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India-Pakistan

BB back with 'foreign agenda', says Al Badr commander

2007-10-19

TAIMARGARA: Al Badr Mujahideen Commander Bakht Zameen has said Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairwoman Benazir Bhutto has returned to Pakistan with a foreign agenda of eliminating mujahideen and closing down madrassas. The PPP leader would implement the foreign agenda to end the concept of jihad and hand over Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan to the ‘same foreign country’, said Zameen at an Al-Badr Mujahideen Eid party. He said the mujahideen will continue their jihad to drive the allied forces out of Afghanistan. The government has failed to protect the country and is siding with the allied forces in their war against the mujahideen, he added. Zameen said that the government is branding mujahideen as terrorists, arresting them and putting them in torture cells. The Al Badr commander condemned the bombing in Waziristan, saying it had killed a large number of civilians. He said the government did this to please the US, adding that it was also destroying madrassas at America’s behest.

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India-Pakistan

Militants demand open Internet cafes in Kashmir

2007-04-26

"And getcher hands outcher lap! You'll go crazy!" An Islamic rebel group in Indian Kashmir has demanded that Internet cafes demolish closed-door cabins for users, claiming they are being used for “licentious” purposes. The Al Badr Mujahideen group, which has claimed responsibility for many attacks on Indian troops, issued no deadline and did not say what action it would take if its demands were disobeyed. “The cabins in Internet cafes facilitate immoral activities. They should be abolished,” the group said in a telephone statement to Current News Service, a local media agency. There are hundreds of Internet cafes throughout the Himalayan state and many have cabins with doors and room for two people to sit. Police said they had received complaints in the past that couples were viewing pornographic sites and behaving in an “intimate fashion” in the cabins. Last year, Dukhtaran-e-Milat raided some Internet cafes and destroyed equipment to prevent, what it said, were “immoral activities”.

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Kashmir Korpse Kount

2004-02-21

Reports from the Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir have indicated that the security forces shot dead seven terrorists, including a ‘district commander’, of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfit during an encounter at Andrawali dhok under the jurisdiction of Mandi police station on February 20. At least three terrorists are reported to have escaped from the incident site. According to official sources, three cadres of the Al Badr Mujahideen were killed in an encounter with the security forces at Hassanpora village in the Anantnag district. A spokesperson of the Al Badr told the local news agency CNS over telephone that the outfit’s ‘district commander’ for Anantnag, identified as Ashfaq Rehmani, was killed in the incident. Meanwhile, the charred dead body of a civilian was recovered from Kokernag in the Anantnag district. According to sources, he had been abducted by unidentified terrorists from his residence two days ago and subsequently burnt to death. Separately, terrorists shot dead a civilian and injured another in the Handwara area of Kupwara district.

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India-Pakistan

7 more militant outfits likely to be banned

2003-11-26

Seven more militant organisations are likely to be banned after Eidul Fitr and “a number of others” put on a watch list, official sources told Daily Times here on Tuesday. “Harkatul Jihad Al Islami (HJI), Jamiatul Mujahideen Al Aalmi (JMA) and Tehrikul Mujahideen Pakistan (TMP) may face the ban for militant activities, while Ahl-e-Hadith Youth Force (AYF), Tehrik Difa-e-Sahaba, Jamiat Ishaat Touhed-wal-Sunnah, Almi Tanzeem-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat (ATAS) may be banned on account of their sectarian activities”, sources said. Sources said HJI Ameer Qari Saifullah Akhtar was reportedly an adviser to Taliban chief Mulla Omar. They said Akhtar was also involved in a 1995 coup attempt by senior army officers, Brig Mustansar Billa and Maj Gen Zaheerul Islam Abbasi. Harkat ul Jihad Islami is actually the biggest or second biggest Deobandi Jihadi outfit in Pakistan. They are virtually unknown compared to the Jaish or Lashkar, but despite the low profile, they were extremely close to the Taliban, because Mullah Omar fought in the same faction as the HuJI’s leaders, back in the anti-Soviet Jihad. Its Jihadis operate in Burma, Chechnya, Tajikistan and elsewhere; and is part of Osama’s International Islamic Front. AYF is the youth wing of the Markazi Jamait-e-Ahl-e-Hadith, while ATAS had attempted to besiege the Army’s General Headquarters in Rawalpindi in 2000 to press for the enforcement of Sharia law. I’m pretty sure that ATAS tried to press for Sharia law back before Musharaf came to power in the military coup, which would be in 1999. I remember the government of the day trying to figure out what to do about this guy threatening to storm the capital, and in the end the government had to send envoys to his house to beg him not too. The organizations likely to be put on the watch list are Al Badr Mujahideen, Tehrik Tahaffuz-e-Namoos-e-Sahaba, Jamiat Ghurba-e-Ahl-e-Hadith, Al Mohajeroon, Al Akhtar Trust and Al Rasheed Trust. Al Akhtar Trust and Al Rasheed Trust have been declared sponsors of terrorism in some countries. Al Badr is reportedly involved in jihad in Held Kashmir. Jamiat Ghurba-e-Ahl-e-Hadith runs the Karachi seminary Jamia Abu Baker, from where Indonesian and Malaysian students were arrested last month

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India-Pakistan

’Crackdown’ launched against Pak Jihadis

2003-11-17

Law-enforcement agencies were on high alert to counter any militant backlash on Sunday after launching a nationwide crackdown on three militant outfits the previous night to stop them from resuming their activities under new names. Though offices of the Tehrik-e-Islami Pakistan (TIP), Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan (MIP), and Khuddam-ul-Islam (KI) were sealed across the country, no prominent leader of the three banned organisations was arrested. How oddly convenient, I predict that the Jihadi leaders will stay in ISI safehouses underground for a while, before reemerging after some of the international heat has died down. They will probably announce the creation of new Jihadi outfits, but it won’t be carried by anyone other than the Pak press. Dozens of offices of the three organisations were sealed in Sialkot, Daska, Mundeyki, Goraya, Bhopalwala, Sambrial, Uggoki, Pasrur, Chawinda, Badiana, Shakargarh, Zafarwal, Baddomalhi, Narowal and during the crackdown. PPI quoted sources as saying that several activists of the outlawed organisations were arrested. Meanwhile, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa Pakistan has closed down its camps in Sialkot and Narowal districts opened to collect zakat for the heirs of deceased militants. Workers of the banned outfits have gone into hiding fearing arrest, Karachi police chief Tariq Jamil told AFP. I wonder if this was the result of the Jihadis openly holding conferences in order to attract donations as reported a couple weeks ago? It wouldn’t be the first time that the Pak government has had to move quickly after the local press has reported on an ’unpleasant’ story. The last time I remember was when The Herald reported that Dawood Ibrahim was living safely in a posh residence in Karachi, after that he had to be moved to a different safehouse. “They (militants) are on the run fearing arrests, but some of them can retaliate and we are alert for any such situation,” Jamil said. “So far there is no order to arrest them unless they try to resume their activities.” Karachi police sealed 15 offices of the three organisations and put Jamaat-ud-Dawa on a watch list under the Anti Terrorist Act, Jamil said. Offices of the three organisations were also shut down in Nawab Shah, Larkana and Naushehro Feroz districts. Jamaat-ud-Dawa is the new name of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, declared a terrorist outfit by the US gov 2 years ago. More Four more militant groups including two Muslim charities are likely to be banned soon, Daily Times learnt on Sunday. The groups facing a ban are Jamaatul Furqan (JF), a breakaway faction of the Tehrik-e-Kuddamul Islam (TKI), Jamaatul Ansar (JA), the new name of Harkatul Mujahideen, Al Rasheed Trust and Al Akhtar Trust. Sources said these groups are working openly in Pakistan. “Most of their publications were banned in March 2002, but they resurfaced with new names, whereas others did not follow the instructions and continued publication,” he said. A little trouble with followup? The JF came into existence on September 25 and is led by Commander Abdul Jabbar, Maulana Abdullah Shah Mazhar and Commander Umer Farooq. The JF’s Chief Commander Jabbar is facing charges for an attack on churches and Christian missionaries in Pakistan. The JF has been actively engaged in raising funds during the last two months and in establishing new offices in Pakistan. The only reason beyond it’s split from the Jaish seems to be a dispute over funds. The JA was not banned by the government but it was the first Pakistani jihadi outfit which the US declared a terrorist organisation in October 2001 and the Government of Pakistan froze its assets in November 2001. Sources said despite pressure from the US the Pakistan government refused to ban Hizbul Mujahideen, Al Badr Mujahideen and Jamaatul Mujahideen. JA aka Harkat ul Mujahideen used to be the biggest Pak Jihadi outfit, and was extremely close to al Qaeda and the Taliban, but after it was connected to the kidnapping and murder of 5 western tourists in Kashmir, the Jaish-e-Mohammad was ’engineered’, taking with it around 75% of the Harkat’s membership. Sources said the publications to be banned include TKI’s fortnightly Shamsheer (Hyderabad), monthly Banat-e-Aisha (Karachi), JD’s weekly Ghazwa Times, Majalla Al Daawa, Voice of Islam (English), Al Rihat (Arabic), Zerb-e-Taiba (Lahore), Al Badr’s Al Babar (Karachi), Jamaitul Mujahideen’s Al Masood (Muzaffarabad/ Karachi), Jamaitul Ansar’s Al Hilal (Islamabad/ Karachi), Tehrikul Mujahideen’s Shahadat(Srinagar/Muzaffarabad/Islamabad), Hizbul Mujahideen’s Jihad-e-Kashmir (Muzaffarabad), Al Rasheed Trust’s Zerb-e-Momin (Karachi), Islami Akhbar and JF’s Tadbeer-e-Nao (Lahore). The Jihadi press in Pakistan has a readership approximately equal to the mainstream Urdu press, and more than ten times the local English press. It also is full of insane fantasies and represents a view of the world than no one else would recognise.

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