'Punjabi Taliban': A growing threat for Pakistan

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SGE64Q056.htm


http://www.zemtv.net/2010/07/18/taliban-expands-in-punjab/comment-page-1/#comment-10910




30 May 2010 10:16:44 GMT
Source: Reuters
(For a Factbox on militant groups in Punjab, click on [ID:nSGE64R05G])

* Punjabi groups broaden ties with Taliban

* Links may enable Taliban to work outside strongholds

* Minister suggests there may be further attacks

By Faisal Aziz

DERA GHAZI KHAN, Pakistan, May 30 (Reuters) - The Pakistan Taliban is not the sole militant group threatening Pakistan and the region.

Punjabi groups are deepening their ties with the Taliban, representing a growing threat for a country already hit hard by militant violence.

This was highlighted by the twin attacks in Lahore on Friday - the capital of Punjab - which killed between 80 and 95 members of the Ahmadi sect. Initial investigations suggested a possible link to the Taliban operating from Waziristan. [ID:nSGE64O0AU]

Security officials in the region say while there are no "militant strongholds" in the province for them to enable them to operate independently - as is the case in lawless northwest Pakistan - their presence in the area, especially in southern Punjab, cannot be denied.

These militants are overwhelmingly members of banned organisations like the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Sipah-e-Sahaba, long tolerated or even sponsored by Pakistan's powerful military and intelligence establishment. But now they are starting to turn on Pakistan, thanks to the growing influence of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its ally al Qaeda.

"Those militants who were hiding in southern Punjab are now surfacing," Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Sunday in Lahore as he visited one of the attacked mosques. "We have information they could attack the Shi'ite community." There are more than 20,000 madrassas, or schools, in Pakistan, he said, and 44 percent are in Punjab. The government has also banned 29 organisations and put 1,764 people on its wanted lists. Of them, 729 are from southern Punjab.

All these outfits traditionally have roots in Punjab and underscore the risk militants pose to Pakistan's economically most important province and its traditional seat of power.

"These are the people who took part in the Afghan war and got training there," said Mohsin Leghari, an opposition member of the provincial Punjab assembly.

"This is the only thing they know, so it is no surprise if they develop links with the Taliban in the northwest," said Leghari, whose constituency includes the tribal belt of Dera Ghazi Khan in southern Punjab. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

For full coverage of Pakistan, click on [ID:nAFPAK] ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>

However, Leghari as well as security officials in the region denied that southern Punjab is a hub of militant activities.

"This is all rumour-based information. It's exaggerated," said Ahmad Mubarik, the police chief of Dera Ghazi Khan. "This is not the hub of militants. I don't think that is true."

But the recent surrender by Hanif Gabol, an alleged commander of the Taliban hailing from Dera Ghazi Khan, has once again highlighted the militants' operational network in the region.

Gabol has reportedly told police that he trained in Waziristan and led a group of about 25 men associated with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, and was involved in dozens of terrorist activities.

OMINOUS TIES

More ominous for Pakistan, these attacks in Lahore on Friday show that ties between Punjabi organizations and the TTP are not just increasing the southern groups' capabilities, but also providing cover for the Pakistan Taliban to operate outside their traditional tribal strongholds on the border with Afghanistan.

A security official in Bahawalpur, another town in southern Punjab and considered the headquarters of JeM, said there was no doubt that some of the dozens of madrassas there were involved in recruiting volunteers for the Taliban in the northwest.

Analysts and officials said Punjab's extreme poverty, as well as lack of education, makes people in the region more vulnerable to the lure of militancy.

But they also say that the presence of Islamist militants is not new, and not directly linked to the rise of the Taliban.

"There is a presence of militants in that area for sure. But it is a long-standing presence, and they were there even before the Taliban became Taliban," said security analyst Ikram Sehgal.

Sehgal said the militants in Punjab had a good infrastructure on the ground, with many organisations involved in various feuds, including sectarian violence.

"The problem is that with the collapse of the Taliban in South Waziristan and Swat, and with them being pushed on the back foot in North Waziristan and Orakzai, there are chances they will try to reactivate these cells and make them effective," he said. (Additional reporting by Asim Tanveer; Editing by Chris Allbritton and Ron Popeski) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan)


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The fission of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi

Militant outfit splinters into smaller cells for effective coordination of terror activities

ISLAMABAD: Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), the homegrown sectarian-jihadi outfit with strong links to al-Qaeda, is in the process of splitting its strength into at least eight small cells to better coordinate its activities from Karachi to Waziristan, according to sources in Kohat, Hangu, Peshawar and Lahore.

“Each sub-group is responsible for carrying out activities in a specific geographic location,” disclosed one of the sources on condition of anonymity. Individuals having connections within the group and intelligence officials tackling them said the move appeared to be an attempt to outsmart Pakistani law enforcement agencies.

“It looks like they [LeJ strategists] don’t want to put all their eggs in one basket,” explained a local intelligence official. “It’s a typical guerilla warfare and urban militancy technique. With scattered cells, they have better chances of survival by diverting the focus of law enforcement agencies,” added the official.

The LeJ—an anti-Shia terror icon dominated by militants from Punjab —has established safe hideouts inside North Waziristan, the area controlled by the network of veteran Afghan jihadist, Maulana Jalaluddin Haqqani.

While there are hardly any significant signs suggesting that the Haqqani network is directly supporting anti-Pakistan LeJ activists, security officials contend the two groups have one strong commonality that keeps them connected—both take pride of being staunch allies of Arab al-Qaeda.

Jundullah

The LeJ’s cell for Karachi and Balochistan has been named ‘Jundullah’ but it operates separately from an existing organisation of the same name, led by separatist Iranian Sunnis, that is also active in the region.

“That’s where intelligence agencies’ personnel are often mistaken. They sometimes confuse activists from one group with the other,” an official in Sindh’s Crime Investigation Department (CID) said.

The LeJ is the biggest group operating in Karachi and of 246 terrorists arrested from the city since 2001, 94 belonged to LeJ, according to a secret report by the CID.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al-Almi

This group, headed by Maulana Abdul Khalil, a fugitive militant leader from central Punjab, operates mostly in central parts of Punjab and the tribal areas. The group works in close connection with al Qaeda and its activists are used as foot soldiers for Arab-dominated terror group’s plots inside Pakistan.

Asian Tigers

This group emerged after the recent disappearance of a British journalist of Pakistani origin and two former pro-Taliban personnel of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) in North Waziristan. Officials believe it is one of the offshoots of the LeJ and is using a different name to spread confusion.

Like the LeJ itself, the Asian Tigers are dominated by Punjabi militants but some Mehsud militants are affiliated with it as well.

Junoodul Hafsa

This group comprises militants that aim to exact revenge for the storming of Islamabad’s Lal Masjid and its affiliated female seminary, Jamia Hafsa, in a military operation in 2007.

The group operates in close coordination with Ghazi Force, a network named after one of the two clerics of Lal Masjid, Maulana Abdul Rasheed Ghazi, who was killed in the operation.

The outfit, led by a former student of Lal Masjid, Maulana Niaz Rahim, operates out of Ghaljo area of the Orakzai Agency and the adjacent Hangu district and targets military installations and personnel in parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and upper Punjab, especially Islamabad.

Punjabi Taliban

Several small cells operate under this umbrella outfit including those belonging to Usman Punjabi, Qari Imran, Amjad Farooqi and Qari Zafar. These cells generally target Punjab.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17th, 2010. == Altaf warns of rogue state status for Pakistan By News Desk Published: July 20, 2012 Says militant outfits formed during the Cold War had turned against the military. LONDON: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain cautioned on Thursday that the security, sovereignty and integrity of the country were under threat. Talking at the international secretariat of the MQM in London, Altaf said that the US Congress had recently urged the State department to designate the Haqqani network as a terrorist organisation and has demanded action against it from Pakistan. He said that Pakistan could also be declared a terrorist country if any leader of this militant organisation was found involved in any terrorist activity outside Pakistan. He said that it was highly regrettable that instead of thinking about the survival of the country, politicians were busy in power politics, according to a press release issued here. He went on to call for an end to clashes between the government, judiciary, military and the opposition. The MQM chief said militant organisations formed during the Cold War had turned into Frankenstein monsters, and turned against our own army officers and men. Talking about the media in Pakistan, Altaf regretted that Pakistani politicians, intellectuals, anchor persons and columnists were not informing the public over the real facts regarding the national crisis. He cautioned that most international newspapers and magazines had reported that a number of US war fleets had reached Pakistani waters in the Arabian Sea. The MQM chief also addressed ‘great’ internal threats being faced by the country. He said politicians were resorting to one-upmanship at a time when the country was mired in inflation, load-shedding, unemployment and poverty. Altaf advised the MQM leaders, elected representatives and office-bearers to create awareness among Pakistani people and inform them about the difficult circumstances facing the country. Members of the coordination committee, elected representatives, and members of the MQM international secretariat were also present on the occasion. Published in The Express Tribune, July 20th, 2012.