Pakistan ramps up crackdown on militants
PAKISTAN intensified its crackdown against Islamist militants yesterday, with the government announcing it had taken control of 182 religious schools and detained more than 100 people as part of its push against banned groups.
The move represents the country’s biggest move against banned organisations in years and appears to be targeting Islamic welfare organisations that the US says are a front for militant activities.
Pakistan is facing pressure from global powers to act against groups carrying out attacks in India, including Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), which claimed responsibility for the February 14 attack that killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police.
The escalating tension in the wake of the bombing led to a major confrontation between the nuclear-armed rivals, with both countries carrying out aerial bombing missions and even engaging in a brief dogfight that prompted fears of a war.
Pakistani officials say the crackdown is part of a long-planned drive and not a response to Indian anger over what New Delhi calls Islamabad’s failure to rein in militant groups operating on Pakistani soil.
Previous large-scale crackdowns against anti-India militants have broadly been cosmetic, with the proscribed groups able to survive and continue operations.
The interior ministry said law enforcement agencies had placed 121 people in “preventive detention” as part of the crackdown that began this week.
“Provincial governments have taken in their control management and administration of 182 madaris,” the ministry said, referring to religious schools.
What to do with madrasas is a thorny issue in Pakistan, a deeply conservative Muslim nation where religious schools are often blamed for radicalisation of youngsters but are the only education available to millions of poor children.
The interior ministry said other institutions from different groups had been taken over, including 34 schools or colleges, 163 dispensaries, 184 ambulances, five hospitals and eight offices of banned organisations.
Many banned groups such as JeM run seminaries, which counter-terrorism officials say are used as recruiting grounds for militant outfits
Meanwhile, yesterday, a grenade explosion orchestrated by a Pakistan-based militant group, Hizbul Mujahideen, at a bus stand in the Indian city of Jammu killed at least one person and wounded around 32, police said. BRAZILIAN anthropologists are looking for members of an Amazonian tribe that has had little or no contact with the outside world to steer them clear of a rival indigenous group and avoid a bloody clash.
Funai, Brazil’s indigenous affairs agency, said yesterday that the expedition had set off into the Javari Valley reservation in the far west of Brazil, home to the world’s highest concentration of uncontacted tribes.
The Korubo tribe has become dispersed in the forest, apparently because of the growing encroachment of fishermen poaching on the reservation. Faced with depleted resources and loss of political clout, Funai has struggled to prevent such activity.
The most isolated group has now come within 20km of the Matis arrow people, with whom they had a battle in 2014, said Funai expedition leader Bruno Pereira. Funai’s aim is to protect the group by encouraging them to reunite with other less isolated Korubo living to the north on the Coari River.
“The best scenario would be an encounter where they are able to talk with their tribal relatives and decide to stay in the Coari region,” Pereira said. “The worst case would be a fight breaking out with the Matis resulting in deaths,” he said.
It could also be devastating if the Korubo disappeared into the forest after contact with outsiders and caught any common illness to which they were not immune, he said.
The expedition is the largest mounted by Funai in two decades since it adopted a policy of only contacting isolated tribes in emergencies. That followed the 1995 killing of a fisherman who was beaten to death with cudgels by the Korubo.
The expedition, which could take months, was supported by the agency’s new head, retired Army General Franklimberg Ribeiro, who has defended the agency’s work.
That contrasts with the overall policy of President Jair Bolsonaro, who has criticised the vast land holdings of Brazil’s indigenous reservations as an obstacle to development, a stance that has encouraged invasions by illegal loggers and miners.
The Javari Valley reservation is Brazil’s second largest, covering over 85 444km².
Funai’s work protecting the eight tribes living there, plus another 16 uncontacted tribes known to be in the jungle, has been partly funded by foreign aid.