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India-Pakistan

Haqqani network on top as US shares list of 20 terror groups with Pakistan

2017-11-03

[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The United States has shared a list of at least twenty terrorist groups with Islamabad which Washington insists use the Pak soil for the terrorist activities in Afghanistan and elsewhere, it has been reported. Diplomatic sources have confirmed to the local news outlet Dawn News that the White House retains a list of 20 terrorist groups that the Trump administration claims are operating in Pakistain. The sources further added that the list has reportedly been shared with Islamabad by Afghanistan and the United States. In the meantime, reports indicate that the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said the US and Pakistain had been engaged in "a very healthy exchange of information on terrorists" since his visit to Islamabad last week. Tillerson has further added that further information will also be shared with Pakistain in the future to include information on "specific location on any given day of where certain individuals or certain cells may be located." According to reports, the Haqqani terrorist network is on the top of the list shared with Islamabad as the US officials are saying that the network has safe havens in Fata and uses them to launch attacks into Afghanistan. But the Pak officials reject the claims by Washigton and insist that no such safe havens exist in the country. Added from Dawn: Top on the list is the Haqqani network which, the United States claims, has safe havens in Fata and uses them to launch attacks into Afghanistan. Pakistan strongly rejects the charge, saying that there are no such safe havens inside the country. Harakatul Mujahideen is a Pakistan-based militant group operating primarily in Kashmir. The US says that group had links to Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda as well. Jaish-e-Mohammed operates mainly in Kashmir and the liberation of the Indian occupied Kashmir is its declared objective. Jundullah is associated with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and was commanded by militant Hakimullah Mehsud, the Emir of TTP until his death in November 2013. It had vowed allegiance to the militant Islamic State group. The United States identified Lashkar-e-Taiba as one of the largest and most active terrorist organisations in South Asia. Founded in 1987 by Hafiz Saeed, Abdullah Azzam and Zafar Iqbal in Afghanistan, the group had its headquarters in Muridke. It too is focused on Kashmir. Lashkar-e-Taiba was involved in the 2001 Indian parliament attack and the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Lashkar-i-Jhanghvi, an offshoot of anti-Shia sectarian group Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan, was founded by former SSP activists Riaz Basra, Malik Ishaq, Akram Lahori and Ghulam Rasool Shah. The US blames this group for committing hundreds of target killings and dozens of mass attacks inside Pakistan. Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, an umbrella organisation of various militant groups, was based in Fata, but has now relocated to Afghanistan. The US says that the group wants to enforce its own interpretation of Sharia and plans to unite against Nato-led forces in Afghanistan. It has conducted hundreds of terrorist attacks inside Pakistan. Other groups on the list are: Harakatul Jihadi-i-Islami, Jamaatul Ahrar, Jamaatud Dawa al-Quran and Tariq Gidar Group, which is one of 13 TTP affiliates. The Tariq Gidar Group has been behind some of the deadliest attacks inside Pakistan, including the Dec 16, 2014, massacre at the Army Public School in Peshawar that left 132 schoolchildren and nine staffers dead. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Commander Nazir Group, Indian Mujahideen, Islamic Jihad Union, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan ISIS-Khorasan, Al Qaeda in the Indian Sub-Continent and the Turkistan Islamic Party Movement are also on the list.

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Southeast Asia

Who's behind the Davao bombing?

2016-09-06

[RAPPLER] Although the government declared a state of lawlessness, authorities have released little concrete information about the kaboom that killed at least 14 people in Davao City’s night market Friday, September 2, 2016. On Saturday morning, September 3, radio station DZMM said the Abu Sayyaf ...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder... grabbed credit for the blast in an interview with a self-proclaimed front man for Al Harakatul Al Islamiyah, the formal name used by the Abu Sayyaf.

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Southeast Asia

Three convicitions in Philippine bombing

2014-11-30

Two Abu Sayyaf terrorists and an Indonesian militant were convicted by a court in Manila for their role in a bombing at a shopping center in General Santos in 2002 that killed at least 14 people. The judge ruled that Abu Sayyaf militants Ahmad Jekeron, Yacob Basug and Jul Kifli from Indonesia were guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in the April 21, 2002 bombing. Before the bombing, a member of the al-Harakatul al-Islamiyah group or Abu Sayyaf, called up a station and warned that explosions would occur that day. A former Abu Sayyaf militant and key witness, Abu Hamdie, said the bombing was the first joint attack by the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah.

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Southeast Asia

'He will suffer unusual way of death'

2013-01-31

An Australian man has been threatened with an 'unusual way of death' by the Islamic terrorist group who kidnapped him just over a year ago. Warren Rodwell, a 54-year-old retired soldier, was seized from his home in the Philippines in December 2011 by gunmen from the al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group Al Harakatul Al-Islamiyyah. In a harrowing video message, Mr Rodwell admits he holds 'no hope at all' of ever being released and says he has lost trust in the Australian government.

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Home Front: WoT

US charges Ilyas Kashmiri in Danish newspaper plot

2010-01-16

[Dawn] A leader of a Pakistani militant group was charged on Thursday with helping to plot a revenge attack on a Danish newspaper that published cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad which angered many Muslims. The US indictment of Ilyas Kashmiri, a leader of the group Harakatul Jihad Islami>Harakatul Jihad Islami, accuses him of helping to plot an attack against the Jyllands-Posten newspaper. Kashmiri was described in court documents as being in regular contact with leaders of al Qaeda. Also formally charged was Pakistani-born Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana, 48, and Abdur Rehman, a retired Pakistani Army major, both previously named in the investigation. Court documents filed on Thursday also contained additional details about the planning for a deadly November 2008 assault on Mumbai. David Headley, a 49-year-old American with Pakistani roots, has been charged by US authorities with conducting several surveillance trips to Denmark and to Mumbai ahead of the planned attacks. Headley passed his information on to "handlers" from another militant Pakistani group, Lashkar-i-Taiba, which is blamed for the three-day Mumbai assault that killed more than 160 people, including six Americans, according to court documents. Headley has been cooperating with US authorities since his arrest in October. Headley's Lashkar handlers gave him $25,000 to set up an office in Mumbai to cover his surveillance activities and later $4,500 more to cover expenses, the documents said. He was also trained to use a GPS device to provide specific coordinates to the Mumbai attackers and shown a scale model of the Taj Mahal hotel to aid in the planning. The plot against the Danish newspaper never came off. Last year, Headley's Lashkar handler, who is not named in the documents, tried to call off an attack on the newspaper, telling Headley there was too much pressure on the group following the Mumbai assault, which strained India-Pakistan relations. But Kashmiri met with Headley and urged him to go ahead, suggesting he enlist Kashmiri's contacts in Europe and use a truck bomb in the attack, the documents said. Rana was accused of using his immigration business as a cover for Headley's scouting trips and for the phony offices to be set up in Mumbai and Delhi. Previous government filings have said other Indian targets were being considered by the alleged plotters. Rana and Headley had numerous conversations, recorded by US agents, about the Denmark plot and Mumbai attacks, prosecutors have said. A lawyer for Rana said his client was "duped" by Headley and had no prior knowledge of the Mumbai attacks. He has denied the charges. Kashmiri, who is believed to reside in the Pakistani tribal areas of Waziristan, was charged with conspiracy to murder and maim persons in Denmark and providing material support to the plot. Rehman, who is also believed to be in Pakistan, was similarly charged. Rana, who has been denied bond and is being held, was charged with three counts of providing material support to terrorism or a terrorist organization, in regard to both the Mumbai and Danish plots. Rana faces life in prison, and Headley, who has pleaded not guilty but may change his plea, could face the death penalty.

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Sri Lanka

'LTTE had links with jihadi groups'

2009-09-15

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan experts on terrorism have said that the LTTE maintained a front company in Karachi to arrange arms smuggling and a safe house in Peshawar for contacts with Taliban. Like runs with like... According to Shanaka Jayasekara, who carried out research on terrorism at the Macquarie University of Australia, LTTE's arms procurer Selvarasa Pathmanathan alias KP travelled from Bangkok to Kabul via Karachi on May 19, 2001, and met Taliban leaders to discuss matters relating to the so-called 'Sharjah network', an arms supply line run by the Russian dealer Victor Bout who operated three to four flights a day to Kabul to transport weapons. Lakbima News online quotes Mr Jayasekara as saying that the LTTE operated a cargo company in Dubai, 17kms from the offices of the Sharjah network. The company named 'Otharad Cargo' was headed by Daya, younger brother of Nithi, a Canada-based member of LTTE's arms procurement unit under KP. Otharad Cargo is believed to have acquired several consignments of military hardware as part of consolidated purchase arrangements with Taliban's Sharjah network. Mr Jayasekara claims that information recovered from a laptop computer of an LTTE procurement agent, now in the custody of a western country, has provided detailed information on LTTE's activities in Pakistan. The LTTE had registered the front company in Karachi which procured several consignments of weapons for the LTTE as well as Pakistani militant groups. A shipment of weapons procured by the company was intercepted and destroyed by Sri Lankan navy in September 2007, he says. Lakbima News cites a Jane's Intelligence report of November 2002 on terrorist financing in South Asian states which says that LTTE's shipping fleet provided logistic support to Harakatul Mujahideen for transporting a consignment of weapons to the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in the Philippines. The LTTE used a merchant vessel registered by a front company in Lattakia, Syria, until 2002 to service most of its 'grey/black charters'. According to Rohan Gunaratna, a Sri Lankan expert on terrorism with the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism in Malaysia, the LTTE had links with jihadis in the NWFP and had a safe house in Peshawar. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said recently that Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa had told him in Tripoli that elements in Sri Lanka were linked with terrorist incidents in Pakistan, including an attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore on March 3.

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India-Pakistan

Foreign charities wary after extremists target quake aid group

2008-03-20

Manshera: Longhaired gunmen burst into the white stone building and killed four charity workers helping earthquake victims, then wrecked the office with grenades and set it on fire. Police came, but did not intervene. In a tactic reminiscent of Ghengis Khan neighboring Afghanistan, militants are attacking aid groups in Pakistan’s volatile northwest, and local authorities appear incapable - or unwilling - to stop them. The threat has forced several foreign agencies to scale back assistance to survivors of the October 2005 earthquake, risking the region’s recovery from the worst natural disaster in the country’s history. The February 25 attack on employees of Plan International, a British-based charity that focuses on helping children, was the worst in a series of threats and assaults on aid workers in the northern mountains where Taliban-style militants have expanded their reach in the past year. Nearly a month later, menacing letters are still being sent to aid organisations. Although all four victims in Mansehra were Pakistani men, extremists despise the aid groups because they employ women and work for women’s rights. Local officials in Mansehra, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, said letters from extremists distributed March 13 and 14 also warned schools to make sure girls are covered from head to toe and to avoid coeducation. Police accuse a local militant, Mohiuddin Shakir, who goes by the alias Mujahid, of masterminding the attack last month on the aid office in Mansehra. He has not been arrested. Shakir, a former member of an Al Qaeda-linked group, has criminal charges against him in Pakistan dating back to 2002, including for murder, according to police records obtained by The Associated Press. Shakir now leads a militant group called Lashkar-e-Ababeel. Last summer, Shakir wrote a letter to newspapers warning international aid groups about hiring women and warning women to wear an all-encompassing veil. Yet Abdul Ershad, an officer investigating the attack, said that as recently as late 2007, Shakir had a working arrangement with police in his hometown of Phulra not far from Mansehra. To advance his agenda, he would tell police about residents involved in “un-Islamic” activities - like men selling pornographic videos and socialising with women - and police would arrest them, Ershad said. Brig Waqas Iqbal Raja, the chief security official for the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency, acknowledged a growing presence of extremists in the quake zone, including some militants displaced by an army offensive against supporters of a pro-Taliban cleric in neighboring Swat district. He could not explain why Shakir was still at large. Distrustful residents did not alert police when six or seven militants with long hair and their faces hidden behind scarves descended in broad daylight on the Plan International compound. The militants ordered the security guard to leave. Sajjad Mahmood, a clerk working next door, said police arrived after 30 minutes and just stood outside the gate while the assailants were inside. When the gunmen emerged, police did not try to stop them, he said. “It was a real act of brutality and you feel very worried, and still there is no real arrangements from the police for security,” said Aneela Tobassam, a Pakistani worker for US-based Mercy Corps who provides vocational training to women. Even inside her office, Tobassam, an ethnic Pashtun, wears a large shawl covering her head. “I don’t feel safe outside right now, but I won’t leave. I will stay here and I will do my work even if for now it is inside the office,” she said. There was a bombing outside the office of a local charity, Strengthening Participatory Organisation, which wounded eight people. Attackers also sprayed the compound of CARE International with automatic gunfire, but no one was hurt. The quake-hit region has long been a haven for militant groups allegedly linked to the Pakistani military and intelligence service. The Jamaatud Dawa, a successor to the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba, was among the first to help quake victims after the disaster and worked closely with the Pakistan military. It and banned groups like Harakatul Mujahedeen set up medical camps alongside an extensive, and widely welcomed, international relief effort. Graham Strong, country director for US-based World Vision, which heads an umbrella group of 20 international aid organisations operating in Pakistan, voiced concern that aid workers here will face the same problem as in Afghanistan. “I hope we are not going down the same road here,” Strong said in Islamabad. “We are generally concerned that things might be changing.”

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Southeast Asia

Philippines: JUSTOF-P Unit to Basilan

2007-09-20

Roughly "A dozen members of a US Special Forces advisory group," operating on a rotation basis with Philippine Military in the Mindanao region, "Have been deployed to the Island province of Basilan." radio reports in Manila said Thursday. The area has seen in the last three months, "heavy fighting," between U.S. backed Philippine forces and members of the Islamic terrorist organization, The Al Harakatul Al Islamiyah or Abu Sayyaf, and Jemaah Islamiyah or JI. The U.S. units, primarily provide technical and humanitarian support in coordination with the Philippine Armed Forces. "The deployment was at the request of Philippine Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command." Philippine military officials told the PNC bureau in Manila that the deployment is not of a combat nature, but, is near an area of "recent heavy fighting." "Primarily, the request was to help with medical and communications logistics." reports went on to say, "The operations of the JUSTOF-P or Joint Special Operations Task Force—Philippines often involve non-combat technical support and ’synergy’ with Philippine forces." Philippine Armed Forces officials told reporters early Thursday morning in Maniia. Armed, but only authorized to fire in self defense, the units have had a history of a high level of success in civil-military “hearts and minds,” operations. The units often are comprised of medics, technical support staff, civil military humanitarian teams, and, engineers. The U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii, which has operational supervision over JUSTOF-P activities, does not issue comments on the "Ongoing operations and projects," of the members of JUSTOF-P. The Philippine Military Spokesman, in Mindanao stressed all actions are in strict compliance with U.S. - Philippine agreements and law. Terrorist groups like the Abu Sayyaf, operating in the Southern Philippines have a long history of ties to Al Qaeda and other foreign terrorist organizations. The Philippines is a former US Commonwealth, as well as a major Non-NATO ally of the U.S.A., and has a treaty of mutual defense as well as access agreements for ‘training and cooperation.’ US Announces $190 Million Dollar Aid Package For Mindanao Wednesday, The U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney announced a new aid package of support of economic and infrastructure programs and funds to help the Philippine peace process. The Malaysian brokered and U.S. funded peace talks hope to end nearly 34 years of Insurgent fighting between Islamic separatists of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front or M.I.L.F. a combination of development assistance, education grants, and direct funding of livelihood programs by the U.S. Agency for International development have largely reduced the level of fighting in Mindanao. One group, the Moro National Liberation Front has already entered into a peace agreement with government. In 1999 U.S. funded peace accord, reducing by several thousand the number of armed rebels in the region.

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Home Front: WoT

US deports Pakistani militant

2005-05-29

A member of a terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda has been deported to Pakistan after being detained for over a year, US investigators said on Friday. Pakistani native Khamal Muhammad told authorities he was an armed guard and cook for Harakatul Mujahideen — designated by the State Department as a terrorist organisation associated with Al Qaeda. Muhammad, 23, was living in the San Francisco area when he was arrested in January 2004 for overstaying his visa by eight months, according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an arm of the Homeland Security Department. He entered the United States in 2001, a year after ICE officials said he trained to use pistols, rifles and grenades in a Harakatul Mujahidin camp in Afghanistan. The leader of Harakatul Mujahideen is believed to be a close ally to Osama Bin Laden, ICE officials said. The Justice Department did not pursue criminal charges against Muhammad. "Knowledge or connection to a terrorist activity may not be sufficient to prove a terrorism crime," said Justice spokesman Kevin Madden. "Sometimes the best alternative from a national security standpoint is to pursue other disruption efforts, including removal from the US."

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Southeast Asia

Abu Sayyaf's back, this time as an "Islamic movement"

2004-04-20

Decimated by two years of U.S.-backed assaults, the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf is reviving itself as the "Islamic Movement," returning to fundamentalist roots and plotting urban bombings to lure recruits and foreign funding, security officials say. The Muslim extremist group, with a 13-year history of kidnappings-for-ransom and beheadings, appears to be trying to shed its image as a band of criminals and focus more on bold attacks facilitated by radical Islamic converts, authorities told The Associated Press. Not just criminals, but Islamic criminals, by Gawd! Abu Sayyaf is now trying to attract recruits and funding from foreign Muslim organizations like the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, security officials told AP. "It's like a last hurrah. They want to say they're still around and that they're not irrelevant," Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita told AP. Look at me! I'm still Mr. Big!" "They don't need an army. It just takes a man to mingle in a crowd, take out a grenade from his pocket and cause trouble," Ermita said. Several former hostages have said many Abu Sayyaf members appear to be peasants motivated more by money than religious convictions, though leaders appear committed to the Muslim separatist agenda. The leader of Abu Sayyaf's main faction, Khadaffy Janjalani, is apparently trying to bring the group back to its religious moorings. Janjalani is reviving the group under its little used, alternative name Al Harakatul Al-Islamiyah - the Islamic Movement - with recruits trained by foreign and Filipino insurgents in guerrilla warfare and urban bombings, say ex-hostages, captured guerrillas and security officials. "They're trying unsuccessfully to shed the bandit tag," said a senior security official, who has monitored the Abu Sayyaf for years. It continues to plan kidnappings, however, to raise money, he said. "We'll never forget our roots!" Janjalani's faction is based on Basilan and Jolo islands, but has established alleged links with a growing number of radical Muslim converts on the main northern island of Luzon. These northern recruits could use their familiarity and underground connections in the Christian-populated region, including the bustling capital of Manila, to mount attacks, according to a government security report seen by AP. Abu Sayyaf guerrillas arrested last month allegedly belonged to a terror cell that was plotting to bomb the U.S. and Israeli embassies in Manila, malls, passenger ships, an oil depot near the presidential palace, a power plant north of the capital, TV stations, hotels, churches and airports, according to the government document seen by AP. Some of the suspected would-be bombers allegedly told investigators they failed to execute the attacks because they were waiting for operational funds, police officials said. Can't go bombing on an empty wallet, you know. Janjalani allegedly designated a Filipino emissary to al-Qaida who arranged entry of three Middle Eastern militants in 2001 who trained recruits in explosives and gave $10,000 to Janjalani, the security official said. The emissary, Arshaf Kunting, was arrested in 2001 and turned over to the Philippines, he said. Former hostages reported seeing training in Jolo last year by two Indonesians, believed to be from Jemaah Islamiyah, who taught recruits to make bombs set off by cell phones or alarm clocks. Security officials say one man arrested in the Manila plot got such training.

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India-Pakistan

Three convicted for plotting to kill Musharraf

2003-10-19

An anti-terrorism court on Saturday convicted three men and sentenced them to 10 years of rigourous imprisonment for plotting to assassinate President General Pervez Musharraf last year. Judge Aale Maqbool Rizvi acquitted two other suspects citing lack of evidence. The decision was announced at the Karachi Central Jail where the trial of the men was held because of security reasons. The five men were charged with plotting to kill Musharraf when he was visiting Karachi on April 26, 2002. The police accused them of parking a vehicle packed with explosives along the president’s route, but the remote-controlled detonator failed. "Mahmoud! Where'd you get that battery?" "Outta your flashlight, effendi!" The judge acquitted two accused, Mohammed Sharib and Mohammed Wasim Akhtar, a former Rangers official, for lack of evidence. He convicted Mohammed Hanif, Mohammed Imran Bhai and Mohammed Ashraf, all alleged members of Harakatul Mujahideen Al-Almi, an offshoot of Harakatul Mujahideen, a terroist group fighting Indian rule in Held Kashmir.

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India-Pakistan

Defence lawyer wants Musharraf to testify

2003-09-07

A defence lawyer asked an anti-terrorism court on Saturday to summon President Gen Pervez Musharraf to testify on whether there was a plot to kill him last year, lawyers said. Four Islamic militants and a former paramilitary soldier are accused of trying to assassinate President Musharraf on April 26, 2002, as he travelled from Karachi’s Quaid-e-Azam International Airport into the city. The prosecution alleges that an explosive-laden car parked along the route failed to explode because a remote-control device malfunctioned. “If the prosecution is claiming the defendants attempted to take General Musharraf’s life and the defendants are denying the charges, he should come and tell the truth in the court,” defence lawyer Abdul Waheed Katpar said. Ummm... I thought it was supposed to be a surprise? Mr Katpar is defending Muhammed Hanif, one of four Islamic militants on trial. The others are Muhammed Imran, Muhammed Ashraf and Muhammed Sharib – all members of the militant group Harakatul Mujahideen Al Almi. The fifth defendant is former paramilitary ranger Mohammed Wasim Akhtar. The state prosecutor said the president was unlikely to appear in court. "'Bout as likely as a monkey flying out of my butt playing a banjo..." “This is a futile exercise on part of defence attorney as the president has immunity from appearing in court, and, if he comes he can appear as prosecution witness and not for the defence,” prosecutor Maula Bakhsh Bhatti said. "It was him they were trying to kill, after all..." The trial, being held in a Karachi prison, started in April but has been delayed for months because of construction work to the prison’s courtroom, lawyers said. On Saturday, four of the defendants recorded statements denying the charges of conspiracy to kill President Musharraf, use of explosives and terrorism. "Nope. Nope. Never happened. Nope. Nope..."

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