West Bengal: The Colour of Blood,Bangladesh: Steady Progress :: South Asia Intelligence Review (SAIR),Vol. No. 9.25
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SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Weekly Assessments & Briefings
Volume 9, No. 25, Decemeber 27, 2010

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


ASSESSMENT

 

INDIA
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West Bengal: The Colour of Blood
Fakir Mohan Pradhan
Research Assistant, Institute for Conflict Management

Replying to a question in the State Assembly on December 23, 2010, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee claimed,
Because of sustained joint operations by 35 companies of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), six companies of Nagaland Police and 51 companies of State Police, the situation in Goaltore, Salboni and Midnapore Sadar blocks of West Midnapore and that in Bankura and Purulia has greatly improved... The situation has changed in the past three months. Some of the blocks [in Jungalmahal] are terror free... (However) Till the situation improves in Jharkhand and Orissa, it would be difficult to keep Bengal unaffected. Till such a time, the paramilitary forces should be there.

Earlier, in an interview to a TV Channel in Kolkata on November 13, the Chief Minister asserted, "The Maoist leadership is now divided. They are now cornered."

Ironically, on December 17, cadres of the Communist Party of India – Maoist (CPI-Maoist) had shot dead seven workers of the All India Forward Block (AIFB, a party belonging to the ruling Left coalition in the State) at Baghbinda village of Jhalda in Purulia District.

In fact, West Bengal has witnessed a dramatic spurt in Maoist-related fatalities in 2010. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) data base, 425 persons including 328 civilians, 36 Security Forces (SF) personnel and 61 Maoists, including cadres of the Maoist-backed People’s Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA), were killed in the State in 2010 (till December 26), as against 158 persons, including 134 civilians, 15 SF personnel and nine Maoists killed in the State in 2009. With this, West Bengal has now earned the dubious distinction of recording the highest Maoist-related fatalities in 2010, dislodging Chhattisgarh, which had topped the list since 2006. The intervening years have seen an extraordinary rise in Maoist-related fatalities in West Bengal, from just six in 2005, through 24 in 2008, and up to 158 and 418, respectively, in 2009 and 2010.

Maoist Insurgency-related fatalities in West Bengal, 2005-2010

Year
Civilian
SF
Maoist
Total
2005
5
1
0
6
2006
9
7
4
20
2007
6
0
1
7
2008
19
4
1
24
2009
134
15
9
158
2010*
328
36
61
425
Source: SATP, *Data till December 26, 2010

Significantly, the civilian casualty figure of 328, which includes the fatalities in the Gyaneshwari Express derailment incident (148) of May 28, 2010, is by far the highest among the Maoist affected States for any past year, followed distantly by Chhattisgarh in 2006, with 189 civilian fatalities. In 2010, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, each, recorded 71 civilian fatalities. Civilian fatalities in West Bengal recorded a 145 per cent increase over the elevated base level of 134 for 2009, already the highest among Maoist-affected States, though West Bengal was placed third in total fatalities last year.

The principal cause for this dramatic escalation is the rapid expansion of the Maoists in the State, and their focused infiltration of the tribal movement in Lalgarh, as a result of which they have taken control of wide areas despite mounting pressure from the SFs. The movement in Lalgarh snowballed after a failed assassination attempt targeting the Chief Minister and then Union Minister for Steel Ram Vilas Paswan at nearby Salboni on November 2, 2008, and the clumsy Police responses that followed. Significantly, unlike other States, the expanding Maoist sway is confronted by the organised (and often armed) cadres of the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in West Bengal. In order to hold the area under their control, the Maoists have neutralised the CPI-M cadre base and terrorised the masses – tactics that explain the large number of CPI-M cadre and ‘sympathisers’ among the ‘civilian’ fatalities in the State. Indeed, of the 328 civilians killed in 2010, CPI-M leaders and cadre account for as many as 116.

SF fatalities have also risen to 36 in 2010, from 15 in 2009, even as 61 Maoists were killed, as against nine in 2009, reflecting increasing direct confrontation between the SFs and the Maoists.

In terms of spatial distribution, fatalities in Maoist-related incidents have been reported from five Districts: West Midnapore (365), Purulia (33), Bankura (23), Birbhum (2) and Murshidabad (2). By comparison, 2009 recorded Maoist-related fatalities from West Midnapore (135), Purulia (10), Bankura (8), Jalpaigudi (1), Murshidabad (1), and South 24-Pargana (2). The focus of Maoist activities evidently remains in West Midnapore District, though the Maoists have also succeeded in intensifying their activities in Purulia and Bankura Districts.

The State witnessed 14 major incidents (involving three or more casualties) through 2010. The most significant among these included:

February 15, 2010: Over 100 armed CPI-Maoist cadres attacked the paramilitary Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR) camp at Silda, just 30 kilometers from Midnapore town, in the West Midnapore District, killing 24 EFR personnel. One civilian who was injured in the cross fire died later. Another seven troopers were also injured.

May 19: Four CRPF personnel and a Deputy Commandant were killed, while another trooper was critically injured, when CPI-Maoist cadres triggered a landmine explosion targeting the car they were travelling in near Lalgarh in West Midnapore District.

May 28, 2010: At least 148 passengers were killed when cadres of the Maoist-backed PCPA sabotaged the railway track between Khemasoli and Sardiha Railway Stations near Jhargram in West Midnapore District, causing the derailment of 13 coaches of the Gyaneshwari Express. Another 145 persons suffered injuries.

June 16: At least 12 CPI-Maoist cadres were killed and several others injured in an encounter between the Maoist and a joint SF contingent at Ranja Forest near Lalgarh in West Midnapore District of West Bengal.

July 26: Six cadres of the CPI-Maoist, including a woman, and a CRPF trooper were killed in an encounter in the dense forests under Goaltore Police Station in West Midnapore District. 12 weapons, including SLRs and INSAS rifles, were also recovered from the site of the encounter.

August 26: Just before being killed by SFs, Umakanta Mahato, a prime accused in Gyaneshwari Express derailment case, held a 'people's court' at midnight at Kalabani village, near Jhargram in West Midnapore District and ‘sentenced’ three supporters of ruling CPI-M to death after branding them Police informers. The CPI-M sympathizers were executed immediately.

The Maoists were also involved in at least 25 cases of landmine explosions, 18 incidents of arson, and two incidents of abduction (an overwhelming majority of abduction cases go unreported because of fear of the Maoists), and gave bandh (general shut down) calls on at least 29 occasions through 2010. The Maoists also executed seven ‘swarming attacks’ involving significant numbers of their People’s Militia in 2010, as against eight such attacks in 2009.

There were, however, significant SF successes in 2010, including the killing of six Maoists, along with Sidhu Soren, the founding ‘commander-in-chief’ of Sidhu Kanu Gana Militia, in an encounter in Maleta forest in Goaltore area of West Midnapore District on July 26, 2010; the Ranja forest encounter of June 16, 2010, in which at least 12 Maoists were killed; and the Hathilot Forest encounter (near Lakhanpur) of March 25, 2010, where Maoist Politburo member Koteswar Rao alias Kishan was injured. Most significantly, the PCPA founder-president, Lalmohan Tudu, was killed by the SFs on February 22, 2010, along with at least two other PCPA cadres.

These operational successes were compounded by key arrests. Four members of the Maoists’ West Bengal State Committee, including ‘state secretary’ Sudip Chongdar aka Kanchan aka Batas, Anil Ghosh aka Ajoyda, Barun Sur aka Bidyut, and Kalpana Maity, wife of Ashim Mondal aka Akash, were arrested from Kolkata on December 3 and 4, 2010. A day after these arrests, Asim Mondal aka Akash, a senior member of the State Committee, admitted "The arrest is unfortunate and no doubt it is a jolt for our organisation." Earlier, on March 2, 2010, Venkateswar Reddy aka Telugu Dipak, another State Committee member, had been arrested from Sarshuna near Calcutta. Dipak was the suspected mastermind of the February 15, 2010, attack on the EFR camp at Silda. Indeed, an abrupt leadership vacuum among the Maoists in West Bengal seems to have been created, with seven of the 11 State Committee members either behind bar or dead. [The 11 member Committee included: Kanchan, Deepak, Anil Ghosh, Barun Sur, Dwijen Hembram, Sashdhar Mahato, Madhai Patra, Nirmalda, Mansaram Hembram aka Bikash, Asim Mondal aka Akash and Kalpana Maity aka Anu.]

Further, Bapi Mahato, a prime accused in the Gyaneshwari Express derailment case as well as a senior member of the Maoist-backed PCPA was arrested by a joint team of the West Bengal and Jharkhand Police from the Adityapur area of Jamshedpur in Jharkhand on June 20, 2010. According to the SATP database, at least 245 arrests have been made in 2010 in connection with Maoist activities. On June 18, 2010, however, State Chief Secretary Ardhendu Sen claimed that SFs operating in the Jungalmahal area, which includes Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore Districts, had arrested "about 400 to 500 Maoists". Nevertheless, the mastermind behind almost all the Maoist attacks in the region, Koteswar Rao aka Kishanji, CPI-Maoist Politburo member in charge of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa, remains elusive.

Expecting that the pressure mounted by the SFs would induce some Maoists to lay down arms, the State announced its new surrender policy on June 15. The ‘package’ followed Central Government guidelines, with a one-off payment of INR 150,000, vocational training for three months, and INR 2,000 in a monthly stipend for each surrendering cadre. If arms were also surrendered, they would receive, in addition, INR 15,000 for an AK-47 rifle, INR 25,000 for a machine gun, and INR 3,000 for a pistol or revolver. On June 17, West Bengal Director General of Police (DGP) Bhupinder Singh stated, "We have received feelers that a number of people are willing to surrender." By December 26, 2010, however, only five Maoists had surrendered, after the announcement of the ‘package’.

Despite the many SF successes, however, there is little reason for any great optimism. The Chief Minister’s claim that ‘the situation has changed in the past three months’, while not altogether incorrect, nevertheless glosses over the reality of continuing killings in the State, despite the deployment of 92 SF companies in the Jungalmahal area.

Maoist Insurgency-related fatalities in West Bengal, January – December 2010

Month
Civilians
SFs
Terrorists
Total
January
13
1
6
20
February
6
26
9
41
March
10
0
6
16
April
15
0
2
17
May
175
5
0
180**
June
17
1
15
33
July
25
1
9
35
August
11
0
7
18
September
14
1
2
17
October
11
0
2
13
November
13
0
2
15
December
18
1
1
20
Total*
328
36
61
425
Source: SATP, *Data till December 26, 2010
[**Note: The unusually high number of May is because of the Gyaneshwari Express derailment incident in which 148 persons were killed]

Again, the Chief Minister’s claim that "some of the blocks are terror free" cannot be accepted without qualification. It is, of course, the case that, on October 18, 2010, at least 12,000 CPI-M cadres marched 12 kilometres from Dharampur and Goaltore to Lalgarh and ‘reclaimed’ the area amid tight security. According to media reports, earlier, an armed rally of CPI-M party cadres, led by its Zonal Committee Secretary Annuj Pandey, who was driven out of his residence in Dharampur in June 2009, ‘reclaimed’ Dharampur and opened the party office located near his residence. However, the role of armed CPI-M cadres in these ‘recoveries’ can hardly be overlooked. Even Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram acknowledged, on September 1, 2010, the existence of armed CPI-M camps in the State. Again on December 21, 2010, Chidambaram wrote to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee asking him to ensure the armed cadres -- including those from the ruling party-supported 'Harmad Vahini' – are "immediately disarmed and demobilised".

In August 2010, the State Government advertised a call for recruitment to 4,767 Police Constables, essentially to fill existing vacancies. The State has a dismal Police Population ratio of 89 per 100,000, way below the national average of 128, as on December 31, 2008 (National Crime Records Bureau Data). There is little possibility of raising the size of the State Police Force to an acceptable level to secure operational efficiency against the Maoists in the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile, the State Government has sent a proposal to the Union Government to declare another three Districts – Birbhum, Murshidabad and Nadia – Maoist-affected, and the matter is under consideration by the Centre. West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura were already in the list of Maoist-affected Districts. According to reports submitted by the State Police to the State Home Department, eight Police Stations in Nadia, six Police Stations in Birbhum and three Police Stations in Murshidabad have seen increased Maoist activity. The report further disclosed that the Maoists had formed a ‘regional committee’ in Nadia and an ‘area committee’ in Jalangi. The leader of the ‘area committee’ has been identified as Prasanta Das alias Raja, a resident of Kotwal. Das is reported to be the key person in the area, and is involved in strengthening the cadre’s base in Murshidabad and Nadia Districts, and in spreading Maoist influence in the colleges of these Districts. The Maoists had initiated activities by forming a front organisation called Mazdoor Krishak Sangram Samity (Workers and Peasants’ Struggle Committee).

Further, the interrogation of Sudip Chongdar aka Kanchan and other arrested State Committee members revealed that the Maoists were planning to build an urban backup force, with Kolkata as its centre. Recovered documents disclosed that the Maoists had more than 200 primary members in and around the city, and hundreds of sympathisers. Students and labourers from the unorganised sector were the main recruitment pools, and the Maoists were working to set up a viable urban network for shelter and logistics support. The investigating officers revealed that the Maoists had a four-member ‘city committee’, which was in charge of the urban organisation. Police had also recovered several important CDs related to the urban warfare plan of the Maoist ‘Red Brigade’.

A consignment of the hi-tech communication devices recovered after Kanchan’s arrest was found to have been procured for Chhattisgarh. Investigating officers disclosed that the Maoists were trying to develop radio-controlled improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and had already unsuccessfully tested some such IEDs in Jharkhand. Two senior Central Committee members were in charge of the technical cell, and an officer stated, further, "They are also getting help from some city-based students."

Disturbingly, media reports indicate that the Maoists have been recruiting a large number of teenagers, mainly from the Jungalmahal area. In West Midnapore alone, the Maoists are estimated to have trained about 500 teenagers in the first half of 2010. On May 11, 2010, West Midnapore SP Manoj Verma had disclosed, "The boys are offered a monthly amount of INR 2,500." In the June 16 incident in the Ranja Forest, Police records indicate that six of the 12 dead were about 15 or 16 years old.

The Political dynamics of the election-bound State are also making things difficult for the success of anti-Maoist operations. The bitter rivalry between the ruling Left coalition and the main opposition party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), has polarized constituencies and provoked significant violence, including credible claims of linkages between the TMC and the Maoists in several protest movements of the recent past. On August 7, 2010, the CPI-M claimed that 250 of its activists had been killed by "TMC-Maoist gangs". On December 3, 2010, on the other hand, the TMC alleged that 150 people, including TMC supporters, had been killed ‘miscreants backed by the CPI-M’ since the last Lok Sabha election. Meanwhile, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs reported that 96 TMC and 65 CPI-M cadres had been killed till December 15. In its bid to dislodge the ruling coalition from power, the TMC has sought to secure the support of the Maoists, and has repeatedly been demanding the withdrawal of joint SFs from Jungalmahal. The TMC had come out openly in support of the Maoist-backed PCPA and had also organised a joint rally with the PCPA in Lalgarh. On December 20, 2010, the TMC took the dead body of Sanatan Hembram, a PCPA supporter who was allegedly killed by CPI-M cadres in the Lalgarh area, in a procession in Kolkata. The TMC claimed that Hembram was its party cadre, though Police claimed he was initially a Jharkhand Party member who later joined the PCPA and was associated with the Sidhu Kanu Gana Militia.

Within West Bengal’s fractious politics, with the principal political parties consolidating their own armed cadres, and the Maoists playing a significant role in shaping the electoral scenario, there is grave risk that the limited gains of the recent past will be washed away in a rising tide of bloodshed.

BANGLADESH
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Steady Progress
Anshuman Behera
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

The processes of de-radicalization initiated by the Sheikh Hasina Government after it came to power on January 6, 2009, have been further and considerably consolidated through 2010, with Dhaka successfully reining in the Islamist extremist constituency in the country, even as it continued to ruthlessly target an incipient radical Left Wing movement.

Interestingly, the country’s extremist Islamist image has been turned around with relatively little bloodshed, even as Left Wing Extremists (LWE), whose activities are little in evidence, continue to be killed in much larger numbers. According to the partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), the country witnessed a total of 56 fatalities, including 48 militants, four civilians and three Security Force (SF) personnel in 2010, in 49 incidents of killing, as compared to 87 fatalities, including 81 militants and six civilians, in 68 incidents of killing in 2009. Also, while 2009 had witnessed two major incidents (involving three or more fatalities), the year 2010 witnessed a single major incident.

Fatalities: 2005-2010

 
Civilians
SFs
Terrorists
Total
2010*

Islamist

3
0
3
6

Left Wing

1
3
46
50

Total

4
3
49
56
2009

Islamist

0
0
0
0

Left Wing

6
0
81
87

Total

6
0
81
87
2008

Islamist

1
0
0
1

Left Wing

3
1
53
57

Total

4
1
53
58
2007

Islamist

1
0
7
8

Left Wing

8
0
72
80

Total

9
0
79
88
2006

Islamist

6
0
6
12

Left Wing

28
5
139
172

Total

34
5
145
184
2005

Islamist

26
0
9
35

Left Wing

11
3
163
177

Total

37
3
172
212
Source: SATP, *Data till December 26, 2010

LWE-related fatalities were, however, at their lowest in 2010, as compared to the preceding five years. A total of 50 persons, comprising of 46 militants, three SFs and a civilian were killed in 43 incidents of LWE-linked killing. Of the 46 LWE cadre killed in 2010, 33 were killed in two Districts, Pabna (17) and Kushtia (16). The remaining 13 were killed in Jhenidah (2), Dhaka (2) and Rajbari (2); and Meherpur, Chittagong, Chuadanga, Rajshahi, Satkhira, Magura and Khulna, each with a single fatality. The single civilian killing occurred in Kushtia District on August 16. Also, the single major incident took place on July 20, when three SF personnel were killed by cadres of the Janajuddha faction of the Purba Banglar Communist Party (PBCP-Janajuddha) in Pabna District. 12 of the country’s 64 Districts recorded a LWE-related killing in 2010.

In 2009, 87 persons had been killed in LWE-related violence, including 81 militants and six civilians, in 68 incidents. Out of the 81 militants killed, 53 were killed in three Districts – Kushtia (29), Pabna (14) and Chuadanga (10). The remaining 28 were killed in Bagerhat (5), Khulna (5), Jhenidah (4), Meherpur (4), Dhaka (2), Naogaon (2), Barisal (2), Faridpur (1), Satkhira (1), Jessore (1), and Magura (1). The six civilians were killed in four incidents in three Districts – Kushtia (3), Pabna (2) and Sirajganj (1). 15 Districts thus witnessed incidents of LWE-linked killing in 2009, with Kushtia (32) and Pabna (16) the worst affected.

13 LWE groups are believed to be ‘active’ in the country: Purba Banglar Communist Party, PBCP (Janajuddha), PBCP (M-L Red Flag), PBCP (M-L Communist War), Biplabi Communist Party, New Biplabi Communist Party, Gono Bahini, Gono Mukti Fouz, Banglar Communist Party, Socialist Party, Biplabi Anuragi, Chhinnamul Communist Party and Sarbahara People's March. Reports indicate that most of these are more or less ‘criminal groups’ rather than militant outfits.

Meanwhile, six fatalities, including three civilians and three militants, were recorded in as many Islamist extremism linked incidents in 2010. Three civilians were killed by the Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS), the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), in three incidents in February. The civilians were killed in Dhaka (2) and Rajshahi (1) Districts. The three militants were killed in Chittagong (2) and Nawabganj (1) Districts in three separate incidents in the months of February (1) and April (2). There were no such fatalities in 2009.

Indeed, it was after a span of two years that the SFs killed militants involved in Islamist extremism, even as Islamist extremist formations appear to have withdrawn into a defensive shell after the arrest, trial and conviction (and including the execution) of many of their top leadership. It would, however, be far from accurate to suggest that Islamist extremism has been wiped out from the country. Significantly, Maulana Saidur Rahman aka Zafar, chief of the Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), who was arrested on May 25, 2010, disclosed that the JMB had about 400 full-time cadres across the country and a ‘military wing’ capable of launching major attacks. He also claimed that hardliners who had taken control of the JMB would be more destructive as a result of his absence as chief. Further, he disclosed that Sohel Mahfuz had become JMB’s ‘acting chief’ and Nazmul Anwar Alam aka Bhagina Shahid was its ‘military wing commander’. [Police, however, believe that Alam was the ‘acting chief’ of the JMB]. Rahman also disclosed that, apart from the fake currency trade, JMB received funds from several sources at home and abroad. Rahman also admitted that the JMB has several hundred explosive devices, handmade bombs and grenades stashed at different locations.

Alam, the ‘acting chief’ of the JMB, was subsequently arrested on July 12, 2010, and disclosed that the JMB had a hit list of 12 top political figures, mostly ruling party leaders. He, however, claimed that the JMB had destroyed all the explosives it had in the northern region. Rahman, however, contradicted this claim, and suggested that Alam could have shifted the arms and explosives to new locations.

Another senior leader of the JMB, Abu Bakkr Siddique aka Shiblu, who was arrested in Thakurgaon District on May 25, 2010, told the SFs that JMB had trained some of its female operatives in using grenades, and they had been making preparations to carry out a series of grenade attacks in Dhaka on a limited scale. Shiblu confirmed Rahman’s claim that the aim of the planned attacks was to signal the JMB’s re-emergence and to attract prospective recruits. Worryingly, the nexus between the JeI and the JMB was revealed like never before. Investigators brought together Saidur Rahman of JMB and arrested leaders of the JeI, including JeI Ameer (chief) Matiur Rahman Nizami, Secretary General Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujaheed, and Nayeb-e-Ameer (Deputy Chief) Delwar Hossain Sayedee on July 13. [These three top JeI leaders were arrested from Dhaka on June 29, 2010]. It was there Saidur Rahman admitted his past affiliation with the JeI, as a former Ameer (chief) of the JeI Habiganj District unit. He also claimed that the JeI had provided training in handling small arms and grenades.

In a further development, on December 13, 2010, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) neutralized a hilltop training camp of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami-Bangladesh (HuJI-B) in Chittagong District and arrested five militants along with 11 live ‘cocktail bombs’, two kilograms of explosive materials, grenades, bomb-making manuals in Arabic, electric circuits, adaptors, fuses and booklets written by ex-JeI leader Golam Azam and incumbent JeI chief Motiur Rahman Nizami. 20 militants managed to escape.

Dhaka has, moreover, taken a number of visible measures to permanently exorcise Islamist extremism and fundamentalism from the country.

The Government initiated a trial of the War Criminals (WCs) of the 1971 Liberation War, as had been promised in the Awami League’s election manifesto. This measure seeks to bring to justice the men, prominently including the top leadership of the JeI, who collaborated with the Pakistan Army and Government in the genocide of an estimated three million people during the Liberation War, and in the use of rape and collective slaughters as instruments of State policy. The Tribunal, which was mandated to trail and prosecute the WCs, was constituted on March 25, 2010.

The Government also appointed an investigative and research organisation, the War Criminals Fact Finding Committee (WCFFC), which handed over a list of WCs and documented evidence in support of charges against them, on April 4, 2010. According to the convener of the WCFFC, M. A. Hassan, the documentation comprehended 18 books, the names and addresses of 1,775 alleged WCs, and detailed accounts of crimes, including mass killings. Earlier, on March 23, reports indicated that the Government had approved a list of WCs prepared by the National Security Intelligence (NSI) and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

The trial of the WCs was initiated on March 25, 2010, but there have been demands from many civil society organisations to speed up the process. In response, Law Minister Shafique Ahmed, on December 15, 2010, gave a commitment that WC trials would be completed within the tenure of the present Government, but that, "We are trying that the war crimes trial lives up to international standards and none can raise any question about it." Further, on December 20, 2010, he added that the trial of the detained WC-accused would start in January-February in 2011.

One of the most significant steps in connection with the WC trials was the arrest of five top leaders of the JeI: Ameer Matiur Rahman Nizami, Secretary General Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujaheed, Nayeb-e-Ameer Delwar Hossain Sayedee, senior leaders Mohammad Qamaruzzaman and Abdul Qader Mollah.

In another blow to the fundamentalists, the Sheikh Hasina Government initiated a challenge to the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of April 1979, which removed secularism from the Constitution, and imposed an Islamic character. The preamble of the Constitution had been changed to include a pledge that "the high ideals of absolute trust and faith in the Almighty Allah" shall be the fundamental principle of the Constitution. On January 3, 2010, the Government filed a case against the Fifth Amendment, and on October 4, 2010, the High Court ruled that, "Bangladesh is now a Secular State since the original Constitution of 1972 has been automatically restored following the Supreme Court Judgment." Earlier, on July 27, 2010, the Supreme Court had restored the original Constitution of 1972. The Supreme Court also reinstated a ban on Islamic political parties on July 28, 2010. In a detailed, 184-page verdict, the Supreme Court scrapped the bulk of the 1979 Fifth Amendment, including provisions that had allowed religious political parties to flourish and that legalised military rule. Bangladesh was re-declared a Secular state after a gap of 31 years.

By December 26, the Government had arrested some 958 cadres and leaders of the ICS and the JeI in 2010, as compared to just 23 in 2009. 43 JMB and nine HuJI-B militants were also arrested in 2010, as against 101 and 11, respectively, for these outfits in 2009. Conspicuously, the Government’s drive against both these organizations intensified after the killing of a Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), activist, identified as Faruk Hossain, in Rajshahi University (RU) campus on February 9, 2010, and the subsequent confirmation of the link between JeI and ICS.

Significantly, one of the leaders of the banned ICS in RU, Ekram Hossain, convicted for the February 9 murder, admitted that the top leadership of the JeI had been involved in the incident. Similarly, Rajshahi JeI leader Gias Uddin, in his confessional note before the Rajshahi Court, stated, on March 14, 2010, that all tiers of the JeI had backed the ICS in the February 9 violence at RU, following an organizational decision.

With the top leadership of the JeI behind the bars, a leadership vacuum has emerged in the organisation. A March 25, 2010, report quoted a senior JeI leader, who requested anonymity, as conceding that the Government’s move to try top JeI leaders with alleged links to the WCs had forced them to desperately search for ways to evade prosecution and protect their political future. The JeI and the ICS have been engineering sporadic street violence and protests against the Government in attempts to free their arrested leaders. On June 13, 2010, JeI and ICS cadres clashed with BCL cadres in Dhaka, resulting in injuries to some 35 persons. This was followed by JeI and ICS clashes with the Police on June 30, 2010, during demonstrations demanding the release of top JeI leaders. In another incident, on July 4, 2010, cadres of the JeI and ICS rampaged through the streets of Chittagong, destroying 100 vehicles, during the JeI’s two-day protest against the arrest of its leaders. On December 7, 2010, 43 JeI leaders and cadres were arrested and 40 persons, including eight Policemen, were injured in clashes with the Police in Narsingdi and Chittagong District.

Apart from the indigenous extremist groups, Bangladesh is also struggling against foreign terrorist outfits, mainly from Pakistan, linked to extremist formations in Bangladesh. On February 28, 2010, RAB personnel arrested five Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militants headed by Rezwan Ahmed, a Pakistani national. According to the RAB sources, Rezwan coordinated JeM operations in Bangladesh and was involved in recruiting locals for the terror outfit and sending them to Pakistan for training. In another similar incident on April 8, 2010, RAB personnel arrested a Pakistani national, identified as Mobashwer Shahid Mubin alias Yahia (25), an ‘organizer’ of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT). RAB revealed that Yahia was suspected to be involved in devising a plot to attack the Indian and US missions in Dhaka.

The Government also took strong measures against insurgent groups active in India’s northeast, which had long secured safe haven in Bangladesh and taking shelter on its territory. In a major development, the Bangladeshi authorities allegedly arrested Manipur based United National Liberation Front (UNLF) ‘chairman’, Rajkumar Meghen on September 29, 2010, and handed him over to India. [Indian officials claimed that Meghen was arrested in Motihari, the District Headquarter of Champaran District in the Eastern Indian State of Bihar.] Earlier, on May 1, 2010, Bangladesh handed over, Ranjan Daimary, the 'president' of the Anti-Talks faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB-ATF) to India. Also, the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) ‘general secretary’ Anup Chetia, who was arrested in Bangladesh on December 21, 1997, and kept under detention later is likely to be handed over to India shortly. Chetia was arrested on December 21, 1997, in Dhaka, for illegally carrying currencies of 16 different countries, illegal possession of arms and a satellite phone and carrying fake passports. He was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment by a Bangladeshi court. After his jail term, the then Khaleda Zia Government stalled the process of his expatriation to India. Since then, he has been held at the Dhaka jail. Further, on December 4, 2009, the exiled ‘chairman’ of ULFA, and the outfit’s ‘deputy commander-in-chief’ Raju Baruah, were handed over to Indian authorities. In November 2009, another two top ULFA leaders, ‘foreign secretary’ Sasadhar Choudhury, and ‘finance secretary’ Chitraban Hazarika, had been turned over to Indian authorities at the Gokul Nagar post of the Border Security Force, before they were brought to Guwahati by an Assam Police team.

Meanwhile, during Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India, on January 11, 2010, India and Bangladesh signed agreements on Mutual Legal Assistance on Criminal Matters, Transfer of Sentenced Persons, and Combating International Terrorism, Organized Crime and Illicit Drug Trafficking. On January 13, 2010, replying on the issue of handing over top ULFA and NDFB leaders, Sheikh Hasina disclosed that India and Bangladesh were working on an extradition treaty.

The gains of 2010 have been dramatic, but a note of caution remains to be sounded. The residual capacities of the JeI and JMB are significant, even as HuJI-B continues to maintain close links with a number of ambitious Pakistani groups adamant upon spreading their base in the country. Moreover, the corrosive nature of violent and disruptive street mobilization by political parties in Bangladesh has the potential to destroy the tentative stability that has been secured after decades of rising disorder. Bangladesh has made very steady, indeed, dramatic gains, in two short years, but is still at risk of sliding back if the Government wavers even slightly.


NEWS BRIEFS

Weekly Fatalities: Major Conflicts in South Asia
December 20-26, 2010

 

Civilians

Security Force Personnel

Terrorists/Insurgents

Total

BANGLADESH

  

Left-wing Extremism

0
0
1
1

INDIA

  

Jammu and Kashmir

0
0
3
3

Manipur

1
0
0
1

Left-wing Extremism

  

Bihar

1
0
0
1

Chhattisgarh

1
1
0
2

Jharkhand

0
3
0
3

Maharashtra

1
4
0
5

Odisha

0
0
4
4

West Bengal

6
1
0
7

Total (INDIA)

10
9
7
26

NEPAL

0
0
2
2

PAKISTAN

  

Balochistan

15
1
0
16

FATA

41
20
50
111

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

0
0
1
1

Total (PAKISTAN)

56
21
51
128
Provisional data compiled from English language media sources.


BANGLADESH


US, UK and India consider RAB a potential counter-terrorism ally, reveal WikiLeaks: The WikiLeaks through the US Embassy in Dhaka revealed that the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK) and India share almost common counter-terrorism goals in Bangladesh, all of whom consider Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) a potential counter-terrorism ally. The January 2009 cable revealed, "The ambassador stressed that the US Government had started human rights training for the RAB. He added that the RAB was the enforcement organisation best positioned to one day becomes a Bangladeshi version of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation." The Daily Star, December 22, 2010.


INDIA


There is no extremist base in Bhutan, says Bhutanese Prime Minister: Bhutanese Prime Minister Jigmi Y. Thinley on December 20 said that no extremist element had found shelter in Bhutan ever since extremists were flushed out from his country in 2003. "There are no Indian militant camps or bases in my country and we shall ensure that no militants are able to enter Bhutan," Thinley said. He also said there were no hideouts of North-East militant groups in his country, adding, "There are no camps of either the ULFA or the NDFB in Bhutan's territory. Nor will we allow such camps to come up." Reiterating Bhutan's commitment to fight terrorism, Thinley said its territory would not be allowed to be used for terrorist activities against India. DNA India; The Hindu; UNI, December 20-21, 2010.

Indian Security Forces can enter Myanmar to hunt down terrorists, says report: At a meeting of officers from the Ministry of Home Affairs and Myanmar’s Chin State on December 20, it was decided that Indian Security Forces can enter Myanmar to hunt down terrorists after taking due permission from Myanmarese authorities. According to Indian officials, several militants from the Northeast have taken shelter in Myanmar and Bangladesh and have set up bases and training camps. IANS, December 21, 2010.

Four LeT cadres have sneaked in to Mumbai, warn Police: The Mumbai Police on December 23 issued an advisory stating that four Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militants had entered Mumbai with the intention of causing an "extremely dangerous and violent attack" on the city in view of the coming festivals and New Year celebrations. Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Himanshu Roy, at a press conference in Mumbai identified the militants as Abdul Karim Musa, Noor Abu Ilahi, Walid Jinnah and Mehfuz Alam. Of these the photograph of Walid Jinnah has been published for wide circulation among the public. Roy, however, declined to reveal the nationalities or other details of the intruders. The Hindu, December 24, 2010.


PAKISTAN

50 militants and 41 civilians among 111 persons killed during the week in FATA: A woman suicide bomber on December 25 blew herself up at a distribution centre of the World Food Programme at Khar in Bajaur Agency of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), killing 45 persons and injuring another 80 who had queued for aid. Five militants were killed when Army helicopter gunships pounded militant’s hideouts in Malangyar area of Safi tehsil (revenue unit) in Mohmand Agency.

Two unidentified militants and a Frontier Corps (FC) trooper were killed on December 24 when militants attacked the Bara Press Club in Khyber Agency that the paramilitary force was using as a security post.

TTP militants attacked five checkpoints in the Mohmand Agency after December 23 midnight, sparking a clash which left 11 paramilitary soldiers and 24 militants dead. Militant toll rose to 40 on December 24.

At least 24 militants and three soldiers were killed in clashes when a group of 150 TTP militants attacked a FC check post in Baidnami village near the border with Afghanistan in Mohammad Agency on December 23. Dawn; Daily Times; The News, December 21-27, 2009.

2010 bloodiest year for Pakistan since 2001, says a report: A total of 1,224 people were killed and 2,157 more injured in 52 suicide attacks across Pakistan since January, making 2010 one of the bloodiest years since the turn of the century. Though the total number of suicide bombings decreased 35 per cent this year as against the past year, 2010 was the bloodiest year since 2001 in terms of the number of the people killed in such attacks. Pakistan witnessed 80 suicide attacks in 2009 that killed 1,217 people and injured 2,305 others. On an average, suicide bombers killed 102 persons a month this year, compared to last year's average of 101 killings a month. The bombers, on an average, killed more than 23 Pakistanis every week and over three persons every day in 2010. Over four suicide attacks were carried out every month this year, compared to six assaults every month in 2009. Civilian casualties accounted for 49 per cent of the total deaths caused by suicide bombings this year. The remainder were personnel from Security Forces and law enforcement agencies, including the Police, military, Frontier Constabulary (FC), Pakistan Rangers, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Khasadar militia. Twelve per cent of casualties were Shias, eight per cent were Ahmedis and six per cent were Barelvi Muslims. The largest number of deaths in suicide attacks, 416 was reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. Times of India, December 24, 2010.

UK Christmas terror attack plotters trained in Pakistan, say sources: Members of an alleged terrorist cell planning November 26, 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks (also known as 26/11)-type suicide attacks on Christmas shoppers in London received their training in Pakistan; Indian Express quoting The Telegraph reported on December 23. It was reported that the cell is described as "al Qaeda inspired" because no specific information has emerged about the links they may have made with the terrorist outfits in Pakistan. Investigators believe that it is significant that although most of the cell is British with Bangladeshi origins, its members chose to travel to Pakistan. The cell is thought to be associated with the banned extremist groups al-Muhajiroun and Islam4UK in Britain, as well as being followers of the Yemen-based al Qaeda preacher Anwar al-Awlaki. Indian Express, December 23, 2010.

US seeking to expand raids into Pakistan, says New York Times report: Top US military commanders in Afghanistan are seeking to expand ground raids by Special Operations Forces across the border in Pakistan’s tribal areas, Dawn quoting New York Times reported on December 20. The officials are proposing to escalate military activities in the nuclear-armed nation, the report said. US forces have been largely restricted to limited covert operations and unmanned drone strikes in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Pakistan on December 21 ruled out the notion of any foreign troops operating on its soil, with its top diplomat in Washington stressing that Pakistani forces are capable of handling terrorist threats within the country’s borders. Dawn; Daily Times, December 16, 2010.



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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