Unprecedented Security for Obama’s India Trip; U.S. Names TTP Chief ‘Global Terrorist’; Afghan Authorities Foil Several Terrorist Plots

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India

Unprecedented security expected for Obama’s upcoming India trip

Heightened and unusual security protocols will accompany U.S. President Barack Obama’s upcoming trip to India from Jan. 25-27, when he will join Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee for the country’s Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi (NDTV). Breaking from established tradition — where the visiting dignitary usually travels with India’s president from his palace residence to the parade grounds — Obama’s security team appears to have indicated his preference for riding the five-minute drive solo due to security concerns (Post).

A “never-seen-before” security cover is expected during the trip and will include round-the-clock coordination between the United States’ Secret Service, Central Intelligence Agency, and Navy Seals, and India’s Research and Intelligence Wing, Intelligence Bureau, and paramilitary forces (Times of India). According to intelligence sources cited in a Times of India report, Modi and Obama “figure high” on the hit lists of the Islamic State, al Qaeda, and Lashkar-e-Taiba, thus warranting such heightened security protocols. Obama will be the first U.S. president to be a chief guest — a “guest of honor” extended to one foreign dignitary each year — at India’s Republic Day parade. Last year’s guest was Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Top missile scientist sacked from prestigious post

Avinash Chandar, the chief of India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), the country’s top defense research agency, was sacked from his prestigious post on Tuesday, 16 months shy of his contract’s original end date (NDTV, Hindustan Times). Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Wednesday that he had sent the recommendation letter for Chandar’s termination, and asserted his belief that the top post should be held by someone younger and not on a contract.

The abrupt decision surprised many, including Chandar himself, who said: “It is the government’s decision to end my contract but I had no indication this was coming” (Hindustan Times). He added that he has “[n]o idea why it has happened.”

Chandar retired in November 2014, after which he was to be on a contract through May 2016. In August of last year, the DRDO came under criticism from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for delays and cost overruns. The DRDO was created in 1958 to develop novel military technologies and decrease arms imports. Looking forward, a search panel will select Chandar’s replacement from other top DRDO scientists. Known as “Agni man” for leading the long-range Agni missile program, Chandar is credited with shaping the country’s strategic missile program and elevating India to a missile power. 

Outrage grows over Indian minister’s attempt to “cure” gays 

Outrage has been brewing across India over controversial comments recently made by Ramesh Tawadkar, the sports and youth affairs minister in Goa, who on Monday shared his plan to “cure” gays and lesbians in the resort region (Guardian). “We will make LGBT [lesbians, gay, bisexual, and transgender] youth normal,” Tawadkar said on Monday while discussing the Bharatiya Janata Party state government’s youth policy report. He added: “We will have a [center] for them… like Alcoholics Anonymous [centers]. We will train them and give them medicines too” (BBC).

Tawadkar’s remarks invited sharp criticism from social media users, pro-LGBT groups, and the opposition Congress party, who described the minister’s attitude as shameless. In August 2013, India’s Supreme Court reinstated a gay ban throughout the country — which triggered global outrage — three years after homosexual acts were decriminalized in a landmark case with the Delhi High Court in 2009 (BBC). 

— Jameel Khan 

Pakistan

U.S. names Taliban leader a global terrorist

The U.S. State Department released a statement on Tuesday designating Pakistani Taliban commander Mullah Maulana Fazlullah as a “specially designated global terrorist” (Pajhwok). The designation, which came shortly after U.S Secretary of State John Kerry met with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad and Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif (no relation) in Rawalpindi, freezes all of Fazlullah’s assets in the United States and makes it a crime for U.S. persons to engage in transactions with him. Voice of America noted that: “It also allows the U.S. government to seize any of [Fazlullah’s] property or interests that are in the United States, including those under the control of U.S. citizens” (VOA). The Taliban was labeled a terrorist organization in 2010.

Fazlullah, who became head of the militant group in November 2013, claimed responsibility for the Dec. 16, 2014 attack on a school in Peshawar that killed 150 people, most of who were children (RFE/RL). He also ordered the attempted assassination of Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai in 2012, though she survived that attack and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for her efforts promoting universal education rights.

Pakistan hangs seven militants during Kerry’s visit

During U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s unannounced visit to Pakistan on Tuesday, local authorities hanged seven prisoners in four different jails across the country in “a move intended to demonstrate the country’s resolve to press its fight against Islamist militants” (Post). According to multiple media outlets, those executed included three men accused of killing a Defense Ministry official in 2001, two prisoners convicted of being involved in a 2003 assassination attempt on then-ruler Pervez Musharraf, a man suspected of killing a lawyer in 2003, and an al Qaeda militant convicted of killing two police officers during a 2003 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Karachi (NYT). The hangings occurred at facilities in Sukkar, Faisalabad, Karachi, and Rawalpindi, respectively (Dawn). Officials in Pakistan’s Interior and Foreign ministries told the Washington Post’s Tim Craig and Carol Morello that the hangings marked the first time in decades that so many people had been executed on the same day.

Musharraf indicted in Bugti murder case

An anti-terrorism court in Quetta formally indicted former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in the murder case of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti on Wednesday (Dawn). Bugti, a Baloch nationalist leader, was killed in an August 2006 explosion in a cave where he had taken refuge during a military crackdown ordered by Musharraf. Former interior minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao and Home Minister Shoab Nausherwani have also been accused in the case, which was brought by Bugti’s son, Nawabzada Jamil Akbar Bugti (ET).

Despite repeated orders to appear in court, Musharraf was not present for the indictment. His lawyer, Zeeshan Cheema, said his client was suffering from an illness that prevented his appearance. Musharraf is currently out on bail in four other cases linked to his time in office, including the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. 

Afghanistan

Afghan authorities foil several terrorist plots

Afghan media outlets reported on Wednesday that the country’s security forces had foiled a massive terrorist plot the night before when they raided a home in the Bagrami district of Kabul, seizing multiple suicide vests and arresting nearly 20 militants (TOLO News). According to reports, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives during the raid, but was only wounded. Hashmatullah Stanikzai, a spokesman for the Kabul police, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the militants had gathered at the house to plot suicide attacks in the capital (Pajhwok). The raid came several hours after one civilian was killed and three others were wounded when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Kabul (LAT, RFE/RL).

Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security also told reporters that they had foiled a suicide attack plan in southern Ghazni province, busting a four-member team that was allegedly trained abroad and referred to a local Taliban commander.

Afghan security forces detain five suspects in Peshawar attack

Pajhwok Afghan News reported on Wednesday that Afghan security forces have detained five men for their alleged involvement in the Dec. 16 attack on an army-run school in Peshawar that left around 150 people, mostly students, dead (Pajhwok). According to the report, Geo TV, a private Pakistani channel, said that Pakistani intelligence authorities had shared actionable intelligence with their Afghan counterparts, which is what led to the detainments, though it is unclear when exactly they occurred. The news came just two days after Lieutenant General Rizwan Akhtar, the director general of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Kabul.

Five killed in Badakhshan avalanches

At least five people were killed and three others were injured in two separate avalanches in Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan province, officials reported on Tuesday (Pajhwok, TOLO News). Multiple media outlets reported that in the province’s Shekai district, three people were killed and two were wounded, while in the Mahami district, two people were killed and a third was injured. Several districts remain cut off from Faizabad, the provincial capital, due to heavy snowfall in the region.

— Bailey Cahall

Edited by Peter Bergen.

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