Felon of Pulwama: brief history of Jaish
The birth of Pakistan was the result of political blackmails, but Pakistan never abandoned its method. And India has to bear the side effects of its destructive activities. In the 1970s, fundamentalist activities within Pakistan strengthened and after Bangladesh became independent, it became more oriented towards radical Islamic politics. In Afghanistan, when Noor Muhammad Taraki was ousted from power, the Soviets entered into Afghanistan and it started a major conflict during the Cold War.
At this juncture,the United States saw a trusted partner and follower in Pakistan's new ruler General Zia-ul-Haq and the US became the chief sponsor of the global export of Pakistani fundamentalist Islamic terrorism whose culmination was felt by the US directly in the 9/11 attacks. But India continues to be a direct target of terrorist activities of Pakistan. It has been the chief executive organ of policies like Zia’s bleed India to thousand cuts. The cowardly assault on CRPF in Pulwama once again highlighted the cruel face of Pakistan. Regardless of how Pakistan's governments talk about peace, the army is continuing efforts to fulfill its prerogative interests through ISI and fundamentalist Islamic organizations. Responsible for this incident Jaish-e-Mohammed literally "The Army of Muhammad", is a Pakistan-based Deobandi jihadist organization.
Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) is a relatively new terrorist outfit, compared to other major outfits active in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). Like the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), the JeM too is an outfit formed, controlled by Masters in Pakistan. The outfit was launched on January 31, 2000, by Maulana Masood Azhar in Karachi after he was released from an Indian jail during the terrorists for hostage swap of December 31, 1999, following the hijacking of the Indian Airlines Flight IC 814.
The formation of the outfit was endorsed by three fundamentalist religious school chiefs, Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai of the Majlis-e-Tawan-e-Islami (MT), Maulana Mufti Rashid Ahmed of the Dar-ul Ifta-e-wal-Irshad and Maulana Sher Ali of the Sheikh-ul-Hadith Dar-ul Haqqania.
The outfit’s creation can be linked to the popularity surrounding Masood Azhar after his release from India. Maulana Masood Azhar was the general secretary of the newly established Harkat-ul-Ansar (HuA) in 1994 and was on a 'mission' in J&K when he was arrested on February 11. When he was released, the HuA had been included in the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations which had compelled the outfit to rename itself as the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM). However, Masood Azhar decided to float the new outfit JeM rather than rejoin his old outfit.
Role of ISI
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is the main support system to have created Jaish-e-Mohammed by working with several Deobandi terrorists associated with Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. By the late 1990s, the Pakistani military justified jihad in Kashmir as a legitimate part of its foreign policy. Harkat had been set up in mid-1990s with ISI support to carry out "spectacular acts of terrorism". The United States declared it a terrorist group in 1998 and bombed its training camps in Afghanistan. In December 1999, Harkat terrorists hijacked the Indian Airlines Flight IC 814 scheduled to fly from Kathmandu to Delhi, and diverted it to Kandahar, where they were looked after by the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani officials stationed at the airport. After they slit the throat of a passenger, the Indian government agreed to their demands and released Maulana Masood Azhar, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, three Harkat operatives previously imprisoned in India.
Objective
The Jaish-e-Mohammed is part of the Islamist terror network with its base in Pakistan and active in the terrorist violence in J&K. The outfit, like other terrorist outfits in J&K, claims to using violence to force a withdrawal of Indian security forces from J&K. The outfit claims that each of its offices in Pakistan would serve as schools of jihad. Delivering speeches at various cities and towns in Pakistan after his release, Masood Azhar threatened that the outfit would eliminate Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who he termed as 'Abu Jahl’ (Father of Ignorance). In its fight against India, he added that the outfit would not only "liberate" Kashmir, but also would take control of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, Amritsar and Delhi.
Organizational Structure
JeM's founder and leader (emir) is Maulana Masood Azhar, who had earlier been a leader of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. Having trained at the same religious seminary (Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia in Karachi) as the Taliban founder Mullah Omar, he had long-standing connections to Taliban and Al Qaeda. He had fought in Afghanistan and set up Harkat affiliates in Chechnya, Central Asia and Somalia.
Masood Azhar's brother, Abdul Rauf Asghar, is a senior leader of JeM and its intelligence coordinator. He was one of the hijackers of the flight IC 814 and served as the "acting leader" of JeM in Masood Azhar's absence in 2007. Since 2008, he has been involved with organising suicide attacks in India, including the 2016 Pathankot attack, where he was found to have directed the terrorists via telephone. Abdul Rauf Asghar has also been designated as a "global terrorist" by the US Treasury department. Other important officials includes, Maulana Qari Mansoor Ahmed – Nazim Propaganda Wing (he is a resident of Bhurewala, Punjab), Maulana Abdul Jabbar – Nazim, Military Affairs (Former Nazim military affairs, (HuM), Maulana Sajjad Usman – incharge, Finance (Former HuM Nazim Finance), Shah Nawaz Khan alias Sajjid Jehadi and Gazi Baba – Chief Commander J&K (Former Supreme Commander HuM, J&K) and Maulana Mufti Mohd. Asghar – Launching Commander (Former Launching Commander of HuM).
Masood Azhar stayed loyal to the Pakistani state after 2004. Pakistan in turn protected his group despite the official bans. The group continued to grow in Bahawalpur. In 2009, it was reported to have built a large 6.5 acre walled complex in Bahawalpur. Indian news magazine India Today revealed that the complex has been branded as 'Jamia Masjid Subhan Allah' and that it was 8 km. away from the headquarters of Pakistan Army's 31 Corps.
Modus operandi
Most Jaish-e-Mohammed attacks have been described as fidayeen (suicide terrorist) attacks. In this mode, terrorists of the outfit storm a high security target, including security forces' bases, camps and convoys. After storming, they either fortify themselves within the target, killing as many security force personnel and civilians as possible before they are killed by retaliatory action. In other cases, they kill and injure as many as possible before attempting to escape.
The Jaish-e-Mohammed has largely confined its operations within J&K. The only recorded instance of its operations outside J&K has been the December 13, 2001, Parliament attack in New Delhi. However, several of its cadre have, on occasions been arrested or killed by security forces in states other than J&K.
Sordid nexus
The outfit is closely linked, through the Binoria Madrassah in Karachi, with the former Taliban regime of Afghanistan and its Portege,Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda. JeM chief, Masood Azhar was released by Indian authorities in Kandahar and has reportedly met Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan on various occasions. When JeM started, it had strong ties to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, sharing their training camps in Afghanistan, and exchanging intelligence, training and coordination. Bruce Riedel suggests that the 2001 Indian Parliament attack was possibly a "payback" to Al-Qaeda for its earlier help in getting Masood Azhar released.
Jaish-e-Mohammed is viewed as the "deadliest" and "the principal terrorist organisation in Jammu and Kashmir". The group was responsible several terror attacks: 2001 attack on Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly, 2001 Indian Parliament attack, 2016 Pathankot airbase attack, 2016 attack on the Indian Mission in Mazar-i-Sharif , 2016 Uri attack, and now in 2019 Pulwama attack. The group has been designated as a terrorist organisation by Pakistan, Russia, Australia, Canada, India, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States and the United Nations.
It is clear that Jaish is operating independently its activities despite the international pressure and restrictions with the full support provided by Pakistan's government and the army. The 14th February incident is a clear indication for India that improving relations with Pakistan is not possible in the present circumstances. Now the time is to take stern steps against not only the terrorist organization but the Pakistan government also, so they learn this lesson well and stay away from such kind of activities in the future.