ISI mole Qari Saifullah Akhtar released mysteriously

Qari Saifullah Akhtar, an al-Qaeda-linked ISI-backed Pakistani jihadi leader who had tried to kill former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in October 2007, has been freed by the country’s all powerful military and intelligence establishment under mysterious circumstances.

Qari, who is also ameer of the Harkatul Jehadul Islami (HUJI) has been set free despite being wanted in several high profile cases of terrorism. Bhutto had named Qari in her posthumous as the mastermind of the Karachi plot.

Qari is also accused of masterminding a plot to blow up the Chashma nuclear power plant at Kundian, Punjab, by using a group of five American nationals who had already been convicted by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan in June 2010 on terrorism charges.

According to the charge sheet filed by the Sargodha police against the five Americans, they were in contact with Qari Saifullah Akhtar who had encouraged them to travel to Pakistan all the way from the US to wage jihad against those siding with the forces of infidel.

Interestingly, the day the five Americans were convicted, Qari Saifullah was declared an absconder despite the fact that he had already been arrested from Rawalpindi by that time and was in the custody of the Pakistani security agencies. He had to abandon Waziristan after he was wounded in a US drone attack. He subsequently travelled to Peshawar and then to Rawalpindi for treatment before being arrested and taken to Lahore, only to be placed under house arrest.