Latest news with #Pakistani-trained
Time of India
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
The 'taxi driver-spy' who almost slipped through the cracks: How India nabbed ISI's man before it was too late
How it unfolded: From Nepal route to Delhi trap Live Events Ansarul Miya Ansari's Trail: From taxi driver in Qatar to radicalised agent Akhlaque Azam: The logistics man in Ranchi Pak High Commission under lens (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel In a calculated and stealthy operation that ran from January to March 2025, Indian intelligence agencies dismantled an ISI-backed spy network just in time to prevent a planned terror attack in the heart of the national capital, as reported by TOI. The mission, which authorities described as 'a masterclass in espionage craft,' ended with the arrest of two individuals: Ansarul Miya Ansari , a Pakistani-trained operative of Nepali origin, and Akhlaque Azam , an Indian national aiding the plot from 15 February, Ansari was arrested in central Delhi, found in possession of confidential documents related to the Indian Armed Forces. He was on his way to exit India via Nepal when officials moved in. This seemingly routine arrest cracked open a far more serious operation tied directly to Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI The operation began with a vague but urgent tip-off. Indian agencies had received intelligence that a foreign agent had entered Delhi via Nepal to gather sensitive military information. The stakes were high — sources revealed plans for a strike targeting strategic sites, including Palam Air Force Base, the CGO Complex, and Delhi acted with precision. A source close to the operation said, 'Our men were making efforts to collect information about Pak-backed terror outfits active in different parts of India and sleeper cells providing logistic support to them.'The mission was activated in response to increasing threats in the region, especially after ISI-supported groups like Babbar Khalsa International launched grenade attacks in Punjab. With Delhi in the crosshairs, agencies chose to move path to espionage started far from India. During interrogation, he confessed that he had been working as a taxi driver in Qatar since 2008, where he was recruited by an ISI handler. 'In June 2024, he visited Pakistan for a month, where he was introduced to high-ranking officials of the Pakistani Army and radicalised by discussing issues like the Babri Masjid demolition and the implementation of CAA/NRC in India,' the court report was trained in spycraft and handed the mission to enter Delhi via Nepal, collect military secrets, and pass them back to ISI. His assignment included creating a CD of the stolen documents for safe Ansari's arrest, interrogation led to another key suspect: Akhlaque Azam. Arrested in March during a coordinated raid in Ranchi, Azam was allegedly providing logistical support to Ansari while maintaining regular contact with Pakistani handlers. According to sources, 'The two were in constant communication with their Pakistani handlers, and their conversations were laced with suspicion and intrigue.'Mobile phone analysis revealed incriminating exchanges suggesting a much wider conspiracy, with digital traces leading back to known ISI operatives Muzammil and Ehsan-ur-Rahim, alias Danish. These names also came up in separate probes into the activities of Pakistani diplomatic staff in investigation uncovered evidence of involvement by individuals within the Pakistan High Commission. Indian authorities suspect that diplomatic cover may have been misused by ISI officers who were attempting to influence local YouTubers and social media influencers to act as unwitting information a related crackdown, a YouTuber from Hisar, Haryana — Jyoti Malhotra — was arrested recently for allegedly sharing sensitive information and being in regular contact with a Pakistani seriousness of the case led to the filing of a chargesheet in May under the Official Secrets Act. Both accused — Ansari and Azam — remain in high-security custody at Tihar Jail. Authorities are keeping a close watch to ensure they do not radicalise or influence other trial is expected to begin shortly. A senior officer involved in the probe remarked, 'We are on high alert to prevent any threats to national security. It may be a cat-and-mouse game, but India's agencies want to be the ones holding the reins.'The operation is being seen as a pre-emptive success — not just in thwarting an espionage plot, but in exposing the deeper tentacles of foreign influence attempting to undermine India's internal security from within.(With inputs from TOI)
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion - Can India and Pakistan overcome their violent history?
India and Pakistan are on the brink of war. A terrorist attack killed 26 in the beautiful hill station of Pahalgam, Kashmir, on April 22. India blamed Pakistani-trained militants. Early on the morning of May 7, India launched missile attacks on nine sites in Pakistan, calling the strikes 'measured, responsible and designed to be non-escalatory in nature,' which Pakistan called a 'blatant act of war.' These attacks tear at the intertwined cultural fabric of India and Pakistan and recall their partition in 1947, after the end of British colonial rule. The personal and the political flow together here. Aarti Menon's father was killed in the April 22 attack and she noted that the terrorists spared her life as she clung to her six-year-old twin sons. Two Muslims named Musafir and Sameer helped her get away. Later, she recalled, 'I have two brothers in Kashmir now. May Allah protect you both.' The U.S. is trying to reduce tensions. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has spoken to senior officials on both sides, and President Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson affirmed American support for India against terrorism. Later, Trump echoed Western sentiment saying the U.S. is close to India and Pakistan. With typical exaggeration, he also noted India and Pakistan have fought for a thousand years. India's government linked the April 22 attacks, without conclusive proof, to the Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba. Pakistan officially denied support, but militants are often trained in Pakistan. India provided ample proof after the November 2009 Mumbai terror attacks. Anti-Pakistan fervor has built up in India, and vice versa. India and Pakistan fought wars in 1947, 1965 and 1971 and were involved in armed conflicts in 1999 and 2019. In 1947, the Maharaja of Muslim-majority Kashmir and Hindu-majority Jammu ceded the territories to India. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru promised a referendum on the status of Kashmir that, stymied with fraught relations and politics, was never held. Article 370 of the Indian Constitution provided special privileges for Jammu and Kashmir until 2019, when the nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi government revoked it. At a personal level, the story of two Muslims assisting a Hindu woman after a terror attack speaks to the scars that have healed since the partition. The issue resonates with many of us: My father was born in what is now Pakistan and my mother's family fled from a village near Lahore in 1947. They left behind neighbors. One million people were killed during the partition and 15 million were displaced as Muslims left for Pakistan and Hindus and Sikhs came to India. However, post-colonial India had one of the largest Muslim populations in the world, and today 14.2 percent of India's 1.4 billion citizens are Muslim. My mother recalled the partition vividly. Her family were in a caravan as they tearfully left their village in Pakistan. She and her sisters were dressed as boys because young girls were being raped. They were among those who eventually boarded the infamous trains from Pakistan to India. When they arrived at the house my great-grandparents owned in Indian Punjab, they entered through a courtyard with dead bodies. A great deal has been written about the trauma of the partition, but much less about the lineage of people like Aarti Menon or like my mother who witness horrific acts of violence but do not blame religion. My family's account of the partition was not unique. Many families saw the outbreaks of violence as historic colonial tragedies, not as inescapable religious hatred. Aarti Menon's Kerala of present and my parents Punjab of the past feature several religious groups living side-by-side in towns and villages. They are neighbors. It would have been easy for many post-partition Indians to blame Muslims. They largely did not. I grew up in a Sikh family. Many Sikhs were persecuted by Mughal emperors. However, the Sikh scripture is filled with verses from Muslim poets. Sikhs blamed the rulers, not the religion. After 1947, Mahatma Gandhi and Prime Minister Nehru envisioned a secular and pluralist India for nation-building. One of the most famous Bollywood films remains 'Mughal-e-Azam' or 'The Great Mughal,' offering an allegory about integrating gender and Islam in a secular India. The secular Indian state is under duress from far-right Hindu nationalists who seek conflict. Significant acts marginalizing the Muslim community include the 1992 demolition of the medieval Babri Masjid and, after a controversial Supreme Court judgment in 2019, the building of a Hindu temple where the mosque once stood. Despite 172 million Muslims in India, the current BJP party-led government's cabinet or parliamentary majority does not include a single Muslim. During the 2024 elections, Modi referred to Indian Muslims as 'infiltrators.' The geopolitical implications are clear. Terrorist violence destabilizes America's political and commercial tilt toward India, especially as a check against China, with whom India has another historic rivalry. Meanwhile, polls show that Pakistanis favor China over America. The Pakistani military, an important but declining force in domestic politics, would also gain from conflict with India. With domestic politics exacerbating international tensions, statements like those of Aarti Menon or the stories of millions of post-partition households remind us that the Indus River — whose waters India has threatened to divert, abrogating a 1960 treaty between the two countries — has flowed through these lands for millennia. The lesson is not that neighbors do not fight, but that at interpersonal levels, people often choose not to fight, even when pressured the other way. Geopolitically, India is well-placed to avoid a war and win international favor. Trump called the May 7 attacks 'a shame' and expressed hope that they end quickly. Let's all hope so. J.P. Singh is Distinguished University Professor at Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University, and Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow with the Robert Bosch Academy (Berlin). He is co-editor-in-chief of Global Perspectives. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The Hill
07-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Can India and Pakistan overcome their violent history?
India and Pakistan are on the brink of war. A terrorist attack killed 26 in the beautiful hill station of Pahalgam, Kashmir, on April 22. India blamed Pakistani-trained militants. Early on the morning of May 7, India launched missile attacks on nine sites in Pakistan, calling the strikes 'measured, responsible and designed to be non-escalatory in nature,' which Pakistan called a 'blatant act of war.' These attacks tear at the intertwined cultural fabric of India and Pakistan and recall their partition in 1947, after the end of British colonial rule. The personal and the political flow together here. Aarti Menon's father was killed in the April 22 attack and she noted that the terrorists spared her life as she clung to her six-year-old twin sons. Two Muslims named Musafir and Sameer helped her get away. Later, she recalled, 'I have two brothers in Kashmir now. May Allah protect you both.' The U.S. is trying to reduce tensions. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has spoken to senior officials on both sides, and President Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson affirmed American support for India against terrorism. Later, Trump echoed Western sentiment saying the U.S. is close to India and Pakistan. With typical exaggeration, he also noted India and Pakistan have fought for a thousand years. India's government linked the April 22 attacks, without conclusive proof, to the Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba. Pakistan officially denied support, but militants are often trained in Pakistan. India provided ample proof after the November 2009 Mumbai terror attacks. Anti-Pakistan fervor has built up in India, and vice versa. India and Pakistan fought wars in 1947, 1965 and 1971 and were involved in armed conflicts in 1999 and 2019. In 1947, the Maharaja of Muslim-majority Kashmir and Hindu-majority Jammu ceded the territories to India. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru promised a referendum on the status of Kashmir that, stymied with fraught relations and politics, was never held. Article 370 of the Indian Constitution provided special privileges for Jammu and Kashmir until 2019, when the nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi government revoked it. At a personal level, the story of two Muslims assisting a Hindu woman after a terror attack speaks to the scars that have healed since the partition. The issue resonates with many of us: My father was born in what is now Pakistan and my mother's family fled from a village near Lahore in 1947. They left behind neighbors. One million people were killed during the partition and 15 million were displaced as Muslims left for Pakistan and Hindus and Sikhs came to India. However, post-colonial India had one of the largest Muslim populations in the world, and today 14.2 percent of India's 1.4 billion citizens are Muslim. My mother recalled the partition vividly. Her family were in a caravan as they tearfully left their village in Pakistan. She and her sisters were dressed as boys because young girls were being raped. They were among those who eventually boarded the infamous trains from Pakistan to India. When they arrived at the house my great-grandparents owned in Indian Punjab, they entered through a courtyard with dead bodies. A great deal has been written about the trauma of the partition, but much less about the lineage of people like Aarti Menon or like my mother who witness horrific acts of violence but do not blame religion. My family's account of the partition was not unique. Many families saw the outbreaks of violence as historic colonial tragedies, not as inescapable religious hatred. Aarti Menon's Kerala of present and my parents Punjab of the past feature several religious groups living side-by-side in towns and villages. They are neighbors. It would have been easy for many post-partition Indians to blame Muslims. They largely did not. I grew up in a Sikh family. Many Sikhs were persecuted by Mughal emperors. However, the Sikh scripture is filled with verses from Muslim poets. Sikhs blamed the rulers, not the religion. After 1947, Mahatma Gandhi and Prime Minister Nehru envisioned a secular and pluralist India for nation-building. One of the most famous Bollywood films remains 'Mughal-e-Azam' or 'The Great Mughal,' offering an allegory about integrating gender and Islam in a secular India. The secular Indian state is under duress from far-right Hindu nationalists who seek conflict. Significant acts marginalizing the Muslim community include the 1992 demolition of the medieval Babri Masjid and, after a controversial Supreme Court judgment in 2019, the building of a Hindu temple where the mosque once stood. Despite 172 million Muslims in India, the current BJP party-led government's cabinet or parliamentary majority does not include a single Muslim. During the 2024 elections, Modi referred to Indian Muslims as 'infiltrators.' The geopolitical implications are clear. Terrorist violence destabilizes America's political and commercial tilt toward India, especially as a check against China, with whom India has another historic rivalry. Meanwhile, polls show that Pakistanis favor China over America. The Pakistani military, an important but declining force in domestic politics, would also gain from conflict with India. With domestic politics exacerbating international tensions, statements like those of Aarti Menon or the stories of millions of post-partition households remind us that the Indus River — whose waters India has threatened to divert, abrogating a 1960 treaty between the two countries — has flowed through these lands for millennia. The lesson is not that neighbors do not fight, but that at interpersonal levels, people often choose not to fight, even when pressured the other way. Geopolitically, India is well-placed to avoid a war and win international favor. Trump called the May 7 attacks 'a shame' and expressed hope that they end quickly. Let's all hope so.
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Business Standard
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Business Standard
'India exercised its right to respond to terror': Govt on Operation Sindoor
The government on Wednesday said that "India exercised its right to self-defence" in reference to Operation Sindoor. In a press conference, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said that India has found conclusive evidence of Pakistan's involvement in the recent Pahalgam terror attack that claimed 26 lives. Misri said that the investigation into the Pahalgam incident has "revealed Pakistan's link to it", and expressed concern over Islamabad's continued inaction against militant networks operating from its territory. "A group called the Resistance Front has claimed responsibility for Pahalgam attack. This group is connected with Lashkar-e Taiba. Pakistan links have been established in this attack." He further added, "Pakistan did not do anything against terrorist infrastructure after the Pahalgam terror attack." In response to the threat, India launched a counterterror operation earlier in the day. "India launched Operation Sindoor early on Wednesday morning in its right to self-defense against the Pahalgam terror attack," the foreign secretary said. Criticising Pakistan's global track record, Misri added, "Pakistan has emerged as a safe haven for terrorists in the world. Banned international terrorists find it safe from being punished in this country. Pakistan is also known for deliberately misleading the world and international platforms." Family members deliberately traumatised: Misri "On April 22, Pakistan and Pakistani-trained terrorists belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) carried out an attack on Indian tourists at Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir area. They murdered 26 people, including one national of Nepal, causing the largest number of civilian casualties in a terrorist attack in India since the 2008 attack in Mumbai." "The attack in Pahalgam was marked by extreme barbarity, with the victims, mostly killed by head shots from close range and in front of their families. Family members were deliberately traumatised by the manner of killing," he said. The foreign secretary said that the motive behind the Pahalgam attack was to undermine the "normalcy returning to Jammu and Kashmir". "The manner of the attack was also driven by an objective of provoking communal discord, both in Jammu and Kashmir and in the rest of the nation," he said. Operation Sindoor In the early hours of Wednesday (May 7), the Indian armed forces conducted strikes on terrorist facilities located in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). These actions were in response to the April 22 terror attacks in Pahalgam, which resulted in the deaths of 26 civilians. The Ministry of Defence issued a statement saying, 'A little while ago, the Indian armed forces launched 'Operation Sindoor', hitting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed.' The statement further noted, 'Altogether, nine sites have been targeted.'
News18
05-05-2025
- Politics
- News18
How Foreign Funding From UK Is Fuelling JeM Operations In Pakistan
Last Updated: Several UK-based trusts are involved in funding Jaish in Pakistan, including Ummah Welfare Trust UK, Umma Peshawar Trust and Taj Naseeb Amma/Uma Welfare Trust The Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) is receiving foreign funding from the United Kingdom via several trusts that operate in both Pakistan and the UK, CNN-News18 has learnt in its probe to uncover a terror trail sponsored by India's neighbour. Abdul Majid, also known as Majid Sulimani—chief of the Kashmir Tigers and a feared commander of the JeM—approaches the trust on behalf of social covers such as madrassas to request relief in the form of rations for the students. This trust is believed to be one of the NGOs associated with JeM, generating funds through both local and international channels to provide logistical support and relief to the JeM outfit, sources told CNN-News18. Several UK-based trusts are involved in funding Jaish in Pakistan, including Ummah Welfare Trust UK, Umma Peshawar Trust and Taj Naseeb Amma/Uma Welfare Trust. 1. 19-09-2024: 109,598 Pakistan Rupees 2. 05-11-2024: 100,000 Pakistan Rupees 3. 11-12-2024: 105,173 Pakistan Rupees 4. 15-01-2025: 100,001 Pakistan Rupees 5. 21-02-2025: 70,256 Pakistan Rupees Abdul Majid, a Pakistani-trained terrorist, received arms and subversive training from various camps located in Abbotabad, Mansehra, and Bahawalpur. He also underwent training at religious centres associated with JeM. As a senior commander within the JeM outfit, Sulimani has been closely working with new offshoots of the group, namely the Kashmir Tigers and the Kashmir Freedom Army. Abdul Majid hails from Ganderbal district in J&K and in the early nineties, he, along with his father and two brothers, Shabir and Mumtaz, allegedly crossed into Pakistan after initially joining local terror outfits. They first stayed and operated from Ambore Camp in the Muzaffarabad area of Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). According to sources, of the two other brothers in Pakistan, Qazi Mumtaz is a director in the government sector in Dudnial, PoJK, and lives in Muzaffarabad. His other brother, Qazi Shabir, has residences in both Abbotabad and Muzaffarabad but is currently living in London. CNN-News18 had earlier reported that Jaish has evolved its strategy to evade international sanctions and counter-terrorism efforts and given the increased scrutiny, it now operates through proxy groups. First Published: May 05, 2025, 12:14 IST
