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A deradicalisation programme launched by the Pakistan Army for surrendered militants within the restive Balochistan province has an Islamist overhang, with leaders of hardline teams akin to Jamaat-e-Islami being a part of the coaching programs, in response to paperwork accessed by Hindustan Times.
The deradicalisation and rehabilitation programme, began in 2018 by Lt Gen (retired) Asim Saleem Bajwa, additionally gave the impression to be aimed extra at changing the ethnic Baloch identification of the militants with one which emphasises “religio-patriotism”, the confidential paperwork present.
Bajwa, who was lately on the centre of an argument after a Pakistani information web site reported that his household had created a enterprise empire of 99 corporations in 4 nations – together with a pizza franchise value almost $40 million – seems to have been the guiding drive behind the programme that was launched whereas he was heading the Pakistan Army’s southern command.
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An present deradicalisation centre in Quetta named Umeed-e-Nau was expanded and renamed ‘Darepsh’, a Balochi phrase which means “ujala” (mild), to implement the programme. The paperwork present that the programme has to this point dealt with no less than two batches of surrendered militants – 50 fighters who had been a part of a course from December 2018 to March 2019, and 128 fighters who underwent a course throughout April-July 2019.
While the programme does make an effort to rope in each military and civilian psychologists to take care of the psychological and social coaching of the surrendered Baloch fighters, virtually 20 p.c or a fifth of coaching modules are dedicated to a “religio-patriotism programme”, and visitor audio system for this included Abdul Haq Hashmi, the provincial president of Jamaat-e-Islami.
The Jamaat-e-Islami established deep hyperlinks with jihadi teams throughout the warfare in opposition to Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan within the 1980s and was additionally energetic within the early years of the militant motion in Jammu and Kashmir, having shut ties with the Hizbul Mujahideen. The Jamaat additionally has shut ties with the Pakistani army.
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The paperwork present that whereas the surrendered fighters are taught “rejection of extremism” throughout the religio-patriotism programme, they’re additionally educated in “jihad, morality, patriotism”.
The paperwork additionally spotlight the mismatch between the general variety of surrendered fighters and the variety of those that have accomplished the deradicalisation programme. According to a quick historical past of the programme included within the paperwork, greater than 2,500 fighters surrendered in 2018 on account of “effect-based selected operations in Balochistan along with efforts in non-kinetic domain” that remoted “terrorists/Baloch sub-nationalists”.
However, solely 178 surrendered fighters had been a part of the 2 deradicalisation and rehabilitation programs carried out to this point. Most of those fighters had been drawn from Dera Bugti, Sibi and Kohlu areas of Balochistan.
People aware of developments additionally pointed to the similarity between the deradicalisation camps being run in Balochistan and the so-called re-education camps run by Chinese authorities for Uyghurs in Xinjiang. “The objectives, layout and vocational training module closely align with those of the camps in Xinjiang. One of the key aims seems to be to remove all traces of ethnic identity and nationalism,” mentioned one of many folks cited above.
Significantly, a slide that’s a part of the paperwork accommodates a reference to one of many key points raised by civil society and human rights teams concerning the actions of Pakistani safety and intelligence companies in Balochistan – the difficulty of “missing persons” or the victims of enforced disappearances.
The slide on some 9 factors raised by the surrendered Baloch fighters throughout the deradicalisation programme contains within the first place, “Missing Pers whereabouts be pursued”. The surrendered fighters additionally known as for monetary help to be paid to some fighters who hadn’t acquired the help once they laid down arms.
In current years, the our bodies of scores of victims of enforced disappearances have been discovered dumped on roadsides, lots of them with marks of torture.
Sameer Patil, fellow for worldwide safety research at Gateway House, mentioned it was unusual that the Jamaat-e-Islami, described by some because the “mother organisation for most jihadis”, was a part of such a deradicalisation programme.
“This programme also shows the misplaced priorities of the Pakistan Army – such a programme should focus on Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa or Punjab, where deadly groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba are based. But then the groups that don’t indulge in activities against the Pakistani state have always received preferential treatment,” he mentioned.
“The Pakistan Army appears to be using its own version of Islam to crush groups with an identity and form of Islam that doesn’t suit them,” he added.
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