India faces 'persistent' external terror threats: US report

US-TERROR

Lalit K Jha
Washington, Aug 5 (PTI) India continues to face
"persistent and significant" external terror threats from
Islamist groups, but its counter terrorism efforts remain
hampered by its outdated and overburdened legal system and law
enforcement, an official US report said Thursday.
"Although clearly committed to combating terrorism,
the Indian government's counter-terrorism efforts remained
hampered by its outdated and overburdened law enforcement and
legal systems," said the State Department's annual
Congressionally mandated Country Reports on Terrorism for the
year 2009.
"In the wake of the Mumbai terrorist attacks of 2008,
India's Parliament has introduced bills to restructure its
counter-terrorism laws and established a National
Investigative Agency (NIA) to create a national-level
capability to investigate and prosecute acts of terrorism," it
noted.
The State Department said India remained one of the
countries most afflicted by terrorism with over 1,000 deaths
attributed to terrorist attacks in 2009, primarily in Kashmir,
the Northeast, and the Maoist-affected "Red Corridor."
"India continued to face persistent and significant
external threats from groups including LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammad,
and Harakat-ul-Jihad-i-Islami-Bangladesh," it said.
Though there was no major terrorist attack like 26/11,
the report said Indian government officials warned that India
remained at risk on the basis of the volume of credible
threats the government continued to receive.
The State Department said the Indian state of Jammu
and Kashmir, historically victim to the largest number of
foreign terrorist attacks, saw casualties decline
significantly from previous years.
"The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) reported that 71
civilians and 52 members of the security forces were killed in
terrorist-related violence in the state through November," it
said.
The Congress mandated report said Home Minister P.
Chidambaram "reported to Parliament in December that 700
foreign insurgents were active in the state, down from 800
earlier in the year".
Ethno-nationalist insurgent groups remained active,
particularly in the Northeast, it said, adding that United
Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), a domestic terrorist group
banned by India in 1990, continued a campaign of bombings in
the eastern Indian state of Assam resulting in 27 fatalities
this year.
"On December 2, security forces arrested ULFA Chairman
Arabinda Rajkhowa near the Bangladesh border," it said, adding
the Assam government offered talks and free passage to ULFA
leaders in a bid to make peace with the group.
Chidambaram reported to Parliament that the central
government would agree to hold talks with the ULFA, if the
group "abjured violence," the report said. PTI LKJ
RDM


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