| |
SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Weekly Assessments & Briefings
Volume 9, No. 35, March 7, 2011
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
|
Murderous
Conspiracy
Ajai Sahni
Editor, SAIR; Executive Director, Institute
for Conflict Management
Ambreen Agha
Research Assistant, Institute for Conflict Management
Aye
Allah ke dushman: Islam mein Gustaakh-e-Rasool
ke liye hukm sirf aur sirf qatl ka hai...
(O Enemy of Allah, the punishment for blasphemy
in Islam is only and always death)
Pamphlet
left at the site of Shahbaz Bhatti’s assassination
by Fidayeen-e-Muhammad and al Qaeda Punjab
Chapter.
|
A dime-a-dozen
religious bigots promptly resurfaced on March 2, 2011,
when Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs, Shahbaz
Bhatti, was killed in broad daylight in Islamabad, Pakistan’s
capital city, for his open opposition to the country’s
controversial blasphemy laws. Unidentified militants
fired 30 bullets at Bhatti, and managed to escape. Pamphlets
from two self-styled Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan
(TTP) factions, Fidayeen-e-Muhammad and al Qaeda
Punjab Chapter, were found from the incident site, which
declared, "anyone who criticises the blasphemy
law has no right to live".
Meanwhile,
the British Broadcasting Corporation reported
that it had received a four month old video recording
in which the murdered Shahbaz Bhatti declared he had
been threatened by religious extremists, but was not
afraid to die. Bhatti disclosed that he had received
threats from the Taliban and al Qaeda, but would not
stop "speaking for the oppressed and marginalised
Christians and other minorities". Bhatti was supposed
to be under heavy security, but security personnel were
conspicuous in their absence from the scene of his assassination.
Nevertheless, Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik
claimed, on March 3, 2011, that ‘foolproof security’
had been provided to Bhatti: An escort of 15 armed personnel
had been provided to the Minority Affairs Minister,
but he did not avail it during his preferred and frequent
destinations (sic)."
The Bhatti
assassination coming in the wake of the assassination
of Punjab Governor Salman
Taseer on January 4, 2011, promises
to be just another link in the continuing chain of high
profile killings in retaliation against any effort to
dilute, amend or even criticize Pakistan’s perverse
blasphemy laws. Taseer was killed by one of his own
bodyguards, even as others stood by as mute spectators
to the outrage. Several other critics of the blasphemy
law, prominently including Sherry Rehman, a former Information
Minister, who had piloted a Private Member’s Amendment
Bill in Parliament, seeking alterations in the blasphemy
law, have death fatwas issued against them by
the extremists. Rehman was forced by her Pakistan People’s
Party colleagues to withdraw the Amendment Bill, in
the wake of the Taseer assassination. Worse, many of
those accused of blasphemy are simply murdered even
where they have been exonerated by the courts, or before
any judicial determination of their ‘guilt’ can be made.
On March 4, 2011, just two days after the Bhatti assassination,
Mohammad Imran, who had been released by the courts
after the prosecution failed to produce any evidence
against him on a blasphemy charge, was gunned down by
three masked men on the outskirts of Rawalpindi, the
garrison city adjacent to Islamabad. It is significant
that, according to one media report, 18 cases of blasphemy
were reported in January 2011 alone. One particularly
twisted case included a charge of blasphemy being brought
against a mentally challenged child, Idrees Khan, who
allegedly torched pages of the Holy Qur’an on February
27, 2011. The law has not only been an instrument in
the hands of extremist elements, but has been exploited
in numerous cases of personal enmity or criminal conspiracies
to dispossess individuals of property or possessions.
This, indeed, was dramatically illustrated in the most
recent case of blasphemy registered against a Christian
woman, Agnes Nuggo from Faislabad. Reports indicate
that Nuggo had herself sought to abuse the blasphemy
laws a few weeks ago, by falsely accusing three Christians,
with whom she had quarrelled, telling a local Imam that
they had insulted the Prophet Muhammad. She subsequently
admitted her error and withdrew the charges, only to
be accused of blasphemy by her Muslim neighbours, who
she alleges, are seeking to dispossess her of their
lands. In this latter charge, the same Imam who she
had made the earlier complaint is now testifying against
her.
It is
crucial to recognize that it is the extremist undercurrent
of Pakistan’s official creed and order that provides
the context of the severe and systemic discrimination
to which Pakistan’s tiny minorities are routinely subjected.
Discrimination and oppression are built into the Constitutional,
legal and institutional framework. This is compounded
enormously by an enveloping and state-supported culture
of religious bigotry, religious polarization and extremism,
propagated through governmental, educational and dominant
social institutions. While the Constitution formally
guarantees the freedom to every person "to profess,
practice and propagate his religion", there is
a range of insidious laws that circumscribe this freedom
and create an order that is consistent with Abu Ala
Maududi’s doctrine that, in Pakistan, the "law
of the land will be the law of the majority. Minority
can safeguard their religion but cannot promote it."
The Constitution itself qualifies the freedom of speech
and expression with the corollary, "subject to
any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interest
of the glory of Islam". It is this clause that
has enabled the blasphemy law and its extreme consequences.
The systemic
biases of the Constitutional order lend themselves to
a relentless institutional, social and political discrimination
against the minorities. Thus, blasphemy laws have been
widely abused to intimidate, oppress and expropriate
members of the minority communities in Pakistan, and
often to settle personal scores against them. The law
particularly carries a mandatory sentence of death for
"use of derogatory remarks" against the Holy
Prophet, and its language is sufficiently ambiguous
to lend itself to continuous abuse. Worse, as noted,
individuals charged under the blasphemy laws are frequently
subjected to attacks by extremists and fanatics, and
several have been killed in police custody or under
trial. In the past, a complaint of blasphemy would attract
automatic arrest and prosecution, but a 2004 amendment
brought in a requirement that the police investigate
the complaint before arrest. However, the clause, the
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) notes, is
"frequently ignored".
Thousands
of cases of persecution of the minorities occur each
year, and their intensity has seen continuous augmentation,
as heavily armed radical Sunni groups, including the
many terrorist groups organised around the jihad
in Afghanistan and in India, as well as those formed
within the context of the running Shia-Sunni sectarian
violence in the country, direct their bigoted rage against
the minorities as well. Thus, in 2006, the HRCP noted:
Across
the country, attacks on religious minorities increased.
The attacks came in the form of ‘fatwas’ threatening
non-Muslims with death, in the form of attacks
on temples, churches and other places of worship
and in the form of increased kidnapping of members
of minority communities.
Even
more disturbing than the attacks themselves was
the failure of authorities to act under applicable
laws against the culprits… The material included
in some text-books contributed towards the bias
against religions other than Islam…
Sectarian
and religious intolerance is growing. Non-Muslim
citizens have faced numerous attacks… There have
been more and more complaints regarding the forced
conversion of Hindu and Christian girls and in
June, about 100 Ahmadis were forced out of their
village near Daska, in Sialkot district. This
dangerous division in society on the basis of
belief, and the official support given to discrimination,
can only add to the dangers currently facing society.
|
If
anything, the situation has worsened measurably, since.
In its last report on the State of Human Rights, 2009,
the HRCP noted "an increase in violent attacks
on religious minorities while the government failed
to take effective preventive measures", and, further,
the "growing intolerance of religious minorities
rights, increased frequency of vigilante actions against
them and attacks on non-Muslims over allegations of
blasphemy and desecration of religious scriptures."
The report observed, further,
In
a xenophobic atmosphere, created and promoted
by conservative clerics and a section of the media,
religious minorities are viewed with suspicion
and mistrust. They are seen as constantly conspiring
against Islam, Muslims and Pakistan in cahoots
with the infidel foreign powers, especially the
West. An imaginary combine of Hunud-o-Yahud-o-Nasara
(Hindus, Jews and Christians) is supposed to be
conspiring against Pakistani Muslims all the time
in collaboration with the local minorities. This
world view propagated on a large scale, coupled
with an unfavourable legal regime, has made life
difficult for the non-Muslim citizens. They cannot
freely practise their religion and present their
point of view without risking their life, honour
and property as is evident from attacks on them.
|
The HRCP
report recorded at least 40 cases of abuse of the blasphemy
laws or related excesses in 2009 alone.
Astonishingly,
despite the murder of a Provincial Governor and a Federal
Minister in rapid succession, the Pakistan Government
continues to hedge on the issue of both the blasphemy
law and the related attacks on minorities. On March
3, 2011, Asim Ahmed, Pakistani delegate to the United
Nations Human Rights Council, argued, "We believe
it would not be helpful to link the highly regrettable
killing (of Minister Shahbaz Bhatti) squarely in the
context (sic) of defamation (of religion) and
blasphemy... Freedom of speech could not justify defamation
and blasphemy."
Terrorist
activities in and emanating from Pakistan, of course,
offer the most dramatic instances of the perversion
of politics and burgeoning extremism in the country.
There is, however, another insidious and corrosive threat
that continues to augment: the continued, vigorous and
universal propagation of an ideology of hatred, of communal
polarization and exclusion, and of the demonization
of all other faiths in the eyes of the Muslims of Pakistan.
Islamist extremism remains the central mechanism for
political mobilisation and management in across country.
Legal infirmities are, consequently, infinitely compounded
by an extraordinarily hostile social, cultural and political
milieu, in which the hatred of non-Muslims is actively
encouraged by a wide range of powerful institutions,
including the state and its educational apparatus, to
engineer a murderous conspiracy against weak and dwindling
religious minorities.
|
The Maoists:
Winning Formula
Deepak Kumar Nayak
Research Assistant, Institute for Conflict Management
On February
16, 2011, just two days before Union Home Minister P.
Chidambaram's scheduled video-conference with the Collectors
of 60 Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist)-hit
Districts, R. Vineel Krishna, District Collector of Malkangiri
District in Odisha, was abducted by the Maoists while
he was returning after an ‘interaction programme’ in Kudumulu
Gumma block of the District. Along with the District Collector,
the Maoists had also abducted two junior engineers. One
of them was freed on the same day and was sent back with
a note giving an ultimatum of 48 hours for the release
of the Collector and the junior engineer, Pabitra Majhi.
The Maoists raised a number of demands seeking to block
certain development projects, and relief for tribal populations,
but the principal objective of the abduction, beyond the
theatre it generated, was to secure the release of a number
of incarcerated leaders and cadre. These included, specifically,
Central Committee Member Motilal Soren alias Ashutosh
Sen, arrested in March 2009 from Rourkela, Sriramulu Srinivas,
Gananath Patra, Jeevan Bose, Ganti Prasadam, Sirisha alias
Padma, Ishwari, Roja Mandangi alias Sarita from
Malkangiri jail; Central Committee Member Sheela di, from
Jharkhand Jail and Padma from Chhattisgarh Jail; tribals
and Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangh (CMAS) workers in Koraput
and Malkangiri jails; and Sitanna Hikaka of Dumsil village,
reported to be a close aide of Maoist ‘Chief’ Ram Krishna,
allegedly taken away by the Police from Narayanpatna in
November 25, 2010.
On February
17, 2011, Orissa Chief Secretary Bijaya Patnaik disclosed
that the demands include discontinuation of Operation
Green Hunt (OGH), the joint anti-Naxalite (anti-Left
Wing Extremist, LWE) operations by State Police and Central
Paramilitary Forces, and withdrawal of Security Forces
(SFs) from the Malkangiri District. On the Maoists demand
to stop OGH, the Naveen Patnaik Government conceded, "there
will be no coercive action by the Security Forces as long
as Maoists do not indulge in any unlawful activity."
State Home Secretary U. N. Behera, on the same day, declared,
"All anti-Naxal combing operations in the State will
be stopped," and that the State Government was ready
to talk to the Maoists.
Late in
the night of February 17, the Maoists sent a Press Release
written in Telugu to reporters, saying that Someswara
Rao, former Professor of Economics at Sambalpur University,
Haragopal, retired Professor of Political Science, Central
University, Hyderabad, and Dandapani Mohanty, the Ganjam-based
convener of Political Prisoners Release Committee, be
appointed mediators. After three days of intense negotiations,
the mediators announced, on February 22, in Bhubaneswar,
that the hostages would be set free and safely return
within 48 hours.
Meanwhile,
CM Patnaik declared, "We will certainly honor the
commitments made to the mediators." Of the 14 original
Maoist demands, eight were agreed upon:
-
The
Odisha Government would write to Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh
to take action on the extremists demand for release
of Maoist Central Committee (MCC) members Sheela di
and Padma.
-
Scheduled
Tribe (ST) status would be given to the Konda Reddy
and Nukadora communities.
-
The
multi-purpose Polavaram project of Andhra Pradesh
would be halted.
-
Pattas
(land allotments) would be given to tribals dispossessed
of their land in the District of Malkangiri and Koraput.
-
Irrigation
projects would be executed in Maribada and Maniamkonda
villages in Malkangiri
-
Compensation
based on the High Court (HC) order would be given
to the kin of Tadangi Gangulu and Ratanu Sirika who
died in custody.
-
Relevant
laws would be drafted to regulate mining operations
in Mali and Deomali bauxite mines.
-
The
Government would ensure minimum displacement of tribals
and adequate compensation wherever development projects
were implemented.
On March
4, 2011, the Odisha High Court granted conditional bail
to four Maoist cadres, identified as Roza Mandangi, Gokul
Kuldipia, A. Iswari and Kendula Sirisha alias Padma,
whose release had been demanded by the Maoists. As for
the release of Ashutosh Sen, Srinivas Sriramulu, Gananath
Patra and Tapan Mishra, it agreed to examine the cases
on their merits. On withdrawal of cases against tribals,
the Government agreed to review the cases against 629
tribals lodged in Odisha jails. Further, the Government
noted, "We have been taking suo moto action
for withdrawal of minor cases against tribals. In the
past, 9,013 cases involving petty offences by the tribals
have been dropped. The State will, within a period of
three months, review cases against the tribals held on
charges of Maoist activities and land-related disputes
in Narayanpatna area. The process will start in 15 days."
In the
interim, a media storm had been raging across the country
over the Malkangiri Collector’s abduction, and a number
of demonstrations in his support had been organized in
Malkangiri, Bhubaneswar and other locations in Odisha.
Vineel Krishna was eventually released on February 24,
and returned home to a hero’s welcome. Several questions,
however, lingered. The abducted Collector’s location was
known virtually throughout the drama, and reports suggest
that local officials were in touch and were even delivering
food and supplies to him, yet the State Government did
not consider any options other than immediate and complete
capitulation. On his return, Krishna made a statement
that was deeply sympathetic to their actions; nor was
there any evidence of an awareness of the cost of his
negligence, and consequent abduction, had inflicted on
the State. According to media reports, moreover, he was
in touch with his wife over the phone throughout. The
Maoist leaders and cadre who were released in the exchange
for the Collector had been arrested after great efforts
and significant loss of life on the part of the Police
and Paramilitary Forces, and would inevitably return to
violence, costing further lives.
Despite
the extraordinary media attention this incident received,
the reality is that the Maoists have routinely used abduction
to secure operational relief or release of leaders and
cadre in the past as well. Indeed, the South Asia Terrorism
Portal database records at least 923 incidents of
abduction by the Maoists between 2005 and March 5, 2011.
Maoist
Related Abductions: 2005–2011*
State
|
2005
|
2006
|
2007
|
2008
|
2009
|
2010
|
2011
|
Total
|
Andhra
Pradesh
|
11
|
01
|
01
|
25
|
00
|
04
|
00
|
42
|
Bihar
|
23
|
08
|
03
|
64
|
20
|
34
|
00
|
152
|
Chhattisgarh
|
07
|
130
|
90
|
57
|
30
|
30
|
06
|
350
|
Jharkhand
|
00
|
10
|
26
|
15
|
58
|
27
|
22
|
158
|
Karnataka
|
00
|
01
|
00
|
00
|
00
|
00
|
00
|
01
|
Maharashtra
|
00
|
00
|
02
|
00
|
00
|
02
|
00
|
04
|
Odisha
|
00
|
04
|
13
|
11
|
25
|
45
|
03
|
101
|
West
Bengal
|
00
|
00
|
00
|
08
|
58
|
46
|
03
|
115
|
Total
|
41
|
154
|
135
|
180
|
191
|
188
|
34
|
923
|
*Data:
till March 7, 2011
The data
indicates that Chhattisgarh, with at least 350 such cases
over this period, has been the State worst afflicted by
such actions. Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha
have also been seriously affected. Many of these abductions
have included Government officials, and have resulted
in the release of Maoist leaders and cadre.
Indeed,
this has been an enduring trend, and one of the tactics
the Maoists have been able to consistently rely upon to
secure transient objectives, particularly including the
release of cadre and suspension of SF operations.
Even in
the early phases of the revival of the Maoist movement,
in the 1980s and early 1990s, the rebels had carried out
a series of high-profile abductions of politicians and
officials. The most prominent among such incidents included
the 1987 abduction of 11 Government officials, including
seven Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, by
the Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist [People’s
War Group] (CPI-ML-PWG) at Addateegala in the East Godavari
District of Andhra Pradesh. The N.T. Rama Rao Government
yielded to the Naxalite demand to release top PWG leaders
from the Rajahmundry Central Jail, including Wadkapur
Chandramauli, after Civil Liberties activist K.G. Kannabiran
negotiated with the Naxalites. The Government officers
were released after 12 days in Naxalite custody.
Four years
later, the Naxalites abducted P. Sudhir Kumar, Member
of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Hyderabad city,
from his house in Basheerbagh in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh,
in 1991. He was released, again, after Civil Liberties
activists intervened and the Government released some
top Naxalite cadres.
In 1993,
present Andhra Pradesh Tribal Welfare Minister Pasupuleti
Balaraju, then Congress MLA from Chintapalli, was abducted
along with IAS officer Dasari Srinivasulu and a few engineers.
Balaraju and others remained in Naxal custody for more
than three weeks. They were released after the Government
agreed to free PWG leader Kranthi Ranadev and other cadres
from jail.
More recently,
Block Development Officer Prashant Kumar Layak was abducted
from his office in Dhalbhumgarh, around 180-kilometres
southeast of Jharkhand capital Ranchi, on February 13,
2010. The Maoists threatened to kill Layak if their demands
were not met within 72 hours. The demands included the
freeing of 14 arrested Maoists, the withdrawal of Forces
from Ghorabandha Police Station area, an end to search
operations, and a compensation of INR one million to the
family members of Sanjiv aka Somen Munda, who had
allegedly been killed by the Nagrik Suraksha Samity (NSS)-Police
combine at Jiyan. The outcome was a foregone conclusion.
CM Soren, like CM Patnaik, succumbed to the demands to
secure the release of the BDO.
Civil Jamadar
Lucas Tete was abducted during the Lakhisarai (Bihar)
encounter on August 29, 2010. The outcome in this case
was uglier. Though Tete was killed by his abductors, the
Government conceded
Maoist demands, allowing some 200 extremists, who had
been surrounded by the SFs on the hill top, to escape.
In the
latest incident, on March 3, 2011, cadres of the Maoist-backed
People’s Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA), abducted
a Policeman from West Midnapore District in West Bengal.
The Government, at the brink of Assembly Elections, has
again been put on test in this case, which remains currently
unresolved.
Despite
an unending cycle of Maoist abductions and State capitulation,
it is clear that no Government has yet formulated any
coherent framework of response, or created the necessary
pool of trained resources, either for negotiation with,
or for coercive action against, the abductors. Nor has
there been any effort to assess the cumulative costs of
such incidents to the State, and the impact these have
had on SF morale, capacities and operations.
Indeed,
in the Vineel Kumar case, Union Home Minister Chidambaram
was widely reported to have advised Odisha CM Patnaik
against conceding to the Maoist demands. Significantly,
however, shortly after Patnaik’s denials of any pressure
from North Block, Chidambaram was reported to have declared
that the Centre "did not object to any steps by Odisha".
If anything,
this apparent flip flop, compounded by the outcome of
the Vineel Kumar abduction, can only underline India’s
continuing inability to deal firmly with hostage crises.
In what threatens to become a recurrent nightmare, more
Maoist leaders and cadre, incarcerated at great cost in
sweat and blood by the SFs, can be expected to routinely
walk free, even as operations are compromised or suspended,
every time the rebels hold a gun to someone’s head.
|
Weekly
Fatalities: Major Conflicts in South Asia
March 1-7, 2011
|
Civilians
|
Security
Force Personnel
|
Terrorists/Insurgents
|
Total
|
BANGLADESH
|
|
Left-wing Extremism
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
4
|
INDIA
|
|
Assam
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
Manipur
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
Jammu and Kashmir
|
2
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
Left-wing Extremism
|
|
Jharkhand
|
1
|
3
|
0
|
4
|
Total (INDIA)
|
3
|
3
|
3
|
9
|
PAKISTAN
|
|
Balochistan
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
FATA
|
8
|
8
|
16
|
32
|
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
|
20
|
3
|
8
|
31
|
Punjab
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
Sindh
|
6
|
2
|
4
|
12
|
Total (PAKISTAN)
|
38
|
13
|
28
|
79
|
Provisional
data compiled from English language media sources.
|
BANGLADESH
Court
to deliver judgement in Mutiny case against
42 BDR troopers on March 24: The
Special Court-15 on March 3 said that it
will deliver judgement in the Mutiny case
against 42 Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) troopers
of Khagrachhari Sector headquarters on March
24. Seven of 42 accused confessed to their
involvement in the Mutiny at the Khagrachhari
Sector headquarters on February 26 in 2009
and begged for mercy while the rest claimed
innocence.
The
Daily Star, March
4, 2011.
INDIA
600
applications from PoK crossed youth for rehabilitation,
says Chief Minister Omar Abdullah: The
Chief Minister (CM) Omar Abdullah on March
6 said that the Jammu and Kashmir Government
had received over 600 applications for a rehabilitation
policy from relatives and parents of Kashmiri
militants in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK)
who wants to return. "They are being
verified," CM Omar Abdullah added. "I hope
the day is not far when we will approve these
600 applications for the return and rehabilitation
of youth gone across," Omar said, adding that
those, who had gone across for arms training
to PoK will return without guns but along
with wives and children to live a life of
honour and dignity.
Times
of India, March 7,
2011.
Al
Qaeda routing money to India via Europe, says
Peruvian Financial Intelligence Unit
report: European countries
are being used as hot destinations by terror
group al Qaeda to route money to India, Times
of India quoting Peruvian Financial Intelligence
Unit (FIU) reported on March 6. The report
said the FIU had found at least one case of
such suspicious transaction by al Qaeda every
month and shared them with the US investigators.
Times
of India, March 7,
2011.
Jammu
and Kashmir's separatists can't veto Kashmir-roadmap,
asserts Prime Minister Manmohan Singh:
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
on March 4 maintained that the separatists
could not be given a veto vis-à-vis
the political roadmap to Kashmir dispute.
Exuding hope that the separatists too would
soon be part of dialogue process to find a
solution to Kashmir dispute, he, however,
clarified that even the separatists, who have
refused to be part of the dialogue so far,
could not veto the political roadmap.
The
Kashmir Times, March
5, 2011.
No
night trains in Maoist areas till March 10:
The restrictions on passenger
trains at night in Communist Party of India-Maoist
(CPI-Maoist) areas of West Bengal, Odisha
and Jharkhand will continue till March 10,
the South Eastern Railway (SER) said on March
3. "In view of security reasons, running
of passenger trains on Kharagpur-Adra, Chakradharpur-Rourkela
and Kharagpur-Tata section will continue to
remain suspended upto March 10 from 10 p.m.
to 5am", the railways said.
Sify,
March 4, 2011.
INR
12 billion spent on roads in Maoist areas,
says Chhattisgarh PWD Minister Brijmohan Agrawal:
Chhattisgarh has spent INR
12.23 billion for creating road network since
2003-04 in the Communist Party of India-Maoist
(CPI-Maoist)-affected areas, a senior Minister
told the State Assembly on March 1. Public
Works Department (PWD) Minister Brijmohan
Agrawal informed the House in a written reply
to Leader of Opposition Ravindra Choubey that
a little over INR 12.23 billion was spent
since 2003-04 for road infrastructure in Maoist-affected
areas.
Sify,
March 2, 2011.
51,000
arms licenses in two years in Jammu and Kashmir:
Over 51,000 arms licenses
have been issued across Jammu and Kashmir
during the past two years and maximum of them
were obtained by the people of Doda District.
Divulging these details in the Legislative
Assembly in response to a question, the Minister
in-charge Home said that the District Magistrates
and Home Department issued a total of 51,622
arms licenses during the past two years.
Daily
Excelsior, March 2,
2011.
Allocation
for NIA, BSF, CRPF and NATGRID goes up:
The National Investigation Agency
(NIA) has got a budgetary allocation of INR
55.68 crore for 2011-12 to meet its expenses,
an increase of INR 16.33 crore from the last
fiscal. The provision is for meeting the establishment-related
expenditure of the agency, set up recently
under the administrative control of the Ministry
of Home Affairs by an Act of Parliament. The
agency received INR 11.91 crore in 2009-10
under the non-plan expenditure head against
INR 42.06 crore for the current fiscal.
The
Hindu, March 1, 2011.
NEPAL
UCPN-Maoist
to join Government: The Unified Communist
Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) in a meeting
of the party Standing Committee held on March
2 decided to join Communist Party of Nepal-
Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) Chairman
Jhala Nath Khanal-led Government under the
leadership of party foreign department chief
Krishna Bahadur Mahara. The Maoists decided
to put forth 11 leaders. However, a formal
notice regarding the party decision has yet
to be made public.
eKantipur, March 3,
2011.
PAKISTAN
16 militants and eight civilian among 32
persons killed during the week in FATA: Ten
militants were killed when the helicopter
gunships attacked militant hideouts in Chinarak
and Spairkat areas of Kurram Agency along
the Orakzai agency border of Federally Administered
Tribal Areas (FATA) on March 6.
Security
Forces (SFs) killed six militants during an
operation near Afghanistan border in Kurram
Agency on March 5.
Six
officials of the Khasadar Force were killed
and three others injured when their vehicle
was ambushed by militants in Aalam Godar area
of Bara tehsil (revenue unit) in Khyber Agency
on February 3.
The
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants
shot dead four local tribesmen alleged of
spying for the United States (US) in Miranshah,
the main town of North Waziristan Agency on
March 1. Dawn;
Daily
Times;Tribune;
The
News, March 1-7, 2011.
20
civilians and eight militants among 31 persons
killed during the week in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa:
Five militants were killed and a security
man was injured in a shoot-out that took place
when suspected militants were trying to sneak
into Swat District from Dir District of Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa on March 6.
At
least 10 persons were killed and 40 others
injured in a powerful bomb blast at a mosque
located in the premises of Akhwand Panju Baba’s
shrine in Akbarpura near Nowshera District
on March 4.
At
least nine persons were killed and 31 others
injured when a suicide bomber detonated his
vehicle near a police patrol in a densely
populated area of Hangu District on February
3. Dawn;
Daily
Times;Tribune;
The
News, March 1-7, 2011.
Britain
to double Pakistan aid: Britain
announced on March 2 it was doubling its development
aid for Pakistan over the next four years
to £446 million a year by 2015, but tied the
increase to Islamabad’s progress on the reform
agenda. British High Commissioner to Pakistan
Adam Thomson said that the planned increase
in aid was meant to "unlock the potential"
of Pakistani youth and as such a large amount
of the assistance would be directed to deal
with the "education emergency" by
getting over four million children into schools,
recruiting and training 90,000 new teachers
and providing more than 6 million textbooks.
Dawn,
March 3, 2011.
Pak-Afghan
border remains an "epicenter" of global terrorism,
says US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Admiral Mike Mullen: Pak-Afghan border
remains an "epicentre" of global terrorism,
the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Admiral Mike Mullen said on February 2. "The
downside consequences of a nuclear-capable
Pakistan that whose government collapses and
is then in the hands of violent extremists
or theocratic individuals is a huge, huge
danger, globally and certainly for us," Admiral
Mike Mullen said. Indian
Express, March 3,
2011.
SRI LANKA
12,000
IDPs remain in three welfare villages, says
Plantation Industries Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe:
Plantation Industries Minister
Mahinda Samarasinghe while addressing the
16th Session of UN Human Rights Council in
Geneva on February 28 said at present only
a total of 12,000 Internally Displaced Persons
(IDPs) remain in three welfare villages functioning
in Vavuniya and Jaffna. They will be resettled
in their places of origin no sooner the on-going
de-mining operations are complete, the Minister
added.
Daily
News, March 1, 2011.
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.
|
|
|