A Jehad Backfires

The explosion reduced the embassy to rubble, and left 18 people dead and more than 75 injured. Among the dead were eight embassy staffers (including six Egyptians), seven Pakistanis (including two policemen) and an Afghan. Expressing sorrow and embarrassment, Pakistani Interior Minister Naseerullah Babar admitted that this was the worst lapse in Islamabad, where security had already been beefed up. The government has ordered an inquiry into the inaction over a communication from the Egyptian embassy to the Pakistanforeign office on November 12, hinting at a possible attack and calling for enhanced security around the embassy.

While three Egyptian extremist organisa-tions—Jamaa Islamiyya, Al-Jehad and International Justice Group—claimed responsibility for the blast, Jamaa Islamiyya is considered to be behind the attack. It is spearheading a violent campaign against the pro-West Egyptian government headed by President Hosni Mubarak and was behind the abortive attempt on his life in June in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The blast brought into focus the presence in Pakistan of militants from Sudan, Egypt, Algeria, Jordan, Tunisia, Libya, Somalia and some other Islamic countries, who had originally come to take part in the Afghan 'jehad'. When the Red Army was in Afghanistan, these pan-Islamists were trained in Pakistan with American help. With General Zia-ul-Haq in power and Islamisation the buzzword, these 8,000-oddfighters—most of whom were members of extremist Muslim groups—were more than welcomed. Soon after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, they had nothing left to do. While many went back home where some of them joined militant movements against their own governments, others stayed behind or moved elsewhere ( see box) as they were wanted for terrorist activities in their own countries. And so, they are found in trouble spots as far apart as Kashmir, Bosnia and Chechnya. They are, as a recent BBC documentary put it, "the Islamic blowback" and are driven by Islamic ideological and religious fervour.

More than anything else, the blast was deeply embarrassing for Pakistan diplomatically. Several Muslim countries have been complaining to Pakistan since 1992 about the activities of these militants, many of whom are trying to overthrow their governments back home. Obviously, Islamabad had not been able to rein in these people. As a matter of fact, Pakistan and Egypt have had frequent parleys over the presence of Egyptian militants in Pakistan and have also signed an extradition treaty. Following this, nine persons have been extradited to their homeland since May this year.

Investigations indicate that the Pakistani and Egyptian authorities had been working together since July to trace over two dozen suspected terrorists, believed to have escaped to Pakistan following the crackdown in Egypt after the attack on Mubarak. A team of Pakistani law enforcement offi-cials returned from Cairo just two days before the blast with details of the suspects' presumed whereabouts and identity.

The investigations began when Cairo tipped off Islamabad about a consignment of documents and equipment from Pakistan to Sudan seized at the Cairo airport. That started the hunt for Jamaa Islamiyya members believed to be in Pakistan. Islamabad was informed of the seizure, which took place on July 9, three days later. According to Egyptian authorities, the cargo was despatched for Khartoum from Islamabad by air. The seized documents contained information on weapons, explosives, poisonous materials, intelligence communication systems and combat techniques. It also included stamps and printed material to forge Egyptian passports. The Egyptians alleged that the cargo was despatched byone of the absconding companions of Mustafa Hamza, a top Egyptian terrorist said to be behind the attempt on Mubarak's life in Ethiopia and then hiding in Islamabad. Hamza is the military commander of the Jamaa Islamiyya and faces a death sentence in Egypt in another case.

According to a diplomatic source, the Egyptian government had also informed Islamabad that the sender and the receiver of the cargobelonged to the Jamaa Islamiyya. The despatcher was said to hold a Yemeni passport and was described as a terrorist leader hiding in Islamabad and travelling between Yemen and Sudan.

Interestingly, when apprised of the seizure, the Pakistani government initially rejected the Egyptian government's 'allegations' outright and asked Cairo to furnish evidence of Pakistani territory being used for subversive activities and the despatch of the alleged cargo from there. The Pakistani investigators wondered why militants would use Cairo as a transit point between Islamabad and Khartoum when they could have gone there directly. They wondered how a small packet was detected from a consignment of hundreds of tonnes. Based on these queries, Islamabad took the stance that some unscrupulous elements were out to strain Pak-Egypt relations. "The obvious aim behind this allegation is to fuel speculation that Sudan is conspiring against Egypt in connivance with Pakistan," thePakistani government stated in a letter to the Egyptian foreign office in September. It went on to warn the Egyptian government to withdraw its 'allegations' if it wanted Islamabad to lend a helping hand in the fight against extremist elements in Egypt.

The domestic repercussions of the bombing were instant. The government launched a crackdown on Pakistani religious parties. Besides, six Egyptians, two Afghans and two Jordanians were taken into custody. An embarrassed Babar set the cat among the pigeons when he openly described the famous International Islamic University in Islamabad, multinationally funded by Islamic countries, as the "hub of terrorists" and told Parliament that it should be closed-down. Said Babar: "We have nabbed terrorists who were residing in the university. I strongly believe that this university has been giving refuge to terrorists like Ramzi Yousuf (convicted in the World Trade Centre bombing in New York)."

바카라 웹사이트The remarks caused a massive uproar. Ironically, the president of Pakistan is the chancellor of the university and a senior leader of the ruling Pakistan People's Party, Malik Meraj Khalid, is its rector. Khalid challenged Babar to prove his charges and claimed that all students were admitted after proper scrutiny by the Interior Ministry. Besides, Khalid noted, "all 83 Egyptian teachers had been cleared by the government before joining the university. None of the students has been arrested in connection with the blast."

Babar's statement and the crackdown on religious parties put Islamic leaders on the offensive. The Ameer of Jamaat-i-Islami, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, accused the government of launching a witch-hunt at the behest of the US, widely seen as anti-Islam by most religious parties. A harsh critic of the Egyptian government, he condemned the bombing, but stated, "The blast is an act of retaliation and does not surprise anyone, given the extent of oppression and the way innocent people are being hanged in Egypt by the Mubarak government.

Luckily for the Benazir Bhutto government, there appears to be an understanding with other mainline parties on the need for Islamabad to contain veterans of the Afghan jehad. Still, with the opposition Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) not missing a chance to blame the government for the security lapse and asking for its resignation, the blast could have a political fallout in Islamabad.