Senior operatives of the hunted al-Qaeda terrorist group appear to have found the affluent suburbs of Pakistan’s cities a better hiding place than the country’s network of fundamentalist Islamic schools or its isolated tribal villages. Pakistan’s security services arrested another top al-Qaeda leader, Yassir al-Jazeeri, in a raid on Saturday evening on a house in the posh Gulberg area of the eastern city of Lahore. An Afghan man was also arrested, but the owners of the house were not taken in. This follows the arrest of the al-Qaeda third-ranking figure, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, early this month in an area of the military headquarters town of Rawalpindi that is populated by retired senior army officers. Meanwhile, a Lahore doctor and his brother appeared in court on Saturday facing anti-terrorism law charges for allegedly harbouring at least four North African al-Qaeda members in their home. They were arrested in a raid in December during which shots were fired. Al-Jazeeri, a Moroccan, is said to have played an important role in al-Qaeda’s communications network, which uses a combination of satellite and mobile telephones, and anonymous internet accounts. Since the American-led attack on the former al-Qaeda sanctuary in Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, Pakistan intelligence officials say they have captured about 440 al-Qaeda members. Full Story
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