The FBI has charged Abdur Rehman in a Chicago court on charges of conspiring terrorist attacks in association with David Headley.
American intelligence sleuths in Pakistan are trying to ascertain whether Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, alias Pasha — a retired Pakistan Army major named by the FBI as a key link between 26/11 suspect David Coleman Headley and his Lashkar-e-Taiba handlers — is the brother-in-law of Qari Saifullah Akhtar, the absconding ameer of the pro-Taliban Pakistani jihadi group Harkatul Jehadul Islami (HuJi).
The FBI has charged Abdur Rehman in a Chicago court on charges of conspiring terrorist attacks in association with David Headley, a US national of Pakistani-origin already in the FBI’s custody. Sources in Islamabad’s diplomatic circles say the American intelligence is trying to determine if Abdur Rehman is the same person who filed a petition in the Supreme Court of Pakistan on October 12, 2004, challenging Qari Saifullah Akhtar’s arrest. The petitioner had also sought a court order to prevent possible deportation of Qari Saifullah, his brother-in-law, to another country. The petition was thrown out on January 18, 2005 and the petitioner instructed to move high court.
Qari Saifullah Akhtar, arrested in 1995 for conspiring to topple then PM Benazir Bhutto’s government, had been named by the slain PPP leader in her posthumous book — Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West — as a principal suspect in the October 18, 2007 attempt on her life in Karachi, hours after her return from self-exile.
Pakistan army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas refused to confirm if Abdur Rehman was actually a former Pakistan army major. The interior ministry spokesman said Pakistani authorities would investigate and ascertain Abdur Rehman’s identity if and when FBI asks them.
According to the 42-page FBI charge sheet, Abdur Rehman coordinated with Ilyas Kashmiri, the chief of the Azad Kashmir chapter of HuJi and another operative of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) to commit terrorist acts outside the US.
He has been charged with participating in planning a terrorist attack in Denmark, and coordinating with David Headley in his surveillance of intended targets.
Abdur Rehman alias Pasha, referred to as individual A in the FBI documents, corresponded with Headley, beginning late 2008, by email or telephone in coded language regarding the ‘Micky Mouse Project’ — their plot to attack the facilities of a Danish newspaper.
Is Pasha brother-in-law of Qari? The FBI believes Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, alias Pasha — a retired Pakistan army major named as a key link between 26/11 suspect David Coleman Headley and his Lashkar-e-Taiba handlers — is the brother-in-law of Qari Saifullah Akhtar, the absconding ameer of the pro-Taliban Pakistani jihadi group Harkatul Jehadul Islami (HuJi).
Considered close to Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, Qari Saifullah Akhtar subsequently became Mullah Omar’s adviser. He was one of the few jihadi leaders who escaped with Mullah Omar after the allied forces invaded Afghanistan in October 2001. Qari first took shelter in South Waziristan Agency; then moved to Peshawar and eventually fled to Saudi Arabia, from where he decided to move to the UAE. UAE authorities arrested him on August 6, 2004 and handed him over to the Pakistani agencies.
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