[Deathpenalty]death penalty news --- worldwide

[Joerg Sommer]

death penalty news

December 22, 2004


PAKISTAN:

Pakistani al-Qaida suspect gets death penalty

The Pakistan army recently meted out its first death sentence by firing 
squad to a soldier for supporting al-Qaida, a move bound to further strain 
President Pervez Musharraf relations with powerful religious groups within 
the armed forces.

Political analysts in Pakistan say that such tough action against one of 
the army's own shows Musharraf's desire to purge religious elements from 
the army, but they warn the move could also backfire and hurt the Pakistani 
leader.

Court documents seen by the United Press International identify the soldier 
as Mohammed Islam Siddiqui of the Defense Services Guard Company attached 
to the Punjab regiment.

Charges against him include "abetting mutiny" against Musharraf and 
attempting to persuade "a person in the military" to rebel against the 
government.

Siddiqui is also accused of entering Afghanistan without a passport and 
having links to a group in the Pakistan air force which was plotting to 
eliminate Musharraf.

Siddiqui was arrested in South Waziristan, a tribal belt along the 
Pakistan-Afghanistan border, after he refused to fight against local tribes 
suspected of having links to the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Pakistan is conducting a major military operation in Waziristan to catch 
Taliban and al-Qaida suspects believed to be hiding there. U.S. and 
Pakistani officials believe that some senior al-Qaida leaders, such Osama 
bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawaheri, may also be hiding in this region.

Pakistani intelligence sources told UPI that more than 35 non-commissioned 
officers and soldiers are being tried secretly for plotting against the 
Musharraf government.

"It's not a one-off thing. It's part of a well-thought out plan to purge 
the armed forces of all religious-minded people," says Syed Saleem Shahzad, 
a Pakistani journalist who first reported that the sentencing.

"But it may not be as easy as it seems to rid the Pakistani armed forces of 
religious elements," said Rashid Khalid, a professor at the Department of 
Strategic Studies at Islamabad's Quaid-e-Azam University. "They have deep 
roots."

The Pakistani army, which was part of the British Indian army before 
independence in 1947, was raised on liberal values. But this changed in the 
early 1980s when the Soviet forces occupied neighboring Afghanistan, and 
Pakistan became the hub of resistance to the Soviet occupation.

Both U.S. and Pakistani authorities recruited hundreds of Muslim activists 
from around the world to fight in Afghanistan. Many of them worked closely 
with the Pakistan army along with Pakistani and Afghan jihadi groups.

Pakistan continued the army's association with the jihadis after the 
withdrawal of the Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989. They also used 
them to stir an uprising against India in Kashmir, a Himalayan valley 
disputed between Islamabad and New Delhi since 1947.

"In the process, the jihadis learned some of the army's fighting skills but 
the Pakistani troops also acquired some of the religious zeal of these 
jihadis," said Khalid.

But after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, Pakistan broke 
its ties with these religious groups and joined the U.S.-led "war against 
terror."

While most of the armed forces supported the move initiated by Musharraf, 
who is also chief of the army staff, religiously inclined soldiers and 
officers were not happy. The first time the army's high command learned 
about their grievances was in December 2003 when Musharraf escaped two 
close attempts on his life.

Investigators later said they learned that there were groups within the 
Pakistan army and the air force who conspired with al-Qaida in arranging 
these attacks that killed more than a dozen security guards.

Alarmed, Musharraf ordered a major overhaul of the armed forces. Musharraf 
loyalists were tasked with drawing a list of religiously inclined officers 
and many were quietly retired.

But the military kept the process secret until March this year when 
Musharraf revealed in a television interview that about a dozen 
non-commissioned officers and soldiers had been detained for helping 
al-Qaida arrange the attempts on his life.

When the army launched the operation against al-Qaida in Waziristan earlier 
this year, senior officers were stunned at confronting rampant 
insubordination and defiance among their soldiers. Many said they did not 
want to fight their Muslim brothers for America's sake.

"This was when the Musharraf government decided to deal with the situation 
with an iron fist and authorized military courts to give death sentences to 
those found guilty of treason," said Shahzad.

Under this new strategy, those who had worked with religious militants in 
Afghanistan, and later, in Pakistani Kashmir were declared suspect and 
watched carefully, he added.

During this surveillance, Pakistani intelligence agencies discovered 
Siddiqui who, according to the indictment, "received training in the acts 
of terrorism at a training camp run by the Jasih-e-Mohammed group of 
religious militants operating in Kashmir. In February 2003, he tried to 
encourage two other soldiers, Hafiz Mohammed Ashafq and Hafiz Salahuddin, 
to rebel against the Musharraf government.

The government claims that he told interrogators he was a regular visitor 
to militant bases and camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan from January 2003 
to January 2004. He also acknowledged his affiliation with the 
Jasih-e-Mohammed group.

In June 1999, he allegedly went to Afghanistan without a passport and for 
training at camps run by the Taliban and al-Qaida.

The prosecution also claims that "he improperly remained associated with an 
organization of Pakistan air force personnel, which (wanted to) eliminate 
President Musharraf."

According to the charge sheet, Siddiqui knew those who wanted to kill 
Musharraf but never reported them to the government.

In October 2003, he allegedly refused six capsules containing poison from a 
non-commissioned officer of the Air Defense Regiment, Mohammed Younis, 
"with ulterior motives."

According to Pakistani intelligence sources, Siddiqui was tried at a secret 
location and sentenced to death.

(source: UPI / Washington Times)