Pakistan braces for Indian pressure in wake of blasts in Mumbai (The Christian Science Monitor)

Lahore, Pakistan – Wednesday’s triple-bomb attack on Mumbai has Pakistan bracing for renewed attention and has put a spotlight on the fact that leaders of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Pakistan-based terror group blamed for the 2008 attacks, remain free.

Though no one has yet claimed responsibility for the new series of blasts, there is some speculation the home grown Indian Mujahideen, who have ties with the LeT, are involved.

Analysts blame a systematic failure on the part of police and prosecution to make criminal charges stick. Analysts also blame a government too weak to deal with terror organizations.

“The basic problem is evidence collection and investigating terrorism. And another basic problem is political will – there are some political sectarian and ethnic reasons that allow the government to release people without trying them effectively or keeping them in jail without a trial,” says Badar Alam, editor of Pakistan’s Herald magazine.

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The trial of Zaki ur Rehman Lakhwi, founder of the Laskhar-e-Taiba and other senior members of the group continues to flounder more than two years after it began. And Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, head of Jamat-ud-Dawah (the organization’s charitable wing) who was named in a list of India’s 50-most wanted fugitives, remains free in his Lahore home.

Since Mr. Lakhwi’s trial began in March 2009, it has been beset by numerous unforeseen adjournments, for reasons ranging from the judge’s absence to the validity of the defense lawyer’s law degree being brought into question. The trial descended to what observers called farcical levels for several months last year, when it was held up because India unsurprisingly refused a Pakistani court’s request to send Ajmal Kassab, the lone surviving gunman from the attack to Pakistan to testify.

Jamat-ud-Dawah, an organization banned by the United Nations Security Council, meanwhile operates openly from a base in Lahore and was particularly visible in its relief efforts following last year’s catastrophic floods.

And on Thursday, an antiterror court freed Malik Ishaq, a sectarian militant believed to be the mastermind of the 2009 attack on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team that brought an end to visits to Pakistan by foreign cricketing teams. Following his release from a Lahore jail, Mr. Ishaq was feted by armed Sipah-e-Sahaba (a banned sectarian organization with links to domestic terrorism) members, who shouted sectarian slogans.

Such demonstrations of impunity are by no means uncommon and provide the space for terrorism to thrive, says Ahmer Bilal Soofi, an expert in Pakistani criminal law.

a€?There is a need for creative legislation in Pakistan. And the government doesna€™t have this priority. The nature of legal challenges are unique and different ... the legislation has to be very creative to respond to those challenges,a€

On the courts side, those criminals that are nabbed are often quickly let go because of a lack of forensic evidence and retracted confessions. A recent report commissioned by the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan found that the accused have been acquitted in 98 percent of serious crimes.

RELATED: Mumbai blasts: India asks 'who' and 'why' a day after blasts rock Mumbai

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Indonesia braces for verdict in cleric terror case (AP)

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Indonesia's capital will be secured by more than 3,000 police and soldiers for the verdict Thursday in the terrorism trial of radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, officials said.

Bashir is accused of helping to organize and fund a jihadi training camp in westernmost Aceh province that involved members of almost every known Indonesian extremist group.

If found guilty, he faces up to life in prison. Bashir, 72, denies involvement with the training camp but repeatedly defends it as legal under Islam.

"He is ready to face the heaviest punishment though, because he believes the verdict is deliberately designed to stop his dakwah (religious outreach)," Bashir's spokesman Hasyim Adbullah said Wednesday.

Jakarta police chief Sutarman said nearly 3,200 security personnel including 335 soldiers will secure the court and surrounding area.

Threats of a bombing campaign in 36 locations across Indonesia to coincide with the verdict have been spread by Twitter and text messages.

Judges in the case also received the bomb threat text messages, said Ida Bagus Dwiyantara, a spokesman for the district court in south Jakarta, where the verdict will be announced.

The Aceh camp was raided in February last year resulting in the arrests of more than 120 suspected terrorists over several months. They allegedly planned attacks on foreigners and assassinations of moderate Muslim leaders such as Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Some terrorism experts say the camp's organizers envisaged it as a vehicle for radicalizing the Acehnese people and as the nucleus of a future Islamic state. Despite the camp's failure, it may have provided lessons that will help future attempts to bring extremist groups together under one umbrella.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, was thrust into the front lines of the battle against terrorism by the 2002 bombings on the tourist island of Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreigners.

Since then, the government has had some notable successes, killing key terrorist leaders, arresting hundreds of foot soldiers, and limiting the capacity of violent extremist groups such as Jemaah Islamiyah to strike at government and Western targets within Indonesia.

But prisons are proving to be a failing in Indonesia's counter-terrorism strategy with some released militants rejoining their networks and commiting new acts of terror. Ordinary prisoners, meanwhile, are at risk of being radicalized by imprisoned extremists.

It's not the first time Bashir has faced terrorism charges or spent time in detention.

He was arrested almost immediately after the Bali bombings, but prosecutors were unable to prove a string of terrorism-related allegations and reduced his four-year prison sentence to 18 months for immigration violations.

Soon after his release, he was re-arrested and sentenced to 2 1/2 years, this time for inciting the Bali blasts, a charge that was overturned on appeal. He was freed in 2006.

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