New Delhi:

Reminding “non-response” to the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that India gave a ‘clear message’ against terrorism with the surgical strike and airstrikes after the terror attacks in Uri and Pulwama.

He said that the world was sympathetic with India after 26/11 but also wanted New Delhi not to create any ‘tensions’ with Islamabad. The EAM added that it was because India had not worked to “delegitimize terrorism” and convince the world that it is a danger for everyone globally.

Mr Jaishankar was speaking at an event titled ‘India’s Vishwabandhu Approach to Global Relations’ at the Constitution Club in Mumbai on Monday.

“When 26/11 happened you all know what our response was or to be very frank, what our non-response was. But you also know that our response was very different in Uri and Balakot. And there was a reason. Because Uri was across the Line of Control and Balakot was across the international boundary,” Mr Jaishankar said addressing the event.

“So the message was, if you come and do something here, you may be across the LoC, you may be across the international boundary- we will still come and get you there,” he added.

A group of heavily armed terrorists from the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba unleashed mayhem on the streets of Mumbai on November 26, 2008, spraying bullets on unarmed civilians at multiple key public installations in the city. The attacks left over 166 dead, including foreigners, and over 300 injured.

India carried out a surgical strike against terror camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in response to an attack at an army base in Uri, Kashmir in 2016. In 2019, after the Pulwama attack — which killed over 40 Indian soldiers — the Indian Air Force carried out an airstrike against Pakistani terror camps in Balakot.

The EAM further said that India had not lobbied the world against terrorism and couldn’t make them understand that anyone can be the victim of the menace.

“Now, I want you to think for a moment, about the reaction of the world. When 26/11 happened, everybody said yes very bad, we sympathize with you…but do not create tensions with Pakistan. Because we had not lobbied the world, we had not made the world understand what terrorism is, it is a danger for all…Today, it is my turn, tomorrow it will be yours,” the EAM said.

Further elaborating why the world understood India’s response in Uri and Balakot but was ‘tense’ after the 26/11 attacks, Mr Jaishankar said being a ‘Vishwa Bandhu’ a country can carry the world with its viewpoint.

“By the time from 2008, we had reached 2016 actually. We did Uri (surgical strikes) and the world said the Indians did what the Indians had to do. We did Balakot (Air strikes)…- Why was it that the world was understanding about Uri and Balakot, but the world was so tense, or I would say, indifferent on 26/11 because a lot of people sympathized with us, but stopped there,” the EAM said.

“And the reason is that we had not made that effort to delegitimize terrorism, to convince the world…Being Vishwa Bandhu, if you are able to carry the world with your viewpoint, you are that much stronger, you have that ability,” he added.

Earlier in the day, EAM Jaishankar also attended an interaction with investors, students, and social media influencers, wherein he emphasized that India needs a “strong and experienced” government

“A very productive day in Mumbai, interacting with investors, social media influencers, students and intellectuals. Stressed that in a turbulent and uncertain world, India needs a strong and experienced Government with the judgement and confidence to take the right calls. The last 10 years have laid the foundation for Viksit Bharat. Our choices now will ensure that we will progress towards that goal by 2047,” Mr Jaishankar said in a social media post on X.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions gather to attend a rally on May Day in Seoul, South Korea, on May 1, 2024. Workers, activists and others in Asian capitals took to the streets on Wednesday to mark May Day with protests over rising prices and governments’ labor polices and calls for greater labor rights.
| Photo Credit: AP

South Korea’s foreign ministry on May 02 raised the terrorism alert level for five diplomatic offices in the region citing intelligence that North Korea may attempt to harm its officials.

The five locations include Seoul’s embassies in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, as well as consulates in Vladivostok, Russia, and Shenyang, China, the ministry said in a statement.

The terrorism alert level was raised from Attention to Alert, the second highest among South Korea’s four classifications, which indicates the chances of an attack are strong, the foreign ministry said.

Separately, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) said it had a “number of indications that North Korea is preparing to carry out terrorist attacks against our diplomatic officers and citizens,” but did not elaborate on the nature of the threats.

Pyongyang has dispatched agents to those countries to tighten surveillance of the South Korean missions, the NIS said.

The North Korean embassy in London did not respond to repeated phone calls for requests for comment.

The North’s government-controlled media has criticized allegations of terrorism against it as U.S.-led efforts to discredit opponents of Washington.

The foreign ministry statement also said South Korea’s National Counter Terrorism Center held a meeting on Thursday to discuss measures to protect the diplomatic offices and officials who work there.

During the Cold War, North Korea was accused of carrying out several attacks on civilian targets, including bombings at a Seoul airport and a South Korean airliner in the 1980s.

The United States placed North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism in 2017, citing the killing of Kim Jong Nam, the older half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which was carried out with VX nerve agent at an airport in Malaysia.

Hubballi:

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said that the third term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi will eliminate terrorism, and Left Wing Extremism from the country.

“The third term for Prime Minister Modi means the success of Chandrayaan, Mangal Yaan and Aditya Yaan missions,” he said during a public rally in Karnataka’s Hubballi.

“During the rule of the Congress government under Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, infiltrators from Pakistan used to explode bombs here and escape. They thought they could get away in the same manner and staged the Uri and Pulwama attacks. They didn’t realize that Prime Minister Modi is in charge and within 10 days surgical and air strikes were conducted,” the Home Minister added.

He accused the Congress of delaying the Ayodhya Ram temple case and dragging it for 70 years. “When Prime Minister Modi took charge for the second term, the case was won, a groundbreaking ceremony was conducted and the temple was inaugurated,” Home Minister Shah said.

He also claimed that top Congress leaders including party chief Malllikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, and Rahul Gandhi did not attend the Ram Lalla’s Pran Pratistha ceremony fearing they would lose their vote bank.

The Home Minister appealed to voters of the Dharwad Parliamentary Constituency to ensure the victory of Union Minister and BJP candidate Pralhad Joshi by a huge margin.

He said that Union Minister Joshi ensured that the maximum number of Corona vaccines reached Hubballi-Dharwad cities. Besides this, 19 lakh houses were constructed in Dharwad. “Don’t make the mistake of losing him,” the Home Minister asserted.

–IANS

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

This image made out of Google Maps locates Tubat in Balochistan Province of Pakistan.

Armed Baloch militants tried to infiltrate one of the main naval air bases in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan Province, but security forces foiled the attack and killed at least six terrorists.

The attack on March 25 night took place in Turbat, a turbulent district in the sparsely populated Province.

Makran Commissioner Saeed Ahmed Umrani told the media that security forces had foiled an armed terrorist attack at the PNS Siddique Naval Air Base which is among the biggest naval air stations in the country.

“The armed men attacked from three sides of the airport boundary, but security forces responded immediately and foiled their attempt to infiltrate the premises,” he said.

Eyewitnesses reported they had heard gunfire and explosions throughout the night.

A security official said on condition of anonymity that six terrorists were killed in the operation and they were unable to cause any damage at the airbase or to aeroplanes.

No loss of sensitive naval installations was reported, the official said.

The banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) claimed that its Majeed Brigade was behind the attack.

This is the third major attack on security forces and installations this year in Balochistan claimed by the BLA with the first two attacks being also being repulsed by security forces.

Earlier in the year, security forces were attacked in Mach town in which at least ten people were killed but attempts to breach the Mach jail were thwarted by security forces.

On March 24, the BLA also claimed responsibility for an attack on the Gwadar Port Authority Complex. Security forces had killed eight militants of the banned separatist group in the gunfire.

Balochistan, bordering Iran and Afghanistan, is home to a long-running violent insurgency. Baloch insurgent groups have previously carried out several attacks targeting the $60 billion CPEC projects.

The BLA accuses China and Islamabad of exploitation of the resource-rich Province, a charge rejected by the authorities.

BLA’s Majeed Brigade, which was formed in 2011, is a particularly lethal guerilla cell of the BLA.

It has been alleged that the group also maintains sanctuaries in areas along the Pakistan-Iran border.

The brigade, which is the suicide squad of the BLA, mostly targets security forces and Chinese interests in Pakistan. It had also claimed responsibility for the April 2022 suicide attack outside the Karachi University’s Confucius Institute.

New Delhi:

Terrorism continues to constitute one of the most serious threats to international peace and regardless of its motivation or cause, the menace is “unjustifiable”, NSA Ajit Doval said on Tuesday. In an address at a conclave of NSAs of India and central Asian countries in Kazakhstan, he also offered fully funded capacity building programmes by New Delhi in a wide range of areas to the participating nations.

The National Security Advisor also said that India is ready to provide the central Asian nations with the technology relating to the United Payment Interface (UPI) free of cost for their independent use. He said that setting up of sovereign digital payment systems will greatly enhance commercial linkages between India and Central Asia and benefit people who may have to travel to India for medical treatment, according to sources. 

The NSA said connectivity and economic integration with the Central Asian countries is a key priority for India. However, while promoting connectivity, it is important to ensure that connectivity initiatives are consultative, transparent, and participatory, he said.

Mr Doval said connectivity initiatives should respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries and that they should also adhere to environmental parameters, ensure financial viability, and not become debt burdens.

The remarks came amid increasing criticism of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

In this context, the absence of direct land access between Central Asia and India is an anomaly, he observed.

This absence of direct connectivity is the result of a conscious policy of denial by a particular country, he said in comments seen as an indirect reference to Pakistan.

Mr Doval said this situation is not only self-defeating for this country but it also reduces the collective well-being of the entire region.

He also underlined the advantages of including the Chabahar port in the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC).

Mr Doval invited Central Asian neighbours to utilize the Chabahar port as well as its Shaheed Bahesti terminal, being operated by an Indian company, for maritime trade. He solicited support for including Chabahar port within the framework of INSTC.   Both Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan will be joining the INSTC soon. With this, all five Central Asian countries will be a member of the INSTC.

The first meeting of NSAs and Secretaries of Security Councils of India and Central Asian nations was held on December 6 last year in New Delhi. Mr Doval also noted that the situation in Afghanistan remains a “cause of concern”.

Our common immediate priorities include providing humanitarian assistance, ensuring the formation of a truly inclusive and representative government combating terrorism and drug trafficking, and preserving the rights of women, children, and them minorities, he said.

India is deeply involved in the humanitarian assistance being provided to the Afghan people, he said.

In line with India’s approach to encourage sports in Afghanistan, the Afghan cricket team is in India to play in the ICC World Cup, Mr Doval said.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

The British royal family is expressing solidarity with Israel following the unexpected attacks by Hamas operatives that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,000 civilians over the past weekend. While the King and other senior members of the royal family have denounced the attacks, Prince William and Kate Middleton issued a joint statement on Wednesday evening strongly condemning Hamas’ brutal act of violence.

The BBC reported, quoting Palace sources, that the King was “appalled”, and condemned the “barbaric acts of terrorism in Israel”. The Prince and Princess of Wales are “profoundly distressed” by the events since strikes began on Saturday, according to their spokesman. He said the couple believes all Israelis and Palestinians will be “stalked by grief, fear, and anger”.

“A spokesperson for The Prince and Princess of Wales said, ‘The Prince and Princess of Wales are profoundly distressed by the devastating events that have unfolded in the past few days. The horrors inflicted by Hamas’s terrorist attack upon Israel are appalling; they utterly condemn them,” the statement shared on microblogging platform X, formerly known as Twitter, read.

pic.twitter.com/lh3f5lusNx

— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) October 11, 2023

“As Israel exercises its right to self-defense, all Israelis and Palestinians will continue to be stalked by grief, fear, and anger in the time to come. They hold all the victims, their families, and their friends in their hearts and minds. Those the Prince of Wales met in 2018 overwhelmingly shared a common hope-that of a better future.”

“In the midst of such terrible suffering, the Prince and Princess continue to share that hope without reservation.”

Meanwhile, Israeli forces reported that approximately 1,200 people, the majority of whom were civilians, had lost their lives in the Hamas attack, marking it as the most devastating in the nation’s history.

As Israel pounded Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, a densely populated enclave of 2.3 million people, in response, the number of deaths there has also reached 1,200 people, including a high number of civilians, according to Palestinian authorities.

More than 338,000 people in the enclave have been displaced, according to the United Nations.

(With inputs from agencies)

A mural features the image of late Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was slain on the grounds of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple in June 2023, in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada on September 18, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh independence advocate whose killing two months ago is at the centre of a widening breach between India and Canada, was called a human rights activist by Sikh organisations and a criminal by India’s Government.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on September 18 that his government was investigating “credible allegations” that Indian Government agents were linked to the June 18 slaying, when Nijjar was gunned down outside a Sikh cultural centre in Surrey, British Columbia.

India has denied any role in the killing, calling the allegations absurd.

Nijjar, 45 when he died, was a prominent member of a movement to create an independent Sikh homeland known as Khalistan, and was organising an unofficial referendum among the Sikh diaspora with the organisation Sikhs For Justice.

He also owned a plumbing business and served as president of a Sikh temple or gurdwara in suburban Vancouver, where banners hung with his face promoting the referendum on September 19. In a 2016 interview with the Vancouver Sun he responded dismissively to reports in Indian media that he was suspected of leading a terrorist cell.

“This is garbage — all the allegations. I am living here 20 years, right? Look at my record. There is nothing. I am a hard worker. I own my own business in the plumbing,” Nijjar told the newspaper. At the time, he said he was too busy to take part in diaspora politics.

Following his death, the World Sikh Organisation of Canada called Nijjar an outspoken supporter of Khalistan who “often led peaceful protests against the violation of human rights actively taking place in India and in support of Khalistan”.

Nijjar was a wanted man in India, which has for years seen Sikh separatists abroad as a security threat.

In 2016, Indian media reported that Nijjar was suspected of masterminding a bombing in the Sikh-majority State of Punjab and training terrorists in a small city southeast of Vancouver. He denied the allegations.

In 2020, Indian authorities claimed Nijjar was a member of a banned militant group and designated him a terrorist. That year, they also filed a criminal case against him as farmers, many from Punjab, camped out on the edges of New Delhi to protest controversial agriculture laws. The Indian Government initially tried to discredit the protests by associating them with Sikh separatists, filing a number of such cases against Sikh activists in India and abroad.

Last year, Indian authorities accused Nijjar of involvement in an alleged attack on a Hindu priest in India and announced a reward of about $16,000 for information leading to his arrest.

The modern Sikh independence movement reaches back to the 1940s but eventually became an armed insurgency that shook the country in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1984, then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered a raid to capture armed separatists taking refuge in Sikhism’s holiest shrine.

The raid killed hundreds of people, and two of Gandhi’s Sikh bodyguards assassinated her shortly after. In response, anti-Sikh riots took place across India in which members of the minority were dragged out of their homes and killed. The insurgency was eventually suppressed in a crackdown during which thousands of people were killed, but the goal of Sikh independence still has support among some in northern India and in the Sikh diaspora.

More recently, the Hindu nationalist-led government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has cracked down on both non-Hindu rights movements and dissidents.

Sikh diaspora activism has been a source of tension between India and Canada for years. Canada has the largest population of Sikhs outside India, and India has repeatedly accused it of tolerating “terrorists and extremists”.

Canadian police said Nijjar was shot as he was leaving the parking lot of the Sikh temple where he served as president in British Columbia. He suffered multiple gunshot wounds and died at the scene.

After the killing, a lawyer and spokesperson for Sikhs For Justice, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, said Nijjar had been a target of threats because of his activism. His killing was the second in two years of a prominent member of the Sikh community in Canada.

Mr. Pannun said he had spoken to Nijjar by phone the day before he was killed and that Nijjar had told him that Canadian intelligence had warned him that his life was at risk.

Nearly a week after Nijjar’s slaying, about 200 protesters from Canada’s Sikh community gathered in front of the Indian Consulate in Vancouver to demonstrate. Many of the protesters were convinced that Nijjar’s killing was linked to his calls for an independent Sikh state.

“He was a loving man, a hard-working man, a family man,” said Gurkeerat Singh, one of the protesters.

On September 18, Moninder Singh, a spokesperson for the British Columbia Sikh Gurdwara Council, told Canada’s CTV that the wave of support for Nijjar seen after his death was an indication of how he was seen in the community.

“It shook the community across the entire world, including in Punjab,” Mr. Singh said.
“The community is shattered. There are very, very high emotions,” Sukh Dhaliwal, a member of Parliament who represents Surrey, said days after the killing.