Pakistani students prefer guns to books
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
ISLAMABAD - Several hundred students in the southern port city of Karachi have
left the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT), Pakistan's largest student union, to
join al-Qaeda training camps in the North Waziristan tribal area on the border
with Afghanistan, Asia Times Online has learned.
The IJT is an offshoot of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), the country's premier
Islamic party.
"This is true. They now have their own camp in North Waziristan and it is
purely the work of the late Dr Arshad Waheed that such a huge number of people
are joining here," Usman Punjabi, a militant leader, told Asia Times Online on
the telephone.
Waheed was a renowned kidney specialist who was president of
the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association, an offshoot of the JI. He and his
brother Dr Akmal Waheed, a cardiovascular physician, were arrested in 2004
after an attack on a military motorcade in Karachi in 2004. They were charged
with facilitating members of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jundallah.
The brothers were later released and relocated to South Waziristan, where
Arshad Waheed was killed in a drone attack in 2008. He was the first Pakistani
al-Qaeda sympathizer to be featured by al-Qaeda's media wing al-Sahab in a long
documentary, in which he was called a role model.
The exodus of students to the tribal areas was also confirmed by a former
leader of the JI's youth wing who spoke to Asia Times Online on the condition
of anonymity, "To me there is no need to hide this thing, it is true, a big
number has already left and I am afraid that the remaining ones will also be
leaving Karachi soon."
According to a Pakistani counter-terrorism official, case studies show that
initially all jihadis are recruited to fight against foreign forces in
Afghanistan, but ultimately they end up fighting against the Pakistani security
forces.
This is an important development in al-Qaeda’s struggle and a major blow for
Pakistan that a large number of people affiliated with the country's most
influential Islamic party - always considered a major strategic asset for the
military establishment - have joined forces with al-Qaeda.
This development can be compared to 2005, when, after a crackdown on militants,
hundreds of highly trained and battle-hardened fighters from Kashmir went to
North Waziristan to join forces with al-Qaeda. These included Ilyas Kashmiri,
whose 313 Brigade is now an important operational arm of al-Qaeda, and veteran
jihadi Abdul Jabbar.
Beginning of a new phase
Shortly after last Tuesday's attack on a Punjabi regimental center in Mardan in
Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa (formerly North-West Frontier Province) in which three
suicide bombers were killed and four soldiers wounded, the Taliban sent out a
press release in English. The first section read:
Recently, news has
circulated in the media of a report of Amnesty International regarding the
brutal rule of the Pakistan army in Swat, northeastern Pakistan, under a
so-called "operation". The report says that the Pakistan army in the name of
the operation, Rahe-Rast, did brutal assaults in poor areas of Swat Valley and
allegedly killed hundreds of men without charges and without any proof or legal
procedure before they were executed. These extra-judicial killings not only
unveil the nature of the Pakistani army, they also bring the truth in front of
the whole nation. A few months ago, a video tape was circulated on the Internet
in which many Pakistan army men were seen brutally beating villagers, nearly
killing them.
Earlier, a movie was shown on local and international television channels
containing scenes of a women being executed by some men [Taliban], saying this
is the so-called Islamic judiciary system the Taliban wants to impose on the
people of Pakistan. [As a result] the army took action and started operation
Rahe-Rast. If the serious think-tanks of Pakistan compare these two video
clips, they must speak out.
What is interesting about this
release is that is was relatively well articulated; in the past, militant
spokesmen had difficulty even expressing themselves in Urdu.
Contacts in North Waziristan confirm that the large-scale movement of IJT
members took place earlier this year. The organization responded by expelled
all of them. However, these students maintain a very active presence on the
Internet, and blogging is their main tool for recruitment.
The JI apparently did its best to bring these students back, without success.
It even sent Hafiz Waheedullah Khan to Wana, the largest town in South
Waziristan, to speak to Akmal Waheed.
Kahn is the father of the Waheed brothers and a well-respected educationist who
runs a network of private schools. He was a founder of the JI-backed Teachers'
Association of Pakistan, the largest in the country. Akmal refused to speak
with his father.
The JI was banned in the 1960s by then-dictator Field Marshal Ayub Khan's
regime but it fought its case in the courts and won back its legitimacy. In the
1970s, the JI formed two notorious militias, al-Shams and al-Badr, which fought
with the Pakistan army against Indian forces and rebel Bengalis. That support
brought the JI close to the military and that continued until the era of former
president General Pervez Musharraf, who came to power in 1999.
The IJT was formed in 1948 as an offshoot of the JI to counter left-wing
student unions. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, the IJT won elections at the
country's three main campuses - Punjab University, Karachi University and
Peshawar University.
Student leaders of that period became national leaders, including incumbent
ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani (he was elected president of the
IJT-backed student union of Karachi University); the leader of the Pakistan
Muslim League (Nawaz), Javed Hashmi (Punjab University); incumbent Law Minister
Dr Babar Awan (president of the IJT Rawalpindi), beside a long list of
politicians in different political parties and a very strong representation in
Urdu-language media outlets.
During the Afghan jihad in the 1980s against the Soviets, IJT members
enthusiastically fought and in the process they developed ties with Arab
militants. For this reason, after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US,
top al-Qaeda members, including 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, were
arrested from the residences of JI leaders.
As a result, at one time the Americans put immense pressure on Pakistan to ban
the JI, so much so that then-Pakistani interior minister Syed Faisal Saleh
Hayat announced that the government was thinking of doing so. However, the
military establishment put its foot down, despite a personality clash between
Musharraf and then-JI president Qazi Hussain Ahmad. Instead of the JI being
banned, Hayat was removed from his post.
This new development of IJT students joining al-Qaeda is more dangerous for
Pakistan than any other previous al-Qaeda alliances. Most colleges and
universities are the stronghold of the IJT, while the IJT's parent body, the
JI, is the richest political party in the country and runs schools, madrassas
(seminaries) and a vast network of social services and charities. Karachi
contributes about 65% of the JI’s revenues.
When the Kashmiri fighters joined forces with al-Qaeda, it improved the group's
guerrilla techniques in the battlefield, while the IJT cadre will greatly boast
al-Qaeda's recruitment drive and enhance its political influence.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can
be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com
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