2002 December

Islamic Terrorism Timeline

10/11/2006

- December 1, 2002: In Kashmir, A retired jihadists was assassinated by active jihadists outside his house in the Bankote village. Later that day, Muslim militants assaulted a National Conference activist who was previously associated with the counter-terrorist Ikhwan Group.

- December 2, 2002: In Kashmir, Islamic gunmen murdered a man in Karnah. They killed a man in his home in Arin. Then they murdered two men in Menyalan.

- December 2, 2002: Two mortar shells fired by Palestinians toward Erez. They fell instead in Palestinian territory, killing one Muslim and wounding nine.

- December 2, 2002: In Afghanistan, Islamic terrorists attacked a United Nations High Commission on Refugees office in Gardez. They threw two grenades.

- December 3, 2002: In India, a bomb was detonated in the busy area of Ghatkopar in Mumbai, killing two and injuring 36 more. A second bomb was also found on a bus later that evening.

The same day, Muslim militants on a motorcycle shot and wounded the leader of a Hindu nationalist group in Gujarat. Dr. Jaideep Patel, the injured man, was the General Secretary of the World Hindu Council. This attack was part of an onslaught waged against the Hindu population of India by Muslims. Over 1,000 people were murdered by Islamic jihadists this year alone.

- December 3, 2002: In Lebanon, a bomb exploded in the Prophet Azir mosque and shrine in the village of Anjar, which is near the Syrian border. No one was injured but the mosque and shrine were damaged. The attack came at the end of Ramadan.

- December 4, 2002: In Afghanistan, three missiles hit Kabul, landing in the Aqa Ali Shams area. No one was killed.

- December 5, 2002: In Bosnia, militants threw a device containing plastic explosives at a building owned by the Islamic community in Prijedor, which also houses the apartment of Imam Sejfo Hodzic. Damage was estimated around $1,500, but no one was injured.

- December 5, 2002: In Afghanistan, explosives were found at a mosque in central Kabul hours before large numbers of worshippers gathered for prayers marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. At least 10 pounds of explosives were discovered at Pul-I-Khisti, one of the city's most popular mosques.

- December 5, 2002: Three Pakistanis were found dead after a bomb detonated overnight at the Macedonian Consulate in Karachi. The victim's throats had been slit and their arms and legs had been bound before the blast. One of the victims was the consulate's guard, who was also a Christian.

No Macedonians were employed at the consulate. The honorary consul was Pakistani businessman, Brilal Qureshi. Messages had been scrawled on the building's walls, including one stating, "We are from Al-Qaeda Pakistan. We will treat the unbelievers the way they treat us. This is just a warning." What morons. It is as if Islam destroys a person's ability to think rationally and behave morally.

The Macedonian police claimed the ambush was a pre-emptive raid by "Muslim terrorists." The Pakistani Police trying to obfuscate responsibility, said that the throat-slitters and bombers were foreigners on their way to Western Europe.

However, on August 25th, 2004, nine Pakistanis were given life sentences for carrying out this terrorist attack. All nine were members of Harkat-ul Muhajideen al-Almi, a fundamentalist, Pakistani terrorist group. The same gang had also been implicated in the June 2002 suicide bombing of the U.S. Consulate in Karachi and another suicide bombing in May outside a Sheraton Hotel.

Harkat-ul Muhajideen, known as the Order of Holy Warriors, was formed in 1985. They were a faction of Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami (the Order of Islamic Jihadists), an Islamic group of mujahideen militants launched in 1980. Since we know much more about them, we'll focus on that group. They participated in the Great Jihad against the Soviets when the USSR tried unsuccessfully to protect the Marxist Muslim regime in control of Afghanistan at the time. When Soviet forces withdrew in 1989, the Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami turned its attention to terrorist activity in Jammu, Kashmir, India, and Bangladesh with the support of the Pakistani government.

Two Pakistani Deobandi (Salafist Islamic sects similar to Wahhabism) religious bodies, the Jamaat-ul-Ulema-e-Islami and the Tabligh-i-Jamaat, set up the Harkat-ul Jihad i-Islami. It was first formed to run relief camps for the Muslim mujahideen and was led by Maulvi Irshad Ahmed.

The primary support base for the group was initially in the Pakistani Punjabi business and religious communities, especially those affiliated with Jamaat-ul-Ulema-e-Islami and the Tabligh-i-Jamaat. As the Afghan resistance developed, the Harkat ul-Jihad e-Islami developed links with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and was subcontracted to recruit and train the mujahids.

It was at this time that Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami developed links with Hezb-e-Islami-Yunus Khalis - another Pakistani based Muslim militant organization. As is common, a power-struggle developed after the death of Maulana Irshad Ahmed, in 1985 during the Great Afghan Jihad. Fazal-ur-Rehman Khalil, the group's "commander-in-chief" split with the new Emir (chief or commander), Qazi Saifullah Akhtar and formed the Harkat-ul Muhajideen, while retaining his ties to Harkat-ul-Jihad-i-Islami. (Yes, I know that I am spelling and punctuating the transliterated name differently each time. They are all correct and the variations may assist people who are deploying a search engine to learn more about them.).

Saifullah Akhtar stayed on to lead the Harkat ul Jihad al Islami (Order of Islamic Jihadists), but it soon split again, with Maulana Masood Kashmiri starting a third splinter group, the Jamait-ul Mujahideen. Later, in 1991, the Deobandi ulemas (fundamentalist Islamic religious leaders) in Karachi, Pakistan in consort with the Pakistani government in Islamabad, asked the three splinter factions to reunite in order to increase the effectiveness of their participation in Kashmir and Bangladesh terrorist missions. This reunited incarnation was named the Harkat-ul-Ansar.

While the Harak ul Ansar (the Order of Supporters) was formed in Pakistan, the merger of the three factions was achieved in the field when Harkat-ul Ansar General Secretary Maulana Masood Azhar arrived in India on a false Portuguese passport and reached Srinagar in February 1994. He convened a meeting, on February 10th, of 19 leaders of the HJI, HM and the JM at Matigund in the Anantnag District to discuss the merger.

But while returning from the meeting, Masood Azhar and Sajjad Afghani, the HA's military chief, were arrested in Srinagar. And earlier, in November 1993, Nasrullah Mansur Langrayal, HM's chief Commander was arrested in Doda. With these arrests, the move to reunite the three HJI factions into the HA was unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, a Bangladesh unit of these affiliated outfits was set up with Osama bin Laden's aid in conjunction with Pakistan's central intelligence agency, the ISI, in 1992, under the leadership of Shawkat Osman alias Sheikh Farid. Imtiaz Quddus was named General Secretary. The ISI's involvement was confirmed in September 1998, when they floated a new outfit, Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami Tanzeem. We will examine the Bangladesh branch of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-i-Islami in a moment.

The Order of Islamic Jihadists, like other Pakistan-based and supported Islamic terrorist outfits, functions under the patronage of the Inter Services Intelligence. While in Jammu and Kashmir, it strives to ensure the secession of the State from India and forced merger into Pakistan through terrorist activities. In other parts of India, their aim is to use terror as a means of influencing the civilian population into accepting peace offers which serve the terrorist's agenda.

The Harkat-ul Jihad i-Islami has successfully recruited many jihadists from the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and other Salafi Islamist groups, and deployed these terrorists in India. Alliances with Bangladesh Islamic organizations have achieved the same result.

In 1993, under the guidance of Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan's external intelligence agency, the Harkat-ul Muhajideen (Order of the Holy Warriors) faction finally reunited with Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami (Order of the Islamic Jihadists) to form: Harkat-ul-Ansar (the Order of the Friends and Supporters). In 1997, the United States identified Harkat-ul Ansar as a Foreign Terrorist Organization but did not have the good judgment to label the Pakistani government as such even though they were responsible for them. Hypocrisy is the byword of the American State Department, Department of Defense, and the White House (regardless of occupant). So to fool the Americans and to avoid the sanctions connected with this designation, the Hakat ul Ansar changed its name back to Harakat ul-Mujahideen (the Order of the Holy Warriors).

Initially, the Order of Holy Warriors's objective was the provision of food and shelter to the Afghan refugees in the North-West Frontier Province in Pakistan. Since the end of the Afghan war, Harkat ul-Mujahideen has continued to wage Jihad against secular Muslim governments and the West. The group's main objective today is to continue the armed struggle against non-believers and anti-Islamic forces. The organization seeks Kashmir's secession from India and accession to Pakistan to create a pan-Islamic entity.

Fazlur Rehman Khalil, former leader of Harakat ul-Mujahideen, remains one of the most important and prominent terrorists in Pakistan. That is why Khalil became one of the leaders of Harakat ul-Ansar when the organization was reassembled. He was a student of the fundamentalist Binori madrassah in Karachi, Pakistan, the same madrassah that educated Mullah Omar, the head of the Taliban. For this and other reasons, Khalil retains strong ties to al-Qaeda and the Taliban. He is one of five signatories of Osama bin Laden's famous 1998 fatwa which attempted to induce Muslims worldwide to kill Americans whenever the opportunity arose. He continues to be a mentor to many members of Pakistan's wide array of terrorist groups including the Taliban.

Khalil was arrested in May 2004 by the Pakistani government due to his role in transporting Pakistani militants into Afghanistan in order to assist the Taliban during America's post-9/11 operations in the country. In actuality, he was treated like royalty for six months in an ISI safe house before being released under the pretense of a lack of evidence. Of course, since the Pakistani government established the Taliban and was now harboring al-Qaeda, the Pakistani government had ulterior motives in releasing him.

In June 2005 two American citizens residing in California, Hamid Hayat and Umer Hayat, were arrested for suspected participation in an al-Qaeda plot against the United States. Both men told the F.B.I. that they had received extensive training in a Harakat ul-Mujahideen camp run by Khalil. This revived interest in recapturing Khalil and so Pakistani security services are now "attempting to locate him." In 2005, shortly after the 7/7 Islamic bombings in London which were associated with Harakat ul-Mujahideen, some news sources announced that Khalil had given up the leadership of the organization.

The Harak-ul Jihad al-Islami terrorist group opened a branch office in Bangladesh in 1992. It was a joint enterprise between Pakistan's ISI and al-Qaeda's International Islamic Front. The fundamentalist/salafi The Harak-ul Jihad al-Islami-Bangladeah announced their presence at a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club in Dhaka. They demanded that Bangladesh be converted into an Islamic theocracy or Islami Hukumat. Their slogan was "We will all become Taliban and we will turn Bangladesh into Afghanistan.

The branch office maintains a score of Muslim militant training camps throughout Islamic Bangladesh. They are thought to have 15,000 members in that country alone, most of whom were recruited from Islamic Madrassas. They receive their funding from Islamic charities in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan which are channeled through Muslim Non-Governmental Organizations in Bangladesh, including the Adarsa Kutir, Al Faruk Islamic Foundation and Hataddin. Harak-ul Jihad al-Islami jihadists have been deployed on missions in Myanmar, India, Jammu, Kashmir, Pakistan, Chechnya, and Afghanistan in addition to Bangladesh.

The affiliate's operations commander, and a key suspect in the plot to assassinate the then Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, in July 2000, Mufti Abdul Hannan, after his arrest in October 2005 admitted to having dropped out of the Gouhardanga Madrassa in Pakistan. Police records in the Gopalganj District confirm that Hannan was trained as a terrorist in the Pakistani city of Peshawar. The HJI's Pakistani link was further established with the recovery of a diary from Hannan's brother Matiur Rehman, who was also arrested in connection with the assassination plot. Entries in the diary revealed that he was in touch with Pakistan's diplomatic mission in Bangladesh on a regular basis.

Reports indicate that agents of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's external intelligence agency, under the guise of Harak-ul Jihad i-Islami cadres imparted military training to Muslim young men from Bangladesh and India in bases in the Kurigram and Rangpur areas of Bangladesh. Similar Pakistani government training camps were established in Rangmari, Sundermari, Masaldanga and in other villages, where specific training was imparted in the use of sophisticated weaponry and bomb making techniques. After training, the young jihadist was infiltrated into India and dispursed to various locations in West Bengal and states in the Northeast region, including Assam to conduct terrorist operations at the direction of Pakistan's ISI.

Harak-ul Jihad al-Islami is also linked to the Asif Reza Commando Force which claimed responsibility for the January 22, 2002 attack on the American Information Services Center in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal. The arrest of Aftab Ansari alias Aftab Ahmed alias Farhan Malik, the prime suspect in the attack, led to further information on the linkages between the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JM), Lashkar-e-Toiba (LT) and the HJI - which were all Pakistani ISI affiliated Islamic terrorist organizations based out of Pakistan. Ansari was linked to the ISI and to JM terrorist Omar Shiekh, who was convicted for the abduction and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, in Pakistan. Ansari was asked in August 2001 in Islamabad by Omar Sheikh to provide cover and logistics support for terrorist operations from Bangladesh.

It's all one big unhappy family. The father is Islam. The mother is Pakistan. And the children are the world's most ruthless and aggressive terrorists. The government of Pakistan has replaced Saudi Arabia as the nation most responsible for state sponsored terrorism.

In Bangladesh, the HuJI was also known to have enjoyed the patronage of mainstream political parties such as the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Jamaat-e-Islami. Harak-ul Jihad al-Islami's operations commander, Mufti Hannan, subsequent to his arrest on October 1, 2005 confessed that Bangladesh's former Homeland Minister and current Commerce Minister, Altaf Hossain Choudhury, had assured him of protection and guaranteed his freedom following his involvement in the assassination attempt of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in July 2000.

As an example of such favoritism toward terrorists, in February 1996, 41 Order of Islamic Jihadists militants were arrested with firearms in Cox's Bazaar. The arrested jihadists were sentenced to life imprisonment by a court, but all of them were released on bail by the High Court after a more fundamentalist Islamic four-party alliance assumed power in October 2001.

- December 5, 2002: In Kashmir, Muslim militants associated with the Army of Muhammad, the Party of Mujahideen, or the Order of Holy Warriors, at the direction of Pakistan's ISI and the United Jihad Council, assassinated Ghulam Mohi-ud-din Lone, the brother of slain Jammu and Kashmir Minister in the National Conference government, in his home in Sogam in the Kupwara District. Mohi-ud-din had been a top-ranking jihadist commander in the early 1990s, but had subsequently retired, confessed, and surrendered to the authorities.

- December 5, 2002: In Indonesia, in the second of two explosions in the south Sulawesi capital of Makassar, a bomb was detonated at the Toyota dealership two hours after an explosion at a McDonalds.

The AFP reported in April 2003 that Agung Hamid, a good Muslim, was believed to be the main suspect behind both blasts. He testified that he had received weapons training in the Philippines. Four others accused in this case have admitted to being members of the Laskar Jundullah Islamic Militia. On 22 December 2003, an Indonesian court sentenced Galazi bin Abdul Somad to eighteen years in prison for his role in this attack. Prosecutors say he was guilty of transporting the bomb before passing it on to the actual suicide bombers. In the McDonalds' bombing in the Ratu Indah shopping mall, three people, including the suicide bomber, were killed and two were injured.

- December 5, 2002: In Thailand, The Wat Tantikaram School, a Hindu temple school in the Rangae District of the Narathiwat province, was burned down, allegedly by a group called the Young Liberators of Pattani. Police said that had received several letters from Islamic militants warning they would carry out the attack and that more attacks on government workplaces, government officials, and their family members would occur in the future.

- December 6, 2002: In Lebanon, an explosive charge targeted a car in the town of Ibil al-Saqi. The two passengers were killed, one of which was a suspected Hezbollah/Hizballah collaborator.

- December 7, 2002: In Bangladesh, seventeen people were killed and nearly 300 others were wounded in a series of theater bombings. Worshipers were celebrating the Id al-Fit Festival, a holiday that celebrates the end of Ramadan. Since the blast,.

- December 7, 2002: In Turkey, two hand grenades were thrown at the house of Seyhmus Kaplan, the Republican People's Party Idil chairman. Both the home and Kaplan's car were destroyed.

- December 7, 2002: A bomb exploded outside a mosque in Doboj, in the Serbian controlled part of Bosnia, causing minor damage to the building. It was the second such attack in the region during the week-long Eid al-Fitr, a Muslim holiday.

- December 7, 2002: In Kashmir, a house in Bhimdassa Gool was set on fire during the night. As the sun rose, Islamic gunmen entered a home in Argam and murdered a man who was just a visitor. During the assault, the owner's wife died of cardiac arrest.

- December, 2002: Usman Masayer, Chechnya's First Deputy administration head, and his security team came under fire as they traveled in the village of Mairtup. Three unidentified gunmen in NATO-style camouflage with submachine guns and rifle-mounted grenade launchers perpetrated the attack. The security team returned fire, killing two of the assailants.

- December 8, 2002: In Kashmir, the body of a man from Sonabrani, Islamabad was recovered in the Kokernag region. That same day, jihadists trained and supported by Pakistan's ISI fired at a man from Srinagar, injuring him. That evening, police recovered the bullet-riddled body of a man from Jhamalan Shadan.

- December 10, 2002: In Chechnya, Islamic jihadists opened fire with automatic weapons on deputy head of the Shatoi district administration, Ruslan Demilkhanov, in his home. The same day, a local woman reported seeing two men leave a cardboard box in the bushes near a road outside Gudermes. Federal forces investigated and found that it contained explosives.

- December 10, 2002: In Kashmir, National Conference block vice-president, Hashim Din escaped unharmed when Muslim militants fired on his home in the Manoo village. His security guard was killed in the attack.

- December 10, 2002: A Qassem rocket was fired at the greenhouses of a Qatif Bloc settlement but it did not explode.

- December 11, 2002: In Kashmir, jihadists killed a man from Jora Khurd. Another man was gunned down by militants in his home in the Joura village.

- December 11, 2002: In Turkey, a bomb exploded in an Ankara Courthouse.

- December 12, 2002: In Afghanistan, Islamic jihadists riding in a small car threw a hand grenade at the police headquarters in Khost. Al-Qaeda was blamed for the attack, as were Gulbuddin Hekmatyar militants and remnants of the Taliban. While it would have been easier to blame Islam, that wasn't politically correct.

- December 12, 2002: In Afghanistan, a bomb exploded at a hotel in Khost, injuring one person and badly damaging the structure of the building.

- December 13, 2002: An explosive charge was discovered in the greenhouses of the Morag settlement. The bomb was safely detonated.

- December 13, 2002: In Kashmir, the house of a Khanater, Poonch man was set on fire.

- December 13, 2002: In Kosovo, less than 24 hours before a high-level UN delegation was due to arrive, a car bomb exploded in a busy commercial area of downtown Pristina, injuring 32 people and damaging twenty nearby shops. Authorities theorize that the bomb may have been intended for the UN delegation or Enver Sekiraca, a Serbian leader.

- December 14, 2002: Two Israelis were injured when shots were fired on their car from the Sinjil village. The al-Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed credit for the attack.

- December 14, 2002: In Kashmir, Islamic gunmen fired at a man in Wandevalgam, injuring him. Police recovered the dead body of a man in the Chak Razaq Khan village who had worked as a senior inspector in the Department of Handicrafts. He had been shot in the temple. The man had been kidnapped the day before from his home in Gulshan.

- December 14, 2002: In Turkey, an explosive blast damaged a banana shop in the Balikesir Province, killing one person and injured six others.

- December 14, 2002: In Pakistan, a bomb exploded near the residence of a government official in Kohul. It was the third explosion in the town in three days.

- December 15, 2002: In Kashmir, Islamic gunmen kidnapped and later tortured and murdered dead a man from Chaklas Gool. That same day they shot and injured a contractor who served the Congress Party.

- December 16, 2002: In Afghanistan, a Hindu was killed and a Japanese man was injured when Muslim militants opened fire on them in front of a children's hospital in Gardez. The attackers left handwritten pamphlets warning non-Muslims to stay away from the area.

- December 16, 2002: In Kashmir, Pakistan's ISI was getting what they were paying for. The body of a man they wanted killed from Malikabad Kund, was recovered after he had had his throat slit. The man had been missing for ten days. During that time he had been tortured.

United Jihad Council gunmen tried to kill a Communist Party of India-Marxist activist in Bugam but his security guards foiled the attempt.

That evening, Kashmir police recovered the bullet-riddled body of a former Islamic militant from Chitterpora. And two more people were killed and four others were injured when jihadists threw a grenade into a crowd at Rajouri's main commercial center, near a bank.

- December 17, 2002: Palestinians fired a mortar shell at an Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip. The same day, Israel Defense Forces detonated a 22-pound explosive charge that was found in Hebron's Imrah campground.

- December 18, 2002: In Isreal, several explosive devices were found in the old greenhouses of the Morag settlement but bomb disposal experts safely neutralized them.

- December 18, 2002: In Turkey, a bomb detonated in a vacant lot in Istanbul's Kadikoy district while bomb disposal experts were examining a banner left by the militants. The same day, Islamic militants were suspected of killing Necip Hablemitoglu, a Turkish historian and a lecturer at Ankara University, as he left his car and walked toward his home in Ankara. Hablemitoglu was a proponent of a secular Turkey and taught classes on Turkish secularist, Kemal Ataturk. Pro-secular intellectuals have been consistent targets of Islamic militants in Turkey.

- December 18, 2002: In Chechnya, government sources reported that a group of armed Muslims fired on a Jeep carrying three officials of the local administration on the outskirts of the Kurchaloi village. One person was killed and the other two others were wounded.

- December 18, 2002: In Kenya, a German-owned disco, popular with foreign tourists, was fire bombed and subsequently burned down.

- December 19, 2002: In Kashmir, two women who were cousins, were beheaded while a third was assassinated by gunshot in the Hasiot village. All three were between the ages of 19 to 20-years-old. Each of their fathers had been killed by Muslim militants several months earlier. Two days before the girls' deaths, jihadists from Lashkar-e-Jabba had put up posters at the girls' college warning female students to wear burkas and male students to wear sherwanis (traditional coats). The three women had not worn the burkas and were targeted as a result. It is not good to be a woman in a region terrorized by Islam.

Previously, Lashkar-e-Jabbar had enforced their repressive Islamic agenda by throwing acid into the faces of women who did not comply with their religious orders. Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen supported the veil campaign, but a spokesman said acid attacks on women were un-Islamic. But the campaign against women received support from a prominent Islamic women's organization - the Dukhtaran-e-Millat (Daughters of the Faith). The Dukhtaran-e-Millat itself launched a campaign to force women in Srinagar to wear the veil over a decade earlier. Its activists threw paint on women who refused to comply. In one incident, girls wearing tight trousers were shot at, and beauty salon owners and cable operators were similarly targeted.

Lashkar-e-Jabbar is the most secretive religious terrorist outfit in Pakistan. Also known as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, they are a militant offshoot of the Sunni sectarian group Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (the Army of Muhammad's Companions). The breakaway group was formed in 1996 by Akram Lahori, Malik Ishaque, and Riaz Basra, after they accused the Army of Muhammad's Companions of deviating from the ideals of its slain co-founder, Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi. The Sunni fundamentalist salafi group focuses on anti-Shia attacks and assaults against women. Many of its members are associates of the Pakistani Taliban in Afghanistan.

A news report in October 2000 claimed that the Lashkar-e-Jabbar had split into two factions, one headed by Riaz Basra (since deceased) and the other by the chief of the organization's Majlis-al-Shura (Supreme Council), Qari Abdul Hai alias Qari Asadullah alias Talha. These bad boys have as many names as do their clubs.

While Basra favored resumption of terrorist attacks against Shia targets in order to force the government's hand, Talha opposed the plan as he reportedly felt it was suicidal not only for the organization but also for national Islamic solidarity.

Lashkar-e-Jabbar has confirmed links with al Qaeda and the Taliban and thus to fundamentalist Sunni Islam and Pakistan's ISI. Recently LJ unified with two other Sunni terrorist organizations, Harkat-ul Muhajideen and Jaish-e-Mohammed. In September 2002, three chemical labs were found in LJ safe houses in Karachi. According to Pakistani authorities, LJ members are not sophisticated enough to have maintained the stores of cyanide and other toxic chemicals found in the labs so they assumed that al Qaeda was working with the LJ - having moved its chemical weapons and gold out from Afghanistan when it established operations in Pakistan.

Lashkar-e-Jabbar aims to transform Pakistan into a Sunni Islamic theocracy through violent means. As an anti-Shiite group, it has admitted responsibility for numerous massacres of Shias and targeted killings of Shia religious and community leaders. The LJ has also carried out numerous attacks against Iranian interests and Iranian nationals in Pakistan. The group claimed responsibility for killing four American oil workers in Karachi in 1997, and for carrying out an assassination attempt in 1999 on then Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Lashkar-e-Jabbar is also believed to have taken part in the January 2002 kidnapping and murder of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl. They have also thrown acid into the faces of who do not comply with the repressive Islamic dress code.

The entire leadership of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi consists of jihadists who fought alongside the Taliban and al-Qaeda against Soviet forces in the Great Jihad. The majority of its cadres are drawn from the numerous Sunni madrassas (Islamic religious schools) in Pakistan - especially Karachi, the birthplace of the Taliban. Being part of the broader Deoband Islamic movement (fundamentalist/salafi Islam indistinguishable from Wahhabism), the LJ secured considerable financial assistance from the Saudi OPECers and Pakistan's ISI.

Asif Choto reportedly became leader of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in 2002 after the death of former leader Asif Ramzi. Choto is behind the revival of attacks on Shia minorities in Pakistan. He introduced suicide bombing as a terrorist technique to the group. Malik Ishaque was one of three principle founders of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Not much is known about his past, his roles, or his current whereabouts because the attacks he leads go unattributed. Qari Ataur Rahman was arrested for the murder of Daniel Pearl in Karachi, Pakistan.

Asif Ramzi also served as the head of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and was a spokesperson for the Muslim United Army. Wanted in connection with the murder of Daniel Pearl and a bombing at the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Ramzi was reportedly killed in December 2002 while preparing explosive devices.

Born in South Punjab in 1976, Matiur Rahman rose to prominence in the late 1990s by setting up sophisticated terrorist networks in Pakistan through which he recruited young Muslim men to be trained in al-Qaeda's Taliban camps. Rahman proved himself a skilled explosives expert, with a talent for passing his specialized knowledge to recruits. As well as instructing fellow Pakistanis on how to be effective suicide bombers, Rahman also trained the most promising visiting Western recruits. In the late 1990s Rahman taught thousands of Pakistani, African and Arab Muslim militants how to build the most lethal bombs.

Rahman (named after Muhammad's first god) was a deputy for the jihad leader Amjad Farooqi, the organizer of terrorist training camps with links to al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Pakistan's ISI, and the incorporated Harakat-ul-Ansar. After Farooqi was killed in September of 2004, Rahman became the Chief Liaison between al-Qaeda and the Pakistani terrorist community. He took over the extensive directory that has been dubbed by the intelligence community as the "Rolodex of Jihad." This "Rolodex," actually database, is a massive list of the names, affiliation, skill set and contact information of every Pakistani militant trained by al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. This directory served as a database for recruiting volunteers for Islamic terrorist operations in Asia and in the West. Farooqi and Rahman relied heavily on the directory to establish a wide-ranging, underground logistical infrastructure that proved crucial to al-Qaeda's senior leadership in Pakistani tribal areas where they now reside.

- December 19, 2002: In Chechnya, a Tsotsan-Yurt village administration chief was assassinated by masked Muslim gunmen in a neighbor's home. Three other people who were in the house at the time of the attack were also killed. Authorities said that the murder was carried out by local Wahhabists in revenge for the recent arrest of their local amir who was accused of promoting terrorism.

- December 20, 2002: In Kashmir, Muslim militants murdered People's Democratic Party member of the legislative assembly, Abdul Aziz Mir, as he was returning from Friday prayers in Pampore, on the outskirts of Srinagar. Abdul Aziz Mir was struck down by a bullet to his chest outside a mosque. A little-known group, calling itself, the Save Kashmir Movement, claimed credit for the attack. The group is believed to be a front for the Lashkar-e-Tayyba (also spelled Lashkar-e-Taiba). Another LT front, Al-Nasineen, also claimed responsibility for the political assassination.

The People's Democratic Party supported accommodation with India, drawing the ire of fundamentalist Islamists. In claiming responsibility for the killing, the Save Kashmir Movement promised a similar end to all Kashmiri leaders who supported accommodation with India.

The Save Kashmir Movement is a terrorist organization opposed to Indian influence over the province of Kashmir. India currently maintains sovereignty over the provinces of Jammu and Kashmir, though the region is granted a substantial degree of local autonomy, and Muslims are given preferential treatment. But Muslim Pakistan, like all Islamic regimes, claims the world, inclusive of these territories, for themselves. They want to force Kashmir to merging into their Islamic state, something that would rape the community of its freedoms and prosperity.

Many political killings of high-profile moderates in Kashmir have been claimed by the Movement, along with a host of other groups. There is no way to know which group actually pulled the trigger, but the fact that the Movement continues to claim responsibility for killings indicates that it has no intention of getting out of the terrorism business. Further, since Lashkar-e-Tayiba is always including in the groups responsible for actions perpetrated by the Save Kashmir Movement, we can be reasonably assured that the SKM is a subsidiary of LT.

- December 20, 2002: In Isreal, bomb was discovered on the sidewalk in Netanyah after a local resident spotted a suspicious-looking package. The police bomb squad safely deactivated it using a robot. It was set to be detonated by means of a cellular phone.

The same day, Israel Defense Forces soldiers found an unexploded mortar shell in the Gadid settlement greenhouses.

- December 20, 2002: In Chechnya, local residents reported a suspicious package tied to a tree in the Oktyabrskaya village. Federal forces investigated and found a homemade time bomb set to explode at noon, when traffic in the area becomes particularly busy. The bomb was destroyed by experts.

- December 20, 2002: The rabbi of Netzer Hazani was killed in a shooting attack on his car in the Gaza Strip. The rabbi had left his home in the settlement of Gush Qatif and was headed toward the Afula area when a Palestinian man, approximately 150 yards from the road, opened fired on his car. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the murder.

- December 20, 2002: Palestinians opened fire on an Israeli car at the entrance to the Kissufim settlement, killing the driver. Palestinian Islamic Jihad's militant wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, claimed credit for the assault.

- December 20, 2002: Steve Checo, 22, of New York, an American soldier, was shot and killed in a gunfight while on a nighttime operation in eastern Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan.

- December 21, 2002: Seven German soldiers were killed in Afghanistan today when their Super Stallion helicopter accidentally crashed near Kabul.

As the year came to a close a total of 64 troops had died in accidents and 11 had been killed by Muslims in Afghanistan in Operation Enduring Freedom. That foreboding accounting would haunt America as the nation prepared to invade Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

- December 21, 2002: In Afghanistan, two explosions occurred in Jalalabad near the city hospital.

- December 21, 2002: A masked Palestinian Muslim opened fire on the car of a German diplomat who represented the European Union. He had come to Jenin for a meeting with Fatah Secretary, General Musa Qaddmah. The diplomat, Kristian Balter Haas, was unharmed. Haas is a permanent EU representative in the Palestinian territories.

- December 21, 2002: In Serbia, explosions at the Difens Road destroyed two gas tanks, fourteen electric generators, and several vehicles. Authorities later concluded that the explosions were caused by bombs planted by a terrorist group.

- December 21, 2002: In Kashmir, three men and a child were killed and three women were wounded when Muslim militants entered their home in Sopore and opened fire. They were all members of the same family.

Then Islamic jihadists entered the home of a family in the Samoote village near Surankote and murdered three young boys. The Muslim gunmen wounded their parents and a tenant in the attack. These same gunmen had engaged a police station in a firefight earlier in the day.

That evening, a bomb brought down a microwave tower and damaged a nearby telephone exchange in the Wagoora village. Then man and his wife were both murdered by Islamic jihadists in the Kalaban village.

- December 21, 2002: In Kashmir, a woman was murdered by militants in the Rajouri District for not wearing a burka. Her assassins belonged to the devoutly religious, and fundamentalist Islamic terrorist organization, Lashkar-e-Jabbar, also known as Lashkar-i-Jhangvi.

In the Darhal area of the Jammu Division, jihadists entered the house of another woman and beheaded her. It was part of a recent crackdown by Lashkar-e-Jabbar militants on women they believed to be inappropriately dressed.

Imagine having a national dress code. Imagine the dress code being repressive and sexist. Imagine being killed for not adhering to it. What you have imagined is Islam.

- December 21, 2002: In Afghanistan, two workers, one Indian and one Afghan, with an international health program, were killed in Gardez, in the eastern Raktia province. Their Japanese colleague was not hurt. A statement was left on the site warning that all foreign workers in the area would be killed.

- December 21, 2002: In Pakistan, two passengers were killed and nine more wounded when a bomb detonated under the seats on a bus that was traveling through Hyderabad. Twenty-two passengers were on the bus at the time of the blast.

- December 22, 2002: In Afghanistan nine pounds of explosives were found near the German, French and United Arab Emirates embassies in Kabul.

- December 23, 2002: In Afghanistan, rockets fired at Jalalabad landed near the airport.

- December 23, 2002: In Kashmir, Muslim madmen set a shopkeeper, who sold cigarettes, on fire, dousing him with gasoline first. The man was severely disfigured and his shop was destroyed in the attack.

A heretofore unknown group calling itself, Hari-e-allal Fallah claimed credit for the inhuman behavior. While it was not true, Hari-e-allal Fallah (also spelled Hai-e-Allal Fallah) said that the man had laced his cigarettes with narcotics and that the group's aim was to cleanse society of such evils. They also threatened kill anyone who provided alcohol which means they would need to kill Allah since the Islamic god provides "rivers which flow with wine" in paradise - also known as brothel.

In a faxed statement to the local news agency, News and Feature Alliance, Hai-e-Allal Fallah spokesman Mohammed bin Qasim said: "Shopkeepers selling cigarettes, tobacco, liquor and other narcotic items should completely close down their businesses at once. Any shopkeeper or wholesale dealer found violating this fatwah will end up like Mohammed Shafi Teli," the statement said. Earlier, in 1990, the Allah Tigers militant group closed down cinemas, liquor shops and beauty parlors in Kashmir. Srinagar now has two cinemas and two liquor stores, and they operate under very tight security.

- December 24, 2002: In the Philippines, a bomb exploded outside the home of Mayor Saudie Ampatuan in the Datu Piang town of Maguindanao. He was killed in the blsast as were 12 other people. The remotely detonated bomb was made from an 81-mm mortar shell placed in a plastic bag with nails, twisted wires, and a substantial amount of ammonium nitrate. Authorities have blamed the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a fundamentalist Islamic terrorist organization.

- December 24, 2002: In Chechnya, Said Emin Adizov, the leader of the local branch of the United Russian Party, was shot in Grozny in an ambush on his way home from work. Several Islamic gunmen with high-powered rifles assaulted his SUV from high-rise buildings nearby.

- December 24, 2002: In Kashmir, a woman was shot at and wounded by Islamic gunmen in the Bella village. Then Muslim militants barged into a home in Shah Nagri and promptly shot the owner's son.

- December 24, 2002: In Pakistan, nine people were injured in a bomb blast at the Rawalpindi bus station.

- December 24, 2002: The state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation's main offices were set ablaze by a group that sought to undermine the President of Nigeria. Three days later, an individual the attackers came forward and claimed responsibility.

- December 25, 2002: In Macedonia, a bomb exploded outside the Goce Delcev High School in Kumanovo, killing one student and injured four others. The bomb was placed in a trash can in front of the school building.

- December 25, 2002: Russian police arrested two men from Chechnya in a busy market in southern Moscow. Each man was carrying two or three hand grenades and a device containing explosives strapped to a belt.

- December 25, 2002: In Kosovo, a car bomb exploded in a moving vehicle in Pec, killing the driver and injuring two others.

- December 25, 2002: In Kashmir, jihadists stormed into the home of a public schoolteacher. After he denied them sanctuary for the evening, they shot him and his two sons, killing all of them. Police suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba.

- December 25, 2002: In Pakistan, two Muslim militants dressed in burqas, the repressive religious garment worn by women in fundamentalist Islamic cultures, tossed a grenade into a Christian church during Christmas services in the village of Chianwala, about 40 miles northwest of Lahore.

Three Christians were killed and another 17 were injured in the attack. The perpetrators escaped on a motorcycle, and it is unclear whether they were men dressed as women or women dressed as Muslims. Islamic militants in neighboring Afghanistan had recently started wearing burkas to hide their identities during terrorist attacks. Over 100 worshippers were at the church at the time of the assault.

- December 26, 2002: In Afghanistan, three people were injured when a bomb placed in a radio detonated in Charikar City. It had been triggered by one of the victims when she pressed one of the radio's buttons.

- December 26, 2002: In Pakistan, three rockets were fired from the mountains into different areas of Kohlu, in Baluchistan.

- December 26, 2002: Armed Muslim militants (redundant) ambushed a bus carrying Philippine workers employed by Canadian Toronto Ventures mining company in Zamboanga del Norte. Thirteen were killed and 10 were wounded. Philippine authorities suspected the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which had been extorting money from Toronto Ventures.

- December 27, 2002: A suicide bomb attack involving two explosive-laden trucks destroyed the offices of the pro-Russian Chechen government in Grozny. The attack killed over 80 people and wounded 210. According to a Chechen website run by the Kavkaz Center, Chechen Islamic warlord, and leader of the Popular Front, Shamil Basayev, claimed responsibility.

Three Islamic suicide bombers drove the two truck bombs through a military-patrolled perimeter around the headquarters. The blast left a twenty-foot crater and destroyed one wing of the building. The Riyad us-Saliheyn (Brigade of Suicide Witnesses) Martyr's Brigade claimed responsibility for this attack ordered by Chechen rebel commander Shamil Basayev.

The Riyad us-Saliheyn Martyrs Brigade (also transliterated, Riyad us-Salihin) is a relatively young terrorist organization, dedicated to killing anyone who stands in the way of establishing an Islamic theocracy in Chechnya and throughout the Caucasus Region in such places as Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, Ingushetia, Ossetia and Tataria. The group, whose name translates to "Requirements for Getting into Paradise," espouses Salafi Islamic doctrine (Wahhabism). Since the Riyad us-Saliheyn is a subsidiary of Shamil Basayev's terrorist holdings, it has ties to al-Qaeda.

Riyad us-Saliheyn is descended from two other Chechen terrorist organizations led by Basayev, the Special Purpose Islamic Regiment and the International Islamic Brigade. Some affirm that Riyad us-Saliheyn is simply the merger of these two groups.

Muslims Meeting the Requirements for Getting into Paradise have intensified their attacks in recent years, claiming responsibility for some of the most devastating terrorist attacks in modern history. The suicide bombing which destroyed the headquarters of the pro-Russian Chechen government, killing 72 and injuring 280 people was their first mission. According to Basayev, the perpetrators of the attack were an ordinary Chechen father and his two teenage children.

In August of 2003, a similar attack was made, but this time the target was a hospital housing both civilian and military patients. That bombing resulted in the death of 52, while injuring 72. Their most vicious attack was on the 2004 Beslan school massacre, where hundreds of children were murdered. Prior to the merger that formed the Riyad us-Saliheyn, in 1995 Shamil Basayev terrorists blew up the Budyonnovsk hospital. In 2002 they became infamous around the world for their Moscow theater siege.

Shamil Basayev has also used "Black Widow" suicide bombers to carry out terrorist acts. An example is the August 2004 airline and subway bombings which were conducted during one of Islam's most brutal weeks worldwide. While the death of Shamil Basayev in July 2006 was seen as a large setback for the brigades, the group remains active and deadly.

The first terrorist attack attributed to Basayev was the 1991 hijacking of a Russian passenger plane to Turkey. He gained notoriety in 1994 with the Russian invasion of Chechnya and the subsequent Islamic resistance. (It's important to understand that the people of Chechnya have voted overwhelmingly to remain a secular state associated with the Russian Federation.) It was during this time that Basayev met Ibn al-Khattab, who became the prime conduit of finance between Chechnya and Salafi Islamists from the Persian Gulf region - and in particular Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Many claim that Basayev's group has used that money to acquire a nuclear weapon.

- December 27, 2002: In Kashmir, Islamic gunmen fired on the house of a man in Goila Kahara, injuring his son.

- December 28, 2002: Four Israelis were killed and ten more were wounded when a Palestinian infiltrated the Otniel settlement and opened fire inside a dining hall. Arriving IDF troops shot the attacker, killing him, and they tracked down a second Palestinian believed to have been involved, shooting him as well.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad's militant wing, the Al-Quds Squads, claimed credit for the murders.

- December 28, 2002: In Armenia, Tigran Naghdalian, who was in charge of the state-controlled television station, was shot in the head and killed by an Islamic gunman as he left his parents' house in Yerevan. Naghdalian was a key supporter of President Robert Kocharian, who was up for re-election.

- December 28, 2002: In Yemen, Jarullah Omar, the second highest ranking official in the Yemeni Socialist Party, was injured by Muslim militant. He was attending a conference held by people opposed to Yemeni government in Sanaa. Omar later died of his wounds.

The Islamic gunman who confessed to attacking a Baptist Missionary Hospital days after this assassination also confessed that he is a member of a cell of Islamic jihadists assigned to carry out five operations, of which this assassination was one.

- December 29, 2002: In Kashmir, a National Conference activist assaulted in Kadilbal.

- December 29, 2002: In Chechnya, the Argun administration headquarters came under heavy fire from Muslim militants.

- December 30, 2002: In Kashmir, Islamic jihadists slit the throat of a man in Kara Kadal. He was believed to be a police informer.

- December 30, 2002: In Yemen, three American missionaries were killed and another was injured when a Yemeni Muslim entered a Baptist Missionary Hospital in central Yemen and opened fire on healthcare workers. Hiding a semiautomatic assault rifle under his coat as though it were a baby, the man entered a room where hospital director William Koehn, 60, of Arlington, Texas was holding a meeting. The Islamic jihadist opened fire, killing Koehn. Doctor Martha Myers, 57, of Montgomery, Alabama and purchasing agent Kathleen Gariety, 53, of Wanwatosa, Wisconsin were also murdered. The Islamic gunmen then went to the pharmacy and shot the man running it, Donald Caswell, 49, of Levelland, Texas, wounding him.

The attack at the Southern Baptist Hospital was the second such strike in Yemen in as many days. It also followed the killing of another American missionary in Lebanon in late November.

ArabicNews.com reported on January 1st, 2003 that the gunman who murdered the Americans was Abed Abdul Razzaq Kasmel. They said that he was a member of "a cell of Islamic Jihadists assigned to carry out five operations." One of the five missions was the assassination of Jarullah Omar, the second ranking official at the Yemeni Socialist party.

CNN reported on May 14th, 2003 that gunman Abed Abdul Razak Kamel was sentenced to death after confessing to the killings of these Christian missionaries. Kamel told the court that he killed them "out of a religious duty and in revenge because they converted Muslims from their religion and made them unbelieving Infidels.".

Yemeni security officials believed that Kamel belonged to a terrorist cell liked to Al Qaeda (called Islam). In January a state-run Yemeni newspaper claimed that Kamel had made admissions to meeting members of al Qaeda, including the suicide bomber who attacked the U.S. warship Cole in Yemen. Kamel was executed by firing squad on February 27th, 2006.

- December 30, 2002: Shots were fired at an Israeli car near the village of Huwwarah.

- December 31, 2002: In Israel, gunfire was directed at an Israeli bus on the Tunnels Road. There were no casualties, but the bus was damaged. The same day, two bombs blew up near Bethlehem. Then, shots were fired at an Israeli bus in the vicinity of al-Khidr near Bethlehem.

- December 31, 2002: In Kashmir, police recovered the body of a civilian from the Gujrian area. He was believed to have been killed the previous night. The same day, Islamic gunmen shot and killed a real estate agent and injured his driver on the outskirts of Channi Himkat.

- December , 2002: In the Philippines, a suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) member threw a grenade at a plaza filled with New Year's Eve revelers in Tacurong. Nine people were killed and thirty-five injured.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front is a splinter of the Moro National Liberation Front. Following a failed 1977 accord between MNLF and the Philippine government, the MNLF's second-in-command broke away from the terrorist club and Hashim Salamat created the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. But other than a new name and a promotion, philosophical foundations of the splinter group were identical to its predecessor. The MILF is a fundamentalist/salafi Islamic organization attempting to follow Muhammad's terrorist example and Allah's orders to wage war until the world submits to Islam.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front demands a fully independent Islamic state in the southern Philippines. In advance of this goal, the MILF has used terrorist attacks and kidnapping throughout the 1980s and 1990s. However, deciding to use deception and strike on two fronts, by the late 1990s the MILF began negotiations for an autonomous Muslim region. This is akin to Yasser Arafat's and Bill Clinton's Oslo Accords creating an autonomous region within Israel that would be controlled by the PLO.

In June, 2001, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Philippine president Gloria Arroyo signed a peace agreement. It would be among the dumbest things this woman would ever do. Not only were many horrendous terrorist attacks claimed under the name of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front after June 2001, an increasing number of attacks were perpetrated by the MILF's new affiliates: the Abu Sayyaf Group and Jemaah Islamiyah. It was as if the Philippine president didn't understand that the problem was Islam or that the MILF was just one of a thousand symptoms.

This ignorance is what led President Gloria Arroyo, in December 2004, to announce that she had formed a joint organization to clear the southern Philippines of criminal elements and operatives by using the MILF terrorist organization. The Abu Sayyaf Group and Jemaah Islamiyah that she wanted removed were partners in crime and religion with the MILF so this was political pandering at its best. It was like America partnering with the PLO to rid the PA territories of HAMAS and Islamic Jihad, only worse since the Filipino organizations were intertwined and not rivals.