Bomb/IED attacks
Two soldiers of Army bomb disposal squad (BDS) were killed and three others sustained injuries in a landmine blast in the Jarobi Darra area in Baizai tehsil (revenue unit) of Mohmand District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on December 28, reports The News. The sources said the BSD personnel were conducting a search when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in the Jarobi Darra area near the Pak-Afghan border. Naib Subedar Shahzad and Sepoy Mohammad Kaleem were killed in the blast.
A powerful car bomb blast ripped through the Kalibari locality in the Saddar area here on Saturday, Jan 5, 2019 causing injuries to six people, including two women and damaging four shops. The closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV) footage showed a bearded man wearing a shawl parking the 86 model white Toyota Corolla in the street before the explosion. Sources said it would not be hard for the investigators to identify the perpetrators because the face of the man parking the car was visible in the CCTV footage.
The blast is the first in Peshawar in 2019. The explosion is also the first in the provincial capital in at least the past three months.
At least 10 persons, including Naib Tehsildar Abdul Malik Tareen and two Levies personnel, were injured in an improvised explosive device (IED) explosion in Pishin town under same District in Balochistan on January 6, reports Dawn. Police said the Naib Tehsildar Abdul Malik Tareen was the target of the first attack. An IED planted in a motorcycle parked outside Tareen’s office detonated as he was entering the building.
Separately, two persons including a Frontier Corps soldier and a civilian were injured in a remote-controlled blast in Panjgur bazaar(market) in Panjgur town under same District on January 6, reports Dawn. A security official under the condition of anonymity said the militants targeted an FC vehicle with the roadside remote-controlled bomb in Panjgur bazaar. The blast also damaged the vehicle.
A car was damaged after it hit an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast took place on the roadside in the Olai Shah area under Ambar tehsil (revenue unit) in Mohmand Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on January 8, reports Dawn. Local traders were on board the vehicle, but they remained unhurt, Assistant Commissioner, Lower Mohmand, Qaiser Alam Khan said.
Targetted Killings
A Policeman was killed and another was wounded in firing near Old Golimar area of SITE Town in Karachi on December 26, reports The News. According to Police, the firing incident occurred in Old Golimar area when both the cops were on their way back to home on a motorbike after being relieved of duty. Unknown assailants stopped them at Rexer Bridge and opened fire on them. The injured personnel were shifted to hospital, where one of them succumbed to his wounds while the other remains under treatment. Police officials found five casings of 9mm bullets from the site of the incident.
Unidentified assailants opened fire on a female polio worker while she was participating in a polio vaccination campaign in Bhosa Mandi area of Quetta on December 26, reports Daily Times. According to Police, Ghazala was administering polio drops to children when some motorcyclists opened fire on her and escaped from the scene. Ghazala sustained bullet injuries while other polio workers survived the attack, Police added.
A Police constable was killed and another sustained injuries in an exchange of fire with unidentified suspects in the Sector I-8/3 of Islamabad, the federal capital on December 31, reports Dawn. According to a statement issued by the Islamabad Capital Territory, the two Policemen were performing patrolling duties in the Sector I-8/3 when the firing incident occurred. The Policemen had signalled two suspected bike riders to stop for snap checking but they retaliated by opening fire on the patrolling officials. Constable Muhammad Waseem died on the spot while Constable Muhammad Arif sustain bullet wounds.
At least six persons including a woman were injured in a blast in Kala Bari market located in the Saddar area of Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on January 5, reports Dawn. Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) of Peshawar Qazi Jamil said that about eight to ten kilogrammes of explosive material were used in the blast. The material was planted in a white Corolla, he added. The vehicle was completely destroyed in the blast that was so loud that it shattered the windowpanes of nearby buildings.
Miscellaneous
One militant was killed on January 4 when Security Forces conducted an intelligence-based operation (IBO) on a suspected terrorist hideout in Barkelay village of Spin Wam tehsil (revenue unit) in North Waziristan District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), reports The Nation. Improvised Explosive Device making literature, Sub-Machine Gun, hand grenades, spare magazines and communication equipment were recovered during the operation.
The Frontier Corps (FC) on January 4 foiled sabotage attempt of militant by recovering weapons and ammunition during a search operation in Kahan near Mawand areas of Qilla Saifullah District in Balochistan, reports The Nation.
The Security Forces (SFs) foiled a major terror bid, recovered arms, ammunition and explosives during a search operation in Dasht Goran area of Dera Bugti District in Balochistan on January 7, reports The Nation. 25-kilogram explosives, a rocket, two anti-tank mines, detonators and other material used in terrorist activities were recovered.
Four suspected terrorists, including the alleged mastermind of a November 23, 2018, suicide attack in Orakzai, were killed in an ‘encounter’ with Security Forces (SFs) in Hangu District on January 16, reports The Dawn. A civilian was also accidentally killed in the shootout, AP reported. A local Police official, Muhammad Khalid, confirmed that security forces had conducted a raid in Hangu. A security source told that the raid was carried out after a tip-off was received that the house was serving as a militant hideout. Muhammad Islam was responsible for orchestrating the suicide attack near an Imambargah (Shia place of commemoration) in lower Orakzai’s Kalaya Bazaar that left at least 32 people dead and 31 injured. The Security source that Islam had ties to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.
Eleven people were taken into custody on January 18 night following a raid conducted at the North Nazimabad area of Karachi, reports The News. Police further revealed that 20 suspects were already held while the 11 arrested were found possessing weapons, contraband as well as stolen motorcycles from the Taimuria neighborhood. Moreover, it was revealed that the arrested suspects were also embroiled in offences like street crimes, drug-peddling and stealing motorcycles. Police further stated that the previously seized suspects are presently undergoing interrogation while their criminal records accumulation and document verification is also being conducted.
Four persons, including a husband, wife and their teenage daughter were killed while their minor son received bullet wounds in an alleged shootout by Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), in Sahiwal District of Punjab on January 19, reports Geo TV. CTD personnel said they had killed a ‘local commander’, identified as Zeeshan of militant organisation Daesh/ Islamic State (IS) and three others in the operation.
Later, on January 20, CTD officials killed two more suspected terrorists, identified as Abdur Rehman and Kashif Langra in a shootout in Gujranwala District, reports Daily Times. The suspects allegedly belonged to a banned outfit and were gunned down in an exchange of fire, a CTD spokesperson said, claiming that the two men were accomplices of terrorist Zeeshan. The deceased were wanted for their involvement in attacks on Security Forces (SFs) and kidnapping of local and foreign citizens, he added. According to the anti-terror police department, the two alleged terrorists were residing in Zeeshan’s house in Lahore and fled when they heard the news of Zeeshan’s death.
Unidentified persons fired a rocket at the house of Sheikh Jan Zada, a senior leader of the Awami National Party (ANP), situated near the Nawagai Bazaar in the Nawagai area of Bajaur District in the province on January 22, reports Dawn. However, no casualty was reported in the incident.
Pakistan Rangers recovered illegal arms and ammunition from a main-hole in Dubai Chowk area of Lyari town of Karachi city on January 23, reports Daily Times. The spokesman of Pakistan Rangers informed that the five hand grenades, four detonators, 1,220 rounds of M-4 rifle, 130 rounds of 8-MM rifle were recovered from bag; weapons were kept in the main-hole by the miscreants of Zahid Ladla gang.
The Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA) in Sindh, during a meeting on law and order situation of the province, informed that they have identified an unnamed terror outfit’s sleeper cell in Sukkur City, reports The Express Tribune. In his briefing, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) on January 23, informed Sindh Chief Minister (CM), Murad Ali Shah that the Force was vigilantly monitoring movement at the Sindh-Balochistan provincial border. He said some militant elements had established hideouts in the province. “They will be taken to task with the help of intelligence agencies,” he added.
PAKISTAN
India has no role to play in Afghanistan, says Foreign Office
The Foreign Office on December 27 stated that India has no role to play in Afghanistan and assured that Pakistan will continue to play a constructive role for promoting peace and reconciliation process in the restive western neighbour, reports Daily Times. Responding to media questions at his press briefing in the Foreign Ministry, FO spokesperson Dr. Muhammad Faisal said the purpose of Foreign Minister’s whirlwind visit was two-fold, including strengthening of regional consensus on Afghanistan and exploring possibilities of a win-win framework for regional connectivity and economic development to help achieve the ultimate objective of economic growth and prosperity in the region.
Army completes fencing of 482km border strip along Pak-Afghan border
The Army has completed fencing of the first 482 kilometers long patch of the 1,403kilometerslong Pak-Afghan border in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), The Express Tribune reported on December 29. The fence is provided with security cameras and motion detectors. On December 27 a delegation of journalists visited the Pakistan-Afghanistan Torkham border in Khyber District where security authorities gave them a detailed briefing on border management. They said in 2017, the Pakistan Army in the first phase started working on 482kilometerslong patch along Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Work on this patch has now completed well before time bringing about a visible decline in terrorism and smuggling. Authorities said equipped with water, solar electricity and protection mines, 233 forts have also been constructed on the 1,403 kilometers long border. To link these forts, safe tracks are also being constructed. From the Torkham border crossing, around 1,200 trucks and 10,000 people enter and exit Pakistan but now no one gets permission to enter Pakistan without proper documents. Special cards have been given to 200 Afghan students who live in Afghanistan but study in Pakistan. Emergency patients also get permission to enter Pakistan without documents.
Army chief confirms death sentences awarded to 22 terrorists
The Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa on December 28 ratified the death sentences awarded to 22 hardcore terrorists, reports Dawn. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement that the convicts were reportedly involved in heinous terrorist offences, including attacks on armed forces, law enforcement agencies, explosions of vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (IED) to carry out sectarian killings, destruction of communication infrastructure, police check posts, educational institutions, and killing of innocent civilians. The convicted terrorists were responsible for the deaths of a total of 176 people, including 19 armed forces personnel, 41 police and Levies officials and 116 civilians, and causing injuries to 217 others. Arms and explosives had also been recovered from their possession. Special military courts had awarded death sentences to these convicts. The courts also handed down imprisonments to 15 convicts and acquitted two accused after finding them not guilty. All 22 of the terrorists were found to be members of banned organisations. They confessed to their offences before a judicial magistrate and in their statements during their respective trials, according to the ISPR.
Pakistan Army shoots down Indian quadcopter at LoC: ISPR
The Pakistan Army shot down a spy Indian quadcopter in Bagh sector along the Line of Control (LoC), said Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor on Tuesday, Jan 1, 2019.
According to DG ISPR’s Twitter post: “Pakistan Army troops shot down Indian spy quadcopter in Bagh sector along Line of Control. Not even a quadcopter will be allowed to cross the LoC, Insha’Allah.”
Four SF personnel and four militants were killed in an attack on FC training centre in Balochistan
Four Frontier Corps (FC) personnel were killed during an exchange of fire with militants trying to storm the residential and administration compound inside a FC training centre in Loralai District of Balochistan on January 1, reports Dawn. Four militants were killed in the clearance operation undertaken by FC personnel following the attack. According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the FC personnel challenged the terrorists at the entry point of the “residential/ administration compound of the training centre” and foiled their attempt to enter the facility. Having failed to enter the residential compound, the terrorists reportedly opened indiscriminate fire and entered a compound adjacent to the check post which was immediately cordoned off by FC. The exchange of fire at the check post left four FC personnel martyred and two others injured. The killed FC personnel were identified as Subedar Major Munawar, Havildar Iqbal Khan, Havildar Bilal and Sepoy Naqshab.
Militant attacks declined by 45pc in 2018, says PICSS
The year 2018 saw a remarkable reduction of 45pc in militant attacks in Pakistan, Dawn reported on January 2 quoting a study conducted by Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS). The PICSS study showed that the security situation significantly improved in the year as the number of attacks, resultant deaths as well as injuries declined by 45pc, 37pc and 49pc, respectively, compared to 2017. The number of suicide attacks also declined. According to a press release, militants carried out 229 attacks in different provinces in which 577 people were killed – 356 civilians, 152 security forces personnel and 67 militants. Besides, 959 people were injured, including 693 civilians and 261 security personnel. But the ratio of security forces’ casualties per attack significantly increased in 2018 compared to 2017.
A consistent decline in militant attacks was noticed since the launch of Operation Zarb-i-Azb (‘Sword of the Prophet’, also ‘sharp and cutting’) in June 2014. The average militant attacks per month declined from 35 in 2017 to 19 in 2018. In 2014, it was 134 which dropped to 59 in 2015 and 42 in 2016. Average militant attacks per month decreased from 35 in 2017 to 19 in 2018, report says. Balochistan remained the most troubled province where the highest number of militant attacks (99), highest number of deaths (354) and highest number of injured (570) were recorded. Of the total attacks in the country, 61pc of the deaths and 59pc of the injuries took place in Balochistan. The second highest number of attacks (65) was recorded in the erstwhile FATA in which 107 people were killed and 150 injured. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 40 attacks were recorded in which 72 people were killed and 174 injured. As many as 14 attacks were reported from Sindh in which 21 people were killed and 20 injured.
Punjab saw six militant attacks in which 18 people were killed and 42 injured. More footprints of the militants were observed in Gilgit-Baltistan than the previous years as four militant attacks were recorded in the area during the year in which five people were killed and three injured. At least 12 schools, mostly of girls, were destroyed in a single night in the Diamer District. In 2017, 23 suicide attacks had been recorded in the country. However, the number declined to 18 in 2018 in which 267 people were killed and 460 injured.
Pakistan submits terror financing report to FATF
Pakistan on January 4 dispatched its Terror Financing Risk Assessment Report to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), identifying both domestic and foreign sources of funding being utilised for terrorist activities, reports The News. The report was submitted in accordance with the directions of the FATF. A 12-member delegation from Pakistan, headed by Federal Secretary Finance Arif Ahmed Khan, will also be attending the upcoming FATF plenary meeting at Sydney. The terror financing threats include predicate crimes such as cash smuggling, kidnapping for ransom, narco-trafficking, extortion, etc. The channels for terror financing include Hundi/Hawala, unregistered charities, virtual currencies, depending on the corresponding threats and preventive controls.
595 martyred in 262 terrorist attacks in 2018, PIPS report
According to Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS) Security Report 2018, a total of 595 people, including security officials, were martyred and 1,030 others were injured in 262 terrorist attacks carried out by militant, insurgent and violent sectarian groups across the country during 2018, reports The Express Tribune. PIPS report said on January 6 that “These attacks posted a 29 per cent decrease from the previous year. Of these attacks, as many as 171 attacks were perpetrated by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its splinter groups Jama’at-ul-Ahrar, Hizbul Ahrar and others, martyring 449 people. “Meanwhile, nationalist insurgent groups, mostly in Balochistan and a few in Sindh, carried out 80 attacks, martyring 96 people. As many as 11 terrorist attacks were sectarian-related, martyring 50 people and injuring 45 others.”
The PIPS report states that significantly, more than half of these attacks, around 136, hit security and law enforcement agencies. Meanwhile, security forces and law enforcement agencies killed a total of 120 militants in 2018 compared to 524 in 2017 in 31 military/security operations as well as 22 armed clashes and encounters with the militants reported from across four provinces.
Balochistan remained the centre of attention with 354 people martyred in attacks while 59 per cent of the total toll in Pakistan took place in the province. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas agencies, faced the second highest number of terrorist attacks compared to all other regions of Pakistan. A total of 125 reported attacks from the province claimed 196 lives and injured 376 people.
The report also noted a total of 131 cross-border attacks from Pakistan’s borders with Afghanistan, India and Iran, claiming 111 lives and injuring 290 others. Pakistan’s border along Iran also saw some clashes, a few hinting at diplomatic blame game. Two attacks by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) stood out for their modus operandi as in both, the banned group tried to kill Chinese workers and diplomats.
119 killed in terror incidents in Balochistan last year, says IG Mohsin Butt
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mohsin Butt on January 11 said that A total of 119 people including 15 police personnel were killed and 114 injured in terrorism-related incidents in Balochistan during 2018, reports Dawn. Twenty-five terrorists were also killed in encounters and 55 arrested in 1,245 intelligence-based operations (IBOs) in the province. Inspector General of Police Mohsin Butt said. He said that 1,245 IBOs and 1,869 combing operations were conducted under the National Action Plan across Balochistan in 2018 in which 55 terrorists were killed and 4,188 absconders and 5,449 accused were arrested. They belonged to 22 militant groups. IGP Butt said that another 898 suspects had been arrested during IBO operations. IGP Butt further said that 21,103 weapons, 2,536kgs of narcotics were recovered. He added that a total of 8,755 incidents of crimes including 42 sabotage activities, 34 targeted killings and 11 sectarian killings were reported in 2018 as compared to 9,490 in 2017.
Attack on Chinese Consulate: Plan readied in Afghanistan, India involved in attack
Additional IGP of Karachi Dr. Amir Shaikh said on Friday, Jan 11 that the plan to attack the Chinese Consulate in Karachi was prepared in Afghanistan as India and its Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) were involved in the attack. Addressing a press conference in Karachi, the police chief said that five facilitators have been arrested in relation to the attack, which took place in November last year. He said that terrorists belonging to the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) were involved in the attack. The purpose behind the attack was to create a rift between Pakistan and China and sabotage the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, he asserted.
“The attack was planned in Afghanistan,” he added. Further, Dr. Shaikh shared, “Weapons for the attack were transported from Quetta to Karachi through train service and kept in a house in Baldia Town. The suspects stayed at a residence in Baldia Town belonging to a man named Arif,” he said. “They conducted a recce of the Chinese consulate for four months.” The additional IGP said, “Only one suspect remains to be arrested.”
Earlier Friday, police said they have completed the probe into the attack on the Chinese consulate. Security forces on November 23, 2018 foiled an attack on the Chinese consulate located in Karachi’s upscale Clifton area, killing all three terrorists and seizing at least nine hand grenades, Kalashnikov bullets, magazines and explosives.
Two policemen, ASI Ashraf Dawood and Constable Amir, were martyred in the operation to foil the attack. Two civilians, a father and a son, who had come from Quetta for visas, were also killed.
Supreme Court holds jirgas violative of Pakistan’s world commitments, says report
The Supreme Court (SC) on January 16, held the system of jirga (Council of Elders) and panchayat (village level local self government institution) in violation of Pakistan’s international commitments under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), reports The Dawn. These commitments placed a responsibility on Pakistan to ensure that everyone had access to courts or tribunals and is treated equally before the law, a verdict authored by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar said.
The decision came on a petition moved by the National Commission on Status of Women (NCSW) as well as the government of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). The genesis of the issue raised in the case lies in the reality that in today’s age, informal custom-driven parallel legal systems in the form of ‘council of elders’ or ‘kangaroo courts’ exist in tribal areas, particularly in the north of KP and in some rural areas of KP, Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan.
In response, the verdict held that the manner in which jirgas or panchayats functioned in the country was violative of Articles 4, 8, 10-A, 25 and 175(3) of the Constitution and explained that this practice of parallel judicial system did not fall under the constitution or any other law, because this system attempted to adjudicate on civil or criminal matters.
The verdict also declared as illegal and against the spirit of the constitution any order, decision or a directive issued by any such individual or group of persons, since no individual or persons in the name of a jirga/ panchayat or under any other name could assume the jurisdiction of a civil or criminal court without any lawful authority. The judgment also provided guidelines by holding that the law-enforcement agencies all over Pakistan were duty-bound to be vigilant and ensure that if any crime had gone unreported, they of their own accord filed FIR(s) with regard to the same and initiated the process of investigation, the verdict said.
Veterans want military courts to function
The Veterans of Pakistan (VOP) has said it is absolutely necessary that the military courts continue to function till complete peace is restored across the country. Pakistan is not only facing threat from the TTP but also from other groups, including ISIS and Daesh, which should not be taken lightly, they said.
A meeting of the VOP (formerly PESA) was held on Jan 14 with its President Lt Gen (Retd) Ali Kuli Khan in the chair in which it was observed that the issue of military courts should not be used to gain political mileage as it was linked with the national security. Those who are crying for human rights should also look at the US, the most powerful democracy in the world which needed a detention centre like the Guantanamo Bay, they added. They said the Guantanamo Bay is the worst kind of prison in the modern world, but it is considered a necessity for the national security of the USA.
Even inside the USA, their Patriot Act has given vast powers to the investigation agencies and far enhanced punishments for the convicted. The veterans noted that when soldiers feel pride in sacrificing their lives for the country, our people also want quick and harsh punishments for terrorists. With our present legal system, their trials have a tendency to stretch out to unlimited periods or sometimes the investigators fail to provide enough evidence to prove charges, thus losing effectiveness. They said the military courts do not deny human rights for the peace-loving citizens. They also follow the Evidence Act, but their trials should not be judged or compared with the civil courts. They noted that politicians, bureaucrats and lawyers have been killed by terrorists while judges and important officials have been receiving death threats.
The members stressed the need to expedite long awaited judicial reforms. There is a need to quicken the pace of trials for terrorism and also heinous crimes which have taken alarming proportions. Vice Admiral (Retd) Ahmad Tasnim, Air Marshal Masood Akhtar, Brig Mian Mahmud, Brig Arbi Khan, Brig Simon Sharaf, Col Riaz Jafri, Col (Retd) Dalel Khan, Maj (Retd) Farouk Hamid Khan, Maj (Retd) Muhammad Akram, Capt (Retd) Dr. Babur Zaheeruddin, and Brig (Retd) Masud-ul-Hassan were also present at the meeting.
Supreme Court powers extended to Gilgit-Baltistan
In a written order regarding the constitutional status of Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and the grant of fundamental rights to its citizens, the Supreme Court on January 17, ruled that the powers of the top court also extend to the region, adding that no part of the 1973 Constitution can be abolished or amended without proper legislation, reports Daily Times. The order clarified that no changes will be made to the current state of Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir and that the constitutional status of these areas shall be determined through a referendum. It further said that this process should take place within 14 days. “India and Pakistan are responsible for giving more rights to the people of the areas under their control and until the referendum happens, Pakistan is bound to give Gilgit-Baltistan as many rights as possible,” the Court ruled. The order pointed out that several administrative offices have already been created in the area under the Gilgit-Baltistan Order, 2018.
PIA aircraft escapes drone strike
Police launched a search operation in Sohrab Goth, Karachi (provincial capital of Sindh) and its adjoining areas for a drone after a Sukkur-bound plane escaped a possible accident on January 18, reports The News. According to Police officials, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight PK-536 was en-route to Sukkur from the Jinnah International Airport, Karachi. Shortly after the plane took off from the airport and reached near the Afghan Basti area in Karachi’s Sohrab Goth, a ‘drone’ came close to the aircraft suddenly. According to Malir Police spokesperson, the Police were looking for the drone and its operator. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Irfan Ali Bahadur said that after receiving the information, Police mobiles were moved to Sohrab Goth and Gulshan-e-Maymar areas where they had thoroughly checked houses and also led a search operation at the farmhouses there.
Military courts needed by nation, not army, states ISPR Director General Asif Gafoor
Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General, Major General Asif Ghafoor on January 18, said the military courts have not been set up on the Army’s wish but were needed by the nation and approved by the Parliament following a national and political consensus, reports Daily Times. “There was a wave of terrorism in the country. After the 2008 military operations gained momentum, many terrorists were arrested. Criminal justice system at that time was not quite effective in dealing with the terrorism cases, hence the military courts were established after a unanimous approval from the Parliament. It was decided through national consensus that military courts should be established and death penalty be revived,” Gafoor said.
He also said 717 cases were referred to the military courts in the last four years, 646 of which have already been disposed of. He said there is a transparent system through which the cases are transferred to the military courts. “The accused are also provided an opportunity to defend themselves” he revealed. “These cases have no link with the missing persons,” he asserted.
The ISPR Chief said terrorism incidents have decreased after the establishment of the military courts which have also created a sense of fear among the terrorists. “Military courts have sent a clear message to the terror outfits, militants and their handlers that they will be punished,” he said.
Bad governance the only problem in Pakistan, said PM Imran Khan
Prime Minister Imran Khan on January 22, described bad governance as the only problem in Pakistan and that his Government would steer the country out of difficulties, reports Daily Times. “The only problem is of governance. If there is bad governance, the rich countries can turn into poor ones,” Khan asserted. The PM had said that the devaluation of PKR was also due to money laundering as it caused shortage of dollars in the country that also created the balance of payment problem in Pakistan. Khan addressing the expatriates said, “This country will turn into one where you will not be required to look for jobs abroad. Allah Almighty created this country on 27th of Ramadan and bestowed it with His special blessings,” he said, and added that Pakistan was blessed with a lot of natural resources and opportunities.
REGIONAL
Bangladesh – Internal Dynamics
Awami League wins parliamentary polls securing two-thirds majority
Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina led her party to a third consecutive win in parliamentary polls, securing two-thirds majority in December 30’s election held in an atmosphere dominated by the ruling party men, reports The Daily Star. Hasina is set to become the Prime Minister for the third straight time an unprecedented feat in the country’s history.
Meanwhile, Jatiya Oikya Front, an alliance of primarily four parties including Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Gono Forum, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-JSD and Nagorik Oikya, on December 30 demanded that the Election Commission (EC) immediately scrap the “farcical election” and hold a fresh one under a nonpartisan interim Government, reports The Daily Star. “We reject this so-called result. At the same time, we demand fresh polls under a nonpartisan government,” Jatiya Oikya Front Dr. Kamal Hossain said at a press conference at his house in the capital.
Separately, rejecting the 11th parliamentary election, several leftist political parties on December 30 demanded a “re-election” under a “non-partisan caretaker government” as early as possible, reports The Daily Star. “It has been proved once again that there is no chance of a free, neutral and acceptable election under a partisan government. The result of this election will not be acceptable,” said Mohammad Shah Alam, coordinator of Bam Ganatantrik Jote, a group of eight leftist parties including the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), and Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal (BSD).
PCJSS man shot dead in Rangamati District
A group of unidentified criminals killed a member of MN Larma faction of Parbatya Chattogram Jana Samhati Samity (PCJSS-MN Larma), Bashu Chakma, (40), near Babupara Community Centre in Baghaichhari upazila on January 4, reports Daily Star.
Government to try Jamaat-e Islami for war crimes as an organisation, says Law Minister Anis-ul-Huq
Law Minister Anis-ul-Huq on January 9 said the government would take an initiative to amend the relevant law again to try and punish Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) as an organisation for committing war crimes during the Liberation War, reports Daily Star. In its previous term, government had taken a step to amend the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act-1973 for holding the trial and punishing JeI as an organisation, but the process was not completed.
Don’t send girls to school, it makes them disobedient, Hefajat-e-Islam Chief Shah Ahmed Shafi tells parents in sermon
Hefajat-e Islam (HeI) Chief Shah Ahmed Shafi on January 11 made parents promise that they won’t send their daughters to school, reports Daily Star. Addressing a rally the Islamist leader said girls should not receive schooling beyond grade IV or V because education would make them disobedient. Shah Ahmed Shafi said this while addressing a gathering at Darul-Ulum Moin-ul-Islam Madrasa in Hathazari upazila (sub District) of Chattogram.
Hizb ut-Tahrir is running secret campaign to recruit operatives in Chittagong
Hizb ut-Tahrir is campaigning secretly in Chattogram city, targeting private university students to recruit fresh operatives, said officials of Counter Terrorism (CT) unit of Chattogram Metropolitan Police, reports Daily Star. To strengthen the outfit’s organisational activities, its leaders and operatives are working in several groups and picking new members who have good academic and family backgrounds, the officials said. As part of its strategy, the HuT men are regularly holding meetings and carrying out other organisational activities in different parts of the city. They have chosen busy intersections and playgrounds for their regular meetings to dodge the eyes of law enforcement agencies.
Arms and Explosives Recovered from a militant hideout in Dhaka
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit recovered a huge cache of firearms, ammunition and explosives during a raid from a militant hideout in DOHS Baridhara area of Dhaka city on January 17, reports Dhaka Tribune. CTTC units recovered two automatic handguns with 11 bullets, two shotguns with two shells, seven jihadi books, cash worth BDT 300,000 and Fake Bangladeshi Currency Notes.
India – Internal Dynamics
Maoists shun mobile phones in Kerala to prevent tracking by agencies
Cadres of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist)in Kerala are totally discarding mobile phones for communication to prevent investigating agencies to trace their locations or gather information, reports The New Indian Express on December 28. The special teams of Kerala Police have been combing four Districts (Wayanad, Palakkad, Kozhikode and Malappuram) for a while, and have not been able to track the details of the Maoist cadres though they have appeared in public with arms a couple of times. Police officers said that the insurgents have stopped using mobile phones or other digital communication devices with the clear intention of avoiding any sort of tracking by the enforcement agencies. “They are more into using conventional communication methods, such as using human couriers,” said a senior Police officer. Another intelligence officer said that the Maoists have gone back to using longhand notes for communication with their cells. A detailed analysis by agencies based on documents seized from Maoists had found the guidelines issued by the central leadership on the usage of mobile phones and internet. The cadres have been warned against carrying mobile phones or downloading any data using them. They have also been asked to access internet with great caution. All this to avoid the tracking of location by the investigating agencies.
Maoist kill BJP MLC’s kin in Bihar
The cadres of the Communist Party of India-Maoist shot dead the uncle of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)Member of Legislative Council (MLC), and set ablaze 10 vehicles in Aurangabad District of Bihar on December 30, reports Devdiscourse News. Superintendent of Police (SP), Satya Prakash said the Maoists attacked Sudi Bigaha village under Deo Police Station, during which a man identified as Narendra Singh (55) was shot dead. Singh is the uncle of Rajan Kumar Singh, a BJP MLC. According to the SP, the Maoists fired several rounds and set the 10 vehicles on fire, including three tractors parked at Narendra Singh’s house. The Maoists also set a house belonging to one Dhananjay Singh, a dafadar with Deo Police Station, on fire located near Sudi Bigaha village, the SP said. After getting information about the Maoist attack, Security Forces (SFs) reached the village and exchanged fire with the Maoists, who then fled from the spot, SP, Prakash said.
CRPF Assistant Commandant killed in Jharkhand
An Assistant Commandant of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was killed during an anti- Communist Party of India-Maoist operation at Senjani in Khunti District of Jharkhand on December 31, reports Daily Excelsior. On 31-12-2018, on receipt of Intelligence input from SP Khunti regarding the movement of extremists, a two-day operation was launched in the forest area of Senjani, PS Arki, District Khunti (Jharkhand). Two platoons of C/157 under command of Ghulam Jeelani Khan took up positions in the target area. At around 1800 hours, troops noticed a torchlight near the area where they had taken position. Anticipating contact with extremist, Ghulam Jeelani Khan along with a small team moved swiftly to place an ambush along the path where suspected extremists were supposed to move. Leading from front in the darkness, he was about to reach a dominating place to lay an ambush, when he came in contact with a live electric wire of 11000. Having suffered serious injuries due to the electric shock, he was immediately evacuated to PHC Arki, where he was given first aid. He was later shifted to District Hospital Khunti for better treatment but he succumbed to his injuries enroute.
AFSPA extended in Nagaland
Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) has been extended for six more month in Nagaland, reports Northeast Today on January 1. According to Union Ministry of Home Affairs (UMHA) notification, Government of India (GoI) is of the opinion that the area comprising the whole of State of Nagaland is in such a disturbed and dangerous condition that the use of armed forces in aid of civilian power is necessary. A ministry official said the decision to continue the declaration of Nagaland as “disturbed area” has been taken as killings, loot and extortion have been going on in various parts of the State which necessitated the action for the convenience of the security forces operating there.
Molotov cocktail attack on BJP office in Meghalaya
On January 7, unidentified persons lobbed a Molotov cocktail at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office in Shillong in East Khasi Hills District, reports The Hindu. According to BJP State President ‘Unidentified men attacked the front portion of the office partially damaging it. The incident was reported around midnight’.
KCP-PWG declares ban against catholic schools in Manipur
Kangleipak Communist Party-People’s War Group Marxist Centre (KCP-PWG Marxist Centre) stated that mission schools under Catholic Educational Society, Manipur will be banned from January 15, reports Imphal Free Press on January 11. A release signed by ‘secretary’, ‘central media coordinator’, Lenin Meitei stated that those running the schools should leave their respective educational institutions otherwise actions will be taken against them.
Monthly Fatalities
The following casualties, related to ongoing insurgencies and acts of terrorism occurred during the period Dec 26, 2018 to Jan 25, 2019
| Civilian | Indian Security Personnel | Militant | Total | |
| Assam | 02 | 00 | 00 | 02 |
| Manipur | 02 | 00 | 00 | 02 |
| Left Wing | 10 | 00 | 05 | 15 |
| Total | 14 | 00 | 05 | 19 |
Nepal – Internal Dynamics
Bill to amend contradictory laws sent to Cabinet for its nod
The Government has sent the bill seeking to amend the contradictory laws had already been sent to the Cabinet for its nod, reports The Himalayan Times on December 30. Secretary of the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Rajib Gautam told that the bill seeking to amend the contradictory laws had already been sent to the Cabinet for its nod. This bill will have to be endorsed by the Parliament by March 5, a deadline set by the constitution.
Sri Lanka – Internal Dynamics
Commonwealth commends Sri Lanka PM for commitment to democratic process
The Commonwealth on December 28 while congratulating Sri Lanka’s reinstated Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, commended the Premier and other political stakeholders for defending the democratic process and upholding the rule of law and the constitutional framework, reports Colombo Page. “In particular, I commend you and other political stakeholders for your steadfastness in defense and support of the rule of law and the constitutional framework,” the Secretary General of Commonwealth Patricia Scotland, QC said in a congratulatory message to Prime Minister Wickremesinghe. The Secretary General welcomed the peaceful resolution of the political crisis in Sri Lanka and offered the Commonwealth’s steadfast support to Sri Lanka to improve political reconciliation, progress constitutional reforms and entrench the rule of law.
Two Aava group suspects arrested in Jaffna in Northern Province
Police commandos arrested two persons allegedly involved with the Jaffna-based Aava group, at Kokuvil in Karaikattu in Jaffna in Northern Province on January 1, reports The Island. The suspects were later handed over to Jaffna Police. Aava members are accused of carrying out a series of attacks in the Jaffna peninsula over the past two years.
Separately, Army recovered four hand grenades, a pistol, ammunition and several hand phones at Pudur in Puliyankulam in the Vavuniya District of Northern Province on January 2, reports The Island.
‘Tamil political parties are fractured, there’s no unity amongst them’, says PLOTE’s coordinator Sivaraja Rashasingham
As long as Sri Lanka remains divided on lines of race, religion, caste, language, regions, poor and rich, the country will be devoid of the ‘balance’ to forge ahead, said Sivaraja Rashasingham, PLOTE’s (People’s Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam) coordinator based in Norway, reports The Island on January 5. “The ‘imbalance’ could open the door to outside forces to take control. It is left to us to decide whether to allow such forces to triumph or to take ‘control’ ourselves without being slaves to external elements, who will have their way, if they succeed”, he said in an interview during a visit to Colombo, last week. PLOTE, a one-time militant group, later worked with the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) to crush the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). After entering the political firmament, PLOTE contested parliamentary polls. The group’s leader, Dharmalingam Siddarthan, is a Member of Parliament (MP).
SLPP CMC member arrested along with phones contain footage of LTTE training in Colombo
The Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) arrested Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Colombo Municipal Councilor, Kulathissa Deeganage in connection over the unruly behaviour at the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) premises in Dematagoda in Colombo in Western Province, on January 6, reports Daily News. He was remanded till January 11 by Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayarathne. CCD officials informed court that a tense situation had prevailed as a result of the Councillor’s unruly behaviour. The phones had contained footage of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam training, according to the Security Forces (SFs). Further investigations are being carried out by the Puliyankulam Police, Vavuniya Police and Military intelligence units.
Sri Lanka court sentences two LTTE suspects who shot down plane in 2000
A Sri Lankan court on January 10 sentenced two cadres of the defeated terrorist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam for bombing of a military aircraft over 18 years ago, reports Colombo Page. North Central Provincial High Court Judge Mahesh Weeraman on January 10 sentenced the two ‘LTTE Missile Brigade’ cadres, Rajathurai Jagan alias Kulawan (41) and Nallan Sivalingam alias Sinnathilakan (43), both residents of Irasathurai in Jaffna, who pled guilty to launching a missile attack on a Sri Lanka Air Force aircraft in 2000 killing 37 people, to 185 years rigorous imprisonment.
The court heard that the suspects fired a missile at the Antonov-32 aircraft flying from Palaly to Ratmalana over Anuradhapura (North Central Province) on or near 30th of March 2000 and downed the plane killing 37 people onboard. At the time of the missile attack, members of the Air Force, the Navy and the Police and the Russian pilot were among the 37 people killed. The Judge ordered five years of rigorous imprisonment for each count, a total of 185 years for each suspect to be served in five years. The two LTTE suspects arrested in 2012 in Kilinochchi had revealed that the rebels had fired missiles towards the aircraft from Wilpattu jungles. The Police had recovered parts of the missiles used in the attack.
Sri Lanka has become drug smuggling center, accuse Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa
Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa said on January 10 that Sri Lanka has today become a center of drug smuggling, mainly due to politicians harbouring drug smugglers, reports Daily Mirror. Rajapaksa said it was time for the parents to take action to safeguard their children from drugs without waiting for the government to do so. “A strong system based on religious places of worship should be made to eradicate the drug menace. The police and other security forces should take legal action against drug smugglers without giving into political influences,” he said.
Meanwhile, according to the latest edition of The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index, which provides a snapshot of the state of democracy worldwide, Sri Lanka fell back in democracy in 2018 more than any other country in the region, reports Colombo Page on January 10. According to the 11th edition of the Democracy Index, Sri Lanka saw a marked decrease in its score from 6.48 in 2017 to 6.19, driven by a worsening in the functioning of government and in civil liberties. The report said although Sri Lanka and seven other countries include the word ‘democratic’, in their full titles not one of these countries is actually fully democratic. Sri Lanka has been classified as a “Flawed democracy”. “The country was plunged into a constitutional crisis in late October when the president, Maithripala Sirisena, announced the dismissal of the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, replacing him with an ally, Mahinda Rajapaksa (who served as president in 2005-15). This overreach of the president’s powers has dampened public confidence in government,” the report said.
Elsewhere in South Asian region India ranked 41 with a score of 7.23, Bangladesh ranked 88, Bhutan 94, Nepal 97, Pakistan 112 and Afghanistan 143 in the bottom five. Norway, ranked first as a full democracy, Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand and Denmark ranked in the top five in that order.
Sri Lankan court sentences two former LTTE cadres to prison for attack on Air Force camp in Anuradhapura
A Sri Lankan court on January 16 sentenced two members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who pleaded guilty to their role in the attack on the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) camp in Anuradhapura in Anuradhapura District in North Central Province in 2007, to 10 years rigorous imprisonment, reports Colombo Page. North Central Provincial High court judge Mahesh Weeraman sentenced the two former LTTE cadres Aravindan and Thabo Ruben to 10 years rigorous imprisonment with eligibility for parole after five years.
The two LTTE cadres have admitted that they provided the information for the attack on October 22, 2007 on the SLAF camp which destroyed a number of aircraft and killed more than 30 people including 21 rebels. The two suspects, Aravindan and Thabo Ruben had been charged on three counts of providing information to LTTE rebels to carry out the raid on the Air Force base. Aravindan pleaded guilty to the first and second charges while Thabo Ruben admitted guilty to the first and third charges. Each suspect was sentenced to 10 years in prison, five years for each charge.
Mass grave unearths 300 human skeletons in Mannar in Northern Province
Skeletal remains of 300 people and human bones have been unearthed as of January 16 from the mass grave found in Mannar in Mannar District of Northern Province after the grave area has been expanded for a second time since the excavations began on May 28, 2018, Senior Judicial Medical Officer Shaminda Rajapaksa said, reports Colombo Page. The excavations at the mass grave resumed on January 16 after temporarily suspending the activities on January 11. Until January 16 excavations have been carried out for 130 days and skeletal remains belonging to 300 individuals have been unearthed from the mass grave at the old Sathosa building site, the official said. Out of this total, skeletal remains of 294 individuals have been systematically removed and currently sealed and placed in a special chamber at the Mannar Magistrate’s Court complex, Dr. Rajapaksa said. Remains of 23 bodies believed to be children’s have been separated.
Former LTTE cadre arrested along with arms in Northern Province
Sri Lanka’s Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) officers arrested a former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cadre, identified as Suthan from Karanthai Palai in Northern Province on January 19, reports Tamil Guardian. The 40-year-old man, who is understood to have undergone an amputation, was arrested along with two pistols, 150 bullets and locally made gun which were found at his address. The TID have taken him to Vavuniya for further inquiry. The arrest is part of a series of interrogations and detentions of former LTTE cadre across the North-East over recent months.
INTERNATIONAL
Rebels breach Myanmar ceasefire in army attack
Myanmar’s army accused rebels on Friday, Dec 28 of attacking and killing “some” of its soldiers, the first skirmish acknowledged by the military in the wake of a rare ceasefire with ethnic armed groups.
The military announced last week it would suspend “all military movements” in the troubled northern and eastern regions for four months, a move observers say is unprecedented. Halting a simmering decades-long civil war could be a way to coax ethnic armed groups into a fractious peace process, which has been marred by continuous fighting in restive border areas.
But the Tatmadaw, the military’s Myanmar name, said their soldiers stationed in Shan state were attacked on Thursday by troops from the Shan State Army (SSA) also known as the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS).
The army also hit out at local news outlets for publishing reports of skirmishes between the Tatmadaw and other armed groups, threatening “action in accordance with the law”, said a statement posted Thursday by the military’s information team.
A spokesman with RCSS’s liaison office in Taunggyi, the capital of Shan State, denied the Myanmar army’s account. “Our local military commanders said it didn’t happen among us,” Lieutenant Colonel Sai Oo told AFP. “We have instructed our troops on the ground level already to avoid fighting.”
Even with the army’s declaration of a ceasefire, Myanmar’s border regions are subjected to fighting between opposing armed groups. The situation on the ground is “very complicated”, said Brigadier General Tarr Phone Kyaw, a spokesman for the Taaung National Liberation Army (TNLA) one of the larger ethnic armed groups battling the military in the northeast.
Egypt kills 40 ‘terrorists’ in crackdown after Giza attack
Egyptian police killed 40 alleged “terrorists” in a crackdown on Saturday, Dec 29 after a roadside bomb hit a tour bus claiming the lives of three Vietnamese holidaymakers and an Egyptian guide. The suspects were killed in separate raids in Giza governorate, home to Egypt´s famed pyramids and the scene of Friday´s deadly bombing, and in the restive Sinai Peninsula, the interior ministry said.
Thirty “terrorists” were killed in two raids in Giza and the remaining 10 were killed in the North Sinai, a statement said without directly linking them to the tour bus bombing. It said authorities had received information the suspects were preparing a spate of attacks against state and tourist institutions and churches.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, the first attack to target tourists since 2017. Saigon Tourist, the company that organised the trip, said the Vietnamese tourists were “on their way to a restaurant for dinner” when the bomb exploded.
Friday´s bombing was the latest blow to Egypt´s vital tourism industry, which has been reeling from turmoil set off by the 2011 uprising that forced veteran president Hosni Mubarak from power.
Egypt has been seeking to lure tourists back by touting new archaeological discoveries and bolstering security around archaeological sites and in airports. It is also planning to open a major museum near the Giza pyramids the only surviving structures of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
While tourism has picked up since 2011, the 8.2 million people who visited Egypt in 2017 are still a far cry from the 14.7 million who visited in the year before the uprising.
Four terror suspects held in Netherlands
Dutch security forces arrested four people in the port city of Rotterdam on Saturday, Dec 29 on suspicion of preparing for a “terrorist crime”, police said. Elite counter-terrorism units and police arrested the men and carried out searches at the locations where they were detained, Rotterdam police said.
Further details on the suspects and the crime they were allegedly preparing for were not immediately available.
The Netherlands has been largely spared the kind of terror attacks which have rocked its closest European neighbours in the past few years, but there has been a series of recent scares.
In August a 19 year old Afghan with a German residence permit stabbed and injured two American tourists at Amsterdam’s busy Central Station before being shot and wounded.
In September Dutch investigators said they had arrested seven people and foiled a “major attack” on civilians at a major event in the Netherlands.
They said they had found a large quantity of bomb-making materials including fertilizer likely to be used in a car bomb. The men were arrested in the cities of Arnhem and Weert. In June two terror suspects were arrested while close to carrying out attacks including at an iconic bridge in Rotterdam and in France, prosecutors said.
Yemen rebels begin withdrawal from Hodeida port: UN
Yemeni rebels have begun to withdraw from the port of Hodeida, the country’s key aid lifeline, under an agreement reached in Sweden earlier this month, a UN official said on Saturday, Dec 29. The official, who requested anonymity, said the Huthi rebels began to pull back from the Red Sea port at midnight (2100 GMT Friday).
The Huthis began “the first phase of redeployment from the Hodeida port”, a rebel official told the Huthi-run Saba news agency. The rebels held a ceremony to mark the occasion, an AFP correspondent reported.
The rebel withdrawal from the port, which is the point of entry for food aid to some 14 million Yemenis UN agencies say are on the brink of famine, is a key part of a ceasefire that went into effect on December 18.
Pro-government forces are also supposed to pull back from parts of the city they recaptured in an offensive they launched with the backing of a Saudi-led coalition on June 13.
The UN Security Council last week unanimously approved a resolution authorising the deployment of observers to oversee the truce.
Burkina Faso declares emergency in violence-hit provinces
Burkina Faso is declaring a state of emergency in provinces grappling with Jihadist violence, Communications Minister Remis Fulgance Dandjinou said on Monday, Dec 31.
Ten gendarmes were killed and three wounded on Thursday in an ambush in the northwest of the country, near the border with Mali. They had been heading to the village of Loroni after a school had been attacked and textbooks torched by armed assailants, a security source told AFP.
The state of emergency applies to a number of provinces that lie within seven of the country’s 13 administrative regions, Dandjinou said. The regions are Hauts-Bassins, Boucle du Mouhoun, Cascades, North and Sahel, in the west and north of the country, and the East and Centre-East in the east.
The impoverished Sahel state has been battling a rising wave of Jihadist attacks over the last three years. They began in the north of the country but have since spread to the east, near the border with Togo and Benin.
Most attacks are attributed to the Jihadist group Ansar-ul-Islam, which emerged near the Mali border in December 2016, and to the JNIM (the Group to Support Islam and Muslims), which has sworn allegiance to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Gabon coup thwarted
A group of soldiers sought to take power in Gabon on Monday, Jan 7 while the country’s ailing president was abroad, but the government declared the bid had failed and the rebels had been arrested.
Soldiers burst into state radio offices at dawn and called on the public to “rise up”, an appeal made as President Ali Bongo remained in Morocco after suffering a stroke last year. Shots were heard around state broadcasting headquarters in Libreville, capital of the oil-rich West African nation, at about the same time as the message was read at 6:30 am (0530 GMT).
But within a few hours, government spokesman Guy-Bertrand Mapangou told AFP: “Calm has returned, the situation is under control.” Of the five who entered the radio station, “four have been arrested and one is on the run,” according to Mapangou. Security forces have been deployed in the capital and will remain there over the coming days in order to maintain order, he said. The gunfire, he said, was used to control a crowd.
The elite Republican Guard was deployed around the building and armoured vehicles blocked access to the area, an AFP correspondent saw. In a rundown district nearby, dozens of young people torched a car and set fire to tyres, while the security forces fired teargas to try to disperse them.
The dramatic developments came as Bongo is living at a private residence in the Moroccan capital Rabat after suffering a stroke. He made a televised speech on New Year’s Eve but has not been in the country since October.
Drone kills six in Yemen airbase
A rebel drone hit Yemen’s largest air base on Thursday, Jan 10 killing six loyalist soldiers during a military parade in an attack which raises questions over UN-led peace efforts.
At talks in Sweden last month, the UN brokered several agreements between the Huthi rebels and the Saudi-backed government that had been seen as providing the best opportunity yet of ending nearly four years of devastating conflict. The Huthi rebels said they carried out the strike on Al-Anad air base, in government-held Lahij province some 60 kilometres north of Yemen’s second city Aden. At least 12 people were wounded in the attack, including top commanders, according to medics at the Ibn Khaldoun hospital in the provincial capital Houta.
Footage of the attack showed a drone exploding over a podium around which dozens of military personnel were standing. Soldiers scrambled to carry wounded comrades to military vehicles, while a man holding a camera bled on the ground.
An AFP correspondent at the scene said that journalists were among the wounded. Originally built by the then Soviet Union during the Cold War, Al-Anad served as the headquarters for US troops overseeing a long-running drone war against Al-Qaeda until March 2014, when it was overrun by the Huthis.
The attack came one day after UN envoy Martin Griffiths warned “substantial progress” was needed on the ground before full-blown negotiations could be launched on ending the civil war.
The strike on loyalist top brass is likely to create a new obstacle to the launch of formal peace talks. “Both sides have largely adhered to the ceasefire and there has been a significant decrease in hostilities,” Griffiths told the UN Security Council on Wednesday.
Egypt police kill six militants in shootout
Egyptian police killed six suspected Islamist militants in a shootout early on Saturday, Jan 12 in the country’s south, the interior ministry said.
The clashes broke out during a police raid on a militant hideout in a mountainous area on the edge of the southern province of Sohag, some 460 kilometres south of Cairo, the ministry said in a statement.
Police seized weapons and ammunition, it added. The operation is part of “the interior ministry’s efforts to confront terrorist organisations aiming to undermine security and stability” in Egypt, it said.
Egypt has been battling an Islamist insurgency following the 2013 ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Mursi, who was forced out by the military in the face of mass protests against his rule.
Clashes erupt in Hodeida
Clashes erupted between Huthi rebels and government forces in Yemen’s flashpoint port city of Hodeida on Saturday, Jan 12 dealing a new blow to a fragile truce, an AFP correspondent reported. Artillery and machine-gun exchanges rocked the southern part of Hodeida in early morning before tapering off later in day, the correspondent said.
The rebel-held port city, which is a lifeline for the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid, was for months the main front line in the Yemeni conflict after government forces supported by Saudi Arabia and its allies launched an offensive to capture it in June.
But last month the warring parties agreed a ceasefire for Hodeida during UN-sponsored talks in Sweden. The United Nations has said the truce has largely held since it came into force on December 18 but there have been delays in the agreed pullback of rebel and government forces.
The Huthis control most of Hodeida while government forces are deployed on its southern and eastern outskirts.
Since the Saudi-led military coalition intervened in support of the government in March 2015, the conflict has killed nearly 10,000 people and unleashed the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations. UN aid officials say 80 percent of the population 24 million people are in need of aid and nearly 10 million are just one step away from famine.
Qatar rejects ties with Assad
Qatar’s foreign minister ruled out on Monday, Jan 14 the possibility of re-opening an embassy in Damascus, in line with some other Gulf countries, calling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a war criminal.
“Normalisation (of relations) with the Syrian regime at this stage is the normalisation of a person involved in war crimes, and this should not be acceptable,” said Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani at a Doha press conference.
Al-Thani said the reasons why Assad who was elected unopposed in 2000 and has stayed in power during nearly eight years of civil war was excluded from the international community are still in place.
He added that Damascus under Assad should not be allowed back into the Arab League its membership was suspended in 2011 as “the Syrian people are still under bombardment by the Syrian regime”.
His comments come after Gulf neighbours the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain announced late last month they reopened their Damascus embassies. The UAE’s foreign minister Anwar Gargash tweeted that his country was doing so in part because of the influence of Iran and one of Qatar’s strongest allies, Turkey, in Syria. Tehran has been a staunch supporter of Assad’s government and has expanded its military footprint in Syria throughout the course of the conflict.
Foreign troops in Iraq cut by a quarter in 2018
Foreign troop numbers in Iraq fell by a quarter during 2018, Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi said, as the fallout fizzled from Washington’s announcement it was withdrawing from neighbouring Syria.
“In January 2018 there had been almost 11,000 foreign fighters, about 70 percent of them are American, the others are from other countries,” Abdel Mahdi told a weekly press briefing on Tuesday (Jan 15) evening. “In December, the numbers have been reduced to almost 8,000, and the American troops are around 6,000. maybe I am wrong by some hundreds.” Abdel Mahdi said that more than 12 months after the government declared victory over the Islamic State group in Iraq, the drawdown was accelerating.
“In recent months, the decrease has sped up and in the last two months there was a drop of 1,000 forces,” he said. US President Donald Trump has said that US troops will remain in Iraq after the withdrawal of all troops from Syria and will be available to take action against IS on the other side of the border if necessary.
US troop numbers in Iraq peaked at some 170,000 during the battle against al-Qaeda and other insurgents that followed the US-led invasion of 2003. Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama ordered a withdrawal that was completed in 2011, but in 2014 ordered a new deployment as part of a US-led coalition battling IS, which had proclaimed a “caliphate” in large swathes of Iraq and Syria under its control.
IS is now confined to a shrinking enclave of just 15 square kilometres (under six square miles) in eastern Syria not far from the border where Kurdish-led forces have been engaged in a major offensive with coalition support since May last year.
20 killed as air strikes hit IS in Syria
At least 20 Islamic State group jihadists were killed on Saturday, Jan 19 in Iraqi air raids on their embattled enclave in eastern Syria, a war monitor reported. The raids come a day after a US-led air strike on the Euphrates Valley village of Baghouz killed six civilians, including four children, and 10 IS fighters, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. There were no immediate comments from the Iraqi army or from the US-led coalition.
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that Saturday’s air strikes “carried out by Iraqi aircraft killed at least 20 IS fighters in Baghouz”. He said at the same time the Iraqi army units stationed nearby on the border with Syria fired artillery.
Abdel Rahman said the US-led coalition had stepped up its air strikes against IS since the jihadists killed 19 people, four of them Americans, in a suicide bombing on a restaurant in the flashpoint northern town of Manbij on Wednesday.
Wednesday’s US losses were the biggest since Washington deployed troops in Syria in 2014 in support of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Previously it had reported just two combat losses in separate incidents.
The Manbij bombing rekindled controversy triggered by President Donald Trump last month with his surprise announcement of a full withdrawal from Syria. The US president justified the order with the assertion that the jihadists had now been “largely defeated” in Syria, a claim that the attack threw into renewed question.
Blast kills three in Afrin
A bomb blast in a bus killed three civilians on Sunday, Jan 20 in the northern Syrian city of Afrin on the first anniversary of a Turkish attack on the Kurdish-majority region, a war monitor said.
Nine other people, including fighters, were wounded in the explosion, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP.
Turkish troops and allied rebel groups seized the Afrin region from Kurdish forces in March last year after a two-month air and ground offensive. “The explosion is the result of a bomb that was placed in a bus in the centre of Afrin,” Abdel Rahman said.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the blast, the second to rock Afrin since December 16 when a car bomb killed at least nine people, including five civilians, near a pro-Turkey rebel post in the city.
‘Attack on UN base in Mali kills eight peacekeepers’
Gunmen killed at least eight Chadian UN peacekeepers in an attack on Sunday, Jan 20 on one of their bases in northern Mali, a source close to the MINUSMA force said.
“According to a new toll, still provisional, at least eight peacekeepers have been killed,” the source said. The attack happened early on Sunday at the Aguelhok base 200 kilometres north of Kidal and towards the border with Algeria, the source added.
A Malian security source spoke of at least six killed and 19 wounded, while a diplomat in northern Mali told AFP that several of the attackers were also killed. An attack at the same base last April killed two peacekeepers and left several others wounded.
More than 13,000 peacekeepers are deployed in Mali as part of a UN mission that was established after Islamist militias seized northern Mali in 2012. They were pushed backed by French troops in 2013. A peace agreement signed in 2015 by the Bamako government and armed groups was aimed at restoring stability to Mali following a brief Islamist takeover in the north.
Four arrested in plot to target Muslims in New York
Police in New York state on Wednesday, Jan 23 identified three young men arrested for allegedly planning a “potentially lethal” attack on a Muslim community regularly targeted by US extremist sites.
Brian Colaneri, 20, Andrew Crysel, 18 and Vincent Vetromile, 19 were arrested after police in Greece, New York recovered three explosive devices and 23 weapons from the suspects’ homes, according to spokesman Jared Rene.
A fourth unidentified suspect, aged 16, was also detained. The group were accused of planning the against a community called Islamberg several hours drive from Greece, Rene said. The community of some 200 people is managed by the organization Muslims of America, which thanked authorities for preventing a “possible massacre of our community”.
Rene said police were tipped off by a high school student who overheard other students speaking of a “next school shooter”. When authorities searched homes they found weapons legally obtained by parents, but uncovered the attack plot.
“The kids did the right thing. When they saw something, they said something. It was a collaborative effort, we uncovered what was probably going to be a deadly attack,” he said.
Charged with possession of explosives, the three young men are expected to appear in court February 5. Rene added they could still face federal charges, including terrorism. Another plot to attack Islamberg was foiled in 2015, with its author, Robert Doggart, sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2017.
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.
