Author: IANS
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: September 17, 2002
Introduction: The Times Says Pakistan
Govt Aware Of Al-Qaeda Men's Presence In The City
Karachi is teeming with terrorists
with the knowledge of the government, and this is what made it possible
for two key Al Qaida men to operate from there, according to a report in
The Times.
In reference to the arrests of Al
Qaida suspects last week, it said: "In the cluttered back streets of Karachi,
there were few who believed their government's boast that the latest arrests
have ended Al Qaida's operations inside Pakistan." For months, western
intelligence agencies had suspected that some of Osama bin Laden's lieutenants
were hiding in the Pakistani port city of 1.2 crore that has no shortage
of safe havens for Islamic militants, the paper said.
The virulent anti-US sentiment is
evident in regular street demonstrations in Karachi, and it was here that
two of Bin Laden's most trusted lieutenants arrived last June. The support
network was already in place for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, head of Al Qaida's
military committee, and Ramzi Binalshibh, who called himself the co-ordinator
for the September 11 attacks.
The Times report details Al Qaida
operations in Karachi. Following are excerpts: "Hundreds of fighters from
the wars in (Jammu and) Kashmir, Afghanistan and Chechnya live in this
teeming city, and it was a veteran of a Bin Laden training camp who in
the summer rented the spacious apartment in a high-rise block in what is
known as the Defence Housing District, where the senior Al Qaida men were
captured last week after a shootout. "There were women and children with
the group, who took over adjoining apartments on the sixth floor of the
address at 15th Commercial Street, where their neighbours included officers
of the Pakistani Army.
"The two Al Qaida men were careful
not to draw attention to themselves, appearing to spend most of their time
playing cards or watching television. Their reason for being in Karachi
was principally to help others from Al Qaida to escape abroad.
"The popular image is of Al Qaida
men hiding out in the inhospitable mountain ranges that fringe the border
with Afghanistan, moving around on horseback after dark, never showing
their faces and paying local tribal chieftains to provide some modest safe
house.
Men like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
tire of such hardship and prefer city dwelling, even though the risks of
discovery are greater.
"The way in which Ramzi Binalshibh
spoke about Bin Laden led some intelligence analysts to suspect the Al
Qaida leader was dead, and this performance by the soft-spoken Yemeni quartermaster
was evidence of how the network would survive without its founder." His
arrest has provided the much-criticised ISI, the Pakistani intelligence
service, with a coup and given FBI agents a chance to interrogate a man
known to be trusted with Al Qaida's secrets.
"Binalshibh was crucial to the network's
day-to-day operations. His job was to link terrorist cells around the world
with the high command. He is thought to be the only man left alive who
attended the two Al Qaida summits where the detail for the US attacks were
worked out.
The first was in Manila in January
'00, where the 30-year-old student revealed who would undertake the mission,
and the second in Spain in July '01, where he met his old roommate, the
hijack leader Mohammed Atta, at a holiday resort near Tarragona to make
final arrangements.
"It was Binalshibh who wired money
to flight schools and to the hijackers' bank accounts.
