Pilgrimage ‘can provide cover for terror’

INCREASED US fears of terror attacks may not be unfounded. The Hajj, the huge annual Muslim pilgrimage to Islam’s holy city of Mecca, can provide cover for militant organisations attempting to secretly place operatives around the globe to stage attacks.

Four years ago, Osama bin Laden's relatives, worried about his ill health, tried to use the pilgrimage as a cover to visit the Saudi-born terrorist while he was holed up in Afghanistan, says a former Afghan airline official who was approached by the fugitive terrorist's family.

The sheer number of travellers for the five-day pilgrimage, which typically draws about 2 million Muslim visitors, means tracking movements becomes difficult if not impossible and would-be terrorists know it.

The US government has warned of an increased possibility the terrorist network would launch an attack to coincide with Muslim holy days.

During the 1999 Hajj, bin Laden's mother and brother apparently contacted officials at Afghanistan's state-run airline, Ariana, to sneak aboard a flight to visit the ailing terrorist in his Afghan hideaway.

A former airline official, speaking on condition of anonymity, provided details of the attempt to smuggle the relatives into Afghanistan after he met a brother of bin Laden who identified himself only as Abdullah.

At the time, bin Laden was ill and UN sanctions had grounded Afghanistan's national airlines except for flights to Saudi Arabia for the pilgrimage.

In the end, bin Laden's brother and mother were not taken aboard the Ariana flight because UN workers were monitoring everyone who got off the aircraft back in Kabul, he said.

Today, even Pakistani investigators admit they are working to improve immigration controls throughout the year. Federal investigators in Pakistan said forged documents are a dilemma for law enforcement.

"It is very easy for any person to get a fake Pakistani passport with the help of those agents dealing in the business of forged travel documents," said Sharif Virik, a director at Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency.

"This is a serious problem, and we are very worried about it," he said.

In 2001, Pakistani authorities stopped nearly 1,000 people trying to board aircraft using false documents.

But the traffic during the Hajj greatly increases the workload and the dangers of undesirables getting through. A total of 135,000 Pakistanis travelled to Saudi Arabia for the pilgrimage this year.