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Pakistani Activist Groups Resist Government Crackdown
KARACHI, Aug 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - As more Muslim activists died in violence in Indian-occupied Kashmir, Pakistani activist groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir Tuesday vowed to resist an order to withdraw fund-raising boxes and signboards from public places under a crackdown by the military government.
"We are sitting in our offices and our signboards are very much there," Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Umer Farooq said a day after the Sindh provincial government announced the move.
"We have not removed the signboards or fund boxes, nor will we do that on government orders."
However, police said groups were cooperating and many donation boxes had been removed from shops and restaurants around this southern port city.
"Following the government order, several restaurants have returned the boxes to jihadi [holy struggle] groups while in some cases party activists took away the boxes voluntarily," said a police officer, on the condition of anonymity.
"Clear instructions have been issued to all the hotels and restaurants not to display any such boxes in future."
Last week, President Pervez Musharraf banned two Islamic groups, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and Sipah-e-Mohammad, which were widely blamed for bloody violence between the majority Sunni and minority Shiite Muslims in Pakistan.
But he is also under pressure to curtail the activities of outfits using Pakistan as a base to launch raids into Indian-occupied Kashmir, where a Muslim uprising against Indian rule has raged for 12 years.
Pakistan denies India's allegations that it supports "cross-border terrorism" in Kashmir, stating that it only offers diplomatic and moral support to groups fighting against Indian rule there.
The issue was one of the main sticking points in summit talks between Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in the Taj Mahal town of Agra last month.
The latest restrictions will affect several outfits such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Harkatul Mujahideen and Al-Badar, which had previously been allowed to recruit fighters and collect donations publicly.
"Can they stop the people from joining jihad or donating funds even if they remove signboards and boxes?" Harkatul Mujahideen leader Hafiz Idrees said.
"This is unfortunate as people used to contribute funds voluntarily for jihad, and we are not very far from victory in Kashmir."
Jaish-e-Mohammad vowed to continue raising funds for its struggle in Kashmir. "We have not started jihad on the order of the government, nor can any ruler ask us to stop it," a spokesman for the group said.
Sindh Home Secretary Brigadier Mukhtar Sheikh said he hoped the groups would comply with the order.
"I don't have the details of how many boards and boxes have been removed, but I hope all will follow the government's instructions," he said.
Federal interior ministry official Shahid Mahmood said "forcible" collection of funds for jihad was already outlawed in Pakistan, but he could not say if there would be a nationwide ban on public donation boxes.
Officials in other provinces said there were no plans to follow Sindh's move.
"We have not received any instructions from the federal government in this regard. If we receive such an order, we will implement it," Punjab provincial Information Secretary Taimur Azmat Usman said.
Punjab is Pakistan's most populous province and the key area of public support for jihad groups.
On Tuesday, police in Indian-occupied Kashmir said that five members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen were killed in clashes that also claimed one Indian soldier.
Four were killed overnight during two cordon-and-search operations by security forces in the northern Kupwara district, and the fifth, along with the soldier, in clashes Tuesday at Chandigam village in the same district.
Meanwhile, an imam (religious leader) at a local mosque was shot dead by unidentified gunmen overnight in Dardpora village in the Kupwara district. Indian police blamed Muslim activists for the killing.
State authorities released a statement Tuesday detailing the cost of the Indian occupation of Kashmir in human lives, saying that a total of 2,007 people, nearly half of them Muslim activists, have been killed in Indian Kashmir since January.
"Security forces have eliminated 1,059 militants, most of them foreigners, since January 1, 2001," the statement said, adding that 49 "rebels" also laid down their arms during the period.
It said 359 Indian security personnel were killed and 872 more were injured in clashes with Muslim fighters, who have been campaigning against Indian rule in the disputed state since 1989.
The statement listed 589 civilians as having been killed. Ninety-nine of them were said to have perished in grenade or bomb attacks by Muslim activists, while an equal number of non-combatants lost their lives in exchanges of fire between activists and Indian forces.
Since January, Indian troops have seized 4,870 pounds of contraband explosives, 341 landmines and 1,099 assault rifles and pistols across the troubled region, the statement added.
Kashmir residents reject Indian claims of civilians dying in firefights and assert that most deaths of non-combatants occur in cold blood at the hands of security forces.
Indian Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani raised a storm earlier this week with an offer of amnesty to Indian soldiers arrested on charges of violating human rights in Kashmir.
According to Indian figures, the violence has claimed more than 35,000 lives since the beginning of the uprising against Indian rule in 1989. Pakistan, which has fought two of its three wars with India over Kashmir, says the toll is almost double.
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