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SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Weekly Assessments & Briefings
Volume 15, No. 1, July 4, 2016
 
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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
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Radical
Escalation
Ajai
Sahni
Editor,
SAIR; Executive Director, Institute for Conflict Management
& South Asia Terrorism Portal
The July
2, 2016, hostage crisis and slaughter at the Holey Artisan
restaurant in upscale Gulshan, Dhaka, was unprecedented
in its character and scale in the history of terrorism
in Bangladesh. It reflects an abrupt escalation of the
challenge for the state apparatus and raises complex questions
of counter-terrorist (CT) responses in the past, and of
future imperatives.
CT strategies
and tactics are unlikely, however, to be better informed
by the shrill cacophony of global commentary on this incident,
and on initiatives of the Bangladesh Government to contain
Islamist radicalization and terrorism in this country.
Such commentary has been overwhelmingly unaware of, or
has studiously ignored, the history of state-backed Islamist
radicalization under preceding regimes over decades, and
the inextricable intermeshing of the principal political
parties in Opposition – the Bangladesh Nationalist Party
(BNP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) – and processes of
radicalization and violent Islamist mobilization. Worse,
much of this commentary, particularly a powerful stream
emerging from the West, has been actively hostile and
obstructive to the Sheikh Hasina Government’s efforts
to reverse trends towards radicalization in the country,
including her extraordinary commitment to bring the guilty
of the 1971 War Crimes to justice.
Given the
sheer ignorance of or disinformation implicit in, much
of the discourse, it is necessary to reiterate, here,
that those who participated in the atrocities during the
Liberation War of 1971 (an estimated three million were
killed and 10 million were displaced in nine months of
genocidal war and campaigns of mass rape waged by the
Pakistan Army against its own people) were the very groups
and individuals who came to dominate the processes of
Islamist radicalization in the country once they were
‘rehabilitated’ to political prominence after the assassination
of the country’s first President and subsequently Prime
Minister, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and the slaughter of
almost his entire family, in 1975. Sheikh Hasina and her
sister Sheikh Rehana (who were outside Bangladesh at the
time of the coup), were the only members of Mujibur Rahman’s
immediate family to survive the massacre. Zia-ur-Rahman,
an Army General who seized power after two years of chaos
thereafter, and declared himself President, promulgated
an Indemnity Ordinance which conferred immunity from prosecution
on the Army officers who plotted and executed the bloody
coup against Mujibur Rahman. Begum Khaleda Zia, the chief
of the Opposition BNP, is the widow of Ziaur Rahman. There
is deep, enduring, personal and bloody history here, and
current incidents and trends in terrorism in Bangladesh
cannot be correctly assessed unless they are placed squarely
within its context.
One of
the crucial questions that the Holey Artisan attack has
revived – as has every stabbing and hacking incident in
Bangladesh over the past months – is the role of Daesh
(Islamic State, previously Islamic State of Iraq and al
Sham). Daesh has regularly claimed every single incident
of Islamist terrorism, including the succession of hackings/stabbings
since September 2015. It is useful to remind ourselves,
here, that this series of targeted attacks – against intellectuals,
bloggers, atheists, ‘anti-Islamic’ individuals, minorities,
and foreigners – began well before Daesh saw a propaganda
opportunity in it. Indeed, ‘lists’ of individuals marked
for brutal murder, were circulated soon after the Shabagh
Movement was initiated in February
2013, and the first
killing in this sequence – Ahmad
Rajib Haider’s – dates back to February 15, 2013. The
early succession
of murders attracted fitful attention;
but once the local perpetrators began to announce affiliation
to Daesh or to al Qaeda, these supposed acts of ‘international
terrorism’ excited great attention in Western capitals
and media.
The Bangladesh
Government has consistently denied any international terrorist
formation’s presence in the country – particularly including
Daesh and al Qaeda. These denials have been cavalierly
dismissed by most commentators, who have displayed a sustained
preference for hysteria over reality. The problem, essentially,
is that ‘presence’, ‘collaboration’, ‘affiliation’, or
any of their variants, are left intentionally undefined.
Consequently, the bare claim that a group or individual
is ‘affiliated to’ or ‘represents’ Daesh is sufficient
proof of the ‘fact’.
It is,
however, meaningless to speak of such affiliation or representation
unless some operational linkages – the transfer of resources,
technologies, fighters, know how, training, or the chain
of command and control – are demonstrated. This has not
been the case in a single incident in the past.
The Holey
Bakery attack, on first sight, appears to be an exception.
The attackers sent pictures from the place of their butchery
to a private Daesh-linked email account during their operation,
and these pictures were almost immediately uploaded. To
many, this suggests incontrovertible proof of the Daesh
‘presence’ in Bangladesh, and the Government’s insistence
that the operation was executed by a domestic terrorist
formation, the Jamaat-ul-Mujahiddeen Bangladesh (JMB),
rings hollow.
Available
intelligence, however, suggests that these were one-way
communications, and that no contact between the perpetrators
of the Holey Bakery attack and Daesh command existed prior
to the attack. Of course, once the photographs had been
sent, Daesh quickly seized the opportunity to claim the
attack, but there is no suggestion that it had any prior
awareness even of the existence of this group. This has
been the pattern of past claims as well, absent the ‘validating’
photographs, with local killers claiming Daesh affiliation
and Daesh grabbing the chance to claim another wilayat
(province) in its imagined global empire.
What is
actually happening, here, is that factions or elements
within existing domestic terrorist or radicalised groups
have announced a transfer of their loyality to Daesh,
even as they continue to engage in precisely the kind
of activities they were involved in even before such a
transfer. There is no augmentation of capacities or of
resources.
The reality
is, the Sheikh Hasina Government has decimated
the leadership of established Islamist
terrorist formations and their sympathetic institutions,
and fragmented their remnants. Enormously weakened splinters
have long been attempting to regroup, but have found few
takers for their domestic agenda, despite the enormous
proliferation of Islamist fundamentalist and radical institutions
in the country over the past decades. In identifying with
global jihadist organizations the surviving fractions
evidently hope to improve their capacities for local mobilization
– and are being enormously aided in this by the Western
media and political leaderships who have accepted all
claims of such institutional and ideological identity
at face value, and compounded the sensation and hysteria
around even the most minor acts of terrorism, offering
vast quantities of the ‘oxygen of publicity’ to tiny and
marginalized groupings. At the same time, they have mounted
vicious critiques of Dhaka, on the one hand, for its ‘failure’
to rein in terrorists, and, on the other, against the
purported ‘excesses’ against political groups aligned
to these.
This does,
of course, raise the question of the abrupt escalation
in the Holey Bakery attack, from the stabbings and hackings
of the past (though this was the method of choice by which
the perpetrators dispatched their hostages in this case
as well) to this relatively sophisticated operation using
automatic weapons and explosives. Such capabilities have
long existed within terrorist groups in Bangladesh, though
they were not domestically deployed. Indeed, through 2004-2008,
a Bangladeshi
‘footprint’ was recorded in almost
every major Islamist terrorist attack in India, outside
Jammu & Kashmir, particularly involving Harkat-ul-Jihad
Isalmi Bangladesh (HuJI-B),
often in collaboration with Pakistani formations such
as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT),
Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM)
and Harkat-ul-Mujahiddeen (HuM),
among others, as well as with the Indian Mujahiddeen (IM).
Bangladesh has, moreover, long been a major transit route
for the smuggling of small arms and explosives into India’s
troubled Northeast, and is domestically awash with such
weapons. These capacities were not domestically deployed,
first, because radical Islamist groups enjoyed significant
state support under the BNP-JeI regime, and were used
to sustain a calibrated campaign of intimidation through
low grade terrorism and street violence; and subsequently,
under the shock of the sweeping measures initiated by
the Sheikh Hasina regime since 2009, which decapitated
and dismantled most of the established terrorist formations
in the country. Evidently, a degree of recovery, at least
by small cells, has now been engineered.
Significantly,
the Bangladesh Government has suggested that Pakistan
and its external intelligence agency, the Inter Services
Intelligence (ISI), were likely behind the Holey Artisan
attack. Given the record of history, this is a credible
thesis. Pakistan has long meddled in internal affairs
in Bangladesh, principally through the BNP-JeI combine,
and its affiliate radical formations. Crucially, after
US and coalition forces swept across Afghanistan in the
wake of the 9/11 attacks, Pakistan facilitated the transfer
of large numbers of foreign and Bangladeshi fighters to
Bangladesh, and then fomented an accelerated process of
radicalization, creating a measure of instability that
inspired some of the more febrile minds of the time to
describe the country as “the next Afghanistan”. History
and generalized allegations, however, cannot suffice.
Bangladeshi authorities will have to provide concrete
evidence of direct operational linkages between the terrorists
at the Holey Artisan and the Pakistani intelligence establishment
or its proxies, if these charges are to stick.
Bangladesh
is a country of over 160 million, primarily Sunni, Muslims
– the population profile purportedly most susceptible
to the Wahabi lunacy that Daesh and al Qaeda represent.
And yet, the numbers of Bangladeshis who are believed
to have joined Daesh forces in Iraq-Syria are in the low
single digits (compared to the thousands who have flooded
this theatre from Western countries with minuscule Muslim
populations). Indeed, Daesh admits to its failure in what
it describes as ‘Bengal’, even while it claims the various
domestic terrorist strikes there. Thus, in a detailed
profile of its sole Bangladeshi ‘martyr’, the latest volume
(14) of Dabiq, the Daesh mouthpiece, concedes that
he is among the very few who have joined its jihad
in Iraq-Syria from this country, observing,
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Abu Jandal al-Bangali (may Allah accept him) was
among the few muwahhidn who emigrated from the land
of Bengal to the blessed land of Sham by Allah's
grace… Abu Jandalgrew up in Dhaka and came from
an affluent family with deep connections in the
Bengali military. His father was a murtadd officer
of the taghut forces and was killed during an internal
mutiny of "Bangladesh" border guards in "2009."
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This
did not happen on its own. With all its faults – and
I am not competent to comment on its political and economic
attainments or failings – the Sheikh Hasina Government
has done infinitely more against Islamist terrorism
and radicalization, certainly, than any other Government
in South Asia, and possibly any other Government in
the world; and it has done so despite the enormous hostility
of powerful forces in the West.
A second
perversity of the responses to the Holey Bakery attack
is the astonishment expressed by many to the profile
of the attackers – who came from ‘well to do’ backgrounds
and some of the best educational institutions in the
country. This astonishment should, in fact, be astonishing.
Despite voluminous documentation to the contrary, the
fiction that all Islamist terrorists are drawn from
madrassahs and from impoverished backgrounds, dominates
the commentary, and every time numerous exceptions are
brought to light (as, indeed, in the case of the Holey
Artisan attackers), this information is received with
an air of bewilderment. The reality is, there has always
been a significant representation of educated and relatively
affluent individuals (Osama bin Laden was not brought
up in destitution, nor was Ayman al Zawahiri), not only
among Islamist terrorists, but in terrorist movements
across the world. Why does the presence of some modestly
upper class children among terrorists in Bangladesh
raise so many questions, while Anders Behring Breivik,
scion of a wealthy family in the very staid and peaceful
community of Oslo in Norway, and who slaughtered 77
of his own countrymen and women, provokes no comparable
paroxysms of psychological analysis? Post World War
II terrorist movements in the West, including the Red
Army Faction (Baader-Meinhof Gang), the Japanese and
German Red Armies, the Italian Red Brigade, among others,
found their leaderships and recruits among the educated
and well off in Europe and Japan. Across South Asia,
numberless youth drawn from notable – and not just moderately
well off – families have joined various state-backed
and global ‘jihads’.
There
has, of course, been a further skew towards the mobilization
of the more educated and relatively affluent among those
who are attracted to Daesh. The reason for this should
be fairly obvious. Traditional Islamist terrorist recruitment
was face-to-face, and often preyed relatively disproportionately
on the poor and the poorly educated, and among its purportedly
‘natural’ constituency in madrassahs, mosques and other
fundamentalist idaras. Daesh’s global outreach
is overwhelmingly through the internet, and this creates
a natural educational and economic barrier to its mobilization.
Unless an individual is sufficiently educated to acquire
a certain minimal proficiency in the use of the internet,
and has access to a personal or private computer – internet
cafes are unlikely to be safe places to try to get into
Daesh websites over any extended period – they cannot
be targeted by Daesh propaganda and recruitment campaigns.
It is
crucial, here, to distinguish between radicalization
and mobilization/ recruitment. Despite all the noise
about cyber radicalization, very little radicalization
actually takes places on the internet. Individuals radicalized
within their own communities, or in sub-cultures within
their own communities, preferentially access extremist
Islamist propaganda material – including Daesh campaigns
– on the internet. It is, consequently, far more accurate
to speak of cyber mobilization and recruitment, rather
than cyber radicalization. This distinction is crucial,
and would have critical impact on the application of
CT resources and policies.
The Holey
Artisan has brought disproportionate attention to Islamist
terrorism and extremism in Bangladesh, and many have
speculated that this will catalyze a spike in terrorism,
not only in this country, but across the region. Some
‘experts’ are particularly concerned that Bangladesh
may emerge as a ‘base’ for attacks against India. Apart
from the fact that this has been the case in the past,
and that India needs to take care of its own security
much better than it presently does, it should equally
be realized that the prominence that this incident has
secured is a double edged weapon. Just as too much attention
has resulted in a crystallization of forces against
Daesh in Iraq-Syria, and consequent and mounting reverses,
the escalation that the Holey Artisan attack represents
can only galvanize the Sheikh Hasina Government to redouble
its efforts to identify and neutralize the Islamist
extremist complex in the country.
Crucially,
in this context, there is urgent need to abandon the
hypocrisy and opportunism that has dominated global
responses to terrorism, if any enduring success is to
be achieved. Every time there is an attack in the West,
there are calls for global cooperation against terror;
every time there is a stabbing, hacking, or, in the
present case, major terrorist incident, in Bangladesh,
a tirade of criticism is unleashed against the Sheikh
Hasina regime, arguing that her ‘stifling of the political
opposition’ has strengthened the extremists. This is
contrafactual nonsense, and displays an ignorance of
trends in radicalization, Islamist extremism and terrorism
in Bangladesh.
It is
not clear how arresting Islamists affiliated to political
formations that openly advocate radical Islam as their
official ideology is a violation of human rights in
Bangladesh; but banning the burqa, shutting down mosques,
indiscriminate arrests, and a rising politics of racist
hatred in the West, uphold the same human rights and
makes democracy secure. It is time to acknowledge that
domestic radicalization is the base on which international
terrorism builds, and that this is, equally, the case
in the ‘advanced’ countries, as it is in the relatively
disadvantaged. If there is to be any meaningful CT cooperation
across the world, there must be a clear recognition
of the political formations that contribute to and support
Islamist radicalization, on the one hand; and of those
that have stood firmly against these trends, on the
other.
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Manipur:
ILP: Impending Crisis
Deepak
Kumar Nayak
Research Assistant, Institute for Conflict Management
On June
23, 2016, normal life in Imphal and other areas was crippled
on the first day of the 48 hours State-wide bandh
(general shut down strike) imposed by the Joint Action
Committee (JAC) demanding implementation of the Inner
Line Permit (ILP) system in Manipur.
On the
same day, acting on specific intelligence, District Police
arrested Nameirakpam Mangi aka Yaima (48), the
‘publicity in-charge’ of the Joint Committee on Inner
Line Permit System (JCILPS), Sagolband New Cachar unit,
along with 27 Gelatine sticks, 50 detonators, two 6-foot
long non-electric safety fuses, two mobile phones and
one Honda Activa during a raid of on house in Yurembam
Mayai Leikai in Imphal West District. Nameirakpam, a member
of National Revolutionary Front of Manipur (NRFM), further
revealed that he was working under the direct command
of NRFM ‘commander’ Binodon aka Kishan aka
Wangba, and Dhabalo aka Paikhomba.
Earlier,
on June 15, 2016, a scuffle erupted between the Police
and protesters when Police fired tear gas shells as protesters
tried to storm the Chief Minister’s (CM) office after
a joint sit-in protest at Keishampat Leimajam Leikai Community
Hall in Imphal West District, over the ILP issue. Women
protesters lay down on the streets of Keishampat shouting
slogans such as, ‘Implement ILPS in the State’, ‘Go back
foreigners’, ‘Long live Manipur’ and ‘We condemn wanted
tag on Kh Ratan’ [Khomdram Ratan is the JCILPS convenor],
etc., as Police attempted to stop them from marching towards
the CM’s office.
ILP is
an official travel document issued by the Government of
India to permit inward travel of an Indian citizen into
a protected area for a limited period. It is obligatory
for Indians residing outside such restricted areas to
obtain permission prior to entering them. The system was
introduced by the British to protect their commercial
interests, particularly in oil and tea, and continues
now essentially as a mechanism to firewall the tribal
peoples and their cultures from economic and cultural
onslaughts by outsiders.
The first
demand for the extension of the ILP system to Manipur
was made in the Indian Parliament in 1980. The mass movement
in support of this demand Manipur commenced in 2011, after
Census of Manipur showed that the population of Non-Manipuris
in the State had grown at an alarming rate. According
to the 2011 Census, Manipur’s population is 2.7 million,
of which 1.7 million are indigenous people, while the
remaining one million have their roots outside the State.
The ILP system, intended to regulate the influx of migrants
and foreigners, presently exists in Nagaland, Mizoram
and Arunachal Pradesh. Significantly, urging the Centre
to introduce to include Manipur under the scheme, the
Manipur Assembly passed a resolution on July 13, 2012,
declaring: “That the Manipur Legislative Assembly passes
a Resolution to extend and adopt the Bengal Eastern Frontier
Regulations, 1873, with necessary changes in the point
of details to the State of Manipur and to urge the Government
of India to comply with the same.” The Bengal Eastern
Frontier Regulations, 1873, are the legislative underpinning
of the ILP. Further, during a debate in the Lok Sabha
(Lower House of Parliament) on November 29, 2012, Dr.
Thokchom Meinya, the Member of Parliament (MP) representing
the Inner Manipur constituency, strongly urged upon the
Union Government and the Home Ministry in particular to
immediately look into the matter of introducing the ILP
system in the State.
On March
16, 2015, the State Assembly passed a Bill "The Manipur
Regulation of Visitors, Tenants & Migrant Workers
Bill 2015" with a clause that purportedly enables
migrants to purchase land in Manipur. However, the Bill
made it mandatory for non-Manipuris to register themselves
with the Government for reasons of “their safety and security
and for the maintenance of public order”, upon entering
the State. The Bill was a step towards regulating the
movement of ‘outsiders’ and fulfilled the longstanding
demand of powerful local groups, but failed to satisfy
the hardliners. Expectedly, on June 25, 2015, the JCILPS,
an umbrella organisation of 30 civil bodies in Manipur,
restarted its agitation demanding withdrawal of the Bill
and also submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister,
Okram Ibobi Singh, urging the State to introduce a fresh
Bill that would restrict and regulate the influx of outsiders
and internal migrants, whose demographic influence ‘threatened
the socio-economic, cultural and political practices of
the people of the State’.
Regrettably,
the stir intensified with the killing of Sapam Robin Hood,
a class XI student, in Police firing on July 8, 2015,
when a large number of students from leading schools of
Imphal who joined the protesters to demand the introduction
of the ILP Bill in the July assembly session. The State
faced a complete blockade on numerous occasions. Subsequently,
on July 12, 2015, the Manipur Government withdrew the
controversial Manipur Regulation of Visitors, Tenants
and Migrant Workers' Bill, 2015. Thereafter, on August
28, 2015, the Manipur Legislative Assembly passed three
Bills - The
Protection of Manipur People’s Bill, 2015;
The
Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms (7th Amendment)
Bill 2015 and The
Manipur Shops and Establishment (MS&E) (2nd Amendment)
Bill 2015, each intended to check
various aspects of demographic imbalances in the State.
The Bills place restrictions on the entry into and exit
from Manipur for Non Manipur persons and tenants; prohibit
the sale of land belonging to a Scheduled Tribe (ST) person
in the Valley areas to a non-ST persons without the prior
consent of the Deputy Commissioner concerned; and make
it mandatory for all shop owners to register their employees,
respectively.
The tribal
communities in Manipur, including the Hmars, Nagas and
Kukis, have, however, spoken in unison against the Bills
as they suspect that these would lead to dilution of tribal
rights over their lands. Tribal groups like the Kuki Students'
Organisation (KSO), the All Naga Students' Union of Manipur
(ANSAM) and the United Naga Council (UNC) raised a united
voice, particularly against the land Bill. The crux of
the problem of the Bills is in their interpretation. While
the Valley people, predominantly Meiteis, view the Bills
as a mechanism to protect the State and its people from
outsiders, the Hill people (various tribal formations)
see the Bills as a threat to their rights over identity
and land.
Unfortunately,
the agitation intensified when nine protesting tribal
youth were killed in Police firing on August 31, 2015,
at Churachandpur District. According to reports, the bodies
of the victims are still being kept at a morgue, as family
members refuse to claim them as a mark of protest. H.
Mangchinkhup, the convener of the Joint Action Committee
against Inner Line Permit (JACILP) declared, on December
9, 2015, “We will not bury the bodies till the three Bills
are repealed. They will be kept in the morgue in Churachandpur
till our demands are met.” In view of the opposition from
the tribal groups in the State, the Governor did not give
his assent to the Bills but sent them to the President
on September 16, 2015, with the remark: "I reserve
the Bills for consideration of the President."
Significantly,
on May 11, 2016, President Pranab Mukherjee issued his
response, remarking: "I withhold assent from the
Bills." However, the Chief Minister of Manipur and
other political leaders kept this information as a closely
guarded secret for over a month, while people continued
to demonstrate in the streets demanding implementation
of ILP.
On June
19, 2016, JACILP thanked the President of India and the
Union Government for upholding the sanctity of the Constitution
by withholding the Protection of Manipur People’s Bill,
2015, and wished and prayed that the Bill along with the
other two ‘anti-tribal’ Bills – the Manipur Land Revenue
and Land Reforms (Seventh Amendment) Bill, 2015 and the
Manipur Shops and Establishments (Second Amendment) Bill,
2015 – be rejected.
The recent
chain of protests was sparked on June 10, 2016, when a
10-day economic blockade and ban on construction of all
ongoing national projects in Hill (tribal) areas began
in Manipur, leaving a large number of goods-laden trucks
stranded on the inter-State borders. The blockade was
jointly called by JAC of Churachandpur and an apex tribal
body Outer Manipur Tribal’s Forum (OMTF) comprising UNC,
Zomi Council, Thadou Inpi, Hmar Inpui and Mizo People
Convention (MPC), protesting against the process of implementation
of ILPS in Manipur through conversion of the three ILP-related
Bills into Acts.
On the
other hand, demanding the speedy implementation of the
ILP system, on June 25, 2016, a group of people staged
a protest demonstration under the aegis of the Thangmeiband
Kendra Development Organisation (TAKDO), led by Thangmeiband
Assembly Constituency (AC) Member of the Legislative Assembly
(MLA) Khomdram Joykisan. Protestors displayed placards
that read: “Government of Manipur should not blemish democracy”,
“Enforce ILPS in Manipur”, “We condemn declaration of
former JCILPS convenor Khomdram Ratan as wanted man” etc.
Other groups
of the State also came forward to show their solidarity
with the demand for implementation of ILP. On June 27,
2016, sit-in-protests were staged at different places
in the State under the aegis of JCILPS, with participation
of numerous organisations, including Haobam Marak Lourembam
Leikai, Haobam Marak Chingtham Leikai, Konjeng Leikai
Club Keithel, Konjeng Langpoklakpam Leikai, Kwakeithel
Konjeng Leikai, Kwakeithel Konjeng Awang Leikai and Kwakeithel
Lamdong Leikai. Women’s groups such as Women’s Welfare
Association, Yumnam Khunou Makha Leikai, Women’s Empowerment
Association, Yumnam Khunou, Meira Paibis (Mothers’ Association)
of Wangkhei Khunou, Sinam and Ishikha, also participated
in the protests.
Meanwhile,
apprehensions were raised among other groups as well.
Announcing the formation of the United Gorkha Committee
Manipur (UGCM) on June 27, 2016, Hari Prasad Nepal, Bhumi
Prasad Vikas and Shiva Kumar Basnet, who were elected
as president, vice president and general secretary, respectively,
gave an assurance that grievances and issues related to
the Gorkha community would be addressed, and that the
Gorkha position would be voiced before the new drafting
committee on ILP system.
On June
28, 2016, Manipur Deputy CM Gaikhangam urged all stakeholders
of the Hills and Valley to extend sincere cooperation
to the State Government in drafting a new and inclusive
ILP related Bill in the State Assembly, asserting, “The
anti-Bill group from the Hills is still reluctant to come
out for a clear-cut solution. They should also join the
effort to help introduce a new Bill.”
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 aggravated tensions between various
ethnic communities. The Centre’s propensity 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 competing ethnic demands and rivalries, and the
failure of the State to resolve the consequent conflicts,
continue to undermine peace in the State.
|
Weekly Fatalities: Major
Conflicts in South Asia
June
27-July 3, 2016
|
|
Civilians
|
Security
Force Personnel
|
Terrorists/Insurgents
|
Total
|
|
BANGLADESH
|
|
|
Islamist Terrorism
|
22
|
2
|
9
|
33
|
|
INDIA
|
|
|
Jammu and
Kashmir
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
4
|
|
Left-Wing
Extremism
|
|
|
Chhattisgarh
|
1
|
0
|
3
|
4
|
|
Jharkhand
|
2
|
0
|
7
|
9
|
|
Maharashtra
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
|
Total (INDIA)
|
3
|
0
|
15
|
18
|
|
PAKISTAN
|
|
|
Balochistan
|
2
|
7
|
3
|
12
|
|
KP
|
1
|
3
|
1
|
5
|
|
Sindh
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
|
Total (PAKISTAN)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Provisional
data compiled from English language media sources.
|
BANGLADESH28
persons
including
20
civilians,
six
militants
and
two
Police
officers
killed
in
hostage
crisis
in
Dhaka
city:
28
persons
including
20
civilians,
six
militants
and
two
Police
officers
were
killed
in
a
hostage
crisis
at
Holey
Artisan
Bakery,
a
Spanish
restaurant
at
Dhaka
city's
Gulshan
diplomatic
zone.
Joint
Security
Force
led
by
Army
brought
to
end
an
unprecedented
hostage
situation
rescuing
13
people
who
include
Indian
and
Japanese
citizens
almost
12
hours
after
gunmen
stormed
the
popular
restaurant.
Around
53
people,
including
several
Policemen,
were
injured
in
an
exchange
of
gunfire
between
Police
and
gunmen
who
stormed
a
Spanish
restaurant
on
July
1
night
and
took
the
people
inside
hostage.
One
militant
was
arrested
in
the
incident.
According
to
US-based
SITE
Intelligence
Group,
Islamic
State
(IS)
has
claimed
responsibility
of
the
attack.
The
Daily
Star,
July
2,
2016.
Prime
Minister
blames
BNP-JeI
alliance
for
carrying
out
secret
killings:
Prime
Minister
Sheikh
Hasina
while
speaking
at
Parliament
on
June
29
blamed
the
Bangladesh
Nationalist
Party
(BNP)-Jamaat-e-Islami
(JeI)
alliance
for
carrying
out
secret
killings.
"The
man
[Golam
Faizullah
Fahim]
who
had
attacked
a
Madaripur
college
teacher
was
caught
red-handed
by
local
people.
My
question
is
why
Khaleda
Zia
is
crying
crocodile
tears
for
him,"
the
Prime
Minister
PM
told
Parliament.
This
proves
that
the
BNP-JeI
has
a
link
with
the
secret
killings,
she
claimed.
The
Daily
Star,
June
30,
2016.
A
militant
kingpin
had
been
residing
in
country
and
she
is
BNP
Chairperson
Begum
Khaleda
Zia,
says
Health
and
Family
Welfare
Minister
Mohammad
Nasim:
Health
and
Family
Welfare
Minister
Mohammad
Nasim
while
speaking
as
the
chief
guest
at
a
discussion
and
Iftar
Mahfil
organised
at
Doctor
Milon
Auditorium
of
Bangabandhu
Sheikh
Mujib
Medical
University
(BSMMU)
at
Shahbagh
intersection
in
Dhaka
city
on
June
27
said
that
a
militant
kingpin
had
been
residing
in
the
country
and
she
is
Bangladesh
Nationalist
Party
(BNP)
Chairperson
Begum
Khaleda
Zia.
"Peace
will
be
restored
in
the
country
if
she
could
be
restrained,"
he
said.
Dhaka
Tribune,
June
28,
2016.
INDIAUMHA
presents
report
card
to
Prime
Minister
Narendra
Modi
on
internal
security:
The
Union
Ministry
of
Home
Affairs
(UMHA)
on
July
1
gave
a
detailed
presentation
to
Prime
Minister
(PM)
Narendra
Modi
on
the
country's
internal
security
scenario
and
the
steps
taken
to
strengthen
it
through
multi-pronged
strategy.
Led
by
Union
Home
Minister
(UHM)
Rajnath
Singh,
the
top
brass
of
the
home
ministry
briefed
the
Prime
Minister
on
issues
ranging
from
terrorism,
infiltration
from
across
the
border,
activities
of
left
wing
extremism,
situation
in
Jammu
&
Kashmir
and
northeast
during
the
three-hour-long
meeting.
Times
of
India,
July
2,
2016.
Centre
urges
to
hold
Unified
Command
meets
more
often:
The
Centre
on
June
27
asked
four
Naxal-Left-Wing
Extremism
(LWE)-hit
States-Bihar,
Jharkhand,
Odisha
and
West
Bengal-to
frequently
hold
Unified
Command
meetings
for
formulating
a
strategy
to
tackle
the
issue
effectively.
The
Union
Minister
of
Home
Affairs
(UMH)
Rajnath
Singh
conveyed
this
at
the
Eastern
Zonal
Council
meeting
held
in
Ranchi,
official
sources
said.
Singh
also
cited
the
example
of
Jharkhand
where
splinter
groups
of
the
Communist
Party
of
India-Maoist
(CPI-Maoist)
have
been
active
and
tackling
them
required
coordination
among
forces
and
better
strategy.
Times
of
India
July
2,
2016.
US
designates
AQIS
in
the
'foreign
terrorist
organisation:
The
United
States
(US)
on
June
30,
designated
al-Qaeda
in
the
Indian
Subcontinent
(AQIS)
as
a
"foreign
terrorist
organisation"
(FTO)
and
added
its
'chief'
Asim
Umar
to
its
list
of
global
terrorists.
The
US
State
Department's
Bureau
of
Counterterrorism
announced
the
designation,
coinciding
with
the
visit
to
India
by
US
Under
Secretary
for
Political
Affairs,
Thomas
Shannon.
He
met
Union
Home
Minister
Rajnath
Singh
and
NSA
Ajit
K
Doval,
a
day
after
meeting
counterpart
Foreign
Secretary
S
Jaishankar.
The Indian Express,
July
1,
2016.
HM
warns
of
retaliatory
strikes
in
Delhi:
The
militant
group
Hizb-ul-Mujahideen
(HM)
on
June
28,
warned
of
attacks
in
New
Delhi
if
'innocent
civilians
were
targeted'
in
Jammu
and
Kashmir.
"[Security]
Forces
harass
and
target
civilians
and
such
tactics
will
have
serious
ramifications.
If
they
continue
to
target
innocent
civilians,
then
militants
will
spread
their
net
in
New
Delhi
and
will
strike
there,"
said
HM
chief
Syed
Salahuddin
in
a
statement
issued
to
news
services
in
Srinagar.
Salahuddin,
who
according
to
the
statement
chaired
a
meeting
at
an
undisclosed
location
in
Pakistan-occupied
Kashmir
(POK),
praised
the
militants
for
intensifying
their
attacks
on
the
Security
Forces
in
Kashmir.
The Hindu,
June
30,
2016.
Pakistan
Army
training
LeT
and
JeM
terrorists
in
Pakistan's
Punjab
province,
adjacent
to
Indian
border,
says
report:
A
report
on
June
30
claimed
that
Lashkar-e-Taiba
(LeT)
and
Jaish-e-Mohammad
(JeM)
have
set
up
terror
camps
in
Pakistan's
Punjab
province,
which
is
adjacent
to
the
Indian
borders.
The
report
said
the
terrorists
are
being
trained
by
Pakistani
Army.
Report
further
stated
that
the
terrorists
belonging
to
the
dreaded
Pakistan
based
terror
groups
are
trying
to
infiltrate
and
planning
to
execute
Pathankot-type
attack
in
India.
Zee News ,
June
30,
2016.
Gorkhas
form
body
to
meet
new
drafting
committee
on
ILPS
Bills
in
Manipur:
The
Gorkhas
of
Manipur
on
June
27
formed
a
new
organization
to
be
the
apex
body
of
the
Gorkha
community
in
the
State
to
address
the
grievances
and
issues
related
to
the
Gorkhas
and
represent
the
Gorkha
community
in
sharing
views
and
opinions
with
the
new
drafting
committee
on
Inner
Line
Permit
System
(ILPS).
The
newly
formed
Gorkha
organization
christened
United
Gorkha
Committee
Manipur
(UGCM)
was
formed
during
a
meeting
at
Rose
English
High
School
in
Kanglatongbi
in
Imphal
West
District.
The Sangaie
Epress,
June
29,
2016.
NEPAL
Federalism
implementation
committee
holds
first
meeting
under
Chairmanship
of
Prime
Minister
KP
Sharma
Oli:
The
first
meeting
of
the
High-Level
Federalism
Implementation
and
Administration
Restructuring
Directive
Committee
was
held
under
the
Chairmanship
of
Prime
Minister
and
Committee
Chairman,
KP
Sharma
Oli,
at
Singha
Durbar
in
Kathmandu,
on
July
1.
The
meeting
was
held
with
an
objective
of
accelerating
works
related
to
federalism,
said
Deputy
Prime
Minister
and
Minister
for
Defense
Bhim
Rawal.
My
Republica,
July
2,
2016.
PAKISTANDrones
killed
only
64
to
116
civilians
since
2009,
says
United
States:
The
White
House
released
a
report
on
July
1
claiming
that
US
drones
killed
only
64
to
116
civilians
in
473
strikes
launched
between
January
20,
2009
and
December
31,
2015.
The
drone
strikes
also
killed
2,372
to
2,581
combatants
during
this
period,
the
White
House
added.
The
report
covers
strikes
only
in
areas
"outside
of
active
hostilities",
which
include
Pakistan,
Yemen,
Libya
and
Somalia.
Afghanistan,
Iraq
and
Syria
are
not
covered
because
they
fall
in
"areas
of
active
hostilities".
Dawn,
July
2,
2016.
Islamabad
allows
Afghan
refugees
to
stay
in
country
until
December
31,
2016:
Pakistan
Government
on
the
request
of
United
Nations
High
Commissioner
for
Refugees
(UNHCR)
Filippo
Grandi
on
June
29,
extended
the
deadline
for
voluntary
repatriation
of
registered
Afghan
refugees
until
December
31,
2016.
According
to
the
sources,
Grandi
had
asked
the
Government
to
extend
the
stay
of
the
Afghan
refugees
in
the
country
for
another
three
years.
The
Government
however
told
him
that
it
could
not
host
the
Afghan
refugees
for
another
three
years
due
to
security
and
economic
reasons.
Daily Times,
June
30,
2016.
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The South
Asia Intelligence Review (SAIR) is a weekly service that
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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
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and the
South
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