Western militants still flocking to Pakistan

Western militants plotting bomb attacks abroad continue to trickle into Fata for training, say officials.

ISLAMABAD:

A steady, modest flow of Western militants plotting to launch bomb attacks abroad continue to trickle into Pakistan’s lawless northwest for training, Pakistani and Western officials say.

As Pakistani authorities detain two Frenchmen picked up in Lahore on suspicion of links with the mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombings, diplomats say many more suspects are holed up in Taliban and al Qaeda enclaves.

Bombings in Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005, a foiled plot in Barcelona and the Mumbai siege in 2008, as well as the botched plot in New York’s Times Square in May last year, all led back to Pakistan’s militant heartland.

Al Qaeda receives logistical support from the Pakistani Taliban who have trained up hundreds of suicide bombers responsible for the majority of the 4,200 people killed in attacks across Pakistan in the past four years.

Diplomats say the most difficult foreigners to track down are British and Americans of Pakistani origin, as they arrive with legitimate visas and blend in with the local population as they make their way to the Waziristan region.

“There are some basic flaws in our immigration system. It’s very easy for these suspects to pass through,” another senior security official said.

The French who come are mostly of North African origin and number “twenty or thirty” in camps along the Afghan-Pakistan border, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Five German militants were killed in October last year by a US drone strike.

Most militants arrive with a working knowledge of Pashto and wear local dress, making them difficult to identify, an intelligence official said.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 16^th,  2011.