Mustafa Qadri

Antagonism between Sunni and Shia Muslims is entrenched, and there is little the state can do to quell the violence

Mustafa Qadri
guardian.co. uk, Thursday 11 February 2010 18.00 GMT

Ordinary Pakistanis have fallen victim to a civil war largely orchestrated by forces well beyond their control. As the recent bombings targeting Shia Muslims in Karachi proves, the violence facing the country is more complex than extremists versus moderates. But how to unravel all the twists in this violent story?

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Frequently demonised in the West as hotbeds of terrorism, Pakistan’s religious seminaries are actually a vital institution, not the evil dens they are made out to be, writes Mustafa Qadri

According to many security analysts and world leaders, Pakistan is the global centre of extremist Islam. Much of that reputation has been built upon the country’s madaris, or religious seminaries (also sometimes referred to as madrassas), which have been described as jihadi factories spreading terrorism internationally.

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Mumbai bombing suspect’s release raises many concerns

Mustafa Qadri 10-Jun-2009

Has South Asia really only brought us grief, Madhav? I don’t think that’s entirely fair, though I admit I’ve increasingly found myself asking that very same question while travelling through the southern mega city of Karachi last week.

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In January I interviewed a member of Lashkar-e-Toiba, the pro-Pakistan militant group believed to have been involved in the Mumbai attacks, for The Diplomat magazine. The interview has just been published in the latest edition of the magazine and is available online here.

JIHAD: THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES

02-Mar-2009

Mustafa Qadri investigates the organisations believed by many to have been behind the Mumbai terrorist attacks

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Hundreds of students angrily protested on Tuesday as a government official took over administrative control of an Islamic charity which is linked to the militant group accused by India to be responsible for the Mumbai attacks.

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The fact is that India knows that war will accomplish nothing. Indeed, it is just what the terrorists want - a cause that would rally all Pakistanis to the flag and provide Pakistan’s army an excuse to abandon the unpopular fight against the Taliban and Al-Qaida in the west for the more familiar terrain of [...]

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My latest piece on the tension between Islamabad and New Delhi following the Mumbai attacks was published on NewMatilda.com today:

My Nuclear Arsenal Is Bigger Than Yours

India is using the Mumbai attacks to flex its geopolitical muscle, writes Mustafa Qadri, as Pakistan risks further international isolation by denying its role in the violence…

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The government said on Thursday that it had shut down five training camps of the outlawed Jamaatud Dawa and Lashkar-e-Taiba, banned their seven publications and blocked all their websites.

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The following article, on tensions between India and Pakistan following the November attacks on Mumbai, was published in the Guardian Comment is Free website today:

Are India and Pakistan heading for war?

Pressure is mounting on politicians in both countries to take drastic action in the wake of recent terrorist attacks

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The problems started after September 11, when the US forced the then-military government of president General Pervez Musharraf to abandon the Taliban. Up to 2001, Afghanistan had virtually been a fifth Pakistani province for which Pakistan arranged day-to-day expenditures. Even the communications network was run by the Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation Limited. [...]

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Two major events are likely to mark the beginning of 2009 and decide the new rules of war and peace in the region. In Pakistan, the foremost is curtailing the powerful military dominated intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and the second is the unveiling of a new strategy in Afghanistan. [...]

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The day after Christmas, the wires buzzed with reports that Pakistan was moving 20,000 troops from its western border with Afghanistan to locations near the eastern border [...]

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At least one top leader of militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, or “Army of the Pure,” captured in a raid earlier this month in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, has confessed the group’s involvement in the attack as India and the U.S. have alleged, according to a senior Pakistani security official.

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During a visit to Islamabad, Interpol chief Ronald Noble said Tuesday that Pakistan has agreed to cooperate with the global police force to find the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack. However, he said that India had not shared information about the gunmen.

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This, then, is the larger historical context of terrorism in the subcontinent and of the Mumbai attacks. It shouldn’t surprise us that Hafiz Saeed of the Lashkar-e-Taiba is from Shimla (India) and LK Advani of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh is from Sindh (Pakistan).

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“And if we get to the stage where there is tangible proof, then I assure you that our democracy will take the action laid down in our law, in our constitution”.

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The following piece, on simmering dispute over Indian-controlled Kashmir, was printed in NewMatilda.com today:

All Road Lead to Kashmir

The Indian Government has done well to paint itself as an innocent victim after the Mumbai attacks. But Lashkar-e-Toiba has its roots in the conflict over Kashmir, writes Mustafa Qadri

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The Charter of the United Nations and provisions of international law, including the right of self-defence, gives us the framework to fulfil these responsibilities.

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I was interviewed by Phillip Adams on ABC Radio National tonight on the recent Mumbai attacks, sentiments in Pakistan, and an interview I conducted with a Taliban commander from the Swat valley. You can listen to the interview here.

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The network of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, which was a major supporter of the ISI in the whole region, especially in Bangladesh, was shattered and fell into the hands of al-Qaeda when Maulana Ilyas Kashmiri, chief of Harkat, a hero of the armed struggle in Kashmir who had spent two years in an Indian [...]

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The following piece, on last weeks attacks in Mumbai which killed over 160 people, was published in NewMatilda.com today:

Militants shatter ‘Brand India’

Mumbai’s attackers were targeting India’s image as an emerging global power as much as they were targeting foreigners, writes Mustafa Qadri

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