A South African citizen Istiaque Parker contacts the U.S. embassy in Islamabad with information about Ramzi Yousef’s whereabouts. Parker, a jihadi, is acquainted with Yousef had visited him at the Peral Guest House two weeks earlier to discusses a scheme to kidnap the Philippine ambassador to Pakistan, a scheme that was to have secured the release of Hakim Murad, who had been captured in the Philippines. Other reports say that Parker was to check luggage onto international flights with bombs in them.
Parker is motivated by the $2 million reward being offered for information leading to the apprehension of the 1993 World Trade Center bomber. Parker disappears with his wife Fehmida and their infant son days later – taken into witness protection by the FBI – as Yousef was apprehended four days later.
On September 5, 1996, Yousef was convicted for his role in the so-called “Bojinka” plot in the Philippines and sentenced to life in prison without parole. On November 12, 1997, Yousef was found guilty of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing and was subsequently also convicted of seditious conspiracy. He was remanded to the Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, where he still serves.
Day: February 3, 2021