40 Lakh people live under Taliban, says Amnesty report
Islamabad: Daily Ausaf, June 10, 2010. Army spokesperson Major General Athar Abbas has criticized the recent report of Amnesty International which had accused security forces of not doing enough to safeguard the human rights of civilians living under the control of the Taliban. He stressed that the tribesmen have appreciated the role of the army in facilitating the return of Internally Displaced People in conflict affected regions. Many locals interviewed by Amnesty International revealed that security forces had abandoned them to be subverted by insurgents, citing examples of deserted schools being used by the Taliban as training centres. The Amnesty report said more than 40 lakh people are living under Taliban in the tribal areas.
'Holy Quran' is the biggest Jihadi literature: Munawar
Karachi: Daily Jasarat, June 07, 2010. Jamaat-i-Islami Chief Syed Munawar Hassan has accused the government of trying to ban the use of the word Jihad after certain sections of school curricula that espoused militancy were removed. He went on to term it as an attack on Islam, saying the 'Holy Quran' itself is the biggest 'Jihadi Literature'. He criticized the United States for meddling in the internal affairs of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
OIC members criticized for keeping silence over Israeli raid
Lahore: Daily Jasarat, June 07, 2010. The silence of Islamic countries over Israeli barbarism during the raid on the Freedom Flotilla proved that the Organisation of the Islamic Countries is subservient to America. Twenty out of 700 people on board the Freedom Flotilla, belonging to 32 countries, were killed during the raid. Only Turkey, Nicaragua and Ecuador criticised America. The rest of the twenty nine countries were keeping silent over the issue.
IMF criticized for Govt price hikes
Islamabad: Daily Ausaf, June 08, 2010. The International Monetary Fund is pressurising the government to increase taxes at a time when most people are finding it hard to feed their families. The government has already announced an increase in electricity tariff from April 2010. The International Monetary Fund is bend upon increasing the miseries of Muslim people around the world, but the government fails to recognize this.
Who is Punjabi Taliban?
Islamabad: Daily Khabrain, June 09. 2010. It is an open secret that the banned organizations Jaish-i-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Jhangwi are connected with al-Qaeda and Tahreek-i-Taliban. According to Pakistan's Internal Minister Rahman Mallik, Taliban is a well known name of extremists militia who are indulging in regular bomb blasts, and peoples call them Punjabi Taliban. Chief of Pakistan Saraiki Party Taj Mohammad Lingah confirmed that people from southern and central Punjab are joining Pashtoon Taliban to fight for their bread and butter, but in the name of jihad. Lingah said Pakistan Intelligence Agency is training them.
Prof. Khadim Hussain, a Senior Fellow of the Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy, said organizations like Sipah-i-Sahabah, Lashkar-i-Tayyebah, Lashkar-e-Jhangwi, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and Harkat-ul-Ansar were created by the Pakistan's security establishment to meet its own objectives. Some of these militant groups are fighting in Afghanistan. After the victory over the Russian forces in Afghanistan, Pakistani establishment reorganized these groups and sent them to Kashmir. When Taliban formed the government in Kabul, these groups and their infrastructures in Afghanistan and Pakistan were integrated. These groups were reorganized in Punjab during the nineties, and since then people started calling them Punjabi Taliban. Now they are running many training camps in northern, southern and central Punjab.
Prof. Hussain said it is estimated that from 8000 to 11000 fighters of Punjabi Taliban are fighting alongwith almost the same number of fighters from Arabian gulf, Uzbekistan and Chechnya. The strength of Pashtoon Taliban is almost the same. This is besides Taliban fighters from Swat and Bajore.
Scanning the Punjabi Taliban, Dr. Siddiqa said the Punjab government is not identifying these militia as Punjabi Taliban. The scholar said these jihadis are widely identified as Devbandi Salfi with long time agenda of legitimatising Islamic system belonging to sectarian caliph Imam-ibn Taimiah.
Many of the Punjabi groups of Amjad Farooqui, Ilyas Kashmiri and Qari Mushtaque, who are working with the provincial administration, have no agenda to provide good governance in the province. They are centered in north Punjab, Faisalabad-Gujranwala and Chakwal. Southern Punjab is a more sensitive region which is integrated with Balochistan and Frontier Provinces. The leaders as well as the bureaucrats are aware of the situation but are not keen to discuss the issue because of the fear of terror.
Lashkar-e-Jhangwi had killed the father of a politician, elected now to the National Assembly from southern Punjab, with support of Sipah-i-Sahabah and Jaish-i-Mohammad. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who was elected unopposed to the Assembly, owned his victory to Lashkar-e-Jhangwi.
Conflict between Mullaism and Sufi Islam
Lahore: Daily Khabrain, June 09, 2010. Muslim League (N) leader and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief has denied existence of Punjabi Taliban, as claimed by Prof. Khadim Hussain and Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa in a BBC report. Mr. Sharief accused the Gilani government of creating linguistic conflict in the region.
But Ayesha Siddiqa and Saraiki leader Taj Mohammad Lingah said extremists are being groomed under the patronage of Madrasas in Afghanistan and Kashmir with jihad perspectives. Now over 10,000 Punjabi Taliban activists are fighting against Pakistani forces to protect over 10,000 Pashtoon Taliban in tribal regions. They were involved in the attacks of Rawalpindi Army Headquarters, Lahore Police Centre, Intelligence offices and the Sri Lanka cricket team. Recently, they attacked Ahmadia groups in their mosques, but Punjab government has not taken any action over their activities.
Pashtoon Taliban is creating security problems along the 133 km west coast regions and 33 coastal ports between southern Punjab and the Frontier Province. However, the Saraiki region has its own tradition of long conflicts between Sufi Islam and Mullaism. Unemployed younger generation is increasingly joining the Jihadi groups under the Mullah politicians of Jamaat-i-Islami, but the numbers are still small while the wide section of the society still think that peace will prevail through Sufi Islam.
Shahid Raheem is a media researcher with ORF |
