|
| |
SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Weekly Assessments & Briefings
Volume 9, No. 37, March 21, 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
|
West
Bengal: Elections and the Maoists
Guest Writer: Nihar Nayak
Associate Fellow, IDSA
There
is much anxiety among political parties in West Bengal
(WB) with Assembly polls scheduled in six phases, beginning
April 18, 2011. The Communist Party of India-Marxist
(CPI-M) led Left Front, which won a comprehensive victory
in the last Assembly elections five years ago, is clearly
under pressure. It has a great deal to worry about:
the growing popularity of the Trinamool Congress (TMC)
and its alliance with the Congress, the Maoist
endorsement of TMC’s policies, and its own poor performance
in the 2008 local bodies’ elections and the 2009 Parliament
elections. Unnerved, the Left Front has decided to go
slow on its industrial policy and started campaigning
against the issues of corruption and political sleaze
in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) at the Centre,
in which the TMC is a partner. It is also seeking to
expose the TMC for its links with the Maoists.
The TMC,
on its part, has been apprehensive about the rise in
prices of essential commodities and corruption scandals
in the UPA, exposure of its links with the Maoists,
and the partial success of continuing anti-Maoist operations
in the south-western Districts of WB by the Left Front
Government.
Pre-poll
surveys suggest that the TMC has an edge in the forthcoming
elections, and may secure the largest number of seats
in the Assembly, helped by the crisis of leadership
within the Left Front and its overall loss of popularity
due to its industrial policy. Jyoti Basu, now deceased,
had a stature far bigger than Chief Minister Buddhadeb
Bhattacharya. By contrast, Mamata Banerjee of the TMC
has emerged as a populist leader and she has successfully
capitalised on the broad opposition to the Government’s
land acquisition policy, which seeks to promote industrial
growth in the State. Indeed, the State has witnessed
two protracted popular protests over this issue, at
Nandigram and Singur, which considerably eroded the
Left’s vote-bank among the minorities and the deprived
sections. Nandigram in East Midnapore District turned
violent in January 2007 over land acquisition for a
Special Economic Zone (SEZ). At least 35 people were
killed in intermittent violence between activists of
the CPI-M and the TMC-backed farmers of the Bhumi Uchched
Pratirodh (Land Acquisition Opposition) Committee (BUPC).
As a result, the TMC won all 10 Gram Panchayat
(village level local self-Government institution,GP)
in the Nandigram I Block, where the SEZ was planned,
in 2008. In December 2006, the Singur Krishi Jamin Raksha
(Singur Agricultural Land Protection) Committee opposed
to the land acquisition by the WB Government for the
Tata Nano project at Singur in the Hooghly District.
The CPI-Maoist and TMC backed the farmers. Significantly,
the TMC won control over 15 out of 16 GPs in the Singur
block in the 2008 Local Bodies’ election. In addition,
the parties within the Left Front appear to have lost
significant public confidence as allegations of corruption,
high-handedness and factionalism dominate the political
scene. Even Chief Minister Bhattacharya has had to tamely
acknowledge the incidence of corruption in his party.
In the
2008 Local Bodies’ election, the TMC also won crucial
seats in the East Midnapore and South 24-Parganas Districts,
which have a large number of Assembly constituencies.
Again, in the 2009 Parliament elections, TMC cornered
19 out of the total of 42 seats in the State. If these
results are any guide, TMC is likely to emerge as the
largest party in the elections, even without support
from the Congress and the Maoists. However, if it enters
into a pre-poll alliance with the Congress, the alliance
may secure an absolute majority, though prospects of
a pre-poll alliance between the Congress and TMC are
deteriorating, particularly because of Mamata’s insistence
that her party will field candidates from a majority
of seats, which the Congress is unlikely to concede.
The favourable
climate notwithstanding, TMC may find it difficult to
take on the might of the Left Front all by itself. There
is an established pattern in West Bengal with each party
adopting coercive tactics during elections, to drive
out its political rivals from their constituencies.
As Assembly polls draw nearer, the Left Front has already
started targeting opposition parties in its strongholds.
The Netai case is a point of reference in this context.
Media reports indicated that the armed cadres of CPI-M
killed some eight persons, suspecting them to be TMC
supporters, at Netai village near Lalgarh on January
07, 2011. More than 120 political workers have been
killed in frequent clashes between the members of the
Left Front, TMC and CPI-Maoist in the last fifteen months.
According
to SATP data, West Bengal accounted for 328 of the total
of 425 civilian fatalities in Maoist-related violence
in 2010. Total fatalities in the State were 425, out
of a national total of 1,180 in 2010, making West Bengal
the worst affected State in terms of violence for the
first time since the resurgence of the movement in 1980.
One report indicated that over 80 persons were killed
by the Maoists in the Lalgarh area alone, in 2008-09,
including at least 70 cadres and sympathisers of the
CPI-M, activists of the Jharkhand Party (Naren) and
Election Commission personnel.
West
Bengal: Maoist related incidents and fatalities 2008-2011
|
Year
|
Civilians
|
Security
Forces (SFs)
|
Terrorists
|
Total
|
|
2008
|
19
|
4
|
1
|
24
|
|
2009
|
134
|
15
|
9
|
158
|
|
2010
|
328
|
36
|
61
|
425
|
|
2011*
|
27
|
1
|
3
|
31
|
|
Total
|
508
|
56
|
74
|
638
|
*Data
update till March 20, 2011.
Sources: South Asia Terrorism Portal
[The
Annual Report 2010-11 of the Ministry of Home Affairs
(MHA) provides lower estimates of fatalities, but confirms
the general trend. According to the MHA, West Bengal
witnessed 256 Maoist-related fatalities, out of a total
of 1,003 in the nine States worst affected by Left Wing
Extremism (LWE) in 2010. West Bengal ranked second among
States on LWE- related fatalities on this account. In
2009, the State had been ranked third in the LWE-related
fatalities.]
It is
believed that the Maoists’ unilateral clandestine support
to the TMC could work as a deterrent against the armed
cadres of the Left Front. Although TMC denies having
any such links, the Maoists recently pledged support
to the party on the condition that Mamata Banerjee withdraws
from the UPA Government at the Centre. Recognizing the
problem created by armed cadres of political parties
in West Bengal, and expressing his unhappiness about
the public order situation in the State, Union Home
Minister P. Chidambaram, on March 1, 2011, indicated
that 10,000 para-military forces would be provided to
the State during the Assembly elections.
Presently,
there are six battalions – three Central Reserve Police
Force (CRPF), one Border Security Force (BSF), and two
India Reserve Battalions (IRB) – of Central Paramilitary
Forces (CPMFs) deployed in West Bengal. Two battalions
of CRPF and one of the BSF have been deployed in Lalgarh
and adjoining areas of West Midnapur, Purulia and Bankura
Districts for anti-Naxal (LWE) operations.
Before
the 2010 Bihar Assembly elections, the Chief Election
Commissioner (CEC) claimed that violence in general
and Maoist attacks in particular during polling had
been reduced due to heavy deployment of CPMFs, and this
is the model the Centre seeks to replicate through the
six phased election process in WB. Given the intra and
inter-party rivalries in WB over the past two years,
however, the Union Government anticipates more violence
here, and it remains to be seen whether the deployment
of additional Force will suffice to contain this.
There
are apprehensions that the polarization of political
forces in the State, and the possible disruptive intervention
of the Maoists in the election process may lead to the
creation of virtual war zones, particularly in south
Bengal, which elects 160 members in an Assembly of 294.
The Maoist stronghold is adjacent to this region. The
People’s Committee against Police Atrocities, their
front organization has ‘village committees’ in over
250 villages in Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore
Districts, and is expected to directly confront the
armed cadres of the Left Front. They also have the ability
to influence voters in this region. The Maoist strategy
of raising a militia and driving out Left Front supporters
may prove extremely useful for the TMC.
The Maoist
support to the TMC is purely tactical, and bodes ill
for the future of WB. Presently, each needs the other
to fight their common enemy— the Left Front. The Maoists’
political and military campaign against the Left Front
may bring political dividends for the TMC, but it is
also expected to help, revive, expand and consolidate
the Maoist political base in the State. The TMC would
be the preferred party in power for the Maoists, given
their entrenched differences with the Congress and Left
Front. The ninth congress of the CPI-Maoist thus resolved,
on February 1, 2007, that the party would extend all
kinds of support to the protests against the industrialization
and the displacement issues, which had also been taken
up by TMC. On May 3, 2007, the CPI-Maoist declared that
it would oppose the ‘treacherous plan’ to create SEZs
and the massive displacement of people. It also decided
to convert social and economic issues into political
ones, and extend support to like-minded groups for political
benefit. The resolutions were a close echo of the TMC’s
political campaigns against the Left Front. According
to Ananda Bazar Patrika, on October 4, 2009,
Maoist leader Kishanji hailed Mamata Banerjee as their
preferred choice for the next Chief Minister of WB.
In 2009, the Maoists declared that their main aim was
to "break the shackles" that the ruling CPI-M
had imposed on the people.
The Maoists
had adopted a comparable strategy in Andhra Pradesh
against the Telugu Desam Party, during the 2004 elections,
and other parties had benefited. In the present case,
the Maoists can be expected to extract a price for their
covert support to TMC’s success, in terms of concessions
that help them consolidate their position after the
elections. This may boost Maoist operations in other
areas as well. West Bengal is the gateway for the Maoists
for the procurement of arms and ammunition from, and
to forge links with insurgent groups of the North East.
It has contributed immensely to the intellectual debate
within the Maoist fold. Maoists in West Bengal have
already established their city committees (equal to
Divisional Committees in rural areas) with cells consisting
of 3 to 7 ‘full time professional revolutionaries’ in
Kolkata. In the long term, the CPI-Maoist wants to establish
a ‘liberated zone’ in the Jangalmahal area of West Bengal.
The Maoists have already started political awareness
programmes amongst the people in the region, taking
advantage of the existing contradictions in the State.
One of
the biggest challenges for the TMC would be to neutralize
the Left Front campaign over its ‘alliance’ with the
Maoists. The Left parties have urged the Election Commission
to ensure a free and fair election, apprehending that
TMC-Maoist ‘connivance’ could affect their poll-prospects.
The TMC,
however, is in a dilemma after the Maoists’ made their
support conditional on the TMC’s withdrawal from the
UPA Government at the Centre. On February 23, 2011,
moreover, the Maoists also asked TMC to clearly spell
out its policies on release of political prisoners,
action against ‘oppressive’ Police officers and return
of ‘illegally’ acquired land by Multi-national Corporations
(MNCs). In a taste of things to come, the Maoists have
already begun to extract their pound of flesh for the
support they promise the TMC during the election.
|
Delayed
Justice
Sanchita Bhattacharya
Research Assistant, Institute for Conflict Management
The War
Crimes Trials in Bangladesh
relate to genocidal offences that date back to the 1971
War of Liberation, but have become integral to the Sheikh
Hasina regime’s efforts to de-radicalize the country,
and end the long consolidation of Islamist extremist and
terrorist forces that had been engineered in close collaboration
with state and non-state entities from Pakistan. The Jamaat-e-Islami
(JeI), the principal organization connected with the War
Crimes, has also been the fountainhead of a number of
extremist formations, as well as a nationwide network
of radical Islamist institutions that brought the country
to the brink, using a combination of electoral politics
and violent mobilization. Eventually, the state was forced
to react after the August 17, 2005, bombings across 63
of the country’s 64 Districts, acting, first, against
the terrorist formations Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh
(JMB)
and Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB),
and then circling closer to the ideological source, the
JeI.
The year
2010 was a watershed in this regard, with a trial process
initiated for crimes that had not been addressed in four
decades of Bangladesh’s independent existence. Reiterating
the Government’s commitment, the Finance Minister of Bangladesh,
A.M.A. Muhith declared, on March 9, 2011, "We will
now uproot the war criminals."
An investigation
team of International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) visited Joypurhat
and Pabna Districts on March 9-10, 2011, and collected
evidence of War Crimes (WC) and crimes against humanity
committed at different places of the Districts in 1971.
The team visited Karamja village in Santhia Sub-Division
of Pabna District on March 9 and took statements of the
witnesses. Team leader Mohammad Abdur Razzak quoted witnesses
as saying that the occupation troops [comprising of Pakistani
military personnel] with the help of Pabna District’s
Local Peace Committee member Khoda Baksh Khan, lined up
eight male members of Megha Thakur's family in front of
their house in May 1971 and shot them dead. Members of
the Peace Committee were principally drawn from the JeI.
A mass grave of the eight male members of Megha's family
was discovered at his house in 2000 and Santhia Police
took eight skeletons into custody. The investigation team
collected the skeletons from the Police Station as evidence
of the massacre of the eight.
Further,
the team members also visited the location of the Koroi-Kadipur
massacre in Joypurhat Sadar Sub-Division, Joypurhat Government
College and the location of the Pagla-Dewan massacre.
Reports indicate that at least 10,000 people were killed
at Pagla-Dewan by local collaborators during the Liberation
War. The team collected evidence and recorded statements
of the witnesses to these massacres and also visited the
Peace Committee Office in Joypurhat town.
On March
15, 2011, the ICT asked jail authorities to produce five
detained Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) leaders, including its
Ameer (Chief) Motiur Rahman Nizami, before it,
and also directed the prosecution to submit progress reports
on the investigation into the War Crimes allegations against
them by April 20, 2011. The tribunal directed the jail
authorities to provide necessary medical treatment to
Nayeb Ameer (Deputy Chief) Delwar Hossain Sayedee,
as well. The order in respect of Nizami, Mojahid, Kamaruzzaman
and Quader Molla was passed in a suo moto
move by the ICT, while the order with respect to Sayedee
was passed after hearing a petition filed by the prosecution
seeking time for completing investigation against him.
On March
2, 2011, Rajshahi Investigators of ICT gathered evidence
and statements of witnesses who were forced to convert
to Islam at gunpoint in Rajshahi District following directives
of former JeI chief Ghulam Azam during the Liberation
War in 1971. They also collected fortnightly secret reports
of Special Branch of the then Police Department, which
were sent to Police Stations across the country from Police
Headquarters in Dhaka in 1971. [All the families converted
back to Hinduism after the liberation, investigators disclosed].
Azam and other collaborators held meetings with Lieutenant
General (Eastern Command) Tikka Khan in early April of
1971 and the genocide was initiated across the country
following the meetings. Investigators also recorded statements
of around 100 survivors who witnessed the dreadful event
in the Charghat Sub-Division of Rajshahi District, where
some 150 persons were killed by a firing squad and their
bodies set ablaze. The evidence indicates that the mass
killing took place in Padma Char, some 900 feet away from
Thanapara village and Sardah Police Academy of Rajshahi
District on April 13, 1971.
Further,
Abdul Momen Talukdar Khoka, a Bangladesh Nationalist Party
(BNP) lawmaker from Bogra District, was charged, on March
8, 2011, for killing two freedom fighters during the Liberation
War. Khoka, along with Pakistani Army personnel, allegedly
abducted freedom fighters Monsurul Haq Talukdar and Abdus
Sattar of Komorpur village of Faridpur District. On November
24, 1971, two or three days after the abduction, Khoka
shot and killed these two persons, as well as Abdul Jalil
and Altaf Hossain, below the Kharir Bridge in Adamdighi
Bazar of Bogra District, the case statement indicated.
The process
of WC trials had started within one year of independence,
in 1972, with the formulation of the Collaborators Act
1972 and the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act 1973.
The core aim of the 1973 Act was to provide for the detention,
prosecution and punishment of persons for genocide, crimes
against humanity, war crimes and other crimes under international
law. After independence, the Awami League (AL) Government
had taken several initiatives to bring the perpetrators
of the 1971 War Crimes to justice, particularly those
who, in the name of organisations like Razakars,
Al-Badar, and Al-Shams, had
directly and indirectly assisted the Pakistan military
forces to commit monstrous crimes like mass murder, rape,
torture, looting, arson and destruction. Accordingly,
under the Collaborators and ICT Acts, several tribunals
were constituted for the trial of WCs and a few convictions
were secured. After the murder of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
in 1975, however, the Collaborators Act of 1972 was repealed
and the Constitution was amended once again to allow religion-based
communal politics to flourish, and the JeI to re-establish
itself in the country. The WCs trial process was blocked
and, for the following three decades, a succession of
military administrations swept aside all attempts to secure
justice, fearing that many among their own ranks could
be brought into the scope of the trials. Successive Government
freed more than 10,000 war crime suspects, and the trials
were completely frozen after the political turmoil of
1975, and virtually buried thereafter. The weak coalition
Government of the AL between 1996 an 2001 failed to push
aggressively for a restoration of the processes.
The 2008
Election Manifesto of AL, in its "Charter for Change",
however, openly blamed the Military Governments and ‘political
parties formed in the Cantonment’ (a reference to the
Bangladesh National Party, BNP) of rehabilitating the
War Criminals. The trial of WCs was listed among the "Five
Priority Issues" in the Manifesto, which declared,
"Trial of war criminals will be arranged".
In 2009,
the Bangladesh Parliament passed amendment to the Act
of 1973 to bring to trial people responsible for severe
human rights violations and crimes against humanity during
the Liberation War of 1971, though the law still falls
short of international standards. Bangladesh’s ICT was
constituted on March 25, 2010. The Tribunal includes three
High Court Judges and six investigators retired from Civilian,
Law Enforcement and Military careers. On June 25, 2010,
Chief Justice Nizamul Haque issued warrants against five
members of JeI – Chief Matiur Rahman Nizami, Secretary
General Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujaheed, Deputy Chief Delwar
Hossain Sayedee, senior leaders Mohammad Kamaruzzaman
and Abdul Qader Mollah – along with BNP member Salauddin
Quader Chowdhury alias Shaka Chowdhury, who were
charged with sedition and war crimes, including genocide,
rape, torture, looting, arson. Among them, Nizami, Mujaheed
and Sayedee were arrested on June 29, 2010, Kamruzamman
and Mollah on July 13, 2010, and Salauddin on December
16, 2010.
This initiation
of the WC trials seeks to bring to justice the men, prominently
including the top leadership of the JeI, who collaborated
with the Pakistan Army and Government in the genocide
of an estimated three million people during the Liberation
War, and in the use of rape and collective slaughters
as instruments of State
policy.
The Government
also appointed an investigative and research organisation,
the War Criminals Fact Finding Committee (WCFFC), which
handed over a list of WCs and documented evidence in support
of charges against them, on April 4, 2010. According to
the convener of the WCFFC, M.A. Hassan, the documentation
comprehended 18 books, the names and addresses of 1,775
alleged WCs, and detailed accounts of crimes, including
mass killings. Earlier, on March 23, 2010, reports indicated
that the Government had approved a list of WCs prepared
by the National Security Intelligence (NSI) and the Criminal
Investigation Department (CID).
The WC
trial process was initiated on March 25, 2010, but is
now facing demands from many civil society organisations
to be speeded up. In response, Law Minister Shafique Ahmed,
on December 15, 2010, gave a commitment that WC trials
would be completed within the tenure of the present Government,
adding, "We are trying that the war crimes trial lives
up to international standards and none can raise any question
about it." Further, on December 20, 2010, he had said
that the trial of the detained WC-accused would start
in January-February 2011
The Government
of Bangladesh, on January 11, 2011, appointed another
two investigators to the WC investigation agency and excluded
one from the existing 19-member probe body, bringing its
total strength to 20. The new investigators are M. Sanaul
Haque, former Inspector General of Police (IGP) and Muhammad
Abdul Hannan Khan, former Additional Deputy IGP. Khasrur
Haque was dropped from the body. Meanwhile, State Minister
for Home, Shamsul Haque Tuku, warned of tough punishment
for anyone threatening officials involved in the trial
of the WCs.
The WC
trials now appear to be well begun, but their outcome
will depend on the quality of the process, its transparency
and, crucially, the time frame within which it is completed.
Commenting on the effectiveness of the ongoing trials,
Caitlin Reger, a senior associate at the International
Center for Transitional Justice, noted that the quality
of evidence placed before the court would determine the
success or failure of the Tribunal and, "The focus
has to remain on the crimes that have been committed and
not on the political affiliations of potential suspects,
or else the validity and effectiveness of the trial will
be undermined."
Crucially,
if the trials are carried out in a transparent manner,
a new generation in Bangladesh will be made aware of the
extreme distress inflicted, and the cost paid, during
the War of Liberation, to achieve independence, as also
the gruesome consequences of the abuse of religion to
justify heinous crimes. The success of the WC trials is
possible only if the exploitation of religion in the country’s
power-play is brought to an end, an idea that appears
almost utopian in the present political situation in Bangladesh.
|
Weekly
Fatalities: Major Conflicts in South Asia
March 15-21, 2011
|
|
Civilians
|
Security
Force Personnel
|
Terrorists/Insurgents
|
Total
|
|
INDIA
|
|
|
Assam
|
0
|
9
|
3
|
12
|
|
Jammu and Kashmir
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
|
Manipur
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
|
Nagaland
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
|
Left-wing Extremism
|
|
|
Bihar
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
|
Chhattisgarh
|
0
|
3
|
32
|
35
|
|
Jharkhand
|
0
|
0
|
5
|
5
|
|
Maharashtra
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
|
West Bengal
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
|
Total (INDIA)
|
3
|
13
|
44
|
60
|
|
PAKISTAN
|
|
|
Balochistan
|
5
|
5
|
1
|
11
|
|
FATA
|
42
|
2
|
38
|
82
|
|
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
|
0
|
2
|
5
|
7
|
|
Punjab
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
2
|
|
Sindh
|
35
|
1
|
2
|
38
|
|
Total (PAKISTAN)
|
82
|
12
|
46
|
140
|
|
Provisional
data compiled from English language media sources.
|
BANGLADESH
Religion-based
parties may get green light:
On March, 16 the Parliamentary
Special Committee on Constitution
amendment has decided to propose
easing of restrictions on the use
of religion in politics so that
Islamic parties can continue functioning.
"We don't want to take away anyone's
political rights. Anybody can be
involved in politics following the
aims and objectives of the constitution,"
Suranjit Sengupta, Co-Chair of the
Parliamentary Special Committee,
added.
The
Daily Star,
March 17, 2011.
The
International Crimes Tribunal asked
jail authorities to produce JeI
leaders: The International
Crimes Tribunal (ICT) on March 15,
asked the jail authorities to produce
five detained Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI)
leaders including its Ameer (Chief)
Motiur Rahman Nizami before it on
April 20 in connection with War
Crime charges. The tribunal headed
by Justice Nizamul Huq directed
the prosecution to submit the progress
reports on the investigation into
the War Crimes allegations against
the five leaders by April 20.
The
Daily Star,
March 16, 2011.
Charge
framing against Jamaat-e-Islami
top leaders deferred: A
Dhaka Court on March 14 deferred
the hearing on charge framing against
five Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami
(JeI) leaders till April 6, 2011
in connection to a case filed against
them for hurting religious sentiments
of Muslims. The accused JeI leaders
include its Ameer (Chief) Motiur
Rahman Nizami, Secretary General
Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid, Delwar
Hossain Sayedee, its city unit Chief
Rafiqul Islam Khan and ASM Yahia,
President of Islami Chhatra Shibir
(ICS).
The
Daily Star,
March 15, 2011
INDIA
32
Maoists and three SFs killed in Chhattisgarh:
Police claimed to
have killed 30 Communist Party of
India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadres in
an encounter in Dantewada District
after an ambush by the Maoists killed
three Policemen and nine others injured
on March 14. Additional Director General
(Naxal operations) Ram Niwas said
that a Police team of 145 troopers
were on a search operation in the
Chintalnaar area, when the Maoists
struck. "In the ambush by the Naxals,
three of our men were killed and nine
were injured," said Ram Niwas. He
further said that the Police claim
"to have killed 30 Naxals" in retaliatory
action.
The
Hindu, March
17, 2011.
Train
services suspended following Maoist
threat in Odisha: Train
services between Rourkela and Barsua
in Sundargarh District were suspended
on March 19, following threat given
by the cadres of the Communist Party
of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) in protest
against ongoing ''Saranda Operation’
in Jharkhand area of Orissa-Jharkhand
border. Several Maoists, according
to the Police sources, pasted posters
and placed red banner on the railway
track at Topadihi station forcing
the authorities to suspend the rail
services, railway sources said.
PTI
News, March
20, 2011.
No
Maoist activities in Andhra Odisha
Border, says DIG in Andhra Pradesh:
Deputy Inspector
General (DIG), Soumya Misra, Visakha
range, said the Communist Party of
India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) activities
in the Andhra Odisha Border (AOB)
zone has declined due to the new strategies
adopted by the Police in Srikakulam,
Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam Districts.
Talking to reporters, she said the
Police have adopted twin strategies
of increasing surveillance and taking
preventive steps, besides implementation
of several the programmes to increase
the relationship with people.
Deccan
Chronicle,
March 18, 2011.
CSS
signal the Army to flush out NSCN-IM
and NSCN-K militants from Arunachal
Pradesh: The Cabinet
Committee on Security (CCS) on March
16 gave the green signal to the Army
to flush out armed cadres of the National
Socialist Council of Nagaland - Isak-Muivah
(NSCN-IM) and National Socialist Council
of Nagaland - Khaplang (NSCN-K) from
Tirap-Changlang sector in Arunachal
Pradesh. The report said Army will
launch a major offensive to flush
the NSCN-IM and NSCN-K from the eastern
sector of Arunachal where their cadres
have been involved in major extortion
and arms procurement activities.
Times
of India,
March 17, 2011.
Annual
Defence Report states security situation
in Jammu and Kashmir has stabilised:
The annual report
for 2010-11 of Ministry of Defence
stated on March 16, "The continued
infiltrations across the Line of Control
(LoC) and the existence of terrorist
camps across the India-Pakistan border
demonstrate the continuing ambivalence
of Pakistan in its attitude and approach
to terrorist organisations". Observing
that the security situation in Jammu
and Kashmir had "stabilised", the
Ministry of Defence said the terror
threat continued to be "real" as terrorist
infrastructure in Pakistan is still
intact.
Daily
Excelsior,
March 17, 2011.
Interlocutors
submit Sixth Report to Union Minister
of Home Affairs: The
Union Government's Interlocutors on
Jammu and Kashmir on March 15 submitted
their Sixth Report to Union Minister
of Home Affairs P. Chidambaram at
New Delhi, specifically outlining
the problems being faced by women
in the two decades-long violence in
the State. They will also submit their
interim report containing the contours
of a political settlement of Kashmir
issue to the Government within a week.
Daily
Excelsior,
March 16, 2011.
NEPAL
Government
introduces rehabilitation plans for
conflict affected children: The
Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction
(MoPR) on March 16 unveiled a three
year National Plan of Action (NPA)
for the Rehabilitation and Reintegration
of Children Affected by Armed Conflict.
The action plan aims to assist the
current peace process in reaching
a meaningful conclusion and protecting
the rights of children affected by
armed conflict and those associated
with armed forces and armed groups
through the implementation of the
integrated plan of rehabilitation
and reintegration.
eKantipur,
March 18, 2011.
Defence
Minister rules out 'separate force'
of Maoist combatants: Defence
Minister Bishnu Poudel on March 16
ruled out a "separate force" of Maoist
combatants after their integration.
It was reported that "integration
and adjustment" would be done as per
the Interim Constitution. "The integration
of Maoist combatants will be carried
out as per the provisions in the Interim
Constitution, but there will not be
a separate force of the combatants,"
Poudel said.
Nepal News,
March 17, 2011.
Arms
flow unchecked in Terai District:
The smuggling of contraband firearms
and ammunitions is unchecked in Terai
Districts, posing a serious security
threat to the region. Taking advantage
of the open Nepal-India border, various
underground outfits, ethnic groups
and criminal gangs are involved in
gun running. Security sources claimed
Police seized 35 contraband weapons
and held 58 people in the eastern
region within the past three months
claiming that most of these weapons
are brought from India.
eKantipur,
March 16, 2011.
Maoists
to set up mechanism to run Government:
The major ally of the current
Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist
Leninist (CPN-UML) led Government,
Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist
(UCPN-M) decided on March 14 to form
a separate mechanism to run the PM
Jhala Nath Khanal led Government as
per the seven point that was signed
between PM Khanal and Maoist chairman
Pushpa Kamal Dahal prior to the PM
election on February 3.
eKantipur,
March 15, 2011.
PAKISTAN
42 civilians and 38 militants among
81 persons killed during the week
in FATA: A
US drone missile strike on March 17
killed at least 41 persons in the
Datta Khel of North Waziristan Agency
(NWA) in Federally Administered Tribal
Areas (FATA).
Ten
militants were killed and one security
man was injured in a clash in Ghaljo
area of Upper Orakzai Agency on March
16.
Ten
militants were shot dead by Security
Forces (SFs) in retaliatory attack
at San Pakka Kandau area of Orakzai
Agency on March 15.
Meanwhile,
SFs killed six more militants in retaliation
action after militants attacked a
security checkpost in Torgar area
of Tal tehsil (revenue unit).
Separately,
at least four militants were killed
in a US drone attack in Dattakhel
area of NWA.
Five
militants were killed when a US drone
fired missiles on a car at Tapai village
in NWA on March 14.
Dawn;
Daily
Times;Tribune;
The
News, March
15-21, 2011.
Pakistan
must take action in North Waziristan,
says US led NATO commander General
David Petraeus: The
US led NATO commander in Afghanistan
General David Petraeus said on March
18 that it was ‘hugely important’
that Pakistani Army take action against
terrorists in North Waziristan Agency
of Federally Administered Tribal Areas
(FATA). General David Petraeus credited
Islamabad with battling terrorists
elsewhere but said the campaign needed
to move to North Waziristan, where
members of the al Qaeda and Haqqani
networks are based.
Daily
Times, March
19, 2011.
Former
DG of the Counter-Intelligence Wing
of ISI Major General Nusrat Naeem
to be interrogated in assassination
case of former Prime Minister Benazir
Bhutto: The Major
General (retired) Director General
of the Counter-Intelligence Wing of
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
Nusrat Naeem may be interrogated by
the Federal Investigation Agency’s
joint investigation team (JIT). At
the press conference held on December
28, 2007, Brigadier (retired) Javed
Iqbal Cheema presented an audio-tape
of a conversation between Baitullah
Mehsud, identified as Amir sahib in
the tape and one ‘Maulvi sahib’ and
told reporters that the "chief" of
the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)
was behind the murder of former Prime
Minister Benazir Bhutto.
Dawn,
March 15, 2011.
SRI LANKA
Canadian
authorities order deportation of Sri
Lankan Tamil migrant for having LTTE
links: Canadian
authorities ordered the deportation
of a Sri Lankan Tamil migrant who
had entered Vancouver in August 2010
aboard the Thai ship MV Sun Sea on
the charge of being member of the
militant outfit Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The migrant
who sought asylum in Canada reportedly
admitted that he indeed had been a
member of the LTTE some 20 years ago
but had never participated in combat
despite having received military training.
Colombo
Page, March
18, 2011.
Tamil
parliamentarians complain to Supreme
Court against forcible registration:
Sri Lanka's Tamil
National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians
complained to the Supreme Court on
March 14 that the Government was continuing
with the forcible registration of
residents in the North despite having
given an undertaking to the Supreme
Court ensuring its suspension. Earlier
in March, the Attorney General's Department
had given an undertaking to the Supreme
Court that the alleged forcible registration
of residents in the North by the Security
Forces would be suspended with immediate
effect.
Colombo
Page, March
15, 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.
|
|
|
