QUETTA, Oct 16: Visitors to Shahbaz Baloch’s office are asked to wipe their feet on a doormat improvised from the Stars and Stripes, Israeli and India’s national flags.

The office, located in a dingy back street in Quetta, is the recruiting agency of Al Badar — an organisation committed to training Muslim fighters for Jihad in Kashmir, Chechnya and elsewhere.

Baloch, the agency’s chief recruiting officer, sits cross-legged on the floor, flanked by talent scouts, and begins an indoctrination lecture laced with anti-US and anti-Semitic rhetoric.

“President Bush has declared a crusade, that is a Christian holy war. America is now bombing a civilian population and this is terrorism and we must all join the Jihad, this is the greater Muslim cause,” Baloch said.

“The three biggest threats are the US, Israel, and India.”

Al Badar recruits are allowed to pick the Jihad of their choice. The Palestinian territories, Chechnya and Kashmir are all popular destinations, but Afghanistan is certainly flavour of the month.

Baloch, one of several organisers, said there had been a sharp rise in volunteers after the United States began its bombing campaign against Afghanistan’s Taliban regime and alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden on Oct 7.

“I will not tell you the exact numbers because it is a military secret but it is in the hundreds,” he told AFP. Each recruit must be at least 18 years old, a devout Muslim and accept Al Badar’s philosophy: “Jihad for peace.”

Al Badar conducts two types of training at secret camps in the tribal areas of NWFP.

Baloch said basic training involved tuition in the use of AK-47s and shoulder-fired rocket launchers. The advanced stage is an intensive three-month course in guerilla warfare.

“Islamic education is also an important aspect of this, as Jihad is a holy war and therefore an important part of Islam,” he said.

An average recruit’s day begins with Fajr prayers, followed by callisthenics. Traditional tea is delivered in the early morning before light arms training begins, followed by prayers and then lunch.

Like most boot camps the food — rice and mutton washed down with tea — is not always of the highest standard, Baloch said.

Religious instruction is undertaken in the heat of the day. Basic training in guerilla warfare and strategy follow, then prayers, dinner, a military or Quranic lesson, more prayers and bed.

Surrounded by the photos of Jihadi “martyrs” from Afghanistan and Kashmir, Baloch said recruits were not accorded any rank because all fighters in a holy war are equal and must endure a spartan lifestyle regardless of background.

Funds are limited to private donations, and the cash shortage means recruits are unable to train in elaborate weapons like heat seeking Stinger missiles.

“They are too expensive,” Baloch said, adding that recruits learned more advanced equipment skills in the field.

Part of Al Badar’s success is also due to an advertising campaign which includes an international mobile number, posters and bumper-stickers that read: “America we are coming.”

Other posters are aimed at raising cash from civilians for fighters in the field.

Baloch said recruits come from a wide variety of backgrounds — graduates from Islamic seminaries that preach Jihad, and even the sons of moderate Muslim families opposed to the retaliatory US strikes on Afghanistan that followed the Sept 11 terrorist atrocities in New York and Washington.

“There are thousands of people trying to get into Afghanistan,” one tribal elder from Balochistan’s Kakar tribe said, adding that recruits were signing up from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia and Pakistan.—AFP