Details of suspect’s alleged involvement in planned airline attack not yet known
The Globe and Mail, Saturday, August 12, 2006
SONYA FATAH
Matiur Rehman, a 29-year-old al-Qaeda military commander in Pakistan and a rising star in the terrorist organization, has emerged to be a key figure behind the thwarted attacks targeting U.S.-bound airplanes.
Mr. Rehman hails from Multan, southern Punjab in Pakistan. Known as the City of Saints, Multan has a rich history and tradition of attracting legions of Sufi saints, and is a centre of Sufi spiritualism. Little is known about Mr. Rehman’s childhood but he is said to have emerged, in recent years, as a leading al-Qaeda figure and an explosives expert.
He heads the list of Pakistan’s most wanted militants.
While details of Mr. Rehman’s alleged involvement in the planned airplane bombings aren’t known, officials say that he met two of the British suspects when they travelled to Pakistan. It’s not clear what was discussed but officials have said that money was wired from Pakistan into the suspects’ British bank accounts after the visit.
Over the past few years, and since the arrest in Rawalpindi of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Pakistani-Kuwaiti mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and the death of other key figures, Mr. Rehman’s power has increased. Officials say that he was behind the plan to carry out a “terror spectacular” on the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Until the fall of 2004, Mr. Rehman allegedly worked as deputy to Amjad Farooqi, the 25-year-old leader of Harkat ul-Ansar, a militant organization. Mr. Farooqi and Mr. Rehman’s greatest contribution to al-Qaeda was the development of what intelligence agents call the “Rolodex of jihad.” It contained names, histories, skill sets and other details of every Pakistani who had trained with or aided in fighting jihad in Afghanistan. This detailed log of past and potential volunteers served as a database for future potential operations.
Mr. Rehman actively trained hundreds of Pakistani militants at training camps run by al-Qaeda in the late 1990s, according to Pakistani officials. He has strong ties to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a militant group created in Jhang in 1996 after a split with another group, the Sipah-e-Sahaba. After its formation, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi specifically targeted government officials and Shia groups. By 2001, the group had been associated with 350 terrorist acts.
In the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, and the war in Afghanistan, al-Qaeda operatives relied heavily on their contacts in Pakistan — Mr. Mohammed, Mr. Farooqi and Mr. Rehman — to develop a sophisticated base of operations across the border in Pakistan, officials say.
In September of 2004, Mr. Farooqi died in a shootout with police in Pakistan’s southernmost port city of Karachi. Mr. Rehman is said to have slipped into the position of chief liaison between al-Qaeda and its Pakistani foot soldiers in the absences of both Mr. Mohammed and Mr. Farooqi.
He is alleged to have had very strong ties with the Libyan al-Qaeda leader, Abu Faraj al-Libbi, who has since been apprehended.
Mr. Rehman is alleged to have trained in many al-Qaeda camps and proved himself to be skilled in explosives. He is said to have passed on these skills to Pakistani and foreign nationals undergoing training at these camps.
In September of 2004, Pakistan put Mr. Rehman on a list of six most wanted hard-line militants.
He is still at large.
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