Pakistani counter-terrorism police have arrested Aminul Haq, a former bodyguard of the late al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. Usman Akram Gondal of the counter-terrorism police confirmed Haq’s arrest in the city of Gujrat.
Haq, who once led bin Laden’s elite security unit, has been on the United Nations’ list of global terrorists. He was previously arrested in Pakistan in 2007 and went into hiding after his release from a Pakistani jail in 2011. He reemerged in the Afghan region of Nangarhar in 2021 following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.
“Haq recently entered Pakistan, and the purpose of his visit is currently under investigation,” Gondal stated. The officer also mentioned that Haq was carrying Afghan and fake Pakistani identity documents for travel.
The counter-terrorism police raided the compound where Haq was staying based on an intelligence tip indicating his presence in the Gujrat area. Haq is the first high-profile al-Qaeda figure to be arrested in Pakistan since the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban.
In 2011, U.S. forces killed bin Laden in a raid on his residential compound in Abbottabad, northern Pakistan. Subsequent U.S. drone strikes in the country killed several Arab, Afghan, and Pakistani al-Qaeda leaders, weakening the global terror network.
Recent UN reports indicate that al-Qaeda has been seeking a resurgence in the region since Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021.
