MINGORA, Pakistan: A lawmaker in Pakistan’s rugged northwest was sipping tea with voters when his phone chirped to life — the Taliban were calling with a demand for “donations.”
“We hope you won’t disappoint,” read the chilling text from a shady go-between of the Pakistan chapter of the Islamists, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
A second message pinged on-screen: “Refusal to provide financial support will make you a problem,” it warned.
“We believe a wise man will understand what we mean by that.”
After the Taliban takeover in neighboring Afghanistan, TTP racketeering has infested Pakistan’s borderlands, locals say, with the group emboldened by its sister movement’s success.
Since July, the provincial lawmaker — who asked to remain anonymous — has been cowed into sending the TTP sums totaling 1.2 million rupees (over $5,000).
“Those who don’t pay have to face the consequences. Sometimes they throw a grenade at their door. Sometimes they shoot,” he said.
“Most of the elites pay the extortion money. Some pay more, some pay less. But nobody talks about it.
“Everyone is scared for their life.”
The TTP share lineage with the Afghan Taliban, but were most potent from 2007 to 2009, when they spilled out of the jagged belt splitting Pakistan and Afghanistan and overran the Swat Valley just 140 kilometers north of Islamabad.
The Pakistani military came down hard in 2014, after militants raided a school for children of army personnel and killed nearly 150 people, mostly pupils.
The TTP were largely routed, their fighters fleeing to Afghanistan where they were hunted by US-led forces.
With Afghanistan back under Taliban rule, it has become an “open shelter” for the TTP, according to Imtiaz Gul, an analyst with Islamabad’s Center for Research and Security Studies.
“They now have freedom of action while living in Afghanistan,” he said.
“That’s a simple explanation for why the TTP attacks rose.”
In the year since the Taliban’s return, militant activity in Pakistan has spiked, according to the Pak Institute for Peace Studies, with around 433 people killed.
“They started the same old game: target killings, bomb blasts, kidnappings — and making calls for extortion,” Swat community activist Ahmad Shah said.
The blackmail network bankrolls the TTP, but also sows a crisis of confidence in local government the militants seek to usurp in favor of Islamist rule.
Provincial MP Nisar Mohmand estimates 80 to 95 percent of well-off residents in surrounding districts are now blackmail victims.
Fellow legislators have been targeted for refusing to pay out, and some are too fearful to visit their precincts.
“They have their own system of reward and punishment,” said Mohmand. “They have established an alternate government, so how are people supposed to resist?“
The Afghan Taliban have long-standing differences with their Pakistani counterparts, and since capturing Kabul have pledged not to host international jihadist groups.
But the first telltale sign of a TTP blackmail attempt is the phone number — starting with the +93 international code indicating an Afghan SIM card.
Then comes a suggestive text, or voice message in Pashto — spoken with a Pakistani lilt.
AFP heard one message threatening an “action squad” would be dispatched to a landlord if he declined to pay.
“The days of cruelty are near. Don’t think we are a spent force,” it warns.
The sum “owed” is then hashed out, generally through an intermediary, before it is sent to the ragged bands of TTP fighters whose silhouettes haunt the mountain steeps.
Victims expect to be “tapped up” up to five times a year, the anonymous MP said.
Since the 2014 school slaughter, which horrified Pakistanis even marginally sympathetic to their cause, the TTP has pledged to avoid civilian targets, and claims extortion is done by criminals borrowing their brand.
But a civilian intelligence official in the area insisted they were “the root cause of the menace.”
Swat — a snow-capped mountain valley split by turquoise running waters — is one of Pakistan’s most famed beauty spots, but its reputation has a dark side.
In 2012 then 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by the TTP while campaigning for girls’ education, a campaign that later earned her the Nobel Peace Prize.
This summer things seemed to have slipped irredeemably back toward those dark days.
After a decade-long hiatus, the anonymous MP started receiving blackmail texts once again.
“The situation was so bad that many people were thinking of migration,” said Shah. “Life was at a standstill.”
But there has been pushback, and several protests against the TTP have been held since the group’s high-profile kidnapping of three officials in August.
Businesses shut and thousands spilled into the streets in rallies up and down the valley.
Pakistan’s military claimed reports of strong TTP in the area were “grossly exaggerated and misleading.”
Still, in Pakistan’s borderlands, attacks and extortion continue unchecked — despite a professed negotiation truce between the TTP and Islamabad.
The Taliban’s return in Kabul, despite being pounded for 20 years by the world’s strongest armies, shows military might will not end the ordeal.
“We have to search a solution which is acceptable to both sides,” said government negotiator Muhammad Ali Saif.
“A lasting settlement will have to be found.”
Pakistan Taliban racketeering hits borderlands
https://arab.news/yvjhy
Pakistan Taliban racketeering hits borderlands
- After the Taliban takeover in neighboring Afghanistan, the group was emboldened by its sister movement’s success
- The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan share lineage with the Afghan Taliban, but were most potent from 2007 to 2009
Canada police charge three with murder of Sikh leader Nijjar
- Nijjar was a Canadian citizen campaigning for the creation of Khalistan, an independent Sikh homeland
OTTAWA: Canadian police said on Friday they had arrested and charged three Indian nationals with the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June 2023 and said they were probing possible links to the Indian government.
Nijjar, 45, was shot dead outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb with a large Sikh population. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has cited evidence of Indian government involvement, prompting a diplomatic crisis with New Delhi.
Assistant Commissioner David Teboul said the matter was still under investigation and other probes were being carried out. These “include investigating connections to the government of India,” he told a televised news conference.
Nijjar was a Canadian citizen campaigning for the creation of Khalistan, an independent Sikh homeland carved out of India. The presence of Sikh separatist groups in Canada has long frustrated New Delhi, which had labeled Nijjar a “terrorist.”
Last week the White House expressed concern about the reported role of the Indian intelligence service in assassination plots in Canada and the United States.
India’s Rahul Gandhi to contest elections from family borough
- Gandhi contests polls from second seat in family bastion
- Emotional moment to contest from Raebareli, Gandhi says
NEW DELHI: Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi will contest the general election from the family bastion in the north, his Congress Party announced on Friday, a move that will challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a region he dominates.
Gandhi, the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, will contest from Raebareli in politically crucial Uttar Pradesh state, Congress said, in addition to Wayanad in Kerala state in the south, which has already voted. India allows candidates to contest multiple constituencies but they can represent only one.
Uttar Pradesh is India’s most populous state and elects 80 lawmakers to the lower house of parliament, the most of any state. In the last election in 2019, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and allies won 64 seats, including from Amethi, adjacent to Raebareli, where Gandhi was defeated.
His return to the area, albeit for a second constituency, will invigorate the party, Congress officials said.
Gandhi said being nominated from Raebareli was an “emotional moment” for him.
“My mother has entrusted me with the responsibility ... with great confidence and given me the opportunity to serve it,” he posted on X.
“In the ongoing battle for justice and against injustice, I seek the love and blessings of my loved ones. I am confident that all of you are standing with me in this battle to save the constitution and democracy,” he said.
Gandhi’s mother Sonia won from Raebareli in 2019, which has returned a Congress candidate in 17 of the 20 elections held there since 1952, mostly members of the Gandhi family. Sonia Gandhi is now a member of the upper house of parliament.
Modi is widely expected to win a rare third term in the general election that got underway on April 19 and concludes on June 1, with votes set to be counted on June 4.
However, analysts say a low voter turnout in the first two phases of the seven-phase election has dampened hopes of a huge majority for the party, although they said the BJP was still likely to retain power in the world’s most populous nation.
Soon after the announcement, Gandhi flew to Raebareli in a private aircraft, accompanied by his mother Sonia, sister Priyanka and senior Congress leaders, and filed his nomination papers.
Modi and the BJP attacked Gandhi for the decision.
“I had said that the prince will lose in Wayanad and in fear of his loss ... he will look for another seat,” Modi said on Friday, referring to Gandhi.
“I also want to tell them wholeheartedly, do not be afraid, do not run away,” Modi said.
Congress has ruled India for 54 of its 76 years since independence from Britain, and members of the Nehru-Gandhi family were prime ministers for more than 37 of those 54 years.
However, the party has floundered since it was swept out of power by Modi in 2014 and has been struggling to revive itself.
Gandhi contesting from Raebareli is good news for the opposition INDIA alliance of 27 parties that Congress leads, said Rasheed Kidwai, political analyst and visiting fellow at New Delhi’s Observer Research Foundation.
“The significance of Rahul contesting here is that it will boost the alliance with Samajwadi Party,” Kidwai said referring to the regional partner of Congress in Uttar Pradesh. “The opposition story is not all that bad and this will force a contest with BJP.”
Defense chiefs from US, Australia, Japan and Philippines vow to deepen cooperation
- Defense chiefs from the four nations held their first meeting in Singapore last year
HONOLULU: Defense chiefs from the US, Australia, Japan and the Philippines vowed to deepen their cooperation as they gathered Thursday in Hawaii for their second-ever joint meeting amid concerns about China’s operations in the South China Sea.
The meeting came after the four countries last month held their first joint naval exercises in the South China Sea, a major shipping route where Beijing has long-simmering territorial disputes with a number of Southeast Asian nations and has caused alarm with its recent assertiveness in the waters.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters at a news conference after their discussion that the drills strengthened the ability of the nations to work together, build bonds among their forces and underscore their shared commitment to international law in the waterway.
HIGHLIGHT
The meeting came after the four countries last month held their first joint naval exercises in the South China Sea, a major shipping route where Beijing has long-simmering territorial disputes with a number of Southeast Asian nations and has caused alarm with its recent assertiveness in the waters.
Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said the defense chiefs talked about increasing the tempo of their defense exercises.
“Today, the meetings that we have held represent a very significant message to the region and to the world about four democracies which are committed to the global rules-based order,” Marles said at the joint news conference with his counterparts.
Austin hosted the defense chiefs at the US military’s regional headquarters, US Indo-Pacific Command, at Camp H.M. Smith in the hills above Pearl Harbor. Earlier in the day, Austin had separate bilateral meetings with Australia and Japan followed by a trilateral meeting with Australia and Japan.
Defense chiefs from the four nations held their first meeting in Singapore last year.
The US has decades-old defense treaties with all three nations.
The US lays no claims to the South China Sea, but has deployed Navy ships and fighter jets in what it calls freedom of navigation operations that have challenged China’s claims to virtually the entire waterway. The US says freedom of navigation and overflight in the waters is in America’s national interest.
Aside from China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have overlapping claims in the resource-rich sea. Beijing has refused to recognize a 2016 international arbitration ruling that invalidated its expansive claims on historical grounds.
Skirmishes between Beijing and Manila in particular have flared since last year. Earlier this week, Chinese coast guard ships fired water cannons at two Philippine patrol vessels off off Scarborough Shoal, damaging both.
The repeated high-seas confrontations have sparked fears of a larger conflict that could put China and the United States on a collision course.. The US has warned repeatedly that it’s obligated to defend the Philippines — its oldest treaty ally in Asia — if Filipino forces, ships or aircraft come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.
President Joe Biden’s administration has said it aims to build what it calls a “latticework” of alliances in the Indo-Pacific even as the US grapples with the Israel-Hamas war and Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Beijing says the strengthening of US alliances in Asia is aimed at containing China and threatens regional stability.
Senior Labour official admits Gaza has cost party votes in local elections
- Pat McFadden says leadership’s stance on conflict has been ‘a factor in some places’
- Prof. John Curtice says Labour has performed ‘quite badly’ among Muslim voters
LONDON: A senior Labour official has suggested the party’s stance on Gaza might have affected its performance in local elections in the UK.
A series of votes took place this week nationwide to elect new mayors in multiple major cities, as well as council members and police and crime commissioners.
Labour was expected to perform strongly, but Pat McFadden, Labour’s national campaign coordinator, told Sky News that Gaza had been “a factor in some places,” adding that with “so many innocent people being killed I’m not surprised people have strong feelings about that.”
Party sources suggested turnout in key areas was lower than anticipated, with many Muslim voters choosing not to vote, including in one key election in the West Midlands where lack of support saw Labour lose the local mayoralty to the Conservative incumbent Andy Street.
It comes weeks after former Labour MP George Galloway was elected to represent the formerly safe Labour constituency of Rochdale in Parliament, with Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza a key theme of the campaign.
Galloway has since said his Workers Party of Britain will seek to stand candidates in every constituency at the next UK general election.
An anonymous Labour source in the West Midlands told The Times: “We (would) have beaten him (Andy Street) as a general rule, but the Muslim vote has collapsed to the Galloway-backed independent.”
Another source quoted by the BBC caused controversy and was accused of racism by Conservative sources for saying: “It’s the Middle East, not West Midlands, that will have won Andy Street the mayoralty. Once again Hamas are the real villains.”
In a statement, Labour told ITV: “The Labour Party has strongly condemned this racist quote which has not come from anyone who is speaking on behalf of the party or whose values are welcome in the party.”
Labour lost its 13-year spell controlling the local council in Oldham, having seen its majority reduced in recent weeks ahead of the elections following defections by councilors opposed to Labour leader Keir Starmer’s stance on Gaza.
However, Arooj Shah, Labour’s council chief in Oldham, disputed that Gaza was the main issue, telling The Independent: “I don’t think that’s a fair statement to make, given that the issue of Gaza has been over the last year, but what we’ve seen in Oldham is a lot longer than that. We have had 13 years of austerity and that’s been really, really difficult.”
Elsewhere, Green Party candidates also claimed former Labour seats in Newcastle and Bolton.
Nick Peel, Labour’s council leader for Bolton, told The Independent: “As a direct result of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Palestine, many South Asian voters have not supported Labour or Conservative.”
Chris Hopkins, political research director for market research company Savanta, told The Independent that Labour could lose more council seats in areas with significant Muslim populations, such as Bradford and Burnley, over the Gaza issue as results continued to be announced.
Leading pollster Prof. John Curtice told the paper that “Labour has actually done quite badly” in areas of the country with large Muslim communities, and warned that the trend could harm the party ahead of the next general election.
Starmer told the BBC: “I’m concerned wherever we lose votes and we intend to win back any votes we have lost.
“But there’s no denying that across the country, whether it’s Hartlepool in the north or Rushmoor in the south, or Redditch, a bellwether seat, we are winning votes across the country. And that, I think, reflects a changed Labour Party with a positive case to take to the country.”
Russia’s FSB says it killed saboteur recruited by Ukraine
- The man was a Russian national recruited by Ukraine’s military intelligence to carry out the attack in the Leningrad region
- He had entered Russia from Lithuania in March after receiving training there
MOSCOW: Russia’s FSB state security service said on Friday its officers had killed a saboteur who had been recruited by Ukraine and was planning to attack a fuel terminal in northwestern Russia with explosives.
The FSB said in a statement the man was a Russian national recruited by Ukraine’s military intelligence to carry out the attack in the Leningrad region, and that he had been killed after shooting at security agents.
The FSB said he had entered Russia from Lithuania in March after receiving training there.
Vilmantas Vitkauskas, Head of the Lithuanian National Crisis Management Center, denied the allegation.
“Russia has been systematically conducting disinformation campaigns and provocations for a long time in order to raise tensions among societies and allies and to cover its aggressive actions,” he said.
“This disinformation spread by the FSB is a case in point. One of the objectives of such aggressive activities is to influence Lithuania’s support for Ukraine.”
There was no immediate comment by Ukraine, were Russian forces are waging war after Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
