Terrorism
Texas hostage-taker was granted entry into US despite criminal record
Malik Faisal Akram, 44, from Lancashire, UK, staged a 10-hour attack near Dallas on Saturday and held a Rabbi and three others hostage while demanding the release of a convicted terrorist known as 'Lady Al Qaeda' so they could die together. Akram is understood to have landed in New York on January 2, most likely on a flight from Manchester, and was granted legal entry into the US, despite having a criminal record.
Former IS-K chief killed in Afghanistan shootout
The militant leader, who hailed from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's Orakzai district, was killed during an investigation against organized kidnappers and criminal mafia.
UK preacher Anjem Choudary called to free 'Lady Al Qaeda' 'physically' or by 'ransom'
Choudhary called on his supporters to release Aafia Siddiqui 'physically or by ransom' in a Telegram post in September last year, the report said. The 54-year-old has been able to openly carry out social media campaigns again after licence conditions barring him from public speaking expired in 2021, three years after he was released from prison following a conviction for supporting ISIS, the report said.
Texas hostage-taker's Pak link being probed; was supporter of Tablighi Jamaat
As the police in the US and the UK scramble to find if he was part of a wider terror cell, it has emerged that Malik Faisal Akram, 44, from Blackburn, Lancashire, was branded a 'menace' for expressing his desire to be onboard one of the planes that destroyed the World Trade Centre in 2001. Akram's links to Pakistan are also being probed, having been a regular visitor to the country where his father was born. He was reportedly a supporter of the conservative Tablighi Jamaat group, set up to 'purify' Islam.
Texas Synagogue attack: Accused Malik Faisal Akram identified as British citizen, Joe Biden calls it 'act of terror
The accused was shot dead by the rescue team on Saturday night at about 9 P.M. (local time) and the hostages were freed unharmed after a 11 hour long standoff, as per a report by CNN. The accused landed in the U.S. legally five weeks ago in December, and spent three nights at a homeless shelter, the CNN further reports. “There is no question that this was a traumatic experience…We are resilient, and we will recover," Cytron-Walker, the Rabbi said in a statement Sunday.
Aafia Siddiqui-Pakistan born neuroscientist who became Lady Al Qaeda
The suspect stormed the Congregation Beth Israel, in Colleyville, for Aafia Siddiqui, a known terrorist who is incarcerated at Carswell Air Force Base near Fort Worth, and he was demanding for her release, according to police sources, the report said. Siddiqui was arrested in Afghanistan in 2008 by local forces who found her with two kilos of poison sodium cyanide and plans for chemical attacks on New York's Brooklyn Bridge and the Empire State Building.
ISI forced me to lie about India funding anti-Pakistan terror groups: Former TTP spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan
In his recently published blog, Ehsan also says that the ISI offered him money to come back to the country after his escape in 2020, adding the Pakistani spy agency's overtures to him and his associates included “millions of dollars” as well as land and housing properties in the Punjab province to secure his return back to Pakistan or maintain silence over his still-unexplained surrender back in 2017 as well as mysterious “escape” from prison in 2020.
Kazakhstan garners support for restoring peace after unrest
The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Moscow-led military alliance, held an extraordinary session via video link on Monday, when leaders of the member states showed solidarity with the Kazakh authorities, reports xinhua news agency. According to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the CSTO has deployed 2,030 peacekeeping troops with 250 pieces of equipment to Kazakhstan to protect key facilities in the country.
Militant attacks in Pakistan witnessed a 56% jump
The lethality of terror attacks rose by 46 per cent in 2021 with 388 total deaths of which 184 were civilians. The remaining 192 of those killed were security forces personnel, a 66 per cent increase in the casualties of Pakistani security forces from the year before. Over 600 people were injured in the terror attacks of 2021, including 389 civilians and 217 security forces personnel, the report said.
8 dead in suicide bomb attack in Congo on Christmas
In a provisional assessment provided on Saturday night by General Ekenge Sylvain, spokesman for the governor of the North Kivu province, at least six people, including the suicide bomber, were killed and 13 others wounded in this "terrorist attack" in the city of Beni. According to the update delivered this Sunday morning by the medical director of the General Hospital of Beni, two other people died from the serious injuries caused by the explosion, adding that 14 other people were wounded, some in serious condition, Xinhua news agency reported.
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