Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak

War Comes Home
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branch set up by the architect of 9/11. The group includes one of
KSM’s nephews, Ramzi Yousuf, who was convicted for the 1993 World
Trade Center bombing, and another, Musaad Aruchi, who had masterminded
attacks in Pakistan. 38 KSM’s capture revealed astonishing
insights about the network’s penetration into local groups. His interrogation
by American intelligence officials provided the most definitive
information yet on al-Qaeda’s ties to Pakistani militant groups.
Previously, KSM had always been thought to be a senior deputy to
bin Laden, but his role, and that of his allies, now appeared to be far
more significant. His relatives and associates from Pakistan had been
linked to other attacks and plots in Africa, Southeast Asia, the UK and
the USA. His nephew, Ammar al-Baluchi, had helped facilitate travel
and financing for the senior al-Qaeda operative, Riduan Isamuddin, to
carry out terrorist attacks in Southeast Asia. Riduan’s agents were behind
the October 2002 Bali bombing in Indonesia, that killed more than 200
people. 39 According to terrorism experts, KSM’s arrest and the closing
down of his web of relatives and associates – who were believed to
be working out of Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas and the port city of
Karachi – was crucial to combating Islamic militancy globally.
The authorities discovered that KSM had received huge support
from his extended family members living in Balochistan and Karachi.
Many of them had been active in Pakistani Islamic militant groups and
Pakistani authorities said his nephew, Musaad Aruchi, also known as
Abdul Karim Mehboob, had knowledge about the al-Qaeda’s fresh plan
to hit financial centres in New York and Washington. Aruchi’s arrest
from an apartment in Karachi’s slum district of Lyari, was described by
Pakistani officials as a major breakthrough, because of his connection
with other al-Qaeda operatives, particularly those planning to target
the United States. 40
KSM had frequently stayed in the house of the JI woman activist in
the Westridge locality of the Rawalpindi cantonment area, from where
security forces had also captured Hawsawi. The house belonged Dr
Abdul Quddus, a microbiologist who had worked with the World
Health Organization for many years. His wife had been a leader of the
party’s women’s wing, while his nephew, a major in Pakistan’s army,
had also sheltered KSM in his house in the Kohat army garrison. 41
This underscored the support network that al-Qaeda enjoyed among
mainstream Pakistani Islamic parties. There were several other
incidents in which JI members were found to have provided refuge
to al-Qaeda activists. In January 2003, two al-Qaeda operatives were