| |
SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Weekly Assessments & Briefings
Volume 12, No. 12, September 24, 2013
Data and
assessments from SAIR can be freely published in any form
with credit to the South Asia Intelligence Review of the
South Asia Terrorism Portal
|
Carnage
Ajit Kumar Singh
Research Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management
In the
deadliest attack ever on Christian minorities in Pakistan,
at least 79 worshippers, including 34 women and seven
children, were killed and another 130 were injured when
two suicide bombers attacked a Christian congregation
at the historic All Saints Church in the Kohati Gate area
of Peshawar, the provincial capital of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
(KP) Province, on September 22, 2013. Capital City Police
Officer (CCPO) Mohammad Ali Babakhel disclosed that one
of the suicide bombers opened fire at Police guards at
the church gate, killing one of them. He subsequently
lobbed a grenade and, prevented by the Police from entering
the church, detonated his suicide vest. Thirty seconds
later, the second attacker who had managed to enter the
church, detonated his suicide jacket as well. According
to varying media reports, some 600 to 700 people were
inside the church at the time of the attack.
Ahmed Marwat,
‘a spokesman’ for the Jandullah group, a faction of the
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP),
claimed responsibility for the attack, and declared, in
a statement to the media, "Until and unless drone
strikes are stopped, we will continue our attacks on non-Muslims
on Pakistani land. They are the enemies of Islam, therefore
we target them." Jandullah had also claimed responsibility
for the killing of 10 foreign mountaineers and their Pakistani
Guide at the Nanga Parbat base camp in the Bonar area
of Diamer District of Gilgit Baltistan in the intervening
night of June 22-23, 2013. The victims included an American
with dual Chinese citizenship, three Ukrainians, two Slovakians,
two others from China, a Lithuanian and a climber from
Nepal. One Chinese climber reportedly survived by fleeing
the scene.
The worst
ever terror attack on Christians prior to the September
22 incident had taken place on October 28, 2001, when
17 Christians – including five children – and a Policeman,
were killed and nine persons were injured, when six gunmen
opened fire on a church in the Model Town area of Bahawalpur
District in Punjab Province.
According
to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism
Portal, at least 15 terrorist attacks targeting Christians,
resulting in 30 fatalities, had taken place across Pakistan
since 2001, prior to the September 22, 2013, incident.
Some of the major attacks among these included:
March 10,
2010: Six persons, including two women, were killed and
seven persons were injured when over a dozen militants
armed with Kalashnikov rifles, pistols and hand-grenades
attacked the office of World Vision International, a US-based
Christian aid agency, in the Oghi village of Mansehra
District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
December
25, 2002: Three women were killed and 15 persons were
injured in a grenade attack on the United Presbyterian
Church near Sialkot in Punjab Province.
September
25, 2002: Seven persons were killed and another three
were injured in a terrorist attack on a Christian welfare
organisation's office, Idara Amn-o-Insaaf (Institute
for Peace and Justice), in Karachi District, the Provincial
capital of Sindh Province. Lashkar-e-Islami Mohammadi
(LIM), a little-known terrorist group, was held responsible
for the attack.
August
5, 2002: Six persons were killed and another four were
injured in a terrorist attack on a Christian missionary
school in the Jhika Gali Town of Murree tehsil
(revenue unit) in Rawalpindi District of Punjab Province.
March 17,
2002: Five persons were killed and more than 40 others
were injured, including the High Commissioner of Sri Lanka
to Pakistan, in a grenade attack during the Sunday morning
service at the Protestant International Church located
between the American and Russian Embassies in the heavily
protected area of the Diplomatic Enclave in Islamabad.
Amongst those killed were Barbara Green, wife of an American
diplomat and her daughter; two Pakistanis and an Afghan.
The injured belonged to different countries including
USA, Britain, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Afghanistan,
Iran, Ethiopia, Iraq and Sri Lanka.
Apart from
these terrorist atrocities, Islamist extremists have also
intermittently attacked Christians in mass and targeted
violence. The Christians constitute a meagre 1.6 percent
of Pakistan’s population of 193 million. According to
media reports, Islamist extremists have attacked Christians
on at least 82 occasions since September 11, 2001, resulting
in 147 fatalities and 355 persons injured. In the latest
of series of such attacks, on March 9, 2013, hundreds
of protesters turned into arsonists and attacked some
160 houses and 80 shops belonging to Christians in Joseph
Colony, a predominantly Christian colony, of the Badami
Bagh area of Lahore, the provincial capital of Punjab
Province, just a day after allegations of blasphemy were
levelled against a man in the region. Underlining out
the complicity of the state in these incidents, the Supreme
Court observed, on March 13, 2013, that the Punjab Police
had failed to protect the lives and properties of the
inhabitants of Joseph Colony in Lahore.
The Christians
are mainly targeted for alleged acts of blasphemy. Significantly,
then Federal Minister for Minorities’ Affairs, Shahbaz
Bhatti, a Christian, was killed on March 2, 2011, by terrorists
of Fidayeen-e-Muhammad, a TTP faction, and al
Qaeda Punjab Chapter, for his opposition
to the country’s blasphemy laws. The Christians are also
attacked for opposing often forcible conversions to Islam.
Asia Bibi, 46, who has been sentenced to death and has
been in prison for the last four years following a conviction
for blasphemy, in her memoir Blasphemy, describes
how she had been asked to convert to Islam to ‘redeem
herself’.
The terrorists/extremists
have issued threats against the Christian community on
several occasions in the past. On May 18, 2011, for instance,
in the wake of Osama bin Laden’s killing,
the TTP vowed to fight with “new zeal” against “Our enemies...
NATO, Jews and Christians.” In another such threat, in
June 2008, an extremist group, Jesh Ahle-i-Alqiblat al-Jihadi
al-Sari al-Alami [Army for the Direction of the Movement
of Global Jihad], distributed pamphlets demanding that
Christian Pakistanis convert to Islam or face death. The
group said “every Muslim had a duty to take such action
against Christians”. It also called on Muslims to attack
and kill Christian foreigners.
Seeds of
religious intolerance have been systematically sown in
Pakistan since its inception in 1947 – and, indeed, even
earlier, during the struggle for independence. There was
a further and escalating
radicalization during and after the
regime of military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq. Since
then, Pakistan has witnessed rising attacks against all
minorities, including the Christians. According to a detailed
Fact Sheet issued by United States Commission on International
Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in July 2013, 203 incidents
of sectarian violence targeting religious minorities had
been recorded in Pakistan in the preceding 18 months,
resulting in 1,800 casualties, including 717 deaths, of
which 635 were Shias. The report stated, further, that
22 Ahmadis were killed in these attacks; followed by 11
Christians; two Hindus; one Sikh; and 16 others.
The September
22 attack has raised serious questions about the impact
of the purported ‘peace initiatives’ by the Nawaz Sharif
Government, which are largely premised on an effort to
buy peace with the extremists. Conspicuously, Islamabad’s
overtures to the Hakimullah Mehsud-led
TTP have clearly brought no relief. The religious intolerance
and cult of violence in the name of jihad has been
embedded deep into the political culture and national
psyche, producing armies of radicalized Islamists, and
a wider context of the justification and acceptance of
their murderous actions. The problem is infinitely compounded
by state complicity and the failure of enforcement agencies
and the justice system to act effectively against openly
armed and violent Islamist extremist factions, many of
which have been raised and continue to enjoy the patronage
of state agencies, including the all-powerful Army and
its intelligence wing, the Inter Services Intelligence
(ISI).
Nevertheless,
there are at least some indications that the terrorist
attacks against the minorities have created some division
between Islamist extremist and terrorist formations. Significantly,
according to a report published by the SITE Intelligence
Group on September 16, 2013, al Qaeda leader Ayman
al-Zawahri issued specific guidelines for jihad,
including the directive that “they (militants) should
also leave alone Christians, Hindus and Sikhs living in
Muslim lands...” While al Qaeda remains an ‘inspiration’
to many Islamist terrorist formations in the region –
and across the world – it is abundantly clear that not
all of them feel constrained to accept the group’s diktats
in matters of strategy and tactic. Indeed, the Janduallh
group has responded quite unambiguously to these exhortations
through the carnage of September 22, 2013, demonstrating
clearly that those who seek to provoke terrorism, and
then circumscribe it within boundaries of their choosing
– whether these puppeteers are al Qaeda or the ISI – are
bound to fail. Savagery has its own escalating logic,
a truth that is demonstrated almost every day in Pakistan.
|
Manipur:
Excluded Others
Veronica Khangchian
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management
On September
13, 2013, in a second attack against non-locals
in the state during the year, at least nine migrant
labourers from Assam were killed and another 11 were injured
in an explosion inside a working shed located on the slab
cover put up over Naga Nullah (drain)
at Nagamapal in Imphal West District. While five persobs
died at the spot, four succumbed to their injuries later.
All the labourers were engaged by Simplex Project Limited,
Kolkata, which has been entrusted with the task of laying
the slabs over Naga Nullah as well as
of building the embankment.
Earlier,
on June 27, 2013, two non-local migrant workers, both
masons by profession, were killed while another four were
injured, including a local man, when unidentified miscreants
lobbed a hand grenade at a rented room at Uripok Tourangbam
Leikai in Imphal. Sources said that the incident occurred
while the six persons were sitting together in the rented
room. The deceased were all from Begu Sarai in Bihar.
The September
13 attack against ‘outsiders’ was the first major attack
(resulting in three or more fatalities) since May 2009.
On May 11, 2009, unidentified militants killed nine non-locals
inside the Keibul Lamjao National Park at Khordak Awang
Leikai area in Bishnupur District. The killing was a ‘revenge
attack’ for the reverses suffered by the People's Revolutionary
Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK)
militants in the counter-insurgency campaign codenamed
Operation
Summer Storm conducted jointly by
the Army and Manipur Police in April 2009. Altogether
11 PREPAK militants were killed in the April 2009 Operation.
According
to South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), a total
of 90 ‘outsiders’ have been killed since 2001 (data till
September 21, 2013). Most of the killings were carried
out by unspecified militant groups, though, where the
identity of the organisation was established, CorCom
or its elements were found to be responsible. Earlier,
Corcom had set December 31, 2012, as the deadline for
all the non-Manipuris to leave Manipur. CorCom now includes
the Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP),
Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL),
PREPAK, its Progressive faction (PREPAK-Pro), Revolutionary
People's Front (RPF – the political wing of the People’s
Liberation Army – PLA) and United National Liberation
Front (UNLF).
The United Peoples Party of Kangleipak (UPPK) was expelled
from the Committee after meetings with leaders of UPPK
on January 28 and 31, 2013. In August 2012, CorCom, had
also declared that the people of Manipur “were/are never
Indians and nor will ever be”. The CorCom, however, has
denied its role in the latest attack.
On September
5, 2012, issuing its ultimatum to all outsiders to leave
Manipur as well as to check any further influx of migrants,
CorCom, had warned that no one should rent out dwelling
places to ‘outsiders’, hire the service of migrant workers,
or engage with them in business transactions.
In March
2010, while describing all those who entered Manipur after
1949 (when the erstwhile princely state was ‘forcibly’
merged with the Indian Union) as "non-Manipuris",
the PLA
had also asked these ‘outsiders’ to leave the State. In
May 2010, rather interestingly, after inking
a Memorandum of Understanding with the Communist Party
of India–Maoist (CPI-Maoist),
PLA had also urged the ‘non-local working class’ in Manipur
to join the CPI-Maoist.
CorCom
elements have also intensified their propaganda and drive
against ‘outsiders’. The United Revolutionary Front (URF,
set up on January 7, 2012, which collaborates with CorCom
in their attacks against non-locals, but is not a member
of CorCom), a conglomerate of five splintered factions
of the KCP, in a statement issued by A.K. Pibarel, its
‘secretary, information and publicity’, on April 9, 2012,
declared that it was not right to let ‘outsiders’ claim
ownership of all professional works in the State and that
the indigenous people should be the right owners of Manipur
and its markets, including all kinds of occupations or
professions. Thereafter, on April 14, 2012, URF announced
an ‘ordinance’ against all non-locals living in Manipur
as part of its economic policy for indigenous people.
The 15-point ordinance, among other provisions, imposes
a monthly ‘tax’ on all non-indigenous people, without
any consideration of the period of their settlement in
Manipur.
An August
28, 2012, report also stated that the URF had called on
Manipuri students to look towards the fast-developing
regions of China and Southeast Asia to pursue higher studies
and employment, arguing that ‘mainland India’ has repeatedly
disowned them. The URF cited the incidence of threat and
intimidation against the people of the Northeast, in apparent
retaliation to the Kokrajhar (Assam) riots,
as evidence of the ‘perverse attitude’ of ‘mainstream
India’.
Significantly,
in August 2012, there was a crackdown on illegal migrants
close on the heels of a fresh campaign by civil society
groups for the implementation of the Inner Line Permit
(ILP) system in Manipur. The ILP is an official travel
document required for both Indian and foreign citizens
to travel into restricted areas. The Manipur Assembly
passed a resolution in July 2012 to urge the Centre to
introduce ILP in the State, to regulate the influx of
migrants and foreigners. The Centre, however, is said
to have no plans to extend the ILP system, which exists
only in Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh, to include
Manipur.
Recently,
on July 5, 2013, announcing the formation of its Women’s
Wing, with Lourembam Nganbi and Akoijam Memcha Leima as
Convenor and Co-convenor respectively, the Joint Committee
on Inner Line Permit System (JCILPS) appealed to the people
to engage in a joint effort to implement the ILP System
in the State. A statement issued by JCILPS declared that
the movement demanding the implementation of ILP system
had completed one year, and two resolutions had been taken
in the Manipur Assembly as a result. Despite many movements
by the people, however, the State Government and the Centre
had failed to give any assurance that the people's demand
would be met. The JCILPS had spearheaded the year-long
stir for implementation of the ILP system in the State.
On July 29, 2013, the group had urged the Chief Minister,
among others, to verify driving licenses, domicile certificates
and electoral rolls of all constituencies, before the
Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament) elections
of 2014; to identify illegal migrants and foreigners who
settled in various districts of the State after 1980 and
delete them from the electoral rolls of Manipur; and to
set up check posts for illegal immigrants at the principles
points of influx into the State. The unchecked rise in
the population of non-locals has altered demographic patterns
in the State, ‘threatening the existence of indigenous
people’, according to the JCILPS. In July, 1980, the All
Manipur Students Union (AMSU) and All Manipur Students
Co-ordinating Committee (AMSCOC) had signed an agreement
with the Government of Manipur to initiate identification
and detection of all outsiders from 1st August, 1980,
and to send them ‘back home’.
Interestingly,
on September 21, 2012, 22 illegal Bangladeshi migrants
who entered Manipur for low-wage manual jobs were sentenced
to two years imprisonment by the Chief Judicial Magistrate
of Imphal East District (CJM-IED). The order of the CJM-IED
was passed after hearing the case filed by the Porompat
Police Station (Imphal East District) against the illegal
migrants, who were charge-sheeted under provisions of
the Foreigners Act, 1946.
The issue
of ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ has been a cause of major
conflict in Manipur – and, indeed, across much of India’s
Northeast – and has also provoked tensions between various
ethnic
communities, catalyzing the growing
unity of militant formations in the State in recent years.
The Centre’s proclivity to brushing the issue under the
carpet, even as the continued and substantial influx of
foreigners is tolerated, has made locals hostile even
to migrants from other parts of India. These problems
are enormously compounded by endemic and chronic misgovernance
in the State, giving little hope of any constructive solution
in the foreseeable future.
|
Polarized
Mandate
S. Binodkumar Singh
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management
On September
21, 2013, amid heavy security voting was conducted in
the Tamil dominated Northern Province of Sri Lanka – the
former stronghold of the separatist-terrorist formation,
the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the largest Tamil party
in the country, which is considered the political inheritor
of the now
defeated LTTE, secured a landslide
victory, winning in all five Districts in the Province,
with a clear majority in 28 of 36 seats. These included
14 seats in Jaffna District; four seats each in Mullaitivu
and Vavuniya; and three each in Mannar and Kilinochchi.
The TNA also secured two bonus seats on the basis of its
percentage of votes in each District.
The President
Mahinda Rajapaksa-led United People’s Freedom Alliance
(UPFA) secured seven seats and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress
(SLMC) won one seat out of the total of 38 seats in the
Northern Provincial Council (NPC).
A total
of 68 per cent of the 719,477 registered voters in the
five Districts – Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi
and Mannar – of the Province voted for 906 candidates
from 57 political parties and 28 independent groups at
850 polling stations. The main contest was between the
TNA which had fielded retired Supreme Court Judge C.V.
Wigneswaran as its Chief Ministerial candidate; and the
UPFA, represented by its two key candidates – S. Thavarajah
of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) and Angajan
Ramanathan of the Sri Lankan Freedom Party (SLFP). The
TNA secured 78.48 per cent of total votes, while the UPFA
managed 18.38 per cent of votes, followed by the SLMC
with 1.5 per cent.
Despite
international apprehensions and some foreign organizations
crying wolf, the elections were more or less violence
free. However, in one incident, Ananthy Sasitharan, a
female TNA candidate’s residence in the Valakamparai area
of Jaffna District was attacked on September 19, 2013.
About 10 of her supporters and a lawyer attached to the
local election monitoring group, People's Action for Free
and Fair Election (PAFFREL), were assaulted. Separately,
the local election monitoring group, Campaign for Free
and Fair Elections (CaFFE) stated that its observer, Gunarasa,
had been attacked in Kilinochchi District on Election
Day (September 21). CaFFE accused supporters of the Eelam
People's Democratic Party (EPDP), who were distributing
food among voters, for engineering the attack. In another
incident, the Center for Monitoring Election Violence
(CMEV), another local poll monitor, reported that the
bodyguards of Minister Rishad Bathiyutheen allegedly assaulted
Mannar District candidate of Our Nation Party, Abdul Salam
Mohomad Hilmy, near the entrance of a polling station
at the Kokkupaddayam Roman Catholic Tamil Mixed School
in Mannar District, on September 21, 2013.
Commonwealth
Mission head and Kenya's former Vice President, Stephen
Kalonzo Musyoka, on September 22, 2013, observed, "Generally
the voting day went very, very smoothly. President Rajapaksa
wants to demonstrate greater political tolerance and the
fact that he allows the voters in the north to vote the
way they wish will certainly be a positive thing."
Though
this was the first ever Provincial Council Election in
the North since the creation of Councils as a result of
the 13th
Amendment in Sri Lanka’s Constitution,
the outcome of the Indo-Lanka
Accord, 1987, the Northern Province
had already witnessed Presidential
Elections in January 2010, Parliamentary
Elections in April 2010 and elections
for local bodies, which were held
across the country in 2011. While only 28 per cent of
registered voters turned up during the Parliamentary Elections
in 2010, 32 per cent voted in the 2011 local Government
elections.
Along with
the NPC elections, polls were also conducted for the North
Western Provincial Council and Central Provincial Council
on September 21, 2013. Unsurprisingly, the UPFA secured
a convincing victory in both the Council elections, obtaining
34 of 52 seats in the North Western Provincial Council,
and 36 of 58 seats in the Central Provincial Council.
The TNA
had contested the polls with an election
manifesto presented on September 3,
2013, in which it called for self-determination in the
Tamil-dominated North under a federal structure, and the
merger of the Northern and Eastern provinces. Criticizing
the TNA manifesto, Gunadasa Amarasekera, General Secretary
of Patriotic National Movement, filed a petition in the
Supreme Court on September 16, 2013, appealing that the
TNA election manifesto be declared violative of the Constitution.
The petitioner asserted that the TNA manifesto was in
line with the ‘hidden agenda’ of the LTTE. On September
18, 2013, the Supreme Court issued notice on the leaders
of the TNA to appear before the court on October 2, 2013,
to show cause regarding the constitutionality of the TNA
election manifesto.
Significantly,
eight persons were arrested on September 13, 2013, in
the Kodikarmam area of Jaffna District, on charges of
possession of posters with pictures of former LTTE leader
Vellupillai Parabhakaran. Police said this was the first
time such posters had been found in the Northern Province
since the war
ended in 2009. Meanwhile, the Commander
of the Army in the Jaffna peninsula, Major General Mahinda
Hathurusinghe on September 17, 2013, claimed that there
was a possibility of about 4,000 former LTTE combatants,
who were still at large, regrouping, with the TNA glorifying
the slain LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in its campaign
for the NPC elections.
Nevertheless,
addressing a media briefing in Jaffna District on September
22, 2013, following the party's landslide victory, TNA
leader R. Sampanthan declared that his party was ready
to assist the Government in fully implementing the 13th
Amendment to the Constitution, and was ready to participate
in the Parliament Select Committee (PSC) appointed to
resolve the ‘national issue’, if the Government agreed
to a meaningful measure of devolution of powers.
The Sri
Lanka Government has taken great pride in the progress
it has made in the rehabilitation, developmental and democratic
process in the war-torn North over the past years, and
the Provincial elections underline its continuing success.
However, voters in the Northern Province have clearly
demonstrated, once again, their overriding loyalty to
their regional party. Colombo will have to find ways of
working with the TNA, if a lasting solution to the political
and constitutional crisis is to be found.
|
Weekly Fatalities: Major
Conflicts in South Asia
September
16-22, 2013
|
Civilians
|
Security
Force Personnel
|
Terrorists/Insurgents
|
Total
|
BANGLADESH
|
|
Islamist Terrorism
|
2
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
Left-wing
Extremism
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
Total (BANGLADESH)
|
2
|
0
|
2
|
4
|
INDIA
|
|
Jammu and
Kashmir
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
Left-wing
Extremism
|
|
Bihar
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
Chhattisgarh
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
Jharkhand
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
Total (INDIA)
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
6
|
PAKISTAN
|
|
Balochistan
|
14
|
7
|
0
|
21
|
FATA
|
0
|
0
|
9
|
9
|
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
|
86
|
0
|
14
|
100
|
Punjab
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
Sindh
|
13
|
1
|
8
|
22
|
Total (PAKISTAN)
|
|
|
|
|
Provisional
data compiled from English language media sources.
|
INDIA
96
ceasefire
violations
by
Pakistan
in
2013,
says
Defence
spokesman
S
N
Acharya:
Defence
spokesman
S
N
Acharya
on
September
18
said
that
there
were
18
ceasefire
violations
by
Pakistan
in
the
month
of
September,
bringing
the
total
number
of
violations
to
96
this
year
up
to
September
18,
the
highest
in
last
eight
years.
Times
of
India,
September
19,
2013.
ISI
harbouring
top
IM
terrorists,
says
NIA:
Indian
Mujahideen
(IM)
co-founders
and
terrorists
Riyaz
Bhatkal
and
Iqbal
Bhatkal
are
being
"harboured"
by
Pakistan's
Intelligence
agency
Inter
Services
Intelligence
(ISI),
the
National
Investigation
Agency
(NIA)
on
September
17
told
a
Delhi
court.
The
NIA
said
that
as
per
disclosure
of
arrested
IM
co-founder
Yasin
Bhatkal,
both
Riyaz
and
Iqbal
are
now
residing
in
Pakistan
and
they
used
to
communicate
with
each
other
in
coded
language
through
the
Internet.
PTI,
September
18,
2013.
IM
looking
for
tie-up
with
al
Qaeda,
reveals
Yasin
Bhatkal:
Indian
Mujahedeen's
(IM)
'operational
chief'
in
India,
Yasin
Bhatkal,
who
was
arrested
on
August
28,
2013,
during
his
interrogation
admitted
that
the
IM
wants
to
join
hands
with
the
al
Qaeda
for
"joint
operations"
in
India
and
has
even
held
talks
with
a
senior
leader
of
the
outfit.
These
revelations
come
within
days
of
al
Qaeda
'chief'
Ayman
al-Zawahiri
endorsing
the
right
of
militants
to
fight
"Indians
in
Kashmir"
in
his
first
specific
jihad
(holy
war)
guidelines.
Hindustan
Times,
September
19,
2013.
Maoists
to
kill
rather
than
hold
hostages
for
long,
claims
report:
The
Communist
Party
of
India-Maoist
(CPI-Maoist)
plan
to
limit
the
use
of
abduction
as
a
tactic
to
mount
pressure
on
the
Government
to
extract
political
benefits
as
well
as
release
of
their
jailed
comrades.
The
targets
for
abduction
would
be
chosen
carefully
that
would
get
the
Government
to
surrender.
The
target
will
not
be
held
hostage
for
too
long
or
released
if
the
Government
does
not
give
into
the
left-wing
extremists'
demands.
Instead,
the
hostage
will
be
killed
shortly
after
abduction.
Times
of
India,
September
19,
2013.
Maoists
form
'new
division'
in
Odisha:
In
a
move
to
gain
control
over
the
rich
bauxite
mining
zones
of
Niyamgiri
area
of
Rayagada
District
and
Karlapat
area
of
Kalahandi
District,
the
Communist
Party
of
India-Maoist
(CPI-Maoist)
created
a
'special
division'
for
these
areas
to
prevent
the
mining
companies
to
explore
and
exploit
the
resources.
Earlier,
the
Maoists
were
using
the
jungles
of
Kalahandi
and
Nuapada
Districts
as
their
corridor
to
move
out
from
Chhattisgarh,
but
now
they
are
concentrating
in
these
areas
with
a
full-fledged
division.
Daily
Pioneer,
September
21,
2013.
200
Northeastern
militants
taking
shelter
in
Bangladesh:
Despite
the
crackdown
launched
by
the
Government
of
Bangladesh,
around
200
members
of
militant
groups
of
the
North
East
region
of
India
are
still
taking
shelter
in
the
neighbouring
country.
A
list
of
the
shelter
points
was
handed
over
to
Bangladesh
during
the
recent
meeting
between
the
Border
Security
Force
and
Borer
Guard
Bangladesh.
Assam
Tribune,
September
20,
2013.
Jharkhand
Police
concerned
over
Maoists
acquiring
know-how
to
use
chemical
weapons:
Jharkhand
Police
on
September
20
said
it
is
concerned
over
Communist
Party
of
India-Maoist
(CPI-Maoist)
acquiring
the
capacity
to
use
chemical
weapons.
Additional
Director
of
General
Police
(Law
and
Order)
and
State
Police
Spokesperson
SN
Pradhan
said,
"Maoists
have
got
training
to
use
methane
and
nitrogen
compounds
in
liquid
form.
Such
liquid
form
of
chemical
weapons
are
hung
on
trees
or
thrown
on
Security
Forces,
and
they
set
off
a
fire."
Daily
Pioneer,
September
21,
2013.
RTI
latest
weapon
in
LWE
extremists'
hands
to
target
contractors,
says
report:
The
Left
Wing
Extremists
(LWEs)
in
Jharkhand
are
using
proxies
to
file
Right
to
Information
(RTI)
applications
to
gather
details
about
government
projects
in
order
to
target
businessmen
and
contractors
for
extortion.
Police
have
recovered
RTI
documents
from
a
training
camp
of
the
People's
Liberation
Front
of
India
(PLFI),
a
breakaway
faction
of
the
Communist
Party
of
India-Maoist
(CPI-Maoist),
in
Torpa
forests,
which
have
details
of
30-odd
Government
projects
under
Khunti
District
rural
development
agency,
with
names
of
contractors
and
estimated
costs.
Times
of
India,
September
17,
2013.
NEPAL
CPN-Maoist-Baidya
launches
"donation
campaign"
in
Rukum
District
to
obstruct
CA
elections:
Mohan
Baidya-led
Communist
Party
Nepal-Maoist
(CPN-Maoist-Baidya)
has
launched
"donation
campaign"
in
Rukum
District
to
obstruct
the
scheduled
November
19
Constitution
Assembly
(CA)
elections.
The
party
has
prepared
a
list
of
around
500
people
including
Government
and
non-Government
staffers,
entrepreneurs,
businessmen
and
contractors
as
possible
donors.
The
party
has
demanded
donations
ranging
from
NPR
20,000
and
NPR
2,
00,000.
Republica,
September
21,
2013.
EC
extends
deadline
for
the
registration
of
candidacy
by
a
week:
The
Election
Commission
(EC)
on
September
19
extended
the
deadline
for
the
registration
of
candidacy
by
a
week
a
day
after
cabinet's
request
for
the
same.
A
meeting
of
the
EC
extended
the
deadline
for
the
registration
of
candidacy
without
affecting
the
final
date
of
Constituent
Assembly
(CA)
elections
scheduled
for
November
19.
With
the
latest
extension,
the
proportional
candidates
will
now
have
to
be
registered
by
September
30,
while
the
direct
candidates
have
to
be
registered
by
September
17.
Nepal
News,
September
20,
2013.
President
approves
ordinance
to
make
601
members
in
CA
as
recommended
by
the
Government:
President
Ram
Baran
Yadav
on
September
18
approved
Constituent
Assembly
Member
Election
(First
Amendment)
Ordinance,
2070,
endorsing
that
the
to
be
elected
Constituent
Assembly
(CA)
will
have
601
members,
as
recommended
by
the
Government.
According
to
the
Office
of
the
President,
the
Head
of
State
endorsed
the
Ordinance
as
per
Article
88
(1)
of
the
Interim
Constitution.
The
President
on
September
17
issued
an
order
to
remove
constitutional
difficulties.
Himalayan
Times,
September
19,
2013.
PAKISTAN
86
civilians
and
14
militants
among
102
persons
killed
during
the
week
in
Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa:
As
many
as
81
persons
were
killed
and
145
others
injured
when
two
suicide
attackers
blew
themselves
up
at
the
end
of
Sunday
service
at
All
Saints
Church
near
Qissa
Khawani
bazaar
in
Peshawar
(Peshawar
District),
the
provincial
capital
of
Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa,
on
September
22.
At
least
12
militants
were
killed
and
two
soldiers
were
injured
in
a
shootout
near
the
Pak-Afghan
border
in
Lower
Dir
District
on
September
21.
Three
persons
were
killed
and
20
others
injured
in
the
night
of
September
19
in
a
hand
grenade
attack
near
a
mosque
in
the
Sarband
area
of
Peshawar.
Daily
Times;
Dawn;
The
News;
Tribune;
Central
Asia
Online;
The
Nation;
The
Frontier
Post;
Pakistan
Today;
Pakistan
Observer,
September
17-23,
2013.
Afghan
Taliban
'second-in-command'
Mullah
Abdul
Ghani
Baradar
awaits
fate
in
Karachi
safe
house:
Mullah
Abdul
Ghani
Baradar,
former
Afghan
Taliban
'second-in-command'
released
from
jail
on
September
21
is
being
kept
in
a
'safe
house'
in
Karachi.
The
whereabouts
of
Baradar
had
been
the
subject
of
speculation
since
Pakistan
announced
he
would
be
released.
Tribune,
September
23,
2013.
Federal
Government's
new
list
of
proscribed
outfits
reaches
52,
according
to
BBC
Urdu
report:
The
Federal
Government
on
September
19
prepared
a
new
list
of
52
proscribed
outfits
involved
in
militancy
and
extremism,
according
to
a
BBC
Urdu
report
quoting
sources
in
the
Interior
Ministry.
A
previous
list,
prepared
by
the
Interior
Ministry
under
former
ruling
Pakistan
People's
Party
(PPP),
had
23
such
outfits.
According
to
the
sources,
al
Qaeda
tops
the
new
list.
In
the
previous
list,
the
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
(LeJ)
had
secured
the
first
place
with
the
Tehreek-e-Taliban
Pakistan
(TTP)
on
the
second
spot.
BBC
Urdu,
September
20,
2013.
Federal
Cabinet
approves
amendments
to
anti-terrorism
laws:
Federal
Cabinet
on
September
20
approved
a
draft
of
amendments
to
anti-terrorism
laws
in
an
effort
to
further
empowering
law
enforcement
agencies
for
better
handling
of
terror-related
cases.
The
draft
bill,
which
will
later
be
presented
before
the
Parliament
for
approval,
is
aimed
at
curbing
the
menace
of
terrorism
and
giving
special
powers
to
security
forces.
It
also
provides
ensuring
protection
of
witnesses
in
terrorism
cases.
Dawn,
September
21,
2013.
Supreme
Court
orders
law
enforcers
to
arrest
1,500
suspected
terrorists
and
33,000
absconding
criminals
in
Karachi:
The
Supreme
Court
during
hearing
of
the
suo
motu
case
on
September
20
on
the
deteriorating
law
and
order
situation
in
Karachi
headed
by
Chief
Justice
Iftikhar
Muhammad
Chaudhry
ordered
the
Police
and
Rangers
to
arrest
1,500
suspected
terrorists
and
33,000
absconding
criminals
still
at
large
in
Karachi.
He
asked
the
Federal
and
Provincial
Governments
to
ensure
the
ongoing
'targeted
operation'
in
Karachi
continues
to
be
effective
-
unlike
operations
in
the
past.
Tribune,
September
21,
2013.
Federal
Cabinet
approves
extraordinary
powers
for
the
Paramilitary
Rangers
to
stamp
out
crimes
from
Karachi:
On
September
20,
the
Federal
Cabinet
approved
'extraordinary
powers'
for
the
Paramilitary
Rangers
in
an
effort
to
stamp
out
crimes
from
Karachi.
The
Paramilitary
Force
has
already
been
mandated
to
carry
out
surgical
operations
against
criminal
gangs
in
the
city.
Tribune,
September
21,
2013.
Talks
with
TTP
come
to
a
standstill,
says
Federal
Minister
for
Interior
Chaudhry
Nisar
Ali
Khan:Federal
Minister
for
Interior
Chaudhry
Nisar
Ali
Khan
on
September
19
told
the
National
Assembly
that
a
move
for
a
peace
dialogue
with
the
Tehreek-e-Taliban
Pakistan
(TTP)
had
"come
to
a
standstill"
with
a
"serious
blow"
from
September
15,
2013,
attack
in
Upper
Dir
District
of
Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa
that
killed
a
Major
General
Sanaullah.
He
said
that
the
military
and
opposition
would
be
consulted
in
reviewing
the
process.
Dawn,
September
20,
2013.
SRI
LANKA
TNA
sweeps
elections
for
NPC:
The
Tamil
National
Alliance
(TNA)
swept
the
elections
held
for
the
Northern
Provincial
Council
(NPC)
on
September
21.
The
TNA
secured
a
landslide
victory,
winning
in
all
five
Districts
in
the
Province,
with
a
clear
majority
in
28
of
36
seats.
These
included
14
seats
in
Jaffna
District;
four
seats
each
in
Mullaitivu
and
Vavuniya;
and
three
each
in
Mannar
and
Kilinochchi.
The
TNA
also
secured
two
bonus
seats
on
the
basis
of
its
percentage
of
votes
in
each
District.
The
United
People's
Freedom
Alliance
(UPFA)
secured
seven
seats
and
the
Sri
Lanka
Muslim
Congress
(SLMC)
won
one
seat
out
of
the
total
of
38
seats
in
the
NPC.
The
UPFA
secured
a
convincing
victory
in
two
others
Councils
-
North
Western
Provincial
Council
and
Central
Provincial
Council
-
elections
for
which
were
held
on
the
same
day,
September
21.
It
obtained
34
of
52
seats
in
the
North
Western
Provincial
Council,
and
36
of
58
seats
in
the
Central
Provincial
Council.
Colombo
Page,
September
22,
2013.
Sri
Lanka
won't
allow
anti-India
acts
from
its
soil,
says
President
Mahinda
Rajapaksa:
President
Mahinda
Rajapaksa
in
an
interview
said
that
he
will
not
allow
any
country
to
act
against
the
interests
of
India
from
Sri
Lankan
soil.
Rajapaksa
made
the
comment
after
ascertaining
New
Delhi's
concern
about
China's
presence
in
Sri
Lanka.
When
asked
about
the
deteriorating
ties
between
the
two
countries
due
to
coalition
pressures
on
New
Delhi
from
partners
in
Tamil
Nadu,
he
conveyed
his
worries
about
"the
message
of
separatism"
still
emanating
from
Tamil
Nadu.
Daily
Mirror,
September
17,
2013.
The South
Asia Intelligence Review (SAIR) is a weekly service that
brings you regular data, assessments and news briefs on
terrorism, insurgencies and sub-conventional warfare, on
counter-terrorism responses and policies, as well as on
related economic, political, and social issues, in the South
Asian region.
SAIR is a project
of the Institute
for Conflict Management
and the
South
Asia Terrorism Portal.
|
|
|