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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
1994 APRIL: PATTERNS OF GLOBAL TERRORISM, 1992
Department of State Publication 10136
Office of the Secretary
Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism
ASIAN OVERVIEW
CONTENTS
South Asia posed serious terrorism concerns in 1993. Continuing ethnic
tensions in Sri Lanka resulted in several large battles between the Army
and Tamil rebels. The country also suffered the loss by assassination of
President Premadasa, who was killed on 1 May, and opposition party leader
Lalith Athulathmudali, who was killed one week earlier. In India, tensions
subsided in Punjab but increased dramatically in Kashmir, where separatist
militants continued attacks on military and civilian targets. In Pakistan,
16 persons died in bomb blasts in Hyderabad and Latifbad on 24 January.
Pakistan and India have exchanged charges that the other side is aiding
perpetrators of violent acts. In the border region with Afghanistan, there
were assaults on members of UN and nongovernmental organizations. In
Afghanistan, none of the warring factions in the titular government has
gained control over the territory. An increasing number of reports state
that militant groups, many of them "Arab mujahedin" asked by the
Pakistani Government to leave Pakistan, are acquiring training and
safehaven in Afghanistan.
In East Asia, violence continues in the Philippines, and some Americans
were kidnapped, but there were no terrorist attacks by the Communist New
Peoples Army against US interests in 1993. In Japan, the Chukaku-ha (Middle
Core Faction) reduced its level of attacks, and the Japanese Red Army
remained dormant.
Afghanistan is still suffering from internecine battles among the former
mujahedin factions. The rampant violence occasionally spills over into
attacks on foreigners, particularly in the eastern provinces that border
Pakistan. On 23 January, for example, militants attempted to ambush a UN
vehicle near Jalalabad, and on 1 February four UN officials were killed
when two UN vehicles were ambushed near Jalalabad. Similar violence occurs
occasionally on the border of Pakistan where there are large concentrations
of Afghan refugees.
Afghanistan's eastern and northern provinces are sites for mujahedin
camps in which Muslim militants from around the world receive paramilitary
training. Members of Egyptian, Algerian, and Kashmiri militant
organizations have been trained in these camps, as have members of many
other Middle Eastern and Asian groups. Beginning in early 1993, Pakistan
started to expel Arab militants affiliated with various mujahedin groups
and nongovernment aid organizations who were residing in its North-West
Frontier Province. Many of these Arabs apparently have crossed into
Afghanistan, and Islamabad is still working to control the Arab militants
who remain in Pakistan.
India continues to suffer from ethnic, religious, and separatist
violence. Terrorism and attacks on police and military targets have been
conducted by Kashmiri militants and Sikh extremists, as well as several
separatist organizations in northeast India. The level of violence was
particularly high in Kashmir, where the militants' fight against Army and
paramilitary forces has been ongoing since late 1989. In Punjab, however,
Sikh groups have been decimated by Indian counterinsurgency efforts since
mid-1992, and the level of violence has receded significantly. Indian
forces have been particularly effective against the Sikh militant
leadership, and all major Sikh groups have lost leaders during the past 18
months. The Punjab is not completely quiet. In January, the government
foiled a Sikh plot to bomb government buildings during Republic Day
celebrations, and, in September, Sikhs killed eight persons in New Delhi in
a failed attempt to assassinate the Sikh head of the ruling Congress
Party's youth wing. There are credible reports of support by the Government
of Pakistan for Kashmiri militants and some reports of support for Sikh
separatists.
No international terrorist groups based outside Japan conducted attacks
there during 1993, and domestic extremist groups were less active than in
recent years. Chukaku-ha, the most dangerous and active Japanese leftist
group, was distracted by internal politics in the spring and is believed to
have committed only nine attacks that resulted in minimal damage and no
injuries. The group listed "crushing the Tokyo G-7 Summit" as a
key 1993 combat objective, but it failed to attack the summit directly,
although it launched four homemade rockets that landed in isolated areas of
the US Army Base at Zama, outside Tokyo, on the first day of the summit.
Other domestic leftist groups were even less active and were responsible
for only a few bombings. The Japanese Red Army (JRA) remained dormant.
Rightwing groups were responsible for a series of four firebombings at
Japanese corporate leaders' homes in February.
On 7 December, a Tokyo District Court sentenced leading JRA member Osamu
Maruoka to life imprisonment for his role in hijacking two Japan Airlines
flights in 1973 and 1977.
As a result of continued instability in Afghanistan, Pakistan's
northwest border region continues to witness violence against UN staff
personnel, members of nongovernmental organizations, and figures within the
Afghan refugee community. On 25 January, a handgrenade was thrown into the
residential compound of the Director of Western Nongovernment Organization
(Ngo). On 4 February, a vehicle attempted to run down a UN employee on a
residential street in Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier
Province. On 11 March, a grenade attack damaged a UN vehicle traveling on
the main road through Peshawar. On 27 December, a prominent Afghan figure
associated with moderate politics was murdered in a vehicle ambush on the
North-West Frontier Province's main highway. Throughout the year, poster
and media campaigns and intimidation efforts continued against Afghans and
foreign Ngo workers, threatening death to those who supported, even
indirectly, rival Afghan parties. Human rights activists and Afghan
intellectuals residing in Pakistan continue to report receiving direct
threats. Since spring, Pakistan has moved to identify and expel illegal
Arab residents who came to Pakistan to fight with mujahedin organizations
or assist Afghan relief groups.
Pakistan also has suffered from violence arising from the country's
endemic ethnic and criminal problems. On 12 January, a bomb exploded in a
settlement of Biharis during a resettlement of Biharis from Bangladesh to
Pakistan. On 24 January, 16 persons died in bomb blasts in the cities of
Hyderabad and Latifbad. Government measures against drug traffickers also
occasionally resulted in violence.
The Government of Pakistan acknowledges that it continues to give moral,
political, and diplomatic support to Kashmiri militants but denies
allegations of other assistance. However, there were credible reports in
1993 of official Pakistani support to Kashmiri militants who undertook
attacks of terrorism in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Some support came from
private organizations such as the Jamaat-i-Islami. There were also reports
of support to Sikh militants engaged in terrorism in northern India.
Pakistan was the site of Iranian-sponsored terrorism. On 6 June, an
Iranian oppositionist was shot and killed in Karachi, apparently by Iran's
intelligence service.
The southern Philippines is experiencing a disturbing pattern of
violence against foreigners that may presage a trend beyond the familiar
pattern of largely criminal activity by splinter insurgent groups.
Missionaries and other religious workers have been targets for kidnappers
in the south as evidenced by the abductions of several American religious
workers in 1992 and 1993. Three Spanish religious workers were also
abducted during this same period. Most recently, American Charles Walton
was kidnapped in November 1993 by the radical Islamic Abu Sayuf Group
(ASG). He was held three weeks before being released on 7 December. The ASG
threatened to attack foreign missionaries as well as tourists in the
Muslim-dominated areas of Mindanao. Sectarian violence intensified in
Mindanao by yearend when a cathedral and three mosques were attacked. The
church bombing, believed to have been perpetrated by Muslim extremists,
killed at least six persons and injured more than 150 others and may have
been intended to disrupt ongoing peace negotiations between the government
and Muslim rebels. Attacks against three local mosques were conducted late
at night, and six people sustained minor injuries. On 13 December, Muslim
extremists in Buluan, Maguindanao, stopped a bus and executed nine
passengers after identifying them as Christians. There were no terrorist
attacks by the Communist New Peoples Army (NPA) against US interests in
1993. The Communist insurgency has declined dramatically over the past
several years because of military losses, declining recruitment, and
internal factionalism. The NPA has also been weakened by measures taken by
President Ramos to end the 24- year-old insurgency, including the
legalization of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the release of
most imprisoned Communist detainees. The government continues to seek a
reconciliation with the Communists and Muslim rebels in the south.
Sri Lanka continues to be the scene of separatist violence by the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which seeks to create a separate
state called Tamil Eelam in northern and eastern Sri Lanka. In 1993, the
LTTE fought several large battles with the Sri Lankan Army in the Tamil
majority northern area of the island and in the ethnically mixed eastern
region. The LTTE maintains effective control over the north and is seeking
to drive Sinhalese and Muslim villagers out of eastern Sri Lanka. LTTE
units are well led and equipped. Sri Lanka's Army chief resigned in
December following the Army's defeat in November at Pooneryn, the biggest
battle of the more than 10-year- old insurgency.
The LTTE continued to stage suicide attacks against leading Sri Lankan
officials. On 1 May, a suicide bomber killed former Sri Lankan President
Premadasa and dozens of bystanders in Colombo. Opposition party leader
Athulathmudali was assassinated the week before by an unidentified lone
gunman who may have been an LTTE member. Athulathmudali had been Sri
Lanka's most senior security official and a ruthless opponent of the LTTE.
Some years before, when still a member of the ruling party, he served as
Minister of Defense.
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