Word: hafiz
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...pride. Pakistan, too, will have to move past decades of mistrust of its larger, better-armed neighbor. The Mumbai terror attacks proved that Pakistan has not let go of its longstanding policy of supporting jihadist groups to destabilize India. Under months of intense international pressure, Pakistani authorities twice detained Hafiz Saeed, an LeT founder who now leads another banned organization, but released him on Oct. 12 citing lack of evidence. Several other suspected top LeT commanders were arrested last December, but none of them have so far been prosecuted. "Without the progress on Mumbai, I don't see very much...
...Pakistan does not appear to be ready to take on the full array of militants in the region, though. The army has reaffirmed non-aggression pacts with Mullah Nazir, a commander based in South Waziristan along the Afghan border, and Hafiz Gul Bahadur in North Waziristan. The Haqqani network is also expected to remain passive during the imminent army operation. While it may ease Pakistan's task in South Waziristan, the deals will afford little comfort to U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan. All three militant commanders continue to mount cross-border attacks on U.S. and NATO troops there...
That shift could come about if rival Waziri militant groups isolate the Taliban's Mehsud group and seize control for themselves. Mehsud had notoriously clashed with Waziri commanders Maulvi Nazir in South Waziristan and Hafiz Gul Bahadur in North Waziristan, who, unlike Mehsud, have focused on mounting crossborder attacks on U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan. When Mehsud assumed the leadership of the Pakistan Taliban in late 2007, Bahadur had been one of his closest rivals. "This will be an opportunity for the Wazir tribe to take back its position in the Taliban," says Rana...
...militant leaders proved disastrous. When Maulvi Nazir of the rival Ahmedzai Wazir tribe in South Waziristan took on Mehsud and Uzbek groups aligned to al-Qaeda, the Pakistan army backed him. After his men killed 250 Uzbek fighters, the army entered a nonaggression pact with Nazir and his associate Hafiz Gul Bahadur. But Nazir continued to attack U.S. forces across the border, and was targeted in air strikes. Enraged, Nazir and Bahadur shed their differences and formed a new alliance with Mehsud earlier this year. Now, all three groups could be lined up against the Pakistan army when it presses...
...with funding from Osama bin Laden, this Wahhabi center quickly became known as the launchpad for militant jihad. But it is much more. Within a few years, the Markaz had expanded to include a madrasah, separate schools for boys and girls, a free hospital and a university. Its founders, Hafiz Saeed, Zafar Iqbal and Abdullah Azzam - the latter was bin Laden's mentor until he was killed by a car bomb in Peshawar in 1989 - declared that their objective was to create a model Islamic environment removed from state interference. Education would focus on jihad but also emphasize science...