Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Taliban plan to target India: Sources

NEW DELHI: After Pakistan agreed to enforce Islamic law in large areas of its restive North West Frontier Province (NWFP), including Swat Valley, in a concession to buy peace in the region, intelligence sources on Tuesday confirmed the threat that Taliban actually pose to India which is not far from the Indian boundary. (Watch)

Sources have revealed that the Taliban have plans to attack western cultural centres in Indian cities. However, no specific intelligence inputs on the nature of the threat, the specific target, the timing or the group have been received. In the view of current security situation prevailing in Pakistan, security has been increased in foreign mission and other places of interest of western countries in India.

United States on Monday said Taliban operating out of Pakistan pose a “common" threat to India and America besides the host country as New Delhi highlighted the grave danger to the world posed by terrorism emanating from there.

On his first visit to New Delhi to consult India on the situation in the region, the envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, met External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon in New Delhi.

During the meetings, the Indian side is understood to have told Holbrooke that terrorism operating out of Pakistan is posing a threat, not only to the region, but to the entire world. New Delhi underlined the need for the US and rest of the international community to realise this and take more steps to eradicate the threat, they said.

After the talks, Holbrooke told reporters that Taliban operating out of Pakistan are a "common" threat to India and the US, besides the host country. “For the first time in 60 years, your country, Pakistan and the US all face an enemy that poses direct threats to our leaderships, our capitals and our people," said Holbrooke who was here to "listen" to India's assessment of the situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Taliban movement is headed by Mullah Mohammed Omar. Mullah Omar's original commanders were "a mixture of former small-unit military commanders and Madrassa teachers," and the rank and file made up mostly of Afghan refugees who had studied at Islamic religious schools in Pakistan. It operates in Afghanistan and the Frontier Tribal Areas of Pakistan.

Soruce: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Taliban-plan-to-target-India-Sources/articleshow/4146874.cms

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