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