Jandullah, Jamaat and Al-Queda

Current Affairs12

By Ali K.Chishti

Recently, the Karachi Police had found an organization named, “Jandullah” for the terror attack cum bombing on the Moharram Ashura procession killing more than forty-five people in Karachi. The name Jandullah was previously linked to a similar organization based in Baluchistan who had carried out attacks in Iranian Baluchistan and another organization which had previously carried out attacks in Indonesia and was an off-shoot of Jamaat-e-Islami, Indonesian chapter.

However, the Karachi based Jandullah chapter is apparently a lot different from it’s Baluchi and Indonesian counterparts. The creation of the Karachi-based Jandullah (Army of God) was a prime example of al-Queda’s changing face in Pakistan. The group was founded originally by Jamaat-e-Islami’s student wings, Islami Jamiat e Talba’s Attar Rehman, a Karachi University student of Statistics who was arrested in June 2004 on the charge of masterminding, a series of terrorist attacks in Karachi, targeting security forces and government installations. The eldest son of a local businessman, he grew up in a middle-class neighborhood in Karachi and worked actively for the radical Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan.

Rehman’s journey to terrorism began after he in 1991 when he went to Afghanistan to receive military training at a jihadist camp setup by Jamaat-e-Islami linked, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen close to Afghan border. Rehman who was an active member of mainstream Islami Party, Jamaat-i-Islami and founder of Jandullah told his interrogators that he formed Jundullah after the arrest of top al-Queda operatives n March, 2003 including that of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad – the master mind of 9/11 who was caught from Rawalpindi, Pakistan from the residence of a Jamaat-e-Islami’s serving deputy mayor.

Amir Mir a journalist par excellence; an authority on Jehadi nexus, whose books had been banned in Pakistan wrote, “Jundullah was just another name for Lashkar-e-Jhangvi which had stuck up a strong working relationship with al-Queda.” He also reveals that “the other organization suspected of close operational ties with al Queda is basically Harkatul Muhahedin al-Aalamai an off-shoot of the Jamaat-e-Islami’s Jedahi Organization, Harkatul Mujadedin “.

It is however interesting to note that two of the al-Aalami militants including the al-Aalmai ameer, Mohammad Imran bombed the US consulate in Karachi; the bombing was similar to the bombing of Egyptian Embassy bombing in Islamabad which later, Osama Bin Laden’s deputy in his book “Knights under the Prophet’s Banner”. Ayman Zawahiri took full credit for the attack, noting that his first choice for the target was the U.S embassy there, but it was so strongly fortified that he judged it too hard to hit. Imran the Ameer of al-Aalami claimed in court to be a member of Harkatul Mujahedin and said that Al-Aalami was the product of the rangers and security denying the split between the Harkat. Obviously the creation of such splinter groups had two reasons alone

1) To create a smoke-screen to take the heat away from the parent organizations like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Harkatul Mujahedin who are closely linked with certain rogue elements within in the state and members of Jamaat-e-Islami

2) To confuse the investigating agencies who were using the divide and rule to get rid of the powers of the jehadi factions gone rouge.

Jundullah was initially a well-knit cell comprising of some 20 militants, most of them in their twenties and thirties; educated from professional working classes. The group would take on doing the “unthinkable”; They planned to assassinate, army’s top commander in Karachi, General Ahsan Saleem Hayat who was later appointed by General Mushraff as his second in-command of the Pakistan Army.

In June, 2004, Rehman a former student leader of IJT and now a founder of  Jundullah attacked the motorcade of the Corps Commander Karachi, General Ahsan Saleem Hayat who narrowly escaped but 11 people including eight soldiers, were killed in the attack right in the centre of the city.

Later, Rehman did not show any sign of remorse when he was presented before a high-security anti terrorism court in Karachi. “I have not done anything wrong” he shouted as he emerged from the courtroom.

Later Jundullah would also attack on army, rangers, police stations and a car bombing outside the US-Pakistan cultural centre in Karachi. Among others who were arrested for their association with Jundullah was Akmal Waheed, a cardiologist and his brother Arshad Waheed an orthopedic surgeon. Both men were active members of Jamaat-e-Islami and were associated with Jamat-i-Islami’s Medical Wing, Pakistan Islamic Medical association; they provided active medical treatment and shelter to top Al-Queda fugitives and had been linked for treating Osama Bin Laden’s kidney’s too.

On 07/03/2004 the Karachi police arrested the brothers after the cell phone numbers of the two doctors were found in Ata-ur Rehman mobile phone memory. Dr. Akmal Waheed and Dr. Arshad Waheed were suspected of assisting wanted militants to escape from the authorities and providing medical treatment to three fugitives: Abu Massab, Gul Hasan and Qassam-al-Sani, who were wounded in the Gen. Hayat Attempt, without informing the police.  Their arrest was capped in secrecy for a while, which caused the family to believe they were kidnapped for ransom. The arrest of the Waheed brothers was made public only on 07/13/2004.

The police also found out that the Wahed brothers also treated Shahzad Bajwa, alias Abdullah, the depute of Ata-ur Rehman, after he sustained injuries, on 03/19/2004, during an attack on a mobile van of Pakistan Rangers, at Shan/Bismillah Taqi Hospital in Karachi.

The Waheed brothers were sentenced on 03/14/2005 to 7 years imprisonment.

The police claimed that “The car recovered from the accused (Akmal and Arshad Waheed) is the one which was hired by earlier arrested Jundallah’s Amir in Karachi, Ata-ur-Rehman, which later on, had remained in their use.” Ata-ur-Rehman, the chief of Jundallah, had confessed that Dr Akmal Waheed and Dr Arshad Waheed had close links to him and were extending help by all means, the police spokesman added.

Dr. Arshad & Akmal Waheed were, eventually, acquitted. on 07/11/2006, in an appeal court. Following his acquittal Dr. Arshad Waheed shifted his activity to South Waziristan and was running a clinic in Wana, FATA region. Dr. Arshad Waheed was allegedly killed in a US missile attack, on 03/16/2008, in Wana, South Waziristan.

Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan apparently a close aide and ideological father of Jundallah and Harkat slammed everyone for arresting the brothers privately but a slap on their faces came when Al Qaeda’s media wing Al Sahab Media Foundation released the third part of a series of videos entitled “The Protectors of the Sanctuary.” This was also the first time Al-Queda had use URDU in there language instead of Arabic which was significant…

The 40-minute compilation video commemorates Dr. Arshad Waheed Shaheed, the Wana based kidney specialist who had links with all Jamaat-e-Islami, Jundallah and al Qaeda and who was killed in a U.S. missile attack in March 2008.

It is pretty much apparent that Al-Queda has successfully established working relationship with various jehadi and sectarian organizations originally made up by establishment to counter the Indian’s in Kashmir through proxy and helped prolonged our ill-thought off policy of Strategic Depth. It is also important to note; why a large number of Jamaat-e-Islami has linked up and sheltered Al-Queda members? It is also an established fact now that the GHQ attack master-mind was also a Jamaat-e-Islami member apart from the fugitives form the attacks on the Sri-Lankan team took refuge at Mansura, JI’s headquarters in Lahore.  A connection which is often ignored: at times deliberately.

The writer could be reached at [email protected]

All Rights Reserved by AKC 2010.

12 comments

  1. Faisal Pls ask some to write an essay about the persons who have been part of Islami Jamiat Talaba or Jamaat-e-Islami.

    Although there are people who may have joined the terrorist groups like Jundallah, Alqaeda etc but there people who have joined the other extreme opposite. Hussain Haqqani, US ambassador of Pakistani origin of US has become a mouth piece of Zionism. There people have joined the liberal ranks like Dr Arif Alvi and there those who have been working to undermine Jamaat and have joined PML (N)

    Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan and its student’s wing is vibrant forum and never produced the mind which will never change. Jamaat-e-Islami is neither responsible for the Anti Islam and Anti Pakistan Hussain Haqqani nor it has to do anything with the person who have joined Al-Qaeda or Jundullah.

  2. Any person who will claim to be aware of Islamic and Jehadi organizations and their ideological standing, won’t try to bracket Jamaat-e-Islami, Harkatul Mujahideen and Lashkar Jhangvi together; unless he/she is trying to distort some facts… for any ulterior motives.
    The same reasons the interior ministry has completely ignored the real culprits involved in riots right after the explosion shown in CCTV footages.
    We will soon find some more theories on internet and may be on electronic and print media as well, as the initial investigations pointed towards a different direction.

  3. i doubt if this article would have its intended effect, as the jamaat apologists are already claiming conspiracy. i may not be convinced that the jamaat is seeding terrorists, but its ideology means that some people who go too far off the edge would want to take up this hateful ideology.

    great article, even if its supposed to be a conspiracy

  4. Media does play the role of a watchdog in a democracy that keeps government active and we have all shared the sentiment that with the passage of time it will become a more mature and less sensational. But somehow it is evolving in to a biting-dog! The media needs to impartial and unbiased in its reporting and the achievements of the armed forces need to be highlighted

  5. In the current situation it is very important that we extend our support to the troops who are entangled in a battle with forces which seek to strike at the foundations of Pakistan in the name of Islam. I do not see substance in Jammat-e-islami being a terrorist outfit, sympathizer’s maybe but then again people associated with jammat have the tendency to switch to either side of the coin

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  7. I feel it’s important to bring it on forum… as I live in the same locality where the alleged leader of Jundullah, Atta ur Rehman lives. Atta was once associated with APMSO before joining IJT, and he never climbed the ladder of association to become the part of organization machinery, he was too mercuric to stay any where.
    He never was associated with Jamaat Islami, as he never liked its operational strategy, which he considered passive.

  8. People associated with Jamat e Islami always try to hide their ugly face.
    Atta ur Rehman was never part of APMSO, he was an active worker of Jamiat and was NAZIM of Statistic Department of Jamiat in Karachi University.

    http://i46.tinypic.com/mkar9t.jpg

    Jamat e Islami proudly trained and sent thousands of terrorists in the US sponsored war in Afghanistan against USSR and then Establishment sponsored jehad in Kashmir.

    Many killed and rest are still out.

    Jamat e islami if they think they are not behind these terrorists attacks and not affiliated with these terrorists should produced the list of terrorists then trained for Al Badr and Hizb ul Mujahideen and their current whereabouts and activities so that People of Pakistan especially Karachi would know about their claims as it is a fact that the people trained in the name of Jehad are doing terrorism in Pakistan.

    apart from Attaullah, Dr Arshad Waheed who died in WANA in US drone attack, who was seen in Al Qaeda Video getting training, is also a proof of Jamat e islami workers fighting against Pakistan in Tribal Regions.

    the Above proxy name ALI who said Attaullah was not Jamat e islami member should tell us who was Dr Arshad Waheed, who was involved in Attack on Core Commander Karachi and why Jamat e islami never disassociate itself from Dr Arshad Waheed even Al Qaeda Owned him and released his Video?

    Al Qaeda Leader Abu Mustafa al Yazid, who also claimed the responsibility of Benazir Murder, praised Dr Arshad Waheed, but Jamat never disowned him and his links with Al Qaeda.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq4YMDpIa88

    As far as Talkhaba, he is a Jamat e islami member, writing columns in Jasarat with different names like N Khan, Abu Saad etc, so we know why he is so quick to comment on this post.

    If Jamat e Islami or Jamiat has no links with Attaullah, then they should tell us when Jamiat or Jamat announced their disassociation with Attaullah and if they didn\’t announced this we have the right to ask WHY they still own those people and why Jamat e islami or Jamiat, Officially never said we don\’t have any links with those people.

  9. To not get confused about Pakistan one needs to find from the geneology of landlords and elite of Pakistan. For example,
    “Before concluding a brief history of Padahana and its chiefs, I would like to mention that Har Charan Singh aka Sardar Nasarullah Khan, was not the first Muslim from this family. During the tenure of Jahangir, an ancestor of Changa, Suleman, committed a murder, as a result of which the Qazi ordered death or conversion to Islam. The convict was left with no other option but to become a Muslim. His wife, enraged by his desertion of his religion, abandoned him and moved to Hardvar. Suleman formed a new village on Ferozpur road, Lahore District, by the name of Asal Suleman ki. This village is still present near the town of Kahna. Therefore, it is highly likely that if Amanullah Khan visits this place, he would find his long lost cousins.”
    http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/feb2010-weekly/nos-07-02-2010/she.htm#1

    Similar is the case of Iqbal’s grandad who embezzeled state money or charged for this financial crime (who knows for sure) and had to convert. There is no spiritual reason for conversion to Abrahamic imperiali tic gandugiri. They did the same in Africa as Nelson Mandela once said, “they gave bible in our hand and asked us to close our eyes to pray and when we opened our eyes we found that our land was gone, our women and children were being sold and shipped to distant land as slave.”

    Pakistani or West Indians need to wake up to the atrocities were done on the locals in the name of religion. Compare the Abrahamic gandugiri all over the world with spread of Hinduism and Buddhism in SouthEast Asia, China and Japan. When Andhra-ite Boddhi Dharma visited China after becoming spiritual guide of emperor Wu did not ask him to abandon his name, language, culture and chinese history or roots. But Arabic Abrahamic imperialistic gandugiri asks that from the new converts. It emphasizes external dress code and fake religiosity more than inner transformation. That is why it cuts into pieces the real Gyanis or Bhaktas among its followers such as Sarmad and Mansoor.

    If we apply Abrahamic Arabi imperialistic gandugiri to Science and Technology then paki bum father needs to rechristen himself to Issac Raberrt NewKhan, start talking in firangi accent and give his daughter as 10th cocumbine of Openheimer, the hydrogen bum maker.

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