Pakistan Bankrolls Terrorist Group

by Mohshin Habib
July 5, 2013 at 4:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3804/pakistan-bankrolls-terrorists

"They compete for the religious vote bank." — Arif Nizami, Pakistani poltical analyst

Pakistan has just allocated over $4,000,000 for a Center, a "Knowledge Park" and other initiatives for the Islamist parent body of the banned terrorist group that attacked Mumbai, India, in 2008.

The Pakistani provincial government of Punjab included in its budget for fiscal 2013-14 a sum of 61.35 million Pakistani Rupees ($616,000 USD) to fund the largest Center of Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) -- the Islamist parent body of the banned terror organization Laskar-e-Taiba (LeT), which committed the Mumbai attacks.

In addition to that allocation for the JuD Center, known as Markaz-e-Taiba, the Pakistani government has also allocated Rs 350 million ($3,500,000 USD) for setting up a "Knowledge Park" and other initiatives at the Center.

A spokesman for the Punjab government defended the gift by saying that the government had taken administrative control of the welfare institutions being run by JuD, in compliance with Security Council resolutions of the United Nations. In December 2008, India formally requested the United Nations to designate JuD a terrorist organization, a request with which the UN Security Council complied. In 2012, the U.S. State Department offered a bounty of $10,000,000 on the head of JuD's Emir, or chief, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, relating to the Mumbai massacre. The US authority also offered $2 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed's brother-in-law Abdur Rehman Makki, second in command of LeT. Makki is said to be in close contact with Taliban supreme commander Mullah Omar and Ayman Al-Zawahiri. Ajmal Kassab, accused in the Mumbai attack, is said to have received training at the JuD's center, Markaz-e-Taiba.

However, a recent report in the Pakistani daily The News said that despite the appointment of an administrator, the Markaz-e-Taiba is effectively in the control of JuD, and that Pakistani and foreign journalists cannot go inside the Center without first obtaining permission from the media cell of the JuD. A source, according to the report, said a few months ago that JuD's Emir, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, held a convention at Markaz-e-Taiba, largely attended by JuD activists.

Background of Jamaat-ud-Dawa and its Emir, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed

The organization JuD was founded by its Emir (head, commander or general in Arabic), Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, in 1985. In 1987, Saeed founded Markaz-Dawa-wal-Irshad, the organization which, in Afghanistan in 1990, produced Laskar-e-Taiba [LeT], with its headquarters based in Lahore, the Punjab provincial capital, where Markaz-e-Taiba is located. There were two co-founders with Saeed. One, Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, also a co-founder of the Palestinian Sunni terrorist organization Hamas, was killed by a car bomb blast on November 24, 1989 in Peshawar, Pakistan.

As a terrorist outfit, LeT is banned in India, Pakistan (formally), the UK, the United States, the European Union, Russia and Australia. In 2001, Pakistan detained Saeed in relation to Indian accusations of his involvement in an attack on the lower house of the Indian parliament, Lok Sabha. After the 2006 Mumbai Train bombings, the provincial government of Punjab at that time arrested Saeed. He was released after a Lahore High court order in August, then arrested again by the provincial government, and finally released by the same high court on October 17, 2006.

LeT has repeatedly claimed through its journal and websites that its aim is to destroy and annihilate Hinduism and Judaism. LeT has declared Hindus and Jews to be the enemy of Islam as well as India and Israel to be the enemy of Pakistan. LeT also says it believes that violent Jihad is the duty of all Muslims.

Pakistan's new government and JUD

Punjab province is the stronghold of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), the party that formed the federal government after receiving the highest number of seats (166 out of 272) in the national election of May 2013. PML(N) also has repeatedly formed the provincial government of Punjab, the dominant and most influential province of Pakistan, in which more than half the Pakistani people live. Its Chief Minister, Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, is the younger brother of Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, who previously served two non-consecutive terms as Pakistan's Prime Minister. During the time of the election, PML(N) suffered remarkably fewer attacks by the Teherik-e-Taliban or other terrorist groups, compared to the other large democratic parties; these suffered dozens of blasts, with many casualties, especially during election meetings and rallies.

The regime of the Islamist-minded dictator, General Zia-ul-Haq, also saw the rise of the political career of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Always close to the powerful military officers, including director generals of Pakistan's ISI, Sharif joined the Punjab Advisory Board of Zia-ul-Haq. Additionally, since being introduced to its royal family by Osama bin Laden, Sharif still maintains a good relationship with Saudi Arabia.

Former Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) official Khalid Khawaja claimed that he arranged five meetings in the past between Nawaz Sharif and the late Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

General Zia-ul-Haq appointed Hafiz Mohammad Saeed to the Council on Islamic Theologies. In early 1980s he was sent by the University of Engineering and Technology to Saudi Arabia, where he met Saudi Sheikhs who were taking part in Afghan Jihad.

The Economist wrote:

Another outfit, Jaish-e-Mohammed, is based in Bahawalpur, also in southern Punjab, where it has a huge seminary. Former members of both organisations are integral parts of the Pakistani Taliban. Another group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for the devastating attack on Mumbai in 2008, also has Punjab as its home. "The Punjab government is not only complacent, there is a certain ambivalence in their attitude" towards extremists, says Arif Nizami, a political analyst based in Lahore. "They compete for the religious vote bank."

As Jamaat-ud-Dawa and its leader, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, are well known as anti-Indian, the Indian authorities raised their concerns over the significant allocation. Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said, "Given the positive signals recent weeks, I would expect that Pakistan would keep the new consideration and address our concerns."

Nawaz Sharif recently expressed his desire to upgrade relations with India. But many think that if Jamaat-ud-Dawa and its relations get privileges from Pakistan's newly elected provincial and federal governments, not only India, but the entire world will be more skeptical about the foreign policy of the "New Pakistan."

© 2024 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Related Topics: Pakistan

Recent Articles by Mohshin Habib

Continuing Atrocities: Blasphemy Laws in Pakistan, 2023-08-22
Indian Land That Is Part of China's Hawkish Policy, 2023-06-07
Blasphemy Laws in Pakistan Grow Harsher, 2023-03-03
Is the UK Turning into Something Extremely Different?, 2023-01-01
Iran: Systematic Persecution of Baha'is, 2022-08-11

receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free gatestone institute mailing list.

Comment on this item

2 Reader Comments

Zaffar • Dec 21, 2016 at 13:01

I think Pakistan is struck with multiple tragedies and I strongly agree with the writer about Pakistan's problem with terrorism. It is basically a confused state where we are not able to decide that Taliban are in fact our biggest enemy.

Reply->

John Dimple • Jul 5, 2013 at 12:06

The West seems to have very shallow knowledge and short memory when it comes to Pakistan and the Muslim League. The league was created by the British to foment problems in India during Raj, and to put a front against the independence movement in the early 20th century. The economic conditions after World War II and also the independence movements all over different colonies compelled the British to leave the Indian subcontinent; they also divided the country with the help and insistence of the Muslim League.

Indians lived in relative peace without much incrimination about the religious differences. That has been the history of India. Immigrants and invader from different countries settled in India and were generally absorbed in the social as well as religious mosaic. Even the Muslims fought together with Indians to get rid of the British during the 1857 war of independence, which the British recorded as mutiny. It was then that the British learned that the division among the Indians had to be created based on religion if they were to stay and rule. The entire continent of India was not under British control. Two-fifths of the country was ruled by various kings or princes as they were tremed by the British - even in the hey days of the empire.

Without going into greater details, it is sufficient to say that British created the Muslim League in the early twentieth century, and since then it has been the cause of division as well as problems - even in Pakistan. The slogan used during the division of India was "Islam is in Danger" if Pakistan were not created. But the mullahs, imams, and even political leaders have taken advantage of the situation and have created a mess for Pakistan as well as India. Unfortunately, almost all the Muslims believe that religion must be part of politics and governance. As a result, the secular laws of democracy, equality of all and protection of minorities, have never taken roots in any Islamic country except for Turkey where Ataturk imposed them in 1925.

The West has overlooked and even tolerated without any restrictions whatsoever all the ills of a system where inequality of gender and lack of protection of minorities is a norm. The concepts of democracy and capitalism have become ingrained in the West in the last 800 years or so since the Magna Carta declaration in Britain. But all those countries also practiced colonisation and exploitation all over the world. After World War II the USA became more concerned about the spread of the ghost of communism and kept company with even the evil dictators, and fought proxy wars to maintain supremacy.

There is no doubt we are in a better world today then we ever have been. But the remnants of the proxy wars and company of the Islamic and other dictators has left a lrage humanity under the tyrants or ill-manged dictators. The proxy war in Afghanistan in particular did more harm to Pakistan than to the Soviets. Zia ul Haque turned the mllitary into an Islamic fundamentalist organization. The ISI of Pakistan wasted more money in trying to cause subversion internally and in the neighboring India. The fear of India seems to be so ingrained in Pakistan that even the population is rather blind to the insanity of ISI to a great extent.

The Taliban was the creation of Pakistan . Thousands of madrasas all along the border with Pakistan have created ignorant yet innocent kids ready to die at the command of evil leaders who would not do so. Pashtoons have been moved to Sindh and Balucjistan to balance or reduce the majority of locals of Mujahirs. The economy of Pakistan is in shambles not because of the people but because of the military, politicians, and religious bigots.

The current state of religion, politics, the military,and terrorism has brought Pakistan to a situation where it seemingly cannot get out from. Illiteracy and Islamism are two diseases which have caused ignorance and hunger for change. But the military and Islamists have become strong and cannot be controlled by the government, even if it wants to do so. The nuclear weapons created to fight or scare India have become too expensive to maintain. But still they have to be kept away from getting into the hands of terrorists, who are now none but friends created to fight the Soviets. Saudi Arabia has been the banker so far of all the activities along with the West, which made Pakistan what it is today. The West overlooked all the ills and even production of nuclear weapons in Pakistan.

Now the country which has been mired in poverty, illiteracy, and religious bigotry is in a dangerous spot and is not only a danger to itself but to the rest of the world. Unless the West realizes the problem, it will be not only India but the rest of the world which will suffer from the consequences of this neglect. Religions were created in all the societies to bring an order and maintain peace. But religion does not always provide food and shelter and fulfill the hunger to know to the masses. I believe economic development and democracy with equality of gender and tolerance for all sorts of beliefs as well as protection of the minorities is the only way for us all to live in peace.

Terrorism can be conrtolled or checked only through education, and not by misusing religion in any way.

Reply->