Another AQ biggie caught in Pakistan:
news.lycos.com
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani authorities said they had arrested a leading al Qaeda member, Moroccan national Yasir al-Jaziri, in the eastern city of Lahore on Saturday.
An intelligence source said the capture was made thanks to information received from another senior al Qaeda figure, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was arrested in the northern city of Rawalpindi two weeks ago and is now in U.S. custody.
Mohammed is often portrayed as number three in al Qaeda, behind Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman Al Zawahiri, and is suspected of being a leading figure behind the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
"He (al-Jaziri) is less important than Khalid Sheikh Mohammed but he is quite an important person," Secretary of the Interior Ministry Tasneem Noorani told Reuters.
Noorani said al-Jaziri had been picked up in the smart Gulberg suburb of Lahore on Saturday evening.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said al-Jaziri was perhaps one level down from Mohammed in the organization.
"This is the biggest catch since Khalid Sheikh Mohammed," the intelligence source said, adding a second man, an Afghan called Gulzeb, alias Jaffar, had also been captured.
The intelligence source said a third man, a Pakistani who fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan, was also arrested in a second raid in the Gulberg area later on Saturday night.
COMPUTER WHIZZ
Al-Jaziri is thought to be involved in al Qaeda's business operations, and the intelligence source described him as a U.S.-educated "computer whiz."
Intelligence sources said local experts were still trying to crack the security codes on two laptops and some CDs which were found at the one-room apartment.
Another source said travelers checks and maps of "various installations" around the country had also been seized.
There have been a series of bomb attacks, mainly on Western and Christian targets in Pakistan since September 11, 2001, and al Qaeda has been linked to several of those attacks.
In December, Pakistani authorities arrested a prominent doctor in Lahore, Ahmed Javed Khawaja, and accused him of having links with senior al Qaeda figures including al-Jaziri.
Intelligence sources told Reuters the arrest had been made by four Pakistani security personnel accompanied by two FBI agents.
"We were chasing him for some three months and this raid was conducted along with American FBI," one source said.
The FBI is helping Pakistan track down al Qaeda members who may be hiding in the country, but Pakistani authorities deny FBI agents actually take part in raids.
The Senior Superintendent of Police in Lahore said his men had not taken part in the operation.
"I didn't even know an arrest had been made, and I still don't know who has been arrested or why," Aftab Cheema told Reuters |
