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SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Weekly Assessments & Briefings
Volume 9, No. 8, August 30, 2010
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
|
Tribal
Elders: Living on a Sword’s Edge
Tushar Ranjan Mohanty
Research Assistant, Institute for Conflict Management
A
bomb blast at a meeting of tribal elders killed seven
persons and injured another seven in Khumas village,
about 10 kilometres east of Parachinar, in the Kurram
Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)
on August 23, 2010. Two days earlier, on August 21,
suspected Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorists
had killed the son of a pro-Government tribal elder
and active member of the Charmang Peace Committee, Malak
Gul Khan, in an attack on his house in the Charmang
area of the Bajaur Agency. Two others were injured in
the attack. In the same night, militants attacked the
house of another pro-Government tribal elder, Malak
Sher Zamin Khan, with hand grenades, in the same area.
However, no casualty was reported in this incident.
Before
this, at least 65 people, including women and children,
had been killed, and another 110 sustained injuries,
when a suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into the office
of Rasool Khan, the Mohmand Assistant Political Agent,
in the Yakka Ghund tehsil (revenue unit) of Mohmand
Agency, on July 9, 2010. Hundreds of tribal elders had
gathered around the office for a meeting. Claiming responsibility
for the attack, the TTP spokesman for the Mohmand chapter,
Ikramullah Mohmand, disclosed that their targets were
the offices of the political administration and the
local peace committee, which had arranged an anti-TTP
jirga (tribal assembly) there. "We have
no enmity with the people," he added.
Since
the beginning of United States (US)-led operation in
Afghanistan in 2001 and the consequent influx of Afghan
Taliban
into the tribal areas, an unspecified number of tribal
elders and pro-Government tribal militia members have
become victims of a sustained campaign of annihilation
that has virtually destroyed the structure of traditional
tribal power in these regions. Though there is no specific
official statement regarding the number of tribal militia/tribal
elders’ casualties, Mohmand Agency Additional Political
Agent (APA) Ahmed Jan stated, on January 6, 2010, that
about 104 pro-Government elders and volunteers of peace
committee were killed in the Mohmand Agency in the year
2009 alone. The South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP)
data, based on erratic reporting in the Pakistan media,
records the killing of at least 86 tribal elders since
2005 in 54 incidents.
Tribal
elders killed in Pakistan: 2005-2010
Year
|
Incidents
|
Killed
|
2005
|
7
|
14
|
2006
|
8
|
7
|
2007
|
4
|
6
|
2008
|
7
|
24
|
2009
|
6
|
7
|
2010*
|
22
|
28
|
Total
|
54
|
86
|
*Data
till August 29, 2010.
Sources: SATP
Some
of the other significant attacks targeting tribal elders
include the following:
May 27,
2010: TTP militants armed with rockets and grenades
stormed the home of a pro-Government tribal elder, killing
him, his wife and son, before blowing up the house in
Asghar village, about 40 kilometers northwest of Khar,
the main town in Bajaur Agency.
March
29, 2010: The bodies of three anti-TTP tribal elders,
with their throats slit, were recovered in the Chinarak
area of Kurram Agency.
November
6, 2008: 22 tribesmen were killed and 45 others injured
when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a Salarzai
jirga in the Charmang area of Bajaur Agency.
October
23, 2008: TTP militants killed at least eight pro-government
Ferozkhel tribal elders in an ambush in the Orakzai
Agency.
October
10, 2008: TTP militants beheaded four elders from the
Charmang tribe after they had attended a pro-Government
jirga in Bajaur Agency.
June
13, 2008: Militants shot dead five tribesmen, including
a pro-government tribal elder, Malik Zahideen, near
Miranshah in North Waziristan Agency (NWA).
August
10, 2005: Four persons died when the vehicle of a tribal
elder hit a landmine in the Taza Ghondai area of South
Waziristan Agency (SWA).
July
22, 2005: Unidentified gunmen assassinated nine tribesmen,
including two leading pro-Government tribal elders,
in different parts of SWA.
May
29, 2005: Former federal minister and Senator, Malik
Faridullah Khan Wazir, was assassinated along with two
other tribal elders by four suspected terrorists in
the Jandola area of SWA.
These
attacks on the tribal elders and their families demonstrate
their vulnerabilities in the FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
(KP,
formerly known as North West Frontier Province) areas.
The attacks mainly target tribal elders who support
Government operations against the militants.
Significantly,
the tribesmen, fed-up with the increasing brutality
of the TTP, and encouraged by state agencies and the
Army, have widened armed resistance against the Islamist
extremists in the area since 2008. By the beginning
of September 2008, the tribal elders had organised a
private army of approximately 30,000 tribesmen to fight
the TTP. The tribal militia have set ablaze houses of
TTP ‘commanders’ in Bajaur, near the Afghan border,
and have vowed to fight them until they have been expelled
from the region. A local jirga had decided to
create armed militia in the wake of the increasing presence
of the TTP in the area. Earlier, the fear of Taliban
reprisals and uncertainty about the sincerity of the
Government and the Army’s commitment to fighting militancy
had prevented the communities from challenging the militants.
However, though the Government has stirred up the tribal
militia against the TTP, these have largely been left
to their own devices, and abandoned to vicious retaliation
by the extremists, relying on own old-fashioned guns
against the sophisticated weapons of the TTP.
Among
the most noteworthy anti-TTP uprisings, to date, took
place in the Buner District of KP, on August 30, 2008,
when tribesmen retaliated by killing a group of six
TTP extremists, who had attacked a Police Station in
the Kingargalli area killing eight Policemen. Since
then, other anti-TTP armed militia have been encouraged
to hunt for the terrorists. Mukhtar A. Khan, a Pashtun
journalist, on November 27, 2008, had noted that that,
after successive failed attempts to tackle the rising
militancy in FATA and the adjoining KP, the Government
was encouraging local tribal people to stand up against
the TTP and al Qaeda and flush them out of their regions.
Conspicuously, Lakki Marwat was the first District in
KP to raise a volunteer militia to evict militants from
the area.
Significantly,
over the past five years, tribal elders have signed
several agreements with the Government, and also have
convened innumerable jirgas, to fight terrorism
and consolidate peace in the tribal areas. The most
significant among these include:
March
11, 2009: Political authorities and elders of three
tribes of Bajaur Agency signed a 28-point agreement
to bring peace in the area. About 1,400 tribal elders
of Khar, Salarzai and Atmanzai tribes signed the agreement
in a grand jirga in Khar.
March
9, 2009: The Mamoond tribe and the authorities signed
a 28-point agreement to bring the law and order situation
under control in Bajaur Agency.
October
20, 2008: About 300 elders from the Salarzai tribe vowed
to resist TTP in their areas during a grand jirga (council)
held in Bajaur.
October
6, 2008: A press release by the FATA Secretariat’s media
cell said tribal elders from the Khyber, Bajaur, Mohmand
and Orakzai Agencies and the Frontier Regions assured
the Government of support against the TTP in separate
jirgas.
March
26, 2007: Tribesmen in the Bajaur agency gave an undertaking
to the Government to deny shelter to "locals as well
as foreigners, including Afghans" involved in terrorist
or anti-State activities.
March
9, 2007: A deal was signed between the NWA political
agent representing the KP Governor and "Tribal leaders
of North Waziristan, local Mujahideen and elders of
the Utmanzai tribes".
Despite
several losses of life and Pakistan Government’s apathy,
the tribal elders and tribal militia continue their
support to the Government in its ‘war against terror’.
Notably, on September 4, 2007, the Pakistan Government
had asked a tribal jirga to help free some 275
Pakistani soldiers and officers, who had been taken
hostage on August 30, 2007, by pro-TTP militants in
the SWA. The militants had demanded troop withdrawal
from the Agency and the release of 15 of their men from
Government custody. Significantly, a leading member
of the jirga, Senator Maulana Salih Shah, met
then TTP ‘commander’ Baitullah Mehsud on the Government’s
behalf. During subsequent negotiations through tribal
elders, the Government was able to secure the release
of 272 soldiers on different dates. Three soldiers were,
however, executed on October 4, 2007 as a warning to
the Government not to launch a rescue operation. Unofficial
reports said that a letter left with the soldiers’ bodies
said: "We will gift three bodies everyday." The Government
also released 25 militants, including Sohail Zeb, a
relative of slain Taliban ‘commander’ Abdullah Mehsud,
in exchange for the soldiers’ release. Officials had
then revealed that the soldiers and militants had been
exchanged through jirga members at Tiarza tehsil,
25 kilometres northeast of Wana.
In
a recognition of their contribution, when Chief of Army
Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani visited troops in
Mohmand Agency on February 6, 2009, he made sure he
met with the tribal elders as well. He expressed appreciation
of their efforts to evict ‘foreign elements’ from their
areas, and declared that the support of ‘local people’
was critical for success of Army operations to purge
area of ‘miscreants and terrorists’. The tribal elders,
in response, once again expressed their full support
for the military operations. Demonstrating their resolve
to eliminate the extremists from their areas and to
bring back peace and security, they declared that, "They
were, they are and they will always remain the first
line of Defence for Pakistan."
Despite
unqualified support from and immense help from the tribal
elders, Islamabad had demonstrated little concern for
the safety, and for the development of the tribal regions.
The populations of FATA and KP continue to suffer under
sweeping and indiscriminate military operations, largely
executed through haphazard bombing and artillery attacks
on populated areas, which has forced vast numbers to
become refugees in their own country, languishing in
different Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps.
According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre
(IDMC), by June 15, 2010, there were more than 3.3 million
conflict IDPs in Pakistan, since the start of the fight
between Pakistan’s Armed Forces and militant groups
in 2008.
The
tribal elders and populations in Pakistan’s troubled
FATA and KP regions are under constant threat from both
terrorists and indiscriminate Army operations, living
on the very edge of a sword. Their difficulties have
now been immensely compounded by the floods that have
enveloped large parts of Pakistan, displacing millions
more, even as radical Islamist groupings expand their
activities and influence under the guise of ‘relief
operations’, while state agencies look the other way.
The absence of a consistent counter-terrorism policy
in Pakistan, and the alternating strategy of support
some terrorist formations, even as the state fights
others, has brought chaos and devastation to the lives
of millions in Pakistan’s tribal regions, with no relief
in sight in the foreseeable future.
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Manipur:
Xenophobic Excess
Sandipani Dash
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management
Chennabasaveshwar A. Patagundi
Research Assistant, Institute for Conflict Management
Afflicted
with multiple insurgencies for the past 46 years, Manipur
is now the most violent State in India’s troubled Northeast,
with all its nine Districts tainted with varying degrees
of extremist activity. The ethnocentric perversion, particularly
of the Meitei insurgency, has, over the years, become
more pronounced in the Manipur Valley and beyond. In their
quest to project a pan-Mongoloid identity, the Meitei
armed groups have moved beyond rejecting the Bengali script
and the mayangs (outsiders settled in the Valley),
and are now striking at the Hindi and Bengali speaking
migrant populace in the State.
There are
an estimated 50,000 ‘outsiders’ in Manipur, mostly from
the States of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Jharkhand.
A majority of these are petty vendors and labourers. With
the August 24, 2010, killing of a non-local by suspected
militants at Wahengbam Ningol Chaibi in Imphal West District,
one estimate reveals that the number of migrant workers
and labourers who have been killed by armed insurgents
in Manipur since February 2009 has reached 34. The South
Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) database, in its partial
estimate (a preponderance of such cases go unreported,
or are not uniquely categorized as casualties among ‘outsiders’)
records that 74 persons have been killed and 13 injured
in as many as 48 militant attacks on non-locals
in all the four Valley Districts and three Hill Districts
since 2001. The violence unleashed against non-locals
in the State has registered an irregular trajectory during
2001-2010 with sharp increase in the years 2008 and 2009.
Militant Attacks on Non-Locals in Manipur: 2001-2010
Year
|
Number
of Attacks
|
Killed
|
Injured
|
2001
|
2
|
7
|
0
|
2002
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
2003
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
2004
|
1
|
3
|
0
|
2005
|
1
|
2
|
0
|
2006
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
2007
|
3
|
7
|
0
|
2008
|
11
|
18
|
5
|
2009
|
24
|
30
|
8
|
2010
|
6
|
7
|
0
|
Total*
|
48
|
74
|
13
|
*Data
till August 29, 2010
Source: SATP
Some of the major militant
attacks (resulting in three or more than three killings)
on non-locals in the State since 2001 include:
June 11,
2009: Four non-local labourers were killed and one was
injured, when unidentified militants opened fire on them
inside the Central Agriculture University campus at Iroisemba
under Lamphel Police Station in Imphal West District.
May 11,
2009: Unidentified militants killed nine non-locals inside
the Keibul Lamjao National Park at Khordak Awang Leikai
area in Bishnupur District.
March 17,
2008: At least seven Hindi-speaking people were shot dead
by unidentified militants at Mayang Imphal Hanglun in
the capital Imphal. The victims were sellers of tobacco
products, which were ‘banned’ by the People’s Liberation
Army (PLA).
March 18,
2008: Unidentified militants killed seven Hindi-speaking
labourers and injured two others. While five persons were
killed at Thumbi foothill in the Kangla Sangomsang area
of Imphal East District, two others were shot dead at
Kakching in Thoubal District.
March 8,
2007: Five migrant workers were shot dead by unidentified
militants at Ningthoukhong Kha-Khunou Patmang in Bishnupur
District.
November
9-10, 2004: Suspected militants killed three non-local
traders after abducting them from their rented house at
Khurai Lamlong in Imphal East District.
June 14,
2001: Three non-local traders were killed by unidentified
militants at Yumpok Wakhong in Imphal East District.
June 7,
2001: Five persons, including four traders from the State
of Bihar, were killed by suspected People’s United Liberation
Front (PULF)
cadres at Kakching in Thoubal District.
On January
10, 2010, Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP), Imphal
West District, A. K. Jhaljit Singh, claimed the involvement
of outfits like the People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak
(PREPAK),
United National Liberation Front (UNLF),
PLA and Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL)
in the targeted elimination of non-locals in Manipur.
The assessment was based on confessions of two PREPAK
cadres [arrested on January 9, 2010], who were reportedly
involved in lobbing hand-grenades and other terrorist
activities, including the killing of non-locals. The ASP
also had claimed that the serial gunning down of migrant
labourers in Manipur over the preceding months was the
handiwork of these groups, which had together decided
to engage in such crimes to destabilise the Okram Ibobi
Singh Government.
PREPAK
and PLA, however, subsequently denied their involvement
in these crimes. A statement issued by the PREPAK alleged
that the arrest of its cadres by a combined team of the
Imphal West District Police and Assam Rifles and charging
them with elimination of non-locals, as well as linking
other underground outfits to these crimes, exposed the
‘dubious character’ of the Okram Ibobi Singh Government
in its effort to ‘please their masters’ at Delhi, and
to create hatred between underground groups.
Nevertheless,
on March 6, 2010, the Revolutionary People’s Front (RPF),
the political wing of the PLA, set May 31, 2010, as the
deadline for non-local people to leave the State. In its
statement, the RPF said that all those who came to Manipur
after 1949 (the year of Manipur’s merger with the Indian
Union) were considered non-Manipuris, and entry of outsiders
to the State was illegal. T. Leisemba, ‘publicity secretary’
of the RPF, declared that living and working in the State
by non-Manipuris had become ‘dangerous’ as ‘hatred’ among
the residents was growing, and attributed the recent ethnic
killings to this factor. In addition to this, ‘oppression
and murder’ since the late seventies by the Security Forces,
and the introduction of ‘agents’ under the guise of labourers
for ‘espionage activities’, had caused more hatred among
the people of Manipur. Further, the Government had failed
to protect the lives of non-Manipuris, so the RPF asked
transporters not to bring in any more ‘outsiders’. It
also asked the people not to rent out rooms or sell land
to non-Manipuris, or allow them to head business houses
in the State. The outfit, however, said that it would
allow the entry of non-Manipuri people for "temporary
work", such as education-related activities, experts
or scholars visiting on a temporary basis, tourists and
sportsmen. "Entry of other non-Manipuris is prohibited
for their welfare," it warned.
The RPF’s
quit notice appears to have provoked a retaliatory response
from its strategic ally from the country’s ‘mainland’,
the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist).
A member of the Tirhut (in Muzzafarpur District of Bihar)
sub-zonal committee of the Maoists, Sher Khan, a resident
of the State of Uttar Pradesh, who was in the Sheohar-Champaran
region in Bihar to review the group’s organisational set-up,
stated on April 20, 2010, that a CPI-Maoist delegation
had visited recently Manipur, and found reports of the
militants' ultimatum accurate. Khan said, further, "We
are with the labourers of Bihar and Jharkhand. If they
are forced to leave the State, we will not remain silent
on the issue." Khan added that the CPI-Maoist would also
issue an ultimatum to Manipuri students enrolled in different
educational institutions in Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh
and West Bengal, to leave these places by June 30, 2010,
and people working in other organisations in the four
States would not be spared: "We have clear stand on the
issue. If ill-treatment being meted out to Bihari labourers
is not stopped immediately, we will decide other course
of action also." Khan stated, further, that the decision
to issue a counter ultimatum to the residents of Manipur
to leave Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal
was taken at a meeting of Maoist leaders of the four States
on the Bihar-Nepal border.
The CPI-Maoist,
however, subsequently tried to hush up the possible inner
contradictions unfolding in its current strategy to rope
in the ‘peripheral’ armed movements in the Northeast,
and quickly disowned the counter ultimatum issued in its
name. A statement put out by the outfit’s Bihar-Jharkhand-North
Chhattishgarh Special Area Committee ‘spokesperson’, Gopal,
declared that the counter-ultimatum was the ‘handiwork’
of intelligence agencies, aimed at creating ‘confusion
and distrust’ among the people of Manipur and India, and
to ‘slander’ the image of CPI-Maoist, which supports the
movement of the Manipuri people for ‘independence’: "It
is a just movement and the people of Manipur are making
great sacrifices to achieve it. We respect it. We support
the movements of various nationalities of India for self-determination/
independence."
Meanwhile,
the Hindustani Samaj of Manipur, an association of non-locals
in the Northeastern State, sent a letter to Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh on April 15, 2010, complaining that the
State Government had done nothing to ensure the safety
of the non-Manipuri people, despite the RPF’s deadline
to quit their work places. "As many as 32 non-Manipuris
have been killed by militant groups in the State since
January, while the RPF has asked transporters not to transport
non-Manipuri people into the state," Nareshwar Kumar,
President of the Hindustani Samaj, wrote, "In some
areas, these elements are visiting the houses of non-Manipuris
and threatening them to leave. As a result, there is a
panic among non-Manipuris." The distress letter,
however, has failed to elicit significant response to
put an end to the plight of the targeted groups in Manipur.
Since then, at least four non-locals have been killed
in three militant attacks in Imphal West and Imphal East
Districts in the Valley and Ukhrul District in the Hills.
These attacks
coincide with a Press Statement issued on July 30, 2010,
by the RPF ‘publicity secretary’, T. Leisemba, reiterating
that RPF had earlier asked non-Manipuris to leave Manipur
before May 31, 2010, ‘for their own safety and welfare’;
but the deadline had passed. The statement further declared
that the RPF could no longer be held responsible for any
untoward actions taken up against the non-Manipuris, and
actions would also be initiated against those who were
found giving shelter to the non-Manipuris.
The ethnocentric
radicalisation of the Meitei identity has secured traction
along the multiple faultlines in the State that have entrenched
the myriad violent sub-national movements in Manipur.
The steady xenophobic excesses in this theatre are just
another index of the failure of counter-insurgency strategies,
and the callous complacency, indeed, complicity, of politics
in the State.
|
Weekly
Fatalities: Major Conflicts in South Asia
August 23-29, 2010
|
Civilians
|
Security
Force Personnel
|
Terrorists/Insurgents
|
Total
|
BANGLADESH
|
|
Left Wing
Extremism
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
INDIA
|
|
Assam
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
4
|
Jammu and
Kashmir
|
3
|
0
|
6
|
9
|
Manipur
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
Nagaland
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
Left-wing
Extremism
|
|
Bihar
|
1
|
6
|
0
|
7
|
Chhattisgarh
|
0
|
5
|
1
|
6
|
Jharkhand
|
1
|
0
|
3
|
4
|
Orissa
|
4
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
West Bengal
|
5
|
0
|
6
|
11
|
Total
(INDIA)
|
15
|
11
|
23
|
49
|
PAKISTAN
|
|
Balochistan
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
5
|
FATA
|
46
|
5
|
30
|
81
|
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
|
4
|
0
|
2
|
6
|
Sindh
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
2
|
Total
(PAKISTAN)
|
56
|
6
|
32
|
94
|
Provisional
data compiled from English language media sources.
|
INDIA
ISI
trying to revive Punjab militancy, warns Intelligence
Bureau:
The Intelligence Bureau on August 25 warned that
"inimical agencies" operating from "international
bases" were trying to revive militancy in Punjab
by forging an alliance between Khalistani outfits
and the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT).
Times of India, August
27, 2010.
Maoist
threat looms over Delhi and NCR towns, say security
agencies:
According to security agencies, the Communist
Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) is planning
to strike in a big way in Delhi and National Capital
Region (NCR) towns to take revenge over the arrest
of Maoist politburo member Kobad Ghandy (September
21, 2009) and the killing of another politburo
member Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad (July
2, 2010).
Hindustan Times, August
27, 2010.
Union
Home Minister P. Chidambaram warns against ‘saffron
terror’:
While inaugurating a three-day conference of Directors-General
and Inspectors-General of Police in New Delhi
on August 25 Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram
cautioned the Chiefs of State Police and security
and intelligence officials against continuing
attempts to infiltrate militants into the country
as well as the phenomenon of ‘saffron terrorism’.
The
Hindu, August 26, 2010.
No
credible response yet from Maoists on talks, says
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram:
In the first formal response after Communist Party
of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) leader Koteswar Rao
alias Kishan's recent three-month cease-fire
offer to the Centre, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram
on August 25 rejected any move which lacked commitment
on the ground and said the Government had so far
not received any "credible response" to its talks
offer to the Naxals [Left Wing Extremists] who
had to first "abjure violence".
Times of India, August
26, 2010.
HNLC
against peace talks in Meghalaya: The
Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC)
changed its earlier pro-talk stance stating that
it had no "agenda" to have peace talks with the
Government.
Shillong
Times, August 28, 2010.
Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh for non-lethal crowd control
measures in Jammu and Kashmir: Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh on August 26 called for
revisiting standard operating procedures and crowd
control measures to deal with public agitations
with "non-lethal, yet effective and more
focussed measures" in Jammu and Kashmir.
The
Hindu, August 27, 2010.
2010
witnesses dramatic decline in number of incidents
and casualties in Northeast, says Union Home Minister
P. Chidambaram: Union
Home Minister P. Chidambaram on August 25 said
that while the year 2009 was a distinct improvement
on the year 2008, it is in the 2010 that we have
seen a dramatic decline in the number of incidents
and in the number of casualties in the Northeast.
Assam Tribune, August
26, 2010.
NEPAL
UCPN-M
presents divided opinions in the CC meeting: The
Central Committee (CC) meeting of the Unified
Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) which
was held on August 25 in Kathmandu witnessed a
division among the leadership opinions. According
to sources, the vice-chairmen of UCPN-M, Baburam
Bhattarai and Mohan Baidya, presented a "counter
report" against the political document presented
by Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda.
Kantipur
Online, August 26, 2010.
CPN-UML
high-level team to negotiate consensus proposal:
The
Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist Leninist
(CPN-UML) on August 24 formed a high-level team
to hold dialogue with the other parties in a bid
to build national consensus and break the political
crisis that has intensified in the wake of the
standoff in Prime Ministerial Elections.
Himalayan
Times, August 25, 2010.
Fifth
round of Prime Ministerial elections end inconclusively:
The
fifth round of Prime Ministerial (PM) elections
ended inconclusively on August 23 after both the
candidates - Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist
(UCPN-M) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka
Prachanda and Nepali Congress (NC) Parliamentary
Party leader Ram Chandra Poudel - failed to secure
a majority.
Kantipur
Online, August 25, 2010.
PAKISTAN
46
civilians and 30 militants among 81 persons killed
during the week in FATA: Asian
Tigers or Punjabi Taliban ‘chief’ Usman Punjabi
and five of his cadres were killed in a shootout
between two factions of the outfit in the Dandy
Darpakhel area of North Waziristan Agency in Federally
Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on August 29.
A
United Sates (US) drone strike on August 27 killed
four militants in the Shahidano village of Kurram
Agency along Afghan-Pakistan border. "All
those killed militants belong to the Tehreek-e-Taliban
Pakistan (TTP)," a security official said.
26
persons, including a former member of the National
Assembly (NA), were killed and 40 others injured
when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a
mosque in the Wana town of South Waziristan at
3pm (PST) on August 23. In addition, missiles
fired from a US drone killed 13 militants and
seven civilians in the Dandey Darpa Khel area,
about five kilometres from Miranshah, the main
town in North Waziristan Agency on August 23.
Also, a bomb blast at a meeting of tribal elders
on August 23 killed seven persons and injured
another seven in Khumas village, about 10 kilometres
east of Parachinar, in Kurram Agency.
Three
militants were killed and as many injured when
SFs repulsed an attack on a check post in the
Safi tehsil (revenue unit) of Mohmand Agency.
Dawn;
Daily
Times; The
News, August 24-30, 2010.
10
politicians on terrorists’ hit list, says report:
The
Ministry of Interior on August 25 issued an alert
for 10 politicians that they were on terrorists’
hit list. The terrorists’ targets included Pakistan
Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Member of National
Assembly (MNA) Ahsan Iqbal and Khurram Dastagir,
Minister of State for Communications Imtiaz Safdar
Warraich, Defence Minister Ahmad Mukthrar and
a Member of Provincial Assembly from Punjab.
Dawn,
August 26, 2010.
TTP
threatens to attack foreign aid workers: The
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on August 26
threatened to launch attacks against foreigners
helping in the flood relief efforts, saying their
presence was "unacceptable". Meanwhile,
US Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman Admiral
Mike Mullen said on August 28 that TTP must be
taken seriously.
Daily
Times, August 27-29, 2010.
Terrorists
will try to exploit flood crisis, says President
Asif Ali Zardari: President
Asif Ali Zardari on August 24 warned that the
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) could take advantage
of the country’s floods crisis while defending
the Government’s handling of the catastrophe.
Daily
Times, August 25, 2010.
Terrorists
exploiting floods, says US official: The
United States (US) has seen evidence that Pakistani
terrorists and the charities affiliated with them
are deepening their involvement in flood-relief
effort in a bid to win popular support, an unnamed
senior US official said on August 27.
Daily
Times, August 28, 2010.
Al
Qaeda shifting base to Pakistan’s urban areas,
indicates report: A
report on August 24 said that al Qaeda is gradually
shifting its base from the unsafe and spy-infested
tribal belt of Pakistan – which is under the radars
of virtually all intelligence agencies – to more
secure, urban areas of the country, which according
to a Western diplomat, are "immune to drones".
Daily
Times, August 25, 2010.
National
Security Adviser of Afghanistan Rangin Dadfar
Spanta calls for sanctions against Pakistan: The
National Security Adviser of Afghanistan Rangin
Dadfar Spanta urged the United States to sanction
Pakistan and refuse visas to Pakistani Generals.
Dawn,
August 27, 2010.
US
asks Pakistan to take decisive action against
terrorists, says State Department spokesman P.
J. Crowley: US
asked Pakistan to take "decisive action" against
extremism within its territory, even as it expressed
satisfaction over the progress made so far, State
Department spokesman P. J. Crowley said on August
24.
Indian Express, August
25, 2010.
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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