Matiur Rehman (born 1977, Bahawalpur District, Punjab Province, Pakistan) is a Pakistani militant who has been identified as

al Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countr ...

's planning director and is the chief operational commander of

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ; ur, ) or "Army of Jhangvi", is a Deobandi Sunni supremacist, terrorist and jihadist militant organisation based in Afghanistan. The organisation operates in Pakistan and Afghanistan and is an offshoot of anti-Shi ...

and is closely associated with

Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami ( ar, حركة الجهاد الإسلامي, ''Ḥarkat al-Jihād al-Islāmiyah'', meaning "Islamic Jihad Movement", HuJI) is a Pakistani Islamic fundamentalist Jihadist organisation affiliated with Al-Qaeda and Talib ...

. Pakistani police have identified him as being involved in the kidnapping of ''Wall Street Journal'' reporter

Daniel Pearl Daniel Pearl (October 10, 1963 – February 1, 2002) was an American journalist who worked for ''The Wall Street Journal.'' He was kidnapped and later decapitated by terrorists in Pakistan.' Pearl was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and rais ...

. He was designated by the

Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee The ISIL (Da'esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee is a committee of the United Nations Security Council tasked with implementing international sanctions against the Islamic State and al-Qaeda. It was established as the Al-Qaida and Taliban Sancti ...

of the

Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...

in 2011. He was thought to have frequent contacts with

Ayman al-Zawahiri Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri (June 19, 1951 – July 31, 2022) was an Egyptian-born terrorist and physician who served as the second emir of al-Qaeda from June 16, 2011, until his death. Al-Zawahiri graduated from Cairo University wit ...

and to be in contact with

Rashid Rauf Rashid Rauf (ca. 1981 – 22 November 2008) was an alleged Al-Qaeda operative. He was a dual citizen of Britain and Pakistan who was arrested in Bhawalpur, Pakistan in connection with the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot in August 2006, a day ...

. It was suggested at one point that Rehman and Rauf were one and the same, but this was dismissed by officials in Britain and Pakistan. Rehman was linked by Pakistani officials with the 2006 plot to destroy aircraft using homemade "liquid explosive" devices. In March 2006 it was reported by ABC News that Pakistani officials said Rehman was behind plans for an attack against the United States and that Pakistan had posted a 10-million rupee (about $166,000) award for his capture. According to ABC News consultant and former French defense ministry adviser Alexis Debat, Rehman was "probably Pakistan's most wanted". Debat described Rehman as "extremely dangerous because of his role as the crucial interface between the brains of al Qaeda and its muscle, which is mainly composed these days of Pakistani militants." Pakistani officials suspected Rehman of being connected to the 2 March 2006 Karachi consulate attacks and said that he had helped train Pakistani militants at al Qaeda training camps in the late 1990s. In August 2006 ABC News erroneously reported that Matiur Rehman had been captured in Pakistan. ABC consultant Alexis Debat had warned ABC it was not true a day after the report had initially been broadcast, and ABC retracted it when it turned out that Rehman had not in fact been captured.

GlobalSecurity.org GlobalSecurity.org is an American nonpartisan, independent, nonprofit organization that serves as a think tank, and research and consultancy group. Focus The site is focused on national and international security issues; military analysis, syste ...

's profile of Rehman reports that US counterterrorism sources remain unconvinced of his importance.

Notes

Pakistani al-Qaeda members 1977 births Living people People designated by the Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee People from Bahawalpur District {{Pakistan-paramilitary-bio-stub