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South Asia Terrorism Portal

SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
[SAIR]

Weekly Assessments & Briefings
Volume 21, No. 9, August 22, 2022
 
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.


ASSESSMENT

  • AFGHANISTAN: IS-KP - Taliban: Puritanical Killings - Giriraj Bhattacharjee
  • INDIA: Jharkhand: PLFI: Rankling Irritant - Deepak Kumar Nayak

 


AFGHANISTAN

 

    Print

 

IS-KP - Taliban: Puritanical Killings
Giriraj Bhattacharjee
Research
Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

On August 17, 2022, a suicide attack killed at least 21 civilians, including a prominent Sufi cleric Mullah Amir Mohammad Kabuli, and injured at least 27, in the Siddiquiya Mosque located in the Kher Khanna neighborhood in Police District (PD) 17 of Kabul city. No group has claimed responsibility, but the role of the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (IS-KP) is strongly suspected.

On August 11, 2022, a prominent pro-Taliban cleric, Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani, was killed, along with two civilians, in a suicide attack at a seminary inside a madrassa in Kabul. The IS-KP claimed responsibility and declared that the cleric had, in his fatwa [a formal ruling or interpretation on a point of Islamic law given by a qualified legal scholar (mufti)] declared IS-KP members Wahabi and and Khariji, thus liable to be killed. The Wahabi sect are followers of the puritanical Islamic movement founded by Muammad bin Abd al-Wahhab in the 18th century in Najd (present day Saudi Arabia). The Khariji were the first identifiable sect of Islam, regarded as deviants and renegades among the Sunnis.

According to partial data maintained by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), a total of 13 incidents targeting ethnic and religious minorities’ places of worship or areas where they are predominant have occurred in Afghanistan, resulting in 325 fatalities (316 civilians, two Taliban cadre and seven IS-KP terrorists) since August 15, 2021, the day the Taliban took over Kabul (data till August 21, 2022). Apart from the two incidents above, the other prominent incidents included:

  • June 18, 2022: At least two people, a member of the Sikh community and a member of the Taliban forces, were killed, and seven were injured, in a militant attack on a Gurudwara [Sikh place of worship] in the Karte Parwan area of Kabul city. IS-KP later claimed responsibility for the attack and identified the attacker as Abu Muhammad-al-Tajiki.
  • May 25, 2022: At least five worshippers were killed in an explosion inside Hazrat Zakaria Mosque in PD 4 of Kabul city. Later, IS-KP claimed responsibility for the attack. On the same day, at least nine Shias were killed and another 15 injured, in three consecutive explosions in three passenger minivans in Mazar-e-Sharif, the provincial capital of Balkh. The first explosion targeted a minivan in PD 5 of Mazar-e-Sharif. Another two explosions occurred in two other minivans in the Karta-e-Ariana area of the PD 10 of Mazar-e-Sharif. Later, IS-KP claimed responsibility for the attack. Most of the dead were from the Shia Hazara community.
  • April 29: 50 worshippers were killed in a suicide blast in the Khalifa Sahib Mosque on Darul-Aman Road in Kabul city of Kabul Province. No group claimed responsibility for the incident.
  • April 28: Two Improvised Explosive Device (IED) explosions in a predominantly Hazara Shia area of Mazar e Sharif killed 11 persons and injured 19. IS-KP claimed the attack.
  • April 22: At least 33 people, including children, were killed and 43 were injured, in an explosion inside a mosque in the Imam Sahib District of Kunduz Province. IS-KP claimed the attack.
  • April 19: A series of three IED explosions targeting a school and a private educational center in the Dasht-e-Barch area, a predominantly Hazara Shia neighborhood in Kabul, killed 18 persons.
  • April 21: An explosion left 50 worshipers dead in the Sih Dokan Mosque, a Shiite Mosque, in Mazar-e-Sharif, the provincial capital of Balkh. IS-KP claimed responsibility for the incident.
  • November 12, 2021: Three persons were killed in an IED explosion in a mosque in Spin Ghar District of Nangarhar Province. No group has claimed responsibility for the incident.
  • October 15, 2021: At least 65 Shia devotees were killed in a suicide bombing attack at Imam Bargah Fatimeyah mosque in PD1 of Kandahar city in Kandahar Province. IS-KP claimed the attack.
  • October 8, 2021: At least 47 persons, including 46 Hazara Shia worshipers, were killed when an IS-KP suicide bomber blew himself up at Sayyidabad mosque in the Khanabad Bandar area of Kunduz city, the provincial capital of Kunduz. IS-KP claimed the attack and identified the bomber as an Uyghur Muslim.

Out of these 13 incidents, eight have been claimed, all of them by IS-KP. The remaining five are yet to be claimed or attributed to any terrorist group by Taliban authorities. The role of IS-KP is, however, suspected in most or all of them, as it is the only major terrorist outfit active in the country, at present, which opposes the Taliban regime and targets civilians. The resistance forces mainly target Taliban fighters.

Moreover, according to SATP, at least six incidents targeting persons on the basis of their sectarian, religious and ethnic identities were recorded during this period, resulting in eight deaths. Prominent among these were:

August 5: IS-KP gunmen killed Mawlawi Mohammad Qayyum, a religious leader, while he was performing morning prayers at a mosque in the Chaparhar District of Nangarhar Province.

August 5: The Taliban took away and later killed Abu Ahmed Salafi in Jalalabad, the provincial capital of Nangarhar Province.

July 13: Unidentified gunmen killed a ‘pro-Taliban’ Salafi scholar, Sheikh Sardar Wali Saqib, in his house in Kabul.

July 7: Unknown gunmen killed Mullah Abdul Qudos Hakimi and his son Abdul Hamid, in the Khaje Bughra neighborhood under PD 15 in Kabul city.

December 23, 2021: Unidentified gunmen killed a religious scholar, Mawlawi Bismillah Shakir, in the Kotal-e Khair Khanah area of PD 17, Kabul city.

October 25, 2021: Unidentified gunmen shot dead a religious scholar, Mufti Saeedullah Saheel, in Jalalabad city.

September 2021: Three Salafi clerics, believed to be IS-KP sympathizers, were killed. Abu Obaidullah Mutawakkil and Muhammad Nabi Muhammadi were killed in Kabul on September 5; while Mullah Ibrahim was killed in Zabul Province in early September (specific date not available).

These incidents and numbers, however, grossly understate the scale of the killings.

Indeed, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in its report ‘Human rights in Afghanistan: 15 August 2021 – 15 June 2022’, released on July 20, documented 2,106 civilian casualties (700 killed, 1,406 wounded) during this period.

The report further noted that the majority of the 2,106 civilian casualties during this period were attributed to targeted attacks by “Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province”, against ethnic and religious minority communities in places where they go to school, worship and go about their daily lives.

Significantly, the United Nation Security Council's (UNSC)s 'Thirtieth report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team submitted pursuant to resolution 2610 (2021) concerning ISIL (Da'esh) [IS-KP], Al-Qaida and associated individuals and entities', released on July 15, 2022, expressed serious concerns over the growth of IS-KP, stating,

ISIL-K [Islamic State Iraq and Levant-Khorasan] [IS-KP] has increased its presence in northern and eastern Afghanistan… In April 2022, ISIL-K claimed it had fired rockets into Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Although both countries denied that rockets had reached their territory, the risk of similar attacks remains. The aims were to undermine the credibility of Taliban security forces by demonstrating their inability to control the borders, and to attract new recruits from the region. It is unclear whether ISIL-K can regain lost territory in eastern Afghanistan. Should they succeed, it may prove difficult for the Taliban to reverse such gains. According to one Member State, ISIL-K would then be positioned to develop a global threat capability from Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the July 20 UNMA report documented 59 extrajudicial killings, 22 arbitrary arrests and detentions and seven incidents of torture and ill-treatment by the Taliban authorities, of individuals accused of affiliation with IS-KP. Most of these were linked to the Ahl-e-Hadis sub-sect of Sunni Islam which the Taliban believes are IS-KP backers. Though the Taliban publicly denied its involvement in any of these incidents targeting religious leader, it did not condemn these killings.

The IS-KP, on the other hand, is trying to contest the Taliban movement ideologically in order to win over supporters. In a column titled 'American Project' in the 8th volume of its mouthpiece, Voice of Khorasan, it asserted,

Apostate Taliban were humiliated from the beginning when its foundation were laid by ISI [Inter-Service Intelligence] and CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] as a result, the nullifiers of Islam were applicable on that organisation from the beginning (sic)…

Significantly, most of the IS-KP cadres belong to the Ahl-e-Hadis sub-sect of Sunni Islam, while the Taliban are Hanafis. The Ahl-e-Hadis movement is a puritanical sect of Islam that stresses monotheism and rejects classical schools of Islamic jurisprudence, calling for a return to Islamic practices of Prophet Mohamad’s time.

Significantly, the latest two incidents took place after a July 19, 2022, fatwa issued by IS-KP’s ‘judicial department’, which authorized the killings of ‘polytheists, infidels and apostates’ in their places of worship.

Under the prevailing circumstances, with the Taliban and IS-KP struggling for ideological and territorial dominance, civilians drawn from different denominations, both within Islam and others, are likely to continue to bear the brunt of violence. As the Taliban – IS-KP confrontation escalates, such violence can be expected to augment even further.

 


INDIA

 

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Jharkhand: PLFI: Rankling Irritant
Deepak Kumar Nayak

Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

On August 18, 2022, Police arrested Badal Oraon, a cadre of the People's Liberation Front of India (PLFI), a splinter group of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), from Badchorgai under Bagdu Police Station limits in Lohardaga District. Police recovered several items, including a country-made revolver, from his possession. Lohardaga Superintendent of Police (SP), R. Ramkumar disclosed that, on August 4, a First Information Report (FIR) related to ‘levy’ (extortion) collection was registered at Bagdu Police Station and, taking action in the case, Sunil Munda and Bajrang Lohra were arrested on August 7. Based on information provided by them, a search operation was launched and Badal Oraon, a resident of Jogna under the Senha Police Station area, was arrested.

Elsewhere, on the same day (August 18), Police arrested Topal Munda aka Topal Chutia Purti (25), a PLFI cadre, from near the Lakshmi Narayan High School ground on the Murhu-Sarvada Road under the Murhu Block (administrative unit) in Khunti District. Topal, a resident of Karudih village under the Murhu Police Station, was actively working with PLFI 2020. Half a dozen cases have been registered against him in Murhu, Khunti and Bandgaon Police Stations, under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). 

On August 7, 2022, Police arrested two PLFI cadres, identified as Sunil Munda and Bajrang Lohra, from Jogiara village under Bagdu Police Station limits in Lohardaga District, for obstructing development construction work and demanding ‘levy’. Sunil and Bajrang have admitted to working for the PLFI under the leadership of its ‘commander’, Krishna Yadav. The items recovered from the arrested duo included, three country-made guns, banners and posters of PLFI, etc.

On August 4, 2022, the Police raided the house of Prakash Lakra aka Prakash Oraon (32), a PLFI cadre, and arrested him from his residence in Ukdimadi Bardhakatoli under Torpa Police Station limits in Ranchi District. Police recovered a country-made revolver, a live bullet and PLFI pamphlets from him.

On August 1, 2022, an ‘area commander’ of PLFI, identified as Badal Lohra, was arrested from the Tupudana area in Ranchi District. More than a dozen cases of attempted murder, robbery, and ‘levy’ extortion were registered against Lohra. He was mainly active in Basia in Simdega District, and Kamdara and Palkot in Gumla District.

According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), at least 38 PLFI cadres have been arrested since the beginning of the current year (data till August 21, 2022). During the corresponding period of 2021 as well, 38 PLFI cadres were arrested. Another 13 PLFI cadres were arrested in the remaining period of 2021, taking the total to 51 through 2021. Since the formation of the PLFI in July 2007, at least 714 PLFI cadres have been arrested.

Mounting SF pressure has also resulted in the surrender of 32 PLFI cadres since July 2007, though not a single surrender has been reported in 2022. The last surrender was reported on March 11, 2018.

Meanwhile, in the campaign against PLFI, Security Forces (SFs) have killed one PLFI cadre in the current year (data till August 21, 2022), as also during the corresponding period in 2021. In the remaining period of 2021, SFs killed another one cadre, taking the total to two, through 2021. A total of 102 PLFI cadres have been killed since the formation of the group in 2007.

On the other hand, the last SF killing caried out by the PLFI took place on April 8, 2017, when a Sub-Inspector of Police and a constable were killed in a gunfight in Simdega District. Since its formation, PLFI has been responsible for seven SF fatalities.

The last PLFI-linked civilian killing was reported on September 4, 2020, when PLFI cadres shot dead Nungu Barjo (30) at Khanda village under Bandgaon Police Station limits in the West Singhbhum District of Jharkhand. A total of 111 civilians have been killed by the PLFI, since its formation in 2007.

Other parameters indicate that the outfit’s operational capacities in the State have suffered during the last few years due to SF successes on the ground. Indeed, no major incidents (resulting in three or more fatalities) involving the PLFI has been reported in 2022, as well as in 2021. The last such incident was on May 28, 2020, when three PLFI cadres, including a woman, were killed while another was injured in an exchange of fire with SFs in the Tabo Valley of the Manmandubera Forest under Tabo Police Station limits, in West Singhbhum District. Further, no incident of explosion has been carried out by the outfit in 2022, as, indeed, in the preceding five years. The last such incident was reported way back on October 16, 2016, when suspected PLFI cadres blew up two concrete sleepers on railway tracks by detonating an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) between Khelari and McCluskieganj stations in Ranchi District.  

Though PLFI has been in a sustained decline over the past years, and has failed to carry out any major act of violence, its petty criminal and disruptive activities persist, as borne out by recent incidents.

According to an August 2022 report, PLFI is running a campaign for new recruitment, and is also forcing youth to join at gunpoint.

An August 6, 2022, report indicated that PLFI was giving arms to village youths to carry out the organisation’s subversive activities. This matter came to light during the interrogation of PLFI cadre Prakash Lakra, who was arrested by the Police on August 4, 2022. Prakash told the Police, inter alia, that PLFI had given a country-made revolvers, bullets and pamphlets to Bhikha Oraon in Lakra’s own village, and he was asked to expand the organization by involving other youth.

Another report on May 21, 2022, revealed that PLFI cadres had issued a ‘decree’ in Namkum, Ranchi District, sending a letter to Rajan Tirkey, a young man, to give two AK 47 rifles or INR 2 million for the expansion of the organization. They threatened to kill him if he failed to meet the ‘levy’ demand. Tirkey, who lives in Rampur under the Namkum Police Station area, received the extortion demand through pamphlets and WhatsApp messages - which read “give extortion of 20 lakh rupees [INR 2 million]. If you cannot give money, then arrange 2 AK-47 rifles”.

Further, a January 16, 2022, report, revealed that a Bangladeshi woman infiltrator identified as Anjali Patel aka Kaneez Fatima, who was arrested by Jharkhand Police in Delhi, was involved in supplying money and weapons to PLFI. According to an unnamed officer of the Ranchi Police, in Delhi Fatima met Nivesh Kumar, a Naxalite [Left Wing Extremist, LWE] who hails from Bihar and was living in Ranchi, and started working as a close associate with him, supplying arms to PLFI. An amount of INR 7.1 million and two expensive four-wheelers were seized from Fatima.

PLFI is among the 19 LWE groups operating in Jharkhand, prominently including the CPI-Maoist, as well as other significant splinter groups of the CPI-Maoists including the Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC), Jharkhand Jan Mukti Parishad (JJMP), Jharkhand Sangharsh Jan Mukti Morcha (JSJMM), and Jharkhand Prastuti Committee (JPC). PLFI is among the largest CPI-Maoist splinter groups in the state, but operates as more of an organized crime gang than an ‘ideologically driven’ movement. Its activities primarily focus on ‘levy’ (extortion) extraction.

 According to an August 18, 2022, report, SFs are preparing themselves for a decisive confrontation with PLFI, targeting the remaining militants in the group. Three years ago, there were 32 PLFI militants with rewards on their heads; their number is now down to just eight. These eight include PLFI ‘chief’ Dinesh Gope, with a reward of INR 2.5 million on his head; ‘regional commander’ Martin Kerketta, INR 1.5 million; ‘zonal commanders’, Tilakeshwar Gope and Arif Ji aka Shashikant, INR 1 million each; ‘area commanders’, Balram Lohra aka Jatu aka Majnu, and Novel Sandi Purti, INR 200,000 each; two Local Guerilla Squad (LGS) members, Sukhram Gudiya aka Rode aka Gadwa and Samuel Budh aka Samu, INR 100,000 each.

PLFI has been considerably weakened, but remains a concern, particularly in view of its criminal activities, as well as its efforts to regain lost ground. Despite its decimation, as long as the remaining leadership element are able to evade the SFs, the group will continue to be a nuisance in the state.

Weekly Fatalities: Major Conflicts in South Asia 
August 15-21, 2022

 

Civilians

Security Force Personnel

Terrorists/Insurgents

NS

Total

AFGHANISTAN

23
0
1
127
151

INDIA

 

Jammu and Kashmir

1
0
1
0
2

Tripura

0
1
0
0
1

INDIA (Left-Wing Extremism)

 

Chhattisgarh

1
0
0
1
1

Odisha

1
0
0
0
1

India (Total)

3
1
1
0
5

PAKISTAN

 

Balochistan

2
1
0
0
3

KP

0
2
3
0
5

PAKISTAN (Total)

2
3
3
0
8

Total (South Asia)

28
4
5
127
164
Provisional data compiled from English language media sources.

 
INDIA

Increased Maoist activity in three Districts of Telangana concerns security grid, says report: The Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) is trying to retrieve its lost ground in Telangana. According to intelligence reports, there is a perceptible increase in the activity of the Maoists in the Bhadrachalam Agency area in Bhadradri Kothagudem District as well as in the Mulugu and Jayashankar Bhupalpally Districts in recent days. The New Indian Express, August 21, 2022.

51 Naxalites killed and 1,526 arrested in Jharkhand in past 3 years, says Jharkhand DGP Neeraj Sinha: As many as 51 Naxalites [Left Wing Extremists, LWEs] have been killed and another 1,526 arrested over the past three years in Jharkhand during anti-Naxal operations, Director General of Police (DGP), Neeraj Sinha said on August 15. DGP, Sinha said, "The Jharkhand Police is continuously running effective campaigns against Naxalites, as a result of which a total of 1,526 Naxalites have been arrested between 2019 and 2022... In addition, a total of 51 Naxalites has been killed in various encounters. Outlook India, August 11, 2022.

NEPAL

EC directs all three levels of Government not to implement schemes not mentioned in annual budget: The Election Commission (EC) has directed all three levels of Government not to conduct new programs that are not specified in the Government's plan and budget. The EC has directed the federal, provincial and local Governments not to conduct provincial election infrastructure development programs, new plans and programs of the same nature that are not specified in the budget. My Republica, August 21, 2022.

HoR endorses Citizenship Amendment Bill; suggestions of President Bidya Devi Bhandari ignored: The House of Representatives (HoR), on August 18, has endorsed the Citizenship Amendment Bill sent back to parliament earlier by President Bidya Devi Bhandari along with her suggestions. During a voting held in parliament on August 18, a total of 135 voted in favor of endorsing the Amendment Bill in its current form, while 60 lawmakers belonging to the main opposition party, Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML), voted against the Amendment Bill. My Republica, August 19, 2022.

PAKISTAN

TTP warns 'secular' and nationalist groups against levelling allegations: The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on August 18 warned 'secular' and nationalist groups to stop levelling allegations against the outfit. In a statement issued in Peshawar, TTP said that some pro-western groups were frustrated as situation in Pakistan showed signs of improvement owing to its peace talks with the Government. "These people do not want Pakistan to be peaceful and prosperous. That's why these groups are trying to create an impression from different platforms that Taliban are being brought to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including the merged Districts, under the garb of negotiations," said the statement. Dawn, August 22, 2022.

Balochistan cabinet approves commission on missing persons: The Balochistan cabinet on August 16 approved a parliamentary committee on the issue of missing persons. The body will be headed by the Provincial Home Minister and include two members each from the Government and the opposition. The Balochistan cabinet announced the decision after a meeting. The Balochistan Post, August 18, 2022.

 
For assessments on other South Asian countries and for daily news updates on terrorism visit
South Asia Terrorism Portal 
 

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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