Showing posts with label Lashkar-e-Taiba. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lashkar-e-Taiba. Show all posts

25.5.11

Leave Indian Muslims out of this

I have already stated my views on the Headley deposition. It is turning out to be even more bizarre. Here are portions from a report that needs to be ripped apart:

Headley and Rana even debated who should declare jihad, whether a head of an Islamic state, as Rana believed, or someone else. Headley explained that a head of state was necessary only if it was to be “offensive” jihad, but for “defensive” jihad of the kind currently underway it was not necessary.

Was this some coffee-shop discussion? Were they not working for a terrorist outfit or were they important enough blokes to debate about such decisions? If the LeT is involved it does not need to specifically declare a jihad. It is not like you say, “Lights! Camera! Action!” and the cameras will roll. And what exactly does ‘head of an Islamic state’ mean? Surely, they did not imagine Saudi Arabia would chip in with the clapper board? If the ISI has to be implicated, there are better ways to do it.

How does Headley become an expert? If we see this as just a terrorist plan pushing for a holy war, then the concept of offense and defence does not arise. The believers assume it is in the defence of the religion.

Another striking disclosure that Headley made relates to the 2002 Muslim massacre in Gujarat in the aftermath of the killings of 50 Hindu pilgrims at Godhra. In fact, he said the massacre was one of the triggers for him personally to get involved in 26/11. He said between 2002 and 2007, the LeT had received hundreds of letters from Muslims in Gujarat seeking help. He even referred to an undercover video recording of a Hindu activist called Babu Bajrangi who had bragged about personally having killed Muslims.

What is so striking about this disclosure? Everyone who carries out such acts will use their co-religionists. These are dubious claims and if Headley was so concerned about Gujarat why did he want to get his dream launch in Kashmir? This is devious in the extreme because Indian Muslims have not turned to Pakistan to help them in any crisis. Here we have Narendra Modi boasting about how Muslims in his state are doing so well. He should be the one contradicting such statements.

There is no need for undercover videos when our national leaders have made their biases clear. But, a large segment of the population is not taken in by this. The LeT is not interested in helping out Indian Muslims or any Muslims for that matter. Terrorists are killing Muslims in Pakistan. And they will not wait for over six years to strike when they do have the ability to infiltrate and the arsenal to carry out attacks.

It is utter hogwash to involve the Indian Muslim population. As it is they go on a guilt trip each time some Islamist is behind attacks. I don’t find Hindus feeling guilty or taking out morchas because of Malegaon or Bhiwandi or Babri. And they absolutely do not have to. But Muslims, with their so-called well-wishers, will wear those starched kurtas and skull caps and parade like puppets.

For an illiterate and backward community Indian Muslims are certainly being accused of too much letter-writing. After the Bombay riots, they said that Dawood Ibrahim carried out the March blasts because the Muslims wrote to him. He cannot even protect his brother, so how will he protect the community?

19.3.11

Pakistan, America and Bloodied Money

It looks like the United States of America now believes in the Sharia. On March 17, Raymond Davis got off by paying blood money to the families of the two men he had killed on January 27. Pakistan’s law minister Rana Sanaullah declared that Davis, supposedly a CIA agent, had been pardoned by the heirs of the murdered men as per the Islamic law where blood money (Diyat) amounting to Rs. 37 crore ($2.3m) was received. They had signed the papers in court.


One needs to know about the Pakistani establishment’s use of the Islamic laws. Will it pardon the killers of prominent politicians if they pay blood money to the families? If the law is so clear, then why did the authorities put up a fight against their own legal provisions and go around patting themselves for not buckling under US pressure? Does the government of Pakistan not owe its citizens proof of evidence regarding the receipt of the money as well as the nature of US involvement in the issue? How did the most powerful nation in the world agree to become part of such a transaction?

Why did America want Davis back? He is not innocent; he has killed two people that resulted in another incidental killing. What went on behind the backdoors of diplomacy that ‘proud Pakistan’ capitulated so easily and packed him off immediately? The court had indicted him and then quite suddenly within a few hours the families pardoned him. Are such families supreme in Pakistan and have a say in such matters?


It is regrettable that some commentators had been talking about the Pakistan-US fracas as giving an opportunity to fundamentalists. In a country where cases drag on for years, it has been only two months since the incident. The Taliban has been around and one Davis coming or going would not have changed that. While trying to put on a brave front against the CIA, Pakistan was really buying time with its own fanatic forces. If Faizan Haider and Faheem Shamshad, the two men Davis shot dead, were ISI’s snoops following him, then what exactly was their role? Elementary logic would suggest that the US would want to know more about that. Anyone under diplomatic cover, or any outsider for that matter, is routinely tailed in Pakistan. He would have been aware. So, were they ISI agents or someone else?

The incident has been extensively recorded. In brief, the two victims were on bikes; one took out a pistol when Davis was driving through a Lahore street; Davis took out his gun and shot at them. Initially, he stated it was in self-defence. However, on-the-spot footage shows that their backs were turned to him. Ibad-ur-Rehman was run over by the American vehicle. How so?


Davis was said to be part of a team investigating the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s operations. Did Davis get some incriminating evidence? Does the US need any to bludgeon ‘threat perceptions’? The arrogance is amazing. Cameron Munter, the US ambassador in Islamabad, has expressed gratitude to Pakistan and its people for pardoning Davis. Using Twitter the embassy conveyed the message from His Excellency: “I wish to express, once again, my regret for the incident...”

Gratitude to the people? The people are out protesting. The lawyers of the victims’ families were not allowed to meet their clients. By accepting such a pardon, the US government seems to have adhered to the role of the Sharia. Does it mean that it will now not interfere in Pakistan’s internal problems that will be sorted out using the same Sharia?

When the ambassador expresses regret, does it mean that he accepts responsibility for more than just the deaths, but also the reason for it? The US was probably in a tearing rush to get Davis before they got him because he may have more information about the US than about Pakistan.


It is surprising that the media refers to rightwing parties and Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaaf organising demonstrations. Are the liberal parties and the liberal activists who have often exposed their own laws also not protesting? Why do they not come out strongly against this sell-out when they were all gung-ho about their country’s strong stand earlier?

This is as much a human rights issue as any other lynching. Only because it is an American with a gun, he cannot be pardoned. Is the money that has been reportedly paid tax free? Has it been deposited in the banks of the next of kin of the murdered men? Who according to the Sharia is entitled to this amount in the family? Have all these provisions been taken care of?

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denies that the US government has paid the money. If that is so, then on what grounds do they want Davis back? The government where a crime is committed conducts a criminal investigation and tries the person. There are reports that the money was paid by the Pakistani government with the help of Saudi intervention. The US has indicated that it “fully expects to get the bill” and will pay for it.

Sure, except that this isn’t a laundry bill. Someone has got to come clean. It is a dirty deal and there is blood in more than the money.

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Images: The News and Aaj TV, Pakistan

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Published in Countercurrents, March 19