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

Inside Jihad
is in grave danger and the Iraqi mujahidin are fighting for the return of
its glory. They are fighting the forces of evil in an extremely difficult
situation,’ Hafiz Saeed declared in his sermon at a Lahore mosque in
June 2004. 31
Though LeT refrained from indulging in terrorist activities inside
Pakistan, its leaders became increasingly critical of Musharraf’s pro-
American policies and move to reform the madrasas. ‘Most of our
leaders are lapdogs of Americans,’ declared Majjalutul Dawa, a
publication of Jamaat-ud Da’awa.
Despite being seen as a ‘tame’, controllable force, LeT is more
powerful than ever, and looks set for confrontation with the
government on issues which go beyond Kashmir. Simply by carrying
out its recruiting, fundraising and military activities, it contributes to
the radicalization of Pakistani society. Nonetheless, for as long as the
Kashmiri issue remains unresolved, the government seems prepared
to embrace it.
Unlike Kashmir, Afghanistan is an area where the government’s
objectives and those of their erstwhile jihadist allies became very
different after 9/11. However, precisely because of the extent of
cooperation between the Taliban, the ISI and Pakistani jihadist
groups in the 1980s, Musharraf has found it very difficult to get the
state security services to effectively implement his policy about-turn.
Taliban-sympathising jihadist groups, such as HuM and JeM, are now
increasingly powerful on the ground in the treacherous border regions
between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The extent of Taliban/ISI/jihadist cooperation was revealed during
the Indian hostage crisis of 1999, the resolution of which I witnessed
first hand. I sat at Kandahar airport with a group of reporters,
photographers and TV crews just 500 metres from an Indian Airlines
Airbus, the only functional aircraft there. Black-turbaned Taliban
soldiers guarded the plane with more than 155 passengers on board
as negotiations between the hijackers and UN officials dragged on.
Conditions inside the plane were stifling. The body of a passenger
killed by the hijackers lay in a pool of blood.
Armed with grenades, pistols and knives, five men had seized flight
IC 814 about 40 minutes after it took off from Kathmandu, Nepal on a
scheduled flight to New Delhi on 24 December 1999. The plane had
made stops in India, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates before
landing in Afghanistan. The hijackers, who called themselves Kashmiri
freedom fighters, had demanded the release of three top Islamic
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