Farman Shinwari,Qaeda’s new Pak chief and Harkat’s old associate

Shinwari has been chosen after another top Pakistani commander of the Qaeda,Badr Mansoor,was killed in a US drone attack in Miramshah,North Waziristan,on February 9. Though Mansoor had never been declared the Qaeda’s Pakistan chief,he did lead its operations there. He had spearheaded its efforts to regroup after a wave of successful targeted killings,including that of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad last year. Before Mansoor,another key Qaeda commander,Aslam Awan from Abbottabad,had been killed in a US drone attack in January.

Mansoor had close ties with Pakistan-based Deobandi groups Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and Tahreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. Shinwari was very close to Mansoor and enjoys similar rapport with the two groups. In fact,Shinwari’s family has members who are part of the Harkat and the TTP. According to reports,five brothers of Shinwari are affiliated to the TTP or other militant groups.

Elder brother Hazrat Nabi Shinwari alias Tamanchy Mulla,reports say,was leading the outfit in Khyber Agency in 2005. Hazrat Nabi,who taught theology at a government-run school in Landikotal before becoming a militant,is said to be now leading the TTP in Waziristan. Pakistani journalist Ashrafuddin Pirzada has written in The News from Landikotal that Hazrat Nabi Shinwari “also used to send militants to Kashmir and Afghanistan” while he headed the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen in the area.

If the Qaeda’s choice of commanders in Pakistan— men with strong ties with local jihadi groups — is indeed a trend,it could be cause for concern,especially if the US should decide to pull its troops out of Afghanistan. The Harkat,with which both Shinwari and Mansoor have been linked,operated inside J&K until it was upstaged by the Lashkar-e-Toiba. The Jaish-e-Mohammad was,in fact,a faction of the Harkat and set up by Moulana Masood Azhar soon after he was released in the exchange following the 1999 hijacking of an Indian airliner to Kandahar.

Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh,a British-Pakistani militant,was with the Harkat when he was arrested for the kidnapping of tourists in Delhi in 1994. Sheikh,released along with Azhar,was later involved in the 2002 kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

Though there has been a decline in the Kashmir operations of the Harkat and its factions including the Jaish,it is now a Qaeda-Taliban affiliate in Pakistan. Shinwara’s elevation can lead to the Qaeda expanding its theatre to J&K,if the outfit so wishes or if Harkat leaders influence the Qaeda leadership to do so.