War in Afghanistan is jihad, says Imran
Terming the ongoing war in Afghanistan a ‘jihad’, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan parried a question on Wednesday whether the war in Pakistan’s tribal belt could be labelled as terrorism. He was addressing a press conference in Peshawar after paying a visit to inquire after the health of Malala Yousafzai.
The PTI chief condemned the attack on Malala, saying attacking children was against the teachings of Islam and Pashtun traditions, and offered every possible help to Malala’s family.
Imran added that there was a need to investigate the motivations of various Taliban factions operating in the country, adding that the decision to carry out a military operation in Waziristan in 2004 and the Lal Masjid episode were ‘the main reasons’ behind the violence across the country.
“In the guise of the Taliban, there are several criminal gangs who didn’t even spare PTI workers by demanding extortion money.”
The PTI chief said that “drone attacks are carried out with the consent of the government, and in reaction, Taliban attack civilians.”
Citing an ex-employee of the US Central Intelligence Agency, he said that unless the Pakistani government withdraws its support as a coalition partner on the ‘war on terror’ it will be unable to overcome the insurgency in the country.
“A military operation can be a small part of a larger solution but a conflict cannot be resolved through military operations alone,” the PTI chief said.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 11th, 2012.
COMMENTS (295)
American presidents were also saying this JIAHD and shouting slogans in Peshawar 'ALLAH HU AKBAR' when afghans were fighting against soviets, so this is american point of view, now why it become so unpopular in the eyes of USA worshiping liberal extremists. only because now its american agenda
I totally agree with Ali's comments. This Malala drama has been conjured so that hatred and resentment towards tribal areas continue and phantom Taliban is once again accused. So drone attacks can resume on pretext of wiping out Taliban when actually innocent civilians are killed. Why all people cannot see the propaganda in this. This so called Taliban are actually foreign sponsored mercenaries and killers. Do not confuse them with the real mujahideen who are fighting the US forces in Afghanistan. This TTP is a scapegoat for USA and its allies to carry out more killings and drone attacks on Pakistan and tribal areas. People cannot see through the facade. By the way Imran Khan is right when he said that Taliban are criminal gangs. He has my vote and is the only man for a better Pakistan.
@ Ali: REALLY! sorry state of affairs
@Ahmad Bilal: wow what a great word you have used "Foreign Invaders" didnt you see the taliban terrorists when they were runing for their life after the fall of kabul as they caught by peoples and searched most of them were having the Pakistani National Identity Card" and i would say its always better to live under foreign invaders who are not snatching ur human right rather the local ruthless who are suppressing their countrymen
@Abu Hamza:
They did indeed illegally occupy property, attack and burn businesses and their merchandise, government buildings and vehicles, in their protest against mosque demolitions alleged to be illegally constructed on disputed land. Claiming otherwise would be dishonest and lying, and that sick low class attack against the factual commentator on your prostitution fetish unwarranted. They had no mandate to kidnap the suspected Chinese prostitutes illegally in defiance of Pakistan law, regardless of the corruption from the elite. Their twisted Deoband ideological brand supported the Taliban, amassing weapons within a masjid with connections with known terrorists and terrorist groups like J-e-M and Al Qaeda, and stooped so low as to use their students as militants and calling for suicide bombings....don't think spreading anarchy and fasad violently is halal, Shariah or Islam...unless that is your kind of extremist ideological Kharijite brand.
@ Big saf
And where has Imran Khan justified school attacks, beheadings or suicide bombings? He has time and again said that people who do such things are not even HUMAN far from them being Muslim. He calls them Barbarians every now and then.
Stating the reasons and causes behind terrorism is NOT justifying terrorism. You are behaving the same way as some people in west did when they called the peace-workers, anti-war activists and noble peace prize winners and even many war and terrorism analysts as the one's justifying terrorism!!! Talk about all the articles by learned war-analysts where they have listed the ROOT CAUSES of terrorism! Well, are they too justifying terrorism?? Just as Noble Peace Prize Winner Betty Williams said on BBC
Also you have a very superficial knowledge abt the Afghan Taliban, they are an entirely different entity than the TTP.
Imran Khan has been condemning the terrorists every now and then, and he did this in this very press conference as well, and he also said "how can any human not condemn this". Also see this video, where he condemns beheadings, school burnings, ahmadi killings etc (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_Q0iLVOY2s )
@ big saf
It is obvious that the ET is lying since what you are quoting isn’t what the ET said! Saying that “the Afghan war” is a jihad is WHOLE LOT different than saying that “there are some people in Afghanistan who are fighting for their freedom and doing Jihad.” Pls see the video I posted for you, there IK clarifies that he considers some people in Afghanistan are actually fighting a Jihad BUT they are mixed with the CRIMINALS and that it “it is all a MIXTURE now” So why do you want to ignore one thing and stress on some other thing?
If he really had said “afghan war is jihad” that would be akin to saying that all suicide bombings, all the attacks were jihad. That would be a really bad statement to make. But he said people in Afghanistan who are fighting for freedom are fighting a jihad-which is fine and true. He also said that they were NOW intermixed with the criminals (as i mentioned in the zemtv videohttp://www.zemtv.com/2012/10/10/imran-khan-press-conference-10th-october-2012-express-news/ )
@Ashraf P: since when did you turn into a hypocrite who hates Jihad and the teachings of Islam.. you have a muslim name... what happened to you?
@ALI:
[Why Talban not killed her in last three years as she was there, Why they select to kill this time???} Do you consider Ehsanullah Ehsan a CIA agent having owned the attack on Malalah and threatened a repeat attack if she survives. Have you heard of any Taliban leader / spokesman etc condemning the attack and distancing themselves. Please open your eyes dear brother.
@Caramelized_Onion: (If Turkey could stay neutral during two Iraq Wars and also attacks on Libya and Serbia, why couldn’t we stay neutral in the Afghan war?}
Simple answer: Turkey never allowed its land to be used for cross border terrorism. If you can ensure it, no one will ask you to be a partner in war on terror. Nobody asked for Pak Army contingents to fight alongside ISAF/NATAO/USA forces in Afghanistan.
Once again ET twisted his statement & additionally didn't describe it in the news body' ET is biased!
Full speed ahead Imran, we are with ou all the way!
Whatever IK says, he's right...............
@unmet46:
This is what was said from the first 24 seconds of the video that qzj00 provided, translated from Urdu to English.
http://tribune.com.pk/multimedia/videos/450148/
"what you said about in Afghanistan, look, Jihad is a very simple thing, when I fight for my freedom, that is Jihad. This is the Quran's verses - instructions. Whoever is fighting for their freedom is Jihad. So those fighting in Afghanistan against foreign occupation, this is Jihad."
He basically sympathized, condoned or justified the Taliban, overlooking their criminal acts of terrorism or attacks on civilians and giving credence to their claim of 'fighting an occupation' and 'Jihad'.
@riz: GOOD RIDDENS
This is a Lie Imran Khan never said that war of Afghanistan is a jihad. Here's the video:http://www.zemtv.com/2012/10/10/imran-khan-press-conference-10th-october-2012-express-news/
He said two things which had to with the word "jihad":
"It was "perceived" that any one fighting against the US was doing Jihad and it was "perceived" that fighting against the one's supporting the US was Jihad" Secondly he said:
"It is the tradition of the tribal leaders that they don't openly come against any one doing Jihad while IN REALITY it is all mixed, there are criminals (operating in the name of jihad), and there are certain people fighting in Afghanistan who are actually fighting Jihad but it is all mixed now" (i.e. the militants are mixed with the people who were actually fighting against US occupation in Afghanistan)
Also he nowhere used the word "even" when talking about PTI workers being asked extortion money. He simply said that diff. militants gps. are fighting for various reasons, our workers were threatened and asked for money. He din't imply that this was something unusual that could not have happened to PTI workers.
@qzj00 Firstly Youtube is not legally accessible in Pakistan, so this video you are posting doesn't play. Secondly I searched the whole press conference and heard it, no where did he say "Afghan war is jihad" thats such a BIG LIE on the part of ET!
He said two things. Firstly:
Secondly he said: "
Also he did not say : "EVEN" PTI workers were not spared by the taliban. He did not even use this word EVEN. He actually said that militants were fighting due to different motives...and that some of them were fighting for money and that PTI workers were threatened and were asked money...Its not that he said it was something unusual that could not have happened to PTI workers.
(Here's the video: http://www.zemtv.com/2012/10/10/imran-khan-press-conference-10th-october-2012-express-news/ Shame on ET.
I will never come back to this website again.. quoting a person wrong is a crime. it can change the whole concept of the message he wanted to convey. that's exactly what ET has done today. Unlike from my facebook page n twitter. I would stick to www.Pakistantoday.com. Good bye!
Indeed ... IK is inexperienced on foreign policy and pretty much all other issues and I wouldn't want him to do a test run on us. IK lost another supporter.
USaid is funding Express Tribune for such biased behavior. IK didn't say that war in Afghanistan is Jihad. He said the Taliban thinks that this is Jihad. Total misinterpretation just to spoil IK popularity. This media is our greatest enemy and part of this status quo !!
Imran khan is also strongly and truly religious personality . As well as last hope of Pakistan.
Hassan Ali... please review IK's video interview again... what he said was that Afghanistani people who are fighting against the right of their independence against US are fighting a "Jihad".. please stop twisting the truth according to your own perception and write what he has actually said...
@Smart:"Shame on you IK" Same for you Mr. Smart because your mentality can never differentiate between Jihad and terrorism and you always mix up Jihad with terrorism.Whereas Jihad is never the terrorism because Jihad's conditions of obligatory are different from the terrorism and in Afghanistan there is/has been Jihad not terrorism because Jihad is obligatory when any non-muslim tries to harm and kill the innocent muslims and US' and NATO's forces are killing and harming the mostly innocent and sinless people which they never have to do and leave Afghanistan on top priority basis as soon as possible sans wasting any more time and $$$$$$$$ on the useless war in hilly and barren country "Afghanistan".......
@riz: Which world who is against Iraqies, Afghani, kashmiri, Phelestini etc freedom fighters and with US, India, Israel. Imran always great and only chance to save Pakistan. Many more suporter added. Sohail
@Zalmai: Your advice to Imran to revert back to cricket might become a reality after the next general elections in Pakistan. He was one of the topmost and popular cricketer of his era and can easily help Pakistan to reach the top but politics is not his cup of tea which he would surely realise after the coming elections.
@Noman: May be so. However, even if we take him to be technically correct, does Mr. Khan realize the implications of his words on the International stage? Sure, you will say that speaking 'the truth' is paramount. To that I will say that there is a very thin line between valour and discretion! Just think about it, by issuing such statements, do we cause problems for the vast majority of Muslims all over the world, or do we gain something for them? Allah has surely made it incumbent on us to use our brains before opening our mouth!
Imran Khan did a press conference and implied that the terrorists are justified in fighting our state, our forces and us. So, the veiled jihadist removes the veil finally. Imran Khan gives this obnoxious ‘Fatwa’ and declares the war of terror, a jihad, in “tribal belt” by combined dark forces of Al-Qaeda, Talibans and various gangs of the warlords and drug mafias. This is against us and our Pakistan and we must refuse and reject this ‘Fatwa’ from this chronic jihadist on behalf of the forces of evil the ‘brave warriors’ the Talibans, the same barbarians who go around shooting our innocent daughters and sons, like the attackers of Malala. What is even more detestable is the timing this mad man selects and the occasion. He attempts to incite the innocent masses to take arm in the name of jihad in the guise of sympathy for the victim. What a trickery! The man is asking the victims of terrorism to support their brutalizers the attackers, the very murderers. Thank you, Mr Imran Khan, thanks for this invitation to “Jihad”—— but no thank you!—–Khan Sahib go and fight your jihad but not with our blood.
Imran Khan should stick to cricket and get a job as a color commentator on ESPN and pontificate about unscrupulous Pakistani cricketers. As a former elite athlete the role of a cricket pundit would suit him better than this new pseudo jihadi/fundamentalist role he has assumed. It is sad watching him unravel.The idiom (sau chuhe kha ke billi haj ko chali) is very appropriate for this confused man.
I hope he sees the light and reinvents himself if he wants to survive as a politician. He should take cues from the seemingly reformed Sharif brothers and Altaf Hussain.
@Super Star
Totally agree with your comment. Afghans have suffered enough at the hands of the Taliban/proxies. Double standards and myopic foreign policies are coming back to haunt Pakistan but they are still defiant and tread along the same destructive path.
@ True Muslim Paki
Actually I am mostly right. A state is nothing more than an organization that is the governing authority of a political unit. I should have said the middle ages consensus on this was that the declaration can only be made by the Head of State.
Muslims are not interested in anarchy.
There is a saying that "repeatedly say sweet sweet and you will feel sweetness in your mouth". Mr. Imran Khan is the dream of reaching to the throne in Pakistan, alienate himself from the truth and this will alienate him from the masses. So, his dream will remain as a dream only!
Oh please people, what is YOUR solution to the taliban problem? IK is a diplomat, he is trying to RESOLVE things with the taliban so that they can stop killing innocent people. what will he achieve by condemning them? has anybody been really able to stop the taliban by speaking against them or using force against them?
Since 9/11 Why every brutal act is known as Terrorism originating from Taliban? Attacks on Police Stations/Srilankan Team/Marriott and Why TTP is always ready to take the responsibility of Terrorism in no time? Is that So no body will ask the authorities responsible for investigation, litigation and punishment. because its Taliban, so case closed
Mr. Imran Khan double talk will not work. Taliban are barbarians and that is it. Don't talk about good and bad Taliban. Remember what Mush said about you '' Taliban without a beard ''. It is time for our army to move in all those areas and take action against these barbarians. Enough is enough. If you want a jehad then do against those who are very much in our own society.
Oh my God! I can't believe how immature these commentators are, whining and declaring that they're not PTI members anymore! For Gods sake, do you really believe that you know more than Imran khan? He's the one with first hand information and who is constantly dealing with these situations everyday! Because its his job! What are you? A banker? An engineer? A businessman? Your knowledge is confined to newspapers and the media, which are controlled by the government!
I really wonder how some Pakistanis like Imran and co , support the Taliban jihad in Afghanistan. Supporting the Jihad in Afghanistan would mean the harsh Taliban rule being forced on Afghans which includes banning Girls from going to work , getting an education , public executions and many more sharia based laws. Would the same Pakistanis like the same laws to be applied on themselves in Pakistan? Why then there is such an outcry on the attack on Malalai in Swat? She was actually struggling to get an opportunity to educate herself and other girls in Swat. She stood for womens rights and freedom. These are the very things which Taliban oppose in Afghan and Pak. When you support the Taliban ideology in Afghanistan why are you then opposing the same ideology being implemented in your own country and crying hoarse when someone attacks a girl who is trying to oppose this talibanization ?
The world sees this hypocrisy.
Sad to see a man, whom I and many of us in India idolized in our teens not just as a cricketer but as an honest and able leader of men stoop to this level of hypocrisy. IK, I hope this is not you.
@tilsim. You are wrong. Jihad is not declared by state in Islam. Islam doesn't recognize states.
And you didn’t quote him on the main line??? Where did he say the Afghan war a Jihad…?
Jehaad against fesaad which is rooted in you're Pakistani government is jehaad, don't sacrifice my beloved country for you're own good if u need to jehaad against Americans don't accept their billions of dollars, stop begging them! Start jehaad in you're own selves, don't try to find a short cut to paradise in Afghanistan, we as pashtuns and Afghans have paid enough, tnx Imran for being as same as the other political figures.
that's the reason why i like Imran khan .