Father of dead militant tried to save him from extremists

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan -- Four times in the last four years, Bashir Butt tracked down his son at training camps for Islamic extremists in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir and begged him to come home.

On Aug. 9, police arrived at the Butts' modest home here and told them their son Kamran, 21, was dead. He died while attacking Christians leaving a church in Taxila about 30 miles west of Islamabad. Three Christian nurses were killed and a fourth was mortally wounded.

Bashir Butt, however, remembers his son as a shy boy who never caused trouble in the neighborhood and who "had a great respect for his fellow human beings."

"We never thought that one day he would become a terrorist," Bashir Butt said. "These cruel jihadis made him a terrorist."

Kamran Butt was one of thousands of young Pakistani men who have been drawn in recent years into the network of Islamic extremists, known here as "jihadis," who recruited them to fight the Indian army in Kashmir and in Afghan-istan before the collapse of the Taliban last year.

To Kamran's family, however, his death seems pointless. It has left his family deeply bitter over the extremist groups and what they had done to him.

"I hate these jihadi organizations," said Bashir Butt, a 48-year-old widower with two other sons and a daughter. "They are the killers of my son."

Vanished four years ago

Bashir Butt said his son got caught up in the jihadi movement after joining Jamaat-e-Islami, a major Islamic political party. Although details are unclear, it appeared that Kamran Butt was recruited by Jaish-e-Mohammed, a militant group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.

Jaish-e-Mohammed, or Army of Mohammed, has since been banned by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

Four years ago, Kamran disappeared for the first time, leaving a message for his family that he had gone "to participate in jihad," or holy way, in Kashmir, the father said.

Bashir Butt set off for Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, finally locating his son at a Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp there. Militant leaders told the father to leave but assured him they would send his son home in three days, he said.

The militants kept their word, but the son disappeared again after a few months.

"The second time, I spotted him at a camp near Muzaffarabad," Bashir Butt said, referring to the capital of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. Again, the son returned after a few days. After a few months, he was gone again -- off to the jihad. The cycle was repeated until the beginning of this year, Bashir Butt said.

Police told the family that Kamran Butt was among four militants who hurled grenades at worshippers as they left a church at a Presbyterian hospital in Taxila after a morning prayer service.

Police said a fragment from one of the grenades pierced his heart, and he died instantly.

'I will butcher them'

According to the father, no representative of any of the country's Islamic militant groups has contacted the family to express condolences. That's just as well, Bashir Butt said.

"I will kill them, I will butcher them, I will make a horrible example of them if they came here for condolence," Butt said.