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Showing posts with the label Terrorism

Terrorism can derail China's ambitious one road one belt project

One road one belt (credits- Internet image) As China develops it's one road one belt linking the ancient silk route to Europe, it will need deal with terrorism on the route which has every chance to destroy the entire project. This subject is dealt in detail on the latest article by The National Interest. ( The entire article can be read here )

Pathankot Terror Attacks- The way forward for India

Image credits- VOA "There is no life to be found in violence. Every act of violence brings us closer to death. Whether it's the mundane violence we do to our bodies by overeating toxic food or drink or the extreme violence of child abuse, domestic warfare, life-threatening poverty, addiction, or state terrorism. - Bell Hooks" Call it by any name, but terrorism has only one language, the language of death. As the dust settles at Pathankot and the anti terror ops enters it's final stages, several uncomfortable questions arise. The most prominent one is " can you trust Pakistan?" It is  an undeniable fact that each time India goes all the way with the gestures for peace, Pakistan stabs us in the back. This happened in Kargil and has happened again. It is a bare fact that such heavenly armed terrorists could not have sneaked into India without the active connivance of the Pakistani military establishment. The Pakistani establishment cannot escape f

The War Against Islamic Terror after Paris ( Source- The National Interest / Author- Zalmay Khalilzad)

Terrorist attack at Paris, November 2015 ( Image credits- VOA) Source- The National Interest Author- Zalmay Khalilzad The U.S. response to Islamic extremism has gone through two phases since the 9/11 attacks.  In the early years after the attacks, the Bush Administration treated Islamist terrorism as an existential threat and assumed that it was a symptom of the political and economic dysfunctionality of the greater Middle East.  Washington during this period not only strengthened homeland security and went after al-Qaeda and its affiliates, but also undermined and overthrew state sponsors of terrorism.  The Bush Administration calculated that the Middle East, like Europe and East Asia after World War II, could become a functional and normal region. Facing massive costs in Afghanistan and Iraq and increased sectarian conflicts in the region, the United States recalibrated. Under President Obama, America maintained robust policies on homeland security and counterterror

From Kabul to Gurdaspur: Pakistan’s Reliance on Sub-conventional Warfare ( Source- The Diplomat/ Author- Rohan Joshi)

Image credits- Oleg Zabielin Source- The Diplomat Author- Rohan Joshi On August 8, 2015, Kabul witnessed its deadliest day since the 2001 U.S. invasion, when a series of attacks in the city left over 50 dead and hundreds injured. A suicide bomber dressed in police uniform detonated explosives outside the National Police Academy that resulted in almost 30 deaths. Then, a truck laden with explosives was detonated, killing 15 people and injuring over 200. Finally, a commando-style assault on Camp Integrity, a NATO military facility killed 10 people, including a U.S. soldier. The attacks in Kabul come at a time when “peace negotiations” between the Afghan government and the Taliban are in a precarious position. Just a few days prior to the second round of talks between Kabul and the Taliban, Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) and President Ghani’s office confirmed that Mullah Muhammad Omar, the reclusive leader of the Taliban, ha

PAKISTAN BOAT OPERATION: WAS THERE ANY OTHER OPTION WITH COAST GUARD? – ANALYSIS ( Source- The Eurasia review, Author- The Observer Research Foundation / Vikram Sood)

Indian Coast Guard Vessel ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Attributes- Around the Globe ) Source- The Eurasia Review Author- Observer Research Foundation    / Vikram Sood These must be tense days for the security forces and intelligence agencies. There is heightened cross-LOC firing, repeated attempts at intrusion as Pakistan desperately looks for a diversion from Peshawar. If the social media is any indication, then their aim is to somehow pin all blame on India for whatever has gone wrong, or will go wrong, in Pakistan. They wish to convince the world that they need continued support from them against an ‘expansionist’ India. The current psywar campaign in Pakistan is more to convince their own people of an imagined eternal threat rather than frighten India, because deep down there is a realisation that the trouble is from within and not from external factors. The forthcoming visit of President Obama for the second time to India, and that, too, without going to

A Wake-Up Call for Pakistanis (Source- The Diplomat, Author- Shairee Malhotra)

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Attribution- Al Jazeera Source- The Diplomat Author- Shairee Malhotra Pakistan and the world were shocked by the deadly and heartbreaking attack by the Pakistani Taliban on a school in Peshawar that killed more than 130 children, many the sons of Army personnel. Yet just a few days later, Pakistan’s courts decided to grant Zaikur Rehman Lakhvi, the terrorist mastermind behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks, bail. The debilitating situation in Pakistan is the natural outcome of a strategic culture that is entirely the creation of the Pakistan Army. A perpetual hostility towards India is a keystone of the ideology of the Army, and by extension, the Pakistani state, given that Pakistan is an army with a country. Its strategic depth theory, whereby Pakistan is undefeated as long as it continues to challenge and resist India’s rise, has seen it resort to asymmetric warfare and encouraged it to solicit the support of dangerous non-state actors.