Terrorist Activities in Pakistan
Suicide Attacks
At least 15 persons, including 13 Christians and two Policemen, were killed and more than 70 were injured when two suicide bombers attacked two churches near Youhanabad neighbourhood in Lahore District on March 15, sparking mob violence in which two other militants were killed, reports Dawn. Youhanabad is home to more than 100,000 Christians, said officials. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan-Jama’at-ul-Ahrar (TTP-JuA) claimed responsibility for the attack.
Bomb/IED Blasts
At least 60 shops were partially damaged in an explosion in a double storied market in the Gondola tehsil (revenue unit) of Lower Dir District on March 29, reports The News. The Station House Officer Baht Jamal said that unidentified persons had fixed an explosive device weighing five kilograms in a double storied market that went off at about 3am.
A young girl died in an explosion of a toy bomb in Shamshikhel area of Bannu town in same District on April 3, reports Daily Times. Police said that 12-year-old girl while playing on the bank of canal in Shamshikhel found a toy bomb. She took the bomb to home where during playing it went off resulting in death of the girl.
Two soldiers lost their lives in a roadside blast in Spinwam area of North Waziristan Agency (NWA) on April 13, reports Dawn. The sources said that a convoy of soldiers was going from Spinwam to Mir Ali when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off near one of the vehicles. Two soldiers received severe injuries and died on the spot.
Police foiled a terrorist bid by defusing a heavy improvised explosive device (IED), planted outside the residence of known lawyer and leader of Awami National Party Abdul Lateef Afridi in Hayatabad area of Peshawar on the night of April 14, reports Dawn. An official of Hayatabad Police Station said that the remote controlled device, packed in a shopping bag, weighed about five kilograms.
One person was killed while five others were injured in a hand grenade explosion during the cleansing of a canal in the Yasin Manjanwala locality of Lakki Marwat District on April 19, reports Daily Times. The incident took place in the Yasin Manjanwala where the dwellers of the area were engaged in cleansing of the canal on self-help basis. During the cleansing work a hand grenade buried in the mud blasted, resulting in the death of one person and injuring five others.
Three people were injured when two unidentified militants hurled a grenade in Bolton Market on M.A Jinnah Road in Lyari Town of Karachi on April 18 reported Dawn.
Four members of a family sustained injuries when an explosive device planted near a well went off in Bilyamina area of Bannu District on April 21, reports The News. Sources said that unidentified persons had placed explosive device near a well outside the house of Noor Saeed, a retired Subedar, in Bilyamina area. The explosive went off when his family members gathered near the well. The injured were identified as Zubair, Atif, Ziaullah and Ajmeer, sons of Noor Saeed.
Seven persons, including one civilian, injured in a bomb blast near Gulbahar Police Station in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in the early hours of April 24. Initial reports suggest that the vehicle of the Security Forces (SFs) was targeted and that it was an Emergency Response Force (ERF) mobile hit. The BDS claimed that two kilograms of explosives were used in the targeted attack.
One Policeman was killed, six other cops and a civilian were injured when a vehicle of the Quick Response Force (QRF) of the Peshawar Police was attacked with an improvised explosive device (IED) at the Gulbahar Chowk in Peshawar on April 24, reports The News. The injured Policemen were identified as Rahatullah, Daud, Zulfiqar, Ilyas, Abdul Khaliq, Naik Mohammad and Mohammad Riaz. Later Daud succumbed to his injuries. The civilian couldn’t be identified. A Police official said around two kilos of explosives were planted on the roadside in Gulbahar Chowk where a vehicle of the QRF used to be positioned to respond in case of an emergency.
Four children were wounded in a grenade explosion near while they were bathing in Naubahar canal in Samijabad area of Multan District on March 18, reported Dawn.
Unidentified militants hurled a hand grenade at a school near KDA roundabout in North Nazimabad Town of Karachi on March 18, reports Dawn. However, no casualties were reported. The attackers also dropped a threat letter in the school premises before escaping from the scene. The Bomb Disposal Squad personnel present at the scene said 500 grams of explosive material was used in the making of the bomb.
Separately, militants hurled a grenade at a mosque in Orangi Town on March 17, reported Dawn.
Targetted Killings
Thirteen dead bodies of tribesmen were found in the deserted mountains of the Shaktai area of South Waziristan Agency in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on March 15, reports Dawn. Sources said that the bodies were found by local people in the past couple of days. Malak Saeed Anwar Mahsud told Dawn by phone from Shaktai that the deceased hailed from Mandaw village and belonged to Abdalai and Jalalkhel clans of the Mahsud tribe. 17 tribesmen of Mandaw village had been missing after a search operation conducted by Security Forces (SFs) from February 12-15 in the Shaktai area. Four of them were still missing.
Two unidentified men were shot dead by unidentified armed assailants on Super Highway near Gana Mandi in Sohrab Goth area of Gadap Town in Karachi on March 25, reports Daily Times.
Elsewhere, a Policeman, identified as Muhammad Sajid (35), was shot dead near Navy Dewar in Korangi Town on March 25, reported Daily Times.
In another incident, an anti-corruption officer, Iqbal Alam, was shot dead by unidentified armed assailants at Water Pump in Federal B Area of Gulberg Town on March 25, reports Daily Times.
At least four Policemen, including the Station House Officer (SHO) of Rara Sham Police Station, identified as Tahir Shah, were killed when unidentified militants opened indiscriminate fire and also hurled a hand grenade at a Police check post in Mekhtar area of Loralai District on March 26, reported Dawn. No outfit claimed responsibility for the attack.
Two Policemen were killed and 14 others, including two civilians were injured when a bomb exploded targeting a Police van of the Sindh Police’s Special Security Unit near Murghi Khana bus stop in Quaidabad area of Bin Qasim Town in Karachi, reported Dawn. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan ‘spokesman’ Muhammad Khorasani claimed responsibility for the attack.
Unidentified assailants shot dead a known religious scholar and administrator of a seminary, Maulana Amir Hamza, in Madina Colony of Nowshera Town of same District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on March 27, reports The News.
Unidentified militants shot dead a Lieutenant Colonel Tahir Azeem, in Hayatabad Phase-III area of Peshawar when he came out of a mosque after offering the Zuhr (midday) prayer on March 29, reports The News. Tahir Azeem, hailing from the Kaga Wala village on the outskirts of Peshawar, had come from Rawalpindi to attend the wedding of his sister in Hayatabad.
Two Police constables were killed when three armed assailants ambushed a check post within the remit of Lea Market Police Station area of Lyari Town in Karachi on March 30, reports The News.
A tribal elder along with his guard was shot dead while his two other gunmen sustained injuries in a firing attack in the Kechi Baig area of Sariab in Quetta on March 30, reports The News. According to Station House Officer (SHO) of Kechi Baig, Ashiq Khattak, unidentified assailants riding on a motorbike opened indiscriminate firing on a vehicle in Kechi Baig and fled from the scene. “As result of the intense firing Mir Zahir Rind and his Levis guard Abdul Malik Rind were killed on the spot and his two other guards sustained serious bullet injuries,” the SHO added.
At least four unidentified bullet-ridden dead bodies were recovered from the banks of the Lyari River near the Lyari expressway behind Old Vegetable Market area in Jamshed Town of Karachi on April 2, reported Dawn.
Elsewhere, two unidentified dead bodies bearing torture marks were found in Korangi Town on April 2, reports Dawn.
A Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) and his friend were shot dead by unidentified assailants near the Women and Children Hospital in Dera Ismail Khan town on April 3, reports The News. DSP Headquarters, Bahawal Khan and his friend Haroon Khan were on their way when unidentified motorcyclists opened fire killing both of them on the spot.
Unidentified militants killed an unidentified man near Afshani Street in Lyari Town on April 8, reports Daily Times.
Elsewhere, one Nasarullah (40) was killed and another man, identified as Akbar (30), sustained injuries near Noor-ul-Aman Imambargah in North Nazimabad Town on April 8, reported Daily Times.
In a separate incident, one Ameen (55) was shot dead by unidentified armed assailants in Metroville area of SITE Town on April 8, reports Daily Times.
At least 20 labourers, including 16 from Punjab and four from Hyderabad District in Sindh, were killed and three others were injured when unidentified militants opened fire on a labour camp in Gagdan area of Turbat District on April 10, reported The News.
Two beheaded bodies, identified as that of Jameel (80) and Shakeel (45), were recovered from a house near Golden Bakery in Paposh Nagar in Karachi Sindh on April 14, reported Daily Times.
Separately, a man, identified as Shakir (22), was shot dead by unidentified armed assailants near Shah Baig Lane in Lyari Town on April 14, reports Daily Times.
In another incident, one Bilal was injured with a stray bullet in Machar Colony area in Mauripur area of Keamari Town on April 14, reported Daily Times.
Three persons, including two women, of the same family were killed when unidentified militants opened indiscriminate fire at a vehicle Qamaruddin Karez area of Zhob District on April 16, reports Dawn.
Separately, a soldier, identified as Sepoy Mohammad Yousuf, was killed and two others were injured in a rocket attack on an under-construction check post of Frontier Corps (FC) in the Tasp area of Panjgur District on April 16.
The Station House Officer of Preedy Police Station, identified as Khawaja Ajaz Ali, was killed by unidentified armed assailants on Korangi Road near Defence Morr in Saddar Town of Karachi on April 16, reported The News.
Separately, a woman, identified as Debra Lobo, a United States (US) national and the Vice-Principal of the Jinnah Medical and Dental College’s student affairs wing, was shot at and injured on Shaheed-e-Millat Road in Jamshed Town on April 16, reports Daily Times. According to Police sources, leaflets of Islamic State (IS, also known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ISIS) were found at the scene claiming responsibility for the attack. “Lobo was on her way to the college when her car came under attack by two armed assailants riding on a motorbike,” an unnamed Police Official said.
Masood Hamid, Marketing Director for Dawn and Pakistan Herald Publications Limited (PHPL), was killed in his car in Phase-8 area of Defence Housing Authority (DHA) in Karachi on April 17, reports Dawn. The unidentified militants also left the weapon used in the murder in his car before fleeing the incident site.
Unidentified assailants shot dead a District leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Sardar Mohmand, in the Yakatoot area of Peshawar on March 18, reports The News. “Sardar Mohmand was on foot when armed men opened fire on him with a 9-mm pistol and escaped,” Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Operations, Peshawar Dr Mian Saeed Ahmad said. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened to now target more members of the ruling party.
Miscellaneous
At least 30 militants were killed and several others sustained injuries when Pakistan Air Force (PAF) fighter aircraft and helicopters pounded the bunkers of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) militants in Kukikhel, Sepah, Kamarkhel and Shalobar areas in Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on March 25, reports The News. “Many hideouts of the militants and two arms depots also came under bombardment,” said the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). According to some reports, the LI ‘spokesman’, Salahuddin Ayubi, was also killed in the air strikes.
Separately, 16 militants were killed in military action after a soldier was killed in a roadside blast in the Shabak area of Kurram Agency on March 25, reports The News. The sources said that the soldier, identified as Bilal Mohmand, was killed when a vehicle of Security Forces (SFs) was targeted with an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in Shabak area. SFs cordoned off the area after the incident and launched a massive search operation along the border with Afghanistan. 16 militants were killed in the artillery shelling on the hideouts of militants in the area.
Police killed two target killers during a raid on a hideout in an unspecified location in Karachi on March 25, reported Daily Times. According to details, Police in a raid on a hideout along with an arrested criminal Noorullah faced fire from criminals; security Forces (SFs) retaliated killing two of the suspects.
Police on March 27 arrested a terror suspect, identified as Saurat Khan Marri, accused of involving in several terrorism incidents in Quetta, including the November 11, 2014, bomb blast targeting the vehicle of an Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC) judge Nazeer Ahmed Langove, from Hazar Ganji area in Quetta, reports Dawn.
At least fifteen suspected militants were killed and four soldiers injured in a clash in Tirah Valley area in Khyber Agency on March 28, reports Dawn. According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), approximately 30-35 militants attacked a Security Forces (SFs) check post in Mastak area, but attack was foiled through “effective retaliation”. Troops deployed at the post surrounded the attackers, in an intense gun battle, 15 terrorists were killed and the attack was repulsed, the ISPR said. It said the attackers left the bodies of 10 of their companions which the army took into its custody, along with their weapons.
A suspect, identified as Bilal alias Chingari, allegedly involved in over two dozen sectarian killings was arrested the Bilal Colony Police in New Karachi area of Karachi on March 30, reports Dawn. Bilal alias Chingari had allegedly killed 26 people including doctors belonging to the Shia community on sectarian grounds.
Four bullet-riddled dead bodies were found in Goorbrath area along the border of Nushki and Kalat Districts on April 1, reports Dawn.
Jamshoro Police arrested three Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militants belonging to Shaharyar faction, identified as Gul Zareen, Bahauddin and Shahuddin, during a raid conducted in Sikandarabad area of Jamshoro District on April 1, reports Dawn. Police claimed to have recovered five hand grenades, two TT pistols, 10 kilogram of explosives, 10 kilogram of chemicals and a bundle of detonating cords from their possession.
Six militants were killed and two Security Force (SF) personnel were injured in an exchange of fire which took place during a search operation launched by SFs to rescue nine abducted Government officials in Ziarat District on April 3, reported Daily Times. The dead included two suicide bombers who blew themselves up when SFs surrounded them, said Frontier Corps spokesman Khan Wasey.
A Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) and his friend were shot dead by unidentified assailants near the Women and Children Hospital in Dera Ismail Khan town on April 3, reports The News. DSP Headquarters, Bahawal Khan and his friend Haroon Khan were on their way when unidentified motorcyclists opened fire killing both of them on the spot.
Six militants were killed and two Security Force (SF) personnel were injured in an exchange of fire which took place during a search operation launched by SFs to rescue nine abducted Government officials in Ziarat District on April 3, reported Daily Times. The dead included two suicide bombers who blew themselves up when SFs surrounded them, said Frontier Corps spokesman Khan Wasey.
At least 16 people including 12 militants and four soldiers were killed during fierce fighting in Utmela area of the Orakzai Agency on April 5, reports The Nation. Four Security Forces (SFs) personnel also sustained injuries in the fight.
According to the spokesman for Frontier Corps (FC) Khan Wasey, Security Forces (SFs) and Intelligence Agency personnel on April 5 foiled a terror bid by arresting seven terrorists, including four suicide bombers, during a raid in Kuchlak area of Quetta, reports Dawn. “The terrorists were planning a major terror strike in Quetta,” said Wasey adding that the arrested men belonged to a banned militant outfit. The suspects were shifted to an unknown location for interrogation.
Elsewhere in the District during another raid, SFs arrested four militants from Kharotabad area and also recovered arms and ammunition from their possession.
At least five Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militants of Ilyas Kashmiri faction, including its Karachi ‘chief’, identified as Umar alias Moon, were killed and two Rangers personnel were injured in an encounter with Sindh Rangers in Tapo area of Keamari Town in Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh on April 8, reported Dawn. Four other accomplices killed were identified as Anas Ahmed alias Saqib, Abdul Rauf alias Bilal, Javed Hassan alias Yaseen and Talha Faisal alias Imran. According to a Rangers spokesperson, a resident had informed the paramilitary force about the presence of terrorists in the area. As soon as Rangers’ personnel reached the site, the terrorists opened fire, the spokesman said, adding that they also threw hand grenades aimed towards the paramilitary force personnel who then returned fire. As a result, all five militants were killed and two Rangers personnel were injured. Five hand grenades and a large cache of ammunition were also recovered from their possession. According to Rangers, the group was responsible for the 2014 suicide attack on Rangers’ sector commander, target killing and bank heists.
Five suspected militants were arrested by Frontier Corps (FC) personnel during a search operation in in Karta area of Bolan District on April 8, reported Dawn.
Separately, two suspects were arrested during a search operation in Ghori area of Lehri District in Naseerabad Division, reports Dawn. A large number of weapons and ammunition were also seized.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the FC, Balochistan, claimed that seven Baloch Republican Army (BRA) militants surrendered and handed over their weapons to security personnel in Sui area of Dera Bugti District on April 8, reports Dawn. He said the militants who handed over themselves to law enforcement agencies promised that they would not take up arms anymore and would live peacefully. FC Inspector General Major General Sher Afgun welcomed the decision of the militants who surrendered and said the Government and FC would help all those who would lay down their weapons.
At least 16 suspected militants were killed and at least 10 others were injured when helicopter gunships pounded militant hideouts in Kandaw and Kandu Ghaibi areas of Kukikhel in Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency on April 9, reported Dawn.
Separately, seven Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militants were killed and two others were injured in other air strikes in Mehraban Kalley, Thor Darra and Wochay Wany areas of Tirah Valley in Khyber Agency on April 9, reports Dawn.
Spokesperson for Frontier Corps (FC) Khan Wasey claimed that three Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) militants, including the alleged mastermind behind the on June 15, 2013, attack on Quaid-e-Azam’s Ziarat Residency in Ziarat District, identified as Mehmood alias Mama, was killed in a targeted raid carried out by the FC personnel in Mach area of Bolan District on April 10, reports Dawn. The accused was also involved in ethnic killing in the province, he added. FC also recovered arms and ammunition from their possession.
Elsewhere, the Quetta Police foiled a terrorism bid by seizing 100 kilogram of explosives during a raid in Hazar Ganji area the provincial capital on April 10, reports Dawn. Meanwhile, FC arrested a BLA militant with hate material in Panjgur District on April 10, reports Daily Times. In addition, FC Balochistan on April 10 arrested a mastermind of weapon making and confiscated arms and ammunitions from a compound in Dera Murad Jamali area of Naseerabad District, reported Daily Times. “One Anti-Aircraft Gun, 22 SMGs, 2 G-3 rifles, 10 double barrel rifles, one rocket launcher with 7 rockets and 2500 different types of rounds have been seized,” said FC official.
In a separate search operation, acting on a tip-off, FC on April 10 raided a compound at Mir Ali area of Zhob District and seized heavy cache of arms and ammunitions, reports Daily Times. “During the raid 6 sophisticated weapons with 459 rounds and three pistols were recovered from inside the compound while no arrest was made during the raid,” said FC spokesperson.
At least 20 Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA) militants were killed as Security Forces (SFs) foiled their move to enter Pakistan from Afghanistan side in the Shunkrai area of Mohmand Agency in the night of April 11. According to sources, a group of terrorists tried to sneak into the Pakistani territory at about 01:30am. The Pakistani troops spotted the move and surrounded them. An intense exchange of fire took place for about an hour during which 20 terrorists were killed. The bodies of the killed terrorists are in the custody of SFs. Meanwhile, Ehsanullah Ehsan, the ‘spokesman’ for the militant group JuA, denied that any clash had taken place at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. “There was no such clash. We believe our colleagues in the custody of the Government were brought there and shot dead. It has happened in the past also but we would avenge the killings,” he stressed.
At least 13 Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) militants, including one key militant ‘commander’ Hayat, were killed in a joint raid by Frontier Corps (FC) personnel and Intelligence Agencies, in Gogdan area of Turbat District on April 13, reports Dawn. The dead militants were involved in April 10, 2015, massacre of 20 Punjabi and Sindhi construction workers.
Eight militants were killed when gunship helicopters shelled their hideouts in Kasha, Babo Tang Killay, Drand Sheikhan and Ahat Mela area of Orakzai Agency on April 17, reports The News. Security Forces claimed that two commanders were among the dead. However, they didn’t disclose the identities of the slain commanders.
One of the top commanders of the Haqqani Network was among six militants killed during clashes with the Security Forces (SFs) in the Beermal area of South Waziristan Agency on April 18. The law enforcement personnel also arrested nine militants while one managed to escape in the hills. The commander of the Haqqani Network was identified as Farooq Zadran who was killed in Beermal, the border area between North and South Waziristan Agency.
Six terrorists of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan were killed in an encounter in the Afghan Basti near the Super Highway in Karachi on April 18, reports The News. Police said that they conducted a raid acting on a tip-off regarding terrorists hiding out in the Afghan settlement. Upon seeing the raiding party the terrorists opened fire upon them. In the ensuing gunfight six terrorists were killed belonging to TTP Maulvi Fazlullah group. Police identified two out of the six terrorists as Ahmed and Sarwat. Ahmed was a commander of the deceased former TTP Chief Hakimullah Mehsud and has been injured in a drone strike in Waziristan after which he relocated to Karachi to seek medical treatment.
At least five militants were killed and three security personnel injured during clashes between SFs and militants in the area of Nangrosa Sipah of Tirah Valley in Khyber Agency on April 19, reports Daily Times.
Airport Security Force (ASF) on April 20 thwarted terrorists attack on Air Traffic Control Radar of Pasni airport in Gwadar District, reported The News. ASF spokesman Abbas Memon said the terrorists launched attack on the radar in organized manner, however, the ASF personnel foiled the assault. He said, “All the installations of the Pasni radar were safe.” He further said no loss of life was reported. Deputy Commissioner Gwadar Abdul Hameed said terrorists shot fire on the radar 8 kilometers far from the location and managed to flee after exchange of fire with law enforcement agencies.
Twenty-seven militants were killed in air strikes and a search operation in North and South Waziristan Agencies on April 22, reports The News. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said 22 militants were killed and their sanctuaries destroyed when fighter aircraft pounded their positions in Khar Tangi and Lowra Mandi areas of Dattakhel area in North Waziristan Agency (NWA). In a cordon and search operation, five terrorists were killed by Security Forces (SFs) in the Shakto area of South Waziristan Agency (SWA).
Separately, the border authorities recovered a huge cache of explosive material from a truck at Torkham border in Khyber Agency on April 22, reports The News. An official said that a trailer truck (12481-KBL) was on the way to Afghanistan from Pakistan carrying cement bags. He said the Khasadars during routine checking recovered 720 pieces of detonators, 110 kilograms potassium and hundreds of metres of wire from the truck.
Twenty terrorists, including three suicide bombers, were killed when Pakistan Air Force (PAF) fighter aircrafts targeted their hideouts in Kukikhel, Sepah and Kamarkhel areas of Tirah Valley in Khyber Agency on April 23, reports The News. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) through a statement said that several hideouts, ammunition and ration depots were also destroyed in the aerial blitz.
PAKISTAN
TTP planning attacks on dams and barrages, reveal Interior Ministry sources
According to sources in the Federal Ministry of Interior, Tehreek-Taliban Pakistan with the collaboration of some other banned outfits is planning to attack the country’s water reservoirs, dams and barrages, reported The News on March 28 (today). After receiving information regarding the probable attack by Taliban on the water reservoirs of country, security has been tightened at all dams and barrages. Following the threat, the Interior Ministry directed all the Law Enforcing Agencies and all the Provincial Home Departments for heightened security on water reservoirs.
‘Red Book’ of most wanted terrorists issued by Law enforcement agencies
The Law enforcement agencies on March 29 issued a red book containing profiles of most dangerous terrorists including two al Qaeda women militants, reports Daily Times. As per the red book, the militants belonging to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Harassa have been listed as the most dangerous terrorists. The agencies have also clearly informed the administration regarding these most wanted terrorists having a head money between PKR 500,000 and PKR 10 million.
Militant attacks declined in March, says PICSS monthly report
Though there was a decline in militant attacks in the wake of the operations in Karachi and North Waziristan Agency in March, 63 terror incidents were reported in different parts of the country which left 100 people dead and 162 injured, Dawn reported on April 2. This was stated in a monthly report released by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) on April 1. “In March, there was over 23 percent decline in militant attacks, almost 12 percent in deaths and more than 19 percent in the number of injuries compared to February.” The report added that militant attacks had been decreasing since the start of the operations in FATA, particularly post-National Action Plan (NAP) after the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar on December 16, 2014. According to the report, security forces conducted 97 actions across the country in which 230 people (mostly suspected militants) were killed, 43 others injured and 667 arrested. Report says compared to February, there was over 23pc decline in militant attacks and 12pc in deaths.
Peshawar Police on April 2 carried out 72 search operations, rounded up 3,233 illegally staying Afghans and lodged 32 cases for spreading hate material and 161 for misuse of loudspeakers since January 1, reports The News. The statistics show that the Police actions in Peshawar under the National Action Plan (NAP) are more than any other District of KP, and probably even in the country. The major reason is that the provincial capital of KP is more vulnerable as it is surrounded from three sides by the volatile tribal areas. According to the official statistics, 72 search and strike operations were carried out in Peshawar, including 32 in rural division, 25 in Cantonment and 15 in city division. During these operations, 146 small machineguns, 888 shotguns, 63 rifles and 851 pistols were recovered. The police authorities said action against hate material and the misuse of loudspeakers was also accelerated under the NAP. “We have lodged 161 cases for misuse of loudspeakers and 32 for spreading hate material under the NAP since January 1. As many as 33 accused were arrested for selling uniforms of security forces that can be misused in unlawful activities,” Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Operations Mian Saeed Ahmad said.
Dr. Aafia Siddiqui among the unfairly prosecuted in terrorism-related cases since 9/11, reveals stud
Calling Dr Aafia Siddiqui the most important political prisoner of the present world, United States (US) lawyer Stephen Downs during a press conference in Lahore said that a new study titled, ‘Inventing Terrorists: The Lawfare of Preemptive Prosecution’, carried out in the US and jointly released by Support And Legal Advocacy for Muslims (SALAM) and the National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms (NCPCF), found that 94 per cent of those held in connection with terrorism cases after September 11, 2001 (also known as 9/11) attacks were unfairly prosecuted and Dr. Aafia Siddiqui was at no. 2 in the list, reports Dawn. The study is the first to directly examine and critique preemptive prosecution and its abuses. The study’s authors are Albany attorneys Stephen Downs and Kathy Manley.
Quoting from the study, Downs said “…the war on terror has been largely a charade designed to make the American public believe that a terrorist army is loose in the US, when the truth is that most of the people convicted of terrorism-related crimes posed no danger to the US and were entrapped by a preventive strategy known as preemptive prosecution.” He said Dr Aafia was the most well-known political prisoner in the world and the injustice and maltreatment she had received shocks the conscience. “We fail to understand why Pakistan has not asked for her repatriation. No political considerations could be strong enough to prolong her sufferings. We feel that this is not a difficult task if the political will is there. The world now knows that these preemptive prosecutions are actually a shameful fact and need to be rectified and there is no better place to start than with Dr. Aafia.”
UNSC slap sanctions on TTP ‘chief’ Mullah Fazlullah
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on April 7 slapped sanctions on Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan ‘chief’ Mullah Fazlullah (40) for perpetrating and financing terror acts, reports Business Standard. Fazlullah was added to the UNSC al Qaeda Sanctions list and will now be subject to assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo. The Security Council Committee approved Fazlullah’s entry to its al Qaeda Sanctions List of individuals and entities for “participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing, or perpetrating of acts or activities of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.”
Earlier on January 14, 2015, United States had designated Fazlullah as a global terrorist and had slapped sanctions against him.
US approves billion-dollar arms sale to Pakistan
The United States (US) State Department on April 7 approved Pakistan’s request for a billion dollars worth of military hardware and equipment, identifying Pakistan as a country of vital importance for US foreign policy and national interests, reports Dawn. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale. “This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a country vital to US foreign policy and national security goals in South Asia,” the certification said, adding, “This proposed sale of helicopters and weapon systems will provide Pakistan with military capabilities in support of its counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations in South Asia.”
The DSCA informed US lawmakers that this proposed sale would provide Pakistan with “a precision strike, enhanced survivability aircraft” that it can operate at high-altitudes. “By acquiring this capability, Pakistan will enhance its ability to conduct operations in North Waziristan, FATA, and other remote and mountainous areas in all-weather, day-and-night environments. Pakistan will have no difficulty absorbing these helicopters into its armed forces,” the certification added. The agency also assured US lawmakers that the proposed sale “will not alter the basic military balance in the region”. It informed Congress that the State Department had approved this possible Foreign Military Sale to Pakistan for AH-1Z Viper Attack Helicopters and AGM-114R Hellfire II Missiles and associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support for an estimated cost of USD 952 million.
263 hardcore terrorists killed in Tirah valley of Khyber Agency, says ISPR
In a series of tweets posted on his official Twitter account on April 8, Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asim Bajwa outlined Pakistan Army’s successes in Operation Zarb-i-Azb, revealing that 263 terrorists have been killed so far in Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency. The ISPR spokesman tweeted that the information was given in a briefing to Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif during his visit to frontline troops amidst the ongoing operation in Khyber Agency. He reviewed phenomenal progress so far made in eliminating terrorists. Bajwa said terrorist strongholds in the region have been reduced and no escapes have been allowed in this operation. The Army Chief was also informed that the area is infested with Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) which are mostly foreign made. He was also told that 392 IEDs have been neutralised by special engineers, whereas 35 soldiers have embraced martyrdom since the start of Operation Khyber-2.
CIA arrests TTP militant and HM ‘commander’ in Punjab
The Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) on April 9 arrested a Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militant and ‘commander’ of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, identified as Hafiz Sanaullah alias Qari Zarar, who is accused of abducting Colonel Imam, a retired officer of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and squadron leader (retired) Khalid Khawaja in 2009 from Lorry area of provincial capital Lahore, reported The Express Tribune. An unnamed Police Official said that during interrogation Sanaullah had made startling revelations. He was allegedly involved in a number of kidnapping-for-ransom cases in Lahore and Rawalpindi Districts, adding that he often hurled hand grenades and other sophisticated weapons to pursue his criminal activities. According to Police, Sanaullah hails from Dera Ismail Khan District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province and had received militant training from North Waziristan Agency in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Afghanistan.
Five AQIS militants among 11 killed in Karachi
Five al Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) militants, including its Karachi ‘chief’ and ‘deputy chief’, were killed in an alleged encounter in Khairabad area of Orangi Town on April 13, Dawn. The officials claimed to have unearthed a bomb-making factory and seized a huge quantity of explosive material, including three suicide jackets, laptop and some documents, during the raid. The Police said the suspects were planning attacks on Security Agencies. The documents, laptop and other material found at the hideout helped the Police in identification of the suicide bomber. “The bomber, identified as Arif alias Wahaj (20), happened to be the student of one of the biggest seminaries in the metropolis,” the DIG of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) Mohammed Arif Hanif said. The deceased were identified as Karachi AQIS head Noor-ul-Hasan alias Hashim alias Bhai Jan alias Babu Bhai, his ‘deputy’ Usman alias Irfan alias Abdullah, and Ibrahim alias Rafiq alias Awais. The CTD chief said the identity of the two other suspects could not be ascertained immediately. They had come from the Helmand Province of Afghanistan just two months ago, according to CTD official Raja Umer Khattab.
Separately, the Deputy Director of Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC), identified as Ashraf Abbas (50) alias Ashu, was shot dead and his daughter who was accompanying him in his car was injured in a targeted sectarian attack in Azizabad area of Gulberg Town on April 13, reported Dawn. Ashraf was a Shia and was the trustee of Azizabad Imambargah (Shia place of commemoration) Sakina. He was also the worker of Muttahida Qaumi Movement Unit 153 in Federal B. Area Sector.
Terrorists to be denied space across Pak-Afghan border
The Director General of ISPR, Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa, on April 17 tweeted quoting Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif as saying that Pakistan and Afghanistan will continue targeting terrorists on the their respective sides of the border, ensuring total denial of space to terror elements, reports The News. General Raheel Sharif expressed these views during his meeting with the Afghan National Army’s Chief of General Staff General Sher Mohammad Karimi, who called on him at the General Headquarters here on Friday, the ISPR press release said. During the meeting, the matters related to peace and stability in the region, especially in Afghanistan, Pak-Afghan border management and measures to further enhance defence and training cooperation between both the armies were discussed.
1723 Pakistanis lost their lives in terrorist attacks in 2014, says HRCP’s State of Human Rights report
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) issued its annual report titled “State of Human Rights in 2014” on April 17 revealed that 1,723 Pakistanis lost their lives and 3,143 were injured during 2014 in 1,206 terrorist attacks, including 26 suicide hits, reports Daily Times. The report stated that Pakistan in 2014 witnessed surge in sectarian violence, attack on minorities, media censorship, and remained the worst polio-affected country. The report stated that no laws were made by the Federal Government to safeguard the interests of religious minorities.
According to the report a total of 144 incidents of sectarian violence were reported from across the country, out of which 144 were sectarian-related terrorist attacks and three sectarian clashes. On freedom of thought the report stated that 11 Hindu temples and churches were attacked in Sindh, two attacks were carried out against the Zikri sect in Balochistan. The HRCP annual report said that Shia pilgrims’ buses passing through Balochistan and passenger buses and vans plying between Gilgit-Baltistan and the rest of the country had to travel in convoys under security escorts.
Pakistan was termed the most dangerous country in the world for media, with 14 journalists and media workers killed in 2014 alone. The country recorded 627,116 cases of crimes against people and property during 2014 as against 634,404 in 2013 – a nominal fall. Sindh Police registered 1,261 cases of kidnapping of women for forced marriages in 2014. There were 114 cases of acid attacks in Pakistan, involving 159 victims, reports said. According to the report, 1,723 people were killed and 3,143 were injured during 2014 in 1,206 terrorist attacks – including 26 suicide hits. Sectarian violence killed 210 people, 45 members of polio teams — vaccinators and their facilitators —were killed.
No laws were made by the Federal Government to safeguard the interests of religious minorities and only two bills related to minorities were passed at the provincial level by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, report said. According to the report under ‘Law and law-making’ section, parliament made 10 laws, less than half the previous year’s 22, nine presidential ordinances were promulgated. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa passed the highest number of provincial acts and ordinances followed by Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan in 2014, the provincial legislation amounting to 137, and provincial assemblies performance were better than national assembly.
There were 3,392 encounters in 2014 as against 2,616 in 2013 in Sindh. 925 suspects were killed in shootouts and 160 personnel of Police and Rangers fell in the line of duty in Karachi. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police killed 26 persons in encounters. Punjab Police killed 276 suspected criminals and arrested 322 while 27 Policemen died and 59 suspected criminals and 73 Policemen got injured in 283 encounters in 2014. 231 persons were sentenced to death by the courts.
US and Italian aid workers abducted in Pakistan killed in drone strike in Afghanistan
One American and one Italian who had been held hostage by al Qaeda in the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan were killed in a US counterterrorism operation in January, the White House said on April 23. The operation in which American doctor Warren Weinstein and Italian Giovanni Lo Porto were killed also resulted in the death of an American al Qaeda leader, Ahmed Farouq, the White House said. Another American al Qaeda member, Adam Gadahn, also was killed, likely in a separate operation, the White House added. In a written statement, the White House expressed “tremendous sorrow” over the hostage deaths and said the United States had no reason to believe hostages were at the al Qaeda related compound targeted in the operation.
Weinstein was abducted in Lahore, Pakistan, in 2011 while working for a US consulting firm. Al Qaeda had asked to trade him for members of the militant group being held by the United States. Weinstein was seen in videos released in May 2012 December 2013, asking for US president Barrack Obama to intervene on his behalf and saying he was suffering from heart problems and asthma. Italian aid worker Lo Porto has been missing in Pakistan since January 2012. Lo Porto, who was from Palermo, Sicily, was kidnapped three days after arriving in Pakistan on January 19, 2012, to work for a German organization building houses for victims of a 2010 flood. Another man was kidnapped with him but later separated and freed in October 2014 by German Special Forces.
Sabeen Mahmud Director T2F shot dead in Karachi
Sabeen Mahmud, the director at The Second Floor (T2F), was shot dead by unidentified assailants in the Phase-II area of Defence Housing Authority (DHA) in Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh, in the night of April 24, reports The News. According to reports, Sabeen, accompanied by her mother was returning home after hosting a seminar at the T2F premises in Phase-II area of Defence Housing Authority (DHA), when unidentified gunmen on a motorbike opened fire at her car. Both Sabeen and her mother were rushed to a nearby hospital where Sabeen succumbed to her wounds. Her mother is severely injured and still under treatment. Police said that Sabeen received five bullet wounds.
REGIONAL
Bangladesh – Internal Dynamics
Six JMB militants arrested from different places
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested four militants of Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh with explosives from Dhaka city’s East Mollartek area, reports Dhaka Tribune on March 27. The arrestees are Ziaul, Razzak, Mofazzal and Hamzala. Twelve petrol bombs, 30 hand bombs, 60 detonators and a grenade were recovered from them.
Meanwhile, Police arrested two JMB militants from Panditpur village of Chapainawabganj District on March 26, reports The Daily Star. The arrestees are Abdul Motakabbir alias Bulbul (27) and Ashraful Islam alias Ashraf (26). Police said that the arrestees were wanted in a number of cases filed with different Police Stations of Chapainawabganj District.
Bombs and bullets recovered in Chittagong
Police and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) in a joint raid recovered a time bomb, eight crude bombs, 10 petrol bombs and fifty bullets from the roof of a building in Salekpur village of Chittagong District on March 27, reports The Daily Star. They found the explosives and bullets in an abandoned condition on the roof of the one-storey building owned by one Khorshed Alam. Nobody was arrested in the raid.
Secular blogger Mohamad Oyasiqur Rahman Babu killed for his atheist views in Dhaka city
Radical Islamists killed secular blogger Mohamad Oyasiqur Rahman Babu (27) on March 30 in Dhaka city allegedly for his atheist views, reports Dhaka Tribune. Three assailants swooped on Oyasiqur, armed with machetes when he was going to office in Motijheel area. While fleeing, two of the killers – Zikrullah, a student of Hefazat-e-Islam (HeI)’s Hathazari Madrasa (Religious Seminary) in Chittagong District and Ariful, student of Mirpur Darul Uloom Madrasa – were held by locals. The other member of the team, Abu Taher, escaped. The duo was handed over to Police, who later recovered the machetes from the crime scene. Oyasiqur used to write against Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) and radical Islamist groups. He was vocal against human rights violations on the religious minorities and indigenous people of the country.
Later on April 1 Police said that a buffer cell of Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) murdered blogger Mohamad Oyasiqur Rahman Babu (27) on March 30 in Dhaka city and had been planned at least 15 days prior, reports Dhaka Tribune. ABT had used similar buffer cells, that they call “sleeper cell”, for murdering Avijit Roy, another liberal blogger with atheist views, on February 27. The sleeper cells are managed by one field commander who recruits, trains and indoctrinates suitable candidates to carry out their plots. The cell members can only name that field commander and it becomes impossible to connect these plots to the larger organization or its leadership.
Seven persons arrested in Chittagong
Police held seven activists of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) and Islami Chhatra Shibir in Sitakunda and Lohagara upazilas of Chittagong on April 3, reports Daily Star. The arrestees, two of BNP, two of JeI and three of ICS, are accused in several cases filed for vandalism and subversive activities, said Police.
Meanwhile, Detective Branch (DB) officials said that at least 11 persons, mostly madrasa students, were involved in the murder of online activist Oyasiqur Rahman Babu (27), reports Daily Star. DB officials learnt these after interrogating Zikrullah and Ariful Islam, who were caught by people and handed over to the Police soon after Oyasiqur was hacked to death in the capital Dhaka’s Tejgaon Industrial area around on March 30. Five of them were trained at a two-room apartment of a five-storey building at Nayanagar in the capital’s Jatrabari. They were recruited by five different persons, including their coordinator known to them as Mashul alias Masum.
Further, Sammilito Samajik Andolon, a platform to move forward the cause of civil society in Bangladesh, on April 3 urged the Government to block the sources of funding of madrasas (Islamic seminary) which are involved in terrorist activities and to bring all qawmi (private) madrasas under a special monitoring system, reports Daily Star. They claimed that different militant organisations including Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami were taking training on terrorism at the madrasas backed by JeI and Hefazat-e-Islami. Sammilito Samajik Andolon were registering their protest the killing of blogger Oyasiqur Rahman Babu and demanded a ban on the politics of religious fundamentalist groups including Jamaat-Shibir.
Local JeL leader killed in Pabna
A local leader of Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) was hacked and shot dead by criminals in Charbalorampur area of the Pabna District on April 19, reports The Daily Star. The deceased is Mohamad Shariful Islam (45), a member of Bharara union unit of JeI and former member of the union parishad (council). Police said that a masked gang of 4/5 first hacked Shariful with sharp weapons and then shot him. He died on the spot.
PBCP ‘second in command’ killed in gunfight with Police in Khulna District
Purbo Bangla Communist Party (PBCP) ‘second in command” Sohel Rana (26) was killed in a gunfight with Police at Jugnipasha under Fultola sub-District in Khulna District on April 25, reports Dhaka Tribune. Four Policemen were also injured during the gunfight. Police also recovered a six-shooter gun, 14 rounds of bullet and five hand bombs from the scene.
India – Internal Dynamics
Two persons killed, three injured in Maoist attacks in Jharkhand
Two sympathisers of the People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI) were hacked to death by suspected cadres of the Communist Party of India-Maoist in Sonua Police Station area in West Singhbhum District on March 25, reports The Telegraph. A group of 15 armed Maoists dragged the victims, identified as Lakhan Bala (27) and Jaimati Borja (29), out of their houses in Gurdri village around 10pm and latter killed them on a village road. West Singhbhum Superintendent of Police (SP) Michael Raj said, “The place of occurrence is located in a dense jungle. So, we are yet to get a detailed report on the murders,” he said. The SP added Maoist pamphlets were found at the scene of murders, which suggested involvement of Maoists.
In the other incident, two men attacked three employees of Shivam Road and Infrastructure Pvt Ltd at Machadiha in Ghatshila in East Singhbhum District in the wee hours of March 26, reports The Telegraph. The armed men, who came on a tractor around 1.30am, first fired at Bapi (27), a driver posted at the camp-office. Then, the duo barged into the camp and shot at Anjani Ilu (37), the manager of the company, and attacked Mukesh Kumar (40), a supervisor, with an iron rod. While Bapi sustained the injury in his left arm, Ilu took the bullet in his chest. Mukesh sustained serious head injuries.
Two CRPF personnel injured in blasts in Chhattisgarh
Two personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were injured in a bomb blast during a combing operation near Fundari village in the Bairamgad block in Bijapur District on March 27, reports The Hindu. Sub-Inspector Debi Ray and constable Ram Hari Patil of the CRPF’s 199 battalion were injured when they came in contact with the pressure bomb planted by the Communist Party of India-Maoist cadres, the Bijapur Police said.
Three policemen killed in ambush in Mizoram
Three Policemen were killed and two others were injured when suspected militants of Hmar People’s Convention (Democrats) opened fire on a convoy accompanying a group of MLAs (Member of Legislative Assembly) near Zokhawthiang in Aizawl District, on March 28, reports The Indian Express. MLAs, R L Pianmawia, Lalawmpuii Chawngthu and Lalthanliana, all members of the committee on Government assurances, were being accompanied by a team of Police and several officials while they were visiting the area.
Two AR troopers and one PLA militant killed in an encounter in Manipur
Two Assam Rifles (AR) troopers, identified as Havildar NK Dolly and Havildar BN Kshetri, were killed and another trooper, identified as Rifleman GD Shastra, was wounded, and an unidentified Peoples Liberation Army militant was killed in an encounter on March 31, at a place between Kamjong and Kongkan villages in Ukhrul District, reports The Sangai Express. The suspected militants exploded an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) before they rained bullets on the troops. Two IEDs were recovered during the search by Security Forces (SFs).Times of India further adds that Kamjong and its surrounding areas, which border Myanmar, have been witnessing frequent gun battles between SFs and rebels over the last few years.
Three army men killed in ambush in Arunachal Pradesh
Three Army personnel of Rajput Regiment were killed and four others were wounded in an ambush when suspected militants of the Khaplang faction of National Socialist Council of Nagaland fired on their convoy at Tupi village, along the Khonsa-Longding road, in Tirap District on April 2, reports The Times of India. NSCN-K had recently abrogated the ceasefire agreement with Government of India (GoI) which is scheduled to expire on April 28. Source stated that NSCN-K militants have already started moving towards their headquarters in upper Myanmar.
Maoists abduct constable
A group of heavily armed cadres of the Communist Party of India-Maoist abducted a Police constable early on April 7 morning at gunpoint from his official vehicle and the Police are clueless of his whereabouts yet, reports The Pioneer. The abducted constable has been identified as Veera Basant, a District Force (DF) personnel who is posted with Awapalli Police Station in Bijapur District. The constable was kidnapped at gunpoint while he was on his way to district headquarters at a stretch between Bijapur and Bhopalpatnam. Apparently getting information about his movement, the Maoists waylaid all the vehicles passing through and conducted physical check to identify in which vehicle the constable was travelling in. However, the Police department remained tight lipped over the abduction.
NSCN-K ‘reaffirms’ naga ‘sovereignty’
Khaplang faction of National Socialist Council of Nagaland has reiterated that it would not compromise on ‘naga sovereignty’ and ‘Pan-naga’ identity and reaffirmed its abrogation of the cease fire with the Government of India and also expulsion of Y. Wangtin Naga, reports Nagaland Post on April 8. The ‘ministry of information and publicity’ (MIP) of NSCN-K stated that abrogation of the cease fire and expulsion of Wangtin were invoked in order to salvage Naga struggle from being decimated by “collusion of forces from within and outside”.
Separately, the seriousness of naga peace talks has become visible with Isak-Muivah faction of NSCN (NSCN-IM) leaders carrying out a series of consultation among the Nagas while Central leaders discussed the Naga issue with Chief Minister TR Zeliang on April 7 and 8 in New Delhi, reports The Sangai Express. Sources state that Chief Minister TR Zeliang rushed to New Delhi on April 6 , when he was asked to reach New Delhi or ‘an emergency meeting’ in connection with the Naga political issue. In the past weeks, NSCN-IM leaders have been taking opinions and carrying out consultations with Naga public leaders, civil society organizations and intellectuals in the State regarding the Naga political issue. Under the new format of talks, 40 rounds of talks have been held in the past few months.
Seven members of STF killed in Chattisgarh
On April 11, Seven members of a Special Task Force (STF), including its Commandant, were killed and 10 others injured when their platoon, on a routine search operation in the interiors of Sukma District was ambushed by Communist Party of India-Maoists, reports The Telegraph. Additional Director-General of Police (ADGP) anti-naxalite operations, R.K. Vij said that the Maoists ambushed the STF Platoon of 100 men, led by Commandant Shankar Rao, near Pedmal village. The STF men killed have been identified as Constables Rohit Sori, Manoj Baghel and Mohan Uike and Constables Rajkumar Markam, Kiran Deshmukh and Rajman Netam.
Maoists kill BSF trooper in Chhattisgarh
Cadres of the Communist Party of India-Maoist attacked a Border Security Force (BSF) team killing a trooper in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker District, striking for the third time since April 11, reports The Times of India. Maoists fired indiscriminately on BSF personnel who were patrolling in the proximity of Chhote Baithiya BSF camp under Bande Police Station area late on April 12 night, Kanker Superintendent of Police (SP) Jitendra Singh Meena told PTI. “A BSF head constable succumbed to bullet injuries, sustained during the gunfight, while being taken to a local hospital,” the SP said.
Earlier on April 12, the Maoists set ablaze at least 17 vehicles engaged in mining work in Kanker District, reports The Times of India. Armed Maoists attacked the Barbaspur iron ore mining site under the limits of Korar Police Station and after threatening the labourers, torched 17 trucks deployed for mining work, said the Kanker SP. They then fled into the forest.
Five CAF personnel killed in Maoist blast in Chhattisgarh
The Communist Party of India-Maoist cadres blew up an Anti-Landmine Vehicle of the Chhattisgarh Police, killing five personnel in Dantewada district on April 13, reports The Hindu. “Maoists targeted an Anti-Landmine Vehicle which was on a search operation near Khudiyapara village of Dantewada around 2.30 p.m. on Monday. The vehicle was carrying 12 jawans [troopers] of the CAF (Chhattisgarh Armed Force) and the district police, including the driver. Dantewada SP reached the spot immediately after the encounter and rushed the injured jawans to Kirandul hospital. However, four jawans died in the hospital,” said a statement issued by the Chhattisgarh police headquarters in Raipur. Another jawan succumbed to injuries while being taken to Jagdalpur for treatment, taking the toll to five. Seven jawans were injured, an officer posted in Bastar said.
Three policemen and two civilians injured in GNLA ambush in Meghalaya
On April 21, Garo National Liberation Army triggered a powerful bomb blast targeting a two vehicle police convoy in remote Nangalbibra region of South Garo Hills that borders East Garo Hills District, injuring three Police men and two civilians, reports The Shillong Times. As soon as the blast occurred, GNLA militants perched atop nearby hills opened up with small arms fire targeting the two Police vehicles. The injured Policemen have been identified as Havildar S Lamare, Constables Silman Marak and Dingman Marak. The civilians have been identified as Rapsing Marak and Cherak Momin.
Assamese driver killed in Nagaland
On April 21, dead body of a taxi driver from Sonari under Sivasagar District in Assam, who was shot and killed, identified as Arpon Das was recovered from a river below Phuktong village in Mon District, reports Nagaland Post. According to the friend of the deceased and witness Lohit Konwar, who was rescued by the police at Tuimei village in Mon District, stated that two men hired the vehicle from Assam and after crossing Tuinei village the passengers stopped the vehicle at gun point and took the duo to the jungle and shot the driver. Witness also stated that gunmen attempted to kill him. He also sustained bullet wound on his arm.
Five civilians injured in IED blast in Manipur
At least five civilians were injured when a powerful Improvised Explosive Device (IED) exploded near 1st Gate of the Manipur University in Imphal West District, on April 23, reports The Sangai Express. The injured have been identified as Ningthoujam Romeo, Irengbam Jugeshwar Singh, Khomdram Bijen Singh, Ngangom Asha Devi and Chanambam Anjana Devi. Kanglaonline further adds that the IED exploded a little distance from Catholic School Canchipur. By an order issued on April 21, all the catholic schools were reopened. Earlier the schools were shut down due to threats from the military council of Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP-MC).
Separately, on April 22, unidentified militants, left a Chinese hand grenade at the residential gate of Thoubal Zilla Parishad adhyaksha (District Council President) Kh Swarnalata Devi at Kangabok Keithel in Thoubal District, reports Kanglaonline.
162 detonators recovered in Meghalaya
Border Security Force (BSF), on April 22, recovered 132 electronic detonators from three persons identified as Abdul Bashid, Mohammed Zaki Hussain and Basriddin Rahman, from an area near Jadi Market in South Garo Hills District, reports The Shillong Times.
Separately, Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) dawn-to-dusk bandh (forced shut down) passed off peacefully on April 22 with no untoward incident reported in the whole of Khasi and Jaintia Hills, reports The Shillong Times on April 22.
Islamic State a cause for grave concern, asserts External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called for a unified action at conquering the Islamic State (IS) as she addressed the Asian African Summit at Jakarta (Indonesia) on April 22, reports Indian Today. The Minister said that the terror group had emerged as a cause of “grave concern”. On the threat of terrorism, she said the rise of extremist violence and terrorism was “one of the most disturbing security phenomena and several parts of our two continents are victim to a medley of terrorist groups”. She further added, “The ISIS has emerged as a cause of grave concern in the last year. We must be resolute in countering this scourge that challenges our civilisation”. She also said maritime security was a matter of concern. She stated, “As we embark upon the concept of ‘Blue Economy’ as a new pillar of development, it becomes even more important to secure our seas.”
Five powerful can bombs found ahead of Maoist bandh in Jharkhand
Five powerful can bombs were recovered from Goelkera Police Station area of West Singhbhum District on April 23, fuelling suspicion that Communist Party of India-Maoist might have planted the explosives to cause damages to Security Force (SF) personnel during their six-day Jharkhand bandh (general Shut down) from April 25, reports The Telegraph. The bombs, weighing around 25kg each, were found buried beneath the ground at Pandwa village along a path frequently used by Police and Paramilitary Forces. Confirming the recovery, West Singhbhum Superintendent of Police (SP) Michael Raj said: “Two can bombs, ammunition, materials used to prepare bombs and other items were recovered from Goelkera by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). Both the bombs have been defused.” “Beside the can bombs, we found six mortars, cartridges of 303 rifles and 9mm pistols, empty cartridges, medicines, accounts books, Naxalite [Left Wing Extremism (LWE)] literature and haversacks from under the earth,” Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Vikash Kumar Sinha said, adding that Police and Paramilitary Forces had intensified long-range patrolling in Goelkera, which is close to Saranda, an erstwhile rebel hub.
Nine North East militant groups form a joint front based in Myanmar
As many as nine North East militant groups, including Independent faction of United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA-I) and IK Songbijit faction of National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB-IKS) have formed a joint front, reports The Sentinel on April 23. At least three rounds of meetings were held among representatives of the outfits at undisclosed locations in Sagaing division of Myanmar over the last one month after which the joint front christened as the United National Liberation Front of West South East Asia (UNLFW) was floated. SS Khaplang the ‘chairman’ of Khaplang faction of National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K) has been selected as the ‘chief’ of the ‘united front’. There are conflicting reports as to the status of Paresh Baruah of ULFA-I . Some sources said he was ‘commander in chief’ and others reports that he is ‘vice-chairman’. Sources state that the move to form the joint front is a step further towards forming a government-in-exile, reportedly to be based in Myanmar. A committee has been also formed to draft the constitution of the joint front. An Intelligence Bureau (IB) official stated that the outfits, especially NSCN-K is close to Kachin rebels – including Kachin Independence Army (KIA) – who provide various logistics and weapons support. It is difficult to believe that there is no Chinese backing”. The move to form a joint front by rebel groups has been in the offing since 2011. Coordination Committee (CorCom), an umbrella of six outfits is also a part of the ‘joint front’.
Monthly Fatalities
The following deaths related to ongoing insurgencies and acts of terrorism occurred during the period March 22 to April 25, 2015:
| Civilian | Indian Security Personnel | Militant | Total | |
| Assam | 08 | 00 | 05 | 13 |
| Maharashtra | 02 | 02 | 00 | 04 |
| Manipur | 04 | 00 | 00 | 04 |
| Meghalaya | 04 | 04 | 06 | 14 |
| Nagaland | 02 | 00 | 00 | 02 |
| Telangana | 00 | 04 | 04 | 08 |
| Left-wing | 08 | 19 | 16 | 43 |
| Total | 28 | 29 | 21 | 78 |
Sri Lanka – Internal Dynamics
Calls for international war crime probe is an ‘insult’ for the count
Former Sri Lankan President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga in an International Conference on Education in Dubai said that the whole country does not want an international probe into the alleged war crimes committed during the 26-year long war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam terrorists, reports Colombo Page on March 15. Kumaratunga has said that both the Sri Lankan people and its politicians found the calls for a United Nations (UN)-led international investigation “insulting” by implying that the country could not carry out its own. She said that Sri Lanka is united against an international investigation into alleged war crimes.
Woman Sea Tiger’s arrest bares global LTTE financial links, say reports
The arrest at the Colombo Airport last week of a former woman ‘Sea Tiger’, Murugesu Jayaganesh Pakeerathy has exposed new global Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam financing networks with continued links in Sri Lanka, reports Sunday Observer on March 15. The husband of Murugesu Jayaganesh Pakeerathy lives in France and is identified as the main financial controller of the LTTE’s diaspora-based global finance networks. The husband, Subramaniam Jayaganesh, is suspected to be still maintaining close ties with the former Tiger leader and key ‘banker’ Kumaran Pathmanathan alias ‘KP’ who was the LTTE’s main global funds coordinator. ‘KP’ currently lives in Sri Lanka following his arrest in Malaysia and controversial ‘rehabilitation’ by the previous regime despite many serious charges relating to terrorism arraigned against him. The sources said that the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID), which is currently questioning Murugesu found these international financial linkages. This has prompted a fresh probe into possible international LTTE financing networks that may still be linked with Colombo, Police sources said.
Murugesu was arrested by TID officers at the Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo as she attempted to leave the country for France. Colombo Additional Magistrate Aruni Artigala granted bail to her on March 13. She has also been asked to report to the police station every fortnight.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe tours Tamil heartland in a reconciliation bid
Prime Minister (PM) Ranil Wickremesinghe March 27 embarked on a tour in the Tamil dominated Northern Province in a bid to strengthen Government’s efforts to bring about the reconciliation among the communities, reports Colombo Page. The PM participated in a special meeting held with the Jaffna District parliamentary members and local Government representatives at the Jaffna District Secretariat to review the progress of the government’s 100-day program implemented in the Northern Province. PM, while addressing the meeting, said the Government will provide long term solutions to address the problems faced by the people in the District who have been affected by the war and assured to take measures to uplift their economy along with the development of infrastructure facilities. He said the Government led by President Maithripala Sirisena is committed to create a better tomorrow for the people in the province with the conclusion of the cruel war and the two main political parties of the country have formed a National Government with that objective. He expressed hope that the local Government representatives and civil organization in North will support the Government. Wickremesinghe also visited Point Pedro and Kilinochchi in the Northern Province, and talked to former combatants of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, war widows, civil society representatives, and parliamentarians.
EU will extend ban on LTTE , says Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe
Prime Minister (PM) Ranil Wickremesinghe on March 28 said that the Europe Union (EU) has responded positively to the quest made by him to extend the ban on, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, reports Colombo Page. The PM made this announcement when he met with the members of the three Armed Forces and Police at the Defence Headquarters at Palaly at Jaffna in Northern Province. Accordingly, the EU will further extend the ban on LTTE, the PM said. Wickremesinghe assured the Security Forces (SFs) that his Government will not leave any room to sacrifice lives of armed forces and general public due to wrong decisions taken by the politicians.
Meanwhile, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, Ajith P Perera said that the EU had re-imposed the ban on the LTTE due to the positive diplomatic intervention of the Government, adds Colombo Page. However, the EU has not officially announced the decision to extend the ban.
Brother of Sri Lankan president dies after axe attack
The youngest brother of Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena died in hospital on Saturday, March 28 after being attacked by an axe wielding acquaintance two days earlier, police said. Priyantha Sirisena, 42, suffered severe head injuries in his hometown of Polonnaruwa, 215-km north-east of the capital Colombo, police said.
The local businessman’s death came as the President was in China on a state visit.
The President’s office said he had completed his visit and was due to return on Sunday as previously arranged and would be back in the country in time for Monday’s funeral.
“A personal dispute between the president’s brother and a person known to him ended in tragedy,” an official at the president’s office told AFP. “We have no reason to suspect anything other than that.” Sirisena ended a three-day official visit to China on Friday and stayed on to address the Boao Forum on Saturday, officials said. Police said they arrested a man in connection with the attack and an investigation was underway. No further details were given. The government in a statement said Priyantha, a father of three, was “attacked during an altercation with a friend” on Thursday evening. Official sources said Priyantha Sirisena was the youngest in a family of 12 children.
He was flown to the capital for emergency treatment, but his head injuries were so severe that, despite a four-hour surgery, he did not recover, doctors said. Sirisena came to power following bitterly fought January presidential elections.
Unlike most former Sri Lankan leaders, President Sirisena has not extended personal security for his siblings and extended family and is known to have drastically scaled down his own protection unit.
There is real danger that LTTE could regroup, warns Deputy Foreign Minister Ajith P Perera
Deputy Foreign Minister Ajith P Perera on March 30 warned that there is a real danger that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam could regroup and wage another war for an independent Tamil homeland, six years after they were militarily defeated, reports Colombo Page. Perera said that “Their front organisations operate businesses abroad, they run petrol stations, supermarkets and have shipping companies.” “Even though they have been defeated on the ground, there is a real danger of their trying to regroup,” he said. His comments came after the Sri Lankan government pushed the European Union (EU) to again blacklist the LTTE.
Meanwhile, Sri Lankan Government said that a final decision has not yet been taken on lifting the ban on some diaspora groups or individuals listed by the former Government, reports Colombo Gazette on March 31. Deputy Foreign Minister Ajith P Perera said that the issue is sensitive and needs to be dealt with carefully and will also need the support of Parliament.
Three Navy personnel arrested in connection with the murder of Tamil MP Nadarajah Raviraj
The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of Sri Lanka has arrested three former Navy personnel and detained them in connection with the killing of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Member of Parliament (MP) Nadarajah Raviraj and a Policeman providing security to him in 2006, reports Colombo Page on March 31. The parliamentarian was shot dead by gunmen riding a motorbike in Colombo in Western Province on November 10, 2006. His bodyguard, Police Constable Lakshman Lokuwella attached to the Jaffna Police Station, was also killed in the shooting. The Spokesman Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Ruwan Gunasekara said the three security personnel including two officers are being interrogated under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and they will also be questioned over several disappearances during that time. The new government of President Maithripala Sirisena has promised accountability for wartime abuses.
Raviraj was outspoken on greater self-rule for minority ethnic Tamils and explained the Tamil perspective of the conflict in Sinhala, the language of the majority. A former mayor of Jaffna and a lawyer by profession, Raviraj openly spoke out against the conflict between the military and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the country’s north and east.
Arms recovered in Northern Province
Sri Lankan Army Headquarters said that the troops on their search and clear operations in the general areas of Kombavil, Puthukkudiyiruppu, Ampakama, Piramanthalaru and Kalkudah in Northern Province recovered six hand grenades, one 81 mm mortar bomb, one Arul bomb, one Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) bomb, one 40 mm grenade launcher bomb and one Improvised Explosive Device (IED) on April 4, reports The Island. The Army also said that the de-mining groups had recovered one hundred anti-personnel mines from Mahamailankulam, Kaddiadampan, 14th Mile Post and Pumalana than in Northern Province on the same day (April 4). The arms that had been buried there by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam during war time were detected by employees of a non-governmental organization (NGO) and they alerted the Security Forces (SFs).
Earlier, SATP had reported that three Army personnel, including a Captain, were injured when they attempted to diffuse a landmine in Vilathikulam forest area in Madhu Police Division in Mannar District of Northern Province on April 4.
Three naval officers arrested over Tamil politician murder
Three Sri Lankan Navy personnel, including two officers, have been arrested by the Police under the anti-terrorism Act for the alleged murder of a popular Tamil lawmaker in 2006 that had been blamed on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, reported The Times of India. Police spokesman Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Ruwan Gunasekara said on March 31 that the three men are suspected in the killing of Nadarajah Raviraj, who was shot dead in his car in November 2006 during the country’s civil war. A former mayor of Jaffna and a lawyer by profession, Raviraj openly spoke out against the conflict between the military and LTTE in the country’s North and East. The Government of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa blamed the killing on the now-defeated LTTE, but Raviraj’s supporters suspected a government hand.
IFJ condemns intimidation of Tamil Journalists in Northern Province
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) along with the Free Media Movement (FMM) on April 13 condemned the arrest of a Tamil journalist in the Northern Province by the Sri Lankan Police on April 8 in Jaffna, reports Colombo Page. IFJ in a statement accused the Sri Lankan Police in Jaffna of intimidating Tamil journalists.
Earlier, N. Logathayalan, a freelance journalist for Uthayan, was detained on April 8 in connection with a story he had written for the newspaper that alleged a girl had been assaulted by Police in the Nelliyadi Police station in Jaffna city. Logathayalan was produced before the Point Pedro Court where the Sri Lankan Police requested to extend custody until April 17. This was granted, but the journalist was subsequently released on April 9 on personal bail. He is due to appear in court on May 29.
IFJ also noted a separate event where three Jaffna-based journalists were allegedly intimidated by two police officers on April 7. The IFJ further said that Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has made commitments to the media and the IFJ to restore press freedom in Sri Lanka. The organization urged the Sri Lankan government to immediately investigate the incidents as per its commitment for press freedom.
INTERNATIONAL
IS claims killing 29 Yemeni police
The Islamic State Jihadist group claimed responsibility on Monday, March 23 for an attack on police in south Yemen that left 29 dead, in a sign of its growing activity in the turbulent country.
IS issued the claim in an online statement attributed to its branch in Lahj province, after a Sanaa branch said it was behind multiple suicide bombings on Friday at Huthi mosques that killed 142 people.
The attacks in the capital and in Lahj the same day were the first claimed by IS in Yemen, where its rival al-Qaeda group remains the most prominent extremist organisation.
The group’s “lions” in Lahj “liquidated 29 apostates” among members of the security forces, it said in a brief statement posted on Twitter.
A local security official said 29 people, including 27 members of the security forces, were killed in clashes in Lahj, north of the port city of Aden, after gunmen attacked police.
IS, which has a strong presence in Syria and Iraq, posted gory pictures on Islamist websites of what it said were policemen killed in the attack.
UN warns of civil war in Yemen
Yemen’s militia sent reinforcements south and clashed with local fighters on Monday, March 23 after the United Nations warned the country is on the brink of a protracted civil war. Security sources said the militiamen, known as Huthis, had sent several thousand troops south and fought with local tribes as they approached the main southern city of Aden, where President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi took refuge after fleeing the capital last month.
On Sunday the militia seized the airport and a nearby military base in Taez, Yemen’s third-largest city which is just 180 kilometres north of Aden and seen as a strategic entry point to Hadi’s southern refuge.
Yemen, a long-time US ally which borders Saudi Arabia, is increasingly divided between a north controlled by the Huthis, who are allegedly backed by Iran, and a south dominated by Hadi supporters. Mounting unrest in the country — including suicide bombings claimed by the Islamic State group that killed 142 people in the Huthi-controlled capital Sanaa on Friday — have raised international concerns and prompted an emergency session of the UN Security Council on Sunday. Its 15 members voiced their unanimous support for Hadi, with UN envoy Jamal Benomar warning that without immediate action the country will slide into “further violence and dislocation”.
The Huthis seized Sanaa in September and have been expanding their territory, clashing with Hadi loyalists, local tribes and Sunni Islamist groups including Al-Qaeda. The Huthis moved to expand their reach in the south after taking the airport in Taez, security sources said, and had pushed toward Aden but two convoys were forced to turn back after overnight clashes with tribesmen.
It was not immediately clear how many Huthis or tribesmen may have been killed or wounded in the clashes near Al-Abd, about 40 kilometres from Taez, and Al-Maqatara, about 80 kilometres from the city.
The Huthis have also sent some 5,000 militiamen and more than 80 tanks to an area of neighbouring Ibb province that is about 30 kilometres northeast of Taez, local and military sources said. The reinforcements took over schools in the area and set them up as barracks, the sources said.
Tunisia arrests 23 in ‘terrorist cell’
Tunisia said on Thursday, March 26 that it had arrested 23 suspects in connection with last week’s Jihadist massacre at the country’s national museum.
“Twenty-three suspects including a woman have been arrested as part of a terrorist cell” involved in the attack, Interior Minister Najem Gharsalli told journalists, adding that “80 percent of this cell” had been broken up.
All of those arrested were Tunisians, he said, adding that another Tunisian, two Moroccans and an Algerian suspected of being members of the cell were on the run.
The Tunisian, Maher Ben Mouldi Kaidi, was previously identified as a suspect and is alleged to have provided the automatic weapons to the two gunmen who shot dead 21 people — including 20 foreign tourists — at the Bardo Museum in Tunis on March 18.
Officials called into question the claim of responsibility for the attack from al-Qaeda’s Jihadist rival, the Islamic State group.
EU keeps Hamas on terror list despite court ruling
The European Union kept Hamas on its terrorism blacklist on Friday, March 27 despite a controversial court decision ordering Brussels to remove the Palestinian Islamist group from the register. Brussels has lodged an appeal against a December ruling by the bloc’s second highest court that Hamas should be delisted for the first time since 2001.
The appeal process is expected to take around a year and a half. Two other groups have however been withdrawn since the last EU list was published in July 2014: the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which US officials have accused of funneling money to Hamas, and Al-Takfir and Al-Hijra, an Egyptian Islamist group.
An EU official said the relevant member states that originally put the groups on the list had “changed their minds”, adding that Italy had requested the listing of the Holy Land Foundation and Britain had sought the inclusion of Al-Takfir and Al-Hijra.
Hamas’s military wing was added to the EU’s first-ever terrorism blacklist drawn up in December 2001 in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States. The EU then blacklisted the political wing of Hamas in 2003.
But the General Court of the European Union ruled last year that the Hamas blacklisting was based not on sound legal judgements but on conclusions derived from the media and the Internet. The row over the listing of Hamas, which has been in power in the Palestinian territory of Gaza since 2007, has threatened to undermine recent moves by Brussels to play a bigger role in reviving the moribund Middle East peace process.
Hamas has said the EU’s appeal against the judgement by the General Court of the European Union is “immoral”. Hamas’ funds in Europe have remained frozen since the December decision.
Israel meanwhile hit out at the original decision to remove Hamas.
The European Union list still includes organisations such as Lebanon’s Hizbullah militia, Kurdish rebel group Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Colombia’s FARC and Peru’s Shining Path.
Iraq’s Sistani urges unity among factions fighting ISIS
Iraq’s most senior cleric called for unity on Friday, March 27 among the array of armed factions fighting Islamic State militants in the country, after rifts surfaced in the wake of US-led airstrikes on the city of Tikrit.
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani made his call a day after militia leaders expressed anger at international airstrikes on Tikrit, where they had been leading the offensive. One went as far as threatening to shoot down planes from the US led-coalition.
The tension over the airstrikes has highlighted Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s challenge in controlling the largely factions fighting the Islamic State. Militia leaders, who also claim to control many of the popular mobilisation fighters who answered a call from Sistani to take up arms against the Islamic State in June, said their men would not fight as long as US planes are giving air cover.
While the militia withdrawal suits the United States, which does not want to appear to be giving air support to Iranian-backed paramilitary groups, Abadi has been trying to quell the backlash.
Smoke rises from central Tikrit during clashes between Iraqi security forces and Islamic State extremists 80 miles north of Baghdad on March 26.
However, demonstrating the lack of control he has over the fighters, he admitted that they had “differences” over the status of the international coalition.
39 killed as Saudi-led coalition pounds Yemen rebel camps
Arab coalition warplanes bombed rebel camps in Yemen on Friday, March 27 in a second straight day of strikes led by Saudi Arabia, which accused Iran of “aggression” across the region.
A months-long rebellion by fighters has escalated into a regional conflict that threatens to tear apart the impoverished state at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia has vowed to do “whatever it takes” to prevent the fall of its ally President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, accusing Iran of backing the Houthi rebels’ power grab. At least 39 civilians have been killed so far in the Saudi-led Operation Decisive Storm against the Houthis, officials at the rebel-controlled health ministry in the capital said.
Twelve of the victims died when surrounding residential areas were hit in a raid against a military base north of the capital, the officials told AFP. Three dawn strikes on Friday hit the presidential compound in south Sanaa which the rebels seized last month, witnesses said.
Warplanes also bombed a Houthi-controlled army brigade in Amran province, north of the capital, and arms depots in the northern rebel stronghold of Saada, residents said.
Hadi, backed by the West and Gulf Arab states, arrived in Riyadh on Thursday with officials saying he was on his way to Egypt to take part in a two-day Arab League summit at the weekend. It was the first confirmation of his whereabouts since the rebels began advancing this week on the main southern city of Aden, where the president had taken refuge since fleeing Sanaa last month.
United Arab Emirates warplanes “intensively” participated in air strikes against the rebels and their allies in Yemen on Friday, the Saudi-led coalition said.
Meanwhile, at least 21 Yemeni rebels were killed on Friday when residents in a tribal southern region opened fire at their vehicles, a local official and witnesses told AFP. The Huthi rebels, who are also facing Saudi-led air strikes, were travelling in three vehicles from Lahj province towards Aden, the southern stronghold of embattled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, when they were ambushed.
Give Muslims self-rule or ‘count body bags’: Aquino
Philippine President Benigno Aquino called on lawmakers on Friday, March 27 to pass a bill endorsing a pact aimed at ending a decades-long Muslim separatist rebellion, warning them they would otherwise start counting “body bags”. Aquino had wanted the bill, which would give autonomy to the majority Catholic nation’s Muslim minority in the south, passed this month. But Congress suspended debates on the proposed law in the face of public outrage over the killings of 44 police commandoes by Muslim guerrillas in a botched anti-terror raid in January.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which signed a peace deal a year ago on Friday, had said its members fired in self-defence at the commandoes, who passed through a rebel camp while going after Islamic militants.
“This is the crossroads we face: we take pains to forge peace today, or we count body bags tomorrow,” Aquino said in a nationwide television address.
“Perhaps it is easy for you to push for all-out war,” he said, hitting out at critics who have condemned the peace deal with the MILF. “But if the conflict grows, the number of Filipinos shooting at other Filipinos will grow, and it would not be out of the question that a friend or loved one be one of the people who will end up inside a body bag.”
Al-Qaeda, allies seize Syria’s Idlib city in blow to regime
Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate and its allies seized on Saturday, Mar 28 the city of Idlib, only the second provincial capital to be lost by the regime in more than four years of war. The capture came as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed anger and shame at the world’s failure to stop the conflict.
More than 215,000 people have been killed since anti-government protests, which erupted in March 2011, were brutally repressed by President Bashar al-Assad’s regime civil war followed. The country has been ravaged by warring factions, including Jihadist groups.
The coalition that seized Idlib city is made up of Al-Nusra Front, the official Syrian affiliate of al-Qaeda, and several Islamist factions. The Jihadist group also announced the capture of the northwestern city on its official Twitter accounts.
The group posted photos of its fighters in front of the governorate building, the city council, a local prison and a police station in the city.
Earlier, a Syrian security source acknowledged that “terrorist groups had infiltrated the outskirts of the city,” but state media did not report Idlib’s fall. Official news agency SANA said only that “army troops were regrouping south of the city of Idlib in preparation to face an influx of thousands of terrorists coming from Turkey.”
The government has regularly accused Turkey, a backer of the uprising against Assad, of providing support and sanctuary to “terrorists.”
Idlib province as a whole is a bastion of Al-Nusra, which ousted several rebel groups, including Western-backed organisations, from the region in November. That came after the group announced plans to establish an Islamic “emirate” in the area, which analysts say is intended to rival IS’s “caliphate”.
Idlib’s fall leaves the regime with few remaining strongholds in the province, which borders Turkey.
23 people ‘beheaded’ in Nigeria on eve of election
Suspected Boko Haram gunmen beheaded 23 people and set fire to homes in Buratai, northeast Nigeria, on the eve of Saturday’s (Mar 28) general elections, a federal lawmaker representing the area told AFP. A nurse at the nearest major hospital, in Biu, said the 32 injured who were receiving care also reported that many were decapitated during the attack. Further details of the violence were not immediately available, but the attack is consistent with Boko Haram’s past strikes in the area in the south of the state, where defenceless civilians have been repeatedly targeted.
It was not clear if the raid late on Friday was linked to Saturday’s polls, but Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau had vowed to disrupt the vote.
Elsewhere in Nigeria’s restive northeast, suspected Islamist militants killed at least seven people in separate attacks in the Gombe state. Witnesses reported that the assailants in Gombe made clear their intention was to disrupt the polls.
President Goodluck Jonathan is seeking a second four-year term as leader of Africa’s most populous nation against a strong challenge from the main opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari. The vote has been seen as a referendum on Jonathan’s record over the past four years, with an escalation in the Boko Haram insurgency and the continent’s top economy hit by the global shock in oil prices.
IS executes at least 37 civilians in Syria: monitor
The Islamic State group on Tuesday, Mar 31 executed at least 37 civilians, including two children, in a raid on a regime-held village in Hama province of central Syria, a monitor said.
IS “executed at least 37 people, including women and children, by burning, beheading, and firing on them” in the village of Mabujeh, said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Syrian state television reported that 44 people were killed and 21 injured in the raid. Mabujeh, east of the provincial capital Hama, has a population of Sunni Muslims as well as Alawites and Ismailis.
IS has regularly targeted minority sects in Syria, especially Muslims it accuses of apostasy, as well as Sunnis who it alleges have violated its interpretation of Islam.
Mabujeh lies near a vital road that serves as the regime’s only link between the central province of Homs and the northern province of Aleppo.
IS militants have repeatedly tried to sever the route. In late March, the extremist group killed 83 regime soldiers in the region in a bid to gain control over the road.
In northwest Syria, the Observatory said on Tuesday, at least 32 people were killed in government air strikes on the city of Idlib in the past 48 hours. Regime forces lost control of the city Saturday to a coalition of Islamist forces led by al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front.
In Geneva, the UN’s human rights office said it was worried about the situation in the city. Pouilly said the UN was concerned about reports of an attack on a hospital run by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent in the city.
Shock, defiance in Kenya after Shebab massacre 147 at university
The bodies of dozens of students massacred by Somalia’s Shebab Islamists at a Kenyan university arrived in the capital on Friday, April 3 as grieving relatives faced a desperate wait to receive the remains of their loved ones. The day-long siege of Garissa University in which 147 people, mostly students, were killed was Kenya’s deadliest attack since the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi, and the bloodiest ever by the al-Qaeda-affiliated militants.
The Kenyan government, however, vowed that it would not be “intimidated”.
Survivors recounted how the masked gunmen taunted students before killing them, including forcing them to phone their parents to urge them to call for Kenyan troops to leave Somalia — before shooting them anyway. As the gunmen prowled university rooms hunting down more people to kill, some students smeared blood from their dead friends over their bodies to pretend they too had been shot.
Others appeared to have been killed by knives.
The day-long siege ended with four gunmen being killed in a hail of heavy gunfire, and one suspect reportedly arrested. At least 79 people were also wounded in the attack on the campus, which lies near the border with Somalia.
Hurling grenades and firing automatic rifles, the gunmen stormed the university at dawn on Thursday as students were sleeping, shooting dead dozens before setting Muslims free and holding Christians and others hostage.
Just before darkness fell, Kenyan troops moved in on the dormitory where the gunmen were holed up, apparently determined to prevent a drawn-out siege like that seen in the Westgate shopping mall in September 2013.
The university siege marks the worst attack on Kenyan soil since the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi by al-Qaeda, when 213 people were killed by a huge truck bomb. The Shebab also carried out the Westgate shopping mall massacre in Nairobi in September 2013 when four gunmen killed 67 people in a four-day siege.
Shehab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said the killings were in revenge for the presence of Kenyan troops in Somalia as part of the African Union’s force supporting the internationally-backed government in Mogadishu.
Three soldiers killed in restive east Ukraine
Three Ukrainian soldiers died when a mine exploded in the separatist-held east where isolated clashes continue to undermine a ceasefire aimed at ending a year-long war. Army spokesman Andriy Lysenko said on Saturday, April 4 that “as a result of the explosion of an enemy mine … three Ukrainian soldiers were killed, two injured” in the previous 24 hours.
There were no further details on the incident which occurred near the government-held village of Avdiyivka, a few kilometres from the separatist bastion of Donetsk, a city in Ukraine’s industrial heartland which prior to the unrest was home to a million people. The fatalities were the first announced by the Kiev government in almost a week since the death of a Ukrainian army soldier was reported on Monday.
Lysenko said the previous day the army had noted “the use at least five times of heavy weapons by illegal armed groups against our positions,” including conventional artillery and 122-mm mortars.
Observers say a February ceasefire between the two sides is largely holding but skirmishes continue around Donetsk and the strategic port of Mariupol, Kiev’s largest remaining stronghold in the rebel-held east.
The ceasefire provides for heavy weapons of over 100-mm calibre to be withdrawn along the front line to set up a buffer zone some 50 to 140 kilometres wide.
More than 6,000 people have been killed since fighting broke out between pro-Russian separatists and the Ukraine government a year ago.
Romania to expel seven foreign nationals for recruiting for IS
Romania will expel seven foreign nationals accused of recruiting members for the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda and propagating their ideas in the eastern European country, officials said on Saturday, April 4.
The Bucharest court of appeal this week ruled in separate cases that the seven should be prohibited from returning to the country for between three to seven years, Romania’s interior intelligence agency SRI said in a statement.
Six of the foreigners made up a group “affiliated to radical ideologies of the al-Qaeda and Islamic State terrorist groups” and carried out “Islamic extremist propaganda… (and) recruitment for religious and military training in conflict zones affected by terrorism,” the statement said.
The seventh, a Tunisian national, expressed “a wish to become a martyr” for a terror group and made “constant steps to attract new supporters.”
Bombing on bridge in Egypt capital kills officer
A bomb exploded near a police checkpoint on a bridge in an affluent Cairo neighbourhood on Sunday, April 5 killing an officer, Egyptian police officials said. The bomb had been placed next to the checkpoint on a side of the May 15 bridge located in the neighbourhood of Zamalek, the officials said. Two people were wounded in the blast, which tore the victim’s body to pieces, a health ministry official said. An AFP correspondent said there was a pool of blood next to the checkpoint.
A police official said the bomb went off as the driver of a minivan pulled over to ask the police officer a question, likely for directions.
Militants have repeatedly set off bombs in Cairo targeting police checkpoints and vehicles.
The more sophisticated attacks have been claimed by Jihadist group Ajnad Misr, which says they were carried out in retaliation for the deaths of hundreds of Islamist protesters in the past two years. The group has claimed responsibility for bombings outside the presidential palace and foreign ministry that killed four policemen last year, two of them explosives experts.
After the military overthrew Islamist president Mohammed Mursi in 2013, authorities unleashed an extensive crackdown on his supporters that left hundreds dead and thousands in prison.
A bomb outside Cairo University last month wounded four civilians and four policemen.
Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood, the strongest political movement before his overthrow, has been designated a terrorist group although it denies it is violent. But some of its members are believed to have resorted to plotting attacks on policemen after the crackdown drove them underground. In the Sinai peninsula, Jihadists affiliated to the Islamic State group have killed scores of security personnel, including at least 15 soldiers in coordinated attacks last week.
UK teens held
Two teenagers from northern England have been arrested on suspicion of preparing for acts of terrorism, British police said on Sunday, April 5.
A 14-year-old boy from Blackburn and a 16-year-old girl from Manchester were arrested on Thursday and Friday, respectively, as part of an ongoing investigation and have both been bailed until May 28, Greater Manchester Police said in a statement.
Eight die in Iraq
A car bomb went off near one of Baghdad’s landmark hotels and suicide attacker blew himself up in a restaurant north of the Iraqi capital on Friday, April 10 killing eight people, police said.
35 dead as Syrian forces repel IS attack on airport
Pro-government forces repelled an attack on a key Syrian military airport by Islamic State group affiliated militants, losing 20 fighters but killing almost as many Jihadists, a monitor said on Saturday, April 11.
Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad maintained control over the airport and its surrounding areas despite losing 20 fighters. At least 15 IS Jihadists were killed.
Syria’s official news agency SANA said the army had “blocked attempts from IS terrorists to infiltrate” areas near the airport.
Khalkhalah lies along a major highway between Damascus and the regime-held city of Sweida, a stronghold of the Druze minority that has largely avoided the bloodshed of Syria’s war. The attack on Khalkhalah was the first by IS, but the airport has been previously targeted by rebels and Syria’s al-Qaeda affiliate.
In March, Syrian rebels and Islamist fighters seized the town of Bosra al-Sham, which is south of Sweida but located along the same highway as Khalkhalah airport.
Rebels and the Al-Nusra Front took control of the Nasib crossing in the southern province of Daraa from regime forces last month.
Nasib had been under attack by moderate rebel forces, but fell shortly after Al-Nusra joined the ongoing offensive.
The Jihadists and other rebels held the checkpoint, the duty-free zone between the two crossings, and the customs area. Al-Nusra withdrew from the checkpoint last week and left the other areas Friday.
The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) “retook at least four checkpoints and a number of neighbourhoods” around the town of Tal Tamr, Abdel Rahman told AFP.
He said the Kurds had launched a “counter-offensive” against an IS assault on the town that began in February, adding that in the past 24 hours, seven YPG fighters and 24 IS militants were killed.
Though small, Tal Tamr has strategic value because it lies on a road that runs east across the Iraqi border to IS’s bastion in Mosul, as well as north to the Turkish border.
IS has seized over a dozen villages around Tal Tamr, said Abdel Rahman, adding that the group was attacking the town to make up for losses in other parts of Hasakah.
Two dead in gun attack at S Korea embassy in Libya
Gunmen killed two people and wounded a third in an attack at the South Korean embassy in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Sunday, April 12 which was claimed by the Islamic State group. The gunmen opened fire on the embassy compound from a passing car, killing two people and wounding a third, a Libyan interior ministry spokesman told AFP.
A security source at the location said the two dead were both Libyan guards, adding that while the embassy had been closed for several months, South Korean officials were continuing to use it. But Mabruk Abu Zaheir, another official at the interior ministry, told the LANA news agency that one guard and a civilian at the scene were killed and a second guard seriously wounded. The foreign ministry in Seoul confirmed the attack, saying three South Koreans working in the embassy — including two diplomats — were unhurt. It also said two Libyan guards were among the dead.
An AFP photographer at the scene of the attack said a vehicle used by the security guards was riddled with bullet holes, while it appeared that the main embassy building had not been hit.
IS claimed responsiblity for the attack on Twitter, according to SITE Intelligence Group. The Jihadist group, notorious for its brutal rule of large areas of Iraq and Syria, has established branches in all three of Libya’s historic regions. It has claimed responsibility for several high-profile attacks on foreign targets in Libya, including an assault in January on the Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli and the beheading of Egyptian Coptic Christians.
IS has also targeted embassies in Tripoli and oil fields to kidnap foreign workers.Last month four Filipinos, an Austrian and four other foreigners were abducted in an attack on the Al-Ghani oil field by IS militants killing eight guards, the Libyan unit tasked with protecting oil installations said at the time.
Libya has been plagued by chaos since the end of the 2011 revolt that toppled Moamer Qadhafi, with heavily armed militias battling for control of its cities and oil wealth and rival governments and parliaments vying for power. The country has had two governments and parliaments since Tripoli was seized in August by the Islamist-backed Fajr Libya militia and the internationally recognised government fled to the country’s Far East.
Two al-Qaeda suspects killed in Yemen attack
Two suspected al-Qaeda militants were killed overnight in Yemen in a drone strike believed to have been carried out by the United States, a tribal source said on Friday, April 17.
The late night strike targeted a vehicle in Habban, southeast of Ataq, the main town in southern Shabwa province.
It “killed the two occupants, two members of al-Qaeda,” said the source, identifying one of the victims as Khaled Atef, a cousin of the province’s al-Qaeda chief.
Al-Qaeda militants have exploited the breakdown of security since a Saudi-led coalition launched an air war last month against rebels fighting Yemeni forces.
Among its gains, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has seized almost all of Mukalla, the capital of Hadramawt province.
United States Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said last week that al-Qaeda was seizing terrain during the chaos in Yemen, but vowed that Washington would continue to combat the extremist group.
The US classifies Yemen-based AQAP as the deadliest franchise of the Sunni extremist movement.
Two terrorists arrested in Australia over planned Anzac Day attack
Two men were arrested in Melbourne on Saturday, April 18 for allegedly planning an Islamic State-inspired attack at Anzac Day commemorations honouring soldiers who fought and died for Australia — the country’s most important national event. Seven search warrants were executed in the country’s second largest city by a joint counter-terrorism team of 200 officers, two months after Prime Minister Tony Abbott warned the threat from home-grown extremists was worsening.
Police said two 18-year-olds were held over terrorism-related offences with one of them, Sevdet Besim, charged. He appeared briefly in court accused of conspiring to commit a terrorist act and was remanded in custody.
Ceremonies are due to be held in towns and cities across the country on April 25 to remember those who served as Australian and New Zealand Army Corps soldiers. This year’s events have assumed added significance with the day marking a century since the bloody World War I Gallipoli campaign in what is now Turkey. More than 60,000 Australian and New Zealand troops joined an Allied expeditionary landing on the peninsula in 1915, and 11,500 of them never returned.
The arrests come just days after Australia began deploying 330 more troops to Iraq for two years to train local soldiers fighting Jihadists including the Islamic State group, joining an aerial and Special Forces contingent in the region. A third man held on Saturday, also 18, was arrested on weapons charges with two other teenagers, aged 18 and 19, in custody and assisting with enquiries.
Police said was it believed the attacks would have involved “edged knives”, reportedly including a sword, although there was no direct evidence to suggest a beheading, a killing method favoured by Jihadists.
Current Threat Levels:
| City/Region | Threat | Level |
| Islamabad | Level 2 | ** |
| Karachi | Level 2 | ** |
| Lahore | Level 2 | ** |
| Punjab | Level 2 | ** |
| Khyber Pakhtunkhwa | Level 3 | *** |
| Peshawar | Level 2 | ** |
| Quetta | Level 2 | ** |
| Upper Balochistan | Level 3 | *** |
| Lower Balochistan | Level 2 | ** |
| Upper/ Rural Sindh | Level 2 | ** |
| Gilgit and Northern Areas | Level 3 | *** |
| Tribal areas, close to Afghan border | Level 3 | *** |
Index to Threat Level References
Threat Level 1 *
Indicates there is no threat to foreigners although there may be isolated incidents involving petty crime. No security precautions are required.
Threat Level 2 **
Indicates there is no specific threat to foreigners, however because of the overall general law & order situation, some security precautions are advised, especially if traveling.
Threat Level 3 ***
Indicates that law and order situation is cause for concern and travel should be avoided unless absolutely necessary. Foreigners should rehearse plans for evacuation.
Threat Level 4 ****
Indicates complete breakdown of civil administration and law and order leading to possible anarchy. All foreigners to remain indoors and confined to their own city. Families and staff not required to be evacuated retaining only a skeleton staff.
Threat Level 5 *****
Indicates complete breakdown of law and order, enemy action/hostilities, invasion/ occupation by enemy.
