The devastating October earthquake galvanized four leading Pakistani civilian humanitarian organizations into action to arrange massive relief for the victims in remote and inaccessible regions of Hazara and POK. The leading among these is JD, a welfare wing of the outlawed Lashkar-e Taiyyaba (LeT) vigorously active in Kashmir Valley and parts of the country. All these welfare organizations have recruited volunteers from LeT, and JD backed Harakatu’l-Mujahideen (HuM). Within hours of the earthquake they established credible networks of relief delivery to the affected areas.

A track record of the relief collection, transportation and distribution work done by the recruits of militant organizations, the efficiency and efficacy with which their volunteers have been performing the task of bringing relief to the affected people, all has won them appreciation from the UN bodies, international NGOs and international print media.

WHO sources confirmed that JD and Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA) worked closely with WHO on a daily basis to keep the world body updated on health issues. Representatives of these organizations added that the state force of Pakistan extended cooperation towards JD and other militant and religious elements that in fact came as a pleasant surprise to many observers. For example on more than one occasion, JD was provided helicopter facility by the military authorities to transport its relief items to Tilgaran, Pahelian, Panigot and some other areas while PIMA’s medical teams were also transported in military helicopters to areas at high altitudes.

The role of the strong pro-Islamist group of Jamaatu’d-Dawa wal Ershad based in Muridke near Lahore in providing short and long range relief to the earthquake sufferers in the mountainous regions of Hazara and PoK should not be underestimated. In fact the catastrophic event of October last has opened up a vast opportunity for this and similar organizations in Pakistan to remove the blemish of violence from their names and project them as true Islamic humanitarian activists with a clear agenda of improving and supporting the Muslims in need.

The event provided them a useful opportunity of interacting with various UN bodies and then practically proving their credentials as effective relief volunteers. This also shows that the military regime of Pakistan is hardly disposed to disregard or minimize the role of the militant outfits. The question of regarding them anti-social elements does not arise at all. This should help our foreign policy planners to recast their perception of these organizations as ones that have only terror as their main strategy. This segment of Muslim society in general and of Pakistani society in particular has to be understood from a liberal and wider perspective. Its reach has to be gauged in a realistic manner. That is a positive lesson Indian policy planners ought to take into account.

It is noteworthy that Pakistan’s military regime befittingly addressing the natural calamity allowed space to her radical outfits who, in turn, cooperating with the UN bodies and international NGOs in relief work in the affected region, successfully managed to dispel the negative impression about them and their role. By making their relief work transparent and allowing UN bodies and big NGOs free access to them plus providing them logistical support, Pakistan has prudently legitimized the social status of the militant outfits. Against this, India by refusing UN bodies and International NGOs access to impact of man-made calamity in Kashmir armed insurgency in general and to hundreds of thousands of the internally displaced minority community from the valley in particular, has not only deprived them of adequate international relief but has also made its moves suspect in the eyes of international community. While Pakistan could draw a mileage from the natural calamity, India failed to win the minutest favour of the international community on the man-made tragedy that afflicted millions of her innocent citizens.

It is now a fact endorsed not only by the military regime of Pakistan but also by the UN bodies that without the cooperation of the volunteers from militant organizations, it would not have been possible to bring full scale relief to the people in far-flung and inaccessible parts of the region. Without their active participation, hundreds would have perished. Thus JD in particular has been able to project its image with new dimensions that can stick.

The catastrophic event has many gains for the JD and other militant groups in Pakistan. Firstly, they have found a broad base for refurbishing their ranks with new and youthful recruits who will be indoctrinated with religious extremist ideology. Secondly, these new local recruits are highly knowledgeable persons on the topography of the region, which the militant outfits are using extensively for their armed forays into the Indian part of Kashmir and the country as well, as has been found from the disclosures made by their activists captured by Indian security forces. Thirdly, a sort of renewed and refurbished triangular relationship between the military regime, the Army and the militant outfits including those outlawed ones, will be forged for better cooperation and understanding to run the affairs of the State of Pakistan. It is becoming increasingly clear that the militant groups are not only the civilian militias for peace and war -- a second line of defence -- but also a powerful instrument of influencing civil society. If Pakistan is to take to democratic dispensation a bit liberally, this group will emerge a dependable constituency for grabbing political power. Fourthly, and, of course very importantly, the outfits have won appreciation of Pak civil society as well as the broad masses of people. These now stand in the forefront of a civil society that can manage good governance with stakes for an Islamic welfare society.

One can imagine that through their efficient humanitarian work conducted under the nose of important UN subsidiaries, the blemish of “extremists” or “radicals” gets washed off to a large extent. Pakistan will not be portrayed as a rogue state closing its eye to violence and terror but a state as much dedicated to humanism and human welfare as any in the sub- continent. This is a much needed change in the thinking and approach of international community.

One would seriously expect JD, LeT, HuM and other militant outfits accepting some shade of impact from UN bodies like WHO, UNHCR, UNICEF and others by seizing an opportunity of working in close cooperation with them in a humanitarian mission. They will have to concede that these organizations work for humanity irrespective of any difference and distinction in their make up. The opportunity has the big lesson for them that no civilization and no country that is a component of the UN and its subsidiaries, is anti-Islam. Humanism is the sheet anchor of their ideology and humanism means humanity irrespective of its faith, language, culture and other distinctions.

The writer is the former Director, Centre of Central Asian Studies, Kashmir University, India.

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