I believe it is not only Punjab, but also other provinces of Pakistan that are involved. Anyway, this article should keep the Sindhis happy for a day or two ![]()
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1362342,0008.htm
‘Pakistan’s Punjab province is jehad factory’
Pakistan’s Punjab province is the nerve centre of the *jehad * directed against India and nearly 50 per cent of *jehadis * belong to this region, says a new book.
Quoting a survey of ten large jehadi groups, journalist-author Sushant Sareen’s The Jihad Factory reveals that over 10,000 people from Pakistan’s Punjab have died for jehad, or Islamic holy war.
Of this figure, Afghanistan accounted for some 4,000 deaths while the rest occurred in Jammu and Kashmir.
The book, published by the Observer Research Foundation, says during a 1998 congregation, the Markaz Dawa al Irshad, the parent organisation of the Lashker-e-Taiba terror group, revealed that during 1993-97, the Lashker lost ten leaders in Jammu and Kashmir. Eight of them were from Punjab.
From 1990 to 2002, the Lashker lost 1,500 jehadis in Kashmir, and more than 1,100 of them were from Punjab.
This trend of men from the Punjab province enlisting in guerrilla groups, Sareen says, is because of various reasons, including unemployment and lack of education.
“Economic disparities, lack of alternative sources of income, the social and geographic structure, existence of semi-literate population and unemployment are all forcing youths in Punjab to succumb to indoctrination,” Sareen told the agency.
“The ability to seek refuge in Saraiki speaking areas and proximity to India’s borders are some other reasons. And most of the militants are either unemployed or left their studies mid-way.”
Of the 500 Tehrik-ul-Mujahideen guerrillas killed in Jammu and Kashmir till 2003, 215 were from Punjab, while 45 were from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, 49 from Sindh and 70 from Jammu and Kashmir.
Among the 650 Harkat-ul-Jihad cadres killed in Kashmir so far, 200 were from Punjab and of the 840 Harkat-ul-Mujahideen militants killed there, over 350 were from that province.
Since its formation in 2000, Jaish-e-Mohammed has suffered 179 casualties in Jammu and Kashmir. A majority of Jaish guerrillas are from Punjab, especially from Multan, Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan districts, the book says.
Speaking about the plight of the Punjab province, Sareen said: “Punjab is not only the nerve centre of the jehad factory, it is also the province that has been most affected by sectarian violence between Shias and Sunnis inside Pakistan.”
Quoting a Pakistani newspaper, Sareen writes that in Punjab alone, there are more than 2,500 madrassas, most of them concentrated in the southern part of the province. This is one of the reasons why southern Punjab, next to India’s borders, is under constant threat of sectarianism.
While the Pakistani province provides the maximum cannon fodder for jehad, in recent years guerrilla groups have made considerable inroads in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Sindh and Baluchistan.
The book, to be formally released this month, is the result of Sareen’s 12 years of observation and study of developments in Pakistan. It extensively uses data published in Pakistani newspapers and books over the past two decades.