Terrorism News

Pakistan's one of the most wanted men and Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud was on Friday reportedly killed in a US drone strike in North Waziristan region of Pakistan. Several intelligence and Taliban sources have confirmed the news. US had offered $5 million for Mehsud's capture for his involvement in killings of seven CIA employees in Afghanistan in 2009.

Following a lead for the past two days in the October-27 Patna serial blasts probe, Ranchi police on Sunday recovered nine live bombs matching those found in Patna from a lodge at Hindpiri in Ranchi. Police had earlier claimed that Indian Mujahideen had set up a 'Ranchi module' and had asked the Jharkhand government to set up an anti-terrorist squad.

The Centre has tightened security around Narendra Modi following an intelligence alert about ISI using Pak-based Khalistani terrorists to target Modi. IB suspects that ISI has also sheltered IM's founder Riyaz Bhatkal who masterminded the Oct-27 Patna bomb blasts. Modi now has three layered protection--one group to tackle attackers, second to provide cover and third to get him to safety.

Ahead of Sonia Gandhi and Narendra Modi both addressing rallies a few kilometres apart in Chhattisgarh's Bastar on Thursday, security forces defused two Improvised Explosive Devices(IEDs) of 25-kg each, averting a possible landmine explosion on Dornapal-Jagargunda road in Sukma district. This is the same spot where Naxalites, in their deadliest attack on security forces, killed 76 of them in 2010.

In connection with the 1997 bomb-blasts, a Delhi court on Thursday extended the judicial custody of Lashkar-e-Taiba bomb expert Abdul Karim Tunda till November-13. Earlier Tunda, who was in police custody for questioning in connection with 37 bomb-blast cases across the country, was also sent to Hyderabad after state police demanded his custody in a 1998 case lodged in Nampally.

The Pakistani Taliban elected Mullah Fazlullah, the commander whose men shot schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai last year, as their new leader on Wednesday, dampening expectations of any peace deal between the insurgents and the government. The election of Fazlullah, known for his hardline Islamist views, follows the death of former leader Hakimullah Mehsud in a US drone strike last week.

The book 'The Siege' written by Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy says, India received 26 intelligence warnings (including from the CIA), months ahead of the 26/11 attacks. Stating that the four terrorists at the Taj Hotel remained almost unchallenged for 28-hour, it also narrates the political dithering that led to delays and how some policemen simply fled the bloody-scene.

Tracking a tip-off from the National Investigation Agency, Bihar police have arrested a person, Raju Sao, from Jharkhand's Dhanbad district in connection with the Patna serial blasts. Bihar police headed for Dhanbad on the basis of information given by one of the six suspects detained during a raid in Lakhisarai (Bihar) three days ago.

A joint team by STF and district police on Wednesday arrested four Naxals including three women in connection with attack on Mankeli polling booth in Bijapur (Chhattisgarh) on Nov-11. One of them, identified as Kaadti Parmila, is a member of Naxals' Military Company with a reward of Rs 1 lakh on her, police said.

The Special CBI Court Judge M V Ramana Naidu on Monday condemned deported underworld don Abu Salem in a 2001 fake passport case, holding him guilty under different sections of IPC for obtaining a passport under a fictitious name and address from Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh. The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on November 28.

According to a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst named Bruce Riedel, the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack was intended to change the future of South Asia, perhaps even by provoking a war between India and Pakistan. He also pointed out that the attackers received considerable assistance from the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) and Al Qaeda.

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar's slack approach in tackling Maoists in Bihar is the reason why there has been a 41% rise in casualties in Maoist violence this year as compared to 2012, says a Central Intelligence Committee report to the PM. The report also says top Maoist leaders stuck inside jails in Bihar are guiding their cadres from inside them.

Five years after the horrific Mumbai 26/11 terror attacks, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is stronger than ever and remains the "favoured instrument" of Pakistani military and the ISI against India, US experts have said. Experts and ex-administration officials reiterated the ISI of Pakistan continues to support LeT, which they warned now poses an equal threat to the US and India.

Twelve suspected members of al-Qaida in the restive southern province of Abyan were killed in a Yemeni air raid. Such air strikes are frequent in southern and eastern Yemen, but the most fatal ones are operated by unmanned US drones. Yemen is the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden and the home base of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

Four CRPF jawans were killed in a mine blast on Wednesday morning in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur. Maoists are suspected to have carried out the blasts while the CRPF men were going for a civic action programme for the villagers. CRPF personnel are reportedly still engaged in an encounter with the Maoists near a forest in Bijapur.

Four CRPF jawans were killed and three severely injured in indiscriminate firing by Maoists in south Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district on Wednesday morning. The Maoists attacked when a team of CRPF personnel was preparing to leave with medicines, clothes and toys for Bijapur's villagers as part of the civic action programme. Several Maoists were reportedly killed in an encounter afterwards.

Armed Maoists on Saturday shot dead three GRP jawans and injured two others, besides looting five rifles from them in Sahebganj-Patna Inter-City Express in Bihar's Munger district, police said. The incident took place in the running train near a tunnel between Jamalpur and Ashikpur railway stations on Saturday evening, Jamalpur's railway superintendent of police Amitabh Kumar Das said.

Centre's Joint Intelligence Committee has accused the Bihar government of being soft towards the banned CPI (Maoists), and not taking effective steps to control the Red terror. It says that despite substantive decline in Maoists violence in India, Bihar has registered an increase of 41% in killings in Maoists-sponsored violence this year compared to last year.

In a move to spread the message that Islam is a religion of peace, over one lakh Muslims on Sunday took an oath against terrorism at a ceremony,organised by the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind, in Deoband (Uttar Pradesh). The ceremony was attended by clerics of Jamiat-e-Ulemas in the Maldives, Britain, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

A 14-year old girl was killed and nine persons, including a woman, were critically injured in a crude bomb blast by suspected militants in Dibrugarh (Assam) on Tuesday. The identity of the insurgent outfit responsible for the blast is yet unknown, although investigations are on. Both ULFA and Maoist elements are known to be active in the region.