MUMBAI ON ALERT OVER POTENTIAL ATTACKS : MANHUNT UNDERWAY

[‘Special cells’ of officers had been formed to ‘neutralise’ the alleged militants and an e-fit of Jinnah had been distributed‚ he added. “If they have issued an alert of this level it will be credible‚” Homeland Security Specialist Ajai Sahni‚ the Executive Director of the Institute of Conflict Management in New Delhi‚ told AFP. “Alerts are issued fairly frequently. They might not have names attached to them as clearly. There seems to be more specific information than there usually is.” The 2008 Mumbai attacks saw 10 heavily armed gunmen storm three luxury hotels‚ the city’s main railway station‚ a popular tourist restaurant and a Jewish centre.]

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

MUMBAI: A manhunt was under way in Mumbai today for four alleged members of the same Islamist group that attacked the city in 2008‚ amid warnings of a strike on foreign targets over Christmas and New Year.

Roads were closed in and around the luxury Taj Mahal Palace hotel — the focus of the deadly siege two years ago that killed 166 — while armed police force guarded the high-profile sites‚ including overseas consulates.

Mumbai police warned that four operatives of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant outfit were preparing a ‘violent attack’ during the festive season and called for residents to be vigilant.

“The four recently sneaked into the city to carry out an extremely dangerous activity‚” Joint Police Commissioner‚ Himanshu Roy told a news conference on Thursday evening. “It is going to be a violent attack.” It is the second time this year that city police have issued such a warning.

In September‚ two Islamist militants were said to be preparing to strike as millions of Hindus thronged the streets of India’s financial capital to immerse idols of the popular elephant-headed god‚ Ganesha‚ in the Arabian Sea.

One was said to be a Bangladeshi national and the other from Pakistan. The pair — said to belong to the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the US State Department — have not been traced.

Roy said he had no information about the nationalities of the four men but they were identified as Abdul Karim Musa‚ Noor Abul Elahi‚ Walid Jinnah and Mehfooz Alam.

‘Special cells’ of officers had been formed to ‘neutralise’ the alleged militants and an e-fit of Jinnah had been distributed‚ he added. “If they have issued an alert of this level it will be credible‚” Homeland Security Specialist Ajai Sahni‚ the Executive Director of the Institute of Conflict Management in New Delhi‚ told AFP. “Alerts are issued fairly frequently. They might not have names attached to them as clearly. There seems to be more specific information than there usually is.” The 2008 Mumbai attacks saw 10 heavily armed gunmen storm three luxury hotels‚ the city’s main railway station‚ a popular tourist restaurant and a Jewish centre.

India blamed the LeT for training‚ equipping and financing the operation alongwith support from elements in the Pakistan military and suspended tentative peace talks with its neighbour and long-time rival.

Since then‚ there has been two high-profile attacks: the first‚ in Pune‚ western India‚ that killed 17 in February‚ while the second‚ in the holy city of Varanasi earlier this month‚ which left a one-year-old girl dead and over 30 injured.

Both blasts were claimed by the Indian Mujahideen‚ a home-grown outfit responsible for a series of bomb attacks across India in 2008 and which experts say has links with the LeT and other Islamist groups.

Military analysts have warned that a second serious militant attack emanating from Pakistan against an Indian target could prompt a swift response from India‚ upsetting regional security. It could also damage investor confidence in India’s fast-growing economy.

Mumbai Police Chief‚ Sanjeev Dayal on Tuesday said that intelligence reports indicated there were ‘conscious efforts by terror organisations to target foreigners during these two festivals here’. ‘Extensive security measures’ had been put in place and police were ‘taking things very seriously’‚ he added.

The Press Trust of India quoted official sources as saying the intelligence had specifically mentioned possible infiltration by members of the LeT. 

Besides the safety measures around the seafront Taj hotel‚ police were conducting surveillance at the nearby Gateway of India monument and plaza‚ as well as the busy bars and restaurants in surrounding streets which are supposedly thronged by foreigners.

  

EX-MINISTER GRILLED IN INDIA OVER 2G SCAM

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

NEW DELHI: Indian federal investigators today questioned a former minister at the heart of one of the biggest corruption cases in the country’s history. Ex-telecom minister A Raja quit last month over the 2008 cut-price sale of second-generation (2G) mobile phone licences that India’s government audit watchdog said cost the treasury as much as 40 billion dollars.

A spokesman for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said Raja was being questioned at its headquarters in New Delhi. Raja‚ who has denied any any wrongdoing‚ is accused of changing rules to help certain companies‚ many of which‚ according to the auditor‚ were ineligible to apply for wireless permits. His lawyer said his client feared he already stood “condemned‚ charge-sheeted‚ tried and convicted by the media.”

The questioning came after police raided Raja’s home and offices along with those of current and retired telecom ministry officials and a high-profile corporate lobbyist.

The CBI has said the searches recovered allegedly ‘incriminating documents’. Media reports say CBI is probing the possibility of kickbacks being paid by some of the firms bidding for 2G licences. The scandal paralysed House for the entire winter session and has brought opposition calls for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s resignation.

Raja was expected to face questioning about alleged irregularities in the timing of the sale and about the role of his relatives in some of the companies which allegedly acted as fronts for certain telecom firms which won spectrum. 

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AS DRONE STRIKES HAVE INCREASED, SO HAVE ASSASSINATIONS, PAKISTANIS SAY

[North Waziristan, like all of the tribal areas, is a no-go zone for foreigners and many Pakistanis, making it difficult to ascertain an accurate picture of the effects of the drone campaign. In recent interviews, Pakistani security officials said the strikes are increasingly efficient in hitting militant targets, though one intelligence official derided the CIA as "trigger-happy." That assessment was echoed by several tribesmen.]

By Karin Brulliard and Haq Nawaz Khan

 PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN - As drone-fired missiles drop with furious frequency in the tribal area of North Waziristan, so do the bodies.

As often as seven times a week, tribesmen there say, corpses appear in fields and on roadsides with dark warnings pinned to their tunics: All American spies will meet the same fate.

Espionage has long been viewed as an egregious offense in the lawless borderland, but residents say the current pace of assassinations is unprecedented. The escalation parallels a massive surge in CIA drone attacks on North Waziristan, home to a nest of insurgents that includes al-Qaeda and the Haqqani network, an Afghan militia considered the most lethal foe of U.S. troops in neighboring Afghanistan.

CIA drones have fired 112 missiles on Pakistan's tribal areas this year, 88 percent of which hit North Waziristan, in a campaign whose effectiveness is hotly debated. But tribesmen say the U.S. campaign has had far-reaching consequences for the way of life in North Waziristan and provoked cycles of violence that, once in motion, are difficult to predict and impossible to control.

In interviews, several Pakistani officials, tribesmen, and one militant said the torrent of strikes has forced residents to stay indoors and deny friends shelter, fearing allegations of spying. The attacks have forced militants to ditch truck convoys and cellphones, and, in the case of the Pakistani Taliban, shutter an office in the town of Mir Ali.

Above all, residents said, the stepped-up strikes have perpetuated an entrenched culture of clan rivalry and retribution. With scant proof, militants are purging suspected moles, and their willingness to do so has made the accusation a valuable tool for people seeking revenge for land disputes or other personal enmities.

"They are just spreading terror by killing anyone," said Lt. Gen. Asif Yasin Malik, who commands all Pakistani troops in the northwest, including the semiautonomous tribal areas.

Informants targeted

The escalated drone campaign, which Pakistan secretly allows, followed U.S. pressure on Pakistan to launch a military offensive in North Waziristan. The Pakistani army rejected those appeals, saying it is overstretched in other combat zones and needs time to plan an operation. American officials say those reasons are valid, but many also believe Pakistan is unwilling to jeopardize its longtime links to the Haqqani network.

As the missile strikes have accelerated, so has tension over the tactic, which many Pakistanis believe violates national sovereignty and kills innocent civilians.

Earlier this month, in the first event of its kind, hundreds of tribal area residents protested the attacks in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital. Several pledged to join a lawsuit pursued by one North Waziristan resident, who is seeking compensation from the U.S. government and criminal charges against the CIA's top spy in Pakistan for the alleged deaths of his son and brother in a drone strike. The CIA pulled that spy, its station chief, from the country last week after his name was exposed in connection with the legal action.

North Waziristan, like all of the tribal areas, is a no-go zone for foreigners and many Pakistanis, making it difficult to ascertain an accurate picture of the effects of the drone campaign. In recent interviews, Pakistani security officials said the strikes are increasingly efficient in hitting militant targets, though one intelligence official derided the CIA as "trigger-happy." That assessment was echoed by several tribesmen.

The intelligence official said 70 informants for Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, which provides intelligence to the CIA for drone strikes, have been assassinated in North Waziristan since 2004, making the area nearly a "black hole" for spies today.

"They are out to kill us," the intelligence official said. "That puts the fear of God into people who may want to work for us."

In interviews, North Waziristan tribesmen said that fear - and those killings - now extend to the general population. According to residents' accounts, at least 30 corpses have turned up during the past three months outside towns in the area.

Among them was Khateebullah Khan Mosokai, 25, a grocer from a village near Mir Ali. His body, showing signs of torture, was found on a roadside on Nov. 2 with gunshots through both eyes.

Mosokai had been kidnapped two weeks before from a bazaar by a gang of masked men, according to his uncle. His family later learned the perpetrator was a militant commander working for Hafiz Gul Bahadar, a Pakistani Taliban leader in North Waziristan.

Mosokai's name had featured on a list of spies recited by another abducted tribesman in a video confession later distributed in local markets, the uncle said. That tribesman told of a network of 300 U.S. spies in the area - and then he was killed himself.

The family is certain Mosokai was not a spy, and they have vowed reprisal against the militant commander.

"My nephew was neither a spy nor involved in any such activities," Mosokai's uncle said. "If they had the proof . . . then we would have killed Khateebullah publicly."

During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in August and September, the Taliban offered an amnesty to spies, residents said. The few who confessed "did not survive," one tribal elder recalled.

Dread of 'traitor' label

Pakistani officials said the assassinations could be viewed as a sign that the Taliban and other insurgents feel threatened by drones. Militant attacks inside Pakistan have slowed this year.

Militants who once freely roamed markets and helped settle disputes, tribesmen said, have now receded to compounds. Fighters shun funerals and trackable technology. They rely on motorbikes or their feet to move, pro-Taliban tribesmen said. Insurgent leaders, the highest-value drone targets, move "three times in a night," said Malik, the Pakistan army commander.

But North Waziristan residents said the dread of being labeled a traitor exceeds that of being struck by a drone. A relative of one man killed by the Taliban, Hidayatullah Khan, said his mistake was to feed Pakistani soldiers who were stationed on his land. That land was coveted by enemies of Khan, who, the relative said, reported him to the insurgents.

"The reason is a land dispute, not the spy issue," the relative said.

On Oct. 29, traders in Mir Ali boldly expressed their frustration in a strike and demonstration against abductions and assassinations.

Still, the killings continue. Last month, the body of a longtime Miranshah bookseller lay rotting on a roadside for three days. He had no nearby relatives to claim his body, and no one else was brave enough to touch him.

"The militants are desperate," said a Miranshah teacher, 38, adding that residents pray that drones hit their targets, not just to kill militants, but also to save others from retaliation. "If the drone misses the target, then this will be unfortunate for us."


@ The Washington Post