Srinivas Padma: Personal Musings on Life, Growth, and Connections

It was at age 19 that Shahid Sheikh (not his real name) first fell in love with a Kalashnikov assault rifle. And soon after finishing college in Anantnag, he found a new address a terrorist training camp in Pakistan. Armed with deadly skills, he organized a series of bloody terror strikes in Jammu and Kashmir in the 1990s, and became a high-value target for the security forces. But they never could get him until he decided to lay down his gun eight years ago. The surrender marked a turning point in Sheikh's life. Some years later, he had donned the battle fatigues of the Indian Army stalking the jungles to hunt for the same extremists he had once led. "I understand the psyche of terrorists. I know their mind. I have that advantage," he says. Once identified as cold-blooded enemies of the Indian state, many former terrorists like Sheikh are today among the army's most potent weapons against militancy in Jammu and Kashmir The 'Ikhwanis' - former militants - are ...

A "CYBER cold war" is developing as international web espionage and cyber attacks become the biggest threats to internet security, according to a report. Computer security firm McAfee said governments and government allied groups were engaging in increasingly sophisticated cyber spying, with many attacks originating from China. Some 120 countries could be developing the capacity for such activities. In the past 12 months, there have been reports of cyber attacks against government targets in the US, Germany, India, New Zealand and Australia. What started as probes to see what was possible have become well-funded and well organized operations for political, military, economic and technical espionage, the report said, with perpetrators aiming to cause havoc by disrupting critical national infrastructure systems. Targets include air traffic control, financial markets, water and sewer- age systems, electricity, payrolls, intensive care units and even traffic lights. In September:...

At Least 160 Killed Radical Cleric Ghazi Dead Nearly 1,700 Surrender Ishtiaq Ali Mehkri & Agencies Islamabad: Pakistani security forces stormed Islamabad’s citadel of Talibanism on Tuesday, killing nearly 160 people, including the deputy chief cleric of Lal Masjid Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who had openly challenged Prevez Musharraf and demanded Pakistan officially embrace Islamic orthodoxy by adopting harsh Shariat Laws. “He was spotted in the basement and asked to come out. He came out with four or five militants who kept on firing at security forces,’’ Army spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema said, announcing his death. The Army stormed the mosque in the heart of Islamabad and troops rushed in to flush out entrenched holdouts inside a women’s religious school in room by room fighting, a government spokesman said. Militants mounted a last stand in the basements of the madrassa, where military spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad said Ghazi had barricaded himself in. Till the filing of thi...