The Fidayen — faithful to the death

Though the Fidayen engage in suicidal missions, they are not like the suicide squads of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) or other guerrilla outfits. On the contrary, the Fidayen do not go in for missions where death is certain, like ramming a truck filled with explosives, or one where the raiders are clearly fated to commit suicide by consuming cyanide.

As Islam clearly forbids suicide, the Fidayen typically select missions where they do have a chance, however, slim, of returning alive. The recent attack on the 15 Corps headquarters, where two of the four Fidayen attackers escaped alive, or the storming of the BSF camp at Bandipore in July, where all but one assailant escaped, demonstrates this. (See box for Fidayen attacks in the Valley).

Though the security agencies in Srinagar believe that the Lashkar-e-Toiba has been active since 1993 in Kashmir, even the local people have little information about its organisational set-up, background and ideology. The group has been active but highly discreet. According to a BSF officer, it is very difficult to identify and trace them because they use a set of code-names. When a militant is killed, he is replaced by a new recruit with the same code-name.

But some basic facts are known about the Kashkar-e-Toiba. This hardcore outfit is the military wing of a pan-Islamist organisation, the Markaz-e-Dawat-ul-Irshad. It has its headquarters in Pakistan and runs around 2,200 madrasas and training centres across that country. The Markaz has a clear agenda. Starting with the complete Islamisation of Pakistan and Kashmir, they hope that see Islam finally dominating the whole world. There’s nothing particularly innovative about their modus operandi: it’s jehad holy war.

To achieve this objective, the organisation established the Jamia Dawat-ul-Islam, or University of Dawat-ul-Islam in 1989. Located on a four-acre campus, it imparts religious education and military training. According to an essay that appeared in the Lashkar mouthpiece Jehad Times recently, around “50 of the students of this University have died fighting in Kashmir while 30 are still active” here.

The Jehad Times, a weekly focussing on the activities of he Lashkar-e-Toiba and its parent organisation, the Markaz, is published from Islamabad and is edited by Abdullah Muntazir, Secretary (Information) of the group. The basic ideology of the group states that religion is not the private affair of Muslims and politics cannot be separated from religion. Its objective is the establishment a puritanical Islamic state.

In a recent article in Jehad Times, Abdullah Muntazir, while explaining the background of the Pan-Islamist Markaz-e-Dawat-ul-Irshad, says the group was established as an anti-democracy platform by the clergy, who were opposing the movement for the restoration of democracy while General Zia-ul-Haq was in power. “A group of Ulema (clergymen) launched an awareness campaign, saying that the only answer to all problems was the establishment of an Islamic system strictly based on the Quran,” Muntazir writes. The group was initially mobilised by Prof Hafiz Abdullah Bahawalpuri, maternal uncle and father-in-law of Markaz chief Prof Hafiz Sayeed. Finally, a group of clergymen that include Hafiz Abdul Salam Bhatwi, Hafiz Abdul Manan Noorpuri, Prof Zafar Iqbal, Hafiz Waseem, Moulana Amir Hamza, Yahya Mujahid besides Prof Hafiz Sayeed, launched Markaz in 1985.

The group rejects democracy as a western concept of governance which is full of flaws. As a corollary, it disapproves of all sorts of democratic means of political expression like peaceful protests, demonstrations and sloganeering as unislamic. The organisation is also averse to joining electoral politics in Pakistan and elsewhere.

In 1987, Markaz launched its military wing, the Lashkar-e-Toiba, joined the war against then Soviet Union in Afghanistan and fought in the Haji area of Paknea province along with the Afghan Mujahideen outfit Itihad-e-Islami of Abdul Rab Rasool Sayaf.

The organisation now wants Pakistan’s new military ruler, Gen Pervez Musharraf, to establish an Islamic state instead of restoring democracy in the country. In another article written by the publicity chief of Markaz, Yahya Mujahid, in Jehad Times the group, while demanding the immediate establishment of the Islamic state, demands the termination of all interest-accruing schemes, repayment of only the principal amount of borrowings from the US and the European countries, a ban on co-education, obscenity and nudity and all other unislamic practices, plus a ban on insurance, family planning and other unislamic institutions. The organisation is also against the settlement of the Kashmir dispute through negotiations and dialogue and desires that “the freedom of Kashmir should only come through Jehad.”

Apart from this, the Markaz wants Pakistan to devise a defence policy, provide atomic technology to all Islamic countries and create an Islamic bloc. Besides, it must commit “never to sign” agreements like the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

Fidayen attacks after Kargil
July 13: DIG, Border Security Force and two others killed when Fidayen attacked DIG HQ at Bandipore.
Aug 6: Five Armymen including Maj Mandeep Singh killed when Fidayen stormed 4 Rashtriya Rifles camp at Natnusa village, Kupwara.
Aug 7: Col Balbir Singh, commanding officer, 4 Rashtriya Rifles and three Armymen killed at Shadipore village, Kupwara.
Sept 29: Five grenades launched in broad daylight at Civil Secretariat in Srinagar. Two persons including a policeman killed.
Oct 28: Another grenade attack on Civil Secretariat. Thirteen grenades fired, three state government employees killed.
Nov 3 Attack on 15 Corps HQ. Four Fidayen sneak inside Badami Bagh Cantonment, kill seven Armymen including Maj Purushottam, PRO of 15 Corps, and five colleagues.