Facing the truth
By Irfan Husain, Dawn, Karachi, December 3, 2008.
Even in my remote bit of paradise, news of distant disasters filters
through: above the steady sound of waves breaking on the sandy
beach in Sri Lanka, I was informed by several news channels about
the sickening attacks on Mumbai.
Over the last few years, I have travelled to several countries
across four continents. Everywhere I go, I am asked why Pakistan
is now the focal point of Islamic extremism and terrorism, and
why successive governments have allowed this cancer to fester
and grow. As a Pakistani, it is obviously embarrassing to be put
on the spot, but I can see why people everywhere are concerned.
In virtually every Islamic terrorist plot, whether it is successful
or not, there is a Pakistani angle. Often, foreign terrorists
have trained at camps in the tribal areas; others have been brainwashed
in madressahs; and many more have been radicalised by the poisonous
teachings of so-called religious leaders.
Madeline Albright, the ex-US secretary of state, has called Pakistan
'an international migraine', saying it was a cause for global
concern as it had nuclear weapons, terrorism, religious extremists,
corruption, extreme poverty, and was located in a very important
part of the world. While none of this makes pleasant reading for
a Pakistani, Ms Albright's summation is hard to refute. Often,
the truth is painful, but most Pakistanis refuse to see it. Instead
of confronting reality, we are in a permanent state of denial.
This ostrich-like posture has made things even worse.
Most Pakistanis, when presented with the fact that our country
is now the breeding ground for the most violent ideologies, and
the most vicious gangs of thugs who kill in the name of religion,
go back in history to explain and justify their presence in our
country.
They refer to the Afghan war, and the creation of an army of
holy warriors to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. Then they go
on to complain that the Americans quit the region soon after the
Soviets did, leaving us saddled with jihadi fighters from all
over the Muslim world camped on our soil.
What we conveniently forget is that for most of the last two
decades, the army and the ISI used these very jihadis to further
their agenda in Kashmir and Afghanistan. This long official link
has given various terror groups legitimacy and a domestic base
that has now come to haunt us.
Another aspect to this problem is the support these extremists
enjoy among conservative Pakistani and Arab donors. Claiming they
are fighting for Islamic causes, they attract significant amounts
from Muslim businessmen here and abroad. And almost certainly,
they also benefited from official Saudi largesse until 9/11.
Now that government policy is to distance itself from these jihadis,
we find that many retired army officers have continued to train
them in camps being run in many parts of Pakistan. A few weeks
ago, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, a prominent (and very loud) minister
under both Nawaz Sharif and Musharraf, openly boasted on TV of
running a camp for Kashmiri fighters on his own land just outside
Rawalpindi a few years ago. If such camps can be set up a few
miles from army headquarters, what's to stop them from operating
in remote areas?
Many foreign and local journalists have exposed aspects of the
terror network that has long flourished in Pakistan. Names, dates
and addresses have been published and broadcast. But each allegation
has been met with a brazen denial from every level of officialdom.
Just as we denied the existence of our nuclear weapons programme
for years, so too do we refuse to accept the presence of extremist
terrorists.
For years, it suited the army and the ISI to secretly harbour
and support these groups in Pakistan, Kashmir and Afghanistan.
While officially denying that they had anything to do with these
jihadis, money and arms from secret sources would reach them regularly.
Despite our spooks maintaining plausible deniability, enough information
about this covert support for jihadis has emerged for the fig-leaf
to slip. And even if the intelligence community has now cut its
links with these terrorists, the genie is out of the bottle.
Each time an atrocity like Mumbai occurs, and Pakistan is accused
of being involved, the defensive mantra chanted by the chorus
of official spokesmen is: "Show us the proof." The reality
is that in terrorist operations planned in secret, there is not
much of a paper trail left behind. Nine times out of ten, the
perpetrators do not survive to give evidence before a court. But
in this case, one terrorist did survive, and Ajmal Amir Kamal's
story points to Lashkar-e-Tayyaba. The sophistication of the attack
is testimony to careful planning and rigorous training.
This was no hit-and-run operation, but was intended to cause
the maximum loss of life.
Pakistan's foreign minister said that Pakistan, too, is a victim
of terrorism. While this is certainly true, the rest of the world
wants to know why we aren't doing more to root out the training
camps, and lock up those involved. Given the vast un-audited amounts
from the exchequer sundry intelligence agencies lay claim to,
their failure to be more effective against internal terrorism
is either a sign of incompetence, or of criminal collusion. Benazir
Bhutto's murder, after an earlier attempt and many warnings, is
a reminder of how poorly we are served by our intelligence agencies.
And while the diplomatic fallout from the Mumbai attack spreads
and threatens to escalate into an armed confrontation, the biggest
winners are those who carried out the butchery of so many innocent
people. It is to their advantage to prevent India and Pakistan
from coordinating their fight against terrorism. Tension between
the two neighbours suits them, while peace and cooperation threatens
their very existence.
The world is naturally concerned about the danger posed by these
terror groups to other countries. However, the biggest threat
they pose is to Pakistan itself. Until Pakistanis grasp this brutal
reality and muster up the resolve necessary to crush them,
FBI takes
DNA samples of militants involved in Mumbai attacks
The FBI and other western investigating agencies have taken DNA
samples of all the nine Lashkar-e-Taiba militants killed in the
26th November Mumbai terror attacks.
This is to ascertain if they had any Afghan or other terror
links as the probe found that the nature of explosive devices
was quite similar to those used in Afghanistan.
Sources associated with the investigation into the 26th November
terror strikes said the DNA samples had been preserved by Indian
as well as western investigators who were ascertaining whether
it matched with anyone in their data bank of terrorists or if
they were related to militants killed during operations in Afghanistan.
The western investigators have also carried out a detailed examination
of the explosive devices used in the attacks that left over 180
people dead and have found some similarities with those used by
terrorists in Afghanistan, the sources said.
Lashkar-e-Taiba has sent some of its cadres to fight along with
Taliban in southern Afghanistan. The terror outfit had earlier
set up a training camp in Khost area of the war-ravaged country.
The western forensic expertise has come in handy for the Mumbai
police and the Indian security agencies in carrying out investigations
abroad and unveiling facts that could have otherwise taken much
longer.
The FBI team accompanied by investigators from the UK's Scotland
Yard were camping in Mumbai for a fortnight looking into clues
including the Internet telephony signatures intercepted by the
Indian intelligence agencies when terrorists were receiving calls
from their Lashkar masters across the border.
The FBI team, which came to Mumbai on 1st December after registering
the case, had been able to break into the code of Internet telephony.
As per the US laws, the FBI has to probe the death or torture
of any American citizen outside the US and later submit a chargesheet.
In this case, they had also sought the interrogation report of
Mohammad Ajmal Amir, the lone terrorist arrested by the police
in the Mumbai attacks. Six US nationals and at least one Britisher
were killed in the Mumbai attacks.
The investigators also unearthed another Pakistan link to the
audacious attack when they claimed to have found that the connection
for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service was paid from
port-city of Karachi and purchased on a fake identity card for
which 300 dollars were sent allegedly through Western Union Money
Transfer services.
The VoIP number brought from Orlando, Florida in the US was being
used by the 10 terrorists to remain in touch with their masters
across the border including Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi, a Lashkar-e-Taiba
operative, at present under detention in Pakistan, who is believed
to be a mastermind of terror strikes, the sources said.
VoIP is a technology that enables a person to make and receive
phone calls through the Internet.
The investigators were also focusing on a Gulf-based operator
of satellite service which was also being used by terrorists to
remain in touch with Lashkar commanders in Pakistan.
They are also tracing back the email, sent to some media houses,
and to find out where and how may times it was opened in Pakistan.
Pak seals
offices of terror linked Al-Amin Trust: report
The Pakistan government has sealed offices of Al-Amin
Trust in Karachi and Lahore and frozen several bank accounts as
part of its ongoing crackdown on groups added to a UN Security
Council list of terrorist organisations subject to sanctions.
The Al-Amin Trust has been designated by the UN Security Council
and the US Treasury Department as a front for the outlawed Al-Rashid
Trust, which was also banned by Pakistan's interior ministry in
February last year.
Twenty-four offices of the Al-Amin Trust in Karachi, including
its head office, were sealed yesterday and the organisation's
bank accounts across the country were sealed, officials told the
media.
In Lahore, three offices of the Trust, located in Defence Housing
Authority, Gulberg and Regal Chowk, were also sealed on Sunday.
However, no arrests were made in either Lahore or Karachi, officials
said.
In a notification issued to all provinces, the federal interior
ministry has ordered the sealing of all Al-Amin Trust offices,
freezing of its accounts and seizure of licensed weapons.
"All of our offices have been sealed and bank accounts seized.
As for the recovery of weapons, we do not have any arms,"
Al-Amin Trust spokesman Muhammad Abdullah told the newspaper.
The Trust's ambulance service has also been stopped.
The Al-Rashid Trust was designated a terrorist organisation by
the US Treasury Department in 2001 for its links to al-Qaeda.
It was put on the UN Security Council's list of groups linked
to al-Qaeda and Taliban in 2002.
In July this year, the US Treasury Department named Al-Amin Trust
as an alias for Al-Rashid Trust.
At the time, Adam J Szubin, Director of the Office of Foreign
Assets Control, had said US was "very concerned" about
groups like Al-Rashid Trust "reconstituting themselves under
new names in attempts to circumvent sanctions and continue funnelling
money to terrorist activities".
But Al-Amin Trust spokesman Abdullah said his group was "still
trying to figure out" why the Pakistan government had acted
against it.
"We will appeal in the court to challenge the imposition
of the ban because we were never involved in any immoral activity
and our relief and other activities in Pakistan are being affected
following this step," he claimed.
Pakistani authorities have said that the Al-Rashid Trust was
involved in financially supporting the Taliban in the tribal areas
and treating injured Taliban fighters.
Following intense pressure from the US and India, the Pakistan
government cracked down on the Lashker-e-Toiba, which has been
accused of planning and carrying out the Mumbai terror attacks,
on 7th December.
LeT operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi was among over
20 militants detained by Pakistani security forces.
After the UN Security Council designated the Jamaat-ud-Dawah
a front for the LeT and put four LeT leaders on a list of terrorists
subject to sanctions, the Pakistan government initiated a clampdown
on the Jamaat on 11th December
Mumbai
terror strikes were an attack on India's democratic values: Sonia
New Delhi, Dec. 15, 2008
India Govt.in
In a tough message to Pakistan, Congress President Sonia Gandhi
termed the Mumbai terror attacks as an assault on the very "idea
of India" and said none should take the country for granted
and underestimate its resolve for peace.
"The Mumbai terror strikes were an attack on the very idea
of India where people of different race, religions and beliefs live
harmoniously", Sonia said addressing a gathering of Congress
workers in Kochi on Monday evening.
India came under assault during the attack by terrorists causing
so much destruction to the democratic and secular way lof life,
she said.
But ' let nobody take us for granted, let nobody underestimate
our resolve for peace', Gandhi said.
Paying homage to the security personnel killed in the attack, particularly
NSG officer from Kerala Maj Sandeep Unnikrishnan, she said he was
a valiant son of the state and India and will be remembered by a
grateful nation for generations to come.
Just before the barbaric attacks by terrorists, India had shown
its capabilities in space technology by successfully launching the
Chandrayaan-I moon mission, she said.
Hitting out at the Communist parties for their criticism of the
Indo-US nuclear deal, Congress President Sonia Gandhi today said
Kerala will show the way for the defeat of comrades both in the
state and West Bengal.
"The left parties withdrew support to the UPA Government and
pointed fingers at us," Gandhi, on her first visit to Kerala
after the withdrawal of support by Left parties, told a gathering
of Congress workers in Kochi.
Gandhi said she was confident that when the time comes, people
of the state and India will look at the Congress-led UPA and give
a "positive verdict."
"We have just won three state elections. People will defeat
the Left parties in Kerala and West Bengal."
The UPA Government does not want a "certificate" on patriotism
from the Left parties.
There is no question of the Congress party ever compromising on
security issues and independence in foreign policy, she said.
Pointing out that Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi had laid down
their lives for the country, she said 'we do not want a certificate
from the left parties on our patriotism'.
Defending the nuclear agreement, she said it will enhance the nation's
progress in various spheres, help in generation of electricity.
The future generations will recognise the vision of Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh and party in concluding the agreement, she said.
