TTP may try to secure release of GHQ attacker TEHREEK E TALABAAN PUNJAB.. K FAANSY KI SAZA YAAFTA AQEEL URF DR. USMAN KO NAWAZ SHARIF 23 AUG KO FAANSY PER LATKA DEGA ???? Amir Mir Saturday, August 17, 2013 ISLAMABAD: The security cordon around Faisalabad’s Central Jail has been tightened further following credible intelligence information that the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) may resort to a jail break to secure the release of Aqeel alias Dr Usman who had led a 10-member fidayeen attack on the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi on October 10, 2009. According to well informed sources, the security ring around the Central Jail Faisalabad has been beefed up in the wake of intelligence reports that the TTP may carry out a jail break attempt on the pattern of Dera Ismail Khan Jail and Bannu Jail assaults to secure the release of Aqeel. A deserter from the Army’s Medical Corps who had later joined the Taliban ranks, Aqeel is set to face the gallows at Faisalabad’s Central Jail on August 23 for masterminding and leading the GHQ assault which had killed 11 soldiers, two civilians and nine terrorists. A Field General Court Martial (FGCM) in Rawalpindi had sentenced to death Aqeel in August 2011 and handed down life imprisonment to another ex-soldier, Imran Siddiq for his role in the GHQ attack. Three civilians - Khaliqur Rehman, Mohammad Usman and Wajid Mehmood - were awarded life sentences while two others, Mohammad Adnan and Tahir Shafiq, got eight and seven years jail sentences respectively for their involvement in the assault. While Aqeel was caught alive following the GHQ assault, another ex-soldier and five civilians were arrested later and were found guilty of abetment in the brazen attack. The court martial proceedings against the accused were headed by a serving brigadier and the trial lasted over five months at an undisclosed location near the garrison town of Rawalpindi. But Aqeel alias Dr Usman’s fate was effectively sealed on December 7, 2012 when an Army Appellate Court headed by a major general had rejected his appeal against the death sentence handed down to him. As the accused attempted to challenge his sentence in the superior courts, he was told that the verdicts handed down by the military courts cannot be challenged in a high court. As the PML-N government has already decided to overturn a five-year moratorium on death penalty and execute those hardened terrorists who had been handed down death sentences, the ameer of the Punjabi Taliban, Asmatullh Muavia, warned last week that the executions would compel them to wage a war against the PML-N government. As the authorities in Faisalabad’s central jail were making arrangements to execute Aqeel on August 23, yet another threatening statement released by a TTP spokesman warned that a highly-trained squad of suicide bombers had been constituted and if Aqeel was hanged in Faisalabad jail as per schedule on August 23, the Taliban would instantly target two key figures of the PML-N (most probably Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif) to avenge the deaths. “Homes of prominent PML-N leadership will be attacked immediately if Aqeel is hanged. In such an eventuality, the leadership of the PML-N will be made target of revenge, just like we had targeted the ANP leadership,” the TTP spokesman warned. “Aqeel alias Dr Usman is our mujahid and we would never let our mujahid be hanged”. In the wake of the warning, the authorities at the Central Jail in Faisalabad were quick to deploy highly trained additional troops of the Rangers and the Punjab Constabulary both inside and outside the jail premises besides installing anti-aircraft guns on rooftops of the prison. With a view to lay a water tight security cordon around the Faisalabad Jail, dozens of armed personnel belonging to the Punjab Rangers and the Elite Force are patrolling around the detention center round the clock, while many more personnel of the Punjab Rangers have been deployed inside the prison in addition to the police and the jail guards. Asked if Aqeel would be handed as per schedule on August 23, a senior official of the Faisalabad Central Jail told on the condition of anonymity that his black warrants have already been issued and a temporarily execution point is being built in the jail premises to hang the GHQ attacker. Aqeel will be the first convict to be sent to the gallows at the Faisalabad Central jail since all the condemned prisoners were earlier being executed at the District Jail, Faisalabad. In fact, Faisalabad Central Jail houses 116 hardened terrorist who had been shifted there from different jails of Punjab after being sentenced to death. And 49 of them are high-profile terrorists, including those who had tried to kill General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. Asked if Aqeel’s hanging could be deferred in the wake of the TTP’s threats, a security official in Rawalpindi reminded that after a four-year moratorium on death sentence, the only person hanged so far in a Mianwali Jail on November 15, 2012 was a soldier - Mohammad Hussain who was sent to the gallows following court martial proceedings for killing his superior, Havaldar Khadim Hussain, in 2008. His mercy petition was rejected by General Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani, which had resulted in President Asif Zardari also turning it down. In the case of Aqeel, his mercy petition has already been rejected by the COAS as well as the President. Going by the confessional statement of Aqeel, the ring leader of the GHQ attackers, he had deserted the Army Medical Corps in 2006 to join the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM). He later joined hands with Commander Ilyas Kashmiri’s Harkatul Jehadul Islami (HuJI), finally becoming a key leader of the Waziristan-based Punjabi Taliban. In the aftermath of the 2007 Lal Masjid operation, Aqeel and several other hardcore jehadi elements had floated a new group - Tehrik-e-Taliban Punjab – which had carried out the GHQ attack. As such, the GHQ assault was one of the first major terrorist attacks attributed to the Punjabi Taliban. Aqeel had disclosed during interrogations that the GHQ attack was conceived in the Miramshah headquarter of North Waziristan by the same militants who had attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore in March 2009. Shortly after the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team, Aqeel fled to Waziristan where he had met Ilyas Kashmiri. It was at this meeting that the idea of the attack on the General Headquarters was finalized by Kashmiri, who himself had deserted the Special Services Group (SSG) of the Army to become a key al-Qaeda leader, before being killed in a US drone attack in June 2011.
Posted on: Sun, 18 Aug 2013 20:45:35 +0000
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