Kamra Airbase attacker had Rs90 million in bank account

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
1

Kamra Airbase attacker had Rs90 million in bank account

ISLAMABAD: Security agencies arrested two relatives of terrorist Faisal Shehzad who was killed during a militant attack at the Kamra Air Base in August, reported Express News on Tuesday.

Shehzad’s two uncles were arrested from Rawalpindi and Taxila and were identified through Shehzad’s bank account which revealed a transaction of Rs90 million. The transaction was done through two men identified as Allah Ditta and Babar Malik.

Both the men had earlier refused to take Shehzad’s body and had expressed ignorance over the terrorist’s activities.

The attack by militants on the PAF airbase and operation by security forces lasted for over four hours in which at least eight militants and one security official were killed.

The staggering amount of Rs9 crore in just one account shows the abundance of funding available to sponsor attacks on national security assets. Financial lifeline of terrorists is one of those elements that Pakistani authorities have been unable to stifle. It’s a multipronged war which should not be fought conventionally. But since the start of this proxy war, have we seen any tactical change in the policy of defence? I don’t think so.

2

Re: Kamra Airbase attacker had Rs90 million in bank account

Banks keep records of each and every transaction, where does the money trail leads..

3

Re: Kamra Airbase attacker had Rs90 million in bank account

Good investigation will lead us to the real enemy hiding behind the thick fog of TTP.

4

Re: Kamra Airbase attacker had Rs90 million in bank account

Probably Saudia Arabia or UAE.

5

Re: Kamra Airbase attacker had Rs90 million in bank account

Whats up with the pakistan's fascination with millions and billions. why can you guys use our own lacs and crores. Too much american influence ?

6

Re: Kamra Airbase attacker had Rs90 million in bank account

Saudi actually supports our army directly/indirectly and in hidden fashions, if they really are found involved in this one it would be big blow to the relationship, but I doubt its them.

7

Re: Kamra Airbase attacker had Rs90 million in bank account

May be Swiss Banks too

8

Re: Kamra Airbase attacker had Rs90 million in bank account

Do you believe that KSA or UAE are more interested in TTP than Pak army or Islamabad?

9

Re: Kamra Airbase attacker had Rs90 million in bank account

Taliban raised 400 hundred million dollars last year from smuggling drugs, kidnapping and armoed robbery

its not a surprise that they have this kind of money available to them.

10

Re: Kamra Airbase attacker had Rs90 million in bank account

^ Yeah, that's why bank robberies are a routine matter now.

11

Re: Kamra Airbase attacker had Rs90 million in bank account

Saudis have been funding radical madrassas & Taliban for years. That is not a secret.

BBC News - Wikileaks: Saudis ‘chief funders of Sunni militants’

Wikileaks: Saudis ‘chief funders of Sunni militants’

The cables said militant groups had used front companies in Saudi Arabia to fundraise

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned last year in a leaked classified memo that donors in Saudi Arabia were the “most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide”.

She said it was “an ongoing challenge” to persuade Saudi officials to treat such activity as a strategic priority.

The groups funded include al-Qaeda, the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba, she added.

The memo, released by Wikileaks, also criticised efforts to combat militants by the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait.

Meanwhile, a lawyer for the founder of the Wikileaks website said he was holding back secret material for release if anything happened to him.

He told the BBC that a rape case being prepared in Sweden against Julian Assange, an Australian national, was politically motivated.

‘Dependent on CIA’
In one classified cable sent in December 2009, Mrs Clinton urged diplomats to redouble efforts to stop funds reaching militants “threatening stability in Pakistan and Afghanistan and targeting Coalition soldiers”.

“While the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) takes seriously the threat of terrorism within Saudi Arabia, it has been an ongoing challenge to persuade Saudi officials to treat terrorist financing emanating from Saudi Arabia as a strategic priority,” she wrote.

Large sums are raised by militant groups during the annual Hajj pilgrimage, US diplomats believe
The Saudi government had begun to make important progress, but “donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide”, she added.

Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba “probably raised millions of dollars” annually from Saudi sources, often during the Hajj - and the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, she alleged.

Mrs Clinton said reforms to criminalise terrorist financing and restrict the overseas flow of funds from Saudi-based charities had been effective, but that they did not cover equally suspect “multilateral organisations”.

Another cable alleges that the Pakistani charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which has been accused of being a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, used a Saudi-based front company to fund its activities in 2005.

Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote

The lack of effective border controls on cash is no doubt exploited by Taliban couriers and Afghan drug lords”

Leaked US diplomatic cable
The US embassy in Riyadh said in February that the Saudi authorities remained “almost completely dependent on the CIA” for information.

‘Key transit point’
Wikileaks is currently working through the publication of more than 250,000 US diplomatic cables, whose release has embarrassed the United States.

Washington has condemned the disclosures - including indiscreet descriptions of world leaders and instructions to spy at the UN - as an attack on the world community.

In the latest releases, three other US allies in the Gulf were also listed as sources of funding for militants in the memo sent by Mrs Clinton.

Al-Qaeda and other groups continued to “exploit Kuwait both as a source of funds and as a key transit point”, partly because it remains the sole Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) country that has not criminalised terrorist financing, the cable said.
r

“While the GOK has demonstrated a willingness to take action when attacks target Kuwait, it has been less inclined to take action against Kuwait-based financiers and facilitators plotting attacks outside of Kuwait,” Mrs Clinton wrote.

Kuwaiti officials resisted the “draconian” measures sought by the US against the Revival of Islamic Heritage Society, a charity designated a terrorist entity in 2008 for providing aid to al-Qaeda and affiliated groups, according to one cable.

Qatar is meanwhile criticised for having “adopted a largely passive approach” to fundraising activities, and its overall level of counter-terrorism co-operation with the US is “considered the worst in the region”.

The UAE is described as a “strategic gap” that militants can exploit, with the Taliban and Haqqani Network believed to be earning “significant funds” from business interests, kidnapping and extortion there.

“High volumes of cash and electronic funds flow both to and from Afghanistan and Pakistan, the vast majority of which is derived from legitimate trade and remittances. The lack of effective border controls on cash is no doubt exploited by Taliban couriers and Afghan drug lords, camouflaged among traders, businessmen and migrant workers,” one cable said.

Another cable said militants avoided money transfer controls by sending amounts below reporting thresholds, using couriers and hawala - an Islamic informal transfer system.

Emerging trends include mobile banking, pre-paid cards, and internet banking.

12

Re: Kamra Airbase attacker had Rs90 million in bank account

Sounds like you're surprised.

13

Re: Kamra Airbase attacker had Rs90 million in bank account

3 banks looted in Karachi during riots organised by the religious extremist parties.... I bet I know where the money from those banks is going to.

14

Re: Kamra Airbase attacker had Rs90 million in bank account

Kidnapping for ransom has increased may a times during recent times, which is the principle source of income for these groups. Maybe some support from afghan Taliban too, who earn billions from the Americans to provide protection to NATO supplies.

15

Re: Kamra Airbase attacker had Rs90 million in bank account

I know about that, the moment petro-dollars targeted for Mujahideen (for Afghan jihad) training spilled over into rest of country SSP took birth, but its not easy to say that Saudi actually provided funding specifically for attacking army areas.

16

Re: Kamra Airbase attacker had Rs90 million in bank account

Yes I am. If TTP takes over Pakistan, even after the Judgement Day, they will want American forces out of the kingdom and implementation of the Shariah to the letter. We already know what Al Qaeda wanted to see happening in the KSA. Can Saudis afford that?

17

Re: Kamra Airbase attacker had Rs90 million in bank account

these reminds me of how taliban were rejoicing when nato routes were reopened!

18

Re: Kamra Airbase attacker had Rs90 million in bank account

high profile kidnapping was never on rise like this before. these criminals gangs have network across Pakistan, and this network is stronger than ever before, with the ttp involvment, its getting really scary.

19

Re: Kamra Airbase attacker had Rs90 million in bank account

Saudi Government supports stable (dictator or not) Pakistan, but elements of Saudi population has not figured out the impact of their contribution to Jihad. They are happy to live a subsidized life in comfort, but Jihad everywhere else is like sport may be?

What puzzles me is nearly half the Saudi youth is unemployed, yet not much of overt or covert anger spilling in the street against government or US or mullahs, but Pakistan where people have to work to feed families, they come to street at the drop of a hat. I guess the price of democracy (even a basket case).

20

Re: Kamra Airbase attacker had Rs90 million in bank account

I disagree, it was Saudi government funding the 'jihad' training, now it may be individual 'princes' who might be supporting these elements directly/indirectly knowing what is happening to their funding.