Pakistani charged in US with attempting to kill Musharraf

In 2002, Majid Shoukat Khan wore an explosives vest and sat in a Karachi mosque, where the ex-president was to arrive.

WASHINGTON/ MIAMI: A Pakistani who lived in the US for many years before returning home has been charged with trying to kill former president Pervez Musharraf, the US defence department announced on Tuesday.

Majid Shoukat Khan, 31, is alleged of donning an explosives vest and sitting in a mosque in Karachi waiting for Musharraf to arrive so that he can assassinate the former president. The attempt, made on direction of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, was foiled when Musharraf never arrived.

In the charges, filed at the Pentagon, he is also alleged of directly conspiring with Mohammed to blow up underground gasoline storage tanks at gas stations in the US and other attacks in that country. The charges also say that Khan joined members of al Qaeda to plan and prepare attacks against diverse targets in the US, Indonesia and elsewhere after September 11, 2001.

In March 2002, Khan travelled to the city again from Karachi and performed tasks there for al Qaeda such as purchasing a laptop computer for al Qaeda and contacting a military recruiter to obtain materials regarding the US military which he intended to pass on to Mohammed.

Then, upon returning to Pakistan in August 2002, he worked directly for Mohammed, Ali Abdul alAziz Ali and other al Qaeda associates, all of whom were evading capture by US and Pakistani authorities. In December 2002, he and his wife travelled to Thailand from Pakistan, where he evaded notice by posing as a tourist. While in Bangkok, he delivered $50,000 in al Qaeda funds to a southeast Asia-based al Qaeda affiliate, which in turn delivered the money to an allied terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah. The Jemaah used the money to detonate a bomb in August 2003 at the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, killing 11 people, wounding 81 others and severely damaging the hotel.

He worked for a while at his family’s gas station before traveling to Pakistan in 2002 to attend a series of family weddings and look for a wife. While there, an associate introduced him to KSM and he began to work with al Qaeda, investigators said.

Khan, a Pakistani with legal US residence, moved with his family to the Baltimore area in 1996 and graduated from high school there three years later.

He was captured in Pakistan in March 2003 and held in secret CIA custody for three years before being transferred in 2006 to the detention center at the Guantanamo Bay US naval base in Cuba. He is currently held in a top-security prison at the base for “high-value” prisoners.

Prosecutors submitted the charges to a retired Navy admiral overseeing the Guantanamo trials, who must approve them before a tribunal is convened to hear the case.

Khan also received assistance from US-trained neuroscientist, Aafia Siddiqui, who opened a post office box for him and helped him obtain travel documents, military documents indicate.

In accordance with the Military Commissions Act of 2009, Chief Prosecutor Mark Martins has forwarded the sworn charges to Convening Authority Bruce MacDonald with a recommendation that the charges be referred to a military commission for trial.