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

0 Frontline Pakistan
against non-Muslims,‘explained Yahya Mujahid, a spokesman for
the group. 30 Indeed, unlike other militant groups such as JeM and
HuM, LeT has never used its military skills within Pakistan nor did it
involve itself with any sectarian or ethnic organizations. The case of
LeT was indicative of Islamabad’s continuing flexibility towards those
organizations which had restricted their activities to Kashmir and did
not indulge in terrorism at home. Pakistani authorities defended their
stance saying that LeT did not present any threat to the country’s internal
security, so there was no need to crackdown on it. According to them
the organization strictly controlled its cadres and none of its members
had ever indulged in any act of terrorism inside the country.
Contrary to this claim, there is strong evidence of LeT activists
providing shelter to al-Qaeda fighters fleeing from Afghanistan. Abu
Zubaydah, a close associate of bin Laden, was captured in 2002 in
a house in the Pakistani central city of Faisalabad rented by a LeT
member. But its leaders deny any association with the terrorist network.
They maintained there was a fundamental difference between them
and bin Laden’s views on ‘jihad’. ‘We do not agree with his call to
overthrow the rulers of Muslim countries. Islam does not allow waging
jihad against Muslims,’ said Yahya Mujahid.
As well as the desire to avoid unnecessary confrontations, Islamabad’s
attitude towards LeT also reflected the desire to keep militancy alive
until India agreed to a resolution of the Kashmir dispute. Despite an
improvement in relations between India and Pakistan as a result of
the peace process launched in January 2004, there has not been any
substantive move on the thorny issue of Kashmir. Islamabad believed
that a complete cessation of militancy in Kashmir would remove
pressure on India to make any concessions.
Though its main concentration has been in Kashmir, LeT has
expanded its network to several other countries. Its members were
active in India, Burma, Chechnya, and Bosnia and according to some
reports have also been fighting against the American forces in Iraq.
In April 2004, coalition forces reportedly arrested a Pakistani Islamic
fighter who was identified as Danish Ahmed. A former LeT commander
in Kashmir, he was captured by British forces in Basra and later handed
over to the American intelligence authorities. Ahmed is believed to
be among hundreds of Pakistani volunteers involved in the Iraq war.
Most of them came from religious schools run by MDI. Virulently anti-
American, the party has declared that it was mandatory for Muslims to
join the mujahidin fighting against the American forces in Iraq. ‘Islam