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SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Weekly Assessments & Briefings
Volume 9, No. 9, September 6, 2010
 
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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
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Sectarian
Torments
Ajit Kumar Singh
Research Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management
Tushar Ranjan Mohanty
Research Assistant, Institute for Conflict Management
Within
a span of just three days, at least 111 persons were
killed and 443 were injured in a series of five sectarian
terrorist attacks across all the four Provinces of Pakistan
– Balochistan, Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
(formerly known as North West Frontier Province).
The sectarian
mayhem started on September 1, when at least 43 persons
were killed and 239 were injured in two suicide and
one grenade attacks on a Shia procession marking Hazrat
Ali’s martyrdom, in Lahore, the Provincial Capital of
Punjab. The procession was in its last stages and was
about to end at Karbala Gamay Shah near Data Darbar,
when the terrorists struck.
On the
same day, at least seven persons, including a
Police constable, sustained injuries when unidentified
assailants in a building near Empress Market opened
fire near a similar procession in Karachi, the Provincial
Capital of Sindh.
On September
2, two civilians were killed and eight others injured
when unidentified assailants opened fire on a passenger
bus carrying Shia pilgrims in the Pidrak area near Turbat
in Balochisatn.
The deadliest
of these attacks occurred on September 3, when at least
65 persons were killed, and over 185 were injured, as
a suicide bomber blew himself up amidst participants
of a rally held to mark the Al-Quds Day (an annual event
opposing Israel's control of Jerusalem) in the Mezan
Chowk area of Quetta, the Provincial capital of Balochisatn.
The Shia rally, organised by the Imamia Students’ Organisation
to express solidarity with the Palestinians, started
from Islam Imambargah, located on the Prince Road, soon
after the Friday prayers. On the same day, another incident
of sectarian violence occurred when one person was killed
and four were injured in a suicide attack on a worship
place of the Ahmedis in the Muslimabad area of Mardan
District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Significantly, while
the first four attacks were against the Shias, the last
one targeted the Ahmediyas.
Unsurprisingly,
the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ)
and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibilities
for both the Quetta and Lahore attacks. Claiming the
Quetta attack, a spokesman of the LeJ warned that the
outfit would "carry out more attacks if Shias continue
to take out processions and hold gatherings". The
TTP, in a statement sent to BBC after the Lahore
attack, declared, "It is the revenge of Maulana
Ali Shair Haidree who was martyred by Shia extremists...
More attacks on Shias everywhere have been forecast
by the TTP." Armed men shot dead Maulana Ali Shair
Haidree, chief of the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
(SSP),
along with his associate Imtiaz Phulpoto at Khairpur
in the Sindh Province on August 17, 2009.
More
worryingly, both these groups have clearly come together,
each for its own reasons. While the LeJ wants to execute
Shias and other ‘infidels’, the TTP is aiming to extend
its intimidatory network wider in the terror engulfed
nation. Reports indicate that both the Quetta and Lahore
attacks were planned by the LeJ, but executed by the
TTP. Significantly, after the Quetta suicide attack
on September 3, the ‘chief’ of TTP’s suicide wing, Qari
Hussain, claimed that the attacks had been carried out
by TTP suicide bombers.
As has
happened in the past, the state has bowed before the
militant’s threat, with Interior Minister Rehman Malik,
on September 2, asking the Shia community not to hold
mourning processions in public places in order to avoid
more suicide attacks. "How can Police provide security
to a gathering of 15,000 people? I request the Shia
community to cut short their programmes because they
are soft target of terrorists," the Minister urged.
However,
Lahore Commissioner of Police Khusro Pervez, on September
1, acknowledged before the media that Police negligence
was one of the main reasons behind the explosions and
the subsequent violence in Lahore. This is more obvious
taking in view of the fact that intelligence agencies
had forwarded reports that the TTP, the Jandullah and
other banned local militant outfits planned to target
foreigners, embassies, Shia clerics and Imambargahs
in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Okara and Karachi
during the last 10 days of Ramadan (the holy month of
fasting for Muslims). [Ramadan began on August 12].
The reports had suggested that the law enforcement agencies,
Police and civil society members should coordinate and
share information and enhance security on the 21st
Day of Ramadan, the day of martyrdom of Hazrat Ali,
Juma-tul-Wida (Last Friday of Ramadan), Al Quds Day,
busy markets and Eid.
Instead
of providing more security following the intelligence
reports, the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Police,
on August 22, left the security of mosques at the disposal
of mosque committees, entirely exposing the faithful
to the risk of terrorism during Ramadan. Significantly,
the Ministry of Interior had sent a specific report
to the ICT administration and Federal Police warning
of possible terror attacks at some places in Islamabad.
It was,
consequently, the abject and inexplicable failure of
authorities in Pakistan to provide even minimal security
to Shia mosques and processions that has dramatically
pushed up fatalities in sectarian violence. According
to the South Asian Terrorism Portal (SATP)
database, 190 persons were killed in 2009, and another
398 were injured in 106 incidents of sectarian violence.
The first eight months of 2010 have already witnessed
a total of 429 killed and 1,049 injured in just 42 incidents,
further demonstrating the increasing lethality of attacks
this year. Since
1989, Pakistan has witnessed at
least 2,523 incidents of sectarian violence in which
3,395 persons lost their lives, while another 7,282
persons sustained injuries (this data is based on open
source monitoring, and can be expected to under-estimate
actual casualties).
Some
of the major (involving three or more than three killings)
sectarian attacks in 2010 include:
July
1: At least 40 persons were killed and 175 were injured,
when three suicide attackers blew themselves up inside
the shrine of Lahore’s patron saint Syed Ali Hajwairi
popularly known as Data Gunj Bakhsh.
May 28:
At least 95 worshippers were killed and 92 injured as
seven assailants, including three suicide bombers, attacked
an Ahmadiya place of worship in Model Town and Garhi
Shahu areas of Lahore in Punjab.
April
19: At least 26 people, including a child and Police
officials, were killed, and 49 were injured, in twin
bombings hours apart at a school and a crowded market
in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
(KP).
Police suspect the bombers mainly targeted Deputy Superintendent
of Police (DSP) Gulfat Hussain because he belonged to
the Shia sect. The DSP was among the dead.
April
17: Two burqa (veil)-clad suicide bombers targeted a
crowd of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), mostly
Shias, waiting to get themselves registered and receive
relief goods at the Kacha Pakka IDP camp on the outskirts
of Kohat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killing at least 44
persons and injuring more than 70.
The sectarian
strife has afflicted Pakistan virtually from the moment
of its birth, but has escalated continuously since 1979,
with the former President General Zia ul-Haq’s ‘Islamicisation’
of Pakistani politics. Shias resisted this process as
a ‘Sunnification’ of Pakistan, since most of the laws
and regulations introduced were based on Sunni Fiqh
(Islamic Jurisprudence). Notably, in July 1980, 25,000
Shias gathered in Islamabad to protest the Islamicisation
laws. However, the more the Shias protested, the more
were they targeted, and the strife widened. Under Zia,
sectarianism in Pakistan, especially in Karachi and
South Punjab, became quite violent. The violence worsened
after September 11, 2001, and the expulsion of the Taliban
from Afghanistan, leading then President Pervez Musharraf
to ban some 104 terrorist and religio-extremist groups,
including the LeJ and SSP.
The LeJ
and the SSP remain the principal organisations responsible
for the rise of sectarian strife in the country. Though
both these outfits maintain that they are not organisationally
linked, they share the same origins, sectarian belief
system and worldview. Their charter of demands includes
turning Pakistan into a Sunni State, and both draw their
cadres from the same madrassas (seminaries) and
social milieu.
Despite
being under relentless pressure from these groups, and
with the TTP joining hands with them, the Government
has chosen to remain unresponsive; indeed, the abrupt
withdrawal of security to Shia institutions prior to
the latest wave of bombings, despite specific intelligence
warnings suggest, possibly collusive.
Reports
indicate that Pakistani courts are yet to convict a
single person in any of the country’s major terrorist
attacks in the past three years. Instead, the Government
is contemplating the release of as many as 390 suspects,
detained on charges of having links with banned militant
groups like SSP, LeJ and others. Officials of the Home
Department, Punjab Police and Prisons Department confirmed
the "gradual release" of detainees over the
coming days, as not a single case had been registered
against any one of them. This, despite the fact that
an intelligence agency report to the Federal Government
reveals that an escalation of sectarian violence could
not be ruled out after release of these suspects in
large numbers.
In the
earlier years, sectarian violence had escalated through
the month of Ramadan. However, with the devastating
flood engulfing almost a fifth of the country, resulting
in more than 1,645 deaths and affecting the lives of
over three million people, the early days of Ramadan
had remained quite peaceful. With the waters receding,
however, the extremists, ‘aided’ by an ineffective and
callous Government, are on the rampage again, belying
any hopes of a peaceful Ramadan and demonstrating
the deep roots that sectarian hatred and violence has
established in Pakistan.
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Bihar:
Falsehood, Infirmity & Death
Ajai Sahni
Editor, SAIR; Executive Director, Institute
for Conflict Management
"We
will saturate the Naxal-prone areas with development",
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had grandly intoned
in November 2009, outlining his ‘strategy’ to neutralize
the Maoist
insurgency, his head entirely wrapped up in clouds. Rejecting
the Centre’s declared policy of dealing with the Maoists
with a firm hand in ‘massive and coordinated operations’,
and the proposal for a Unified Command (themselves poorly
conceived, entirely under-resourced and far from successful
initiatives), Kumar argued, that "enforcement action
alone" would only lead to "wider alienation"
and make "heroes out of the leaders of the extremist
organisations... leading to only symptomatic treatment,
leaving the underlying disease to reappear in more virulent
form."
The ‘symptoms’
that Kumar chooses to wilfully ignore have, however, now
delivered a resounding slap in the face to his Government,
brought his administration to its knees, even as more
lives among the State’s beleaguered and directionless
Security Forces (SFs) have been wasted to blind stupidity.
On August
29, 2010, at least seven SF personnel were killed, and
another seven injured, in a ‘combing operation’ gone wrong,
when they were attacked by cadres of the Communist Party
of India – Maoist (CPI-Maoist), their numbers variously
estimated at between 300 and a thousand, in the Kajra
Police Station area of Lakhisarai District. ‘Intelligence
reports’ had indicated ‘Maoist presence’ in the forest,
but had omitted any assessment of Maoist strength in the
area, leading the Bihar Police ‘search teams’ into a lethal
trap – a pattern repeated in almost every major massacre
of SF personnel by the Maoists in recent years.
The matter
did not end there. The Maoists abducted four Policemen
– Sub Inspectors Rupesh Kumar and Abhay Yadav, Assistant
Sub Inspector (ASI) Lucas Tete, and Havildar Ehtesham
Khan – after the encounter and ratcheted up the stakes
by demanding the release of eight prominent Maoists in
Bihar’s jails: Jai Paswan, Vijay Chourasia, Prem Bhuian,
Pramod Barnawal, Ramvilas Tanti, Ramesh Tirki, Arjun Koda
and Rattu Koda.
The Maoists
then executed Lucas Tete in the night of September 2,
after two ‘deadlines’ given by them had passed without
response from the Government – beyond appeals for the
release of the abducted Policemen – and warned that the
remaining hostages would also be killed unless their comrades
were released. On September 6, however, the three surviving
Policemen were released after Chief Minister Kumar had
announced safe passage for the Maoists out of the area
in which they had been substantially contained by augmented
Forces.
It is significant
that the decision to release the remaining Policemen came
after the heavy redeployment of a combination of Forces
– Bihar Military Police (BMP), Central Reserve Police
Force (CRPF), the Special Task Force (STF) and the Special
Action Force (SAF) – from four adjoining Districts in
combing operations, and the virtual sealing off of the
Maoists’ escape routes. The seething anger in the SFs
suggested the possibility of sweeping vendetta killings
– an outcome that the Maoists were apparently eager to
escape.
Nitish
Kumar has attempted to extract victory out of this present
disgrace, and has emphasised that "no deal was struck
with the Naxals". He concedes, nevertheless, that
"there is no guarantee that such incidents will not
be repeated."
Kumar has
been posturing and mouthing hackneyed nonsense about the
Maoists being "part of our society" and that
they had been "misled into violence", for years
now, even as he has presided over perhaps the most anarchic
State in India. A degree of optimism had certainly asserted
itself during the first years after Kumar took over as
Chief Minister in November 2005, but the natural torpor
of governance in Bihar appears to have reasserted itself
since. In the interim, his Government has projected itself
as conciliatory towards, and has been seen as weak by,
the Maoists, who increasingly use Bihar as a favoured
safe haven from the relatively worsening operational environments
in the neighbouring States, particularly of West Bengal
and Jharkhand (though elements from Chhattisgarh have
also found safety there).
It is significant
that the Naxalites have orchestrated at least 13 significant
incidents of abduction since the formation of the CPI-Maoist
in September 2004, and before the August 29 incident.
At least three of these have ended in the death of hostages:
June 17-19,
2009: CPI-Maoist cadres, who had abducted two personnel
of the Chhattisgarh Armed Force (CAF), Ram Bhuwan Patel
and Dhanjay Verma, from a hilly stretch in Bijapur District,
Chhattisgarh, on June 17, killed them and dumped the bodies
on a roadside in a forested area. Police said the victims'
throats were slit with sharp edged weapons.
September
30, 2009: Six CPI-Maoist cadres abducted Police Inspector
(Special Branch) Francis Induwar, posted in the Khunti
District, Jharkhand. On October 3, the Maoists demanded
the release of their senior leaders Kobad Ghandy, Chhatradhar
Mahto and Chandra Bhushan Yadav. On October 6, the Jharkhand
Police found the decapitated dead body of Francis Induwar
on the Jamshedpur-Ranchi Highway, with a note from the
Maoists saying that they could expect more of the same
treatment if their demands were not met.
June 19,
2008: Three Special Police Officers (SPOs) were killed
by the CPI-Maoist in the Banda Police Station limits of
Dantewada District, Chhattisgarh. The SPOs had been abducted
along with five Policemen following an encounter in the
forests, seven kilometers away from Konta town, on June
18. The SPOs were taken to a Maoist camp in the forests
blind-folded where they were asked to distance themselves
from the Salwa Judum and the Police. Five of them were
then let off and three others – Gopal, Bhadru and Lakshmaiah,
were shot dead and their bodies abandoned near Banda village.
In two
of the 13 incidents, the release came after Maoist demands
were conceded. In the remaining eight, the abducted persons
were released after various durations in captivity. None
of the preceding incidents occurred in Bihar.
Nevertheless,
Bihar has seen a steady worsening of Maoist-related violence
over the past five years, after an earlier peak in 2005,
when a total of 106 persons (25 civilians, 29 SF personnel
and 52 Maoists) were killed. Total fatalities have, since,
climbed from 40 in 2006, to 49 in 2007; 71 in 2008; 78
in 2009; and 53 in 2010 (till September 5, 2010). Crucially,
the ratios of civilian and SF to Maoist fatalities have
been adverse in every
year after 2005, clearly demonstrating
the loss of initiative that has resulted from the Nitish
Kumar Government’s declared policy position, and the rising
threat to civilian lives and property.
Bihar is
among India’s poorest States, and it takes an extraordinary
capacity for delusion to believe that the cumulative developmental
deficits and the sheer enormity of the population under
poverty can quickly be transformed by any ‘strategy’ to
‘saturate’ affected areas with ‘development’, even if
the most extraordinarily well oiled machinery of governance
was in place. In Bihar, administration is a disaster and
a national joke. Nevertheless, such fantasies continue
to secure political endorsement, even as fundamental tasks
of providing a modicum of security to life and property
are comprehensively ignored.
In a remark
that is both extraordinarily callous and obtuse, Nitish
Kumar reportedly declared "All’s well that ends well",
after the release of the three surviving hostages.
All has
certainly not ended well for the seven Policemen killed
in the encounter on August 29, and for their families;
or for ASI Lucas Tete and his family.
Crucially,
nothing has ended in Bihar: the Maoist rampage continues;
the infirmity and ambivalence of the state and its agencies
persists; endemic poverty and backwardness remain unchanged;
administrative incompetence and corruption has not migrated
out of the State. Yet, Kumar is, once again, mouthing
fantastical nonsense about the Maoists ‘joining the national
mainstream’ by participating in the coming State Assembly
elections. Such a depth of incomprehension, or, perhaps
more accurately, of falsification, can only bring more
death.
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Weekly
Fatalities: Major Conflicts in South Asia
August 30 - September
5, 2010
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Civilians
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Security
Force Personnel
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Terrorists/Insurgents
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Total
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BANGLADESH
|
|
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Left Wing
Extremism
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
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INDIA
|
|
|
Assam
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
2
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|
Jammu and
Kashmir
|
0
|
2
|
5
|
7
|
|
Manipur
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
|
Left-wing
Extremism
|
|
|
Andhra pradesh
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
|
Bihar
|
0
|
2
|
1
|
3
|
|
Chhattisgarh
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
|
Jharkhand
|
2
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
|
West Bengal
|
6
|
0
|
0
|
6
|
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Total
(INDIA)
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9
|
5
|
10
|
24
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PAKISTAN
|
|
|
Balochistan
|
72
|
3
|
1
|
76
|
|
FATA
|
11
|
1
|
115
|
127
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|
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
|
1
|
1
|
8
|
10
|
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Punjab
|
43
|
0
|
2
|
45
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|
Sindh
|
3
|
1
|
0
|
4
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Total
(PAKISTAN)
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130
|
6
|
126
|
262
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Provisional
data compiled from English language media sources.
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BANGLADESH Arrest
of JeI chief Ghulam Azam depends on tribunal,
says Law Minister: The
arrest warrant against former Jamaat-e-Islami
(JeI) Ameer (Chief) Ghulam Azam will
be issued in time if the International Crimes
Tribunal decides in this regard, said State
Minister for Law Qamrul Islam on September
3. Daily
Star, September 4,
2010.
Law
and order appears good now, says Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina: Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina on August 30 said the
law and order appears good now and actions
are being taken immediately after any occurrence.
Daily
Star, August 31, 2010.
INDIA
Australia
warns of possible terror attacks in India: In
a fresh advisory to its citizens, Australia
on August 31 warned of possible terrorist attacks
in public places in India, especially in New
Delhi and Mumbai, and asked them not
to travel to Jammu and Kashmir due to "frequent
armed clashes and terrorist activities" there.
Indian Express, September
1, 2010.
Union
Home Minister P. Chidambaram for talks with
"any group" from Kashmir valley: Union
Home Minister P. Chidambaram on September 1
said that Government is willing to hold talks
with "any group" from the Kashmir valley wishing
to come forward amid indications that it would
be soon coming out with a series of measures
to address the issue.
Meanwhile,
the All Party Hurriyat Conference-Geelani (APHC-G)
leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani on August
31 said the ongoing protests could be reviewed
and a dialogue with the Centre initiated if
it fulfils five preconditions.
Chief
Minister Omar Abdullah on August 29 said the
Union Government was actively working for a
political solution to Jammu and Kashmir-centric
issues and expressed the hope the problem would
be solved amicably before long. Daily
Excelsior;
The
Hindu, August 30-September
2, 2010.
Union
Home Minister P. Chidambaram for ULFA’s formal
offer for talks: Union
Home Minister P. Chidambaram on September
1 reiterated that he always hoped that United
Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) will
make a formal offer for talks.
Assam
Tribune, September 2,
2010.
PCPA
to contest West Bengal assembly polls in 2011:
The People’s Committee
against Police Atrocities (PCPA), a Communist
Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) frontal organisation,
on August 30 announced its decision to contest
the 2011 West Bengal Assembly elections.
DNA India, August 31,
2010.
Meghalaya
Government to hold Peace talks with ANVC:
Meghalaya Government would go for peace talks
with the Achik National Volunteer
Council (ANVC). State Chief Secretary
W.M.S. Pariat on August 30 said, "We
are trying to expedite the entire talk process."
Shillong
Times, August 31, 2010.
HNLC
borrows arms from other militant groups in Meghalaya,
says Special Branch ADGP S.K. Jain: The
Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC)
is borrowing arms from other militant groups
and pay in return after doing the "job" (extortion)
with the "instrument".
Shillong
Times, August 30, 2010.
NEPAL Sixth
bid to elect new PM collapses:
The sixth consecutive bid to elect a new Prime
Minister (PM) ended without making headway on
September 5. In the sixth round of elections
held at the Constituent Assembly (CA) hall in
Nayabaneshwor of Kathmandu, Unified Communist
Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) Chairman Pushpa
Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda and Nepali Congress
(NC) Parliamentary Party leader Ram Chandra
Poudel—could not secure the required 301 votes
in the 601-member parliament. Meanwhile, a meeting
of the Parliamentary Business Advisory Committee
(BAC) decided to hold the seventh round of PM
elections on September 7.
Kantipur
online, September 6,
2010.
UCPN-M
chairman Prachanda faces fresh flak inside party:
Central
Committee (CC) members of the Unified Communist
Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) lambasted the
working style of party chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda
on August 30, mainly his monopoly in decision
making.
Kantipur
online, August 31, 2010.
PAKISTAN
115
militants and 11 civilians among 127 persons
killed during the week in FATA: US
drone missiles killed eight militants and injured
12 others in a village near Miranshah, the main
town in North Waziristan Agency of Federally
Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Pakistani
officials said on September 4. In addition,
eight militants were killed when their vehicle
hit a bomb detonated by remote control in the
Spaircate area of Kurram Agency. Also, Security
Forces (SFs) destroyed three militant hideouts
in Chinarak, killing six militants and injuring
10 others.
Two
US drone strikes on September 3 killed at least
10 militants, including some foreign militants,
in North Waziristan Agency.
At
least 15 Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)
militants were killed and 10 others injured
as jet fighters and gunship helicopters bombed
their hideouts in Kurram and Orakzai Agencies
on September 1.
SFs
killed more than 40 militants in shelling in
different areas of the Tirah valley in Khyber
Agency on August 31. Four persons, including
three locals, were killed when militants attacked
a house in Chinarak area of Kurram Agency. In
addition, TTP attacked tribal elder Inzar Gul’s
house in Dogar area of Orakzai Agency, killing
his wife, two sons and abducted another son.
Five
Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) militants were killed and
three SFs sustained injuries during an operation
in the Kalakhel area of Bara tehsil (revenue
unit) in the Khyber Agency on August 30.
Dawn;
Daily
Times; The
News, August 31- September
6, 2010.
72
civilians and three SFs among 76 persons killed
during the week in Balochistan: At
least 65persons were killed while over 185 injured
on September 3 after a suicide bomber blew himself
up amidst participants of a rally held to mark
the Al-Quds Day in Quetta. Calling from an undisclosed
location, a spokesman of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ)
claimed responsibility for the attack and warned
that the outfit would "carry out more attacks
if Shias continue to take out processions and
hold gatherings". Separately, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)
claimed responsibility for attacks on processions
in Quetta and Lahore over
the past three days. Dawn;
Daily
Times; The
News, August 31- September
6, 2010.
43
civilians and two militants among 45 persons
killed during the week in Punjab:
43 persons were killed and another 230 injured
in two suicide attacks and one grenade attack
on a Shia procession marking Hazrat Ali’s martyrdom
in Lahore on September 1. The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
(LeJ) claimed responsibility for the attacks
that occurred minutes apart in Bhaati Gate locality
of Lahore.
Dawn;
Daily
Times; The
News, August 31- September
6, 2010.
Terrorists
stoking sectarian rift, says Interior Minister
Rehman Malik: Pro-
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorists
are trying to create sectarian rift, Interior
Minister Rehman Malik said on September 4, as
a new wave of violence piled pressure on a Government
already struggling with a flood crisis.
Daily
Times, September 5,
2010.
TTP
plans to target important personalities on Eid
festival, says intelligence agencies: Militants
affiliated with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan
(TTP) led by Hakimullah Mahsud reportedly planned
to target prominent politicians and important
personalities during Eid ul Fitr and at Eid
Milan parties, official sources said on September
5.
The
News, September 4, 2010.
Floods
delaying military operation in North Waziristan,
says US Defense Secretary Robert Gates:
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates on September
3 said that the Pakistan military’s
planned military operation in North Waziristan
Agency of Federally Administered Tribal Areas
(FATA) might be delayed due to the devastating
floods in Pakistan.
Daily
Times, September 4,
2010.
More
aid needed to avert terrorists’ exploitation,
says Ambassador to US Hussain Haqqani: The
Ambassador to the United States (US) Hussain
Haqqani on September 1 warned that terrorist
will exploit the aftermath of devastating floods
unless the international community moves quickly
to help Pakistan.
Jama’at-ud-Da’awa
(JuD) is reportedly trying to take advantage
of the large-scale misery caused by the devastating
floods in Pakistan by attempting to enlist 50,000
new fighters for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan
(TTP). Times
of India;
Daily
Times, September 1-2,
2010.
SRI LANKA President
Mahinda Rajapakse defends Constitutional amendments:
Amid
growing criticism from the opposition and sections
of the media, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse
on September 3 defended the decision of his
Government to amend the Constitution.
The
Hindu, September 4,
2010.
Opposition
leader Ranil Wickremesinghe for cooperation
in settlement of Tamil issue:
The former Sri Lankan Prime Minister and leader
of the Opposition Ranil Wickremesinghe on
September 3 said that the United National Party
will cooperate with all stakeholders in the
efforts to find a political solution to the
Tamil issue."
The
Hindu, September 4,
2010.
LTTE
human-smuggling ring preparing to smuggle another
shipload of Tamils who have left Sri Lanka to
be sent to Canada:
An investigative report by Canadian newspaper Globe
and Mail revealed on August 30 that
an alleged Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE)
human-smuggling ring is preparing to smuggle
another shipload of Tamils who have left Sri
Lanka to be sent to Canada.
The Globe and Mail,
August 30, 2010.
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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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