Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak

Inside Jihad
Khalil led hundreds of his fighters into war against the US forces. He
returned home in January 2002, after the fall of the Taliban regime, and
continued his jihadist activities despite the ban on his organization. HuM
continued supporting the Taliban and al-Qaeda remnants operating
from their bases on the Pakistan-Afghan border. Khalil was detained
by Pakistani police in August 2002, only to be let out a few months
later. He was arrested again in 2004 after HuM activists were found
to be involved in a failed attempt to assassinate Musharraf. Pakistani
security forces suspected that HuM activists operating in small cells
were responsible for many terrorist attacks in the country after 9/11.
HJI, led by Saifullah Akhtar, was another jihadist organization
which had a vast network within the country and outside. The group
constituted a significant part of the Taliban forces in Afghanistan and
its fighters were known as Punjabi Taliban (because most of its fighters
came from Punjab). HJI described itself as the second defence line of
every Muslim country and claimed to have links with radical Islamic
movements in around 24 countries including Chechnya, Britain and a
number of Central Asian states.
Like most other Pakistani jihadist leaders, Akhtar was the product
of an Islamic seminary. A Pashtun from the Waziristan tribal region,
he received his elementary education at Darul Uloom, Wana before
moving to Jamia Binoria in Karachi for higher Islamic education. He
taught there briefly before joining the Afghan mujahidin in 1980.
Akhtar spent a large part of his jihadist life in Afghanistan, first fighting
the Soviet forces, then as a key commander of the Taliban forces.
His headquarters in Kabul, known as Darul Irshad, became the main
centre for Pakistani militants. More than 50 of his men were killed
when American jets bombed it in November 2001.
The group’s connection with Islamist elements in Pakistan’s army
was revealed in 1995, when Akhtar was implicated in a right-wing
coup plot. It was late evening on 8 September 1995, when Pakistani
customs guards stopped an army vehicle outside Kohat town in the
North West Frontier Province for a routine check. The search found a
huge cache of arms stored in the back cabin. Smuggled from the Dara
Adam Khel tribal area, the weapons were ostensibly being supplied
to Islamic militants fighting in Kashmir. The case was immediately
reported to the army authorities. 50
The attempt initially looked like a maverick operation by some
zealots in the army to support Kashmiri freedom fighters, but
subsequent investigations led to startling revelations. The weapons