Al Qaeda allies stalk, kill Pakistani police

KHAR, Pakistan, July 19 (Reuters) Three months after taking part in an operation in which a Syrian al Qaeda operative was killed, Tariq Ali Zamin, a police sergeant in Pakistan's Bajaur tribal region, was gunned down on his way home.

Zamin was one of the officers who opened fire on Abu Marwan Hadid al-Suri, a 38-year-old Syrian wanted by the United States, who had been acting as al Qaeda's bag man, distributing funds to militants' families in the Pakistan-Afghan border region.

''After the al Qaeda operation he appeared to be under some pressure,'' Amanullah, a fellow police officer, today said a day after Zamin was killed.

Zamin had been staying with Amanullah, who was also involved in al-Suri's killing on April 20. Amanullah said a few days ago he found white burial shrouds left outside his home.

They also received a letter at their post on the outskirts of Khar, the main town in Bajaur, one of Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous tribal agencies on its northwest frontier with Afghanistan.

It read: ''You have taken part in an operation against true mujahideen and you will not live'', Amanullah said. Mujahideen are Islamic warriors.

Yesterday, two men on a motorcycle pulled alongside Zamin's car just outside Khar and shot him in the head, and drove off.

One of Zamin's superiors, Mamoor Khan said it was unlikely that that there was any other motive, though such killings are common in the tribal lands where family feuds run for generations.

''As far as we know, he didn't have any personal enmity. We suspect this was a revenge killing by militants in retaliation for the operation against al Qaeda,'' Khan said.

Zamin is the third member of Bajaur's poorly paid special tribal agency police to have been killed since taking part in the al Qaeda operation.

In all, eight members of the force have been killed since then.

The others were killed by bomb or rocket attacks on their posts.

Aside from being al Qaeda's book-keeper, al-Suri was a known bombmaker, and was involved in organising attacks on US-led coalition and Afghan forces in Afghanistan.

While Pakistan's fight against al Qaeda has been concentrated in the Waziristan tribal areas to the southwest, attention focused on Bajaur in January, when a missile strike by a CIA drone aircraft hit a meeting of al Qaeda members.

US intelligence officials believed Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's deputy, might attend the gathering.

REUTERS SY PM1932