Al-Makki, key operative between bin Laden and al-Zawahiri

Al Qaeda’s Yemeni link Abu Sohaib al-Makki, who was arrested by Pakistani security agencies, was a “key courier” between the organization’s former head Osama bin Laden and second-in-command Aiman al-Zawahiri, a report said.

Al-Makki, also known as Muhammad Ali Qasim Yaqub, a senior al Qaeda operative, was detained by the police in Karachi’s Gulshan-e-Iqbal, the military said.

Al-Makki, 40, possessed a satellite phone and a tracking device which was used to send new information about the organization’s activities in the area, officials reported. He was also one of the main recruiters which required him travel abroad many times. Al-Makki wandered around Pakistan to avoid exposure, living briefly in Faisalabad, Karachi, Peshawar and Abbottabad, it said.

The military officials are hopeful that his arrest would make a huge progress in sorting out al Qaeda’s network in the region.

US sources, however, said that it was too early to determine that Pakistani government had commenced a crackdown on al Qaeda after the death of bin Laden, an incident that questioned and disgraced the Pakistani military and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.

Al-Makki’s arrest was declared just a day after US senator John Kerry said Pakistan needed to drive out terrorists from the country and put a lid on the terrorist activities in tribal areas.