| |
SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Weekly Assessments & Briefings
Volume 11, No. 47, May 27, 2013
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
|
The
Wages of Self-deception
Ajai Sahni
Editor, SAIR; Executive Director, Institute
for Conflict Management and SATP
The Maoists are currently in a phase of tactical
retreat, focusing on a reconsolidation of strengths,
the enhancement of recruitment to the PLGA, the
construction of alternative communication channels
to prevent leakage of information, the intensification
of propaganda through mass contacts, and escalating
overground activities and protests... The state
must not mistake the decline in intensity of violence
as a destruction of capacity of the Maoists to engage
in violence.
|
28 persons
have been killed, and another 30 have been injured, some
of them critically, in the latest swarming
attack by cadres of the Communist
Party of India – Maoist (CPI-Maoist),
executed, on this occasion, in the Darbha Ghati region
of the Sukma District in Chhattisgarh’s ailing Bastar
Division. Those killed most prominently include Mahendra
Karma, the controversial architect of the armed Salwa
Judum anti-Maoist ‘people’s movement’
in the State, which long received support from both the
State Government and from the Centre, and was projected
as a model for ‘popular resistance’ in other theatres
afflicted by Maoist violence, till the strategy was excoriated
by the Supreme
Court for its indiscriminate violence
and the violation of human rights, both of its victims
and of its own uneducated, backward, often underage cadres.
The Pradesh (State) Congress Committee chief, Nandkumar
Patel, and his son, former Member of the Legislative Assembly
(MLA) Uday Mudaliyar, were also killed, as were eight
Security Force (SF) personnel in the contingents guarding
the political leaders. Several Congress party workers
and three labourers were also killed in the improvised
explosive device (IED) blast engineered by the Maoists,
and in the subsequent crossfire. Former Union Minister
Vidya Charan Shukla and Konta MLA Kawasi Lakhma were among
the injured. The 84-year old Shukla is now in critical
condition in a Gurgaon hospital. Most of the fatalities
were inflicted after the personal guards of the various
protected persons ran out of ammunition. In a telling
gesture of contempt, the Maoists reportedly did not execute
the Policemen after the crossfire ended, and targeted
their political victims alone.
Initial
reports suggest that no special arrangement had been made
for the Congress Party’s high profile political rally
Parivartan Yatra (Trek for Change) through one
of the worst afflicted regions of the Maoist heartland
in Chhattisgarh, and that virtually every element of Standard
Operating Procedures (SoPs) had been violated by the 20
to 25 vehicle convoy, and by those inevitably responsible
for its protection, including State Police officials.
The Centre
has quickly deputed the National Investigation Agency
(NIA) to investigate the debacle – another smokescreen
that will help silence anxious inquiries, at least for
a few days, while the nation awaits the NIA’s learned
prognostications.
In the
interim, it is useful to turn attention to what is already
known.
First,
this was a disaster waiting to happen. It was the deliberate
and sustained falsification of realities that led to the
complacency that allowed a major political rally to be
organised through an area as badly afflicted by Maoist
violence as the Darbha Ghati in Sukma, with little security
cover. This sustained falsification has its sources both
in the State and the Central security establishment. The
dishonest and politically opportunistic bid to claim ‘successes’
without having worked for them has led to a repeated projection
of ‘gains’, despite the fact that the Government’s
own data and at least occasional assessments
give no adequate grounds for such claims. The reality,
as SAIR has emphasised
repeatedly in the past, is that “the
core areas of Maoist activity remain intact.”
This is
more than apparent to any objective observer, even without
the privileged flows of intelligence rattling around in
the corridors of power, both in New Delhi and in Raipur.
And yet, some astonishing assessments have been offered
by those who guide the destinies of the unfortunate masses
of the Indian nation today, and who order about hapless
SF personnel to seek out death by bullet and malaria in
the dark heart of the Maoist insurgency, with little understanding
or care about the objective circumstances of the ground.
The ‘handbook
of Government achievements’ for the United Progressive
Alliance Government (UPA) of 2004-13, for instance, claims:
The UPA Government’s
approach in dealing with left-wing extremism in
a holistic manner in the areas of security, development,
ensuring rights of local communities and good
governance is showing results in declining violence
in LWE affected areas...
The integrated
action plan being implemented in the LWE affected
areas, has helped chart out a new growth trajectory
with decreasing violence.
|
Such statements
could easily be dismissed as mere posturing by a political
formation, if the deception ended here, but this is far
from the case.
The Supreme
Court recently described the country’s ‘premier investigative
agency’, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as
a “caged parrot” for simply echoing the Government’s (read,
political executive’s) views in its investigation into
the ‘Coalgate scam’. The CBI, however, is not the only
“caged parrot” in the Government’s menagerie. The Administrative,
Police and Intelligence bureaucracy – in various cases,
unwillingly, willingly, and, at least some times, eagerly
– routinely toes the Government line, helping falsify
realities, distort data and pervert objective threat assessments.
Thus,
on March 28, 2013, Union Home Secretary R.K. Singh told
a Parliamentary Standing Committee:
There
has been an absolute turnaround in Chhattisgarh
and Jharkhand and now we are chasing the Naxal
groups. In Odisha we are chasing the Naxal groups.
There is a u-turn in Gadchroli where we are chasing
Naxals as well.
|
He has
not been alone in misleading Parliament, and the Union
Ministry of Home Affairs (UMHA) has routinely
misled Parliament , for instance,
on data relating to Police-population ratios in the country.
Astonishingly,
the Union Minister of Home Affairs, Sushil Kumar Shinde,
had conceded, on September 6, 2012, at a meeting of Directors
General and Inspectors General of Police, “Naxalism continues
to pose a significant challenge. There are indicators
about increase in the number of trained and armed cadres,
reogranisation of military potential for formation of
new battalions... (and) the creation of well-developed
indigenous capacity for accretions to their arsenal...”
These elements and Government data supporting them, have
repeatedly been examined
in the past, and do not bear repetition here.
It is,
nevertheless, crucial to note the increasing danger of
the proliferation of a section, particularly, of Indian
Police Service (IPS) officers who see themselves, not
as policemen, but as “higher police management”, a Police
and intelligence bureaucracy progressively alienated from
the conditions within which their Forces are required
to function and the challenges they face. It is precisely
this growing subset within the Police (and administrative)
leadership that has lent itself to fantastical misadventures
in the past, most notably, the disastrous 2009-10 “massive
and coordinated” operations launched by P. Chidambaram’s
Home Ministry, and the simultaneous Operation Greenhunt
initiated by the Chhattisgarh Police. These and other
campaigns have exposed an unfortunate and persistent inability
to think strategically. It is useful to recall that, after
the abrupt termination of both these operations in the
wake of the tragedy at Chintalnad, where 76 SF personnel
were trapped and slaughtered by the Maoists, and after
the scores of SF fatalities that preceded this outrage,
the then Chhattisgarh Director General of Police, Vishwaranjan,
somewhat belatedly
lamented that he had just one policeman
for five square kilometres of area in the Bastar Division,
the Maoist heartland where his Operation Greenhunt was
executed in collaboration with the UMHA’s “massive and
coordinated operations”.
To continue
with the make-believe: at the Chhattisgarh State level,
we find the State’s Minister for Home Affairs, Nanki Ram
Kanwar, declaring, in an official statement on behalf
of the Chief Minister Dr. Raman Singh, at the Chief Ministers’
Conference on Internal Security on April 15, 2013:
The
Chhattisgarh Government has taken concrete measures
in the Naxal affected areas. We find that, with
such welfare measures and other initiatives of
the State Government, the Naxal menace has been
contained.
|
It is
not clear if incidents such as the Darbha massacre fall
within the Chhattisgarh Government’s notion of ‘containment’.
There is
much characteristic noise in the wake of this latest Maoist
attack. An overwhelming proportion of this cacophony is
exhausted by politically correct platitudes expressing
shock, sorrow and, as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has
stated in the wake of almost every insurgent and terrorist
outrage of the past, the ‘determination’ not to let the
extremists prevail. To this is added the opportunistic
clamour of recriminations, the Centre blaming the State
and vice versa, with partisan political defences
of either position. Conspiracy theories also abound, with
elements sympathetic to the Congress party insisting that
the inadequate security arrangements for the Parivartan
Yatra were intentional, and contrasted sharply with
the ‘comprehensive cover’ provided to the Chief Minister’s
Vikas Yatra (Trek for Development). Come June 5,
when the State Chief Ministers will dutifully troop down
to Delhi for another ritual conference on internal security,
the Centre and its cheerleaders will most likely raise
the issue of the National Counter-terrorism Centre (NCTC)
again, this time probably arguing that it is necessary
to prevent ‘future Darbhas’; it is equally likely that
confused and ignorant State leaderships will fall in line,
eager for a symbolic ‘achievement’ to flaunt to their
respective constituencies, or too cowardly to appear to
be ‘blocking’ a ‘counter-terrorism initiative’. The fact
that setting up a new office in Delhi is not going to
make troops more effective in Bastar, will deter no one
from wasting another few thousand crores to score directionless
political points, even as the most basic challenges continue
to be ignored. All this is no more than opportunistic
garbage by self-seeking politicians and their bureaucratic
groupies, and there is little reason to believe that,
a few months from now, and despite the talk of the ‘unprecedented’
nature of the Darbha attack, this episode will not have
slid as far from political and public consciousness as,
for instance, the Chintalnad massacre.
The Darbha
massacre will, nevertheless, have crucial consequences
for the state and for the trajectory of the Maoist movement.
In particular, Mahendra Karma’s killing will have tremendous
impact in the so-called Red Corridor areas, and particularly
in Chhattisgarh. Karma’s disastrous Salwa
Judum had pitted him directly against
the Maoists, making him the most hated among their individually
targeted enemies. Whatever the assessment of the Salwa
Judum, Karma’s personal courage and sacrifice are undeniable.
Before he was gunned down, reports indicate that he had
lost as many as 23 members of his family, but never flinched
from his unyielding and public, often violent, opposition
to the rebels. He had survived repeated assassination
attempts, including, most recently, one on November 8,
2012. He was in a Z-plus category of security threat,
purportedly ‘heavily protected’. His killing is testimony,
on the one hand, to the relentlessness with which the
Maoists pursue their enemies and, on the other, of the
abysmal failure of the state to protect its own most vulnerable
supporters. The Maoists’ demonstration of will, ruthlessness
and effectiveness will encourage and inspire many among
Chhattisgarh’s youth – and others, perhaps far beyond
the State’s borders – to join the rebels in the immediate
future, unless the state is able to inflict dramatic retribution
on the perpetrators – an unlikely eventuality.
Another
foreseeable consequence is that no party or politician
will be inclined to campaign in the run-up to the State
Assembly elections of end-2013 in the Maoist dominated
areas, particularly in the Bastar Division. This will,
moreover, give politicians and political parties incentive
to enter into covert arrangements with the Maoists, as
they have done in the past, most recently in the case
of the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal in 2011, but
also in the case of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the
Chhattisgarh Assembly elections of 2008; the Jharkhand
Mukti Morcha in the Jharkhand Assembly elections of 2009;
and the Congress party in the Assembly elections in Andhra
Pradesh in 2004. If this happens, of course, the Maoists
will naturally extract a price for their support, with
inevitable costs in lives of civilians and SF personnel,
to be rendered subsequently.
Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh has been repeating, incessantly
and vacuously, since the early months of his first tenure
commencing May 2004, that the Maoists constitute the greatest
internal security challenge to the country. And yet, nearly
a decade later, there is no evidence of any coherence
of assessment, let alone strategy, within the national
and State security establishments; no recognition of the
most fundamental reality that, unless the intelligence
and Policing apparatus throughout the country is enormously
strengthened, professionalised, modernized, and made autonomous
of the corrupt and perverse control of political parties
and personalities, no crime – leave alone a significant
and widespread insurgency – can be brought under control.
As has been emphasised again and again, unless the crisis
of capacities and capabilities is
addressed, Darbha will only be a momentary link in a long
and interminable chain of insurgent excesses.
|
Destroying
the Future
Sanchita Bhattacharya
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management
Intolerance and hate
are crippling the education system in Pakistan as schools are increasingly
targeted by terrorist violence, and corruption and political inconsistency
deprive the educational infrastructure of much-needed resources,
leaving a new generation with diminishing options to secure their
own future. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), on April
6, 2012, noted that some 20 million Pakistani children, including
an estimated 7.3 million of primary school age, were not in school.
At least part of the reason is fear.
In the most recent
of such incidents, on May 10, 2013, a government school was blown
up in Swabi town (Swabi District) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). The
school’s watchman was injured in the incident. A day earlier, on
May 9, at least four schools were blown up in separate incidents
in different parts of Balochistan. A primary school was blown up
in Ghot Raisani area of Dhadar in Bolan District. Two other schools
were blown up in Jaffarabad District, and one school was blown up
in the Chah Sar area of Turbat District. Earlier, on May 5, 2013,
a boy's high school had been blown up in the Killi Sahibzada area
of the Nushki District of Balochistan.
Nor are these isolated
incidents. Partial data compiled by the Institute for Conflict
Management (ICM) suggests that since January 28, 2001,
till May 26, 2013, at least 370 schools had been destroyed by militants
in Pakistan. These attacks resulted in 27 killings (most of these
attacks were aimed at destroying the school building and infrastructure,
rather than killing people). In one of the recent attacks resulting
in a fatality, one civilian was killed and eight were injured when
a grenade was hurled at a school in the Ittehad Town of Karachi,
the provincial capital of the Sindh Province, on March 30, 2013.
ICM data, however,
grossly underestimates the magnitude of the problem. Indeed, on
March 26, 2013, Pakistan’s Intelligence agencies informed the Supreme
Court that, since the year 2008, 995 schools and 35 colleges had
been destroyed in KP and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas
(FATA) alone. Unsurprisingly, schools in KP and the neighbouring
tribal region of FATA have faced the brunt of terrorist attacks,
as the extremists have a virtual free run of these areas.
On February 21, 2013,
then KP Education Minister, Sardar Hussain Babak disclosed that
militants had destroyed or damaged more than 3,000 schools in KP.
He also claimed that 70 per cent of such schools had been ‘reconstructed’
and ‘remaining work’ was to be completed ‘within a year’. According
to a March 15, 2013, report, the Centre for Conflict Management,
Islamabad, revealed that between 2010 and 2012, a total of 839 schools
were destroyed in KP. The worst affected Districts were Swabi, Charsadda
and Nowshera. Earlier, on September 12, 2012, a report on The
State of Pakistan’s Children – 2011, published by the Society
for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC), Islamabad,
claimed that around 600,000 children in KP had missed one or more
years of education due to militancy.
On January 14, 2013,
FATA’s Assistant Education Officer, Mohammad Rehman stated that
Taliban attacks had damaged more than 460 schools throughout FATA’s
seven agencies, including 110 in Mohmand, 103 in Bajaur, 70 in Khyber,
55 in Kurram, 65 in Orakzai, 44 in North Waziristan and 16 in South
Waziristan (no period was specified). He commented, “Their Tehrik-e-Taliban
Pakistan (TTP)
campaign has left 12,000 children idle, including more than 3,800
girls,” adding, further, that 62,000 children had been displaced
by this campaign.
Meanwhile, the TTP
argued that it targeted schools because the military was using them
as operating bases. Indeed, the Pakistani Army and Frontier Corps
do use schools for such purposes, which including their use as firing
positions, detention centers etc. Moreover, the TTP rejects the
existing system of education as ‘un-Islamic’, and seeks its destruction
as an end in itself, demanding its replacement by a system based
on the Shariah. Thus, in a June 2012 interview, TTP ‘spokesman’
Ehsanullah Ehsan commented:
Through
the current education system, un-Islamic culture and vulgarity
are spreading in an Islamic society…we will have an alternative
education system that will be good for Muslims and Islam.
We consider our activities beneficial because they are good
for them in the afterlife.
|
This orientation
is, however, underpinned by a hatred towards literacy, and a desire
to demolish any form of government establishment or any fragment
of liberal thought, in order to spread terror and ignorance so that
the extremists’ twisted vision can percolate into the minds of common
people and help create and sustain the social chaos in which out-of
school children can easily be recruited for militancy.
Compounding this
direct attack on the educational infrastructure is Pakistan’s progressively
worsening socio-political and economic situation, which has undermined
educational development. The Failed State Index – 2012 ranks Pakistan
ranked 13th out of 177 countries, placing it in the ‘High
Alert Group’, only in a better situation in comparison to violence
plagued countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen,
etc. Further, the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP’s)
Human Development Report – 2013, puts Pakistan at the 146th
rank out of 186 countries in the ‘Education’ category, and, overall,
in the lowest category of “Low Human Development”.
The existence of
large numbers of “Ghost Schools” is another anomaly within the already
dwindling educational set-up of the country. According to a report
of British Council, Pakistan, titled “Pakistan: The Next Generation”,
released in November 2009:
At present, the educational
system is failing at all levels. Tellingly, there are now over twelve
thousand 'ghost schools' which provide no education at all….There
are schools in the rural areas where teachers don't show up for
months at a time or they outsource their job to people who know
nothing, which drives away the children.
|
At present, the educational
system is failing at all levels. Tellingly, there are now over twelve
thousand 'ghost schools' which provide no education at all….There
are schools in the rural areas where teachers don't show up for
months at a time or they outsource their job to people who know
nothing, which drives away the children.
On February 11, 2013,
Pakistan’s Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, ordered a
nationwide investigation of hundreds of “ghost schools” where teachers
do nothing but draw salaries. Chaudhry observed, “There are animals
kept in schools and the buildings have been turned into stables.
This is what we are doing to our children when education is a constitutional
right… The government has failed to provide any answer or details
about the state of ghost and non-functional schools, while apparently
funds and salaries were being disbursed as buildings remain abandoned
or occupied by animals”.
The Government, it
appears, is trying to remedy the situation by passing new laws in
a situation where it has little capacity even to implement the most
urgent among those that already exist. Thus, on December 19, 2012,
President Asif Ali Zardari signed into law “The Right to Free and
Compulsory Education Bill
2012” guaranteeing free education to children
aged between 5 and 16 years. Earlier, through the 18th
Amendment of Pakistan’s Constitution, in April 2010, Article 25A
had been added, declaring, “The State shall provide free and compulsory
education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years in
such manner as may be determined by law.” Pakistan is also a signatory
to the International Covenant on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights
(ICESCR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which commits
the Government to provide for education as a right to all.
The enveloping atmosphere
of fear, however, jeopardizes even the possibility of parents sending
their children to school for fear of attack. In a worrying development,
the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), which is set to join the new collation
Government in KP under the proposed leadership of Pervaiz Khattak
of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has demanded control of the
provincial Education Ministry. It is significant that, before the
elections, it was JI Ameer (chief) Munawar Hasan who had
observed, on May 5, 2013, that those claiming to be liberals in
a country made for the supremacy of the Qura'n and Sunnah
should register themselves as ‘minorities’. The JI, which has secured
seven seats in the KP Assembly elections held on May 11, 2013, announced
on May 15, 2013, that it would be joining forces with PTI, the single
largest party, with 35 seats, to form a Coalition Government in
the Province.
In Punjab, on March
24, 2013, the then Chief Minister, Shahbaz Sharif, who is now set
to lead the Provincial Government, had decided to cancel recent
reforms in school curricula by re-inserting Islamist chapters in
school text-books in a policy u-turn under pressure from the extremist
Sunni group, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). Earlier, several Islamist
chapters including, including those propagating Sunni ideological
positions, had been removed from the Class 10 Urdu text
book edition published in February 2013. This move once again demonstrated
that Provincial parties and Governments in Pakistan have little
will or capacity to resist extremist forces – with whom they are
often allied – or to rid the education system of radical elements.
As the very foundation
of Pakistan’s educational system is paralysed or corrupted by extremist
ideologies and intent, there can be little hope that the country
will be able to extract itself from the destructive cycles of radicalization
and terrorist violence. The absence of political will and state
capacity to address this enduring pathology is a compounding problem
that threatens the very edifice of the state and the future of Pakistan’s
children, in perpetuity
|
Weekly Fatalities: Major
Conflicts in South Asia
May 20-26,
2013
|
Civilians
|
Security
Force Personnel
|
Terrorists/Insurgents
|
Total
|
BANGLADESH
|
|
Islamist Extremism
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
INDIA
|
|
Jammu and
Kashmir
|
0
|
4
|
2
|
6
|
Meghalaya
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
5
|
Assam
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
Manipur
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
Left-wing
Extremism
|
|
Chhattisgarh
|
21
|
8
|
1
|
30
|
Jharkhand
|
3
|
0
|
1
|
4
|
Maharashtra
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
Odisha
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
Total (INDIA)
|
30
|
13
|
6
|
49
|
PAKISTAN
|
|
Balochistan
|
11
|
12
|
0
|
23
|
FATA
|
1
|
7
|
20
|
28
|
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
|
5
|
13
|
4
|
22
|
Sindh
|
29
|
1
|
3
|
33
|
Total (PAKISTAN)
|
|
|
|
|
Provisional
data compiled from English language media sources.
|
INDIA
Top
Congress
leaders
among
28
persons
killed
by
Maoists
in
Chhattisgarh:
Top
Congress
leaders,
including
State
Congress
Chief
Nand
Kumar
Patel,
senior
Congress
leader
Mahendra
Karma
(founder
of
Salwa
Judum,
an
anti-Maoist
vigilante
group)
and
former
Congress
Member
of
Legislative
Assembly,
Uday
Mudliyar,
were
among
28
persons
killed
when
heavily-armed
Communist
Party
of
India-Maoist
(CPI-Maoist)
cadres
ambushed
a
convoy
of
the
leaders
inside
a
dense
forest
in
Sukma
District
on
May
25.
Former
Union
Minister
V
C
Shukla
was
among
30
others
injured
in
the
incident.
"Bodies
of
28
people,
including
of
Congress
leaders,
workers
and
security
forces,
were
recovered,"
said
Chief
Minister
Raman
Singh.
Times
of
India;
The
Hindu,
May
26-27,
2013.
Five
coal
labourers
shot
dead
in
South
Garo
Hills
District
in
Meghalaya:
Five
coal
labourers
were
reportedly
shot
dead
by
armed
militants,
suspected
to
be
from
United
Achik
Liberation
Army
(UALA),
in
Nangalbibra
region
of
South
Garo
Hills
District
in
the
afternoon
of
May
20
in
retaliation
for
the
quarry
owner's
failure
to
pay
up
extortion
money
on
time.
The
armed
group
is
said
to
have
served
demand
notes
on
coal
mine
owners
throughout
Nangalbibra
region
in
the
month
of
April
and
amounts
ranging
from
INR
500000
to
INR
10
million
had
been
demanded
by
the
outfit.
Shilong
Times,
May
21,
2013.
Four
SF
personnel
and
a
militant
killed
in
Jammu
and
Kashmir:
Four
Security
Force
(SF)
personnel
and
a
militant
were
killed
in
an
encounter
at
Buchoo
village
located
in
Tral
area
of
Pulwama
District
on
May
24.
An
Army
spokesman
said
the
troops
had
launched
an
anti-insurgency
operation
following
a
tip
off
about
presence
of
militants
in
the
area.
The
spokesperson
said,
"As
the
troops
were
laying
the
cordon
around
the
village,
the
militants
hiding
in
the
nearby
forest
opened
firing,
resulting
in
death
of
the
three
jawans
(troopers)."
One
of
the
injured
troopers
died
later
in
the
day,
while
the
SFs
shot
dead
a
militant
identified
as
Saifullah
Ahangar.
The
Hizb-ul-Mujahideen
(HM)
claimed
responsibility
for
the
attack.
Times
of
India;
The
Hindu,
May
24-25,
2013.
Cyber
command
for
country
soon,
says
Defence
Minister
A
K
Antony
Antony:
Defence
Minister
A
K
Antony
on
May
25
said
that
India
will
soon
form
a
cyber
command
to
handle
the
online
threats
being
faced
by
the
country.
"We
have
already
got
a
mechanism
for
cyber
security
but
we
are
augmenting
it
further
and
the
forces
are
finalizing
a
proposal
for
a
cyber
command,"
said,
adding,
"We
have
enough
strength
in
securing
our
borders
across
the
land,
seas
and
air.
We
will
now
strengthen
our
cyber
defence,
though
we
were
a
bit
delayed
on
that
front."
Times
of
India,
May
26,
2013.
UPPK
signs
tripartite
MoU
with
Central
and
State
Government
in
Manipur:
United
People's
Party
of
Kangleipak
(UPPK),
on
May
24,
signed
a
tripartite
Memorandum
of
Understanding
(MoU)
with
the
Central
and
Manipur
Governments
joining
the
peace
process
during
a
home
coming
ceremony
in
Imphal.
The
arms
laid
down
by
the
UPPK
were
a
total
of
37
weapons
including
one
SLR,
21
HK-33
Rifles,
4
Pistols,
2
lathod
guns,
one
each
of
M-22
Rifle,
AK-56
Rifle,
Type
81
Rifle,
A-4
Rifle,
A-1
Rifle,
MG
A-2,
MG
M-23,
MG
MK-3
and
RPG.
In
addition
to
many
hand
grenades,
the
UPPK
has
also
brought
5742
rounds
of
5.56mm
ammunition
and
507
rounds
of
7.762mm
ammunition.
Bonbihari,
'president'
of
UPPK
said
that
UPPK
group
had
decided
on
the
path
of
peace
as
the
general
public
does
not
like
bloodshed.
Kangla
Online,
May
25,
2013.
NEPAL
We
will
write
the
constitution
from
the
streets
itself,
says
CPN-Maoist-Baidya:
Chairman
of
the
Communist
Party
of
Nepal-Maoist-Baidya
(CPN-Maoist-Baidya)
Mohan
Baidya
said
on
May
21
that
if
the
demands
put
forth
by
his
party
goes
unaddressed
then
it
will
through
the
strength
of
a
nationwide
movement
create
the
basis
to
write
the
new
constitution
"from
the
streets
itself".
He
said
the
country
won't
get
a
way
out
of
the
present
mess
it
is
in
until
the
current
Khil
Raj
Regmi
Government
is
pulled
down
and
political
parties
appoint
a
new
prime
minister
by
holding
a
round
table
meeting.
Nepal
News,
May
22,
2013.
PAKISTAN
29
civilians,
three
militants
and
one
SF
among
33
persons
killed
during
the
week
in
Sindh:
At
least
seven
persons,
including
an
activist
each
of
the
Muttahida
Qaumi
Movement
(MQM)
and
Ahl-e-Sunnat
Wal
Jama'at
(ASWJ),
were
killed
in
separate
incidents
in
Karachi
(Karachi
District),
the
provincial
capital
of
Sindh
Province,
on
May
26.
At
least
four
persons,
including
a
Policeman,
were
killed
in
separate
acts
of
targeted
attacks
in
Karachi,
on
May
25.
At
least
four
persons,
including
two
militants,
were
killed
in
separate
incidents
in
Karachi
on
May
24.
Eight
persons
were
killed
in
separate
incidents
of
violence
in
Karachi
on
May
23.
At
least
six
persons,
including
activists
of
the
Muttahida
Qaumi
Movement
(MQM)
and
the
Sindh
Taraqqi
Pasand
Party
(STPP),
were
killed
in
separate
incidents
in
Karachi
(Karachi
District),
the
provincial
capital
of
Sindh,
on
May
20.
Daily
Times;
Dawn;
The
News;
Tribune;
Central
Asia
Online;
The
Nation;
The
Frontier
Post;
Pakistan
Today;
Pakistan
Observer,
May
21-27,
2013.
22
civilians
and
two
militants
among
23
persons
killed
during
the
week
in
Balochistan:
13
persons,
including
12
Balochistan
Constabulary
(BC)
personnel,
were
killed
and
17
others
sustained
injuries
in
an
explosion
caused
by
a
bomb
rigged
to
a
rickshaw
near
Link
Badini
Road
in
the
proximity
of
Bhossa
Mandi
on
Eastern
Bypass
in
Quetta
(Quetta
District),
the
capital
of
Balochistan,
on
May
23.
At
least
six
persons,
including
five
women,
were
killed
and
two
others
sustained
injuries
in
a
firing
incident
on
Noorpur
Road
in
Bakra
Mandi
area
of
Sibi
District
on
May
23.
Daily
Times;
Dawn;
The
News;
Tribune;
Central
Asia
Online;
The
Nation;
The
Frontier
Post;
Pakistan
Today;
Pakistan
Observer,
May
21-27,
2013.
13
SFs,
five
civilians
and
four
militants
among
22
persons
killed
during
the
week
in
KP:
At
least
six
Policemen
were
killed
and
a
District
Police
Officer
(DPO)
and
his
guard
were
injured
when
militants
attacked
their
vehicles
with
rockets
on
the
Indus
Highway
in
Mattani
area
of
Darra
Adamkhel
District
of
Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa
(KP)
on
May
24.
At
least
three
persons
were
killed
in
a
suicide
attack,
targeting
Hazi
Hayatullah,
leader
of
Afghan
religious
outfits
Jamatul
Dawa
Alquran
and
Sunnah,
on
Pajagi
Road
in
Saeedabad
area
of
Peshawar
(Peshawar
District),
the
provincial
capital
of
KP,
on
May
24.
Daily
Times;
Dawn;
The
News;
Tribune;
Central
Asia
Online;
The
Nation;
The
Frontier
Post;
Pakistan
Today;
Pakistan
Observer,
May
21-27,
2013.
TTP
issues
fresh
threat
to
assassinate
former
President
General
(retired)
Pervez
Musharraf:
The
Tehreek-e-Taliban
Pakistan
(TTP)
issued
a
fresh
threat
to
assassinate
former
President
General
(retired)
Pervez
Musharraf,
currently
detained
in
his
palatial
farmhouse
in
Islamabad,
over
a
string
of
high-profile
cases.
In
a
video
posted
on
the
jihadi
website
Umar
Media,
TTP
spokesman
Ehsanullah
Ihsan
said,
"Soon
we
will
punish
this
Satan
(Musharraf)
to
death
for
his
wicked
deeds.
From
Balochistan
to
Waziristan,
Musharraf
engulfed
this
country
in
blood
and
fire.
He
is
the
killer
of
hundreds
of
innocent
students
of
Lal
Masjid."
This
is
the
second
video
issued
by
the
TTP
with
a
threat
against
Musharraf.
Before
Musharraf
returned
to
Pakistan
from
self-exile
in
March,
the
TTP
had
issued
a
video
that
said
the
militants
had
formed
a
special
squad
of
suicide
bombers
and
snipers
to
kill
him.
The
Hindu,
May
26,
2013.
Committed
Pakistani
jihadists
with
ties
to
Afghan
militants
have
replaced
the
slain
top
al
Qaida
leaders
in
the
Pakistan's
tribal
region,
says
report:
The
New
York
Times
reported
on
May
26
that
committed
Pakistani
jihadists
with
ties
to
Afghan
militants
have
replaced
the
slain
top
al
Qaida
leaders
killed
by
US
drones
in
the
country's
tribal
region.
The
paper
said,
"Although
many
senior
leaders
of
al-Qaida
sheltering
there
have
been
felled
by
CIA
missiles,
they
have
been
largely
replaced
by
committed
Pakistani
jihadists
with
ties
that
span
the
border
with
Afghanistan."
Times
of
India,
May
27,
2013.
US
drone
strikes
have
'minimal'
impact
on
militants
recruitment,
says
ICG
report:
The
United
States
(US)
drone
strikes
in
Pakistan
have
a
"minimal"
impact
on
militants'
recruitment,
the
International
Crisis
Group
(ICG)
said
in
report
titled
"Drones:
Myths
and
Reality
in
Pakistan".
"The
actual
benefit
to
extremist
groups,
including
in
terms
of
recruitment,
appears,
however,
minimal,"
the
report
said.
Tribune,
May
21,
2013.
Dialogue
with
Taliban
best
option
to
restore
peace,
says
PML-N
chief
Nawaz
Sharif:
Pakistan
Muslim
League-
Nawaz
(PML-N)
chief
Nawaz
Sharif
on
May
20
said
that
dialogue
with
Taliban
is
the
best
option
to
restore
peace.
"Forty
thousand
precious
lives
have
so
far
been
lost
and
the
national
economy
is
suffering
a
loss
of
billions
of
dollars
(in
the
war
against
terrorism).
Why
should
not
(we)
sit
for
a
dialogue
to
restore
peace,"
Sharif
told
his
party's
legislators-elect
on
May
20.
"Is
it
a
bad
option?"
he
asked
and
then
answered
himself:
"It
is
the
best
available
option."
He
said
gun
was
not
a
solution
to
any
problem,
adding,
that
the
Taliban's
offer
for
dialogue
should
be
taken
seriously.
Every
option
should
be
explored
to
bring
an
end
to
the
ongoing
carnage
in
Karachi
and
tribal
areas,
he
suggested.
Dawn,
May
21,
2013.
SRI
LANKA
Government
has
not
taken
any
decision
to
amend
the
13th
Amendment
to
the
Constitution,
says
Minister
Anura
Priyadharshana
Yapa:
Petroleum
Industries
Minister
Anura
Priyadharshana
Yapa
on
May
22
stated
that
the
Government
has
not
taken
any
decision
to
amend
the
13th
Amendment
to
the
Constitution.
"We
are
aware
that
the
Tamil
National
Alliance
[TNA]
is
not
in
favour
of
the
proposed
amendment
to
the
13th
Amendment
to
the
Constitution.
We
assure
that
whatever
change
is
decided
by
the
[Parliamentary]
Select
Committee
will
be
adhered
to
by
the
government,"
the
Minister
asserted.
Minister
Yapa
also
said
the
elections
to
the
Northern
Provincial
Council
(NPC)
would
be
held
in
September
2013
as
decided
by
the
government
earlier,
and
this
would
not
change.
Meanwhile,
United
Nation
Party
(UNP)
parliamentarian
Lakshman
Kiriella
said
on
May
22
that
the
party
believes
that
the
devolution
of
power
would
address
the
ethnic
issue
and
it
was
the
best
method
to
solve
the
ethnic
issue
in
the
country.
The
UNP
parliamentarian
said
the
war
could
have
been
ended
before
2009
if
the
members
in
the
present
government
in
2001-2003
had
agreed
with
the
devolution
of
power
and
helped
the
then
UNP
government
to
implement
the
13th
Amendment.
Daily
News;
Colombo
Page,
May
23,
2013.
Defence
Secretary
Gotabhaya
Rajapaksa
opposes
vesting
Police
powers
with
the
provincial
councils:
Defence
Secretary
Gotabhaya
Rajapaksa
has
said
that
Police
powers
cannot
be
vested
with
the
provincial
councils.
Rajapaksa
has
been
quoted
in
the
local
media
saying
that
he
would
never
agree
to
the
granting
of
Police
powers
to
provincial
councils
according
to
the
13th
Amendment
to
the
Constitution.
According
to
Rajapaksa,
at
present
no
provincial
council
exercises
police
powers,
and
if
they
were
to
be
granted
such
powers
in
future,
such
a
measure
could
pose
a
serious
threat
to
national
security
and
he
foresees
a
dangerous
situation.
He
has
added
that
if
the
councils
were
vested
with
police
powers,
a
serious
situation
would
arise
with
regard
to
the
maintenance
of
law
and
order,
and
even
the
Criminal
Investigation
Department
(CID)
would
become
ineffective.
Colombo
Page,
May
24,
2013.
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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