Word: qasab
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...Sort of School Where that angry scene ends, Qasab's confession seems to pick up. According to the document, Qasab fled his family in 2005 for Ali Hajveri Darbar, a shrine in Lahore dedicated to the memory of a Sufi saint who took Islam to the region through his example of love, charity and direct communication with God. It was a place, Qasab says, where "boys who had run away from their houses are kept." The shrine doesn't have sleeping quarters, says volunteer caretaker Muhammad Soheil, but "many people stay in the nearby area and come here to take...
...evolving strengths of different strains of Islam in South Asia provide an important context for Qasab's tale. In 2007 the Rand Corp. suggested that such groups as Pakistan's Sufi-influenced Barelvi sect - which does not have a jihadist bent - be encouraged in order to combat extremism. But since the anti-Soviet war, Wahhabi groups, drawing their influence from Saudi Arabia's austere brand of Islam - together with the Wahhabis' South Asian counterparts, the ¬Deobandis - have gained ground in Pakistan. Soheil decries the Wahhabi focus on jihad. "Here we teach peace and love...
...whatever reason, life at the Darbar was not enough for Qasab. He found employment, but after two years, his paltry salary began to rankle him, and he left Lahore to seek his fortune in Rawalpindi...
...office in Rawalpindi directed Qasab to the sprawling campus of the Markaz-al-Dawa wal-Irshad in the town of Muridke, about half an hour's drive from Lahore. Established in 1987 by a trio of veterans from the Afghan jihad 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...
...confession, Qasab describes a strict regimen of physical training, prayers and religious lectures at Muridke. Former LeT militants who have passed through the center say it was never a training camp in the traditional sense. While would-be militants learned to swim and fight there, advanced weapons training was left for the camps in the Pakistani-controlled section of Kashmir. Only a handful of students were sent out on actual combat missions. Instead, most focused on religious doctrine. Parents in the local village who send their children to the Markaz for school say the education is good, though ideological. Ghulam...