THERE IS INCREASING EVIDENCE THAT some doctors in Pakistan may have close links to Osama bin Ladenâs Al Qaeda network. Recently, a team of intelligence officials raided a house in Karachi to arrest two doctors but could not find them. The house was meticulously searched and some documents, CDs and a laptop computer were confiscated. Sources say the raiding team grilled the residents for hours trying to find out the whereabouts of Dr Khan and Dr Saif. Insiders say the intelligence officials were led to these two doctors by Dr Ahmed Javed Khwaja and his brother Ahmed Naveed Khwaja. The brothers were picked up some months ago for being connected to Al Qaeda. They faced terrorism charges until a few days ago when a court exonerated them. Until the filing of this report, however, they remained in custody.
| And the "exoneration" means nothing. The Pak Supreme Court helpfully pointed out that there was no law of the land declaring Qaeda to be a terrorist organization. |
FBI agents and Pakistani intelligence operatives picked up the two brothers and their seven family members from their house in Lahoreâs Manawan area on December 19 last year. Later, the authorities released other family members and charged the two brothers for having links with bin Ladenâs terrorist outfit. Dr Javed Khwaja and his two sons are US nationals while one of his brothers and a nephew have Canadian passports.
| I don't imagine they'll be travelling back to the States very soon... |
After the search the investigators collected everything they found from the house, including notebooks, phone-index, cell phones, four computers, all floppy discs and CDs. Marghoob Ahmed Mir, a brother-in-law of the physician, denied the doctor or his family members had any links to Al Qaeda or any jihadi groups, but admitted that the physician had been visiting Afghanistan during Soviet occupation. He visited there several times to help the war victims, he had said. Later it was found that Dr Javed also visited Afghanistan once after 9/11 (in October 2001) and took a truckload of medicines with him for the war victims.
| Which in itself is not something to prosecute him for... |
Interestingly, after their arrest interior minister Faisal Saleh Hayat had said the government had concrete evidence of Dr Ahmed Javed Khwajaâs links with Al Qaeda. Syed Shabbar, advocate general for the Punjab government told the Lahore High Court recently that authorities had handed over evidence linking the doctor and his immediate relatives to Al Qaeda terrorists to the ISI. He said that 15 computer compact discs, 10 floppy disks, three Afghan and three Egyptian passports were recovered from the home of Ahmed Javed Khwaja and given to the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency on January 4. âWe have handed over these items to ISI lawfully,â Shabbar told the court.
| They're probably only misplaced... "I'm sure we have them here somewhere... Aha! I'll be they were on the 16th floor!" |
Links of some doctors to Al Qaeda began in October last year when the ISI and FBI officials picked up a top orthopaedic surgeon Dr Aamir Aziz from Lahore and detained him for a month until a court ordered for his release. Dr Aziz was suspected to have links with Qaeda operatives and the investigators grilled him during his detention on his visits to Afghanistan in the nineties. Dr Aziz initially got associated with the Kashmiri militants, whom he trained in establishing advanced surgery and dressing stations. During the same period, he became inclined towards religion and grew a beard. He reportedly helped some Arabs, Yemeni and Sudanese families to cross over into Pakistani Balochistan. âThe FBI and CIA officials alleged that I had contacts with Al Qaeda and I helped them making chemical, biological, and radiological and nuclear weapons. It was a ridiculous allegation and by the grace of God, I succeeded in proving my innocence,â he had said after his release in November 2002.
| "I always make a point of confining my practice to conventional explosives," he sniffed. |
On October 30, the FBI-ISI officials arrested Dr Ghairat Baheer, son-in-law of the Afghan fugitive and leader of Hizb-e-Islami Gulbuddin Hekmatyar from Islamabad and shifted him to an unknown destination for questioning. No further details about the whereabouts of Dr Baheer, who is considered to be the spokesman of Hekmatyarâs party in Pakistan, could be known. Hekmatyar has recently been included in the United Statesâ lists of terrorists for which his friends in Pakistani jihadi outfits have reportedly sent him congratulations.
| "Hurrah! Hek made varsity!" |
On January 9 this year, investigators raided the Karachi house of Dr Akmal Waheed, provincial vice-president of Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA) but couldnât find him. The doctorâs family said he was out amputating people's hands visiting interior Sindh. The PIMA promptly took up the issue and said Dr Waheed had been visiting Afghanistan in the past under a United Nationâs programme to provide medical assistance to the Afghan people.
It's part of the Food for Explosives program...
Sources said that during interrogation Dr Ahmed Javed Khwaja and his brother had hinted at some of their professional colleagues who had also been visiting Afghanistan or treating Taliban and Kashmiri militants at their hospitals.
So if you are an infidel and looking for a penis enlargement, it might be a good idea if you don't go see Dr Mohammad. |