War on Terrorism in Pakistan

The Saudi born Zayn al-Abidn Muhammed Hasayn Abu Zubaydah was arrested by Pakistani officials during a series of joint U.S. and Pakistan raids during the week of March 23, 2002. During the raid the suspect was shot three times while trying to escape capture by military personnel. Zubaydah is said to be a high-ranking al-Qaeda official with the title of operations chief and in charge of running al-Qaeda training camps. [ [http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/04/01/pakistan.alqaeda/ Officials: Captured man says he's al Qaeda brass] ] Later that year on September 11, 2002, Ramzi Binalshibh was arrested in Pakistan after a three-hour gunfight with police forces. Binalshibh is known to have shared a room with Mohammad Atta in Hamburg, Germany and to be a financial backer of al-Qaeda operations. It is said Binalshibh was supposed to be another hijacker, however the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services rejected his visa application three times, leaving him to the role of financier. The trail of money transferred by Binalshibh from Germany to the United States links both Mohammad Atta and Zacarias Moussaoui. [ [http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/09/14/36623.html Financier of 9/11 attacks arrested] ]

On March 1, 2003, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was arrested during CIA-led raids on the suburb of Rawalpindi, nine miles outside of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. Mohammed at the time of his capture was the third highest ranking official in al-Qaeda and had been directly in charge of the planning for the September 11 attacks. Escaping capture the week before during a previous raid, the Pakistani government was able to use information gathered from other suspects captured to locate and detain Mohammed. Mohammed was indicted in 1996 by the United States government for links to the Oplan Bojinka, a plot to bomb a series of U.S. civilian airliners. Other events Mohammed has been linked to include: ordering the killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, the USS Cole bombing, Richard Reid's attempt to blow up a civilian airliner with a shoe bomb, and the terrorist attack at the El Ghriba synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed has described himself as the head of the al-Qaeda military committee. [ [http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/south/03/01/pakistan.arrests/ Top al Qaeda operative caught in Pakistan] ]

Amidst all this, in 2006, Pakistan was accused by NATO commanding officers of aiding and abetting the Taliban in Afghanistan; [ [http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/3231 NATO faces defeat in Afghanistan] ] but NATO later admitted that there was no known evidence against the ISI or Pakistani government of sponsoring terrorism. [cite news|url=http://www.hindu.com/2006/10/11/stories/2006101107441600.htm|title=No evidence against Pakistan: NATO|author=The Hindu|date=2006-10-11|accessdate=2007-06-04|publisher=The Hindu] However in 2007, allegations of ISI secretly making bounty payments up to CDN$ 1,900 (Pakistani rupees. 1 lakh) for each NATO personnel killed surfaced. [ [http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=d60787c1-6490-4476-b681-2ac4844da586&k=15441 Pakistan accused of placing bounty on NATO soldiers] April 05, 2007, The Vancouver Sun] The Afghan government also accuses the ISI of providing help to militants including protection to the recently killed Mullah Dadullah, Taliban's senior military commander, a charge denied by the Pakistani government. [ [http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/article2540127.ece Taliban military leader killed by Nato forces] Belfast Telegraph, May 14, 2007] India, meanwhile continues to accuse Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence of planning several terrorist attacks in Kashmir and elsewhere in the Indian republic, including the 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings, which Pakistan attributes it to "homegrown" insurgencies. [cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/09/30/india.bombs/index.html?section=cnn_world#|title=Pakistan spy agency behind Mumbai bombings|author=CNN|date=2006-09-30|accessdate=2006-09-30|publisher=CNN] Many other countries like Afghanistan and the UK have also accused Pakistan of State-sponsored terrorism and financing terrorism.

The upswing in American military activity in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan corresponded with a great increase in American military aid to the Pakistan government. In the three years before the attacks of September 11, Pakistan received approximately $9 million in American military aid. In the three years after, the number increased to $4.2 billion, making it the country with the maximum funding post 9/11. Such a huge inflow of funds has raised concerns that these funds were given without any accountability, as the end uses not being documented, and that large portions were used to suppress civilians' human rights and to purchase weapons to contain domestic problems like the Balochistan unrest. [ [http://www.publicintegrity.org/militaryaid/report.aspx?aid=877 Billions in Aid, With No Accountability] Center for Public Integrity Posted: 5/31/2007] [ [http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=59395 An alliance of convenience By Burhanuddin Hasan] The News International, Pakistan]

Waziristan

In 2004 the Pakistani Army launched a campaign in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan's Waziristan region, sending in 80,000 troops. The goal of the conflict was to remove the al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in the region. After the fall of the Taliban regime many members of the Taliban resistance fled to the Northern border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan where the Pakistani army had previously little control. With the logistics and air support of the United States, the Pakistani Army captured or killed numerous al-Qaeda operatives such as Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, wanted for his involvement in the USS Cole bombing, Oplan Bojinka plot and the killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. However, the Taliban resistance still operates in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas under the control of Haji Omar. [cite news|title=Top al Qaeda operative caught in Pakistan |publisher=CNN |date=2003-03-01 |url=http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/south/03/01/pakistan.arrests/]

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