The American war on the Taliban has become Pakistan’s own war. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has waged a war on the state of Pakistan. Still the ‘supply’ to Afghanistan has been on the move. It was in those initial days that the dead bodies of several students belonging to different varsities and colleges — killed in drone strikes — were brought from Pakistan’s tribal areas to different urban centres in the country, including Karachi.
On December 28, 2010, explosives went off outside a stall run by a Shia student group in Karachi University, injuring three. Superintendent Police (SP) Raja Umar Khattab told the media he had discovered a terrorist cell run by modern university students. But what we saw was a state in the state of denial when it came to identifying the group as a major threat. It seemed we were waiting for the group to be further strengthened.
Last year, when paramilitary Rangers conducted a pre-dawn raid at the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM’s) headquarters, this scribe pointed out in a report that militants were already leaving strong footprints in the commercial capital. I cited six events, including the murder of a constable at Pakistan Chowk and another one killed near Rimpa Plaza on M A Jinnah Road, the killings of two Bohra community men in a blast outside Saleh Mosque, a suicide attack on a Rangers patrol van near Qalandria roundabout, the murder of two in an attack on a Bohra community shop in Bahadurabad locality and the murder of Karim Hashmi, a Bohra community man and manager at a local factory, which all investigators believed were the handiwork of an al Qaeda group.
The state of denial persisted till the same group carried out the bloodiest Safoora Bus Shooting on May 13, 2015. Seven days later, Chief Minister (CM) Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah announced that a local al Qaeda network of university graduates — involved in the killings of Ismailis, rights’ activist Sabeen Mahmud and attacks on the Bohri community, Rangers and police — had been unearthed by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Sindh police. It looked as if arresting the lethal group required the sacrifice of 46 innocent men and women of Ismaili community who were brutally murdered in the bus shooting.
Later, interrogation of the arrested suspects, including a woman named Sadia Jalal, the third wife of a leader of al Qaeda in Pakistan, disclosed that a group of over 100 women from affluent households are part of a lethal terrorist network that lies somewhere between al Qaeda and Islamic State (IS). The CTD official said his department had detained one Khalid Yousaf Bari, a former employee of Pakistan International Airlines, who told interrogators that his wife Naheed Bari had established a group — Al Zikra Academy — whose top members include more than 20 well-off women. Naheed Bari mentored more than 100 women and the ‘cause’ was continued but police interrupted by arresting her and her gang members.
On Monday, December 28, 2015, the CTD of Punjab police claimed to have busted a cell of IS militants operating in Sialkot. Eight suspects of the group were arrested along with weapons, explosives and laptops, as well as a large number of compact discs containing publicity material. In his comments, former interior minister Rehman Malik said the group had its first meeting in Gujranwala city of Punjab.
On December 31, 2015, a report published in an English language daily stated a Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) affiliate named Khalid had told interrogators that his wife Bushra has gone to Syria through Iran for joining IS along with her children. The eldest among them is 15-year-old and the youngest is nine-years-old. According to a report, Bushra did her M Phil from Punjab University and was an honorary principal at Noor-ul-Hudaa Islamic Centre situated in Town Ship, Lahore. The law enforcement agencies arrested Mehr Hamid — superabundant in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) – for links with IS. His wife Farhana, worked as a recruiter for the terrorist group. DIG Operations Dr Haider Ashraf told the media that three women along with their children had gone to Syria to join IS. Fatima was the third one who, along Bushra and Farhana, left for Syria with their children.
The latest is news of the arrest of Abdul Aziz, a man who has been recruiting youths in Karachi and Quetta for sending them to IS camps in Syria. The state of denial still persists. The Pakistani Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson, Qazi Khalilullah, in his weekly briefing, claimed that IS had no presence in Pakistan. “IS has no presence in Pakistan and some people are using the name of the terrorist organisation individually,” he was quoted by local media.
The state of Pakistan is not only in denial of the supply being provided to IS from Pakistan, it is also not ready to admit that thousands have left the country to counter IS militants. A report by Reuters news agency in Iran is recruiting Pakistani Shias for combat in Syria. In September 2014, Pakistan’s National Counter-Terrorism Authority (NACTA) informed the provinces that over 2,000 Pakistani Shia students were studying in the Madaris of Najaf, Iraq, who are being used to fight in Syria. “Their missions [the report named two Muslim countries] in Pakistan are actively attracting Shia student desirous of studying in their countries.”
The militants we have produced for our short-term needs have not only turned against our own states but they are exporting terror to other countries endangering our relations with the world community. Tashfeen Malik, Bushra Cheema, Farhana and Fatima are a few faces that are the byproduct of certain narratives. Only military action cannot get us rid of the menace. The state of Pakistan has devised a national action plan with consensus. A broader consensus is required to strongly present a counter narrative to reject the ideology that is breeding terrorists. Identifying terrorist ideologies will be the start of this work. But are we ready to do it? In an interview, former military dictator General (R) Pervez Musharraf told BBC Urdu that the JuD and Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), fighting on the “eastern front’ were not terrorists but mujahideen. Last Saturday, following the attack on the Pathankot airbase in India, all figures were pointed towards Pakistan. Later, Pakistan conducted countrywide raids and arrested JeM Chief Maulana Masood Azhar, his brother and dozens of militants. Several offices, which were reportedly functional, were sealed whereas a madrassa (seminary) run by the jihadi group was also closed down. That is a good omen but will we continue to crackdown on all private guns?
The writer is a Karachi based investigative journalist. He can be reached at [email protected] and he tweets @NKMalazai