Following the arrest of one of the most wanted insurgent leaders of Assam, the state government must immediately act tough against other insurgent groups operating in the hill districts of the state.

• M. Amarjeet Singh
• June 12, 2009
• IDSA Comments

At first glance, ‘Non-Lethal’ and ‘armed forces’ do not seem to go along, considering that the primary role of the military is to preserve national interests and safeguard territorial integrity, sovereignty and unity of India against external threats. However, changes in the security dynamics have embroiled the Indian Army more and more in the secondary task of providing assistance to government agencies to cope with internal threats as part of ‘Aid to Civil Authority’ when requisitioned for the purpose.

• Arvind Dutta
• June 03, 2009
• IDSA Comments

Elections in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, be they for the state legislature or Parliament, have become the symbol around which the contest for legitimacy between the separatists and mainstream political leadership takes place. The recently concluded election for six Parliamentary constituencies was no exception. In the five-phase elections that were held in the state in April-May 2009, 2,022 election rallies were held.

• Arpita Anant
• June 02, 2009
• IDSA Comments

The threat from the Taliban could be in the form of heightened infiltration attempts across the Line of Control or see a new breed of Talibanised Pakistani militants targeting the Indian hinterland or a combination of both.

• Harinder Singh
• June 02, 2009
• Issue Brief

Terrorism is at the forefront of international politics and is a major crisis of our age. Not found in pre-modern times, this phenomenon finds its root in ideological movements and not in religion. While referring to different forms of terrorism several scholars have suggested nihilism in modern times as the source of the problem. They view nihilism as a decline in values, or in other words, a tendency of ‘devaluing all values’.

• S. M. Faizan Ahmed
• May 18, 2009
• IDSA Comments

The Indian Parliament has recently passed the Central Industrial Security Force (Amendment) Bill 2008, paving the way for the government to provide Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) security to private industrial establishments on cost re-imbursement basis, besides providing CISF security cover for Indian embassies abroad as well as for India’s UN missions.

• Om Shankar Jha
• March 19, 2009
• IDSA Comments

Since 2001, Islamic terrorists have struck India with frightening frequency and ferocity. The most disturbing aspect of these attacks is that they have spread into the hinterland from Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) which was the main focus of the terrorists in the late 80s and the following decade.

• Thomas Mathew
• February 25, 2009
• Policy Brief

Rebels of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) have been repeatedly targeting infrastructure, which are soft targets. The targets of their attacks include telecommunication towers, Railways and power transmission centres and lines, to name a few.

• P. V. Ramana
• February 20, 2009
• IDSA Comments

Although insurgency in several areas of the North-East region of India has declined, external manipulation and support to insurgency in Assam, the most populous State in the region, continues to be a problem.

Three States in the region, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Sikkim, are mostly unaffected by insurgency, while there has been substantial decline in insurgency in Tripura and Meghalaya. Thus, insurgencies in the region are largely confined to Assam, Manipur and Nagaland.

• M. Amarjeet Singh
• February 19, 2009
• IDSA Comments

In a report titled “President Obama’s Policy Options in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)”, Hassan Aabbas, Fellow at the Michigan-based Institute for Policy and Understanding (ISPM), argues that the US “should help India, Pakistan and Afghanistan reconcile their differences in lieu of the tensions in the region.

• Arvind Gupta
• February 18, 2009
• IDSA Comments