Indian Defence Review

The State Department’s reports for 1995 and 1996 continued to bring on record the terrorist activities of the HUM. In addition, they also took note of the HUM’s links with the so-called Al Faran, which captured five Western tourists in July 1995, beheaded one of them and has been silent on the fate of the others since then. One of the tourists managed to escape.

The source and amount of HUAs military funding are unknown, but are believed to come from sympathetic Arab countries and wealthy Pakistanis and Kashmiris.

The State Department’s report for 1997 released in April 1998, said that there continued to be credible reports of official Pakistani support for the Kashmiri extremist groups such as the HUM.

It added: “Muslims from around the world, including a large number of Egyptians, Algerians, Palestinians and Saudis continued to use Afghanistan as a training ground. The Taliban as well as many other combatants in the Afghan civil war facilitated the training and the indoctrination facilities for the non-Afghans in the territories they controlled. Several Afghan factions also provided logistic support, free passage and sometimes passports to the members of the various terrorist organisations.”

It further said: “These individuals, in turn, were involved in fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Chechnya, Tajikistan, Kashmir, the Philippines and parts of the Middle East.”

Earlier, on September 8, 1995 the Pakistani Customs stopped a car carrying a consignment of heavy arms and ammunition near Kohat in the NWFP and arrested its driver and Saifullah Akhtar, an office-bearer of the POK branch of the HUM. On interrogation, they reportedly told the Customs authorities that the weapons had been procured by Brig Mustansar Billa of the Pakistan Army at Darra Adamkhel for supply to the Kashmiri extremist groups.

“¦arrested officers wanted Pakistan to become militarily involved in the Kashmir freedom struggle

The Pakistan Army then took over the investigation and arrested a group of 40 army officers and 10 civilians headed by Maj Gen Zaheer-ul-Islam Abbasi, who was previously posted as Military Attaché in the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi. He was expelled by the Government of India in 1989 for indulging in espionage.

The Pakistani authorities alleged that this group had planned to kill senior military officers and Mrs Benazir Bhutto, the then Prime Minister, seize power and proclaim an Islamic state. They were secretly tried by a military court and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.

MH Askari, a well-known columnist, wrote in the Dawn of Karachi of October 18,1995, as follows: “It is said that the plotters had close links with the Hizbul Mujahideen and the HUA, which are known for their involvement in international terrorism. It is also said that the arrested officers wanted Pakistan to become militarily involved in the Kashmir freedom struggle.”

On interrogation, they reportedly told the Customs authorities that the weapons had been procured by Brig Mustansar Billa of the Pakistan Army at Darra Adamkhel for supply to the Kashmiri extremist groups.

The Nation of October20, 1995 reported that Maj Gen Abbasi had close contacts with the HUM. The Khabrain alleged that two of the arrested officers belonged to a secret agency (implying the ISI) and that one of them was the staff officer of Lt Gen Nasir when he was the DG, ISI.

The Nation of November 15, 1995 reported as follows: “Almost all the arrested officers are followers of the Tabligi Jamaat based in Raiwind.”

The Herald, the monthly journal of the Dawn group of publications, in its January 1996 issue, identified Saifullah Akhtar, who was travelling in the vehicle with the arms and ammunition, as the patron of the HUM. It added that, mysteriously, the Pakistani Army authorities decided not to prosecute him.

Fortunately, the interception of the vehicle by the Customs alerted the authorities to the plot to seize power and they the then Prime Minister, seize power and proclaim an Islamic state. They were secretly tried by a military court and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.

MH Askari, a well-known columnist, wrote in the Dawn of Karachi of October 18,1995, as follows: “It is said that the plotters had close links with the Hizbul Mujahideen and the HUA, which are known for their involvement in international terrorism. It is also said that the arrested officers wanted Pakistan to become militarily involved in the Kashmir freedom struggle.”

The Markaz and its Lashkar-e-Toiba, the HUM and the TJ are the non-mainstream extremist organisations which do not believe in elections and a parliamentary democracy.

The Nation of October 20, 1995 reported that Maj Gen Abbasi had close contacts with the HUM. The Khabrain alleged that two of the arrested officers belonged to a secret agency (implying the ISI) and that one of them was the staff officer of Lt Gen Nasir when he was the DG, ISI.

The Nation of November 15, 1995 reported as follows: “Almost all the arrested officers are followers of the Tabligi Jamaat based in Raiwind.”

The Herald, the monthly journal of the Dawn group of publications, in its January 1996 issue, identified Saifullah Akhtar, who was travelling in the vehicle with the arms and ammunition, as the patron of the HUM. It added that, mysteriously, the Pakistani Army authorities decided not to prosecute him.

Fortunately, the interception of the vehicle by the Customs alerted the authorities to the plot to seize power and they were able to pre-empt it. But, one cannot be certain that the authorities had identified all the sympathisers of the HUM in the military.

The Markaz and its Lashkar-e-Toiba, the HUM and the TJ are the non-mainstream extremist organisations which do not believe in elections and a parliamentary democracy. They advocate a caliphate and the transfer of nuclear and missile technologies by Pakistan to other Muslim countries.

The Markaz and its Lashkar and the HUM have become members of the International Islamic Front for Jehad against the US and Israel whose formation was announced by bin Laden in May 1998.

As already mentioned, these organisations were created by Zia through Musharraf and Aziz, and pampered. Though this Army of Islam was kept distinct from Pakistan’s Army of the State, the two over the years developed a symbiotic relationship, with the Army of Islam infiltrating into the lower and middle levels of the Army of the State, its own creator. One has to only note the number of Pakistani military officers who, after retirement, gravitate towards these organisations instead of towards the traditional democracy-advocating political parties.

On February 17, 1998 Abdul Aziz Kamilov, the Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan, for the first time accused the Markaz, the HUM and the TJ of fomenting Islamic extremism and violence in Uzbekistan. He revealed that 400 persons from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were undergoing training in arms and ammunition in the training centres of these organisations located in the Karachi, Islamabad, Mardan and Peshawar areas. He added that the matter had been taken up with the Pakistani authorities, who, however, subsequently denied the presence of any such training camps in Pakistani territory.

The Markaz and its Lashkar and the HUM have become members of the International Islamic Front for Jehad against the US and Israel whose formation was announced by bin Laden in May 1998.

The meeting at which the decision to form this Front was taken was attended, amongst others, by the following:

• Sheikh Taseer Abdullah also known as Abu Hafs Al-Misri also suspected to be identical with Mohammed Atef, whom the FBI describes as the military commander of bin Laden and for whose capture it has announced a reward of US $ 5 million. He acts as the chief bodyguard cum personal secretary cum chief adviser of bin Laden. It is reported that he came to Afghanistan in 1983 from Egypt where he was a police officer. He joined the Afghan jehad much before Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, bin Laden and Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric presently undergoing imprisonment in the US for his role in the World Trade Centre bombing of 1993. He accompanied bin Laden to Saudi Arabia and then Sudan, where he assisted him in running the training camps. When the Sudanese authorities asked bin Laden to leave in 1996, Sheikh Taseer accompanied him to Afghanistan.

• Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, leader of the Jamatul Jihad of Egypt, who acts as the interpreter and press spokesman of bin Laden. His grandfather, Abdul Wahab, used to be the Egyptian Ambassador to Pakistan.

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“¦camp was initially started by the HM of Kashmir with the help of the JEI of Pakistan. Angered over the JEIs support to Gulbuddin Heckmatyar, the Taliban expelled the HM from the Afghan territory and handed over the camp to the HUM

Addressing a press conference at Islamabad on August 22, 1998 after the US bombing of the HUM training camps in Afghanistan, Fazlur Rahman Khalil denied that bin Laden was indulging in terrorism and accused the US of killing 50 innocent civilians, including 15 Arabs.

He said that the camps bombed by the US in Afghan territory had actually been set up by the CIA during the Afghan War and claimed that these were being used by the HUM for giving education to the Afghans. He denied that any training in terrorism was going on in these camps.

He alleged that the Nawaz Sharif Government, then in power, was privy to the bombing and said that 40 Cruise missiles had struck three HUM camps in Afghan territory.