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LeT, JeM moving back to business under new identities in Pak
New Delhi, Oct 23: Despite a ban imposed on their operations in Pakistan, four major sectarian outfits including Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) are inching their way back to business under new identities and have started working `openly` in that country, media reports said.
New Delhi, Oct 23: Despite a ban imposed on their operations in Pakistan, four major sectarian outfits including Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) are inching their way back to business under new identities and have started working "openly" in that country, media reports said.
Despite the ban imposed by the Pervez Musharraf regime on January 12 last year, "they have effectively regrouped and are operating their respective networks as openly as before though under new names", a Pakistani monthly reported. The other two outfits were Sipah-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
Quoting intelligence reports prepared to assess the situation after the ban, it said the move had "failed" to check either the activities or the "relentless" funding of these terror outfits from "all corners of the world". "Even in cases where Pakistani missions abroad are aware of the identities of the financial sponsors of these organisations, the military government has been able to do little to stop the relentless financing of terror in Pakistan," said the report.
While US congressional research service has expressed serious concern over continued proliferation of terrorist outfits in Pakistan, a known strategic expert, Leon Hadar, of the US-based Cato Institute has noted that the real war against terrorism should be fought "not in Iraq, but Pakistan".
Regarding the new names the outfits had adopted, the Pakistani monthly said JeM was operating as 'Khadam-e-Islam', LeT as 'Jamaat-ud-Dawa', Sipaha-e-Sahaba as 'Millat-e-Islamia' and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi as 'Tehrik-e-Jafaria Pakistan'.
The report said JeM's finances "are currently being handled by five men from Lahore and Sheikhupura who have a network of donors spread across several countries".
They were identified by Pakistani intelligence agencies as Hafiz Tariq Masood, Qari Ehsan and Shabaz Haider of Lahore and Qari Abdul Hafeez and Mohammad Taiq of Sheikhupura, it said, adding these five were the "key" to JeM's organisational gains in Lahore "where the group has established 21 local offices in a short span of three years". The monthly quoted a senior official in Islamabad as saying "the intelligence agency responsible for the report may have gone soft on (JeM chief) Maulana Masood Azhar", who was released by India in exchange of the hostages of the Indian Airlines plane in Kandahar.
Regarding LeT, the magazine said its chief Hafiz Saeed recently toured Punjab province of Pakistan to rally support and "recruit more volunteers". The donation boxes of the outfit "are also back in many cities including the posh F-10 Markaz Market in Islamabad".
"While the Lashkar's training camps in Muzaffarabad, namely Qila Bandi, Aqsa and Mansard, are currently inoperative Hafiz Saeed continues to enjoy considerable influence in concerned military circles thanks to his friend and former ISI boss General Hameed Gul", it said.
Meanwhile, strategic expert Leon Hadar in a recent article said the US search for weapons of mass destruction or al-Qaeda would not bear fruit in Iraq but in Pakistan, where there were "legions of laden followers" and "plenty of links between government officials and terrorists". Bureau Report
Quoting intelligence reports prepared to assess the situation after the ban, it said the move had "failed" to check either the activities or the "relentless" funding of these terror outfits from "all corners of the world". "Even in cases where Pakistani missions abroad are aware of the identities of the financial sponsors of these organisations, the military government has been able to do little to stop the relentless financing of terror in Pakistan," said the report.
While US congressional research service has expressed serious concern over continued proliferation of terrorist outfits in Pakistan, a known strategic expert, Leon Hadar, of the US-based Cato Institute has noted that the real war against terrorism should be fought "not in Iraq, but Pakistan".
Regarding the new names the outfits had adopted, the Pakistani monthly said JeM was operating as 'Khadam-e-Islam', LeT as 'Jamaat-ud-Dawa', Sipaha-e-Sahaba as 'Millat-e-Islamia' and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi as 'Tehrik-e-Jafaria Pakistan'.
The report said JeM's finances "are currently being handled by five men from Lahore and Sheikhupura who have a network of donors spread across several countries".
They were identified by Pakistani intelligence agencies as Hafiz Tariq Masood, Qari Ehsan and Shabaz Haider of Lahore and Qari Abdul Hafeez and Mohammad Taiq of Sheikhupura, it said, adding these five were the "key" to JeM's organisational gains in Lahore "where the group has established 21 local offices in a short span of three years". The monthly quoted a senior official in Islamabad as saying "the intelligence agency responsible for the report may have gone soft on (JeM chief) Maulana Masood Azhar", who was released by India in exchange of the hostages of the Indian Airlines plane in Kandahar.
Regarding LeT, the magazine said its chief Hafiz Saeed recently toured Punjab province of Pakistan to rally support and "recruit more volunteers". The donation boxes of the outfit "are also back in many cities including the posh F-10 Markaz Market in Islamabad".
"While the Lashkar's training camps in Muzaffarabad, namely Qila Bandi, Aqsa and Mansard, are currently inoperative Hafiz Saeed continues to enjoy considerable influence in concerned military circles thanks to his friend and former ISI boss General Hameed Gul", it said.
Meanwhile, strategic expert Leon Hadar in a recent article said the US search for weapons of mass destruction or al-Qaeda would not bear fruit in Iraq but in Pakistan, where there were "legions of laden followers" and "plenty of links between government officials and terrorists". Bureau Report