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B Raman


Pak Taliban’s fresh reprisal spree could make Davis case more difficult

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is on a fresh reprisal spree against the Pakistani security agencies and elements in the Pashtun population, which have been co-operating with the Government. It has…

Raymond Davis: Time for US to talk tough to Pakistan

There is no solution yet in sight to the Raymond Davis tug of war between the US and Pakistan. Davis, as one would recall, is the US citizen posted in…

India, China and the Indian Ocean

The following are my answers to some questions on the above-mentioned subject received by me by E-Mail from an Italian journalist: Gwadar in Pakistan, Hambantota in Sri Lanka, Akyab Cheduba…

Winds of hatred continue to sweep across Pakistan

At a time when winds of change have been sweeping across many Islamic countries with calls for greater freedom and democracy, winds of hatred continue to sweep across Pakistan. Pakistan,…

Repeated Calls for Jasmine Strolls in China

Repeated calls for “Jasmine Strolls” in Chinese cities, including Beijing, emanating from overseas Chinese web sites have added to the nervousness of the Chinese authorities. A Jasmine Stroll is a…

India and the Indian Ocean

  The main security threats to Indian interests in the Indian Ocean area arise from three factors—firstly, the gradual erosion of the Indian political influence in the area; secondly, the…

Orissa: Surrender to Insurgents

  The Orissa Government’s handling of the situation arising from the kidnapping on February 16,2011, of Shri Ravella Vineel Krishna, the popular District Collector of Malkangiri District, and a junior…

Will China cross the Rubicon of its history?

  The seriousness with which China has been viewing the dangers of a new revolution in China inspired by the people’s uprising in Egypt would be evident from the number…

Uncle Red adds to China’s nervousness

“Go, go, go! Forge on ahead. “The awakened lion is roaring. “It will smash corruption, and bury the dictatorship. “Mighty Egypt has no room for clowns. “With no equality or…

Chinese and Korean companies attacked by Libyan protesters

Resentment over the comfortable life-style of foreigners working in Libyan projects as compared to the poverty of Libyan workers seems to be playing a role in the current turmoil in Libya.…

Civil War in Libya: Gaddafi uses Pak & BD Mercenaries?

Basic Data (From Bbc) Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has led since 1969 Population 6.5m; land area 1.77m sq km Population with median age of 24.2, and a literacy rate of 88%…

Net-Spawn Campaign Unnerves Beijing

Anti-Chinese Communist Party dissidents based abroad have unleashed a web campaign against the dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In hundreds of messages directed to the Chinese people, they…

Bahrain: A Nervous Watch

  BASIC DATA (From BBC) King Hamad, 61, a Sunni, has been in power since 1999 Population 800,000 (70 per cent Shias); land area 717 sq km, or 100 times…

Egypt: An Uncertain Transition

  Some have termed the departure of President Hosni Mubarak from office on February 11,2011, as a resignation. Some others have called it waiving the office or powers of the President.…

The Jihadi Barbarity

In our excitement over the revolution from nowhere sweeping across the Arab world and in our preoccupation with trying to understand what has been happening in Egypt, we should not…

The Karmapa Controversy

  The Karmapa is the head of what is known as the Karma Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism.It is claimed that the institution of Karmapa is more than 200 years…

Will Egypt cost Obama a second term in White House?

The people’s revolt in Egypt, which has cost over a hundred lives since January 25, is showing signs of taking an anti-US turn. “Neither Mubarak nor Suleiman; we’re sick of…

Fiddling in Davos while Arab World is burning

The prairie fire of mass protests in Tunisia continues to burn and shows signs of spreading to Libya, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan and Yemen. In Tunisia, protesters want the entire old…

Messages from Moscow Airport Blast

Thirty-five persons are reported to have been killed in a suicide blast near the arrival area of Moscow’s Domodedovo airport at 4-32 PM local time on January 24,2011. The suspected…

A stealth aircraft with peaceful Chinese characteristics!

Annexed below is an interesting article on the Chinese Stealth aircraft J-20 tested by the Chinese on January 11 before the meeting of Robert Gates, the visiting US Defence Secretary,…

US & China: Friends or Foes?

  China has emerged as a leading economic power next only in importance to the US. It is seeking to achieve a military capability commensurate with its economic strength, but…

Hindu Terrorism: A Journalism Agenda

Often, I get phone calls from Delhi-based journalists to discuss with me the disturbing phenomenon of some Hindus taking to terrorism and the reported confession before a Magistrate of Swami…

ULFA The Hindu Mercenaries of Jihadis

In 13 different incidents reported since January 5, 2007 from the districts of Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Sivasagar and Dhemaji, the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) is reported to have mowed…

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PLA’s Stealth Surprise to Gates: Was it a surprise to Hu too?

There is so much happening in China and with such rapidity that I find it difficult to keep pace with it. I do hope that the Indian intelligence agencies are…

India should suspend work visas for Chinese

The Hindu has reported on October 1, 2009, that the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi has been issuing visas on a separate sheet of paper to Indian citizens born and…

US should pay more attention to Balochistan

  There is a need for the US to pay more attention to Balochistan as part of its Af-Pak strategy in order to pacify the Pashtun militancy encouraged by Al…

The Samjauta Express Explosion: The Follow-Up

“According to American investigators, the LET (Lashkar-e-Toiba) and Al Qaeda  were responsible for the Samjauta Express blast and the HUJI( Harkatul-Jihad-Al-Islami) for the Mecca Masjid blast (in Hyderabad).If the American…

Pirates or Naval Al Qaeda or Both?

I have been in receipt of the following message on April 8, 2009, from ECOTERRA International, which disseminates a periodic “Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor”: “Danish owned and US-American operated…

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PLA’s psywar against the US

  As Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, gets ready to visit China from January 9 to 12 and as President Hu Jintao’s State visit to Washington DC on January…

Spreading roots of extremism in Pakistan

  The roots of extremism are spreading in Pakistan. This is obvious from the assassination of Salman Taseer, the Governor of Punjab, by a policeman belonging to the Elite Force…

Pakistan’s Punjab Governor Taseer’s Assassination

  The assassination of Salman Taseer, the liberal Governor of Punjab, by one of his police security guards at an Islamabad shopping centre on January 4 because of the Governor’s…

The Shadows in J&K

  In his message of February 12, 2007, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the No.2 to Osama bin Laden, has spoken of a global Jihadi Intifada. Has he spoken of any special areas…

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Is letting Pakistan collapse an option?

  “The News”, a daily of Pakistan, has carried on December 24, 2010, an analysis by Amir Mir, the well-known Pakistani journalist, of acts of suicide terrorism in Pakistan during 2010.It…

Pakistan, a valuable asset for China

  Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China visited Pakistan from December 17 to 19,2010, after having completed a three-day visit to India from December 15 to 17. During his stay…

The Indian Jihadi Net

If one carefully analyses the various serial blasts which have taken place in different parts of India since November,2007, one could notice an organic, mushroom-like growth of jihadi terrorist cells…

China seeks to bring in Pakistan as an interested party

In my previous article (China supports Pakistan’s claim on Kashmir!), I had stated as follows: “By questioning the legitimacy of India’s sovereignty over J&K, the Chinese may be creating a…

US insult to Indian diplomats at airports

  Even in the past, there had been instances of humiliating body searches of Indian diplomats and visiting dignitaries at US airports. The controversy over this has assumed serious dimensions…

Oslo: China coming to terms with reality

After having waged a high-pressure campaign to enforce a boycott of the Oslo function on December 10 to honour in absentia Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese human rights activist who has…

IM warns attacks on Hindu holy places

The message dated December 6, 2010, purporting to be from the Indian Mujahideen (IM) indirectly claiming responsibility for the explosion in Varanasi on December 7, 2010, was received by the…

New Delhi must regularly interact with Dalai Lama

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, needs to be complimented for standing firm to China and refusing to be bullied by it into not attending the Oslo function on December…

The myths exposed by Wikileaks

The confidential cables exchanged between the US State Department and the US diplomatic missions abroad, which have been released by WikiLeaks, expose the following five myths: Firstly, the myth of…

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Zardari in Sri Lanka: Counter-Balancing India

President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan visited Sri Lanka from November 27 to 30, 2010, at the invitation of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Among those who accompanied him were Shah Mehmood…

Time to stop appeasing China

The Government of India has not yet  indicated its response to the reported pressure from the Chinese Government to boycott the Nobel Peace Prize Award function proposed to be held…

The internal political situation in China

  An editorial published on October 15, 2010, by the Communist Party controlled “Global Times” said:“China has changed a lot. In the future it will continue to adopt gradualism to…

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Wikileaks: The Chinese Shiver

The Chinese authorities have told their people of the tsunami of documents of the US Government being flooded into the public domain by WikiLeaks. They are surprised that the US…

Wikileaks: Implications of Leakage of US Diplomatic Cables

The leakage by WikiLeaks of over 200,000 diplomatic cables exchanged between the US State Department and its diplomatic missions abroad could have serious implications for US diplomacy and for the…

Wikileaks: Intelligence of Interest to India

Wikileaks has claimed to have received from its source 251,287 documents, which are mainly diplomatic cables of a classification lower than “Top Secret” exchanged between the US State Department and…

Indian Intelligence: the fiddling has to stop…

  The evolution of the Indian intelligence community since 1947 has been on the basis of periodic reviews of our enquiries into perceived intelligence failures. After the Sino-Indian war of…

Mumbai 26/11: Take Pakistan ISI to court

Since the Madrid conference on “Democracy & Terrorism” held in March 2005, to which I was invited,I have been repeatedly writing and speaking on the need for victim activism in…

Continuing North Korean threat to regional peace & stability

The continuing North Korean threat to regional peace and stability has again been demonstrated by its surprise  artillery attack on the Yeonpyeong island under South Korean control on November 23,2010, which…