.style1 { font-size: x-small; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; } TALIBAN TURN TO TEHRAN FOR TRAINING
It is no mystery that the Taliban in Afghanistan once retained close links to Pakistan’s intelligence services, and in some cases still do. What may be more surprising is that Iran, supposedly a sworn enemy of the militant Sunni movement, has been running Taliban fighters through three-month training courses to conduct ambushes and plant improvised explosive devices (IED). Cooperation between Iran and the Taliban had been rumored for years but the detail of the links was explained in depth by two Taliban commanders with Britain’s The Sunday Times. By those accounts, fighters traveling to the border city of Zahidan in southeast Iran spent the first month of training on convoy ambushes, the second month on IED planting and sequencing, and the third month on “storming bases and checkpoints.” Given Iran’s former support for the Northern Alliance, the Taliban’s nemesis from 1996-2001, there is only one explanation for the current bout of cooperation: according to one of the Taliban commanders, “Our religions and histories are different but our target is the same. We both want to kill Americans.” (London Sunday Times, March 21, 2010)
HEZB-I-ISLAMI MAKES AN OFFER IN AFGHANISTAN
U.S. and Afghan efforts to negotiate with the Taliban have borne little fruit to date, however, last month a large militant faction loosely linked to the Taliban sent a delegation and a 15-point “peace proposal” to Afghan president Hamid Karzai. The conditions laid by Hezb-i-Islami, the infamous Afghan militant group, included a withdrawal of U.S. troops within six months, but representatives suggested the terms were flexible. Led by infamous warlord and former Afghan prime minister, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Hezb-i-Islami was the preferred anti-Soviet jihadi outfit for the U.S. and Pakistan during the Afghan-Soviet war in the 1980s. Hekmatyar took power in the early 1990s before civil war and the rise of the Taliban drove him to Iran in 1996. He came back after the 2001 invasion and loosely allied with the Taliban.
The group’s strength is diminished but his fighters are active in the north and Hezb-i-Islami has a delegation in parliament. Clashes between his fighters and the Taliban in February left 60 dead. The consummate opportunist, many suspect Hekmatyar was worried of being sidelined if Washington and Kabul began negotiations with the Taliban in earnest, which may eventually happen: members of the Taliban’s ruling council recently told a British publication that Taliban supremo Mullah Omar was ready to hold “sincere and honest” peace talks with the West. The representatives also suggested that the Taliban no longer had interest in governing the country; rather, they only cared about seeing foreign forces leave Afghanistan. (Newsweek, March 26, 2010; London Morning Star, April 18, 2010)
ASSESSMENT OF BANGLADESH MILITANTS
A report out of a Dhaka-based think tank warns that there is a “strong” potential for Bangladesh to be destabilized by Islamist extremists, despite their small numbers in that country. The paper, written by researchers from the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, identifies “four complex forms of terrorism in the country – political, anti-state, ethnic and social.” According to the report, Bangladesh continues to serve as a transit and launching pad for Pakistani terrorist groups targeting India while terrorist groups have formed a “nexus” with smuggling syndicates and criminal gangs. It identifies Islamist fundamentalist groups like Hijbut Tahir and Harkat ul-Jihad-I-Islami-Bangladesh as at “the forefront of promoting religious terrorism in Bangladesh.” In total, the paper counts “1,027 organized criminal groups, two insurgent groups, five outlawed groups, at least four ideologically digressed groups with militant intent, 16,062 criminals operating in various gangs and 762 political sponsored criminal groups.” (Times of India, March 23, 2010)
MAOISTS UP THE STAKES AGAINST NEW DELHI
Maoist insurgents have landed their deadliest blow against the Indian state in the forty-plus year history of their insurgency. Amidst Operation Green Hunt, a major counterinsurgency operation by the federal government and several Indian states, the Maoists on April 6 led a 81-man Central Reserve Police Force team into a trap in the poor, eastern state of Chattisgarh and butchered 76 of them in the jungles in two separate ambushes. Only four days earlier Maoist – known in India as Naxalites -- killed 10 policeman in a landmine attack in neighboring Orissa. On April 21, a 400-strong contingent of Maoists again attacked six security camps in the same region of Chattisgarh, using weapons and explosives stolen during the first raid, now dubbed the Dantewada tragedy after the region in which it took place. No casualties were reported. Home Minister P. Chidambaram has ruled out the use of air power and insisted the Congress-party led government would stick to its plan of using paramilitary forces and state security forces. The strength of the Maoists, who operate in India’s poor, jungle-rich, central and eastern tribal belt, is estimated at between 10,000 and 20,000. In the past three years they have “assassinated an MP, staged a mass prison break for 300 of their jailed comrades and held entire trains hostage.” (Hindustan Times, April 7 and April 8, 2010; Agence France Presse, April 22, 2010)
Want these sent to your inbox?
Subscribe