ISLAMABAD - Ilyas Kashmiri was one of the key planners of the attack on the
Indian city of Mumbai in November 2008 in which more than 160 people were
killed [1]. The top Pakistani commander, whose 313 Brigade is an operational
arm of al-Qaeda, has also recently threatened to attack international sports
events in India. [2]
If anyone were to be offered as a sacrificial lamb to be handed over to India
as a sign of goodwill as the two countries began a new round of dialogue in
Delhi on Thursday, it would be Kashmiri.
It could not happen, however, as the elusive leader remains at large in the
rugged tribal areas that straddle Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Instead, the chief operational commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba
(LeT), Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi, who is already in detention, could be handed over
to Indian authorities. This would happen if a joint grilling by Pakistani, US
and Indian intelligence showed that he was connected to the Mumbai attack,
Pakistani security sources tell Asia Times Online. The 10 militants who
attacked Mumbai came from the LeT, which is banned in Pakistan. The sole
surviving attacker remains in Indian custody.
According to reports, India on Thursday submitted three terror dossiers to
Pakistan, including one on Kashmiri. Another dossier seeks the handing over of
five people linked to the Mumbai attack, although they have not yet been
arrested, as well as access to three other suspects, including a serving army
officer identified only as Major Iqbal.
The third dossier lists 33 terrorists and criminals that India demands be
handed over. These include top bosses in the Indian Mujahideen and the
Khalistan movement, which seeks to create a Sikh homeland in the Punjab region
of India; a serving Pakistani officer, Major Samir Ali, and a handler of US
terror suspect David Coleman Headley.
The Mumbai dossier specifically seeks the arrest and questioning of five
people: alleged mastermind Hafiz Saeed and other handlers and trainers "Abu
Hamza, Abu Qahafa, Muzammil Butt and Usman". Three others - including
Pakistan-based handlers Major Iqbal and Sajid Mir - are listed as suspects to
be questioned to verify their role in helping Headley carry out reconnaissance
for attack sites in Mumbai.
Apart from seeking access to or the handing over of the Mumbai suspects in
Pakistan, the dossier also reiterates India's demand for voice samples of those
already arrested by Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency. These will be
matched to audio recorded of instructions being given to the Mumbai attack
team.
Kashmiri's dossier points to his links to the Mumbai attacks. His 313 Brigade
was prominently referred to in conversations between the attackers and their
Pakistani handlers. Kashmiri's role as the leading motivator of Headley is also
raised.
According to the dossiers handed over by Indian authorities at the foreign
secretary-level talks on Thursday, Pakistan, the US and India will have
difficulty in arresting Kashmiri. The US claimed last October he had been
killed in a drone attack in the North Waziristan tribal area in Pakistan. He
was not, and he subsequently gave an interview to Asia Times Online. (See
Al-Qaeda's guerrilla chief lays out strategy Asia Times Online, October
15, 2009.)
Before Pakistan signed on to the "war on terror" after September 11, 2001,
Kashmiri had been one of the Pakistani military establishment's favorite sons,
operating mainly in Indian-administered Kashmir but at times going as far as
Delhi. He personally carried out several high-profile operations, including the
beheading of army majors and the abduction of foreigners.
When Pakistan, under US pressure, scaled down its Kashmir operations after
9/11, Kashmiri parted ways with his handlers and was even arrested twice. He
then moved to North Waziristan and joined hands with al-Qaeda. As one of the
world's most dangerous guerrilla strategists, he was quickly appointed the
chairman of al-Qaeda's military committee.
Kashmiri is believed to have masterminded a number of audacious attacks over
the past few years - none of which involved suicide bombers. These included a
bid to kidnap Sri Lankan cricketers, an attack on a police academy and
subsequent hostage-taking of 800 officers and trainees, an attack on military
headquarters in Rawalpindi, and an assault on a mosque in which several senior
military officials were killed.
Across the border in Afghanistan, Kashmiri last year plotted the multiple
bombing of a US military base in Khost and then the brazen attack on a US
Central Intelligence Agency base in Khost in which several top CIA officials
were killed. This operation did involve a suicide bomber. He has also set up a
number of successful operations in Kabul.
Despite being personally involved in some of the attacks, Kashmiri has never
come close to being caught, which is why the LeT's Lakhvi is in the frame to be
offered to India. Similarly, Pakistan will not hand over serving officers.
In the present India-Pakistan talks, the main role is being played by
Washington to press the two countries to work together as the al-Qaeda-led
insurgency is growing in the region and the armies of the two countries need to
fight this menace rather than each other.
Pakistan, by cooperating with India over the Mumbai attack - which remains an
extremely sensitive issue for Indians - will be taking an important step
towards such reconciliation.
Friday's series of suicide attacks in Kabul, in which at least 11 people were
killed and 20 injured, including Indians, is an attempt, though, by al-Qaeda to
generate friction between India and Pakistan even as they have sat down to
talk.
Court steps in
A former official of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and a close aide of
Osama bin Laden during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s, retired
Squadron Leader Khalid Khawaja, filed a constitutional petition in the Lahore
High Court on Thursday over the recent arrest in Pakistan of several senior
Taliban officials.
Under article 199 of the constitution, Khawaja sought that they should not be
handed over to any country and that they should not be allowed to be
interrogated by any foreign intelligence agency. The Taliban are:
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Afghan Taliban's senior military commander and
trusted friend of Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
Mullah Abdul Salam, the Taliban's unofficial political chief in Kunduz province
who also acts as the group's senior military commander over a large portion of
northern Afghanistan.
Moulvi Abdul Kabeer, governor of Nangahar province east of Kabul during the
Taliban regime.
Mullah Mir Muhammad of Baghlan.
Ameer Muawiyia.
On Friday, the chief justice of the High Court ordered in favor of the
petition. Earlier, the same court had stopped the transfer of five American
nationals who had been arrested on terrorism charges from being transferred to
the US.
Friday's decision clearly marks that there are other players in the game - a
proactive judiciary and radical elements in the military establishment. Between
them, they could stand in the way of the full realization of American designs
in the region.
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