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SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Weekly Assessments & Briefings
Volume 8, No. 52, July 5, 2010
Data and
assessments from SAIR can be freely published in any form
with credit to the South Asia Intelligence Review of the
South Asia Terrorism Portal
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LeT:
Spreading Menace
Ajit Kumar Singh
Research Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management
The
Pakistani American Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT)
operative David Coleman Headley reportedly disclosed
to his National Investigation Agency (NIA) interrogators
that the LeT continued to actively execute surveys of
major targets in India. These surveys were principally
carried out by visiting agents and not by activating
sleeper cells. According to Headley, at least 100 targets
in India had been identified, listed, surveyed and photographed
by different LeT agents. Headley, who was one of such
agents, said he was not aware of the identities and
nationalities of the others, as his Pakistani ‘handlers’
were careful not to reveal details. He further indicated
that he had videographed and photographed some 30 targets
in several Indian cities. These included the targets
of the November 26, 2008, (also known as 26/11) terrorist
attacks in Mumbai (Maharashtra), for which he had conducted
detailed surveys during his nine visits to India between
2006 and 2008.
The NIA
team had interrogated Headley over seven days [June
3-10] in what the US described as unrestricted "direct
access", as part of the cooperation and partnership
between the US and India in the fight against international
terrorism. Headley, who had changed his given name of
Daood Gilani in 2006 to scout targets in Mumbai, had
pleaded guilty on March 18, 2010, in a Chicago Court,
to 12 Federal terrorism charges. He admitted that he
participated in planning the 26/11 terrorist attacks,
as well as later planning to attack a Danish newspaper.
Headley’s
disclosures corroborate the constant warnings by both
the Indian as well as foreign intelligence agencies
of impending LeT attacks in India. Intelligence reports
in the recent past have indicated that the LeT was planning
to abduct key political leaders, target helicopters
carrying VIPs, strike public functions with explosives-laden
trucks, hire or hijack aircraft or helicopters to carry
out 9/11-type attacks, target scientists working in
sensitive areas such as defence and space, among several
other plots. The LeT’s high profile targets include
the National Defence Academy in
Khadagwasla (Maharashtra), the National Defence College,
Delhi, defence establishments in Pune (Maharashtra),
and multinational corporation Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu’s
HITEC City offices in Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh). On
June 28, 2010, Indian intelligence officials have intercepted
phone conversations between LeT ‘commanders’, which
established that the group was planning fresh attacks
at landmarks in different cities, including Srinagar,
Jammu, Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. The conversations
also discussed a strike against top politicians. Further,
on June 30, intelligence agencies warned that Indian
missions in Bangladesh and Nepal were under threat of
a possible joint attack by the LeT and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami
(HuJI). Earlier, on April 7, the Strategic Studies Institute
of the US Army War College warned that India’s transportation,
economic infrastructure and political establishment
were on the LeT’s radar.
These
threats have already materialized in the first major
Islamist terrorist attack, outside Jammu and Kashmir
(J&K), after the 26/11 carnage, in the German Bakery
bomb blast in Pune’s Koregaon Park, near the Osho Ashram,
on February 13, 2010, in which nine persons, including
four foreigners, were killed and over 40 were injured.
The attack came just days after an open threat by the
LeT. Addressing a rally in Islamabad (Pakistan)
on February 5, Abdur Rehman Makki, ‘deputy’ to Jamaat-ud-Dawa
(JuD) chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, declared that, while
the jihadis were earlier interested only in the
liberation of Kashmir, the water issue had now ensured
that "Delhi, Pune and Kanpur" were all fair targets.
Top LeT
leaders Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Yousuf Muzammil, Ahmad
Bhai and Zarar Shah are currently in custody on charges
of involvement in the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, and have
been replaced by new ‘commanders’ to step up terrorist
operations in J&K and other parts of India. According
to intelligence sources, these new ‘commanders’ include
Raza Ahmed aka Shahji aka Abu Anas of
Bahawalpur in the Punjab province of Pakistan, who had
earlier operated as the ‘divisional commander’ for North
Kashmir for almost a decade, before he was called back
to Pakistan; Hyder Bhai aka Bilal aka
Salahuddin, known for several fidayeen (suicide
squad) attacks in J&K; Abdul Gaffar aka Huzefa
aka Khalid, who was earlier active in Gandarbal
in Central Kashmir; and Walid, who had been active in
Lolab in North Kashmir. According to sources, the initial
focus of the four new ‘commanders’, all of whom are
Pakistani nationals, was the Kashmir Valley and the
Doda-Rajouri-Poonch belt in Jammu, besides metropolitan
and other major cities of India.
The LeT’s
current objectives, described in a poster at a March
23, 2010, rally, in slogans superimposed over an image
of the burning Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, are to "free
Kashmir, Pakistan's lifeline, from the enemy";
work for the "freedom of the Muslims of Gujarat,
Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and the rest of India" ; and
to "save Pakistan's parched rivers." Maps
posted on the JuD’s Facebook page provide a graphic
illustration of its ambitions. One map of India is emblazoned
with Pakistan’s crescent moon and star symbol and JuD
flag flying on the Red Fort in New Delhi. In another,
much of northern, north-eastern and central India are
referred to as Pakistan. Nepal, Bangladesh and south
India are marked "disputed territories." The
page also carries a facsimile of a Hadith — sayings
attributed to Prophet Muhammad — which purports to provide
scriptural legitimacy to the JuD’s jihad. "A
King of the House of the Pious," it prophesies,
"will send a Lashkar [army] towards India.
The mujahideen (holy warriors) will plunder the
land of India, take over its treasures, and the King
will use these treasures to honour the House of the
Pious... The mujahideen of this Lashkar
will conquer all territory between the east and west
and will establish the Kingdom of the Pious."
The Facebook
page also confirms LeT’s close links with al-Qaeda,
and contains several images of al-Qaeda chief Osama-bin-Laden.
There is a low-resolution image of an individual, apparently
Saeed, seated next to bin Laden. Such linkages are confirmed
by US Defence Department report that states that the
LeT has a "close relationship" with al
Qaeda. Indian intelligence sources
also indicate that a tie-up between the Tehreek-e-Taliban
Pakistan (TTP) and LeT, for attacks aimed at India,
has been established. India’s Home Minister, P. Chidambaram,
disclosed, further, that LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM),
Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen (JuM)
and the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM)
were earlier operating separately, but had now come
together. The LeT has also linked up with the Indian
Mujahedeen [IM], which is regarded as a potential resource
base that the LeT hopes to use for identification and
reconnaissance of targets and arranging logistics for
terror attacks.
Despite
purported ‘restrictions’ placed on it in Pakistan, the
LeT remains flush with funds, collecting generous donations
from the overseas Pakistani community in the Persian
Gulf and the United Kingdom, Islamic non-Governmental
organisations, Pakistani/Kashmiri business people and
through its parent organisation JuD. The terrorist group
also counts on donations from sympathetic Saudis, Kuwaitis,
and Islamist-leaning Inter Services Intelligence (ISI)
officers. The US Defence Department report indicated,
further, that, "In addition, LeT maintains relations
with extremist and/ or terrorist groups across the globe
ranging from the Philippines to the Middle East and
Chechnya by means of the JuD network."
While
much of state support to the LeT is covert, it is significant
that the Government of Pakistan's Punjab Province, gave
about USD one million to institutions linked with the
JuD, in 2009. "At least 80 million rupees [$940,000]
have been allocated for the institutions [linked to
Jamaat-ud-Dawa] during the current fiscal year," Rana
Sanaullah, a senior Punjab Minister told the BBC.
However, he maintained that the institutions – which
include two schools and a hospital – were no longer
attached to JuD. When asked why the Punjab Government
had allotted money in the budget for institutions it
managed, a spokesman for JuD, Hafiz Abdur Rehman, responded:
"The truth is that we are ourselves astonished at this."
Meanwhile,
despite it losing a total of 142 of its cadres, including
top ‘commanders’, who have been killed by the Security
Forces since 26/11, the LeT appears to have more of
a say in the Kashmir Valley, including in the wave of
what is being described as "agitational
terrorism". India has blamed
separatist elements linked to the LeT for stoking unrest
in the Kashmir Valley. Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram
thus remarked, on June 30, "Anti-national elements are
clearly linked to the LeT. We know that the Lashkar
has been active in Sopore." Since the latter half of
June 2010, major parts of Kashmir have repeatedly erupted
in violent demonstrations, and a total of 11 ‘protesters’
have already died in Police firing.
The Lashkar
has created a significant base in South India as well.
Reports indicate that LeT has two support groups in
Kerala,
and four Malayali (Keralite) LeT militants were killed
in J&K on October 6, 2008. On Jun 21, 2010, Kerala
Police sources claimed that many boys from Andhra Pradesh,
Karnataka and Kerala, between the ages of 16 and 25,
were being trained in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK)
under the supervision of LeT ‘commanders’.
The LeT
is also using its operatives in Bangladesh and Nepal
to try set up a ‘buffer zone’ in interior areas of Bihar
to carry out terror attacks both within the State and
elsewhere in the country, top intelligence sources said.
Mohammad Omar Madni, a close aide of Hafiz Mohammad
Saeed and the LeT’s point man in Nepal told interrogators
he had already recruited men in Katihar, Madhubani,
Siwan, Bhagalpur, Gopalganj, Motihari, Betia and Muzzaffarpur
Districts of Bihar for LeT’s hawala operations,
fake currency syndicates and drug-running. Madni, was
arrested by the Special Cell of Delhi Police near Qutb
Minar in South Delhi on June 4, 2009. He reportedly
disclosed that he had infiltrated into India on a ‘talent
hunt’. Madni was one among at least 18 LeT cadres arrested
in India, outside J&K, since 26/11 (another 63 were
arrested in J&K), blunting the outfits operations
in the country. One such arrest included the ‘south
India commander’ of the LeT, identified as Shaik Abdul
Khaja alias Amjad from Afzalgunj area of Hyderabad,
on January 18, 2010. 24 ISI agents, with
close ties to the LeT, have also been arrested in India
since 26/11.
While
the IM suffered a major reverse with the arrest of its
senior cadres and elimination of others, including Atif
Amin who was killed in the Batla House shootout on September
19, 2008, agencies feel that major leaders still at
large – estimated to be over 20 – remain a threat and
are crucial to the execution of the ‘Karachi Project’.
The ‘Karachi Project’ is a ‘joint venture’ of the ISI
and LeT, and involves serving and retired officers of the
Pakistan Army and fugitive terrorists from India. The
‘project’, first revealed by Headley to his FBI interrogators,
was designed to use Indians for setting off terror attacks
in India. Headley indicated that five or six serving
Pakistani officers were involved in the ‘Karachi Project’. Meanwhile,
on June 5, 2010, the Union Government declared
the IM a terrorist outfit.
The LeT
has now attacked Indian targets in Afghanistan
as well. Though LeT’s global presence is now
widely acknowledged, the ISI had not previously used
the group to target Indian establishments beyond Indian
soil. The LeT’s expansion into Afghanistan is believed
to be directed against both international and Indian
targets. A senior NATO intelligence official was quoted
by The Times as saying , "The LeT is now
active in six to eight provinces in Afghanistan, a big
leap from hardly any presence five years ago."
Shaida Abdali, Afghanistan's deputy national security
adviser referred to this more obliquely, stating, "Our
concern is that there are still players involved that
are trying to use Afghanistan's ground as a place for
a proxy war. It is being carried out by certain state
actors to fight their opponents." Several satellite
phone conversations intercepted by Indian agencies in
the past few months indicate that LeT is now deeply
entrenched in Pakistani efforts to force India out
of Afghanistan. The location of the satellite phone
in most of these conversations was established in areas
adjoining the Kunar province along the Afghanistan-Pakistan
border. Kunar is where LeT was first formed
in the early 1990s. One such conversation, intercepted
in the first week of February 2010 by the Research and
Analysis Wing (R&AW), had terrorists talking about
the need to hurt India in Kabul. Meanwhile,
LeT’s expansion in Afghanistan has prompted suspicions
in Washington that it is part of Pakistan’s game plan
to have proxy forces at hand when US troops begin their
withdrawal in July 2011.
Significantly,
India’s Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Maken
told Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament) on
April 27, 2010, that the LeT was also making concerted
efforts to develop links in the Maldives and other neighbouring
countries. Similarly, Admiral Robert Willard,
Commander of the US Pacific Command in his testimony
before the Senate Armed Services Committee on March
27, 2010, stated that the LeT, predominately a threat
to India, was fast expanding operations to other South
Asian countries, including Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka
and the Maldives. On similar lines, US Assistant
Secretary of State for Public Affairs, P. J. Crowley,
asserted on April 23, 2010, "It (LeT) is a threat to
our citizens. It's a threat to Indian citizens. Next
door, it's a threat to Pakistani citizens. And next
door, it's a threat to Afghan citizens." A March 15,
2010, report had claimed that the LeT had identified
as many as 320 targets across the globe, just 20 of
which were in India. At a Congressional hearing, US Congressman
Gary Ackerman testified: "In the wake of the (26/11)
Mumbai attack, investigators uncovered in controller
records and e-mail accounts a list of 320 locations
worldwide deemed by the LeT as possible targets for
attack. Only 20 of the targets were located within India."
It is
significant that the LeT has been banned in the UK since
March 1, 2001. The US Department of State named the
LeT as a foreign terrorist organisation on December
26, 2001. The United Nations Security Council (UNSC)
listed it as a terrorist organisation on May 2, 2005.
The US Department of Treasury named four of its leaders
— Amir Hafiz Mohammed Saeed; Operations Commander
Zaki-ur Rahman Lakhvi; Chief of Finance Haji Mohammad
Ashraf; and fund collector Mahmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq
— under Executive Order 13224 which targets terrorists
and those providing financial, technological or material
support to terrorists or acts of terrorism. Finally,
in the aftermath of 26/11, the UNSC proscribed the JuD
on December 10, 2008, listing it as an alias
of the LeT, and designated Saeed, Lakhvi, Ashraf and
Bahaziq as foreign terrorists.
None
of these measures has had any impact on the Pakistani
Government’s attitude towards LeT. Despite volumes of
evidence provided by India, progressive verification
from a multiplicity of international sources, and Pakistan’s
own admission of LeT’s involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai
attacks, Islamabad continues to support and protect
its terrorist proxy, giving it full freedom of movement
across Pakistan. On February 4, 2010, the JuD and the
Hizb-ul-Mujahiddeen (HM), held a Yakjaiti-e-Kashmir
(Kashmir Solidarity) conference in Pakistan occupied
Kashmir (PoK) capital Muzaffarabad, led by Syed Salahuddin,
the chief of HM and chairman of the 16-party United
Jihad Council (UJC). Another JuD rally, led by Hafiz
Saeed, was organised at Lahore on February 5, 2010.
Each of these was a well attended mass rally, widely
covered by the national and international media. State
agencies made no effort to curtail the activities of
these groups, despite the fact that several members
of the UJC are designated international terrorist organisations.
Unsurprisingly,
an April 16, 2010, UN report confirmed that the ISI
continued to have close links with LeT and had used
the terror group's services to foment anti-India passion
in Kashmir and elsewhere. "The Pakistani military organised
and supported the Taliban
to take control of Afghanistan in 1996. Similar tactics
were used in Kashmir against India after 1989,"
the report noted.
It is
evident that LeT remains Pakistan’s principal instrumentality
in India. More significantly, its imprint is being steadily
and systematically extended to wider theatres across
the South Asian neighbourhood, to serve Pakistan’s augmenting
ambitions in anticipation of a Western withdrawal from
Afghanistan. US dependence on Pakistani ‘cooperation’
in the ‘war on terror’ has conferred near-complete impunity
on Pakistani mischief in this region, and it is within
the ambit of this latitude that Islamist extremist terrorism
continues to thrive in Pakistan, to be exported into
the neighbourhood and beyond.
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Weekly
Fatalities: Major Conflicts in South Asia
June 28 - July 4,
2010
|
Civilians
|
Security
Force Personnel
|
Terrorists/Insurgents
|
Total
|
BANGLADESH
|
|
Left Wing
Extremism
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
INDIA
|
|
Assam
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
Jammu and
Kashmir
|
0
|
5
|
12
|
17
|
Left-wing
Extremism
|
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
Bihar
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
Chhattisgarh
|
9
|
27
|
3
|
39
|
Jharkhand
|
4
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
Orissa
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
West Bengal
|
3
|
0
|
3
|
6
|
Total
(INDIA)
|
19
|
32
|
23
|
74
|
NEPAL
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
PAKISTAN
|
|
Balochistan
|
11
|
2
|
0
|
13
|
FATA
|
1
|
8
|
143
|
152
|
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
|
3
|
3
|
0
|
6
|
Sindh
|
5
|
2
|
1
|
8
|
Total
(PAKISTAN)
|
64
|
15
|
146
|
225
|
Provisional
data compiled from English language media sources.
|
BANGLADESH
365
JeI-ICS cadres arrested across country in three days:
The Law Enforcers
arrested 365 Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI)-Islami Chhatra
Shibir (ICS) cadres from across the country on June
29-July 1, sources at the Police headquarters said.
Of them, 121 were arrested on June 29, 128 on June
30 and 116 till 3:00 pm on July 1.
Daily
Star, July 2, 2010.
INDIA
27
CRPF personnel and three Maoists killed in Chhattisgarh:
27 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel and
three Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist)
cadres were killed in an ambush by the Maoists near
a hilly stretch, known as the Jhadha Ghati (valley),
three kilometres from Dhudhai in Narayanpur District
on June 29. Chhattisgarh Director General of Police
Viswa Ranjan said on June 30 that around 15 Maoists
may have been killed in the encounter that followed
the ambush, but their bodies were not recovered. On
July 1, the Maoists admitted that that they had lost
three men of the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army
(PLGA) – ‘platoon commanders’ Bandu and Shankar, and
‘section commander’ Ramesh. Hindustan
Times ;
The
Hindu, June 30-July 1, 2010.
Maoist
politburo member and central committee leader Azad
killed in Andhra Pradesh: A member of the politburo
and central committee of the Communist Party of India-Maoist
(CPI-Maoist), Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad,
was killed in a gunfight with the Police near Jogapur
in the Adilabad District on July 2. Another Maoist
cadre, later identified as Uttarakhand zonal committee
member Hem Pandey, was also killed. Police recovered
an AK-47 rifle, a 9mm pistol and two kit bags from
the site of the encounter. Azad, who carried a reward
of INR 1.2 million on his head, was also the spokesperson
of the CPI-Maoist. Hailing from the Krishna District,
he was associated with the Maoist movement for four
decades. Times
of India, July 2-4, 2010.
Black
Widow leader arrested near Nepal border: The
National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested Niranjan
Hojai, the self-styled ‘Commander-in-Chief’ of Black
Widow (BW), near the India-Nepal border, an unnamed
senior official of the Assam Police said in Guwahati
on July 3. Niranjan Hojai had gone missing from a
camp set up by the Assam Government in the District,
where Hojai and cadres of the BW were required to
stay under the Suspension of Operations agreement
signed by the outfit with the Government.
The
Hindu, July 4, 2010.
Union
Home Minister P. Chidambaram hands over seven names
to Pakistani officials in 26/11 case:
Government officials said that Union Home Minister
P. Chidambaram had handed over a list of seven Lashkar-e-Toiba
(LeT) operatives and handlers involved in 26/11, against
whom no action had been taken so far, to Pakistan.
The seven operatives were identified as Sajjid Mir,
Abdul Rehman, Pasha, Brigadier Riyaz, Abu Khafa, Al
Kama and Abu Hamza. Hindustan
Times, June 30, 2010.
Anti-national
elements clearly linked to LeT involved in trouble
in Jammu and Kashmir, says Union Home Minister P.
Chidambaram: India
blamed the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) for stoking unrest
in the Kashmir Valley, adding to the role of Pakistan-backed
militant groups that have been largely linked to infiltration
across the Line of Control (LoC). Union Home Minister
P. Chidambaram said on June 30, "Anti-national elements
are clearly linked to the LeT. We know that the Lashkar
has been active in Sopore." He pointed to an encounter
on June 25 where two LeT militants were killed in
Sopore. Since June 11, eleven ‘protesters’ have lost
their lives in the valley. In the same period, 53
Central Reserve Police Force personnel have been injured,
many of them seriously.
The
Hindu, July 1, 2010.
550
more mobile towers to boost fight against Naxalites:
The Union Government
has started work on installing over 550 new mobile
towers to boost communication facilities in the Naxal
(Left Wing Extremism)-affected Districts in Jharkhand,
Chhattisgarh and Bihar.
The
Hindu, June 30, 2010.
Government
plans to redeploy central forces in anti-Naxal operations:
In the wake of repeated attacks
by the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist)
on the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the Government
is working out a plan for the redeployment of paramilitary
forces engaged in anti-Naxal [Left Wing Extremist]
operations in States. However, no central forces deployed
in a particular State will be moved out from that
State.
PTI
News, July 2, 2010.
Indian
embassies in Bangladesh and Nepal under terror threat,
warn intelligence agencies: Indian
missions in Bangladesh and Nepal are under threat
of a possible terror attack from Pakistani terrorist
outfits, according to intelligence reports. The alert
suggests the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) and
the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) are planning to attack Indians
working on different projects in Bangladesh and could
try and create a hostage like situation. A similar
threat also looms over the Indian mission in Kathmandu,
Nepal.
Times
Now, July 2, 2010.
Cease-fire
agreement with ANVC extended in Meghalaya: The
Union Government extended the tripartite cease-fire
agreement with the Achik National Volunteer Council
(ANVC) for another three months..
Shillong
Times, July 1, 2010.
NEPAL
Prime
Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal resigns:
Prime Minister (PM) Madhav Kumar Nepal tendered
his resignation before President Ram Baran Yadav
in the evening of June 30,. Earlier, in the day,
saying that he no longer wishes to see the country
remain "hostage to indecision", PM Nepal had announced
his resignation through a televised message to the
nation. After making the announcement, PM Nepal
said he hoped his resignation will mark an end to
the longstanding political deadlock and all other
problems facing the country, as the Unified Communist
Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-Maoist) have been saying.
Meanwhile, the UCPN-Maoist hailed the resignation
of the Prime Minister saying that it had paved the
way for political consensus to end the political
deadlock in the country.
Nepal
News, July 1, 2010.
PAKISTAN
143
militants and eight SFs among 152 persons killed during
the week in FATA: At
least 12 Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants
were killed when fighter jets pounded their hideouts
in the Orakzai Agency of the Federally Administered
Tribal Areas (FATA) on July 4.
At
least 10 TTP militants were killed in clashes with
Security Forces (SFs) in Orakzai Agency of FATA on
July 3. Four soldiers were killed and seven others
sustained injuries when an IED hit a SFvehicle in
Gurguri area in Bara tehsil (revenue unit)
of Khyber Agency.
SFs
killed 15 TTP militants during an operation in Akakhel
area of Bara tehsil in Khyber Agency FATA on
July 2.
10
militants were killed and six others sustained injuries
when two groups of militants traded heavy fire in
Neka Ziarat area in the central parts of Kurram Agency
in FATA on July 1.
Fighter
jets pounded TTP hideouts in various areas of Upper
Orakzai Agency, killing 20 militants and injuring
15 others on June 30.
A
US drone fired two missiles on a compound used by
the Punjab chapter of the TTP near Wana in South Waziristan
on June 29, killing at least ten militants, including
an al Qaeda foreign fighter.
At
least 66 TTP militants were killed and another 30
injured in air strikes and clashes with the SFs across
the country’ northwest on June 27. In Orakzai Agency,
the SFs said they had killed at least 63 TTP militants
in the preceding 24 hours. The sources said, around
15 TTP militants were killed and another six injured
in a clash with the SFs in the Agency’s Dabori area.
Three soldiers were critically injured in the clash.
In addition, eight TTP militants were killed and another
24 injured in a clash with the SFs in the Bakar Ghari
area of Upper Orakzai. Also, the sources added that
fighter jets attacked a makeshift TTP-run hospital
in Upper Orakzai late on June 27, killing 40 TTP militants
under treatment at the facility. In Khar, four troopers
were killed when TTP militants ambushed an Army patrol
in Bajaur Agency.
Dawn;
Daily
Times; The
News, June 29-July 04, 2010.
44
civilians among 46 persons killed during the week
in Punjab: At
least 44 persons were killed and 175 others injured
when three suicide attackers blew themselves up inside
the shrine of Lahore’s patron saint, Syed Ali Hajwairi,
popularly known as Data Gunj Bakhsh, at about 11 pm
(PST) in the night of July 1.
Daily
Times, June 29-July 4, 2010.
SRI LANKA
Only
the will of people resolve conflicts, not external
intervention’, says President Mahinda Rajapakse:
Only the will and dedication of the people will resolve
the internal conflicts in a country and foreign military
intervention to an internal conflict is not a solution,
President Mahinda Rajapakse said on July 1. Addressing
the Ukrainian National Defence Academy during his
official visit to Ukraine, President Rajapakse pointed
out, "Foreign military intervention to an internal
conflict is not a solution. As the people do not expect
the intervention of foreign forces to solve a problem,
they will not receive the support of the people. The
world can learn this from the Sri Lankan experience."
Colombo
Page, July 2, 2010.
No
plan to install KP as Northern Provincial Council
Chief Minister, says Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse:
Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse has denied reports
in a section of the media that the Government is planning
to install the former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) international wing leader Kumaran Pathmanathan
alias KP, who is under detention, as the Chief
Minister (CM) of the Northern Province. He, however,
confirmed that the Government was working with KP
in a "strategic manner" to mobilise the
support of the Tamil Diaspora. Earlier, former Army
Commander and Democratic National Alliance (DNA) parliamentarian
General (retired) Sarath Fonseka, on July 2, said
the Government was planning to get KP to contest the
Northern Provincial Council (NPC) election. General
Fonseka told Parliament that the Government had allowed
KP to meet with Government Agents and other officials
in the North.
The
Hindu, July 5, 2010.
Arrested
LTTE leader Kumaran Pathmanathan helping Government
in 'reconciliation process', says Tamil Diaspora leader
Charles Antonidas: The
arrested leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE) is playing a 'leading role' in helping
the Government in 'reconciliation process' after the
end of the war, a representative of the Tamil Diaspora,
Charles Antonidas, said. Antonidas, leader of Tamil
Health Organisation (THO), said that Kumaran Pathmanathan
alias KP, was instrumental in arranging a meeting
between the Tamil Diaspora and the Sri Lankan Government.
BBC
News, June 30, 2010.
TNA
to register as political party: The
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has handed in an application
on June 30 to Sri Lanka's Elections Commissioner to
register it as a political party,. TNA parliamentarian
Suresh Premachandran said that the leader of the TNA
party has been named as parliamentarian R. Samapanthan
and the joint secretaries of the party would be parliamentarians
Mavai Senathirajah, Suresh Premachandran and Selvam
Adaikalanadan. Although the party functioned as the
TNA the registered political party was known as the
Illankai Thamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK).
Colombo
Page, July 1, 2010.
The South
Asia Intelligence Review (SAIR) is a weekly service that
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terrorism, insurgencies and sub-conventional warfare, on
counter-terrorism responses and policies, as well as on
related economic, political, and social issues, in the South
Asian region.
SAIR is a project
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