Mohammed-el-Asuquf, No. 3 in Al Qaeda after Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, sent an interview to Abal Bani Alwah, chief editor of London's Arab newspaper, Al-Quds. Alwah did not publish the interview. But information in it led Britain's home office to start an unprecedented house-to-house search around London's airports.
A Portuguese newspaper, Fon-do-launto, later published the interview. According to it, Asuquf claimed that Al Qaeda had obtained 100-kiloton nuclear bombs assembled by Pakistani scientists. The bomb material and old T-3, alias SD-107, Soviet missiles were acquired after the collapse of the Berlin Wall. These, he claimed, are deployed against key targets. Asuquf said Al Qaeda dealt with Saddam's vice-PM, Abdul Tawab Hawaish. The plans to restructure West Asia will impinge on South Asia. Last fortnight, in this context, this column said: "In South Asia events, and not America, might dictate a similar change... independent Baluchistan and Pakhtunistan lurk in the shadows."
Subsequently, on February 19-20, within hours of each other, two planes carrying military personnel crashed, one near Baluchistan and the other near Pakistan's tribal belt. An Iranian plane carrying 302 military guards with high-ranking officers after they had completed an "important mission" crashed in Iran's Baluchistan area. A Pakistani aircraft carrying the country's air chief with sixteen officers, including two air vice-chiefs, crashed near Kohat close to the Pakhtun-dominated tribal belt. Coincidence?
Both planes crashed while flying over hills where Stinger missiles could have brought them down. On the day of the crash, an Iranian newspaper reported that security forces confiscated three surface-to-air missiles from drug smugglers in the region. Coincidence?
If not, could this herald demands for independent Pakhtunistan and Baluchistan? That would alienate serving Pakhtun and Baluch soldiers from Pakistan. The tribals might stop fighting for isi and start fighting for themselves. That could start civil war. And that could start restructuring South Asia.
Godfathers relying on terror
Often make a simple error,
What they forget is really odd—
They forget there is also God!
