Al Qaeda spreads its recruiting

KARACHI, Pakistan — After leaving university, Atta-ur Rehman traded his jeans and T-shirts for a beard and cap and his civil-service aspirations for a martyr's spot in heaven.

Rehman's circle call themselves Jundullah (God's Army) and have close ties to al Qaeda. Most are young, educated men, whom Rehman is said to have sent to training camps in Pakistan's remote tribal areas.

Drawn from local ranks

Some of the jihadis are drawn from the ranks of local militant organizations, including Al-Badr — backed by the extremist religious party Jamaat-e-Islami — the Kashmiri outfits Harakat-ul Mujahideen and Jaish-e Mohammed, and the Sunni group Lashkar-e Jhangvi. Most of these groups have, until recently, focused their energies on Kashmir or sectarian conflicts.

The new, independent splinter groups are small, receive funding from al Qaeda, and attack Western targets using tactics such as suicide bombings — once unheard of in Pakistan. Investigators in Karachi say several such groups of about 10 members each are operating in that city alone.

Al Qaeda leaders "are mostly banking on local jihadis," said one police investigator. "They themselves don't want to be seen on the ground as they don't feel safe, so they rely on these brainwashed jihadis."

To recruit, al Qaeda leaders or operatives rely on trusted contacts, preferably people who have fought alongside Arabs or have been trained by them, said a senior Karachi police investigator. The go-between appoints a group of leaders, who in turn hire the services of members and assign tasks mostly on the instructions coming from the go-between. For the jihadis, the work can be lucrative — they are paid $170 to $340 a month.

Amad Farooqi, a top militant reportedly killed by security forces last Sunday, was a main recruiter. A veteran of the Afghan resistance in the early 1990s, he linked up with al Qaeda operatives after September 11, 2001. Security forces arrested about 10 suspected al Qaeda-linked Pakistani militants following the interrogation of two arrested Farooqi accomplices.

The rise of splinter groups has made the task of investigators much more difficult. Police recently recovered a booklet of instructions from a jihadi amid the ongoing crackdown.

"Don't roam around with beard and Islamic dress in fashionable neighborhoods," read the instructions. "Always take out the chip of the mobile [phone] while sleeping to avoid being caught. Use mobile [phone] from a crowded place so police don't locate the position. Don't write the original numbers of mujahids in a notebook; try to memorize the last three digits."

To bolster secrecy, group members do not know the real names of their comrades, and only group leaders know the whereabouts of other members, said a police official. Suicide bombers are mostly young and usually live and operate separately, he added.

'The battle is on'

The growing influence of militant groups within the law enforcement agencies has also set alarm bells ringing. Three policemen acted as suicide bombers at Shi'ite mosques in Karachi and Quetta. Several low-ranking personnel from the armed forces were arrested for their suspected involvement in the foiled assassination attempt against President Pervez Musharraf.

"It is difficult to monitor the profiles of these new recruits and the new groups," said Karachi Police Chief Tariq Jameel.

"If we want to defeat them, then there is a need of collective effort from the entire society to eliminate terrorism and extremism. They are chasing us and we are chasing them. The battle is on."

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