Latest news with #DavidHeadley
Forbes
23-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
In A World Of Choice, Selection Can Be The Key To Success
For all the convenience of technology, physical books retain their aesthetic appeal. Next month an impressive crop of crime writers will emerge from the shadows for a long weekend of events at a London hotel at which they will meet each other and their readers. At a time when social media enables stars of any genre to connect with their fans at any time, a set-piece, in-person gathering like Capital Crime looks like something of a throwback. And yet it is hugely popular. Last year, it attracted about 2,000 people buying £17,000 (about $23,000) worth of books in two days and David Headley, the man behind it, expects this year's event — the fifth — to be the biggest yet. But it is just one aspect of a business that in the age of Amazon not many would have expected to succeed let alone flourish. For Headley is not just an event promoter. Admitting that he likes that 'there is nobody quite like me in the book industry,' he says he is also a podcaster and a literary agent as well as a bookseller. All this, along with running a prize for crime and thriller writing with the winners announced at Capital Crime, is designed to help build the core bookselling business, Goldsboro Books, which was started 25 years ago as an online enterprise. Headley, who had previously attended a seminary before deciding that the life of a Catholic priest was not for him, took the plunge because he had become an avid book collector and assumed there must be others like him. With the afore-mentioned online giant already on the scene, he realised that there was no point in just being a generalist bookstore. Instead, he concentrated on thrillers, crime, science fiction, fantasy and similar genres, with a special focus on signed first editions of hardback books. The concept duly repaid his faith, with the move to a bricks-and-mortar shop in London's Cecil Court, a renowned centre of the book trade within a year. Now, there is another shop in Brighton, on the U.K.'s south coast, and a warehouse that ships 11,000 to 15,000 books a month. All of which means he is able to claim to be the biggest independent bookseller in the country. Nor is he part of a dying trade. Despite what many might think, book sales have show some resilience, with the latest industry figures showing a 3% rise in the U.K. to a record £7.1bn ($9.4bn) in 2023. In the U.S., total sales were $9.1bn in 2022, with printed books remaining strong, while e-books have slipped back and audiobooks appear to be on the rise. Such is the demand that the operation now employs nearly 20 people, and Headley is adamant that everybody is paid at least the living wage. 'I don't want people to go home and worry about money,' he says. Oddly perhaps, Headley says social media has played a role in the growth of his business, with many customers posting attractive images of books. He also feels that the typical customer has changed since he started. Rather than book collecting just being the preserve of middle-aged men, there are now many more women involved. Headley is not alone in finding success in a business well known for its perils. Ryan Holiday, the marketing professional-turned author, has recently written of the lessons he has learned from running his own bookstore in a small town in Texas, while in my own town just outside London the long-established bookshop appears to go from strength to strength and wins awards. What appears to unite all these stories is a realization that it is not enough to sit behind the counter and hope to sell books. You have to work hard at getting people in the door by organizing events (like Capital Crime), holding book signings and having other uses for the space, such as a cafe or meeting place. Holiday writes that another bookstore owner advised him to 'have more than one way to win.' He explains: "Most bookstores only survive if they're multi-purpose spaces. The Painted Porch isn't just a bookstore—it's my office, my employees' office, the place where we record podcasts and film YouTube videos. So if nobody comes in and buys books, we're not necessarily losing money. At the same time, it probably also wouldn't have made sense to build out this level of podcast studio or even a writing office by itself either. So multi-use allows you to do more than you ordinarily would—across the board.' While my home-town store is an unashamedly generalist store, both Goldsboro Books and Holiday's Painted Porch have consciously decided to limit their offerings. For the former it is certain genres, while Holiday has gone for a personal selection. He and his wife only stock books that they love and can personally recommend to customers. As well as making it easier to manage, it helps the store stand out. Like Holiday, Headley believes in the power of curation, to the extent that a highly popular aspect of the business is the subscription clubs that allow customers to receive books in their favoured genres on a monthly basis. And the sense of community that this helps to build will, of course, be evident when those enthusiastic readers meet each other and some of their literary heroes next month.
Scroll.in
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Scroll.in
Readers' comments: Obvious anti-BJP bias in coverage of India-Pakistan conflict
I had a few observations about this article (' Four questions Indians must ask about Operation Sindoor '). 1. Ask questions: I completely second your argument that questions need to be asked to the Central Government of the security lapse or intelligence failure that led to the killings of innocent civilians based on their Hindu identity. It seems the government has deflected this as all the attention got transfixed on Pakistan. 2. Terror as a deterrent: It is a no-brainer that retaliation by any country to a terror attack is going to lead to a reduction in terror attacks. We as a country have to use all means possible to hit them back. Are we aware that the government and our agencies are taking measures (behind the scenes) to inflict damage on these terrorists? They may not want to showcase it to us as. 3. Chinese factor: I don't understand why it should concern us that Chinese weapons were used by Pakistan. Wasn't the United States their biggest supplier of weapons till not long ago? The US was still supplying Pakistan with arms when 26/11 happened. This is immaterial. 4. What did Operation Sindoor achieve: Nobody wants a war as its consequences can be dire. We can question the timing of the operation and subsequently the ceasefire but wasn't it required? The stance was made clear that we have attacked terrorist hideouts and launchpads. We must have known that the Pakistan military would respond and so we had no choice but to respond. It is at times necessary to engage militarily and that should be our last resort. In this case, it was the right thing to do. – Vikram Amin *** There is no proof that China is involved. Remember 26/11? We eliminated 20-odd Pakistan shooters, but in the end, the plotters were in Canada and the US. Till today, the mastermind David Headley is in the US. Pakistan's ministers have also confessed to carrying out terrorism on behalf of the US. The US controls the Pakistan military brass. Most of the former Pak military and ministers become millionaires and move to the US, Canada or UK, not to China. You need to dig deeper. – Mickey *** Your bias against the BJP is apparent. We know the problem of terrorist will not be solved, but India must make terrorism costly for Pakistan. India must retaliate, whatever the consequences, including Chinese involvement. I would like to think that I am a secular liberal person, but if I have to choose between the nationalism of the Congress and the BJP, I would choose the BJP. How the Congress-led UPA dealt with 26/11 was cowardly and disgusting. Mahatma Gandhi once said 'where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence'. Neutral spectacles are better than leftist or rightist spectacles. – Samir Dholakia *** *** The question is not why a meadow full of tourists was without any security. The question is who opened the meadow to tourists without informing the security forces. – Ranjit Virdi Armchair warmongering Are all these warmongers who are whetting their appetite for a full-scale war ready to wear the uniform, join the Indian army on short commissioned service and actually be on the frontlines (' Why the India-Pakistan ceasefire is giving Modi supporters heartburn ')? Being verbose and warlike in a TV studio is different from facing real bullets. – Patricia Mukhim Anti-national articles, obvious bias Another stupid anti-national article by the obnoxious Scroll (' India hyphen Pakistan: US rhetoric revives New Delhi's nightmare '). Better stop your anti national-articles. The sooner the government of India shuts down your anti-national magazine the better for India. – J Radhakrishnan *** Your persistent and crude bias is very disappointing(' India, Pakistan agree to consider troop reduction from borders, forward areas '). – Atul Chandra *** Economic off-ramp Another reading could be that India miscalculated the scale of Pakistan's response to its military adventure (' Why India was unable to stop IMF's $2.4 billion assistance to Pakistan amid escalating hostilities '). By not pushing for aid stoppage, India could be signalling to Pakistan that it did not want to escalate the war further and both parties needed to find an off ramp. A long-drawn war would dent the BJP's posturing of strong leadership with losses and economic effects being more visible every day, reducing its chances of giving a victory spin to its military response.
News18
11-05-2025
- Politics
- News18
Operation Sindoor: Forces Release Before-And-After Video Of Pakistan's Terror Hideouts
Last Updated: The video displayed satellite visuals of the strike carried out under Operation Sindoor on 7 May, as part of India's response to the deadly terror attack in Pahalgam A video showing the missile impact on the Muridke terror camp in Pakistan was played during a press briefing by senior officials of the Indian Armed Forces on Sunday. The video displayed satellite visuals of the strike carried out under Operation Sindoor on 7 May, as part of India's response to the deadly terror attack in Pahalgam. Air Marshal AK Bharti presented the footage, explaining how the Indian Air Force (IAF) conducted a missile strike on the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) headquarters in Muridke, located around 18 to 25 kilometres from the International Boundary. 'Through these precise and targeted strikes, we successfully hit the terror infrastructure at Muridke," said Air Marshal Bharti, while pointing to the video showing the exact missile impact point. Army Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, speaking earlier on 8 May, had confirmed that Markaz Taiba has long served as the LeT headquarters under Hafiz Saeed. Terrorists involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, including Ajmal Kasab and David Headley, were trained at this site, Col Qureshi stated. Kasab, the only attacker captured alive, was later executed in India in 2012 after a full trial. Other terror camps targeted included the Markaz Subhan Allah of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in Bahawalpur, Hizbul Mujahideen's Mehmoona Joya Facility in Sialkot, LeT's Markaz Ahle Hadith in Barnala, and its Shawai Nalla camp in Muzaffarabad. He noted that multiple intelligence agencies had confirmed the presence of terrorists in all nine targeted camps, including locations in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) and the Punjab province of Pakistan. 'Nefarious places such as Muridke, the hub centre of the Lashkar-e-Taiba has over the years bred infamous characters such as Ajmal Kasab and the likes of David Headley," Lt Gen Ghai added. First Published: May 11, 2025, 22:51 IST
News18
10-05-2025
- Politics
- News18
Ceasefire Announced, But India's Message To Pakistan Is Clear: We'll Act When Needed
Last Updated: Hours before the ceasefire was announced, India had warned that any future terrorist attack would be treated as an 'Act of War' and responded to accordingly India and Pakistan may have agreed to an immediate ceasefire, but not before New Delhi made it clear to the world: it will not seek anyone's permission to defend its people, top government sources said. The Indian response served as a global signal — terrorists and their masterminds will find no safe haven. Hours before the ceasefire was announced, India had warned that any future terrorist attack would be treated as an Act of War and responded to accordingly — a direct message to Pakistan to rein in its actions going forward. India's massive retaliatory strike — codenamed Operation Sindoor — targeted deep positions inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir to avenge the brutal killing of 26 civilians in the Pahalgam attack. 'The operation was an absolute success," government sources confirmed, with Indian forces neutralising nine high-value terror launchpads. These were not limited to border regions. India struck targets hundreds of kilometres inside Pakistani territory, including in Bahawalpur and across Punjab province, both considered key military strongholds. During the operation, Indian forces successfully jammed or bypassed Pakistan's air defence systems, leaving them exposed for up to 23 minutes — a significant tactical advantage. Several top terrorists were killed in the strikes, including individuals on India's most wanted list. Entire leadership structures of multiple terror modules were eliminated in a single night. Operation Sindoor was not just about the Pahalgam massacre — it also avenged past terror attacks. The targets included camps used to train Ajmal Kasab, David Headley, and others involved in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the IC-814 hijacking. For long, these terrorists operated with impunity under Pakistani protection. That era, sources said, has ended. India also deployed non-military measures to reinforce its strategy and consolidate international support. Among them was the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty — a move with serious consequences. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had famously said in 2016, 'blood and water cannot flow together," when India first signalled its intent to reassess the treaty after a major terror attack. As the lower riparian, Pakistan depends on the Indus River system for 80 per cent of its 16 million hectares of farmland and 93 per cent of its total water use — supporting 237 million people and fuelling nearly a quarter of its GDP through key crops like wheat, rice, and cotton. In parallel, India imposed a total ban on Pakistani artists, halting performances, film screenings, music launches, and streaming content. This cultural blockade added further economic and symbolic pressure on Pakistan. These coordinated kinetic and non-kinetic actions, officials said, imposed tangible diplomatic and economic costs, deepened Pakistan's isolation, and reaffirmed India's zero-tolerance policy on terrorism. First Published: May 10, 2025, 19:29 IST
Indian Express
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Terror HQ, Pakistan: Why taking out Muridke and Bahalwalpur is key to India's war on terror
THE NINE targets inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) that India attacked as part of Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7 isn't merely a hit on the neighbour's terror infrastructure; it has substantial symbolic value for India's war on terror. Of the nine camps, at least two of them – the Muridke headquarters of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Bahawalpur base of the Jaish-e-Mohammed — have been on the radar of Indian security agencies for their role in planning and coordinating a series of attacks on Indian soil over the years. This is the first time that India has targeted the Muridke headquarters of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Bahawalpur base of the Jaish-e-Mohammed. Markaz Taiba, Muridke An hour's drive from Lahore is Muridke, a tehsil headquarters in Pakistan's Punjab province. A small city with a population of less than three lakh, Muridke, in Sheikhpura district, got noticed after the Markaz-e-Taiba (or the Taiba Centre) came up in 2000 as the headquarters of the Markaz-e-Dawa Wal Irshad (MDI), the parent organisation of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Spread across a sprawling campus of over 200 acres, Muridke's Taiba Centre was Lashkar's command and control centre, a recruitment and training centre and a school of indoctrination. The campus housed schools, mosques, medical facilities and residential quarters. For India, the choice of Muridke as a target was especially important because it represented the most heinous of terror attacks directed at India – from the suicide attack in Kashmir during the Kargil war to the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. Ajmal Kasab, the gunman in the 26/11 attacks, and David Headley, the scout, have admitted that they received training inside this facility in Muridke. In fact, The Resistance Front (TRF), the outfit that has claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam terror attack, too, is a front for the Lashkar. And so, on May 7, when India struck deep inside Pakistan for the first time since the 1971 war, the Markaz Taiba was an obvious target. A senior counter insurgency officer said that the Markaz-e-Taiba was a city in itself. 'The Lashkar headquarters had everything the terror operatives and their families needed. It was as organised as a military headquarters would be and that's not possible without state support.' Calling the Taiba centre the 'root of evil' in Pakistan, he said, 'Muridke has been exporting terror not just to Kashmir, but many other parts of the world. All the top Lashkar commanders operated from there.' The Taiba Centre was set up in 2000 by Hafiz Saeed, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian-Jordanian known as the ideological father of global jihad. Funding for the project came from Abdul Rahman Al Surayhi, an Arab who fought against the Soviet forces in Afghanistan. In his book Storming the World Stage: The Story of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Stephen Tankel says Surayhi was the brother-in-law of Lakhvi, Saeed's close aide and one of the founding members of the Markaz-e-Dawa Wal Irshad that was first set up as a loose structure in Kunar province of Afghanistan in 1986-87 before being formally launched in 1990 in Pakistan. In 1986, Saeed, a professor in the Islamic Studies Department of Lahore University of Engineering & Technology, went to Saudi Arabia on a two-year fellowship at King Saud University in Riyadh. It was here that he met Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Baz, a radical preacher and the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia who counted Osama bin Laden among his students. While in Saudi Arabia, Saeed also established a connection with Azzam, the Palestinian who was then an ideologue of the Afghan jihad against the Soviet Union. Soon after his return from Saudi Arabia, Saeed and two others set up the Markaz-e-DawaWal Irshad in Muridke. A year later, the Lashkar-e-Taiba was born, as the militant wing of the Markaz-e-DawaWal Irshad, with an aim to join the Afghan Mujahideen in the US-sponsored war against the Soviets. But as the war reached its end, the group shifted its attention to Kashmir. According to security agencies, the Lashkar's Valley operations began in 1993. For years, the group kept a low profile, so much so that government agencies had few details about its ideology and cadre. The first big terror attack carried out by the outfit was in July 1999, soon after the Kargil war, when it struck a camp of the Border Security Force in Bhootu, a village in Bandipora deep inside dense pine forests. The attack left six BSF personnel, including Deputy Inspector General S K Chakravarty and two other officers, dead. After a 30-hour-long operation by the elite National Security Guards and paratroopers of the Army, the terrorists, holed up in a house in the village, were killed. The Lashkar followed up the Bandipora attack with more incidents of terror. On November 3, 1999, the outfit targeted the Army's 15 Corps headquarters and killed Defence PRO Major Purshottam inside his office along with several other Army men. In March 2000, coinciding with the visit of then US President Bill Clinton to New Delhi, the Lashkar carried out the Chittisinghpura massacre that saw 36 members of the Sikh community being lined up and shot dead. In August 2000, when the Hizbul Mujahideen — the biggest Kashmiri militant group — declared a ceasefire and joined the first-ever direct talks with the Vajpayee government, the Lashkar carried out several terror attacks across J&K, killing around 100 people in two days. Subsequently, the talks failed. More attacks followed — the December 22, 2000 attack on the Red Fort and the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Meanwhile in Pakistan, the Lashkar, which is based on the Salafi thought of Islam — which forbids anyone from going against a Muslim ruler even if he is not a 'true' Muslim — earned state support since it managed to largely stay away from Pakistan's domestic politics and focused on Kashmir and beyond. The Lashkar further endeared itself to the Pakistan government as its razakar (volunteers) pitched in with relief measures during earthquakes and floods in Pakistan and PoK. In fact, several Pakistani politicians have in the past visited Muridke and offered financial assistance for the Jamat-ud-Dawa's 'social work'. The situation took a turn after 9/11. Under severe US pressure, then President Musharraf started to act against the Lashkar. However, on December 24, 2001, almost a month ahead of Pakistan's ban on the Lashkar, Saeed called a press conference and officially distanced himself from the Lashkar, closed down its parent organisation Markaz-e-Dawa-wal-Irshad, and instead set up the Jamaat-ud-Dawa. It was a measure to escape international scrutiny and stay afloat. But, as is evident from the Pahalgam attack, the Lashkar had never gone out of business. Markaz Subhanallah, Bahawalpur In the spring of 2000, Afaq Ahmad, a 17-year-old schoolboy from downtown Srinagar, blew up an explosives-laden Maruti car at the gate of the 15 Corps HQ in the city. The first human bomb in the Valley marked a new phase in Kashmir's violence-stricken history. This attack was carried out by the Jaish-e-Mohammad, a terror outfit that had been formed weeks earlier by Masood Azhar, one of the terrorists released in Kandahar on December 31, 1999 in exchange for the passengers and crew of the hijacked IC-814. On December 24, 2000, a 24-year-old British cadre of the Jaish blew up another explosives-laden Maruti, again at the gates of the 15 Corps HQ. The bomber was subsequently profiled in the official Jaish publication, Zarb-e-Momin, thus putting Kashmir on the map of international jihad. So on May 7, when Indian missiles struck deep inside Pakistan, the farthest target was a mosque in Punjab's Bahawalpur, some 100 km from the International Border. The Jamia Masjid Subhanallah had been on the radar of Indian security agencies since it was set up as a new Markaz (central headquarters) of the Masood Azhar-led Jaish-e-Mohammed. The decision to target the vast Usman Ali complex, which houses the Jamia Masjid Subhanallah, is of significant symbolic value for counter-terror operations in India. It's from here that Masood Azhar coordinated some of the most heinous attacks on India as chief of the Jaish-e-Mohammed. Situated at a distance of over 400 kilometres from the Lashkar's Muridke headquarters, Bahawalpur falls in the southern part of Pakistan's Punjab province. Here, in Model Town-B, a densely populated industrial area, stood the Jamia Masjid Subhanallah. Immediately after the 2019 Pulwama car bombing that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war, Pakistan claimed to have taken over Masjid Subhanallah and the Al-Sabir seminary on the outskirts of Bahawalpur city. But senior counter insurgency officers say that it continued to be Jaish's command centre, controlled by Azhar. Azhar's designs on India, however, preceded the Jaish. In January 1994, Azhar, then the general secretary of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (earlier Harkat-ul-Ansar), the military wing of the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam (JUI), had flown into New Delhi from Dhaka on a fake identity as a Gujarat-born Portuguese national, Wali Adam Issa. He subsequently went to Srinagar and took over Harkat activities in Kashmir before he was arrested in 1995 with Harkat chief Sajad Afghani. The Harkat made several unsuccessful attempts to get Azhar out of jail, including planning a jailbreak that was foiled. Azhar was finally released along with Omar Sheikh and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar in Kandahar in exchange for the passengers of the hijacked IC-814. Soon after, he returned to Pakistan and, in April 2000, launched the Jaish-e-Mohammed. Unlike the Lashkar, however, the Jaish shared an umbilical cord with the Taliban, and went against the Pakistani Army after the 9/11 attacks in the US changed the narrative in the region. Subsequent Jaish terror attacks in India were so brazen that they threatened to push the two countries to war several times, and repeatedly put Islamabad in a spot. In 2001, Jaish attacked the Indian Parliament, pushing the two countries close to a full-scale war. The group was even blamed for attempting to assassinate President Pervez Musharaf twice in 2003.
