A Note on Global Terrorism
Introduction
On August 20, 1998 the
United States of America bombed Khost and Jalalabad in Afghanistan and
what they believed was a chemical weapons factory on the outskirts of
Khartoum. This was in response to the bombings of the American
Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
The targets of the
attacks in Afghanistan were the terrorist training camps of Osama bin
Laden who the Americans believe masterminded the bombings of the US
embassies. The Americans also claimed they had evidence that Bin
Laden’s group was trying to obtain weapons of mass destruction from
Sudan.
The choice of Khost
and Jalalabad as targets is significant. Many of the militants and
mercenaries arrested in Jammu and Kashmir identified these two locations
as the ones where they received training. Jane's Intelligence Review and
the "Independent" of the UK based on investigative field reports
identified Khost and Jalalabad as two of the centers where the Harkat-ul
Ansar cadres, who are active in Jammu and Kashmir, received training.
Osama bin Laden is a
Saudi billionaire, heir to a construction fortune. He was a major
financier of the Afghan Mujahideen during their war against the Soviet
Union. After the withdrawal of the Soviet forces, Osama’s ire
focused on America and the Saudi Regime, which he accused of having
defiled the holy places of Mecca and Medina by permitting the stationing
of American troops on Saudi territory. His Saudi nationality was revoked
and he fled to Sudan from where he continued to support and finance
extremist groups, like the Al Gamaa al Islamiya in Egypt, fighting
against what they claimed were non-Islamic governments in their own
countries and against western interests. Following the pressure on Sudan
after it was declared a state sponsor of terrorism by the USA, Bin Laden
was asked to leave Sudan and took refuge under the Taliban in Afghanistan
from where he has been operating. He has been calling for attacks
against US interests and giving support to extremist Islamic.
Recently Osama Bin
Laden was reported to have created a new umbrella organization, the World
Islamic Front, of extremist groups and called for renewed attacks against
American interests. The Islamic Army for Liberation of Muslim Holy Sites
claimed responsibility for the attacks against the US Embassies in
Tanzania and Kenya. Prior to the bombings, Al Jihad of Egypt, a
constituent of Bin Laden’s new organization, had given a warning of
attacks following the arrest of his men by the FBI in Albania, leaving the
Americans convinced that Bin Laden had engineered the attacks.
Immediately following
the bombings four people were arrested in Pakistan. One of them, Mohammed
Sadiq Howaida confessed to Pakistani authorities both to having links with
Osama Bin Laden and with the bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. He also
said that some of others involved in the incident had already traveled
through Pakistan to Afghanistan.
The role of Pakistan
in creating the Taliban: the presence of Pakistani ISI and military
advisors and regular army men with the Taliban has been reported by the
Pak media, by the international media, by security analysts including of
Jane's Defense Review. It has been also officially been stated by the
Russian government.
The fact that Osama
Bin Laden is being protected by the Taliban who function with Pakistan's
support an who are refusing to surrender him and the fact that those
who were involved in the bombings in Tanzania and Kenya chose to return to
Pakistan en route to Taliban territory in Afghanistan once again
highlights the emergence of Pakistan as not only a center for terrorists
training but also as a safe sanctuary for extremists and terrorists who
have perpetrated violence in different countries.
The following note
based on media reports, revelations by arrested terrorists, and reports by
security and intelligence analysts gives details of the role of Pakistan
in providing a base for international terrorism and a sanctuary to
terrorists operating in different countries.
United
States of America
In 1993, the World
Trade Center in New York was bombed. The suspect was Ramzi Ahmed
Yousef for whom the USA launched a worldwide manhunt. He was
arrested in Pakistan in 1995 where he had taken refuge. The
Americans believed he had links with Osama Bin Laden. Jane's Intelligence
Review reported that he had links also with the Harkat-ul-Ansar which is
active in Jammu & Kashmir and whose cadres come from the same
religious schools (madrassas) and training camps as the Taliban. These
schools are run by the Jamiat ul Ulema e Islam of Maulana Fazlur Rahman
which is known to have been receiving funds from radical Islamic elements
including Osama bin Laden. Maulana Fazlur Rahman was the Chairman of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee of Pakistan during former Prime
Minister Benazir Bhutto’s regime.
Mir Aimal Kansi, a
Baloch, was convicted in 1997 for the killing of CIA officials outside CIA
office in Langley, Virginia in 1993. He was again, after a worldwide
manhunt, caught in Pakistan. Soon after his arrest, four American
employees of the Union Texas Petroleum, along with a Pakistani driver,
were killed in Karachi and the Aimal Secret Army claimed
responsibility for the killings.
The US military
compound at Dharan and Al Khobar in Saudi Arabia was bombed in 1995, for
which the Americans blamed Osama bin Laden. Media reports from Egypt
stated that an Arab, Hassan Al Sarai was arrested in Pakistan and sent to
Saudi Arabia for involvement in the bombing.
The Harkat-ul-Ansar,
functioning under the name of Al Faran, kidnapped five foreign tourists in
Jammu & Kashmir in 1995, including an American national, Donald
Hutchins, who managed to escape. He later told the media that the
kidnappers were non-Kashmiris and spoke Urdu and were obviously from
Pakistan. US reports suggested that that the Al Faran was a front
for the Harkat-ul-Ansar and US authorities interacted with Maulana Fazlur
Rehman the mentor of the Harkat and the Taliban, to have the hostages
released. One was beheaded and the others are still missing. The United
States Government in 1997 banned the Harkat-ul-Ansar, declaring it a
terrorist organization, and in continued reports between 1995 and 1997,
the US State Department has been naming the Harkat-ul-Ansar, based in
Pakistan, as a terrorist outfit operating in India, Tajikistan, Bosnia and
Myanmar.
France
In 1995, bomb attacks
took place in Paris. Investigating into the attacks, the French DST
(Direction de Surveillance du Territoire) submitted a report, which stated
that extremists had been recruited and sent to military training camps in
Pakistan. Many of those arrested were of Algerian descent. The
DST maintained that a number of extremist youths were taken by religious
organizations to Afghanistan and Pakistan and trained in 15 training
camps. Paris Match carried a report on the Pakistani connection to
terrorist activity in France on July 25, 1996.
Algeria
Algeria has witnessed
continued massacres of civilians since 1992. The Government has been
battling the Islamic Salvation Army (AIS) and the Armed Islamic Group (GIA)
whose cadres include the “Afghanis”, Arabs who participated in the
Afghan war after receiving training in Pakistan and then went back to
fight their own governments in the name of Islamic jihad. Every day there
are reports from Algeria of the massacre of large number of people,
including women and children, who are found with their throats cut.
Egypt
In 1995, the Egyptian
Embassy in Islamabad was bombed. Islamic Jihad and Al Gamaa Al
Islamia took the responsibility. The leader of Islamic Jihad, Aiwan
Zahrawi, is a close associate of Osama bin Laden. In the aftermath
of the bombing, the Interior Minister of Egypt accused Pakistan of failing
to take action against militants. Reports in the media indicated
that Zahrawi as well as Mohd Ali Maqawi the suspected killer of former
Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat, were in Pakistan. The Egyptian
media carried a number of reports on the training of terrorists in camps
in Pakistan where nearly 2800 Arabs, according to Al Akhbar, were being
given terrorist training. They included 600 Algerians, 600
Egyptians, 400 Jordanians and 400 Libyans. A total of nearly 20,000
Arab terrorists were reported to have been trained in those camps.
The Egyptians accused the Markaz Al Dawa Al Ershad, which received
financing from Saudi Arabia of being the nodal point for such
training. The Markat Al Dawaa has an armed wing, the Lashkar-e-Taiba,
which has been calling for a Jihad in Jammu & Kashmir and is reported
to have been behind the mass massacres of Kashmiri Pundits this year in
Jammu & Kashmir. The Al Wafd of Egypt stated that even Ramzi
Yousef, responsible for the World Trade Center bombing, had links with the
Markaz. Egypt signed an extradition treaty with Pakistan in 1996 and
a number of people arrested by Pakistan were sent to Egypt to stand trial.
However, in 1997, following the massacre of foreign tourists at Luxor in
Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak attacked Afghanistan for emerging as a
center for terrorist training. This was the period when the Taliban,
supported by Pakistan, were ascendant in Afghanistan. The Egyptian media
during this period had carried a number of articles, focusing on Pakistan
as a base for extremist terrorism and narco-terrorism.
China
There have been
reports of extremist activity in the Muslim province of Xinjiang of the
People's Republic of China by radicals Uighers. An investigative
report in the Far Eastern Economic Review by Ahmed Rashid gave details of
Uighers being trained by the Jamaat-e-Islami of Pakistan.
The Jamaat-e-Islami, which is the patron of the Hezb ul Mujahideen
who are active in Jammu & Kashmir, had run training camps for Afghan
Mujahideen and subsequently for Kashmiri militants. According to
Jane's Defence Weekly, the Chinese were reported to believe that the
Taliban were instructing the Uighers. Media reports indicated that
in 1997, Pakistan handed over 12 Uigher militants being trained by the
Taliban to the Chinese authorities.
Philippines
Mohammed Sadiq Howaida,
who was arrested in Karachi in the aftermath of the bombing of the
American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and who confessed to being an
associate of Osama bin Laden and involved in the bombings, was
interrogated by the Pakistanis for information on a similar failed
operation in the Philippines. He declined to give details.
Earlier, in 1996,
investigations by the authorities in Manila had revealed a plot to kill
Pope John Paul II during a visit to the Philippines. 15 terrorists were
arrested in Manila. A Pakistani Mian Abid Mahmood was also arrested
in connection with the plot. Those arrested were all close associates of
Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the mastermind of the World Trade Center bomb blast
who, according to the police investigations, had been visiting Manila and
had close links with the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group operating in the
Philippines. Yousef’s brother was reported to be one of those arrested.
The Abu Sayaf group has been blamed, according to the reports in the
Philippine media quoting security sources, for anti Christian violence
since 1993. A police report indicated that this group also received
funding from Osama bin Laden. Five Pakistani nationals were separately
arrested for possession of explosives. Ramzi Ahmed Yousef was believed to
have narrowly escaped during the raid by the security forces.
In 1998 again a number
of Pakistanis were detained in Manila following a reported tip off by the
FBI that they were planning terrorist activities.
Tajikistan
The Government of
Tajikistan had filed a formal complaint before the United Nations
regarding the role of Pakistan in training Islamic terrorists who were
involved in insurgency and terrorist activities in Tajikistan. It
had given a list of 100 mercenaries from different countries trained in
Pakistan and arrested in Tajikistan.
Ethiopia
In 1995 Ethiopia filed a complaint before the Security Council that the
people who attacked Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa had
been trained in Pakistan.
Uzbekistan
Recently, the
President of Uzbekistan had, in a press conference, publicly stated that
terrorists trained in Pakistan and seeking to spread the fundamentalist
Wahabi terrorism were engaged in destabilization
Uzbekistan, etc.
The Uzbek television has run a number of documentaries based on the
investigation of the people they have arrested to support this charge.
India
India has been
witnessing terrorist violence since 1980, initially in Punjab and since
1989, in Jammu & Kashmir and other parts of India. Nearly 20,000
people have been killed in terrorist violence in Jammu & Kashmir,
involving both shootings and bombings.
The 1992 serial bomb
blasts in Bombay, masterminded by the Memon family, were one of the major
incidents of terrorism in India in recent years. The bomb blast in
Lajpat Nagar in Delhi in 1996 had also resulted in a large number of
civilian causalities. There have been many more incidents of bomb blasts
in different part s of the country.
It is a well
documented fact that leaders of some of the most extremist Sikh terrorist
groups are in Pakistan and are continuing to try and motivate Sikh youth
from the UK, Canada as well as from Indian Punjab to take recourse to
extremist activities. Wadhawa Singh of the Babbar Khalsa, Paramjit
Singh Panjwar of the Khalistan Commando Force (Panjwar), Gajender
Singh of the Dal Khalsa, Pritam Singh Sekhon of the Khalistan Liberation
Force, Lakhbir Singh Rode of the International Sikh Youth Federation , are
all presently in Pakistan and continue to try and engineer terrorist
activity with Pakistani help in India. Wassan Singh Zaffarwal, one of the
most wanted people in India for his terrorist activities in Punjab,
remained in Pakistan for a long time and then surfaced in Switzerland,
seeking asylum.
Lal Singh Manjit Singh
arrested for his role in the bombing of the Air India Boeing
‘Kanishka’ revealed to the authorities in India and Canada the
operation of a massive base of Sikh terrorism in Pakistan. Yousef
Bodansky of the United States House Republican Research Committee’s Task
Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare had published a report
“The New Islamist international” which gave details of how Pakistan
had been training Sikh and Kashmiri.
The investigations by
the Indian authorities and the confession on television of Yaqub Memon in
connection with the serial bomb blasts in Bombay in 1992, provided
full details of how the Pakistanis had used the known smuggler Dawood
Ibrahim and his associates in Pakistan to impart training, provide
financing and explosives and subsequently sanctuary to the perpetrators of
the bomb blasts. The entire Memon family was given refuge in
Pakistan after the bomb blasts. While Yaqub Memon was persuaded to
return to India and provided full details, including the false
documentation given by Pakistan, the eldest brother Ibrahim ‘Tiger’ Abdul
Razak Memon remains in Pakistan even today.
The involvement of
Pakistan in sponsoring terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir has been
documented by the Pakistani media, the international media, the analysts
of Jane's Intelligence Review and most importantly, by the US State
Department. In the latest reports on “Patterns of Global Terrorism 1997”,
the US State Department says that “ reports continued in 1997, however, Official
Pakistan support to militants fighting in Kashmir. The 1997 report
continues to focus on the Harkat-ul-Ansar as a terrorist outfit operating
in Jammu & Kashmir. Earlier reports had also given details of
the Jammu & Kashmir Islamic Front, based in Pakistan and supported by
it, which had undertaken bomb blasts in Lajpat Nagar in New Delhi, Jammu
& Kashmir and other places in India.
The Pakistan magazine
‘Herald’ had carried a detailed report on the Lashkar e Taiba, the
armed wing of the Markaz al Dawaa wal Arshad, following a congregation
held by it at Murdike near Lahore. At this congregation, details of
the Lashkar cadres who had been killed in Jammu & Kashmir had been
published. In addition, there were calls for Jehad against Hindus,
against the USA, against India and against democracy. A similar
congregation was held on April 18, 1998 again at Muridke, which was
attended by Pakistan’s Minister for Information, Mushahid Hussain, who
lauded the activities of the Lashkar. In 1998, the Lashkar e Taiba
has been responsible for the majority of the killings of Kashmir Pundits
in Jammu & Kashmir. While the Lashkar e Taiba appears to be
emerging as a the main mercenary outfit being used by Pakistan now, the
Harkat-ul-Ansar and Hezb ul Mujahidden are equally active. The
Hezb’s Supreme Commander, Syed Sallauddin, continues to be in Pakistan
and frequently gives press conferences and issues statements and attends
various congregations for Jihad against India, organized by the Jamaat e
Islami.
Narco-Terrorism
The use of revenues
from illicit narcotics trafficking can be traced back to the Afghan
Mujahideen’s war against the Soviet forces in Afghanistan. At that
point of time, the supporters of the Afghan Mujahideen turned a blind eye
to their narcotics trafficking as a means of financing their operations.
After the withdrawal of the Soviet forces from Afghanistan, the narcotics
pipeline continues to be utilized to finance terrorist operations.
Here again a detailed report, prepared by US Intelligence Agencies in
1992, called ‘Heroin in Pakistan” which was published in the Friday
Times of Pakistan gave details of the use of profits from the heroin trade
to finance operations of Sikh and other extremist militants in India.
Yossef Bodanski, in his report ‘The New Islamist International’ and
subsequent reports has given details of how narcotic connections,
developed during the Afghan war, continued to finance Pakistan sponsored
terrorist activities in India.
The former Prime
Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif made the most significant revelation,
when he was out of power, in an interview to the Washington Post. He told
the Post that when he was last Prime Minister, his army brass had
approached him with a plan to use funds from narcotics trafficking for
anti-India operations. He claimed to have refused to approve the
plan.
It is, however, a
well-documented fact that despite their avowed piety and belief in strict
Islamic values, the Taliban continue to use narcotic profits to finance
their war operations. Given their close links with Pakistan's and ISI, and
with the mercenary groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir, it is obvious
that funds from this source continue to be used to finance terrorist
operations in India.
The link between
terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir in India and the terrorism against
American, Egyptian and other interests is evident from the fact that the
cadres that constitute the Taliban and the Harkat-ul-Ansar etc. had their
origins in the same training camps. They owe allegiance to the same
Pakistani mentors particularly the Jamiat ul Ulema e Islam of Maulana
Fazlur Rehman The financing for these operations comes from radical
elements in different countries including Saudi Arabia and Osama bin Laden
has been known to be a major financier of Fazlur Rehman and by association
of the Taliban and the Harkat-ul-Ansar.