Pakistani Roundup 'No Threat to al Qaeda'

KARACHI – Even if senior al-Qaeda operatives are among a group of about 60 people rounded up in Pakistan last week, their arrests would only have a limited effect on operations against United States interests, such as those in Pakistan and Afghanistan, intelligence sources say.

The detainees was arrested during raids in Faisalabad and Lahore, led by Pakistani authorities with support from US personnel, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency. The raids were part of an investigation into the March 17 grenade attack on a Christian church in Islamabad, in which five people were killed, including two Americans.

It is still not clear whether Zainul Abidin Muhammed Husain, popularly known as Abu Zobaida, is among those detained in operation "Top Secret". Zobaida is said to have taken effective control of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda following the collapse of the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan.

According to the latest reports, most of the 40 or so Pakistanis among those rounded up have been released, while the others, including 16 Arabs from different countries, have been taken to Jacobabad air base in the southern Pakistan province of Sindh. There have been unconfirmed reports that they will be flown to the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, or to Bagram airport in Afghanistan for questioning.

A senior Pakistani intelligence official told Asia Times Online that the US authorities were holding a man captured in Faisalabad whom they believe to be a key deputy of bin Laden's. However, four days have now passed and the US investigators are still not 100 percent sure that the man is Zobaida.

Sources said that last week's operations were the result of an incident a month or so ago when a Mauritanian citizen was arrested while trying to flee from Afghanistan into Pakistan. He was handed over to US authorities and during questioning is said to have divulged that Al-Qaeda had set up bases in several Pakistani cities, from where they would attack US interests, and that they would also finance a new war in Afghanistan against US interests by using mercenaries.

The Mauritanian said that some of the al-Qaeda worked with Pakistani tribal leaders who had good inroads into Afghanistan, and who were in a position to carry out terrorist activities and execute secret operations, such as smuggling weapons to the Taliban.

Meanwhile, investigators learned that important al-Qaeda members had arrived in Pakistan from Iran, which resulted in the raids on Lahore and Faisalabad. Those rounded up were done so on the basis of a five-year-old photograph of Saudi national Abu Zobaeda.

After the US conducted missile attacks on Afghanistan in 1998 in retaliation for terror attacks on its embassies on Africa, and imposed sanctions on the Taliban administration, it became increasingly difficult for bin Laden to keep abreast of the day-to-day operations and activities of the al-Qaeda all over the world. So Zobaida was delegated special powers as head of worldwide operations. His main center was believed to be Lebanon, where he was believed to have strong contacts with Hezbollah.

Zobaida is said to have masterminded the planned bomb blast at Los Angeles Airport in 1999. He has been reported to have been seen in Kabul after September 11, from where he returned to Lebanon, and possibly traveled on to Pakistan.

In the past few months he has played an important role in reviving relations between Iranian Islamists and al-Qaeda. Many members of al-Qaeda had strong links with officials in the Iranian ruling religious hierarchy, but these were strained when the Taliban took drastic steps against Shi'ites and Iranian diplomats in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

If Zobaida has indeed been arrested, it would certainly mean a setback for the operations in which he was immediately involved, such as Pakistan and Afghanistan. But the al-Qaeda is a coordinated body of many militant outfits scattered all over the world. Their presence in the shape of the Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Hezbollah reflects the fact that although the "routes are different, the destination is one" and they can execute their plans against US interests independently.