Ilyas Kashmiri, former Pak Major charged in Denmark plot

Pakistani terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri belonging to the radical Harakat-ul Jihad Islami group has been indicted in a United States court for the first time in connection with a plot to target a Danish newspaper which had published offensive cartoons of Prophet Mohammad.

Kashmiri was charged along with former Pakistani army major Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, who had conspired with David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussein Rana and planned to target Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

While Rehman was arrested by Pakistani intelligence agencies and later let off, Kashmiri, who reportedly has close links with the Al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban, is believed to be hiding in the lawless Waziristan region.

A recent Pakistani media report said Kashmiri had a hand in coordinating the suicide strike on the top secret Central Intelligence Agency base in Khost in eastern Afghanistan that killed eight operatives. US authorities, the report said, have asked Pakistan to hunt down and extradite the dreaded terrorist.

Kashmiri, who belongs to Kotli district of Mirpur in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, was apprehended by the Indian army in Poonch in the 1990s and was jailed for two years, before he escaped.

On return to Pakistan, he floated his own faction of HuJI and was arrested in 2003 in the wake of an attempt to assassinate then President Pervez Musharraf, but was released in 2004.

The charges identify Kashmiri as an influential leader of HUJI, an organisation that trained terrorists and executed attacks in Jammu and Kashmir. Kashmiri based his operations from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of western Pakistan, an area which served as a haven for terrorist organisations, including the Al Qaeda.

He was allegedly in regular contact with the Al Qaeda and in particular with Qaeda leader Mustafa Abu al Yazid, also known as 'Sheik Said al Masri'. Headley, who was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in October last year, allegedly conspired between October 2008 and October 3, 2009, with Kashmiri, Abdur Rehman, Rana and others to plan and carry out terrorist attacks against the Danish newspaper, an editor of the paper and a cartoonist.

In 2005, the newspaper had published 12 cartoons, some of which depicted Prophet Mohammed setting off protests throughout the Muslim world, and in 2008, it republished one of the cartoons that had drawn particularly strong criticism. In February 2009, Rehman allegedly took Headley to meet Kashmiri in the Waziristan region.

During the meeting, Kashmiri suggested using a truck bomb in the operation. Kashmiri further indicated that he could provide manpower for the operation and that Lashkar's participation was not necessary, the indictment alleges. Subsequently, in March 2009, Lashkar member A advised Headley that Lashkar should put the newspaper attack on hold in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, it said.

In May 2009, however, Kashmiri, who met them again, directed Headley to meet with his European contacts who could provide him with money, weapons and manpower for the attack.

Headley traveled to European cities, including Copenhagen and Aarhus, to conduct surveillance of the newspaper offices and videotaped the surrounding areas. He also obtained Rana's assistance to identify himself as a representative of his immigration firm First World Services and gain access to the newspaper's offices by expressing an interest in placing an advertising for it.

At the same time, Headley exchanged emails with Abdur Rehman to continue the planning. In late January 2009, Headley had traveled to Pakistan and met separately to discuss the planning with Abdur Rehman and Lashkar member A.

In September 2009, Headley and Rana spoke about reports that Kashmiri had been killed in a drone attack and the implications of his possible death for the plan. However, Rehman called Headley to inform him that Kashmiri had not been killed.

According to the indictment, in June 2008, Al Qaeda, through its media wing known as the 'As Sahab Media', took credit for an attack on the Danish Embassy in Islamabad and called for further attacks against Danish interests to avenge the publication of the cartoons depicting Prophet Mohamed.

In August 2008, Al Qaeda released a video through 'As Sahab Media', calling for further attacks in retaliation for the publication of the cartoons, and Mustafa Abu al Yazid, among others, appeared in the video. The indictment alleges that in July 2009, Headley provided the Al Qaeda video to Rana in Chicago.