LASHKAR-E-TOIBA: Its past,
present and future
by B.Raman
The reported claim of a spokesman of the
Lashkar-e-Toiba in Pakistan that two of its suicide cadres were
responsible for the murderous attack on some Indian Army personnel
inside the Red Fort in New Delhi on December 22,2000, is under
verification by the Indian security agencies
The Lashkar and its political wing
called the Markaz Dawa Al Irshad have for many years been calling for
the expansion of the so-called jihad to the rest of India from Jammu
& Kashmir for creating two independent homelands for the Muslims of
South and North India. As a first step in this jihad, it had in the past
called for intensified activities in Hyderabad and Junagadh, which it
looks upon as Pakistani territory. The Red Fort, as the seat of the
Muslim rulers of the past, is an important symbol in its eyes.
While reporting the Red Fort attack on
December 22, 2000, sections of the foreign media described the Lashkar
as a Kashmiri militant organisation. It is not. It is a Pakistani
organisation based in Pakistan and operating from there. It is a member
of Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front For Jihad Against the
US and Israel. The wrong perceptions abroad about this organisation need
to be corrected vigorously.
The Annexure collates extracts from
our past papers on the activities of the Lashkar.
(25-12-00)
(The writer is Additional Secretary
(retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director,
Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai. E-Mail: corde@vsnl.com
)
ANNEXURE
EXTRACTS
FROM PAPER DATED 26-8-1998, TITLED " MARKAZ DAWA AL IRSHAD:
TALIBANISATION OF NUCLEAR PAKISTAN":
The activities of Osama bin Laden and
his announcement of an International Islamic Front For Jihad against the
US and Israel assume ominous significance in the context of his past and
continuing links with the Markaz Dawa Al Irshad (the Centre For
Preaching) of Pakistan and the Lashkar-e-Toiba (the Army of the Pure),
its militant wing. The Markaz and the Lashkar have been involved in acts
of terrorism, not only in J & K, but also in other parts of India.
The Markaz was founded in 1987, at the
inspiration of Osama bin Laden, by Zafar Iqbal and Hafiz Mohammad Saeed
of the University of Engineering and Technology of Lahore and Abdullah
Azam of the International Islamic University, which has been funded by
bin Laden. Abdullah Azam was killed in an explosion at Peshawar in 1989
and, after his death, Zafar Iqbal and Hafiz Mohammad Saeed have been
leading the Markaz while continuing to teach at the University.
The headquarters of the Markaz,
occupying over 190 acres of land, are located at Muridke, about 45 kms
from Lahore in Pakistani Punjab. Its vast campus contains a huge Jamia
mosque for the construction of which bin Laden had reportedly
contributed Rs.10 million, a garments factory, an iron foundry, a wood
works factory, a swimming pool and three residential colonies for the
inmates. A big Islamic University is also coming up.
The "Herald", the monthly
journal of the prestigious "Dawn" group of publications of
Karachi, reported as follows in January, 1998: "While the Dawa is
involved in various areas, including religious education and social
welfare, it is mainly through its militant wing that it is well known
throughout the country. The Lashkar-e-Toiba provides military training
to its members and prepares them to wage jihad. Although the Lashkar was
initially involved in Afghanistan as well, its activities are now
restricted to Indian Kashmir. Today, it is Pakistan’s largest
so-called jihadi organisation."
It quoted an office-bearer of the
Lashkar as stating as follows: " There are many other jihadi groups
operating inside Kashmir, but their members are mainly local men (Kashmiris),
assisted by fighters from other countries, such as Pakistan and
Afghanistan. Eighty per cent of the Mujahideen in other jihadi groups
operating in Kashmir come from that area, but the case with the Lashkar
is exactly the opposite. Eighty per cent of its soldiers belong to
Pakistan."
The "Herald" added: "
The Lashkar prefers not to reveal the exact number of men it has
currently deployed in Kashmir. The Amir ( Hafiz Mohammad Saeed) decides
how many Mujahideens should be sent to the (Kashmir) Valley. The
decision depends on the number of deaths that have taken place. It also
depends on the requirement and capacity of the organisation inside
Kashmir to absorb the new fighters. What is known, however, is that the
Lashkar recruits and trains many more men than it actually requires to
fight in Kashmir at any given time.
" Compared to other similar
organisations, the Lashkar has proved to be a resounding success. Since
its inception, it has managed to attract thousands of committed young
men to its fold. The driving force behind its massive success in
recruitment is deceptively simple. It uses its impressive organisational
network, which includes schools, social service groups and religious
publications, to create a passion for jihad."
According to the "Herald",
the Lashkar organises two kinds of military training – a 21-day basic
course called "Daura Aam" and a three-months advanced course
called "Daura Khas". The entire advanced course is geared
towards guerilla warfare, with training in the use of arms and
ammunition, ambush and survival techniques. Other Pakistani press
reports after the arrest of Ramzi Yousef, (involved in the bombing of
the New York World Trade Centre in February 1993) had also revealed that
in the past some volunteers were also trained in aircraft-hijacking.
The Markaz and the Lashkar are
extremely secretive organisations and take great care to conceal the
real identities of their office-bearers except the Amir and their
fighters. For this purpose, they emulate the Palestinian organisations
in the use of "Kuniat", which are Arabic pseudonyms adopted
from the "Kuniats" of the Companions of the Prophet and later
Islamic heroes.
Whereas in the Palestinian
organisations, the "Kuniats" die with the holder and the same
"Kuniat" is not allotted to any other fighter, in the Markaz
and the Lashkar, the "Kuniat" does not die with the holder.
The same "Kuniat" is allotted to another fighter. It is not
unusual to come across two individuals with the same or similar "Kuniats".
Past reports on the activities of the
Markaz and the Lashkar had referred to two heroes of the organisation
who had reportedly played a legendary role in assisting the Bosnian
Muslims in their fight against the Serbs. One of them used to be
referred to as Abu Aziz and the other as Abu Abdul Aziz.
Abu Abdul Aziz, who is suspected to be
none other than Osama Bin Laden, is a leading financier of the Markaz
and the Lashkar and had contributed Rs.10 million for the construction
of a mosque and another sum for the construction of a special guest
house inside the Muridke complex of these organisations. This guest
house was initially built by bin Laden as a house for his stay during
his visits to Pakistan, but, after 1992, the Pakistani authorities do
not allow him to stay in Pakistani territory for fear of annoying the
US, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. He has, therefore, converted it into a guest
house for his associates from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere visiting
Pakistan.
It is reported that this guest house
was also used as a hide-out for Ramzi Yousef and Mir Aimal Kansi, a
Pathan from Balochistan, who was arrested and taken to the US last year
and subsequently convicted and sentenced to death for murdering two CIA
officers outside the CIA’s headquarters in Washington in January,
1993.
While Osama bin Laden no longer
attends the annual gatherings of the Markaz and the Lashkar at Muridke,
he addresses them over the conference phone. Till 1995, he used to
address the gathering from his hide-out in the Sudan and, since 1996, he
has been doing so from Afghanistan. Addressing the last annual
conference at Muridke in November, 1997, over phone from Kandahar, bin
Laden said: " Those who oppose jihad are not true Muslims."
There is some confusion about the real
identity of Abu Aziz. He used to attend the annual conferences at
Muridke till 1993 and was introduced to the gatherings as a Saudi Muslim
of Indian origin who was co-ordinating the flow of assistance to the
Bosnian Muslims. He has not been heard of since then. It needs to be
checked up whether bin Laden’s parents or other ancestors had, by any
chance, migrated to Yemen from India before proceeding from there to
Saudi Arabia. If this was so, there could be a possibility that Abu
Abdul Aziz and Abu Aziz are one and the same person—Osama bin Laden.
There are some distinguishing
characteristics about the operational methods of the Lashkar militants.
They do not shave or have a hair- cut and allow their beard and hair to
grow long and are taught to employ extremely cruel methods such as
beheading and disembowelling their victims from the security forces and
non-Muslim communities. Like fighters of many other jihadi organisations,
they generally wear shalwars, which do not cover the ankle.
As regards ideology, the Markaz, an
Ahle Hadith organisation of Wahabi orientation, was initially very close
to Saudi Arabia, but seems to have developed differences with it because
of its proximity to Osama bin Laden and of its contention that even
Saudi Arabia does not have an ideal Islamic society. Its criticism of
the stationing of US and other Western troops in Saudi Arabia also
contributed to this. It describes the Hindus and Jews, in that order, as
the main enemies of Islam and India and Israel as the main enemies of
Pakistan. Its Amir is a strong opponent of Western-style democracy.
The Amir said in an interview to the
"Herald": "Democracy is among the menaces we inherited
from an alien government. It is part of the system we are fighting
against. Many of our brothers feel that they can establish an Islamic
society by working within the system. They are mistaken. It is not
possible to work within a democracy and establish an Islamic system. You
just dirty your hands by dealing with it. If God gives us a chance, we
will try to bring in the pure concept of an Islamic Caliphate."
The "News" of Pakistan
(November 23,1997) reported as follows on the ideology and beliefs of
the Markaz Amir as reflected during its annual conference of November,
1997: "The Markaz is trying to take advantage of the growing public
discontent with the political system and widespread corruption. Using
explicit references to the hardline Taliban in Afghanistan, it is making
growing references to ending the democratic system in Pakistan.
Prof.Saeed calls for a jihad to turn Pakistan into a pure Islamic state.
" He rejects democracy saying
that "the notion of the sovereignty of the people is anti-Islamic.
Only Allah is sovereign." The whole venue of the congregation was
full of signboards with the slogan "Jamhooriat ka jawab, grenade
and blast (the answer to democracy, grenade and blast)". Saeed was
categorical in saying that his organisation had no immediate designs in
Pakistan, even though the present system in Pakistan was not Islamic.
"He stated: "In fact, there
is no Islamic government in the world. Not even in Saudi Arabia, where
the system is closer to Islamic teaching, but still not fully
Islamic." He expressed his happiness over the success of the
Taliban in Afghanistan.
"He said his organisation’s
main interest in Pakistan was to pick people and train them to wage
jihad in countries where an unislamic government was in power."
The paper quoted him as saying as
follows: "God has ordained every Muslim to fight until His rule is
established. We have no option but to follow God’s order. We continue
to support other Islamic organisations in the world. This is a very long
battle."
The paper concluded as follows: "
The thumping success of the Muridke gathering took the government and
the intelligence agencies by surprise…..Observers say the failure of
the political government and growing poverty have turned Pakistan into a
breeding ground of organisations carrying out jihad in various
countries. Most intelligence officers interviewed by the daily view the
unchecked military training of youngsters in the name of launching a
jihad outside Pakistan as the most serious threat to the integrity and
security of the country in the very near future."
Even though the Pakistani authorities
are concerned over the impact of the organisation on Pakistani youth
which could, in the long run, lead to the Talibanisation of Pakistan
with a Pakistani version of the Taliban possibly getting its finger on
the nuclear trigger, they continue to use the Markaz and the
Harkat-ul-Ansar, categorised as a terrorist organisation by the US last
year, in their proxy war against India and leaders like Mr.Mushahid
Hussain, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Information Minister, continue
to openly flirt with the organisation and bless its activities against
India.
When the Markaz was started in 1987,
it had a two-fold objective: to assist the Afghan Mujahideen and to rid
Islam in Pakistan of what it projected as the corrupting influence of
Hinduism. It continues to wage a sustained campaign against what it sees
as the evil influence of sufism and Kashmiriyat. As it looks upon
Kashmiriyat as the expression of the evil Hindu mind, many of its
operations in J & K are directed against the Hindus.
Unlike the Kashmiri extremist
organisations which describe their aim as the right of
self-determination for the Kashmiris, the Markaz describes its objective
as the liberation of the Muslims of J & K from the control and
influence of the Hindus followed by the liberation of the Muslims of the
rest of India. It describes Kashmir as the gateway to India and calls
for the creation of three Pakistans or Muslim homelands—with Pakistan
and J & K constituting one, the Muslims of North India forming the
second and the Muslims of South India, the third.
Addressing the Lahore Press Club on
February 18,1996,Amir Saeed said: "The jihad in Kashmir would soon
spread to entire India. Our Mujahideen would create three Pakistans in
India."
In an interview to the "Takbeer"
of Pakistan (October 9,1997), he said: " We feel that Kashmir
should be liberated at the earliest. Thereafter, Indian Muslims should
be aroused to rise in revolt against the Indian Union so that India gets
disintegrated.."
Amongst other leading office-bearers
of the Markaz are Yusuf Taibi, who is in charge of external relations,
and Amir Hamza, Editor of its journal called " Majla Al Dawa",
which claims to have a circulation of 70,000 (Rs.12 per copy). The
Markaz describes photo cameras, TV sets and movie films as unIslamic. It
carries out periodic campaigns for the destruction in public of cameras
and TV sets and appeals to the public not to see films.
The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
of Pakistan and the CIA made full use of the Markaz against the Soviet
troops in Afghanistan. After the withdrawal of the Soviet troops, the
CIA cut off its links with the organisation, but the ISI has been
continuing to use it to instigate acts of terrorism not only in Kashmir,
but also in other parts of India. The Markaz’s objective of
radicalising sections of the Muslim community in North and South India
and setting them up against the Hindus and the Union of India suits the
operational aims of the ISI.
At the same time, the Pakistani
authorities have been concerned over the Markaz’s links with Osama bin
Laden and other anti-monarchy Saudi dissidents. Their discomfiture is
likely to increase with the announcement by bin Laden of the formation
of an International Islamic Front against the US and Israel.
The threat posed to regional peace and
stability by the Markaz and the Lashkar needs to be adequately
highlighted in international fora.
EXTRACT FROM PAPER DATED 3-11-98
TITLED " US BOMBING OF TERRORIST CAMPS IN AFGHANISTAN: AN
ANALYSIS"
THE ISLAMIC FRONT FOR JIHAD AGAINST
THE US & ISRAEL
The following groups are believed to
have joined his Front:
(a). The Jamatul Jihad of Egypt led by
Dr.al-Zawahiri. bin Laden understands English, but cannot speak
fluently. Dr.al-Zawahiri, who speaks English without difficulty,
therefore, acts as his spokesman.
(b). Another Egyptian group led by Abu
Asim ("kuniyat" or assumed name and not real name), a son of
Sheikh Omer Abdur Rehman, the blind Egyptian cleric, who is undergoing
imprisonment in the US for his involvement in the bombing of the World
Trade Centre in New York in February, 1993. Two other sons of the Sheikh
are also living in the Kandahar area.
(C). A third Egyptian group led by
Shawqi Islam Bolo, brother of Khalid Islam Bolo, one of the assassins of
President Anwar Sadat of Egypt.
(d). The Harkat-ul-Mujahideen of
Pakistan and its two splinter groups.
(e). The Markaz Dawa Al Irshad of
Pakistan and its militant wing the Lashkar-e- Toiba.
(f). The Sipah-e-Sahaba of Pakistan,
an extremist Sunni organisation, which has been campaigning for the
proclamation of Pakistan as a Sunni State and is believed to be
responsible for the murder of a number of Shia leaders of Pakistan.
(g). The Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami,
the organisation of bin Laden, consisting exclusively of Arab volunteers
of Afghan war vintage. Most of them are Saudis and Yemenis with a small
sprinkling of Egyptians, Sudanese and Palestinians from Jordan and the
Israeli-occupied territories.
(h). Groups from Tadjikistan, Xinjiang
and the Philippines, whose identities are not clear.
BIN LADEN’S INFRASTRUCTURE IN
AFGHANISTAN
What is described as bin Laden’s
terrorist infrastructure in Afghanistan consists of the training camps
of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, which had been in existence even before the
arrival of Bin Laden in Jalalabad in May, 1996, the camps of Gulbuddin
Heckmatyar, the Afghan Mujahideen leader, which were taken over by the
Taliban and handed over to the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen or Bin Laden and the
camps set up during the 1980s by Jalaluddin Haqqani, another Mujahideen
leader, who has since joined the Taliban. Contrary to the claims of US
officials, these were not sophisticated training facilities, but
improvised structures to put up the trainees.
EXTRACT FROM PAPER DATED 21-7-99,
TITLED "ISI'S POST-KARGIL PLANS"
In the proxy war launched by the ISI in the State in 1989, the operating
principle was "hit and run", the aim being to create
demoralisation in the Indian security forces and the civilian population
by inflicting large casualties on them. "Liberation" and
occupation of territory was not the immediate objective. The ISI had
calculated that if it kept the Indian security forces bleeding,
political and public opinion in India would ultimately realise the
futility of holding on to the State.
The proxy invasion plan of Pakistan's
Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), Gen. Pervez Musharraf, changed the
operating principle to one of "occupy and hit", the aim being
to set up a bridgehead by occupying the ridges in the Kargil sector left
unguarded by the Indian army during winter and thereafter spread the
area under occupation each winter by taking advantage of its logistic
difficulties. The role of the Pakistan army became primary in this
operation and that of the ISI and the militant-cum-terrorist groups
secondary.
The proxy invasion plan having failed
partly due to the vigorous operations of the Indian army and Air Force
and partly due to international pressure on Pakistan, Islamabad has now
reverted back to the earlier operating principle of "hit and
run", with the primary role once again being assumed by the ISI and
its surrogates in the State.
The ISI's proxy war has passed through
two stages. During the first stage (1989-92), the ISI played a direct
role in providing financial, training and arms assistance to militant
groups in the State. No intermediaries were used and assistance was
given to any group, which was prepared to indulge in violence.
A large number of Kashmiri militant
groups received ISI assistance during this period--some led by the
Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) of the Jamaat-e-Islami which advocated merger of
the State with Pakistan and others by the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation
Front (JKLF), which wanted independence. Within a few months of the
start of the proxy war, the pro-independence groups set up their
ascendancy over the pro-Pakistan groups.
Till 1992, the US and other Western
countries looked upon the extremists as "freedom-fighters" and
not terrorists. However, the situation changed after the extremists'
attack on a group of Israeli tourists in Srinagar in 1992.
For the first time, there was concern
in the West over the terrorist methods of these groups and over the role
of the ISI in assisting them. There was also increasing interest in
non-governmental circles in the US close to the Clinton Administration
in the aims and objectives of the pro-independence groups. The
feasibility of independence as a solution became the subject of study by
many of these non-governmental groups.
Concerned over these developments, the
ISI introduced two changes in 1993. First, it started using
intermediaries for keeping the militancy alive instead of directly doing
so. Second, it cut off assistance to all pro-independence groups and
made future assistance dependent on the recipient group supporting
merger with Pakistan.
The first organisation chosen as the
intermediary was the Jamaat-e-Islami of Pakistan headed by Qazi Hussain
Ahmed. Funds and arms and ammunition were given to it and it was asked
to take over the responsibility for running training camps in
Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) and Afghanistan with the help of Afghan
veterans and for distributing money and weapons to different
pro-Pakistan groups. Most of the assistance went to the HM.
In 1993, the Taliban had not yet
appeared on the scene in Afghanistan and the Hizb-e-Islami of Gulbuddin
Heckmatyar was still the most important and favored Pakhtoon Mujahideen
group in Afghanistan. The recruits of the HM were trained in camps in
Afghan territory by instructors of Hizb-e-Islami and the Afghan
mercenaries who came into Kashmir with the HM were followers of
Heckmatyar.
Subsequently, the ISI started using
the Markaz Dawa Al Irshad and its militant wing called the
Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Harkat-ul-Ansar (HuA) too as intermediaries for
funneling assistance to the extremists in the State. These organisations,
of Wahabi orientation, are closer to the Jamiat-ul-Ulema Islam of
Pakistan headed by Maulana Fazlur Rahman and to the Taliban.
The ISI saw in the anger in the Indian
Muslim community caused by the demolition of the Babri Masjid in
December, 1992, an opportunity to drive a wedge between the Hindus and
Muslims in the rest of India, thereby adding to the difficulties of the
Government of India. It also wanted the extremist groups supported by it
in Kashmir to attack the Hindus of the Jammu Division in order to drive
them out.
Thus, from 1993, the ISI's assistance
to the extremist groups in the State was made conditional on their
supporting merger with Pakistan, agreeing to attack the Hindus in the
Jammu Division and assisting the alienated sections of the Muslim youth
in the rest of India in developing a militant capability by training
them in their camps in Kashmiri territory.
The Jammat-e-Islami and the HM were
reluctant to accept these conditions as they did not want to extend
their operational aims beyond Kashmir, but the Lashkar, the HuA and the
Al Badr, which subsequently came into the picture, readily accepted
them. They thus became the privileged groups of the ISI from 1994
onwards and have now been orchestrating most of the violence in the
State.
Though the HM, the Lashkar, the HuA
and the Al Badr still claim to be working together, important
differences divide them:
* The HM is essentially an
organisation of indigenous Kashmiris, but the other three consist
largely of Pakistanis, Afghans and Arab mercenaries.
* The HM describes its aim as the
liberation of Kashmir from the control of the Government of India and
its merger with Pakistan. The other three describe their aim as the
liberation of Kashmir from the control of the Hindus and its merger
with Pakistan, to be followed by a similar "liberation" of
the Muslims in the rest of India. These three organisations view
Kashmir as the "gateway to India" and call for the creation
of two more Muslim homelands--one for the Muslims of North India and
the other for those of South India.
* In pursuance of their aims, the
Lashkar and the HuA have been spreading their presence to the rest of
India and networking with Islamic extremist groups in other States.
* The HM is close to Heckmatyar
whereas the other three are supporters of the Taliban. Angered by the
proximity of the HM to Heckmatyar, the Taliban has closed down its
training camps in Afghanistan and expelled its office-bearers from
there.
* The Lashkar, the HuA and the Al
Badr are strongly against the US, Israel and the ruling family of
Saudi Arabia and are members of Osama bin Laden's International
Islamic Front for Jihad against the US and Israel, but the HM keeps
away from the anti-US and anti-Saudi ruling family activities of bin
Laden.
In its eagerness to achieve its
objectives against India, Pakistan, through the ISI, has thus been
following contradictory policies. It seeks US support for the
internationalisation of the Kashmir issue, but has been arming groups,
which vow to attack American targets, in order to use them against
India. It describes Saudi Arabia as its closest Islamic ally, but has
been sheltering groups which are carrying on a campaign against the
Saudi ruling family and the presence of US troops in Saudi Arabia.
The increasing concern in the US
intelligence community over the use of these anti-US and anti-Israel
groups by Pakistan in its attempts to destabilise India is an important
reason for the sympathetic attitude of the US towards India during the
conflict in the Kargil sector.
The US declared the HuA as an
international terrorist organisation in October, 1997, after which it
has re-named itself as the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and there have been
reports that the US is collecting evidence against the Lashkar in order
to make a similar declaration against it.
Despite this, the ISI, with the
approval of the Sharif Government, continues to use these organisations
to massacre Hindus in the Jammu Division and to organise acts of
violence in the Valley too. An intensification of such terrorist
violence not only in Jammu & Kashmir, but also in other parts of
India is to be expected in the wake of the set-back suffered by the
Pakistan army in the Kargil area. Another danger is the possibility of
attacks on American targets in India by these organisations to give vent
to their anger against the US and to create embarrassment to the
Government of India in its relations with the US.
EXTRACT FROM PAPER DATED 19-11-99,
TITLED "BADAMIBAGH AND AFTER"
"The scruff of their (the
militants') neck is in our hands; whenever you want, we could regulate
it." ---Lt.Gen.Mohammed Aziz, Chief of the General Staff (CGS) of
the Pakistan Army, while reporting over phone to Gen. Pervez Musharraf,
Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), then at Beijing on May 29 as revealed by
the transcript of their conversation released by the Govt. of India.
The CGS was referring to the
terrorists of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LT), the
Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM) and the Al Badr, who had been sent in advance
by the Pakistan Army to occupy the ridges in the Kargil sector before
regular Pakistani troops moved in and replaced them.
The LT, which has organised a number
of suicidal attacks on the Indian security forces in Kashmir, including
the latest one on the 15 Corps Headquarters at Badamibagh on
November3/4, the HUM and the Al Badr are members of Osama bin Laden's
International Islamic Front For Jihad Against the US and Israel.
While the HUM, previously known as the
Harkat-ul-Ansar, was declared by the US on October 1,1997,as an
international terrorist organisation under the Anti-Terrorism and
Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, the LT and the Al Badr have not
been so declared till now, presumably because, unlike the HUM, these two
organisations, despite their anti-American rhetoric, have avoided any
attacks on American lives or property.
Since October, 1997, the HUM has not
been claiming direct responsibility for its terrorist acts in Kashmir.
Instead, it lets the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), an ostensibly Kashmiri
organisation controlled by Pakistan-based Salahuddin, claim the
responsibility in order to give the impression to the outside world
that, contrary to the claims of the Govt. of India, indigenous Kashmiri
organisations have kept up their fight for the right of
self-determination.
The Al Badr is a splinter group of the
HM, which was formed by some Pakistani members of the HM, who did not
like the latter's continued support of Gulbuddin Heckmatyar, the anti-Taliban
Afghan Pakhtun leader.
Unlike the indigenous Kashmiri
extremist organisations, whose objectives are limited to Kashmir, the
LT, the HUM and the Al Badr look upon Kashmir as the gateway of India
and describe their objective as the 'liberation" of the Muslims in
the rest of India after occupying Kashmir. The LT, which is the militant
wing of the Markaz Dawa Al Irshad, calls for the liberation of Junagadh
too and for the creation of two more independent homelands for the
Muslims of North and South India.
With this objective in view, it has
been infiltrating its cadres into other parts of India too and its
presence has been reported as far down south as Hyderabad in Andhra
Pradesh.
The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
has been mainly relying on the LT and the HUM since the latter part of
the first tenure of Mr.Nawaz Sharif as the Prime Minister (1990-93) as
it found the indigenous Kashmiri organisations to be ineffective and
unwilling to carry out its orders to drive out the Hindus from the Jammu
Division and the Buddhists from Ladakh in order to reduce the proportion
of non-Muslims in the State.
The infiltration of these
organisations was intensified during Mrs.Benazir Bhutto's second tenure
(1993-96) under the directions of Gen. Musharraf, the then
Director-General of Military Operations, and Lt.Gen. Mohammed Aziz,
Deputy Director-General of the ISI till February, 1999, when he took
over as the CGS.. Gen. Musharraf and Lt.Gen. Aziz were the handling
officers of bin Laden and his group and the plan to use them for
facilitating the Kargil invasion was largely their idea.
As young officers of the Special
Services Group (SSG), raised with the assistance of the US Green Berets,
they had worked in close co-operation with the officers of the US
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) against the Soviet troops in
Afghanistan during the 1980s and in training terrorists like bin Laden,
Mir Aimal Kansi, who killed two CIA officers outside their office in
Washington in January, 1993, and Ramzi Yousef, who was involved in the
bombing of the World Trade Centre at New York in February,1993.
The anger of Kansi and Ramzi against
the US was due to what they looked upon as the CIA's alleged breach of
its promise to help them settle down in good jobs in the US after the
withdrawal of the Soviet troops from Afghanistan.
Gen. Musharraf, now the Chief
Executive of Pakistan, and Lt.Gen. Aziz had also commanded SSG troops in
the Northern Areas of Pakistan (Gilgit and Baltistan) and their efforts
to dislodge the Indian troops from the Siachen glacier in the 1980s had
been repulsed by the Indian army with heavy casualties.
The two, therefore, share an obsessive
desire to teach the Indian army a lesson. This obsession is further
strengthened by their ethnic background.
Mohajir public servants, who are
migrants from India, generally feel a compulsive urge to take a
virulently anti-India line in order to show themselves to be more
devoted to the Pakistani cause than their Punjabi counterparts. Gen.
Musharraf, a Mohajir, is no exception to this rule.
Lt.Gen.Aziz is stated to be from
Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK) and this motivates his anti-India
actions.
In the Pakistan Army, these two have
always been strong advocates of the need to keep the Indian army
bleeding in Kashmir just as the Afghan Mujahideen kept the Soviet troops
bleeding and to bottle up the Indian troops in the Siachen area by
capturing the Dras-Kargil road.
Having failed in the Kargil adventure,
they are now focussing on their first objective of using the LT, the HUM
and the Al Badr for keeping the Indian security forces bleeding, in the
fond hope that this might ultimately force India to abandon Kashmir.
With Gen. Musharraf now emerging as
the ruler of Pakistan and with Lt.Gen.Aziz as his most trusted aide,
terrorist actions of these organisations are likely to increase further.
While this would call for the further
strengthening of defensive protective security measures to prevent
disasters like the one at Badamibagh and offensive patrolling to
neutralise the intruders from Pakistan, this alone would not be
sufficient to deal with the situation.
The Government of India is justified
in insisting that there would be no resumption of dialogue with Pakistan
till it stops its sponsorship of terrorism in Indian territory. India
should make this sponsorship the core issue of Indo-Pakistan relations
and rule out any talks on Kashmir till certain specific benchmarks with
regard to stoppage of terrorism are fulfilled by Pakistan.
India should also freeze its efforts
for the normalisation of trade relations with Pakistan till its
sponsorship of terrorism stops. It should withdraw its unilateral grant
of the most favoured nation status to Pakistan, which the latter has not
reciprocated, completely ban bilateral trade and take effective action
to stop all indirect trade, either across the border or via Singapore
and Dubai.
Even after more than 50 years of
independence, Pakistan is still a four-commodity and one-port economy.
Over 70 per cent of its tax revenue and foreign exchange earnings comes
from cotton, cotton-based textiles and sports and leather goods and
Karachi continues to be the only reliable port for foreign trade.
Because of the scarcity of foreign
exchange since 1990, Pakistani textile and sugar mills have been
illegally importing from India via Singapore and Dubai machinery and
spare parts required for keeping their mills going. Similarly, machinery
and spare ports for the Karachi port also illegally go from India.
By effectively stopping this, India
could make Pakistan pay an economic price for its sponsorship of
terrorism in India. This is one of the proactive options available to
India, which needs to be seriously considered. No country in the world
can object to this.
So long as Pakistan under Gen.
Musharraf follows a policy of making India bleed at the hands of
terrorists, there is no reason why we should have any compunction about
not letting it come out of its economic quagmire till it abandons its
sponsorship of terrorism.
EXTRACT FROM PAPER DATED 15-2-00
TITLED "NATIONAL SECURITY--POINTS TO PONDER"
* Islamic terrorism. Its threat will
continue and even increase due to external support from the State of
Pakistan as well as from the Islamic fundamentalist organisations of
Pakistan, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. The old Communist
international has been replaced by an Islamic International,
consisting of various Islamic fundamentalist organisations with roots
in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Their objective vis-à-vis India: To
"liberate" the Muslims of not only Kashmir, but also the
rest of India from "Hindu control". They talk of two more
independent homelands for the Muslims of the sub-continent--one in
North India and the other in the South.
* The need for a coherent policy to
counter Pakistan's covert war. While the present Government talks of a
proactive strategy, it doesn't seem to be clear in its mind about the
components of this strategy. Amongst the components should be: a
determination not to let Pakistan come out of its economic morass till
it stops its covert war; a readiness to hurt the Pakistani State and
society at a place of our choice in terrain favourable to us. In
Kashmir, the terrain is not favourable to us except in the Jammu
sector. To really hurt Pakistan, we have to direct our proactive
strategy at its Punjab and Sindh, and particularly at Karachi. While
India has a credible nuclear deterrent, it does not have a credible
covert warfare deterrent, whereas Pakistan has developed its covert
warfare capability over a period of nearly 20 years, with American
assistance in the 1980s.
* Pakistan-based Islamic
fundamentalist organisations have been increasingly turning their
attention to South India. After Tamil Nadu and Kerala, they are now
focussing on Andhra Pradesh. There has never been a convincing
analysis of why Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has been
flirting with the LTTE, despite the latter's anti-Muslim activities in
Sri Lanka's Eastern Province. One possibility, not yet proved, but
suggested by foreign counter-terrorism experts in the past is that in
return for the ISI's assistance, the LTTE, through its supporters in
Tamil Nadu, has been training the cadres of the Al Ummah and other
jihadi organisations of South India and providing them with material
assistance.
* We need a separate strategy to
deal with threats from the foreign-based Islamic jihadi organisations.
Such a strategy should tackle prevention of illegal migrations of
Muslims from Bangladesh and Pakistan, identification and deportation
of past illegal migrants, the flow of foreign funds for mosques and
madrasas, the scrutiny of the credentials of foreign Muslim students
who are admitted to educational institutions in India etc. In the
past, even counter-terrorism experts of Islamic countries such as
Algeria and Egypt had expressed surprise over the ease with which
students black-listed in their countries because of their association
with extremist organisations managed to get admission to educational
institutions in India.
NATIONAL SECURITY TOOLS
* Intelligence collection and
analysis. Improving, but still weak with serious gaps in coverage and
monitoring. Anticipation and prevention continues to be the weakest
link in our national security management. While the strengthening of
the intelligence collection capability of the central organisations
such as the IB, the RAW and the various military intelligence
directorates has been receiving attention, equal attention has not
been paid to improving the intelligence collection capabilities of the
States. The Centre has to play a more proactive role in this regard.
* Assessment and follow-up action. .
Even the best of intelligence would be useless if it is not assessed
promptly to identify looming threats and initiate follow-up action.
This has not been given the attention it deserves. For this purpose,
the National Security Council (NSC) needs a full-fledged Secretariat.
In all countries with the NSC mechanism, the Secretariat is the nerve-centre
and permanent watch-dog on all matters likely to affect national
security. We still seem to have a miniscule Secretariat with no teeth.
* Enforcement of physical and
infrastructure security. Very weak as seen by the ease with which the
jihadi suicide squads have been penetrating high security areas in
Kashmir and the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen terrorists recently hijacked the
Indian Airlines plane.
* Crisis Management. Again
unsatisfactory. Past crisis management drills dealt only with
conventional threats such as hijacking, hostage-taking, assassinations
etc. We need separate drills supervised and co-ordinated by
professional experts to deal with crises involving weapons of mass
destruction (nuclear, chemical and biological) and weapons of mass
disruption (hacking, injection of computer virus etc).
EXTRACT FROM PAPER DATED 27-11-00
TITLED "INTERNATIONAL ISLAMISM"
What do these forces, which are in the
forefront of the so-called jehad in Jammu & Kashmir, say? They
propagate that:
* Jammu & Kashmir is not their only
agenda vis-à-vis India. It is only the first item in their agenda.
The other items are the "liberation" of the Muslims in the
rest of India in order to create two more "Muslim Homelands"
in South Asia--one in North India and the other in the South.
* J & K is the gateway to India.
Once they control J & K, they would use it as a rear base for
"liberating" the Muslims in the rest of India.
* After J & K, their priorities
would be Hyderabad and Junagadh. According to them, these two areas
rightly belonged to Pakistan and the Ummah; and they have a religious
duty to "liberate" them and bring them into the Ummah.
Thereafter, they would turn their attention to the rest of India.
