Muhammad Amir Rana traces the emergence of
the jihadi organizations in Pakistan. He
also talks to some young recruits about how
they joined their groups.
The martyrdom of 30,000 Pakistanis in
Afghanistan and Kashmir, 2,000 sectarian
killings and the enthusiastic enrolment of
200,000 young men in various jihadi and
sectarian organizations in the last two
decades is the direct result of the jihadi
culture prevailing in the country. A progeny
of the Afghan war, this jihadi culture was
strengthened by the revolution in Iran,
nurtured by the Americans via 'Operation
Cyclone', nourished by the extremist views
and money of Osama bin Laden and came to
fruition in the acts of the Taliban.
Consequently, Pakistan found itself playing
host to terrorism instead of acquiring
either Kabul or Srinagar.
When Soviet forces entered Afghanistan,
religious factions had already found a
foothold in Pakistani politics by helping
dismiss the democratically elected People's
Party government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in
an undemocratic manner and installing a
military dictator in its stead: a 'Mard-i-Momin'
with his own religious agenda. The religious
parties gained strength from the
'benevolence' of the United States which
invited true believers from all over the
world to unite against the threat of
communism posed by the Soviet Union. Many
religious leaders in Pakistan welcomed the
call and, declaring the Afghan war to be a
'jihad', began to send young men to join the
cause.
America began to invest heavily in the
Afghan war. According to a disclosure by
Zbigniew Bzerzinski on July 3, 1979, Jimmy
Carter had set aside a secret fund of 500
million US dollars for this. A fund so
secret that even the Congress knew nothing
about it. The purpose of this fund,
according to John Pilger, was to create a
terrorist organization that encouraged and
utilized Islamic extremism to undermine the
Russian government in Central Asia.
The CIA called it "Operation Cyclone'' and
in the following years four billion dollars
were committed to its promotion that
included the establishment of a large number
of religious madressahs or schools in
Pakistan. John Pilger also states that eager
young men from Pakistan's religious parties
were sent to espionage training centres run
by the CIA in Virginia, where future Al
Qaeda members received their training in
terrorism while others were sent to the
Islamic School of Brooklyn, New York, to
study terrorist techniques under the very
shadow of the World Trade Centre. In
Pakistan, officers of the British MI6 and
the local ISI played the role of 'teacher'.
The November-December 2000 issue of the
American magazine Foreign Affairs
published an article "The culture of jihad
in Pakistan" by Jessica Stern. Referring to
Milt Bearden, the chief of an American
secret agency in Pakistan during 1986-1989,
the article states that America and Saudi
Arabia provided 3.5 billion dollars to
Pakistan during the Afghan war and, along
with drugs and arms, 'jihad' became an
important business of this region.
During the Afghan war the Pakistani secret
service agency, the ISI, was reorganized in
the manner prescribed by 'Operation
Cyclone'. The CIA and the ISI together
controlled the Afghanistan war but the
reorganization of the ISI resulted in
serious damage to Pakistan ultimately. The
ISI tightened its grip on matters of state
and in the following years coerced
democratically elected governments to
function according to its agenda. Toppling
and creating regimes became a pastime.
During the 1988 general elections the grand
alliance of religious parties, the IJI,
mocked the Pakistan People's Party with "You
lost Dhaka, we won Kabul". Even when the PPP
came to power with its liberal leanings it
could not change this policy. The Taliban
experiment took shape during its rule and
there was no change in either the Afghan or
Kashmir policy. The ISI was not willing to
compromise on any of these issues. In her
first tenure as prime minister, when Benazir
toured Muzzaffarabad, she was briefed by the
ISI on the working of the organization
called 'Hurriyat' in occupied Kashmir and
requested to continue the policies of the
previous government in this respect; a
request that Benazir granted. Nobody had
thought of challenging this jihadi role of
the ISI prior to September 11.
The ISI and the governments under its
influence did much to promote the jihadi
culture in the country. 'Raw material' for
jihad was acquired through two sources:
1 Religious madressahs
2 Government schools and colleges
To acquire the desired human resource, a
large number of religious madressahs were
established utilizing the Afghan war fund
set up by the Americans. Parties organized
on sectarian basis were used for this
purpose and students from these madressahs
played an important role in the war in
Afghanistan. It is important to note here
that prior to 1980 there were only 700
religious schools in Pakistan and their rate
of growth only three per cent per annum that
increased by 136 per cent by the end of
1986. Now there are 7,000 large religious
madressahs in the country that award degrees
equivalent to MA and PhD.
Most new madressahs were established in the
NWFP, Southern Punjab and Karachi and have
served as breeding grounds for jihadis.
According to the renowned Azad Kashmiri
scholar and intellectual, Syed Mehmud Azad,
"maulvis (orthodox religious scholars) will
only send their students for jihad if they
have been promised ample recompense. Since
the government could not send the regular
army to Afghanistan, the students were
handed over to the agencies by the
thousands. The flows of money from the
United States whet the agencies' appetite
and more and new pastures were sought to
sustain the trend. Kashmir proved fertile
ground for their activities even though the
maulvis were not interested in its
liberation, then or now. Jihad has become a
business well publicized by the press".
Another source of the jihadi manpower was
found in student unions with a religious
manifesto that had acquired a strong hold in
schools and colleges. The list of martyrs of
six jihadi organizations show that on the
average five times as many students of
regular institutions lost their lives than
those coming from religious madressahs.
Religious parties also used their regular
members and the jobless for this purpose.
The ouster of the Soviet forces from
Afghanistan should have signalled the
completion of the American agenda in the
region, but the resulting jihadi culture in
Pakistan could not be brought to an end as
this would mean that the Afghan jihad was
not mandated by the shariah. Religious
parties and madressahs continued to promote
this culture with the blessing of the
establishment.
* * * * *
Let us view some of the reasons given by
mujahideen of Jaish-i- Mohammad for
joining a jihadi organization. These were
published in October 2001 in the Karachi
edition of the fortnightly Jaish-i-
Mohammad.
• My name is Mohammad Siddique and I belong
to Takhla in the NWFP. I have completed high
school and have also read the Quran. When I
finished with my matriculation exams, a
friend of mine gave me a cassette recording
of the Jaish-i-Mohammad Ameer, Hazrat
Maulana Mohammad Masood Azhar. The recording
was about the Babri mosque and had such a
profound effect on me that I decided to
spend the rest of my life in jihad. I first
went to madressah Khalid Zubair where I
received preliminary training then, till
recently, I was at madressah Ahmed Shaheed
and will now proceed to Kashmir in a few
days.
•My name is Shah Faisal and I am from
District Shangla on the Swat border. I have
read the Quran and completed my
Matriculation after which I went to Karachi
where we have a textile shop. There I used
to read newspapers and magazines that
described the atrocities being committed in
Kashmir and decided that I should join the
jihad and teach the infidels a few lessons.
I then underwent training at madressah Ahmed
Shaheed and will be going to Kashmir in a
few days.
•My name is Zakaullah and I belong to Tehsil
Mansehra Warkan. I studied up to the ninth
grade after which I became a labourer. I
always liked jihad and had read in books
that martyrs went to heaven without
questioning by God. We were sinners and I
thought this was the only way to redemption
and therefore I joined madressah Syed Ahmed
Shaheed, Balakot.
• My name is Abdul Rehman and I come from an
area near District Faisalabad. I am totally
illiterate. I used to carry baskets in the
wholesale vegetable market in Faisalabad,
finding work wherever I could. Once, in the
market there was a hotel serving food during
Ramazan and people were blatantly
dishonouring the sanctity of the holy month
when mujahids from Harkatul Ansar reached
the scene and immediately had the hotel stop
serving food. They gave a long sermon that
touched my heart and I decided to commit
myself to jihad. I went to madressah Khalid
Bin Walid and since then have been to many
fronts and am on my way to Kashmir now.
•My name is Mohammad Naeem Siddiqui and I
belong to District Mansehra. I cannot read
or write. When I was very young the role of
breadwinner fell on my shoulders and I left
home to work as a labourer. I used to make
tandoori bread for the students of Masjid
Furqan in Islamabad and there I heard the
Maulvi Sahib speak frequently about jihad.
The sermons convinced me and when I listened
to the cassette recording of Maulana
Mohammad Masood Azhar about the Babri mosque
I became determined to join the jihad. I
took leave from Masjid Furqan and became a
driver. When Hazrat Maulana Mohammad Masood
Azhar came to Rawalpindi, I got to hear him
live and my leanings towards jihad
strengthened further. I used to frequent the
Islamabad mosque where the mujahideen very
often visited my mentor Maulana Siddique. By
now the conditions of my household had also
improved by the grace of God and I received
training at madressah Syed Ahmed Shaheed.
Now I am going to Kashmir.
•My name is Mohammad Yar Afghani; I belong
to Gardez, Afghanistan and used to work in
Jalalabad. From there I came to Peshawar and
then accompanied a friend in search of work
to Muzzaffarabad. As a child I had heard
stories of jihad from my elders and was
determined to participate in jihad when I
grew up. One day I went to my friend Haq
Nawaz Bhai and he told me that this world is
finite and everyone must die, life after
death is infinite therefore let us train for
and join jihad. So I joined madressah Syed
Ahmed Shaheed for training and am now going
to Kashmir. If I am martyred, I have
recorded a cassette of my poems please give
that to my friend Haq Nawaz so that he
remains in touch with the holy war.
•My name is Mu'awiya and I belong to
District Bagh in Azad Kashmir. I am
seventeen years old and have studied up to
the fourth grade in a school, then I learnt
the Holy Quran by heart from madressah
Ta'aleemul Quran Hanafiya Chattar # 2. I
learnt fifteen chapters of the Quran at the
mosque in my village then joined madressah
Mahmood Ghaznavi for training. I joined
jihad because of a sermon delivered by Ameer
Muhtarim Hazrat Maulana Mohammad Masood
Azhar at Bagh and am now going to Kashmir.
This is an account
of the religious organizations in Pakistan
waging 'jihad'. The book, first published in
Urdu as Jihad-i-Kashmir-o-Afghanistan:
Jihadi Tanzeemon aur Mazhabi Jama'aton ka
Eik Ja'iza, gives comprehensive information
about their goals, strategy, training,
recruitment and affiliations, as well as
their madressahs.
Maulvis will only send their students for
jihad if they have been promised ample
recompense. Since the government could not
send the regular army to Afghanistan, the
students were handed over to the agencies by
the thousands. The flows of money from the
United States whet the agencies' appetite
and more and new pastures were sought to
sustain the trend. |
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