This PDF document was made available from www.rand.org as a public service of the RAND Corporation. 6 Jump down to document Visit RAND at www.rand.org Explore RAND Arroyo Center View document details This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law as indicated in a notice appearing later in this work. This electronic representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for non- commercial use only. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of our research documents. Limited Electronic Distribution Rights For More Information CHILD POLICY CIVIL JUSTICE EDUCATIO N ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT HEALTH AND HEALTH CAR E INTERNATIONAL AFFAIR S NATIONAL SECURIT Y POPULATION AND AGIN G PUBLIC SAFETY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SUBSTANCE ABUSE TERRORISM AND HOMELAND SECURITY TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization providing objective analysis and effective solutions that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world. Purchase this document Browse Books & Publications Make a charitable contribution Support RAND This product is part of the RAND Corporation monograph series. RAND monographs present major research findings that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors. All RAND mono - graphs undergo rigorous peer review to ensure high standards for research quality and objectivity. C. Christine Fair Prepared for the United States Army Approved for public release; distribution unlimited Urban Battle Fields of South Asia Lessons Learned from Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization providing objective analysis and effective solutions that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world. RAND’s publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors. R ® is a registered trademark. © Copyright 2004 RAND Corporation All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from RAND. Published 2004 by the RAND Corporation 1776 Main Street, P.O. Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138 1200 South Hayes Street, Arlington, VA 22202-5050 201 North Craig Street, Suite 202, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-1516 RAND URL: http://www.rand.org/ To order RAND documents or to obtain additional information, contact Distribution Services: Telephone: (310) 451-7002; Fax: (310) 451-6915; Email: order@rand.org Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fair, C. Christine. Urban battle fields of South Asia : lessons learned from Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan / C. Christine Fair. p. cm. “MG-210.” Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-8330-3682-3 (pbk.) 1. Urban warfare—Sri Lanka. 2. Urban warfare—India. 3. Urban warfare—Pakistan. 4. Terrorism—Sri Lanka—Prevention. 5. Terrorism—India—Prevention. 6. Terrorism—Pakistan—Prevention. 7. War on Terrorism, 2001– I. Title. U167.5.S7F35 2004 355.4'26'0954—dc22 2004019129 The research described in this report was sponsored by the United States Army under Contract No. DASW01-01-C-0003. iii Preface Over the past several years, the U.S. military has become increasingly interested in military operations in urban areas. This attention is war- ranted because such operations are among the most complex chal- lenges that confront the U.S. Army, be it a conventional conflict or military operations other than war. Recent Army experiences in Iraq demonstrate the ability of the adversary to engage U.S. forces in ur- banized areas to vitiate much of the U.S. military’s edge in high- technology firepower. The likelihood that U.S. forces will engage in these environments will only increase as societies continue to urban- ize. Compared to a number of other nations, the Army has relatively less experience operating in this environment. There are countries that have been immersed in urban internal security and peace opera- tions for decades. This report will look at three such states: Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan. While the three countries lack the technological sophistication and resources of U.S. armed forces, their experiences may be illuminating because of their extensive encounters with such conflicts. Moreover, they have had to find means of countering the urban threat within severe budget constraints. This monograph will analyze cases involving sustained cam- paigns of urban terrorism that have occurred in Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan. It will identify key innovations of the organizations using terrorism. It will also detail the three states’ responses to the evolving threats they confront, noting successful as well as unsuccessful efforts. This effort will specifically focus upon the operational and tactical as- iv Urban Battle Fields of South Asia pects of the selected campaigns. It will not address the political, eco- nomic and sociological dimensions of these cases, which have been amply addressed by the literature on these conflicts. This monograph has several purposes. First, it seeks to garner operational insights from the experiences of countries that may en- hance the Army’s ability to operate in the urban environment. Sec- ond, it identifies common structural similarities within the militant organizations in question that might be targeted to degrade their ability to project power. Third, as these states are all partners to vari- ous extents in the global war on terrorism, this report describes ways to improve security cooperation programs with these states. Finally, it lists key insights from these countries that may inform U.S. stability operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, and future operations. This research is a part of a larger effort led by RAND Arroyo Center to identify current U.S. force requirements for urban contin- gency planning and to develop innovative approaches for doing so. This monograph will be of interest to individuals within the govern- ment whose responsibilities include doctrine, policy designs, plan- ning, and preparation to support civil or military operation in urban environments. It will also be of interest to individuals interested in structural features of organizations using terrorism to achieve their objectives. Research in conjunction with this report was undertaken for the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) and was conducted in RAND Arroyo Center’s Force Development and Tech- nology Program. RAND Arroyo Center, part of the RAND Corpora- tion, is a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the United States Army. For more information on RAND Arroyo Center, contact the Director of Operations (telephone 310-393-0411, extension 6419; FAX 310-451-6952; e-mail Marcy_Agmon@rand.org), or visit Ar- royo’s web site at http://www.rand.org/ard/. v Contents Preface iii Contents v Figures ix Tables xi Summary xiii Acknowledgments xvii Glossary xix CHAPTER ONE Introduction 1 Background 1 Methodology 2 Case Selection 2 Analytical Tools and Methods 4 Objectives and Implications of This Study 5 Summary of the Findings 6 Organization of This Report 9 CHAPTER TWO Sri Lanka 11 Preview of the Findings 11 Introduction to the Case 15 Background to the Tamil Militancy 16 Background on the LTTE 20 The Indian Peacekeeping Force (July 29, 1987 to March 24, 1990) 20 vi Urban Battle Fields of South Asia The LTTE’s Ascendancy 23 LTTE Organization and Function 24 LTTE: A Global Operator 30 The LTTE’s Relationship with India 34 LTTE: Contacts and Training with Other Militant Organizations 36 Suicide Bombing and the Black Tigers Cadres 37 Adoption and Innovation of the Suicide Attack 38 Classes of Targets 40 Audiences for the Attacks 43 Strategic Implications of Suicide Attacks 44 Mythology of the Hero 46 Countering the LTTE in Colombo and Jaffna 47 The Colombo Theater 50 The Jaffna Theater 59 Lessons from Jaffna and Colombo 63 Summary Analysis of the Impacts of 9/11 upon the LTTE 65 CHAPTER THREE India 69 Preview of the Findings 69 Introduction to the Case 71 The Khalistan Movement 73 Major Khalistani Organizations 77 Babbar Khalsa 77 Khalistan Commando Force 77 Khalistan Liberation Force 78 Campaigns of Violence 80 Militant Targeting and Innovations 83 Operations in Amritsar and Ludhiana 84 Militancy in Amritsar and Operation Black Thunder 86 Innovations of the Punjab Police 90 Summary 97 CHAPTER FOUR Pakistan 101 Preview of the Argument 101 Contents vii Introduction to the Cases 102 The Twin Urban Menaces of Sectarian and Inter-Ethnic Violence 104 Major Sectarian Militant Organizations 107 Inter-Ethnic Violence: The Muttehida Qaumi Movement 113 Violent Synergies 116 Pakistan’s Force Structure 117 The Cases 118 Operation Cleanup and Its Sequels 118 Community Policing: An Experiment 126 Summary 131 CHAPTER FIVE Conclusions 133 Structural Similarities: Insights for the War on Terrorism 133 Security Cooperation: Implications for U.S. Engagement of Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan 135 Bibliography 139 [...]... SMP Sipah-e-Muhammed Pakistan (“Army of Muhammed”) SSP Sipah-e-Sahaba-e -Pakistan (“Guardians of the Friends of the Prophet”) TELO Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization TJP Tehrik-e-Jaffria Pakistan (“Movement of Followers of the Jaffria sect (Fiqah-e-Jaffria)”) Glossary xxi TNFJ Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Fiqah-e-Jaffria (“Movement for the Implementation of the Jaffria Sect”) TULF Tamil United Liberation Front VC... security challenges for years I am also thankful to all of the journalists and analysts in Pakistan who spent time with me on and off the record I owe a special thanks to my mentors Ashley Tellis and Colonel Jack Gill, who diligently and insightfully reviewed an earlier draft of this document Their numerous keen sug- xvii xviii Urban Battle Fields of South Asia gestions have made this a much stronger analytical... important segments of the population which must be dominated xiii xiv Urban Battle Fields of South Asia and marked by religious-sectarian distinctions as well as ethnic and cultural differences Some of the methods developed to manage the urban threat may provoke thoughts about U.S.-led stability operations in countries that are similarly diverse in social structure Some of the key findings of this report... in the capital city of Colombo as well as in the ideological capital of Tamil Eelam (the Tamil homeland), Jaffna Pakistan has been battling, with various degrees of dedication, forms of violence that are almost exclusively urban phenomena: sectarian violence between militarized Shi’a and Sunni 1 2 Urban Battle Fields of South Asia organizations as well as the antistate activities of the ethnonationalist... Our study of Pakistan, for example, does not examine the activities of groups operating in Indian-held Kashmir and the Indian hinterland even though they are based in Pakistan or Pakistan- held Kashmir 4 These groups have not launched sustained campaigns in the cities of Pakistan, and the state has not taken significant efforts to restrict them, because they comprise part of Pakistan s strategy of proxy... some of the operational lessons learned by these three states as they confronted their own cases of militancy may have value to the U.S forces in their current and future urban challenges All of these states are complex societies with richly diverse populations Some of the empirical evidence garnered from Pakistan s Islamicized community-policing model and Sri Lanka’s vigilance committees may offer... Background India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka comprise three important states of South Asia All have extensive experience with confronting civilian militant groups and criminal organizations that employ violence for various political, economic, and organizational ends These states, particularly India and Sri Lanka, have contended, to varying degrees, with organized campaigns of violence in rural and jungle... coordination across the myriad state and federal agencies (The United States too faces this complex challenge.) This finding may inform the United States in its counterterrorism partnerships with xvi Urban Battle Fields of South Asia each of these countries For instance, which U.S entities should be engaged in security cooperation programs with India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, and which agencies within these... discussion of the structural features of organized crime, see Gunaratna (2000d), P Singh (2000), and Sarkar and Tiwari (2002) High-intensity crime differs from low-level crime in both the degree and scale of operations and coordination 3 Prakash Singh (2000) uses the term “high-intensity crime” to emphasize these dimensions of organized crime within the Indian context Introduction 3 sustained campaigns of urban. .. of Mohammed”) JVP Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (a.k.a “People’s Liberation Front”) xix xx Urban Battle Fields of South Asia KCF Khalistan Commando Force Kfir Israeli Built Aircraft KLF Khalistan Liberation Force LeJ Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (“Army of Jhang”) LeT Lashkar-e-Taibba (“Army of the Pure”) LTTE Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (a.k.a “Tamil Tigers”) MQM Muttehida Qaumi Movement (“United National Movement”; . order@rand.org Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fair, C. Christine. Urban battle fields of South Asia : lessons learned from Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan. distribution unlimited Urban Battle Fields of South Asia Lessons Learned from Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization