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SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Weekly Assessments & Briefings
Volume 2, No. 24, December 29, 2003
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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Walking the Knife-Edge
Ajai Sahni
Editor, SAIR; Executive Director, Institute for Conflict
Management
The coup
and the assassination have been integral to political transition
in Pakistan virtually since the moment of its creation [the
country's first Prime Minister, Liaqat Ali Khan, was assassinated
in 1951, and violence or machinations have marked virtually
every change of regime since]. This ruinous legacy continues
to reassert itself at each crucial turn of the country's
history. So, again, even as the Pakistani dream continues
to unravel, the country's military dictator General Pervez
Musharraf - himself in power as the result of a coup against
an elected Government - came under two serious attempts
on his life within eleven days, on December 14 and December
25, 2003, the latter involving two separate suicide attacks
within moments of each other.
Speaking on national television after the second assassination
attempt, Musharraf spoke harshly about the "cowardly people
who attack while hiding", and declared that "terrorists
and extremists" opposed to the global war against terrorism
might have plotted the attacks, adding further that he would
not be cowed down by such actions. It would appear that
the lines between the Pakistani state and the Islamist extremist
forces that have long been its protégés would finally harden
into a clear antagonism.
Both the assassination attempts and such a crystallization
of attitudes have been expected ever since Ayman al Zawahiri,
Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, speaking on the second
anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the US, had declared
in a message to "our brother Muslims in Pakistan": "How
long will you be patient with Musharraf, the traitor who
sold out the blood of the Muslims in Afghanistan and handed
over the Arab emigrant Mujahideen, the descendants of the
Companions of the Prophet, to crusader America?"
Things, however, are never entirely clear in Pakistan, and
the establishment has so long been in bed with the terrorists
that the disengagement is far from simple or inevitable.
Thus, even as President Musharraf was denouncing the "cowardly
people" who had attacked him, his Information Minister,
Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad, was arguing that 'the jehadi
culture in Pakistan could not be changed and he who denied
jihad had no place in Islam', adding, however,
that "whether or not it is jihad can only be decided
by the state." The distinction between 'our jehadis' and
'their terrorists' has evidently survived in Pakistan's
political rhetoric, despite the attacks on the country's
current President. The ambiguity is also reflected in an
interesting turn of phrase in reports on the assassination
attempts on Pakistan television; the expression "khud
kush hamlavar" or 'suicide attacker', a decidedly pejorative
description, was used repeatedly to describe the failed
assassins. Islamist suicide bombers in Kashmir, in Palestine,
and in other parts of the world are routinely glorified
as 'fidayeen', 'those who sacrifice themselves',
and this has been the conventional appellation on Pakistan
TV as well.
Such ambivalence is, however, becoming progressively unsustainable
in Pakistan, if only because the line between 'our jehadi'
and 'their terrorist' is being rapidly obliterated. Many
of the prominent terrorist groups that are perceived as
being close to the state and substantially controlled by
the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) now have cadres moonlighting
for, and deeply sympathetic to, Al
Qaeda and its affiliates, even where the top
leadership remains apparently compliant.
The growing danger to Musharraf and his regime, however,
does not come from the swelling ranks of 'their terrorists'
alone. Preliminary disclosures blame the Christmas assassination
attempt on the Al Jihad, a relatively minor terrorist group
that has been virtually inactive for several years, but
matters are far from simple. Both the recent attacks reflect
high levels of complexity as well as of complicity within
at least a section of the establishment, and these discredit
the possibility of a rag tag operation. Both incidents occurred
within a hundred yards of one another in Rawalpindi, which
is the General Headquarters of the Pakistan Army and the
most militarised city in a militarised country; they occurred
within the high security Cantonment areas; they occurred
on the President's daily route, which can reasonably be
expected to be completely sanitized. The December 14 incident
is particularly significant in this context. Over half a
tonne of explosives had been transported to, and then unloaded,
concealed and primed at, a bridge that is heavily guarded
round the clock, on the regular route between the President's
office and residence; and had been detonated by remote control,
presumably by an assassin lying in wait in sight of the
bridge [the attempt failed, according to the official Pakistani
line, because of the jammers on the President's cavalcade,
though it is still unclear how or why the explosion eventually
did occur over a minute after the procession had passed
beyond the bridge]. Again, on December 25, reports indicate
that there were two Presidential motorcades - one of them
a decoy - moving simultaneously on two different routes,
but the terrorists were able to correctly identify and target
Musharraf's motorcade. There is, consequently, in both incidents,
substantial circumstantial evidence to suggest an 'inside
job'.
If disaffected elements in the Army, presumably at a level
sufficiently high as to engineer such operations, are now,
indeed, targeting Musharraf (and this remains essentially
in the sphere of informed speculation) the fragile equation
that has been contrived between powerful and ideologically
incompatible political entities - including armed non-state
groups - to maintain a modicum of order in Pakistan is now
dangerously imperilled. To the extent, moreover, that much
of the world, including the US and increasingly India, has
invested almost its entire faith on the survival of this
tenuous arrangement, and in General Musharraf, to contain
the burgeoning dangers of this epicentre of terrorism, the
situation is grim. As The Washington Post noted,
"The past week has given the Bush administration more cause
to reconsider its heavy reliance on a single general, Pakistan's
Pervez Musharraf, to maintain stability in one of the world's
most dangerous areas."
The assassination attempts in Pakistan also underline the
frailty and brittleness of the current and vaunting peace
processes in South Asia. While both the Indian and Pakistani
leadership are, in the run up to the South Asian Association
for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit in January 2004,
currently competing to outdo one another in the rhetoric
of South Asian 'unification', the fragility of the balance,
the contingent nature of all plans and enterprises in the
region, and the degree to which the initiative lies with
organisations committed to terrorism, make a mockery of
all such projections.
For the moment, Musharraf has survived and the SAARC summit
is expected to go ahead on schedule, with all regional leaders
having reconfirmed their participation, despite serious
and legitimate security concerns. To believe, however, that
peace is somewhere around the corner, is delusional. Pakistan
and its leaders - including Musharraf and his generals -
have only just begun to pay the price for their long sponsorship
of terrorism, what one leading Pakistani commentator described
as "the 'globalisation' of terrorism we performed in the
past decade", and the conflagration will escalate substantially
before it is eventually doused. Regrettably, it is not Pakistan
alone that will have to pay the price of its past and ongoing
transgressions.
ULFA Offer of Talks: A Tactical
Move?
Wasbir Hussain
Associate Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management, New
Delhi; Consulting Editor, The Sentinel, Guwahati
On December
26, 2003, Day 12 of the Bhutanese military assault against
Indian insurgents in the Himalayan kingdom, the United Liberation
Front of Asom (ULFA)
- the largest among the three groups battling the royal
army - offered conditional peace talks with New Delhi. ULFA's
self-styled commander-in-chief Paresh Barua telephoned this
writer from an undisclosed location for a lengthy interview
in which, apart from stating that the ULFA had 'repeatedly'
been requesting Bhutan to act as a mediator for possible
peace negotiations between his group and the Indian Government,
the ULFA leader made the following main points:
-
ULFA
is ready for peace negotiations with the Indian Government
provided New Delhi agrees to discuss their key demand
of sovereignty, with a neutral third party mediator
acting as facilitator (in the past, India has consistently
rejected third party mediation in all negotiations with
insurgent or terrorist groups in the country).
-
ULFA
has requested Bhutan several times to play the role
of mediator, and to convince New Delhi to agree to discuss
the sovereignty issue.
-
Bhutan
had sought time on this and that the crackdown on the
rebels, including the ULFA, by the Royal Army came even
as his group was continuing with their negotiations
with Thimphu on the modalities for the rebels' withdrawal
from the kingdom.
-
That,
like Norway which facilitated the resumption of the
deadlocked peace talks between the Sri Lankan Government
and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE),
ULFA would only accept a nation state as a third party
mediator.
-
New
Delhi could argue its point of view on ULFA's sovereignty
demand in case the two sides were to meet directly.
-
ULFA
is always ready for a 'scientific process' of talks,
through which it could make a beginning towards achieving
its demands, or otherwise determine the scope for progress.
What precisely
is new in these comments by the elusive ULFA 'military chief',
and do they assume particular significance, coming as they
do in the wake of the battle in Bhutan? ULFA's claim that
it had been urging the Royal Government in Thimphu to mediate
between the rebel leadership and the Indian Government is
certainly new. If that is, indeed, the case (and in view
of the Bhutanese authorities' refusal to comment, this claim
cannot simply be dismissed as false), it implies that ULFA
may actually have been preparing grounds for a possible
peace dialogue with New Delhi. In fact, ULFA's detained
'publicity chief' Mithinga Daimary alias Dipak Kachari (he
disclosed his real name as Dipak Kachari while talking to
the media after his handover by the Bhutanese Army to Indian
authorities last week) also told journalists during a court
appearance in Guwahati earlier in the day on December 26,
2003, that his group had requested Bhutan to act as a mediator.
The fact that the statement is separately corroborated by
two top ULFA leaders does give some credence to the outfit's
claims.
A couple of years have passed since the ULFA set three preconditions
for any possible talks with the Indian Government: talks
must centre around their demand for sovereignty; must be
held outside India; and must occur under the supervision
of the United Nations. Now, during his conversation with
this writer, the ULFA 'C-in-C' had made two concessions:
(1) he said a neutral third party mediator would do, and
(2) he said New Delhi would be free to argue its case on
ULFA's sovereignty demand. Known to be a tough hardliner,
Barua, has thus given clear enough indication that the ULFA
would be willing to hear out the Indian Government's point
of view on the sovereignty issue. This in itself is a positive
development, though it would be premature to describe this
as a softening of its position. Nevertheless, there are
signs in this of the rebel leadership coming round to a
reasonable stance that could well provide a breakthrough
to a political approach to solving the insurgency problem
in the Northeast Indian State of Assam.
The timing of Paresh Barua's offer for talks, albeit conditional,
cannot be missed. Despite his claim that only between 15
and 20 of his cadres have been killed and about the same
number wounded in the battle in the jungles of southern
Bhutan, the fact is that his group, as also rebels belonging
to the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB)
and the Kamatapur Liberation Organization (KLO),
have been uprooted from all of their 30 camps inside the
Kingdom. The number of fatalities may not be the most significant
consideration here (the Indian Army would like to believe
that at least 120 rebels have been killed); rather, the
fact that the rebels have been dislodged from fortified
bases which they have long used to launch murderous raids
on the Indian security forces or other targets, and return
to the safety of their camps is the most significant impact
of the Bhutanese military operations. The insurgents had
been benefiting from this safe haven for the past 12 years,
and Bhutan's attempt to persuade the rebels to withdraw
from the Kingdom over the last six years had not yielded
results.
Within Assam, the ULFA had ceased to operate as a cohesive
force right from the time of the first Indian Army offensive,
Operation Bajrang, launched in November 1990, followed by
Operation Rhino. Thereafter, it was only in its Bhutan bases
that the outfit had the breathing space to plan its political
and military strategies, and to carry out strikes into adjoining
Indian territory. With the Bhutanese military assault, the
ULFA's line of command and control has been snapped, and
its primary operational base has been lost.
What is particularly disturbing for the group is that almost
all its key middle-rung leaders have fallen into the security
net. Here, mention can be made of the group's 78-year-old
ideologue and political advisor, Bhimkanta Buragohain, thought
to have been dead, but who appeared on December 26, 2003,
to surrender before the Indian Army at the IV Corps Headquarters
in the north Assam garrison town of Tezpur. He had been
handed over by the Royal Bhutan Army to Indian authorities
on December 25. Mithinga Daimary, the ULFA' publicity chief',
was another senior leader, captured and handed over to India,
as were Buragohain's deputy, self-styled 'Major' Robin Handique,
and the outfit's medical specialist Dr. Amarjit Gogoi.
Buragohain was one of the founders of the ULFA, and his
capture and subsequent 'surrender' is certainly a major
loss for the group. More than that, his statement to the
media describing the 'path of armed struggle' for independence
as 'wrong,' and his appeal to his fellow rebels, including
Paresh Barua, to give up violence and lay down arms, could
have an adverse impact on the morale of those rebels still
with the group. Here, some may choose to reject the significance
of Buragohain's remarks, as they came in the form of a written
statement while he was in the custody of the Indian Army
(he was subsequently handed over to the Assam Police on
December 27. The Police now say that the 'law will take
its own course' in dealing with him, as the Army did not
mention his 'surrender' in the FIR it lodged with the Assam
Police before handing him over). But the ULFA veteran could
have refused to make any such statement, or, had he been
under pressure from the Army, could have broken ranks at
the Press Conference and refused to cooperate further, and
he would not have been much worse for the experience.
A significant chorus that has been heard from fleeing militants
over the past fortnight is that the Bhutanese crackdown
had taken them totally by surprise. Many of them, including
ULFA 'lieutenant' Domeswar Rabha, a hardcore cadre who had
been trained by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Myanmar
in 1988, Utpal Bharali, Naziruddin, Surya Boro and others,
told this writer during exclusive conversations after their
surrender to the Indian Army and the Assam Police, that
their leaders had never once given them any indication of
a possible assault by the Bhutanese. "Every time, our senior
leaders used to tell us everything was fine and that our
relations with the Bhutanese were quite cordial. After this
attack, we lost faith in our leadership and decided to give
up," Utpal Bharali, 31, a former ULFA 'sergeant', told this
writer at a safe house in the north Assam town of Mangaldai
on December 22, 2003. Even the ULFA's detained publicity
chief Daimary confessed they had been surprised by the Royal
Army's action.
Clearly, the ULFA leadership had either taken Thimphu so
much for granted that they never imagined the possibility
of military operations against the Indian rebels, or the
group's leaders had not passed on to their cadres, any information
of a possible crackdown that they might have had.
Paresh Barua, however, has his own version of the turn of
events: he told this writer that the Bhutanese assault came
even as discussions between his group and the Royal Government
was on: "Our foreign secretary and adviser (Shasha Choudhury
and Buragohain) were in talks with Thimphu, both with Brigadier
Victor (believed to be a Royal Bhutan Army commander) as
well as the Home Ministry. In response to Bhutan's request,
we had sent faxes to the Home Ministry there saying that
I shall be coming over for a meeting with them. Then, as
there was a five-to-six-day break in the talks, the operations
began". He said Thimphu launched the offensive "in a hurry"
due to "intense pressure from India."
Attempting to verify these claims is pointless, but the
news blackout on the progress, as well as the success or
failure of the operations by the Bhutanese authorities has,
in fact, helped the ULFA in its crucial hour. For instance,
the ULFA 'C-in-C' has put the number of his fighters killed
at not more than 20. On its part, Bhutan remains silent
on the casualty figures. Secondly, the ULFA leader made
a significant claim during his conversation with this writer
that he had ordered his cadres not to fight the Bhutanese
troops and to leave. "Bhutan is not our enemy really, and
so we had taken that stand. Later, when we realized that
it is the Indian Army that was actually fighting us inside
Bhutan, we asked our soldiers to retaliate," Barua claimed.
Indian Army officials, of course, denied sending soldiers
into Bhutan.
A war of words is only to be expected in an inaccessible
theatre of combat. Scoring brownie points will certainly
be uppermost on the rebel group's agenda in its bid to keep
the morale of cadres and supporters high. The most crucial
consideration, at present, however, is whether ULFA's conditional
offer for talks is merely a tactical move to get some pressure
off its back, or whether it is a serious offer that could
lead to some progress in pushing through the logjam of persistent
insurgent violence in Assam. In either event, New Delhi
can be expected to approach the offer with a measure of
seriousness, and to initiate some efforts towards a political
process that may move towards a lasting solution to the
problem. Bhutan, after all, is certainly not the ULFA's
last post.
Islamic Militancy: The Shadow Lengthens
Guest Writer: Haroon Habib
Senior journalist, commentator and author, Dhaka; former
Chief Editor of Bangladesh Sangbad Sanstha (BSS), the country's
premier news agency
The Bangladesh
Government recently and sharply rejected a Canadian Security
Intelligence Service (CSIS) report that had alleged that
Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia's Government was "not doing
enough" to prevent the country from becoming a "haven for
Islamic terrorists" in South Asia. The report, obtained
by the Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act,
says the Bangladesh Government was unwilling to crack down
on Islamic terrorism. The CSIS report also suggested that
there could be dangers to Canadian aid agencies in Bangladesh.
A foreign office spokesman at Dhaka has dubbed the report
'a campaign to malign Bangladesh'.
Similar 'rejections' had also been articulated by the Bangladesh
Foreign Office, and by powerful ministers of the alliance
Government, when the Far Eastern Economic Review,
the Time magazine, and subsequently other prominent
foreign media, published reports about growing jehadi
activities following the change of regime in Dhaka after
the elections of 2001. While the ruling Alliance has consistently
denied the presence of Islamic militants in the country,
the nation's vibrant Press, political Opposition and leaders
of civil society have repeatedly projected a different picture.
While the Government's overall position remains broadly
unchanged, there is now growing evidence of a less aggressive
stance, as evidence mounts, with at least occasional disclosures
of encounters and arrests of jehadis by the enforcement
agencies leaving them no choice but to admit that a number
of clandestine militant Islamic groups were, in fact, active
across the country, and were receiving significant external
support.
There are now increasing reports of the operation of several
jehadi groups in the country, particularly in its
northern and western regions, with coherent linkages and
political networks, as well as access to arms and military
training. Whatever their actual numbers or present capabilities,
as well as the limited influence they have on the general
population, these jehadis have started causing alarm
in democratic circles, and unless they are effectively contained,
may become a real and extraordinary danger in the imminent
future. There are also frequent allegations in the media
regarding the 'mysteriously soft' attitude of the Government
towards these entities, as none of the arrested militants
has, so far, received any punishment, nor has there been
any meaningful investigation into their funding and support
structures.
Police and intelligence agencies first suspected the involvement
of these underground outfits in a series of bomb blasts
at secular cultural functions and political meetings, which
killed nearly a hundred people between 1997 and 2001. The
fanatics also planted powerful bombs at one of then Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina's political meetings. At that time,
Government agencies had unearthed some militant 'hideouts'
and a few cadres with suspected 'foreign connections' were
arrested. But the administrative measures were too small
to contain the fast growing networks that have become entrenched
over the past decades.
Understandably, with the change of regime in mid-2001, the
genuine national concern was perhaps neglected since the
new Government had been formed with the support of two of
the country's organized fundamentalist parties, the Jamaat-e-Islami
and the Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ). The installation of the
alliance Government gave a boost to the radical Islamists's
morale, after they had virtually been on the run during
the previous Awami League (AL) rule. With the change of
guard, most of the arrested militants, including those charge-sheeted,
were released on bail and eventually the charges against
them were dropped. Within a year, however, the 'concern'
had started resurfacing, with the media reporting frequent
encounters between 'armed Islamic militants' and the police,
as well as subsequent arrests, with interrogations throwing
light on foreign linkages of the cadres and organizations.
Although these clandestine armed outfits first came to be
focused on in the late Nineties, they have had their roots
in the country since 1971, when Bengalis of the former East
Pakistan were fighting their war of liberation against then-West
Pakistan. The Jamaat-e-Islami, with its militant students'
group, Islami Chhatra Sangha, had floated their first armed
cadres, 'Al-Badar' and ' Al -Shams' to 'defend Islam' and
Pakistan's unity while the Pakistan Central Government had
formed the 'Razakar Bahini' to counter the Bengali freedom
fighters. Two senior ministers of the present cabinet -
Matiur Rahman Nizami and Ali Ahsan Mujahid - were directly
involved in the floating of these infamous groups, which
were responsible for killing of hundreds of secular Bengali
intellectuals after branding them 'anti-Islamic'. These
groups were the first militant religious organizations in
this country, formed in close co-operation with the Pakistani
Army.
Following the bloody political changeover in 1975, Bangladesh
has passed through a prolonged military and pseudo-democratic
era. The banned Jamaat-e-Islami and other 'anti-liberation'
entities which took part in the 1971 genocide were once
again given license to operate, thanks to the subsequently
assassinated President General Zia-ur-Rahman, the founder
of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). And in the name
of Islamic charity and religious education, the jehadis
started building up their initial bases with substantial
funding reportedly from sources abroad. Over the years,
thousands of madrassas (seminaries), known as 'Koumi
Madrassas', entirely outside governmental control and
nor accountable to anyone except their sponsors, were built.
The main objective of the sponsors of a large proportion
of these madrassas was allegedly to train and develop
the 'soldiers of Allah': the jehadis.
Testimonies of arrested militants suggest that they are
well funded and well equipped to carry out an 'Islamic revolution'
in the country. They are staunch admirers of the Taliban,
and many of their cadres reportedly fought in Afghanistan
and also in Kashmir. Media reports suggest that a section
of the Jamaat-e-Islami, IOJ and the Islami Shasantantra
Andolon may be in league with some of these extremist groups,
though these political fronts have all denied the charge.
The Government has not banned any of the militant groups
so far, with the exception of Al-Hikma.
Ironically, while the Government seems adamant about rejecting
the 'charges' regarding religious militancy in the country,
its Social Welfare Minister and Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary
General, Ali Ahsan Mujahid's remarks on December 19, 2003,
deserve special scrutiny. "The base of the fundamentalists
in Bangladesh," he declared at a party meeting in northern
Nilphamari, "is so strong that all other powers are sure
to be defeated here." He added further, "in a country where
azans (calls to prayer) are offered from lakhs of
mosques every day, there is no chance for the Awami League
to return to power…."
Incidents in the early months of year 2003 suggested that,
though the militant outfits may not be very large, their
cadres had been completely indoctrinated by their mentors
to launching campaigns of violence that members of the groups
claimed were a 'holy war'. There are also reasons to believe
that the activities of these extremist groups have a regional
and global dimension, although there has been no serious
investigation or probe into this aspect.
Bangladesh is an over-populated country with high levels
of illiteracy and unemployment, and has been targeted by
vested interests for a kind of political adventurism. Nevertheless,
despite being deeply religious, the common people of the
country have no special love for the jehadis, though
a section of the extremely poverty stricken may be vulnerable
to their blandishments if their activities and agenda are
not effectively challenged. The militancy may also cash
in on the discriminatory nature of the country's educational
and economic systems. It is, consequently, necessary to
make an objective assessment of the political, economic
and cultural factors that enable and sustain the growth
of these forces, and effective action must be taken to rid
the nation of this menace. If the Government is not sympathetic
and their funding and communication linkages are shut down,
these groups would not be able to operate, and would certainly
not be growing in strength.
Media investigations suggest that the Islamic militants
in Bangladesh are presently split into more than a dozen
groups, with each commanding a strength of a few hundred
or thousand. The numbers alone do not give an adequate picture
of the seriousness of the situation. On December 25, 2003,
for instance, national newspapers reported that nine persons
- including five members of the Ansar (the state
'Para Police') - had been arrested in connection with a
bomb explosion inside an abandoned and dilapidated residential
hotel on the western Khulna-Jessore Road. The arrested Ansar
members were on duty at the hotel premises at the time of
the explosion. The blast occurred when they were making
bombs, and Police suspect that the four young men arrested
belong to an extremist Islamic organisation, possibly the
Al Muzahid party. The Police also recovered several books
and booklets authored by fundamentalist leaders from the
hotel rooms. A hand-written brochure titled Islamic Andolaner
Note ('Points for the Islamic Movement') was also recovered.
Police officer Shafiqul Islam of the Khalishpur thana (police
station) disclosed, "One could make more than 100 bombs
out of the quantities of bomb-making materials which were
recovered by the police from the hotel rooms". The recovered
materials included sulphur, potash, broken pieces of glasses,
nails and rice husk. Police also recovered 12 live bombs.
While there is still not authoritative assessment of the
strength and firepower of these groups, and weapons seizures
have been negligible, while storming some 'training camps'
in the jungles in southern Cox's Bazaar, security forces
found advanced weapons, as also evidence of the involvement
of the Rohingya Muslim rebels from Myanmar's Arakan province.
Various investigations over the past few years, moreover,
demonstrate that the bombs used by these extremists were
highly sophisticated.
So far, security agencies have reportedly identified 48
'training centres' across the country. The names of an estimated
13 militant organisations are known, but only a few of them
have created news. The known groups include Shahadat-e-al-Hikma,
Jamaat-ul-Mujahid-ul-Bangladesh, Jaamat-e-Yahia Trust, Hizbut
Tawhid, Al Harakat-ul-Islamia, Al Markaj-ul-Islami, Jamaatul
Falaiya, Tawhidi Janata, World Islamic Front, Jumaat-as-Sadat,
Shahadat-e-Nabuat, Harkat-ul-Jehad Islami and Al Khidmat.
To resolve the problem, secular thinkers suggest that the
administration must first shed its 'ostrich syndrome', take
serious note of such clandestine groups and work out strategies
to neutralise them, since they reject both democracy and
the idea of the sovereignty of the people. The so-called
Islamists do not conceal their intention to set up a theocratic
state, and hold the existing democracy responsible for 'anti-Islamisation'.
Their ideological roots lie in Pakistan and Afghanistan,
and several arrested militants have confessed that they
received arms training in Pakistan, and fought in Afghanistan
and Kashmir.
Reports have it that Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has now
asked the Home Ministry and concerned agencies to launch
a 'massive manhunt' for these clandestine extremist groups.
But how can the Government act effectively against these
militants with the Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Oikya Jote,
two self-professed Islamic fundamentalist parties, as its
coalition partners? How can the Government contain such
militancy when it's own political strength is shared by
the religious fundamentalists?
|
Weekly Fatalities: Major Conflicts
in South Asia
December 22-28,
2003
  |
Civilian
|
Security
Force Personnel
|
Terrorist
|
Total
|
BANGLADESH
|
3
|
0
|
5
|
8
|
INDIA
|
Assam
|
0
|
0
|
12
|
12
|
Jammu
&
Kashmir
|
7
|
3
|
11
|
21
|
Left-wing
Extremism
|
0
|
4
|
0
|
4
|
Nagaland
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
Tripura
|
1
|
1
|
5
|
7
|
Total (INDIA)
|
8
|
8
|
29
|
45
|
NEPAL
|
1
|
13
|
71
|
85
|
PAKISTAN
|
12
|
3
|
2
|
17
|
* Provisional
data compiled from English language media sources.
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BANGLADESH
Five
Ansars
dismissed
for
aiding
Islamist
outfit
in
Khulna:
Five
Ansars
(para-military
force
personnel)
arrested
in
the
Khulna
city
on
December
24,
2003,
on
charges
of
abetting
Islami
Chhatra
Shibir
(ICS)
activists
in
making
bombs
inside
an
abandoned
residential
hotel
have
reportedly
been
dismissed
from
their
services.
Along
with
these
Ansars,
four
ICS
cadres
were
also
arrested
and
charged
under
the
Explosives
Act.
Unnamed
sources
were
quoted
as
saying
that
the
four
ICS
activists
were
arrested
on
the
specific
charge
of
bomb-making
to
carry
out
subversive
activities
under
the
umbrella
of
Al-Mujahiden,
an
extremist
outfit
based
in
Jamalpur
and
Sherpur
districts.
Security
forces
had
recovered
16
powerful
handmade
bombs,
bomb-making
materials
and
brochures
from
the
hotel.
A
large
number
of
Ansars
are
suspected
to
have
links
with
outlaws
in
the
southwestern
zone.
The
Daily
Star,
December
29,
2003.
BHUTAN
1000
weapons
belonging
to
terrorists
active
in
India's
North
East
seized:
The
Royal
Bhutan
Army
is
reported
to
have
seized
at
least
1,000
weapons,
including
650
AK
series
rifles,
150
rifles,
150
pistols,
some
rocket
propelled
grenades
and
around
2,00,000
rounds
of
ammunition
along
with
50
to
60
wireless
sets
and
satellite
telephones
during
the
ongoing
military
operations
against
camps
of
terrorists
active
in
India's
Northeast.
Sentinel
Assam,
December
22,
2003.
INDIA
ULFA
urges
China
for
safe
passage:
The
'chairman'
of
outlawed
United
Liberation
Front
of
Asom
(ULFA)
has
reportedly
appealed
to
the
People's
Republic
of
China
to
offer
safe
passage
to
the
outfit's
cadres
for
temporary
shelter
in
that
country.
Rajkhowa
in
a
letter
faxed
to
the
Chairman
of
the
People's
Republic
of
China
on
December
25,
2003,
said
that
of
late
''we
have
come
under
massive
attack
of
Indo-Bhutan
joint
forces
and
our
combatants
have
been
forced
to
retreat
upto
Sino-Bhutan
border
due
to
all-out
air
and
artillery
campaigns."
Rajkhowa
said
that
at
this
moment
''they
have
no
option
but
to
enter
the
territory
of
China
to
save
their
lives
as
they
are
negotiating
with
sub-zero
temperature
and
starvation
without
any
clothes
and
foodgrains…
We
request
you
to
permit
them
safe
passage
to
your
territory
with
minimum
temporary
hospitality
necessary
for
their
survival",
said
the
ULFA
'chairman'.
Assam
Tribune,
December
29,
2003.
Union
Government
rejects
talks
offer
of
United
Liberation
Front
of
Asom:
The
Union
Government
on
December
28,
2003,
rejected
the
outlawed
United
Liberation
Front
of
Assam's
(ULFA)
offer
for
conditional
talks
on
its
demand
for
sovereignty.
Speaking
to
reporters
in
Delhi,
Union
Minister
of
State
for
Home
I.D.
Swami
said,
''There
is
no
question
of
any
compromise
on
the
sovereignty
and
integrity
of
the
country.''
He
was
replying
to
a
question
on
ULFA
'commander-in-chief'
Paresh
Baruah's
reported
statement
that
the
outfit
was
ready
for
negotiations
on
its
main
demand
of
sovereignty
with
a
''neutral
third
party
mediator''
acting
as
the
facilitator.
He
wanted
the
third
party
to
be
a
''nation
state''
as
ULFA
could
not
trust
mediators
from
within
India.
Times
of
India,
December
28,
2003.
Founding
member
of
ULFA
Bhimkanta
Buragohain
surrenders
in
Assam:
On
December
26,
2003,
one
of
the
founding
members
of
the
United
Liberation
Front
of
Asom
(ULFA)
and
widely
considered
to
be
its
ideologue,
Bhimkanta
Buragohain
alias
Mama,
surrendered
before
the
Indian
Army
at
Tezpur
in
the
Sonitpur
district
of
Assam.
Buragohain
also
read
out
a
statement
asking
other
ULFA
leaders
and
cadres
to
lay
down
arms.
He
said,
"The
path
we
led
is
wrong.
Armed
rebellion
can
not
bring
independence."
Three
more
senior
ULFA
cadres,
'assistant
central
publicity
secretary'
Bolin
Das,
'medical
officer'
Amarjit
Gogoi
and
'deputy
political
advisor'
Sgt.
Major
Robin
Handique
also
surrendered
along
with
Buragohain.
Earlier,
unconfirmed
reports
had
indicated
that
Buragohain
had
died
after
being
wounded
during
the
ongoing
military
operations
by
the
Royal
Bhutan
Army.
Sentinel
Assam,
December
27,
2003.
People's
War
Group
behind
assassination
attempt
on
Andhra
Pradesh
Chief
Minister,
says
probe
team:
During
a
press
conference
in
Tirupati
on
December
25,
2003,
the
Special
Investigation
Team
chief
D.T.
Nayak
said
nine
members
of
the
outlawed
People's
War
Group
(PWG)
allegedly
carried
out
the
assassination
attempt
on
Andhra
Pradesh
Chief
Minister
Chandrababu
Naidu
at
Alipiri
in
the
Chittor
district
on
October
1,
2003.
The
extremists
had
spent
about
Rupees
Twelve
Hundred
Thousand
and
used
approximately
200
kilograms
of
Noble
Gel-90
with
a
nitroglycerine
component
to
prepare
the
17
claymore
mines
for
the
Alipiri
attack,
he
added.
He
further
said
that
the
boxes
in
which
the
mines
were
placed
were
manufactured
at
Wardha
in
the
State
of
Maharashtra
and
sent
to
Tirupati
by
various
routes.
Hindustan
Times,
December
26,
2003.
Myanmar
not
to
allow
terrorists
fleeing
from
Bhutan
to
enter
its
soil:
Myanmar
has
indicated
that
it
will
flush
out
Indian
insurgents,
if
any,
in
that
country
and
assured
India
that
it
will
not
allow
terrorists
fleeing
from
Bhutan
to
enter
its
soil.
U
Win
Aung,
the
Foreign
Minister
of
Myanmar,
is
reported
to
have
said
in
Delhi
on
December
23,
2003,
that
"We
have
a
policy
of
not
allowing
any
insurgents
to
get
into
Myanmar.
We
will
take
whatever
action
is
necessary.
We
will
flush
out
Indian
insurgent
camps,
if
any
in
our
country."
Times
of
India,
December
24,
2003.
PAKISTAN
17
persons
killed
in
assassination
bid
on
President
Musharraf
in
Rawalpindi:
At
least
17
persons
were
killed
and
40
others
injured
during
a
second
assassination
attempt
in
less
than
two
weeks
on
President
Pervez
Musharraf
in
the
Jhanda
Chichi
area
of
Rawalpindi
on
December
25,
2003.
The
President
narrowly
escaped
the
suicide
assassination
attempt
when
his
motorcade
was
hit
by
two
explosive
laden
vehicles.
Both
the
suicide
bombers
were
also
believed
to
have
been
killed
in
the
incident.
Reports
indicated
that
the
first
explosives-laden
vehicle
which
hit
the
Presidential
motorcade
emerged
out
of
a
petrol
station
situated
at
the
main
road
near
Civil
Lines
police
station
and
struck
at
the
concrete
road
divider.
Moments
after
the
first
attack,
another
suicide
bomber
driving
an
explosive
laden
white
Suzuki
carry
van
smashed
into
a
police
van
at
the
tail
of
the
convoy.
According
to
an
unnamed
police
official,
each
of
the
vehicles
driven
was
carrying
about
25
to
30
kilograms
of
explosives.
Over
20
vehicles,
including
three
escort
cars
of
the
President's
entourage,
were
damaged
in
the
blasts.
The
incident
site
is
approximately
100
yards
away
from
the
bridge
where
General
Musharraf
earlier
survived
a
bomb
attack
on
December
14,
2003.
Meanwhile,
President
Musharraf
later
said
that
"terrorists
and
extremists"
opposed
to
the
global
war
against
terrorism
might
have
plotted
the
suicide
attacks
against
him.
"There
is
a
strong
possibility
of
this.
We
are
fighting
a
war
against
terrorism,"
Musharraf
said
on
national
television.
Nation,
December
26,
2003.
Top
Chinese
terrorist
shot
dead
in
South
Waziristan
encounter:
A
man
recently
identified
by
China
as
its
top
terrorist
has
been
shot
dead
during
an
anti-terrorism
operation
in
the
South
Waziristan
area.
Hasan
Mahsum,
a
former
resident
of
China's
Xinjiang
region,
was
killed
recently,
said
Beijing
News
on
December
23.
Meanwhile,
Major
General
Shaukat
Sultan
said
"Yes,
this
man
[Mahsum]
was
killed
in
a
Pakistan
Army's
operation
on
October
2."
The
Major
reportedly
confirmed
that
Mahsum
was
among
the
eight
persons
killed
when
Pakistan
Army
commandoes
raided
a
suspected
Al
Qaeda
hideout
at
Angoor
Adda
in
the
tribal
area
of
South
Waziristan.
China
had
placed
Hasan
Mahsum
on
the
top
of
its
first
ever
list
of
terrorists
last
week.
It
identified
Mahsum,
aged
39,
as
a
leader
in
the
East
Turkistan
Islamic
Movement
(ETIM)
which
it
said
was
a
terrorist
group,
along
with
three
others.
Daily
Times,
December
24,
2003.
US
renews
ban
on
Lashkar-e-Toiba
and
Jaish-e-Mohammed:
The
US
Secretary
of
State
on
December
23,
2003,
redesignated
the
Lashkar-e-Toiba
(LeT)
and
Jaish-e-Mohammed
(JeM)
as
Foreign
Terrorist
Organizations.
The
initial
designations
of
these
groups
in
2001
expired
on
December
26,
2003.
In
a
press
statement,
State
Department
spokesperson
Richard
Boucher
said
that
"By
redesignating
Jaish
e-Mohammed
and
Lashkar
e-Tayyiba
as
Foreign
Terrorist
Organizations
and
publishing
that
decision
today
in
the
Federal
Register,
we
preserve
the
U.S.
Government's
ability
to
take
action
against
them
in
accordance
with
the
provisions
of
the
Immigration
and
Nationality
Act,
as
amended."
Daily
Times,
December
24,
2003.
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