Hoping, Without Hope

#18-Urstruly
Mufti shamzai was far from being a `strictly` non-sectarian mullah. He was a staunch supporter of Al-Qaeda. Infact, so much so, that he is considered to be the founding members of Taliban, along with Maulana Fazal-ur-Rahman and ISI. Also, it is alleged that Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden actually met for the first time in Binoria Mosque. Amazing, isn`t it?

Al-Qaeda is an extremist organization. they are not only Anti-Christian and anti-Jew, but also very much anti-Shia. The Shiite Muslims all over the world were and are a big problem for Taliban. For if there is anyone who can actually condemn and stand up against this barbaric form of Islam, it is the Shia faction.

It is a known fact that Mufti Shamzai had issued a fatwa in Oct 2001, after AMerica attacked Afghanistan, declaring jehad. Not only that, he himself took an army of young soldiers to Afghanistanand killed many belonging to the Shia Hazara community. If that is his idea of sectarian harmony, i wonder what he would have done otherwise.

Incidentally, many of Mufti Saheb`s students are involved in terrorist activities and lead terrorist groups whose purpose is to kill Shiite Muslims. And Shamzai has been the spiritual head of many jehadi groups including Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Wonder what went wrong wih his sectarian harmony sermons?

There are many who point the fingers at the govt. Even that cannot be overruled. Shamzai had great following and it was one of his bright pupils, Masood Azhar, who was the master mind behind taking Musharraf`s life. This student leads the Jaish-e-Mohammad, another one of Shamzai`s pet Jehadi group. Makes you think doesn`t it?

I agree with the fact that this is not a Shia-Sunni conflict. We cannot put every non-Shia in the Sunni category. Doing so, Taliban would also brand the Sunni label, whereas 60-70% of the Sunni Muslims around the world are anti-Taliban. But it is obvious that there is a third party involved in these actions which is not only anti-Shia but is also bent upon creating differences between the Sunni and Shia faction in Pakistan. the timing of the murder and the bomb blast have given this entire tragedy a sectarian touch. It will, of course, serve the purpose of the muslim extremists but as Ahmedzai mentioned in a post, they are mistaken about Shia-Sunni unity. (i really hope so!)

BTW, Shamzai belonged to the Deobandi school-a movement that strongly opposes the Shia sect. And that is very obvious from the workings of the jehadi groups manned by his students. Even then if he talked about sectarian harmony, he was nothing but a BIG hypocrite. And if we all believe this crap about sectarian harmony he preached, we`re stupid.

#23-malik99

I agree, this is a political problem that has been linked to religion. But you forget that in our country, all sorts of problems are linked to religion. And we have General Zia to thank for that. And of course, Uncle Sam!

Farheen Zehra

Zehra,

It is very easy to stop the killings. First abandon this idea of sectarian killers and jihadic killers. According to this idea supportyed by all pakistanis assumes that certain killings are a religious duty while others are not. Stop and criticise this idea of individuals taking up on this religious task of killings. That will be stopping the jihad. No you cannot do that, pakistan is an islamic country. Why pakistan is an islamic country, because of TNT, muslims cannot live with people of other religions.

So you see, the root cause is TNT. The political idea of TNT combined with islam has created the most virulent strain of islam in pakistan, the ``jihadic strain of islam``.

Pakistansi are killing infidels in india, afghanistan, philippines, chechniya. Never in the history of islam has any country achieved this. The change will not come internally in pakistan, a generation of TNT children have grown up, and that is why the idea of pakistan has matured now. Only daisy cutters can bring about change in pakistan.

Pakistanis can help this process. Support the jihadis, pay no taxes, send money abroad, do not send children to schools, support honour killings.

Pakistan is on a decline, things will get worse befor it improves. So accelerate the decline so that the eventual upturn is quicker.

There is hope for pakistan.

If this attack was a blowback of Pakistan`s Kashmir policy and madrassahs, then why are all the attacks concentrated in Karachi and Quetta alone? There are Shia mosques all over Pakistan. There are also madrassahs all over Pakistan. How come there have been no sectarian attacks in Punjab, NWFP and interior Sind since the early 1990s??

Apparently, this was neither a politically motivated attack nor a madrassah inspired one. I am sure Indians will like to bring Kashmir into this to politicize this attack... but there is no evidence to suggest any Kashmir or madrassah link here. The evidence is pointing toward Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which is still capable of staging attacks in Pakistan despite the neutralization of Riaz Basra and Akram Lahori. The Musharraf administration must continue to hit these people hard while making a clear distinction between those who were involved in the Kashmir Jihad and those with sectarian agendas.

Could anyone make sense out of this? Who did it?



Troubled Karachi held to ransom

By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - Consummated soon after September 11, 2001, the marriage of convenience between the United States and Pakistan in the ``war on terror`` helped turn Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf from a local commando into an international statesman.

But being ``a trusted US ally`` has become synonymous with ``playing with fire``, and Musharraf now faces a stark choice: risk setting the country`s tribal belt aflame, or watch the key commercial port city of Karachi burn.

Starting at the beginning of this year, the US intensified efforts to root out foreign fighters and Afghan resistance figures sheltering in Pakistan`s semi-autonomous tribal areas, and with extensive surveillance, either on the ground or in the sky, even identified several ``high-value targets``. The task of tracking down these people was handed over to the Pakistani security apparatus.

In April, Islamabad dispatched thousands of troops to South Waziristan, one of the seven tribal agencies, but in the face of stiff resistance from the local population, Pakistan`s army bigwigs concluded that ``they simply cannot fight`` their own people. This was not the answer Washington wanted to hear, both in terms of the ``war on terror`` and with presidential elections approaching.

An even tougher approach was needed to get Islamabad to do the necessary in the tribal regions.

Target Karachi
Fatima Jinnah Road in Karachi is a thoroughfare most motorists try to avoid as it houses the US Consulate`s residence, and all traffic is screened by the heavy security presence in the surrounds.

Previously, any incident - and there have been several over the years - in the vicinity has been branded an attack on US interests. However, the twin bomb blasts that occurred just 100 meters from the consul`s residence last week in which a policeman was killed and 17 injured was not taken as a ``serious threat`` against the United States.

``The target of two car bombs that exploded on Wednesday in Karachi was a privately run English-language school and not the nearby residence of the US consul general,`` a State Department official said in Washington.

Musharraf`s eyes and ears, the chiefs of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence, only too well understand the low-key US response, according to officials close to these organizations who spoke to Asia Times Online.

They maintain that the bomb attacks were directed not at the US but at Musharraf himself, to serve as a warning that he needs to do something, and quickly, in the tribal areas, or there will be continued trouble in Karachi.

According to Asia Times Online sources, US assistant secretary of state Christina Rocca, in a recent visit to Islamabad at which the director general of the ISI was present, expressed concern over possible trouble in Karachi if operations in the tribal areas did not go well.

On Sunday, Pakistan warned of imposing some form of economic sanctions on the people of South Waziristan if they did not hand over foreign fighters, and more paramilitary troops were sent to the areas.

On the same day, though, the high-profile Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai was killed by gunmen in Karachi. As a radical Sunni cleric, he had repeatedly called for a holy war against the United States.

This assassination was followed on Monday by a bomb attack on the Shi`ite Ali Raza Imam Bargah mosque during evening prayers that killed 22 people. The mosque was less than two kilometers from the seminary where Shamzai was killed. On May 7, a bomb killed 23 worshippers and wounded 125 at the Shi`ite Haideri Mosque in Karachi.

Monday`s attack virtually shut down Karachi, with all port operations suspended, as well as the stock exchange. Thousands of security personnel were deployed to control the crowds, and when police fired warning shots at some mourners they were stoned. Shi`ite groups have announced a mourning period of three days, and people are still burning tires and stoning cars, while all the city`s markets have been shut.

Shamzai`s murder had the potential really to set Karachi alight, but key religious figures acted quickly. All the top leadership of the Mutahidda Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), a grouping of six religious parties that controls the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) assembly (the province in which the tribal areas are located), traveled to Karachi for Shamzai`s funeral. Also present were the the leader of the opposition in the national parliament, Maulana Fazalur Rehman, NWFP Chief Minister Maulana Samiul Haq, and Pakistan`s grand mufti, Rafi Usmani. They all worked to pacify the thousands of mourners, who included the leaders and workers of numerous jihadi organizations.

Sectarian smokescreen
The bloodshed of the past few days in Karachi has widely been attributed to sectarian troubles. In one sense this is understandable, as the country, and the city, have had considerable such strife: more than 4,000 people are thought to have been killed as a result of Shi`ite-Sunni violence since the 1980s. About 97 percent of Pakistan`s population is Muslim. In Karachi, as well as in Pakistan as a whole, Sunnis make up about 70 percent of the population, while Shi`ites account for less than 20 percent.

It should be noted, though, that after Monday`s attack on the Ali Raza Imam Bargah mosque, the leadership of Shi`ite Muslims pointedly refused to apportion blame to any Sunni Muslims.

Speaking to this correspondent, a top leader of the Shi`ite community, Maulana Hasan Turabi, said the government had conveniently tried to label the attacks as suicide, even though no evidence of this had been found. He said the police do this as the attackers are said to have been killed and nobody needed to be arrested.

Contacts in the intelligence agencies who spoke to Asia Times Online squarely rejected a sectarian angle. Instead, they pointed to the ethnocentric Muthahida Quami Movement (MQM), which is a part of the present federal and the Sindh provincial government in which Karachi is located. They also claimed that the Sindh police, who are under the thumb of the Adviser for Home Affairs (the MQM`s nominee), were culpable through negligence - at best - in not preventing the attack on Shamzai, even though they had information that it was likely.

A comprehensive report has been sent to Islamabad, to which Musharraf reacted strongly and ``vowed to take major decisions in Sindh province``, according to these contacts.

Initially, it was decided to appoint the former governor of Sindh and minister of the interior, retired Lieutenant-General Moinuddin Haider, as a powerful adviser to the president on Sindh affairs, but after a strong reaction from the MQM`s leader in exile, Altaf Hussain, who strongly opposed any such unconstitutional action in Sindh and lambasted the army leadership, only a face-saving measure is to be taken under which the already weak chief minister is likely to change.

Implications of Shamzai`s death
On the one hand, Shamzai was the icon of the anti-US movement in Pakistan, an ideologue for all jihadi forces and a most respected name for the Taliban and al-Qaeda. More important, though, he was crucial to the establishment as he was never prepared to allow Pakistan to be destabilized, and he often used his influence to quell mobs and soothe passions when they ran too high for comfort.

This dichotomy made Shamzai virtually indispensable to the establishment, but alienated him from hardliners, especially after Musharraf`s about-turn on the Taliban in 2001, which Pakistan had long supported, as Shamzai successfully defused anti-US protests at the time.

Born in 1952 in Swat, NWFP, Shamzai came from a modest background. He studied in Jamia Farooqia, Karachi, and then taught there for 22 years. After that he joined the Binori Town Islamic Seminary, Karachi, where he was a teacher of the Hadith (the sayings of the Prophet Mohammed).

He quickly earned a reputation for speaking his mind in difficult times. He was one of the first to support the Taliban movement when it emerged as a force in the early 1990s. He became famous when the US attacked Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 1998 with cruise missiles in retaliation for terror attacks linked to al-Qaeda in Africa. He immediately issued a religious ruling saying that any counterattack on US interests worldwide would be justified by Muslims. The same ruling was repeated after September 11 when the US announced its attack on Afghanistan. He also signed the first ruling to declare that Muslims who died while defending themselves in South Waziristan would become martyrs, while Pakistan soldiers who died while attacking Muslims there would be considered mercenaries and would meet ``vicious deaths``.

But beyond these convictions, Shamzai believed totally in the nation of Pakistan. When tribals blocked the Silk Route in NWFP to protest Pakistan`s support of the US attack on Afghanistan, on the request of the Pakistani government, Shamzai was taken to the site, and he quickly averted a bloody clash between pro-Taliban Pakistani tribals and Pakistani forces.

Shamzai`s murder not only had the potential to create a law-and-order situation in Karachi. With his death a vital link with Taliban leader Mullah Omar and al-Qaeda is broken. At a time when the US is clearly aiming to build a ``moderate`` Taliban political force in Afghanistan, which would have broad acceptance in Pakistan`s seminaries, with Shamzai out of the picture, there is no one of such influence to oppose such a move, and Mullah Omar could be sidelined.

The MQM connection
The MQM was the dream of a few Marxian scholars such as Rais Amrohvi, Mohammed Taqi, John Ailia and Shahanshah Hussain to establish an organization that could protect the rights of immigrants who chose Pakistan over remaining in India when the sub-continent was partitioned from British India in 1947. The All Pakistan Mohajir Student Organization (APMSO) was the initial reality of the dream. It became established on campuses in Karachi, and allied itself with the left-wing Progressive Student Alliance. However, the Islami Jamiat-i-Talaba, which was ideologically allied with the Jamaat-i-Islami and which had been the main force on Karachi campuses, expelled the APMSO. As a result, its founder Altaf Hussain left his studies and went to the US, where he drove a taxi to earn a living.

At this time in the 1980s, the honeymoon between the Jamaat-i-Islami and military ruler General Zia ul-Haq was over, and they developed differences on several national political issues. The sector commander of the ISI (now retired and still living in Karachi) persuaded Altaf Hussain to return to Karachi and take on the Jamaat-i-Islami. Altaf held big rallies and spoke against Punjabis and Pashtuns living in Karachi. In 1986, a bus driver who happened to be a Pashtun killed a college girl who was a member of a family that had migrated from India. The incident was immediately turned into a riot. The MQM was by now close to many bigwigs in the underworld - it still is - and they had several Pashtuns killed. Pashtuns retaliated in kind, and more.

Altaf then initiated a drive to sell televisions and video recorders, the proceeds from which he used to purchase arms and ammunition. MQM activists now numbered thousands, and they roamed all over Karachi with AK-47 assault rifles and other sophisticated arms. Later years saw the MQM turn against Sindhis as well as Pashtuns and Punjabis. Killings and strikes were the order of the day for Karachi.

In 1988, the MQM won national and provincial assembly elections, marking the all-out defeat to the Jamaat-i-Islami, knocking it from its only stronghold in the country.

The MQM then joined hands with the Pakistan People`s Party (PPP) and became a partner in the Sindh and federal governments. However, this participation in government did nothing to curtail its gutter politics. In the early 1990s the MQM was a part of Nawaz Sharif`s coalition government when its vice president, Saleem Shehzad, now in exile in London, kidnapped an army major, stripped him and beat him like a dog. As a result, the first army operation was conducted against the MQM. However, Altaf fled to the United Kingdom before it began, and he now holds a British passport.

A second operation was subsequently launched against the MQM, commanded by a former interior minister in the PPP government, retired Major-General Naseerullah Baber. This exposed extensive MQM torture cells and ``no-go areas`` in Karachi. Scores of MQM activists were killed in extrajudicial killings by the police.

After Musharraf took over in 1999 in a coup, he helped resolve differences with the MQM, and now it is a partner in the Sindh provincial government, as well as in the federal government. Yet it often remains critical of the establishment, and has the ability to raise rabble on the streets or call for citywide strikes at the drop of a hat.

Because of its declared secular nature, the US has traditionally been closer to the MQM than any other party in Pakistan. Over the years, thousands of its activists have been given asylum in the US, where the MQM has a powerful bureau.

After September 11, the United States identified even more with the MQM as it was the only party in Pakistan that widely mourned the attacks on the US, openly condemned the Taliban and al-Qaeda, and launched a powerful campaign in support of the US attack on Afghanistan. Latterly, the MQM has been the only party to support the military`s intervention in the tribal areas. Visits by US diplomats to MQM offices in Karachi have - and continue to be - commonplace.

Asia Times Online sources say that only US diplomatic intervention stopped Musharraf from taking strong action against the MQM after he received the report on the recent unrest in which the MQM was implicated. Washington indeed has a powerful southern ally in Pakistan.

Musharraf is now carefully weighing the alternatives of taking tough action in the tribal areas, or risking more trouble in Karachi, the country`s commercial center.

(Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for information on our sales and syndication policies.)

Urstruly:
I agree with your views about the neocon plans to trifurcate Iraq to help their ``unnamed`` friend in the Middle East. But I am not sure that they have failed. The true test will come if or when the US troops leave Iraq. That is when you expect the start of ``jootiyon mein daal batna``. I have said elsewhere that you might see a split between the neocons and the oil lobby in the US. The neocons have attained their purpose, a weakened Iraq, and might be willing to leave it now for the Iraqis to fight it out among themselves, but the oil lobby may want to stay to control the Iraqi oil. Incidentally, this is why I am now against the Americans leaving Iraq without ensuring stability. They broke it, they better fix it before they leave.
But that is digressing from the subject. You didn`t tell me who are the other shias in Afghanistan, besides the hazaaras. To me, it is a pasthun/non-pashtun struggle with an undertone of religious moderates versus non-moderates, and not a sunni-shia strife. Even in Iraq, Kurds who probably have the strongest ambition for separation, are sunnis and want to separate for ethnic and not religious reasons.

teshah

You are entitled to your opinion (which I disagree with), people have slighted even prophets of God, what chances shamzai stand. I judge people by their individual actions.

Urstruly says,`` Shamzai was not sectarian``.

Shamzai is stated to have been a staunch supporter of Taliban. Isn`t the Talibani Islam the worst kind of bigotted sectarianism. They called christianity an `abrogated religion`, the preaching of which was a crime in their sectarian law. He was also a leader of the movement for `Khatme Nabuwwat`. What does it mean? This is shear Hamanism; promotion of continuance of Firouniat and putting an end to Musawiat. The result is; whereas Firouns and Yazids like Bush are proliferating there is no Musa or Hussain to challenge them.In fact these Mullas have themselves become Firouns of today in Pakistan with their vast armies of taliban of madrissas. No body dares to challenge them and even that adage `Har Firoune ra Musa` has lost its credibility today. May God help us poor Pakies!

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arjun-m

There are only two rogue states in this world that employ ``targeted killing`` as their national policy - Israel and US. Whereas Israel emloys this policy locally almost daily without impunity, the US has been using it effectively since WWII all around the globe. Whether it is attempt on Castro, Dr. Musadiq, Shah Faisal, or almost every other country in South America, they have employed it without hesitation. As a matter of fact US President has this authority by law to order the assasination of any leader in the world without getting an approval from Senate or Congress. And for some strange reasons these two countries are not considered terrorist states by western media which perpetualy writes death sentences for helpless third world nations.

rahul-capri/ dost mitter

As a matter of fact, crusaders, headed by the big satan have been having wet dreams about starting a civil war between shias and sunnis since they have occupied Afghanistan. The formula worked quite well in Afghanistan where they have been successfully been able to pit a shia minority against a sunni majority. But the innocent martyrdom of Afghanis have taught Muslims the lesson well. Crusaders are salivating to divide Iraq on ethnic lines. The program was to declare Kurds, Shia south and Sunni triangle to be three independent units of a losely held confederation with Kurds and south shias having all the oil and better under control while the troublesome sunni triangle with no oil to be left alone to its own fate. But it is the people like Muqtada Al sadar who saw through this nefarious scheme to divide their homeland. The plan failed dispite periodic car bombing by ``unknown`` characters in shia dominated areas.

The same game is being played in Pakistan where, plan is to use Baluch territory to attack/put -under siege the state of Iran. For that a considerably hostile environment against shias and hence Iran has to be created first so that when Iran is surrounded there wont be a voice in pak to oppose that as there was when Afghanistan came under attack. BUt Muslims have learned their lesson. They can break our bodies by their bombs but now they can not part a rift between us sunnis and shias.

Long Live Shia-Sunni Unity.

Arjun:

Dude, you live in DC? I thought u lived in Houston.

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arjun - after ALL the lies and ``news management`` you have heard from Pentagon over the last few years, I commend you for still being steadfast and giving Pentagon the benefit of doubt. Pentagon, may have been hit by a plane, a missile, or a truck bomb - we will never know. This is the same Pentagon which OVERTLY tried to establish an ``Office of Misinformation``. Imagine what they are upto covertly!

If this many lies, or as some establishment critics grudgingly call ``un-truths``, were uttered by a person, we would stop believing that person forever.

Consider this:

- They lied about Jessica Lynch
- The lied about WMD
- They lied about al-Qaeda - Iraq connection
- They lied about Iraq NOT needing hundreds of thousands of troops after the war
- They lied that Iraqis would welcome American troops with flowers
- They continue to crow that Afghanistan is a ``happy`` place, whereas the facts belie the truth

And that is what i can remember in the one minute that it took me to type.

Urstruly#18:
``The man was a direct CIA hit because he was opposing Afghan collaborators and puppet regime who happen to be shia.``

That`s a new one for me. I thought that only the hazaaras in Afghanistan were shias, the others, including Ahmad Masood, were sunnis. I had always viewed the Afghan conflict as more ethnic than sectarian.