The arrest of Al-Qaeda’s Younis al-Mauritani less than a week to the 10th anniversary of 9/11, is certainly a big news for the world in general, but the bigger news is that the arrest has been materialised as a result of close cooperation between Pakistan’s ISI and America’s CIA, which have been of late gone sour due to ups and downs between the two countries’ relations. Al-Mauritani, said to be a member of Quetta Shura, which Pakistan says does not exist, was nabbed along with two other operatives by the Pakistan Army with ‘technical support provided by the US intelligence’. He happened to be a close confidant of Osama bin Laden, and was reportedly assigned to strike targets of economic importance in the United States, Europe and Australia.
Atiya Abd al-Rahman who was killed in a US drone strike just a week ago, was regarded as Al-Qaeda’s number two, ‘correcting’ the impression that Zawahiri was number two. But as many observers believe that the killing of Atiya Abd al-Rahman and arrest of al-Mauritani indicates the thinning out of top leadership of al-Qaeda outfit. Al-Qaeda seems to have gone more active and strong despite the killing of Osama bin Laden and a number of arrests afterwards. It also seems to shift its operational activities to Egypt and Libya as well, which means the threat of international terrorism remains strong and alive, though it may be shifting its battlefields from here to other countries and continents.
F Z KHAN
Islamabad