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SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Weekly Assessments & Briefings
Volume 12, No. 50, June 16, 2014

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


ASSESSMENT

INDIA
PAKISTAN
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Malignant Spectre
Anurag Tripathi
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

On June 8, 2014, two Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militants, including one 'divisional commander', identified as Bilal Ahmad Bhat alias Bilal Lelhari, and his associate, identified as Mudasir Sheikh, were killed by Security Forces (SFs) in the Reshipora village of Pulwama District in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K).

Earlier, on June 1, 2014, SFs killed a LeT 'divisional commander', identified as Shaad Mohammad alias Shahid alias Abu Ukasha Afghani, hailing from the Deer area of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Province of Pakistan, in the Sudal village of the Magam area in Handwara town, Kupwara District, J&K.

On May 25, 2014, two LeT terrorists, identified as Zubair Ahmad Bhat alias Musab and Ishfaq Ahmad Bhat alias Amir, were  killed in a fierce gun battle with SFs at Nowpora Village in the Frisal area of Kulgam District. Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Vijay Kumar disclosed that the two terrorists were killed in the house of the Nowpora village Sarpanch (head of a Panchayat, a village-level local self Government institution), Feroz Ahmad, a People Democratic Party (PDP) leader, soon after they barged into his house to eliminate him.

At least 12 Panchayat members have been killed and another eight have been injured in 20 incidents in the State since Panchayat Elections were held in April-June 2011, after a gap of 33 years. The LeT has claimed at least three attacks on Panchayat members, and has released several threat letters to Panchayat members, including the last, on December 19, 2013, carrying the stamp of ‘District Commander, Srinagar, Nawab Gaznavi' and another name, 'Yaseen Kashmiri’, warning mainstream political workers and Sarpanches of 'dire consequences' if they failed to resign 'within a week'.

Again, on May 10, 2013, two LeT terrorists from Pakistan were killed in a gun battle close to the Line of Control (LoC) at the forward village of Kalsan in the Bigial Dara area of Poonch Sector, about 10 kilometers from Poonch town.

The LeT has played a very prominent role in the violence in J&K over the years. According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), out of 1,162 incidents of killing, resulting in 2,612 fatalities, including 402 civilians, 482 SF personnel and 1,728 terrorists, since 2007, LeT has reportedly been involved in 276 incidents, resulting in 36 civilian and 116 SFs fatalities (data till June 15, 2014).  A total of 496 LeT cadres were also killed in these incidents. 147 incidents of killing were attributed to Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), resulting in 23 civilian and 54 SFs death. HM lost 207 cadres in these incidents. Another 62 incidents of killing, resulting in eight SF fatalities, were attributed to the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), which lost 98 of its cadres. Al Badr and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) were involved in nine and five incidents of killing, respectively.  A total of 21 terrorists and one SF trooper were killed in these incidents. Most of the remaining incidents remain ‘unattributed’.

The actual strength of LeT is unknown, but it has 'several thousand' members in the ‘Azad Kashmir’ region and Punjab Province of Pakistan. A February 2014 report, citing a census by the J&K Police, indicated that 104 terrorists were then active across J&K, of whom 59 were from LeT alone. Of these 59, the top four were identified as Abu Qasim, a Pakistani terrorist; Sajad Ahmad Bhat, hailing from Srinagar; Mohammad Muzzaffar Naikoo of Sopore; and Bilal Ahmed Bhat of Pulwama: all falling into the 'A plus plus' category (the most wanted hardcore terrorists). Pakistan-based Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi alias Chachaji alias Abdullah Azam, a founding member of LeT, currently serves as the ‘supreme commander’ of operations in Kashmir. Sajid Majid alias Majid Sajid alias Sajid Mir alias Wasi alias Ibrahim alias Mohammad Arshad Khan, based in Pakistan, is the ‘commander’ in charge of the India set-up.

Significantly, on April 15, 2014, then-Director General of Police (DGP) Ashok Prasad remarked that three main terrorist groups remained active in the Kashmir Valley: LeT, HM and JeM. The Police Chief stated that most of the terrorists operating in Valley hailed from the Punjab area of Pakistan. International sources have repeatedly confirmed this fact in the past, and a report by Counter Terrorism Centre (CTC) titled, “The Fighters of Lashkar-e-Taiba: Recruitment, Training, Deployment and Death”, published in April 2013, had noted,
The vast majority of LeT’s fighters are recruited from Pakistan’s Punjab province… The highest concentration of LeT fighters have come (in order of frequency) from the Districts of Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Lahore, Sheikhupura, Kasur, Sialkot, Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur, Khanewal, and Multan.

The report also revealed,
Ninety four percent of fighters list Indian Kashmir as a fighting front… According to our data, the Districts of Kupwara, Baramulla and Poonch in Indian Kashmir account for almost half of all LeT terrorist deaths since 1989.

LeT’s presence in J&K was first recorded in 1993, when 12 Pakistani and Afghan mercenaries infiltrated across the LoC, in tandem with the Islami Inquilabi Mahaz, a terrorist outfit then active in the Poonch District of J&K. The group had been created in 1990 by Pakistan’s spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), under the command of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, in the Kunar Province of Afghanistan. After being banned in 2002, it renamed itself Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), and thereafter, Tehreek-e-Hurmat-e-Rasool, or the Movement for defending the honor of the Prophet; and, thereafter, Tehreek-e-Tahafuz Qibla Awal, or the Movement for the Safeguarding of the First Center of Prayer. Nevertheless, the original titles of LeT and JuD remain the most commonly used. Saeed has constantly been calling for a “final jihad” for Kashmir.

Most recently, on May 28, 2014, Hafiz Saeed delivered a speech, as thousands of his ‘followers’ joined him at Aabpara Chowk situated just a few hundred yards from the ISI headquarters in Pakistan's capital city of Islamabad, declaring that the "time has come to perform the final jihad against India to free Kashmir from Indian occupation".

However, the LeT’s professed ideology goes beyond merely challenging India's sovereignty over the State of J&K. It does, of course, seek to liberate Kashmir and merge it with Pakistan using violent means. However, the Lashkar's ‘agenda’ outlined in an undated 1990s pamphlet, titled, “Why are we waging jihad” includes the restoration of Islamic rule over all parts of India. Way back in February 1996, crystallizing the LeT strategy of extending its networks and strikes across all of India, Saeed had publicly articulated, in an address at the Lahore Press Club: “The jihad in Kashmir would soon spread to entire India. Our mujahideen would create three Pakistans in India.” Again, during a three-day annual congregation of the members of the Markaz-ad-Da’awa-wal-Irshad at Muridke near Lahore on February 6, 2000, Saeed declared that Kashmir was a ‘gateway to capture India’ and that it was the aim of the Markaz and its military wing, LeT, to engineer India’s disintegration. Saeed added that his organisation’s campaign in Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) and Junagadh (Gujarat) were among the highest priorities.

Moreover, LeT seeks to bring about a union of all Muslim majority regions in countries that surround Pakistan, towards the end of creating an integrated Muslim Ummah across the world. To these ends, it has been active in J&K, Chechnya and other parts of Central Asia. Further, LeT’s reach and presence has steadily been expanding over the past decade, with its units now operational in a vast network that stretches from North America to Australia. An ally of al Qaeda, it has units in Germany, UK, Iraq, Oman, Bahrain, Dubai and Bangladesh, and shares fraternal links with jihadists in the Philippines, Kosovo, Chechnya, Palestine, Jordan and South East Asia. In 2004, LeT reportedly dispatched several operatives to Iraq to fight the Americans and British. Led by an LeT operative named Danish Ahmed, a Pakistani national from the Bahawalpur area of Punjab Province, the team was arrested by British forces in April 2004. More recently, cadres drawn from LeT, Laskhar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), HuJI, JeM, Jundallah (the Karachi-based, al Qaeda-linked group), and several other Pakistani terror groups are known to have merged with al Qaeda in Syria, under the identity of 'Brigade 313'.

Again, on May 22, 2014, terrorists armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades attacked the Indian Consulate in Afghanistan's Herat Province. Though the attackers failed to inflict any casualties, SFs killed all four attackers. Afghan President Hamid Karzai asserted that specific intelligence, including Western intelligence sources, had confirmed that the LeT was behind the Herat attack. Security sources in the Indian establishment, on June 4, also concluded, on the basis of a study of the pattern of attack and the recoveries from the operatives killed, that an LeT hit squad had been assigned to take hostages and lay siege on the Indian Consulate. LeT’s involvement has already been confirmed in the July 7, 2008, suicide attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul, which killed 66 persons.

With open support from ISI, LeT runs terrorist camps at Muzaffarabad and Gilgit in PoK, and in Lahore, Peshawar, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Multan, Quetta, Gujranwala, Waziristan, and Sialkot in Pakistan. The Pakistani state had channeled a large proportion of international aid received in the wake of the earthquake in 2005 through the JuD, withholding state relief operations in order to facilitate the LeT’s further consolidation in the affected areas of Pakistan occupied Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. Recently, Pakistan's Punjab province Government allocated over PKR 61 million in its budget for fiscal 2013-14 for JuD's largest centre, the Markaz-e-Taiba at Muridke. Earlier, in 2009-10, the Government had provided more than PKR 82 million for the administration of JuD facilities.

Indeed, as SAIR has noted previously, the group has entrenched roots in Pakistan, where it has flourished under the protection of the ISI and mainstream political parties. The CTC report noted, moreover, on the basis of information gathered about the recruitment base of LeT cadres, the possible overlap between Pakistan Army recruits and LeT terrorists:
It is noteworthy that there is considerable overlap among the Districts that produce LeT terrorists and those that produce Pakistan Army officers, a dynamic that raises a number of questions about potentially overlapping social networks between the Army and LeT.

Despite rising troubles with domestic terrorism, spearheaded by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and the shifting loyalties of a range of other groups that have received, and some that continue to receive ISI patronage, the LeT remains the ISI's most favoured terrorist formation. Bruce Riedel, a former CIA analyst, observes, “The LeT remains the favoured instrument of the ISI. The Sharif government is even less inclined than the Zardari Government to take on the LeT given its strength in the Punjab in general and Lahore in particular."

Not surprisingly, despite India’s continuous demands to punish those responsible for the 26/11 Mumbai attacks - including Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Anjum, all LeT operatives who have been charged with planning, financing and executing the attacks, and who are jailed in Adiala Prison in Rawalpindi - the Pakistan Government has demonstrated no urgency in pushing investigations and prosecution forward. More than five years after the incident, a court trying the seven accused, in a hearing on June 4, 2014, once again adjourned the proceedings till June 11, after prosecution lawyers failed to appear in court, for the second time in a week. The lawyers missed a hearing on May 28, 2014, as well. On May 21, 2014, the lawyers in the case had asked the court to beef up their security, complaining that JuD activists had been threatening them and the witnesses: "We and the witnesses have been receiving threats from the JuD activists who want us to stop representing and pursuing the case," the prosecution lawyers alleged, and stated further that a JuD activist was present in the courtroom in every hearing and threatened the witnesses outside. Later, the judge, Attiquer Rehman, had asked the Government to provide him and the lawyers in the case "foolproof security", but no adequate measures have yet been initiated.

Conspicuously, despite facing significant reverses in J&K and other parts of India, LeT still retains the networks, wherewithal and state patronage to carry out attacks across India. LeT terrorism on Indian soil has been calibrated downwards, but as long as the outfit's top leadership continues to get support in the highest echelons of power in Pakistan, it will retain its capacities for resurgence.

INDIA
PAKISTAN
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Waziristan: Terror Destination
Sanchita Bhattacharya
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

Waziristan, Pakistan's lawless tribal region, which has for long served as a safe haven for terrorist groups operating in India, Afghanistan, and other countries, is, according to the latest reports, now hosting a new terrorist formation, the Ansar Al-Tawheed fi Bilad Al-Hind (ATBH, Supporters of Monotheism in the Land of India). According to a May 22, 2014 news report, "the cadres of Ansar Al-Tawheed can be seen training at al Qaeda training camps in Pakistan’s North Waziristan."

Significantly, according to a May 20, 2014, report, the group issued a video in which its leader Abdur al-Rehman al Hindi declares, "O lions of faith, target the oppressive and infidel Indian Government's financial centres and economic interests within India and those located around the world, until Indian Government reaches the brink of destruction". In the video, al-Rehman appeals, in Arabic, to Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad; al Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri; Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS); as well as to al Qaeda’s leaders in Yemen (Nasser Al-Wuhaishi), in Somalia (Mukhtar Abu Al-Zubair), and in North Africa (Abu Mus'ab 'Abd Al-Wudoud), to come forward to ‘protect’ the Muslims of India. He also urges Indian Muslim youth to join the global jihad of al Qaeda and migrate to the lands of Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq, and warns Indian intelligence agencies against mistreating 'Islamic scholars' like Maulana Abdul Qavi, who was arrested by Indian Police on March 24, 2014, in New Delhi, in connection with the Ahmedabad serial blasts and other terrorist incidents dating back to 2003.

This emerging group is not the first to get apparent training in the disturbed tribal belt of Pakistan. Outfits like Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) and Indian Mujahideen (IM) have a history of receiving regular training in camps based in the region. According to a 2007 report, in 2006-2007, Jihadi organisations operating in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) were moved to North and South Waziristan. The report maintains that these groups brought with them a specific guerrilla strategy, which soon altered the dynamics of the Taliban, and asserts that the move “reorganised and regrouped the Taliban movement along the lines of a separatist guerrilla movement that has had a cascading affect in the region.”

The Waziristan region of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), comprising two Agencies - North and South - is located in a narrow belt which runs along the Pakistan/Afghanistan border, the Durand Line. The area comprising North and South Waziristan is characterized by rugged hills with deep gorges and it is mostly impassable. The region provides safe-haven for terrorists because of the autonomous nature of the territory, with local tribal establishments exercising much of the authority, creating an environment of impunity. The Shawal Valley of North Waziristan and the Shakai Valley of South Waziristan have, respectively, provided shelter to fleeing terrorists since the US Operation Enduring Freedom commenced in Afghanistan in 2001. However, the volatile mix of terrorism and tribal affinities in the region is not a post 9/11 phenomenon; the mountains of Waziristan had long been used as a base for mujahideen ('holy warriors') during the Afghan Wars against the Soviet occupation. The fighters, including a multi-national force drawn from across the Muslim world, had been armed and trained by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). When the Russians withdrew, many of those fighters settled down in Waziristan and became part of the local population.

LeT, among the most prominent anti-India terrorist formations, has been working from this region under the protection of the Haqqani Network, which maintains a sophisticated insurgent complex that stretches from North Waziristan Agency, through the southeastern provinces of Afghanistan, all the way to Kabul. The expansion of this network has provided the LeT, in tandem with the Haqqanis, the ability to stage spectacular suicide attacks on Indian targets in Afghanistan. Notably, the LeT’s involvement in the attacks on the Indian Embassy in Kabul on July 7, 2008, and the May 23, 2014, attack on the Indian Consulate in Herat Province of Afghanistan, has been well established.

LeT breakaways have also received training and refuge in the Waziristan region. An unnamed Pakistani intelligence official told the media, “A lot of hard-liners have broken away from LeT and gone to North and South Waziristan... There are a number of splinter groups that are much more radical. The problem is not LeT per se, it’s the elements of LeT that have broken away and found their place in Waziristan..."

Cadres of the IM, now principally acting as an LeT proxy, have also been trained in the region. The IM has been involved in almost all the terrorist attacks in India, outside J&K, after the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. A May 21, 2014, report cited Intelligence sources to claim that at least six IM operatives, including Mirza Shadab Baig, Shahnawaz Alam, Muhammad 'Bada' Sajid, Alamzeb Afridi, Shafi Armar and Sultan Armar, were believed to be training at al Qaeda-linked camps in North Waziristan for a fresh round of attacks in India.

Investigations have further revealed that two Indian IM operatives based in the Waziristan, were suspected of operating a website that invites Indian youth to join the jihad. While one hails from Bhatkal, a port town in the Uttara Kannada District of Karnataka, and has named himself after Mohammed Ata, the 9/11 attacker, the other is from Mumbai in Maharashtra (name not known). Both of them are said to be in touch with their IM counterparts in India.

The arrest of IM operative Zia-ur-Rehman alias Waqas, a Pakistani national, by the Special Cell of Delhi Police in Ajmer, Rajasthan, on March 22, 2014, further revealed the 'importance' of the Waziristan region in South Asian terrorist scenario. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), Sanjeev Kumar Yadav disclosed, "The 25-year-old Rehman had undergone a 21-day training known as 'daura-e-aam' at the Naushera camp of LeT in Pakistan. (He also) attended advanced training at a camp in Waziristan- FATA."

The region also hosts JeM terrorist camps, including one that was located in Gangi Khel near Wana in South Waziristan. The JeM 'chief', Maulana Masood Azhar and senior operative Rashid Rauf, are believed to be operating from Waziristan. Rauf was thought to have been killed in a US airstrike in North Waziristan on November 21, 2008, but the report was never confirmed. Rauf has been identified as the primary plotter for the July 7, 2005, London bombings. JeI camps are also located in the Mir Ali town of North Waziristan. According to a January, 2013 report, "Mir Ali also hosts at least three suicide training camps for the Fedayeen-i-Islam, an alliance between the Pakistani Taliban, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, and Jaish-e-Mohammed. In early 2011, a Fedayeen-i-Islam 'spokesman' claimed that more than 1,000 suicide bombers have trained at three camps."

In February 2014, HM leader, Mast Gul alias Haroon Khan, who was involved in the infamous attack on the Charar-e-Sharif shrine in J&K in 1995, emerged from the Waziristan area. Little was known of his whereabouts after he was injured in an ambush near Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in August 2003. Along with Mufti Hasaan Swati, who claims to be the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) 'commander' for the Peshawar area, Gul appeared before the media on February 5, 2014, at Miranshah, the capital city of North Waziristan. Earlier on March 28, 2006, three HM militants were arrested at Tank near South Waziristan, along with explosives and ammunition. Senior Superintendent of Police Dar Ali Khattak disclosed that the three were on their way from South Waziristan in a vehicle, when they were apprehended at a checkpoint in Tank.

HuJI also established a training camp in the Razmak area of Waziristan, shifting most of its fighters from the training camp at Kotli in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) in 2008. In 2009, HuJI leader Ilyas Kashmiri reportedly operated from a militant training center in Miranshah in North Waziristan.

Terrorist activities in the region have been 'legitimized' by the presence of the so-called 'good Taliban' - sanctioned and supported by Islamabad - on the Pakistani side of the Durand Line. Hafiz Gul Bahadar - the "good Taliban commander" maintains a “peace agreement” with the Pakistani military, which allows him to run a state within a state in North Waziristan. The peace agreement allows North Waziristan to serve as a base for the movement of Taliban in Pakistan, along with other terrorist groups that also include the anti-India LeT, IM, HuJI and JeM, among others.

The explosive mix of the jihadist ideology and terrorism in the tribal areas is creating a dynamic that can potentially destabilize not only the Af-Pak region, but much of South Asia as well, creating a direct potential for escalating terrorism, supported and promoted by the Pakistani establishment, in India.


NEWS BRIEFS

Weekly Fatalities: Major Conflicts in South Asia
June 9-15, 2014

 

Civilians

Security Force Personnel

Terrorists/Insurgents

Total

INDIA

 

Arunachal Pradesh

0
0
1
1

Jammu and Kashmir

0
2
0
2

Meghalaya

0
0
3
3

Tripura

1
0
0
1

Left-wing Extremism

 

Maharashtra

0
0
1
1

Total (INDIA)

1
2
5
8

PAKISTAN

 

Balochistan

9
2
0
11

FATA

5
4
183
192

KP

5
4
2
11

Sindh

19
12
1
32

Total (PAKISTAN)

38
22
186
246
Provisional data compiled from English language media sources.


INDIA

Pakistani consulate in Sri Lanka had planned to attack airports in Chennai and Bangalore, reveals arrested ISI agent Mohammed Sakir Husain: Terrorists backed by the Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) were planning to target port and central railway station as well as airports in Chennai (Tamil Nadu) and Bangalore (Karnataka), as per revelations made by arrested ISI agent Mohammed Sakir Husain. He was arrested at Chennai in April 2014. Economic Times, June 12, 2014.

CIA had warned of attack on Indian Consulate in Herat, according to intelligence source: Five warnings from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US helped authorities defeat the May 23 strike on the Indian Consulate in Herat Province of Afghanistan, according to intelligence sources. The last operational input from the CIA was delivered to India's intelligence services two hours after the assault began at 3.15 am Kabul time, the sources said, and identified the assault team as operatives of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT). The Hindu, June 12, 2014.

Maoist presence reported in six Districts of Kerala, says Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala: Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala told the Assembly on June 9 that there were reports of Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) "presence" in six Districts of the State. Replying to questions in the House, he said the Government was in receipt of intelligence reports of Maoist "presence" in Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur, and Kasaragod Districts. The Hindu, June 11, 2014.

Terror outfits on 'talent' hunt in Jammu and Kashmir, says report: Various militants outfits operating in Jammu and Kashmir have launched fresh drive to recruit local "talent" into their ranks. Police and intelligence officials have in their feedback to the government mentioned that Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) seeking to recruit young boys from different parts of Jammu and Kashmir to join their ranks in their latest effort to augment the manpower. It is mainly the "overground" members or sympathisers of these groups through which potential enlisted persons are being approached. Asian Age, June 11, 2014.

IM plans to set-up extortion cell in Middle East to generate fund, says report: The Indian Mujahideen (IM) plans to set up an extortion cell in the Middle East to generate funds for its terror activities and kidnap rich Indian businessmen to make quick money, according to Indian security agencies. IM operatives even plan to resort to robbery, looting and dacoity to address the cash crunch. DNA, June 9, 2014.

UMHA to launch multimedia drive to counter Maoists: The Centre will soon launch a psychological campaign using multimedia messages to discourage tribals from joining the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist). Using audiovisual content carrying development messages as primary weapons to counter the anti-government propaganda in Maoist-affected areas, four jingles in eight dialects will be aired on All India Radio and four videos will be telecasted on Doordarshan to reach out to the maximum number of people in four Maoist-affected states. Indian Express, June 14, 2014.


PAKISTAN

183 militants and five civilians among 192 persons killed during the week in FATA: At least 120 militants were killed in North Waziristan Agency (NWA) of Federally Administered Tribal Arias (FATA) when Pakistan Army lunch aerial as well as ground offensive during the operation Zarb-e-Azb (sharp and cutting), on June 15-16.

Two successive US drone strikes killed at least 16 militants in NWA in the late night of June 11 and early hours of June 12.

25 militants were killed and another 15 wounded in air strikes by fighter aircraft in Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency on June 10.

Security Forces (SFs) carried out aerial bombing in Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency, killing at least 15 militants on June 10.

At least three Paramilitary soldiers and a child were killed and many others injured in a suicide attack near Boya checkpost on Datta Khel road in NWA on June 9. Daily Times; Dawn; The News; Tribune; Central Asia; The Nation; Frontier Post; Pakistan Today; Pakistan Observer, June 10-16, 2014.

'Pakistan home to global Jihadists', asserts MQM chief Altaf Hussain: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain on June 15 said that they must accept that Pakistan has become home to terrorists from all over the world who are now entrenched in cities as well as in tribal areas of Pakistan, mounting attacks on Pakistanis as well as others. Altaf Hussain called on civilian and military leadership to stop the charade of talks with the terrorist groups and launch military strikes against those who are challenging the writ of the state through audacious attacks on Pakistani national installations. The News, June 16, 2014.

Prime Minister presented with options for responding to TTP attacks: The military and national security aides on June 10 presented options to Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif for responding to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terror attacks across the country. A brief statement issued by the PM's Office said: "Matters relating to internal and regional security, including FATA, Karachi and Balochistan were discussed." Dawn, June 11, 2014.


SRI LANKA

TNA warns of serious consequences if Parliament bars UN investigation team: Member of Parliament (MP) of Tamil National Alliance (TNA), M. A. Sumanthiran, on June 11 warned that the country will have to face serious problems if a decision is taken in Parliament to bar the team appointed by the High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay to investigate alleged human rights violations committed in Sri Lanka during the last seven years of civil war. Earlier, following the announcement by Pillay at the 26th session of United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on June 10 that a team was put in place to conduct the international investigation, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa decided to seek parliamentary approval to allow the United Nation (UN) team into the country. The Parliament will convene next on June 17. Colombo Page, June 12, 2014.


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.

South Asia Intelligence Review [SAIR]

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Dr. Ajai Sahni


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