Taliban bringing their war to streets of Karachi

by Zia Ur Rehman

Aug 10-16, 2012

http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta3/tft/article.php?issue=20120810&page=2

Taliban militants have brought their war to the streets of Karachi, threatening key leaders of the Pashtun-dominated secular-leaning Awami National Party (ANP) and raising funds through extortions, killing those who refuse to pay.

Leaders of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have recently threatened to kill Pashtuns from the Mehsud tribe living in Karachi if they do not leave the ANP. The threats came from people linked with Waliur Rehman Mehsud, chief of TTP’s South Waziristan chapter, party sources said.

Karachi is Pakistan’s largest city, and about 5 million of its estimated 18 million residents are Pashtuns from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, FATA and Balochistan. A large number of Pashtuns migrated to the city after unrest and violence in northern Pakistan since the war on terror began in 2001. After the killing of key Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders in drone attacks and military operations, a number of militants have also fled to Karachi in recent years, security experts and police officials say.

Although there are several Karachi-based militant outfits associated with Al Qaeda and Taliban consisting mainly of non-Pashtun members, militants from FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have recently been found involved in extortion and seeking protection money from Pashtun traders and transporters, and are believed to have killed a number of rival political figures.

“In the beginning, the militants from the tribal areas did not get involved in subversive activities. This was in line with a TTP policy to use Karachi only for fundraising and rest and recuperation,” said a tribal elder based in Sohrab Goth. “But now they seem to have changed their strategy.”

Taking advantage of the ongoing ethnic violence in the city, militants belonging to TTP’s Swat chapter killed dozens of elders and political figures of Swat who were travelling to or living in Karachi.

On June 18, Sher Ali Khan, head of the Swat Qaumi Ittehad and chairman of the Pakistan Seamen’s Union, was killed in the Frontier Colony area. His relatives blamed his death on Swati militants hiding in the city. Some of his family members, especially his nephew, former councilor Malik Riaz, were killed by the Taliban when they controlled Swat.

On January 5, Saeed Ahmed Khan, district president of ANP, was killed in an attack on his house in the Metroville area of SITE Town. Belonging to Manja village of Swat’s Kabal tehsil, he was an influential political figure in both Swat and Karachi. One of the attackers shot dead by a police constable assigned to Saeed Khan’s security was identified as Aminullah, a fugitive TTP Swat militant.

“A number of other Swati political and social figures have also been killed in the streets of Karachi by militants loyal to TTP Swat chief Maulana Fazlullah,” said Sher Shah Khan, a parliamentarian elected from Swat.

The militant group involved in the killings of pro-government elders of Swat in Karachi is mainly led by Ibn-e-Aqeel alias Khog, and Sher Muhammad alias Yaseen. Both are among the most wanted people in Swat. The task of these assassinations was assigned to them two and half years ago by TTP commander Ibn-e-Amin, of the lower Shawar area of Swat. Ibn-e-Amin – among the most dangerous militant commanders in Swat and linked with Al Qaeda – was killed in a drone attack in Tirah valley of Khyber Agency in December 2010.

Another militant group active in Karachi is loyal to TTP South Waziristan chief Waliur Rehman Mehsud, led in the city by Khan Zaman. In the beginning, they were believed to be involved in extortion from Mehsud tribesmen from South Waziristan who run transport and heavy machinery businesses in Karachi. The sum they asked for ranged from Rs1 million to Rs5 million.

But recently, they have started threatening the people from the Mehsud tribe to leave the ANP. “Most of the party’s offices in Sohrab Goth, Mingopir, Kunwari Colony, Pashtunabad and New Sultanabad have been closed down after the threats, and party members belonging to the Mehsud clan have gone underground,” a provincial leader of the ANP said. He requested anonymity for security reasons.

Mehsud tribesmen living in Karachi are seen as supporters of the ANP. Two of the party’s elected members of Sindh Assembly also belong to the Mehsud tribe. Although the ANP was the main target of terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA and had lost scores of party workers and lawmakers in attacks carried out by TTP because of their opposition to militancy and extremism, their Karachi leaders have never been threatened by Taliban groups before.

The Mohmand chapter of TTP has also formed a cell in Karachi for collecting protection money from the people belonging to Mohmand Agency. The network was developed by TTP Mohmand chief Omar Khalid and spokesman Ikramullah Mohmand to raise funds, said an elder from the Mohmand agency. Qari Shakeel, deputy to Omar Khalid, calls the traders himself, demanding money, he added. The network, led by TTP commander Yousaf Khan Mian in Karachi, has killed several traders who refused to pay, the elder said. Mohmand tribesmen based in Karachi usually sell timber and construction material.

Taliban militants are also involved in the July 17 attack on a WHO doctor and a July 20 slaying of a local community activist working with Polio eradication campaign in Sohrab Goth area, police say.

Mazshar Mashwani, a senior official at the Crime Investigation Department (CID), said Taliban militants hiding in Karachi had been killing ANP leaders and CID personnel for the last few months. “A group of TTP consisting of 9 or 10 militants has become active in the remits of SITE, Pirabad and Mingophir police stations, and killed several ANP and CID men,” he said. The militants, he said, were also carrying out fundraising through kidnapping for ransom, extortion and other means. Several CID and Rangers personnel involved in a crackdown against Taliban militants were killed in Pashtun dominated areas of Karachi in the last few weeks.

Experts and tribal elders say law-enforcement agencies should launch a “selective and surgical” operation in Karachi against militants who are hiding in the city.

A number of Taliban suspects have been arrested for murder, extortion and abduction in the last three months, according to news reports. They include Nazeerullah Mehsud (July 25), Faisal Mehsud and Khan Mohammad alias Sajid (July 2), Jahangir Khan Akakhel (June 9) and Muhammad Yaseen Mehsud alias Naib-Commander (May 28).

Police have also killed Omar Khitab, a key TTP leader, in a July 27 encounter. Khitab, belonging to South Waziristan, used to collect forced donations from Pashtun traders in Karachi, said Chaudhry Bashir, in charge of Mingophir police station.

The writer is a journalist and researcher and currently writing a book titled ‘Karachi in Turmoil’. Email: zia_red@hotmail.com

Where killing comes easy

Taking advantage of the ongoing ethnic violence in Karachi, Taliban militants are hunting down their opponents with ease

by Zia Ur Rehman

The News on Sunday

January 15, 2011

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/jan2012-weekly/nos-15-01-2012/dia.htm#2

On January 5, 2012, Saeed Ahmed Khan, district president of Awami National Party (ANP), was killed in an attack on his house in the Metroville area of SITE Town in Karachi. Belonging to Manja village of Tehsil Kabal, Swat, he was an influential political figure in both Swat and Karachi. One of the attackers was shot dead by a police constable assigned to Saeed Khan’s security while four others managed to flee from the scene.

“Swat’s Taliban militants hiding in Karachi are behind Khan’s killing,” Saifullah, head of Nekpikhel Qaumi Jirga, Swat, claims confidently, adding that the attacker killed in encounter on the occasion was a Taliban commander identified as Aminullah, who is a resident of Totano Bandai. “Aminullah was a fugitive living in Karachi,” he tells TNS.

Khan was not the first target of Swati militants hiding in Karachi. They have selectively killed dozens of elders and political figures of Swat who were travelling to or living in Karachi, TNS has learnt.

Following the military operation in Swat, a large number of militants belonging to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), locally headed by Maulana Fazlullah, went underground and shifted to different parts of the country including Karachi. More than 5 million Pashtuns live in Karachi, a city with a population of about 18 million, where it is very easy for militants to find sanctuaries, security experts opine.

The low-profile members or simple sympathizers have fled to Karachi and majority of them have shaved their beards and cut their long hair. A large number of such people work there as petty labourers, but some of them are waiting for the right time to settle their scores with their rivals in the city, experts believe.

“Taking advantage of the ongoing ethnic violence in the city, the militants kill their rivals and in most cases the police consider these killings as result of ethnic violence,” says a Karachi-based ANP leader, requesting anonymity. He adds that the number of such killings is not more than 30 but all the killed were members of anti-Taliban peace committees, leaders of ANP or ‘informers’ to law enforcement agencies. “Majority of those killed in the ongoing ethnic violence are Pashtuns,” he says.

Anti-Taliban Swati people travelling to Karachi are being targeted and killed by these militants. On December 29, 2011, Javed Khan, member of Kabal Peace Committee, was killed in Banaras area. Muhammad Rahim, a resident of Dherai village of Kabal, was also shot dead in Karachi on December 23, 2011. Rustam Khan, a local ANP leader and member of a peace committee in Kanju, was killed in Banaras on January 2 last year. In another case, Fazal Muhammad, a constable of Swat’s Special Police Force and a resident of Charbagh, was killed on November 9, 2011, in Pathan Colony. Similarly, Nisar Muhammad Khan, a leader of anti-Taliban Peace Committee of Kabal, was shot dead on October 28 last year in Pathan Colony area. Mian Azam Shah, an anti-Taliban leader in Matta, was assassinated in Baldia Town on October 19 last year. Similarly, Humayoon Khan, former councillor and leader of peace committee in Taal area of Swat, was also killed in Karachi.

Sher Shah Khan, an elected parliamentarian from Swat valley, says, “The people killed by militants in Karachi were very helpful to the government during the military operation, and I believe they have been targeted for this very reason. Khan tells TNS killing a pro-government elder is very easy in Karachi rather than Swat.

“The militant group involved in the killings of pro-government elders of Swat in Karachi is mainly led by Ibn-e-Aqeel alias khog and Sher Muhammad alias Yaseen,” says a well-informed elder in Matta, adding that both are among the most wanted people in Swat. He says that the task of such assassinations was handed over to them two years ago by TTP Swat’s commander Ibn-e-Amin of lower Shawar area of Swat. It is pertinent to mention that Ibn-e-Amin, a most dangerous commander in Swat and linked with al Qaeda, was killed in a drone attack in Tirah valley of Khyber Agency in December 2010.

“We have nothing to do with the killing of common people. We just target our rivals who helped the security forces in the operation against us in Swat,” a militant hailing from Charbagh area tells TNS. He claims that some of their hardcore members had joined other local banned jihadi organisations linked with TTP in Karachi.

Dozens of pro-government elders of other parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and tribal areas have been killed in the past year for speaking against Taliban atrocities in their respective hometowns. Abdul Manan, the elder brother of Dilawar Khan, a prominent leader of a Peshawar-based armed lashkar formed against the Taliban militants operating in Matani and Darra Adam Khel, was also gunned down in Shireen Jinnah Colony of Karachi in January 2009. Tariq Afridi-led Darra Adam Khel militants had claimed responsibility for Manan’s killings.

Similarly, Mohmand agency-based militants are also active in Karachi and killing anti-Taliban people. Haji Tor Babazai, an anti-Taliban elder of Mohmand Agency, was killed in Karachi on September 29, 2010. “Qari Shakil, deputy amir of TTP Mohmand, operates a network of Mohmand militants in Karachi which not only collects extortions from Mohmand-based businessmen but also kill anti-Taliban people,” an elder of Mohmand agency based in Karachi tells TNS on condition of anonymity.

“Law enforcement agencies have arrested dozens of TTP militants belonging to KP and other tribal areas,” an official at Crime Investigation Department (CID) says, adding that some of them had suicide jackets and huge quantities of explosives and weapons and were involved in target killings of pro-government elders of Swat.

Experts and tribal elders suggest that law enforcement agencies should launch a “selective and surgical” operation in Karachi against militants who have migrated to Karachi which will help stop the target killing of pro-government elders of KP and tribal areas.

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

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.”