India ranked 7 among countries hit most by terrorism

The country recorded 289 terrorism-related deaths in 2015, a 45 per cent decline over 2014

India was ranked seventh in the list of countries most impacted by terrorism in 2015, according to the Global Terrorism Index (GTI), 2016, released by the Institute for Economics & Peace, a think-tank based in Sydney, Australia.

India is one of six Asian countries ranked in the top ten nations most impacted by terrorism. The Heart of Asia conference adopted the Amritsar declaration on December 4, 2016, which recognises “terrorism, violent extremism, radicalisation, separatism, and sectarianism and linkages among them” as the gravest challenges facing the region.

The declaration voiced particular concern about the “high level of violence” by ISIS and its affiliates, the Haqqani Network, al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan; all based in South Asia.

India recorded 289 terrorism-related deaths in 2015, a 45 per cent decline over 2014. However, the number of Indian Army and paramilitary soldiers killed this year is at an eight-year high, IndiaSpend reported on November 29, 2016.

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ISIS faced major reversals in last 6-9 months: CIA Director

In the last six to nine months, the Islamic State has faced major reversals in the battlefield, a top American spy said, calling the dreaded terror outfit a "failing" organisation.

"There has been significant reversal of their battlefield successes over the last six to nine months. We have seen that they have been pushed out of a number of areas inside of Iraq, as well as in Syria. A number of their leaders have been removed from the battlefield. They do not have the same type of patrol over territory that they had this time last year," the CIA Director John Brennan.

"So, this is all part of the strategic effort that has been under way to try to get the intelligence that is necessary in order to give the coalition the opportunity to take strikes from the air, and also make sure that the Iraqi forces and others and those elements that are fighting on the ground against ISIS are empowered and able to do that," he was quoted as saying by CBS News.

"When I was able to roll across a number of these ungoverned spaces in both Iraq and Syria, that momentum generated quite a bit of attraction. That's why the foreign fighters were flowing there, because they thought this was a winning organisation. It's now a failing organisation. And their narrative has been refuted," he said.

Brennan also said that their claims of great victory have been debunked.

"That's why I think fewer and fewer people now are looking to ISIS as being an organisation they want to read more..