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| India-Pakistan |
| Lashkar plays dead as global pressure mounts |
| 2008-12-20 |
| SRINAGAR: For the past week, Indian intelligence officials eavesdropping on Lashkar-e-Taiba communication channels haven’t heard a word. Ever since global pressure compelled Pakistan to crack down on the terror group’s parent political organisation last week, mobile phones, wireless sets and satellite phones used by field commanders in Jammu and Kashmir have gone silent. But the group has not been killed off by Islamabad, police and intelligence officials in Jammu and Kashmir believe. It is just playing dead. Despite Pakistan’s December 13 crackdown on the Jamat-ud-Dawah, there is as yet no sign of any apparent effort to dismantle jihadist groups across the Line of Control — raising the prospect that the crackdown may prove less than durable. Lashkar cadre, intelligence sources told The Hindu, remain in place along an arc of forward positions used by the jihadist organisation to push infiltrators across the LoC into Jammu and Kashmir. For example, Lashkar cadre do not appear to have been evicted from positions in Kel in the Dudhniyal sector of northern Kashmir, or from Nekrun, which faces high-altitude forests in Kanzalwal. Similar forward positions used by the Jaish-e-Mohammad, the Hizb ul-Mujahideen and al-Badr also appear to be intact. In another sign that the crackdown has been less than serious, a major Lashkar communications base at Kel, located close to Pakistan’s 32 Infantry Brigade headquarters, has not been dismantled. Work on the centre, which was intended to house state-of-the-art equipment, began this spring as part of a wider strategy to defeat Indian communications intelligence operations. Lashkar commanders also placed orders for low-frequency encrypted wireless communication sets, to replace equipment vulnerable to eavesdropping. In Muzaffarabad, the United Jihad Council — a coordinating body for several terrorist groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir and chaired by Hizb chief Mohammad Yusuf Shah — is reported to have removed signboards, shut its offices and ordered commanders to stop issuing public statements. However, the Hizb bases and training facilities remain operational, and the cadre are yet to be dispersed, Jammu and Kashmir police sources said. The Hizb’s main office in Muzaffarabad, the Bait-ul-Islam, continues to function along with the Garhi Habibullah, Khalid bin-Waleed and Umar bin-Khatib camps. It doesn’t take the resources of the military to see that the crackdown on the Jamat-ud-Dawah is less than complete: its website, www.jamatdawah.org, which operates using a Lahore-based server, was updated on December 17 and it carried reports of protests against the Pakistan government’s action. Pakistan cracked the whip on the Jamat-ud-Dawah after the United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions on the organisation and four of its top leaders, sealing its offices, shutting down its accounts, and detaining 31 functionaries including its overall chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed. But a welter of confusing — and sometimes contradictory — statements from high Pakistani officials have since created doubts whether Islamabad in fact intends dismantling the organisation. Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Jamat-ud-Dawah succeeded in moving funds out of its bank accounts in Pakistan before the crackdown. For reasons that are unclear, Pakistan has chosen not to act against the Lashkar’s multimillion dollar charitable front, the Idara Khidmat-e-Khalq. Interestingly, the Jamat-ud-Dawah leadership appears to have been held under Pakistan’s Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) regulations rather than its harsh anti-terrorism laws. The MPO allows detention of individuals in their homes for up to three months. Media reports from Pakistan say Saeed has been allowed to address a religious congregation near his home and that he continues to receive visitors. Under the Pakistan Anti-Terrorism Act, last amended in 2001, special courts may try cases involving a wide range of offences, from “the doing of anything that causes death” to inciting “hatred and contempt on religious, sectarian or ethnic basis to stir up violence.” This law also allows the state to proscribe organisations that engage in terrorism, which is defined to include activities ranging from “the incitement of hatred and contempt on religious, sectarian or ethnic lines” to the failure to “ostracise those who commit acts of terrorism and present them as heroic persons.” |
| Posted by:john frum |