The Strategic Dialogue would formally open tomorrow with a joint meeting between the two countries at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department.
Taking the Indo-U.S. ties to a new high, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna is set to hold the first ever Strategic Dialogue with his counterpart Hillary Clinton during which the two sides are expected to discuss the Af-Pak situation and bilateral counter-terrorism cooperation.
Mr. Krishna, who arrived here last night for the inaugural Cabinet-level strategic dialogue, is leading a high-power delegation including HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Minister of State for Science and Technology Prithviraj Chauhan and Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao.
Other members of the delegation are Special Secretary for Internal Security U K Bansal, Environment Secretary Vijai Sharma and Indian Ambassador to the U.S. Meera Shankar.
The Strategic Dialogue would formally open tomorrow with a joint meeting between the two countries at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department, co-chaired by Mr. Krishna and Secretary of State Clinton.
The issues that are expected to come up include Afghanistan-Pakistan situation, India’s role in Afghanistan and counter-terrorism cooperation between the two sides.
Ahead of the Krishna-Clinton talks, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns and Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao would hold the foreign policy meeting at the State Department which, the officials said, would set the tone for tomorrow’s dialogue.
In his first public engagement here, Mr. Krishna would deliver the keynote address to the 35th anniversary event of the U.S.-India Business Council - the apex business body of American corporate world doing business in India, reflecting the significance attached to the US business community and their role in U.S.-India relationship.
Separately, USAID Administrator Raj Shah and Under Secretary for Management Robert D. Hormats would hold the Indo-U.S. Agriculture Dialogue with Mr. Ahluwalia.
Mr. Sibal, who already had a series of meetings here yesterday, would continue his discussions with U.S. officials.
Hours ahead of Mr. Krishna’s arrival here, Mr. Burns said the Strategic Dialogue has elevated India to the rank of America’s top global partners.
“Our Strategic Dialogue this week elevates India to the rank of our most important global partners, allowing us to discuss and coordinate policies of global importance, including on the future shape of the international economic system and on what we can do together to promote human development in other parts of the world,” he said at the Council on Foreign Relations - a Washington-based think tank.
Showing posts with label Lashkar-e-Taiba. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lashkar-e-Taiba. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Rana to appear before Chicago court on May 11
Pakistani-Canadian terror suspect Tahawwur Rana under investigation for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, has stuck to his ‘not guilty’ plea to terror charges and is headed for trial, will appear before a U.S. court here on May 11 for a status hearing in the case.
Patrick Blegen, lawyer for the 48 year-old city businessman, told PTI that “during the status hearing, the judge is going to rule on some pre-trial motions”.
Mr. Blegen reiterated that there will not be any change in Rana’s not guilty plea, which he had entered in the U.S. District court in January.
He however did not comment on when he expects the trial in the case to start.
Rana’s May 11 status hearing is scheduled before U.S. Judge Harry Leinenweber.
Days after co-accused LeT operative David Coleman Headley had pleaded guilty in March to plotting the Mumbai terror attacks, Mr. Blegen had said his client would not be changing his not guilty plea and go ahead for a trial, which he hoped would start “sooner rather than later”.
Mr. Blegen had said he feels he still has a “strong case”.
Rana’s trial process is expected to start only after September, till when federal prosecutors would work on what evidence gathered against him can be used at trial.
Chicago’s top federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who is personally handling the case, had told the court he hopes to declassify evidence gathered in the terror investigation in the next few months.
Mr. Blegen and prosecutors agreed on a six-month schedule — April 5, June 1, July 1, August 2, September 13 — for carrying out provisions of the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA), which allows prosecutors to take extraordinary measures to prevent classified information from leaking to the public.
According to the calendar in the case, the government will provide classified discovery by June 1 and Judge Leinenweber has set a date of September 20 for a hearing to determine what classified information can be admitted as evidence at trial.
Rana has filed several pre-trial motions asking the government to provide him “specific” details of the kind of “material support” he is charged with providing to terror acts in Mumbai and Denmark, citing the need to be better prepared for trial.
Mr. Blegen said given the “complexity of the case”, his client should be entitled to know “with specificity what material support he is alleged to have provided” to terrorism since the “superseding indictment is not a clear appraisal of the allegations” against Rana.
The lawyer said the indictment keeps the allegations “vague” and prevents him from properly preparing a defence.
The government has objected to Rana’s demand for “specific” details, saying the superseding indictment provides more details than required and that the prosecution too continues to provide extensive discovery.
Federal prosecutors added the government has already provided “more than sufficient” information in the form of over 20,000 documents for him to prepare his defence for his trial.
Patrick Blegen, lawyer for the 48 year-old city businessman, told PTI that “during the status hearing, the judge is going to rule on some pre-trial motions”.
Mr. Blegen reiterated that there will not be any change in Rana’s not guilty plea, which he had entered in the U.S. District court in January.
He however did not comment on when he expects the trial in the case to start.
Rana’s May 11 status hearing is scheduled before U.S. Judge Harry Leinenweber.
Days after co-accused LeT operative David Coleman Headley had pleaded guilty in March to plotting the Mumbai terror attacks, Mr. Blegen had said his client would not be changing his not guilty plea and go ahead for a trial, which he hoped would start “sooner rather than later”.
Mr. Blegen had said he feels he still has a “strong case”.
Rana’s trial process is expected to start only after September, till when federal prosecutors would work on what evidence gathered against him can be used at trial.
Chicago’s top federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who is personally handling the case, had told the court he hopes to declassify evidence gathered in the terror investigation in the next few months.
Mr. Blegen and prosecutors agreed on a six-month schedule — April 5, June 1, July 1, August 2, September 13 — for carrying out provisions of the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA), which allows prosecutors to take extraordinary measures to prevent classified information from leaking to the public.
According to the calendar in the case, the government will provide classified discovery by June 1 and Judge Leinenweber has set a date of September 20 for a hearing to determine what classified information can be admitted as evidence at trial.
Rana has filed several pre-trial motions asking the government to provide him “specific” details of the kind of “material support” he is charged with providing to terror acts in Mumbai and Denmark, citing the need to be better prepared for trial.
Mr. Blegen said given the “complexity of the case”, his client should be entitled to know “with specificity what material support he is alleged to have provided” to terrorism since the “superseding indictment is not a clear appraisal of the allegations” against Rana.
The lawyer said the indictment keeps the allegations “vague” and prevents him from properly preparing a defence.
The government has objected to Rana’s demand for “specific” details, saying the superseding indictment provides more details than required and that the prosecution too continues to provide extensive discovery.
Federal prosecutors added the government has already provided “more than sufficient” information in the form of over 20,000 documents for him to prepare his defence for his trial.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Confession of Kasab was not given under duress: Court
The 26/11 court has accepted a major portion of the confession given by convicted terrorist Ajmal Kasab in which he talked about the involvement of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba and the security apparatus of the neighbouring country in the diabolic attacks.
“I have accepted most part of the confession and also held that it was voluntarily given by Kasab and not given under duress as claimed by him,” Judge M.L. Tahaliyani said while pronouncing the operative part of the verdict on Monday.
Magistrate Sawant Waghule had done her best to explain to Kasab that his confession can go against him in the trial and also gave him 72 hours to ponder over his move to confess voluntarily, the judge noted.
“I have rejected Kasab’s plea that his confession was not voluntary and was given under police duress,” the judge said, adding he also dismissed the defence argument that a policeman was present in the magistrate’s chamber when the accused was making a statement.
The mere presence of a policeman in the magistrate’s chamber would not suggest “police pressure” because it could be that the magistrate would have ordered the cop to be there because of security reasons, the judge said.
Moreover, Judge Tahaliyani said, the constable who was present during the confession did not belong to the investigating team and was part of the police staff who had been deputed on duty in the court in the normal course.
Kasab had stated in the confession how he was trained by LeT commanders Hafeez Sayeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi at a training camp in Pakistan.
He also said they were given arms and intelligence training and carried with them modern gadgets like global positioning system and mobile phones with VOIP services.
He narrated the sequence of events commencing from his joining LeT, training, sailing from Karachi to Mumbai, murdering crew of Kuber boat, killing several people and police officers by planting bombs and opening fire on them.
“I have accepted most part of the confession and also held that it was voluntarily given by Kasab and not given under duress as claimed by him,” Judge M.L. Tahaliyani said while pronouncing the operative part of the verdict on Monday.
Magistrate Sawant Waghule had done her best to explain to Kasab that his confession can go against him in the trial and also gave him 72 hours to ponder over his move to confess voluntarily, the judge noted.
“I have rejected Kasab’s plea that his confession was not voluntary and was given under police duress,” the judge said, adding he also dismissed the defence argument that a policeman was present in the magistrate’s chamber when the accused was making a statement.
The mere presence of a policeman in the magistrate’s chamber would not suggest “police pressure” because it could be that the magistrate would have ordered the cop to be there because of security reasons, the judge said.
Moreover, Judge Tahaliyani said, the constable who was present during the confession did not belong to the investigating team and was part of the police staff who had been deputed on duty in the court in the normal course.
Kasab had stated in the confession how he was trained by LeT commanders Hafeez Sayeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi at a training camp in Pakistan.
He also said they were given arms and intelligence training and carried with them modern gadgets like global positioning system and mobile phones with VOIP services.
He narrated the sequence of events commencing from his joining LeT, training, sailing from Karachi to Mumbai, murdering crew of Kuber boat, killing several people and police officers by planting bombs and opening fire on them.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Manmohan highlights terror threat emanating from Pakistan
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has conveyed to U.S. President Barack Obama India’s serious concern over terror emanating from Pakistan and its lack of will to punish the perpetrators of 26/11 attacks.
On his part, Mr. Obama said the U.S. shares India’s concerns over Lashkar-e-Taiba and other terror outfits operating from Pakistan.
Dr. Singh said New Delhi wants convincing action against those behind the Mumbai attacks.
The Prime Minister, during his 45—minute meeting with Mr. Obama, also raised the issue of Indian investigators getting direct access to Mumbai attacks plotter David Headley.
Mr. Obama said the U.S. was working through legal processes for giving India access to Headley.
“He (Obama) was fully supportive of our request for provision of such access,” Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao told reporters.
Mr. Obama also promised to keep in mind India’s concerns over the end—use of the US military supplies to Pakistan after Singh voiced apprehensions in this regard.
The U.S. President said he favoured reduction of tensions between India and Pakistan but the Prime Minister made it clear that the “future of South Asia would be determined by the manner in which terrorism is tackled“.
During the meeting at the Blair House, Dr. Singh emphasised that Pakistan needed to take “convincing action” against those responsible for Mumbai attacks, she said.
Mr. Obama said the U.S. understood India’s concerns with regard to activities of Lashkar-e-Taiba and other terror groups from Pakistan and Afghanistan and that Washington was “engaging” Pakistan on these issues.
While talking about the menace of terrorism emanating from Pakistan, Dr. Singh referred to Headley, activities of LeT and its chief Hafiz Saeed and HuJI terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri, Ms. Rao said.
“Unfortunately, there is no will on part of Pakistan to punish those responsible for terrorist attacks in Mumbai,” Ms. Rao quoted the Prime Minister as telling Mr. Obama.
“This is where partnership of India and the U.S. could make the difference,” Dr. Singh told Mr. Obama.
To a question, Ms. Rao said the fate of Indo-Pak dialogue had no connection with the meeting between Dr. Singh and Mr. Obama.
She said the U.S. as also the entire world, was aware of India’s approach on dialogue with Pakistan. “The U.S. fully understands” India’s position on the dialogue.
India has suspended composite dialogue since the 26/11 attacks and has refused to resume it till Pakistan takes concrete and transparent action against those behind the terror strike.
Ms. Rao said there would be no meeting between Dr. Singh and Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani here during the Nuclear Security Summit but did not categorically rule out such a possibility in Bhutan during the upcoming SAARC Summit.
Sources said Dr. Singh told Mr. Obama about India’s scepticism on Pakistan army’s role and pressed the US to ensure that army’s influence diminished in Pakistan.
Mr. Obama said India has the goodwill and understanding in the US.
Noting that shared Dr. Singh’s vision for South Asia, Mr. Obama said he understands India’s interest in Afghanistan and recognises its role. He expressed support to India’s continued assistance programme in Afghanistan.
While talking about Indo-US counter-terrorism cooperation, Mr. Obama said the US was working through legal systems for provision of access to Headley. He said he was supportive of India’s request for provision of access.
On India’s concerns over misuse of US military supplies to Pakistan, Mr. Obama said the US was sensitive to these worries and would monitor the end use of the material given.
The US President referred to the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill and expressed hope that it would be passed by Parliament as expeditiously as possible.
The bill, whose passage is critical for implementation of the Indo-U.S. civil nuclear deal, has got caught in a political quagmire with opposition parties objecting to certain clauses in it, including the cap of Rs. 500 crore on compensation.
On his part, Mr. Obama said the U.S. shares India’s concerns over Lashkar-e-Taiba and other terror outfits operating from Pakistan.
Dr. Singh said New Delhi wants convincing action against those behind the Mumbai attacks.
The Prime Minister, during his 45—minute meeting with Mr. Obama, also raised the issue of Indian investigators getting direct access to Mumbai attacks plotter David Headley.
Mr. Obama said the U.S. was working through legal processes for giving India access to Headley.
“He (Obama) was fully supportive of our request for provision of such access,” Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao told reporters.
Mr. Obama also promised to keep in mind India’s concerns over the end—use of the US military supplies to Pakistan after Singh voiced apprehensions in this regard.
The U.S. President said he favoured reduction of tensions between India and Pakistan but the Prime Minister made it clear that the “future of South Asia would be determined by the manner in which terrorism is tackled“.
During the meeting at the Blair House, Dr. Singh emphasised that Pakistan needed to take “convincing action” against those responsible for Mumbai attacks, she said.
Mr. Obama said the U.S. understood India’s concerns with regard to activities of Lashkar-e-Taiba and other terror groups from Pakistan and Afghanistan and that Washington was “engaging” Pakistan on these issues.
While talking about the menace of terrorism emanating from Pakistan, Dr. Singh referred to Headley, activities of LeT and its chief Hafiz Saeed and HuJI terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri, Ms. Rao said.
“Unfortunately, there is no will on part of Pakistan to punish those responsible for terrorist attacks in Mumbai,” Ms. Rao quoted the Prime Minister as telling Mr. Obama.
“This is where partnership of India and the U.S. could make the difference,” Dr. Singh told Mr. Obama.
To a question, Ms. Rao said the fate of Indo-Pak dialogue had no connection with the meeting between Dr. Singh and Mr. Obama.
She said the U.S. as also the entire world, was aware of India’s approach on dialogue with Pakistan. “The U.S. fully understands” India’s position on the dialogue.
India has suspended composite dialogue since the 26/11 attacks and has refused to resume it till Pakistan takes concrete and transparent action against those behind the terror strike.
Ms. Rao said there would be no meeting between Dr. Singh and Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani here during the Nuclear Security Summit but did not categorically rule out such a possibility in Bhutan during the upcoming SAARC Summit.
Sources said Dr. Singh told Mr. Obama about India’s scepticism on Pakistan army’s role and pressed the US to ensure that army’s influence diminished in Pakistan.
Mr. Obama said India has the goodwill and understanding in the US.
Noting that shared Dr. Singh’s vision for South Asia, Mr. Obama said he understands India’s interest in Afghanistan and recognises its role. He expressed support to India’s continued assistance programme in Afghanistan.
While talking about Indo-US counter-terrorism cooperation, Mr. Obama said the US was working through legal systems for provision of access to Headley. He said he was supportive of India’s request for provision of access.
On India’s concerns over misuse of US military supplies to Pakistan, Mr. Obama said the US was sensitive to these worries and would monitor the end use of the material given.
The US President referred to the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill and expressed hope that it would be passed by Parliament as expeditiously as possible.
The bill, whose passage is critical for implementation of the Indo-U.S. civil nuclear deal, has got caught in a political quagmire with opposition parties objecting to certain clauses in it, including the cap of Rs. 500 crore on compensation.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Investigators put face to voice on Mumbai attack tapes
“Tell them this is just the trailer,” the Mumbai-accented Lashkar-e-Taiba controller ordered two terrorists to tell the media during the November 2008 assault on Mumbai. “The real movie is still to come.”
Based on interviews with arrested jihadists, and data provided by India’s intelligence services, Mumbai police investigators now believe the unidentified voice intercepted in the course of the assault is that of Maharashtra-origin jihadist Syed Zabiuddin Syed Zakiuddin Ansari.
Indian intelligence services say that Ansari, operating out of terror camps in Karachi and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, is a key figure in the jihadist group’s plan to realise the threat he ordered the assault team to deliver.
Ansari’s story helps to understand the Pakistan-based networks which remain the key security threat to India — and also to comprehend the role of Hindu chauvinism in watering the political soil, which gave birth to its jihadist movement.
Born on November 13, 1981, Ansari grew up in the town of Gevrai, in the midst of Beed district’s rich cotton and sugarcane fields. His father, Zakiuddin Ansari, worked as a small-time insurance agent, struggling to bring up five daughters — and his only son. Ansari studied at Gavarai’s Zilla Parishad-run High School up to standard X, and then acquired an electrician’s qualifications at the Indian Technical Institute in Beed. He was studying for a master’s at the Navgan Shikshan Sanstha College when he became a fugitive.
Little is known of the processes that led Ansari to the Lashkar, but it is likely that part of the answer lies in the communal violence which formed an organic part of the cultural fabric of his early life.
Following a wave a communal riots across Maharashtra in the summer of 1984, the Shiv Sena took control of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and pushed forward communal mobilisations in rural areas. Umapur, not far from Gevrai, saw murderous anti-Muslim violence in 1986. Later, tensions surged after the demolition of the Babri Masjid. In 2001, a statue of the warrior-king Shivaji Raje Bhonsale was chipped by Shiv Sena activists in a near-successful effort to provoke communal riots.
Many young Muslims believed that the community’s traditional leadership had failed to defend it from assault. Some — including Ansari — turned to the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), for solutions.
Journey into Lashkar
“Islam is our nation, not India,” thundered Mohammad Amir Shakeel Ahmad at the SIMI’s 1999 convention in Aurangabad — a convention that saw the Maharashtra jihadists make their first known contacts with the Lashkar leadership.
No one is certain just when Ansari was drawn to the SIMI, but he is known to have been close to key Aurangabad-based members of the Islamist organisation — among them Ahmad — by the time the convention took place.
In 2001, Gujarat police investigators say, Ansari met with Khalid Sardana, a Jammu and Kashmir resident studying at a seminary in the State, to discuss the prospect of sending SIMI cadre there for weapons training. Later that year, Sardana took several of Aurangabad men to train with Lashkar units in the mountains of Surankote, near Poonch. At least one, Fahd Sheikh, is now known to have been killed in fighting with Indian troops in Hil Kaka.
The Gujarat police investigators believe that Ansari and Zulfikar Fayyaz Ahmad ‘Kagazi,’ who went to place a bomb on a Mumbai-Ahmedabad express train in February 2006, were also present at the meeting.
Last summer, when the Delhi police finally arrested Sardana after an intelligence-led pursuit through Pakistan and Bangladesh, he said several Maharashtra jihadists — including Ansari — continued to flit in and out of Lashkar-run camps near Muzaffarabad and Dulai, in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Following the 2002 communal pogrom in Gujarat, these training operations intensified. Mumbai-based SIMI operative Rahil Sheikh, the investigators say, was tasked with securing passports and tickets for SIMI volunteers who travelled to Lashkar-run camps through the porous Iran-Pakistan border. Among the first to go, police say, was Ansari.
Communal pogrom
Most of Sheikh’s operatives were raised in the wake of the 2002 communal pogrom. Feroze Ghaswala, a Mumbai-based automobile mechanic, volunteered for the jihad after witnessing the burial of dozens of people killed in the violence.
Ghaswala travelled to Srinagar, hoping to meet jihadists at a religious gathering addressed by neoconservative preacher Zakir Naik in 2003. Instead, he ran into Sheikh — starting a journey which ended with his arrest in New Delhi.
Despite the collapse of the Ghaswala plot, Sheikh continued to work on operations to avenge the Gujarat pogrom. In 2005, he shipped Kalashnikov assault rifles and military-grade explosives into Aurangabad, using organised crime networks to transport the material across the Indian Ocean from Karachi.
Police say Ansari was to lead a group of Lashkar-trained Indian jihadists who would have used the equipment to assassinate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi — an operation that would have closely resembled the November 2008 attack on Mumbai in its tactics and execution.
Eleven SIMI-linked men were arrested after the intelligence services penetrated the plot — but Ansari evaded police in a high-speed chase, and escaped to Pakistan.
Besides the victims of his attacks, Ansari’s family paid a high price for his actions. Naved-ur-Rehman Khan, who had married Ansari’s sister Rafia Parveen, divorced her as news of the Aurangabad plot broke. “We had been together just three weeks,” he says, “but I didn’t want anything to do with this trouble.”
Fugitive emerges as 26/11 suspect
Mumbai police investigators say they may have succeeded in putting a face to an until-now-unidentified Indian Lashkar-e-Taiba operative who played a key role in guiding the operations of the team that attacked Mumbai in November 2008.
Based on information provided by India’s intelligence services, as well as interviews with arrested jihadists, the police believe the Indian national in the Lashkar’s control room could be Syed Zabiuddin Syed Zakiuddin Ansari, a Lashkar-linked Maharashtra resident who has been a fugitive since 2005.
The unidentified Indian operative was one of several Lashkar personnel who used voice-over-internet links to provide orders to the assault team. Last month, The Hindu had broken the news that one of the operatives in the Lashkar control station spoke Mumbai-inflected Hindi, in stark contrast to the Punjabi used by the others.
Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, the Lashkar terrorist arrested in the course of the assault, said his team had been trained by an Indian national identified as Abu Jindal — the alias also used by the unidentified controller, and a nom de guerre known to have been adopted by Ansari in the past.
The police say Ansari played a key role in a plot to assassinate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, an operation meant to avenge the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat. Ansari is alleged to have been the key leader of an Aurangabad-based Lashkar cell, which received assault rifles and military-grade explosives from Pakistan to stage an attack which would have closely resembled the Mumbai operation in tactics and execution.
Eleven men linked to the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Students Islamic Movement of India were held for their alleged role in the 2005 Aurangabad-based plot. However, Ansari eluded the police after a high-speed car chase and has been sought by Interpol since then. He was last sighted at a Lashkar safe house in Karachi by Hyderabad-based jihadist Mohammad Amjad Khwaja, who was arrested earlier this year.
Imran Babar, one of the two terrorists who took hostages at the Chabad House Jewish prayer centre, was told by the Hindi-speaking controller to call the media with a manifesto to condemn what he described as the Indian government’s “two-faced policy” towards Muslims.
The Lashkar manifesto demanded that Muslims held in jails be released; the Indian Army be pulled out of Jammu and Kashmir; the land on which the Babri Masjid stood be returned to Muslims and a new mosque constructed; India break off its alliance with Israel; and what the organisation called “Muslim states be handed back to the Muslims.”
