A US Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter taking part in earthquake relief efforts in Pakistan apparently came under fire while delivering aid, the US military said yesterday.
US Central Command said the helicopter was not hit and returned safely with its crew to Chaklala air base.
The US military said the aircraft "is believed to have been fired upon by a rocket-propelled grenade," but did not identify who fired the weapon.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article324047.ece
Quake relief helicopter was fired on, say US pilots
By Jan McGirk in Islamabad Published: 02 November 2005 A rocket-propelled grenade has been fired at an American cargo helicopter bringing aid to earthquake victims in the Pakistani-controlled portion of Kashmir, US pilots said.
The Chinook helicopter, flying over the devastated town of Chakothi near the Line of Control, was not hit, and there were no injuries or damages, but the alleged incident calls into question the massive American airlift of humanitarian aid to Pakistan, one of its allies in the "war on terror".
The Americans briefly suspended relief operations, but were due to resume aid flights this morning. A joint investigation was launched by Pakistan and the US.
American officials were not able to identify who fired the weapon, and last night no one had admitted responsibility. But Chakothi is a stronghold for Islamist militants opposed to President Pervez Musharraf's ties to the Bush administration.
A Pakistani Army spokesman, Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan, denied that the Chinook was fired upon, and suggested that the Americans had confused the sound of road-blasting for dynamite with enemy fire. "The blast was huge enough to kick up dust which the pilot probably misunderstood as rocket fire," he said. The roads in Kashmir province are blocked by landslides after the earthquake on 8 October.
None of the 60 relief helicopters operating over Pakistan is armed. Weapons have been removed to increase cargo capacity while the aircraft are on loan from forces in Afghanistan.
A rocket-propelled grenade has been fired at an American cargo helicopter bringing aid to earthquake victims in the Pakistani-controlled portion of Kashmir, US pilots said.
The Chinook helicopter, flying over the devastated town of Chakothi near the Line of Control, was not hit, and there were no injuries or damages, but the alleged incident calls into question the massive American airlift of humanitarian aid to Pakistan, one of its allies in the "war on terror".
The Americans briefly suspended relief operations, but were due to resume aid flights this morning. A joint investigation was launched by Pakistan and the US.
American officials were not able to identify who fired the weapon, and last night no one had admitted responsibility. But Chakothi is a stronghold for Islamist militants opposed to President Pervez Musharraf's ties to the Bush administration. A Pakistani Army spokesman, Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan, denied that the Chinook was fired upon, and suggested that the Americans had confused the sound of road-blasting for dynamite with enemy fire. "The blast was huge enough to kick up dust which the pilot probably misunderstood as rocket fire," he said. The roads in Kashmir province are blocked by landslides after the earthquake on 8 October.
None of the 60 relief helicopters operating over Pakistan is armed. Weapons have been removed to increase cargo capacity while the aircraft are on loan from forces in Afghanistan.
http://cfrterrorism.org/groups/harakat.html
Which Islamist terrorist groups have been active in Kashmir?
The State Department lists three Islamist groups active in Kashmir as foreign terrorist organizations: Harakat ul-Mujahedeen, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Jaish-e-Muhammad. The first group has been listed for years, and the other two were added after the December 2001 attack on the Indian parliament. All three groups attracted Pakistani members as well as Afghan and Arab veterans who fought the 1980s Soviet occupation of nearby Afghanistan.
Harakat ul-Mujahedeen (“Islamic Freedom Fighters’ Group”) was established in the mid-1980s. Based first in Pakistan and then in Afghanistan, it had several thousand armed supporters in Pakistan and Kashmir. Harakat members have also participated in insurgent and terrorist operations in Burma, Tajikistan, and Bosnia.
Jaish-e-Muhammad (“Army of Muhammad”) was established in 2000 by Maulana Masood Azhar, a Pakistani cleric. Jaish, which attracted Harakat members, had several hundred armed supporters in Kashmir and Pakistan.
Lashkar-e-Taiba (“Army of the Pure”), active since 1993, is the military wing of the well-funded Pakistani Islamist organization Markaz-ad-Dawa-wal-Irshad, which recruited volunteers to fight alongside the Taliban.
Since Pakistan "outlawed" these groups, attacks in Kashmir and Pakistan have been carried out under other guises. One group calling itself al-Qanoon or Lashkar-e-Omar is thought to be a coalition of members of Jaish-e-Muhammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and other Pakistan-based Islamist groups, including the anti-Shiite Lashkar-e-Jhangvi organization.
Actual poster from a madarsah in Pakistan.
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com/2005/03/religion-of-ultimate-domination.html
Excerpt:
What's that? They're just terrorists, you say? They're not representative of Islam? Then why is one of their constituent member groups (Lashkar-e-Taiba) being defended by an official with an Australian Muslim Public Affairs Committee?
Unlike other groups, LeT is characterised by its focus entirely on military targets in the Jammu-Kashmir region. LeT have never attacked Western interests nor expressed any animosity towards Australia. In 2000, the LeT leader, Professor Hafiz Muhammad Sayyid, told reporters from the American ABC network, that LeT has “no interest in fighting American since America is not fighting the Muslims and this is the ruling of the Koran”. He went on to say that “Lashkar-e-Taiba is engaged in fighting against the occupying Indian army in Jammu and Kashmir” and is fighting for the “rights of all oppressed human beings: Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist, even Hindu”.
It is possible that some members of LeT have had contact with al-Qaeda, although in the same ABC interview, Professor Sayyid went to lengths to explain that LeT has no organization affiliation or tie with Usama Bin Laden and that “our organization is not involved, nor has it even been involved, in any activities in America or East Africa.” He went on to repudiate the methodology of al-Qaeda, saying, “We condemn all acts of violence against civilians and those who commit such acts, whether Muslim or non-Muslim. Islam does not allow the killing of peaceful, innocent, unarmed civilians”.
There is a clear ideological distinction between LeT and al-Qaeda. LeT, for example, have demonstrated a willingness to speak out against Muslim terrorism and extremist behaviour. On Christmas Eve, 2000, LeT issued a communiqué to their followers and supporters explicitly condemning the attacks on Indonesia’s Christian minority that were taking place at the time. Abu Umar, the group’s Director of Foreign Affairs, wrote, “These bombings are a horrific and inhuman assault on innocent civilians who gathered solely for the sake of worship”. Rebuking those who carried out the attacks, he wrote, “the goal of the criminals who carried out these attacks was to tarnish the religion of Islam and cause the further deterioration of relations between Muslims and Christians. Whoever they are, the bombers are doing the work of the enemies of Islam”.
This funny fellow would like us to believe that the same organization that prints a map showing a world conquered by Islam has no interest in attacking the west, and its secular, democratic traditions.
Perhaps they imagine we will just join them out of love for their peaceful, tolerant ways.