Intro: Oman Sheikh Wired $100,000
To Mohammad Atta, The Man Behind Terror Tuesday
Author: Our Political Bureau
Publications: The Economic Times
Dated: October 6, 2001
US Investigators have found the
link between the perpetrators of the September 11 terrorist attack and
the jehadi gang, Jaish-e-Mohammad, operating in Jammu and Kashmir.
The FBI agents probing the terrorist
attack on the US found that it was the JeM activist. Omar Ahmad Sheikh,
who wired $100,000 to Mohammad Atta, the 'axle' of the Tuesday Terror plot.
Agency reports quoting the CNN said money was wired by Mr. Sheikh to a
Florida account belonging to Mr. Atta. Mr. Sheikh, a British citizen and
a graduate of the London School of Economics has been In Pakistan since
January, '00 when the Indian authorities were forced to release him to
save the lives of passengers aboard an Indian Airlines plane that had been
hijacked by the Jehadi comrades. Though the FBI investigators had zeroed
in on Pakistan as the source of the $100.000 that was distributed by Mr.
Atta among the terrorists who were to ram the planes into the WTC towers
and Pentagon, the unearthing of evidence tying Mr. Sheikh to the September
11 carnage validates the Indian demand for international action against
the jehadis operating in J&K.
The story of Omar Sheikh's transformation
from a LSE graduate into a die-hard terrorist is one that sheds light on
the reach of the international network of Islamic terrorists operating
from Pakistan-Afghanistan. The terrorist was recruited In UK by the local
jehadi collaborators and sent to Pakistan in '93 for advanced training,
first by Jamaat-e-lslami mullahs and, later, by the Deobandis belonging
to the Harkat-ul-Ansar. He underwent arms training. In '94, he tried to
disrupt the visit of the then Indian prime minister, PV Narasimha Rao,
to UK.
He came to New Delhi on July 26,
'94 from Lahore by PIA flight. After a brief stint with the terrorists
operating in the border state, he ki dnapped foreigners from New Delhi
later that year to secure the release of Maulana Masood Azhar, the Harkat
leader who now heads another Deobandi outfit, Jalsh-e-Mohammad. He was
arrested, and his captives freed in a daring operation by Uttar Pradesh
police who lost one of its brave officers, inspector Abhay Singh Yadav,
in the encounter.
The findings connecting him to the
last month's attack on the US has the spotlight once again on Pakistan's
role in housing the network of Islamic terrorists behind a series of attacks
on US targets. A Pakistani national, Mir Aimal Kansi, shot dead two CIA
operatives in LangIey just outside the headquarters of the agency. Investigation
into the unsuccessful plot to simultaneously blow up 5 United Airlines
planes above the Pacific also pointed to the Pakistan connection.
