Unnamed Pakistani military officials later told BBC that Yaqub was arrested on May 4, just two days after Osama bin Laden was killed during a raid in Abbottabad.
Yaqub was described as a mid-level al Qaeda operative and a “key courier” that facilitated communications between bin Laden and Zawahiri.
“Fluent in Pashtu and Urdu, he was allegedly one of the main couriers between bin Laden and Zawahiri, and helped al Qaeda leaders travel between Afghanistan and Pakistan,” the BBC reported. “He is also said to have been an important recruiter, which led to him traveling abroad frequently.” He also was an “explosives expert, according to Dawn…
Yaqub is also said to be linked to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ideologue Anwar al Awlaki and to Ramsi bin Alshib, the key facilitator in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the US who is currently in US custody at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. Bin Alshib was also captured in Karachi, in September 2002.
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