Qari Saifullah Akhtar has extensive ties to al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.
He is a self-declared warrior against U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan. He ran terrorist training camps there when the Taliban was in power.
Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, the top judicial official in Akhtar's native Punjab province, told The Associated Press he was released from four months of house arrest in early December because authorities finished questioning him in connection with the October 2007 attempted assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and found no grounds to charge him.
A number of militant groups active within Pakistan are headquartered in Punjab, where 60 percent of Pakistan's 170 million people live.
As part of Pakistan's battle with neighbor India, the military and intelligence helped train and arm militant groups who fought in the disputed Kashmir region. Many of those groups cut their teeth on guerrilla warfare in the U.S.-backed 1980s insurgent war against Russian soldiers in Afghanistan.
Akhtar is going to go back to the front lines of the fight against the United States.
Earlier: napaki.tumblr.com
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