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South Punjab and terrorism The attack, mounted originally to kidnap the cricket team as leverage to get some captured terrorists out of Pakistani jails, killed seven people — six of them policemen. The attack killed cricket in Pakistan too with international players refusing to come to Pakistan after the ordeal of the Sri Lankans. The South Punjabi terrorist, together with his team, had fled to South Waziristan after carrying out the attack. But we recall that the Lahore CCPO at that time had announced that India had in fact carried out the attack; now the capture of Zubair tells us another story. The Jama’at-e Islami, protesting at a linkage hinted at by the CCPO, says it holds to the earlier story that India did it. The Senate on Wednesday heard some members protest at remarks made by the Indian prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, purporting to accuse Pakistan of terrorism in Mumbai. It is difficult to see what the honourable senators found offensive. In fact, the entire world is pleased with what was considered a good Zardari-Singh meeting in which both agreed to secretary-level talks which may actually take place earlier in New Delhi than envisaged later at Sharm al-Sheikh. And Mr Singh, on reaching New Delhi, delivered himself of the following encouraging statement: peace with Pakistan was imperative and that he would continue to try to make peace for the sake of his vision of a cooperative subcontinent. But the refrain in Pakistan continues about India actually orchestrating terrorism in Pakistan. Some obscure ex-Taliban terrorists named Qari Turkistani, who has deserted Baitullah Mehsud, has told a TV channel that “US, India and Israel are behind the Taliban commander”. Another ex-warrior Qari Zainuddin has also pretended to desert Baitullah Mehsud after the military operation targeted the strongholds of the commanders owing allegiance to the Taliban movement. After being “softened” by bombardment many people in the area will pluck up courage to speak. So we can expect India to be named too to touch base with Pakistan’s India-centred nationalism. What has come to the fore, however, more clearly than before is the reality of the involvement in terrorism of militias based in South Punjab. A Punjabi cleric has been caught this week taking groups of South Punjabi boys to Waziristan for their training as suicide-bombers. The well known writer and author of a book on Pakistan, Selig Harrison, in his latest article says: “The danger of an Islamist takeover of Pakistan is real. But it does not come from the Taliban guerrillas now battling the Pakistan Army in the Swat borderlands. It comes from a proliferating network of heavily armed Islamist militias in the Punjab heartland and major cities, directed by Lashkar-e-Tayba, a close ally of Al Qaeda, which staged the terrorist attack last November in Mumbai”. South Punjab stretches from Jhang to Bahawalpur, dotted with madrassas that private citizens from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait fund generously, thinking they are spreading the message of Islam. Only in Dera Ghazi Khan, the origin of the dreaded clerics of Lal Masjid in Islamabad, there are 185 registered madrassas, of which 90 are Deobandi (with a total of 324 teachers), 84 are Barelvi (with a total of 212 teachers), six are Ahle Hadith (107 teachers) and five are Fiqh-e-Jafaria (10 teachers). Multan is the traditional base of madrassas, while Rahimyar Khan and Bahawalpur have seen their proliferation in recent years. Mumbai was attacked from South Punjab. Most of the suicide-bombers have been from this region which is characterised by large feudal holdings in the countryside and extreme poverty in the cities. Apart from the madrassas, which are categorised by the people as jihadi and non-jihadi, there are mosques that supply fighters and suicide-bombers to the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The trend had started during the Taliban rule in Kabul in the 1990s and has continued after the establishment of Lal Masjid as an entrepôt of warriors moving between Pakistan and Afghanistan. * Daily Times Editorial:: Friday, June 19, 2009
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