📰 FBI help proved crucial in tracing 26/11 attackers’ boat to Pakistan
Its agent went to Yamaha headquarters in Japan to find out the engine number
•The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) helped India connect Al Fauz, the small boat used by the terrorists in the 26/11 Mumbai attack, to Pakistan.
•A retired police officer who supervised the investigations in 2008-09, told The Hindu that the FBI sent one of its agents to the headquarters of Yamaha Motor in Japan to seek help in tracing the person who purchased the engine.
•The inflatable boat was abandoned near Badhwar Park along Mumbai's coastline by the ten LeT men who entered Mumbai with rucksacks containing grenades, RDX, Kalashnikovs, pistols, GPS set, mobile phones, raisins and almonds.
•This boat, brought from Pakistan, was transferred to MV Kuber, an Indian fishing trawler that was hijacked in high seas by the LeT squad on November 23. The squad led by their handler were shipped in a vessel Al Hussaini from Karachi, till they entered the Indian waters and spotted Kuber. They pretended they were adrift when the trawler came close. Soon the LeT squad leapt on to the trawler and the fishermen were pushed over to Hussaini. The captain of the trawler Amarchand Solanki was held hostage by the squad was asked to sail towards Mumbai. Nearly 30 hours later, they saw Mumbai coastline from far. Solanki was killed and the squad prepared the inflatable boat on the deck of Kuber that they brought from Karachi. They abandoned the trawler and sailed towards Mumbai with the help of a GPS set. This boat was fitted with a Yamaha engine. Navigating through the fisherman’s colony they entered the city around 8.15 p.m. on November 26, 2008.
•The unique number engraved on the engine had been erased by the conspirators. The FBI asked Yamaha’s dealer in the U.S. for help, the official said. The dealer directed them to Yamaha’s office in Japan.
Secret location
•“The Yamaha official in Japan told the FBI that it was possible to trace the number even if it had been erased or damaged. They were told about a cavity at the bottom of an encase containing the cylinders, which when opened would have the unique number engraved on the side. The conspirators didn’t know about this number. The FBI shared this information with us and our engineers were able to retrieve the number; the engine was then traced to a Karachi shop,” said the official.
•The shop owner in Karachi sold eight such engines to Amjad Khan, a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) financier. Ten LeT men from Pakistan had set off 10 years ago on one of the boats to carry out the attack in Mumbai on November 26. The attack claimed 166 lives, including that of six Americans.
•The official said this number was key to connecting the boat to the neighbouring country. The number was part of the evidence handed over to Pakistan. The U.S. authorities put pressure on Pakistan, and raids were conducted, leading to the arrest of seven persons, including Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, the operational commander of the LeT and one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 Mumbai attack.
•The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) of Pakistan charged 27 accused, and 20 were declared proclaimed offenders. The trial is yet to be concluded. “Based on our intelligence, the FIA raided the house of the person who had purchased the engines; we made arrangements for him to depose in a Mumbai court through videoconferencing,” said the official.
‘Key conspirators free’
•However, Maharashtra public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told The Hindu that the FIA had arrested only petty people, but the main conspirators — LeT chief Hafiz Saeed and Lakhvi were free.
•“Pakistan’s FIA arrested the person who sold the said boat, also arrested the person who financed him. Ajmal Kasab’s (the lone Pakistani terrorist caught alive and later sentenced to death) confession coupled with David Headley’s (an American who conducted surveillance of targets) deposition, the entire plan was hatched by Hafiz Saeed, Lakhvi and Pakistan’s ISI. During one of the training sessions, Kasab was patted on the back by a Pakistani army official,” Mr. Nikam said.
•Adding another layer to the evidence, the intelligence official said a huge number of IEDs, recovered from railway stations across Mumbai, was defused and dumped at a police station. The FBI had asked for access these IEDs.
•He added various foreign intelligence agencies wanted their finger in the pie. British intelligence had prepared a dossier on Lashkar’s activities and had come close to arresting Sajid Mir alias Wasi Bhai, (handler of the 26/11 attackers) in 2003 in London as the outfit planned to attack a nuclear installation in Australia.
•“They were able to lift fingerprints from the IEDs and matched it with those of an LeT operative in their database. This also proved vital in linking the attackers to Pakistan. The IED was packed in layers of adhesive tapes. They removed one layer each, and on the first part of the tape they found the fingerprints. Police had dumped them thinking they were mere case property,” said the official.
Headley challenge
•He said then Home Minister P. Chidambaram had insisted that a team of IB officials be sent to the U.S. to interrogate Headley. However, U.S. officials were adamant and did not allow the team to meet Headley. “All they got was a visit to the FBI headquarters and a photograph of Headley,” he said. Later, a National Investigation Agency (NIA) interrogated Headley.
•India had told Pakistan that the period of conspiracy to commit the terrorist attack was actually between 2005-2008 but FIA only investigated the period between 2007-08.
•“Headley deposed in a Chicago court that Pakistan’s ISI and Army were helping the LeT. Headley had an e-mail correspondence with an LeT operative where the latter assured that nothing was going to happen to Saeed and Lakhvi,” Mr. Nikam said.
Doubts over trial in Pak.
•He said the trial in Pakistan court would never come to an end and he wouldn’t be surprised if the accused walked free. Pakistan has asked India to send 27 witnesses to depose before the FIA court. “We have offered them to record the statements through video conferencing. We insisted that you [Pakistan] record the evidence given by Headley,” Mr. Nikam said.
•Headley was made an approver in 2015 by the Mumbai police in a case against Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal alias Abu Hamza, an alleged LeT operative who was present in the Karachi control room from where the ten terrorists were being directed during the attack. He was deported from Saudi Arabia in 2012. A resident of Mumbai, Ansari was present in the Karachi control room from where handler Wasi Bhai gave directions to the squad when they set out on carnage.
•Asked why Headley was made an approver in a Mumbai court in 2015 against another LeT operative Zabiuddin Ansari when he is wanted for the 26/11 attacks, Mr. Nikam said, “It takes a thief to catch another thief. Headley cannot be deported to India as he has entered into plea bargain with the U.S. authorities.”
📰 Odisha now has a lexicon for rare tribal languages
Move seen as a push to preserve vanishing native languages in State with largest tribal diversity
•In what is seen as a significant step to keep vanishing tribal languages in circulation, the Odisha government has come out with lexicons of 21 such languages.
•The bilingual tribal dictionaries will be used in multilingual education (MLE) initiated by the State government at the elementary level in tribal-dominated districts.
•“The bilingual tribal dictionaries for MLE and trilingual tribal languageproficiency modules in all the 21 tribal languages have been formulated by the Special Development Council. Both will help in enhancing proficiency in tribal languages,” said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, releasing the dictionaries here on Saturday.
•Mr. Patnaik said the tribal museum had been upgraded as the Odisha State Tribal Museum.
Unique tribal profile
•Odisha has a unique place on the tribal map of India for having the maximum number of Scheduled Tribe communities. The State is home to 62 different tribal communities, including 13 particularly vulnerable tribal groups. These tribes speak 21 languages and 74 dialects. Of the 21 tribal languages, seven have their own scripts. However, Odia is used as the medium of communication in the dictionaries.
•“Adoption of more widely spoken competitors, such as Odia, Hindi, English and dominant tribal languages, has hastened the disappearance of rare dialects. Preparation of the dictionaries is a small step towards ensuring that they are preserved and promoted,” said A.B. Ota, director of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Research and Training Institute.
•He said: “Very few States have attempted preparing dictionaries in all tribal languages. Going forward, it will help everybody, including students, researchers and government officials.”
•“Although the dictionaries are not full-fledged, covering small details, we have laid the foundation for more exhaustive research,” said P. Patel, senior tribal language expert at the Special Development Council.
•“The trilingual tribal language proficiency module is a radical step to bring government functionaries closer to tribal communities,” said Mr. Ota.
📰 A dying disease, but leprosy colonies still face stigma, shortage of funds
Reduced govt. attention has made life difficult for 2 lakh people living there
•When she was a young girl, Rinki Nargame dreamt of studying science and becoming a nurse. After all, she had had enough practice nursing her own father and grandparents, treating injuries and tying bandages, from childhood. That dream died in Class 8.
•“All the other students would point to me as the girl from the Kusht Ashram [or leprosy colony]. No one wanted to eat with me or come near me because they were scared they would get the disease. It was just too much. I could not study. I dropped out,” she says.
•Ms. Nargame does not have leprosy herself; in fact, at the Sant Dnyaneshwar Kusht Ashrma in Banganga, Indore where she lives, only 11 people out of the 300 actually have the disease. Like in most of the 800-odd leprosy colonies scattered across the country, most patients are in their 40s or even older, diagnosed at a time when they were few effective cures for the disease.
WHO declaration
•While the disease itself may be dying out in the colonies, a lingering, centuries-long stigma still leads to discrimination of the sort that Ms. Nargame has faced. In fact, experts say that the World Health Organisation’s declaration of the elimination of leprosy as a public-health concern in India in 2005 may have reduced attention and funds, making life more difficult for the estimated 2, 00,000 people living in the colonies, the vast majority of whom do not have the disease.
•Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, is a bacterial disease which affects the skin and nerves which can lead to physical deformity and disability if left untreated. Despite a centuries-long stigma, it is not hereditary, it is completely curable, and is only mildly infectious – more than 85% of cases are non-infectious and over 95% of the population has a natural immunity to the disease.
•“When the WHO made its declaration in 2005, government attention shifted away from the disease and international funding also dried up. It diluted a very good mission, which had created a lot of expertise… The rationale may not be wrong, but I do think it is premature,” says Vineeta Shanker, executive director of the Sasakawa-India Leprosy Foundation, which is working among the colonies.
•She notes that the number of new cases has remained stagnant in the decade since WHO’s declaration and that India still has more than 60% of the world’s leprosy patients. “The multi-drug therapy is free in all government hospitals, but there is not sufficient funds for ulcer care and bandaging, and for public awareness and society sensitisation,” she says.
•Anjana Bai Ingle is 45 years old, but easily looks a decade older with deformed hands, feet and eyes, due to late diagnosis and treatment. She was abandoned by her own family, and now counts the community at the Sai Ram Avtar Kusht Seva Samiti at Babulpura, Indore as her family. “I need bandages for my hands and eyes, but the government clinic keeps running out of them, so I have to buy them. Where will I get money to buy them?” she asks.
Aadhaar ordeal
•She is eligible for a monthly disability pension of ₹300, which is regularly deposited in her bank account. Since the arrival of Aadhaar, however, bank officials demand fingerprint verification to withdraw the pension amount. She holds up her clawed hand with its misshapen fingers. “Every time they reject me, I feel angry. I feel sad,” she says.
•Sarang Gaidhane, who comes from the same colony and also heads the state branch of the Association of Persons Affected by Leprosy, explains that the government has provided alternate methods of verification for disabled people, but that policy has not yet drifted down to ground-level officials. “Every month, for pension and ration, so many of our people have to struggle,” he says.
•It is this kind of discrimination that keeps the colonies functional, even as actual leprosy patients in them grow fewer in number. Young people inter-marry within the colonies, treating it as a part of their identity. When S-ILF provided funds to start a ready-made garment production unit in her colony, it provided an escape route for Ms. Nargame and five of her neighbours. “Earlier, I used to work in a bottle factory, but other workers would not even eat with us. Here, it is safer,” she says.
•Still, she recognises that the future lies in the outside world. “My grandparents were thrown out of their families and came here when the colony was settled. Their only option was begging,” she says. “My father was diagnosed early, so he has less deformity and works as an electrician, with some begging on the side. Now, I am able to run this business. For my daughter, my dream is that she will be able to study as much as she wants without facing any of the taunting that I heard.”
📰 Why is Facebook caught in a crisis?
What are the problems?
•Facebook has faced a set of festering and interconnected problems, many of which have come to a boil over the last two years, starting around the time of the U.S. presidential election. These were described in a New York Times investigation, the results of which were published about 10 days ago. The crises stem from several sources, most notably Russian operatives interested in influencing the outcome of the 2016 election through information warfare, controversies over Facebook’s internal response to the Russian campaign and the consequent tensions between Facebook’s cybersecurity chief Alex Stamos and others, especially its CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg and chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg.
How did the company respond?
•Facebook’s response was problematic externally, too. At Congressional hearings and elsewhere in Washington, Facebook was criticised for using its political connections to skirt responsibility for its slow and inadequate response to the Russian threat and to deflect blame on to other technology companies. Other problems included Facebook’s response to the (then) candidate Donald Trump’s Facebook post about a ban on Muslims entering the U.S., which was shared over 15,000 times. Ms. Sandberg and Mr. Zuckerberg delegated the handling of this, and ultimately a decision to avoid conservative backlash was part of what went into leaving the post online. The New York Times reported that in October 2017, Facebook had increased its engagement with Definers Public Affairs, a Washington-based PR firm, and adopted a strategy to push positive content about itself and negative content about its competitors. Eventually, Definers looked into the financing activities of billionaire philanthropist George Soros, who is also frequently the target of anti-Semitic and right-wing groups. Definers circulated a paper this summer, pointing the finger at Mr. Soros as the backer of the anti-Facebook lobby. But by then matters had gotten worse. In March this year, an investigation by The Observer and The New York Timesrevealed that information from tens of millions of accounts was used by Cambridge Analytica (or researchers it partnered with), a company that worked with the Trump campaign, without explicit user consent. Facebook faced fines, lawsuits and questioning by lawmakers in Washington, London and Brussels.
Who is to blame?
•Since there were several problems or crises, there is no one cause. However, if each of these issues is looked at as a symptom, a corporate culture of “delay, deny, deflect,” as The New York Times headlined it, could be to blame. For instance, more than a year passed from when Mr. Stamos, Facebook’s security head, discovered suspicious Russian activity to when the Facebook Board heard about it. Yet Ms. Sandberg’s focus after the Board met was, reportedly, that Mr. Stamos had told the Board that the problem was not contained. “You threw us under the bus!” Ms. Sandberg is reported to have told Mr. Stamos.
How does it affect users?
•Facebook can count just under a third of humanity or 2.3 billion people among its users. Its success is predicated on monetising data that users, knowingly or unwittingly, share with the platform. Issues that impact the security of that data impact the privacy of a large chunk of humanity. If the platform is misused for disinformation campaigns, it can impact the democratic process in countries, and if harnessed to target specific individuals, it can quickly make them vulnerable to abuse and attacks, given the speed with which information spreads and how effectively opinions are reinforced in echo chambers.
What lies in store?
•It is unclear what lies ahead. Facebook’s business model is centred on charging advertisers for the ability to target ads at specific groups of its users. Facebook is likely to change behaviour as a response to greater regulation (and Mr. Zuckerberg has said he is open to it) or users leaving the platform or sharing less data on it. However, in either case, given the size of the firm and the giddying success it has experienced, there will probably be considerable inertia and quick changes are unlikely to follow.
📰 Ganga rejuvenation: Water flow in Ganga ‘woefully inadequate’
•However, the government’s notification said that the upper stretches of the Ganga — from its origins in the glaciers and until Haridwar — would have to maintain 20% of the monthly average flow between November and March, which is the dry season; 25% of the average during the ‘lean season’ of October, April and May; and 30% of monthly average during the monsoon months of June-September.
•For the main stem of the Ganga — from Haridwar in Uttarakhand to Unnao, Uttar Pradesh — the notification specifies minimum flow at various barrages: Bhimgoda (Haridwar) must ensure a minimum of 36 cubic metres per second (cumecs) between October-May, and 57 cumecs in the monsoon; and the barrages at Bijnor, Narora and Kanpur must maintain a minimum of 24 cumecs in the non-monsoon months of October-May, and 48 cumecs during the monsoon months of June-September.
•“These flows are already achieved and this is the state of the river…there’s no real scientific basis to the government’s calculations,” said Mr. Tare.
📰 What is tiger relocation all about?
What is it?
•At a time when the killing of tigress Avni in Maharashtra has triggered massive outrage, the death of a tiger in Odisha has sparked fears among forest officials and experts over the fate of the first interState translocation of tigers in the country. On November 15, the death of a male tiger was reported from the Satkosia Tiger Reserve. Forest Department officials ruled out poaching and the post-mortem report said a wound infested with maggots on the left side of its neck led to septicaemia, causing death. However, the fact that a young tiger died within five months of being translocated from Madhya Pradesh has raised more questions than answers.
How did it come about?
•With decades of efforts at conservation bearing fruit, India has 70% of the tiger population in the world. The count increased from 1,411 during 2006 to 1,706 during 2010 and 2,226 during 2014, according to census figures. Experts and tiger biologists say many tiger reserves in the country are dealing with the problem of plenty. Tigers are territorial animals, and there are reports of the wild cat straying from the reserves, a few travelling hundreds of kilometres in search of food. In the past, tigers have been relocated within the reserves of a State. The translocation of tigers from the reserve of Madhya Pradesh to Satsokia was, however, far more ambitious. The project involved the Forest Departments of both States and needed the approval of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and scientists of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII).
Why does it matter?
•The translocation ran into trouble within weeks of the animals being brought to Odisha. As part of the exercise, first the male tiger was brought to Satkosia from the Kanha Tiger Reserve, and within 10 days, a female tiger was brought from the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve. Within days of the tigers being brought to Satkosia, villagers living on the fringes of the reserve started protesting. They burnt property of the Forest Department and attacked officials. More trouble broke out in September with the death of a woman, allegedly mauled by the tigress, though the post mortem did not establish it. In October, another person was killed, and the tigress was held responsible. In the first week of November, the tigress was tranquillised and shifted to an enclosure at Raigoda, where it was first kept after being brought from Madhya Pradesh.
•The tranquillisation of the tigress, and the death of the male tiger, will set back the translocation exercise. Experts blame the Forest Department for not sensitising the people in advance before the tigers were brought to the reserve. Questions have also been raised about the monitoring of these translocated tigers after they were released in the wild.
What lies ahead?
•Though the developments have raised questions over the fate of the ambitious project, the translocation of tigers from Madhya Pradesh to Odisha has not been shelved. NTCA officials who are taking stock of the situation at the Satkosia Tiger Reserve have said they are not rushing through any decision.
•What is still an advantage for the project is the good prey base and forest cover at the Satkosia Tiger Reserve. The plan was to introduce three pairs of tigers at Satkosia from the tiger reserves of Madhya Pradesh gradually. The fate of the first inter-State relocation of tigers will have a bearing on future inter-State restocking and tiger augmentation projects in other parts of the country.
📰 Gaja wreaks havoc in T.N.
Another low pressure area may form on Sunday
•At least 13 persons died and public infrastructure and private properties in seven districts were damaged as Cyclone Gaja wreaked havoc in Tamil Nadu on Friday. The severe cyclonic storm that made a midnight landfall near Vedaranyam in Nagapattinam district left a trail of destruction over seven hours with wind speeds as high as 110 kmph.
•The cyclonic system also led to the shifting of over 81,000 people in Nagapattinam, Cuddalore, Tiruvarur, Thanjavur, Pudukkottai, Ramanathapuram and Tiruchi districts to 471 relief camps, left 28 livestock dead and felled over 5,000 trees and about 13,000 electric poles across the State.
Transport hit
•Life was hit severely in these districts as the supply of electricity and essentials was disrupted and transport was affected. But government agencies began relief operations on a war footing to restore normalcy in a few hours.
•Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami condoled the death of the 13 persons and announced a solatium of ₹10 lakh to each of their families. The CM announced that ₹1 lakh would be granted to those who sustained serious injuries and ₹25,000 for persons with minor injuries.
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that he spoke to the Chief Minister and assured “all possible help from the Centre.”
•Meanwhile, another low pressure area is likely to form over the central parts of the South Bay of Bengal by Sunday evening. This may move southwestwards by November 19.
•Ministers Dindigul C. Sreenivasan (Forest), P. Thangamani (Electricity), S.P. Velumani (Municipal Administration), D. Jayakumar (Fisheries), and R.B. Udhayakumar (Revenue) have been sent to the districts to coordinate relief operations.
•Even before the cyclone made landfall, Ministers M.C. Sampath (Industries), R. Kamaraj (Food), O.S. Manian (Textiles), C. Vijaya Baskar (Health), R. Doraikkannu (Agriculture) and M. Manikandan (Information Technology), who are natives of these districts, have been camping there.
•Senior IPS officers Shakeel Akhtar, Thamaraikannan, Ravi and C. Sylendra Babu have been instructed by the Chief Minister to coordinate policing in Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur, Thanjavur districts and railway premises respectively.
•The State Emergency Operations Centre in the Ezhilagam complex kept track of the developments all through the day with Commissioner of Revenue Administration K. Satyagopal and Disaster Management Commissioner Rajendra Ratnoo coordinating relief operations with various agencies in the affected districts.
•The cyclone later entered Kerala as a depression.
📰 NCCS: Mass bathing during Kumbh Mela alters bacterial load, diversity
Skin and faecal microbiota increased 2.3-fold and 2.9-fold respectively during the event
•Bacterial populations in the river undergo huge loss in diversity but a steep increase in bacterial load when millions of people bathe at designated bathing sites during Kumbh Mela, a team of researchers has found. The loss in microbial diversity was nearly 37.5% while the increase in bacterial load was about 130-fold during the event.
•The team led by Dr. Avinash Sharma from the National Centre for Cell Science, Pune, found that bacteria belonging to certain phyla reduced significantly while the prevalence of bacteria belonging to phylum Firmicutes (known to be also associated with human skin, stools and many infectious pathogens) was nearly 95%. The study was carried out in 2015 at five bathing sites in the Godavari River in Nashik and the results were published in the journal Microbial Ecology. Samples were collected prior to and during the Mela allowing the scientists to compare the spatiotemporal changes to water quality and bacterial communities.
Infectious diseases
•Besides changes in bacterial diversity and load, the study found an increase in infectious diseases and drug-resistant microbes in the river water samples collected during the Mela. There were elevated levels of genes related to Helicobacter pylori, Salmonella and Staphylococcus aureus. Elevated levels of drug-resistant genes include antifolate resistance, beta-lactam resistance and vancomycin resistance, to name a few.
•The water samples collected during the Kumbh Mela had much higher total dissolved solids and total suspended solids. The biological and chemical oxygen demand increased due to higher release of organic particles during the Mela compared with before the Mela. As a result, there was “substantial reduction” in the concentration of dissolved oxygen. “The substantial decrease in dissolved oxygen while the COD and BOD increased could be due to increased bacterial load in the water,” says Dr. Sharma.
•While richness of bacterial species was higher upstream, at the bathing sites, the diversity dropped, and the bacterial community was dominated by few phyla. In all, 25 bacterial phyla were recorded and seven phyla (including Firmicutes) contributed to about 99% of the total bacterial diversity before the event. During the event, the diversity dropped by 37.5% and the diversity was restricted to just three phyla. The Fermicutes were the most abundant with over 90% at all the five bathing sites.
Bacterial load
•Though the diversity reduced, the bacterial load increased 130-fold in samples collected during the event. Skin and faecal microbiota increased 2.3-fold and 2.9-fold respectively during the gathering. “By comparing the water samples collected before and during the event, we found a huge increase in infectious disease and antimicrobial-resistant genes during the Mela. These genes could pose a serious threat to public health,” he says.
•Compared with skin microbiota, the faecal microbiota is predominant at one sampling site. “This site is located upstream and is a remote location and not a major bathing site. Because of this, open defecation might be more prevalent. This is my guess. We are yet to do any scientific study to ascertain the cause,” Dr. Sharma says.
New bacterium
•During the same study, the researchers discovered a new bacterium, which they named Corynebacterium godavarianum, that showed resistance to antibiotics like amoxycillin, augmentin, cefpodoxime and clindamycin. The discovery was published in the journal International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.
Awareness needed
•“Our study highlights the need to create awareness among pilgrims to avoid open defecation and maintain personal hygiene to reduce the amount of microbes that get introduced into the river. A closed system for bathing prior to taking a dip in the river should be put in place to reduce contamination of human-associated skin bacteria,” says Kunal Jani from NCCS and first author of the paper.
•Besides taking a dip in the river, pilgrims also drink the holy water. “Drinking this water containing infectious disease genes and antimicrobial-resistant genes could pose serious health issues. It might be preferable to drink the holy water much upstream where fewer people bathe,” he suggests.
