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| Sunday, 20 November 2005 |
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Former jihadi chief preaches peace MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan, Nov 19 (AFP) - Not much of the Sawera orphanage survived the earthquake that devastated this Kashmiri city last month, but one cracked wall spared the destructive force stands out from the rubble. On it, the remains of a brightly painted motto is still legible: "Peace ... God ... Love," it reads. The message of hope would be unremarkable but for the fact that the man who put it there was once one of the most wanted men in India and Pakistan, the head of a group of militant separatists who helped rain terror on this battle-scarred land. A decade ago orphanage owner Tanveer Muhammad went by the nom de guerre of Tanveer ul Islam, the head of the feared United Jihad Council, the umbrella organisation for a group of militants fighting for an independent Kashmir. Under his rule, hundreds of people - civilians and fighters - died in an ongoing struggle that sparked two border wars between Pakistan and India and made the harsh mountainous region a no-go zone. Since then, however, Muhammad claims to have seen the light and has committed himself to bringing peace to Kashmir. His first step was to set up the Sawera Foundation, schools dedicated to giving an education to orphans of the conflict. "I saw the pain that the rule of the gun had brought and the effect it was having on my people," Muahammad told AFP. |
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