This article has been posted to DoctorZin’s New News Blog!
Posted on 08/07/2004 3:38:33 PM PDT by Valin
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A senior al Qaeda operative who knew Osama bin Laden and was linked to assassination attempts on Pakistan's president has been arrested in Dubai and handed over to Islamabad, Pakistani intelligence sources said Saturday. Qari Saifullah Akhtar, a leader of the radical Islamic group Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami, was arrested by authorities in Dubai Friday after Pakistan had requested his detention, and handed over to Islamabad Saturday.
The capture was the latest breakthrough in a broadening offensive against terrorist groups in Pakistan that has netted over 20 suspects in recent weeks including computer engineer Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan and top al Qaeda figure Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani.
One intelligence source said Khan e-mailed al Qaeda comrades while in custody as part of a sting by security agencies, but his name appeared in U.S. newspapers, which may have compromised the operation, according to experts.
Ghailani had a multi-million-dollar bounty on his head for his alleged role in the 1998 East African U.S. embassy bombings.
Information gleaned from Khan led to the arrest of 12 al Qaeda suspects in Britain earlier this week and the decision by the United States to put New York and Washington on high alert against possible al Qaeda attacks.
British newspapers said that among the 12 arrested was senior al Qaeda figure Abu Musa al-Hindi or Abu Eisa al-Hindi, and that he was believed to be plotting an attack on Heathrow airport.
In a separate development, Pakistani sources said on Saturday that authorities had arrested Fazal-ur Rehman Khalil, head of the banned Harkat-ul-Mujahideen group linked to an insurgency against Indian rule in Kashmir, the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda.
His arrest will be seen as a warning to other leaders of banned radical Islamic outfits that have re-emerged under new names. Some are sectarian, but several have links to al Qaeda.
AKHTAR KNEW OSAMA, OMAR
Pakistan's intelligence services used information gleaned from a spate of high-profile arrests of al Qaeda members in recent weeks, including those of Khan and Ghailani, to track down Akhtar, described by a source as "an operational head of al Qaeda in Pakistan."
He was with al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar in Afghanistan at the time of the U.S.-led war against the hard-line Islamic militia late in 2001 and fled first to Saudi Arabia and then to United Arab Emirates.
Akhtar is also allegedly linked to two assassination attempts on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in December and a bid to kill Prime Minister-designate Shaukat Aziz in July. Radical Islamic groups are angered by Musharraf's decision to back the U.S.-led war on terror.
Pakistan has captured hundreds of al Qaeda suspects since the September 11, 2001 attacks, including the alleged mastermind of the hijacked airliner attacks on New York and Washington, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Many have been handed over to U.S. custody, and the government is considering doing the same with Khan and Ghailani.
Pakistan's crackdown on al Qaeda in recent weeks has raised international hopes of dealing the terror network a telling blow, but security experts warn that it is clearly still active in Pakistan and poses dangers across the globe.
© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.
Pervez Musharraf is a foreign leader for Bush.
He knows that he will be killed in the streets and his government overthrown by Al Q if Kerry is elected.
ping.
Pakistan is crackding down on al qaeda, because the west threatened them with a break up of their country, if they pulled any more lies, bluffs or excuses.
The islamists don't want the country broken either, as it would make them insignificant with the ethnic sentiment replacing islamic sentiment and people saying to hell with islam, i am a balochi, a sindi or a refugee from india etc.
The threat to break pakistan up has forced the pakistani govt that had been sheltering al qaeda for years to finally crackdown ont it, three years after 911 and 7 years after the embassy bombings.
it has also forced the islamists to co-operate to try and salvage their islamic base, which would be all gone if the ethnic sentiment is take over and divide the country..
the war on terror has to be brilliant military and intelligence moves, coupled with a very strong political message.
it has worked in pakistan, it will also work in iraq, saudi arabia and iran.
these islamists and crooks would fall like dominoes.
this is just the beginning of the end of al qaeda and islamic lies and manipulations.
where is OBL and Al-Zawahiri, that's what I want to know.
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