DAWN
KARACHI: Investigators probing the first attack claimed in Pakistan by the Islamic State group believe a notorious local sectarian group may have carried out the massacre as it seeks to expand its ties to the Middle East.Gunmen stormed a bus in Karachi last month, killing 45 members of the Ismaili minority community in one of the deadliest incidents in Pakistan this year.
The slaughter was swiftly claimed by ISIS, marking the first time the militants, who have seized control of large areas of Iraq and Syria and declared a “caliphate”, said they were behind an attack in Pakistan.Islamabad has officially denied that ISIS is operating in Pakistan, which has been wracked by Al Qaeda and Taliban linked violence for more than a decade.
But investigators believe the attack may have been carried out by the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ) as it seeks to expand its international influence — and get access to ISIS's rich funding.
LJ has emerged as the bloodiest and most ruthless anti-Shia outfit in Pakistan, which has seen a rise in sectarian attacks in recent years, mostly targeting Shias, who make up 20 per cent of the population.
“We are investigating the LJ connection behind the attack and one of the arrested suspects is linked to LJ,” a security official involved in the probe told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“LJ wanted to gain attention of IS for its financial needs and the attack on Ismailis provided the perfect choice as it got international attention."
Returning fighters
Senior intelligence officials and militant sources say LJ cadres have fought in Syria and returned inspired by ISIS, which has won global notoriety for its brutality and slick propaganda operation.The returned fighters are working with a new generation of middle-class, educated, self-radicalised 'jihadists' to try to raise the black flag of the ISIS “caliphate” in Pakistan.
An intelligence officer who has tracked LJ for years said the group, based in the southern part of Punjab, had sent hundreds of fighters to Syria.
“The new cadre of militants going to Syria and Iraq, these militants are mostly educated people with middle-class backgrounds,” the intelligence officer told AFP.
Over the past decade the patchwork of militant groups that make up the Pakistani Taliban have largely focused on waging a domestic campaign against the government and armed forces.
But a former LJ militant who produces online propaganda material for terror groups said for young militants in Pakistan, all the talk now is of ISIS and the Middle East.
“Many jihadists particularly from Punjab went to fight in Syria and some died,” he said.
“Unlike the past, news from Syria, Iraq and Yemen is the most debated and shared item on extremist-militant forums in Pakistan." Security analyst Amir Rana said. LJ had fighters in Iraq since 2013, and even set up a training camp there.“The Salafi/Wahabi ideological and operational association between Pakistani militant groups and ISIS is not new, Pakistani militants were part of ISIS since its inception,” he told AFP.
“The actual threat for Pakistan is the return of LJ militants fighting in Iraq and Syria, as they would add to the sectarian violence here."
Silent surge
LJ, founded in 1996, a militant arm of ASWJ (formerly known as Sipah Sahaba), has been behind some of the worst attacks on Shias in Pakistan's history, including two huge bombings in the southwestern city of Quetta in 2013 that together killed nearly 200 people.
The security official said the group was now seeking to expand its operations.
“LJ is growing from an anti-Shia organisation to an organisation with trans-national interests,” he said.The group has been accused of carrying out attacks in Afghanistan and has also begun targeting Sunni Barelvis, Christians, Hindus and other Muslim sects.
“For the last two years, there is evidence that the organisation is involved in attacking minorities in urban centres where they have established strong bases, especially in Karachi,” he said.“But LJ has claimed responsibility for hardly any of those incidents — usually militant organisations with no structural or organisational existence have claimed responsibility for attacks carried out by LJ,” he added.
He said LJ maintained a strict cellular structure, with individuals in one unit unaware of the existence of others, and sometimes drew militants from other groups for specific missions.
According to a Reuters report, the LeJ by 2004 had became a powerful terrorist organization with increasing support from Al Qaeda. The new, never-before-known expertise of LeJ cadres proficient in bomb-making and suicide bombings came from the same source. With time, the LeJ had established its contacts with extremists in Pakistan’s tribal areas (FATA). The new ‘friends’ were mainly Uzbek, belonging to the notorious Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) who had taken refuge in Pakistan’s tribal areas as US operations in Afghanistan continued.
With the formation of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in 2007, many of the LeJ’s factions started operating in urban areas under its umbrella. The rise of an insurgency in FATA and a sudden increase in terrorist attacks all over Pakistan proved to be very beneficial for the LeJ as the main concentration of Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) was diverted towards fighting the more powerful rebellion of the TTP. The LeJ’s undeclared alliance with the TTP came to limelight when the responsibility for 2008 Marriott hotel bombing in Islamabad was claimed by the TTP.
When TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud was killed in 2009, Hakimullah Mehsud took over. He is credited with forming a proper alliance with the LeJ. Under his command, the TTP began targeting minority sects in tribal areas and claimed responsibility for numerous attacks on Shias. But the major joint terror strike by the TTP and LeJ was witnessed in 2009 which was a first-of-its-kind and took the entire nation by surprise.
It was the siege of Pakistan Army’s General Headquarters or the GHQ in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. 5 out of 10 terrorists who stormed the GHQ belonged to Punjab-based extremist organisations, mainly the LeJ; the other 5 belonged to the TTP. A successful special forces hostage rescue operation ended the siege, but resulted in the martyrdom of two SSG commandos and two civilians.
THE SAUDI CONNECTION
In the Punjab town of Jhang, LeJ’s birthplace, SSP/ASWJ leader Maulana Mohammad Ahmed Ludhianvi describes what he says are Tehran’s grand designs. Iranian consular offices and cultural centers, he alleges, are actually a front for its intelligence agencies.
“If Iranian interference continues it will destroy this country,” said Ludhianvi in an interview in his home. The state provides him with armed guards, fearful any harm done to him could trigger sectarian bloodletting.
Ludhianvi insisted he was just a politician. “I would like to tell you that I am not a murderer, I am not a killer, I am not a terrorist. We are a political party.”
After a meal of chicken, curry and spinach, Ludhianvi and his aides stood up to warmly welcome a visitor: Saudi Arabia-based cleric Malik Abdul Haq al-Meqqi.
A Pakistani cleric knowledgeable about Sunni groups described Meqqi as a middleman between Saudi donors and intelligence agencies and the LeJ, the ASWJ and other groups.
“Of course, Saudi Arabia supports these groups. They want to keep Iranian influence in check in Pakistan, so they pay,” the Pakistani cleric said. His account squared with that of a Pakistani intelligence agent, who said jailed militants had confessed that LeJ received Saudi funding.
