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Q3 Security Report – 2015

Third Quarter 2015 - Introduction Pakistan’s war on terror and criminal gangs continued to expand during the July-September quarter as security forces extended their operations to thus far untouched areas. Military/civilian law enforcement agencies unveiled alleged links among certain local and foreign non-state actors. In counterterrorism raids, security officials claimed to have tracked and nabbed terror financiers and agents of the Indian intelligence outfit Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) from various locations in Karachi, the country’s commercial and financial capital. While security forces claimed success on different fronts, terrorists and religiously-inspired militants retaliated with brazen attacks on security installations in the country and made their presence felt. These non-state actors also appear to have adopted new strategies and tactics to deal with the ongoing operations in the south (Karachi) and northwestern territories against them. But barring a few exceptions, Pakistan recorded a decline in violence during this quarter, especially the sectarian kind. The frequency of many forms of violence also declined during this quarter. As a whole as many as 1,208 people - civilians and security forces alike – fell to terror and crime, bringing the total fatalities in the first nine months to 3,869[1]. This report takes a close look at the ongoing security operations and the trend of violence in different parts of the country using the factual open source data collected from various national newspapers including The News, Dawn, and Express Tribune. Errors and omissions, a possibility in all statistical works, can occur in this report as well. Report prepared by: Mohammad Nafees Senior Research Fellow Center for Research and Security Studies NOTE: Readers can approach CRSS for source of any information included in the report. Please send your requests/comments/questions to: info@crss.pk. List of Acronyms # Acronyms (in alphabetical order) 1 ANP Awami...

Sabawoon Showcase: KP Local Body System and Role of Elected Members

October 12, 2015, Peshawar: The Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) flagship radio program Sabawoon (Dawn), that aired on Monday, focused on the local body system in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (KP) and the role of elected members of the local government system. The key points discussed included the rules of business, powers of newly elected members, utilization of funds, transparency in the system, planning and development. This program aired under the theme “Jarga Marraka” (Public Dialogue). There were two guests on the show. The first guest, Mr. Muhammad Asim, represents the City District Government Peshawar, and the second, Mr. Khalid Khan, is a team leader from the Subnational Government Program, KP. The views of the new elected members from the KP local body system were highlighted in a report aired during the show. Mr. Himayat Ullah Mayyar from the district Nazim Office, Mardan said, “The present local body system has no rules for business while the elected members are lacking the potential. It will be beneficial if appropriate rules for business are given to the elected members.” There were four live calls during the show. The majority of the callers requested the elected members to improve the development of the province as it has been traditionally ignored. Anees, a live caller, said, “There is no genuine system to end pollution in Peshawar. The officials that are assigned this task are not performing their duties in an acceptable manner.” A second caller, Abdullah, said, “The road infrastructure in the city is at its worst and the government should work on this so there is an improvement in the traffic flow.” Mr. Muhammad Asim, Nazim of City District Government Peshawar “The local body system is an example of democracy because everyone has an access to their elected members. The elected members can find an easy solution as they are well aware of the problems being faced in the local context. There are limited funds but it is the right of the people...

China Jails Former Energy Chief for Corruption

BEIJING (Web Desk) – The former chief of China’s biggest oil firm has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for accepting bribes, state media said on Monday. Jiang Jiemin was previously head of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and its listed firm Petro China. He was arrested in 2013, shortly after taking a government job. Jiang was an ally of former security Chief Zhou Yongkang, the biggest official caught in the ongoing corruption crackdown in China. A statement from a court in Hubei province carried by local media said Jiang was found guilty of “receiving bribes, possessing large amounts of assets of unknown provenance, and abusing power as a state-owned company employee.” Media outlets said that Jiang had amassed a total of 14.8m Yuan (£1.5m, $2.3m) in assets. Besides his jail sentence, authorities have confiscated assets worth 1m Yuan from him, local media said. He received a lesser sentence after confessing his crimes and detailing the bribes he received in exchange for approving construction projects and offering personal job promotions. Jiang had risen through the ranks of state-owned CNPC, which is the parent company of PetroChina, in the late 1990s and 2000s to become chairman. He left CNPC in April 2013 to take his highest position yet, as head of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission – a cabinet-level position. He was arrested a few months after assuming that position. Crackdown on Corruption China has been conducting widespread arrests of both low-ranking and high-ranking officials since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012. One of its biggest hauls was Zhou, the former head of China’s Ministry of Public Security, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for corruption in June. China’s leaders use high-profile cases to prove they are serious about tackling government graft. However, many suspect that the downfall of Jiang and others can also be attributed to ongoing political infighting. Published October 12, 2015...

Now That a Prairie Fire is Lit

AS droves of intellectuals began returning their state awards to protest the growing culture of intolerance across India, I exulted to Prof Romila Thapar: “You’ve lit a prairie fire.” She messaged back “No.” It was the outrage at what was happening that had triggered the outcry. If she believed she had little to do with the surge of awakening she was wrong. It was in October last year that a very worried audience was glued to every word of a seminal address. To question or not to question, that is the question? Prof Thapar’s exhortation to India’s weak-kneed intellectuals was direct and urgent. Speak up or we all perish. After starting the fire, her modesty today doesn’t fit. People were expressing their outrage because they were outraged! Does that make sense? If outrage alone could bring about desired change, then nobody would need Lenin or Gramsci or Rosa Luxemburg I muttered to myself. On the other hand, an alternate scenario lurking in India warns us that unguided popular anger could produce a Robespierre too, perhaps dressed as a Hardik Patel, who knows. There is a real worry here despite the dominant left’s pursuit of last week’s mayoral elections in West Bengal. Remember this was the time when a popular prairie fire had begun. Just marvel at the communists’ bad sense of timing. A Bengali Marxist hero, former state finance minister Asim Dasgupta, was among the leading lights required to contest mayoral elections last week — he from the Salt Lake City where he lost. In Kerala, the party is lauding saint and social reformer Narayana Guru’s secular legacy to woo a low-caste community that holds the balance in the next assembly elections. An alternate scenario lurking in India warns us that unguided popular anger could produce a Robespierre. Across the road from the left’s pulpit, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, a neo-liberal academic was suddenly berating Modi. His force of logic and candid appeal against Hindutva’s innate fascism had the flavour of an old page from the...

RSS and BJP: Battling for India's 'Soul', State by State

An ascendant Hindu nationalist group wants minority Muslims and Christians to accept that India is a nation of Hindus, and is pushing some of them to convert. An election in the volatile state of West Bengal has become a prime target in its game plan. The group's strategy: To spread its Hindu-first ideology to all corners of India by propelling the ruling party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power in as many states as possible. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) provided the foot soldiers in last year's landslide general election victory by Modi, who joined the movement in his youth. Winning states like West Bengal, outside the ruling party's traditional strongholds, would give Modi greater control over the upper house of parliament, which would put him in a better position to push through key policies. The game plan of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in the minority in the upper house, is to govern 20 of India's 31 regional legislative assemblies over the next four years, top party sources said. It currently controls or shares power in 11. Interviews with more than two dozen RSS and BJP officials and rare access to closed RSS meetings reveal a two-stage strategy — electoral victory at the national level, which has been achieved in the lower house of parliament, followed by similar success at the state level. "We would want the BJP to win all the state elections because only then can significant social, political and cultural changes take place in this country," RSS Joint General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale told Reuters. "The 2014 election victory should be seen as the starting point of a long term mission." Policy influence What also emerges is the impact the RSS is having on government rhetoric and decisions. Once scorned as a right-wing fringe group, the RSS is the ideological parent of the BJP. The Modi government has appointed RSS sympathisers to prominent positions in recent months. This includes the chairman of the Film and Television...

RSS and BJP: Battling for India's 'Soul', State by State

An ascendant Hindu nationalist group wants minority Muslims and Christians to accept that India is a nation of Hindus, and is pushing some of them to convert. An election in the volatile state of West Bengal has become a prime target in its game plan. The group's strategy: To spread its Hindu-first ideology to all corners of India by propelling the ruling party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power in as many states as possible. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) provided the foot soldiers in last year's landslide general election victory by Modi, who joined the movement in his youth. Winning states like West Bengal, outside the ruling party's traditional strongholds, would give Modi greater control over the upper house of parliament, which would put him in a better position to push through key policies. The game plan of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in the minority in the upper house, is to govern 20 of India's 31 regional legislative assemblies over the next four years, top party sources said. It currently controls or shares power in 11. Interviews with more than two dozen RSS and BJP officials and rare access to closed RSS meetings reveal a two-stage strategy — electoral victory at the national level, which has been achieved in the lower house of parliament, followed by similar success at the state level. "We would want the BJP to win all the state elections because only then can significant social, political and cultural changes take place in this country," RSS Joint General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale told Reuters. "The 2014 election victory should be seen as the starting point of a long term mission." Policy influence What also emerges is the impact the RSS is having on government rhetoric and decisions. Once scorned as a right-wing fringe group, the RSS is the ideological parent of the BJP. The Modi government has appointed RSS sympathisers to prominent positions in recent months. This includes the chairman of the Film and Television...

RSS and BJP: Battling for India’s ‘Soul’, State by State

An ascendant Hindu nationalist group wants minority Muslims and Christians to accept that India is a nation of Hindus, and is pushing some of them to convert. An election in the volatile state of West Bengal has become a prime target in its game plan. The group's strategy: To spread its Hindu-first ideology to all corners of India by propelling the ruling party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power in as many states as possible. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) provided the foot soldiers in last year's landslide general election victory by Modi, who joined the movement in his youth. Winning states like West Bengal, outside the ruling party's traditional strongholds, would give Modi greater control over the upper house of parliament, which would put him in a better position to push through key policies. The game plan of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in the minority in the upper house, is to govern 20 of India's 31 regional legislative assemblies over the next four years, top party sources said. It currently controls or shares power in 11. Interviews with more than two dozen RSS and BJP officials and rare access to closed RSS meetings reveal a two-stage strategy — electoral victory at the national level, which has been achieved in the lower house of parliament, followed by similar success at the state level. "We would want the BJP to win all the state elections because only then can significant social, political and cultural changes take place in this country," RSS Joint General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale told Reuters. "The 2014 election victory should be seen as the starting point of a long term mission." Policy influence What also emerges is the impact the RSS is having on government rhetoric and decisions. Once scorned as a right-wing fringe group, the RSS is the ideological parent of the BJP. The Modi government has appointed RSS sympathisers to prominent positions in recent months. This includes the chairman of the Film and Television...

Israeli Narrative, Palestinian Helplessness

“We cannot compromise the goal of an independent homeland for the followers of Zion. Nor can we talk as long as the Palestinians remained divided.” This argument by a veteran Israeli jurist suggests that between March 2006, when we visited Ramallah and Jerusalem, and early October 2015, when I met this lawyer in Istanbul, the Israeli narrative on Palestinians has hardly changed. In fact, under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli views on the treatment of Palestinians have hardened further. No surprise, therefore, that four Israelis and 26 Palestinians, including eight alleged attackers, have lost lives in the worst spell of street violence in Jerusalem since early October. Stirred in part by Muslim anger over increasing Jewish visits to the al-Aqsa mosque, the continued bloodshed prompted Palestinian groups to call for a “Day of Rage” across the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem on October 13. Even the leaders of Israel’s Arab community called for a commercial strike in their towns and villages. The Israeli lawyer, attending a regional security conference in Istanbul, explained that despite Netanyahu’s best efforts, the situation remains bleak for Palestinians because they have no leader. According to him, Israel is ready to make space for Palestinians and help them get their state. It is ready to negotiate the displacement of some of the Jews living in the new settlements but there is no interlocutor. Some of the incidents of stabbing, by outraged Palestinian youth, have taken place around Pisgat Zeev, built on occupied land that Israel annexed to Jerusalem after the 1967 Middle East war. Nearly half a million Jews live on lands annexed in this way. The Palestinian president, is too old and helpless, the lawyer argued. But strangely, though not unexpectedly, the Israeli ‘human rights defender’ only talked of the violence by the Palestinians and the division within their ranks. As he spoke during the lunch break, a delegate from South Korea also...

Pakistan Heading to Economic Revival: PM

SHEIKHUPURA - Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Friday said Pakistan was heading towards an economic revival as its economy turns around and promises a bright future for the people of the country. He said the country will also get rid of loadshedding in 2018, the year marked for next general elections when his government’s ongoing term expires. The prime minister was addressing the ground-breaking ceremony of the Rs55 billion Bhikki power project near Shiekhupura which is to be completed in 2017 and is supposed to add 1,180MW electricity to the national grid. Nawaz Sharif claimed the project that could have cost Rs95 billion as per the Nepra tariff, would now complete in only Rs55 billion, owing to the transparent policies of the government. The prime minister last month ordered audit of 525MW Nandipur power project, which has brought a huge discredit to his government that was voted into power primarily on promises of economic revival and fixing the long-running energy problem. The Nandipur plant remains idle despite massive cost overruns and accusation of corruption. This comes in the middle of a large spurt in power projects, many of them connected with the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, which the government is trying hard to own as an emblem of its success. Nawaz termed it criminal offence of the previous governments who neglected the critical need of electricity generation. He said now the onus of rectifying the ills of the past was on his govt which was doing its best to end the loadshedding by 2018. Nawaz said the PC-I of Bhikki power project called for higher cost of commissioning of the project and it could have been an easier choice for any crook government to exploit it for sheer popularity. But, the PML-N government does not believe in such tactics and treats the national funds as a sacred trust of the people, he added. He said the project would save Rs360 billion in 30 years and the work on Bhikki and two other power projects would help the country save...

Pakistan has Vast Potential in Infrastructure Sector, says Aiib President

Thursday, October 08, 2015 - Islamabad—President-designate Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) Jin Liqun on Wednesday said Pakistan has vast potential in infrastructure sector and the Bank would look forward to invest in the country. “We believe that investment in infrastructure sector including energy, ports, seaports and roads would help boost economy of Pakistan”, he said addressing a press conference here along with Minister for Finance Senator Ishaq Dar. He said the establishment of AIIB was recognition of Pakistan-China joint efforts for economic progress and social development of the region. He informed that the bank, going operational by next year would play key role in pushing the economies of its member countries. He also reaffirmed commitment to make AIIB a modern lending institution in the world by sharing the experiences of existing renowned institutions and play its role in socio-economic uplift of under developed countries. Appreciating the efforts of Pakistan government in bringing reforms in the national economy, he said due to prudent economic policies of the government, Pakistan has achieved macro economic stability which was also recognized by the reputed international economic institutions. He said he had also met with Prime Minister today (Wednesday) and discussed with him range of issues. Jin Liqun said that the government has managed to build its foreign exchange reserves by over three-times within two years time. “The positive macro economic indicators themselves speak the performance of the government.” Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on the occasion said the MoU for establishment of AIIB was singed by 22 founder countries on October 27, 2014 and Pakistan was among its founding members. He said so far 57 countries have signed membership of the bank and still more countries were ready to join it. He said Pakistan supported Jin Liqun in election of President of the Bank and after being elected the President-designate, Mr Jin chose to...