Islamabad airport attacker was Pakistani who had fought in Kashmir

Attacker slain at Pakistani airport identified as member of outlawed militant group
The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan
An attacker killed in a shootout at the international airport for Pakistan's capital was an Afghan-trained member of an outlawed Pakistani militant group, officials said Wednesday.
Security forces fatally shot the man on Feb. 6 when he opened fire and tried to hurl a grenade at them after they asked him to stop in a parking lot near the airport's busy international terminal.
On Wednesday, a senior security official said investigators were sure they had identified the man.
"He is a Pakistani. His name is Qari Mohammed Younus," the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.
The official said the man was a member of an outlawed Pakistani militant group who had received training in Afghanistan and had fought in Indian-controlled Kashmir. He provided no further details.
A senior government official, who also didn't want to be named because of the sensitive nature of the case, confirmed that the man had been identified. He said he was a resident of Dera Ghazi Khan, a town on the edge of Pakistan's restive tribal belt.
The airport attack heightened fears that Islamic militants operating in the tribal belt along the Afghan border are expanding their violent opposition to Pakistan's support for the U.S.-led war on terror.
The incident followed a string of suicide bombings, including one at a five-star hotel in Islamabad which is popular with foreigners and diplomats.
Officials are investigating whether the attacks were in retaliation for a recent army airstrike on a suspected al-Qaida hideout near the border, part of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's effort to clamp down on militants fueling the fighting in Afghanistan.