By Hamid Mir
Monday, august 21, 2006
Islamabad, Pakistan-Steve is a British journalist. He was with me in Lebanon for more than three weeks to cover the bloody war between Israel and Hezbollah. On august 10, when I returned from Southern Lebanon to Beirut and visited Steve in his aP office, he was looking depressed. Shortly afterwards, he broke the story of the UK terror plot to me and asked, "What have we done wrong with British Muslims, how could they plot to blow up ten planes over the atlantic?" I was stumped in no uncertain terms. I was clueless. I decided to return to Pakistan the next day. Having returned to Islamabad, I received interesting details. I learnt from different government sources that Pakistani intelligence agencies intercepted a telephone call made from Karachi to London a few weeks back. Someone was saying on the telephone that everything was ready for the London operation. Further surveillance detected the presence of Rashid Rauf in the Pakistani city of Bahawalpur. He was arrested. He is a British National of Kashmiri origin. His father migrated to UK from the Mir Pur district of Pakistani that controlled Kashmir. Rashid Rauf was interrogated by a high level intelligence team. He was broken in three days and provided a lot of useful information. His revelations were shared with the British intelligence, MI6. Lt.Gen.Ishfaq Kyani, head of Pakistan's superior Intelligence agency, visited London in the first week of this month and met MI6 officials. British intelligence arrested the younger brother of Rashid Rauf from Birmingham, and then more people were arrested from London and other parts of the UK.
Now, there is no doubt that al Qaeda is trying to use some British Muslims of Kashmiri origin for bombings inside European cities. al Qaeda, as a matter of fact, is successfully exploiting the Kashmir dispute for motivating young Muslims to participate in its war against the USa and the West. Now, Osama bin Laden is mentioning the name of India in his statements as the new ally of the USa, just for getting the attention of Kashmiri and Indian Muslims. It is also now known that many people arrested in Pakistan and the UK were trained in al Qaeda camps of North Wazirastan and afghanistan. Some of them slipped into Iraq via afghanistan and Iran and got on-job training in the suburbs of Baghdad. They are experts in the handling of "laptop bombs". Rashid Rauf also confessed that he was inspired by Shehzad Tanveer and Muhammad Sadeeq Khan.
Shehzad Tanveer is the new role model, not only for Rashid Rauf but for many British Muslims. He was a main player in the July 7, 2005 (7/7) suicide bombings on the London tube. In a video statement by Shehzad Tanveer provided to al Jazeera TV, he said in his Yorkshire accent, "until you pull your forces out of afghanistan and Iraq and until you stop financial and military support to america and Israel, Britian can expect more of the same".
Today Pakistani intelligence has saved the UK and the USa from a catastrophic scenario, but maybe tomorrow these angry youngsters will be able to deceive intelligence agencies. a big threat is still there. al Qaeda will try again to organize a bigger attack than 9/11 against the USa and its allies by using disgruntled boys like Shehzad and Rashid. For sure, the solution to this global menace is political, not the use of military might as the USa and Israel would have us believe. Use of military might, undoubtedly, will breed more militants. I have seen many doctors and even professors in Lebanon who joined Hezbollah to fight against Israel after their homes were bombed and their children were killed. They used to hate Hassan Nasrullah, head of Hezbollah, and Osama bin Laden before July 12th, now they love them.
We should also analyze the relationship between al Qaeda and Kashmiri militant groups. al Qaeda had a close relationship with Harkat ul ansar, which was banned first by the Nawaz Sharif regime many years before 9/11. after that ban. Harkat ul ansar was divided in two groups. Harkat- -ul- Mujahiddin and Harkat-ul-Jehad-i-Islami. Both were active in Kashmir as well as in afghanistan.
after the hijacking of an Indian plane in December 1999, a third group Jaish-e-Muhammad was born under Maulana Masood azhar, who was released from Indian prison. a British national, Sheikh ahmed Omer also joined JeM. who would subsequently involve himself in the murder of Daniel Pearl.
Many people from HuM and HuJI were also gathered around Masood. after 9/11 HuM, JeM and HuJI along with LeT were banned. This ban caused a split in rank and file of JeM also because Masood was soft on Musharraf while Maulana abdul Jabbar was a hardliner. all these Deobandi outfits were in disarray because there was no leadership to guide them, thus they came under the larger umbrella of al Qaeda.
They got refuge in tribal areas because Pakistani security agencies were after them in the cities. Some of them had old connections in Europe. These connections were utilized by al Qaeda. al Qaeda also used many disgruntled Pakistani Jihadis of Kashmiri origin against Musharraf, and that's how they organized an attempt on his life in December 2003 by two suicide bombers. One of the suicide bombers was from Kashmir.It is important, however, to note that for the last two years, al Qaeda has not been using old Kashmiri militants. In fact, it is using very young Kashmiri boys preferably from the UK, not from Pakistan,
al Qaeda produced some CDs especially for European Kashmiris and tried to propagate that Musharraf has sold the Kashmir to India under extreme pressure from Bush and Blair, they also exploited Pak army operation in Pakistani tribal areas. These CDs were smuggled into European cities and were distributed among the young Muslims. British boys like Rashid Rauf who was arrested recently from Bahawalpur, were in contact with Pakistani Jehadis as well as afghan and arab Jehadis. During my recent visits to North Wazirastan. I came to know that a lot of Pakistanis, including some British nationals of Kashmiri origin are going to Southern afghanistan for getting training in the camps of Mullah Dadullah. From Southern afghanistan, many of them go to Iraq via Iran for "on-job training". I got some al Qaeda CDs in Urdu about their actions in Iraq.These CDs were especially cut to attract Pakistanis and afghanis to go to Iraq.
Many in India would not like to believe that al Qaeda is also active in India, though, silently. Through their contacts in the Middle East, al Qaeda operators are trying to recruit Muslim boys from Gujarat and Mumbai. Most of these young Indian Muslims are under 20, I have met at least two such boys in South afghanistan recently. They came to afghanistan on a direct flight from Dubai. They were moving with some Uzbek al Qaeda fighters from Zabul to Nimroz for crossing over to Iran. Iraq was their final destination for on-the-job training.
al Qaeda is mainly targeting young and angry boys in North and South Wazirastan and especially, the Pakistanis of Kashmiri origin in the UK. These boys have actively participated in attacks against the Pakistan army in North Waziristan early this year and in attacks against US troops in East afghanistan. a few days back, al Qaeda circulated a new CD, not only in Pakistani tribal areas but also in some big cities about the Israeli atrocities in Lebanon. Needless to say, al Qaeda is trying its best to exploit brewing anger in Muslim masses against Israel.
Fortunately, there is a ceasefire in Lebanon, but if this ceasefire comes apart and peace is a casualty in the region, Osama bin Laden will again be a beneficiary. Death and destruction in Lebanon have pushed this country many decades back. Poverty and unemployment may become a big problem of Lebanon, and these two things are enough to produce more terrorism. The future of america's war against terrorism is very bleak after the war in Lebanon. Musharraf is still trying to help america in its so called war on terror, but Musharraf is getting cheers from Bush by annoying millions in Pakistan.
Hamid Mir, a Pakistani Journalist, known of his interviews with Osama bin Laden, is reporting for the Geo TV from Lebanon now.
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