Free Republic

LONDON: The serial blasts in Delhi sent shock waves across the Indian community in Britain and among the many Britons who have fond memories of the sights, sounds and smells of Paharganj, one of the affected areas. Britain was among the first to condemn the three Saturday blasts, with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw saying: "I utterly condemn the appalling attacks which appear to have been targeted at heavily populated areas to produce maximum carnage. "This is yet another example of terrorists' cynical and callous disregard for human life. On behalf of the British government, I would like to offer the...

New Delhi (dpa) - Police raided hotels and guesthouses and detained several people on Sunday seeking leads about the serial blasts in New Delhi that claimed 59 lives and triggered panic among thousands ahead of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. India's Home Ministry said 114 people had been injured in the Saturday's blasts. Two bombs exploded at busy marketplaces while another exploded outside a bus in the Indian capital. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the attacks as "dastardly acts of terrorism" that were meant to create disaffection among communities in the festive season. Diwali is to be celebrated...

ALBANY, N.Y. - Two Muslim men caught up in an anti-terrorism sting operation pleaded innocent Friday as details emerged about 10 new charges against them. Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain were accused Thursday of attempting to provide support to Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Pakistan-based group listed by the federal government as a terrorist organization. Aref, who leads a mosque, also was charged with lying to federal officials. The pair were initially charged in August 2004 with conspiring to launder money and promoting terrorism. They now face a total of 30 charges. Entered as new evidence against Aref were entries in his personal...

Two New York mosque leaders charged with conspiring to support terrorists. Amazing how they could have risen to the leadership of a Muslim religious center while so thoroughly misunderstanding Islam. Funny thing: the same thing happened in Lodi, California. And all over the world, as we document here every day, we see Islamic clerics -- people who have dedicated their lives to studying and living out the religion -- at the forefront of terrorist movements. And yet so many people refuse to see what is right in front of their faces: maybe they aren't misunderstanding Islam at all. Aref and...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - The suicide bombers who tried to kill Pakistan's leader last week belonged to an outlawed militant group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, three intelligence officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The bombers were part of Jaish-e-Mohammed, a group that President Gen. Pervez Musharraf banned in 2002 as part of a drive to purge Pakistan of terrorism, said the officials, who are all intimately involved in the investigation and who spoke on condition of anonymity. One of the attackers was from Pakistan's portion of Kashmir, a disputed Himalayan region that is divided between Pakistan and India....

Islamists arrested in Pakistani clampdown By Ahmed Rashid in Lahore (Filed: 17/11/2003) Pakistani police arrested dozens of Islamist activists yesterday after President Pervaiz Musharraf outlawed three militant religious parties that had reformed under new names following an earlier ban. President Musharraf The banned groups are better known by their original names. Two are Sunni Muslim militant parties, Sipah-e-Sahab and Jaish-e-Mohammed, which have close links to al-Qa'eda. The third is a Shia party, Therik-e-Jafria. "Those who are indulging in extremist acts are harming both Pakistan and Islam," Gen Musharraf was quoted as telling senior officials. In addition, the largest extremist Sunni...

NEW DELHI, India - Weekend anti-terrorist crackdowns by security forces prevented a "spectacular" attack by a Pakistan-based militant group in India's capital, police said Sunday. Police killed two suspected members of the outlawed Jaish-e-Mohammed group in a sprawling New Delhi park late Saturday, hours after explosives were seized and three people arrested elsewhere in the city. The actions in the capital came after paramilitary soldiers in Indian-controlled Kashmir (news - web sites) said they killed the Jaish chief in India, Ghazi Baba. Ghazi Baba was suspected of masterminding a December 2001 attack on India's Parliament that brought nuclear-armed rivals India...

AL-QAEDA terrorists who have infiltrated Iraq from Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries have formed an alliance with former intelligence agents of Saddam Hussein to fight their common enemy, the American forces. The alliance, known as Jaish Mohammed — the army of the prophet Mohammed — is believed to be responsible for increasingly sophisticated attacks on US soldiers. In the past four months  it has smuggled millions of dollars, weapons and hundreds of Arab fighters across the desert border with Saudi Arabia. Details of the alliance have emerged from Iraqi intelligence  and US military sources, and from local supporters in a...

NEW DELHI: Pakistan-based terrorist organisations Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Harkat-ul-Ansar (HuA), who are active in Jammu and Kashmir, have renamed themselves as Khaddamul Islam and Jamiatul Ansar respectively, the Pakistani media reported. According to the Pakistani Urdu daily Khaberen, both the organisations have presumed preaching and organisational work for restoring all the former provincial and district units. The report said that at the Central level, Maulana Farooq Kashmiri and Fazlur Rehman Khalil would continue to remain as chief and secretary general of Jamiat-ul-Ansar. However, it reported that Maulana Masood Azhar has been kept away from Khaddamul Islam and his role would...

ISLAMABAD: Investigators in Pakistan suspect that members of the Jaish-e-Mohammed group were involved in recent attacks against Christians, highly placed police and interior ministry officials said Sunday. Suicide squads from outlawed extremist groups are planning more attacks on important Pakistani officials, foreigners and Christians to destabilise military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf's government because of its ongoing support for the US war against terrorism, the officials added. "We are convinced that associates of Jaish-e-Mohammed, a group outlawed by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in January, were behind the grenade attack on worshippers at a church on the grounds of a Presbyterian hospital...

WANA, Pakistan – In Pakistan's wild country along the Afghan border, al-Qaeda fugitives and homegrown Islamic extremists are teaming up to confront Pakistan's government and its U.S. allies. Pakistanis and Afghans familiar with extremist organizations say their aim is to punish President Pervez Musharraf for abandoning the Afghan Taliban and banning several militant groups in Pakistan in connection with the U.S.-led war on terrorism. Police fear the kidnapping and slaying of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl and the March 17 grenade attack on an Islamabad church attended by foreigners may be examples of what the extremists have in store....