Law & Paneir

In the Trans-Sahara region, al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) took advantage of a renewed Tuareg rebellion in northern Mali and a coup d’état in Bamako to overrun northern Mali by joining with violent extremist mercenary fighters returning from Libya in the wake of the revolution there. Alongside regional efforts to contain and marginalize AQIM and its allies in northern Mali, the international community urged Mali’s interim government to restore an elected government to Mali, negotiate with groups in northern Mali that reject terrorism and accept Mali’s territorial integrity, and respond to the humanitarian crisis. Conflict in Nigeria continued throughout the northern part of the country, with hundreds of casualties as indigenous terrorist attacks increased. The Nigerian violent extremist group, Boko Haram, claimed responsibility for some of these attacks. In East Africa, the Somalia-based terrorist group al-Shabaab remained the primary terrorist threat. Alo...

WASHINGTON — The State Department warned Wednesday that a new terrorist group linked to an Algerian militant has emerged as “the greatest near-term threat to U.S. and Western interests” in the Sahel region of Africa. The State Department’s move underscored the resilience of the militant factions and their ability to forge new terrorist alliances, even in the face of Western pressure.  “We are seeing a dangerous mutation of the threat,” said Bruce Hoffman, an expert on terrorism at Georgetown University. “Splinters can become even more consequential than their parent organization.” The source of much of the concern is Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an Algerian militant who has long been a notorious figure in the Sahel region — a vast area on the southern flank of the Sahara that stretches from Senegal to Chad — and who appears to have become more dangerous even as his ties to Al Qaeda seem to have become more tenuous. Known as Laaouar, or the one-eyed, after losing ...

“We calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy who would be killed based on the position of the tower. We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three or four floors. I was the most optimistic of them all… due to my experience in this field, I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above it only. This is all that we had hoped for.   -Osama bin Laden, December 2001 The United States led War on Terror will be a long and demanding fight. A critical resource in this fight is an educated and alert citizenry. Maryland officials ask for your assistance by remaining alert and attentive to your surroundings as you continue to work and live your daily lives. Oftentimes, it is the private citizen that reports suspicious activity and provides law enforcement the first clue to  potential threat. You could be that per...

A suicide bomber struck a busy railway station in southern Russia on Sunday, killing herself and at least 15 others and wounding scores more, officials said, in a stark reminder of the threat Russia is facing as it prepares to host February’s Olympics in Sochi. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing in Volgograd, but it came several months after Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov called for new attacks against civilian targets in Russia, including the Sochi Games. Suicide bombings have rocked Russia for years, but many have been contained to the Caucasus, the centre of an insurgency seeking an Islamist state in the region. Until recently Volgograd was not a typical target, but the city formerly known as Stalingrad has now been struck twice in two months — suggesting militants may be using the transportation hub as a renewed way of showing their reach outside their restive region. Volgograd, which borders the Caucasus, is 900 kilometres (550 m...

In today’s world where terrorism has become the essential ingredients of the news headlines, where we all are living on the edge of a blade-called terror. It can come in any form, be it a bomb blast, a land mine, a bullet from AK-47 or keeping hostages. The one thing which is common across the world of terrorism is the large involvement of youth. It is constantly been seen that a large number of young people specially the age group of 20 to 35 is playing this game of terror. This significant change is because it is very easy to change the bend of mind of these young people. The terror gurus take advantage of the conditions of these young men and with their evil preaching’s they brainwash them and force them into the ugly world of terror. Training: It is easy for them to train the young blood as the training involves a lot of physical exercise, mental stability and focus. These young people are highly brainwashed and they see all this as their holy ‘Jehad’ in the name...

An empty mind is a devil’s workshop so the saying goes. The youth of today has no work to do. It’s an age of recession and desperate for money they do whatever pays and what pays the most often makes you pay too. Youth, the most memorable time of a person’s life, the age at which one is the most active, the happiest and most carefree. They’ve got what people say ‘young blood’ running through their veins. They feel as if they can take over the world. And that’s what some of the youth really try to do. They try to take over the world and they don’t care if they die in the process. Terrorism in youth is increasing as we breathe. No one knows when they are going to work if they will come home safe. Let alone that, no one knows when they go to sleep will they even see them the next morning? It’s an unsafe world in which we are living now. And who is making it unsafe? This youth which has gotten it into its malleable brain that the whole world is its enemy and its only fri...

The word “Terrorism” which was originally coined to describe state action, undertaken to consolidate power or quell dissident movements has evolved over the years. Though the term “state terrorism” still holds currency, today, especially after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the whole notion of terrorism has tilted to an extreme side of the axis. Today terrorism is seen as a phenomena and the violence committed, described as a ‘terrorist act’ is said to be generally perpetrated by loosely organized groups or individuals which at best share a common and fanatical religious ideology. The common perceptions of terrorism could be described as a means to attain political goals which can not be achieved in a lawful or constitutional manner, part of a strategy, used tactically by organized groups and to create fear among ordinary citizens to further a cause. Addressing terrorism in legal terms is a very complex and challenging task, where differences of opinions and...