Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak
Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak
Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak
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War Comes Home<br />
the video footage, the men warned of the real battle to come. <strong>The</strong><br />
terrain where the video was filmed led to fresh speculation about<br />
his whereabouts. Intelligence agencies believed it could be between<br />
<strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong>i Chitral and Kunar, across the border in Afghanistan.<br />
In July 2004, <strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong>i intelligence services received yet another<br />
indication about bin Laden’s whereabouts. <strong>The</strong> information extracted<br />
from some newly captured al-Qaeda operatives, including its<br />
communication chief, Naeem Noor Mohammed Khan, had provided<br />
the clearest idea about bin Laden’s possible presence in the tribal area.<br />
<strong>The</strong> dragnet closed along the border with Afghanistan, but soon the<br />
hunt went cold as the Saudi militant moved away from his suspected<br />
hideout. <strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong>i authorities believed it was the closest they had<br />
come to capturing bin Laden. 44<br />
Meanwhile, <strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong>i intelligence agents did not have the vaguest<br />
idea just how big a catch they had made when, on 12 July 2004, they<br />
arrested a young computer wizard from Lahore. <strong>The</strong>y first heard about<br />
Naeem Noor Mohammed Khan after the arrest of Gun Gun Rusman<br />
Gunawan, the brother of Hambali, the mastermind of the 2002 Bali<br />
bombing. 45 <strong>The</strong> Indonesian, who was captured along with 11 other<br />
Southeast Asian students, had spent four years at a seminary in Karachi<br />
under a fake identity. <strong>The</strong>ir interrogation led them to Naeem. Initially,<br />
intelligence agents only knew that the computer engineer was doing<br />
communication work for al-Qaeda.<br />
When investigators examined his home computer, however, they<br />
realized that Naeem was the key connection between bin Laden’s inner<br />
circle, holed up in the mountainous terrain in <strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong> lawless tribal<br />
region, and al-Qaeda operatives around the world. 46 <strong>The</strong> information<br />
gleaned from his computer provided an unprecedented insight into<br />
al-Qaeda’s inner workings. <strong>The</strong> trove of data recovered from Naeem’s<br />
computer revealed al-Qaeda’s plan for fresh terrorist attacks against<br />
the USA and Britain; specific targets included Heathrow airport in<br />
London and top financial institutions in America. 47<br />
A well-educated young man from a middle-class background,<br />
28-year-old Naeem hardly fitted the profile of a hardened terrorist.<br />
A computer whizz-kid who had abandoned a promising career for<br />
the call to jihad, he became a crucial cog in al-Qaeda operations in<br />
<strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong>. Naeem was lured into jihad when he was still a teenager<br />
and had just got into Karachi’s top engineering university. 48 He came<br />
into contact with al-Qaeda through an Arab operative, whom he met<br />
in Dubai in 1997, during a family wedding. <strong>The</strong> bright, soft-spoken<br />
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