Pakistan: Al-Qaeda Cell Smashed

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From 'AKI': A militant Al-Qaeda cell linked to Pakistan's top Taliban commander, Baitullah Mehsud, and other jihadi organisations was targeted in a major raid by security forces in Karachi on Friday. Three key militants died during the raid on the cell, which was allegedly planning a campaign of destruction. Their targets are believed to have included the bureau of the country's intelligence services (ISI), NATO supply lines from two Karachi ports and anti-Taliban politicians.

The cell had direct links to Baitullah Mehsud and Qari Zafar, the alleged mastermind of the devastating bomb attack on the Marriott Hotel, which killed at least 53 people and injured 260 others in Islamabad last week. Security officials were reluctant to confirm it, but it is understood to have been the same cell that was behind the 18 October assassination attempt on former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto when she returned from exile. Bhutto was later killed in a second attack in December.

A key Al-Qaeda militant, Rahimullah, alias Ali Hasan (Photo), was arrested during Friday's raid, that was conducted by a joint team of Pakistani police and intelligence agencies on the outskirts of Karachi's Baldia Town, near the border of restive Balochistan province. While three militants died in the raid, Rahimullah was taken into custody. Sultan Umer, Siddiq Mehsud, cousin of Baitullah Mehsud, and Waseem Bengali are believed to be the men killed in the raid on Friday. All were members of Laskhar-i-Jhangvi, an Islamist terror group linked to Al-Qaeda.

Rahimullah, a Karachi-based ethnic Pashtun, has in the past been linked to Laskhar-i-Jhangvi and Harkat-i-Jehad-i-Islami, another jihadi group linked to Al-Qaeda and is alleged to have killed several high profile religious clerics. He was believed to have been involved in various incidents, including attacks on the US Consulate in Karachi which has been the target of several suicide attacks between 2002 and 2006. Security sources said while there was only a single cell that had been smashed in Friday's raid, Rahimullah’s arrest could help uncover the funding networks used by the Taliban and Al-Qaeda from the Middle East.

Police also found the body of Shaukat Afridi, a contractor who transported NATO supplies from Karachi to Afghanistan through tankers. He was abducted from Clifton Karachi in May 2008 and his captors were demanding 64,000 dollars ransom. He was believed to be killed in a cross fire between the police and militants. Inspector General Police of Sindh province Salauddin Babar Khattack declined to make any comment to Adnkronos International (AKI) concerning the militants' links with South Waziristan. “It is confirmed that they belong to Laskhar-i-Jhangvi but we cannot confirm or deny their links with South Waziristan,” Khattack told AKI by telephone.

Pakistani intelligence agencies have identified the southern port city of Karachi as the greatest potential terror target since the Marriott blast in Islamabad. Security agencies were on high alert on Friday outside the foreign missions in Karachi and around the strategic organisations like ISI which are heavily involved in anti-terror operations across the country and manned by mostly military officials.