Who is ‘Dr Osman’, the lead terrorist of GHQ attack

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Tahir Niaz

ISLAMABAD: Aqeel alias Dr Osman, the injured terrorist commander captured by security forces from the General Headquarters (GHQ) on Sunday morning, is a member of a Punjab-based militant group with links to Baitullah Mehsud’s Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Sources say Aqeel, who was ostensibly the leader of terrorists who attacked the military headquarters, hails from Kahuta tehsil of Rawalpindi. Muhammad Aqeel, who has also served in the Army Medical Corps, left the army in 2006 and joined Maulana Masood Azhar’s Jaish-e-Muhammad. Later, he joined the Qari Saifullah Group under the command of Ilyas Kashmiri. As Dr Osman, he briefly worked with the Pakistan Army Surgeon General Army Lt Gen Dr Mushtaq, who was killed in a terrorist attack in Rawalpindi, an attack which he was allegedly involved with.

Sources said Aqeel was also the brains behind the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore. He was also involved in planning attacks on former president Pervez Musharraf and prime minister Shaukat Aziz.

Earlier, police had arrested another operative of Aqeel’s network in Punjab. Zubair alias Nek Muhammad, who was involved in the March 3 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, had told police what he knew about Aqeel.

The four other terrorists involved in the attack in Lahore were later identified as Samiullah alias Ijaz of Nankana Sahib, Adnan alias Sajjad from Dera Ghazi Khan, Qari Ihsan alias Qari Ajmal of Bahawalpur and Abdul Wahab alias Muhammad Umer. All six men had escaped to Waziristan after the Lahore attack to avoid arrest.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...009_pg7_15