Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Barbaric attacks

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), a ''Sunni''-Deobandi terrorist outfit was formed in 1996 by a break away group of radical sectarian extremists of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), a ''Sunni'' extremist outfit, which accused the parent organisation of deviating from the ideals of its slain co- founder, Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi. It is from Maulana Jhangvi that the LeJ derives its name. It was formed under the leadership of Akram Lahori and Riaz Basra. The LeJ is one of the two sectarian terrorist outfits proscribed on August 14, 2001, by former President Pervez Musharraf. 

The LeJ aims to transform Pakistan into a ''Sunni'' state, primarily through violent means. The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is part of the broader Deoband movement.

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According to a report carried by national English daily, the Supreme Court was informed that the armed forces and intelligence agencies were feeling frustrated by disparaging remarks being made about their performance although they were in the frontline fighting the militants in the strife-torn province in Balochistan. Advocate Shahid Hamid, the counsel for Balochistan after attending a high level meeting presided by Governor of Balochistan and attended by federal law enforcement agencies said: “They are virtually at war with a faceless enemy but their efforts are not being recognized by the press”. The meeting, he said had identified at least 88 Farari camps in the province and about 38 in border areas being run by banned outfits, reportedly backed by India’s RAW. On 28th December 2012, while addressing the 98th Midshipmen Commissioning term and 7th SSC Officers class, COAS Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had said, “Today, we are pitched against an amorphous enemy when the conventional threat has also grown manifold.”

Balochistan is in the throes of violence where terrorists continue killing innocent citizens. On Saturday, more than 85 people including men, women and children were killed and at least 200 wounded when a large explosion shook Quetta, the capital of restive Balochistan province. The explosion occurred near a market at the busy Kirani road area of the city, located near Hazara Town, where a large population of the ethnic Hazaras community resides. The Majlis-i-Wahdat-i-Muslimeen observed a strike in Quetta on Sunday in protest of Saturday’s blast. On 10th January 2012, at least 93 people were killed in a series of bombing, and a majority of the people killed in the Alamdar Road blasts on 10th January belonged to the Hazara Shia community. It was Pakistan’s worst sectarian attack, claimed by the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi. The fact of the matter is that Balochistan - the mineral-rich and strategically-located province - is very much in the rivaling international eyes, with world powers and regional countries eyeing it avariciously to push it into their own orbits of influence and domination.

According to political and defence analysts, the US, Russia, India are widening the ethnic and sectarian schisms in Balochistan and FATA. For quite some time, government functionaries have also been telling the nation that there is foreign hand behind the unrest in Balochistan, but they never name the country or agencies involved in destabilization of this province. Last year, Inspector-General (IG) Frontier Corps (FC) Major General Ubaidullah Khan told the media on last Saturday “that 20 agencies are active in Balochistan; around 121 insurgent training camps are in Balochistan and 30 in Afghanistan contributing to unrest in the province”. He claimed that the camps are being operated by Harbiyar Marri, Brahamdagh Bugti, Allah Nazar and Javed Mengal, and running concerted campaigns to defame state institutions. Brahamdagh Bugti is the leader of Balochistan Republican Party (BRP) and Harbiyar Marri of Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) – both are accused of fueling insurgency in the violence-plagued province. Since army is busy fighting the TTP militants in FATA, the centrifugal forces in Balochistan try to take advantage of the situation. Baloch dissidents had taken to the mountains in 1973, as they believed that after disintegration of East Pakistan military was demoralized. 

 

Nevertheless, tribalism is firmly rooted in Balochistan, as ethnic and tribal identity is a potent force for both individuals and groups in Balochistan with the result that there exists deep polarization among different groups. Each of these groups is based on different rules of social organization, which has left the province inexorably fragmented. Tribal group-ism has failed to integrate the state and enforce a national identity. But those who have not weaned of the poison of sham nationalism should take a look at the history of the Balkans, and the fate they met. Sardar Ataullah Mengal, in one of his interviews, said that America did not pay any attention adding that he would welcome if any country would help us to get freedom. Sardar Akhtar Mengal, Bugti and Marri sardars openly talk about disintegration of Pakistan.

The people of Balochistan have been waging struggle for their rights ever since the British left. There could have been justification for resistance when they were under strong center and unitary form of government in 1950s and 1960s. But once the One-Unit was done away with and complete provincial status was given to Balochistan, the struggle should have ended. In fact, there has been a sort of rebellion whenever there was an elected government. However, the long dormant crisis erupted into a brutal confrontation with the center in 1973 when late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had tried to establish educational institutions and construction of roads in Balochistan. The insurgency lasted for four years from 1973 to 1977, and it was after promulgation of Martial Law by Late General Zia-ul-Haq that sedition cases were withdrawn against Baloch sardars. However, sardars and feudal chiefs thrive even amid the centre’s injustices and the clashes between them and the security forces. 

Whereas one would express sympathy with the people of Balochistan for having been neglected during British Raj, and also after independence by the federal and provincial governments for decades, but Baloch sardars are to blame in equal measure for the lack of development and the sad plight of Balochis. To blame Punjabis for their suffering and discrimination is travesty of the truth. Punjabi teachers and professors have been performing their duties in educational institutions in Balochistan, yet dozens of teachers and professors were killed by the Baloch Liberation Army, as claimed by the BLA after every gruesome incident. Dissident Baloch sardars should accept the offer for dialogue by the government, come to the negotiations’ table and participate in the forthcoming elections. Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has emphasized the need for free, fair and impartial elections in Balochistan, and asked the government to provide a leveling field to them, as this is the only way to bring the dissident Baloch leaders into the mainstream politics.
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 By Mohammad Jamil

 The writer is Lahore-based senior journalist.


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Lashkar-e-Jhangvi war against Pakistan

The fact that these attacks continue unabated should have served as an eye-opener to our intelligence agencies a long time ago but we still see gruesome crimes like the one on Saturday. The ‘banned’ LeJ has proudly taken ‘credit’ for the attack, fully endorsing this bloodshed in the name of some warped religious ideology. Then how is it that the leader of LeJ, Malik Ishaq, is still out there, a free man? Why has he not been hauled up when his organisation openly claims responsibility for these atrocities? 
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In what may well be Pakistan’s darkest hour, another sectarian attack has taken place, turning the tide on any hopes there may have been for peace and coexistence. Some 80 people have been killed and scores more injured after a remote controlled bomb went off in Hazara Town, which is a Shia-dominated locality situated on the outskirts of Quetta. The attack was particularly deadly because a huge quantity of explosives were used — 800 kilogrammes packed inside a water tanker near a market place thronging with men, women and children. A building collapsed in the explosion, adding to the toll of people wounded and killed. The extremist sectarian group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) has taken responsibility for this cold-blooded attack. This heinous act comes on the heels of the January 10, 2013 double suicide bombing on Alamdar Road in Quetta in which some 100 people were killed, most of them Hazaras. To say that we are moving steadily and surely towards all out genocide would be a mere stating of the facts; the battle lines have clearly been drawn by fundamentalist militants who are hell-bent upon eliminating a minority group that consists of 20 percent of Pakistan’s population. In response to the attack in January, relatives of those Hazaras who had been brutally wiped out took to the streets with the dead bodies of their loved ones. Their heartbreaking protest was so profound that it resulted in changing the political structure in the province with the dismissal of the Balochistan government and imposition of Governor’s rule. On Sunday, the families of the victims of this latest massacre once again refused to bury their dead. What will the authorities do now? What protest can be bigger or more tragic than the one they have already staged and are again staging? Their lot has not changed and, hence, neither has that of the country.

The latest attack has claimed lives of another 83 persons including scores of innocent women and school-going children and left 200 persons injured. Initial investigation suggests that the Improvised Explosive Device (IED), the terrorists planted in a water-tank was armed with around 800-1000 kilograms of high-grade detonable material. The bang of the blast was so heavy that windows of the nearby buildings were broken, and the site of the explosion wore a look of the human slaughter-house having worst massacre. The genocide, though not the first of its kind in the immediate past, is yet another classic example of a total breakdown of administrative control of the rulers. The rulers are supposed to provide security to life and property with the help of a strong network of the security agencies across the country that they have failed to do. It has been said earlier and is being said again here that the rulers are incompetent. There is no doubt about that but the way, religious extremists, militants and terrorists foxed the local administration particularly the police and the intelligence agencies so frequently points fingers at the total incompetence of the police, military and civil intelligence agencies especially of their heads. It will be sufficed to say that the security agencies are now non-existent in that province. The infrastructure of the security has crumbled and the staff working there has taken refuge in their safe havens to save themselves from the terror regime prevailing over the restive Balochistan and Quetta has fallen to the terrorists who have become de facto rulers and the governor has been reduced to a spectator of the federal government witnessing mass murder of his countrymen. The political leadership, no matter good or bad, will step down in a little less than a month. Subsequently their competency and their sincerity to the cause of the masses will be held accountable by the people in the upcoming elections. Contrarily, the security institutions and personnel working in there will hold the ground. Bad performance rather heart-breaking failure of the security agencies to discharge their national duty will come under the scan, threatening their very survival. The surprise is that terrorists roaming around on the streets and roads of the provincial capital with loads of explosive remained unnoticed till their mission of blasting the masses was accomplished. The terrorists have once again shattered the so-called red alert put in place by the government. What a joke it is! The huge blast has made mockery of the security measures of the security agencies raised for safety of the city, already battered and bruised. Ironically, even such a massive bang of the blast cannot awake the intelligence staff from the deep slumber they are in. Pakistan has already witnessed such breakdown of the administration and the intelligence in 1971 when the then East Pakistan was subsequently dismembered- believe it! The situation in Balochistan is not so different today. It warrants immediate attention of the power corridors.

Once again, Minority Shia community was targeted by militants of the banned sectarian group Lashker-e-Jhangvi that has claimed the responsibility of the attack. Each and every man working in the intelligence network of Pakistan knows and many of them firmly believe Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, has become a major security threat but the point is who is going to act against the banned outfit. Why political leadership and heads of the security agencies are shamelessly failing short of giving a matching response to the strength and myth of the banned group for a long time. Yet another simple condemnation of the blast comes from the President Zardari. Like him the premier too has issued rhetoric that terrorists will not be able to subdue 'our will through such dastardly acts'. The fact is the will to fight out terror remained a missing link throughout the term of the incumbent rulers hence today Balochistan has become a flashpoint for sectarian violence. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is banned though but now it seems it is banned only in papers. Practically the banned outfit has outsmarted well-trained and well-equipped army of Pakistan and its intelligence wings, the FC and the police, and is maintaining its strong operational capability to strike any where at will. Fresh explosion is, by all means, Pakistan's worst sectarian bombing that has exposed the country's weakness around the globe. Extremists have become a prime threat to the existence of the people and the country alike. The present rulers are certain to end their regime on a sad note. The civil and military bureaucracy should wake up to uphold the system, showing professionalism, some degree of commitment and sincerity to the national duty before it is too late. Clouds hovering over the survival of the country need to do away with. Pakistan is not a failed state but it for sure carries a failed administration. The rulers have plunged the country into no-hope situation yet they should put an interim setup in place to give the nation a chance to elect sincere leadership.
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Shia community sorrows

 Balochistan in general and Quetta in particular has become a den of criminal gangs as every day there are incidents of target killings. This was the fourth attack against the members of Hazara community in a week while twenty six people have been killed in the past fortnight. The two separate incidents Saturday were the handiwork of organised gangs and there should be no doubt in any body`s mind that it is a well orchestrated conspiracy by foreign powers to create ethnic and sectarian hatred in a strategically important part of the country.
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With eight more Hazara community members killed in Quetta on Saturday, the litany of the sorrows of the community seems unrelenting. In one incident, assailants ambushed a taxi on Brewery Road, killing the six occupants, in an eerie repeat of an earlier such ambush on a vehicle carrying Hazara community members. Minutes after the first incident, the assassins killed another two members of the community in a rickshaw in the same area. Virtual riots broke out in the city in reaction, with arson and violence on display against the police and authorities. The sky was punctuated by aerial firing, which wounded a student. The authorities responded by deploying the police as usual and calling in 10 more Frontier Corps (FC) platoons to beef up the security presence. That may have helped defuse the immediate violent reaction, but whether this post-facto response is the answer to what is by now clearly a pattern of attacks on the Hazara community is shrouded in doubt. Quetta in particular has become the theatre of this sectarian genocide. It must be stopped before the peaceful Hazara community loses patience and decides to protect and defend itself against the sectarian terrorists by force of arms, given that the Balochistan government and the FC have signally failed to do their duty. The ‘absent’ Chief Minister Aslam Raisani made the ritual announcement of doing all within the government’s power to bring the sectarian mayhem to an end. Balochistan Home Secretary Nasibullah Bazai offered a mealy-mouthed response, saying the government could not provide complete security to citizens. Let alone “complete” security, what security has the provincial government provided to any citizen? He goes on to assert that a comprehensive security plan has been devised that would be implemented after approval by the higher authorities. Nobody takes these ‘declarations’ seriously any more. Amidst the announcement of days of mourning, the Shia community in Quetta has called for the inept Balochistan government’s resignation. Governor Balochistan Zulfikar Magsi, a frequent critic of the provincial government’s (lack of) performance, warned the other day that if the provincial authorities could not handle the situation, the army may have to be called out. What would remain of the tattered credibility of the provincial government if this were to come to pass?

The Shia community is under attack in the country from Khurram Agency to Gilgit-Baltistan to Balochistan. The sectarian terrorists aligned with the Taliban and al Qaeda are seeking to sow the seeds of sectarian strife to such an extent throughout the country, from north to south, that a sectarian civil war breaks out to destabilise the country as a whole. While the Shia tribes in Khurram Agency are under the pressure of the Taliban and their mentors the intelligence agencies to allow safe passage to the Taliban for attacks in Afghanistan on pain of death, the Shias of Gilgit-Baltistan are being massacred without let or hindrance. Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s proposal of a judicial commission on the sectarian violence in Gilgit-Baltistan is a non sequitur. It does not take a judicial commission to know the facts on the ground when Shias are picked off en masse every other day. Protests of solidarity with the Hazara community in Balochistan and Shias throughout the country were held on Saturday in Islamabad and even Washington. The purpose of the sectarian terrorists should leave no one in any doubt. Pakistan is to be reduced to rubble through a sectarian civil war that could destroy democracy and the country itself. They must not be allowed to succeed in their nefarious designs by pussyfooting authorities or inept law enforcement. It is in the interests of the system and all governments, federal and provincial, to rise to the challenge and conduct an effective campaign of suppression against these mad fanatics.
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