“India’s top domestic security official strongly condemned on Tuesday a brazen attack by Maoist rebels in which gunmen on motorcycles and pickup trucks killed 24 police officers during a daylight ambush against a paramilitary camp in the state of West Bengal.

The attack occurred on Monday afternoon and represented a serious setback in India’s mounting campaign against the Communist Party of India (Maoist), which has a presence in 20 of the country’s 28 states and exerts outright control over several isolated regions.

“A bomb ripped through a packed restaurant in the Indian city of Pune on Saturday, killing at least eight people including one foreigner in the country’s first big attack since the 2008 Mumbai massacre.

The explosion came a day after India and Pakistan agreed to meet for high-level talks in New Delhi on February 25. New Delhi suspended a four-year-old peace process with Islamabad after the Mumbai attacks, blamed on Pakistani-based militants.

Police said the bomb was hidden in a bag left in the German Bakery restaurant, a favorite of Jewish and European visitors, when it was full of tourists on Saturday evening.

“Government has put all Air India planes operating in the country’s neighbourhood on high security alert and directed the airlines to deploy sky marshals following intelligence inputs that Pakistan-based LET and other terror groups were planning to hijack a flight.

A directive has been issued to all Indian missions abroad to sensitise the staff of the airlines, official sources said.

The Department of State alerts U.S. citizens to the possibility of violence as Andhra Pradesh continues to experience civil unrest. A demonstration is planned for December 10, and there is the potential that episodic clashes between the police and protesters will spark wider unrest in the city of Hyderabad. The Department recommends that U.S. citizens defer all non-essential travel to the Telangana Region of Andhra Pradesh and certain parts of Hyderabad (especially the Assembly and Secretariat, Osmania University, Panjagutta, and Ameerpet areas). The Telangana Region includes the districts of Rangareddi, Warangal, Medak, Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Adilabad, and Khammam.

“Union Home Secretary G K Pillai today said the Indian software companies are on the hit list of terrorists.

Speaking at a conference here that placed emphasis on the challenge of terrorism to the infrastructure and economy of the country, Pillai said adequate protection would be provided to the software companies keeping in mind the terror threats.

The Central Government is tying up with the private companies to provide maximum cover in order to avoid any future troubles, he said.”

(Source: Software companies are under terror threat: Home Secretary)