Saudi donors most signifcant source of terrorism funding in Pakistan

[TalibanSwatter]

— AFP/File
LAHORE: Pakistani security forces have arrested a man they believe is the commander of the Islamic State group in the country as well as two accomplices involved in recruiting and sending fighters to Syria, intelligence sources said on Wednesday.

Authorities in South Asia are concerned about the rise of the jihadist group in a region already beset by home-grown insurgencies fighting to topple local governments and set up strict Islamic rule.

Three intelligence sources, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the man, Yousaf al-Salafi, was arrested in the eastern city of Lahore and confessed during interrogation that he represented IS in Pakistan.

“Al-Salafi is a Pakistani Syrian who reached Pakistan through Turkey five months ago,” said one source.

“He crossed into Turkey from Syria and was caught there. Somehow he managed to escape and reached Pakistan to establish ISIS (IS).” The account could not be independently verified.

The source said one of his accomplices, Hafiz Tayyab, was a prayer leader in Lahore and was involved in recruiting Pakistanis and sending them to fight alongside Islamic State in Syria, charging IS about $600 per person.

 

[TalibanSwatter]

LAHORE: Punjab Police’s counter-terrorism department (CTD) raided a building in Lahore on Sunday and arrested three men affiliated with Islamic State who were planning to attack government buildings, authorities said on Monday.

The raid came as police said that banned militant outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) had been seeking to build relations with Islamic State before LeJ chief Malik Ishaq was killed last July.

The CTD said in a statement that their agents seized 1.5 kg of explosives and detonators apart from arresting the three men.

The CTD named the three arrested men but gave no details of how they were connected to Islamic State.

Two senior security officials told Reuters that Islamic State and LeJ leader Ishaq had been in contact with each other since 2014 and were seeking to establish a foothold for Islamic State operations in the country.

“(Ishaq) was serious about establishing a working relationship with ISIS because of his anti-Shia agenda,” said one senior police official in Lahore.

The officials said the nascent cooperation was cut short when authorities killed Ishaq in July 2015 along with his two sons and deputy.

 

[somebozo]

Old mantra..rich and religious is always suspicious..wonder where do these people get all the money from without working any significant job..some of these guys have ferraris and lambos parked at their villas..and they call it blessings of Allah..very cunning business religion is!

 

[Nishan-e-Haider]

Not just Saudi, but also Irani, and dont forget the CIA/RAW fundings in proxy war,

 

[risingsinga]

My clan? did you mother feed you hatred .. or is it genetic?

OK..

So no saudi citizen supports terrorism?

Oh sir, do not involve mother of family members. You should respect people and just differ with logic and no personal insult.

 

[TalibanSwatter]

DAWN

The investigation of Safoora Goth

The federal government in March this year transferred two cases to the military authorities to try them in military courts established under the 21st Amendment to the Constitution.

According to the investigation, Tahir Minhas, the alleged mastermind of the Safoora carnage, had killed members of the Shia community to impress the leadership of militant Islamic State (ISIS) group to secure an important position within the global terrorist network.

The investigation claimed that Minhas was running his own network of local terrorists, was fed up with internal divisions among Taliban groups and wanted to join the IS. For this purpose, he developed contacts with the local leadership of the IS. His brother-in-law Umer alias Jalal was also operating a group of Al Qaeda network in Karachi. Minhas advised Jalal to join the ISIS but he refused to do so, saying that he had sworn allegiance at the hand of Osama bin Laden. But Minhas kept on trying to get associated with ISIS.

According to the investigation, in 2014 ISIS announced establishment of an Islamic state and its spokesman Abu Mohammad Al-Adani released a video message about the ‘establishment’ of Khorasan province and appointment of Hafiz Saeed Khan as its Ameer, who was earlier heading the Taliban in Orakzai agency. Minhas contacted Saeed Khan and swore allegiance to the IS. He was appointed ISIS Ameer for Karachi.

Saad Aziz informed the investigation agency that in 2014 and early 2015 they planned IS wall chalking in different areas of Karachi. They constituted two teams, one for wall chalking and the other to provide security to the first team during the exercise.

They wrote IS slogans at prominent locations in Bahadurabad, Mercantile Society, Kashmir Road, Hasan Square and Gharibabad underpass in Karachi.

According to the investigation, earlier Minhas went to Afghanistan via Balochistan to get three-month training. During his stay in Afghanistan, he met top Al Qaeda leadership, including Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Abu Yahya and Hamza al-Misri in Helmand province.

Minhas told the investigation team that since 2011, Jalal was providing funds to him and his associates. He said that Jalal paid Rs30,000 to each of them on a monthly basis. Jalal received funds from Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.

He was responsible for bringing members of Al Qaeda network from their countries to Pakistan, sending them to Afghanistan and then back to their countries. When they went back to their countries Al Qaeda members paid hefty amounts to Jalal. He was fluent in Arabic and, therefore, was in direct contact with Arab operatives of Al Qaeda.

Minhas, as per the investigation, claimed that Haji Baloch, a brother of Ramzi Yousef, was also one of the financiers. Baloch’s son Anwar collected at least Rs80 million from abroad and sent Rs10m to Waziristan.

Ramzi Yousef was one of the main perpetrators of the 1993 bombing of World Trade Center in New York. His maternal uncle Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, a senior Al Qaeda operative, was involved in Sept 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2016

 

[TalibanSwatter]

DAWN

Perhaps there could be no greater sign of the dilemma confronting the Muslim world than the terrorist attack on one of the holiest sanctuaries of Islam.

The militants’ message was clear as Saudi Arabia was rocked by three separate, but apparently coordinated, acts of terrorism on Monday, the most shocking being the suicide blast outside the Prophet’s (PBUH) mosque in Madina, in which four security personnel were killed as they tried to prevent the bomber from entering the precincts. In other incidents, a Shia mosque in the eastern town of Qatif was targeted; details are sketchy about that incident, just as there was initial confusion about the Madina blast.

Earlier in the day, a suicide bomber had struck outside the US consulate in Jeddah.

The three bombings — with the Madina attack invoking particular revulsion — show that the militants can strike with relative ease across the kingdom. No claims have been made, but the militant Islamic State group is suspected of involvement.

Of course, there is a precedent for such violence in Saudi Arabia’s recent history: in 1979, hundreds of Salafi militants — ideologically on the same wavelength as ISIS and Saudi Arabia — occupied the Masjid al-Haram in Makkah.

That shocking episode ended in a bloody operation as security forces flushed out the militants from the grand mosque.

Clearly, the spirit of the grand mosque assailants has lived on and been reanimated in the form of the modern storm troopers of Islamist militancy.

Monday’s terrorist attacks point to a significant militancy problem in Saudi Arabia. As per official Saudi figures, there have been 26 terrorist attacks over the past two years.

The kingdom had also battled a violent Al Qaeda insurgency over a decade ago. Whether it is ISIS today or Al Qaeda 12 years ago, or the grand mosque assailants even before that, the fact is that militant movements find willing recruits from within Saudi society.

This is, of course, because for decades, the House of Saud has looked the other way as the regime used Salafi jihadists and clerics preaching a narrow sectarian and confrontational ideology.

For example, clerics in the kingdom have urged young Saudis to go abroad — to Syria, to Iraq — to fight other people’s wars, while the state has backed jihadists such as ISIS battling Damascus. Now these radical elements are turning their guns on internal targets.

Pakistan knows the folly of turning a blind eye to radicalism. The Saudis must act now to reverse course, or else considering the deep roots of puritanical jihadist elements within the kingdom, more chaos may well be in the pipeline.

 

[denel]

DAWN

Perhaps there could be no greater sign of the dilemma confronting the Muslim world than the terrorist attack on one of the holiest sanctuaries of Islam.

The militants’ message was clear as Saudi Arabia was rocked by three separate, but apparently coordinated, acts of terrorism on Monday, the most shocking being the suicide blast outside the Prophet’s (PBUH) mosque in Madina, in which four security personnel were killed as they tried to prevent the bomber from entering the precincts. In other incidents, a Shia mosque in the eastern town of Qatif was targeted; details are sketchy about that incident, just as there was initial confusion about the Madina blast.

Earlier in the day, a suicide bomber had struck outside the US consulate in Jeddah.

The three bombings — with the Madina attack invoking particular revulsion — show that the militants can strike with relative ease across the kingdom. No claims have been made, but the militant Islamic State group is suspected of involvement.

Of course, there is a precedent for such violence in Saudi Arabia’s recent history: in 1979, hundreds of Salafi militants — ideologically on the same wavelength as ISIS and Saudi Arabia — occupied the Masjid al-Haram in Makkah.

That shocking episode ended in a bloody operation as security forces flushed out the militants from the grand mosque.

Clearly, the spirit of the grand mosque assailants has lived on and been reanimated in the form of the modern storm troopers of Islamist militancy.

Monday’s terrorist attacks point to a significant militancy problem in Saudi Arabia. As per official Saudi figures, there have been 26 terrorist attacks over the past two years.

The kingdom had also battled a violent Al Qaeda insurgency over a decade ago. Whether it is ISIS today or Al Qaeda 12 years ago, or the grand mosque assailants even before that, the fact is that militant movements find willing recruits from within Saudi society.

This is, of course, because for decades, the House of Saud has looked the other way as the regime used Salafi jihadists and clerics preaching a narrow sectarian and confrontational ideology.

For example, clerics in the kingdom have urged young Saudis to go abroad — to Syria, to Iraq — to fight other people’s wars, while the state has backed jihadists such as ISIS battling Damascus. Now these radical elements are turning their guns on internal targets.

Pakistan knows the folly of turning a blind eye to radicalism. The Saudis must act now to reverse course, or else considering the deep roots of puritanical jihadist elements within the kingdom, more chaos may well be in the pipeline.

dead on point. We saw the same issue with FIS in Algeria in our continent. Thankfully there is compromise and common sense but these are snakes who will bite you. Political agencies have bred them for proxy use but crows come home at the end.

 

[Mentee]

Not just Saudi, but also Irani, and dont forget the CIA/RAW fundings in proxy war,

foreign funding in any case without the approval of the gov't is deplorable and comes into the ambit of treason---but,when some fat a**** sitting in fedreal offices keep quiet over the gruesome murders of pregnant women by takfiri mofos, who literally rip apart their bellies and throw their infants down the hill for being a shia or you got blown away for holding Meelad and Muharam possessions -----

or when majority is being yelled at by a minority " shia will have less azaab than the bidati sunni/brailvis coz the former is an outright kafir but the latter is a bigot,so,worse than a shia"

or when you have to put with the highhandedness of a minority in universities,public places for not backing their takfiri lectures-----

if our govt does not cut those wahabi perks than i welcome any form of support by my Irani cousins to keep the balance in our Country---i would rather urge Irani govt to arrange as many as possible tours for the sunni/sufi scholars to Tehran---active liasioning of sunnis with shia bros is the need of the hour-------just in case if a situation arises like in the case of iraq or syria majority won't be caught off guard--------
@2800 @haman10 @Daneshmand @Moonlight @Max @PaklovesTurkiye @RoadRunner401 @The Sandman @Zibago @B@KH

 

[TalibanSwatter]

dead on point. We saw the same issue with FIS in Algeria in our continent. Thankfully there is compromise and common sense but these are snakes who will bite you. Political agencies have bred them for proxy use but crows come home at the end.

Agreed.

 

[TalibanSwatter]

Death sentences of five terrorists
ISLAMABAD: The military appellate court has upheld the death sentences of five convicts in the Safoora Goth carnage and Sabeen Mahmud murder cases.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on May 12 had announced the confirmation of the death sentences to the five ‘hardcore terrorists’ - Tahir Minhas, Saad Aziz, Asadur Rehman, Mohammad Azhar Ishrat and Hafiz Nasir Ahmed - in nine cases of terrorism, including the Safoora Goth carnage and the Sabeen Mahmud murder cases.

In a letter dated August 15, the judge advocate general department of the army informed the superintendent of the Central Prison Karachi about the dismissal of the appeals filed by the convicts.

The letter said: “The Court of Appeal has rejected the subject appeal on July 25, 2016. The appellant may also be communicated accordingly.”

The defence counsel, however, said he would file a petition with the high court against the decision of the military appellate court.

As per the prosecution, Minhas was the mastermind of the Safoora Goth carnage in which 47 members of the Shia Ismaili community were killed in an attack on their bus in Karachi on May 13, 2015.

The federal government in March this year transferred the cases to the military courts established under the 21st Amendment to the Constitution.

According to the investigation, Minhas killed the Ismaili community members to impress the leadership of the militant Islamic State (IS) group and secure an important position for himself in the terrorist network.

The investigation claimed that Minhas operated his own network of local terrorists but was fed up with divisions in the Taliban groups and wanted to join the IS. For this purpose, he developed contacts with the local leadership of the IS. His brother-in-law Umer alias Jalal was also operating a group of Al Qaeda network in Karachi. Minhas advised Jalal to join the IS but he refused, saying he had sworn allegiance in the hand of Osama bin Laden.

The investigation report claimed that in 2014 and early 2015, Saad Aziz and others planned wall chalking for IS in different areas of Karachi.

In 2002, Minhas had gone to Afghanistan via Balochistan to get three-month training there. During his stay in Afghanistan, he met the top Al Qaeda leadership, including Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Abu Yahya and Hamza al-Misri in the Helmand province.

Minhas told the investigation team that since 2011 Jalal had been providing funds to him and his associates.

He said Jalal paid Rs30,000 to each of them on a monthly basis. He said Jalal received funding from Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. He was responsible for bringing members of the Al Qaeda network from their countries to Pakistan, sending them to Afghanistan and then back to their countries.

When they returned to their countries, Al Qaeda members paid hefty amounts to Jalal. He was fluent in Arabic and was in direct contact with Arab operatives of Al Qaeda.

 

[TalibanSwatter]

Dawn

Police claimed on Thursday to have made key arrests in connection with the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar and said they have captured a key facilitator of the attackers.

The attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar on December 16, 2014, claimed the lives of 133 students and 16 school staff.

The arrests of the key facilitator along with four other terrorists were made in Lower Dir, DSP (circle) Hidayat Ullah said while talking to the media, adding that Islam Wazir is the commander of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and belongs to Rabaat area.

“Wazir aka Mufti was a facilitator of Aurangzaib alias Umar Khalifa Ameer Naray (co-planner of the attack on the Army Public School).”

In addition, Wazir was also involved in the murder of a representative of the Jamaat-e-Islami and police personnel killed in Lower Dir a few days ago, Hidayat Ullah said, adding that he was also involved in terrorist attacks in Chamkani.

The DSP said Wazir had been teaching in 32 religious seminaries and allegedly associated with the mastermind of the APS attack. He maintained that the arrested commander teaches Islamiat.

“After the attack he escaped to Saudi Arabia and later fled to Afghanistan".

The terrorists have been shifted to an undisclosed location.

 

[TalibanSwatter]

61 killed in twin suicide attacks as terrorists storm police training college in Quetta
AFP | DAWN

Heavily-armed militants wearing suicide vests stormed a police academy in Quetta, killing at least 61 people and wounding at least 117, Balochistan Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti said Tuesday, in the deadliest attack on a security installation in the country's history.

Three gunmen burst into the sprawling academy, targeting sleeping quarters home to some 700 recruits, and sent terrified young men aged between 15 and 25 fleeing.

Communication intercepts showed the attack was carried out by Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ) militant group, IG Frontier Corps (FC) Major General Sher Afgan said.

Separately, the militant Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the group's Amaq news agency.

Most of the deaths were caused when two of the attackers blew themselves up. The third was shot dead by Frontier Corps (FC) troops. At least 117 people were injured.

“I saw three men carrying Kalashnikovs… they were in camouflage and their faces were hidden,” one cadet told reporters. “They started firing and entered the dormitory but I managed to escape by climbing over a wall.”

Bugti confirmed to reporters that there had been three attackers.

“They first targeted the watch tower sentry, and after exchanging fire, killed him and were able to enter the academy grounds,” he said.

"We have taken one of the suicide bombers' bodies into custody," Bugti told DawnNews.

The attack on the Balochistan Police College, around 20 kilometres east of Quetta, began at around 11:10pm Monday, with gunfire continuing to ring out at the site for several hours.

Major General Sher Afgan, chief of the paramilitary FC in Balochistan, which led the counter-operation, said “the attack was over in around three hours after we arrived”.

"The operation needed to be conducted with precision therefore it took us four hours to clear the area completely."

“There were three terrorists and all of them were wearing suicide vests,” he said. “Two suicide attackers blew themselves up, which resulted in casualties, while the third one was shot dead by our troops.”

He added that the militants had been communicating with their handlers in Afghanistan.

Afgan said communication intercepts showed the attackers belonged to LJ's Al-Alimi faction, which is affiliated with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The group itself, however, has not claimed the attack.

The area was plunged into darkness when a counter-offensive was launched, and security personnel threw up a cordon while ambulances zoomed in and out, taking the injured to hospitals. Military helicopters circled overhead.

The cadets were rescued from the college following an operation carried out by Special Services Group (SSG) commandos.

 

[TalibanSwatter]

Two 'militants' suspected of affiliation with the outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) disclosed information regarding their motives and modus operandi, a senior Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) official told Dawn on Friday.

The two 'LJ militants' Ishaq, alias Bobby, and Asim, alias Capri, from Liaquatabad were arrested earlier this week for involvement in 28 cases, including the high-profile murder of renowned qawwal Amjad Sabri, who was gunned down in Karachi in June.

The CTD's Raja Umer Khattab, officer in-charge of Transnational Terrorism Intelligence Group (TTIG), told Dawn that during an initial interrogation, Capri confessed the men had targeted the famous qawwal as he used to attend majalis in the month of Muharram.

Capri also claimed that Sabri had done a programme on TV channel in which slain activist Khurram Zaki allegedly uttered some questionable words that the qawwal had supported.

According to Khattab, Capri, originally a resident of Karachi's Gulbahar area, shifted to Amjad Sabri's neighbourhood with the intention of targeting him.

The CTD claimed that Capri's two brothers are also militants who are languishing in jails, whereas his third brother was killed in a sectarian attack.

Bobby, considered a ‘computer expert,' told the investigators that he had collected material from the internet regarding the activities of the qawwal, Khattab claimed.

According to the CTD, Bobby, considered an 'expert shooter' was the one to hit Amjad Sabri. A resident of Karachi's Orangi Town, Bobby is a Hafiz-i-Quran who joined LJ in 2012, the CTD said.

Two of Bobby's accomplices, along with other militants, were killed in an encounter with law enforcement agencies during a deadly terror attack on Karachi's Jinnah International Airport in June 2014.

 

[haviZsultan]

Two 'militants' suspected of affiliation with the outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) disclosed information regarding their motives and modus operandi, a senior Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) official told Dawn on Friday.

The two 'LJ militants' Ishaq, alias Bobby, and Asim, alias Capri, from Liaquatabad were arrested earlier this week for involvement in 28 cases, including the high-profile murder of renowned qawwal Amjad Sabri, who was gunned down in Karachi in June.

The CTD's Raja Umer Khattab, officer in-charge of Transnational Terrorism Intelligence Group (TTIG), told Dawn that during an initial interrogation, Capri confessed the men had targeted the famous qawwal as he used to attend majalis in the month of Muharram.

Capri also claimed that Sabri had done a programme on TV channel in which slain activist Khurram Zaki allegedly uttered some questionable words that the qawwal had supported.

According to Khattab, Capri, originally a resident of Karachi's Gulbahar area, shifted to Amjad Sabri's neighbourhood with the intention of targeting him.

The CTD claimed that Capri's two brothers are also militants who are languishing in jails, whereas his third brother was killed in a sectarian attack.

Bobby, considered a ‘computer expert,' told the investigators that he had collected material from the internet regarding the activities of the qawwal, Khattab claimed.

According to the CTD, Bobby, considered an 'expert shooter' was the one to hit Amjad Sabri. A resident of Karachi's Orangi Town, Bobby is a Hafiz-i-Quran who joined LJ in 2012, the CTD said.

Two of Bobby's accomplices, along with other militants, were killed in an encounter with law enforcement agencies during a deadly terror attack on Karachi's Jinnah International Airport in June 2014.

I have heard some things that are very negative about Raja Umer Khattab from Rao Anwar. I hope Raja Umer Khattab is genuinely fighting terrorism than it just being a tall claim and arrests of civilians in the search for ratings. Some of my negative experiences with the FIA do point to the fact that Rao Anwar may be right.