M A I N   N E W S

Taliban hang 20 Alliance fighters
Thousands of Pak tribesmen cross over to help militia

Islamabad, October 27
In one of the most barbaric acts since the launch of the military campaign, the Taliban today hanged 20 Northern Alliance fighters, including five commanders, amidst reports that thousands of heavily armed Pakistani tribesmen crossed into Afghanistan, determined to bolster militia forces to fight against the US-led attacks.

The militia said 20 Northern Alliance fighters, captured in northern Afghanistan after they regained control of the Dar-e-Souf region of Samangan province, were executed. Those hanged included a senior commander Mohammad Bilal, Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press reported.

Meanwhile, several thousand armed Pakistani tribesmen crossed into Afghanistan today to help the Taliban, Islamic party officials said.

Witnesses said buses, wagons, pick-up trucks and vehicles with Muslim activists armed with Kalashnikov rifles, rocket launchers and anti-aircraft guns crossed into Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province.

The party officials said the group was led by firebrand Islamic party head Sufi Mohammad who has called for jehad, or a holy struggle, against the USA.

There was no confirmation from government officials that the group had crossed from the remote northwestern corner of Pakistan.

“Sufi Mohammad led the first convoy of mujahideen (holy warriors) who went to Afghanistan this morning to fight beside the Taliban,” Qazi Ehsanullah, spokesman for the Tehrik Nifaze Shariat Mohammadi movement, said by telephone from the the village of Maidan in Malakand district.

Meanwhile, media reports quoting intelligence officials said slain Peshtoon commander Abdul Haq had walked into an “elaborate trap” laid for him by Taliban intelligence operatives.

“Haq had left for his home district of Hisarak to meet some important Taliban commanders on Monday. There is a lot to suggest that he fell victim to a ruse set by Taliban intelligence,” a daily, The News said. Some Pakistan officials in Peshawar even suggested that Haq was seen receiving some of the close associates of top Taliban leaders who could have lured him to visit his native Hisarak area in Nangrahar province promising major desertions in Taliban ranks.

According to the information received by Pakistan intelligence services in Peshawar, Haq and two of his associates, including his nephew, were interrogated for more than 20 hours before being shot.

A Pakistani intelligence official told reporters: “He (Haq) should have known that it’s a standard operating procedure to trap an elusive enemy in Afghanistan. Afghan history is full of instances where inaccessible enemies were caught after being served sumptuous meals”.

The Taliban wanted to kill him since a long time as they thought that Haq, a fluent English speaking Pashtoon moderate, with an extensive exposure to Europe and the USA had been projected as an ideal candidate to replace Taliban chief Mulla Omar.

Officials in Peshawar from where Haq operated said since his arrival there a few weeks ago a number of Western officials were seen frequently meeting Haq who persuaded him to revive his old Afghan contacts on both political and military fronts.

Haq, regarded as one of the most courageous commanders, was also reportedly in touch with a number of other anti-Taliban commanders in southern Afghanistan. PTI, Reuters

Being tutored to become jehadis

New Delhi, October 27
Dotted all over Pakistan are institutions which inject into the minds of their pupils a sort of spiritual orientation which brushes aside modern education and relies on a warped sense of religiosity. This is typical brainwashing with government blessings, resulting in regular assembly-line production of students fed on a narrow and violent version of Islam. A by-product is the “jehadi” mentality which goes against the real meaning of the term.

These schools are called madarsaas which provide, besides instructions without tuition fees, free food, housing and clothing. The fundings come from various sources. In southern Punjab, it is the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, a sectarian Sunni political party which even reportedly rewards the poor parents for sending their children to such schools.

Others are rich industrialists based at home or abroad, government-aided NGOs in Gulf states and Saudi Arabia as well as Iran. In the eighties, military dictator Zia-ul-Haq allowed madarsaas to mushroom as a policy to win the support of religious parties for his rule. At that time many of these schools were financed by “zakat” (compulsory tithe) which gave the state some control over the operations.

Subjects like mathematics, science or other secular topics do not form part of the curriculum. The fodder naturally comes from the poor section, the wealthy of course send their wards to the handful of elite institutions in the country. The graduates are naturally incapable of becoming leaders of a modern nation, tutored as they are on extremist ideologies espoused by most of the tens of thousands of madarsaas. No work for them in a society that strives for progress and hence they are encouraged to take up “obligatory” fights against perceived enemies in Jammu and Kashmir or Muslims of other sects inside Pakistan. The “jehad” for them signifies guerrilla warfare and not the scholarly interpretation of self-initiative to purify the soul.

And this continues despite official Pakistani condemnation of the widespread practice. Reform plans — such as expansion of curricula, disclosure of money resources, mandatory registration and putting an end to sending students to military training camps — have failed to evoke much cooperation. Some principals even claim that madarsaas are older than the country itself.

Back to finance for proponents of the so-called holy war. One can list militant groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Ahle Hadith (Wahhabi group) in this regard. These have amassed huge money themselves. Individual Mujahideens also benefit. Their leaders live in luxury and those in the lower rung allegedly earn more than seven times than an average Pakistani, plus commissions for successful missions. Quite attractive in a land of poverty.

On top of it is the gun culture left behind as a consequence of anti-Soviet combat when US-Saudi contributions to Afghanistan and Pakistan amounted to nearly $ 3.5 billion. This has made jehad a lucrative business in the region for which Gulf Arabs and Pakistani diaspora not only provide capital but also extremist rhetoric.

Given this scenario, Pakistan will find it very difficult to crack down on the madarsaas, the hotbeds of radicalism whih will keep on gaining momentum as long as the Kashmir conflict lasts. Many irregulars who fought in Afghanistan are now active in Kashmir, some of them allegedly committed to seeing a Taliban-type regime there.

The fact is that madarsaas clearly teach that jehad is a spiritual duty. But for the extremist units, it amounts to terrorism in the guise of jehad for which help from professional criminals is also taken. The rich donate money but keep their sons out of the cause. So the sons from the poor countryside are mostly enrolled and the parents apparently are not too unhappy to see their children “martyred.” Importantly, such families are looked after by the militant groups like the one founded by the Jamaat-e-Islami. Loans are paid off, businesses set up or houses constructed. Charitable organisations to reward the families of martyrs have been established. Thanking them for the sacrifice made to assist Muslim bretheren in Kashmir supplies the necessary emotional consolation.

The end result is that Pakistan’s militant groups are exporting their version of holy war all over the world. The trainees are from Nepal, Chechnya, Myanmar, Kuwait, Bangladesh and Yemen. Millions of dollars are being spent on procuring arms, giving education and health a back seat. A jehad mindset, earlier nurtured by the USA, has struck deep roots in the country and assumed destructive ramifications. This can’t be changed overnight. ANI

US planes strike north of Kabul

Rabat (Afghanistan), October 27
US warplanes stepped up their attacks on Afghanistan’s Taliban militia north of Kabul today, pounding the hardline Islamic movement in the heaviest strikes of the campaign so far.

Opposition commanders and witnesses saw at least a dozen explosions during three waves of flights high over the Shomali Plain, where the ruling Taliban and opposition Northern Alliance forces face each other from the trenches.

The attacks were concentrated mainly on Sia Ku, a hill that looks over the opposition-held airport of Bagram.

The position, which has helped make Bagram unuseable, was hit by at least four blasts in an early raid and a further seven at about 11.30 a.m. (12.30 p.m. IST).

The jets flew high, staying out of range of Taliban air defences. They were barely visible in the bright morning sun, and there was little audible anti-aircraft fire.

But the flashes of the blasts and high plumes of black smoke could be seen on the Sia Ku hill, 3 km east of Bagram.

The USA and its allies had attacked the Taliban frontline north of Kabul for five consecutive days between Sunday and Thursday. There were no strikes yesterday, possibly because it is Islam’s main day of prayer. Reuters, AP