Gulf Times : UK terror plot suspect ‘not Jaish member’

UK terror plot suspect ‘not Jaish member’

August 18, 2006

ISLAMABAD: An aide to the leader of banned Pakistani militant group Jaish-e-Mohamed denied yesterday that a British Muslim arrested in Pakistan in connection with the plot to blow up transatlantic airliners had ever been a member of the group.

"This individual, Rashid Rauf, was never a member of Jaish-e-Mohamed ... and was never ever close to Maulana Masood in any capacity," said Ismail Hamza, referring to the militant group’s leader, Maulana Masood Azhar.

Rauf is related by marriage to the Jaish-e-Mohamed chief but had never been part of the group, relatives said yesterday.

Security officials said Rauf had instead used members of a separate splinter group blamed for a 2002 attack on an Islamabad church, called Jamaatul Furqan, to communicate with a top Al Qaeda operative in Afghanistan about the plan.

The brother of Masood Azhar said Rauf wedded one of his in-laws about three years ago and went by the false name Khalid in Bahawalpur, a city in central Punjab province.

"Rashid Rauf was married to the sister of the wife of my elder brother, Tahir," said Abdur Rauf - whose family name is the same as Rashid’s by coincidence.

Rashid Rauf, 25, fled to Pakistan in 2002 after the killing of his uncle in Birmingham and is reportedly wanted by British police for questioning.

"We categorically deny that he was a member of our party at any stage," Abdur Rauf added.

"We do not know under what circumstances and when Rauf was arrested. His house was raided on August 12 by security officials and they took away some items from there. His wife and two children are still in that house, we believe."

Intelligence officials said Rauf, named by Pakistan as a "key man" in the alleged airliner conspiracy, was arrested on a bus in the nearby town of Lodhran as he was travelling to the central city of Multan.

Jaish-e-Mohamed has been banned by President Pervez Musharraf.

It fights Indian rule in the divided Himalayan state of Kashmir and was a key player in a December 2001 assault on the Indian parliament that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war.

Azhar was jailed in India during the 1990s but was traded after an Indian passenger jet was hijacked from Kathmandu and flown to Kandahar in Afghanistan, along with Omar Sheikh who was sentenced to death over the kidnap and killing of US reporter Daniel Pearl.

His current whereabouts are unknown.

Azhar’s elderly father angrily denied an earlier report that he said Rashid Rauf had been a member of Jaish and left for a rival group that opposed the US.

"I swear by God that I did not meet any journalist. I never said that Rashid Rauf was member of my son’s party. I have never seen or met Rashid, I do not know what he looked like," his father said, adding that he had not seen his son for four years.

An intelligence source said Rashid was believed to have had co-operation from members of Jamaatul Furqan, a breakaway group from Jaish-e-Mohamed, which was banned by Britain in October 2005.

It is led by Maulvi Abdul Jabbar, a former Afghan war veteran and Jaish commander, and has been blamed for an attack on an Islamabad church in 2002 which killed two Americans and wounded 45 others, including diplomats.

"The (Jamaatul Furqan) network was used apparently to communicate with Al Qaeda contact based in southern Afghanistan," the source said.

Rashid Rauf’s brother-in-law Sohaib Ahmed said Rauf had apparently been living a double life.

"He was doing a cosmetic business and often travelled outside Bahawalpur mainly to Rawalpindi and Karachi," Ahmed said.

"He would stay home few days every month and then go out for his business. We did not know that he was a British national, we knew him as Mohamed Khalid who settled to our area from Mirpur, Kashmir.

"He was married to my sister three years ago, they have two children. I have read in the papers that his name was Rashid and he was wanted in any case. He did not have any links to any organisation."

- Agencies