London, Aug 20: Rashid Rauf, regarded as one of the
prime suspects in the terror plot to blow up the US-bound
planes from Britain, may be the pivotal figure linking senior
al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan to the alleged plotters.
Rauf, arrested in Pakistan, was the Pakistani equivalent
to the Avon Lady. A successful cosmetics salesman who traveled
frequently on business, Rauf was above suspicion in his
middle-class neighbourhood, 'The Sunday Times' said in a
report today.
According to the report, the man now considered one of
the prime suspects in the plot, moved into a smart area of
Bahawalpur in Pakistan's southern Punjab just three months
ago.
Like a social climbing yuppie he even gazumped a bidder
for his new house by offering Rs two lakh on top of the asking
price. The purchase allowed Rauf to rub shoulders with
lawyers, doctors and other professionals in the dusty cotton
town's smartest neighbourhood.
This weekend a clearer picture was emerging of Rauf's
life in the four years after he left his home town of
Birmingham to start a new life in Pakistan.
His arrest in Pakistan began an unprecedented manhunt in
Britain with 25 young Muslims being hauled into custody by
anti-terrorist police. Two have been released while the rest
are still being questioned.
Intelligence officials in Pakistan have claimed that
Rauf may be the pivotal figure linking senior al-Qaeda
figures in neighbouring Afghanistan to the alleged plotters
in Britain.
The report quoting sources close to the investigation
claimed that the contact in Afghanistan may have been a
son-in-law of Ayman al-Zawahiri, second-in-command to Osama
Bin Laden.
In Britain, one of the common factors linking several of
the alleged plotters is that they attended seminars run by
Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamic missionary group.
Rauf moved to Pakistan as a 21-year-old following the
murder of his uncle in Birmingham in 2002. He had apparently
prospered, marrying into a family that was the nearest thing
Bahawalpur has to royalty.
His wife is the daughter of Ghulam Mustafa, who founded
the Radical Madrassa, Darul Uloom Madina, in 1965. It is one
of Pakistan's most controversial fundamentalist seminaries,
teaching the Deobandi Muslim philosophy - espoused by Bin
Laden - to more than 1,000 boys at a time.
When Rauf became Mustafa's son-in-law, one of Pakistan's
top terrorists Masood Azhar, the Chief of banned militant
outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), became his brother-in-law.
Azhar had been jailed in India for leading terror attacks
in Jammu and Kashmir in the 1990s. But he was released in 1999
after his colleagues hijacked an Indian airliners Jet from
Kathmandu to the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
He was freed alongside a comrade, Omar Saeed Sheikh, the
British militant who was later to be convicted for taking
part in the kidnapping of Daniel Pearl, the murdered American
journalist.
Like his brother-in-law, Rauf joined the "family firm"
JeM, the notorious group based in Bawahalpur. He had been
introduced to its leaders and senior clerics at the Darul
Uloom Madina soon after he arrived in the country.
The report quoting JeM sources said Rauf impressed them
with his devout manner. Maulana Soheib, a teacher at the
Madina who was to become his brother-in-law, said he was
introduced to the family under a different name.
"We were told his name was Khalid, a rich businessman and
very religious," he said. "We did not know that his actual
name was Rashid Rauf. Even on the marriage certificate he
identified himself as Khalid."
JeM has its roots in the afghan 'Mujahedin' who fought
soviet occupation but turned their attention to Kashmir after
Russian withdrawal. Soon after the 9/11 attacks, a faction
within JeM allied itself with al-Qaeda to adopt a wider global
'jihad' rather than concentrating on militancy in Kashmir.
Rauf became a leader of JeM but sided with the new
faction. This is how he may have come into contact with
al-Qaeda, the report said. His brother-in-law said that Rauf
was rarely in Bahawalpur. His wife lived with her parents
until he bought the three-storey house in model town in May.
Neighbours rarely saw the family. Rauf kept his wife and
two daughters indoors in line with his religious beliefs.
While women in staunch Sunni neighbourhood visited each other
for tea and gossip, Rauf's wife was banned from socialising.
Last week his family was away "travelling". The house
was locked up and neighbours said they have not been seen
since Rauf was arrested. The precise date of Rauf's arrest is
a subject of dispute. Soheib said his brother-in-law was
seized two weeks ago but Pakistan maintains that the arrest
took place on August 9, hours before police raids in Britain.
His brother Tayib was also arrested in Birmingham and
his father Abdul, 52, who had been visiting relatives in
Pakistan, was reported to have been detained before boarding
an international flight in Islamabad. He is thought to be
being questioned as a witness.
Bureau Report