 |
Maulana Azhar, 41, has been keeping a low profile in Pakistan for years. |
ISLAMABAD — Since the deadly attacks on India's financial nerve of Mumbai, officials, intelligence agencies and the media across the world have been throwing in the names of some groups and individuals as possible masterminds and culprits.
Topping the list are the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, two groups India has blamed for a series of attacks on its lands over the past two decades, and their leaders.
Jaish-e-Mohammed
Jaish-e-Mohammed, literally The Army of Mohammad, was formed and is led by Maulana Masood Azhar, a Pakistani national who tops India’s most wanted list.
Azhar, a religious leader who comes from a rich land-owning family in the central province of Punjab, was the general secretary of the little-known Harkat-ul-Ansar (HuA) group which operated against Indian rule in Muslim-majority Kashmir.
He was imprisoned in 1994 by the Indian security agencies.
Azhar was only released in 1999 after a group of militants hijacked an Indian plane from a Nepali airport and took it to Kandahar, Afghanistan, demanding the release of four figures, including him, in exchange for the plane's passengers.
He formed his new group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, after his release from India jails.
The group, the majority of whose members follow the Dubendi school of thought, is accused of a string of deadly attacks on Indian targets, including one on the parliament complex in Delhi in December 2001.
It is also accused of the kidnapping and murdering of American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002.
Jaish-e-Mohammed has for years been on the US State Department's list of terrorist organizations.
After the 9/11 attacks, Pakistan joined the US war on terror.
In 2002, Jaish-e-Mohammed was banned by then military ruler General Pervez Musharraf and Azhar was taken again to prison for a year.
He was released later the same year and placed under house arrest until the Lahore High Court ordered an end to it in December 2002, much to the fury of India.
The group later started functioning under a new name; Tanzeem-ul-Furqan.
However, the newly formed group soon splintered into two factions, one led by Azhar and the other by another key leader in the group, Maulana Mazhar.
Security experts believe that Jaish-e-Mohammed, or Tanzeem-ul-Furqan, is no more the organized and well-equipped group it once was because of international pressures and internal divisions.
Its members are estimated at no more than 1500-2000.
Today, Maulana Azhar, 41, is keeping a low profile and Pakistan has restricted much of his movement.
Lashkar-e-Taiba
|
| Saeed's charity work has attracted world attention for years. |
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LT), or The Army of Pious, was founded in 1987 by Hafiz Saeed, also one of the India's most wanted men.
Saeed, a former professor of Islamic learning at the University of Engineering and Technology in Lahore, set up the group as an armed wing of his Markaz Dawat-ul Irshad (MDI) party.
The party and the group headquartered in Muridkay, a small town near Pakistan's northeastern city of Lahore.
LT's armed operations began against Soviet occupation forces in the eastern Afghanistan provinces of Kunnar and Paktia in 1987-88.
A few years after the ouster of the Soviets, particularly in 1993, the group turned its attention towards Indian-ruled Kashmir.
Over the past decade, the Lashkar-e-Taiba has been blamed for several attacks in India.
Though 4 members of Jaish-e-Mohammed have been convicted over the 2001 Indian parliament bombing, New Delhi also pointed the fingers at Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Just like Jaish-e-Mohammed, the group is on the US watch-list of terrorist organizations.
It is also banned in the United Kingdom and several other Western countries.
In 2002, Pakistani authorities officially outlawed Lashkar-e-Taiba, which follows Ahl-e-Hadit school of thought in Pakistan.
Saeed left the group shortly before its was banned and set up a charity, the Idara Khidmat-e-Khalq (People's Service's Administration), and denies any relation with his old group.
In 2005, he was detained by Pakistani security agencies for over two months without any accusations leveled against him.
He was released following a settlement between his family and the government.
His charity currently runs 200 secondary schools called Dawa Schools and two science colleges.
It also runs an ambulance service, mobile clinics and blood banks.
The organization's charity work has attracted world attention during the October 2005 earthquake in the Pakistani region of Azad Kashmir.
In last November's earthquake in the southeastern province of Baluchistan, the organization once again stole the limelight as one of the largest relief operators in quake-hit areas.
|
