Author: Times News Network
Publication: The Times of India
Date: September 20, 2006
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2007818.cms
Osama bin Laden's bodyguard, Abu Jandal, who famously carried a special gun to kill his leader with, has proved to be the conclusive link between Al Qaida and Pakistan-sponsored Islamic terrorists working against India.
In a documentary on Al Jazeera TV network last weekend, Abu Jandal recounted a "lavish" party that Laden threw for Maulana Masood Azhar, who was released by India in 1999 after the Taliban hijacked IC-814 from Kathmandu to Kandahar.
According to Jandal, Laden asked him to keep Stinger missiles ready as the Indian aircraft was coming into Kandahar, with Azhar, Omar Sheikh and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar.
A few days later, Laden welcomed Azhar back as old friends. It's not the first time that the Al Qaida link has been revealed. In the years after 9/11, even Al Qaida No. 2 Ayman Al Zawahiri has taken potshots at India.
Meanwhile, the terrorist groups routinely targeting India, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, are clearly outsourced entities of Al Qaida, while Dawood Ibrahim is much more than a former Mumbai ganglord — he's the transportation chief for the Al Qaida network.
What does it prove? That the story of anti-India terrorism is more complex than the West would care to admit. That there are deep linkages between "global" terrorists and the "local" ones.
The revelations also put a lie to Pakistan's official stand that terrorism in India is connected to the Kashmir problem.