BLOWBACK: Kashmiri "freedom fighters" rob Pakistani bank for money to attack the Pakistani army

From The Friday Times, Feb 04-10, 05(No direct link)

Militants planning to launch operation in Malakand

Iqbal Khattak
Arrested militants have revealed that they robbed the National Bank of Pakistan to acquire money to purchase weapons needed to take on the army in Malakand

One of the robbers who carried out the Rs2.2 million robbery at the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) in Swat has told investigators that the robbery was carried out with the aim of acquiring money to buy necessary military hardware required to attack army troops in Malakand Agency. He also revealed that suspects in the robbery case were affiliated with banned militant organisation, Jaish-e-Muhammad and included veterans of the Afghan and Kashmir jihad as well as newly-trained militants.

Investigators probing the robbery case have revealed that one of the arrested militants told the joint investigation team that the robbery was carried out to raise money to buy horses so that military equipment could be easily moved around the region. “Our amir [the militant did not name him] told us that every possible effort should be made to involve the army in Malakand so that a situation similar to South Waziristan would be created and we would be able to launch an attack on the army,” a police investigator quoted an arrested militant. “We are not at war with the Pakistani people and the police; our war is against the Pakistan army that is fighting the mujahideen on behalf of the United States. We will finish it [the army] before it finishes us.”

“They planned to stage some terrorist activities and force the army into a situation similar to South Waziristan,” revealed an investigator who grilled some of the arrested robbers after the failed robbery attempt.

A senior police official in Mingora city told TFT that Swat district had recently seen a “great concentration” of militants. “This was expected to happen because Swat is the old transit route for Afghan and Kashmir mujahideen who receive training in Mansehra and Balakot camps,” he said.

Intelligence agencies’ suspicions about the relocation of militants fleeing military operations in South Waziristan Agency to non-tribal areas are growing and a source said Malakand Agency, Swat, Upper and Lower Dir districts were becoming a homeland for militants. In fact, it was from Swat district that the police arrested Muhammad Jamil Memon who has confessed to his role in the attempt to kill President Pervez Musharraf in Karachi on April 26, 2002. Memom is also suspected to have organized the suicide bomb attack on the US Consulate in 2002 in which 14 people died.