The Meadow

The Meadow PDF Author: Adrian Levy
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN: 9780007368167
Category : Hostages
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The Kashmir Kidnapping that changed the face of modern terrorism. In July 1995, ten Western backpackers take a trip of a lifetime. hey have come in search of many things - nirvana, exhilaration, a sense of self. But over the course of the next week, their holidays take a terrifying turn when they become entangled in a nail-biting hostage drama that will suck them into an alien world of jihad and Islamic fundamentalism. In the months that follow, their fates will become caught-up in a bloody struggle between India and Pakistan, fought out in the airless heights of Kashmir. With the world looking on, four of the captured travellers will vanish off the face of the earth, never to be seen again, creating one of the region's great mysteries. Written with access to diaries, letters, unprocessed film and personal recollections from those enmeshed in the drama, drawing on classified police reports and secret tape recordings of Indian government negotiations, as well as interviews with the jihadis themselves and excerpts from their journals, Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark's book is a real-life thriller, a startling but compelling story told from the perspective of all involved. The Meadow charts how the fates of two groups of young men from different hemispheres became inextricably entwined on the mountain trails they followed. It tells of the terrifying escape of one hostage, the heart-rending secret letters another wrote on birch bark and hid in his clothing as he contemplated his situation, and how, with a brutal beheading, the kidnappers took an irreversible step into the abyss. Packed with explosive revelations, The Meadow provides the first definitive answers as to what happened to the missing backpackers, revealing how the kidnapping of July 1995 changed the face of modern jihad, its architects going on to sow the seeds of a cold-hearted war against the West.

The Meadow

The Meadow PDF Author: Adrian Levy
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN: 9780007368167
Category : Hostages
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Kashmir Kidnapping that changed the face of modern terrorism. In July 1995, ten Western backpackers take a trip of a lifetime. hey have come in search of many things - nirvana, exhilaration, a sense of self. But over the course of the next week, their holidays take a terrifying turn when they become entangled in a nail-biting hostage drama that will suck them into an alien world of jihad and Islamic fundamentalism. In the months that follow, their fates will become caught-up in a bloody struggle between India and Pakistan, fought out in the airless heights of Kashmir. With the world looking on, four of the captured travellers will vanish off the face of the earth, never to be seen again, creating one of the region's great mysteries. Written with access to diaries, letters, unprocessed film and personal recollections from those enmeshed in the drama, drawing on classified police reports and secret tape recordings of Indian government negotiations, as well as interviews with the jihadis themselves and excerpts from their journals, Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark's book is a real-life thriller, a startling but compelling story told from the perspective of all involved. The Meadow charts how the fates of two groups of young men from different hemispheres became inextricably entwined on the mountain trails they followed. It tells of the terrifying escape of one hostage, the heart-rending secret letters another wrote on birch bark and hid in his clothing as he contemplated his situation, and how, with a brutal beheading, the kidnappers took an irreversible step into the abyss. Packed with explosive revelations, The Meadow provides the first definitive answers as to what happened to the missing backpackers, revealing how the kidnapping of July 1995 changed the face of modern jihad, its architects going on to sow the seeds of a cold-hearted war against the West.

The Meadow

The Meadow PDF Author: Adrian Levy
Publisher: HarperPress
ISBN: 9780007368174
Category : Kidnapping victims
Languages : en
Pages : 510

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Book Description
'The Meadow' charts the fates of ten backpackers taken hostage by Islamic extremists in Kashmir in July 1995. It tells of the escape of one hostage, the secret letters another wrote and hid in his clothing as he contemplated his situation, and how, with a brutal beheading, the kidnappers took an irreversible step into the abyss.

The Exile

The Exile PDF Author: Adrian Levy
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1620409852
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 641

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Book Description
Startling and scandalous, this is an intimate insider's story of Osama bin Laden's retinue in the ten years after 9/11, a family in flight and at war. From September 11, 2001 to May 2, 2011, Osama Bin Laden evaded intelligence services and special forces units, drones and hunter killer squads. The Exile tells the extraordinary inside story of that decade through the eyes of those who witnessed it: bin Laden's four wives and many children, his deputies and military strategists, his spiritual advisor, the CIA, Pakistan's ISI, and many others who have never before told their stories. Investigative journalists Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy gained unique access to Osama bin Laden's inner circle, and they recount the flight of Al Qaeda's forces and bin Laden's innocent family members, the gradual formation of ISIS by bin Laden's lieutenants, and bin Laden's rising paranoia and eroding control over his organization. They also reveal that the Bush White House knew the whereabouts of bin Laden's family and Al Qaeda's military and religious leaders, but rejected opportunities to capture them, pursuing war in the Persian Gulf instead, and offer insights into how Al Qaeda will attempt to regenerate itself in the coming years. While we think we know what happened in Abbottabad on May 2, 2011, we know little about the wilderness years that led to that shocking event. As authoritative in its scope and detail as it is propuslively readable, The Exile is a landmark work of investigation and reporting.

Kashmir in Conflict

Kashmir in Conflict PDF Author: Victoria Schofield
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0755607198
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
Why has the valley of Kashmir, famed for its beauty and tranquillity, become a major flashpoint, threatening the stability of a region of great strategic importance and challenging the integrity of the Indian state? This book examines the Kashmir conflict in its historical context, from the period when the valley was an independent kingdom right up to the struggles of the present day. Located on the borders of China, Central Asia and the Sub-Continent, the insurgency in the valley has also created serious tensions between India and Pakistan. Drawing upon research in India and Pakistan, as well as historical sources, this book traces the origins of the state in the 19th century and the controversial "sale" by the British of the predominantly Muslim valley to a Hindu Maharaja in 1846. Through an exploration of the implications for Kashmir of independence in 1947, it gives a critical account of why, for Kashmir, self-determination may seem a more attractive option than affiliation to a larger multi-racial whole.

The Meadow

The Meadow PDF Author: Adrian Levy
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN:
Category : Hostages
Languages : en
Pages : 510

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Book Description


The Valley of Kashmir

The Valley of Kashmir PDF Author: Walter R. Lawrence
Publisher: Asian Educational Services
ISBN: 9788120616301
Category : Jammu and Kashmir (India)
Languages : en
Pages : 554

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Book Description
(Reprint London 1895 edn.)

The Exile

The Exile PDF Author: Adrian Levy
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1408858789
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 641

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Book Description
The extraordinary inside story of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda in the years after 9/11. Following the attacks on the Twin Towers, Osama bin Laden, the most wanted man in the world, eluded intelligence services and Special Forces units for almost a decade. Using remarkable, first-person testimony from bin Laden's family and closest aides, The Exile chronicles this astonishing tale of evasion, collusion and isolation. In intimate detail, The Exile reveals not only the frantic attack on Afghanistan by the United States in their hunt for bin Laden but also how and why, when they found his family soon after, the Bush administration rejected the chance to seize them. It charts the formation of ISIS, and uncovers the wasted opportunity to kill its Al Qaeda-sponsored founder; it explores the development of the CIA's torture programme; it details Iran's secret shelter for bin Laden's family and Al Qaeda's military council; and it captures the power struggles, paranoia and claustrophobia within the Abbottabad house prior to the raid. A landmark work of investigation and reportage, The Exile is as authoritative as it is compelling, and essential reading for anyone concerned with history, security and future relations with the Islamic world.

Lost Enlightenment

Lost Enlightenment PDF Author: S. Frederick Starr
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691165858
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 694

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Book Description
The forgotten story of Central Asia's enlightenment—its rise, fall, and enduring legacy In this sweeping and richly illustrated history, S. Frederick Starr tells the fascinating but largely unknown story of Central Asia's medieval enlightenment through the eventful lives and astonishing accomplishments of its greatest minds—remarkable figures who built a bridge to the modern world. Because nearly all of these figures wrote in Arabic, they were long assumed to have been Arabs. In fact, they were from Central Asia—drawn from the Persianate and Turkic peoples of a region that today extends from Kazakhstan southward through Afghanistan, and from the easternmost province of Iran through Xinjiang, China. Lost Enlightenment recounts how, between the years 800 and 1200, Central Asia led the world in trade and economic development, the size and sophistication of its cities, the refinement of its arts, and, above all, in the advancement of knowledge in many fields. Central Asians achieved signal breakthroughs in astronomy, mathematics, geology, medicine, chemistry, music, social science, philosophy, and theology, among other subjects. They gave algebra its name, calculated the earth's diameter with unprecedented precision, wrote the books that later defined European medicine, and penned some of the world's greatest poetry. One scholar, working in Afghanistan, even predicted the existence of North and South America—five centuries before Columbus. Rarely in history has a more impressive group of polymaths appeared at one place and time. No wonder that their writings influenced European culture from the time of St. Thomas Aquinas down to the scientific revolution, and had a similarly deep impact in India and much of Asia. Lost Enlightenment chronicles this forgotten age of achievement, seeks to explain its rise, and explores the competing theories about the cause of its eventual demise. Informed by the latest scholarship yet written in a lively and accessible style, this is a book that will surprise general readers and specialists alike.

"We Love Death As You Love Life"

Author: Raffaello Pantucci
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 1849045992
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
As Mohammed Siddique Khan led his group of fellow-believers into London on the morning of July 7, 2005 it is unlikely that they were thinking much beyond the immediate impact of their actions. Driven by anger at the West's treatment of Muslims worldwide, ideas fed to them by foreign extremists, and a sense of extreme rejection of the society in which they were born, they sought to reshape the world in an image they thought would be pleasing to God. But while they felt they were on a holy mission -- as enunciated in Khan's chilling video message, We Love Death As You Love Life-- a far more earthly arc of history underlay their actions. This book offers an insight into the motivations behind Khan and his group, as well as the hundreds of young British Muslims who have been drawn by jihadist ideas to fight on battlefields at home and abroad. Starting with the arrival of immigrant communities to the UK and the establishment of diasporas with strong ethnic connections to the Middle East and South Asia, to the arrival of jihadist warriors fresh from the anti-Soviet war Afghanistan, this book looks at the history that came before Mohammed Siddique Khan and places his action within its larger context. This book provides the first comprehensive history of jihadist ideas and violence in the United Kingdom.

What Happened to Governance in Kashmir?

What Happened to Governance in Kashmir? PDF Author: Aijaz Ashraf Wani
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199097151
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
What Happened to Governance in Kashmir? examines the policies, strategies, and tactics followed by the Indian state and the ‘client’ governments in Srinagar to manage the conflicted state of Jammu and Kashmir during 1948–89 . It shows how the policies deployed to ‘create order in disorder’ functioned inversely and turned Kashmir into a smoldering volcano which erupted in 1989–90. The author argues that as the issue of dispute and policy framework has been constant, the clash between the status quoist state and the society was inevitable. The crisis deepened along with technological, economic, cultural, and social changes. Based on a variety of contemporary sources, this book deals with many aspects of Kashmir’s governance through different political phases. It shows how the personal proclivities and decisions of each prime minister/chief minister played a role in determining the pattern of rule and the course of history with consequences felt many miles downstream.