NEW DELHI: Afghanistan today thanked India for firmly standing behind it in the last two decades when the country was going through a difficult phase and hoped that the support will continue for years to come.
Chief Executive of Afghan government Abdullah Abdullah also complimented India for providing “generous” financial support in the last few years in helping Afghanistan in its reconstruction efforts.
“It is incumbent upon me to thank India for its generous support in the ..
New Delhi, Feb 26: Dreaded terror group ISIS and all its affiliate organisations, responsible for series of savage attacks and killings in Iraq and Syria, have been banned in India under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Recruitment of youths to the outfit from India and their radicalisation is a matter of serious concern for the country especially with regard to its likely impact on national security when such youth return to India, the Home Ministry said while banning the terrorist group.
The Islamic State/Islamic State of Iraq and Levant/ Islamic State of Iraq and Syria/Daish and all its manifestations have been declared as outlawed in India under UAPA, a notification issued by the Ministry said.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said in Parliament on December 16, 2014 that the Middle-East group had already been declared banned in India under a United Nations Schedule.
According to the latest notification, the outfit is operating in Iraq and neighbouring countries and has been resorting to terrorist actions to consolidate its position in that area by recruiting youth for ‘Global Jehad’ to achieve the objective of establishing its own ‘caliphate’ by overthrowing democratically elected governments.
The group is also resorting to terrorism in the form of killing of innocent civilians and security forces and the central government believes that the Islamic State/Islamic State of Iraq and Levant/Islamic State of Iraq and Syria/Daish is involved in radicalisation and recruitment of vulnerable youth from various countries including India.
Singh had said the group has been proscribed under the provisions related to organisations listed in the Schedule to the U N Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism (Implementation of Security Council Resolutions) Order, 2007 made under section two of the United Nations (Security Council) Act, 1947.
Four Mumbai youths had gone to Iraq-Syria in May 2014 to join ISIS. One of them returned late last year while the whereabouts of the remaining three are yet to be known.
A Bangalore-based executive of a multi-national company was arrested in December last year for allegedly running a pro-ISIS twitter handle.
Last month, another person from Hyderabad was barred from travelling to Syria, ostensibly to join ISIS.
Recently, retired Intelligence Bureau chief Asif Ibrahim had said there was an imminent danger of Indian youths moving to the conflict zone (Iraq-Syria), emerging as a role model, and such developments may directly or indirectly pose a threat to the country.
“The threat potential is accentuated with some lower rung elements returning from conflict zone,” he had said.
So I called it, I did not know the target, but I knew something bad would happen, 19 days before it happened. This may have been a video put up by a Pakistani showing the Interview and saying this will have repercussions..
Obama was on this video saying that he would work on the Kashmir Issue (this is before he was inaugurated I think?. Kashmir does not have any real boarders, no set ones. They move all the time. India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan all lay claim over sections of Kashmir. Well I thought it would cause Pakistan to attack India and they did..... using terrorists. Obama officially shut up a couple months later. Dumb Dumb Dumb Dumb.
In an interview with Joe Klein of Time magazine in October 2008, Barack Obama expressed his intention to try to work with India and Pakistan to resolve the crisis.[240] He said he had talked to Bill Clinton about it, as Clinton has experience being a mediator. In an editorial in The Washington Times, Selig S Harrison,[241] director of the Asia Programme at the Center for International Policy and a senior scholar of the Woodrow Wilson International, called it Obama's first foreign policy mistake.[242] In an editorial, The Australiancalled Obama's idea to appoint a presidential negotiator "a very stupid and dangerous move indeed".[243] In an editorial in Forbes,Reihan Salam, associate editor for The Atlantic, noted "The smartest thing President Obama could do on Kashmir is probably nothing. We have to hope that India and Pakistan can work out their differences on Kashmir on their own".[244]The Boston Globe called the idea of appointing Bill Clinton as an envoy to Kashmir "a mistake".[245] President Obama appointed Richard Holbrooke as special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan.[246] President Asif Ali Zardari hoped that Holbrooke would help mediate to resolve the Kashmir issue.[247]Subsequently Kashmir was removed from the mandate of Holbrooke.[248] "Eliminating ... Kashmir from his job description ... is seen as a significant diplomatic concession to India that reflects increasingly warm ties between the country and the United States," The Washington Post noted in a report.[249] Brajesh Mishra, India's former national security adviser, was quoted in the same report as saying that "No matter what government is in place, India is not going to relinquish control of Jammu and Kashmir". "That is written in stone and cannot be changed."[250] According to The Financial Times, India has warned Obama that he risks "barking up the wrong tree" if he seeks to broker a settlement between Pakistan and India over Kashmir.[251]
In July 2009, US Assistant Secretary of State Robert O. Blake, Jr. stated that the United States had no plans of appointing any special envoy to settle the dispute, calling it an issue which needs to be sorted out bilaterally by India and Pakistan.[252] According to Dawnthis will be interpreted in Pakistan as an endorsement of India's position on Kashmir that no outside power has any role in this dispute.[253]
India has furnished documentary evidence to the United Nations that these militants are supported by Pakistan, leading to a ban on some terrorist organisations, which Pakistan has yet to enforce.[citation needed]Former President of Pakistan and the ex-chief of Pakistan military Pervez Musharraf, stated in an interview in London, that Pakistani government indeed helped to form underground militant groups and "turned a blind eye" towards their existence.[112]
According to Indian Prime-ministerManmohan Singh, one of the main reasons behind the conflict is Pakistan's "terror-induced coercion". Indian Prime-ministerManmohan Singh stated in a Joint Press Conference with United States President Barack Obama in New Delhi that India is not afraid of resolving all the issues with Pakistan including the kashmir "but it is our request that you cannot simultaneously be talking and at the same time the terror machine is as active as ever before. Once Pakistan moves away from this terror-induced coercion, we will be very happy to engage productively with Pakistan to resolve all outstanding issues."[113]
In 2009, the President of PakistanAsif Zardari asserted at a conference in Islamabad that Pakistan had indeed created Islamic militant groups as a strategic tool for use in its geostrategic agenda and "to attack Indian forces in Jammu and Kashmir".[114]Former President of Pakistan and the ex-chief of Pakistan military Pervez Musharraf also stated in an interview that Pakistani government helped to form underground militant groups to fight against Indian troops in Jammu and Kashmir and "turned a blind eye" towards their existence because it wanted to force India to enter negotiations.[112] The British Government have formally accepted that there is a clear connection between Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and three major militant outfits operating in Jammu and Kashmir, Lashkar-e-Tayiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.[115][116] The militants are provided with "weapons, training, advice and planning assistance" in Punjab and Kashmir by the ISI which is "coordinating the shipment of arms from the Pakistani side of Kashmir to the Indian side, where Muslim insurgents are waging a protracted war".[117][118]
Throughout the 1990s, the ISI maintained its relationship with extremist networks and militants that it had established during the Afghan war to utilise in its campaign against Indian forces in Kashmir.[119]Joint Intelligence/North (JIN) has been accused of conducting operations in Jammu and Kashmir and also Afghanistan.[120] The Joint Signal Intelligence Bureau (JSIB) provide support with communications to groups in Kashmir.[120] According to Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon both former members of the National Security Council the ISI acted as a "kind of terrorist conveyor belt" radicalising young men in the Madrassas in Pakistan and delivering them to training camps affiliated with or run by Al-Qaeda and from there moving them into Jammu and Kashmir to launch attacks.[121]
Indian authorities in past has alleged several times that Pakistan was involved in training and arming underground militant groups to fight Indian forces in Kashmir.[126]
