Punjabi Taliban give up ‘armed struggle’

PUNJABI TALIBAN GIVE UP ‘ARMED STRUGGLE’

PESHAWAR / LAHORE: Maulana Asmatullah Muawiya, head of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Punjab, said on Saturday that his group had decided to abandon its armed struggle in this country and instead would focus on “peaceful struggle” for the implementation of Sharia.

A statement purportedly issued by the Punjabi Taliban to media quoted Maulana Muawiya as saying that jihad would continue against the enemies of Islam. But it did not mention the region or country where the group would carry on its struggle against what it called anti-Islam forces.

“This decision was taken in the interest of Islam and Pakistan,” the statement said.

It added that the group had taken the decision after consultations with ulema and other elders and keeping in view the prevailing situation in the country. “This decision was inevitable for Islam and is in the interest of the people of Pakistan,” the statement quoted Maulana Muawiya as saying.

The term “Punjabi Taliban” is generally applied to distinguish Pakhtun and Afghan fighters from mainly Punjab-based Deobandi militants who are, or once were, involved in sectarian violence or focused on jihad in India-held Kashmir. According to analysts, sometimes the term is also loosely used to include the Urdu-speaking, Kashmiri and even Bengali fighters. Some groups which are part of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Punjab are closely linked to Al Qaeda, they say.

The term was first used exclusively for ethnic Punjabis associated with Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islam (HuJI), whose leader Qari Saifullah Akhtar went to support Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s government in Kabul during the mid-1990s. It, however, was used more commonly after retired General Pervez Musharraf banned some militant and sectarian groups which had a strong support base in Punjab. These factions had roots largely in the southern and western districts of the province.

The action by the government forced them to move to the tribal backyard of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to seek safe havens and establish new camps. The Punjabi Taliban are mostly former students of madressahs and maintain a political constituency across the country, according to a security analyst.

Maulana Muawiya had renounced violence a few months ago when the government started formal talks with the outlawed Tehreek Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

The TTP criticised the statement of Punjabi Taliban, declaring that he had been expelled from the group.

A native of Vehari, Muawiya is known to have close relationship with Al Qaeda and is considered an influential militant leader. Credited with the establishment of the TTP in Punjab, he is said to have remained a member of the Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan and to have taken active part in the Kashmir and Afghanistan fighting as part of the Jaish-i-Mohammad before founding his own militant group, Janood-i-Hafsa, after the Musharraf government’s crackdown in Lal Masjid in July 2007.

Unlike other militant outfits, TT Punjab, which has affiliation with the Sajna group, a breakaway faction of TTP, had not been put on the list of proscribed organisations under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

The Saturday statement appealed to the government and militant outfits in Fata to come to the negotiating table, try to realise the sensitivity of the situation and foil the “growing conspiracies in our region”.

Asmatullah Muawiya called upon the government to take immediate steps for the rehabilitation of displaced persons in North Waziristan Agency and payment of adequate compensation.

He also appealed to the tribal people who have taken refuge in Afghanistan in the wake of military operation in the North Waziristan Agency to return home. He called upon the government at the same time to facilitate their return.

Published in Dawn, September 14th , 2014

Analysis: Pakistan's militant 'rehabilitation’ problem

Maulana Asmatullah Muawiya - AP/File

ANALYSIS: PAKISTAN'S MILITANT 'REHABILITATION’ PROBLEM

THE Islamabad High Court’s decision to suspend the detention of Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai attacks, does not mean the former senior commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba will be a completely free man. In addition to the IHC’s decision of not allowing him to leave Islamabad, he is also bound, as a prominent member of a jihadi organisation, to adhere to the relevant sections of Pakistan’s anti-terror law (1997 amended 2002): most notably sections 11-E, -EE and -EEE. The onus for this lies on the government, but if past experience is any guide this is unlikely to happen.

In this regard, the most prominent recent case is that of Maulana Asmatullah Muawiya head of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Punjab who announced in September that he and his faction would no longer carry out attacks in Pakistan. A day after this was met with scepticism, Muawiya actually did follow through on his declaration and surrendered to military officials in Miramshah in North Waziristan.

Also read: Punjabi Taliban give up‘armed struggle’

The immediate reaction from our frenzied TV channels was remarkably understated; just a couple of lines on how this showed the success of the ongoing Zarb-i-Azb operation. Little was said on the background of the man in question, and almost nothing on the nature of the deal that led to Muawiya becoming one of the ‘good’ Taliban.

For that is exactly what he had become as a later Taliban video illustrated. It also explained how Muawiya would now devote his resources to fighting Nato forces in Afghanistan, as well as being involved in ‘Dawah and Tableegh’ in Pakistan. Security and legal experts point out that, even for an ordinary surrendering militant, these should have been impossible as the above-mentioned ATA sections describe how the government is supposed to deal with banned organisations and their members involved in acts of terrorism. For a start, as ‘security for good behaviour’, the names of such persons will be put on a list known as the fourth schedule.

During the period that they are on the list, the law states that the militants are prohibited from travelling outside their neighbourhood. In addition, they must not visit public places (a detailed list is provided) and must not participate in or even attend public meetings like Dawah and Tableegh. The law states that once a person’s name is placed on the schedule, it cannot be removed before sixty days, and that too if the government judges that the person has been rehabilitated. Generally, a name is not removed from the schedule before a period of 12 months.

Putting this in the context of Muawiya, it is a source of astonishment to those who have followed his career that the ATA limitations have not been prescribed for him. What was even more amazing was that no one stood up to question that having being rather generously pardoned Muawiya has been allowed to carry on his activities.

For Muawiya is no ordinary militant. Perhaps more than any other in recent times, he has been singularly responsible for the rise in militant violence in Pakistan in the aftermath of the Red Mosque siege. In particular, he is said to have laid the ideological ground for making the military and security forces the number one target for the militants.

From the GHQ attack, to Kamra, to the suicide bombing of ISI buses in Rawalpindi, the Manawan siege in Lahore and numerous targeted attacks on top security personnel, Muawiya’s name has been on the top of the list of those responsible. In addition, investigators point out that evidence collected in attacks on civilian targets, such as the Moon market attack in Lahore in 2009, also point to the involvement of the Punjabi Taliban.

Even if one accepts that Muawiya has truly renounced violence (which he hasn’t as he himself declared that anything outside Pakistan especially in India or Afghanistan was fair game in his surrender video) the fact that he was actively engaged in anti-Pakistan militant activities till September 2014 means his mindset is unlikely to have changed.

Letting an ideologue like Muawiya freely roam the country indulging in his brand of proselytising, a much watered-down version of which we have heard through Maulana Abdul Aziz, raises huge questions on the practical steps being taken to control militant leaders and facilitators. Such actions can only dent the credentials of those calling the Peshawar attacks a game-changer for the country.

According to the Punjab police, there are nearly 40,000 Taliban and sectarian militants active in the province. Only 2,000 of these have been placed on the fourth schedule; the reason many point out is the continuing close relation between many in the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s and the mainstay of extremism in the Punjab, the Ahle Sunnah Wal Jamaat formerly known as the Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan.

Recent events regarding the treatment of undertrial or detained high-profile militant leaders have once again illustrated this. Apart from Lakhvi’s case, there is the matter of Malik Ishaq, founder and head of Pakistan’s deadliest Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ) militant group.

On Dec 23, a Lahore High Court bench held a review on his detention.

Malik Ishaq, who was been released in 2011 after being acquitted in dozens of murder cases pending against him, has only been in detention since March 2014. This is despite the fact that his release eerily coincides with the rise in sectarian and militant attacks by the feared LJ. While he was placed on the fourth schedule, the militant leader was easily able to move around and address public gatherings for two years before being detained.

With banned terrorist organisations repeatedly allowed to operate freely across the country with slightly altered names, the government needs to ensure that such outfits and their leaders feel the full force of the ATA’s strictest sections. It’s about time that the party ends for the militants. Period.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2014.