The arrest of Qari 'Saifullah' Akhtar in Dubai and his subsequent extradition to Pakistan has once again shown the deep links between the violence in Pakistan and the ongoing jihad in Afghanistan and Jammu and Kashmir. Qari Saifullah Akhtar was one of the three-member group of students from the Jamia Uloom-al-Islamia of the Binori Town of Karachi who left Karachi for Peshawar while on their way to Afghanistan on February 18, 1980 to wage jihad against the Soviet troops in Afghanistan. This was probably the first group of Pakistani students from a madrassah who joined the Afghan jihad. The other two companions were Maulana Irshad Ahmed and Maulana Abdus Samad Sial. They called themselves Jamiat Ansarul Afghaneen (Party of the Friends of the Afghan People) and appointed Maulana Irshad the amir of their three-member party.
The group decided to join the Harkat-i-Inqilab-i-Islami of Afghanistan, an organisation of Afghan Deobandi ulema led by Maulana Nasrullah Mansoor. However, the group maintained its independence while the Afghan jihad lasted. The three-member group grew into a formidable 4,000-strong organisation by the time the Afghan jihad came to an end in 1988. It had lost only 26 fighters during the first eight years of the Afghan jihad. It lost 17 fighters between November 1988 and November 1989. Its members came from all over the Muslim world and beyond, particularly Bangladesh and Burma.
Jammu and Kashmir was about to explode when the Afghan jihad came to an end in 1988. The group assumed a new name, the Harkatul Jihad al-Islami, to wage jihad in Indian Jammu and Kashmir. The group rapidly grew into a formidable organisation during the Kashmir jihad. The group was operating in at least three countries, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, when the 9/11 attacks took place. It boasted tens of thousands of fighters before the 9/11 events forced it to go underground. It was running several training camps in these countries including one in Kotli in Azad Kashmir, one in Mansehra in the NWFP, and one in Rishkhur near Kabul. These camps churned out hundreds of jihadis every month. However, most of its training camps closed down in the aftermath of 9/11. |