Waging jihad against
disaster By Syed Saleem Shahzad
MUZAFFARABAD - "Suddenly, tall and
strongly built youths with long beards emerged and
spread out all over in an organized manner,
starting relief operations within an hour of the
tremors," recalled Shaukat, a graduate in computer
science, of the earthquake that stuck South Asia
last weekend.
But Shaukat, a member of one
of the richest families in Muzaffarabad, the
capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, was not
talking about ordinary rescue workers.
The
men he referred to are mujahideen, whose usual
pursuit is to
wage jihad across
the Line of Control in Indian-administered
Kashmir. The men are based in a number of refugee
camps in Muzaffarabad and its environs.
"They were our mujahid [holy
warrior] brothers who are still working round the
clock and going wherever they receive a call. They
have been the only organized help since the first
hour, and they are still standing despite all the
odds," said Shaukat, who now has to sleep on the
pavement as his house, like much of
Muzaffarabad, was
destroyed in the 7.6-magnitude earthquake that to
date has claimed approximately 40,000 lives.
"Jihad has many meanings - it's not just
picking up a gun. It means helping, duty, passion,
serving the people who cannot serve themselves. If
you're serving the people in a natural disaster,
that's a jihad," one bearded young man is quoted
by Agence France Presse as saying.
Ironically, Ghulam Nabi Lone, education
minister of India's Jammu and Kashmir state, was
shot dead inside his home in the state's summer
capital of Srinagar on Tuesday. One of his
attackers was shot dead. Officials had expected a
lull in militancy during the earthquake crisis.
There are several refugee camps in
Pakistani Kashmir, where people started arriving
after the 1989 uprising. They now number about
30,000. However, casualties in the camps are said
to be light as most of the houses were built of
wood and tin sheets - there were few heavy
concrete structures.
These camps include
the Jammu and Kashmir Affectees Relief Trust run
by the Hizbul Mujahideen, which India has branded
a terrorist organization for its activities in
Indian-administered Kashmir.
"That was actually God's
blessing, that the mujahideen remained unhurt in
this crisis and our physically fit and trained
teams carried out massive rescue jobs before
anybody came," explained Hafiz Abdul Rauf,
chairman of the social welfare wing of the
Jamaatut Dawa, formerly the Lashkar-i-Taiba, which
also has extensive operations in the region.
Jamaatut Dawa has set up a makeshift town
of tents, and also handles the distribution of
food and medical aid. It has even established an
operating theater in one of the tents, including
X-ray facilities, as well as dispensaries, dental
clinics and a full squad of "vigilantes" on
motorbikes.
These impressively tall and
sturdy youths with long beards carry wireless sets
and move around in nearby villages in search of
people sleeping rough. They provide them with
blankets, sheets and pillows.
Having a
modest dinner of boiled lentil and bread in his
tent, Abdul Rauf explained that not only has
Jamaatut set up hospitals, it also has mules to
carry out relief operations in areas inaccessible
to vehicles - and there are many such places.
"We
have hired 100 mules beside boats [for the river]
which move all around and provide food and clothes
to affected areas in far-flung villages. We have
1,100 selfless, trained and strong men
who do not care about weather
conditions. They don't require hi-tech machines to
break rubble and take out people. They work with
nails and hammers and have saved hundreds of lives
so far."
Speaking to Asia Times Online, a
spokesperson of the Hizbul Mujahideen, Saleem
Hashmi, said that most mujahideen were safe and
sound. "Some were in Indian-occupied Kashmir at
the time of the earthquake and they were not
affected."
Syed Saleem Shahzad,
Bureau Chief, Pakistan Asia Times Online. He can
be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
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Muzaffarabad, was
destroyed in the 7.6-magnitude earthquake that to
date has claimed approximately 40,000 lives.
Jamaatut Dawa, formerly the Lashkar-i-Taiba, which
also has extensive operations in the region.
who do not care about weather
conditions. They don't require hi-tech machines to
break rubble and take out people. They work with
nails and hammers and have saved hundreds of lives
so far." 
