Pakistani link with International Terrorism

Post September 11, 2001 investigations by American authorities have once again revealed, how Pakistan and its proxies, had emerged as a center for terrorist training for diverse groups and the inter linkages between these groups facilitated by availability of Pakistani territory. The main revelations have come primarily from investigations into terrorist modules in South East Asia with direct or indirect links to Al Qaeda and with the participation of Pakistanis or the use of the territory of Pakistan.

Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia

2. In early January 2002, the authorities in Singapore preempted a terrorist strike against British and US business and diplomatic interests. The strike was foiled because of information provided by a Singaporean of Pakistani descent, Mohammed Aslam bin Yar Ali Khan, who had been arrested by the Northern Alliance forces. He gave details of plans to bomb US warships, airplanes, military personnel and US companies in Singapore. A videotape recovered by the coalition forces provided further details.

3. The Singapore authorities arrested 15 people reportedly belonging to a group called the Jemaah Islamia, led by Abdus Samad a pseudonym for an Indonesian cleric Abu Baker Bashir who had also lived earlier in Malaysia and had made laudatory references to Osama Bin Laden. According to the authorities the group had a presence in Malaysia and the Philippines also. One of the responsibilities of the group in Malaysia was to arrange for recruits from Singapore to reach Afghanistan for training. They were provided documentation by madrassas in Pakistan showing them as studens.

4. One of the persons arrested by the Singapore authorities was Haji Ibrahim bin Haji Maidin the leader and main recruiter in Singapore for Jemaah Islamiah. In 1993, he is said to have received military training in Afghanistan. Khalim bin Jaffar, a 39 year old printer, was one of the cell members chosen to train at anAl Qaeda camp, according to the Singapore authorities. The leader of Jemaah Islamiah’s first terrorist cell, which was named Fiah Ayub, he went to Afghanistan from September 1999 to April 2002.

5. The investigations also threw up the name of Riduan Isamuddin or Hambali, in Malaysia. An associate of Abu Baker Bashir he co-founded Jemaah Islamia with the Indonesian cleric. He had reportedly spent time in the Philippines with Ramzi Ahmed Yousef and Wali KhanAmin Shah both convicted of the World Trade Center Bomb Blasts. The Jane’s Intelligence Review had carried a detailed report on the Harkat ul Ansar identifying Ramzi Yousef, who was arrested in Pakistan, as being linked to the group. Hambali had also fought in the Afghan Jihad against the Soviet Union.

6. Jemaah Islamia was considered responsible for unsolved bombings in Jakarta and Manila. The Philippines authorities arrested Fathur Rahman al Ghozi, a former student of Abu Baker Bashir, and he admitted responsibility for bomings in the Philippines. Upon Al Ghozi’s graduation at 18 in 1989, he received a full scholarship to study at a religious school in Pakistan.

7. The Malaysian authorities arrested a retired army captain, Yazid Sufaat who had been serving in the Taliban’s medical brigade and had been responsible for procuring explosives for the bombers. He had also acted as a paymaster for the hijackers of September 11,2001 and had reportedly met two of the hijackers in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysian authorities also arrested members of the Kumpulan Mujahideen Malaysia(KMM) whose leader Nik Aziz reportedly trained in Pakistan and Afghanistan according to the Malaysian authorities. A number of activists of the KMM were arrested after the Singapore roundup.

8. In the Philippines both the Moro Islamic National Front and the Abu Sayyaf are known to be linked to Al Qaeda and to have links with groups in Pakistan. In November 2001, three members were picked up. Ahmed Abed Uthman Masrie a Palestinian from Lebanon had been roommate of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef. Mohammed Selamah a Palestinian on an Iraqi passport was a close associate of Osama Bin Laden’s brother in Law Mohammed Jamal Khalifa identified as a financier of the MILF and the Abu Sayyaf. The founder of the Abu Sayyaf, Janjalanihad trained in Afghanistan with Ramzi Ahmed Yousef as had Ahmed Salayudi. @ Abdu Subaya.

9. In spain the authorities indicted an Indonesian Parlindungan Siregar who belonged to the Lashkar-e-Jehad. The leader of the Lashkar-e-Jehad of Indonesia, Jaffar Umar Thalib, had according to his own admission met Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan during the Afghan war but he insisted that his group had not accepted assistance from Al Qaeda.

10. In the third week of January 2002, a Pakistani, Havis Mohammed Sada Iqbal was deported by Indonesia to Egypt. He had been wanted by Egyptian Intelligence for involvement in terrorist activities. He was also reportedly involved in the Richard Reid aborted shoe bombing case.

11. In Macedonia seven people were killed by the police in March 2002, for being members of a terrorist cell planning attacks against the US, German, British embassies. Two of them confirmed to be Pakistanis.

United Kingdom

12. Following the arrest of John Walker Lindh, theAmerican Taliban, the coalition forces have also captured around 20 Muslims from the UK who were fighting alongside the Taliban. On interrogation one of the men said that they first had selection tests in Pakistan, and then, shortly before September 11, they were moved to Khost camp inside Afghanistan. The man said that theywere singled out for specialist training because they could only speak English and were taught sabotage and bomb making techniques.

13. The British media reported that M15 had found evidence in Afghanistan of how upto 40 Britons were recently given terrorist training at Al Qaeda camps and possibly sent to carry out terrorist activities in the UK. Details of their names and passport numbers had been given to police so they can urgently trace the men. The British recruits were mainly of Pakistani origin.

Asif Iqbal, Shafiq Rasul, Feroz Abbasi, Ruhal Ahmed, and Munir Ali were among the Britons arrested by the coalition forces. Ruhal Ahmed, and Munir Ali had vanished after travelling to Pakistan soon after the September 11 attacks.

Source: Govenment of India