Mullahs, militants and military – Pakistan’s shadowy coalition.

[Perceptron]

Mullahs, militants and military – Pakistan’s shadowy coalition
By Matthew Green in Rawalpindi

A mass rally of Pakistani Defence Council supporters in Rawalpindi
As sword-emblazoned banners fluttered above the crowd, Hafiz Saeed, a burly professor-turned-militant chief, basked in the adulation of Pakistani nationalists who see him as a hero, not a terrorist.
[video]http://video.ft.com/v/1409602070001[/video]
The founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, whose commandoes killed 166 people in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, Mr Saeed is – to outside eyes – the public face of the nexus between spies and jihadists that makes nuclear-armed Pakistan so dangerous.

Now, he is back.

For years confined to his power base in the eastern Punjab province, Mr Saeed is on the march – criss-crossing the country with a radical road show starring sectarian hate groups, Islamist parties and hawkish ex-generals. They call themselves the Pakistan Defence Council.

In the latest gathering, held near Pakistan’s army headquarters in the city of Rawalpindi on Sunday, Mr Saeed addressed an estimated crowd of at least 10,000 who chanted: “If God asks, we will go for jihad.”

“Pakistan is facing very severe threats from both sides – India is one side, America and Nato forces are on the other, and the agenda of both is Pakistan,” Mr Saeed told the Financial Times. “We want to send a message to them that the defence of Pakistan is uppermost in our minds.”

Fist-waving speakers told the throng – which included boys sporting black and white headbands and brandishing sticks – that India would be sundered into quarters.

The spectacle will send a chill through New Delhi, which views Mr Saeed as public enemy number one, and lay bare the limits of US attempts to pressure or bribe Pakistan into cracking down on militants.

But the coalition is more than just a vivid illustration of how authorities allow extremists to flout official bans and operate in plain sight.

The group’s emergence suggests power-brokers within the security forces are re-activating old contacts to protect their interests at a time of exceptional political turbulence and tension with the US.

Some experts believe such forces want to harness the jingoistic fervour inspired by Mr Saeed and his friends to pile pressure on the ruling Pakistan People’s party – which is widely disliked in the army – ahead of elections due by next spring.

“There’s no question that powerful elements in the security establishment view the PDC’s rallies and rhetoric as a way to shape the political terrain in their favour,” said Stephen Tankel, an assistant professor at American University and authority on LeT.

The rules that have governed Pakistan since it loosely aligned itself with Washington after the September 11 2001 attacks are being re-written in a complex power struggle between the government of Asif Ali Zardari, the president, and its adversaries in the army and judiciary.

The outcome will influence whether the country of 180m can cement its transition from military rule to democracy, or slide down an increasingly isolationist, intolerant path, with profound implications for security in India, Afghanistan and the west.

Mr Zardari’s government wants to become the first civilian-led administration to survive a five-year term and hand over power at the ballot box, but the clash of institutions has confronted it with its greatest threat since he took power in 2008.

With the opposition shaken by the rise of Imran Khan, the former cricket star, there is a sense that Pakistan is in flux. Against this backdrop, the formation of the PDC in October appears to represent an attempt by Pakistan’s mullah-military-militant complex to ensure its voice is heard.

Speaking in front of a huge banner depicting Pakistani tanks, warplanes, and nuclear missiles, Mr Saeed echoed the suspicions that India-fixated generals hold dear.

Some in the military view Mr Zardari’s halting efforts to forge a rapprochement with India with suspicion. An end to the neighbours’ cold war – however remote that prospect may currently seem – would challenge the very reason for the existence of Pakistan’s half-million-man army and its business empire.

“We have only one objective: to form a civilian force for the defence of Pakistan, which can work alongside Pakistan forces,” said Mr Saeed, who was subjected to a UN travel ban and asset freeze after the Mumbai attacks.

He condemned the government’s plans to grant greater market access to Indian goods as a “conspiracy” to destroy Pakistan’s economy.

The latest instalment of Pakistan’s decades-old civil-military power struggle has been dubbed “Memogate” over allegations that Mr Zardari authorised the despatch of a secret letter seeking US help to rein in the generals. A separate battle with judges who want to re-open a corruption case against him has raised the stakes higher still.

While Pakistan’s army has not shrunk from removing troublesome civilians from power, the days of coups seem to be over. A putsch would earn international ire and a flaying in Pakistan’s boisterous media – which dared to criticise the army over the national humiliation caused by the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May.

The killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a US air strike near the Afghan border in November has enflamed resentment of Washington among officers.

LeT embodies the kind of conspiracy-minded, nationalist worldview that gains currency with every misstep by the US. Mr Saeed founded the group in the early 1990s to send volunteers to fight Indian troops in Kashmir.

Unlike other Pakistani militant groups, such as the Pakistan Taliban, which is battling the army, LeT has stuck to attacks on Indian interests, and more recently against coalition forces in Afghanistan.

The organisation was banned in Pakistan in 2002 under US pressure, but lives on as a successor known as Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The JuD, which runs a network of Islamic charities, has also been put under sanctions by the UN but its members operate increasingly freely in Pakistan.

Young men – unarmed – but clad in black fatigues bearing neatly stitched Jamaat-ud-Dawa logos stood guard at the stage where Mr Saeed spoke. Small numbers of police deployed on the fringes did nothing.

Pakistan’s security hierarchy runs the risk of finding it hard to tame the forces it has unleashed, if one day it wants to build warmer ties with its neighbours.

Ahmed Ludhianvi, a prominent figure in the outlawed Sipah-e-Sahaba group, blamed for attacks on minority Shias, spat defiance in a fiery speech at dusk. “After so many years of being banned, now our flags are in the air,” he shouted. “We are not scared of anyone any more, we are only afraid of Allah.”
[video]http://video.ft.com/v/1401419136001[/video]

 

[arsalabbasi]

Mullahs, militants and military – Pakistan’s shadowy coalition
By Matthew Green in Rawalpindi

A mass rally of Pakistani Defence Council supporters in Rawalpindi
As sword-emblazoned banners fluttered above the crowd, Hafiz Saeed, a burly professor-turned-militant chief, basked in the adulation of Pakistani nationalists who see him as a hero, not a terrorist.
[video]http://video.ft.com/v/1409602070001[/video]
The founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, whose commandoes killed 166 people in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, Mr Saeed is – to outside eyes – the public face of the nexus between spies and jihadists that makes nuclear-armed Pakistan so dangerous.

Now, he is back.

For years confined to his power base in the eastern Punjab province, Mr Saeed is on the march – criss-crossing the country with a radical road show starring sectarian hate groups, Islamist parties and hawkish ex-generals. They call themselves the Pakistan Defence Council.

In the latest gathering, held near Pakistan’s army headquarters in the city of Rawalpindi on Sunday, Mr Saeed addressed an estimated crowd of at least 10,000 who chanted: “If God asks, we will go for jihad.”

“Pakistan is facing very severe threats from both sides – India is one side, America and Nato forces are on the other, and the agenda of both is Pakistan,” Mr Saeed told the Financial Times. “We want to send a message to them that the defence of Pakistan is uppermost in our minds.”

Fist-waving speakers told the throng – which included boys sporting black and white headbands and brandishing sticks – that India would be sundered into quarters.

The spectacle will send a chill through New Delhi, which views Mr Saeed as public enemy number one, and lay bare the limits of US attempts to pressure or bribe Pakistan into cracking down on militants.

But the coalition is more than just a vivid illustration of how authorities allow extremists to flout official bans and operate in plain sight.

The group’s emergence suggests power-brokers within the security forces are re-activating old contacts to protect their interests at a time of exceptional political turbulence and tension with the US.

Some experts believe such forces want to harness the jingoistic fervour inspired by Mr Saeed and his friends to pile pressure on the ruling Pakistan People’s party – which is widely disliked in the army – ahead of elections due by next spring.

“There’s no question that powerful elements in the security establishment view the PDC’s rallies and rhetoric as a way to shape the political terrain in their favour,” said Stephen Tankel, an assistant professor at American University and authority on LeT.

The rules that have governed Pakistan since it loosely aligned itself with Washington after the September 11 2001 attacks are being re-written in a complex power struggle between the government of Asif Ali Zardari, the president, and its adversaries in the army and judiciary.

The outcome will influence whether the country of 180m can cement its transition from military rule to democracy, or slide down an increasingly isolationist, intolerant path, with profound implications for security in India, Afghanistan and the west.

Mr Zardari’s government wants to become the first civilian-led administration to survive a five-year term and hand over power at the ballot box, but the clash of institutions has confronted it with its greatest threat since he took power in 2008.

With the opposition shaken by the rise of Imran Khan, the former cricket star, there is a sense that Pakistan is in flux. Against this backdrop, the formation of the PDC in October appears to represent an attempt by Pakistan’s mullah-military-militant complex to ensure its voice is heard.

Speaking in front of a huge banner depicting Pakistani tanks, warplanes, and nuclear missiles, Mr Saeed echoed the suspicions that India-fixated generals hold dear.

Some in the military view Mr Zardari’s halting efforts to forge a rapprochement with India with suspicion. An end to the neighbours’ cold war – however remote that prospect may currently seem – would challenge the very reason for the existence of Pakistan’s half-million-man army and its business empire.

“We have only one objective: to form a civilian force for the defence of Pakistan, which can work alongside Pakistan forces,” said Mr Saeed, who was subjected to a UN travel ban and asset freeze after the Mumbai attacks.

He condemned the government’s plans to grant greater market access to Indian goods as a “conspiracy” to destroy Pakistan’s economy.

The latest instalment of Pakistan’s decades-old civil-military power struggle has been dubbed “Memogate” over allegations that Mr Zardari authorised the despatch of a secret letter seeking US help to rein in the generals. A separate battle with judges who want to re-open a corruption case against him has raised the stakes higher still.

While Pakistan’s army has not shrunk from removing troublesome civilians from power, the days of coups seem to be over. A putsch would earn international ire and a flaying in Pakistan’s boisterous media – which dared to criticise the army over the national humiliation caused by the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May.

The killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a US air strike near the Afghan border in November has enflamed resentment of Washington among officers.

LeT embodies the kind of conspiracy-minded, nationalist worldview that gains currency with every misstep by the US. Mr Saeed founded the group in the early 1990s to send volunteers to fight Indian troops in Kashmir.

Unlike other Pakistani militant groups, such as the Pakistan Taliban, which is battling the army, LeT has stuck to attacks on Indian interests, and more recently against coalition forces in Afghanistan.

The organisation was banned in Pakistan in 2002 under US pressure, but lives on as a successor known as Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The JuD, which runs a network of Islamic charities, has also been put under sanctions by the UN but its members operate increasingly freely in Pakistan.

Young men – unarmed – but clad in black fatigues bearing neatly stitched Jamaat-ud-Dawa logos stood guard at the stage where Mr Saeed spoke. Small numbers of police deployed on the fringes did nothing.

Pakistan’s security hierarchy runs the risk of finding it hard to tame the forces it has unleashed, if one day it wants to build warmer ties with its neighbours.

Ahmed Ludhianvi, a prominent figure in the outlawed Sipah-e-Sahaba group, blamed for attacks on minority Shias, spat defiance in a fiery speech at dusk. “After so many years of being banned, now our flags are in the air,” he shouted. “We are not scared of anyone any more, we are only afraid of Allah.”
[video]http://video.ft.com/v/1401419136001[/video]

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