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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Hard boyz funding killings through bank heists |
| 2004-09-21 |
| It started with a robbery, but the gang that burst into a branch of Al-Habib Bank in this teeming port city had no interest in striking it rich, and the university graduate driving the getaway car was just getting started on a master plan for terror. The heist, carried out in daylight and with AK-47 assault rifles, is emblematic of a new brand of Islamic militant — more educated but less established and largely cut off from traditional sources of terror funding, Pakistani police and intelligence officials told The Associated Press. Atta-ur Rehman and his Jundullah gang walked away from the bank in Karachi on Nov. 18 with just under $70,000, enough to finance an eight-month wave of attacks against the U.S. Consulate, a Christian Bible studies group, a peace concert by an Indian singer, a police station, and a senior Pakistani military general. There's no indication al-Qaida had a hand in Jundullah's spree, but some gang members are believed to have spent time at training camps with top members of Osama bin Laden's network. "Normally, when robbers loot a bank they split the cash and go their separate ways, but the Jundullah gang only spent about 500,000 rupees ($8,600) from their heist and they stuck together," said Fayyaz Leghari, chief of operations for the Karachi police. "They were not ordinary robbers. They saw the bank job as a way to fund their holy mission." Leghari said police recovered the rest of the money when they arrested 10 members of the gang following a June 10 assassination attempt on Ahsan Saleem Hayat, the city's military commander and a close aide to President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Hayat survived but 11 others were killed. The group, whose name means Allah's Brigade, was apparently saving the cash to finance more attacks. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 The indicator to me is that these guys are going for bank heists as a means of funding, rather than receiving operating funds from Jihadis and Saudi sources. This may mean that western attacks on funding sources may be having an effect. Anybody have any thoughts on this? |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-09-21 2:06:19 PM |
| #1 Authorities say the fledgling militant groups are gaining in sophistication, aided by highly educated, deeply committed leaders. more quagmire bull. The whole article is about the fact that they are becoming less sophisticated. |
| Posted by: 2B 2004-09-21 7:17:02 AM |