Posted on 12/20/2004 7:09:01 AM PST by Straight Vermonter
Police arrested six suspected militants on Monday, including the Pakistani aide of a Libyan Al-Qaeda operative accused of masterminding two assassination attempts a year ago against President Pervez Musharraf, an official said.
Malik Tehsin, 31, was nabbed in the eastern city of Lahore as he travelled in a car with three other Pakistanis, and information from Tehsin led to the arrests of two other Pakistani men at a house in the city later Monday.
Shafqaat Ahmed, a senior police superintendent, told a news conference that Tehsin had arranged accommodation, transportation and other facilities for Abu Faraj al-Libbi, a Libyan terror suspect, who is among the most wanted men in Pakistan.
Al-Libbi is accused of organising the two attempts to assassinate Musharraf in December 2003.
The Pakistani leader was unharmed, but 17 people died in the second attempt to blow up his motorcade in Rawalpindi, a city near the capital, Islamabad.
Musharraf has become a marked man by Islamic extremists for his strong support of the US-led war on terror in neighbouring Afghanistan.
In August, Pakistan offered of a 20 million rupee reward (US$344,800, euro257,852) for information leading to the arrest of al-Libbi.
His alleged co-Pakistani plotter of the bombings, Amjad Hussain Farooqi, was killed in a shootout with security forces in southern Pakistan on September 26.
Asked if the six men arrested Monday offered any clues about al-Libbi, Ahmed said, "We are investigating them and we are hopeful for further progress."
Let me know if you want on/off the terrorist roundup ping list.
I hope he does not suffer a heart attack in their plush prison like so many others.
Yet another player nabbed in a Pakistani city (as opposed to the remote mountainous border region)...
Thanks as we have a substantial thread it includes al-Liby. It was a good catch. Gear from Rex Hunt? ;-)
http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1155685/posts?page=994#994
Among a trove of coded al Qaeda communications turned over by Khan were messages from Abu Faraj al-Liby to Islamic militants in Britain, the Telegraph said. It described Liby as al Qaeda's number three man, a former personal assistant to bin Laden who took over as al Qaeda's operations chief after the arrest of suspected Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Liby is "one of the handful of al Qaeda operatives who may know the whereabouts of bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al Zawahri," it said.
They're saying that Zawahiri may be among those arrested.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1305270/posts?q=1&&page=56#56
Pakistan police arrest Al Qaeda aide, thwart “major attack”
Alleged aide of Libyan al-Qaida operative arrested in Pakistan
Tuesday December 21, 2:15 AM
Police and counterterrorism officials denied Arabic television reports that Ayman al-Zawahri, the al-Qaida No. 2, might be among the arrested men.
And then there's this:
The leader of Philippine militant group Abu Sayyaf reportedly has died in an air strike on the group's hideout, The Australian reported Monday.
http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=0725a2693f0b2eea
Sweet.... (sorry if this is not policitally correct to say)
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