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Sindh Liberation Army: myth or reality?
Even as the federal government is trying to make sense of the Balochistan Liberation Army and deal with the situation in that province, a shadowy outfit calling itself the Sindh Liberation Army has emerged in Sindh, another province with longstanding problems with Islamabad. While rumours about the existence of the organisation have been making the rounds in government circles, including intelligence agencies, for some time now, senior officials refuse to give the SLA much credence and say the outfit by no means poses a 'serious' security threat to the province. Critics disagree and say Cheema and his team are being too complacent when they claim that the SLA poses no 'real' threat to security. Recent events also prove otherwise. Through anonymous phone calls to police officials and journalists, the SLA has claimed responsibility for several attacks and bomb blasts in the recent past. These include two bomb explosions near the district headquarters of Rangers in Larkana and blasts at two electricity towers in the Sibi district of Balochistan in which about 12 people were injured. The Sibi attack plunged Quetta and much of the province into darkness. It also shows that the SLA might be operating outside Sindh also and perhaps in collusion with the BLA. While authorities have so far only speculated about groups and individuals responsible for these attacks, it is the first time that they have publicly declared in the media that the SLA is involved in the aforementioned blasts.Posted by: Paul Moloney 2005-02-11 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=56186 |