Title: The Karachi blast against The French
Author: B. Raman
Publication: South Asia Analysis Group (SAAG)
Date: May 8, 2002
URL: http://www.saag.org/papers5/paper456.html

(To be read in continuation of the earlier report titled "Why Terrorists Target The French at Karachi?" )

Karachi Police sources continue to insist that the explosion outside the local Sheraton Hotel on May 8, 2002, was specifically targetted at the French and that the terrorist, who carried out the attack, would have been aware of the nationality of the white-skinned persons sitting inside the bus. They rule out the possibility, as speculated in sections of the local media, of the terrorist mistaking the French for the New Zealand cricketeers or for American citizens.

The theory of a targeted suicide attack on the French defies logic because France, while taking vigorous action against the Al Qaeda sympathisers in France and freezing their bank accounts, has been playing a very low-profile role in the anti-Osama bin Laden operations in Afghanistan. Moreover, it has been strongly supportive of Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and critical of Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister. It has also opposed any US move to extend the anti-terrorism war to Iraq against President Saddam Hussain. The pro-Osama groups in Pakistan or his Al Qaeda should not, therefore, have any cause for anger against the French.

Those in the Karachi Police, who strongly back the theory that it was a targetted attack on the French, advance the following possible explanations as to why the French were targeted: 
* While the terrorists knew they were French, they did not know they were working in the Agosta class submarine project, which had nothing to do with the war against terrorism. They must have thought that the French attacked must be providing logistic support to a French naval ship which, according to them, is part of the international coalition's fleet in this region.

* The co-operation of the French with the USA in the investigation regarding the Pakistani links of Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber. It is pointed out that for some reasons, not yet clear, this seems to be a sensitive topic with the terrorists. According to Karachi Police sources, Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and killed for making a similar investigation.
In addition to the Al Qaeda, the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI), the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM), the Laskar-e-Toiba (LET), and the Al Saiqua, the Karachi Police have also been investigating about the possible role of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LEJ) and the Lashkar-e-Omar (LEO) in the attack on the French. The LEJ is the militant wing of the Sipah Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), headed by Azam Tariq, considered the most dreaded terrorist in Pakistan. The leader of the LEJ is Riaz Basra, who has been absconding for many years.

The SSP is a Sunni extremist organisation, which has been demanding the proclamation of Pakistan as a Sunni state and the declaration of the Shias as non-Muslim. It came into existence after the success of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979 and had been used and funded in the past by the Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan for controlling the Shias and by the intelligence agencies of Saudi Arabi and Iraq for creating trouble for Iran.

The ISI cut off its links with it when the SSP and the LEJ started killing a large number of Shias, including many Shia intellectuals, and Iranian diplomats and other Iranian nationals living in Pakistani territory. They then started operating from the Taliban-controlled territory in Afghanistan and the SSP became a member of bin Laden's International Islamic Front For Jehad Against the US and Israel. The Taliban and the Al Qaeda used it for carrying out the massacre of the Shias in the Hazara belt.

The HUM, the HUJI and the JEM are all the off-spring of the SSP. Like the SSP, all the three of them along with the LET are members of bin Laden's International Islamic Front. Maulana Masood Azhar of the JEM started his career as a terrorist in the SSP. Of late, the HUM and the HUJI have distanced themselves from the strongly anti-Shia line of the SSP and the LEJ.

President Pervez Musharraf banned the LEJ on August 14,2001, and the SSP on January 15,2002. Despite this, they continue to be very active in the Punjab, in the Northern Areas (Gilgit and Baltistan) and in Karachi and have killed a large number of Shias in recent weeks. Their favourite modus operandi are to kill their victims by firing from a hand-held weapon while travelling on a motor-bike in teams of two and use of timed or remote-controlled explosive devices. Till now, they have not used suicide bombing.

The "News", the prestigious daily newspaper of Pakistan, reported on May 9, 2002, as follows: "According to the police, a few months ago allegedly the activists of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi attempted to fire rockets at the same hotel where Wednesday's gruesome incident took place. During interrogations, the activists of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi told the police that they tried to target the hotel which was home to a large number of foreign nationals.

"The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi activists had tried to fire a rocket from an improvised launcher installed behind the Commerce College near Rangers Headquarters. However, one of the activists could not properly fire the rocket, causing their forehead and hair to burn.

"Similarly, another cell of the same party tried to attack a landing aircraft of ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) which luckily missed the target as it formed a trajectory far above the aircraft descending to land at the Quaid-e-Azam International Airport. The rocket missed the aircraft and instead hit a nearby house, damaging it and injuring the residents.

"Simultaneously, the members of the cell also tried to fire two rockets targeting the nearby residence of the ISAF at the Hotel Midway. Due to weak batteries of the improvised launcher, the rockets could not be fired and the activists had to flee abandoning the rockets and the launcher.

"The rockets used in both the incidents had the same lot number, indicating usage by the same group. In the past two months, the Sindh police in its different raids at the hideouts of local terrorist groups have yielded laboratory chemicals and equipment used to manufacture improvised explosive devices like pipe bombs and cardboard bombs. Though it needs to be chemically examined, it is strongly believed that the car was carrying improvised devices made up of similar high explosive chemicals found during the raids at the hideouts of a major militant of a terrorist group involved in sectarian and other high-profile killings. Similar chemicals were used in Raiwind explosion, which blew up the bridge from where minutes later the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had to pass. Almost similar chemical was used in Oklahoma bomb
blast, sources added. "

The Lashkar-e-Omar (LEO) is stated to be a new united front of the HUJI, the LEJ and the JEM, patterned after bin Laden's International Islamic Front. It came to notice for the first time in November,2001, when it claimed responsibility for an attack on a group of Pakistani Christians praying in a church in Bhawalpur in Punjab, where Maulana Masood Azhar lives. Subsequently, it was suspected in connection with the grenade attack on a group of Pakistani and foreign Christians praying in a church in Islamabad on March 17, 2002,killing five persons, including the wife and daughter of an official of the US Embassy in Islamabad. He escaped with injuries. This attack was seen by many as targeted at him.

Omar Sheikh, presently undergoing trial in Hyderabad, Sindh, for his involvement in the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl, the American journalist, and Amjad Hussain Faruqui of the HUJI, an absconding accused in the case, were both closely linked with the LEO, whose cadres were trained in training camps in Taliban-controlled territory.

The origin of the name of LEO ( the Army of Omar) is not clear. Some reports say it is named after Mulla Mohammad Omar, the Amir of the Taliban, and consists of the dregs of the Taliban, the Al Qaeda, and the Pakistani jehadi organisations allied with bin Laden in the International Islamic Front, who managed to survive the US air strikes and crossed over into Pakistan. According to other reports, it is named after Omar Sheikh and consists of hand-picked cadres of the HUJI, the JEM and the LEJ only for organising punishment acts of terrorism against the Americans in Pakistani territory. It has a capability for suicide terrorism, but is not known to have targeted non-Americans in the past. 

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-Mail: corde@vsnl.com )