3.31.2006

Pakistan secret service cover-up?

A well-respected intelligence source sent me information today indicating all is not as it appears regarding a recent attack on an associate of Osama bin Laden.

Today, the Daily Times of Lahore reported the attack of six people Tuesday evening against Maulana Fazalur Rehman Khalil, the former chief of banned militant group Harkatul Mujahideen..."

The sources writes: "Maulana Fazlur Rahman Khalil is a founding member of the Harkat-ul-Ansar (HUA), subsequently renamed in 1997 as the Harkat-uk-Mujahideen (HUM) after the US designated the HUA as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation in October,1997, and then re-named again as the Jamiat-ul-Ansar (JUA) after President General Pervez Musharraf banned the HUM on January 15,2002, under US pressure."

He is also a founding member of Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front (IIF) for Jihad Against the Crusaders and the Jewish People formed in 1998 and a co-signatory of bin Laden's first fatwa issued in 1998 calling for attacks against the US. He was also allegedly running al Qaeda training camps.

Back to the story...the source says it was in fact the Pakistani ISI (secret service) who attempted to kill Khalil so that he could not be extradited to the US for interrogation by the F.B.I.

Why? His response: "Khalil has had a long history of contact with the ISI and would know about the role of the ISI in Afghanistan and India. The Karzai Government has been alleging that it was he and his Jamiat-ul-Ansar who have been training the Taliban and other groups operating in Afghanistan. He knows about the training of Hamid Hayat and others for operations in the US. That is why it does not want him to be interrogated by Afghan or US officials.. My sources in Pakistan say that the attack was organised by the ISI through its men"

The source is a fount of information on the alleged role of the ISI in fomenting terrorist proxy attacks in India.

I don't want to say too much more on this b/c I'm working it into a story. Posted by Picasa