South Asia Terrorism Portal
No country for journalists Tushar Ranjan Mohanty Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management
On May 29, 2024, unidentified assailants shot at and injured a journalist, Haider Mastoi, and subjected his friend to severe beating in Rohri town, Sukkur District, Sindh. Mastoi, who works as a reporter for the Sindh News TV channel in Khairpur District, and his friend Khan Mohammad Pitafi, were passing through the Achhiyoon Qubbiyoon area on a motorcycle, when three armed motorcyclists forced them to stop and opened fire at the journalist. Later, at a hospital, Mastoi disclosed that the attackers were not interested in robbing him or his friend. They just targeted him and fled.
On May 24, 2024, Journalist Nasrullah Gadani, succumbed to his injuries at a Karachi hospital. Gadani was injured in gun attack by unidentified assailants in the Mirpur Mathelo tehsil (revenue unit) of Ghotki District in Sindh on May 21. Gadani was associated with a Sindhi newspaper Awami Awaz, and had suffered serious bullet injuries when he was going from his home to the Mirpur Mathelo Press Club.
On May 22, 2024, Syed Iqrar ul Hassan, a prominent TV anchor with ARY News, and three of his team members were attacked by a group in the Gujranwala city of Punjab. Hassan and his team sustained injuries.
On May 21, 2024, Kamran Dawar, a freelance journalist and social activist, who was associated with the National Democratic Movement (NDM) and ran a Facebook page Waziristan TV with 148,000 followers, was shot dead by unidentified assailants in the Tappi area of Miranshah in the North Waziristan District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Former Member of National Assembly (MNA) and NDM chief Mohsin Dawar stated that the journalist faced threats to his life “for his critical views against militancy.” However, according to News Intervention, Dawar regularly voiced criticism of the Pakistani military on his social media platforms.
On May 15, 2024, journalist Ashfaq Ahmed Sial, who was a reporter in the daily newspaper Khabrain, was shot dead by unidentified motorcycle-borne assailants while he was on his way to work in Muzaffargarh city, Punjab.
On May 3, 2024, Muhammad Siddique Mengal, president of the local Khuzdar Press Club and journalist for the local newspaper The Daily Baakhbar, died after a motorcyclist placed a bomb on the journalist’s vehicle at a busy crossing in Khuzdar town (Khuzdar District), Balochistan. Two other persons were killed and 10 were injured in the incident. Mengal, who was also a provincial officer-bearer of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), had received a death threat in the form of a letter in April, raising concerns about his safety. Additionally, he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in a shooting incident on August 11, 2023.
According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), there have already been eight incidents of attack on journalists in the current year (Data till June 2, 2024) in which six journalists were killed and two sustained injuries.
The first incident of killing of a journalist inside Pakistan after March 2000, was recorded on September 1, 2001, when Asadullah Khan, a reporter for the Kashmir Press International (KPI) news agency, was shot dead at Shahrah-e-Faisal in Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh. Asad was on a motorcycle and, near the Pir Bukhari Mazar, unknown armed men intercepted and shot him dead. Since then, according to partial data collated by SATP, at least 75 journalists have been killed and another 30 injured in Pakistan, in 99 incidents (data till June 2, 2024). These numbers are probable underestimations. The Committee to Protect Journalists lists 90 journalists and media workers killed in Pakistan between 2000 and 2021.
Pakistan dropped two places in the 2024 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on May 3. According to the Index, Pakistan now ranks 152nd out of 180 countries, compared to its standing at 150 in the 2023 Index. In its country profile, RSF noted that, since its founding in 1947, Pakistan has “oscillated between civil society’s quest for greater press freedom and a political reality in which the political-military elite retains broad control over the media.” The Index added that Pakistan was “one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, with three to four murders each year that are often linked to cases of corruption or illegal trafficking and which go completely unpunished.” Further, “as the military has steadily tightened its grip on civilian institutions, coverage of military and intelligence agency interference in politics has become off limits for journalists.”
The killing on May 21, 2024, of Kamran Dawar, who was critical of the Pakistani military, strengthens the World Press Freedom Index’s allegation of military atrocities against critical journalists. Earlier, on October 23, 2022, Arshad Sharif, who also criticized Pakistan’s Army, was killed when Police shot at his car on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital Nairobi. Subsequently, on December 7, 2022, a team of Pakistani investigators stated in a report that Arshad’s killing was a “planned assassination”. The 49-year-old journalist was living in exile after he fled Pakistan in August 2022, to avoid arrest in the wake of numerous cases, including sedition charges, slapped against him for making comments on his Talk Show – Power Play, aired on ARY News channel, which were deemed offensive to the military. Earlier, Sajid Hussain, a Baloch rights activist and journalist from Pakistan, living under political asylum in Sweden, was found ‘missing’ on March 2, 2020, from Sweden. As he had been forced to flee Pakistan in 2012, after his investigative journalism attracted frequent death threats, Hussain travelled from Oman to Dubai, to Uganda, finally settling in Sweden. His body was later found in the Fyris River in Uppsala on April 23, 2020. Hussain, was working part-time as a professor in Uppsala University, and was also the Chief Editor of Balochistan Times, an online magazine he had set up, in which he wrote about abductions, drug trafficking and the long-running insurgency in Balochistan.
The military-mullah combine in Pakistan was the main reason for journalists falling prey to lethal violence as a result of their efforts to bring the truth to light. There are many instances of journalists being attacked for performing their professional duties. Prominent among these are the targeted attacks on prominent British-Pakistani journalist and activist, Gul Bukhari, known for his criticism of the military establishment, on June 5, 2018; Sabeen Mahmud, a prominent Pakistani women’s rights activist, attacked on April 24, 2015; and Hamid Mir of Geo TV, and well known political commentator, who survived a murderous assault on April 19, 2014. The latter two were attacked when they focused on the acute problems in Balochistan, where state agencies, particularly the ISI, and their non-state proxies, were engaged in the execution and forced disappearances of Baloch people.
The sheer impunity of the military establishment was demonstrated in the targeted killing of a journalist in 2011, when the ISI was accused of abducting, torturing and killing Saleem Shahzad, working as the Pakistan Bureau Chief of Asia Times Online (Hong Kong) and Italian news agency Adnkronos (AKI). Shahzad disappeared in the evening of May 29, 2011, from Islamabad, and his mutilated dead body was discovered on May 31, 2011, from a canal in the Mandi Bahauddin District of Punjab. Human Rights Watch researcher Ali Dayan Hasan claimed he had “credible information” that Shahzad was in ISI custody. Indeed, Shahzad’s friends and colleagues revealed that the ISI had warned Shahzad at least three times prior to his death. In October 2010, Shahzad was summoned to ISI headquarters the day after publishing a sensitive article on Afghan Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar’s capture.
Apart from these killings, the abduction, torture and intimidation of journalists in Pakistan have also broken the spirit of media professionals. Some of the recent incidents of abduction include:
While observing World Press Freedom Day on May 3, 2024, Pakistan media body Association of Electronic Media Editors and News Directors (AEMEND) expressed concerns over the state of free media in Pakistan. AEMEND expressed its determination to continue the constitutional and legal struggle for freedom of expression in the country and to face unfavourable circumstances head-on. In a statement, AEMEND asserted that journalists and media outlets in Pakistan were facing severe challenges, as state and non-state actors were imposing restrictions on television programmes, shutting down broadcasts, exerting pressure for the termination of journalists, creating unnecessary stresses, and making illegal demands.
In addition to the threats from militants and the military, the State itself seeks to heavily restrict press freedom. On May 21, 2024, for instance, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) banned media coverage of ongoing court cases. The ban applies to all television channels and radio stations. The development takes place amid tensions between the Government and the Islamabad High Court over the alleged kidnapping of Kashmiri poet Ahmad Farhad on May 15. Farhad’s family accused the ISI of abducting the poet from his Islamabad residence for his critical social media posts that targeted the military.
In a country like Pakistan where freedom of press is highly curtailed and the lives of media persons are endangered by both state and non-state actors, the ground reality and truth can seldom be reported.
Odisha: Kandhamal: Shrinking Safe Haven Deepak Kumar Nayak Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management
On May 26, 2024, a 25-year-old tribal man, Metla Rohit, was allegedly abducted and killed by cadres of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) in Baripanga village under Kotgarh Police Station limits in Kandhamal District. The Maoists suspected that the deceased was a ‘police informer’ and mentioned that in the pamphlets they left near his dead body, which was found near an anganwadi centre in the village. The involvement of cadres from the CPI-Maoist ‘Bansadhara-Ghumusar-Nagabali (BGN) division’ is suspected in the killing.
On March 8, 2024, a couple, identified as Dahira Kanhar (husband) and Batasi Kanhar (wife), were killed by CPI-Maoist cadres in the Bidapadar village of Salaguda Panchayat (village level local-self-government institution) under Gochhapada Police Station limits in Kandhamal District. The Police disclosed that cadres of the ‘Kalahandi-Kandhamal-Boudh-Nayagarh (KKBN) division’ of the CPI-Maoist dragged Dahira and his wife Batasi out of their home, accusing them of being ‘police informers’, and took them to a nearby forest, where the couple were assaulted. Their bodies were later recovered from the forest area.
According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), at least three civilians have been killed in the Kandhamal District in the current year, thus far (data till June 2, 2024). During the corresponding period of 2023, one civilian was killed in the district. No further killing was registered in the remaining period of 2023. A maximum of six fatalities have been recorded on three occasions: in 2008, 2010, and 2016. Since March 6, 2000, when SATP started compiling data on LWE violence in the country, a total of 40 civilians’ fatalities have been recorded in Kandhamal, which is more than the combined fatalities of 31 in the SF personnel and LWE categories (seven Security Force, SF personnel, 24 Maoists).
The district has, however, witnessed significant SF consolidation. There have been no SF fatalities in 2024, or in the preceding five years. The last fatality recorded in this category was on June 4, 2017, when a trooper of the Special Operations Group (SOG) was killed and another six were injured in a CPI-Maoist ambush near Khamankhol under Baliguda Police Station limits in Kandhamal District. A maximum of three SF fatalities have been recorded on two occasions in 2011 and 2012. Since March 6, 2000, a total of seven SF fatalities have been recorded in the district.
SFs have killed two Maoists since the beginning of the year (data till June 2, 2024). During the corresponding period of 2023, no Maoist fatality was recorded, nor were there any such fatalities in the remaining period of 2023. However, three Maoists were killed in 2022. A maximum of eight Maoist fatalities were recorded in 2020. Since March 6, 2000, a total of 24 Maoist fatalities have been recorded in the district.
In the fight between SFs and Maoists, the overall kill ratio (1:3.42) has remained emphatically in favour of SFs (seven SF personnel, 24 Maoists killed) since March 6, 2000.
Kandhamal district, which has recorded at least five Maoist-linked fatalities (three civilians and two Maoists), in the current year, accounts for 62.5 per cent of the total of eight fatalities, (three civilians and five Maoists) recorded in the State. Since March 6, 2000, the district accounted for 71 fatalities (40 civilians, seven SF personnel, and 24 Maoists), around 7.5 per cent of the total of 946 fatalities, (378 civilians, 227 SF personnel, 334 Maoists, and seven unspecified) recorded in Odisha.
No arrests have been made in the district in the current year, so far. At least one Maoist was arrested in 2023. A total of 52 Maoists has been arrested in the district since March 6, 2000. Mounting SF pressure has led to the surrender of one Maoist in the current year, in addition to two in 2023. 13 Maoists have surrendered since March 6, 2000.
Maintaining a constant watch to thwart Maoist revival efforts in the district, Special Operation Groups (SOG) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel recovered and defused a pressure bomb/ Improvised Explosive Device (IED) reportedly planted by CPI-Maoist cadres during combing operations in the Laseri Reserve Forest in Kotagarh near Badipanga village in Kandhamal District, on May 28, 2024. At least three incidents of recovery of arms have been recorded in the district in the current year, thus far (data till June 2, 2024). A total of 59 such recoveries have been chronicled in the district since March 6, 2000.
Following the successive twin encounters of October 24 and 27, 2016, in Malkangiri District, which served as a safe haven, the Maoists are in constant search for another sanctuary. Kandhamal, which falls under the troubled ‘KKBN Division’, is one of the 30 Districts of Odisha, and is bounded by the Boudh District to the north, Koraput to the south, Nayagarh and Ganjam in the east, and Kalahandi in the West. The district occupies an area of 8,021 square kilometres, of which 5,709.83 square kilometres, about 71.18 per cent of its total geographical area, is under forest cover. Physiographically, the entire district lies in a hilly zone, interspersed with inaccessible terrain and narrow valley tracts. The district’s geographical proximity to contiguous Maoist-affected areas of the neighbouring districts of the State made Kandhamal a preferred guerrilla safe haven.
According to a February 8, 2024, report, Kandhamal, along with neighbouring Kalahandi and Boudh districts, have emerged as the new flash points of Maoist activity. These three districts function as a corridor for cadres active in neighbouring Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. Inspector General of Police (IGP), Southern Range, J.N. Pankaj thus emphasized the need for a heightened focus on Kandhamal and Boudh districts, which serve as critical links between Maoist strongholds in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. IGP Pankaj disclosed, “Efforts are underway to deploy drones for surveillance, enhancing the authorities’ ability to track Maoist movements and maintain security in the region."
According to the same report, in spite of security operations targeting Maoist activity in Kandhamal and Boudh districts, the Maoists of the ‘KKBN division’ were once again asserting their presence, putting up posters at Kataribhata, Kamberikia Chowk, under the Sudra Panchayat of Baliguda in Kandhamal District. Through the posters, the Maoists demanded an end to the arrest of innocent locals in the name of Maoists. Rebutting Police claims that their cadres had surrendered, the Maoists stated in the posters that their people had been arrested. The ultras also demanded a halt to combing operations in the area.
The report noted, further, that the Maoists exploited the rugged terrain of the district to maintain their presence, with the ‘KKBN’ and ‘Bansadhara-Ghumusar-Nagabali (BGN) divisions’ active in the forest areas. Additionally, most-wanted Maoist ‘commander’ Nikhil reportedly leads these outfits, which recruit youths and coerce tribal villagers to support their cause.
According to a March 5, 2024, report, to counter the Maoists' revival efforts, the Border Security Force (BSF) has set up a Company Operating Base (COB) in Badapaju, a forested area around 45 kilometres from Phulbani, to check the movement of Maoists in the Kalahandi-Kandhamal-Boudh axis. Speaking of the anticipated threat, BSF Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Dhirendra Kumar disclosed that the BSF has also planned to set up a COB in a remote part of neighbouring Boudh district in the near future, and the two new COBs would play a significant role in maintaining security in the area. Stating that Maoist activities have significantly reduced in Koraput and the cut-off Swabhiman Anchal area of Malkangiri in the past few years, he noted,
Significant SF consolidation has been seen on the ground in Kandhamal, one of the few remaining Maoist hideouts in the 'KKBN Division'. The quest for a safe haven keeps the rebel threat alive. With SF consolidation and a push to crate operational bases in the remaining rebel sanctuaries, opportunities for a determined push to take on developmental and administrative activities will open out, creating an environment within which the Maoists will have little influence or appeal.
Weekly Fatalities: Major Conflicts in South Asia May 27 - June 2, 2024
Civilians
Security Force Personnel
NS
Total
AFGHANISTAN
BANGLADESH
CHT
INDIA
Chhattisgarh
Jharkhand
Odisha
India (Total)
PAKISTAN
Balochistan
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Sindh
PAKISTAN (Total)
Total (South Asia)
Taliban accuse Pakistan of undermining trust between Afghanistan and China: On May 31, Taliban dismissed the findings of a Pakistan probe that attributed March 26 attack against Chinese workers in the country to militants operating from Afghanistan. Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban's 'chief spokesman', stated, "The report published by Pakistan is an attempt to damage the trust between Afghanistan and China. We have repeatedly denied this report as illogical". VOA News, June 1, 2024.
Women's rights group opposes any talks with Taliban as Doha talk nears: Junbish Rawzana-e Azadi Zanan Afghanistan, a women's rights advocacy group, issued a statement announcing its opposition to any type of talks with the Taliban at the third Doha (Qatar) meeting. It said, "Junbish Rawzana-e Azadi Zanan Afghanistan emphasizes the immediate demands for women's human rights in Afghanistan and considers any engagement with the Taliban a betrayal of women." "Engagement and legitimacy to the Taliban is an endorsement of terrorism in the world," It added. amu tv, May 31, 2024.
Russia invites Taliban to St. Petersburg International Economic Forum: On May 27, Russian diplomat and presidential envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, stated that they have extended an invitation to the Taliban for the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, scheduled for June 5-8. Arab News, May 29, 2024.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar criticizes Doha meeting for its lack of inclusivity: On May 26, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of the Hezb-e Islami party criticized the Doha (Qatar) meeting for its lack of inclusivity. He said, "The third meeting of Doha is a repetition of the experience of Ben Nakami, its purpose is to elect another Benin Sivan and Akhdar Ebrahimi, who will be America's favorite person and whose mission is coordination between the countries that are involved in the events in Afghanistan; All agree that Afghanistan's crisis cannot be resolved without the establishment of an inclusive government." amu tv, May 27, 2024.
Rohingya camps risk turning into a terrorist hub, asserts Home Minister: On May 31, during a meeting with the Armed Police Battalion in Camp No. 11 in Ukhiya Upazila (Sub-District) of Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh's Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said that Rohingya camps risk turning into a potential hub for international terrorists if the persecuted citizens of Myanmar are not repatriated to their country soon. He further said, "If the Rohingyas are not repatriated soon, dissatisfaction may turn these camps into a potential hub for international terrorists. We are finding some evidence to support this." The Daily Star, June 1, 2024.
India and Japan held 6th Meeting of JWG on Counter Terrorism: The Joint Secretary for counter-terrorism K.D. Dewal, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) of India and H.E. Hiroyuki Minami, Representative of the Government of Japan, Ambassador in charge of International Cooperation for Countering Terrorism and International Organized Crime, hosted the 6th Meeting of the India and Japan Joint Working Group (JWG) on Counter-Terrorism on May 29 in New Delhi. Both countries discussed state-sponsored cross-border terrorism in the regions of Afghanistan-Pakistan, South Asia, South East Asia, and the Middle East. mea gov, June 1, 2024.
23 persons including 17 terrorists and five soldiers killed in separate IBOs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: At least 10 terrorists were killed in intelligence-based operation (IBO) in Tank District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on May 27.
Seven terrorists and five soldiers were killed while two terrorists sustained injuries during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in Bagh area of Khyber District on May 27. Lashkar-e-Islam (LI), a splinter group of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), released a statement taking joint credit with the TTP for the attack. Tribune , The Khorasan Diary, June 29, 2024.
Khyber District Police unearths close links between militants and narco smugglers, says report: Khyber District Police unearthed close links and coordination between militant outfits and narco smugglers in Khyber District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) during a crackdown, Police officials said. Officials of the Shah Kas Police centre and Jamrud and Bara Police told Dawn on condition of anonymity that the militant outfits Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) began "taxing" drug smugglers in parts of Tirah valley after putting up checkpoints to monitor their movement, besides extorting money from drug dealers in Wazir Dhand and Shah Kas markets in Jamrud area for their activities. They said some Police officials, who patronised illegal drug business in Wazir Dhand markets, were also on the extortion list of militant groups and that they would regularly receive calls from militants to claim their share of the ill-gotten money. Dawn, June 1, 2024.
Arrested Sri Lankan IS suspects are not religious extremists, says Defence Secretary Kamal Gunaratne: On May 30, speaking to reporters in the town of Ampara in the Eastern Province, Secretary of Defence Kamal Gunaratne said that four of its nationals arrested in India last week by the authorities in Gujarat for links with the Islamic State (IS) terror group have no record of being religious extremists but are drug addicts. He said, "We are currently investigating them. We have found them to be severely addicted to drugs. They are not religious extremists." The Indian Express, May 31, 2024.
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.
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