"MOHABBAT DI gaddi," Allah Ditta, a locomotive driver on the Samjhauta Express called it in a February 2000 interview: "the train of love." Only when counter-terrorism investigators in India succeed in arresting the perpetrators of the Samjhauta Express bombing will a full account of their motives emerge. But Pakistan's jihadi press, little monitored in India, provides not a little insight into the hearts and minds of the terrorists who most likely carried out the attack.
Islamists have, in recent weeks, repeatedly argued that the peace process poses a threat to both Pakistan's economic survival and its ideological raison d'etre. Growing interaction at the level of ordinary people, Islamists have claimed, is working to soften the hatred they believe is necessary to protect their nation. In their imagination, Allah Ditta's train of love is a Trojan Horse, a vehicle for the destruction of the project of Pakistan.
On January 15, the Lashkar's parent body, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, had organised a National Consultative Conference to formulate an Islamist response to the peace process. Attended among others by the President of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Raja Zulqarnain Khan, the Conference "completely rejected President Pervez Musharraf's current suggestions regarding the resolution of the Kashmir issue."
"Indo-Pak negotiations on the Kashmir have never borne any fruit," the January 31 issue of the Lashkar house journal
Ghazwa
explained. "Up until now," it stated, "only India has enjoyed the benefits of the Islamabad Declaration. All Pakistan got from that agreement is an exchange of cultural troupes. And as if that wasn't enough, Indian politicians have taken the exchange of such cultural troupes a step forward by suggesting eradication of borders between India and Pakistan."
"On the other hand,"
Ghazwa
went on, "our own rulers are trying to weaken our ideological borders, instead of strengthening them. Efforts are under way by the Pakistani government to remove facts and material from the curriculum which educates our youth about the designs of the Hindus, and exposes their real mindset about Muslims in general and Pakistan in particular."
Islamists have long claimed that the India-Pakistan people-to-people d?tente, of which the Samjhauta Express is a key medium, is a plot to undermine these "ideological borders." In April 2004, for example, the Lashkar-linked magazine
Zarb-e-Taiba
had called on its readers to "throw the bat, seize the sword." According to
Zarb-e-Taiba
, the "sports of a mujahid are archery, horse-riding and swimming. Apart from these three sports, every other hobby is un-Islamic. The above are not just sports but exercises for jihad. Cricket is an evil and sinful sport." "It is so sad," the magazine concluded, "that Pakistanis are committing suicides after losing cricket matches to India. But they are not sacrificing their lives to protect the honour of the raped Kashmiri women. To watch a cricket match, we would take a day off from work. But for jihad, we have no time!"
Ghazwa
approvingly quoted a participant in the Conference, retired Pakistan Army General Faiz Ali Chishti, as asserting that "jihad remains the only solution of this conflict." However, General Chishti noted, pursuit of this strategy had been undermined by changing attitudes to India within Pakistan. According to
Ghazwa
, "he vociferously lamented, we have neglected to educate our younger generations about the Hindu mindset. He said Hindus have never accepted Pakistan's independence and are continually scheming to destroy it, one way or another."
Magazines like
Ghazwa
and
Zarb-e-Taiba
are required reading for Lashkar cadre — a fact that makes it possible that the perpetrators of the bombing intended to "educate" audiences in Pakistan. Another possibility is that the Samjhauta Express bombers hoped to retaliate against the construction of dams in Jammu and Kashmir — an action the jihadi press has marketed as an existential threat to Pakistan. Last week, a World Bank-appointed arbitrator ruled on the construction of the Baghliar Dam. In a February 15 press release, Lashkar political chief Abdul Rahman Makki claimed "India cannot build any dams at all on the Chenab River according to the stipulations of the Sindh-Taas Agreement." Mr. Makki claimed that the Baghliar Dam was being built because Pakistan's "timid rulers are so terrified of India."
"Pakistan's vast agricultural lands,"
Ghazwa
had explained to its readers last month, "are extremely dependent upon the large amount of river water which originates in Kashmir. India, on the other hand, is making all out efforts to construct dams and barrages on these rivers so that it can gain another edge over Pakistan by choking its essential water resources." "In such a scenario,"
Ghazwa
argued, "to say that Kashmir is Pakistan's `jugular vein' is an understatement. If India succeeds in depriving Pakistan of these vital water resources, nothing can stop Pakistan's agricultural lands from turning into a desert."
Such ideas have long constituted part of the strategic consensus in Pakistan — and were a major reason for its 1947 attack on Jammu and Kashmir. In his memoirs, Major-General Akbar Khan, the commander-in-chief of Pakistan's assault forces, observed that Pakistan's "agricultural economy was dependent particularly upon the rivers coming out of Kashmir." "The Mangla Headworks," General Khan wrote, "were actually in Kashmir and the Marala Headworks were within a mile or so of the border. What then would be our position if Kashmir was in Indian hands?" Lashkar leaders have long argued that only jihad can prevent this apocalyptic outcome. In an April 2003 interview to
The Friday Times
, Lashkar's spiritual head Hafiz Mohammad Saeed asserted that Pakistan ought not to "bow before India and beg for dialogue."
Taking on the General
Significantly, though, groups like the Lashkar have turned their fire to General Musharraf — and not just because of his policies on Jammu and Kashmir. In the January 2006 issue of the Lashkar magazine
Voice of Islam
, Mr. Makki charged General Musharraf with "inviting God's wrath" by repealing Pakistan's controversial Hudoodullah laws, which prescribed among other things that rape victims' allegations must be supported by the testimony of male witnesses. He added that the Pakistan Government was spreading "evil, obscenity and rebellion against Allah's way."
Similarly, Mr. Saeed last month told a prayer congregation in Lahore that General Musharraf's policies would "advance vulgarity and lewdness in our society." In particular, Mr. Saeed singled out "the foolish and stupid encouragement of men and women to run together in marathon races, and efforts to give legal sanction to the killer sport of kite-flying." Islamists in Pakistan oppose kite-flying during Basant, a Punjab-wide peasant festival.
Despite its invective against General Musharraf, though, the Lashkar continues to operate with impunity in Pakistan. On January 3, for example, Jamaat-ud-Dawa volunteers delivered meat from animals sacrificed during Eid to prisoners at Lahore's Central Jail and Camp Jail. Noting that many prisoners "had been locked up for petty crimes," a Jamaat press release stated that the organisation had "decided to pay the fines of these poor inmates so that they can go home and begin their lives anew and become productive citizens."
For reasons that analysts are divided on, General Musharraf has proved either unwilling or unable to confront his Islamist opponents. In recent hearings of the United States' House Armed Service Committee, Congressman Hank Johnson publicly aired what anyone following Pakistan's courageous journalists has long known: "that the Pakistani intelligence service continues to collaborate with the Taliban and other insurgent groups operating out of its border regions." Pressure is mounting on the General to make his choice — and soon.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Opinion
News:
ePaper
|
Front Page
|
National
|
Tamil Nadu
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
Karnataka
|
Kerala
|
New Delhi
|
Other States
|
International
|
Opinion
|
Business
|
Sport
|
Miscellaneous
|
Engagements
|
Advts:
Classifieds
|
Jobs
|
Obituary
|
Updates:
Breaking News
|