A Case Study for Understanding the Structure, Tactics and Modus Operandi of Urban-Based Al-Qaeda Cells Abstract The article provides a case study of an urban terrorist cell in Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad that successfully carried out a wave of assassination and bombings of “high-value” targets and individuals from 2007 to 2013. This cell effectively formed a means for Core al-Qaeda and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to pressure the Pakistani government from their headquarters in the tribal territories of northwest Pakistan.  The “success” of the cell relied on a number of factors and practices, including the careful selection of members based on the usefulness of their family connections, the middle-class background of its operatives, intimate knowledge of its urban surroundings and its reliance on specially trained suicide bombers brought in from the tribal regions rather than local individuals. Of particular interest is the role of family members (including those in senior roles in the security services) in aiding and abetting “second-generation” jihadists. Introduction Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad endured a six-year wave of terrorist activity between 2007 and 2013 whose momentum was only recently reversed by the apprehension of members of the al-Qaeda/Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Islamabad cell by local law enforcement agencies. A post-mortem review of the Islamabad cell’s structure, activities, tactics, ideology, objectives and membership criteria will allow researchers to examine this particular case study to gain greater understanding of urban area terrorist cells, their recruitment patterns, the role of family members in aiding and abetting terrorist activity and the operational modi operandi of such cells. The Islamabad cell case study provides law enforcement officers, academics, terrorism analysts and policy makers an opportunity to analyze and elucidate the group dynamics of such cells. Origins On July 18, 2014, the Islamabad...

India sent Vice President Hamid Ansari to Riyadh to pay respects. In addition, the government announced a day of mourning on January 24 for the “close ally and friend” of the country. Saudi Arabia’s sixth king, Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, passed away late last week after a short illness. He was 90. The monarch’s death prompted a wave of condolences from leaders around the world. US President Barack Obama is cutting short his India trip to go to Riyadh, the British flag flew at half-mast at Westminster, and the International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde stunning called him a “strong advocate for women”. For its part, India sent Vice President Hamid Ansari to Riyadh to pay respects. In addition, the government announced a day of mourning on January 24 for the “close ally and friend” of the country. To many in India, the announcement was a rude surprise. On social media, many people labelled the Saudi state as regressive and archaic, while underlining its human rights violations and its alleged role in fomenting extremism. The question they collectively appeared to ask was: why should the Indian government give this much importance to a country that has such a poor human rights record, a country that allows public beheadings, forbids dissent, and disallows women from driving? Energising economy The answers to those questions lie in mainly four places: the politics of oil, the 2.5 million-strong Indian community in Saudi Arabia, Riyadh’s influence on Sunni Muslims (who make up the majority of India’s Muslim population), and it being the home of Mecca and Medina. Largely, however, Indo-Saudi relations and goodwill rest on New Delhi’s need to buy great quantities of oil and Riyadh’s concurrent need to sell great quantities of oil. In 2006, when King Abdullah visited India as the chief guest at the Republic Day parade, the trip was hailed as a milestone. The first visit by a Saudi king to India in 51 years, it saw the signing of the “Delhi Declaration” forging a...

Qalandar is a taxi driver from Islamabad, and belongs squarely to the lowest rung of the socio-economic ladder. He is uneducated, unskilled, and barely gets by with his taxi earnings. On Friday, January 16, he took out time from his daily routine to attend a protest held in Islamabad to commemorate the one-month anniversary of the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar. “Taliban! The cruel! (Taliban! Zaliman!)”, he shouted with the crowd, a solitary tear streaming down his face. The attack on schoolchildren in Peshawar is the most tragic, brazen and horrendous act of terrorism Pakistan has witnessed, and its aftershocks can be sensed resonating through citizens and rulers alike. On the one-month anniversary of the attack that left 141 dead, including 132 children, commemoration protests were held in Pakistan and around the world. Civil society gathered in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Dera Allahyar, Bahawapur, Faisalabad, Jhelum, Peshawar, Quetta, Hyderabad, as well as London, York, New York, Boston, Washington DC, Dallas, Los Angeles, Houston, Toronto, Nairobi, Perth, and Berlin, at 6 pm local time, to mark the anniversary. In the federal capital Islamabad, hundreds gathered at the Aabpara Market intersection in sector G6, shouting anti-Taliban slogans, and bewailing the loss of the departed. Several speakers addressed the crowd, touching upon a variety of themes in the long, sordid history of the conflicts that besiege daily life in Pakistan today. These included members of the Hazara community, human, especially minority rights activists and leaders, and even the father of Shama, one of two Christians brutally murdered in a blasphemy-related incident in Kot Radha Kishan in the Punjab on November 4, 2014. “I have four children,” says Qalandar. “I can’t imagine losing one of them. [In Peshawar] we lost hundreds. Every time I see their faces on the television, I think of my own. How could they do this? How could they murder little children like dogs in the...

The government of Pakistan in pursuing the Nation Action Plan (NAP) to curb terrorism from the country finally bans the Kashmir focused Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Afghan centric Haqqani Network. Both the groups are banned and declared terrorists by the United Nations and United States. The United Nations Security Council has placed sanctions against JuD in December 2008. The Security Council's al-Qaida and Taliban sanctions committee added them to its list of terrorists subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo. While, on November 5, 2012, the Security Council’s Taliban sanctions committee added Haqqani Network to UN blacklist. US Foreign Secretary John Kerry also called on Pakistani authorities to ban the groups in his recent visit to Pakistan on January 16, 2015, where he met the civil and political leadership and also addressed Pakistan-US strategic dialogue. In a significant move towards the execution of the National Action Plan against terrorism, the interior ministry has included the Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) and the Haqqani network in the list of proscribed outfits, it has been learnt. Talking to Dawn.com, an interior ministry official said the United States had sought a ban on the Haqqani network and the Jamaatud Dawa but the matter was being delayed. However, he added, the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar by terrorists belonging to the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan caused the government to take action against militant organisations without making a distinction between the good Taliban and the bad Taliban. According to the documents available with Dawn.com, the interior ministry has added Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami, Harkat-ul-Mujahi­deen, Falah-i-Insaniat Foun­dation, Ummah Tameer-i-Nau, Haji Khairullah Hajji Sattar Money Exchange, Rahat Limited, Roshan Money Exchange, Al Akhtar Trust, Al Rashid Trust, Haqqani network and Jamaatud Dawa to the list of proscribed organisations. “During his recent visit to Islamabad, US Secretary of State...