Russia delivered the military and technical assistance to Tajikistan to strengthen the border with Afghanistan, the Russian Embassy in Dushanbe said.

Assistance is given within the implementation of decisions of the Collective Security Treaty Organization member states on strengthening the Tajik-Afghan state border.

CSTO Secretary-General Nikolay Bordyuzha will arrive in Dushanbe today on three-day working visit.

Bordyuzha will discuss provision of military-technical assistance for strengthening Tajik-Afghan border.

Some 69 militants have been killed in military operations in different Afghan provinces within the last 24 hours, the country’s Defense Ministry spokesman said on Sunday.

“Over the past 24 hours, 69 terrorists had been killed, 91 wounded and 10 others arrested during Afghan army operations,” spokesman General Zahir Azizmi said on his twitter account.

He confirmed that eight army personnel had also been killed in the operations, which also resulted in seizure of weapons and ammunition.

As the Taliban-led violence continues, the country’s security forces have pressed on clearing the militants in restive provinces, assuming the full security charges from the NATO-led troops since Jan. 1.

The Taliban militant group has yet to make comments.

Indonesian police have arrested three militants with links to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), who were planning to launch bomb attacks during the Independence Day celebrations next week, police and sources said on Friday.

The men were plotting to attack churches and a police station on Monday in the city of Solo, on the main island of Java, when the country celebrates the 70th anniversary of its declaration of independence, police said.

Elite anti-terror police detained the men in the city Wednesday, local police chief Nur Ali told a press conference. Solo is the hometown of President Joko Widodo but it is not clear whether he plans to celebrate independence day there.

“Due to the hard work of the police and help from the people, the police managed to foil their plan to conduct terror on Aug 17,” Ali said.

Those arrested were a 29-year-old bombmaker; another man who helped mix explosives; and a third individual who helped with planning and surveying potential targets, he said. He did not reveal their identities.

Chemicals used in bomb-making, explosives and 21 bomb detonators were seized in a series of raids, the officer said.

Police said the men had links to a militant network in Syria, without giving more details. A source with the anti-terror police said several USIS flags and shirts were seized from them.

The source said the group was given orders and funding by a Indonesian extremist who is now an ISIS member in Syria.

The militant group controls vast swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, and extremists from around the world have flocked to join them.

Hundreds of Indonesians are feared to have joined ISIS in the Middle East and there are fears that they could revive sophisticated militant networks on their return and launch attacks.

The world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation has struggled with Islamic extremism for more than a decade and has faced a series of attacks on Western targets, including the 2002 Bali bombings, that left 202 people dead.

However a crackdown has weakened the most dangerous networks, and attacks in recent years have mostly been low-level and targeted domestic security forces.

http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/indonesia-detains-isis-linked-militants-planning-attacks-during-independence-day

At least 15 Taliban militants have been killed in infighting in western Herat province on Thursday evening, officials said Friday.

An army commander in Herat said that supporters of the Taliban’s late leader Mullah Mohammad Omar clashed with supporters of their new leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour in Zer Koh area in Shindand district in Herat.

He said at least 15 of the insurgents were killed in the incident.

According to him, Taliban fighters in Shindand district have been divided into two parts since the appointment of Mansour as Omar’s successor.

http://www.tolonews.com/en/afghanistan/20893-infighting-kills-15-taliban-in-herat

Security agencies have warned about a possible 26/11 style influx of terrorists from the sea and an attack on BJP offices, asking the forces to remain alert on the occasion of Independence Day to thwart any such attempt.

The Home Ministry has also cautioned that the terrorists might use the air route to strike using a para gliders to attack and has asked the security forces to remain vigilant against any such attempt to sabotage, especially targeting high risk dignitaries. The advisory said that recent terror attack in Gurdaspur, several terror incidents in the past including serial blasts in Patna in 2013 targeting election rally of Narendra Modi indicated that threat emanates from Pakistan based terrorist groups and their Indian affiliates like the Indian Mujahideen and members of ex-SIMI to possible targets like Lotus Temple, Malls in Noida, Metro Stations, Red Fort and Political Personalities.

In a communication to all the forces and state police the Ministry has cited an April 16 input suggesting that Al Qaeda in the Indian Sub-Continent (AQIS) was actively engaged in planning attack against India at Indian Naval facilities and other unsecured waterfronts as potential target. “In this regard the Southern Naval Command in Kochi (INS Venduruthy), Western Naval Command in Mumbai and the Naval base in Karwar (INS Kadamba) could be targeted,” it said adding that Gujarat may also be targeted.

The communication said an input received in September last year claims that AQIS has been planning to target BJP offices, commercial, tourist, religious, aviation and railway infrastructure in various states. “To counter threat from remote pilotless vehicles, remote controlled aircraft, para gliders and hang gliders, open grounds and spaces, abandoned air strips etc allowing lift off or launching pads for these flying objects need to be identified and suitably secured by patrolling and deploying of security forces.

“Checks of flying/gliding clubs may be carried out to rule out use of aero modules by hostile elements,” it said According to another uncorroborated input the ISI has “plan to hijack/explode Air India flights operating in Kabul-Delhi sector as they are being used by senior Indian officials.”

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-terror-alert-bjp-offices-naval-bases-air-india-kabul-flights-may-be-targeted-2114265

Police in Bangladesh’s capital arrested two Muslim militants in the killing of a secular blogger last week in the fourth such deadly attack this year.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Muntasirul Islam identified them as Saad-al-Nahin and Masud Rana, suspected members of Ansarullah Bangla Team, a group blamed for some of the previous attacks on bloggers.

Local media reported that Nahin was arrested in 2013 on a charge of attempted murder in an attack on blogger Asif Mohiuddin, who was injured. Nahin was freed on bail but was supposedly being watched by detectives.

Pakistan’s army announced the death penalty for six militants linked to an assault on a school in Peshawar that killed 151 people, mainly school children, in the country’s deadliest terror attack.

The men were convicted by military courts established in the wake of the December 16 siege last year, while a seventh man was handed a life sentence for his role in the attack.

“The convicts were given fair trial by following all the legal formalities and offering/ providing them legal aid and defence counsels. Today the sentences of death have been confirmed by the Chief of Army Staff,” a statement issued on the military’s website said.

The army also announced it would execute another man for carrying out an attack on soldiers in the city of Karachi.

The attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar led to widespread outrage, with officials announcing a slew of measures aimed at combating terror.

The government lifted a six-year moratorium on executions — initially only for people convicted of terrorism but later extended to all capital offences.

Pakistan also amended its constitution to allow military courts to try terror suspects. Despite previously having specific anti-terror courts, cases dragged on for many years and many suspects escaped punishment due to legal loopholes or lack of witnesses, who would often not appear out of fear of repercussions from militant groups.

Pakistan’s troops have been engaged in a full-scale offensive against Taliban and other militants in North Waziristan and Khyber tribal districts since June last year.

At the time of the Peshawar attack, the Taliban said it was retaliation for the army’s continuing operation against militants in the tribal areas.

http://www.sada-e-azadi.net/index.php/en/afghanistan/capital/12952-president-to-youth-beaware-of-terrorist-designs

The Islamic State (ISIL) jihadist group will soon shift its recruitment focus from the Arab region to the Caucasus, Central Asia and Indonesia, a report by the Egyptian flagship body for religious legal research said in a report.

“After the beginning of the ideological and armed war with the Islamic State by the Arab world… the group is changing its recruitment strategies and expands from the Middle East, is looking for new safer regions for attracting new recruits disguising themselves with religion and slogans for protection of Islam and Muslims,” the Egyptian House of Fatwa said in the report seen by RIA Novosti.

According to the report, ISIL believes it would be easy to recruit new followers from the Caucasus region, Central Asia and Indonesia, as there are many Muslims in those areas who are not familiar with the group’s violent ideology.

The extremist group does not seek to expand its caliphate in those regions, according to the report, only ensuring an influx of new followers.

ISIL took over large parts of Syria and Iraq and proclaimed a caliphate, and many groups around the world have claimed allegiance to it. The group actively uses social media networks to attract new followers.

Earlier this year, the Russian Interior Ministry claimed that over 400 volunteers from Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Chechnya joined ISIL. The leadership of the Imarat Kavkaz militant group, which operates in North Caucasus, is believed to have allied itself to the militants.

Indonesia, alongside Malaysia, is homeland of the largest percentage of IS fighters originating from Southeast Asia. According to local media, over 350 Indonesians joined the group in 2013-2014.