LAHORE: The American authorities have sought from the Pakistan government an early arrest and extradition of Commander Ilyas Kashmiri, the fugitive chief of the Azad Kashmir chapter of the pro-Kashmir jehadi group Harkatul Jehadul Islami (HUJI) for his alleged involvement in coordinating a suicide attack on the Central Intelligence Agency Forward Operating Base of Chapman in the Khost province of Afghanistan bordering North Waziristan, on December 31, 2009, that killed seven CIA officers and injured six others.
It was the deadliest single day for the American intelligence agency since eight CIA officers were killed in the 1983 bombing of the American Embassy in Beirut. Interestingly, a spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had claimed responsibility for targeting the CIA base in Khost which uses a combination of high-tech satellite technology and human intelligence gathering for carrying out US drone strikes and covert operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The TTP spokesman said in his January 1 responsibility claim that the TTP had managed to infiltrate the base with the suicide bomber who was disguised as a soldier of the Afghan National Army.
According to well placed diplomatic sources in Islamabad, considered close to the US intelligence sleuths stationed in Pakistan, initial investigations show that the suicide bombing mission targeting the CIA base in Khost had been planned in the North Waziristan tribal area which is allegedly sheltering hundreds of the fugitive al-Qaeda and Taliban militants wanted by US intelligence agencies. And the human bomb which exploded himself at the CIA base in Khost is believed to have been dispatched by Ilyas Kashmiri, the fugitive chief of the HUJI who was reportedly killed in a US drone attack in the North Waziristan area in September 2009 along with Nazimuddin Zalalov, a top al-Qaeda leader. However, Kashmiri re-surfaced three weeks later and promised retribution against the United States and its proxies [in his October 13, 2009 interview with a foreign news agency].
According to the diplomatic sources in Islamabad, the Khost suicide bomber has already been identified by the Americans as Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi – a Jordanian national – who was sent to Afghanistan with the specific mission of joining the Afghan National Army so that he could easily penetrate the CIA base to carry out his suicide mission. Having joined the Afghan National Army last year, Humam reportedly approached an American informant in Khost, saying he wanted to give some vital information to the CIA people about the whereabouts of Dr Ayman Al Zawahiri. As the informer, already identified Ali Bin Zaid, took Humam to the Khost Forward Operating Base, the later detonated his explosive vest he was wearing under his clothes, killing seven CIA officers, including the station chief, and wounding six others.
The forward operating bases in Afghanistan usually depend on local Afghans for security. But the Taliban have frequently infiltrated the ranks of Afghan security forces as well as private firms hired to guard US facilities or to perform more menial tasks. The Khost Forward Operating Base is in fact a former Afghan army installation and was used jointly by US and Afghan security forces during their military campaign against the Taliban beginning in 2001. In recent years, the base added an intelligence-gathering function and had a housing compound for the CIA officials. The base was at the heart of a covert program overseeing drone strikes by the Agency’s remote-controlled aircraft along the Pak-Afghan border, which killed over 700 Pakistani civilians in 45 such attacks carried out in the tribal areas of Pakistan in the 12 months of 2009.
Approached for comments, a senior interior ministry official said the Pakistani authorities are already trying to hunt down Ilyas Kashmiri for his involvement in several terrorist activities carried out in different parts of Pakistan. No 4 on the most wanted list of the Pakistani ministry of interior, Ilyas Kashmiri is a veteran of the Kashmir jehad who spent several years in an Indian jail. He was arrested after the December 2003 twin suicide attacks on General Musharraf’s presidential cavalcade in Rawalpindi, but released a few weeks later due to lack of evidence. He later shifted his base to the Waziristan region and joined hands with Baitullah Mehsud to establish a training camp in North Waziristan.
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