PESHAWAR, Nov 3: A little-known Al Qaeda affiliate in the restive North Waziristan tribal region gave the go-ahead for the attempted rocket attacks in and around the federal capital last month, a senior investigator has told Dawn.

The investigator said that the Al Qaeda affiliate, the Islamic Jihad Group (IJG), based in Mirali in North Waziristan, had approved the plot before the Pakistani masterminds executed it in early October.

“While the fingers were in Islamabad, the tail was in Mirali,” the investigator said requesting anonymity.

Investigations and interrogation of the suspects have led the government to conclude that the IJG leader, Yakhyo aka Nadzhmiddin Kamilidinovich Janov, an Uzbek militant said to be residing in Mirali, a sub-district of the North Waziristan tribal region, had given the go-ahead to the plotters to carry out the attacks, the investigator said.

All those involved in the botched-up plot have since been rounded up, including its mastermind and his two close associates.

Eleven people have been formally charged in the rocket attack case, including the mastermind Khalil, Ali Ahmad Gondal and Munir.

The IJG is an offshoot of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and is believed to be closer to Al Qaeda than its mother organisation, investigators said.

It was formed after its founding members Yakhyo and his deputy Mansur Sohail aka Abu Huzaifa, also an ethnic Uzbek, fell out with the IMU leader over operational and administrative matters, investigators said.

While the IMU is based in Wana, South Waziristan, the IJG leadership moved to the neighbouring North Waziristan due to security reasons, they said.

Khalil has been described as a young man in his mid-twenties who was previously affiliated with Lashkar-i-Taiba, a militant outfit Pakistan banned in January 2002.

Khalil, who got a master’s degree in business administration from Hamdard University, told investigators he had visited North Waziristan and Bajaur several times and had received training in guerrilla tactics and explosives.

He also admitted to forays in Afghanistan for militant activities and said that it was during his several visits to Waziristan that he had established close contacts with the IJG leadership including Yakhyo, known to Khalil as Commander Ahmad.

It was during one of his visits, Khalil said, that he had discussed the plan to fire rocket on sensitive installations with the IJG leadership and had received their backing.

His two other associates, Gondal and Munir, had been associated with the Islami Jamiat-i-Talaba, the student wing of the Jamaat-i-Islami, but had later joined Hizbul Mujahideen before teaming up with Khalil to help execute the plan.

The 30-something Gondal is an engineer from the EME College and worked at the Air Weapons Complex while Munir is a diploma holder in engineering.

They told investigators that it was their hatred for the United States and the government’s support for Washington in its war on terror that had prompted them to plot and hit sensitive installations, including the old USIS building.

They have also admitted to have planned to kill pro-government politicians and senior military officers, investigators said. The investigators said that Khalil had procured 19 rockets, launchers, plastic explosives and guns from Mirali and had transported them to Islamabad.

Prior to executing the plan, investigators said, Khalil and his associates had carried out feasibility and positioned the rockets; four were placed in Ayub Park, two on the Kashmir Highway, and two in the green-belt targeting the Presidency.

The whole exercise was done in a span of three hours, investigators said.

On his way back after doing the job, Khalil had called all the mobiles that had been rigged to the rockets to serve as detonators. Except for one rocket that went off in Ayub Park, the others failed to respond to the trigger-call.

“He thought that all had gone off,” one investigator said.

The plotters, he said, had designed a system whereby vibrator in the cell phone was used as a trigger for detonation. However, in order to enhance the power of vibration, the plotters had connected it to a prima-cord which failed to work.

All mobiles, except the one that was connected with the rocket that went off in Ayub Park, were intact, containing Subscriber Identity Modules (SIMs) and led investigators to trace it to those behind the plot.