Kashmir Earthquake: Opportunities for Peace and for Terrorism

By Victor Comras

Disaster�s like the October 8th earthquake in Kashmir, Pakistan and India, can bring out the best and the worst in people. And we are likely to see both aspects of human nature in Kashmir where so many groups have their own conflicting strategic and political agendas. Assistance from government and private charitable sources is pouring in from around the world, and the Pakistan and India government have both taken some unprecedented steps to help each other out. Pakistan even accepted an Indian offer for aid to earthquake-hit areas on the Pakistani side of Kashmir. However, joint India-Pakistan rescue operations have, so far, been ruled out.

Kashmir and Jammu have experienced years of tension and terrorism. Designated Islamic terrorist groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Harakat ul-Mujahedeen and Jaish-e-Muhammad are well entrenched in the region. Ostensibly outlawed by the Pakistan government, they continue active. And beyond their terrorism-related activities they have built extensive social and humanitarian civilian support structures, particularly in the areas where they operate. First indications are that many of their camps, hospitals, schools and other mosques were decimated by the earthquake. A spokesman for Jamat-ud-Dawa, a charitable group drawn from the ranks of Lashkar, is cited by Associated Press, as having indicated that many of the group�s mosques, hospitals, schools and seminaries were obliterated in Saturday�s earthquake. See also Andy Cochran's Blog on this topic

With Ramadan approaching Muslims around the world will doubly want to assist their religious brethren, and will be looking for appropriate channels to do so. Their contributions will be solicited by both mainstream Islamic charities in the West and in the Gulf region, and from charities associated with a militant jihad calling. Britain�s Islamicaid is one of the mainstream charities that has been at the forefront of assistance on the ground. The Saudi-based�s International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) and Muslim World League have also reportedly allocated funds for relief activities. The latter two organizations have, in the past been used, knowingly or unwittingly as conduits for raising and distributing funds to known terrorist groups. Radical Islamist parties and Kashmiri separatist groups located in Pakistan are also active in relief activities. There is some reason for concern, however, that they will use these efforts to help re-establish or foster new terrorist cells and activities in the region. These risks track with similar concerns that were expressed with regard to the channeling of aid to Southeast Asia Tsunami victims, and that led the Indonesian and Malaysian governments to establish close assistance oversight mechanisms. Getting aid to the quake�s victims is, for now, the most urgent task. But, thought must also be given to assure that appropriate assistance mechanisms are also put in place by the Pakistan government to assure that assistance is motivated and used for humanitarian rather than terrorist purposes.

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