In the wake of the brutal terrorist attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar last month, the Pakistani civilian and military leadership made emphatic proclamations that the country would no longer distinguish between the so-called bad jihadists/Taliban that perpetrate such heinous attacks inside Pakistan and the “good” ones who have unleashed havoc in the neighbouring countries.
The Army Public School attack, with about 150 casualties – mostly children – was so dreadful that even the sceptics thought that perhaps the country’s policymakers are serious this time. Following the announcement of the National Action Plan it was expected that there will be a crackdown on the already proscribed terrorist outfits and more will be added to the blacklist. The Haqqani network and Jamat-ud-Dawa were two jihadist groups rumoured to have been banned. The US State Department spokesperson even welcomed this “ban”. The Pakistani officials’ sophistry about proscribing the two outfits, however, indicates that the good/bad jihadist distinction is alive and these groups have not been banned after all.
I had pointed out right after the Peshawar attack that the way the blame for the tragedy was being deflected towards India and Afghanistan there would be no introspection, making the much-needed course correction impossible. The security establishment-friendly elements in both the conventional and social media have ranted nonstop that the Indian intelligence agency RAW orchestrated the school attack by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan via Afghanistan. Where serious reflection was in order, black propaganda was unleashed against India and Afghanistan by televangelists and analysts alike.
Wild conspiracy theories
For example, this crude video stitched together from several unrelated news reports was launched on the internet blaming former RAW chief Vikram Sood for, among other things, the hijacking of Indian Airlines’ IC 814 in 1999 that was taken to the Taliban-controlled Kandahar in Afghanistan. Interestingly, this was the same hijacking that got the Jaish-e-Muhammad leader Maulana Masood Azhar freed from an Indian prison in exchange for the passengers. If the RAW indeed runs the Tehrik-e-Taliban, why did the Pakistani civilian and military officials sign scores of agreements with it? If RAW sprang Maulana Azhar from the Indian custody why does he remain at large in Pakistan today? Irony seems to be totally lost on the conspiracy mongers.
It is not just that wild conspiracy theories are being spun about the elusive “foreign” hand but an active image-building campaign is underway to cushion the Jamat-ud-Dawa and its leadership against the action that the US, India and the UN have been demanding. This past weekend a seasoned journalist, Mazhar Abbas, wrote the article “Is Hafiz Saeed a threat to the US?” in the Pakistani paper The News. In this he notes: “The Americans perhaps know about Hafiz Saeed from the Indian perspective but what they don’t know is something they need to know. He is among those religious leaders of Pakistan who consider groups like the Islamic State and al-Qaeda a danger to the cause of ‘Tableegh’. Thus, to ban him or his group JuD may go in favour of the terrorists’ narratives and may not help the war against terrorism.” The article is replete with historical inaccuracies and, quite frankly, is economical with truth about the Jamat-ud-Dawa right from its name change to its transnational jihadist activities.
Mazhar Abbas acknowledges that the outfit was originally founded as the Markaz Dawa-wal-Irshad and changed its name to Jamat-ud-Dawa but fails to say that did it so to skirt the ban in the wake of the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament, which was launched by the Markaz Dawa-wal-Irshad’s subsidiary Lashkar-e-Taiba. Abbas portrays the Jamat-ud-Dawa as a charity and missionary organisation, which did not indulge in armed jihadism within or outside Pakistan.
Common ideology and links
Relying on primary source information, Arif Jamal and Professor Stephen Tankel, the two foremost experts on the Jamat-ud-Dawa/Lashkar-e-Taiba, have extensively chronicled in their books the links between the groups and al-Qaeda. Tankel accurately observes in his book Storming the World Stage: the story of Lashkar-e-Taiba that the al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah, who was captured in March 2002 from a Jamat-ud-Dawa safe house in Faisalabad, was a dual recruiter for the al-Qaeda and the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
In his book Call for transnational Jihad: Lashkar-e-Taiba 1985-2014, Arif Jamal has noted that Hafiz Saeed fought alongside Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan and the two became so tight that Bin Laden even gave his jeep to Saeed. Similarly, the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s operational chief Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi is said to be a brother-in-law of a Bin Laden lieutenant, Abdur Rehman al-Sareehi, and gained his first battlefield experience under the Jalaluddin Haqqani network in Afghanistan. Arif Jamal has extensively documented the Jamat-ud-Dawa/Lashkar-e-Taiba’s transnational jihadist activities in the Philippines, India, Chechnya, Bosnia and the US. The Jamat-ud-Dawa certainly has the desire, if not the means, to pose a direct threat to the US.
The doctrinal orientation of the Jamat-ud-Dawa, al-Qaeda and Islamic State remains orthodox Salafi (known as Ahl-e-Hadith in the subcontinent). Pir Badiuddin Rashidi, one of founders of the Markaz Dawa-wal-Irshad/Jamat-ud-Dawa, was directly associated with the Saudi Salafi Juhayman al-Utaybi’s Ikhwan, which laid the infamous siege to the Holy Ka’aba in November 1979. The Islamic State also traces its doctrinal origins to al-Utaybi and in fact his letters are part of the terrorist group’s core curriculum.
Action needed against jihadists
The point is that all so-called bad Taliban – from Kashmir to Kabul – were “good” Taliban at some point and did their handlers’ bidding. They are, however, deeply indoctrinated zealots who pursue their own ideological agenda. The jihadists’ handlers and the writers who sing paeans to the Jamat-ud-Dawa’s charity work can try to neatly box the jihadists under different labels but there always comes a time when these fanatics buck their masters. Dozens of jihadist groups have done it before and many more will do it in the future, as their ultimate aim remains a primitive caliphate not a modern society whether under democracy or dictatorship.
The curious case of banning the Jamat-ud-Dawa and the Haqqani network shows that the delusional thinking about “benign” jihadism remains rampant not just in the security establishment but also afflicts the political class and the intelligentsia. When clarity was needed to act decisively against jihadist terror, the game plan apparently is to further muddy the already murky waters. The inevitable result of such smokescreens, as Mazhar Abbas and a coterie of television anchors are throwing up, will be the evaporation of the national resolve and consensus against terrorism.
While Afghanistan is likely to bear the brunt of Pakistan’s recalcitrant policy of using jihadists to pursue its foreign policy goal, Indian cannot let its guard down either. There should be little doubt, however, that just like the hardcore jihadists boomeranged on Pakistan, this soft but highly poisonous propaganda snake will also turn and strike the other way.
A shorter version of this post appeared in the Daily Times, Pakistan.
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The Army Public School attack, with about 150 casualties – mostly children – was so dreadful that even the sceptics thought that perhaps the country’s policymakers are serious this time. Following the announcement of the National Action Plan it was expected that there will be a crackdown on the already proscribed terrorist outfits and more will be added to the blacklist. The Haqqani network and Jamat-ud-Dawa were two jihadist groups rumoured to have been banned. The US State Department spokesperson even welcomed this “ban”. The Pakistani officials’ sophistry about proscribing the two outfits, however, indicates that the good/bad jihadist distinction is alive and these groups have not been banned after all.
I had pointed out right after the Peshawar attack that the way the blame for the tragedy was being deflected towards India and Afghanistan there would be no introspection, making the much-needed course correction impossible. The security establishment-friendly elements in both the conventional and social media have ranted nonstop that the Indian intelligence agency RAW orchestrated the school attack by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan via Afghanistan. Where serious reflection was in order, black propaganda was unleashed against India and Afghanistan by televangelists and analysts alike.
Wild conspiracy theories
For example, this crude video stitched together from several unrelated news reports was launched on the internet blaming former RAW chief Vikram Sood for, among other things, the hijacking of Indian Airlines’ IC 814 in 1999 that was taken to the Taliban-controlled Kandahar in Afghanistan. Interestingly, this was the same hijacking that got the Jaish-e-Muhammad leader Maulana Masood Azhar freed from an Indian prison in exchange for the passengers. If the RAW indeed runs the Tehrik-e-Taliban, why did the Pakistani civilian and military officials sign scores of agreements with it? If RAW sprang Maulana Azhar from the Indian custody why does he remain at large in Pakistan today? Irony seems to be totally lost on the conspiracy mongers.
It is not just that wild conspiracy theories are being spun about the elusive “foreign” hand but an active image-building campaign is underway to cushion the Jamat-ud-Dawa and its leadership against the action that the US, India and the UN have been demanding. This past weekend a seasoned journalist, Mazhar Abbas, wrote the article “Is Hafiz Saeed a threat to the US?” in the Pakistani paper The News. In this he notes: “The Americans perhaps know about Hafiz Saeed from the Indian perspective but what they don’t know is something they need to know. He is among those religious leaders of Pakistan who consider groups like the Islamic State and al-Qaeda a danger to the cause of ‘Tableegh’. Thus, to ban him or his group JuD may go in favour of the terrorists’ narratives and may not help the war against terrorism.” The article is replete with historical inaccuracies and, quite frankly, is economical with truth about the Jamat-ud-Dawa right from its name change to its transnational jihadist activities.
Mazhar Abbas acknowledges that the outfit was originally founded as the Markaz Dawa-wal-Irshad and changed its name to Jamat-ud-Dawa but fails to say that did it so to skirt the ban in the wake of the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament, which was launched by the Markaz Dawa-wal-Irshad’s subsidiary Lashkar-e-Taiba. Abbas portrays the Jamat-ud-Dawa as a charity and missionary organisation, which did not indulge in armed jihadism within or outside Pakistan.
Common ideology and links
Relying on primary source information, Arif Jamal and Professor Stephen Tankel, the two foremost experts on the Jamat-ud-Dawa/Lashkar-e-Taiba, have extensively chronicled in their books the links between the groups and al-Qaeda. Tankel accurately observes in his book Storming the World Stage: the story of Lashkar-e-Taiba that the al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah, who was captured in March 2002 from a Jamat-ud-Dawa safe house in Faisalabad, was a dual recruiter for the al-Qaeda and the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
In his book Call for transnational Jihad: Lashkar-e-Taiba 1985-2014, Arif Jamal has noted that Hafiz Saeed fought alongside Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan and the two became so tight that Bin Laden even gave his jeep to Saeed. Similarly, the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s operational chief Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi is said to be a brother-in-law of a Bin Laden lieutenant, Abdur Rehman al-Sareehi, and gained his first battlefield experience under the Jalaluddin Haqqani network in Afghanistan. Arif Jamal has extensively documented the Jamat-ud-Dawa/Lashkar-e-Taiba’s transnational jihadist activities in the Philippines, India, Chechnya, Bosnia and the US. The Jamat-ud-Dawa certainly has the desire, if not the means, to pose a direct threat to the US.
The doctrinal orientation of the Jamat-ud-Dawa, al-Qaeda and Islamic State remains orthodox Salafi (known as Ahl-e-Hadith in the subcontinent). Pir Badiuddin Rashidi, one of founders of the Markaz Dawa-wal-Irshad/Jamat-ud-Dawa, was directly associated with the Saudi Salafi Juhayman al-Utaybi’s Ikhwan, which laid the infamous siege to the Holy Ka’aba in November 1979. The Islamic State also traces its doctrinal origins to al-Utaybi and in fact his letters are part of the terrorist group’s core curriculum.
Action needed against jihadists
The point is that all so-called bad Taliban – from Kashmir to Kabul – were “good” Taliban at some point and did their handlers’ bidding. They are, however, deeply indoctrinated zealots who pursue their own ideological agenda. The jihadists’ handlers and the writers who sing paeans to the Jamat-ud-Dawa’s charity work can try to neatly box the jihadists under different labels but there always comes a time when these fanatics buck their masters. Dozens of jihadist groups have done it before and many more will do it in the future, as their ultimate aim remains a primitive caliphate not a modern society whether under democracy or dictatorship.
The curious case of banning the Jamat-ud-Dawa and the Haqqani network shows that the delusional thinking about “benign” jihadism remains rampant not just in the security establishment but also afflicts the political class and the intelligentsia. When clarity was needed to act decisively against jihadist terror, the game plan apparently is to further muddy the already murky waters. The inevitable result of such smokescreens, as Mazhar Abbas and a coterie of television anchors are throwing up, will be the evaporation of the national resolve and consensus against terrorism.
While Afghanistan is likely to bear the brunt of Pakistan’s recalcitrant policy of using jihadists to pursue its foreign policy goal, Indian cannot let its guard down either. There should be little doubt, however, that just like the hardcore jihadists boomeranged on Pakistan, this soft but highly poisonous propaganda snake will also turn and strike the other way.
A shorter version of this post appeared in the Daily Times, Pakistan.
