Author: The Associated Press
Publication: The New York Times
Date: December 12, 2002
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Pakistan-Suicide-Squads.html
Suicide squads are being trained
in Pakistan by al-Qaida operatives to hit targets in Afghanistan and the
bombers' families are being promised $50,000, say Afghan and Pakistani
sources.
The Pakistani government denies
the presence of camps here. ``Nobody will ever be able to either hide here
or establish training camps in Pakistan,'' said Interior Ministry spokesman
Iftikar Ahmed.
But privately, some officials in
Pakistan's intelligence community and Interior Ministry say they believe
there is such bomb training and that it is protected by Pakistani militants
and Taliban sympathizers in the Pakistan military.
The nephew of Maulvi Abdul Kabir,
the Taliban's No. 3 man, says the training camps are in Bajour and Mansehra,
towns in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province where support for the
former Afghan regime runs strong.
The nephew asked that his name not
be used, saying he feared retaliation from both the Taliban and Pakistanis.
He said he agreed to an exclusive interview with The Associated Press on
Tuesday because he believes suicide bombing is wrong. He also seemed interested
in getting U.S. attention and possibly a reward.
There is a $10 million reward for
Mullah Mohammed Omar, the deposed Taliban leader, but not for most other
Taliban officials. The nephew said he has not talked to any U.S. official,
and would not approach the Pakistanis because he suspects they are in league
with the Taliban.
Kabir's nephew had a video taken
at a graduation ceremony in the southwestern Pakistan city of Quetta where
Kabir and several top Taliban leaders, including former intelligence officials
and governors, were present and some spoke. He also had an audio cassette
from speeches given at a mosque in Quetta in which Kabir spoke on behalf
of Mullah Omar, condemning the U.S. presence in Afghanistan and calling
on the faithful to wage a holy war against the Americans.
During two weeks of training, would-be
bombers are told by Arab instructors that they are waging war on the Jews
and ``will be martyrs and go straight to heaven and their family will get
$50,000,'' Kabir's nephew said.
They are trained in small groups
and not all are told they must die, he said. Some are taught to detonate
bombs by remote control, and to drive explosives-laden trucks into Afghanistan,
he said.
So far two Afghans and one suspected
al-Qaida operative trained at these camps have infiltrated Afghanistan
but have been arrested, the nephew said. He did not know whether these
were the same people whose arrest was announced by Afghan authorities two
months ago after they came from Pakistan in a car packed with explosives.
The nephew said one of the men arrested
was an Iraqi. Last month, an Iraqi man was arrested in Kabul, the Afghan
capital, but the nephew couldn't say whether he was among those trained
in Bajour, a tribal region bordering Afghanistan's northeastern province
of Kunar.
U.S. forces are scouring the mountains
that crisscross Afghanistan's Kunar province searching for Taliban and
al-Qaida operatives, and for Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Iranian-backed rebel
commander.
A Western intelligence source in
Pakistan also said training was going on in Bajour and in Mansehra area.
He said there had been reports that Hekmatyar loyalists had purchased several
vehicles for the purpose of carrying explosives. Afghan, Pakistani and
Western sources say Kabir has forged an alliance with Hekmatyar, who is
also being sought by the United States.
The AP also acquired books written
in both Pashtu and Persian extolling the virtue of carrying out suicide
attacks. It cited verses from the Islamic holy book, the Quran, to support
suicide attacks. Most Muslim scholars, however, say suicide is against
Islamic teachings.
Reports of trained suicide squads
surfaced last September when one of Hekmatyar's military commanders, Salauddin
Safi, told AP that some Taliban had formed an alliance with Hekmatyar's
followers, a view shared by Western intelligence sources, who believe Kabir
is working with Hekmatyar.
With money from al-Qaida and Iran,
the two groups formed a new alliance called Lashkar Fedayan-e-Islami, or
the Islamic Martyrs Brigade, which Safi said would target U.S. military
installations.
In a separate interview, a man who
served in the Cabinet of former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said
Pakistan's army protects the Taliban.
``They have even given them their
jeeps to get around safely. Why do you think none of the top Taliban who
came to Pakistan have been arrested?'' he said.
The nephew said Kabir is protected
by Pakistan's intelligence and its military. He travels freely throughout
Pakistan, from its deeply Islamic tribal regions to the southwestern city
of Quetta and to Haripur, a city 35 miles north of Pakistan's capital,
Islamabad.
His entourage includes former Taliban
governors, intelligence chiefs and, in recent weeks, Maulvi Ghazi, special
adviser to Mullah Omar, the nephew said. Omar is high on the U.S. wanted
list.
With the October election that gave
religious hard-liners control of the strategic provinces that border Afghanistan,
fugitive Taliban have become increasingly brazen, even launching fund-raising
campaigns.
During the three-day Muslim festival
of Eid al-Fitr that ended last weekend, $50,000 was raised by former Taliban
Maulvi Baram, the nephew said.
The Taliban even issue receipts,
which say the money is for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, as the Taliban
called the country.
