Law & Paneir

  TERRORIST acts in the UK, France and Belgium have demonstrated that traditional approaches for rehabilitating and de-radicalising terrorists, militants, and extremists are no longer effective. Usman Khan and Sudesh Amman, for example, totally subscribe to the erroneous ideology and, in reality, had refused to reform. These hard-core, extremist individuals, in my opinion, are immune to rehabilitation and reform. There are no comprehensive rehabilitation programmes available to completely transform such people. This harsh reality must be accepted by security and intelligence services. As a result, there is no definitive anti-terrorist solution. Terrorists are evolving and finding new means to conduct acts of violence, therefore intelligence and security personnel must be vigilant and proactive in their response. One extreme approach is to establish a designated gathering location for hardcore followers, sympathisers and terrorists where they can be completely watched. They mu...

  EMAD Al Swealmeen, an asylum seeker from Iraq who was carrying a homemade bomb, arrived at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital using a taxi a few days ago. When the bomb went off, it killed him and injured the driver.  As a result, the terror threat level in the UK has been increased to “severe,” indicating that another attack is extremely likely. Last month, Ali Harbi Ali, a British citizen of Somali descent, was detained under the Terrorism Act for stabbing Conservative MP Sir David Amess to death during a surgery with constituents in Essex. In February last year, an Islamic State (ISIS) member named Safiyya Shaikh was arrested after admitting to plotting to blow herself up in an attack on St Paul’s Cathedral. Sudesh Amman, another ISIS terrorist who was just freed from prison, stabbed two victims in Streatham, London, last year and injured another victim indirectly. He was sentenced to prison for terrorism-related offences such as urging his fiancée to murder h...

  IN the previous article, we spoke about the two major groups fighting over supremacy in Afghanistan after the departure of US troops in August. Now, we will talk about the other smaller yet also powerful organisations which are also eyeing for leadership roles in the country. The Haqqani Network Making things worse, parts of the Haqqani Network, which has been assimilated into the Taliban, are said to have collaborated with ISIS-K. The Haqqani Network is named after the group’s head, Jalaluddin Haqqani, who first battled the Soviet Army in Afghanistan while living in sanctuary in North Waziristan. With four members of the Haqqani Network are designated as Cabinet members, the Haqqani Network has emerged as the most powerful group in the new Taliban Government. They are Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, Refugee Minister Khalil-Ur-Rehman Haqqani, Communication Minister Najibullah Haqqani, and Sheikh Abdul Baqi Haqqani  (Higher Education Minister). The former ...

  THE last C-17 military cargo plane departed Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug 30, as part of the US troops’ withdrawal plan from Afghanistan, which began gradually in February. This apparently brought the US’s longest conflict to a close. Many leaders from Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member countries welcomed this as a victory for the Taliban, while others viewed it as a defeat for the “mighty” US, citing its failure in the Vietnam War as an example. The perception was that after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, things would rebound, but that did not happen. The terrorist attacks Taliban has been attacked by other terrorist groups such as Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), which opposes Taliban doctrine and leaders, in various parts of Afghanistan since September. Not only were Taliban militants killed but also innocent individuals including children and women. They were perceived as collateral damage. On September 18, at leas...

SINCE beginning of the month, Afghanistan is under siege. Since the US troops withdrew from the country, which was celebrated by the Taliban and several leaders from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member countries, many leaders are now puzzled with the ongoing assault on the minorities and sectarian violence taking place there. Despite the fact that the US retreat was heavily criticised by the international community, there is no doubt, a grand strategy behind it. And the world will know what that strategy is and why the pullback is so precipitous in the coming years. The war on terror The objective of the war on terror is to apprehend and remove perpetrators, particularly the leaders of terrorist organisations. The assassination of Osama Bin Laden in 2011 marked the beginning of the US’ decision to withdraw from Afghanistan. According to the Costs of War project at Brown University, the US has spent US$8 tril on post-9/11 wars, including in Afghanistan and Ira...

Sir David Amess, a Conservative MP from Essex, was stabbed to death at his constituency surgery yesterday, in what police are treating as a terrorist attack. It was a regular surgery at Belfairs Methodist Church in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, where he meets with his constituents regularly. He passed away on the spot. A constituency surgery, also known as a constituency clinic in the UK, is a series of one-on-one meetings between a MP and constituents. Ali Harbi Ali, a British national of Somali origin, is the 25-year old terrorist who took away Amess’ life. This attack was linked to Islamic extremism, according to the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command. A few years ago, he was sent to the counter-terrorist Prevent scheme, which was aimed at preventing people from becoming radicalised. To the uninitiated, Prevent is the UK’s counter-terrorism strategy. Ali was never a formal subject of interest, according to MI5. The MI5, or military intelligence, Section 5, is the UK’s do...

IN the final part of this article, I would like to dwell more on lone wolf attacks by extremist groups. Lone wolves will become the “new norm” for current and future terrorist attacks. As proven in Auckland, New Zealand, terrorist Ahamed Aathil Mohamed entered a supermarket, snatched a knife from the shelf and stabbed seven individuals, critically injuring three of them. With a simple plan and no expenses, the terrorist completed his “mission” even though he knew he would die as a result of his crime. Despite the fact that security and intelligence officials knew Aathil was capable of committing a crime, they were powerless to stop him on this occasion. That demonstrates how dangerous the extremists are to the society. In most circumstances, they will act as a sleeper cell, and security agencies could only act once the attacks have been carried out. Lone wolves Lone wolves are the term for these terrorists. They are regarded a low-risk terrorist, supporter or sympathiser beca...

ACCORDING to MI5 director general Ken McCallum, 31 late-stage attack plots have been thwarted in the UK in the last four years alone, including six in the pandemic period, involving Islamic-based terrorist plots as well as a considerable number involving extreme right-wing groups. He had emphasised that terrorist threat to the UK is grave and persistent. His assessment applies to the entire world, not just the UK. The current geopolitical predicament, which includes the continuous “conflict” between China and the US, as well as territorial issues in the South China Sea, will exacerbate the current situation, which includes the Taliban’s rise in Afghanistan. The influx of refugees from conflict zones such as Afghanistan, Yemen and Syria into Europe and North America adds to the intelligence and security challenges. Terrorists pretending to be refugees in Brussels and Paris have carried out effective attacks. This infuriated far-right extremists in those countries, prompting them t...

THE landscape of international security has changed dramatically since Sept 11 attack in the US, exactly 20 years ago. Terrorism and terror acts are not limited to a single country or region. Terrorism is now becoming a global crisis. It has grown from the north to the south and from west to the east. After al-Qaeda was vanquished, Islamic State (ISIS) went on to commit more atrocities around the world. This organisation, likewise, had been defeated a few years ago. The emergence of the Taliban in Afghanistan is likely to have invigorated UK terrorists, according to UK MI5 Director General Ken McCallum, who indicated yesterday that it might be a morale boost for them. According to mi5.gov.uk, MI5 stands for Military Intelligence, Section Five, the British Government’s counterintelligence, and its duty is outlined under the Security Service Act 1989, which is to preserve national security, notably against threats such as terrorism and espionage. Furthermore, he added that terror...