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India-Pakistan
Militants threaten residents to vacate Peshawar neighbourhood
2014-04-16
[DAWN] A pamphlet, attributed to the banned Lashkar-e-Islam (LI), was distributed in a neighbourhood of the Khyber Pakhtunhwa capital threatening residents, mostly Shia Mohammedans, to vacate the area in the next ten days, police said on Tuesday.

Residents of Pahari Pura's Manzoor Colony were warned of serious consequences failing to follow the forces of Evil warning.

The threatening pamphlet, with letter head of LI chief Lutfullah, said that the myrmidon outfit's shura (council) has decided to act against the colony, without elaborating what caused to offend it.

Lashkar-e-Islam -- a Bara-based myrmidon organization in Khyber tribal region led by Mangal Bagh
...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency...
 -- was banned in 2008.

Police said they have launched an investigation to ascertain the pamphlet's authenticity. They said police contingent has been increased with more patrolling in the area.

A local holy man in Bara, Mufti Munir Shakir formed the Lashkar-e-Islam in December 2004 after Sipah and Malikdinkhel rustics announced their full allegiance to him. However,
it was a brave man who first ate an oyster...
 the holy man was expelled from Bar Qambarkhel area after only six months owing to his bad boy views and differences with Haji Namdar, another myrmidon commander of the area.

Both Mufti Munir Shakir and Pir Saifur Rehman were forced to leave Bara after a jirga of local elders gave a consensus verdict following bloody festivities between the supporters of the two in early 2005. Mangal Bagh, a bus driver-turned-militant was elevated to the position of amir (chief) of Lashkar-e-Islam in May 2005.

Pak security forces demolished the house of Haji Rabat and destroyed the FM radio station set up in a mosque after they started the first military operation against Lashkar-e-Islam in mid-2005.
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India-Pakistan
Lashkar-i-Islam’s birthplace in Bara blown up
2013-01-06
Unidentified gunmen blew up on Friday night an abandoned mosque in Bara where proscribed militant organisation Lashkar-i-Islam was formed about eight years ago.

Official sources said that scores of armed persons came in vehicles, forcibly opened the locked mosque in Nala-Malikdinkhel and planted explosives in it. The building of the mosque was razed when they detonated the explosives, they added.

Built in early 2004 by a local elder Haji Rabat adjacent to his house, the mosque became a centre of activities when firebrand cleric Mufti Munir Shakir set up an illegal FM radio station inside it and started delivering fiery speeches against his rival Pir Saifur Rehman, a spiritual leader of Afghan origin.

It was the same mosque where Mufti Munir Shakir formed Lashkar-i-Islam in December 2004 after Sipah and Malikdinkhel tribesmen announced their full allegiance to him. However, the cleric was expelled from Bar Qambarkhel area after only six months owing to his extremist views and differences with Haji Namdar, another militant commander of the area.

Both Mufti Munir Shakir and Pir Saifur Rehman were forced to leave Bara after a jirga of local elders gave a consensus verdict following bloody clashes between the supporters of the two in early 2005. Bangal Bagh, a bus driver-turned-militant was elevated to the position of amir (chief) of Lashkar-i-Islam in May 2005 in the same mosque.

Security forces demolished the house of Haji Rabat and destroyed the FM radio station set up in the mosque after they started the first military operation against Lashkar-i-Islam in mid-2005.

Mangal Bagh was forced to flee Bara and took refuge in Gogrina area of Bazaar Zakhakhel.

The mosque, however, remained intact and was later closed down after most of the Malikdinkhel tribesmen were forced to leave their houses when a third military operation was launched against LI in September 2009.

The mosque remained locked since then and was blown up on Friday night by a group of unidentified persons. Nobody claimed responsibility for the incident, which is first of its type in Bara since the formation of at least five militant groups.

Meanwhile, Khasadar Force on Saturday sent back two containers taking unspecified supplies to Nato forces in Afghanistan.

Both the containers were stopped at Takhta Beg checkpost and were later ordered to go back to Peshawar. Officials did not give any specific reason for not allowing the containers to proceed to Torkham border.
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India-Pakistan
Khyber tops violence in Fata
2012-11-06
[Dawn] Khyber Agency has recorded the highest number of subversive acts during the current year as compared to other parts of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

The data complied by offices of political administration in Fata shows that total 96 kabooms, suicide and rocket attacks have
occurred in Khyber Agency between January and October this year.

These incidences have left at least 100 civilians and 20 security personnel dead besides injuring 60 others, the record shows.

Army and paramilitary forces have been conducting operations in Khyber Agency since 2009, but they have yet to evict forces of Evil from the area, situated at a stone's throw from 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.
The volatile agency has also topped the list of kidnapping for ransom incidents among all tribal units as it recorded 40 cases in which people were picked up and taken there before making demands for money from the relatives of the kidnapped persons.

Main thug groups like Lashkar-e-Islam, Tawheedul Islam, Ansaarul Islam, Haji Namdar group and Abdullah Ezzam Brigade have been operating in the area, according to sources. The infighting among these thug outfits and subsequent military
operations caused mass exoduses from the militancy-stricken area.

According to Fata Disaster Management Authority's report, around 71,000 displaced families, who left their native homes in the wake of lawlessness, had been registered with it.

Officials blamed deaths and civilian casualties in Khyber Agency on artillery shelling and rocket attacks.

The trouble started in Khyber Agency in 2003 when supporters of two rival sectarian groups led by Mufti Shakir and Pir Saifur Rehman respectively clashed in Bara. Mufti and Pir were expelled from the area in 2004. However,
you can observe a lot just by watching...
 the sectarian festivities
resulted in emergence of Mangal Bagh
...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency...
 group.

Interestingly, official reports portray situation in South Wazoo Agency, the birthplace of Taliban in Fata, as relatively quite and calm. No loss of life of civilians and security forces has been reported from South Waziristan where total 20 attacks,
including improvised bombs and roadside blasts, took place though media had reported that 30 security personnel and five non-combatants were killed in these acts of violence.

Also, decline has been witnessed in suicide kabooms in Fata in the current year. Sources said that political authorities had confirmed four suicide attacks in tribal areas one each in Bajaur, Khyber and Kurram agencies and Frontier Region of Kohat.

Militants had reportedly carried out nine suicide attacks in Fata in 2011.

Officials said that situation in Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central
...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth...
 was pretty normal though acts of violence had occurred in the area. According to reports, 10 blasts and 15 missile attacks had taken place in Bajaur that claimed lives of 24 civilians and 10 soldiers. Around 100 civilians and security personnel have suffered injuries in these attacks.

"Confidence of local people in government has been restored as people contact government offices for resolution of their
disputes contrary to the past when they would approach the Taliban-run courts for the same," said an official.

He termed it a major breakthrough, saying it was an indication that state's writ was established.

Situation in previously troubled Mohmand Agency
... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar...
 also remained under control during the past 10 months after subsequent military offensives against thugs. Officials said that security forces flushed out forces of Evil from villages and towns of Mohmand and consolidated government's writ there.

An official said that 39 bomb and rocket attacks had taken place in Mohmand Agency.

Situation in violence-stricken Kurram Agency
...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora...
 is still murky, particularly in the lower and central subdivisions of the area where 50 civilians died and 90 received wounds in suicide attacks and other subversive activities.

North Waziristan Agency, the nest of various thug outfits, also remained tense because of night attacks on security installations, military convoys and roadside blasts. Around 60 attacks had been taken place in the area that killed 20 civilians and soldiers besides injuring 50 others.
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India-Pakistan
10 more die as local people clash with militants in Swat
2008-09-07
Ten more people, including the brother of Pir Saifur Rehman and a militant, were killed and several others injured in clashes between the local people and the Taliban in Matta Tehsil of the restive Swat Valley on Saturday. The security forces also continued to pound hideouts of the militants in Kabal Tehsil.

Sources said the Taliban fighters also kidnapped 20 more people and shifted them to an undisclosed location.

Spokesman for Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Swat chapter, Muslim Khan, said they had killed over 30 people and kidnapped several others. "We have arrested several people, impounded their two vehicles and shifted them to an unknown place," he said.

The local people clashed with the Taliban in Mandal Dag area of the Matta Tehsil when the militants besieged the area for picking up a 'Pir' identified as Saifur Rehman. A total of 20 local people were killed and several others injured in the two-day fighting.

According to the ISPR, fierce clashes erupted between the local people and the militants in Tehsil Matta, in which nine militants and 15 local people were killed and several others injured from both sides.

The security forces extended support to the local Lashkar in its bid to dislodge the militants from their strongholds in Matta.

The operation against the militants, entrenched in fortified bunkers and tunnels in Koza Bandai, has entered a decisive stage. "The Army gunship helicopters and artillery guns are targeting militants' positions and have inflicted heavy casualties on them. The militants, who were involved in looting in Koza Bandai, have been encircled by the ground troops, who have blocked all their escape routes with the aim to eliminate them," an ISPR statement said.

Meanwhile, two persons, identified as Bakht Azim of Nangolai area and Muhammad Shah of Biha, Matta Tehsil, were seriously injured when shells hit their houses. Both the injured were rushed to the Saidu Sharif Hospital.

In another development, the local people staged a protest against the ongoing shelling, continuous curfew, power suspension and shortage of edibles and other essential commodities. They chanted slogans against the government and demanded lifting of curfew and provision of edibles.

The ISPR also said that efforts were being made to restore electricity to Bara Bandai and its adjoining areas. Curfew was relaxed from 8 am to 8 pm in Mingora. Shops and banks remained opened and people were busy in their Ramazan shopping.
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India-Pakistan
JUI-F jirga begins talks with AI
2008-07-23
A jirga comprising Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leaders began negotiations on Tuesday with Mullah Mehboob's Ansarul Islam (AI) -- a rival group of Mangal Bagh's Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) -- for a ceasefire between the two militant outfits. A first round of talks with the LI in Bara has ended, with the jirga -- headed by Mullah Shujaul Mulk -- beginning a second round of talks with AI leaders at an undisclosed location in Peshawar. Sources privy to the jirga meeting revealed that LI leaders were adamant over their demand not to include Pir Saifur Rehman's group at the talks. AI leaders did not attend the Bara negotiations with the LI leaders for security reasons. Sources quoted AI leaders as saying that they were ready to disassociate themselves from Pir Saifur Rehman's group but not willing to disown Haji Khanzada from the AI.
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India-Pakistan
Troops raze two more militant centres in Bara
2008-07-02
The fourth day of the security operation against militants in the Bara subdivision of Khyber Agency ended on Tuesday with the destruction of two more militant compounds and the arrest of 18 militants. One of the razed buildings belonged to exiled former LI chief Mufti Munir Shakir, who used to reside in it before he was expelled from the troubled region.

Separately, LI followers attacked the empty house of LI chief Mangal Bagh’s rival Pir Saifur Rehman, officials told AFP. Troops moved the LI men away but the house was blown up.

Quoting a private TV channel, Online reported that security forces arrested three LI workers. It said that the security forces also recovered a kidnapped ex-soldier who had been abducted by the arrested men.

Meanwhile, locals claimed that the khasadar tribal police had stopped performing their duties following a request by LI chief Mangal Bagh and tribal elders. The sources said that Bagh and Bara elders had cautioned the khasadars against fighting their own people.

Also on Tuesday, a complete shutter down strike could be observed in Bara Bazaar due to the curfew imposed by the political administration. Bara Traders’ Union President Said Ayaz told Daily Times that a senior official, accompanied by several Frontier Corps personnel, had visited the market on Tuesday morning and ordered the shopkeepers to shut down their businesses. However, troops did not restrain the movement of local residents.

The situation in the Bar Qambarkhel area, a stronghold of warlord Haji Namdar, also remained calm following the explosion on Monday. Namdar’s spokesman Munsif Afridi told Daily Times that the dispute between Haji Namdar and Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud had been resolved after mediation by Taliban spokesman Maulvi Omar. Earlier, he had claimed that Omar had been present at the time of blast but had escaped unhurt.
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India-Pakistan
8 killed in clash between rival groups near Bara
2008-03-04
At least eight people were killed and about a dozen injured on Monday during a clash between members of militant organisation Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) and residents of the village of Bara Shaikhan on the outskirts of Peshawar.

According to AP, the trouble began when dozens of LI activists, who are led by Mangal Bagh and support Mufti Munir Shakir, tried to demolish the shrine of an Islamic saint in Shaikhan village. Local police officer Zardad Khan said the LI men claimed it was un-Islamic to worship at the shrine. He said villagers who revere the tomb resisted, sparking a shootout that led to the death of at least eight people.

The firing stopped when contingents of police and Levies were deployed to the region. Later, area residents staged a protest demonstration by placing the dead in the middle of the Ring Road. The locals’ initial attempts to march towards Peshawar city were blocked by police, angering the protesters. They chanted slogans against the government and Mangal Bagh and asked for action against the attackers. Eventually, the police relented and the protesters were allowed to march towards Peshawar along with the dead.

LI chief Mangal Bagh told journalists in Shaikhan that his men had attacked the region after the political administration failed to take action against drug smugglers of the area. He rejected the reports that LI activists had attempted to raze a shrine to the ground. Police officials at Sarband and Badh Bher police stations were unable to confirm the death toll.

Locals told Daily Times that Shaikhan is home to supporters of Pir Saifur Rehman, who was expelled from Bara last year under immense pressure from the LI. Clashes between his followers and those of Mufti Munir Shakir had killed dozens of people in recent years, AP reported.
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India-Pakistan
Lashkar-e-Islam issues charter of demands
2007-05-07
The Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) staged a rally in Mandi Kas, some five kilometres from Bara Bazaar, and announced a six-point charter of demands on Sunday. LI chief Mangal Bagh, commander Ghuncha Gul, Bara Doctors and Medical Practitioners Association president Niaz Badsha, Dr Habibur Rehman and other LI leaders addressed the participants.
The speakers demanded:
* the government release Mufti Munir Shakir,

*hand over Pir Saifur Rehman’s property to LI,

*evict security forces from Rabat Mosque and Arjli Naddi by releasing them to the Shalober tribe,

*punish security officials involved in the firing incident that killed four children and

*reconstruct the Malak Din Khel tribe’s demolished market in addition to compensating the affected people.
They also criticised the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal government and said it had created numerous problems for the tribesmen. “It [MMA government] blamed tribal elders for the deterioration of law and order by saying they had failed the political system through creating parasitic relations with the authorities,” they said. The speakers also called the demolition of Malak Din Khel tribe’s market ‘illogical’ saying the market was not an office of the LI, but was instead a workplace for more than 20,000 people. The speakers also demanded the government stop constructing security check posts in the area.
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India-Pakistan
LI stages rally to protest killing of students in Bara
2007-04-26
The Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) staged a rally on Wednesday in Mandi Kas, some five kilometres from the Bara Bazaar, to protest the killing of four students in recent clashes. Most of the rally participants were armed youths, while the speakers condemned the killings of students and demanded the government let Mufti Munir Shakir live in Bara.

Protesters passed a resolution calling for restoration of peace in the area through a jirga. They also demanded the government reconstruct the LI’s demolished centres. Haji Amal Gul Afridi, belonging to Malak Din Khel tribe and chief of an organisation called ‘Sarishta’, told Daily Times that the recent clash between the LI and government had disturbed the law and order situation in Bara, and that the government was responsible for the present state of affairs. “The LI is playing its due role to maintain peace in Bara,” he added.

Asim Afridi, a shopkeeper, said his daily sales had plummeted from Rs 30,000 to Rs 15,000 after the recent clashes, adding that students should not be involved in politics.

Saifud Din, who runs a public call office, said the crisis had massively affected his business and that the government was responsible for it. A taxi driver, requesting anonymity, told Daily Times that the situation in Bara had started worsening when several organisations emerged in the area. He said the LI workers had forced drivers to hoist LI’s black flags on their vehicles lest they should be fined.

LI Commander Mohamad Tayyeb said Benazir Bhutto should review her statement condemning the LI activities, lest her party should suffer in the Khyber Agency. “Our protest will continue till Mufti Munir is back in Bara and demolished markets are reconstructed,” said Tayyab, adding that the government had agreed in a jirga to hand over the house of Pir Saifur Rehman to the LI, and that they had 30 witnesses to bear out this agreement. “Setting up check posts, fining people and burning down a criminal’s house are part of the Khyber Agency’s tribal customs, and we fine only those people against whom we have valid complaints,” said the Lashkar commander, adding that the LI had not instigated students to come to streets.
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India-Pakistan
4 killed in Bara
2007-04-24
At least four people including two students and two Lashkar-e-Islami (LI) men were killed and nine others were injured in a clash with security personnel in Bara, FATA Security Secretary Arbab Arif said on Monday. Addressing a press conference at the FATA Secretariat, Arif said the LI activists had attacked the house of Pir Saifur Rehman on Sunday, but security personnel forced them to retreat. “The LI activists again attacked Rehman’s house with small and medium weapons and four people were killed while nine others were injured in a shootout with security personnel,” he said. “The situation in Bara is tense, but under control and the administration will not allow anyone to disturb law and order,” he said, adding that the government had made a list of wanted men from the Malakdin Khel, Sipah and Akakhel tribes.

The LI’s Ikhtiar Gul told Daily Times five people were killed and 12 others were injured at Rehman’s house.
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India-Pakistan
LI supporters riot in Bara
2007-04-23
Angry protesters set fire to five security check posts, plundered several shops and exchanged fire with security forces here following the end of a two-day deadline given by Lashkar-e-Islami (LI) chief Mangal Bagh to the Frontier Corps (FC) and Khasadars to vacate seized centres of the LI.

Mangal Bagh had warned the security forces in an announcement on FM radio two days ago that the organisation would start protests if the LI centres were not vacated by 6am on Sunday. Soon after the deadline ended, several people, most of them children from various tribes, reached Bara Bazaar from Qambarabad, Shaikhan and Alhaj market and set five check posts ablaze. The protesters plundered several shops in the bazaar and also damaged government property. The security personnel fired tear gas and used batons to disperse the mob. The protesters later moved into a settled area near Bara and destroyed several music and video shops there.

During the same protests, activists of the LI set four houses of their rivals on fire while the FC managed to protect the house of Pir Saifur Rehman after a two-hour shootout. Four LI activists and a passer-by were injured in the gunbattle.

As the protesters entered Bara Bazaar, some LI activists demolished the house of Khalifa Majid Malang, a former leader of the Afridi tribe, and tried to enter Arjli Naddi Centre in Shalober, but returned after holding talks with FC and Khasadar personnel. The LI activists then demolished the nearby houses of Ansarul Islam supporters Ghani Malang and Shahbaz Khan. They also set fire to the house of another rival, Zamindar Badshah, in the Sipah area of Bara.

Meanwhile, the Malakdin Khel tribe has announced that it will not cooperate with the government until it reconstructs a demolished market and compensates the tribesmen. Addressing a press conference, Malakdin Khel supreme commander Haji Amal Gul Afridi said his tribe had cooperated with the government and complied with a notice to vacate the market without resistance, but the government destroyed the market with dynamite instead of discussing the issue with them.
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India-Pakistan
Jirga negotiating ceasefire in Khyber
2006-12-17
The political administration of Khyber Agency has stepped up a political process to stem clashes between two religious groups that have left more than 100 people dead from both sides this year. The administration sent a jirga to Tirah Valley under Senator Hameedullah Khan to negotiate a ceasefire between the groups, Ahmed Khan, assistant political agent of Bara, told an Afridi tribe jirga in Peshawar on Saturday. The jirga met to discuss the ongoing clashes between the Pir Saifur Rehman and Mufti Munir Shakir groups, deferring a ceasefire decision till Monday, said jirga participants. The jirga decided to empower the political administration to take a decision on the confiscation of property of Rehman, they added. While the government was finding a political solution, the two groups continued attacking each other’s positions in Tirah Valley. Reports said 10 people had died in the clashes over the last two days.
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