NEW DELHI: New evidence has emerged that Rashid Rauf, identified by Pakistani authorities as the leader of a plot to blow up at least 10 Trans-Atlantic flights, was a former member of the Jaish-e-Mohammad — an organisation that, along with the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hiz-bul Mujahideen, spearheads the jihad against India in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere.

Hafiz Allah Bakhsh, father of Jaish-e-Mohammad leader Maulana Masood Azhar, told Reuters that Rauf "was a member of our group, but later he deserted and joined our rivals." Bakhsh said Rauf left after he became increasingly interested in operations targeting the West. "Our cause is Kashmir," Reuters quoted him as saying of Rauf's new outfit, "while their main cause is Afghanistan. They are anti-American but we are not."

Bakhsh spoke to Reuters at what the news agency described as the "Jaish's headquarters in Bahawalpur" — further evidence that the organisation continues to enjoy the freedom to operate openly despite having been proscribed by Pakistan in 2002. Rauf himself was arrested at Bahawalpur on August 9, soon after he made a phone call asking members of the Trans-Atlantic terror cell to accelerate their preparations.

Interestingly, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which western news reports suggest may have helped funnel funds to the Trans-Atlantic bombers, also has a significant presence in Bahawalpur. Indian investigators believe several key suspects in the Mumbai serial bombings, including Rahil Sheikh, Muzammil Sheikh, Faisal Sheikh and Zabiuddin Ansari, trained at camps run near the south Punjab town by top Lashkar operative Azam Cheema.

Global links, local action

Like these terror recruits, Rauf acquired the covert warfare tradecraft needed to engineer the Trans-Atlantic bombings during his time with the Jaish, as well as access to the Islamist networks he later tapped to gain recruits and finance for the operation. As such, an anti-India jihadi organisation operating with the quiet consent of the Pakistani state served as a platform to feed Islamist terror groups with global ambitions.

Jaish leaders, who are closely linked to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, have themselves been careful not to attack western targets. But Rauf is only the latest in a long series of its cadre to turn against the United States of America and the United Kingdom. Most important among them was Syed Omar Sheikh, who was released from jail along with Azhar in 1999 as part of the Indian Airlines Flight 814 hostages-for-prisoners swap.

Sheikh, who had kidnapped western tourists in India in an abortive effort to secure Azhar's freedom, went on to organise several operations, including the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl and an assault on the United States' consulate in Kolkata. Rauf and other members of the Trans-Atlantic bombing cell are reported to have met with Sheikh, who is in prison awaiting the execution of a death sentence, in recent months.

Pakistan's reluctance to crack down on organisations like the Jaish and Lashkar appears to stem from the ISI's belief that these groups help maintain pressure on India. According to an article by the well-known Pakistani journalist Syed Salim Shehzad, President Pervez Musharraf personally authorised an escalation of jihadi violence in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere at a meeting in 2004, after discussions with key figures in the military and ISI.

Mr. Shehzad said the renewed terror was conceived of as campaign to "both protect and further its strategic interests in the region — even if this means engaging in activities inconsistent with its new global image." Despite growing Indian anger, western governments have been reluctant to demand a complete end to this state-backed terrorism, seeing it as a price that must be paid for Pakistani support in West Asia and Afghanistan.

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