Brotherhood stirring up unrest in Pakistan
Siraj-ul-Haq, leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, the branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Pakistan, constitutes a major security threat in his country.
This comes against the background of his
inflammatory speeches and statements which he uses to encourage violence
against the government.
Huge Brotherhood March
On February 14, the Jamaat-e-Islami leader led a
long march in protest against inflation.
He told the media in Gujrat, a city in the Punjab
province of Pakistan, that people participating in the march suffered hunger
and poverty.
The government, he said, has to step down
immediately.
"Only the ruling class is happy in this
country," Siraj-ul-Haq said.
He called for the formation of a
caretaker government and immediate general elections in the country.
Meanwhile, Jamaat-e-Islami had mobilized poor and
needy Pakistanis in the march. The movement claimed that 23 million Pakistanis
could not get by while commodity prices keep rising.
Siraj-ul-Haq said ordinary Pakistanis and farmers
do not have access to flour; sugar; water, or electricity.
He also accused the ruling party in Pakistan of
acquiescing to the instructions of the International Monetary Fund, which is at
the end, according to him, is impoverishing Pakistan and its people.
Siraj-ul-Haq called for distancing the military
from politics.
All its experiments, he said, had failed.
He led the march to Rawalpindi city, from Gujrat,
before reaching Lalamusa, another city of the Punjab province.
Brotherhood only can
Siraj-ul-Haq said his movement only can rescue
Pakistan and improve the living conditions of its people.
He revealed that after Lalamusa, his march would
head to Kharian city and Saraj Alamgir town before reaching Jhelum city on the
east bank of the Jhelum River.
Incitement
When the march stopped in Jhelum, Siraj-ul-Haq
addressed the participants by saying that the 'cruel rulers' of Pakistan cannot
reduce inflation.
"These oppressors have oppressed Pakistan,
and the debt has become the size of the Himalayas," he said.
He also incited the participants by saying:
"the borrowers are asking people to economise on their consumption of tea
and bread, they are getting rich, and the people will pay the gas, electricity
and water bills ... where from will they do this?"
He said the price of flour had surged to 160
rupees per kilo, and onions to 275 rupees per kilo.
Constant threat
This man poses a constant threat to the
government in Pakistan, due to his continual inflammatory rhetoric, using
elements of the group to carry out his terrorist plans.
Last August, he threatened that if his movement's
demands in Malakand District were not met, its militants would storm the homes
of the governor and the prime minister.
He threatened to use violence in the presence of
the provincial governor of the ruling party and other leaders.
Political analyst Mohsen Alieddine said Jamaat-e-Islami
aims to stir up internal strife and chaos.
This in turn, he said, would cause escalation in
Kashmir.
"This will create a favourable environment for
extremist groups," Alieddine told The Reference.
He added that this would also serve the interests
of the group.
"It currently exploits the economic crisis
in the country to do this," Alieddine said.
He explained that internal conflicts and chaos
caused by the Brotherhood in Pakistan would also serve terrorist groups,
including the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Foothold
For his part, political science researcher,
Shukri Abdul Hamid, said the leader of the Brotherhood in Pakistan tries to spread
chaos to find a foothold on the political arena, following his defeat in the
2013 elections, and his withdrawal from the elections that followed when he
realized that his popularity had declined significantly.
Abdul Hamid explained that Siraj-ul-Haq is
constantly trying to use religion to serve his movement's political goals and
serve the issue of reconciliation in Kashmir.
This is especially true, he said, against the
background of the man playing the card of terrorism in Kashmir to achieve his movement's
demands.
