The unwillingness of the Musharraf administration to clamp down on extremist jihadis is evident from some recent media reports saying that the slowing down of the Indo-Pak peace process by India has compelled Pakistan to reactivate the infamous banned jihadi organisation – Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) – apparently to give a fresh impetus to the freedom struggle in Occupied Jammu & Kashmir. Amidst these reports, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked Pakistan to honour its commitment to halt terrorist activities in troubled Kashmir. Addressing a round table conference of pro-India politicians from Indian-administered Kashmir on April 24, Singh said his country has engaged sincerely with Pakistan to resolve all pending issues. However, he categorically made it clear that these efforts won't be fruitful until and unless a peaceful environment is created.

Media reports say that Jaish-e-Mohammad is being reorganised under the leadership of Mufti Abdul Rauf, the younger brother of the Jaish chief Maulana Masood Azhar, who has already fallen out of favour with the Pakistani military and intelligence establishment after his organization was found involved in the December 2003 suicide attacks on General Musharraf's life in Rawalpindi. Since these failed attacks, Azhar had gone underground while disowning the attackers, saying that they actually belonged to the dissident group of the JeM – Jamaatul Furqaan, led by Maulana Abdul Jabbar. The JeM has reportedly established a transit camp in Rawalpindi for activists who are coming from southern Punjab and travelling to Kohat, a small town in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), where another camp had been established.

Intelligence circles say Mufti Abdul Rauf has appeared on the scene after his elder brother Maulana Masood Azhar was asked by his spy masters to vanish from the scene for the time being. However, Azhar keeps managing the JeM with the help of his brother, who is neither sought by the US authorities in connection with the 2001 gruesome murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl nor wanted by India for the December 1999 hijacking of an Indian aircraft, which eventually led to the release of Maulana Masood Azhar and Sheikh Ahmed Omar Saeed, who has already been convicted for Daniel Pearl's murder. Before being asked to limit its military operations in J&K in 2003, the Jaish had been held responsible for the December 13, 2001 Parliament attack in New Delhi. The JeM was declared a terrorist group by the US State Department in January 2002, which was soon renamed as the Khudam-ul-Islam (KuI).

The Jaish once again came into the limelight following the December 2003 suicide attacks against General Musharraf in Rawalpindi, which led to a countrywide swoop in which hundreds of Azhar's followers were arrested and the offices of the group sealed across Pakistan. The crackdown was motivated by the fact that one of the suicide bombers, Muhammad Jamil, was identified as a Jaish activist from Azad Kashmir. However, Masood's close circles insisted at that time that those involved in these attacks were in fact dissidents who had already been expelled from their outfit for violating party discipline. "The expulsions of Maulana Abdul Jabbar and other leaders eventually led to a split in our group," a Jaish spokesman had claimed at that time. "The dissidents were adamant to carry out suicide missions against the US interests in Pakistan to avenge the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan," he added.

Three months later, on March 7, 2004, a local English daily quoted a former Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence, Lt. Gen. (retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi as saying: "We must not be afraid of admitting that the Jaish-e-Mohammad was involved in the deaths of thousands of innocent Kashmiris, in the bombing of the Indian parliament in New Delhi, in American journalist Daniel Pearl's murder and in attempts on General Pervez Musharraf's life." A former ISI chief in 1993-95 in Benazir Bhutto's second government and currently serving the federal cabinet as the federal education minister, Javed Ashraf Qazi further said that both the Jaish-e-Mohammad and the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba had harmed the Kashmir struggle the most.

The British intelligence agencies investigating the July 7, 2007 suicide bombings in London have informed their Pakistan counterparts that two of the four suicide bombers, Shehzad Tanweer and Siddique Khan, had met Osama Nazir, a leader of the Jaish-e-Mohammad, in Faisalabad, a few months before the 7/7 bombings when they had visited Pakistan. Osama Nazir's meeting with Shehzad Tanweer and Siddique Khan was reportedly held at a religious seminary in Faisalabad – Jamia Fatahul Raheem, being run by Qari Ahlullah Raheemi, an extremist Sunni Muslim cleric considered close to Maulana Masood Azhar. During their stay at Jamia Fathul Raheem, Siddique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer were reportedly trained in the handling of explosives by Osama, who headed a group of trained suicide bombers at that time. Osama was finally nabbed from the Jamia Fatahul Raheem in November 2004. Information provided by Osama Nazir further reveals that Shehzad Tanweer had stayed at another extremist Sunni religious school – Jamia Manzurul Islami situated in the sensitive Cantonment area of Lahore, and being run by its principal, Pir Saifullah Khalid, who is considered close to Masood Azhar.

The Jaish once again became the focus of world attention in August 2006 after it transpired that Rashid Rauf, an alleged al Qaeda member named as the main plotter of a terrorist plan to blow up US-bound British airliners with the help of liquid explosives, was linked to Masood Azhar. The Pakistani authorities too had named Rashid Rauf as a key person in the bomb plan, saying there were strong indications of an al Qaeda connection. He was accused of helping trainee plotters in the use of explosives in readiness for their attempt to commit mass murder in the sky. Rashid Rauf was arrested on August 9, 2007 from a Jaish-run religious seminary — Madrassah Madina — situated in the Model Town area of Bahawalpur, a couple of days before the British crackdown and arrests of the main plotters in London.

Information provided by British intelligence to their Pakistani counterparts showed that Rauf was born in Mirpur and he went to England in 1981 when he was hardly one year old. He returned to Pakistan in 2002 while carrying dual nationality of Pakistan and Britain. The frequent use of text messages to Britain by Rashid Rauf, who left England after the April 2002 murder of his uncle Mohammed Saeed, actually led to his arrest. Rashid is also the brother of Tayib Rauf, one of the 22 suspects arrested from London by the British agencies in their August 7, 2006 swoop. Subsequent investigations proved that Rashid Rauf was the brother in law of one of Masood Azhar's younger brothers, Mohammad Tahir, who runs a religious seminary.

The revelation led to the arrest of Mufti Abdul Rauf for further investigations. Approached in the aftermath of the arrest of Rashid Rauf and Mufti Abdul Rauf, the father of Masood Azhar and Abdul Rauf told media people in Bahawalpur on August 16, 2006 that Rashid Rauf was a member of the Jaish-e-Mohammad but left the group to join its rivals who were more interested in promoting al Qaeda's anti-Western agenda. "He was a member of our group but later he deserted us and joined Jamaatul Furqaan, led by a Jaish dissident, Maulana Abdul Jabbar," Hafiz Allah Buksh was quoted by another local English daily as having said at the JeM headquarters in Bahawalpur. "Our cause is liberation of Occupied Jammu Kashmir, while their main cause is Afghanistan. They are anti-America but we are not," Bukhsh added.

Eight months after the arrest of Rashid Rauf, whose extradition demand by the British authorities has already been rejected by the Pakistan government, Mufti Abdul Rauf has reactivated the Jaish with the full blessings of his elder brother. According to an April 23, 2007 news report in a third local English daily: "Mufti Abdul Rauf, a commander of the Jaish-e-Mohammad, who is accused of carrying out numerous terrorist attacks in Indian-controlled Kashmir, has arrived in the federal capital with a number of his associates to help defend the Lal Masjid against a possible government action." The report adds: "Rauf was last seen at the Lal Masjid on April 17, a day after he was detained by police in the twin city of Rawalpindi but promptly released after a call from an intelligence agency vouching for him as 'their man'."

The arrival of the Jaish squad in Islamabad coincides with the threats being hurled by the administration of the infamous Lal Masjid in Islamabad to mount suicide bombings across Pakistan if any attempt was made to storm the premises of the mosque whose extremist clerics have already established a Shariat Court to issue Islamic decrees. One wonders why the Musharraf regime has allowed a deadly militant organisation like the JeM to regroup in the federal capital despite knowing fully well that it happens to be the pioneer of the suicide bombings in the region. The million-dollar question remains why these extremist jihadi groups, most of which the government had banned after the 9/11 terror attacks, continue to exist, are allowed to function and garner support despite repeated claims to the contrary by the country's first enlightened and moderate military ruler – the one and only General Pervez Musharraf.

Courtesy: The Post, April 27, 2007