Terror Activities Watch
- Thread starter Tanmay
- Start date
We all know the reason but if you look at way some of the elected members of the Punjab assembly are behaving, you will be disheartened. Thet want to thank Imran Khan and Sidhu for this. Nothing by way of thanks of course for the union government but to thank Imran Khan after all the vitriol he's been spewing suggests that they dont care about national interests. Capt. Amrinder Singh has been right all along, he saw this coming when the proposal was mooted.
We need to be careful. Very careful.
We should have Nepal covered. If they are coming via Nepal, shame on us.
ladder
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Nepal has visa on arrival for Pakistani citizen. This point has always caused friction between India and Nepal.
Deathstar
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And Nepal is a Hindu majority country , what a shame.
ladder
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Communist are atheist. And Nepalis think they can play both ways between India and China to extract best deal. So, they keep all cards open. Visa on arrival is one of them.
..................
sorcerer
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DRI busts China-based syndicate involved in smuggling gold to India, seizes over 21 kg gold
NEW DELHI: The DRI has arrested three people including a Chinese national believed to be one of the masterminds of a notorious syndicate involved in smuggling gold from Taiwan and Hong Kong into India and seized over 21 kilograms of the yellow metal, an official statement said on Thursday.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.co...izes-over-21-kg-gold/articleshow/71951679.cms
NEW DELHI: The DRI has arrested three people including a Chinese national believed to be one of the masterminds of a notorious syndicate involved in smuggling gold from Taiwan and Hong Kong into India and seized over 21 kilograms of the yellow metal, an official statement said on Thursday.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.co...izes-over-21-kg-gold/articleshow/71951679.cms
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Gafoora placed a bomb allegedly used by IAF to destroy Kartarpur sahib in 1971 war. Pakistan going all out to flame tensions in Punjab. Are we doing anything to junk paki economy further? Can we export same products that paki exports at loss for a year?
Illusive
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So we must place all the islamic violence against the sikhs on our side to remind them about these converted pigs true colours.
What's stopping us?
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Hindus will not do anything.
They never did anything on Kamlesh tiwari murder.
They neither did anything on kushwaha madam murder.
And they will also not do anything if SECULAR JOKES who got their master's degree from FOREIGN UNIVERSITIES pronounce CH***YA judgement not good for hindus.
So, why don't government say this WARNING is for OPPRESSIVE MINORITY.
Do you all wanna know why hindus will not do anything?
Becuase police only know where is DANDA AND HELMET when it comes to INDIC religions particularly hindus but not for their dear Christians and jihadi fucks.
See this,
very good south india people.https://swarajyamag.com/news-brief/...et-saint-thiruvalluvar-vandals-still-at-large
So, whenever I see this tweets by government and jagrook nagrik I think what is stopping them from saying this "YES WE FEAR MUSLIM FANATICS MORE THAN justified HINDU rights GUYS",let this whatever ATTACK happen atleast then nepali hindus and india hindus will wakeup fully and this wakeup chance I know is 0.000001 percent but lets do this because we can only do this.
And it will also give INDIA GOVERNMENT good opportunity to launch another balakot on Pakistan and nepali motherficks communists.
This time balakot if government is listening here must be LARGE AND WITH DHAMAKA because we WANT WORLD TO SEE THIS and see through their own eyes "how much they suck in supporting RIGHT AND JUST things",sometimes I THINK this government also believe in Hindu terrorists even if they are imaginary and deliberately try to show WE ARE GOOD GUYS to the world WHO EQUALLY ARE FIRST GRADE CH***YAS and for who? for these OPPRESSIVE MINORITIES.
Why not government go and ask nepalis oili or kholi that this is their gift? for perceived interference in madhesis riots and earthquake support.
Last edited:
sorcerer
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Hindus will not do anything.
They never did anything on Kamlesh tiwari murder.
They neither did anything on kushwaha madam murder.
And they will also not do anything if SECULAR JOKES who got their master's degree from FOREIGN UNIVERSITIES pronounce CH***YA judgement not good for hindus.
So, why don't government say this WARNING is for OPPRESSIVE MINORITY.
Do you all wanna know why hindus will not do anything?
Becuase police only know where is DANDA AND HELMET when it comes to INDIC religions particularly hindus but not for their dear Christians and jihadi fucks.
See this,
https://swarajyamag.com/news-brief/...et-saint-thiruvalluvar-vandals-still-at-large
So, whenever I see this tweets by government and jagrook nagrik I think what is stopping them from saying this "YES WE FEAR MUSLIM FANATICS MORE THAN justified HINDU rights GUYS",let this whatever ATTACK happen atleast then nepali hindus and india hindus will wakeup fully and this wakeup chance I know is 0.000001 percent but lets do this because we can only do this.
And it will also give INDIA GOVERNMENT good opportunity to launch another balakot on Pakistan and nepali motherficks communists.
This time balakot if government is listening here must be LARGE AND WITH DHAMAKA because we WANT WORLD TO SEE THIS and see through their own eyes "how much they suck in supporting RIGHT AND JUST things",sometimes I THINK this government also believe in Hindu terrorists even if they are imaginary and deliberately try to show WE ARE GOOD GUYS to the world WHO EQUALLY ARE FIRST GRADE CH***YAS and for who? for these OPPRESSIVE MINORITIES.
Why not government go and ask nepalis oili or kholi that this is their gift? for perceived interference in madhesis riots and earthquake support.
When NEPAL is corrupted politically with money by china and pak they will soon become another jihad hell hole.
If Nepal thinks that Jihad is used only against India..Nepal should look inward at the upcoming 7 or so Jihadi zone in its own soil that will poach on the Nepal's way of life sooner than Nepalis can blink.
sorcerer
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Forces Hunt 7 Pakistan-based Terrorists Who Entered India Via Nepal
Seven Pakistan-based terrorists have managed to enter India through the porous India-Nepal border and are currently holed up in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur and Ayodhya districts, sources said on Saturday.
These terrorists are making attempts to enter Jammu and Kashmir and also trying to get in touch with their local contact in the Valley.
Intelligence and security agencies are making all possible attempts to trace these terrorists, but they have gone out of radar as of now. Sources said as security cover across the Line of Control has become virtually impenetrable with heavy deployment of forces, Pakistan is pushing terrorists through the porous Nepal border.
Out of seven, five terrorists have been identified as Mohammad Yakub, Abu Hamza, Mohammad Shahbaz, Nisar Ahmad and Mohammad Qaumi Chaudhary. They are still untraceable.
“These terrorists are getting logistic support from local contacts and are also in possession of heavy arms,” said a source, adding it is still not clear where they would carry out attacks.
“Pakistan is so desperate to carry out terror attacks that they have now started sending terrorists through Nepal border,” said a source, adding the security agencies are on high alert.
After the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan has increased ceasefire violations across the LoC to push terrorists. Indian security forces, in many instances, have foiled their infiltration attempts in which many terrorists have been killed.
The forces have also spotted terrorists across forward locations of the border. Indian security forces, on the other hand, have also kept an eye on developments along the forward border posts to foil any possible terror attacks.
There have been 950 incidents of ceasefire violations and 79 such violations along International Border in Jammu region during the last three months — August to October 2019.
During the last three months, three police personnel have been martyred and seven injured.
Appropriate retaliation to the ceasefire violations has been carried out by the Indian Army, said Minister of State in the Ministry of Defence Shripad Naik in Rajya Sabha on November 18.
The minister also said that the government has adopted a robust counter-infiltration strategy which has an appropriate mix of technology and human resource to check infiltration effectively. “Innovative troop deployment, proactive use of surveillance and monitoring devices and the anti-infiltration obstacle system have enhanced the ability to detect and intercept terrorists attempting to infiltrate,” he said.
https://www.india.com/news/india/fo...rrorists-who-entered-india-via-nepal-3854614/
Seven Pakistan-based terrorists have managed to enter India through the porous India-Nepal border and are currently holed up in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur and Ayodhya districts, sources said on Saturday.
These terrorists are making attempts to enter Jammu and Kashmir and also trying to get in touch with their local contact in the Valley.
Intelligence and security agencies are making all possible attempts to trace these terrorists, but they have gone out of radar as of now. Sources said as security cover across the Line of Control has become virtually impenetrable with heavy deployment of forces, Pakistan is pushing terrorists through the porous Nepal border.
Out of seven, five terrorists have been identified as Mohammad Yakub, Abu Hamza, Mohammad Shahbaz, Nisar Ahmad and Mohammad Qaumi Chaudhary. They are still untraceable.
“These terrorists are getting logistic support from local contacts and are also in possession of heavy arms,” said a source, adding it is still not clear where they would carry out attacks.
“Pakistan is so desperate to carry out terror attacks that they have now started sending terrorists through Nepal border,” said a source, adding the security agencies are on high alert.
After the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan has increased ceasefire violations across the LoC to push terrorists. Indian security forces, in many instances, have foiled their infiltration attempts in which many terrorists have been killed.
The forces have also spotted terrorists across forward locations of the border. Indian security forces, on the other hand, have also kept an eye on developments along the forward border posts to foil any possible terror attacks.
There have been 950 incidents of ceasefire violations and 79 such violations along International Border in Jammu region during the last three months — August to October 2019.
During the last three months, three police personnel have been martyred and seven injured.
Appropriate retaliation to the ceasefire violations has been carried out by the Indian Army, said Minister of State in the Ministry of Defence Shripad Naik in Rajya Sabha on November 18.
The minister also said that the government has adopted a robust counter-infiltration strategy which has an appropriate mix of technology and human resource to check infiltration effectively. “Innovative troop deployment, proactive use of surveillance and monitoring devices and the anti-infiltration obstacle system have enhanced the ability to detect and intercept terrorists attempting to infiltrate,” he said.
https://www.india.com/news/india/fo...rrorists-who-entered-india-via-nepal-3854614/
sorcerer
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4 Chinese Tourists, Who Visited India Last Month, Under Security Agency's Scanner: Reports
Shimla:
Four Chinese nationals, who visited India on a tourist visa a few months ago, have come under the scanner of security agencies.
According to the police, the Chinese nationals had come to India on a tourist visa but worked at a factory in Himachal Pradesh's Baddi district before leaving the country.
A case under the relevant sections of the Foreigners Act was registered in this regard, Baddi Superintendent of Police Rohit Malpani said.
The official told news agency PTI that the case was registered on the basis of secret information received from an intelligence agency.
A probe was on to ascertain which factory the Chinese nationals had worked at and whether they had violated the norms of tourist visa, he added.
However, the SP denied any espionage angle.
According to the FIR, the Chinese nationals worked in a leading power company in Baddi and stayed at a local hotel.
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/4-c...-month-under-security-agencys-scanner-2137432
Shimla:
Four Chinese nationals, who visited India on a tourist visa a few months ago, have come under the scanner of security agencies.
According to the police, the Chinese nationals had come to India on a tourist visa but worked at a factory in Himachal Pradesh's Baddi district before leaving the country.
A case under the relevant sections of the Foreigners Act was registered in this regard, Baddi Superintendent of Police Rohit Malpani said.
The official told news agency PTI that the case was registered on the basis of secret information received from an intelligence agency.
A probe was on to ascertain which factory the Chinese nationals had worked at and whether they had violated the norms of tourist visa, he added.
However, the SP denied any espionage angle.
According to the FIR, the Chinese nationals worked in a leading power company in Baddi and stayed at a local hotel.
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/4-c...-month-under-security-agencys-scanner-2137432
sorcerer
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How jihadists struck gold in Africa's Sahel
UAGADOUGOU (Reuters) - People around Pama, a West African town on the edge of vast forested conservation areas, had long been forbidden by their government to dig for gold in the reserves, to protect antelope, buffalo and elephants.
FILE PHOTO: Soldiers from Burkina Faso patrol on the road of Gorgadji in the Sahel area of Burkina Faso, March 3, 2019. REUTERS/Luc Gnago/File Photo
In mid-2018, men wearing turbans changed the rules.
Riding in with assault rifles on motorbikes and in 4X4 trucks, they sent government troops and rangers fleeing from the area in eastern Burkina Faso bordering the Sahel, a belt of scrubland south of the Sahara Desert.
The armed men said residents could mine in the protected areas, but there would be conditions. Sometimes they demanded a cut of the gold. At other times they bought and traded it.
The men “told us not to worry. They told us to pray,” said one man who gave his name as Trahore and said he had worked for several months at a mine called Kabonga, a short drive northwest of Pama. Like other miners who spoke to Reuters, he asked not to be identified for fear of retribution. It was not safe for reporters to visit the region, but five other miners who had been to Kabonga corroborated his account.
“We called them ‘our masters,’” Trahore said.
The pits around Pama are no isolated case. Groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State, having lost ground in the Middle East, are expanding in Africa and exploiting gold mines across the region, data on attacks and interviews with two dozen miners and residents, and government and security officials, show. Besides attacking industrial operations, two of the world’s most feared extremist forces are tapping the $2 billion informal gold trade in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger – a flow that is already largely out of state control.
Researchers and the United Nations have warned of the risks of armed extremists reaching the region’s gold mines; Reuters’ analysis of data from Burkina Faso, and testimony from people who have fled mining areas, show this is happening at scale. For the Islamists, the mines are both a hideout and a treasure trove: of funds with which to recruit new members and buy arms, and of explosives and detonators to stage the attacks that extend their power.
A poor country of mainly subsistence farmers, Burkina Faso has in recent years become the focus of a campaign by local insurgents and regional jihadi groups. The violence has killed hundreds of people, including at least 39 gold mine workers ambushed on a road earlier this month. Dozens of robberies and kidnappings have been reported that target mining.
The attacks extend towards hundreds of small-scale mines in Burkina Faso alone. Around 2,200 possible informal gold mines were identified in a government survey of satellite imagery in 2018. About half of them are within 25 km (16 miles) of places where militants have carried out attacks, according to the analysis of incidents which were documented by Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), a consultancy that tracks political violence.
The militants’ advance has traced a route from the north towards the south and the east of the country, according to the analysis, which mapped their movements and mining areas with help from the U.S.-based Countering Wildlife Trafficking Institute, a consultancy with expertise in analysing geospatial data. The militants have carved a path through some of Burkina Faso’s richest gold fields, the analysis found.
It is hard to say how much gold the mines produce or exactly who controls them – many are in places where government forces are absent and bandits roam – but the sums involved are huge. In 2018, government officials visited just 24 sites near where attacks had taken place and estimated they produced a total of 727 kg of gold per year – worth about $34 million at current prices.
Oumarou Idani, Burkina Faso’s minister of mines, said in May that Islamists had taken control of some mines, especially in protected areas, where they encouraged camps of miners to dig in violation of government bans. “They fed the camp and bought and sold gold,” he said.
Incidents linked to Islamists dropped sharply that month, after military operations helped drive insurgents from mining areas. But by October, the total had almost returned to its peak from before the military actions, the ACLED data shows.
Most of Burkina Faso’s informally produced gold is smuggled to its neighbours, particularly Togo, to avoid export taxes, according to the government. From there, it is flown to refineries before it is exported to countries including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Switzerland and India.
“Violent extremists have extended their areas of control and have enhanced their ability to generate income through gold – while state actors remain poorly positioned to do anything about it,” said William Linder, a former officer with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who served in West Africa and now runs a risk consultancy.
“Failure to fix this problem now will only deepen and help spread the Sahel crisis.”
Burkina Faso’s Security Minister, Ousseni Compaore, said the government was not failing: Governments in the region are aware of the risk and working together to tackle it, he said.
In Mali, the U.N. has reported that rebels tax the gold trade in the northern town of Kidal, and in Niger, government officials say Islamists are demanding a share of gold produced in the west.
A senior official in Mali’s ministry of mines said it could not rule out the possibility of Islamists tapping into gold, especially in the north, but was working to regulate small-scale mining. Niger’s mining minister did not respond to requests for comment.
STATES OF EMERGENCY
Gold has long been an ideal commodity for insurgents: It retains its value; it is widely accepted as a proxy for currency in parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia; and once refined, it can easily be smelted and smuggled.
Informal mines in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger produce between them some 50 tonnes of gold, worth $2 billion, a year, according to estimates by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Of this, small-scale miners in Burkina Faso produce around 15-20 tonnes of gold a year, worth between $720 million and $960 million, according to government and OECD estimates.
In 2018, Burkina Faso recorded official exports of only around 300 kg of gold from small-scale mines – around 1.5% to 2% of the country’s estimated production – indicating the scale of smuggling.
Informal miners often operate out of sight of the authorities. Burkina Faso’s push to locate its small-scale mines found that just 25 had valid permits country-wide, Salofou Trahore, managing director of the government regulator, told Reuters.
Government researchers visited more than 1,000 sites to carry out basic checks, and found that 800 were active. They discovered others not seen in the satellite imagery and looked in-depth at 64 more. But many they could not reach. Large parts of the north and east are out of control of the capital, prompting it to declare states of emergency in 14 of the country’s 45 provinces.
Security analysts attribute many of the attacks to al Qaeda’s regional affiliate, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (Group for Support of Islam and Muslims) and a homegrown group named Ansarul Islam (Defenders of Islam). In the east, Islamic State in the Greater Sahara operates in forests that have long been a haven for bandits, smugglers and poachers. None of the groups could be reached.
“NOTHING ELSE”
In Burkina Faso as elsewhere, jihadist groups are adept at exploiting local grievances to win people over. In a country with annual incomes of just $660 a head according to the World Bank, government efforts to close off mines to individual diggers – whether for conservation or to make way for big business – are unpopular.
“How many people in Burkina Faso can pay the school fees without artisanal mining?” said Moamoudou Rabo, head of a national union of gold miners. “Our economy is gold mining. There is nothing else.”
At one digging site, Ouargaye in the southeast, miners said Islamists arrived just as local police were demanding bribes from miners who lacked ID cards. The nine policemen were armed, said a miner who was there. Even so, the police sped away on motorbikes. “After that,” the miner recalled, “people said the gunmen were the real masters.” Compaore, the security minister, said it was not possible to verify this report.
In June, hundreds of civilians fleeing a wave of attacks on churches in northern Burkina Faso began showing up on the outskirts of the capital, Ouagadougou. They arrived with only what they could cram onto trucks and buses – a sack of rice, jerry cans for water, pots and pans, mats to sleep on.
Many women and children sought shelter in three dusty school yards. Among them were a handful of young men who had been digging for gold around the remote town of Silgadji, near the border with Mali.
For months, they said, armed extremists who were not from their area had been hiding out among the miners. They had imposed their laws and threatened to kill anyone who spoke about their presence. Zakaria Sawadogo, 43, fled with his family to the capital.
“There used to be traders who would come buy our gold and re-sell it,” he said. “But the terrorists were robbing them as they had lots of money.” The traders stopped coming, he said.
To the south, in the town of Bartiebougou, a mason who spent four months on a construction project in a mining area there said the pits were teeming with fighters.
“They were more heavily armed than the soldiers,” the mason said. “They controlled everything.”
The mason said the gunmen hired some miners to dig for them, buying gold from others. Sometimes the Islamist interlopers gave food to the poor, he said; other times they were ruthless. “We saw two people who were killed for selling alcohol,” he said.
HIDDEN IN THE HAY
Gold flows out of Burkina Faso across porous land borders in cars and buses. It is strapped to cattle or hidden in bales of hay attached to bicycles. Miners at Kabonga, in an area near Pama reserved for herders to raise their livestock, said buyers included locals and traders from neighbouring countries, including Ghana, Togo, Benin and Niger.
Slideshow (6 Images)
Neighbouring Togo, a country which produces little gold from its own mines, is a smuggling hub.
In recent years, the United Arab Emirates – a global centre for gold refining and trading – has established itself as the main destination for gold from Togo, declaring imports of more than 7 tonnes (worth $262 million) in 2018, according to U.N. trade data. In turn, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Switzerland are the main takers of gold from the UAE.
In early 2019, international officials pressured Togo to act to prevent gold-smuggling, fearing the trade was driving conflict in the region, a person with direct knowledge of the initiative told Reuters. Nestor Adjehoun, director of development and control in Togo’s ministry of mines, said gold trading had been suspended there since the beginning of the year to make the trade more transparent. Togo’s 2018 export figures were not available in U.N. data.
Gold isn’t always carried through neighbouring countries. Those with connections and means can smuggle it out of Burkina Faso via Ouagadougou’s international airport, one former gold smuggler with years of experience in West Africa told Reuters.
Gold-trafficking networks, aided by corrupt officials, are funnelling gold out of the country by air, Evariste Somda, a top Burkinabe customs officer, said in response. The flow is depriving the country of millions of dollars in revenue and customs officers are trying to stem it, he said.
The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, last week called on the UAE to tighten up regulations to prevent the gold trade being used to finance terrorism. A senior UAE official said the country maintains robust regulation in line with international standards.
OPERATION FIRESTORM
Burkina Faso’s government has tried to contain the militants.
In January, miners said, the military dropped leaflets from helicopters telling miners to leave sites around Kabonga. The next month, the military said its forces had killed around 30 fighters in airstrikes and ground operations in the area.
The government banned small-scale mining across the east and much of northern Burkina Faso, and government troops mounted a six-week offensive, dubbed Operation Firestorm, to restore state authority in the east. On April 12, General Moise Miningou, head of Burkina Faso’s armed forces, declared at a news conference: “Our mission was accomplished.”
In the north, the government launched a similar effort, Operation Uprooting, in May, which is still ongoing.
But more than 500 deaths have been recorded in violence linked to jihadist groups in both regions since June.
As of September, Islamist fighters occupied at least 15 mines in the east of the country, giving them direct control over production and sales, said Mahamadou Savadogo, a security consultant and former Burkinabe gendarme who is researching the insurgency.
Despite government bans, mining continues in areas where Islamists operate: In October, 20 people were killed in an attack by suspected jihadists on an informal gold-mining site in the northern province of Soum, security sources said.
Today, it is unclear who controls Kabonga, the mine near the wildlife-rich reserve by the Sahel.
“The Kabonga forest is immense,” Security Minister Ousseni Compaore told Reuters in June. “We cannot exclude the idea that some might have pulled back and hidden so they can return later.”
Additional reporting by Thiam Ndiaga in Ouagadougou, John Zodzi in Lome, Moussa Aksar in Niamey, Tiemoko Diallo in Bamako, Maha El Dahan in Dubai, Cairo bureau; Edited by Alexandra Zavis and Sara Ledwith
https://in.reuters.com/article/gold...ts-struck-gold-in-africas-sahel-idINKBN1XX0JH
UAGADOUGOU (Reuters) - People around Pama, a West African town on the edge of vast forested conservation areas, had long been forbidden by their government to dig for gold in the reserves, to protect antelope, buffalo and elephants.
FILE PHOTO: Soldiers from Burkina Faso patrol on the road of Gorgadji in the Sahel area of Burkina Faso, March 3, 2019. REUTERS/Luc Gnago/File Photo
In mid-2018, men wearing turbans changed the rules.
Riding in with assault rifles on motorbikes and in 4X4 trucks, they sent government troops and rangers fleeing from the area in eastern Burkina Faso bordering the Sahel, a belt of scrubland south of the Sahara Desert.
The armed men said residents could mine in the protected areas, but there would be conditions. Sometimes they demanded a cut of the gold. At other times they bought and traded it.
The men “told us not to worry. They told us to pray,” said one man who gave his name as Trahore and said he had worked for several months at a mine called Kabonga, a short drive northwest of Pama. Like other miners who spoke to Reuters, he asked not to be identified for fear of retribution. It was not safe for reporters to visit the region, but five other miners who had been to Kabonga corroborated his account.
“We called them ‘our masters,’” Trahore said.
The pits around Pama are no isolated case. Groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State, having lost ground in the Middle East, are expanding in Africa and exploiting gold mines across the region, data on attacks and interviews with two dozen miners and residents, and government and security officials, show. Besides attacking industrial operations, two of the world’s most feared extremist forces are tapping the $2 billion informal gold trade in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger – a flow that is already largely out of state control.
Researchers and the United Nations have warned of the risks of armed extremists reaching the region’s gold mines; Reuters’ analysis of data from Burkina Faso, and testimony from people who have fled mining areas, show this is happening at scale. For the Islamists, the mines are both a hideout and a treasure trove: of funds with which to recruit new members and buy arms, and of explosives and detonators to stage the attacks that extend their power.
A poor country of mainly subsistence farmers, Burkina Faso has in recent years become the focus of a campaign by local insurgents and regional jihadi groups. The violence has killed hundreds of people, including at least 39 gold mine workers ambushed on a road earlier this month. Dozens of robberies and kidnappings have been reported that target mining.
The attacks extend towards hundreds of small-scale mines in Burkina Faso alone. Around 2,200 possible informal gold mines were identified in a government survey of satellite imagery in 2018. About half of them are within 25 km (16 miles) of places where militants have carried out attacks, according to the analysis of incidents which were documented by Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), a consultancy that tracks political violence.
The militants’ advance has traced a route from the north towards the south and the east of the country, according to the analysis, which mapped their movements and mining areas with help from the U.S.-based Countering Wildlife Trafficking Institute, a consultancy with expertise in analysing geospatial data. The militants have carved a path through some of Burkina Faso’s richest gold fields, the analysis found.
It is hard to say how much gold the mines produce or exactly who controls them – many are in places where government forces are absent and bandits roam – but the sums involved are huge. In 2018, government officials visited just 24 sites near where attacks had taken place and estimated they produced a total of 727 kg of gold per year – worth about $34 million at current prices.
Oumarou Idani, Burkina Faso’s minister of mines, said in May that Islamists had taken control of some mines, especially in protected areas, where they encouraged camps of miners to dig in violation of government bans. “They fed the camp and bought and sold gold,” he said.
Incidents linked to Islamists dropped sharply that month, after military operations helped drive insurgents from mining areas. But by October, the total had almost returned to its peak from before the military actions, the ACLED data shows.
Most of Burkina Faso’s informally produced gold is smuggled to its neighbours, particularly Togo, to avoid export taxes, according to the government. From there, it is flown to refineries before it is exported to countries including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Switzerland and India.
“Violent extremists have extended their areas of control and have enhanced their ability to generate income through gold – while state actors remain poorly positioned to do anything about it,” said William Linder, a former officer with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who served in West Africa and now runs a risk consultancy.
“Failure to fix this problem now will only deepen and help spread the Sahel crisis.”
Burkina Faso’s Security Minister, Ousseni Compaore, said the government was not failing: Governments in the region are aware of the risk and working together to tackle it, he said.
In Mali, the U.N. has reported that rebels tax the gold trade in the northern town of Kidal, and in Niger, government officials say Islamists are demanding a share of gold produced in the west.
A senior official in Mali’s ministry of mines said it could not rule out the possibility of Islamists tapping into gold, especially in the north, but was working to regulate small-scale mining. Niger’s mining minister did not respond to requests for comment.
STATES OF EMERGENCY
Gold has long been an ideal commodity for insurgents: It retains its value; it is widely accepted as a proxy for currency in parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia; and once refined, it can easily be smelted and smuggled.
Informal mines in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger produce between them some 50 tonnes of gold, worth $2 billion, a year, according to estimates by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Of this, small-scale miners in Burkina Faso produce around 15-20 tonnes of gold a year, worth between $720 million and $960 million, according to government and OECD estimates.
In 2018, Burkina Faso recorded official exports of only around 300 kg of gold from small-scale mines – around 1.5% to 2% of the country’s estimated production – indicating the scale of smuggling.
Informal miners often operate out of sight of the authorities. Burkina Faso’s push to locate its small-scale mines found that just 25 had valid permits country-wide, Salofou Trahore, managing director of the government regulator, told Reuters.
Government researchers visited more than 1,000 sites to carry out basic checks, and found that 800 were active. They discovered others not seen in the satellite imagery and looked in-depth at 64 more. But many they could not reach. Large parts of the north and east are out of control of the capital, prompting it to declare states of emergency in 14 of the country’s 45 provinces.
Security analysts attribute many of the attacks to al Qaeda’s regional affiliate, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (Group for Support of Islam and Muslims) and a homegrown group named Ansarul Islam (Defenders of Islam). In the east, Islamic State in the Greater Sahara operates in forests that have long been a haven for bandits, smugglers and poachers. None of the groups could be reached.
“NOTHING ELSE”
In Burkina Faso as elsewhere, jihadist groups are adept at exploiting local grievances to win people over. In a country with annual incomes of just $660 a head according to the World Bank, government efforts to close off mines to individual diggers – whether for conservation or to make way for big business – are unpopular.
“How many people in Burkina Faso can pay the school fees without artisanal mining?” said Moamoudou Rabo, head of a national union of gold miners. “Our economy is gold mining. There is nothing else.”
At one digging site, Ouargaye in the southeast, miners said Islamists arrived just as local police were demanding bribes from miners who lacked ID cards. The nine policemen were armed, said a miner who was there. Even so, the police sped away on motorbikes. “After that,” the miner recalled, “people said the gunmen were the real masters.” Compaore, the security minister, said it was not possible to verify this report.
In June, hundreds of civilians fleeing a wave of attacks on churches in northern Burkina Faso began showing up on the outskirts of the capital, Ouagadougou. They arrived with only what they could cram onto trucks and buses – a sack of rice, jerry cans for water, pots and pans, mats to sleep on.
Many women and children sought shelter in three dusty school yards. Among them were a handful of young men who had been digging for gold around the remote town of Silgadji, near the border with Mali.
For months, they said, armed extremists who were not from their area had been hiding out among the miners. They had imposed their laws and threatened to kill anyone who spoke about their presence. Zakaria Sawadogo, 43, fled with his family to the capital.
“There used to be traders who would come buy our gold and re-sell it,” he said. “But the terrorists were robbing them as they had lots of money.” The traders stopped coming, he said.
To the south, in the town of Bartiebougou, a mason who spent four months on a construction project in a mining area there said the pits were teeming with fighters.
“They were more heavily armed than the soldiers,” the mason said. “They controlled everything.”
The mason said the gunmen hired some miners to dig for them, buying gold from others. Sometimes the Islamist interlopers gave food to the poor, he said; other times they were ruthless. “We saw two people who were killed for selling alcohol,” he said.
HIDDEN IN THE HAY
Gold flows out of Burkina Faso across porous land borders in cars and buses. It is strapped to cattle or hidden in bales of hay attached to bicycles. Miners at Kabonga, in an area near Pama reserved for herders to raise their livestock, said buyers included locals and traders from neighbouring countries, including Ghana, Togo, Benin and Niger.
Slideshow (6 Images)
Neighbouring Togo, a country which produces little gold from its own mines, is a smuggling hub.
In recent years, the United Arab Emirates – a global centre for gold refining and trading – has established itself as the main destination for gold from Togo, declaring imports of more than 7 tonnes (worth $262 million) in 2018, according to U.N. trade data. In turn, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Switzerland are the main takers of gold from the UAE.
In early 2019, international officials pressured Togo to act to prevent gold-smuggling, fearing the trade was driving conflict in the region, a person with direct knowledge of the initiative told Reuters. Nestor Adjehoun, director of development and control in Togo’s ministry of mines, said gold trading had been suspended there since the beginning of the year to make the trade more transparent. Togo’s 2018 export figures were not available in U.N. data.
Gold isn’t always carried through neighbouring countries. Those with connections and means can smuggle it out of Burkina Faso via Ouagadougou’s international airport, one former gold smuggler with years of experience in West Africa told Reuters.
Gold-trafficking networks, aided by corrupt officials, are funnelling gold out of the country by air, Evariste Somda, a top Burkinabe customs officer, said in response. The flow is depriving the country of millions of dollars in revenue and customs officers are trying to stem it, he said.
The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, last week called on the UAE to tighten up regulations to prevent the gold trade being used to finance terrorism. A senior UAE official said the country maintains robust regulation in line with international standards.
OPERATION FIRESTORM
Burkina Faso’s government has tried to contain the militants.
In January, miners said, the military dropped leaflets from helicopters telling miners to leave sites around Kabonga. The next month, the military said its forces had killed around 30 fighters in airstrikes and ground operations in the area.
The government banned small-scale mining across the east and much of northern Burkina Faso, and government troops mounted a six-week offensive, dubbed Operation Firestorm, to restore state authority in the east. On April 12, General Moise Miningou, head of Burkina Faso’s armed forces, declared at a news conference: “Our mission was accomplished.”
In the north, the government launched a similar effort, Operation Uprooting, in May, which is still ongoing.
But more than 500 deaths have been recorded in violence linked to jihadist groups in both regions since June.
As of September, Islamist fighters occupied at least 15 mines in the east of the country, giving them direct control over production and sales, said Mahamadou Savadogo, a security consultant and former Burkinabe gendarme who is researching the insurgency.
Despite government bans, mining continues in areas where Islamists operate: In October, 20 people were killed in an attack by suspected jihadists on an informal gold-mining site in the northern province of Soum, security sources said.
Today, it is unclear who controls Kabonga, the mine near the wildlife-rich reserve by the Sahel.
“The Kabonga forest is immense,” Security Minister Ousseni Compaore told Reuters in June. “We cannot exclude the idea that some might have pulled back and hidden so they can return later.”
Additional reporting by Thiam Ndiaga in Ouagadougou, John Zodzi in Lome, Moussa Aksar in Niamey, Tiemoko Diallo in Bamako, Maha El Dahan in Dubai, Cairo bureau; Edited by Alexandra Zavis and Sara Ledwith
https://in.reuters.com/article/gold...ts-struck-gold-in-africas-sahel-idINKBN1XX0JH
sorcerer
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Kerala NIA court convicts six in ISIS terror plot case
Kochi: A NIA court here on Monday found six people, arrested in connection with a 2016 Islamic State (ISIS) terror plot case, guilty of conspiring to carry out strikes across Kerala and neighbouring states.
Those convicted are Manseed Mehmood, Swalih Mohammed, Rashid Ali, Ramshad N K, Safvan and Moinuddin. Special judge P Krishnakumar, however, acquitted Jasim N K.
The court said they had not joined the ISIS but made it clear that they were qualified to be called as members of a terror gang. The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on Wednesday, it said.
https://telanganatoday.com/kerala-nia-court-convicts-six-in-isis-terror-plot-case
Kochi: A NIA court here on Monday found six people, arrested in connection with a 2016 Islamic State (ISIS) terror plot case, guilty of conspiring to carry out strikes across Kerala and neighbouring states.
Those convicted are Manseed Mehmood, Swalih Mohammed, Rashid Ali, Ramshad N K, Safvan and Moinuddin. Special judge P Krishnakumar, however, acquitted Jasim N K.
The court said they had not joined the ISIS but made it clear that they were qualified to be called as members of a terror gang. The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on Wednesday, it said.
https://telanganatoday.com/kerala-nia-court-convicts-six-in-isis-terror-plot-case
Deathstar
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We need to warn Nepal of grave consequences or fence Nepal /India border. Nothing is important that security of people
sorcerer
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Porous border..... landscape geography..etc etc..could be the problem..
A part of nepal politics being controlled by the terror supporter china would be detrimental to our efforts.
Need to have a very secure fence along the nepal border with intelligent hitech solution.
