A Mere White-wash?

"Don't blame the common man if he does not take the government's ordersseriously. What happened to the de-weaponization?  The paramilitary forceslooked on helplessly when the TNSM activists drove past the check points withguns mounted on their vehicles.  Why should the common citizens believethis government when it says that it would take concrete steps against religiousextremists and then buckles under such pressures, and withdraws plans to bringabout procedural amendments in the controversial blasphemy law?

"Mere tough talk will not convince the people.  Action speakslouder than words.  How will the government liberate the 'great majority ofmoderate Pakistanis' held hostage by a minority of religious extremists when itcannot liberate itself from the extremists? People remain unconvinced. They say that the establishment has not divorced its religious alliesaltogether.  This is just a separation.  There will be a re-union oncethe situation cools down in Afghanistan.  It will continue to need thesupport of the religious extremist groups for as long as Kashmir issue remainsunresolved.

"Notwithstanding their present hibernation, the Jihadi outfits wouldcontinue to operate, along the holy war in Kashmir.  They would continue topush political goals in Pakistan as well.

"The government says the extremists stand exposed and that it plans tounveil an action plan against them in the next three weeks or so.  Thetaste of the pudding is in eating it. Time will tell how sincere is theadministration in taking on religious extremism."

So wrote Mr. M. Ismail Khan, a Pakistani analyst, in the "Dawn" ofKarachi on November 29, 2001, in response to the repeated reiteration byGen.Pervez Musharraf, since September 11, 2001, of his determination toeradicate extremist and terrorist activities from Pakistani soil.  Thecomments were provoked by the action of the military junta in not preventing thecrossing- over of thousands of heavily-armed jehadis from theFederally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)  of Pakistan into Afghanistan,at the height of the US air strikes against the Taliban to join the Taliban inits so-called jehad against the US.  Thousands of them got killed by the USair strikes and in the fighting with the Northern Alliance.

If  many in Pakistan itself have thus been doubting the sincerity ofMusharraf in wanting to make a total break from extremism and terrorism, Indiais totally justified in adopting a cautious approach to his telecast of January12 and in wanting to see credible action on the ground against terroristsoperating against India before appropriately reciprocating to his speech and thefollow-up action.

In pursuance of Musharraf's telecast announcement of January 12, 2002, Lt.Gen.(retd) Moinuddin Haider, Pakistan's Interior Minister, issued a notification onJanuary 15, 2002, formally banning the following five organisations under theAnti-Terrorism Act of 1997, which was got enacted by the then Prime Minister,Mr.Nawaz Sharif, and under which Sharif himself was got prosecuted and jailed byMusharraf after capturing power on October 12, 1999: the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT),the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), theTehreek-e-Jafferia Pakistan (TJP) and the Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi(TNSM).  All of them, except the Shia TJP, have a strong Deobandi-Wahabiorientation.  On the other hand, the Sunni Tehreek, which is of Barelviorientation, was placed only under observation and not banned.

According to the notification,  Section 11E of the Act provides thatwhere any organisation is proscribed, the required measures against it willinclude: its offices, if any, shall be sealed; its accounts, if any, shall befrozen; all literature, posters, banners, or printing, electronic and digital orother material shall be seized.

It said: "Publications, printing or dissemination of any pressstatements, press conferences of public utterances by or on behalf of or insupport of a proscribed organisation shall also be prohibited".

"The proscribed organisation shall submit all accounts of its income andexpenditure for its political and social welfare activities and disclose allfunding sources to the competent authority designated by the government. The provincial governments have been directed by the federal government to takeimmediate action.  The Interior Ministry has also asked the provincialgovernments to furnish a report in this regard."

Of the five banned organisations, the TJP and the SSP are registered aspolitical parties under the relevant Pakistani law and had been contestingelections.  Registered political parties cannot be banned without theconcurrence of the Supreme Court.  The military junta got over thisrequirement under the pretext that since these two organisations had contestedthe 1997 elections under different names and had subsequently changed theirnames, they should have got themselves freshly registered as political parties,which they had not done.

The TJP had contested the 1997 elections as the Tehreek-e-Fiquah-e-JafferiaPakistan and the SSP as the Anjuman-e-Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan.  The TJP andthe SSP came into existence after the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979. The TJP was formed at the instance of the Iranian Intelligence to protect theinterests of the Shias and was funded by the latter.  It extended itsactivities to the Shia majority areas of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP)and the Northern Areas--NA (Gilgit and Baltistan) and started a movement forconstituting these Shia majority areas into a separate province of Pakistan tobe called the Karakoram province.

In 1988, there was a violent uprising of the Shias in Gilgit, which wasruthlessly suppressed by Musharraf, who was given the task of dealing with therevolt by Zia-ul-Haq.  Musharraf had a large number of Sunni Pashtuntribesmen from the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) led by Osama binLaden brought into Gilgit.  They carried out a massacre of the Shias in theNA as well as the adjoining NWFP areas.  It is believed by many in Pakistanthat the crash of the aircraft in which Zia was travelling from Bahawalpur inAugust 1988 resulting in his death was caused by a Shia airman from Gilgitsympathetic to the TJP in retaliation for this massacre.

To keep the Shias of Gilgit under control, Musharraf encouraged the the SSP,which had come into existence in the Punjab in the early 1980s at the instanceof the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), to extend its activities amongst theSunni population of Gilgit and to politically organise them against the the TJP. Since then, there have frequently been clashes between the TJP and the SSPfollowers in Gilgit, the latest outbreak of such violent incidents having takenplace in June, 2001, before Musharraf's visit to India for the summit talks withMr.A.B.Vajpayee, the Indian Prime Minister.

The SSP, which, as stated above, originally came into existence in the Punjabprovince of Pakistan and spread from there to Sindh, was funded and used by theISI and the Saudi intelligence for dealing with the Shias in Pakistan and forassisting the Sunni Balochis in the areas of  Iran adjoining Pakistan'sBalochistan province.  The SSP acted in concert with the Iraqi-fundedMujahideen-e-Khalq in fomenting an anti-Teheran revolt amongst the Sunnis ofIran.  The revolt was ultimately crushed by the Iranian authorities.

Towards the end of the 1980s, the SSP, much to the discomfiture of the ISI,started demanding that Pakistan should be proclaimed a Sunni Republic and theShias declared non-Muslims.  This led to violent clashes between the twoorganisations.  The SSP and its militant wing called the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi(LeJ) carried out a massacre of the Shias in Punjab and Sindh.  In Karachi,many Shia doctors and other intellectuals were massacred by the SSP.  TheSSP also carried out murderous attacks on Iranian nationals residing inPakistan, including an Iranian diplomat in charge of the Iranian Cultural Centrein Lahore, and some Iranian military officers who had come to Pakistan fortraining.

To protect the Shias, the TJP formed its own militant wing called the SipahMohammad (SM).

In 1996, the ISI had used  the trained cadres of the SSP from the Punjaband Sindh for helping the Taliban in the capture of Jalalabad and Kabul. Hundreds of SSP cadres took part in the successful Taliban assault on Kabul inSeptember, 1996.  The SSP became an important component of the Taliban andjoined Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front For Jehad Against the USand Israel in 1998.  It was used by bin Laden and the Taliban for themassacre of the Shias (Hazaras) of Afghanistan.

Concerned over the uncontrollable anti-Shia activities of the SSP and the LeJin Pakistani territory, Musharraf banned the LeJ and the SM under theAnti-Terrorism Act on August, 14, 2001, but, despite this, the LeJ has continuedto be as active as before with the connivance of sympathetic officers of themilitary-intelligence establishment.

Hundreds of  SSP cadres fought along with the Taliban in Mazar-e-Sharif,Kunduz and Kabul post-September 11, 2001, and suffered a large number of fatalcasualties due to the US air strikes.  The survivors have since returned toPakistan and it is the fear of an anti-US and anti-Musharraf backlash from themwhich has led to the ban on the SSP.

The TJP or its SM have not indulged in major acts of terrorism.  The TJP had refrained from participating in the post-September 11 anti-US demonstrationsin Pakistan.  But,  Musharraf has  banned it too lest a ban onlyon the Sunni organisations cause anger amongst the Sunnis, who constitute about80 per cent of Pakistan's Muslim population. The USA views the TJP withsuspicion because of its perceived proximity to the Iranian intelligence andwould, therefore, have reasons to be gratified by the ban on it.

As a result of the policy of divide and rule followed by Musharraf and theISI since he seized power in October, 1999, one saw for the first time inPakistan sectarian terrorism inside the Sunni community itself between theSunnis of the Deobandi faith belonging to the SSP and the LEJ and those of theBarelvi faith belonging to the Sunni Tehreek formed in the early 1990s tocounter the growing Wahabi influence on Islam in Pakistan and the Almi TanzeemAhle Sunnat formed in 1998 by Pir Afzal Qadri of Mararian Sharif in Gujrat,Punjab, to counter the activities of the Deobandi Army of Islam headed by Gen.Mohammed Aziz, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee.

This led to frequent armed clashes between rival Sunni groups in Sindh, themost sensational of the incidents being the gunning down of Maulana Salim Qadriof the Sunni Tehreek in Karachi in May, 2001, by the SSP, which led to a majorbreak-down of law and order in certain areas of Karachi for some days.

While banning the strongly Deobandi SSP, Musharraf has refrained from banningthe strongly Barelvi Sunni Tehreek and the Tanzeem.  The Deobandis becamequite powerful under Zia, himself a devout Deobandi, but numerically they are ina minority in Pakistan's Sunni community.  By sparing the Barelviorganisations, Musharraf has sought to ensure that the majority Barelvis wouldnot create trouble for him.

The junta has till now applied the ban only to the activities of the fiveorganisations in Sindh, Punjab, the NWFP and Balochistan and has not yetextended it to the Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) and the NA, but Governmentspokesmen have been saying that it will be ultimately extended to those areastoo.

The position in the NA is complicated by the fact that the 29-member NorthernAreas Legislative Council includes ten legislators belonging to the TJP. Haji Fida Mohammad Noshad, the deputy Chief Executive of the Northern Areas,which is the top most post  offered to the Council members by Islamabad, isalso a member of the TJP though he contested the election independently andlater joined the party.  The Northern Areas Cabinet includes two TJPmembers--- Sheikh Haider and Imran Azeem.

The TNSM (Movement for the Implementation of Mohammad's Islamic Law. Official slogan: "Shariat or Shahadat"--Islamic law or martyrdom ) ledby Mufti Sufi Mohammad is an exlusively Pashtun organisation of theFederally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), consisting of the tribal areasadjoining the Peshawar, the Kohat, the Bannu  and the Dera Ismail Khandistricts and the tribal agencies of  Bajaur, Orakzai, Mohmand, Khyber, Kurram, and  North and South Waziristan.

The FATA, comprising the territories lying between the administered districtsof the NWFP and the 'Durand Line', is spread over an area of 10,510 square mileswith a population of a little over three million Pashtuns.  It is known asPakistan's Corsica or Wild West.  According to the "Dawn" of Karachi, out of 16,988 registered proclaimed offenders in the NWFP, 99 percenthave taken shelter in Darra Adam Khel, Orakzai,  Kurram, and KhyberAgencies.  It has some of the world's largest illegal arms manufacturingand smuggling groups and  prosperous narcotics smugglers.  The localpopulation has more arms and ammunition than the population of any otherPakistani province or region.

Even though the FATA is supposed to be directly administered by the FederalGovernment in Islamabad, the local Mullahs and tribal leaders have effectivecontrol over the area and its people and had virtually talibanised it longbefore the Taliban made its appearance in Afghanistan in 1994.

The TNSM first made its appearance in the Malakand area in 1994, when,instigated by the ISI to have the Benazir Bhutto Government discredited, itstaged an armed revolt in support of the enforcement of the Shariat.   TheISI used it along with the SSP for assisting the Taliban in the capture ofJalalabad and Kabul in September 1996.

Since then, the TNSM, with the ISI's blessings, had established a closeworking relationship with the Taliban and the Al Qaeda.  Nearly 2,000 ofits armed cadres are reported to have been killed by the US air strikes inAfghanistan.  It is widely believed  in Pakistan that despite thedetention of Sufi Mohammad by the junta since November, 2001, his followers inthe FATA have given shelter and protection to the surviving leaders of theTaliban and the Al Qaeda, including, according to some,  bin Laden himselfand his family.

Embarrassed by these reports, Musharraf has found himself constrained to banthis orgasnisation too, but there are as yet no reports of any vigorous actionby the military-intelligence establishment to smoke out the Taliban and the AlQaeda leaders.

There were four Pakistani organisations in the Army of Islam of the Afghanwar vintage, which the ISI had diverted from Afghanistan to Jammu & Kashmir(J&K) from 1993 onwards---the JeM, the LeT, the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen HuM)and the Al Badr.  Of these, the first two have been very open in theiranti-India activities in Pakistani territory, make no secret of their terroristactivities in J&K and have been indulging in acts of terrorism  outsideJ&K too as was demonstrated by their attack on the Indian Parliament in NewDelhi on December 13, 2001.

As against this, the HuM and the Al Badr maintain a comparatively low profilein Pakistan and have in recent months kept their acts of terrorism confined toJ&K.  While banning the JeM and the LeT, Musharraf has refrained frombanning the HuM and the Al Badr, thereby indicating that he wants to act onlyagainst acts of terrorism in other parts of India and not in J & K.

Moreover, he has attributed  the ban on these two organisations to theirterrorist activities inside Pakistan and not inside India.  The JeM wassuspected in the assassination of Moinuddin Haider's brother in Karachi inDecember, 2001. Apart from this, it was not involved in acts of terrorism inPakistani territory.  However, it is perceived to be anti-Shia and has hada history of links with the SSP.  In fact, its leader, Maulana Masood Azhar,started his career as a terrorist under Azam Tariq, the dreaded head of the SSP.

The LeT has had no history of acts of terrorism in Pakistan.  All itsterrorist attacks have been directed against Indian nationals and interests inIndian territory.  So far, 1,957 persons belonging to the five banned organisations have been detained and 615 of their offices  sealed.  Ofthem, 735  were detained  and 336 offices sealed in Punjab; 852 arrested and 180 offices closed in Sindh; 337  detained and 81 offices shutin NWFP; 15  arrested and an equal number of offices sealed in Balochistan;and 18 persons arrested and 3 offices closed in Islamabad.

There has been no action against their leadership, members and infrastructurein the FATA, the POK and the NA.  The majority of those arrested belong tothe political and administrative cadres of these organisations.  There havebeen practically no arrests of their trained terrorists.  They (estimated5,000) are reported to have either escaped to the FATA, the POK and the NA orgone underground in other parts of Pakistan.