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| Lashkar's continuing support to 'freedom fighters' | | Jamaat-ud-Dawa for separatist stir in Kashmir | |
B L KAK
NEW DELHI, JULY 15: At a time when noises by Kashmiri separatist groups and People's Democratic Party (PDP) against the presence of Indian troops in Kashmir have become louder, massive and awe-inspiring jihadi outfit, Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) has reaffirmed its resolve to keep 'freedom fighters' in Indian Kashmir alive and kicking. PDP is a constituent in the present Congress-led coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir.
The J&K Chief Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, who had opposed the demand for the reduction or withdrawal of troops, has now started talking of relocation of troops in Kashmir. Azad obviously got a hint from the Union government about its 'willingness' to accept PDP patron Mufti Mohammed Sayeed's demand for relocation of troops. Hence, a change in Azad's standpoint.
More importantly, Pakistan-based Jamaat-ud-Dawa has no plans to give up its Kashmir line, which is loaded with anti-India accent and emphasis. Doubts, if any, in this regard have been set at rest by Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), one of the most feared militant groups in Kashmir.
Hafiz Saeed's recent interview to a foreign news agency has reaffirmed Jamaat-ud-Dawa's resolve to continue to help "freedom fighters" in Indian Kashmir. That he did not want to make public the type of assistance the "freedom fighters" in Kashmir will continue to receive from the Jamaat-ud-Dawa was borne out by the use of the term--"moral support"--when he was asked about his organization's involvement in Kashmir.
He was quoted as emphasizing that his charity "only gave moral support to those fighting foreign occupation" in Kashmir, Afghanistan and Iraq. That Hafiz Saeed has something up his sleeve is clearly indicated by his unexpected claim: He had severed his links with Lashkar-e-Toiba after Pakistan banned it in 2002. His anti-India sentiment seemed highly pronounced with his charge against Washington of pandering to India.
Washington's decision branding the charity (Jamaat-ud-Dawa) he now runs as a terrorist organization has been interpreted by him as "all this is being done at the behest of India". The US State Department outlawed the Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity and one of its affiliates last year.
Hafiz Saeed, a firebrand orator who once taught Islamic studies at an engineering university in Lahore, was also reported to have insited: "Jamaat-ud-Dawa is not involoved in any terrorist activty inside or outside United States. We don't have any direct quarrel or confrontation with America, but we want the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq be stopped".
The United States, on the other hand, insists that Jamaat-ud-Dawa is just a front. Listing Jamaat-ud-Dawa means freezing its assets in the United States effectively a symbolic but necessary first step. Happily for Hafiz Saeed, Pakistan has said that it will not ban the charity until the United Nations also proscribes Jamaat-ud-Dawa, even though Saeed's group is already on a Pakistani watchlist.
Washington clearly wants Pakistan to act faster against an organisation it says provides money and recruits for Lashkar. The Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity runs schools, hospitals, mosques as well as religious seminaries across Pakistan, and it boasts tens of thousands of followers even though it has no official register. According to the US State Department,Jamaat-ud-Dawa also has links with religious militant organisations in Southeast Asia and Chechnya.
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