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Top Kashmiri Separatist Group Weakens, Twelve Killed In More Violence
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| Pakistani
Police Guard Lashkar Sealed Office
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ISLAMABAD, Dec. 31 (IslamOnline
& News Agencies) - Twelve people, including ten Muslim activists and one
civilian, were killed in Kashmir’s latest violence as Lashkar-e-Taiba -- once
seen as the most powerful armed group seeking to expel India from Kashmir --
came under severe pressure, after being cut adrift by Pakistan.
One civilian was killed in
the crossfire when an Indian army convoy near Drugmulla in the northern border
district of Kupwara was attacked by three Muslim activists dressed in army
fatigues, an army spokesman said, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
During the resulting
shootout, one of the Muslims was shot dead, while one soldier was killed and two
others injured, the spokesman added.
In another encounter, another
Muslim activist was killed in a shootout with paramilitary units in the southern
district of Anantnag, AFP reported.
In a related separate
incident, an Indian army patrol killed eight Muslim activists in a night-long
encounter in Dora village, some 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of the Kashmiri
summer capital Srinagar, police and army officials said.
A police spokesman said the
eight were all members of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad Islamic group,
which, along with Lashkar-e-Taiba, has been accused by India of allegedly
carrying out the December 13 attack on the parliament complex in New Delhi.
Lashkar’s strength has been
severely undermined as Pakistan, under pressure from the United States and
India, arrested the group’s leader in a move to further crack down on
"extremism" or pro-independence Kashmiri groups labeled terrorist
organizations.
Its 54-year-old leader Hafiz
Mohammad Saeed was taken into custody Sunday as Pakistan dramatically escalated
its efforts to crush those blamed for the December 13 attack.
At the urging of the United
States, Pakistan has frozen Lashkar's assets, raided its offices in the port
city of Karachi and rounded up at least four other members.
More than 80 Islamic
activists from a variety of groups have now been detained in the sweep,
Pakistani officials say, but it is not clear how many belong to each group.
Officially, Pakistan denies
the arrests are a response to Indian and U.S. pressure. It maintains they are
part of a continuing security operation.
Lashkar's uncompromising
rhetoric, combined with its refusal to consider any kind of ceasefire in
Kashmir, have earned it a reputation as one of the most hard-line outfits
operating outside Pakistan.
The group has a single
objective – to expel Indian troops from the northern third of the disputed
Himalayan state of Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistan and
claimed by both.
The troubled region has been
disputed for decades. In 1989, a Muslim insurgency broke out against Indian
occupation of the Muslim-majority state, with some groups willing to merge with
mostly Muslim Pakistan and others demanding full independence as promised by a
U.N. plebiscite after 1947.
With an estimated
5,000-10,000 hardcore members but many more sympathizers, Lashkar has been
blamed for other high-profile attacks, including an assault on New Delhi's
historic Red Fort in December a year ago.
Its leader, Saeed, is a
professor of Islamic studies, a mujahid who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan
and a charismatic speaker who has drawn thousands of young men to his cause.
In October, some 5,000
attended a lecture he gave in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, chanting
slogans and vowing to march to Indian-administered Kashmir.
"I know if I give the
call today for a march to Kashmir, hundreds and thousands of people will march
with me," Saeed told the crowd, "but that time has not come yet."
Based at a massive complex
about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of the Punjab provincial capital Lahore,
Lashkar developed in the early 1990s as the military wing of a Pakistani Islamic
group.
The headquarters is described
as a state within a state. Thousands of volunteers, some in their early teens,
are trained in guerrilla warfare within its heavily guarded grounds, which are
off-limits to Pakistani police.
The group also runs 140
private schools, 5 hospitals and many more small clinics.
"They are normal private
schools, but instead of A for Apple we teach A for Allah... J for jihad kind of
words," said senior Lashkar figure, Mohammad Qasmani.
"We may be terrorists
for the West, but they are not aware of the kind of education and medical
facilities we provided, particularly in the remote villages and towns," he
added.
Saeed has openly acknowledged
targeting Indian security forces and military installations, but said he is not
involved in "terrorist" operations against civilians.
The Muslim insurgency in
Kashmir and the brutal Indian crackdown on separatism has claimed more than
35,000 lives over 12 years of violence. Pakistan puts the death toll at 70,000.
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