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

1 Frontline Pakistan
Rehman’s journey to jihad began after he graduated from the
University of Karachi with a master’s degree in Statistics in 1991. Like
thousands of Pakistanis, he went to Afghanistan to receive military
training at a jihadist camp. A tall and heavily built man in his early
thirties, Rehman was initially associated with Islami Jamiat-Talba, the
student wing of Pakistan’s most powerful mainstream Islamist Party,
Jamaat-i-Islami. He later broke away from the party to form his own
militant group. Rehman told his interrogators that he formed Jundullah
after the arrest of top al-Qaeda operatives in March 2003, including
that of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The group was closely associated
with al-Qaeda’s network in Pakistan, which had grown in strength
despite the capture of hundreds of its operatives. 60 It drew its cadres
mainly from the educated and professional classes.
A well-knit cell comprising some 20 militants, most of them in their
twenties and thirties, Jundullah was the most fierce of the militant
groups behind a spate of violent attacks in Karachi in 2004. The group
hit the headlines after a daring attack in June 2004 on the motorcade of
the army’s top commander in Karachi, General Ahsan Saleem Hayat,
who a few months later was appointed by Musharraf as his secondin-command
in Pakistan’s army. General Hayat narrowly escaped, but
11 people, including eight soldiers, were killed in the attack right in
the centre of a busy city street. It was the most serious terrorist attack
against Pakistan’s military since the two failed assassination attempts
on Musharraf in December 2003. Rehman did not show any sign of
remorse when he was presented before a high security anti-terrorism
court in Karachi. ‘I have not done anything wrong,’ he shouted as he
emerged from the courtroom.
Jundullah was also involved in attacks on army rangers, police
stations and a car bombing outside the US-Pakistan cultural centre in
Karachi. Among others who were arrested for their association with
Jundullah was Akmal Waheed, a cardiologist, and his brother Arshad
Waheed, an orthopedic surgeon. They were accused of sheltering
al-Qaeda fugitives. Both men were in their mid thirties and were
senior officials of the Pakistan Islamic Medical association and active
members of Jamaat-i-Islami. Many JI cadres had fought in Kashmir and
Afghanistan, and the more militant ones turned to terrorist groups like
Jundullah after Musharraf’s policy turnaround.
Jundullah’s existence showed how the new jihadist cells quickly
emerged after others were wound up. The rise of splinter cells made
the task of Pakistani security forces increasingly difficult. According to a