Terrorist Activities in Pakistan
Suicide Bombings
As many as 81 persons were killed and 145 others injured when two suicide attackers blew themselves up at the end of a service at All Saints Church near Qissa Khawani bazaar in Peshawar on September 22, reports The News. The service had just ended and at least 400 worshippers were greeting each other when there was a huge explosion. “There are 34 women and seven children among the dead,” Federal Minister of Interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, adding that the Federal Government had announced a three-day period of national mourning. Janood-e-Hafsa (JeH, Army of the Lioness), an umbrella group of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility. “We carried out the suicide bombings at Peshawar church and will continue to strike foreigners and non-Muslims until drone attacks stop,” Ahmad Marwat, a ‘spokesman’ for the group, said.
Bomb Blasts
Eleven persons, including seven primary schoolgirls, were injured in bomb blast outside a girls’ school in the Bannu town of Bannu District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on September 5, reports Dawn. The bomb went off when the children walked into a street lined with fabric shops after the closure of the school. Further, the bomb disposal squad (BDS) also defused a 12-kilogram explosive device, connected to a cell phone, at Kutchery Chowk, which is at a short distance from the DPO’s office.
Five persons, including three Policemen and two civilians were injured in a blast targeting Hashtnagri Police Station in Peshawar on September 6. According to Superintendent of Police (SP) Ismail Karak, the explosive device was planted on a motorcycle parked right next to the Police Station building. However, a Police official speaking to on condition of anonymity said that strangely there was no record of the motorcycle used in the attack in the official register of the Police Station.
A bomb explosion on September 14 killed two members of a pro-government militia and wounded four others during an archaeological dig on the Afghanistan border in Darra area, 30 kilometers northeast of Khar, the main town of Bajaur Agency in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), reports Daily Times. “About a dozen members of the local peace committee were digging at an excavation site when a remote controlled bomb went off, killing two members and wounding four others,” senior local administration official Sardar Yousuf said.
Major General Sanaullah Khan and lieutenant colonel Tauseef were killed along with a soldier, Irfan Sattar, in an improvised explosive device (IED) explosion in the Upper Dir District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa near Pak-Afghan Border on September 15, reports Daily Times. Major General Sanaullah was the general officer commanding Swat Division. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan ‘spokesman’ Shahidullah Shahid claimed responsibility for the attack.
At least seven Army personnel were killed and four others were injured in a remote-controlled explosion in Bolan on September 20, reports Daily Times. The Baloch Republican Army (BRA) on Twitter claimed responsibility for the attack. One of their vehicles was completely destroyed in the attack, the outfit claimed.
Elsewhere in the District, three Security Force (SF) personnel sustained injuries in an explosion while they were on routine patrolling in Bibi Nani area of Mach on September 20, reported Daily Times.
At least 21 persons were injured in a remote-controlled bomb blast at Tareen Chowk on Nishtar Road in Sibi District on September 22, reports Daily Times. According to the Police, unidentified militants had rigged a bomb to a motorcycle which was parked by the roadside. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
At least five persons, including three Policemen and two civilians were killed while five others were injured in a bomb attack targeting Police in Pishin District on September 23, reported Dawn. “The bomb was planted underneath the Police van which exploded while the officials were performing routine checks, killing five people including three Policemen and two civilians,” said District Police Chief Mehboob Rasheed. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack. “We attacked the Police in Balochistan today to avenge killing of our men by the army in a recent staged encounter,” in the country’s northwest, TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid told media over telephone from an undisclosed location.
Targeted Killings
A man, identified as Qamar Sajjad (55), was shot dead in a sectarian attack on University Road within the remits of Aziz Bhatti Police Station in Gulshan Town in Karachi on August 26, reported Daily Times.
Separately, an activist of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), identified as Alam Khan Swati (33), was shot dead, and his brother, Bareen Khan, was wounded when unidentified armed assailants opened fire at them near a general store in Bilal Colony of Korangi Town on August 26, reported Daily Times.
In another incident, a Police constable, Chaudhry Sajjad (35), was shot dead near Qatar Hospital within the jurisdiction of Orangi Town Police Station in Orangi Town on August 26, reported Daily Times. According to Police, Sajjad hailed from Punjab.
Over a dozen people were injured when unidentified armed gangsters fired around 25 rockets and resorted to indiscriminate firing targeting Kutchi community areas on Suleman Azad Road in Agra Taj Colony of Lyari Town in Karachi on August 26, reported Daily Times. Police said the violence broke out after two groups clashed with each other over a row involving jurisdiction of their areas. Normality returned to Lyari after law enforcers in the area were given shoot-at-sight orders.
According to Police, unidentified militants opened fire at Kechi Baig area of Sariab locality in Quetta, killing a man, identified as Saeed Ahmed, on August 27, reported Daily Times.
Separately, a truck driver of a Punjab bound truck was killed and two other occupants were wounded in Darjan area Bolan District on August 27, reports Daily Times.
Elsewhere, Security Forces arrested two abductors and recovered three kidnapped persons during a search operation in Manzari area of Pishin District on August 27, reported Daily Times.
Four people, including a political activist Farhan Sheikh, who was the target of the attack, were shot dead on Fariya Street in Kharadar area of Saddar Town in Karachi on August 28, reported The News. Kharadar Sub-Divisional Police Officer Iftekhar Ahmed Lodhi said that some unidentified armed assailants fired gunshots, killing Farhan, Arif, Arsalan, and Abbas. Two other people were also injured in the firing. “Apparently, the actual target was Farhan Sheikh, while the other victims just fell victim to random firing,” the Police Officer said.
Separately, two dead bodies, identified as that of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) employee Pervez Masih and Awais, were found at the Mewa Shah graveyard in SITE Town on August 28, reports The News. The two men were missing since the night of August 27, 2013.
Two activists of Muttahida Qaumi Movement, identified as Naushad Kursheed and Arshad Hussain, were shot dead near Chamcha Hotel in Orangi Town of Karachi on August 29, reported Daily Times.
Separately, a cleric, identified as Ahmed Nadeem Farooqi, was shot dead inside a mosque on Jamshed Road within the limits of Jamshed Quarter Police Station in Jamshed Town on August 29, reports Daily Times.
In another incident, a Lyari gangster, identified as Nayab Ahmad, was also shot dead in Malir area of Malir Town on August 29, reported Daily Times.
Also, a man, identified as Muhammad Ali, was shot dead while another, identified as Javaid Ibrahim, was wounded when suspected Lyari gangsters opened fire on them near Manan Palace within the jurisdiction of Kharader Police Station. Police said that Lyari gangsters were behind the killing.
Armed tribal men opened fire on a man, identified as Ghulam Rasool, killing him on the spot in Killi Risaldar area of Quetta on August 29, reported The News.
In another incident, an unidentified militant was killed and eight others injured in an operation launched by Security Forces in Sangan area of Sibi District and Macch area of Bolan District on August 29, reported Daily Times. Sources said that SFs took action after the reports of presence of extremists involved in attacks on passenger buses and trains in the area.
Elsewhere, two unidentified militants on August 29 killed a former Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI), Raza Khan, who was nominated in the May 17, 2011 killing of Chechen nationals, in Kharotabad area of Quetta, reports Dawn. A Police Official, Muhammad Aslam, said that Khan was sacked from his job after an investigation conducted by the Police Department. Chechen nationals were killed on May 17, 2011 for allegedly possessing suicide jackets and other arms and ammunition.
Ten persons were killed in separate incidents of violence across Karachi on August 31, reports Daily Times.
Unidentified gunmen on August 31 killed Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) leader Razaullah and injured his driver in Lakki Marwat District, reports Daily Times. Naurang Police said that the QWP leader was on his way home when unidentified miscreants opened fire on his vehicle killing Razaullah on the spot and injuring his driver, Momin.
At least three persons were killed and several others sustained injuries on September 1 when unidentified assailants fired on a musical event in the Adam Khel area of Lakki Marwat District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, reports Daily Times.
Separately, unidentified assailants shot dead a member of the local peace committee, Akbar Ali Khan, in the Daroshkhel area of Matta tehsil (revenue unit) in Swat District on August 31.
A senior employee of the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC), identified as Muhammad Riazuddin was shot dead near Disco Morr in the Orangi Town of Karachi on September 1, reports The News.
Separately, a man, identified as Samiullah (40) was shot dead and his nephew, Abdul Saboor, was injured in the Jahanabad area of Pak Colony in SITE Town on September 1, reports The News. Police found spent Kalashnikov bullet shells at the crime scene. Samiullah, who was a member of the Magsi clan, had arrived in Karachi from Dubai.
In another incident, a person was shot dead near Shaheen School in the Sultanabad locality of Manghopir area in Gadap Town on September 1, reports The News According to investigators, the motorcycle that the victim was riding had been snatched from the jurisdiction of the Mominabad Police Station on August 31, 2013. They added that this led to the suspicion that the victim might have been a member of a ‘criminal group’.
Elsewhere, an unidentified dead body of a man was recovered from a gunny bag near Askari Park in the Old Sabzi Mandi locality of Jamshed Town on September 1, reports The News. Police said that unidentified militants had kidnapped the man, tortured him and then shot him dead before dumping his body.
Police on September 3 claimed to have killed two terrorists in an encounter in the Peerabad area of SITE Town in Karachi. According to Superintendent of Police (SP), Orangi Town, Chaudhry Asad, weapons and hand grenade were also recovered from their possession. He said that the terrorists were affiliated with a banned organization.
An activist of Muttahida Qaumi Movement identified as Imran, was shot dead in Orangi Town on September 2, reports The News.
Separately, a man, identified as Javed Hussain Baloch, was shot dead on Baldia No-4 Road in the Lasi Para area of Madina Colony in New Karachi Town on September 2, reports The News.
In another incident, a Sub-Inspector, identified as Piyaru Khan (45), was shot dead near Banaras Chowk in the Peerabad area of SITE Town on September 2, reports The News. Station House Officer (SHO) Abdul Moeed said that Khan was posted at the Peerabad Police Station for the past 15 years. Police said Khan had participated in the operation in Karachi in the late 90s and was posted in District Central at that time.
Elsewhere, a supporter of Ahl-e-Sunnat-Wal-Jama’at (ASWJ), identified as Arman (35), was shot dead near Khaleel Market at Islam Chowk in Orangi Town on August 2, reports The News. ASWJ spokesperson Umer Muawiya said Arman was a supporter of his party.
An Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI), identified as Malik Shamshad was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Orangi Town of Karachi on September 3, reports The News. He was serving as the Intelligence Officer at Pakistan Bazaar Police Station.
Separately, a prayer leader of Mehtab Masjid, identified as Qari Siraj (35), was shot dead in Soldier Bazaar area of Jamshed Town on September 3, reported The News.
In another incident, a supporter of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), identified as Naeem, was shot dead in Orangi Town on September 3, reports The News.
Elsewhere, unidentified assailants shot dead one Abdul Hameed in the Boat Basin area near Minister Quarters in Clifton area of Saddar Town on September 3, reported The News.
In a separate incident, unidentified militants shot dead a man, identified as Zahid Brohi (25), in Jehanabad area of Pak Colony in SITE Town on September 3, reports The News.
In a sectarian attack, a Shia driver at National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), identified as Zaheer Hussain (45), was shot dead near Jauhar Complex on University Road in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Town of Gulshan Town on September 3, reported The News.
As many as 14 people, including a naval officer and one Rangers personnel were killed in Karachi on September 4, reports The News.
Two people belonging to Bohra community, identified as Mustansar Al (38) and his son Mustunisa (8), were shot dead in a targeted sectarian attack near Tayyaba Bakery at UP Morr in New Karachi Town of Karachi District, the provincial capital of Sindh, on September 10, reports The News. In another incident, two Police Constables, identified as Mohammad Ali and Arif, were killed when unidentified assailants opened fire on a Police van near Landi kotal Chowrangi in North Nazimabad Town on September 10, reports The News. Senior Superintendent of Police Amir Farooqi said Ali and Arif, who were posted at the Hyderi Police Station, were busy snap checking vehicles along with other Policemen when they were attacked.
Four workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), identified as Pervez Alam, Jabbar, Nadeem, and Riaz Ahmed, were shot dead unidentified militants while they were sitting at a puncture shop in Ghazi Nagar near Mohajir Chowk in Orangi Town of Karachi on September 17, reports The Express Tribune.
Separately, two cadres of Ahl-e-Sunnat-Wal-Jama’at (ASWJ), identified as Zeeshan alias Faizan Chohto and Mustaqeem, were killed in an alleged police encounter on Mauripur Road in Lyari Town on September 17, reports The Express Tribune. Zeeshan was the chief of unit-188 of the ASWJ, while Mustaqeem is a supporter of the ASWJ and is reportedly also associated with the MQM. “The encounter took place when Police were snap checking vehicles near Musharraf Colony,” claimed Station House Officer (SHO) Shafiq Tanoli. “When the Police signalled them to stop their motorcycle, they opened indiscriminate fire at the Police mobile and tried to escape.” During the exchange of fire, both the suspects were killed.
In another incident, an unidentified dead body of a young man packed in a gunny bag was found from Maripur area of Kiamari Town on September 17. Police officials said the victim was tortured to death after being kidnapped.
Drone Strikes
A United States (US) drone killed at least four militants in a missile strike on August 31 targeting a compound in Pakistan’s northwest tribal belt, reports Daily Times. The attack took place in the village of Heso Khel around 35 kilometres east of Miranshah Town in North Waziristan Agency of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
At least six suspected militants were killed in a US drone attack in the Ghulam Khan tehsil (revenue unit) of North Waziristan Agency in FATA in the wee hours of September 6, reports The News. According to sources, the US drone targeting a house located in the area fired two missiles. It was later reported that the second-in-command of the Haqqani Network, Mullah Sangeen Zadran was among those killed in the drone attack. While talking to the media, a local security official confirmed Zadran was killed in the drone strike along with five other suspected militants. Seven others, he added, were injured in the attack. The official said those killed also included three suspected al Qaeda militants. Two of them were identified as Jordanian nationals while the third reportedly hailed from Egypt. The remaining two were local tribesmen, he added. According to locals, some of those killed and injured in the strike were Zadran’s bodyguards. Zadran, hailed from the Zadran tribe in Paktika province of Afghanistan. He was a popular leader among militants and played an influential role in bringing different banned outfits, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban, together. In August 2011, the US State Department added Zadran to its list of designated global terrorists. The militant commander had been blamed for a number of attacks on US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Zadran also appeared in a video alongside US soldier Bowe Bergdahl, who was kidnapped by the Taliban in June 2009.
Miscellaneous
At least four Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militants and two soldiers were killed while nine soldiers were injured when the militants attacked on a Security Forces’ (SFs) camp in Sara Rogh area of South Waziristan Agency in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on August 27, reports Dawn. According to Security Officials, four militants attacked a SFs camp using heavy weaponry in Sara Rogh area. Security personnel engaged in retaliatory firing killing three attackers whereas the fourth militant detonated a suicide vest that he was wearing. TTP spokesperson Shahidullah Shahid claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Doaba Police on a tip-off raided a house in Sarokhel area of Hangu District on August 28 and arrested three militants, identified as Israfeel, Mujibur Rehman and Siddiqullah, while they were making bombs, reported Daily Times. The Police confiscated 3,350 grammes of explosives, one detonator, tapes, batteries and other material from them. Hangu District Police Officer (DPO) Sajjad Khan reiterated his resolve to stamp out terrorism from the area and to protect lives and properties of the people. He said that militants held in the raid wanted to use the explosives in a terror activity and due to the timely action of Police they were captured.
Ten militants including two commanders were killed in Dokob area of Mand District on August 31, reports Daily Times. The incident happened when a Frontier Corps (FC) convoy on routine patrolling was ambushed by armed men in the area. Soon after the incident, FC launched search operation in the area and a large quantity of weapons and explosive were recovered.
Three Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militants were killed during an exchange of fire with personnel from the Crime Investigation Department (CID) on September 5 in the Mauripur area of Kiamari Town in Karachi District, the provincial capital of Sindh, reports Dawn. According to Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), CID, Chaudhry Aslam, Police launched a search operation in the Mauripur graveyard upon receiving a tip-off on the suspects’ whereabouts. Police also claimed to have recovered a Kalashnikov, three 9mm pistols and six hand grenades from their possession, adds The News.
At least seven alleged terrorists were arrested during a raid by Intelligence Agencies at residential apartments in the Liaquatabad area of Lahore District on September 5, reports The News. They also seized huge cache of explosives and four suicide jackets from their possession.
Police arrested alleged ‘mastermind’ of the June 23, 2013, Nanga Parbat massacre, identified as Qaribullah alias Hassan, and his accomplice, identified as Mohammad Nabi alias Qari Hasnain, from a house in Thak valley of Chilas town in Diamer District on September 5. Chilas Superintendent of Police (SP) Jahangir Khan led a team that arrested both the accused. “It was a sudden raid and hence, there was no resistance, no exchange of fire as the men were unarmed,” he said. “Qaribullah is a member of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan,” confirmed Mohammad Naveed, a Senior Police Official in Diamer.
City Police on September 6 thwarted an attempt of terrorism by arresting a suspect and seizing explosive devices and arms from a flying coach within the limit of Badaber Police Station in Peshawar, reports Daily Times. According to details, on a tip off about smuggling of explosive devices from tribal areas to Peshawar for subversive activities, the Badaber Police Station made blockade at Sefan security check post and spotted a suspected flying coach. The Police asked the driver to stop for search instead he accelerated speed of the vehicle and was chased. Police claimed that the accused, identified as Burad Ali, started firing at Police party that was retailed. The accused was injured during an exchange of fire. Later, the flying coach was searched that led to recovery of five kilogram bomb, a revolver and others explosives materials.
A leader of the Awami National Party (ANP) Syed Lal Dervesh (40) was shot dead by extortionists belonging to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan in Sector 4-E of Orangi Town in Karachi District, the provincial capital of Sindh on September 6, reported The News. “Lal Dervesh was the owner of a car showroom, Al-Dervesh Motors, located near Banaras Chowk,” Peerabad Station House Officer (SHO) Abdul Moeed said. The Police officer added that Dervesh was receiving threats from extortionists and he had lodged a number of complaints with the Police. “The extortionists had attacked his showroom with grenades several times in the last few months.”
An ANP official said that TTP militants who were operating in the area were trying to extort money from Lal Dervesh, who was the former President of the ANP Frontier Colony Ward. Another ANP official claimed that the TTP were demanding PKR 15 million from Lal Dervesh and he was negotiating with them.
Separately, a Police constable, identified as Rehan Azeem (30), was shot dead outside the Madadgar-15 Hyderi office, near Hyderi Market in North Nazimabad Town on September 6, reports The News.
Unidentified militants fired more than two-dozen rockets on a Pakistan Army cantonment in Sui and nearby check posts in Dera Bugti District on September 6 when the Army Chief Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and Balochistan Chief Minister Dr. Abdul Malik Baloch visited the area, reported Daily Times. According to local sources, several blasts took place inside the cantonment during the attack. The Balochistan CM and the army chief left their visit uncompleted due to security threats from Baloch militants. Baloch Republican Army (BRA) claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks. BRA spokesman Sarbaaz Baloch claimed that fighters from their organisation had attacked several army outposts located between Sui town and the army cantonment where forces faced heavy casualties.
Separately, Frontier Constabulary (FCB) defused a 5 kilogram of explosive material found in a suspicious bag placed alongside the road on the spot of Tili, which 10-kilometer away from Dera Bugti District, reports Daily Times. While taking immediate action, FC recovered the explosive material and defused it.
At least eight persons, who were allegedly planning to execute terrorist acts in Punjab with the financial help provided to them by their two associates based in United Arab Emirates (UAE) and New Zealand, were arrested from Peerjain village of Gurdaspur District on September 6, reports The Times of India. Fatehgarh Sahib senior superintendent of police (SSP) G S Chauhan said, “We are yet to establish the identity of persons with whom the members were in contact with through social networking sites and Whatsapp.” Police are still verifying whether the accused were in contact with any terror organization active in the country, he added.
Clashes between the peace committee and militants in Bara tehsil (revenue unit) of Khyber Agency in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on September 8 killed five committee members while militants have abducted several others. Separately, a militant was killed and two security officials injured in a firefight and bomb blast in Kalingar Security Forces (SFs) check post in Miranshah, headquarters of the North Waziristan Agency. More than six militants attacked Kalingar security forces check post. One militant was killed while his accomplices escaped, a security forces official said.
At least 150 suspects were arrested during the ongoing-targeted operation in various parts of Karachi on September 8, reports Daily Times. According to Sindh Police spokesman, around 99 raids were conducted in parts of the city and the Police arrested 143 criminals including 27 absconders, 38 under arms ordinance, 13 under narcotics ordinance and remaining others in various other criminal activities. Moreover, 38 illicit arms and weapons were also recovered from their possession.
Meanwhile, the Federal Minister for Interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on September 8 that the decision to approve a Rangers-led operation in Karachi has started to bear fruits, reports Daily Times. Commenting on the situation in Karachi, Nisar said several extortionists and target killers had been arrested during targeted operations in the city. He added that those arrested had expressed their affiliations with political parties. “Operation was carried out in Malir, Frontier Colony, SITE, Badr commercial, Clifton, Gizri and various other areas of Karachi,” the Interior Minister said while reading out from a report. According to Nisar, Sindh Inspector General of Police (IGP) had been given one month to improve the performance of the Police.
Police foiled a major terrorism bid at a park adjacent to Lahore Railway Station as it recovered and defused bomb weighing 3 kilogram on September 8, reports Daily Times.
Meanwhile, Law Enforcement Agencies on September 8 arrested four alleged terrorists and recovered explosive material from Model Town and Liaquatabad areas of Lahore District, reported Daily Times. The alleged terrorists were arrested on information of the earlier arrested seven terrorists.
Security Forces (SFs) killed two would-be suicide bombers as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militants attacked the office of District Police Officer (DPO), judicial lock ups and lower courts in Kohat town (Kohat District) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on September 9, reports Daily Times. A Policeman was also killed while 13 other persons, including three security officials, were injured in the attack inside the military cantonment area. According to the Kohat DPO office, eight to 10 militants attacked District Courts using hand grenades and heavy weapons. Sources said the militants had planned the attack to take away an alleged killer who was brought there from Tarnol in Punjab and was to be produced before a judge in connection with the murder of Member of Provincial Assembly Fareed Khan on June 3, 2013.
Rangers arrested four Lyari Gang extortionists on September 9 during operations at Safoora Goth and Lashari Goth in the Malir Town of Karachi District, the provincial capital of Sindh, reports Dawn. The rangers confiscated uniforms of the Police and Rangers, bullet proof vests, explosives and other weapons during the operation. According to a Rangers spokesperson, the suspects are part of the Lyari Gang War and have been involved in various extortion schemes. He added that they would use the Rangers and Police uniforms while conducting their crimes.
In another raid, Rangers and Police continued targeted operation on September 9 and arrested 16 suspects during raid in the Ancholi area of Gulberg Town, reports The News.
Police on September 11 claimed to have averted a terrorism bid by defusing a bomb planted in Government Middle School in Katlang area of Mardan District), reports Daily Times. The Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) recovered a bomb, two detonators and a safety fuse from the bag. The bomb was later defused by BDS.
Meanwhile, Police on September 11 recovered a huge cache of weapons being transported from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) to in Phandou area of Peshawar (Peshawar District), the provincial capital of KP and arrested the offender, reports Daily Times. Police intercepted a suspected vehicle near a checkpost in Phandou area and recovered 23 pistols and thousands of cartridges from its secret cavities.
Police on September 11-night repulsed a militant attack on a security check-post at Saro Kallay village in Charsadda District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, reports Daily Times. According to the Police, militants, equipped with automatic weapons and rocket launchers, attacked the Saro Kallay checkpost manned by the Police at about 11:45pm. The Police promptly reacted by repulsing the attack. The firing continued for about half an hour. The Police claimed the fleeing militants also opened firing on security guards of a nearby patrol pump. As result, a security guard, Arif Gul, a resident of Nazimpur in Nowshera District, was killed while his colleague Umar Farooq sustained injuries.
Unidentified militants destroyed a NATO vehicle in the Sado Khel area of Landi Kotal in Khyber Agency of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on September 12, reports Daily Times. However, no causalities were reported. Sources from the political administration said unidentified militants attacked a truck carrying the NATO military vehicle. Later on, the attackers burned the truck, which severely damaged the NATO vehicle. After the incident, the attackers and the driver and cleaner of the truck fled.
Meanwhile, the bomb disposal squad (BDS) on September 12 defused a 12-kilogramme bomb planted on the roadside near Dandar area in the Khurram Agency, reports Daily Times.
Separately, unidentified persons killed a school watchman in Halimzai tehsil (revenue unit) of Mohmand Agency in the night of September 11, reports The News. The sources said watchman Usman Khan, brother of local journalist Noor Muhammad Mohmand, was on duty at the Government Primary School in Malik Ajan Killay when unidentified persons forced their entry into the school at night and shot him dead. His bullet-riddled body was found dumped in a seasonal stream next day.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on September 14 approved withdrawal of Army from Malakand Division, as the process of pulling out troops from Shangla and Buner Districts would start next month, reports Daily Times. In the second phase, troops would be pulled out from Swat, Upper Dir, Lower Dir Districts and other parts of Malakand Division, the chief minister told reporters in his hometown of Nowshera. Malakand Division consists of seven Districts. “The Pakistan Army, Police and FC have rendered numerous sacrifices in war against terror in Malakand Division and the entire nation is proud of their valour, which ultimately led to the establishment of peace in the region,” Khattak added. He said resolution of problems through talks was an essential part of the PTI’s manifesto. “We have to protect and respect our own interest instead of looking after the rights of other countries in the region,” the Chief Minister said.
Police claimed to have arrested around 173 suspects during separate targeted raids and operations across Karachi on September 18, reports Daily Times. The raids began soon after the killing of four workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement on September 17, 2013. Police launched a targeted operation in Pakistan Bazaar area of Orangi Town and detained at least 20 suspects. However, most of them were released later after being found innocent in initial interrogation.
Separately, two suspected terrorists, Amjad and Mir Jan, were arrested from Gulshan-e-Bunair area of Quaidabad in Bin Qasim Town on September 18, reported Daily Times. Two hand grenades and pistols were also recovered from their possession. Similarly, Police arrested three suspected criminals -Farooq, Ayaz and Tahir from Orangi Town, over alleged involvement in attacking the house of a Jama’at-e-Islami (JeI) leader.
Other parts of the metropolis were also raided, and almost 148 criminals were nabbed including 21 absconders, 26 under Arms Ordinance, and 19 under Narcotics Act, eight robbers, seven murderers, and one under Terrorism Act. Three bombs, 40 weapons along with narcotics were also seized.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) president for Jalozai camp, Haji Mula Khel, was killed and four other party activists were injured after unidentified militants opened fire at them at the PTI office on the Jalozai camp premises in Nowshehra District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on September 20, reports The Express Tribune. A tribal elder of Qamber Khel said that Haji was also PTI’s secretary for Bara welfare. He belonged to Bara (Khyber Agency, FATA) himself and was living at Jalozai camp for internally displaced persons (IDP). Shah Mehmood, one of the injured, told the Police he along with Gulistan, Abdul Jalal and Shah Jahan were visiting the office to meet Haji and get some documents signed when two men parked a motorcycle outside the office and started shooting. Haji was killed on the spot, while the accused managed to escape.
The Bomb Disposable Unit (BDU) along with District Police on September 24 raided a warehouse in the jurisdiction of Yakatoot Police Station in Peshawar and recovered a huge quantity of explosive material with detonators, reports Daily Times. A Police official said that a Police team and BDU raided a warehouse at Jameel Chowk on Ring Road and recovered 125 bags of chemicals, used in making of explosive and 35 bundles of detonation cord.
Meanwhile, the Peshawar High Court declared on September 24 that cell phone companies would have to pay compensation equal to the Diyat (compensation paid to the heirs of a victim) amount to those killed in bomb blasts if their unregistered SIMs were used in the blasts, reports The News. During hearing into a suo moto notice on the use of unregistered SIMs, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan declared that cell phone companies would pay compensation equal to the amount of Arsh (Pre-specified Compensation) and Damaan (Compensation determined by court to be paid by the offender to the victim for causing hurt not liable to Arsh) to the injured persons of bomb blasts in which their unregistered SIMs were used. The bench directed the Federal Government to draft a bill on strict laws against the illegal sale of SIMs in the country and propose stringent laws against the violators to end the sale of unregistered and illegal SIMs.
The security personnel arrested a prime accused of Karachi Lyari gang war named Sheraz Comrade and his two accomplices when they were trying to escape to Dubai from the Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore on September 24, reports The News. The other two accomplices of comrade were identified as Zakir Mogheeri and Awais Tipu. The personnel conducted a raid outside the premises of the Lahore airport on a tip-off and arrested them minutes before they were about to fly to Dubai. Sheraz Comrade was wanted by the Law Enforcement Agency (LEA) in more than 100 cases of target killings, extortion and kidnappings for ransom. The Sindh Government had also fixed PKR Five lakh as head money for the arrest of Comrade. Soon after the arrest of Comrade, Police and other LEAs conducted raids in different parts of the city to arrest other criminals and their facilitators on the pointing of arrested accused persons.
PAKISTAN
400 civilians died in 339 drone attacks, Government briefs National Assembly
The Government on August 26 informed the National Assembly that 339 drone attacks had been recorded in the country since 2004, according to findings of a number of unofficial organisations which followed America’s policy to use drones worldwide, reports Dawn. A written answer submitted to the house in response to a question said that 400 civilians had died in the tribal belt as a result of the attacks. There was no mention of the number of terrorists killed. The focus of the answer was on how the Government disapproved of the attacks, termed them a violation of the country’s sovereignty and was building pressure through likeminded organisations, countries and the United Nations (UN) against their legitimacy.
To a flurry of questions in which members sought a clarification whether the government had any underhand understanding with the United States (US) Government to allow the use of drones in the tribal areas, Minister of State Khurram Dastagir Khan categorical answer was ‘no’.
He said the Government hadn’t found any written agreement between Pakistan and the US on the use of drones, but it could be safely assumed that the previous two Governments led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had silently agreed, hence they never forcefully raised the issue.
Gunman Sikander who held Islamabad in terror for imposition of Sharia’h was a pawn of terrorists, reveals IG Police
The Inspector General (IG) of Police on August 26 revealed that the gunman Sikandar responsible for the August 15, 2013 Islamabad standoff demanding imposition of Sharia’h (Islamic Law) had links with a banned militant outfit, reports Daily Times. The IG told a press conference that Sikandar had been operating with militant groups in foreign countries, including Dubai, for the last five years. He said that the gunman had been helping terrorist outfits carry out their activities. He acted as their handler and facilitator, the IG added.
According to details given by the IG, Sikandar underwent combat training in 1996 after which he started raising funds for the banned organisation in Dubai. He said that the Dubai Police had arrested Sikandar in 1998. He was sent to jail for three months. The IG further added that Sikandar was held again in 2001 and was deported by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities. However, he succeeded in getting a new passport by changing his name and appearance, the IG added. The IG further said that Sikandar returned to Pakistan in 2010.
Sikandar received militant training in Kashmir. The IG said that the gunman worked for terrorist outfits and had planned to take the Parliament House ‘hostage’. The IG went on to say that the gunman wanted to take hostage all those present in the Parliament House on the evening of August 15.
Armed wings of political parties behind Karachi unrest, Sindh Rangers DG tells Supreme Court
The Supreme Court (SC) was told on August 28 that militant wings of political parties were active in Karachi, reports Daily Times. Summoned by the Court, Sindh Rangers Director General (DG) Rizwan Akhtar blamed the unrest on armed wings of political parties, which he said were on a killing spree. He said it was necessary to eliminate these for peace in the city. Akhtar told the court that the Rangers had limited powers. They could arrest criminals, but not investigate the crimes properly. He added that those arrested were soon bailed out of prison.
“In the past 10 months, 28 Rangers personnel have been killed and 55 seriously injured in clashes,” he said. The court has been directing the Federal and Provincial authorities to take effective measures to bring the senseless killing in the city to a stop since its verdict. The Supreme Court ordered the submission of two years’ worth of correspondence between executives of both the Federal and Provincial Governments in the next hearing.
Govt in secret contact with Taliban at different levels, says Information Minister Pervez Rashid
“Unofficial talks between the Government side and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan are in progress,” Information Minister Pervez Rashid said on August 30, reports Dawn. He said the Government was exploring all options to restore lasting peace in the country and was in contact with Taliban at different levels. He endorsed a statement made by Jama’at Ulema-e-Islam-Fazlur Rehman (JUI-F) Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman that a formula had been chalked out for holding formal talks with Taliban within a month. “Maulana Sahib is a responsible person and whatever he said is correct,” Information Minister added.
The Information Minister did not say at what level talks had been initiated and with which group of militants. But, he said the Government was ready to negotiate with any group of Taliban interested in holding talks.
“I cannot say with which group of Taliban we are holding talks because today we are talking with two groups and if another group wants to join we will welcome it too,” he said. Rashid said the Government’s main objective was to restore peace and it would do everything possible to achieve that. “We have to rid the country of the menace of terrorism for which all options would be utilised.”
Meanwhile, a senior Taliban leader confirmed that initial contacts between the militants and the Government had been made. He told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Urdu Service that the talks encompassing a wide range of issues including prevention of sectarian violence and snapping of ties with al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi had been held.
Pakistan committed to disarmament
Pakistan on September 3 said it was committed to the objectives of disarmament and non-proliferation, reports The News. Commenting on a story published in The Washington Post, Foreign Office spokesman Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry said as a nuclear weapons state, Pakistan’s policy was characterized by restraint and responsibility. He said, “Pakistan has established extensive physical protection measures, robust command and control institutions under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister, comprehensive and effective export controls regulatory regimes to ensure safety and security of nuclear installations and materials.”
Army not involved in an military operation in Balochistan, claims Army Chief
Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on September 6 denied the perception that a military operation is underway in Balochistan, reports Daily Times. He said that the troops are in barracks and not a single soldier is engaged in army operation in the province. Kayani said that Pakistan’s defence lies in the strong and prosperous Balochistan. ” It is not just a coincidence that I’m celebrating the National Defence Day in the Sui town of Balochistan, but it is a matter of importance and honour which the army keeps for Balochistan,” he said during a passing-out parade of cadets at the Military College Sui (MCS).
The Army Chief noted that Balochistan is rich in natural resources and the only need is to utilise these for the people’s welfare. Pakistan Army, he affirmed, is fully committed to extend all possible assistance to the Provincial Government to eradicate poverty and control lawlessness. Kayani noted that more than 20 thousands Baloch are part of the Pakistan Army. He said we do not want the Baloch to become labourers but work on the top posts and serve the country and the nation. “The ratio of recruitment from Balochistan in army has been 1.7 in 2007,” Kayani said and added that it has been enhanced to 3.5 with the recruitment of some 12,000 jawans (soldiers) and officials since 2010.
Meanwhile, Balochistan Chief Minister Dr. Abdul Malik Baloch said that although Balochistan was passing through a critical juncture, it was the Government’s resolve to steer the province out of the crisis, reports The Express Tribune. “I appeal to all warring tribes and disgruntled Baloch who left Dera Bugti to set aside their differences and play their role in the province’s development,” Chief Minister said.
It is easier to negotiate with Afghan Taliban
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah on September 10 said the Government should hold result-oriented dialogue with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan to curb terrorism and restore peace in the country. He said, “There are two types of Taliban: Afghan and Pakistani. It is easy to negotiate with the Afghan Taliban as compared to the Pakistani, because there are around 59 groups operating in the country,” reports Dawn.
Shah, the leader of opposition in the National Assembly, said the PPP Government had brought Sufi Muhammad to the negotiating table for 13 times, but all efforts went in vain as many agreements reached in the talks were not even adhered to by the Taliban themselves. He urged the Government to devise a mechanism to check the mushroom-growth of seminaries in the country. “The Government will have to take strict decisions to improve the law and order situation in the country. The PPP will support the Government in this regard as it has backed the Government’s stance at the All Parties Conference (APC),” he added.
592 mutilated bodies found in last three years in Balochistan
The Home and Tribal Affairs Department of Balochistan on September 11 revealed that 592 mutilated dead bodies have been found in the last three years from different parts of the province, reports Dawn. According to documents obtained by Dawn, Police and other law enforcers have found 592 bullet-riddled bodies since 2010 to September 2013. The documents indicate an increase in recovery of mutilated bodies during the current year in different volatile parts of Balochistan province, the least developed of the country. Most of the dead bodies were found in Quetta, Khuzdar, Kalat and the volatile Mekran belt. “Most of the dead bodies are of Baloch political workers,” the document said, adding that few of the victims belong to other ethnic groups as well. The Provincial Home Ministry has directed all concerned Deputy Commissioners and concerned Police officials to properly investigate into the recovery of dead bodies.
Besides mutilated dead bodies, the document revealed that 132 cases of missing persons were pending before the Supreme Court and the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (CIED), headed by Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal. Eight new cases of missing persons have been registered with the provincial home and tribal affairs department. “66 cases of missing persons are pending before Supreme Court and 64 are pending before the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances,” the document said. The Ministry said most of the cases of missing persons were pertaining to Khuzdar, Kalat, Mastung, Panjgur, Turbat and other troubled parts of Balochistan.
TTP says its affiliate group not behind Peshawar church suicide bombings
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan denied on September 24 that its sister organisation Jandul Hafsa was involved in September 22’s twin suicide attack on a church in Peshawar that left more than 83 persons dead and over 145 injured, reports Daily Times. The spokesman of TTP, Shahidullah Shahid, phoned media organisations in Peshawar and clarified that Jandul Hafsa, the group which claimed responsibility of the attack, had no links with his organisation. “Let me clarify that Jandul Hafsa has no link with our organisation,” he told journalists. The clarification from the TTP comes amid widespread calls for backing off from peace talks with the terrorist organisation.
Meanwhile, the Federal Minister of Interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on September 24 that Peshawar church attacks and recent killing of army officers were condemnable incidents but the decision to hold talks with the TTP was made with a consensus and it would be pursued, reports Daily Times. Addressing a joint press conference along with his British counterpart Theresa May, Nisar reiterated commitment of the Pakistani Government to work with all countries to curb the menaces of terrorism, narcotics and other crimes.
REGIONAL
Bangladesh – Internal Dynamics
Two HT and seven ICS cadres arrested in separate incidents in Rangpur District
Police arrested two women cadres, identified as Shapla Begum and Nurjahan Parveen Jharna of Islamist outfit Hizb-ut-Tawhid (HT) and seized books on ‘jihad’ and leaflets from their possession at Dhap police camp intersection in Rangpur city (Rangpur District) on August 25, reports Daily Times. During preliminary interrogation at Kotwali Police Station, the two women confessed to their involvement with the outfit, said Mohammad Shahabuddin Khalifa, officer-in-charge of the Police Station.
Meanwhile, law enforcers picked up seven activists of Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS), students wing of Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) from a students’ mess in Rangpur’s Lalbag area. Law enforcers also seized leaflets and books on ‘jihad’ and CDs from the mess.
BNP-Jel desperate to get back power through militancy, says Foreign Minister Dipu Moni
Foreign Minister Dipu Moni while addressing a discussion at the National Press Club in Dhaka city on August 27 said Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) have got desperate to return to power by unleashing militancy in the name of religion, reports UNBconnect. “BNP-Jamaat wants to come to power again through militancy in Pakistani-style by misguiding people in the name of religion. So, they’re involved in conspiracy. All will have to remain vigilant to crush their conspiracy,” she said.
ICS cadres arrested with three bombs
Police arrested a cadre of Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS), the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), along with three homemade bombs from Old Railway Station area of Chittagong city in Chittagong District on September 1, reports The Daily Star. The arrestee was identified as Farid Uddin (23), a fourth-year student of Government Hazi Muhammad Mohsin College
Two PBSB cadres killed in Pabna District
Villagers killed two Purba Banglar Sarbahara Party (PBSP) cadres at Hadol village in Faridpur sub-District of Pabna District on September 2, reports The Daily Star. The deceased were identified as Kazem Uddin and Abdul Aziz. Police said the villagers caught the duo at Hadol Bazar when they went there to collect illegal toll from the traders.
GMF cadre arrested in Khulna
Detective Branch of Police arrested a cadre of outlawed Gono Mukti Fouz (GMF) at Khoksa bus stand in the Kushtia town of Kushtia District on September 11, reports The Daily Star. They also recovered a pistol and 13 bullets from his possession. The arrestee is identified as Babul Sadar, a top cadre of the outfit.
PBCP cadre killed in Chuadanga
A cadre of the Purba Bangla Communist Party (PBCP) was killed in Chuadanga District on September 12, reports New Age. The deceased was identified as Rasel Ali. Police recovered Rasel’s slaughtered body from a field at Kutubpur Daspara village of Chuadanga District. Police said that Rasel was wanted in two cases including a murder case and might have killed by his fellows due to intraparty conflict.
Meanwhile, Police arrested a leader of PBCP at Mirpur village of Pabna District on September 13, reports The Daily Star. The arrested person is identified as Muhamad Dulal Hossain, a regional leader of PBCP. Police arrested Dulal while he along with his associates was holding a clandestine meeting at the village. However, his associates managed to flee.
Regional leader of GMF killed in gunfight with Police in Kushtia District
A regional leader of outlawed Gono Mukti Fouz (GMF) was killed in a ‘gunfight’ with Police at Uthli village in Kushtia District on September 22, reports The Daily Star. The deceased was identified as Fazlul Haq alias Fazlu Matbor. Police said, on secret information that some cadres of the party were holding a clandestine meeting at the village, a team of Police cordoned off the area and asked the outlaws to surrender. But the criminals opened fire on the law enforcers, prompting them to retaliate, which triggered a gunfight. Fazlu was died on the spot, while his accomplices managed to flee the scene. Police also recovered two LGs, one pistol, one revolver, one pipe gun, two machetes, two bombs and 20 bullets from the spot
India – Internal Dynamics
IED recovered in Manipur
According to a press release issued by Imphal West Superintendent of Police (SP), a powerful Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was recovered at Sana-sam (O) Bijyenti Devi’s disclosure from Nambul Mapal garbage dumping area opposite Yumnam Leikai Lairembi, reports Sangai Express. Investigation revealed that the recovered IED to be used in attacking Security Forces and blast vital installation was handed over to her by one Sanasam Rabi Singh alias Lalpuba alias Suraj of Pishum-thong Oinam Leikai of Progressive faction of People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak who is absconding.Sana-sam was arrested following the arrest of Khoisnam Bijando Meitei alias Kaka.
Fight for separate Garo state resumes Meghalaya
Toughening its stand on the demand for a separate Garo state, the Garo Hills State Movement Committee (GHSMC) on August 26 kicked off its five-day sit-in demonstration in three Districts of Garo Hills, reports The Shillong Times.
The sit-in demonstration was held in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office of South Garo Hills, West Garo Hills and East Garo Hills. The GHSMC is demanding creation of a separate state along the line of the Linguistic Act, 1956.
Four BSF personnel killed in Maoist blast in Odisha
Four personnel of the Border Security Force (BSF) were killed on the spot and three injured in a landmine blast by the Communist Party of India-Maoist cadres in Koraput District of Odisha on August 27, reports The Hindu. According to the Police, the blast occurred on National Highway (NH) 26 at a culvert between Sakirai and Kauguntha villages near Rayagada in Sunki ghat area under Pottangi Police Station limits around 9 a.m. The BSF personnel were on leave and on their way in three vehicles to Visakhapatnam from Balimela area of Malkangiri District to board trains. Each vehicle was carrying seven BSF personnel. A man, who escaped unhurt, said their vehicles were first fired at by Maoists hiding on a nearby hill. The BSF personnel fired back. However, their third vehicle was blasted while crossing the culvert. The vehicle was thrown off the road and was destroyed. Two of the injured were in a serious condition and they were being shifted to Visakhapatnam for treatment. Koraput Superintendent of Police Avinash Kumar rushed to the spot with extra force, who were also fired at by the Maoists. Kumar narrowly escaped a bullet. Security Force (SF) personnel have cordoned off the hill and rounded up some suspicious persons from the area, who are being interrogated at Pottangi Police Station. SFs seized a grenade and wire used to detonate the landmine from the hill. Some food stuff were also found at the spot, hinting that it was an ambush.
Two STF personnel and two women Maoist cadres killed in encounter in Chhattisgarh
A Company Commander of Chhattisgarh Special Task Force (STF) Lav Bhagat and a Constable Shiv Kumar were killed in an encounter with Communist Party of India-Maoist cadres near Harra Koder village under Mardum Police Station area of Bastar District on August 27, reports The Times of India. Bodies of two women Maoists have also been recovered from the spot.
65 terror groups active in India
The Minister of State for Home, R.P.N. Singh informed the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Indian Parliament) on August 27, that government has identified 65 terror groups active in the country, reports Hindustan Times. He commented, “Various terrorist groups like LeT, IM, Hizbul Mujahideen, Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, Al-Badr, etc are active in the hinterland of the country, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi”, according to Economic Times.
While 34 insurgent outfits are operating in Manipur, 10 are active in Assam, four each in Meghalaya and Nagaland, two each in Tripura and Mizoram, five in Jammu & Kashmir, three in Punjab and another the Indian Mujahideen, adds The Times of India. MHA officials later clarified that at least three of the 34 Manipuri outfits have already surrendered.
Moreover, he further said, Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF) and Khalistan Commando Force (KCF) are the three militant groups active in Punjab, reports Hindustan Times.
25,473 Central Armed Police Forces have opted for VRS in the last two years
At least 35,513 personnel of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), comprising Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and Assam Rifles, have opted for voluntary retirement under Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) in last two years for personal and domestic reasons, reports The Times of India on August 29 (today). Significantly, highest number of personnel to seek VRS are from BSF (15990), followed by CRPF (11406), CISF (3225), AR (2198), ITBP (1333) and SSB (1321). The numbers work out to around 50 VRS a day and the total number over two years is a little less than 5 per cent of the combined strength of these forces, which is around 750,000.
ZUF militants injure village chairman
The Telegraph reports that suspected cadres of the Zeliangrong United Front (ZUF) shot at and injured a village chairman, identified as Nailing Kamei, after he was abducted from his home at Khoupum in Tamenglong District in the night of August 31. According to reports given by his family members to Police, seven armed ZUF cadres came to their house and took Kamei away at gunpoint, saying that the militant outfit wanted to hold ‘discussions’ with him.
CRPF trooper killed
A Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) trooper was killed in an encounter with the Communist Party of India-Maoist in Tebo Valley in West Singhbhum District on September 3, reports The Hindu. Santosh Kumar Singh of 209 Battalion of Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) suffered splinter injuries on his chest and was airlifted to Ranchi where he died. “The encounter may continue for another two to three days,” said Jharkhand Director General of Police (DGP) Rajeev Kumar.
Maoists recruit 10000 minors for non-combat operations
Nearly 10,000 children, including girls, have been “recruited” by Communist Party of India-Maoist across Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar and Jharkhand to serve as intelligence gatherers or perform chores as cooks and couriers, reports The Times of India. Though these minor recruits — mostly aged between 10 to 15 — don’t carry arms, they are given the basic training to handle weapons. While around 3,000-4,000 children alone stand enrolled into “bal sangham” in Chhattisgarh and Odisha, the young hands working for Maoists in Jharkhand and Bihar are organized under ‘bal dasta’.
The modus operandi of recruiting these minors involves prevailing upon the local tribal families to “give up” one of their children to the CPI-Maoist, by highlighting displacement issues and “police atrocities on their brethren”. Usually, the villagers have little choice but to oblige. Not only this, if the children stage an escape back to their homes, their families face a violent reprisal from the Maoists. Intelligence sources told TOI that the main job of the child recruits is to gather information for the Maoists.
Bal sangam in the Dandakaranya region has been operational since 1995. In Odisha, the recruitments are mainly undertaken in Koraput and Malkangiri Districts. The Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangh, a Maoist front organisation, had recently recruited and inducted several children in Narayanpatna Police Station area of Koraput.
In Bihar, the erstwhile Maoist Communist Centre (MCC), now merged into CPI-Maoist, had been recruiting children between eight-14 for its “bal dasta”. The CPI-Maoist continues to draft children mainly from Districts like Aurangabad, Rohtas, Kaimur and East Champaran.
In Jharkhand, the recruitment of children has been reported from Palamu, Chatra, Lohardagga and Latehar Districts.
14 Maoists killed in encounter in Odisha
At least 14 Communist Party of India-Maoist cadres were killed in an encounter with Police in Malkangiri District on September 14, reports NDTV. The gun battle, which lasted for several minutes, took place in a forest close to the border with Chhattisgarh. Inspector General of Police (IGP) Soumendra Priyadarshi said “Fourteen Maoists were killed. Arms were also seized.”
Monthly Fatalities
The following deaths related to ongoing insurgencies and acts of terrorism occurred during the period Aug 25 to Sept 26, 2013:
| Civilian | Indian Security Personnel | Militant | Total | |
| Assam | 01 | 00 | 07 | 08 |
| Manipur | 09 | 00 | 01 | 10 |
| Meghalaya | 02 | 00 | 01 | 03 |
| Nagaland | 00 | 00 | 01 | 01 |
| Left-wing | 08 | 13 | 26 | 47 |
| Total | 20 | 13 | 36 | 69 |
Nepal – Internal Dynamics
YCL cadres injure policeman and snatch his pistol in Rukum District
Cadres of Young Communist League (YCL), the youth wing of Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist on August 28 attacked a Policeman deployed to provide security to Nepali Congress (NC) leader and former state minister Gopalji Jung Shah in Rukum District, reports The Himalayan Times. They even snatched his pistol. The injured Policeman is identified as Constable Chetan lal Singh Thakuri.
CPN-Maoist-Baidya General Secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa directs party’s rank and file to be mentally prepared to take up weapons
Mohan Baidya-led Communist Party Nepal-Maoist (CPN-Maoist-Baidya) General Secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa on September 1 directed the party’s rank and file to be mentally prepared to even take up weapons, should the need arise, to disrupt the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections scheduled to be held on November 19, reports The Himalayan Times. Thapa said, “The government and major political parties are planning to deploy Nepali Army personnel to hold Constituent Assembly poll. So, you have to be ready even to carry arms.” He further said his party would supply weapons to its cadres in every village to foil the election at any cost. He also directed party cadres and leaders to initiate discussion on nationalism and democracy with the public and other political parties too. “The weapon of ideology is the strongest one in the world. So, make your ideology revolutionary,” Thapa added.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission (EC) on September 1 said that the Government will come up with integrated security plan within this week for the CA elections, reports Myrepublica.com. Chief Election Commissioner Neel Kantha Uprety said, “The security plan [on CA election] will be finalized before Friday.” He further said that they will sit with the Government to discuss the issue after the completion of the Master Training of Trainers (MToT) to Zonal and District Police Chiefs.
CPN-Maoist-Baidya conducts combat training in Rukum District
The agitating Mohan Baidya led Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-Maoist-Baidya) has conducted an underground combat training for its cadres in Rukum District with a view to preparing them for disrupting the Constituent Assembly (CA) polls scheduled for November 19, reports Myepublica.com on September 5. During the weeklong residential training held at Garayala village in western Rukum District, 36 cadres were trained in warfare skills. CPN-Maoist-Baidya District leader Sher Bahadur KC said, “For now, we have trained our cadres in self defense. We gave only theoretical training on using weapons as giving a practical training would send a wrong message.”
Meanwhile, the Election Commission (EC) on September 5 appointed election officers for the November 19 CA elections, reports Kantipuronline.com. A meeting of the EC board decided to appoint 75 District Judges as Chief Election Officers in their respective Districts and 86 Additional District Judges as Returning Officers in the remaining constituencies of the Districts. The election officers are told to establish offices in all the 240 constituencies and intensify poll-related activities.
12 injured in IED blast in Sarlahi District
Twelve persons were injured when an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) went off at the District Survey Office of Sarlahi District on September 13, reports The Himalayan Times. Chief District Officer Dinesh Ghimire said officials found a pamphlet of Akhil Terai Mukti Morcha bearing the signature of Morcha’s coordinator Jaya Krishna Goit (dated July 26, 2010) at the site. The pamphlet states that Madhesi people should rule the Madhes. Army and Police personnel to be deployed in the region should be of Madhesi origin, it goes on saying, and adding that all revenue collected at the region should be used for development of the region.
Meanwhile, the agitating Mohan Baidya-led Communist Party Nepal-Maoist (CPN-Maoist-Baidya), at an all-party meeting convened by President Ram Baran Yadav on September 13, formally committed itself to participation in the proposed Constituent Assembly (CA) elections, but with conditions, reports Republica. According to one of the points in the four-point proposal presented by the CPN-Maoist-Baidya, “A political government should be formed while the composition and leadership of such a government can be decided through discussions.” It further stated, “If the chief justice, who has been leading the present government, becomes ready to resign from the post of chief justice, a political government can be formed even under his leadership.” Party leaders present at the 19-party meeting agreed to do some homework on September 14 (today) and sit for the next round of the all-party meeting on September 15. They claimed that they would make the talks on September 15 decisive.
CPN-M goes on extortion spree
Mohan Baidya-led Communist Party Nepal-Maoist (CPN-Maoist-Baidya), the only major force opposing the November election, has launched a massive nationwide campaign to collect funds to finance its anti-election activities, reports Kantipuronline.com on September 25. The party has sent electronic messages, letters and made threatening phone calls, demanding donation from individuals, state-owned institutions and private companies, including schools, banks, manpower agencies and industries. CPN-Maoist-Baidya leader Haribhakta Kandel admitted collecting ‘monetary assistance’ from the business community. Though he said the way they are collecting funds does not amount to extortion, those who received the letters and the phone calls said it was clear extortion. An official of a leading commercial firm in Narayanghat District said “We have received some emails from CPN-Maoist cadres, demanding money and they have also made follow-up calls which sounded very threatening. They have also said that the staff will have to raise the money themselves if the firm fails to pay the party.”
Meanwhile, President Ram Baran Yadav on September 24 gave the go ahead for mobilising the Nepali Army during the upcoming Constituent Assembly (CA) elections, reports The Himalayan Times. President Yadav invoked Article 158 of the Interim Constitution to remove the constitutional difficulties for the army mobilization, in line with the Government recommendation that was made on September 23. The Presidential order states that army mobilization shall ensure people’s right to vote in the elections in a free, fair, impartial and fearless manner. The order though says ‘the army shall be deployed during the elections it has neither specified the date of the elections nor the period during when the army will be deployed.’
Sri Lanka – Internal Dynamics
Nearly 5000 SFs and Police personnel abducted by LTTE during the 30 years war, says Defence Intelligence Units
Defence Intelligence Units on August 29 said that nearly 5,000 Security Forces (SFs) and Police personnel who are believed to be abducted and disappeared during the 30 years war perished at the hands of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam terrorists, having being subjected to torture, reports Daily News. The total breakdown is 3,484 SFs personnel, 1,189 Police personnel and 1,175 civilians that disappeared at the hands of LTTE terrorists. This is in addition to the abduction and forced conscription of 609 Tamils into terrorist ranks. LTTE cadres still under custody had confided that these abducted forces personnel and civilians were engaged in slavery, tortured and systematically killed by LTTE terrorists from time to time.
Meanwhile, Mass Media and Information Minister Keheliya Rambukwella on August 28 said that Sri Lanka did not encounter a single incident of terror after the defeat of the LTTE in May 2009, reports Colombo Page. Highlighting the post-war achievements, Rambukwella said during a short period of four years after the war ended, 300,000 displaced persons have been resettled while another 12,000 have successfully been rehabilitated and integrated into society and a large number of Tamils have been given the opportunity to enlist with the SFs.
Tamil people can begin talks on a federal solution only if ‘we have weapons’, says TNA MP Suresh Premachandran
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Member of Parliament (MP) Suresh Premachandran at the maiden election rally of the TNA for the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) poll held in Mannar District on August 29 said that Tamil people can begin talks on a federal solution only if ‘we have weapons’, reports Daily News. He added We can talk going even beyond that. If we don’t have weapons we will get nothing.” TNA MP P. Ariyanendran addressing the gathering also said “The armed conflict was continued by leader Prabhakaran. But today, we live on without anything. It is your duty to vote for the TNA and ensure its victory to fight for Tamils’ rights as well as to get what we want. Vote for us and we will be able to get what we require.”
Meanwhile, Representatives of the Dead and Missing Persons’ Parents’ Front on August 29 said that the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has to study the atrocities perpetrated by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on the Tamil people during the entire three decades that they operated with impunity and not just the last few months of conflict when efforts were made to eradicate terrorism from the country to guarantee human rights of all Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim people, reports Daily News. They added that the TNA was not paying attention to the sufferings of the Tamils. They have forgotten the fact that 900 Tamil civilians were abducted and killed by the LTTE during 2001 to 2005 only. The number of the Tamils that the LTTE abducted and killed during the 30 years is enormous. More than 3,200 security personnel are still missing and the LTTE is responsible for their disappearances.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay acknowledges post-war progress
United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay acknowledged the post-war progress when a meeting between the UN official and the President Mahinda Rajapaksa took place on August 30 at the Temple Trees in Colombo, reports Colombo Page. Pillay said “This is a visit long overdue, but I felt that it’s much better that I come so that I’ll be in a position to report on the very many achievements that have been made. Firstly, it was very visible to me in the North how much you have invested in reconstruction.” Discussing the implementation of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) recommendations, the High Commissioner said she was very pleased about the establishment of a commission to look into war-time disappearances.
Meanwhile, President Mahinda Rajapaksa in an exclusive interview with The Australian in his Colombo office on August 31 (today) accused pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam networks of using money to bribe politicians in key Western nations, in order to get them to agitate against the Sri Lankan Government on Human Rights issues, reports Daily News. He also said that international networks sympathetic to the LTTE play a big role in the people-smuggling trade to Australia. He said “The LTTE (Tamil Tigers) sympathiser networks have been in this business for a long time. It was their big money-raiser. They are still doing it today.” He described the leader of the LTTE, Prabrakaran, who died in the final conflict of 2009, as “a psychopath who took a delight in killing.”
Two suspected LTTE cadres arrested by Police in Tamil Nadu
Two suspected Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam cadres were arrested by the Indian Police, reports Colombo Page on September 1. The ‘Q’ Branch of Tamil Nadu (TN) Police arrested the two LTTE suspects, Sivaneswaran alias Nesan (34) and Gopi alias Manoharan (37) from an apartment in Chennai city on August 30. Police said Sivaneswaran was formerly an important functionary in the political recruitment wing of the LTTE while Gopi had completed his training and was a member of the outfit.
The two suspects were reportedly making improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to trigger explosions in Sri Lanka. They said although they were initially not planning to plant bombs in Sri Lanka, but after seeing that Sinhalese are being settled in Tamil areas, they decided to plant bombs to discourage the ‘Sri Lankans’ from settling in Tamil areas.
Govt should apologize for missing persons
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran on September 2 said the Government should either apologize to the families of missing persons or accept that such crimes have happened and ensure that will not happen again in future, reports Colombo Page. Premachandran asked, “If the government is adamant that what they did was correct and is not willing to accept their mistakes, how can there be reconciliation in this country?” He explained that there are thousands of people still missing (or killed) and there could not be reconciliation without the truth being asserted.
SL faces terror threat after war
Sri Lanka risks a “re-emergence of terrorism” as Tamil Tiger rebels and their sympathisers living abroad revive a campaign for a separate state, the country’s top defence official said on Tuesday, Sept 3.
Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa said rebel attacks were still a possibility four years after the end of the separatist war. “Although the war ended in 2009, the re-emergence of terrorism is still a threat,” Rajapaksa told a defence seminar organised by the military in Colombo.
“While taking every possible counter-measure to prevent the recurrence of terrorism in Sri Lanka, the country also faces the significant challenge of effectively countering the LTTE’s propaganda machine.”
Sri Lanka’s military crushed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009 after a nearly four-decade-long struggle for a separate Tamil homeland. UN rights chief Navi Pillay on Saturday accused the nation’s rulers of becoming increasingly authoritarian, with activists facing growing military harassment, four years after the end of the conflict.
Pillay accused the military of intimidating priests, journalists and other civilians as punishment for meeting her during a week-long trip to the island to probe allegations of war crimes. Sri Lanka has resisted international calls for an investigation into allegations that up to 40,000 civilians were killed by security forces in the final months of fighting. Colombo denies killing any civilians.
Suspected LTTE supporter commits self-immolation in Geneva
A man, believed to be a supporter of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam committed self-immolation in front of the United Nation’s Human Rights Committee building in Geneva, Switzerland, on September 5, reports Daily Mirror. There was a photo of a soldier next to him with a symbol of the LTTE as well as documents on self-immolation of Tibetans in Tibet.
Meanwhile, a Tamil refugee in Australia, Ranjini, on September 4 admitted to having trained child soldiers of LTTE during Sri Lanka’s civil war to justify her indefinite detention in Australia, reports Daily Mirror. She also told Australian immigration officials she rose to the rank of ‘Lieutenant Colonel’ in the LTTE and fought two battles in the late 1990s against Sri Lankan forces. Ranjini is the most well-known of a group of 47 refugees held in immigration detention but not permitted a visa to live in Australia.
11 persons injured in an attack at the residence of TNA candidate in Jaffna District
Ananthy Sasitharan, a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) female candidate contesting the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) elections, came under attack at her residence in Valakkamparai of Jaffna District on September 19, reports Ceylon Today. Ananthy Sasitharan is the wife of senior the former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam political leader Sinnathurai Sasitharan alias Ezhizhan. The group of unidentified assailants had severely assaulted about 10 supporters of Ananthy and a lawyer attached to the local election monitoring group People’s Action for Free and Fair Election (PAFFREL).
INTERNATIONAL
31 killed in Iraq
A series of attacks in Baghdad and north Iraq killed 31 people on Sunday, Aug 25 amid a surge in violence that authorities have failed to stem despite wide-ranging operations targeting militants. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has vowed to press on with his anti-insurgency campaign, which has reportedly led to the arrest of hundreds of alleged militants and the killing of dozens.
A series of bombings — two car bombs and a roadside bomb — went off between 4:00 pm (1300 GMT) and 5:30 pm (1430 GMT) in Baghdad and its outskirts, killing nine people and wounding 22 others, officials said.
The blasts struck a variety of neighbourhoods across the city, and were the latest in a burgeoning trend of militant attacks in the afternoon and evening in Baghdad.
Mugabe threatens US, UK firms
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe threatened on Sunday, Aug 25 to retaliate “tit for tat” against companies from Britain and the United States if these Western powers persisted in pressuring his government with sanctions and what he called “harassment”.
Mugabe’s latest verbal broadside against his main Western critics followed their questioning of his re-election in a July 31 vote that his rival Morgan Tsvangirai has denounced as a “coup by ballot” involving alleged widespread vote-rigging.
Mugabe, 89, has rejected the fraud allegations and was sworn in on Thursday for a fresh five-year term in the southern African nation that he has ruled since its independence from Britain in 1980.
“They should not continue to harass us, the British and Americans,” he told supporters at the funeral of an air force officer.
“We have not done anything to their companies here, the British have several companies in this country, and we have not imposed any controls, any sanctions against them, but time will come when we will say well, tit for tat, you hit me I hit you.”
British companies in Zimbabwe include banking groups Standard Chartered Plc and Barclays Plc. These are already the target of a so-called “indigenisation” policy that requires they cede a majority stake to black Zimbabweans.
Chemical experts can gather Syria evidence…UN says vehicle shot at by snipers near Damascus
The United Nations said on Monday, Aug 26 it was still possible for a UN team of chemical weapons experts to gather evidence necessary to investigate last week’s alleged gas attack in suburbs east of Damascus, despite the lapse of time.
Britain said on Sunday that evidence of the attack, which is believed to have killed hundreds of people, could have already been destroyed ahead of a visit to the site by UN inspectors.
Meanwhile, snipers opened fire on Monday at a UN convoy carrying a team investigating the alleged use of chemical weapons outside of Damascus, a UN spokesman said. The Syrian government accused rebel forces of firing at the team, while the opposition said a pro-government militia was behind the attack. Activists said the inspectors eventually arrived in Moadamiyeh, a western suburb of the capital and one of the areas where last week’s attack allegedly occurred. They said the team members spent three hours at a makeshift hospital, meeting with doctors and taking samples from victims before they headed back to Damascus. The United States has said that there is little doubt President Bashar Assad’s regime was responsible for the Aug. 21 attack in the capital’s suburbs. Activists say the action killed hundreds; the group Doctors Without Borders put the death toll at 355 people. Assad has denied launching a chemical attack.
Monday’s shooting came as support for an international military response was mounting if it is confirmed that Assad’s troops used chemical weapons. France, Britain, Israel and some US congressmen have said such a response against the Syrian regime should be an option.
Russia, meanwhile, said Western nations calling for military action have no proof the Syrian government was behind the chemical attacks. News of the sniper attack came only a few hours after an Associated Press photographer saw the team members wearing body armor leave their hotel in Damascus in seven SUVs and head to the site of the alleged attack.
Tunisia blames ‘Ansar’ for killings
Tunisia has declared Ansar al-Sharia a terrorist organisation after obtaining proof it killed two secular politicians and several soldiers, Prime Minister Ali Larayedh said on Tuesday, Aug 27.
Ansar al-Sharia is the group to emerge in Tunisia since secular autocrat Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was toppled in 2011. Its attacks have posed a challenge to the authority of the moderate Islamist-led government.
“We have discovered proof that the Ansar group is responsible for the assassinations of Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi and the attacks at Mount Chaambi,” Larayedh told reporters.
“We have decided to officially classify this group as a terrorist group. Anyone belonging to it must face judicial consequences,” he said. Ansar leader Saifallah Benahssine, also known as Abu Iyadh,is a former al-Qaeda fighter in Afghanistan sought by police for allegedly inciting an attack on the US embassy in Tunis in September 2012.
Ansar al-Sharia has been suspected in the two assassinations and violent attacks in the Mount Chaambi area near the Algerian border, including the killing of eight soldiers last month.
Those killings and the assassinations of leftist secular leaders Belaid in February and Brahmi in July plunged Tunisia into political turmoil which political leaders are struggling to resolve.
Police said the two politicians were killed with the same gun.
The Tunisian military has carried out air strikes this month on Islamist militants holed up in the Mount Chaambi area, scene of a hunt for Jihadi fighters since December. Secular opposition critics have accused Tunisia’s Islamist-led government, which until now had refrained from calling Ansar al-Sharia a terrorist group, of laxity in fighting Jihadi militants sowing insecurity in the country.
Egypt backs away from plan to dissolve MB
Egypt should not ban the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) or exclude it from politics after the army’s overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Mursi, the interim prime minister said on Aug 28, reversing his previous stated view. The apparent about-turn fuelled speculation that the military-installed government may now seek a political settlement to the crisis, but also coincided with a new call for protests by Mursi’s supporters. Hazem el-Beblawi, the interim prime minister, had proposed on Aug. 17 that the Brotherhood, the Arab world’s oldest and arguably most influential Islamist group, should be dissolved, and said the government was studying the idea.
In an interview with state media late on Tuesday, Beblawi appeared to row back, saying the government would instead monitor the group and its political wing and that the actions of its members would determine its fate. But he tempered his comments in a separate interview with the newspaper al-Shorouk, saying parts of Egyptian society “think that the Brotherhood does not truly desire reconciliation”, and urging it to “face up to reality”.
The government has portrayed its attack on the Brotherhood as a fight against terrorism, and Beblawi said ordinary citizens were “afraid of reconciliation with people who use force”. There has been no sign from the Brotherhood, most of whose leaders are now in jail or on the run that it wants to engage with the army establishment that bulldozed it out.
US action in Syria would be disaster: Khamenei
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday, Aug 28 US intervention in Syria would be “a disaster for the region”, the ISNA state news agency reported, as Western powers made plans to hit Damascus over a chemical weapons attack. After supporting Arab uprisings across the Middle East and north Africa in 2011 as examples of what Khamenei called an Islamic awakening, Tehran has steadfastly supported the secular President Bashar al-Assad, its main strategic ally in the Middle East, against a two-and-a-half-year-long rebellion.
Iran is concerned that if Assad were overthrown, he would be replaced by either allies of the West or by radicals tied to Saudi Arabia, both seen as hostile by the Iranians. Syria is also a conduit for Iranian supplies to Hizbullah militants in Lebanon. Iranian officials have condemned the use of chemical weapons deployed against its troops during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war – but have blamed Syrian rebels for the Aug. 21 poison gas attack that killed hundreds in the embattled suburbs of Damascus.
Meanwhile, Poland on Wednesday voiced reservations about military action in Syria, in a rare departure from toeing the same line as the United States. “I’m not convinced that an armed attack will stop the crimes,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters. “I understand the reasoning, but I don’t share the belief and enthusiasm of those who think that such an operation could bring about positive effects.” Tusk’s announcement that Poland does not plan to take part in a military intervention came as the United States and allies press their case for such action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime—despite stern warnings from Syrian allies Russia and Iran.
Poland was a major contributor of troops for the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where it still maintains 1,600 soldiers. But its president said earlier this month that the EU member would limit its participation in overseas military missions and concentrate on modernising its forces at home.
In a related development, the Israeli cabinet authorised a partial call-up of army reservists amid growing expectations of a foreign military strike on neighbouring Syria, army radio reported. The unspecified number of troops are attached to units stationed in the north of the country, which borders both Lebanon and the Golan Heights, seized from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War, it said.
Al-Qaeda affiliate urges attacks on Egyptian army
One of al Qaeda’s most militant affiliates has called on Egyptians to take up arms against their army, saying a bloody crackdown on Islamist protesters showed peaceful methods were futile, according to an Internet statement posted on Saturday, Aug 31. Scores of Egyptian security forces have been killed in a series of attacks by suspected Islamist militants – mostly in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula – since Islamist president Mohammed Mursi was deposed last month.
Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood renounced violence decades ago and denies any links with militants, including those in Sinai who have gained strength since President Hosni Mubarak was forced to step down in 2011.
“There is nothing more right than those who speak of the infidelity, reneging on Islam and abandonment of religion, and call for the necessity to fight these armies, foremost of which is the Egyptian army,” said Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, spokesman for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), according to the Arabic recording. “The Egyptian army is part and a mere copy of these armies which are seeking in a deadly effort to prevent God’s laws from being adopted and trying hard to consecrate the principles of secularism and man-made laws,” he said.
Adnani lashed out at the Brotherhood and the smaller, Salafist al-Nour party, saying they have been co-opted to non-violence and what he called the futile secular approach to power through elections and democracy, which he said had left Muslim Brotherhood members either in jail, dead or fugitives.
Russian company attacked in Chechnya
A Russian mobile operator’s offices have been attacked in Chechnya, a spokeswoman said on Saturday, Aug 31 after alleged rigging of an online contest for the country’s most popular landmark inflamed local tensions. The offices were attacked Friday after Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov accused Beeline and another Russian mobile operator, Megafon, of rigging a vote to prevent a mosque in Chechnya’s main city Grozny from being named Russia’s most popular landmark.
Amateur video posted on YouTube showed dozens of young men in Grozny pelting a Beeline office and a building with a Megafon sign with eggs and other objects, shouting “Shame!”, with the sound of breaking glass clearly audible.
The Grozny mosque, built in 2008 and known as the “heart of Chechnya”, took an early lead in the online contest, overtaking better-known attractions including Baikal, the world’s deepest lake, Peter the Great’s Peterhof palace in Saint Petersburg, and the Solovetsky monastery in the Far North.
By Friday the mosque had over 38 million votes after Kadyrov, the region’s controversial leader, urged people to support it online or by text message. He accused the phone operators of “falsifying” the results after the ancient Kolomna kremlin in the Moscow region suddenly took the lead. Kadyrov said on his Instagram blog that Chechens were switching to Chechen-based Vainakh Telecom phone provider.
Yemen PM escapes assassination bid
Yemeni Prime Minister Mohammed Salem Basindwa escaped an assassination attempt on Saturday, Aug 31 when gunmen opened fire on his motorcade in Sanaa and then fled, an aide said.
Ali al-Sarari, an adviser to Basindwa, said no one was injured in the attack, which happened in the evening while Basindwa was returning home from his office.
Meanwhile, Security officials in Yemen say suspected al-Qaeda-linked gunmen have shot and killed a senior intelligence officer.
The security officials said Hassan al-Mansouri was killed on Saturday in Labous, in the southern Lahj province, following a day of clashes between local tribesmen and suspected members of al-Qaeda in the area. They say Al-Mansouri had organised local tribes in a campaign to weed out the militants from the area.
The officials said they suspect the officers’ killers are from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Washington considers the group as the most dangerous al-Qaeda branch to threaten US interests, and has waged drone attacks against it in Yemen. Yemen security forces also battle against the group, which has killed security officials in the past.
N Korea blames US threat for aborting envoy’s trip
North Korea said it rescinded its invitation for a US envoy to visit the country to seek the freedom of an American detainee because Washington perpetrated a “grave provocation” by allegedly mobilising nuclear-capable bombers during recent military drills with Seoul. The moves signal that possible informal negotiations between the two countries over detainee Kenneth Bae were not going smoothly, with Pyongyang seeking some concessions from Washington in return for releasing the man, analysts said. Bob King, the US special envoy for North Korean human rights, had been scheduled to travel to Pyongyang on Friday for talks on Bae, a 45-year-old tour operator and Christian missionary who has been detained since November for committing “hostile acts.” He was sentenced in April to 15 years of hard labour.
An unidentified North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said in remarks carried by state media late Saturday that his country intended to allow King’s visit even though the US and South Korea were conducting annual military drills.
But he said the US “beclouded the hard-won atmosphere of humanitarian dialogue in a moment” by allegedly infiltrating B-52H strategic bombers into the sky above the peninsula during the exercises. He called it “the most blatant nuclear blackmail against us.”
The North Korean statement “may be the result of the fact that compromises are not being struck smoothly in US-North Korea negotiations” over what North Korea wants for releasing Bae, said Lim Eul Chul, a professor at South Korea’s Kyungnam University, adding that could include such things as the shipment of aid or the start of formal talks on improving ties.
North Korea appears to be trying to gain leverage on the US by delaying King’s trip, but it should eventually allow the trip for talks on Bae because it needs improved ties with the outside world to revive its economy, Lim said.
‘Extremist groups try to infiltrate US intelligence’
Al-Qaeda and other hostile groups have repeatedly sought to infiltrate US intelligence agencies, which are investigating thousands of their employees to counter the threat, The Washington Post reported Monday, Sept 2.
The CIA found that about a fifth of job applicants with suspect backgrounds had “significant terrorist and/or hostile intelligence connections,” the Post cited a classified budget document as saying. The document was provided to the paper by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, now a fugitive in Russia under temporary asylum.
Although the file did not describe the nature of the jobseekers’ extremist or hostile ties, it cited Hamas, Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda and its affiliates most often. The fear of infiltration is such that the NSA planned last year to investigate at least 4,000 staff who obtained security clearances.
The NSA detected potentially suspicious activity among staff members after trawling through trillions of employee keystrokes at work. The suspicious behavior included staffers accessing classified databases they do not usually use for their work or downloading several documents, two people familiar with the software used to monitor staff told the Post.
But serious delays and uneven implementation have hit the multimillion-dollar effort, and the spy agencies never detected Snowden copying a wide range of the NSA’s highly classified documents. The fugitive leaker is wanted by Washington on espionage charges linked to media disclosures about US surveillance programs.
The NSA is also creating a huge database known as WILDSAGE to help share sensitive intelligence among cybersecurity centers, according to the budget document. But the move has raised concern that the database could be infiltrated.
Al Qaeda sets up anti-drone cells, says The Washington Post
Al Qaeda’s leaders have set up cells of engineers to try to shoot down, disable or hijack US drones, The Washington Post reported on September 3 citing top-secret US intelligence documents. The al Qaeda leadership is “hoping to exploit the technological vulnerabilities of a weapons system that has inflicted huge losses against the terrorist network,” The Washington Post said online. “Although there is no evidence that al Qaeda has forced a drone crash or successfully interfered with flight operations, US intelligence officials have closely tracked the group’s persistent efforts to develop a counter-drone strategy since 2010,” the report said, citing the secret documents. The al Qaeda commanders are keen to achieve “a technological breakthrough (that) could curb the US drone campaign, which has killed an estimated 3,000 people over the past decade,” The Washington Post reported. Drone strikes have forced al Qaeda operatives to limit their movements in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and other places.
Egyptian minister survives bomb attack
A bomb targeted the convoy of Egypt’s interior minister on Thursday, Sept 5 in Cairo in the first attack on a senior government official since the country’s Islamist president was toppled in a coup two months ago, raising concerns over a possible campaign of violence by his supporters. The assassination attempt against Mohammed Ibrahim, who is in charge of the police force, signaled the arrival in the capital of the sort of insurgency-style attacks that have been escalating in the Sinai Peninsula.
Sinai has been roiled in unrest and lawlessness for years, but Islamic militants have carried out more frequent and deadlier attacks on security forces there since the July 3 ouster of president Mohammed Mursi. The bombing also harkened back to the insurgency waged by Islamic militants in the 1980s and 1990s against the rule of now-ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak. At that time, militants targeted several senior officials, killing the parliament speaker and nearly killing the then-interior minister. Mubarak himself survived an assassination attempt in 1994, when militants attacked his convoy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Some of Mursi’s more hard-line supporters have publicly threatened to wage a campaign of assassinations and car bombings against officials of the military-backed government until the former president is reinstated. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Thursday’s blast, which went off in the late morning as Ibrahim’s convoy passed through Nasr City, an eastern district of Cairo. The ministry did not immediately say where the bomb was planted.
Ibrahim survived the attack, but at least 22 people were wounded, including two policemen and a child seriously. An unidentified body that likely belonged to an attacker was found at the site of the attack, according to security officials.
The blast damaged stores and several cars parked on the street and shattered the windows of several nearby apartment buildings. The aftermath of the blast suggested a powerful explosion, with three badly damaged SUVs, including the minister’s, and a small raging fire. The blast site was littered with the charred skeletons of cars and tree branches severed by the explosion. Shop fronts were mangled. Criminal investigators swarmed the site looking for forensic evidence.
Gamaa Islamiya, the radical Islamist group behind the 1980s and 1990s insurgency, said it had nothing to do with the attack, which it condemned. Amr Darrag, a senior Brotherhood official, also condemned the attack in comments made to Al-Jazeera television.
Twin blasts claim 18 lives in Mogadishu
At least 18 people were killed in the Somali capital Mogadishu Saturday, Sept 7 when two blasts rocked a popular restaurant, police said, in attacks quickly claimed by Shebab Islamists.
“There were two heavy explosions at a parking lot near the National Theatre,” police officer Mohamed Adan told AFP. “At least 18 people were killed,” said Mohamed Dahir, another police officer. An AFP reporter saw 12 bodies at the scene of the attack, a popular restaurant called the Village.
The al-Qaeda-linked Islamists claimed to have killed “key officials”, but witnesses said the casualties they had seen looked like ordinary civilians. The attacks — a car bomb followed by a suicide bomber who detonated his vest — drew condemnation from the UN and the Somali president.
Police and witnesses said the first blast was a car laden with explosives that was parked outside the Village, a restaurant close to the theatre that was targeted by suicide bombers in September 2012.
“Minutes after the bomb went off, I saw severed flesh flying past,” said Idris Yusuf, who was in the restaurant at the time of the attack and who sustained slight leg injuries.
US envoy doubts complete Afghan withdrawal
A US envoy on Tuesday, Sept 10 dismissed suggestions that Washington would withdraw all troops from Afghanistan after next year, saying that both countries wanted to preserve a smaller force.
Aides to US President Barack Obama earlier this year openly mulled the so-called “zero option” of a complete withdrawal from Afghanistan once US troops end their combat role in 2014.
“We talk about the zero option — that’s not an option for the United States,” said James Dobbins, the US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. “It’s obviously an option for the Afghans — If they don’t want anybody, we’re not going to stay. But I don’t think that’s an option the Afghans are likely to choose,” he said at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank.
Dobbins said he expected “several thousand American forces and several thousand non-American Nato forces” in 2015 and beyond. Roughly 100,000 foreign troops now serve in Afghanistan, two-thirds of them from the United States. Obama has pledged to the war-weary US public to end the country’s longest-ever war, which was launched to fight al-Qaeda and their Taliban allies after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Some analysts have called the public discussion of the “zero option” part of a US strategy to press Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has had uneven relations with the Obama administration, to assume more responsibility for security.
Fighting spreads as rebels besiege Philippine city
Philippine forces were fighting Muslim rebels on two fronts on Thursday, Sept 12 as the government recaptured burning sections of a key southern city besieged by guerrillas opposed to peace talks. Security forces punched into the Santa Catalina district of Zamboanga city, where thousands of people have fled four days of fighting, as the neighbourhood went up in flames, military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Ramon Zagala said. “Soldiers were doing offensive action to stop these (gunmen) from continuing to burn homes,” he told AFP.
At least 1,500 soldiers, backed by police, have surrounded six mainly Muslim communities on Zamboanga’s outskirts where about 180 Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) members were hiding out since they launched their attack on Monday. The rebels have been using scores of people as “human shields”, leading to a stand-off as security forces try to avoid civilian casualties. About 200 elite military and police forces moved in mid-afternoon to suppress rebel sniper fire, allowing fire trucks to move into neighbourhoods shrouded in thick black smoke, an AFP photographer saw. But it was too late to save about 20 houses torched by the rebels during their retreat. A cat, its coat on fire, leapt out from one of the burning buildings.
Zagala said the MNLF attack was ordered by its founder Nur Misuari, who has recently renewed a call for independence, 17 years after the group signed a peace treaty that won self-rule for the Muslim minority in the largely Catholic Asian nation.
Troops were also battling gunmen who attacked army positions on nearby Basilan island, killing a pro-government militiaman and wounding four members of the government forces and a civilian, Zagala said.
President Benigno Aquino’s spokesman Edwin Lacierda said in a statement: “While the government is exhausting all avenues for a peaceful resolution… they should not entertain the illusion that the state will hesitate to use its forces to protect our people.”
Misuari has alleged the government was violating the terms of its peace treaty with the MNLF by negotiating a separate peace deal with a rival faction, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The MILF is in the final stages of peace talks with Manila and is expected to take over an expanded autonomous Muslim region in the south by 2016. The deal seeks to end an insurgency that has killed some 150,000 people in the south. The Basilan clash raised the official toll from the southern Philippines crisis to 15 dead. A soldier killed in a firefight with the rebels in Zamboanga and a village watchman who was mistaken for a guerrilla and shot dead by the security forces, both on Wednesday, were among the other fresh fatalities.
UK arrests 12 over ‘cyber plot’
British police said Friday, Sept 13 they have arrested 12 men over a “sophisticated” plot to remotely take control of a computer at a branch of Santander bank and steal millions of pounds.
Police found a device fitted to a computer in a branch of the bank in London which would have enabled the suspects to download data from the desktop machine. Police arrested 12 men, aged between 23 and 50, in London on suspicion of conspiracy to steal. The “very significant” plot targeted a bank branch in Surrey Quays in the Canary Wharf financial district, police said.
A spokeswoman for London’s Metropolitan Police said its “time-critical” action prevented the Spanish bank suffering “multi-million-pound losses”. A keyboard-video-mouse (KVM) device had been fitted to a computer in the bank branch “allowing the transmission of the complete desktop contents of the bank computer over the network”, the spokeswoman said.
The arrested men, who were detained on Thursday, remain in police custody. Detective Inspector Mark Raymond of the force’s cybercrime unit said: “This was a sophisticated plot that could have led to the loss of a very large amount of money from the bank, and is the most significant case of this kind that we have come across.”
30 Iraqis killed
Two coordinated bombs targeting worshippers streaming out of joint Sunni-Shia prayers in a mosque killed at least 30 people north of Baghdad on Friday, Sept 13 in Iraq’s latest upsurge in violence.
Unrest elsewhere left three others dead, as authorities grapple with Iraq’s worst bloodshed since 2008. The country is stuck in a prolonged political deadlock while officials fear neighbouring Syria’s 30-month civil war is increasingly spilling over across the border.
A roadside bomb hidden in a garbage bin went off outside Al-Salam mosque, a Sunni place of worship in the confessionally mixed city of Baquba, at around midday as Sunnis and Shia left after a joint prayer session.
A second blast went off nearby a short time later, after onlookers and emergency responders arrived at the scene.
2 terror suspects held in UK
British police said on Tuesday, Sept 17 they had arrested two men on suspicion of involvement in terrorism overseas and seized ammunition after they arrived at the port of Dover from France. The men aged 29 and 22, both British citizens, were held on Monday morning at the port in southern England and remain in custody at a London police station, the Metropolitan Police said. The pair arrived at Dover from the northern French port of Calais.
They were held “on suspicion of being involved in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism”, the force said in a statement, adding that “the arrests relate to suspected terrorism overseas”. “A quantity of ammunition has been seized,” it said. Police carried out searches on an address in east London and on two cars. A police spokesman, when contacted by AFP, declined to give further details about where the men were accused of being involved in terrorism.
‘Qaeda’ Yemen rampage kills 56 soldiers and police
Suspected al-Qaeda fighters killed at least 56 soldiers and police in a wave of dawn attacks on Friday, Sept 20 the deadliest day for Yemeni security forces since Jihadist strongholds fell last year. The militant assaults came in the lawless southern province of Shabwa, a bastion of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the scene of regular US drone attacks targeting militants.
Military and government officials said there were four attacks in all, including one on a key gas export terminal that was foiled. Al-Qaeda’s offensive came a month after officials said militant plans to attack oil and gas terminals had been scuppered following intelligence eavesdropping on a call from the organisation’s overall chief, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Thirty-eight soldiers were killed in Friday’s deadliest single attack, on an army camp responsible for ensuring security at Shabwa oilfields, the sources said.
Simultaneously, “a suicide bomber in a car blew himself up before reaching his target — an army checkpoint” in the nearby Al-Nushaima area, a military official said, adding that 10 soldiers were killed in that blast. “Soldiers were captured” in Al-Nushaima, witnesses told AFP by phone.
Around 15-km away, suspected al-Qaeda gunmen targeted a special forces camp at Maifaa, killing eight policemen, according to military sources. At least eight militants, among them two suicide bombers, were reported killed in the three attacks.
The defence ministry in Sanaa said a fourth al-Qaeda attempt to detonate explosives targeting Balhaf gas terminal on the Gulf of Aden ended in failure. Security Forces intercepted the vehicle which exploded, “killing the terrorists it was carrying,” said the ministry’s 26sep.net news website, without specifying how many militants died.
Egypt bans all Muslim Brotherhood activities
An Egyptian court on Monday, Sept 23 banned the Muslim Brotherhood from operating and ordered its assets seized, in the latest blow to the Islamist movement of deposed president Mohammed Mursi. The court also banned “any institution branching out from or belonging to the Brotherhood,” the official MENA news agency reported, possibly restricting the movement’s political arm the Freedom and Justice Party.
The ruling ratchets up an intensifying crackdown on the Brotherhood since the army’s July 3 overthrow of Mursi. Last month, security forces stormed two Cairo protest camps, sparking clashes in which hundreds of Islamist demonstrators were killed.
The operation drew criticism of the military-installed interim authorities from foreign governments and human rights groups. A judicial source told AFP the court ruled that a government committee should be created to manage the Brotherhood’s seized assets.
Current Threat Levels:
| City/ Region | Threat | Level |
| Islamabad | Level 2 | ** |
| Karachi | Level 2 | ** |
| Lahore | Level 2 | ** |
| Punjab | Level 2 | ** |
| Khyber Pakhtunkhwa | Level 3 | *** |
| Quetta | Level 2 | ** |
| Upper Balochistan | Level 2 | ** |
| Lower Balochistan | Level 3 | *** |
| Upper / Rural Sindh | Level 2 | ** |
| Upper / Rural Sindh | Level 2 | ** |
| Gilgit and Northern areas | Level 3 | *** |
| Tribal areas, close to Afghan border | Level 3 | *** |
Index to Threat Level Perceptions
Threat Level 1 *
Indicates there is no threat to foreigners although there may be isolated incidents involving petty crime. No security precautions are required
Threat Level 2 **
Indicates there is no specific threat to foreigners; however because of the overall general law & order situation, some security precautions are advised if traveling.
Threat Level 3 ***
Indicates that law and order situation is cause for concern and travel should be avoided unless absolutely necessary. Level dictates that foreigners should rehearse plans for evacuation.
Threat Level 4 ****
Indicates complete breakdown of civil administration and law & order leading to anarchy. All foreigners advised to remain indoors and confined to their own city. Families and staff not required to be evacuated retaining only a skeleton staff.
Threat Level 5 *****
Indicates complete breakdown of law and order, enemy action/hostilities, invasion /occupation by enemy.
