Reward for Justice

Perhaps the most hilarious (or hillaryus?) joke of the century so far is that the US state department has offered a reward of 10 million dollars for information about a gentleman named Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, a man whose whereabouts are well known and who often appears on Pakistani television channels and recently he even held a public rally. Hafiz means someone who has memorized the whole Koran. Hafiz Saeed is the head of a Pakistan based institution named Jamatuddawa which literally means assemblage for invitation. In simple words it is an Islamic missionary organization whose social services during earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters have been greatly appreciated and earned its leader a lot of respect and admiration. But an equality significant part of the organization is that it runs the largest network of religious schools (madrassas) in Pakistan and has a leading role in the conversion of nonmuslims to Islam. Naturally, extremist Hindus and Christians hate him extremely.

Traditionally Pakistani Islamic institutions used to be affiliated with one or the other famous and well established Islamic institutions in India such as those in Bareli, Binnaur, Delhi, Deoband etc. for the simple reason that the institutions were  set up by graduates of those institutions. This gave the Indians an edge in dealing with Pakistan as through the above institutions they could manipulate the religious pulse in Pakistan. Recently, due to the nationalistic rhetoric of Hafiz Saeed many religious institutions or madrassas are breaking loose from the Indian influence and joining the JD network. That is very bad as far as the Indian establishment is concerned.

The icing on the statement of a responsible US official that the posting of head money on the State department was done on the behest of the Indians. That is the only thing that makes some sense. It also confirms a doubt that has been nagging me for the past decade or so – an Indian role in 9/11.

Most American reject the theory of insider job in the 9/11 incident because they cannot believe that an American agency could commit such a ghastly crime in its own country. They are right. But what about the job being outsourced? There is clear evidence that the Saudi intelligence was involved. It must have provided the list of Saudis who were reported to have left home to join jihad in Afghanistan, Chechnia or Kashmir. The list was used for the names of terrorists in the passenger lists of the lost planes. Unfortunately for them most of those men did not have the stomach for jihad and had returned home and were lying low.

CIA’s closest allies in UK and Israel could not be used for the demolition job. They would be the first suspects. The search for the ideal demolisher ended in India. They had no obvious links with the Americans, were nearly anonymous in most of the world, had the necessary expertise and were eagerly willing. They would also not be conspicuous as there were many Indians in USA who were regarded as harmless people.

The thought gains strength when one analyses the post 9/11 relations between US and India. The Americans are bending over backwards to please the Indians. In the case of the nuclear pact the Indians treated them with utter contempt and soon after the pact was signed they bought reactors from their old ally communist Russia. The Americans seem more concerned with the Mumbai hotel attack than the Indians themselves. In the videos most of the fires and smoke seem to be artificial and the attackers were mostly photographed with their guns pointing downward. Although much has been publicized about Ajmal Kassab and his alleged phones links with some Pakistanis, nothing has come to light about the identity and background of the 9 “terrorists” who got killed. How come Ajmal Kassab said so much about everything else but nothing about his comrades?