Tuesday, October 4, 2011
’کوئٹہ واقعہ میں کالعدم تنظیمیں ملوث ہیں‘
وزیر داخلہ سینیٹر رحمان ملک کا کہنا ہے کہ کوئٹہ میں اہل تشیع سے تعلق رکھنے والی ہزارہ برادری پر حملوں میں جھنگ کی کالعدم تنظیموں کا تعلق ہے جن کے خلاف کارروائی کے لیے حکومت پنجاب کو خط لکھا گیا ہے۔
کوئٹہ میں گزشتہ کچھ عرصے سے ہزارہ برادری پر یکے بعد دیگرے حملوں کے بارے میں رحمان ملک کا کہنا ہے کہ پہلے ملک میں بعض شدت پسند تنظیموں نے فرقہ ورارنہ تشدد کے ذریعے دیوبندی کو شیعہ سے لڑانے کی کوشش کی تھی۔
’کوئٹہ میں یہ کئی برسوں سے شروع ہے۔ سیف کرد جو لشکر جھنگوی اور سپاہ صحابہ سے تعلق رکھنے والا ہے وہ چار پانچ سال پہلے جیل توڑ کر فرار ہوا تھا۔ اس نے شیعہ برادری کے خلاف کارروائیاں شروع کی ہوئی ہیں۔‘
بی بی سی اردو کے ہارون رشید کے مطابق، رحمان ملک کا کہنا تھا کہ ان افراد کے خلاف حکومت کارروائی کر رہی ہے۔ تاہم ان کا کہنا تھا کہ اس کا گڑھ صوبۂ پنجاب کا علاقہ جھنگ کا ہے۔ ’اس بابت وفاقی حکومت نے صوبائی حکومت کو خط بھی لکھا ہے۔‘
عثمان سیف اللہ کرد اور ان کے ساتھی شفیق الرحمان رند کو سکیورٹی اداروں نے دو ہزار تین اور چار میں گرفتار کر لیا تھا لیکن دونوں ستمبر دو ہزار آٹھ میں فرار ہونے میں کامیاب ہوئے تھے۔ شفیق الرحمان تو بعد میں دوبارہ گرفتار ہوئے لیکن عثمان سیف اللہ ابھی تک روپوش ہیں۔ حکومت کو شک ہے کہ وہ کوئٹہ میں شعیہ برادری کے خلاف حملے کر رہے ہیں۔
صوبائی حکومت کو لکھے گئے خط کے مندرجات کے بارے میں وزیر داخلہ کا کہنا تھا کہ صوبائی حکومت کو جھنگ سے تعلق رکھنے والی تنظیموں کے خلاف کارروائی کا حکم دیا ہے۔ ’ان تنظیموں کا ہیڈکواٹر جھنگ میں ہے ان کالعدم تنظیموں کے لوگ کھلی تقاریر کر رہے ہیں۔ انہیں اس سے روکا جائے۔ انسداد دہشت گردی قانون کی شق چار کے تحت ان کی نقل و حرکت اور سرگرمیاں محدود کی جائیں۔‘
ایک سوال کہ آیا کوئٹہ حملوں کی جھنگ سے منصوبہ بندی کی جا رہی ہے، ان کا کہنا تھا اس میں ملوث زیادہ تر لوگوں کا تعلق جھنگ سے ہے۔
BBC URDU
A Victim of Being Hazara and Shia in Pakistan
After 9/11, international forces led by American forces attacked on Taliban in Afghanistan and it took a month to oust Taliban along with Al-Qaida and other Islamic militant groups from Kabul who had been ruling Afghanistan since September 1996. It was Pakistani intelligence agencies, which played pivotal role in the making of Mojahidin (holy warriors) and other Islamic militant groups to use them in Afghanistan against Soviet troops, who invaded Afghanistan in 1979.
Soviet presence in Afghanistan helped the intelligence agencies to establish numerous religious schools (Madrasa) along with training centres throughout Pakistan so as to use Mojahidin against Soviet invasion. Knowing the significance of Mujahidin and the strategic area, General Ziaulhaq the then president of Pakistan, in the pretext of Afghanistan war used the religion and religious militants in Kashmir to pressurize India to come to the negotiating table to resolve the Kashmir issue.
Later on, General Zia also promoted extreme religious thinking and religious militant groups within the country especially in Balochistan, Sindh and Khaber Pakhtoonkhow provinces to counter the nationalist political parties.
General Zia, having known the weakness of the west over strategic position of Afghanistan, used the nuclear issue and extreme religious militancy cards for his own political vision. West despite knowing Zia's political motives couldn't take any strict action against him, as they were obsessed with Soviet presence in Afghanistan and wanted Zai to get the Soviet out of Afghanistan by all means.
Getting Soviet out of Afghanistan by force the intelligence agencies got enormous confidence and encouragement to rely on the performance of the religious militants for their local and regional political ends. The success story of Afghan war brought religious militant groups closer to the intelligence agencies.
Over the time period it became impossible for the intelligence agencies in Pakistan to detach themselves from the religious militant groups, as they help them in accomplishing regional political purposes.
The intelligence agencies know well that if the Kashmir and Afghanistan issues are resolved peacefully along with the nationalist issues within the country, then the covert activities of the agencies will remain a question mark in the political affairs of Pakistan.
That's why they never wish the civil Pakistani government to get close to the Indian government to resolve the political issues and trying their best to exploit natural resources of the small provinces with its military might and engage civilian into political and sectarian violence in order to prolong its rule over the country.
Quetta city is situated in the South-West of Pakistan and is the capital city of Balochistan, which is around 125 km away from the border of Afghanistan and nearly 220 km away from Kandahar city. In November 2001, when Taliban were defeated by the international forces, they entered into Pakistan as most Taliban were and are believed to be Pakistani nationals, who received their religious education in the religious schools of the country.
It is worth mentioning that Hazara constitutes 19% of Afghanistan population and remained subjected to the stark suppression of Taliban and Al-Qaida during the reign of Taliban. Around 10,000 Hazaras were reported to have been killed by Taliban just because of being Shai and Hazara in Afghanistan.
Even the two famous giant Bhudhas, built in 1st and 2nd A.D in the heart of Bamiyan city, where Hazaras live in, were also destroyed by the ruthless Taliban. During the attack on Taliban in October 2001, Hazaras fully supported the international force to get Taliban out of Afghanistan. When Taliban couldn't fight international force in Afghanistan, they moved back to Pakistan where they belonged.
It's to be mentioned that around 700 thousand Hazaras live in Quetta city, most of them migrated from Afghanistan in 1890, when the then king Mir Abdul Rehman attacked on Hazaras, which resulted in repression and occupation of Hazaras lands.
To cut in short, due to suppression and cruelty of the king Mir Abdul Rehman, Hazaras left their homeland and started migrating to different countries around Afghanistan. Hazaras, who lived in the north of Afghanistan, moved to the Central Asia, those who lived in the west moved to Iran and those lived in the south of Afghanistan moved to the present Pakistan, the then Indian subcontinent during British Raj.
It's now been nearly ten years; the Hazara community dwelling in Quetta City, Pakistan has been under heinous ethnic cleaning by extremist religious groups such as Taliban and Lashkar-i-Jangvi link with Al-Qaida. Over 500 Hazaras are reported to have been killed and 2500 injured, just for being a Shai and Hazara.
Nearly every day, Taliban and Lashkar-i-Jangvi militants groups kill Hazaras, wherever they come across in Quetta city. High officials in the present government seem reluctant to take bold action against the terrorists and talk openly. The Governor of Balochistan, Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi, quoted his Inspector General of Police (IGP) saying, "whenever police arrested any criminal, he received calls from high ups for his release" [1].
Meanwhile, Home Minister Mir Zafarullah Zehri, on a point of order, informed the assembly that "he had clues about those involved in the target killings but he was helpless. He said if the elected representatives were given responsibilities, the situation might improve" [2] are enough to prove the bitter reality about the reach of the terrorist organizations into the highest ranks of Pakistani Government. Both the governor and the home minister publically announce that the government is helpless and doesn't have authority to get control on the terrorists and to put an end of the terrorist activities going against the Hazara Community.
Now the questions arise that if the present Government doesn't have authority then who does? Who is ruling behind the scene in Pakistan? Whose hands are involved in ethnic cleansing of Hazaras in Quetta city? The two high profile terrorists "Usman Saifullah Kurd and Shafeeq Rind belonging to anti-Shia Lashkar-i-Jhangvi organization mysteriously escaped from a very well-organized jail of Anti-Terrorist Force in Quetta Cantonment where no one can enter without a pass, implying that their escape was facilitated by the security agencies" [3].
Hazara community in Quetta are of the opinion that the law enforcement agencies in general the government in particular are not taking sectarian killings and crimes against the community seriously. No effort has ever been made by the government to conduct an impartial inquiry into matter.
Despite being heavy presence of the police and Frontier corps check posts in and around the Quetta city, the terrorist walk freely in the city and kill any Hazara, wherever they find in the city even in most cases just 50 meters away from the security check posts.
The Hazaras believe that the government is directly or indirectly involved in the killing of Hazaras [4] as to provide enough training to Taliban militants and get them ready to go back to Afghanistan after 2014 when the international force would come out of Afghanistan. In Quetta city, Hazaras are easy to target because of their Mongoloid features and physical attributes.
The rule of democracy in Pakistan like country means a number game, in order to make the headlines the number needs to be well otherwise; it is difficult to get heard in the national press of the country. As regard Hazaras, they live in Quetta city, a small minority, thousands miles away from Islamabad and above all they are not political or financial strength of the country, otherwise, the cry of the Hazaras could have been heard by the higher ups of the state or the chief justice of the supreme court, who ordered sue motto action against the violence of Karachi.
"Hazara killings do not make headlines because Balochistan is sandwiched between the big story of Baloch nationalism and the alleged Taliban presence in Balochistan", says a Baloch journalist Malik Siraj Akbar [5]. Nobody seems ready in Pakistan to listen to the hue and cry of the innocent Hazaras, who have been left alone on the mercy of the cruel underground Talian and Lashkar-i-Janghvi outfits who have been ruthlessly killing the doctors, engineers, police officers, government officers, politicians, women and children of Hazaras to get their training complete and higher up happy.
Today, Quetta city presents the scene of an old cowboy movies, where the blood of Hazaras does not make the authorities realize of Hazara being a human. On August 31st 2011, the whole Muslims were celebrating Eid while Hazaras were collecting their dead bodies and removing their injured to the hospital. Taliban's 50kg powerful suicidal explosion killed 13 innocent Hazaras on Gulistan Road, who were coming out of the Eidgah after Eid prayer.
None of the political and military leaders of the country condemned the gruesome killings of Hazara. No sue motto action was announced by the Supreme Court to stop the killing of Hazaras in Quetta city. Even print media in Pakistan has turned its eye blind to highlight the target killings of Hazaras. Few days back on September 13th 2011, Hazara Democratic Party staged a protest against the target killings of Hazaras in Islamabad in front of the parliament [6], which was intentionally overlooked by the electronic and print media of Pakistan.
Few days before, on 20th of September 2011, 26 Hazara Shi'a pilgrims on their way to Iran were lined up in front of their bus and shot dead in Mastung, around 30 kilometre away from Quetta City. Another three people were killed as they tried to bring victims of this attack to a hospital in Quetta, the provincial capital.
Lashkar-e Jhangvi, an anti-Shi'a extremist group, claimed responsibility for the killings. The killing of 29 Shi'a Muslims in Pakistan's Balochistan province highlights the failure of Pakistani authorities to address sectarian violence across the country [7]. Today, the Hazaras are left alone to die as they are not the political or economic strength of Pakistan.
The writer is an ESOL Teacher at Goodwin Community College in Hull and can be contacted at toyounasat@yahoo.co.uk
OUTLOOK AFGHANISTAN
Karzai travels to India amid regional tension
By Reuters
Published: October 4, 2011
A combination of file photos shows Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (L) during a visit to the presidential palace in Kabul on May 12, 2011, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai (R) at the Presidential palace in Kabul on September 22, 2011. PHOTO: AFP
NEW DELHI: Afghan President Hamid Karzai begins a two-day visit to India on Tuesday that could boost the two countries’ economic ties and lead to an agreement for India to train police in a visit likely to irk Pakistan as tension grows in the region.
(Read: When Karzai comes to Delhi)
India is one of Afghanistan’s biggest bilateral donors, having pledged about $2 billion since the 2001 US led-invasion, for projects from the construction of highways to the building of the Afghan parliament.
India wants to ensure a withdrawal of US troops by 2014 does not lead to a kind of 1990s civil war that spreads militancy across borders. But it also knows its traditional foe Pakistan has far greater influence in Afghanistan.
Karzai’s visit, in which he will meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has been scheduled for months.
But it comes as Afghanistan appears increasingly frustrated with Pakistan, with many senior officials accusing its intelligence agency of masterminding the assassination last month of Burhanuddin Rabbani, Kabul’s chief peace negotiator with the Taliban.
Karzai himself has said there is a Pakistani link to the killing, and investigators he appointed believe the assassin was Pakistani and the suicide bombing was plotted in the Pakistani city of Quetta.
“At this juncture, the visit will cause great heartburn in Islamabad,” said Saeed Naqvi, a fellow at the Observer Research Foundation think-tank in New Delhi.
“That is unfortunate from the Indian perspective because anything achieved in the visit will be seen by Pakistan as an insult.”
Wary of Pakistan, Indian officials have always said they want to focus on what they like to call “soft power” – economic aid and trade. But India could offer more security training to Afghanistan, something almost certain to annoy Pakistan.
India has already trained a small number of officers from the Afghan National Army at defence institutions in India.
Economic focus
But India treads carefully. It suspects Pakistan involvement in several major attacks, including two bombings of its embassy in Kabul in 2008 and 2009, seen as warnings from Islamabad to stay away from its traditional “backyard”.
Without a land border with Afghanistan and dependent on Pakistan for any overland trade, India knows it influence is limited.
“India will want to play its part in keeping Afghanistan stable, but it is focusing mainly on economic ties,” said C. Raja Mohan, senior fellow at New Delhi’s Centre for Policy Research. “It does not does not see itself as a counterbalance to Pakistan. It knows that Pakistan is setting the terms there.”
Karzai may also be wary of upsetting Pakistan, a country crucial for forging any peace deal with the Taliban.
“Karzai wants to sign a strategic deal with India during his trip but it may hurt his recent call on peace talks with Pakistan,” said Ahmad Saidi, a Kabul-based political analyst.
“If Afghanistan want to move forward with a peace process, it should attract Pakistan’s attention.”
India does have historical ties to former Northern Alliance leaders who battled the Taliban in the 1990s.
Some believe that India could increase its influence with these leaders if Afghanistan moves back toward civil war.
But for the moment, trade appears to be what matters.
A consortium led by state-run Steel Authority of India (SAIL) could invest up to $6 billion in mines, railroads and a steel plant in a race with China to lock in raw materials for two of the world’s fastest-growing economies.
The contract for the Hajigak iron ore mines in Bamiyan province is potentially the single biggest foreign investment project in Afghanistan.
THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE
One student’s journey from small-town Balochistan to Harvard University
By Maria Waqar
Published: September 8, 2011
Karrar Hussain Jaffar (left) at his commencement at Harvard University. PHOTO KARRAR HUSSAIN
KARACHI:
Located on the outskirts of Quetta, is the barren valley of Mariabad where the Hazara lead slow-paced lives. These tribal people, living in narrow brick huts speckled along the rugged hillside, typically sell loose cloth, sweaters or tea for their livelihood.
Like most poor people, their aspirations rarely go beyond sustaining themselves in this underdeveloped nook of Balochistan. Many of them live and die in Mariabad — unaware of the complex concerns and tremendous pace of life in urban centres like Karachi and Lahore.
But one student — the son of a trader who sold Quaid-e-Azam style caps in Mariabad for a living — dared to tread a radically different path. Karrar Hussain Jaffar transcended the confines of an obscure town in Balochistan, where people rarely educate themselves beyond matriculation, to study at the prestigious Harvard University. His story — a narrative about the wondrous possibilities of equal educational opportunities — is truly inspirational.
“My childhood friends, with whom I spent my youth playing cricket, drive suzukis and rickshaws in Quetta for a living, while I am a PhD student in the US,” says Karrar in a humble tone. “I often wonder why God chose me, out of all the people in my community, to get ahead in life?”
Karrar attributes his educational achievement to his father’s passion for his children’s higher education. He vividly remembers the chilly morning when his father showed him the ad for Lahore University of Management Sciences’ national outreach programme (NOP), which aimed to sponsor education and living expenses for capable students who could not have afford to pay.
“I was doing my FSc at Cadet college and didn’t even know a single thing about LUMS at that point in time,” he fondly recollects. “I didn’t take the ad seriously because LUMS did not offer engineering, the field I was interested in.”
When he returned back to college from his winter break, he attended a presentation by a LUMS’ faculty member, who introduced students to the national outreach programme.
“At the end of the presentation we all took a pre-screening exam,” he explains. “A few weeks later, I got a letter from LUMS inviting me to attend sponsored classes for SAT preparation.”
During the four weeks he spent rigorously studying for the SATs, he fell in love with LUMS. To him the institution seemed otherworldly; its grand building, spacious classrooms and impressive teachers fascinated him.
“I never knew things could be so orderly and perfect; it was like I was in a foreign country,” he remarks. “I felt very motivated to study hard and join the institution.”
But his herculean struggle with English often left him frustrated.
“I had always dismissed English as a colonial remnant in our country so I really struggled while preparing for the test.”
Yet with utmost dedication, Karrar managed to clear the screening exam at the end of the four-week training and was selected to take the SAT exams, sponsored by the university. After obtaining an impressive score in his SATs, Karrar got admitted in LUMS and was offered a full scholarship and a monthly stipend.
“I came to LUMS in very high spirits,” reminisces the bright student.
But Karrar, who had attended the NOP training program at LUMS during the quiet summer break, had never seen the institution in full semestral bloom. When he saw throngs of students, clad in western wear and fluent in English, emerging from every nook and cranny, his excitement gave way to culture shock.
“I was used to wearing shalwar kamiz, but at LUMS most people were wearing jeans. I would greet people by saying salaam, while the other students would ask ‘what’s up?’” he recollects in an amused tone.
Often feeling like a misfit during his first year at university, Karrar mostly spent his days with other NOP students. “But after a year I managed to befriend other students from Lyceum and Karachi Grammar school.”
He sheepishly adds, “After a year I figured out that ‘what’s up?’ is equivalent to saying salaam.”
Karrar graduated on the Dean’s honour list, with a cumulative grade point average of 3.7 and 3.68 in his majors, Maths and Economics, respectively.
“I got job offers in the banking industry after graduating but I turned them down because I wanted to tread an academic path,” he explains in a categorical tone.
A year after graduating, Karrar got a Fulbright scholarship to study in the US.
“I simply told the interview panel that I want to come back to Balochistan after completing my studies. That’s where my home is; that’s where I belong,” he explains passionately.
But perhaps the most memorable moment in his life — an incident he recalls quite animatedly — was when he found out that he made it to Harvard University.
“I had no internet at home in Mariabad so I walked 15 minutes or so to a nearby internet cafe to check my email for Harvard’s decision,” he explains. “When I saw the acceptance email, I just thought it was too good to be true.”
Yet after he raced back home to reveal the news to his parents, his moment of rapture soon transformed into a session of lengthy clarification.
“My mother asked me what Harvard was and my father asked me to wait for potential offers by other universities” he says with a laugh. “It took a while to convince them that I got into the world’s top university.”
But ironically for a student, who was left disconcerted by the ‘westernised’ student body at LUMS, adjusting to life at an American institution was smooth sailing.
“After LUMS, I was very used to being around different types of people so studying and living in the US was not such a problem.”
Karrar completed his Master’s last year and is currently pursuing a PhD in Economics from the University of Southern California.
What does he want to do with all the knowledge he is amassing?
“I want to increase educational awareness in Balochistan—particularly amongst people from my community,” he says.
The young academic’s goal might seem like the reiteration of the clichéd promise of “development” that many educated Pakistan promise their country. However, Karrar is actually a first-hand witness of how education can revolutionize communities and places.
“Because of all that I achieved, my parents allowed my sister to get college education in Lahore and my brother got the motivation to get a scholarship to study in Australia,” he says with a hint of pride.
Karrar confesses that most of his family and friends cannot even comprehend what his life is like in the US. But he is fairly confident that after he returns, he can change that.
“I can make them realise the value of education,” he says.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 8th, 2011.
Published: September 8, 2011
KARACHI:
Located on the outskirts of Quetta, is the barren valley of Mariabad where the Hazara lead slow-paced lives. These tribal people, living in narrow brick huts speckled along the rugged hillside, typically sell loose cloth, sweaters or tea for their livelihood.
Like most poor people, their aspirations rarely go beyond sustaining themselves in this underdeveloped nook of Balochistan. Many of them live and die in Mariabad — unaware of the complex concerns and tremendous pace of life in urban centres like Karachi and Lahore.
But one student — the son of a trader who sold Quaid-e-Azam style caps in Mariabad for a living — dared to tread a radically different path. Karrar Hussain Jaffar transcended the confines of an obscure town in Balochistan, where people rarely educate themselves beyond matriculation, to study at the prestigious Harvard University. His story — a narrative about the wondrous possibilities of equal educational opportunities — is truly inspirational.
“My childhood friends, with whom I spent my youth playing cricket, drive suzukis and rickshaws in Quetta for a living, while I am a PhD student in the US,” says Karrar in a humble tone. “I often wonder why God chose me, out of all the people in my community, to get ahead in life?”
Karrar attributes his educational achievement to his father’s passion for his children’s higher education. He vividly remembers the chilly morning when his father showed him the ad for Lahore University of Management Sciences’ national outreach programme (NOP), which aimed to sponsor education and living expenses for capable students who could not have afford to pay.
“I was doing my FSc at Cadet college and didn’t even know a single thing about LUMS at that point in time,” he fondly recollects. “I didn’t take the ad seriously because LUMS did not offer engineering, the field I was interested in.”
When he returned back to college from his winter break, he attended a presentation by a LUMS’ faculty member, who introduced students to the national outreach programme.
“At the end of the presentation we all took a pre-screening exam,” he explains. “A few weeks later, I got a letter from LUMS inviting me to attend sponsored classes for SAT preparation.”
During the four weeks he spent rigorously studying for the SATs, he fell in love with LUMS. To him the institution seemed otherworldly; its grand building, spacious classrooms and impressive teachers fascinated him.
“I never knew things could be so orderly and perfect; it was like I was in a foreign country,” he remarks. “I felt very motivated to study hard and join the institution.”
But his herculean struggle with English often left him frustrated.
“I had always dismissed English as a colonial remnant in our country so I really struggled while preparing for the test.”
Yet with utmost dedication, Karrar managed to clear the screening exam at the end of the four-week training and was selected to take the SAT exams, sponsored by the university. After obtaining an impressive score in his SATs, Karrar got admitted in LUMS and was offered a full scholarship and a monthly stipend.
“I came to LUMS in very high spirits,” reminisces the bright student.
But Karrar, who had attended the NOP training program at LUMS during the quiet summer break, had never seen the institution in full semestral bloom. When he saw throngs of students, clad in western wear and fluent in English, emerging from every nook and cranny, his excitement gave way to culture shock.
“I was used to wearing shalwar kamiz, but at LUMS most people were wearing jeans. I would greet people by saying salaam, while the other students would ask ‘what’s up?’” he recollects in an amused tone.
Often feeling like a misfit during his first year at university, Karrar mostly spent his days with other NOP students. “But after a year I managed to befriend other students from Lyceum and Karachi Grammar school.”
He sheepishly adds, “After a year I figured out that ‘what’s up?’ is equivalent to saying salaam.”
Karrar graduated on the Dean’s honour list, with a cumulative grade point average of 3.7 and 3.68 in his majors, Maths and Economics, respectively.
“I got job offers in the banking industry after graduating but I turned them down because I wanted to tread an academic path,” he explains in a categorical tone.
A year after graduating, Karrar got a Fulbright scholarship to study in the US.
“I simply told the interview panel that I want to come back to Balochistan after completing my studies. That’s where my home is; that’s where I belong,” he explains passionately.
But perhaps the most memorable moment in his life — an incident he recalls quite animatedly — was when he found out that he made it to Harvard University.
“I had no internet at home in Mariabad so I walked 15 minutes or so to a nearby internet cafe to check my email for Harvard’s decision,” he explains. “When I saw the acceptance email, I just thought it was too good to be true.”
Yet after he raced back home to reveal the news to his parents, his moment of rapture soon transformed into a session of lengthy clarification.
“My mother asked me what Harvard was and my father asked me to wait for potential offers by other universities” he says with a laugh. “It took a while to convince them that I got into the world’s top university.”
But ironically for a student, who was left disconcerted by the ‘westernised’ student body at LUMS, adjusting to life at an American institution was smooth sailing.
“After LUMS, I was very used to being around different types of people so studying and living in the US was not such a problem.”
Karrar completed his Master’s last year and is currently pursuing a PhD in Economics from the University of Southern California.
What does he want to do with all the knowledge he is amassing?
“I want to increase educational awareness in Balochistan—particularly amongst people from my community,” he says.
The young academic’s goal might seem like the reiteration of the clichéd promise of “development” that many educated Pakistan promise their country. However, Karrar is actually a first-hand witness of how education can revolutionize communities and places.
“Because of all that I achieved, my parents allowed my sister to get college education in Lahore and my brother got the motivation to get a scholarship to study in Australia,” he says with a hint of pride.
Karrar confesses that most of his family and friends cannot even comprehend what his life is like in the US. But he is fairly confident that after he returns, he can change that.
“I can make them realise the value of education,” he says.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 8th, 2011.
Suo motu hearing: Investigation team submits report on Mastung attack
Published: October 4, 2011
Pakistani Shiite Muslims shout slogans against the killing of community members in Quetta on September 21, 2011. PHOTO: AFP/ FILE
QUETTA: An investigation team on Tuesday submitted its report to the Balochistan High Court (BHC) during the suo motu hearing of the firing incident that killed 26 Shia pilgrims in Mastung last month.
Express 24/7 correspondent Muhammad Kazim reported that the court expressed dissatisfaction over the report, saying that no concrete progress had been made in the case.
The court directed the investigation team to utilise all resources available to make material progress in the case. It also directed the provincial and federal agencies to extend their cooperation to the team.
The court also expressed dismay over the publishing of statements by organisations that have been banned under the terrorist act, and passed an interim order directing all media organisations to refrain from publishing or broadcasting statements by the banned outfits.
The BHC also directed the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and the International Committee of Justice to appear before the court and express their views on the issue. The order comes in the wake of statements made by SCBA President Asma Jahangir, who had said that the high court does not have the authority to take suo motu notice of such incidents.
The hearing of the case has been adjourned till October 18.
Twenty-six Shia pilgrims were killed in a firing incident on September 19 in Mastung, about 30 kilometres southeast of Quetta, when a group of armed men attacked a passenger bus carrying pilgrims from Quetta to Iran.
The Mastung attack was claimed by the banned militant outfit Laskar-e-Jhangvi.
On Tuesday, another 14 people of the Shia community were killed in a firing incident near the Western Bypass in Quetta.
THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE
QUETTA: An investigation team on Tuesday submitted its report to the Balochistan High Court (BHC) during the suo motu hearing of the firing incident that killed 26 Shia pilgrims in Mastung last month.
Express 24/7 correspondent Muhammad Kazim reported that the court expressed dissatisfaction over the report, saying that no concrete progress had been made in the case.
The court directed the investigation team to utilise all resources available to make material progress in the case. It also directed the provincial and federal agencies to extend their cooperation to the team.
The court also expressed dismay over the publishing of statements by organisations that have been banned under the terrorist act, and passed an interim order directing all media organisations to refrain from publishing or broadcasting statements by the banned outfits.
The BHC also directed the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and the International Committee of Justice to appear before the court and express their views on the issue. The order comes in the wake of statements made by SCBA President Asma Jahangir, who had said that the high court does not have the authority to take suo motu notice of such incidents.
The hearing of the case has been adjourned till October 18.
Twenty-six Shia pilgrims were killed in a firing incident on September 19 in Mastung, about 30 kilometres southeast of Quetta, when a group of armed men attacked a passenger bus carrying pilgrims from Quetta to Iran.
The Mastung attack was claimed by the banned militant outfit Laskar-e-Jhangvi.
On Tuesday, another 14 people of the Shia community were killed in a firing incident near the Western Bypass in Quetta.
THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE
Blood flows freely in Pakistan
By Amir Mir
ISLAMABAD - The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ - Army of Jhangvi), a Pakistan-based, al-Qaeda-linked, anti-United States, Sunni Deobandi sectarian-turned-jihadi group, has let loose a reign of terror against the Shi'ite minority.
In its latest attack, the LeJ on Tuesday killed 13 Shi'ites traveling on a bus to work in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan province. The attackers forced the Shi'ites off the bus, made them stand in a line and then opened fire.
This followed the July 14 release of Malik Mohammad Ishaq, one of the founding members of the LeJ, which has already claimed responsibility for the September 20 cold-blooded execution-style killing of 29 Shi'ite pilgrims of the Hazara community in theMastung area of Balochistan.
All those killed were on their way to Iran from Quetta. Armed with Kalashnikovs and rocket launchers, the attackers stopped the bus and forced the pilgrims to get off. While women and children were spared, they were made to witness the execution of their dear ones who were lined up and sprayed with bullets.
It was the deadliest attack on the Shi'ite community in Pakistan since September 4, 2010, when a suicide bomber killed 57 people at a procession in Quetta. The Mastung attack is not an isolated incident, but part of a systematic campaign of violence directed towards the Shi'ite community. Over 400 Shi'ite Hazaras have been killed in Balochistan by the LeJ since 1999.
The Hazaras are Persian-speakers who mainly live in central Afghanistan. They are overwhelmingly Shi'ites and comprise the third-largest ethnic group of Afghanistan. Over half a million Hazaras live in Pakistan, especially in the Quetta district.
They are the frequent target of attacks in Afghanistan as well as in Pakistan by anti-Shi'ite Sunni Deobandi sectarian-cum-militant groups like the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (Pakistan Taliban - TTP) and the LeJ, which suspect them of assisting and aiding US intelligence agencies in their hunt for the fugitive leaders of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, believed to be hiding in Pakistan.
One would recall the massacre of the Hazaras in Afghanistan after the Afghan Taliban led by Mullah Omar took power in Kabul in September 1996 and allowed the LeJ to operate in Pakistan from sanctuaries in Afghan territory.
While claiming responsibility for killing the 29 pilgrims in Mastung, a spokesman of the LeJ, said: "Our activists will continue to target the Shi'ite community." The massacre was carried out amid the usual hate speech and wall-chalking, branding Shi'ites as apostate and worthy to be killed.
A few weeks before the massacre, the LeJ had circulated an open letter addressed to Hazaras in Quetta. Written in the Urdu language, the letter stated:
All Shi'ites are worthy of killing. We will rid Pakistan of unclean people. Pakistan means land of the pure and the Shi'ites have no right to live in this country. We have the edict and signatures of revered scholars, declaring Shi'ites infidels. Just as our fighters have waged a successful jihad against the Shi'ite Hazaras in Afghanistan, our mission in Pakistan is the abolition of this impure sect and its followers from every city, every village and every nook and corner of Pakistan.
Like in the past, our successful jihad against the Hazaras in Pakistan and, in particular, in Quetta, is ongoing and will continue in the future. We will make Pakistan the graveyard of the Shi'ite Hazaras and their houses will be destroyed by bombs and suicide bombers. We will only rest when we will be able to fly the flag of true Islam on this land of the pure. Jihad against the Shi'ite Hazaras has now become our duty.
Those investigating the recent surge in anti-Shi'ite attacks believe it has something to do with the release on bail of Malik Ishaq, the feared LeJ leader who had been charged with involvement in 100-plus sectarian murders.
His release instantly caused sectarian tensions that were prompted by the anti-Shi'ite sermons he began delivering after his release. Therefore, on September 21, hardly 24 hours after the bloodbath in Mastung, Ishaq was placed under temporary house arrest in the Rahim Yar Khan district of Punjab province, with district police officer Sohail Chattha saying: "Malik Mohammad Ishaq's conduct has endangered sectarian harmony and caused a sudden rise in the sectarian temperature in the country."
According to an official document of Punjab Home Department, soon after his release, Ishaq had vowed while addressing a public meeting in Multan to continue to kill the enemies of "Sahaba" (the Prophet Mohammad's companions). "All those against Sahaba are not our personal enemies, but the enemies of Islam. And we will fight them ... we cannot tolerate these elements at any cost," Ishaq said during his address, the document reported. The document, titled "Highly objectionable activities of Malik Ishaq", further read: "On September 6, 2011, Malik Ishaq visited the house of a high-profile terrorist, Abdul Wahab alias Aenak Wala Jin, whose name is included in the Red Book, comprising particulars of most-wanted terrorists."
Two weeks later, on September 19, Ishaq's gunmen who were escorting his rally in Muzaffargarh district clashed with the Shi'ite community, resulting in two deaths. Ishaq had undertaken the procession in defiance of government orders since he is on an anti-terrorism watch list and is required to request permission before leaving the jurisdiction of his local police station. It was after these killings that the Punjab government decided to place him under house arrest, but for a brief period of one month, after which he will again be free to spit venom and preach hatred in the name of Islam.
According to Punjab police records, after being arrested by Punjab police in 1997 on charges of involvement in 102 murders, Ishaq confessed to committing 11 and abetting 57 other killings. But according to Ishaq's lawyer, Misbahul Haq, who pleaded his bail case in the Supreme Court, his client was acquitted in 35 cases because of "lack of evidence", and granted bail in eight cases and discharged in one case.
The last charge leveled against him was masterminding from his jail cell the March 2009 terrorist attack targeting a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore. During subsequent investigations, it transpired that the LeJ attackers wanted to take hostage the cricket team to get Ishaq released. He was bailed out anyway by the Supreme Court in July "due to lack of evidence and the weak case of the prosecution", as observed by two apex court judges while bailing him out against a surety bond of a million rupees (US$11,436.)
While giving their verdict, a division bench of the apex court comprising Justice Shahid Siddiqui and Justice Asif Khosa expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of the prosecution in establishing its case against the accused. The court observed that the prosecution produced only two witnesses who stated that they had heard conversations between some people planning to take the Sri Lankan cricket team hostage to get Ishaq released. The bench censured the prosecutor general of Punjab, saying: "The judiciary has to face the wrath of the public when it releases such accused due to lack of evidence and weak case of the prosecution."
On the other hand, Ishaq said in a brief media talk after being set free: "We were never terrorists and killers and the apex court has also proven that." He was cheered by hundreds of LeJ activists and showered with rose petals as he walked from a high-security prison in Lahore to a waiting land cruiser that was surrounded by his arms-wielding supporters.
Rise to infamy
Born in 1959, Ishaq is the son of Ali Ahmad Awan, who owned a cloth shop in the village Taranda Sawaey Khan in Rahim Yar Khan district of southern Punjab. He left school in the sixth grade in the early 1980s to assist his father.
He eventually started a business distributing cigarettes before joining a Sunni Deobandi sectarian organization, the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), in 1989 after he met Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, its founder who was based in the Jhang district of Punjab. Ishaq started his hardline sectarian activism from the SSP platform soon afterwards and launched the LeJ in 1996 with the support of his close aides, Riaz Basra and Akram Lahori. Ishaq was arrested the same year but he managed to escape from police custody a few months later, only to be arrested again in 1997.
But Ishaq's release was a foregone conclusion that had even been predicted by the foreign media almost two years before the Supreme Court set him free. On August 7, 2009, the New York Times reported that one Fida Hussein Ghalvi, who had testified 12 years ago against Ishaq for killing his 12 family members, "feared the imminent release of the terrorist leader, thus adding horror to Ghalvi's life of grief, already reduced to the limits of his house in Multan". The newspaper said that Ghalvi still received threats from followers of Ishaq, who has has never had a conviction that stuck, though Punjab police records show a dizzying tally of murders against his name.
"When Malik Ishaq was arrested in 1997, he unleashed his broad network against his opponents, killing witnesses, threatening judges and intimidating police, leading nearly all of the prosecutions against him to collapse eventually," said the New York Times. "Now, with the cases against him mostly exhausted, Ishaq - a 'jihadi hero' - could be out on bail very soon. That prospect terrifies Ghalvi." The Times quoting him as having said: "My life is totally constrained. I can't even go to funerals. What have I gotten from 13 years of struggle except grief?"
In fact, when Ghalvi and three other men had identified Ishaq, he told them in front of the trial court judge that "dead men can't talk". Subsequently, five witnesses and three of their relatives were killed during the trial. Ishaq was also the prime accused in the 1997 bombing of the Iranian culture center in Multan, which killed eight people. When investigating officer Ejaz Shafi persuaded two witnesses to appear in court and testify against Ishaq, his car was sprayed with bullets by unidentified assailants in broad daylight.
Anti-Terrorism Court judge Bashir Ahmed Bhatti eventually convicted Ishaq in the same case, but the Supreme Court overturned the conviction in 2006 because of "lack of evidence". In March 2007, the same judge, scheduled to hear another case against Ishaq, was on his way to the court when a remote-controlled bicycle bomb exploded near his car, killing his driver and two policemen. Ishaq was charged with planning the attack but was eventually acquitted in April 2009, once again due to "lack of evidence".
Following Ishaq's release, the police provided security to Ghalvi, thus highlighting the concerns of the law-enforcement agencies. Ghalvi, meanwhile, has relocated from his native town in Multan district. However, two other key witnesses and one complainant have not been provided any security. The men, identified as Khadim, Sikandar and Abdul Ghafour (complainant) are the only people to have survived the court cases that have taken 20 lives, including eight people who were murdered purely for being associated with the case.
Following Ishaq's release, Sikandar was quoted by newspapers as saying: "I can be attacked at any time and I do not know if I will be alive tomorrow or not, as you know almost everyone who was a witness or a relative has already been killed."
Like Sheikh Ahmed Omar Saeed, another terrorist already sentenced to death for the 2002 beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl, Ishaq was not subdued by jail conditions and allegedly continued to plot acts while behind bars Perhaps this is no surprise. Ishaq was flown from a Lahore jail to the garrison town of Rawalpindi by the military on a special chartered flight to hold talks with fidayeen (suicide) attackers of the TTP, led by Dr Aqeel alias Mohammad Osman, who had stormed the general headquarters building on October 10, 2009 and taken hostage 42 people, including several military officials.
The terrorists had listed demands and expressed their desire to directly hold talks with the chief of army staff General Ashfaq Kiani. The hostage-takers also gave a list of jailed militants belonging to some Sunni Deobandi militant and sectarian groups, seeking their release, failing which, the hostages were threatened to be killed one by one.
As a time-buying tactic, negotiators roped in key leaders of jihadi and sectarian groups to hold talks with the terrorists. Special planes were subsequently flown to Lahore, Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan to bring to Rawalpindi Ishaq, Maulana Mohammad Ahmed Ludhianvi, Maulana Fazalur Rehman Khalil, the amir of the Harkatul Mujahideen, and Mufti Abdul Rauf, the younger brother of Maulana Masood Azhar who is also the acting amir of the Jaish-e-Mohammad.
The attackers were subsequently killed in a successful rescue operation, except for Mohammad Aqeel, alias Dr Usman, a former army man who had already been sentenced to death.
Interestingly, these same four jihadi leaders had been roped in by the Pervez Musharraf regime in July 2007 to negotiate with the hardline clerics of the infamous Lal Mosque (Red Mosque) in the heart of the capital, Islamabad. The military later launched a raid on the mosque to flush out militants who had taken sanctuary there.
The clout that Ishaq enjoyed even while in jail can be gauged from the fact that he was not only allowed to use a mobile phone, he continued to receive the regular monthly stipend from the Punjab government that bega when Shehbaz Sharif became provincial chief minister in 2008.
Maulana Mohammad Ahmed Ludhianvi, the current chief of the SSP, claimed during a media discussion almost a year ago that he had met Ishaq in jail at the request of Sharif, offering Ishaq a conditional release if he remained peaceful for the rest of his life.
If close acquaintances of Ludhianvi are to be believed, following intense backdoor diplomacy at the beginning of 2010, the SSP chief and Sharif, who is the younger brother of former premier Nawaz Sharif, held a clandestine meeting in Mecca in Saudi Arabia to sort out their long-drawn-out differences.
The bone of contention was the killing of 36 activists of the SSP and the LeJ in fake police encounters by the provincial government in the first quarter of 1999 when Nawaz was prime minister. Shehbaz was subsequently nominated by the Lahore police in the murder case of the SSP workers, but was eventually acquitted by an anti-terrorism court after the complainants withdrew the charges against him.
During his last days as premier, Nawaz Sharif, whose own life was under threat from the SSP and the LeJ and who had already survived an assassination attempt by them in Lahore, went public in naming Afghanistan as the country providing shelter and training to SSP and LeJ hit men. On January 3, 1999, the two sectarian groups had attempted to blow up a bridge on the Lahore-Raiwind road, close to Nawaz Sharif's farmhouse, shortly before he was due to pass by.
Returning to the Mecca meeting between Shehbaz Sharif and Ludhianvi, once the two had reached an understanding they reportedly swore on the Holy Koran while standing inside the Holy Kaaba to bury their grievances and not to go against each other.
Although Sharif family circles strongly deny these reports, the fact remains that the slain governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, had accused the Sharif government of courting the SSP in the Jhang district of south Punjab to safeguard its vote bank in the Pakistan People's Party in a March 2010 by-election for a vacant seat in the Punjab provincial assembly.
Taseer, who was gunned down by his bodyguard for his liberal views, in Islamabad on January 4, 2011, had subsequently written a letter to Shehbaz Sharif on March 5, 2010, demanding drastic action against Law Minister Rana Sanaullah for his public meetings and addresses to rallies in Jhang accompanied by known terrorists of the SSP.
The rise and rise of the SSP
The LeJ was launched in 1996 by a breakaway faction of Sunni Deobandi extremists of the SSP, including Ishaq, Riaz Basra and Akram Lahori, who walked out of the outfit after accusing the SSP leadership of deviating from the ideals of its founder, Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, who was killed by his Shi'ite rivals in February 1990.
But terrorism experts believe that the SSP is in fact the mother organization that has provided human fodder to the cauldron of the region's multi-layered violence in the name of Islam.
The SSP - Corps of the Prophet Mohammad's Companions - is a violently anti-Shi'ite Sunni sectarian group responsible for targeting the Shi'ite minority in Pakistan. The ultra-fanatic sectarian SSP emerged in central Punjab in the mid-1980s as a response to the Iranian Revolution of 1979, seeking proclamation of Pakistan as a Sunni state. Having ideological affinity with the Taliban, the SSP aims at restoring the caliphate system and has declared the Shi'ite minority to be non-Muslim.
The SSP and the LeJ, which is considered to be the military wing of the SSP, were once the strategic assets of the state of Pakistan and have linked with al-Qaeda as its ancillary warriors, killing Pakistani citizens and targeting the security forces to dissuade Pakistan from fighting the "war against terror" as a United States ally.
The LeJ today has deep links with al-Qaeda and the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban and is considered to be the most violent terrorist organization operating in Pakistan, with the help of its suicide squad. As with most Sunni Deobandi sectarian and militant groups, almost the entire LeJ leadership is made up of people who have fought in Afghanistan with the backing of the Pakistani security establishment and most of its cadre are drawn from the numerous Sunni madrassas (seminaries) in Pakistan.
The Lashkar stands out for its secrecy, lethality and unrelenting pursuit of its core objectives - targeting Western interests in Pakistan and the Shi'ite community as a way to the eventual transformation of the country into a Taliban-style Islamic state. It has become the group of choice for hard-core militants who are adamant in pursuing their jihadi agenda in Pakistan.
The LeJ consists of loosely coordinated cells, of approximately five to eight militants each with limited contact with one another, spread across Pakistan with self-regulating chiefs for each of them. The operational successes of the group over the years are attributed to its multi-cell structure.
While not much is known about its structure of operations, intelligence reports indicate that, after each attack, Lashkar cadres disperse and subsequently reassemble at various bases/hideouts to plan future operations. The LeJ's presence has been reported from locations as varied as Lahore, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Multan, Islamabad, Jhang, Khanewal, Layyah, Bhakkar, Sargodha, Rahimyar Khan, Orakzai, Sahiwal, Karachi, Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Kohat, Sukkur, Bajaur, Parachinar, Kurram, South Waziristan, North Waziristan, Hangu, Hyderabad, Bahawalpur, Nawabshah, Mirpur Khas, Chitral, Gilgit and Quetta.
Although sporadic crackdowns by the security forces since late-2001 have had some success, the LeJ continues to make new recruitments to replace those arrested or killed. And great care is taken in recruiting cadres, while considering both religious conviction and the skill and commitment to carry out attacks.
While Shi'ites remain the primary target of the LeJ, the group has, since 2002, broadened its focus to include other civilian, government and Western targets in Pakistan.
Despite the involvement of the LeJ and its parent party, the SSP, in sectarian violence since its inception in 1996, the Pakistani state has failed to neutralize either group. Being part of a broader jihadi movement with Deobandi ideological affiliation, the LeJ has links with other jihadi groups, including the Jaish-e-Mohammad, the Harkatul Mujahideen and the Harkatul Jehadul Islami.
The LeJ also maintains close operational links with the Afghan Taliban and al-Qaeda. There is, in fact, sufficient evidence to indicate that the LeJ has been transformed into a significant al-Qaeda affiliate, which provides not only back-up support but also takes part in terrorist attacks linked to al-Qaeda. Yet, the group stays focused on its home turf and its stated goal of radicalizing Pakistan.
Most terrorism experts agree that LeJ operatives are the most highly trained and equally vicious killers the world of terror has to offer. Intelligence sources say the LeJ has finally moved to center stage and the past claims by Pakistani agencies of its demise after the capture of its salar-e-Aala (commander-in-chief) Akram Lahori have proved to be wide off the mark. This is evident as the group has already started a fresh recruitment drive to form new cells at the district and provincial levels, especially following the release of Ishaq.
Amir Mir is a senior Pakistani journalist and the author of several books on the subject of militant Islam and terrorism, the latest being The Bhutto murder trail: From Waziristan to GHQ.
Asia Times
ISLAMABAD - The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ - Army of Jhangvi), a Pakistan-based, al-Qaeda-linked, anti-United States, Sunni Deobandi sectarian-turned-jihadi group, has let loose a reign of terror against the Shi'ite minority.
In its latest attack, the LeJ on Tuesday killed 13 Shi'ites traveling on a bus to work in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan province. The attackers forced the Shi'ites off the bus, made them stand in a line and then opened fire.
This followed the July 14 release of Malik Mohammad Ishaq, one of the founding members of the LeJ, which has already claimed responsibility for the September 20 cold-blooded execution-style killing of 29 Shi'ite pilgrims of the Hazara community in theMastung area of Balochistan.
All those killed were on their way to Iran from Quetta. Armed with Kalashnikovs and rocket launchers, the attackers stopped the bus and forced the pilgrims to get off. While women and children were spared, they were made to witness the execution of their dear ones who were lined up and sprayed with bullets.
It was the deadliest attack on the Shi'ite community in Pakistan since September 4, 2010, when a suicide bomber killed 57 people at a procession in Quetta. The Mastung attack is not an isolated incident, but part of a systematic campaign of violence directed towards the Shi'ite community. Over 400 Shi'ite Hazaras have been killed in Balochistan by the LeJ since 1999.
The Hazaras are Persian-speakers who mainly live in central Afghanistan. They are overwhelmingly Shi'ites and comprise the third-largest ethnic group of Afghanistan. Over half a million Hazaras live in Pakistan, especially in the Quetta district.
They are the frequent target of attacks in Afghanistan as well as in Pakistan by anti-Shi'ite Sunni Deobandi sectarian-cum-militant groups like the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (Pakistan Taliban - TTP) and the LeJ, which suspect them of assisting and aiding US intelligence agencies in their hunt for the fugitive leaders of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, believed to be hiding in Pakistan.
One would recall the massacre of the Hazaras in Afghanistan after the Afghan Taliban led by Mullah Omar took power in Kabul in September 1996 and allowed the LeJ to operate in Pakistan from sanctuaries in Afghan territory.
While claiming responsibility for killing the 29 pilgrims in Mastung, a spokesman of the LeJ, said: "Our activists will continue to target the Shi'ite community." The massacre was carried out amid the usual hate speech and wall-chalking, branding Shi'ites as apostate and worthy to be killed.
A few weeks before the massacre, the LeJ had circulated an open letter addressed to Hazaras in Quetta. Written in the Urdu language, the letter stated:
All Shi'ites are worthy of killing. We will rid Pakistan of unclean people. Pakistan means land of the pure and the Shi'ites have no right to live in this country. We have the edict and signatures of revered scholars, declaring Shi'ites infidels. Just as our fighters have waged a successful jihad against the Shi'ite Hazaras in Afghanistan, our mission in Pakistan is the abolition of this impure sect and its followers from every city, every village and every nook and corner of Pakistan.
Like in the past, our successful jihad against the Hazaras in Pakistan and, in particular, in Quetta, is ongoing and will continue in the future. We will make Pakistan the graveyard of the Shi'ite Hazaras and their houses will be destroyed by bombs and suicide bombers. We will only rest when we will be able to fly the flag of true Islam on this land of the pure. Jihad against the Shi'ite Hazaras has now become our duty.
Those investigating the recent surge in anti-Shi'ite attacks believe it has something to do with the release on bail of Malik Ishaq, the feared LeJ leader who had been charged with involvement in 100-plus sectarian murders.
His release instantly caused sectarian tensions that were prompted by the anti-Shi'ite sermons he began delivering after his release. Therefore, on September 21, hardly 24 hours after the bloodbath in Mastung, Ishaq was placed under temporary house arrest in the Rahim Yar Khan district of Punjab province, with district police officer Sohail Chattha saying: "Malik Mohammad Ishaq's conduct has endangered sectarian harmony and caused a sudden rise in the sectarian temperature in the country."
According to an official document of Punjab Home Department, soon after his release, Ishaq had vowed while addressing a public meeting in Multan to continue to kill the enemies of "Sahaba" (the Prophet Mohammad's companions). "All those against Sahaba are not our personal enemies, but the enemies of Islam. And we will fight them ... we cannot tolerate these elements at any cost," Ishaq said during his address, the document reported. The document, titled "Highly objectionable activities of Malik Ishaq", further read: "On September 6, 2011, Malik Ishaq visited the house of a high-profile terrorist, Abdul Wahab alias Aenak Wala Jin, whose name is included in the Red Book, comprising particulars of most-wanted terrorists."
Two weeks later, on September 19, Ishaq's gunmen who were escorting his rally in Muzaffargarh district clashed with the Shi'ite community, resulting in two deaths. Ishaq had undertaken the procession in defiance of government orders since he is on an anti-terrorism watch list and is required to request permission before leaving the jurisdiction of his local police station. It was after these killings that the Punjab government decided to place him under house arrest, but for a brief period of one month, after which he will again be free to spit venom and preach hatred in the name of Islam.
According to Punjab police records, after being arrested by Punjab police in 1997 on charges of involvement in 102 murders, Ishaq confessed to committing 11 and abetting 57 other killings. But according to Ishaq's lawyer, Misbahul Haq, who pleaded his bail case in the Supreme Court, his client was acquitted in 35 cases because of "lack of evidence", and granted bail in eight cases and discharged in one case.
The last charge leveled against him was masterminding from his jail cell the March 2009 terrorist attack targeting a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore. During subsequent investigations, it transpired that the LeJ attackers wanted to take hostage the cricket team to get Ishaq released. He was bailed out anyway by the Supreme Court in July "due to lack of evidence and the weak case of the prosecution", as observed by two apex court judges while bailing him out against a surety bond of a million rupees (US$11,436.)
While giving their verdict, a division bench of the apex court comprising Justice Shahid Siddiqui and Justice Asif Khosa expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of the prosecution in establishing its case against the accused. The court observed that the prosecution produced only two witnesses who stated that they had heard conversations between some people planning to take the Sri Lankan cricket team hostage to get Ishaq released. The bench censured the prosecutor general of Punjab, saying: "The judiciary has to face the wrath of the public when it releases such accused due to lack of evidence and weak case of the prosecution."
On the other hand, Ishaq said in a brief media talk after being set free: "We were never terrorists and killers and the apex court has also proven that." He was cheered by hundreds of LeJ activists and showered with rose petals as he walked from a high-security prison in Lahore to a waiting land cruiser that was surrounded by his arms-wielding supporters.
Rise to infamy
Born in 1959, Ishaq is the son of Ali Ahmad Awan, who owned a cloth shop in the village Taranda Sawaey Khan in Rahim Yar Khan district of southern Punjab. He left school in the sixth grade in the early 1980s to assist his father.
He eventually started a business distributing cigarettes before joining a Sunni Deobandi sectarian organization, the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), in 1989 after he met Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, its founder who was based in the Jhang district of Punjab. Ishaq started his hardline sectarian activism from the SSP platform soon afterwards and launched the LeJ in 1996 with the support of his close aides, Riaz Basra and Akram Lahori. Ishaq was arrested the same year but he managed to escape from police custody a few months later, only to be arrested again in 1997.
But Ishaq's release was a foregone conclusion that had even been predicted by the foreign media almost two years before the Supreme Court set him free. On August 7, 2009, the New York Times reported that one Fida Hussein Ghalvi, who had testified 12 years ago against Ishaq for killing his 12 family members, "feared the imminent release of the terrorist leader, thus adding horror to Ghalvi's life of grief, already reduced to the limits of his house in Multan". The newspaper said that Ghalvi still received threats from followers of Ishaq, who has has never had a conviction that stuck, though Punjab police records show a dizzying tally of murders against his name.
"When Malik Ishaq was arrested in 1997, he unleashed his broad network against his opponents, killing witnesses, threatening judges and intimidating police, leading nearly all of the prosecutions against him to collapse eventually," said the New York Times. "Now, with the cases against him mostly exhausted, Ishaq - a 'jihadi hero' - could be out on bail very soon. That prospect terrifies Ghalvi." The Times quoting him as having said: "My life is totally constrained. I can't even go to funerals. What have I gotten from 13 years of struggle except grief?"
In fact, when Ghalvi and three other men had identified Ishaq, he told them in front of the trial court judge that "dead men can't talk". Subsequently, five witnesses and three of their relatives were killed during the trial. Ishaq was also the prime accused in the 1997 bombing of the Iranian culture center in Multan, which killed eight people. When investigating officer Ejaz Shafi persuaded two witnesses to appear in court and testify against Ishaq, his car was sprayed with bullets by unidentified assailants in broad daylight.
Anti-Terrorism Court judge Bashir Ahmed Bhatti eventually convicted Ishaq in the same case, but the Supreme Court overturned the conviction in 2006 because of "lack of evidence". In March 2007, the same judge, scheduled to hear another case against Ishaq, was on his way to the court when a remote-controlled bicycle bomb exploded near his car, killing his driver and two policemen. Ishaq was charged with planning the attack but was eventually acquitted in April 2009, once again due to "lack of evidence".
Following Ishaq's release, the police provided security to Ghalvi, thus highlighting the concerns of the law-enforcement agencies. Ghalvi, meanwhile, has relocated from his native town in Multan district. However, two other key witnesses and one complainant have not been provided any security. The men, identified as Khadim, Sikandar and Abdul Ghafour (complainant) are the only people to have survived the court cases that have taken 20 lives, including eight people who were murdered purely for being associated with the case.
Following Ishaq's release, Sikandar was quoted by newspapers as saying: "I can be attacked at any time and I do not know if I will be alive tomorrow or not, as you know almost everyone who was a witness or a relative has already been killed."
Like Sheikh Ahmed Omar Saeed, another terrorist already sentenced to death for the 2002 beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl, Ishaq was not subdued by jail conditions and allegedly continued to plot acts while behind bars Perhaps this is no surprise. Ishaq was flown from a Lahore jail to the garrison town of Rawalpindi by the military on a special chartered flight to hold talks with fidayeen (suicide) attackers of the TTP, led by Dr Aqeel alias Mohammad Osman, who had stormed the general headquarters building on October 10, 2009 and taken hostage 42 people, including several military officials.
The terrorists had listed demands and expressed their desire to directly hold talks with the chief of army staff General Ashfaq Kiani. The hostage-takers also gave a list of jailed militants belonging to some Sunni Deobandi militant and sectarian groups, seeking their release, failing which, the hostages were threatened to be killed one by one.
As a time-buying tactic, negotiators roped in key leaders of jihadi and sectarian groups to hold talks with the terrorists. Special planes were subsequently flown to Lahore, Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan to bring to Rawalpindi Ishaq, Maulana Mohammad Ahmed Ludhianvi, Maulana Fazalur Rehman Khalil, the amir of the Harkatul Mujahideen, and Mufti Abdul Rauf, the younger brother of Maulana Masood Azhar who is also the acting amir of the Jaish-e-Mohammad.
The attackers were subsequently killed in a successful rescue operation, except for Mohammad Aqeel, alias Dr Usman, a former army man who had already been sentenced to death.
Interestingly, these same four jihadi leaders had been roped in by the Pervez Musharraf regime in July 2007 to negotiate with the hardline clerics of the infamous Lal Mosque (Red Mosque) in the heart of the capital, Islamabad. The military later launched a raid on the mosque to flush out militants who had taken sanctuary there.
The clout that Ishaq enjoyed even while in jail can be gauged from the fact that he was not only allowed to use a mobile phone, he continued to receive the regular monthly stipend from the Punjab government that bega when Shehbaz Sharif became provincial chief minister in 2008.
Maulana Mohammad Ahmed Ludhianvi, the current chief of the SSP, claimed during a media discussion almost a year ago that he had met Ishaq in jail at the request of Sharif, offering Ishaq a conditional release if he remained peaceful for the rest of his life.
If close acquaintances of Ludhianvi are to be believed, following intense backdoor diplomacy at the beginning of 2010, the SSP chief and Sharif, who is the younger brother of former premier Nawaz Sharif, held a clandestine meeting in Mecca in Saudi Arabia to sort out their long-drawn-out differences.
The bone of contention was the killing of 36 activists of the SSP and the LeJ in fake police encounters by the provincial government in the first quarter of 1999 when Nawaz was prime minister. Shehbaz was subsequently nominated by the Lahore police in the murder case of the SSP workers, but was eventually acquitted by an anti-terrorism court after the complainants withdrew the charges against him.
During his last days as premier, Nawaz Sharif, whose own life was under threat from the SSP and the LeJ and who had already survived an assassination attempt by them in Lahore, went public in naming Afghanistan as the country providing shelter and training to SSP and LeJ hit men. On January 3, 1999, the two sectarian groups had attempted to blow up a bridge on the Lahore-Raiwind road, close to Nawaz Sharif's farmhouse, shortly before he was due to pass by.
Returning to the Mecca meeting between Shehbaz Sharif and Ludhianvi, once the two had reached an understanding they reportedly swore on the Holy Koran while standing inside the Holy Kaaba to bury their grievances and not to go against each other.
Although Sharif family circles strongly deny these reports, the fact remains that the slain governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, had accused the Sharif government of courting the SSP in the Jhang district of south Punjab to safeguard its vote bank in the Pakistan People's Party in a March 2010 by-election for a vacant seat in the Punjab provincial assembly.
Taseer, who was gunned down by his bodyguard for his liberal views, in Islamabad on January 4, 2011, had subsequently written a letter to Shehbaz Sharif on March 5, 2010, demanding drastic action against Law Minister Rana Sanaullah for his public meetings and addresses to rallies in Jhang accompanied by known terrorists of the SSP.
The rise and rise of the SSP
The LeJ was launched in 1996 by a breakaway faction of Sunni Deobandi extremists of the SSP, including Ishaq, Riaz Basra and Akram Lahori, who walked out of the outfit after accusing the SSP leadership of deviating from the ideals of its founder, Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, who was killed by his Shi'ite rivals in February 1990.
But terrorism experts believe that the SSP is in fact the mother organization that has provided human fodder to the cauldron of the region's multi-layered violence in the name of Islam.
The SSP - Corps of the Prophet Mohammad's Companions - is a violently anti-Shi'ite Sunni sectarian group responsible for targeting the Shi'ite minority in Pakistan. The ultra-fanatic sectarian SSP emerged in central Punjab in the mid-1980s as a response to the Iranian Revolution of 1979, seeking proclamation of Pakistan as a Sunni state. Having ideological affinity with the Taliban, the SSP aims at restoring the caliphate system and has declared the Shi'ite minority to be non-Muslim.
The SSP and the LeJ, which is considered to be the military wing of the SSP, were once the strategic assets of the state of Pakistan and have linked with al-Qaeda as its ancillary warriors, killing Pakistani citizens and targeting the security forces to dissuade Pakistan from fighting the "war against terror" as a United States ally.
The LeJ today has deep links with al-Qaeda and the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban and is considered to be the most violent terrorist organization operating in Pakistan, with the help of its suicide squad. As with most Sunni Deobandi sectarian and militant groups, almost the entire LeJ leadership is made up of people who have fought in Afghanistan with the backing of the Pakistani security establishment and most of its cadre are drawn from the numerous Sunni madrassas (seminaries) in Pakistan.
The Lashkar stands out for its secrecy, lethality and unrelenting pursuit of its core objectives - targeting Western interests in Pakistan and the Shi'ite community as a way to the eventual transformation of the country into a Taliban-style Islamic state. It has become the group of choice for hard-core militants who are adamant in pursuing their jihadi agenda in Pakistan.
The LeJ consists of loosely coordinated cells, of approximately five to eight militants each with limited contact with one another, spread across Pakistan with self-regulating chiefs for each of them. The operational successes of the group over the years are attributed to its multi-cell structure.
While not much is known about its structure of operations, intelligence reports indicate that, after each attack, Lashkar cadres disperse and subsequently reassemble at various bases/hideouts to plan future operations. The LeJ's presence has been reported from locations as varied as Lahore, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Multan, Islamabad, Jhang, Khanewal, Layyah, Bhakkar, Sargodha, Rahimyar Khan, Orakzai, Sahiwal, Karachi, Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Kohat, Sukkur, Bajaur, Parachinar, Kurram, South Waziristan, North Waziristan, Hangu, Hyderabad, Bahawalpur, Nawabshah, Mirpur Khas, Chitral, Gilgit and Quetta.
Although sporadic crackdowns by the security forces since late-2001 have had some success, the LeJ continues to make new recruitments to replace those arrested or killed. And great care is taken in recruiting cadres, while considering both religious conviction and the skill and commitment to carry out attacks.
While Shi'ites remain the primary target of the LeJ, the group has, since 2002, broadened its focus to include other civilian, government and Western targets in Pakistan.
Despite the involvement of the LeJ and its parent party, the SSP, in sectarian violence since its inception in 1996, the Pakistani state has failed to neutralize either group. Being part of a broader jihadi movement with Deobandi ideological affiliation, the LeJ has links with other jihadi groups, including the Jaish-e-Mohammad, the Harkatul Mujahideen and the Harkatul Jehadul Islami.
The LeJ also maintains close operational links with the Afghan Taliban and al-Qaeda. There is, in fact, sufficient evidence to indicate that the LeJ has been transformed into a significant al-Qaeda affiliate, which provides not only back-up support but also takes part in terrorist attacks linked to al-Qaeda. Yet, the group stays focused on its home turf and its stated goal of radicalizing Pakistan.
Most terrorism experts agree that LeJ operatives are the most highly trained and equally vicious killers the world of terror has to offer. Intelligence sources say the LeJ has finally moved to center stage and the past claims by Pakistani agencies of its demise after the capture of its salar-e-Aala (commander-in-chief) Akram Lahori have proved to be wide off the mark. This is evident as the group has already started a fresh recruitment drive to form new cells at the district and provincial levels, especially following the release of Ishaq.
Amir Mir is a senior Pakistani journalist and the author of several books on the subject of militant Islam and terrorism, the latest being The Bhutto murder trail: From Waziristan to GHQ.
Asia Times
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