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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Inside Jihad<br />
Pashtun <strong>Islam</strong>ist government in Afghanistan. Almost all the <strong>Islam</strong>ic<br />
militant groups served as instruments of <strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong>’s regional policy.<br />
<strong>The</strong> army needed them as much as they needed the army. After 9/11,<br />
<strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong>’s support for the American-led war on terror pitted it against<br />
its former clients. Although as the following chapter shows, this did<br />
not mean that support for them in the state security apparatus was<br />
completely withdrawn.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Wahabi-inspired LeT, the most radical face of jihad in <strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong>,<br />
was also more amenable to the ISI than any other militant outfits. After<br />
the 2002 ban, it reduced its public visibility. Instead of challenging<br />
Musharraf’s military led government, it agreed to work within new<br />
parameters and restrict its activities to a ‘controlled jihad’ in Kashmir<br />
while keeping a low profile inside <strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong>. However, this tactical<br />
truce was a strained one. <strong>Islam</strong>ist groups, even government-friendly<br />
ones like LeT, were becoming radicalized by the ideological currents<br />
of the region. Increasingly, their ambitions exceeded the goals of the<br />
ISI. Even in 2000, the founder of LeT, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed told me<br />
that he saw the struggle in Kashmir as ‘the gateway to the liberation of<br />
Indian Muslims’. He went on: ‘We believe in a clash of civilizations and<br />
our jihad will continue until <strong>Islam</strong> becomes the dominant religion.’ 6<br />
A former university professor, Hafiz Saeed is not a charismatic<br />
man; he comes across as shy and self-effacing, not the ingredients<br />
that militant leaders are generally made of. Short and chubby, his<br />
long beard dyed with henna, when I met him in January 2001 he was<br />
always surrounded by his young followers. For him, killing infidels<br />
and destroying the forces of ‘evil and disbelief is the obligation of<br />
every pious Muslim’. 7 <strong>The</strong> horrors of the partition of India in 1947,<br />
which uprooted his family from their home in Simla, left a huge imprint<br />
on Hafiz Saeed’s personality. Millions of people were massacred in<br />
the communal violence that followed the creation of the new Muslim<br />
state. Thirty-six members of his family were killed while migrating<br />
to <strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong>. <strong>The</strong>re his family settled in the central Punjab district of<br />
Sargodha. 8<br />
Farm land allotted by the government, and hard work, brought<br />
prosperity to the family. Hafiz Saeed’s parents were very religious. His<br />
mother taught the Qur’an to her seven sons. Five of them were still<br />
alive. Hafiz Saeed received his primary education in the village. After<br />
graduating from the University of Punjab he joined the King Abdul<br />
Aziz <strong>Islam</strong>ic University in Riyadh where he also taught for many years.<br />
During his stay in Saudi Arabia he developed close links with Wahabi