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This is an archive article published on November 20, 2002

Musharraf’s terror tango: one step forward, two steps back

The police believed they had a good break: members of an outlawed group allied with al-Qaeda who were caught with a cache of assault rifles...

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The police believed they had a good break: members of an outlawed group allied with al-Qaeda who were caught with a cache of assault rifles, pistols, explosives and two CDs featuring Osama bin Laden.

But when the 11 suspected militants from Harkat ul-Mujahideen, the Pakistani group with the longest and most direct ties to bin Laden, were locked up, the chargesheet landed on the desk of Sher Mohammed Khan, an anti-terrorism prosecutor. The case promptly hit a wall. Within days, the arrests were shrugged off as a set-up by overzealous cops. Khan agreed that bail was appropriate, and a special anti-terrorism court granted it about a month after the late-August arrest.

The two leaders of the 11 were quickly back on the street. One step forward in the war on terror became two steps back.

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Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is working closely with the US in rounding up foreign terror suspects. But his government’s record against home-grown militants, many of them allies of bin Laden, looks less resolute.

Security forces have detained around 3,300 Pakistanis in sweeps against local extremist groups, but at least 1,300 of them have been released, often after signing promises of good behaviour.

Among those released in recent weeks are the leaders of groups accused of killing hundreds of minority Shiite Muslims and of launching terrorist attacks against neighboring India. Musharraf has banned both groups.

Authorities are still holding 1,982 without charge, according to confidential government figures. Musharraf issued a decree last month extending the detention limit from 90 days to a year.

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In trials that have reached a verdict, 41 people have been convicted and 21 acquitted. Critics maintain that, at best, Musharraf is warehousing some extremists and leaving others untouched for fear of alienating the religious right whose support he needs.

Peshawar prosecutor Khan insisted the nine men and two teenagers arrested there were not terrorists. ‘‘They were people from the labouring class residing together in a house,’’ he said. He accused the police of framing the men, something that he says happens all the time.

The prosecutor claimed the police didn’t allege that the suspects were part of a terrorist group though the chargesheet clearly does. And police said they found much more than a couple of assault rifles: six pistols, four hand grenades, four detonators, 100 rounds of different types of ammunition, 60 national identity cards in various names, and two Harkat membership cards.

In a report filed the night of the arrest, police said they had received a tip that Harkat, the Taliban and al-Qaida were regrouping in a Peshawar house. ‘‘These persons are engaged in terrorist activities and spreading disinformation against the government,’’ Assistant Inspector General Abdul Majeed Marwat alleged. ‘‘It is presumed that these persons were planning for mass destruction in Peshawar and some VIPs were also on their hit list.’’

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Meanwhile, one of two men who were released admitted in an interview at his home in Hayatabad, near Peshawar, that he and the group’s leader are Harkat members. And he confirmed that police found explosives in the house.

The man spoke on condition he not be identified because his superiors hadn’t approved the interview. Three of the 11 had recently returned from fighting Indian forces in Jammu and Kashmir, he said, adding that two members of the group were Afghans.

Despite Musharraf’s promises to stop infiltrations into Indian part of Kashmir, India and the US say the incursions continue. Sabir Hussain Awan, a Peshawar-area commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, another group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir that remains legal in Pakistan, said Musharraf is facing domestic pressure to stop restraining the militants. Pakistan says it has turned over to the US more than 420 al-Qaeda suspects, most of whom were captured as they crossed from Afghanistan after the Taliban collapsed last year.

Meanwhile, some of Pakistan’s homegrown radicals are branching out, including a Harkat splinter group operating in Karachi that added ‘‘al-Almi,’’ or ‘‘international’’ to the name.

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Police blame the group for a May suicide bombing that killed 11 French naval engineers and a car bombing near the U.S. consulate in Karachi that killed 11 Pakistanis, including the bomber. (LAT/WP)

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