Bharat Rakshak

Europe's threat from Pakistan

RAFFAELLO PANTUCCI
11.05.2009 @ 18:21 CET

EUOBSERVER / COMMENT - During a recent visit to Pakistan, Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown stated that a third of terror plots in the UK have connections to that beleaguered country.

In a press conference with President Asif Zardari he went on to state that with a set of new proposed measures, he hoped to "break the chain of terror that links the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan to the streets of the UK."

But while the UK seems to have taken a view that there is a very real threat to Europe that needs to be engaged with in Afghanistan and Pakistan and makes the case regularly to its public, there is remarkably little sensible public discussion on such matters from other European capitals.………………

For the United Kingdom, it would seem as though the main threat comes from cells that assemble in the UK around individuals who have at some point travelled and trained at extremist camps in Pakistan’s Northern provinces.

Prominent examples include Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shezhad Tanweer who were the ringleaders of the July 7, 2005 bombing campaign in London; Muktar Said Ibrahim of the copycat 21 July, 2005 group who attempted to carry out an almost identical assault two weeks later; the 2004 "fertiliser plot" group in which a group of individuals planned to carry out a major bombing campaign in the UK using fertiliser based explosives; and the alleged ringleader of the 2006 Transatlantic Airlines plot that led to the current restrictions on carrying liquids on board airplanes. In all of these cases, key individuals apparently sought training in Pakistan before they were sent back with directions to attack the United Kingdom.

………………… " a similar pattern can be seen in Germany, where a cell allegedly led by German-Muslim convert Fritz Gelowicz went to Waziristan to train at Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) camps before heading back to Germany. ……………….

In February 2008, on the basis of a tip-off from an informant who had penetrated the group, the Spanish Guardia Civil arrested a group of 14 Muslims of mostly Pakistani origin, some of whom had entered the country indirectly from Pakistan and activated a local cell. …………………

Beyond these direct threats, there is a final group of aspirants from Europe who are drawn to Pakistan’s lawless regions and the terrorist training camps they foster like moths to a flame. These individuals are drawn from across Europe: from the recently arrested network in Belgium and France around Malika el Aroud, the "Al Qaeda living legend," who appeared to be facilitating travel for jihadists to fight in Afghanistan ………………… To Bradford-born Aabid Khan who apparently travelled to Pakistan to establish connections with extremist groups like the Lashkar-e-Toiba, who are believed to be responsible for the Mumbai attacks of November 2008, and its local twin Jaish-e-Mohammed, that was responsible for the 2001 attacks on the Indian parliament that almost brought India and Pakistan to war.

A pan-European problem

It is not always completely clear to what extent some of those mentioned in these plots were directed and connected to Al Qaeda and its affiliates, or were rather groups of fired up zealots who went to seek connections to jihad in Pakistan. What is clear is that this is a pan-European problem, and while the UK may seem the eye of the storm, the rest of Europe is also threatened. ………………
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Raffaello Pantucci is a research associate with the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)

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