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Pakistani backlash to FBI
raids
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - Strict new US immigration controls on
Pakistanis, the growing certainty of war on Iraq and the
intensified operations of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) in Karachi are helping raise the
temperature among anti-US forces in Pakistan, with
possible explosive results.
Over the past week,
the FBI, along with Pakistani security officials, has
conducted a series of raids and arrests in various parts
of Karachi, the country's main financial center, as it
steps up its search for al-Qaeda suspects.
Last
week, the FBI and local agencies rounded up two Arabs in
the Gulshan-I-Maymar district. These two arrests led to
further search operations, which in turn resulted in the
arrest of several other Pakistanis and Arabs, as well as
an Australian convert to Islam. And on Monday evening
the circle of the operations extended to parts of
Balochistan province, which is adjacent to Karachi.
Pakistani police sources say that with each
arrest, further links are established to other Arab
fighters holed up in different parts of Karachi and Hub
(a city in Balochistan but only a 45 minute drive from
Karachi) .
Last week, as a result of a joint
raid between Pakistani law enforcement agencies and the
FBI in the middle-class locality of Gulshan-I-Maymar in
Karachi, which is adjacent to an Afghan refugee camp,
two Arabs - Abu Hamza and Abu Umar - were apprehended.
These arrests led to raids on Saturday in the
eastern and southern parts of Karachi in which three
Pakistanis and two more Arabs were held. The identities
of the suspects have not been released. It is also
learnt that the estate agent who rented out a flat in
the Defense Housing Society from where al-Qaeda suspects
Ramzi Binalshibh was rounded up recently, had also
arranged the property in Gulshan-I-Maymar from where Abu
Umar and Abu Hamza were seized. The name of the estate
agent is said to be Noor Alam, and he has disappeared.
The arrested Arabs are being interrogated by a
joint investigation team comprising agents from
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, Military
Intelligence, the Intelligence Bureau and the police CID
branch. FBI operators are also separately interrogating
the men.
It is widely known that many Arabs
retreated from Afghanistan with the fall of the Taliban
government there and took refuge in Karachi. A number of
these had relations with al-Qaeda, and simply went to
Afghanistan for the sake of jihad.
However, Abu
Umar and Abu Hamza are not believed to fall into this
category as they are said to have strong al-Qaeda links.
Abu Unar also had a satellite phone and thousands of US
dollars, according to a senior police source.
This source says that on Abu Umar’s information,
more raids were conducted across the city on Saturday.
As a result, three Pakistanis and two Arabs were rounded
up. These arrests led to two more Arabs being arrested
near the airport area in Karachi on Monday. They are
said to be Abu Mohsin and Abu Huraira. Several teams
have now been sent to Balochistan to conduct more raids.
Over the past few months, many Arabs with
suspected al-Qaeda links have been arrested in Pakistan,
but Pakistani militant groups and the general populace
has hardly reacted. Now, though, this is likely to
change.
Politically speaking, the Muttahida
Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an alliance of six religious
parties, has emerged as a political force in Pakistan,
and even has control of the state legislature in North
West Frontier Province.
Now, having been elected
on a strong anti-US platform, the MMA will be compelled
to take up the issue of the FBI involvement in the
country and other matters, such as a possible US attack
on Iraq and the apparent victimization of Pakistanis
under new registration laws in the US. All three issues
touch the heart of the common Pakistani, and it is
likely that in coming weeks demonstrations will become a
headache for government.
At the same time, the
moderate voice of political parties such as the Pakistan
Muslim League-Nawaz group, which is already against the
military regime, will be raised in concert with the
religious parties.
The retreat of the Taliban,
the fall of Kandahar and the complete U-turn in
Pakistani policy concerning militant groups were
demoralizing factors for these militants. Some dissident
elements among the militants tried to retaliate against
Western targets, but they failed to cause any real
damage.
At the same time, there are clear signs
that anti-US forces have re-organized in Afghanistan,
and a concerted guerilla warfare campaign has begun in
the country. Pakistani militants will be ready to
provide them with backup and support.
Shortly
after the recent FBI raids in Karachi, a time bomb was
found in an American franchise in Hyderabad. The bomb
was defused before it exploded, but security officials
see it as a forerunner of things to come.
In the
upcoming anti-US demonstrations by the religious parties
an organized campaign will be launched to boycott US
products in Pakistan. It is expected that militant
groups will take advantage of the situation to target US
franchises in Pakistan as these are soft targets, for
example, in comparison to Western diplomatic missions in
Islamabad and Karachi.
(©2003 Asia Times Online
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