Taliban leader said to be in Karachi

Ayesha Nasir

• Last Updated: November 20. 2009 11:42PM UAE / November 20. 2009 7:42PM GMT

LAHORE // Pakistan yesterday strongly denied a US report that Mullah Omar, the head of the Afghan Taliban and a close confident of al Qa’eda leader Osama bin Laden, was living in Karachi, a port city that has gained a growing reputation of late for attracting Taliban fighters.

The Washington Times, citing US intelligence sources, said Mullah Omar had been moved from Quetta along the border with Afghanistan to Karachi by Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI, who feared he would become a target of one of the growing number of US drone attacks.

But Pakistani officials and analysts protested against the allegations, saying it was “propaganda” meant to discredit the intelligence agency and the country.

“This is just not possible, and it is simply part of a malicious campaign against our army and other organisations. This is an absurd allegation without any plausible ground indicators,” Brig Ijaz Shah, the former head of the ISI, said.

Despite their denials, there have been an increasing number of reports suggesting that Karachi has become a new centre for Taliban fighters, who are using the commercial capital to earn money for their organisation.

A report by the city’s police Special Branch in March revealed that the Taliban had a number of hideouts in the city where they had stored huge caches of weapons and ammunition.

The Taliban “could take the city hostage at any point”, police said in the report. Earlier this month, Irfan Khan, a top Taliban leader was reportedly arrested in the city. Khan was allegedly head of Taliban operations in the North West Frontier Province before he fled to Karachi.

A member of a militant group affiliated with the Taliban also attested to the growing importance of Karachi.

“The city has always been a perfect hiding spot because it’s so big and vast that it’s easier to hide in,” he said.

“Plus it’s easy to earn money in Karachi especially through petty crimes such as stealing mobile phones.”

A source in the ISI told The National that Karachi had never been off their radar.

“This is the city where [Wall Street Journal reporter] Daniel Pearl was targeted and given the size of Karachi, it’s easy for militant elements to hide in the crowds,” he said.

“Also, Karachi is the hub of financial activity which is why it attracts Taliban foot soldiers looking to make money.”

According to the Washington Times, the one-eyed Mullah Omar travelled to Karachi at the end of the holy month of Ramadan with the help of the ISI. Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan, where the Afghan Taliban leadership had based themselves following their flight from Kandahar post September 2001, had become too dangerous, the paper said.

“He inaugurated a new senior leadership council in Karachi, a city that so far has escaped US and Pakistani counter-terrorism campaigns,” officials told the newspaper.

But the ISI vehemently denied its involvement in any transfer of Mullah Omar, who has not been seen since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan. The ISI official said that while in the past the intelligence agency and the Taliban may have worked together, at this point they were firm enemies.

“The Taliban has started targeting the army and the police,” he said. “How can we support someone who is trying to kill us?”

The Washington Times also said that while the top leadership of al Qa’eda was still in hiding in South Waziristan, along the border with Afghanistan, it seemed that midlevel al Qa’eda operatives had moved to Karachi.

“One reason [al Qa’eda] and Taliban leaders are relocating to Karachi is because they believe US drones do not strike there,” a US official was quoted as saying.

Rasool Baksh Raees, a professor at the Lahore University of Management Sciences, was also sceptical that Mullah Omar might be in Karachi.

“If he was to move out of Quetta, why wouldn’t he move to remote parts of Baluchistan where the chances of him being sighted are weak,” he said. “Why would he instead choose to go to Karachi?”

Karachi’s special significance for the Taliban also came to light last August when Mualvi Omar, the spokesman of Tehrik-e-Taliban, the Pakistani arm of the Taliban, claimed the group already had a strong presence in the city, and could increase that if the situation changed.

“We want to help improve law and order and maintain peace in Karachi. The Taliban could surface in Karachi if foreign hands are not stopped interfering in the city,” the spokesman said. He was responding to news that MQM, one of the main political parties in Karachi, had alleged ties with India, Pakistan’s long-time foe.

Bruce Riedel, a US-based expert on al Qa’eda and the Taliban, said the fact there have been few suicide bombings in Karachi, while cities such as Islamabad, Peshawar and Lahore are suffering near daily blasts, suggests the Taliban have chosen the city as their next home. They don’t want to “foul their own nest”, he said, according to the Washington Times.

Mr Riedel headed the Obama administration’s review of policy for Afghanistan and Pakistan last spring.

Behind Karachi’s glittering hotels and array of businesses, hides an uglier face of the city. In the narrow alleys of poor neighbourhoods like Sohrab Goth (where Khan was arrested) the mood is decisively pro-Taliban. Even the walls are decorated with pro-Taliban slogans.

But Raja Umar Khattab, a senior superintendent of police in Karachi said he had no evidence that Mullah Omar or any other senior Taliban leader had arrived in the city.

* The National