On February 12, military spokesman Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa said during a press conference that 97 suspects belonging to Al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, including three commanders, had recently been arrested in Karachi, and a planned attack on a prison to free the killer of US journalist Daniel Pearl was foiled.
The men are accused of involvement in the terrorist attacks on two major air bases, the Karachi airport, several regional intelligence headquarters, and police installations between 2009 and 2015, he said.
In other recent raids, security forces have captured Lashkar-e-Jhangvi leaders Naeem Bokhari and Sabir Khan, and the chief of Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent Farooq Bhatti.
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is reorganizing as Lashkar-e-Yammama
On February 18, seven suspects from the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, believed to be on their way to launch a terrorist attack in Punjab, were killed in an exchange of gunfire with the police. The encounter took place around midnight in the Sheikhupura district, according to a statement from the provincial Counter Terrorism Department.
On February 23, law enforcement agencies arrested Asif Chhotu, a top leader of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, from the Dera Ghazi Khan city in south Punjab.
The crackdown seems to have weakened the sectarian group, but it will continue to pose a threat to the Pakistani state and society, according to security analyst Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi.
“Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is re-organizing itself in Punjab under the new name of Lashkar-e-Yammama, and new people are being recruited and trained in various parts of the country to carry out sectarian attacks against the Shia sect,” a police officer told me. He asked not to be named because he is not authorized to talk to the media and because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The security branch of Punjab police received a confidential letter from the special branch in which they were told to keep an eye on certain seminaries in the city because of suspicions that they were providing militant training to new recruits.
A second police officer, who works at the Central Police Office in Lahore, says a number of such seminaries had been marked in in Lahore, Jhang, Dera Ghazi Khan, Sheikhupura and Sialkot, where the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi leadership is trying to reorganize their group. He declined to name the seminaries. The is no conclusive evidence so far and no formal charges have been made against any of them.
The new recruits are being trained to use weapons and detonate bombs, the police officer told me. “But we will get rid of them on war footings,” he said. “The counterterrorism department, the security branch, the special branch and other law enforcement agencies are on the same page about this. We are monitoring their activities and will get rid of them.”
Dr Rizvi does not rule out the possibility that some factions of the group have reorganized under a new name in order to deceive the state and the people. “It will appear that the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has weakened or disintegrated, but they will be able to safely pursue their agenda under a new organizational network.”
“Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is not the real disease, the real problem is radicalization and militancy,” according to former SSP Muhammad Ali Nekokara. Police has done well against militant leaders, he says, but we have seen their replacements emerge on a regular basis. “Apart from law-enforcement, we also need counter-narrative interventions which are well sequenced, carefully paced and integrative, not exclusive,” the former cop says. “Liberals excluding conservatives and conservatives excluding liberals approach is counterproductive.”
The source in Lahore’s Central Police Office said police had seized large quantities of hate literature and propaganda CDs since the beginning of the National Action Plan, which are used to brainwash potential recruits.
Political activist Marvi Sirmed says eliminating the first and second tiers of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi leadership does not mean the group will fizzle out. “The cadre will either join other more accepted groups, reorganize under a new name – that has been an old practice with Pakistan’s militant organizations – or join the new kids on the bloc – the Khorasan chapter of ISIS or Al Qaeda in the Sub Continent operating from India.
There were reports that Malik Ishaq was trying to get an ISIS franchise in Pakistan, says Dr Rizvi. “The new leadership of his organization may try to pursue the same objective,” he says, “but their credentials will not be as strong as Malik Ishaq, and the IS may therefore be reluctant to join hands with them right away.”
The prosecution of the militant leaders who have already been arrested will be a major challenge for the police. Some police officers say off the record that judges are reluctant to hear such cases.
“People like Malik Ishaq, who admitted to and took pride in killing Shias, are released by courts because of lack of evidence,” says a police officer who had arrested the leader once.
According to media reports, in the last 20 years, 72 judges and prosecution lawyers involved in cases relating to the group’s leaders requested to be assigned to some other case, went on leave, or refused to hear or pursue the cases on personal grounds.
“There are obviously some who tacitly endorse the ideology of these extremist groups, but most of them are frightened, and justifiably so,” says Ali Ibrahim, an advocate at the high court. When the Mafia infiltrated the Italian government machinery, the country responded by making certain changes to the process of dispensation of justice that ensured the safety of the judges, prosecutors and witnesses.
In Pakistan, he says judges can hear cases through video calls, and they can be seated in a way that their identity is not revealed.
That alone will not solve the problem, however. The entire legal framework – from evidence collection, processing, and protection, to providing a workable witness protection plan, to hiring prosecutors, to guidelines for judges, to sentencing – has to be revamped, Ali Ibrahim says.
Hassan Naqvi is a Lahore-based journalist who covers politics and militancy
Twitter: @Hassannaqvi5