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I'm touched deeply. |
Having said that, can we now get on with the unfinished business of tracking him down and executing him?
Posted on 05/29/2004 2:35:00 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
PIR MAHAL, Pakistan (AP) - Long before Pakistan launched a new manhunt for him this week as a major al-Qaida-linked terrorist, Amjad Hussain Farooqi grew up "shy and cowardly" and was bullied by other boys, relatives said.
But Farooqi changed after training with Islamic militants in Kashmir and Afghanistan, and is currently the chief fugitive suspect in the slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and two recent attempts to assassinate Pakistan's president.
Farooqi, 32, has been missing since Pearl was abducted in the southern city of Karachi in January 2002. Pearl's captors beheaded him and released a videotape of the killing.
On Friday, senior security officials identified Farooqi as the organizer of two attempts to assassinate President Gen. Pervez Musharraf last December by blowing up his motorcade. Musharraf escaped injury both times.
In his small home village near the town of Kamalia, Farooqi's family is at a loss to explain how a boy they remember as "shy and cowardly" and being bullied as a teenager could have "taken these big steps" and killed Pearl.
"Even when he was 15 or 17, he used to come home with tears in his eyes that street boys had beaten him," recalled his mother, Mai Babay, 50, on Saturday. "I do not know whether my son did it (killed Pearl), but whoever did has committed a sin."
Four men have been convicted of in Pearl's kidnapping and murder, but it remains unclear exactly who killed him. In some accounts, Farooqi recruited three Yemenis for the task and supervised it. In others, he carried out the butchery himself.
The family sent Farooqi to college with the hope he could join the military and become an officer, a goal of many families in a country often ruled by soldiers.
"But one day he disappeared from there and remained missing for months," said his brother, Mohammed Javed Iqbal, 35. "When he came back after eight months, he was totally changed."
Farooqi said he had been in Kashmir, where Pakistan clandestinely backed militant separatist groups fighting Indian control over the divided territory. Some groups were deeply influenced by Islamic extremism and saw the Kashmir war as part of a global jihad, or holy war.
Farooqi told his brother that "he received training for jihad ... after coming from Kashmir, he started talking about waging jihad against infidels. He asked other family members to join his jihad group, but we refused."
His mother said he had been "misguided."
In the late 1990s, Farooqi went to Afghanistan - where the Taliban regime was in power and providing a base for al-Qaida - and became some kind of commander, his brother said.
In 1999, the family arranged a marriage "hoping it would change his life, but one day he took half of his wife's jewelry, saying he would contribute it for jihad," said his brother.
The last time they saw Farooqi was sometime in January 2002. He cleared out all his photos, books and other belongings.
Police later raided the family's home and arrested all male members of the family. They were locked up, tortured and told that Farooqi had killed Pearl, his brother said. The aim was to pressure Farooqi into surrendering, but he never returned, he said.
Police returned to the house a few months ago, but never said they were looking for Farooqi in the Musharraf plot, Iqbal said. He denied claims by a local resident who told The Associated Press that Farooqi had been seen in the area once in the past year.
Farooqi is believed to have been an associate of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, reputedly the al-Qaida No. 3 and a key planner of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. He was arrested last year.
Farooqi is suspected of taking part in the hijacking of an Indian airliner to Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 1999 that resulted in a hostages-for-prisoners exchange that freed a British-born militant, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, from an Indian prison. Sheikh has been sentenced to death for his role in setting up the Pearl abduction.
Shy boy? So was Norman Bates.
I'm impressed. They are farther Americanized than I thought.
He's just a wayward kid from a disadvantaged situation.
Shy...who cares, boil him in oil.
Given that this guy responded so positively to AlQaeda training which brought out his psycho-sociopathic personality, I think it's safe to say this one can be charged up to dear old mumsy!
Err, she's the one saying he was such a good boy ~ and you'd better believe it too!
Has anyone else noticed that AlQaeda relies primarily on emotional cripples.
Ted Bundy was a wonderful son. Timothy McVeigh really loved his fellow Americans. Saddam Hussein was good husband and father. Usama bin Laden is a good "Muslim".
Well, we already knew they were cowards. They like to blow up women and children and cut the heads off people whose hands are tied.
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I'm touched deeply. |
Having said that, can we now get on with the unfinished business of tracking him down and executing him?
Since most terrorists pick soft targets, I posit that all of them are cowards.
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