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Lashkar-e-Taiba going global
There is a new generation of terrorism out there, and unfortunately, its footprints lead to Pakistan.
| Where's the old one's lead? Same place. |
Until yesterday it was a lonely Indian voice that cried in the wilderness about the complicity of Pakistan in international terrorism.
| India and Rantburg, I guess. And a few others... |
But in the recent proliferation of terror, from Turkey to Australia, two striking trends are becoming clear. Global terror is no longer in the hands of the "centralised" system of Osama bin Ladenâs Al-Qaida. The new wave is characterised by a different, more localised dynamic.
Second, most of these outfits spanning the globe have a Pakistan content, using the pillars of its jehad factory-the mosque network, the hawala network and its all-powerful, all-pervasive military-intelligence complex-to provide weapons, training and infrastructure.
| Pak muscle is cheap, mostly pretty stupid, mostly vicious, and easily replaced... |
"The threat from the ISI is higher ... it is more dangerous than Al-Qaida which is a non-governmental organisation supported by some governments. But the isi is itself a government body," Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani said recently. Says Ajai Sahni of the Delhi-based Institute of Conflict Management: "There has hardly been any major terrorist incident in the world recently that does not have a Pakistani angle."
| Whaddya mean, "recently"? The last 15 years? |
On November 21, 10 Pakistanis were arrested in Latvia. Police feared they had come to organise a terrorist attack against an Israeli basketball team. A Pakistani passport found at the site of the November 15 blast in an Istanbul synagogue connects bombers to Pakistan. Canada is closing in on dozens of jehadis trained in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Police are currently searching for a key Canadian jehadi, Ahmed Said Al Khadr, one of bin Ladenâs closest aides. The Chinese Communist Party secretary of Xinjiang region has said that Uighur militants were getting help from Pakistan. Terrorist Hambaliâs brother Gungun Rusman Gunawan was held in Pakistan. He organised funds, training for him. In November, 13 Malaysian students and four Indonesians were found to be studying in jehadi madarsas in Karachi. Australian Security Intelligence Organisation is investigating 15 students being trained in madarsas in Pakistan. The Hamid Karzai Government says Pakistan is helping the Taliban regroup.
From starting out as a wholly owned subsidiary of the ISI to stage terrorist attacks against India, the LeT is fast becoming the global successor to Al-Qaida, establishing a footprint that could soon be beyond the control of the Pakistani authorities.
| It's already there, if it wants to be. Hafiz Saeed makes a loose cannon look stable and secure... |
Indian security agencies say they have recently found evidence of LeT cells operating in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. In fact, LeT operatives have also been infused into underworld don Dawood Ibrahimâs network, which means they can use his contacts in the Middle East and Europe for explosives and munitions supply, as well as his safe houses in India to make things easier for the ISI.
Many of the small terrorist outfits in India come under the loose control of the Lashkar, which is said to have around 20,000 hardcore Jihadis in Pakistan, making it the largest Jihadi outfit in the world.
THE LASHKAR-E-TOIBA WAS INSTRUMENTAL in Pakistanâs state-sponsored cross-border terrorism in India and worked under the direct supervision of the ISI. But now it is spreading its wings and fast moving beyond the control of Pakistani authorities. LeTâs links with Dawood Ibrahim have not escaped the USâ attention. Indian security sources believe that some 300 Islamist militants have slipped into Iraq through Saudi Arabia and that groups like the LeT have acted as facilitators. They point to a recent speech by LeT leader Hafiz Saeed in which he made the US the prime target of jehadi activity in Iraq. Stern agrees. "The LeT seems to be moving out. One theory, of course, is that the LeT is going to play a role similar to what Al-Qaida once played-inspiring and funding terrorist operations around the world... Still, it is shocking to see LeT showing up in the Gulf states as well as in Australia."
The LeT is able to expand much more than other Pak Jihadi groups, because it is a Salafi group, while the others like Jaish are Deobandis, which is a sect that doesnât really exist outside of Afghanistan/Pakistan/India. The LeT is also the only major Jihadi group that wasnât banned during the recent crackdown in Pakistan.
This growing perception is troubling Musharraf, who admitted at an iftar party in Islamabad last week that the world was "doubting Pakistanâs sincerity" in tackling terrorism.
| Who us? What gave you that idea? |
But the strongest criticism has come from the US, which, despite the public praise heaped on Pakistan, has sent some strong signals recently. The blows came in swift succession. US Ambassador to Pakistan Nancy Powell openly criticised Musharraf for failing to take action against banned terrorist groups.
| ... as he's repeatedly said he was going to do, in fact said he was doing. |
Second, the US listing of Dawood as a global terrorist indicates that the Americans are aware of the donâs role as the coordinator for the LeT and Al-Qaida, using the isi-sponsored underworld network. Third, and perhaps most damning, is the recent declassification of US documents which declare that "bin Ladenâs Al-Qaida network was able to expand under the safe sanctuary extended by the Taliban following Pakistanâs directives". Bin Ladenâs camp in Zahawa on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, US documents say, was built by Pakistani contractors funded by the ISI, which was the real host of the facility.
The trainers at many of the Pakistani training camps were actually retired members of the Pakistani special forces, of SSG. Besides which, there always has been, and to this day still are, many more Jihadi training camps in Pakistan than there were in Afghanistan. Most estimates put the number of Jihadis in Pakistan at up to 200,000.
| Out of a population of ~135 million. The active military is 550,000 men. |
What appears to be inevitable is an overhaul of international policy (read US) on Pakistan. Says Walter Anderson of Johns Hopkins University: "There is something of a dilemma there. The question is, how hard can they press Musharraf?"
Posted by: Paul Moloney 2003-12-01 |
