DNA India : In PoK, Jaish chief threatens US, UK

In PoK, Jaish chief threatens US, UK

by Josy Joseph | October 3, 2006

NEW DELHI: Despite recent Pakistani overtures on controlling terrorism, Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Maulana Masood Azhar has been heard making an unprecedented vitriolic attack on the US, praising Osama bin Laden and Taliban in a speech that is becoming popular in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. Azhar was among the three terrorists released in Kandahar during the hijack of an Indian Airlines plane in 1999.

Indian agencies intercepted the speech across the border, where the Jaish chief is believed to have delivered it in the last week of August, just a few days after his relative and Jaish member, Rashid Rauf, was picked up for masterminding the failed London plot to blow up several trans-Atlantic planes.

Indian investigators believe that Jaish, which Azhar founded after release from Indian custody, is behind major terrorist attacks on India. They also believe Jaish has a role in the recent Mumbai serial blasts.

When the London plane plot investigation was underway, Azhar’s father and supporters had maintained that their fight is focused purely on Kashmir, and they were not involved in the global jehad against the US and its allies. Sources say this was an important reason why the US and British governments went soft on Azhar in their investigations into the London plot.

But his latest speech, which is now available in cassettes in POK, calls on Muslims to keep alive the spirit of jihad, which the US, UK and others cannot crush. During the speech, the audience is heard raising slogans favouring “Al Jihad”. Indian officials say the name probably refers to a new conglomeration of Pakistan, Arab and other foreign mujahideen along the Pak-Afghan border.

The speech contains laudatory references to the Taliban, Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden. In the transcripts of the speech accessed by DNA, Azhar says even if Bin Laden were to be ‘martyred’ others would step in to fill his shoes in the jehad.

Azhar’s speech contains derogatory remarks about Bush, Condoleeza Rice and “the kafirs who have unleashed atrocities against the Muslims.” He claims that the US and its allies are being forced to leave Iraq because of the resistance put up by the mujahideen.