Indian security officials escort suspect Sayeed Zabiuddin Ansari from a New Delhi hospital. At India's request, Saudi officials arrested and held Ansari in custody for a year. [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]
With one terror suspect already deported from Saudi Arabia and another awaiting transfer, the Indian-Saudi counterterrorism alliance continues to evolve.
In June, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) suspect Sayeed Zabiuddin Ansari, aka Abu Hamza, was arrested at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi following his deportation from Saudi Arabia, where he had spent a year in custody.
Now, Delhi is awaiting the imminent handover of Fasih Mahmood, 35, suspected of involvement in the 2010 Jama Masjid bomb blast. A native of Darbhanga in the eastern state of Bihar, he has been held in Saudi Arabia since May at India's urging. According to Indian Additional Solicitor General Gourab Banerjee, his extradition papers are being processed and will be completed "in due course".
"We are grateful to the Saudi government for their co-operation," S.M. Krishna, Minister for External Affairs said.
"They are removing all stops to help us try terrorists wanted in India. They are sending a strong signal that Saudi Arabia will not be a safe haven for terrorists," he added.
Jaswant Singh, former Minister for External Affairs, told KhabarSouthAsia.com that Saudi Arabia's tough stance against terror was sparked by the September 11th, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.
"Fifteen of the 19 hijackers involved in the 9/11 bombings were Saudis," Singh said. "In the months following that tragedy I noticed a new vigour against terrorists among Saudi and other Arab officials."
Actions taken by other Arab states also influenced the Saudis, he added.
"Even without a formal extradition treaty, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government had acceded to India's request to hand over [accused terrorist] Aftab Ansari (the principal accused in the January 2002 attack on the American Centre in Kolkata). Therefore, the Saudis are not keen on being perceived as laggards."
Co-operation between India and Saudi Arabia in fighting terror dates back to 2002 when then Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani paid a visit to Riyadh. Development of an extradition treaty took eight years and was eventually signed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's March 2010 visit.
At that time, Singh and Saudi King Abdullah made a joint declaration on combating terrorism. Other agreements regarding defence, security and energy were also signed.
A former Indian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Ishrat Aziz, said the Mideast nation has chosen sides.
"Saudi Arabia sees itself as a frontline state in the war on terrorism," Aziz said. "They are out to scotch all speculation that being an Islamic state it has a policy of ambivalence towards Islamic fundamentalism.
"They are clear on the point that terrorism has nothing to do with Islam," he said.
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محمد حسين ياسين
2012-9-16
There is the issue of intrusion by the terrorist organizations on the Arab nation, wherein they are trying to take a place through it. Therefore, the Arab governments must work in order to clean up and rid the Arab world of these terrorist organizations and their cells that are localized in the Arab region. Information about terrorists must be collected because they are wanted for committing terrorist crimes against the Arab citizens. Thousands of innocent people have been either killed or wounded. Also, these operations led to igniting sectarian strife among the sons of the Arab nation due to the cunning, mean practices of these misled groups that try to drag the Arab countries into civil wars, in addition to the kidnapping and the random killing that are committed by these deviant terrorist organizations in order to spread fear, terror and panic in this region. They aim to dislocate the peoples and rob the wealth of the Arab nation by controlling the fortunes, stealing them, and carrying out other countries' plans that want to tear apart the Arab unity. They have been planning for this aim for so many years ago by using these organizations to implement their criminal goals. Therefore, all Arab governments have to be cautious and aware of these operations which damage the region, try to plunge the region, break its unity, and rupture its strength from the inside. The purpose of that is to make each country busy with itself, as we are seeing currently.
نصر حسين
2012-8-28
Terrorism is also present in the Maghreb countries, especially in Algeria. In fact, the nineties was a very difficult period for Algeria because of the spread of terrorist groups in the southern regions. Indeed, there was a fierce battle between the terrorists and the army and the people. There were many attempts to control the Government. However, the military force managed to control the country constantly. Whenever, the Islamist militants succeed to power, the military carry out a coup in order to rule the country. The terrorist bombings also appeared in Sudan, in northern Mali and recently in Iraq as a result of the U.S. occupation of this country, which led to the massive presence of al-Qaeda members who seek to fight American troops on the Iraqi soil. The country witnessed many suicide bombings. Unfortunately, the radical thought remained in Iraq even after the withdrawal of American troops, which led to many serious explosions that caused injuries among innocent civilians.
زياد علي
2012-8-28
Governments must work on combating extremism and its resulting major crimes. They must work on preparing individuals so that they will be able to adapt to their surrounding and to the community in which they live and establish the laws of Allah the Almighty in the way that pleases Him. In fact, they should consolidate the fact that Islam is the religion of tolerance, convenience, mediation and moderation in all things. They should also work on stating and clarifying that Islam forbids extremism and excessiveness in all issues, illustrates the jurisprudence of the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice and responds to offenders. They should also demonstrate the right and the wrong, consolidate the importance of the necessity of group and the danger of leaving the obedience to the governors, get acquainted to the principles of Islam, be aware of its goals and objectives and learn its provisions. In fact, the absence of religious science and the spread of ignorance are the most important reasons that lead to seditions and to their spread. Therefore, we must grant further interest in learning religious sciences from their original right sources and highlighting Islam as a universal message for all people. This was brought by our Prophet, peace be upon him, who was keen and done his utmost to call on all people to join this religion for which Prophet Mohamed endured harm and hardships and became the example of his nation. Thus, people must be linked to the leaders and scholars of the nation and return to them in the different life issues. The latter is considered as one of the reasons of pride, dignity, victory, stability, security and all other blessed fruits and good results.
غالب مراد
2012-8-20
Terrorism is the birth of the criminal policies which require the cooperation of the countries to confront it because who can imagine that today he is safe from it, but he will be burned with its fire tomorrow. Who is trying to use terrorism against others today? Tomorrow he will be marked and his turn will begin. His safety will be threatened by the risk of who will support him from the misguided terrorists. Everyone must be aware that the submission to the control of the extremists dashes the hopes of the human life and the aspirations of peoples in the welfare and the prosperity. Therefore, the administrators and the leaders must have sheer determination and strong will and that they must turn to work in cooperation and conscious action moves to confront the terrorism, achieve the security and the safety among all people.
خيري محمد
2012-8-17
Some researchers and experts expand in the concept of terrorism to include attacks against the people and against the properties. Some of them take into account the motives of the actors, differentiating between the criminal attacks and the political attacks while others mix the forbidden terrorism, the right to resist, the legitimate use of force to end colonialism and occupation, and the exercise of the right of self-determination. However, the international and the humanitarian texts and norms as well as the rules of the Islamic religion emphasize the contrast between the resistance and Jihad on the one hand and the terrorism on the other hand. This is in various legal, political and social areas, and with the means used in both cases and the desired goals. During these emerging circumstances, there emerged the need to re-affirm the true humanitarian concepts of resistance and struggle and also Jihad and its preservation, as human constant rights, maintaining their legitimacy, guaranteeing the international support, and separating them completely from any actions that can be described as terrorism and brutality based on the cultural depth and the intellectual originality as well as the aspiration for the future of the Arabic and Islamic nations which confirms its history as nations fighting against terrorism, confronting aggression and pushing the injustice away.
يونس
2012-8-15
Terrorism finds its environment in these circumstances where there is the poverty, the unemployment and the low standard of living of the people. Therefore, the tissue of the dirty terrorism grows through these economic problems.
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2012-8-14
God is Great. May God support you.
حسان صادق
2012-8-13
It is very useful to preoccupy people by acquiring the religious knowledge in order to prevent their radicalization. In fact, the intellectual vacuum experienced by people in general and youth in particular, leads them to fall prey to radical ideas. Thus, people need clerics in order to understand the rulings of their religion properly and prevent the deviant and extremist thought that leads to violence and terrorism.
سلطان
2012-8-12
The terrorists are a group of the merciless people who lost their human feelings. They are a group of the multi-national criminals who belong to nothing but the crime and destruction in any country. These tendencies circulate like blood in their veins and they are addicted to murder. Al-Qaeda is the organization of corruption, destruction, and terrorism. They committed many crimes on the land of Yemen and history will record this always and it would record the horrible nature of this organization. They look like as if they got rid of their hearts, emotions and belonging. They called themselves Al-Qaeda, but they forget to tell us whether they mean the base of something else? Do they mean that they turned into a base for the blood of the innocents or the base for the destruction and havoc that they seek to spread on earth? Do they mean that they represent the base of destruction of all what is green bright and distinguished? They diversified in inventing more horrible methods to kill the Yemeni citizens under the name of Islam.