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Mystery blaze erases Pak army's jehadi connection

Mystery blaze erases Pak army's jehadi connection

Author: Manoj Joshi
Publication: The Times of India
Date: January 17, 2002

A little over three months after an as-yet-unexplained fire gutted a portion of the Pakistan army headquarters in Rawalpindi, housing records relating to the army's involvement with the Taliban, a major blaze razed Islamabad's 16-storey Shaheed-e-Millat secretariat late on Tuesday.

The secretariat housed a number of government departments, including the interior ministry. Several confidential records of religious and jehadi organisations were reportedly kept in the 16th floor of the building.

As with the first incident, the timing of Tuesday's fire too is significant. While the army headquarters blaze came just about a day after Gen Pervez Musharraf threw in his lot with the U.S., the interior ministry incident has come less than a week after Gen Musharraf banned several sectarian organisations and declared his intention to fight the jehadis. Incidentally, Gen Musharraf has repeatedly refused to acknowledge the role of the Pakistani authorities in creating and sustaining terrorist organisations.

After the Rawalpindi fire, the Pakistan government had issued a succinct statement, saying a short-circuit in a paper and stationery store in the premises of the headquarters had resulted in the fire breaking out at about 4 a.m. However, Indian intelligence officials pointed out that the fire, which raged for five hours, had in fact been located at the administration and training directorates, containing files relating to its involvement in Afghanistan.

Suggesting that the interior ministry office might have contained vital files providing information about the relationship between Pakistan government agencies and many of the banned organisations, an intelligence official said, "Many of the religious and fundamentalist groups were initially set up by the army to keep the civilian governments of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif off balance. In the current context, such records can prove embarrassing. With the two fires, most of the significant records of this dark chapter of Pakistani history may have been eliminated."

Tuesday's fire reportedly broke out at about 6.10 P.m. (PST), more than three hours after the offices closed for the day. Although the cause was not immediately known, the police suspect that it might have been started by an electrical fault. The Shaheed-e-Millat secretariat, situated about a kilometre from President House, housed the offices of the interior, local government, education, food and agriculture, science and technology and water and power division ministries. The fire reportedly has turned into ashes the records of most of the ministries and departments.

According to reports from Islamabad, the blaze began in the higher floors, but quickly spread to the lower ones. Although most Pakistani papers reported that the exact cause of the fire could not be ascertained as nobody had been able to reach the top, they quoted police officials as saying that there might have been a short-circuit or someone might have left a gas heater on.

The police has ordered an investigation to ascertain the cause of the fire as sabotage has not been ruled out. Interior minister Moinuddin Haider has been supervising the fire-fighting efforts.

The blaze was so intense that at one stage fire department officials had sought the assistance of army helicopters as the lone snorkel of the fire engine could not reach the 16th floor of the building. By the time, the blaze was brought under control by the 100-odd firemen, some of them brought from nearby Rawalpindi, it had destroyed 13 floors.
 


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