By Jawad Naeem in Islamabad and Graeme Hoskens in Pretoria
Disclosures of al-Qaeda targets in South Africa involving two alleged South African terrorists have turned attention on their mystery recruiter, named as Ahmed, somewhere in South Africa.
Security sources in Islamabad said the South Africans arrested after a Pakistan shootout, Zoubair Ismail and Feroze Abubakar Ganchi, both from Gauteng, were apparently initiated into the Osama bin Laden jihad by this "teacher".
Emerging from the latest arrests, key landmarks in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town have been identified as targets of a huge al-Qaeda terror blitz on South Africa.
| 'South African police sources said they had known for a year-and-a-half' |
However, South African police sources said they had known for a year-and-a-half about their alleged al-Qaeda activities and targets, and had had the pair under constant surveillance.
Information obtained on Tuesday night was that both Ismail and Ganchi allegedly had several meetings with three alleged al-Qaeda operatives in South Africa - Syrian and Jordanian citizens - arrested by South African police earlier this year.
Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi announced the arrest and deportation of the three men in April.
They are believed to have been in South Africa for nearly a year when they were arrested.
Selebi said at the time that the three men had been planning to disrupt the elections in April by detonating explosives at several Western-linked targets in South Africa.
| 'Their mission was to carry out attacks at some important tourist sites' |
Top South African police sources name possible terror targets in coming weeks as:
- Parliament and the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town
- The Carlton Centre, JSE Securities Exchange and Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg
- The Union Buildings, the US embassy and the Sheraton Hotel in Pretoria
In Islamabad, sources said the two South Africans had travelled to Pakistan after months of motivational lecturing and encouragement by "teacher" Ahmed to do something practical for the "holy war against the infidel United States".
After 10 days of grilling, Pakistani interrogators have compiled a dossier on the two South Africans held in the Gujrat raid and their grooming there by an al-Qaeda expert for terror missions.
Competent sources familiar with the ongoing investigation said the two were fairly new recruits of the al-Qaeda network.
According to information, Ganchi, a qualified doctor, and his companion arrived in the eastern city of Lahore early in July. Their passports and other documents apparently aroused no suspicions.
But in fact Ismail and Ganchi, who were due to return to South Africa at the end of this month, had used exact copies of two passports that were part of a haul during an anti-terrorism raid in London earlier this year.
The sources said the pair had received logistical help from local contacts in Pakistan to reach their destination - a two-storey house in a residential suburb in the small industrial town of Gujrat, 160km south-east of the capital, Islamabad.
Equipped with maps, manuals, computers and other training material as well as an undisclosed amount of foreign currency, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian national on the FBI's "most wanted" list for bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, set about teaching the South Africans.
"Ganchi and Ismail have given interrogators an adequate preview of the task they had been assigned," a security official said.
"Their mission was to carry out attacks at some important tourist sites and resorts in the South African capital, especially targeting places frequented by Americans," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity and withholding any information considered sensitive.
But on July 25, Pakistani intelligence, tipped off by a delivery man, raided the house in the early hours.
The men inside resisted with automatic weapons, wounding at least one police officer in a firefight that lasted 18 hours. Finally they ran out of ammunition and surrendered. A total of 14 were held.
Pakistan officials confirmed Pretoria has contacted Islamabad about the South Africans, but Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said handing them over would have to await completion of the investigation in Pakistan.
Under Pakistan's Anti-Terrorism Law, terrorists face the death penalty on conviction.
Jail terms can be imposed for lesser roles in terrorism.
Senior police intelligence agents in South Africa have revealed that Gauteng was to have been the first centre to be attacked in the carefully orchestrated terror campaign.
Pakistani authorities recovered several AK-47 assault rifles, handguns, explosives, computers, maps, foreign currency and Arabic-language documents during the arrest of the 15 people.
It is believed that the documents included blueprints of numerous buildings and landmarks in South Africa and Pakistan.
The documents are believed to contain information on security at the buildings, and to include routes to gain key access to and escape from targets.
Ismail apparently was also in the UK three to four years ago to meet fellow Islamists in London and Manchester.
The recovery of hundreds of blank South African passports in London came shortly before Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils's spokesman, Lorna Daniels, said this year: "The government is well appraised of the situation.
"We are currently involved in an investigation and therefore have no further comment."
|