Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak

Nursery for Jihad
western Balochistan province, the seminaries not only provided the
Taliban with ideological training, but also extended material help.
Pashtunabad, a congested slum district in the provincial capital, Quetta,
had a large concentration of former Taliban activists. A stronghold of
radical Islamic groups, it looked more like a Kandahar neighbourhood
under the former Taliban regime, and several former Taliban leaders
were believed to have taken refuge there. The main madrasa in
the neighbourhood was run by Maulana Noor Mohammed, a MMA
member of the National Assembly. He appeared convinced that the
Taliban would re-establish their control over Afghanistan. ‘They will
ultimately triumph,’ declared the 75-year-old cleric. 27
But it was Chaman, a dusty border town in Balochistan province,
that became the main base for resurgent Taliban fighting against the
US and Afghan troops. The rise to power of Islamic groups in the two
key border provinces gave a tremendous boost to the Taliban’s efforts
to regroup. Many provincial ministers and members of Parliament
belonging to the ruling alliance became actively involved with the
Afghan rebels using the region as their base. Some of the seminaries
run by the alliance leaders were used as a conduit for weapon supply
to the Afghan rebels. Many Pakistanis belonging to the ruling group
also joined the Taliban. The same seminaries from where Taliban
forces were initially raised once again became the centre for producing
a new generation of Islamic warriors.
Abdul Hadi fled his home in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand
province soon after the invasion of Afghanistan by the US-led coalition
forces. The thickly bearded former Islamic fighter was spending time
at a madrasa in Chaman. ‘I am waiting for a call to join jihad against the
un-Islamic regime,’ the black turbaned mullah told me in the summer
of 2003. Hadi was among the thousands of Taliban who melted away
into Pakistani seminaries. ‘They all want to go back and fight to reestablish
the Taliban control over Afghanistan,’ said Hafiz Allauddin,
a Pakistani seminary teacher who had fought alongside the Taliban
forces. They were optimistic that Afghanistan would return to puritan
Islamic rule once the American forces left the country.
Not only are the madrasssas harbouring and aiding existing Afghan
warriors, they are also creating new ones. More than 8,000 new pupils
have enrolled in the seminaries in the border areas alone since the fall
of the Taliban. ‘There is a constant stream of them. It is hard to find
accommodation for the newcomers,’ said Hafiz Hameedullah, the head
of one seminary. Unable to halt the expansion and prolific output of