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Pak left with little defence for LeT front

Pak left with little defence for LeT front

Author: Indrani Bagchi
Publication: The Times of India b
Date: August 16, 2006

Introduction: UK plots unmasks Jamaat-ud-Dawa terror role, Islamabad's quake relief cover blown

With investigations into the air terror plot ripping apart the charity cover of Lashkar-e-Taiba's front, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Pakistan Is being shorn of its last major argument to defend the outfit.

During the home secretary talks between India and Pakistan earlier this year, India for many asked for the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (Lashkar-e-Taiba) boss, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, to be handed over to India, a demand that was publicly articulated by the MEA spokesman a couple of months later to the open fury of Pakistan.

Predictably, Pakistan turned down the demand, refuting India's charge against Saeed by saying that since he was engaged in charitable acts and earthquake relief, they couldn't possibly hand him over.

In the light of the emerging facts that Pakistan earthquake relief was probably diverted to fund terror, Indian officials are now reflecting on the supreme irony that they were signing off $25 million for Pakistan's earthquake reconstruction hours before LeT-Jaish suicide bombers blew up Mumbai's trains.

Months before the western governments cottoned on to JUD's act, a study by the International Crisis Group (ICG) confirmed this fact. In its report, it said 17 out of Pakistan's 24 known Islamist groups were involved in earthquake relief and reconstruction.

Says Jawad Qureshi of the ICG, "These groups had a presence in every affected district of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in the Neelum and Jhelum valleys, including Muzaffarabad, Bagh, Hattian, Dhir Kot, Rawalakot, Haveli and Athmuqam. In their response to the earthquake, jehadi and Islamist 'humanitarian' groups drew on their existing infrastructure in PoK, their knowledge of the local terrain and their close cooperation with the Pakistan army, which provided logistical support and other facilities, including helicopters, to enable the jehadis to continue their work."

Jamaat-ud-Dawa, along with the Al Rasheed Trust and Al Khair Trust has been at the forefront of the relief efforts, through its humanitarian arm, Idara Khidmat-e-Khalq, running field hospitals in Muzzafarabad and Balakot. According to the ICG study, JUD distributed US relief aid and an American surgeon operated in a JUD relief camp. JUD is reported to have worked with ICRC, WHO, Unicef, WFP, UNHCR and Khalsa Aid. It claimed that it received funding from Indonesia and Turkey. In fact, the JuD-LeT is known to have provided support to the Jemaah Islamiyah.

The UN took the ultimate step in May 2005 of banning LeT and all its sister concerns for its links with Al Qaida, under UN Resolution 1267. As per this resolution, all states are obliged to freeze the assets, and prevent their entry into or transit through their territories. The fact that this is yet to find any ground in LeT's home base, Pakistan, has not escaped notice.

Over the years, LeT has emerged as the strongest of the Al Qaida groups to operate in this country For that very reason, despite numerous US bans on LeT and its aliases, America has, by and large, winked at Pervez Musharraf segmenting Pakistan's terror apparatus into the anti-India component, including LeT, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Mohammed.


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