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| India may target Muridke to avenge attacks |
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Tuesday, December 02, 2008
By Amir Mir
LAHORE: There are fears in some official quarters that the Indian Air Force may attack Muridke headquarters of the Jamaat-ul-Dawah headed by chief of Lashkar-e-Taiba Hafiz Mohammad Saeed to avenge the Mumbai attacks.
According to well-informed circles in Rawalpindi, in a bid to reclaim their lost credibility in the public eyes, following their massive intelligence failure to pre-empt the recent Mumbai attacks, the Indian military and political leadership is holding deliberations over a possible aerial attack on Dawah headquarters in Muridke.
The Indian military establishment is trying to convince the decision-makers in the Congress government that an aerial attack on Muridke headquarters could be justified on the basis of the pattern of the ongoing drone attacks being carried out inside the Pakistani territory by Afghanistan-based US forces, which are targeting al-Qaeda and Taliban hideouts.
Pakistani sources say the Indian political leadership is being pursued by the military establishment to declare Muridke headquarters of the Jamaat-ul-Dawah as an enemy hideout [of the Lashkar-e-Taiba militants] before targeting it.
Established in 1988, the Dawah headquarters are called Markaz-e-Taiba (Holy centre), which is run by the Markaz Al-Dawah Wal Irshad (Centre for Religious Learning and Propagation). Spread over 200 acres of land the sprawling Dawah complex houses both teaching and residential facilities complete with its own farms, mosques, fish-breeding ponds and stables. Over 3,000 male and female students are presently enrolled at the Muridke complex, which are imparted Islamic as well as modern education from primary to university level.
The Muridke complex is also not just restricted to the Markaz Dawah Wal Irshad. Around the complex, the Dawah has bought land for supporters, who have built houses, shops and mosques and centres of Islamic learning. The complex has its own strict Islamic rules that ban music, television and smoking on its heavily guarded premises. Not even passing vehicles are allowed to play music which Prof Saeed believes is strictly forbidden in Islam.
Following the Mumbai attacks, the Indian authorities alleged that the Mumbai terror attacks were carried out by a group of 10 Lashkar-e-Taiba militants, who were picked for the suicide mission and ordered to ‘kill until your last breath and murder as many Hindus as you can’.
The Indians have further claimed that the captured gunman, Ajmal Amir, told his interrogators that the attackers had been trained in Muzaffarabad before heading to the nearby Mangla dam for lessons in marine commando techniques. Afterwards, they allegedly took a train to the port city of Karachi and boarded a freighter for their trip to Mumbai.
However, a Srinagar-based Taiba spokesman Dr Abdullah Ghaznavi has strongly refuted the LT’s involvement in the Mumbai attacks, saying it condemns such acts and has no link with those responsible.
Lashkar-e-Taiba was also blamed for terrorist attacks on the Indian parliament in 2001, when the two nuclear South Asian neighbours came to the brink of war. However, the Pakistani authorities say an Indian attack on any civilian building or military installation inside the Pakistani territory by the Indian Air Force would be treated as an act of war between the two countries and the Congress government should desist from resorting to any uncalled-for adventurism.
Approached for comments, Yahya Mujahid, a close aide of Hafiz Saeed and the spokesman for the Jamaat-ul-Dawah, said any aerial Indian attack on any of the Dawah-run religious seminaries across Pakistan would be treated as an assault on the sovereignty of Pakistan.
Refuting the Indian allegations that the Dawah headquarters was being used as a terrorist training centre, Yahya said: “All the Dawah centres in Pakistan either house religious seminaries or welfare centres and none of them is being used for any Jihadi activity. Even otherwise, no militant group in Pakistan could even think of setting up a military training centre at any such place. The Indian allegations of a Pakistani hand in the recent Mumbai attacks are meant to camouflage the internal fissures India is confronted with today. Therefore, the Indian military establishment deems it fit to blame Pakistan for anything that goes wrong in their country.”
While defending Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Jamaat0-ul-Dawah spokesman further said: “Linking LT with the Mumbai strikes was a crude attempt on the part of the Indian establishment to malign the ongoing freedom struggle in held Kashmir.”
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ISSN 1563-9479 
