Taliban militants disguised in burqa to attack an anti-Taliban mayor

Perhaps inspired by their terrorist leader Mulla Abdul Aziz of the Lal Masjid of Islamabad, Taliban terrorist have started disguising themselves in Burqa in order to attack ordinary citizens of Pakistan.


Militants attack anti-Taliban mayor in northwest Pakistan
DawnNews Report
Sunday, 15 Nov, 2009

PESHAWAR: More than a dozen militants opened fire on the house of an anti-Taliban mayor in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, but security guards repelled the attack, killing three assailants, said police.

Militants have staged a wave off attacks in northwestern Pakistan in recent weeks in retaliation for an army offensive launched last month in the tribal area of South Waziristan, where al-Qaida and Taliban leaders are believed to be hiding.

Several of the militants who attacked Mayor Mohammad Fahim Khan's house disguised themselves by donning burqas, said police official Nabi Shah.

‘Seeing three burqa-clad women early in the morning, Fahim Khan's security guards challenged them, and the men threw away their disguise and opened fire,’ said Shah.

‘But the guards were alert and they retaliated quickly.’

The guards killed three militants and waged a gunbattle with the rest, but they managed to escape, said Shah.

Khan was the second mayor to be attacked in the last week who has organised a local militia to fight against the Taliban. A suicide bomber hit a crowded market outside the main northwestern city of Peshawar last Sunday, killing 12 people, including a mayor who once supported but turned against the Taliban.

Militants have made several attempts to assassinate Khan, who is the mayor of Bazid Khel town, some 10 miles south Peshawar.

‘Militants have exploded three bombs near my house, killing innocent people, and they have opened fire on me several times but have failed so far,’ said Khan. ‘These attacks will not weaken my resolve against militants.’

The recent wave of attacks has killed hundreds since the beginning of October. The insurgents appear to believe the violence will weaken the determination of both the people and the government to counter the rising militant threat.

Many attacks have targeted areas in and around Peshawar, which borders Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal region where the army is fighting its offensive. Strikes in the past week alone have killed more than 50 people, including 11 who died Saturday when a suicide car bomber attacked a police checkpoint on the outskirts of Peshawar.

A day earlier, another suicide car bomber attacked the regional office of Pakistan's top intelligence agency in Peshawar, killing 10 people.

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General Zia-ul-Haq's legacy: The axis of evil in Pakistan

Crime in the name of conspiracy —Mehmal Sarfraz

Conspiracy theory is the only industry in Pakistan that runs round the clock and the production quality as well as product variety are absolutely out of this world

Conspiracy theory is the only industry in Pakistan that runs round the clock and the production quality as well as product variety are absolutely out of this world. The whole school of conspiracy theory reflects a certain mindset, which comes up with half-baked stories based on little or no evidence.

Just like former US President George W Bush had his axis of evil, a lot of Pakistanis have their own axis of evil — India, Israel and the US. If anybody so much as sneezes in the land of the pure, any one of these three countries or all of them are behind it. This is exactly what Mr Ijazul Haq did in his two articles, ‘A criminal conspiracy’ and ‘Punish the Bahawalpur conspirators’ published in this newspaper on September 8 and 9, 2009.

He has not only blamed Pakistan’s own ‘axis of evil’ but he has blamed everyone and his uncle for General Ziaul Haq’s death: Russia, Afghanistan, Al-Zulfiqar, the Pakistani military and many others.

First, let us examine why the Russians may not be responsible for this misadventure. The Soviets had signed the Geneva Accords in Spring 1988 and were engaged in pulling out their troops from Afghanistan. That they were earnest in their commitment was borne out by their scrupulous adherence to the pullout schedule. It would have been nothing but an act of petulance on their part if they were involved in the plane crash. If it is ever proved that the Soviets were involved in this conspiracy, it would greatly affect their credibility. Further, what material evidence can Mr Haq or anyone for that matter adduce to substantiate his allegation? Blaming this on the Soviets takes us away from the real truth.

Al-Zulfiqar too had almost abandoned its operations after the murder of Shahnawaz Bhutto in 1985; so to lay the blame at its doorstep is too far-fetched. Al-Zulfiqar did not have any sympathisers in the Pakistani military and therefore it could not have pulled off such an enormous coup, the logistics as well as actual conduct of which would have required an outlay that was definitely beyond the resources of a hounded and battered outfit like Al-Zulfiqar. Again, the question remains what material evidence can Mr Ijazul Haq show to prove the complicity of Al-Zulfiqar in the crash at Bahawalpur? But then, empirical evidence probably is not what Mr Haq is after. It is fine to spout a few trite albeit patently flimsy statements as long as the same sit well with a heavily indoctrinated public.

Israel would not have gained much from Zia’s death either. After the release of the much-touted book ‘Charlie Wilson’s War’ by George Crile, it is no secret that Israel helped General Zia in the Afghan war. Had Zia remained alive, things might have improved between Israel and Pakistan, much to the chagrin of the Arabs and most Pakistanis, but since the General had no one to answer to, this could have been achieved. Even in General Musharraf’s time, there were backdoor channels working on improving relations between Israel and Pakistan. It was the Lebanon war in 2006 that placed a few spanners in the wheels of these back-channel negotiations.

As for India, killing Zia and Pakistan’s top military brass would have been an open invitation to war. Had India actually been involved, our military would have done everything to prove this to the world and launched a military offensive with international support. Further, Pak-India relations had been rather smooth under Zia as well as Musharraf. It is the political leadership that fails to deliver vis-à-vis relations with India because their decision-making space is severely limited. India would have relished Zia’s longevity rather than cut the chord that held things in balance.

Mr Ijazul Haq has wagged a finger of suspicion at the Americans too for good measure, again without an iota of proof. Some people are of the view that after the end of the Cold War, the world wanted Pakistan to move forward, which meant getting rid of the military dictatorship and bringing in its place a genuine democratic government. It is also said in some quarters that Zia’s pan-Islamic ambitions were not approved of by the US. Twenty years down the road, we Pakistanis know only too well how robust were the democratic governments in the decade that followed Zia’s death. Further, Charlie and his aunt in Pakistan never get tired of blaming the US for abandoning the region after 1989 and thus allowing Islamic jihad to flourish. Strange that the Americans were so naïve as to kill Zia for the imaginary proliferation of jihad and not stir a finger while jihad descended from the mountains of Afghanistan till a brace of planes struck a pair of towers in New York.

When scrutinising the death of General Zia and the top military brass, with the exception of General Beg, one cannot stop wondering whether there was an internal motivation behind this. Who would benefit the most from the elimination of Zia and his entire coterie of military officers? Without local collaboration at the highest echelons of power, this could not have been pulled off. It has been rumoured that General Beg met with resistance from the Corps Commanders in Rawalpindi after Zia’s death, but we have no evidence of this as General Beg completed his tenure without any problems.

The Shafiur Rahman Commission report on the plane crash has never been made public, like so many such sensitive reports in our history.

One would like to ask Ijazul Haq why he never tried to reopen his father’s case when he was in power during Nawaz Sharif’s time or during Musharraf’s regime. Mr Haq is a former federal minister. He failed as a politician when he tried to follow in his father’s footsteps by supporting jihadi elements. Chaudhry Shujaat is on record as saying that it was because of Ijazul Haq that Maulana Aziz of Lal Masjid was given a safe passage.

People of my generation are often called ‘Zia’s children’ because we were born during General Ziaul Haq’s era — the darkest period in the history of Pakistan. Military dictatorship is inherently bad for a country but General Zia proved to be a particularly rotten specimen of military dictator. In his article titled ‘Punish the Bahawalpur conspirators’ (Daily Times, September 9, 2009), Ijazul Haq writes, “...he [Zia] was a benign dictator. He ruled not only Pakistanis but also their hearts and minds. He worked very hard for the betterment of his people.”

On the contrary, General Ziaul Haq was undoubtedly one of the most hated men in Pakistan. He only ruled the ‘hearts and minds’ of those who wreaked havoc with the country’s polity. When Mr Ijazul Haq wrote that “ever since his [Zia’s] departure, the country has been in a constant state of crisis”, he should have realised that Zia’s legacy is haunting Pakistan and that is why the country has not been able to get out of the quagmire he left behind even though more than two decades have passed since he died. Pakistan is in this whole mess because of General Zia who stoked sectarianism in Pakistan; who persecuted the Ahmadis to the extent that there was a mass exodus of Ahmadis from Pakistan; who introduced the Blasphemy Law, which to date is misused against the religious minorities; who promulgated the Hudood Ordinance, an outright anti-women legislation. His myopic shot at piety led to the death of the political discourse, cultural diversity and economic potential of this country.

Mehmal Sarfraz is a freelance journalist and Joint Secretary South Asian Women in Media (SAWM). She can be reached at mehmal.s@gmail.com

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Pampering the mullah

Friday, November 06, 2009

Talat Farooq

After the government crackdown on certain madrassas in Islamabad recently, the representatives of the Wafaq-ul-Madaris aired their indignation on TV channels. They criticised the action on the grounds that madrassas have always been weapon/terror-free -- including, if you please, the Lal Masjid -- and, as such, cannot be held responsible for any anti-state activities The went on to add thatif the government officials wish to visit any of the premises, they must do so with the permission of Wafaq-ul-Madaris. In answer to such defiant outbursts, the interior minister meekly assured the Wafaq that the government never meant to violate the sanctity of these great places of learning and knowledge, and is only looking for some foreign Imams residing in some madressahs illegally. One fails to understand why the government has to be apologetic in carrying out such actions against any institution in Pakistan if it has reports of illegal activity there, especially when we are in a state of war. Madressahs, even if registered, are not sacrosanct or above the law. Unfortunately, it is this obsequiousness of our rulers toward the mullah since the creation of Pakistan that has emboldened the extremists over the last six decades.


The Muslim struggle for Pakistan did not include the Deoband or the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind who opposed the idea of Pakistan tooth and nail. Nonetheless, once Pakistan became a reality the Wahabi-Deobandi groups made gradual inroads as our leaders acquiesced to their demands within a few years of independence. Since then their influence has remained unchecked by the state as it focused on short-term political goals, it is therefore not surprising that they have eventually assumed the mantle of our self-proclaimed saviours and architects of the national identity of Pakistan.

Be it the Objectives Resolution or the timing of the Anti-Ahmadiyya movement in the 50s that facilitated the first martial law; the ban on alcohol and declaration of Friday as a weekly holiday by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Naseerullah Babar's Taliban idea during Benazir's government, or Nawaz Sharif's Shariah Bill of the 90s, staying on the right side of Maulana Fazl ur Rahman by successive governments or the on-going pampering of Wafaq-ul-Madaris by the incumbent administration, the political players of Pakistan have always put their own narrow interests before the interests of the nation.

The military dictatorships on the other hand have used the mullah to further their own specific interests. From Ayub Khan to Musharraf, all military regimes have sought the cooperation of one religious sect or the other. Zia in particular played the mullah card to promote American interests and Arab culture simultaneously, destroying national institutions in the process while Musharraf's post-9/11 two-faced strategy ensured the continuity of extremism. Jointly, the politicians and the military dictators, with help from America and Saudi Arabia, have managed to create a monster that feeds on violence and bloodshed.

The religious clerics, whether Muslim or non Muslim, derive their political power from exploiting the insecurities of the masses by focusing on differences in religious and socio-cultural beliefs, thus leading to social divisions. In a multi-ethnic Pakistani society with a sizeable non-Muslim population, this has spelled disaster. Over the last three decades, the Deobandi/Wahabi mindset has transmuted ideological divisions into militant sectarianism that has been duly exploited by the Taliban and their domestic sympathisers that include mainstream religious-political parties.

Muslim states like Turkey, in keeping with the Ottoman tradition, have managed to keep their clerics under state control to ensure social order. In Pakistan, they have been given a free hand; what we are witnessing today in the shape of violence is the dark side of religiosity infused by religious extremists into the psyche of both the uneducated masses and the unsuspecting educated elite. This has transpired due to the manipulation of religious sentiments by vested interests and festering socio-economic and governance issues all rolled into one. But above all, this is due to the deliberate omission of critical thinking skills and philosophical knowledge from the national curricula, thus rendering a large majority of Pakistani population incapable of objective assessment. This omission is largely attributable to the direct or indirect influence of the mullah especially during and after the Zia era.

Today the same extremist elements continue to spread their hatred of one another as well as propagate against Pakistan's national interests by promoting conspiracy theories and blind anti-Americanism from the pulpit. And while doing so, they fail to mention the negative influence of certain policies of the Saudi government toward Pakistan. The anti-American and anti-government slogans after the Islamic University bombing would have sounded more genuine had they been accompanied with anti-Taliban slogans. Pakistan will never become a self-respecting nation unless it disengages itself from not only American shackles but also the ones imported from Saudi Arabia. This requires a mature political leadership that believes in impartial analyses and practical strategies, not to mention courage and wisdom.

The Waziristan operation is in full swing and if the religious parties cannot support it for fear of life, they can at least remain quiet. By stoking the fire of anti-Americanism to garner support for the Taliban through ill-timed rallies and referendums, they are doing no service to Pakistan. The nation is being driven into a frenzy that can only spread more intolerance and spawn fear and anxiety. Furthermore, it serves as a diversion because it deflects people's attention from the real issue of good governance and allows religious and secular leaders, whether in the government or opposition or outside the parliament, to play their petty games without having to shoulder the required responsibilities to steer the country out of the present quagmire.

Religion is a strong social phenomenon and has been employed by many in human history to serve political ends. Muslim history is no exception. The mullahs of Pakistan have employed the same dispensation since 1947 to gain political power. This has eventually led to the rise of a ferocious militant element never known in Muslim history. Not even the Hashashins of Hassan Sabah killed with such merry abandon. It is high time for the state to check the spread of unbridled hatred. It is time to stop pampering the mullah.

The writer is executive editor of Criterion, Islamabad.
Email: talatfarooq11@gmail.com (The News)

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Beware of the unholy nexus of civil and military establishment in Pakistan.

A fine mess what, gentlemen

By Kamran Shafi
Tuesday, 27 Oct, 2009

Interior Minister Rehman Malik, left, talks to his Iranian counterpart Mostafa Mohammad Najjar during their meeting in Islamabad. Najjar is in Pakistan for talks on efforts to battle a Sunni militant group blamed for a recent suicide bombing that killed top Revolutionary Guard commanders and dozens of others. –AP Photo

What gives? I mean, really! As if our problems with India and Afghanistan; and in our own provinces of the Frontier and Balochistan and possibly soon in southern Punjab were not enough! As if the security situation in our country was not already as dire as to dictate the closure of all schools and universities for a week and as if we were not in the throes of violence never seen before, we have now riled the Iranians enough for them to send their interior minister to Pakistan for a whole week to present evidence that Jundallah cadres regularly cross the Pakistan-Iran border to wreak havoc in Iran.

The latest incident was the bombing of a meeting of senior Revolutionary Guard commanders in which several generals and other senior officers were killed.
Then for days on end news circulates in all of the media that the army has made pacts with certain anti-US but not necessarily anti-Pakistan extremist fanatics in Waziristan such as Maulvi Nazir and Hafiz Gul Bahadur to get safe passage through their areas as it advances towards Hakimullah Mehsud.

On the seventh day of this news doing the rounds with no clarification, and possibly after American displeasure, this news suddenly changes to suggest that the pacts were made by the civilian government! What is going on?

This is not all. There are persistent reports, specially in this paper, that the Ghazi Force named after Maulana Ghazi Abdul Rashid of the Red Mosque, Islamabad the Beautiful, is still very much active and could well be involved in terror activities not only in Islamabad and Rawalpindi but across the length and breadth of this poor country, marrying up with the yahoos in Waziristan and Swat too.

We must recall immediately, if only to expose the double-facedness of the establishment, that after his death in a completely stupidly planned (and delayed) action against the Lal Masjid, Ghazi’s remains were sent by a government helicopter to his native village in Dera Ghazi Khan for a burial attended by thousands of people.
We must immediately juxtapose this with the treatment given to the hanged Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, an elected and popular leader, at whose funeral not more than 10 people were allowed. Whose wife and daughter were not allowed to attend the last rites of their loved one.

This is not all. Compare this with the way in which two-time elected prime minister Nawaz Sharif, elected chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, and their families were not allowed to come back to the country to attend their dear father’s funeral. Compare it too with the way in which former governor and former elected chief minister Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti was consigned to his grave in a rudely padlocked wooden box with six or seven government lackeys attending.

Amidst all of this, the security establishment persists in leaking stories to the press about the unacceptability of the language used in the Kerry-Lugar bill in what can only be called trying to stare the government down. What purpose this will achieve, apart from destabilising the ‘bloody civilians’ a little bit more, only our Rommels and Guderians can tell us.

What we already know, however, is that the US Congress has put more conditions on military aid to Pakistan, due not only to the ill-thought out ramblings of the Commando while giving lectures in places such as Sioux Falls, SD but also due to the mindless press release issued so arrogantly by GHQ.

As is usual with us, we proceed headlong in our blind quest for making ever bigger fools of ourselves: on Oct 20 the following was quoted in the press, and extensively on the Internet: ‘During a meeting with US Central Command (Centcom chief Gen David Petraeus, he [Gen Kayani] discussed the US providing state-of-the-art weapons to Pakistani forces to help them combat terrorists in the Tribal Areas. The two generals also exchanged views on increasing cooperation in the war on terror and sharing intelligence to combat terrorists of [sic] the region.’

Yet, 12 days before this meeting, the by now infamous ISPR press release had been issued. Does nobody think things through?

When will the establishment stop trying to box above its weight, for heaven’s sake; when will it release its deathly grip on this poor and hapless country’s jugular by forsaking forever its power projection strategy, a ‘strategy’ that has repeatedly brought us (and it) grief? When will it realise that there are no good Maulvi Nazirs and Hafiz Gul Bahadurs?

When will it give up its self-arrogated position of arbiter of what is good and what is not good for Pakistan? When will it understand, if not for the country’s sake then for its own, that there is very little currency in destabilising democracy? And when will it understand that instead of blaming others we must put our own house in order? Case in point: hacks sympathetic to them say that India was behind the attack on GHQ! Where’s the proof then?

By the time you read this, President Asif Zardari and Mr Nawaz Sharif will already have met. Today’s newspapers will be full of what happened last night: did they or did they not achieve a breakthrough?

I am no soothsayer, but I do know this: if these two largest political parties do not rein in their hawks; if the PPP does not fulfill its promises such as implementing the Charter of Democracy, and removing the dictatorial aspects of the 17th Amendment; if the parties do not come to an accommodation, the establishment and its ‘agencies’ will first kill one, then the other.

kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk

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Lal Masjid is still training militants in the heart of Islamabad?

By Azaz Syed
Sunday, 25 Oct, 2009 (Dawn)

The capital police and law enforcement agencies are looking into GF involvement in different acts of terror, for example the killing of a brigadier i

ISLAMABAD, Oct 24: It seems that the Lal Masjid saga is not over yet as investigators probing the recent terrorist attacks in Islamabad suspect the involvement of Ghazi Force (GF), a small but lethal militant group named after Ghazi Abdul Rashid, the deputy imam of the Lal Masjid who died in the July 2007 crackdown, Dawn News learnt reliably here on Saturday.

The sources said that Niaz Raheem alias Bilal, the amir of GF, is said to be a prime suspect in terror activities in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

The sources said that the name of Niaz Raheem first crept up in May 2009, when law enforcement agencies arrested Fidaullah, the founder of the GF, after getting some leads from Khairullah and Khurram Shahzad, who were arrested in the case of Frontier Constabulary and Special Branch suicide attacks in Islamabad early this year.

The sources said that though Fidaullah was the founder amir of the GF, it is Niaz Raheem who is leading the force.

They said that Muhammad Hanif of Kacha Malana, District Dera Ismail Khan, Muhammad Kamran of Gali Bagh Ibrahim Khel resident of Saeedabad Pujgi, GPO Road, Peshawar, Dildar Khan a resident of Reggy Shenu , district Kohat , Bashir Ahmed a resident of village Nari Baja Bughdada, Mardan, Arslan Irshad, a resident of Defense Sector Karachi Shargi-D, Farhan Saqib Abbasi of sector G-6/2 are said to be some active members of the GF.

The sources add that besides these important members of the GF, 43 others are at large and they all are wanted in different terror cases.

The sources said that Fidaullah had established his network in Guljo area of Hangu and he had also been accused of taking youngsters from Islamabad to turn them into suicide bombers. But the arrest of Fidaullah and a successful military operation in Swat forced the group to lie low for some time. However, the group has now re-emerged under the guidance of a new amir.

Sources said that the group also has its links with militants in Swat and FATA and there is a strong possibility that they have developed a nexus for executing terror attacks in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

“All these terrorist networks, including the Ghazi Force, operating here in Pakistan somehow have links with the Tehreek-i- Taliban Pakistan (TTP),” said Amir Rana, a prominent expert on militancy.

The sources said that the capital police and law enforcement agencies were looking into GF involvement in other acts of terror, for example the killing of a brigadieur in Islamabad two days ago.

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Long live Mullah-Military Alliance

Terrorist of the Lal Masjid (Punjabi Taliban) have roots in South Punjab


Sunday, 25 Oct, 2009 | 01:26 AM PST

AT a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Gilani on Friday, the security situation in the country was reviewed and it is believed that particular attention was paid to the emerging threat of militancy in south Punjab. The government believes that there is a ‘triangular syndicate’ of militancy at work in the country involving the TTP, Al Qaeda and proscribed organisations such as the Jaish-i-Mohammad and Lashkar-i-Taiba and that with the current military operation under way in South Waziristan, the allies of the TTP in south Punjab have ramped up their attacks in the country. So, to try and stem the violence in the cities in the near term, the government wants a crackdown in south Punjab against the proscribed organisations and for this the intelligence and other operational requirements were reviewed on Friday.

Does this mean the state is finally getting serious about shutting down the jihadi pipeline in south Punjab? That isn’t clear yet. What the federal government appears to want is a rapid crackdown while the military operation in South Waziristan is under way. But such crackdowns have not proved a real turning point in the fight against militancy in the past. Moreover, while there is a consensus that the problem in south Punjab needs to be tackled by civilian security and law-enforcement agencies, there are several problems. Intelligence resources are already stretched thin given the threat of violence across Pakistan. The political will of the Punjab government, which controls the main law-enforcement agencies in the province, to crush militancy is not known. Then there is the elephant in the room, the Pakistan Army. Privately, army officials concede that there is a problem of militancy in south Punjab, but in the same breath the officials also talk of ‘Indian designs’ to conflate Al Qaeda with the Lashkar-i-Taiba to try and bring more international pressure to bear on Pakistan. It is difficult to tell if the army is simply clinging to its prioritisation approach, whereby it first targets those groups attacking the state, or if there is institutional denial that the army’s old charges, the Kashmir-centric jihadis, have morphed into something far more dangerous.

South Punjab, which stretches downwards from Jhang to Bahawalpur and Rahimyar Khan, is a big area covering over a dozen districts. One of those districts, Dera Ghazi Khan, abuts Dera Ismail Khan in the NWFP which in turn abuts South Waziristan. For those talking down the threat and claiming south Punjab is no Swat or South Waziristan, a question: in the not-too-distant past, was it conceivable that the Malakand division could fall to the militants as quickly as it did? (Dawn Editorial)

Islamabad: terror epicentre?

Examining the spoor of terrorists closely, security agencies are increasingly worried about Islamabad being the epicentre of terrorism. Acting on the basis of this pointer, there was a dragnet taken across the numerous madrassas in the capital city, only to find that all was fine with them. It is not known if the mosques — where sermons laced with politics are routinely given — were also under observation. But an outfit named Ghazi Force is being mentioned, named after the deceased leader of Islamabad’s Lal Masjid.

The nation is aware that terrorism in the country touched its first peak after the military operation against Islamabad’s Lal Masjid in 2007. Even Al Qaeda in its message on Al Jazeera TV condemned the operation and swore vengeance. No sociological study has been carried out in Islamabad. The intelligence agencies lack the scientific know-how and the students in the various high-profile educational institutions are ideologically too indoctrinated to undertake a dispassionate project like that.

It would be wrong to designate certain cities or regions as “homes of terrorism”. After the GHQ attack, we have discovered that the masterminds had come from Faisalabad, a city not too often mentioned in connection with terrorism. It would not be surprising if in the coming days female suicide-bombers come on the scene and are discovered to have emerged from a mushroom growth of female madrassas in Rawalpindi. What is needed is sound intelligence.

If intelligence is not forthcoming then anti-terrorism campaigns will seem like wild goose chases, now suspecting one city now another. And Islamabad, traditionally “in focus” more than other cities, should be the most scrutinised place in Pakistan, down to secret recordings of Friday sermons in the city’s myriad mosques. (Daily Times)

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Haroon-ur-Rasheed's analysis:

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More terror threats

Monday, 26 Oct, 2009

THE words Lal Masjid evoke revulsion among many here, shocking evidence of the growth of militancy and the state’s complicity in nurturing that threat in recent decades. But Lal Masjid also evokes a fierce anger against the state among a small group of people who believe that a ‘house of God’ was attacked in Operation Silence in July 2007 and that many ‘innocent’ people were killed by the armed forces. Born of that rage is a small but deadly militant group known as the Ghazi Force, named after the dead Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the infamous deputy imam of the Lal Masjid, which is bent on seeking vengeance against the state. Led by one Fidaullah until his arrest in May, the group was blamed for a series of attacks against security targets in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

The group fell off the terror radar after that, but, according to a report in this newspaper yesterday, is believed to be involved in the recent surge in violence in Islamabad and Rawalpindi under the tutelage of a new commander, Niaz Raheem. Not much is known about the Ghazi Force, but at least two things are worth bearing in mind. One, as a relatively new outfit, it has an incentive to ‘establish’ itself with a series of audacious and deadly attacks. Two, Lal Masjid’s sectarian, anti-Shia leanings are well known, which means that the Ghazi Force could easily forge an alliance with a range of groups operating inside Pakistan which share a similar outlook, groups that include Al Qaeda, Jaish-i-Mohammad and the Ilyas Kashmiri network.

What can the state do to fight groups such as the Ghazi Force, which may consist of no more than a few dozen highly trained and indoctrinated members bent on killing and maiming? Better intelligence, more surveillance and improved policing. That’s what got Fidaullah, the under-arrest leader of the Ghazi Force, in the first place — leads provided by other detained suspects that eventually led to his capture by law-enforcement personnel in Islamabad. But there is also a role for the ordinary citizen, too: stay alert, watch the goings-on in your neighbourhood, report any suspicious activity. By no means are we suggesting neighbour turn against neighbour or converting the country into one big web of spies, but these are extraordinary days and the state’s capacity to deal with the terrorism threat is still well below adequate. So the citizenry should help, responsibly, where it can. (Dawn)

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March of the skeletons

By Mahir Ali
Wednesday, 16 Sep, 2009 (Dawn)

The plethora of talking heads on private television channels has yielded a few intriguing insights. —File Photo

GOING by the rate at which former operatives from a plethora of military and other agencies have been emerging from the woodwork and spilling the beans, it almost seems as if someone went around spiking their preferred beverages with truth serum in the run-up to the month of fasting.

If only it were that simple. Were there is some sort of guarantee that their outpourings consisted of nothing but the truth, it would be possible to applaud the skeletons that have steadily been striding out of all manner of cupboards in recent weeks.

Back in the dying years of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev laid considerable store by his policy of glasnost, which was an attempt to fill in the blank pages of his nation’s history. Much of the material that saw the light in those heady days was, of course, already common knowledge outside the USSR.

There can be little doubt that there are many blank pages in Pakistan’s history, but the present process of filling them cannot reasonably be compared with glasnost. A crucial reason for this is that invariably the source of the so-called revelations and the motivation behind them is more relevant than the content. The ‘why’ has more value than the ‘what’, not least because the latter often involves a regurgitation of established facts.

For instance, did anyone seriously doubt that the Islami Jamhoori Ittihad (IJI) was cobbled together by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) 21 years ago in an attempt to thwart the electoral appeal of the PPP? Surely, the abortive attempt to keep the PPP out of power following the 1988 elections could not have eluded even a casual observer of those shenanigans. And it was followed by efforts to destabilise and, ultimately, abolish the PPP-led government.

Is there any element of surprise, then, in the nugget that the ISI distributed largesse among the PPP’s political opponents in the run-up to the next election, or that it was involved in buying loyalties during the effort to push through a motion of no-confidence against the government of Benazir Bhutto?

It has also long been rumoured that Osama bin Laden was generous to Benazir’s opponents, and the allegation that he met Nawaz Sharif five times a dozen or so years before 9/11 is of passing interest in the wider context of the Saudi role in Pakistani politics.

Intriguingly, the claim comes from former ISI official Khalid Khawaja, who reportedly heads an NGO called Defence of Human Rights, an organisation that focuses exclusively on those whose rights may have been violated by the US and its allies but can evidently summo n up no sympathy for the victims of terrorism.

Khawaja was arrested a couple of years ago for distributing ‘hate material’ outside Islamabad’s Lal Masjid, and one thing he decidedly shares in common with the other bean-spillers – not least the retired brigadier Imtiaz Ahmed, formerly of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and ISI – is that they personally have a great deal to answer for.

However, what seems crucial at the moment is the question of who or what has instigated them to start talking openly about misdeeds in which they were intimately involved.

Was it an attempt to distract attention from the moderately mysterious minus-one formula that dominated media attention for a while (the one in question being President Asif Ali Zardari)? Or was it primarily intended to bury the demand for former military dictator Pervez Musharraf’s trial? Or were there multiple motivating factors, including an attempt to rehabilitate the reputation of the neo-fascist Muttahida Qaumi Mahaz (MQM) – whose leader, settled in London for 17 years, has established a new paradigm in political cowardice?

Musharraf, like Altaf Hussain, is domiciled in the British capital, albeit rather more tentatively. The argument that placing him alone in the dock would be a travesty, given that there is a long list of people whose constitutional transgressions and related offences qualify them for prosecution, is certainly not without merit.

Tragically, it is more convincing than the idealistic hope that an ex-dictator’s trial and punishment would deter future military takeovers. In fact, it is quite conceivable that the army would feel obliged to flex its muscles in the event of its former chief being made to answer for his crimes. And that may not be a risk worth taking.

It is harder to agree with those who see little point in revisiting the recent past, fearing that history’s ghosts could block the road to reconciliation – but perhaps forgetting that no meaningful reconciliation can occur without an explicit recognition of what has gone before.

This is not to suggest that the current cacophony of probable falsehoods and motivated semi-truths qualifies as an adequate – or even desirable – reckoning. At the same time, the plethora of talking heads on private television channels has yielded a few intriguing insights. It was extremely interesting, for instance, to encounter former army chief Mirza Aslam Beg’s ingratiatingly reverent references to the Bhuttos, père et fille, and even an expression of sympathy for al-Zulfikar.

It is well worth remembering, among other things, that while Z.A. Bhutto’s prime ministerial tenure had its redeeming features, it was also the period during which Saudi and ISI interference in Pakistani politics was initiated. It didn’t pay off for the PPP. Unlike their recent gesture towards Musharraf, the Saudis made no effort to save Bhutto’s life.

The extent to which they are willing to coddle Nawaz Sharif remains to be seen, but there can be little question that recent indications that the latter would be a considerably more popular choice as helmsman than the incumbent are based on selective amnesia.

Meanwhile, as Zardari hits the handout trail yet again, bringing his personal philosophy – that money is the solution to every problem – to bear on affairs of state, it’s worth noting that Pakistan’s poverty reflects not so much the absence (or, rather, incredible disparities) of wealth as the preponderance of stealth and, above all, heavily depleted stores of honesty.

mahir.dawn@gmail.com

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Pakistan's "independent" judiciary fails to punish jihadi and sectarian killers

Fazlullah nearing his end?

One TV channel actually announced Saturday night that the Swat warlord Fazlullah had been captured in a wounded state from his Peochar stronghold in the area. But the official version is not far off the mark: he could be captured any time soon. Former FATA secretary Brigadier Mahmood Shah (retd) in his TV comment hoped that Fazlullah would be punished for what he has done and not be let off on bail, as has been done in the case Maulana Abdul Aziz of Lal Masjid.

Why should someone as important as Mr Shah start fearing that Fazlullah will go free? Yet he is not alone in feeling that, despite our “independent” judiciary. Reports from Multan have been streaming in saying that Lashkar-e-Jhangvi killer Akram Lahori could be about to go free because witnesses against him keep on disappearing mysteriously. Judges are not exempt from threatening calls and, like the khassadars of Khyber, they could be more inclined to believe the terrorists rather than the state of Pakistan.

Briefing a Senate committee, FATA Additional Chief Secretary Habibullah Khan has said something that must upset a lot of people. He said: “There is evidence that the US, Israel and India are involved in nurturing the insurgency in FATA”. Like the evidence against India — which was never handed over to the Indians or shown in Pakistan — this evidence too has to be treated as “emotional” unless it is made public.

Why should America kill Baitullah Mehsud, thus breaking the back of the Taliban insurgency, and yet join India and Israel to conspire against the very country it wants not to succumb to terror? If America is following a strategy of dividing the Taliban in FATA then that should be differentiated from what the FATA officer thinks are acts against Pakistan. The Interior Ministry should seriously be worried about why people think that Pakistan will fail to punish its terrorists. (Daily Times)

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Hamas takes bold action against the Wahhabi "Lal Masjid" in Gaza

One of very few bold steps taken by General Musharraf was his decision to eliminate the Wahhabi/Deobandi terrorist gang holed up in Islamabad's Lal Masjid (Red Mosque), although it was too little too late given the fact the Musharraf himself was, along with his ISI, complicit in the rise of Taliban (Wahhabi-Deobandi alliance) in Pakistan.

However, it seems that history is repeating itself, this time in Gaza. Here is a report by Al Jazeera TV:

Islamist leader dies in Gaza battle

Moussa, centre, died after declaring an "Islamic emirate" in the Gaza Strip [Reuters] The leader of an Islamist group that declared an "Islamic emirate" in the occupied Palestinian territories was among at least 24 people killed in clashes with Hamas security forces. Abdel-Latif Moussa, the leader of Jund Ansar Allah (Soldiers of the Companions of God), was killed during fighting at his house in the Gaza town of Rafah early on Saturday, the Hamas-run interior ministry said. Ihab Ghussein, a Hamas interior ministry spokesman, said that Moussa had detonated an explosives vest that he was wearing. "The so-called Moussa has committed suicide ... killing a mediator who had been sent to him to persuade him and his followers to hand themselves over to the government," he said. Dr Moaiya Hassanain of the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said that six police officers and an 11-year-old girl were also among the dead after several hours of fighting outside Moussa's home and the Ibn Taymiya mosque where he was imam. Hassanain said that 150 people were wounded in the fighting. Hamas also confirmed the death in the fighting of Abu-Jibril Shimali, a high-level commander whom Israel says orchestrated the capture of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier still being held in the Gaza Strip. 'Islamic emirate' The fighting began on Friday after Moussa proclaimed "the creation of an Islamic emirate in the Gaza Strip" during a sermon in the mosque and called for the territory to be governed purely by sharia (Islamic law). In video Islamists killed after challenging Hamas Hamas security officials blocked all roads to Rafah and declared the town a closed military zone as they battled about 100 of his supporters. At least 40 members of the group have been arrested, according to the interior ministry, but search operations continued in Rafah on Saturday evening. "We hold Jund Ansar Allah and Moussa responsible for what happened because of his rash declaration of an emirate," Taher al-Nono, a spokesman for the Hamas government in Gaza, said. Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Rafah, said Jund Ansar Allah subscribed to a "very radical and strict interpretation" that is commonly referred to as Salafism. "It's really the ideological force behind many of these attacks we've seen in Afghanistan and elsewhere," Mohyeldin said. "It really divides the Muslim world from the Christian and Western world and believes that there is a direct clash of civilisations. "This group here in Gaza sees itself as part of that wider conflict. "They subscribe to that philosophy, calling on their followers to adopt it in their struggle to end both Israel's occupation and the occupation of all Muslim lands at the hands of Western powers." 'Not accepted' Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official, told Al Jazeera that Moussa's group had little support among the Palestinian people. "I think these people are a very small group and have no strong impact on people," he said. "What has happened has confirmed the reality that Hamas is different, Hamas is not al-Qaeda" Diaa Rashwan, expert on political Islam "Hamas is a wide organisation in Palestinian society and most people in Gaza are moderate people ... but these people are inspired by small groups, radical groups from outside, I think they are not accepted by Palestinian people." Hamas, whose surprise election win in 2006 led to international sanctions, seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 after forcing out security forces loyal to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president. In the West Bank, Saeb Erekat, an aide to Abbas and a senior figure in the rival Fatah movement, said that the situation in the Gaza Strip was "alarming". "Gaza is going down the drain in chaos and lawlessness," he said. Diaa Rashwan, an expert on political Islam at the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, told Al Jazeera that pressure on Hamas had "opened the door" for such groups to establish a power base in the territory. "Such Islamic groups are criticising Hamas, because of the way it negotiates ... and the way it accepted democracy and accepted elections," he said. "What has happened has confirmed the reality that Hamas is different, Hamas is not al-Qaeda. We have deep differences between Hamas's methods and al-Qaeda or Salafist jihadist methods."

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Abbas Zaidi: Pakistani media continues to glorify Islamo-fascism

On 17 April the entire electronic media brought Abdul Aziz to every household of Pakistan. He was shown coming from an inner room of the notorious Lal Mosque into the prayer hall where he led the Friday prayer as he used to do till he was arrested on terrorism charges in 2007. He was set free on the evening of 16 April which the media beamed across the country as "Breaking News". After he came out of the jail and settled down into a jeep, he gave a brief interview in which he ominously said, "Pakistan was created in the name of Islam but due to non-implementation of the Islamic sections and law and justice a tension is spreading in religious circles". Before leaving, Abdul Aziz eulogized the Taliban takeover of Swat and the imposition of Nizam-e-Adal (System of Justice) there. He concluded his interview by saying that the Nizam-e-Adal should be imposed in every part of Pakistan.

In the midst of thunderous applause Abdul Aziz peppered his Friday sermon with the following statements:

1. "We will continue our struggle to enforce Islamic order in the country."

2. "God willing, our sacrifices will not go in vain and Islam will be implemented not only in Pakistan but all over the world."

3. "What we have seen in Swat and the Tribal Areas is the result of the sacrifices at the Lal Mosque, of the students, the people who were martyred." (He was referring to the deal struck between the government and the Taliban according to which Swat and the Tribal Areas will be governed in accordance with the brutal Wahhabi version of Islam.

Then Abdul Aziz asked his votary that in order to impose [the mutilative] Shariah in Pakistan: "Will you render sacrifices?" "Will you go to jails?" "Will you render sacrifices for religion?"

Yes, his votary shouted.

Pakistan´s electronic media broadcast the entire gory drama of Islamo-fascism live. Abdul Aziz was presented as the present day David who had emerged victorious and was telling his people that the Islamic utopia was not very far.

There are only two channels in Pakistan which show balance. But both of them are English language channels which means very few watch them given Pakistan´s literacy in English. The rest of them, dozens of them, are Urdu language channels and compete with one another in proving their Islamist credentials. There are countless talk shows on these Urdu channels where India, Israel, and the United States are regularly denounced for having ganged up to destroy Pakistan, the "citadel of Islam". If an invited guest tries to speak the truth, he is cut short and is not invited next time. This has happened on different channels with a scholar like Dr Pervaiz Hoodbhai. As far as I know there is only one journalist who speaks the truth. His name is Nusrat Javed and he is the co-host of Bolta Pakistan on Aaj TV. At times his interlocutors have questioned his Islamic credentials. He has received a number of serious threats. So far he has stood his ground. The rest, as they say, is history: history of shame, complicity, and capitulation to the forces of darkness.

Source: http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/100224

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The Return of Lal Masjid Brigade ????

Maulana Abdul Aziz AKA Burqa-posh Maulvi of Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) has got released under an agreement that he will not create any trouble for the government, however according to Dawn hate literature and militant propaganda pamphlets and CDs were openly sold outside Lal Masjid during Friday prayers today.

Charged environment in around Lal Masjid last night and today suggests that we may be witnessing return of notorious Lal Masjid Moral Squad, which used to go to markets around Lal Masjid and threaten the shopkeepers to avoid selling music and video film CDs and cassettes or face their wrath !

Jihadi literature available once more outside Lal Masjid

LAHORE: The arrival of Maulana Aziz after release on bail coincides with the appearance of militant motivational literature and propaganda videos in front of Lal Masjid, according to DawnNews.

As Interior Ministry informed the National Assembly that publication and distribution of hate literature has been banned, militant videos and pamphlets professing jihad were being sold openly just a few kilometers from there out side the Lal Masjid.

However, just outside the mosque, Saeed, a video seller told DawnNews ‘Now that Maulana Aziz has been restored, all activities will return.’

The motivational militant videos being sold outside the Lal Masjid include scenes from battles of Iraq and Afghanistan showing the attacks on US led coalition forces.

The jihadi films being sold in the heart of the capital shows videos of suicide bombers, and incite others to join in the fight.

In one of the videos, young boys are shown being launched as suicide bombers covered in glory, aiming at motivating young impressionable minds to follow them.

Some of the videos being sold outside the Lal Mosque are brought in from other areas, including the tribal agencies while others are made in local markets.

With the release of Maulana Aziz on bail, it was hoped things will be different from the past. But, the very act of selling militant videos resonated with scenes before the military action against Lal Masjid clerics in July 2007 when militant literature was being sold openly in a similar manner.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/jihadi-literature-available-once-more-outside-lal-masjid--il

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Maulana Abdul Aziz AKA Burqa Posh Moulvi Released after making a deal with Pak Government !

This site has moved to http://criticalppp.com, click this link if you are not redirected
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From Jamea Hafsa to Rahman Baba: Farhat Taj

Attack on Pakhtun culture

Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Farhat Taj

In February this year someone circulated an email on one of the email lists I am a member of and was talking about the possibility of any attacks by extremists on shrines in NWFP, especially that of Khushhal Khan Khattak. The email said that we should all ask the provincial government to provide protection and predicted and reasoned that the attack was likely because the Taliban were bent on destroying all symbols and icons of the Pakhtun culture. Khushhal Khan is symbolic of Pakhtun nationalism. His poetry is nationalist in tone and he is a symbol of Pakhtun identity.

As recent events have shown, the concern expressed in the email was neither alarmist nor misplaced because a couple of weeks later, on March 5, the Taliban bombed the shrine of Rehman Baba. Like Khushhal Khan Khattak, Rahman Baba is also widely respected among the Pakhtun. People across the Pakhtun area know his poetry despite a high level illiteracy. Foreign scholars have commented that the reception of the poetry and teachings of Rahman Baba transcends differences and tribal schisms found in Pakhtun society and that he is widely read, listened to and respected.

Unlike the Pakhtun nationalism that Khushhal Khan embodies, the message of Rahman Baba is universal love and tolerance – the very antithesis of the message of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

And now a story I would like to narrate. In Nov 2006 I went to Jamia Hafsa. Many of the girls that I met there were from FATA and various parts of NWFP. We engaged is a discussion on Islam and Pkahtunwali. Some of the girls referred to some verses of Rehman Baba to prove that their extremist and violent understanding of Islam is the same as the mystic poet’s. For me this understanding of Rehman Baba was no less than a cultural shock that my own fellow Pakhtun gave me.

On my way back home I was thinking Rehman Baba has been hijacked by the extremists among us. Nothing can be more unjust to the poet and his message. Between then and now the extremist have raised their public levels of intolerance. Now they cannot tolerate Rehman Baba. They bombed his shrine. I heard some pro-Taliban people in Pakistan justifying the bomb attack on the shrine. They say that his shrine had become refugee of ‘undesirable’ social elements, like drug abusers. What a strange argument! Is the only method to deal with the drug abusers is to bomb the shrine? Will that get the society rid of drug abusers and other ‘undesirable’ social elements?

Attack on Rehman Baba’s shrine is part of the agenda to annihilate the Pakhtun culture. The agenda includes destruction of schools in the area, attacks on music shops and singers, violent expressions of misogyny through attacks and restrictions on women, assaults on Buddha statues in Swat and so on. The aim is to write off the cultural memory of the Pakhtun and force them to become foot soldiers for global jihad. The Taliban and Al Qaida have occupied FATA. Swat has been surrendered to them by the provincial and federal government. But They will not stop there.

The attack on the shrine of Rehman Baba should be seen as an attack on cultures on both sides of the River Indus. One of the similarities in the cultures on both sides of Indus is the message of the sufi poets. The message of peace and love is also the message of Shah Latif, Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, Bulleh Shah and Waris Shah. It is now the responsibility of the wider society to conveys to the Taliban that their alien ways of life are not acceptable. (The News)

The writer is a research fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Research, University of Oslo, and a member of Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy. Email: bergen34@yahoo.com
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Meeting with a terrorist: Hamid Mir

Hamid Mir offers an account of his meeting with a terrorist operating in Swat:

Here is a critical summary:

1. Not all of the terrorists belong to Swat; quite a few of them originate from Punjab.
2. They are Pakistanis; not foreigners.
3. They belong to extremist right-wing groups.
4. They own up blowing up schools in Swat and elsewhere.
5. They had close ties with the terrorist Mullah brothers of Lal Masjid.
6. They offer twisted, bigoted reasoning to justify their acts of terror.
7. They obviously forced the relative of the murdered woman to own up the murder.
8. They have 'unrestricted freedom' to contact and brief media persons in everywhere in Pakistan; our premier intelligence agency ISI is perhaps sleeping or 'a sleeping partner'?

9. While we know that religious fascists blow schools, slaughter people because of political or sectarian differences, how many schools have been destroyed by or people slaughtered by the so called 'liberal fascists'? [Hamid Mir, please spare this nation from further confusion]

Do Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Imran Khan want Pakistan to have dialogue with such animals?





Read relevant column by Hamid Mir describing Taliban's killing of the woman mentioned in the above column:

http://letusbuildpakistan.blogspot.com/2009/01/true-story-from-swat-by-hamid-mir.html

Further update 14 Feb 2009:

Taliban kill two more "bad" women in Kohat

http://letusbuildpakistan.blogspot.com/2009/02/taliban-kill-two-women-in-kohat.html
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Return of sectarian war, killing and ghettoization of Shias, and the responsibility of the state...

Return of sectarian war

A suicide blast on the occasion of the “chehlum” of Imam Hussain has killed 32 innocent Shia Muslims in Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab, hours after someone killed a Sunni in the neighbouring NWFP district of Dera Ismail Khan. The war is clearly one-sided because the Shia counter-upsurge of the 1990s is nowhere in evidence. But it might return, looking at the way the Shia of the Kurram tribal agency have been left to the mercies of Sunni fanatics; so much so that humanitarian and other assistance is now coming to them via Afghanistan, which may actually lead to the expansion of the sect-based conflict, to say nothing of deterioration of relations with Shia Iran.

The government must take realistic steps to curb sectarianism and militancy. DG Khan is an old seat of sectarian hatred because of a strong Sipah Sahaba presence there and its linkage to the invading Taliban and Al Qaeda elements. The spread of violence to DI Khan is of recent date, just as the killing of the Shia of Peshawar dates from the rise of the warlords in the neighbouring Khyber agency.

One is not unrealistically recommending that the army be deployed in the affected “Derajat” or the two Deras, but one must register objection to the conduct of the state in neglecting to make a study of the sectarian situation. No studies are available on the growth of the conflict and the gradual ghettoisation of communities after which the victims are rendered helpless in the face of their plight. Intelligence in Pakistan means concoction of conspiracy theories; there is no research on social change through appropriate funding at the various universities with capacity to do this work. Today, studies of the Hazara Shia community in Quetta are available with foreign universities, but the Quetta administration speaks about the Hazaras only as amateurs.

DG Khan is the hinterland of the Lal Masjid seminary in Islamabad whose leader was deeply engaged in sectarian violence and was finally killed by his victims in the courtyard of Lal Masjid. Another world-renowned head of a jihadi militia leader now living in Islamabad has been accused in the past of “helping out” Sipah Sahaba in DG Khan. The man who killed the Iranian consul in Multan in 1997 was captured and then shifted to a DG Khan jail from where he was allowed to escape. The man was later involved in another historic Shia massacre in Mominpura in Lahore in 1998. Such is the depth of sectarian passions in DG Khan.

DI Khan is the new victim, squeezed as it is between the rising Deobandi empire of warlord Baitullah Mehsud and the old sectarian hotbed of Sipah Sahaba in DG Khan. In the NWFP, the Shia are fast enclosing themselves in ghettos created in cities like Kohat and Hangu to live close to one another for the sake of security. But by doing this they are presenting themselves to the Sunni fanatics as easy targets. The problem of sectarianism is complex but it can be grasped if academic efforts are made to analyse it and the administration is educated about it. The British Raj officers did just that and prevented sectarian violence through an informed handling of cases as they arose. (Daily Times)
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The day the army chief was reported as visiting Swat....

The day the army chief was reported as visiting Swat, two observations appeared on the editorial page of a national daily:

The first was: “People now have their reservations about the operation. They ask pertinent questions about it. They see a lack of willingness on the part of the state to curb the militancy. This perception is now held by the intelligentsia, particularly the Pakhtun intelligentsia. They contend that if the state’s military can stand up to a military as strong and large as India’s, how can it not handle an internal insurgency carried out by a few thousand armed men?” (Five thousand terrorists are fighting twenty thousand troops.)

The second serious observation was: “However, even some of the more historically accurate narratives which acknowledge the deep consensual relationship between the religious right and the military establishment do not consider how this relationship has evolved and why the religious right is able to make inroads into society (regardless of whether it is supported by the establishment or not)”.

But one can understand the situation in the light of the media-supported mass sympathy for the terrorists of Lal Masjid in 2007, which redounded to the advantage of the Swat Taliban. Why should the army oppose something that the channels-led people find acceptable? But after more than a year, and despite these channels, public opinion has changed and it is time to grasp the nettle of terrorism-supported parallel government in Swat. (Daily Times)
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Lal Masjid arms seized during operation ‘stolen’: Did ISI 'retrieve' its assets for redistribution to the Taliban, Sipah-e-Sahaba and Jaish-e-Muhammad

Lal Masjid arms seized during operation ‘stolen’

by Mohammad Asghar

ISLAMABAD, Dec 21: A large quantity of arms, seized by security forces during the Lal Masjid operation and stored in the Aabpara police station’s heavily guarded armoury, is missing, reported ‘stolen’.

Dawn has learnt that, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior Rehman Malik has suspended Senior Superintendent of Police Ahmad Latif and Superintendent of Police Dr Shahzad Asif and ordered registration of a case against SHO Inspector Naeem Iqbal and 14 other police personnel on charges of criminal breach of trust, theft and burglary.

All the accused have been suspended and arrested.

The adviser also recommended registration of a case against ASP Dr Shahzad Asif.

The arms included assault rifles, rocket launchers, anti-tank mines, grenades and a large quantity of bullets, which were seized by the security forces during the Lal Masjid operation which ended on July 11 last year.

Surprisingly, nothing else seized by police — liquor bottles and jewellery — has been stolen.

According to police, the stolen arms include 47 small machine-guns, three light machine-guns, several AK-47 rifles, rocket launchers and hand grenades, seven rockets and 2,800 bullets.

A source close to police told this correspondent that no locks had been broken by the thieves. It is believed that duplicate keys might have been used to open the armoury located in the basement of the police station.

He said that police came to know about the theft on Saturday night. The police station was immediately closed and a search was undertaken. Sniffer dogs were also used but the culprits but the culprits could not be traced.

All police personnel posted at the station were interrogated and some people working in nearby markets were taken into custody.

An investigation team, comprising police and Federal Investigation Agency officials, has been formed. The team is headed by DIG Inayatullah Farooqi.

The police officials booked and arrested were identified as Inspector Naeem Iqbal, ASI Shan Muhammad, Mansoor Ahmad, Shabir Ahmad, Niazi, Fayyaz, Head Constable Samiullah and some constables. (Dawn, 22 Dec 2008)
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Everyone at fault, except us. Why is it that everything that goes against us becomes a conspiracy?

Everyone at fault, except us
In the national interest

Monday, December 15, 2008
by Kamal Siddiqi

The writer is editor reporting, The News

One can only wonder at the collective amnesia that Pakistanis suffer, and how the various quarters are quick to exploit our insecurities. One look at our television chat shows makes you wonder which world we live in, or, better still, which world those commentators want us to live in.

It is time that some national debate starts on the role of the electronic media in Pakistan. We cannot continue to be misinformed and misguided—the consequences for us are dire. We need some informed debate. Currently most of us are shooting in the dark.

As a nation, it is time for us to do some soul searching. Why is it that everything that goes against us becomes a conspiracy? There is always an explanation for incidents, events and happenings. The Marriott blast took place because there were Marines on the premises. Such insensitive talk only heightens the trauma for those who have lost their near and dear ones.

But we are never able to blame those who are responsible. Take, for example, our economy. If our economy falters, we do not blame the leadership—whether civilian or military. This leadership, in most instances, is responsible for misappropriation of large amounts as well as spending in the wrong places. There is money for foreign trips but not for paying the oil-marketing companies.

As Pakistanis, we don’t ask our enlightened leadership why they are shy of taxing the rich and powerful. Why is it that all Pakistanis suffer by paying high indirect taxes when what we need to do is widen our direct taxes base? When will we not bow to pressure and have a national tax register that is both representative and comprehensive.

Why does the powerful landed gentry get away without paying its dues? When was the last time we had a debate on the tax structure in Pakistan that outlined what needs to be done. We do not take to task our bureaucrats—most of whom interpret rules to harass and harangue and earn an extra buck.

Why is it that we are unable to identify corrupt government officials and take them to task? When was the last time we took a bureaucrat to the cleaners? It seems that the only people our anti-corruption machinery targets are political opponents of the government in power.

No one points a finger at our business community—a significant portion of which cheats on taxes, steals power and bribes officials to have its illegalities overlooked. Our business community under-invoices and cheats on duties. Pakistan may be the only country where containers are “smuggled” through ports after the relevant officials have been paid off. Corruption is not just rife in Pakistan, it has taken the form of an epidemic.

And yet, ask the man on the street as to who is behind Pakistan’s economic crisis, and he happily blames the IMF and says it’s a Jewish conspiracy. Nothing can be simpler than that. When will we ever get out of the tendency of blaming everyone else but ourselves?

Take the current debate on the Indian charge that Pakistan is the epicentre of terrorism. And the declaration of the Jamaat-ud-Daawa as a terror organisation. We are told on the media that the Jamaat-ud-Daawa is in fact a welfare organisation which is running schools, computer centres and madrasas. No one is willing to talk about the link with the Laskhar-e-Taiba. No one questions what the source of this organisation’s funding is. There is no debate. It’s all a conspiracy. Case closed.

The level of discourse had dropped to new lows. Led by people of the callibre of Shaikh Rasheed and Hamid Gul. One can only wonder whose side these gentlemen are batting on. From an outside view, it seems that Pakistanis are not only in self-denial, they are also a nation of war-mongers led by a government bordering on the neurotic.

We made the same mistake with the Lal Masjid issue. At that time, the role of Chaudhry Shujaat and Ejazul Haq were both murky and self-serving. The two gentlemen played a double game. As a nation, we are riddled by these closet fundamentalists who play to both sides. The consequences are borne by the common man.

Pakistanis who argue that the military operation on the Lal Masjid was wrong need to be asked what other solution was there for the militant group that inhabited that religious seminary. This group had taken Islamabad hostage by “arresting” people, by trying them in its kangaroo court, and in some instances punishing them on the spot.

Encroaching of land and government buildings, this militant group challenged the state of Pakistan. What else would we have done? Nobody is willing to talk about how many mosques have encroached over how much land all over Pakistan. Why are we silent on these basic issues?

One of the reasons why we are suffering in terms of the war on terror is because we are still unsure who the enemy is. While we are quick to take out rallies against America and we are happy to target innocent American civilians every time there is a US attack on our tribal areas, everyone turns a blind eye when suicide bombers attacks and kill innocent Pakistanis.

We are unable to identify the enemy within. The government works in fits and starts. Madam Sherry Rehman started a campaign to highlight the victims of terrorism on our home soil. But as suddenly as it appeared, it was stopped. We are told there was “pressure” from religious quarters. How can a government be cowed down so easily? Who will take up the cause of those Muslims who are killed by Muslim groups?

How sad it is that we cannot even mourn those Pakistanis who were killed for no fault of their own by groups which base their operations here. People whose near ones have been killed by militants ask whom to blame.

It is a fact that more Muslims have been killed by militants in the war on terror than any other community. In fact, since the War on Terror started, Muslims have been the biggest victims. But the aggression has come not only from the Western powers. It has come from religious groups at home.

In the Mumbai attacks as well, the number of Muslims who died was sizeable. But we continue to ignore the on-ground facts. We are still dreaming of a revolution. We want to plant the green flag on the Red Fort. Rhetoric at its best.

This is where the collective amnesia comes in. As Pakistanis we continue to fund and protect these militant organisations. There are many among us who justify their existence. We give them our Zakat and the hides of our sacrificial animals on Eid. We help fund their madrasas. We think we are making a place for ourselves in Heaven. Instead we are making our home a living hell.

Where is the government in all this? Rehman Malik cautions the media not to glorify terrorism but some quarters of the state work in tandem. We get mixed messages. One wonders who is in control. When will we have an educated and informed debate on this? For the sake of Pakistan someone has to sit up and take notice. The question is whether the present government has the will and the ability to do so.

Email: kamal.siddiqi@thenews.com.pk

Some comments:

larki says:

we are all trying to white wash our image in the international world.
why? because we are being told we are the source of terror, which in a way has been very true. its like crying wolf, now nobody wants to believe anything we pakis say.
our image is damaged and will remain so for years to come.

thanks to the criminals like gen zia and his monkey brigades. these mullas who preach anger and hate against the rest of the world should be locked up and the key thrown away. that is the first step that is required, keeping our religion private and not mixing it in religion is the second step. until and unless we do not do that , expect more pakis to be blamed.

I am very happy pakistan is being blamed and being dragged in the dust because it will wake up some of the ppl of this country to do something once and for all.
for gods sake pakistan is a bloody blood thirsty failed state. it time we pull up our socks and see the real world.

we have no futue or hope as long as we hang on to the religious path. keep it private do not force your religious ideology on the ppl.

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Also read:

Munir Attaullah: Conspiracy. Will anyone tell me who these terrorists are?

"RAW Totay": The conspiracy theory parrots. The supporters of Sipah-e-Sahaba and Taliban remember Lal Masjid and shed crocodile tears....

Asinine and anodyne in '09?: The industry of conspiracy theory in Pakistan

International conspiracies against Pakistan - an eye opener for conspiracy theorists

Read more...

Lal Masjid and the ugly role of ISI in sponsoring sectarian and jihadi activities in the heart of Islamabad

Although, Hamid Mir is notorious because of his sympathies towards jihadi and sectarian organizations, his op-ed in today's Jang is quite interesting.

Read the first paragraph, in which Hamid Mir tells Musharraf that there are certain elements in the Lal Masjid, surrounding Abdul Aziz and Abdur Rashid Ghazi, who are forcing the two Mullah brothers not to reconcile with the Government. Hamid Mir notes that the same elements are also supported by the Government because they were arrested red-handed with weapons from the Lal Masjid by the Police, however, after a few hours, some other people from an agency forced the Police to release those armed criminals.

Guess the name of the agency. Indeed, our very dear pro-sectarian and pro-jihadi ISI.



Historical Context

It is worth noting that Mullah Abdullah, the father of Mullah Abdul Aziz and Mullah Abdul Rashid was a leader of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, and a leading supporter of the ISI-sponsored Afghan Jihad. And so were his sons.

Excerpt from Daily Times, Editorial 5 July 2007

As for Lal Masjid itself, a little bit of a history lesson would help contextualise what has happened. The father of the two brothers who run Lal Masjid, Maulana Abdullah, was close to Gen Zia and many a senior politician and military man. During the time of the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan, Lal Masjid became a favoured conduit for sending ’mujahideen’ to Afghanistan, and also Kashmir. It is also widely believed that he was patron to several sectarian groups such as the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Harkatul Mujahideen. Even now, and as publicly stated by President Musharraf, several members of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad, for whose leader’s (Maulana Masood Azhar) freedom Maulana Abdullah had publicly spoken many a time, were said to be hiding in the compound and helping the two brothers. The question that should be foremost on everyone’s minds and which governments past and present need to answer is why the situation was allowed to come to this. Why wasn’t the jihadi manufacturing machine fuelled by extremist seminaries and mosques such as Lal Masjid not reined in and kept a tight leash on? Also, the issue of Lal Masjid and what has been happening, especially the revelations that many of the students were not exactly willing residents, should hopefully attract public and media scrutiny on the role played by madressahs towards fostering extremist views in the country. Of course, a solution to this problem is not easy since it involves the decrepit and crumbling mainstream education system, but these are all questions and issues that need answers and introspection.

.........

Excerpt from Terrorism Monitor
History of the Red Mosque and its Former Caretakers
The foundational stone of the Red Mosque was laid in 1965 by Maulana Abdullah—the father of the militant clerics Abdul Aziz and Abdul Rashid Ghazi—a year after the birth of Pakistan’s capital city, Islamabad. Maulana Abdullah, a Deobandi Muslim,
was appointed as the mosque’s imam by Pakistani President Ayub Khan (The News, July 8). During agitation led by religious parties against Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1977, Abdullah successfully mobilized the masses in support of the
protests. By virtue of this contribution, he gained the favor of General Zia ul-Haq, the military dictator who dislodged Bhutto. Zia’s tenure was a key time for religious groups to expand, and Abdullah earned additional gratitude for volunteering in the Afghan war of 1979-1989. As a reward, he was allocated land in
the prized and posh E-7 sector of Islamabad to establish Jamia Faridia, a seminary. Arab financing also helped Abdullah build an institution where many orphans and
poor children received religious education (The News, July 17). Abdullah’s agenda changed, however, as he became involved in sectarian politics and started to
support the newly emerged Anjuman Sipah-e-Sahaba Soldiers of the Prophet’s Companions)—an anti-Shiite terror outfit. General Zia was hardly perturbed, as he
despised Shia Muslims, and could not see how these sectarian fissures would destabilize Pakistan in the future. In the process, Abdullah motivated thousands of
people for jihad in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and in collaboration with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) he continued to provide fodder for the Afghan theater.
In 1989, he attracted the limelight when at the time of Benazir Bhutto’s electoral success, he issued a fatwa declaring women’s role in politics as un-Islamic. [The Fatwa had been engineered by General Hamid Gul and Qazi Hussain Ahmed.]

http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/uploads/TM_005_014.pdf.

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Lal Masjid theatrics: mob rule or ’topi drama’?

by Prof Adil Najam

The News, June 26, 2007

The standoff created by the attack on a ’massage’ centre in Islamabad by the Lal Masjid militia and the abduction of a number of Chinese nationals lasted less than a day. The criminality of this shameful act notwithstanding, the matter was thankfully resolved and the ’pious posse’ from Jamia Faridia and Jamia Hafsa released the kidnapped individuals. However, far from resolving the larger crisis of puritanical vigilantism, this episode has only deepened it. The government has succumbed, yet again, to the militant tactics of the Lal Masjid leadership who have, in turn, declared victory. This episode will further embolden the already violence-prone brigands at the two madressahs and we are likely to see an escalation in their demands as well as their tactics. Meanwhile, with the government has once again demonstrated an inability and/or unwillingness to act decisively. The much-cherished ’writ of the state’ continues to rot in tatters.

This loss of control by the state apparatus — not only in the far reaches of the tribal belt but in the very heart of the federal capital — is much more than a spiralling ’law and order’ situation; it is an erosion of state sovereignty. The militants from Lal Masjid have been acting not just with impunity, but in equality to state functionaries. With all the pretensions of a state within a state, Lal Masjid ’authorities’ are now negotiating as equals with government ’authorities.’ And they have been doing so with increasing frequency and with amazing success.

What is even more surprising than the abdication of control by the state is the lack of outright outrage amongst the public. Somehow our national passions are far more likely to be flared by the award of meaningless honours to unimpressive novelists by foreign governments thousands of miles away than by the spectacle of crumbling state sovereignty in the very heart of our national capital. This lack of public outcry is partly — but only partly — explained by the political savvy of the Lal Masjid leadership. Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi and his comrades have shown great ingenuity in their choice of issues and in operational execution. By focusing on issues of public morality and highlighting the government’s failures in enforcing its own laws, they have been able to present themselves as reformers rather than as bullies and as guardians of social virtue rather than as promoters of intolerance.

Much more than that — and even amongst those who fully recognise the gravity of situation — one finds a pervasive feeling that there is more to the Lal Masjid theatrics than meets the eye. Even members of parliament have been suggesting that the government and its intelligence agencies are manipulating the Lal Masjid militancy. There is a widely held view that even if the intelligence agencies are not actively ’managing’ the Lal Masjid, the government is choosing to tolerate and possibly encourage its antics for its own short-term goals. The common refrain is that everything happening at the Lal Masjid is part of an elaborate ’topi drama’ — an intricate, carefully calibrated, stage-managed confrontation which is not a confrontation at all.

But why would the government (either directly or through its intelligence agencies) collude with the leadership of the Lal Masjid to produce or tolerate situations — the continuing capture of a children’s library, abduction of alleged brothel workers, hostage taking of policemen, and now the kidnapping of Chinese nationals — that are clearly embarrassments for the government? That the government, despite all the instruments of force at its command, has been repeatedly caving in to the demands of the stick-totting madrassah students has fuelled rumours of secret deals and devious deceptions. But it also makes the Lal Masjid crowd look like heroes even as the government comes out looking ineffectual.

What possible benefits does the government derive that would outweigh this embarrassment? Two reasons are commonly given. First, there is the theory of domestic payoff. It is argued that strategically timed eruptions from Lal Masjid can provide valuable respite and distraction from other irksome political crises, especially the continuing saga of the chief justice debacle. The second theory posits thehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif possibility of international payoffs. In this case, the argument is that since each eruption from the Lal Masjid is quickly contained, but never fully resolved, the military regime is sending a message to its US patrons that (a) Pakistan remains a country at the brink of fundamentalist fervour and (b) military control is needed to keep such militant groups in check.

Even if there were some in the realm of power who once actually believed in such ideas, neither of these theories is empirically defensible today. In relation to the first, it is now abundantly evident that Lal Masjid woes add to, instead of distracting from, the domestic political mess. Quite clearly, nothing that has happened by or in the Lal Masjid has made even the slightest dent in the public or media enthusiasm for following the minutia of the chief justice story. The second theory stands equally discredited. Instead of viewing the Lal Masjid skirmishes as evidence of just how bad things are in Pakistan, most analysts in Washington now see this unending drama as proof that the military government is increasingly unable to contain the rebirth of Talibanism in Pakistan. In short, the continuation of the Lal Masjid crisis is not merely an embarrassment for the government, it is actually dangerous for the regime; both domestically and internationally.

I am, of course, not privy to the inner thinking of the intelligence apparatchiks in Pakistan. However, it is at least likely that this is less of a ’topi drama’ than people seem to believe. That whatever the relationship between intelligence agencies and the Lal Masjid might have been in the past, today the ’movement’ (as Maulana Ghazi likes to call it) has assumed a life all its own as a very potent — and ugly — manifestation of self-sustaining vigilantism and mob rule. If so, the government’s inaction against this ’movement’ can be explained either as a gross miscalculation of the lurking dangers, or it could be based on a real fear that touching the hornets nest at Lal Masjid would unleash demons so horrific that our already divided society will be further torn apart. The government’s own statements suggest that it is the latter.

Just like standing still in the middle of the road at the sight of the blinding lights of a truck speeding towards it does not save the life of the stunned deer, doing nothing about this escalating crisis out of fear that doing anything will only make things worse is not going to help the government, or Pakistan. Something needs to be done, and done fast.

Contrary to popular logic, there may be important payoffs for the government if it does act to judiciously dismantle militancy at Lal Masjid. Internationally, it will be seen as an imphttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifortant victory and a real step against rising Talibanisation. Domestically, it will mean one less crisis to worry about and could rally support from the moderate majority in Pakistan who once supported General Musharraf but have now become disenchanted. Ultimately, however, the most important reason to dismantle the militancy is that it is the right thing to do.

The writer is a professor of International Negotiation and Diplomacy at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, US, and the founding editor of Pakistaniat.com Email: adil.najam@ tufts.edu

.......
Tail piece

The News informs us:

According to CDA records Lal Masjid is the oldest mosque built in Islamabad … The mosque was constructed by CDA. The construction was funded by the Finance Ministry and the mosque belongs to the Auqaf Department… Maulana Abdullah was appointed the first Imam of Lal Masjid.


Just who was this Maulana Abdullah?

Surprise, surprise, not only was he the father of these two firebrand brothers currently behind the Lal Masjid ruckus - Abdul Aziz and Abdul Rashid Ghazi - but he had also been a privileged personal favourite of General Zia-ul-Haq.

The journalist Amir Mir tells us that Maulana Abdullah was ‘a highly politicized Deobandi mullah who remained critical of all the governments except that of General Zia’s.’

During the 1980s Abdullah was famous for delivering fiery speeches in support of the Afghan Jihad. With the approval and patronage of the government and the ISI, the Lal Masjid soon became a centre for Deobandi jihadis going to fight the Soviet occupation troops. Other Deobandi militants – such as the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen - were also patronised by Maulana Abdullah. Leaders of these extremists groups would regularly come to deliver sermons and raise funds in the mosque.

Amir Amir further informs us that:

Maulana Abdullah [became] a devoted supporter of the Taliban and the al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, with whom he had reportedly developed special ties. In a newspaper interview, Maulana Abdur Rashid Ghazi, the younger son of the late Maulana Abdullah, confessed that his father had special ties with Osama bin Laden and the two had met on several occasions.


As fate would have it, Maulana Abdullah met a violent end on 17 October 1998 when he was assassinated - shot dead as he crossed the courtyard of the Lal Masjid - by suspected Shia militants. As is the case for most tit for tat sectarian killings the culprits were never found.

After Abdullah’s death his two sons - Abdul Aziz and Abdul Rashid Ghazi – took over the running of the mosque along with two madrasas, Jamia Hafsa, for female students and Jamia Fareedia for males. They continued preaching an uncompromising and extreme form of Islam.

Abdul Aziz remained the official khatib in this government-owned mosque until 2005 when he was sacked for issuing a Fatwa declaring that no army officer killed fighting the Pakistani Taliban could be given a proper Islamic funeral.

While Abdul Aziz is a proclaimed offender in number of cases the regime has proclaimed its inability to nab him. It blames this helplessness on the grounds that he is protected by hundreds of baton wielding female students.

It is believed that there are around 7,000 students studying in the male and female sections of the religious seminary. Some 70 per cent of these are said to be from Waziristan and other Pashtun tribal areas.

Despite regime protestations, journalists like Umer Farooq (‘The Firebrand Cleric And His 'Lal Masjid' Polemics’) have a different take on the current state of affairs.

The impunity with which this new fundamentalist group is pursuing its agenda has led many observers to believe that Abdul Aziz and his baton wielding female students have the support of some powerful segment of Pakistan government. Abdul Aziz doesn't deny this. He told Asharqalwsat [a UK-based Arabic newspaper]that a lot of people from the administration and police are coming to us and extending secret support.

However, this is not the only reason why people think that the fundamentalist group enjoys the backing of powerful people from within the government. The precision and dexterity with which Abdul Aziz and his brigade of female students have so far handled the so-called movement to enforce Islamic law in the country has compelled many analysts to believe that there is a mastermind pulling the strings from behind the scenes.


So what is really taking place in Islamabad?

Your guess is as good as mine, but one thing is for certain: In Pakistan what meets the eye and what the hidden reality is, are often two different things.

http://politicalpakistan.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html
Read more...