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Pak Army officers caught in Headley, Rana probe
LAST UPDATE: Friday, 20 Nov 2009 - 3:49:33 AM
CHICAGO: A former high ranking official of the Pakistan Army has been arrested by authorities in his country for having links with alleged LeT activists David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana in custody of the US’ FBI on charges of plotting terrorist attacks in India.
The New York Times has reported that a colonel or brigadier general rank Pakistani Army officer has been reportedly named a co-conspirator of the Headley and Rana by the FBI. The daily goes on to say that the American agencies have long suspected such a nexus but this would be the first case that the link is clear.
The official, who recently retired, was arrested earlier in Pakistan on unknown charges but was let-off after ‘pressure’ on the government from his colleagues. Pakistan embassy refused comment, saying the matter was sub-judice.
The officer is among 5 other Pak Army members who have been detained or arrested in the case.
The paper quoted an official, who has been briefed on the investigation, as saying that those arrested remain in custody, but it was unclear what role they played in the expanding plot.
Earlier, Indian investigation into the duo’s purported role in last year’s dastardly Mumbai attacks had revealed that Rana was in touch with the Pakistan Army officials on email. It is noteworthy that both are supposed to be products of an Army training school in the town of Hasan Abdal in Pakistan's Punjab province and Rana’a brothers are in the Army.
The duo may also be reporting to Ilyas Kashmiri, a militant associated with Al Qaeda and LeT, who is a former Pakistanuy Army officer.
The American intelligence officials believe that some Pakistani military and intelligence officials even encourage terrorists to attack what they see as Pakistan's enemies, including targets in India, it said.
American officials said the case involving Headley and Rana reflected a new and evolving pattern of individual militants with different backgrounds and experience, rather than terrorist groups, teaming up to plot and carry out attacks, the paper said.
"It's moving beyond the mainline activities of individual groups to elements of various militant groups or terrorist organisations that have spent time together, have fought together, may be trained together, that now have associations with certain facilitators that now come together to plan and execute attacks," it quoted a Defence Department official as saying.
"The present and future is less about individual groups conducting attacks, and more about combinations of individuals, and groups and facilitators that come together," said the official.
Meanwhile the bail hearing of Rana scheduled at a court here on Wednesday has been postponed till December 2.
Rana's detention hearing before Magistrate Judge Nan R Nolan has been moved to December 2 at the joint request of the parties, a court official said. Rana's hearing was initially scheduled for November 10 and had been postponed to November 19.
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