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LJ forming new militant cells

* Matiur Rehman leading reorganisation and recruitment
* Drug money funding drive

By Shahzad Malik

ISLAMABAD: Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ), a banned sectarian militant group, has started a recruitment drive and is forming new cells at the district and provincial levels, Daily Times has learnt.

Intelligence agencies have reported to the Interior Ministry that “notorious terrorist” Matiur Rehman had been tasked with reorganising Lashkar cells, sources told Daily Times.

Rehman is believed to have links with Al Qaeda and is one of the prime suspects in the London airline plot. He is also believed to have been involved in the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, the multiple assassination plots on President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, and the attack on the US Consulate in Karachi in March 2006.

The report added that drug money “from the Taliban” was being used to fund the recruitment drive and reorganisation.

Abdullah Faryad, the LJ president in Ditta Khel, has been told to help Rehman reorganise the cells, said the intelligence report.

Sheikh Ahmed Saleem, an Arab member of Al Qaeda, has given money to Qari Idrees, an LJ activist based in Sahiwal, to recruit militants for the new cells, the report said.

Abu Khabaib, an Arab explosives expert who had been spotted several times in the hills of Chitral, is helping Saleem find new recruits, the report said.

Abdul Wahab Rashad, wanted for killing over 10 Shias in Shah Najaf Mosque, Rawalpindi, is also helping reorganise the LJ, said the intelligence report. Rashad was a close associate of Riaz Basra, a founding member of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi who was killed in 2002.

Nasimul Haq and Salahuddin from Quetta, Muavia from Hangu, Shoaib Khan and Usman Ghani from Hyderabad, and Jamil Khan from Karachi are also involved in the recruitment and reorganisation, according to the report.

The Interior Ministry has asked the home secretaries and the Islamabad chief commissioner to use “all possible resources” to foil the LJ attempt to recruit new members, the sources said. They added that the police had been asked to form raiding parties to track down the LJ activists.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi was formed in 1996 by a breakaway group of Sipah-e-Sahaba. It is banned in Pakistan and internationally as a terrorist group.

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