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| Data and assessments
from SAIR can be freely published in any form with credit to the South Asia Intelligence
Review of the
South Asia Terrorism Portal |
Waziristan:
A Stygian Dark
Ajai Sahni
Editor, SAIR; Executive Director, Institute
for Conflict Management
After
months of ‘preparation’ – massive and often indiscriminate
bombings in the region, as well as the massing of Forces,
blockades and endless curfews – there are now credible
reports that the Pakistan Army is poised to ‘storm’
the principal strongholds of the Islamist terrorist
groupings affiliated to the al
Qaeda – Taliban
– Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan complex, in Waziristan.
For months, now, Pakistani Air Force and artillery units,
backed by US Predator strikes, have been hammering away
at nebulous ‘targets’ in the region, and the Army now
appears confident that ground troops can go into what
has long been regarded as Pakistan’s "‘black hole’
for security and intelligence forces".
But reports
of an imminent ground campaign have already provoked
political disquiet, with 19 Members of the National
Assembly, including three Federal Ministers, elected
from this region, submitting their resignations to Prime
Minister Yusaf Raza Gilani on September 29, 2009 (their
resignations have not been accepted, though they insist,
"we do not consider ourselves as Parliamentarians
anymore"). The resigning Parliamentarians have
warned of a ‘serious backlash’, and one of them, Saleh
Shah, has declared, "This will be a major blunder,
which will invoke (sic) a serious reaction from
the tribesmen." Munir Aurakzai, the head of the
Tribal Parliamentary Group, has noted that the ongoing
aerial and artillery campaigns have already inflicted
unbearable hardships on local tribesmen, who have "lost
their properties and lives", with "hundreds
of thousands" displaced.
The enormity
of the aerial campaign can be partially assessed by
the sheer loss of life already inflicted – before a
ground campaign has even been initiated. At least 3,228
persons, including 2,480 categorised as ‘militants’,
545 civilians and 203 Security Forces (SF) personnel
have already been killed in 2009 (till October 2) in
the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, according to
the South Asia Terrorism Portal database – with
an overwhelming proportion of fatalities concentrated
in the North and South Waziristan Agencies. These numbers
may well be a severe under-estimate, with flows of information
blocked off by denial of access to the media and other
independent agencies. No verification of the categorisation
of casualties is, of course, possible under the circumstances.
These
fatalities add to at least 3,067 killed in 2008, including
1,709 ‘militants’, 1,116 civilians and 242 SF personnel
– almost double the death count in 2007, when 1,681
persons, including 1,014 militants, 424 civilians and
243 SF personnel were killed in the region. In 2006,
the death toll stood at 590 (337 ‘militants’, 109 civilians
and 144 SF personnel).
As with
the brutal and indiscriminate Swat campaigns, however,
and in sharp contrast to the global response to the
last stages of the Sri Lankan campaign against the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE),
the relentless and often indiscriminate killings in
FATA
have provoked no more than a deafening silence from
the international community. The projected illusion
is that this area is being targeted essentially as the
‘epicentre’ of the anti-Western al-Qaeda – Taliban combine,
and that what is being done is no more than necessary.
Both
assumptions are manifestly false. For one thing, the
various protagonists in Waziristan, and in the wider
FATA region, are fighting a murky war, often at cross
purposes. US objectives are, of course, by far the most
obvious here, and they coincide with the general perception
of the area being targeted essentially to ‘neutralize’
the al Qaeda – Taliban combine. Indeed, if US assessments
can be relied upon, US drone attacks in the region –
comprising the largest proportion, by far of such attacks
in Pakistan – have been exceptionally ‘efficient’ (Pakistani
sources strongly contest these assessments and allege
that the numbers of those killed is far greater, and
that a much larger proportion is civilian). A study
in The Long War Journal notes that, of 88 US
strikes within Pakistan since 2004, 78 strikes (88.6
per cent) have hit targets in North (36 strikes) and
South (42 strikes) Waziristan. Indeed, all of the 30
strikes since April 1, 2009, have been in Waziristan.
The study claims high accuracy levels, with more than
one in three strikes killing a High Value Target (HVT).
Civilian casualties, moreover, "have remained very
low", though the study concedes that "it is
difficult to determine the exact number of civilians
killed" and that it uses "low-end estimates
of casualties". On this count, of the 979 fatalities
since 2004, just 9.6 per cent have been "identified
as civilians".
A look
at the targeted organisations, however, begins to reveal
pernicious entanglements. The principal targets, in
order of significance, include Baitullah Mehsud’s Tehrik-e-Taliban
Pakistan (TTP), an organisation that is being vigorously
targeted by Pakistani Forces as well, since it turned
‘rogue’ after the Lal Masjid debacle in July 2007, and
directed its ire against Islamabad. Baitullah Mehsud
has, in fact, been one of the HVTs neutralised in a
US Predator strike, and the leadership of the group
is currently uncertain; Hakimullah Mehsud is said to
have taken command, but is also widely believed to have
been killed in a succession war with another of the
contenders, Wali-ur-Rehman. Others in the run for the
top position in the TTP include Maulvi Faqir Muhammad
and Qari Hussain. The second in significance of the
US targets has been Mullah Nazir, who operates across
territories in South Waziristan – and who is regarded
by Islamabad as an ‘ally’ in its war against ‘foreign
terrorists’ including cadres of the Islamic Movement
of Uzbekistan led by Tahir Yuldashev (currently rumoured
to have been killed), which had taken to attacking Pakistan
Army and Government officials since 2006, and which
had aligned with the TTP. Third in line is the Haqqani
network led by Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin
Haqqani, which has long operated as the Pakistani Inter
Services Intelligence (ISI)
cat’s paw in Afghanistan, and has mounted numberless
attacks against International Security Assistance Force
(ISAF) and Afghan troops. The Haqqani network, in close
coordination with the ISI, orchestrated the suicide
bomb attack on India’s embassy at Kabul on July 7, 2008.
A fourth target has been Abu Kasha al Iraqi, considered
a key al Qaeda operative, and closely linked to the
Taliban, whose Forces operate principally from Mir Ali
in North Waziristan. With his Pakistani commanders,
Abu Kasha has mounted repeated attacks against coalition
Forces in Afghanistan. The last among the targets of
priority has been Hafiz Gul Bahadur, the ‘supreme commander’
of the Taliban in North Waziristan, who is also closely
linked with the Haqqani network. Bahadur has had a vacillating
relationship with Islamabad, and has been party to various
deals with state agencies, and is perceived as part
of the ‘government camp’. He announced a cease fire
on August 22, 2009, for the period of Ramadan,
after which incidents in North Waziristan virtually
ceased. Increasingly, several Punjab-based terrorist
groupings, including Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP),
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ),
Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM)
and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)
have established a significant presence across FATA.
The last two among these have continuing linkages with
state agencies, particularly strong in the case of the
Lashkar-e-Taiba, which orchestrated what is widely acknowledged
as the ISI-backed attack in Mumbai on November 26, 2008.
Crucially,
Islamabad’s orientation to these various groups has
been defined exclusively by the degree to which they
have remained loyal to Pakistan’s objectives in destabilizing
Kabul, or to which they have turned ‘renegade’ and attacked
targets within Pakistan. The US and Pakistan, consequently,
act at cross purposes with several of these and the
many lesser groups operating in Waziristan. North Waziristan
borders Afghanistan, and it is from here that the ‘Taliban’
– drawn from combinations of the various groups operating
from this region – have mounted attacks on troops of
the US-led ISAF and of the Afghan Army. This is the
area over which Pakistan and the US have had a long
and acrimonious dispute in the past, with continuous
cross-border infiltrations being blamed on the ‘laxity’
and collusion of Pakistani border guards.
Islamabad
has secured a great transfusion of confidence from the
killing of Baitullah Mehsud in a Predator strike, and
the probable death of his designated successor, Hakimullah
Mehsud, and this will contribute at least in part to
the decision to initiate ground operations in Waziristan.
There is, however, a substantial residual uncertainty
in the Army command. Lt. Gen. Nadeem Ahmed, the Chairman
of the Special Support Group, on August 18, 2009, noted
that, while Baitullah Mehsud had died, ‘his system was
still functioning’, and that the current objective was
to "choke off supplies" to the Taliban, and
employ aerial operations to create the "right conditions"
for ground operations, something that could "take
months" and could possibly go beyond the coming
winter. Critically, Islamabad continues to direct its
campaigns in Waziristan against the TTP, while US interests
remain much wider, targeting the complex combine of
Islamist terrorist groupings operating from this region.
While
aerial strikes have certainly inflicted some damage
on the radical Islamist networks in Waziristan, it would
be a mistake to underestimate their surviving capacities.
Indeed, even in neighbouring Swat, where Pakistan is
claiming a decisive victory, the combination of aerial
and massive ground operations failed to neutralize the
leadership and main body of radical forces in the region,
simply ‘squeezing’ them out into other areas, where
they will inevitably recover and consolidate once again.
This is what projected ground operations are expected
to do in Waziristan as well. While some stiff resistance
from fortified TTP positions can be expected in initial
phases, it is clear that, with the enormous lead time
available, most commanders will already have planned
out their escape routes and future hideouts, initially,
most likely, in the Dawar area of North Waziristan,
the Upper Orakzai Agency and the Pashtun areas of Balochistan.
Eventually, the battle will have to be extended into
the Orakzai, Mohmand and Bajaur Agencies of FATA, and
into Darra Adam Khel and beyond in the NWFP, where the
‘miscreants’ from FATA find frequent refuge. The sheer
scope of such a campaign, which will inevitably crystallize
the opposition to what will be perceived by the Islamists
as a US-Pakistani campaign, will challenge the Pakistan
Army – already overextended in campaigns in NWFP and
Balochistan – to unprecedented limits.
It is,
of course, the case that US and Pakistani efforts in
Waziristan have the capacities to force radical strategic
and tactical adaptations on the Islamist militants,
but they cannot inflict a comprehensive and irreversible
defeat – at least in part because Pakistan’s own orientation
to many of the groups remains deeply ambivalent. Till
a sufficiency of Force and will have been secured –
something that does not appear on the current bill of
fare – the protagonists in Waziristan will remain locked
in struggle in the blinding darkness of deceit, betrayal
and bloody violence. Worse, it is the wretched people
of Waziristan who are subjected to the greatest and
combined ferocity of a multiplicity of aggressors, none
of whom appears to regard their security or well being
as a significant objective in their campaigns.
|
|
Bihar:
Macabre Reminder
Ajit Kumar Singh
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management
In an apparent
attempt to settle a land dispute in favour of their newly
won supporters among the Musahars, the Communist Party
of India-Maoist’s (CPI-Maoist),
in a gruesome attack, shot dead 16 persons at Amousi Bharen
Diara, a riverine belt in the Amdaicharua village of Khagaria
District late in the night of October 1, 2009. The Musahars
are a caste of the Dalit community. The victims were drawn
from two castes among the Other Backward Class (OBC) castes
– somewhat higher up in the caste hierarchy. 14 of those
killed were Kurmi, while two were of the Kushwaha caste.
On October
2, 2009, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Operations,
S. K. Bharadwaj, disclosed, "Around 100 people, suspected
to be Maoists, armed with automatic weapons attacked the
village Amousi Bharen Diara and fired indiscriminately
late last night, killing 11 men and 5 children on the
spot." The State Police seem to be certain that cultivation
on a ‘disputed’ 40 bighas (eight acres) of land
is the reason behind the attack on the villagers, and
that the intention was to grab the land. "Land dispute
was the cause of carnage," Khagaria Superintendent of
Police Indranand Mishra noted.
Media reports
quoting Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) sources had
earlier claimed that the Maoists, who had been ‘lying
low’ in Bihar for some time – though, as the data on fatalities
(below) suggests, only by their own standards – were expected
to step up attacks in the State, especially in the riverine,
difficult-to-access North, which had remained largely
outside the sphere of extremists violence till the October
1, 2009, incident in Khagaria. The officials said the
extremists had been "quietly working" in the
old Naxalite (left wing extremist)-bastion of Khagaria.
"By proving they can strike at will, the Naxalites
are sending tough signals to the Government weeks before
it launches the joint offensive," a source said,
"They also need to convince their cadre that despite
the recent arrests of several leaders, their ‘movement’
is still going strong."
In another
incident on March 9, 2009, the extremists had killed two
women and two children of the family of Nageshwar Mahto
by slitting their throat in connection with a land dispute
case at Pachubigha village in the Arwal District. The
Police suspected that Avadhesh Singh, a distant cousin
of Mahto, hired the Maoists to ‘resolve’ the dispute.
Before leaving the place, the rebels had left a leaflet
which threatened Nageshwar with the elimination of other
members of his family, if he did not settle the dispute
in favour of Avadhesh Singh.
These two
incidents have revived the fading spectre of land-related
carnages between the Naxalites and the Ranvir Sena, the
private army of upper caste landlords, which haunted Bihar
in the 1980s and 1990s. Notably, the last big massacre
of civilians in Bihar took place on June 16, 2000, when
35 people, mostly Yadavs (another OBC caste), were killed
in Miapur village of Aurangabad District by the Ranvir
Sena.
Agrarian
unrest in Bihar has been somewhat different from many
of the other States where Maoists have been active. In
Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, for
instance, the Naxalites (Maoists) principally attack the
administrative machinery and Police (personnel and establishment).
In West Bengal, they have added the ruling Communist Party
of India – Marxist (CPI-M) workers to their list of targets.
In Bihar, in addition to the state establishment and Police,
they have repeatedly attacked the landed gentry, and sometimes
even small farmers. Land reforms have been suggested as
a ‘solution’ to the enduring conflicts between castes
in the State, and a report on land reform submitted by
the Former Revenue and Rural Development Secretary D.
Bandyopadhyay in July 2009, is currently awaiting the
attention of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The report suggests
that the State Government should enact a new law to protect
bataidars (sharecroppers), cap land ceiling and
computerise land records. Officially, the Government is
‘studying’ the report, and it is yet to be tabled in the
State Assembly. However, while land reforms may offer
some individual relief among small segments of the population,
it would be naïve to believe that they can go any
distance to significantly resolve the Maoist insurgency
in one of India’s poorest, most backward and, for decades
(despite Nitish Kumar’s recent and dramatic efforts for
change) worst governed States.
The ‘relative
calm’ in Bihar, prior to the current and abrupt escalation,
still saw as many as 68 fatalities [including 29 civilians,
24 Security Force (SF) personnel and 15 Maoists] in 97
incidents of Naxalite violence in 2009 (data till October
3), according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal
database. On this count, Bihar is the fourth worst Maoist-affected
State in the country. Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)
data indicates that, the State witnessed a high of 171
fatalities (in 323 incidents) in 2004, and 96 fatalities
(in 186 incidents) in 2005. 2006 witnessed a low of 45
deaths (in 107 incidents). The graph assumed an upward
curve in 2007 with 67 fatalities (in 135 incidents) and
in 2008 with 73 fatalities (in 164 incidents). Replying
on behalf of the State Government in the Legislative Assembly,
Energy Minister Vijendra Yadav on July 30, 2009, disclosed
that, according to figures compiled by the Bihar Police,
137 Policemen had lost their lives in violence perpetrated
by the Maoists between January 1, 2003 and May 31, 2009.
Some of
the major incidents in Bihar in 2009 include the following:
February
9: At least 10 Policemen, including some from the Special
Auxiliary Police, were killed when more than 150 armed
CPI-Maoist cadres launched a surprise attack on the SF
personnel who were providing security at a function at
Ravidas Ashram in the Mahuliatand village of Nawada District.
The Maoists subsequently fled with the arms and ammunition
of the Policemen killed.
March 16:
Armed Maoists raided Khaira village in the Lakhisarai
District and shot dead three men and injured two women.
April 15,
2009: 11 CPI-Maoist cadres were killed and one Border
Security Force (BSF) trooper injured during a seven hour-long
encounter at Dhansa Ghati in the Rohtas District. The
encounter occurred when more than 150 armed CPI-Maoist
cadres surrounded the BSF camp and opened fire. The Maoists
also used three rocket launchers in the attack.
April 23:
Four SF personnel and a civilian were killed in a landmine
explosion triggered by the CPI-Maoist near Karpoori Chowk
in the Mohabbatpur village of Muzaffarpur District. A
civilian driver also sustained serious injuries in the
blast. The victims were all part of an Election Commission
team and were returning to deposit the Electronic Voting
Machines in the Vaishali parliamentary constituency.
August
22-23: Four Police personnel, including an Assistant Sub-Inspector,
were killed while two others sustained injuries when around
40 armed CPI-Maoist cadres ambushed a Police patrol team
at a place under Sono Police Station in Jamui District.
One of the injured Policemen succumbed to his injuries
later. One Maoist cadre was also killed in the incident.
The Maoists
have also been carrying out several attacks against Government
establishments, such as railway tracks, school buildings,
and communication towers. According to Bihar Police data,
14 mobile towers of BSNL, Airtel and Reliance telecommunications
were blown up by the insurgents in the Aurangabad, Gaya,
Arwal and Rohtas Districts in 2008. Till July 2009, five
such incidents have been reported.
The CPI-Maoist
has established a presence in 31 of the 38 Districts in
Bihar. Extremist consolidation has reached a point where
the Maoists are organising Jan Adalats (People’s
Courts) in various Districts. On February 26, 2009, for
instance, about 50 armed Maoist cadres held a Jan Adalat
in the Banke Bazaar area of Gaya District, in the presence
of the heads of five village panchayats (village
level local self government institutions), who hailed
the 'effort' of the rebels by raising pro-Maoist slogans.
On August
21, 2009, the Bihar Government sought the inclusion of
another four Districts in the list of those affected by
the Maoist insurgency, under the Centre’s Security Related
Expenditure (SRE) scheme, adding to the 15 already listed.
The State Government had proposed inclusion of Lakhisarai,
Munger, Buxar and Sheikhpura in the SRE scheme. The Centre
has, however, decided only to cover Munger. "We have submitted
a fresh proposal to this effect," official sources stated,
adding that Saharsa also needed to be included in the
list. Under the SRE scheme, the expenditure incurred on
security is reimbursed by the Centre.
The Additional
Director General of Police (ADGP), Headquarters, Neelmani,
on August 22, 2009, stated that, though the number of
Naxalite attacks had declined, the extremists had ‘regrouped’
and remained strong in certain pockets. This year, 207
Maoists have been arrested, including self-styled zonal
and area commanders and top leaders and, Neelmani asserted,
"They are just retaliating." In 2009, Neelmani disclosed,
24 Policemen have already been killed in Naxalite attacks,
and "the force is their main target as they want to demoralize
the Police." The police are also hitting back, not only
by arresting cadres and leadership, but also through efforts
to cut off their sources of income. A special drive has
been launched to control Maoist extortion from Government
and private agencies involved in developmental works.
The arrest
of Anil alias Amitabh Bagchi and Tauhild Mula alias
Kartik from a train at Ranchi junction in Jharkhand on
August 19, 2009, while the duo were on the way to Bihar,
provided the Police with significant inputs on Naxalite
operations in Bihar and Jharkhand. Bagchi, a CPI-Maoist
Politburo member, had been active in undivided Bihar since
the early 1990s. He was the founder of the erstwhile Communist
Party of India-Marxist Leninist-Party Unity (CPI-ML-Party
Unity) in Bihar. Kartik was reportedly a member of the
outfit’s Central Committee.
However,
in a setback to the Police, on June 23, 2009, CPI-Maoist
cadres ambushed a Police team at a court premises in the
Lakhisarai District and freed Misir Besra, a member of
the Maoist Central Military Commission (CMC) and Politburo,
after killing a Policeman and hurling bombs to scare away
people. The District Development Commissioner, Rajiv Ranjan,
who was sitting in his office adjacent to the court complex,
sustained splinter injuries as bombs were hurled freely
by nearly 30 Maoists who entered the court premises on
motorcycles. The ambush of the Police team took place
when Besra was being taken out of court. The Maoists also
snatched a carbine and two rifles from the Police escort
team. Earlier, on January 16, three CPI-Maoist cadres,
along with eight under-trial prisoners, escaped from the
Jammui District Civil Court premises, while they were
being brought to the Court for regular production. A group
of 50 Maoists waiting in the Court premises attacked the
Police party by spraying chilli powder. They also exploded
bombs as the Policemen tried to stop them. Three Police
personnel sustained injuries. In the ensuing chaos, three
Maoists, identified as Sunil Baitha, Paresh Hembram and
Vivek Yadav, escaped from Police custody.
Despite
some successes in their fight against the Maoists the
depleted Police
force (both in terms of men and material)
needs a tremendous infusion of capacities within a clearly
defined time frame. According to National Crime Records
Bureau Data (as on December 31, 2007) Bihar had a dismal
60 policemen per 100,000 population, the lowest in the
country, well below the severely inadequate Indian average
of 125 per 100,000. Worse, this figure represented sanctioned
posts, and there was a 33.06 per cent gap between actual
and sanctioned Police strength in the State. Four Battalions
of Central Paramilitary Forces (CPMF) are also deployed
in the State, but this yields barely 1,600 CPMF personnel
in actual field deployments, a minuscule number for the
State as large, and as problematic, as Bihar.
The Nitish
Kumar Government, is, of course, increasingly focusing
on recruitment to and modernisation of the Police. Addressing
the conference of Chief Ministers in New Delhi on January
16, 2009, the Chief Minister stated that his Government
would appoint 13,000 constables and Assistant Sub Inspectors
in Bihar. He also said that the State Government had sanctioned
a sum of INR 70 million from the Bihar Contingency Fund
to be spent on acquisition of 133.28 acres of land meant
for the Bihar Police Academy. Two battalions of Bihar
Military Police (BMP) would be raised in Bettiah (BMP-15)
and Saharsa (BMP-12), for which the process of land acquisition
had already been initiated. On February 17, 2009, the
Bihar Government sanctioned INR 199.3 million under the
Police modernisation scheme for construction of buildings
to accommodate 300 Police officers in the six CPI-Maoist
affected Districts of Nawada, Jamui, Jehanabad, Arwal,
Aurangabad and Bhabua. On July 20, 2009, Water Resources
Development Minister Vijendra Prasad Yadav told the State
Legislative Council that, to strengthen the Force, the
Government had increased the number of State Auxiliary
Police (SAP) personnel from 5,000 in 2006 to 11,500, in
view of its better performance in tackling the Naxalites.
The Minister said that 712 newly appointed sub-inspectors'
had completed their training and that 10,311 constables
had been recruited, while the process to recruit another
12,877 constables was on. The Government has initiated
processes to set up a modern Police Training Centre (the
Bihar Police Academy) at Rajgir in Nalanda District. The
Government also wanted to establish a model Police Station
in every District and had cleared INR 1.12 crore for every
such station the Minister disclosed. To tackle the Maoists
at the political level, the Government had started an
'Aapki Sarkar Aapke Dwar' (Government at your doorstep)
scheme in the seven Maoist-affected Districts of Patna,
Gaya, Jehanabad, Rohtas, Munger, West Champaran and East
Champaran, under which development and welfare services
are delivered to target populations.
On August
21, the IGP S.K. Bharadwaj, who is also in-charge of the
anti-Naxal cell in the Bihar Police headquarters, disclosed
that two of the three proposed India Reserve Battalions
(IRBs) were operational and the process of land acquisition
for the third IRB at Valmikinagar in the West Champaran
District (close to the India-Nepal border) was underway.
Official sources said the recruitment of Police personnel
for the two IR battalions – one at the Bihar Military
Police-4 (Dumraon) and another at the BMP-12 (Saharsa)
– was ‘almost complete’ and the constables were undergoing
training. The officer also said the Centre might provide
four COBRA (Combat Battalion for Resolute Action) battalions
at Kaimur-Rohtas, Jamui-Nawada and Gaya-Aurangabad.
In another
significant development, the Bihar Government has also
sent a proposal to Centre to set up four Counter-Insurgency
and Anti-Terrorism Schools (CIATS) in the State. Of these,
the one at Bodh Gaya had been sanctioned, and the State
Government has received INR 15 million to set up the specialized
CIATS. The amount will be spent mainly to develop infrastructure
and training. According to Police sources, each batch
of trainees would comprise 300 Policemen, and the duration
of training would be three months. The remaining three
School are to be set up at Dehri-on-Sone in Rohtas, Dumraon
in Buxar and Valmikinagar in West Champaran Districts.
According
to a September 2, 2009, report, Bihar is likely to become
the fourth State to have its own Anti-Terrorism Squad
(ATS), the blueprint for which has already been prepared.
"The Bihar ATS will be armed with modern and latest weapon
system after the Home Department approves it," an unnamed
senior official disclosed. The Bihar ATS - to be headed
by an officer of inspector-general rank - will have two
deputy inspectors-general, four superintendents of Police,
and more than two dozen "operational units". The squad
will be raised from the existing personnel of the BMP
and will be specially trained to deal with sudden strikes.
Currently, Bihar has a Special Task Force which deals
with cases of organised crime and Maoist insurgency. Only
Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh have an
ATS, among the Maoist-afflicted States.
These are,
without doubt, significant initiatives. However, they
are far from sufficient to bridge the cumulative deficits
of decades of extraordinary neglect and mis-governance
in Bihar. The massacre at Khagaria is a reminder of the
tremendous distance that remains to be travelled in the
battle against Left Wing Extremism in the State, and the
extreme urgency that must attend the efforts to secure
adequate Policing capacities to deal with a rapidly augmenting
threat.
|
Weekly
Fatalities: Major Conflicts in South Asia
September
28-October 4,
2009
|
|
Civilian
|
Security
Force Personnel
|
Terrorist/Insurgent
|
Total
|
|
BANGLADESH
|
|
|
Left-wing Extremism
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
4
|
|
INDIA
|
|
|
Assam
|
12
|
0
|
4
|
16
|
|
Jammu and Kashmir
|
3
|
3
|
6
|
12
|
|
Manipur
|
2
|
0
|
3
|
5
|
|
Nagaland
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
|
Left-wing Extremism
|
|
|
Bihar
|
16
|
0
|
0
|
16
|
|
Chhattisgarh
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
|
Jharkhand
|
2
|
0
|
4
|
6
|
|
Maharashtra
|
2
|
1
|
6
|
9
|
|
Orissa
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
|
West Bengal
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
5
|
|
Total (INDIA)
|
43
|
4
|
26
|
73
|
|
PAKISTAN
|
|
|
FATA
|
0
|
1
|
71
|
72
|
|
NWFP
|
7
|
2
|
25
|
34
|
|
Total (PAKISTAN)
|
7
|
3
|
96
|
106
|
|
SRI LANKA
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
2
|
|
Provisional data compiled from English language media sources.
|
INDIA
Five
children among 16 civilians killed by suspected Maoists
in Bihar: 16 civilians, including five children,
were shot dead by suspected Communist Party of India-Maoist
(CPI-Maoist) cadres at Amosi Bharen Diara village in the
Khagaria District late in the night of October 1, 2009,
a top Police official said on October 2. "Around 100 people,
suspected to be Maoists, armed with automatic weapons attacked
the village Amosi Bharen Diara and fired indiscriminately
late last night, killing 11 men and 5 children on the spot,"
Inspector General of Police (Operations), S. K. Bharadwaj,
said. According to the Police, the cultivation on the disputed
40 bighas (eight acres) of land is said to
be the reason behind the attack on the victims belonging
to a backward caste. The Additional Deputy General of Police
(Headquarters), Neelmani, said that the attack was carried
out on villagers by suspected Maoists with the intention
of grabbing the land. The victims belonged to Amdaicharua
village and had been living in makeshift camps on the land
for cultivation, he added. Neelmani also said, "Ten
people have been arrested so far, including O.P. Mahto,
who we believe is the prime suspect." The
Hindu; Times
of India, October 3, 2009.
PAKISTAN
71 militants
and a trooper killed during the week in FATA: Troops
killed 27 militants in the Khyber Agency on October 2, 2009.
According to sources in the Frontier Corps, helicopters
shelled militant training centres in the Tirah valley of
Bara sub-division, killing 27 militants, including two key
commanders identified as Ghulam Nabi and Farooq Swati. Two
hideouts, three caves and 19 vehicles belonging to the militants
were also destroyed during the operation.
Two US drones
fired one missile each at two vehicles at Norat village
– 20 kilometres east of Miranshah – on the Miranshah-Bannu
Road in North Waziristan, killing five Taliban militants
and injuring six others, on September 30. Both vehicles
and a house nearby were completely destroyed in the strike.
Separately, at least five militants were killed during a
clash between two rival groups of the Lashkar-e-Islam outfit
in the remote Tirah valley of Khyber Agency on September
30.
Two suspected
US drone attacks killed nine Taliban militants, while seven
other militants were killed in air strikes and military
action in different parts of Waziristan, officials said
on September 29. The first drone attack targeted the house
of local Taliban ‘commander’ Ifran Mehsud in Sararogha,
a village northwest of Wana in South Waziristan. "A
missile from a US drone fired on the compound of Irfan Mehsud
killed five militants and injured six," said a security
official in the area. He did not know if Irfan was among
the dead. He also said the spy plane unloaded two missiles
on the compound, adding that reports suggested three of
the dead could be Uzbeks. "The death toll may rise,"
he told AFP. "The compound is completely destroyed
and militants have surrounded the area," he added.
Separately, another drone attack at Danday Darpa Khel –
four kilometres north of Miranshah in North Waziristan –
killed four Afghan militants and injured two others. The
house targeted belonged to Emarati, an Afghan national,
and the Afghan militants killed in the missile attack were
said to be from the Jalaluddin Haqqani group. Further, Pakistan
Air Force jets bombed Taliban bunkers in Kotkai, killing
three militants in the strike. The military also targeted
the Makeen area with long-range artillery, destroying three
hideouts and killing four militants. "We are finalising
arrangements for the launch of Operation Rah-e-Nijat
(Path of Salvation) against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan
in South Waziristan," officials said.
At least
12 Taliban militants were killed in a clash with Security
Forces in Razmak tehsil (revenue unit) of North Waziristan
on September 28. The clash erupted after Taliban fired rockets
at the Shawaal Rifles Camp – 75 kilometres from Miranshah
– killing two troopers and injuring five others. Official
sources said at least "110 missiles have been fired
at the Army camp over the last 24 hours." Separately,
six Taliban militants were killed and nine others wounded
when helicopter gunships targeted hideouts in Upper Orakzai
on September 28. Officials said the strikes – which targeted
Ghalju, Mulla Pati and Khadezai areas – destroyed three
Taliban hideouts. In addition, local Taliban militants in
Upper Orakzai abducted four Levies Force personnel, and
killed one of them. Dawn;
Daily
Times; The
News, September 29-October 5, 2009.
25 militants
and seven civilians among 34 persons killed during the week
in NWFP: The Army
killed nine Taliban militants – including three key commanders
– in the ongoing military operation in Swat, said officials
on October 4, 2009. According to the Swat Media Centre,
six militants – including three commanders identified as
Kota Younas, Noor Amin and Fazal Rabi – were killed in a
clash with troops in Banjar village. The troops also killed
three Taliban militants in the Bazdara area of Malakand.
A lashkar (militia) member was also killed in Bazdara.
Three militants
were killed in a search operation at Zulamkot-Serai in the
Swat District on October 2. An Inter-Services Public Relations
(ISPR) statement said the Security Forces (SFs) also conducted
search operations in Shah Dheri and arrested local Taliban
‘commander’ Rehmat, besides arresting five militants at
Shahid Khapa near Peochar and Sarsani. Separately, unidentified
militants shot dead two Policemen in the Ghari Kapoora Police
precincts of Mardan District on October 2. The two slain
Police personnel were identified as Nasir Ali and Subhan
Ali.
At least
two Taliban militants were killed and several troopers injured
when a Taliban militant blew himself up during a raid in
Swat on October 1. "Security forces conducted a raid...
in Toprai near Gat. During the raid on a house, one of the
two Taliban inside the house – who was wearing a suicide
jacket – detonated the explosives strapped to his body,
killing himself and the other Taliban and injuring two soldiers,"
ISPR disclosed.
A resident
of Swat who sheltered a Chinese engineer was found dead
in the Changalai area of Khwazakhela sub-division on September
30, said witnesses, and blamed Taliban for the killing.
The slain person was identified as Jamauddin. The Chinese
engineer was reportedly abducted by the Taliban militants
at Dir in the early part of 2009, but he managed to escape
and got shelter from Jamauddin.
Local militia
(Lashkar) members killed 10 Taliban militants, including
‘commander’ Momin alias Malang, in the Barikot tehsil
(revenue unit) of Swat District on September 28, as
troops arrested 10 Taliban militants and 10 others surrendered.
One member of the Lashkar was also killed in the clash.
At least
four persons, including a prominent anti-Taliban cleric,
were killed when a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden
vehicle into a car at Bannu. "The attacker rammed his
explosives-laden car into a vehicle carrying pro-government
local leader Abdul Hakeem," said Police Official Iqbal
Marwat. Witnesses said Hakeem was on his way to office when
the bomber struck. Dawn;
Daily
Times; The
News, September 29-October 5, 2009.
Pakistan
probe confirms LeT hand in 26/11 Mumbai attack, reports
New York Times: Pakistan’s investigation into
the November 26, 2008, Mumbai terrorist attacks (26/11)
has concluded that the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) carried out
the assault, according to a report in The New York Times,
which also said some people in Pakistan’s Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) knew about the plot but "closed
their eyes." Quoting a dossier compiled by Pakistani
investigators, New York Times reported that the LeT
militants for the attack were vetted and trained in different
parts of Pakistan, including at well-established camps in
Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK),
and in Mansehra in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
"A core group, the 10 chosen for the Mumbai assault,
was eventually moved to Karachi and its suburbs, where the
real drilling began and where Pakistani investigators later
retraced the plotters’ steps," the report said. "The
investigation concludes beyond any reasonable doubt that
it was Lashkar militants who carried out the Mumbai attacks,
preying on their victims in a train station, two five-star
hotels, a cafe and a Jewish centre over three days starting
last November 26," the report added. Quoting a "highly
placed" LeT militant, the report said that the Mumbai
attackers were part of groups trained by former Pakistani
military and intelligence officials at the LeT camps. "Others
had direct knowledge that retired Army and ISI officials
trained Lashkar recruits as late as last year. Some people
of the ISI knew about the plan and closed their eyes,"
New York Times quoted the militant as saying. The
Hindu,
October 1, 2009.
SRI LANKA
Government
plans special tribunals to prosecute over 10,000 LTTE militants:
The Government plans to set up a Special Tribunal to
prosecute over 10,000 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suspects
who have been involved in various crimes and has even sought help
from the US and UK in dealing with the former rebels. "Our
aim is to settle the cases against the LTTE cadres speedily as it
could otherwise take years in the normal legal system in courts,"
a top Government official said. More than 10,000 LTTE cadres are
presently being detained in various centres across Sri Lanka. The
official said the Ministry of Justice and Law Reforms has mooted
the proposal for a Special Tribunal for trying these cases and that
it was under the consideration of the Government. He also said the
Special Tribunals may be set up on the lines of the Special Commission
set up to inquire into the excesses by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna
in 1971. As part of the proposal, moves are on to classify the LTTE
suspects into three groups, namely, those involved in serious crimes,
those who could be rehabilitated and those not involved in serious
crimes and can be released on conditional bail. The
Hindu, September 29, 2009.
|
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
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South
Asia Terrorism Portal.
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