Abdullah Muntazir is an expert on militancy and regional security issues. In 1997 he started his journalistic career as a special correspondent for Daily Ausaf (Islamabad based Urdu newspaper) from Muzaffarabad the capital of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Muzaffarabad is in the limelight since 1990 as a base camp for freedom struggle in Indian occupied Kashmir. During this experience, Mr. Muntazir fully availed the unique opportunity to build a deep insight, well-grounded knowledge, and veracious views about Jihadi groups fighting against Indian rule. Due to his bold and critical reporting on domestic politics of Azad Kashmir he was quite well-known in political and social community there. He also worked for Daily Asas (Islamabad based Urdu newspaper) as a correspondent from Muzaffarabad for a short period of time.
Mr. Muntazir is founder editor of Weekly Ghazwah, an Urdu newspaper once run by the Islamic charity and proselytization/preaching organization Jamat-ud-Dawah. This newspaper was banned in December 2008 when Government of Pakistan outlawed Jamat-ud-Dawah, complying with United Nations Security Council’s Taliban and Al Qaeda Sanction Committee’s decision of proscribing the charity. The charity has challenged the ban in Security Council claiming that the allegations are baseless and it has filed an appeal for delisting
Mr. Muntazir had also served as Jamat-ud-Dawah’s spokesman for International media, from 2005 to January 2009. During this experience, he interacted with hundreds of journalists from across the globe. This exposure provided him an incomparable opportunity to learn and analyze perspectives of international community regarding Muslim armed groups and Islamic movements, hence greatly widening his vision on the various aspects of the subject.
Besides working as the editor of Weekly Ghazwah and spokesman for Jamat-ud-Dawah, Mr. Muntazir did not cease working with the independent media. He worked as in-charge discussion forum Daily Khabrain Lahore (2003), and sub-editor Daily Pakistan Lahore (2002) and Daily Khabrain Lahore (2003). During the past ten years, he contributed many articles on national, international, social and religious issues for different Urdu and English newspapers.
Now-a-days, Mr. Muntazir is working as a freelance writer for English newspapers and websites. He started this blog to share his honest opinion on different emerging issues, and let the world benefit from his expert views.
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