Here is a somewhat old article I found that goes into depth into the major players in the Islamist movements in Pakistan, I donât think I have posted this before. Itâs important to point out that is is the Pak Army that has spent the past 2 decades nuturing these groups, and under no circumstances to they want to undo their hard work, which is why they willingly arrest Al-Qaeda Arabs and those who Pakistanis found helping them. And they will those Jihadis who go ârogueâ and attack either Shias or start bombings in the country. But they wonât do anything to hurt these Jihadis because they serve the Armyâs strategic interests, first in setting up a client state in Afghanistan in order to provide strategic depth in any war with India, and second in bleeding the Indians in Kashmir, which the Generals believe is the first step in splintering India the same way they Soviet Union collapsed. This is the same aim shared by Qazi and the like, they just want themselves to rule over the bulkanised India instead of the Generals.
Qazi the first challenger:
The biggest opponent of the government of President Musharraf is Qazi Hussain Ahmad. He is the strongest enemy because of his better organisation of the party and clever adoption of policy. He has stayed clear of sectarianism, a wisdom that is the legacy of the founder of the party, Abul Ala Maududi, who was trained in a Deobandi seminary but hid the certificate of qualification, and sought to be a bridge in the Deobandi-Barelvi divide in Pakistan. Since the participation of the Jamaat in government under General Zia, its inroads into the state apparatus are deep, and its upper echelon leaders have become men of substance and independent means. The Jamaat supporters come from rich entrepreneurs whom the Jamaat has helped create chains of lucrative English-medium schools and colleges. His partyâs economic manifesto is statist, opposed to privatisation of the state sector economy and in some cases re-nationalisation of certain segments of the private sector. Although Qazi Sahib has shown suppleness in foreign policy, seeking to communicate with the United States and Iran, considered hostile by most clerics in Pakistan, he remains fundamentally an isolationist in foreign policy.
| I'd call him a xenophobe, myself. And a psychoceramic... |
The most intractable problem of the Jamaat is that it is not supported by the other big parties. Qazi Sahib was close to Hekmatyar and benefited from the attentions of the ISI and the government when Pakistanâs Afghan policy was tied to the foot of Hekmatyar. Since 1994, the Jamaat dominance of the Afghan policy has lessened. Militias belonging to the Deobandi school of thought have become powerful because the ISI was now running the Taliban policy. Although Qazi Hussain Ahmad is a Pakhtun, the Deobandi Pakhtun leaders of the JUI do not see eye to eye with him. For instance, Qazi Sahibâs friend, Hekmatyar, has written anti-JUI articles in the Urdu press, alleging that Maulana Fazlur Rehman took American dollars as bribery.
It was due to the money he made on smuggling oil that led to Fazlur becoming known as "Mullah Diesel".
The Grand Deobandi Alliance:
The grand Deobandi alliance is probably the biggest force in Pakistan after the stateâs armed forces. Based in Karachi, the Binori Complex houses leaders that sit in the shuras of the various Deobandi jehadi militias. Its religious scholars sit in the shura of Sipah-e-Sahaba as well as he shura of the two militias Harkatul Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Muhammad. Since they also have similar influence over the JUI, the Sipah-e-Sahaba of Maulana Azam Tariq and the JUI, both factions have a kind of secret liaison, so that the manifest anti-Shia orientation of the Sipah doesnât encompass the JUI although the latter has the same unspoken view. The Deobandi leaders are less committed to the state of Pakistan because of their Indian Congress background and think nothing of issuing fatwas of death against foreigners coming to Pakistan on business. It is these fatwas in part that have caused the embassies in Islamabad to issue advisories to their nationals not to visit Pakistan.
The Binori complex is the most important madrassa in Pakistan and the spiritual base of radical Deobandism. It is led by Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai and Abdul Razzaq Sikander and is where Osama Bin Ladin and Mullah Omar first met.
Maulana Azam Tariq:
His sectarian party has produced a violent offshoot, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, whose killings Azam Tariq disavows by saying that the Lashkar has been removed from the umbrella of his party. Yet when Lashkar activist Haq Nawaz was about to be hanged he tried all means his disposal, including threats to the state, to get him absolved from the crime of killing an Iranian diplomat. Azam Tariq announced in 2001 that he would select 20 cities in Pakistan and enforce his Deobandi sharia there, mainly in the shape of compulsory business shut-down during namaz and the compulsory attendance at namaz of all Muslims. In addition, he promised to impose hijab on all women venturing out of the house.
Since this article was written, Azam Tariq was released from house arrest and allowed to set up a ânewâ political party with the same platform as the Sipah-e-Sahaba, except that it supports the Musharaff government in parliament. The hundreds of murders the party was responsible for have been forgiven. Cynicism at itâs most breathtaking.
Hardline injunctions against women are also issued by his Deobandi colleague Maulana Samiul Haq who vows to treat the women with the same severity as the Taliban.
Sami ul-Haq is widely known as "Sami the Sandwich", after being found in a compromising position with two women in a brothel many years ago.
Power and glory of Hafiz Saeed:
Lashkar-e-Taiba functions under the aegis of Dawatul Irshad of Muridke near Lahore. It is a rich organisation because of its hold on civil society in small districts where it can actually dictate to the administration somewhat in the style of Sipah-e-Sahaba. Its leader Hafiz Muhammad Saeed of the Gujjar community is a retired Islamiyat teacher of University of Engineering and Technology in Lahore. His headquarters, a city within city, in Muridke was built with Arab money. Even when he was an employee of the state-run university he was powerful enough on the basis of his contacts with the ISI, and therefore the army, to insult the government in power and denounce democracy as an un-Islamic system. The power of the Lashkar also derives from its salafi origin. Its contact with the wahhabi camps in Kunar in Afghanistan has never been disowned although Muridke carefully mutes its obvious connection with the Arab warriors in Afghanistan. Its connections with Osama bin Laden have also been craftily hidden although news appearing in the national press have linked the two. Lashkarâs office in Muridke used to receive a large of number of Arabs on a daily basis and was a transit camp for those leaving for Afghanistan and Central Asia.
Al-Badr used to be linked to Jamaat Islami but now the commander of the outfit Bakht Zameen has asserted himself against Qazi Hussain Ahmad to some extent, which probably makes it easy for him to maintain good relations with the ISI. This is probably the richest organisation in terms of the funds it can gather from the population. There was a time when a lot of funding came in from abroad, including sectarian funding in which Iran and the Arab states competed, but now over 85 percent of the collections are made in the cities of Pakistan from the common man. In some cases, even prosperous businessmen give funds to avail of the âarbitrationâ services offered by the jehadi outfits. This âleveragedâ judicial service is available to anyone who can contribute to the coffers of the outfits.
So are they Jihadis who run an extortian racket, or an extortian racket who ocassionaly fight Jihad?
| I think they spend more time and effort on extortion than on jihad. They don't show up that often in Kashmir news... |
Pakistanâs jehad in Kashmir has created an alternative state apparatus in the outfits that fight there as surrogate warriors. The price that civil society pays for this deniable covert war has been climbing over the years and has now become almost intolerable. During the latest round of war in Afghanistan most of these outfits have opposed General Musharrafâs policy of joining the world coalition against terrorism. All religious leaders of these jehadi outfits know their activity can easily fall in the category of terrorism and therefore try to scare the common citizen by predicting that the next American target will be Pakistan. They see hazily the possibility of a takeover, not by themselves, as that would be impossible given their internecine nature, but by someone else from within the establishment, that will give them a new lease of life â a lease whose foreclosure became certain the day Osama bin Laden decided to attack New York and Washington. |
TAIMARGARA: Al Badr Mujahideen Commander Bakht Zameen has said Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairwoman Benazir Bhutto has returned to Pakistan with a foreign agenda of eliminating mujahideen and closing down madrassas. 