A Libyan al-Qaeda commander who was killed last week in northwestern Pakistan had lived there for years and, despite a $200,000 US bounty on his head, felt secure enough to meet officials and visit hospitals, according to officials and residents of the city.As he organised suicide bombings and other attacks in Afghanistan, Abu Laith al-Libi found a comfortable refuge in Pakistan’s border region, the sources said in interviews. He openly met with a Pakistani politician and a Libyan diplomat and called on foreign fighters recovering from their wounds.The Pakistani Government contends it has been doing everything possible to capture al-Qaeda figures within its borders. But Libi, who was killed in a missile attack last week, moved unchallenged around the heart of Peshawar, underscoring how freely al-Qaeda leaders have been able to operate in Pakistan.One day in 2006, Libi strode into the central prison in Peshawar, the administrative capital of North-West Frontier Province. As another Libyan fighter sat nearby behind bars — in the custody of Pakistani authorities — Libi, the politician and the Libyan diplomat argued over whether the man should be deported against his wishes to Libya or released to fight another day, according to Javed Ibrahim Paracha, the politician who helped arrange the meeting.“I knew Abu Laith for quite some time,” said Paracha, a former member of the Pakistan National Assembly who is running in elections this month and who belongs to the faction of the Pakistan Muslim League led by Nawaz Sharif.He said he has negotiated the release of hundreds of foreign fighters from Pakistani prisons on the condition that they leave the country. “I’ve been doing this service for four years,” he said.The lack of progress in hunting al-Qaeda commanders such as Libi has fuelled frustration among US, Afghan and European officials. The Pakistani government has barred US forces from searching for al-Qaeda leaders on its soil.Libi’s activities in Pakistan had been a particularly sore point between the US and Musharraf’s Government.A few months after Libi visited the Peshawar jail, US military officers said, Libi organised a suicide attack outside Bagram air base in Afghanistan during a visit by Vice-President Dick Cheney. Security officials and analysts said Libi also orchestrated a 2005 prison breakout of four al-Qaeda fighters from the US military’s prison at Bagram.Libi emerged as a major figure among Islamic extremists in 2002, when he announced via videotape that al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mohammad Omar had survived the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.Libi’s death was reported Thursday in a statement released on an al-Qaeda website. He is thought to have been among 12 people killed in a missile strike last Tuesday in North Waziristan.Intelligence reports indicate that Libi had been on his way to a meeting with Baitullah Mehsud.
