 "Men gather under a ceiling with blood stain, after twin bomb attack occurred at a court, in Mardan, Pakistan")
Every year, charitable and political organisations mint millions of rupees by selling animal hides, following Eid-ul-Azha celebrations. Karachi, where leather processing industry thrives on this raw material, exports finished leather goods worth $800 million every year.
This year, owing to the ban on Karachi’s largest political party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the biggest beneficiaries of the hide donations were the Jamat-ud Dawah and the Jamaat-e-Islami.
“They were standing at mosques and their volunteers went door to door to collect skins. This is strange given that the JuD is a banned organisation,” said MQM leader Farooq Sattar.
According to MQM, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed-led JuD has complete patronage of the army. “In Karachi, such rightwing militant parties are allowed to operate with impunity while parties like the MQM are shackled,” said Sattar.
It is money from such enterprises that fuels the JuD and other militant organisations which spend it not only on welfare projects in Pakistan but also on their activities in Kashmir. “The Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) is now active in Hindu-dominated Thar area where they are digging wells for communities and converting the residents to Islam,” said Jibran Nasir, a local politician.
Money is also funnelled to madrassas in south Punjab where entities like JuD, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) operate under protection of the local law enforcement agencies. “It is like a university of madrassas,” said Ayesha Siddiqa, political and defence analyst, who owns land in the area. “Every day, you see more madrassas springing up.”
Both Thar and South Punjab are among the poorest regions in Pakistan. And, it is from here that militant outfits recruit. There is also such activity taking place in Balochistan, where large parts of the population live in abject poverty.
“What we are seeing is a business model that seems to be very successful,” said an analyst. “Raise money in the cities and spend it in the poorer areas. Sympathies and memberships are gained through quick and active response during human tragedies and natural disasters. The JuD responds particularly effectively to such situations.”
During all this, the government looks the other way. Thousands of young men are recruited each year from madrassas in poorer regions. Selected few are sent for training to the camps set up by the army in the Abbottabad area and in what Pakistan calls Azad Kashmir and India calls Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The camps are well protected. One Murree-based reporter recalls how he was nearly arrested after he strayed into an area where such a camp was located. “These are no-go zones,” he said.
Fidayeens emerge from places like these, said a local journalist. They are sent to Indian part of Kashmir or to Afghanistan. Some end up in Balochistan where the army is fighting a bloody war with pro-independence fighters.
However, like most entities sponsored by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the JuD is spreading its wings into politics and public life. The establishment of “summary Sharia courts” in Lahore, where residents can seek quick and cheap “justice”, has not gone down well with the military high command. “The government is uncomfortable with the manner in which some of the militant outfits are now getting ideas of their own,” said an observer. This is a sensitive issue as the military wants total control over the outfits it patronises.
In the past, the army has seen some of its creations turn against it. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is a prime example. Army doesn’t want a repeat of that.
To make such organisations fall in line, security agencies continue to retain control on the money supply. With dwindling foreign donations and reluctant military establishment, militant outfits are trying to raise funds on their own.
JuD has collected billions of rupees in campaigns led from the front by Hafiz Saeed and his colleagues. “The more funds they collect on their own, the better standing they have with the agencies,” said an analyst. Based on such performance, official patronage is doled out. The impunity with which the JuD operates in Pakistan clearly suggests that it is in the good books of the intelligence agencies. There has been no effort to restrict its activities. And, Hafiz Saeed has proved a wily businessman. After madrassas and social welfare organisations, he is extending his influence to the coveted English-medium schools and other profit-making enterprises.
But organisations like JuD don’t always act according to the script. This is evident by the intense rivalry between these groups. There have been armed clashes on control of properties, particularly mosques. Leaders of one group or another have been killed. But at the end of the day, say observers, it is the army high command that calls the shots. This is not likely to change any time soon.
The author is a journalist and independent political commentator based in Pakistan.
The author is a journalist and independent political commentator based in Pakistan.
