Posted on 07/17/2005 8:52:38 AM PDT by Saberwielder
Terrorism links find Pakistan again in eye of storm
By Imtiaz Gul Jul 17, 2005, 15:03 GMT
Islamabad - Despite ebullient U.S praise for its anti-terror efforts since becoming a key member of the international coalition against terrorism, Pakistan still finds itself in the eye of the storm for its past links with radical militant groups in the region.
This time, the south Asian nation is under renewed focus after British officials investigating the July 7 London bombings revealed one of the suicide bombers, Shehzad Tanweer, had stayed at a religious seminary in Lahore this year.
The seminary, known as Markaz-e-Tayyaba, is run by Jamaatud Daawa (JD), an educational wing of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT), one of the six militant groups President General Pervez Musharraf had outlawed in January 2002.
Ever since the United States cobbled together the international coalition against terrorism to oust the Taliban and al-Qaeda from Afghanistan in late 2001, Pakistan has apprehended and handed over some 700 Moslem militants to the United States, mostly foreigners.
Among the catch were Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, al-Qaedas operations chief and the mastermind of the September 11 terror attacks, the Tanzanian-born Ahmad Khalfan al-Ghailani, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Osama bin Laden's deputy Abu Zubaidah and Yassir Al-Jaziri.
In an unprecedented alliance, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Pakistan's military Inter-Services Intelligence agency have scoured the length and breadth of Pakistan as well as the regions bordering Afghanistan and have so far detained hundreds others on charges of abetting Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.
In the London bombings, Pakistan has also assured British officials of full cooperation in the investigations, which presently encompass the suspected bombers including Tanweer.
Seminary officials have confirmed that Tanweer stayed with them at various points between December 2004 and February 2005 but said he was there just for five days, and not for the entire length of his stay in Pakistan.
"This is nothing but a pack of lies that Tanweer got military training during his stay at the Markaz," a Jamat spokesman Mohammad Yahya said in Lahore.
Tanweer, 22, is one of the three Pakistani-origin British nationals suspected of direct involvement in the London attacks.
U.S. and British officials still take Pakistani claims and assertions with a pinch of salt, and want Islamabad to mover harder against suspected elements.
But Islamabad says the British authorities should provide enough evidence for them to take any action.
"As an active member of the 48 countries involved in the war against terrorism, we have been and are ready to cooperate in whatever manner we can, but we need substantive proof," said Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao in Islamabad.
Some senior intelligence officials are also wary of the allegations emanating from London.
"Coming to Pakistan and staying here for quite some time does not necessarily mean any of these three boys got terrorist training," an intelligence official told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa. He also denied any arrests in connection with the London blasts.
But there are others being quoted by foreign media and a local news agency Online, who claim several arrests have been made in the latest swoop following tip-offs from London.
Online reported late Saturday that during raids by ISI, the civilian Intelligence Bureau (IB) and police, at least six suspects have been picked up for interrogation from Lahore and Faisalabad in the central Punjab province.
Most intelligence information links the LeT with those suspected of involvement in the London explosions. In fact, it was the LeT that introduced in the late 1990s the concept of "Fidayeen attacks" (Suicide strikes) to hit Indian civilian and army targets in the troubled state of Kashmir.
Even the Indian security officials blamed the July 5 invasion of a controversial religious site in Ayodhya on the LeT, which seems to have gradually reviewed its public posturing.
Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, chief of defunct LeT, who used to take pride in his strategy of "fidayeen attacks", now condemns the practice in an apparent attempt to take the focus away from the LeT.
"Islam prohibits suicide attacks and bars the faithful from killing even those infidels, who are not causing any harm to Moslems or their religion, said Saeed at the JD headquarter near Lahore.
The attacks in London and the Indian city of Ayodhya have also prompted President Musharraf to order a nationwide campaign against outlawed outfits, which have been operating under different names after the government banned them.
"My government will not allow any of the banned outfits to re- surface with different names," the general said while addressing senior police officials at his camp office in the garrison town of Rawalpindi early last week.
Analysts foresee a tough time ahead for Pakistan.
"The recent incidents of terrorism in the U.K., India and Afghanistan point fingers towards Pakistan, which will bring into question President Musharraf's avowed pledge against terrorism and militant groups based in Pakistan," Hassan Askari Rizvi told dpa.
Rizvi said multiple factors such as absence of a strong political infrastructure in Pakistan and sympathies of many intelligence officials with militants could continue to undermine the government efforts, and cause more problems for it.
Pakistan is likely to remain under tight international scrutiny as long as foreign investigators track down plotters and activists to this south Asian Moslem nation.
© dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Title has terrorism misspelled. My apologies.
The eye of a storm? Wouldn't that mean things are peaceful there?
Details, details....remember, these are journalists we're dealing with here. You know....one step below P.E. majors?
Pakistan is full of ignorant, uneducated, superstitious , and savage, people. So do not expect any common sense to come out of there. They treat their own people like savages too, so it is foolish to treat them as civilized.
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