Top 5 Al Qaeda-linked militants Pakistan has captured

A look at Al Qaeda militants captured by Pakistani authorities over the past decade.

2. Khalid Sheikh Mohammad

Khalid Sheikh Mohammad was captured March 1, 2003, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The New Yorker, in the recent profile "The Mastermind," describes the 9/11 coordinator's capture at the hands of Pakistani police: "In the spring of 2003, almost a full decade after Mohammed came to the notice of terrorism investigators, heavily armed Pakistani police crashed in on him in the middle of the night, in a walled compound in Rawalpindi, the home city of Pakistan’s military. His capture likely owed something to the technical capacities of American surveillance, but the big break came by the oldest of means: betrayal. The US had offered a twenty-five-million-dollar reward for Mohammed’s capture, and a cousin tipped off authorities about his location."

US officials were very much involved in the hunt, according to reports. "The hunt for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed involved the entire American intelligence establishment," reported The New York Times.

He is now detained at Guantánamo Bay. Last month, the White House ended attempts to have his case transferred to a civilian federal court in the US.

2 of 5
You've read 3 of 3 free articles. Subscribe to continue.
CSM logo

Why is Christian Science in our name?

Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The Christian Science Church, and we’ve always been transparent about that.

The Church publishes the Monitor because it sees good journalism as vital to progress in the world. Since 1908, we’ve aimed “to injure no man, but to bless all mankind,” as our founder, Mary Baker Eddy, put it.

Here, you’ll find award-winning journalism not driven by commercial influences – a news organization that takes seriously its mission to uplift the world by seeking solutions and finding reasons for credible hope.

Explore values journalism About us