Top Qaeda operative Ilyas Kashmiri still alive

ISLAMABAD: One of al Qaeda’s main operational commanders and the chief of the Harkatul Jihad al-Islami (HJI), Muhammad Ilyas Kashmiri, who was reportedly killed in a US drone attack in South Waziristan last year, was spotted in North Waziristan recently, Daily Times has learnt through reliable sources. The HJI leader reportedly visited North Waziristan this week and held sittings with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leader Hakimullah Mehsud. Kashmiri and his group are linked to al Qaeda and are suspected of launching a 2006 suicide attack on the US Consulate in Karachi and carrying out the attack on the PNS Mehran airbase in Karachi in May 2011. A former member of the Pakistan Army’s Special Services Group, the dreaded commander was reported to have been killed in a US drone strike in South Waziristan on June 3 last year. Sources said that during the visit, Kashmiri spent a night with Mehsud, as his guest. During Kashmiri’s visit to the TTP comrade in Waziristan, a renowned journalist from Islamabad was also reportedly present there. During the sittings with Mehsud, Kashmiri allegedly reviewed the future strategy in connection with jihad, his movement and the present situation in Afghanistan. However, sources said that security officials of the United States and Pakistan failed to confirm the death of the HJI commander and media reports were published in July last year that he was still active in the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is always difficult to confirm reports in Pakistan’s volatile Tribal Areas that are no-go areas for journalists. However, it is said that the photograph believed to be of Kashmiri’s corpse, was actually that of a member of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba team that attacked Mumbai in November 2008. manzoor qadir

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