Pakistan Times!

A rare English-language message claimed to be from Al Qaeda’s second-in-command, Ayman Al Zawahri, aired on Sunday said Pakistan was being “virtually ruled from the American embassy”. ARY TV channel gave a copy of the tape; Faizullah Khan, a reporter for the channel, claimed that the tape had been delivered by a man on a motorbike. According to The Associated Press authenticity of tape could not immediately be verified.

In the tape, Al Zawahri has given a list of charges against President Musharraf, including that of “betraying Muslims by supporting the US” after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks. Whatever charges he has made interesting thing to note is previously it was GEO now it is ARY news channel, these to media giants in Pakistan are compromising the interest of Pakistan just to find a scoop. This is the second message from Zawahiri that ARY One World in Pakistan has aired in just over a month, and has so far not been available anywhere else on the web, according to sources that track jihadi videos. The messages were released by As-Sahab, Al Qaeda’s production company. Geo conducted the interview of Mustafa Abu al-Yazid last month to create a ground for USA to attack FATA and other tribal areas.

Al Qaeda’s second-in-command, Ayman Al Zawahri was reported to be either wounded or dead, few days back. But those reports were denied as “There is no reason at this point to believe that Zawahiri has been killed or injured,” a US intelligence official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

This recent tape makes Musharraf looks better as it support the idea that he has been doing exactly what was needed to fight against terrorism, he said, “Pervez (Musharraf) has insulted and compromised Pakistan’s sovereignty by allowing the CIA and FBI to operate freely in Pakistan and arrest, interrogate, torture, deport and detain any person, whether Pakistani or not, for as long as they like, thus turning the Pakistani army and security agencies into hunting dogs in the contemporary crusade.”

He opted to communicate in English as to reach Pakistani people particularly and he was apologetic for using “the language of the Muslims’ enemies” because he wanted to speak directly to the Pakistani people, according to IntelCenter, and he cannot speak Urdu, the predominant language spoken in Pakistan and Arabic is not widely understandable.

It takes only a week to get their videos out that’s the quickest it’s taken them to reply to an incident, and timing of the videos is usually favorable and content again. Impeachment of Musharraf is being drumbeat for last one week and Musharraf needs favors to gather, thus this video can add few points in his favor. Media should be socially responsible for what it airs.