Terrorist Islamic Republic of Pakistan - September 15, 2009

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 28 Sep 2009 07:30

tripathi wrote:‘But they still eat daal!’ hammers back a believer. Laughter.

Daal. The lentil that demarcates the LoC and reinforces the Partition will now decide the fate of our nation’s cricketing zeal.

So, it is SDDRE

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 28 Sep 2009 08:15

Obama's Afghan Dilemma

Most telling of his considerations though, from Pakistan’s point of view, relates to Pakistan’s recent successes in operations against militants, leading him to observe: if the US really needs to add troops to the ones already there when a coalition partner, and the only one for the moment I may add, is doing so well and winning the fight!

This is myth-making. The PA has not achieved any decisive victory against whomsoever it claimed it was fighting against in FATA & Settled Areas of NWFP. True, the Taliban and allied warlords suffered some losses and became passive for a while but that doesn't by any means bestow an aura of victory to the PA. The AQAM or the neo-Taliban force remains intact within Pakistan. This is a tactical retreat by them, if one may call so.

Pakistani successes against the extremists within Pakistani boundaries carry an important differentiation — that of unanimous public support for the mission.

This is another myth. There was no unanimous support at all. In Oct. 2008, less than a year back, the Pakistan National Assembly passed a unanimous resolution that dialogue was the only way out and not Army action. The resolution neither condemned the atrocities of the Taliban through suicide, car and roadside bombings nor even their frequent violations of peace agreements. The resolution sought to distinguish between the ‘foreign fighters’ and ‘elements willing to abide by the constitution of Pakistan and rule of law’, an euphemism for Pakistani jihadists. The largest and the most popular political party, PML-N, provided veiled support generally and overt support occassionally to the Taliban. Other politico-religious parties like JI, JUI-F & S openly supported the Taliban. Only MQM in the Sind and ANP in NWFP opposed the Taliban; even then, ANP wanted to negotiate with them at some point wilting under relentless attack from the neo-Taliban. Except for a few English language papers, which are used by the Pakistani government as a convenient facade to hoodwink Western Governments, the widely read Urdu media simply eulogised the Taliban and hailed them as Islamic warriors. Such praise was not showered on the PA. Farhat Taj's report in yesterdays The News clearly brings out the deep nexus between the PA and the neo-Taliban. The PA sees them as an essential fighting force against the NATO/ISAF.

The so-called successes in Malakand & Bajaur are mostly to get aid after the Friends of Pakistan forum took an unusually tough stand. They wanted to see some action. Similarly, in future, Pakistan will be expected to enact some of these drama to circumvent provisions of the Kerry-Lugar Bill. There will never be any genuine attempt to fight terrorism as that would strike at the very root of the Concept of Pakistan.

In Afghanistan, the US-NATO forces are outsiders. Any surprise then that these forces remain cloistered within their garrisons, saving themselves from harm any time they wish to step out.

It might or might not be true that these forces remain within the garrisons. But, the PA should not really mock at the NATO forces even if it were true. For a long, long time, the PA was also entrenched within the forts and garrisons in FATA & NWFP, never mustering courage to venture out. In Peshawar, in the middle of the city where the cantonment is located, they were so bottled up that they requested the Peshawar Police to man the garrison gates. The PA, when it ventured out, surrendered to the last man without a fight to the Taliban when challenged. Colonels, Majors, Brigadiers all of them took nice R&R with the Taliban with their tails tucked between their legs. Finally, the only option that the PA was left with was long range artillery, gunships, strafing, bombing; things that the PA has perfected in various theatres of war against its own people since the early wars of Balochistan. This caused almost 3 million people to be displaced and that gave an opportunity for Pakistan to beg more money from its donor friends and swallow it. Obviously, the NATO forces will not and cannot emulate the PA against unarmed civilians of Afghanistan.

For Pakistan, serious connotations exist. For one, we need to tread with caution, not knowing which way the proverbial camel squats. Afghanistan is the key to our security apprehensions, and till those get assuaged, little can be given away. A neutral Afghanistan is also the key to regional stability, and till that is assured the region may remain on tenterhooks. There must, therefore, be a chapter on regional political environment added to the McChrystal report; it must define a neutral Afghanistan, and lay out a robust political plan to achieve that goal. That might mean making Pakistan and India sit together at the table in someone’s presence and reading them the script on making life good for the people of the region. Till that happens, Pakistan will hedge her bets.

He has made it clear that Pakistan will continue its support to AQAM or neo-Taliban until India is evicted from Afghanistan. It is such an Afganistan, where India does not exist, which would be 'neutral'. There won't be 'regional stability', which is a term which signifies that Pakistan will continue its cross-border terrorism against India using assets like LeT, JeM & HuJI. He wants US to read the riot act to India as far as Afghanistan goes.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 28 Sep 2009 08:48

Musharraf having a jooly good Lecture Tour time

He is giving opinions and advice left, right and centre. No holds barred. He is talking about Israel-Palestine issues, thus projecting himself as an ummah leader and statesman. He seems to be enjoying his travel, good food and wine etc and he is not getting challenged anywhere.

To a question on his regime’s peace agreements with the Taliban, Musharraf said the Taliban had misled his administration.

Musharraf signed his first Peace Deal in April 2004 when the then Corps Commander, Peshawar personally met Nek Mohammed to sign the deal. However, Pakistan claimed that the deal was only with jirga elders and not with Taliban. Usual lies. Anyway, soon there was a huge fighting between Nek Mohammed and the PA in Waziristan where the PA was severely mauled. Mocklingly, that operation was referred to as 'Operation Enduring Failure' ! Immediately thereafter, Nek Mohammed was killed by a US drone attack and the PA entered into another deal, this time with Baitullah Mehsud, in Feb. 2005. Until circa 2008, when Musharraf was exiled, he entered into almost a dozen peace deals with the Taliban in various agencies of FATA, each one of them ending in failure after some time. Now, does he want us to believe that he realizes only now that the Taliban 'misled' him ?

Satya_anveshi · Post by **Satya_anveshi** » 28 Sep 2009 09:08

Video: Internview with a supposed kingpin of Operation Midnight Jackal (in Pakistan)

This is interesting in that there are a lot of tidbits that can make desi jingo wonder.

The guy is accused of being a RAW agent but yet controlled all critical contonment and garrison areas in Pindi.

The guy wrote a book that claims Osama was funding the whole jihadi and even Paki establishment.

Osama wanted to get rid of BB and he also brings up Nawaz / Osama link. Brig. Imtiaz, as has been uncovered recently, is the MAJOR kingpin in BB murder.

Overall, pretty juicy stuff. ( do watch it if you have nothing else to do)

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 28 Sep 2009 10:21

Marvi Memon M'am filling the Original Madam's shoes

‘Kerry-Lugar bill insults Pakistan’

Asking the government to explain how it has accepted the language of the Kerry-Lugar bill, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) legislator Marvi Memon has said it is insulting to Pakistan.

In a statement issued on Sunday, she said that asking Pakistan to “cease support – including by any elements within the military or intelligence agencies – to extremist and terrorist groups” in the text of the Kerry-Lugar bill was insulting and sent a wrong message to the world.

tripathi · Post by **tripathi** » 28 Sep 2009 11:51

Blast in Bannu kills five

Updated at: 1151 PST, Monday, September 28, 2009
Bannu: Five persons including Maulana Abdul Hakim, the Peace Committee Member and former Taliban Commander have been killed in another suicide attack in Bannu.

According to Geo News, a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden van with the vehicle of Maulana Abdul Hakim, who was travelling with his associates on Miranshah Road in Baka Khel area of Bannu.

Dilbu · Post by **Dilbu** » 28 Sep 2009 15:45

Pakistani Tribal Leader Among 5 Dead In Blast

BANNU, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suicide car-bomber killed a pro-government ethnic Pashtun tribal leader and four other people in northwest Pakistan on Monday, police and security officials said.

Dilbu · Post by **Dilbu** » 28 Sep 2009 15:49

No India-Pakistan deal on talks

The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan have failed to agree on the resumption of dialogue between the two countries, after talks in New York.

Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna said he rejected a Pakistani proposal to conduct informal talks while they waited for official dialogue to begin.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said he had submitted a roadmap for future peace talks with India.

The ministers met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 28 Sep 2009 19:03

Pakistan hands over 2 sons of Al Qaeda leader to Saudi Arabia

Government of Pakistan has handed over two sons of an Al-Qaeda leader to Saudi Arabia.

According to sources, Ali and Siddique, sons of an Al-Qaeda leader Al-Alawi, were apprehended from tribal areas and later handed over to the Saudi authorities on September 18.

Hailing from Yemen, Ali and Siddiqui were said to be involved in an attack on a Saudi prince, sources added.

Dilbu · Post by **Dilbu** » 28 Sep 2009 19:11

SSridhar wrote:Pakistan hands over 2 sons of Osama to Saudi Arabia
Hailing from Yemen, Ali and Siddiqui were said to be involved in an attack on a Saudi prince, sources added.

The attack on the Saudi prince happened very recently. KSA must have demanded them only after that. The speed with which TSP apprehended and produced them for GUBO master, that too from FATA which is made to look like a wild west by TSP itself, makes one wonder if they know the location of every terrorist holed up there.

Gagan · Post by **Gagan** » 28 Sep 2009 22:33

Two sons of Osama or sons of Al-Alawi?

Mahendra · Post by **Mahendra** » 28 Sep 2009 23:06

Gagan wrote:Two sons of Osama or sons of Al-Alawi?

James B · Post by **James B** » 29 Sep 2009 00:12

Amiri Khan not satisfied with Paki whore

Noting that the Al Qaeda and the Taliban have now large presence in Pakistan, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday said that in the last nine months Islamabad has increased its commitment in the fight against terrorism, but the Obama administration is not "satisfied."

Gagan · Post by **Gagan** » 29 Sep 2009 01:09

On Dashami, Jammu housewife kills jihadi with axe

JAMMU: As the country bid farewell to goddess Durga, the demon-slayer, on Dashami and witnessed the evil king Ravana being vanquished on Dussehra, a humble Muslim woman in a remote Jammu village slew a dreaded Lashkar terrorist single-handedly.

Exhibiting astonishing, raw courage, Rashida Begum took on the two terrorists who had barged into her home late Sunday night in Thana Mandi village in Rajouri district. The woman, in her early forties, grabbed an axe and swung it wildly, killing one of the armed terrorists and injuring the other. Seeing his partner meet a bloody end, the other terrorist fled in sheer dread.

A Rajouri-based police officer said the two terrorists of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based group that carried out the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, had entered Noor Ahmad's home around 9pm with the intention of holding the family hostage.
...

Gagan · Post by **Gagan** » 29 Sep 2009 01:14

Bure din phir waapis aa gaye.
Pakistani court issues notice to Musharraf in Benazir killing case

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani court on Monday issued notice to former president Pervez Musharraf and nine others after they failed to appear for a
hearing in a case relating to the December 27, 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Judge Ejaz Ahmad Chaudhry of the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High court issued the notice on a petition filed by Chaudhry Aslam, Bhutto's former protocol officer, seeking the registration of a first information report (FIR) on her killing.

Judge Chaudhry had on September 1 summoned, among others, interior minister Rehman Malik, Parliamentary affairs minister Babar Awan and then Punjab chief minister Pervez Elahi, to appear on September 28.

Aslam's petition contends that these individuals were involved in the gun and bomb attack that killed Bhutto as she left a political rally in the garrison town of Rawalpindi adjacent to Pakistani capital Islamabad and that a first information report should be registered against them.

Judge Asif Saeed Khosa had earlier refused to hear the petition when it was presented before him.

...

Pakistan's investigations into Bhutto's killing, as also one by Scotland Yard, failed to make headway largely because the spot where Bhutto was attacked was hosed down soon after the incident, destroying whatever evidence might have existed.

...

Hospital doctor Musaddaq Hussain told the UN team that Bhutto's autopsy was not conducted on the request of her husband Asif Ali Zardari, who is now the president of Pakistan.

...

Another UN team arrived in Islamabad Monday to continue the probe. A report will be submitted to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon after the investigations are complete. Ban will then share the report with the Pakistani government and the Security Council.

The probe is likely to cost the Pakistani government Rs 200 million.

Baitullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban commander killed in a US drone strike last month, is one of those suspected of having a hand in Bhutto's assassination.

Gagan · Post by **Gagan** » 29 Sep 2009 01:17

Seek peaceful solution to Kashmir issue: China tells India, Pak

BEIJING: China on Monday asked India and Pakistan to seek a solution to the Kashmir issue through peaceful and friendly consultations and offered to play a "constructive role" in resolving the "bilateral issue".

As a friendly country, China would also be happy to see progress in the peace process between India and Pakistan, said Hu Zhengyue, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, in charge of the Asian region.

"Kashmir is an issue that has been longstanding left from history. This issue touches the bilateral relations between the relevant countries," he told a group of visiting foreign journalists here.

As China is a friendly neighbour of both countries, it hopes to see that the two sides "will seek a solution through peaceful and friendly consultations", Hu said when asked by a Pakistani journalist if China was prepared to play some role in the resolution of the issue.

While he stressed that Kashmir was a bilateral issue, he stopped short of ruling out the possibility of mediation.

"As a friend China will be happy to see such progress (in the peace process) and we will be happy if we can play a constructive role in the resolving of the issue (Kashmir), but after all it is a bilateral issue," he said.

He said that China hoped the peace process between India and Pakistan "will continue to go smoothly".

pgbhat · Post by **pgbhat** » 29 Sep 2009 02:42

Pakistan's investigations into Bhutto's killing, as also one by Scotland Yard, failed to make headway largely because the spot where Bhutto was attacked was hosed down soon after the incident, destroying whatever evidence might have existed.

those paki forensic experts are truly world class in erasing evidence...that too with media around.

Gagan · Post by **Gagan** » 29 Sep 2009 03:31

Meanwhile the unending Meera Memsaib saga continues
Meera's husband booked for theft

In the latest twist in Pakistani actress Meera's stormy marriage, police have booked her husband Attique-ur-Rehman on charges of theft and threatening her life.

Meera had filed a petition in a Lahore court alleging that Attique-ur-Rehman had stolen goods worth of Rs.1.1 million after entering into her house and had also threatened to kill her.

Despite a direction to register a case against Attique-ur-Rehman, the police adopted delaying tactics, prompting the court to pass another order, reports said.

...

However, Indian filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, who gave Meera her lone break in Bollywood, has a different take on the issue.

"Yes, Meera did call from Lahore. Some guy claiming to be her husband tried to break into her home and kill her! At that time she seemed quite genuine in her call for help. Meanwhile Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, was very prompt in taking action, but Meera was still inconsolable," Bhatt told IANS in Mumbai earlier this month.

However, the situation turned out to be quite different. Reports started making the rounds that the man in question was indeed Meera's husband and had papers and photographs to back his statement. Apparently, he tried to reach Meera, but her guards prevented him from entering her house.

...

"She, in fact, did admit that the two of them were in a relationship, but denied her marriage to him. She said that she would get back to me later, but that never happened."

Mahesh Bhatt, along with brother Mukesh Bhatt, had launched Meera in Bollywood with Nazar (2005), which was directed by Soni Razdan. Meera was paired opposite Ashmit Patel in the film, which had failed at the box office.

...

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 29 Sep 2009 04:18

Just got around to reading Ghost Wars.

Turns out that Mahmoud Ahmed was the general who launched the coup and arrested Nawaz and then stood aside and gave the reins to Musharraf when he finally landed. Ahmed was also with the same unit as Musharraf earlier. After taking power, Musharraf made Ahmad ISI chief. Ahmad was in AFG when Massoud was killed (probably to give the camera bomb that killed Massoud)..and he was also in NYC on 911. He knew and by extension Mushy also knew.

pgbhat · Post by **pgbhat** » 29 Sep 2009 05:25

Avoiding self-criticism ---- Dr. Ashfaq H Khan

Take the example of India. The former president of the Confederation of Indian Industry – the most powerful body of the Indian private sector – concluded in one of his presentations, in which he was comparing India and China that (i) India should not emulate China, (ii) India would grow by the Indian model and (iii) Indians must avoid self-criticism. This is the spirit which is lacking in Pakistan. Is everything milk and honey in India? More than 45 per cent of the poor of South Asia live in India. India is the home of millions of HIV/AIDS patients – second only to South Africa. The number of undernourished children in India is in millions. But how often does one hear Indian experts criticising and demeaning the progress made in their country on macroeconomic front?

Take yet another example from India. Inflation is one of the most important indicators of macroeconomics. The way inflation is measured in India leaves much to be desired. Inflation is commonly measured as changes in the consumer price index (CPI). The CPI-based inflation remains the official barometer of inflation in many countries around the world–developed or developing. In these countries, the economic authorities review the commodity basket at an interval of 5 to 6 years. Interestingly, India, an emerging economic power, still uses the wholesale price index (WPI) as its main measure of inflation. The WPI, as its name suggests, is designed to measure the changes in prices at the wholesale level of all the commodities. It is not the price that the Indian consumer faces in the market. Furthermore, the base year for the WPI is also 15-years-old (from 1993-94), and therefore does not represent the current production structure of the Indian industry. India does produce CPI-based inflation but it is not used as an official measure of inflation. Furthermore, the bases of CPI-based inflation are three-decades-old and certainly do not represent the current consumption patterns of Indian society. While India portrays an inaccurate picture by using an exceedingly old base year for the WPI, how many Indian economic experts have criticised their government for misrepresenting the inflation figure? How many of them have criticised their government as we do in Pakistan? Our inflation number is far superior and updated than that of India and yet our experts would criticise vehemently the inflation number of Pakistan.

pgbhat · Post by **pgbhat** » 29 Sep 2009 05:28

Suspended motion

The holdup in the dialogue process is unfortunate. What the Indians appear to be indifferent to is the fact that better relations with Pakistan can bring immense benefits to people on both sides of the divide. Is it fair to hold this up as a means to keep up the pressure on Pakistan that has been forcefully exerted since last year? This is something for the Indian government to ponder. It seems obvious that at the present time it is on the one hand calling for progress in talks with Pakistan and on the other refusing to move forward on the Mumbai issue. Greater flexibility is needed. Pakistan too must consider its own strategy. Quite independently from the Indian pressure it faces, it must ask itself if certain persons who it is alleged are involved in militancy truly enjoy protection and if so why. Both sub-continental countries suffer in similar fashion due to the long stalemate we are seeing. They must therefore find a means to move forward. Mumbai cannot be forgotten. Nor should attempts to find who was responsible be abandoned. This would just raise the possibility of more terrorism of a similar nature. But there are other considerations as well. The talks need to continue so that attempts can be made to find lasting peace in the region. After all, only when this happens will terrorism be delivered the fatal blow needed to vanquish it forever.

pgbhat · Post by **pgbhat** » 29 Sep 2009 05:37

Editorial: Indo-Pak dialogue: some basic questions ---- DT edit

In an ideal world the country that wants dialogue in a tense bilateral situation should have the moral upper hand. The world should supports dialogue in an environment of conflict and bring the reluctant party under pressure. But the world is not an ideal place. In the given case, because the West is afraid of terrorism and wants to put it down without really addressing its causes, realpolitik dictates that it be in sympathy with India. This is why Indian lobbying has been successful on the Hill where the Senate just passed the Kerry-Lugar legislation with conditionalities that seem to be more in keeping with India’s interests than the US’.

India backtracking on the Sharm al-Sheikh joint declaration is partly to placate critics at home who accuse the Congress-led government of getting too soft on Pakistan and partly because there is no pressure on it to mend its ways. This is why Pakistan thought of the “back-channel” device, giving India and itself a chance to “come clean” on what the two really want to do. It appears that India has not reached the point in its domestic politics to allow even that.

But that of course doesn’t mean that the “overture” of a back-channel process was useless and has gone off the political radar. But before ex-foreign secretary Riaz Muhammad Khan starts his preparatory discussions in Islamabad, some points must be made clear. These are questions that are normally asked before beginning a process of bilateral talks.

One, if Pakistan is calling for talks, what does it want from them? Does it need them to get India to move towards an overhaul of bilateral relations, or does it want a resumption of the long-stalled “composite dialogue” just for the sake of talking? In short, does Pakistan want this exercise to be meaningful or is it simply to concede to more of the same which, in terms of results, was almost nothing?

Two, does Pakistan need the dialogue more than India. Because if that is the case then, by the logic of it, it will have to give ground rather than expect India to conform to strict “reciprocation”. This issue must be addressed because India will not have peace with any of its neighbours except on her terms. So, we need to figure out what we want the dialogue for and whether we can realistically expect any “reciprocity”.

Three, a re-examination of the regional status quo among the stakeholders in Pakistan must be conducted before resuming talks with India. If disputes are not settled, as they are unlikely to since India, for the most part does not even accept them as disputes, what are Pakistan’s options? Since the talks will not happen in a vacuum, attention must be paid to global opinion about this issue. If the “composite” dialogue ran out of wind despite the bilateral “equalisation” of the nuclear test in 1998, will it start breathing now when the world is siding with India?

Simply wanting to talk means nothing. And at a time when India is quite clearly uninterested in talking, Pakistan too needs to rethink whether it wants a dialogue with India which, like previous such rounds, is likely to trail off into nothingness. Talks become meaningful only when either both or all parties are interested in give and take or one party is clearly a winner and can dictate terms. Neither of these conditions obtains in the case of India and Pakistan.

Gagan · Post by **Gagan** » 29 Sep 2009 06:34

Gus wrote:Just got around to reading Ghost Wars.

Turns out that Mahmoud Ahmed was the general who launched the coup and arrested Nawaz and then stood aside and gave the reins to Musharraf when he finally landed. Ahmed was also with the same unit as Musharraf earlier. After taking power, Musharraf made Ahmad ISI chief. Ahmad was in AFG when Massoud was killed (probably to give the camera bomb that killed Massoud)..and he was also in NYC on 911. He knew and by extension Mushy also knew.

Gus,
call me a conspiracy theorist, but a corollary of this is that the duo of Mush and Mahmoud launched kargil on India and the 911 on the US! The coup might have been caused by someting more than Nawaz going after mush for kargil, it might be about the reckless madness that mush was about to get pakistan into. Maybe Nawaz, the wily sharif with good connections to Al quaida knew something was afoot.

Vivek_A · Post by **Vivek_A** » 29 Sep 2009 08:50

Shrill's new hangout

US war on Pakistan
Published: September 29, 2009

THE US design to destabilize Pakistan is becoming clearer by the day, even for the most blinkered Pakistani. As the US continues to be stalemated in Afghanistan, it has sought to move the centre of gravity of the "war on terror" to Pakistan. Initially it was assumed that this shift would be restricted to FATA, but now it is evident that the US is seeking to engulf the whole of Pakistan in an asymmetric conflict, which will eventually pit the people against the state, especially the military. Reports of a US plan to target Balochistan, including its capital city Quetta are, in all likelihood, correct - more so because the US has not issued even a half-hearted denial on this count. Pakistani officials are admitting that the US has sought to extend drone attacks to Balochistan, especially Quetta. Given the present government's proclivity to accede to all US demands, it should not come as a surprise to soon see these drone attacks taking place.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 29 Sep 2009 09:42

Give us information about ourselves: Rehman Malik
He should be the most shameless Home Minister. He demands US & UK to give him real-time information about terrorists staying within his own country as guests of his government. He most shamelessly asks India for similar information about 26/11 terrorists who are helped and aided by his own intel agencies. OTOH, when India gives names and details (and even address and other details in the case of Ibrahim Dawood who even marries off his daughter to the son of the most famous sportsperson of Pakistan, no less), the stock answer is either the information was not enough or the there was no such person at that address (even when Pakistani newspapers themselves attest to otherwise).

“What we are requesting the US and the UK and all other stakeholders is to please give us real-time information. If you know that they are present you must be knowing their names, details ... if there is any sign of Quetta shura, we will smash it,” he added.

Rangudu · Post by **Rangudu** » 29 Sep 2009 09:51

Posted without comment

'What can India do if there's another 26/11? Nothing!'

September 22, 2009 10:20 IST

Najam Sethi, editor-in-chief of Pakistan's Daily Times and Friday Times newspapers and one of that country's most influential journalists, has said that even if there is another Mumbai-type terrorist attack that emanates from his soil, there is absolutely nothing India can do, and warned that if India launches a military strike, there would be all-out war that would de-stabilise the entire region and have an adverse impact on India's quest to be a global power.

In an interaction with leading think-tanks and scholars, who focus on the subcontinent, and heads of South Asia programmes hosted by the Asia Programme of the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, Sethi said there was no guarantee that there could not be another Mumbai [ Images ] "because many of these former non-State actors, which became State actors, are now back to their non-State actor role -- some of them fairly autonomous."

Arguing that India's demand that the composite dialogue cannot be resumed unless and until there is a crackdown on some of these elements as 'unreasonable', he said: "It took 30 years to make these non-State actors effective and they are not going to be disbanded and demilitarised overnight. It will take a long time. And it will take a transition period in which Indo-Pakistan relations have to get into conflict-resolution mode."

Sethi, whose reporting has frequently put him at odds with successive governments as well as with extremist religious and militant groups, and who was recently awarded the 2009 Golden Pen of Freedom -- the annual freedom prize of the World Association of Newspapers -- said: "The tragedy is that while we prepared to accept India's position before the election, it is very inexplicable why India is persisting with this position right now."

"It is hurtful to the cause of democracy in Pakistan, it is hurtful to the cause of Indo-Pak relations, it is hurtful to the cause of finding solutions in Afghanistan because India and Pakistan are fighting their proxy wars all over the place and because India already has a huge footprint in North Afghanistan and the Indian consulates are doing their bit there," he said.

Sethi said, "Therefore, this is something that India and Pakistan have to come to grips with and America has to weigh in discreetly if necessary to get a dialogue moving again and to get some conflict resolution done."

"The Indian and Pakistani proxy wars are spoiling the terrain completely," he reiterated, "and there is a mindset in Pakistan, especially in the Pakistan Army [ Images ] that finds this unacceptable."

He said consequently, "When we say we want the composite dialogue with India to continue -- to get on with and want the back-channel activated -- we don't want any conditions put on the composite dialogue."

Sethi said, "We find it inexplicable that a Congress government that is flushed with victory, still finds it difficult to get on with it, still is having to defend its commitments made in Sharm-el-Sheikh and that the Indian media is not part of the solution, it is still part of the problem just as the Pakistani media was part of the problem some time ago. Indian nationalism is still coming in the way."

He asserted, "If America wants Pakistan to cooperate and find solutions within Pakistan on terrorism, on domestic violence, on the economy, then we need peace on our borders. We can't have peace on our borders if the first thought that comes to India is, if there is another Mumbai."

"If there's another Mumbai, what then," he asked and said, there is no way India can launch military strikes.

"What could they do? The nuclear deterrent is alive and kicking, it's in place."

Sethi said, "Therefore, if another Mumbai happens, what does India do? Nothing. India can't do anything."

"If India does something, we are in very deep trouble. Therefore, we have to find a solution that makes that (another) Mumbai doesn't happen, and if it does -- because there's lots of non-state actors are there who are not listening to the Pakistani military and even less so to the Pakistani opposition and Pakistani government, what if another Mumbai happens? What will India do -- will this dialogue be derailed forever? Will the terrorists succeed in driving that wedge? Will the terrorists stop the road from Delhi [ Images ] to Islamabad [ Images ] and the road from Islamabad to Kabul?"

Sethi said, "It is in India's interest to build peace with Pakistan, because if India doesn't build peace with Pakistan, then we will fall into the Mumbai trap. Then India would have to take action, there will be war."

"If there is war, the war on terror will get lost and the terrorists will become part of Pakistan's arsenal against India," he warned.

Sethi recalled, "We saw a glimpse of that when Mumbai happened. The first thing the Taliban [ Images ] did was that they said we are going to stop fighting the Pakistani army and we are going to come to the border and fight with the Pakistani army against India in the event of an Indian strike."

"That is the danger of India not defining its interests in a particular way," he said.

Sethi argued that "if there is a war between India and Pakistan, India's economy and that whole notion of a resurgent India that is going to be the new emergent power, that's all going to get lost. We are talking nuclear weapons here and there's no way the Pakistani army is going to allow India to walk in or even to be humiliated."

"The entire political galaxy of Pakistan, including the people of Pakistan are going to line up solidly behind the Pakistani army on this one," he said.

And, Sethi added, "We are not talking of an army of a 100,000 people. We are talking of an army and a mindset in Pakistan -- a 60-year-old mindset in Pakistan, a national security State was that built on the basis of an enemy without, on the border. And, that's not going to change so quickly."

"So, if there is conflict with India, it will be an all-out conflict. I say that with full responsibility. I don't wish to say it, but I have seen it at very close quarters," he said.

"How the entire media, the entire opposition and even the Taliban suddenly folded right behind the Pakistani army on the mere mention of a threat of war with India."

Sethi, continued to hammer away saying that consequently, "It is in India's interest also to resolve some of these disputes, build trust with Pakistan. Give the new civilian dispensation the space and the opportunity to turn some of these things back."

"Therefore, this government needs space. We need to give Pakistan the space in which its interests can be protected with out crumbling from within," he said

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 29 Sep 2009 09:53

UN commission probing BB murder to meet Shujaat today
Hmmm. . . interesting. I have always held the view that Shujaat was a prime suspect in the assassination of BB.

Rishi · Post by **Rishi** » 29 Sep 2009 10:02

On CNN IBN last night

Rajdeep Sardesai: A reader on IBNLive asks if India faces another 26/11-like attack, planned and executed from Pakistan, what will India's response be?

P Chidambaram: I can't say more than what I have said repeatedly: our response will be swift and decisive.

Rajdeep Sardesai: What does that mean specifically?

P Chidambaram: I can't explain that. When I say swift and decisive, I mean swift and decisive.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Will the response be different to last year?

P Chidambaram: I am sorry, I can't answer those questions.

Rangudu · Post by **Rangudu** » 29 Sep 2009 10:06

When I say swift and decisive, I mean swift and decisive.

After another 26/11, India will swiftly send a dossier to TSP and claim that we have decisively proven our case in front of Unkil.

CRamS · Post by **CRamS** » 29 Sep 2009 10:09

R-man,

Looks like you haven't bee reading this erudite forum

. We dissected Jihadi Sethi's threat on this August forum aeons ago. I cannot believe all those guys/gals sitting in those think tanks actually let this b@stard get away without asking him some tough questions. I wonder if the WKKs and myriad other elitist will invite this terrorist with open arms to their conclaves.

Satya_anveshi · Post by **Satya_anveshi** » 29 Sep 2009 10:13

SSridhar wrote:He should be the most shameless Home Minister. He demands US & UK to give him real-time information about terrorists staying within his own country as guests of his government.

Actually isn't this the same logic behind Pakistan asking drone technology from US so they can kill Pakiban that are supported by his own people (Army and Intel agencies)?

I mean they are asking for better technology so they can kill their own people efficiently.

The correct use of such technology is to use it on Pindi bases and US should give them if Paki govt promises to do that.

CRamS · Post by **CRamS** » 29 Sep 2009 10:14

Unless PC believes India has the military capability to act swiftly and decisevely as puts it, making such threats serve no purpose. It will motivate TSP to dare India. Recall, every time "iron man" Advani would talk about "hot pursuit across the LoC" or "terror is on its last legs", TSP would furiously retaliate with their LeT pigs, and India was left looking like little lamb crying profusely.

Rangudu · Post by **Rangudu** » 29 Sep 2009 10:15

CRS,

I know all about J.Sethi's threats and have been following the thread regularly. Just wanted to point out that he is here in DC making the same threats.

There is a group in the Pentagon led by Robert Gates, Adm. Mullen and co who want to pay off TSP to help US save face in Afghanistan.

But you guys are mistaken IMHO regarding Daily Times' edits. Most of the editorials in Daily Times are done by Ejaz Haider and an assistant named Ataul Musawwir. Some of the editorials which "confess" to things like Masood Azhar's presence in Bahawalpur etc. are done by Khaled Ahmed. Jihad Sethi does editorials for TFT and only sometimes does editorials for DT, according to people in the know.

Regardless, the threats are there and everyone is making them.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 29 Sep 2009 10:22

Rangudu wrote:After another 26/11, India will swiftly send a dossier to TSP and claim that we have decisively proven our case in front of Unkil.

Welcome back, Rangudu. Long time.

shravan · Post by **shravan** » 29 Sep 2009 10:52

SSridhar wrote:Have just sent him mail.

Did he reply ?

Rudradev · Post by **Rudradev** » 29 Sep 2009 11:00

Rangudu wrote:CRS,
There is a group in the Pentagon led by Robert Gates, Adm. Mullen and co who want to pay off TSP to help US save face in Afghanistan.

Rangudu,

Do the people in this group *really* believe that TSP can and will deliver? No matter what or how much they are paid?

Even if they are prepared to ignore all of Pakistan's duplicity over the last decade, they must be aware that a law of diminishing returns applies. The US can arm TSPA to the teeth, sanction however much aid with no strings attached, pressure India to close Afghan consulates and talk Kashmir, etc. But in the end, isn't an American presence in Afghanistan ultimately TSPA's meal ticket here? If the US leaves from AfPak in disgrace, doesn't that mean a drastic reduction in aid for MuNNA?

Given this, why would Gates or Mullen ever imagine that TSPA (with whatever amount of payoff) would go along with a plan that allowed the US to save face and withdraw?

Or are they thinking in terms of a short term buyout ("take this and don't make trouble till the healthcare thing blows over/ till the economy seems to be coming back/till the '10 legislative elections?") Somehow I don't think the Pentagon is as concerned with Obama's (or the Dems') fortune as much as some other branches of the GOTUS might be... Gates was IIRC a Bush nominee, and Mullen is of equal vintage.

shravan · Post by **shravan** » 29 Sep 2009 11:01

SSridhar wrote:Pakistan hands over 2 sons of Osama to Saudi Arabia

link

Pakistan's Daily Times quoted a private television channel as saying the two were apparently exchanged for five Pakistanis detained in Saudi Arabia on drug-trafficking charges. The TV channel, citing sources, said Saudi authorities had informed Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik about the whereabouts of the two.

The two were arrested in Pakistan's tribal areas and handed over to the Saudi authorities Sept. 18. Malik was quoted as telling the channel the release of the five Pakistanis was unconditional.

The Dawn report said Malik announced the release of the five Pakistanis but did not say what led Saudi authorities to free them. The report said Pakistan does not have an extradition treaty with Saudi Arabia.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 29 Sep 2009 11:31

shravan wrote:
SSridhar wrote:Have just sent him mail.
Did he reply ?

Shravan, no he didn't reply so far.

Lilo · Post by **Lilo** » 29 Sep 2009 12:37

The Long War Journal: Pakistan opens new terror camps after Mumbai assault

Written by Bill Roggio on September 26, 2009 8:12 PM to The Long War Journal

Ten new terror training camps have been opened inside Pakistan since the November 2008 terror assault in Mumbai, India, which was launched from Pakistani soil.

The 10 additional camps raise the total number to 62, according to Indian intelligence agencies. The report, which was first noted in the Hindustan Times, was confirmed by US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal.

P. Chidambaram, Indian's Home Minister, "shared details of the camps, along with maps and intercepts of conversations between terrorists and their Pakistani handlers, with the US government" during a visit to the US in early September.

The number of jihadi camps used to target India has fluctuated over the years. In 2005, it was estimated that there were 55 jihadi camps in Kashmir and Pakistan, but 15 were thought to have been wiped out during a deadly earthquake that struck Muzafarrabad and the surrounding areas in Pakistan-held Kashmir.

The 62 camps tallied by India's Multi-Agency Centre, the country's national intelligence coordination agency, are the ones that are directly aimed at India and India-held Kashmir, a senior US intelligence official told The Long War Journal.

"These are the camps that are set up specifically to churn out fighters assigned to strike in Kashmir and India," the official said. The official warned, however, that narrowly viewing the camps as being used to training fighters for either India or Afghanistan is a flawed way to look at the issue, as there is a wide amount of cooperation between the groups.

"The Indian number doesn't include camps in the NWFP [Northwest Frontier Province], FATA [the Federally Administered Tribal Areas], Baluchistan, and in Punjab that are tasked with aiding the Taliban in Afghanistan and in Pakistan's tribal areas."

The exact number of terror camps in Pakistan is not publicly available. Last summer, US intelligence officials told The Long War Journal that there were 157 al Qaeda and Taliban camps in Pakistan's tribal agencies and the Northwest Frontier Province. The number of camps in Baluchistan and Punjab has not been disclosed.

But a recent report in Newsline provided a disturbing glimpse into the extent of the jihadi network in South Punjab. The region is dotted with more than 3,000 madrassas, or religious schools, with many of them used to radicalize students and recruit fighters. The region is fertile recruiting grounds for the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (the radical offshoot of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan), Jaish-e-Mohammad, and Lashkar-e-Taiba. These groups have all struck alliances with al Qaeda and the Taliban.

According to the Newsline report, the Bahawalpur division, a region in South Punjab, "could boast of approximately 15,000-20,000 trained militants." An estimated 5,000 to 9,000 young men from South Punjab are thought to be fighting in Afghanistan and in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

The Quetta Shura, the governing body for the Afghan Taliban, led by Mullah Omar, is based in the capital of Pakistan's Baluchistan province, while scores of camps are known to operate in the province. The border city of Chaman serves as a forward command post for the Afghan Taliban and the Quetta Shura.

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/ ... _new_t.php

the article has some interesting comments

Lilo · Post by **Lilo** » 29 Sep 2009 13:46

another article on south punjab

Terror’s Training Ground

By Ayesha Siddiqa

A few years ago, I met some young boys from my village near Bahawalpur who were preparing to go on jihad. They smirked politely when I asked them to close their eyes and imagine their future. “We can tell you without closing our eyes that we don’t see anything.”

It was not entirely surprising. South Punjab is a region mired in poverty and underdevelopment. There are few job prospects for the youth. While the government has built airports and a few hospitals, these projects are symbolic and barely meet the needs of the area. It’s in areas like this, amid economic stagnation and hopelessness, that religious extremists find fertile ground to plant and spread their ideology.

The first step is recruitment – and the methodology is straightforward. Young children, or even men, are taken to madrassas in nearby towns. They are fed well and kept in living conditions considerably better than what they are used to. This is a simple psychological strategy meant to help them compare their homes with the alternatives offered by militant organisations. The returning children, like the boys I met, then undergo ideological indoctrination in a madrassa. Those who are indoctrinated always bring more friends and family with them. It is a swelling cycle.

Madrassas nurturing armies of young Islamic militants ready to embrace martyrdom have been on the rise for years in the Punjab. In fact, South Punjab has become the hub of jihadism. Yet, somehow, there are still many people in Pakistan who refuse to acknowledge this threat.

Four major militant outfits, the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT), are all comfortably ensconced in South Punjab (see article “Brothers in Arms”). Sources claim that there are about 5,000 to 9,000 youth from South Punjab fighting in Afghanistan and Waziristan. A renowned Pakistani researcher, Hassan Abbas cites a figure of 2,000 youth engaged in Waziristan. The area has become critical to planning, recruitment and logistical support for terrorist attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In fact, in his study on the Punjabi Taliban, Abbas has quoted Tariq Pervez, the chief of a new government outfit named the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (NCTA), as saying that the jihad veterans in South Punjab are instrumental in providing the foot soldiers and implementing terror plans conceived and funded mainly by Al-Qaeda operatives. This shouldn’t come as a surprise considering that the force that conquered Khost in 1988-89 comprised numerous South Punjabi commanders who fought for the armies of various Afghan warlords such as Gulbuddin Hikmatyar and Burhanuddin Rabbani. Even now, all the four major organisations are involved in Afghanistan.

The above facts are not unknown to the provincial and federal governments or the army. It was not too long ago that the federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik equated South Punjab with Swat. The statement was negated by the IG Punjab. Perhaps, the senior police officer was not refuting his superior but challenging the story by Sabrina Tavernese of The New York Times (NYT). The story had highlighted jihadism in South Punjab, especially in Dera Ghazi Khan. The NYT story even drew a reaction from media outlets across the country. No one understood that South Punjab is being rightly equated with Swat, not because of violence but due to the presence of elements that aim at taking the society and state in another direction.

An English-language daily newspaper reacted to the NYT story by dispatching a journalist to South Punjab who wrote a series of articles that attempted to analyse the existing problem. One of the stories highlighted comments by the Bahawalpur Regional Police Officer (RPO) Mushtaq Sukhera, in which he denied that there was a threat of Talibanisation in South Punjab. He said that all such reports pertaining to South Punjab were nothing more than a figment of the western press’s imagination. Many others express a similar opinion. There are five explanations for this.

Firstly, opinion makers and policy makers are in a state of denial regarding the gravity of the problem. Additionally, they believe an overemphasis on this region might draw excessive US attention to South Punjab – an area epitomising mainstream Pakistan. Thus, it is difficult even to find anecdotal evidence regarding the activities of jihadis in this sub-region. We only gain some knowledge about the happenings from coincidental accidents like the blast that took place in a madrassa in Mian Chunoon, exposing the stockpile of arms its owner had stored on the premises.

Secondly, officer Sukhera and others like him do not see any threat because the Punjab-based outfits are “home-grown” and are not seen as directly connected to the war in Afghanistan. This is contestable on two counts: South Punjabi jihadists have been connected with the Afghan jihad since the 1980s and the majority is still engaged in fighting in Afghanistan.

Thirdly, since all these outfits were created by the ISI to support General Zia-ul-Haq’s Islamisation process, in essence to fight a proxy war for Saudi Arabia against Iran by targeting the Shia community, and later the Kashmir war, the officials feel comfortable that they will never spin out of control. Those that become uncontrollable, such as Al-Furqan, are then abandoned. This outfit was involved in the second assassination attempt on Musharraf and had initially broken away from the JeM after the leadership developed differences over assets, power and ideology. Thus, the district officials and intelligence agencies turned a blind eye to the killing of the district amir of Al-Furqan in Bahawalpur in May 2009. As far as the JeM is concerned, it continues its engagement with the establishment. In any case, groups that are partly committed to the Kashmir cause and confrontation with India continue to survive. This is certainly the perception about the LeT. But in reality, the Wahhabi outfit has also been engaged in other regions, such as the Afghan provinces of Kunar and Badakhshan since 2004.

Fourthly, there is confusion at the operational level in the government regarding the definition of Talibanisation, which is then reflected in the larger debate on the issue. Many, including the RPO, define the process as an effort by an armed group to use force to change the social conditioning in an area. Ostensibly, the militant outfits in the Punjab continue to coexist with the pirs, prostitutes and the drug mafia, and there is no reason that they will follow in the footsteps of Sufi Mohammad and Maulana Fazlullah, or Baitullah Mehsud. Since the authorities only recognise the pattern followed by the Afghan warlords or those in Pakistan’s tribal areas, they tend not to understand that what is happening in the Punjab may not be Talibanisation but could eventually prove to be as lethal as what they call Talibanisation.

Finally, many believe that Talibanisation cannot take place in a region known for practicing the Sufi version of Islam. There are many, besides the Bahawalpur RPO, who subscribe to the above theory. A year ago in an interview with an American channel, Farahnaz Ispahani, an MNA and wife of Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington, Husain Haqqani, stated that extremism couldn’t flourish in South Punjab because it was a land of Sufi shrines. This is partially true. The Sufi influence would work as a bulwark against this Talibanisation of society. However, Sufi Islam cannot fight poverty, underdevelopment and poor governance – all key factors that encourage Talibanisation.

South Punjab boasts names such as the Mazaris, Legharis and Gilanis, most of whom are not just politicians and big landowners but also belong to significant pir families. But they have done little to alleviate the sufferings of their constituents. A visit to Dera Ghazi Khan is depressing. Despite the fact that the division produced a president, Farooq Khan Leghari, the state of underdevelopment there is shocking. Reportedly, people living in the area in the immediate vicinity of the Leghari tribe could not sell their land without permission from the head of the tribe, the former president, who has been the tribal chief for many years. Under the circumstances, the poor and the dispossessed became attractive targets for militant outfits offering money. The country’s current economic downturn could raise the popularity of militant outfits.

In recent history, the gap created due to the non-performance of Sufi shrines and Barelvi Islam, or the exploitative nature of these institutions, has been filled partly by the Deobandi and Ahl-e-Hadith madrassa conversion teams and groups, such as the Tableeghi Jamaat, and militant outfits. This alternative, unfortunately, is equally exploitative in nature. Sadly, today the shrines and Barelvi Islam have little to offer in terms of “marketing” to counter the package deal offered by the Salafists for the life hereafter, especially to a shaheed: 70 hoors (virgins), a queen hoor (virgin queen) , a crown of jewels and forgiveness for 70 additional people. This promise means a lot for the poor youth who cannot hope for any change in a pre-capitalist socio-economic and political environment, where power is hard to re-negotiate. Furthermore, as stated by the former information minister Mohammad Ali Durrani, who had been a jihadi from 1984-90, a poor youth suddenly turning into a jihadi commander is a tremendous story of social mobility and recognition that he would never get in his existing socio-economic system. More importantly, the Deobandis and Ahl-e-Hadith offer a textual basis for their package, which is difficult for the pirs to refute due to the lack of an internal religious discourse in the Islamic world. The modern generation of pirs has not engaged in an internal discourse to counter this ideological onslaught by the Salafis. The main belief of Salafism is that all Muslims should practice Islam as it was during the time of Prophet Muhammad. The religion at that time, according to them, was perfect. Salafism – which pre-dates Wahhabism – is often used interchangeably with Wahhabism, which is actually an extension of Salafism.

Punjab offers a different pattern of extremism and jihadism. The pattern is closer to what one saw in Swat, where Sufi Mohammad and his TNSM spent quite a few years indoctrinating the society and building up a social movement before they got embroiled in a conflict with the state. South Punjab’s story is, in a sense, like Swat’s in that there is a gradual strengthening of Salafism and a build-up of militancy in the area. The procedure of conversion though, dates back to pre-1947. Still, the 1980s were clearly a watershed, when both rabid ideology and jihad were introduced to the area. Zia-ul-Haq encouraged the opening up of religious seminaries that, unlike the more traditional madrassas that were usually attached with Sufi shrines, subscribed to Salafi ideology. In later years, South Punjab became critical to inducting people for the Kashmir jihad. The ascendancy of the Tableeghi Jamaat and such madrassas that presented a more rabid version of religion gradually prepared the ground for later invasion by the militant groups. Two reports prepared around 1994, firstly by the district collector Bahawalpur and later by the Punjab government, highlighted the exponential rise in the number of madrassas and how these fanned sectarian and ideological hatred in the province. These reports also stated that all of these seminaries were provided funding by the government through the zakat fund.

The number of seminaries had increased during and after the 1980s. According to a 1996 report, there were 883 madrassas in Bahawalpur, 361 in Dera Ghazi Khan, 325 in Multan and 149 in Sargodha district. The madrassas in Bahawalpur outnumbered all other cities, including Lahore. These numbers relate to Deobandi madrassas only and do not include the Ahl-e-Hadith, Barelvi and other sects. Newer estimates from the intelligence bureau for 2008 show approximately 1,383 madrassas in the Bahawalpur division that house 84,000 students. Although the highest number of madrassas is in Rahim Yar Khan district (559) followed by Bahawalpur (481) and Bahawalnagar (310), it is Bahawalpur in which the highest number of students (36,000) is enlisted. The total number of madrassa students in Pakistan has reached about one million.

Everyone has been so focused on FATA and the NWFP that they failed to notice the huge increase in religious seminaries in these districts of South Punjab. According to a study conducted by historian Tahir Kamran, the total number of madrassas in the Punjab rose from 1,320 in 1988 to 3,153 in 2000, an increase of almost 140%. These madrassas were meant to provide a rapid supply of jihadis to the Afghan war of the 1980s. At the time of 9/11, the Bahawalpur division alone could boast of approximately 15,000-20,000 trained militants, some of whom had resettled in their areas during the period that Musharraf claimed to have clamped down on the jihad industry. Many went into the education sector, opened private schools and even joined the media.

These madrassas play three essential roles. First, they convert people to Salafism and neutralise resistance to a more rabid interpretation of the Quran and Sunnah in society. Consequently, the majority of the Barelvis cannot present a logical resistance to the opposing ideology. In many instances, the Barelvis themselves get converted to the idea of jihad. Secondly, these madrassas are used to train youth, who are then inducted into jihad. Most of the foot soldiers come from the religious seminaries. One of the principles taught to the students pertains to the concept of jihad as being a sacred duty that has to continue until the end of a Muslim’s life or the end of the world. Lastly, madrassas are an essential transit point for the youth, who are recruited from government schools. They are usually put through the conversion process after they have attended a 21-day initial training programme in the Frontier province or Kashmir (see box “A Different Breed”).

State support, which follows two distinct tracks, is also instrumental in the growth of jihadism in this region. On the one hand, there has generally been a link or understanding between political parties and militant groups. Since political parties are unable to eliminate militants or most politicians are sympathetic towards the militants, they tend to curb their activities through political deal-making. The understanding between the SSP and Benazir Bhutto after the 1993 elections, or the alleged deal between the PML-N and the SSP during the 2008 elections, denote the relationship between major political parties and the jihadis. Currently, the SSP in South Punjab is more supportive of the PML-N.

The second track involves operational links between the outfits and the state’s intelligence apparatus. As mentioned earlier, some of the outfits claim to have received training from the country’s intelligence agencies. Even now, local people talk of truckloads of weapons arriving at the doorstep of the JeM headquarters and other sites in the middle of the night. While official sources continue to claim that the outfit was banned and does not exist, or that Masood Azhar is on the run from his hometown of Bahawalpur, the facts prove otherwise. For instance, the outfit continues to acquire real estate in the area, such as a new site near Chowk Azam in Bahawalpur, which many believe is being used as a training site. Although the new police chief has put restraints on the JeM and disallowed it from constructing on the site, the outfit continues to appropriate more land around the area. Junior police officials even claim seeing tunnels being dug inside the premises. The new facility is on the bank of the Lahore-Karachi national highway, which means that in the event of a crisis, the JeM could block the road as has happened in Kohat and elsewhere. Furthermore, the outfit’s main headquarters in the city is guarded by AK-47-armed men who harass any journalist trying to take a photograph of the building. In one instance, even a police official was shooed away and later intimidated by spooks of an intelligence agency for spying on the outfit. Despite the claim that the SSP, the LeJ and the JeM have broken ties with intelligence agencies and are now fighting the army in Waziristan, the fact remains that their presence in the towns of South Punjab continues unhindered.

Is it naivety and inefficiency on the part of officialdom or a deliberate effort to withhold information? The government claims that Maulana Masood Azhar has not visited his hometown in the last three years. But he held a massive book launch of his new publication Fatah-ul-Jawad: Quranic Verses on Jihad, on April 28, 2008, in Bahawalpur. Moreover, JeM’s armed men manned all entrances and exits to the city that day – and there was no police force in sight. The ISI is said to have severed its links with the JeM for assisting the Pashtoon Taliban in inciting violence in the country. Sources from FATA claim, however, that the JeM, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) and LeT are suspected by the Taliban for their links with state agencies.

In addition, intelligence agencies reportedly ward off anyone attempting to probe into the affairs of these outfits. In one case, a local in Bahawalpur city invoked daily visits from a certain agency after he assisted a foreign journalist. Similarly, only six months back, a BBC team was chased out of the area by agency officials. In fact, intelligence officials, who had forgotten about my existence since my last book was published, revisited my village in South Punjab soon after I began writing on militancy in the area and have gone to the extent of planting a story in one of the Urdu newspapers to malign me in my own area. In any case, no serious operation was conducted against these outfits after the Mumbai attacks and the recent spate of violence in the country. Hence, all of them continue to survive.

The Deobandi outfits are not the only ones popular in South Punjab. Ahl-e-Hadith/Wahhabi organisations such as the Tehreek-ul-Mujahidden (TuM) and the LeT also have a following in the region. While TuM, which is relatively a smaller organisation, has support in Dera Ghazi Khan, the LeT is popular in Bahawalpur, Multan and the areas bordering Central Punjab. Headquartered in Muridke, the LeT is popular among the Punjabi and Urdu-speaking Mohajir settlers.

There are obvious sociological reasons for LeT’s relative popularity among these people. The majority of this population represents either the lower-middle-class farmers or middle-class trader-merchants. The middle class is instrumental in providing funding to these outfits. And the support is not confined to South Punjab alone. In fact, middle-class trader-merchants from other parts of the Punjab also feed jihad through their funding. This does not mean that there are no Seraiki speakers in Wahhabi organisations but just that the dominant influence is that of the Punjabis and Mohajirs. The Seraiki-speaking population is mostly associated with the SSP, LeJ and JeM, not to mention the freelancing jihadis that have direct links with the Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP).

The LeT’s presence in South Punjab is far more obvious than others courtesy of the wall chalkings and social work by its sister outfit, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa. Despite the rumours of friction between the LeT and the JuD leadership, the two segments operate in unison in South Punjab. Three of the favourite areas of recruitment in South Punjab for all outfits are Cholistan in Bahawalpur, the Rekh in Dera Ghazi Khan, and the Kacha area in Rajanpur. The first two are desert areas known for their poverty and underdevelopment, while the third is known for dacoits. However, another known feature of Kacha in Rajanpur is that the clerics of the Lal Masjid come from this area and have partly managed to push back the dacoits. Local sources claim that the influence of the clerics has increased since they started receiving cooperation from the police to jointly fight the dacoits.

Organisations such as the LeT have even begun to recruit women in the Punjab. These women undergo 21 days of ideological and military training. The goal is to ensure that these women will be able to fight if their menfolk are out on jihad and an enemy attacks Pakistan.

The militant outfits are rich, both ideologically and materially. They have ample financial resources that flow from four distinct sources: official sources (in some cases); Middle Eastern and Gulf states (not necessarily official channels); donations; and the Punjabi middle class, which is predominantly engaged in funding both madrassas and jihad for social, moral and political ends. With regard to donations, the militant outfits are extremely responsive to the changing environment and have adapted their money-collection tactics. Gone are the days of money-collection boxes. Now, especially in villages, followers are asked to raise money by selling harvested crops. And in terms of the Punjabi middle class, there are traders in Islamabad and other smaller urban centres that contribute regularly to the cause. These trader-merchants and upcoming entrepreneurs see donations to these outfits as a source of atonement for their sins. In Tahir Kamran’s study “Deobandiism in the Punjab,” Deobandiism (and Wahhabiism) is an urban phenomenon. If so, then the existence of these militant outfits in rural Punjab indicates a new social trend. Perhaps, due to greater access to technology (mobiles, television sets, satellite receivers, etc), the landscape (and rustic lifestyles) of Punjab’s rural areas has changed. There is an unplanned urbanisation of the rural areas due to the emergence of small towns with no social development, health and education infrastructure. Socially and politically, there is a gap that is filled by these militant outfits or related ideological institutions.

Fortunately, they have not succeeded in changing the lifestyles of the ordinary people. This is perhaps because there are multiple cultural strands that do not allow the jihadis to impose their norms the way they have in the tribal areas or the Frontier province. This is not to say that there is no threat from them in South Punjab: the liberalism and multi-polarity of society is certainly at risk. The threat is posed by the religious seminaries and the new recruits for jihad, who change social norms slowly and gradually. Sadly nothing, including the powerful political system of the area, which in any case is extremely warped, helps ward off the threat of extremism and jihadism. Ultimately, South Punjab could fall prey to the myopia of its ruling elite.

So how does the state and society deal with this issue?

Deploying the military is not an option. In the Punjab this will create a division within the powerful army because of regional loyalty. The foremost task is to examine the nature of the state’s relationship with the militants as strategic partners: should this relationship continue to exist to the detriment of the state? Once this mystifying question is resolved, all militant forces can be dealt with through an integrated police-intelligence operation.

This, however, amounts to winning only half the battle. The other half deals with the basic problems faced by the likes of those young jihadis-in-training from Bahawalpur who said, “We don’t see anything” in our futures. Presently, there is hardly any industrialisation in South Punjab and the mainstay of the area, agriculture, is faltering. The region requires economic strengthening: new ideas in agriculture, capital investment and new, relevant industries. This is the time that the government must plan beyond the usual textile and sugar industries that have arguably turned into huge mafias that are draining the local economy rather than feeding it.

Investment in social development is desperately needed. A larger social infrastructure that provides jobs and an educational system that is responsive to the needs of the population can contribute to filling the gaps. The message of militancy is quite potent, especially in terms of the dreams it sells to the youth, such as those disillusioned boys from my village. Jihad elevates youngsters from a state of being dispossessed to an imagined exalted status. They visualise themselves taking their places among great historical figures such as Mohammad bin Qasim and Khalid bin Waleed. It is these dreams for which the state must provide an alternative.

http://www.newsline.com.pk/NewsSep2009/ ... orysep.htm

a long one but well worth the read.