Kashmir And The Pro-Bin Laden Terrorist Infrastructure In Pakistan

(This note was prepared by me before the recent explosion outside the US Consulate in Karachi inconnection with a visit to the USA in the first fortnight of June, 2002, for participating in discussions witha cross-section of experts on terrorism. This may kindly be read in continuation of my notes recorded after anearlier visit to the US for the same purpose in February, 2002, which are available here by following the linkto the right)

Pakistan waged unsuccessfully its first proxy war against India in the North-Eastern frontier areas between1956 and 1971 from the then East Pakistan. Since1981, the military-intelligence establishment of theGovernment of Pakistan has been waging a second proxy war against India in the hope of thereby achieving itsstrategic objective of annexing the Indian State of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K). This second proxy war,which involves the use of State-sponsored terrorism to keep the Indian Security Forces and the civilianpopulation bleeding without provoking a conventional war, was first started in the Indian State of Punjab in1981 and extended to J&K in 1989.

2. The activities of Pakistan's State-sponsored terrorists in Indian Punjab have been brought under controlby the Government of India since 1995, but the terrorist violence in J&K has not yet been brought undercontrol due to the involvement of a large number of Pakistani Punjabis and other foreign mercenaries trained,armed and infiltrated by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and the surviving remnants of binLaden's Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

3. Between 1989 and 1993, Pakistan's military-intelligence establishment relied largely on indigenousKashmiri organisations for promoting terrorist violence in the Indian territory. Following their perceivedfailure to make headway on the ground, it started infiltrating into J&K since 1993 trained and armedcadres of a number of Pakistani organisations, mainly of Pakistani Punjabis, in order to intensify the proxywar. The more prominent of these Pakistani organisations are:

• The Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), which was designated by the USA as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation inOctober,1997 under its then name of Harkat-ul-Ansar (HUA).
• The Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), which was designated by the USA as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation inDecember, 2001.
• The Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM), which was also designated by the USA as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation inDecember 2001.
• The Harkat-ul-Jihad-Al-Islami (HUJI), which has not yet been so designated.
• The Al Badr, which too has not yet been so designated.

4. Of these, the oldest is the Al Badr, which was got floated by the ISI through the intermediary ofPakistan's Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) in the then East Pakistan before 1971 in order to use it to massacre a largenumber of Bengali Muslim intellectuals, which shocked the civilised world in 1971. After the birth ofBangladesh, the Al Badr was shifted by the ISI to Pakistan and was amongst the organisations used by the ISIagainst the Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

5. The HUM, the LET and the HUJI came into being in the 1980s and played an active role against the Soviettroops in Afghanistan. The JEM was formed in the beginning of 2000 through an ostensible split in the HUM.

6. These Pakistani organisations, whose cadres were infiltrated in increasing numbers into J&K after1993, have virtually taken over the leadership of the terrorist movement and given it a pan-Islamic direction.Their objective has nothing to do with the interests and welfare of the Kashmiris. They project J&K as thegateway to India and describe their final objective as the "liberation" of the Muslims of India andthe creation of two more 'Muslim homelands" in South Asia.

7. The following characteristics of these organisations have not received from the rest of the world theattention they deserve:

• They describe Western-style liberal democracies as anti-Islam since they advocate that sovereignty lies inthe people. According to these organisations, sovereignty lies in God and the clerics, as the interpreters ofIslam, should have the decisive role in law-making and implementation. They look upon the successfulfunctioning of the Indian democracy as a corrupting influence on Pakistan's civil society and elite.
  
  
• They say that they do not recognise national frontiers and that they recognise only the frontiers of theUmmah and assert the right of the Muslims to go and wage a jihad (holy war) in any country where, in theirperception, Muslims are suppressed, even if it be in a Muslim country.
  
  
• They describe Pakistan's atomic bomb as the Ummah's and advocate that Pakistan's bomb and nucleartechnology should be available to any Muslim country which needs them to protect itself.
  
  
• They support bin Laden's argument that the Muslims have the right and even a religious obligation toacquire and even use Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), if necessary, to protect their religion.
  
  
• Their office-bearers and cadres are largely Pakistani Punjabis. Their training and logisticsinfrastructure was based in Afghanistan and Pakistan before October 7, 2001, and is now totally based inPakistani territory after they were driven out of Afghanistan by the international coalition led by the USA.Many of the training camps in Taliban-controlled territory destroyed by the USA's cruise missile strikes inAugust,1998, belonged to the HUM and the HUJI
  
  
• All of them look upon the US, India and Israel as the principal enemies of Islam and are members (exceptthe Al Badr, which is not) of bin Laden's International Islamic Front For Jehad (Crusade) against the USA andIsrael, which was formed in 1998. The HUM was the first to join it in 1998 and the others followed later.Their cadres, believed to have been trained by bin Laden's 055 Brigade in Afghan territory, played an activerole in assisting the Al Qaeda and the Taliban initially in their fight against the Northern Alliance beforeOctober 7, 2001, and then in their fight against the international coalition led by the USA thereafter.

8. These organisations imported into J&K bin Laden's brand of suicide terrorism, which was unknown inJ&K before the middle of 1999 and have been responsible for most of the acts of terrorism since 1999. Theonly important Kashmiri organisation, which is still carrying on a campaign of terrorism, is the HizbulMujahideen, the militant wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) of J&K, which is an appendage of the JEI ofPakistan. Thus, what we have been witnessing in J&K since 1999 is no longer just Kashmiri militancy as itis often described, but Pakistani Punjabi terrorism in the name and under the guise of Kashmiris and drawingits inspiration from its post-1998 association with bin Laden.

9. According to the Pakistani media, about 6,000 trained terrorists of these organisations, the largestcomponent of them belonging to the HUM and the HUJI, were killed in the operations of the US-led internationalcoalition in Afghanistan. The surviving remnants, estimated to be 40,000 plus, have entered Pakistan fromAfghanistan along with the surviving remnants of the Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

10. They initially took sanctuary in the tribal areas of Balochistan, the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP)and the Federally-Administered Tribal areas (FATA) of Pakistan, but have since spread over to other parts ofPakistan away from the Pakistan-Afghan border, including Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) and the NorthernAreas (Gilgit and Baltistan).

11. This became evident during the capture of Abu Zubaida, stated to be the No.3 in the Al Qaeda, and 19other members of the Al Qaeda by the Pakistani security forces, when they were reportedly pressurised to actby the US counter-terrorism officials on the basis of precise intelligence, from hide-outs in Faislabad inPakistani Punjab. It was reported that they had been given shelter there by the LET.

12. This also became evident during the interrogation of one Fazal Karim, a terrorist of theLashkar-e-Jhangvi (LEJ) by the Karachi Police in connection with the investigation into the kidnapping andmurder of Daniel Pearl, the young American journalist, while he was doing an investigative story on thePakistani links of Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber. The "News" (May 23, 2002), theprestigious daily of Pakistan, reported as follows on the interrogation:

13. "Pakistani security officials believe that because of increased monitoring activities by themilitary services in the tribal areas, scores of the foreigners, earlier hiding there, have now moved with thehelp of their trusted Pakistani religious supporters to the populous urban centres, such as Karachi."There are scores of Arabs and their Pakistani loyalists who are desperate to blow themselves up tosettle score with the Americans and other westerners," an official quoted Fazal Karim as saying."These Arabs residing in various neighbourhoods in the outskirts of Karachi are on do-or-diemissions," he added. Fazal told his investigators, "Our Arab friends hosted us in Afghanistan whenwe were on the run, now it's our turn to pay them back."

14. The paper added: "Giving more specific information about the new terrorist threat in Karachi,Fazal is believed to have disclosed that the Airport hotel near Karachi airport, where the western militarypersonnel of International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) were staying, had been selected by his group fora possible suicidal strike.

15. "Informed diplomats in Islamabad termed "a watershed" and "very dangerous" theevidence that previously friendly groups have merged operationally. Al-Qaeda signatures, not seen previouslyin Pakistan, were starkly visible in the recent attacks apparently carried out principally by the Pakistanis:detailed planning, western targets and, in the two attacks, suicide bombers, " the paper concluded. Thetwo attacks with the Al Qaeda's signature referred to by the daily were the grenade attack on Christianworshippers in an Islamabad church on March 17, 2002, in which five persons, including the wife and daughterof an American diplomat, were killed, and the car bomb explosion in Karachi on May 8, 2002, in which 11 Frenchnationals were killed.

16. Since December, 2001, sections of the Pakistani media have been reporting about the movement of the AlQaeda survivors towards Pakistani Punjab as well as the POK with the complicity of the ISI-supportedLashkar-e-Toiba (LET). This movement has continued, despite the ostensible ban on the LET imposed by Gen.Pervez Musharraf on January 15, 2002, under US pressure.

17. The role played by the LET's headquarters at Muridke, near Lahore, in facilitating the movement of AlQaeda cadres to and from Afghanistan was highlighted by the prestigious "Friday Times" of Lahore inits issue for the week from December 14 to 20, 2001. It wrote: "Muridke, a city within a city, was builtwith Arab (My comment: bin Laden's) money.....Its (the LET's) contact with the Wahabi camps in Kunnar inAfghanistan has never been disowned although Muridke carefully mutes its obvious connections with the Arabwarriors in Afghanistan. Its connections with Osama bin Laden have also been carefully hidden although newsappearing in the national press have linked the two....Lashkar's office in Muridke used to receive a largenumber of Arabs on a daily basis and was a transit camp for those leaving for Afghanistan and CentralAsia."

18. With the complicity of the ISI, the LET started moving the Al Qaeda survivors to private homes indifferent towns in Punjab as well as to its camps in the POK. The "Friday Times" reported in itsissue for February 1 to 7, 2002: "Sources say that when Dawatul Irshad (Markaz Dawa Al Irshad sincere-named as Jamaat al-Dawa), parent organisation of the now banned Lashkar Tayyaba (Lashkar-e-Toiba), shiftedits activities to Azad Kashmir (POK), it took with it many non-Pakistanis suspected of links to Al Qaeda. Allthese organisations were loosely affiliated and their activists moved across organisations and cells with agreat degree of ease, an intelligence source said."

19. The "Friday Times" added: " Just before the Musharraf Government took action against theorganisation, there were quite a few foreigners residing at Dawa's headquarters in Muridke. Most of thesepeople had infiltrated into Pakistan in the initial stages of the war, says an insider. Some of these peopleshifted along with other Lashkar cadres to Azad Kashmir (POK) after Hafiz Mohammed Saeed resigned underpressure from the Government. After his resignation, he also constituted another jehadi group called Jamaatal-Dawa while the supreme council nominated Abdul Wahid Kashmiri, another senior member of the Dawatul Irshad,as its new Amir. Insiders say some of these foreigners are also said to be linked to Hezbul Tehreer and workunder the supervision of Abdul Qadeem Zaloom, a Saudi-based person with links to the Al Qaeda," itconcluded.

20. In its report on "Patterns of Global Terrorism 2000" released on April 30, 2001, theCounter-Terrorism Division of the US State Department had warned as follows: "Taliban-controlledAfghanistan remains a primary hub for terrorists and a home or transit point for the loosely-organised networkof "Afghan alumni", a web of informally linked individuals and groups that were trained and foughtin the Afghan war. Afghan alumni have been involved in most major terrorist plots or attacks against theUnited States in the past 15 years and now engage in international militant and terrorist acts throughout theworld. The leaders of some of the most dangerous terrorist groups to emerge in the past decade haveheadquarters or major offices in Afghanistan and their associates threaten stability in many real andpotential trouble spots around the globe----from the Philippines to the Balkans, Central Asia to the PersianGulf, Western China to Somalia and Western Europe to South Asia. That is why the Taliban's continued supportfor these groups is now recognised by the international community as a growing threat to all countries."

21. These Afghan alumni of the 1980s vintage were responsible not only for most acts of terrorism againstthe USA, but also for most acts of terrorism against India during the last nine years in J&K and otherparts of India. The surviving members of these Afghan alumni of the 1980s vintage have now been joined by thesurviving members of the Afghan alumni of the post-October 7, 2001, vintage. They have made Pakistan,including the POK and the Northern Areas (Gilgit and Baltistan), the new primary hub for terrorists and a homeor transit point for terrorists operating against India, the USA, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia,Indonesia, the Philippines, China, the Central Asian Republics, Russia and West Europe. These new alumni arebeing guided in their operations by serving and retired officers of the ISI. Among the retired officersplaying an active role in keeping up their trans-national terrorism alive are former heads of the ISI such asLt. Gen. Hamid Gul, Lt. Gen. Javed Nasir, Lt. Gen. Naseem Rana, presently Pakistani High Commissioner toMalaysia, and Lt. Gen. Mahmood Ahmed. Lt. Gen. Nasir and Lt. Gen. Rana were active members of the TablighiJamaat (TJ) even when they were in service. Unless and until the international community led by the USArecognises that Pakistan's continued support for or complicity with these groups constitutes a serious threatto all these countries and acts against it as determinedly as it acted against the Afghanistan-based alumni,the world will not be free of this evil.

22. The Government and the people of India have reasons to be grateful to the Government and the people ofthe USA for their solidarity with India in its fight against Pakistan's State-sponsored terrorism after thebarbarous attack on the Indian Parliament at New Delhi on December 13, 2001, by elements of these Afghanalumni, which fortunately failed due to the brave fight put up by the Indian Police and other securitypersonnel guarding the Parliament, many of whose members, including a lady officer, died while thwarting theattack.

23. They are also grateful to President Bush and his colleagues for mounting pressure on Pakistan'smilitary regime to stop supporting cross-border terrorism against India. Stopping support to cross-borderterrorism has two aspects: firstly, destroying the terrorist infrastructure in Pakistani territory, includingthe POK and the Northern Areas, and, secondly, stopping cross-border infiltration of trained and armedterrorists into India.

24. As a result of the US pressure after the attack on the Indian Parliament, President Pervez Musharrafannounced a series of measures to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in Pakistani territory. Theseincluded the following:

• Freezing the bank accounts of organisations based in Pakistani territory, which were named by the UN andthe US as terrorist or suspected terrorist organisations.
  
  
• Arrests of about 2000 cadres and the leaders of the LET, the JEM, the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), whichis a Sunni extremist organisation, the Tehrik Jaffria Pakistan (TJP), which is a Shia extremist organisation,and the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi ( TNSM), a terrorist organisation based in the FATA.