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| India-Pakistan | |||
| Attack on Musharraf: five Afghans held | |||
| 2003-12-29 | |||
| EFL: Over 50 people have been arrested by intelligence agencies in the wake of latest attack on President Pervez Musharraf besides shifting security of the General in the hands of the Pakistan Army. Army now in charge of Perv’s continued health. Those who have been rounded up include five Afghan nationals, who were arrested on Sunday from their accommodation in a flat of Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Karachi, a police source said. They were arrested from flat No 605 and have been taken to an unknown place for investigation. A nice quiet basement room with a chair bolted to the floor, a stove for heating the pliers, and a liberal supply of truncheons and mustache wax. Since December 26, the Pakistan Army has taken over the responsibility of Musharraf. "I cannot offer any comment over the security arrangements of President Musharraf," Major-General Shaukat Sultan, Director-General Inter Services Public Relations told to this news agency by telephone. "I can say no more"
Imported deniable gunnies, or fall guys? According to Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, both of them have been identified. He, however, refused to tell their nationalities. "We have entered the network," Rashid said without elaborating. "It’s a huge network of terrorists having tentacles from Kashmir to Afghanistan. They also have international ties," Rashid said. Domestic ties as well, some which are a little too close to the government for comfort.
"So shut up" A Kashmiri group of freedom fighters, Al-Jihad, is being suspected by the Interior Ministry to be behind the assassination attempts, especially the latest one. Authorities are also questioning some 300 personnel responsible for the security of presidential motorcade on December 25, a highly placed source said.
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| Posted by:Steve |
| #9 Oh no. He wasn't sharp. In fact emphasis on mechanical memorization instead of reasoning is one of the things who have caused the Muslim world lagging behind farther and farther and farther. My point wasn't that he had accomplished anything tangible, but that he was in the upper range of intelligence among Pakistanis - the ability to memorize the Quran does require native intelligence. Jihadi organizers do have a formidable base of talent to draw upon - all they need to do is provide these people with training, and they can quickly become dangerous opponents. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2003-12-29 6:46:26 PM |
| #8 Oh no. He wasn't sharp. In fact emphasis on mechanical memorization instead of reasoning is one of the things who have caused the Muslim world lagging behind farther and farther and farther. (Look at the article "Why Arabs lose wars" and another about spotting the losing countries, don't remember the exact title). I think the root cause of this emphasis in memorization is the haddith telling that you will go to Paradise if you memorize the book. And teachers in madrassas will routinely whip to blood the sytudents who can't recite it. Even when they don't speak a word of Arabic. |
| Posted by: JFM 2003-12-29 3:02:08 PM |
| #7 Gates reputedly memorized the Bible at the age of 9 The FORTRAN Bible? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-12-29 1:50:13 PM |
| #6 Urdu's got less in common with Arabic than English with Latin - two separate language groups. In fact, Urdu has more in common with English. That's correct - Latin, Urdu and English are all Indo-European languages, whereas Arabic is a semitic language. My point was that Urdu and Arabic are completely different, and yet this jihadi volunteer was able to memorize the Quran (which is in Arabic) from cover to cover without understanding much of what he was memorizing. This indicates the guy was pretty sharp, like many of his terrorist brethren. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2003-12-29 12:13:58 PM |
| #5 Urdu's got less in common with Arabic than English with Latin - two separate language groups. In fact, Urdu has more in common with English. |
| Posted by: Fred 2003-12-29 12:02:12 PM |
| #4 Investigations revealed that Muhammad Jameel, resident of Androot, Police Station, Torarh in Poonch district, Azad Kashmir, had received only primary level education and was a Hafizul Quran (memorized the Holy Book by heart). One of the jihadis was a sharp guy. It's a non-trivial exercise to memorize every word of a thousand-page (?) book, especially when it's in an incomprehensible foreign language. (Bill Gates reputedly memorized the Bible at the age of 9). Pakistan uses the Arabic script, but Pakistan's national language, Urdu, bears the same relationship to Arabic as English does to Latin. The pattern continues - of above-average intelligence jihadis who are, however, lacking in judgment. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2003-12-29 11:53:22 AM |
| #3 It looks like every mistake they've made in the past two years has risen up en masse to bite Perv's ass. |
| Posted by: Fred 2003-12-29 10:55:14 AM |
| #2 ID on bomber number two: Investigators have identified the body of the second terrorist involved in Thursday’s suicide attack on President Pervez Musharraf as Hazir Sultan. He is believed to have link with an Afghan militant group "Afghan Jihad", an investigation agency official told The News on Sunday. Hazir Sultan, son of Muhammad Rafiq, belonged to Panjsher valley of Afghanistan and was a "significant figure" of Afghan Jihad. He was a religious extremist having links with different militant religious parties active in Pakistan, said the source. Detectives have arrested his close aides in Rawalpindi and confirmed the identification of his body. The source said that Hazir Sultan, 42, was camped in South Waziristan Agency. He was there during the Wana operation. The source suspected that the attempt on Musharraf’s life could be to avenge the armed operation there. The source believed that Hazir had moved to Rawalpindi a few days back to carry out the task of assassinating President Musharraf. A joint team of intelligence agencies has been sent to South Waziristan to arrest the mastermind behind the assassination plan, the source said. A true mastermind would be long gone by now. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-12-29 10:22:11 AM |
| #1 Additional: One of the two suicide bombers, who attacked President Gen Musharraf's convoy in Rawalpindi last Thursday, had been cleared of involvement in anti-state activities by security agencies in April last year , background interviews and investigations by Dawn revealed. Security agencies working on the twin-suicide bombings to eliminate President Musharraf have established the identity of one of the bombers, Muhammad Jamil. His identity was established after security agencies rummaging through the debris and human body parts recovered his torso and national identity card, a source told Dawn. Dawn's investigation revealed that Muhammad Jameel, 23, was affiliated with the banned Jaish-i-Muhammad, a militant organization. Investigations revealed that Muhammad Jameel, resident of Androot, Police Station, Torarh in Poonch district, Azad Kashmir, had received only primary level education and was a Hafizul Quran (memorized the Holy Book by heart). Fired by fiery speeches by Jihadi leaders, Jameel went to Jalalabad via Torkham in eastern Nangrahar province in January 2001 through an Afghan cloth merchant in AJ&K. Soon afterwards, he moved to Kabul and lived in Darul Aman area on the outskirts of the Afghan capital. Jameel, however, was wounded and captured when the US-backed Northern Alliance attacked Kabul later that year. He was shifted to a hospital and remained under treatment for fifteen days. The transitional government in Afghanistan led by President Hamid Karzai handed him over to Pakistani authorities along with 29 other militants that same month and they were flown to Peshawar in a military aircraft. They were re-arrested by the Pakistani authorities and charged with entering Pakistan without travel documents. Significantly, though, Jameel was declared "white" by security agencies when interrogated by a Joint Interrogation Team in April last year. The JIT had concluded that the suspect was not involved in any anti-state activities and since nothing adverse had been found against him, the JIT had unanimously declared him "white" implying that his custody was not required by the agencies. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-12-29 10:14:12 AM |