Another Jihadist Leader Living Freely in Pakistan

While Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbotabad may or may not have been known to Pakistan's senior leadership, it is apparent that at least some in the country realized it. Now we have the leader of another very deadly jihadist group living openly in Pakistan.

Fazle-ur-Rahman Khalil is the leader of the Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen, which was allied to al Qaeda. Khalil was a trusted confidant of bin Laden and signed the fatwa against the United States in the 1990s. Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen was and is an international group, with its jihadists ending up in Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, and Somalia. Khalil is living openly in Pakistan, where even the US press knows about it.

Because of HuM's goal of 'liberating' Kashmir from India, it may be getting a pass from the government:

Like most of the militant groups that get a wink and a nod from Pakistan's security agencies, Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen's primary focus is Kashmir, a picturesque region divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by each in its entirety. Kashmir has been the cause of two of three wars between the South Asian neighbors and brought them perilously close to a nuclear confrontation in 2000.

Khalil's group has kidnapped foreigners in Indian Kashmir, killing one. His group also helped in the 1999 hijacking of an Indian airlines plane that resulted in the release of three militants, including Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who is now on death row for his part in the 2002 killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

Further, they have ties with some very nasty people:

Khalil's militant ties include the anti-Indian Lashkar-e-Taiba group, blamed for masterminding the November 2008 assault on Mumbai that killed 166 people. The AP learned from the same official that seven training camps are operating in Pakistani Kashmir and most of them are run by Jamaat-ud-Dawwa, the name Lashkar-e-Taiba took after being banned.

When will the Pakistanis get serious, if ever?


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