India - Pakistan Crisis

Top 136. Mar 2, 2002 11:24 PM

» JenL_2 - Re: Pak ISI-Daniel Pearl

In response to message posted by BPyles:

Wow Betty - your article kinda corroborates some of the information posted above. Thank heavens for the freedom of the net cause the story quoting sources on Omar Sheikh’s confessions about his involvement in the attack on the Indian Parliament was posted on several sites and copied to this thread a few times including this post:

(excerpt)

SHEIK OMAR SAEED told interrogators that three recent deadly attacks in India were also intended to undercut Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s efforts to curb the activities of extremist groups in response to pressure from the United States, police officials said.

Saeed said attacks outside the U.S. cultural center in Calcutta, the Indian Parliament in New Delhi and a legislative assembly in Kashmir were aimed at provoking India into taking action against Pakistan. Extremist organizers — some with ties to Saeed — hoped Musharraf would be forced to back away from his public stand against militant activities, Saeed told police.

Saeed is affiliated with the Jaish-i-Muhammad militant group fighting in the disputed Himalayan border region of Kashmir. Police officials said they could not verify any connection between Saeed’s organization and supporters and the attacks in India. But authorities said he provided detailed information about the incidents and some of the perpetrators.

That information, plus Saeed’s confession in court last week that he had helped plan Pearl’s abduction, have raised troubling new questions for Pakistani and U.S. law enforcement officials investigating the Pearl case, authorities from both countries said.

The truth will out!....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

'Moderate' Islamic Cleric In Qatar Shows How Its Possible To Take The Middle Road

Top 137. Mar 2, 2002 11:51 PM

» JenL_2 - Re: Daniel Pearl

Another article by Daniel Pearl in 10/15 WSJ. This one doesn't have much to do with India or Pakistan but with our War on Terrorism and the search for a spokesperson for "Moderate Islam" that wouldn't be viewed as a U.S. puppet:

By Daniel Pearl, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

DOHA, Qatar -- America is trying to keep its war on terrorism from becoming a war with Islam, and a 75-year-old scholar working from a ramshackle bungalow at the university here could have a lot to say about whether the U.S. succeeds.

Yusuf Qaradawi, an Egyptian scholar based in the Gulf emirate of Qatar, is one of the most widely respected Islamic authorities. Considered by many to be a moderate Islamist, he has tried to steer an increasingly difficult middle path, condemning the Sept. 11 attacks but also railing against the U.S. for its strikes on Afghanistan. He joined a Sept. 22 ruling that said Muslims in the U.S. military can participate in the fight against terrorism, but also recently has come close to supporting Afghanistan's calls for a jihad against the U.S.

"Like a lot of people at the center, he doesn't want to upset people on the fringes," says Maher Abdullah, who presents the Al Jazeera satellite-TV channel's religion show "Shariah Alive," which frequently features Mr. Qaradawi. Normally, says Mr. Abdullah, clerics are "either with the government or with the people."

Mr. Qaradawi is considered more independent than most clerics in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, who operate under government control. Associated with the Muslim Brotherhood political movement in Egypt, he was imprisoned repeatedly by Egyptian authorities between 1949 and 1963, and finally came to Qatar and was granted citizenship. Since then, he says, Qatar authorities have never told him what to say. "Had I wanted to work for any government I would have done that for the Egyptian government," he says.

Still, Qatar's wealth and its experiments with democratic opening have proved a boon for Mr. Qaradawi. Besides making regular appearances on Al Jazeera, which reaches most of the Arab world, he helped launch a popular Web site called islamonline.net http://www.islamonline.net which operates from a well-appointed office in Doha.

Mr. Qaradawi criticizes Western secularism but was able to send most of his sons and daughters to the West to get advanced degrees. Some of his earnings come from serving on Islamic review boards for financial institutions in the Gulf.

Some Americans see Mr. Qaradawi as a potential ally. He has been critical of the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan for prohibiting women from working, for example. He traveled to Afghanistan last spring in an unsuccessful effort to save ancient Buddha statues from destruction at the hands of the Taliban, who considered them un-Islamic idols. The mission earned him the ridicule of London-based Islamic extremists.

Two weeks ago, Mr. Qaradawi took part in a conference in Rome aimed at promoting Muslim-Christian dialogue in the wake of the terrorist attacks. On his return to Doha, he got a visit from U.S. embassy officials hoping he could help keep calm in the Muslim world. "This is a war of ideologies, and it has to be combated by ideologies," he told them. And, he said, America won't win any war in the region as long as it doesn't alleviate injustice in Palestine.

And that's where dialogue with Islamists such as Mr. Qaradawi gets tricky. His definition of terrorism has consistently excluded attacks within Israel or the Israeli-occupied West Bank. In an interview, he explains that Israelis are "from the U.S. or Europe or Russia, and they came with the intention of displacing the original residents." What if suicide bombings kill civilians? "Israeli society in general is armed," he answers.

"He's part of the problem, not part of the solution," says Daniel Pipes, director of the pro-Israel Middle East Forum in Philadelphia. He says Mr. Qaradawi is an influential figure, but "there is no consistency and no morality to condoning suicide attacks on Israelis and not Americans." After his last trip to the U.S., in which he made statements in favor of Palestinian militant group Hamas, Mr. Qaradawi says he learned the U.S. embassy in Doha no longer intended to honor his 10-year visa for the U.S. (Embassy officials declined to talk about visa cases.)

Other moderate Islamists are in similar positions, sometimes because of pressure from U.S. allies, says Graham E. Fuller, a former CIA official who met with Mr. Qaradawi last week as part of his research for a book on Islamist movements. He sees potential in dialogues between American social conservatives and Islamists such as Mr. Qaradawi. "Nothing would be a greater disaster than to perpetuate an ongoing confrontation with these movements," which are gaining force and abandoning the idea that Islam and democracy are incompatible, he said. "There is not an Islamic leader anywhere who hasn't said something harsh about Israel and Palestine."

In the Arab world, Mr. Qaradawi's anti-Israel stands put him firmly in the mainstream. "He's in the middle, that's why everybody likes him," said Abdulaziz al-Tamimi, a 29-year-old video librarian in Doha, on the way to see Mr. Qaradawi lead Friday prayers at the Government's Omar ibn al-Khatab Mosque.

There, before an overflow crowd, Mr. Qaradawi stood at the lectern and spoke without notes. "We should negotiate," he told his listeners. "Allah said don't fight with the Christian and Jewish people, because they are part of our religion." Terrorism was wrong, he said, adding that he had issued a fatwa, or ruling, more than a decade ago against the hijacking of airplanes. But terrorists have to be brought to justice in an international court, and "Muslims cannot be used as tools to kill brother Muslims," he said.

The idea of the U.S. attacking Qatar, its military ally, might seems far-fetched, but Mr. Qaradawi warned against the possibility in his sermon. He sees the U.S. as enraged, not even waiting to sift through its thousands of clues and determine for sure who committed the terrorist attacks. Islam says a judge must not give a verdict while he is angry, Mr. Qaradawi told reporters last week. "Anger can be a wall between him and seeing the facts."

Not sure I'd call Qaradawi a "moderate" but it's interesting that the U.S. seems to be trying to recruit him as a spokesman for our cause. Also a good example of Daniel Pearl's research, detail & balanced reporting....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Our fear of the anarchist spurs the anarchy of fear

Top 138. Mar 3, 2002 9:03 AM

» JenL_2 - Re: India turmoil

In response to message posted by BPyles:

Betty - you said....

Not much doubt in my mind as to is behind all this, or at least who started it. Maybe India will be able to at least resolve it, which may be more than some of the other countries in turmoil.

I also hope that India will be able to resolve this current wave of Hindu-Muslim violence. I've been placing the blame on extremists both Muslim and Hindu for the current violence just from what I've been reading of the background, and from conversations in Yahoo chat. Really - prior to the train attack - this is the story that I've been getting from Indian Hindu & Muslim cyberfriends ....they said they are Indian first before they are Hindu or Muslim.....that they felt that India is fair to all religions....that Pak ISI and militant groups cause a lot of the problems in India.....but also that extremists both Muslim & Hindu are always trying to stir up trouble and they wanted nothing to do with the extremists.....and they said that fundamentalist Hinduism was gaining too much control in India politics.

So the last night I went to Yahoo Gujarat chat to see if could dig up some more info. Talked with a Hindu guy that pretty well had the same comments as above.....but he also thought that the initial train attack was instigated by a Pak militant group and/or ISI.....he said that 15 days prior to the attack 23 Pakistanis showed up in Gujarat.....and he thinks that somehow they were responsible. There's no corroboration to this theory yet! He said he would keep me posted on anything that he finds out.

Hmmmm - Can we draw parallels to the riots during the WTO convention in Seattle a couple years ago? The WTO demonstrations were supposed to be fairly organized and non-violent. The city had even registered the demonstrating groups....but somehow the whole thing blew up into a violent confrontation. Later we found out that most of the violence was instigated by a group called Anarchists that came up from Oregon. They had planned, trained and placed themselves throughout the WTO demonstrators with the sole purpose of creating as much havoc as possible.....and they succeeded. Here are a couple articles in Seattle Times:

Anarchists long for simpler world

..unfortunately we also found out that there were warnings about the Anarchists prior to the WTO convention that went unheeded by Seattle police cheif and mayor, who have since been replaced, largely because of the WTO convention fiasco.

OK - sorry to digress - but now I'm thinking....what if the Pak miltant groups and/or ISI or al-Qaida are working like the Anarchists? Maybe they're infiltrating Indian Muslim extremist groups capitalizing on their greivances, inciting violence. Maybe they did instigate the firebombing of the train. We've heard reports of similar operations in Kashmir. Maybe they're even infiltrating the Hindu extremist groups to make sure that retaliation attacks are equally violent....setting up the vicious cycle of violence....just maybe....and I wouldn't put it past 'em!.

an update from 3/3 MSNBC.com:

Nearly 500 dead in India rioting
Brief calm after extra troops rushed to scene of violence

....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 139. Mar 3, 2002 12:06 PM

» BPyles - India turmoil

Jen:

You summarized my feelings exactly. The instant I read of the train fire, I felt sure the group now referred to as "Pakistanian Islamic extremest group" (which takes in a lot of individuals) were responsible. Still say they don't deserve being called anything but "terrorists, thugs, or criminals)." I was not prepared for the retaliation from Hindus and India's failure to put a immediate stop to the turmoil, so then figured out it must be the same terrorist, thugs and criminals were working both sides. All the poor individuals on both sides being used without even realizing what is happening. All this is just my own opinion based on a very suspicious nature. It all happened and escalulated so fast, just not spontaneous but well planned.

Also, being so suspicious, I fully expect to see future kidnappings or plane hijackings, or something, to ransom Saeed out of jail. He accomplished it once, didn't he?

Just ramblings on a slow Sunday from a suspicious person....

-- posted by BPyles

Top 140. Mar 3, 2002 2:23 PM

» JenL_2 - Re: India turmoil

In response to message posted by BPyles:

Betty - we're thinking along the same wavelength - and how's this for more suspicious speculation?...maybe the instigated violence in India is another smokescreen to deflect the world media attention from possible Pak ISI involvement in the Daniel Pearl kidnapping and murder? Now do you suppose our CIA is riding the same wavelength?....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 141. Mar 3, 2002 8:12 PM

» JenL_2 - Re: Pak ISI-Daniel Pearl

More on the Pak ISI Connection from 3/11 Newsweek:

The Missing Week

In the Pearl case, Pakistan’s spies knew more than they let on, which means Musharraf has a problem

By Ron Moreau and Zahid Hussain
NEWSWEEK

Sometimes it seems like the only person telling the truth in the Daniel Pearl case is the man accused of kidnapping The Wall Street Journal reporter. After turning himself in on Feb. 5, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, 28, told agents from Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) that Pearl’s captors had sent him a coded message saying the American had been executed. The ISI, NEWSWEEK has learned, chose not to mention that to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, saying instead that Pearl would be rescued shortly. For his part, Musharraf didn’t publicly admit that Saeed was in custody until a week later, when at a press conference in Washington he said he was “reasonably certain” Pearl was alive.

IN FACT, THAT MISSING week may have sabotaged the investigation by giving Pearl’s killers time to disappear. “The ISI never shared with us any information about what Saeed had told them,” says a senior Pakistani police investigator.

Equally worrying is what the deception says about Musharraf’s dependence on the ISI. The president personally brought the spies into the Pearl investigation for the same reason he’s enlisting them in his crackdown on Muslim militant groups: the ISI has long maintained links to extremist organizations like Saeed’s Jaish-e-Mohammad, which have carried out attacks on Indian forces in Kashmir. For Musharraf, the factors that make the ISI valuable are the same ones that make it suspect. “He is p——d off and embarrassed,” says a former senior government minister close to the regime. “But what can he do? The ISI has been so powerful for so long that it seems to play by its own rules.”

Competing power centers and Islamic extremism make Pakistan the most unstable nuclear power in the world.

INTER-SERVICES INTELLIGENCE
Pakistan's secretive intelligence agency, known as the ISI, has been described as a “state within a state,” answering to no one, including military leader Gen. Pervez Musharraf. The ISI has channeled money and weapons to the Taliban for years, seeking to create a government friendly toward Pakistan -- and a headache for rival India. U.S. intelligence agencies fear factions within it may be aligned with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida, an alleged terrorist network.

MILITARY
Military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf toppled the democratically elected but corrupt government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999. Musharraf, viewed as a liberal within his own hard-line ranks, has promised elections. Many believe the ISI was the power behind Musharraf's coup, the first-ever successful one within a nation with nuclear weapons.

ISLAMIC LEADERS
The heads of Pakistan's powerful religious schools, where Taliban members trained, have the ability to paralyze Pakistan with strikes. Although their battle cries are louder than their popular appeal, a U.S. strike against Afghanistan would enhance the position of Pakistan's mullahs and muftis.

AFGHAN REFUGEES
An influx of up to 2 million Afghans fleeing possible U.S. action against the Taliban adds to a refugee population that had already numbered 3 million. The huge numbers strain Pakistan’s fragile social services. Thousands are streaming into frontier towns like Quetta, a heavily armed city with a wracked economy and ethnic tensions of its own. There is significant support for Osama bin Laden in Quetta, and Pakistani officials fear militants will infiltrate the country with the huge stream of refugees.

KASHMIR
India accuses Pakistan of supporting Islamic extremists who wage war on Indian military and civilian targets in Kashmir. Pakistan denies links to the armed groups, though U.S. intelligence officials tend to side with India.

Indeed, President Bush cited one group, Harakat ul-Mujahedeen, in his list of 27 banned groups just after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. Other separatist groups in Pakistan include the All Party Hurriyat Alliance, which includes 23 groups; Hizbul Mujahedeen; the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

PARTY POLITICS
Pakistan's on-again, off-again attempts at democracy have been hampered by the corruption of its political parties, often so blatant that the coups that oust them command majority support.

The last democratically elected prime minister was Nawaz Sharif, who was overthrown by Gen. Pervez Musharraf in 1999. Sharif's party, the Pakistan Muslim League, is now in disarray and he lives in exile. His predecessor, Benazir Bhutto, leads the Pakistan People’s Party but she, too, is in exile after charges of corruption leveled at her and her husband. A third large party, the Muttahida Qami Movement, represents the huge population of Urdu-speaking Pakistanis whose families migrated from India. Altaf Hussain, founder and leader, has offered unconditional support to the world community for the prevention of terrorism.

In the Pearl case, the ISI may have had mixed motives. According to well-informed Pakistanis, ISI agents were confident they could cut a deal for Pearl’s release by offering to let Saeed go in return. U.S. authorities believe Saeed himself was an ISI asset at one point, most likely an operative in Kashmir. (Pakistani authorities deny Saeed had any official connections.) The ISI would have had good reason not to “burn” one of its former contacts: “That could send a message to other present and future intelligence assets that the ISI doesn’t protect its own,” says another former government official. “The ISI always wants to keep its options open.”

Even in custody, Saeed seems confident, even cocky. According to a senior U.S. law-enforcement official, the militant bragged to FBI agents that he would never be extradited to the United States, and in fact would serve only three or four years if convicted of Pearl’s murder in Pakistan. The only remorse he expressed was over Pearl’s unborn child: “He said he felt bad because he realized Pearl was going to be a father soon, and he had a 2-month-old son,” says the American official.

Musharraf has tried to rein in his intelligence organization, but with mixed results. U.S. intelligence sources say that while the Pakistani president has generally been in the loop on Saeed’s handling, rogue elements within the ISI may still exist. For years the agency has run semi-independent operations in Afghanistan and Kashmir, and has also helped to form and topple civilian governments in Pakistan.

In recent months the ISI has obeyed Musharraf’s order to reverse policy on Afghanistan. A senior officer even claims that ISI agents—who helped fuel the Taliban’s rise to power—were instrumental in the arrest of 254 of the 300 Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters and officials now being held at a U.S. military base in Cuba.

Yet Kashmir presents a thornier dilemma. Musharraf has ordered the agency to cut off contact with Pakistan-based insurgents that have battled Indian forces in the disputed region. But the cause is a very potent issue for nationalists of all stripes, not least of all the president himself. And the ISI’s interest in trading Saeed for Pearl could indicate that sympathy for those groups continues to permeate the agency.

That puts Musharraf in an especially precarious position. The Kashmiri militants are among the most violent in Pakistan, and India remains suspicious enough to keep several hundred thousand troops stationed along the border, waiting to see if fighters begin to cross into Kashmir once the winter snows melt. If the Pakistani president continues to trust his spies, he may be in for more unpleasant surprises.

With Daniel Klaidman and Mark Hosenball in Washington and Nisid Hajari

....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 142. Mar 5, 2002 11:08 AM

» BPyles - Arrest in Pearl case

Probably not too important but just a Pakistanian policy of arresting relatives to try to get wanted criminals to turn themselves in.
--------------------------
Pearl case: suspected kidnapper's wife held
By Our Staff Reporter , Dawn, Pakistan

FAISALABAD, March 4: Police arrested on Sunday night the wife of Amjad Hussain Farooqi who is allegedly involved in the kidnapping-cum-murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl.

A police source told Dawn, a special team raided the house of in-laws of Amjad Farooqi in a village of Samundri tehsil. After failing to find Amjad, it arrested his wife and handed her over to an investigation team.

The police also minutely searched a number of houses of the village in search of Amjad Farooqui and his accomplices. Villagers told the police they had not seen Amjad during the last couple of years.

Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies have been directed by the government to keep a vigil over the activities of people having links with the Jaish-i-Muhammad, a banned militant body, so that arrests of suspects in the kidnapping -cum-murder of Daniel Pearl case could be made.

-- posted by BPyles

Top 143. Mar 5, 2002 11:11 AM

» BPyles - Terrorists not listening

Don't know whether to laugh or cry at this article:
------------
Dawn, Pakistan 3-5-02
Government says Islamic militants not heeding warnings: ISLAMABAD, March 05:

Interior minister Moinuddin Haider said recent violent attacks in the country showed banned radical and militant Islamic groups had failed to heed warnings from the government and faced stern action, media reported today. "It seems that the banned parties are not getting the message and continue with their activities," he said. (Reuters) (Posted @ 15:35 PST)

-- posted by BPyles

Top 144. Mar 5, 2002 3:21 PM

» JenL_2 - Re: Terrorists not listening

In response to message posted by BPyles:

Yeah I agree Betty. An article posted above from 1/29 Rediff.com, and Indian Online newspaper, cites Daniel Pearl's 1/1/02 frontpage WSJAsia article reporting that it was business as usual for the Pak Militant groups even after Musharraf's crackdown:

finally found Pearl's 12/31/01 WSJAsia article:

Militant Groups in Pakistan Thrive Despite Crackdown

Jaish-e-Muhammad Says It Is Still Operating After Police Detained Some Staff

India Demands Clear Evidence of Action

By Daniel Pearl
12/31/2001
The Asian Wall Street Journal
Page 1

BAHAWALPUR, Pakistan -- The U.S., stepping up efforts to avoid war between India and Pakistan, is encouraging Pakistan's attempts to crack down on militant groups suspected in a Dec. 13 attack on India's parliament.

But in Bahawalpur, headquarters of a militant group called Jaish-e-Muhammad, the crackdown, so far, doesn't look so harsh.

Members of Jaish-e-Muhammad on Sunday said the group is still operating. They say provincial police officers rang the doorbell of the administrative office early last week and herded staffers into waiting vans, but left behind enough people to keep the office running. Police detained 37 people, but didn't ask them about the group's alleged participation in recent terrorist strikes in India, a group spokesman said. All the police wanted was the location of Jaish-e-Muhammad's leader, Maulana Masood Azhar, who ended up surrendering voluntarily to police near Karachi on Wednesday, group members said.

A nearby Jaish-e-Muhammad regional center was still operating Thursday, its traditional recruiting day. The group's name has been painted over, but the posters praising holy war are still hung inside. And a bank account that Jaish-e-Muhammad uses to solicit contributions remains open, despite a November order by Pakistan's central bank freezing the group's accounts.

Jaish-e-Muhammad has denied involvement in the Indian parliament attack, as well as an October attack on the assembly building in Srinagar, capital of India-controlled Kashmir.

Still, the group is one of several Pakistan-based organizations that have sent fighters and funds into India-controlled Kashmir to help fuel a separatist movement there. And Jaish-e-Muhammad's fate has become central to whether India will take military action against the groups. Even if India were to confine its actions to India-controlled Kashmir, fighting could spill over into Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and engulf the two adversaries in a full-scale war.

India and Pakistan have continued to amass troops at their borders and evacuated some border villages. A bus link launched in 1999 between Lahore and New Delhi made its final run Saturday, and as of today there will be no direct airplane or train trips between India and Pakistan either, as a result of tit-for-tat economic measures initiated by India.

Also, Pakistan's telecommunication authority this weekend banned the showing of Indian satellite television channels on cable networks in Pakistan, citing their "poisonous propaganda against Pakistan." The ban also included News Corp.'s STAR TV. While most of STAR's South Asia programming is generated in India, a spokesman for STAR TV in India said its news programs officially aren't shown in Pakistan, and could only be seen by smuggling decoder boxes from India.

Diplomatic initiatives were complicated by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's refusal to meet Pakistani military leader Gen. Pervez Musharraf on the sidelines of a regional summit in Nepal later this week. British Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to visit India and Pakistan soon in an effort to defuse tensions.

President George W. Bush telephoned Mr. Vajpayee and Gen. Musharraf over the weekend to urge restraint, and the U.S. may send a special envoy later in the month. Mr. Bush, in the phone conversation, urged Gen. Musharraf to "take additional strong and decisive measures to eliminate the extremists who seek to harm India," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. Gen. Musharraf gathered Pakistan's top politicians in the capital Sunday to discuss his response to tensions with India.

India, in order to avoid military action, is demanding clear evidence that Pakistan has cracked down on Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba, two groups India blames for the Dec. 13 attack. On Friday, President Bush said Pakistan had arrested 50 members of militant groups, but Pakistani officials Sunday couldn't verify that claim. Jaish-e-Muhammad officials said no members were arrested after Wednesday, and a Lashkar-e-Taiba spokesman said none of the group's members have been arrested.

Pakistan has been "getting hold of anybody indulging in undesirable activities," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Sunday, but said he couldn't provide a number, and added that the arrests were unrelated to the India attacks.

Police arrested Mr. Azhar, the head of Jaish-e-Muhammad, because he "made certain speeches to incite people to violence," Gen. Rashid Qureshi, spokesman for Pakistan's military government, said last week, adding that police found unlicensed weapons -- five Kalashnikov semi-automatic rifles, two rifles and two pistols -- in their raids.

Gen. Qureshi left the door open for a wider crackdown on Jaish-e-Muhammad, saying, "If the Indians provide us any shred of evidence, we would like to assist them." Gen. Musharraf had been trying to root out sectarian groups even before the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes on the U.S., not because they send fighters into India-controlled Kashmir but because they have been associated with sectarian violence within Pakistan. Mr. Azhar, for example, has been associated with a group that has been blamed for killings of Shia Muslims in Pakistan.

Mr. Azhar was relatively unknown in Pakistan before he was arrested by Indian authorities in Kashmir in 1994. Then he was released in 1999 as part of a deal negotiated by hijackers of an Indian Airlines flight from Nepal, and he formed Jaish-e-Muhammad in a blaze of publicity after his release.

Jaish-e-Muhammad was considered a favorite among the militant groups that receive unofficial Pakistani support. Its operatives drove expensive "double-cabin" Hilux pickup trucks, some with government license plates.

The group claims to have sent thousands of fighters into Kashmir, and says its biweekly magazine has a circulation of 50,000 in Pakistan and abroad.

A July issue of the magazine urges readers to "come forward and be a supporter of the warriors of Islam," from "Kashmir to Palestine." It suggests writing a check or draft in the name of Mufti Rafeeq Ahmed, the group's office administrator, and lists an account at Allied Bank in Bahawalpur. At the bank branch Friday, assistant manager Muslim Bhatti said he knows of the Pakistan central bank notice freezing Jaish-e-Muhammad accounts, but that the account listed in the ad was a personal account. "We have not closed any accounts," he said. "We have 20,0000 accounts, and none belongs to Jaish-e-Muhammad."

Pressure from India and the U.S. may force Jaish-e-Muhammad further underground. The Jaish-e-Muhammad office is an unmarked house in a dirt-road neighborhood. Doorways around a small open courtyard are marked finances, guesthouse No. 2 and administration. But Jaish-e-Muhammad activists say they moved files and computers to a secret location four days before the raids began, and Mr. Azhar appointed a deputy -- also secret -- to keep running the office in his absence.

In the accounting office Thursday evening, Hasan Burki, a member of Jaish-e-Muhammad's central executive committee, arrived, placed his three mobile phones on a desk, and denounced India for trying to "compare the freedom fighters with the Taliban." Mr. Burki said he told Pakistani authorities that if they didn't supply a good reason for the raids, Jaish-e-Muhammad would mount a court challenge. "The government, to make America happy, we fear, can go to any extent," Mr. Burki said. Jaish-e-Muhammad's supporters are angry, and "we may be unable to control those masses," he said.

There are other problems for Jaish-e-Muhammad. Kashmiris have come to resent the way outside groups use the Kashmir cause to raise money. "We want our movement to be an indigenous movement," says Ghulam Mohammed Safi, a leader of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, an umbrella group of Kashmir separatist parties. Bahawalpur, a cotton-farming district in the Punjab province, is nearly halfway across Pakistan from Kashmir.

Also, poorly organized Pakistani jihad fighters were routed in embarrassing fashion to Afghanistan, making it that much harder to attract fresh warriors. At Jaish-e-Muhammad's regional recruitment office, on the corner of a residential street, Meher Khateem sat behind a low desk in an office room decorated with slogans such as "If you don't rise to the occasion now, the Muslim nation will be finished" and signs saying "In the guesthouse, political discussion is prohibited." It was Thursday, traditional recruiting day, and Mr. Khateem was waiting for people to show up to register for jihad, but by sundown nobody had come.

"The numbers have gone down since Sept. 11," Mr. Khateem said.

Subscribe to WSJ Online @ http://www.wsj.com

Hmmm - when you read this article.... and the one on Pak-Afghanistan smuggling posted above:

....and the one on the Tanzanite - al Qaeda connection posted to the "America at War" thread:

....you can see that Daniel Pearl was indeed in a bed of vipers...hope his death only increases our resolve to search for truth & justice and to wipe out terrorism.....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2