Mumbai Attacks
- Thread starter BanglaBhoot
- Start date
- Status
Awesome
RETIRED MOD
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2006
- Messages
- 22,023
- Reaction score
- 5
jeypore
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2008
- Messages
- 2,885
- Reaction score
- 0
- Country
- Location
China, India to hold joint anti-terror military training
English_Xinhua 2008-12-04 19:10:01 Print
BEIJING, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese and Indian military forces will hold a joint anti-terror military training from Dec. 6to 14 in India, the Chinese Defense Ministry said on Thursday.
The two armies will each dispatch an infantry company to take part in the joint training, code-named "Hand in Hand 2008", in south India's Belgaum District, said the ministry spokesman Huang Xueping.
The group of 137 troops from the Chinese side arrived at the training camp in Belgaum on Thursday after eight hours' flight by two military transport planes, and a brief welcoming ceremony was held at the airport by the Indian side.
The joint training is being carried out according to the Memorandum of Understanding for Exchanges and Cooperation in the Field of Defense signed in 2006 and is listed in the annual exchange plans for 2008 after discussion of the two sides, Huang said.
The joint training was intended to enhance mutual understanding and trust and advance the development of relations between the Chinese and Indian armies, he said.
"The time of the training was set previously and the joint training has no specified background and is not aimed at any third parties," he said.
The nine-day joint anti-terror military training will include display of weapons and equipment, communication of tactics, joint training and a comprehensive drill.
The two countries held their first joint anti-terrorism military training in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province last year.
China, India to hold joint anti-terror military training_English_Xinhua
English_Xinhua 2008-12-04 19:10:01 Print
BEIJING, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese and Indian military forces will hold a joint anti-terror military training from Dec. 6to 14 in India, the Chinese Defense Ministry said on Thursday.
The two armies will each dispatch an infantry company to take part in the joint training, code-named "Hand in Hand 2008", in south India's Belgaum District, said the ministry spokesman Huang Xueping.
The group of 137 troops from the Chinese side arrived at the training camp in Belgaum on Thursday after eight hours' flight by two military transport planes, and a brief welcoming ceremony was held at the airport by the Indian side.
The joint training is being carried out according to the Memorandum of Understanding for Exchanges and Cooperation in the Field of Defense signed in 2006 and is listed in the annual exchange plans for 2008 after discussion of the two sides, Huang said.
The joint training was intended to enhance mutual understanding and trust and advance the development of relations between the Chinese and Indian armies, he said.
"The time of the training was set previously and the joint training has no specified background and is not aimed at any third parties," he said.
The nine-day joint anti-terror military training will include display of weapons and equipment, communication of tactics, joint training and a comprehensive drill.
The two countries held their first joint anti-terrorism military training in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province last year.
China, India to hold joint anti-terror military training_English_Xinhua
just do a google image search on Shoaib Akhtar and choose picture sizes as medium
On the second page or third page you would get the picture of Shoaib Akhtar wearing a red armband something similair to which one of terrorists in MUmbai was wearing.
Since I am a new member I am not allowed to post URL's Else I would given the link
try to open it from this heavensblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/js03akhtar_narrowweb__300x5030.jpg
I think it should be quite clear that wearing armbands is not exclusive to hindus and the first point of Mr Hamid falls flat on face
On the second page or third page you would get the picture of Shoaib Akhtar wearing a red armband something similair to which one of terrorists in MUmbai was wearing.
Since I am a new member I am not allowed to post URL's Else I would given the link
try to open it from this heavensblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/js03akhtar_narrowweb__300x5030.jpg
I think it should be quite clear that wearing armbands is not exclusive to hindus and the first point of Mr Hamid falls flat on face
No wonder why those terrorists could roam through "Indian Lake" so freely...
The "Indian lake!"
It helps, but without a full resolution of territorial dispute and Dalai Lama separatist issue in India, there will never be a true understanding/trust. In addition, anti-China propaganda within India can easily hedge off the effect of 100+ such exercises.
The "Indian lake!"
It helps, but without a full resolution of territorial dispute and Dalai Lama separatist issue in India, there will never be a true understanding/trust. In addition, anti-China propaganda within India can easily hedge off the effect of 100+ such exercises.
Silverfalcon
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2008
- Messages
- 465
- Reaction score
- 0
Well done Mr.Zaid Hamid 
Currently information warfare is going on, and you are doing your best to retaliate.
Truth has to be spoken of, its high time now. The media including CNN, BBC and GEO, have spread huge amounts of confusion amongst all Pakistanis and rest of the people in this world.
and youre doing your best to finish the confusion.
Currently information warfare is going on, and you are doing your best to retaliate.
Truth has to be spoken of, its high time now. The media including CNN, BBC and GEO, have spread huge amounts of confusion amongst all Pakistanis and rest of the people in this world.
and youre doing your best to finish the confusion.
Seems a revelation of a mixed and perhaps a complex emotion: admiration, jealousy, desperation, perhaps all?
Perhaps Indians have something to learn from: downsize your mouths, make neighbors your friends and get important things done with hands, not mouths.
Seriously.
Ali.009
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2008
- Messages
- 965
- Reaction score
- -6
Why do you always make deliberate attempts to provoke a flame war on these forums? None of the posts you ever made have anything credible or something which will advance a discussion. You just write a lousy line and then run away from the respective topic.
What theories are on the above talk show? Heck, the guy didnt even presented any theory, just commenting on the current scenario. Kindly change your attitude or ill ask someone to takecare of you.
Ali.009
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2008
- Messages
- 965
- Reaction score
- -6
Muslims do not wear the Hindu religious symbol. It would be like a Jew wearing the cross. Fanatics who procliam to be Muslims supposedly adhere to the fundamentalist principles. They would never wear Hindu symbols. Why is this person idnetified as a terrorist wearing a Hindu symbol of Kelva or Rakhi.
daredevil
BANNED
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2008
- Messages
- 711
- Reaction score
- 0
Silverfalcon
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2008
- Messages
- 465
- Reaction score
- 0
the band the terrorist was wearing was safron in colour.
and the one shoaib akhtar is wearing is red and is available in most of the shops
and the one shoaib akhtar is wearing is red and is available in most of the shops
PeaceForAll
BANNED
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2008
- Messages
- 246
- Reaction score
- 0
I have seen the video before and my sincere apologies for all the people who have seen it. Mr Hamid definitely has a vivid imagination. Given a chance he will link every possible force in the world is united against pak and is an enemy of Pak.
I understand Indian media was doing something like this but retaliation does not have to be in this sort of way.
Also, I hope people do not take this as true. In psychology there is such a syndrome where u belive everyone else is out there pitted against you - I forget the name of that. Will edit the post and write its name once I remember it.
More than attacking India like Indians attacked us may be we should show more sanity and maturity which will make us stand apart -this is more like saying if u act stupid we will act stupid too!
I am sorry if my brothers find this as a wrong opinion. But I would expect a mature response as a retaliation. not like kids fighting!
I understand Indian media was doing something like this but retaliation does not have to be in this sort of way.
Also, I hope people do not take this as true. In psychology there is such a syndrome where u belive everyone else is out there pitted against you - I forget the name of that. Will edit the post and write its name once I remember it.
More than attacking India like Indians attacked us may be we should show more sanity and maturity which will make us stand apart -this is more like saying if u act stupid we will act stupid too!
I am sorry if my brothers find this as a wrong opinion. But I would expect a mature response as a retaliation. not like kids fighting!
BanglaBhoot
RETIRED TTA
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2007
- Messages
- 8,839
- Reaction score
- 5
- Country
- Location
India names Pakistani masterminds while evidence shows Mumbai plot dates back a year
By SAM DOLNICK | Associated Press Writer
December 4, 2008
NEW DELHI (AP) A Pakistani militant group apparently used an Indian operative as far back as 2007 to scout targets for the elaborate plot against India's financial capital, authorities said Thursday, a blow to Indian officials who have blamed the deadly attacks entirely on Pakistani extremists.
As investigators sought to unravel the attack on Mumbai, stepping up questioning of the lone captured gunman, airports across India were put on high alert amid fresh warnings that terrorists planned to hijack an aircraft.
Also Thursday, police said there were signs that some of the six victims of the attack on a Jewish center may have been tortured. "The victims were strangled," said Rakesh Maria, a senior Mumbai police official. "There were injuries noticed on the bodies that were not from firing."
Members of an Israeli rescue group which had a team in Mumbai said it was impossible to tell if the bodies had been abused, however, because no autopsies were conducted in accordance with Jewish tradition.
The surviving gunman, Ajmal Amir Kasab, 21, told interrogators he had been sent by the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba and identified two of the plot's masterminds, according to two Indian government officials familiar with the inquiry.
Kasab told police that one of them, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Lashkar's operations chief, recruited him for the attack, and the assailants called another senior leader, Yusuf Muzammil, on a satellite phone after hijacking an Indian vessel en route to Mumbai.
The information sent investigators back to another reputed Lashkar operative, Faheem Ansari, who they hope could be key in pulling together different strands of the investigation.
Ansari, an Indian national, was arrested in February in north India carrying hand-drawn sketches of hotels, the train terminal and other sites that were later attacked in Mumbai, said Amitabh Yash, director of the Special Task Force of the Uttar Pradesh police.
During his interrogation, Ansari also named Muzammil as his handler in Pakistan, adding that he trained in a Lashkar camp in Muzaffarabad the same area where Kasab said he was trained, a senior police officer involved in the investigation said.
In Pakistan, Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik told reporters he had no information on Lakhvi or Muzammil but that authorities would check.
Ansari "told us about a planned Lashkar attack on Bombay, on southern Bombay," said Yash, referring to Mumbai by its previous name. "He gave us eight or nine specific locations where the attack would be carried out," he said, adding that Ansari had detailed sketches of the places and escape routes from the sites.
Ansari said he carried out the reconnaissance in the fall of 2007, which also included the U.S. consulate, the Bombay stock exchange and other Mumbai sites that were not attacked.
Ansari is now in Indian custody, according to Yash. It was unclear if he was being questioned again, but Maria said they were working to determine if Ansari played a role in how the attackers "got such intricate knowledge of the sites."
Indian authorities have faced a torrent of criticism about missed warnings and botched intelligence, and revelations that Ansari disclosed details of the Mumbai plot 10 months ago will be added to the list. Linking an Indian national to the plot also undermines India's assertion that Pakistan is solely responsible.
The attacks have heightened tensions between the contentious neighbors. They have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947 and both have nuclear weapons.
Yash said during extensive interrogations Ansari confessed to scouting Mumbai, arranging a safe-house there for Lashkar militants and provided details on his involvement in the group. "We got everything out of him, whatever he knew," he said.
Ansari linked up with Lashkar while working at a printing press in Dubai. He was taken by sea to Pakistan to the Lashkar camp in Muzaffarabad and received a false Pakistani passport and citizenship papers, which police recovered when he was arrested.
In 2007, Ansari said, he traveled to Katmandu, Nepal, and then crossed back into India and settled in Mumbai, where he conducted reconnaissance for a future attack, Yash said.
He was arrested Feb. 10 in the northern city of Rampur after suspected Muslim militants attacked a police camp, killing eight constables. He said he was there to collect weapons to bring to Mumbai for a future attack.
Yash said Ansari's arrest did not derail Lashkar's plans for an attack. "When they found that their mole in Bombay had been caught...they carried out the operations in a different way," he said.
Meanwhile, police officers said they were trying to get as much detail as possible from Kasab.
"A terrorist of this sort is never cooperative. We have to extract information," said Deven Bharti, the head of the Mumbai crime branch.
Indian police are known to use interrogation methods that would be regarded as torture in the West, including questioning suspects drugged with "truth serum."
Bharti provided no details on interrogation techniques, but said "truth serum" would probably be used next week. He did not specify what drug would be used.
During questioning, details of Kasab's recruitment by Lashkar began to emerge, said police, describing him as fourth grade dropout from an impoverished village who was gravitating to a life of crime.
"Lashkar recruited him, preying on a combination of his religious sentiments and his poverty," said Maria.
The revelations came as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with leaders in Islamabad after visiting India's capital part of a U.S. effort to pressure Pakistan to share more intelligence and pursue terrorist cells believed to be rooted in the country.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari promised Rice his country would take "strong action" against any elements in Pakistan involved in the siege.
On Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Department designated as terrorists four individuals who hold leadership positions in Lashkar, including Lakhvi, and ordered any of their U.S. assets to be frozen. Also named were Muhammad Saeed, the group's leader; Haji Muhammad Ashraf, its chief of finance; and Mahmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq, a financier with the group.
Meanwhile, India put its airports on alert following threats of possible airborne attacks. Security forces swarmed New Delhi's international airport early Friday after the sound of gunfire was heard, police said, but no one was injured or killed. Police said it was not a terrorist incident.
The warning received by the airports "spoke of possibility of aircraft being hijacked by terrorists," India's air force chief, Fali Homi Major, told reporters Thursday.
The alert focused on three major airports New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai but security was stepped up across India.
Several extra layers of security were set up and some passengers' bags were scanned for explosives.
"Passengers have been asked to pass through six-stage security checks," said Brij Lal, a senior police official organizing security at the airport in the northern city of Lucknow.
Nirmala Sharma, a passenger who flew from New Delhi to Lucknow, said her bags were checked a half dozen times and she went through a metal detector three times. "Sometimes it seemed tedious, but it seems to be the need of the hour," she said.
Mumbai death toll stands at 172 -- chicagotribune.com
By SAM DOLNICK | Associated Press Writer
December 4, 2008
NEW DELHI (AP) A Pakistani militant group apparently used an Indian operative as far back as 2007 to scout targets for the elaborate plot against India's financial capital, authorities said Thursday, a blow to Indian officials who have blamed the deadly attacks entirely on Pakistani extremists.
As investigators sought to unravel the attack on Mumbai, stepping up questioning of the lone captured gunman, airports across India were put on high alert amid fresh warnings that terrorists planned to hijack an aircraft.
Also Thursday, police said there were signs that some of the six victims of the attack on a Jewish center may have been tortured. "The victims were strangled," said Rakesh Maria, a senior Mumbai police official. "There were injuries noticed on the bodies that were not from firing."
Members of an Israeli rescue group which had a team in Mumbai said it was impossible to tell if the bodies had been abused, however, because no autopsies were conducted in accordance with Jewish tradition.
The surviving gunman, Ajmal Amir Kasab, 21, told interrogators he had been sent by the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba and identified two of the plot's masterminds, according to two Indian government officials familiar with the inquiry.
Kasab told police that one of them, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Lashkar's operations chief, recruited him for the attack, and the assailants called another senior leader, Yusuf Muzammil, on a satellite phone after hijacking an Indian vessel en route to Mumbai.
The information sent investigators back to another reputed Lashkar operative, Faheem Ansari, who they hope could be key in pulling together different strands of the investigation.
Ansari, an Indian national, was arrested in February in north India carrying hand-drawn sketches of hotels, the train terminal and other sites that were later attacked in Mumbai, said Amitabh Yash, director of the Special Task Force of the Uttar Pradesh police.
During his interrogation, Ansari also named Muzammil as his handler in Pakistan, adding that he trained in a Lashkar camp in Muzaffarabad the same area where Kasab said he was trained, a senior police officer involved in the investigation said.
In Pakistan, Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik told reporters he had no information on Lakhvi or Muzammil but that authorities would check.
Ansari "told us about a planned Lashkar attack on Bombay, on southern Bombay," said Yash, referring to Mumbai by its previous name. "He gave us eight or nine specific locations where the attack would be carried out," he said, adding that Ansari had detailed sketches of the places and escape routes from the sites.
Ansari said he carried out the reconnaissance in the fall of 2007, which also included the U.S. consulate, the Bombay stock exchange and other Mumbai sites that were not attacked.
Ansari is now in Indian custody, according to Yash. It was unclear if he was being questioned again, but Maria said they were working to determine if Ansari played a role in how the attackers "got such intricate knowledge of the sites."
Indian authorities have faced a torrent of criticism about missed warnings and botched intelligence, and revelations that Ansari disclosed details of the Mumbai plot 10 months ago will be added to the list. Linking an Indian national to the plot also undermines India's assertion that Pakistan is solely responsible.
The attacks have heightened tensions between the contentious neighbors. They have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947 and both have nuclear weapons.
Yash said during extensive interrogations Ansari confessed to scouting Mumbai, arranging a safe-house there for Lashkar militants and provided details on his involvement in the group. "We got everything out of him, whatever he knew," he said.
Ansari linked up with Lashkar while working at a printing press in Dubai. He was taken by sea to Pakistan to the Lashkar camp in Muzaffarabad and received a false Pakistani passport and citizenship papers, which police recovered when he was arrested.
In 2007, Ansari said, he traveled to Katmandu, Nepal, and then crossed back into India and settled in Mumbai, where he conducted reconnaissance for a future attack, Yash said.
He was arrested Feb. 10 in the northern city of Rampur after suspected Muslim militants attacked a police camp, killing eight constables. He said he was there to collect weapons to bring to Mumbai for a future attack.
Yash said Ansari's arrest did not derail Lashkar's plans for an attack. "When they found that their mole in Bombay had been caught...they carried out the operations in a different way," he said.
Meanwhile, police officers said they were trying to get as much detail as possible from Kasab.
"A terrorist of this sort is never cooperative. We have to extract information," said Deven Bharti, the head of the Mumbai crime branch.
Indian police are known to use interrogation methods that would be regarded as torture in the West, including questioning suspects drugged with "truth serum."
Bharti provided no details on interrogation techniques, but said "truth serum" would probably be used next week. He did not specify what drug would be used.
During questioning, details of Kasab's recruitment by Lashkar began to emerge, said police, describing him as fourth grade dropout from an impoverished village who was gravitating to a life of crime.
"Lashkar recruited him, preying on a combination of his religious sentiments and his poverty," said Maria.
The revelations came as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with leaders in Islamabad after visiting India's capital part of a U.S. effort to pressure Pakistan to share more intelligence and pursue terrorist cells believed to be rooted in the country.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari promised Rice his country would take "strong action" against any elements in Pakistan involved in the siege.
On Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Department designated as terrorists four individuals who hold leadership positions in Lashkar, including Lakhvi, and ordered any of their U.S. assets to be frozen. Also named were Muhammad Saeed, the group's leader; Haji Muhammad Ashraf, its chief of finance; and Mahmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq, a financier with the group.
Meanwhile, India put its airports on alert following threats of possible airborne attacks. Security forces swarmed New Delhi's international airport early Friday after the sound of gunfire was heard, police said, but no one was injured or killed. Police said it was not a terrorist incident.
The warning received by the airports "spoke of possibility of aircraft being hijacked by terrorists," India's air force chief, Fali Homi Major, told reporters Thursday.
The alert focused on three major airports New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai but security was stepped up across India.
Several extra layers of security were set up and some passengers' bags were scanned for explosives.
"Passengers have been asked to pass through six-stage security checks," said Brij Lal, a senior police official organizing security at the airport in the northern city of Lucknow.
Nirmala Sharma, a passenger who flew from New Delhi to Lucknow, said her bags were checked a half dozen times and she went through a metal detector three times. "Sometimes it seemed tedious, but it seems to be the need of the hour," she said.
Mumbai death toll stands at 172 -- chicagotribune.com
BanglaBhoot
RETIRED TTA
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2007
- Messages
- 8,839
- Reaction score
- 5
- Country
- Location
A Mumbai Connection?
An Islamic stronghold in Pakistan has come under increased scrutiny after the terror attacks in India.
There are no signs that point the way to Markaz-e-Taiba except for the sudden appearance of closely situated gas stations, and even a housing settlement, with conspicuously Quranic names. But everyone in this area of Pakistan seems to know where this alleged stronghold of the outlawed militant group Lashkar-e- Taiba is located. Since India's claims of the organization's involvement in the Mumbai attacks, it has been speculated that this "Center of the Pious" could be a potential target of highly unlikely but still-feared Indian airstrikes within Pakistan proper. In a rare gesture, the center opened its doors to journalists on Thursday to counter what it said was Indian propaganda.
Markaz-e-Taiba is a 150-acre, dust-dimmed oasis in the middle of forgotten villages in Muridke, just outside Lahore. The 14-year-old gated complex with security cameras and manned by watchful but unarmed volunteers—at least on the day of the press tour—was introduced to journalists as a health and educational facility. The visitors were pointedly shepherded through the school's science laboratories and shown classrooms with young boys in Western-style uniforms and girls in traditional shalwar-kameez.
"We have 3,000 boys and girls here as young as five and as old as 17," said Yahya Mujahid, spokesman for Jamat-ud-Dawah, which now runs the center. Most of the students are from surrounding villages and pay a modest annual tuition. "There is no fear here, and little else that many people claim." Addressing concerns about the facility, Mujahid denied any history or existence of "martial training which India pipes about all the time" and said that the school curriculum complies with government policy. Allegations to the contrary were, he said, "a miracle of self-delusion."
Jamat-ud-Dawah, which roughly means "enter into the fold of Islam," is fashioned as an Islamic charity and is widely believed to be an alias for the banned group Lashkar-e-Taiba. The U.S. State Department says Lashkar-e-Taiba is "one of the three largest and best trained groups fighting in Kashmir against India" and has links with Al Qaeda. It was outlawed in January 2002 following the attack on India's parliament which led to a military standoff between both countries.
Jamat-ud-Dawah itself was designated a terrorist organization by the United States in 2006, but this has not impeded its expansive operations in Pakistan. The organization has a nationwide footprint and runs numerous medical clinics, schools, housing projects and an ambulance service. It won some public acclaim for its work alongside the Pakistan Army in the aftermath of the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and says it has built 5,000 homes there. The organization says its teams were in Bam, Iran, to help with relief efforts following the 2003 earthquake and that it has sent aid to Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Maldives following natural disasters there. Jamat-ud-Dawah claims to have spent at least $8.74 million since 2003 on various charitable initiatives. It says its funding is raised exclusively from the Pakistani public.
Both organizations also have the fiery, former university professor Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, 62, in common as their leader—although his spokesman says Saeed's links with Lashkar were severed in 2001. Saeed was under "house arrest" for most of 2002. In Pakistan, this is often a euphemism for being in the protective custody of intelligence agencies. Following last week's terror siege in Mumbai, India has reportedly demanded that Pakistan hand over Saeed along with 19 others for questioning. Pakistan contends that India has demanded the handover of only three suspected terrorists and that Saeed is not among them. And in any event, Pakistan says it will not comply without evidence.
"It is upsetting," said spokesman Mujahid, speaking in the shade of the primary-school entrance, "to be doubted and misrepresented when all we have done and all we want to do is help our fellow man."
Acknowledging that tempers seem to be cooling down on both sides of the border and that the worst may be over, Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari left Thursday on a two-day official visit to Turkey.
Islamic Stronghold in Pakistan Linked to Mumbai | Newsweek International | Newsweek.com
An Islamic stronghold in Pakistan has come under increased scrutiny after the terror attacks in India.
There are no signs that point the way to Markaz-e-Taiba except for the sudden appearance of closely situated gas stations, and even a housing settlement, with conspicuously Quranic names. But everyone in this area of Pakistan seems to know where this alleged stronghold of the outlawed militant group Lashkar-e- Taiba is located. Since India's claims of the organization's involvement in the Mumbai attacks, it has been speculated that this "Center of the Pious" could be a potential target of highly unlikely but still-feared Indian airstrikes within Pakistan proper. In a rare gesture, the center opened its doors to journalists on Thursday to counter what it said was Indian propaganda.
Markaz-e-Taiba is a 150-acre, dust-dimmed oasis in the middle of forgotten villages in Muridke, just outside Lahore. The 14-year-old gated complex with security cameras and manned by watchful but unarmed volunteers—at least on the day of the press tour—was introduced to journalists as a health and educational facility. The visitors were pointedly shepherded through the school's science laboratories and shown classrooms with young boys in Western-style uniforms and girls in traditional shalwar-kameez.
"We have 3,000 boys and girls here as young as five and as old as 17," said Yahya Mujahid, spokesman for Jamat-ud-Dawah, which now runs the center. Most of the students are from surrounding villages and pay a modest annual tuition. "There is no fear here, and little else that many people claim." Addressing concerns about the facility, Mujahid denied any history or existence of "martial training which India pipes about all the time" and said that the school curriculum complies with government policy. Allegations to the contrary were, he said, "a miracle of self-delusion."
Jamat-ud-Dawah, which roughly means "enter into the fold of Islam," is fashioned as an Islamic charity and is widely believed to be an alias for the banned group Lashkar-e-Taiba. The U.S. State Department says Lashkar-e-Taiba is "one of the three largest and best trained groups fighting in Kashmir against India" and has links with Al Qaeda. It was outlawed in January 2002 following the attack on India's parliament which led to a military standoff between both countries.
Jamat-ud-Dawah itself was designated a terrorist organization by the United States in 2006, but this has not impeded its expansive operations in Pakistan. The organization has a nationwide footprint and runs numerous medical clinics, schools, housing projects and an ambulance service. It won some public acclaim for its work alongside the Pakistan Army in the aftermath of the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and says it has built 5,000 homes there. The organization says its teams were in Bam, Iran, to help with relief efforts following the 2003 earthquake and that it has sent aid to Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Maldives following natural disasters there. Jamat-ud-Dawah claims to have spent at least $8.74 million since 2003 on various charitable initiatives. It says its funding is raised exclusively from the Pakistani public.
Both organizations also have the fiery, former university professor Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, 62, in common as their leader—although his spokesman says Saeed's links with Lashkar were severed in 2001. Saeed was under "house arrest" for most of 2002. In Pakistan, this is often a euphemism for being in the protective custody of intelligence agencies. Following last week's terror siege in Mumbai, India has reportedly demanded that Pakistan hand over Saeed along with 19 others for questioning. Pakistan contends that India has demanded the handover of only three suspected terrorists and that Saeed is not among them. And in any event, Pakistan says it will not comply without evidence.
"It is upsetting," said spokesman Mujahid, speaking in the shade of the primary-school entrance, "to be doubted and misrepresented when all we have done and all we want to do is help our fellow man."
Acknowledging that tempers seem to be cooling down on both sides of the border and that the worst may be over, Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari left Thursday on a two-day official visit to Turkey.
Islamic Stronghold in Pakistan Linked to Mumbai | Newsweek International | Newsweek.com
Flintlock
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2007
- Messages
- 6,176
- Reaction score
- 0
Yes Gpit, I am extremely jealous how China and Japan are such good friends, or how China and Taiwan are best buddies.
No need to get cocky - I know too much about the sad, violent history of your country to fall for that.
- Status
Similar threads
