Kailash Kumar
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Omar Sheikh: terror’s maze runner
OWAIS TOHID
May 09, 2020
In this file photo, Pakistani police surround handcuffed Omar Sheikh as he comes out of a court in Karachi on March 29, 2002.
When I got the phone call at sunrise inviting me to meet ‘Hazrat Maulana Sahib’ who had 'returned a victor,' I bolted out of my house at the opportunity no journalist would turn down.
It was Masood Azhar, who had been freed in exchange for releasing passengers of an Indian airliner hijacked in Kandahar. He was the biggest news in the region. I focused on speaking to him for the next two hours in Karachi’s Binori Town Islamic seminary, ignoring his young associate sitting there, who had been freed from the Indian prison along with Masood Azhar.
I couldn’t have known that the young man quietly staring at his nails would go on to become an even bigger headliner than Azhar.
Within two years, the world around me changed. 9/11 happened, Taliban’s rule ended, Mullah Omer reportedly fled burqa-clad on a motorcycle, Osama bin Ladin and Zawahiri became fugitives and Maulana Masood Azhar became a ‘most wanted’ figure. The murky war on terror had begun.
I was with the BBC World Service in London when the news broke of American journalist Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping. I had met him in Islamabad with a group of foreign journalists a few weeks ago after flying into Pakistan to cover post 9/11 events. His smiling face flashed through my mind when I saw the grotesque photograph released by his kidnappers. The kidnappers called themselves the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistan’s Sovereignty using the email account: Kidnapperguy@hotmail.com.
Then came the dramatic arrests. Omar Sheikh was brought before an anti-terrorism court in Karachi in handcuffs, and the sidekick of the Kashmir jihad ideologue Masood Azhar, was charged for masterminding Pearl’s brutal murder.
Azhar had pointed out Sheikh's value when introducing him at the Islamic seminary of Binori Town: “He speaks their language, he looks like them (foreigners) but his soul belongs to Jihad,” he had told me.
It had seemed like typical rhetoric at the time but he was probably chosen by terror networks for that purpose. He was arrested for kidnapping foreign tourists in India, by luring them in by his sophisticated conversation. Now Daniel Pearl, another foreigner, had been trapped by him.
I was intrigued by his profile as more information poured in. Born into a wealthy business family in London, schooled in the elite Aitchison College in Lahore, he went to the private Forest school in Snaresbrook, and then the prestigious London School of Economics. I met his class fellow at LSE, who described him as somebody extremely intelligent but who would flare up during discussions.
Sheikh went to the Balkans in the mid-90s and then resurfaced in India where he was arrested.
“He would often talk about the condition of Muslims in Balkans and Kashmir and that Muslims should help themselves instead of appealing to western powers,” his college mate told me.
“There was some secrecy… at one moment he would be hanging out and arm-wrestling with his friends, and then would suddenly walk off and no one would hear from him for days,’ he recalls.
From London to the Balkans, and from Kashmir to Kandahar, Omar Sheikh ran into the dark alleys of terror networks finally to be caged in Karachi.
A year later in 2003, I came back to cover Pakistan and Afghanistan. I co-authored a special report titled ‘Who Killed Daniel Pearl?’ with Tim McGirk of TIME magazine. I spent days in Karachi following the trail and our investigation revealed, reportedly for the first time, that Al Qaeda’s key leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad slaughtered Daniel Pearl. KSM later confessed to American interrogators of killing the American journalist and is currently imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay.
The Pearl murder case also left tracks in the formation of the deadly nexus between Al Qaeda, splinters of militant outfits which fought in Afghanistan, and sectarian outfit Lashkar e Jhangvi (LeJ) which was involved in the ruthless act.
Omar Sheikh played the role of a bridge.
“Omar met Daniel Pearl with pseudonym. He was in touch with Al Qaeda, tricked and trapped him, set the meeting place, and delivered him to KSM through Jihadi militants,” says senior police official, who investigated the case.
On the day of his kidnapping, Pearl met Jameel Yusuf, who was heading a committee which liaisons with Karachi police.
Jameel recalls: “We were talking about the changing patterns in crime and terrorism post 9/11. Then his phone rang.”
“I can join you soon, probably in 15 minutes,” Jameel overheard Daniel Pearl telling the caller. Jameel also assisted Pakistani and American intelligence sleuths who traced the missing links which subsequently led to the arrest of Omar Sheikh.
Once behind bars, Sheikh's life was bound to change.
“Initially amid anti American sentiments, for Jihadis he was a brand name. He would portray himself as a hero,” a senior jail official Aman Ullah of Karachi central prison once told me.
“He used to believe it was a matter of few years. He will be a free man again,” the official, who was later killed in Karachi violence, told me.
Sheikh was sentenced to death. He has been imprisoned in solitary confinement for the past eighteen years. Is he a different man now? A broken man? And can his story have a redemptive arc?
“He seems disillusioned,” says a senior investigator who recently met Sheikh in the Hyderabad prison. “He looks ten years older than his age. His beard has almost turned white. His aggressive tone has changed.”
But then the same investigator discovered Sheikh had written a guidebook while in his death row cell, on how to wage war in India titled ‘Ghazva-i-Hind.”
He is as enigmatic for authorities as he was for his college friends. Some officials call him an “inexperienced terrorist” who had botched up both the kidnapping cases he was involved in and got himself arrested. Others describe him as extremely bright - brainy enough to have bluffed lie detector machines during FBI investigations.
“He is a fascinating character, his story is like a Greek tragedy,” says Omer Shahid, a senior police investigator and an author of thriller novels. In fact a main character of Shahid’s novel, The Spinner’s Tale, is inspired by Sheikh and main events carry similarities with real events revolving around the kidnapping and murder of an American journalist.
But Omar Sheikh’s story recently took a dramatic turn when his sentence was commuted last month and his three aides acquitted for lack of evidence by the high court in Karachi.
The US denounced the verdict with top US diplomat for South Asia, Alice Wells saying it was “an affront to victims of terrorism everywhere."
Daniel Pearl’s tragic, stricken parents now seek justice from Pakistan’s superior judiciary to overturn the ruling which freed four men convicted in their son’s kidnapping and murder.
“We are standing up for justice not only for our son, but for all our dear friends in Pakistan, so they can live in a society free of violence and terrorism,” they said in an emotional video message.
Pakistani authorities have already ordered Omar Sheikh and three other men to be kept in prison for three additional months and the superior judiciary is likely to take up the case soon.
For Pakistan’s security establishment he is a liability, and freeing him will bring disrepute to the country.
For terror outfits he is a spent bullet.
And so, Omar Sheikh, the once mysterious runner in the dark alleys of terror networks seems trapped in the maze for life.
https://www.arabnews.pk/node/1672271/pakistan
OWAIS TOHID
May 09, 2020
In this file photo, Pakistani police surround handcuffed Omar Sheikh as he comes out of a court in Karachi on March 29, 2002.
When I got the phone call at sunrise inviting me to meet ‘Hazrat Maulana Sahib’ who had 'returned a victor,' I bolted out of my house at the opportunity no journalist would turn down.
It was Masood Azhar, who had been freed in exchange for releasing passengers of an Indian airliner hijacked in Kandahar. He was the biggest news in the region. I focused on speaking to him for the next two hours in Karachi’s Binori Town Islamic seminary, ignoring his young associate sitting there, who had been freed from the Indian prison along with Masood Azhar.
I couldn’t have known that the young man quietly staring at his nails would go on to become an even bigger headliner than Azhar.
Within two years, the world around me changed. 9/11 happened, Taliban’s rule ended, Mullah Omer reportedly fled burqa-clad on a motorcycle, Osama bin Ladin and Zawahiri became fugitives and Maulana Masood Azhar became a ‘most wanted’ figure. The murky war on terror had begun.
I was with the BBC World Service in London when the news broke of American journalist Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping. I had met him in Islamabad with a group of foreign journalists a few weeks ago after flying into Pakistan to cover post 9/11 events. His smiling face flashed through my mind when I saw the grotesque photograph released by his kidnappers. The kidnappers called themselves the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistan’s Sovereignty using the email account: Kidnapperguy@hotmail.com.
Then came the dramatic arrests. Omar Sheikh was brought before an anti-terrorism court in Karachi in handcuffs, and the sidekick of the Kashmir jihad ideologue Masood Azhar, was charged for masterminding Pearl’s brutal murder.
Azhar had pointed out Sheikh's value when introducing him at the Islamic seminary of Binori Town: “He speaks their language, he looks like them (foreigners) but his soul belongs to Jihad,” he had told me.
It had seemed like typical rhetoric at the time but he was probably chosen by terror networks for that purpose. He was arrested for kidnapping foreign tourists in India, by luring them in by his sophisticated conversation. Now Daniel Pearl, another foreigner, had been trapped by him.
I was intrigued by his profile as more information poured in. Born into a wealthy business family in London, schooled in the elite Aitchison College in Lahore, he went to the private Forest school in Snaresbrook, and then the prestigious London School of Economics. I met his class fellow at LSE, who described him as somebody extremely intelligent but who would flare up during discussions.
Sheikh went to the Balkans in the mid-90s and then resurfaced in India where he was arrested.
“He would often talk about the condition of Muslims in Balkans and Kashmir and that Muslims should help themselves instead of appealing to western powers,” his college mate told me.
“There was some secrecy… at one moment he would be hanging out and arm-wrestling with his friends, and then would suddenly walk off and no one would hear from him for days,’ he recalls.
From London to the Balkans, and from Kashmir to Kandahar, Omar Sheikh ran into the dark alleys of terror networks finally to be caged in Karachi.
A year later in 2003, I came back to cover Pakistan and Afghanistan. I co-authored a special report titled ‘Who Killed Daniel Pearl?’ with Tim McGirk of TIME magazine. I spent days in Karachi following the trail and our investigation revealed, reportedly for the first time, that Al Qaeda’s key leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad slaughtered Daniel Pearl. KSM later confessed to American interrogators of killing the American journalist and is currently imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay.
The Pearl murder case also left tracks in the formation of the deadly nexus between Al Qaeda, splinters of militant outfits which fought in Afghanistan, and sectarian outfit Lashkar e Jhangvi (LeJ) which was involved in the ruthless act.
Omar Sheikh played the role of a bridge.
“Omar met Daniel Pearl with pseudonym. He was in touch with Al Qaeda, tricked and trapped him, set the meeting place, and delivered him to KSM through Jihadi militants,” says senior police official, who investigated the case.
On the day of his kidnapping, Pearl met Jameel Yusuf, who was heading a committee which liaisons with Karachi police.
Jameel recalls: “We were talking about the changing patterns in crime and terrorism post 9/11. Then his phone rang.”
“I can join you soon, probably in 15 minutes,” Jameel overheard Daniel Pearl telling the caller. Jameel also assisted Pakistani and American intelligence sleuths who traced the missing links which subsequently led to the arrest of Omar Sheikh.
Once behind bars, Sheikh's life was bound to change.
“Initially amid anti American sentiments, for Jihadis he was a brand name. He would portray himself as a hero,” a senior jail official Aman Ullah of Karachi central prison once told me.
“He used to believe it was a matter of few years. He will be a free man again,” the official, who was later killed in Karachi violence, told me.
Sheikh was sentenced to death. He has been imprisoned in solitary confinement for the past eighteen years. Is he a different man now? A broken man? And can his story have a redemptive arc?
“He seems disillusioned,” says a senior investigator who recently met Sheikh in the Hyderabad prison. “He looks ten years older than his age. His beard has almost turned white. His aggressive tone has changed.”
But then the same investigator discovered Sheikh had written a guidebook while in his death row cell, on how to wage war in India titled ‘Ghazva-i-Hind.”
He is as enigmatic for authorities as he was for his college friends. Some officials call him an “inexperienced terrorist” who had botched up both the kidnapping cases he was involved in and got himself arrested. Others describe him as extremely bright - brainy enough to have bluffed lie detector machines during FBI investigations.
“He is a fascinating character, his story is like a Greek tragedy,” says Omer Shahid, a senior police investigator and an author of thriller novels. In fact a main character of Shahid’s novel, The Spinner’s Tale, is inspired by Sheikh and main events carry similarities with real events revolving around the kidnapping and murder of an American journalist.
But Omar Sheikh’s story recently took a dramatic turn when his sentence was commuted last month and his three aides acquitted for lack of evidence by the high court in Karachi.
The US denounced the verdict with top US diplomat for South Asia, Alice Wells saying it was “an affront to victims of terrorism everywhere."
Daniel Pearl’s tragic, stricken parents now seek justice from Pakistan’s superior judiciary to overturn the ruling which freed four men convicted in their son’s kidnapping and murder.
“We are standing up for justice not only for our son, but for all our dear friends in Pakistan, so they can live in a society free of violence and terrorism,” they said in an emotional video message.
Pakistani authorities have already ordered Omar Sheikh and three other men to be kept in prison for three additional months and the superior judiciary is likely to take up the case soon.
For Pakistan’s security establishment he is a liability, and freeing him will bring disrepute to the country.
For terror outfits he is a spent bullet.
And so, Omar Sheikh, the once mysterious runner in the dark alleys of terror networks seems trapped in the maze for life.
https://www.arabnews.pk/node/1672271/pakistan
