Terrorist Activities in Pakistan
Bomb/IED Blasts
Two former members of peace committee, identified as Khyal Badshah and Fazal Wahid, were injured in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attack in Dawizai area of Lower Mohmand Agency on June 29, reports The Express Tribune. Badshah is the brother of a political administration official of lower Mohmand Agency and a local tribal elder, Malik Ibrahim, who also confirmed the incident.
A Police constable, identified as Farmanullah, was killed and six other civilians were injured in a roadside bomb blast on Pajagi Road in Peshawar on June 30, reports Daily Times.
At least 11 persons including two Police officials sustained severe wounds in a bomb blast in a shop near Toro Chowk in Mardan town of same District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on July 5, reports Daily Times. Police officials said that 600 kilograms of explosive material was used in the bomb whereas no loss of life has been reported yet.
Four persons were injured in a bomb blast on Sariab road of Quetta on July 4, reports The News. A senior Police official said a bomb went off just as a vehicle of paramilitary force passed by. According to eyewitnesses, the gun shots rang out following the blast.
At least seven people, including the head of a pro-government peace committee, identified as Khan Muhammad, were killed and three others were wounded in a remote-controlled Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attack in Doag Dara area of Upper Dir District on July 18, reports The Express Tribune. Khan Muhammad was the District Chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and another man accompanying him, identified as Adil Khan, was PPP tehsil (revenue unit) Councilor Police Official Yar Muhammad claimed that the target of the attack was, Malik Mutabar Khan, the head of another peace committee, who was not present in the vehicle at the time of the explosion.
A soldier, identified as Arif, was killed, while two others were wounded when one improvised explosive devices (IEDs) exploded when an Army vehicle reached the Bahan area of Kalam tehsil (revenue unit) in Swat District at around 2pm on July 22, reports Dawn.
Earlier, a roadside IED exploded at about 11am when a vehicle was passing through the same area. Three people — Ghagra tehsil Nazim (secretary) Syed Salar Jehan and his two relatives Syed Imad Jehan and Shehzad Niazi — were wounded in the explosion. The sources said that it was not clear whether the nazim was the target of the IED.
Targetted Killings
At least four Policemen were shot dead in two separate targeted attacks in Quetta on June 28, reports The Express Tribune. Two Policemen, identified as Constable Faiz Muhammad and driver Nameed, were killed when unidentified armed assailants opened fire at the Police vehicle in Quetta. No group claimed responsibility for attack.
Separately, two Policemen, identified as driver Muhammad Ali and guard Muhammad Ayub, were killed when unidentified militants opened fire at a Police mobile van near Hazara Ganj area of Quetta on June 28, reports The Express Tribune.
Four Frontier Corps (FC) personnel were shot dead by unidentified armed assailants on Double Road in Quetta on June 29, reports Dawn. Deputy Inspector General (IG) Police Chaudhry Manzoor Sarwar said the incident appeared to be an act of targeted killing. No outfit claimed responsibility for the attack.
An Intelligence Officer of the Chakiwara Police Station, identified as head constable Perez, was shot dead while patrolling the area with other Policemen in Maula Madad area in Lyari Town of Karachi on June 29, reports The News.
Unidentified assailants shot dead a Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) official, identified as Deputy Superintendent of Police Noor Muhammad Khan, on the Diyal Road in Dera Ismail Khan town on June 30, reports The News. Sources said unidentified persons opened fire on Noor Muhammad Khan as soon as he stepped out of a mosque in Khairabad Colony near his residence after the Maghrib prayers.
Unidentified assailants shot dead a Policeman, Shahzeb, near his house after he withdrew money from an automated telling machine in Madina Colony of Peshawar on June 30, reports Daily Times. However, the assailants escaped after killing the cop without touching the money in his pocket.
Unidentified assailants shot dead a member of Afghan Taliban on Nasir Bagh Road in Peshawar on June 30, reports Daily Times. Sources said that the deceased Qari Said Murad was a member of Afghan Taliban’s military commission for eastern Nangarhar province.
A man, identified as Basher, was shot dead by two unidentified armed assailants while he was on his to a local market in Dera Murad Jamali town of Naseerabad District on July 1, reports Daily Times. The assailants fled the scene.
Unidentified armed assailants killed three Security Forces (SFs) personnel in two separate incidents of violence in Mastung District of Balochistan on July 2, reports The Dawn. Two Levies personnel were killed when attackers opened fire at them in Al Falah Road area of Mastung city.
Meanwhile, in another incident, armed men opened fire and killed Head Constable Ashfaq Qazi in Killi Sheikhan area of Mastung District. Police described the killings in Mastung as acts of targeted killings.
A man, identified as Mehrab Khan, was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Qambrani area of Quetta on July 10, reports Daily Times. He was a resident of Dera Murad Jamali, was returning home when armed assailants opened fire on him and fled.
The Kurram Agency Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) President Hamid Hussain Toori was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Parachinar town of Kurram Agency on July 12, reports Dawn. The motive behind the target killing is yet to be ascertained as the assassinated leader of the PPP had no enmity with anyone.
A prayer leader, identified as Maulana Habibur Rehman (42), was shot dead inside Siddiq-e-Akbar Masjid in Gulistan-e-Jauhar area of Gulshan Town in Karachi on July 12, reports The Express Tribune. According to Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Nasir Lodhi, one of the two unidentified armed assailants went inside the office and asked Rehman for a marriage registration form from the office’s window, after which the victim allowed him to come inside.
Former Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) of the Awami National Party (ANP) Haji Shoaib Khan was shot dead while he sitting in his hujra (guest room) in Yar Hussain village of Chotatehsil Lahore in Swabi District on July 18, reports The News. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for both the attacks.
Unidentified militants killed Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader Mufti Ehtishamul Haq and his son in Tump tehsil (revenue unit) of Kech District in Balochistan on July 24, reports Daily Times. Levies sources said armed assailants opened fire on the former JUI-F District Chief, killing him on the spot along with his son.
Two persons including an activist of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) were gunned down in separate incidents, on July 24 in Karachi, reports The News. Thirty-year-old Muhammad Faisal was shot dead by two men while he was sitting outside his residence, situated in sector 51-C of Korangi town. The men, on a motorcycle, opened indiscriminate fire at him with an automatic weapon.
Separately, twenty-eight-year-old Sajid, son of Abdullah, was shot dead by two unidentified assailants right outside his residence in Orangi Town. He passed away while being taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. According to officials of the Iqbal Market Police Station, they found empty 9mm bullet casings from the spot.
Miscellaneous
Three militants and one soldier killed during a clash in Khwar Pattay village of Malam Jabba area in Swat District on June 26, reports Daily Times. The official sources said the incident occurred during a search operation in Khwar Pattay village. During the search, they said, the militants opened fire on the soldiers and killed one of them identified as Javed. The sources said the security forces killed three militants in retaliatory fire.
Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) arrested two terrorists, identified as Tariq and Esa Khan, from Bhatti Gate area of June 26, reports The News. In another raid, the CTD officials arrested a terrorist, identified as Ghulam Nabi, from Ravi Road area in Lahore on June 26, reports The News. Explosive material and hate literature were seized from their possession. According to CTD officials the terrorists belonged to Daesh and wanted to target the Government installations.
The Sindh Rangers claimed to have shot dead two Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan terrorists during an encounter near Khairabad Northern Bypass in Manghopir area of Gadap Town in Karachi on June 28, reports The News. According a spokesman for the Rangers, one of the suspects killed was identified as Akram Mehsud, while the identity of the second man was yet to be ascertained. Police recovered an Improvised Explosive Device, suicide jackets and weapons from their possession.
Separately, District Malir and Central Police claimed to have arrested five suspects during a crackdown against criminals in Malir Town on June 27, reports The News.
Frontier Corps (FC) forces killed three Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) militants during a crackdown Quetta on June 30, reports The Express Tribune. The crackdown was launched following a spate of attacks targeting Security Forces.
Six al Qaeda militants were killed and two police personnel were injured in an encounter followed by a raid at a hideout in Okara District on July 13, reports Dawn.
Four Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) militants, including a ‘commander’ and two would-be bombers, were shot dead in a Police encounter in Sohrab Goth area of Gadap Town in District Malir of Karachi on July 18, reports The News. Two police officials suffered injuries in the operation. A huge cache of explosives were recovered, along with two prepared suicide-bomber jackets that were of Afghan make. One of the four suspects killed had been identified as Saleh Mohammed Rehmani, a wanted member of the LeJ who was a cousin of under-detention LeJ Ameer Naeem Bukhari.
Separately, Rangers arrested seven suspects armed with weapons in separate raids conducted in Lyari Town and Baldia Town on July 18, reports The News. Two men said to be involved in targeted killings, extortions while a third associated with a banned group were arrested following a targeted raid. They had also recovered weapons and ammunition from their possession.
Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) Police shot dead two militants, identified as Ashraf Joonu and Shaukat Sardar alias Usman alias Azam, belonging to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) and al Qaeda Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) during a raid in their hideout at Shah Latif area of Bin Qasim Town in Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh on July 20, reports The News. Both the men were wanted in a number of terrorism cases and carried a bounty of PKR 1.5 million each, which was announced by the Sindh Government.
Two Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)-Swat Chapter militants, identified as Hazrat Bilal and Niaz Muhammad, were killed and one Security Force (SF) official was injured during an intelligence-based operation in Karo Darra valley of Upper Dir District on July 21, reports The News. A minor child, identified as Samira (11), was killed in the crossfire.
Police on July 21 arrested four Lyari gangsters, including a Police constable, allegedly involved in target killings of Police officials and workers of political parties, during a raid at a hideout near Adil Bus Stop in Federal B Area of Gulberg Town in Karachi, reports The News.
PAKISTAN
Terrorists going for softer targets to survive: Gen Raheel
“Badly bruised and isolated” terrorists will go for softer targets for their survival, said Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) General Raheel Sharif while directing senior security officials to hunt the terrorists and “pre-empt their moves to frustrate their designs,” during a meeting at the Corps Headquarters in Karachi on June 26, reports The Express Tribune. The Army Chief said that the Karachi operation has brought about a noticeable improvement in the law and order situation of the city. “However as we progress to target the crime and terror syndicate network, we need to keep our focus on actionable human and technical intelligence and totally dismantle their support structure,” he said. “The operation has now entered a phase where terrorists and their abettors are badly bruised, isolated and hence will go for softer targets so as to find their survival and undermine the society psychologically,” General Raheel said, adding, “We must continue our mission unabated to consolidate and not let anyone reverse our gains”.
Anti terror laws to be extended for two years, proposes Federal Ministry of Interior
The Federal Ministry of Interior on June 27 decided to extend for two years the Anti-Terrorist Act and the Protection of Pakistan Act, reports The News. The President endorsed these two laws on January 7, 2015. Parliament approved these two laws giving special powers to the Rangers, police and other law enforcers to achieve success in the war against terrorism. A summary for an extension of these two laws has been sent to the Prime Minister. A final approval in this regard will be sought from Parliament. Under the Protection of Pakistan Act, the Rangers, police and law enforcement institutions can shoot terror suspects, keep them in custody for 90 days and put suspect from a certain province on trial anywhere in the country.
Military officer linked to banned HuT released in Punjab
Brigadier Ali Khan, a senior army officer who was court-martialled over links with a Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HuT), was released from Adiala Jail on June 27, reports Dawn. Khan was awarded five years rigorous imprisonment by the Field General Court (FGCM) in 2012. He was also accused of being involved in a conspiracy to topple the Government, trying to instigate a mutiny within the army and planning an attack on General Headquarters (GHQ). The former official has been released less than four years after he was convicted, even though he was facing “serious allegations” which would lead to capital punishment if proven. Since most of the charges levelled against him were not proved in the court-martial proceedings, he was sentenced to five years in prison and was scheduled to be released in August 2017. However, he got the benefit of a remission in his sentence and was released on June 27, 2016.
Six foreign-funded target killers arrested in Karachi
Counterterrorism Department of Police on June 30 claimed to have arrested a gang of six “foreign-funded sectarian “hitmen” allegedly planning to assassinate religious leaders and scholars during Ramazan (Islamic months of fasting) in Karachi, reports Dawn. The Sindh CTD chief, Dr. Sanaullah Abbasi, said that this gang had done reconnaissance of 200 people for killing. “They are funded by foreign actors for a proxy war in Pakistan, particularly in Karachi,” said the CTD head. The officer identified the suspects as Mohammed Ali, Syed Sheeraz Ali, Syed Hamid Abbas, Syed Israr Ali, Pervez Hussain and Mohammed Mumtaz. “This group has been working as a sleeper cell over the past five years,” said the officer.
Meanwhile, Federal Minister of Interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on June 30 acknowledged a spike in street crime in Karachi, reports The Express Tribune. However, he claimed a significant decline in terrorism, extortion, targeted killings and kidnapping cases since the launch of the Karachi operation in September 2013. Nisar said that capacity-building of Police personnel was urgently needed, for which authorities had been asked to involve Pakistan Army for recruitments. He said 20,000 Police personnel would be hired — apart from the induction of some 2,000 retired soldiers into the Police force.
Rangers want govt departments purged of ‘political, militant wings’ activists in Karachi
The Pakistan Rangers on July 3 vowed that they would take action against elements helping activists of ‘political or militant wings’ infiltrate Government institutions and the ‘ghost employees’ in Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh, which the paramilitary force suspected might be involved in terrorist activities and lawlessness, reports Dawn. A Rangers spokesperson in a statement issued to the media said that a decision to take action against such political activities in institutions and against ghost employees was taken at a recent meeting of the Apex Committee. The supreme body on law and order had decided that there would be no office of any political party or militant wing in any Government institution. In the light of this decision, the Ranges official said that all official institutions should ensure closure of all offices or activities of political or militant wing on their premises. Otherwise, the Rangers warned, legal action would be taken against all responsible people.
APS massacre mastermind killed in US drone strike in Afghanistan
The mastermind of the December 16, 2014, Army Public School massacre, identified as Umar Mansour, alias Khalifa Mansour, alias Umar Naray, was killed in a United States (US) drone strike in Bandar area of Nangarhar Province in Afghanistan on July 9, reports Dawn. Two unnamed senior security officials confirmed the killing of Umar Mansour and his accomplice Qari Saifullah in the drone attack. “What we have is pretty credible,” said an officer. There was, however, some confusion over the death of Qari Saifullah. The US State Department had on May 25, 2016, designated Umar Naray a global terrorist, thus clearing the path for his inclusion in the hit-list.
Drone afflicted families challenge US civilian figures on drone strikes in Pakistan
Campaigners and families, who lost their loved ones in United States (US) covert drone strikes in Pakistan, have rejected the figures on drone strike casualties in Pakistan, reports Daily Times, quoting Xinhua News Agency on July 16. Shahzad Akbar, a senior lawyer, who is leading a legal battle for the civilians killed in the US drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal regions, says the data collected from the media reports and people on the ground put the civilian death toll at over 3,000 against 116 as claimed by the US. Akbar mentioned a 2013 court’s judgment in the Peshawar in which the judge mentioned deaths of 1,490 civilians in the US drone attacks in Waziristan Agency of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
Akbar mentioned at least three US drone strikes that killed many civilians, including nearly 80 children in an attack on a religious school in the Bajaur Agency in October 2006, 60 in an attack on a funeral in South Waziristan Agency in June 2009, and 40 in a drone strike on a Jirga or assembly of tribal elders in North Waziristan Agency in March 2011. “These are just a few of the major US drone strikes which killed hundreds of civilians, including children. So I would say that the latest White House figure of up to 116 civilian casualties is ridiculous and just a political gimmick,” said Akbar.
Awais Shah, son of SHC Chief Justice, recovered in during raid in KP
Advocate Awais Ali Shah, kidnapped son of Sindh High Court (SHC) Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, was recovered after an Intelligence Based Operation (IBO) at Tank District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on July 18, reports Dawn. Director General (DG) Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa disclosed Shah’s recovery. Three terrorists were also killed during the operation. “Awais Shah, son of Sindh Chief Justice, recovered through an IBO from custody of terrorists from near Tank, 3 terrorists killed,” read DG Bajwa’s tweeted. Awais was abducted on June 20, 2016, from Clifton area of Saddar Town in Karachi.
Rangers have mandate to operate in Karachi, not in whole province, says Sindh CM Syed Qaim Ali Shah
The Sindh Government on July 19 moved to consolidate its position amid the ongoing debate on its strained relations with the Pakistan Rangers when Chief Minister (CM) Syed Qaim Ali Shah insisted that the paramilitary force was given powers only to establish peace in Karachi and not to operate in the whole province, reports Dawn. He also said that “investigations” were going on to determine whether the paramilitary force had moved beyond its power in the Asad Kharal affair in Larkana. The CM’s stance emerged challenging the paramilitary force’s viewpoint about the powers as Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, Director General Major General Bilal Akbar had asserted only a few days ago that Rangers could move in any part of the province to chase criminals using their special powers given under the defined laws. “One should say that the Rangers are here to assist the police in maintaining law and order,” he said while speaking at a press conference in Larkana. “The Rangers were given powers for four heinous crimes — terrorism, targeted killing, extortion and kidnapping for ransom. They were authorised under certain circumstance to curb these crimes. Furthermore, they were given powers to operate only in Karachi and not in the entire province.”
Earlier, the Federal Minister of Interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan wrote a letter to the Sindh CM, asking him to extend the policing powers of Rangers in the province, adds Dawn. “Unnecessary delay in extension of power to Rangers in Sindh will not only disrupt operation against terrorists but also negatively impact the morale and performance of the civil armed forces,” the minister said. The policing powers of the paramilitary force in Sindh, last extended on May 4 for 77 days, expire on July 21. The deployment of Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, in Karachi is requisitioned under Article 147 of the Constitution and Clause 1 of Sub-section 3 of Section 4 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, authorising the paramilitary force to prevent the commission of terrorist acts or scheduled offences in the notified area for the punishment of terrorists in accordance with the provision of the ATA, 1997.
Around 1,000 bodies recovered from Balochistan in six years
Nearly a thousand bullet-ridden corpses have been recovered from various parts of Balochistan in the past six years, official documents revealed, indicating a disturbing sign that the security of the country’s largest province is worsening yet again, The News reported on July 25. More than 51 percent mutilated bodies were identified as ethnic Baloch. Official figures continued to reveal shocking figures further as stating that 22 percent dead bodies belonged to Pashtuns while rest of the bullet-ridden corpses either remained unidentified or belong to Punjabis, Afghan refugees or non-Muslims. More than 940 dead bodies were recovered from various Districts of Balochistan whereas Quetta remained the worst-hit district with 346 dead bodies were recovered since 2010, revealed figures prepared by senior officials assigned to swiftly execute the National Action Plan (NAP).
The confidential data, also exclusively available with Geo News (ASKKS Programme) The News, further revealed that over 112 persons were still missing in the province. With these rights violations, official figures further shocked that over 658 innocent people lost their lives in sectarian incidents where total 1, 837 were killed either in target killings or other disputes after 2011 in the province. Over 3, 470 people were injured in terror or sectarian related incidents during this period. Security Forces (SFs), with help of intelligence agencies and operators of newly established Intelligence Fusion Cell (IFC) recovered over 498 dead bodies of Baloch during this period in the province which already lags behind other provinces in terms of over nine key social indicators.
Around 159 dead bodies of Pashtuns were recovered from various parts of the province while SFs could not identify 175 bullet-ridden corpses as their faces were completely burnt and spoiled. The Police also recovered around 108 dead bodies of other people where some of them were identified as Afghan refugees and Punjabis. The report also revealed that Kalat was the second largest District after Quetta where 268 dead bodies were recovered by law enforcing agencies. After Quetta and Kalat, over 171 dead bodies were recovered in this District by the Police. In terms of worst rights violence, 2011 witnessed recovery of 203 dead bodies, 129 in 2015, 165 in 2014, 168 in 2013, 166 in 2012, 102 in 2010 and 17 bullet-ridden bodies were recovered this year (2016). Official data further revealed that over 2,654 intelligence based operations were conducted by the law enforcement agencies soon after the Army Public School massacre in December 2016.
REGIONAL
Bangladesh – Internal Dynamics
Two ABT militants arrested in Dhaka city
Police on June 27 arrested two militants of Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) in Dhaka city, reports The Daily Star. The arrestees are Mohammad Neyeem alias Saiful Islam alias Saad and Sohel Ahmed alias Sohel. Police said that they used to motivate and invite people to join the ABT. The duo met at Gendaria and talked about their organizational activities following the order of a top ABT leader. The arrests were made several hours after the meeting.
Buddhist Monastery high priest receives death threat in Dhaka city
The high priest of Bashabo’s Dharmarajik Buddhist Monastery in Dhaka city, which is known for its generous gesture of serving iftar to Muslims during Ramadan, has received a death threat by mail on June 28, reports Dhaka Tribune. The letter was signed by a person who identified himself as AB Siddique from Kishoreganj. Although the letter mentioned no affiliation with any militant outfit, a similar threat from the so-called Islamic State of Bangladesh (ISB) to Dhaka city’s Ramkrishna Mission on June 15 was also signed by a person named AB Siddique. Addressing the high priest, the letter read: “You will be brutally hacked or shot to death. The golden statues of Gautama Buddha will not be able to save you.” Terming the Buddhist religion an enemy of Islam, the sender added “I become a true Muslim by killing Hindus, Buddhists and Christians.”
Hindu priest stabbed to death in Jhenidah District
A Hindu priest was stabbed to death in Jhenidah District on July 1, reports The Daily Star. The deceased was identified as Shymananda Das (62) of Sree Sree Radha-Madan Temple of Uttar-Kastasagra village. Three armed men riding a motorcycle went to the temple premises and hacked Shymananda when he was plucking flowers at a garden there for morning prayers.
Meanwhile, a masked man carrying knives tried to kill another Hindu priest in Bandarban District on June 30, reports The Daily Star. The masked man entered the room of Babul Chakraborty (70), a priest of Bandarban central Durga Mondir. The man fled the scene when Babul’s daughter-in-law spotted him.
JMB militant arrested in Mymensingh
Police arrested a militant of Jama’at-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh from Muktagachha upazila (sub-District) of Mymensingh District on June 28, reports The Daily Star. The arrestee is Mohammad Helal Uddin (55).
28 persons including 20 civilians, six militants and two Police officers killed in hostage crisis in Dhaka city
28 persons including 20 civilians, six militants and two Police officers were killed in a hostage crisis at Holey Artisan Bakery, a Spanish restaurant at Dhaka city’s Gulshan diplomatic zone, reports The Daily Star on July 2. Joint Security Force led by Army brought to end an unprecedented hostage situation rescuing 13 people who include Indian and Japanese citizens almost 12 hours after gunmen stormed the popular restaurant. Around 53 people, including several Policemen, were injured in an exchange of gunfire between Police and gunmen who stormed a Spanish restaurant on July 1 night and took the people inside hostage. One militant was arrested in the incident. According to US-based SITE Intelligence Group, Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility of the attack. The deceased Police officers are Rabiul Islam, Assistant Commissioner of Detective Branch of Police and Salahuddin Ahmed, Officer-in-Charge Banani Police Station. Joint Security Force recovered 20 bodies during a search on the compound of the Spanish restaurant. Most of the victims were killed brutally with sharp weapons. A pistol used by terrorists, folded butt AK 22 rifle, Improvised Explosive Device (IED), walkie-talkie set and a large number of locally made sharp weapons were recovered from the spot.
Buddhist farmer hacked to death
A Buddhist farmer was hacked to death in Bandarban District on June 30, reports The Daily Star. The victim Mong Shwe Lung Marma (55) was also vice president of Awami league (AL) under Baishari union. Islamic State fighters claimed responsibility for the murder, according to a tweet by Rita Katz, director of US-based SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks online activities of terror groups.
IS releases video calling for Jihad in Bangladesh
Islamic State (IS) on July 6 released a video calling for jihad in Bangladesh and threatening more attacks on ‘crusaders’ and ‘crusader nations’, reports Dhaka Tribune. The video message believed to be issued from Raqqa, a city in Syria in Bangla was first found in an IS-affiliate website and then released on YouTube. In the video, three of the speakers are of Bangladesh origin. One of them said “The Jihad that has come to Bangladesh now has been promised by Prophet Mohammed. We will not stop killing the crusaders till then we will win or die for our religion as martyrs and achieve Sahadaat [martyrdom] … we don’t have anything to lose.” The second speaker said “Since the govt has changed Allah’s law and has implied man-made law they are all ‘Kafirs’ now. It is our religious duty to fight against it. Crusaders are killing innocents Muslims globally with planes and bomb attacks. So the Holey Artisan incident is our revenge to the lost blood of the hundreds and hundreds of Muslims who were killed.”
Two persons killed in bomb blast in Kishoreganj
One Police Constable and one militant were killed and 12 others were injured in a bomb blast on July 7 near the Sholakia Eid congregation in Kishoreganj District, reports Dhaka Tribune. A crude bomb was hurled at the Policemen in front of Azim Uddin High School, leaving at least 13 people including several Policemen injured. Later, a Police Constable Zahirul Islam was declared dead. One suspected attacker was also killed.
Three JMB ‘suicide squad’ members arrested
Police arrested three ‘suicide squad’ members of Jama’at-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh from Kalihati sub-District of Tangail District on July 6, reports The Daily Star. The arrestees were identified as Jannati alias Jemy (18), Sajida Akter (22) and Rozina Begum (30). Police recovered two machetes, a knife, a mobile phone containing videos of slaughtering techniques and a script of bomb-making technique from them. Police said that the women, their husbands are JMB’s ‘suicide squad’ members. However, Police could not arrest the husbands.
US issues travel warning for Bangladesh
The US State Department on Monday, July 11 warned Americans to consider carefully whether they need to travel to Bangladesh following a series of attacks claimed by Islamist militants. “The US government assesses that the terrorist threat is real and credible,” the department said in a statement.
On July 1, at least five Bangladeshi men stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery, a cafe popular with foreigners, businessmen and diplomats, and killed 20 customers, including Italians, Japanese, Indians and a US citizen.
Islamic State said it was responsible for the attack. The department said it also authorised the voluntary departure of family members of US government personnel posted to the US Embassy in Dhaka.
The embassy remains open, the statement said. Islamic State and al-Qaeda have made competing claims for a series of killings of liberals and members of religious minorities in Bangladesh in the past year. The government has dismissed those claims and insists that the violence is homegrown.
Four ABT militants arrested in Chittagong
Police on July 11 arrested four militants of Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) while they were planning to carry out attacks on members of law enforcement agencies and different important establishments in Sitakunda sub-District of Chittagong District, reports The Daily Star. The four are identified as Musa Ebne Omayer (25), Shipon (25), Khorshed Alam (31) and Russell Mohamad Islam (40). Four swords, four machetes, one laptop, one tablet computer and six mobile phone sets were recovered from their possession.
IS disowns five attacks they claimed earlier
Islamic State (IS) on July 15 disowned five attacks they claimed earlier, reports Dhaka Tribune. In an info graphic post published by its Amaq news agency, IS listed 11 operations, including the Gulshan mass attack, that their members have carried out in 2016 across Bangladesh killing at least 37 people. The group, however, refrained from mentioning five other attacks committed since January that they previously took credit for, including the murder of two homoeopaths in Jhenidah and a Rajshahi University professor. The photo also did not claim the IS-style attack on the Police near Sholakia Eidgah in Kishoreganj that killed three people on Eid day. IS also did not take credit for two other similar attacks – on a Hindu priest in Gopalganj and a Hindu college teacher in Madaripur.
Special investigative team formed to identify militants, patrons and masterminds of Gulshan and Sholakia terror attacks, says Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina while speaking in Parliament on July 19 said that a special investigation team, drawing members from all forces, has been formed to identify the militants, their patrons and the masterminds of the Gulshan and Sholakia terror attacks, reports The Daily Star.
Meanwhile, officers investigating the Gulshan restaurant attack have identified the coordinator of the joint militant operation as Rajib alias Shanta alias Adil, a mid-level leader of Jama’at-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh, reports Dhaka Tribune on July 20. The investigators said that the Gulshan attack was finalised at a meeting attended by top militant leaders of the JMB and two other groups – Ansarullah Bangla Team and Hizb ut-Tahrir in a northern Bangladesh district two months ago. To implement the plan, Rajib rented two flats at Bashundhara and west Shewrapara for the attackers, collected arms and bombs, and finalised the escape route from the restaurant. Rajib and other members went to the restaurant on Road 79 in Gulshan 2 several times to make a layout, especially to ensure smooth escape of the attackers.
Four JMB militants arrested in Gazipur district
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on July 21 busted a den of Jama’at-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) in Tongi of Gazipur District and arrested four of its militants, including a top leader, reports The Daily Star. The arrestees are Mahmudul Hasan alias Tanvir (27), Ashikul Akbar alias Abesh (22), Najmus Shakib (19) and Shariatullah Shuvo (19). Among them, Mahmudul is a top JMB leader in the southern region of the country. He is a bomb-making expert and also a skilled trainer. He had been providing training for new JMB recruits. RAB recovered seven crude bombs, a pistol, over 100 bullets, two axes, six sharp weapons, plastic explosives and detonators.
Four female militants arrested in hunt for café attackers
Police in Bangladesh arrested on Sunday, July 24 four female members of a home-grown militant group blamed for a bloody attack on a cafe in which 22 people were killed, most of them foreigners, an officer said.
Authorities have intensified a hunt for militants after five young men stormed the upmarket restaurant popular with foreigners on July 1. Among those killed were nine Italians, seven Japanese, an American and an Indian. The five militants were gunned down when security forces moved in.
Police believe that Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a banned group that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, played a significant role in organising the group of privileged, educated young men who carried out the attack.
The four women members of the group, aged 18 to 30, who were arrested in from the northwestern district of Sirajganj, were believed to have been plotting an attack, police said. “Acting on a tip-off, our force raided a rented house where a large amount of grenade-making materials, crude bombs and jihadi books were also found,” district police superintendent Siraj Uddin Ahmed told reporters. The women would be interrogated to determine if they had any link to the Dhaka cafe attack, he said.
India – Internal Dynamics
ABDK expresses shock over abduction of priest’s father in Meghalaya
The Garo Baptist Convention (ABDK) expressed shock and strong condemnation at the recent abduction of a retired school teacher and father of Fr Francis N Marak from his residence in Rongara village in South Garo Hills District by unidentified assailants, reports The Shillong Times on June 28. “We are deeply anguished by this mindless act and appeal to the abductors to release the victim immediately and unconditionally without causing further physical or mental harm to the victim as well as their immediate family members,” it said in a statement. In the meantime, the ABDK also appealed to all its members to take part in the silent rally being organized by the Catholic Church in Tura on June 28 as a mark of solidarity with the organizers and the victim’s family.
Maoists kill two civilians in Jharkhand
The Communist Party of India-Maoist cadres killed two civilians, accusing them of being ‘Police informers’, in Giridih District on July 3, reports The New Indian Express. According to Police, the Maoists abducted the two men from their home and killed both by slitting their throat. The bodies were recovered from Kolharia village.
AQIS calls for lone wolf attacks in India, says report
Asim Umar, the head of Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent or AQIS, has reportedly asked Indian Muslims to “rise up and to follow the example of lone wolf attackers in Europe”, according to report published by US-based SITE intelligence groups, Indian Express reports on July 4. Lone wolf attacks are more preferred by IS sympathisers across the world and it is not really Al Qaeda’s style.
Hindustan adds Umar, has asked Indian Muslims to start jihad (holy war) by killing senior Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers. He said Indian Muslims should follow the example of their brethren in Syria, adding that they should look at the example of Europe where one single Mujahid after another has disturbed the entire continent. “Kill senior officers of institutions and administrative departments that get (people to) start these riots. Target IPS and IAS officers, cause them financial losses,” said the statement.
Maoists kill policeman
An Assistant Constable of Chhattisgarh Police identified as Tirupati was killed by the Communist Party of India-Maoist cadres in Bijapur District on June 4 while he was returning to the Police camp after having a meal in his house, reports Zee News. Tirupati was shot at by the Maoists near Cherpal Police camp under Bijapur Police Station limits.
Five villagers killed during SF personnel-Maoists firing in Odisha
Five villagers, including three women were reportedly killed in a fire exchange between Police and the cadres of the Communist Party of India-Maoist at Malapanga forest in Kurtamagarh in Kandhamal District on July 8, reports Prameyanews7. Sources said the villagers were returning to their village after receiving their Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) wages from a nearby village under Tunudibandh Police Station. Sources said the mishap occurred when the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were busy in exchange of fire with Maoists. The identity of the deceased and circumstances which led to firing is yet to be ascertained.
16 people from Kerala missing, might have joined IS, says report
At least 16 Muslim people, including a doctor, his wife and their toddler son, are missing for a month from north Kerala, family members said on July 8, sparking fears that they might have joined radical groups in Syria or Iraq, reports Hindustan Times. The missing people, said to be well-educated from fairly good economic background, also include four women who are suspected to have travelled to the Middle East to join militant groups such as the Islamic State (IS).
10 Cobra commandos and three Maoists killed in Bihar
At least 10 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Commandos – belonging to the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) battalion – were killed and five others injured in a Communist Party of India-Maoist orchestrated Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast in the forests of Aurangabad District on July 18, reports The Times of India. Initially, the troopers of the CoBRA unit were ambushed in an IED blast after which an encounter started between the two sides resulting in the killing of three Maoists. The incident was reported from Chakarbanda-Dumarinala forests of Aurangabad District. Some arms and ammunition, including an AK-47 rifle, INSAS rifle and under barrel grenade launcher were also recovered from the encounter site. Commenting on the Security Forces (SF) casualty a senior official said that “While eight personnel were killed on the spot, two others succumbed to their injuries when they were being evacuated”.
Bomb attack in Manipur
Some unidentified assailants triggered a bomb blast at the residence of Public Works Department (PWD) Executive Engineer Prem Luikham (52) at Mantripukhri Bengali Colony in Imphal on July 19, reports The Sangai Express. However, there is no report of any casualty. Police suspected that the bomb attack was related to monetary demand. A case has been registered at Heingang Police Station in connection with the incident.
Bid to form militant group foiled in Meghalaya
Meghalaya Police on July 19 foiled an attempt by a group to float a Garo militant outfit, reports The Sentinel. According to Police, acting on inputs regarding movement of militants, Police conducted checking at Upper Shillong and arrested one Anthony Marak (30) of Rajai village under Ranikor Police Station in South West Khasi Hills District. During interrogation, the arrested person revealed that he along with one William Sangma, a hardcore criminal and others were contemplating to float a new outfit to be christened as A’chik Revolutionary Army (ARA) with William Sangma as ‘commander–in-chief’ and Anthony Marak as ‘deputy commander-in-chief’.
IS operatives in India were in touch with Naxalites for terror training, according to NIA
Islamic State (IS) operatives in India had approached Naxalite groups to understand their modus operandi for perpetrating terror and were also planning to buy firearms from them, according to National Investigation Agency (NIA) charge sheet, The Times of India reports on July 19. “The accused persons contacted naxalites to understand their modus operandi in committing terror acts and they also had plans to buy weapons from the naxalites,” NIA stated. The NIA said that the two accused people had turned approvers and have been granted conditional pardon by the trial court.
Truck loaded with explosives seized in Jharkhand
Two persons were arrested on July 20 with a truck-load of explosives from Kathikund area of Koderma District, reports The Indian Express. A large number of explosives – 41,200 power gel and 37,500 pieces of detonators – were recovered from the truck at Koderma. The vehicle was on its way to Kharsawan under Pakuria Police Station of Pakur District on July 19, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) Ashok Kumar Singh said. Truck driver Arvind Kumar and helper Ganesh Kumar were arrested.
’90 killed in six months in Bastar fake encounters,’ claims senior Maoist cadre
Senior Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadre Ganesh Uike has accused the Security Force (SF) personnel of killing over 90 people in fake and staged encounters in the first six months of 2016 in Bastar region, reports The Hindu on July 21. A member of the Maoist Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) and the head of its Bastar Sub Zonal Bureau, Uike alleged in a press statement “Over 90 people have been killed in the last six months in the name of ‘Mission 2016’ by security forces in Bastar. Over 50 women have been sexually assaulted and hundreds of tribals have been declared ‘warrantee Maoists’ and are being tortured in jail.
UPF demands separate ‘hill state’ within the territory of Manipur
The United People’s Front (UPF), one of the two umbrella bodies of Kuki militant groups, has “officially” demanded a separate “hill State” within the territory of Manipur, reports The Sangai Express on July 21. The demand was raised by the outfit during a recently held political dialogue with Central representatives at New Delhi. The outfit along with another Kuki underground apex body Kuki National Organisation (KNO) had signed Suspension of Operation (SoO) pact with both the Central and Manipur Governments in August 2008. The Manipur Government then set up five designated camps in Churachandpur, Chandel and Senapati Districts to lodge the cadres of the ceasefire militant groups.
Meanwhile, normal life was affected in the State capital Imphal on July 20, by the 13 hours bandh(general strike) called by the Poirei Meitei Lup faction of Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP-Poirei Meitei Lup) in connection with its demand for producing a white paper on the ‘regularization’ of two Professors of Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) Prof L Deben (Director) and Prof M Angouba, reports The Sangai Express. Educational institutions, private offices and business establishments remained closed for the day due to the general strike. Shops and business establishments in Imphal’s commercial hubs – Khwairamband Keithel, Thangal Keithel and Paona Keithel remained closed. The strike also affected normal life in Bishnupur. Bishnupur Keithel, Ningthoukhong Keithel, Moirang Lamkhai, Moirang Keithel and Kumbi Keithel remained closed while public transport services also remained off the roads.
Maoists to fight police excesses in Odisha
Communist Party of India-Maoist have threatened to intensify their fight against the government for the rights of tribals, following the killing of five persons at Gumudumaha village in Kandhamal District on July 8, reports The Times of India. The Malkangiri-Koraput Vishaka Border Division Committee (MKVDC) of the CPI-Maoist has stated this through letters sent to a few media persons in Malkangiri District on July 22. The state government through Police is trying to suppress the people’s movement in the state. “Security personnel are killing innocent tribals and going scot-free. We condemn the Kandhamal killings and demand appropriate action against the policemen involved in the killings,” read the two-page letter. The extremists have also cited that Kandhamal is not the lone example of Police excesses on tribals. “Earlier, police have killed tribals in Kalinga Nagar, Niyamgiri, Narayanpatna and in Malkangiri district in fake encounters only to weaken the people’s movement and no action has ever been taken against the policemen,” it stated. The insurgents have appealed to all, including various political parties and civil society members, to start a movement against fake encounters of tribals in the name of Maoist operation. “We will intensify our fight for the rights of tribals in the days to come and any type of police excesses will not be tolerated,” it reads.
Recall army from Naga areas, NPMHR urges Government of India
Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR) urged the Government of India (GoI) to “recall its military from all Naga areas for the sake of humanity”, reports Nagaland Post on July 22. In a press release, NPMHR secretary general Neingulo Krome said in the backdrop of ongoing ceasefire agreements and political negotiations that different Naga Political Groups (NPGs) have entered into with the Gol, and various efforts of reconciliation amongst the NPGs in particular, NPMHR has been making its own effort to stay away from “provocative issues and elements.”
However, Krome said the “constant recurrence of acts with utter disregard for human life, where Nagas were concerned, at the hands of Indian military personnel, one was left with choice but to express its resentments with pain and anger.” Krome said the Indian army continued “to bulldoze and bully the Naga population through checking and frisking, raiding houses, apprehending people, even enforcing liquor prohibition on highways etc. all under the protection of the Armed Forces [Special Powers] Act (AFSPA). “And side by side, conduct tours, contribute computers worth measly amounts and pose for photographs, conduct medical camps, all for cheap publicity and to say that they are the ‘friends of the hill people’,” Krome said.
Monthly Fatalities
The following deaths, related to ongoing insurgencies and acts of terrorism occurred during period June 26 to July 25, 2016:
| Civilian | Indian Security Personnel | Militant | Total | |
| Assam | 04 | 00 | 00 | 04 |
| Arunachal P | 04 | 00 | 02 | 06 |
| Manipur | 03 | 00 | 02 | 05 |
| Meghalaya | 02 | 00 | 00 | 02 |
| Left wing | 10 | 20 | 26 | 56 |
| Total | 23 | 20 | 30 | 73 |
Nepal – Internal Dynamics
Govt has not yet prepared grounds for talks with agitating forces, says Federal Alliance Coordinator Upendra Yadav
The coordinator of the Federal Alliance Upendra Yadav speaking at an interaction organized by Reporters Club in Kathmandu on June 29 said that the Government had not yet prepared grounds for talks with the agitating forces, reports The Himalayan Times. Yadav said that the Government needed to give martyrdom status to those people who were killed during the protest, provide relief to the families of victims, ensure free treatment for injured people and withdraw false cases against the cadres of agitating forces to prepare the environment for talks. Yadav also said that the Government should hold dialogue with the Federal Alliance and since the United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) was also a constituent of the Federal Alliance, talks with the alliance would certainly represent the demands of the front.
Mangol National cadres launch donation drive in Rukum District
Cadres of Mangol National, a ragtag armed group, forcibly launched a donation drive in the remote villages of Rukum District, reports The Himalayan Times on July 4. “Besides, it’s the so-called decree of the group’s commander for mandatory ‘conscription’ that has got us more scared,” said a local, adding that the group’s commander Upendra Gharti Magar had issued a decree that at least one member of each household must get conscripted in the group by July 6. “They are donned in military-like dresses and carry guns. They have said the youths of the village must compulsorily become members of the group,” said a youth who fled his village to the district headquarters Khalanga, adding that many youths have left the village and taken to the headquarters for safety, following the armed group’s terror.
Nepali PM faces no-confidence motion”Nepali PM faces no-confidence motion
Nepali opposition lawmakers filed a no-confidence motion on Wednesday, July 13 against Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli after former rebel Maoists quit his coalition, triggering fresh political turmoil in the quake-hit nation.
The former guerrillas announced on Tuesday that they were withdrawing support for Oli’s government, leaving his coalition without a majority.
After Oli refused to resign, opposition lawmakers from the Nepali Congress and the Maoists filed a motion against the embattled premier in parliament, an official told AFP.
“A no-confidence motion against the PM has been registered, 280 members have signed it,” said parliament spokesman Bharat Gautam.
According to procedure, Oli will now have a week to secure support for a majority government before parliament hosts discussions and a possible vote on the motion, Gautam said.
Oli’s Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) currently holds 175 elected seats in parliament, far fewer than the 299 needed to win a vote of confidence.
Meeting between Speaker and top leaders of three major political parties ended without yielding results
A meeting between Speaker Onsari Gharti and top leaders of three major political parties, held as a part of a last ditch effort to forge consensus among the parties, ended without yielding results on July 21, reports Republica. The meeting, that continued for more than an hour, disused different alternatives, but failed to reach a conclusion. At the meeting that was held at the office of the Speaker in Singha Durbar, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who is also the chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML), Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Centre (CPN-Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba dwelled on the agendas to be discussed in the Parliament on July 21. The ruling alliance has been maintaining that the financial bills related to the budget should be should be discussed prior to the no-confidence motion while NC and CPN-Maoist Center alliance is reiterating that the no-confidence motion should be discussed first.
Nepal must probe police torture claims
Nepal must investigate allegations that police tortured protesters arrested during demonstrations against a new constitution that left at least 50 people dead nationwide, Amnesty International said on July 21. Nepal was left reeling last year from months of violent clashes between police and ethnic minority protesters who say the charter leaves them politically marginalised.
Eight officers and an 18-month-old boy were killed during clashes in the southwestern town of Tikapur last August, prompting authorities to impose a curfew and arrest dozens from the Tharu ethnic minority. In a new report, Amnesty International interviewed 20 of those arrested including a 14-year-old boy and detailed allegations of police beatings including with batons and plastic pipes.
The rights watchdog called on Kathmandu to establish a “prompt, independent, impartial and effective” investigation into the allegations and take action against those involved. “These are merely the first steps that Nepal’s authorities must take to begin effacing the shame of this episode,” said Champa Patel, Amnesty International’s South Asia director.
Some of those arrested told Amnesty they were forced to sign confessions. Others were denied medical attention, although one man said he received treatment after his shoulder was broken during interrogation.
One detainee said officers picked him up at midnight and took him to a police post, where they beat him up. Another man in custody complained of being beaten until he fell unconscious. There was no immediate response from authorities to the report. Human Rights Watch also alleged police brutality and extrajudicial killings last year during the protests. The constitution, the first drawn up by elected representatives, was meant to cement peace and bolster Nepal’s transformation to a democratic republic after decades of political instability and a 10-year Maoist insurgency which ended in 2006.
Sri Lanka – Internal Dynamics
Tamil press has lost faith in UNHRC commitment to rendering justice, says Verite Research
Verité Research, a Colombo-based research organization said that Tamil press has lost faith in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) commitment to rendering justice, reports Colombo Page. Verité Research observed “Low expectations were reflected in Tamil press attitudes towards the government. While noting some positive changes overall, the press sentiment reflected discontent at the pace and extent of the changes, with many Tamil newspapers viewing the government’s efforts as an eyewash to please the international community. This is in keeping with past trends where acts such as singing the national anthem in Tamil were viewed as mere symbolic acts of reconciliation on the part of the government.”
Rein in military forces, prosecute war crimes committed during war with LTTE rebels and win confidence of Tamil minority, says UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein
United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein in an annual report on June 28 said that Sri Lanka must rein in its military forces, prosecute war crimes committed during the long civil war with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels and win the confidence of the Tamil minority, reports Daily Mirror. The reports said “The early momentum established in investigating emblematic cases must be sustained, as early successful prosecutions would mark a turning point from the impunity of the past. Continuing allegations of arbitrary arrest, torture and sexual violence, as well as more general military surveillance and harassment, must be swiftly addressed, and the structures and institutional culture that promoted those practices be dismantled.”
Ethnic organizations to intensify the statehood demand in North East
Ethnic organizations of the North East India which have been seeking the creation of separate states decided to intensify their movement after August 15 under the aegis of National Federation for New States (NFNS), reports Nagaland Post on July 10. NFNS is led by Raja Bundela, who has been leading the movement for a separate Bundelkhand state, and Shrihari Aney, leader of the Vidarbha movement. “If the Centre doesn’t come up with a policy on the creation of new states, we will launch a united movement across the country after August 15,” president of All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU) and NFNS joint secretary, Pramod Boro, said. NFNS’s northeast chapter on July 9 said the Centre should pave the way for the creation of Bodoland, Kukiland, Karbi Autonomous State and Tripuraland in the region.
Sri Lanka arrests ex-president’s son over money laundering
The eldest son of Sri Lanka´s ex-president was arrested on a money laundering charge on Monday, July 11 days after being named shadow foreign minister. Namal Rajapakse was remanded into custody for accepting more than $500,000 from an Indian company, police told a Colombo judge.
Colombo Fort Magistrate ordered Rajapakse, a lawmaker from an opposition party faction loyal to his father Mahinda, to be kept in custody until July 18 to allow the police’s Financial Crimes Investigations Division to conduct their enquiries.
There was no immediate comment from the former first family over 30-year-old Namal´s arrest. The ex-president’s younger son, Yoshitha, is already facing similar money laundering charges over dealings at his private television channel, Carlton Sports Network.
In April last year, authorities arrested Mahinda Rajapakse´s younger brother Basil, who was a government minister under his sibling. The ex-president and his relatives controlled nearly 70 percent of Sri Lanka´s national budget during his rule that ended in January 2015, when he was defeated at the polls by his former ally Maithripala Sirisena.
The new president has vowed to investigate allegations that members of Rajapakse´s family siphoned off billions of dollars from the country during his nearly 10-year rule.
Local rights organisations have accused the government of not taking swift action to investigate corruption under Rajapakse. The Rajapaksas have denied the allegations.
Police arrest Army intelligence officer over popular editor’s murder in 2009
Sri Lanka Police on July 16 arrested an army officer, attached to the Intelligence Unit of Sri Lanka Army (SLA), over the murder of journalist and former Editor of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickremetunga, reports Colombo Page. The Police said the arrest came after recent appeals for public assistance in tracking down suspects. Earlier this month the Police re-released sketches of two persons who were suspected to be involved. Court has granted the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) permission to detain and question the suspect
Lasantha Wickremetunga, the chief editor of English weekly, Sunday Leader, was assassinated on January 8, 2009 by four assailants who stopped him on his way to his office on Attidiya-Mt. Lavinia road, in a suburb of Sri Lankan capital Colombo and opened fire at him.
Swiss AG indicts 13 supporters for providing financial support via sophisticated microcredit system
Switzerland’s Attorney General (AG) on July 20 indicted 13 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) supporters for providing financial support via a sophisticated microcredit system, reports Daily Mirror. According to the AG’s office, LTTE leaders in Switzerland devised and implemented a systematic and rapid method for obtaining money from the Tamil diaspora in Switzerland. They reportedly raised around $15.2 million. The LTTE was acting through a Swiss offshoot known as the World Tamil Coordinating Committee (WTCC).
All educational institutions should act as reconciliation centers and reconciliation should be included as subject in curriculum, says President Maithripala Sirisena
President Maithripala Sirisena while opening the newly-built Sri Lanka-German Technical Training Institute in Kilinochchi District on July 20 said that all educational institutions, including universities and vocational training centers should act as reconciliation centers and reconciliation should be included as a subject in the school curriculum, reports Daily Mirror. Commenting on the clash between two factions of students occurred at the University of Jaffna, President Sirisena expressed his deep concerns and said “The Sinhala Buddhists will be able to live happily only after the concerns of other communities are resolved and the first step is to acknowledge that the people in the North also have grievances. With the introduction of a new constitution, we hope to unite the divided communities without in any way dividing the country.”
Meanwhile, Governor of Northern Province Reginald Cooray addressing a media briefing held in Colombo on July 20 said that the recent clash between two groups of students at the University of Jaffna has stirred up both North and South and some extremist groups are attempting to inflame situation instead of calming it, reports Colombo Page. The Governor said some media outlets in the North broadcast the incident as an attack by the Sinhala students with the mediation of the Army while in the South it is described as an attack by the Tamil Students and the reports create tension in both North and South.
Sri Lanka invites Diaspora to make submissions for reconciliation
Sri Lanka on July 22 invited the Diaspora groups, including Tamils, to make submissions for advancing the task of reconciliation following the country’s three-decade-long civil war that ended in 2009, reports Daily Mirror. The Consultation Task Force (CTF) on Reconciliation Mechanisms through the Sri Lankan embassy in Washington has called for submissions from Diaspora organisations on the design of structures, processes and measures for truth, accountability, reparations and non-recurrence. The Diaspora can make submissions on Office on Missing Persons, an Office on Reparations, a Judicial Mechanism with a Special Counsel, a Truth, Justice, Reconciliation and Non-Recurrence Commission and any other mechanisms, processes or measures for advancing reconciliation. The submissions can be made until July 28.
INTERNATIONAL
Clashes intensify in Yemen, killing 41
Fighting between Yemeni government forces and rebels raged on Sunday, Jun 26 on several fronts, killing 41 people, officials said, as UN chief Ban Ki-moon arrived in Kuwait to push forward peace talks. The Iran-backed Huthi rebels pressed ahead with attempts to advance towards the strategic Al-Anad airbase, in the southern province of Lahj, a military official said.
The rebels and their allies of forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh captured the area of Qubaita, on the frontier between Lahj and Taez province.
Eleven rebels were killed when warplanes from the Saudi-led coalition bombed them in Qubaita and Kirsh, the official said.
Also along the frontier between Lahj and Taez, five rebels and three government soldiers died in clashes triggered by a rebel attempt to advance in the Waziya area, a source in loyalist militia said. Six other soldiers were killed in clashes in the flashpoint city of Taez, where rebels attacked an army base, a military official said.
Meanwhile, nine rebels and seven soldiers were killed in the past 24 hours in clashes in northern Yemen, after rebels attacked loyalists in Nahm, northeast of the capital Sanaa, a military official said.
Clashes have continued despite a UN-brokered ceasefire that entered into effect on April 11 and paved the way for peace talks in Kuwait.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived late Saturday in Kuwait to meet representatives of the rebels and the government in a bid to push forward talks that have made no headway after two months.
The Huthis overran the capital in late 2014 before moving into other parts of Yemen, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene in March last year.
The United Nations says more than 6,400 people have been killed in Yemen since then, mostly civilians. The fighting has also driven 2.8 million people from their homes and left more than 80 percent of the population in need of humanitarian aid.
Russian, regime raids killed 82 in Syria
At least 82 people including 58 civilians were killed in Russian and regime air strikes on an Islamic State group-held area of eastern Syria, a monitor said on Sunday, Jun 26 in a new toll.
“Three Russian and Syrian regime air raids on the region of Al-Quriyah, southeast of Deir Ezzor city, killed 58 civilians,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. It added that 24 other people were killed, without specifying whether they were civilians or IS fighters.
The Britain-based Observatory, which has a network of sources in Syria, initially reported that 47 people including 31 civilians died in the raids around Al-Quriyah. Russian warplanes have been carrying out an air war in support of President Bashar al-Assad since September 2015.
IS holds around 60 percent of Deir Ezzor city, the capital of the province of the same name, which is next to the Jihadist-held Raqa province.
Suicide bombings kill six in Lebanon
A string of suicide bombings early on Monday, Jun 27 killed at least six people in a Lebanese village near the volatile border with war-ravaged Syria. The attack came just hours after the Islamic State group on Sunday claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb that killed seven soldiers on Jordan’s border with Syria.
The blasts struck Al-Qaa, a predominantly Christian village nestled in a hilly border area shaken by violence since Syria’s conflict erupted in 2011.
At least four suicide bombers hit the village before dawn, a military source told AFP.
An AFP correspondent in the village said security forces had cordoned off the site of the blasts, which lies on a main road linking the Syrian town of Al-Qusayr to Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa valley. The road cuts through a residential area in the centre of Al-Qaa, and the explosions took place less than 100 meters (yards) from the village church.
Extremism on rise in Germany: security service
Political extremism rose sharply in Germany last year — among far-right but also far-left and Islamist radical groups — the domestic intelligence agency said on Tuesday, Jun 28.
“Extremist groups, whatever their orientation, are gaining ground in Germany,” said Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, presenting the 2015 report. The security agency had “observed not just a rise in membership but also an increase in violence and brutality,” he said in a statement.
Some 1,408 acts of far-right violence were recorded last year against 990 the previous year, said the service called the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
The sharp rise in racist hate crimes came as Germany took in a record number of more than one million refugees and migrants asking for political asylum, and as jihadist attacks in Paris and Brussels stoke terrorism fears in Europe. There were 75 arson attacks against refugee shelters in Germany, five times more than 2014.
The report said that online “social networks play an important role in agitation and radicalisation”, as uninhibited hate speech dehumanises minorities and fuels real-world violent crime.
Far-left acts of violence — often targeting far-right activists or police — also rose sharply, to 1,608 violent offences from 995 the previous year, said the report.
Putin says Nato provoking arms race ‘frenzy’
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, Jun 30 insisted Moscow will not be dragged into an arms race by Nato as he accused the US-led alliance of tearing up the military balance in Europe. The Kremlin strongman warned that Russia “knows how to react adequately and we will” to Nato bolstering its forces in eastern European nations such as Poland and the Baltic states in moves he said were aimed at “undermining the military balance built up over decades”.
“We don’t intend to give in to this militaristic frenzy but it seems that is what they are pushing us to, to provoke a costly and pointless arms race,” Putin told Russian diplomats in Moscow. “This will not happen. But we will also not be weak. We will always be able to defend ourselves reliably,” he said.
Relations between Russia and the West have slumped to their lowest point since the Cold War over Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and its alleged masterminding of a separatist uprising in Ukraine.
Fears of Russian expansionism have sent a chill through Nato members such as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland and have seen the US-led alliance bolster its presence in eastern Europe.
Nato announced this month that it would deploy four battalions to the Baltic nations and Poland to counter a more assertive Russia, ahead of a landmark summit in Warsaw on July 8-9. Russia bitterly opposes Nato’s expansion into its Soviet-era satellites and has said it will create three new divisions in its southwest region to meet what it described as a dangerous military build-up along its borders.
Putin has massively ratcheted up military spending since coming to power over 16 years.
13 detained over Istanbul airport attack
Turkey on Thursday, Jun 30 detained 13 suspected Islamic State jihadists over the deadly Istanbul airport attack, as chilling details emerged of how suicide bombers launched their assault. The death toll from Tuesday’s gun and suicide bomb spree at Ataturk airport has risen to 43, the interior minister said, with 19 foreigners among the dead and more than 200 people injured.
Authorities have identified the bombers as a Russian, an Uzbek and a Kyrgyz national.
Turkey has suffered a string of deadly attacks in the past year blamed on either IS or Kurdish rebels, and the airport attack comes just at the start of the crucial summer tourist season. Ala told reporters late Wednesday there was an ongoing “serious and comprehensive investigation” into who was behind the attack. Using another name for IS, he said: “First signs point to Daesh, but it’s not certain yet.”
CIA director John Brennan said the attack, which has sparked international condemnation, bore the “hallmark” of the jihadist group.
Details are emerging of how the attackers arrived at Turkey’s busiest airport by taxi before indiscriminately firing at passengers with automatic rifles and detonating suicide bombs.
A senior source close to the presidency gave a slightly different version of events, saying two attackers blew themselves up on separate floors of the airport before the third followed suit outside.
Four soldiers killed in Hungary blast
Four soldiers were killed and one injured in an explosion at a military firing range in eastern Hungary on Friday, July 1officials said.
All five victims were bomb disposal experts, prosecutors’ spokeswoman Andrea Nagy said in confirming the deaths first reported by state media. She said police were investigating the cause of the blast though no criminal activity was suspected. State media described the explosion as an accident.
Buddhists torch mosque in Myanmar
Nearly 100 police guarded a northern Myanmar village on Saturday, July 2 after a Buddhist mob burned down a mosque, a police officer said, in the second attack of its kind in just over a week as anti-Muslim sentiment swells in the Southeast Asian nation.
Buddhist-majority Myanmar has struggled to contain bouts of deadly religious bloodshed in recent years, with bristling sectarian tensions posing a core challenge to the new government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. The latest flare-up in violence saw throngs of Buddhist villagers in Hpakant, a jade-mining town in northern Kachin state, storm a mosque and set it ablaze on Friday.
“The problem started because the mosque was built near a Buddhist pagoda. The Muslim people refused to destroy the building when the Buddhists discovered it,” Moe Lwin, a local police officer, told AFP. He said around 90 police officers are now stationed in the village, where the situation has calmed. No arrests have been made, he added.
Suu Kyi, a veteran democracy activist who championed her country’s struggle against repressive military rulers, has drawn criticism from rights groups for not taking swifter moves to carve out a solution for the ethnic minority. Her government recently ordered officials to refer to the group as “people who believe in Islam in Rakhine State” instead of Rohingya — a term whose use has set off protests by hard-line Buddhists who insist the group are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
13,000 flee IS bastion Manbij since start of assault: monitor
At least 13,000 civilians have fled the Islamic State group bastion of Manbij in northern Syria since the launch of a US-backed offensive there, a monitor said on Monday, July 4. The Kurds and Arabs fighting as the Syrian Democratic Forces alliance began their assault on Manbij in late May, encircling the town and entering its southwestern districts on June 23.
“At least 13,000 civilians have fled Manbij since the beginning of the SDF operation on May 31,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group. “The fleeing increased after the SDF besieged Manbij” on June 10, he said, adding that on Sunday “hundreds of people fled a southern district of the town where there have been fierce clashes in recent days”.
Manbij had served as a vital stop along an IS supply route from Turkey, from the border town of Jarabulus to its bastion province of Raqa.
The SDF offensive on the town is backed by a US-led coalition that has been bombing IS in Iraq and Syria for nearly two years.
The UN’s humanitarian office has not released its own estimates of how many people have fled Manbij, but said in late June that about 60,000 people were still in the town. According to Abdel Rahman, residents are mostly fleeing from the southern SDF-controlled district into IS-free territory to the south.
Iraq’s minorities ‘on verge of disappearance’
Many of Iraq’s minorities are on the verge of disappearance after 13 years of war, campaigners warned on Monday, July 4. “The impact on minorities has been catastrophic. Saddam was terrible; the situation since is worse. Tens of thousands of minorities have been killed and millions have fled for their lives,” said Mark Lattimer, head of Minority Rights Group (MRG).
Iraq’s Christian population, which before 2003 numbered as many as 1.4 million, is now under 250,000, according to a report by MRG and other rights organisations. Civil conflicts and sectarian tensions have engulfed the country since 2003 when a US-led coalition toppled Saddam Hussein.
In 2014 Islamic State militants declared a caliphate after capturing swathes of Iraq and Syria. Minorities including the Yazidi, Turkmen, Shabak, Christians and Kaka’i have been disproportionately affected by the recent violence, the report said. Tens of thousands have been murdered, maimed or abducted and many women and girls forced into marriage or sexual enslavement.
The Yazidis hit the headlines in mid-2014 when Islamic State militants attacked them in northwest Iraq, killing, capturing and enslaving thousands.
The jihadist group has shown particular cruelty to the Yazidis, whom they regard as devil-worshippers.
Most Yazidis, along with another minority called the Kaka’i, have been forced from their traditional lands. Also highlighted, is the plight of the Shi’ite Turkmen and Shabak communities who have been driven south.
Saudi Arabia intercepts ballistic missile from Yemen
Saudi Arabia intercepted a ballistic missile that Yemeni rebels fired towards the kingdom’s southern city of Abha early on Monday, July 4 the Riyadh-led coalition fighting the insurgents said. “It was intercepted with no injuries,” the coalition said in a statement, adding that the missile launcher was destroyed by Saudi air defences. It was at least the fourth ballistic missile launched across the border since UN-brokered peace talks began in Kuwait in April between Yemen’s Huthi rebels and the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
Saudi Arabia has deployed Patriot missile batteries to counter tactical ballistic missiles which have been fired occasionally during the war.
The UN special envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, said on Wednesday that the warring parties were taking a two-week break from the peace talks which have made little headway.
The UN says more than 6,400 people have been killed in Yemen since March last year, most of them civilians. Fighting has driven 2.8 million people from their homes and left more than 80 percent of the population needing humanitarian aid.
Daesh beheads four footballers in Syria on spying charges
ISIS (Daesh) militants have executed four footballers in Syria after its religious leaders said supporting football was anti-Islamic. The victims, who played for popular team Al-Shabab, were beheaded in front of a crowd of children in Raqqa after they were accused of spying for the Kurdish YPG.
Gruesome pictures of the execution – which shows children inspecting the bodies of the victims – were posted on a dissident group’s Twitter feed, said a report published in Daily Mail.
In a series of tweets, Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently named the victims as Osama Abu Kuwait, Ihsan Al Shuwaikh, Nehad Al Hussen and Ahmed Ahawakh. They shared pictures of the men in their Al-Shabab kits. Another unnamed man was also executed.
ISIS banned organised sports including football when they took over Raqqa two years ago. Last year ISIS militants executed 13 teenage boys for watching the Asian Cup football match between Iraq and Jordan.
The young football fans had been caught watching the game on television in the Iraqi city of Mosul, which is controlled by the Islamic State. The teenagers were rounded up and publicly executed by a firing squad using machine guns, anti-ISIS activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently reported.
Herders kill ‘scores’ in Nigeria
Gunmen believed to be nomadic Fulani herdsmen have killed scores of villagers in central Nigeria’s Benue State in a long-running conflict over grazing rights, the state government said on Monday, July 11.
“The magnitude of killings is enormous. Scores of people were killed in the past two weeks by Fulani herdsmen in at least 10 local government areas of the state,” spokesman Tahav Agerzua told AFP.
The state government was collaborating with security agencies to contain the violence, which is the latest flare-up between local farmers and the herders in the state. Benue state police spokesman Moses Yamu confirmed the killings but said the affected communities had returned to normal. Nigeria’s Channels television put the number of dead at 81 in the past two weeks after attacks on farming villages in the Logo and Ukum areas of the state.
The mainly Muslim Fulani herders and largely Christian farmers have clashed for decades over increasingly scarce land and resources, particularly in the religiously mixed central states.
In February, hundreds of people were said to have been killed and about 1,000 homes destroyed in the Agatu area of Benue in a wave of attacks blamed on Fulani. Those attacks appeared to be in revenge for the death of a Fulani leader and the theft of his cattle, which was blamed on the Agatu people.
President Muhammadu Buhari, northern Muslim, has proposed the creation of grazing land to prevent further clashes but Fulani groups say in Benue the government has opposed the plan.
‘Hundreds disappeared by security forces in Egypt’
Egyptian security agents have abducted and tortured “at least several hundred people”, some as young as 14, in an unprecedented spike in enforced disappearances aimed at silencing opponents, Amnesty International asserted in a report published on Wednesday, July 13. The report, based on 70 interviews with former detainees, families of detainees, lawyers and others, said enforced disappearances had spiked since the appointment of Interior Minister Magdi Abdel Ghaffar in early 2015, with an average of three or four people reported disappeared every day.
“Enforced disappearance has become a key instrument of state policy in Egypt. Anyone who dares to speak out is at risk, with counter-terrorism being used as an excuse to abduct, interrogate and torture people who challenge the authorities,” Philip Luther, director of Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, said in a statement that accompanied the report.
Amnesty said the nature of the enforced disappearances made it difficult to give a precise number, but that reports by Egyptian non-governmental organisations and rights groups indicated there had been “at least several hundred cases” since the beginning of 2015. It counted cases where individuals were arrested by state agents and held for at least 48 hours without referral to the prosecution and where authorities denied they were in custody when asked by families.
The foreign ministry said in a statement that Amnesty reports on Egypt were biased, politically-motivated and aimed to harm its image. It declined to comment on specific accusations. An interior ministry official who declined to be named said there was “no such thing as enforced disappearances” in Egypt. He said the ministry had looked into all suspected cases and in each instance had proven that the individual in question was remanded in custody on the orders of a prosecutor.
The report features the detailed cases of 17 people subjected to enforced disappearance, held incommunicado for periods ranging from several days to seven months without access to their lawyers or families. Amnesty said many of those forcibly disappeared were held at Lazoughly, a compound run by Egypt’s Homeland Security. There, detainees are subjected to electric shocks, violence and sexual abuse to extract confessions, the report said, citing testimonies from at least seven named victims or their families. Amnesty said it found similarities between wounds sustained by Guilio Regeni, an Italian student who disappeared in Cairo on Jan.
Turkish people triumph, martial law fails
Turkish forces loyal to President Tayyip Erdogan largely crushed an attempted military coup on Saturday, July 16 after crowds answered his call to take to the streets in support of the government and dozens of rebels abandoned their tanks. Two hundred and sixty-five people were killed, including many civilians, after a faction of the armed forces tried to seize power using tanks and attack helicopters.
Some strafed the headquarters of Turkish intelligence and parliament in the capital, Ankara, and others seized a major bridge in Istanbul. Erdogan accused the coup plotters of trying to kill him, and launched a purge of the armed forces, which last used force to stage a successful coup more than 30 years ago.
At one stage, military commanders were held hostage by the plotters, a minister said.
By Saturday evening, there were still isolated rebel pockets but the government declared the situation fully under control, saying 2,839 people had been rounded up, from foot soldiers to senior officers, including those who had formed “the backbone” of the rebellion. Anadolu news agency said one of those detained was the commander general of the second army, one of Turkey’s most senior military officials.
Erdogan, who had been holidaying on the southwest coast when the coup was launched, flew into Istanbul before dawn on Saturday and was shown on television outside Ataturk Airport. Addressing thousands of flag-waving supporters at the airport later, he said the government remained at the helm, although disturbances continued in Ankara. Erdogan, a polarising figure whose Islamist-rooted ideology lies at odds with supporters of modern Turkey’s secular principles, said the plotters had tried to attack him in the resort town of Marmaris.
A Turkish military commander also said fighter jets had shot down a helicopter used by the coup plotters over Ankara. Momentum turned against the coup plotters as the night wore on. Crowds defied orders to stay indoors, gathering at major squares in Istanbul and Ankara, waving flags and chanting.
Turkey is one of the main backers of opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in that country’s civil war, host to 2.7 million Syrian refugees and launchpad last year for the biggest influx of migrants to Europe since World War Two. Turkey has suffered numerous bombings and shootings this year, including an attack two weeks ago by militants at Ataturk airport that killed more than 40 people, as well as those staged by Kurdish militants.
300 killed in South Sudan violence: UN
At least 300 people have been killed in four days of intense gun battles in the capital of South Sudan and 42,000 have fled the city, the UN said on Friday, July 15. The recent violence in Juba echoed the fighting that triggered the civil war and marks a fresh blow to last year’s peace deal to end the bitter conflict that began when President Salva Kiir accused ex-rebel and now Vice President Riek Machar of plotting a coup.
“It’s over 300 deaths since July 8,” said World Health Organisation spokesman Tarik Jasarevic. The UN however said it did not have the number of injured.
The July 8-11 violence had left “42,000 internally displaced” in the world’s youngest nation, said William Spindler, the spokesman for the UN refugee agency.
“The number of refugees in neigbouring countries is now 835,000,” he said. However, the International Organisation for Migration said many people were returning. “Humanitarian access to affected people has improved dramatically since Monday. But this can only be sustained if the ceasefire holds”, said John McCue, IOM South Sudan Head of Operations.
Machar´s sacking as vice-president in 2013 set off a cycle of retaliatory killings that split the poverty-stricken, landlocked country along ethnic lines and drove more than two million out of their homes.
The conflict has been characterised by horrific rights abuses, including gang rapes, the wholesale burning of villages and cannibalism. According to the UN, there were some 114,000 South Sudanese refugees in neighbouring countries before December 2013 but that figure has ballooned to 835,000 now.
IS claims Nice massacre
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility on Saturday, June 16 for the truck massacre in Nice which France said was “a new kind of attack,” as it faced hard questions over security failures. In a statement via its Amaq news service, IS said one of its “soldiers” carried out Thursday night’s attack “in response to calls to target nations of coalition states that are fighting (IS)”.
Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, 31, ploughed a 19-tonne truck into a crowd of people which had been watching Bastille Day fireworks in the Riviera city, killing 84 and injuring 200 people.
After crisis talks in Paris, French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian recalled that IS had recently repeated calls to supporters to “directly attack the French, Americans, wherever they are and by whatever means.”
“Even if Daesh (Arabic name for IS) does not organise, Daesh breathes life into the terrorist spirit that we are fighting,” he said, adding this meant France must keep up its fight against the jihadists in Iraq and Syria.
Facing its third major terror attack within 18 months, the French government is coming under fire from opposition politicians and newspapers demanding more than “the same old solemn declarations”.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that, after gunmen and suicide bombings, France was facing “a new kind of attack”. Speaking as France began three days of mourning on Saturday, he said Lahouaiej-Bouhlel “had not been known to the intelligence services because he did not stand out… by being linked with radical Islamic ideology”.
Bomb kills four cops in Aden
A bomb killed four policemen on Wednesday, July 20 in Yemen’s second city Aden, a security official said, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group. Another six officers were wounded in the blast in the southern port city where the Saudi-backed government has its base, the official told AFP. The Jihadist IS group issued a statement claiming the bombing. Security officials said that the assailant approached carrying a bag and asked to eat lunch with the troops.
He left the bag behind and it exploded as soon as he was gone, the sources told AFP.
Despite a 16-month-old Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen, the government has struggled to secure Aden, which has seen several bombings and assassinations claimed by IS or al-Qaeda. On Friday, a suicide bombing claimed by al-Qaeda hit the convoy of Aden governor Aidarus al-Zubaidi, wounding three people travelling with him.
The jihadists also claimed two suicide bombings on Monday that killed 11 people in two of their former strongholds in the southeast.
Earlier this year, the Saudi-led coalition launched a major offensive against al-Qaeda, helping to recapture the Hadramawt provincial capital of Mukalla in April after a year of Jihadist rule. Coalition forces had previously focused their guns on rebels and their allies who control the capital Sanaa and much of the north and centre, creating a power vacuum that has been exploited by Jihadists.
Fresh rebel attack in Central Africa
At least three people were killed in an attack by militia in the troubled Bambari region of the Central African Republic, informed sources said on Sunday, July 24. Armed herdsmen and fighters from the mainly Muslim former rebel Seleka movement attacked the southern town of Ngakobo, some 30 kilometres outside Bambari, on Saturday, “firing on sight” at houses, a police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Ngakobo saw a spate of attacks during two years of widespread unrest between 2013 and 2015 which saw about half a million people displaced after the ousting of long-serving president Francois Bozize, a Christian by a Seleka-led rebel alliance.
During that period Seleka fighters sacked and occupied the sugar plant for a year before it finally reopened in mid-2014.
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.
