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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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)
|
|
|
|
|
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.
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