The Yemeni al Qaeda militant arrested in Karachi was a “mid-level” operative and explosives expert involved in plotting attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan, security officials said on Wednesday. They on Tuesday identified him as Muhammad Ali Qasim Yaqub, alias Abu Sohaib al Makki, and said he had been “working directly under al Qaeda leaders along (the) Pakistan-Afghan border”.
Makki’s arrest was the first of what authorities said was a prominent militant since US’ May 2 raid. “He is a mid-level operative and has been very active in the region, but I can’t say yet if he is ‘huge’ in the global scheme of things,” said the official, adding intelligence agencies arrested him about a week ago in central Karachi. “Nonetheless, he is a very good catch,” he said. There was no immediate way of verifying Makki’s rank within al Qaeda.
Al Makki was among prisoners who escaped from a prison in the Afghan city of Kandahar in 2008, two senior officials said. Around 1,000 prisoners including insurgents escaped after a truck bomb blew open the jail’s gates.
