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| Indian bio of al-Oufi |
| 2004-06-28 |
| EFL Following the death of Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin, considered the mastermind of the recent kidnapping and beheading of American engineer Paul M. Johnson Jr, Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula is reported to have designated Saleh Mohammed al-Oufi as the head of the organisation. Al-Oufi, who is 38, is not only a Saudi national, but has also nurtured a wide network of contacts in the Saudi security establishment which he had built up during his service as a prison guard with the rank of Sergeant before taking to jihadi terrorism. There are conflicting reports on his career before he became a prison guard. Some reports describe him as having served in the Army after undergoing a training course in the Saudi national security defence training school, but others say he was actually a junior police officer. Al-Oufi is not one of the Arabs who had fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet troops in the 1980s. He proceeded to Pakistan after he was dismissed from the prison department in 1992 on a charge of indiscipline and came into contact with Ramzi Yousef, one of the accused in the New York World Trade Centre bombing case of February,1993, now in jail in the US, and helped him in running a company for the import of holy water from Saudi Arabia and its sale in Pakistan. During his stay in Pakistan, he joined the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), the Pakistani jihadi organisation which was then known as the Harkat-ul-Ansar (HUA), underwent a training course in one of its training camps in the Afghan territory and was selected as a member of a jihadi contingent which was sent by Lt.Gen. (retd) Hamid Gul, former Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), to Bosnia to participate in the jihad there. From Bosnia, he gravitated to Chechnya where he was injured in a clash with the Russian security forces. He returned to Saudi Arabia thereafter and, after undergoing medical treatment, started a shop for the sale of second-hand automobiles and spare parts near Medina. He came into contact with Prof. Hafeez Mohammad Sayeed, the Amir of the Markaz Dawa Al-Irshad (now known as the Jamaat-ud-Dawa JUD), which is the political wing of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), when the latter came to Saudi Arabia on one of his periodic visits and joined the LET. Sayeed nominated him to the shura of the LET set-up in Saudi Arabia and, in that capacity, Al-Oufi used to attend the annual sessions of the LET at Muridke, near Lahore. When the LET started sending its volunteers to Iraq last year to wage jihad against the US troops there, it made him responsible for their infiltration into Iraq via Saudi Arabia. With the help of his contacts in the Saudi security establishment, he successfully helped in the infiltration of a number of jihadis from the LET, the HUM and the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LEJ) into Iraq. His first reported contacts with Osama bin Laden were after the latter returned to Afghanistan from Khartoum in the Sudan in 1996.In the post-1996 period, he was reported to have met him in Afghanistan at least twice, the second time just before the terrorist strikes of 9/11 in the US. While it is not known whether he was aware of the plans for 9/11, Saudi sources describe him as a cousin of Majed Moqed, one of the five hijackers aboard the American Airlines plane that crashed into the Pentagon on September 11 2001. After Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the resumption of the offensive by his Security Forces against the Chechen terrorists in the wake of their raid into Dagestan in 1999, Al-Oufi was in the forefront of those in Saudi Arabia, who, with the knowledge, if not the approval, of the Saudi authorities collected and sent funds for the Chechen jihad. He also helped in the recruitment of local volunteers, their training and despatch to Chechnya for participation in the jihad in the Caucasus as members of the Arab brigade. This brigade was initially headed by Omar Ibn Al Khattab, and, after his death at the hands of the Russian security forces in 2002, by Abu Al-Walid Al-Ghamdi. Al-Oufi and Al-Walid had served together, along with about 300 veterans of the Afghan war, in the Bosnian Army’s 7th Battalion under the command of Abu ’Abd al-Aziz ’Barbaros’, described as an Indian Muslim from Saudi Arabia, who had fought in Afghanistan and Jammu & Kashmir. Abd al-Aziz Barbaros became a legendary jihadi figure during the Bosnian war and used to attend the annual LET conventions at Muridke along with Al-Oufi. Sayeed used to introduce the Indian Muslim to the convention as the hero of the Bosnian jihad, but it has not been possible so far to establish his real identity and present whereabouts. The Saudi elements fighting in Chechnya including Al-Walid himself and his No.2 (Deputy Amir) Sheikh Abu ’Omar Al-Seif, were reported to have been unhappy over the actions of the Al Qaeda set-up in Saudi Arabia in provoking a confrontation with the Saudi security forces by indulging in acts of terrorism in Saudi territory. They reportedly felt that all jihadis should concentrate for the present on defeating the US troops in Iraq and bringing about their withdrawal from there. They felt that for achieving this task, they would need safe sanctuaries in Saudi Arabia and Jordan and that if they engaged in an armed confrontation with the Saudi security forces, their ability to wage an effective jihad against the American troops in Iraq would be weakened. The late Al-Muqrin did not agree with this point of view. He wanted the jihad against the Saudi ruling family in Saudi territory and the jihad against the Americans in Iraq to be waged simultaneously, with the one complementing and sustaining the other. Till now, Al-Oufi has gone along with this view. It remains to be seen whether he would continue to do so now that he has taken over as the head of Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia. |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |