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SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Weekly Assessments & Briefings
Volume 14, No. 9, August 31, 2015

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


ASSESSMENT

NEPAL
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Enduring Vulnerabilities
Ajit Kumar Singh
Research Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management

August 24, 2015, turned out to be the bloodiest day in Nepal since the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of November 21, 2006, when the then Nepal Prime Minister (PM) Girija Prasad Koirala and Chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist [CPN-M, now known as Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M)] Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda, agreed on the terms to bring the Maoist insurgency to an end. On August 24, 2015, at least 20 people – 17 policemen, including the Superintendent of Police of the Seti Zone, Laxman Neupane, and three protesters – were killed and over 100 others were injured in clashes between Tharuhat activists and the Police at Shankarpur area of Tikapur Municipality in Kailali District. The protestors were demanding a Tharuhat Autonomous Province.

The worst insurgency related incident, after November 21, 2006, had taken place on May 29, 2007, when nine persons, including a child, were killed as three bombs exploded in a house at Bhutuke village in the Gothadi Village Development Committee (VDC) area of Palpa District. According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), Nepal recorded nine major insurgency-related incidents (each involving three or more fatalities) after the CPA, the last of these was on April 30, 2012, when at least five people died and two dozen were injured in a bomb explosion at Ramanand Chowk in Dhanusa District. Though Nepal has recorded 298 insurgency-related fatalities, including 178 civilians, five Security Force (SF) personnel and 115 insurgents, since the CPA, the last of such fatalities occurred on August 24, 2012, when unidentified assailants had killed the general secretary of the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF)-affiliated Factory Workers Union (FWU), Rama Shankar Mandal, in the Birgunj area of Parsa District.

Though the insurgency has subsided, Nepal disturbingly continues to witness significant ‘political violence’. According to the Global Terrorism Database, the number of fatalities due to political violence, between November 22, 2006, and December 31, 2014, stood at 48. According to SATP data, Nepal has already recorded 25 fatalities, including 17 policemen and eight civilians, due to political violence in 2015 (data till August 27, 2015). Of these, 24 were recorded in August alone.

According to a Nepal Police data, Nepal recorded a total of 1,047 strikes between April 2010 and April 2015. The number of strikes stood at 221 between April 2010-March 2011; 257 between April 2011-March 2012; 183 between April 2012-March 2013; 201 between April 2013-March 2014; and 185 between April 2014-March 2015. Though no further data for the current year is available, reports quoting Nepal Ministry of Home Affairs indicated that, on August 17, 2015, alone, more than 51 Districts across the country witnessed strikes, including transport halts, school and college closures and business and industrial shutdowns.     

The recent round of violent protests which had engulfed the Himalayan nation commenced on July 9, 2015, when the four major parties – Nepali Congress (NC), Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML), UCPN-M, and Madhesi Janadhikar Forum-Loktantrik (MJF-L) – decided to collect public opinion on the provisions of the draft Constitution. Groups in opposition to the decision had threatened severe protests if the major political parties did not pay heed to their principal demand, the inclusion of provisions in the Draft Constitution for Nepal to be federated into 11 provinces as recommended by the State Restructuring Commission formed in 2011, and not into eight as agreed in the 16-point Agreement between the four principal parties.

The Government, however, not only completed the process of collecting public opinion on the provisions of the draft Constitution on July 27, 2015, but on August 8, 2015, decided to divide the country into six provinces, even less than the eight province model which had become the bone of contention. Though the names of the Provinces were not declared the boundaries were demarcated:  Province 1 [Taplejung, Panchthar, Ilam, Sankhusabha, Terhathum, Dhankuta, Bhojpur, Khotang, Solukhumbu, Okhaldhunga, Udaypur, Jhapa, Morang and Sunsari], Province 2 [Saptari, Siraha, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi, Rautahat, Bara and Parsa], Province 3 [Dolakha, Ramechhap, Sindhuli, Kavrepalanchowk, Sindhupalchowk, Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading, Chitwan, Makwanpur, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur and Kathmandu], Province 4 [Gorkha, Lamjung, Tanahun, Kaski, Manang, Mustang, Parbat, Syangja, Myagdi, Baglung (eastern part) and Nawalparasi (east of Daunne)], Province 5 [Nawalparasi (west of Daunne), Rupandehi, Kapilvastu. Palpa, Arghkhanchi, Gulmi, Baglung (western part), Rukum (east of Rukumkot),  Rolpa, Pyuthan, Dang, Banke and Bardiya], and Province 6 [Dolpa, Jumla, Mugu, Humla, Kalikot, Jajarkot, Dailekh, Surkhet, Bajura, Bajhang, Doti, Achham, Darchula, Baitadi, Dadeldhura, Kanchanpur,Salyan, Rukum (west of Rukumkot) and Kailali].

Unsurprisingly, violent protests intensified, and a day later, on August 10, 2015, two persons, identified as Tikaram Gautam and Yam Bahadur B.C., were killed and another 50 were injured as protests against the proposed provincial demarcations turned violent in Surkhet District. With pressure building, the Government revisited its decision on August 21, 2015, and decided to split the sixth province, which was the biggest in size in the earlier model, into two: Province 6 and Province 7. According to reports, Province 6 which earlier had 19 Districts, will now contain 10 Districts, while the remaining nine will go to Province 7. Province 6 will include Surkhet, Salyan, Dailekh, Jajarkot, Rukum (split), Kalikot, Jumla, Dolpa, Mugu and Humla; while Province 7 will include Kailali, Kanchanpur, Doti, Dadeldhura, Achham, Baitadi, Bajura, Bajhang and Darchula Districts. Reports also added that, though the boundary demarcation of the first five provinces that were agreed upon earlier more or less remained unchanged, the Thori VDC of Parsa District was brought under Province 3.

With this decision, the demand for a single province comprising of all mid-western Districts was addressed. However, the Tharu community, which was demanding a Tharuhat Autonomous Province, remained unsatisfied and consequently intensified their protest. Dhaniram Chaudhari, coordinator of the ongoing Tharuhat movement stated, "We are discussing new strategies to make our voice heard. Tharus are prepared to go to any extent to get their demands fulfilled."

Violence then intensified further, culminating in the August 24 incident at Kailali. Since then, most of Nepal, though primarily the Terai region, has seen violent protests. At the time of writing, much of the Terai remains under curfew. The Nepal Army (NA) has been deployed to bring the volatile situation under control.

These violent political protests, which are the product of the prevailing environment of acute political confrontations, are obstructing the finalization of the draft of the new constitution. A time bound agreement has long been sought, but in the absence of a consensus, the principal political formations had sought to push through the formula arrived at in the 16-point Agreement, which has been rejected by some of the smaller parties, and particularly by all Madhesi groups. The primary reason for their opposition was the apparent attempt by the four major parties to further delay final decision on the most contentious issue of federalism. The major demand of these parties, mainly the Madhes groups, was to carve out provinces based on ethnic identity. However, the 16-point agreement sought to put off the issue of federalism for some time, as Point 3 of the agreement read, "The Nepal Government will form a federal commission to recommend on demarcation of federal provinces. The commission will have a tenure of six months. The Legislature-Parliament will take a final decision on the demarcation with a two-thirds majority after the recommendation of the commission."

Nevertheless, on August 27, 2015, President Ram Baran Yadav told PM Sushil Koirala that a new Constitution should be framed without any further delay, but that the major parties should try to take all stakeholders on board in the process. According to President's Press Advisor Rajendra Dahal the President told the PM, “You have tried to win the confidence of all the stakeholders until now and you still need to try to do so till the final hours of the constitution making process.”

Evidently, a Constitution that is as inclusive as possible is the desirable objective. The present formulations have a measure of arbitrariness, and need to be smoothed out in consultation with the Madhesi groups. As commentator Prashant Jha noted, the political leaders in Nepal should be advised "to resolve core outstanding issues and promulgate a constitution that all Nepalis can own". India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was brought into the controversy, also advised Prime Minister Koirala to seek the fullest participation of all stakeholders, declaring, "Five to ten people cannot sit in a room and write the constitution. All parties and forces should sit together. There must be greater dialogue." Earlier, while addressing Nepal’s Constituent Assembly (CA) on August 3, 2014, Modi had made a similar observation, reportedly advising CA members to write the Constitution based on consensus: "Let the Nepali Constitution be one in which all sections of Nepali society feel that it is a bouquet where one flower represents them and their aspirations."

But murky political allegations have muddied the waters further. On  August 24, 2015, Bamdev Gautam, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of Nepal, referring to the sequence of events leading to violence on that day, alleged in Parliament that “he had heard that a large number of intruders from the south” had entered Gaur in Rautahat District. He was obviously referring to India, as Nepal shares its Southern borders with the country.

While the imperatives of a consensual process cannot be overemphasised, no party or political cabal can secure a veto on the entire process by resorting to violence. While a show of strength and determination will be necessary on the part of the Government, the space for political accommodation will also have to be fully explored.

INDIA
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Odisha: Shrinking Battlefront
Mrinal Kanta Das
Research Assistant, Institute for Conflict Management

Three Border Security Force (BSF) personnel and a civilian were killed and six BSF personnel, including an Assistant Commandant, were seriously injured in a Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) ambush at Palangarai ghat (ferry point) on Gurupriya River under the Chitrakonda Police Station limits in the Malkangiri District of Odisha early in the morning on August 26, 2015. According to reports, the BSF patrol party was returning to its base camp at Janbai, where a bridge is being built over Gurupriya River to provide connectivity to the cut-off area, when the Maoists first triggered a landmine blast and then opened indiscriminate fire.

Before this incident, the last major incident (involving three or more casualties) in Odisha in which Security Forces (SFs) were at the receiving end, took place on August 27, 2013, in Koraput District, where four BSF personnel were killed in a landmine blast on a busy National Highway. In the two years between these two major incidents, Odisha witnessed only four SF fatalities, including a village guard and a Special Police Officer (SPO, a member of an auxiliary force raised to aid the Police).

According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) database, till August 30, 2015, 20 persons including 10 civilians, four SF personnel and six Maoists have been killed in Odisha in Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-related incidents, in comparison to 33 persons, including 24 civilians, one SF trooper and eight Maoists, killed over the same period in 2014. Though four months remain in 2015, the decline in fatalities conforms to the broader declining trend in LWE-related violence in Odisha since 2010.

Fatalities in Left-Wing Extremist Violence in Odisha: 2010-2015

Years

Civilians
SFs
Terrorists
Total

2010

62
21
25
108

2011

36
16
23
75

2012

27
19
14
60

2013

22
7
25
54

2014

31
1
9
41

2015

10
4
6
20

Total*

188
68
102
358
*Data updated till August 30, 2015

What is significant, however, is that more than half of the fatalities in 2015 have occurred in Malkangiri District while, so far, there is just one fatality in Koraput. This is crucial, since Malkangiri and Koraput were long in a vice-like Maoist grip.

District wise fatalities in Left-wing Extremism in Odisha : 2015

Districts

Civilians
SF
Terrorists
Total

Angul

1
0
0
1

Kalahandi

2
0
2
3

Kandhamal

0
0
2
2

Koraput

0
1
0
1

Malkangiri

7
3
3
13

Total*

10
4
6
20
*Data updated till August 30, 2015

The most significant factor in these trends was Sabyasachi Panda’s expulsion by the Maoists in August 2012 and his subsequent arrest on July 17, 2014. Panda had long dominated Maoist activities in Odisha, and his neutralization considerably weakened the rebel group’s activities in Kandhamal, Ganjam Gajapati and Rayagada Districts. The Maoists did retain their strength in Koraput and Malkangiri, and continued unsuccessfully to try to build up a new ‘corridor’ from Chhattisgarh to Jharkhand through Nuapada, Balangir, Sambalpur and Deogarh, but were left with a residual ‘core area’ that covered just Koraput and Malkangiri. Data on various parameters linked to Maoist activities now suggests that their operations have diminished drastically in Koraput, especially after large-scale desertion of cadres of the Narayanpatna-based Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangha (CMAS), a Maoist front organisation in Koraput, in 2013, capped by the surrender of CMAS ‘president’ Nachika Linga on October 28, 2014. This has left the Maoists clinging on in Malkangiri, while they direct some distracting efforts towards a few other locations in the State. Among the most significant incidents in the State in 2015 were:

August 17, 2015: Maoists killed a tribal, identified as Gurumurthy Madhi, suspecting him to be police informer, and left his body with some posters near Telarai under Motu Police Station limits in Malkangiri District.    

June 3, 2015: Fearing the Maoists, around 60 tribal families of the cut off region of the Balimela Reservoir in Malkangiri District left their village and sought security from the District administration. The panic-stricken villagers said the Maoists had killed two villagers a few days previously, suspecting them to be Police informers, set several homes on fire, and threatened to kill them.

April 14, 2015: The Maoists abducted 11 persons, including a former ‘chairman’ of a panchayat samiti [elected village self-government committee] in Malkangiri District and released them on April 16 after holding a ‘people’s court’ where they thrashed three of the abductees, including the local sarpanch (elected village head) for 'helping the Police'.

Malkangiri, located on the troubled tri-junction of Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh, has always been a tough challenge and recorded several major attacks on SFs in the past. Though the Maoists dominate virtually the entire District, the ‘cut off area’ – 150-odd villages of the Kudumulu Gumma Block separated from the rest of the Block by the Balimela Reservoir – have been particularly problematic. This area, sandwiched between the Reservoir on one side and a hill tract on the other, is highly inaccessible. An approach from the Reservoir is possible only by motorised boats, and is highly exposed (as evidenced by the June 29, 2008, attack that killed 38 SF personnel). The circuitous route from the other side is made even difficult by the absence of a bridge over the Gurupriya River at Janbai; and the Maoists have thwarted every attempt to construct a bridge at this location. In the latest round, construction work has finally started with high security cover, and the BSF has set up a base camp at Janbai. This has brought the SFs much too close for comfort for the Maoists, who fear that, if the bridge is completed, the cut-off area may no longer remain a safe haven.

It is useful to recall that on February 10, 2012, within 20 days of establishment of a base camp at Janbai, four BSF personnel, including commandant Jeevan Ram Khaswan, were killed in an ambush by the Maoists, when the BSF personnel were on their way to Chitrakonda from their camp at Balimela. BSF has, however, managed to avoid any such attack in Malkangiri since. In fact, BSF has suffered just three major attacks in Odisha since its deployment in anti-Maoist operations in April 2010: the February 10, 2012, incident; the August 27, 2013, attack in which four BSF personnel were killed and another three were injured in a landmine blast in the Sunki Ghat area under the Pottangi Police Station of Koraput District; and the latest ambush on August 26 at Janbai. Significantly, in all three incidents over three and a half years, the Maoists used landmines to throw the SF units off guard.

As the battlefront moves closer to the last remaining Maoist comfort zone in Odisha, SFs have slowly started denting the Maoist network in Malkangiri. Thus, on July 31, 2015, three Maoists, including two females, were killed in an encounter with the Special Operations Group (SOG) and District Voluntary Force (DVF) of the Odisha Police in Burudi Forest near Tandki village in Malkangiri. Acting on intelligence inputs that around 20 Maoists were holding a meeting at the remote spot as part of their ‘Martyrs’ week’ commemoration SFs raided the area. As the SFs approached the spot the Maoists opened fire. The three Maoists were killed in retaliatory fire and the camp was dismantled. Three country-made guns, one INSAS rifle, a Self-Loading Rifle (SLR), live ammunition, grenades, as well as materials including kitbags and Maoist literature, were seized from the spot. The slain Maoists are yet to be identified.

As the Maoists come under sustained pressure in the Andhra-Odisha Border (AOB) region, their leadership has reportedly formed a new committee, the ‘Malkangiri-Visakha-Koraput Divisional Committee’, with an experienced leader at the helm, in an attempt to strengthen the rank and file and restore organisational capacities. According to sources, the new committee was formed after the visit of Maoist central committee (CC) leaders to the Visakha Agency in Andhra Pradesh in May-June 2015. Around 14 leaders from the Dandakaranya Zonal Committee of Chhattisgarh, including the head of the Maoist Central Military Commission, Namballa Kesava Rao alias Ganganna, and Central Regional Bureau (CRB) chief Katakam Sudarsan alias Anand, are learned to have visited the District. A few days after their visit, another team of nine members interacted with squads and area committees in the AOB region.

As Maoists struggle to retain their traditional strongholds in Odisha, they appear to be adopting a range of diversionary tactics, with a civilian killing in Angul District, just the second incident in the District, where the first incident was recorded in 2008); and two civilians killed in Kalahandi District, where the last such killing was recorded in 2011. The Maoists have also been involved in 13 exchange of fire incidents in Odisha in 2015 (data till August 30) – one in Deogarh, two in Koraput, three each in Malkangiri and Kandhamal, and four in Kalahandi. The Maoists also engineered one explosion each in Rayagada, Balangir and Koraput Districts, and two explosions in Malkangiri District in 2015.

As the Odisha State Police and Government progressively come to accept ownership of the problem of the Maoist insurgency and actively cooperate and coordinate their operations with the available Central Forces deployed in the State, there has been a dramatic consolidation. Enormous and coordinated pressure is now being exerted against the residual Maoist strength, particularly in Malkangiri and the cut-off areas within the District, even as the Maoist networks unravel in other afflicted Districts of the State. If operations are sustained, and progressively backed by an outreach of civil governance in long-neglected regions, a Maoist comeback will become progressively more difficult. The Maoists have been beaten back virtually across their imagined ‘Red Corridor’. This, their leadership concedes, is a critical moment for their movement. Nevertheless, the Maoists have demonstrated enormous resilience in the past and there is, consequently, no space for complacence on the part of the state.


NEWS BRIEFS

Weekly Fatalities: Major Conflicts in South Asia
August 24-30, 2015

 

Civilians

Security Force Personnel

Terrorists/Insurgents

Total

INDIA

 

Assam

1
0
3
4

Jammu and Kashmir

1
0
4
5

Manipur

.
0
2
2

Nagaland

2
0
6
8

Left-Wing Extremism

 

Chhattisgarh

1
0
0
1

Jharkhand

0
0
2
2

Odisha

1
3
0
4

Total (INDIA)

6
3
17
26

PAKISTAN

 

Balochistan

8
2
16
26

FATA

4
9
26
39

KP

1
2
0
3

Punjab

4
0
1
5

Sindh

16
3
2
21

PAKISTAN (Total)

33
16
45
94
Provisional data compiled from English language media sources.


BANGLADESH

Government has planned to flush out directors, officers and employees with links to JeI from IBBL, say officials: Officials of Foreign and Finance Ministries said that the Government has planned to flush out directors, officers and employees with links to Jamaat-e Islami (JeI) from the Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL). The officials said that the plan gained momentum after the Government obtained a 'green signal' from Yousif Abdullah Al-Rajhi, vice chairman and a foreign director of IBBL. New Age, August 26, 2015.


INDIA

17 'missing' Indians are believed to have joined IS, according to report: According to a list prepared by Union Ministry of Home Affairs (UMHA), 17 Indians are now 'missing'. As reported by Indian and foreign intelligence services, they are active with the Islamic State (IS) or rival organisations like Jabhat al-Nusra. In addition, up to a dozen Indian Mujahideen (IM) cadres are also believed to have joined the Islamic State, while Police have stopped at least 22 volunteers from travelling. According to The Indian Express' exclusive report, the 17 Indians - all young men, barring a woman who has returned home - were educated, most hailing from middle-class or affluent families with conventional aspirations. New Indian Express, August 26, 2015.

Technical analysis of GPS device used by Gurdaspur attacker's shows coordinates in Pakistan: A technical analysis of GPS [Global Positioning System] device used by the Gurdaspur attackers has thrown up coordinates in Sargodha, Pakistan, on July 21, with the same location also appearing as an undated entry. Experts have stumbled upon origins of the GPS sets in Taiwan or US, indicating that this is where they may have been picked up, and found that they were possibly located in the UK at some point of time. Times of India, August 28, 2015.

FICN circulation on rise, says RBI's annual report: Fake notes are on the rise in India, In fiscal year 2014-15, Fake Indian Currency Note (FICN) in circulation rose 22 per cent to 5,94,446 pieces, according to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) annual report. These are counterfeit notes that were detected in the banking system. While 95.6 per cent of these notes were detected by commercial banks, 4.4 per cent were detected at RBI offices. The number of counterfeit notes detected increased for all denominations, except for INR 2 and INR 5, which are almost out of circulation, being replaced by metal coins. DNA India, August 28, 2015

Maoist movement won't last more than 7-8 years, says CRPF Southern Sector, IG M. Vishnuvardhana Rao: The Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) movement will not survive beyond seven to eight years due to various reasons such as an ageing leadership, lack of second-rung leaders and the emergence of lumpen elements in the movement, said Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Southern Sector Inspector General (IG), M. Vishnuvardhana Rao in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh on August 26. Rao said the present condition is different from the conditions prevailing in the 1980s and the leaders of the previous generation were also more ideologically sound and committed. Times of India, August 28, 2015.

More than 180 NDFB-IKS militants arrested, states a report: Highly placed security sources stated that more than 180 militants of IK Songbijit faction of National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB-IKS) have been arrested since the crackdown on the organisation was launched after December 23 massacre. Also 280 couriers and sympathisers of the militant group have also been arrested. Sources said that 25 militants headed by Bidai are still inside Assam and they are hiding in thick jungles near the Manas National Park. Assam Tribune, August 24, 2015.


NEPAL

17 Policemen among 20 killed in Nepal violence, stated CDO Rajkumar Shrestha: Rajkumar Shrestha, Chief District Officer (CDO) of Kailali District, said 17 Police personnel including a Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) were killed in the clash between Tharuhat activists and Police in Tikapur in the District on August 24. At least 20 persons - 17 Policemen including a senior officer and three protesters - were killed and more than 100 injured in the violent clash in Kailali District on August 24, between Security Force (SF) personnel and protesters demanding a separate Tharuhat province. Firstpost, August 29, 2015.

Rush for statute, but bring all stakeholders on board, President Ram Baran Yadav tells Prime Minister Sushil Koirala: President Ram Baran Yadav told Prime Minister (PM) Sushil Koirala on August 27, that a new Constitution should be framed without any further delay, but the major parties should try to take all stakeholders on board the Constitution making process. According to the President's Press Advisor Rajendra Dahal the President told the PM that parties should seek resolution of constitutional issues through dialogues. "You have tried to win the confidence of all the stakeholders until now and you still need to try to do so till the final hours of the constitution making process," Dahal quoted the President as telling the PM. The Himalayan Times, August 28, 2015.


PAKISTAN

26 militants and nine SFs among 39 persons killed during the week in FATA: At least 14 suspected militants were killed and their sanctuaries destroyed as military planes bombed the Shawal area of North Waziristan Agency (NWA) in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on August 29.

At least five soldiers and six Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants were killed during raids on Pakistan Army checkpoints in Shawal area of NWA on August 25.

Six militants and two security personnel, one of them an officer, Lieutenant Colonel Faisal Malik, were killed during a clash with the militants in Shawal Valley of NWA on August 24.

A pro-Government armed group of the Zakhakhel tribe, Tauheedul Islam (TI), beheaded three men from a rival group for allegedly planting a bomb outside a mosque in Zakhakhel Bazaar in Khyber Agency on August 24. Daily Times; Dawn; The News; Tribune; The Nation; The Frontier Post; Pakistan Today; Pakistan Observer, August 25-31, 2015.

16 militants and eight civilians among 26 persons killed during the week in Balochistan: Three militants who were strapping an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) to a rail track died when they accidently detonated a hand grenade in the Bala Nari area of Bolan District in Balochistan on August 27

At least eight Balochistan Republican Army (BRA) militants, including 'commander' Chella Reesh, were killed during an operation launched by the Frontier Corps (FC) in Sui area of Dera Bugti District on August 26.

At least four Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) militants, including one of its 'commanders', were shot dead and a FC official was injured in a clash in Mian Gundi area of Quetta on August 25. Daily Times; Dawn; The News; Tribune; The Nation; The Frontier Post; Pakistan Today; Pakistan Observer, August 25-31, 2015.

Jundullah 'chief' Abu Huzaifa killed in airstrike in Afghanistan: The 'chief' of Jundullah, an anti-Shia splinter group of TehreekTaliban Pakistan (TTP), Qari Ghulam Hazrat alias Abu Huzaifa, was killed along with his three 'commanders' in an airstrike on August 24 in Chardara District of Kunduz Province. The National Directorate of Security (NDS) confirmed the killing of Huzaifa and three of his accomplices. The NDS said that the group was also involved in violence in Afghanistan. The News, August 25, 2015.

Islamabad officially bans Islamic State: Pakistan on August 27 formally banned the Islamic State (IS) or Daesh. According to a notification issued by the Federal Ministry for Interior, Daesh would not be allowed to operate in Pakistan while any other outfit formed in the similar names would also be banned. The News, August 28, 2015.

BRP leader Brahamdagh Bugti willing to negotiate with Government on Balochistan issue: Brahamdagh Bugti, the separatist leader of the Baloch Republican Party (BRP), on August 26 said that he is willing to negotiate with the Government over the Balochistan issue, according to an interview given to British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Urdu. "If our friends, companions, political allies and finally the people are in favour of this, then we are definitely ready to live with Pakistan," said Bugti. "We want to resolve all issues politically and peacefully," added Bugti. Dawn, August 27, 2015.


SRI LANKA

Tamils firm on demand for international inquiry, says TNA leader C V K Sivagnanam: Senior leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Chairman of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC), C V K Sivagnanam said that the Tamils will keep pressing for an international probe into charges of war crimes against the Sri Lankan Government even though the United States (US) Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Nisha Biswal, has made it clear that the US will only seek an independent and credible Lankan domestic probe. He said, "Just as the Sri Lankan Government has an agenda which it will press, we Tamils also have an agenda, which we will press. New Indian Express, August 29, 2015.


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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