Jaish-e-Mohammed, Rebaptised?

Shortly after taking over as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and after the customary courtesy call on Gen.Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's self-reinstated Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), self-styled Chief Executive and self-promoted President, Gen.Mohammad Aziz, the clandestine Chief of Staff of the Army of Islam, reportedly met at Islamabad the leaders of the various jehadi organisations constituting the Army of Islam on October 10,2001.

The next day, the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM), hitherto headed by Maulana Masood Azhar, reportedly renamed itself the  Tehrik-al-Furqan (TAF), following reports  that the USA was examining the question of declaring the JEM a foreign terrorist organisation in the wake of its involvement in the explosion outside the Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) Legislative Assembly on October 1, 2001.

A spokesman of the JEM has been quoted as saying :"We have reports that the Pakistan Government is going to seal our offices  and freeze our accounts all over the country."

Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai has been named the patron-in-chief of the Tehrik-al-Furqan, while Maulana Mazhar Shah the convenor.  The spokesman further said: "We have already withdrawn money from our bank accounts and reopened them  in the names of our low-profile supporters instead of the front line  leadershipThe workers and supporters of Al-Furqan have been asked to move to  Afghanistan at short notice.  Some 10,000 trained mujahideen of Al-Furqan are ready to enter Afghanistan any time to fight against US troops."

On July 1,1999, at the height of the Kargil war, Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, Mufti Jamil Khan and Dr. Abdur Razaq had issued a Fatwa of Jihad against India in Islamabad in response to a request from the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM).  The fatwa ordered that all madrasas in Pakistan should suspend their classes and send their students to J&K to participate in the jehad.  They described Lt.Gen.(retd) Hamid Gul and Lt.Gen.(retd) Javed Nasir , former Directors-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and Musharraf  as Allah's gifts to the nation.

After the Kargil war, Shamzai started a campaign against Mr.Nawaz Sharif, the then Prime Minister, for allegedly betraying the jehadis and the Pakistan Army by succumbing to the US pressure to withdraw the Pakistani troops and the jehadis from the Kargil heights and accused him of collaborating with the USA against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden.

"Jasrat", the Urdu daily of the Jamaat-e-Islami, reported that while addressing a meeting organised by the HUM at Karachi, Shamzai declared that the Americans were "warring infidels" and it was, therefore, "permissible to kill them, loot their wealth and enslave their women".

At a religious congregation held at the Binori mosque in Karachi on February 4,2000, it was Maulana Mohammad Yusuf Ludhianvi, who was subsequently assassinated, and Mufti Shamzai, who announced the formation of the JEM headed by Azhar.  Shamzai, who is the chairman of the Majlis-i-Taawun Islami Pakistan (Organisation for Islamic Cooperation), said that the new jehadi organisation  came into existence as a result of the decision of the Ulema, who would be patronising it with the sole purpose of organising the Mujahideen who had been forced out of various organisations.

He added: "Our objectives are limited to responding effectively to the Indian repression and extending support to the Kashmiri Mujahideen in their struggle against the Indian yoke.  We will have no concern whatsoever with politics in Pakistan.  We are loyal to Pakistan, its government and its people."

Writing in the Friday Times (August 18-24,2000), Khalid Ahmed, the well-known Pakistani analyst, said:
 

• "In 1996, Harkat-ul- Ansar was a powerful Deobandi militia fighting in Held Kashmir.  Its activities were so violent that the US declared it  (in October 1997)a terrorist organization. Thereafter, a split occurred in it and the two factions that emerged abandoned the old name.
  
• "Harkat-ul-Mujahideen under Fazlur Rehman Khalil emerged as a big organization, while Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami, led by Saifullah Akhtar, failed to widen its influence.  One reason was the involvement of Saifullah Akhtar in the unsuccessful rebellion by a section of army officers led by Major-General Zaheer-ul-Islam Abbasi and Major Mustansir Billah in 1995.  Saifullah Akhtar saved himself by turning state witness.
  
• "The Harkat-ul-Mujahideen formally announced itself as a new             organization in June 1996 in Muzaffarabad.  In January 2000, Masood Azhar of Harkat-ul Mujahideen was sprung from an Indian jail after the Kathmandu hijack.  Masood Azhar had gone into India through 'proper channels', as a journalist endorsed by Islamabad (that is, the ISI).  He was a follower of Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, the founder of the anti-Iran and anti-Shia organization Sipah-e-Sahaba, who was killed  in 1990.
  
• "After his release, Masood Azhar wished to revive the legacy of his master.  By this time Harkat had become a major Deobandi organization in Pakistan.  Its main strength remained the militants of Punjab who not long ago had been the militants of Sipah-e-Sahaba.
  
• "His return therefore caused an upheaval which climaxed in a grand split in the Harkat.  The split was soon followed by the assassination of Maulana Yusuf Ludhianvi, a key figure in the Deobandi movement because of his status as a spiritual guide to two important Deobandi leaders, his Khalifas: Maulana Fazlur Rehman of JUI and Maulana Azam Tariq of Sipah-e-Sahaba.
  
• "Their Deobandi connection with Mullah Omar, the Amir of Afghanistan,  strengthened their presence in Pakistan, especially in Karachi where Binuri Masjid emerged as the big centre of the Pakistani Taliban.  The Binuri Town complex of the Deobandi seminary was headed by Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai who was also a member of the Majlis-i-Shoora of JUI under Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
  
• "The split  in Harkat-ul-Mujahideen was caused by the militants in Punjab. Masood Azhar and his Punjabi following isolated the Harkat leader Fazlur Rehman Khalil.  The formation of Jaish-i-Muhammad as a new organization was announced, but Masood Azhar and Fazlur Rehman Khalil began to fight over the Harkat assets.
  
• "On 19 March 2000, the two submitted to a hakam (arbitration) of  their elders.  Harkat was represented by Muhammad Farooq Kashmiri and Jaish was represented by Maulana Abdul Jabbar (a key figure in the Kathmandu hijack) on the pledge given that they would abide by hakam. The verdict was given by three elders: Mufti Rasheed Ahmed of     Zarb-i-Momin Jihadi militia, Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai of the Binuri  Town complex and Dr Sher Ali Shah of Waziristan.  The decision was that all offices of the Harkat, occupied by Jaish in Punjab, would be returned to the Harkat, which in turn would pay the Jaish Rs 40 lakh as its share of the division of assets.
  
• "The implementation of the hakam, however, was not so smooth.  The vehicles and offices returned by Jaish to Harkat were in such bad repair that Harkat refused to accept them and thus also refused to pay the stipulated 40 lakhs.  Meanwhile, in the field, the splinter groups fell upon each other.  At Ath Maqam in Kashmir members of Harkat suffered serious injuries in ambush by the Jaish (Daily Insaf, 30 May 2000).
  
• "In the following month, Jaish was also involved in the alleged killing of a Harkat militant in Kabul (Daily Insaf, 27 June 2000), which led to a case of qisas being registered in the Taliban court. Despite summons, the leaders of Jaish did not appear in court to defend their militants.
  
• "Meanwhile, another rumour reached Lahore about a serious incident caused by Jaish and Lashkar militants in Kabul.  Six members of the Jaish were found guilty by a Taliban court of the rape and murder of a Shia family and were executed.  This news was never confirmed but the upshot was that the Taliban authorities closed the Reshkhor camp  and banished Jaish and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militants from Afghanistan.
  
• "In Pakistan the Jaish emerged as the more  radical and more sectarian part of the Harkat because of its Sipah-e-Sahaba background.  Maulana Yusuf Ludhianvi, it is said, inclined to their creed more than to Harkat's moderate view.  Mufti Shamzai seemed to vacillate between the two splinter groups, thus allowing the Harkat's over-all leader Fazlur Rehman Khalil to be eclipsed.
  
• "Finding himself thus isolated, Khalil is said to have gone to Osama bin Laden and made up some of his losses by getting from him 12 new double-cabin pick-ups trucks to replace those ruined by the Jaish in Punjab.  It is said that the split in the old Harkat-ul-Mujahideen was so deep that Maulana Fazlur Rehman did not find himself in a  position to prevent armed clashes between them.
  
• "Meanwhile, the image of Masood Azhar was greatly enhanced in Punjab when he was allowed to travel to Lahore with scores of Alashnikov-bearing guards.  The agencies restrained him only when his statements against the Musharraf government became too aggressive.
  
• "Meanwhile Pakistan's pressure on the Taliban to surrender Pakistani terrorists coincided with the Taliban's own decision to banish Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Jaish from Afghanistan.  This was followed by a flurry of arrests of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi terrorists on their return to Pakistan in June and July.  The Lashkar leader Riaz Basra is said to have disappeared in Afghanistan to avoid being caught by Pakistan.
  
• "The Taliban have closed other militant training camps, including one in Zhavar built by Osama bin Laden during the Afghan war with the help of forced labour from Soviet POWs.  This closure is bound to  have effect on the Sipah-Taliban ties based on the former's running blood-feud with the Shia community of the Kurram Agency considered hostile by the Taliban.
  
• "Another split nearly happened in 1997 in the Lashkar-i-Tayba headed by Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, also a former head of the Islamiat Department of the Engineering University in Lahore.  The Department came to be controlled by its teachers, Prof. Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Prof. Zafar Iqbal and Prof. Makki.  These teachers were greatly influenced by the Ahle Hadith faith based on direct contacts with Saudi Arabia.
  
• "There was resentment in the collective leadership about Hafiz Saeed's tendency to give important posts to his Gujjar biraderi.  A  number of meetings took place among the Doctors Wing of the Lashkar  headed by Dr Ayub of the Urology Department at Mayo Hospital, which proposed replacing Hafiz Saeed with Dr Zafar Iqbal.  The split was  prevented through timely organisational reform by Hafiz Saeed.  The  rumour was that the split was being engineered by an ISI Major.
  
   
• " It is not surprising that the Jehadi militias have begun to split.  This tendency, as we have seen, has been there since 1996, but in  the year 2000 the additional element of Jihad fatigue is also to be considered.  The Afghan Jihad as a model for Kashmir could not have suited Pakistan in the long run because of its inherent lack of discipline and organization and the consequent 'softness' among the  militias to penetration by informers damaging Islamabad's policy of 'deniability'.
  
• "The Afghan Jihad was also split in its early stages.  The splits were  to the advantage of the agencies handling them, who then established better control over the Jihad.  The splits in the Kashmir Jihad, engineered or not, must redound to the advantage of its handlers for   the same reason."

The Asia Times of August 22, 2001,reported as follows:

• "A very strong Muslim lobby has emerged to protect his (bin Laden's) interests.  This includes Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, as well as senior Pakistani Generals.  Prince Abdullah has good relations with bin Laden as both are disciples of slain Doctor Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian scholar and former  leader of the Muslim Brotherhood Organization (Al-Iqwanul Muslamoon).  Azzam was the main motivational force in the Arab world for the Afghan jihad (holy war) against the former Soviet Union.  Bin Laden fought, and helped finance, opposition to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
  
• "Focus has been on Pakistan as a staging ground for a mission to arrest bin Laden since US Central Command Chief General Tommy R Franks met President General Pervez Musharraf and other senior Pakistani military officials in Rawalpindi in January of this year.  This and subsequent meetings were used to remind Pakistan of its obligations in compliance with UN resolution 1333 that require the Taliban to immediately surrender bin Laden to a   third country.  Pakistan, along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are the only countries to recognize the Taliban government.
  
• "Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Abdullah, meanwhile, wants bin Laden to stand trial in his country.  He is said to believe that any trial against the fugitive would see him acquitted as no case has been registered against him in Saudi Arabia.  In addition, there is no precedent of Saudi Arabia ever handing over one of its citizens to the United States (even though  bin Laden has technically lost his Saudi citizenship), so the Crown Prince considers that bin Laden will be safer in Saudi Arabia than in Afghanistan.
  
• "Bin Laden left Saudi Arabia in 1991.  He was asked by the  Saudi Government to return, but he refused, so they withdrew his citizenship, cancelled his passport and froze his assets.  Bin Laden is believed to have amassed a fortune with his family's construction business.
  
• "Prince Abdullah made a clandestine visit to Pakistan a few months ago and met senior army officials, and he visited Afghanistan with the Director-General of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Lieutenant-General Mehmood.  According to sources, Prince Abdullah met Taliban strongman Mullah Omar and tried to convince him that the United States was likely to launch an attack on Afghanistan and insisted bin Laden be sent to Saudi Arabia, where he would be held in custody and not handed over to any third country.  Mullah Omar apparently rejected the Crown Prince's proposal, saying that despite the threat of US attacks, the question of bin Laden had become one of honor and he would not be handed over in any circumstances.
  
• "As an alternative to snatching him, the US, too, would appear to support the idea of bin Laden going to Saudi Arabia.  Although aware that Prince Abdullah is almost certain to take over from the ailing pro-US King Fahad, who suffered a stroke in 1995, when he dies, US authorities believe that there is a sufficiently strong US lobby within the country - and sufficient palace intrigues - for them to have their way with bin Laden.
• "Fahad and Abdullah are from the same father, but have different mothers.  Abdullah was appointed Crown Prince only because he was next in line, and after his appointment King Fahad posted his brothers (King Fahad's mother's family is known as Sudari and he has seven blood brothers) to important positions to counter Abdullah's authority as Crown Prince.
  
• "The Governor of the capital Riyadh, the Defense Minister, the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Foreign Affairs are all Fahad's brothers.  Abdullah's only power within the Saudi establishment is with the National Baduvian Guards, which is headed by Abdullah's blood brother.  Outside the country, though, there is a strong body of support for Prince Abdullah among those who opposed the US using Saudi Arabia as a base during the  Gulf War in 1991.
  
• "In Pakistan, there is also a very strong lobby within the Army not to assist in any US moves to apprehend bin Laden.  These include Rawalpindi Corps Commander Lieutenant-General Jamshed Gulzar (since shifted as Adjutant-General by Musharraf), one of the coup leaders of October 12, 1999, Lahore Corps Commander Lieutenant-General (Mohammad) Aziz Khan (since kicked upstairs as Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee) and Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant-General Muzzaffar Usmani (since prematurely retired).
  
• "This  was the strong army backing that enabled a Pakistani religious scholar,Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, who is well respected among the Taliban leadership, to put pressure on Pakistan's Minister of the Interior, a retired Lieutenant-General, Moinuddin Haider, not to deport any more Arabs from Pakistan.  In the past, Pakistan has deported known associates of bin Laden from Jordan, Algeria and Egypt to their mother countries, which in turn have   handed them over to the US or other Western countries where they have stood trial for terrorism.
   
  
  
• "According to sources, Mufti Shamzai threatened the Interior Minister that   if any more Arabs were deported from Pakistan, what the jihadi groups did  in Pakistan would not be his or anyone else's responsibility. Knowing the support Shamzai has, and the vulnerability of the Government if they were to retaliate against jihadi forces in the country, the   Interior Minister has subsequently not sanctioned the deportation of Arabs. This is a strong example to the Government of the opposition it will face should it allow Pakistani soil to be used for a raid into Afghanistan to capture bin Laden."

Shamzai was a member of the ulema delegation which went to Kandahar on September 28,2001, along with Lt.Gen.Mahmood Ahmed, then DG, ISI, for discussions with Mullah Omer on the  bin Laden issue.  The other members were Mufti Saleemullah, Mufti Taqi Usmani,  Mufti Muhammad Jamil, Maulana Fazale Rahim, Qari Saeedur Rahman, Maulana Abdul Ghani, Maulana Muhammad Hasan Jan, Qari Mufti Sher Ali Shah and Maulana Haji Abdul Rahman.

The Darul Uloom Islamia Binori Town mosque in Karachi  has  one of the largest religious seminaries in Pakistan.  It is perceived  as one of the most influential centres of hardline Deobandi Sunni Muslim ideology in the world.  Along with the Akora Khattak madrasa-- the largest seminary in Pakistan -- the Binori Town madrasa has imparted doctrinal training to the leading lights of the Taliban as well as to men like Maulana Azam Tariq, of the Sunni extremist  Sipah-e- Sahaba (Soldiers of the Prophet's Companions).

Since its establishment in 1951, the mosque and its madrasa have been in the forefront of the anti-Ahmadiya and anti-Shia movements in Pakistan.  It imparts religious education to some 3,500 students at one time, most of them drawn from Afghanistan and the Pushto-speaking areas of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province.  Students also come  from Africa, the Philippines and Malaysia.  It has a large number of smaller affiliated madrasas, both within and outside Karachi.

It is funded by Muslims in the United States, Britain, France, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Switzerland and other countries.  Many of the Taliban leaders and militia studied here.  It is suspected to have played an active behind-the-scene role in the Kandahar hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane in December, 1999, and in the terrorist strikes in the US on September 11,2001.

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai.