Understanding the 1993 mumbai bombings: Madrassas and the hierarchy of terror

South Asia: Journal of South Asia Studies

Volumn 30, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 43-73

  Vicziany, Marika ^a  

^a MONASH UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EXPLOSION; RELIGION; TERRORISM; VIOLENCE;

ASIA; EURASIA; INDIA; MAHARASHTRA; MUMBAI; PAKISTAN; SOUTH ASIA;

EID: 34247860952     PISSN: 00856401     EISSN: 14790270     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00856400701283662     Document Type: Article

References (181)

1. William Sleeman quoted in William Dalrymple, The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857 (London: Bloomsbury, 2006), p.95
2. Marc Sageman, Understanding Terror Networks (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), p.74.
3. See also Peter Bergen and Swati Pandey, 'The Madrassa Scapegoat', in The Washington Quarterly, Vol.29, no.2 (Spring 2006), pp.117-25.
4. See also Peter Bergen and Swati Pandey, 'The Madrassa Scapegoat', in The Washington Quarterly, Vol.29, no.2 (Spring 2006), pp.117-25.
5. Sageman, Understanding Terror Networks, p.74.
6. Ibid. p.75.
7. Ibid. p.73.
8. Robert A. Pape, Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism (New York: Random House, 2005), pp.4, 203.
9. Ibid. (emphasis added).
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid. p.215 chart 14.
13. Ibid. p.214-5.
14. CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation), 'CBI Moves US for Handing Over Bombay Bomb Blast Accused' (New Delhi: CBI, 5 Jan. 2007) [http://cbi.ni.in, accessed 11 Jan. 2007].
15. Gilbert King, The Most Dangerous Man in the World: Dawood Ibrahim (New York: Chamberlain Bros., 2004), p.3-14.
16. '1993 Blasts: A Month On, 39 Guilty, 15 Acquitted', Hindustan Times.com (12 Oct. 2006) [http://hindustantimes.com, accessed 13 Jan. 2007].
17. 'A Low-Down on how Mumbai was Bombed', The Times of India (21 Sept. 2006) [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com, accessed 10 Jan. 2007]. RDX is an explosive which is 150 percent more powerful than TNT and is easy to make. It is a white crystalline compound that can be readily stored. In Mumbai RDX was called 'black soap'.
18. 'Day 1 of 1993 Judgment Day: Four Memon Family Guilty', The Indian Express(13 Sept. 2006) [http://www.indianexpress.com, accessed 9 Jan. 2007].
19. BBC News, 'Profile: India's Fugitive Gangster', BBC News (12 Sept. 2006) [http://news.bbc.co.uk, accessed 10 Jan. 2007]
20. Government of Maharashtra, Srikrishna Report (Mumbai: Government of Maharashtra, 1998), Vol.1, para. 1.30. In commenting on the origins of the Mumbai blasts of March 1993, the Srikrishna Report noted that 'the Muslims perhaps felt that the Government and police, instead of protecting their interests, had actually acted against their interests by joining hands with communal elements which took a lead in the riots'.
21. Ibid., Chap.6.
22. The destruction of the mosque of Ayodhya was, in the words of the Srikrishna Commission, 'orchestrated' by the Bharatiya Janata Party which wanted to replace the mosque with a temple. The disputed site was, for Hindu fundamentalists, the birthplace of Lord Shri Rama. On 6 December 1992 the mosque was pulled down and the first lot of countrywide riots followed; they continued for five days to 10 December 1992. A further 15 days of rioting occurred in 1993 from 6 to 20 January. Ibid., Vol.1, paras. 1.1, 2.4.
23. 'The Spreading Tentacles of Terror', The Hindu (31 Aug. 2003) [http://www.hinduonnet.com, accessed 11 Jan. 2007].
24. Praveen Swami, 'India's Most Wanted', Frontline (19 Jan.01 Feb. 2002) [http://www.hinduonnet.com, accessed 10 Jan. 2007].
25. Gilbert King reverses the relationship, arguing that Dawood has been funding the ISI at an annual cost of $US1 billion. See King, The Most Dangerous Man in the World: Dawood Ibrahim, p.59.
26. 'Blasts Linked to Power Struggle', The Times of India Online (18 Sept. 2006) [http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com, accessed 12 Jan.2007].
27. Yakub Memon quoted in Swati Deshpande, 'Yakub Refers to Delay in Riot Cases', The Times of India Online (16 Sept. 2006) [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com, accessed 12 Jan. 2007]. The medium- to long-term consequences of anti-Muslim riots is only now beginning to be measured.
28. See for example the account of this process in Ahmedabad and Delhi by Imran Ali and Yoginder Sikand, 'Ghettoisation of Muslims in India', in Countercurrents [http://www.countercurrents.org, accessed 21 Jan. 2007].
29. Government of Maharashtra, Srikrishna Report, Vol.1, para.1.30 and Chap.
30. Ibid.
31. '"93 Blasts Verdict: Sentencing in Jan', Hindustan Times.com (5 Dec. 2006) [http://hindustantimes.com, accessed 13 Jan. 2007]. The first presiding judge was J.N. Patel who was succeeded by Judge P.K. Kode after 12 February 1996.
32. Swati Deshpande, 'Tada Judge Hits a Six, Reaches 100', The Times of India Online (5 Dec. 2006) [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com, accessed 10 Jan. 2007].
33. Swati Deshpande, 'Tada Judge Hits a Six, Reaches 100', The Times of India Online (5 Dec. 2006) [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com, accessed 10 Jan. 2007].
34. PTI (Press Trust of India), '93 Blast: Convicts Rely on Srikrishna Commission Report', Hindustan Times.com(11 Dec. 2006) [http://hindustantimes.com, accessed 13 Jan. 2007].
35. The Special Public Prosecutor quoted in Deshpande, 'Tada Judge Hits a Six, Reaches 100'.
36. BBC News, 'Four Guilty of 1993 Mumbai Blasts' (12 Sept. 2006) [http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk, accessed 10 Jan. 2007].
37. Ibid. One report stated that 'two passed away in police custody, 10 were killed in gang wars and one was gunned down in a police encounter'.
38. See '1993 Blast Verdict Today', Central Chronicle (10 Aug. 2006) [http://www.centralchronicle.com, accessed 31 Jan. 2007].
39. This list appears as an online 'popup' titled '93 Blasts Verdict Out, Fates Sealed', Hindustan Times.com (19 Dec. 2006) [http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/611_0,001302410000.htm, accessed 13 Jan. 2007].
40. Readers wishing to see what the specific convictions were can do so by checking the references cited in this paper including the list generated by the South Asia Terrorist Portal, 'The Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act Courts Judgment on the 1993 Serial Bomb Blasts in Mumbai' (New Delhi: 2007) [http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/ countries/india/database/mumbai_blasts_judgement.htm, accessed 30 Jan. 2007].
41. "93 Blasts Verdict Out, Fates Sealed'.
42. Interview with Farhana Shah, Mumbai, 28 Jan. 2007.
43. Swati Deshpande, 'Dutt Postpones Trip to Temples as CBI Objects', The Times of India Online (16 Sept. 2006) [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com, accessed 12 Jan. 2007].
44. 'Sanjay Dutt Seeks Divine Intervention', Hindustan Times.com (17 Dec. 2006) [http://www.hindustantimes.com, accessed 13 Jan. 2007]. According to the head of the temple, Dutt undertook 'one of the difficult yajnas' that required no less than 15 priests.
45. Mustafa Plumber, '1993 Blasts: 3 Held Guilty for Aiding Dutt', Hindustan Times.com (29 Nov. 2006) [http://hindustantimes.com, accessed 13 Jan. 2007].
46. Ibid. The video company Magnum has been described as 'one of the largest players in the distribution of Hindi movies in West Asia, Europe and the United States'.
47. See Molly Charles, K.S. Nair, Gabriel Britto and A.A. Das, 'The Bombay Underworld: A Descriptive Account and its Role in Drug Trade', in UNESCO, Globalisation, Drugs and Criminalisation: Final Research Report on Brazil, China, India and Mexico (Geneva: UNESCO/MOST Secretariat, 2002), p.27 [http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001276/ 127644e.pdf].
48. 'Blasts: Mumbai Builder Guilty', Dance with Shadows (23 Nov. 2006) [http://www.dancewithshadows.com, accessed 10 Jan. 2007].
49. 'Blasts: Mumbai Builder Guilty', Dance with Shadows (23 Nov. 2006) [http://www.dancewithshadows.com, accessed 10 Jan. 2007].
50. Swati Deshpande, 'Bomb Planter Convicted', The Times of India Online (15 Sept. 2006) [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com, accessed 12 Jan. 2007].
51. Swati Deshpande, 'My Girl's Been Waiting for 13 Years', The Times of India Online (16 Sept. 2006) [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com, accessed 12 Jan. 2007
52. and Deshpande, 'Tada Judge Hits a Six'.
53. Deshpande, 'Bomb Planter Convicted'.
54. Swati Deshpande, 'Plaza Bombers Guilty, Face Death Penalty', The Times of India Online (19 Sept. 2006) [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com, accessed 12 Jan. 2007].
55. Nitasha Natu, 'Family Lost in a Void', The Times of India Online (19 Sept. 2006) [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com, accessed 12 Jan. 2007].
56. Nitasha Natu, 'Family Lost in a Void', The Times of India Online (19 Sept. 2006) [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com, accessed 12 Jan. 2007].
57. 'Pak-Trained Bomber Found Guilty', The Telegraph (19 Sept. 2006) [http://www.telegraphindia.com, accessed 13 Jan. 2007].
58. Deshpande, 'Plaza Bombers Guilty, Face Death Penalty'.
59. Swati Deshpande, 'Plaza Bombers; Traitors or Trapped?', The Times of India Online(19 Sept. 2006) [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com, accessed 12 Jan. 2007].
60. 'Two "Tiger" Memon Aides Held Guilty in Theatre Blast', The Indian Express (19 Sept. 2006) [http://www.indiaexpress.com, accessed 10 Jan. 2007].
61. Shahnawaz Qureshi quoted in 'Plaza Cinema Bombers Plead for Leniency', The Times of India Online (19 Sept. 2006) [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com, accessed 12 Jan. 2007].
62. Deshpande, 'Plaza Bombers: Traitors Or Trapped?'.
63. Mustafa Plumber, "93 Blasts Case: Six Memon Aides Held Guilty", Hindustan Times.com (4 Dec. 2006) [http://hindustantimes.com, accessed 13 Jan. 2007].
64. Mustafa Plumber, "93 Blasts Case: Six Memon Aides Held Guilty', Hindustan Times.com (4 Dec. 2006) [http://hindustantimes.com, accessed 13 Jan. 2007].
65. Ibid
66. Ibid.
67. Ibid.
68. Ibid.
69. Deshpande, 'Tada Judge Hits a Six'; Kartikeya, 'Century Bazaar Bomber was a Taxi Driver', The Times of India Online (18 Sept. 2006) [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2000710.cms, accessed 12 Jan. 2007].
70. Swati Deshpande, '93 Blasts: Deadliest Bomber Found Guilty', The Times of India Online (20 Sept. 2006) [http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com, accessed 12 Jan. 2007].
71. Sheela Bhatt, 'TADA Court Accepts Dawood's Role in 1993 Mumbai Blasts', Rediff.com (22 Sept. 2006) [http://www.rediff.com, accessed 31 Jan. 2007]
72. Shahid Raza Burney, 'Two Smugglers Found Guilty in Blasts Case', Arab News (23 Sept. 2006) [http://www.arabnews.com, accessed 1 Feb 2007].
73. Ibid.
74. '1993 Mumbai Blasts "Tiger " Memon Aide Convicted', The Times of India Online (21 Sept. 2006) [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com, accessed 10 Jan. 2007].
75. South Asia Terrorist Portal, 'The Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act Courts Judgement on the 1993 Serial Bomb Blasts in Mumbai'.
76. Ibid.
77. Ibid.
78. Ibid.
79. Ibid.
80. Interview with Farhana Shah, Mumbai, 28 Jan. 2007.
81. Suleiman was a Non Resident Indian (NRI) living in Dubai; he spent five years in a Mumbai prison but was eventually acquitted by Judge Kode. His wife, however, was convicted. Her car was one of the vehicles used in the bombings. Although she lived in Dubai with her husband, the car was still registered in her name. Interview with Shubash Kanse, Mumbai, 31 Jan. 2007; and 'The Acquitted', The Indian Express (3 Dec. 2006) [http://www.indianexpress.com, accessed 2 Feb. 2007].
82. In Mumbai, the term 'mastermind' is reserved for 'Tiger' Memon as he was the person in charge of operationalising the Mumbai bombings; Dawood Ibrahim is locally described as the 'brains' behind the operation. Interview with Shubash Kanse, Mumbai, 31 Jan. 2007.
83. 'Day 1 of 1993 Judgement Day: Four of Memon Family Guilty', The Indian Express (13 Sept. 2006) [http://www.indianexpress.com/story/ 12563.html, accessed 10 Jan. 2007]
84. and 'Four of Memon Family Found Guilty', The Hindu (13 Sept. 2006) [http://www.hindonnet.com, accessed 10 Jan. 2007].
85. CBI, 'CBI Moves US for Handing Over Bombay Bomb Blast'.
86. Swami, 'India's Most Wanted'
87. and interview with Shubash Kanse, Mumbai, 31 Jan. 2007. Kanse describes family as 'middle-class'.
88. Swati Deshpande, 'Hang Three Memon Brothers: CBI', The Times of India Online (15 Sept. 2006) [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com, accessed 12 Jan. 2007].
89. Deshpande, 'Yakub Refers to Delay in Riot Cases'.
90. 'Day 1 of 1993 Judgement Day: Four of Memon Family Found Guilty'.
91. Deshpande, 'Hang Three Memon Brothers: CBI'. According to Kanse, these illnesses only emerged after Mumbai bombings and so do not change the circumstances in which the Memon family was involved in Mumbai blasts. Interview with Shubash Kanse, Mumbai, 31 Jan. 2007.
92. This is the view of one prominent Indian journalist familiar with the circumstances surrounding the 1992-1993 Mumbai blasts. He wishes to remain anonymous. Interview with Indian journalist, New Delhi, 28 Jan. 2007.
93. Mustafa Plumber, "93 Blasts Verdict: Two More Convicted', Hindustan Times.com (20 November 2006) [http://hindustantimes.com, accessed 13 Jan. 2007].
94. Ibid.
95. BBC News, 'Profile: India's Fugitive Gangster'.
96. Statement by the Minister of Home Affairs, Shri S.B. Chavan, on the 'Investigation by the Bombay Police in Regard to Bomb Explosions in Bombay on March 12, 1993' (New Delhi: Indian Parliament, 21 April 1993) [http://www.parliamentofindia.nic.in, accessed 31 Jan. 2007].
97. Phanse was arrested soon after the bombings and along with 28 other accused has been in prison for 13 years awaiting trial. Burney, 'Two Smugglers Found Guilty in Blasts Case'. In the event that some of these accused receive a sentence of less than 13 years, they will be in a position to demand compensation.
98. Bhatt, 'TADA Court Accepts Dawood's Role in 1993 Mumbai Blasts'.
99. Ibid.
100. Sheela Bhatt, 'Dawood, 'Tiger' Memon Can't be Convicted', Rediff.com (9 Aug. 2006) [http://www.rediff.com, accessed 1 Feb. 2007].
101. Ibid.
102. Ibid., quoting Adhik Shirodkar, a criminal lawyer.
103. TADA is the law under which the accused were arrested and tried, namely the Terrorism and Disruptive (Prevention) Activities Act, 1987. For a discussion of the history of this and related legislation see Oliver Mendelsohn, 'The Legal Response of India, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia to 9/11', in Marika Vicziany (ed.), Controlling Arms and Terror in the Asia Pacific: After Bali and Baghdad (Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2007), pp.60-83.
104. Interview with Shubash Kanse, Mumbai, 31 Jan. 2007.
105. Ibid.
106. Interview with Farhana Shah, Mumbai, 28 Jan. 2007.
107. At least two 'approvers' have been named by the Mumbai press: Mohammed Khatlab and Mohammed Usman Jan Khan. The latter accused a further 33 persons of complicity in the plot. See '1993 Blast Verdict Today'.
108. 'How Don Made it to the Crime World?', Central Chronicle (27 Feb. 2006) [http://www.centralchronicle.com, accessed 10 Jan. 2007]
109. and BBC News, 'Profile: India's Fugitive Gangster'.
110. BBC News, 'Profile: India's Fugitive Gangster'
111. and 'Blasts Linked to Power Struggle'. The only relatively comprehensive biography of Dawood is that by King, The Most Dangerous Man in the World: Dawood Ibrahim. But King has no data about Dawood's early life or private life today. It is widely believed in Mumbai that Dawood was victim of child abuse.
112. The information in this paragraph is drawn from Syed Saleem Shahzad, 'Dawood: "War on Terror" Takes a Strange Turn', Asia Times Online 22 Oct. 2003) [http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/ EJ22Df07.html, accessed 13 Jan. 2007].
113. Ibid. Azhar achieved international fame when the Indian government released him from prison in January 2000 as part of a deal to end the hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight IC-814. He subsequently set up Jaish-e-Mohammed, a terrorist outfit noted for its 'innovative' suicide missions in Kashmir.
114. See 'Maulana Masood Azhar', Kashmir Herald (Jan. 2002) [http://kashmirherald.com/profiles/masoodazhar.html, accessed 2 Feb. 2007].
115. US Department of the Treasury quoted in BBC News, 'Profile: India's Fugitive Gangster'.
116. Shahzad, 'Dawood: "War on Terror" Takes a Strange Turn'.
117. For a contrary position that supports the US Treasury view rather uncritically, see B. Raman, 'Dawood Ibrahim: The Global Terrorist', South Asia Analysis Group, Paper no.818 (19 Oct. 2003) [http://www.saag.org/papers9/paper818.html, accessed 13 Jan. 2007].
118. Gilbert King again reverses this relationship: It was Dawood's smuggling circuits that enabled Osama bin Laden to escape the US at the fall of the Taliban. Since then Dawood has also been allegedly funding both Osama bin Laden and Lashkar-e-Taiba. See King, The Most Dangerous Man in the World: Dawood Ibrahim, p.17.
119. Vir Sanghvi, 'Godfather III: The Terrorist', The Hindustan Times.com (12 Nov. 2005) [http://hindustantimes.com, accessed 13 Jan. 2007]. See also 'Biographical Sketch, Member of Parliament, 14th Lok Sabha
120. for Mumbai North West (Maharashtra), elected November 2005' [http://164.100.24.208/ls/lsmember/biodata.asp?mpsno=4210, accessed 15 Jan. 2007].
121. Gilbert King argues against this, saying that the Mumbai bombings created a division between Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan along communal lines, with the Muslim thugs siding with the former and the Hindu with the latter. He adds that this bifurcation then changed into a situation where the ISI's backing of Dawood was matched by Indian intelligence backing of Rajan. See King, The Most Dangerous Man in the World: Dawood Ibrahim, pp.45-55.
122. This scenario is questioned, however, by well-informed journalists such as Maseeh Rahman who reported at length on the 1992-1993 Mumbai riots. Also see Charles et al, 'The Bombay Underworld', p.39.
123. Dawood's daughter married the son of the famous Pakistani cricketer Javed Miandad. See BBC News, 'Profile: India's Fugitive Gangster'.
124. Deshpande, 'Tada Judge Hits a Six'.
125. These conclusions will be refined in the next paper on the subject of the Mumbai trials once the sentences have been announced and the trial papers made available. With this more detailed information it will be possible to undertake a close review of the socioeconomic backgrounds of the 100 convicted persons subdivided into the five groups noted above.
126. The official death toll by May 2002 was 950 compared to the unofficial estimate which exceeded 2,000. See People's Union for Democratic Rights, State, Society, and Communalism in Gujarat (Delhi: May 2002), p.1.
127. The South Asia Terrorist Portal run by the Institute of Conflict Management in New Delhi (http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/icm/index.html) provides a list which starts with the 1996 article 'Incidents Involving Lashkar-e-Toiba', and runs up to the present. See http://www.satp.org/ satporgtp/countries/india/states/jandk/terrorist_outfits/ lashkar_e_toiba_lt.htm.
128. BBC News, 'Profile: India's Fugitive Gangster'
129. and US Department of the Treasury, 'Fact Sheet: Dadwood Ebrahim' [http://www.ustreas.gov/press/releases/reports/fact_sheet.pdf, accessed 21 Jan. 2007].
130. Ghulam Hasnain, 'Karachi's Gang Wars', Newsline (Sept. 2001) [http://www.newsline.com.pk/NewsSept2001/coverstory1.htm, accessed 21 Jan. 2007].
131. BBC News, 'Profile: India's Fugitive Gangster'.
132. 118 Praveen Swami, 'Terrorist Dawood, a Symbolic Label', The Hindu 18 Oct. 2003) [http://www.hinduonnet.com, accessed 21 Jan. 2007].
133. Bhiwandi continues to be a scene of violence with the recent killing of two policemen over arguments about whether a new police station should be built next one of the town's mosques. See '2 Policemen Stabbed to Death in Bhiwandhi', The Hindu (7 July 2006) [http://www.hindu.com, accessed 16 Jan. 2007].
134. 'The Spreading Tentacles of Terror'.
135. Ibid.
136. Praveen Swami, 'Harnessing Hate', Frontline, Vol.23, no.15 (29 July-11 Aug. 2006) [http://hinduonnet.com, accessed 13 Jan. 2007].
137. Ibid.
138. Chitrangada Choudhurym, 'Decade after Dr Jalees Ansari went to Jail, a Family is still Seething', Mumbai Newsline (2 Mar.2004) [http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=77579, accessed 10 Feb.2007].
139. Swami, 'Harnessing Hate'.
140. BBC News, 'Profile: Lashkar-e-Toiba', BBC News (17 Mar. 2006) [http://www.bbc.co.uk, accessed 22 Jan. 2007].
141. See for example 'The Future Looks Bearded', The Economist (6 July 2006) [http://www.economist.com/index.htmleconomist.com, accessed 16 Jan. 2007].
142. For example the Jamaat-ul-Dawa website has a link to al-Huda International. See http://www.jamatdawah.org/ pages.php?action=menu&id=93, accessed 4 Nov. 2006.Al-Huda is an international women's movement based in Pakistan but active across the globe. It attracts upwardly-mobile, young professional women in an effort to increase their commitment to Islam.
143. For an account of this movement, see Aneela Babar, 'Living Room Seminaries: Negotiating Religious Networks, Gendered Selves and Inter-Communal Relationships within the Pakistani Diaspora', unpublished PhD thesis, Centre for Cultural Research, University of Western Sydney, 2006.
144. See for example the special issue of The Herald (Karachi) (June 2006), 'Flashpoint Frontier: Religious Extremists are Pushing their Agenda across Large Swathes of the NWFP', pp.60-71.
145. Jamaat-ul-Dawa website [http://www.jamatdawah.org/ pages.php?action=menu&id=71, accessed 15 Sept. 2006].
146. These estimates are based on a review of a wide range of relevant sources by Marika Vicziany and Aneela Babar, A Literature Review on Madrassahs in Pakistan (Canberra: Ausaid, November 2006).
147. The Jamaat-ul-Dawa Education Department manages '2000 model schools, two science colleges and eleven madrassas' according to Mohammed Amir Rana, Gateway to Terrorism (London: New Millenium Publication, 2003), p.340. 'Madrassas' in this instance refers to seminaries. Plans have also been developed for the establishment of specialist colleges for training engineers and doctors.
148. Ibid., p.331. The Ahl-e-Hadith emerged in South Asia in the 1830s. It aimed at religious reform (islah), criticising many existing religious practices as 'unlawful innovations' (bida). It emphasises the original principles of Islam as against the interpretations of the four orthodox Sunni religious schools of interpretation.
149. Lashkar-e-Taiba was the first relief group to arrive in Muzaffarabad after the earthquake of Oct. 2005: It pulled the living and the dead from the rubble and provided help before any other Pakistani or foreign agency. It had the capacity to do this because it is well-managed, well-funded, and highly-trained. In Muzaffarabad it set up a network of '⋯ 350 of its jihadi members connected with wireless phones; 16 ambulances and mobile X-ray machines/operation theatres; kitchens to feed 3,000 people daily; motorboats to rescue people from inaccessible areas; an orthopaedic unit under the supervision of Dr. Amir Aziz (who was arrested after the 9/11 for treating bin Laden and later acquitted by the Supreme Court)'. See Mohammed Shehzad, 'Pakistan-The State Fails, the Jihadi Prevails', in South Asia Intelligence Review (7 Nov. 2005) [http://www.satp.org, accessed 10 Jan. 2007].
150. See also Declan Walsh, 'Extremist Measures', Guardian Unlimited (18 Oct. 2006) [http://www.guardian.co.uk, accessed 3 Nov. 2006].
151. Most reports stress that the medieval Arabic curriculum as taught today has shrunk and typically excludes the scientific subjects that used to be taught in the past. See Arif Jamal, 'The Dars Today', The News on Sunday (7 Aug. 2005), p.24. Moreover, there is no common curriculum: the various sects promote the works of their own leaders.
152. Meghnad Desai, Rethinking Islamism: The Ideology of the New Terror (London: I.B. Taurus, 2006).
153. It is also suspected of having encouraged and funded a conspiracy in the UK to blow up ten passenger jets. The plot was intercepted and 23 suspects taken into custody. See Joshua Partlow and Kamran Khan, 'Charity Funds Said to Provide Clues to Alleged Terrorist Plot: Officials Say Money for Attacks Came from Earthquake Relief', Washingtonpost.com(15 Aug. 2006) [http://www.washingtonpost.com, accessed 3 Nov. 2006].
154. Aneela Babar, personal conversation with Amir Chaudhry Tufail at Mansoorah, April 1999, cited in Vicziany and Babar, A Literature Review on Madrassahs in Pakistan.
155. Aneela Babar, personal conversation with Maulana A. Saleemi (Naib Amir or Deputy Head of Jamaat-e-Islami) at Mansoorah, April 1999, cited in Vicziany and Babar, A Literature Review on Madrassahs in Pakistan.
156. A. Babar, Texts of War: The Religio-Military Nexus in Pakistan and India (Bangkok: Monograph 11, Gender Studies, Asian Institute of Technology, 2001), p.26.
157. Ibid. p.30.
158. Ibid., see various photographs.
159. A.H. Nayyar, 'Insensitivity to the Religious Diversity of the Nation', in A.H. Nayyar and Ahmad Salim (comp.), The Subtle Subversion: The State of Curricula and Textbooks in Pakistan (Urdu, English, Social Studies and Civics) (Islamabad: SDPI Publications, 2003), pp.9-63.
160. in A.H. Nayyar and Ahmad Salim, 'Glorification of War and the Military', in A.H. Nayyar and Ahmad Salim (comp.), The Subtle Subversion: The State of Curricula and Textbooks in Pakistan (Urdu, English, Social Studies and Civics) (Islamabad: SDPI Publications, 2003), pp.79-91.
161. Ibid., pp.80-1. Paradoxically, it was Prime Minister Ali Bhutto who first introduced the War Studies program.
162. Ahmad Salim, 'Historical Falsehoods and Inaccuracies', in A.H. Nayyar and Ahmad Salim (comp.), The Subtle Subversion: The State of Curricula and Textbooks in Pakistan (Urdu, English, Social Studies and Civics) (Islamabad: SDPI Publications, 2003), pp.63-73
163. Nayyar and Salim, 'Glorification of War and the Military', p.81.
164. Ibid., p.82.
165. Ibid. Unfortunately the rise of Hindu fundamentalism in India over the last twenty years has seen the emergence there of similar concerns about the rewriting of textbooks to a serve narrow fundamentalist political agenda.
166. See for example Mushirul Hasan, 'The BJP's Intellectual Agenda: Textbooks and Imagined History', in South Asia, Vol.XXV, no.3 (Dec. 2002), pp.187-209,
167. and also published in John McGuire and Ian Copland (eds), Hindu Nationalism and Governance (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2007), pp.226-52.
168. A special thanks to Dr. Aneela Babar, Honorary Research Fellow, Monash Asia Institute, for sharing this experience
169. Pervez Hoodbhoy, 'Deconstructing Muslim Terrorism', in Marika Vicziany (ed.), Controlling Arms and Terror in the Asia Pacific: After Bali and Baghdad (Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2007), pp.117-29.
170. Ahmad, 'Madrassa Education in Pakistan and Bangladesh', p.114.
171. Yvette Claire Rosser, 'Curriculum as Destiny: Forging National Identity in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh', unpublished PhD. thesis, The University of Texas at Austin, August 2003, p.106.
172. Muhammad Qasim Zaman, The Ulama in Contemporary Islam: Custodians of Change (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2002), pp.137-9. As Zaman notes, these madrassas gained a lot of prestige within Pakistan with the rise of the Taliban.
173. Ibid., pp.141-3.
174. Ahmad is right to stress that these madrassas began as camps of war, not educational centres. As such they are very different from the typical South Asian madrassa. See Ahmad, 'Madrassa Education in Pakistan and Bangladesh', p.115.
175. See for example Farhana Ali, 'Pakistan's Madrassas Provide Safe Haven for al-Qaeda Militants', Terrorism Focus (14 March 2006) [http://jamestown.org/terrorism/news, accessed 4 Feb. 2007]
176. Yahya Durrani, 'The Binori Town Madrassah: Vanguard of the Jihad', Rediff.com (16 Jan. 2000) [http://www.paklinks.com. accessed 4 Oct. 2007]. Google has 10,600 internet references to 'Binori Town Madrassa'. The Binori Town madrassa's image has been blended with the general reputation of violence in Karachi which includes the murder of journalist Daniel Pearl.
177. See Justin Huggler, 'Karachi: A City of Violence, Murder and Islamic Militancy', The Indepdendent
178. Ibid., p.56.
179. According to Amir Mir between 1989 and 2005 there were 1,866 sectarian events causing 4,279 injuries and 1,784 deaths. Cited in Ibid., p.70.
180. S. Irfani, '[Pakistan] Religious Extremism: Fringe or Mainstream?', Parts 1 & 2, Daily Times (27 Aug. 2004 & 3 Sept. 2004) [http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_27-8-2004_pg3_2, accessed 5 Feb. 2007].
181. Yoginder Sikand, Bastions of the Believers: Madrasas and Islamic Education in India (New Delhi: Penguin India, 2005), p.105.