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| Militants offer to fight India to prove their patriotism |
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Wednesday, December 03, 2008
By Rahimullah Yusufzai
PESHAWAR: A sample of the strong-worded anti-India statements given by the militant groups operating in the NWFP show that they are out to prove their patriotism in the wake of the Mumbai attacks.
Almost every militant group has issued a patriotic statement and pledged to fight alongside the country’s armed forces in case of an Indian aggression against Pakistan. Most statements reminded that they weren’t anti-state and were ready to die for the homeland.
Here is a sampling of the statements issued by some of the leaders and spokesmen of the militant groups. Qari Hussain, a top South Waziristan-based commander of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) known for training suicide bombers, in his statement said: “We are fighting Pakistan Army because it has launched operations in our tribal areas but we cannot allow India or any other power to invade our country.
In fact, an Indian attack on Pakistan would help the cause of Taliban as it could force the army to stop military action in FATA and Swat.
However, we have no intention of exploiting such a situation because our priority would be to fight India. We were accused of getting Rs680 million from Indian intelligence agency, RAW, and assistance from Afghan government’s security services but we intend to fight India’s military and other enemies of Pakistan to prove that we were wrongly blamed as agents of India.”
Maulana Faqir Mohammad, the deputy leader of TTP who has been leading the battle against Pakistan’s security forces in Bajaur, was probably the first commander of militants to issue a statement.
“India has hatched a conspiracy to blame Pakistan and the mujahideen for the Mumbai attacks. India’s discriminatory attitude toward its Muslim population was the reason for these attacks. We are warning India not to invade Pakistan as any aggression would be resisted jointly by Pakistan’s armed forces and the mujahideen,” he stressed.
The rival group of Pakistani Taliban headed by the Wana-based Maulvi Nazeer in South Waziristan issued a statement through its spokesman, Shaheen alias Wali Mohammad. He said: “We may have a dispute with the Pakistan government but we would set aside our differences if our homeland was threatened by outside powers. We would raise a force of 15,000 tribal Taliban to fight on the side of Pakistan’s armed forces. We would infiltrate 500 suicide bombers into India to cause havoc there. We urge Pakistan’s political and religious forces to unite in the face of the Indian threat.”
The non-Taliban militant group, Lashkar-e-Islam, based in Khyber Agency and headed until recently by Mangal Bagh, too came up with a hard-hitting anti-India statement through its spokesman Misri Khan. He said: “We have the history of our tribal forefathers before us.
They offered sacrifices for Pakistan and defended its borders. It is our religious and moral duty to stop those wanting to invade and capture our territory. We urge our tribal elders and the youth to be ready to lay down their lives for saving our motherland.”
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