Missile kills Pakistan tribal head

ISLAMABAD (CNN) -- A tribal leader accused of harboring Al Qaeda militants in Pakistan's western border region was killed Thursday night in a targeted missile strike, according to Pakistan intelligence sources. The Associated Press quoted an army spokesman Friday as identifying the tribal leader as Nek Mohammed, a former Taliban fighter.

He was killed late Thursday at the home of another tribal chief, the spokesman said.

"We were tracking him down and he was killed last night by our hand," Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan told The Associated Press.

http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=73241
Two high profile Al-qaeda operatives still hiding: Security personnel

Friday August 06, 2004 (1631 PST
ISLAMABAD, August 07 (Online): The interrogation of Al-Qaeda militants arrested a few days earlier from Punjab has disclosed that two high profile Al-qaeda members including chief of its special cell are still hiding in Pakistan.

With reference to investigation of detained Al-qaeda elements, a security personal told French news agency that one of the Al-qaeda potent members still hiding in the country is Abu Faraj a Libayan national and second is Hamza who is Egypt born. The operation is underway to arrest them. US has announced head money of 5 million dollars each for these two Al-Qaeda militatns.

Terrorist leaders in country either killed or arrested: Report

Central leadership of terrorists and extremists has either been killed or arrested in the country.

This was claimed in a 17-page special report on law and order sent by interior ministry to the national assembly standing committee on internal affairs.

Giving details about the activities of the militants the report further said that several terrorists have fled from the country. Following this development the terrorists have organised separate groups and are operating independently. These terrorists in small groups are leaving their original hideouts, becoming part of local population and taking refuge there, report pointed out.

Report while highlighting the background of these groups said that extremists and terrorists have an ethnic and political background. They also include sectarian groups and the militants who took part in Afghan Jehad against USSR. These elements are not only well conversant with the know-how of the weapons but also fully trained in use of the arms.

Citing to the impact on the society due to upsurge in the terror incidents, report said that rise in terrorist acts are leaving bad impact on the society. Pressure has mounted on law enforcement agencies. Taking the lead from the drawbacks of these groups efforts are on to hunt down terrorists. Measures are being taken to trace out the training centres and the elements sponsoring terrorist outfits.

Report revealed that the terrorists choose to hit easy but high profile targets. These terrorists are of the view that west is causing harm to Islam and Pakistan is following west.

It has been disclosed in the report that the terrorists can not only attack Gwadar port but also launch more offensives in cantonments.

Referring to Wana operation, the report said that Wana was once the potent hub of Taliban militants. Terrorists were hiding there. Operation is still on against them. The high profile terrorists have been killed and the remaining have been flushed out from the area.

Making mention of the casualties of law enforcement agencies during the Wana operation the report hinted that till June, 2004 , 21 personnel were killed, four were injured and three civilians were killed and two sustained injuries in the military operation. The terrorists ranging between 60 to 70 were killed. A majority of the foreign militants were eliminated. The remaining are escaping.

Report observed that military operation and dialogue process would continue in Wana side by side. The political administration will be reactivated further in the area.

Dilating upon the measures necessary for curbing the terrorist acts in the area, the report suggested that the implementation of the special orders issued by the interior ministry to monitor the activities of banned outfits should be ensured strictly. All the books fanning sectarian hatred should be proscribed and their printers be arrested under anti terrorism act. Those who are found engaged in distributing literature outside the mosques should be arrested and proceeded against under the anti terrorism act.

Report further suggested that misuse of loudspeaker should not be allowed. Aid boxes should be removed from public places.

Report noted that the banned outfits have set up welfare trusts which are being scrutinised. The trusts being sponsored by the proscribed organisations will not be allowed to function.

It was proposed in the report that the foreign students who are living in the country illegally and are involved in fomenting sectarianism and violence should be identified and action be taken against them.

The movement of Afghans returning to their motherland should be watched carefully and checking system be tightened on arms smuggling routes.

This report which has been prepared by national crisis management cell of interior ministry in collaboration with intelligence police and law enforcement agencies will be provided to all the members of standing committee.

Omar, I can hear you...
http://www.dawn.com/2004/08/07/top6.htm

Attacks on forces will go on, warn militants

By Our Correspondent

WANA, Aug 6: Commander of the 'mujahideen' in the volatile South Waziristan tribal region on Friday vowed to continue attacking Pakistani forces so long as they were aided and abetted by American troops.

"We are not against Pakistan Army. We don't intend to attack Pakistani forces. We attack them because there are American and British troops operating with them," Haji Muhammad Omar, commander of the 'local mujahideen' in South Waziristan, told Dawn in an exclusive interview.

The 45-year-old Omar, who succeeded Commander Nek Muhammad who was killed in a guided missile attack on June 18, claimed that his mujahideen had seen American and British forces operating alongside Pakistani troops launching operations against them in Shakai, Santoi and Mantoi.

The government has been denying presence of foreign forces on Pakistani soil and insisting that all operations are being planned and executed by its own security forces in its 'own national interest.'

Omar, who besides his native Pushto also speaks Arabic, Persian and Urdu, avoided recording of his interview, saying this could compromise his own security since he was on the satellite phone almost all the time.

Nek Muhammad is widely believed to have been killed while on a satellite phone with a friend. Haji Omar said that packed foodstuff seized by his 'mujahideen' following attacks on Pakistani forces in Shakai and Baghar areas recently led them to believe that there were American and British forces operating alongside Pakistani troops.

"The packed foodstuff that our mujahideen seized from the army in Shakai and Baghar were similar to those our people had seen in Paktika (Afghanistan)." "This proves that besides Pakistani troops there are American and British troops operating against us," he said.

Surrounded by a dozen of his heavily armed guards at an apple orchard in Azam Warsak, the seemingly-relaxed Yagulkhel Wazir tribesman, who had once led a group of mujahideen from South Waziristan to mount an attack on Kabul just before the fall of former communist regime of Dr Najibullah, boasted about the reach of his worldwide network.

"We are not confined to Wana alone. Our reach is very long. We have our network the world over," he claimed. "Let the Pakistanis and Americans know that they cannot eliminate us. Our Jihad will continue as long as the Americans are there in Afghanistan. They cannot eliminate us. Our fate rests with Allah," he said.

Omar denied there were foreign militants in the tribal region and insisted that all attacks on security forces were being launched by what he called local mujahideen. He also did not spare the six-party religious alliance and accused them of having compromised jihad for their own vested interests.

"They have abandoned jihad for the sake of power," he said. "Those who would preach us jihad day in and day out have abandoned their path in order to stay in power and seek personal benefits."

http://www.dawn.com/2004/08/07/top7.htm

'Operation in Waziristan aided by US agencies'

By Our Correspondent

WASHINGTON, Aug 6: The CIA is providing millions of dollars and the NSA is gathering and processing electronic intercepts for carrying out a large-scale operation against Al Qaeda in Waziristan tribal region and other areas of Pakistan, The Washington Post reported on Friday.

In a front page article, based on reports by the newspaper's correspondents in Pakistan, Britain and the United States, the Post said that sophisticated American eavesdropping technology and computerized identification systems allowed Pakistani authorities to catch more than 100 terror suspects during the past few weeks.

"The operation is being paid for with millions of dollars from the CIA, supported with (electronic surveillance) equipment from the National Security Agency and carried out by Pakistani soldiers and intelligence units," the report said.

Eighteen of more than 100 suspects now in Pakistan's custody have been identified as Al Qaeda operatives, the report said. US military and intelligence officials told the Post some of the detainees were wanted in the United States for their involvement in attacks on US targets across the world.

The heightened security alerts in the United States came after data seized in Pakistan suggested that the group was targeting five financial buildings in New York, Washington and Newark.

The Post quoted a Pakistani intelligence official as saying: "US assistance comes in the shape of incredible data and analysis based on electronic and signal intercepts of Al Qaeda suspects all over the world.

Their information is also based upon the detailed debriefing of the arrested suspects and a scientific follow-up of these debriefings held at unidentified locations."

In London, Scotland Yard announced the arrest of Babar Ahmad, a British subject of Pakistani descent, on a US extradition request from the US District Court in Connecticut.

Ahmad, 30, is accused of soliciting funds and property through the Internet for "acts of terrorism in Chechnya and Afghanistan," US officials said. They told the Post that Ahmad had been under surveillance for several years but that information obtained in other counter- terrorism operations in the past week allowed them to make the arrest.

Late Tuesday, British authorities arrested 12 people, including a key Al Qaeda figure, Eisa Hindi, and several others who have since been identified as members of the organization.

US officials told the Post that Hindi is suspected of helping to produce, before the Sept 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, the surveillance of the five buildings that led officials on Sunday to raise the terror alert level.

The Post also reported that "there was a definite link" between a June 10 attack on the corps commander Karachi, in which 11 troops were killed, and the arrest two days later of Mussad Aruchi or al Baloshi, a suspected Al Qaeda operative. The commander, Lt-Gen Ahsan Saleem Hayat, was not hurt.

"The Pakistanis are pounding away at Waziristan," one senior US national security official said. Several troops and hundreds of people have been killed in the region, the report said. Hundreds of people have fled their homes.

http://www.hipakistan.com/en/detail.php?newsId=en70384&F_catID=sd&f_type=source

Pakistan aims at hitting al-Qaeda nerve centres: Faisal

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan would intensify a crackdown on al-Qaeda in coming weeks, moving against nerve centres of Osama bin Laden's network in the country, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said on Friday.

He said a string of arrests of al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan in recent weeks had helped the security forces get a better picture of the network, but added it was not known where bin Laden was holed up. Faisal said there was clearly an al-Qaeda presence in Karachi and Quetta, but operatives were also hiding in obscure towns. "In the weeks and months to come we hope to further intensify our efforts in hitting at those nerve centres and at those crucial and sensitive areas where by hitting hard, the al-Qaeda will certainly be hurt the most," Faisal told Reuters.

Asked whether the recent arrests, said to be about 20, had brought Pakistan any closer to catching Osama bin Laden or his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, the minister said the security agencies were better placed than before.

"As far as these two top notches are concerned we do hope... we are certainly in a much better position today to have a better view of where al-Qaeda stands," the minister said. He added it had never been determined whether the two al-Qaeda leaders were hiding in Pakistan or over the border in Afghanistan. Faisal said the most important catch among those arrested in recent raids, was Tanzania-born Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani. The minister reiterated that another suspect on the US most wanted list had also been caught but divulging the name could hamper investigations.

"The recent phenomenal success that we have achieved... has certainly helped Pakistan to glean and extract some very valuable important and significant information," said the minister. He added that the information had been shared with allies in the war on terror, like Britain, but cautioned against over-interpreting the scope of the information passed on.

"I will not be able to give a direct answer on this specific threat that has come about in the British newspapers - that Pakistan has given some very specific information - that is something that is based on pure conjecture," he said.

Faisal played down the significance attached to the reported arrest of Pakistani computer engineer Muhammed Naeem Noor Khan, saying it was "media hype". "This name Khan keeps on cropping up time and again," he said. "I really cannot throw any light on this individual. These reports of a certain computer or certain disks ... they are purely conjectures. They have no relevance to whatever is going on right now in Pakistan or outside whether in Britain or in the United States," he added.

He also said there were no plans at this time to hand either Ghailani or Khan over to the United States, although intelligence sources had told Reuters this was under consideration. The sources said: "The government is considering to hand over Ghailani and Naeem to the US authorities," adding that so far no decision had been taken. Another intelligence source said that once the men were handed over, US agents would transport them to a US navy ship in the Arabian Sea.

Pakistan-based US agents were present when Ghailani was moved to Lahore from Gujarat where he was arrested. The sources said the Intelligence Bureau (IB) started the raid, but the Inter-Services Intelligence took over when the civilian agency ran into fierce resistance. The IB had stumbled on the al-Qaeda nest, while investigating fake visas and had not expected armed resistance, the sources said. A senior government official identified another African al-Qaeda suspect arrested this week while trying to catch a flight to the United Arab Emirates.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=123&art_id=vn20040808105654897C434455

Bin Laden: the elusive Pimpernel
Justin Huggler
August 08 2004 at 01:57PM

Somewhere, a man huddles in the shadows, speaking into a tape recorder, bringing his latest message to the outside world. His face is instantly recognisable. There is a $25-million (about R155 million) price tag on his head, and just a snippet of information on his whereabouts could make a man rich for life. He is the most wanted man in the world, but for more than three years, nobody has been able to find a trace of Osama bin Laden's whereabouts.

With Washington and New York this week on orange alert, and the United States releasing what it claims is the most detailed evidence yet of an al-Qaeda plot to strike inside its borders, the focus is suddenly back on the hunt for Bin Laden.

Al-Qaeda allies are being blamed for the loathsome beheadings of foreigners that have become almost a grisly routine in Iraq. And with a US national election looming and President George Bush doing badly in the polls, the White House is said to be desperate to capture their man in time for November.

But the trail appears to be remarkably cold. Unless something is being hidden from the public (and it would have to be remarkably well hidden), there has not been a single confirmed sighting of Bin Laden since he fled the US bombing of Tora Bora in Afghanistan in late 2001. And, according to Pakistani sources, no satellite phones calls or e-mails from him have been intercepted.

Drones fly constantly over the Afghan-Pakistan border monitoring all movement. They have failed to detect anything. Bin Laden has disappeared from the US's electronic surveillance network, the most sophisticated the world has known. The last heard of him was a tape recording in April in which he offered Europe a ceasefire if it stopped co-operating with the US.

The central al-Qaeda organisation has been decimated since 2001. Estimates vary, but as many as 3 400 out of 4 000 members are said to have been captured or killed, according to experts. The continued bombings and other attacks are believed to be the work of related groups, many of whose militants were trained by Bin Laden's organisation in Afghanistan.

But if the organisation has been hit badly, its most senior commanders, Bin Laden and his mentor Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, remain elusive. Bin Laden, it appears, has pulled off one of the most remarkable disappearing acts in history.

Or has he? Rumours abound that he has already been captured by the US, or maybe Pakistan, and that his captors are waiting for the perfect moment to announce his capture: just in time for Bush's re-election bid, for example, or in order for Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf to wring the most glittering rewards from the US. The internet is bursting with innuendo and speculation on the possibility, but respected sources insist they are not to be taken seriously.

If Bin Laden has been captured, then his captors have pulled off a disappearing act as extraordinary as his own. Not one official has given the slightest hint of it. Not one sardonic smile.

The official version is still that he is in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan; which side he is on depends on which side you ask the question. Ask the Americans or President Hamid Karzai's interim government in Afghanistan, and they'll tell you Bin Laden is in Pakistan. Ask in Pakistan, and the authorities will tell you he's in Afghanistan. Everyone is passing the buck across the border.

The area is certainly a prime hiding place. The border is 2 430km long and runs through some of the wildest and most inaccessible terrain on earth.

"Even if Pakistan and Afghanistan were to put their complete armies there, they couldn't seal the border," says Dr Rohan Gunaratna, the author of Inside al-Qaeda.

Much of the land on either side of the border is populated by Pashtun tribesmen whose loyalties to Bin Laden and al-Qaeda date back to the mujahideen war against the Soviets and who have little sympathy for the US, the new Afghan government or the Pakistani authorities.

The Americans claim they have combed the Afghan side of the border, and the Afghan government has repeatedly accused Pakistan of not doing enough. But, in fact, almost all the major successes in the hunt for al-Qaeda have been made in Pakistan.

The country has seen the most high-profile targets arrested to date: Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged planner of September 11; Ramzi bin al-Shibh, believed to be the 20th hijacker who couldn't make it because he couldn't get a visa; and only last week, Ahmad Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian who is one of the prime suspects in the 1998 US embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. According to Gunaratna, 470 al-Qaeda members have been captured in Pakistan.

In recent months there has been more action on the Pakistani side of the border than ever before. In March, the army sent 70 000 soldiers into South Waziristan, a tribal area where the army had never gone before under a long-standing arrangement with the tribes that dated back to British colonial times.

A welter of excitement followed when Musharraf said a high-value target had been pinned down. The speculation, fuelled by official sources, was that it was Zawahiri, but he never showed up.

The Pakistani authorities have blocked journalists, foreign and local, from entering South Waziristan for months now. Even the Red Cross and other humanitarian organisations have been refused access.

American special forces advisers and intelligence appear to have been heavily involved in South Waziristan, despite Pakistan's repeated insistence that US troops are not operating on its soil. The word in Islamabad is that the FBI has an office in the city, from which it is directing the hunt for Bin Laden and other senior al-Qaeda figures. But, like so much on this subject, the claim is impossible to confirm.

But there are many in Pakistan who question whether Bin Laden is in the border region at all.

"It's an assumption," says Pakistani journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai.

"Most of the arrests in Pakistan have been in urban areas. What does this tell you? That these guys were all hiding in big cities."

Against this theory, officials argue that Bin Laden is too distinctive to be able to hide in a city. With so much money on his head, someone would spot him.

Then there are those who argue that Bin Laden may be being protected by rogue elements within Pakistan's own security forces.

Recent press reports in Pakistan pointed out the disturbingly high number of militant attacks in which members of the security forces have been involved. The Pakistani military and intelligence establishment worked for years alongside Bin Laden's organisation in the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, and if the current leadership is thought to be sincere in the hunt for Bin Laden, some of the lower-ranking officers are believed to remain highly sympathetic to his cause.

But there are those in Pakistan who suggest it is not even in Musharraf's interest to capture Bin Laden, if he is in the country.

"There is a view among some that they don't really want to pick OBL [Osama bin Laden] up, because if they do, then Musharraf would lose his utility to the US," says Sherry Rehman, an opposition member of parliament.

And now it seems that al-Qaeda is declaring war on Pakistan, with last week's attempted assassination - a suicide bombing - of the prime minister-designate, Shaukat Aziz.

A group claiming to be affiliated to al-Qaeda said it had carried it out.

Are the hunted becoming the hunters?

Musharraf has accused al-Qaeda of being behind two of the recent assassination attempts on him, and Zawahiri called for his killing in his own recent tape recording. And all the while the world's most wanted man remains hidden.

The only thing for sure is that if he has been killed or captured, we'll hear of it well in time for America's November elections. But don't bet on it yet.

Maulvi Abbas is due, will we have Muhammad Javed from the Karmazkhel tribe later next week?

Tons of info that will be useful...

http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=73422
Ahmedzai sub-tribe to handover suspects to govt

Sunday August 08, 2004 (1405 PST)
WANA: Malik Bakhan, the chief of Kakakhail clan, a sub tribe of Ahmadzai Wazir and political agent Asmat Ullah Gandapur, in a round of talks Sunday made a significant headway on the issue of handover of the wanted militants issue.

The Kakakhail chief agreed to handover the wanted militants, belonging to this tribe to the government.

The government earlier was of the view that Ahmedzai Wazir tribe would be the responsible to handover the wanted militants belonging to sub tribes but the elders of Ahmedzai had an opinion that every sub-tribe should itself be responsible for the handover of wanted suspects to the government.

Kakakhel Chief Malik Bakhan talking to Online said that Asmat Ullah Khan has agreed that the respective sub-tribes would be responsible to hand over the suspected persons to the government.

Bakhan said that the dialogue could not succeed without removing economic sanctions and opening of markets to facilitate the masses in the area.

He said that the political agent has promised to waive the economic sanctions in coming few days. It was decided if some tribe failed to hand over the respective person to the government the whole tribes would try to hand over the respective person to the government.

Meanwhile, the militants launched an attack with three rockets on the residential area of security forces in the area of Zerrikhor, however the attack rendered no loss of life or property.

A background on Qari Saifullah Akhtar born in Wazaristan

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_9-8-2004_pg3_1

EDITORIAL: Significance of Qari Saifullah Akhtar's arrest

Reports say the head of the terrorist organisation Harkatul Jihad al-Islami, Qari Saifullah Akhtar, has been arrested and repatriated to Pakistan from Dubai where he was in hiding after he moved out of Saudi Arabia where he was in hiding earlier. It may be noted that last year, Qari's Harkat mutated into Harkatul Mujahideen al-Alami and tried to kill President Pervez Musharraf on behalf of Al Qaeda. This arrest marks an important milestone in the war against terrorism by cutting one of the main links between the domestic jihadi movement and Al Qaeda. In order to understand this statement, we must explain the context of the man and the terrorist outfit that he led.

Qari fled Afghanistan after the American invasion in late 2001, taking shelter in South Waziristan before he was spirited out of Pakistan. He led an outfit belonging to the Deobandi mainstream. It was in many ways the "mother organisation", parallel to Sipah Sahaba, from which branched out other better-known jihadi groups. His Harkat was inspired by the Afghan religious leader Nabi Muhammadi (who died in Islamabad as a leader of one of the seven jihadi organisations that fought against the Soviet Union) whose warriors were to emerge dominant as the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Like Maulana Masood Azhar of Jaish-e-Muhammad, Qari Saifullah Akhtar - born in 1958 in South Waziristan - was a graduate of the Banuri Masjid in Karachi. He was a crucial figure in Mufti Shamzai's efforts to get Osama bin Laden and Mullah Umar together as partners-in-jihad. Qari Saifullah Akhtar first came to public view when he was caught as one of the would-be army coup-makers of 1995 led by Major-General Zaheerul Islam Abbasi, but saved his skin by turning "state witness". (Some say he was defiant but was still let off.) After that, he surfaced in Kandahar and from 1996 was an adviser to Mullah Umar in the Taliban government. His fighters were called "Punjabi" Taliban and were offered employment, something that other outfits could not get out of Mullah Umar. His outfit had membership among the Taliban too. Three Taliban ministers and 22 judges belonged to his Harkat.

In difficult times, the Harkat fighters stood together with Mullah Umar. Approximately 300 of them were killed fighting the Northern Alliance, after which Mullah Umar was pleased to give Harkat the permission to build six more "maskars" (training camps) in Kandahar, Kabul and Khost, where the Taliban army and police also received military training. From its base in Afghanistan, the Harkat launched its campaigns inside Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Chechnya. It finally became the biggest jihadi militia based in Kandahar located in the middle of the Taliban-Al Qaeda strategic merger.

The Harkat called itself "the second line of defence for all Muslim states" and was active in Burma, Bangladesh and Sinkiang. Because of their common origin in the Banuri seminary, Harkat al-Jihad al-Islami and Harkatul Mujahideen were merged in 1993 for the sake of "better performance" in Kashmir. The new outfit was called Harkatul Ansar, the first to be declared as a terrorist organization by the United States after one of its commanders formed an ancillary organization, called Al Faran, and kidnapped and killed Western tourists from Kashmir in 1995. Qari Saifullah Akhtar fled from Kandahar after the fall of the Taliban in late 2001 and hid in South Waziristan.

Qari Saifullah's outfit was truly international. When the Harkat al-Jahad al-Islami men were seen first in Tajikistan, they were mistaken by some observers as being fighters from Sipah Sahaba, but in fact they were under the command of a Punjabi commander, helping Juma Namangani and Tahir Yuldashev resist the Uzbek ruling class in the Ferghana Valley. Out of the two Uzbeks being sheltered by Mullah Umar in Afghanistan, one was killed and the other was recently wounded during the Wana Operation in South Waziristan. The Harkat used to be entrenched in Karachi, looking after its Burmese warriors. They were located inside Korangi and the area was sometimes called mini-Arakan. The Harkat opened 30 seminaries for themselves inside Korangi, there being 18 more in the rest of Karachi. In Orangi, the biggest seminary was Madrasa Khalid bin Walid where 500 Burmese were once under training. They were later trained in Afghanistan and directed to fight against the Northern Alliance and against the Indian army in Kashmir.

Harkat al-Jahad al-Islami had branch offices in 40 districts and tehsils in Pakistan, including Sargodha, Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan, Khanpur, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Mianwali, Bannu, Kohat, Waziristan, Dera Ismail Khan, Swabi and Peshawar. It also had an office in Islamabad. Funds were collected from these grassroots offices as well as from sources abroad. The militia had accounts in two branches of Allied Bank in Islamabad. Qari Saifullah's repatriation signals the closing of the Saudi channel of escape for the Deobandi jihadis. But Qari Saifullah was not the only one hiding in that region. There were other less known personalities with contacts who could go at will to Saudi Arabia and the UAE to bide their time when the political heat increased in Karachi and their "handlers" told them to take a sabbatical. For Qari Saifullah Akhtar the sabbatical is now over.

The timing of Qari Saifullah's repatriation is significant. It happened after the arrest of Al Qaeda operative Muhammad Khalfan Ghailani from Gujrat along with Al Qaeda's computer genius Muhammad Naeem Nur Khan. It is said that the Pakistani agencies recruited Khan as a double agent and were thus able to communicate with Al Qaeda through him. Because of a premature disclosure of Khan as a double agent in the United States, the slowly tightening noose around Al Qaeda in the UK had to be quickly sprung. The home-coming of Qari Saifullah Akhtar could well be connected with the revelations made in Gujrat. He is a bigger catch than most of us not clued in might actually think

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