UK jihadi networks

Submitted by musa Khan Jalalzai (United Kingdom), Jan 15, 2011 at 09:57

The UK Jihadi Network By: Musa Khan Jalalzai Last week the coordinated terrorist attacks in the financial centre of India led to a nearly bewildering number of conclusions about who did it and why. Who were involved in these attacks and what was their country of origin? This created more fear across the subcontinent region. Pakistani government totally denied its involvement in this act of terrorism but said action will be taken against any non state actor found involve. Some political and military quarters in India claim that LeT is involve in the Mumbai shootout, but the LeT headquarters have ultimately repudiated it. The Markaz of this extremist group was founded in 1986 or 1987. In the early 1990s, it established the separate Lashkar-e-Tayyiba specifically for its militant activities. Lashkar-e-Tayyiba is one of Pakistan"s most extremist religious groups whose growth dates back to the 1980s and Pakistan"s role in the Afghan-Soviet war, which was won in large part by Pakistan-backed mujahideen. In the 1990s, responding to Pakistan"s sponsored militancy in Kashmir, India arrested over 76,000 innocent people under the Terrorism and Disruptive Activities Prevention Act (TADA. However, various anti-terrorism measures were notable for their violations of human rights. According to the 2003 International Crisis Group Report, " ... in March 2002, the Indian parliament ... passed a draconian anti-terrorism bill that was denounced by its own Human Rights Commission." In 2006, the government again arrested innocent people in connection with the terror incidents. This was repeated in 2007 and 2008. These terrorist incidents have created fears in Europe and the UK that there are possibilities of Mumbai style attacks here.

Jihadi terrorism is composed of one major root cause in an enabling global environment and a multitude of local root causes depending on the countries involved. In the United Kingdom, security and intelligence agencies - MI5, MI6 and GCHQ – closely watching into the Mumbai terrorist attacks and its implications for the UK. As Guardian reported counter-terrorism detectives and MI5 have a long aware of the intricate web of connections between many of the groups and individuals involved in supporting and carrying out jihadist terror attacks in Britain. A Muslim militant Kazi Nurur Rahman, of east London, had established links with the same terrorist group that attacked India last month. He was arrested as he tried to buy three Uzi submachine guns and 3,000 rounds of ammunition. Media reports in India today linked British-born Pakistanis to the attacks.

In my previous articles, I have already pinpointed extremist groups in UK that have close links with the terrorist groups of Afghanistan and Pakistan and Bangladesh. Security sources here think that the LeT Islamic terrorist group funded with cash raised in British mosques is believed to be behind the Mumbai attacks. These UK based groups and their underground network have close links with the sectarian terrorist groups of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Concerns over the likelihood of Bangladesh emerging as a major hub of jihadi terrorism in Asia to the east of India have once again come to the fore following the publication on December 10, 2003, of an edited version of a report on Bangladesh prepared by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and an advisory issued by the US State Department to its citizens and officials posted in or visiting that country. Bangladesh has over 40,000 religious schools where over 700, 00, 00 student are being taught. Daily Telegraph, in its November 28th, 2008 report claimed that some of the terrorists who attacked Mumbai were British.

This report diverted the government attention on the UK extremist groups who receive terrorist training at the camps of the terrorist groups of both Pakistan and Afghanistan. These extremist groups recruit people by isolating them from their communities. Radicalization towards active support for violent extremism is most likely to occur where extremists can act uncontested, away from mainstream voices and competing ideas. This can apply both to physical places – prisons, universities, mosques – and to virtual spaces on the internet. The Telegraph report exposes how young Britons travel to al-Qaeda camps in South Asia to learn how to attack Britain installations. These groups are so strong; openly threat those who write against them. They threat their opponents through E-mails or openly by phone. They send money to their respective networks and support their operations. A Pakistani origin British extremist, Rashed Rauf fled to Pakistan, changed his first name to Khalid and made for the small town of Bahawalpur, where Maulana Msood Azhar has established his terrorist headquarters,

In Bahawalpur, he knew a local imam who had stayed with his family in Bordesley Green in UK. He joined the Army of Jaish Mohammed. Mullen for action against extremists all over Pakistan Another Pakistani extremist, Zeeshan Hyder Siddiqui, who had been arrested by security agencies in Peshawar, confessed that during his stay in Hounslow, UK, he had been involved in a failed terrorist plot to bomb pubs, restaurants and railway stations in London. The underground network of these terrorist groups needs to be undermined immediately. They are involved in drug trafficking and human smuggling to provide huge financial funds for their terrorist operations in both Europe and the United Kingdom. Extremists groups in UK are putting targeting young people through their" sleek and seductive messages" using the internet and new media. In future, these groups in Europe and the United Kingdom can disrupt the security network anytime. The Internet, that most contemporary of media, is increasingly its medium of choice: Jihadist websites, forums and blogs flourish. They have trained cyber warriors and information warfare experts to easily destroy the institutional networks of major European countries.

The most severe terrorist threat currently comes from individuals and groups who distort Islam to attempt to justify murder. The Internet, that most contemporary of media, is increasingly its medium of choice: Jihadist websites, forums and blogs flourish. The anger of Muslim youth in different countries over the US and NATO war on terror and its mishandling has compelled them to become extremist or terrorist. The war on terror is to be handled in military principles not like the US is tackling in Iraq and Afghanistan. Keeping in view all the above mentioned terrorist threats in the United Kingdom and Europe, I must suggest that these groups are to be strictly watched day and night and the terrorist networks are to be undermined. The writer is Executive Editor of Daily Outlook Afghanistan and author of 156 books on terrorism, extremism, and human trafficking, Afghanistan, drug trafficking and foreign policy studies and is based in London, Director Centre for Terrorism, Sectarian Violence and Organized Crime Studies in UK

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