On May 25, an explosion was reported outside the Delhi High Court in the scorching heat of the afternoon. It led to terror and fear among the people, and without delay, authorities set off high alert in the capital and tightened security at public places. This has been the scene after every blast. Fortunately, no one was injured. The May 25 blast was the second in the preceding eight months, on September 19, 2010. Many security measures were taken to ensure no further explosions occurred. People, luggage, automobiles etc were thoroughly checked to avoid such situations.
The newly unveiled U.S. Nuclear Posture Review focuses on five key objectives; one of them is preventing nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism. The report underscores nuclear terrorism as ‘today’s most immediate and extreme danger.” What is Nuclear Terrorism and how serious is the threat? Is it an overrated nightmare? Some facts here:
Three names have been doing the rounds in India these days: Maulana Ilyas Kashmiri, David Coleman Headley (a.k.a Dauod Geelani) and Tahawur Hussein Rana; one hardcore veteran Jehadi and two motivated ‘would be’ terrorists. They are in the news for plotting major assaults in India. Among them, Ilyas Kashmiri who was rumored to be dead early this year, in fact, survived three drone attacks in Pakistan’s Waziristan region, belongs to the Al Qaeda- Harkat-Ul- Jihad- Al-Islami (HuJI) lineage and heads Al Qaeda’s deadly 311 brigade. He still carries head money of US $ 600,000 dollars.
Of late, the menace of computer ‘hacking’ has become a punishable offence if it compromises national security and is no longer an act of fun or profit. Of course, not all acts of hacking will amount to terrorism. This could be regarded as terrorist action only if the hacking is designed to disrupt the government’s activities, advance anti-national causes, or intimidate its citizens. A threat or real use of it is a potential act of terrorism, or rather, it can be regarded as cyber-crime or cyber-terrorism in a broader context.
The Government of Bangladesh has recently accepted India’s proposal to set up a Joint Task Force to deal with militancy and other anti-national elements. However, modalities of the Task Force are yet to be decided. As of now, India will be assisting Bangladesh with intelligence inputs only without any direct involvement in any joint military operations to flush out militants taking shelter in Bangladesh.