Asia Times: Pakistan split over ban on militias


	August 7, 2001	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Pakistan split over ban on militias
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - The recent country-wide sectarian violence in Pakistan has revived conflict between officials of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the interior ministry, headed by a retired lieutenant-general, Moinuddin Haider, over measures to crack down on militant groups, irrespective of their sectarian beliefs.

The killings of a number of Shiite Muslim doctors and the slaying of the high-profile Shaukat Raza Mirza, the managing director of Pakistan State Oil, the state monopoly of oil transportation, have jolted the country. The murders took place while a delegation of Japanese businessmen was visiting Sindh province. And while the businessmen expressed satisfaction with the economic policies and approach of the government, they complained of the deteriorating law and order situation.

The death of Shaukat Raza Mirza in particular shook the business community, which fears a loss of foreign investor confidence. Four days after his murder, an underground militant group organization, Lashkar-i-Janghvi, claimed responsibility. Their stated aim is to eliminate the minority Shiite school of thought.

In recent years, thousands of people have been killed throughout Pakistan in religiously motivated killings. Small but heavily armed extremist religious groups attack property and members of rival sects. In the past, police blamed the Sunni Muslim group, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, or the Guardians of the Friends of the Prophet, for most of the violence. The Sipah-e-Sahaba, which wants Shiite Muslims to be declared outside Islam, denies the charges. Prominent members of both sects who are not linked to militant groups have also been targeted. The majority of Pakistan's 140 million people are Sunni Muslims who live peacefully with Shiite Muslims.

Following the murder of Shaukat Raza Mirza, some Shiite bureaucrats and a religious scholar were murdered. In retaliation, activists of the Jesh-i-Mohammed, an organization fighting in Kashmir, were killed, allegedly by a Shiite organization.

According to sources, in the wake of the killings, the minister of the interior presented the country's leader, President General Pervez Musharraf, with a plan to introduce an ordinance that would ban all militant organizations and allow their bank accounts to be frozen. And on the weekend, Law Minister Shahida Jamil said in Karachi that the government had prepared a comprehensive law to ban all sectarian organizations involved in violence and terrorism.

However, the interior ministry has proposed this in the past, but it has been opposed by the Inter-Services Intelligence which rejects any action that would eliminate the organizations, be they Sunni or Shiite. Sources say the ISI believes any heavy crackdown against the military groups would affect the armed struggle in Indian-held Kashmir. Similarly, if action is taken against the Shiite militant groups, relations with Iran would suffer.

ISI officials maintain that although there are differences between the two religious groups, apart from a few cases, most of the killings are carried out by the Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to create sectarian hatred in the country.

Sources say that most of the militant groups (except those that are affiliated with the Jamaat-i-Islami, the premier fundamentalist party in the country whose groups operate a holy war in close coordination with the ISI) are independent from the ISI.

On the one hand, the groups trained in Afghanistan are taught anti-Iran policies, and their natural targets are Shiite militant groups, which in turn are trained in Iran. Realistically, then, while the RAW's hand cannot be entirely ruled out, the militant groups are mainly responsible for the violence.

Further, within the military groups themselves there are elements that simply take retaliation for a killing without informing their central command - this is the most dangerous aspect of the organizations.

Talking to Asia Times Online, a senior government official said on condition of anonymity that Pakistan has traditionally taken a soft stance on militant groups despite their high-handedness. As a result, civilian intelligence agencies (such as the Special Branch of Police) have reported that the militants are better equipped than the police. Indeed, it is feared that if the organizations continue to arm at the same pace it will become difficult for even the Pakistan Army to take effective action against them.

The result of the present impasse between the interior ministry and the ISI is that every day leaders of the militias can be seen roaming the streets with dozens of guards carrying prohibited weapons such as AK-47 and 7MM rifles, while the authorities are powerless to act.

Ironically, the military government has banned rallies and processions by political parties. The former ruling parties, the Pakistan People's Party and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), have tried to stage rallies, but the administration has come down hard on them, even jailing hundreds of their members. Yet when the government banned all processions, the sectarian groups took to the streets in rallies with impunity. At most, the federal law enforcing agency, the Pakistan Rangers, could only get the organizations to agree not to demonstrate heavy weapons, such as rocket launchers, during the processions.

The question now is whether the interior ministry will have the clout to keep the ISI at bay and have the militias banned.

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