Author: HT Correspondent
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: October 13, 2001
India has clinching evidence of
General Pervez Musharraf's personal links with groups funding terrorist
activities.
A senior government official told
the Hindustan Times today that Musharraf is patron and honorary president
of the Rabita Welfare Trust, part of the Rabita al-Alam al-Islam (Muslim
World League), an international body which is directly connected with terrorism
in Chechnya and Kashmir.
Rabita is the apex body for funding
groups ostensibly carrying out charitable projects for poor Muslims around
the world. One of the main subsidiaries of Rabita is the "International
Islamic Relief Organisation" (IIRO).
What is more, the IIRO branch office
in the Philippines is headed by Muhammad Jamal Khalifa, brother-in-law
of Osama bin Laden. Khalifa is believed to be the intermediary between
bin Laden and the Al Sayaf terrorist group.
The activities of various fronts
of Rabita have been noticed as increasing in Jammu and Kashmir. At Musharraf's
direct insistence, the Jamaat-e-Islami's leader in the state, Syed Ali
Shah Gilani, was recently nominated to the Executive Council of Rabita
al Alam.
This information is already with
Washington. "The Bush administration has taken this very seriously as it
would be difficult for it to convince the world of its sincerity in stamping
out terrorism if the country's alliance with a rogue state whose head is
himself part of the network becomes known ", the source said.
Meanwhile India is hopeful that
Washington would honour its word about banning the Jaish-e-Mohammad even
though with each passing day the process threatens to get complicated.
The terrorist group is reported to have changed its name to Tehrik-al-Furqan.
The spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs commented today that
the "renaming does not make the group's nature any different. Its involvement
in terrorism is clearly established".
The adoption of a new name by a
terrorist group presents legal difficulties for the US Treasury and State
Departments to implement proscription and bans on them. Anticipating a
ban, not only the Jaish e Mohammad but the more feared Lashkar-e-Tayyeba
has also started operating under the name of Pasban-e-Ahlehadith ( followers
of Ahlehadith-- a hardcore school of Islamic theology).
After the US State Department banned
the Harkat-ul-Ansar in 1997, it simply reinvented itself as the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.
It took another four years for Washington to complete all the legal formalities
for announcing a ban. By that time, Harkat had siphoned out its funds to
the Jaish-e -Mohammad.
