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 The Hindu SEp 22, 2020 PTI Indian government continue to face a difficult challenge of border security, says Barrack Obama-era diplomat Alyssa Ayres Pakistan has used terrorist groups to change the status quo in Jammu and Kashmir, which has undermined every peace effort and impacted human rights negatively, a Barrack Obama-era diplomat has told US lawmakers. In a statement to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and Non proliferation, Alyssa Ayres, senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations think-tank, on Monday said the situation is complex and tragic in Kashmir The committee will schedule a hearing on “Stemming a Receding Tide: Human Rights and Democratic Values in Asia” on Tuesday. There is documented history of Pakistan-based terrorists active in Indian-administered Kashmir, and Kashmiris and the Indian government continue to face a difficult challenge of border security and terrorism in this regi...

The Wire Rahul Bedi September 22, 2020 Veteran Indian spooks narrate the deliciously sardonic tale of a purported exchange sometime in the mid-1970s, between the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi, and Ram Nath Kao, founding head of India’s external intelligence gathering agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). During their routine morning interaction, in which Kao presented his customary single-page daily intelligence report to the PM, she is believed to have looked up at the intelligence czar over her spectacle rims and acerbically remarked: “Ram Nath, I seem to recall having read this earlier today. In the morning newspapers.” RAW was founded in late 1968 by the dapper and intellectually razor-sharp Kao, with some 250 Intelligence Bureau officers, who in their initial years, were known as ‘Kaoboys’. In his oleaginous history of this agency – and its operatives – it seems Yadav, a New Delhi-based investigative journalist, was provided access to normally unobtainable classified ...

 Hindustan Times Sep 18, 2020 Harshit Sabarwal United States accuses Hezbollah of storing explosive chemical in Europe. Militant group Hezbollah has stored chemicals that can be used to make explosives in several European countries, a senior State Department official said as he appealed to countries in Europe and elsewhere to impose bans on the organization. Hezbollah operatives have moved ammonium nitrate from Belgium to France, Greece, Italy, Spain and Switzerland in recent years and are suspected to still be storing the material throughout Europe, said Nathan Sales, the State Department coordinator for counter-terrorism, on Thursday. Ammonium nitrate is a chemical compound commonly used as a fertilizer, but it can be used to make explosives. It can also be dangerous in storage, as demonstrated by the huge explosion last month in the Lebanese capital of Beirut. Sales, without offering evidence, said the US believes that Iran-backed Hezbollah has since 2012 transported ammonium ni...

The Greatgame India June 23, 2020 Iran has announced its intention to establish a permanent Naval Base in the Indian Ocean by March next year. The commander of the Naval Forces, Ali Reza Tungsiri, said that the Guards have directives from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, to be present on the high seas permanently. Iran has announced its intention to establish a permanent Naval Base in the Indian Ocean by 2021.Iranian fishermen and merchant ships were exposed to harassment by pirates in the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean, says Commander of the Iranian Naval Forces Permanent presence of the guards in those areas would prevent any future attacks according to the official.Iran possesses the strategic port of Chabahar on the waters of the Indian Ocean and the Sea of ​​Oman.The port is intended to provide an alternative for trade between India and Afghanistan bypassing Pakistan’s Karachi port.However, India’s involvement in the port infrastructure development has been minima...

Hindustan Times May 28, 2020 Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday alleged that the Indian government’s “arrogant expansionist policies” is becoming “a threat” to its neighbours as he tried to curry favour with Islamabad’s all-weather ally, China. The Indian government “with its arrogant expansionist policies, akin to Nazi’s Lebensraum (Living Space), is becoming a threat to India’s neighbours. Bangladesh through Citizenship Act, border disputes with Nepal & China, & Pak threatened with false flag operation,” Khan said in a series of tweets. Several areas along the 3,500-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh and North Sikkim have witnessed major military build-up by both the Indian and Chinese armies recently, in a clear signal of escalating tension and hardening of respective positions by the two sides even two weeks after they were engaged in two separate face-offs. The LAC is the de-facto border between India and China. Pakistan and China c...

NDTV March 24, 2020 Mukesh Singh Sengar & Saurbh Shukla Amid nationwide lockdown over highly contagious novel coronavirus or COVID-19, Delhi's Shaheen Bagh - heart of protests against Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA - was cleared this morning after 101 days.  Cops reached the site of the protest - which had inspired similar demonstrations across the country - at around 7 am. "They were not clearing the protest site despite repeated persuasion. When they refused to clear up, they were removed forcefully at around 7:30 am," said an official, adding that large gatherings have been banned under Section 144 over COVID-19. Nine people, including six women and three men, have been detained. "The protest site would be cleaned up with the help of civic body," he added. Those protesting against CAA in other parts of the city - Jaffrabad (northeast Delhi) and Turkman Gate (old Delhi) - were also removed this morning. This comes two days after  Chi...

The Hindu Special Correspondence October 06, 2019 Jammu and Kashmir police arrested third member of a newly formed Jaish-e-Mohammad module that was raised to carry out terrorist activities in Baramulla district of North Kashmir. The alleged terrorist identified as Mohsin Manzoor Salhea is a resident of old town Baramulla. One of the members of the group was killed in an encounter with security forces in August, days after the Centre’s move on Article 370. In the encounter, a special police officer was killed and a sub-inspector was injured. The second member of the group, Iqbal Naikoo was arrested on August 27. With the arrest of the Jaish terrorists, police said, a terror plot to target security forces and other civilians has been “smashed”. Reference:  https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/jk-police-arrest-jaish-operative/article29611897.ece

First Post July 15, 2019 PTI With the growing trend of shipments in recent years, exports of defence products will exceed the Rs 35,000 crore target by 2024-25, an official said. "I expect the exports will surpass the target of Rs 35,000 crore by 2024-25," Defence Production Department Secretary Ajay Kumar told PTI.  Defence products exports will exceed Rs 35,000 crore target by 2024-2025, says official Representational image. AFP Defence components are key drivers, he said. Kumar was in the city to promote private sector participation in defence production and also inaugurated a facilitation centre for the defence production at Bharat Chamber of Commerce. "Defence exports had been growing exponentially. It is like a big rock, which is hard to move, but once it starts rolling, it only gains momentum," he said. Last fiscal, exports were about Rs 10,700 crore and in 2019-20, the Centre set a target of Rs 20,000 crore. In the first quarter of t...

 Deeptiman Tiwary , Sreenivas Janyala | Hyderabad, New Delhi |  August 13, 2018  A 24-year-old man, who had tried twice earlier to reach Syria to fight for the Islamic State (IS), was among two persons arrested Sunday by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Hyderabad for allegedly planning to carry out the terror group’s activities in India, including recruitment. NIA officials identified the two as Abdullah Basith, who was caught in 2014 and 2015 before he could leave India for Syria (see page 9), and his associate Mohammed Abdul Qhadeer, 19. Basith was nabbed for “conspiring to further the activities of IS (and) carry out terrorist acts in India”. Both are part of a group of eight men from Hyderabad who are being questioned by NIA on suspicion of planning to carry out subversive activities at the behest of IS handlers, officials said. The Indian Express had reported on August 9 that NIA had raided seven locations in Hyderabad and apprehended the ei...

Pratap Bhanu Mehta,  The Indian Express, February 15, 2018 India finds itself increasingly cornered into a strategic cul-de-sac. Even as its diplomacy expands, its political options seem to decrease; even as it reaches out to look east and look west, the strategic space to address its core concerns does not seem to be expanding; and even as its bluster about a strong state grows, doubts about its military capabilities are growing equally louder. So, paradoxically, India finds itself in this position that even as it is globally recognised, it looks more helpless in its own backyard. These are days where strong propaganda obscures the most basic of common sense. To begin with a simple question. A hallmark of the strategic success of any government is whether it expands the options available that can help you achieve your core objectives. Have the options available to India expanded? The first core component of having options is raw capability. One would be hard-pressed to f...