South Asia Terrorism Portal

PAKISTAN

Gilgit-Baltistan: 'Final Annexation' Accelerated
Ajit Kumar Singh
Research Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management
 

Islamabad has accelerated the process of imposing a provisional-provincial status on Gilgit-Baltistan. Pakistani media reports claim that between February 7-14, 2022, a number of meetings were held among the stakeholders, in Islamabad. During these meetings, the draft of the “26^th Constitutional Amendment Bill” was discussed.

In the meantime, Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister (CM) Khalid Khurshid has circulated the draft of the “26^th Constitutional Amendment Bill” among members of the Gilgit Baltistan Legislative Assembly and his Cabinet, asking them to submit their “feedback and views as early as possible.”

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is expected to grant Gilgit-Baltistan the provisional-provincial status on Pakistan Day, observed each year on March 23.

To tighten Islamabad’s stranglehold over the region, Prime Minister Khan had announced the grant of provisional-provincial status to Gilgit-Baltistan on November 1, 2020. This change of status, he claimed, “was a long-standing demand of the people of the region.” The provisional-provincial status was a necessity, as the Government lacks the 2/3rd majority in the Parliament required for the constitutional amendment that could make Gilgit-Baltistan the country’s fifth province.

On March 9, 2021, to validate Imran Khan’s claim that the demand for provincial status came from the people of Gilgit-Baltistan, the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly passed a joint resolution, demanding that the region be granted the status of a provisional province of Pakistan and be provided representation in the National Assembly, Senate and other federal institutions. Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has a 2/3^rd majority in the Assembly. The resolution was also supported by opposition parties, who don’t want to be left behind, since a stand on Kashmir plays the central role in Pakistani politics.

After the resolution, Imran Khan asked his law minister Muhammad Farogh Naseem to fast-track a draft legislation for granting provisional-provincial status to Gilgit-Baltistan. At July end, the first draft of the “26^th Constitutional Amendment Bill” was prepared and submitted to the Prime Minister. Subsequently, a second draft was submitted on September 3, 2021. A September 13 report stated that Prime Minister Khan gave his consent to the draft and asked Chief Minister Khalid Khurshid to get it approved by the Gilgit-Baltistan   Assembly. The Draft Bill recommendations inter alia include:

Till the passing of the September 9, 2009, Gilgit-Baltistan (Empowerment and Self-Governance) Order 2009, the region had no legal existence after its illegal annexation from India. Even after the 2009 Order the region was excluded from any constitutional status, despite clear directives from the Supreme Court of Pakistan, resulting in the denial of constitutional rights and protection to the population. Later, the Gilgit Baltistan Order 2018 was promulgated by the then Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on May 21, 2018, replacing the Gilgit-Baltistan (Empowerment and Self-Governance) Order 2009, with the ostensible aim to provide the ‘same rights enjoyed by the other citizens of Pakistan to people of Gilgit Baltistan.’

Significantly, on June 20, 2018, the Supreme Appellate Court of Gilgit-Baltistan, the highest court of the region, suspended the Gilgit Baltistan Order 2018 after violent protests across the region. In one such protest, on May 26, 2018, several people were injured as Police fired tear gas and resorted to firing in the air in Gilgit city to stop protesters approaching the Gilgit Baltistan Assembly for a scheduled sit-in against the newly introduced order. A day earlier, on May 25, 2018, about 2,000 supporters and workers of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Islami Tehreek-i-Pakistan, Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen, Balawaristan National Front, Awami Action Committee, and members of civil society organizations and trade unions, who gathered at the Ittehad Chowk in Gilgit District, chanted slogans against the order. They alleged that the order, which pretends to empower the people of the region by giving them unprecedented liberty to exercise their fundamental rights, was in reality another document of deceit and falsehood, designed tactfully to further suppress the beleaguered indigenous people of the territory.

Subsequently, on August 8, 2018, the Supreme Court restored the Gilgit Baltistan Order 2018, suspending the decision of the Supreme Appellate Court of Gilgit-Baltistan. A three-member Supreme Court Bench, headed by the then Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar heard the appeal moved by the Federal Government. Chief Justice Nisar observed, “The government needs to ensure that the people of Gilgit Baltistan have the same respect and rights as all others.”

Despite the various Federal initiatives, the situation on the ground remained unchanged. This has been highlighted time and again. Most recently, on December 9, 2021, Jammu Kashmir Awami Workers Party chairperson Nisar Shah Advocate declared,

After the recent developments, there is some support in Gilgit-Baltistan for the proposal to grant provisional-provincial status, in the hope that this may help locals. Stating that Gilgit-Baltistan is entering the national mainstream for the first time, Syed Sohail Abbas Shah, Advisor Board of Revenue, Law & Prosecution, Gilgit Baltistan, thus argued,

However, there is strong opposition to the move as well, among those who see cynicism underpinning Islamabad designs. Amjad Ayub Mirza, a human rights activist from Pakistan occupied Jammu Kashmir (PoJK) currently living in exile in the United Kingdom wrote, on February 26, 2022,

Further, highlighting the loot of the Gilgit-Baltistan people, other speakers at the December 9, 2021, Conference claimed that there were no benefits for local people from the projects being developed in the area. They further claimed that their resources were being plundered and alleged their voices were suppressed if they demanded their rights.

Indeed, hundreds of political workers, social activists and religious leaders from Gilgit-Baltistan have been put under a ‘watch list’ in the name of terrorism. Most recently, in June 2021, a total of 36 people from Gilgit-Baltistan were added in the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) Schedule IV (proscribed persons) data. These included former member of Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly, Didar Ali; incumbent legislator, Ghulam Shehzad, a former nationalist leader and current Pakistan People’s Party member; and prominent clerics, like Sheikh Mirza Ali, Sheikh Bilal Summairi and Agha Syed Ali Rizvi. A majority of the people listed were from Gilgit District. According to NACTA, actions taken against people listed under Scheduled 4 include a passport embargo, freezing of bank accounts, ban on financial support, loans and credit cards, and an arms license embargo. Meanwhile, protests demanding the release of political leaders like Manzoor Parwana and Hasnain Ramal continue.

Despite the charade of local endorsement of the joint resolution by the Gilgit Baltistan Assembly, protests against the Government have become a routine. According to an October 21, 2021, report, a large number of people comprising members of a regional political party, Awami Action Committee, and rights activists gathered in Gilgit to oppose the Federal Government’s design of expanding its political control over the region under the garb of the provisional-provincial status.

Gilgit-Baltistan provides China a gateway to Pakistan, as it is the only area in Pakistan that shares a border with China. The region also shares borders with Afghanistan, and is consequently strategically important for China. Also, China is in the process of investing in several projects in Gilgit-Baltistan under the CPEC project, including the Moqpondass Special Economic Zone, about 40 kilometers from Gilgit city. However, none of these projects have benefited the people of Gilgit-Baltistan, who, in fact, continue to lack basic facilities such as food sufficiency and adequate electricity supply to deal with the harsh winters. The unemployment rate is very high and, according to a report published in Dawn on January 23, 2021,

People of the region have also realized the Chinses vested interest in the region and have been opposing Chinese projects vehemently. Anti-CPEC protests are regular feature. On January 15, 2021, massive protests erupted in the region over the Chinese move to build a 33-kilometer road. Amjad Ayub Mirza  noted, "China is now building a road from Yarkand [China] of 33 km [kilometers] wide enough to bring its artillery, military and personnel. Things are gearing up in a precarious way, but PoJK people have risen up to the occasion. There will be more protests in PoJK."

Moreover, on January 11, 2022, the Gilgit-Baltistan-based Awami Action Committee protested in Skardu against repeated and prolonged power shedding and a crisis of food items. The protestors claimed that the Governments (of Pakistan and Gilgit-Baltistan) had failed to deliver even the basic necessities of life to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan.  

According to a January 28, 2022, report, people in Gilgit-Baltistan held a protest against forced land acquisition by the Pakistani Army in village Nopura, Gilgit. The protestors threw stones at Army personnel and chanted anti-Army slogans. A February 15, 2022, report stated that people in Nasirabad, Hunza, Islamabad, and Karachi held demonstrations against the grabbing of mineral resources and lands in different districts of Gilgit-Baltistan, mainly in Hunza. On November 24, 2021, opposition members in the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly protested the ‘blocking’ of the vote on a resolution demanding the repeal of Khalsa Sarkar (state land) laws. The resolution declared that Khalsa Sarkar laws, which were applicable in all the districts of Gilgit-Baltistan, were against the Constitution of Pakistan and Islamic principles and Gilgit-Baltistan people’s right to property had been usurped for many decades under the law implemented since 1979.

Meanwhile, the threat or terrorism persists. Nisar Shah Advocate stated, “they are under threat of a growing influence of religious fanatics and an emergence of Afghanistan-like situation in the region.” He added that religious extremist organizations are regrouping in PoK and some parts of Gilgit-Baltistan, and warned that if the state did not change its present narrative and soft corner towards religious extremist organisations, this would fuel more extremism in the region.

Jamil Maqsood, Secretary Foreign Affairs Committee, ​ United Kashmir People's National Party, asserted on February 20, 2022, “without liberation of PoJK and Gilgit Baltistan from the yoke of Pakistan, it is impossible to control the menace of terrorism.”

Significantly, on July 7, 2021, a video surfaced in which the ‘second-in-command’ of Mujahideen Gilgit-Baltistan and Kohistan, Habib ur Rehman, and his accomplices were seen holding an ‘open court’ at the polo ground at Babusar Top in Diamer District. The ‘court’ went on through the day with heavily armed Islamist terrorists taking turns to address the locals. Senior police officials of Gilgit-Baltistan confirmed that Maulvi Abdul Hameed was the leader of the group. The group has anointed itself as the authority in Gilgit-Baltistan. Habib ur Rehman was involved in the killing of 11 persons, including 10 foreign mountaineers, at Nanga Parbat on June 23, 2013. Though he was arrested, he managed to escape from Gilgit Jail in 2015.

Though no terrorism-related fatality has taken place in Gilgit-Baltistan since July 28, 2020 – when five Counter-Terrorism Department personnel were killed and another five were injured during an exchange of fire with terrorists at Rohnai Muhallah, Chilas town, Diamer District – it is useful to recall that, since March 6, 2000, when the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) started compiling data on conflicts in Pakistan, the region has accounted for a total of 175 fatalities, including 118 civilians, 31 Security Force (SF) personnel and 26 terrorists. A high of 60 fatalities, including 52 civilians and eight SF personnel, was recorded in 2005. Further, of 81 banned terrorist formations in Pakistan, several operate out of and in the PoK region. The prominent among these include the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the Ahl-e-Sunnat-wal-Jamaat (ASWJ) the front organisation of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), and the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).  

As expected, instead of taking measures to deal with the emerging security challenges and other problems faced by the people in the region, Islamabad is engaged in accelerating the process of its ‘final annexation’ of Gilgit-Baltistan. The suffering of the people of the region is likely to continue, indeed, intensify. 

INDIA

Maharashtra: Cementing Gains
Deepak Kumar Nayak
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

On February 24, 2022, Police recovered a pressure cooker bomb, a detonator, four gelatin sticks, 45 grams of gunpowder and other articles, during an anti-Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) operation  in Jamtola Forest in Gadchiroli District.

On February 19, 2022, Gadchiroli Police arrested four Maoist sympathisers from Bhangarampetha village under Damrancha Police Station limits in Gadchiroli District. Police seized grenades and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) from the arrested persons.

On February 11, 2022, Maharashtra Urban Development Minister Eknath Shinde received a letter allegedly sent by the CPI-Maoist, threatening to avenge the killing of their cadres in Gadchiroli District. The letter was sent to Shinde’s residence. Shinde is also the ‘guardian minister’ of Thane and Gadchiroli. A similar threat letter was received by the Minister on October 29, 2021. The letter warned that the minister, a resident of Thane city, and his family would have to pay a "heavy price" for the State Government's actions against Maoists.

On January 21, 2022, CPI-Maoist cadres set ablaze 18 vehicles engaged in construction of the road between Dhondraj and Kawande village in the Bhamragad Taluka (revenue administrative division) in Gadchiroli District.

On January 15, 2022, a CPI-Maoist cadre, identified as Karan aka Dulsa Narote, carrying a bounty of INR 200,000, was arrested by the Police from Gatta village in Etapalli Taluka, Gadchiroli District. Karan was reportedly involved in 16 incidents of multiple crimes, including six murders, four encounters, two robberies, three incidents of arson and one abduction. 

At least three Maoist-related incidents have been recorded in Maharashtra since the beginning of 2022 (till February 27). During the corresponding period in 2021, five such incidents had been recorded. A total of 29 terrorism-related incidents were recorded in 2021, as against 26 such incidents in 2020.

According to partial data collated by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), Maharashtra recorded 53 fatalities in Maoist-related violence in 2021 as against 16 fatalities in 2020. Though the over four-and-a-half-fold increase in overall fatalities reflects a worrying development, a closer analysis of numbers suggests that the situation on the ground actually improved.

Significantly, Security Forces (SFs), without losing a single trooper, killed 49 Maoists in 2021. In 2020, three SF personnel and nine Maoists were killed. Prior to 2021, the best ever SF:Maoist kill ratio, 1:25.2,  favouring the SFs was registered in 2018. Since March 6, 2000, when SATP started documenting Left Wing Extremism-related violence, the overall SF:Maoist kill ratio in the State has favoured the SFs at 1:1.87.

Some of the major SF operational successes in 2021 include:

November 13: At least 26 CPI-Maoist cadres were killed while four Policemen were injured, in an encounter with SFs in a dense forest in Gadchiroli District. Maoist leader Milind Baburao Teltumbde aka Deepak Teltumbde aka Sahyadri aka Jeeva, a ‘central committee’ member and ‘secretary’ of the CPI-Maoist ‘Maharashtra State Committee’, carrying a reward of INR five million on his head, was among the dead. The other prominent Maoists killed included Lokesh aka Mangu Madkam, ‘Divisional Committee Member’, carrying reward of INR two million on his head; and Mahesh Gota, ‘Divisional Committee Member’, carrying a reward of INR 1.6 million. Among the women Maoists killed in the encounter was Vimla aka Manso Boga, who was the bodyguard of Milind Teltumbde, carrying a reward of INR 400,000 on her head.

May 21: At least 13 CPI-Maoist cadres were killed in an exchange of fire with the Maharashtra Police’s C-60 commandos in a forest between Paydi-Kotmi in Gadchiroli District. Those killed included ‘Divisional Committee Member’ Daewoo Mohanda, who carried a reward of INR 1.6 million.

March 29: Five CPI-Maoist cadres, including two women, were killed, while two Policemen were injured, in an operation conducted by C-60 commandos in the Khobramenda Forest area in Gadchiroli District. The slain Maoists included Rushi Raoji aka Bhaskar Hichami (46) of the ‘North Gadchiroli Division,’ carrying a reward of INR 2.5 million on his head, who had a total of 155 offences registered against him. Raju aka Sukhdev Naitam (32), the ‘Tippagarh Local Organising Squad’ (LOS) ‘deputy, who’ carried a reward of INR 1 million on his head, was also among those killed.

Meanwhile, at least nine Maoists were arrested in Maharashtra in 2021, in addition to 10 in 2020. Mounting SF pressure also led to the surrender of eight Maoists in 2021, adding to three such surrenders reported in 2020. Significantly, on March 23, 2021, Dinesh aka Dayaram Naitam (28), carrying an INR 800,000 bounty, surrendered before the Police along with three other cadres, in Gadchiroli District. Meanwhile, on September 7, 2021, the Maharashtra Government had extended the Naxal Surrender Policy in the State for another two years, till August 2023. The policy was introduced in 2005 with the aim to curb the Naxal movement in the State.

Despite SFs making big gains in 2021, the number of civilian fatalities (four) remained the same as in 2020. An analysis of civilian fatalities over the years indicates a cyclical trend. While a high of 36 was recorded in 2011, a low of one fatality each was recorded in 2001, 2002 and 2004.

Nevertheless, SF dominance on the ground has helped instill confidence in masses. Significantly, according to a December 17, 2021, report, CPI-Maoist threats failed to deter 17,136 persons from enrolling their names in the voters’ list in Gadchiroli District during a review of the list in the mid-December. In the past, the Maoists had threatened villagers that they would cut off their fingers if they were found to be inked during polls for 14,234 Gram Panchayats (village level local self-Government institutions) on January 15, 2021.

Geographically, all fatalities, in 2021 remained confined to Gadchiroli, the epicenter of Maoist violence in Maharashtra. In 2020 also, all fatalities were reported from Gadchiroli alone. Since March 6, 2000, out of 692 fatalities (191 civilians, 170 SF personnel, 319 Left Wing Extremists (LWEs) and 12 Unspecified) recorded in Maharashtra, 676 (182 civilians, 166 SF personnel, 316 LWEs, and 12 Unspecified) have been recorded in Gadchiroli alone, followed by seven (five civilians and two SF personnel) in Gondia, three (one civilian and two SF personnel) in Bhandara, two (one civilian and one LWE) in Nagpur, and one civilian in Aurangabad. The location of three fatalities (one civilian and two Maoists) remains unspecified. Maharashtra has a total of 35 districts. The last fatality outside Gadchiroli was recorded on October 18, 2019, when CPI-Maoist cadres shot dead a civilian, identified as Bhagchand Dhurve (50), after branding him a ‘police informer’ in the Murkutdoh-I area of Salakesa Taluka in Gondia District.

Unsurprisingly, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (UMHA) on June 19, 2021, identifies Gadchiroli as one among the ‘25 Most Affected Districts’ across eight States in the country. Moreover, two Districts – Gadchiroli and Gondia – are amongst the 70 districts in 10 States that are covered under the Centre’s ‘Security Related Expenditure (SRE)’ scheme to fund focused operations against the ultras.

Though Maoist-linked violence has subsided and is limited to Gadchiroli alone, the Maoists continue to make efforts for a revival.

LWEs have been trying to set up bases in Gadchiroli, Gondia and Nagpur, for their 'Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh (MMC) zone', similar to the 'Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC)' in the Bastar Division of Chhattisgarh. An unnamed senior Chhattisgarh Police official observed, on November 13, 2021,

On July 29, 2021, DIG Sandip Patil had claimed that Maoists in the Gadchiroli District were using drones to keep an eye on the movements of the Police. However, on August 11, 2021, the CPI-Maoist claimed they had no drones in their armoury.

Earlier, on February 13, 2021, speaking to reporters in the Gondia District, where an armed Police outpost was set up to help curb Maoist activities, DIG Patil asserted that the CPI-Maoist was trying to reactivate its demoralized cadres in the MMC region.

Meanwhile, according to an August 11, 2021, report, Maharashtra has the highest number, 84, of Maoist front organizations, with secret hideouts in at least five Districts – Gondia, Nagpur, Nashik, Pune and Mumbai. The State is now contemplating enacting the ‘Maharashtra Public Security Act’ to enable enforcement agencies to firmly tackle the front organizations, their networks and activities. Some of the front organizations include the Kabir Kala Manch, Bharat Jan Andolan, the Revolutionary Democratic Front, Indian Association of Peoples Lawyers, and Persecuted Prisoners Solidarity Committee.

Critical security gaps in capacities and deployment persist in the State. According to Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) data as on January 1, 2020, though Maharashtra’s Police-population ratio, at 174.87 per 100,000, is significantly higher than the national average of 155.78, it remains substantially below the minimum of 222:100,000 regarded as desirable for 'peacetime policing'. Further, the Police/Area Ratio (number of Policemen per 100 square kilometres) for Maharashtra is 69.80, as against the sanctioned strength of 79.08. The all-India ratio is 63.63, as against a sanction of 79.80 per 100 square kilometres. The sanctioned strength for the States’ Police is 243,326, but 214,776 personnel were in position, yielding a vacancy of 28,550. In addition, the sanctioned strength of the apex Indian Police Service (IPS) Officers in the State is 317, but just 259 officers were in position, leaving 58 posts vacant, considerably weakening the executive supervision of the Force.

The Maoists are currently leaderless and lying low in the State. This is an opportunity for SFs to consolidate their gains and eliminate the Maoists presence from the region.