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CIHS – Centre for Integrated and Holistic Studies > Terrorists
Global Terror Factories Targeted During Operation Sindoor by India
Defence Kashmir Pakistan Security Terrorism
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Global Terror Factories Targeted During Operation Sindoor by India 

India’s ‘Operation Sindoor’ on May 7, 2025, involved missile strikes on nine locations in Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir. India’s stated aim was to target and dismantle terrorist infrastructure used for planning and carrying out attacks against India, specifically mentioning groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM). India maintained that these strikes were “focused, measured, and non-escalatory,” intended to avoid Pakistani military facilities and civilian casualties. Pakistan fake claimed that India targeted civilian areas, including mosques, resulting in significant civilian deaths and injuries. Reports from Pakistan mentioned a mosque being hit in Muzaffarabad, and a mosque complex struck in Bahawalpur, leading to casualties. India’s perspective, based on the provided information, is that these sites, irrespective of containing any religious structures, were legitimate military targets because their primary function was facilitating terrorism. They argue that the presence of religious or civilian structures might be a deliberate tactic to shield terrorist activities or gain legitimacy. India emphasized that intelligence confirmed these locations were actively used as recruitment, training, indoctrination, and operational hubs for terror groups responsible for attacks on Indian soil.

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Disinformation Hindus Misinformation Policy Security
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Time for US to Take Extradition of Terrorists Rana and Headley to India Seriously

Washington and Ottawa have discarded Bharat’s national security concerns by not extraditing terrorists, David Coleman Headley & Tahawwur Rana Rahul Pawa Bharat has come under scrutiny of Western powers especially United States and Canada along with routine rhetorical accusations from Pakistani military officials on New Delhi’s involvement in elimination of terrorists on foreign shores. This leads us to a critical question. While both Washington and Ottawa take an aggressive stance on alleged Indian clandestine operations, are they committed to extraditing American and Canadian terrorists like David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Rana? Or is there a deeper disregard for Bharat’s legitimate national security and criminal justice concerns? Fifteen years have passed since the devastating 26 / 11 Mumbai attacks, a series of coordinated terrorist assaults that shocked the world. Meticulously orchestrated by Pakistan, ten terrorists from Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) crossed Arabian Sea to unleash terror on Mumbai, Bharat’s financial capital. The 60-hour siege that followed claimed 166 lives and injured over 300 civilians and security personnel leaving an indelible mark on the city’s history. Central to reconnaissance efforts leading to these vicious terrorist attacks were David Coleman Headley a.k.a Daood Sayed Gilani, an American citizen of Pakistani origin and Tahawwur Rana, a former Pakistan Army Captain and Canadian citizen. Headley, who conducted extensive surveillance and gathered crucial information on Mumbai targets, played a pivotal role in planning and execution of the attacks. He made multiple trips to Mumbai and provided detailed videos and sketches of the locations to attackers. Rana, an old friend of Headley from their days in Pakistani military school who also visited Mumbai facilitated these reconnaissance missions by providing Headley cover through his Chicago based immigration business.    Following the devastating attacks, Headley and Rana were both apprehended and prosecuted for their roles in planning and executing these terrorist activities, as well as for conducting reconnaissance of a Danish daily in Denmark. American terrorist Headley was arrested by Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in Chicago on October 3, 2009. In March 2010, he pleaded guilty to being terror trained in Pakistan, 12 terrorism-related charges, including aiding and abetting the 26/11 attacks which included six American victims. Headley cooperated with U.S. authorities providing intelligence and testimony that significantly advanced the investigation including key tip offs regarding Rana. In January 2013, Headley was sentenced to 35 years in prison. Around the same time, Canadian terrorist Rana was arrested on October 18, 2009. He was charged with providing material support to terrorist plots, including the Mumbai terrorist attacks and a planned terror attack on Jyllands-Posten in Denmark. In June 2011, Rana was convicted of conspiracy to provide material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba, terrorist group responsible for Mumbai attacks and for supporting the plot against Danish newspaper. However, strikingly, he was acquitted of direct involvement in Mumbai attacks. Rana was sentenced to 14 years in prison in January 2013. For over 11 years, Bharat diligently pursued extradition of David Headley and Tahawwur Rana from US under India-U.S. Extradition Treaty of 1997seeking justice for their roles in 26 / 11 Mumbai terrorist attacks. The extradition request for Headley was sent on December 7, 2012. Headley’s cooperation with U.S. authorities and his plea agreement which precluded his extradition to India, Pakistan, or Denmark, Bharat remains steadfast in its efforts to hold him accountable under her own laws where the crime was abetted, planned and committed. The plea agreement spared Headley from death penalty and barred his extradition. It has been a point of contention with Indian authorities which feels that US soft-pedaled and did not cooperate in providing access to Headley. Although officials from India’s National Intelligence Agency (NIA) were able to interrogate Headley in Chicago in June 2010, they could do so only in the presence of FBI agents, leading to concerns that the information obtained was restricted. Importantly, while the plea agreement limits Headley’s extradition for the crimes he confessed to, the U.S. Secretary of State holds the authority to potentially extradite Headley for offenses other than those related to the 26/11 attacks or if he violates the plea agreement. Secretary of State seems to have been party to this plea agreement thereby denying extradition of Headley. Bharat has been pursuing extradition of Tahawwur Rana. Following his conviction in US, New Delhi requested his extradition along with evidence on August 13, 2020. On May 16, 2023, a US court concluded that Rana was extraditable for offenses related to Mumbai attacks and certified this finding to US Secretary of State. In May, Rana had filed a writ of habeas corpus, challenging the court order that agreed with US government’s request for his extradition to India. On August 2, 2023, Judge Dale S. Fischer of US District Court in California denied Rana’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus, paving the way for US Secretary of State to issue a certification for his extradition to India. However, Rana has filed an appeal against the order and sought a stay on his extradition to India until his appeal in the Ninth Circuit Court is heard, leading to his extradition being stayed on August 18, 2023. His extradition remains pending. US and Canada played hardball on both these key extraditions that were to be tried for waging a war against Bharat’s sovereignty. On the other hand, the two countries were working in tandem to corner Bharat on the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.  Nijjar is a Khalistani terrorist trained by Pakistan’s notorious Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and funded to carry out terrorist activities in India and posed significant threats. Similarly, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, face of proscribed entity, Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), is another example. SFJ has been declared an unlawful association under Sub-Section (1) and (3) of Section 3 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. Numerous scholars of terrorism and international relations, as well as the Indian government, recognise both Nijjar and Pannun as terrorists. They frequently expose the so-called “Khalistani Movement” as a front for Pakistan recently furthered by Communist Party of China (CPC) to engage in

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Human Rights
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Kashmiri Community in Fear and Insecurity

Decades ago, when terrorism engulfed the valley, Kashmiri Hindus, an indigenous ethnic-religious group in Kashmir-now a minority, were forced to leave their ancestral home. The growing Islamic extremism transformed rapidly into terrorism. Much of the weapons and trained terrorists poured in by neighbouring Islamic republic of Pakistan. They, along with other Kashmiri Muslims sympathisers called for murder, loot, rape, and abductions of native Kashmiri Hindus. Left with no choice but to save themselves, over 0.4 million Kashmiri Hindus migrated to different parts of the country. In such adversity and betrayal, Makhan Lal Bindroo, a Kashmiri Hindu pharmacist in Srinagar, chose to stay back and serve his homeland Kashmir. On Tuesday, however, he was paid for his service and trust by The Resistance Front (TRF). Terrorists of the Resistance Front (TRF) shot and murdered Makhan Lal Bindroo. TRF is a Lashkar-e-Taiba front organisation (LeT). LeT an international terrorist group designated by the United States and United nations which is backed and supported Pakistan. The trigger? He was a Hindu, a reminder of Kashmir’s indigenous non-Islamic history that the Islamists desperately want to erase. Seemingly inspired by the recent cleansing of Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan. TRF has began a gory repetition of the 90s massacre of Hindus in the valley. In sixteen days, eleven civilians, a majority of whom belong to the Hindu minority communities have been butchered in the Valley of Kashmir by Pakistan backed Islamic terrorists. In the recent spree of killings. Terrorists targeted Hindus, Sikhs and government employed muslims. In addition, non-locals workers a d wagers from the rest of the country, who have built and sustained Kashmir crisis after crisis were targeted. Evidence suggests that these organised killings are planned and organised by Pakistan backed terrorist groups, following the footprint of the 1990s genocide of Kashmiri Hindus. The revival of Kashmiriyat- Kashmir’s distinct pluralism- after recent sustainable development in Kashmir, has been a sore in the sight of Pakistan-sponsored Islamic terrorists in Kashmir. The roots of this planning lead to Pakistan as is evident from the series of events that replicate the 90s genocide. The day TRF’s Pakistan-sponsored terrorists killed Bindroo, two others were also killed, a poor Dalit street food hawker, Virender Paswan who was killed within an hour of Bindroo’s shooting for being a harmless non-Kashmiri, and a Muslim resident that terrorists killed because of suspected links to security forces. All these people were killed for not adhering to the terrorist ideology against Hindus. In fact, it did not stop there. Three days later, terrorists murdered two educationists: Supinder Kour- the Kashmiri Sikh principal at a school in Srinagar and Deepak Chand- the Kashmiri Hindu teacher at the same school. The terrorists singled them out from the staff, ordered the Muslims to go out and shot those two. If this isn’t ethnic cleansing and genocide, then what is, ask the minority communities in Kashmir. The terrorist attacks and killings have launched the minority community in Kashmir into a hysteria of fear and insecurity. Many have fled their homes overnight, in a horrifying repeat of events of the late 1990s. After the last great exodus of the Kashmiri Hindus in 1999, there are barely any Hindus left in the valley, many of whom were those who returned after government’s efforts to resettle them back in their homes. However, clearly, nothing has changed for Hindus and other minorities of Kashmir and it likely won’t as long as Pakistan-sponsored terrorism continues in the valley. There is no doubt that a large part of this renewed genocide of Hindus in the valley also stems from the international aid that is given to Pakistan that it pumps back into its terrorist operations in Kashmir. While India scrambles to take control of security in Kashmir, international community can step up and support by immediately sanctioning Pakistan so that another irreversible genocide of a minority doesn’t happen on our watch.

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