Jamaat Ud Dawa: A Terrorist Organization?

[haviZsultan]

Jamaat Ud Dawa: A Terrorist Organization?

Oh Really?

The crackdown on Jamaat Ud Dawa continues as over 71 workers having been arrested and 124 placed under house arrest. But while this continues no one seems to care about the consequences of this action or the real questions. Does Jamaat Ud Dawa have anything to do with terrorism and Lashker E Toiba at all or has it just been dreamed up by the Indian media and politicians? How credible are Indias claims considering Hemant Karkares investigations suggested that it was not Lashker E Toiba that was responsible? Why is Pakistan taking action against Jamaat Ud Dawa one of the largest charities in Pakistan serving over 80000 people when there is no proof that it is involved in terror related activities. Despite this why are we taking action on JuD when on the other hand there are Indian radical organizations that have massacred thousands of Muslims Christians and Sikhs but no action is taken against them?

The government of Pakistan not only continues with the policies of its predecessors but has gone several steps further than them dangerously oblivious to the alienation and sense of deprivation that the people of Pakistan have begun to feel over their actions and the massive level of rage and frustration that is building up due to unparalleled corruption and poor policies in all fields of Pakistani society. Recently what has wounded the Pakistani people the most is that the Pride they used to feel being Pakistanis itself is at stake. It is the view of the common man that the identity and sovereignty of Pakistan has been completely sold. The ban on Jamaat Ud Dawa has given further rise to such feelings and many now people think that there is absolutely no hope.

As a result of the unjust ban on JuD there is a feeling that any Pakistani can be framed anywhere in the world for doing nothing and the Government of Pakistan does not in anyway care about the people of Pakistan or the interests of the Country and will therefore do nothing in order to protect these Pakistani citizens. On paper and in their speeches the officials always seem to stress that the interests of the Pakistani people reign supreme and there will be no compromise on our sovereignty but they do not follow up with actions on their words. This scenario and the governments tall claims have been exposed with the ban and many people ask how stealing the bread of 80000 people just for the benefit of Indian blame and propaganda going to benefit us? How does taking action against a charity serve the interests of Pakistan?

Jamaat Ud Dawa was one of the largest humanitarian organizations in Pakistan. It had over 160 schools, 143 medical healthcare facilities and also fed many people two times a day. As a result a total of 80000 people were being served by the charity in total. 40000 of these were students and many of these could not afford the education and it is uncertain as to what will happen to their future. They were the first to react to both the Kashmir quake and the most recent one in Ziarat, Baluchistan. Jamaat Ud Dawa had major aid operations in Ziarat to help the Earthquake victims by building over 600 houses and providing education food and relief equipment to affected people. As a result of the ban sadly hundreds have been left freezing in the cold.

US and India have failed to answer the question of what terror group indulges itself in this kind of charity work and is helping the common people rather than terrorizing the World? Do the terror groups such as Ansar Ul Islam, Jaish E Mohammed, Al Qaeda, Taliban or Indian Mujahideen all do charity work? It seems that Jamaat Ud Dawa is more of a scapegoat than a “terrorist organization.”

Not only the humanitarian aspect of this organization has cast a shadow of doubt over the allegations but also the fact that all the benefactors of this charity were not Muslims and many were Christians and Hindus as well. It was only a month ago several poor Sindhi Christians and Hindus who had been supported by the organization rose in order to support it claiming that the organization was innocent and had nothing to do with terrorism or with Lashkar E Taoiba. Several protestors questioned how this organization could be a front for a terrorist group when it had helped them despite being Muslim. India’s propaganda campaign it seems has been put in peril when the question of would Non-Muslims really support an Islamic Terrorist Organization was raised.

Almost all the development, relief and humanitarian work in Pakistan is done by charity organizations and specially in this time when the Pakistani economy is in a crisis the common mans reliance upon them is much greater. The government itself over admits that over 40% of the development and relief work in Pakistan is done by humanitarian organizations like Jamaat Ud Dawa, Edhi and Ansar Burney Trust. The government also admits that whenever it tries to interfere or take control of the organizations they are overwhelmed by corrupt practices and criminal elements being given positions who are rather there for their own or their parties benefit rather than humanity. Knowing this it is natural for us to question what the government was really thinking when banning an organization on which so many are dependent. This action is forced upon us and by going along with it the government does not create anger against India or the United States but itself and is putting its own position at risk.

The Pakistani government speaks much about its commitment to Pakistan and how Pakistan’s interest comes first but again it has been shown that under a little pressure we are willing to succumb and sell the interests of our country. Even our Indian adversaries seem to have the authority over us nowadays and have gone as far as telling us what to do. The government continues with the old game. The blame is continuously put on the doorstep of the previous government but the fact is even the Musharraf government would never sell itself to India or bow down to them in such a way.

It seems the government has a lot to do in terms of winning the confidence of the people and needs to follow up on its words. Otherwise the government is putting itself in peril by selling the Nation and compromising on the nation itself. The people of Pakistan are unwilling to sell their identity which is like their mother. They can sell all but their Pakistani identity.

http://dimension117.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/jamaat-ud-dawa-a-terrorist-organization/

 

[haviZsultan]

The Jamaat Ud Dawa ban is resulting in a crisis... damn our politicians.

 

[notsuperstitious]

Bloomberg.com: Asia

Pakistan’s Partial Crackdown Lets Imams Preach Jihad (Update1)
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By James Rupert

Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- A dozen Pakistani policemen stood watch last week outside a Lahore mosque known to be a stronghold of the Lashkar-e-Taiba guerrilla group -- while the imam inside preached jihad to thousands of worshippers.

The squad’s presence was part of Pakistan’s vow to curb Lashkar, which India blames for the Nov. 26-29 Mumbai terrorist attack that killed 164 people, and it showed how limited that effort has been. As the officers heard Saifullah Khalid’s sermon blaring over loudspeakers, he demanded more attacks on India.

“Muslims under the leadership of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamaat ud-Dawa will conquer all South Asia!” Khalid roared. “Nobody can stop us from fighting India!”

Pakistan’s offensive, in response to international pressure to suppress Lashkar and its civilian ally, Jamaat, is halting and partial at best, says Ahmed Rashid, a Lahore-based analyst and author of books on Pakistan and Islamic militancy. Fewer Jamaat leaders have been arrested, and fewer of its schools closed, than the national government claims, according to provincial-level figures.

Because the country’s politically dominant army has cultivated Lashkar and Jamaat to help confront India over the disputed territory of Kashmir, “there is not going to be any sudden U-turn in policy,” Rashid said. “I don’t expect a proper crackdown.”

Holbrooke Appointment

India and the U.S. say Lashkar plotted the attack on Mumbai that killed 164 people, and President Barack Obama has vowed to step up pressure on Pakistan. At the same time, he needs the country’s help as the U.S. increases military forces in neighboring Afghanistan. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week named senior diplomat Richard Holbrooke as special representative for the two countries.

Pakistan has responded with some actions against Lashkar and Jamaat. One day after a United Nations counterterrorism committee declared Jamaat a front for the Lashkar guerrillas, Rehman Malik, top security adviser to Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, announced a ban on the organization.

The order included the closure of the group’s bank accounts and offices, the takeover of its schools and the arrest of its leaders. On Jan. 15, Malik said 71 Jamaat activists were in custody. Lashkar was officially banned in 2001.

Leaders Detained?

On the ground, things look a little different. In Punjab province, Lashkar and Jamaat’s main base, only six Jamaat leaders have been detained, according to documents provided by provincial government spokesman Pervez Rashid. Interior Ministry spokesman Shahidullah Baig declined to comment on the discrepancy in numbers, saying he wasn’t authorized to discuss issues related to the Mumbai attack.

Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the founder of Lashkar and Jamaat, was put under house arrest on Dec. 11, yet later that month was able to attend prayers at a nearby mosque, said Amir Mir, a journalist and author of books on Pakistani militant groups. Mir lives near Saeed’s home in Lahore’s Johar Town neighborhood and cited sources in Jamaat who detailed Saeed’s movements.

While Jamaat says it runs 202 schools nationwide, authorities have taken over only 10 in Punjab, its stronghold, provincial spokesman Rashid’s documents showed. “All of the schools we know, we have taken over,” Rashid said.

On Jan. 22, a reporter found access to Jamaat’s 75-acre headquarters campus at Muridke, north of Lahore, unmonitored by government officials. Three days later, police arrived to establish a checkpoint and install a government administrator, according to local press reports.

Talking to Fighters

Indian government surveillance shows that Pakistan hasn’t prevented Lashkar’s communications with its guerrilla fighters in Indian-administered Kashmir, said Ajit Doval, a former chief of India’s domestic Intelligence Bureau. He is a security consultant and analyst and keeps in touch with former colleagues.

Pakistan’s actions so far aren’t meant to truly investigate or prosecute Pakistanis involved in the Mumbai attack, “but rather are designed to save the state from embarrassment,” Doval said in a telephone interview from New Delhi.

Almost two months after India published names and hometowns of men it said were the nine Mumbai attackers killed during the assault, Pakistan hasn’t responded. President Asif Zardari told foreign ambassadors in Islamabad yesterday his government will formally answer India this week with a report on Pakistan’s investigation, the daily newspaper Dawn reported.

Running Schools

Zardari’s 10-month-old civilian government is caught between economic and political vulnerabilities. Pakistan’s dependence on a bailout from the International Monetary Fund makes it sensitive to external pressures, while Jamaat ud-Dawa’s social work -- running schools and clinics that the government has failed to provide -- has won public support.

Zardari’s government “is either unwilling to comprehensively shut down” Lashkar and Jamaat “or, more likely, is seriously constrained from doing so by the military and intelligence agencies,” the Washington-based RAND Corp. said in a Jan. 19 report.

“If we had the proof, we would try them in our courts” and “we would sentence them,” Zardari said in an interview with CNN on Dec. 3.

Lashkar-e-Taiba, which in Pakistan’s Urdu language means “Army of the Pure,” arose from the Muslim guerrilla forces backed by Pakistan and the U.S. against Soviet occupation in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Kashmir Dispute

In the following decade, Saeed shifted the group’s focus to Kashmir, whose territory Pakistan has disputed with India since the countries’ independence from British rule in 1947. Pakistan’s main spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, gave it protection, according to a 2005 report by Husain Haqqani, a scholar who is now the country’s ambassador in Washington.

In December 2001, the U.S. declared Lashkar a terrorist organization. That month, Pakistan formally banned the group and put Saeed under house arrest. A court freed him months later, citing a lack of evidence against him.

The administration of former President George W. Bush hesitated to pressure Pakistan’s army to shut down Lashkar because it feared the military might stop offering supply lines and other aid in the war in Afghanistan, the RAND report said. Lashkar’s growing reach, shown by the Mumbai assault, includes attacks on U.S. troops in northeastern Afghanistan, it said.