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Mast Gul resurfaces in Pak

Emboldened by the military takeover militant groups in Pakistan are regrouping themselves for a bigger jehad ahead. This only months after the Kargil fiasco.

Mast Gul, credited with having destroyed the Charar-e-Sharif in Kashmir four years back, has resurfaced from his hide-out in Khurram in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province.

Talking to the Urdu daily Khabrein, Mast Gul said the Jamaat-e-Islami leaders had amassed huge sums of money from the people in the name of jehad and built palatial houses with it. This had forced him to leave that organisation, he added.

Mast Gul's resurfacing is seen in the light of several other militant organisations reorganising themselves after their Kargil misadventure. All these outfits are currently meeting in Muridke near Lahore where the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba is holding its annual session.

Deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharief had disallowed such conclaves but with Pervez Musharraf at the helm, militants now feel more at ease. The permission to hold the meet has strengthened this confidence.

Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, the militant wing of the Markaz Dawa ul Irshad subscribes to a philosophy of continuing jehad as long as a single non-Muslim inhabits this earth.

UNI

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