HVK Archives: Earplugs To Shut Out Their Loudspeakers!
Earplugs To Shut Out Their Loudspeakers! - Observer
Arun Shourie's
()
August 14, 1998
Title: Earplugs To Shut Out Their Loudspeakers!
Author: Arun Shourie's
Publication: Observer
Date: August 14, 1998
INTRO: Worse, even after a decade of killing by Pakistan armed
terrorists, voices are still raised that hide Pakistan's deeds
under dust: An ex-editor is forever narrating the sweet words he
exchanged on his most recent trip to Pakistan, how person like
him had built small lobby in Pakistan for peace with India;
another editor proclaims that Nawaz Sharif should be given the
Nobel Prize for Peace, so hard is he trying for peace in the face
of such enormous difficulties... And they have an audience! for
we just do not face the fact that Pakistan is working to a
clear, indeed, to a singular aim - and that is to break India
Twenty three killed one day in Doda. Thirty one killed the next
in Himachal. Another 19 killed in Poonch by the afternoon....
The usual ritual in Parliament. "Our hearts go out...." "It is a
shame that the home minister continues in office...." And the
usual, "There has been a failure of coordination" - no one has
done enough homework to say anything particular about what
specific type of coordination has failed. And finally that
demand, "The home minister must give an assurance that such
incidents will not occur again" - that when the members are
saying simultaneously that the assurances of the government are
useless....
A ritual we have been going through for 15 years. Only the sides
change: The ones who were being heckled in this way are now doing
the heckling, the ones who were heckling are now the butt of the
taunts. The fact is that every minister has to work with the same
Instruments - the same paramilitary forces, the same local
administration - instruments which have been enfeebled over the
last 30 years to the point of palsy.
Wore, even after a decade of killing by Pakistani armed
terrorists, voices are still raised In Parliament, in the press
that hide Pakistan's deeds under dust: An ex-editor is forever
narrating the sweet words he exchanged on his most recent trip to
Pakistan, how persons like him - with their candles at the Wagah
border - had built 'a small lobby in Pakistan' for peace with
India; another editor proclaims that Nawaz Sharif should be given
the Nobel Prize for Peace, so hard Is he trying for peace in the
face of such enormous difficulties.... And they have an audience!
For we just do not want to face the fact that Pakistan is working
to a clear, indeed to a singular aim - and that is to break
India.
In Pakistan papers and magazines are full of accounts of the
glorious war their mujahidin are waging against India, of the
victories they are scoring by packing off the kafirs, of the
number of army personnel they have butchered in the cause of
Allah.... If only this material were reproduced by our papers,
the country will wake up to the enemy It faces....
early 100,000 people listened In; awed silence as a 60-year old
shopkeeper from Bhawalpur addressed the gathering describing how
both his sons, Abu Sufian and Abu Yasir, gave up their lives
fighting in Kashmir," a typical account begins.
It is an account of the annual congregation of the Dawa wal
Irshad at Muridke, this one being in the January, 1998 issue of
one of Pakistan's leading periodicals, The Herald. The magazine
reports the shopkeeper, now known as Abu Shahidain, as telling
the congregation, "When my first son was martyred in Kashmir, I
Went to my second son and told him it was his turn to sacrifice
his life.... I too have received training and want to join my
sons as soon as possible."
y this time. many were moved to tears and sobbing could be
heard from within the crowd," reports the magazine.
"This remarkable scene was played out at the annual meeting of
Markaz Dawa wal Irshad (Center for Preaching), a religious
organisation based in the town of Muridke, some 30 miles north of
Lahore" the awe-struck account continues. "Its activities are
focussed on two areas: Education and jehad," says The Herald - in
fact, the 'education' the magazine talks of is only the
brainwashing which intoxicates the recruit for jehad.
"The Dawa wal Irshad works to propagate an austere, 'purified
version of Islam and has set up schools across the country for
this purpose," we learn. "Meanwhile its militant wing, the
Lashkar Taiba (Army of the Pure), Is an organisation of highly
trained militants who are willing to go to war wherever and
whenever the Amir (Commander) orders.
"A unique event by any standards, the Muridke gathering, held
amid tight garrison-like security brings together young militants
fighting inside Indian Kashmir and those who wish to do so," the
correspondent reports.
"Also attending the meeting in their thousands are the relatives
of Lashkar soldiers, as wen as the families of men who have died
in Kashmir. This year nearly 100,000 people attended the
three-day event, a manifestation of the Lashkar's increasing
popularity and power."
Little doubt about the power - it is this very organisation and
its headquarters that the minister for information and one of
Nawaz Sharifs close counselors, Mushahid Hussain, visited a few
weeks ago in a manifest demonstration of official approbation.
The Amir, says the magazine, distinguishes his organisation from
others in the field: "Many Muslim organisations are preaching and
working on the missionary level inside and outside Pakistan, he
says, "but they have given up the path of jehad altogether. The
need for Jehad has always existed, and the present conditions
demand it more than ever. "The Lashkar Is there to fill this
lacuna.
And its focus has shifted, the publication reports:
"...Although the, Lashkar was Initially involved in Afghanistan
as well, its activities are now restricted to Indian Kashmir.
Today it is Pakistan's largest so-called jehad organisation.
There are many other jehadi groups operating inside Kashmir, but
their members are mainly local men, assisted by fighters from
other countries, such as Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"Eighty per cent of the mujahidin in other jehadi groups
operating in Kashmir come from that area," an office-bearer of
the Lashkar confirms. "But the case with the Lashkar is exactly
the opposite," he adds, explaining that 80 per cent of the
Lashkar's soldiers belong to Pakistan. The Lashkar prefers not
to reveal the exact number of men it has currently deployed in
Kashmir. "
The reason this organisation seems to be 'succeeding' in
attracting larger numbers, according to the publication, lies in
that it is out-doing the other groups in "stir(ring) outrage
against the injustices meted out to Kashmiri Muslims."
As the account puts it, "Compared to other similar organisations,
the Lashkar has proved to be a resounding success.
Since its Inception, it has managed to attract thousands of
committed young men to its fold. The driving force behind its
massive success in recruitment is deceptively simple: Using Its
impressive organisational network, which includes schools, social
service groups and religious publications, to stir up outrage
against the injustices meted out to Kashmiri Muslims, the Dawa
wal Irshad creates a passion for jehad. . . "
The organisation puts recruits through rigorous military
training, The Herald reports. The recruits are thoroughly
brainwashed, they are put to various tasks - collecting funds,
recruiting more 'soldiers', and the like. The select, the ones
who have fully internalised the poison are sent to Kashmir.
The Herald informs us, "As a matter of policy, the Lashkar allows
only those men to fight In Kashmir whose parents give them
permission to do so. Recruits are also required to convince their
families about the Importance of their mission. It Is perhaps
for this reason that the death of a son in Kashmir is not usually
met with sorrow. Such news is brought to the family by a group of
senior Lashkar leaders who congratulate the family on the
'martyrdom' of their son. In nearly every case, rather than
mourning, the family celebrates the occasion by serving guests
with food and receiving congratulations. "
The account speaks for itself. We need only remember that such
poison feeds on Itself, that it requires to be fed with poison of
Its kind. A picture of gore and blood, of Muslims being savaged
in Kashmir is drawn up. This yields money by the trunk load. And
recruits.
To fire the recruits into giving up their lives, the fabrications
are made even more gory, and to them are added myths - that by
killing kafirs, by fighting in the cause of Allah, they earn a
place for themselves in Paradise, that they get in addition the
right to nominate some of their dear ones to a place there, that
by being killed they will become, artyrs', that martyrs go
straight to Paradise. And then the delights that Allah has
prepared in Paradise for those who are martyred in His cause. The
deaths serve the very worldly, purposes of the controllers too.
"Most of those who the In Kashmir are buried there, and Kashmiris
are known to carry out the necessary formalities with the utmost
respect and full honours," The Herald Informs us.
"....In Pakistan, meanwhile, the last rites of Lashkar fighters
are held in the absence of the body. For those devoted to the
cause, the ghaibana namaze janaza (funeral prayer in absentia)
becomes another occasion to hammer home the necessity of jehad.
Indeed, every such funeral produces new recruits to the Lashkar.
In many cases relatives of the 'martyr' have been known to
present the Lashkar with another young man from the family. In
fact, it is not uncommon to find all the able bodied men of a
single family joining the Lashkar. . . . "
As the cause is Holy, as they are 'striving in the way of Allah',
the mujahidin regard cruelty as a virtue, or at the least the
controllers of the Lashkar project their 'soldiers' to be cruel,
and proclaim this cruelty to be virtue.
The Herald reports, "In combat, however, it is said that Lashkar
fighters give as good as they get. Since it is not possible to
bring their captives to Pakistan, and the Indian government does
not bargain for the return of hostages, all Indian prisoners are
killed in the Valley. The Lashkar fighter usually executes an
Indian soldier by slitting his throat.
"However, beheading and disembowelling are also common tactics,
employed mostly for psychological reasons. In at least one case
a Lashkar fighter, Abu Haibat, brought the head of an Indian
soldier back with him to Pakistan. 'The Quran orders us to hit
them on every joint,' says Abdur Rahman al Dakhil, commander of
the Lashkar in Occupied Kashmir. 'We are instructed to treat the
enemy the way they treat us."'
.He (al Dakhil) does not agree with the common argument that
fighters from our side of the region are complicating the
situation in Kashmir and causing problems for the local
population," the magazine reports. "Nothing could be farther from
the truth," he says. "The Kashmiris consider the mehman mujahidin
(guest fighters) to be angels that bring God's blessing," he
explains.
Wholesale concoction, of course. But entirely predictable. For
the entire edifice - of money, of' the harvest of recruits, and
thereby of influence - would collapse but for these fabrications.
The publication describes the kinds of speeches which are the
staple of the congregation: "The three day annual meeting is
divided into 12 sessions.... Most of the session, however,
concentrates on the importance of jehad. In the fifth session,
Abu Muslim Jarar, a Lashkar Taiba fighter currently posted in
Kashmir, delivers a speech through a wireless hook-up with
Muridke. 'The Hindu Army is taking measures of extreme cruelty
against the Muslims,' he warns. 'Sisters are being denuded in
front of brothers. Has jehad not become mandatory?'
"In a special session dedicated to speeches by soldiers and
relatives of 'martyrs'," The Herald's account continues, "a
youngman, Abdullah, tells the crowd that he belonged to a Hindu
family in Kashmir but converted to Islam after coming into
contact with men from the Lashkar Taiba. 'I slaughtered five
members of my family with my own hands because they were
informers for the Indian Army,' he relates. 'I was a Hindu, yet I
joined the path of jehad. What keeps you away from it?'
"Another fighter who addresses the meeting, Abu Bilal, was hit by
five bullets but succeeded in returning to Pakistan. Sheikh
Mohammed bin Saleh, Deputy Mufti of Saudi Arabia, and Abu Abdul
Aziz, famed for his involvement in Bosnia, also addresses the
gathering via the telephone. 'Those who oppose jehad are not
true to their claim of being Muslims', Aziz admonishes the
crowd...."
Such awestruck, often times glowing accounts are the staple of
Pakistan's press. And the organisation described in this
particular account is only one of the scores which have been
spawned. The Government of Pakistan and its agencies make no
bones about their own purpose, they make no bones abouth their
view that these organisations are engaged in a cause which they--
the government and its agencies - regard just as Holy as do the
organisations they have fathered.
The killings of our people testify to their design, not just
their cruelty. Our response? To shut our ears tight against what
they are shouting over loudspeakers....
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