As various costs in life, limb and property are calculated in the Mumbai Massacre, The Hindu has an article on the life and times of the lone captured gunman Mohammad Ajmal Amir Iman (aka Qasab / Kasab).
A journey into the Lashkar - Iman’s story shows it preys on the most vulnerable poor
According to Iman, Lashkar military commander Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi promised that his family would be rewarded with Rs. 1.5 lakh for his sacrifice.
More Below the fold.
Iman is the gunman who along with his partner Ismail gunned down 55 commuters in the train station. They also killed the top cops before taking their car and shooting wildly before they were stopped. Ismail was killed in the final shootout - but Iman was injured and captured.
The man in the photo was born on July 13, 1987 at Faridkot village in Dipalpur tehsil of Okara district in Pakistan’s Punjab province. His family belongs to the underprivileged Qasai caste. His father, Mohammad Amir Iman, runs a dahi-puri snack cart. His mother, Noori Tai, is a homemaker.
Interestingly, Iman didn't attend any Madrassa we have all heard about. But poverty was the reason he dropped out of school.
Iman’s desperately poor family could not afford to keep their second son, an indifferent student, at the Government Primary School in Faridkot past the fourth grade. He was pulled out of school in 2000, at the age of 13, and went to live with his older brother in Lahore.
Iman drifted until he met people who were distributing Lashkar's propaganda material.
In the market, they saw activists for the Jamaat-ud-Dawa — the parent political organisation of the Lashkar-e-Taiba — handing out pamphlets and posters about the organisation and its activities. After a discussion lasting a few minutes, Iman claims, both men decided to join — not because of their Islamist convictions but in the hope that the jihad training they would receive would further their future life in crime.
It is important to note here that they were distributing this material openly. This is the kind of safe heaven that Pakistan provides these organizations that helps them thrive.
From then on - Iman was a changed man. He was completely brain-washed using material that showed India's purported atrocities in Kashmir. He was convinced that the greater glory of Islam, as the organisation presented it — was worth giving his life to.
Iman was first given the basic training that LeT calls Daura Aam. Then he was given advanced training that is called Daura Khaas. And finally he was selected for the specialised marine commando and navigation training that was given to the terrorists to target Mumbai. Yes, you have to be a "good" terrorist in order to be "selected" to kill people.
So, Iman never followed the typical terrorist path one imagines to be - indoctrinated from childhood in Saudi funded Madrassas. He was a school drop out who ran away from home after a fight with his parents. The only place that gave him some identity and feeling of belonging was the LeT - and he was ready to give his life for what was presented as "glory of Islam" - and Rs 1.5 lach (i.e. Rs 150,000 = $2,500).
As long as we have people without hope - and safe havens where terrorist groups can recruit, indoctrinate and train without any fear of paying for their crime - we will continue to have terrorism in south Asia.
Update : In response to "I don't see much that we westerners can do to prevent individuals from becoming jihadis."
Hmmm ... my earlier update vanished. Anyway, here we go again ...
The important thing is recognizing that without safe havens, poor people can't be recruited, motivated / brainwashed and trained. Without the safe havens and the financiers, the poor and disenfranchised just turn their attention elsewhere - may be to petty crimes - not terrorism.
The fact that in Afghanistan and Pakistan the merchants of terror have been given a free hand is the critical link - that can be broken to stop terrorism.