Nearly 1,00,000 people listened in awed silence as a 60-year-old shopkeeper from Bahawalpur addressed the gathering, describing how both his sons, Abu Sufian and Abu Tasir, gave up their lives fighting in Indian-held Kashmir. “When my first son was martyred in Kashmir, I went to my second and told him it was his turn to sacrifice his life,” the old man, now called Abu Shahidain, told a stunned audience. “I too have received training and want to join my sons as soon as possible.” By this time many were moved to tears, and sobbing could be heard from within the crowd.

This remarkable scene was played out at the annual meeting of the Markaz Dawa wal Irshad (centre for preaching), a religious organisation based in the town of Muridke, some 30 miles north of Lahore. Its activities are focused in two areas, education and jehad (holy war). The Dawa wal Irshad works to propagate an austere, “purified” version of Islam, and has set up schools across the country for this purpose. Meanwhile, its militant wing, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (army of the pure), is an organisation of highly trained militants who are willing to go to war wherever and whenever the Amir (commander) orders.

A unique event by any standards, the Muridke gathering, held amid tight garrison-like security, brings together young militants currently fighting inside Indian-occupied Kashmir and those who wish to do so. Also attending the meeting in the thousands are the relatives of Lashkar soldiers, as well as the families of men who have died in Kashmir. This year, nearly 100,000 people attended the three-day event, a manifestation of the Lashkar’s increasing popularity and power.

The venue itself is a symbol of the Lashkar’s growing strength, as well as that of its present organisation. At its Muridke headquarters, the Markaz is housed in a complex of buildings sprawled across more than 190 acres of land. The complex includes a huge Jamia mosque, garment factory, iron factory, wood works factory, stable and swimming pool. Also within the compound, a university is under construction. along with three residential colonies.

The Muridke gathering, held amid tight garrison-like security, brings together young militants currently fighting inside Indian-occupied Kashmir and those who wish to do so,

The Markaz was founded in 1987 by three university teachers, Zafar Iqbal and Hafiz Mohammad Saeed — from the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) in Lahore, and Abdullah Azam of the International Islamic University. Abdullah Azam was killed in a bomb blast in Peshawar in 1989, but both Zafar Iqbal and Hafiz Mohammad Saeed still teach at the UET and continue to lead the organisation.

The Markaz, its two surviving founders claim, was set up to combine what they believe to be the two primary missions of Islam — preaching and jehad. “Many Muslim organisations are preaching and working on the missionary level inside and outside Pakistan, but they have given up the path of jehad altogether,” says Hafiz Mohammad Saeed. “The need for jehad has always existed,” the Amir insists, “and present conditions demand it more than ever.” “Jehad is a path which brings success to those engaged in it,” adds Professor Zafar Iqbal, co-founder of the Dawa wal Irshad. “It is because of jehad that we have achieved the kind of success that you witness here.”

While the Dawa wal Irshad is involved in various areas, including religious education and social welfare, it is mainly through its militant wing that the organisation is known throughout the country. The Lashkar-e-Taiba provides military training to its members and prepares them to wage jehad.

Although the Lashkar was initially involved in Afghanistan as well , its activities are now restricted to Indian-held Kashmir. Today, it is Pakistan’s largest so-called ‘jehadi’ organisation.There are many other jehadi groups operating inside occupied Kashmir, but their members are mainly local men, assisted by fighters from other countries, such as Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“Eight per cent of the mujahideen (holy warriors) in other jehadi groups operating in Kashmir come from that area,” an office bearer of the Lashkar confirms. “But the case with the Lashkar is exactly the opposite,” he adds, explaining that 80 per cent of the Lashkar’s soldiers belong to Pakistan. ...

Compared to other similar organisations, the Lashkar-e-Taiba has proved to be a resounding success. Since its inception, it has managed to attract thousands of committed young men to its fold. The driving force behind its massive success in recruitment is deceptively simple: using its impressive organisational network, which includes schools, social services groups and religious publications, to stir up outrage against the injustices meted to Kashmiri Muslims, the Dawa wal Irshad creates a passion for jehad.

Those who join the Lashkar undergo one of two kids of military training. The first is a 21-day standard course, called the Daura-e-Aama. A more intensive three-month special programme, called the Daura-e-Khasa, is geared towards guerrilla warfare and teaches the use of small arms, survival and ambush techniques. “These courses change your life forever,” says Abu Haidar, a young man who has just completed his training. “When you go you are one man and when you return you are quite another.”

Indeed, three months of rigorous commando training, conducted in isolated areas of Kashmir, brings about a metamorphosis in the recruit. The newly enlisted soldier discards his old name and begins to use a kuniat, or Arabic-style nickname. These names are reminiscent of the kuniats of the companions of the Prophet and later Islamic heroes. It is with this name that the recruit will be known within the organisation and remembered after his death in occupied Kashmir.

After joining the Lashkar, the recruit also undergoes a physical transformation. He will no longer shave or even trim his beard, and will allow his hair to grow long. In a style that has long been typical of ultra-religious men in this society, the Lashkar’s members also wear their shalwars above their ankles... Most of those who die in Kashmir are buried there, and Kashmiris are known to carry out the necessary formalities with the utmost respect and full honours. When a Lashkar member is killed in combat, the Border Security Force or the Indian army hands over the body of the so-called mehman shaheed (guest martyr) to the area police station from where the local people take custody of the deceased.

After a usually well attended namaaz-e-janaza (funeral prayer), the soldier is buried in a separate graveyard set aside for ‘martyrs’. Such graveyards are located outside almost every village in occupied Kashmir, and are said to be the final resting place of no less than 350 members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba...

As a matter of policy, the Lashkar’s soldiers prefer death to capture. This is apparently because those taken alive are routinely tortured by the Indian authorities. “Only those of are men are captured who faint during the fight,” says Khalid Walid, an office bearer of the Lashkar. “Otherwise, we fight until death and do not surrender at any cost.” Seventeen members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba are in Indian prisons at the moment...

But can Pakistan afford to remain a breeding ground for soldiers in this long drawn-out battle? Certain jehadi organisations in this country have already begun to open up a front against what they perceive to be kufr (apostasy) and shirk (polytheism) at home. For its part, the Lashkar vehemently denies taking any action against Muslim or non-Muslim civilians inside Pakistan. So far, there is no evidence to contradict their claim. But the fanaticism of the Taliban forces across the increasingly porous Durand Line brings to mind a host of very real fears.

What, for instance, will happen if a negotiated settlement to the Kashmir problem one day becomes a reality? This scenario is totally unacceptable to members of the Lashkar, who categorically reject the system of constitutional democracy and speak openly in favour of an Islamic revolution.

If, allowed to operate completely unchecked, they manage to establish a state within a state, one day the Lashkar and other similar organisations may well decide the time has come to topple the system they so despise. At that stage, we may well witness a new kind of jehad — the kind that sectarian parties have already begun to wage within our own borders.

Zaigham Khan
(Excerpted from the annual ‘98 issue of the monthly ‘Herald’ published from Karachi)