| |
SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Weekly Assessments & Briefings
Volume 14, No. 51, June 20, 2016
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
|
Dilemmas
of Transitional Justice
S.
Binodkumar Singh
Research
Associate, Institute for Conflict Management
On June
16, 2016, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC),
which had started recording testimonies regarding insurgency-era
rights’ violations and crimes from April 17, 2016, at
District Peace Committee offices in all 75 Districts,
and was supposed to wrap up the collection of complaints
on June 16, 2016, decided to continue complaint collection
until July 16, 2016, after it learnt that hundreds of
victims are yet to lodge their complaints related to the
war-era. The TRC had distributed 40,000 forms to victims
and, as of June 15, 2016, had received 33,592 complaints.
Earlier,
on June 13, 2016, another transitional justice mechanism,
the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared
Persons (CIEDP), which started receiving complaints on
April 14, 2016, extended the time period for registering
cases related to conflict-era disappearances by another
month, as complaints continue to pour in. As many as 4,000
forms were circulated in all 75 Districts, where disappearance
incidents occurred during the decade-long Maoist insurgency.
The Commission had received 2,084 complaints as of June
12, 2016.
TRC and
CIEDP were formed in February 2015 in the spirit of the
Interim
Constitution of 2007 and the Comprehensive
Peace Agreement of 2006, to probe
instances of the serious violation of human rights and
find the status of those who were disappeared in the course
of the armed conflict between the State and the then Communist
Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-Maoist) from February 13, 1996,
to November 21, 2006. According to the Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Nepal
Conflict Report 2012, between February
1996 and November 2006, the conflict between the Government
of Nepal and the CPN-Maoist left over 13,000 people dead
and 1,300 missing.
On May
19, 2016, in a major development in Nepal’s prolonged
process of transitional justice, TRC started preliminary
investigation on complaints received from conflict victims.
TRC commissioner Madhavi Bhatta, stated on the occasion,
"We have distributed 14,581 complaint forms from
our office and the local peace committees and received
7,789 complaints so far. Therefore going through all the
complaints is a crucial step toward investigation."
However,
at a time when the victims and international human rights
agencies have been urging the Government to bring the
Transitional Justice Act on par with international standards,
five Maoist parties – New Force Nepal led by Baburam Bhattarai,
CPN-Revolutionary Maoist led by Mohan Baidya, CPN (Maoist)
led by Matrika Yadav and Revolutionary Communist Party
Nepal led by Mani Chandra Thapa, besides ruling Unified
Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M)
led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal – in a joint statement on April
21, 2016, called on the Government to scrap conflict-era
cases, claiming that such cases violated the Comprehensive
Peace Accord (CPA) of November 12, 2006. Further, a group
of Maoist cadres, who were either convicted or are under
prosecution in various courts for war-era crimes, on April
25, 2016, formed the ‘Association of Court Victims on
People's War Cases’ at a press conference in Kathmandu
and announced plans to protest against court verdicts
and ongoing prosecutions.
Significantly,
on May 19, 2016, ten Maoist parties at a joint convention
in Kathmandu united
to form a new force under the former rebel commander Pushpa
Kamal Dahal to give birth to what they have decided to
call the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Centre (CPN-Maoist
Centre). Addressing the function organized to announce
the unification, Chairman Dahal declared, “The days of
conspiracy against the revolutionary agenda of republic,
secularism and proportional representation are over. This
unification is a message loud and clear that the days
of people’s victory are here. This unification guarantees
that the transitional justice mechanisms will function
in line with the CPA.” Urging Baburam Bhattarai, former
UCPN-M leader and Coordinator of Naya Shakti Nepal to
come within the unified party, Dahal said “Baburam Bhattarai
was head of the people’s government during the war and
his orders were behind people’s sacrifices and the changes
in the country. So, he will not be free of accountability
just by saying that he has now taken another path. Therefore,
I urge him to join the new Maoist force rather than promoting
the bourgeoisies.”
Earlier,
on May 5, 2016, UCPN-M signed a pre-emptive nine-point
agreement with the Communist Party
of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML), the senior
partner in the ruling alliance. The fact that five of
the nine points in the agreement address issues of transitional
justice shows just how worried the Maoists are about having
to answer for the crimes they committed between 1996 and
2006. One of the points of the agreement obliges CPN-UML
and the Maoists to amend the laws on transitional justice
within 15 days, so that they ‘reflect the spirit of the
CPA’. The two leaders also agreed to register the ownership
of the lands that were transacted on the strength of household
papers during the conflict era on the basis of those same
documents. They also agreed to immediately initiate the
process to withdraw or give clemency on insurgency-era
cases and other ‘politically-motivated’ cases filed on
various occasions.
Expectedly,
slamming the deal between ruling parties, UCPN-M and CPN-UML,
Human Rights groups including Amnesty International, Human
Rights Watch (HRW) and the International Commission of
Jurists (ICJ) on May 13, 2016, in a joint statement accused
the two parties of attempting to ‘wash away the crimes
of the conflict’ with the new agreement. Expressing the
same view, on May 27, 2016, Nepali Congress (NC) President
and former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba declared,
"We cannot stop taking action against those accused
of heinous crimes with only excuse (sic). They can be
punished under different international laws too. So action
should be taken against them." Further, TRC Chairperson
Surya Kiran Gurung noted, on June 4, 2016, “Though there
are talks about granting amnesty at the political level,
cases related to serious human rights breach bear significance
in wider international scenario, and there is no way amnesty
will be granted in each case.” Earlier, on January 7,
2016, a five member Supreme Court (SC) bench headed by
Chief Justice Kalyan Shrestha asserted that there should
not be any amnesty or clemency to murder convicts.
Expressing
their fear at a discussion programme held at Mahendranagar
of Kanchanpur District on June 16, 2016, conflict survivors
said that they were still fearful of lodging complaints,
as no assurance of maintaining confidentiality of personal
information had been given. The participants claimed that
most the families of conflict victims had not yet registered
their complaints after it was found that the responsible
agencies were disclosing the names of the complainants.
Conflict Victim Society Kanchanpur Chairperson Dharma
Singh Chaudhary noted, “Many victim families have not
come to lodge their complaints with the rise in threats
and intimidations after the disclosure of confidentialities
of personal information of complainant (sic).”
However,
on June 7, 2016, Professor Bishnu Pathak, spokesperson
of CIEDP, claimed, "Initially, there were fears among
victims and human rights defenders that the commissions
might not be victim-centric. There was mistrust initially
but we have overcome that situation. The way we are receiving
complaints has encouraged us." Similarly, TRC Chairperson
Surya Kiran Gurung noted, "Political comments on
transitional justice could create some confusion for the
victims but TRC is firm in its intention of carrying out
its tasks as per the provisions of the CIEDP and TRC Act.
TRC is clear that any amendment to the existing act should
be only for meeting international standards and adhering
to court verdicts. We are not bothered by politicians'
comments or actions as we are governed by the laws."
Combatants
are not the only ones under the scanner of transitional
justice mechanisms; complaints have also been filed against
various high ranking officials, including former Prime
Ministers. On May 26, 2016, family members of 17 laborers
who were killed in Kotwada, Kalikot District, on February
23, 2002, on suspicion of being Maoist combatants, filed
a complaint at the TRC against the then Prime Minister
Sher Bahadur Deuba and the then Royal Nepal Army Chief,
General Rookmangud Katawal. Similarly, on June 12, 2016,
Krishna KC, a permanent resident of Baglung Municipality
Ward No. 3, lodged a complaint at the TRC against former
King Gyanendra Shah and five former Prime Ministers including
Girija Prasad Koirala, Surya Bahadur Thapa, Lokendra Bahadur
Chand, Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and Sher Bahadur Deuba,
seeking justice for his detention by the Nepal Army (NA)
for 810 days during the insurgency; and on June 16, 2016,
a woman from Taplejung District, who received deep injuries
to her thigh and knees [the identity of the victim and
other information regarding this case have not been reported
in any open source] during the Maoist insurgency, registered
a complaint against former King Gyanendra Shah and Prime
Minister KP Sharma Oli at the TRC through local peace
committee in Jhapa District, saying she had not received
relief till date and demanded justice.
Despite
the political developments in the country, CIEDP Chairman
Lokendra Mallick, speaking at a function organized by
the Social Justice and Human Rights Committee of Parliament
on June 17, 2016, claimed that the Commission will try
to complete all the investigations in the remaining eight
months before its deadline. Speaking at the same function
TRC Chairperson Gurung observed, “A situation might arise
tomorrow when our leaders cannot visit foreign countries
freely if conflict-era cases are internationalized by
the victims.”
Since the
end of the internal conflict in Nepal, there have been
demands for transitional justice measures in the country.
However, despite the establishment of the TRC and CIEDP,
impunity for violations committed both during the conflict
and in the post-conflict era remains entrenched in the
country’s political culture. It remains to be seen whether
Nepal is able to reconcile the demands of political stability
and continuity, on the one hand, and of justice for war
era excesses, on the other, to establish an enduring constitutional
and political order that will meet the demands of equity
and governance.
|
Ahmadi
Apartheid
Ambreen
Agha
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management
The
Ordinance promulgated by the President (of Pakistan)
on April 26, 1984, goes a long way in accepting
the most extreme demands and transforms much of
the daily life of the Community into a criminal
offence.
-Yohanan
Friedman, Prophecy Continuous (1989)
|
On June
4, 2016, an Ahmadi doctor, identified as Dr. Hameed Ahmed
(65), was shot dead by unidentified militants in the Islam
Colony area of Attock District of Punjab. Dr Hameed had
been facing threats and intimidation on account of being
an Ahmadi. In 2014, his clinic had survived an attempted
arson attack.
On May
25, 2016, another Ahmadi, identified as Daud Ahmad (55),
was killed in a targeted attack while he was waiting for
his friend outside his house in the Gulzar-e Hijri area
of Gulshan Town in Karachi, the provincial capital of
Sindh.
On March
2, 2016, in another such attack, an Ahmadi, identified
as Qamarul Zia (35), was killed for his faith in the Kot
Abdul Malik city of the Sheikhupura District of Punjab.
Zia was killed while he was leaving his house to fetch
his children from school. Zia's murder marked the first
killing of an Ahmadi in 2016. Zia had survived several
attacks in the past. Six months ago, he was attacked by
cadres of the Majlis-e-Tahaffuz-e-Khatm-e-Nubuwwat (MTKN/Organization
for the Preservation of the End
of Prophethood. Zia had also been
attacked by some religious clerics in 2012.
According
to Persecution of Ahmadis, an organization that
documents violence against Ahamdis in Pakistan and rest
of the world, at least 194 Ahmadis have been killed
in Pakistan since 2001 [data till 2015]. Two Ahmadis were
killed in 2015, 11 in 2014, seven in 2013, 10 in 2012,
five in 2011, 99 in 2010, 11 in 2009, six in 2008, five
in 2007, three in 2006, 11 in 2005, one in 2004, three
in 2003, nine in 2002 and 11 in 2001.
According
to South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) data, at
least three Ahmadis have been killed in targeted attacks
in 2016, thus far (Data till June 19, 2016).
In the
worst ever attack on the Ahmadis, at least 86 worshippers
of the community were killed and another 98 were severely
injured in a suicide attack at Darul Zikr and Baitul Noor
mosques in the Model Town and Garhi Shahu areas of Lahore,
the provincial capital of Punjab, on May 28, 2010. Tehreek-e-Taliban
Pakistan (TTP)
claimed responsibility for the attack and congratulated
Pakistanis, calling people of the Ahmadiyya community
“enemies of Islam and common people”. The outfit urged
Pakistanis to take the “initiative” and kill every such
person in “rage”.
Ahmadis
differ with other Muslim sects over the finality of Prophet
Muhammad as the last Prophet. The Ahmadi branch of Islam
was founded on March 23, 1889, by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in
Qadian town of pre-partition Punjab. They believe in the
Prophethood of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, and have endured discrimination
and violent persecution for holding this belief. An estimated
10 to 20 million Ahmadis live all over the world, representing
1 per cent of the total Muslim population. The core community
lives in Pakistan, mainly in Punjab and Sindh Provinces.
The estimated population of Ahmadis in Pakistan is 2-4
million out of the total population of over 192 million,
amounting to 3.1 per cent to 4.2 per cent of the total.
The campaign
against Ahmadis started soon after Independence in 1947,
when religious clerics in the newly created Pakistan demanded
that Ahmadis be declared a non-Muslim minority, and that
Pakistan's first Ahmadi Foreign Minister, Muhammad Zafrullah
Khan, be removed from the cabinet for adopting Articles
18 and 19 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR,
1948), providing for the freedom of conscience and freedom
to change one's religion. Khan had then argued that these
articles were compatible with and recognized under Islamic
Law (Shariah), and declared the adoption of the provisions
of the UDHR as an "epoch making event." Article 18 of
UDHR influenced Article 20 of the then Pakistan Constitution,
which read:
Subject
to law, public order and morality:- (a) every citizen
shall have the right to profess, practice and propagate
his religion; (b) every religious denomination and
every sect thereof shall have the right to establish,
maintain and manage its religious institutions.
|
Violence
against Ahmadis started in March 1953, engulfing Punjab
to claim over a dozen lives. However, the persecution
of Ahmadis was systematically institutionalized on September
6, 1974, when the Pakistan National Assembly under the
leadership of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto declared them as a ‘non-Muslim
minority’. The process to dilute the provisions of Article
20 was, in fact, initiated by Bhutto, in 1974. Later,
in 1984, President General Zia-ul-Haq issued an ordinance
to amend the Objectives Resolution of 1949, in an effort
to placate Muslim clerics and establish the principal
of religious conformity in Pakistan. Under this resolution,
Pakistan was to be modeled on the ideology and democratic
faith of Islam and all rules and regulations were to be
framed in consonance with Islam, allowing a greater role
to the Ulema, who felt emboldened by this recognition.
Thereafter,
five Criminal Ordinances explicitly or principally targeting
religious minorities were passed by Parliament in 1984.
These new laws restricted the freedom of faith for Ahmadis,
among others. The five ordinances included a law against
blasphemy; a law punishing the defiling of the Qur’an;
a prohibition against insulting the wives, family or companions
of the Prophet of Islam; and two laws specifically restricting
the activities of Ahmadis. Zia-ul-Haq issued the last
two laws as part of Martial Law Ordinance XX, on April
26, 1984, suppressing the activities of religious minorities,
specifically including the Ahmadis, by prohibiting them
from “directly or indirectly posing as Muslims.” Since
then, a number of Ahmadi Muslims have been jailed for
either reciting the Qur’an, or praying like a Muslim,
or identifying themselves as Muslims.
Even as
the persecution of Ahmadis was legalized and institutionalized
in Pakistan, the hard-line Islamist clergy demanded a
systematic purge of the Ahmadis. Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s
Party (PPP) aggressively pushed this agenda and its leaders
boasted of the anti-Ahmadi initiatives as the Party’s
most noteworthy achievement. Indeed, even today, former
Prime Minister and PPP leader Raja Parvez Ashraf, speaking
at a political rally in Kotli, Azad Jammu and Kashmir,
on April 29, 2016, declared,
No
one has been able to compete with Pakistan People's
Party, if someone has served Islam! Only the Government
of Martyr Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto did it. 90 Year Old
Problem, the Problem of Qadianis [Ahmadis] who challenged
the Prophethood of Prophet Muhammad PBUH, (PPP)
shut them up, broke their neck and buried the [Ahmadi]
Problem (sic).
|
The rally
was also attended by PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari
and another former PPP Prime Minister, Syed Yousuf Raza
Gillani. Such statements by a former Prime Minister reek
of hate and intolerance and are a demonstration of the
dangers of religious prejudice and persecution that are
nurtured by the Pakistani establishment and that have
now travelled beyond Pakistan’s borders.
The ideology
of intolerance and hate, which triggered the growth of
extremism in Pakistan, also operates within the Pakistani
Diaspora. The hatred for the Ahmadi has thus been exported
to western countries as well. Recently, in an unprecedented
anti-Ahmadi incident in the UK, an Ahmadi shopkeeper,
identified as Asad Shah (40), was stabbed to death by
another British Muslim in Scotland on March 24, 2016.
Shah’s killer was identified as Tanveer Ahmad, a 32-year
old Pakistani Muslim. Ahmad expressed no regrets for killing
Shah and claimed that he had committed the act because
Shah had “disrespected Islam,” and was a blasphemer. Significantly,
Ahmad received praise from radical Sunni groups for this
“courageous act”. The Aalmi Majlis Tahaffuz Khatm-e- Nubuwwat
(AMTKN / International Organization for the Preservation
of the End of Prophethood), the sister organization of
the MTKN, congratulated all Muslims on Asad’s cold-blooded
murder on its Facebook page, in a gloating message
“congratulation to All Muslims.”
Further,
on April 10, 2016, leaflets calling for the killing of
members of the Ahmadi sect were found in the Stockwell
Green Mosque located in south London. The leaflets warned
Ahmadis to either convert to ‘mainstream Islam’ within
three days or face “capital punishment” [death].
Back in
Pakistan, a Canadian cardiologist, identified as Mehdi
Ali Qamar (51), was shot dead on his return to his home
in the Chenab Nagar town (also known as Rabwah) of Chiniot
District in the Punjab Province on May 24, 2014. Qamar
had come to Pakistan on a short visit to render voluntary
service to the Tahir Cardiac Hospital and was killed outside
the Ahmadi graveyard located in Rabwah.
Shah’s
murder in Glasgow and the targeted sectarian killings
in Pakistan bring an embedded culture of sectarian hatred
to the forefront. This culture is fostered by organizations
like MTKN that have gained political, legal and constitutional
legitimacy in the ‘Land of the Pure’.
MTKN was
established by its mother organization, Majlis Ahrar Islam
Pakistan (Organization for the freedom of Islam in Pakistan)
prior to the 1953 anti-Ahmadi riots and soon after the
partition of the sub-continent. It declares on its website,
Its
sole aim has been and is to unite all the Muslims
of the world to safeguard the sanctity of Prophethood
and the finality of Prophethood and to refute the
repudiators of the belief in the finality of Prophethood
of the Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad.
|
The MTKN
cult of violence against the Ahmadis, which includes endured
discrimination, violent persecution, criminalization of
identity, vandalizing of mosques and homes; and desecration
of graves, has been transported to the west. A 2010 AMTKN
calendar read, “The only cure of Qadianis (Ahmadis):
Al Jihad, Al Jihad.”
The anti-Ahmadi
culture and sentiment thrives with the unchecked circulation
of hate literature. The anti-Ahmadi text ‘Tohfa Qadianiat’
written by Maulvi Yusuf Ludhianvi, in which he urges ‘
true Muslims’ to “not to leave a single Qadiani alive
on earth”, is openly sold across Pakistan. Significantly,
on June 10, 2011, the All Pakistan Students Khatm-e-Nubuwwat
Federation, the student wing of the MTKN, issued pamphlets
branding members of the Ahmadiyya community as “wajib-ul-qatl”
(obligatory to be killed). The pamphlet, circulated in
the Faisalabad District of Punjab Province, read, “To
shoot such people is an act of jihad and to kill
such people is an act of sawab (blessing).” Worse,
in an outrageous attempt to further restrict the religious
freedom of Ahmadis, the Government of Punjab on May 10,
2015, banned more than 90 books and publications by the
members of the Ahmadi community. These books primarily
include the whole body of work by the founder of the community.
Such state-backed
religious zealotry has cost many innocent Ahmadi lives.
Anti-Ahmadi violence persists inside Pakistan, with little
to no effective Pakistani Government response at Federal,
Provincial, or local levels. While the claims of “success
against the militants” in tribal areas continue to resound
at high decibels, attacks on Ahmadis occur unchecked.
On November 13, 2013, Mehboob Qadir, a retired Brigadier
of the Pakistan Army, wrote in Daily Times “The
state has lost its sense of responsibility, control, direction,
leaving the field open to all sorts of rogues, ruffians
and assassins from all over the world in the name of jihad.”
Regrettably, there is little evidence that the Pakistani
state is now prepared to abandaon this long-standing policy
of employing terrorism as an instrument of state policy
and for domestic political management.
|
Weekly Fatalities: Major
Conflicts in South Asia
June
13-19, 2016
|
Civilians
|
Security
Force Personnel
|
Terrorists/Insurgents
|
Total
|
BANGLADESH
|
|
Islamist Terrorism
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
INDIA
|
|
Jammu and
Kashmir
|
1
|
2
|
11
|
14
|
Meghalaya
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
Left-Wing
Extremism
|
|
Bihar
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
Chhattisgarh
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
Jharkhand
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
Maharashtra
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
3
|
Total (INDIA)
|
3
|
4
|
15
|
22
|
PAKISTAN
|
|
Balochistan
|
4
|
0
|
9
|
13
|
FATA
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
KP
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
3
|
Sindh
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
5
|
Total (PAKISTAN)
|
|
|
|
|
Provisional
data compiled from English language media sources.
|
BANGLADESH
Prime
Minister
urges
US
President
to
work
together
to
fight
terrorism:
Strongly
condemning
the
deadly
terrorist
attack
on
a
Florida
community
club
in
the
US,
Prime
Minister
Sheikh
Hasina
on
June
13
urged
US
President
Barack
Obama
to
work
together
to
fight
terrorism.
"I
condemn
this
dastardly
act
of
terror
in
the
strongest
possible
term
and
reiterate
my
government's
'zero
tolerance'
policy
against
any
form
of
terrorism
and
violent
extremism.
Let's
redouble
our
collective
efforts
to
eradicate
these
hateful
menaces
from
our
peace-loving
societies,"
she
said
in
a
message
sent
to
Barack
Obama.
New
Age,
June
14,
2016.
INDIA
Terrorists
planning
26/11
like
attack
on
islands
and
ports
across
India,
state
Intelligence
agencies:
Intelligence
agencies
have
warned
the
government
about
terror
threat
to
port
and
small
islands
spread
across
the
Bay
of
Bengal
and
the
Arabian
Sea,
as
according
to
intelligence
inputs,
terrorists
are
on
the
lookout
for
launching
an
attack
similar
to
the
26/11
(November
26,
2008)
Mumbai
attack
on
these
vulnerable
targets.
Sources
in
the
Intelligence
Bureau
(IB)
said
that
about
180
small
ports
and
islands
are
on
the
hit
list
of
terror
organisations
active
in
the
region.
Militants
may
take
advantage
of
slack
security
at
these
locations
to
strike,
intelligence
reports
said.
India
Today,
June
18,
2016.
India's
coastal
security
vulnerable,
need
to
make
it
impregnable,
states
UHM
Rajnath
Singh:
Union
Home
Minister
(UHM)
Rajnath
Singh
on
June
16
(today)
insisted
on
the
need
to
make
India's
coastal
security
fool
proof
and
impregnable.
During
his
meeting
with
top
officials
of
nine
coastal
states
and
four
Union
Territories
to
review
coastal
security,
Singh
said
the
vulnerability
of
India's
coasts
was
exposed
in
1993
when
explosives
were
smuggled
to
Raigadh
(Maharashtra)
and
then
in
2008
when
terrorists
attacked
Mumbai.
He,
however,
underlined
that
a
number
of
initiatives
have
been
taken
to
strengthen
the
coastal
security
after
terror
struck
Mumbai
in
2008.
Zee
News,
June
16,
2016.
ISI
paid
IM
operative
Riyaz
Bhatkal
INR
26
crore
to
bomb
India,
says
report:
Pakistan's
Inter-Services
Intelligence
(ISI)
had
paid
Riyaz
Bhatkal
INR
26
crore
to
carry
out
blasts
in
India,
investigations
have
revealed.
Riyaz
Bhatkal
also
got
a
bungalow
in
Karachi,
Pakistan
security
investigations
have
also
revealed.
This
now
appears
to
be
the
source
of
the
problem
which
led
to
such
a
major
split
in
the
Indian
Mujahideen
(IM).
Yasin
Bhatkal
had
always
complained
that
he
had
to
do
the
dirty
work
on
the
field
while
Riyaz
and
his
brother
Iqbal
enjoyed
life
in
a
secure
bungalow.
One India,
June
16,
2016.
Cyber
Crimes
up
19
times
over
10
years,
says
report:
Cyber
crimes
reported
in
India
rose
19
times
over
the
last
10
years
(2005
to
2014),
from
481
in
2005
to
9,622
in
2014.
India
is
now
ranked
third
-
after
the
US
and
China
-
as
a
source
of
"malicious
activity"
on
the
internet,
second
as
a
source
of
"malicious
code"
and
fourth
and
eight
as
a
source
or
origin
for
web
attacks
and
network
attacks.
Arrests
involving
cyber
crimes
also
rose
nine
times
from
569
in
2005
to
5,752
in
2014,
according
to
National
Crime
Records
Bureau
(NCRB)
data,
even
as
more
Indians
logged
on
to
the
internet.
Internet
subscribers
in
India
crossed
the
400
million
mark,
and
are
expected
to
reach
462
million
by
June
2016.
Sme Times,
June
16,
2016.
NEPAL
Government
will
strictly
follow
time-bound
action
plan
to
implementation
of
new
Constitution,
says
Prime
Minister
KP
Sharma
Oli:
Prime
Minister
KP
Sharma
Oli
addressing
an
interaction
'Implementation
of
Constitution:
Challenge
and
Accountability'
organized
by
the
High
Level
Administration
Reforms
and
Implementation
Committee
in
Kathmandu
on
June
17
said
that
the
Government
will
strictly
follow
time-bound
action
plan
to
implementation
of
the
new
Constitution.
He
also
urged
the
main
opposition
Nepali
Congress
(NC)
party
to
cooperate
with
the
Government
in
this
endeavor.
The
Himalayan
Times,
June
18,
2016.
Government
unveils
plan
for
implementation
of
new
Constitution:
The
Government
on
June
16
unveiled
its
time-bound
work
plan
to
hold
three
elections
by
2017-end
for
the
implementation
of
the
new
Constitution.
The
Cabinet
meeting
endorsed
the
action
plan
to
implement
the
Constitution
by
January
24,
2018,
including
the
ambitious
plan
to
hold
local,
federal
and
parliamentary
elections.
The
Himalayan
Times,
June
18,
2016
PAKISTAN
‘Existence
of
terrorist
safe
havens
in
Pakistan
affects
relationship
with
US,
says
Pentagon
report:
The
continued
existence
of
terrorist
safe
havens
in
Pakistan
and
its
inability
to
take
action
against
them
affect
the
United
States
(US)-Pakistan
bilateral
ties,
including
security
assistance,
the
Pentagon
said
in
its
six-monthly
report
on
Afghanistan
sent
to
the
Congress
on
June
17.
According
to
the
report,
"The
US
continues
to
be
clear
with
Pakistan
about
steps
it
should
take
to
improve
the
security
environment
and
deny
safe
haven
to
terrorist
and
extremist
groups".
The Indian Express,
June
19,
2016.
JeM
handler
who
directed
Pathankot
attack
flees
to
Afghanistan:
Jaish-e-Mohammed
(JeM)
handler
who
gave
directions
over
phone
to
the
terrorists
during
the
attack
on
the
Pathankot
airbase
has
reportedly
managed
to
flee
to
Afghanistan
from
Pakistan,
said
an
unnamed
official
on
June
16.
"The
alleged
JeM
handler
who
communicated
by
telephone
more
than
two-dozen
times
with
the
terrorists
in
Pathankot
before
they
carried
out
the
attack
on
the
airbase
on
January
2,
2016,
has
managed
to
cross
into
Afghan
border,"
a
member
of
the
Joint
Investigation
Team
(JIT)
probing
the
attack
said.
Times
of
India,
June
17,
2016.
Afghan
border
will
be
fenced
off,
says
FO
spokesman
Nafees
Zakaria:
During
the
weekly
press
briefing
in
Islamabad
on
June
16,
the
Foreign
Office
(FO)
spokesman
Nafees
Zakaria
said
that
border
management
was
part
of
Pakistan's
strategy
to
counter
terrorism
and
the
border
with
Afghanistan
would
be
fenced
off
while
more
gates
will
be
constructed.
"Other
than
Torkham,
gates
would
also
be
installed
at
other
border
crossings
and
there
would
be
no
going
back
in
this
regard,"
Zakaria
said.
The News,
June
17,
2016.
490
soldiers
killed
in
line
of
duty,
work
still
left
to
do
in
Zarb-i-Azb,
says
ISPR:
The
Inter-Services
Public
Relations
(ISPR)
Director
General
(DG)
Lieutenant
General
Asim
Bajwa
said
on
June
15
that
490
soldiers
of
the
Pakistan
Army
have
died
in
the
line
of
duty
during
Operation
Zarb-i-Azb
and
work
is
still
left
to
do
-
including
improving
the
border
management
mechanism
with
Afghanistan
as
well
as
clearing
restive
pockets
in
areas
of
Swat.
The
ISPR
DG
Lieutenant
General
Asim
Bajwa
was
addressing
a
press
conference
on
the
two-year
anniversary
of
Operation
Zarb-i-Azb
and
presented
major
achievements
of
the
operation
so
far
-
listing
progress
made
on
various
fronts.
Dawn,
June
17,
2016.
US
Senate
passes
USD
800
million
NDA
Bill
for
Pakistan:
The
United
States
(US)
Senate
on
June
15
passed
its
USD
800
million
draft
of
the
National
Defence
Authorisation
Bill,
including
a
provision
to
set
up
a
new
fund
to
reimburse
Pakistan
for
its
efforts
in
the
war
against
terrorism.
The
Senate
version
that
authorises
USD
800
million
is
called
the
`Pakistan
Security
Enhancement
Authorisation'.
It
also
fences
USD
300
million
behind
a
similar
Haqqani
Network
provision
that
has
existed
in
the
Annual
Defence
Authorisation
Acts
since
the
Fiscal
Year
2015.
Dawn,
June
16,
2016.
SRI
LANKA
Human
Rights
Commission
releases
its
proposals
on
constitutional
reforms
to
public:
The
Human
Rights
Commission
of
Sri
Lanka
released
its
proposals
on
constitutional
reforms
to
the
public.
The
Commission
presented
its
proposals
on
constitutional
reform
to
the
Prime
Minister,
the
Speaker
and
the
Public
Representations
Committee
on
Constitutional
Reform
in
March
2016.
The
Commission
said
the
need
to
release
the
proposals
in
three
languages
caused
an
undue
delay
for
releasing
them
to
the
public.
Colombo Page,
June
17,
2016.
Conflict-affected
people
in
Sri
Lanka
still
struggling
to
regain
economic
stability,
says
ICRC:
International
Committee
of
the
Red
Cross
(ICRC)
in
a
report
said
that
Conflict-affected
people
in
Sri
Lanka
still
struggling
to
regain
economic
stability.
"We
support
vulnerable
households
in
the
north
and
east
of
the
country
to
start
a
small
business
of
their
choice
through
our
Micro
Economic
Initiatives
program,
which
is
carried
out
in
line
with
the
Sri
Lankan
government's
community
empowerment
program,"
the
ICRC
said.
Colombo Page,
June
14,
2016.
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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