LAHORE: The chief operational commander of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, arrested on December 10 by the Pakistani authorities for his alleged involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks, is extremely furious over the Jamaatul Daawa (JuD) leadership’s decision to publicly disown him in his hour of trial instead of trying to bail him out.
According to circles close to the Pakistani authorities which are involved in the interrogation of Lakhvi to ascertain whether the LeT is actually involved in the Mumbai attacks, the LeT chief commander is much hurt over a recent statement by the JuD spokesman that both the arrested LeT leaders Zakiur Rehman and Zarar Shah never had any link with either Hafiz Mohammad Saeed or the JuD. In bid to shield Saeed, the JuD spokesman Abdullah Muntazir told Times of India on January 9, 2008: “In any case, Lakhvi and Zarar, the two men India is talking about, were never associated with the JuD which has always been into charity work only”. This had been conveyed by Hafiz Saeed himself after the Mumbai attacks, the spokesman said, adding that there were elements in the Pakistan government that wanted to target religious organisations”. Circles close to Hafiz Saeed say there was nothing new in the JuD spokesman’s stance as its leadership has repeatedly denied any link with them.
However, a former LeT officer bearer who is now a part of the JuD, confirmed on condition of anonymity that Lakhvi is extremely upset over the U-turn taken by his former close associates in the JuD and complains that they have abandoned him at a time when he desperately needed their backing. Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi alias Abu Waheed Irshad Ahmad alias Chacha Jee, comes from the Okara district of Punjab, the same area as Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone Mumbai attacker arrested alive by the Indian authorities. Born on December 30, 1960 to the lower middle class family of Hafiz Azizur Rehman residing in Chak No. 18 of Rinala Khurd in Okara district, Lakhvi is a considered to be a close associate of Hafiz Saeed and has been named by Ajmal Kasab as his trainer as well as the planner of the Mumbai carnage. While Pakistan has already turned down an Indian demand for Lakhvi’s extradition despite American pressure, the JuD has deemed it fit to disown him.
In 1988, Abu Abdur Rahman Sareehi, a Saudi national and allegedly a close associate of Osama bin Laden, founded an organization in the Afghan Kunar Valley which recruited Afghan youths and Pakistanis in the Bajaur Agency to fight the Soviet occupation troops in Afghanistan. Sareehi was the brother-in-law of Zaki Lakhvi, and is believed to have contributed a hefty amount of Rs. 10 million for the construction of the Muridke headquarters of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, called the Markaz Dawa Wal Irshad, way back in 1988. The organization flourished in the Kunar and the Bajaur tribal agencies as thousands of youths from Pakistan belonging to the Deobandi Salafi school of thought instantly joined its camps set up in eastern Afghanistan provinces of Kanar and Paktia, both of which had a sizable number of the Ahle Hadith (Wahabi) followers of Islam, beside hundreds of Saudis and Afghans.
International media reports say Zaki Lakhvi was one of the main trainers at the Kunar training camp of the anti Soviet militants. As the Lashkar had joined the Afghan jehad at a time it was winding down, the group did not play a major part in the fight against the Soviet Occupation forces, which pulled out in 1989. However, the participation of the Lashkar cadres in the Afghan jehad helped its leaders, especially Hafiz Saeed and Zaki Lakhvi, gain the trust of the Pakistani establishment. The insurgency in Jammu & Kashmir beginning in 1989 came at an appropriate time to provide an active battleground for the Lashkar soldiers when its leadership was made to turn its attention from the squabble in Afghanistan and devote itself to the jehad in Kashmir which is where it gained fame. As Lakhvi was subsequently made the supreme operational commander of the military operations in Jammu & Kashmir, his prime responsibility was to identify young men and indoctrinate them in jehad.
In an April 1999 interview to daily The Nation from Muzaffarabad, Lakhvi said: “We are extending our mujahideen networks across India and preparing the Muslims of India against India. When they are ready, it will be the start of the breakup of India”. A few months later, at the three-day annual congregation of the LeT held at its Muridke headquarters, 30 kilometers from Lahore, Lakhvi justified the launching of the fidayeen missions in Jammu & Kashmir in these words: “Following the Pakistani withdrawal from the Kargil heights and the Nawaz-Clinton statement in Washington, it was important to boost the morale of the Kashmiri people… These Fidayeen missions have been initiated to teach India a lesson as they were celebrating the Pakistani withdrawal from Kargil. And let me tell you very clearly that our next target would be New Delhi”. Incidentally, the Indian parliament was attacked later on December 13, 2001.
The US State Department subsequently declared the Lashkar a terrorist organization, followed by a similar decision by the Musharraf regime. The LeT subsequently renamed itself Jamaatul Daawa (JuD) in a bid to separate its military actions in Kashmir from its religious undertakings in Pakistan. While stepping down as the Lashkar ameer at a press conference in Lahore on December 23, 2001, Hafiz Saeed had appointed Maulana Abdul Wahid Kashmiri as his successor, but Lakhvi was retained as the supreme operational commander of the LeT. However, differences soon erupted between Saeed and Lakhvi over distribution of the organisation’s assets, prompting Lakhvi to revolt against Saeed and launch his own splinter group with the name of Khairun Naas (KuN). Their animosity grew to such an extent that some of the Zaki-led rebel group members largely consisting of the LeT fighters reportedly took an oath to assassinate Hafiz Mohammad Saeed.
According to Saeed’s close circles, he first came under fire from Zaki when he decided to launch JuD and separated the LeT infrastructure from the JuD. Lakhvi, being the chief operational commander of the LeT, disapproved of the decision, saying it was meant to put the JuD in control of all the funds collected locally and abroad. He was of the view that as heavy donations are being collected in the name of Kashmir jehad from all over Pakistan as well as from abroad, the JuD leadership had no right to the money because it was only a preaching organisation. According to Lakhvi’s close circles, many of the dissident aides of Saeed were basically annoyed at Saeed’s second marriage to a fallen Mujahid’s 28-year old widow. Saeed was 58 at the time of his marriage and had justified his act, saying the marriage was only meant to provide shelter to the widow of the militant who had lost his life in Jammu & Kashmir and had left behind two kids. However, a year later, Saeed and Lakhvi were made to mend fences and the two were the best of friends at the time of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
However, Zaki Lakhvi had already moved the LeT headquarters from Muridke to Muzaffarabad by then. In July 2006, the Indian authorities alleged that Azam Cheema, a LeT operative who was accused of being the ring leader in the 2006 bombing of the Mumbai rail network [that killed over 200 people]was trained and sent to the Indian port city by Lakhvi. The Mumbai police Commissioner subsequently claimed that an arrested militant Abu Anas has confessed being the body guard of Lakhvi. In May 2008, US treasury department announced freezing the assets of four LeT leaders including Lakhvi. In October, 2007, Lakhvi’s 20-year-old son, Mohammad Qasim, was reportedly killed in an encounter with the security forces at Gamaroo village in Jammu & Kashmir’s Bandipora area.
In the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, the Indian authorities alleged that Zaki Lakhvi, usually based in Muzaffarabad, had moved to Karachi in August 2008, the port city from where the LeT militants set off, so he could direct operations. The sole survivor of the Mumbai attacks, Ajmal Kasab, apparently told police Lakhvi had helped indoctrinate all the attackers. On December 3, 2008, India finally named him as one of four major planners behind the Mumbai terror attacks who had allegedly offered to pay the Kasab family Rs.150,000 for his participation in the attacks. On December 7, 2008, the Pakistani security forces arrested Lakhvi after raiding the JuD headquarters in Muzafarabad. The Indian dossier handed over to Pakistan on January 5 includes transcription of intercepted telephonic conversation between the Mumbai attackers and Lakhvi. However, circles close to the arrested LeT chief operational commander refute the Indian dossier as a pack of lies and insist that Lakhvi has nothing to do with the Mumbai attacks.
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