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Bangladesh

15 militant outfits active

2010-03-30

[Bangla Daily Star] At least 15 foreign militant organisations were active or are still operating in Bangladesh since 1991 using the country as a safe shelter or transit to infiltrate neighbouring countries. The organisations are Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Tehrik-e-Jehad-e-Islami-Kashmiri (TJI), Harkat-ul Mujahideen, Harkat-ul-Jehadul Islami, Hizb-ul Mujahideen (HuM), Hezbe Islami, Jamiatul Mujahideen, Harkatul Ansar, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), India-based Asif Reza Commando Force (ARCF), Myanmar-based militant groups Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO), Arakan Rohingya National Organization (ARNO) and National United Party of Arakan (NUPA). This was revealed from the statements of several detained foreign and local militants and insiders of different intelligence and law-enforcement agencies dealing with militancy. Operatives of different foreign militant groups started visiting Bangladesh and spreading their tentacles with the help of banned local militant group Huji after the end of the Afghan war against Russian forces. The militant organisations operated almost undisturbed from 1991 to 1998 and then between 2001 and 2005 under the nose of the local administration. "During the BNP-Jamaat rule activities of the foreign militants marked a serious rise under the nose of the administration. Some of them were held and later given a safe passage," says a law enforcer requesting anonymity. Operatives of several groups used to visit Bangladesh from Pakistan and then India to commit their activities, while many from India also sneaked into Bangladesh and then visited Pakistan with fake Bangladeshi passports to The statements of detained militants also reveal agents of a Pakistani intelligence agency not only coordinated the militants' activities in Bangladesh but also provided them with necessary funds and training, sources say. have training on arms and explosives. Director General of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) Hassan Mahmood Khandkar said, "Now Bangladesh is no more a comfortable place for local or foreign militants as we constantly remain vigilant and go after militants upon instructions of the government." The statements of detained militants also reveal agents of a Pakistani intelligence agency not only coordinated the militants' activities in Bangladesh but also provided them with necessary funds and training, sources say. Now some militant groups are generating funds for them by selling counterfeit Indian currencies in India. The counterfeit currencies, especially Indian rupees and US dollars, are mainly forged in Pakistan and carried to Bangladesh via Dubai. Then a strong syndicate of militants and criminals supply the fake currencies to India. "We've detected at least three such gangs having around 50 members. One of the gangs is led by Bangladeshi citizen Majumder, one by Pakistani citizen Sarfaraz and the other by another Pakistani named Mohammad Danish," says a top police official asking not to be identified. Recently, an international money transfer has been detected through which some fund came from Pakistan to detained Pakistani national Rezwan. Law enforcers could not give a clear idea about how many foreign militant groups are active in Bangladesh. But recent arrests of over a dozen foreign militants belonging to LeT, JeM, HuM and ARCF suggest they are still active here, they say. One of the Huji founders, Moulana Sheikh Abdus Salam, who is behind bars in connection with the August 21 carnage case, named during interrogation nine Pakistan-based militant organisations which mainly work in Kashmir but also had operated in Bangladesh. The names of ARCF and LeT surfaced after the arrest of its leaders Indian citizens Mufti Obaidullah and Moulana Monsur Ali in May last year. The ARCF used to work for LeT. The recent arrest of Pakistani national Rezwan Ahmed who admitted at a press briefing of coordinating JeM activities in Bangladesh suggests the outfit is still active here. The name of another Pakistan-based militant outfit Tehrik-ul Mujahideen came to notice from the confessional statement of executed Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) chief Abdur Rahman. Rahman had visited Pakistan more than once and met Tehrik-ul Mujahideen leader Jamilur Rahman, who gave JMB 60,000 rupees and another Rs 1 lakh to Tahrikul-ul-Mujahideen's Bangladesh chapter leader Abdur Razzak of Natore. Salam also said Harkatul Mujahideen top leader and Pakistani nation Moulana Fazlur Rahman Khalil had also visited Bangladesh. Sources say Khalil made the visit in 1997 and met local militants at an NGO office in Mohammadpur in the capital. Sources in the law-enforcement and intelligence agencies say they have information about activities of RSO, ARNO and NUPA in the hill areas of Bandarban and Cox's Bazar. Moulana Salam also substantiated the claim as he in his statement said those groups still have some training camps in Naikhangchhari in Bandarban. Activities of HuM were detected a few months ago when the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) learned one year after the arrest of Abdul Majid alias Abu Yusuf Butt that he is from India-administered Kashmir. Moulana Salam said Moulana Tajuddin told him that Majid brought a consignment of grenades used in the August 21, 2004 attack from Chittagong. Analyses of interrogation statements of Mufti Obaidullah, Moulana Monsur Ali, Shaikh Abdur Rahman, Moulana Abdus Salam and Anisul Mursalin, now detained in India, Indian militants Faisal Nayeem alias Khurram alias Abdullah, Amir Raza, Mufti Obaidullah, Monsur Ali, Golam Yazdani alias Yahia, Mozammel and several others suggest that they had close relation with detained Huji linchpins Mufti Abdul Hannan, Abu Sayeed alias Dr Zafar and Moulana Abdur Rouf. Rouf, who was initially involved with Huji but later formed another militant group Tanjim-e Tamiruddin, visited an LeT safe shelter cum training camp in Habiganj in 2002. Khurram and Amir Raza had often visited Bangladesh but left the country in 2006.

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Afghanistan

US in back-channel talks with Afghan Taliban

2009-11-24

[Dawn] After fighting a bloody war in Afghanistan for more than eight years, the United States appears to have undertaken a re-think of its policy and has started engaging the Taliban in negotiations through Saudi and Pakistani intelligence agencies, highly-placed sources told Dawn here on Monday. 'We have started 'engagement' with the Afghan Taliban and are hopeful that our efforts will bear fruit,' a source involved in secret negotiations told this correspondent. He said that four 'major neutral players' were engaged with the Afghan Taliban on behalf of the Saudi leadership and the General Intelligence Directorate (GID) of Saudi Arabia and the Pakistani leadership and Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). The GID and ISI have been doing the job on behalf of the US government and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The source said that one of the main objectives of the recent visit to Pakistan by CIA chief Leon Panetta was to assess progress in the back-channel negotiations. The source said that four leaders were playing the role of mediators on behalf of the Saudis and the Afghan Taliban. Among them is Abdullah Anas, a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden's mentor Abdullah Azzam who was killed in Peshawar in 1989 along with his two sons. Anas lives in the UK, but maintains close links with the Afghan Taliban and even Al Qaida. Saudi national Abul Hassan Madni, once a prominent leader of Rabta-i-Alam-i-Islami, has also been in the picture. He lives in Madina. Abu Jud Mehmood Samrai, an Iraqi who is married to a Pakistani woman, has also been contacted. He was given Pakistani nationality by former president Ziaul Haq for his role in the Afghan war. Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, a Pakistani militant leader, is also in the loop. Khalil, who co-founded the Harkatul Ansar, currently heads Hizbul Mujahideen. He had signed the famous decree issued by Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri in 1998 calling for killing the Americans. Khalil commands respect among both Pakistani and Afghani Taliban and is said to have played a secret mediatory role with Pakistani authorities for peace in the country. Reliable sources also told Dawn that Mullah Umar, the chief of Afghan Taliban, has nominated his shadow foreign minister, Agha Motasam, to negotiate with the Americans. They said that talks held so far were of a preliminary nature, but may resume on a serious note after Eid.

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India-Pakistan

Harkatul Ansar terrorist dies in police custody

2009-07-24

Mian Habibur Rehman, a suspected terrorist with ties to banned terrorist groups Harkatul Ansar and Jaish-e-Muhammad (JM), died of a heart attack at the Layyah DHQ Hospital on Thursday. The news of Rehman's death sparked violent protests by angry supporters of the banned organisations who called Rehman, who had been in police custody, a 'martyr' and alleged that he had died of police torture. The angry mob of around 800 protesters, led by JM Central General Secretary Abdullah Shah Mazhar, forced shopkeepers to close shop, and later took control of Layyah city railway crossing and tried to disrupt railway operations. The mob resorted to throwing stones when police tried to hold them back, and police retaliated with a baton charge and shelling. The exchange of stone pelting and tear gas shelling continued for five hours until Layyah District Coordination Officer Javaid Iqbal and District Police Officer Muhammad Azam successfully negotiated with the protesters. As a result of the negotiations, three of Rehman's accomplices -- Shamsur Rehman, Muhammad Saleem Buzdar and Attaur Rehman were released from police custody.

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India-Pakistan

ISI may be hiding India's Most Wanted fugitive militant

2009-06-24

Denying that Maulana Masood Azhar, the founder of the pro-Kashmir jehadi group, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), has been arrested from the Sialkot city of Punjab, the Pakistani authorities have said his whereabouts are unknown and he might have fled to the trouble-ridden Waziristan region. But some intelligence officials believe that Masood Azhar, who had to be released by India following the hijacking of an Air India plane in 2000, could be living under the protection of the Inter-Services Intelligence in the garrison town of Rawalpindi which also houses the General Headquarters (GHQ) of the Pakistan Army and those of the ISI. Following the June 17 arrest of five JeM activists from Punjab's Sialkot district, there were rumours that among them was Azhar, whom the Indian government wants extradited. But Pakistani intelligence sources say a consensus exists in the establishment that Masood Azhar should not be handed over to India under any circumstances. The sources said the official stance of the Pakistani government remains that Azhar had abandoned his Bahawalpur headquarters following the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks and is still at large. However, some intelligence sources did not rule out the possibility of the JeM chief's moving to some ISI safe house in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, as had been the case with Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, the ameer of the Harkatul Mujahideen, already renamed as Jamiatul Ansar, The sources pointed out that earlier this month, the Indian government's efforts in the United Nations to place sanctions on Maulana Masood Azhar received a major setback, after London surprisingly joined hands with Beijing to block New Delhi's request for proscribing the JeM chief under the United Nations' Al-Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions resolution No 1267. The sources claimed that this would not have been possible had Britain and China not been persuaded by Pakistan government to do so. India had wanted Azhar to be included in the sanctions list just as the Jamaatul Daawa and its head Hafiz Mohammed Saeed along with other LeT operatives were proscribed after 26/11. The Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) or "the Army of the Prophet Mohammad," is one of the deadliest militant groups operating from Pakistan and waging 'jehad' against the Indian security forces in Jammu & Kashmir. It was launched by Maulana Masood Azhar at the behest of the ISI in February 2000, shortly after he was released from an Indian jail, in exchange for hostages on board an Indian Airlines plane which was hijacked by five armed Kashmiri militants and taken to Kandahar in December 1999. While resuming his activities in Pakistan almost immediately after his release, Maulana Masood Azhar announced the formation of his own militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammad, with the prime objective of fighting out the Indian security forces in Kashmir. Masood Azhar was the ideologue of another militant group, the Harkatul Ansar, which was banned in 1997 by the US State Department, due to its alleged link with Osama bin Laden. Therefore, the Jaish is ideologically an extension of the Harkatul Ansar which rechristened itself as Harkatul Mujahideen in 1998, a year after being banned. In December 2008, almost a week after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, the Pakistani authorities placed restrictions on the movement of Masood Azhar by confining him to his multi-storied concrete compound in the Model Town area of Bahawalpur. The action was taken in the wake of Indian government's demand to hand over three persons to Delhi --Masood Azhar, Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon. India had sought their extradition by citing a 1989 agreement signed by Director General of the Central Bureau of Investigation and Director General of the Federal Investigation Agency which binds both the agencies to collaborate with each other to trace out the most wanted terrorists and criminals and hand them over to their respective counterpart. The Indian demand said that Masood Azhar was wanted for his alleged involvement in the 2001 attacks on the Indian parliament. However, the Indian demand was followed by media reports that Masood Azhar has abandoned his Jaish headquarters in the Model Town area of Bahawalpur and temporarily shifted his base to the trouble-stricken South Waziristan region in the wake the mounting Indian pressure for his extradition. However, in the second week of April 2009, Masood Azhar was declared 'officially' missing from Pakistan. A 13 January 2009 new report in Daily Times quoted official sources in Islamabad as having said that the Jaish chief has abandoned his headquarters in Bahawalpur and was missing now. Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik officially declared that Masood Azhar and Dawood Ibrahim were not in Pakistan adding that Islamabad would not provide protection and refuge to any criminal. However, Indian External Affairs Minister Paranab Mukherjee ridiculed Pakistan for denying the 'obvious presence' of the Jaish chief, saying: "India had several times got different information from Pakistan on Masood Azhar and it was not unusual to hear such denials from Pakistani officials".

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India-Pakistan

Maulana Khalil, four aides held

2007-05-03

Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, former chief of the banned militant organisation Harkatul Ansar, and his four aides were arrested on Wednesday on the outskirts of the capital, police sources told Daily Times. The sources said that the police were informed that Khalil and his four aides were heading towards Islamabad to extend support to the Lal Masjid administration in its ongoing dispute with the government over the demolition of mosques. Golra SHO Inspector Tahir Mehmood stopped Khalil’s car coming from Peshawar near Golra Mor and arrested him along with his four accomplices. Mehmood confirmed to Daily Times that Khalil had been arrested, adding that the police had also seized weapons from his car. The sources said that senior police officials were consulting the Interior Ministry on registering a case.

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India-Pakistan

Jamiatul Ansar, Khudamul Furqan merge

2007-03-31

Maulana Abdul Jabbar, the head of the Khudamul Furqan, has merged his banned militant outfit with Maulana Fazalur Rehman Khalil’s Jamiatul Ansar, also a banned organisation, sources told Daily Times on Friday. Founded by Khalil, Jamiatul Ansar was previously known as Harkatul Mujahideen, which was banned by the Pakistani government following the 9/11 attacks because of the organisation’s involvement in militant activities. The sources said the merger of the two groups – both from the Deobandi school of thought – took place last month, and common friends had been trying to resolve differences between the two militant commanders over the last three months. The sources said that Maulana Abdul Jabbar would be offered a key position in Jamiatul Ansar, currently being headed by Maulana Badar Munir. Khudamul Furqan, is also suspected of being involved in terrorist attacks on churches. Law-enforcement agencies arrested Maulana Jabbar some three years ago for his alleged involvement in an unsuccessful attempt on President General Pervez Musharraf’s life in Rawalpindi, but he was released in October last year, and he has kept a low profile since. His outfit, Khudamul Furqan, is also suspected of being involved in terrorist attacks on churches. Maulana Jabbar got involved in militant activities in the early 1980s after formally joining the Harkatul Ansar, and stayed in Afghanistan till Mulla Omar’s ouster. He later joined the militant outfit Jaish-e-Muhammad, founded by Maulana Masood Azhar, but formed Khudamul Furqan when difference between him and Masood Azhar emerged. Maulana Jabbar later alleged that the top leadership of Jaish-e-Muhammad had facilitating law-enforcement agencies in his arrest.

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India-Pakistan

Musharraf attack suspect released

2006-11-13

Law-enforcement agencies have released Maulana Abdul Jabbar, chief of the banned Khudamul Furqan, after almost three years in detention. Jabbar was arrested with his close aides on charges of attacking President Musharraf on December 14, 2003 in Rawalpindi. “Jabbar was released recently after a long detention,” sources told Daily Times here on Sunday. The sources said that Khudamul Furqan militants were suspected to be behind terrorist attacks on churches in Pakistan. Maulana Jabbar started his militant activities by joining Harkatul Ansar, headed by Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, in the early 1980s and stayed in Afghanistan till the fall of the Taliban government there. He later joined the Jaish-e-Muhammad formed by Maulana Masood Azhar, but after developing differences with Azhar, Jabbar formed the Khudamul Furqan. The sources said Jabbar was an expert in Afghan affairs, heading the Afghan cell of each militant group he was in, and maintained close contacts with Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders.

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India-Pakistan

Nuggets from the Urdu press

2006-04-30

Is entertainment allowed? Writing in Jang Ataul Haq Qasimi referred to a statement made by singer Abrarul Haq on the question of music as a source of peace of mind. A lady had asked if namaz was not the only source of this tranquillity. The columnist stated that the ulema were not united on the concept of entertainment in Pakistani culture. Were music, photography, singing, painting, poetry and cinema allowed as entertainment or not? Khalid Khwaja and Osama bin Laden Columnist Hamid Mir wrote in Jang that ex-ISI operative Khalid Khwaja had recently revealed that Osama bin Laden had paid Nawaz Sharif money to get rid of Ms Bhutto’s government in 1989 and that he himself had carried the money to Mr Sharif. The truth was that Osama was not interested in bringing a no-confidence vote against Ms Bhutto, he was more interested in getting his Arab friends out of trouble in Peshawar. That year Hosni Mubarak, Qaddafi and Shah Husain had asked Ms Bhutto to get rid of the Arab terrorists in Peshawar. In the operation that was mounted, Abu Mussab Al Zarqavi too had to spend six months in jail in Peshawar. After his release he was imprisoned in Jordan too. Khalid Khwaja was then retired from the ISI but was personally serving Nawaz Sharif and flying Nawaz Sharif’s personal plane between Pindi and Lahore. He proposed that Osama pay money to end Ms Bhutto’s government so that his men would not be bothered any more. One Khayyam Qaiser got some of the money but returned it to Khalid Khwaja because no next ruler would save Osama’s men in Peshawar. Nawaz Sharif and Osama bin Laden Writing in Jang Hamid Mir stated that Nawaz Sharif had done a lot of planning to help the Americans get Osama bin Laden. The Americans thought they could trust Nawaz more in the matter of capturing Osama. In 1998 when Nawaz Sharif was prime minister the Americans bombed Afghanistan for the first time. In 1999, it was agreed between Nawaz Sharif, American adviser on security Sandy Burger, Shahbaz Sharif and ISI chief Ziauddin to mount an operation to capture Osama; and the army chief Musharraf was unaware of it. American writer Bob Woodward had revealed that an operation was afoot in 1999 in the border areas in Pakistan which also triggered the reaction from JUI’s Maulana Fazlur Rehman that any American found in the area should be shot on sight. Nawaz Sharif had also banned Harkatul Ansar and declared war on Al Qaeda, but was toppled in 1999. Magician burns Quran Reporting from Haroonabad in Punjab, the daily Pakistan stated that an aamil (exorcist) of Faqirwali put a copy of the Holy Quran on the burner as a part of his magic spell. When his wife tried to stop him he slapped her. When the village got to know he was given a thrashing and was handed over to the police. During his arrest he tried to throw his magic spell but was not able to do so. Witnesses said he seemed possessed. Some people were thinking of destroying public property to express their anger. A shroud-eating corpse Reported in Khabrain a spiritual ‘baba’ Pir Fazl told a family that their recently dead family members were in great pain in their graves because another dead man was eating up their shrouds (kafan). In Rajanpur everyone became alerted to the underground shroud-eater who was named by Pir Baba as Allahyar. He asked the relatives to open his grave and break his skull with a hammer. The concerned family did the deed but the relatives of the ‘shroud-eater’ found out that their man had been defiled in his grave and there was much trouble in the village. Speaker asked to open his legs According to Sarerahe in Nawa-e-Waqt speaker National Assembly Chaudhry Amir Hussain was about to enter the Australian parliament when he was body-searched (jama-talashi). He submitted to that but then he was asked to spread his legs which he found most insulting. The column was most offended with the thought that the Australians were after something more embarrassing than explosives when they asked him to open his legs. Fish with divine names According to Nawa-e-Waqt a Muslim in London, Ali Al Wakeedi, had bought a pair of fish with Allah and Muhammad written on their bodies. He said the divine names were not very clear to the eye but he believed that the names were there. He now receives a lot of Muslims who want to see the miraculous fish to increase their faith. America running the show! Famous historian Dr Safdar Mehmood wrote in Jang that the educated people of Pakistan were becoming increasingly aware that Pakistan had become the colony of the US and the US could bomb our region any time and arrest anyone it wanted any time and then go back home. They thought that Pakistani rulers had become functionaries (karinday) of America and, after the Bush visit, had come to realise that America itself was not satisfied with these rulers. On the other hand the one-man show in Pakistan was ignoring merit and inducting army officers and friends into important jobs. In these conditions, Pakistan was simmering with underground moves for a final dangal (wrestling bout) against the rulers. ‘Talaq’ while sleeping According to Sarerahe in Nawa-e-Waqt a Muslim in India divorced his wife in his sleep. When he approached his local Islamic scholar he was told that divorce had actually happened and now he had to get his ex-wife married off to a cleric who would divorce her to make her eligible for remarriage to him. Sarerahe thought that the Islamic cleric too gave his fatwa while asleep. Sardar Atiq and snakes Writing in Khabrain Tariq Hamid stated that Azad Kashmiri and Muslim Conference leader Sardar Atiq Khan was an accomplished politician but he was also into spiritual practices. For instance, he could make your headache go away in an instant through incantation. He was also an expert at making the snakes of Azad Kashmir run away from homes. There were many miraculous stories associated with his magical powers. But the columnist wondered why, if Sardar Atiq was against snakes, did he want American and NATO forces to stay on in Azad Kashmir. Chief minister in trouble Writing in the daily Pakistan, Naseer Ahmad Salimi stated that chief minister Arbab Ghulam Raheem was under pressure from coalition in-fighting and a rapidly deteriorating law and order situation in Sindh. After the coming to power of the present MQM-PML coalition, the following politicians had been gunned down in Karachi: PPP’s Abdullah Murad, Jamaat Islami’s MPA Aslam Mujahid, MQM’s former speaker assembly Abdur Raziq Khan, former Sindh minister Badar Iqbal and MQM’s Khalid bin Waleed. Iran has guts! Quoted in Nawa-e-Waqt ex-ISI chief Hameed Gul said that Iran will not accept dictation from America because Iran had guts (jaan hai). He said that American ambassador’s statement that there would be no AQ Khan in future was against diplomatic rules. He added that there was ember in the ashes of the Muslim ummah and it will become a fire. MMA leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmad said that hundreds of AQ Khans had been born in Pakistan; but America would not find a single Musharraf here in future.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

CID arrests four SM militants, makes weapons haul

2005-08-31

KARACHI: The Crime Investigation Department (CID) arrested four activists of the banned militant organisation Sipah-e-Muhammad (SM) and recovered a cache of weapons from their possession on Tuesday. Sources said that the deputy superintendent of police of the special cell for controlling sectarian terrorism was informed about the presence of four Sipah-e-Muhammad militants — Abid Raza, Asad Raza, Kalim Raza and Faisal Abbasi — in a school in Orangi, Karachi west. The CID team arrested the suspects and later on their information, seized eight AK-47 rifles, 10 hand grenades, two detonators, four TT pistols, two sten guns, four revolvers and several rounds of ammunition from a nearby graveyard. Sources said that the suspects belonged to the Imtiaz Jaafri wing of the Sipah-e-Muhammad, adding that they were involved in attacks on various mosques during Ramazan and had also attacked a Harkatul Ansar camp. They said that the suspects had confessed during interrogation that their responsibility in the militant outfit was to supply and maintain the weapons. Police sources said that the suspects were also allegedly involved in the murder of Mufti Atiqur Rehman and his lover companion.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Jihadis ready for action against government

2005-07-11

Jihadi organisations have reportedly decided to launch operations against the government for its pro–US stance and for cracking down on them (jihadis). Sources told Daily Times on Sunday that intelligence reports given to the Interior Ministry said members of defunct jihadi organisations including Harkatul Mujahideen al-Alami, Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami, Harkatul Ansar, Jaish e-Muhammad (Khuddamul Islam), Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan were planning to target American, British and Iranian diplomats and other foreign dignitaries in Pakistan. The reports said government officials including Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Minister of State for Religious Affairs Dr Amir Liaqat Hussain, National Bank of Pakistan President Syed Ai Raza, Muttahida Qaumi Movement Senator Allama Ghulam Abbas Kumaili and Irfan Ali Abdi were also targets, sources added. Reports said jihadi organisations had selected churches countrywide to carry out suicide attacks and car bombings against, sources said. “It has been reported that five churches in Rawalpindi and Islamabad have been selected by the jihadi outfits. These churches are the St Andrew’s Church in Gowalmandi, Rawalpindi, St Paul’s Church in Rawalpindi Cantonment, UP Church in Raja Bazaar, Rawalpindi, Priest Nasir Church in Islamabad, and St Thomas Church in Islamabad,” sources added. The reports also said the jihadi outfits had formed groups of three to carry out the attacks and that they were armed with automatic weapons, sources said, adding that the jihadi outfits possessed explosives as well as people ready to carry out the attacks. Sources said the jihadi outfits planned to carry out suicide attacks and car bombings to pressure the government into reconsidering its policies on jihad and cooperating with the US and other western countries in the war on terrorism. In light of these reports, the Interior Ministry has asked all home secretaries and provincial police officers to strengthen security around worship places and foreign dignitaries, ministers and other government officials.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Farooqi was located after Akhtar cracked

2004-10-02

Authorities tracked down Amjad Farooqi after Harkatul Jihad Islami leader Qari Saif Ullah Akhtar tipped them during the interrogation that followed his arrest in Dubai in August, an intelligence officer told Daily Times on Friday. Farooqi, who was the mastermind behind the assassination attempts on President General Pervez Musharraf and the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl, was shot in an encounter with police on September 26 in Nawabshah. He said Qari Saif and other Al Qaeda operatives disclosed the names of several militants during their interrogation. Qari Saif and Farooqi were in close contact till Qari Saif's arrest in August, the officer said. The officer said that they had conspired to kill President Musharraf, but had been unsuccessful in both their attempts. Sources claimed that Qari Saif had ordered Farooqi to kill many important people. Qari Saif and Farooqi first met in 1995, when Qari Saif was released from jail after his alleged involvement in conspiring against the Benazir Bhutto government, a source said. According to the source, Farooqi was a member of Harkatul Ansar and Harkatul Jihad Islami. He said that Farooqi was in charge of a training camp in Kabul at the time when Qari Safi was an assistant to Mulla Omar. Asked about Muhammad Yousaf, who is Farooqi's brother-in-law and a lance naik in the Pakistan Army, he said that he had not been arrested and his whereabouts remained unknown. The intelligence officer said that Farooqi's DNA tests had been completed and his body would soon be handed to his family. Javed Iqbal, the elder brothers of Amjad Farooqi told the Daily Times on telephone that his family and relatives had been waiting for the last 6 days to receive Amjad's body. "We don't know where the body is. His DNA test was completed but the government has yet to hand his body to us. We tried to contact the interior minister on his mobile phone and left a message, however he has yet to get in touch with us. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Riaz Fatyana, the chairman of the Parliamentary Human Rights Committee, have not responded either, said Mr Iqbal.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Splitting Jihad to Control it or End it?

2004-08-30

EFL Ever since the start of the insurgency in Kashmir, the Pakistani intelligence agencies have constantly raised, mutated, emasculated and even extirpated the so-called jihadi groups active in Kashmir. The dependence of the Jihadis active in Kashmir on Pakistan for training, logistics, arms and ammunition and most of all sanctuaries, has been exploited to the hilt by the Pakistani establishment. Not only do the Pakistani agencies decide which organization will play what role in fuelling the insurgency in Kashmir, they also raise new outfits at regular intervals to ensure that none of the organizations ever get so big or powerful that they can ever pose a threat to the state. The moment a group gets too powerful or autonomous or becomes a political liability or if it strays from the line given to it by the Pakistan establishment, it is either replaced by another group or is rendered completely ineffective by withdrawing patronage. In the initial years the Pakistanis supported JKLF despite the fact that they were not comfortable with the JKLF's pro-independence ideology. But as soon as the Pakistanis managed to build up the pro-Pakistan Hizbul Mujahedin, support was withdrawn from the JKLF. The fact that the Hizbul Mujahedin was initially composed of Kashmiri's made the Pakistani establishment look for a more Pakistani alternative. This was achieved by diverting the jihadis who had fought in Afghanistan to Kashmir. There were essentially two Deobandi jihadi organisations which were ushered into waging war in Kashmir — Harkatul Jihad Islami and Harkatul Mujahedin. Because of the problems in coordinating their operations, in 1993 a merger was effected between these two Deobandi jihadis groups to form the Harkatul Ansar. But it abducted and murdered some western tourists, causing unwanted attention...

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