Al Qaeda in Pakistan: Urban legends put to test

Number of Al Qaeda leaders captured from Pakistan’s cities.

KARACHI:

While Bajaur, Wana and other areas in the tribal region have often been touted as hide-outs for al Qaeda leaders, the theory has been put to test by the number of leaders captured from Pakistan’s cities.

In 1995, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Centre attacks Ramzi Yousaf was arrested in Islamabad. Even though Pakistan arrested key operatives in the years after 9/11 – including 10 of the 16 high-value detainees currently held at Guantanamo - reports that Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar lives in Quetta circulate persistently.

Karachi

2002 - Ramzi bin al Shibh, who was working on a plot targeting Heathrow airport, and al Qaeda facilitator Abdu Ali Sharqawi arrested in raids on al Qaeda safe houses. Other key al Qaeda operatives arrested include Hassan Muhammad Ali Bin Attash, Abdul Rabbani Abdul Rehman and Ahmed Ghulam Rabbani

2003 - Ammar al Balochi, who was working on a plot to attack the US Consulate in Karachi and hotels housing US troops, is arrested

2003 - Walid Mohammad Salih bin Attash, who was working on the Karachi Plot and had been involved in the 2002 attack on the USS Cole, is arrested with al Balochi

2003 – Majid Khan, who was tasked to attack gas stations in the US, arrested from a house in Karachi

2010 – Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is taken into Pakistani custody

Faisalabad

2002 – Senior al Qaeda lieutenant Abu Zubaydah and 30 other suspected al Qaeda operatives arrested in raids at safe houses run by Lashkar-e-Taiba

Rawalpindi

2003 - 9/11 plotter Khalid Shaikh Mohammad and al Qaeda financier Mustafa Ahmad al Hawsawi captured in a raid in Rawalpindi

Lahore

2007 – Osama bin Laden’s senior aide Mohammad Rahim al Afghani captured

Gujrat

2004 – Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a suspect in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, arrested from Gujrat

Mardan

2005 - Al Qaeda operational chief Abu Faraj al Libbi captured in Mardan

Abbottabad

2011 - Jemaah Islamiyah’s Umar Patek, wanted for the 2002 Bali nightclubs bombings, arrested in Abbottabad

SOURCE: WIKILEAKS.ORG, BBC, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published in The Express Tribune, May 3^rd, 2011.