Dr Ibrahim, also known
as Dr Taufiq and Abul Farraj Al Libbi, has been in contact
with Osama bin Laden and Aiman Al Zawahri and knows their
whereabouts, intelligence sources told.
“He established his
headquarters in Karachi after the arrest of Khalid Sheikh
Muhammad, a top Al Qaeda leader, and was working as chief
of operations in Bin Laden’s network,” they
said.
Abul Farraj’s name
as an important Al Qaeda operative surfaced after President
General Pervez Musharraf disclosed that he had masterminded
an attack on him. However, Pakistani and US intelligence
and operations teams could not gather enough evidence
to implicate him.
He was born in Libya in
1965. His real name is Ibrahim, but used the pseudonym
Taufiq while operating inside Al Qaeda. His father’s
name was Farraj due to which he adopted another pseudonym
Abul Farraj.
The 40-year-old Farraj
came for jihad to Afghanistan in the 1980s. During his
training with Al Qaeda, he was introduced to Bin Laden
and Muhammad. Later, he was asked to recruit Arab militants
for the militant organisation.
After the Soviet’s
left Afghanistan, he married a Pakistani woman and settled
in the tribal areas. Sources
say that Bin Laden appointed him his personal assistant
and Al Qaeda’s chief of operations in North Africa.
“He and Bin Laden spent some time together in Sudan
as well,” said the sources.
When Bin Laden and Al Zawahri
went into hiding after the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan,
Muhammad became Al Qaeda’s chief of operations and
Farraj worked under him. After Khalid Sheikh’s arrest,
he ultimately became the chief of operations. “Later,
he shifted his base of operations to Karachi and when
the Pakistan Army started operations in Waziristan, he
arranged his colleagues’ safe passage,” said
the sources.
He is an expert in forging
travel documents and used his skill to send dozens of
Al Qaeda members out of Pakistan.
Intelligence sources believe
that he was in contact with Al Qaeda members in different
countries, including the US and UK. He can speak many
languages including Urdu and Pushto. He used a satellite
phone to communicate with other members, which is why
intelligence agencies were unable to locate him for months.
“Intelligence agencies
traced his calls several times and raided different spots
in Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta, but failed to capture
him because he would flee before they arrived,”
said the sources.
