Western Resistance

« Malaysia: Islamic Fatwa Denounces "Black Metal" Music | | Western World: Media Silence on the Nature of Islam »

January 23, 2006

Pakistan: Islamist Arrested In US Airstrike Village

Despite the conflicting reports emanating from Pakistani officials at present, concerning the airstrike on January 13 in the hamlet of Damadola in the Bajaur Agency, a tribal district set alongside the Afghanistan border in Pakistan, a few reports so far appear to contain facts. The Pakistan government is being very secretive and contradictory in its assessments of the airstrike and its aftermath.

Apparently an airstrike by an unmanned US Predator drone crossed from Afghanistan to his a house where Ayman al-Zawahiri had been invited to attend. Even though al-Zawahiri was unable to attend, he sent al-Qaeda ambassadors to what appears to have been a terror summit. In the strike, three houses were destroyed, and 18 people were reported dead.

It appears that four al-Qaeda Islamists were killed in the strike, including Midhat Mursi al-Sayid 'Umar, aka Abu Khabab , a poisons and explosives trainer, who had a $5 million US bounty on his head.

Despite denials by Pakistan, the administration of Bajaur Agency released a statement, which said that ten to twelve "foreign extremists" had been invited to attend the village.

Now, according to Pakistan Times, AP via the Scotsman and the Guardian, a suspected al-Qaeda operative has been arrested by police in the hamlet of Damadola, scene of the controversial airstrike.

The man's name was not released, but according to a Pakistani security official who leaked the report, the individual is a relative of Faqir Mohammed. This cleric is deemed responsible for tamering with evidence, removing bodies of the "foreigners" from the blast site.

The official claimed a jirga (tribal council) would be held to discuss "the responsibility of sheltering foreigners and to set the punishment for the offence."

The act of overflying the border to perform an airstrike has been widely condemned by Muslim groups, with anti-American protests in Peshawar province and other parts of Pakistan.

The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shaukat Aziz, is currently visiting the US, where he has dismissed the US reports of al Qaeda leaders being killed in the attack as "bizarre".

Speaking on CNN's "Late Edition" he said : "There is no evidence, as of half an hour ago, that there were any other people there. The area does see movement of people from across the border. But, we have not found one body or one shred of evidence that these people were there."

Interestingly, Aziz said that only 13 people had been killed, despite villager's initial reports that 18 were dead. Perhaps there were at least four other bodies removed deliberately.

The protests against the US Hellfire missile attack have also included individuals expressing hostility to Presidant Musharraf,

Associated Press, via the Toronto Star reports today that protests have intensified near the scene of the strike. The opposition religious coailition (the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) had led a convoy of 2000 marching to Damadola, but at Yukka, 30 miles from the village, police set up road blocks, and told protesters to go back.

No violence ensued, but the Muslim demonstrators chanted "Down with America" and "Down with Musharraf".

Mohammed Jalil, the top government official in the region, said "We have instructions from the government that these political leaders should not be allowed to go Bajur."

Qazi Hussain Ahmad, president of the MMA coalition, said "We were going to Bajur to condemn the attacks and to prove that Pakistanis are against such acts against our sovereignty."

67-year old Ahmad (pictured, top right), who is president of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, promised a "revolution" in Pakistan following the end of Ramadan (4 November) which, despite his best efforts, has yet to materialise.

Legislators in northwestern Pakistan also demanded today for Ryan Crocker, US Ambassador to Pakistan, to be expelled. The government's foreign ministry spokeswoman, Tasnin Aslam, said the government would resist the legislator's demands. She said Washington has launched an investigation into the affair.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at January 23, 2006 9:32 AM

Comments

Post a comment