KARACHI – Taliban fighters seeking money, rest and refuge from the Pakistan army offensive are turning up in increasing numbers in Karachi, according to the Taliban, police officials and an intelligence memo.
Karachi is a critical location both as the main entryway for supplies headed to NATO forces in Afghanistan and as Pakistan’s financial hub. While few believe the Taliban can actually take over Karachi, there is widespread fear that they could destabilise the city with violence.
Although it is a modern city, Karachi is where U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and found beheaded in 2002 and where Al-Qaeda operatives, including suspected Sept. 11 plotter Ramzi Binalshibh, were arrested. It is also where the attackers who killed 170 people in Mumbai were launched last November.
As the Pakistan military intensifies its attacks in the north, more Taliban are seeking safety in Karachi and other urban areas, according to one Taliban member. “We come to Karachi to rest and, if needed, get medical treatment, and stay with our brothers who live here in large numbers”, 32-year-old Taliban Omar Gul Mehsud told the AP.
Shah Jahan, a 35-year-old who claims to command 24 Taliban fighters in the South Waziristan area, said the Taliban were scattering throughout Pakistan. He said groups of 20 to 25 would fight for a few months and then take leave in cities including Karachi. “We understand that it is not wise to concentrate in large numbers in war-torn areas”, he said.
On the western outskirts of Karachi, large settlements of Afghan refugees, mostly Pashtuns, and internally displaced Pakistanis have swelled over the past year by as many as 200,000 people. A police special branch intelligence report obtained by AP warned that such neighbourhoods had become favoured hideouts for Taliban who are linked to Baitullah Mehsud.
The report said Mehsud-linked terrorists were arriving every month or so “to rest and generate funds through criminal activities like kidnapping for ransom, robbing banks, street robbery and other heinous crimes.”
A.D. Khwaja, another senior police official, warned that Taliban could find support among the countless students who attend Karachi’s 3,000 madrasas where many of them are being radicalised by jihadist Muslim clergy.
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