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Clerics talk to Taliban about
Sikhs, Jamat-ud-dawa resurfaces
WSN Network
ISLAMABAD: Even
as news trckles in that Islamabad was involved in discreet
negotiations through clerics with a top Taliban commander for
rehabilitating Sikh families evicted from the Aurakzai tribal
region, Jamat-ud-dawa, designated by the United Nations Security
Council as a terrorist outfit in the wake of the November 2008
Mumbai attacks, has resurfaced as a charity organisation providing
food and other relief to the thousands of people fleeing the
fighting in Swat valley of Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province.
Clerics were
asked to hold talks with Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan deputy chief
Hakeemullah Mehsud to help rehabilitate the Sikhs who had to leave
the region when they refused to pay 'jiziya' or a religious tax
imposed by the militants, the Dawn newspaper reported. The names of
the clerics involved in the talks were not known but the meetings
were going on peacefully.
Massive numbers
of people have been displaced by the fighting between the military
and the Taliban in the Malakand regions of Swat, Buner and Dir, and
the government and aid agencies are struggling to cope with a crisis
that is growing by the minute.
Aid agencies
estimate more than 5,00,000 people have fled these areas. Over a
hundred thousand are in camps in Mardan and Swabi districts of the
NWFP, while the remaining are trying to find shelter wherever they
can in various cities in Pakistan. Eyewitnesses told The Hindu that
the JuD — a U.N. declared front organisation of the Lashkar-e-Taiba,
blamed by India for the Mumbai attacks — is active in Mardan where
most of the refugee camps are located. They are distributing food
and medical care. One eyewitness who visited the area last Saturday
said the JuD workers were organised under a charity organisation
called Falah-i-Insaniyat. They had set themselves up at a roundabout
in Mardan town called College Chowk, where they were collecting food
donations for the displaced.
The eyewitness,
a journalist, said he saw bags of uncooked rice and cartons of juice
at the stall.
Despite the
government crackdown on the group after the U.N. terror designation,
the canopied stall was openly flying the black-and-white flags of
the JuD, with the insignia of the sword and the Kalma, the Islamic
doctrine of faith .
The bearded
workers were wearing the traditional salwar-kameez with waistcoats.
The JuD insignia was prominently sewed on to the front of the
waistcoats, and on the back they carried the label of
Falah-i-Insaniyat, a charitable trust of the JuD. When the
journalist asked them who they were working with, the men said they
were from JuD.
The organisation
has also set up a relief distribution centre at a village called
Rustam, on the outskirts of Buner, they said.
The group’s work
among the refugees recalls similar activity by several groups banned
by the Musharraf regime in 2002, which resurfaced to provide aid to
the victims of the 2005 earthquake.
Following the
JuD’s U.N. designation as a terrorist outfit in December 2008, the
Pakistan government ordered a crackdown against the group, detaining
more than a hundred of its activists and its leadership, including
founder Hafiz Saeed, who also set up Lashkar-e-Taiba, which
Pakistan
banned as a terrorist group in 2002.
The Punjab
government sealed many of its offices across the province. JuD
offices in the NWFP were also sealed but the group was not formally
banned. The JuD describes itself as a charity organisation. The
leaders of the group have challenged their detention in court, and
four of six top leaders have been released. Only Mr. Saeed and
another top leader by the name of Colonel Nazir remain under house
arrest, and petitions challenging their detention are being heard in
the Lahore High Court.
As concerns were
expressed about the fate of the JuD-run schools, hospitals and other
charity works following the crackdown, the
Punjab
government announced in late January that it would take over the
charity works of the organisation and run them so that the
beneficiaries would not be affected.
The
Falah-i-Insaniyat group was last seen during the February 5 Kashmir
Day demonstrations in Lahore. The Daily Times reported that
activists of the group were carrying JuD flags and collecting
donations.
The receipts
carried the name of Falah-i-Insaniyat, and the address printed on it
was the same as that for one of JuD’s most important centres:
Markazul Qadsia, Chauburji, Lahore, the Daily Times said.
20
May 2009
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