Pakistan Occupied kashmir: Timeline (Terrorist Activities) -2012

Inspector General of Police Usman Zakaria, briefing the members of the GB Legislative Assembly during an in-camera session, said on September 10 that his force was divided along sectarian lines and much was needed to arrest the sensitive situation. The Police chief told the legislators that the Police had sectarian, tribal and ethnic biases, but hoped that extensive trainings would improve affairs. Read less...

Unidentified assailants opened fire on two persons at Bargo, some 20 kilometers west of Gilgit city, on September 10, reports Dawn. Police said an accounts officer of the Red Crescent, Naeem, and a student of ninth class, Shakir, were attacked. They said the motive behind the attack was yet to be known. Read less...

Two persons, including the driver of a truck and his son were shot and injured by unidentified assailants in Sikandarabad area near Gilgit town of Gilgit District, The News reported on September 12. Meanwhile, addressing a press conference, president of the transporters union, Gul Muhammad, said that driver Humayun and his son Faizan, residents of Abbottabad in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), were attacked by masked gunmen. He also claimed that unidentified gunmen in Gilgit Baltistan (GB) have killed over 10 drivers and their helpers, belonging to KP, in the last few weeks. The transporters in Shangla District of KP, meanwhile, have threatened to stop supplies of goods to GB after the attack in Sikandarabad. Read less...

The Gilgit Baltistan Legislative Assembly (GBLA) on September 13 approved a resolution demanding complete provincial status for the Gilgit Baltistan region, reports Pakistan Today. The resolution will also have to be approved by the GB Council, headed by the sitting Prime Minister of Pakistan. Read less...

A man died and another sustained bullet wounds when Police opened fire at a mob protesting registration of a case against Liaqat, an activist of opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in Bhimbher District of ‘Azad Jammu and Kashmir’ in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) on September 18, reports The Express Tribune. Bhimbher Deputy Commissioner (DC) Khawaja Muhammad Naeem said the Police resorted to firing live ammunition after some of the protesters fired gunshots at the Police. In the shootout, a protester, identified as Abdul Hamid, a resident of Sokasen village, died while another, Muhammad Akram, a resident of Pitho Rani, was injured. The PML-N worker had been booked allegedly by ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) activist Chaudhry Anwarul Haq, Police and witnesses said. Read less...

The Gilgit Baltistan (GB) Government on September 22 barred traffic on the road linking Ghizer to Chitral via the Shandur Pass after the ministry of interior warned of a possible attack on the route similar to the Babusar massacre (August 16, 2012) and Kohistan (February 28, 2012) massacre, The Express Tribune reports. “We cannot afford to allow traffic on the road due to security threats to passengers,” Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG Headquarters, GB) Ali Sher said. Officials of the GB Government informed that the ministry of interior recently wrote them a letter in which it warned about a possible terrorist attack on the Ghizer – Chitral road. The ministry stated that the attack could be similar to the ones that occurred in Babusar and Kohistan, in which passengers, mostly Shias, were hauled off of busses and shot dead, the officials said. DIG Sher concurred with the interior ministry’s warning, saying that possibility of terrorists infiltrating into GB has intensified as most of areas along the route are left unmanned by the end of the summer season. Sher said the GB Government can provide security to transporters on the route in its territory, but added that these efforts will not suffice unless the Government Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) fully reciprocates (on the route) the measures it is taking for the safety of travelers on the Karakoram Highway (KKH). “But since the KP Government is already providing security to vehicles on the KKH, between Gilgit and Rawalpindi, it is not able to provide security to vehicles on the Ghizer – Chitral road,” he said. He added that during the summers, the G-B government had deputed Police contingents along the route in Ghizer District as a precautionary measure. Read less...