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Recent Appearances... Rantburg
Mangal Bagh Mangal Bagh Lashkar-e-Islami India-Pakistan At Large 20060402 Link
Mangal Bagh Afridi Mangal Bagh Afridi Lashkar Islami India-Pakistan 20060720 Link

India-Pakistan
Terror-stricken Sikh community weary of its safety
2023-04-05
Ferget it, bub — it’s Pakistan.
[Dawn] While relatives and well wishers of slain Diyal Singh mourned his assassination, many of them said they now felt more insecure than before.

Herjeet Singh, a young imitation jewellery dealer in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistain's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire...
’s Karkhano market told Dawn that his entire community was ’heart broken’ and terrorised by the killing of Diyal Singh whom he described as a ’harmless soul’.

He said that minority community and especially Sikhs were feeling very insecure in Peshawar and surrounding localities as a minority person was killed after every seven or eight months with the security agencies failing to provide them much needed protection.

Harjeet Singh’s family had migrated to Peshawar from Bara some 17 years back when Bara was under effective control of the proscribed Lashkar-e-Islam
...a group of Islamic bandidos infesting Khyber Agency. It was headed by a former bus driver and eventually folded into the TTP...
, led by Mangal Bagh
...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency...
He said that Diyal Singh had four children, including three sons and a daughter and he was the only breadwinner for his family.

"Owing to his poor financial status, our community would hire him as watchman during festive occasions so that he could earn some extra money apart from his small herbal shop," he said.

Malak Balendar Singh, a front man for Sikh community in Bara told Dawn that the grandfather of the dear departed migrated from Tirah some three decades back and settled down in Kalanga, Akkakhel area of Bara.

He said that Diyal Singh was running his herbal shop in Bhatta Thal locality, adjacent to Bara Bazaar but had to shift to Muhallah Jogan Shah in Peshawar in May last year when two of his close relatives Ranjeet Singh and Kulgeet Singh were killed by unidentified button men.

He said the dear departed was very concerned about the safety of his family and had thus shifted to Peshawar with the hope that he would be safe while living close to other Sikh families in Mohallah Jogan Shah.

Jaspal Singh, another Sikh trader in Karkhano market, told Dawn that while majority of the Sikh families had long shifted to either Peshawar or other cities of the country, 29 Sikh shopkeepers were still running their small businesses in Bara while another 19 had their shops in Bhatta Thal market.

He said none of these Sikh shopkeepers had residences in Bara or any other locality of Khyber as they come back to Peshawar in the evening.

"Our relationship with the local community is very cordial and friendly but still we feel insecure as a number of the minority community members had fallen victims to assassination in recent past," he explained.

He said hundreds of Sikh families previously residing in Tirah valley for over a century had now deserted their homes and had migrated to other comparatively safer places.

He, however, added that Peshawar too had of late become ’very threatening’ place for his community and they were now seriously thinking of a ’mass migration’ to Punjab.
Link


Afghanistan
Lashkar-e-Islam leader killed in an IED explosion
2021-01-30
[KhaamaPress] Mangal Bagh
...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency...
, head of Pakistain’s Lashkar-e-Islam
...a group of Islamic bandidos infesting Khyber Agency. It was headed by a former bus driver and eventually folded into the TTP...
was killed in an IED explosion on Thursday in Nangarhar
Link


India-Pakistan
Khyber tribes asked to surrender people involved in blasts
2017-07-28
[DAWN] Khyber Agency
... the place to go if you've got an Indiana Jones hat and whip. Chock full of high adventure and treacherous Pathans. You should really train up to it, though...
political administration served notices on Malakdinkhel and Akkakhel tribes under Collective Territorial Responsibility clause of Frontier Crimes Regulations to surrender to it the 23 suspected rustics allegedly involved in two kabooms in Bara.

Officials said that elders of both the tribes were warned of strict action in accordance with FCR if they failed to hand over desperados to the administration.

The political administration has already suspended all the official perks and privileges of Sipah tribe after the July 16 kaboom in a water tanker of Frontier Corps
...a provincial paramilitary force. Total manpower is about 80,000. They are tasked to help local law enforcement in the maintenance of law and order, and to carry out border patrol and a..the Antwerp-based Salafist organization that had campaigned to introduce Sharia law to Belgium before single-handedly making Belgium the highest per capita supplier of jihadis to Syria in Europe. There was a big trial in Antwerp in 2015, but most of those convicted were in absentia...nti-smuggling operations....
. Two FC personnel were critically injured in the blast.

The blast took place in Malakdinkhel region but the responsibility was later claimed by proscribed Lion of Islam organization Lashkar-e-Islam
...a group of Islamic bandidos infesting Khyber Agency. It's headed by a former bus driver....
, headed by Mangal Bagh
...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency...
, who belonged to Sipah tribe.

The Malakdinkhel elders on July 23 offered assistance and support to security forces and political administration in keeping their area cleansed of all undesirable elements. They pledged to raze the house of controller of hard boyz in their area besides imposing a fine of Rs1million on him.

Link


India-Pakistan
Eight killed in Tirah air strikes
2016-12-01
[DAWN] LANDI KOTAL: At least eight suspected forces of Evil were killed when air force planes hit their positions in the Tirah valley of the Khyber tribal region on Tuesday.

According to official sources, the strikes were carried out in the Kukikhel
...a tribe of primitives inhabiting Khyber Agency. They are a branch of the Afridi tribe. Traditionally they have been migratory, tromping between Jamrud and the Rajgal valley with the seasons. The tribe has had mustache-cursing relationships with several other tribes, including the Zakkakhel and Kambarkhel, and with the Mullagori. They make welcome most anyone with a turban and automatic weapons, but every once in awhile they get together a tribal lashkar to mollify the government...
locality, near the Afghan border.

Several suspected hideouts of forces of Evil were destroyed, the officials said.

There was, however, no word about the identity of those killed in the air strikes or their affiliation with any bad boy group.

The outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain and Mangal Bagh
...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency...
’s Lashkar-e-Islam
...a group of Islamic bandidos infesting Khyber Agency. It's headed by a former bus driver....
had a strong presence in the area.

The forces claimed to have flushed out forces of Evil from the tribal region as a result of Operation Khyber-2, which had been wrapped up on June 15 last year.

But the government had made it clear that air strikes would continue in the region if it got reports of infiltration from Afghanistan.

Link


India-Pakistan
Five peace volunteers gunned down
2016-11-18
[DAWN] LANDI KOTAL: Five volunteers of the Zakhakhel Peace Committee were bumped off and another one was injured in an attack on Wednesday.

Khasadar officials said that the volunteers were going to the Gogrina area in Bazaar-Zakhakhel from Tirah when they came under fire.

The bodies were taken to Gogrina village and the injured was shifted to a hospital in Landi Kotal, they said.

APP adds: The banned Lashkar-e-Islam
...a group of Islamic bandidos infesting Khyber Agency. It's headed by a former bus driver....
organization of Mangal Bagh
...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency...
grabbed credit for the attack, political authorities said.

Peace committees comprising local volunteers were formed in sensitive parts of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas to keep an eye on the activities of suspected elements and inform the security forces accordingly.

Several members of these committees have bit the dust in similar attacks in the past.

Link


India-Pakistan
FC controls all posts, hilltops along Afghan border in Khyber
2016-07-31
[DAWN] LANDI KOTAL: The Frontier Corps
...a provincial paramilitary force. Total manpower is about 80,000. They are tasked to help local law enforcement in the maintenance of law and order, and to carry out border patrol and a..the Antwerp-based Salafist organization that had campaigned to introduce Sharia law to Belgium before single-handedly making Belgium the highest per capita supplier of jihadis to Syria in Europe. There was a big trial in Antwerp in 2015, but most of those convicted were in absentia...nti-smuggling operations....
along with the Khasadar and Levies personnel have taken effective control of almost all checkposts and hilltops in the Khyber Agency
... the place to go if you've got an Indiana Jones hat and whip. Chock full of high adventure and treacherous Pathans. You should really train up to it, though...
’s remote Bazaar Zakhakhel area along the border with Afghanistan.

According to information gathered from the security forces and political administration, the FC and Khasadar personnel fortified their position in the strategic Mishtari camp ‐ the forces headquarters in Bazaar Zakhakhel. They have also established joint checkposts in Tsasubi Kandaw and Maro Sar as part of the government’s border management policy to check illegal entry of Afghans into Pakistain via designated border points.

Officials said that a Lt. Colonel, Major and Captain of FC along with a subedar of Khyber’s Khasadar force were officiating their platoons at the Mishtari camp. The FC personnel were also deployed at Umar post, Ghakhi Kandaw, Mangal Bagh
...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency...
Kandaw and Tangay Sar hilltops and passages to check the movement of suspected murderous Moslems in the region which had served as headquarters of banned Death Eater organization Lashkar-e-Islam
...a group of Islamic bandidos infesting Khyber Agency. It's headed by a former bus driver....
(LI) from 2005 to 2011.

Link


India-Pakistan
Lashkar-e-Islam supremo Mangal Bagh reported dead in U.S. strike
2016-07-26
[ARMENPRESS.AM] Pakistain’s Taliban leader Mangal Bagh
...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency...
has been killed on July 24. This has been confirmed by the U.S. Pak President’s Security Advisor Hanaif Atmar confirmed the news, according to RIA Novosti.

"One of the leaders has been killed. He is Mangal Bagh, who was Pakistain’s Talibans’ leader. He has been killed by UAV strikes. The U.S has confirmed this", Atmar said.
I'm confused: Is he the Lashkar-e-Islam Number One, the Tehrik-i-Taliban/Pakistan Number One, or both?
Depends on what week of what month it is. Pak ISI contracts can be... complicated.
Link


India-Pakistan
252 militants killed, 160 injured in last phase of Operation Zarb-i-Azb: ISPR
2016-04-04
[DAWN] Since the last phase of Operation Zarb-e-Azb
..the Pak offensive against Qaeda in Pakistain and the Pak Taliban in North Wazoo. The name refers to the sword of the Prophet (PTUI!)...
kicked off in February, at least 252 forces of Evil have been killed and 160 severely injured, while security forces have cleared 640 square kilometres of a so far uncontrolled area in Shawal Valley of North Wazoo Agency, the Inter-Services Public Relations said in a statement on Sunday.
So the Haqqanis are all dead now? And Mangal Bagh? What'd they do wit Zawahiri when they bagged him?
"Major terrorist hubs" in Mana, Gurbaz, Lataka, Inzarkas and Magrotai areas have been cleared of holy warriors. it added.

"The battle to clear the last pocket close to the Pak-Afghan border continues," the statement said, adding that all heights over 9,000 feet have been cleared.

"Terrorists' hideouts were destroyed, a cache of arms and ammunition recovered and there was virtually no communications infrastructure remaining in the Shawal area once the operation was launched in Feb this year," the statement said.

Since the beginning of the operation in June 2014, security forces have cleared 4,304 sq km in North Waziristan and "restored writ of the government in all areas, specially in remote pockets of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas", the ISPR said.
Link


India-Pakistan
Peshawar bus bombing
2016-03-17
[DAWN] SOON after the military high command announced on Monday that Operation Zarb-e-Azb
..the Pak offensive against Qaeda in Pakistain and the Pak Taliban in North Wazoo. The name refers to the sword of the Prophet (PTUI!)...
was being wound down in Fata, turbans struck Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
as a timed device went kaboom! in a bus carrying babus government employees. As per reports, the banned Lashkar-e-Islam
...a group of Islamic bandidos infesting Khyber Agency. It's headed by a former bus driver....
’s supremo Mangal Bagh
...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency...
grabbed credit for yesterday’s atrocity; the bad boy leader ‘justified’ the bombing because of the recent ratification of death sentences by the army chief of convicts linked to the proscribed TTP, as well as the armed forces’ overall efforts against militancy. So while the army leadership is talking of wrapping up combat operations in the tribal belt, there is no reason to assume that the challenge of fighting terrorism in the rest of the country is over. After all, while LI claimed Wednesday’s attack (this is the first act of bad boy violence claimed by the group after a lengthy period), the TTP’s Jamaatul Ahrar
...A Pak Taliban splinter group that split off from the Mullah Fazlullah faction because it wasn't violent enough...
was responsible for the bombing which targeted courts in Charsadda last week. This shows that though the bully boyz might be scattered or on the run, they have not lost their ability to wreak havoc on society.

Those familiar with the area say there is no proper clearance of who is boarding buses meant for babus government employees headed to Peshawar from the districts. This situation needs to be addressed so that vehicles carrying state employees are properly checked for explosives and no unconcerned person is able to board them. Coming to the larger problem of militancy, the military announced after the corps commanders’ conference that intelligence-based operations would be intensified countrywide. After destroying the bad boys’ infrastructure and bases, this is among the best ways to proceed in order to root out holy warrior fighters and their sympathisers across Pakistain and prevent further acts of terrorism. For this, the military must work in tandem with the civilian law-enforcement and intelligence agencies, as they have an ear to the ground in the cities and towns. We must not delude ourselves by assuming that victory against militancy is near; by all indications, this will be a long war. For decades, we let the monster of religious militancy grow. Neutralising it will not be a short-term exercise. Gains have indeed been made in the counterterrorism effort, with the soldiers, and ordinary men, women and kiddies of the country paying a price in blood. But the goal of a terrorism-free country will only be realised if the state continues to counter militancy and extremism with commitment.
Link


Afghanistan
Daesh Leader Killed In Nangarhar Drone Strike
2016-01-16
[Tolo News] Local officials on Friday confirmed the death of Hafiz Saeed
-- one of the key leaders of Daesh [Islamic State] -- in a drone strike by foreign troops in eastern Nangarhar
The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
province.

Achin district chief Ghalib Mujahid told TOLOnews that Hafiz Saeed
Not the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, another learned hafiz.
was killed with 10 other fighters in the air strike which was carried out in Zhwara area in the district.

He said that the son of Mangal Bagh
...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency...
, another key leader of the group, is also among the dead.

This comes after reports in last July confirmed the death of Hafiz Saeed along with 30 others in a drone strike in the district.

Saeed was a former leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) before pledging allegiance to Daesh [Islamic State].
Link


Afghanistan
Blue on Blue: 38 Bad Guys die in bombing attack in Nangarhar
2015-12-30
A joint gathering of the militants of Daesh and Lashkar-e-Islam led by Mangal Bagh has been bombed by Afghan Air Force in Achin District of eastern Nangarhar province.

According to the governor of Achin District the bombardment took place in Shadal Bazar area late Monday.

Haji Ghalib Mujahid immediately did not have information about casualties of the air strike.

Meanwhile, a statement released by the Ministry of Defense this morning states that Afghan Air Force has bombed a Daesh hideout in Sulaimankhil area of Chaparhar District in past 24 hours.

According to the statement, 38 militants were killed in the airstrikes and the hideout belonging to Habibzai and Mullah Naeem destroyed.

The 38 insurgents killed include two who were trying to escape the bombardment through a motorcycle.

Several different types of weapons were also destroyed in the air strikes, the Ministry of Defense statement adds.

This comes days after 68 militants belonging to Daesh group were killed in air strikes in Nangarhar province mainly in its Achin District which is the stronghold of Daesh in eastern part of the country.

The group has been engaged in heavy clashes with security forces and pro-government militia formed by a powerful lawmaker Haji Zahir Qadir.

Most recently the group beheaded four members of the pro-government militia after which their four fighters were also decapitated.
Link


India-Pakistan
Bara tribe fined, asked to hand over wanted men to admin
2015-08-12
[DAWN] LANDI KOTAL: The political administration of Khyber Agency has asked the Sipah tribe of Bara to hand over 118 wanted rustics to it and pay Rs120 million fine for attacking a security convoy in October last.

The administration has linked fulfillment of these two conditions with announcement of a return plan for thousands of temporarily displaced families of Sipah tribe.

Sources said that a jirga comprising elders of Sipah tribe met Assistant Political Agent Mohammad Nasir at his office in Khyber House where it was given a list of 118 desperados. They said that the list didn't include the names of Mangal Bagh
...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency...
, head of proscribed Lashkar-e-Islam
...a group of Islamic bandidos infesting Khyber Agency. It's headed by a former bus driver....
, and some of his close and trusted lieutenants, belonging to Sipah tribe.

"This time the list is totally different from the last one which the administration gave us few months ago and which included the names of Mangal Bagh and his associates among other 102 desperados from Sipah tribe," a source told Dawn.
Link



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