al Qaeda-Taliban Combo Has Chemical Weapon Formula

The al-Qaida-Taliban combo plans to use parts of the Middle East as launch pads for attacks against the west. Not only so, the groups

have also developed some expertise in making bio-chemical weapons, NWFP police chief Malik Navid told a Pakistan National Assembly’s standing committee.

Navid warned that the Pakistan government needed to urgently focus on containing militancy as it spread from its bases. “Taliban’s philosophy is to create pockets everywhere,” he said, adding that jihadi groups were moving through southern Punjab and eventually aimed to reach the financial hub of Karachi.

The frank assessment of the police official serves to confirm concerns about whether Pakistan and its military complex in particular was prepared to clearly acknowledge the threat posed by jihadists given the army and ISI see Taliban as allies in ensuring a “friendly” dispensation in Afghanistan while also feeding the jihad in Jammu and Kashmir. The army’s sporadic efforts to roll back jihadis lacked conviction and have predictably shown poor results.

Navid’s testimony also points to the virtual merger of al-Qaida with Taliban, with the latter being both part of the core and the major striking arm. Indian intelligence assessments see anti-India groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba being very much a part of this conglomerate.

via ‘Qaida-Taliban combo has chemical weapon formula’ – South Asia – World – The Times of India.

India Hijack threat: Security Stepped Up At All Airports

With the Centre receiving intelligence inputs about terrorists’ plan to hijack a plane or take control of non-functional airports or abandoned airstrips for aerial attack, the CISF has further heightened security at all airports where its personnel are posted. It has also held consultations with state police to beef up the perimeter security.

The civil aviation ministry has also alerted states and UTs over proper security of non-functional airports. CISF, in turn, on Friday briefed home ministry officials about the measures being taken by it.

CISF, an official said, had been on high alert ever since it received intelligence inputs earlier this month suggesting terrorists’ gameplan of using the air route. “The civil aviation ministry has circulated some instructions to all the airports,” home minister P Chidambaram told reporters after the Cabinet meeting on Friday. He, however, did not elaborate.

All airports across the country have been on a state of high alert with civil aviation secretary M Madhavan Nambiar writing to states and UTs to secure all airports and airstrips under their jurisdiction. There are about 340 airports and airstrips in the country, many of them non-functional. A large number of these airstrips are of World War II vintage.

Besides securing the airports, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) have also issued instructions for additional layers of personal and hand-baggage checking before a passenger boards an aircraft. They have also given directions that the strength of sky marshals be increased and they should be put on more flights, rather than on the already identified sectors like those in Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East.

With Lok Sabha elections nearing and the use of helicopters increasing, the DGCA will soon issue a new set of security guidelines for helicopter operators to report mandatorily to the local police before making landings at any unscheduled place.

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