>17. An interesting aspect of the raid of September 11,2002, has not received the attention it deserves. The so-called encounter lasted nearly four hours before the terrorists could be arrested. The authorities of the ISI have claimed that this was because the terrorists were heavily armed. Sindh Police sources have, however, denied this. According to them, the security forces led by an ISI officer fired about 5,000 rounds as against about 100 fired by the terrorists.
18. The Police authorities allege that the ISI officer, who led the raiding group,deliberately kept up heavy firing without any need for it in the hope that this would either kill Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammad or enable them to escape. While Khalid Sheikh Mohammed seems to have escaped, Binalshib was caught alive. >
SMOKING AL QAEDA OUT OF KARACHI
by B. Raman
Though US officials may not admit it openly lest they embarrass Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military dictator, an analysis of reports emanating from Pakistani sources clearly indicates that the focus of the US-led war against pan-Islamic terrorism spearheaded by Al Qaeda has shifted to Karachi in Sindh from the tribal areas of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan.
2. When the dregs of Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the various components of the bin Laden-led International Islamic Front shifted from Afghanistan to Pakistan, they had initially taken shelter in the FATA. During the last four to six months, they have spread themselves out to Karachi, Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) and the Northern Areas ( NA--Gilgit and Baltistan).
3. There are presently three concentrations of the International Islamic Front inside Pakistan-- the Uzbeck and the Chechen dregs have taken shelter in the NWFP and the FATA; the Arabs of Al Qaeda, and some Pashtuns of the Taliban have taken refuge in Karachi; and the Pakistanis of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ), the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM), the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) and the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) have taken shelter in Karachi, the POK and the NA. While the LET is mostly based in the POK and the NA, the other four Pakistani components of the International Islamic Front have split themselves into a number of small groups and are operating from sanctuaries in Karachi as well as the POK and the NA.
4. Till August,2002, the main focus of the US operations were in South-Eastern Afghanistan and the adjoining tribal areas of FATA. On the Afghan side, the operations were carried out largely by US forces with the help of the resurrected Afghan warlords and heroin barons. On the Pakistani side, the operations were carried out by the Pakistani security forces, with the US intelligence agencies providing the technical intelligence (TECHINT) support.
5. The results achieved were not commensurate with the efforts put in. Amongst the reasons were poor intelligence, even misleading intelligence from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Afghan warlords and the leakage of the operational plans of the US troops to the terrorists before their hide-outs were raided.
6. During this period, practically all the dregs of Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the five Pakistani components of the International Islamic Front managed to get out of the tribal belt and flee in small groups to Karachi, the POK and the NA. Some led by Abu Zubaida even managed to take shelter at Faislabad in Punjab, but they were smoked out and arrested in the last week of March,2002.
7. Investigations into all the terrorist incidents directed against US and other Western nationals and interests since the beginning of this year in Pakistani territory by the Sindh Police brought out that all these attacks were carried out by the Pakistani dregs of the International Islamic Front and that the conspiracies were hatched and the planning was done in Karachi, even though in some cases the attacks were carried out in places other than Karachi.
8. Since August, 2002, the US has left the mopping-up of the Uzbeck and Chechen dregs in the FATA to be handled by the Pakistani security forces and shifted its attention to Karachi. For the present, no importance has been given to the Pakistani dregs in the POK and the NA. Since their terrorism is largely directed against Indian nationals and interests in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), the US does not feel unduly concerned over their activities and does not feel the need to divert its resources to those areas adjoining the Indian territory.
9. The Pakistani security forces have not so far made any important catch in the FATA. They have been following the same methods which the British used to follow before 1947 under the British-promulgated Frontier Crime Regulations (FCRs), which are still in force---collective punishments, demolition of the houses and seizure of the property of unco-operative villagers etc. This has given rise to seething anger not only against the Pakistani troops, but also against the USA, but the Pakistani army has thus far been able to prevent the anger from bursting out into violent incidents.
10.Till last month, the Pakistani authorities, including Musharraf, were vehemently denying reports that the Arab dregs of Al Qaeda, including Osama bin Laden himself (if still alive), had taken shelter in Karachi. In support of their denials, they were pointing out that all those arrested in connection with the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl and the subsequent incidents were Pakistanis and that there were no Arabs.
11. Even though the members of the LJ detained by the Sindh Police spoke about the involvement of Yemeni-Balochis in the murder of Pearl, no attempt was made to trace them. The encounter at Karachi on September 11,2002, which led to the death of two terrorists (Mohammad Khalid and Saleh Ibrahim) ---reported to be Yemenis--- and the capture of one Saudi, one Egyptian and eight Yemenis clearly establishes that the hardcore of Al Qaeda has been living in Karachi and operating from there and not from the NWFP or the FATA.
12. One of those killed is suspected to be an Yemeni-Balochi who had slit the throat of Pearl. Amongst the Yemenis arrested is Ramzi Binalshibh who was being hunted by the investigative and intelligence agencies of Germany and the US since 9/11.His arrest could prove to be as significant, if not more, as that of Abu Zubaidah for the following reasons:
* He was a member of the so-called Hamburg cell, which played a leading role in the planning and execution of 9/11.
* He was to have been the 20th hijacker, but could not enter the US due to refusal of visa.
* He had participated in a preparatory meeting in Afghanistan (November 1999) and in two meetings in Malaysia ( January 2000 and the second in 2001).
* He had played a role in the transmission of funds to the terrorists undergoing flying training in the USA.
* Since the US air strike started in Afghanistan on 10/7, he and Khalid Sheikh Mohammad had been moving together and living together in Karachi. A staffer of Al Jazeera (Yosri Fouda) TV had interviewed both of them in a secret location in Karachi during which they had boasted about Al Qaeda's role on 9/11.
13. Western counter-terrorism experts believe that Khalid Sheikh Mohammad was probably the brain behind 9/11. In 1995, he and Ramzi Yousef had together plotted from their hide-outs in the Philippines a series of terrorist strikes against the US, which did not materialise. Both fled to Pakistan after the Filippino authorities got scent of their plans. Ramzi was arrested by the Pakistani authorities under Benazir Bhutto and handed over to the US for trial in the New York World Trade Centre explosion case,but Khalid Sheikh Mohammad managed to evade arrest and emerged as one of the principal aides of Osama bin Laden, when the latter returned to Afghanistan in 1996.
14. Western media had in recent weeks quoted a senior U.S. intelligence official as saying that if he had to decide between catching Osama bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, he might prefer the latter."Bin Laden is unquestionably the leader, the symbol and the recruiting poster," the official said. "But it's looking more and more like Khalid actually makes things happen." They also quoted French terrorism expert and U.N. Security Council consultant Roland Jacquard as saying:: "He is probably the only man who knows all the pieces of the puzzle."
15. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed also uses the aliases Abdul Majid, Salim Ali, Ashrai Refaat, Nabith Renin, Khalid Abdul Waddod and Fahd Bin Abdullah Bin Khalid. The police authorities of the Philippines had described him as a Kuwaiti-born and U.S.-educated Pakistani. If he is definitively established to be a Pakistani, this would show that 9/11 was masterminded by a Pakistani assisting bin Laden.It may be recalled that Sheikh Omar, who has already been convicted in the Pearl murder case and has appealed against it, was reported to have told the Karachi police that during a visit to Afghanistan before 9/11 he had come to know of the plans for the terrorist strikes in the US and had immediately informed Lt.Gen.Ehsanul Haq, the present DG of the ISI, who was at that time Corps Commander, Peshawar.
16. A number of interesting/intriguing questions about Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheikh Mohammad remain unanswered. Are they related to each other as some reports claim? Are they Pakistanis (Yemeni-Balochis) as Filippino and Westertn agencies seem to believe, Kuwaitis ( this is denied by the Kuwaiti authorities) or Iraqis (in the past, the Pakistani media had been consistently referring to Ramzi Yousef either as a person of Middle Eastern background or as an Iraqi).
17. An interesting aspect of the raid of September 11,2002, has not received the attention it deserves. The so-called encounter lasted nearly four hours before the terrorists could be arrested. The authorities of the ISI have claimed that this was because the terrorists were heavily armed. Sindh Police sources have, however, denied this. According to them, the security forces led by an ISI officer fired about 5,000 rounds as against about 100 fired by the terrorists.
18. The Police authorities allege that the ISI officer, who led the raiding group,deliberately kept up heavy firing without any need for it in the hope that this would either kill Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammad or enable them to escape. While Khalid Sheikh Mohammed seems to have escaped, Binalshib was caught alive.
19. The sanctuaries now enjoyed by the dregs of Al Qaeda and the Pakistani components of the International Islamic Front in Karachi would not have been possible without the complicity of the ISI and Karachi's underworld. Since 1994, Dawood Ibrahim, wanted in India in connection with the Mumbai blasts of March,1993, has emerged as the godfather of Karachi's underworld.
20. Even before March,1993, he had close contacts not only with the ISI, but also, through the ISI, with the HUM and the HUJI. At the instance of the ISI, Dawood Ibrahim's men, who carried out the Mumbai explosions, were got trained in the training camps of the HUM/HUJI near Peshawar, run with the ISI's assistance. Since settling down in Karachi in 1994, Dawood Ibrahim has been enjoying the protection of the ISI and Pakistan's Intelligence Bureau, with many retired intelligence officers now working in his security set-up. Unless the US and the UN also turn their attention to Dawood Ibrahim and his mafia, have their bank accounts frozen and get them arrested and deported to India to stand trial in connection with their involvement in the Mumbai blasts, the US plans to smoke out Al Qaeda and other terrorists from Karachi may not be totally successful. The Government of India also should take up this matter with the US.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-Mail: corde@vsnl.com ) |
