It is a matter of relief that the nearly three month long diplomatic campaign by India to press upon Pakistan the imperative of helping to bring to justice the perpetrators of the November 26 Mumbai terror attacks, has finally paid off. In an unprecedented gesture, Pakistan’s civilian government has at last accepted that the terrorists […]
The official acknowledgment by Islamabad that Ajmal Amir ‘Kasab’ is its citizen is a positive development. It can serve as a new starting point for the Pakistan government to begin investigations on the leads provided by Kasab, the only survivor among the ten terrorists who attacked Mumbai, and other evidence handed over by India in […]
Leavening the surcharged atmosphere between Pakistan and India somewhat are the assurances that have emanated from the leadership of both countries that neither wants war. The Mumbai terror attacks by ten professionally trained men of Pakistani origin…(Full Story)
Given Pakistan’s record of consistent reliance on terrorist organisations to execute its strategic designs, few would be optimistic that the demise of outfits such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba is imminent. Given the stakes vested in these terrorist groups by the Inter Services Intelligence Directorate and the military hierarchy above it, it is difficult to envisage that […]
While the Bill to constitute a National Investigation Agency to probe terrorist crimes was long overdue, the one amending the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) raises serious concerns from a jurisprudential and civil rights standpoint. In its response to the Mumbai attacks, the United Progressive Alliance government has abandoned its declared opposition to draconian laws […]
Advancements in technology, communications, and transport have lent a new dimension to terrorism. India has learnt the hard way that terrorist activity has ramifications — international and inter-State — that require special expertise and resources not always available with an already overstrained State police. The idea of a Central agency to investigate terrorism and related […]
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown did well to deny Pakistan the space for equivocation in its response to the terrorist attacks in Mumbai on November 26, 2008. Mr. Brown has conveyed the international community’s unambiguous and consensual assessment that the Lashkar-e-Taiba was responsible for the atrocity. Islamabad, which had initially promised prompt and effective cooperation […]
Last week political India delivered a rousing message to the people. In a resolution adopted on December 12, Parliament vowed not to rest “until the terrorists and those who have trained, funded and abetted them are exposed and brought to justice” and proclaimed that India “will be victorious in its fight against the barbaric menace […]
After the civilian government was pressured by the military to backslide from its initial assurances of practical cooperation in the investigation of the terrorist attack on Mumbai, political and social Pakistan seemed to go into denial bordering on defiance. But given the firm and mature handling of the crisis by political India and the mounting […]
The unprecedented terror strikes in Mumbai have done more than create a crisis in Pakistan-India relations. They have put enormous pressure on what a Pakistani commentator, writing in this newspaper, characterises as his country’s “tentative transition to democracy” — a vulnerable state in which the tensions between the military and the elected civilian government have […]