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Global Terrorism
Ahead of the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro next month, envoys of leading member nations of the grouping underlined the need for greater focus to combat terrorism and called for mainstreaming the interests and aspirations of the Global South. With US President Donald Trump's aggressive tariffs encouraging a trend towards de-dollarisation, the envoys also backed the expansion of the use of national currencies for intra-BRICS trade and pitched for deeper cooperation on economic issues. India, on its part, stressed on the pivotal importance of the grouping in promoting scalable solutions for the Global South or developing nations in areas of financial inclusion and advocated greater use of national currency in international trade. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to travel to the Brazilian city to attend the crucial BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) summit. "BRICS has to get its act together and find solutions for the Global South. This requires commitment, a lo
President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir was "deeply disturbing", asserting that the US stands strongly with India against terrorism. Terrorists opened fire at a famed meadow near Pahalgam town in Jammu and Kashmir, killing 26 people, mostly tourists, in what is the deadliest attack in the Valley since the Pulwama strike in 2019. "Deeply disturbing news out of Kashmir. The United States stands strong with India against Terrorism," Trump said in a post on Truth Social. "We pray for the souls of those lost, and for the recovery of the injured. Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi, and the incredible people of India, have our full support and deepest sympathies. Our hearts are with you all!" he added. The 26 dead in the Pahalgam attack included two foreigners - from UAE and Nepal - and two locals, a high-ranking Indian official said, without getting into details.
The UN Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Committee has agreed on guiding principles for preventing and detecting the use of new and emerging financial technologies for terrorist purposes, taking forward commitments made by the UN body on combatting terrorism during India's tenure in the Council. Earlier this month, the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC), under the chairship of Algeria, agreed upon the Algeria Guiding Principles'. Sources said this comes on the back of the Abu Dhabi Guiding Principles, a set of guidelines adopted by the UNSC CTC. The principles address the use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for terrorist purposes agreed upon in December 2023. These are the non-binding guiding principles for member states on preventing, detecting and disrupting the use of new and emerging financial technologies for terrorist purposes. Sources added that these guiding principles assume significance as they have been prepared taking forward the commitments made by the Security ..
The first issue in engaging with Pakistan is the cessation of terrorism, India's envoy at the UN said, underlining that India has been a long-standing victim of cross-border and global terrorism and has zero tolerance towards the scourge. With Pakistan, the main issue we have is of terrorism, India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish said during a conversation here on Tuesday. Harish delivered the keynote address on Responding to Key Global Challenges: The India Way' at an event at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). Responding to a question on Pakistan during an interactive session after the keynote address, Harish said Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an effort to reach out and engage with Pakistan. Terrorist activities in India have eroded the trust. The first issue in engaging with Pakistan is the cessation of terrorism. That is a key issue. The event was co-sponsored by the MPA programme in Global Leadershi
The Narendra Modi government is committed to eradicating terrorism in the country and moving forward with a solid strategy against it, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Thursday. Shah also said that while law and order is a state subject but terrorism doesn't have any territorial boundary, and so all security agencies -- central and states -- must work in close coordination, chalk out joint strategies and share intelligence. Security forces have to train young officers and use technology to combat terrorism, he said addressing an anti-terrorism conference here. "After Narendra Modi became the prime minister in 2014, the country has been moving forward with a solid strategy against terrorism. We are committed to eradicating terrorism," he said. Now the whole world has accepted Prime Minister Modi's zero tolerance policy against terrorism, the home minister said, adding that the government is committed to removing the evil of terrorism. Highlighting the achievements of the Modi
A man who severely injured author Salman Rushdie in a frenzied knife attack in western New York faces a new charge that he supported a terrorist group. An indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court in Buffalo on Wednesday charges Hadi Matar with providing material support to Hezbollah, a militant group based in Lebanon and backed by Iran. The indictment didn't detail what evidence linked Matar to the group. The federal charge comes after Matar earlier this month rejected an offer by state prosecutors to recommend a shorter prison sentence if he agreed to plead guilty in Chautauqua County Court, where he is charged with attempted murder and assault. The agreement also would have required him to plead guilty to a federal terrorism-related charge, which hadn't been filed yet at the time. Instead, both cases will now proceed to trial separately. Jury selection in the state case is set for Oct. 15. Matar, 26, has been held without bail since the 2022 attack, during which he stabbed Rush
The top UN envoy for Syria told the Security Council on Monday that the threat of terrorism is resurging with attacks by Islamic State extremists set to double this year, endangering civilians already facing a protracted state of displacement and dire humanitarian conditions. UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen said Syria is riddled with armed actors, listed terrorist groups, foreign armies and front-lines 13 years after President Bashar Assad's crackdown on peaceful protests against his government turned to civil war. Nearly a half million people have died in the conflict and half the country's pre-war population of 23 million has been displaced. The Islamic State group declared a self-styled caliphate in a large swath of territory in Syria and Iraq that it seized in 2014. It was declared defeated in Iraq in 2017 following a three-year battle that killed tens of thousands of people and left cities in ruins, but its sleeper cells remain in both countries. Pedersen warned the Security ...
Eight people from Tajikistan with suspected ties to the Islamic State group have been arrested in the United States in recent days, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. The arrests took place in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles and the individuals, who entered the US through the southern border, are being held on immigration violations, said the people, who were not authorised to discuss the ongoing investigation by name and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The nature of their suspected connections to the IS was not immediately clear, but the individuals were being tracked by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, or JTTF. They were in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which made the arrests while working with the JTTF, pending proceedings to remove them from the country. The individuals from Tajikistan entered the country last spring and passed through the US government's screening process without turning up ...
The US warning to Russia couldn't have been plainer: Two weeks before the deadliest attack in Russia in years, Americans had publicly and privately advised President Vladimir Putin's government that extremists had imminent plans for just such slaughter. The United States shared those advance intelligence indications under a tenet of the US intelligence community called the duty to warn," which obliges US intelligence officials to lean toward sharing knowledge of a dire threat if conditions allow. That holds whether the targets are allies, adversaries or somewhere in between. There's little sign Russia acted to try to head off Friday's attack at a concert hall on Moscow's edge, which killed more than 130 people. The Islamic State's affiliate in Afghanistan claimed responsibility, and the US said it has information backing up the extremist group's claim. John Kirby, the Biden administration's national security spokesman, made clear that the warning shouldn't be seen as a breakthrough
India has made good progress in strengthening security measures in the past few years but scaling it further would save USD 159 billion from laundering through illicit trade, a report said. According to a Ficci CASCADE report, India has a GTI score of 7.43 and a crime index score of 44.7, reflecting fewer terror and crime incidents compared to the levels observed in 2016. Illicit trade undermines national security, risks legitimate manufacturing, leaks government revenue, jeopardises public health and safety, and erodes the trust of consumers and investors alike," it said. Tackling this issue is fundamental for safeguarding India's economic stability, ensuring fair competition, and fostering an environment conducive to sustainable growth and ease of doing business, it said. Tax authorities play a crucial role in the fight against illicit trade in its entirety, it said. Anil Rajput, Chairman of Ficci CASCADE, highlighted the steps taken by the government to choke terror funding and