Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri, the Muzaffarabad-based chief of Harkatul Jihad Islami, was released on Saturday after a one-month detention for suspected links with suicide attackers who rammed their vehicles into President Pervez Musharrafâs convoy on December 25. The government arrested Mr Kashmiri in the first week of January.
| Looks like the heat's letting up... |
Sources said suicide bomber Sardar Jamil had first joined Mr Kashmiriâs outfit and defected to Jaish e-Mohammad later. Sources said the Muttahida Jihad Council (MJC) was instrumental in getting the authorities to release Kashmiri. âThe MJC held many meetings with the authorities and finally convinced them that Mr Kashmiri had no links with the suicide attackers,â sources said. They said Mr Kashmiri was a prominent leader of the Harkatul Jihad Islami (Qari Saifullah Akhtar group) before forming his own faction. He had previously spent two years in jail in Held Kashmir. Ilyas Kashmiri was arrested in Kotli along with 130 members of his outfit. Sources said Jamil was the nephew of Jamiat ul Ansar head Farooq Kashmiri, but not a member of his uncleâs militant outfit. âThe news of Mr Kashmiriâs release came as a surprise,â said a leader from a Azad Kashmir-based militant outfit who recalled MJC head Syed Salahudin meeting with President Musharraf in January. âSyed Salahudin requested that commander Ilyas be allowed to meet his family on Eidul Azha but the presidentâs response was stern and he was not prepared to listen to the MJC head,â he said.
The authorities have also released Maulana Abdul Rauf, the younger brother of Tehrik-e-Khuddam ul Islam (TKI) head Maulana Masood Azhar and Haji Abdul Jabbar, head of the defunct Jamaat ul Furqan. Sources said Mr Jabbar, former commander of the defunct Jaish Mohammad was seen in Azad Kashmir some time ago. He was arrested in Midhranjha, a town near Sargodha, in July 2003 in connection with the Taxila church blast and an attack on a missionary school in Murree in 2002. Mr Azhar had expelled Mr Jabbar and 12 other members of his outfit for their alleged involvement in sectarian killings. Mr Jabbar formed Jamaat-ul-Furqan after his expulsion but his organisation was banned in November 2003. Sources said the suicide attackers had links with Jamaat ul Furqan. âJabbar was in custody at the time of the suicide attacks but he gave important information to the intelligence agencies about the militants who could have planned the attacks on President Musharraf,â sources said. Intelligence agencies had also suspected the TKIâs involvement in suicide attacks and therefore detained Mr Azharâs brother for questioning.
| Bargained his way out, did he? I hope what he traded was worth the eventual cost of his release... |
|