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Hafiz
Mohammed Saeed: Pakistan's heart of terror
That is
because the Lashkar has innovated quickly. 'It costs millions to make a
tank but only a few rupees to defend against it,' says an advertisement
for the Lashkar, asking Muslims to pay for the mujahideen fighting in
'Held Kashmir' and Chechnya. The advertisement concludes with a borrowed
reminder: 'If you are not part of the solution,' it says, 'you are part
of the problem.' Even by Pakistani standards, the advertisement is
direct. While many readers may have simply turned the page, a sizable
number have not. Funding to the Lashkar has increased, mostly from
Pakistanis, largely businessmen and those settled abroad, especially
after the US attack on Afghanistan.
But Pakistan has begun to debate whether the government should allow
religious groups to run their own complexes with large funding from
abroad. Pakistan's interior Minister Lt. Gen. (retd.) Moinudding Haider
says the government cannot take any action since no law has been broken.
This position has changed since it has come under US pressure. He argues
that most religious groups in Pakistan have their centres of activity,
but that does not mean they are springboards for unlawful activity.
The actual springboard, the historical root of the militant organisation,
was the Afghan jihad. The Professor's version of how the Lashkar was
launched gives the whole credit to a Saudi national, Abu Abdul Aziz.
Called an 'international soldier of Islam' by the Markaz and the
Lashkar-e-Toiba, Aziz belongs to Hyderabad in India. He apparently went
to Pakistan in the 1980s in connection with the Afghan jihad. He invited
Muslims to join hands with him for launching an Ahle Hadith organisation.
Aziz finally found the Professor and his companion Zafar Iqbal due to
their Saudi links.
Abu Abdul Aziz started his career, says Professor Saeed, as a personnel
officer with Saudi Airlines. During this time, the Afghan war broke out.
Aziz quit his job and devoted himself to the jihad against the communist
forces. Besides extending generous financial assistance to the Afghans
fighting the Russians, Aziz launched the Muslim jihad Organisation, with
branches in Afghanistan, Kashmir, Bosnia and the Philippines.
The version in the website, however, introduces another name - a student
named Abu Waleed Zaki-ur-Rehman. He 'went to take part in the jihad in
the Pakhtia province of Afghanistan' and 'continued visiting the country
(to) show the people the path of jihad'.
This young man, 'fired with the zeal of jihad . . . met a commander of
jihadi forces . . . . Soon he was entrusted with the responsibility of
jihad. Mujahideen engaged in jihad under his leadership . . . . He had
the full cooperation of Arab mujahideen who taught him the intricacies
of jihad. From August 1987 to January 1990, he continued his jihadi
activities at the battlefront of Kabul. At the same time, he stayed in
touch with the Arab mujahideen fighting in Afghanistan.'
The website adds: 'Around that time Sheikh Jamil-ur-rahman declared an
independent Islamic emirate in Kunnar. Young Abu Waleed and some other
Pakistani Ulema (Hafiz Mohammed Saeed and others) laid the foundation of
Maskar-e-Toiba in Kunnar, on 22 February 1990.'
The website exults at the Lashkar's role in sending Soviet troops back
to their country. 'On 14 February 1989, the Russian forces were leaving
Afghanistan in such a state that their commander had to request the
Afghan commanders that his forces be allowed to leave unscathed,' it
says. 'Then, a superpower, Russia had to leave Afghanistan shamefacedly.
Its defeat, on the one hand, brought dignity to the Afghan nation, while
on the other, it imbued subdued nations with the passion for freedom.'
The website freely owns up to several attacks on Kashmir. But the Kargil
war is the moment it revels in: 'Around thirty-five thousand Indian Army
jawans were under siege. India's Bofors guns were concentrated in
one area which India was about to lose, Pakistan was in a position to
avenge the defeat of East Pakistan, but suddenly the whole scenario
changed, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif offered Kargil to India on a
platter by singing the Washington accord. It brought grave
disappointment to the people of Kashmir.'
'Be it the camp at Bandipura or the headquarters of 15 Corp Badamibagh,
Red Fort at Delhi or the Srinagar airport,' the website boasts, 'the
mujahideen have proved that no place on Indian soil was our of their
reach.'
Such glaring admissions, followed by the attack on the indian Parliament
on 13 December 2001, provided the government with an ample opportunity
to pressurise the US State Department for designating the Lashkar a
terrorist organisation.
Another blow to the Lashkar came from the US in its post-World Trade
Center phase. It froze all assets of the organisation. The Lashkar
reacted by projecting an unfazed attitude. The mujahideen are its
assets, it said, and they cannot be frozen.
Even last year, the US State Department, while issuing its annual report
on terrorism, seriously contemplated declaring the Lashkar a terrorist
outfit. Noted academic Selig Harrison, in an interview to a local Indian
magazine, confirmed this. Harrison reportedly said that the US Justice
Department had determined on November 2000 that the Lashkar was a threat
to US national security and should be designated a terrorist
organisation.
Key government agencies in the US, specifically the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA), objected, saying this would not be in the best interests
of Washington. The CIA believed such a designation would threaten useful
links with the ISL. The US further felt that such a step could embarrass
General Musharraf. But after war clouds started gathering over the
Indian subcontinent, following the closure of its airspace to Pakistan
Airlines, among other steps, the Lashkar was finally stamped as a
foreign terrorist organisation.
Diplomats in Islamabad believe that the change of heart on the part of
the US was also due to the indian Prime Minister's complaint to the US
administration that 'Islamabad was involved in the threat to his life
from the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba.' Pakistan, however, dismisses
Vajpayee's accustion. 'The accusation is baseless. Pakistan
unequivocally condemns terrorism and threats of terrorist attacks,'
Pakistan's foreign office spokesperson said in a statement early last
year. 'We regret . . . that Pakistan has been accused of involvement in
the alleged threat. The government of Pakistan holds Prime Minister Atal
Behari Vajpayee in high esteem and wishes him good health and a long
life.'
Despite the war of words, the Professor himself realised they would soon
be labelled terrorists. 'The Americans actually want to gain the Indian
market. Besides, China is also a source of headache for the US.
Therefore, it is hell-bent on heaping favours on India,' he says.
However, American pressure led the Professor to adopt a by-now familiar
terror group tactic: change the organisation's name, drop the rank but
keep the same role. So, he resigned as the Lashkar-e-Toiba chief after
being at its helm of over 12 years. He insists that the decision was not
taken under pressure and was finalised at a meeting of the
Majlis-e-Shoora (Supreme Advisory Council) of the Markaz Dawa Wal Irshad.
Incidentally, the Markaz is now called the Jamiatul Dawah and the
Professor is its ameer.
Technically, Maulana Abdul Wahid of Poonch is the new Lashkar chief. He
is at the head of a newly constituted 14-member general council. A
majority of these members belong to 'Occupied Kashmir'.
Addressing a press conference in Lahore on 24 December 2001, the
Professor talked about the changes in the Lashkar. First, he said, the
Lashkar's activities would be confined to Kashmir and its offices had
already been shifted there (apparently to cast aside suspicions
regarding the Pakistani connection). This had been done, he continued,
to counter 'Indian propaganda aimed at exploiting the situation in
Afghanistan to its advantage. We want to block India from creating
problems for Pakistan.'
Despite the changes, the Professor's beliefs remain intact, talking
about the function of the Jamiatul Dawah, he said: 'It is not essential
for us to contest general elections. We reject the Western style of
democracy. We only want reformation and don't believe in boundaries.'
'We have challenged the US authorities time and again to prove terrorism
charges against the Lashkar-e-Toiba in any international fora. We repeat
this challenge now. We can prove who is the real terrorist: India,
Israel, US, Russia, or the mujahideen? The world fully knows who was
responsible for the brutal killings of hundreds of thousands of innocent
people by nuclear bombs. Has the world seen a greater act of terrorism
than that?' he asks. He sees the US as killing innocent civilian Muslims
- and not for the first time. 'Thousands of tonnes of bombs were rained
down on innocent Iraqis in 1991. Thousands of Iraqi children were
deprived of their homes and were left to die in abject helplessness.'
The former Lashkar chief says he wrote to the US State Department to
debate the issues and received a single-word reply: Thanks.
There is another cause that stokes the Professor's hatred for the US:
Sheikh Omar Abdul Rehman. For the Professor, it is a matter of
distinction that the Markaz Dawa Wal Irshad had hosted the famous blind
Egyptian scholar. For the Americans, however, he is a man who
masterminded terrorism in various parts of their country. A US court has
already sentenced him to death. And the Professor is not too happy about
that.
The Professor believes that America has underhand designs and that the
operation against bin Laden is just its cover for occupying Pakistan. He
says it is incorrect to consider the US a victim of terrorism. 'America
had rained tonnes of gunpowder in different parts of the world
unjustifiably, the latest being Afghanistan. The real issue before the
US is not that of Osama; it actually wants to crush jihad in this
region.'
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