Pakistanis involved in Terrorism in Spain

Daily times, April 14, 2005
Eleven Pakistanis charged with Spanish terror plot

MADRID: Spanish authorities have charged 11 Pakistanis over suspected links with Al Qaeda sympathisers who carried out the Madrid train bombings a year ago, judicial sources said on Wednesday.

One of the 11, Shahzad Ali Gujar, is suspected of having transferred funds to members of Al Qaeda, including Amjad Farooqui, who Pakistani security forces killed last September and who was implicated in the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl. In all, investigators believe Al Qaeda members in Pakistan received some $1 million in funds from Spain. Muhammad Afzaal, believed to have headed the Pakistani cell in question, is suspected of sending money last September to Rabei Usman Sayed Ahmed, alias “Mohammed the Egyptian”, who is currently in custody on suspicion of involvement in the train bombings which killed 191 people. Two of the 11, Shahzad Gujar and Adnan Aslam, are thought to have met “Mohammed the Egyptian” in Brescia, Italy, in May 2003.

Shahzad Gujar is suspected of meeting Othman el Gnaout, another March 11 suspect, three days before Spain’s worst ever terrorist attack, while he is additionally suspected of meeting Saed el Harrak, also in Spanish detention, the day after the blasts. The judge overseeing the case said that “a group was constituted in Barcelona with a view to supporting global jihad from Spanish territory (via) the financing of concrete terrorist acts and people recruited to carry them out”.

The judge considered there is hard evidence to suggest that Muhammad Afzaal travelled to Dubai in early 2004 where Al Qaeda operatives instructed him to create terrorist cells in Spain and Norway or Denmark to finance the terrorist network’s activities. The Pakistanis are further charged with preparing an attack in Barcelona, having been found to be in possession of films and detailed maps of several major buildings in the eastern Spanish metropolis. One of the maps depicted a shopping mall in the city’s port area.

Spanish authorities named the 11-strong group as Muhammad Afzaal, Shahzad Gujar, Nasser Ahmad Khan, Masud Akhtar, Shafqat Ali, Mahmud Anwar, Adnan Aslam, Farhat Iqbat, Irfan Khan, Zaman Qamar and Muhammad Chaudhry Aslam. afp