Taliban Commander Detained In Karachi

From The Long War Journal:


Taliban commander detained in Karachi

By Bill RoggioJune 22, 2010





Pakistani police detained a Taliban commander who has links to terrorists in North Waziristan and Afghanistan.



Police detained Asmatullah Mehsud during a recent raid in the southern port city of Karachi. Asmatullah is described as a "key commander" who was plotting to attack police officials in the Criminal Investigation Department. The CID is responsible for investigating terrorism cases.



Asmatullah "was involved in providing financial support to the TTP campaign and was providing safe hideouts and medical treatment to injured militants in the city," Dawn reported.



Asmatullah played a major role in the Oct. 17, 2007, assassination attempt against former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The massive suicide bombing, the largest in Pakistan to date, killed 132 people and wounded hundreds more. Bhutto survived the assassination attempt but was killed two months later in a complex suicide and shooting attack in Rawalpindi.



Asmatullah has links that extend to the Taliban havens of North and South Waziristan and in Afghanistan. His brother is Abdul Wahab Mehsud, a wanted commander of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan who operates in North Waziristan. Abdul Wahab is also said to run a Taliban training camp in Badar in Ghazni province, Afghanistan.



Both Asmatullah and Abdul Wahab were among the original group of Taliban commanders who linked up with the radical, anti-Shia Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, and expanded the network in Karachi. The two brothers were identified as having allied with Baitullah Mehsud, the previous leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, back in September 2008.



The Taliban and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi nexus in Karachi was headed by a commander named Rahimullah, who is also known as Ali Hassan or Naeem, according to a report in Daily Times. Rahimullah also led al Qaeda's network in the southern Pakistani city. Police captured Raheemullah in September 2008.











Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2010/06/taliban_commander_de.php#ixzz0rkS240Gl