Terrorist, bin Laden confidant lives safely in Pakistan

The Pakistani government is allegedly allowing terrorist and militant leader Fazle-ur-Rahman Khalil to live unmolested on its soil.

According to an Associated Press report Wednesday, the insurgent leader and friend of Osama bin Laden is living in the suburbs of Islamabad, Pakistan's capital.

Pakistani authorities are clearly aware of Khalil's whereabouts. But they leave him alone, just as they tolerate other Kashmiri militant groups nurtured by the military and its intelligence agency to use against India, the AP issuance stated.

Khalil is the leader of terrorist organization Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen. He was a confidant to bin Laden during the al-Qaeda leader's 1998 fatwa against the United States. He is also a friend of 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen is an international militant organization with close ties to al-Qaeda. The group has reportedly sent combatants to India, Afghanistan, Somalia, Chechnya and Bosnia.

The AP talked to Khalil over the phone last month, asking if he had been in contact with bin Laden while bin Laden was living in the Abbottabad compound.

It is 100 percent wrong, it's rubbish, Khalil told the AP. Osama did not have contact with anybody.

The fact that Khalil lives freely in Pakistan worries some US analysts, who believe that Pakistan is allowing terrorists to operate within their nation while accepting US monetary aid for just the opposite reasons.

Pakistani officials told the AP that they know of Khalil's whereabouts, and that he is useful to Pakistani intelligence. Along with Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen, Khalil is thought to have to connections to Lashkar-e-Taiba, both groups that target India.

He was significant for Osama bin Laden, one official said. He has connections with all these groups in Waziristan but he is living here and we don't go after him. He is the one you go to when you need to get to these groups,

Fazle-ur-Rahman Khalil is not currently wanted by the United States.