Jamaat al-Dawah ila al-Quran wal-Sunnah (Arabic: جماعة الدعوة الى القرآن والسنة, lit. 'Group for the proselytization (Dawah) to the Quran and the ways of the prophet (Sunnah)'), abbreviated as JDQS, also known as The Salafi Group,[4] was a militant Islamist organisation operating in eastern Afghanistan.
Background
Founded around 1986 during the Soviet–Afghan War by Jamil al-Rahman as a splinter from the larger Hezbi Islami faction, Jamaat al Dawa al Quran was a Salafi organisation that hosted many Arab volunteers and received funding from sympathetic Saudi and Kuwaiti businessmen.[5] The group was able to establish the Islamic Emirate of Kunar, an Islamist mini-state in Kunar Province in 1991, but it quickly dissolved after attacks by Hezbi Islami and al-Rahman's assassination in 1991, however JDQ continued to operate.[1]
Following the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan, one faction of JDQ registered as a political party and took part in the 2005 Afghan parliamentary elections. Alleged arbitrary arrests and cultural insensitivity by coalition forces, along with loss of influence in the local Kunar administration, led to JDQ members joining the local insurgency as the Salafi Taliban.[6]
By the later part of the decade, JDQ began taking part in the insurgency against NATO and Afghan security forces in Korangal Valley.[7][8] In 2010, the group pledged allegiance to Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid released a statement announcing that JDQ was now a part of the Taliban.[2] The group no longer exists as JDQ but merged completely into the Afghan Taliban.
JDQ was involved in the September 2010 kidnapping of British aid worker Linda Norgrove,[3][4] who was accidentally killed by US forces during a rescue attempt.[9]
Designation as a terrorist organization
Countries and organizations below have officially listed the group as a terrorist organization.
Three of the allegations Muslimdost faced during his Tribunal were:[11]
The detainee was a member of Jamaat ud Dawa il al Quran al Sunnat [sic] (JDQ).
Jamyat-u-Dawa-al-Quarani [sic] (JDQ) conducted training with several types of weapons in the Abdullah Abu Masood camp.
The JDQ is a militant religious school which trains students in military camps as well as classrooms. The JDQ has a militant wing and an assassination wing.
Muslimdost acknowledged being a member of the JDQ—fifteen years earlier, during the struggle to oust Afghanistan's Soviet invaders.
Muslimdost said the JDQ had a military wing, and practiced assassination.
Muslimdost said the JDQ had run training camps, and had tried to assassinate him.
The detainee is a member of Jamiat-e-Dawa-el-al-Qurani Wasouna [sic] (JDQ).
The detainee has met with HajiRohullah, leader of Jamiat-e-Dawa-el-al Qurani Wasouna [sic], and Loya Jirga, representative for the Konar region, on numerous occasions.