Mohamed Merah, a French-born self-confessed fanatic, who killed seven people – including three children – in a shooting spree in southwest France, stirred a sharp controversy when French authorities claimed that the offender underwent radicalisation during a trip to Afghanistan bordering the tribal areas of Pakistan in November 2011. However, the French national of North African origins, was killed in a police commando raid in Toulouse at the end of the 32-hours siege of his house on March 24, 2012. In the shocking aftermath of the Toulouse attacks, French as well as international news organisations were quick to trace back Merah’s training excursion in Pakistan militant camps.
Mohamed Merah, 23 years old, had a very dubious and capricious history. He was a proclaimed offender who was arrested on several occasions because of his involvement in drugs, thefts and violent crimes. However, he was hired as an informant and sent to Afghanistan to spy upon Al-Qaeda’s senior leadership in the tribal belt, by the DCRI, a French domestic intelligence agency. A former intelligence chief, Yves Bonnet, has also confirmed that Merah was on the pay-roll of DCRI before this grisly incident. “He was known to the DCRI, not especially because he was an Islamist, but because he had a correspondent in domestic intelligence,” Bonnet told La Dépêce newspaper.
Over the period of time, Merah developed severe differences with the French secret intelligence agency. In reaction, Merah, being a sociopath, went on a shooting spree on the children of a school in the Southern France. After the tragic events, in order to cover up their links with Merah, the French intelligence authorities put him down as a radical Islamist who was trying to avenge the killing Palestinian children and punished France for sending troops to Afghanistan. In this way, DCRI got rid of their own informant.
ANSAR MEHBOOB
Rawalpindi