ISIS-K attempted suicide attack in India last year, says US official
Washington: The Khorasan group of the ISIS or the ISIS-K, which operates in south Asia, last year attempted a suicide attack in India, a top American official has told lawmakers.
In fact, of all the branches of the ISIS, ISIS-K is the outfit that is of the most concern to the US, Russel Travers, Acting Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Office of Director of National Intelligence, said on Tuesday.
"Of all of the branches and networks of ISIS, ISIS-K is certainly one of those of most concern, probably in the neighbourhood of 4,000 individuals or so," Travers said in response to a question from Indian-origin Senator Maggie Hassan.
"They have attempted to certainly inspire attacks outside of Afghanistan. They attempted last year to conduct a suicide attack in India. It failed," Travers said when Hassan asked about the ability of ISIS-K to carry out terrorist attacks in the region.
Hassan had travelled to Afghanistan and Pakistan last month, during which she said she heard firsthand the concerns of the US military about the growing and very real threat of ISIS-K, the ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan.
"I heard clearly that ISIS-K threatens not only US forces in Afghanistan, but also has designs on striking the US homeland," she said.
Last week, Travers had said that there were more than 20 ISIS branches globally, some of which are using sophisticated technology such as drones to conduct operations.
Despite America's key victories against the ISIS in Syria and Iraq, the terror outfit remains a deadly threat to the United States, Senator Hassan said.
Travers said ISIS-K tried a couple of years ago to inspire an attack in New York but the FBI interrupted. Then there was an attack in Stockholm in 2017 that killed five people, he added.
"So they certainly have a desire and the propaganda would indicate that they want to conduct attacks outside of Afghanistan as far relatively limited," the counter-terrorism official said.
According to Travers, after 9/11, the US was primarily focused on an externally directed attack capability emanating from a single piece of real estate along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
"Eighteen years later, we face a homegrown violent extremist threat, almost 20 ISIS branches and networks that range from tens to hundreds to thousands of people, al-Qaeda and its branches and affiliates, foreign fighters that flocked to Iraq and Syria from well over 100 countries, Iran and its proxies, and there is a growing terrorist threat from racially and ethnically motivated extremists around the globe," he said.
By any calculation, there are far more radicalised individuals now than there were at the time of 9/11, Travers told the lawmakers.
"This highlights the importance of terrorism prevention. While some aspects of the threat can only be dealt with through kinetic operations, the residents of the ideology will not be dealt with by military or law enforcement operations alone. The world has a lot of work to do in the non-kinetic realm to deal with radicalization and underlying causes," he added.
Travers also said that al-Qaeda retains its long-standing ties to the Haqqani Network and other militant networks active in Afghanistan and Pakistan that frequently target US personnel.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Uttarakhand Assembly passes censure motion against opposition over women's reservation bill
Dehradun (PTI): The Uttarakhand Assembly passed a censure motion against the Congress and other opposition parties on Tuesday for allegedly blocking the passage of the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, in Parliament.
The motion, which expressed the House's formal disapproval of the opposition's conduct, triggered a massive uproar by Congress members, leading to the adjournment of the House sine die.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Subodh Uniyal moved the censure motion, citing the "uncooperative attitude" of opposition parties toward the bill seeking 33 per cent reservation for women in legislative bodies.
Addressing a special daylong session convened specifically to discuss "Nari Samman -- Rights in Democracy", Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said the bill's passage would have benefitted every political party.
Dhami noted that after delimitation, the number of Assembly seats in the hill state would have gone up to 105, with 35 reserved for women. He added that the number of Lok Sabha seats from Uttarakhand would have risen from five to seven or eight.
"The opposition fears that if women from ordinary households enter politics, the shops of dynastic politics run by certain parties will shut down," the chief minister claimed.
He compared the opposition's conduct in Parliament to the assembly in Mahabharat where Draupadi was insulted. Dhami further likened the opposition's behaviour to the "arrogance of Ravan".
The chief minister highlighted his government's initiatives, asserting that Uttarakhand was the first state to implement a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) to protect women's rights. He said the UCC freed Muslim women from practices like "halala", "iddat", polygamy and child marriage.
Leader of Opposition Yashpal Arya questioned the technical feasibility of the bill, calling the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) claims of providing reservation by 2029 "misleading".
He argued that the bill is linked to census and delimitation processes. The Congress leader said the 2026 census would conclude by 2027 and the final data publication would take two more years.
"The delimitation process will take another six years. The actual implementation of this bill is not possible before 2034," Arya said, describing the move as a strategy to protect the BJP's "political ground".
The session also saw high drama outside the Assembly gates, where Congress MLA Virendra Jati staged a protest, demanding the payment of "outstanding" dues to farmers by sugar mills.
Jati arrived at the Assembly's main gate with a tractor-trolley loaded with sugarcane and dumped it on the road. The move brought the traffic to a halt, prompting traffic and security personnel to intervene and clear the area.
Women Congress workers also staged a demonstration against the "anti-people policies" of the state government.
