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ISI helped Mullah Omar to flee to Karachi to escape US drone attacks | Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) has helped Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar to flee from the border town of Quetta to the port city of Karachi, fearing that US drones might target him. Recently, one-eyed leader of the Afghan Taliban found refuge
from potential US attacks in Karachi with the ISI assistance, the Washington Times
has claimed quoting US intelligence officials. "Mullah Omar travelled to Karachi
last month after the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He inaugurated a
new senior leadership council in Karachi, a city that so far has escaped US and
Pakistani counter-terrorism campaigns," the officials said. The News quoted the
paper as saying that the ISI helped Mullah Omar move from Quetta, where they felt
he was exposed to attacks by unmanned US drones. "The development reinforces suspicions
that the ISI, which helped create the Taliban in the 1990s to expand Pakistani
influence in Afghanistan, is working against US interests in Afghanistan as the
Obama administration prepares to send more US troops to fight there," the paper
said. Bruce Riedel, a CIA veteran and analyst on al Qaeda and the Taliban, confirmed
that Mullah Omar had been spotted in Karachi recently. "Some sources claim the
ISI decided to move him further from the battlefield to keep him safe. There are
huge madrassas in Karachi where Mullah Omar could easily be kept," he said. Riedel
noted that there had been few suicide bombings in Karachi, which he attributed
to the Taliban and al Qaeda not wanting to foul their own nest. At the same time,
the daily said so far there has been no indication that the top Al Qaeda leadership
too had moved to Karachi. Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri are
still thought to be in the tribal region of Pakistan on Afghanistan's border,
he said. |
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