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Afghanistan/South Asia | ||
Pakistan's Punjab province is jehad factory | ||
2005-05-16 | ||
I believe a link to this was posted earlier, but I think the article as a whole is worth posting. Pakistan's Punjab province is the nerve centre of the jehad directed against India and nearly 50 per cent of jehadis belong to this region, says a new book. Quoting a survey of ten large jehadi groups, journalist-author Sushant Sareen's The Jihad Factory reveals that over
Just a reminder that Pashtuns are hardly the only Jihadi cannon fodder in Pakistan, although it is worth pointing out that Punjabis make up about half of the Pak population, so these statistics aren't as suprising or overwhelming as the article seems to imply. "Economic disparities, lack of alternative sources of income, the social and geographic structure, existence of semi-literate population and unemployment are all forcing youths in Punjab to succumb to indoctrination," Sareen told the agency. Of the 500 Tehrik-ul-Mujahideen guerrillas killed in Jammu and Kashmir till 2003, 215 were from Punjab, while 45 were from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, 49 from Sindh and 70 from Jammu and Kashmir. Among the 650 Harkat-ul-Jihad cadres killed in Kashmir so far, 200 were from Punjab and of the 840 Harkat-ul-Mujahideen militants killed there, over 350 were from that province. Since its formation in 2000, Jaish-e-Mohammed has suffered 179 casualties in Jammu and Kashmir. A majority of Jaish guerrillas are from Punjab, especially from Multan, Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan districts, the book says. The casualty rates are interesting in the sense that we never hear about Tehrik-ul-Mujahideen, but it is apparently a pretty big player in the Kashmir Jihad. Also the other Jihadi groups casualties are dwarfed by Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has been around for less time than most of them.
From what I have read, a great many of these Punjabi Jihadis are actually the descendents of Muslims who fled across the border during the slaughter of partition, and while they were able to integrate with their fellow Punjabis fairly easily, many of them have grown up nursing a deep hatred towards the Hindus who drove them out of their parents homes, making them more susceptible to Jihadi recruitment. | ||
Posted by:Paul Moloney |
#6 Pak punjabis nurture a belief (from the days of the Raj) that they are a "martial race" and thus superior. Pre-1971 Pakistani textbooks taught that "West Pakistanis are tall and fair and eat wheat" "East Pakistanis are short and dark and eat rice" Benazir Bhutto herself has blamed this sort of indoctrination for the tolerance of the Punjabi elites towards the Pak Army genocide of the Bengalis. When the Punjabi society ladies learned of the mass rapes, many commented that "at least the next generation would be fair skinned". The 1971 uprising by Bengalis was triggered by the refusal of the Punjabis to allow Bengali political power (they were in the majority) or to permit even the Bengali language as coequal to Urdu. Note that the Pakistan acronym P unjab A fghania K ashmir I ndus-Sindh STAN does not include provinces like Bengal. It would be fair to say that Pakistan exists for the Punjabi elite (both the feudal landlords and the Pak Army brass). The Punjabi army elite will tolerate no challenge to their power and privilege. The Army actually predates the state and is superior. |
Posted by: john 2005-05-16 15:55 |
#5 Well, given that they run the government it kind of makes sense for them to embrace Islamism, especially with countries like Pakistan or Indonesia that are already up to their neck in separatist movements. The Islamists believe there can only be one real state, which makes them a handy tool in crushing any separatist elements that spring up. Some of the nuttier aspects of the Hindutva types in India appear to be trying to serve much the same purpose, though not nearly as bloodily because Hindutva doesn't have the divinely-sanctioned one state emphasis that Islamism does. |
Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-05-16 02:28 |
#4 Aren't the Punjabis the ruling ethnic group in Pakistan, a la the Javanese in Indonesia? That's exactly right, they are the group that dominates the military, civil service and media. They are the only ethnic group that hasn't had a secessionist group active. I think there is some connection between being the dominant ethnic group in a multi-ethnic country and being attracted to Islam, but i'm not sure why that is. I could theorise this is because minorities in Muslim countries tend to be attracted to left wing politics because of their 'anti-imperialist, self-determination' creed, while the majority group like the Punjabis and Javanese are attracted to Islamism because it is strongly against any sort of seperatism or 'multi-cultralism', and therefor allow them to couch ethnic chauvanism in the garb of religion. |
Posted by: Paul Moloney 2005-05-16 01:56 |
#3
Dan, I'm not sure; I don't think they have their own autonomous regions, the way every other kin group of larger than 64 people seems to there. | |
Posted by: Phil Fraering 2005-05-16 01:34 |
#2 Sorry, I just can't resist this image. Jehad Factory? |
Posted by: 3dc 2005-05-16 01:14 |
#1 Aren't the Punjabis the ruling ethnic group in Pakistan, a la the Javanese in Indonesia? |
Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-05-16 00:37 |