Terror groups meet in PoK over Kashmir

The Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) held a conference of extremist groups at Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) to express "solidarity" on the Kashmir issue on Thursday. The latest development yet again proved that anti-India activities are still going on in Pakistani soil.

It was the first-ever major conference of jihadi elements after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. The 'Yakjaiti-e-Kashmir' (Kashmir Solidarity) conference was organised by JuD, suspected to be front organisation of banned Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT).

According to Pakistani media reports, JuD chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, Hizbul Mujahideen commander Syed Salahuddin, Jamaat leader Abdul Rehman Makki and former ISI chief Hamid Gul attended the terror meet. Atleast 12 terror groups participated, according to reports from Pakistan.

The militants’ leaders reportedly agreed to support the jihadi cause in Kashmir. They also concluded that any dialogue with the Indian government on Kashmir issue would be futile and jihad is the only option left to attain freedom.

The militant leaders met in a blatant show of strength in public and called on the government to release 150 imprisoned Jamaat and Lashkar activists and to lift the ban on the Jamaat. But even as the militants met, authorities made no attempt to stop the meeting, according to observers.

After the 26/11 strikes, the UN banned the JuD and its chief Saeed was placed under house arrest but was subsequently released. The conference in Muzaffarabad was held after a gap of several years as such gatherings were not permitted by authorities after former military ruler Pervez Musharraf clamped down on jihadi groups following an assurance to New Delhi that Pakistani soil would not be used for anti-India activities.

Leaders of jihadi groups, including General Abdullah, Sheikh Jameel Ahmed and Ghulam Muhammad Safi, addressed the meet in Muzaffarabad. It will be presided over by Abdul Aziz Alvi, the chief of the PoK chapter of the JuD. Alvi was briefly detained by authorities in his home in Muzaffarabad in December 2008 after the JuD was declared a front for the Lashkar-e-Tayiba by the UN Security Council.

In the past few weeks, the JuD has also resumed issuing statements to the media via email on behalf of jihadi and radical organisations.

Recently, the JuD issued two statements on behalf of a grouping of radical organisations that asked the Pakistan government to expel the Norwegian ambassador following the publication of blasphemous cartoons of Prophet Mohammed by a newspaper in Norway. Senior JuD leader Maulana Ameer Hamza was quoted in one of the statements as saying that Pakistan 'is a nuclear and missile power and we should not hesitate to use this power to protect the honour' of Prophet Mohammed. Following the Mumbai attacks, Pakistani leaders like Interior Minister Rehman Malik had claimed the JuD had been banned.

India is concerned over the meeting of the terror outfits. New Delhi believes that the banned extremist organisations may use the gathering at Muzaffarabad to plan the next big attack on India.

However, former Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Hamid Gul has rejected New Delhi's apprehensions, saying it should learn to distinguish between terrorists and 'freedom fighters'. "Why should we worry about India? The meet is for a very important human cause. If India feels unhappy about it, let them. It's high time that India feels unhappy. The Pakistan government is aware of it. We don't have to clarify everything with India. Pakistan has the right too. Pakistan and India have to make distinctions between terrorists and freedom fighters. India has to understand that this is a freedom movement," Gul told private television channel, TimesNow.

JuD is also planning more such conferences across Pakistan in the coming weeks. The conference in Islamabad will be addressed by JuD chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the 26/11 attacks.

Sources in New Delhi said that the meeting clearly showed that Jamaat-ud-Dawa was not a charity organisation as Pakistan had been claiming and was one more proof that Pakistan territory was still being used for anti-India terror activities.

- Asian Tribune -