Target jihad’s ideologues

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

02 Jan 2009, NewAgeIslam.Com

Target jihad's ideologues

Target jihad's ideologues: How many more terror attacks must India sustain before we realise that we have bled enough? How many times must we warn Pakistan that retribution will be swift and immediate the 'next time' there is an attack on Indian soil? For how long will New Delhi employ diplomacy, coercive or otherwise, to get Islamabad to crack down on anti-India terror modules? How long will it be before a citizen of this country can move around freely without the fear of not returning home alive? The New Year has arrived without too many answers. -- Shobori Ganguli   Outlawed by the UN, Jamaat gets new avatar: The Jamaat-Ud-Dawa (JuD), outlawed by the United Nations Security Council, could now be functioning under the name of Tehreek-e-Hurmat-e-Rasool (Movement to Defend the Prophet) in Pakistan, Indian officials believe. – HT   Aag lagao: LeT to Mumbai killers: For a terror group that masterminded an atrocity of the scale of 26/11 and grabbed global attention, the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba handlers of the Mumbai attackers directed their jihadi charges in a ruthlessly calm and calculated manner. TNN -----------------------------    Target jihad's ideologues By Shobori Ganguli Thursday, January 1, 2009   How many deaths will it take till a man knows that too many people have died, Bob Dylan had once asked, and he found the answer blowing in the wind. Indeed how many more terror attacks must India sustain before we realise that we have bled enough? How many times must we warn Pakistan that retribution will be swift and immediate the 'next time' there is an attack on Indian soil? For how long will New Delhi employ diplomacy, coercive or otherwise, to get Islamabad to crack down on anti-India terror modules? How long will it be before a citizen of this country can move around freely without the fear of not returning home alive? The New Year has arrived without too many answers.   Admittedly, the terror bloodbath in India began two decades ago but 2008 will go down as a year that witnessed the most brazen assault yet on our social and democratic fabric. With devastating terror attacks ravaging the length and breadth of this country, citizens were served gory reminders, through the year, that terror has come to cohabit with them, that they are never too far out of danger's way. After at least 12 major terror attacks last year, the common man now knows that terror is no longer limited to far-off Jammu & Kashmir. It is not even limited to certain sections of the country or society. After Mumbai, terror has come to haunt each one of us as a force that can attack more than crowded middle-class bazaars, places of worship or even local trains. Today every corner of this country is on the terrorist's radar.   The first audible declaration of this urban warfare came in December 2001 with an abortive attempt on our Parliament House. Although foiled, it was the most chilling reminder of the war that had been unleashed on us from within Pakistan, a war that would be waged at a time and place of the terrorists' choosing, not at the borders at India's will. Seven years since little has changed. Way back in 2004 Pakistani officials at the highest levels had told their Indian counterparts that they were willing to cooperate. "Give us something in our hands to go against the jihadis," they had said. India gave them that 'something' by way of evidences and continues to furnish Pakistan with fresh data pointing to the involvement of Pakistani nationals in various terror attacks. Net result: Pakistan remains in denial mode.   While this is not to suggest that India should whip up war hysteria against Pakistan, it must be pointed out that more needs to be done beyond drumming up international support for India's victimhood. There was enough in the Mumbai attack to prove that the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba, which was nurtured by the ISI to be used in Jammu & Kashmir, now has a broader agenda and ideology and has fanned out across India. The magnitude of the Mumbai attack brought the global community commiserating to India's side. The war against terror must be intensified, said voices. However, while the world may be united in the war against terror, it is also true that each country must wage its own kind of war. Israel's war, for instance, is different from Russia's. So is America's from India's.   In the eventual analysis, each country has to evolve its independent anti-terror strategy to address specific local contexts and security concerns. Sample for instance what Israel is doing in Gaza currently. Faced with a routine barrage of rocket attacks from the Hamas, Israel decided to go for the kill, bombarding the outfit's bases in Gaza. According to Israel, the assault was mounted on the militant outfit to prevent rocket and missile attacks on neighbouring Israeli towns. There are now indications that Israel may not keep itself confined to air attacks and that a ground military assault cannot be ruled out. Predictably, the Arab world has risen in condemnation; Israel also risks antagonising a wider international community. However, in order to prevent a daily assault on its vulnerable civilian population living close to the volatile Gaza strip, Israel acted the way it thought best.   Driven by its own security concerns, Russia mounted a military offensive against Georgia in August 2008. After routing Georgia's Army in the war over the separatist region of South Ossetia, Russia recognised the independence of the region and another breakaway area, Abkhazia. The move was condemned by the US and several other European countries but that did not prevent Russia from deploying about 3,700 soldiers in each region.   Again, no country in the world could prevent the Americans from invading Afghanistan and subsequently from marching into Iraq after 9/11. Struck at its very core, America went after its targets in the two countries and continues to do so. Whether or not Mr Barack Obama reverses Mr George Bush's decision, it is clear that the US exercised its sovereign right to defend itself the way it thought best. Mr Bush's popularity ratings may have nose-dived following the US invasion of Iraq but the truth is that American territory has not witnessed another terror attack after 9/11.   In India's case too there is a specific context. Apart from the Pakistani establishment's stated hostility on Jammu & Kashmir, there are elements in that country which wish to bleed the rest of India as well. While Jammu & Kashmir is a prickly bilateral issue between the two Governments — full-scale military wars have been fought on the issue — anti-India terror outfits exist beyond the realm of political or diplomatic discourse. Jammu & Kashmir can well be part of a Composite Dialogue between the two countries but terrorism is not a diplomatic or political issue. It is an issue that threatens every citizen of India and must be dealt with accordingly.   True, it is hard to formulate a deterrent for the kind of fidayeen who swooped down on Mumbai a month ago. They came to embrace mortality after inflicting severe wounds on India's spirit and soul and they did precisely that. It is indeed difficult to penalise those committed to ending their own lives. The people India needs to deal with are those who fertilise such mindsets from the safety of their training camps across the border in Pakistan and who have managed to appoint their representatives across Indian towns and cities. A fidayeen may not fear for his life — he has been indoctrinated to sacrifice it — but a Masood Azhar or an Afzal Guru does. Death is a deterrent for these jihadi ideologues and that is precisely the deterrent India must employ in a targeted fashion. Else, there are many more Kandahars and Mumbais waiting to come India's way. Source: The Daily Pioneer, New Delhi --- Outlawed by the UN, Jamaat gets new avatar New Delhi/Karachi, January 02, 2009 Hindustan Times   The Jamaat-Ud-Dawa (JuD), outlawed by the United Nations Security Council, could now be functioning under the name of Tehreek-e-Hurmat-e-Rasool (Movement to Defend the Prophet) in Pakistan, Indian officials believe.   Pointing out that Pakistan was still to ban the Jamaat, a front organisation of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, as required by the Security Council, the officials said Islamabad had not complied with its international obligations.   "Effectively, it is business as usual for the JuD," a senior official who did not want to be named said, adding that the group was also believed to be operating a new website.   In the midst of these latest claims, Pakistani officials did not confirm media reports that a US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) team had visited Faridkot, the hometown of the lone surviving Mumbai gunman, Ajmal Amir Kasab.   On Thursday, the respected Dawn newspaper reported that a five-member FBI team, headed by William Robert, director for South Asia, had visited Faridkot.   Local officials and sources, when contacted by Hindustan Times, said they were unaware of the visit. The US has reportedly handed over evidence of the Mumbai attackers' links to the Lashkar in Pakistan.   Western media reports have pointed to confessions made by Zarar Shah, LeT's communications chief, confirming what Kasab has told Indian police officials in Mumbai.   However, Pakistan has, so far, said nothing about where or why Shah and his boss, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, were being detained.   Dawn, too, said the Interior Ministry did not confirm the reported visit by an FBI team to Faridkot. "It is not in the knowledge of the Interior Ministry and the Punjab government," Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah was quoted as saying.   "It is impossible for the US team to pay any visit without informing us, the Federal Intelligence Agency and the provincial Punjab government," he said.   An FBI spokesman, Richard Kolko, when contacted by the paper, said: "The FBI continues to assist Indian authorities with their investigation. We will work with the Indian authorities and our partners to follow leads wherever they may take us."   When asked if an FBI team had visited Faridkot, Kolko said: "We are unable to provide details of what is being done. We refer you to Indian authorities or the US State Department for any additional information."   In New Delhi, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said "tangible results" from American pressure on Pakistan to shut down terror networks in Pakistan were still awaited. --- Aag lagao: LeT to Mumbai killers 2 Jan 2009, 0024 hrs IST, Diwakar, TNN   NEW DELHI: For a terror group that masterminded an atrocity of the scale of 26/11 and grabbed global attention, the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba handlers of the Mumbai attackers directed their jihadi charges in a ruthlessly calm and calculated manner.   According to sources, details of Voice over Internet Protocol calls between the jihadis holed up in the Taj and Trident hotels and Nariman House and their Lashkar bosses in Pakistan provide a chilling account of the remorseless efficiency with which the massacre of innocents was choreographed.   Conversations between the terrorists and top Lashkar leaders, identified as Zarar Shah, Abu Hamza and Abu Qafa, is now a crucial part of the clinching evidence of Mumbai attacks being a handiwork of the ISI-backed Pakistani terror tanzim.   Though the Lashkar leaders used VoIP to mask their identity and the origin of calls, cooperation from foreign agencies, including the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, helped Indian investigators access the call details.   As the assailants went about their macabre business, their handlers, who were monitoring coverage of the action at the two hotels and the Jewish dwelling of Nariman House, asked the terrorists to keep watch on the points from where security personnel and commandos could come in. Talking in rustic Punjabi, the gang leaders asked them to lob grenades at advancing commandos and move to positions from which they could take shots at the challengers.   Terrorists were repeatedly exhorted to start fires. "Aag lagao, aag lagao" is the instruction that the terrorists were repeatedly given at all the three sites of attack from their bosses who, obviously, intended to maximise casualties.   The Pakistan-based leaders told their wards at Nariman House to kill the Israelis. The terrorists were also asked to spare Muslims in the two hotels -- a directive which conflicted with the task of indiscriminate firing assigned to Mohammad Ajmal Kasab and Ismail at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Cama Hospital and other places that led to the death of 39 Muslims.   The voice intercepts show the gang leaders remained not just calm, but even found time to engage in banter with their wards over the interview that one of them, Imran Babar, the terrorist at Nariman House, gave to an Indian channel. The handler sounded happy that Babar had used some English words. "Tum bhi dena chahte ho," he asked others.   The banter gave way to some seriousness after the arrival of commandos. "Fauj aa rahi hai, cover lo." But there was no display of panic, with the Lashkar commanders, confident that flushing out the terrorists was not going to be easy for the NSG jawans, asking them to eat khajoor, not to get tired and take turns to sleep. "Thakna nahin hai", was one of the instructions as the LeT leaders were clearly aware that the fidayeen squad was ready to die fighting.   One of the bosses did not seem perturbed or even concerned when told by a terrorist that he had been badly injured. "Aakhiri waqt aa gaya hai, namaaz ada karo", said the composed voice at the other end, according to sources. Invoking jihadi logic, the handler asked the wounded terrorist -- "do you have a message to give"?  http://newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1091 ---