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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

Editorial: Nemesis of Jaish

2007-07-03

Eight terrorists belonging to the much-metamorphosed jihadi militia Jaish-e Muhammad have been arrested in Lahore. The police have confined their list of offences which range from the killing of Christians in Pakistan to carrying out terrorist acts in Afghanistan for the Taliban against the international NATO-ISAF forces. The group was located in Quetta and one can speculate that the “lead” on the terrorists with half a decade old Pakistani charges against them must have come from Afghanistan. The eight men are believed to have been behind an attack on a missionary school near Murree in 2002, killing six; and a grenade attack on a church in Taxila four days later, in which four nurses were killed — a poor man’s answer to the invasion of Afghanistan. One of the terrorists had a bounty on his head of one million rupees. The group had in their possession material for making bombs and large quantities of arms and ammunition. The group confessed to being members of Khudam al-Furqan, the name a splinter from Jaish assumed after Jaish was banned in 2002. Pakistan is now in the process of dismantling and eliminating — at times under duress — the proxies it had launched in the name of “freedom wars”. The jihadi underworld developed under several names, the most well known being Jamiatul Ansar which emerged as the most blood-thirsty terrorist group in Indian-occupied Kashmir in the 1990s. When the world woke up to its indiscriminate savagery targeting people not directly connected with the “freedom struggle”, it splintered and assumed different identities, one of them being Harkatul Mujahideen, led from the Deobandi seminaries in Pakistan. Harkat came to be a close associate of Osama bin Laden and accompanied him to Sudan when he took his Al Qaeda out of Afghanistan because of mujahideen infighting. One leader of Jaish, Maulana Masood Azhar, rose as an agent of Al Qaeda with the ability to raise funds all over the world. In 1993, Al Qaeda was involved in the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in Somalia while performing duties under UN auspices, about which Osama bin Laden was to boast later. While in disguise in India, Masood was captured and imprisoned. Another operative of Al Qaeda, Umar Sheikh, was also captured in New Delhi. In 1999, an Indian civilian aircraft was hijacked after take-off from Nepal by a group of terrorists led by Masood’s brother, Ibrahim. The plane was taken to Afghanistan where the Taliban, recognised by Pakistan as a regime, arranged for a swap of Indian passengers with the two Al Qaeda terrorists, Umar and Masood. After their release, both came to Pakistan and began operating freely. Umar came to Lahore and Masood went to the most powerful seminary in Pakistan, Jamia Banuria, from where he later started issuing threatening statements against President Pervez Musharraf when the jihad was bottled up after 2003. In the pre-9/11 days the Pakistani establishment was still upbeat about its proxy wars and did nothing to catch the terrorists, which aroused suspicion in many quarters about the 1999 hijack. Both the terrorists then struck targets that hurt Pakistan’s national interests in the post-9/11 period. Umar Sheikh arranged to kill an American journalist Daniel Pearl and is today in prison in Pakistan appealing against his death sentence. He's not dead yet, but the heat's not off, either. So he's being kept safe from the Americans and the Indos in jail. But Masood’s career has continued to be turbulent. After 2001, he not only took on General Musharraf but also the Harkat leadership. He split with the other leader Fazlur Rehman Khalil and set up another militia which he called Jaish-e Muhammad. In this he was supported by Jamia Banuria’s chief Mufti Shamzai — killed in 2004 — who prized him as his pupil. At that point Lahore had a number of “self-financed” centres — based on extortion on the basis of fatwas — run by youths plying double-cabin vehicles gifted by Osama bin Laden. From the published information available in Pakistan, it is quite clear that the Harkat-Jaish split caused the vehicles to be disabled, but the vehicles were replaced again by Osama bin Laden. Masood damaged General Musharraf more effectively in 2001 when he attacked the Indian parliament and caused a military standoff between Pakistan and India that lasted almost a year. He was put under house arrest in his hometown Bahawalpur from where he has a way of vanishing from time to time. No one knows where he is today. The Harkat leader Fazlur Rehman Khalil is also at large, probably living in Islamabad, and has only recently stopped giving interviews to foreigners which have proved embarrassing to Islamabad. Another actor in this lethal dramatis personae of terror was Qari Saifullah Akhtar, let off from the 1995 abortive military coup and then sent off to Dubai in 2001 to escape being killed by the invasion of Afghanistan, only to be recalled when his boys nearly succeeded in killing President Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. No one knows where he is now. Pakistan is revisiting the nightmare of its past. Its posturings will remain dubious till it decides to purge its conscience and starts with a clean slate.

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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

17 banned groups warned against collecting hides

2006-12-29

The government has told the provinces to make sure that 17 banned religious and militant organisations are not able to collect the hides of sacrificial animals on Eidul Azha. The gummint issues the same order every year. The Bad Guyz still collect the hides every year. “The Interior Ministry has issued this directive to the four provinces and the Islamabad district administration while asking them to step up security around places where Eidul Azha prayers will be offered,” sources said. Seventeen organisations have been banned under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997. These are Al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat Muhammadi, Tehrik-e-Jafria Pakistan, Khudamul Islam, Islami Tehrik Pakistan, Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan, Jamiatul Furqan, Jamiatul Ansar, Hizbul Tahreer, Khairunnas International Trust, Islamic Students Movement and Balochistan Liberation Army. Jamaatud Dawa Pakistan and Sunni Tehrik are on a watch list. So they can collect the hides and the bucks that go with selling them. The sources said that intelligence reports submitted to the Interior Ministry warned that members of banned militant and religious outfits would try to collect hides of sacrificial animals under fake names. The militants would ask the khateebs (prayer leaders) of their sects to appeal to people in their areas to collect hides for the welfare of poor students getting religious education there, the sources said. However, the fear is that money from the hides would be used to finance terrorist activities. The provinces have also been asked to issue directives to district authorities to keep an eye on 570 prayer leaders who, under Section 11EE of the Anti-Terrorism Act, are not allowed to leave their areas during Eidul Azha, the sources said. The Interior Ministry has also directed the authorities concerned of the four provinces and the district administration of Islamabad to mobilise officials of the Special Branch of the police to keep an eye on members of banned militant organisations, the sources said.

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India-Pakistan

Jehadis still alive and kicking

2006-05-13

By Amir Mir Despite much-touted public claims by President General Pervez Musharraf to have changed the country’s direction by uprooting its network of extremists, a cursory glance at the activities of the outlawed militant and sectarian groups and their leaders shows that most of them are back in business and operating freely in the country. For those who need a ready reckoning of Musharraf’s performance, a glance at his record on handling the jehadi kingpins will prove instructive. When the President of Pakistan banned six of the country’s top jehadi and sectarian groups in two phases – on January 5, 2002 and November 14, 2003 – he declared that no militant or sectarian organization would be allowed to indulge in terrorism to further its cause. Yet, none of the key jehadi leaders has been either arrested or prosecuted on terrorism charges. After the initial crackdown, the four major jehadi organizations — the Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Harkatul Mujahideen, and Hizbul Mujahideen — resurfaced and regrouped to run their respective networks with different names and identities. The respective leaders of these organizations, Prof Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, Maulana Masood Azhar, Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, and Pir Syed Salahuddin, remain at large, and the pattern of treatment being meted out to them by the military-led so-called civilian administration suggests they are being kept on a leash, ready to wage a controlled jehad in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. These militants largely depend on Pakistan for training, logistics, arms, ammunition and, most of all, sanctuary, a dependence that has been exploited by Pakistan’s intelligence establishment. Not only does its intelligence establishment decide which jehadi group will play what role in fuelling the Kashmir insurgency, but it also launches new militant outfits at regular intervals to ensure that none of them ever get so big or powerful that they start posing a threat to their creators. Musharraf’s claims of having taken concrete measures to clip the wings of jehadi groups and reform their religious seminaries across Pakistan were nothing more than rhetoric, proved in the recent past when his own administration admitted that three out of the four London suicide bombers had been visiting madrassahs in the provincial capitals of Sindh and Punjab in November 2004, before returning to England in February 2005, only to carry out deadly bombings there. Since then, Musharraf’s policy of enlightened moderation has come under sharp criticism, both from within and outside Pakistan. After the 9/11 terror attacks, the four key jehadi leaders, who were becoming increasingly vocal in their condemnation of Musharraf’s policy of ‘slavery to the Americans’, were placed under house arrest in their respective home towns in the Punjab province. A countrywide crackdown was launched against activists of the jehadi organizations, who were furious over General Musharraf’s U-turn on support for jehad in Afghanistan. Groaning under US pressure, Islamabad had to temporarily stop cross-border infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir, which eventually reduced violence in the Valley. As things stand, one can notice that most of the militant leaders and their respective groups, which were made to adopt a ‘lie-low and wait-and-see’ policy in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks, are once again on the loose. Some of these groups have assumed new identities: Jaish-e-Mohammad has been renamed as Khudamul Islam, and Harkatul Mujahideen is called Jamiatul Ansar. Almost all the major jehadi organisations have re-launched campaigns to recruit volunteers, utilising websites etc., to promote the jehadi culture and attract youngsters. The most effective instruments of these groups to freely propagate jehad are their publications (Ghazwa, Majalla, Zarb-e-Taiba, Shamsheer, Zarb-e-Momin, etc) which together boast a circulation of millions and are distributed free of cost. In his televised address to the nation on July 21, 2005, a few hours after the failed London bombings, Musharraf renewed his January 2002 commitment to root out the evils of extremism and terrorism from the country. There was nothing new in his speech. The administrative measures for combating terrorism and extremism that he announced were no different from his earlier assurances. Indeed, in his televised interaction with journalists on July 25, 2005, Musharraf declared that the fresh crackdown would not be like the last one, where people were picked up and held for 10-15 days and then released; an open admission that the earlier crackdowns he had ordered were just an eyewash. This raised a basic question — if the previous declarations were not followed up with effective action, how would the regime do a better job this time round? While addressing a crowded press conference in Rawalpindi on July 29, 2005, Musharraf confronted such scepticism, conceding that he had not taken a firm action against the militants since 2002 because he did not have a free hand at that time as a result of an unstable economy, confrontation with India over Kashmir, and insufficient international support for his presidency. He claimed he was now in a much stronger position to campaign against religious militants. “I am in a totally different environment. Today, I am very strong. We need to act against the bigwigs of all the extremist organizations. We are not going as fast as I would like to go,” the General said. In response to specific questions on the difference between the crackdowns in 2002 and now, Musharraf said the world and media should not judge the performance of his government through the eyes of the past. Replying to a Western journalist’s query why he had not been serious in his earlier attempts to curb militancy, General Musharraf retorted, “You have to be realistic and take cognizance of the ground situation. By taking stringent action against Islamic fundamentalists, I would have risked the prospect of a million Taliban on the streets of Pakistan.” To judge the general through the eyes of the present, it is useful to note that in the aftermath of the 7/7 attacks, he had once again directed the law enforcement agencies to deal with extremist organisations and the threat of terrorism with their full might. His first declaration was that none of the sectarian and militant groups banned on account of terrorism and extremism would be allowed to operate under any name and those poisoning young minds would be arrested and tried under Anti-Terrorism Laws. By saying so, Musharraf actually repeated his resolve for the third time since 9/11, but without doing anything practical to implement the same. As far as his declaration to arrest those poisoning young minds is concerned, not even a single key jehadi leader was arrested after the 7/7 attacks in the so-called anti-jehadi crackdown. This included, among others, two ‘Most Wanted’ militants of the CBI who had allegedly orchestrated major acts of terrorism in India: Prof Hafiz Mohammad Saeed of the Jamaatul Daawa, and Pir Syed Salahuddin of the Hizbul Mujahideen. Similarly, the American Federal Bureau of Investigation wants to interrogate two more jehadi leaders including the Harkatul Mujahideen (now Jamiatul Ansaar) leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil and the Jaish-e-Mohammad (now Khudamul Islam) chief Maulana Masood Azhar. As things stand, Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar, Fazlur Rehman Khalil and Syed Salahuddin are on the loose and most of the extremist infrastructure their groups used to maintain before 9/11 to wage jehad in Afghanistan and Jammu and Kashmir remains intact. The kid glove approach of the Pakistani establishment towards the leaders of the banned jehadi outfits can be gauged from the fact that the Jamaatul Daawa led by Hafiz Saeed was allowed to hold a 25,000 strong public meeting at the Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore on March 18, 2006. The second instance is that of Syed Salahuddin, the leader of Hizbul Mujahideen who was shown on television on March 26, 2006, addressing an international conference organised by the Jamaat-e-Islami in Peshawar and attended by a leading Hamas figure, Sheikh Muhammad Sayam and top leaders of the MMA. The third instance is that of a proscribed Sunni sectarian organization – Sipah-e-Sahaba (Army of Companions of Prophet Mohammad PBUH) or its reincarnation Millat-i-Islamia, which has been allowed to resume activities in the country. The SSP is one of the five outfits banned by General Musharraf on January 12, 2002. This pro-Taliban organisation whose leadership eulogizes Osama bin Laden, has been allegedly involved in bloody violence. Thousands of the SSP activists took out a rally in Islamabad on April 7, 2006 and distributed pamphlets preaching jehad and hatred against Shias. One of the organisers even thanked the government for allowing the rally. Analysts give varying explanations why the Musharraf-led administration keeps hobnobbing with these jehadi and sectarian groups. However, the root cause of the problem seems to be the jehadi orientation of the Pakistani military leadership and its continued alliance with fundamentalists. As the head of the Pakistan Army — an institution credited with crafting and carrying Pakistan’s pro-jehad policy in Afghanistan — few know more about what goes on in Pakistan than General Musharraf himself. And the fact remains that despite his repeated rhetoric to promote enlightened moderation in the country, Jehad Fi Sabilillah (Jehad in the name of Allah Almighty) continues to be the motto of the Pakistan Army. To sum up, despite enthusiastic applause from the West for the anti-militancy efforts of Pakistan’s ‘visionary’ military ruler, it is evident that much remains to be done on the ground before these efforts actually bear fruit. With changing scenarios all over the world, there has been a change of minds, yet what is required is a change of hearts. The writer is the former editor of Weekly Independent, currently affiliated with Reuters and the Gulf News

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India-Pakistan

Jehadis still alive and kicking

2006-05-12

By Amir Mir Despite much-touted public claims by President General Pervez Musharraf to have changed the country’s direction by uprooting its network of extremists, a cursory glance at the activities of the outlawed militant and sectarian groups and their leaders shows that most of them are back in business and operating freely in the country. For those who need a ready reckoning of Musharraf’s performance, a glance at his record on handling the jehadi kingpins will prove instructive. When the President of Pakistan banned six of the country’s top jehadi and sectarian groups in two phases – on January 5, 2002 and November 14, 2003 – he declared that no militant or sectarian organization would be allowed to indulge in terrorism to further its cause. Yet, none of the key jehadi leaders has been either arrested or prosecuted on terrorism charges. After the initial crackdown, the four major jehadi organizations — the Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Harkatul Mujahideen, and Hizbul Mujahideen — resurfaced and regrouped to run their respective networks with different names and identities. The respective leaders of these organizations, Prof Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, Maulana Masood Azhar, Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, and Pir Syed Salahuddin, remain at large, and the pattern of treatment being meted out to them by the military-led so-called civilian administration suggests they are being kept on a leash, ready to wage a controlled jehad in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. These militants largely depend on Pakistan for training, logistics, arms, ammunition and, most of all, sanctuary, a dependence that has been exploited by Pakistan’s intelligence establishment. Not only does its intelligence establishment decide which jehadi group will play what role in fuelling the Kashmir insurgency, but it also launches new militant outfits at regular intervals to ensure that none of them ever get so big or powerful that they start posing a threat to their creators. Musharraf’s claims of having taken concrete measures to clip the wings of jehadi groups and reform their religious seminaries across Pakistan were nothing more than rhetoric, proved in the recent past when his own administration admitted that three out of the four London suicide bombers had been visiting madrassahs in the provincial capitals of Sindh and Punjab in November 2004, before returning to England in February 2005, only to carry out deadly bombings there. Since then, Musharraf’s policy of enlightened moderation has come under sharp criticism, both from within and outside Pakistan. After the 9/11 terror attacks, the four key jehadi leaders, who were becoming increasingly vocal in their condemnation of Musharraf’s policy of ‘slavery to the Americans’, were placed under house arrest in their respective home towns in the Punjab province. A countrywide crackdown was launched against activists of the jehadi organizations, who were furious over General Musharraf’s U-turn on support for jehad in Afghanistan. Groaning under US pressure, Islamabad had to temporarily stop cross-border infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir, which eventually reduced violence in the Valley. As things stand, one can notice that most of the militant leaders and their respective groups, which were made to adopt a ‘lie-low and wait-and-see’ policy in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks, are once again on the loose. Some of these groups have assumed new identities: Jaish-e-Mohammad has been renamed as Khudamul Islam, and Harkatul Mujahideen is called Jamiatul Ansar. Almost all the major jehadi organisations have re-launched campaigns to recruit volunteers, utilising websites etc., to promote the jehadi culture and attract youngsters. The most effective instruments of these groups to freely propagate jehad are their publications (Ghazwa, Majalla, Zarb-e-Taiba, Shamsheer, Zarb-e-Momin, etc) which together boast a circulation of millions and are distributed free of cost. In his televised address to the nation on July 21, 2005, a few hours after the failed London bombings, Musharraf renewed his January 2002 commitment to root out the evils of extremism and terrorism from the country. There was nothing new in his speech. The administrative measures for combating terrorism and extremism that he announced were no different from his earlier assurances. Indeed, in his televised interaction with journalists on July 25, 2005, Musharraf declared that the fresh crackdown would not be like the last one, where people were picked up and held for 10-15 days and then released; an open admission that the earlier crackdowns he had ordered were just an eyewash. This raised a basic question — if the previous declarations were not followed up with effective action, how would the regime do a better job this time round? While addressing a crowded press conference in Rawalpindi on July 29, 2005, Musharraf confronted such scepticism, conceding that he had not taken a firm action against the militants since 2002 because he did not have a free hand at that time as a result of an unstable economy, confrontation with India over Kashmir, and insufficient international support for his presidency. He claimed he was now in a much stronger position to campaign against religious militants. “I am in a totally different environment. Today, I am very strong. We need to act against the bigwigs of all the extremist organizations. We are not going as fast as I would like to go,” the General said. In response to specific questions on the difference between the crackdowns in 2002 and now, Musharraf said the world and media should not judge the performance of his government through the eyes of the past. Replying to a Western journalist’s query why he had not been serious in his earlier attempts to curb militancy, General Musharraf retorted, “You have to be realistic and take cognizance of the ground situation. By taking stringent action against Islamic fundamentalists, I would have risked the prospect of a million Taliban on the streets of Pakistan.” To judge the general through the eyes of the present, it is useful to note that in the aftermath of the 7/7 attacks, he had once again directed the law enforcement agencies to deal with extremist organisations and the threat of terrorism with their full might. His first declaration was that none of the sectarian and militant groups banned on account of terrorism and extremism would be allowed to operate under any name and those poisoning young minds would be arrested and tried under Anti-Terrorism Laws. By saying so, Musharraf actually repeated his resolve for the third time since 9/11, but without doing anything practical to implement the same. As far as his declaration to arrest those poisoning young minds is concerned, not even a single key jehadi leader was arrested after the 7/7 attacks in the so-called anti-jehadi crackdown. This included, among others, two ‘Most Wanted’ militants of the CBI who had allegedly orchestrated major acts of terrorism in India: Prof Hafiz Mohammad Saeed of the Jamaatul Daawa, and Pir Syed Salahuddin of the Hizbul Mujahideen. Similarly, the American Federal Bureau of Investigation wants to interrogate two more jehadi leaders including the Harkatul Mujahideen (now Jamiatul Ansaar) leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil and the Jaish-e-Mohammad (now Khudamul Islam) chief Maulana Masood Azhar. As things stand, Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar, Fazlur Rehman Khalil and Syed Salahuddin are on the loose and most of the extremist infrastructure their groups used to maintain before 9/11 to wage jehad in Afghanistan and Jammu and Kashmir remains intact. The kid glove approach of the Pakistani establishment towards the leaders of the banned jehadi outfits can be gauged from the fact that the Jamaatul Daawa led by Hafiz Saeed was allowed to hold a 25,000 strong public meeting at the Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore on March 18, 2006. The second instance is that of Syed Salahuddin, the leader of Hizbul Mujahideen who was shown on television on March 26, 2006, addressing an international conference organised by the Jamaat-e-Islami in Peshawar and attended by a leading Hamas figure, Sheikh Muhammad Sayam and top leaders of the MMA. The third instance is that of a proscribed Sunni sectarian organization – Sipah-e-Sahaba (Army of Companions of Prophet Mohammad PBUH) or its reincarnation Millat-i-Islamia, which has been allowed to resume activities in the country. The SSP is one of the five outfits banned by General Musharraf on January 12, 2002. This pro-Taliban organisation whose leadership eulogizes Osama bin Laden, has been allegedly involved in bloody violence. Thousands of the SSP activists took out a rally in Islamabad on April 7, 2006 and distributed pamphlets preaching jehad and hatred against Shias. One of the organisers even thanked the government for allowing the rally. Analysts give varying explanations why the Musharraf-led administration keeps hobnobbing with these jehadi and sectarian groups. However, the root cause of the problem seems to be the jehadi orientation of the Pakistani military leadership and its continued alliance with fundamentalists. As the head of the Pakistan Army — an institution credited with crafting and carrying Pakistan’s pro-jehad policy in Afghanistan — few know more about what goes on in Pakistan than General Musharraf himself. And the fact remains that despite his repeated rhetoric to promote enlightened moderation in the country, Jehad Fi Sabilillah (Jehad in the name of Allah Almighty) continues to be the motto of the Pakistan Army. To sum up, despite enthusiastic applause from the West for the anti-militancy efforts of Pakistan’s ‘visionary’ military ruler, it is evident that much remains to be done on the ground before these efforts actually bear fruit. With changing scenarios all over the world, there has been a change of minds, yet what is required is a change of hearts. The writer is the former editor of Weekly Independent, currently affiliated with Reuters and the Gulf News

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India-Pakistan

Jamiatul Ansar leader released

2006-01-07

A Central Executive Committee member of banned militant outfit Jamiatul Ansar has been released after a six-month detention. Qari Abid, the second-in-command of the group formerly known as Harkatul Mujahideen, was arrested for his suspected involvement in two assassination attempts on President Pervez Musharraf in December 2003. The Harkatul Mujahideen was banned in August 2002. His second wife, an Egyptian national, has close relations with women who were arrested in May 2005 along with Abu Al Firaj Libbi, the mastermind behind the assassination attempts on Musharraf. “Qari Abid was arrested by security agencies in the first week of June 2005 and later released in the last week of December 2005,” sources said. They said that Abid, who was also the prayer leader at a mosque in Chaklala Scheme-III in Rawalpindi, spent the detention period in interrogation cells across the country. They said regular visits from militants belonging to banned group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi was another reason for his arrest.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Harkat pressed to hand over Fazl Khalil

2005-09-23

Law enforcing agencies have pressed the leadership of the Herkatul Mujahideen cover-named Jamiatul Ansar to disclose the whereabouts of its former commander Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, Daily Times has learnt. Sources said the law enforcers were in touch with Farooq Kashmiri, a prominent figure at the Jamiatul Ansar, seeking the information about Khalil who went underground three months back. They said the agencies might re-arrest Khalil to investigate about his alleged links with the Taliban leadership. I think I'd also look into his relationship with al-Qaeda, since he signed the frigging fatwah! Farooq Kashmiri, who had been working with Khalil since the organisation set forth, had told the law enforcers that he was not aware of where Khalil was. "Nope. Nope. Ain't seen him." The sources said Khalil had also contacted Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the opposition leader in the National Assembly, seeking his help to make a deal with the agencies. “Khalil approached the opposition leader following his name was echoed during the investigation of Humid Heat and Umber Heat who were arrested in the US. Both of them were allegedly trained as militants at a camp run by Khalil in Rawalpindi,” the sources said. "Humid Heat," I guess would be Hamid Hayat, and "Umber Heat" would be Umer Hayat. At first I thought they were code names or something... The US was pressurising Pakistan to enhance the scope of investigation into the terror acts, they said, and Khalil wanted the opposition leader to broker a deal with the government. They said Khalil had sent a message to Maulana Fazlur Rehman that he was in crises and needed his help, urging him to mediate with the government. They said that Maulana had also talked with the agencies on the matter and defended Khalil, saying that he was not involved in any terrorist activities in or outside the country. Oh, has he retired from al-Qaeda? Can we see his gold watch as proof?

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Jihadis running for local elections

2005-08-12

The much-publicised Election Commission’s directions to all district returning officers (DROs) to exclude members of 18 outlawed jihadi organisations from the local bodies elections have proved to be a damp squib as DROs feel that many jihadis have slipped the net and are running for seats in the local councils. In Pakland, if you don't agree with a law you just ignore it, unless it's a blasphemy law. The DROs said that they only received the directions and the list of the suspect candidates well after the scrutiny process was over. “There was little we could do (to stop members of banned organisations). They only needed to submit an affidavit to be eligible for the elections,” said a returning officer. "Nope. Sorry. Couldn't do it in time," he said, adjusting his turban... Judging by the number of complaints the DROs have received in this regard, there is great fear that dozens of candidates associated with outlaw jihadi organisation might have slipped the net and are running for local council seats. "Aaaar! Vote fer me an' I'll kill the infidels! Don't vote fer me an' I'll kill youse!" On July 19, Election Commission of Pakistan, through a confidential letter, directed all DROs that members of 18 outlawed organisations were not eligible to run for any local government seat and should be disqualified. The list was reportedly attached with the letter. The list of banned organisations provided by the Election Commission of Pakistan included Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, Sipah Muhammad Pakistan, Jaish-i-Muhammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Sipah Sahaba Pakistan, Tehrik-e-Jafria Pakistan, Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Sharia Muhammadi, Tehrik-e-Islami (ex TJP), Millat-e-Islamia (ex SSP), Khuddamul Islam (ex JM), Islami Tehrik Pakistan, Jamiatul Ansar, Jamiatul Furqan, Hizbut Tehrir, Khairun Nissa International Trust, Sunni Tehrik and Jamaat ud Dawa. Apart from sending the directive to DROs, the Election Commission also launched a media campaign to inform the public that the organisations mentioned above were banned from taking part in the local council elections.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Qaeda in touch with local extremist groups: Sherpao

2005-06-24

Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said on Wednesday that Al Qaeda had established a strong nexus with outlawed extremist groups in Pakistan. Gee golly gosh. Who'da ever thunkit? "There is a nexus of Al Qaeda and extremist elements in Pakistan. Whenever they feel hurt, they react. But it will not decrease our resolve against terrorism," he told Daily Times in an exclusive interview on Thursday. Without naming any organisation, the interior minister said the banned groups were facilitating Al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan. Pakistan has banned religious groups including Jaish e-Muhammad, Harkatul Mujahideen, Jamiatul Ansar, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Khuddamul Furqan and Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami. Even though "banned," the groups seem to be quite as active as they've ever been, to include publishing their monthlies and collecting funds... Sherpao also refuted a recent Los Angeles Times report on the presence of scattered training camps countrywide, saying there were no such training facilities in Pakistan. "Terrorists don't have to train a suicide bomber. They have people indoctrinated for such a type of job. So there are no training camps," he added. On the other hand, recruiters of suicide boomers do need a certain amount of highly specialized training, even given a willing pool of rubes who're willing to become meat puzzles... However, he did not deny the involvement of extremist groups in training people at secret locations. "There are no such reports, but they can do so. There are several proclaimed offenders who have not been caught. So they may be doing these activities," he said. President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and other senior government officials were on Al Qaeda's hit list, he said, adding, "One has to be very careful and security for all government officials has to be on alert in that sense." One has to be real careful if one's a Shiite or a Christian, too. And if one's a Western reporter. And if one works in a Western diplomatic mission... Thankfully, it also looks like one has to be careful if one's a big turban at Jamia Binori, too. He claimed that the government had a fair idea about the people involved in the bomb blast at the Bari Imam Shrine and terrorist incidents in Karachi. Omar Saeed Sheikh isn't dead yet, though... He denied allegations about the failure of intelligence and law enforcement agencies to ensure security of citizens. Well, then, where precisely are you falling down in ensuring the security of your citizens? Sherpao also claimed Osama Bin Laden and Mulla Omar could be in southern or southeastern Afghanistan. "US and Afghan forces haven't operated extensively in the border areas with the southern and southeastern Afghan provinces. There is a likelihood of their presence in those areas in Afghanistan," he added. Osama remained in Afghanistan for a long time and there were still several areas that were considered Taliban-friendly, he said. Sherpao denied claims of former US ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad about the presence of Osama and Mulla Omar in Pakistan. "I just don't know how the ambassador made this statement. If he had certain information he should have shared it with us," he added. Maybe it was intel on you? He refused to comment on Dr AQ Khan's health and the status of the investigation into his actions.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

The Jihad Lives On — Part 2

2005-03-09

Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) Acting under the establishment dictum, one of the most dangerous jehadi organizations operating from Pakistan and active in J&K, the JeM, restyled itself as the Khudamul Islam, claiming it is devoted to preaching Islam and social work. The Jaish chief, Maulana Masood Azhar, who had to be released by the Indian Government in December 1999 after an Indian airplane was hijacked, is one of India's 20 most-wanted men. However, Maulana Masood Azhar had to face the wrath of the Pakistani intelligence establishment after his group was found involved in the December 2003 suicide attacks against General Musharraf in Rawalpindi. Investigations into these attacks later cleared Masood Azhar's name after it transpired that one of the two suicide bombers - Mohammad Jameel - actually belonged to the Jaish's dissident group - Jamaatul Furqaan, led by Maulana Abdul Jabbar alias Maulana Umer Farooq. Much before the suicide attacks, Masood had informed the ISI high-ups in writing that Jabbar and 11 of his associates had revolted against him and he was no more responsible for their actions. Despite its renaming, the US State Department designated the Jaish a foreign terrorist organization in December 2001, compelling Musharraf to ban the group in January 2002. Masood Azhar got his outfit registered under the new name of Khudamul Islam within no time. The Jaish chief was kept under house arrest for a few months after the 9/11 terror attacks, but was subsequently set free. Though Masood Azhar, while conceding to the ISI's pressure, had directed his henchmen not to target the American interests in Pakistan, there are strong fears in the Pakistani intelligence circles that the dissident members of the Jaish, who are unknown and have gone underground, constitute the real threat. The murmurs of dissent in the outfit first surfaced when Masood Azhar failed to react to General Musharraf's policy change on Afghanistan after the 9/11 terror attacks. Several prominent Jaish members favoured retaliatory attacks against US interests in Pakistan to pressurize the military ruler against supporting the Bush administration. But acting under the agencies' command, Masood refused to acquiesce. As things stand, there are fears that ongoing disputes over possession of the various Jaish offices, mosques and other material assets could lead to more serious clashes between the two banned factions. The main cause behind the fighting is the embezzlement of fundsby Azhar and his family members, his lucrative profession is the main reason he has been so loyal to the establishment. Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) Led by Rawalpindi-based Yousaf Shah alias Syed Salahuddin, HM is the outfit to watch in the coming months. Of all the militant groups operating in J&K, the HM is the largest, with a 20,000-strong cadre base drawn from both indigenous and foreign sources. The Hizb happens to be one of the most lethal jehadi groups, and controls about 60 per cent of militants operating in J&K. With India and Pakistan finally agreeing to allow travel across the Line of Control (LoC) by bus between Srinagar-Muzaffarabad, the Pakistani establishment has asked HM Chief Salahuddin to halt, for the time being, all militant operations against the Indian security forces in J&K. However, the United Jehad Council (UJC), an alliance of 13 Kashmiri jehadi organizations led by Salahuddin, has been restructured and three Pakistan-based jehadi groups, the LeT, JeM and Al-Badar Mujahideen have been brought into the UJC. This new adjustment is called Muwakhaat ('agreement on the basis of brotherhood') that is aimed at putting an end to the internal differences among the jehadi groups waging the Kashmir jehad. There have been numerous clashes between the Pakistani Jihadis and the ethnic Kashmiri Jihadis, as well as fighting between the Salafis and the others According to the intelligence sources, reorganizing the command and control structure of the HM-led UJC was part of a strategy change to enable Pakistani intelligence to have tighter control over its running. With the restructuring of the UJC, they said, no component member of the UJC would be allowed to launch an attack in J&K, unless approved by the Council. That is why most of the smaller groups, which had been irritants for the ISI, have been merged to reduce the number of their representation in the Jehad Council from thirteen to five. Al-Barq, Tehreek-e-Jehad, Islamic Front, Brigade 313 and the Kashmiri component of HuM have been merged to form the Kashmir Freedom Force, which would be led by Farooq Qureshi of Al Barq. The Muslim Janbaz Force, Al Jehad Force, Al Fateh Force, Hizbullah and Jamiatul Mujahideen (JuM) have also been merged to form the Kashmir Resistance Force, which would be led by Ghulam Rasool Shah. Similarly, many of the militant training camps have been moved from Azad Kashmir to Pakistan in Punjab and the Frontier provinces, with strict restrictions on the movement of militants. The training camps have reportedly been relocated at Taxila, Haripur, Boi, Garhi Habibullah and Tarbela Gazi. The reorganisation actually took place a while ago Harkatul Mujahideen (HuM) Led by Maulana Fazalur Rehman Khalil till recently, the HuM has regrouped and is working in a low-key manner under the name of the Jamiatul Ansar, but insisting that it has a non-militant agenda. As the Government's anti-extremism drive brought into sharp focus Maulana Khalil's alleged al-Qaeda links, he had to resign from the top slot of the organization in January 2005, as advised by his spy masters. Khalil, who was released in December 2004 after an eight-month detention in a seven by seven foot cell, submitted his resignation at a January 2005 meeting of the 'executive committee' of the HuM and asked the committee members to elect Maulana Badar Munir from Karachi as the new chief. Intelligence sources, however, insist that Khalil remains in the good books of the establishment and would continue calling the shots from behind the scene, despite his resignation as the Harkat chief, which was nothing more than an eye wash. HuM's association with Osama bin Laden was established on August 20, 1998, when US planes bombed the al-Qaeda training camps near Khost and Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan in retaliation to US Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. The US bombs destroyed two HuM training camps and killed 21 of its activists. As of today, the US intelligence agencies believe the Harkat still retains links, like most other jehadi groups, with the Taliban remnants and al-Qaeda operatives hiding on the Pak-Afghan border. Despite enthusiastic applause from the West for anti-militancy efforts of Pakistan's 'visionary' military ruler, it is evident that much remains to be done on the ground before these efforts will actually bear fruit. With changing scenarios all over the world, there has been a change of minds, yet what is required is a change of hearts.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Government starts making lists of militants and organisations

2005-02-10

Isn't it about time? I started mine years ago. And there haven't been four assassination attempts against me... The government has started compiling lists of militants and extremists, which will contain information about the individual and his/her organisation, sources told Daily Times on Wednesday. Of course, it being Pakland, they're gonna have to have the census bureau do it... "The government has asked all security agencies of the country to start preparing the lists," sources added. "The government made the decision to keep a complete profile of militants working for different militant organisations including those that are part and parcel of the United Jihad Council," they said. To include Lashkar e-Taiba? Want to bet they're not on the list, even though they're part of the UJC? The lists' purpose was for the government to keep track of militants across the country and to pre-empt terrorist activities in Pakistan, they added. "Another reason for the collection of the data was that the government wanted to maintain lists of militants who had left their parent militant organisations and had formed small militant groups," sources said. Militants who had formed their own small militant groups were more active in terrorist activities, sources said, claiming that such militants were behind terrorist activities within the country including the suicide attacks on President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. And they're just now getting around to it? Well, I guess they can get a head start on the list by using the payroll list... Sources said this was the second time that the government had started such an exercise after the 9/11 incident. I guess the magnitude of the task was pretty daunting, wasn't it? "The government will be able to keep an eye on militants and militant activities after the lists' preparation," sources added. Security agencies would focus on militants who had parted ways from banned militant organisations including Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Sipah-e-Sihaba, Harkat Jihad-e-Islami al-Alami, Jamiatul Ansar, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Sipah-e-Muhammad and Khudamul Furqan, they added.

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