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SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Weekly Assessments & Briefings
Volume 15, No. 10, September 5, 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
|
Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa: Slow Burn
Tushar
Ranjan Mohanty
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management
At least
13 persons were killed and another 41 were injured when
a suicide bomber blew himself up near the entrance of
District and sessions court of Mardan District in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on September 2, 2016. Four lawyers and
three Policemen were among the dead. District Police Officer
(DPO), Mardan, Faisal Shahzad said the attacker detonated
a hand grenade before exploding his suicide vest. The
bomb contained eight kilograms of explosive material,
the DPO said, adding that security arrangements at the
site of the attack helped mitigate the damage. The Tehreek-e-Taliban
Pakistan (TTP)
splinter, Jama’at-ul-Ahrar (JuA), claimed responsibility
for the attack.
If the
suicide bomber had not been restricted at the security
check point, the incident may well have been a replay
of the August 8, 2016 Quetta Civil Hospital suicide
attack, in which there were 55 lawyers
among 74 people killed. The lawyer fraternity had gathered
at the hospital to mourn the killing of Balochistan Bar
Association (BBA) President Bilal Anwar Kasi in a gun
attack earlier on August 8.
The Mardan
court suicide attack comes just hours after terrorists
of JuA attacked the Christian Colony in the Warsak Dam
area of provincial capital Peshawar in the morning of
September 2. One civilian, one Levies official and four
suicide bombers were killed in an exchange of fire with
Security Forces (SFs) in that incident. Two Frontier Corps
(FC) personnel, a Policeman and two private guards sustained
injuries in the attack. Firing reportedly began around
6 am (PST), when terrorists wearing suicide jackets attacked
the colony. Two of the attackers detonated their suicide
jackets, while the other two were killed by SFs. Director
General (DG) of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR)
Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa confirmed "all four
suicide bombers were killed".
The attacks
in Peshawar and Mardan belied the Army’s ‘report card’,
presented a day earlier, on the success of military operations
against terrorists in the tribal areas of the country.
On September 1, 2016, ISPR DG Bajwa had given an exhaustive
rundown of the ‘progress’ made against terrorists in the
tribal areas of country in Operation Zarb-e-Azb (Sword
of the Prophet) which was launched in the North Waziristan
Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)
on June 15, 2014. He also highlighted that Pakistan had
suffered a cumulative loss of USD 106.98 billion in the
war on terror between 2001 and 2015. “We are not doing
it for anyone but ourselves,” he stressed. He added, further,
that 3,500 terrorists had been eliminated during the course
of Operation Zarb-e-Azb, while 537 SF personnel were killed,
including 18 officers, 35 junior commissioned officers
and 484 soldiers; and another 2,272 soldiers sustained
injures.
A comparative
assessment of the first eight months of the current and
previous year shows that the Army’s assessment of the
prevailing security scenario in the Province is far from
reality. Overall fatalities in KP have registered a 16.66
per cent increase in the first eight months of 2016 as
compared to the previous year; from 138 killed in 2015
to 161 in 2016. Terrorist fatalities have, however, declined
by 30 per cent, while fatalities among civilians registered
a sharp 51.47 per cent increase. SF fatalities remained
the same, at 30, in both years.
The Provincial
Government, however, also claims considerable improvement
over the first six months of 2016. According to a handout
issued in a meeting to review efforts taken to combat
terrorism, which was chaired by Inspector General of Police
(IGP) Nasir Khan Durrani on July 12, 2016, there has been
a considerable decrease in incidents of terrorism, including
Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and firing incidents,
from January to June in KP. There have been 99 incidents
of terrorism during this period, whereas the number of
terrorism related incidents reported in 2013, 2014 and
2015 were 281, 292 and 134, respectively. Senior Superintendents
of Police (SSP)-Operations Abbas Majeed Marwat also asserted
that the outgoing year saw a sudden decrease in murders,
street crimes, extortion and other crimes in Peshawar,
the provincial capital of KP. The SSP Operations claimed
that in 2015, Peshawar saw 221 cases terrorism registered,
while the number came down to 91 in the first six months
of 2016, owning to improved planning and Police operations
in the city. According to official figures, more than
675 search and strike operations have been carried out
in the urban and rural areas of the District during the
course of seven months. 626 of these operations were in
the January to June 16 period, during which 258 proclaimed
offenders were arrested within the jurisdiction of 32
Police Stations. More than 15,000 arms and large quantities
of ammunition were also seized across the city. These
operations were categorized into three different types,
according to SSP Operations Marwat: a total of 118 were
conducted jointly with the Army; 124 were intelligence-based
operations; and more than 365 were conducted solely by
the Police. Some 4,000 places, including houses, hotels
and hostels, were searched, resulting in the arrest of
3,287 suspects.
Nevertheless,
there have been three major incidents in addition to the
two on September 2, and the one on August 8, mentioned
above, during this last eight months, undermining the
Government’s claim of dramatic success:
January
20: TTP terrorists stormed the Bacha Khan University in
Charsadda District, KP, killing at least 21 persons and
causing injuries to 35 others.
March 7:
A teenage suicide bomber killed at least 17 people, including
six women, two children and two Policemen, and injured
23, at a Court complex in Shabqadar tehsil (revenue unit)
of Charsadda District in KP.
March 15:
At least 15 persons were killed and 25 were injured when
a powerful bomb ripped through a Civil Secretariat bus,
carrying Government employees, near Sunehri Masjid in
Peshawar.
Significantly,
KP Police have been facing an acute shortage of officers,
which has direct bearing on their fight against terrorism
and militancy. According to an official statement issued
in Peshawar on August 11, 2016, the Provincial Police
had approached the Home and Tribal Affairs Department,
KP, to meet the shortage so they could maintain the operational
capability of units established to curb terrorism. The
Province needs five Additional Inspectors General (AIGs),
where only two are available at present. In the rank of
Deputy Inspector General (DIG), only eight officers are
presently working against 18 sanctioned posts. Similarly,
against 35 sanctioned posts of SSPs, only 17 are presently
available. The shortage of officers in the rank of SP
is glaring, with 78 sanctioned posts, and only 57 available
officers. Keeping in view the threats and recent terrorist
attacks, KP Police have urged the Home and Tribal Affairs
Department to approach the Federal Government to post
Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) officers in the Province
to meet the deficiency and cope with the challenges of
terrorism.
KP Police
has also suffered tremendous losses since terrorism took
the Province in its iron grip in 2006. On August 4, 2016,
Chief Minister Parvez Khattak disclosed that as many as
1,587 Policemen had lost their lives in suicide attacks,
bomb blasts, ambushes, encounters, rocket and mortar barrages
and other incidents, since 1970. Over 80 per cent of these
fatalities were among the constabulary. During the last
almost 46 years, one AIG (Safwat Ghayur); two DIGs (Malik
Mohammad Saad and Abid Ali); seven Superintendents of
Police (SPs); one Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP);
24 Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSP); as well as
25 Inspectors, 115 Sub Inspectors (SI), 131 Assistant
Sub Inspectors (ASI), 148 head constables and 1,133 constables
have been killed in the Province.
Casualties
recorded a sudden increase after 2006, when terrorists
spilled over to the settled Districts from FATA. According
to official Police statistics, as many as 1,204 Policemen
have been killed in attacks in KP since 2006 – 28 in 2006;
107 in 2007; 176 in 2008; 207 in 2009; 101 in 2010; 148
in 2011; 94 in 2012; 133 in 2013; 108 in 2014; and 60
in 2015. At least 42 Policemen have already been killed
during the current year, till July 20, 2016. Peshawar
tops the list among the 25 Districts of the Province,
with over 340 Police casualties, followed by Swat where
123 Police officials have died. In Bannu, 120 persennel
have lost their lives, while 100 have died in Dera Ismail
Khan.
After nearly
a decade of counter-terrorism operations, including more
than two continuous years of Zarb-e-Azb, the threat of
terrorism persists, claiming increasing numbers of civilian
lives and a continuing toll of SF personnel as well. Terrorism
and the state’s responses have destroyed all semblances
of normalcy and security in KP, even as the Province and
its neighbouring FATA region remains the core launching
grounds of Pakistan’s terrorist campaigns in Afghanistan
through its proxies, prominently including the Taliban
and the Haqqani Network. Pakistan’s persistent duplicity
and its consequent blowback remain the principal dynamic
creating spaces for terrorism across borders in South
Asia.
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Reconciliation
and Waywardness
S.
Binodkumar Singh
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management
On August
28, 2016, Foreign Affairs Minister Mangala Samaraweera,
while addressing a gathering in Point Pedro in the Northern
Province, observed,
We hope to be able to present the Constitution in
Parliament before the next budget. We have been
busy creating or placing a foundation for a new
Sri Lanka based on the three pillars of democratization,
reconciliation and development. It is time to come
to terms with the fact that Sri Lanka is a multi-racial,
multi-religious, multi-lingual country.
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The 2017
Government budget is expected to be presented in Parliament
mid-November 2016. With the aim to replace the existing
1978 Constitution, the Maithripala Sirisena Government
initiated the process of drafting a new
Constitution in January 2016.
Earlier,
giving an assurance that the Government was planning to
finalize judicial mechanisms to probe war abuses by 2017,
the Foreign Affairs Minister stated, on July 6, 2016,
that the reconciliation process based on four pillars
– truth seeking, accountability, reparation and non-recurrence
– is moving forward and the Government is in the process
of setting up the needed mechanisms. Significantly, on
August 4, 2016, the Cabinet approved SLR 971 million to
resettle the remaining families of Internally Displaced
Persons (IDP). According to the Government Information
Department, there are 31 welfare centers in Jaffna District
with 936 families and one welfare center in Vavuniya District
with 97 families. The three decades of civil war between
the Government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE)
ended in May 2009, generating massive displacement of
an estimated 300,000 IDPs in the North.
On August
11, 2016, Parliament passed the Office on Missing Persons
(OMP) Bill to help several thousands of families of missing
persons across Sri Lanka to discover the fate of their
loved ones and the circumstances under which they went
missing. According to the Government, the OMP will be
composed of commissioners and officers of the highest
moral integrity, constituted at the highest level by the
President, on recommendation of the Constitutional Council.
Separately, the Presidential Commission Investigating
Cases of Missing Persons (PCICMP) established on August
15, 2013, handed over its final report to the Presidential
Secretariat on August 14, 2016. The Commission had received
16,213 complaints from civilians and another 5,000 complaints
from relatives of missing Security Force (SF) personnel.
Further, on August 26, 2016, the Parliamentary Oversight
Committee of the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Ministry
decided to grant bank loans at concessionary rates to
ex-LTTE cadres for self-employment purposes. About 12,000
LTTE combatants surrendered to the military during the
final stages of the war and underwent rehabilitation,
which included the provision of vocational training skills.
Further,
pledging to resolve all land issues in the Northern Province
within three months, President Maithripala Sirisena on
September 2, 2016, stated, “We, as a government should
understand the grievances of the people. They don’t need
lands owned by the military. They ask for their own lands.
We have achieved remarkable progress on resettlement.
But, there are some problems that need to be resolved.
At this point, we have informed all IDPs in writing about
the status of their lands. We have to admit that there
is a delay on the part of the Survey Department as they
do not have sufficient human capital to fast track the
process.”
However,
the Northern Province has been stressing federalism as
a solution to devolve power in the Island nation. On April
23, 2016, the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) passed
a Bill with a majority vote to establish the Northern
and Eastern Provinces into one federal ruling system.
Separately,
on June 21, 2016, Northern Province Chief Minister C.V.
Wigneswaran responding to reporters in Jaffna District,
asserting that the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), a political
alliance representing the Tamil minority, strongly opposes
domestic mechanisms to probe war crime allegations. The
Chief Minister insisted that a domestic mechanism can
be considered only if international judges are present.
According to the Chief Minister, there was, at present,
no atmosphere in the country for justice to be done, not
just in courts but everywhere else as well.
Further,
in an attempt to present a picture of unity by the NPC
on Constitutional reforms, on July 10, 2016, Wigneswaran,
fielded its Leader of Opposition S. Thavarajah to place
his case on the importance of adopting federal system
before the Steering Committee of the Constitutional
Assembly (CA) , which was approved
by the Parliament unanimously, without a vote, on March
9, 2016, to draft a new Constitution for the island. Once
again, urging re-merger of the Northern and Eastern provinces,
Wigneswaran argued, on August 7, 2016, “The Government
should take action to re-merge the North and East, the
only cultural homelands of the Tamil people. If re-merged,
the North and East will not only be culturally secure
and power could be devolved in a manner suitable to the
provinces through a federal system of administration.
This fact should be accepted by the government and the
Muslim leaders and the re-merger should be carried out
sooner than later (sic).”
Meanwhile,
on August 17, 2016, demanding an OMP in the Northern Province,
residents of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu Districts staged
a protest, saying that setting up the OMP in Colombo will
not provide any benefit to the people of the North, and
that the Government should set up the OMP in Kilinochchi
or Mullaitivu. The protesters pointed out that most of
the missing people were from the North, and indeed, a
majority was from these two Districts. They further noted
that the families of the missing would have to bear huge
expenses to come to Colombo to present their grievances
or lodge complaints if the OMP was set up in Colombo.
Urging
Sri Lanka to rein in the military and prosecute war crimes,
the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights
Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, in the annual
report, stated on June 28, 2016, "The
early momentum established in investigating emblematic
cases must be sustained, as early successful prosecutions
would mark a turning point from the impunity of the past.
Continuing allegations of arbitrary arrest, torture and
sexual violence, as well as more general military surveillance
and harassment, must be swiftly addressed, and the structures
and institutional culture that promoted those practices
be dismantled." At least 250 security detainees were
still being held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act
(PTA), the UN report noted.
Similarly,
asking Sri Lanka to follow its agreements with the international
community to ensure accountability for the human rights
abuses during the decades-long armed conflict, Stéphane
Dujarric, Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
observed, on July 12, 2016, "There are issues between
the international community and Sri Lanka and agreements
to ensure accountability. And we hope those are followed."
Further, the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) in a report
released on July 26, 2016, after conducting a 14-month
island-wide assessment between October 2014 and November
2015, noted, "The years that have passed since the
armed conflict in Sri Lanka ended in 2009, did not bring
solace to the families of over 16,000 persons who, according
to the ICRC's records, remain missing." Meanwhile,
the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
(CERD) member and country rapporteur for Sri Lanka, Jose
Francisco Cali Tzay, on August 26, 2016, stated that the
Tamil population in Sri Lanka continued to suffer discrimination,
including through lack of access to public services in
their own language, as the Police agents in the North
do not speak Tamil and people continue to live in fear
due to the military presence.
However,
commending the Government for taking steps to pursue the
truth-seeking and accountability mechanisms and to deal
with the grievances of people in the North and the East,
Ban Ki-moon, who toured the conflict affected North on
September 2, 2016, welcomed the establishment of an OMP
and the process to reform the Constitution to achieve
a political settlement, recalling, "This is my first
visit to Sri Lanka since 2009, when I saw great suffering
and hardship. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced
and in need of humanitarian aid after the terrible conflict
that tore the country apart."
The Sri
Lankan Government’s efforts at rehabilitation in the wake
of the war against the LTTE have been exemplary, and the
willingness to undertake a comprehensive Constitutional
reform demonstrates an eagerness to create an environment
of enduring peace. There are, however, deep vested interests
in the international community and among remnants of Tamil
separatist formations who seek to keep confrontation alive,
seeking racial segregation, rather than integration, or
the “democratization, reconciliation and development”
that the new Constitution seeks. Disruptive elements on
both sides of the Tamil – Sinhala divide, backed by international
mischief, continue to undermine sustained efforts by the
Sri Lanka Government, and by the dominant elements in
the political leadership, to consolidate a hard won peace.
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Weekly Fatalities: Major
Conflicts in South Asia
August
22-28, 2016
|
Civilians
|
Security
Force Personnel
|
Terrorists/Insurgents
|
Total
|
BANGLADESH
|
|
Islamist Terrorism
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
3
|
INDIA
|
|
Assam
|
1
|
0
|
2
|
3
|
Jammu and
Kashmir
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
Meghalaya
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
Left-Wing
Extremism
|
|
Chhattisgarh
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
4
|
Total (INDIA)
|
2
|
2
|
5
|
9
|
PAKISTAN
|
|
Balochistan
|
5
|
7
|
6
|
18
|
FATA
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
Punjab
|
0
|
0
|
5
|
5
|
Sindh
|
44
|
0
|
2
|
6
|
Total (PAKISTAN)
|
|
|
|
|
Provisional
data compiled from English language media sources.
|
BANGLADESH
Dhaka’s
Gulshan
café
attack
mastermind
Tamim
Ahmed
Chowdhury
among
three
militants
killed
during
‘Operation
Hit
Strong
27’:
Three
militants,
including
Tamim
Ahmed
Chowdhury,
a
mastermind
of
Dhaka’s
Gulshan
café
attack,
were
killed
during
a
joint
forces’
raid
at
a
house
in
Narayanganj
Sadar
upazila
in
Narayanganj
District
in
the
morning
of
August
27.
Identities
of
the
two
other
militants
are
yet
to
be
ascertained.
The
Daily
Star,
August
27,
2016.
Cabinet
approves
life
imprisonment
for
spreading
negative
propaganda
through
digital
devices
against
Liberation
War
and
Father
of
Nation:
The
Cabinet
on
August
22
approved
the
draft
of
‘Digital
Security
Law,
2016’
proposing
life
imprisonment
for
spreading
negative
propaganda
through
digital
devices
against
the
Liberation
War
and
the
Father
of
the
Nation
Bangabandhu
Sheikh
Mujibur
Rahman.
The
approval
was
given
at
the
regular
Cabinet
meeting
held
at
Bangladesh
Secretariat
with
Prime
Minister
Sheikh
Hasina
in
the
chair.
The Independent,
August
23,
2016.
INDIA
US
gives
new
information
on
Pakistan’s
hand
in
Pathankot
attack,
says
report:
The
US
has
handed
over
proof
confirming
that
the
January
2
strike
at
Pathankot
Airbase
in
Punjab
emanated
from
Pakistan.
The
US
has
informed
the
National
Investigation
Agency
(NIA)
that
the
IP
addresses
of
Facebook
accounts
of
Jaish-e-Mohammed
(JeM)
handlers
who
masterminded
the
attack
and
IP
address
of
the
website
of
the
outfit's
financial
arm,
Al
Rahmat
Trust,
are
located
in
Pakistan.
The
probe
revealed
that
Facebook
groups
accessed
by
friends
of
JeM
handler
Kashif
Jaan
were
related
to
jihad
and
JeM
and
contained
photos
of
the
four
killed
terrorists
-
Nasir
Hussain,
Hafiz
Abu
Bakar,
Umar
Farooq
and
Abdul
Qayum.
Times
of
India,
August
29,
2016.
India
tells
Pakistan
to
extradite
Dawood
Ibrahim,
says
report:
India
on
August
26
asked
Pakistan
to
extradite
designated
global
terrorist
Dawood
Ibrahim,
whose
presence
in
Pakistan
has
been
confirmed
after
the
United
Nations
(UN)
approved
six
of
his
addresses
provided
by
India
to
the
UN.
Indian
Ministry
of
External
Affairs
spokesperson
Vikas
Swarup
said
that
in
the
latest
update
of
the
list
on
Dawood,
who
is
wanted
in
India
for
orchestrating
the
1993
serial
bomb
blasts,
the
UN
has
validated
six
of
the
nine
addresses
in
Pakistan
frequented
by
him.
New Indian
Express,
August
27,
2016.
Kashmir
unrest
was
'pre-planned'
and
only
handful
involved,
says
CM
Mehbooba
Mufti:
Contending
that
the
unrest
in
Kashmir
was
"pre-planned",
Jammu
and
Kashmir
Chief
Minister
(CM)
Mehbooba
Mufti
on
August
22,
said
that
a
"handful
of
people"
were
deliberately
keeping
the
Valley
on
the
boil
while
95
per
cent
people
were
peace-loving
and
should
not
be
punished
for
the
fault
of
5
per
cent.
CM
Mehbooba
expressed
pain
that
children
are
being
used
as
a
shield
by
"vested
interests"
while
attacking
camps
and
posts
of
Security
Forces
(SFs)
to
incite
them,
as
a
result
of
which
innocent
kids
become
a
casualty.
She
also
sent
out
a
message
to
those
raising
"pro-azadi"
slogans,
asking
them
to
see
the
condition
of
Muslims
in
Islamic
countries
like
Pakistan,
Syria,
Turkey
and
Afghanistan
even
though
these
nations
have
"freedom".
Times
of
India,
August
23,
2016.
22
bank
accounts
in
South
Kashmir
under
NIA
lens
for
terror
funding:
The
National
Investigation
Agency
(NIA),
which
is
examining
around
22
bank
accounts
in
south
Kashmir
that
received
unaccounted
money
and
saw
withdrawals
coinciding
with
the
current
unrest
in
the
valley,
will
probe
possible
links
of
the
account
holders
with
Hizb-ul-Mujahideen
(HM)
or
its
cadres,
Kashmiri
separatists
and
terror
financiers
based
in
Pakistan.
NIA
sources
indicated
that
in
the
event
of
the
preliminary
enquiry
unearthing
a
direct
link
between
the
payments/disbursals
and
the
ongoing
protests,
related
offences
may
be
added
to
the
existing
NIA
case
relating
to
JKART
(Jammu
Kashmir
Affectees
Relief
Trust),
a
Pakistan-based
frontal
outfit
of
HM
charged
with
funding
terror
activities
in
India.
Times
of
India,
August
26,
2016.
Government
to
crack
down
on
400
Jammu
and
Kashmir
'troublemakers':
In
a
bid
to
break
the
cycle
of
violence
in
Jammu
and
Kashmir,
central
agencies
have
identified
400
local
leaders
fuelling
protests
and
shared
their
names
with
the
State
Police
for
an
immediate
crackdown,
including
detention
under
the
Public
Safety
Act.
Intelligence
officials
said
the
list
included
overground
workers
of
Hizb-ul-Mujahideen
(HM)
and
other
terrorist
outfits,
besides
local-level
functionaries
of
Tehreek-e-Hurriyat
(TeH),
the
All
Party
Hurriyat
Conference-Geelani
(APHC-G)
of
Syed
Ali
Shah
Geelani,
and
Jamaat-e-Islami
(JeI).
Times
of
India,
August
27,
2016.
Myanmar
assures
that
it
will
not
allow
any
insurgent
group
to
use
its
territory
against
India,
says
report:
Myanmar
on
August
22
gave
an
assurance
that
it
will
not
allow
any
insurgent
group
to
use
its
territory
against
India.
"Myanmar
leadership
assured
that
they
will
not
allow
any
insurgent
groups
to
use
any
territory
for
action
against
India,
(that)
they
all
recognised
is
a
friendly
country
which
has
stood
by
people
of
Myanmar
and
they
look
forward
to
a
very
productive
partnership
with
India
as
Myanmar
continues
on
its
journey
of
peace,
progress
and
development,"
Indian
Ministry
of
External
Affairs
(MEA)
spokesperson
Vikas
Swarup
said.
Times
of
India,
August
23,
2016.
NEPAL
It
is
meaningless
to
amend
Constitution
without
implementing
effectively,
says
CPN-UML
Chairman
KP
Sharma
Oli:
Communist
Party
of
Nepal-Unified
Marxist
Leninist
(CPN-UML)
Chairman
KP
Sharma
Oli
on
August
25
said
that
it
is
meaningless
to
amend
Constitution
without
implementing
effectively.
Oli
said,
"It
is
meaningless
to
amend
constitution
without
setting
the
purpose.
My
party
has
not
been
approached
formally
on
amendment
of
constitution.
But
I've
heard
that
some
parties
agreed
to
amend
it."
Republica,
August
26,
2016.
PAKISTAN
Pakistan
Army
committing
'tsunami
of
rights
violations'
in
Balochistan,
says
BRP
President
Brahamdagh
Bugti:
Pakistani
forces
are
engaged
in
a
"tsunami
of
human
rights
violations"
in
Balochistan,
said
Switzerland-based
Baloch
Republican
Party
(BRP)
President
Brahamdagh
Bugti
on
August
26
while
seeking
help
from
the
international
community,
including
India.
Brahumdagh
Bugti,
president
of
the
Baloch
Republican
Party
and
the
grandson
of
Baloch
nationalist
leader
Nawab
Akbar
Khan
Bugti
who
was
killed
in
an
encounter
with
the
Pakistani
army
10
years
ago,
said,
"Pak
forces
are
engaged
in
tsunami
of
human
rights
violations.
We
do
not
want
to
live
with
Pakistan
anymore."
Times
of
India,
August
27,
2016.
Government
proposes
to
replace
FCR
with
tribal
areas
Rewaj
Act
in
FATA:
During
a
detailed
news
briefing
at
the
Foreign
Office
on
August
25,
Prime
Minister’s
Adviser
on
Foreign
Affairs
Sartaj
Aziz
said
that
the
Government
has
proposed
a
plan
to
replace
the
Frontier
Crimes
Regulation
(FCR)
in
the
Federally
Administered
Tribal
Areas
with
a
new
Tribal
Areas
Rewaj
Act.
“Today
I
met
Senate
chairperson
and
speaker
of
the
National
Assembly,
and
now
the
reforms
will
be
debated
in
Parliament,”
he
said.
Aziz
heads
a
committee,
constituted
by
Prime
Minister
Nawaz
Sharif
in
November
2015,
to
work
out
a
viable
reform
package
to
integrate
FATA
into
the
mainstream.
Tribune,
August
26,
2016.
Terrorists
and
their
facilitators
are
being
eliminated
in
combing
operations,
says
CoAS
General
Raheel
Sharif:
Chief
of
the
Army
Staff
(CoAS)
General
Raheel
Sharif
while
addressing
the
troops
engaged
in
combing
operations
in
Kurram
Agency
on
August
23
said
that
terrorists
and
their
facilitators
are
being
eliminated
due
to
combing
operations
of
Security
Forces.
“As
we
consolidate
gains
of
emphasis
is
on
rooting
out
all
their
sleeper
cells
and
a
network
of
facilitators
from
Fata
and
across
rest
of
the
country,”
General
Raheel
said.
The News,
August
24,
2016.
SRI
LANKA
Government
has
fast-tracked
the
process
of
drafting
the
new
Constitution,
say
sources:
Sources
on
August
26
said
that
the
Government
has
fast-tracked
the
process
of
drafting
the
new
Constitution.
With
this
in
view,
the
Steering
Committee
which
is
drafting
the
constitutional
proposals
has
decided
to
hold
meeting
on
consecutive
days
so
as
to
complete
its
task
as
early
as
possible.
Four
out
of
six
sub-committees
appointed
to
work
on
different
aspects
of
the
Constitution
have
submitted
their
reports
to
the
Steering
Committee
headed
by
Prime
Minister
Ranil
Wickremesinghe.
The
remaining
two
subcommittees
have
been
requested
to
submit
their
reports
by
September
3.
Daily
Mirror,
August
27,
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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