Amongst the large pool of right-wing columnists who write for a daily that is the self-appointed defender of the ideology of Pakistan, an ex-MNA from Jamaat-e-Islami Amira Ehsan stands out for very interesting reasons. Her weekly column (last one published as recently as June 18th) addresses issues central to most right-wing writers - perceived moral collapse in society, the hegemony of the United States, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the perceived persecution of Muslims, ghairat and the lot. The title of 'Shaheed' for the face of evil, Osama bin Ladin, was just a small drop in the ocean of vitriol that emerges in that column.However, the column is just a small issue in what seems to be very troublesome territory and intelligence agencies have been following the trails of the party she is associated with for a while now.
Amira Ehsan first came to public attention for opposing the election of Benazir Bhutto as the first female prime minister, as a JI MNA on a women's reserved seat. Her brother, an army officer, was held for the failed Operation Khilafat against the Benazir government in 1995 |
Amira Ehsan first came to widescale public attention for vocally opposing the election of Benazir Bhutto as the first female prime minister of Pakistan and the Muslim world, as an MNA from JI on a women's reserved seat. She noted that there was a "biological distinction which means women must manage the house and men are the breadwinners" and that "in the name of sexual liberation, women in the West are forced to fend for themselves and act like men". Throughout her subsequent career, she remained strong to her party stance and opposed all moves towards a rationalisation of religious policies and laws, including the infamous case of Federal Shariat Court's decision on banking interest.
However, the association with JI could not remain intact for long. In April 1995, a faction split from the Jamaat-e-Islami after having been strongly opposed to the policies of Qazi Hussain Ahmed, including calling the annual convention under the leadership of Maulana Naeem Siddiqui. Citing irreconcilable ideological differences, the breakaway faction thus formed was called Tehreek-e-Islami and 16 members of Jamaat's Majlis-e-Shoora, including provincial nazima Amira Ehsan and Yasmin Hameed joined the new faction (Dawn, April 14, 1995). TI was formed because it was supposed to be more radical than JI, which had begun to be perceived as very mild and pro status-quo in its approach towards the development of the "true" Islamic state. Tehreek-e-Islami, if reports are to be believed, is still active and more than a political party now.
However, the association with JI could not remain intact for long. In April 1995, a faction split from the Jamaat-e-Islami after having been strongly opposed to the policies of Qazi Hussain Ahmed, including calling the annual convention under the leadership of Maulana Naeem Siddiqui. Citing irreconcilable ideological differences, the breakaway faction thus formed was called Tehreek-e-Islami and 16 members of Jamaat's Majlis-e-Shoora, including provincial nazima Amira Ehsan and Yasmin Hameed joined the new faction (Dawn, April 14, 1995). TI was formed because it was supposed to be more radical than JI, which had begun to be perceived as very mild and pro status-quo in its approach towards the development of the "true" Islamic state. Tehreek-e-Islami, if reports are to be believed, is still active and more than a political party now.
This recruitment is allegedly happening in the I-10 sector of Islamabad, near the Police Lines, the Intelligence Bureau Academy and intelligence hub at Hamza Camp |
Amira Ehsan is married to Raja Ehsan Aziz, a former Foreign Office official, and an assistant professor of International Relations at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad. He joined the Foreign Service of Pakistan and according to his wife, was the "favourite third secretary of Agha Shahi". After completing a Master's degree in International Relations from one of the most prestigious schools in the world, Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, he served in the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), in Afghanistan as well. In 1975, he quit the FSP and joined QAU.
As a student at Columbia, he got involved in a long and complicated battle with Muhammad Ismail "Sam" Sloan, a shadowy figure from New York who on his way back from Afghanistan came to Chitral and married a local by the name of Honzagool. In 1983, after a weird turn of events, Honzagool came back to Pakistan and a story of her alleged forced abduction by Ehsan Aziz and another person can be found on Sloan's website (anusha.com) where he alleges that his wife was "effectively being held prisoner" by Aziz and others. The divorce case filed in Rawalpindi drew considerable press in 1983.
Coming back to local events, investigations into the bombings at Moon Market in Lahore and Parade Lane attack in Rawalpindi revealed that one of the SIMs used for cellular communication was issued in the name of one Phool Zeb of Nowshera, a driver employed by the family. A car used in the Parade Lane attack belonged to Jawad, son of another Islamabad based Tehreek-e-Islami member, Sarwat Waheed, who had gone to Fasialabad after finishing his A-Levels from Beaconhouse. Raja Ehsan Aziz was picked up by sleuths once before December 2009 from his G-10/3 residence, interrogated and released after a day in connection with some terrorist attacks. This time, Phool Zeb, Ehsan Aziz, the son of the Ehsans, Rana Awaisullah, a student of the Islamic International University and another TI member from Islamabad, Najma Sana, were picked up in a series of raids. Another female TI member, Tahira Mumtaz, was interrogated for her links and helping Sarwat Waheed flee (The News - December 18, 2009). The suspicion investigators had was that they were amongst the local facilitators of the terrorists that carried out the Parade Lane attack.
On December 23, 2009, prominent Jang columnist Irfan Siddiqui narrated the ordeal of Amira Ahsan in one of his columns and prayed to the highest office of justice to listen to her demand for justice for her husband. The Supreme Court took a suo-motu notice and the law enforcement agencies were called to explain their act. All those picked up by the agencies were released after three hearings in the court, after the complainant's appeal that the driver had merely been hired to transport students of their Quran study circle. According to other reports, some of the released were picked up later again.
The buck, however, does not stop here. In an interview to Dawn, published on June 12, an Islamabad based woman Zahida Parveen has alleged that the women of TI are actually running a recruitment programme for the terrorist group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Parveen's own son, according to her, became a victim of the women and has been missing for almost three years. According to her, the "women brainwash teenagers and urge them to become part of Jihad" and kidnap others for their activities too. She has received messages that her son has "embraced martyrdom" and others that he will be soon returned to her, all in vain. Her son Adnan was a student of the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Taxila's sub-campus at Chakwal and never returned after leaving college on the evening of October 19, 2008. She only received a call the next day from him saying that she should not tell anybody about his disappearance. Male members of TI, including one Abdul Rauf who is a local teacher, are allegedly involved in kidnapping and coercing teenagers when they take them away in the name of sehroza (three day religious congregation).
Parveen then approached a nazima of TI, Maimoona, living in the same street as hers in I-10/2, Islamabad who assured her that her son would be returned provided she took on oath on the Quran not to discuss Adnan's disappearance. Meetings with another TI member, Sabina, and shura members, Yasmin Hameed and Amira Ahsan did not yield results either. According to Adnan's uncle, Amira's "elder son had died in fighting and her younger son is a TTP commander" as well and "Yasmin's sons, Ibrahim and Hassan, are also affiliated with TTP." According to the report in Dawn, other local youngsters, including sons of TI members, have gone missing similarly, some returning after "fighting in Jihad" and others getting killed. There are other anecdotal reports of residents of the area who flaunt that their "jihadi" sons were killed in drone strikes. All this is allegedly happening in the I-10 sector of Islamabad, a lower middle and working class area with a large number of seminaries, near the Sabzi Mandi and a large Afghan camp that has been in existence for years. All this is near the Islamabad Police Lines, the Intelligence Bureau Academy and only a couple of miles away from intelligence central Hamza Camp.
Even more alarming is that according to a report in The News of December 18, 2009, one of the Ehsan's sons is a doctor in the army. Amira Ahsan's own brother, Colonel Muhamamd Hamid, an officer of the Army Education Corps, was arrested in connection with the failed "Operation Khilafat" Islamic coup attempt against the Benazir Bhutto government in 1995, and became an approver for the state.
Tehreek-e-Islami it seems is no longer another nationalist leaning oriented religio-political party. Members have been found linked to kidnapping and brainwashing young people for recruitment in terrorist groups and fighting against the state. They have been found involved in the attacks in Lahore and Rawalpindi, including the attack on GHQ. Their recruitment seems to be focused on teenagers from middle class backgrounds and with a large female base; the organisation seems to give an innocuous and innocent look. How someone linked to such an organisation, with family members arrested for terrorist links, is writing regular columns for a national daily is an altogether different matter. Hopefully, Aabpara and K-Block are listening and tightening the noose around the proselytisers of terrorism.
Source:
| June 24-30, 2011
As a student at Columbia, he got involved in a long and complicated battle with Muhammad Ismail "Sam" Sloan, a shadowy figure from New York who on his way back from Afghanistan came to Chitral and married a local by the name of Honzagool. In 1983, after a weird turn of events, Honzagool came back to Pakistan and a story of her alleged forced abduction by Ehsan Aziz and another person can be found on Sloan's website (anusha.com) where he alleges that his wife was "effectively being held prisoner" by Aziz and others. The divorce case filed in Rawalpindi drew considerable press in 1983.
Coming back to local events, investigations into the bombings at Moon Market in Lahore and Parade Lane attack in Rawalpindi revealed that one of the SIMs used for cellular communication was issued in the name of one Phool Zeb of Nowshera, a driver employed by the family. A car used in the Parade Lane attack belonged to Jawad, son of another Islamabad based Tehreek-e-Islami member, Sarwat Waheed, who had gone to Fasialabad after finishing his A-Levels from Beaconhouse. Raja Ehsan Aziz was picked up by sleuths once before December 2009 from his G-10/3 residence, interrogated and released after a day in connection with some terrorist attacks. This time, Phool Zeb, Ehsan Aziz, the son of the Ehsans, Rana Awaisullah, a student of the Islamic International University and another TI member from Islamabad, Najma Sana, were picked up in a series of raids. Another female TI member, Tahira Mumtaz, was interrogated for her links and helping Sarwat Waheed flee (The News - December 18, 2009). The suspicion investigators had was that they were amongst the local facilitators of the terrorists that carried out the Parade Lane attack.
On December 23, 2009, prominent Jang columnist Irfan Siddiqui narrated the ordeal of Amira Ahsan in one of his columns and prayed to the highest office of justice to listen to her demand for justice for her husband. The Supreme Court took a suo-motu notice and the law enforcement agencies were called to explain their act. All those picked up by the agencies were released after three hearings in the court, after the complainant's appeal that the driver had merely been hired to transport students of their Quran study circle. According to other reports, some of the released were picked up later again.
The buck, however, does not stop here. In an interview to Dawn, published on June 12, an Islamabad based woman Zahida Parveen has alleged that the women of TI are actually running a recruitment programme for the terrorist group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Parveen's own son, according to her, became a victim of the women and has been missing for almost three years. According to her, the "women brainwash teenagers and urge them to become part of Jihad" and kidnap others for their activities too. She has received messages that her son has "embraced martyrdom" and others that he will be soon returned to her, all in vain. Her son Adnan was a student of the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Taxila's sub-campus at Chakwal and never returned after leaving college on the evening of October 19, 2008. She only received a call the next day from him saying that she should not tell anybody about his disappearance. Male members of TI, including one Abdul Rauf who is a local teacher, are allegedly involved in kidnapping and coercing teenagers when they take them away in the name of sehroza (three day religious congregation).
Parveen then approached a nazima of TI, Maimoona, living in the same street as hers in I-10/2, Islamabad who assured her that her son would be returned provided she took on oath on the Quran not to discuss Adnan's disappearance. Meetings with another TI member, Sabina, and shura members, Yasmin Hameed and Amira Ahsan did not yield results either. According to Adnan's uncle, Amira's "elder son had died in fighting and her younger son is a TTP commander" as well and "Yasmin's sons, Ibrahim and Hassan, are also affiliated with TTP." According to the report in Dawn, other local youngsters, including sons of TI members, have gone missing similarly, some returning after "fighting in Jihad" and others getting killed. There are other anecdotal reports of residents of the area who flaunt that their "jihadi" sons were killed in drone strikes. All this is allegedly happening in the I-10 sector of Islamabad, a lower middle and working class area with a large number of seminaries, near the Sabzi Mandi and a large Afghan camp that has been in existence for years. All this is near the Islamabad Police Lines, the Intelligence Bureau Academy and only a couple of miles away from intelligence central Hamza Camp.
Even more alarming is that according to a report in The News of December 18, 2009, one of the Ehsan's sons is a doctor in the army. Amira Ahsan's own brother, Colonel Muhamamd Hamid, an officer of the Army Education Corps, was arrested in connection with the failed "Operation Khilafat" Islamic coup attempt against the Benazir Bhutto government in 1995, and became an approver for the state.
Tehreek-e-Islami it seems is no longer another nationalist leaning oriented religio-political party. Members have been found linked to kidnapping and brainwashing young people for recruitment in terrorist groups and fighting against the state. They have been found involved in the attacks in Lahore and Rawalpindi, including the attack on GHQ. Their recruitment seems to be focused on teenagers from middle class backgrounds and with a large female base; the organisation seems to give an innocuous and innocent look. How someone linked to such an organisation, with family members arrested for terrorist links, is writing regular columns for a national daily is an altogether different matter. Hopefully, Aabpara and K-Block are listening and tightening the noose around the proselytisers of terrorism.
Source:
| June 24-30, 2011
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