Pakistani Extremists, Al-Qaeda Teaming Up - Bonded by hate for U.S., they aim to punish Pakistan

Dallas Morning News | April 1, 2002 | Kathy Gannon

[Stand Watch Listen]

WANA, Pakistan – In Pakistan's wild country along the Afghan border, al-Qaeda fugitives and homegrown Islamic extremists are teaming up to confront Pakistan's government and its U.S. allies.

Pakistanis and Afghans familiar with extremist organizations say their aim is to punish President Pervez Musharraf for abandoning the Afghan Taliban and banning several militant groups in Pakistan in connection with the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

Police fear the kidnapping and slaying of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl and the March 17 grenade attack on an Islamabad church attended by foreigners may be examples of what the extremists have in store.

"It is their hate for America that bonds them," said retired Maj. Gen. Anwar Sher, who worked with militant Islamic groups during the war against Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s. "This hate against America naturally is also directed at Musharraf. He has joined with America, and these religious groups don't like it."

Evidence of that cooperation surfaced last week when Pakistani police, assisted by FBI agents, raided extremist hideouts in two Pakistani cities, arresting about 60 people, including 25 Arabs and four Afghans.

According to Mr. Sher and others, the leading Pakistani groups involved in the struggle against Gen. Musharraf are Jaish-e-Mohammed, Harakat-ul Mujahedeen, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Sipah-e-Sahaba – all banned by Gen. Musharraf on Jan. 12.

"Jaish-e-Mohammad and these extremist groups are together with al-Qaeda, working together," Mr. Sher said.

Not far from the border, a Pakistani official, Maj. Mohammed Saeed, said al-Qaeda infiltration "is creating problems for Pakistan." He said 2,000 soldiers and militiamen are trying to seal the border, but al-Qaeda members "are getting assistance from Jaish-e-Mohammed."

"We have to stop them – not for America, but for Pakistan," he said.

Ties between al-Qaeda and their Pakistani allies go back years. They were forged during the war against the Soviets in the 1980s, when tens of thousands of Pakistanis, Arabs and others – armed and equipped by the United States – rushed to Afghanistan to join the battle against the invaders,

They were strengthened during the Taliban's five-year rule, when Pakistani militants were allowed to operate camps in Afghanistan to train guerrillas to fight against the Indian army in Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan region.

What's new, however, is their target.

Throughout the last decade, the three major groups – Jaish-e-Mohammed, Harakat-ul Mujahedeen and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba – received clandestine support from Pakistan's intelligence service to mount operations in Kashmir.

That support was severely curtailed – if not entirely halted – after Gen. Musharraf joined the campaign against terrorism. Now, sources say these groups, along with the help of al-Qaeda renegades, are turning their anger on Gen. Musharraf and the Americans within Pakistan.

One of the early victims of the new campaign may have been Mr. Pearl, who was kidnapped Jan. 23 in Karachi. Weeks later, a videotape received by U.S. diplomats confirmed he was dead.

The leading suspect, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, is believed by police to have strong ties to Jaish-e-Mohammed. Others sought in the slaying include activists from Harkat ul-Mujahedeen, police say.

Suspicion also fell on extremist groups after the March 17 grenade attack on a Protestant church in Islamabad in which five people, including U.S. Embassy employee Barbara Green and her 17-year-old daughter, Kristen Wormsley, were killed.

Although Pakistani extremists and al-Qaeda operate throughout the country, U.S. and Pakistani authorities believe much of their activity is centered in the rugged, remote tribal belt along the Afghan border.

There, central government control is weak, and real authority rests with tribal leaders who have close ethnic and cultural ties to parts of Afghanistan that produced the Taliban leadership. Many former Taliban leaders studied at religious schools in Pakistan during the Soviet war.

Many tribe members boast that they would help al-Qaeda members hide if the U.S.-led coalition pursues fighters fleeing into Pakistan.

Religious student Abdul Wahid also bitterly criticized Gen. Musharraf's ban on Islamic groups and accused the United States of waging war on Islam.

"I'm one of those terrorists that America is looking for," Mr. Wahid said.

"America is the enemy of Islam."