Fury
grows at Islamabad's NATO
u-turn By Malik Ayub Sumbal
ISLAMABAD - Tens of thousands of activists
from banned jihadi organizations arrived in
Islamabad this week to protest the government's
decision last week to re-open the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO) supply route from
Pakistan to Afghanistan.
A coalition of
more than 40 religious parties know as
Difah-e-Pakistan Council - the Defense of Pakistan
Council (DOC) - have gathered in front of
Parliament House. The organizers claim there are
more than 500,000 participants, but the real
number is likely closer to 50,000.
The
protest is being led by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed,
chief of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), formally known
as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The LeT has been accused
of launching many terror attacks in
India, most notably the
2001 assault on the Indian parliament and the
November, 2008 attacks in Mumbai. In April, the
United States put a $10 million bounty on Hafiz
Saeed for his alleged role in planning Mumbai's
night of terror.
Another banned outfit,
the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), has also
participated in what the DPC is calling a "long
march" to Islamabad. The HuM is headed by Maulana
Fazlur Rehman Khalil, a co-founder of the Islamic
militant group Harakat-ul-Ansar, which was formed
in the early 1990s in India.
According to
the Global Jihad website, "Maulana Fazlur Rehman
Khalil was one of five signatories, alongside
Rifaai Taha, Ayman Al Zawahiri and Sheikh Mir
Hamza, secretary of the
Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan, of Osama Bin Laden's
fatwa" on February 23, 2008". Entitled "The
World Islamic Front for Jihad against the Jews and
Crusaders", this fatwa is seen as a
declaration of war by al-Qaeda against the Western
democracies led by the United States.
Several other banned outfits have
participated in the protest, including the
Jamaat-i-Islami and Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, which
was formally known as the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
(SSP). The SSP is one the most notorious sectarian
groups in Pakistan, and was involved in the
massacre of the thousands of Shi'ites Muslims in
the 1990s.
Malik Ishaq, a leader of the
banned outfit Lashkar-i-Jhangvi who was released a
few months ago from Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore, is
also a senior leader in the DOC and has actively
participated in the "long march".
Pakistan
closed NATO's Afghan route in November in
retaliation for American airstrikes that killed 24
Pakistani troops. Following months of
negotiations, Islamabad finally agreed to reopen
the route last week after US Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton apologized for the deaths.
Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik
had warned banned outfits not to enter Islamabad,
saying they would be immediately arrested.
However, nobody has been detained by security
forces. Critics say Malik's threat merely aimed at
proving to the United States and the international
community that Pakistan is serious about keeping
tabs on banned organizations.
Former
director general of Inter-Services Intelligence
Agency, General Hamid Gul, confirmed a phone
interview to Asia Times Online that security
forces "wouldn't dare" arrest anyone taking part
in the protest, which he said was led by
legitimate organizations. Gul was speaking from
Gujranwala in Punjab province, where he was
leading a section of the long march.
A
large convoy of vehicles is still streaming
towards Islamabad, said Gul. More jihadis will
join the sit-in front of Parliament House, and
they will not leave unless the government restores
its suspension of the NATO supply links, he added.
Addressing the rally, religious leaders
have said that unless the NATO supply is closed,
the protests will turn violent. The DoC has also
called for more "long marches" against the NATO
supply lines, on July 16-17 from Peshawar to the
Torkham border crossing with Afghanistan.
Credible sources have confirmed that
militants in Balochistan, the Federally
Administrative Tribal Areas and in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa province have vowed to block and burn
any trucks carrying NATO supplies. Religious
parties are also making plans to block Peshawar
and the road to the Khyber Pass.
Officials
say that Pakistani intelligence agencies' backing
of the banned organizations' protest signals a
policy shift away from the US.
"The United
States can open all their channels and back-door
diplomacies with the Taliban and al-Qaeda, so why
can Pakistan and its intelligence agencies not
take on board the Jihadists and banned outfits
organizations for the survival of Pakistan and its
nation," a senior official in an intelligence
agency told Asia Times Online.
"This is
not our war but we have suffered huge losses and
now even our sovereignty is on stake, so we cannot
do more especially in making foes for the others,
enough is enough," he said.
Malik
Ayub Sumbal is a freelance investigative
journalist based in Islamabad, Pakistan. He has
worked for more than nine years for a number of
national and international newspapers, magazines,
journals, wire services and television channels.
He can be contacted at ayubsumbal@gmail.com
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