Pakistani Taliban video goes viral in Kashmir, security experts concerned
Pakistani Taliban video goes viral in Kashmir, security experts concerned
Over the past few days, a video released by Jamaat-ul-Ahraar (JA), a faction of the Pakistani Taliban or Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has gone viral in Kashmir.
The video, six minutes and 25 seconds long, is chilling not only in the number of Pakistani institutions, places and activities it wants to attack, but also in the kind of fanatical religious outlook that it wants to impose. It even has English subtitles to ensure the message goes to people beyond Pakistan also.
Who is it targeting?
JA has named the new campaign “Operation Ghazi”, after Maulvi Ghazi Abdul Rasheed, who was killed in July 2007 by the Pakistan Army inside Lal Masjid, Islamabad.
Reading from a piece of paper, JA leader Mohammad Wali alias Khalid Khurasani, flanked by his Kalashankov-wielding aides, details his targets:
- All institutions of Legislature of Pakistan.
- The Pakistan Army, intelligence agencies and its supporting institutions, which may be police, Levies (a paramilitary force in the Pakistani province of Balochistan), Frontier Corps, Pakistan Air Force etc.
- The judiciary and its supporting institutions, i.e. lawyers’ organisations.
- All interest-based economic institutions, i.e. banks and financial institutions.
- All those political parties which provide strength to the anti-Islamic system and which support institutions acting against JA and which have been involved in the past in acting against Mujahideen.
- All those so-called constructive and welfare institutions which spread anti-Islamic ideology, vulgarity and nudity in our society. (This refers to the NGOs and Civil Society Organisations involved in advocacy of human rights, women rights and community awareness campaigns.)
- All those people who promote themselves as the contenders of prophethood (a reference to Ahmadis) and those people who are involved in blasphemy against the Prophet.
- The people who consider Khulafa-e-Rashideen (four caliphs who succeeded Prophet Muhammad) and other companions of prophet as infidels and those who level false allegations at the mothers of Muslims, particularly Hazrat Aisha.
- Mediapersons who work for the benefit of 'enemies' like the Pakistan Army, the government etc. They will be on top of the list of targets. (Practically, these include most of the mediapersons and media houses.)
- Aman Lashkar (pro-government armed militia) and Aman Committees (peace committees).
- Educational institutions providing strength and support to the un-Islamic system and the government. (This refers to all the English medium private schools, colleges and universities, which are running co-educational institutions.)
- There will be no attacks at the mosques, madrassahs, religious centres, religious gatherings, Eid prayers, funeral prayers and the places crowded with common people like markets, hospitals, tourist places, bus stops, fair festivals and mandis.
A day after the video’s release, the JA claimed responsibility for the blast on Mall Road in Lahore, which killed 14 people, including a police DIG. Two days later, the Islamic State, with which JA has jointly taken responsibility for attacks in the past, hit a Sufi shrine in Karachi, killing 75 people.
Kashmiris' reaction to jihadi groups
The video has mostly circulated through WhatsApp in Kashmir, with people refraining from doing so on Facebook, for the apparent fear of security action. There is also a certain diffidence about taking a stand for or against an anti-Pakistan message in the video on a public platform like Facebook.
However, unlike the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad, which are familiar jihadi outfits in Kashmir, large sections of people in the state share an ambivalent approach towards the Pakistani Taliban, its factions like the JA and the Sajna group, and Al Qaeda and Islamic State, which have never been involved in any action on the ground in Kashmir.
Though, occasionally, youth in downtown Srinagar have flown Al Qaeda and Islamic State flags and painted Taliban graffiti, they have done so to draw media attention than out of any serious allegiance to their ideology.
Flag waving in Kashmir follows global jihadist trends: whichever international jihadi outfit is in the ascendancy will find its flags go up in the Valley – mostly during Friday protests in downtown Srinagar.
Source: https://in.news.yahoo.com/pakistani-taliban-video-goes-viral-110300270.html
Comments