Daily Times

British Islam is historically bound up with Islam in Pakistan, which has also meant that problems or issues in Islamabad have at times become problems and issues in the UK, said an expert on jihadism of South-Asian origin in Britain and mainland Europe, from the University of Leicester, Dr Paul Scott, at a recent side event on ‘Terrorism in South Asia’, during the 36th Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The experts gathered to discuss an array of topics, including the link between South Asia and global terrorism, the complexities of terrorism in South Asia, Indo-Pak relations and the Jammu and Kashmir conflict. Organised by the Amsterdam-based policy research institution, European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS), the participants included academics, scholars, human rights activists and politicians.

Scott highlighted the link between British Sunni Muslims and the Pakistani-armed terrorist groups accused of dispersing terrorism across South Asia, Britain and beyond Europe. He said, “Some terrorist threats targeting the UK originate in Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, and not Damascus”, as previously thought. Furthermore, he said, “The strength of the Pakistani diaspora will keep ensuring that there is a ready welcome for visiting speakers from Pakistan to Britain, who advocate discrimination and violence.”

He described ‘British jihadism’ as “the involvement of a highly significant number of British Sunni Muslims with Pakistani origin in armed Islamic groups since the early 1990’s in Bosnia, Jammu and Kashmir and Afghanistan”. Consequently, he believed, “Britain should not depend on British Muslim groups” to take the initiative in galvanising support among British-Pakistanis against terror groups in Pakistan or individuals like Mumtaz Qadri, executed for the 2011 killing of Punjab governor Salman Taseer for his opposition to blasphemy laws in Pakistan.

Scott shared the history of some of those involved in international terror plots: British graduate with Pakistani heritage, Omar Saeed Sheikh, who kidnapped Western holidaymakers in Kashmir Valley; resident of Birmingham, UK, Mohammed Bilal, a member of terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed that attacked an Indian army base in Srinagar in 2000; and Muhammed Siddique Khan and Shezad Tanweer, two suicide bombers who killed 52 people in the July 2005 terror attacks on the London transport system, who were trained at camps in Pakistan. More recently, one of the three terrorists involved in the knife rampage at London Bridge, UK, Khuram Butt, 27, raised in the UK, however born and earlier raised in Pakistan.

In conclusion, he said that Britain’s focus on terrorism “should not disregard the challenges imposed by the UK-Islamabad relation”.

Head of division for community and criminal justice at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK, Prof Rob McCusker, mentioned about “a nexus between terrorism and organised crime that flourishes in failed states”. Therefore, states are governed by terrorist groups, warlords and other state/non-state actors, he said. Furthermore, despite Pakistan’s assurances, international observers continue to believe that Pakistan has provided safe havens to terrorist groups, including the Haqqani network, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Quetta Shura Taliban, involved in attacks in India, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Published in Daily Times, October 10^th 2017.