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‘Anti-Pakistan’ militants being ‘detoxified’

* Haji Namdar says ‘we will never wage jihad inside Pakistan’

By Iqbal Khattak

BARA: Haji Namdar, the little-known pro-Taliban commander in Khyber Agency who survived a suicide attack on Thursday, said that he was helping to ‘detoxify’ militants staying with him through ‘Islamic classes’, that teach them that attacking Pakistani forces, people or state installations “is no jihad at all”, and that rather, by “doing so we are strengthening anti-Islamic forces”.

Namdar heads the religio-militant Amar Bil Maroof Wa Nahi Anil Munker (Promotion of Virtue and Suppression of Vice) organisation in the Bar Kambarkhel area. “These [mujahideen] leaders brainwash teenagers, telling them that each and every Pakistani is their enemy and his or her killing is justified. And it is also jihad that they should keep killing Pakistanis,” said Namdar. “I am reforming these mujahideen as Islam does not allow jihad against Muslims.”

Talking to Daily Times in an exclusive interview two days before the suicide attack that targeted him and left many injured at his headquarters in Takya, he, however, did not name any of the Taliban leaders who were ‘brainwashing teenagers’.

‘No jihad at all’: Expressing concern over the “anti-Pakistan posture” of some mujahideen leaders in the Tribal Areas, with many having justified attacks inside the country as ‘jihad’, he said, “We will never wage jihad inside Pakistan. Afghanistan needs mujahideen to liberate that country from United States-led foreign occupation.”

“Yes, we do attack the US forces across the border and that is what real jihad is all about,” he admitted. “The way [US] President [George W] Bush is waging a crusade against Islam, we will hit the US wherever and whenever it is possible. Our jihad against the US in Afghanistan goes on,” he added.

Namdar’s influence is restricted to the Bar Kambarkhel tribe, but following his admission that he ‘plays host’ to tribal and foreign militants, this makes him a potentially influential commander in a region through which supply lines to the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan pass.

He said his aim was to make it clear to the mujahideen where and against whom the ‘real jihad’ is to be waged. “My aim is to show them which path is the correct one for waging jihad. Our real enemy is one that has reached closer to us, and is occupying Afghanistan. Why should mujahideen target Pakistan when this country provides everything for jihad in Afghanistan,” he said.

Namdar said he opposed suicide attacks inside Pakistan, but justified them as the “best weapon” against the enemy. “We have to finish our enemy in Afghanistan by any means and suicide bombing is the best weapon.”

His acknowledgement of the presence of Taliban militants and their ‘active participation’ in cross-border anti-US jihad marks a new beginning for the Taliban-linked insurgency in Afghanistan, as reinforcement from Khyber Agency would boost the morale of militants in opening up a new front against Kabul.

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