CTD nabs ‘Osama’s security aide’ from Gujrat

LAHORE: The Counterterrorism Department (CTD) Punjab on Friday claimed to have foiled several terror plots by arresting an alleged militant and senior Al-Qaeda leader in an intelligence-based operation in Gujrat.

According to the CTD spokesperson, in a significant breakthrough in the fight against terrorism, the CTD, in collaboration with various intelligence agencies, apprehended Dr Aminul Haq during a meticulously-planned operation based on human intelligence reports. Amin has been a close associate of Osama bin Laden since 1996 and had allegedly planned sabotage activities across the province and wanted to target important installations. The CTD, demonstrating its exceptional operational capabilities and dedication, managed to locate and arrest Amin. The department has registered a case against the terrorist and shifted him to an unknown location. Amin’s name is included in the United Nations International Terrorist List.

The spokesperson said the arrest of Amin represented a major victory in the ongoing efforts to combat terrorism in Pakistan and worldwide. His longstanding association with Osama and active role in Al-Qaeda led to his arrest.

Amin was Osama’s security incharge in Tora Bora. He was the former head of Osama’s Black Guard, which was responsible for Osama’s protection, and was also referred to as the latter’s bodyguard. A trained medical doctor, Amin, was born in 1960 in Nangarhar, according to the official Interpol website. His family name is said to be Saam Khan. Reportedly, he was a “urologist” and also known as Muhammad Amin. He reportedly began his career as a member of the Hizb-i-Islami Khalis (HIK), a faction of the Hizb-i-Islami that was founded by Maulvi Mohammed Yunis Khalis. It was Khalis who was said to be instrumental in welcoming Osama to Afghanistan after Sudan ejected Al-Qaeda in 1996.

After the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the George Bush administration had frozen Amin’s assets. He was one of the 39 designated individuals and organisations with suspected terror links. He also faced UN sanctions over financing, planning, facilitating, preparing or perpetrating activities in support of Osama and Al-Qaeda, and for supplying, selling or transferring arms and other material to support terror activities. He was reportedly detained in Lahore in 2008, during a special operation by Pakistan’s intelligence and law-enforcement agencies. After Muhammad Rahim, who allegedly worked as Osama’s driver in Afghanistan, he is the second top Al-Qaeda operative captured in Pakistan. He had been sent to jail in Peshawar.

According to reports, a court controversially released him in 2011, citing insufficient evidence. He was never seen in public after that, until the Nangarhar videos of him emerged. He is known to have helped Osama escape the US-led Operation Anaconda in March 2002, when the latter along with the senior Al-Qaeda leadership was holed up in a Tora Bora cave complex. The dreaded terror leader was moved out of Tora Bora to Waziristan.

Sources claim Amin also fought against Soviet forces in the 1980s in Afghanistan, and that he was part of an Afghan delegation that went to Sudan in 1996 to bring Osama to Afghanistan. He came into Pakistan so that he could create a law and order situation here.

The apprehension of such a high-profile target illustrates the commitment and effectiveness of the CTD Punjab and the Pakistani government in dismantling terrorist networks and ensuring national and global security, the spokesman said. The government of Punjab has lauded the efforts of the CTD and reiterated its commitment to fighting terrorism with full force. The CTD Punjab is diligently pursuing its goal of a safe Punjab and no stone will be left unturned in its efforts to bring terrorists and anti-state elements behind the bars, he said.

The DIG CTD has stated that the terrorist was arrested in 2007 and had served a four-year sentence. An enemy country’s agency had propagated a lot about him. This terrorist was being seen in Afghanistan since August 2021 and recently entered Pakistan. “We are investigating what such a high-profile terrorist was doing in Pakistan,” he said, adding that the terrorist has a Pakistani ID card, with addresses of Lahore and Haripur. “We are investigating how this terrorist entered Pakistan and which ID he used for travel?”