Terrorist Activities in Pakistan
Suicide Attacks
At least eight people, including three contestants of the upcoming Local Government (LG) elections and a suicide bomber, were killed and 13 others were injured when the suicide bomber targeted the camp office of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Member of National Assembly (MNA) Sardar Amjad Khosa in Taunsa Sharif city of Taunsa tehsil (revenue unit) in Dera Ghazi Khan District on October 14, reported The News. The Police said that there were no security arrangements at the office. Khosa said that he had been contesting elections from the constituency for the last 27 years.
At least 22 persons including eight children were killed in a suicide blast targetting a 9th Muharram (Shia mourning period) procession near a park in the Lashari area of Jacobabad District in Sindh in the evening of October 23, reports The News. Police confirmed 40 others including several children, have been injured in the attack. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Zafar Malik said, “It appears from the evidence collected that it was a suicide attack.” He added that a pistol has also been found from the site of the blast.
Meanwhile Sindh Home Minister Suhail Anwar Siyal said on October 24, that the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has claimed responsibility for the suicide attack, reports Dawn. He added that two separate committees have been formed to investigate the attack.
Bomb/IED blasts
A house was damaged when an explosive device planted near the boundary wall of the house of Malik Khalil in Shahidabad area within the limits of Bilyamina Police Station of Hangu District exploded on October 2, reports The News. However, no casualty was reported. Malik Khalil told reporters that a letter was pasted on another portion of the boundary wall apparently to demand extortion money. “The people identified themselves as member of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan had pasted the letter on the wall, demanding PKR 1 million,” he maintained.
One security official was killed and two others sustained injuries on October 3 in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in Mohmand Agency of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), reports Dawn. The incident occurred in Toran Dara area of Safi tehsil (revenue unit) of Mohmand Agency.
A pro-government tribal elder, Malik Sayed Ali Wazir, was killed on October 4 and his son was wounded when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle in the Bakkakhel town of Bannu District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, reports Daily Times. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the killing but Malik Sayed Ali Wazir, who headed an anti-Taliban militia in the town, was on the target of militants.
The Police and the Bomb Disposal Unit foiled a terror bid by defusing an explosive device planted near a private school, Rayan Education School, in Lower Dir District on October 12, reports The News.
Awami National Party (ANP) leader Malik Gulzada Khan survived an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast in the Serai area in Mamond tehsil (revenue unit) of Bajaur Agency in Federally Administered Tribal Areas on October 15, reported Dawn. Assistant Political Agent Nawagai Fayaz Ali Sherpao said that the ANP leader was headed from Damadola towards Inayat Kallay when a road-side planted IED detonated as Gulzada’s vehicle passed by it. Malik Gulzada remained unhurt in the blast.
At least 11 people, including two children, were killed and more than 20 were injured in a bomb blast that occurred inside a local city bus at Dukani Baba Chowk area on Sariab Road in Quetta on October 19, reported Dawn.
Ten people were killed while several others received injuries when a blast ripped through an Imambargah (Shia place of worship) in Bhaag area of Bolan District in Balochistan on October 22, reports The News.
Separately, Security Forces (SFs) have arrested five suspected people in Killi Pir Bakhsh Sumallani and Killi Shanawaz areas of Quetta, the provincial capital, on October 22, reports Daily Times.
Targetted Killings
At least three policemen and two militants were killed during an exchange of fire in the Omar Kalay village of Tank District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on September 29, reports Dawn. Four Police personnel, including a Station House Officer (SHO), were also injured during the clash that occurred during a Police raid in the Omar Kalay village. The slain militants were identified as Jamal and his brother Afzal.
Meanwhile, a schoolteacher was killed and another person sustained injuries when unidentified assailants opened fire on them in Piran area near Bhatkela in Malakand District on September 29, reports The News. Schoolteachers Muhammad Salim and Aziz Muhammad were going home from school when one Bakht Bahadur allegedly opened fire on them in Piran area. As a result, Muhammad Salim was killed while Aziz Muhammad and another passer-by sustained injuries.
Further, unidentified assailants on September 29 shot dead a councillor belonging to the Awami National Party (ANP) and injured his two security guards in Pabbi town of Nowshera District on September 29, reports The News. Sources said that the ANP leader and president of the Anjuman-e-Tajiraan Pabbi Station Bazaar, Ikramullah, along with his two security guards Sartaj and Feroz had gone to Pabbi. Two motorcyclists opened indiscriminate fire on them in Pabbi Bazaar.
Police recovered an unidentified dead body of man from Joint Road of Quetta on September 30, reported The News.
A traffic Police Official, identified as Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Zulfiqar, was shot dead in an armed attack by unidentified armed assailants near Malir Kala Board in Malir Town of Karachi on September 30, reported Dawn.
Two bullet-riddled dead bodies, identified as that of Muhammad Faisal and Dad Bakhsh Baloch, were found in Pidrak area of Turbat (Kech) District on October 2, reports Dawn. The two men were kidnapped a couple of days ago, sources said. They were shot from a close range in their heads and chests.
A bullet-riddled dead body of a missing worker of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), identified as Asad Iqbal, was found in Mochko area of Baldia Town in Karachi on October 2, reported Dawn. The MQM Coordination Committee said that Iqbal was taken away by Rangers from his home in Liaquatabad Town on July 21, 2015. He was killed in an ‘encounter’ by Rangers on September 4, 2015, in limits of Mochko Police Station. The party termed it as extra-judicial killing of the worker. He was buried by a welfare organization as an unclaimed body on September 17, 2015. However, the party spokesperson said that he was identified by his brother through picture taken by the welfare institution.
Three people, including a Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) candidate for the Union Council chairman candidate, Aslam Channa, were killed and two others were wounded when unidentified armed assailants opened fire targeting Channa in Dipalpur tehsil (revenue unit) of Okara District on October 9, reported The News.
A National Party (NP) leader, identified as Ali Muhammad Baloch, was shot dead by unidentified militants outside his residence in Balecha area of Tump tehsil (revenue unit) in Turbat District on October 9, reported Dawn.
A Policeman, identified as Head Constable Gulzar, was killed and another identified as Constable Awal Zeb, sustained injuries when unidentified armed assailants opened fire at Police van that was patrolling in Pir Baba area of Buner District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on October 12, reported The News.
Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s (KMC) Additional Director Arshad Hussain was shot dead in a firing incident near Askari Park in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Town on October 13, reports Daily Times.
Separately, Police recovered an unidentified dead body from Gulshan-e-Ghazi of Baldia Town on October 13, reports Daily Times.
Two Policemen, identified as Safar Muhammad and Abdullah, were killed when unidentified militants opened fire at the check post on Boghra Road in Chaman town of Qilla Abdullah District on October 20. District Police Officer (DPO) Asad Khan Nasir said thar armed men riding a motorcycle opened fire at a police check-post in Chaman, killing two personnel instantly. Nasir said that it could be an act of targeted killing.
Separately, unidentified militants killed a Police Head Constable on Sariab Road in Quetta on October 20, reports Dawn.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militants shot dead two traffic Policemen at Aman Chowk of Swabi town in Swabi District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on October 23, reports Daily Times. TTP has claimed responsibility for the attack. Swabi District Police Officer (DPO) Javed Iqbal said the two traffic Policemen, namely Gohar Ali and Arshad, deputed at Aman Chowk were fired upon by unidentified gunmen, and both died on the spot.
Miscellaneous
A suspected militant was killed and another arrested after an exchange of fire in Mangochar area of Kalat District on September 27, reported Dawn. According to Levies sources, unidentified militants opened fire at a levies vehicle to which the security personnel retaliated, killing one of the attackers and arresting another. Sources said levies personnel also recovered a rifle from his possession.
Separately, Security Forces (SFs) foiled a major terrorism bid during a raid in Behlol area of Loralai District on September 27, reports Dawn. Frontier Corps spokesman Khan Wasey said that the SFs recovered 20 RPT-7 rockets along with fuses. Wasey said the weapons were being transported to various parts of the province to carry out subversive activities. No arrests were made during the raid.
The Political Administration arrested on September 27 two alleged militants in Saada Bazar area of Kurram Agency red-handed as one of them was busy in planting a remote controlled bomb in a passenger vehicle and recovered explosive materials from his possession, reports The News. When contacted, Assistant Political Agent, Fazl Qadir Khattak disclosed that they apprehended a militant red-handed on the information given by local people that a militant, identified as Mumtaz, has had explosive materials intended to plant inside a passenger vehicle.
The security agencies on September 29 arrested a key suspect, identified as Qasim Muawiya, involved in Punjab Home Minister Shuja Khanzada’s assassination on August 16, 2015 in Attock District, reports Daily Times. According to the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) spokesman, Muawiya, was tracked through mobile data. He was presented in an anti-terrorism court (ATC) where the court sent him on physical remand. The attack was masterminded by a local Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan ‘commander’ namely Qari Sohail. Other facilitators have been identified as Zaheer alias Talha and Imran Sattar.
At least 25 suspected terrorists were killed and several others were injured when the military carried out airstrikes in Alwara Mandi area of Dattakhel tehsil (revenue unit) in North Waziristan Agency of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on October 1, reported Dawn. A security official said at least five terrorist hideouts were destroyed in the aerial operation.
Security Forces (SFs) on October 2 foiled a terrorism bid in Murgha Kibzai area of Zhob District and recovered a sizeable amount of arms and ammunition, reported Dawn. “Weapons recovered during the raid include three RPG launchers, 22 RPG rockets, 23 mortar shells and other weapons and explosives,” said the FC spokesperson Khan Wasey. He added that that no arrests were made as the terrorists were not present at the location when the raid was conducted.
A Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) village councilor, identified as Dildar Ali, survived a grenade attack in Manglawar area of Swat District on October 1, reported Dawn. The councilor survived while his wife was wounded in the attack.
One Levies personal was killed on October 3 while two others sustained injuries in an armed attack targeting the vehicle of Assistant Commissioner in Kalat District, reports Dawn. The dead assailant is yet to be identified by security forces. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack.
The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) on October 5 claimed to have arrested three al Qaeda militants from Raiwind town in Lahore, reports Dawn. The suspects were identified as Tariq Aziz, Abdul Ghaffar and Mehar Hamid Ali. The Police also recovered cash, weapons and printed and written material suggesting their links with al Qaeda from their possession.
In another raid, two suspected terrorists, identified as Khalid Mahmood and Amanullah, were arrested from a village near Thokar Niaz Beg area in Lahore on October 5, reports Dawn. The Police recovered illegal weapons and two kilogram of explosive material from their possession.
Security Forces (SFs) killed three suspected militants during an operation in Maskhay area of Awaran District on October 7, reported Dawn. The SFs also recovered weapons from their possession. “Security forces also destroyed various safe havens of the militants operating in the area during the operation,” stated the security official.
The Police on October 9 killed a local commander of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, Idadullah alias Farooq Alam, during an encounter in Gujrat village of Mardan District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, reports The News. District Police Officer (DPO) Faisal Shahzad said that Police from the Rustam Police Station were patrolling Gujrat on the Daggar Road when militant commander Idadullah alias Farooq Alam along with his two accomplices opened fire on the Police. Farooq Alam was killed on the spot while his two accomplices escaped. The DPO said that the slain militant was wanted by the Mardan Police in more than 40 cases of bombing schools, CD shops and Government installations and carrying out attacks on the Police. The Police seized a Kalashnikov rifle and hand-grenades after the clash.
At least 22 militants were killed and six others were injured in Lowara Mandi, Lataka and Shawal Valley areas of Dattakhel tehsil (revenue unit) of North Waziristan Agency (NWA) on October 11, reports The News. Six compounds of militants were targeted in the airstrikes. No further information was provided about the identity and nationality of the slain militants.
At least three were killed in a shootout during a joint operation launched by Police and Intelligence Agencies in Killi Kudao area of Kanak in Mastung District on October 13. “Police have recovered arms which were in the militants’ possession,” said Police spokesperson Muhammad Javed.
Giving up the fight, four separatist militants, including two ‘commanders’ laid down their arms on October 14. “Commander of Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) Kodi Camp Javed Marri, Commander Ali Muhammad from Bambor Camp, Masood Marri and Irshad have given up fighting and joined the mainstream to help the Government in retaining peace in the region,” security sources said. The Government of Balochistan had announced in August the Balochistan peace package, urging militants to join mainstream politics, and work for the prosperity and development of the province. As many as Rs.1.5 million were allocated for militants giving up the fight.
Intelligence Agencies and Anti-Terrorism Force (ATF) claimed to have arrested at least five target killers during two back-to-back raids in Quetta on October 16, reports Dawn. According to an unnamed Security Force (SF) official, during the first raid conducted in Sariab Road area, intelligence agencies and ATF personnel arrested three suspected target killers and interrogated them about their activities and the presence of their aides. Upon the information received from them, the SFs conducted another raid in Satellite Town area and arrested two more suspects. The SFs recovered a huge cache of arms, ammunition and other weapons from their custody.
Eight suspected militants were shot dead by Police in an encounter in the outskirts of Karachi on October 17, reports Dawn. Police, on a tip off provided by an arrested militant, raided an alleged hideout off the Northern Bypass in Manghopir area. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rao Anwar, who led the Police party said, on seeing the Policemen, the suspects resorted to firing, injuring Manghopir Station House Officer (SHO) Ghulam Hussain Korai and constable Altaf. During the exchange of fire, eight suspects were gunned down, he said. The SSP identified four of the deceased suspects as Irfan Munir, Saddam Hussain, Sharifullah and Ismail Mehsud. The other four deceased suspects have not been identified as yet. The senior Police official claimed the suspects were involved in the recent killing of policemen in Karachi, the Abbas Town bomb blast, and other targeted killings. Police also claim to have recovered explosive material and arms and ammunition from their custody.
PAKISTAN
PM Sharif says dossier on Indian interference in Pakistan to be given to UN
Pakistan Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif has said the dossier on Indian interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs and on fomenting terrorism on Pakistan’s soil by India would soon be handed over to the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), reports The Dawn on October 2. He told reporters at a press conference at Waldorf Astoria hotel after his UN General Assembly speech that if he had a meeting with Indian PM Narendra Modi he would have handed the dossier over to him. He said that Pakistan was keen to have peaceful neighbourly relations but India had not reciprocated with the same sentiments. “It is the time that India should act by coming forward and desist from violating the ceasefire on LoC and Working Boundary,” he said.
Several wounded militants and doctor arrested in raidsn Sindh
Several suspects, including a doctor, were arrested in three intelligence-driven raids on as many private health facilities in Bahadurabad area of Gulshan Town in Karachi on October 4, reports Dawn. According to sources, a total of three facilities were raided and besides a doctor, some staff members and some under-treatment suspects, who had been wounded in the ongoing operations in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), were picked up.
“We received information that some wounded militants are being treated at some Karachi hospitals,” said an unnamed senior Police official. He further said, “During initial interrogation, the held suspects informed us about their handler and we also took him into custody in a separate raid,” adding, “The handler told us that around 100 wounded Taliban suspects are currently under treatment in different health facilities of the metropolis.” City Police Chief said that a doctor was arrested in the raid on a Bahadurabad hospital on charges of treating militants wounded in tribal areas. He said that the doctor was being interrogated.
Meanwhile, Sindh Home Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal while speaking at the ‘Meet the Press’ program of the Karachi Press Club on October 5 said that the Provincial Government was not considering winding up the Karachi Operation, reports Dawn. He said that the operation was launched against terrorists and criminals and it would continue till the elimination of the last terrorist. He said that Police and Rangers were jointly carrying out the operation in Karachi and it was wrong to say that the role of the Police had been restricted to a mere backup force because the Rangers had taken a leading role.
Engineer belonging to HuT arrested for distributing pamphlets in Karachi
The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) on October 6 claimed to have arrested a graduate turned terror suspect affiliated since 2007 with the proscribed organisation Hizb-ul-Tehreer (HuT) from the Clifton vicinity of Karachi District, reports The News. According to Karachi CTD in-charge Mazhar Mashwani, suspect Muhammad Owais Raheel was a graduate of the reputable NED University of Engineering and Technology as well as held a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the prestigious Institute of Business Administration (IBA) in Karachi. Mashwani further told that a large number of pamphlets were recovered from Owais’s possession. It was Owais responsibility to distribute leaflets of HuT in mosques located in Clifton and Defence areas of the city. Owais told the interrogators that he stayed in contact with the help of the communication software ‘Viber’ with his other companions, who are residents of Malir, Landhi and Model Colony in Karachi.
Dawn adds that Owais Raheel, targeted educated youngsters in the Defence and Clifton areas in order to use them “for illegal activities” with a view to implementing “Khilafa” in the country. Banned in Pakistan in November 2003, HuT is believed to be a global organisation that has organisational structure in several countries with main concentration in Islamic states.
US considering nuclear deal with Pakistan, says Washington Post Report
The United States (US) is exploring an option that could pave the way for a civil nuclear deal with Pakistan like the one concluded with India in 2005, according to a report published in The Washington Post on October 7, reports Dawn. “The issue is being discussed quietly in the run-up to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s visit to Washington on October 22, 2015” said leading columnist David Ignatius in an article he wrote for the Post. “We are in regular contact with the Government of Pakistan on a range of issues as we prepare for the Prime Minister’s visit,” a US Government spokesperson said, adding, “We’ll decline comment on the specifics of these discussions.”
The spokesperson also said that the US “urges all nuclear-capable states, including Pakistan, to exercise restraint” regarding nuclear weapons and missile capabilities. “We encourage efforts to strengthen safety and security measures and continue to hold regular discussions with Pakistan on a range of global issues, including nuclear security, counter-terrorism, and international norms,” she said.
5 suspected al Qaeda militants killed in Punjab
At least five suspected al Qaeda militants were killed in an exchange of fire with Police in Factory Area Police Station of Sheikhupura District in Punjab on October 10, reports Daily Times. “At around 2am, Police personnel escorted a prisoner Kashif alias Kashi from Lahore to a terrorist hideout in Sheikhupura in order to seize an arms cache,” said a spokesman from the Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD). The spokesman added that as soon as the Police party along with the escorted prisoner reached a railway crossing within the limits of Factory Area police station, they came under attack by seven to eight suspected militants. “Five terrorists including Kashif were killed in retaliatory firing by Police while the others managed to flee taking advantage of the darkness,” said the CTD spokesman.
588 persons become victims of 821 terrorism incidents in eight months
The first eight months of the current year (2015) has witnessed 821 incidents of terrorism in the country, in which 588 people lost their lives while 1,007 people got injured, Daily Times reported on October 12 quoting a month-wise break-up issued by the Interior Division. The report revealed that in 124 incidents of terrorism during month of January, 122 people were killed and 174 were injured.
Similarly, in 10 terrorism related incidents during February this year, 9 people were killed and 49 injured, in March 86 terrorism related incidents occurred in which 45 people were killed and 141 injured and in 113 incidents during month of April, 59 lost their lives and 110 got injured. The data further revealed that the month of May witnessed 121 unfortunate incidents of terrorism with killing of 137 people and injuries to 162 people. In June, there were 70 such incidents in which 50 got killed and 55 got injured, the month of July saw 116 such incidents in which 65 were killed and 131 injured while in August 2015, 61 people became victims of 82 terrorism related incidents while 77 got injured.
Institutions hurt democracy if they overstep their authority, says Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali
Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Anwar Zaheer Jamali on October 12 said that any institution crossing its prescribed limits not only damages democracy but also leaves a negative impact on social welfare, reports The News. The Chief Justice said that social justice, peace and the rule of law were crucial for development, prosperity and promotion of democracy. It is only possible when every institution works in accordance with the law and the Constitution.
“The Constitution has drafted principles for every institution according to which the three pillars of the state, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, have to perform within their prescribed limits besides ensuring the supremacy of the Constitution,” Anwar Jamali said. The Chief Justice further said the Constitution had also delegated an onerous responsibility to the judiciary to protect the basic human rights and for this reason the judiciary was separated from the executive and legislature. He said the judiciary was also ensuring its independence. The Chief Justice said in any unfavorable situation, all the institutions and the public looked towards the judiciary.
Daesh network exists in Sindh, reveals Counter Terrorism Department
The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) has prepared a list of 53 terrorists who they claimed are affiliated with Daesh, commonly known as Islamic State (IS), reported The News on October 14. According to CTD sources, Abdullah Yousuf alias Abdul Aziz, alias Saqib, is the amir (chief) of Daesh while another terrorist has been identified as Shahid Khokhar, who belongs to Hyderabad District. The CTD sources further said that a third terrorist, Bilal is also affiliated with Daesh and hails from Mirpurkhas District.
Lyari gangster Shahid Bikak ordered attack on MQM leader Rashid Godil, reveal investigation officials
Lyari gangster Shahid Bikak had ordered the attack on Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Rashid Godil, said the officials investigating the case on October 14, reports The News. The officials claimed to have arrested one more suspect, identified as Pir Ali, who, according to the authorities, is a brother of slain Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Bilal Sheikh. Pir Ali was arrested in Rashid Godil attack case from Phase-6 of Defence Housing Authority (DHA). The investigation officials said the accused arrested in the case earlier had confessed to executing the attack on Godil and receiving PKR 200,000 each for the job. Godil was attacked on August 18, 2015 in Bahadurabad area of Gulshan Town.
Meanwhile, a Sindh Police spokesman on October 14 denied a news report claiming the Police issued or prepared a list of 53 Islamic State (IS)-’inspired’ militants, reports Dawn. The spokesman in his statement categorically denied issuance of such a list by any department working under Sindh Police. A report carried by almost all the newspapers of Pakistan on October 13, 2015, claimed that Police Investigators claimed to have traced more than 50 militants in Karachi ‘inspired’ by the self-styled Islamic which wants a presence in the country.
Three terrorists among six persons killed in a raid in Punjab
Three terrorists, including two women, and one Police commando were killed during an intelligence based operation against terrorists in Jorian village near the Dhamial Base in Rawalpindi District on October 15, reported The News. Two children were also killed in the encounter. Three Police commandos sustained injuries. On a tip off from a Multan-based intelligence Agency, a joint team of intelligence agency and Police raided a house located in the Jorian village at 2:00 am and cordoned off the area. As the joint raiding team reached the house, resistance was offered from the housemates. The terrorists opened fire on the raiding party and also hurled hand grenades. Resultantly, Sub-Inspector of Elite Force Irshad was killed and three other personnel, including Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Ibrar, sustained bullet injuries. One of the injured terrorists was a ‘commander’ of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and was planning a terrorist attack during Muharram in Rawalpindi.
One of the detained terrorists was identified as Abid, son of Younas, resident of Mirza village in Attock District. It has also been learnt that Abid is a close associate of Qari Sohail, mastermind of colonel (retired) Shuja Khanzada suicide blast case. Initial reports by police revealed that one woman from inside the raided house blew herself along with one another woman and two children by blowing grenades. One of the killed women was recognized as Malika Bibi and other as Sumaira Bibi. The children are recognised as Azan and Muhammad Umar. Police later searched the house and recovered two 9MM pistols, two hand grenades, 20-25 mobile SIM cards of different networks, four mobile phones and one old model Mitsubishi Lancer Car bearing Karachi registration number S-0303. There were reports that explosives were loaded in the car.
India supporting TTP to destabilise Pakistan, accuses FO spokesman Qazi Khaliullah
Pakistan on October 15 warned India to refrain from using its soil for hatching conspiracies against Pakistan while supporting the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, reported The News. “It is pertinent to mention here that majority of the terrorist incidents staged by the Indian side on its soil to implicate and malign Pakistan have proved to be fake. I wish to underscore that in the case of India, the international community is aware that state actors have been involved in destabilising and fomenting terrorism in neighbouring countries, including Pakistan,” said Foreign Office (FO) spokesman Qazi Khaliullah.
Khalilullah also pointed to an Afghan national, Balaach Pardili who, while living in India, was involved in terrorist activities in Pakistan. “As Balaach Pardili is an Afghan national, we expect the Afghan Government to take up the issue with India to ensure that its nationals living in India are not used for fomenting terrorism in Pakistan,” the spokesman said. Pardili is a worker of the Harbiar Marri-led Balochistan Movement which seeks an independent Balochistan. “Terrorism is our common enemy. A cooperative approach is required to deal with the menace,” he said, adding that in the past it was India that had accused Pakistan of supporting non-state actors.
Uighur militants eliminated from Pakistan’s territory, says Federal Minister for Defense Khawaja Asif
Pakistan has eliminated all members of the Uighur militant group the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) from its territory, but must remain vigilant to ensure they don’t return, said Federal Minister for Defense Khawaja Asif in Beijing on October 18, reports The News. “We believe they’re all eliminated,” Khawaja Asif said on the sidelines of a security forum. “I think there (were) a small number in tribal areas, they’re all gone or eliminated. There are no more there,” he added.
It is just as much in Pakistan’s interests as China’s to fight the Uighur militants, Asif said, denying there was any difference of opinion between Beijing and Islamabad on Pakistan’s efforts to tackle the problem. “The fight against ETIM is our own fight. It’s not only China’s fight. It’s a joint fight against ETIM, between Pakistan and China, so there is absolutely no difference of opinion on the elimination of ETIM from our tribal areas,” he said, adding, “We have to be vigilant for a long time that this menace, this infection, does not return.”
Target killings in Karachi decline by 63 percent, says HRCP
According to Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), the incidents of targeted killings, both on political and apolitical grounds, in Karachi have dropped by 63 percent while sectarian killings also went down by 28 percent until the third quarter of this year, reported Daily Times. According to the statistics compiled by the HRCP, a significant decrease in the number of targeted killings, on apolitical, political and sectarian grounds has been recorded. Moreover, the casualties of Policemen also decreased by about 39 percent.
In the last nine months, 208 people with no political affiliation were killed as compared to 568 last year, showing a decrease of 63 percent. Similarly, the number of people killed with political affiliation this year was 40, as compared to 107 in the corresponding period last year, showing a decline of 63 percent in the number of incidents. Sectarian killings also showed a declining trend with 69 people shot dead in the nine months of this year as compared to 97 in the corresponding period of 2014.
Indigenously-made ‘Burraq’ drone kills several militants, destroys hideouts in FATA
Several terrorists were killed when Indigenously-made ‘Burraq’ drone carried out an operation in North Waziristan Agency of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on October 22, reports The News. According to the ISPR, the ‘Burraq’ drone fired missiles and destroyed several militant hideouts as well. Sources added that it was the first night strike by Burraq with pinpoint accuracy. The military successfully tested ‘Burraq’ (flying horse) and test-fired its laser-guided missile ‘Barq’ (lightning) in March.
5 arrested LeJ militants brought from Dubai
A militant allegedly involved in over two dozen terrorist attacks and his four accomplices were brought to Pakistan from Dubai on October 22, reports Dawn. The suspects arrested in Dubai with the help of Interpol are believed to be involved in targeted killing of 12 people and the Mominpura massacre in Lahore. The Punjab Government had announced PKR 2.5 million head money for Haroon Rasheed Bhatti, a proclaimed offender and founding member of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ). He was a close aide of Malik Ishaq, the former chief of LeJ. He is said to be involved in a massacre in Mominpura, Lahore, that left 25 people dead and more than 50 injured. He is also believed to be behind the killing of DSP Tariq Kambo and his guard, Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) leader Maulana Shamsur Rehman Moavia, Dr. Shabihul Hassan, advocate Shakir Ali Rizvi, bank manager Syed Waqar Haider and Dr. Qaiser Abbas.
Terror plot foiled as suicide bomber arrested in FATA
A major terror plot was foiled in Kurram Agency of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) as a suicide bomber and his accomplices were arrested by Security Forces (SFs) on October 23, reports Daily Times. According to officials the terrorists were planning to attack Muharram (Shia mourning period) majalis (gatherings). SFs are conducting raids in Kurram Agency to arrest other accomplices of the suicide bomber.
REGIONAL
Bangladesh – Internal Dynamics
IS kills Italian national in Dhaka
Islamic State (IS) on September 28 killed Italian national Cesare Tavella (50), a technical director working at Netherlands-based development organization ICCO in Dhaka city’s Gulshan area, reports Dhaka Tribune. IS claimed the responsibility in an online statement, according to Site Intelligence Group, a website that tracks online activity of Jihadi organizations.
Unidentified gunmen kill BCL leader
Mofzel alias Nakshal Mofzel, ‘regional leader’ of Biplabi Communist Party (BCL) was killed by unidentified gunmen at Sharshunadah in Jessore District on September 23, reports New Nation. Police told that the deceased was an accused in six cases including three murder cases.
GMF leader killed in Kushtia district
Police found the bullet-riddle body of Robiul Islam alias Robi (45), a top leader of Gono Mukti Fouz (GMF), blindfolded on a field in Panti of Kumarkhali sub-District in Kushtia District on October 2, reports The Daily Star. Police said that Robi was accused in 13 cases including seven murder cases field with different Police Stations.
Japanese national killed in Rangpur district
One Japanese national was shot to death by unidentified armed men in Rangpur District on October 3, reports The Daily Star. Hoshi Kunio (66), was gunned down when he was going by a rickshaw to his grass farm at Alutari in the District’s Kaunia sub-District. The Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the murder and warned of more such attacks. “There will continue to be a series of ongoing security operations against nationals of crusader coalition countries, they will not have safety or a livelihood in Muslim lands,” both Reuters and Vice News quoted the terror group as tweeting.
JMB military wing chief killed in grenade blast in Chittagong District
Muhammad Javed (26), the ‘chief of military wing’ of the banned militant outfit Jama’at-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh was killed in a grenade explosion during a drive in Oxygen area of Chittagong city in Chittagong District on October 6, reports Dhaka Tribune. Detective Branch (DB) of Police Additional Deputy Commissioner (North and South) Muhamad Babul Akhter said that five JMB militants were arrested from Koashnagor area on October 5. He said “On information from Javed, we conducted a drive at a resident in Ananna Residential Area along with the detainee in the early hours of October 6 to burst their den. A grenade was kept in the house which exploded when we entered it. Javed and three Police officials were injured in the explosion.” Later, Javed was declared dead when he was taken to hospital. Sub-Inspectors Elias and Liakat Ali and Constable Foysal are injured in the blast.
Earlier, The Daily Star reported that Police arrested five militants of JMB and recovered grenades, firearms, ammunition, and bomb-making materials during raids in Oxygen area of Chittagong city in Chittagong District on October 5. Police raided a ground-floor flat of a five-storey building at Khoyaz Nagar and recovered nine grenades, a pistol, 120 bullets, and bomb-making material. The arrestees are: JMB military wing chief Muhamad Javed (26), its cadres Sujan Babu (28), Muhamad Fuad (33), Muhamad Mahbub (37) and Kajal (40).
Terrorism has become a serious threat to security of Bangladesh, says Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha
Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha on October 5 said that terrorism has become a serious threat to the security of Bangladesh and there was an urgent need to curb activities of groups like Islamic State (IS), reports New Nation. He said, “We are trying hard to combat terrorism. It is a global issue, which India and Bangladesh are facing at the same time. Terrorism has become a major problem now. ISIS was behind several acts, such as burning of Jordanian pilot, mass slaughter, beheading, stoning, etc. We need to put an end to these acts by ISIS. In Bangladesh, terrorism has become a serious threat to our national security. It has become a threat to life, economy and political as well as religious pluralism in Bangladesh.”
Meanwhile, Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) Detective Branch (DB) Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) (North-South) Muhammad Babul Akhter said that Jama’at-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) aims to set up a stronghold in Chittagong District’s heavily forested hilly areas, reports Dhaka Tribune. He said that the JMB arrestees claimed that there are 1,000 JMB militants in the District, discreetly working as stationers, day labourers and hawkers to conceal their identity. Some have set up small shops in densely-populated areas of the city to enable contact within the group when required. JMB has been raising funds through lucrative criminal activities in the port city, the militants confessed during Police questioning.
Killing of bloggers propels Bangladesh onto CPJ Global Impunity Index
The killing of bloggers in Bangladesh propelled the country onto Global Impunity Index of Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on October 8, reports The Daily Star. CPJ in a report said “At least four Bangladeshi bloggers have been hacked to death by apparent Islamic extremists this year alone, and a total of five of Bangladesh’s seven victims of unsolved murders over the last decade are bloggers who criticized religious extremism. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the nominally secular ruling Awami League party have done little to speak out for justice in these crimes, allowing political interests to trump rule of law. Authorities seem more concerned with what bloggers are writing than going after their killers.”
PBCP Red Flag faction ‘regional commander’ arrested in Pabna District
Mohamad Ziaul Islam Zia, the ‘regional commander’ of outlawed Purbo Banglar Communist Party (PBCP) Red Flag faction was arrested from Alokchar village of Pabna District on October 11, reports The Daily Star.
8 JMB militants arrested from different places
Five Jama’at-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) militants including its Pabna ‘regional chief’ Rakibul Islam Rabbi alias Rakib were arrested over the murder attempt on Pastor Luke Sarkar (52) of Ishwardi sub-District in Pabna District on October 12, reports Dhaka Tribune. The other arrestees were identified as Ziaur Rahman, Shariful Islam Tuli, Muhamad Alim and Muahamad Amzad Hossain. On October 5, Pastor Luke Sarkar was attacked by unidentified youths who tried to slit his throat at his house in Pabna District.
Meanwhile, Police arrested three JMB cadres from Ullapara sub-District of Sirajganj District on October 11, reports The Daily Star. The arrestees were identified as Idris Ali Akand (26), Omar Ali Akand (24) and Belal Hossain (25). Police arrested them after raiding Belal’s house at Raghabbaria village while the trio was holding a ‘secret’ meeting. Police recovered seven books on Jihad, CDs and training materials from their possession.
ISB threatens to kill Gonojagoron Mancha spokesperson
Gonojagoron Mancha (People’s Resurgence Platform) spokesperson Imran H Sarker has been threatened with death allegedly by a member of Islamic State Bangladesh (ISB) on October 17, reports New Age. A facebook user named ‘Araf Al Islam ISB’ issued the threat through Imran’s facebook message box saying, ‘your death is imminent. You will be killed in the way the two foreigners were killed,’ said Imran in a post on his verified facebook page.
ABT threatens media to sack female employees
Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) on October 19 in an email threatened the media with dire consequences if they do not sack female employees from their organizations, reports Dhaka Tribune. “Since the Islamic Sharia views working of women outside their homes without purdah as punishable offense their employers are guilty to the same degree. We are urging the media to release their women from their jobs. From now on, our instruction is the law and if you [the media] do not follow the way of Islam, the outcome will be dreadful. The towering building will come crumbling down to the ground and your heads to the feet of the soldiers of Islam,” said the email bearing the address ansarullahbanglabd@gmail.com. The letter was sent from the head office, Chittagong, Bangladesh. One Abdullah Bin Selim sent the email, claiming to be publicity coordinator of the ABT.
Two PBCP cadres killed and three others injured in Tangail District
Two cadres of Purba Bangla Communist Party were killed and three others injured in a gunfight with Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) at Maisha area of Hugra sub-District in Tangail District on October 21, reports New Age. The deceased were identified as Akbar Hossain (45) and Manu Miah (35). RAB said that three other cadres were injured in the gunfight. RAB also recovered one foreign-made pistol, one shutter gun, two rounds of bullet and some shells from the scene.
One killed, 87 injured in bomb explosion in Dhaka
At least one person was killed and about 87 others were injured in a homemade bomb explosion in front of Huseni Dalan in old Dhaka city of Bangladesh on October 24, reports The Daily Star. The blasts took place around 1:30 am when members of the Shia community were gathering at the building, about half an hour before the traditional Tajia procession was to be brought out from there to mark the holy Ashura. The victim has been identified as Sajjad Hossain Saju (14).
India – Internal Dynamics
Interest in ISIS rising
Interest in the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and jihadi organizations is on the rise in Assam, which has got the State Police worried, revealed Assam Director General of Police (DGP) Khagen Sarma on September 29, reports The Sentinel. Speaking at a press conference held at the Assam Police headquarters in Guwahati, the DGP said that although no ISIS activity has yet been seen in the State, internet users are frequently making ISIS related searches. No one from Assam has joined the IS so far, but rising interest in the terror organisation is a worrying aspect, said Sarma. “Many people have visited the ISIS websites through Internet and the hits recorded by these websites indicate that it is more than curiosity. It is on the higher side like in Jammu and Kashmir or in Andhra Pradesh,” the DGP said. “We do not have the expertise and equipment to monitor this but the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) is monitoring all these developments,” the DGP said, adding the cyber cell of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Assam Police, is also working on it.
The DGP also said that the Assam Police is striving to increase the ratio of female Police personnel vis-a-vis male personnel. Stating that at present there are 65, 000 personnel in Assam Police, he said, “We have already posted 1,036 female constables. In each Police station presently, at least two female constables will be there.”
IS planning to target Delhi and Rajasthan, according to Intelligence agencies
Central intelligence agencies have alerted Delhi and Rajasthan Police of possible terror strike by the Islamic State (IS), The Times of India reports on September 29. Delhi Police’s intelligence unit has forwarded the threat perception alert to special cell of Delhi Police. Central intelligence agencies have said a possible strike by IS is eminent in the coming festive season.
Sources said Delhi Police’s intelligence unit had forwarded the alert to the Special Cell, which is now developing leads on the basis of the inputs. In Delhi, intercepts suggest the attack could be carried out by a “lone wolf”, or a single member of the outfit. However, with the possibility of Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) operatives working for IS, an attack involving two-three men cannot be ruled out either.
Delhi’s vulnerability has grown manifold with the merger of IS and Ansar-ut-Tawheed (AuT), which has been voicing its plans to target India for some time. Besides, agencies have been warning Delhi Police of impending threats and possible recruitments by IS. “Agencies have a list of youths who were contacted by IS and AuT. They have written to us to keep a watch on the online activities of these outfits. Last year, AuT uploaded video messages from various IS operatives, including the Friday sermon of its ‘chief’ Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi in which he called for a jihad against India,” said an officer.
Maoists kill abducted auxiliary constable
An Auxiliary Constable of Chhattisgarh Police – Kudium Pandu – abducted by the Communist Party of India-Maoist on September 28 from Bijapur District was found dead on September 30, reports The Hindu. His body was discovered on the Talmendri-Farsegad Road. However, the Maoists had not left behind any note. According to some sources, Pandu’s brother-in-law Dilip Bedja heads a Maoist squad in Farsegad area.
Militants in NE greatest destabilisers
Describing the militants in the North-Eastern (NE) States as the “greatest destabilisers”, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on September 30, called upon them to shun violence, which he said was the only factor holding back the progress of the region, reports The Sangai Express. “I am directly sending messages to the militants that if you are thinking of taking up arms and achieve something you are wrong. You are causing harm to your own people and you are the greatest destabilisers. “You are a trouble for your own region, not other region,” Rijiju said while addressing students at Lady Sri Ram College for Women at the Delhi University (DU) in New Delhi. Appealing for peace, Rijiju said that violence is the only factor that is holding back the progress of the region, which otherwise has everything that could make it a great destination of India. “North East is really beautiful region. Once we remove the violence from the region I can tell you it is the place to be. Only thing is we need to secure the place and once peace prevails prosperity will follow,” he added.
GNLA militants kill two policemen
Suspected Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) militants on October 1 killed two Policemen near a hanging bridge at Kusumkolgre in Williamnagar of East Garo Hills District, reports The Telegraph. The two Constables, Helpingstone Nongkseh, and Kundan Dalu, both 24, in civilian clothes, were travelling from the Bolkingre camp to Williamnagar on a motorcycle around 3 pm when the militants opened fire, killing them on the spot. “It is really a sad day for us. The militants fired at them from point-blank range,” said East Garo Hills, Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Anand Mishra. He said the Constables were on their way to Williamnagar to collect money from an ATM, when the incident took place.
Explosive dump found in Odisha
Large quantity of explosive materials believed to be hidden by Communist Party of India-Maoist was seized by Border Security Force (BSF) personnel in Malkangiri District on October 1, reports The Hindu. Malkangiri Superintendent of Police (SP) Mitrabhanu Mohapatra said the seized explosives included 1930 gelatine sticks. They were unearthed from a secret dump of Maoists inside the Rajalkonda forest under Kalimela Police Station.
Maoists kill constable in Chhattisgarh
A Constable – Manaru Ram Banjam – was killed by Communist Party of India-Maoist cadres in Bastar District on October 1, reports The Pioneer. The incident took place at Burgum village under Burgum Police Station limits during evening hours when the victim was attending prayer in a temple.
Islamic State putting up posters in West Bengal
According to Intelligence Bureau (IB) report, Islamic State (IS) has put up posters in West Bengal Districts of Murshidabad and Nadia bordering Bangladesh, in a bid to attract people, New Indian Express reports on October 4. The cyber cell of the IB has conducted a national survey to mark the areas from where the IS is trying to recruit youths. Among the five top states are Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal, Assam, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Apart from bordering Districts, even Howrah in West Bengal figures on the list. The survey found that many, including women aged between 16 and 30, are showing interest in IS related activities on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
In September, where officials of the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) were present, the Police Chiefs were directed to form special teams to keep a watch on websites that are allegedly trying to recruit for the IS. They were also told to seek help of Muslim religious leaders to preach against the hatred and violence preached by the IS. An NTRO official said the scenario in West Bengal was particularly “disturbing as several youths were preaching and recruiting for the IS from the state by using the Internet”.
Two SSB troops killed by Maoists
Two troopers of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) were killed when Communist Party of India-Maoist cadres attacked a joint team of SSB and District armed Police conducting a special operation near Katahaldih under Sundar Pahari Police Station of Godda District on October 10, reports The Times of India. In the encounter, SSB constable Sujit Kumar Singh died on the spot while District Police constable Surendra Sah succumbed to injuries while being taken to Ranchi. The anti-Maoist operation was launched after the State Police headquarters got information that a group of rebels had gathered in the Sundar Pahari area and were planning to disrupt the coming assembly election in Bihar, said Police spokesperson S N Pradhan. He further said that the Maoists are expected to move towards Bihar border. Pradhan also said that Police have recovered one Self-Loading Rifles (SLR) left behind by the Maoists. “The Maoists ran away as security forces retaliated with force. They have also suffered heavy injuries,” he said. No dead body of Maoist has, however, been recovered so far.
Two CRPF troops injured in IED blast
Two constables of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) sustained injuries in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast in Bijapur District of Chhattisgarh on October 10, reports The Pioneer. The blast took place in Murdandha village falling in Awapalli Police Station limits in the morning, said Bijapur’s Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Indira Kalyan Elesela. The injured CRPF constables were identified as Suresh and Abhay Pratap. According to ASP Bijapur, while undertaking anti-Maoist exercise in areas between Awapalli and Basaguda, the constable duo accidently stepped on a powerful IED planted by Maoists.
Terror groups trying to activate sleeper cells in the wake of the recent Dadri lynching, according to Intelligence agencies
An intercept shared by Intelligence Bureau (IB) and other intelligence agencies with Uttar Pradesh Police says that terror groups are trying to activate sleeper cells in various cities to launch bomb attacks in the wake of the recent Dadri lynching and Mainpuri-like instances of violence, The Times of India reports on October 15. In the intercept, two men are found exchanging details about sleeper cells in Uttar Pradesh and are continuously referring to a man based in Allahabad who is known to provide assistance to people associated with terror groups. During the conversation, one man assures the other that “a few women cops honey-trapped by the outfits’ men will also provide assistance” in their mission. Several communally-sensitive locations across the state, including Kashi Vishwanath temple and Ramlala temple in Ayodhya, feature as targets in the intercept.
Police across the state have been put on a high alert following the 5-page intercept, which also contains a list of targets, including top Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders Ashok Singhal and Pravin Togadia. Senior Superintendent of Police for Government Railway Police Gopeshnath Khanna stated on October 15, “Having failed to execute their deadly assault in Gurdaspur in July, the terror outfits may now take advantage of the recent Dadri lynching incident to create disturbance during festival time as well as the ongoing panchayat polls. We are on high alert.”
According to sources, two men have been detained by intelligence agencies and are being questioned by military and IB personnel in Allahabad. “During interrogation, the accused have disclosed their plans to attack UP Vidhan Sabha, Allahabad High Court, Kanpur railway station and residential colonies for former military personnel in Allahabad,” a source claimed.
Maoists kill police warden in Maharashtra
The Communist Party of India-Maoist cadres killed a Police warden – Pindu Pungati – at Ghotpadi village in Bhamragarh tehsil (revenue unit) of Gadchiroli District on October 17, reports The Times of India. The Maoists eliminated Pindu suspecting him to be a Special Police Officer (SPO). It is learnt that a group of Maoists dragged the victim out of his residence before firing a shot in his head from close quarters. A police warden gets an honorarium of INR 500 from the Government. The SPOs are paid INR 3,000 for their services. Pungati came on Maoists’ radar after his honorarium was increased to INR 3,000 for participating in developmental works under Government schemes. Maoists confronted Pungati over the hike in his honorarium before killing him.
More than 40 insurgent groups operating in Manipur
Manipur Deputy Chief Minister (CM) Gaikhangam on October 19 said there are more than 40 insurgent groups operating in the state, reports The Times of India. Speaking at the 124th Raising Day of Manipur Police in Imphal, he said the number of insurgent groups included factions and Manipur Police had earned a “great reputation” for dealing with the difficult situation like not only in trying to contain insurgency but also in the complex day-to-day law and order problem, a police department press release quoted him as saying. Referring to the militant groups, Gaikhangam said apart from the violence indulged in by underground outfits and their numerous frontal organizations, small groups of armed mercenaries were also resorting to kidnapping for ransom, extortion and other unlawful activities.
Two Dalit children burnt alive in India
A nine-month-old boy and his toddler sister from a low-caste community were burnt alive in an arson attack on Tuesday, Oct 20 on their home in India which also badly injured their parents, police said. The infant and his two-year-old sister were both asleep in their home in Faridabad district, around 25 miles outside New Delhi, when the attackers doused the building with petrol and set it alight.
Both children died at the scene while their parents were rushed to hospital in the capital, according to police. The mother is in critical condition although the father’s life is no longer in danger.
Three people have been arrested over the attack on the family who are members of the Dalit community, according to the detective leading the murder inquiry, although no one has yet to be formally charged.
Monthly Fatalities
The following deaths related to ongoing insurgencies and acts of terrorism occurred during the period Sept 26, to Oct 25, 2015:
| Civilian | Indian Security Personnel | Militant | Total | |
| Assam | 07 | 00 | 00 | 07 |
| Manipur | 00 | 01 | 02 | 03 |
| Meghalaya | 03 | 03 | 02 | 08 |
| Nagaland | 02 | 00 | 00 | 02 |
| Left wing | 07 | 05 | 04 | 16 |
| Total | 19 | 09 | 08 | 36 |
Nepal – Internal Dynamics
UDMF cadres torch two trucks
Cadres of agitating United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) set two trucks on fire in Birgunj town in Parsa District on October 5, reports The Himalayan Times. They took two trucks (Na 2 Kha 5975 and Na 2 Kha 4552) under control at Jagarnathpur along the Dryport Bypass-Parwanipur road section and set them ablaze. The UDMF cadres also vandalized more than two dozen vehicles at Parwanipur Village Development Committee (VDC) in Sarlahi District.
Multi-layered security to be put up along Nepal border
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (UMHA) decided to increase security on the Indo-Nepal border after intelligence agencies warned of increased activities by jihadi elements and smugglers of Fake Indian Currency Note (FICN), narcotics and human traffickers as the Himalayan nation grapples with internal crisis, The Times of India reports on October 16. Sources said multi-layer security rings will be set up within 15 km from the border areas in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Sikkim.
Officials said security infrastructure and intelligence network along the border would be enhanced in the next six months. The home ministry has been repeatedly getting inputs on anti-India activities like movement of Jehadi elements and smuggling of fake Indian currency notes and narcotics along the Nepal border. Of the 1,751 km long border, 263 km is in Uttarakhand, 560 km in Uttar Pradesh, 729 km in Bihar, 100 km in West Bengal and 99 km in Sikkim.
Sri Lanka – Internal Dynamics
Sri Lanka will seek Consultations of foreign judges and lawyers within legal framework allowed by Constitution, says Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on September 27 said that Sri Lanka will seek the consultations of foreign judges and lawyers for the domestic mechanism to probe the alleged rights violations during the military conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam within the legal framework allowed by the Constitution, reports Colombo Page. The PM said his Government could only act within the framework of Sri Lanka’s Constitution and it does not allow foreign judges to operate in the country but they can assist the investigations.
Meanwhile, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on September 26 met President Maithripala Sirisena on the sidelines of the 70th UN General Assembly in New York and asked Sirisena to advance the dialogue on a political settlement in the island nation, reports Colombo Page. Welcoming the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ recently released report on Sri Lanka, the Secretary-General said he was pleased with the Government’s positive and constructive engagement with the UN on the report, and he hoped that the President would implement its recommendations.
All political parties should reject UNHRC resolution in order to prevent Sri Lanka from becoming a colony again, says JSP General Secretary Somawansa Amarasinghe
Janatha Sevaka Pakshaya (JSP) General Secretary Somawansa Amarasinghe on October 7 said that all political parties should reject the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution in order to prevent Sri Lanka from becoming a colony again, reports Daily Mirror. Amarasinghe said that no international organizations, not even the UNHRC has a right to intervene into the internal affairs of a particular country and said it could only offer to provide assistance to countries in developing human rights. “This is a clear threat to our sovereignty and integrity as we are capable of conducting a domestic probe. The US, motivated by separatists, only wants to reap certain benefits from bringing the resolution. If this resolution was implemented, it will be a victory to the separatist elements,” he said.
Northern Province CM asks President to release Tamil political prisoners
Chief Minister (CM) of Northern Province C.V. Wigneswaran in a letter addressed to the President Maithripala Sirisena has asked to grant amnesty to Tamil political prisoners still detained in jails six year after ending the war, reports Colombo Page. Wigneswaran said that authorities either should file indictments without delay if there are any credible charges against those detained or should take immediate steps to release them. The CM expressed concern over the prisoners staging a fast to register their protest at their prolonged imprisonment as the protests may be dealt with violently by the prison authorities as happened in the past.
Sri Lankan judge says war crimes claims ‘credible’
Allegations that Sri Lankan troops committed war crimes are “credible”, a judge appointed by the island’s former president has concluded in a report presented to parliament on Tuesday, Oct 20. The findings mark the first time a domestic inquiry has said there is evidence the army committed war crimes, and are all the more remarkable given that the report was commissioned by Mahinda Rajapakse.
Sri Lanka’s former strongman leader oversaw the final push against Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009 before losing power in January, and has always fiercely denied his troops committed war crimes. He ordered the inquiry in 2013 in a bid to deflect mounting international censure, and the new government made the findings public in line with a promise to the UN Human Rights Council last month.
A long-awaited report from the United Nations human rights office last month laid bare horrific wartime atrocities committed by both the army and the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in the bitter 37-year war.
“There are credible allegations which, if proved to the required standard, may show that some members of the armed forces committed acts during the final phase of the war that amounted to war crimes giving rise to individual criminal responsibility,” said the 178-page report presented to parliament on Tuesday.
The government of Rajapakse’s successor, Maithripala Sirisena, has vowed to punish war criminals and set up a truth commission and a reparations office to help heal the wounds left by the conflict. But it has resisted pressure to allow a foreign inquiry, which many members of the island’s Sinhalese majority consider an infringement of sovereignty.
The latest inquiry was overseen by retired judge Maxwell Paranagama and examined claims in a documentary broadcast by Britain’s Channel 4 that purportedly showed Sri Lankan soldiers executing Tamil prisoners.
At the time Sri Lanka’s military dismissed the documentary, “No Fire Zone: Sri Lanka Killing Fields”, as a fabrication.
INTERNATIONAL
Clashes rock al-Quds mosque compound
Palestinians and Israeli security forces clashed at Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Sunday, Sept 27 with further trouble feared in the week ahead as Jews celebrate the Sukkot holiday. After the brief clashes on what was the last day of the Muslim Eid-Ul-Azha holiday, Palestinian protesters prepared “to defend” the mosque during the eight-day Jewish festival, stocking stones inside the shrine and planning to sleep in it. The Sukkot holiday which started at sunset is expected to lead to an increase in Jewish visitors to the Al-Aqsa compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.
In Sunday’s disturbances, young masked Palestinians “threw stones and fireworks at police and border police forces,” who responded with “riot dispersal means”, police said.
Calm returned to the compound later in the morning and most police were withdrawn, an AFP journalist reported. Muslims have been alarmed by an increase in visits by Jews and fear rules governing the compound will be changed.
Al-Aqsa, the third holiest site in Islam, is also the most sacred place in Judaism. Jews are allowed to visit but not to pray to avoid provoking tensions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said repeatedly he is committed to maintaining the status quo at the site despite the views of some hardliners within his governing coalition.
Recent weeks have seen a series of Jewish holidays during which there has been an uptick in visits by Jews that have sparked repeated clashes. The same situation is feared over Sukkot.
Violent protests erupt in Bangui
Armed Christian militia members roamed the streets and protesters erected barricades on Sunday, Sept 27 in the capital of Central African Republic, where deadly inter-religious clashes erupted a day earlier, witnesses said. At least 21 people were killed and another 100 were wounded on Saturday when a neighbourhood in Bangui in reprisal for the murder of a Muslim man.
The clashes were the worst this year in the city, where UN peacekeepers and French troops are meant to ensure security. The government blamed them on individuals seeking to derail elections planned for next month. Angry young men used tree trunks to block Bangui’s main arteries early on Sunday.
Soldiers from the UN peacekeeping mission, MINUSCA, fired tear gas at crowds on Avenue Boganda in an unsuccessful attempt to clear the road. Witnesses reported hearing sporadic gunfire in parts of the city and saw homes and shops being looted.
But there were no immediate confirmed reports of further deaths on Sunday. “Enough is enough. We want (President Catherine) Samba-Panza to go. Since she’s been there people are being killed with impunity. She’s doing nothing to disarm them,” said one protester who declined to give his name.
Thousands of Central Africans have died and hundreds of thousands remain displaced after two years of violence that erupted after mainly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power in the majority Christian country in 2013.
France strikes ISIL
France has fired its first air strikes in Syria as it expands military operations against ISIL extremists. The office of president Francois Hollande’s announced on Sunday, Sept 27 said that “France has hit Syria” based on information from French reconnaissance flights sent earlier this month. There were no further details.
France has been firing air strikes on ISIL extremists in Iraq as part of the US-led coalition since last year, but had resisted air raids in Syria because it did not want to strengthen President Bashar Al Assad. Hollande announced a change in strategy earlier this month because of growing concern about the Syrian refugee crisis.
The president’s office argued on Sunday that it was a question of national defence, as France has been attacked and threatened by extremists claiming ties to ISIL. Hollande, heading to the UN General Assembly, also stressed the importance of seeking a political solution for Syria.
France has remained opposed however to recent diplomatic suggestions of allowing Mr Assad to stay in power for a limited time.
While no specifics were provided about the location or timing of the air strikes, French military officials have said they would target ISIL training and logistical sites, according to French media reports. The French government has insisted that while it is part of the US-led coalition, France is deciding who and what to hit independently. Hollande announced on September 7 that France would start air strikes, days after the photo of a dead 3-year-old Syrian boy galvanised public concern about Syrian refugees.
Air raid kills 40 at Yemeni wedding
At least 40 people were killed when a wedding hall in southwest Yemen was bombarded on Monday, Sept 28 in a suspected Saudi-led coalition air strike, medics and witnesses said. ”The bodies of 31 people, including children, have been taken to a hospital in Mokha,” said a medical source, who later raised to 40 the death toll at the hall in the Red Sea city. He said dozens of people were wounded, most of them seriously.
Witnesses reported that warplanes struck the wedding hall in Mokha, which is controlled by Huthi rebels. However, one resident who requested anonymity said: “I didn’t hear any warplanes.”
There was no immediate comment from the Saudi-led Arab coalition, which launched an air war on the Huthi rebels in late March in support of embattled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
Azerbaijan, Armenia locked in fierce battle
Armenian forces killed three Azerbaijani troops in fierce clashes overnight, Azerbaijan said on Monday, Sept 28 as tensions spiral in the Caucasus neighbours’ protracted conflict over the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh. “Three Azerbaijani soldiers were killed in heavy fighting” with Armenian forces across the frontline of breakaway Nagorny Karabakh, Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said in a statement.
Yerevan and Baku are locked in a decades-long conflict over the breakaway region of Nagorny Karabakh, a Yerevan-backed ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan. The two ex-Soviet nations regularly exchange fire along their shared border and across Nagorny Karabakh’s volatile frontline.
In an escalation unprecedented since the 1994 ceasefire, both sides have reportedly used large-calibre artillery in tit-for-tat attacks in recent days, raising the spectre of a new all-out war. On Saturday, Armenia threatened Azerbaijan with “retaliatory” artillery and rocket strikes, and accused Baku of breaching the shaky truce.
Yerevan had said Thursday that Azerbaijan shelled its territory with large-calibre artillery, killing three civilian women, while on Friday, the ethnic Armenian rebel authorities in Karabakh accused Azerbaijan of killing four of its soldiers.
Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry accused Armenia of “turning civilians into a target by deliberately stationing its firing positions in and around civilian facilities to shell positions of the Azerbaijani armed forces.”
International mediators to Karabakh peace talks held under the aegis of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe on Saturday “condemned in strong terms the use of artillery that caused additional casualties,” and called on both countries to “accept an OSCE mechanism to investigate ceasefire violations”.
At least 7 die in China bomb explosions
A series of package bombs exploded on Wednesday, Sept 30 in the southwest China city of Liuzhou, killing at least seven people and injuring 51, state media said. The official Xinhua news agency said police had determined the blasts were a “criminal” act and identified the suspect as a 33-year-old local man surnamed Wei and have apprehended the man, but added the investigation was continuing.
Media images showed a collapsed building, smoke and streets strewn with rubble in Liuzhou in Guangxi region. Two people were missing, state radio said on its microblog.
Bombs were sent to 13 places ranging from hospitals and shopping malls to prisons and government offices, reports said, adding that a terrorist attack had been ruled out. The Ministry of Public Security has sent a team of experts to help with the investigation, Xinhua said.
Guangxi sits on the border with Vietnam and has several ethnic minorities, but is generally peaceful.
Disaffected or mentally unstable Chinese people have set off explosions in public places in the past. Explosives are relatively easy to come by, as they are widely used in China’s large mining industry. Such “sudden incidents”, as Chinese authorities refer to them, are sometimes seen as linked to a widening gap between rich and poor and anger at corruption or environmental problems.
Jordan MP’s son carried out Iraq suicide attack
A Jordanian parliamentarian’s son died carrying out a suicide attack claimed by the Daesh militant group in Iraq this week, Jordanian media said on Friday, Oct 2.
Independent legislator Mazen Al Dhalaein was quoted as telling the Khaberni website that his son, Mohammed, who went by the name of Abu Baraa, had died in Iraq. He said he learned of his son’s death after seeing his photo on social media accounts linked to Daesh. Al Dhalaein said his 23-year-old son had been studying medicine in Ukraine before deciding to join Daesh this summer, travelling to Iraq through Turkey and Syria. “He considered me and his mother to be apostates and was trying to convince us to join Daesh,” he added.
The MP said he had last heard from Mohammed in August when he sent a message that he “had been signed up for a suicide attack soon”. In a statement posted on Twitter on Wednesday, Daesh claimed a triple car bombing on the northern outskirts of Ramadi, a city west of Baghdad under Daesh control since May.
114,000 flee Yemen war: UN
More than 114,000 people have fled war-torn Yemen, and the figure could reach at least 200,000 by the end of 2016, aid officials said Tuesday, Oct 6. Fighting escalated in March when Saudi-led airstrikes began targeting Yemen’s Huthi rebels to defend embattled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
”Close to 70,000 people fleeing the crisis have arrived in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan,” the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement.
4 held over terror shooting in Australia
Four people were arrested in Australia on Wednesday, Oct 7 over the terror-linked murder of a police employee after coordinated raids by more than 200 officers on properties across Sydney.
Those seized in the dawn operation were aged between 16 and 22 and face questioning over Friday’s killing of Curtis Cheng outside New South Wales state police headquarters in the city’s west.
Farhad Jabar, 15, who authorities said was born in Iran of Iraqi and Kurdish background and had no previous criminal history, shot the 58-year-old in the back of the head while reportedly shouting religious slogans.
The teenager was gunned down in an exchange of fire with police special constables soon after.
Four Russian cruise missiles crashes in Iran
Four Russian cruise missiles aimed at targets in Syria instead crashed in Iran, a US official said on Thursday, Oct 8 declining to comment on whether there were any casualties. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the missiles landed in Iran on Wednesday, but did not provide details about where they might have landed. The official was confirming a story first reported by CNN.
However, Iran’s Irna news agency reported on Wednesday that an unknown flying object had crashed in the village of Ghozghapan in the Iranian province of West Azerbaijan, said to be under the missiles’ flight path.
Muslims in France 4 times less likely to get ‘job interview’
A practising Muslim man is four times less likely to get a job interview in France than a Catholic counterpart, according to a study published on Thursday, Oct 8. The research was carried out by the Montaigne Institute think tank which sent out thousands of responses to job adverts using fictional characters. The study found that men who identified as practising Muslims had a 4.7 percent of being asked for a job interview, compared to 17.9 percent of practising Catholics. The overall figure for men and women showed Catholics were twice as likely as Muslims to get a callback for a job interview.
The job application discrimination against Jews was apparent but not as pronounced, with a 15.8-percent chance of landing an interview. The study was carried out by Marie-Anne Valfort, a senior lecturer at Sorbonne University in Paris, who sent 6,231 responses to job adverts between 2013 and 2014. All of her “candidates” were Lebanese, born in Beirut in 1988 with the last name Haddad. But they had different first names depending on the religion they represented: Dov and Esther for Jews, Michel and Nathalie for Catholics, and Mohammed and Samira for Muslims. They were also listed as having attended faith schools and scout groups linked to their religion.
The results were overwhelming: “the results reveal a strong discrimination against Muslims and Jews in France”, the study concluded. In the case of Muslims, it is even worse than the discrimination faced by African-Americans compared with whites in the United States. Valfort said the study only caught a small portion of the discrimination faced by job applicants since it did not continue to the interview stage.
Iranian general killed in Syria
An Iranian Revolutionary Guards general has been killed near Aleppo while advising the Syrian army on their battle against Islamic State fighters, the guards said in a statement on Friday, Oct 9. The Guards said General Hossein Hamedani was killed on Thursday night and that he had “played an important role … reinforcing the front of Islamic resistance against the terrorists”.
Iran is the main regional ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has provided military and economic support during Syria´s four-year-old civil war.
Hamedani, a veteran of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, was made deputy chief commander of the elite forces in 2005. It was the IRGC, loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that suppressed student protests in 1999 and also silenced the pro-reform protests that followed 2009 presidential elections. They were the most widespread protests since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Hamedani was head of an IRGC unit in charge of security in Tehran, where police, the Guards and its Basij militia allies clashed with protesters. Since 2011, Hamedani has been subjected to international sanctions for violating human rights.
An Iranian official said Hamedani was a close ally of the head of the Quds Force, which is an overseas arm of the IRGC.
Al-Qaeda in Yemen claims killing ‘sorcerers’
Al-Qaeda in Yemen claimed on Saturday, Oct 10 to have killed four men suspected of practising witchcraft and sorcery in an area controlled by the Jihadists. Residents of Mayfaa town in the southeastern province of Hadramawt said al-Qaeda militants had distributed a pamphlet naming the four men. It did not say when the killings were carried out, but a neighbour of one of the victims told AFP that he had been missing for days.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, has overran large parts of Hadramawt, including Mukalla, the coastal provincial capital. It imposed a strict version of Islamic law, executing or lashing those they accused of various crimes, among them homosexuality and sorcery. Those accused of theft have their hands cut off.
The United States considers AQAP as the most dangerous affiliate of the jihadist network.
It is active across several parts of Yemen, taking advantage of a collapse of central authority during a 2011 uprising that ousted veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Lake Chad blasts kill 37 in Nigeria
Three explosions blamed on the Nigerian Jihadist group Boko Haram killed 37 people on Saturday, Oct 10 in a Chadian city on the shores of Lake Chad, security sources said.
Another 52 people were reportedly wounded in the attacks that struck at around 4:00 pm (1500 GMT), one targeting the fish market at Baga Sola and the other two occurring at a refugee camp on the outskirts of the city. Lake Chad is shared between Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad.
Climate change has reduced its surface in recent years, but it contains many islands and islets used by fishermen and its banks have dense vegetation, which makes infiltrations by Boko Haram Islamists into Chad much easier.
The Chadian army has since the start of this year been involved in a regional offensive against Boko Haram, whose attacks have spread across Nigeria’s borders to neighbouring countries.
50 dead as Boko Haram pounds Lake Chad area
Twin suicide blasts on Sunday, Oct 11 killed at least nine people in far northern Cameroon, a day after 41 died in triple explosions in Chad that were blamed on Boko Haram. Both nations are part of the coalition that has been fighting the jihadists, which in recent months have been launching bloody assaults well beyond their traditional fiefdom in northern Nigeria.
Two female suicide bombers carried out the attacks in Kangaleri village, around 30-km from the town of Mora in Cameroon, security and local sources said. Nine people died when the first woman detonated a bomb in a tiny milk and donut restaurant. The second suicide bomber killed only herself, a local authority official said. Many of the 29 injured were “very badly” hurt, added the official, who asked not to be identified.
These blasts came as security sources bumped up the death toll to 41 in triple explosions Saturday in a Chadian city on Baga Sola on the shores of Lake Chad. Another 48 people were wounded, the Chadian government said in a statement, after provisional figures by security sources late Saturday put the death toll at 37 with 52 wounded, some seriously.
The Chadian and the Cameroon armies have since the start of this year been involved in a regional offensive against Boko Haram, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group operating in Syria and Iraq. Boko Haram has been hit hard by the multi-national offensive, losing territory, but it has launched attacks and bombings in response.
Boko Haram has waged a bloody insurgency since 2009 marked by mass abductions, village massacres and suicide bombings, sometimes by women and teenagers.
The attacks on Sunday are the 14th and 15th suicide attacks attributed to Boko Haram in far northern Cameroon since July, causing more than 100 deaths.
Zawahiri’s brother acquited
An Egyptian court on Thursday, Oct 15 acquitted al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri’s brother of charges of forming a “terrorist group” but ordered an investigation into a speech he made in court.
Mohamed al-Zawahiri was arrested in August 2013 at the height of a campaign of repression of Islamists in the wake of the army’s ouster of the country’s Islamist president Mohamed Mursi. He and dozens of other defendants were accused of having formed “a terrorist group.
US downplays civilian drone deaths, reveal secret files
President Barack Obama’s administration has underrepresented the true number of civilians killed in drone strikes, The Intercept reported on October 15 citing a cache of secret files, reports The News. The Intercept unveiled documents leaked by a whistleblower about America´s use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to kill terrorist targets in the Middle East and Central Asia. According to the report, Obama, after taking office in 2009, has vastly expanded the drone program, authorising many more strikes than his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush. In classified slides, the US military describes fatalities from targeted strikes as “enemy killed in action,” even if their identity is unknown or they were not the intended targets, according to The Intercept.
And the attacks often kill many more people than intended, which runs counter to White House and Pentagon assertions that the strikes are precise and result in minimal casualties. Documents detailing a mission called Operation Haymaker showed that US special operations airstrikes killed more than 200 people in northeastern Afghanistan from January 2012 to February 2013. But only 35 of those casualties were intended targets, The Intercept said.
And in one five-month period of the operation, nearly 90 percent of those killed in airstrikes were not the intended targets, added The Intercept. The US has better intelligence in Afghanistan, scene of America´s longest war, than in places like Yemen and Somalia, where the ratios may be equivalent or even worse, it said. “Anyone caught in the vicinity is guilty by association,” the unnamed source within the intelligence community who leaked the documents said. When “a drone strike kills more than one person, there is no guarantee that those persons deserved their fate… So it´s a phenomenal gamble,” the source added.
Israelis arm themselves after attacks
Israeli security forces deployed massively in Jerusalem on Thursday, Oct 15 as Jews armed themselves with everything from guns to broomsticks, rattled by a wave of Palestinian attacks that have shaken the country. Some 300 soldiers were reinforcing police, stretched thin by a two-week upsurge in violence that has raised fears that a third Palestinian intifada, or uprising, might erupt.
The last time soldiers deployed in large numbers was in 2002, during the second intifada, according to a security source.
In addition to the attacks, violent protests have rocked annexed east Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Seven Israelis have been killed and dozens wounded.
At least 30 Palestinians have also died, including alleged attackers, and hundreds more been wounded in clashes with Israeli forces.
In the first two intifadas, in 1987-1993 and 2000-2005, hundreds of people were killed and many more hurt in near daily violence.
Turkey to shoot down planes violating its air space: PM
Turkey would not hesitate to shoot down planes violating its air space, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Saturday, Oct 17 a day after the Nato member shot down an unidentified drone near its border with Syria. Syrian, Russian and US coalition aircraft are flying combat missions near Turkey’s borders as part of the Syrian civil war. The drone incident highlights the danger that Turkey, with the second largest army in Nato, could be drawn into a military confrontation.
Turkey had already complained of Russian warplanes violating its air apace along the border with Syria earlier this month.
“We downed a drone yesterday. If it was a plane we’d do the same. Our rules of engagement are known. Whoever violates our borders, we will give them the necessary answer,” Davutoglu told a rally of his ruling AK Party in the central city of Kayseri. Turkey is still investigating where the drone came from.
A US official said on Friday Washington believed it was of Russian origin, but the Russian defence ministry said all of its planes in Syria had safely returned to base and that all its drones were operating “as planned”.
The Turkish military said it shot down the unmanned aircraft after it continued on its course despite three warnings, in line with its rules of engagement. Broadcaster NTV said it had come 3 km into Turkish air space.
The Russian Defence Ministry said on Friday it had established direct contact with the Turkish military to avoid incidents with flights near the border, Interfax news agency reported.
Europe moves to thwart recruitment of ‘terrorists’
Seventeen EU members including France, Germany, Britain and Belgium inked an international agreement on Thursday, Oct 22 designed to thwart the recruitment of “foreign terrorist fighters” who travel from Europe to conflict zones abroad, notably in Syria.
Drawn up by the 47-member Council of Europe, the new protocol amends existing provisions to outlaw a number of terrorism-related acts.These include “travelling abroad for the purpose of terrorism”, “receiving training for terrorism” and “organising or otherwise facilitating travelling abroad for the purpose of terrorism” — which explicitly includes providing funding to jihadist groups.
The protocol had been put together in a record seven weeks because of the serious threat posed by foreign fighters joining the ranks of jihadists in Syria and Iraq, Jagland told assembled officials.
The agreement must now be ratified by individual national parliaments. The move comes as UN experts said this week that the Islamic State group is paying supporters up to $10,000 (8,800 euros) for each person that they recruit to fight in war-ravaged Syria and Iraq.
Bomber attacks Saudi mosque
A suicide bomber killed one worshipper and wounded others on Monday, Oct 26 at a mosque in Saudi Arabia´s southern Najran city bordering Yemen, the interior ministry said.
Turk police clash with IS
Two Turkish policemen and seven Islamic State suspects were killed in a shootout on Monday, Oct 26 that has further rattled the increasingly polarised country just six days ahead of snap elections. Police are hunting down IS militants after the suicide bombings that killed 102 people at a pro-Kurdish peace rally in the heart of the capital Ankara on October 10, the worst attack in Turkey’s modern history.
Monday’s gun battle in the main southeastern Kurdish city of Diyarbakir was the first on Turkish soil between security forces and the jihadists since Ankara launched air strikes on IS targets in Syria in July.
Fears of further bloodshed have overshadowed the run-up to Sunday’s vote, with an IS cell reportedly plotting major attacks, while Kurdish rebels have taken up arms again after the collapse of the peace process.
A police anti-terrorist squad launched dawn raids on several houses in Diyarbakir where militants were thought to be hiding out. The suspects opened fire and set off booby trap bombs, killing two police officers and injuring five, according to the Diyarbakir governor’s office. Seven IS militants were killed and 12 arrested after at least two hours of heavy fighting, it said.
The authorities declared the IS group the number one suspect over the Ankara bombings, but many accuse them of security failings and of turning a blind eye to the jihadists fighting the Damascus regime.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself has vowed to fight all Turkey’s “enemies” as his Justice and Development Party (AKP) battles to regain the parliamentary majority it lost in June’s election, ending 13 years of single party rule.
Turkish police detain 71 in raids against IS
Turkish police detained 71 people on Oct 26 in raids against suspected Islamic State militants in Istanbul and other cities, the local news agency Dogan reported, while the army said it caught 17 militants attempting to cross into Syria. The sweep comes a day after police launched a series of operations against Islamic State groups, including a raid on more than a dozen houses in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir where seven militants were killed and 12 more captured.
Turkish authorities have extended operations against suspected Islamic State cells after a double suicide bombing in Ankara this month that killed more than 100 people, the worst attack of its kind in Turkey’s modern history. The bombing was blamed on the militant group. “With yesterday’s operation, we prevented an attack bigger than that in Ankara. We captured many devices and materials used to make bombs.
Senior names from Islamic State’s Turkish unit were killed in the operation,” a security official told Reuters. In the operation, 21 people, including seven children, were detained in simultaneous raids on houses in Istanbul, Dogan news agency reported. Thirty people were detained in the central city of Konya and 20 others in Kocaeli, an industrial province east of Istanbul, Dogan said.
Separately, the Turkish military said 17 people attempting to cross illegally into Syria were caught in the Elbeyli province of Kilis.
Last week, President Tayyip Erdogan said Syrian intelligence and Kurdish militants, not only Islamic State, were behind the Ankara attack, which occurred during a rally of pro-Kurdish activists and civic groups.
343 UK academics announce Israeli universities boycott
Hundreds of British academics said on Oct 26 they would boycott contact with Israeli universities over the state´s “intolerable human rights violations” towards Palestinians. The announcement, entitled “A commitment by UK scholars to the rights of Palestinians”, was printed as a full-page advertisement in The Guardian newspaper.
The 343 academics from 72 institutions said they would still work with Israeli colleagues on an individual basis. They said they would not accept invitations to visit Israeli academic institutions, participate in conferences funded, organised or sponsored by them, “or otherwise cooperate with them”.
“We will maintain this position until the state of Israel complies with international law and respects universal principles of human rights.”
Jonathan Rosenhead, from the London School of Economics, a spokesman for the boycott, said Israeli universities were “at the heart of Israel´s violations of international law and oppression of the Palestinian people”.
The boycott cited Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, as having created “special technology” to detect tunnels out of the Gaza Strip, and “weaponised unmanned bulldozers used to demolish Palestinian homes”.
Meanwhile, Ben Gurion University had conducted research “underpinning the on-going existence and deepening of discrimination within Israel’s water system”, it claimed.
The campaign comes a week after a letter signed by 150 British authors and artists, including Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling and double Booker Prize-winning novelist Hilary Mantel, said cultural boycotts that singled out Israel were “divisive and discriminatory, and will not further peace”.
Maldives arrests VP over plot to kill president
Maldives Vice President Ahmed Adeeb was arrested on Oct 26 over last month’s alleged attempt to assassinate President Abdulla Yameen in a bomb blast on board his speedboat, the government said. Adeeb’s dramatic arrest at the Maldives’ main international airport followed “extensive investigations by both local and international agencies,” the government said in a statement posted on the website of its high commission in New Delhi.
“The charges are extremely serious, and the government has had to act decisively,” it said, without saying whether the vice president had been formally charged.
Home Minister Umar Naseer earlier posted on Twitter that Adeeb was in detention on Dhoonidhoo prison island. “Charges: high treason,” he tweeted. Adeeb, 33, was arrested at around noon local time (0700 GMT) Saturday as he returned home from Singapore, where he had stopped over after attending an investment forum in China.
Maldivian police confirmed his detention was linked to an investigation into the September 28 blast aboard Yameen’s speedboat, which left the leader unhurt but his wife and two others slightly injured.
Adeeb was unceremoniously escorted away by police as he disembarked from a Singapore Airlines flight, with a coastguard boat taking him to the nearby prison island of Dhoonidhoo.
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 *
No threat to foreigners although there may be isolated incidents involving petty crime. No security precautions are required.
Threat Level 2 **
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.
