Pakistani Arrested Over Prayer Ritual For Suicide Bomber

A Pakistani who led a mass prayer ceremony for one of the London suicide bombers at his ancestral village in the Punjab has been arrested as part of President Pervez Musharraf's anti-terrorism clampdown.

Molvi Abdul Rehman, 30, was detained after he organised a ritual service in honour of Shehzad Tanweer, the 22-year-old Briton whose parents emigrated from Pakistan. Tanweer killed himself and six passengers in the Aldgate Tube bombing on July 7.

The ceremony, held at the Samoondran mosque in the Tanweer family's home village of Kottan in southern Punjab, saw members of the crowd of 100 hailing Tanweer as a "hero of Islam".

Pakistani intelligence sources said that Rehman was believed to have been seen in Tanweer's company when he visited the village last year, about the time that he is thought to have received terrorist training. "We would like to find out from him whom else he [Tanweer] interacted with when he stayed in this village for several weeks," said one official.

Details of Rehman's arrest emerged as General Musharraf, the military ruler, announced plans to expel an estimated 1,400 foreign students from the country's Islamic madrassa schools, among them some Britons.

Announcing the measures on Friday night, Gen Musharraf also said that Pakistani families in Britain had a responsibility to warn their children of the dangers of extremism. "The fault lies with the people of Pakistani origin," he said. "Why have your children not been assimilated into the society that you have adopted for yourselves?"

Information gleaned from the arrest of Rehman has also led to the detention of Maulana Abdul Aziz Faridi, the leader of a local seminary called Jamia Masjid Ahle-Sunnah Wal-Jammat.

Pakistani intelligence agencies believe that this may be one of the madrassas attended by at least one of the three bombers when they visited the country. One intelligence source said: "We are also trying to find out if he [Tanweer] had ever discussed issues like suicide with the madrassa head."

Rehman and Faridi are not wanted by the government in direct connection with terror activities, but both men are said to be linked with Jaish-e-Mohammed, a defunct organisation known for its involvement in several suicide attacks, including two failed assassination attempts on Gen Musharraf.

As part of continuing attempts to shed more light on Tanweer's activities, police also raided the house of one of his uncles, Tahir Pervez - where Tanweer is believed to have stayed. Books and literature were taken away.

Under pressure from the international community, Pakistani authorities have arrested up to 800 people suspected of involvement in Islamic terrorism.

mothers are sitting in the cafe chatting over a pint of goat's milk. The older of the mothers pulls her bag out and starts flipping through pictures and they start reminiscing.

"This is my oldest son Mohammed. He's 24 years old now" "Yes, I remember him as a baby" says the other mother cheerfully. "He's a martyr now though" mum confides.

"Oh so sad dear" says the other.

"And this is my second son Kalid. He's 21" "Oh, I remember him," says the other happily, "he had such curly hair when he was born". "He's a martyr too " says mum quietly.

"Oh gracious me ." says the other.

"And this is my third son. My baby. My beautiful Ahmed. He's 18, she whispers.

"Yes" says the friend enthusiastically, "I remember when he first started school".

"He's a martyr also," says mum, with tears in her eyes.

After a pause and a deep sigh, the second Muslim mother looks wistfully at the photographs and says...

"They blow up so fast, don't they?"

"Announcing the measures on Friday night, Gen Musharraf also said that Pakistani families in Britain had a responsibility to warn their children of the dangers of extremism. "The fault lies with the people of Pakistani origin," he said. "Why have your children not been assimilated into the society that you have adopted for yourselves?"

Somehow at this point. I don't think he is playing games. Nor double talking. He fully realizes the ways Islam as practiced in Pakistan. He is not dummy. He is making clear public statement that the fault lies with the Pakistani people. That is a first. And quite frankly his view points are going to be different then an Arab ME viewpoint. Again, not all muslims think the same nor share the same tribal culture value systems etc.. Of course we must realize he has been putting himself out on a limb because we are not only pressuring him via. the DoS, but he can expect lots of good military hardware in the future to keep equal with India.
As the world turns.

"The fault lies with the people of Pakistani origin," he said. "Why have your children not been assimilated into the society that you have adopted for yourselves?"

Choosing To Fail - by Theodore Dalrymple

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1452520/posts
Excerpt:

This is not to deny that social factors in upbringing influence the way people think and make decisions. If the negligent and sometimes brutal incompetence of so much white British parenting (solicitously justified by liberal intellectuals and subsidized by the welfare state) explains the perpetuation and expansion of the white British underclass, if not its origins, could it be that the severity and rigidity of Indian upbringing, combined with British culture's siren song of self-gratification, explain the development of an Indian underclass?

The fact that the Muslim population has a crime rate six times that of the Hindu and three times that of the Sikh suggests that it could, for the Muslim culture of the subcontinent has in general much greater difficulty compromising creatively with Western culture than the other two religions have. This startling difference is a further argument against those who would see in the development of an Indian underclass an inevitable response to racial prejudice: for it is surely unlikely that the racially prejudiced would trouble themselves to distinguish between Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus.

Muslim parents are more reluctant than Sikh and Hindu parents to recognize that their children, having been brought up in a very different cultural environment from that in which they grew up, inevitably depart from their own traditional ways and aspire to a different way of life. While many Muslim parents send their daughters out of the country at the age of 12 to prevent them from becoming infected with local ideas (but as the Jesuits would tell them, it is already too late—they should send their daughters away at seven), very few Sikhs do so and no Hindus at all.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1186534.cms

Jehadi factory working flat out
RAJAT PANDIT

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SATURDAY, JULY 30, 2005 11:53:27 PM ]

NEW DELHI: With the jehadi factory in Pakistan once again coming under the arclight after the London and Egypt bombings, General Pervez Musharraf is facing international heat yet again to tackle the menace. If he needs help in detecting the terror camps, here it is in full detail.

The lowdown on the 55 camps is based on impeccable intelligence from RAW, Intelligence Bureau and Military Intelligence, with supporting evidence in the form of photographs, radio intercepts, interrogation reports and the like. Significantly, the list of camps, accessed by TOI, shows they are spread all over Pakistan, not limited to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

While 29 such camps are located in PoK, 15 or more are in the North West Frontier Province. Another seven are in Punjab, three in the Northern Areas of Gilgit-Baltistan, and one in Sindh. "Some of these camps are make-shift and can quickly be translocated to other parts to escape international scrutiny. Many of these camps had gone into hibernation after the US operations in Afghanistan. But they have now been revived," said an official.

These training camps send out jehadis to not only Kashmir and other parts of India, but to terror targets worldwide. For instance, one of the London suicide bombers — Shehzad Tanweer — is believed to have got his training at a camp in Muridke, near Lahore.

The well-established camps in PoK include those in Kotli, Khuiretta, Rawlakot, Bagh, Halanshumali, Garhi Dupatta, Nikial, Sensa, Aliabad and Deolian.

Moreover, some "new" camps have sprung up at Palani, Palak and Kund, apart from the "re-opened" camps at Samani, Dudhinial and Fagosh. "While some of these have a mix of cadres from JeM, Laskhar-e-Taiba, Hizbul Mujahideen, al-Badr, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, al-Barq and other tanzims, others are restricted to one outfit," he said.

The NWFP is another hotbed. The densely-forested hilly Manshera region, in particular, houses several madrasas, which also act as training camps. The Jangal Mangal camp, for instance, is a relatively large one, housing over 150 militants. Camps in Punjab are located in Muridke, Tilla, Shakergarh, Jhelum and even in and around big cities like Rawalpindi (Chaklala), Gujranwala (Zaffar Iqbal Baiwa) and Lahore (Changa Manga).

Indian intelligence agencies have all information about terror camps in Pakistan. Northern Areas have camps in Gultari, Tarkuti and Skardu, while the Tanda Allabyar camp is located in Sindh. “Reports show the Gultari and Tarkuti camps have 30 to 40 trainees of Hizbul Mujahideen each," he said.

Authorities feel the list signifies a breach of the anti-terror pledge that Musharraf had signed on. Though they continue to maintain that they would still like to persevere with the peace process, the disappointment with Pakistan has already sapped New Delhi’s enthusiasm and might force it to tread the path with excessive caution.

India has conveyed its concern to Pakistan about the drastic spike in infiltration along LoC over the last two months. In July, Army killed over 50 ultras trying to sneak into J&K.

"The number of terrorists in these camps is estimated to be between 2,000 and 2,500. Apart from training jehadis for J&K these camps often also house terrorists headed for other parts of the world," said a senior official.

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