The battle for Kurram

By Zia Ur Rehman

March 02-08, 2012

http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta2/tft/article.php?issue=20120302&page=3

On February 17, 43 people were killed in a suicide attack in a market outside a mosque in Parachinar, the headquarters of Kurram Agency. Taliban commander Fazal Saeed Haqqani – who had quit the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in June and formed his own Tehrik-e-Taliban Islami (TTI) – claimed responsibility for the attack. He said the Shia Turi tribe had been targeted because it was supporting the armed forces in the ongoing military operation in Kurram region.

A victim of the February 17 Parachinar suicide bomb blast at a hospital in Peshawar

Sajid Hussain Turi, a parliamentarian from the Kurram, condemned the attack. “Sunni and Shia families who had been displaced because of the violence in the region for years had only returned home two days ago,” he told reporters.

Kurram, one of Pakistan’s seven tribal agencies, borders Khost, Paktia and Nangarhar provinces of Afghanistan, and Khyber, Orakzai and North Waziristan agencies in Pakistan. Kurram is the only tribal agency with a significant Shia population, and violence in the agency has been fuelled by sectarian tensions. Around 40 percent of Kurram’s inhabitants are Shia. Upper Kurram is inhabited largely by the Turi tribe – the only Pashtun tribe which is wholly Shia – while central and lower Kurram are inhabited by Sunnis, mostly Bangash.

“Increasing sectarianism in Hangu, Kohat and DI Khan districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and the Kurram and Orakzai agencies of FATA, is a result of the growing Taliban influence and the recent arrival of Punjabi Sunni militants,” said Mariam Abou Zahab, a Paris-based security expert who studies sectarianism in Pakistan.

There are longstanding disputes over ownership of forests, hills, land and water resources between Sunni and Shia tribes in Kurram, and sporadic incidents of communal violence have taken place since the 1930s, particularly during Muharram or Nowruz. Sunnis have consistently demanded a ban on Nowruz celebrations which they consider unIslamic, said Abou Zahab. “Many argue that there was no Sunni-Shia problem historically, and tribal rivalries were given a sectarian colour in the heat of the moment. Clashes were often over petty disputes. For instance, the riots that erupted in Parachinar in 1973 were sparked by a row over the height of the minarets of the main Sunni mosque and Shia Imambargah.”

Troops patrol a road in Parachinar

But the nature and dimensions of the sectarian conflict have changed since 2001. “Kurram has become strategically important once again because it shares a border with key Afghan provinces and has a relatively large Afghan refugee population,” Abu Zahab said. “The conflict is not tribal or sectarian per se, but instigated by the Taliban who want access to Afghanistan and are supported by local criminals. They use tribal and sectarian differences to fuel the conflict and keep the government out.”

The situation has worsened since 2006, with the emergence of new Taliban groups in South and North Waziristan, Orakzai and Khyber, said Aqeel Yousafzai, a Peshawar-based security expert and author. More than 3,500 people have been killed, 50 villages burned and thousands of people displaced in sectarian clashes in Kurram between 2007 and 2011.

Shia tribes have blamed Pakistani and Afghan Taliban groups for the violence, and also accused Pakistani security agencies of supporting the Sunni militants. Sunnis have alleged Shia militants are armed and funded by Iran.

The TTP, the Orakzai Taliban and the Afridi Taliban have killed hundreds of people, both Shia and Sunni, in the last few years. In October 2007, Baitullah Mehsud – who was heading the TTP – sent a group of 400 Mehsud militants to Kurram. The militia was led by Qari Hussain, a notorious anti-Shia commander who burned down several villages and killed dozens of Shias. Two months later, he returned to South Waziristan and was replaced by Faqir Alam Mehsud and his men. “Reputed for his brutality, Faqir Alam Mehsud personally beheaded at least 100 Shias from Kurram, and several Sunnis accused of cooperating with the Shias,” according to a Taliban militant who had fought under his command.

Orakzai Taliban chief Mullah Noor Jamal (aka Mullah Toofan), Afridi militant groups including Tariq Afridi’s TTP Darra Adam Khel, Mangal Bagh’s Laskhar-e-Islam and Haji Mehboob’s Ansarul Islam, also sent hundreds of militants to Kurram to fights against Shias. The area has also been a sanctuary for militants from the Punjabi Sunni extremist groups banned in 2002.

The only known Shia militant group is the Mehdi Militia (sometimes called the Haideri Taliban), consisting mainly of Turi tribesmen. “The group has large public support among Shias in Kurram and is concentrated in the upper Kurram area of Parchinar and Ziayran,” according to a report published by Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS). Their opponents say the group is supported by allies in Iran and Afghanistan.

Although Shia militants have also killed tribesmen from the rival Sunni tribes, security analysts believe the group was set up to defend the Shia population and cannot match the Taliban in manpower and logistics.

Shia tribal elders say they are being attacked because they stop the Taliban from entering Afghanistan. They allege elements linked with Pakistan’s military establishment support some Taliban groups because of the strategic importance of the region. The allegations cannot be verified.

Hamid Raza Bangash, an activist and author of Hangu and the Bangash Tribe, said the Thal-Parachinar road connecting Kurram with Peshawar, had remained closed for five years, and Shia tribesmen had no option but to use the road which goes through the Afghan provinces of Logar, Kabul and Nangarhar.

The region also became strategically important for Al Qaeda-linked groups like the TTP and the Haqqani Network after an increase in the number of drone strikes, analysts say. “At the behest of Al Qaeda and the Haqqani Network, the Taliban want to capture the Khewas area of Upper Kurram where it is believed that the GPRS system of US drones doesn’t work properly,” Bangash said.

Shia elders say foreign militants had also been seen operating in the area. Aslanov Zaur, an Al Qaeda-linked Azerbaijani, was killed in Jogi area of Kurram in clashes with Pakistani security forces in the second week of February.

Analysts see the defection of a key TTP leader to form his own TTI as a move orchestrated by the Haqqanis and their allies in Pakistan who are focused on solely carrying out attacks against the US forces in Afghanistan. “I repeatedly told the leadership council of the TTP that they should stop suicide attacks on mosques, markets and other civilian targets,” Fazal Saeed told AFP at time of his defection. He likened what the TTP does in Pakistan to “what US troops are doing in Afghanistan” and vowed to continue the fight against the Americans alone.

The Pakistani military has not targeted Fazal Saeed or the TTI during its operation in Kurram so far, Shia elders complain. After he claimed responsibility for the February 17 bombing in Parachinar, political authorities demolished three houses of Fazal Saeed and his relatives in Ochat village in Lower Kurram.

Tribal elders from both sides say that after years of clashes, beheadings, suicide attacks, killings, abductions, and military operations, the people only want peace.

Inside job?

By Zia Ur Rehman

April 20-26, 2012

http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta3/tft/article.php?issue=20120420&page=2

Around 200 Taliban militants armed with guns, grenades and rockets attacked a jail in Bannu and released 384 prisoners, including Adnan Rashid, who was convicted of participating in an attack on former president Pervez Musharaf.

The pre-dawn attack on April 15 is an indication of the strength of the Taliban in the face of claims that their network has been shattered, security analysts say, and the success of the brazen operation will boost their morale and strengthen their resolve.

Security personnels guard the damaged main entrance of Bannu prison

“At 1:30am, between 150 and 200 militants fired rockets on the main gate of the Central Jail and released a total of 384 inmates,” said Muhammad Zahid Khan, who was deputy superintendent of Bannu Jail at the time of the attack. Around 20 of the freed convicts were ‘very dangerous’ and were being kept in the death cell, he said. About 91 of the escaped prisoners returned voluntarily. The returned prisoners were all serving time for petty crimes and apparently not related to the Taliban.

The Bannu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province is seen as a gateway to North Waziristan, a tribal region along the Afghan border that has long been a stronghold of Taliban insurgents and several other militant groups. Bannu, which also shares border with Lakki Marwat and Karak districts, has seen several attacks in recent years, usually bombings.

The 500-acre prison is situated about 10 kilometers from the Bannu city and its 22 barracks keep convicts from Bannu, the neighbouring districts, and the tribal areas. The jail was considered very safe and a large number of Taliban militants from the nearby Kohat and Lakki Marwat prisons had recently been moved to Bannu, said an official in the provincial Home and Tribal Affairs Department.

But witnesses said the prison guards, the local police and other security forces did not offer a significant resistance during the two-hour raid. The four wounded jail officials were not hit by bullets and were sent home from the hospital after first-aid treatment.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Prisons Minister Mian Nisar Gul said the guards ran out of ammunition. They called the police immediately after the attack, he said, but help arrived after the attackers had fled. There are two police stations – Township and Domail – situated within 4 kilometers of the site.

Only 30 police guards were on duty at the time of the attack while a whopping 63 were absent, said another official in Bannu. Of those 30 who were present, only 10 were armed, he added.

Of the 20 Frontier Constabulary (FC) officials who were supposed to be on duty, 14 were absent. Only six FC personnel were armed and on duty.

The attackers came mostly from North Waziristan and returned after accomplishing their mission. Local journalists and witnesses said that the inmates were taken to North Waziristan in dozens of vehicles on a main road on which there were six security checkposts.

Asimullah Mehsud, a spokesman for Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) South Waziristan chapter, called media outlets and claimed responsibility. “We took away our important men,” he said, “and in a couple of days when all of them have reached their destinations, we will issue details.” He vowed to carry out similar attacks in future.

Government officials and security experts believe the key objective of the jailbreak was to release Rashid, a former junior technician in Pakistan Air Force (PAF) convicted of plotting to murder Musharaf. Jail officials and the prisoners who returned voluntarily said the militants fired rockets and hand grenades before entering the prison, and were asking for Rashid in Urdu, Pashto and Punjabi languages.

Rashid, a resident of Chota Lahor area of Swabi district, joined PAF in 1997 and was arrested in connection with the first life attempt on Musharaf that took place near Jhanda Chichi Bridge in Rawalpindi on December 14, 2003. Rashid worked with Amjad Farooqi, a militant leader who engineered the two assassination attempts on Musharaf in December 2003. Six PAF men including Rashid were convicted by a field general court martial on October 3 2005, at PAF Base Chaklala.

Journalists in Peshawar said Rashid used to send text messages to them using his mobile phone in the prison.

Nooruddin, another important Taliban commander, is also among the escapees.

The National Crisis Management Cell had told the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa home secretary and police chief in a report on January 5 that the Tariq Geedar militant outfit was planning to attack the Bannu prison to free Rashid. The report said it was also planning to attack the PAF base in Kohat, the Kohat garrison, and Laachi police station.

But the provincial government said the jailbreak was “total failure of intelligence agencies”. Mian Ifthikar Hussain, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa information minister, said the government had removed the deputy superintendent of Bannu jail, the city commissioner and two other senior police officers, and formed a five-member committee to investigate the raid.

Hussain said the jailbreak coincided with multiple attacks by the Taliban across the border in Afghanistan. “The committee will try to find out whether the attacks are linked,” he said.

A militant commander who helped plan the Bannu jailbreak told Reuters that his group had inside information. “We had complete maps and plans of the jail and the surrounding area,” he said, “and we spent Rs20 million on the mission.” The account could not be verified independently, but Interior Minister did not rule out inside involvement. “It is possible that the attackers had help from the inside,” he told reporters. An inquiry would be held, he said, to find out who sent Rashid to Bannu jail.”

“Although the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan have carried out several jailbreaks, such attacks are rare in Pakistan,” said Arshad Waheed, a political scientist at Gomal University in DI Khan.

About 870 inmates, including 390 Taliban, fled the Kandahar Prison in Afghanistan in June 2008 while in April 2011, over 400 inmates escaped through a tunnel from the same jail that had been rebuilt and made secure.

While the ability of Pakistani militants to attack in the cities has been diminished and their operational capacity significantly degraded in the past year, this jailbreak would be a major boost for their morale, Waheed said.

Those who fled include key Taliban men, and their presence will strengthen the militant outfits, analysts say.

The writer is a journalist and a researcher. He can be reached at zia_red@hotmail.com

Battle for ballot

By Zia Ur Rehman

April 16, 2012

Displaced by militancy, Mehsud tribesmen demand alternative arrangements for elections in NA-42

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/apr2012-weekly/nos-15-04-2012/pol1.htm#4

On April 5, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, along with a retired bureaucrat Dost Muhammad Khan, had filed a petition with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), seeking orders for polling in NA-42, a constituency of South Waziristan Agency.

Since the 2008 general elections, the seat of NA-42, which consists of Mehsud areas of South Waziristan, has been lying vacant owning to the law and order situation and ongoing military operation in the constituency. However, the polling was conducted on all other 11 seats of National Assembly of Fata, including the seat of NA-41, another seat of South Waziristan comprising Wazir areas.

South Waziristan, the restive tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, is considered a stronghold of militants not only belonging to banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) but also to Afghan Taliban, al-Qaeda and other foreigner militants. Four major military operations have been carried out in South Waziristan especially in its Mehsud areas to clear the area of the Taliban militants since 2004. The most recent offensive — Operation Rah-e-Nijat (Path to Salvation) — was started in October 2009, and is still going on.

According to local tribal elders, the entire Mehsud population of around 0.1 million is displaced from the area because of military operation. Some of the Mehsud IDPs are living in adjacent settled districts of Tank and Dera Ismail Khan as well as Bannu and Peshawar, but a majority of them went to Karachi. “About 75 per cent of Mehsud IDPs have arrived in Karachi and moved in with relatives or rented accommodation,” says Shah Wali Advocate, a Karachi-based Mehsud social activist, who heads Pashtun Peace and Development Movement (PPDM). He says that Mehsud IDPs are living in Sohrab Goth, Sultanabad, Mingophir, Pipri, Landhi, Ittehad Town and other suburban areas of the city.

Although the government officials repeatedly claim that the area is now completely cleared of militants and they are sending displaced people back to their homes, the locals are unwilling to return to their villages as they fear the militants are either hiding in mountains or have escaped to adjacent tribal areas.

Most of the displaced Mehsuds TNS spoke to were not yet ready to return due to security situation, damage to their houses, lack of livelihood opportunities, electricity, food and other facilities. “It is very dangerous. If we go back to our homes, militants will be there because they are still alive and have just moved to neighbouring tribal areas,” says Sharif Mehsud, one of the displaced persons who refused to go back. The displaced families say it is the fourth time they have been displaced from their homes due to operation against the Taliban militants.

Khalid Aziz, a former bureaucrat and president of Regional Institute of Policy Research and Training (RIPORR), a Peshawar-based think tank, claimed in an article he wrote in an English daily on March 9 that 90 per cent of the inhabitants of South Waziristan did not suffer displacement, citing the findings of the RIPORR.

However, Maulana Saleh Shah, Senator from South Waziristan, strongly denouncing the RIPORR’s findings, say that the report is a well-thought-out plan to camouflage the ground realities, as inhabitants of the five Tehsils — Ladha, Makeen, Sararogha, Sarweki and Khaisor — were forced to live a miserable life elsewhere in the country as IDPs. Thousands of houses vacated by Mehsuds were either washed away by rains or damaged in skirmishes between the security forces and the militants, he says.

Shah says that the inhabitants of constituency NA-42 could not even elect their representative in the National Assembly then how can they claim that the area was not affected.

Although the people of the constituency NA-42 have already urged the ECP to hold election, political analysts believe that Imran Khan’s recent petition will pressurise the ECP to conduct polls at alternative places as Mehsud IDPs are not willing to go back to their villages in South Waziristan. The petitioners also referred to similar arrangements made for the people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Northern Areas in Rawalpindi and Karachi whenever elections are held.

The PTI’s leaders claim that the party has made significant inroads in the tribal areas, especially South Waziristan, through Imran’s consistent opposition to the US drone attacks. Sources in the PTI say Dost Muhammad Khan, Imran’s friend and a retired bureaucrat, is the party’s possible candidate from the NA-42. However, local political observers say the contest on NA-42 in upcoming elections will be among the three political parties — Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), the PTI and Awami National Party (ANP).

In 2002 general polls, Maulana Merajuddin of JUI-F won the seat from NA-42. “JUI-F had considerable influence and strong organisation in the area, but the party has been facing rift because of ticket allocation during the recent senate polls,” says Anwar Mehsud, a senior journalist. JUI-F’s former leader Maulana Hisamuddin, who has recently joined Nazaryati faction of JUI, will spoil the votebank of JUI-F in the Mehsud area.

Although the popularity of the PTI is growing rapidly among tribal people, migration of Mehsud IDPs to Karachi will help the ANP win the seat from NA-42. Mehsud tribal elders complain that the constitution clearly gives the right to Pakistani citizens to choose their representatives from their respective constituencies, but they (Mehsud tribesmen) are deprived of this fundamental right.

Ismail Mehsud, provincial joint secretary of ANP in Sindh, demands that like AJK polls, the ECP should make arrangement for holding elections on NA-42 at alternative places, especially in Karachi. Local analysts say that ANP can grab majority votes of Mehsud IDPs living in Karachi. It is pertinent to mention that Amanullah Mehsud, one of the ANP’s two members in Sindh Assembly, also hails from Mehsud tribe of South Waziristan.

The writer is a journalist and researcher: Email: zia_red@hotmail.com

Lyari’s Baloch community rethinks support for PPP

By Zia Ur Rehman

April 13-19, 2012

http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta2/tft/article.php?issue=20120413&page=6

On April 3, only three buses left the Aath Chowk in the restive area of Lyari – a traditional Pakistan People Party (PPP) stronghold – for Garhi Khuda Bakhsh to attend the 33rd death anniversary of party founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. For the first time in many years, the PPP anthem ‘Dila Teer Bija’ was not playing in the streets of Lyari on a day the party considers very significant.

“There was a silent boycott of the event by the people of Lyari,” said Habib Jan, a member of PPP’s Sindh Council and convener of Friends of Lyari. “This year, locals gathered in Lyari on April 4 to mourn the deaths of PPP workers killed by police during an operation, and also paid homage to Bhutto.”

The situation in Lyari is tense after violent clashes between police and residents in reaction to the death of Saqib Pathan, a worker of the defunct Peoples Aman Committee (PAC), in an alleged encounter with the CID on April 1. CID officer Chaudhry Aslam said Saqib was wanted by the police in several criminal cases. Protesters said he had been abducted by Aslam and his bullet riddled body was dumped on the street an hour later. On his mother’s petition, a court asked the police to register a case against Aslam and Lyari MNA Nabeel Gabol if a cognizable offence was found to have been committed.

At least 12 people were killed during the clashes, according to news reports, and more than 20 injured. Five of them were policemen.

In a proxy war over control of Lyari, the PPP and the MQM are said to support armed gangs; that has often caused Baloch-Mohajir ethnic clashes

Police says the operation was launched to arrest gangsters involved in street crime and extortion. The action followed an MQM agitation against extortion in Karachi. A PPP provincial minister said the government had been facing severe pressure from the MQM, its ally in the province and the center, to launch an operation against criminals who had found safe havens in the Lyari.

Residents of the area question why Lyari has been identified as the only save haven for gangsters. “We are not against an operation against criminals and extortionists,” said Waja Bashir, a Lyari-based social activist. “Criminal activities are going on all over the city, and a comprehensive operation should have been launched, instead of singling out Lyari.” He admitted a small part of Lyari was a hub of criminal activities, “but that is only a small part of the entire area.”

Lyari, one of the 18 towns of Karachi, is a Baloch majority area and the city’s oldest locality. The Baloch, who are among the indigenous population of Karachi, have traditionally aligned themselves with the PPP. “Lyari has served as a veritable fortress for the PPP since its inception, and its poor but brave people have supported Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, Asif Ali Zardari and all their nominees,” Jan said.

He said the establishment had conspired to involve the Baloch people of Lyari in drugs and criminal activity because they were PPP supporters. “They played an active role in the restoration of democracy in Pakistan,” he said. “The importance of Baloch areas of Lyari for the PPP can be judged from the fact that Benazir Bhutto had selected Lyari town for her wedding ceremony.”

Law and order in Lyari has been worsening for the last decade. While criminal elements have destroyed its social fabric, the state has also largely neglected the locality. It is considered one of the most neglected in terms of state-funded development in education, health, sanitation and employment, residents complain.

“We have always proven our loyalty to the PPP but it has always given us body bags in return,” said Najeeb Baloch, a party worker from Lyari. Two of Baloch’s nephews died on October 18, 2007, when Benazir Bhutto’s rally was attacked at Karsaz. “The operation in Lyari was undertaken just to please a coalition partner – the MQM,” he said.

“Baloch are the indigenous people of Karachi and have been living here for the last 700 years,” said Akbar Hout, another political activist. “Unfortunately, they are being treated as enemies everywhere in the country. It seems that the government wants to compel the Baloch youth of Lyari to take up arms like the youth in Balochistan.”

In a proxy war over control of Lyari, the PPP and the MQM are said to support armed gangs – the PAC and the Arshad Pappu Group. This has often caused Baloch-Mohajir ethnic clashes. Recently, the PAC faced resistance from a new entity, the Kutchi Rabita Committee (KRC), a representative organization of Kutchi community. There is also a reported rivalry within supporters of the PPP in Lyari.

“The PAC is fighting with other local criminal gangs, such as those run by Arshad Pappu, Ghaffar Zikri, Faizu Dada, Rauf Baloch and Amjad Lashari. Lyari has become a battleground, ” said a local police official. These gang wars were most common in Baloch dominated areas, he added.

Some PPP workers hold their MNA MNA Nabeel Gabol responsible for the situation in Lyari. “Gabol is failing miserably on many counts,” said Hout, “and now he is creating a rift between the Baloch and the Kutchi communities of Lyari.”

Lyari’s Baloch are thinking of replacing him with their own representative in the next election, and there is speculation their candidate will be Uzair Jan Baloch, head of the PAC.

Gabol, who supports the operation in Lyari, believes the PPP would have to eliminate criminal elements in their party and the PAC to save his constituency. “These criminals will cause irreparable damage to the PPP if they are not dealt with sternly,” he said. “They must not be spared, of the party will have to face the consequences in the coming elections.”

Ethnic Baloch political parties are seeing a welcome change in Lyari. “”In the past, the slogans on Lyari’s walls were in support of the PPP,” said Rahim Baloch, a former leader of Baloch Students Organisation (BSO). “But now, they have been replaced by slogans in favour of Allah Nazar Baloch, Brahamdagh Bugti, Khair Bakhsh Marri, an ‘independent Balochistan’, and ‘Khan Bhai’ (Rehman Baloch).”

He said the PAC had been formed and supported by the PPP government in order to weaken the Baloch nationalist movement in Lyari.

Baloch political parties were never interested in owning the Baloch of Karachi in the past, because they supported the PPP. But the situation in Balochistan and the operations in Lyari may change that.

TTP targets Karachi police officers

By Zia Ur Rehman

April 12, 2012

http://centralasiaonline.com/en_GB/articles/caii/features/pakistan/main/2012/04/12/feature-01

KARACHI – Police officers who have been working to destroy the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its linked militant organisations in Karachi are on the TTP’s hit list, police officers and security analysts said.

The April 5 suicide bombing of Senior Superintendent of Police Rao Anwar’s convoy is one recent example, security officials said. Five people – including Lal Badshah Babar, 50, a Karachi-based Pashtun actor and artist – were killed and 18 others were injured in the attack. Anwar was not hurt.

“]

Law enforcement personnel April 5 cordon off the site of a suicide bombing that targeted Karachi senior police officer Rao Anwar in the Malir Halt area. He escaped the attack unhurt. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militants are targeting key police officers who have helped weaken their network in Karachi. [Zia Ur Rehman

“I was moving with my squad to Malir court for a meeting with a judge regarding an enquiry into the March 24 murder of former Malir Bar Association president Salahuddin Haider and his son Ali at Malir Halt,” when the bomber struck, Anwar recalled.

The leader of the Jundullah militant outfit in the tribal areas claimed responsibility for killing Haider and his son, Radio Mashaal reported March 25.

Anwar has been involved with the arrests and deaths of a number of militants, including a December 12 police raid on a Karachi madrassa, in which police rescued students who had been chained in a basement and reportedly beaten.

He had been receiving threats from militants for a month before the assassination attempt and has been travelling in an armoured personnel carrier for his protection. Due to the threats, Anwar said he reduced his squad to prevent a major loss of life if terrorists attacked.

On April 7, unidentified armed men shot and killed a police officer near the Malik Agha Hotel in Sohrab Goth, media reported. Seven others were injured.

Authorities suspect the same perpetrators committed both crimes, said Asghar Ali, a local police official.

The attacks arouse concern that a new and increasing pattern of targeting policemen has emerged, security analysts said.

Taliban militants remain the biggest threat to Karachi’s peace, security analyst Muhammad Amir Rana told Central Asia Online. Hounded by military operations in the tribal areas, TTP militants are increasingly moving to Karachi, where they obtain logistical and manpower support from militant outfits already established in the city, said Rana, who heads the Pak Institute of Peace Studies, an Islamabad-based think tank.

Police Respond to attack :

President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the suicide attack on Anwar. He expressed grief over the killings and said such incidents would not deter the government’s resolve to fight terrorism.

Anwar April 6 registered a complaint against suspended police inspector Azam Mehsud, his brother Sher Zaman Mehsud and TTP militant Zubair Mehsud in connection with the attack on him.

Anwar and Chaudhry Aslam, a senior Criminal Investigation Department (CID) official, have arrested many of Azam’s associates on charges of extorting money from businesses and sending it to South Waziristan, apparently to help fund militants.

On April 7, about 10 suspects were in custody at an undisclosed location in connection with the attempt on Anwar’s life, Express Tribune reported April 8.

The case indicates that no one with militant ties is exempt in the government’s fight against terrorism, Ahmed Chinoy, chief of the Citizens Police Liaison Committee, said.

“What we have to do is take action against the terrorists from within the community,” Chinoy said. “We have found them hiding in the media and in the police.”

TTP has hit list of Karachi Police :

The April attempt to kill Anwar was the Taliban’s first suicide attack this year against a senior policeman. At least six similar attacks occurred in 2011.

Aslam was among those targeted earlier.

Militants attacked Aslam’s house September 19, killing eight people, after repeatedly failing to kill him at his office. Two days later, TTP spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan issued a hit list that included then-Karachi Capital City Police Officer Saud Mirza and Karachi police senior officers Raja Umar Khitab, Farooq Awan, Mazhar Mashwani and Khurram Waris.

Aslam survived a November 2010 car bombing that killed at least 30 people and destroyed the main CID office in Karachi. Aslam and three other CID senior officials – Fayyaz Khan, Omar Shahid and Mashwani – were reportedly the targets; all survived.

The militants have announced huge rewards for anyone who kills police officers on their hit list, Aslam said.

“The TTP have decided to target all those officers who are involved in crackdown against them, but we have decided to target them, too,” he said.

In 2011, Karachi police arrested 222 suspected militants in connection with charges of beheading civilians, attacking security forces and committing other crimes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal areas, Aslam said.

 

Ethnic political parties strengthen in Karachi

By Zia Ur Rehman

April 06-12, 2012

http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta2/tft/article.php?issue=20120406&page=7

On March 23, when the entire country was celebrating the 72nd anniversary of the Pakistan Resolution, Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) – a Sindhi nationalist party led by Bashir Khan Qureshi – staged a rally in Karachi for ‘the independence of Sindh’.

A similar call for Sindh’s independence was made by another ethnic party – the Jeay Sindh Tehrik (JST) headed by Dr Safdar Sarki – at a similar rally held at the same venue on March 15.

Although leaders at the two rallies demanded freedom for Sindh, political analysts say they were meant to show the strength of these parties in Karachi.

“In general, ethnic parties are becoming very popular in Sindh,” said Imdad Soomro, a senior Sindhi journalist. “The important thing is that the number of people who attend such rallies is increasing exponentially in Karachi.”

Ethnic parties are becoming popular in the entire Sindh province, but the number of people who attend their rallies in Karachi has increased exponentially

“It is not only because of the failure of the Pakistan People’s Party-led government to address the issues of Sindhis,” he added. “The groups have gained strength after they began to oppose demands for a separate Mohajir province in Sindh.”

The demand of a Mohajir province has been made time and again in the past, but it had so far not been seen as a serious threat by the Sindhi ethnic groups.

Although the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, a party seen as representing Mohajirs, has denied supporting the demand in the past, a two-page pamphlet distributed by mourners at the March 31 funeral of MQM activists killed in the recent political violence in Karachi called for a new Mohajir province.

Before that, the Mohajir Sooba Tehreek, a little known group, held a rally at the Karachi Press Club on March 6. It sent out emails to news organizations and wrote slogans on the city’s walls.

On March 9, the Sindh Assembly unanimously passed a resolution condemning the campaign for the Mohajir province and asked the government to find out who was behind it.

Days later, five members of the provincial assembly who had been particularly critical of the campaign received threatening letters from a previously unknown ‘Mohajir Sooba Liberation Army’. All of the legislators belonged to the PPP and one of them was a provincial minister.

MQM leaders, especially its chief Altaf Hussain, have repeatedly stated that they have nothing to do with the campaign and do not want the division of Sindh. “The abhorrent wall chalking demanding a Mohajir province is not the issue of Urdu speaking people,” said Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah, chief of Sindh United Party and grandson of prominent political leader GM Syed. “It is a matter of the PPP and MQM trying to blackmail each other.”

Ayaz Latif Palijo, head of the Awami Tehrik, accused the MQM of wanting to separate Karachi from the rest of the province at the behest of the US. “The city occupies a strategic position on the Arabian Sea and serves as the gateway to Afghanistan and Russia,” he said. “After handing over of Hong Kong to China and closing of Bandar Abbass port by the Iranian regime, the United States is eyeing the Karachi port for access to the natural resources of Afghanistan and Central Asia and for controlling the region.”

In a video message on March 29, Altaf Hussain criticized Sindhi ethnic leaders for making provocative statements against Mohajirs and warned them of the consequences.

Some Sindhi ethnic groups fear large-scale migration of internally displaced people from the northwest into Karachi had disturbed the ethnic balance of the city.

“Sindh has become an international orphanage where refugees not only from within the country but also from the neighboring countries including India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Burma are coming to settle. Because of that, Sindhis are on the verge of turning into a minority in their own province,” said Afzal Chandio, a participant of the March 23 JSQM rally.

In 1947, Sindhis were 60% of Karachi’s population, but are now no more than seven percent. “At that time of partition, a majority of the migrants settled in Sindh and that has changed the demography of the province. Resultantly, the land which did not see any riots during partition is in the grip of violence,” said Chandio, who is also a student leader at Sindh University.

Sindhi student organizations complain students from rural Sindh are not admitted to Karachi’s main academic institutions, especially Karachi University. PPP MPA Humaira Alvani told the Sindh Assembly on February 22 that admissions were denied to Sindhi students because KU only admits students who either belong to Karachi or have studied in the city before.

Sindhi parties have concentrated their political activities in Karachi’s Sindhi dominated areas. Karachi Sindhi Shehri Ittehad, a city-level political alliance, was formed on March 31. “Sindhis are the indigenous people of the city and it is high time Sindhi leaders come out and focus on Karachi,” said Ali Hassan Chandio, who heads Sindh National Movement. A large number of Sindhis whose permanent address was in Karachi were missing from the city’s voter lists, he complained. Other leaders complain Sindhis are politically underrepresented, or have been deliberately kept backwards by the MQM-run city government.

The recent floods in the province and lack of employment opportunities have compelled a large number of rural Sindhis to move to Karachi, and that has changed the political reality in the city.

Sindhi ethnic parties have also announced they will contest the next elections from all over Sindh from the platform of Sindh Progressive Nationalist Alliance. Palijo said the aim was to send middleclass grassroots leaders to the parliament.

Since the parties generally represent the middle class, analysts say the decision would affect the coming elections.

“They have no representation in the parliament because they didn’t believe in parliamentary politics in the past,” Soomro said, “but the entire province comes to a standstill when they call a strike.”

Karachi violence affects Pakistan’s economy

By Zia Ur Rehman

April 5, 2012

http://www.centralasiaonline.com/en_GB/articles/caii/features/pakistan/main/2012/04/05/feature-01

KARACHI – Violence and targeted killings in Karachi have crippled the national economy, causing a loss of Rs. 7-12 billion (US $80m-$130m) per day, traders’ leaders say.

Karachi, home to about 18m people, provides nearly 70% of the government’s revenue and accounts for a quarter of Pakistan’s GDP. In 2011, Pakistan’s GDP was Rs. 18.4 trillion (US $202 billion).

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Paramilitary soldiers try to clear a road of burning tyres, set alight by protesters during a strike called by political parties in Karachi March 31. The Pakistani economy is losing Rs. 7-12 billion (US $80m-$130m) per day because of the violence, traders’ leaders say. [REUTERS/Athar Hussain

“About 300 people have been victims of violent shootings in the last three months,” said Zohra Yusuf, chairwoman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). Of those, 49 were political activists, Yusuf told Central Asia Online.

Last year, the city had 1,715 homicides, according to HRCP’s annual report, “State of Human Rights in Pakistan 2011.”

Fresh Wave of killings :

The recent wave of violence started after the March 27 killing of two members of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in PIB Colony. Nine people were wounded and more than 40 vehicles were set ablaze after those slayings.

And at least nine murders and 14 vehicle burnings followed the March 28 killing of a leader of the Awami National Party (ANP).

On April 3, three apparently sectarian killings occurred across the city, media reported April 4.

Seven lawyers have been killed in Karachi so far this year, most due to sectarian violence, said Akram Ali, a leading attorney.

Mourning days :

Businesses, fuel stations, public transportation and schools closed for three days of mourning, and the MQM and the ANP denounced the killing of their workers.

All told, businesses were closed for 13 days in March because of violence or mourning, said Atiq Mir, head of the All Karachi Tajir Ittehad traders’ association. For the quarter, shops and markets were closed for 22 days, he said.

Few industries can thrive with such violence because workers cannot reach their jobs, said Ehtesham Uddin, chairman of the Korangi Association of Trade and Industry, representing one of the city’s biggest industrial zones.

The city was partly or completely closed three times in one week at the end of March, and the continued strike-like situation has badly shaken industry, he said.

Even small businesses are affected During mourning days, traders could not open their markets for lack of public transportation, and customers staying away because of the law-and-order situation, Amjad Hussain, a medicine trader in Kachi Gali market, told Central Asia Online.

“Many businessmen including small traders, have been shifting their businesses to other cities because of (the) law-and-order situation in the city,” he said.

Hussain added that the trader community of Karachi is facing economic hardship and if the security situation doesn’t improve in the next two or three months, its members will be compelled to shut their businesses – making the situation even worse.

Aside from transportation and a lack of customers, “goons of political parties threaten the business community to keep their business shut,” Amjad said.

Economic losses :

The Karachi business community has asked the government to take strict measures to curb the violence. Terrorists want to cripple Pakistan’s economy by fuelling ethnic and sectarian violence in the city, Mir told Central Asia Online.

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A man monitors stock prices at the Karachi Stock Exchange March 28. [REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro

“When in a city at least 12 people are killed on an everyday basis, how can business grow and the economy become strong?” Mir asked.

The law-and-order situation, particularly on mourning days, does not allow industry to resume production, said Mian Abrar Ahmed, president of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He asked politicians to overcome their differences immediately, warning that the collapse of the economy would take them down along with it.

Daily wage earners are those most affected by the business slowdown.

“I couldn’t go out to work because of the prevailing riots in the city and the unavailability of public transport,” Arshaf Khan, a father of four, told Central Asia Online March 31. “Now my pocket is empty, and therefore my children will sleep hungry.”

Government efforts :

President Asif Ali Zardari said the violence in Karachi should be handled with zero tolerance, PTV reported April 2.

Addressing a meeting convened at Bilawal House, the Bhutto family residence, Zardari ordered officials to give the police aerial patrol equipment and armoured personnel carriers, media reported.

The president called for a study to categorise crime on the basis of sectarianism, extremism, land grabbing, street crimes, targeted killing and political rivalries.

Every possible measure would be taken to bring peace to Karachi and to compensate the heirs of those killed in the city’s violence, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, said April 2. He added that he has personally visited the troubled areas of the city.

All political parties are working to develop a strategy to improve the situation, he said.

Security agencies have arrested more than a dozen suspects and recovered illegal weapons and ammunition in operations throughout the city, media reported.

Violence surges in Peshawar

By Zia Ur Rehman

March 30-April 5, 2012

http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta2/tft/article.php?issue=20120330&page=7

On March 11, a suicide attacker blew himself up at a funeral in the Badaber area of Peshawar, killing 17 people and injuring 32 others.

Among those attending the funeral was Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly deputy speaker Khushdil Khan. “He could have been the target,” Abdul Kalam Khan, the superintendent of police of Peshawar’s rural circle, told The Friday Times on March 12. On March 15, Abdul Kalam Khan was killed in another suicide attack at Peshawar’s Pistakhara Chowk.

Security officials examine the site of a roadside bombing that killed two policemen on March 20

There has been a surge in terrorist attacks in Peshawar in the last few weeks. At least nine incidents of terrorism took place in first three weeks of March this year in Peshawar. In the first two months of 2012, there were 13 terrorist attacks in the city, including a suicide bombing that killed 28 and injured at least 70. There were at least 512 terrorist attacks in KP in 2011, according to a report by the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies, more than 149 of which were in Peshawar.

Areas of Peshawar where there is known militant presence include Adezai, Matani, Teleband, Sulemankhel, Darwazgai, Badaber, Shaikhan, Batatal, Ghari Qamar Din, Mathra, Bacha Ghari, Maryamzai, Kohat Road, Bara Qadeem, Hassan Ghari, Ring Road and Charsadda Road.

Peshawar’s sufferings began after the ‘Saur Revolution’ in Afghanistan in April 1978. Afghan and Arab Mujahideen groups set up their headquarters in the city in reaction. On an average, Peshawar and the KP province faced one bomb explosion a week in the 1980s and 1990s. The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan brought temporary peace, but after the US invasion of Afghanistan, law and order began to deteriorate again.

When Pakistani authorities launched a military operation against groups associated with Taliban and Al Qaeda under US pressure in 2004, the militants retaliated with attacks not just in the tribal areas but also in the Peshawar, which was the provincial headquarter and the key air base for troops fighting against the militants.

Police officials say Taliban and other militant groups in the tribal areas that adjoin Peshawar – Khyber Agency, Mohmand Agency and Frontier Region Peshawar – have been extending their influence to the settled areas of the city.

Groups operating in Peshawar include the Tariq Afridi-led Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Darra Adamkhel chapter, Abdul Wali-led TTP Mohmand Agency, Mangal Bagh-led Lashkar-e-Islam (LeI) from Khyber Agency, and the Abdullah Azam Brigade (AAB), a little known outfit.

Some tribesmen in the suburbs of Peshawar adjacent to FR Peshawar and Darra Adamkhel have fought off the Taliban and now conduct armed patrols. Houses of Taliban members and supporters were burned down. The Taliban responded by deploying suicide bombers to assassinate tribal leaders and to attack members of the militias during tribal jirgas or funerals. The March 11 suicide bombing is a recent example. Hundreds of people have been killed in such attacks in the last few years.

TTP Darra Adamkhel:

Although the Taliban have no organized structure or known leaders in FR Peshawar or Peshawar district, they have significant influence in Darra Adamkhel, a principle town of FR Kohat.

Responsibility for most of the recent attacks in the city has been claimed by the Afridi-led TTP, according to a local journalist who covers violence in the region. “The groups operate independently,” he said, “but appear to be united in their hostility towards the security forces and law-enforcement agencies.”

The TTP claims to have carried out a significant number of attacks in and around Peshawar where they have targeted senior officials, key law-enforcement establishments, tribal council meetings and funerals of people who participate in anti-Taliban militias.

Muhammad, a spokesman of TTP Darra Adamkhel, said his group mainly targeted security officials and anti-Taliban lashkars in the suburbs of Peshawar. He also claimed responsibility for the February 29 killing of a Chinese woman in Peshawar, saying it was “to avenge the atrocities carried out by Chinese security forces against Muslims in the Xinjiang region”.

TTP Mohmand Agency:

TTP Mohmand Agency has also been accused of killing their rivals and extorting money from Mohmand-based traders in Peshawar. “Many leaders of anti-Taliban lashkars formed in Mohmand Agency have been killed in Peshawar district,” said a tribal elder from the Haleemzai clan. Malik Wazir, a leader of a tribal lashkar, was killed near Bakhstu Pul on Charsadda Road on January 30.

Abdullah Azam Brigade:

The AAB is a special cell formed by TTP whose main function is to attack NATO supplies, abduct security officials and foreigners, and plan terrorist acts. Recently, the group has claimed responsibility for the February 25 suicide attack on Kotwali Police Station that killed four policemen.

Lashkar-e-Islam:

The LeI led by Mangal Bagh has been accused recently of asking residents of the Acheni Bala union council area of Peshawar for money in exchange for their security. According to news reports, they were warned their houses would be razed if they did not comply.

There have also been reports of infighting between TTP Darra Adamkhel and the LeI. There were conflicting reports on the death of Mangal Bagh, who was reportedly wounded in a suicide attack on a mosque in Tirah area of Khyber Agency. TTP Darra Adamkhel claimed responsibility for the attack and said Bagh had been killed. But Muhammad Husssain, a spokesman for the LeI, denied the claim saying Mangal Bagh was safe.

Taliban regrouping:

Attacks on the police in Peshawar have increased sharply in the last few weeks. Security checkposts in the suburban areas of Peshawar have been attacked on more than a dozen occasions since the February 25 attack, but there were no major casualties. An officer and a constable were killed and two cops injured in a roadside blast on March 20.

“After military operations in the tribal areas, the Taliban are regrouping, especially in Peshawar,” provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told reports.

“It is possible that as the military mounts pressure on militant groups in the tribal areas, sleeper cells will be activated in Peshawar,” says a teacher at the University of Peshawar.

Residents of the city are concerned about what is being seen as a failure by the police and law-enforcement agencies to stop the increasing incidents of terrorism. Police officials say it is very hard to secure the suburbs of Peshawar linked with tribal areas or control the movement of Taliban through those borders.