Those investigating the July 29 midnight jailbreak operation in Dera Ismail Khan have concluded that the brazen assault was masterminded by Adnan Rasheed, a dangerous jehadi and the mastermind of an assassination attempt on Pervez Musharraf, who himself was freed in a jailbreak operation conducted on April 15, 2012. Those investigating the Dera Ismail Khan operation in which around 275 most wanted militants escaped, further believe that the prison attackers were led by Adnan Rasheed being the chief operational commander of a special unit of fidayeen attackers belonging to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). Both the Waziristan-based jehadi groups have already joined hands to form the jehadi unit called “Ansar Al Aseer” (supporters of prisoners) whose prime aim is to secure freedom for the imprisoned jehadis by carrying out jailbreak operations across Pakistan. The Dera Ismail Khan episode rekindles memories of the 2012 jailbreak in Bannu in which about 400 prisoners escaped, including Adnan Rasheed. Five days after the Bannu jail break, TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said [on April 20, 2012] that the operation was chiefly meant to free Adnan Rasheed. Ehsan said that the Taliban had been working on the jailbreak plan for the past several months and were in touch with Adnan and other prisoners in the Bannu Central Jail. Adnan, a former officer of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), was sentenced to death for his role in a failed bid on Musharraf’s life. The execution was never carried out and Adnan was transferred to the Bannu prison from where he was freed in April 2012 in a jailbreak operation conducted by the TTP. Adnan Rasheed had later featured in videotape celebrating the jailbreak. Since his escape from prison, Rasheed has featured prominently in Taliban propaganda. In March 2013, Rasheed released a video that showed a squad of heavily armed Taliban fighters who he claimed was tasked to kill Musharraf. Rasheed said the death squad is split up into groups of fedayeen, sniper team, special assault team, and close combat team. Two weeks ago, Adnan Rasheed released a letter to Malala Yousafzai wherein he attempted to justify the attack. Adnan Rasheed had claimed in an April 2013 rare interview that he was indoctrinated by a covert jehadi group which recruits officers from the three military services and utilizes them to wage jehad along with the Taliban. The interview was published in the first issue of an English-language jehadi magazine “Azan” which was launched by the Taliban elements, primarily to cater to the educated Muslims. Narrating in a first-hand witness account, Adnan Rasheed says he joined a clandestine jehadi group functioning in the Pakistan Air Force under the name Idaratul Pakistan, or the institution of Pakistan. The group’s mission was, according to him, to recruit jehadis from all three wings of the Pakistani military - Army, Navy and the Air Force. Adnan Rasheed also notes how he was led by senior military officers to believe that the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) founder Maulana Masood Azhar was appointed the ameer of the Pakistani Taliban by Mullah Mohammad Omar, the fugitive ameer of the Afghan Taliban. Adnan narrates how his boss granted him four months’ leave to get training at a Jaish training camp in Mansehra district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and how he finally came to know that Masood Azhar was never appointed the ameer of Pakistani Taliban by Mullah Mohammad Omar. Interestingly, despite being an al-Qaeda linked convicted terrorist, Adnan was allowed to get married in the jail in 2010 and become father of a daughter. Coming from Chota Lahor village of the Swabi district, Adnan had joined the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) in 1997, before being arrested for his role in an attempt to assassinate Pervez Musharraf in Rawalpindi on December 14, 2003. He was subsequently awarded death sentence by a Field General Court Martial (FGCM) on October 3, 2005 at Chaklala Base of PAF along with six other Air Force men including Chief Technician Khalid Mahmood, Senior Technician Karam Din, Corporal Mohammad Nawazish, and Junior Technicians Niaz Mohammad and Nasrullah. Several interviews of Adnan, while he was in prison, were uploaded on the Facebook, wherein he had pleaded innocence and argued against flaws in the Army Air Force and Navy Acts besides urging Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry to take notice of the issue. But in a video message released after his escape from the jail, Adnan Rasheed had confessed to his role in the 2003 assassination attempt on Musharraf, before finally becoming the chief operational commander of Ansar Al Aseer. The formation of the jehadi unit was made public through a video which featured not only Adnan Rasheed, but also Yassin Chouka, one of the most wanted German commanders of the Waziristan-based Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan; and Abdul Hakeem, a Russian IMU member.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Aug 2013 10:27:38 +0000
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