America's General
Pakistan takes its most crucial decision since the 1971 war — to side with the US against the Taliban. The clerics may protest, but Musharraf has few options.

ECONOMIC IMPACT
Where Are We Going?
Fear and uncertainty stalk the Indian economy as early damages begin to show.

Ready For Battle
Where will the US strike, with what and how? A report on the military options before the global coalition that the Americans are building against terrorism.

Shifting Stance
Indian foreign policy is in a flux following the terrorist strikes in the US, metamorphosing in tandem with the tectonic shift in the geopolitical landscape of the world.

Menace In The Mind
People like bin Laden are not so much politicising religion as religionising politics.

COVER STORY: TERRORIST OUTFITS

Base Camp India

With a string of obscure groups affiliated to foreign extremist organisations spread across the country, India provides fertile recruiting ground for the likes of Osama bin Laden

—By Sayantan Chakravarty

Al Qaida or The Base. That's the name of the organisation run by the pasha of terror, Osama bin Laden. Al Qaida has close contact with extremist outfits in 100 countries. The attack on New York's World Trade Centre has heightened the awareness that India could not just be a target for Al Qaida, but a fertile hunting ground for recruits. Intelligence Bureau (IB) dossiers with India Today indicate that the agency keeps the closest possible watch on seemingly obscure groups dedicated to causes rallying around fundamentalist Islam (see graphic). The groups operate under a variety of names and are made up of young foreign students enrolled in Indian colleges and universities. They maintain a low profile but are adequately funded and routinely sent to camps in the Middle East and Afghanistan for training. These groups interact closely with local militant students outfits like the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and the banned Deendar Anjuman of Hyderabad.

Indian intelligence agencies say they are tightening checks and not without reason. Just as the Arabs who struck on September 11 entered the US as students, members of overseas militant groups in India also come here as students. Some foreign groups who have a presence in India are:

HIZBOLLAH: Also called the Islamic Revenge Organisation, the Beirut-based Hizbollah despatched a missive to the Indian Embassy in Cairo in August 1992, threatening to attack Indian interests if "suppressive policies" in Kashmir were not done away with. They lived up to their threat: on December 12, 1992, the outfit blew up the car of Y.P. Kumar, second secretary at the Indian mission in Ankara. Hizbollah activists in India operate through the Mumbai-based Islamic Union of Iraqi Students.

ABU NIDAL ORGANISATION (ANO): Students owing allegiance to feared Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal have a history of attacking foreign diplomats in India. Among the strikes attributed to it are:

# June 1982: The killing of Mustafa Al Mazrook, first secretary in the Kuwait Embassy in Delhi.

# November 1984: The killing of Percy Norris, deputy high commissioner of the UK, in Mumbai.

# August 1982: Attempt to kill Ibrahim Javed, the then UAE consul general in Mumbai.

# October 1983: Attempt to kill Mohammed Ali Khorme, the then Jordanian ambassador in Delhi.

Nidal himself led a five-member team to India in 1993 to study security arrangements for the G-15 summit, particularly for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The aim was to assassinate Mubarak but the attack couldn't be carried out. Indian intelligence views ANO's presence now as far from calming.

Constant suspicion, poverty, ill-health and lack of work dog Afghan asylum seekers in India. INDIA TODAY's Principal Correspondent Anna M.M. Vetticad meets some of them.
Living On The Edge