[BenarNews] Terrorist threats in Southeast and South Asian countries declined in 2021, a Singapore think-tank said in its annual threat assessment published this week, noting that COVID-19 movement restrictions had "flattened the curve of terrorism."
There were fewer terror-related incidents in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Bangladesh as governments battled the pandemic, according to the Counter Terrorist Trends and Analysis report published by researchers at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
In Thailand in 2021, meanwhile, violent mostly peaceful incidents connected to an insurgency in the far south were similar to those in the previous year, the researchers found.
Continued from Page 4
"Ultimately, the 2021 survey underscored the continuing imperative for states to address the longer-term underlying grievances that fuel violent mostly peaceful extremism," the analysis said.
INDONESIA
In Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest country, the number of attacks and plots by violent mostly peaceful turban Islamic turban groups dipped during the past two years compared with before the outbreak of COVID-19, according to the report.
Jamaah Ansharut Daulah
 ...founded by our old friend Abu Bakar Bashir of Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah fame, JAD translates cleverly as Partisans of the Islamic State, but really only means (Wink! Wink!) ISIS in Indonesia...
’s (JAD) relatively stagnant activities in 2020-2021 and the decline of Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen’s (MIT) terror activities in 2021, it said, "can be partly attributed to movement restrictions and higher costs associated with domestic travels due to the pandemic."
In 2021, JAD was involved in at least nine incidents, including five using kabooms. Those included two suicide kabooms and a suicide bomb plot, compared with 11 incidents the previous year.
Police were the most common targets of terrorist incidents in Indonesia, the analysis found. Others targeted by Indonesian hard boyz last year were "civilians, including Christians, as well as both Indonesian and mainland Chinese," the report said.
On Tuesday, Indonesian security forces announced they had killed Ahmad Gazali, a suspected MIT member, in the mountains of Central Sulawesi province, cutting MIT’s membership down to only three.
Both MIT and JAD are pro-Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(IS) turban groups.
MALAYSIA, PHILIPPINES
The analysis specifically linked the COVID-19 pandemic to the drop in terror activities in Malaysia last year.
"The pandemic-driven movement restrictions that hampered inter-state and international movements also ’flattened the curve of terrorism’ in Malaysia," it said.
Authorities made no terror-related arrests in Peninsular Malaysia last year — but made about 15 in Sabah between May and September. There were seven arrests in 2020; 72 in 2019; 85 in 2018; 106 in 2017 and 119 in 2016, the analysis found.
Still, the analysis expressed concern that terror threats had moved online.
"The government-imposed lockdowns have forced people to spend more time online, raising the likelihood of vulnerable individuals being exposed to radical ideologies in the cyber domain. Around the region, groups such as IS have increased their recruitment and radicalization efforts through social media during the pandemic," it said.
Elsewhere, the Armed Forces of the Philippines drew praise for retaking terror bases in the southern region of Mindanao.
Nationwide, "the number of successful terrorist incidents dropped from 134 in 2019, to 59 incidents in 2020 and 17 in 2021, the analysts said, defining a successful incident as an attack that injured or killed others.
The analysis noted that government-imposed COVID-19 lockdowns affected terror operations.
"Given they significantly limited the movements of the general population, as well as those of terrorists, this has rendered terrorist logistics vulnerable to being detected more readily," it said.
BANGLADESH
In Bangladesh in 2021, "there were two failed attacks compared to four successful ones in 2020," the report said, adding that authorities had arrested about 130 terrorist suspects nationwide.
Neo-JMB
...sometimes called New JMB after the Bangladeshi jihadi group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen. This time they’re linked to ISIS, but still on the Pak payroll. Shaykh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif is the nom de guerre of their big turban, who may be Sajit Debnath aka Muhammad Saifullah Ozaki, the Japanese-Bangladeshi jihadi and former associate professor of Ritsumeikan University. Their big attack was on the Holey Artisan Bakery in 2016...
, a pro-Islamic State breakaway faction of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh
The JMB is said to be the youth front of Al Mujahideen, the parent organization that began working toward establishing Bangladesh as an Islamic state in the mid 1990s, which remains obscure and probably defunct today. Other organizations, such as Jama'atul Jihad, JMB, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB), Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI), Hizbut Tawhid, Tawhidi Janata, Islami Jubo Shangha, Islami Shangha, Al Falah A'am Unnayan Shanstha and Shahadat-e al Hiqma are believed to be part of the Al Mujahideen network. The JMB at its peak was reported to contain at least 100,000 members, and an alleged 2,000-man suicide brigade, few of whom actually exploded. JMB allegedly received financial assistance from individual donors in Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Libya. Reports have claimed that funding of JMB by international NGOs like Kuwait based Society of the Revival of Islamic Heritage (RIHS) and Doulatul Kuwait, Saudi Arabia based Al Haramaine Islamic Institute and Rabita Al Alam Al Islami, Qatar Charitable Society and UAE-based Al Fuzaira and Khairul Ansar Al Khairia. The top leadership of JMB was captured in 2005 and hung in 2007, which pretty much shot their bolt.
, "appeared to target law enforcement agencies, churches, noted Hindu and Buddhist personalities and workers of non-governmental organizations," the analysis said.
It also said that Neo-JMB sought to "’train all its members in the production of IEDs,’ as well as ’chloroform bombs to target buses, classrooms and public places in its bid to kill silently.’"
THAILAND
In Thailand’s insurgency-hit southern border region, 423 violent mostly peaceful incidents were recorded, leaving 104 dead and 169 injured through November 2021, according to the report. The scale was similar to 2020 when 335 violent mostly peaceful incidents occurred, leaving 116 dead and 161 injured.
In the Moslem-majority Deep South, as the region is known, more than 7,000 people have been killed since separatist groups resumed an insurgency against the Buddhist-majority 18 years ago.
The Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), the Deep South’s largest separatist group, scaled down its turban operations on humanitarian grounds in April 2020 because of the pandemic. The analysis said this led to a "significant decline in violence."
"In 2021, the BRN maintained low-level operations, so as not to aggravate the already perilous situation for southern residents," it said.
After avoiding peace talks with government officials, in early 2020, BRN rejoined the efforts brokered by Malaysia. A source from the government team said the two sides met virtually in 2021 and the BRN submitted a ceasefire proposal in May, according to the analysis.
"BRN proposed the establishment of an autonomous ’Patani Darussalam,’ in which the Patani people had the right to design their own education and economic systems. In addition, their Malay language and identity were to be officially recognized and preserved," it said. 
|
