Pakistan League

On April 8th, 2009, British police arrested 12 Pakistani Muslim terror suspects, and Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the police and intelligence services had thwarted a “very big terrorist plot”. British media, intelligence agencies, politicians and Gordon Brown spent next two weeks trying to convince British public of the terrible terrorist plot these Pakistani students were about to execute. The entire operation was quickly named Operation Pathway. Some of the headlines on the main pages of the leading British newspapers read:

• “Shops and nightclub were terror targets,” Daily Express headline on 9 April
• “Al-Qaida terror plot to bomb Easter shoppers,” Daily Telegraph on 10 April
• “Students of terror,” Daily Mail, 10 April 2009
• “Scramble to find the Easter bomb factory,” Times, 10 April 2009

British news channels were going hand in hand with the print media. The laudable BBC kept repeating, “We (Nick Ravenscroft, BBC correspondent) had been told by police sources that an attack could have taken place within days or weeks”.

Within two weeks, all 12 suspects had been released from police custody. To date no terrorism charges or even criminal charges of any kind had been filed against any of them. Except for the British Pakistani students all were then imprisoned without any charges based on the allegation that they pose security threat to Britain. After a few months in British prison due to ill-treatment and with Ramadhan approaching, majority of the students accepted British offer to return to Pakistan – unable to defend their position of innocence in the court.

"Pakistan's Top 10 Most Wanted Terrorists Belong to Six Militant And Sectarian [Sunni/Shi'ite] Organizations Linked to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban"

"According to well-placed Interior Ministry sources in Islamabad, Pakistan's top 10 most wanted terrorists belong to six militant and sectarian [Sunni/Shi'ite] organizations linked to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Four of the 10 are affiliated with the TTP; two belong to the LeJ, while one each is associated with the TNSM, the JeM, the HuJI and the LeI. They include Maulana Fazlullah, the fugitive Emir of the Swat chapter of the Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM); Hakimullah Mehsud; Qari Hussain Mehsud; Maulvi Faqeer Mohammad and Waliur Rehman of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP); Matiur Rehman and Qari Zafar of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ); Maulana Ilyas Kashmiri of the Harkat ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI); Rashid Rauf of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM); and Mangal Bagh of the Lashkar-e-Islam (LeI)."

No. 1 - Maulana Fazlullah

"With Baitullah Mehsud already down, Maulana Fazlullah has become the No. 1 most wanted terrorist. He is the son-in-law of Maulana Sufi Mohammed, the founder of TNSM. Born March 1, 1975, Fazlullah is widely known as Mullah Radio for using illegal FM channels to broadcast vituperative speeches, threatening people with dire consequences should they not adhere to shari'a and instigating the residents of Swat into taking part in jihad. He has been missing since April 2009, since the Pakistan Army launched a massive operation to dismantle his jihadi infrastructure following the collapse of a shari'a-for-peace agreement between Maulana Sufi Mohammed and the government. Though the Army has reclaimed Swat district, Maulana Fazlullah remains at large. He carries a reward of Rs 5 million on his head."

No. 2 - Hakimullah Mehsud