Extremism and militancy in Punjab

[Irfan Baloch]

Cashing the pro-Taliban & Anti Amry Sentiment
There are very valid (in PML-ns terms) reasons why it refuses to openly criticise or accept the existence of Punjabi (Punjab based) terrorist outfits.
The last election and the upcoming election campaign will be based on enticing the anti Army, anti American voters.
In Punjab specially Pindi and Islamabad PML-N cashed on the anti Army, pro-Talibanism after the Lal Mosque operation which was blessing for its leadership it used it to it full.
the Sherif brothers benefited and reeked the rewards better than jamiat Islami which was hopping to cash in after the Lal Mosque operation.

Saudi influence on Moderate Sunni Muslims
Like the analyst in the posts above have noted, PMLn will never like to alienate the pro-fanatic & hate based religion mindset of our middle class that has surfaced since the “Islamisation” of Gen Zia Al Haq that started influencing the otherwise moderate Beralvi, sufi Sunni Muslims with the Saudi Salafi faith of intolerance & hatred which is slowly turning the majority sunni population into intolerant society where there is no room for any other sect or religion.

Safeguarding the Vote bank
Lets not deny the fact that we have among ourselves many people who hold grudge against other sects & religion and that’s what the Taliban & Sipah Sahabah have managed to channel into extreme violence against moderate Sunnis in general & other sectarian & religious minorities. the people in this group include well off middle class as well as completely despondent peasants & farmers living below poverty line but this is like a wild card and can swing either way. PMLn has to wrestle these voters from Jamiat Islami & Imran Khan’s PTI (who justifies beheading of captives on the Pakhtunwali custom, & refuses to condemn Taliban terror).

I can predict and Bet that Sherif brothers will stay put and continue to support Sipah Sahabah implicitly the path way to power in the next elections is based on

1. Provincialism
2. family or baradry
3. the PPP’s incompitency & plundering
4. Anti Army sentiment re Lal Mosque (new form of Anti Musharaf)
5. Soft corner to outright support of Secterian outfits

What remains to be seen is if this policy is out of love for these sectarian terrorists that are waging the war against the state or if this unholy alliance is out of convenience to get to power

 

[Irfan Baloch]

I think every realistic person observing these facts but expressing such views make him fanatic at this forum.
I don't understand one thing that Jihad is part of Emaan in every Muslim sects but why only Deobandi/salfi exploiting and doing such jihad.
No more comments, i have already been awarded a fanatic.

my dear brother
maybe I can try to give my reasons.
Deobandi/ Salafi faith unfortunately fails to understand the philosophy & depth of concept of Jihad. it takes it literal term which even doesn’t do justice to it literally. What they term jehad is nothing but finta in Islamic terms.
Yes this school is exploiting the whole concept. On the intellectual level they are trying to erode the love & devotion of the Holy Prophet Muhammad PBUH & on the violent front they are purging all “impure” & infidel sects from Islam. War against the west is just a sideshow their main target is the Muslim population

 

[GUNNER]

The provincial government in Pakistan's Punjabi heartland is coming out of denial about the threat from militants there, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said.

Asked when Pakistan might launch a crackdown on militant groups in the eastern province of Punjab, Qureshi said some lower level militants had been picked up and some eliminated.
"I think some major incidents have taken place in Lahore and woken the Punjab government up," Qureshi told Reuters in an interview at the end of a regional summit in Istanbul.
"I think they are coming out of the denial that they were living in."

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, whose brother Shahbaz is Punjab's chief minister, was quoted in the Pakistani media this weekend as voicing solidarity with the Ahmadi minority sect by describing them as brothers.

The Punjab government has been criticised in the past for shirking any confrontation with militant groups, who have been dubbed the Punjabi Taliban.

Qureshi said Pakistan's next priority in the fight against the Taliban is the remote North Waziristan tribal region.

The United States regularly launches drone missile attacks on al Qaeda and Taliban targets in North Waziristan and has been anticipating a Pakistani offensive there since last year.

Qureshi said the army was moving toward an offensive in North Waziristan in a "calculated fashion" after an earlier successful operation in South Waziristan.

"Our next priority is going to be North Waziristan but we have to time our operations in line with our resources," he said. "At the moment we are consolidating our position in South Waziristan."

Qureshi, who met his Afghan counterpart for confidence building talks in Istanbul on Monday, said relations had improved markedly in the two years since a democratic government took power in Pakistan.

Asked whether India's presence in Afghanistan was still worrying Pakistan, Qureshi said; "The security challenges that Afghanistan faces can be helped more by Pakistan than India can help them. So I think that an exaggerated presence would not be in order."

"We have to spend time to bridge the trust gap and think of confidence building measures that will restore the shaken confidence on both sides," Qureshi said.

 

[pak-marine]

glad to hear that , Once Punjab turns against these evil fundos thats pretty much the end of them. Final battle is to kill or arrest every single one of them, this disease wont be spreading any more

 

[GUNNER]

LAHORE: Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah ruled out any operation in South Punjab on Thursday, saying that Taliban are recruiting in Lahore and Faisalabad, not training in Punjab.

Speaking to Express, he said the two main accused of the Jinnah Hospital terror attack have been arrested, adding that initial investigation revealed that all the terrorists got their training from Miranshah and later joined the Raiwind congregation and stayed over there.

He also said that the terrorists hide their weapons in Raiwind but the Raiwind administration itself is unaware of such actions.

Sanaullah also said that accused of Jinnah hospital attack were arrested buy their names cant be disclosed right now.

 

[seekers]

LAHORE: Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah ruled out any operation in South Punjab on Thursday, saying that Taliban are recruiting in Lahore and Faisalabad, not training in Punjab.

Speaking to Express, he said the two main accused of the Jinnah Hospital terror attack have been arrested, adding that initial investigation revealed that all the terrorists got their training from Miranshah and later joined the Raiwind congregation and stayed over there.

He also said that the terrorists hide their weapons in Raiwind but the Raiwind administration itself is unaware of such actions.

Sanaullah also said that accused of Jinnah hospital attack were arrested buy their names cant be disclosed right now.

khurra to raiwind say he nikalta hai, ab lakh chupao

 

[kugga]

No need for operation in South punjab I think Malik has lost his mind....
Southeren punjab is a setteled area and it's not like FATA where government has no control.... Situation than can be controlled easily by police no need for an army operation like FATA.....

 

[Comet]

No need for operation in South punjab I think Malik has lost his mind....
Southeren punjab is a setteled area and it's not like FATA where government has no control.... Situation than can be controlled easily by police no need for an army operation like FATA.....

Of course, it is not going to be an army operation.
I believe it will be huge arrests and some curfew in case there is some their supporters make it to roads.

 

[kugga]

Of course, it is not going to be an army operation.
I believe it will be huge arrests and some curfew in case there is some their supporters make it to roads.

No curfew should be imposed at all let it be a normal operation there is nothing like terrorist camps there... Police knows almost every person there... they are not that big cities where it is extremely difficult to find the culprit, and also it's not a difficult terrain

 

[seekers]

No curfew should be imposed at all let it be a normal operation there is nothing like terrorist camps there... Police knows almost every person there... they are not that big cities where it is extremely difficult to find the culprit, and also it's not a difficult terrain

Only problem is terrorist's Investors ( Govt. can't afford their anger)

 

[kugga]

Only problem is terrorist's Investors ( Govt. can't afford their anger)

terrorist's investors???

 

[seekers]

terrorist's investors???

Yes! This is long term investor which don't agree to lose their 30 year old assets even at any cost.

 

[kugga]

Yes! This is long term investor which don't agree to lose their 30 year old assets even at any cost.

Can you explain it??

 

[GUNNER]

The Nation

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Terror hubs in Punjab must be eradicated: Kaira

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Qamar Zaman Kaira said that there are safe heavens and hubs for terrorists in Punjab. He was talking to the representatives of the media at the Lahore Airport where he said that Punjabi or Pukhtoon Taliban are not regional rather global phenomena. He added that the Taliban want to harm the sovereignty of the country. He said that no operation in Pakistan is launched with the will of the Federal Government. He said that whenever the provincial government fails to control the menace of terrorism only then than Federal Government intervenes. Kaira said that the Federal Government could cooperate with the Punjab Government to control the menace of terrorism in the province.

 

[GUNNER]

Is an operation in Punjab a good idea?

By Ayesha Siddiqa

June 13, 2010

The writer is author of Military Inc. and a visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University, US (ayesha.siddiqa@tribune.com.pk)

The Punjab government and its patrons in the deep state will not allow a military operation in south Punjab. But then such an action is not needed. All that is required is a decision by all stakeholders in power that militancy will not be tolerated. Then integrated intelligence and a police operation can do the job.

Begum Abida Hussain’s suggestion that a military operation in south Punjab is doable indicates some higher politics – like giving the PML-N or her immediate opponents a bad nose – or she might have lost touch with reality.

This is not to suggest that jihadism is not an issue in Punjab. There are three main jihadi bases in the province. Although Chakwal and Gujranwala- Faisalabad are vital hubs of militancy, south Punjab attracts greater attention because it involves almost the entire region and is a territory from where the jihadi leadership seeks its sacrificial lamb — children of the poor.

Begum Hussain’s anger is understandable since her area, Jhang, is a major jihadi area and birthplace of the Sipahi- Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) which later developed its military wing Lashkare- Jhangvi, with further branches such as and Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM). The SSP, which is the mother of all militant outfits barring the LeT, sent its warriors to Afghanistan during the early 1980s.

A military operation will unleash a Pandora’s Box which may even devour Mrs Hussain and her clan. The government needs a holistic strategy. In the short-term, the answer is to launch an integrated police and intelligence operation. The police have sufficient intelligence to act against the culprits. All it will take is for the Punjab law minister not to protect militants, train police, and non-interference from the army and its agencies. In the past, police were intercepted by military agencies whenever they caught a militant. The police even had the capacity to move in Swat had powerful quarters not interfered. The state must move in as quickly as possible since the police, lower judiciary and other segments of the state are being penetrated by radicals and militants.

A long-term strategy means revamping the socio-political system in a manner that the great Begum and her ilk don’t attract people to violence. She represents feudalism which is not a dominant mode of production in Punjab but the name of a peculiar culture. Since a lot of big landowners in south Punjab are Shia, Deobandi outfits like SSP managed to muster support. The SSP and its sister organisations are anti-imperialist and anti-feudal. But let’s be careful. They are not antiimperialism or anti-feudalism. There is a lot of difference between the two. Sadly, the current power elite, the ethnic nationalists and the jihadis all represent new trends in feudalism.

Some may ask why spare Punjab when no one sympathised with the Pakhtun but two wrongs don’t make a right. Military operations in the tribal areas were a bad idea. In its arrogance and myopic thinking the army destroyed the traditional power structure and law enforcement mechanism and devastated local intelligence and police.

The military must only operate in the background to assist the police. This is necessary for effective action and to avoid bloodshed. The post-Blue Star police operation in east Punjab is a case in point. The military’s operation has increased financial and opportunity costs for the state. Today, people in Swat and the tribal areas distrust the military which has abused human rights in the name of protecting itself. This happens when an army is not properly trained for counter-insurgency. It kills more, out of fear for its life. This is true for both Pakistan and the US. The wound it leaves on people’s hearts is unimaginable.

The government urgently requires a conflict resolution strategy. This means restructuring the political system not war.