Saudi donors most signifcant source of terrorism funding in Pakistan

[Daneshmand]

The recent $1.5 billion dollars 'gift' from Saudis was more of a handout to Nawaz Sharif and not the country, as the Saudis didn't provide a single dollar in aid during the five years of the PPP government.

However, the Saudis have sent billions of dollars in aid to Pakistan over the last two decades. Its just that this 'aid' was sent to Lashkar Jhangvi, TTP, among other militant groups, as well as hundreds of radical madrassas, all working together to target and eventually destabilize the Pakistani state.

So actually, the Saudis owe us a lot more $$$ to make up for all their past sins. The $1.5 billion does not even begin to cover it.

That is scary. It is like blackmailing to force a nation to do a bidding.

 

[Icewolf]

DAWN

ISLAMABAD: Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) chief Maulana Muhammad Ahmad Ludhianvi has decried the resolution passed by the parliament on Yemen as “against the will of the people” and “a waste of time”.
“We have to give unconditional support to Saudi Arabia to save the honour of Ummul Momineen Hazrat Ayesha Siddiqa. We will not allow anyone to disrespect the Haramain Sharifain,” he declared at a rally staged by ASWJ outside the National Press Club on Sunday.

Maulana Ludhianvi, who had been leading the pro-Saudi rallies in the federal capital over the last week, announced that more such public meetings would be held in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore before an all-party conference is called to finalise plans “save the Harmain Sharifain”.

“If our government does not take the decision, we will go to Saudi Arabia, just like Ameer Ansar Ul Ummah Fazal-ur-Rehman Khalil went to Afghanistan,” he said.
Maulana Ludhianvi said some elements were stirring up the Shia-Sunni schism to divert the attention of the Pakistanis away from Saudi Arabia.

However, when the participants of the ASWJ rally started chanting slogans against the parliamentarians, he stopped them. He said he will soon be rejoining the parliament so they should not criticise the lawmakers.

In his address to the rally, Maulana Fazal ur Rehman Khalil said Saudi Arabia has always supported Pakistan and now it is time Pakistan supported Saudi Arabia.
There is no difference between protecting “the Haramain or the Sheikhain” but there is a clash between ideologies, he said.

“Those who want ceasefire in Yemen, favour operations against Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan,” he added.

Another religious leader, Maulana Ashraf Ali, felt disappointed at the statements of political parties regarding Baitullah (holy Kaaba). “Our army and all our resources should be devoted to the Haramain Sharifain,” he said.
Pir Saifullah Khalid observed that although Allah has taken the responsibility to protect the Baitullah, “we have to prove how devoted we are to His house”.
Participants of the ASWJ rally gathered at Lal Masjid and marched to the National Press Club chanting slogans. Strict security measures were taken by the police and roads leading to the Press Club were closed to traffic.

They should go to Yemen and fight there themselves and leave the rest of PAKISTANIs alone... Any PAKISTANI who wanna fight for the Sauds go now and hamari jan chordo

 

[TalibanSwatter]

DAWN

“If our government does not take the decision, we will go to Saudi Arabia, just like Ameer Ansar Ul Ummah Fazal-ur-Rehman Khalil went to Afghanistan,” he said.

In his address to the rally, Maulana Fazal ur Rehman Khalil said Saudi Arabia has always supported Pakistan and now it is time Pakistan supported Saudi Arabia.
There is no difference between protecting “the Haramain or the Sheikhain” but there is a clash between ideologies, he said.

“Those who want ceasefire in Yemen, favour operations against Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan,” he added.

Hmm....Saudi stooges on Saudi payroll opposing action against TTP. Food for thought.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to draw the obvious conclusion.

 

[janu.bravo]

They should go to Yemen and fight there themselves and leave the rest of PAKISTANIs alone... Any PAKISTANI who wanna fight for the Sauds go now and hamari jan chordo

what do you mean by humari jan chordo? If Pakistan wants to fight our Army will go not u :p

 

[TalibanSwatter]

DAWN

Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) chief Maulana Muhammad Ahmad Ludhianvi has decried the resolution passed by the parliament on Yemen as “against the will of the people” and “a waste of time”.

“We have to give unconditional support to Saudi Arabia to save the honour of Ummul Momineen Hazrat Ayesha Siddiqa. We will not allow anyone to disrespect the Haramain Sharifain,” he declared at a rally staged by ASWJ outside the National Press Club on Sunday.

Maulana Ludhianvi, who had been leading the pro-Saudi rallies in the federal capital over the last week, announced that more such public meetings would be held in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore before an all-party conference is called to finalise plans “save the Harmain Sharifain”.

“If our government does not take the decision, we will go to Saudi Arabia, just like Ameer Ansar Ul Ummah Fazal-ur-Rehman Khalil went to Afghanistan,” he said.
Maulana Ludhianvi said some elements were stirring up the Shia-Sunni schism to divert the attention of the Pakistanis away from Saudi Arabia.

However, when the participants of the ASWJ rally started chanting slogans against the parliamentarians, he stopped them. He said he will soon be rejoining the parliament so they should not criticise the lawmakers.

In his address to the rally, Maulana Fazal ur Rehman Khalil said Saudi Arabia has always supported Pakistan and now it is time Pakistan supported Saudi Arabia.There is no difference between protecting “the Haramain or the Sheikhain” but there is a clash between ideologies, he said.

“Those who want ceasefire in Yemen, favour operations against Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan,” he added.

Another religious leader, Maulana Ashraf Ali, felt disappointed at the statements of political parties regarding Baitullah (holy Kaaba). “Our army and all our resources should be devoted to the Haramain Sharifain,” he said.
Pir Saifullah Khalid observed that although Allah has taken the responsibility to protect the Baitullah, “we have to prove how devoted we are to His house”.

Participants of the ASWJ rally gathered at Lal Masjid and marched to the National Press Club chanting slogans. Strict security measures were taken by the police and roads leading to the Press Club were closed to traffic.

 

[wadi79]

This whole 'Saudis support terror in Pakistan' seems like a ploy to wiggle out of the request for help that has come from Arabs on Yemen. Frankly, it seems under-handed. Pakistan was very happy for all these years to take cheap oil from Saudis, billions of dollars in aid and also more billions as remittances. Now when the time has come for payback, they first cite neutrality - which didn't cut any ice so now this wikileaks propaganda about Saudis supporting terror. Pack of lies, I think.

 

[TalibanSwatter]

Nation
Samson Sharaf

Yemen in the past hundred years has been through repeated turmoil. This includes the division of Yemen and the war begun by President Nasser of Egypt. Egyptian historians refer to the Egyptian-Russo intervention from 1962-1970 as their Vietnam. Though, on a timeline it preceded US withdrawal from Vietnam. It made an Israeli historian Michael Oren comment that the disastrous Egyptian military adventure in Yemen could easily be dubbed America’s Yemen in Vietnam. On the opposing front, Saudi Arabia and Jordan with covert and clandestine British support ran into a stalemate. In the global perspective this war was seen as a proxy front of the Cold War. Within Middle East, it was eclipsed by the inherent Arab and tribal politics. Directly or indirectly nearly every West Asian country including Iran was involved. Pakistan supplied weapons to the royalist (anti- Egyptian) group on call of Saudi Arabia. This Egyptian intervention affected its performance in the 1967 War; ceding the entire Sinai Peninsula to Israel.

Readers must remember that the division of Yemen was an effect and not a struggle. The collapse of Ottoman Empire and British imperial policies created new geographies in West Asia. North Yemen came into being when the Ottoman Empire fell, while South Yemen remained a British Colony. South won independence through a liberation struggle. On 22 May 1990 the two Yemens unified to form the Republic of Yemen only to erupt into a civil war in 1994.

Saudi perceptions in the region stem from their core belief of Wahabism. They established their first rule in 1744 under the dynasty’s 18th century founder, Muhammad bin Saud. Islamic Salafi Scholars, Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab and his descendants played a significant role in strengthening Saudi rule. In 1802, Abdul Aziz attacked the Shi’ite holy city of Karbala, killing thousands, looting and plundering. This invasion left long lasting imprints on Sunni-Shia relations. A joint Ottoman-Egyptian invasion in 1818 brought this kingdom to an end. The Saudis were able to re-establish their hold on Najd, with a capital at Riyadh. The second phase of this dynasty came to an end when Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Rashid of Hail expelled the last Saudi leader, Abdul-Rahman bin Faisal, in the Battle of Mulayda in 1891.

The third Saudi regime was formed after many meanderings between the Arab tribes, Ottomans, British and Americans. Ibn Saud died in 1953, after having cemented an alliance with the United States in 1945. He is still celebrated officially as the founder of modern Saudi Arabia. But to most Muslims in West Asia, the country remains a dictatorship ruling through strong religious decrees and inherent monotheist sentiment.

Over a period of two hundred years, Saudis despite reverses have managed to create space for their ideology exploiting the larger canvas of geopolitics. Possession of huge oil reserves and US support has emboldened them. Saudi Arabia will remain in awe of all Islamic denominations that are not monotheists and does not hesitate to ferment trouble in Muslim countries to promote its religious Salafi/Wahabi ideology.

On 20 November 1979, the Holy Sanctuary in Mecca was violently seized by dissidents led by Juhayman al-Otaybi and Abdullah al-Qahtani. The Saudi royal family had the Ulema issue a fatwa permitting the storming of the holy sanctuary. Saudi forces, reportedly aided by French and Pakistani storm troopers flushed out the rebels. In December 1982, Pakistan signed a defence protocol with Saudi Arabia thereby deploying combat brigades and air force for the protection of the Kingdom. These deployments took place in the backdrop of the Afghan conflict, Iranian Revolution and the spreading tide of Wahhabism in Pakistan. Except miserly petro dollars and plenty of terrorism, Pakistan gained nothing.

Iran has viewed Pakistan’s relations with the Gulf monarchs and USA as counter revolutionary. In reaction Iran has hedged its interests with India to pressurise Pakistan through proxies that trouble Pakistan in Afghanistan, Balochistan and other parts of the country.

Pakistan is a country that has for the past forty years disregarded its own sensitivities and vulnerabilities for dollars. It allowed diverse militant typologies to grow despite awareness that chickens inevitably come home to roost. As Pakistan continues to be sucked into sectarian strife, its appetite for petro dollars only seems to grow. Tied aid has created linkage of a dependence that cannot be broken despite the reality that exploration of resources and development of Gwadar challenge Saudi designs. The Yemen front will open no new era for Pakistan. Unless the umbilical cord is not cut, development will not come.

The second part of my opinion, Yemen: Crumbling Redoubt of Terrorism (Nation: March 28) was a wishful satire on the fable of Godot. Even if Pakistan enters the Middle East as a major player, it will never be permitted to operate against the logistic and finance lines of terrorists located in the Kingdom, nor will it be allowed the leeway that makes it stronger. Saudis will continue to feed and breed sidewinders in quest of their religious typologies and tribal politics. The dynamics of the Old and New Yemen will ensure that another flash point is created in a hornet’s nest.

 

[TalibanSwatter]

March 2015

The Punjab police chief informed a panel of the upper house of Pakistan’s parliament on Wednesday that law enforcement agencies have sealed a seminary affiliated with the notorious Lal Masjid in the Rujhan area of the province, hometown of cleric Abdul Aziz who has always promoted violent extremism.

Addressing the Senate Standing Committee on Privileges, IG Police Punjab Mushtaq Sukhera said the seminary was sealed last week because it was training students for jihad and spreading hate material. The panel, headed by Senator Tahir Mashadi, was discussing the issue of foreign funding to seminaries.

The inspector-general informed the panel that they have rounded up the cleric and teachers running the seminary and have sealed its library.

The move comes as part of a crackdown against hate material being distributed by seminaries. Sukhera told the Senate panel that the police is conducting further investigation into other seminaries affiliated with Lal Masjid in Rahimyar Khan, Rajanpur and tribal areas of Dera Ghazi Khan Division.The police official said that in order to carry out the crackdown on the seminary, they took aid from the federal government.

The senate panel expressed concerns over Lal Masjid cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz over his comments on the Islamic state. They asked the government to look into how he is not following state orders pertaining to the spread of hate speech.

A spokesperson of Lal Masjid has maintained that cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz will neither surrender to the police. Civil society activists though have repeatedly called for the arrest of Aziz.

Furthermore, the Punjab police also told the panel that 147 seminaries are taking foreign funding with a large portion coming from Saudi Arabia.

On February 10, the Punjab police has also formally conceded before a Senate panel that seminaries were receiving foreign funding, as it sought help of the country’s top investigation agency—Federal Investigation Agency—to obtain actionable data for kicking off crackdown against the beneficiaries.

 

[TalibanSwatter]

Terrorism, Saudi Arabia and Israel
Consortium News

The disclosure that convicted al-Qaeda operative Zacarias Moussaoui has identified leading members of the Saudi government as financers of the terrorist network potentially reshapes how Americans will perceive events in the Middle East and creates a risk for Israel’s Likud government which has forged an unlikely alliance with some of these same Saudis.

According to a story in the New York Times on Wednesday, Moussaoui said in a prison deposition that he was directed in 1998 or 1999 by Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan to create a digital database of the group’s donors and that the list included Prince Turki al-Faisal, then Saudi intelligence chief; Prince Bandar bin Sultan, longtime Saudi ambassador to the United States; and many leading clerics.

“Sheikh Osama wanted to keep a record who give money,” Moussaoui said in imperfect English — “who is to be listened to or who contributed to the jihad.”
Although Moussaoui’s credibility came under immediate attack from the Saudi kingdom, his assertions mesh with accounts from members of the U.S. Congress who have seen a secret portion of the 9/11 report that addresses alleged Saudi support for al-Qaeda.

Further complicating the predicament for Saudi Arabia is that, more recently, Saudi and other sheikdoms have been identified as backers of radical militants fighting in Syria to overthrow the largely secular regime of President Bashar al-Assad. The major rebel forces benefiting from this support are ISIS and al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria.

In other words, the Saudis appear to have continued a covert relationship with al-Qaeda-connected jihadists to the present day.

The Israeli Exposure
And, like the Saudis, the Israelis have sided with the Salafi militants in Syria because the Israelis share the Saudi view that Iran and the so-called “Shiite crescent” – reaching from Tehran and Baghdad to Damascus and Beirut – is the greatest threat to their interests in the Middle East.

That shared concern has pushed Israel and Saudi Arabia into a de facto alliance, though the collaboration between Jerusalem and Riyadh has been mostly kept out of the public eye. Still, it has occasionally peeked out from under the covers as the two governments deploy their complementary assets – Saudi oil and money and Israeli political and media clout – in areas where they have mutual interests.

Israel and Saudi Arabia also have collaborated in efforts to put the squeeze on Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who is deemed a key supporter of both Iran and Syria. The Saudis have used their power over oil production to drive down prices and hurt Russia’s economy, while U.S. neoconservatives – who share Israel’s geopolitical world view – were at the forefront of the coup that ousted Ukraine’s pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.
The behind-the-scenes Israeli-Saudi alliance has put the two governments – uncomfortably at times – on the side of Salafi jihadists battling Shiite influence in Syria, Lebanon and even Iraq. On Jan. 18, 2015, for instance, Israel attacked Lebanese-Iranian advisers assisting Assad’s government in Syria, killing several members of Hezbollah and an Iranian general. These military advisors were engaged in operations against al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front.

Meanwhile, Israel has refrained from attacking Nusra Front militants who have seized Syrian territory near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. One source familiar with U.S. intelligence information on Syria told me that Israel has a “non-aggression pact” with these Nusra forces.

An Odd Alliance
Israel’s odd-couple alliances with Saudi interests have evolved over the past several years, as Israel and Saudi Arabia emerged as strange bedfellows in the geopolitical struggle against Shiite-ruled Iran and its allies in Iraq, Syria and southern Lebanon. In Syria, for instance, senior Israelis have made clear they would prefer Salafi extremists to prevail in the civil war rather than Assad, who is an Alawite, a branch of Shiite Islam.

And, in June 2014, speaking as a former Israeli ambassador at an Aspen Institute conference, Michael Oren expanded on his position, saying Israel would even prefer a victory by the brutal Islamic State over continuation of the Iranian-backed Assad in Syria. “From Israel’s perspective, if there’s got to be an evil that’s got to prevail, let the Salafi evil prevail,” Oren said.

On Oct. 1, 2013, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu hinted at it in his United Nations General Assembly speech, which was largely devoted to excoriating Iran over its nuclear program and threatening a unilateral Israeli military strike.
Amid the bellicosity, Netanyahu dropped in a largely missed clue about the evolving power relationships in the Middle East, saying: “The dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran and the emergence of other threats in our region have led many of our Arab neighbors to recognize, finally recognize, that Israel is not their enemy. And this affords us the opportunity to overcome the historic animosities and build new relationships, new friendships, new hopes.”

The next day, Israel’s Channel 2 TV news reported that senior Israeli security officials had met with a high-level Gulf state counterpart in Jerusalem, believed to be Prince Bandar, the former Saudi ambassador to the United States who was then head of Saudi intelligence.

The reality of this unlikely alliance has now even reached the mainstream U.S. media. For instance, Time magazine correspondent Joe Klein described the new coziness in an article in the Jan. 19, 2015 issue.
He wrote: “On May 26, 2014, an unprecedented public conversation took place in Brussels. Two former high-ranking spymasters of Israel and Saudi Arabia – Amos Yadlin and Prince Turki al-Faisal – sat together for more than an hour, talking regional politics in a conversation moderated by the Washington Post’s David Ignatius.

“They disagreed on some things, like the exact nature of an Israel-Palestine peace settlement, and agreed on others: the severity of the Iranian nuclear threat, the need to support the new military government in Egypt, the demand for concerted international action in Syria. The most striking statement came from Prince Turki. He said the Arabs had ‘crossed the Rubicon’ and ‘don’t want to fight Israel anymore.’”
Though Klein detected only the bright side of this détente, there was a dark side as well, as referenced in Moussaoui’s deposition, which identified Prince Turki as one of al-Qaeda’s backers. Perhaps even more unsettling was his listing of Prince Bandar, who had long presented himself as a U.S. friend, so close to the Bush Family that he was nicknamed “Bandar Bush.”
Moussaoui claimed that he discussed a plan to shoot down Air Force One with a Stinger missile with a staff member at the Saudi Embassy in Washington, at a time when Bandar was the ambassador to the United States.

According to the New York Times article by Scott Shane, Moussaoui said he was assigned to “find a location where it may be suitable to launch a Stinger attack and then, after, be able to escape,” but that he was arrested on Aug. 16, 2001, before he could carry out the reconnaissance mission.

After those terror attacks which killed nearly 3,000 Americans, Bandar went to the White House and persuaded Bush to arrange for the rapid extraction of bin Laden’s family members and other Saudis in the United States. Bush agreed to help get those Saudi nationals out on the first flights allowed back into the air.
Bandar’s intervention undercut the FBI’s chance to learn more about the ties between Osama bin Laden and the 9/11 perpetrators by giving FBI agents only time for cursory interviews with the departing Saudis.

The Saudi government claimed to have broken ties with bin Laden in the early 1990s when he began targeting the United States because President George H.W. Bush had stationed U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, but – if Moussaoui is telling the truth – al-Qaeda would have still counted Bandar among its supporters in the late 1990s.

Bandar and Putin
Bandar’s possible links to Salafi terrorism also emerged in 2013 during a confrontation between Bandar and Putin over what Putin viewed as Bandar’s crude threat to unleash Chechen terrorists against the Sochi Winter Olympics if Putin did not reduce his support for the Syrian government.

According to a leaked diplomatic account of a July 31, 2013 meeting in Moscow, Bandar informed Putin that Saudi Arabia had strong influence over Chechen extremists who had carried out numerous terrorist attacks against Russian targets and who had since deployed to join the fight against the Assad regime in Syria.
As Bandar called for a Russian shift toward the Saudi position on Syria, he reportedly offered guarantees of protection from Chechen terror attacks on the Olympics. “I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics in the city of Sochi on the Black Sea next year,” Bandar reportedly said. “The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us.”

Putin responded, “We know that you have supported the Chechen terrorist groups for a decade. And that support, which you have frankly talked about just now, is completely incompatible with the common objectives of fighting global terrorism.”

Bandar’s Mafia-like threat toward the Sochi games – a version of “nice Olympics you got here, it’d be a shame if something terrible happened to it” – failed to intimidate Putin, who continued to support Assad.
Less than a month later, an incident in Syria almost forced President Barack Obama’s hand in launching U.S. air strikes against Assad’s military, which would have possibly opened the path for the Nusra Front or the Islamic State to capture Damascus and take control of Syria. On Aug. 21, 2013, a mysterious sarin attack outside Damascus killed hundreds and, in the U.S. media, the incident was immediately blamed on the Assad regime.

Later, the Assad-did-it case crumbled amid new evidence that Salafi extremists, supported by Saudi Arabia and Turkey, were the more likely perpetrators of the attack, a scenario that became increasingly persuasive as Americans learned more about the cruelty and ruthlessness of many Salafi jihadists fighting in Syria.

With Putin the new pariah in Official Washington, the neocon hand also was strengthened in the Middle East where renewed pressure could be put on the “Shiite crescent” in Syria and Iran. However, in summer 2014, the Islamic State, which had splintered off from al-Qaeda and its Nusra Front, went on a rampage, invading Iraq where captured soldiers were beheaded. The Islamic State then engaged in gruesome videotaped decapitations of Western hostages inside Syria.

The Islamic State’s brutality and the threat it posed to the U.S.-backed, Shiite-dominated government of Iraq changed the political calculus. Obama felt compelled to launch airstrikes against Islamic State targets in both Iraq and Syria. American neocons tried to convince Obama to expand the Syrian strikes to hit Assad’s forces, too, but Obama realized such a plan would only benefit the Islamic State and al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front.

In effect, the neocons were showing their hand – much as Israeli Ambassador Oren had done – favoring the Salafi extremists allied with al-Qaeda over Assad’s secular regime because it was allied with Iran. Now, with Moussaoui’s deposition identifying senior Saudi officials as patrons of al-Qaeda, another veil seems to have dropped.
Complicating matters further, Moussaoui also claimed that he passed letters between Osama bin Laden and then Crown Prince Salman, who recently became king upon the death of his brother King Abdullah.
But Moussaoui’s disclosure perhaps cast the most unflattering light on Bandar, the erstwhile confidant of the Bush Family who — if Moussaoui is right — may have been playing a sinister double game.

 

[TalibanSwatter]

Reuters

Formation of a Terror Alliance 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.
The investigation however, unearthed some startling facts.

The logistics support for this attack was provided by local militants in Punjab, who were also associated with the LeJ. It was now the LeJ helping the TTP to execute attacks in urban areas of Punjab, while the latter in return provided safe heavens for LeJ terrorists in FATA.

Attack on SL team
On 3 March 2009, a convoy of the Sri Lankan cricket team was ambushed in Lahore, 6 policemen and 2 civilians were killed, while two Sri Lankan players also sustained injuries. This attack was carried out by at least 12 highly-trained gunmen. Key suspects of this attack were mostly the LeJ and TTP operatives in Punjab. The primary suspect, Muhammad Aqeel alias Dr. Usman, evaded arrest. The attack is believed to have been masterminded by Malik Ishaq himself.

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 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 SSP 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.

 

[black-hawk_101]

Pakistani govt. to should work with ME and UN to take all of them pro. Middle East MEN (Who are Terrorist) to ME region with their family and household goods within this year or so. As they are being funded by ME and now ME needs Men to fight inside Yemen to capture land.

So, I am 100% sure that there would be about 50 Million people who would be moving out of Pakistan, if it get possible. ME has huge land and resources that can fulfill the needs of living and house building.

 

[TalibanSwatter]

Express Tribune

KARACHI: In the fall of 2010, Saad Aziz walked up to a fellow student in IBA’s parking lot and asked: “Have you read Milestones by Sayyid Qutb? It has changed my life.”
Qutb, who is now increasingly cited as the figure who influenced al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, is known as one of the most influential advocates in modern times of jihad.

The ‘change’ in Saad’s life, as narrated by some of his friends at IBA, began sometime in his third year at IBA. Fast-forward five years and the 27-year-old IBA graduate was named by Sindh’s chief minister as the mastermind behind the deadly Safora carnage and murder of activist Sabeen Mahmud in Karachi.

Friends recall that Saad was a ‘normal’ kid. He played football for IBA United and had a GPA above 3.0.
“For the first two years, he was a burger kid. He had girlfriends and we would have shisha at Indulge. He was funny, acted in plays and danced,” said a young man who was once a close friend.
But that all ended in his third year and his friends began noticing the radical nature of some of the changes Saad made in his life. He stopped talking to girls, began bunking classes and grew his beard out. He also dropped his old friends and began hanging out with religious-minded people from IBA’s Iqra Society.

After graduation, Saad lost touch with his friends. “He went somewhere for a few months. Someone said he had gone for jihad training,” said another friend.

“We knew he had gone off-track. He was not part of the Tableeghi Jamaat. He had become part of something else.”
In the year 2013, around eight ‘like-minded’ IBA graduates from the 2010 and 2011 batches began publishing an online magazine, titled ‘Al Rashideen’ [The Rightly Guided] in English.

Saad, who had expertise in producing different kind of pro-al Qaeda and TTP media, was a part of its editorial team. “We present you this first issue of Al Rashideen,” he wrote under the screen-name ‘the editor’s desk’.
“We hope this to be a platform where relevant issues facing the Ummah are studied and analysed upon by students of colleges and universities, and Muslim youngsters whose first or second language is English.”

The first issue of this amateurishly-designed magazine, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, had “Iran must fall before Palestine can be liberated” as its cover story along with other disturbingly radical content. For instance, a sectarian speech made by Haq Nawaz Jhangvi , who founded Sipah-e-Sahaba (now known as ASWJ) in the 1980, was translated and reproduced with the title ‘The men who rocked Kufr’.

Saad, who did his O-levels from Beacon House and A-levels from Lyceum, is married and even has a baby daughter. He belongs to a well-to-do family; his father was once a director at Unilever, while he himself owns a restaurant.

At the Cactus
At the restaurant Aziz owned, employees refused to believe that he could be involved in such heinous acts of terrorism.
“We can’t believe that he is a terrorist,” said a waiter at the Cactus, a restaurant which serves steaks, burgers and fries in Karachi’s Sindhi Muslim area. Formerly known as Kahva, the restaurant was taken over by Saad around two years ago.
Abdul Ahad, in-charge of the delivery for the restaurant, said they never saw him doing anything suspicious. “No one came to meet him, and we never saw him speaking to anyone suspicious.”
The employees saw him every day save Sundays. He came in late afternoon and left at night. “If he is involved in such activities, they should give proof.”

Police version
According to DIG South Jamil Ahmed, Saad had attended a number of T2F sessions. “He would not seem out of place because he seemed educated.”
However, it is yet to be confirmed whether Saad was present at the Balochistan session after which Sabeen was murdered. According to police, Sabeen Mahmud was targeted for campaigning against Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Aziz.

“The terrorists belong to al Qaeda’s India branch. The group is using educated people to carry out bold and atrocious attacks.”

 

[TalibanSwatter]

The magazine's anti Iran rhetoric points to Aziz being heavily influenced by ASWJ. Consider Saudi funding for ASWJ, Lashkar e Jhangvi and affiliated radical madrassas, Lashkar e Jhangvi's active support for the TTP-led campaign including attacks on GHQ, and the entire chain of culprits is revealed.

There is no Shia-Sunni conflict. This is in reality a Salafi jihadist movement waging war on all others namely Shias, Sunni including sufis, barelvis, as well as non muslims. The Saudi project to impose takfiri salafi/wahabi hegemony in our region is in full swing.

Going after foot soldiers like Aziz is not enough. The state must ruthlessly dismantle the Saudi-funded sectarian political/terrorist network once and for all.

 

[Salik]

So ASWJ has become a political party. They know they can never come into power except few seats, neither they believe in democracy nor their masters in KSA. It was a tactic to avoid ban as SSP and LeJ already got banned. And a successful one, show some vote bank and get going. The same tactic JI and MQM practising. Ok continue, its LEA's job now to keep a check on them.

 

[Indus Pakistan]

The magazine's anti Iran rhetoric points to Aziz being heavily influenced by ASWJ. Consider Saudi funding for ASWJ, Lashkar e Jhangvi and affiliated radical madrassas, Lashkar e Jhangvi's active support for the TTP-led campaign including attacks on GHQ, and the entire chain of culprits is revealed.

There is no Shia-Sunni conflict. This is in reality a Salafi jihadist movement waging war on all others namely Shias, Sunni including sufis, barelvis, as well as non muslims. The Saudi project to impose takfiri salafi/wahabi hegemony in our region is in full swing.

Going after foot soldiers like Aziz is not enough. The state must ruthlessly dismantle the Saudi-funded sectarian political/terrorist network once and for all.

In your opinon why has the state -

1. Allowed this problem to reach where it is now
2. Not told the Arabs to stop terror financing
3. Not taking decisive action