Jaish-E-Mohammed (JEM): A Backgrounder

South Asia Analysis Group

Paper no. 332

03. 10. 2001

JAISH-E-MOHAMMED (JEM) ---A BACKGROUNDER

by B.Raman

A backgrounder on the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM), which has claimed responsibility for the explosion on October 1,2001, outside the State Legislative Assembly building in Srinagar in the Jammu & Kashmir State of India and the subsequent exchange of fire with the Security Forces in which 35 innocent civilians have been killed, is given in the following paragraphs.

In 1979, a committee set up by General Zia-ul-Haq estimated the total number of madrasas in Punjab as being over 1000. Today, in Punjab alone, the number exceeds 2,500. There are an equal number in the rest of the country. Of these, about 200 are controlled by the Ahl-e-Hadith sect and about 100 by the Shias. The remaining are equally divided between the Barelvi and Deobandi sects.

In 1979-80, after the entry of the Soviet troops into Afghanistan, the US Government sought Zia-ul-Haq's assistance for training the Afghan Mujahideen groups and Arab mercenaries and for raising a clandestine Army of Islam to fight against the Soviet troops with arms and ammunition to be provided by the US out of stocks seized during the Vietnam war. Zia gladly accepted this role in return for US military and economic assistance to Pakistan.

A special US team flew to Islamabad and finalised this package---military and economic assistance to Pakistan in return for its help in making the Soviet troops bleed in Afghanistan. Included in this team was an officer of the CIA, under the cover of a State Department diplomat----named Mrs. Wendy Chamberlain.

She has now returned to her old turf as the present US Ambassador to Pakistan and is busy negotiating with the present military junta led by Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's self-reinstated Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), self-styled Chief Executive and self-promoted President, a similar package of assistance in return for its help in destroying the remnants of the Islamic warriors trained in the 1980s, who have, after spreading their jehad to India, China, the Philippines, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Russia, have taken it to the heart of the US.

When Zia accepted this job of contract killing of the Soviet troops for the Americans, he chose for the task Musharraf and the present Lt.Gen.Mohammad Aziz, now a Corps Commander at Lahore. They worked out a plan, which provided for a clear division of responsibilities---the Afghan Mujahideen and the Arab mercenaries including Osama bin Laden to be trained by the Pakistani military-intelligence establishment with American-British-French assistance,and the clandestine Pakistani Army of Islam to be raised and trained by the Pakistani military-intelligence establishment without any external assistance, but to be equipped by the CIA.

For training this Army of Islam, Musharraf and Aziz, assisted by Maj.Gen.(retd) Mahmud Durrani, selected 100 of the then existing madrasas, almost all Deobandi, and introduced military training by serving and retired officers of the Pakistan Army attached to them.

The most important and the most active of these madrasas chosen by them were the Jamiya Uloom-e-Islami in the Binori mosque, Karachi, set up by Maulana Yusuf Binori soon after independence in 1947;the Darul Uloom Akora Khattak in NWFP, and the Jamiya Ashrafiya in Lahore. Most of the Mulla leading-lights of the clandestine Army of Islam, including Maulana Masood Azhar, graduated in terrorism from these three madrasas, with Maulana Azhar himself passing out of the Binori mosque madrasa. In the 1990s, many of the Taliban leaders also passed out of this madrasa.

Musharraf and Aziz included in this Army of Islam as many mutually conflicting groups as possible so that while they kept the Soviet troops bleeding, none of them would subsequently emerge as a threat to the primacy of the Pakistan Army in the local power structure. Keep them fighting the Soviet troops when they can and fighting among themselves when they should so that no single group became too big for its shoes inside Pakistan itself--that was the objective of Musharraf and Aziz.

The result: Blood flew not only inside Afghanistan, but also inside Pakistan itself due to sectarian and other quarrels amongst the various components of the Army of Islam. Since the Army of Islam drew all its recruits from the Sunnis, mainly Deobandis, the blood which flew in Pakistan and continues to flow is largely that of the Shias.

Amongst the active initial members of this Army of Islam was the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, subsequently re-named as Harkat-ul-Ansar (HUA) and again as HUM when the US declared the HUA a foreign terrorist organisation in October,1997. Other organisations such as the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), the militant wing of the Markaz Dawa Al Irshad (MDI), and the Al Badr joined it subsequently.

After the collapse of the Najibullah Government in Kabul in April, 1992, the Pakistani military-intelligence establishment shifted this Army of Islam to J & K. The HUM often did not claim responsibility for its successful operations for which it let the indigenous Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) claim credit to create the impression that it was the indigenous groups, which were fighting the Indian Security Forces.

However, the LET and the Al Badr resisted pressure from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to follow a similar policy of letting the HM claim credit for their successful operations and insisted on claiming responsibility in their own name.

After Osama bin Laden returned to Afghanistan from Sudan in the beginning of 1996, his Al Qaeda was also incorporated into this Army of Islam by Aziz, who used to act and continues to act as the Chief of Staff of this clandestine army.

This Army of Islam was used by Musharraf and Aziz to occupy the Kargil heights in April 1999 and thus pave the way for the induction of regular Pakistani Army troops into the heights.

In the famous intercepted telephone conversation between Musharraf, then in Beijing, and Aziz, then Chief of the General Staff (CGS) in the GHQ in Rawalpindi, released by New Delhi in June,1999, Aziz could be heard reassuring Musharraf:" Sir, the scruff of their (Army of Islam's) neck is in our hands," thus indicating that this Army was totally under the control of Pakistan's Army of State.

During the 1980s, many ostensibly humanitarian relief organisations came into being in Pakistan through which Western and Saudi intelligence agencies could funnel money to this Army of Islam and others fighting the Soviet troops. One such organisation got floated in Karachi by the ISI and registered as a charitable trust under the Pakistan Income Tax Act was called the Al Rashid Trust, which runs, inter alia, the weekly and online journal of the Taliban called "Zarb-e-Momin". Its founder was Mufti Rashid Ahmed.

In 1994, Maulana Masood Azhar, a leader of the HUM,who had fought along with bin Laden's Al Qaeda against the US troops in Somalia and had participated in the training of Al Qaeda's supporters in Yemen, was arrested by the Indian authorities and detained in a Jammu jail till December,1999, when he had to be released as demanded by the HUM cadres, including Azhar's brother, who had hijacked an Indian Airlines' plane to Kandahar.

During his detention, Azhar used to send articles clandestinely to the Al Rashid Trust and these used to be published in the "Zarb-e-Momin". In one of these articles published on October 31,1999, Azhar praised the services of Mufti Rashid Ahmed as follows:

* Due to his services, "the Taliban gained strength and the long porous border of Pakistan became so safe that not a single army guard is needed there. If instead of the Taliban, Ahmad Shah Masood who is the enemy of Pakistan and ally of India had been the ruler of Afghanistan, Pakistan would have been surrounded by enemies on all four sides."

* "Thousands of his students are fighting in Kashmir. Students, who are as dear to him as his own sons, putting their lives in danger are battling the Indian troops."

* When some renowned sons of Islam and Pakistan attained martyrdom in the prisons of India, he announced a reward of Rs. two million for those who would kill the murderers.

One Mohammed Saleh, son of Rashid Ahmed, native of Karachi, captured in July, 1998, by the Northern Alliance of Afghanistan stated as follows during his interrogation: "His parents came to Pakistan in 1973 as refugees. He was born in 1975 in the city of Karachi in Pakistan and studied up to the eighth grade. He then began attending the Abuzar Islami Kawrangi madrassah. During his studies, he joined the Mahaz-e Islami of Burma party through Noor Alem, who was the leader of Mahaz-e Islami and Abdul Hamid, his deputy. This party has links with Harkat ul Mujahideen and Harkat ul Ansar and Edara ul Rashid. Mufti Rashid Ahmed is the chief of these three parties and Mufti Abdul Rahim is his deputy. These parties have direct links with ISI and the Taliban inside Afghanistan and are supporters of the Taliban. They always send their members inside Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban. The Zarb-e Momin newsletter explains about their links with ISI and the Taliban. Its daily publication supports the Taliban. "

After the HUA was declared by the US as a foreign terrorist organisation in October, 1997, after its suspected involvement in the kidnapping of five Western tourists in J & K in 1995 under the name Al Faran, it changed its name as HUM and joined bin Laden's International Islamic Front for Jehad against the US and Israel in May,1998, and signed his fatwa against the US and Israel.

Following his release from jail by the Govt. of India in December, 1999, Azhar went to the Binori mosque and announced the formation of the JEM to fight against India and the US. This caused a split in the HUM and a majority of its members joined the JEM, which was inducted by Aziz as a member of the Army of Islam. Despite the JEM and the HUM being both members of the Army of Islam, there were frequent clashes between the two over property, fund collection etc.

The JEM cadres, after training, were inducted into J & K by Aziz and it has now become the principal terrorist organisation after the LET.

On May 18,2000, Maulana Mohammad Yousuf Ludhianvi of the Binori mosque and his driver were killed in Karachi by unknown elements. Their murders have not been solved so far. In the tributes paid to him in Karachi's religious press, the Maulana was described as "the supreme leader of the JEM", of which, it was said, Azhar was the Chief Commander. The Maulana was also described as the Chief Commander of the Sipah-e-Sahaba, a member of bin Laden's International Islamic Front. The Sahaba has been carrying on a campaign against the Shias of Pakistan and had participated in the massacre of the Shias of Afghanistan. The open leader of the Sahaba is Maulana Azam Tariq, who is described by some Pakistani analysts as the most powerful cleric in Pakistan today. It was also said by observers that it was the slain Maulana, who had organised the hijacking of the IAC plane to Kandahar to secure the release of Azhar.

The Shia media in Pakistan reported that in addition to being an office-bearer of the HUM till December, 1999, Azhar was also an office-bearer of the Siph-e-Sahaba and was known for his strong anti-Shia views.

In its annual report on the Patterns of Global Terrorism during 2000 released in April, 2001, the Counter-Terrorism Division of the US State Department has described the JEM as follows:

Description

"The Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) is an Islamist group based in Pakistan that has rapidly expanded in size and capability since Maulana Masood Azhar, a former ultrafundamentalist Harkat ul-Ansar (HUA) leader, announced its formation in February. The group's aim is to unite Kashmir with Pakistan. It is politically aligned with the radical, pro-Taliban, political party, Jamiat-i Ulema-i Islam (JUI-F).

Activities

"The JEM's leader, Masood Azhar, was released from Indian imprisonment in December 1999 in exchange for 155 hijacked Indian Airlines hostages in Afghanistan. The 1994 HUA kidnappings of US and British nationals in New Delhi and the July 1995 HUA/Al Faran kidnappings of Westerners in Kashmir were two of several previous HUA efforts to free Azhar. Azhar organized large rallies and recruitment drives across Pakistan throughout 2000. In July, a JEM rocket-grenade attack failed to injure the Chief Minister at his office in Srinagar, India, but wounded four other persons. In December, JEM militants launched grenade attacks at a bus stop in Kupwara, India, injuring 24 persons, and at a marketplace in Chadoura, India, injuring 16 persons. JEM militants also planted two bombs that killed 21 persons in Qamarwari and Srinagar.

Strength

"Has several hundred armed supporters located in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan, and in India's southern Kashmir and Doda regions. Following Maulana Masood Azhar's release from detention in India, a reported three quarters of Harkat-ul-Mujahedin (HUM) members defected to the new organization, which has managed to attract a large number of urban Kashmiri youth. Supporters are mostly Pakistanis and Kashmiris and also include Afghans and Arab veterans of the Afghan war. Uses light and heavy machineguns, assault rifles, mortars, improvised explosive devices, and rocket grenades.

Location/Area of Operation

"Based in Peshawar and Muzaffarabad, but members conduct terrorist activities primarily in Kashmir. The JEM maintains training camps in Afghanistan.

External Aid

"Most of the JEM's cadre and material resources have been drawn from the militant groups Harkat ul-Jihad al-Islami (HUJI) and the Harkat ul-Mujahedin (HUM). The JEM has close ties to Afghan Arabs and the Taliban. Osama Bin Ladin is suspected of giving funding to the JEM. "

Last week, President Bush ordered the freezing of the accounts of a number of organisations suspected to be linked to Al Qaeda of bin Laden. The HUM and the Al Rashid Trust figure in the list. Following this, the Government of Pakistan has also frozen their accounts.

Is the JEM's attack in Srinagar on October 1 in retaliation for the freezing of the accounts of the Al Rashid Trust for which it blames India? Most probably.

The JEM and the LET do not figure in Mr.Bush's list. Unless they too are declared foreign terrorist organisations and their accounts frozen, Mr.Bush's "war" against terrorism would not produce decisive results.

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: corde@vsnl.com )

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