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Pakistani Groups Whose Assets Frozen by U.S. Say Decision "Unjust"
By Aamir Latif, IslamOnline Correspondent
KARACHI, Dec. 22 (IslamOnline) - Two Pakistani groups who had their assets frozen recently by U.S. President George W. Bush's administration, denied allegations of terrorism charges against them Saturday.
Lashkar-e-Taiba, a jihadi group fighting the Indian army in occupied Kashmir, and Ummah Tameer-e-Nau (UTN), a relief organization, were accused by the United States of alleged involvement in terrorist activities and links with terrorist groups.
Talking to IslamOnline Saturday, Professor Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the founder and chief of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LT), said the United States made its decision under Indian pressure.
"We are ready for impartial inquiry into the suicide attack on [the] Indian Parliament," Saeed said. He added that Lashkar does not attack civilian populations or installations.
"We are only fighting the Indian army which has been killing the innocent Kashmiris," he said. "If India has any cogent proof against Lashkar or any other
jihadi group, why doesn't it show [the proof] to Pakistan and the international community?"
Talking to newsmen in Karachi, the Federal Minister for Religious Affairs, Mahmud Ghazi, rejected Indian claims that Lashkar and Jesh-e-Muhammad were involved in the attack on the Indian Parliament.
"There is no proof against the two groups," he said.
The President of Azad (Free) Kashmir, Raja Muhammad Anwar Khan, also rejects the Indian charges, saying the Bush administration has frozen the accounts of Lashkar-e-Taiba on a "misunderstanding".
Replying to a question on the impact of the U.S. decision on Lashkar activities, Muhammad Yayha, a senior LT leader, said there would be no impact on the Kashmiri
jihad (resistance) by such decision.
"Lashkar has no account or assets abroad," Yayha said. "Our network exists only in occupied Kashmir and Azad Kashmir. While in Pakistan, we only have our educational network."
The education network of Lashkar is run under the auspices of Markaz Dawa'h-al-Irshad, which represents the Ahl-e-Hadit Muslim school of thought in Pakistan.
Hafiz Saeed is also the amir (leader) of Dawa'h-al-Irshad.
"Lashkar-e-Taiba launched its jihad operation against the Indian army in 1990, and so far its 1,500 members have embraced martyrdom in clashes with Indian army," Yahya said.
The headquarters of Lashkar-e-Taiba is situated at Muridka, a small town barely three kilometers west of Lahore. The headquarters, sprawling over 200 acres, consists of a Dawa'h Model Science College, two model schools for boys and girls, and a huge library market.
The group runs 20 religious universities, and 200 Dawa'h Model Schools, where students - both male and female - are being taught in Arabic, Urdu and English.
Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmud, a retired nuclear scientist, established the Ummah Tameer-e-Nau (UTN) in July 1999, with the help of some retired scientists, businessmen and retired army officers.
The main objective of the UTN establishment was to attract the Muslim business community to invest within Islamic countries, especially war-ravaged Afghanistan.
Mahmud visited Kandahar and Kabul four times and met with the Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Mohammed Omar twice in Kandahar. According to his son, Asim Mahmud, Dr. Mahmud planned to set up a flourmill in Kandahar.
In his last visit to Kandahar, October 8, 2000, he went with the permission of Pakistan's Ministry of Commerce.
Now, Dr. Mahmud, and his close aide Dr. Chaudry Abdul Majeed, another nuclear scientist who retired from Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) along with Dr. Mahmud in 1999, is reportedly being interrogated by Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for allegedly providing nuclear information to Osama bin Laden.
The two scientists deny the charges, saying they only carried out relief activities in Afghanistan, and never met bin Laden.
Dr. Mahmud and Dr. Majeed resigned from PAEC in 1999 after developing differences with the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif on the issue of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
Reportedly, Sharif had wanted to sign the treaty, while the two scientists were not in favor of ratification.
Dr. Sultan has had good relations with Chinese and Arab governments and non-governmental officials. A Chinese telecommunication company, San Bow, had agreed to establish a cellular phone network worth $419 million in seven Afghan cities in 1999-2000.
The deal was done with the efforts of Dr. Sultan, who had persuaded some Arab investors to provide money for the contract.
ISI sources told IslamOnline that there was nothing to suggest that they passed on nuclear information or materials to anyone in Afghanistan, but they said the FBI insisted the ISI should keep the two scientists under detention.
According to PAEC sources, Dr. Mahmud and Dr. Majeed were not directly related to the making of nuclear weapons at the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, and have not passed any nuclear information or assistance to bin Laden.
The headquarters of Ummah is in Lahore's Gulberg area, from where they were arrested. Another Ummah official, Mirza Yusuf Baig, is an affluent businessmen and has been Dr. Sultan's main conduit with businessmen.
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