Bin Laden courier’s phone linked to Pakistani militant group
Citing US officials briefed on an investigation into the phone, the newspaper said calls from the device were traced to Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen, a militant group linked to Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.
“It’s a serious lead,” one US official told the Times. “It’s an avenue we’re investigating.”
Another US official told the daily that the link was not, however, a “smoking gun” that definitively linked bin Laden to the ISI, as it was unclear if the calls were related to him.
The phone was seized during a daring US commando raid in Pakistan last month in which both bin Laden and his courier were killed.
The Pakistan-based Harakat ul-Mujahideen is classified as a “terrorist” organisation by the US.
Defence analysis group Jane’s said the outfit has conducted raids on Indian security positions and is active in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Relations between Pakistan and the US, which are tense at the best of times, deteriorated sharply over the bin Laden raid, which humiliated the Pakistani military and invited allegations of incompetence and complicity.
Meanwhile, bin Laden was considering renaming the terror group, according to a letter found in the house in Pakistan.
The problem with the name al-Qaida, bin Laden wrote, was that it lacked a religious element.
Maybe something like Taifat al-Tawhed Wal-Jihad, meaning Monotheism and Jihad Group, would do the trick, he wrote.
Or Jama’at I’Adat al-Khilafat al-Rashida, which means Restoration of the Caliphate Group.
