Under nose of Pak cops, funds raised for jehad

At least three low-level Pakistani army officers have been arrested on charges that they helped Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Al Qaeda’s chief of operations, hide in the country before his arrest in March, Pakistani intelligence officials said. These officials believe that the most likely hiding place of Osama bin Laden is in the tribal areas along the Pakistani-Afghan border. Overwhelming public support for bin Laden among the area’s religiously conservative Pashtun tribes continues to thwart efforts to arrest him, they said.

Such support is also evident elsewhere. Islamic militants are again operating openly in Pakistan. Last Friday afternoon at the Red Mosque in the centre of Islamabad, Fazlur Rehman Khalil, the former head of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, delivered a sermon to hundreds of worshippers as police officers lounged outside.

‘‘Our salvation lies in obeying the orders of Allah, not America,’’ Khalil said. ‘‘If we don’t do jehad, our prayers and fasting will not be accepted. This is a sacred duty.’’ After he spoke, members of a new group collected money from worshippers.

Asked what the money was for, two members of the group said jehad in Kashmir. Asked if it was also for jehad in Afghanistan, one answered ‘‘Praise be to God.’’ The other quickly cut him off and said ‘‘no.’’ Western diplomats say the Taliban is building up its forces along the border and running a recruiting network inside Pakistan. But they see the problem as one of Pakistani capacity and politics, not will, and say they have seen no evidence of direct aid from Pakistan’s government to the Taliban.

They said the problem was that Pakistan’s government was struggling to counter a culture of Islamic militancy that dates back to the anti-Soviet struggle in Afghanistan in the 1980’s, a movement the US helped to create. But Afghan and Indian officials, as well as some Pakistanis, contend that the Pakistani military is playing a double game with the US. Pakistan serves up the occasional Qaeda fugitive to appease American officials, they say. At the same time, it makes little effort to eradicate the Taliban and other militant groups that serve its foreign policy goals by fighting against India. —NYT