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SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Weekly Assessments & Briefings
Volume 8, No. 19, November 16, 2009

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
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Assam: Crippling the ULFA
Wasbir Hussain
Associate Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management, New Delhi; Director, Centre for Development and Peace Studies, Guwahati

Trans-border terror in South Asia received a severe setback on November 4, 2009, when two top leaders of the separatist United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) fell into the hands of the Indian Security Forces (SFs). The official version of the story is that ULFA’s self-styled ‘foreign secretary’ Sashadhar Choudhury and ‘finance secretary’ Chitraban Hazarika were trying to sneak back into India from Bangladesh, when they were captured by Border Security Force (BSF) troopers near Gokulnagar in Tripura. The duo was then handed over to a visiting Assam Police team on November 6, who brought them over to Guwahati and produced before a magistrate. The next day, the magistrate sent them on a ten-day Police remand. Though there is reason to believe that the duo were actually picked up by Bangladesh authorities and informally handed over to the Indian side, there are complex reasons why both New Delhi and Dhaka prefer that people believe the official version. In any event, the fact remains that the pair has been captured and is now in Indian custody, after years on the run.

It required just a squeeze by authorities in Bangladesh to actually uproot Northeast Indian insurgent leaders like Choudhury and Hazarika from that country’s territory. India and Bangladesh do not have an extradition treaty yet, and have consequently shied away from giving details of how a dozen armed security men in civvies captured the ULFA duo from a house in Dhaka’s up-market Uttara locality on November 1, 2009, before they landed up in the hands of Indian authorities. Nevertheless, a confirmation that the rebel leaders were picked up by Bangladeshi security officials came from none other than the exiled ULFA ‘chairman’ Arabinda Rajkhowa, who issued a Press Statement on November 7 saying ‘unidentified armed men from Bangladesh’ had abducted the duo around midnight, November 1. The ULFA ‘chairman’ and remaining leaders may actually have panicked and issued the statement disclosing the capture to prevent the possible ‘disappearance’ of the two men, Choudhury and Hazarika. The rebel group has not forgotten how some of its important leaders went missing after the Bhutanese military assault against the ULFA in 2003.

The arrest of the two ULFA leaders has great significance, because it demonstrates Dhaka’s seriousness in tackling trans-border terror, particularly in dealing with Northeast Indian insurgents, who have been enabled to make Bangladesh a safe staging area for nearly two decades now.

"Dhaka has greatly increased its pressure on the ULFA and other (Indian) militants operating from there," Union Home Secretary G. K. Pillai told this writer after Choudhury and Hazarika’s arrest. He confirmed that ULFA’s elusive ‘commander-in-chief’ Paresh Baruah was no longer in Bangladesh. Indian intelligence officials say Paresh Baruah, along with some 50 of his trusted fighters, is currently in China’s Yunnan province, close to the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) headquarters in northern Myanmar. The ULFA has managed to open shop in Yunnan province because elements in China had been supplying arms to rebels in Northeast India. Union Home Secretary Pillai confirmed, earlier in November 2009, that China had been arming Naga rebels and that leaders of the Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM) were making frequent visits to that country.

The arrest of the two ULFA leaders has definitely put the rebel group, formed in 1979 to push for a ‘sovereign, Socialist Assam’, on the back-foot. G. M. Srivastava, former Assam Police chief and now a security advisor to the State Government, observes, "Sashadhar Choudhury as the ULFA’s so-called foreign secretary was responsible for maintaining the group’s links with foreign sympathizers like the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence. Chitraban Hazarika was responsible for the group’s money bags. The ULFA cannot replace this loss easily." The group’s chain of command has been totally disrupted. While its ‘c-in-c’ Paresh Baruah is on the run, ‘chairman’ Rajkhowa is said to be lying low in Bangladesh. ULFA ‘general secretary’ Anup Chetia is under detention in Bangladesh since 1997. Publicity and cultural ‘secretaries’, Mithinga Daimary and Pranati Deka, respectively, have long been in custody in Assam, along with ‘vice-chairman’ Pradip Gogoi. With ‘foreign secretary’ Choudhury and ‘finance secretary’ Hazarika trapped in the security net, that leaves the group with Paresh Baruah’s close aide and ‘deputy c-in-c’ Raju Baruah and a few other middle-level leaders.

The crackdown by Bangladesh could not have come at a more inopportune time for the ULFA. The group has been unable to recover from the split it suffered in June 2008, when the ‘Alpha’ and ‘Charlie’ companies of its crack ‘28th battalion’ called a unilateral cease-fire. "We have given up our original demand for sovereignty. We are now looking for an acceptable solution to our problems within the framework of the Indian Constitution," Mrinal Hazarika, a leader of the erstwhile ‘28th battalion’, declared. Hazarika now says his faction be called the ‘pro-talks’ ULFA group. Earlier in November 2009, New Delhi held an exploratory round of talks with the pro-talks faction, raising the question whether this faction could, at some point in time, actually make the Paresh Baruah-led ULFA hawks irrelevant in Assam’s insurgent politics.

But what explains Dhaka’s sudden change of heart? It is true there has been a change of guard in Bangladesh, with the return of the supposedly pro-India Awami League led by Sheikh Hasina in December 2008, but the mood among the Bangladeshis had remained anti-India during Hasina’s earlier tenures. It was the enduring anti-India sentiment, among other things, that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of Begum Khaleda Zia had also capitalized on. Begum Zia had, in fact, told this writer in an interview a couple of years ago that her party regarded the ULFA as ‘freedom fighters’, much as the Mukti Bahini of Bangladesh’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rehman were freedom fighters. It has, in large measure, been pressures of the ‘global war on terror’ and the general worry among affluent Bangladeshis that the country was being hijacked by fundamentalists and foreign terrorist elements operating from its soil, which led the Awami League regime to crack down on terror. New Delhi has also been on a diplomatic overdrive to persuade Dhaka to act, and this has yielded dividends.

There were, however, more pressing reasons for Dhaka to act against the ULFA. ULFA’s linkages with the official establishment in both Bangladesh and Pakistan have been confirmed with the May 16, 2009, arrest of two former chiefs of Bangladesh’s main spy agency, the National Security Intelligence (NSI), Maj. Gen. (Retd) Rezzaqul Haider Chowdhury and Brig. Gen. (Retd) M. Abdur Rahim. The duo, who had been directors general of the NSI, were held for their alleged involvement in the 2004 seizure, in the port city of Chittagong, of ten truckloads of arms and ammunition meant for the ULFA. One of the reasons why Paresh Baruah fled Bangladesh was Dhaka’s decision to reopen this case, in which Baruah was named as one of those involved.

ULFA had opened shop in Bangladesh in 1985, setting up safe houses at Damai village in the Moulvi Bazaar District, bordering the northeastern Indian State of Meghalaya. When the Army, assisted by the Police and the paramilitary forces, launched a crackdown against the ULFA in Assam, its top leaders were nowhere in the State, having secured themselves in their safe havens in Bangladesh. Dhaka, however, bluntly denied the presence of Indian separatists in that country, although confirmation came in December 1997, when ULFA general secretary Anup Chetia was arrested with satellite phones and a huge amount of foreign currency, by Bangladeshi authorities in capital Dhaka. Things have evidently changed now and Dhaka has confirmed, in more ways than one, the presence of ULFA and other Northeast Indian militants in Bangladesh. India is expected to give Bangladesh a great deal in return.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will pay a three-day visit to India from December 18, 2009 and the two neighbours are expected to settle the issue of putting an extradition treaty in place. New Delhi has already rushed Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao to Dhaka to meet with the Bangladeshi leadership, ahead of Sheikh Hasina’s visit. Dhaka hopes to get several major concessions from New Delhi, including a land route to Bhutan and Nepal for purposes of business and trade. India is also expected to take concrete steps to reverse the trade imbalance between the two countries, which is heavily in New Delhi’s favour. Over the past ten months, Bangladesh has been trying hard to demonstrate its clear intent through a crackdown against Indian insurgents operating from its soil, and that is something New Delhi would clearly want to see continuing.

The ULFA is clearly down, but not out as yet. With evidence of some Chinese support, there is certainly some potential for a regrouping. Bangladeshi cooperation has been critical in crippling the rebels, but India will need further cooperation from its neighbours if it is to bring down the curtain on this 30-year-old insurrection in Assam, the gateway to the Northeast.

INDIA
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Manipur: The Persistence of Despair
Sandipani Dash
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

With 369 insurgency related fatalities, and the year 2009 drawing to an end, Manipur remained the most violent State in India’s Northeast. Assam, the other major theatre of conflict in the region, with 11 times the population and 3.5 times the land mass, stood at second place, with 344 fatalities through 2009. There are, however, tentative indications suggesting some gains for the counter-insurgency (CI) grid in Manipur, with Security Forces (SFs) inflicting rising costs on State’s multiple insurgent groups, neutralizing significant numbers of their cadres and contracting their areas of dominance.

Insurgency related Fatalities in Manipur: 2001-2009

Year
Civilians
SFs
Insurgents
Total
2001*
70
25
161
256
2002*
16
03
71
90
2003*
13
03
70
86
2004*
88
36
134
258
2005*
158
50
202
410
2006*
96
28
187
311
2007*
130
39
219
388
2008**
136
16
347
499
2009***
64
13
292
369
*Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India
**MHA and South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) combined
***SATP - Data till November 15, 2009

The steady increase of violence in Manipur since 2004, when insurgency-related fatalities took an abrupt upward turn, coinciding with the alleged rape and custodial death of a supposed female insurgent, Th. Manorama Devi, at the hands of Assam Rifles personnel, has witnessed its second reversal in 2009. A similar de-escalation had earlier been recorded in 2006. Manipur registered 499 fatalities in 996 insurgency-related incidents in 2008, according to combined data of the MHA and SATP. 2009 has seen 878 such incidents, claiming 369 lives, including 292 insurgents and 64 civilians, till November 15, according to the SATP database. While civilians and SFs together account for some 21 per cent, insurgents comprise nearly 79 per cent of the total fatalities in 2009. All the nine Districts of Manipur, including four in the Valley and five in the Hill areas, continue to be affected by varying degree of militant activities. Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh, on July 20, 2009, informed the State Legislative Assembly that more than 30 militant groups were operating in Manipur.

Manipur’s insurgent groups have singled out the non-local Hindi and Bengali speaking population in their efforts to consolidate their support base within the indigenous population of the State. Of the 64 civilians killed in 2009, 28 belonged to this category – comprising migrant labourers and petty traders, who were killed in at least 23 attacks distributed across all the four Valley Districts. In the biggest attack of 2009, unidentified insurgents killed nine non-locals inside the Keibul Lamjao National Park in the Khordak Awang Leikai area in Bishnupur District on May 11. Exactly a month later, on June 11, four non-local labourers were killed when unidentified insurgents opened fire inside the Central Agriculture University campus at Iroisemba under Lamphel Police Station in Imphal West District. Police suspected that insurgents belonging either to the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) or the People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) were behind these attacks.

Unlike the killings among the non-local labourer classes, which fail to register in the imagination and concerns of the scores of community groups and students’ associations operating in Manipur, one killing that created great sensation was that of the July 23 encounter in which a suspected People’s Liberation Army (PLA) militant was shot dead by the Imphal West District Police in the Khawairamband Bazaar area. A pregnant woman was also killed and five other persons sustained injuries in the cross-fire. The Apunba Lup, the apex body of several agitating groups in the State, has alleged the encounter to have been faked, and has spearheaded a State-wide agitation demanding the Chief Minister’s resignation. While the Chief Minister announced the suspension of six personnel of the State Police’s Commando Force and the setting up of a judicial inquiry, the All Manipur Students Union, Manipuri Students Federation and Kangleipak Students Association launched a class boycott campaign resulting in the closure of a majority of educational institutions, including Manipur University, particularly in the four Valley Districts on September 9. The Manipur Government’s efforts to reopen the educational institutions are being countered by the agitating students’ associations who have set ablaze school and college buildings in Thoubal and Imphal East Districts. The violent demonstration of sympathy by students groups for militant groups is no surprise in Manipur where, the Director General of Police, Y. Joykumar, had earlier declared at least one such student association – the Democratic Students’ Alliance of Manipur (DESAM) – to be a front organisation of the Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL). Joykumar had asserted that "there is a linkage between DESAM and KYKL."

Representatives of local level self-Government institutions have also, at times, been found to have links with the insurgent groups in Manipur. In one such case, on August 19, 2009, a PLA militant was arrested by a combined force of the Imphal West District Police and Army from the residence of a woman member of the Thongju Gram Panchayat (village level local body), Ningthoujam Ongbi Mani Devi, at Thongju Pechu Lampak.

Meanwhile, the extortion drive by multiple insurgent groups remains intact across the State, with all most all the armed groups extracting levies and ransoms from residents and transients in their areas of operation. The continuing dominance of the insurgents in Manipur is also strongly reflected in the enveloping regime of extortion that targets Government offices, local self-Government and educational institutions, health centres, commercial establishments and the wider civilian population alike.

The militants’ demonstration of power extends to the issue of numerous 'decrees' as well. In January 2009, PREPAK declared the imposition of a temporary ‘ban’ on all gas agents for allegedly duping consumers and for failing to heed the outfit’s call for a ‘dialogue’ over the issue. In February 2009, the UNLF ‘banned’ the General Manager of the Imphal Urban Cooperative Bank, Y. Ningthemjao Singh, from entering the bank premises because of his alleged involvement in malpractices. Again, in April 2009, the Military Council faction of the Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) declared a ‘ban’ on private hospitals for allegedly accumulating wealth at the cost of economically weak patients. Such moral policing by insurgent groups on occasion also gives vent to the resurfacing faultlines between the Valley and Hills in Manipur. In October 2009, the Military Council faction of the United Kuki Liberation Army demanded the abolition the Kut festival (autumn festival of different tribes of Kuki-Chin-Mizo groups in Manipur). The outfit stated that the venue of the festival should be in one of the chief towns of these ethnic groups, such as Churachandpur, Moreh, Kangpokpi or Motbung, but not in Imphal City.

The spillover of the Naga insurgency into Manipur Hills had significant impact on the State through 2009, as the National Socialist Council of Nagaland–Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM) sought to consolidate influence in the Naga populated areas of the State, in its quest for Nagalim (Greater Nagaland). An attempt by the NSCN-IM to establish a permanent camp at Siroy in Ukhrul District was foiled in February 2009. After a two-week standoff, the insurgents, who had already set up the camp, were provided safe passage by Assam Rifles personnel, and the camp was dismantled. However, another three unauthorised camps – established prior to the 1997 cease-fire between the NSCN-IM and the Union Government in Nagaland – at Bonning (Senapati District), Ooklong (Tamenglong District) and Phungchong (Chandel District), remain. The NSCN-IM reportedly receives patronage from Government officials working in the Naga populated hilly regions of Manipur. On February 13, 2009, for instance, the Sub-Divisional Officer of Khasom Khullen in Ukhrul District and his two colleagues were abducted by NSCN-IM militants, with the alleged connivance of the Deputy Commissioner of the District. The abducted officials were later killed.

Parliamentary elections were held in the Outer and Inner Manipur constituencies respectively on April 16 and 22, 2009, with 63 per cent of the voters casting their ballot in Outer Manipur and 60 per cent in Inner Manipur. The NSCN-IM allegedly provided support to the incumbent Parliamentarian, Mani Charenamei, belonging to the People's Democratic Alliance, who was seeking re-election from Outer Manipur, and who advocated the formation of Nagalim at the territorial expense of Manipur during his election campaign. There was, consequently, strong resentment in the Valley, partially articulated in the creation of the Thoubal District Development and Demand Council by voters of eight Assembly Constituencies, who boycotted Charenamei in the election. Charenamei eventually lost to Thangso Baite of the ruling Congress party. The NSCN-IM had also threatened 'capital punishment' against persons associated with an influential community group, the Tangkhul Nagalong (apex council of the Tangkhul community) in Chandel District, for campaigning in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate, Loli Adanee, in Outer Manipur. In the Inner Manipur constituency, the Military Council faction of the KCP declared a ‘ban’ against the Congress party prior to election. The ban was subsequently ‘lifted’. Though the Congress retained its seat in Inner Manipur as well, its offices were targeted and activists attacked. On April 12, for instance, two persons were wounded when the Mayang Imphal Block Office of the Congress party was blown up by militants.

The smooth conduct of a relatively peaceful Parliamentary election in Manipur coincided with the counter-insurgency Operation Summer Storm, jointly launched by the 57 Mountain Division of the Army, the para-military Assam Rifles and Manipur Police, involving about 500 SF personnel. The operation, demonstrating an increasing synergy of efforts in combating the militancy, targeted PREPAK in the Loktak Lake area and the adjoining Keibul Lamjao National Park of Bishnupur District, located south of Imphal, between April 11 and 21, 2009. The 10-day offensive resulted in the killing of 12 militants, the neutralisation of five camps, and the recovery of 10 weapons. Six months later, another CI Operation, Thunderbolt, was launched by troops in the northern side of the Loktak Lake at Yangoi Maril Pat under Wangoi Police Station of Imphal West District, in the first week of November 2009. While a suspected PREPAK cadre was shot dead, three hideouts belonging to different militant groups operating in the Valley were neutralised in the operation.

The Manipur Police has 627 Policemen per 100,000 population, a ratio that is dramatically higher than Assam (176), and the national average, at 125. Nevertheless, the State Government plans to recruit more Policemen, and the Manipur Cabinet has taken a decision to induct 1,600 Police Commandos, in addition to the existing 1,600 Commandos who are currently deployed in the Valley Districts of Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur and Thoubal. The new batch of Police Commandos is to be deployed in the Hill Districts, in order to cover the entire State with this trained ‘strike force’. A Commando post and an India Reserve Battalion post have been opened at Ukhrul and Senapati, respectively, two of the worst affected Districts in the State. The Cabinet has also agreed to add one Company each to the existing six battalions of the Manipur Rifles. Further, the Government has reportedly decided to recruit 2,400 Police Constables for deployment in the Armed Reserve in all Districts, excluding Imphal West. It has also decided to recruit Village Defence Forces to assist the Police in the four Valley Districts. The Police have, at best, played a marginal role in countering the insurgency in the State.

Despite the overwhelming and augmenting availability of Police in the State and a reduction in violence during 2009, it remains the case that the State lacks the political will to confront the insurgents on a sustained basis, within the framework of a coherent strategy. While there have been some positive developments, there is little to suggest any fundamental transformation in the orientation of the State’s political leadership and Government, or in the dynamics of the multiple conflicts in the State.


NEWS BRIEFS

Weekly Fatalities: Major Conflicts in South Asia
November 9-15, 2009

 

Civilian

Security Force Personnel

Terrorist/Insurgent

Total

BANGLADESH

 

Left-wing Extremism

0
0
4
4

INDIA

 

Assam

1
0
2
3

Jammu and Kashmir

0
0
9
9

Manipur

1
0
4
5

Tripura

8
0
0
8

Left-wing Extremism

 

Chhattisgarh

0
0
7
7

Orissa

4
3
0
7

Uttar Pradesh

0
0
1
1

West Bengal

2
0
0
2

Total (INDIA)

16
3
23
42

PAKISTAN

 

Balochistan

1
0
0
1

FATA

1
36
133
170

NWFP

59
21
45
125

Total (PAKISTAN)

61
57
178
296
Provisional data compiled from English language media sources.


INDIA

Government to use UAVs to flush out Maoists from their hideouts: The Government will for the first time use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to detect Maoist hideouts in dense forests and hilly terrain and monitor the movement of the insurgents to help ground forces carry out precision attacks. The UAVs, with in-built camera and well-equipped data and video link, will gather and record information which will be shared among Security Forces engaged in anti-Maoist operations, especially in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Maharashtra and West Bengal. Trials of these UAVs, developed by the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), were recently conducted in Hisar and Delhi while more trials will be conducted in the forests of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand soon. "We are satisfied with the UAV trials in Hisar and Delhi. If we are satisfied with the next stage of trials, we will take the help of UAVs in our operations against Naxals [Maoists],'' an unnamed Union Home Ministry official said. The UAVs also provide flexible surveillance and reconnaissance capability with external payload, including weapons capability. "Since Maoists keep changing their movements, deployment of UAVs will certainly be an advantage for security forces,'' the official added. The anti-Maoist plan also includes INR 7,300 crore package for undertaking developmental works in areas cleared off the left-wing extremists, a report indicated. Times of India, November 16, 2009.

Maoist insurgency could affect investment climate, warns FICCI report: Recognising that the Maoist insurgency-related violence could cripple India as a growing economic power, the corporate sector has proposed deeper international cooperation and private sector involvement in securing domestic and international borders. The Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) taskforce report on national security and terrorism released on November 9, 2009 stressed on strengthening the Intelligence Bureau and preventing its misuse for political ends, developing human intelligence, revamping coastal security and involving the private sector in fighting terrorism.

The Maoists may pose a graver threat to India's economic power, potentially more damaging to Indian companies, foreign investors and the state than pollution, crumbling infrastructure or political gridlock, the report said. "The growing Maoist insurgency over large swathes of the mineral-rich countryside could soon hurt some industrial investment plans. Just when India needs to ramp up its industrial machine to lock in growth and when foreign companies are joining the party -- Naxalites are clashing with mining and steel companies essential to India's long-term success,'' the report said. There was growing concern over the widening reach of Maoists as they operated in 30% of India, up from 9% in 2002, the report said. The terror groups have already begun operating on the edge of industrialised Maharashtra. "They (Naxalites) are planning to penetrate India's major cities, and are looking to encircle urban centres, find sympathy among students and the unemployed and create armed, secret, self-defence squads that will execute orders,'' it added.

The report suggested that a vulnerability assessment be done and investments made in foolproof security. Outlining implications for India's economic growth, the report said such attacks were sending a signal that India was not in control of its territory and the "investment climate'' was worsening. The other reason for sounding the alarm stems from the increasingly close proximity between the corporate world and the forest domain of the Maoists. Times of India, November 10, 2009.


PAKISTAN

133 militants and 36 soldiers among 170 persons killed during the week in FATA: 18 militants were killed as fighter jets targeted Taliban hideouts in the Orakzai Agency, a private TV channel reported on November 15. The bombings also destroyed 10 Taliban hideouts in the Ghaljo, Dabori and Mamozai areas of upper Orakzai Agency. Separately, five militants were killed in the ongoing Operation Rah-e-Nijat in the South Waziristan Agency on November 15. The Security Forces (SFs) claimed killing five militants in Ahmadwam village on the Jandola-Sararogha Road. In addition, the SFs on November 15 launched a counter-offensive after the militants attacked checkpoints in various areas of Khar subdivision and killed a tribesman in the Mamond sub-division of Bajaur Agency.

The SFs killed seven Taliban militants during Operation Rah-e-Nijat in South Waziristan, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement on November 14. It said the SFs cleared the area around Madike, located two kilometres northeast of Ahmed Wam, and also secured an important height, Point 1663, at Parmonkai Roghzai. Separately, seven militants were killed and a Taliban ammunition depot destroyed as fighter jets pounded suspected Taliban hideouts in the Orakzai Agency on November 14.

Six militants and two soldiers were killed in South Waziristan Agency, an ISPR press release said on November 13. Two soldiers were killed and an equal number were wounded during an encounter with the militants at Ahmed Wam. In addition, one militant was killed and several others sustained injuries when Pakistan Air Force fighters bombarded suspected hideouts of the militants in Kurram Agency on November 13. Militants fleeing the operation in South Waziristan Agency had reportedly been hiding in the Kurram and Orakzai Agency.

17 soldiers were killed in stiff resistance to Operation Rah-e-Nijat in South Waziristan Agency by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on November 12. This is the highest death toll for the military since operations were launched on October 17, security officials said. At least 15 soldiers were killed in clashes while a roadside bomb blast killed two soldiers in the Sararogha area further east. The ISPR earlier said that five soldiers and 22 militants were killed in the last 24 hours of the offensive. But the Army and security officials in the area told AFP that the military death toll was 17. An unnamed official also said the clashes included face-to-face fighting.

A landmine blast and ambush killed 10 SF personnel in the Mohmand Agency on November 11. "Eight soldiers were martyred and two were wounded when their vehicle hit a landmine buried on the roadside… The soldiers were on a routine patrol. The landmine was buried by the militants. The explosion damaged the pick-up," Frontier Corps spokesman Major Fazalur Rehman said. In addition, two paramilitary personnel were killed and eight others reported missing after Taliban militants attacked their convoy at Ghanam Shah. Two bodies were recovered after the ambush and 10 militants killed after attack helicopters shelled suspected Taliban hideouts in the Bai Zai area. Separately, seven Taliban militants were killed and two soldiers wounded in the Operation Rah-e-Nijat in South Waziristan Agency, an ISPR statement said on November 11. "An intense gunbattle took place at the recently-established checkpost at Fort Knoll, where seven terrorists were killed and two soldiers, including an officer injured," it said. In addition, five suspected militants were killed when helicopter gunships targeted the hideouts of Taliban in the mountainous area of lower Orakzai Agency on November 11. Officials said that at least six camps and hideouts of the Taliban were completely destroyed in the air strike in Sultanzai area in the evening. Security Forces on November 11 also killed three militants and seized a huge quantity of arms and ammunition in the Bara sub-division of Khyber Agency. Two militants were killed in an encounter with the SFs in the Mamond sub-division while four personnel of the Bajaur Levies sustained injuries in a remote controlled bomb blast in the Nawagai sub-division of Bajaur Agency on November 11.

The Army on November 10 claimed killing nine more militants to raise the Taliban death tally to 492 since the launch of the Operation Rah-e-Nijat in South Waziristan Agency on October 17. Among the nine slain militants, the Army said five were killed in the north of Ladha and four others were killed in the Tauda Cheena and Fort Knoll areas of Makeen. Separately, five militants were killed and seven injured on November 10 when fighter jets bombed Taliban hideouts in Ghalju, Khawga Rehri and other parts Orakzai Agency. In addition, five militants were killed in an exchange of fire with the SFs after attacks on the base camp of the Frontier Crops and check-posts in the Bajaur Agency on November 10.

The SFs fully secured the Shakai-Ladha road and started patrolling the Kaniguram-Ladha axis as eight militants and four soldiers died in clashes in South Waziristan on the 24th day of Operation Rah-e-Nijat on November 9. A local source said four soldiers died in a roadside bomb blast in the Makeen area. However, the Army said militants fired several rockets at a security post in the Makeen area, killing four soldiers and injuring another. Eight militants were also killed in retaliatory action by the troops, said an ISPR statement. Separately, eight suspected militants were killed and several others injured as military planes targeted their positions in the Kurram Agency on November 9. According to sources, the areas which came under the air attack included Chinarak, Spairkot and Ormigai in the east of Parachinar. A vehicle carrying militants was hit in Khwaidatkhel, leaving eight occupants dead. In addition, three SF personnel and two militants were killed and a soldier sustained injuries in a bomb blast and firing incidents in different areas of Bajaur Agency on November 9. Dawn; Daily Times; The News, November 10-16, 2009.

59 civilians, 21 soldiers and 45 militants killed during the week in NWFP: 12 militants were killed in clashes with the Security Forces (SFs) in Karakar and Shamozai Gharai while 14 bodies were found dumped in Charbagh’s Gulibagh area in the Swat Valley on November 15, 2009. It was the second consecutive day that clashes between the SFs and militants were reported from Swat District. Eight casualties of militants were reported from Charbagh on November 14 when the SFs claimed killing them in a clash during a search operation in the Ashar Banr and Nala areas. The bodies dumped in Gulibagh were stated to be of militants. Separately, volunteers of the Lashkar (militia) shot dead three veil-clad men near the residence of an anti-Taliban Nazim in Bazidkhel village of Peshawar District on November 15.

15 persons, including a Policeman and a three-year-old child, were killed and 35 others injured when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden vehicle at a Police check-post in Peshawar, the NWFP capital, Police and hospital staff said on November 15.

Troops killed 13 Taliban militants in two separate clashes in the Swat District, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement on November 14. Five militants were killed after a group of militants ambushed a military convoy near Totakan village, while, eight more militants were killed during a search operation in a forest near Mangaltan village.

13 people – 10 military personnel and three civilians – were killed and 60 injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up in front of the regional headquarters of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Peshawar on November 13. An Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement said the bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into a military check-post on Artillery Road at 6:45am (PST), killing 10 military personnel and three civilians, and injuring 60. The NWFP Inspector General of Police, Malik Naveed, said the vehicle was loaded with around 200 kilograms of explosives. NWFP Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain told the media that nine ISI officials were killed, while three were missing. Hussain also said that surrounding walls and an entire block of the agency headquarters were completely destroyed, while six blocks had been partially damaged. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack.

Ten persons, including nine security officials, were killed and 22 injured in a suicide attack at a Police Station in the Bannu town of Bannu District on November 13. A Police official said that a suicide attacker rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into the Bakkakhel Police Station on Miranshah Road – killing seven Security Force personnel, two Frontier Corps troops and a pedestrian. He also said that 22 people, including 19 Policemen, were also injured in the suicide attack. The station is close to the border with North Waziristan. The bomber reportedly struck 25 minutes after the suicide attack on the ISI building in provincial capital Peshawar.

The SFs in a fresh offensive in the Elum Ghar area of Buner District killed two local militant ‘commanders’ among four persons on November 13. Sources said militant ‘commanders’ Asmatullah and Habibur Rehman of the Pir Baba area were killed in an encounter with the SFs in Elum Ghar. Habibur Rehman’s wife and a child were also killed in the clash.

Two persons were killed and six others were wounded in separate bomb and hand grenade explosions at Gul Bagh and Wuch Bazaar in the Hangu town of Hangu District in the early hours of November 12. Separately, Syed Abul Hassan Jaffry, media manager of the Iranian consulate in Peshawar, was shot dead near his home in Gulbarg on November 12-morning. Jaffry was going to his office when he was shot at point-blank range as he turned his car towards the Swati Phatak.

34 persons were killed and nearly 100 others sustained injuries in a powerful car bomb blast at a crowded intersection in the Charsadda bazaar of Charsadda District on November 10. Scores of women and children are reported to have died and dozens of shops and vehicles were damaged in the suspected suicide attack. District Police chief Riaz Khan said the explosives were packed in a car parked near the Farooq-i-Azam chowk. He said Police suspected that it was a suicide attack because limbs and shoes of the suspected bomber had been found. Shopkeepers and vendors were preparing to put down the shutters and a large number of people were waiting at a taxi stand when the explosion took place. Seven children and three women were among the dead, Police said.

Three persons, including a Policeman, were killed and five others sustained injuries when a suicide bomber riding an auto-rickshaw blew himself up at a Police barricade on the Ring Road in the Latifabad area of Peshawar on November 9. An eyewitness, Attaullah, told reporters that Policemen deployed at a barricade near a canal signalled an auto-rickshaw to stop around 10:00 am (PST). "A man in his early 20s, having a trimmed beard and wearing brown clothes, came out of the three-wheeler and detonated explosives strapped around his vest," he recalled. Another eyewitness, Sher Afzal, said he saw two people going towards the barricade in a rickshaw a few moments before the blast. Investigators said five to six kilograms of explosives were used in the incident. This was the second suicide bombing in Peshawar during the last 24 hours. Dawn; Daily Times; The News, November 10-16, 2009.

ISI used CIA money to build new Islamabad headquarters: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the USA has funnelled hundreds of millions of dollars to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) since the 9/11 attacks, accounting for as much as one-third of the CIA’s annual budget – reported an American newspaper, citing current and former US officials. The Los Angeles Times quoted officials as saying that the ISI had also "collected tens of millions of dollars through a classified CIA programme that pays for the capture or killing of wanted militants, a clandestine counterpart to the rewards publicly offered by the State Department." The officials said the payments have triggered intense debate within the US Government, because of "long-standing suspicions that the ISI continues to help Taliban who undermine US efforts in Afghanistan and provide sanctuary to Al Qaeda members in Pakistan." But US officials have continued the funding because the ISI’s assistance is considered crucial: "almost every major terrorist plot this decade has originated in Pakistan’s tribal belt, where ISI informant networks are a primary source of intelligence", said the newspaper.

The White House National Security Council has "this debate every year", said a former high-ranking US intelligence official involved in the discussions. Despite deep misgivings about the ISI, the official said, "there was no other game in town". The payments to Pakistan are authorised under a covert programme initially approved by former President George Bush and continued under President Barack Obama. "The CIA payments are a hidden stream in a much broader financial flow... the US has given Pakistan more than $15 billion over the last eight years in military and civilian aid," said Los Angeles Times. "The ISI has used the covert CIA money for a variety of purposes, including the construction of a new headquarters in Islamabad... that project pleased CIA officials because it replaced a structure considered vulnerable to attack: it also eased fears that the US money would end up in the private bank accounts of ISI officials," it said. Daily Times, November 16, 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 for Conflict Management and the South Asia Terrorism Portal.

South Asia Intelligence Review [SAIR]

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K. P. S. Gill

Editor
Dr. Ajai Sahni


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