Officials: Taliban flood into Karachi

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Taliban fighters seeking money, rest and refuge from U.S. missile strikes are turning up in increasing numbers in Pakistan’s largest city and economic hub, Karachi, according to militants, police officials and an intelligence memo.

The Taliban presence in this southern port city, hundreds of miles away from the Islamist extremists’ strongholds in the northwest, shows how quickly their influence is spreading throughout the nuclear-armed nation.

Karachi is especially important because it is the main entryway for supplies headed to U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, as well as the city most critical to Pakistani commerce. Few believe the Taliban could actually take over this diverse metropolis of more than 16 million, but there is fear that they could destabilize it through violence and rock the already-shaky national economy.

Karachi is a place where plenty of Western-dressed young men and women mingle in swanky malls, listen to Britney Spears and cruise through neighborhoods that feel like wealthy U.S. suburbs.

But it also is where U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and found beheaded in 2002. Al-Qaida operatives, including suspected Sept. 11, 2001, attack plotter Ramzi Binalshibh, have been found here. And the city is believed to have been a launching pad for militants who killed 164 people in India’s commercial capital of Mumbai last year.

As the Pakistan military intensifies its attacks in the northwest, and the U.S. keeps launching missiles there, more insurgents are seeking safety in Karachi and other urban areas, militants said.

“We come in different batches to Karachi to rest and if needed, get medical treatment, and stay with many of our brothers who are living here in large numbers,” 32-year-old militant Omar Gul Mehsud told The Associated Press while strolling along the beach, astonished at the vastness of the sea, which he’d never seen before.

Shah Jahan, a 35-year-old who said he commands about 24 Taliban fighters in the South Waziristan tribal region, told the AP that militants are scattering throughout Pakistan to avoid the U.S. missile strikes. He said groups of 20 to 25 fighters would fight for a few months, then take leaves of up to one month in cities including Karachi.