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Recent Appearances...

Yahya Mujahid	Yahya Mujahid	Lashkar-e-Taiba	India-Pakistan	20011214
	Yahya Mujahid	Jamat-ud-Dawa	India-Pakistan	20021101
	Yahya Mujahid	Jamaat-ud-daawa	India-Pakistan	20060825	Link

India-Pakistan

Hafiz Saeed has been sentenced to 10 years in jail by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan

2020-11-20

[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

Jamat-ud-Dawa (#JuD) chief #HafizSaeed has been sentenced to 10 years in jail by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan. https://t.co/qCmWa775e4
— Daily Times (@dailytimespak) November 19, 2020

Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed

...Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Yahya Aziz and Abdul Islam are all members of Tanzeem al-Anfaal Trust, a money-laundering subsidiary of LeT...

has been sentenced to six-month jail.

24 out of the total 41 cases registered against the JuD leaders have been decided by the ATC courts. Four cases have been decided against Saeed so far.

The Jerusalem Post adds:

Lashkar-e-Taiba
...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI...
(LeT), the Death Eater group blamed by the United States and India for the 2008 Mumbai siege, to 10 years in prison on two charges of terrorism financing, his lawyer said.

The sentences for the two charges - five years each - will run concurrently. Saeed is already in jail serving two sentences of five-and-a-half-years each, handed down to him in February this year, which means he will not serve any extra jail time.

"An anti-terrorism court in Lahore sentenced ten-and-a-half years imprisonment to chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawa
...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba...
Hafiz Saeed, his deputy Zafar Iqbal, and front man Yahya Mujahid on charges of terror financing," Saeed's lawyer Imran Fazal Gill told Rooters.

Appeals have been filed against previous sentences, Gill said.

Saeed has been arrested and released several times over the past decade. He denies any involvement with militancy, including the 2008 Mumbai siege in which 160 people were killed, including Americans. The United States offered a reward of $10 million for information leading to the conviction of Saeed.

The conviction comes as Pakistain tries to avoid punitive blacklisting by global dirty money watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which judges a country's ability to combat illicit financing, including to Death Eater organizations.

Pakistain has remained on the "grey list" since 2018. In FATF's last review in October, Pakistain was urged to complete an internationally agreed action plan by February 2021 and to demonstrate that terrorism financing probes resulted in effective sanctions.

Saeed's lawyer said his client was convicted under FATF pressure.

No doubt.

Link

India-Pakistan

US warns of 'damage to bilateral ties, Pakistan’s reputation' over Hafiz Saeed's release

2017-11-26

[DAWN] The White House has called Pakistain's release of Jamaat-ud-Dawa

...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba...
(JuD) leader Hafiz Saeed

...founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and its false-mustache offshoot Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The United Nations declared the JuD a terrorist organization in 2008 and Hafiz Saeed a terrorist as its leader. Hafiz, JuD and LeT are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Pak intel apparatus, so that amounted to squat...
a "step in the wrong direction" and said a refusal to re-arrest him would damage bilateral ties and Pakistain's reputation around the world.

In a statement on Saturday, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the US "strongly condemns" the release of Hafiz Saeed from house arrest. She urged his "immediate re-arrest and prosecution".

"Saeed's release, after Pakistain's failure to prosecute or charge him, sends a deeply troubling message about Pakistain's commitment to combatting international terrorism and belies Pak claims that it will not provide sanctuary for holy warriors on its soil," she said.

"If Pakistain does not take action to lawfully detain Saeed and charge him for his crimes, its inaction will have repercussions for bilateral relations and for Pakistain's global reputation," Sanders said.

On Friday, Washington had urged Pakistain to re-arrest Lashkar-e-Taiba
...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI...
(LeT) leader Hafiz Saeed and charge him with the crimes he was accused of committing.

Saeed was released before dawn on Friday after a three-judge panel in Lahore High Court ended his detention in Lahore. Saeed's front man Yahya Mujahid called it a "victory of truth."

Addressing a sermon at Lahore's Jamia Masjid Al Qadsia a day after walking free, Saeed said he was "fighting for the freedom of Pakistain and Kashmire."

The move outraged both US and Indian authorities.

"India is outraged that a self-confessed and a UN proscribed terrorist is allowed to walk free and continue with his agenda," Raveesh Kumar, India's foreign ministry front man, told news hounds at a weekly briefing in New Delhi.

Link

India-Pakistan

Pakistan releases US-wanted militant suspect on court order

2017-11-24

[AP] LAHORE, Pakistan ‐ Pakistani authorities acting on a court order released a U.S.-wanted militant Friday who allegedly founded a banned group linked to the 2008 Mumbai, India attack that killed 168 people, his spokesman and officials said.

Hafiz Saeed, who has been designated a terrorist by the U.S. Justice Department and has a $10 million bounty on his head, was released before dawn after the court this week ended his detention in the eastern city of Lahore.

The move outraged Indian authorities, but Saeed’s spokesman Yahya Mujahid confirmed his release, calling it a "victory of truth."

"Hafiz Saeed was under house arrest on baseless allegations and jail officials came to his home last night and told him that he is now free," he said.

Saeed ran the Jamaat-ud-Dawa organization, widely believed to be a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, which India believes was behind the deadly attack in Mumbai.

Pakistan has been detaining and freeing Saeed off and on since the attack and he and four of his aides were put under house arrest in Lahore in January. His release came after a three-judge panel dismissed the government’s plea to continue his house arrest, which ended Thursday. His aides had been released earlier.

Link

India-Pakistan

Sharia court dispenses ‘justice’ in Lahore

2016-04-08

[DAWN] In a manifestation of people’s growing distrust in conventional judicial system and mounting influence of religious organizations in society, Jamatud Dawa (JuD) has set up ’Darul Qaza Sharia’ in the provincial metropolis to dispense ’justice’ among people in light of Sharia laws, Dawn has learnt.

A legal expert Dawn talked to said this is in sheer violation of the Constitution of Pakistain. However,
it was a brave man who first ate an oyster...
the organization claims it offers arbitration only and resolves disputes in light of Sharia.

The JuD is not a proscribed organization and claims to render social welfare services besides running charitable schools and hospitals in calamity-hit cities of the country especially.

Organisers say it’s arbitration only
Sources say the organization’s ’Arbitration Court of Sharia’ has been taking up complaints of citizens approaching it for justice and summoning the ’defendants’ in person or through a legal counsel with warnings of strict action under the Sharia laws in case of no response.

A copy of official JuD summons available with Dawn bears two monograms ‐ Darul Qaza Sharia, Jamatud Dawa Pakistain and Saalsi Sharai Adalat-e-Aalia (Arbitration Court of Sharia).

The ’court’ has been established at the organization’s headquarters, Jamia Qadsia, Chauburji under a Qazi (judge) who is assisted by Khadmins (court associates) to decide the complaints. The complaints are addressed to the chief of the religious organization who later refers them to Qazi for further proceedings.

Sources say complainants approach the ’arbitration court’ in the hope of swift solutions as litigation before conventional courts takes much time especially in civil cases.

The organization’s front man Yahya Mujahid defends the functioning of the ’Sharia Court’ saying it is not a parallel system to the constitutional courts of the country. "It is an arbitration court, which decides disputes with the consent of the parties," he said. He states disputes have been resolved in accordance with Islamic laws and that offering arbitration to confronting parties is not illegal.

The front man failed to justify issuance of summons carrying a warning of strict action in case of non-compliance, when mentioned that there can be no coercion on any of the disputing party in arbitration.

In one such case regarding a monetary dispute between two property developers, the ’Sharia Court’ has been issuing summons to the defendant. However,
it was a brave man who first ate an oyster...
the defendant has not appeared before the Qazi so far.

He has written letters to judicial and executive authorities, including chief justice of Pakistain and prime minister, complaining about the unconstitutional summons being issued to him by the religious organization. The letters are yet to be answered whereas the JuD front man offers no explanation to the practice of serving summons.

Pakistain Bar Council member Azam Nazir Tarar says the Constitution does not allow any private organization to use the word "court". The word can be used for Supreme Court, Federal Shariat Court, high courts and all other courts established by a high court only.

"This is parallel judicial system and against the law of the land," he maintained in a talk with Dawn.

He says conventional courts of the country are working under Koran, Sunnah and Sharia laws. The Constitution of Pakistain bars any law against Koran and Sharia, Mr Tarar maintains.

Deputy Inspector General (Operations) Dr Haider Ashraf denies any knowledge of the existence of ’Sharia Court’ or having received any complaint in this regard. He says police will take action if they received any complaint as the law did not allow any parallel judicial system.

Link

India-Pakistan

'India be declared terrorist country'

2013-01-23

[Dawn] Jamaat-ud-Dawa
...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba...
(JuD) leadership on Monday demanded India should be declared a 'terrorist country' after its home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde's admission that Hindu terrorist organizations were involved in the tragic incidents of torching Samjhota Express, besides Maligaon and Makkah mosque incidents.

"The Indian interior minister's confession about involvement of Hindu thug and terrorist organizations in various tragedies, such as Samjhota Express burning and other incidents has proved that India is promoting terrorism. So the world should now take up this matter very seriously by declaring it a terrorist country," JuD chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed

...who would be wearing a canvas jacket with very long sleeves anyplace but Pakistain...
told news hounds at a presser at Jamia Masjid Al-Qadsia, Chauburji.

Flanked by Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki, Maulana Ameer Hamza, Hafiz Muhammad Masood, Yahya Mujahid and other JuD leaders, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed urged the United States to start drone attacks on India too as Hindu terrorist groups were active there as per Indian minister's statement.

He accused India and the US of planning to hit Pakistain's nuclear programme. Giving a free hand to American CIA with regard to drone attacks in Pakistain was a part of this planning, Saeed alleged.

"If the US is serious and sincere in eliminating terrorism in the region, it should immediately initiate drone attacks on training centres of thug Hindu terrorist organizations," he said.

He questioned the US leadership for not imposing a ban on Indian terrorist groups and singling out Pakistain in this regard.

The JuD head accused the Indian army of being also involved in terrorist activities in Pakistain.

He said it had been proved that the Indian terrorist groups were also involved in dozens of terrorist activities in Balochistan

...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
and other areas of Pakistain. He said India had always accused Pak religious organizations of being involved in terrorism.

"Though India accused us of being involved in Mumbai attacks and terrorism across the Line of Control (LoC), its claims had proved wrong. And now confession of its own minister has made everything crystal clear before all," the JuD leader said.

He urged the government to take up the issue of torching Samjhota Express at the UN Security Council, adding the Pakistain should also seek handover of the culprits involved in the tragedy.

Link

India-Pakistan

Saeed said helping "de-radicalize" militants

2012-04-07

In which the Paks demonstrate their fine mastery of the media puff piece...

ISLAMABAD: An Islamist leader who had a $10 million American bounty placed on his head this week has been helping Pakistan de-radicalize militants under efforts to stabilize the strategic US ally, a top Pakistani counter-terrorism official said on Friday.

Hafiz Saeed, suspected of masterminding an attack by Pakistan-based gunmen on Indias financial capital Mumbai in 2008 that killed 166 people, including six Americans, met government officials from the Punjab province and pledged his support for the drive, the official said.

Hafiz Saeed has agreed with the Punjab government program of de-radicalization and rehabilitation of former jihadis and extended full cooperation, the counter-terrorism official told Reuters.

the counter-terrorism official said that Saeed had not been paid for his de-radicalization activities.

A senior police official in Punjab province, who is closely involved with investigations into militant activity, confirmed that Saeed and his supporters were helping efforts to transform militants into law-abiding citizens.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) were consulted, and they approved the de-radicalization plan. They assured us of their intellectual input and resource materials. They also offered teachers, he told Reuters, referring to the charity Saeed heads.

More madrassahs! More jacket wallas!

The bounty highlighted the divide between the United States direct approach to tackling militancy, and strategies employed by Pakistan, a nuclear-armed South Asian nation seen as critical to US efforts to pacifying Afghanistan.

While Pakistan has mounted offensives against militant groups like the homegrown Taleban, it also contends other tactics such as de-radicalization are vital to sustaining battlefield gains.

Yahya Mujahid, the JuD spokesman, said the group had not participated in the de-radicalization program.

Hafiz Khalid Waleed, another senior JuD member, declined to comment on whether the Islamist leader had been directly assisting the government in de-radicalization. But he said Saeed and his followers were promoting non-violence.

Hafiz Saeed was one of the first religious leaders to denounce militancy and suicide bombings, said Waleed. Our schools and madrassas (religious seminaries) are urging peace.

Under the program, former militants are urged to develop technical skills that could give them long-lasting employment to keep them from taking up arms against the state again.

Experts also try to reverse what Pakistani officials call brainwashing by ~~terrorists~~ militants who preach holy war against the West.

To help the deradicalization program, Saeed identifies former ~~terrorists~~ militants who may still be recruited for jihad because they are jobless and idle and he helps steer them toward the program, said the counter-terrorism official.

Nice way for him to identify new people for his group...

Waleed mocked the decision to place a bounty on Saeed.

President Barack Obamas election symbol was a donkey and his government is acting like one. They have no evidence against Hafiz Saeed and are scrambling to make up stories, he told Reuters.

Pakistani officials say Saeed, who Western officials suspect of links to Al-Qaeda, has the right to move freely because he has been cleared by Pakistani courts of a range of accusations.

Saeed abandoned the leadership of the LeT after India accused it of being behind an attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001. But his charity is suspected of being a front for the LeT. He denies any wrongdoing and links to militants.

Saeed agreed to support de-radicalization because he felt that former ~~terrorists~~ militants should find jobs and re-join mainstream society, said the counter-terrorism official, who has been at the forefront of efforts to fight militancy in Punjab.

The counter-terrorism official, who engineered the project, said 200 former militants had participated this year in Punjab, Pakistans most populous province, including some from Saeeds ~~terrorist~~ militant group. Another 100 will be completing the program by June.

Saeed, a former professor of Islamic studies at an engineering university, appeared at a press conference on Wednesday in the city of Rawalpindi, home to headquarters of the Pakistani army, recipient of billions of dollars in US aid. Flanked by some of Pakistans most virulently anti-American Islamists at a hotel about a 40-minute drive from the USembassy in the capital, he taunted the United States.

Saeed, a short bearded man, lives near a park and a mosque in a non-descript villa with a policeman stationed outside, in the central city of Lahore, capital of Punjab.

Some of his bodyguards wear olive camouflage vests while others are dressed in dark traditional shalwar-kameez, baggy shirt and trousers. Clutching AK-47 assault rifles, a few are positioned on his rooftop watching the street.

Saeed enjoys armed protection from the state because of his new thinking, sources said.

Al Qaeda or factions from the Pakistani Taleban may want to kill him, said one of the sources, adding India may want to target him as well.

Asked if the reward would anger Saeeds followers and undermine de-radicalization efforts, he said: There is resentment but I hope the program wont be affected.

Link

India-Pakistan

Blacklisted group says Pakistan needs peace, prosperity

2011-07-13

[Dawn] Over tea in Lahore with the man who some see -- wrongly he says -- as a front man for the Lashkar-e-Taiba orc group, one subject dominates the conversation. It's not jihad, not Kashmire, but the economy.

"The first condition to bring peace in Pakistain is prosperity," said Muhammad Yahya Mujahid, front man for the Jamaat-ud-Dawa
...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba...
(JuD), the humanitarian wing of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which is banned in Pakistain.

"Already people are being killed by price hikes. In such circumstances, we can't afford kabooms."

It is an official line from an organization blacklisted by the United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
over its links -- denied by the JuD -- to LeT, the orc group blamed by the United States and India for the November 2008 attacks on Mumbai that killed 166 people.

But the choice of subject is nonetheless indicative of the extent to which worries about the economy are gripping Pakistain, where even the military -- the former patron of the JuD/LeT -- cites these before its old obsessions about India and Kashmire.

Pakistain army chief General Ashfaq Kayani
... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI...
has begun to talk about the weakening economy as a security threat, as the country battles a Pak Taliban insurgency, rising corruption and chronic power shortages. It needs stability for economic growth.

Mujahid, who denies links with the LeT but was described in a UN blacklist as the head of the LeT's media department with an influential role in its central leadership, said Pakistain must find a way to end the frequent gun and kabooms.

"We believe security agencies of Pakistain should control the situation through any means, through negotiations, or any means. It is their duty to find a way for peace and, whatever they think is proper to keep peace in Pakistain, they should do it."

With growth forecast this year at just 2.4 per cent and inflation running at 14 per cent and likely to rise further with increasing oil prices, ordinary Paks are far more likely to worry about the economy than the Islamist snuffies who so preoccupy the United States and the rest of the outside world.

Mujahid, who insisted the JuD severed its links with the LeT in 2001 -- an assertion security analysts dispute -- picked up that theme, echoing a complaint frequently made by Paks when he bemoaned the growing energy crisis:

"You get electricity and petrol cheaper in western societies. People are looking for basics -- transport, electricity."

Preaching Through Welfare

The JuD, which follows an Islamic tradition known as Ahle Hadith -- a purist or Salafist
...Salafists espouse an austere form of Sunni Islam that seeks a return to practices that were common in the 7th century. Rather than doing that themselves and letting other people alone they insist everybody do as they say and they try to kill everybody who doesn't...
faith whose adherents say they emulate the ways of the companions of the Prophet Mohammad -- has always stressed the need to help the poor.

It runs schools, hospitals, ambulances and dispensaries and argues like many other Islamist groups that a Mohammedan society purged of modern evils, from corruption to music, would be both fairer and stronger.

"We believe in preaching through welfare," said Mujahid. "Pakistain should be a welfare state where people could get every basic necessity of life easily."

But JuD has been inextricably linked to armed jihad since its origins in the campaign against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan -- the purification of society it seeks is meant to make Mohammedans stronger when fighting their enemies.

The Lashkar-e-Taiba, once nurtured by the military to fight India in Kashmire, has also been the army's most loyal proxy, even now eschewing attacks within Pakistain itself. It has also been kept on a tight leash since Mumbai, for fear of a fresh attack that would invite retribution on Pakistain.

So does Mujahid's stress on the economy suggest at least a shift in emphasis, or perhaps even an echo of the military's own thinking that its old habits of using orc proxies to bleed India are currently taking too much of a toll on Pakistain?

Few can agree on the answer.

Pak analyst Ayesha Siddiqa, author of a book on the Mighty Pak Army, said that, far from reining in its old orc proxies, the military was building them up, including by setting up camps in the south of

Punjab province and in Sindh province.

"I think they (the army) have over the years developed a strategic dependence on these proxies," she said.

Others argue that it does indeed want to close them down eventually, and ascribe a decision by the authorities to allow JuD/LeT founder Hafez Saeed and others to operate openly as a means of keeping control of the group.

"It now seems that Pakistain is indeed anxious to neutralise and if possible destroy krazed killer organizations and networks, but can't make up its mind how to do it," said Brian Cloughley, a defence expert who has written two books on the Pakistain army.

Home For Armed Cadres?

As with everything in Pakistain, the same set of evidence can be given different explanations depending on perspective.

Mujahid, who like other members of the Ahle Hadith sect wears his trousers above the ankle in the tradition of the companions of the Prophet, was insistent that the JuD and its leader, Hafez Saeed, no longer had links to the LeT.

"It is highly deplorable that people in the media still call me a front man of the Lashkar-e-Taiba," he said.

But the fact that the JuD is so active despite its U.N. blacklisting -- its members were visible in relief efforts during last year's devastating floods -- is cited by some as proof Pakistain will never act against either it or the LeT.

"The JuD is best regarded as the parent group of the LeT, which is its armed instrument," said Ajai Sahni, executive director of India's Institute of Conflict Management.

"The distinction is real, because the JuD also engages in a much wider network of activities, including charitable work ... while the LeT's activities are restricted to terrorism and terrorist mobilisation."

But analysts argue the JuD can be used a front for LeT to collect funds or recruit volunteers for a jihad that it can ill afford to abandon without losing support to other Islamist groups.

"I see it (the LeT) continuing to be aggressive in India and Afghanistan and spreading its social networks in Pakistain," said South Asia expert C. Christine Fair at Georgetown University.

Yet the JuD's humanitarian activities also serve a purpose, since they would provide a useful repository into which to channel LeT cadres, were they ever to be disarmed.

"Interlocutors within and close to the Pak security establishment have suggested ... that if the Kashmire issue is settled 'appropriately', then over time LeT could be steered towards non-violent activism," Stephen Tankel, author of a book on the group, wrote in a New America Foundation paper in April.

"In other words, the above-ground JuD and its array of social welfare activities provides a possible means for demobilising its orcs," he wrote.

Mujahid said only that the fate of Kashmire should be decided by its people. "We should not talk of Pakistain or India. India should give the right of self-determination to the Kashmiris. A peaceful solution in Kashmire is good for the whole region."

The United States is so far unconvinced of Pakistain's willingness to eventually disarm the LeT, which it described in a report last month as "a formidable terrorist threat."

The army itself has said it cannot take on all orc groups at once, and will give priority to those who are killing its own people. Most analysts, therefore expect the LeT to be the last to be tackled.

But the jihad in Kashmire, which once provided the reason for Pak military backing for the LeT, has lost support both among the Kashmiris and in public opinion in Pakistain.

The army's focus is now on domestic stability and the JuD, by talking about the economy, appears to be following its lead.

Link

India-Pakistan

Indian plots bound to fail: Nizami

2011-07-01

The newly elected office-bearers of the Nazria Pakistan Trust's Capital chapter have pledged their unconditional loyalty and allegiance with Pakistan's ideology under the leadership and guidance of Editor-in-Chief TheNation Majid Nizami.

"Our horses are ready and these horses are our missiles and atom bombs. These horses would destroy India in a jiffy. We have horses and India has donkeys. I often say and I say it now, tie me with a missile and throw it to India to blow up our enemy."

During an impressive ceremony to inaugurate the Nazria Pakistan Trust's Islamabad branch, dozens of office-bearers of the new branch took oath from Majid Nizami in a strong gesture to express full confidence over his leadership as Chairman Nazria Pakistan Trust.
The top brass of Nazria Pakistan Trust Rawalpindi branch led by Professor Naeem Qasim and including Patron-in-Chief Naseem Anwar Baig was also present during the occasion.

Lieutenant General (Retd) Abdul Qayum was elected as President Nazria Pakistan Trust, Zafar Bakhtawri as General Secretary, Muhammad Arif Shaikh as Vice President and Malik Fida-ur-Rehman Paracha as Additional Secretary. Professor Fateh Muhammad Malik, Shahid Rasheed, Dr Murtaza Mughal, Zahid Bakhtawri, Yahya Mujahid, Madam Tasneem and others also shared views during the occasion.

Majid Nizami warned India that its evil conspiracies would not work even a little bit to harm Pakistan. He said India was the enemy of both Pakistan and Bangladesh and both the states should foil the enemy's designs. "But our rulers are dying to mend fences with India. Everyday they talk about Indo-Pak trade amounting in millions of dollars. They must wake up and realise that there would be no trade and terms with India unless Pakistan's jugular vein Kashmir is set free from Indian occupation," the veteran journalist said.

He recalled the contributions of women during Pakistan Movement in profound words and said that the women had played tremendous role in Pakistan's independence to hoist Pakistan's flag at the Muslim League office. Majid Nizami showered rich praises on Fatima Jinnah, the Mother of the Nation.

Nizami recalled the services of late chief minister Punjab Ghulam Haider Wyne who had played a vital role in consolidating the foundations of Nazria Pakistan Trust. He also mentioned the contributions of incumbent CM Punjab Shahbaz Sharif towards Nazria Pakistan Trust.

Warning the India, Majid Nizami said, "Our horses are ready and these horses are our missiles and atom bombs. These horses would destroy India in a jiffy. We have horses and India has donkeys. I often say and I say it now, tie me with a missile and throw it to India to blow up our enemy."

Nizami cautioned against Indian highhandedness and said that India was planning to build dams to create water shortage in Pakistan. "The enemy would never succeed," he reiterated. Editor-in-Chief TheNation Majid Nizami paid homage to the Armed Forces saying that these forces had sacrificed their lives for Pakistan. He termed Afghan President Hamid Karzai as an Indian agent who was following the US dictation and continuing Zahir Shah's policies. Afghanistan was the only country that had voted against Pakistan's formation in the United Nations, he said.

Professor Naeem Qasim vowed to continue Majid Nizami's noble mission of safeguarding Pakistan's interests and reiterated that the malicious conspiracy of some sold media persons to launch a filthy vilification campaign against the armed forces would never succeed. "We, under the able command of Majid Nizami, would foil those attempts," he vowed.

Lieutenant General (Retd) Abdul Qayum said that Majid Nizami was a pillar of Pakistan's security and an asset as well as a motivation for every patriotic Pakistani. He said that it was the duty of this nation to follow Majid Nizami's teachings in schools, colleges and universities. He termed Majid Nizami as most suitable candidate for Pakistan's presidency.

Professor Fateh Muhammad Malik said that Majid Nizami was leading the brigade of patriots and Pakistan's enemy India was bound to fail because Pakistan had patriotic sons like Majid Nizami.
Zafar Bakhtawri said that Majid Nizami was the custodian of Pakistan's ideology and a blessing for this country. He said that Nawa-i-Waqt Group, under the command of Majid Nizami, was standing like a rock against the anti-state elements and enemies of Pakistan regarded Majid Nizami as their greatest enemy. Later, the office-bearers and the participants offered collective prayer for the well being of Pakistan and strengthening of Nazria Pakistan Trust to safeguard Pakistans' interests.

Link

India-Pakistan

Religious parties condemn attacks on Ahmedis

2010-05-29

Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan Noorani (JUP-N) and the World Pasban Khatam-e-Nabuwat (WPKN), known to be two of those parties who are most actively working against Ahmedis in the country, and several religious organisations have condemned the terrorist attacks targeting Ahmedis on Friday. The JUP-N started a Khatam-e-Nabuwat movement against Ahmedis in the 70s and later succeeded in having them declared "non-Muslims" through parliament in 1974 and the WPKN, established 31 years ago, had launched various demonstrations against Ahmedis.

"American, Indian and Israeli agencies may be involved in these attacks in a bid to increase the propaganda against Muslims," he said.

However, JUP-N Secretary General Qari Zawar Bahadar told Daily Times that although the organization had differences with Ahmedis, they did not condone terrorism and strongly condemned the attacks on Ahmedis in the provincial metropolis.

Zawar said that the attacks on Ahmedis were a conspiracy launched by international agencies to divert the world's attention from Muslim protests on the Facebook issue. "American, Indian and Israeli agencies may be involved in these attacks in a bid to increase the propaganda against Muslims," he said.

WPKN convener Allama Mumtaz Awan told Daily Times that he condemned the attacks against Ahmedis, saying that such acts of terror were against Islamic teachings. "Although we ran a movement against Ahmedis, we have never crossed any limits because we believe in the rights of all communities living in the country," he said.

To a question, he said that three organizations, including the International Khatam-e-Nabuwat Movement (IKNM), Almi Majlis Tahafuz-e-Khatam-e-Nabuwat (AMTKN) and his own group were actively playing their role for defending the ideology of Khatam-e-Nabuwat, adding that the attacks on Ahmedis were a conspiracy against Pakistan.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa Pakistan (JDP)'s spokesperson Yahya Mujahid, condemning the attacks, said the Punjabi Taliban were responsible.

Also, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Syed Munawar Hasan condemned the attacks in the provincial capital and termed it a conspiracy on the Youm-e-Takbeer to trigger civil war and justify continued US interference in the country.

Separately, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Jaferia (PTJ) Punjab President Tanveer Naqvi told Daily Times that he condemned every form of terrorism, adding that Friday's attacks were a conspiracy to defame Muslims as terrorists.

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India-Pakistan

US imposes sanctions on 3 LT leaders

2009-07-02

The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on an Al Qaeda backer and three leaders of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, believed to be behind last year's Mumbai attacks. The US Treasury said it was imposing an assets freeze on the four, identified as Fazeelattul Shaykh Abu Mohammed Ameen Al-Peshawari, Arif Qasmani, Mohammed Yahya Mujahid, and Nasir Javaid.

Ameen Al-Peshawari allegedly provided assistance, including funding and recruits, to Al Qaeda and the Taliban currently fighting to regain control of Afghanistan. Qasmani is said to be the chief coordinator for Laskhar and Mujahid was the head of the group's media department. Javaid had allegedly served Lashkar's commander in Pakistan. The Treasury said its action came two days after Al-Peshawari, Qasmani and Mujahid were added to a UN blacklist of individuals.

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India-Pakistan

The demise of Pakistan is inevitable

2009-06-14

Its military establishment, hatred for India and history of injustice means Pakistan is a victim of the divisive logic that created it

By Kapil Komireddi

Pakistan's fight against the Taliban is an illusion. The world may view it as a battle for Pakistan's soul, but the generals in Rawalpindi, with whom real power rests, are not so sure. If they were, 200,000 of their finest fighters wouldn't be chewing grass on the eastern border with India while the so-called battle for Pakistan's survival rages on in the north-west.

Blackmailing the world by threatening imminent collapse is vintage Pakistan. Recently, President Asif Ali Zardari told Der Spiegel that the safety of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal depended entirely upon how well the world supported democracy in his battered country. "If democracy in this country fails, if the world doesn't help democracy," he warned, "then any eventuality is possible." Having placed the burden of Pakistan's recovery from the mire of its own making on the world's shoulders, Zardari listed the "help" that his government expected: "billions of dollars".

But Pentagon documents released earlier this month give an alarming account of where the benignant billions of aid dollars poured into Pakistan's coffers over the last decade have ended up: on the most modern weaponry combat aircraft, laser-guided kits, anti-ship missiles, air-to-air missiles for use against India. Under the cloak of this conflict, Pakistan has equipped itself for battle with its traditional enemy, rapidly increasing its nuclear weapons at the same time.

The Taliban's recent targets have unsettled their erstwhile paymasters, but nothing seems to deter Islamabad from continuing with its policy of patronising Islamic extremists so long as they are devoted to destroying India. Punjab is littered with these groups. In Lahore last month, Yahya Mujahid told me that his group, the banned Jamat-ud-Dawah, would continue to fight against Indian rule in Kashmir. The operations "have gone somewhat cold", he admitted. But he spoke confidently and strode assuredly a man who knew things would turn in his favour.

Three weeks later, Hafiz Saeed, Jamat-ud-Dawah's leader, who had been detained after India produced several dossiers linking him to last November's Mumbai attacks, was freed. Among the reasons cited by the Lahore high court in ordering Saeed's release was this bolt from the blue: "The security laws and anti-terrorism laws of Pakistan are silent on al-Qaida being a terrorist organisation." The trial was a farce, a repetition of Pakistan's time-tested tactic of appearing to act against anti-India jihadis while not taking any action at all.

Mani Shankar Aiyar once described Pakistan as a country "divided against itself, but united against India". From that delusional feudal megalomaniac Zulfi Bhutto's pledge to wage a "thousand-year war" against India to General Pervez Musharraf's desperate attempt in 1999 to nuke it, hatred of India has been the constitutive sine qua non for Pakistan's survival. It is the one bugbear that makes Pakistanis out of Sindhis and Baluchis, Pathans and Punjabis.

Many Pakistanis I spoke to agreed that their country has gone to the dogs. But Kashmir still evokes the romantic idea of a Muslim nationhood. Pakistan continues to be defined by the struggle that created it a struggle founded upon the premise that Muslims and Hindus cannot co-exist in one nation. With all of India's social failings, its success at forging a nationality out of its diversity stands as a towering repudiation of this idea, and merely by being itself, impeaches the logic of partition. Pakistan cannot justify its existence as long as India accommodates religious diversity. It is not enough that Pakistan is a Muslim country: for its creation to be truly vindicated, the country it was carved out of must be Hindu. As long as Kashmir, a Muslim-majority state, remains part of India, Pakistan will view partition as unfinished business and itself as its incomplete product.

But the Pakistan that was created in 1947 ceased to exist in 1971 with the creation of Bangladesh in a manner that doesn't just cast deep moral questions on Pakistan's claim to speak for Kashmiri Muslims, but also offers an object lesson against indulging procrustean nationalisms, of which Pakistan remains a paragon. Created expressly to safeguard the Muslims of the subcontinent, Pakistan perpetrated the biggest genocide of Muslims since the arrival of Islam in south Asia. At least seven million East Pakistanis in what is now Bangladesh were slaughtered by West Pakistani soldiers within the space of a few months in 1971. The Islamic bond which animates Pakistan's jihadist policy in Kashmir was absent during this massacre. It was secular India, its forces led entirely by non-Hindus a Muslim air marshal (Idris Latif), a Sikh commander of ground forces (JS Aurora), a Parsi chief of army (Sam Manekshaw), and a Jewish strategist and principal negotiator (JFR Jacob) which intervened to liberate Pakistanis from the madness of Pakistan.

What remained of Pakistan in 1971 became a plaything of the military-feudal-political elite who turned it into a back office for the outsourced wars of big powers. Three decades later, Pakistan represents state failure, religious extremism, terrorism, nuclear proliferation. Few dispensations have failed their people on the scale that Pakistan has: it exists solely to provide subsistence to the military establishment.

Within the next 20 years, Pakistan as we know it today will probably not exist. Built on the idea that differences between people must ultimately culminate in permanent division, Pakistan has become a victim of the very logic that created it: from Karachi in the south-east to Peshawar in the north-west, Jinnah's children are carrying his divisive message to its logical extreme. The tragedy is that this is not an aberration, but the acme, of the idea of Pakistan.

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India-Pakistan

India arrests close 'aide' of Hafiz Saeed

2009-06-06

Indian police have arrested a suspected militant with alleged links to Hafiz Saeed, who is blamed for plotting the Mumbai attacks, a minister said on Friday.

Muhammad Omar Madni was picked up by police in New Delhi on Thursday, Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram told reporters. He said the suspect was an aide to Saeed, head of the Jamaatud Dawa and a founder of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba group that New Delhi blames for the attacks on Mumbai last year. "The man arrested does have links with Hafiz Saeed," Chidambaram said, adding the operation to arrest him was the result of "good intelligence and good investigative work". A diary, a Nepali driving licence, an identity card, Rs 8,000 in fake Nepalese currency and $8,000 were found in Madni's possession. Meanwhile, Dawa spokesman Yahya Mujahid said the group did not have any links with Madni, a private TV channel reported.

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