Pakistani military chief signs death warrants for six ‘hard-core terrorists’

“One policy to deal with Taliban’s terror, another when groups are targeting India,” he said.

Hours earlier, a judge in an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi had granted bail of $10,000 to Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, an alleged leader of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group.

Lakhvi’s attorney, Rizwan Abbasi, said there was no “substantial evidence” against his client other than claims that he was a Lashkar-e-Taiba commander.

“This charge can’t prove he was involved in the Mumbai attack. And it also couldn’t be proved that he was commander” of the group, Abbasi said.

Calling the situation “unfortunate,” India’s minister of home affairs, Rajnath Singh, demanded that Pakistani leaders appeal Lakhvi’s release.

In the 2008 attacks, 10 gunmen from Lashkar-e-Taiba entered Mumbai from the sea via Karachi, Pakistan, and waged a campaign of terror over two days.Armed with explosives and automatic rifles, they launched a coordinated attack on the Taj hotel as well as a Jewish community center. About 300 people were wounded throughout the two-day series of attacks.

One of the Pakistani terrorists linked to the attacks, Ajmal Amir Kasab, was arrested by police during the attack and was tried and convicted. He was hanged in 2012. But Pakistan refused to hand over additional suspects.

Lakhvi and six other men were charged in Pakistan.

“We call upon the government of Pakistan to immediately take steps to reverse this decision. There can be no selective approaches to terrorism,” said Syed Akbaruddin, a spokesman for India’s Ministry of External Affairs.

There was no immediate official comment from Pakistan. A Pakistani diplomat, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, noted that the country “has independent courts” and stressed that the government will file an appeal.

But the court’s decision is reigniting long-standing perceptions that Pakistan maintains a double standard on terrorism. Lashkar-e-Taiba, founded in 1990 with support from Pakistan’s intelligence agencies, aims to drive India out of Kashmir, the Himalayan region claimed by both countries.

India and Pakistan have fought two major wars over Kashmir. And India has long demanded that Pakistan act against Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the leader of Lashkar-e-Taliba, who lives openly in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore.

Still, despite the decades of hostility between the two countries, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday to offer his condolences after the Peshawar attack.

On the same day, Sharif announced that he was lifting a moratorium on the death penalty. Under pressure from human rights groups and European donors, Pakistan imposed a moratorium on capital punishment in 2008. Activists allege that hundreds of prisoners have gone “missing” since then, and they suspect that there have been extrajudicial killings. Military officials deny the assertion.

In addition to the six prisoners to be hanged soon, the government has forwarded the names of 63 terrorism convicts who are being held for capital crimes and have exhausted their appeals. Those prisoners are likely to be executed in the coming months, officials said.

Pakistan’s Express Tribune newspaper, which first reported the decision, said the six prisoners facing execution have links to some of the country’s most high-profile attacks, including a 2009 shooting in Lahore in which six players from the Sri Lankan cricket team were wounded.

In northwestern Pakistan, a hub of Taliban activity, the news of the impending executions put officials on edge.

On Thursday, the inspector general in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province issued a “red alert” to prisons, warning that militants could strike in an attempt to free jailed fighters.

“Matter most urgent,” the alert states.

Gowen reported from New Delhi. Shaiq Hussain in Islamabad and Haq Nawaz Khan in Peshawar contributed to this report.

source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/pakistan-judge-grants-bail-to-alleged-mastermind-of-2008-mumbai-terror-attack/2014/12/18/c644366a-86b0-11e4-9534-f79a23c40e6c_story.html?tid=hpModule_04941f10-8a79-11e2-98d9-3012c1cd8d1e

Pakistan to appeal bail for man accused of masterminding Mumbai attack

Pakistan plans to appeal against a court decision to grant bail to a man accused of masterminding 2008 attacks in India’s financial capital that killed 166 people, prosecutors said on Friday.

The decision to grant bail to Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi appeared to blindside the Pakistani government, drew quick condemnation from India and is likely to hinder attempts to patch up ties between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

“We are going to challenge the bail order of Lakhvi,” government prosecutor Chaudhry Azhar told Reuters. “We will go to Islamabad High Court on Monday to file the application.”

Lakhvi would not be able to leave the prison until then, he said, as he was being held under a law that allows short detentions without charge, in the interest of keeping order.

The court ruling came as Pakistan was struggling to respond to its biggest ever militant attack. Taliban gunmen killed 132 school children and nine members of staff in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Tuesday.

The Pakistani Taliban said the attack was revenge for a military offensive against them. The Taliban are fighting to overthrow the government and install a strict Islamic state.

The Indian government condemned the school attack. But some Pakistanis, including former president Pervez Musharraf, have publicly hinted they believe Indian intelligence was behind it.

Relations between the two nuclear armed neighbors have been rocky ever since independence from Britain in 1947. They have fought three wars, two over the disputed territory of Kashmir.

The 2008 attacks, when gunmen rampaged through Mumbai for three days, sent relations into deep freeze. India blamed Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the attack and handed over intercepts to use as evidence in the Lakhvi case.

Lakhvi was arrested in 2009 after the sole surviving gunman named him as the mastermind behind the Mumbai attacks.

Since Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was elected last year, he has been trying to repair relations with India, which he sees as vital to kickstarting Pakistan’s sluggish economy.

But earlier this year India elected Narendra Modi, a hawkish nationalist whose party has struggled to shake off accusations that it favors the country’s majority Hindus at the expense of religious minorities.

source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/19/us-pakistan-india-militant-idUSKBN0JX0E620141219

Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi’s bail: India conveys its strong concerns to Pakistan

A day after a Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court granted bail to Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the key handler in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks case, India has conveyed its strong concerns and sentiments of people to Pakistan through diplomatic channels, MEA spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said.

The release of Lakhvi will make a mockery of Pakistan’s commitment to fight terror groups without hesitation and without making distinctions, India has told Pakistan.

“Despite repeated assurances that have been received, we have seen both the prosecution of the seven accused in the anti-terror court in Islamabad, as also the investigation by the authorities into the larger conspiracy surrounding the Mumbai attack case, proceeding at a glacial pace.

“The story of repeated postponements, adjournments and unavailability of concerned law officers or witnesses is well documented and does not require repetition. The move to grant bail to Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi yesterday has taken this saga to another level,” official spokesman in the external affairs ministry Syed Akbaruddin said.

“We have, therefore, forthwith communicated to Pakistan through diplomatic channels our strong concerns on this matter and the sentiments across the spectrum of Indian society that that this will make a mockery of Pakistan’s commitment to fight terror groups without hesitation and without making distinctions,” the spokesman said.

Lakhvi’s bail came a day after India expressed full solidarity with Pakistan in the aftermath of the Peshawar massacre, and the court order led New Delhi to react strongly against the bail. The court said the charge-sheet against Lakhvi and other accused was flawed and lacking in evidence. The prosecutor did not say whether the government would appeal in a higher court against the court’s bail order.

Sources said the Federal Investigation Agency, which had provided solid evidence to the court about LeT’s involvement in the Mumbai attacks, disagreed with the bail but had to accept anti-terrorism court judge Kausar Abbas Zaidi’s order.

The court directed Lakhvi, a trusted lieutenant of Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, to pay surety bonds worth Rs 5,00,000 ($5,000) before his release. Advocate Rizwan Abbasi had filed the bail application of the seven accused a day earlier, when lawyers across the country were on strike over the school carnage.

“We were not expecting this decision as we were still to produce a good number of witnesses in the case. We are awaiting the court’s detailed order before giving further comment on the decision,” said chief prosecutor Chaudhry Azhar. Lakhvi’s counsel Raja Rizwan Abbasi told agencies that the court had granted bail as “evidence against Lakhvi was deficient”.

source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Zakiur-Rehman-Lakhvis-bail-India-conveys-its-strong-concerns-to-Pakistan/articleshow/45570963.cms

Allure of ISIS for Pakistanis Is on the Rise

Across Pakistan, the black standard of the Islamic State has been popping up all over.

From urban slums to Taliban strongholds, the militant group’s logo and name have appeared in graffiti, posters and pamphlets. Last month, a cluster of militant commanders declared their allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed caliph of the Islamic State.

Such is the influence of the Islamic State’s steamroller success in Iraq and Syria that, even thousands of miles away, security officials and militant networks are having to reckon with the group, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Its victories have energized battle-weary militants in Pakistan. The ISIS brand offers them potent advantages, analysts say — an aid to fund-raising and recruiting, a possible advantage over rival factions and, most powerfully, a new template for waging jihad.

Although the Islamic State is not operational in Pakistan, just its symbolic presence is ample cause for concern. It is there, after all, that Al Qaeda was founded in the 1980s, followed by other extremist ideologies that easily found the means and support to carry out international attacks.

“It doesn’t matter that Daish has not yet established its presence in Pakistan — it has already changed the dynamics of militancy here,” said Muhammad Amir Rana, director of the Pak Institute for Peace Studies, using the group’s Arabic acronym. “Our groups were in crisis; now Daish has provided them with a powerful framework that is transforming their narrative.”

During his visit to Washington this week, the new Pakistani Army chief, Gen. Raheel Sharif, assured his American hosts that the Islamic State would not be allowed to take root in Pakistan. Instead, officials say, local groups are manipulating its name to their own ends.

When Islamic State posters appeared on electricity poles in Lahore, the hometown of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, this month, the police blamed it on sectarian militant groups like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. “They are just using the Daish name to intimidate Shiites,” said Ijaz Shafi Dogar, a police commander.

Even nonjihadist groups have seized upon the potency of the Islamic State brand. In Karachi, secular politicians have claimed that Islamic State graffiti shows how militants are slipping into the city amid an influx of Pashtun migrants — a contention angrily rebutted by Pashtun leaders.

“It is totally exaggerated, and an attempt to slur our community,” said Abdul Razzaq, a community leader.

But inside the splintering network of the Pakistani Taliban, the Islamic State phenomenon has had a very real effect as a powerful catalyst for tensions.

As a punishing military offensive against militant cells in the North Waziristan enters its sixth month, the Islamic State has highlighted to militant leaders the shortcomings of their own insurgency and provided an outlet for dissent.

The ISIS cause became openly divisive in October when a group of six commanders led by Sheikh Maqbool, a former Taliban spokesman, openly pledged loyalty to the Islamic State. “A large number of mujahedeen are with us,” said Abu Zar Khurassani, a senior figure in the breakaway faction. “Soon we will decide on how to help the Islamic State.”

The split was partly a product of simmering disputes inside the Taliban leadership, said a Taliban commander in Peshawar, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. But, he added, many fighters were inspired by the dramatic video images of Mr. Baghdadi, draped in a black cloak, declaring a new caliphate.

He presents a stark contrast with the Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, who has been nearly invisible since American airstrikes drove him from Afghanistan 13 years ago.

“The mujahedeen are raising questions about how we can follow someone whose presence has not been confirmed for the past decade, except for greetings at Eid,” said the commander, referring to an annual Islamic holiday. “We don’t even know if he’s dead or alive.”

Although the Islamic State has extended its franchise and resources to at least one other foreign militant movement, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which is battling Egypt in Sinai, such recognition has not been publicly granted to any Pakistan-based groups. In a video message, Mr. Maqbool, the breakaway Taliban commander, said he had tried to reach the Islamic State over the summer, using Arab intermediaries, but had yet to receive a reply.

Yet there are also signs that the Islamic State’s leadership is aware of its Pakistani constituency and wishes to pander to it.

In the summer, the Islamic State publicly demanded the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani scientist serving an 86-year prison term in the United States for her part in an attack on Americans in Afghanistan, in exchange for the American journalists James Foley and Steven J. Sotloff, who were later beheaded.

“That’s quite important,” said Zahid Hussain, author of “The Scorpion’s Tail,” a book about the rise of Islamist militancy in Pakistan. “It shows they knew who Aafia Siddiqui was, and that they wanted to have some kind of influence on the Pakistan groups.”

In fact, there are important connections, historic and current, between the jihadist fronts in Pakistan and the Middle East.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant commander killed by American forces in Iraq in 2006, lived in Pakistan and Afghanistan for long spells during the 1990s and early 2000s. The eruption of civil war in Syria in 2011 drew a steady traffic of fighters from militant groups, both foreign and local, based in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area.

“The linkages are old,” said one senior Pakistani security official in Peshawar, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “They went quietly — not in droves but in ones and twos.”

Recruiters draw on Pakistan’s broad pool of extremist and sectarian militant groups; most recently Saudi-funded groups have recruited fighters from Baluchistan Province, where violence against Shiites is high, said Mr. Hussain, the analyst.

Some fear those fighters could return from the Middle East imbued with an invigorated sense of purpose — and money from Iraqi oil fields — to further stoke Pakistan’s own wars.

“We don’t discount the emergence of a new militant front in the region that has a direct nexus with Islamic State,” the security official in Peshawar said.

Tentative contacts have begun, according to some intelligence reports. In an internal letter last month, officials with the Home Department of Sindh Province warned that an Islamic State representative from Uzbekistan had appointed Abid Kahot, a militant commander based in Rawalpindi, to draw Pakistani groups into the Islamic State’s orbit. The letter was seen by The New York Times, but its authenticity could not be confirmed.

Still, other Pakistani officials are skeptical that the Islamic State could change much in a country that has already suffered years of suicide bombings, beheadings, drone strikes and several tens of thousands of deaths. “In tactical terms, it would change nothing,” said one government official in northwestern Pakistan.

The last jihadist conglomerate group to create such a frisson among Pakistani militants was Al Qaeda, which remains the predominant foreign group in the country. But its ranks in the tribal areas have been hit by more than 400 American drone strikes in the past decade. And the messages from its leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, mostly in lengthy and static video and audio recordings, look dated alongside the nimble social media of the Islamic State.

Apparently seeking to bolster his support in the region, Mr. Zawahri announced a new franchise, named Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, in September. This month, the group’s spokesman, Usama Mahmood, called on rival jihadist groups in Syria to unite against the United States. And on Friday, the Qaeda branch in Yemen condemned the Islamic State’s declaration of a caliphate as a divisive power grab.

Failure to face up to the threat of the Islamic State could pose a greater danger to Pakistan than Al Qaeda did, the English-language newspaper Dawn warned in a recent editorial. “Miss the warning signs now, or fail to deny it space within Pakistan,” it said, “and it may not be long before I.S. becomes the mother of all militant problems.”

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/22/world/asia/isis-pakistan-militants-taliban-jihad.html