| April 10, 2002 | Wednesday | Muharram 26, 1423 |
Sehba Lucknawi: a tribute
Sri Lanka favourites for Sharjah Cup
FAISALABAD recently caught world attention with the arrest of top Al-Qaeda members, including their chief Abu Zubaidah. The city is still attracting the Western media members who are roaming around the places where the FBI and Pakistani law-enforcement agencies had jointly conducted an operation last Thursday.
I HAVE yet to meet an Indian who can give me a rational explanation why his country is steadfastly refusing to play cricket against Pakistan. That Pakistan is willing to do so, play cricket against India, anytime, any place, seems to stiffen the determination of the nay-sayers in New Delhi who probably interprets Pakistan’s willingness as a sign of weakness.
The strategy of keeping the operation low key by hiding the whereabouts and details of the arrested Al-Qaeda members has succeeded. Their names could not be ascertained by any of the mediamen despite hectic efforts.
Incidentally, when the new tenants moved in the big house off Canal Road late February, word spread that they were Arab traders in the import-export business, supplying shirts and sheets to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. It was a credible cover in an industrial city dominated by textile factories.
For the first time, American agents directly took part in the raids conducted by special teams at six different places in the city last Thursday to arrest the “most wanted terrorists” of the world. Separate raids were conducted on various houses by joint teams of the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the assistance of sensitive agencies and the Elite Force in which over two dozen alleged Al-Qaeda members were rounded up. A shootout also occurred during a raid in Faisal Town in which a top leader of Al-Qaeda, Abul Hasnat, was gunned down.
The raiding team arrested Abu Zubaidah, claimed to be the mastermind of the New York incident. Two other “terrorists” also sustained injuries but they were rounded up with other accomplices claimed to be of Arab origin. Two constables — Mubashar Husain and Muhammad Jawed — of the Elite Force also sustained injuries when the alleged Al-Qaeda members put up resistance.
An interesting revelation made during the operation was that the hideout of the alleged suspects of Al-Qaeda was believed to have been detected by a special cell of the American FBI and CIA whose personnel were monitoring and deciphering round-the-clock all e-mail messages from the gadgets, scanning the air and satellite signals.
This cell reportedly got the clue of an e-mail message “electrified” by the inmates of the hideout on March 13, 2002. Immediately after intercepting the message, spies of this cell started hunting the place to catch hold of a secret e-mail message.
In line with the agreement between the US and Pakistan for the exchange of intelligence, the US cell reportedly passed on the information to the ISI, and it was decided to launch a joint operation for capturing Al-Qaeda members from Faisal Town. To implement the plan, the US personnel reached the city on March 27 at 11am and they remained busy with the law-enforcement agencies in various meetings for launching the operation.
After completion of this “top secret operation”, FBI teams and local police officials shifted all the alleged Al-Qaeda leaders arrested from various parts of the city to Islamabad through special planes for further interrogation. Later, the injured terrorists were also shifted to Islamabad under tight security.
It is said that during the raid on the hideout of alleged terrorists by the special team, Abu Zubaidah tried to escape from the scene by jumping towards an adjacent bungalow. But a local police commando overpowered him and one of his accomplices without using any weapon. FBI agents identified Abu Zubaidah despite the fact that he was not in the getup shown in his photographs carried by the raiding team. He looked clean shaved with small hair in the pictures. But at the time of arrest he had long hair and wore glasses and a sleeping-trouser.
It is being claimed by the secret agencies that Abu Zubaidah was the right hand man of Osama bin Laden, and had been trying to regroup Al-Qaeda leaders and other militant groups after the reported death of Aiman-uz-Zehwari, deputy of Osama.
Abu Zubaidah, a Saudi born of Palestinian parents, had first come to Pakistan in 1987-88 to join Jihadi organizations working against the Soviet in Afghanistan. Peshawar’s Criminal Investigation Department first arrested him in April, 1994. Investigators had recovered several copies of passports of different countries and $12,000 in cash. He was charged under the Foreigners Act but was bailed out after which he fled to Afghanistan. He was one of the main associates of Osama bin Laden for training youngsters and planning future targets.
The FBI and Pakistani agencies said they had found certain codewords inscribed in the kitchen wall during the raid on the Al-Qaeda men’s hideout on Canal Road such as “Friday: Dawood and Abu Kamel”, “Saturday: Osama and Anees”. Similarly, words Lahi, Sabhoo, Murad, Al-Mujahid, Asad and Badar.
Some of the arrested persons after their release told this correspondent that they were extensively quizzed about any information or link with any person in connection with the World Trade Centre incident, the kidnapping and killing of Daniel Pearl, Al-Qaeda members, training in Afghanistan at Taliban centres, collection of funds for Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters, supply of arms and shelter to Jihadis.
They said they were also shown photographs of various persons, including some of Arab origins. But they told them clearly that they had seen such photographs for the first time and did not recognize them nor had they any association with them.
They admitted that none of the law-enforcer or foreign agent tortured or misbehaved with them. They were provided “good” food. However, they were not allowed to meet each other or to pass on any message to their relatives.
The local police have so far registered only one case at the Nishatabad police station about the main raid of Faisal Town in which, as claimed by police, one unidentified person was killed while the others fled from the scene during the shootout. No formal case has so far been registered by special teams about the other raids nor entry of any arrest made in police record.
Dawn inquiries revealed that except for the main raid at Faisal Town, all the other operations were carried out by FBI and special teams to arrest local persons claimed to be activists of the banned militant groups having links with Al-Qaeda and Taliban, directly or indirectly.
A local leader of the Lashkar-i-Taiba, commenting on the FBI operation, told this correspondent that the present government and US agencies were trying hard to destroy the entire network of Jihadis especially all those who had fought against the Soviet Union at the instigation of the then governments of the US and Pakistan. The “innocent” people whose houses were raided during Thursday’s operation were not real targets of the FBI personnel. But it was just a signal for Jihadis that they could pick anyone from any corner, at any cost.
He said the central command of the Jihadi organizations had already gone underground. Jihad is one of the principles of Islam and no-one has the right to play with Islamic values. The present rulers would have to pay the price of disgracing the “real” Muslims and followers of Jihadi leaders in future, he apprehended.
The crackdown launched against alleged Al-Qaeda leaders last Thursday also disturbed the higher authorities of Pakistan, the police, secret agencies and the American FBI and forced them to dwell on the likely causes behind the selection of Faisalabad by alleged activists of Al-Qaeda. A lurking suspicion is that the way the FBI is expanding its sphere of activity against terrorists it has some other undisclosed intentions.
SEHBA Lucknawi’s death will be mourned throughout the Urdu-speaking world’s literary circles for his remaining steadfast to his ideology. He was capable of making small compromises but couldn’t leave the fort he was holding.
There are very few people who knew him by his name — Syed Sharafat Ali — nephew of Syed Nawab Ali, a well-known religious scholar and an important functionary of the Junagadh State, he was a cousin of Syed Hashim Raza and Syed Aley Raza. He never cashed on in his close relationship with the influential and resourceful wing of his family and worked very hard to eke out his living through monthly Afkar, which he began bringing out from Bhopal, India, 57 years ago. Everyone interested in Urdu literature knows that, save for a few months’ transitional period after migration to Karachi, Afkar has been known throughout its Pakistani career a monthly journal which has been coming out a day or two before the beginning of the month of its issue.
Having known Sehba sahib very closely for more than four decades and worked with him on many Numbers and Editions, Afkar is known for, I can vouchsafe that Sehba sahib could be anything but a hypocrite. He never cried halt to his anti-Right views in literature, but a time came when he brought out Numbers on one writer — for example, Hafeez Jallundhari — only because the Pakistan Writers Guild had sponsored it and he couldn’t excuse himself from doing that.
He justified his decision by saying that Hafeez was an important poet whom no one could ignore for the lyricism he introduced in his Nazm and Geet poetry. All the important compilers of anthologies of Urdu verse have found themselves compelled to include his poems. Even some progressive writers have openly admitted that Hafeez is a name to reckon with in Urdu’s lyrical tradition. All those who were seen helping him such as Shafi Aqil, Sahar Ansari, Anjum Aazmi and Masud Ahmad Barkati knew that Sehba Sahib was bringing out Hafeez Number to ward off a financial crunch. How it was possible that someone who brought out Manto Number, Josh Number, Mustafa Zaidi Edition, Faiz Number, Nadeem Number, Bertania Mein Urdu Number and many other memorable Numbers could put aside his ideological reservations about Hafeez aside, but he did it.
A very important point which would keep him alive is his idea of converting a personal venture, Afkar, into a Trust by virtue of which he became Afkar’s employee — a rare feat which no other editor has so far done. A board of trustees is supposed to look after monthly Afkar’s affairs, and it is going to be very difficult for his family to keep Afkar alive. The Academy of Letters has a job on its hands. It could declare a respectable monthly grant for Afkar, including a pension for Sehba sahib’s widow in recognition of his services to Urdu literature.
The Academy has every opportunity to keep alive Sehba sahib’s life-long mission alive. I believe that the Academy could easily redeem its credentials and prevent itself from being just another government department which is spending 90 per cent of its allocations on staff salaries. Academies all over the world have been known for doing much more than what the Academy of Letters is doing in Islamabad.
One may be having many differences of opinion with Sehba sahib and Afkar, but it is no more possible to find an editor who may have acted as peon, clerk, manager, advertisement collector and editor, all in one. I forgot to add the function of a driver to this list. I wish all drivers could drive like him. His old car — almost a museum piece — did not get a scratch, let alone a dent, or meet with an accident during its service with him for the simple reason that Sehba sahib forgot everything when he was at the steering.
I believe that in addition to our appeal to the Academy of Letters all the Departments of Culture of the four provinces have a great job on their hands as well. It can do them proud. They could buy each one of them - one page space to brief the readers of this premier monthly of Pakistan about what they are doing for the promotion of the literary and cultural bodies under them.
Sehba sahib brought out more than 650 issues of Afkar. Multiplied by 120 pages, on average, his contribution in terms of printed pages comes to 78,000 pages. What a massive bulk and every page of it having the stamp of a big or great writer. One of the reasons as to how he managed to do this great job is that he didn’t believe in doling out the copies of his magazine free — except to the contributors and advertisement companies. He got the reputation of being a difficult editor. Quite stingy! He would accept Dr Wazir Agha’s cheque for annual subscription of Afkar and, at the same time, lodge a complaint with him that he was not sending him Auraq. One could laugh over the anomaly, but this is how a magazine could keep floating.
His love for Krishen Chandar, Bedi, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Farigh Bokhari, Zahur Nazar, Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi, Mohammed Khalid Akhtar and all other stalwarts of the Progressive Movement knew no bounds. I remember the day when Hakim Said accepted to be the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Afkar Foundation and we all went to the Hamdard Foundation office to attend a meeting of the Trustees. Sehba Sahib paid a well-meaning compliment to Hakim sahib that he regarded him to a great sympathizer of the Progressive Movement. His reply was: “Yes, I have been a worker myself and a schoolteacher.” Sehba Sahib remarked: “Hakim Sahib, I have also been a schoolteacher in Bhopal and a working journalist.”
Now I look around me and find that the last great editor of literary journalism has died. Nikhat Barelvi had brought out a book on him, and he would argue for hours on end why he deserved a book about him.
His main argument was: “Why do I deserve a book on me on the occasion of Afkar’s golden jubilee?” Now that he is no more I would like to tell him that he deserved a lot more than he got.
He was a self-effacing person who never worked for being in the limelight. Rather he would draw a veil to hide his face. The metaphoric statement of mine became deadly right: I saw him covered by the shroud on 31st March. I didn’t try to lift the veil. He was resting after a lifetime’s work and a kind of work that was an end in itself.
The main contribution of Sehba sahib is that he strengthened the tradition of bringing out special Editions and Numbers on living authors. He has numerous Numbers to his credit. He couldn’t devote time to his poetry. Mah Parey is the only collection of his poetry which appeared before the partition. Among his important books are Iqbal Aur Bhopal, and Manto - Ek Kitab.
But the world has moved on and Pakistan is busy with its own cricket programme as India is and that the two are not playing against one another is becoming irrelevant. It is not the first time that cricket relations between the two countries have been suspended. Pakistan toured India in 1960-61 and the two countries did not play against each other for the next 17 years when the ice was finally broken and India toured Pakistan with Bishen Bedi as captain.
Cricket matches between the two countries have no bearing on the political relations between them. I rather suspect that having taken the decision in a fit of chauvinistic righteousness and climbed a high horse, the Indian government is finding it difficult to dismount. The loss is of the two cricket boards who are losing revenue and of the cricket publics of the two countries. But the higher game of politics, this, I suppose is a small price to pay.
On the awesome showing against South Africa, Australia has served notice that it is not to be dallied with in the World Cup 2003. The planning is perfect which has included the tough decision to drop the Waugh brothers and appoint Ricky Ponting as the captain. The principle Australia has followed is that a captain should be a good enough player to earn his own keep.
But having said that, I don’t think that South Africa is the toughest of opponents. It is a team living on its reputation, much like the West Indies did, until it dawned on the cricket public that the mighty had indeed fallen. There seems to be nothing too much wrong with South Africa’s batting and it can leave out Gary Kirsten and still make 327. It is the bowling that has fallen apart.
Not only has Allan Donald retired but Shaun Pollock is about half the bowler he used to be. Whether he is nursing an injury I cannot say but the fizz is not there. Pollock used to do two jobs. He took wickets and he did a containment job. Now he is doing neither. The result is that South Africa was not able to defend 327 and Australia got the runs with an over to spare and a few wickets in the bank.
But the three teams competing in Sharjah, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand are all capable of dethroning the world champions.
New Zealand has been playing without three of their bowlers, Chris Cairns, Shane Bond and Dion Nash. Yet it beat England in the third Test at Auckland and squared the series and that too with a half-fit Daniel Vettori.
When New Zealand was in Australia, I had picked it as the dark horse for the World Cup 2003. New Zealand has much in common with Australia. It plays as a team and the players are supportive of one another.
One imagines that the dressing-room is a happy place. And yet, even Chris Cairns would find it hard to get a place in the Australian team. New Zealand must be doing something right to achieve the results it is getting.
In many respects New Zealand reminds of the Pakistan team that A. H. Kardar led in the fifties. Only Fazal Mahmood and Hanif Mohammad could have been considered as players of authentic Test class. Yet that team took on all comers. The secret of that team was that the players enjoyed their cricket, both on and off the field. Perhaps cricket was different game then. It was not so intense.
On the 1954 tour of England, Pakistan was playing against a country team on a bitterly cold day. Zulfiqar Ahmed was fielding at first slip, Doug Insole was batting and he edged the first two balls he received to Zulfiqar and it must have stung. Wringing his hands, Zulfiqar walked up to Insole and told him that there was ten other fielders, why was he picking on him? Insole cracked up with laughter as did Zulfi’s team mates. Even the stern Kardar managed a smile. Winning is that much easier when a team is playing together, like Tolstoy’s happy family.
Sri Lankan morale must be sky high after making short work of Pakistan in the Asian Test Championship. Sri Lanka has always been a splendid one-day team but so good has their planning been, Sri Lanka is now a pretty good Test team as well. Sanath Jayasuriya had taken over from Arjuna Ranatunga and it was a tough act to follow.
But a new captain is that much more acceptable if he is leading from the front. There is no doubt that Jayasuriya is a captain who is respected by his players and he is able to get the best out of them. Though Sharjah is Pakistan’s happy hunting ground, Sri Lanka must be favourites at Sharjah.
Pakistan were without Wasim Akram and Saqlain Mushtaq in the Asian Test Championship final. I think the Pakistan team management have seen the error of their ways and they are both back in the Pakistan squad. So too is Imran Nazir who must consider himself lucky to be picked ahead of Taufiq Umer. This is a chance that Imran must grab with both hands. Pakistan is doing a right thing in making changes in the team for Pakistan is still searching for the right combination. The job will be made easier when Saeed Anwar returns to the team.
But the nucleus of the World Cup squad is there and if Pakistan can get a fitness trainer quickly, the fielding will improve by leaps and bounds. Of the three teams at Sharjah, Pakistan is the weakest fielding side. This can be ‘repaired’ soon enough. Otherwise Pakistan is in good shape and must be in serious contention to go places in the World Cup 2003. After all, it did reach the final in 1999.