Trans-Atlantic bomb plot planner was Jaish member

NEW DELHI: New evidence has emerged that Rashid Rauf, identified by Pakistani authorities as the leader of a plot to blow up at least 10 Trans-Atlantic flights, was a former member of the Jaish-e-Mohammad — an organisation that, along with the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hiz-bul Mujahideen, spearheads the jihad against India in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere.

Hafiz Allah Bakhsh, father of Jaish-e-Mohammad leader Maulana Masood Azhar, told Reuters that Rauf "was a member of our group, but later he deserted and joined our rivals." Bakhsh said Rauf left after he became increasingly interested in operations targeting the West. "Our cause is Kashmir," Reuters quoted him as saying of Rauf's new outfit, "while their main cause is Afghanistan. They are anti-American but we are not."

Bakhsh spoke to Reuters at what the news agency described as the "Jaish's headquarters in Bahawalpur" — further evidence that the organisation continues to enjoy the freedom to operate openly despite having been proscribed by Pakistan in 2002. Rauf himself was arrested at Bahawalpur on August 9, soon after he made a phone call asking members of the Trans-Atlantic terror cell to accelerate their preparations.