NYT : Islamabad: Pakistan Confirms Many Details About Key Figure Under Arrest

Islamabad: Pakistan Confirms Many Details About Key Figure Under Arrest

By CARLOTTA GALL | New York Times, August 17, 2006

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 16 — New details unfolded Wednesday about the main figure arrested in the London bombing plot, Rashid Rauf. They included a confirmation by Pakistani officials that Mr. Rauf had married and settled in Bahawalpur, a southern town that is home to a notorious jihadist group, Jaish-e-Mohammed.

The background included accounts that he used to be at least an active member of the organization, which has been banned.

Pakistani officials confirmed that Mr. Rauf, a British citizen born in Pakistan, returned from Britain to settle in Bahawalpur in 2002 and that he married and had children there. Bahawalpur is a small town in southern Punjab, far from Mirpur, in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, the town Mr. Rauf’s family comes from.

Members of Jaish-e-Mohammed, insisting on anonymity, said Mr. Rauf had stayed a member of the group throughout its reincarnations.

A Reuters report from Bahawalpur, however, quoted the father of the founder of Jaish-e-Mohammed as saying Mr. Rauf had belonged to the group but later left it. The father, Hafiz Allah Bukhsh, said Mr. Rauf was related by marriage to one of his younger sons. The two men were married to two sisters, Mr. Bukhsh said. A former Pakistani official with close ties to intelligence agencies confirmed the details and said Mr. Rauf had “longstanding links with Jaish-e-Mohammed and also had Al Qaeda connections.”

Mr. Rauf has emerged as the main coordinating figure of the London case. His arrest led to the arrests of 24 people in Britain last Thursday.

“He became a central figure in all this,” said a senior government official who insisted on anonymity because of the investigation. “He was a connecting figure and central to it.”

Mr. Rauf came to the notice of British investigators who traced telephone calls between him and people in Britain who were under surveillance, the official said.

“There were frequent calls from there and to him,” the official said, adding that the British had asked Pakistan to watch Mr. Rauf, who had been under surveillance for a few weeks.

Reuters, quoting unnamed intelligence officials, reported that Mr. Rauf was arrested on Aug. 9, hours before the arrests in Britain. [...]

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