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New target for Pakistan's
militants
By Ramtanu Maitra
Pakistan's Sunni militants, who were
instrumental in bringing together the Afghan
Taliban and Arab al-Qaeda organizations, have
found fresh fodder in Pakistan. The militants' new
target is the Ismailis, the followers of the Aga
Khan.
In Pakistan's Northern Territories,
which border China and Afghanistan and include a
part of the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir,
Sunni militants shot and killed an Ismaili leader,
Agha Ziauddin, on January 8. Ziauddin's killing,
in Gilgit, sparked riots that left at least 15
dead. In December, two Sunni militants were
arrested in connection with the killing of two
employees of an Aga Khan aid agency in the remote
northern town of Chitral bordering Afghanistan
that same month.
The Ismailis are a branch
of the Shi'ite Muslim sect that can be found in
large numbers in Pakistan's Northern Territories,
as well as in nearby Tajikistan's Pamir plateau.
About 350,000 Ismailis live in Tajikistan and most
of them reside in the Pamirs in the
Gorno-Badkashan region of the country. In
adjoining China's Xinjiang region, a large number
of Ismailis live in virtual isolation from the Aga
Khan-run international community.
Pakistan's Sunni militants, schooled in an
orthodox Deobandi school of Islamic teaching, work
hand-in-glove with the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia.
In fact, the political arm of the Sunni militants
in Pakistan, the Jamaat-i-Islami (JII) and its
student wing Islamic Jamiat Tulaba (IJT), are
financed generously from Saudi Arabia. The JIl
have been infiltrating the Pakistani military in
large numbers since the 1980s, and played a very
important role in bringing the Taliban militants
to power in Afghanistan in 1996.
The
killing of the Ismailis - who along with the
Ahmadiyyas and Shi'ites are contemptuously
considered heretics by orthodox Sunnis - was not
carried out by JII cadres, but by any one of a
number of Sunni terrorist groups, such as the
Jaish-e-Mohammad, the Lashkar-e-Toiba or the
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, among others. All of these
groups function freely within Pakistan, despite
bans "imposed" on them years ago by Islamabad.
Observers point out that the Northern
Territory is strategically important; to the north
is China, Tajikistan in its northwest, Afghanistan
in the west and the disputed state of Jammu and
Kashmir is in the east. For strategic reasons,
since the 1980s, Islamabad has allowed a large
number of Sunnis and Wahhabi Maulvis to settle in
the area, causing more distress to the locals.
Noteworthy is that while the latest round of
killings were going on, President General Pervez
Musharraf did no more than helplessly declare a
curfew in Skardu and Gilgit. No attempt was made
to bring the killers to justice.
There are
a number of reasons for Islamabad's posture of
apparent helplessness. To begin with, it is clear
that Musharraf appreciates the fact that one who
lives in a glass house must not throw stones.
Islamabad now resembles something between a glass
house and a bunker. Too many disgruntled militants
with connections to the all-powerful military are
seeking revenge, and without a doubt Musharraf is
also a target himself.
But it should not
really be surprising to Islamabad that the
Ismailis are now facing the Sunni militants' guns.
Whether the events were planned is a moot
question, but certain actions Islamabad has taken
to please Washington are certainly a factor in
directing the wrath of the Sunnis against the
Ismailis.
The American
prod
Since the1980s, Pakistan's education
ministry has depended solely on the tuition-free
madrassa system of religious education,
funded by Saudi Arabia and other orthodox Sunnis,
to see a large number of poor Pakistani children
get to school. The theocratic education of
Pakistan's orthodox madrassas was tailored
to produce the leaders of the Taliban movement.
The madrassas also produced the Sunni
militants and others who protected the
anti-American Taliban and al-Qaeda militants. But
after the events of September 11, 2001, Washington
had a great awakening: suddenly the
madrassa system was perceived as pure evil
that produces anti-American, Islamic militants.
After promoting militant orthodox Islam in
the 1980s, with the help of Saudi Arabia, to
expedite disintegration of the former Soviet Union
and save the "free world", Washington set about to
"fix" Pakistan's education system. Musharraf,
boxed in from both sides, did not have many
choices. Some claim that his will to survive and
his confidence that he would be able to work
around desperate Americans to ensure his political
and physical survival persuaded him to give a
green signal to the Americans, and he agreed to
stop proliferation of Islamic madrassas.
Washington, of course, was willing to pay for some
of the costs. Musharraf had no intention of making
any wholesale changes, and, in fact, last week
permission was given to open new madrassas
in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
Goaded by Washington, Musharraf last year
approved the establishment of the Aga Khan
Education Board in Pakistan. In May 2004, Prince
Karim Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the Ismaili
community, called on Musharraf at the Aiwan-i-Sadr
(President House) in Islamabad. During this
meeting, reports indicate the Pakistani president
expressed his appreciation for the various
philanthropic and development projects undertaken
in Pakistan by the Aga Khan Foundation. He also
praised the keen personal interest of Prince Karim
Aga Khan in health, education and other welfare
projects in the social sector.
A new
economic and educational monopoly?
The
prince and Musharraf discussed Pakistan's poverty.
Prince Karim Aga Khan described First MicroFinance
Bank Ltd, an effort of the Aga Khan Development
Network to address the root causes of poverty. The
bank's US$9 million capital is subscribed by the
Aga Khan Rural Support Program and the Aga Khan
Fund for Economic Development, and discussions
regarding the involvement of the International
Finance Corporation are at an advanced stage. "We
are also actively reviewing the possibilities of
initiating microfinance programs in Afghanistan,
where we have begun discussions with international
development agencies for potential partnerships,"
the Ismaili leader told Musharraf.
Sunni
militants have also noted that recently, through
an open and transparent process, the Aga Khan
group secured management control of Habib Bank
Limited, one of the premier financial institutions
of Pakistan. The Aga Khan also expressed deep
interest in developing tourism in Pakistan's
Northern Territory. Citing the romance of the Silk
Road and reflections of Gandhara art and crafts of
the tribal areas, the Aga Khan said these were "of
considerable fascination and originality to
foreigners, both distant and near".
One
hardly needed to read between the lines to
appreciate the fact that the Aga Khan and
Musharraf were discussing a virtual economic
monopoly, for good or bad, for the Ismailis in
Northern Territory, where they have a significant
presence. The Aga Khan is seemingly interested in
seeing his flock prosper.
But what has
particularly antagonized the Sunni militants are
Musharraf's steps to introduce "secular" education
through the Ismailis under pressure from the US.
It is widely known that Prince Karim Aga Khan, who
counts European nobility among his school mates,
is as Westernized as they come. He finished his
schooling at Harvard, and his Aga Khan Foundation
has since been commended by the Harvard Review
Committee for providing progressive education.
USAID makes available some funds to the
foundation, and is full of praise for its
education system.
Allergic to "secular"
education
At a well-attended public meeting
in Karachi last May, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, acting
head of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), a
coalition of six orthodox Islamic political groups
with a very strong presence in Balochistan and the
NWFP, and Amir of Jel, stated that Pakistan's
rulers "had given total authority to the Aga Khan
Foundation for establishing a new education system
in the country". According to Dawn, the MMA chief
said that the same task was assigned to the
Qadiani community (also known as Ahmadiyyas), but
the people of Pakistan launched a movement against
them and finally they failed in their plans.
Addressing himself to the Aga Khan
Foundation and the Ismaili community generally,
Ahmed added that the "people would also launch a
movement against them if they continued to impose
a secular education system in Pakistan". On
December 3, 2004, the provincial chapter of
Tanzeem-i-Isatiza Pakistan, another orthodox Sunni
outfit, issued threats against the Ismailis.
Tanzeem's provincial chief, Khairullah Hawari,
warned the Musharraf government to end the
affiliation of schools and colleges with the Aga
Khan Board, and threatened to march toward
Islamabad if the demand was not met.
Jamaat's student wing, the IJT, had also
opposed the establishment of the Aga Khan Board to
cater to O- and A-level students in Pakistan. "We
don't think it's a wise decision. Nothing should
be done against the ideological boundaries of the
country," observed participants of an IJT-arranged
study circle last May.
Dangerous
subtleties
Clearly the orthodox Sunnis will
not tolerate even the half-hearted efforts of
Musharraf, under pressure from the US, to reform
Pakistan's woefully backward education system.
To fully appreciate this one must realize
that religious orthodoxy was introduced to modern
Pakistan in the first place by a pro-American
military leader, and not by the mullahs. The
process began under General Zia ul-Haq in the
1980s, and as a result enjoys a very solid base
within Pakistan's military.
At present the
Ismailis may have a temporary "godfather" in the
form of Musharraf. But the killings in Skardu and
Gilgit, and Islamabad's nod to the MMA to start
new madrassas in NWFP, indicate that the
Ismailis cannot really trust the godfather.
Musharraf is fully aware that Pakistan's
madrassas are breeding grounds for jihadi
terrorists, and his inability or unwillingness to
reform the madrassa system is the most
obvious evidence of his determination to keep one
foot in the Islamic militancy camp. Musharraf
knows that even if a few Ismailis get killed and
the AKF is eventually given the proverbial go-by,
Washington will not abandon him because he is the
most "secular" of all the Pakistani leaders.
The Ismailis community would do well to
understand these subtleties to ensure their own
survival.
Ramtanu Maitra writes
for a number of international journals and is a
regular contributor to the Washington-based EIR
and the New Delhi-based Indian Defence Review. He
also writes for Aakrosh, India's defense-tied
quarterly journal.
(Copyright 2005
Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
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