Did Operation Parakram provide safe passage to Osama from Afghanistan?

Was the Indian military mobilisation between 2001 and 2002, otherwise known as 'Operation Parakram', a distraction to allow the besieged Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden to run away from the Tora Bora mountains in Afghanistan? Two British authors, Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark, known for their specialisation in investigative work have made startling claims in their forthcoming book The Exile. They say the attack was choreographed to incite India to create a war-like situation. They have also detailed, hitherto, unknown contacts between the hardcore Sunni Al Qaeda leaders and the Shiate Iran.

In an exclusive interview with DNA, Levy says his investigation revealed that the US paid the Pakistani Army to assist in closing the back door of Tora Bora — a plan devised by Bob Grenier, the CIA station chief in Islamabad. "Only a war or war-like state could have seen these six battalions redeployed," he said. While confirming Indian intelligence claims that the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) attack on Parliament was a planned sortie, conducted with the logistical assistance of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the author said prior to the attack, complex secret negotiations were on between Al Qaida and US officials.

Till December 11, both sides were in talks over a surrender deal through Ibn Sheikh al-Libi, a Libyan commander who had been with Bin Laden from the start, opening Khaldan, one of the first Mujahideen training camps set up with the CIA during the 1980s. He asked for an extension to the deal in a communication on December 11 and 12, but on December 13, the day Indian Parliament was attacked, there was no word from the caves. In a few days, all 6,000 Pakistan troops moved out, leaving the anvil wide open. Soon, there was no trace of the Al Qaeda chief and his commanders.

According to an estimate, the military build-up cost India US$3.4 billion and Pakistan US $1.4 billion. Even without fighting an actual war, India lost 789 soldiers while laying mines and exchanging gunfire.

Levy also reveals that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the 9/11 architect, whose men safeguarded the Al Qaeda fighters, had met LeT chief Hafiz Saeed. He said documents and communications to prove a link between the Al Qaeda and the LeT leader were seized by the US when it captured Mohammad and Ramzi bin al-Shibh in Pakistan. "This led the CIA to conclude that the ISI also knew intimate details about Al Qaeda, as LeT could not have had dealings with that outfit without passing them along," he said, adding that some officers in the ISI, and the jihad fronts were prepared to risk a regional conflagration, with a nuclear dimension, to ensure Osama and the leadership escaped.

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• Levy says his investigation revealed that US paid the Pak Army to assist in closing the back door of Tora Bora — a plan devised by the CIA chief in Islamabad