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SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Weekly Assessments & Briefings
Volume 12, No. 16, October 21, 2013
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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Karachi:
Hitting the Police
Tushar Ranjan Mohanty
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management
On October
9, 2013, four Policemen were killed in two separate incidents
of target killing in Karachi, the provincial capital of
Pakistan's Sindh Province. The Station House Officer (SHO)
of the Sir Syed Police Station, Syed Irfan Haider, and
Station Investigation Officer (SIO) of New Karachi Police
Station, Shahbaz Ali, were shot dead in the jurisdictions
of the Sir Syed Police Station. In another incident of
target killing on the same day, two Policemen, identified
as Amir Khan (48) and Shabbir Alam (35), were shot dead
at a Police post at Ismaili Apartment in the Metroville
area of the Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (SITE).
On September
14, 2013, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Mumtaz
Ali Shah was killed near Model Colony in the Malir Cantonment
area. Police said that DSP Ali Shah had earlier received
threats from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)
and Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP).
Indeed,
Sindh Police spokesperson Moizuddin Pirzada disclosed,
on October 10, 2013, that at least 138 Policeman had lost
their lives in Karachi in the ongoing targeted operations
against ‘criminals' (target killers, extortionists and
kidnappers) that was launched on September 7, 2013. The
victims included two DSPs, three Inspectors, 13 Sub-Inspectors
(SIs), 16 Assistant Sub-Inspectors (ASIs), 26 Head Constables
and 78 Constables. More than 162 Policemen have also sustained
injuries during these operations. He added that the reaction
to the operation was not limited to Karachi alone, as
around 16 Policemen had lost their lives and another 31
sustained injuries in other parts of the Province.
The Police
spokesperson further stated that the Police had arrested
4741 ‘criminals’, including, 57 target killers, and recovered
1,209 arms and 52 bombs. The Police spokesperson did not,
however, mention how many ‘criminals’ were killed during
this period. According to partial data compiled by the
South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), however, at
least 29 ‘criminals’ and terrorists have been killed in
Karachi during this period.
The ‘criminals’
killed/arrested belonged to the Pakistan Amn Committee
(PAC) and the Lyari Gang. Those killed/arrested also included
cadres of the TTP, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ),
Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jama’at (ASWJ, earlier known as SSP),
Sunni Tehreek (ST), Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM)
and Jundullah. TTP’s urban mobility and survival in the
metropolitan landscape suggest its insidious alliance
with local criminal groupings and other sectarian-terrorist
outfits. Confirming the linkages, an unnamed official
in the Police Department disclosed in 2011, "There
are definite signs of some connectivity in Karachi between
local criminal gangs and some religious extremist groups
with Taliban (TTP) who are well organised and this could
be the reason for the upsurge in violence in the city."
Karachi
has, in fact, witnessed numerous such operations in past.
Each of these, however, failed to stem the blood bath
that Pakistan's commercial capital has been witnessing
since 2010. According to partial data compiled by SATP,
Karachi has recorded at least 5,073 fatalities, including
4,245 civilians, 467 terrorists/criminals and 361 SF personnel
since 2010. In 2013, Karachi has already recorded at least
1,339 fatalities, including 1,094 civilians, 124 terrorists/criminals
and 121 SFs (data till October 20, 2013).
Terrorism
Related Fatalities in Karachi: 2010-2013
Years
|
Civilians
|
Security
Force Personnel
|
Terrorists
|
Total
|
2010
|
777
|
61
|
158
|
996
|
2011
|
1079
|
61
|
68
|
1208
|
2012
|
1295
|
118
|
117
|
1530
|
2013
|
1094
|
121
|
124
|
1339
|
Total*
|
4245
|
361
|
467
|
5073
|
Source:
SATP, *Data till October 20, 2013
In the
meantime, an Army soldier was killed at Kachal along the
LoC in the Keran Sector as the Army foiled an infiltration
bid by terrorists in the night of October 10, 2013.
More worryingly,
in the aftermath of such past operations, the Policemen
involved have been selectively targeted. Significantly,
on October 7, 2011, the Supreme Court had issued orders
to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Sindh, Mushtaq
Shah, to report in a month on the disappearance or murders
of all Policemen who took part in the Karachi operations
of 1992 and 1996. “[The Police] are conscious of the fact
that so many [of them] who took part in the operations
of 1992 and 1996 have disappeared or have been eliminated,”
the Court observed. The Court agreed with assessments
provided during the hearings of suo motu proceedings
into Karachi’s violence that about 30 to 40 per cent of
Police officers were 'non-cooperative', not just because
of political appointments but also because of fear. They
are punished for doing their duty if it runs counter to
the political objectives of the party in power, on the
one hand, and on the other, they are afraid of being shot
by the men they have apprehended or by their associates.
The Court had taken suo motu notice of violence
in Karachi. The Sindh Police authorities later came up
with a list of 157 Policemen who took part in the 1990s
‘Karachi operations’ and were assassinated one by one
in different parts of the city. Finally, on October 25,
2012, the IGP Mushtaq Shah informed the Supreme Court
that 254 Policemen who took part in the operations of
1992 and 1996 had been killed.
An unnamed
former Police officer, who reportedly had played an important
role in Operation Clean-up, launched in 1992, claimed
in a media interview that he was one of the few survivors,
as all his men, who took part in that action, had been
targeted and killed one by one. “We lost most of our men
from 2000 to 2004. The second period was during 2006 and
2008 and then again from 2008 to 2009. They killed with
impunity. Only a few of us who spearheaded Operation
Clean-up are now alive, but under the threat of elimination,”
he said, adding that if they too were killed, no one in
the entire Force would ever even think of cleansing Karachi
of terrorists.
Operation
Clean-up was launched on June 19, 1992, by the then
Nawaz Sharif Government, with additional assistance from
the Pakistan Army, led, at that time, by General Asif
Nawaz Janjua, and other security agencies, including the
Intelligence Bureau, which was then headed by Brigadier
Imtiaz Ahmed alias Imtiaz Billa. The objective
was to cleanse the city of ‘anti-social elements’. However,
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain criticised
the operation as state-terrorism and extra-judicial killings,
and blamed Nawaz Sharif for the killing of 15,000 people
in Karachi and the forced disappearances of 'thousands'
of his workers. The Army ‘concluded’ Operation Clean-up
on August 16, 1994. However, the Operation was re-launched,
when the Benazir Bhutto-led Government came to power in
1996.
Apart from
Policemen, other wings of the Security Forces involved
in fighting ‘crime’ in Karachi have also been targeted
with impunity. A July 2013 report noted that, other than
Policemen, eight Pakistan Rangers were also killed in
2013.
Some of
the major attacks (each involving three or more fatalities)
targeting SFs in 2013, include the following:
August
15: Three Policemen, including a DSP, Qasim Ghauri, were
killed, and another three Policemen were injured during
an encounter near Safari Park in Gulshan Town.
August
2: At least four Policemen were shot dead by unidentified
militants near a bridge located at Bagh-e-Korangi area
in the Shah Faisal Town of Karachi.
June 9:
At least three Policemen were killed in an attack on a
Police vehicle in the Patel Para area of Karachi.
April 4:
Four paramilitary soldiers were killed and three others
were injured in a bomb blast near the paramilitary complex
in the Korangi area of Karachi. The TTP claimed responsibility
for the attack.
March 3:
Four Policemen were killed when unidentified assailants
attacked a Police check post on the Superhighway in Karachi.
January
24: Quaidabad DSP Kamal Khan Mangan and ASI Akbar Hussain
were among four persons killed in a span of several minutes
in the Sherpao Colony of the Landhi area in Karachi. Another
12 persons, including five Policemen, were injured in
the attack. A low-intensity bomb exploded in a garbage
dump and when Police officers gathered there to investigate
the incident, the second explosion took place and caused
the casualties.
The systematic
targeting and assassination of large numbers of SF personnel,
primarily Policemen, is a part of the escalating dynamic
of violence in Karachi. It is certain to affect the morale
of the SFs engaged in counter insurgency operations which
have been launched substantially with political motives,
and that are bound to fail again, as they have in the
past.
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Maoists:
Urban, Interrupted
Mrinal Kanta Das
Research Assistant, Institute for Conflict Management
The detention
of Hem Chandra Mishra (30), a student of the New Delhi
based Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) by the Nagpur
Police in Aheri, Gadchiroli District, Maharashtra, on
August 20, 2013, and his subsequent arrest by the State
Police on August 23, has opened up an old debate about
the Communist Party of India-Maoist’s (CPI-Maoist)
penetration into the urban spaces of the country. Mishra
was arrested along with Pandu Pora Narote (27) and Mahesh
Tirki (24) of Morewada village in the Etapalli tehsil
(revenue unit) of Gadchiroli District. He was carrying
coded messages meant for the Maoist leadership in Dandakaranya
forests in central India. Confirming the arrest, a press
release of the Gadchiroli District Police stated, on August
24, “The accused have accepted that they were going to
give these documents to Senior Naxal [Left-Wing
Extremist (LWE)] leader Narmada Akka. Pandu Narote and
Mahesh Tirki also accepted that both of them were regular
couriers of Narmada Akka and other senior Naxal leaders
in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.”
Further,
within a week of Mishra's arrest, Police searched the
Delhi home of G.N. Saibaba, an Assistant Professor of
English literature at Ram Lal Anand College of Delhi University
on September 12, 2013. He is the Joint Secretary of the
Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF), a Maoist front organisation
active in Delhi and in Gurgaon and Noida, on the outskirts
of Delhi. The Gadchiroli Police claim that Saibaba is
a Maoist, known in his circles as Prashant alias
Chetan, and uses these names to interact and hatch conspiracies
with over ground Maoists through online chat forums. Police
claim that Mishra went to Gadchiroli under Saibaba's direction.
Though Saibaba admitted that he had met Mishra in the
past, he denies sending him to Dandakaranya. It is significant
that, on December 7, 2011, the then Union Minister of
State for Home Affairs, Jitendra Singh, while replying
to a Parliamentary question, disclosed that the Union
Ministry of Home Affairs had listed the RDF as a Maoist
front organisation along with the Committee for Release
of Political Prisoners (CRPP), People's Democratic Front
of India (PDFI) and Democratic Students Union (DSU), each
of which is active in Delhi.
On September
1, 2013, Prashant Rahi (52), a free lance journalist from
Uttarakhand, and his associate, Vijay Tikri, were arrested
from Deori in the Gondia District of Maharashtra, on suspicion
that Rahi was heading to meet a senior Maoist leader.
Rahi is from Uttarakhand and he has been associated with
number of social causes from time to time. He has been
arrested on an earlier occasion for his alleged Maoist
links. Though he has rejected the charges levelled against
him by the Gadchiroli Police, the Police still claim that
they had enough evidence to arrest him.
It is useful
to recall the arrest of Kobad Ghandy, a CPI-Maoist Central
Committee member and top Maoist ideologue, from Delhi
on September 21, 2009. This was one of the first high
profile arrests that threw light on the Maoists’ evolving
networks with India's cities. Subsequently, there have
been numerous arrests in various cities. The most prominent
among these were:
December
3, 2010: Anil Ghosh alias Ajoyda, State Committee
Member, was arrested from Kolkata in West Bengal.
February
8, 2010: Baccha Prasad Singh, CPI-Maoist Politbureau member
was arrested from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh. Seven other
Maoists, including top leader Banshidhar alias
Chintan Da were also arrested along with him.
August
24, 2009: Amitabha Bagchi alias Anil, CPI-Maoist
Politbureau member, was arrested from Ranchi in Jharkhand.
August
19, 2007: Krishnan Srinivasan alias Vishnu alias
Vijay alias Sreedhar alias Shekar, Central
Committee Member, was arrested from Mumbai in Maharashtra.
The Maoists’
efforts to extend their networks into India's cities is
guided by a detailed strategy that has been meticulously
explained in their document, Urban
Perspective: Our Work in Urban Areas,
which notes, inter alia.
Work
in the urban areas has a special importance in our
revolutionary work… in our revolution, which follows
the line of protracted people's war, the liberation
of urban areas will be possible only in the last
stage of the revolution… However, we should not
belittle the importance of the fact that the urban
areas are the strong centres of the enemy. Building
up of a strong urban revolutionary movement means
that our Party should build a struggle network capable
of waging struggle consistently by sustaining itself
until the protracted people's war reaches the stage
of strategic offensive. With this long term perspective,
we should develop a secret party, a united front
and people's armed elements; intensify the class
struggle in the urban areas and mobilize the support
of millions of urban masses for the people's war.
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The recent
arrests point to the fact that, despite setbacks, the
Maoists persist in their efforts to build a 'struggle
network' across India's cities, including the capital,
Delhi, metros, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai, as well as
other cities like Patna, Ranchi, Kanpur, Nagpur and Pune.
Preliminary inroads were made through various devices,
including engagement with workers unions, university students,
various 'Rights' organisations, and popular protest movements.
On August
13, 2013, the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs
RPN Singh told the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament),
“There is no intelligence/information to suggest that
Naxal organizations are infiltrating through security
agencies and factories to expand their network in the
urban areas. However, a few cases have come to notice
where the CPI-Maoist cadres have undertaken employment
in urban areas primarily to earn livelihood and also evade
police arrest. Also, the ‘front organizations’ of the
banned CPI-Maoist party as well as organizations sympathetic
to the said outfit have been supporting the cause of the
workers employed in factories. Their objective is essentially
to exploit the situation to gain a foot-hold among the
working class.” The Minister added, further, that the
Maoists were operating under their Tactical United Front
(TUF) to mobilise 'working classes' for carrying out subversive
activities.
During
the 2012 Maruti plant strike in Manesar (Haryana) it was
widely speculated in the media and security organisations
that the Maoists’ affiliated front organisations may have
had a role in the cycle of escalating violence in the
plant. However, in November 2013, the Chief Secretary
of Haryana claimed that there was no evidence of Maoist
involvement in the incidents. Speaking on the Maruti plant
strike in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament)
the then Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Jitendra
Singh, observed, on August 22, 2012, “Subsequent to the
incident (violence at Maruti Manesar plant), a number
of front organizations of the banned CPI-Maoists, as well
as bodies sympathetic to the outfit such as the Mehnatkash
Mazdoor Morcha (MMM), Democratic Students’ Union (DSU),
People’s Democratic Front of India (PDFI) and the Committee
for Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP), have organized
demonstrations supporting the cause of the workers of
the Maruti factory.” Though there was no concrete evidence
of Maoist involvement in the violence at the Maruti plant,
protest demonstrations organised in support of the workers
after the incidents suggest that front organisations at
least sought to exploit the situation to gain a foothold
among workers, in line with the Maoists' 'urban perspective'.
The arrest
of Kanchan alias Sudip Chongdar alias Batash
alias Gautam, the Maoists’ ‘state secretary’, in
Kolkata on December 3, 2010, shed more light on how students
were being used as new recruits to carry forward Maoists
ideas. Kanchan revealed that a recruitment process was
on for the outfit's 'military wing' and Jadavpur University
had emerged as a major centre for cadres. He also revealed
that 12 students from Presidency College were working
actively as CPI-Maoist cadres in Lalgarh. However, the
Maoists' attempts to spread their network in Kolkata have
suffered heavily, as many of their senior leaders have
been arrested from Kolkata. These prominently include
Sadanala Ramakrishna alias RK, the head
of the Central Technical Committee (arrested on February
29, 2012); Venkateswar Reddy alias Telugu Dipak,
a top CPI-Maoist leader (arrested on March 2, 2010); Mohan
Vishwakarma, a senior member of the Central Technical
Committee and Technical Research and Arms Manufacturing
(TRAM) cell (arrested on July 26, 2012); Madhusudan Mondal
alias Narayan alias Madhu alias Salim,
Member – State Committee and Secretary Zonal Committee,
Nandigram (arrested on June 29, 2010); Musafir Sahani
alias Anand alias Alok da alias Manik,
member of the Bihar and Uttar Pradesh State Committees
(arrested on August 21, 2010).
According
to the Maharashtra Anti-Naxal Operations (ANO) wing, a
"close watch" is being maintained on Mumbai’s
St Xavier College, Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS),
and Fergusson College, Pune, for possible Maoist links.
Maharashtra’s Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) and ANO believe
these institutions may be the new Maoist recruiting grounds.
Separately,
on June 3, 2013, a Hyderabad Central University student
was arrested in Khammam District for escorting a top Maoist’s
wife. Maoist posters were also found pasted in the campus
of Osmania University in Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) in
June 2013. Further, the Democratic Students Union (DSU),
active in Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, has been
identified by the Union Home Ministry as a Maoist front
organisation.
According
to a recent internal report prepared by the Intelligence
Bureau (IB), the Government has identified 128 Maoist
front organisations. These organisations are present in
16 states, including relatively 'unaffected' states, which
have not traditionally suffered Maoist violence, such
as Uttarakhand, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab. The
IB report lists 17 such organizations operating in Jharkhand,
13 in Andhra Pradesh, 12 in Karnataka, 10 each in Bihar
and Odisha, nine each in Delhi, Maharashtra and Bengal,
eight in Haryana, six in Chhattisgarh, four each in Kerala
and Tamil Nadu and three in Gujarat. Of Delhi's 11 Districts,
seven have been categorized as 'marginally affected' by
Maoist activity - Central, South, New Delhi, North-West,
North, South-West and North East Districts.
The Maoists’
attempt to expand their base in India is not a new phenomenon.
They have, however, had limited success in these efforts
and have, in fact, suffered dramatic leadership losses
as a result. Nevertheless, the effort appears sustained
and can be expected to accelerate, precisely because of
the increasing dearth of 'ideological' cadres, partly
because of the recent leadership losses and also because
of the fading appeal of the movement in some of its heartland
areas and institutions. These processes continue with
no more than fitful interruption because of the limited
capacities of state enforcement and intelligence agencies
to monitor activities of various Maoist fronts, as well
as to document and interdict the development and activities
of the urban 'struggle networks' that have been established,
or are evolving. Unless far more comprehensive measures
are available to discover and neutralize the Maoist presence
in urban areas, the dangerous possibility of the rebels
building the bases of a self-sustaining struggle in cities
cannot be excluded.
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Tripura:
Crippled Rebellion
Giriraj Bhattacharjee
Research Assistant, Institute for Conflict Management
An 18-hour
Bandh (general shut down) in Manipur and Tripura
was announced by the Coordinating Committee (CorCom) of
six Valley-based militant groups of Manipur and the National
Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT)
in protest against the merger of the then kingdoms of
Manipur and Twipra (Tripura) with the dominion of India
on October 15, 1949. The strike, however, affected life
in Manipur alone and failed to touch a sympathetic chord
in Tripura.
Crucially,
a decades-old tribal insurgency in Tripura had led to
mass killings and displacement, but had been successfully
tamed
by the Tripura Police. According to the South Asia
Terrorism Portal, Tripura has not recorded a single
terrorism- related fatality in 2013; two militants had
been killed in 2012, and a single civilian lost his life
in 2011. At its peak in 2000, the insurgency had claimed
514 lives.
2013 also
recorded the neutralization of two prominent figures who
had engineered the insurgency in Tripura, Nayanbashi Jamatiya
alias Nakbar and Ranjit Debbarma.
Nayanbashi
Jamatiya, leader of the Nayanbashi faction of NLFT (NLFT-
NB), surrendered to the Police in Khowai District on August
9, 2013. He had sneaked into Indian Territory through
the Malda border in West Bengal. Struggling with ill health
due to long torture in a Bangladeshi jail, a depressed
Nayanbashi had also been suffering from acute financial
distress, a Police source disclosed. The NLFT-NB, along
with its leader, Nayanbashi Jamatiya, had surrendered
en masse in 2006, but returned to the jungles because
it failed to secure 'satisfactory'
terms. On April 28, 2011, the State
Government had declared that all the promises made at
the time of the signing of the tripartite peace accord
with the NLFT-NB on December 17, 2004, had been fulfilled.
Bhuchuk Borok, ‘vice-president’ of the NLFT-NB had praised
the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and the State Government
for their sincerity in fulfilling the terms of the peace
accord. Janshi Rani Jamatya, Nayanbanshi
's first wife, had earlier commented, “Nayanbashi repents
over his fate. He wants to surrender so that he can survive
with minimum dignity”.
On January
23, 2013, Security Forces (SFs) disclosed the arrest of
All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF)
'chairman' Ranjit Debbarma from an area near the Indo-Bangla
border under the Sidhai Police Station in the Mohanpur
Subdivision of West Tripura District. Subsequently, however,
Special Branch (SB) sources in Tripura confirmed that
Debbarma had, in fact, been arrested on December 30 (2012)
by a joint contingent of the Tripura Police and the Rapid
Action Battalion (RAB) of Bangladesh, from his flat in
the Mohammad Pur area of Dhaka. After his arrest, however,
the ATTF leader declared, “I am determined to continue
the struggle for liberation of Tripura and I will do so
once I get out of custody.”
According
to a January 24, 2013, report, State Police disclosed
that Debbarma had been involved in several major incidents
of the massacre of non-tribals: these included the slaughter
of 26 non-tribals in the Bazar Colony area of Kalyanpur
in the Khowai Subdivision of West Tripura District in
December 1996; the killing of an unconfirmed number of
non-tribals in February 1997 in different parts of Khowai
Subdivision; the Kalyanpur Market massacre in June of
2000, where more than 100 non-tribals were killed; in
Bagber area under Kalyanpur Police Station of West Tripura
District in May 2000; the killing of 18 unarmed non-tribals
in Panchayati market under Sadar (North) of West Tripura
District in December 1999; and the killing of 21 men,
women and children at Simna colony in Sadar (North) of
West Tripura District in May 2003. Sources, however, pointed
out that the strongest cases against him involved "the
abduction and killing of tea planter Yogabrata Chakraborty
in June 1996 despite payment of a huge ransom of INR 3
million and the abduction and year-long captivity of
Communist Party of India- Marxist (CPI-M)’s Member of
Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Simna, Pranab Debbarma.”
Chief Minister
(CM), Manik Sarkar expressed cautious appreciation of
the current Bangladesh Government's efforts to crack down
on militants from the Northeast, stating, on January 26,
2013, "The present Bangladesh Government has initiated
measures to drive away anti-India militants based there.
But I think there is scope for more action. I say this,
because even now 22 hideouts of outfits banned by the
Tripura Government exist on Bangladeshi soil. And we have
asked the Union Home Minister and Union External Affairs
Minister to take up this issue with Bangladesh during
bilateral talks."
After,
the neutralization of Nayanbashi Jamatiya and Ranjit Debbarma,
Biswamohan Debbarma who leads the Biswamohan faction of
NLFT (NLFT-BM), remains the only major leader currently
outside the security net. According to a September 22,
2013 report, the NLFT-BM is led now by Upendra Reang,
and their original ‘president’ Biswamohan Debbarma, is
seldom seen. The number of militants in the group has
also gone down drastically.
Meanwhile,
the improvement in the security situation has led the
State Government to issue a notification on June 5, 2013
stating that Armed Forces Special Powers Act, (AFSPA)
1958 would be effective fully in just 25 Police Station
areas, and partly in seven. The Act was first put into
effect in 40 of the total 70 Police Station areas in the
State, in February 1997.
While the
insurgency has lost momentum and support, nagging problems
persists. People who were displaced during the course
of the insurgency are yet to be resettled. On August 26,
2013, hundreds of people, led by the West Tripura and
Sepahijala District Displaced Development Committee, held
a sit-in-demonstration in front of the office of the District
Magistrate (West) at Agartala, demanding unconditional
housing benefits for all those who were evicted from their
homelands during the peak of violence. Some 19,468 families
were displaced
between March 1, 1998, and February 28, 2003, in the State.
Bishalgarh Subdivision in West Tripura District suffered
the most, with a recorded displacement of 12,106 families.
In another
development, Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, in separate
meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union
Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde in Delhi in July 2013,
sought their intervention push for the repatriation of
Bru refugees from Tripura to their villages in Mizoram.
The fifth phase of repatriation is currently underway
(September 30-October 6, 2013) with about 100 families
from relief camps in the Kanchanpur Subdivision of North
Tripura District being returned to Mizoram. The fifth
phase had been planned for the return of 121 Bru families.
891 Bru families have earlier been repatriated to Mizoram
in four
phases between May 2010 and May 2012,
out of an estimated 35,000 Bru refugees in Tripura.
Further,
the recent declaration in favour of the formation of a
separate Telangana State by the Congress Working Committee
(CWC) on July 30, 2013, and its endorsement by the Union
Cabinet on October 3, 2013, has resulted in the renewal
of the demand for a separate Tribal State to be carved
out of Tripura. The demand is being pushed mainly by the
Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) for Twipraland
to be carved out along the existing Tripura Tribal Areas
Autonomous District Council (TTAADC). A rally was organised
by IPFT on August 23, 2013, followed by the submission
of a memorandum addressed to Governor Devanand Konwar.
The TTADC has jurisdiction over two-thirds of Tripura's
geographical area of 10,491.69 square kilometre. IPFT
had earlier demanded the creation of a separate State
for tribals in the year 2009. However, the State unit
of ruling CPI-M is strongly against any division of the
present State. CPI-M Tripura State General Secretary,
Bijan Dhar, after a two-day long meeting of the Party's
State Committee, stated, on August 25, 2013, that the
meeting had resolved to oppose the demand for any division
of Tripura. Dhar stated, further, that that the agenda
of those seeking the creation of Twipraland was mainly
to create distrust and tension between the tribal and
non-tribal communities in the State.
The curtain
appears to have fallen on Tripura’s persistent ethnic
insurgency, but potential faultlines remain, and external
players have demonstrated a strong intention to keep the
region unstable. According to an April 1, 2013,
media report, arrested ATTF ‘President’ Ranjit Debbarma
told his interrogators that the Pakistani spy agency,
Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), had been pumping in
Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) into India via militant
groups, and that the ISI was taking “renewed and firm
interest” in joint training camps for militant formations
in the region. The report further claimed that the ISI's
current strategy was to “keep the northeast on a perennial
boil”. Evidence of some Chinese mischief in the Northeast
has also been mounting, with repeated seizures of weapons
of Chinese make, as well as credible intelligence of a
continuous interface between the Chinese and the leaderships
of some insurgent groups in India's Northeast - particularly
including the People's Liberation Army (PLA)
in Manipur and the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA)
in Assam.
The counter-insurgency
in Tripura secured a dramatic against some of the most
violent rebel movements in India, and subsequent policies
of the State Government in the spheres of development
and relief have gone a long way in consolidating these
gains. Tripura is among the most stable polities in the
Northeast today, and among the most secure regimes in
the country. Nevertheless, given the broader context of
volatility in the Northeast and the persistent hostility
of some of India's neighbours, any proclivity to complacence
would be dangerous. The fact that Tripura is among the
most geographically isolated and poorly connected States
of the Indian Union cannot be ignored even for a moment.
|
Weekly Fatalities: Major
Conflicts in South Asia
October 14-20,
2013
|
Civilians
|
Security
Force Personnel
|
Terrorists/Insurgents
|
Total
|
BANGLADESH
|
|
Islamist Terrorism
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
INDIA
|
|
Assam
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
Jammu and
Kashmir
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
Manipur
|
0
|
3
|
0
|
3
|
Left-wing
Extremism
|
|
Bihar
|
7
|
0
|
0
|
7
|
Maharashtra
|
0
|
3
|
0
|
3
|
Odisha
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
Total (INDIA)
|
8
|
7
|
3
|
18
|
PAKISTAN
|
|
Balochistan
|
3
|
1
|
0
|
4
|
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
|
12
|
4
|
1
|
17
|
Sindh
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
4
|
Total (PAKISTAN)
|
|
|
|
|
Provisional
data compiled from English language media sources.
|
INDIA
Seven
persons
killed
as
Maoists
trigger
cane
bomb
in
Bihar:
Communist
Party
of
India-Maoist
(CPI-Maoist)
cadres
on
October
17
detonated
a
cane
bomb
-
a
trademark
Improvised
Explosive
Device
(IED)
used
by
them
-
to
blow
up
a
vehicle,
killing
all
its
seven
occupants
near
Pathara
village
in
Aurangabad
District.
The
victims
included
Sushil
Pandey,
suspected
Ranvir
Sena
(Militia
of
upper
caste
landowners)
activist
and
husband
of
Zilla
Parishad
(district
level
local
self-Government
institution)
member
Usha
Devi.
Times
of
India,
October
18,
2013.
Maoists
can
carry
out
spectacular
attacks,
says
Union
Minister
for
Home
Affairs
Sushilkumar
Shinde:
The
Union
Minister
of
Home
Affairs
(UMHA)
Sushilkumar
Shinde
October
18
said
the
security
agencies
have
a
lot
of
ground
to
cover
in
neutralizing
the
armed
capability
of
Communist
Party
of
India-Maoist
(CPI-Maoist),
who
have
the
power
to
carry
out
spectacular
attacks
against
soft
targets.
He
said
"The
CPI-Maoist
has
the
capacity
to
launch
spectacular
strikes
in
its
stronghold
areas
(like
Chhattisgarh,
Jharkhand
and
Odisha),
especially
against
soft
targets."
Times
of
India,
October
19,
2013.
Indian
Mujahideen
trying
to
turn
into
al
Qaida-style
Network,
reveals
arrested
IM
leader
Yasin
Bhatkal:
Arrested
Indian
Mujahideen
(IM)
'India
operation
chief'
Yasin
Bhatkal
during
his
recent
interrogations
has
revealed
that
the
outfit
is
now
trying
to
grow
up
as
a
terror
network
like
al
Qaida,
keeping
a
close
liaison
with
Pakistan
based
al
Qaida
network
Tehreek-e-Taliban
Pakistan
(TTP),
admits
arrested
IM
leader
Yasin
Bhatkal,
during
his
recent
interrogations
by
different
intelligence
agencies.
Bhatkal
claimed
that
their
ultimate
mission
is
to
uphold
Sharia
in
India
like
the
Mujahideen
in
Afghanistan
and
Somalia.
Meanwhile,
threat
analysis
carried
out
by
security
agencies
on
the
basis
of
details
provided
by
Yasin
Bhatkal
and
his
aide
Akhtar
Asadullah
revealed
that
IM
has
become
stronger
and
more
lethal
despite
the
arrest
of
over
100
of
its
cadres.
The
group
has
branched
out
to
Pakistan
and
Afghanistan,
where
its
cadres
are
fighting
alongside
the
Taliban.
Times
of
India,
October
21,
2013,
Financial
Express
,
October
17,
2013.
India
getting
US
aid
to
bring
back
Dawood
Ibrahim,
discloses
Union
Minister
for
Home
Affairs
Sushilkumar
Shinde:
Union
Minister
for
Home
Affairs
Sushilkumar
Shinde
disclosed
that
the
help
of
US
intelligence
was
being
taken
to
bring
Dawood
Ibrahim
to
justice.
Indian
intelligence
agencies,
which
are
closely
coordinating
with
the
US
Central
Intelligence
Agency
(CIA),
in
laying
their
hands
on
Dawood
Ibrahim
are
facing
a
major
hurdle
in
Pakistan.
Sources
in
the
agencies
said
they
were
stunned
to
know
that
Dawood
regularly
uses
the
private
helicopter
of
a
top
politician
of
the
ruling
Pakistan
Muslim
League-Nawaz
(PML-Nawaz)
to
fly
to
his
hideout
in
the
Swat
Valley.
Daily
Bhaskar
,
October
17,
2013.
India
rejects
Sharif's
demand
for
US
intervention
on
Kashmir
issue:
Rejecting
Pakistan
Prime
Minister
Nawaz
Sharif's
demand
for
US
intervention
in
resolving
the
Kashmir
issue,
India's
External
Affairs
Minister
Salman
Khurshid
on
October
20
said
India
will
not
accept
this
as
the
matter
is
a
bilateral
one
agreed
to
between
the
two
nations.
"There
is
no
way
in
which
India
will
accept
any
intervention
on
an
issue
that
is
entirely
accepted
in
the
Simla
Agreement
as
a
bilateral
issue
between
India
and
Pakistan,"
he
said.
Meanwhile,
the
Obama
administration
on
October
20
said
there
has
not
been
an
"iota
of
change"
in
its
policy
on
Kashmir
which
considers
it
a
bilateral
issue
between
India
and
Pakistan,
dismissing
the
latest
Pakistani
efforts
to
seek
US
intervention
in
this
regard.
"On
Kashmir,
our
policy
has
not
changed
an
iota,"
an
unnamed
US
official
said.
Earlier
on
October
19,
Pakistan
Prime
Minister
Nawaz
Sharif
has
said
US
intervention
would
resolve
the
Kashmir
issue
between
India
and
Pakistan.
Times
of
India,
October
19-21,
2013.
PAKISTAN
10
people
including
provincial
Law
Minister
Israrullah
Gandapur
killed
in
suicide
attack
in
Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa:
At
least
10
people,
including
Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa
Law
Minister
Israrullah
Gandapur,
were
killed
and
over
30
others
were
injured
when
a
suicide
bomber
struck
a
festive
gathering
at
the
residence
of
Gandapur
in
the
Kolachi
area
of
Dera
Ismail
Khan
District
on
October
16.
Israrullah
Gandapur
was
elected
from
PK-67
(DI
Khan
IV)
as
an
independent
candidate
during
the
2013
General
Elections
and
later
joined
the
Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaf
(PTI).
The
News,
October
17,
2013.
722
terror
suspects
have
rejoined
terrorist
groups
after
acquittal,
says
report:
722
terror
suspects
have
rejoined
terrorist
groups
from
1,964
alleged
terrorists
released
by
courts
from
2007
till
now,
an
official
Government
document
said.
Another
1,197
out
of
1,964
are
still
actively
involved
in
anti-state
activities.
Dawn,
October
21,
2013.
At
least
400
civilians
killed
by
US
drone
strikes
in
Pakistan,
says
UN
official:
Pakistan
has
confirmed
that
of
some
2,200
people
killed
by
drone
strikes
in
the
past
decade,
at
least
400
were
civilians
and
an
additional
200
victims
were
deemed
"probable
non-combatants,"
Ben
Emmerson,
UN
special
rapporteur
on
human
rights
and
counterterrorism
said
on
October
18.
He
also
urged
the
US
to
release
its
own
data
on
the
number
of
civilian
casualties
caused
by
its
drone
strikes.
Times
of
India,
October
19,
2013.
No
evidence
of
Indian
involvement
in
Balochistan's
deteriorating
law
and
order,
says
Balochistan
Chief
Minister
Abdul
Malik
Baloch:
Balochistan
Chief
Minister
Abdul
Malik
Baloch
on
October
16
said
that
he
had
no
evidence
of
Indian
involvement
in
Balochistan's
deteriorating
law
and
order.
However,
he
added
that
the
federal
government
and
federal
agencies
have
such
evidence.
He
also
said
that
the
law
and
order
situation
had
improved
in
Quetta,
therefore
50
per
cent
of
checkposts
set
by
Frontier
Corps
(FC)
had
been
removed.
The
Nation,
October
19,
2013.
President
promulgates
Protection
of
Pakistan
Ordinance:
President
Mamnoon
Hussain
on
October
20
promulgated
the
Protection
of
Pakistan
Ordinance,
which
maintains
that
the
writ
of
the
state
would
be
established
at
all
costs.
The
ordinance
states
that
the
security
and
Law
Enforcement
Agencies
would
jointly
investigate
the
incidents
of
terrorism,
and
the
elements
creating
terror
and
fear
would
be
considered
as
enemies
of
the
state.
The
draft
of
the
ordinance
states
that
Pakistan
and
its
people
had
been
exposed
to
undeclared
and
thankless
wars
that
proliferated
from
the
country's
neighbourhood
since
1979.
Daily
Times,
October
21,
2013.
SRI
LANKA
Colombo
decides
to
summon
CMs
of
all
nine
Provincial
Councils
to
cabinet
meetings
once
a
month:
Colombo
has
decided
to
summon
the
Chief
Ministers
(CMs)
of
all
nine
Provincial
Councils
to
the
cabinet
meetings
once
a
month.
Accordingly,
the
Chief
Ministers
will
attend
the
cabinet
meeting
at
the
third
week
of
every
month.
This
is
a
practice
which
will
be
restarted
after
a
lapse
of
some
time.
Sources
said
that
the
restart
of
the
programme
is
specifically
aimed
at
summoning
the
newly
appointed
Chief
Minister
of
the
Northern
Provincial
Council
C.V.
Vigneswaran
with
whom
the
Government
is
building
up
a
rapid
rapport
for
reconciliation.
Colombo
Page,
October
18,
2013.
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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