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SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Weekly Assessments & Briefings
Volume 11, No. 16, October 22, 2012
Data and
assessments from SAIR can be freely published in any form
with credit to the South Asia Intelligence Review of the
South Asia Terrorism Portal
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ISI:
Twisted Shadows
Sanchita Bhattacharya
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management
On September
17, 2012, Tamil Nadu State intelligence sleuths arrested
an Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agent, identified
as Thamim Ansari, from Tiruchi in the Tiruchirappalli
District, when he was heading for the Airport to board
a flight to Colombo (Sri Lanka). 25 CDs and photographs
of various important installations in the state were reportedly
seized from Ansari. Subsequent disclosures by Ansari revealed
that a Pakistan High Commission diplomat in Sri Lanka,
Amir Zubair Siddiqui, had tasked him to secure pictures
of Naval and Coast Guard Stations, as well as Army installations
in the State.
Unsurprisingly,
the First Information Report (FIR) included the name of
the Pakistani diplomat. The FIR noted that the diplomat,
through contacts Haji and Shaji living in Colombo, had
employed Ansari of Thanjavur District in Tamil Nadu to
supply sensitive information on defence installations
in India. Preliminary investigations indicate that a Pakistani
espionage desk was operating from Colombo and was concentrating
on South India. ISI agents were actively attempting to
recruit Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, who had come to India
during the course of the Eelam War, and have now returned
to the island nation after the end of the conflict in
May 2009.
Ansari’s
arrest and subsequent disclosures are only the most recent
evidence of a sustained effort by the ISI to encircle
India with a network of subversive modules spread throughout
the neighbourhood to engage in espionage, to recruit and
support extremist and terrorist elements, and to engage
in activities intended to destabilize the country from
within.
According
to the partial data compiled by the Institute for Conflict
Management (ICM), 133 ISI-related modules have
been discovered and neutralised in India since 2004. 37
such modules were neutralised in New Delhi, followed by
18 in Punjab, 15 in Uttar Pradesh, 10 each in Andhra Pradesh
and West Bengal, nine in Maharashtra, eight in Gujarat,
six in Karnataka, five in Rajasthan, four in Madhya Pradesh,
three in Uttaranchal, two each in Tripura and Haryana,
one each in Goa, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Assam.
Within
the Indian neighbourhood, the ISI has been attempting
to encircle India by sending and recruiting agents in
countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.
The interrogation of Mehrajuddin Wani alias Javed
alias Daand, a militant arrested on September 12,
2012, for instance, revealed that the peripheries of Kathmandu,
the capital of Nepal, were fast becoming a hub of Pakistani
and Kashmiri terrorists, backed by the ISI. Moreover,
according to US cables released by WikiLeaks in
2011, ISI had created an anti-India terror outfit, Jammu
and Kashmir Islamic Front (JKIF), with its main base in
Kathmandu.
The ISI-Bangladesh
linkages run deep, and, before the Sheikh Hasina Government
cracked down of terrorist groupings operating against
India from Bangladeshi soil, and fundamentally altered
the relationship between the ISI and Bangladesh’s Directorate
General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), intelligence and
terrorist collaboration between the two countries was
at the heart of a number of terrorist attacks executed
across
India. The ISI’s Bangladeshi linkages
are now being examined anew, in the light of revelations
made by the handler of the November 26, 2008, (26/11)
Mumbai (Maharashtra) terrorist attacks, Lashkar-e-Taiba
(LeT)
operative Syed Zabiuddin Ansari aka Abu Jundal.
On July 19, 2012, Jundal revealed that Yasin Bhatkal,
one of the most wanted terrorists in India and ‘chief’
of the Indian Mujahideen (IM), was hiding in Bangladesh
with ISI support. He also provided details of e-mails
and chat sites through which he communicated with Bhatkal
on a regular basis. Indian agencies suspect that Bhatkal
was constantly changing his location in Dhaka and Chittagong,
with ISI operatives helping him with logistics.
Further,
based on credible information developed over the past
months by field operatives of intelligence agencies in
the Indian Northeast, Bangladesh and Myanmar, it has been
confirmed that Paresh Baruah, ‘commander’ of the Anti-Talks
Faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA-ATF)
and his trusted aides were being facilitated by two ISI
agents, Khwaja Sultan Malik and Qalil Ahmed, who are operating
out of Bangladesh. Both Malik and Ahmed were reported
to have close links with drug cartels in Southeast Asia,
and these were smuggling narcotics into India through
the porous Indo-Bangladesh border with ULFA’s help.
During
the course of the recent Bodo-Muslim
clash in Assam, United Liberation
Front of Asom- Pro Talks Faction (ULFA-PTF) leader, Mrinal
Hazarika, claimed, on July 25, 2012, that groups such
as the Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Assam (MULTA)
and Pakistan’s ISI may have been involved in triggering
ethnic-communal clashes in the Bodo Territorial Autonomous
District (BTAD) area. Further, according to a media report
dated August 12, 2012, an unnamed intelligence officer
commented, “(ISI) have used the social networking sites
and mobile phones to create panic in the community and,
unfortunately, it has worked for them”.
Significantly,
former ISI Chief Asad Durrani admitted before the Pakistan
Supreme Court, in March 2012, during proceedings relating
to the Agency’s mandate, that the ISI had provided logistical
support and funding to insurgent groupings in India’s
Northeast in a campaign intended to destabilize India.
On October
18, 2012, West Bengal Director General of Police (DGP)
Naparajit Mukherjee warned that the Communist Party of
India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist)
had established links with the ISI. Mukherjee claimed
that several pro-Maoist over-ground outfits had joined
hands with some elements of the banned Students Islamic
Movement of India (SIMI),
which was closely connected with the ISI, and these elements
had held several meetings jointly in four Districts of
West Bengal – Murshidabad, West Midnapore, Purulia and
Bankura. Significantly, the ISI had long sought to make
common
cause with the Maoists, but has largely
been unsuccessful, as the Left Wing Extremists (LWE) have
tended to believe that such an association would cut into
their recruitment base. Nevertheless, the CPI-Maoist has
repeatedly expressed its support for various ‘nationalist
movements’, including the separatists in Jammu and Kashmir
who are backed by the ISI.
The ISI
Directorate, formed in 1948 following the Indo-Pakistan
war of 1947, has dramatically augmented its capacities,
both within Pakistan, and across expanding theatres abroad.
Backed by USA’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) through
the anti-Soviet Campaigns in Afghanistan after 1979, the
ISI came to control huge – often unaccounted – finances,
executing a range of sustained covert operations, including
the creation and support of a multiplicity of terrorist
groupings, across the South Asian neighbourhood. Hein
Kiessling, who represented the Munich (Germany)-based
Hanns-Seidel-Foundation in Pakistan from 1989 to
2002, in a book titled ”Revisiting Contemporary South
Asia” notes:
The
(real) ISI budget is top secret, only a few people
know the figure. In fact officially the ISI budget
today is between $300 and 400 million... The personnel
strength of ISI has also been a secret. During Zia-ul
Haq’s tenure it was estimated to be 20,000 men.
In the 1990s and in the new millennium there were
drastic reductions in personnel. Therefore, it is
now assumed that ISI’s base strength is approximately
4,000. About five percent of the ISI personnel are
from the military on a contract basis. Approximately
45 percent are from the military. ISI has 50 percent
of civilian staff members... It (ISI) is controlled
and efficiently run — there is no ISI within the
ISI. Although officially the Internal Cell was declared
closed, it still exists. The ISI is the eyes and
ears of the military. The military forces see themselves
as guardians of Pakistan’s survival. Therefore,
it is very unlikely that the Internal Cell was closed.
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The ISI,
headquartered, in the Pakistani capital city of Islamabad
and currently headed by its Director General, Lieutenant
General Zaheer ul-Islam (who assumed office on March 9,
2012), has acquired increasing notoriety even within Pakistan.
Amidst growing concerns of political machinations, human
rights violations, ‘disappearances’, and widespread intimidation,
a Bill was introduced in July, 2012, by Farhatullah Babar,
spokesman of President Asif Ali Zardari in the Senate
(Upper House) to make the ISI more accountable to the
Parliament and Government. It recommended internal accountability
within the agency and a better discipline system to end
enforced disappearances and victimisation of political
parties. The bill was, however, withdrawn on the apparent
grounds that Babar had not secured the prior approval
of the Law Minister Farook H. Naek-headed Special Committee
of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), of which
President Asif Ali Zardari is the Co-Chairman. The development,
however, is widely seen as evidence of the ISI’s clout
within the political establishment. Past attempts at imposing
a measure of accountability over the agency have also
proven abortive.
On July
26, 2008, the Government had issued an order placing the
ISI under the administrative, financial and operational
control of the Interior Division. An official statement
declared, “The Prime Minister (has) approved the placement
of Intelligence Bureau and Inter Services Intelligence
under the administrative, financial and operational control
of the Interior Division with immediate effect,"
Within hours, however, the order was reversed, and on
July 27, 2008, the Government ‘clarified’ that, "The
said notification [July 26] only re-emphasises more co-ordination
between the Ministry of Interior and the ISI in relation
to the war on terror and internal security."
The ISI
political mischief within Pakistan has been further established
in the Supreme Court hearings on the 1996 petition filed
by former Pakistan Air Force Chief Asghar Khan accusing
ISI of financing politicians in the 1990 General elections
by providing Pakistan PKR 140 million to them to create
the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) and prevent Benazir
Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) from winning the
polls. However, on October 3, 2012, the Defence Ministry
of Pakistan told the Supreme Court that there was ‘no
political cell’ in the ISI. The Ministry, however, conceded
that a political cell ‘might have’ existed in the past,
but that no notification regarding its creation was found
in the records. The three-judge bench led by Chief Justice
Iftikhar Chaudhry, on October 4, served notice to the
secretary to the President, seeking records of the existence
of any political cell in the ISI.
Meanwhile,
On October 19, 2012, the Supreme Court ordered the Government
to take legal action against former Army Chief General
Mirza Aslam Beg and former ISI Chief Asad Durrani for
distributing millions of rupees among politicians to rig
the 1990 General Elections. The Supreme Court also said
that any "political cell" operating in the Presidency,
ISI, Military Intelligence (MI) or Intelligence Bureau
(IB), should be shut down immediately as such an institution
was unconstitutional.
The ISI
officially has seven
sections: Joint Intelligence X (JIX),
Joint Intelligence Bureau (JIB), Joint Counter Intelligence
Bureau (JCIB), Joint Intelligence/North (JIN), Joint Intelligence
Miscellaneous (JIM), Joint Signal Intelligence Bureau
(JSIB) and Joint Intelligence Technical Division (JIT).
JIN concentrates on Jammu and Kashmir, conducting operations
and supporting various terrorist proxies in the State,
and also monitoring Indian forces in the region. JIX serves
as the Agency’s secretariat; JIB monitors political intelligence;
JCIB is responsible for oversees intelligence operations
in Central Asia, South Asia, Afghanistan, the Middle East,
Israel and Russia, and is also responsible for field surveillance
of Pakistani diplomats stationed abroad; JIM is responsible
for covert offensive intelligence operations and war time
espionage; JSIB operates a chain of signals intelligence
collection stations and provides communication support
to its operatives; and JIT is a covert unit with a separate
explosives section and a chemical warfare section.
Media reports
also indicate that ISI has four "wings": ‘A
Wing’ directs analysis and is the bureaucratic department;
‘T Wing’ is the technical section and provides assistance
to the other wings. ‘C Wing’ is the counterintelligence
wing. The ‘S Wing’ oversees ‘external security’ and is
responsible for state sponsorship of various terrorist
formations, including al Qaeda, the Taliban, and anti-India
jihadi groups. An unnamed former Indian intelligence
official observes, "We have known about its (S Wing)
existence for several years. It took shape probably in
the 80s, and from then on it has grown in size and strength”.
He further added that the entire operation of Kashmir
militancy, over the past 20 years, had been handled by
the ‘S Wing’. On July 9, 2012, the then acting Director
General of Police (DGP), Jammu and Kashmir (J&K),
K. Rajendra, noted, “…No terrorist activity can take place
in our country without the support of the actors from
across the border….There are state actors headed by the
ISI”.
Crucially,
on July 21, 2012, the arrested handler of the 26/11 Mumbai
attacks Abu Jundal, provided first-hand evidence of the
‘Karachi Project’, an ISI backed terror scheme to mobilize
and direct Indian terrorist fugitives in Pakistani safe
havens. Abu Jundal’s disclosures confirmed earlier details
relating to the Karachi Project and its role in the 26/11
attacks, provided by the Pakistani-American David Coleman
Headley. The Karachi Project was set up by the ISI in
collaboration with LeT, and sought to make use of Indian
terrorist operatives trained in Pakistan to execute bomb
blasts in Indian cities. According to sources, "The
scheme is funded by ISI and Gulf investments”.
The ISI-IM
nexus has also been re-established in the charge sheet
filed by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) before a special
Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act Court on May
25, 2012, regarding the July 13, 2011, Mumbai serial bombings
case. It has been stated that the blasts were planned
and coordinated by IM leaders from Pakistan. In its 4,478-page
charge sheet, the ATS observed, "The IM has been
expressly created by (the) ISI of Pakistan ostensibly
to spread terror in this country through Indian front
outfits."
Despite
apparent bans on the LeT and the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM),
moreover, these groups continue to operate under a multiplicity
of new identities, with their infrastructure intact. A
Government of India dossier on ‘Anti-India Activities
on Pakistan Soil’, passed on to the Pakistani authorities
during the Home Secretary Level Talks of May 24-25, 2012,
listed as many as 42 terrorist training camps in Pakistan
and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).
Making
a presentation at the Annual Conference of Directors General
Police/Inspectors General of Police, held at New Delhi
on September 7-8, 2012, the Delhi Police noted that IM
“has Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) patronage”. This
is regarded as the first official confirmation of ISI-IM
link.
Additionally,
ISI’s links with India’s most wanted terrorist and crime
boss, Dawood Ibrahim, are also well documented. Ibrahim
is on the US listing of “Specially Designated Global Terrorists”,
but operates with impunity from Pakistan. Mumbai Police
sources thus stated, in May 2012, “D-company [Ibrahim’s
crime syndicate] aides holed up in Pakistan are provided
security and shelter by Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI),
Pakistan’s spy agency. Dawood and his aides can easily
obtain bogus passports issued by Pakistan authorities
and travel abroad”. During the May 24-25, 2012, secretary
level talks in Islamabad (Pakistan), India handed over
to Pakistan a list of four precise coordinates of Dawood
Ibrahim’s location, with addresses. In Islamabad, Dawood
stays in an ISI safe house on Bhoubhan Hill, 20 kilometres
on the road to Muree.
The ISI
has also been patronising Sikh terror groups since 1984.
On September 1, 2012, following the arrest of a Babbar
Khalsa International (BKI) terrorist, Kulwant Singh alias
Guddu, from Sahora village near Kharar in Mohali District
of Punjab, an NIA official observed, “ISI is also reportedly
keen on forging coordination between Khalistani terrorists,
terrorists operating in J&K and some fundamentalist
groups and in this process Jagtar Singh Tara who escaped
from Burail Jail in 2004 is favoured by the ISI to revive
the Khalistan movement.” Terror outfit BKI, among others,
is actively supported by the ISI, and is believed to have
received more than INR 800 million over just the last
four years to fund its terrorist activities. On September
4, 2012, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Jitendra
Singh told Lok Sabha (the Lower House of India’s
Parliament) "Available inputs indicate the patronage
and assistance provided by Pakistan's ISI to leaders of
various Sikh terrorist groups including BKI based in Pakistan.
Interrogation of arrested Sikh militants revealed that
short term modules are being run in Pakistan for training
gullible Sikh youths from India and abroad.” During the
May 24-25, 2012, Home Secretary Level Talks between India
and Pakistan at Islamabad, India handed over a dossier
on ‘Pakistan’s Support to Terrorism in Punjab’, which
included details of recent attempts to organize terrorist
actions in India, recruitment of extremists in India and
win Western countries, as well as detailed listing of
prominent Sikh terrorists sheltered in Pakistan. Details
and locations in Pakistan of the top leadership of BKI,
the Khalistan Zindabad Force, the International Sikh Youth
Federation, Dal Khalsa International, Khalistan Commando
Force (Panjwar), and the Khaistan Tiger Force were included
in the dossier.
Meanwhile,
in continuing with its policy of seeking to gain full
control over the internal affairs of Afghanistan and to
emerge as the sole decisive power in future Government
formation in that country, in the aftermath of the withdrawal
of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
in 2014, the ISI continues to support Afghan insurgent
and terrorist formations in their fight against the Allied
Forces. A May 2008 transcript given to Mike McConnell,
the Director of US National Intelligence, stated that
Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Pervez
Kayani, referred to the Haqqani Network, one of the most
active terrorist formations in Afghanistan, which has
consistently targeted ISAF and Afghan National Security
Force personnel, among others, as a “strategic asset”.
Similarly, on September 21, 2011, the former Chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen described
the Haqqani Network as 'a veritable arm' of the ISI. The
Quetta Shura Taliban, headed by Mullah Omar, the former
‘Head of the Supreme Council’ of the Taliban regime in
Afghanistan, between 1996 and 2001, operates with impunity,
and under the protection of the ISI, from Pakistani soil.
A number of ISI-backed Pakistani terrorist groupings,
including the LeT, are reported to have shifted focus
and cadres to Afghanistan over the past years, to help
the Afghan Taliban groupings in anticipation of the Western
‘withdrawal’. Further, in its attempt to deter India,
which is helping Afghanistan in a multiplicity of nation
building projects worth some USD two billion (since the
year 2001), ISI-mentored terrorist groups have attacked
Indian targets (in Afghanistan) on at least 15 occasions
since 2003, according to partial data on the SATP database.
In addition
to conventional patterns of terrorism, the ISI has also
extended its mischief into cyber space. A highly-specialised
cyber division in the ISI is reported to have been assigned
the task of training operatives of terrorist outfits like
the LeT, JeM and the IM, to train their cadre in the use
of computers. A classified note circulated among participants
of the DGPs/IGPs meet of September 2012, observed, “The
ISI is now working on a bigger game plan in training terrorists
in the use of cyber and computer technology as the Pakistani
agency feels India is not fully equipped in dealing with
incidents of cyber war or attack.’’
Pakistan
continues to evade designation as a terrorist state by
the skin of its teeth, despite overwhelming evidence of
the ISI’s support and sponsorship of terrorism in a multiplicity
of theatres. Erroneous western calculations of ‘strategic
interests’ and an inability by the western powers to prevail
effectively in Afghanistan have resulted in a policy of
continuing ambivalence towards Pakistan’s visible support
to terrorists and the country’s widening ‘footprint of
terror’ across the world. There is, however, increasing
awareness of, and a growing against, Pakistan’s sustained
international criminality on this count, even as the bloody
blowback of this deceit mounts within Pakistan. It remains
to be seen if the country will ever find the sagacity
and the capacity to pull itself back from the brink, and
reverse the grave and intentional harm it has inflicted
both domestically and internationally.
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Assam:
Another Tenuous Peace
Giriraj Bhattacharjee
Research Assistant, Institute for Conflict Management
On October
8, 2012, the Central and the State Governments signed
a Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) with both factions of
the Dima Halim Daogah – the Dilip Nunisa faction (DHD-N)
and the Jewel Garlosa faction [(DHD-J also known as Black
Widow (BW)
], eight years after the signing of a ceasefire agreement
with the undivided DHD. The formal MoS signing ceremony
held at North Block, New Delhi, was attended by Union
Home Minister (UHM), Sushil Kumar Shinde, Assam Chief
Minister, Tarun Gogoi, the Centre’s interlocutor, P.C.
Haldar, Union Home Secretary, R.K. Singh, Assam Chief
Secretary, Naba Kumar Das, Assam Director General of Police
(DGP), J.N. Choudhury, as well as the top leaders of the
rival factions of DHD. The MoS was signed by Dilip Nunisa
and Jewel Garlosa on behalf of the DHD factions, and by
Joint Secretary (North-East), Shambhu Singh and Assam
Principal Secretary Home and Political, Sailesh.
UHM Shinde
used the occasion to invite other insurgent groupings
to abjure violence, stating, “I urge all such groups to
give up violence and come for settlement with Government
of India.”
According
to the Ministry of Home Affairs release dated October
8, 2012, the MoS provides for enhanced autonomy for the
North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council (NCHAC), which has
been rechristened as Dima Hasao Autonomous Territorial
Council (DHATC), and a special package for socio-economic
and educational development of the area has also been
announced. Under the MoS, a committee would be constituted
to deal with matters relating to the Sixth Schedule Councils.
The DHD will disband itself as an organisation within
a ‘reasonable time’, specified as six months, as a precursor
to the Government initiating further processes to implement
the decisions of the agreement. A special economic package
of INR 2 billion (INR 400 million per annum), over and
above the Plan allocation, for the next five years will
be provided to the DHATC, to undertake special projects.
Thirty-nine subjects will be transferred to the Council
under Para 3A of the sixth Schedule of the Constitution,
conferring legislative powers. The State Government has
agreed, in principle, to set up a Development Council
with a suitable package for preservation and promotion
of Dimasa culture and language.
The increase
in the strength of the Territorial Council is intended
to ensure suitable representation to all communities.
The provision for setting up village level Councils for
devolution of powers to the grassroots are intended to
benefit non-Dimasa tribals as well. The MoS specifically
states that the heritage sites of non-Dimasa indigenous
tribals are to be preserved and maintained. The present
District is to be trifurcated into three administrative
Divisions. The Central Government and both the DHD factions
have entrusted the State Government with the task of dividing
the Dima Hasao District. Further, Dimasas living in the
plains of Assam, especially in Cachar and Nagaon, known
as Barman and Hojai respectively, will now be officially
renamed as Dimasa Kachari.
The DHATC
is the third Territorial Council to be formed under the
Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. Earlier, Bodo [Bodoland
Territorial Council (BTC)] and Karbi [Karbi Anglong Autonomous
Territorial Council (KAATC)] militant groups had settled
for similar councils.
Dima Hasao
District is a sparsely populated area of 4,890 square
kilometers, with a population of 213,529. It is home to
as many as 18 Hill tribes, and has extensive unguarded
borders with the insurgency-affected States of Manipur
and Nagaland. In the absence of any inter-State border
outposts, the border has turned into a free corridor for
militants. The Dimasas constitute the single largest tribal
group, estimated at 43per cent of the District’s total
population.
The struggle
for a separate homeland for the Dimasas became an armed
struggle with the formation of the Dimasa National Security
Force (DNSF) in 1990. DNSF ‘chairman’ Bharat Langthasa
and a large number of cadres, however, surrendered on
November 17, 1994. Later, renegades led by Jewel Garlosa
floated the Dima Hasao Daogah (DHD) in 1995. A ceasefire
agreement was signed between the DHD leadership and the
Central Government on January 1, 2003. However, Jewel
Garlosa broke away to form the DHD-J also known as BW,
at some time in 2004. ‘Commander-in-Chief’ Pranab Nunisa
and ‘Vice-President’ Dilip Nunisa took charge of what
was left of the DHD after the split, and called it DHD-N.
The undivided DHD team had met the then Union Home Minister
Shivraj Patil on September 23, 2004, and had submitted
a memorandum demanding a separate homeland for the Dimasa
tribals. Meanwhile, BW indulged in large-scale
violence. On March 8, 2008, Jewel
Garlosa was arrested in Bangalore. The following year,
two batches of BW militants surrendered along with their
weapons.
Both the
factions have a combined estimated strength of about 1000
cadres, and were fighting for a separate State of 'Dimaraji'
for the Dimasa (‘sons of the great river’) tribe, comprising
Dimasa dominated areas of the North Cachar Hills and Karbi
Anglong Districts of Assam, and parts of the Dimapur District
in Nagaland.
A Draft
MoS was signed with DHD-J/BW in 2011, and with DHD-N
on June 12, 2012.The final MoS came after long-drawn negotiations
that included several rounds of talks in which both the
factions gave up their demand for a separate State. DHD-N’s
demand for the inclusion of an additional 94 villages
spread over adjoining Districts of Cachar, Karbi Anglong
and Nagaon, was rejected. The DHD-N demand to rename the
territorial council as Dimaraji was also not accepted
by the Government. The demand for withdrawal of cases,
particularly those involving heinous crimes, was also
not accepted.
Though
the accord incorporates both the major Dimasa militant
factions, its implementation may not be smooth. The two
factions have an intense rivalry; there are a multiplicity
of pending cases against leaders of DHD-J/BW factions;
and the Dimasa groups face significant opposition from
the non-Dimasa tribal population in the District. According
to a February 8, 2012 report, the two DHD factions had
been regularly violating ceasefire rules in the State.
As many as 462 militants from these groups had been arrested
on charges of extortion, abduction and other crimes since
their respective ceasefires – 2003 for DHD-N and 2009
for DHD-J / BW. 82 weapons were seized from their cadres.
The DHD factions were also involved in Hmar-Dimasa, Dimasa-Karbi
and Dimasa-Zeme Naga ethnic clashes in Dima Hasao in the
years 2003, 2005 and 2009, respectively.
Significantly,
the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Enforcement
Directorate (ED) have charged top leaders of the DHD-J
/ BW faction, including Garlosa and Niranjan Hojai, for
various crimes. NIA started an investigation into DHD-J
/ BW siphoning off central funds from the NC Hills Autonomous
Council to buy arms in 2009. ED has registered a case
against Niranjan Hojai under the provisions of the Money
Laundering Act. Further, according to a May 30, 2012,
report, the Central Government has written to the Nepal
Government requesting the latter to attach Hojai’s properties
in that country. The Government of Nepal has identified
properties worth over INR 50 million so far, including
a plot of land and a three story building in Kathmandu.
Further,
security agencies believe that the rivalry between the
two factions, which has led to the killing of many cadres
on either side, is unlikely to subside. On unnamed source
observed, "The rivalry will not go away. The two
factions will now be fighting each other to take control
of the autonomous council." One such incident has
already been reported since the signing of the MoS. On
October 12, 2012, DHD-N lodged complaints with Dispur
and Delhi, alleging that DHD-J / BW cadres had opened
fire on one of their camps at Maibong on October 11.
The District
had also witnessed violence by other militant formations,
prior to the MoS signing ceremony. On October 7, 2012,
militants from the Hills Tiger Force (HTF), a group fighting
for the bifurcation of the Dima Hasao District, carried
out two explosions in different parts of Haflong town.
Before this, on October 5, 2012, suspected Naga militants
sprayed bullets at the 15695 Down Agartala Express at
a place between Bagetar and Lower Haflong Stations in
Dima Hasao. However, there was no casualty.
The accord
has also been cold shouldered by non-Dimasa tribal bodies,
which are seeking a bifurcation of the District. The president
of the NC Hills Indigenous Students Forum (NCHISF), the
student wing of the Indigenous People Forum (IPF), L.
Hlima Keivom, on October 8, 2012, declared, “The Government
of Assam has changed the neutral name of the District
from North Cachar Hills into Dima Hasao on 30th March,
2010, amidst stiff opposition of the non-Dimasa communities.
The literal meaning of ‘Dima Hasao’ is a land of Dimasa.
But in reality the N.C. Hills is a land of many ethnic
communities since time immemorial… before any peace pact
for a Territorial Council or whatsoever is signed by the
Government with the militant group of the DHD-J, the concerned
Government should not make another big mistake as it had
done in the past. The Government should rather first consider
the demand of the IPF to bifurcate the District into two
autonomous districts with separate autonomous Councils
under the very constitutional framework of Art 244 (2)
of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India.” Significantly,
the earlier renaming of the District from N.C.Hills to
Dima Hasao had led to major
trouble.
Another
non-Dimasa militant group active in the region purportedly
represents the interests of the minority Naga population.
Factions of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland
(NSCN) have made repeated forays into the District and
collaborate with small
local groups . Parts of the District
fall into the imagined ‘Greater Nagaland’ or Nagalim
that the NSCN factions seek to establish.
Worse,
a new armed Dimasa outfit, Dima Jadi Naiso Army (DJNA),
has now come into existence and, on October 16, 2012,
sent a note containing a 12-point charter of demands,
aims and objectives, to local media persons. The Press
Note, signed by Bhaipa Dimasa, Jering Dimasa and Rinjen
Dimasa, the ‘chairman’, ‘commander-in-chief’ and ‘secretary’
of DJNA, respectively, declared that the group was fighting
for the creation of Dimaraji ('Land of Dimasas'), including
the Dimasa-inhabited areas of Assam and Nagaland.
The militant
organisations active in the District include the Nationalist
Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM),
the Khaplang faction of NSCN (NSCN-K),
HTF, Dimasa National Revolutionary Front (DNRF) and National
Dimasa Protection Army (NDPA). Further, the Kuki Liberation
Army (KLA),
Kuki Revolutionary Army (KRA)
and Hmar People's Convention-Democratic (HPC-D)
are in ceasefire with Government, while the Dimasa National
Democratic Front (DNDF) has surrendered.
Further,
despite the MoS, DHD-N has not given up its demand for
a separate ‘Dimaraji’ State. On October 12, 2012, DHD-N
leader Nunisa reiterated the demand for Dimaraji, asserting
that this objective would now be pursued democratically.
Notwithstanding
the MoS, it is evident that the horizon remains unclear,
and it remains uncertain whether the accord will bring
lasting peace to the District. Only a positive outcome
of the Naga peace process in neighbouring Nagaland, and
the political accommodation of the non-Dimasa tribes within
the Dima Hasao, can ensure and enduring peace in the region.
|
Weekly Fatalities: Major
Conflicts in South Asia
October 15-21,
2012
|
Civilians
|
Security
Force Personnel
|
Terrorists/Insurgents
|
Total
|
INDIA
|
|
Assam
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
Jammu and
Kashmir
|
1
|
0
|
2
|
3
|
Meghalaya
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
Left-wing
Extremism
|
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
Bihar
|
0
|
6
|
0
|
6
|
Jharkhand
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
Maharashtra
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
Odisha
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
Total (INDIA)
|
6
|
7
|
4
|
17
|
PAKISTAN
|
|
Balochistan
|
17
|
4
|
2
|
23
|
FATA
|
0
|
1
|
20
|
21
|
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
|
4
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
Punjab
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
Sindh
|
18
|
3
|
12
|
33
|
Total (PAKISTAN)
|
40
|
8
|
34
|
82
|
Provisional
data compiled from English language media sources.
|
INDIA
Three
civilians killed as Pakistan violates
CFA in J&K: Three civilians were killed
as Pakistan violated November 25, 2003,
ceasefire agreement (CFA) in Uri sector
of Baramulla District in Jammu and Kashmir
(J&K) on October 16. At around 10:30am
Pakistani troops from across the Line
of Control (LoC) fired around 7-8 rounds
of mortars that fell in Churanda village
hardly 100 meters from the LoC. One of
the shells fired by Pakistani troops fell
on a residential house leading to the
death of three civilians.
Daily Excelsior,
October 17, 2012.
900
plus Panchayat members have resigned
informally so far, says J&K chief Minister
Omar Abdullah: Jammu and Kashmir (J&K)
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said that
900 plus Panchayat (village level
local self Government institution) members
have resigned informally so far. Asked
about total number of informal resignations
of Panchayat members, Omar said, "900
plus". The Chief Minister, however, added,
"Only 52 elected representatives have
actually submitted written resignations,
in a formal manner, to the Block Development
Officer. Everybody else has done it in
a newspaper or standing up in a mosque.
And let's face it. That doesn't count."
Daily
Excelsior,
October 20, 2012.
Credible
Intelligence inputs indicate Pakistan
helping infiltrators, says Union Home
Minister Sushil kumar Shinde: Union
Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on October
21 said that there is credible intelligence
of Pakistan trying to stir up trouble
in India by helping terrorists to infiltrate
into the country. "We have credible information
that Pakistan is helping terrorists to
enter our territory. We have intelligence
inputs. But we are alert," he added. The
Hindu, October
22, 2012.
ISI
and SIMI helping Maoists, says West Bengal
DGP: West Bengal Director General
of Police (DGP) Naparajit Mukherjee warned
that the Communist Party of India-Maoist
(CPI-Maoist) have links with Pakistan's
Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). Mukherjee
said he had information that several pro-Maoist
over-ground outfits have joined hands
with some elements of banned Students
Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), which
have close links with ISI. IBN
Live, October
18, 2012.
CPI-Maoists
plan to revive a new corridor between
Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand this winter,
warn Intelligence officials: Intelligence
officials on October 20 sounded an alert
that Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist)
were working on a strategy to open a new
corridor between the states of Chhattisgarh
and Jharkhand in the coming winter by
taking advantage of freezing cold and
foggy situation in the forested border
region. An unnamed official said, "We
have received intelligence reports that
the Maoists are planning to regain their
ground in north Chhattisgarh regions bordering
Jharkhand to open a new corridor between
the two states. Security forces usually
do not venture into the area in winter
due to hostile climate". Deccan
Chronicle, October
21, 2012.
Saudi
Arabia emerges as safe destination for
anti-India terror outfits: Indian
Mujahideen (IM) has set up base in West
Asia, with Saudi Arabia emerging as preferred
destination to launch its operations in
India. Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence
(ISI) is arranging safe havens for the
terror operatives in West Asian countries.
India
Today, October
15, 2012.
NEPAL
CA
revival inevitable, says UCPN-M chairman
Pushpa Kamal Dahal: Unified Communist
Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) chairman
Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda
on October 17 said that sooner or later
major political parties will agree to
reinstate the dissolved Constituent Assembly
(CA). Although, both Nepali Congress (NC)
and Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist
Leninist (CPN-UML) are positive about
the idea, they have not been able to openly
come out and support it, he added. Nepal
News, October 17,
2012.
PAKISTAN
18
civilians and 12 militants among 33 persons
killed during the week in Sindh: At
least nine persons, including one Ahmadi,
three Ahl-e-Sunnat-Wal-Jama'at (ASWJ)
and two Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi
(MQM-H) cadres, were shot dead in Karachi
on October 19.
At
least five persons, including a Policeman,
were killed in separate incidents of violence
in Karachi on October 17.
The
Anti Violent Crime Cell (AVCC) in collaboration
with Citizens Police Liaison Committee
(CPLC) on October 16 claimed to have killed
three alleged abductors and found a businessman,
identified as Malik Zainul Abdeen (76),
from their custody after an encounter
at a house in Javed Bahria Housing Society
in Maripur area of Karachi.
At
least nine persons, including five cadres
of ASWJ, were killed in Karachi on October
15. Daily
Times;
Dawn; The
News; Tribune;
Central
Asia Online; The
Nation; The
Frontier Post;
Pakistan
Today;
Pakistan
Observer,
October
16-22, 2012.
17
civilians and four SFs among 23 persons
killed during the week in Balochistan:
At least three personnel of Frontier Corps
(FC) were killed and ten others, including
five security men and a woman, were wounded
in a remote-controlled blast at the Badini
intersection area in Quetta on October
19.
Four
members of the Hazara community were shot
dead in a sectarian attack in the Kabari
Market scrap market of Quetta on October
16.
A
guard of Balochistan Food Minister Asfandyar
Khan Kakar and two militants were killed
in an exchange of fire at the residence
of the Minister in the Chaman Housing
Scheme in Quetta on October 15. Daily
Times;
Dawn; The
News; Tribune;
Central
Asia Online; The
Nation; The
Frontier Post;
Pakistan
Today;
Pakistan
Observer,
October
16-22, 2012.
20
militants and one civilian killed during
the week in FATA:
At least eight militants were killed and
six others injured during an operation
by Security Forces (SFs) in Mamoonzai
and Khadezai areas of Orakzai Agency in
Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)
on October 21.
Two
militants and a trooper were killed and
two passers-by were injured in an exchange
of fire at a checkpost in Civil Colony
of Miranshah, Headquarter of North Waziristan
Agency on October 19.
At
least eight militants were killed and
seven others injured when Security Forces
backed by fighter planes bombed suspected
militants' positions in different parts
of Bara in Khyber Agency in Khyber Agency
on October 18. Daily
Times;
Dawn; The
News; Tribune;
Central
Asia Online; The
Nation; The
Frontier Post;
Pakistan
Today;
Pakistan
Observer,
October
16-22, 2012.
TTP
planning to target media for Malala Yousufzai
coverage: Angered by the coverage
of its attempt to assassinate Malala Yousufzai,
the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has
drawn up plans to target Pakistani and
international media organisations across
the country. TTP 'chief' Hakimullah Mehsud
has issued "special directions" to his
subordinates in different cities of Pakistan
to target media groups. Daily
Times,
October 14, 2012.
Media
should desist from glorifying terrorists,
says Supreme Court: The Supreme Court
on October 13 restrained media outlets
from covering terrorism related incidents
in such a manner which would glorify the
terrorists. In its order on the Balochistan
security case, Chief Justice Iftikhar
Mohammad Chaudhry justified the decision,
writing that material supplied by Senator
SM Zafar suggested that whenever there
was an incident involving murder of innocent
people, civilians or otherwise, newspapers
blamed different 'organisations'. Tribune,
October 13, 2012.
Supreme
Court orders Government to take legal
action against former Army Chief General
Mirza Aslam Beg and former ISI Chief Asad
Durrani for distributing money among politicians
to rig 1990 general polls:
On October 19, 2012, the Supreme Court
in response to a petition filed in 1996
by former Air Force Chief Asghar Khan
against the distribution of funds by the
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) among
politicians to prevent the Pakistan Peoples
Party's (PPP) victory in the 1990 polls,
ordered the Government to take legal action
against former Army Chief General Mirza
Aslam Beg and former ISI Chief Asad Durrani
for distributing millions of rupees among
politicians to rig the 1990 general polls.
The Supreme Court also said that any "political
cell" operating in the Presidency, ISI,
Military Intelligence (MI) or Intelligence
Bureau (IB) should be shut down immediately
as such an institution is unconstitutional.
Indian
Express,
October 20, 2012.
SRI LANKA
Government
to hold dialogue with Tamil Diaspora,
says Minister of Mass Media and Information
Keheliya Rambukwella: Minister of
Mass Media and Information Keheliya Rambukwella
said on October 19 that the Sri Lankan
Government is planning to hold discussions
with the Tamil Diaspora soon. The Minister
said the planned dialogue will be held
shortly under the patronage of President
Mahinda Rajapaksa. Colombo
Page, October
20, 2012.
Administration
of 12 new divisional secretariats in Sri
Lanka will be bilingual: The Sri Lankan
Government has identified 12 new divisional
secretariats in nine Districts that are
required to use both Sinhala and Tamil
as their languages in administration.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa
has declared that Dehiwala - Mount Lavinia,
Ganga Ihala Korale and the Kandy Four
Gravets and Gangawata Korale, Matale,
Lankapura and Welikanda in Polonnaruwa,
Ratnapura, Balangoda, Mawanella, Kekirawa,
Vavuniya South and Dehiattakandiya divisional
secretariats should use both languages
in their administrations. Colombo
Page, October
15, 2012.
The South
Asia Intelligence Review (SAIR) is a weekly service that
brings you regular data, assessments and news briefs on
terrorism, insurgencies and sub-conventional warfare, on
counter-terrorism responses and policies, as well as on
related economic, political, and social issues, in the South
Asian region.
SAIR is a project
of the Institute
for Conflict Management
and the
South
Asia Terrorism Portal.
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