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The net spreads in Pakistan
By
Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - Should reports
that a number of al-Qaeda members have been captured in
Pakistan, including even Osama bin Laden and his deputy
Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, prove correct, a blow of major
significance will have been delivered in the US-led war
against terrorism.
However, at the same time,
any such developments will likely be used by those in
the Muslim world seeking to further whip up anti-US
sentiment, as the final countdown for an attack on Iraq
draws ever nearer.
On Thursday,
a large-scale military operation took place in
southwestern Pakistan involving US Special Forces and Pakistani
troops, after which widely conflicting reports emerged of
al-Qaeda suspects being rounded up.
The action
is said to result from information gathered from the
earlier capture in Rawalpindi of senior al-Qaeda
operative Khalid Shaikh Mohammad.
However, a
highly-placed Pakistani security official told Asia
Times Online, "At present, Pakistani and US security
agencies are doing investigations, searches and raids in
multi-dimensional ways. These investigations are based
on intelligence acquired several months ago.
"This include a list of 10 persons named in a
[US] State Department list which was handed over to
Pakistan. They are all Pakistani and believed to be in
active connivance with al-Qaeda. One of them who was
arrested was released. The nine other people are now
left.
"Beside this, it is true that letters of
Osama bin Laden were recovered from Khalid Shaikh
Mohammad [although this has been officially denied by
the government of Pakistan] and on that basis now the
coalition intelligence is sure that they have a hand on
bin Laden and his other lieutenants," the source added.
The military operation was conducted in Noshki
near Chaghai in Balochistan province on Thursday.
Balochistan is an arid tribal-dominated province
bordering Iran and Afghanistan in Pakistan's southwest.
On Friday, reports from the North-West Frontier
Province, which borders Afghanistan, indicated
extraordinary troop activity in that region too.
Talking to Asia Times Online on Friday, a former
director-general of Pakistan's Inter-Services
Intelligence, Lieutenant-General Hameed Gul, termed the
information concerning the arrest of bin Laden as a
"blatant lie".
"You need to understand that the
US just wanted to show a success in its war on terror to
make grounds for attacking Iraq. These sort of media
reports are just part of US propaganda, nothing more,
nothing less," Gul maintained.
"Even the arrest
of Khalid Shaikh Mohammad took place a long time ago [it
was officially reported as taking place on March 1].
After Khalid Shaikh's arrest, law enforcing agencies got
nothing. His arrest was made public on the occasion when
the US is ready to go to war against Iraq so that it
will gain support among the US masses."
Gul also
contested that bin Laden would have taken refuge in
Balochistan, in the Pakistan-Iran border areas. "Osama
is known to have associations with Pashtuns. The
Pak-Iran border area is inhabited by Balochis. Apart
from anything, this is a known smuggling route and
nobody could risk hiding in the area."
The
Pakistani Interior Ministry says that it will continue
to crack down on the remnants of terror networks in
Pakistan. Operations are likely to start in Karachi,
Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and in South Waziristan.
The madrassas (religious schools) will also be
targets.
A large number of suspects will be
rounded up to generate more and more heat. One possible
outcome will be that Pakistan will again be in the
limelight, while the US can certainly claim that it is
winning the war on terror.
And already the US is
using the arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammad as a means of
raising the level of support for its war on Iraq.
According to the Washington Post, Khalid, soon after his
arrest, predicted that al-Qaeda members would begin a
series of attacks on US forces gathering in the Gulf for
an invasion of Iraq. "Let the Iraq war begin - the US
forces will be targeted inside their bases in the Gulf,"
the paper quoted Khalid as saying.
(©2003 Asia
Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact content@atimes.com
for information on our sales and syndication
policies.)
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