Looking Down The Barrel

He was among the Pakistan establishment's most trusted jehadi leaders, one of those who walked the credibility tightrope gingerly. One season he would be mouthing impassioned anti-India rhetoric, sending his boys across the LoC; the next would see him lying low and smouldering, at Islamabad's direction. In return, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Maulana Masood Azhar received state patronage. But all this could be changing—and not entirely because of the diplomatic pressure India has mounted over the months.

But first a glimpse of the clout Azhar enjoyed till recently. Nothing illustrates this more vividly than the Pakistan government's decision to decline a request by Interpol for taking Azhar into custody. Interpol had been prompted to act at the behest of the US department of justice which wanted charges filed against Azhar and Sheikh Ahmed Omar Saeed for their involvement in at least two crimes committed against US citizens—the 2002 murder of journalist Daniel Pearl and the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 (with an American citizen inside, Jeanne Moore). The Americans claimed that under their laws they have the right to investigate crimes against US citizens committed anywhere in the world.

A senior interior ministry official says much before the Interpol request was turned down in March 2003, the Musharraf administration had rejected in September 2002 the American FBI's request to interrogate Azhar for his alleged links with the Al-Qaeda—which was accused of plotting the Pearl murder. Islamabad had argued that Azhar didn't have a role in the murder and that, anyway, principal culprit Sheikh Ahmed Omar Saeed and three accomplices had been tried and sentenced to life imprisonment by a Pakistani court.

But the presence of Jeanne Moore, a psychotherapist from Bakersfield, California, aboard IC-814 proved trickier for Azhar. The FBI recorded Moore's testimony on her return to California, and because Azhar had been freed from an Indian jail to secure the release of IC-814 passengers, it invoked this fact to move Interpol for issuing a red corner alert notice. The Pakistan government rejected the request on the grounds that Azhar wasn't a hijacker, and his incarceration in India had been illegal. In other words, Azhar couldn't be accused of any crime.

Ordinarily, the reprieve in March should have emboldened Azhar to brazenly espouse the jehadi cause. Instead, he now finds himself, at least temporarily, out of favour with the establishment. Sources say this is because Washington is convinced about his Al Qaeda links and believes he, along with other recalcitrant Islamist leaders, have been providing logistical support to fugitive Taliban and Arab followers of Osama bin Laden.

Of course, the thaw in Indo-Pak relations has also been a contributory factor. Sources say the Pakistan government has warned Azhar against making provocative statements against India and its Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee. On May 30, Azhar was also stopped from addressing the Deefa-e-Islam (Defence of Islam) conference at the Peshawar Press Club, organised under the auspices of the Khudamul Islam, the Jaish's new name. The local police took the plea that the conference was organised by a proscribed outfit.

Azhar, however, resurfaced the same day (May 30) and succeeded in addressing a Friday congregation at the University Town mosque in Peshawar. Hailing Bin Laden and Taliban supremo Mullah Mohammed Omar as heroes of the Muslim Ummah, Azhar said "the two leaders have demonstrated supreme courage and tenacity by not bowing down before the US". He also criticised the secular forces for attempting to eliminate jehad and the rulers for acting as American agents, warning them of dire consequences should they persist in their efforts.

But it isn't only Azhar who is lying low. On June 1, Hizbul Mujahideen leader Syed Salahuddin was denied permission to convene a meeting of the Muttahida (United) Jehad Council (comprising over a dozen jehadi outfits) in Rawalpindi. The following day, the Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan was ordered to ask Salahuddin to shift the Hizb offices from the Jamaat premises. The Hizb has been operating from here since 1990.

Azhar and Salahuddin's temporary fall from grace is also closely linked to the nature of the ties between the isi and jehadi outfits. Sources say the isi has now decided to bolster support for Prof Hafiz Mohammad Saeed of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT). They say should the Indo-Pak peace initiative fail, the Lashkar would be the frontline jehadi group in the Valley and Hafiz Saeed the new public face of militants.

The reason for Azhar and Salahuddin's fall from grace is doublefold. For one, the isi has become wary of Azhar, what with Washington's allegations that he is linked to Al Qaeda. The other reason is the bitter internecine struggles within the Hizb. Intelligence sources say the Hizb has been disabled to the extent it can now provide little more than guides and logistical support to cadres from other jehadi outfits.

It looks like Azhar, Salahuddin and Hafiz Saeed are at the crossroads. Who among them will become the establishment's favourite jehadi is to be seen.