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| 'Punjabi Taliban' banned in Pakistan published in India | | | Colonel Anil Bhat | 4/28/2012 10:52:50 PM |
| Mujahid Hussain's observations in his latest book Punjabi Taliban - banned in Pakistan and published in India - got doubtlessly confirmed with the bloody assassination of Governor Salmaan Taseer in January 2011. Raza Rumi's entry in his website reads: Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer's brutal murder at the hands of a security personnel is a cruel reminder of where we have landed ourselves: in a dark morass of irrationality lorded over by pernicious ideologies. He was a brave man and stood for a liberal, tolerant and progressive Pakistan where economic and political freedoms could be upheld. He has paid for his life for his bold stance on the blasphemy law and countering Talibanisation. He was our hope and without him Jinnah's Pakistan - NOT a theocracy - is in grave danger. His legacy will be remembered by history and he will go down in history as a major icon of progressivism…..The federal and provincial government should immediately investigate this murder and punish the criminal as well as the network behind him. The war against extremism will have to continue - otherwise, we are headed towards anarchy, more sectarianism and utter chaos."
Hussain states that by 2011 Pakistan showed clear evidence that it would not fight Taliban and Al-Qaeda the way the rest of the world wants it to . "Al-Qaeda has emerged as unconquerable by the Pakistani army" because of the "shift of Punjab's 'non state actors' from Pakistani Army to Al-Qaeda and the reorganization of these non state actors as the states assets by the Pakistani Army. The attack on Taliban and Al-Qaeda will result in the loss of country's biggest province".
Already, Pakistan's status as a venue for international sports and Lahore's reputation and nostalgia as the queen of cities of undivided and later partitioned India/Pakistani Punjab, had all got severely marred after masked terroristsattacked the bus carrying Sri Lanka's cricketers to the Gaddafi stadium on March 3, 2009 . Five Sri Lankan cricketers were injured in the attack which killed six security men and two civilians.
The Lahore Test was quickly called off and the tour cancelled, while the Sri Lankan players were evacuated from the Gaddafi stadium and taken to a nearby airbase. The team, including two seriously injured players, flew out in a chartered plane around 10 pm the same day. While there had been terror strikes on the sidelines of cricket, this was the first time players were directly targeted in Pakistan and the second time in the world- the first being eleven Israeli athletes killed by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics. David Morgan, the president of the International Cricket Council, described Pakistan as "a very dangerous place" and speaking about the World Cup, he said: "Things will have to change dramatically in Pakistan in my opinion if any of the games are to be staged there. I think that international cricket in Pakistan is out of the question until there is a very significant change, a regime change I guess."
This book highlights how the people involved in the war in the name of religion and using terrorism as their weapon have spread out of Punjab and are adding fuel to fire of Pakistan's intra state conflicts. The most important part of the book talks about the relationship between the South Punjab and the rise of the Sipah-e-Sahaba and people associated with it, that are fighting against India. In Pakistan there is an ironic dichotomy that while there are enough factors that prevail in Pakistan to fight against terrorist activities, there are simultaneously enough substantial factors which actively inhibit that very fight. The factors which Hussain observes are against the Pakistani's purpose to fight terrorism are within the state itself. "Pakistan is an Islamic state in making" and the militants believe that the states policies are inefficient to implement true Islamic system (sharia) in the country and hence they seize and hold the functions of the Islamic state.
It is relevant to mention the titles of the eleven chapters of this book, through which Hussain brings out what he refers to as the heart-breaking change in Punjab- from deep-rooted secular cultural traditions to an environment of extremism, intolerance and hatred. The chapters are: Identity of Pakistani State, The Changing Patterns of Society and the State, Changing Scenario of Punjab (devoting a few pages each to all the eight divisions of the province), A Paradise for Jihadis and Sectarian Hatemongers, Extremist Elements of Punjab and their Political Linkages, Dismal Situation of South Punjab, Religious Minorities and Punjabi Taliban, Attacks on Data Durbar and Karbala Gamay Shah, Murder of Shahbaz Bhatti and Height of Uncertainty, Beginning of Terrorist Attacks in Punjab and Details of Suicide Attack in Punjab (from end 2003 to March 2011). These significant titles also indicate the depth of the author's research and his guts, for which he had to leave his country and settle abroad.
Lamenting that the Punjab presented in classic Punjabi movies of 1960s-70s does not exist anymore, where the sounds of music got drowned by the staccato of bullets and loudspeakers in mosques and madrassas ( seminaries), which were constructed at a very rapid pace, Hussain mentions developments marking the turning point. While the coup against Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, revolution in Iran and the third tin-pot dictator Gen Zia ul Haq's policies as major factors impacting all of Pakistan, the damage done to Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, he feels is more tragic and quite visible.
The author's study of Lahore Division reveals shocking changes that came about in the villages and towns of the provincial capital by the nurturing of extremism and sectarian sentiments. With its HQ at Muridke, 30 km from Lahore, Lashkar-e-Tayyba (LeT) has hundreds of points which function as recruitment centres in Lahore itself and provide substantial financial support by collecting 'donations' for the outfit, which has flourished despite a ban as Jamaat-ud-Dawa, also subsequently banned. Muridke's two townships Mecca and Medina are where followers of Salafi (Wahhabi) sect from all over Pakistan have come and settled to transform them into model townships of 'pure atmosphere,' run strictly by Shariah law. Armed youth of LeT man the entrances of these colonies with ink markers in their hands for 'self-censorship'. TV sets are not allowed as they air 'vulgar music or satanic worldly talks'. Only transistors are allowed for listening to news and programmes related to religious education.
Khaled Ahmed, director, South Asia Free Media Association, Lahore ([email protected]), who has written the foreword for this book wrote in The Express Tribune of February 19, 2012, that he was surprised a fortnight ago to receive a note from Lahore's General Post Office saying he had imported a banned book which the Post Office had duly confiscated. The book was Punjabi Taliban by Mujahid Hussain (Pentagon Press, India, 2011) which is available in Pakistan too and advertised by a Karachi bookseller on the internet. Terrorists are angry at the book. Punjab government has now joined them. The terrorists are scary enough - because the author, who now lives abroad, was once attacked by them. Some years ago, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah denied that south Punjab was a haven of the Punjabi Taliban. South Punjab contains 13 districts with a population of 27 million: Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur, Bhakkar, DG Khan, Jhang, Khanewal, Layyah, Lodhran, Multan, Muzaffargarh, Rahim Yar Khan, Rajanpur, and Vehari.
Ex-editor Shireen Mazari who hails from DG Khan in south Punjab wrote in The News (April 29, 2009) "Why military action is not the answer" about the dominance of jihadi madrassas in DG Khan, significantly pointing to the "foreign funding" they were receiving: "In DG Khan, there are 185 registered madrassas of which 90 are Deobandi (with a total of 324 teachers), 84 are Barelvi (with a total of 212 teachers), six are Ahle Hadith (107 teachers) and five are Fiqh-e-Jafaria (10 teachers)".
She continued: "Of the Deobandi madrassas, Jamia Ataul-Ulum, with 200 boarders and 20 day-students ranging from 5-25 years, and eight teachers, receives donations from Kuwait. Jamia Darul Rehmania offers education up to class eight and has 350 boarders plus 230 day-students and 28 teachers…
The total number of Deobandi madrassa students in the DG Khan district is 11,535. Interestingly, in this category, it is the large madrassas… linked to the JUI… that receive foreign funding… almost solely from Kuwait".
According to Hussain, it was Abu Abdul (or Abdel) Aziz, a rich Saudi Arab who went to Pakistan, built the LeT HQ in Muridke, raised its 7th Brigade some time in 1993-94 which included Arabs and Chechens, who he took to Bosnia-all with the help of Al Qaeda. He married for the second (?) time the daughter of Abdullah Bahawalpuri, of Bahawalpur, who happens to be the uncle and father-in-law of none other than LeT bossman Hafiz Saeed and also the head of Ahle Hadis. Bahawalpuri's son is Abdur Rehman Makki (meaning from Mecca), a key LeT and Al Qaeda spokesperson in Gulf states and a major fund-raiser for both outfits, owns a sprawling 10 acres property in Muridke. The term "Punjabi Taliban" is politically sensitive among Pakistanis, given that Punjabis are the largest ethnic group in the country and have historically been disassociated with the Taliban, an organisation that has Afghan and Pashtun roots. Although claimed and believed to be an established militant group, the Government of Punjab has denied and rejected their existence. Shahbaz Sharif, the Punjab Chief Minister, has reportedly claimed that the term Punjabi Taliban is "an insult to the Punjabis" and accuses Pakistan's interior minister Rehman Malik of purposely coining it on ethnic grounds. During a March 17, 2010 cabinet meeting Malik is reported to have confirmed that Punjabi militants had joined Waziristan-based Taliban to stage attacks inside Punjab.
Apart from India and the US, this book must be read in all countries, as very many have at least 'sleeper cells' of Pakistan military supported terrorist groups. |
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