Karachi’s new terrorist groups

 

 

 

 

by Zia Ur Rehman

Jan 6-12, 2011

http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta2/tft/article.php?issue=20120106&page=5

Law enforcement agencies have found several small previously-unknown militant organisations operating in Karachi, during recent crackdowns. Most of them are linked to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.

“Militants linked with the TTP are increasingly moving to Karachi because of military operations and US drone strikes in the tribal areas,” said Chaudry Aslam, head of the Anti-Extremism Cell (AEC) at CID Karachi. They get logistics and manpower support from the militant organizations already established in the city.

Such groups include the Punjabi Taliban, the Al Mukhtar group, Kharooj, Al Furqan, Badar Mansoor Group and Jundullah – all discovered within the past year.

“All such little-known militant outfits are linked with the TTP,” Aslam told TFT. “It is TTP’s strategy to operate in Karachi in smaller cells to dodge law enforcement agencies for longer. The cells are so small and so scattered, they are only discovered when law enforcement agencies arrest their members.”

Experts working on militancy related issues believe that Taliban splinter groups typically arise in two ways. “Some leaders abandon their groups to form their own outfits and develop direct links with the TTP and Al Qaeda,” said Muhammad Amir Rana, director of the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS). “In other cases, new and very small operational cells are set up to carry out activities in a specific geographical location.”

The CID discovered the Al Mukhtar group in an April 26 raid by arresting a suspected key leader allegedly involved in a bomb blast in an illegal gambling den in Ghas Mandi area on April 21. The attack killed 22 people and injured dozen others. Recently, the CID has claimed to have arrested the group’s Karachi head Asghar alias Umer, along with five other alleged militants.
“Al Mukhtar group is basically a splinter cell of TTP’s Badar Mansoor group deployed especially to Karachi,” Aslam said. “Its main function is to collect extortion money, and carry out bank heists, abductions for ransom and terrorist attacks.”

Punjabi Taliban, another little-known militant outfit, mainly consists of students of Karachi’s academic institutions, especially Karachi University (KU). The group was discovered after a bomb blast in KU on December 28, 2010 that injured four students of Shia group Imamia Students Organisation. Three Punjabi Taliban militants including its Karachi head Qari Shahid were killed on December 5 when police raided a house during the successful rescue of kidnapped local industrialist Riaz Chinoy. The CID arrested two members of the group on December 13 and recovered a hitlist with the names of more than 100 public figures. The militants were demanding Rs70 million in ransom, but came down to Rs20 million after negotiations, according to media reports.

Qari Shahid’s wife Sabiha Karim, an active member of the group, was also arrested. She confessed her group was involved in four major attacks in Karachi – the May 22 attack on the PNS Mehran, the November 11, 2010 CID attack, the December 2010 bomb blast at KU, and the February 2011 Chehlum blast, said a senior Police official.

“Punjabi Taliban was formed in 2007 by former operatives of Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT), a sister organisation of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), after a disagreement with the JI leadership over ‘Jihad’, said a KU professor who is monitoring their activities on the campus. He said the men were inspired by Dr Akmal Waheed and Dr Arshad Waheed, and were resultantly expelled from the IJT.

Qari Shahid had a Masters degree in Political Science from KU and was affiliated with IJT when he was a student.

TTP-linked jihadi outfits and the banned Hizbut Tehrir are very active in Karachi’s academic institutions. They try to attract IJT members with Jihadi literature and using other means, a former IJT activist in KU told TFT.

He said there was no information about the size of the Punjabi Taliban, many of their members – including Zohair Imtiaz Kudwai, Omair Imtiaz Kudwai, Azib Imtiaz Kudwai, Misbah Usmani, Mohammad Shabbir and Imran Nazeer – were killed in drone attacks in the tribal areas.

“Their alleged objectives include fighting against Pakistan’s security forces and supporting the outlawed TTP.”

Chaudhry Aslam said the Punjabi Taliban group was also involved recruiting young boys for training of suicide bombing in Waziristan. On June 26, the CID arrested Abdul Razzaq alias Omar and Rashid Iqbal alias Basit, two members of Punjabi Taliban assigned that task. They sent six teenage boys to Waziristan in 2009. Four of them were killed in a drone attack on the training camp, and the other two were sent back to Karachi. They were also arrested.

Kharooj, another previously unknown group operating in Karachi, has also been recruiting young people, especially students, a CID officer told TFT, asking not to be identified. The group’s leaders are hardcore militants who had separated from the TTP after disagreements with its leadership.

Many of these groups are facing severe shortages of funds after the government’s moves to cut off their foreign sources of funding, according to Aslam, and that is why there has been a surge in bank robberies and abductions for ransom. At least 18 banks were robbed in 2011, with a total of more than Rs60 million stolen, according to news reports.

A TTP leader from the Mehsud area of South Waziristan said militants from tribal areas usually head to Karachi to seek shelter, for rest and recuperation, for medical treatment, and to receive funding.

Although backed by the TTP with money and manpower, these groups are made up of ‘locals’, he said. A majority of them Urdu and Punjabi speaking youth formerly associated with the IJT or various Jihadi groups.

Security experts believe smaller groups have better chances of survival as crackdowns by law enforcement agencies increase. Chaudhry Aslam claims he has broken their network by arresting their key leaders.

Karachi militants split into smaller groups

By Zia Ur Rehman
For CentralAsiaOnline.com
2011-06-24

KARACHI – Security officials have made progress against extremists, forcing such groups as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and al-Qaeda to splinter into smaller cells, an indication that their network is shattered, analysts and police say.

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Policemen search vehicles along a road in Karachi May 2. Security forces have forced militant groups in Karachi to split into small, more obscure groups, police say. [REUTERS/Athar Hussain

Having the factions split up is an end result that has been partially achieved by such things as the deaths of extremist leaders and the cultivation of informants among the public.

“The killing of Osama bin Laden, Baitullah Mehsud and other key leaders is the main factor shattering the TTP network across the country,” Brig. Shaukat Qadir, a security analyst, told Central Asia Online. Bin Laden’s May 2 death in Abbottabad was, at the time, predicted to be a test for the militant network.

Different militant outfits collaborating with the TTP and al-Qaeda are splitting up because al-Qaeda funding has dried up, Qadir said.

“This is indeed a success of security forces against the TTP, as a large number of TTP hardcore militants as well as some al-Qaeda operatives have been apprehended in Karachi,” he said.

Hundreds of suspects caught

Police have also been working to get information from citizens.

“We have developed a strong network of … informers in militant groups that help us track down the militant outfits,” Chaudry Aslam, senior superintendent of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Sindh Police, told Central Asia Online.

That has helped with the fight.

“In 2010, we arrested 163 members of the TTP while more than 200 have been arrested from the beginning of this year,” Aslam said.

Law enforcement has hindered the activities of the Karachi TTP network by arresting three consecutive alleged amirs, or TTP heads, and dozens of members, Ikram Mehsud, a TTP leader in Karachi, admitted.

The suspected Karachi TTP chiefs whom police nabbed were Akhter Zaman Mehsud, Bahadur Khan Momand (aka Sadiq) and Maulvi Saeed Anwar, he said.

Such arrests have been “a blessing for the people” as they will slow terrorist activities in Karachi until newly appointed leaders can rebuild the network, Aslam said.

Many small terror cells discovered

But a new challenge has emerged. Every month, law enforcement agencies are uncovering new and little-known militant organisations, said Ahmed Wali, a Karachi-based senior journalist who covers militancy-related issues.

“We have developed a strong network of … informers in militant groups that help us track down the militant outfits,” Chaudry Aslam, senior superintendent of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Sindh Police, told Central Asia Online.

Such groups include Jundullah, the Badar Mansoor group, Kharooj, the Al-Mukhtar group, Punjabi Mujahidin, Al-Furqan, Laskhar-e-Balochistan and Al-Qataal – all discovered within the past year, Wali said. Splinter groups typically arise in one of two ways.

“First, when some leaders form their own outfit, abandoning their jihadi group and forming direct links with the TTP and al-Qaeda,” said Muhammad Amir Rana, director of the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies.

Second, forming a new and little-known operational cell comprising a few members who are responsible for carrying out activities in a specific geographic location,” he said, adding that this method allows the militants to dodge security officials longer.

Karachi police discovered the Badar Mansoor faction of the TTP May 12. It allegedly consists of students from Karachi academic institutions, including the University of Karachi. Four of its alleged members were planning to attack government installations and intelligence agency offices, Karachi Police Chief Saud Mirza said May 13.

The same group, operating under the name of Punjabi Mujahideen in Karachi’s colleges, was also involved in the December 28 bombing at the University of Karachi that injured four students, he added.

Karachi police discovered the Al-Mukhtar group by arresting one of its suspected key leaders in a raid April 26. Police accuse the Omar Baloch-led group of involvement in bombing a gambling den April 21. They have since learned it is a splinter group of Laskhar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) whose militants trained in South Waziristan, Fayyaz Khan, a senior CID official, told Central Asia Online.

Sindh Police’s Special Investigation Unit (SIU) also arrested Abdul Qadir Kalmati (aka Rocket) April 4. They accuse of him belonging to Lashkar-e-Balochistan (LeB), a Baloch separatist group involved in attacking police stations and security installations. Kalmati has admitted under questioning that LeB is working with the TTP, said Raja Omar Khitab, the SIU’s senior superintendent of police.

Kharooj is another new and little-known militant organisation operating in Karachi that has been recruiting the young, especially students of academic institutions, the Daily Express reported May 11. The group’s leaders are hardcore militants who separated from the TTP and the LeJ after feuding with their leadership, the report added.

Dispersion may help militants

Jundullah, the Asian Tigers, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al-Alami, Jundul Hafsa and the Punjabi Taliban are the main groups that split off from the LeJ and are carrying out its subversive activities from Karachi to Waziristan, a report published last November in the Express Tribune stated.

The article stated that the LeJ is the biggest group operating in Karachi and that of 246 suspected terrorists arrested in the city since 2001, 94 belonged to the LeJ, according to a secret CID report.

However, some say breaking up and scattering the militants may improve their chances of survival.

The small cell strategy makes each cell responsible for carrying out activities in a specific geographic location, said Rana.

“And the main purpose is to divert the attention of security officers,” he said. Indeed, because so few people are in the cells and they are so scattered, their existence comes to light only “when law enforcement agencies arrest their members.”