Terror trails to Saudi Arabia | Karachi: ANP under Fire | South Asia Intelligence Review (SAIR), Vol. No. 11.17
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SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Weekly Assessments & Briefings
Volume 11, No. 17, October 29, 2012

Data and assessments from SAIR can be freely published in any form with credit to the South Asia Intelligence Review of the
South Asia Terrorism Portal


ASSESSMENT


INDIA
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Terror Trails to Saudi Arabia
Sanchita Bhattacharya
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

Over the past decades, an elaborate web of Islamist extremist terrorism, backed by Pakistan, has thrived under the benign neglect of the state on Saudi Arabian soil. Much of this terrorism has been directed against India, as extremist groupings used the Islamic kingdom as safe haven, recruiting ground and source of generous funding, even as a regime of official denial and collusion with Pakistan stonewalled Indian efforts to bring fugitives to justice and restrain terrorists operating from the security of Saudi soil.

There are tentative suggestions that this may now be changing – though the trends are far from dramatic. The absolute impunity with which Pakistan-backed Islamist terrorists operated against India from Saudi Arabia has now been diluted by the arrest and deportation to India, of a number of prominent terrorists, albeit under sustained pressure and with a number of hiccups. The most recent and significant of these developments was the deportation of Fasih Mohammad, an Indian Mujahideen (IM) operative, and his subsequent arrest at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) on October 22, 2012. Mohammad, a Computer Engineer who lived in Dammam (Saudi Arabia), is a suspect in the April 17, 2010, Chinnaswamy Stadium blast case in Bangalore and the September 19, 2010, Jama Masjid shooting case in Delhi.

Fasih was the third terrorist to be deported from Saudi Arabia over the past five months. On June 21, 2012, the 26/11 (November 26, 2008) Mumbai (Maharashtra) terrorist attacks handler, Abu Hamza alias Sayeed Zabi ud Deen alias Zabi Ansari alias Riyasat Ali alias Abu Jundal, was arrested in Delhi after being extradited from Saudi Arabia. This was followed by the deportation and arrest of LeT terrorist A. Rayees on October 6, 2012. Rayees was named as the third accused in the case of the seizure of explosives in Malayalamkunnu under Chakkarakkal (Kannur District of Kerala) Police limits in 2009.

Another five terrorist fugitives, including Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) ‘commander’ Fayyaz Kagzi, accused in the Aurangabad arms haul case of May 9, 2006, are still holed up in the country. Fayyaz Kagzi had also given bomb-making training to February 13, 2010, German Bakery (Pune, Maharashtra) blast accused Mirza Himayat Baig in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, in 2008.

Saudi Arabia’s nexus with Pakistan controlled LeT and IM has also been verified in a number of arrests within India, including the arrest of five IM militants accused of the August 1, 2012, Pune (Maharashtra) serial blasts. On September 26, 2012, Asad Khan and Imran Khan were arrested by Delhi Police from Pul Prahladpur in Delhi. This was followed by the arrest of Sayed Feroz on October 1, from the Nizamuddin Railway Station in Delhi, and Langde Irfan, on October 10, from Jaipur in Rajasthan. According to Delhi Police, Feroz, Imran Khan and Asad Khan had gone to Saudi Arabia several times to meet Fayyaz Kagzi. Asad Khan had made several phone calls to Saudi Arabia and sent emails to Kagzi prior to these visits.Delhi Police arrested another suspected IM terrorist, identified as Sayed Maqbool alias Zuber, from Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) on October 23.

Between August 29 and September 2, 2012, 18 persons were arrested across Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, exposing further trails to terrorist activities from Saudi Arabia. Subsequent interrogations revealed that terrorist modules in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra had been working on instructions of handlers located in Saudi Arabia and linked to LeT and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI). Bangalore city Police Commissioner Jyothi Prakash Mirji confirmed, “Those arrested have links with Saudi Arabia-based LeT and HuJI and it is suspected that they have more supporters in other (Indian) States. The arrested were taking orders from their handlers in Saudi Arabia”.

These recent arrests and revelations are not in isolation and only reconfirm Saudi Arabia’s role as a terror hub, with a Saudi connection traced back from several other terrorist incidents in India, and with the accused in many cases still absconding in Saudi Arabia, though authorities in the Kingdom have inclined to a pretence of ignorance regarding these many linkages.  

A case in point is that of C.A.M. Basheer, the ‘president’ of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) in the 1980s, hailing from Aluva in the Ernakulam District of Kerala, and an accused in the March 13, 2003, Mulund (Mumbai) blast. Basheer takes the Saudi terror connection nearly two decades back, and has reportedly been coordinating his activities from the Kingdom.

Again, Abu Abdel Aziz, who spent a considerable length of time in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in the early 1990s, and made an appearance at an LeT conference in Muridke in Pakistan’s Punjab Province in November 1994, was introduced there as an Indian Muslim living in Saudi Arabia, who was helping Muslims to fight in Bosnia and Kashmir. The case of Aziz is still unresolved.

Further, on August 29, 2003, Police in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, arrested five terrorists of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and LeT in connection with Akshardham Temple attack case of September 24, 2002. Interrogations confirmed by the then Ahmedabad Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), P.P. Pandey revealed, "The temple attack was a joint operation conducted by several modules of JeM and LeT having their network from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia to Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh [UP], Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and other cities".

An accused in the December 2, 2002, Ghatkopar (Mumbai) blast, identified as Taufiq alias Abdullah, was arrested from Morna in Noida in UP on November 22, 2011, by a team of the UP Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), Tamil Nadu Special Investigation Team (SIT) and Noida Police. Western UP ATS Chief Rajeev Narayan Misra said that Taufiq had travelled and stayed in Saudi Arabia as well as in Bangladesh, to avert arrest. Taufiq disclosed that he was earlier associated with LeT and the Muslim Defence Force (MDF).

Investigations into the July 11, 2006, Mumbai train blast case also exposed a Saudi connection. The then Mumbai Police Commissioner A.N. Roy stated, on September 30, 2006, that one of the main accused, Faizal Sheikh, had received large consignments of funds through Rizwan Devra, an Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) operative based in Saudi Arabia, to organize the attack. Police also recovered 26,000 Riyals from Faizal’s house in Bandra, Mumbai.

Reports also indicate that Shahid Bilal, the key conspirator in the twin blasts in Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat, on August 25, 2007, in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, had also stayed in Saudi Arabia during 2002-2003 and recruited several Hyderabadi expatriate youth there. Significantly, within a week of the blast, Shahid was reportedly shot dead in Karachi in Pakistan, in a turf war with rival Rasool Khan Parti.

A Saudi link was also established in the December 7, 2010, Varanasi (UP) blasts. One of the terrorists involved, Asadullah Akthar, was believed to have taken shelter in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi-Pak nexus is not a new phenomenon. Pakistan backed terrorist outfits receive detailed briefing for operations from their mentors in Saudi Arabia. The modus operandi allows Pakistani agents to brief their terrorist proxies, who then return to India without a Pakistani visa on their passports to avoid suspicion. Indians have also been facilitated by Pakistan to travel to Saudi Arabia under new identities and passports provided by Pakistani authorities. This was the case with Abu Jundal, who went to Saudi Arabia from Pakistan, on a Pakistani passport in the name of Riyasat Ali, a purported resident of Muridke. An October 24, 2012, report indicates that intelligence agencies believe that IM operatives Iqbal and Riyaz Bhatkal are also on the run and travel between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia under false identities, with Pakistani passports.

Terror masterminds located in Saudi Arabia also control their ‘foot soldiers’ in India through cyberspace, and intelligence agencies find it difficult to keep a track on the numerous channels used. A senior Intelligence Bureau (IB) official commented, “It's a big headache for the intelligence agencies to detect the communications between them. It is impossible to monitor all the activities in the cyberspace”.

The arrest of Abu Jundal exposed many of these dimensions. Jundal revealed that he had been tasked to move to Saudi Arabia from Pakistan in 2010, and was given the responsibility to recruit youth and take care of the India operations. Jundal further disclosed that he had recruited 50 persons during his nearly two-year stay in Saudi Arabia and was also instrumental in hawala (illegal money transfers) funding, through his contacts in Riyadh and Dubai, to LeT’s sleeper cells in the Indian states of Kerala and Maharashtra.

Saudi Arabia is also a principal source of terrorist funding, both to groups based and operating out of Pakistan and the prominent ‘indigenous’ groupings within India. Steady funding from Saudi Arabia for SIMI and IM contributed directly to the growth of these groups. Most of the money lands in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, and is later distributed to SIMI-IM units elsewhere. According to security agencies, IM is worth an estimated INR 500 million, and its major donors are rich Sheikhs of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. Regarding August 1, 2012 blasts, ATS is zeroing-in on hawala operations. For instance, Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) S.N. Srivastava, on October 18, 2012, observed, “He [Langde Irfan] received his ideological training in Saudi Arabia… Irfan was in touch with IM, founder member, Riyaz Bhatkal and also received and transported hawala transactions (sic)…” As reported on October 18, 2012 Irfan Mustafa, along with an accomplice went to Saudi Arabia to meet Kagzi and subsequently formed an “advance team”.

Apart from hawala network, Saudi institutions have also used the cover of educational, welfare and religious funding to back terrorist activities. A November 2008 dispatch by Bryan Hunt, the then principal officer at the US consulate in Lahore (Pakistan), noted that Saudi Arabia was seen as funding some of Pakistan’s hardline religious seminaries, or madrassas, which churn out young men eager for “holy war”, posing a threat to the stability of the South Asian region. Further, US diplomatic cables leaked by Wikileaks in December 2010 revealed that “Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide” and that "Riyadh has taken only limited action" to interrupt the flow of money to Taliban and LeT linked outfits, which have launched attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

Other countries in the Gulf are, of course, also involved in providing support and shelter to terrorists. Sarfaraz Nawaz, who financed the July 25, 2008, Bangalore (Karnataka) blasts, was later deported from Oman in 2009. During investigations, Nawaz revealed that a simultaneous bombing planned for Chennai (Tamil Nadu) was called off due to unforeseen contingencies. ATS sleuths are also on the lookout for Muzzafar Kola, the alleged financer of the 13/7 (July 13, 2011) blasts of Mumbai (Maharashtra), who currently resides in Bhatkal town in Karnataka, and his associates in Dubai. Kola and his associates, according to ATS, financed the 13/7 blasts through the hawala route using his firm Muzaffar Kola Enterprises LLC in Dubai as the front. In its chargesheet filed in the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court on May 25, 2012, the Maharashtra ATS identified Kola as ‘Wanted Accused Four’ in 13/7 bombing, though he is yet to be chargesheeted. Police officers are said to have visited Kola’s hometown in Bhatkal in June, but failed to find him at home.  

Noticeably, Pakistan has taken a two way strategy of recruiting youth from Indian hinterland and then brainwashing them in extra-regional territories to neutralize any genuine international pressure to end the export of terror to India. Saudi Arabia, infamous for exporting its puritan Wahhabism to other regions of the world, including South Asia, has been particularly susceptible to cooption in this strategy. However, Saudi Arabia has, over the past years, also experienced repeated terrorist strikes on its own soil, including the suicide bombing targeting the then crown prince and interior minister, Muhammad bin Nayef, on August 27, 2009, in Jeddah. With the rising threat of Islamist extremist terrorism on their own soil, Saudi authorities appear to be diluting their hitherto unreserved and unqualified support to Pakistan’s misadventures in the region, resulting in the recent deportations of terror accused to India.

Such ‘cooperation’ with Indian authorities, however, is still far from automatic or enthusiastic. Indeed, the deportation of Fasih Mohammad, as well as those who preceded him, came only after a number of obstacles had been overcome. India secured an Interpol Red Corner notice on May 31, 2012, against Fasih, but the Saudi Government demanded more evidence regarding his involvement in terrorism, and delayed his deportation. Moreover, the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs had earlier taken the stance that those who were wanted in criminal cases in India could not be deported if no offence had been committed by them within the territory of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This had been disclosed to the Kerala High Court on July 16, 2012, by Assistant Solicitor General (ASG) P. Parameswaran Nair, based on a written communication from Faiz Ahabad Kidwaid, India's Consul General in Jeddah. 

Nevertheless, the recent developments give grounds for some optimism and, crucially, would undermine the complete impunity with which Pakistan backed Islamist terrorists had been using Saudi soil to mount their campaigns in India.

PAKISTAN
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Karachi: ANP under Fire
Tushar Ranjan Mohanty
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

On October 24, 2012, a terrorist bomb attack targeted the Awami National Party (ANP) headquarters at Bacha Khan Markaz, on the Main Paggai Road on the outskirts of Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Though no casualty was reported, ANP senior Minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour stated, “Bacha Khan Markaz is the symbol of peace for Pashtuns and is symbolically important for the nationalist party. The militants want to terrorise people by such attacks…”  

Earlier on October 17, three ANP activists were shot dead in Par Hoti area of Mardan District in KP. Unidentified militants opened fire on Omar, his brother Farman and two associates, including Bilal Khattak, near their hujra (guest house) at 9:30 pm. Omar’s father, the District Information Secretary of ANP, had been killed two years earlier, in an attack on Mohib Road in the Par Hoti area.

However, far from their KP homeland, the ANP is coming under sustained attack in another stronghold, Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh. On August 28, 2012, Amanullah (36), the ANP’s Ward president for the MPR Colony in Karachi, was shot dead in a targeted attack by unidentified militants in the Orangi Town area of Karachi. Earlier on August 13, the ANP’s Sindh Central Working Committee member, Amir Sardar (55), was shot dead, along with two other ANP Sindh activists, near his house in the Frontier Colony. Sardar, who was associated with the ANP for over 30 years, hailed from the Thana area of Malakand District of KP. The Malakand chapter of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the killings, stating that Sardar was ‘punished’ for his assistance to the Police in arresting TTP militants.

According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) database, 32 ANP activists have been killed in 2012 (data till October 28, 2012) in Karachi. The ANP, however, claims to have lost as many as 187 activists in 2012. SATP data puts the number of ANP activists killed in Karachi at 43 in 2011 and three in 2010 – though these numbers are likely to be gross underestimates, as the political affiliation of a large number of persons killed in the city is seldom identified. SATP data indicates at least 3,604 persons, including 3,141 civilians, 241 militants, 222 Security Forces (SF) personnel killed in Karachi since 2007. The fatalities stand at 1,206 in 2012; 1,048 in 2011; 1,038 in 2010; 66 in 2009; 53 in 2008; and 188 in 2007.

Some of the prominent ANP leaders killed in Karachi during over the past two years include:

July 17, 2012: Fazal (40), identified as a local leader of ANP, was shot dead in Sherpao Colony within the jurisdiction of Quaidabad Police Station.

May 25, 2012: Abdul Shakoor (38), President of ANP’s UC-1 Ward, was shot dead outside his house in Sector-8 B of Bilal Colony within Korangi Police Station.

February 7, 2012: An ANP leader, identified as Gul Zaman, was shot dead by two assailants at Lasbela Chowk in the Jamshed Quarters. He was the President of his party's office in Jamshed Quarters.

January 2, 2012: Unidentified armed militants shot dead a local ANP leader, identified as Furqan Shaha, in Hasrat Mohani Colony in the Pak Colony Police precincts in Karachi, triggering indiscriminate fire that left five people injured.

October 8, 2011: Two ANP leaders, identified as Jamal Khan and Khan Zaman, were killed outside the party office, while another activist was injured in the Sachal area of Karachi.

April 3, 2011: Police found the body of a local ANP leader, Nasarullah Niazi, in a gunny bag recovered from the Bihar Colony, Lyari, in the Chakiwara Police Station limits.

March 21, 2011: Advocate Haji Hanif Khan, General Secretary, ANP Zone West, as well as adviser to ANP’s Labour Minister Ameer Nawab, was shot dead near Agha Building within SITE-A Police Station limits.

The surge in attacks against the ANP in Karachi can be traced back to the Army’s operations in Swat (KP) in 2009. It was under an ANP regime in KP that the SFs had expelled TTP militants from Swat Valley, which they had come to control over the preceding months. While Swat TTP ‘chief’ Maulana Fazlullah and his associates fled to Afghanistan’s Kunar Province, scores of other militants sought refuge in the Pashtun dominated areas of Karachi. After remaining dormant for some time, they resumed terrorist activities, particularly targeting the ANP in revenge attacks for the action in Swat.

While the killing of ANP members has been a relatively recent development in Karachi, back home in KP the TTP had already killed Mian Rashid Hussain and Amjad, the son and nephew, respectively, of the Provincial Information Minister and ANP leader Mian Iftikhar Hussain, in Nowshera on July 24, 2010. Bashir Ahmad Bilour has survived several assassination attempts, the most recent of which was on March 3, 2012, which left six people, including two suicide attackers, dead in Namak Mandi area of Peshawar (KP). KP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain observed, on April 13, 2012, that his party had suffered enormously in the war against terrorism and had forced terrorists to flee from their strongholds. He added, further, "We have lost around 750 ANP leaders, parliamentarians and workers to terrorism and militancy over four years, but didn't yield to our enemy."

Meanwhile, Sher Shah Khan, Member of the Provincial Assembly (KP), commenting on the TTP’s revenge killing spree in Karachi, observed, on August 15, 2012, that at least 65 persons hailing from Swat had been killed in Karachi in ‘target killings’, mostly at the hands of the TTP. "For a year, they abandoned their activities and remained underground, but later, they started killing pro-government leaders and those who were associated with peace committees in Swat or supported security forces."

Columnist Mansoor Khan argues that Karachi, once considered an ANP stronghold, has now passed into TTP dominance. The ANP was long patronized by an overwhelming majority of the five million Pashtuns among Karachi’s estimated 18 million residents. A large number of Pashtuns migrated to the city from KP and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) after the Taliban-led violence and the ‘war on terror’ began in 2001. The western part of the metropolis, from Afghan Camp to Sohrab Goth to Manghopir to Banaras, as well as other areas, including Saeedabad, Sultanabad and Quaidabad, have now passed into the complete control of TTP.

On July 18, 2012, the TTP Karachi ‘spokesman’ who calls himself Abu Akasha, boasted,  “We have conveyed a very strong message to pro-ANP Pashtuns living in Karachi, especially in Sohrab Goth and Banaras, known as strongholds of the ANP in the city, to quit their party”. He threatened, further, “If pro-ANP Pashtuns continue supporting their party in Karachi, the TTP will attack them, much as the TTP attacks ANP members in KP.”

After repeated threats and incidents of targeted violence, ANP activists in Sohrab Goth, Manghopir, Kunwari Colony and Sultanabad closed unit and ward offices in these areas and removed party flags and graffiti from their houses and party offices. Eight unit offices have been closed by party activists in Gadap and Sohrab Goth. A number of local ANP leaders and activists have also reportedly left Karachi and have gone into hiding. According to an unnamed ANP official, TTP’s Waliur Rehman group, headed in Karachi by Khan Zaman, have also started extorting funds from affluent ANP members. An unnamed ANP Sindh leader was quoted as stating, “Kunwari Colony and Sohrab Goth are the most affected areas where the TTP is targeting our people. They are taking extortion money from Wazir and Mehsud people of these two areas. People pay them because of the fear of being killed. This is very dangerous for our party and it will damage the party because they [the TTP] live among us and we can’t recognise them. They can easily kill you as you can’t hide from them.”

The TTP’s wave of ‘revenge attacks’ against the ANP in Karachi are compounded by the highly vitiated political environment of the Province, where the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) led-ruling alliance, which includes Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), is at loggerheads with the ANP. This has led to total collapse of law and order in the Province, particularly in Karachi. Indeed, not all the ANP killings can be attributed to the TTP, and ANP sources insist that at least some of them have been executed by other political elements in the Province. The rising graph of terrorism-related and targeted killings in the metropolis is evidence of the virtual collapse of security in Karachi.

Things appear slated to worsen within a context of rising ethnic polarization and violence in the city, and the TTP’s consolidation of influence as a result of a campaign of sustained targeted killings. With the state often winking at rising trends in extremism, and certainly failing to take effective action against terrorist and radical Islamist formations, little relief can be expected from the violence in Karachi.


NEWS BRIEFS

Weekly Fatalities: Major Conflicts in South Asia
October 22-28, 2012

 

Civilians

Security Force Personnel

Terrorists/Insurgents

Total

INDIA

 

Assam

2
0
0
2

Jammu and Kashmir

1
0
0
1

Manipur

0
0
1
1

Meghalaya

0
0
2
2

Nagaland

0
0
1
1

Left-wing Extremism

 

Jharkhand

1
0
0
1

Odisha

2
0
0
2

Total (INDIA)

6
0
4
10

PAKISTAN

 

Balochistan

8
0
0
8

FATA

8
0
25
33

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

9
0
0
9

Sindh

23
3
6
32

Total (PAKISTAN)

48
3
31
82
Provisional data compiled from English language media sources.


INDIA

Maoists threaten to kill SPs in Odisha: A Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) poster, found in Lakhna area in Nuapada District on October 25, threatened to kill Superintendents of Police (SP) of Bolangir, Nuapada and Bargarh Districts. The poster, while dissuading people not to help Police launch combing operations in the area, said the SPs of the three Districts deserve death punishment. Times of India, October 26, 2012.

UMHA turns down 26/11 convict Ajmal Kasab's mercy petition:The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (UMHA) on October 23 rejected Mumbai terror attackS (also known as 26/11) convict Ajmal Kasab's plea to commute his death sentence to life and sent its recommendation to President Pranab Mukherjee for final disposal. This brings to an end the legal options before Kasab in appealing his death sentence that has been confirmed by the Supreme Court. Times of India, October 24, 2012.


NEPAL

CPN-Maoist-Baidya chairman Mohan Baidya proposes Ram Bahadur Thapa as next PM: Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist-Baidya (CPN-Maoist-Baidya) chairman Mohan Baidya on October 22 put forth party General Secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa's name for the post of next Prime Minister (PM). He ruled out any possibility of a new Government under parties including Nepali Congress (NC). Republica, October 22, 2012.


PAKISTAN

25 militants and eight civilians among 33 persons killed during the week in FATA: At least nine militants were killed and several others injured in the ongoing operation in Akkakhel area of Bara tehsil (revenue unit) in Khyber Agency of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on October 26.

Nine militants were killed and five hideouts were destroyed when the Army gunship helicopters bombed hideouts of militants in Akkakhel area of Bara tehsil on October 25.

A United States (US) drone on October 24 fired two missiles at a suspected militant compound in Miranshah in North Waziristan Agency (NWA), killing three people.

In a retaliatory attack, the Security Forces (SFs) in the night of October 22 fired shells using light artillery and heavy machineguns in civilian dominated villages, killing at least three civilians, identified as Khwaja Mohammad, his son Jan Mohammad and one Ghaffar Khan, and injuring 25 others, including women and children in Miranshah. Daily Times; Dawn; The News; Tribune; Central Asia Online; The Nation; The Frontier Post; Pakistan Today; Pakistan Observer, October 16-22, 2012.

23 civilians and six militants among 32 persons killed during the week in Sindh: At least five cadres of Ahl-e-Sunnat-Wal-Jama'at (ASWJ) were shot dead in a sectarian attack at 'Gulzar-e-Habib' restaurant in FB area of Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh, on October 25.

Seven persons, including a Policeman and a cadre of ASWJ, were killed in separate incidents of violence in Karachi on October 24.

At least seven people were killed in separate incidents of violence in Karachi on October 23. Daily Times; Dawn; The News; Tribune; Central Asia Online; The Nation; The Frontier Post; Pakistan Today; Pakistan Observer, October 16-22, 2012.

Osama bin Laden would have escaped if Pakistan's permission was sought, says US President Barack Obama: United States (US) President Barack Obama, in some of his most blunt remarks to date, said on October 22 that Osama bin Laden would have escaped if America had sought Pakistan's permission ahead of the raid on the al Qaeda leader's compound. "If we had asked Pakistan (for) permission, we would not have gotten him," Obama said. Daily Times, October 24, 2012.

No-go areas still exist on ethnic and political bases in Karachi, says Supreme Court:The five-member bench of Supreme Court headed by Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali on October 24 said that no-go areas still exist in Karachi on political and ethnic bases. The Court observed that if any person entered his opponents' area, his body was recovered in a gunny bag. Daily Times, October 25, 2012.

Tribes opposing Nawab Akbar Bugti were paid PKR 89 million during military operation against him, reveals Audit report: An audit report presented at a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting on October 23 revealed that pro-Government Bugti tribesmen were paid PKR 89 million from Baitulmaal (a welfare organisation that provides assistance to the needy) funds when former President General (retired) Pervez Musharraf launched a military offensive against Nawab Akbar Bugti. The expenses were incurred from 2003 to 2006 and camouflaged under the Administrative Budget of the Baitulmaal. Tribune, October 24, 2012.


SRI LANKA

Abolishing 13th Amendment is an invitation to separatism, warns senior Minister D.E.W. Gunasekera: Senior Minister D.E.W. Gunasekera warned on October 26 that abolishing the 13th Amendment to the Constitution would be an invitation to separatism. He said that armed movements in the North had laid down their arms and entered the democratic political process due to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. Colombo Page, October 26, 2012.

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The South Asia Intelligence Review (SAIR) is a weekly service that brings you regular data, assessments and news briefs on terrorism, insurgencies and sub-conventional warfare, on counter-terrorism responses and policies, as well as on related economic, political, and social issues, in the South Asian region.

SAIR is a project of the Institute for Conflict Management and the South Asia Terrorism Portal.

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Dr. Ajai Sahni


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