LAHORE: While the al-Qaeda high command has appointed an Egyptian
jehadi Saif Al Adal as the military chief of the terror outfit to
supervise operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan, it has re-designated
a Pakistani jehadi Commander Ilyas Kashmiri as the group’s military
strategist to plan and spearhead terrorist attacks against the West.
According to well informed sources in the Pakistani security
establishment, Ilyas Kashmiri, who is also the ameer of the Azad
Kashmir chapter of the Harkatul Jehadul Islami (HUJI), had been made
the chief of al-Qaeda’s military operations for the region following
the May 21, 2010 death of Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, its ex-operational
chief for Afghanistan and Pakistan, in an American drone strike in
North Waziristan. Yazid used to greatly admire Kashmiri’s tactical and
guerilla skills and had left a recorded audio message before his
death, on the basis of which Kashmiri was elevated as the operational
chief of al-Qaeda. Yazid’s posthumous audio tape was released by
al-Qaeda’s media wing on June 15, 2010 wherein he had referred to
Kashmiri as an official part of al-Qaeda, adding that terror attacks
should now be carried out inside the United States. Yazid also claimed
in the same tape that al-Qaeda’s Kashmir faction led by Ilyas had
carried out the February 13, 2010 bombing of the German Bakery in the
Pune city of India which killed 17 people, including two foreigners.
However, since al-Qaeda’s former military chief Saif Al Adal has
returned to the battlefield after being freed by the Iranian
government in exchange for the release an Iranian diplomat who was
kidnapped by the Taliban in Pakistan in 2008, Ilyas Kashmiri has now
been re-designated and assigned with the most difficult and
challenging task of carrying out terror attacks in the West. Informed
sources in the Pakistani security establishment say Kashmir has been
tasked to target the West keeping in view his global jehadi links and
a well-entrenched network of deep-cover agents in Europe and America.
Kashmiri is also a prime example of the increasing partnership between
Osama-led al-Qaeda, Afghan and Pakistani Taliban and the jehadi groups
active in the Indian-administered Jammu Kashmir – all of whom have
assembled in the Waziristan region on the Pak-Afghan tribal belt. And
Kashmiri is believed to be well placed to exploit this growing
cooperation which has augmented al-Qaeda’s capacity to launch major
terror attacks against the US and its Western allies.
Ilyas Kashmiri is considered brutal and goal-oriented just like his
Egyptian partner Saif Al Adel who has substantial experience
cooperating with other anti-US militant groups. While Saif has served
as a Colonel in the Special Forces of the Egyptian Army, there are
unconfirmed reports that Kashmiri used to be a part of the Special
Services Group of the Pakistan Army in the 1990s. He is on the
American radar since the Mumbai terrorist attacks in which several US
nationals were also killed. Originally a product of the Pakistani
establishment which had nurtured him to wage jehad in Jammu & Kashmir,
Kashmiri eventually fell out of favour with his spy masters, when he
refused to serve under the command of a junior jehadi — Maulana
Masood Azhar, who had just founded Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in early
2001 after being released from an Indian jail in the wake of an Indian
plane hijacking. Following the Lal Masjid military action in 2007, he
moved his operational base from his home town Kotli to the Federally
Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) to become a part of the Afghan
Taliban-led resistance against NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Since then, he has emerged as a new international jehadi plotter who
is described by terrorism experts as the key man linking al-Qaeda with
Western recruits and trying to infiltrate highly trained terrorists
into Europe and the United States to launch Mumbai style terrorist
attacks. Some recent findings by Western intelligence agencies say
Ilyas Kashmiri is a key facilitator in al-Qaeda’s plan to carry out
Mumbai-style commando attacks in Europe, mainly in Germany, France,
and England. He has already established himself as the captain of
al-Qaeda’s shadow army – Lashkar-e-Zil (LeZ), which is a loose
alliance of al-Qaeda-and Taliban-linked anti-US militia. The Zil has
distinguished itself by conducting unusual guerilla operations, like
the one that targeted the CIA’s Forward Operating Base in Khost on
December 31, 2009, and killed seven CIA officials.
Besides being the ameer of his own faction of the HUJI, the military
strategist of al-Qaeda and the chief of the LeZ, Kashmiri is also the
commander of Brigade 313, which is made up of the Taliban and allied
jehadi groups. Members of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Harkatul Jehadul
Islami (HUJI), Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM),
Jundullah, and several other Pakistani militant groups are known to
have merged with al-Qaeda in Pakistan, and the group operates under
the name of Brigade 313. Interestingly, the Brigade 313 also has a
website whose landing page has the words “Al-Qaeda Brigade 313” in the
center, in addition to inscribing the names of Harkatul Jehadul
Islami, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jundallah, and the Movement of Pakistani
Taliban in the four corners of the page.
Further surfing of the website would show images of slain al-Qaeda
leader Mustafa Abu Yazid and ideologue Abu Yahya al Libi on the left
side of the page, and an image of Commander Ilyas Kashmiri on the far
right. The Brigade has been behind many high-profile terror attacks
inside Pakistan, including the October 2009 commando assault of the
General Headquarters (GHQ) of the Pakistan Army in Rawalpindi. The GHQ
attack was carried out after an American drone targeted Kashmiri and
reportedly killed him in North Waziristan on September 14, 2009.
Yet, hardly a month after his reported death, Kashmiri re-surfaced and
promised retribution against the United States and its proxies, saying
the Americans were right to pursue him. “They know their enemy quite
well. They know what I am really up to”, Ilyas Kashmiri had observed
in an interview. In August 2010, the United Nations and the United
States tagged him as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist for his
involvement in terrorist activities.
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