Law-enforcement agencies have identified 45 religious organisations believed to have links with international jihadi networks or thought to be involved in terrorist and sectarian activities in Pakistan, sources told Daily Times on Friday.
According to the sources, major groups believed to have links with Al Qaeda, like the Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami (HJI) and Jamiatul Mujahideen Al Alami have not been banned yet. They not only had roots in Pakistan, but also in Kashmir, Myanmar, Bangladesh and the Philippines, sources said. HJI chief Qari Saifullah Akhtar, who reportedly lives in some Gulf state, was allegedly former Taliban leader Mulla Umarâs advisor and believed to have a direct link with Al Qaeda. The sources said several of his organisationâs several activists who were arrested by law-enforcement agencies for terror attacks in Karachi had divulged this information. The sources said Harkatul Mujahideen Al Alami, which was accused of an attack on President Pervez Musharraf last year in Karachi and the suicide attacks on French engineers, was formed by the HJI, Harkatul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) and Jamiatul Mujahideen Al Alami. The sources said the LJ and Deobandi Jihadi organisations despite having differences with each other came closer after the Talibanâs overthrow in Afghanistan by the United States and its coalition forces, and several trained Mujahideen joined the LJ after 2001. Sources said the LJ not only changed its ideology but also its organisational structure. It does not use its previous name. Its members use new codename in different areas, like Lashkar-e-Omer, Al Farooq and Al Badr. The sources said some terrorist groups were working underground and they might have been exploited by bigger jihadi and terrorist organisations like the Al Badr, the Jhangvi Tigers and Al Farooq.
It would make sense that the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi would be the heart of a Pakistani terrorist alliance, since they have a long experience of being an underground organisation working against the state, while the Jihadi militias are used to operating in the open with the patronage of the agencies. The LJ seems to have just recruited alienated members of the Jihadi organisation who are angry at their leaders silence over Pakistanâs betrayal of the Taliban.
âThe Jamiat Ishaat-e-Tauheed-wal-Sunna, influential in some areas in the NWFP and the Punjab, might have relations with the Taliban,â the sources added. According to the sources, the Tehrik-e-Taliban was actively engaged in recruiting jihadis for the Taliban in tribal areas.
| More active in Pakistan than in Afghanistan, in fact... |
The sources said the Imamia Studentsâ Organisation and the Hizbul Momineen were involved in increasing sectarianism, especially in the Northern Areas, and were under observation by law-enforcement agencies, whereas the defunct Sipah-e-Muhammadâs network had been broken in the Punjab but was still active in Balochistan.
Those last few are Shiâite groups, the Northern Areas are Shiâite areas of Pakistani Kashmir that have seen increasing numbers of Pashtun settlers. Sectarianism has been strong there ever since the Army used Pashtun tribesmen to put down a Shia uprising that resulted in the death of thousands in the late 80âs. |