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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
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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.
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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.
|
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.
.
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
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and the
South
Asia Terrorism Portal.
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