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Title: Pakistan cracks the whip
Source:
Asis Times
URL Source: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LG16Df04.html
Published: Jul 18, 2010
Author: Syed Saleem Shahzad
Post Date: 2010-07-18 22:42:58 by A K A Stone
Keywords: None
Views: 357
Comments: 1
ISLAMABAD - Despite repeated warnings by Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, under American pressure the government has begun a risky crackdown on extremist religious organizations as well as the essentially inactive remnants of banned jihadi organizations. Over the past few days, more than 200 people in the northwestern city of Peshawar have been detained, while in the eastern province of Punjab about 100 members of banned militant organizations have been arrested. The banned extremist Sunni Muslim group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan - now known as Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat - was among those groups targeted. The crackdown is similar to the one in 2004-2005 following unsuccessful assassination attacks on then-president General Pervez Musharraf. Hundreds of jihadis were arrested, including heroes of the Pakistani establishment such as Ilyas Kashmiri and veteran jihadi Abdul Jabbar. The crackdown led to a split between the militants and the Pakistani military and made Pakistan very much a part of the Afghan war theater by 2007. Top guerrilla commander Ilyas Kashmiri's 313 Brigade is now an operational arm of al-Qaeda. The latest crackdown sharpens the schism between the two largest Sunni sects and adds fuel to the fire of conflict between Shi'ites and Sunnis. Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat is an anti-Shi'ite political party that wants to have Shi'ites declared non-Muslim through legislation in parliament. In the early 1970s, Ahmadis suffered this fate. The group contested parliamentary elections in 2002, and its leader at that time, Maulana Azam Tariq (now assassinated), was elected. He supported the Musharraf-backed Pakistan Muslim League (Q). The party now supports the opposition Pakistan Muslim League of former premier Nawaz Sharif. Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat does not believe in armed struggle, but its breakaway faction, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, is a banned underground militant outfit that is allied with al-Qaeda and known to have killed several leading Shi'ite figures. Many of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat's leaders have been killed by the banned Shi'ite militant organization Sipah-e-Mohammad, which is a breakaway faction of the banned political party Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Fiqah-e-Jaferi. The Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Fiqah-e-Jaferi now operates as the Tehrik-e-Islami and is a part of the six-party religious alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, as a representative of Shi'ites. Following the twin suicide attacks this month in Lahore on a Sufi shrine in which more than 40 people were killed and nearly 200 injured, the Punjabi Taliban were brought into the spotlight. They are considered responsible for changing the dynamics of the Afghan war theater as they have vast expertise acquired while fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s and Indian forces in disputed Kashmir in the 1990s. International players in Afghanistan such as the United States and UK therefore have pressed Pakistan hard to take action against them. The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi was top on the wanted list for a crackdown in southern Punjab. However, Pakistani intelligence agencies claimed there was no significant presence of the Punjabi Taliban in Punjab province, saying their sanctuaries were in the tribal areas and in Afghanistan and that they did not have strongholds in Pakistan's urban centers. All the same, the recent wave of attacks in Punjab indicates that they must have some foothold in Punjab and intelligence agencies therefore warned against opening up another front in the province - the military is already heavily involved in fighting against militants in the tribal areas. So the authorities went after the complex labyrinth of sectarian-based political parties that are deeply interwoven into Pakistan's social and political fiber, as well as jihadi organizations like the banned Jaish-e-Muhammad that also have complex relations with the military establishment. Madrassas (seminaries) are also likely to be targeted. Intelligence had also strongly warned against such action. Anti-Taliban sections of the government have tried to elicit support from Sunni anti-Taliban organizations. In the southern port city of Karachi in Sindh province, organizations from the Brelvi (Sufi) school of thought have seized some mosques previously operated by the pro-Taliban Deobandis. This has provoked serious tension between the country's two largest Sunni sects. "We warn against any intrigues or conspiracies against Deobandi madrassas or mosques. Otherwise, we reserve our rights to strongly react," said a representative of all Deobandi schools, mosques and religious parties. The Brelvi school of thought is considered to have the largest following in the country. However, the Deobandis have the largest network of schools and mosques, in addition to the largest religious political parties. These include the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (all factions) and Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat. Deobandi scholars have important ministries in the federal cabinet and most jihadi organizations hail from the Deobandi sect (the others come from the Salafis and the Jamaat-e-Islami, which are also close to the Deobandis). The crackdown is likely to provide a justification for the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi to carry out more attacks inside Pakistan on Sunni and Shi'ite targets, which can only spark more sectarian unrest, as well as possible create a new wave of militants heading for the jihadi epicenter in the North Waziristan tribal area on the border with Afghanistan. This is precisely what happened after the 2004-2005 crackdown and it proved a decisive factor in the Afghan Taliban's comeback in 2006.
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#1. To: A K A Stone (#0)
Buncha crackers!
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