Ex-commando held for Mehran strike

A report claims that the PNS Mehran attack came after the navy's failed talks with al-Qaeda.

While the Pakistani intelligence agencies detained a former naval commando in connection with the PNS Mehran attack,a report said the strike came after the navys failed talks with al-Qaeda.

The journalist who reported that al-Qaeda wanted the release of its supporters in the navy who had been detained,and threatened to attack when the talks collapsed,went missing on Sunday see box.

Kamran Ahmed,a former member of the elite Special Service Group-Navy,was picked up with his younger brother and a friend from Gulberg area of Lahore on Friday,sources said. Ahmed was posted at the Pakistan Navys Mehran and Iqbal bases before he was court-martialled about eight years ago for a brawl.

The naval airbase was targeted by a group of suspected Taliban fighters on May 22.

Asia Times Online reported that al-Qaeda carried out the attack on PNS Mehran after talks between the navy and al-Qaeda over the release of naval officials arrested on suspicion of al-Qaeda links failed.

Naval intelligence had traced an al-Qaeda cell operating inside several navy bases in Karachi,the websites Pakistan bureau chief Syed Saleem Shahzad reported.

We observed an uneasy grouping on different naval bases in Karachi. While nobody can obstruct armed forces personnel for rendering religious rituals or studying Islam,the grouping was against the discipline of the armed forces. That was the beginning of an intelligence operation in the navy to check for unscrupulous activities, his report quoted a navy official as saying.

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The official told the website that the group was against the leadership of the armed forces and opposed to its nexus with the United States. The report said naval intelligence intercepted some messages hinting at attacks on visiting American officials.

The report said that least 10 people were arrested in a series of operations and held in a naval intelligence office behind the chief ministers office in Karachi. However,before the interrogations began,the officer in charge of the interrogation received threats from the al-Qaeda,the report said.

Though the detainees were moved to a safer location,militants threatened that naval installations would be attacked if they were not released,the report said.

Sources told Asia Times that the militants were receiving information on the suspects whereabouts,indicating the extent of al-Qaeda penetration in the navy.

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A high-level conference was called and officials decided to open a line of communication with al-Qaeda, said the report. The report said that Abdul Samad Mansoori,a former student union activist and now part of 313 brigade,who originally hailed from Karachi but lived in the North Waziristan tribal area was approached. The terrorist outfit demanded the immediate release of the officials without interrogation and the navy rejected it.

The navy told the al-Qaeda that they would be discharged once the interrogation was completed,but the outfit rejected it and responded by attacking navy buses in April,the report said.

The navy followed up with another crackdown and more people,from different ethnic backgrounds,were arrested,Shahzad,who has written the book Inside al-Qaeda and the Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11,reported.

His report added that after Osama Bin Laden was killed,al-Qaeda decided to strike and insiders at PNS Mehran provided maps and pictures of different exit and entry routes,taken in daylight and at night and the location of hangers.

with Express News Service,New Delhi