamzam water that pilgrims normally bring with them after performing Haj, explained how rich it is in ‘vitamins’ (sic)..
A nephew of mine, who has just landed a job in the UAE, narrated the case of a Pakistani expatriate working there. The latter, who happens to be his acquaintance, insists that this youth should attend all religious congregations, which should take precedence over everything else, including job. How can Muslims progress with such a mindset?
In a major development that should be of interest to India, an expert committee set up by the Saudi government is vetting a draft law to punish those who threaten the national security of other countries.
The new law, which also deals with organized crimes and terrorism-related offences, will carry the maximum sentence of capital punishment for the convict, according to the Saudi media, which have quoted Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, as saying. He described such crimes as “haraba,” a Qur’anic term meaning “sowing corruption and chaos on earth.”
Since both India and Saudi Arabia have been victims of terrorism, now is the time to share information on how they could combat this menace in their mutual interest. There are two broad areas of cooperation from India’s point of view. One is a Saudi proposal mooted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for establishing an international centre on combating terrorism
The other one is the launch of an institute for training imams and khatibs (those who lead prayers in mosques or deliver sermons before the start of Friday prayers). Both these developments are significant, since there many poorly educated preachers who misinterpret Islamic teachings, emphasizing certain aspects and playing down others. They represent a growing trend that has seen preachers well versed in their own field but woefully lacking even basic knowledge of science.
On the issue of combating terrorism, King Abdullah had proposed the setting up of an international center during a major conference three years ago. The proposal met with a lukewarm response despite attempts to take it forward. Subsequent events since 9/11 have warranted the need for reviving this initiative with all the seriousness that it deserves.
The leaders of both countries, together with their experts, could work out the modalities of fine-tuning the proposal from the conceptual to the operational stage. The starting point of the exercise should be to arrive at a global definition of terrorism and the root cause of this phenomenon that has cost the international community trillions of dollars in cumulative damage with no end in sight.
What is important is to identify the various terrorist outfits, their modus operandi and how they indoctrinate the recruits. This is where the Saudi government’s strategy seeks to prevent extremist ideas from infecting immature minds. To this end, the government has drawn up a plan that will bring together religious scholars and social scientists on a common platform to explain the true teachings of Islam as a religion of peace and moderation. They will also explore the problem from a socio-economic perspective to get an overall picture.
In the Saudi context, which is equally relevant to India’s, terrorists draft recruits from the unemployed youth who are lured by monetary incentives. In fact, Prince Naif has urged all Saudi universities to fight terrorism at the academic level by conducting research on why and how some young Saudis fell into the trap.
The Interior Ministry recently launched a campaign in Hafr Al-Batin, a conservative stronghold in northeastern Saudi Arabia, where preachers and experts are working towards reforming individuals arrested on terror charges. They counter the influence of extremist teachings by emphasizing the sanctity of life in Islam, its stress on kindness, compassion, accountability for one’s acts of omission and commission on the Day of Judgment, etc.
At another level, imams and Friday preachers in the Kingdom’s mosques are instructed to be careful in their sermons. “A preacher should know that it is his religious duty to speak out against terror and misguided ideologies as he is aware of what the Shariah (Islamic law) says on the matter,” Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance Saleh Al-Ashaikh said during an address at the Islamic University of Medina recently.
To this end, a Higher Institute for Imams and Khatibs has been set up at Taiba University, near Jeddah. The institute will graduate preachers who will be skilled not only in modern methods of communication but also moderate in their outlook. It will also strive to erase warped ideas among traditional preachers. Some 55 imams and preachers, besides several members from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (religious police) attended the course.
The need for such educated and moderate Imams could go a long way in weaning the Muslim youth away from the path of extremism. Many of these preachers, even if well-versed in Islamic teachings, lack even elementary knowledge of science. In one of Bangalore’s mosques, a preacher, who was extolling the spiritual and health benefits of zamzam water that pilgrims normally bring with them after performing Haj, explained how rich it is in ‘vitamins’ (sic)..
A nephew of mine, who has just landed a job in the UAE, narrated the case of a Pakistani expatriate working there. The latter, who happens to be his acquaintance, insists that this youth should attend all religious congregations, which should take precedence over everything else, including job. How can Muslims progress with such a mindset?
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
The Uneducable Indian
By M H Ahssan
Many journalists ask the routine question after each of the increasingly frequent major terrorist strikes across India: why did this happen again? The more rational question, given India's capacities for intelligence, enforcement and CT response, is: why does this not happen more often?
A long derided union home minister, Shivraj Patil has been forced out; Maharashtra State Home Minister, R.R. Patil has succumbed to public and media pressure and resigned after a crass comment that "such things keep happening in big cities"; the Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, is tottering on the verge of resignation after engaging in some heedless ‘disaster tourism’ at the devastated Taj Mahal Hotel; other heads are poised to roll.
Has the latest Mumbai carnage pushed India beyond the ‘tipping point’ in its responses to terrorism? Is it now possible to expect a radical break with past patterns, where each major incident has been followed – to borrow a phrase applied to the Left parties during the nuclear debate, but which accurately describes the entire political class in this country – by some "running around like headless chickens", to lapse quickly into a habitual torpor?
And can India’s polarized and unprincipled political parties come to a consensual understanding and strategy on counter-terrorism, instead of subordinating the national interest to partisan electoral calculations and the politics of ‘vote banks’? Regrettably, there are already too many signs that it is going to be ‘business as usual’ in India.
At the height of the confrontation in Mumbai, L.K. Advani, the Leader of the Opposition and the man projected as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Prime Ministerial candidate in the coming elections next year, kindled a spark of hope, calling for an all-party consensus on counter-terrorism, and declaring, "at this juncture, the country needs to fight the terrorist menace resolutely and stand together".
However, even before the fighting had ended, partisan political sniping had commenced on the round-the-clock television coverage and debates, and this has escalated to a point of viciousness even while the debris of the attacks is being cleared out.
Crucially, when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh convened an all-party meeting at Delhi on December 1, 2008, Advani and BJP President, Rajnath Singh, chose to absent themselves, though V.K. Malhotra, Deputy Leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party, did attend.
Governmental responses, moreover, show little sign of coming to terms with the enormity of the issue.
The Prime Minister has chosen to emphasise amendments to the prevailing laws on terrorism – currently a set of toothless provisions inserted in 2005 into the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 – and the mirage of a Federal Investigation Agency that is intended to make all terrorism in the country miraculously vanish, simply because it pretends to imitate the American Federal Bureau of Investigation in nomenclature and intent.
Neither of these initiatives, however, has any potential whatsoever to contain the rampage of terrorism across a country that remains pitifully under-policed, with a paper thin intelligence cover concentrated in a few urban centres and strategic locations.
There has also been a reiteration of assurances that ‘maritime security’ will be beefed up, with more power and resources to the Coast Guard and Coastal Police Stations, and better coordination between these forces, and with the Navy.
But this is all tired old stuff and has been articulated ad nauseum, since 2001, with little evidence of change in capacities on the ground.
Indeed, the critical capacities – those for policing – are actually undergoing continuing erosion, with the latest National Crime Records Bureau Report indicating that the police – population ratio for the country at large actually declined from an abysmal 126/100,000 in 2006 to 125/100,000 in 2007.
Of course, a few random sanctions for augmentation of capacities have been announced in the wake of past attacks – including the sanction of 6,000 additional personnel for the Intelligence Bureau (IB), immediately after the serial blasts in Delhi on September 13, 2008.
Given the country’s turgid and obstructive bureaucracy, however, there are no signs of these sanctions resulting in an augmentation of capacities on the ground any time soon. The very idea of responding on a war footing, cutting through red tape and existing institutional limitations, does not appear to exist in any aspect of the country’s counter-terrorism responses.
And then, of course, there is a question of response to the very obvious role of Pakistan – and this is a palpable dead end. Even preliminary investigations have thrown up overwhelming evidence that every string of control in the multiple terrorist strikes in Mumbai leads back to Pakistan and to the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) – an organization that, under its new identity as the Jamaat-ud-Dawa continues to enjoy direct state support in Pakistan.
In a rare outburst, Prime Minister Singh warned unnamed "neighbours" that "the use of their territory for launching attacks on us will not be tolerated, and that there would be a cost if suitable measures are not taken by them."
His Government is now reportedly "under pressure" to act against Pakistan, and a range of hair-brained responses are doing the rounds in official circles, including massive troop mobilization along the border, mimicking the purposeless massing of troops under Operation Parakram, launched on December 16, 2001, after the terrorist attack on India’s Parliament.
680 soldiers were killed, without a single shot being fired, by the time Operation Parakram was, inexplicably, called off on October 16, 2002, with the unsupported claim that its undefined "objectives" had been achieved.
If this worthless and counter-productive exercise is the model to be replicated in the present case, it would be no less than tragic.
If, on the other hand, it is not, then there is little capacity – at this juncture – to design effective alternatives, in the foreseeable future, to impose any "cost" on Pakistan, and such capacities can only be constructed, gradually and systematically, over time, and with a clear strategy in mind – and there is little evidence of the latter at this juncture.
Indeed, the overwhelming focus of the Indian response to Pakistan’s role – either as the source of these attacks, or more direct involvement of the state’s agencies in engineering or facilitating them – appears to be concentrated on diplomatic efforts to bring international pressure to bear on Pakistan.
This has been an apparently successful initiative, with world leaders coming out with some of the most unambiguous condemnations of the incident and commitments to support India’s efforts to address the problem in all its dimensions.
Crucially, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to arrive at Delhi on December 3, on a visit that many expect (or, more likely, hope) will produce more than just a very strong ‘message’ to Islamabad.
While all this will certainly make the powers that be in Pakistan squirm a bit, there is little reason to believe that the dynamic that has protected them in past and even greater transgressions, both in the region and well beyond, will not, once again, reassert itself.
The truth is, it is not just India that is powerless to impose any unbearable pain on the basket case that is Pakistan – the ‘international community’, particularly including USA – are no better positioned.
It is useful to recall, here, that US intelligence agencies concurred with Afghan and Indian agencies, that Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) had engineered the terrorist bombing of the Indian Embassy on July 7, 2008, and there had been great expectations, at that juncture as well, that this would result in stronger action against Islamabad.
Pakistan, however, has weathered many such storms and its diplomats and proxies are quick to range across the world peddling their theories of root causes and Muslim grievance to ever-willing audiences in the West and, indeed, even in victim countries such as India.
In the meanwhile, the attack in Mumbai has done what may well be irreparable damage to the "shining" image of the "emerging global power".
The utter incapacity and incompetence of India’s security apparatus has been incontrovertibly demonstrated in what may be an audacious attack by as few as 10 terrorists (nine have been confirmed killed and one is currently in custody, singing like a canary).
It is crucial, here, to notice the exemplary courage, exemplary leadership and exemplary dedication to duty, among those who responded from the security forces, who were given virtually nothing to fight with, and who still put everything they had into the fight, with many losing their lives.
Their personal commitment and attainment notwithstanding, the reality of the institutional and structural responses is disgraceful.
While a detailed analysis of the counter-terrorism (CT) operation must wait till far more information is available, a few aspects are already evident.
The most significant of these is the sheer tardiness and inadequacy of response. The first shots in the multiple attacks in Mumbai were fired at about 21:40 in the evening of November 26, and the incident was already on national television by 22:00 (all timings are approximate and based on available open source reportage).
Local Police contingents – including the Anti-terrorism Squad (ATS) headed by Hemant Karkare, who lost his life in the encounter – responded fairly quickly, but, lacking protective equipment, firepower and even the most rudimentary CT training, with tragic consequences, losing top line Police leaders in the very first engagements.
After that, the world witnessed the most astonishing paralysis, as the locations of attack were loosely cordoned off by variously armed Police contingents, but no forces appeared equipped or willing to enter and engage for hours following.
It was evident that even the most basic of response protocols had not been established, and the word repeatedly occurring in every live report in these long initial hours was "chaotic".
As one commentator in the New York Times noted, "The grainy television imagery suggested not so much a terrorist attack as the shapeless, omnidirectional chaos of Iraq."
Local contingents of the Army – arriving at about 02:50, more than five hours after the incident commenced – brought some semblance of order to the incident environments, but still did not enter the major sites of ongoing terrorist carnage.
The first ‘special response team’ to arrive was a small group of Marine Commandos (Marcos), who actually sought engagement with the terrorists – but their own accounts suggest that they were not able to neutralize a singly terrorist before they were pulled out.
Eventually, a 200-strong contingent of the ‘elite’ National Security Guard (NSG) was deployed at 08:05, in the morning of November 27, and this is the point at which the terrorists can seriously be considered to have been engaged.
But the NSG went into the locations blind – with no maps of the Taj Mahal Hotel and the Oberoi-Trident complex initially available – and were extraordinarily tentative, unsure weather they were dealing with a hostage situation, and transfixed by their fear of inflicting civilian casualties – the reality eventually disclosed was that the massacres in the three principal sites, the two hotels and Nariman House, where a Jewish family was trapped, were over long before the NSG engaged.
The result was a stand-off that lasted all of 62 hours.
There is also, of course, the long succession of intelligence warnings that were given to the state government, and that were also passed on to the security establishments of the hotels under threat, but even the limited security measures that were implemented by both local Police and the hotel security apparatus were, as Praveen Swami notes, "lifted a week before the attacks, after businesses and residents complained of inconvenience."
Swami, quotes an unnamed Police source, further, as stating, "We also removed additional security… because our manpower was stretched to the limit and the personnel we had did not, in any case, have the specially-trained personnel needed to avert a suicide-squad attack."
The Maharashtra state government has tried to package this operation as a grand success, arguing that the terrorists had "come to kill 5,000 people" and to "blow up the Taj" (both pieces of unmitigated nonsense), and that, consequently, the eventual loss of life and damage to various structure, was not ‘as high as it could have been’.
The reality, however, is that the multiple attacks – at 11 different locations – by a tiny contingent of terrorists, inflicting 195 fatalities (the figure is tentative, with numbers still rising, and pending official confirmation) and leaving over 300 injured, and virtually devastating two major locations (the Taj and the Oberoi-Trident), fully achieved their attainable potential and were complete successes from the point of view of their planners.
They cannot, consequently, be thought of as anything but comprehensive failures from the point of view of India’s security establishment.
Indeed, the Mumbai carnage shows every mark of a botched operation from the security point of view.
If anything, security forces’ (SF) action appears to have trapped the terrorists in the locations, blocking off their avenues of planned escape – even as it gave them significant freedom of operation within them – instead of quickly neutralizing them, and protracting the carnage for an incredible 62 hours.
Despite the extraordinary courage and evident commitment of SF personnel and leaders, the reality is that there was a comprehensive structural failure in Mumbai.
Any terrorist operation can only be contained, in terms of its potential, in the first few minutes. Which means that the "first responders" – invariably the local Police – have to be equipped, trained and capable of, if not neutralising, then, at least, containing the terrorists.
If the first batches of Police personnel had arrived in sufficient strength at each of the locations of terrorist attack in Mumbai, with appropriate weaponry, communications, transport and other technological force multipliers (such as, for instance, night vision goggles and thermal imaging systems for the major standoffs in the Taj, Oberoi-Trident and Nariman House) and immediately engaged with the terrorists, they probably would have been able, in at least these three locations, to isolate the terrorists in small corners of the target structures and would have been able to minimise the loss of life, the material damage, and the operational time.
Many journalists ask the routine question after each of the increasingly frequent major terrorist strikes across India: why did this happen again? The more rational question, given India’s capacities for intelligence, enforcement and CT response, is: why does this not happen more often?
Imitative mantras, such as "strong laws" and "federal agency" will not diminish the threat of terrorism that confronts India.
It is only the hard slog of building effective capacities – not incrementally, in terms of what we already have, but radically, in terms of what we need – on a war footing, that will help diminish the enveloping and, progressively, crippling, threat of terrorism confronting India.
Only this can help the government recover from the loss of public confidence and of international prestige that this devastating attack has inflicted on the nation.
Regrettably, a national leadership – across party lines – that has repeatedly betrayed the national security interest for partisan political gains, does not demonstrate the necessary capacities for learning that can create defences within any time frame that could be immediately relevant to the trajectory of terrorism in the country.
Many journalists ask the routine question after each of the increasingly frequent major terrorist strikes across India: why did this happen again? The more rational question, given India's capacities for intelligence, enforcement and CT response, is: why does this not happen more often?
A long derided union home minister, Shivraj Patil has been forced out; Maharashtra State Home Minister, R.R. Patil has succumbed to public and media pressure and resigned after a crass comment that "such things keep happening in big cities"; the Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, is tottering on the verge of resignation after engaging in some heedless ‘disaster tourism’ at the devastated Taj Mahal Hotel; other heads are poised to roll.
Has the latest Mumbai carnage pushed India beyond the ‘tipping point’ in its responses to terrorism? Is it now possible to expect a radical break with past patterns, where each major incident has been followed – to borrow a phrase applied to the Left parties during the nuclear debate, but which accurately describes the entire political class in this country – by some "running around like headless chickens", to lapse quickly into a habitual torpor?
And can India’s polarized and unprincipled political parties come to a consensual understanding and strategy on counter-terrorism, instead of subordinating the national interest to partisan electoral calculations and the politics of ‘vote banks’? Regrettably, there are already too many signs that it is going to be ‘business as usual’ in India.
At the height of the confrontation in Mumbai, L.K. Advani, the Leader of the Opposition and the man projected as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Prime Ministerial candidate in the coming elections next year, kindled a spark of hope, calling for an all-party consensus on counter-terrorism, and declaring, "at this juncture, the country needs to fight the terrorist menace resolutely and stand together".
However, even before the fighting had ended, partisan political sniping had commenced on the round-the-clock television coverage and debates, and this has escalated to a point of viciousness even while the debris of the attacks is being cleared out.
Crucially, when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh convened an all-party meeting at Delhi on December 1, 2008, Advani and BJP President, Rajnath Singh, chose to absent themselves, though V.K. Malhotra, Deputy Leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party, did attend.
Governmental responses, moreover, show little sign of coming to terms with the enormity of the issue.
The Prime Minister has chosen to emphasise amendments to the prevailing laws on terrorism – currently a set of toothless provisions inserted in 2005 into the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 – and the mirage of a Federal Investigation Agency that is intended to make all terrorism in the country miraculously vanish, simply because it pretends to imitate the American Federal Bureau of Investigation in nomenclature and intent.
Neither of these initiatives, however, has any potential whatsoever to contain the rampage of terrorism across a country that remains pitifully under-policed, with a paper thin intelligence cover concentrated in a few urban centres and strategic locations.
There has also been a reiteration of assurances that ‘maritime security’ will be beefed up, with more power and resources to the Coast Guard and Coastal Police Stations, and better coordination between these forces, and with the Navy.
But this is all tired old stuff and has been articulated ad nauseum, since 2001, with little evidence of change in capacities on the ground.
Indeed, the critical capacities – those for policing – are actually undergoing continuing erosion, with the latest National Crime Records Bureau Report indicating that the police – population ratio for the country at large actually declined from an abysmal 126/100,000 in 2006 to 125/100,000 in 2007.
Of course, a few random sanctions for augmentation of capacities have been announced in the wake of past attacks – including the sanction of 6,000 additional personnel for the Intelligence Bureau (IB), immediately after the serial blasts in Delhi on September 13, 2008.
Given the country’s turgid and obstructive bureaucracy, however, there are no signs of these sanctions resulting in an augmentation of capacities on the ground any time soon. The very idea of responding on a war footing, cutting through red tape and existing institutional limitations, does not appear to exist in any aspect of the country’s counter-terrorism responses.
And then, of course, there is a question of response to the very obvious role of Pakistan – and this is a palpable dead end. Even preliminary investigations have thrown up overwhelming evidence that every string of control in the multiple terrorist strikes in Mumbai leads back to Pakistan and to the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) – an organization that, under its new identity as the Jamaat-ud-Dawa continues to enjoy direct state support in Pakistan.
In a rare outburst, Prime Minister Singh warned unnamed "neighbours" that "the use of their territory for launching attacks on us will not be tolerated, and that there would be a cost if suitable measures are not taken by them."
His Government is now reportedly "under pressure" to act against Pakistan, and a range of hair-brained responses are doing the rounds in official circles, including massive troop mobilization along the border, mimicking the purposeless massing of troops under Operation Parakram, launched on December 16, 2001, after the terrorist attack on India’s Parliament.
680 soldiers were killed, without a single shot being fired, by the time Operation Parakram was, inexplicably, called off on October 16, 2002, with the unsupported claim that its undefined "objectives" had been achieved.
If this worthless and counter-productive exercise is the model to be replicated in the present case, it would be no less than tragic.
If, on the other hand, it is not, then there is little capacity – at this juncture – to design effective alternatives, in the foreseeable future, to impose any "cost" on Pakistan, and such capacities can only be constructed, gradually and systematically, over time, and with a clear strategy in mind – and there is little evidence of the latter at this juncture.
Indeed, the overwhelming focus of the Indian response to Pakistan’s role – either as the source of these attacks, or more direct involvement of the state’s agencies in engineering or facilitating them – appears to be concentrated on diplomatic efforts to bring international pressure to bear on Pakistan.
This has been an apparently successful initiative, with world leaders coming out with some of the most unambiguous condemnations of the incident and commitments to support India’s efforts to address the problem in all its dimensions.
Crucially, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to arrive at Delhi on December 3, on a visit that many expect (or, more likely, hope) will produce more than just a very strong ‘message’ to Islamabad.
While all this will certainly make the powers that be in Pakistan squirm a bit, there is little reason to believe that the dynamic that has protected them in past and even greater transgressions, both in the region and well beyond, will not, once again, reassert itself.
The truth is, it is not just India that is powerless to impose any unbearable pain on the basket case that is Pakistan – the ‘international community’, particularly including USA – are no better positioned.
It is useful to recall, here, that US intelligence agencies concurred with Afghan and Indian agencies, that Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) had engineered the terrorist bombing of the Indian Embassy on July 7, 2008, and there had been great expectations, at that juncture as well, that this would result in stronger action against Islamabad.
Pakistan, however, has weathered many such storms and its diplomats and proxies are quick to range across the world peddling their theories of root causes and Muslim grievance to ever-willing audiences in the West and, indeed, even in victim countries such as India.
In the meanwhile, the attack in Mumbai has done what may well be irreparable damage to the "shining" image of the "emerging global power".
The utter incapacity and incompetence of India’s security apparatus has been incontrovertibly demonstrated in what may be an audacious attack by as few as 10 terrorists (nine have been confirmed killed and one is currently in custody, singing like a canary).
It is crucial, here, to notice the exemplary courage, exemplary leadership and exemplary dedication to duty, among those who responded from the security forces, who were given virtually nothing to fight with, and who still put everything they had into the fight, with many losing their lives.
Their personal commitment and attainment notwithstanding, the reality of the institutional and structural responses is disgraceful.
While a detailed analysis of the counter-terrorism (CT) operation must wait till far more information is available, a few aspects are already evident.
The most significant of these is the sheer tardiness and inadequacy of response. The first shots in the multiple attacks in Mumbai were fired at about 21:40 in the evening of November 26, and the incident was already on national television by 22:00 (all timings are approximate and based on available open source reportage).
Local Police contingents – including the Anti-terrorism Squad (ATS) headed by Hemant Karkare, who lost his life in the encounter – responded fairly quickly, but, lacking protective equipment, firepower and even the most rudimentary CT training, with tragic consequences, losing top line Police leaders in the very first engagements.
After that, the world witnessed the most astonishing paralysis, as the locations of attack were loosely cordoned off by variously armed Police contingents, but no forces appeared equipped or willing to enter and engage for hours following.
It was evident that even the most basic of response protocols had not been established, and the word repeatedly occurring in every live report in these long initial hours was "chaotic".
As one commentator in the New York Times noted, "The grainy television imagery suggested not so much a terrorist attack as the shapeless, omnidirectional chaos of Iraq."
Local contingents of the Army – arriving at about 02:50, more than five hours after the incident commenced – brought some semblance of order to the incident environments, but still did not enter the major sites of ongoing terrorist carnage.
The first ‘special response team’ to arrive was a small group of Marine Commandos (Marcos), who actually sought engagement with the terrorists – but their own accounts suggest that they were not able to neutralize a singly terrorist before they were pulled out.
Eventually, a 200-strong contingent of the ‘elite’ National Security Guard (NSG) was deployed at 08:05, in the morning of November 27, and this is the point at which the terrorists can seriously be considered to have been engaged.
But the NSG went into the locations blind – with no maps of the Taj Mahal Hotel and the Oberoi-Trident complex initially available – and were extraordinarily tentative, unsure weather they were dealing with a hostage situation, and transfixed by their fear of inflicting civilian casualties – the reality eventually disclosed was that the massacres in the three principal sites, the two hotels and Nariman House, where a Jewish family was trapped, were over long before the NSG engaged.
The result was a stand-off that lasted all of 62 hours.
There is also, of course, the long succession of intelligence warnings that were given to the state government, and that were also passed on to the security establishments of the hotels under threat, but even the limited security measures that were implemented by both local Police and the hotel security apparatus were, as Praveen Swami notes, "lifted a week before the attacks, after businesses and residents complained of inconvenience."
Swami, quotes an unnamed Police source, further, as stating, "We also removed additional security… because our manpower was stretched to the limit and the personnel we had did not, in any case, have the specially-trained personnel needed to avert a suicide-squad attack."
The Maharashtra state government has tried to package this operation as a grand success, arguing that the terrorists had "come to kill 5,000 people" and to "blow up the Taj" (both pieces of unmitigated nonsense), and that, consequently, the eventual loss of life and damage to various structure, was not ‘as high as it could have been’.
The reality, however, is that the multiple attacks – at 11 different locations – by a tiny contingent of terrorists, inflicting 195 fatalities (the figure is tentative, with numbers still rising, and pending official confirmation) and leaving over 300 injured, and virtually devastating two major locations (the Taj and the Oberoi-Trident), fully achieved their attainable potential and were complete successes from the point of view of their planners.
They cannot, consequently, be thought of as anything but comprehensive failures from the point of view of India’s security establishment.
Indeed, the Mumbai carnage shows every mark of a botched operation from the security point of view.
If anything, security forces’ (SF) action appears to have trapped the terrorists in the locations, blocking off their avenues of planned escape – even as it gave them significant freedom of operation within them – instead of quickly neutralizing them, and protracting the carnage for an incredible 62 hours.
Despite the extraordinary courage and evident commitment of SF personnel and leaders, the reality is that there was a comprehensive structural failure in Mumbai.
Any terrorist operation can only be contained, in terms of its potential, in the first few minutes. Which means that the "first responders" – invariably the local Police – have to be equipped, trained and capable of, if not neutralising, then, at least, containing the terrorists.
If the first batches of Police personnel had arrived in sufficient strength at each of the locations of terrorist attack in Mumbai, with appropriate weaponry, communications, transport and other technological force multipliers (such as, for instance, night vision goggles and thermal imaging systems for the major standoffs in the Taj, Oberoi-Trident and Nariman House) and immediately engaged with the terrorists, they probably would have been able, in at least these three locations, to isolate the terrorists in small corners of the target structures and would have been able to minimise the loss of life, the material damage, and the operational time.
Many journalists ask the routine question after each of the increasingly frequent major terrorist strikes across India: why did this happen again? The more rational question, given India’s capacities for intelligence, enforcement and CT response, is: why does this not happen more often?
Imitative mantras, such as "strong laws" and "federal agency" will not diminish the threat of terrorism that confronts India.
It is only the hard slog of building effective capacities – not incrementally, in terms of what we already have, but radically, in terms of what we need – on a war footing, that will help diminish the enveloping and, progressively, crippling, threat of terrorism confronting India.
Only this can help the government recover from the loss of public confidence and of international prestige that this devastating attack has inflicted on the nation.
Regrettably, a national leadership – across party lines – that has repeatedly betrayed the national security interest for partisan political gains, does not demonstrate the necessary capacities for learning that can create defences within any time frame that could be immediately relevant to the trajectory of terrorism in the country.
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