Islamabad: The visit of John Kerry to Pakistan has started to show its affects on Pakistan’s positioning when it comes to identifying terror outfits.
Pakistan is about to issue a new list of organisations to be declared as banned terror outfits operating in Pakistan. There have already been two new additions in the list of at least 10 organisations.
The new inclusions are of the Haqqani Network, primarily operating in the Pakistan’s troubled tribal areas bordering Afghanistan – a network that has been on the terror watch list and the global terror list of the US – known to have close links to Al-Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan and also allegedly close ties with the Pakistani military establishment.
The other important inclusion is of Jamat-ud-Dawa Pakistan (JuD), whose leader and chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, is already on the global terror list of Washington and carries a head bounty of $10 million. Hafiz Muhammad Saeed is also the alleged mastermind and orchestrator of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.
The decision has been taken after US Secretary of State John Kerry wrapped up his two day visit to Pakistan and raised serious concerns over terror elements operating freely in Pakistan. In a statement, he emphasized that terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the alleged militant faction of JuD – primarily operating in Pakistan Administered Kashmir and known for carrying out terror operations in Jammu and Kashmir – should be rooted out as they pose a serious threat to the region and broadly to the world.
Analysts say it was the Kerry affect that Pakistan has included the groups into its terror list and made part of the National Action Plan.
“It’s our first step towards execution of the National Action Plan. The nation will see more positive steps towards dismantling militant groups. Both civilian and military leadership decided to ban the Haqqani Network and Jamaat-ud-Dawa,â€
The National Action Plan (NAP) is a new law passed by the government to counter terrorism and has become part of the Pakistan Constitution under the 21st amendment. The NAP will legitimize the establishment of the Military Courts, which will expedite the process of dispensing justice in terror related cases.
Just a day before John Kerry’s visit to Pakistan the US had designated the TTP chief, Mullah Fazlullah as a ‘Specially Designated Global Terrorist’ in the aftermath of the bloody Peshawar School attacks.
The Haqqani Network that has been the architect of many deadly attacks on the US-led Coalition forces in Afghanistan had enjoyed the tacit support of the Pakistani establishment and hence remained untouched so far. It remains to be seen now that after being officially named as a terrorist organisation if the Pakistani establishment still remain oblivious to the Haqqanis or will start owning up to its own mess.
On the other hand, Jamat-ud-Dawa is no stranger to Pakistan and does not hide in the mountains or opt to guerilla warfare tactics of fighting. Jamat-ud-Dawa, widely known as a charitable organisation operates in all the major cities of Pakistan with offices, mosques and educational camps based in small and big cities.
Jamat-ud-Dawa’s main educational camp is in Muridke, about 30 kilometres from Punjab’s province’s provincial capital Lahore. The place has been alleged of being the center of militant training and recruitment, which are later deputed to the border areas with India in Punjab and Kashmir.
Another welfare wing of the JuD, Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation has also been banned.
“Jamaat-ud-Dawa is a purely welfare and charity organization and has never been involved in bad motives. Even, the Supreme Court of Pakistan has justified our stance in the past,†JuD’s Islamabad chapter spokesperson stated.
But Pakistan’s Interior ministry officials revealed that the organisations had been named days before the John Kerry’s visit raising the total number of banned militant outfits to 73.
The officials further said that around 23 organizations were operating under different names including the Jaish-e-Muhammad, a sister organization of LeT, which operating as Khuddam-e-Islam or Al-Rahman trust. Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, a group that focuses its activities in Kashmir has also been banned according to the list.
The list also features Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami, a terrorist organization, which has attacks both in Pakistan and India under its belt. The head of the organization Ilyas Kashmiri was killed in a drone attack in South Waziristan in 2011.
Ummah Tameer-a-Nau, a militant outfit that has been charged with providing sensitive information to the militants has also been banned.
Further the list also banned Haji Khairullah Hajji Sattar Money Exchange, Rahat Limited, and Roshan Money exchange as they have been alleged of financing the militant activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The three organisations were already on UN Security Council’s Taliban Sanctions Committee and US terror list since 2012.
Al-Akhtar Trust and Al-Rashid Trust have also been banned due to their involvement with Al-Qaida and Jaish-e-Muhammad.
Former Interior secretary Tasneem Noorani has welcomed the move deeming it a significant move in the execution of the National Security Plan. He further said that: “The ban on Haqqani Network means distinction of good and bad Taliban no longer exists in Pakistan.â€
The inclusion to terror watch list of the mentioned organisations means that the government will now freeze their assets, block funding sources and monitor them properly. Furthermore the government will move on the offices and infrastructures of the banned organisations.
While most of the banned organizations operate their offices and training camps in hiding; Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) operates openly. The organisation stages massive anti-India and anti-West rallies on the main streets of Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi and many other cities on regular basis, while their charity organization, the Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) has been seen working in tandem with the Pakistan Army in relief and rehabilitation work on the borders with India, in disaster hit areas in Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan, Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province and Pakistan Administered Kashmir.
While the move of putting these outfits in the watch list has been welcomed by countries including India; it is pertinent to mention here that rooting out JuD, FIF and LeT operatives can be the first easy step of the implementation phase of Pakistan’s National Action Plan as finding JuD operations is not or should not be a difficult task for the Pakistani intelligence and security agencies.
Action against the banned outfits can certainly pave the way to re-initiation of bilateral consultation and dialogue process between India and Pakistan. On the other hand, the action plan implementation can also reinstate Pakistan’s position from a non-reliable ally to a trustable and steadfast part of the War against Terrorism.
The Report has includes input contribution from Sikander Riaz from Peshawar. Sikander Riaz is an associate writer with Asia Despatch.