marriot bombing terrorists Nailed

ISLAMABAD: Security agencies arrested on Sunday three terrorists believed to be of the Qari Saifullah group for their alleged involvement in last years blast in Islamabads Marriott Hotel.

They were identified as Saleem Iqbal, Zahid Iqbal and Mohammad Zafar Ammad.
According to sources, they were arrested during a raid by a joint team of capital police and security agencies on a house located in Barakahu, in Islamabads suburbs.

Police have been looking for them since their escape from a bus terminal in Pirwadhai in Rawalpindi after one of their associates Attaullah was arrested on July 15.

Their group had arrived there from the tribal area via Kohat. They reportedly fled to Muzaffarabad and returned to Islamabad on Saturday night.

Security agencies were alerted about their presence in Barakahu.

Attaullah was allegedly involved in the murders of PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and a Polish engineer.

The sources said that Saleem and one Ashraf had transported explosives used in the suicide attack on Marriott Hotel from South Waziristan to Jhang via Dera Ismail Khan. A mobile phone used by Ashraf was also seized from Saleem.

A large quantity of explosives, hand-grenades, pistols and bullets were found in their hideout. It is said that terrorists were trying to attack court premises, offices of senior police and administration officers and other important installations in Islamabad. But their special mission was to free Fasihullah Teepu and Waseem who are in Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi for their involvement in the F-8 Markaz bomb blast in Islamabad in 2007.

The sources said that the terrorists were from Toba Tek Singh, Attock, and Chakwal and belonged to the terrorist group of Qari Saifullah, the chief of the outlawed militant group Harkatul Jehadul Islami.

Benazir Bhutto had accused Qari Saifullah of being involved in a failed coup plot in 1995 to topple her government. He is also believed to have masterminded the Oct 18, 2007, suicide attack on her welcome procession in Karachi. Now he is running the organisation under the name of Harkatul Mujhadeen-i-Islami.

Born in 1958 in Waziristan, Qari Saifullah is a graduate of the Karachis Jamia Binoria. His involvement in the 1995 coup plot had projected him as a dangerous militant. The group of coup plotters had been busted by Military Intelligence and four serving army officers, including a major-general, were arrested. They had been accused of plotting to take over the GHQ in Rawalpindi during a corps commanders conference, overthrow the Benazir government and enforce their brand of Shariah in Pakistan.

The Qari was among five top members of the group headed by Major-General Zahirul Islam Abbasi, with Brigadier Mustansir Billah being its ideologue.

After their arrest, these army officers were formally charged by the field court martial with conspiring to assassinate military commanders.

Qari Saifullah was to provide military uniforms, arms and ammunition needed for covert operations. However, once the court martial started, Qaris name was dropped from the list of accused when he turned approver against his khaki co-conspirators.

Qari was released after the dismissal of the second Bhutto government in November 1996. He went to Afghanistan and was inducted into the Taliban cabinet of Mullah Mohammad Omar as adviser on political affairs.

He disappeared from Afghanistan but was apprehended in the United Arab Emirates and deported in August 2004.

He was arrested after revelations during investigations into the December 2003 twin suicide attacks on Pervez Musharraf that he had been executing terrorist operations in Pakistan with the help of his right hand man, Amjad Hussain Farooqi.

However, after Benazir Bhuttos assassination, it emerged that Qari Saifullah had been quietly released by agencies as one of the missing persons being sought by a Supreme Court bench.