WikiLeaks: US State Dept warned missions against attacks

Leaked cable reveals list of targets of suicide attacks in Peshawar, Lahore and Islamabad.

A cable released by WikiLeaks includes a report sent to embassies by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about threats of attacks in different countries, including Pakistan.

According to the document dated June 29, 2009, the US had received reports that militants attached to the ‘Mumtaz Group’ were planning to “kidnap UK and US citizens working in non-governmental organisations and consulates, as well as dual-citizen Pakistanis either working or residing in Peshawar.”

The group was also linked to “ongoing, credible planning against Peshawar cantonment as well as American personnel and convoys belonging to the US Consulate in Peshawar.”

The US Consulate in Peshawar was attacked on April 5 this year, in which eight people were killed.

The cable is sketchy as to what the Mumtaz Group is or refers to but cites a number of individuals who may be linked to the group.

The cable also reveals possible targets of suicide attacks, including “Senator Tariq Azeem, embassies located in the F-6/2 sector, police post Aabpara, the imambargah in G-6/2 and the Bari Imam shrine,” in Islamabad and the Data Darbar shrine in Lahore.

There were three suicide attacks at the Data Darbar shrine on July 1 this year and an imambargah in Rawalpindi was attacked on December 24, 2009. A police checkpoint near Aabpara was attacked in 2007 and the Bari Imam shrine was attacked in 2005.

The document also notes that intelligence reports from June mentioned that “the cultivation and use of sympathetic madrassas and extremists located in targeted cities to carry out future attacks.”

According to the document, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan “reportedly tasked Abdul Malik Mujahid to launch suicide attacks against unspecified foreigners in crowded places in Punjab, with Mujahid considering the use of sympathetic madrassas as shelter prior to conducting an attack. Madrassas under consideration included the Jamia Ashrafia and Jamia Manzoorul Islamia in Lahore.”

One of the suspects of the attack on two Ahmedi places of worship in Lahore in May 2010 reportedly stayed at a centre linked to the Tablighi Jamaat, a proselytising organisation.

However, the cable notes that “the continued existence of networks in Islamabad that can organise and facilitate protests and terrorist activity in the vicinity of the capital is indeed troubling.”

It also mentions reports from May 2007, which cited a commander 10 corps lieutenant who noted that “70 mosques in and around Islamabad would likely support extremist activity associated with the now-infamous Lal Masjid.”

According to the cable, intelligence reports received prior to the Lal Masjid crisis in 2007 suggested that “Pakistan-based extremists viewed the brewing tension between the madrassas and Islamabad one part of a larger comprehensive effort to re-energise and expand their jihadi operations from their strongholds in the tribal areas and Northwest Frontier Province.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2010.