South Asia Terrorism Portal

Balochistan: Insecure Forces
Tushar Ranjan Mohanty
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

A blast targeting a Police van wounded nine persons including three Policemen on Spinny Road in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan, on October 21, 2019. Police disclosed that the blast took place as a result of an improvised explosive device (IED) planted on a motorcycle.

One Policeman was killed and 10 others, including five Policemen, sustained injuries in an explosion in the Double Road area of Quetta, in the evening of October 15, 2019. Quetta Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Abdul Razzaq Cheema stated that the target of the blast was a Police mobile unit. Unidentified militants had planted an IED in a motorcycle parked on the roadside.

A Policeman was killed and three persons sustained injuries in a suicide attack on a Police vehicle in the Loralai District of Balochistan on September 30, 2019. One suspected militant blew himself up and another one was killed by the Police during an exchange of fire. Station House Officer (SHO), Loralai, Abdul Rehman said personnel of the Police's Eagle Squad stopped two suspects riding a motorcycle near the Loralai commissioner's office. However, one of the militants blew himself up and the second was shot dead in retaliatory firing by Police. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed the responsibility for the blast.

Three Policemen were injured in a blast while they are on their daily rounds in the Eastern Bypass area of Quetta in the night of September 25, 2019.

Five people including two Policemen were killed and another 32 injured in a blast of explosives placed in a motorcycle near a Police Station at Bacha Khan Chowk, Quetta, on July 30, 2019. TTP claimed responsibility for the blast.

During the last ten months and 24 days of the current year, Balochistan has recorded declines in violence against Security Force (SF) personnel, as compared to the same period in 2018. There has been a 28.16 per cent decrease in SF fatalities, from 71 SF personnel killed in 2018, down to 51 such fatalities in 2019. Nevertheless, Balochistan still leads among all the Provinces of the country on this index. According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), out of the 51 SF personnel killed in the Province in 2019, 40 were killed in Northern Balochistan, while the remaining 11 were killed in Southern Balochistan. As has been noted in the past, the North is afflicted by Islamist extremist groups such as TTP and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ). Baloch nationalist insurgent groups operate in the South. The major Baloch insurgent groups include the Baloch Republican Army (BRA), Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), Balochistan Liberation Tigers (BLT) and United Baloch Army (UBA).

A North-South breakup of SF fatalities over the last nine years indicates that SF fatalities in North Balochistan – afflicted by Islamist terrorist formations – are consistently higher than South Balochistan – where rebel Baloch nationalist organisations operate. Significantly, extra-judicial killings of civilians account for a large proportion of the fatalities in South Balochistan.

Forced disappearances engineered by Pakistani SFs are also the reason behind the targeted killings of SFs by Baloch insurgents in South. According to partial data compiled by SATP, of the 4,342 civilian fatalities recorded in Balochistan since 2004 (data till October 27, 2019), at least 1,381 have been attributable to one or another terrorist/insurgent outfit. Of these, 435 civilian killings (263 in the South and 172 in the North) have been claimed by Baloch separatist formations, while Islamist and sectarian extremist formations – primarily Islamic State, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), TTP and Ahrar-ul-Hind (Liberators of India) – claimed responsibility for another 946 civilian killings, 863 in the North (mostly in and around Quetta) and 83 in the South. The remaining 2,961 civilian fatalities – 1,712 in the South and 1,249 in the North – remain 'unattributed'. It is widely believed that Security Agencies engage in “kill and dump” operations, particularly in the Southern region, targeting local Baloch dissidents, a reality that Pakistan’s Supreme Court has clearly recognized.

While SFs engage in a systematic campaign of extermination of ethnic Baloch people through enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in the South, they are, in turn, frequently targeted by Islamist terrorist formations such as TTP and LeJ in the northern Districts.

The SF killings in North Balochistan are attributed to Islamist terrorists who either specifically target officers who have been pursuing operations against them, or launch counter-attacks immediately after a senior terrorist commander is arrested or killed. Thus, when LeJ Balochistan chapter chief Usman Saifullah Kurd, who carried bounty of PKR 2.5 million, was killed in an encounter with law enforcement agencies in the Sariab Road area of Quetta on February 15, 2015, attacks against SFs surged. In 2016 alone, according to SATP, 153 SFs were killed, including 62 cadets of the Police Training College Quetta in the October 24, 2016, attack.

Balochistan Inspector General of Police Mohsin Hassan Butt stated, on April 30, 2019, that since 2009, 911 Police officials across Balochistan had been killed while combating terrorists, including two Deputy Inspectors General of Police (DIGs), two Senior Superintendents of Police (SSPs), one Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), 19 Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSPs), 23 Inspectors, 75 Sub-Inspectors (SIs), 54 Assistant Sub-inspectors (ASIs), 164 Head Constables, 552 constables and 79 class four employees of the Police department. “Balochistan Police have rendered great sacrifices to protect the lives of the people and restore peace to the Province. They have never bowed down against terror,” he added.

While, security personnel have been falling prey to militancy and terrorism, the authorities have been making false claim of peace and calm in the Province. Inspector General of Police (IGP) Balochistan Mohsin Hassan Butt thus stated, on August 27, 2019, that the law and order situation had improved in Balochistan. IGP Butt disclosed that over 36,753 Police personnel were striving to maintain a durable peace and to improve the law and order situation across the Province. He conceded, however, that three Districts of Balochistan – Quetta, Gwadar and Lasbela – had been declared ‘A-areas’ in order to curb ‘criminal activities’, to restore peace in the areas. However, other Districts such as Loralai have been facing a surge in the terrorism-related attacks on SFs. In Loralai District alone, 15 SF fatalities have been reported, out of the 51 fatalities in this category in the Province, in 2019. 

While the security personnel in Balochistan had been under extremist threat, the Police Department continues to face severe shortages of senior officers across the Province. A September 13, 2019, report indicated that at least 53 posts of grade-18 to grade-21 Police officers were lying vacant in the Province. 33 posts of grdae-18 (Superintendents of Police), 13 posts of grade-19 (Assistant Inspectors General/Senior Superintendents of Police), six posts of grade-20 (Deputy Inspectors General/Regional Police Officers/ Capital City Police Officers) and one post of grade-21 (Additional Inspector General) were vacant in the Balochistan Police. The Provincial Government had taken up the issue of shortage of Police officers with the Federal Government, but these representations do have not secured any response.

Though the intensity and frequency of militant attacks in the Province has decreased through 2019, targeted attacks on SF personnel remain a matter of urgent concern. Where the security apparatus, meant to protect the general public, fails to secure itself, the situation in the Province can only the thought to be grave.

Jharkhand: Khunti: On Shaky Ground
Deepak Kumar Nayak
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

On October 19, 2019, Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadres shot dead a couple in Khunti District. According to the Police, the rebels shot dead Sheetal Munda (50) and his wife Made Munda (45) at Aada village under the Saiko Police Station of the District, branding them ‘police informers’. Sheetal Munda was the deputy Sarpanch (head of the Panchayat, village level local self-Government institution).

On August 4, 2019, two youths were shot dead by CPI-Maoist cadres in Badani village under Arki Police Station limits in Khunti District. The Maoists alleged through pamphlets that they were ‘police informers.’

These were the four civilian fatalities recorded in the District in the current year so far (data till October 27, 2019). According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), since September 12, 2007, when the Khunti District was carved out of Ranchi, the former has accounted for at least 73 civilian fatalities as a result of Naxalite [Left Wing Extremist, LWE]-linked violence. However, when Khunti was a part of Ranchi District, it had recorded at least four civilian fatalities in LWE-linked violence, since March 6, 2000, when SATP started compiling data.

Khunti is one among 26 districts of 56 affected, spread across eight states, that has witnessed more fatalities in civilian categories than in the Security Force, SF, or Maoists categories. According to SATP, since September 12, 2007, Khunti has recorded a total of 152 fatalities [73 civilians, 17 SF personnel and 62 Naxalites (Left Wing Extremists)]. Significantly, out of the eight States, Jharkhand with (545 civilian fatalities) is also among the four that have registered more fatalities in the civilian categories than in the SF or Maoists categories. The other three are Bihar (209 civilian), Odisha (284), and West Bengal (483).

However, the data suggests, civilian fatalities, which peaked at 16 in 2012, have recorded cyclical trends thereafter, but never reached double digits again, suggesting improvements in the security situation in the District, primarily as a result of increasing SF dominance on the ground.

Considering the overall fatalities in both the Maoist and SF categories since September 12, 2007, we find that the SFs have achieved an overall positive kill ratio of 1:3.64. More importantly, the SFs last lost a trooper on August 18, 2015, when a Policeman, identified as Dhumul Siwaiya, was killed in an encounter under Murhu Police Station limits in Khunti District. A CPI-Maoist ‘area commander’, Chandan aka Kalika Munda, was also killed in that encounter. Police recovered an AK-47 rifle and six loaded magazines from the encounter site.

Khunti is one of most backward regions of the State. Indeed, the NITI Aayog on March 28, 2018, launched the baseline ranking for ‘Aspirational Districts’ constructed on published data of 49 indicators (81 data points) across five developmental areas of Health and Nutrition, Education, Agriculture and Water Resources, Financial Inclusion and Skill Development, and Basic Infrastructure. Khunti is among the 115 identified backwards Districts, where the Government is committed to raising living standards, using a composite index of key data sets that included deprivation as enumerated under the Socio-Economic Caste Census, key health and education sector performance, and the state of basic infrastructure.

According to a September 19, 2019, report, Jharkhand Rural Development Minister Nilkanth Singh Munda claimed that Khunti has never seen development work as has been witnessed during the last five years. To give development a boost, Union Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda noted that Khunti was one of the ‘aspirational’ districts of the country, and that "Development is taking place here rapidly. The government is working with the goal of making Khunti a developed district. "

Khunti has an area of 2,535 square kilometers and shares its borders with Ranchi in the north and east; Saraikela-Kharsawan in the south-east, West Singhbhum in the south, and Simdega and Gumla in the West. All these Districts, with the exception of Saraikela-Kharsawan, are among the ‘30 worst Maoist-affected’ Districts, across seven States in the country, according to Union Ministry of Home Affairs (UMHA). Moreover, all these Districts are among the 90 districts in 11 States that are considered LWE affected, according to a Government release of February 5, 2019.

Several concerns persist in the District. Like in rest of Jharkhand, not only the CPI-Maoist, but several of its splinter groups operate in Khunti District. There are more than 12 such small breakaway groups, including the Peoples' Liberation Front of India (PLFI), Jharkhand Liberation Tigers (JLT), and Jharkhand Sangharsh Morcha (JSM). These groups survive by extortion, arson, creating disturbances and even executing contract killings. According to Police, "These organisations collect illegal levy from coal traders, contractors and companies involved in coal mining, and indulge in arson and disturb coal transportation and other development works when not paid."

An October 11, 2019, report, revealed that a squad of 20 rebels, including women, from Jhinkpani, Kuchai and Kharsawan were camping in the forest areas of Kuchai along the border with Khunti. Three suspected Maoists, identified as Maheswar Mahali, Ranjit Mahali and Shahani, had prepared the plan and were leading the squad. Intelligence reports suggested that there was a CPI-Maoist conspiracy to detonate explosives on a railway track and target the Howrah-Mumbai Gitanjali superfast train.

To fight the LWE menace, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Jharkhand Armed Police (JAP), and a special task force, the Jharkhand Jaguar (JJ), have been deployed in all the LWE-affected District of Jharkhand. A September 30, 2018, report, suggested that more than 2,000 paramilitary forces were deployed in Khunti.

According to the latest data provided by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), Jharkhand had a police-population ratio (policemen per hundred thousand population), as on January 1, 2017, of 174.96, significantly lower than the sanctioned strength of 229.19, though much higher than the national average of 150.75. The ratio was 167.92 per 100,000 on January 1, 2016. On January 1, 2005, the police-population ratio of the State was 160.5, again, much higher than the then national average of 140.4.

The LWE insurgency in Jharkhand in general, and in the Khunti District in particular, has been substantially degraded and criminalized, with extortion operating as the primary driver for the many splinter formations. Sustained SF pressure, combined with aggressive development, particularly of infrastructure and communications, is necessary to facilitate processes that would bring these residual problems to an end.