Noose tightens

February 16, 2014

Noose tightens

The US recently placed Malik Ishaq on its list of ‘global terrorists’.

Ishaq is a co-founder of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) -- an anti-Shia militant group.

These days, the LeJ is in the news again for intensified attacks against Shias. It is fully aligned with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and al-Qaeda, against the US and NATO forces’ operations in Afghanistan and in targeting Pakistani security forces and installations for siding with the US.

His organisation LeJ’s most recent reported crime is the January 21 attack on a bus carrying Shia pilgrims to Iran near Mastung that killed at least 25 people. The LeJ claimed responsibility for the attack.

Some recent attacks on foreigners in Kabul, reportedly, are also linked to the LeJ.

Currently, Ishaq is in Central Jail Multan on charges of making hate-speeches.

"The US and its partners use such sanctions to notify that an individual is actively engaged in terrorism. It exposes and isolates Ishaq by denying him access to the US financial system. The action complements the law enforcement actions of other US agencies and governments," an official in US embassy in Islamabad tells TNS.

The US State Department’s ban on Ishaq, through an executive order, includes prohibition against the US citizens engaging in transactions with Malik Ishaq and the freezing of all their property and interests in the United States.

Political analyst, Hasan Askari Rizvi says the ban on LeJ imposed by the US may not impact operations of the group in the country. "The US has banned many groups and leaders in the past, including TTP and al-Qaeda. This is a pre-emptive measure to safeguard the US territory and secure its homeland in future after seeing the expansion of the groups."

The US banned LeJ for the first time in 2003, after its involvement in the abduction and murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The LeJ, according to the US, also claimed responsibility for the 1997 killing of four American oil workers in Karachi.

The Pakistani government declared the LeJ a terrorist organisation in 2001.

Arrested in 1997 on charges of involvement in terrorist activities that killed over 100 Pakistanis at different times, Malik Ishaq was released on bail by the Supreme Court in July 2011. Just two months after his release, he was detained -- till 2012, when the Lahore High Court (LHC) released him for lack of evidence.

The police have detained him many times and have had to set him free each time for lack of proof against him.

According to police, Ishaq, while in custody, confessed to 11 murders, involvement in at least 57 murders, one murder attempt and over 17 dacoities. The police have charged him for no less than 100 murders.

When the TTP attacked Pakistan Army’s General Headquarters in Rawalpindi in 2009, Ishaq was one of the key persons flown in to negotiate with the hostage takers. Ishaq was also financially assisted by the Punjab government after 2008.

In 2012, Ishaq was appointed the vice president of Ahl-e-Sunnah-Wal-Jamaat (ASWJ), which is essentially the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP)--only renamed. The ASWJ denies the existence of the LeJ, a claim that apparently contradicts all police records. "If LeJ exists, the government should provide evidence," says one ASWJ leader.

The US reviews these FTO decisions every five years. And as a matter of standard practice, the US works closely with its partners in cutting off the flow of finances to terrorists.

After the attacks on the Indian parliament and the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly in 2001, the US has also banned Laskhar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad. In the late 1990s, the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen was also blacklisted. Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the alleged chief of Lashkar-e-Taiba and accused of involvement in Mumbai attacks in 2009, was also banned by the UN on insistence of the US in 2008. Pakistani government put him under detention but later courts released him for ‘lack of evidence.’

Months ago, another LeJ ring leader Akram Lahori was also freed by the court due to ‘lack of evidence’.

"Pakistan requires no persuasion from anyone. It wants to put an end to LeJ but is internally weak and lacks capacity. The US knows this. Pakistan needs a lot of money to build capacity to fight LeJ and its partner TTP," comments senior political analyst Khaled Ahmed.

The LeJ has a loose structure and comprises of different but interconnected splinter groups. Since the LeJ came under the umbrella of TTP and al-Qaeda some years ago, the situation has worsened. It has attacked Christians and Ahmadis in Punjab. In Balochistan, the largest Shia community of Hazaras is under attack too.

"Usually, the LeJ was considered a sectarian terrorist group with monolithic identity but, after passing through certain transformational phases, it has become a structured group. The group’s alignment with the TTP has broadened its ideology and operational tactics," says Muhammad Amir Rana, executive director of Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies (PIPS).

"They want Sunni supremacy in Pakistan. Foreigners also became their targets. In the recent months, there have been reports of the LeJ’s involvement in attacking foreigners and their places in Afghanistan. This was a worry for the US," he adds.

The linkages between the TTP and LeJ further strengthened when Baituallah Mehsud became the TTP chief. His close aide, Qari Hussain Mehsud, who had deep roots in the SSP, directed the TTP and LeJ to target Shias. He played a major role in recruiting SSP people from parts of the country. These groups also helped the TTP in expanding its operations in Punjab.

Belonging to a lower-middle class family in village Taranda in Rahim Yar Khan, a dropout from school, Ishaq joined the SSP in 1989 after being inspired by Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, the founder of the organisation. The first police case was lodged against him in 1989 for disrupting a Muharram procession.

Ishaq co-founded the LeJ in 1996 with his close aides Riaz Basra, Ghulam Rasool Shah, Akram Lahori and others after developing differences with the SSP leadership for joining the Milli Yakjehti Council, a political alliance of the country’s religious parties and groups including Shia groups. He was against the inclusion of Shias in the council. They decided to create an independent militant group. Later, the LeJ also developed links with the militant wings of Harkatul Ansar, Harakatul Mujahideen and other groups.

Ishaq and his aides managed to escape from policy custody in 1996, but were arrested again in 1997. He rose to prominence after joining hands with the TTP.

After the ban, the LeJ will be considered weak; its support base will shrink, says Shaukat Javed, former Punjab police chief.

ASWJ leader Ghulam Rasool Shah terms the recent American declaration an act "to please Iran" and "a conspiracy against Pakistan".

Noose tightens