A cellphone of Osama bin Laden's trusted courier recovered in the U.S. raid last month that killed both men in Pakistan contained contacts to a militant group that is a longtime asset of Pakistan's intelligence agency, The New York Times reported late Thursday.

In a story posted on the Times website, senior American officials and others briefed on the findings said the discovery indicates bin Laden used the group, Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen, as part of his support network inside Pakistan.

It raises questions about whether the group and others helped shelter and support the al-Qaida leader on behalf of Pakistan's spy agency.

The officials and analysts told the Times that Pakistan's intelligence agency had mentored Harakat and allowed it to operate in Pakistan for at least 20 years.

In tracing the calls on the cellphone, U.S. analysts have determined that Harakat commanders had called Pakistani intelligence officials, the senior American officials said. One said they had met. The officials added that the contacts were not necessarily about bin Laden and that there was no "smoking gun" showing that Pakistan's spy agency had protected bin Laden.

Beyond providing leads about why bin Laden was able to live comfortably for years in Abbottabad, a town dominated by the Pakistani military just 35 miles from the capital city of Islamabad, the discovery also may help shed light on bin Laden's secret odyssey after he slipped away from U.S. forces in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan nearly 10 years ago.

The revelation that a senior Pakistani army officer was detained on suspicion of ties to a radical Islamist group has raised fresh concerns about the reach and influence of an organization that has long vexed analysts and politicians.
Hizb-ut-Tahrir says it rejects violence but uses venomous rhetoric and pushes for military coups. It seeks the overthrow of Pakistan's elected government and wants to unite the Muslim world under one government following strict Islamic law.
Pakistan's army confirmed on Tuesday that Brig. Ali Khan, whose rank equals that of a one-star general, is being investigated on alleged ties to Hizb-ut-Tahrir. Khan's wife has called the allegations "rubbish."
Khan's lawyer, Col. Inam Rahim, claimed Wednesday that his client was arrested for demanding that someone within the military be held accountable for the U.S. commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden last month not far from Pakistan's equivalent of West Point.
The May 2 operation humiliated the Pakistani military, which didn't know about it beforehand, and raised questions about whether extremist sympathizers helped bin Laden hide in the army town of Abbottabad for years before he was killed – although there's no evidence yet of a military role in concealing the al-Qaida chief.
Critics of Hizb-ut-Tahrir say it's not too far off from overtly militant Islamist groups, and that its anti-West preaching paves the way for a radical mindset that eventually leads some members to pick up weapons or tolerate those who do.
"Hizb-ut-Tahrir has been an inspiration for jihadism," said Maajid Nawaz, a former member who now leads a think tank aimed at countering extremism.
The group was founded in the early 1950s in Jerusalem by Taqiuddin an-Nabhani, who the group's various websites describe as a judge, scholar and politician. In the decades since, the group spread quickly throughout Muslim nations, as well as Western countries such as Britain and the U.S., and boasts hundreds of thousands of members worldwide.
It says it wants to change Muslims' attitudes in order to lay the groundwork for restoring the Islamic caliphate, the structure that once governed much of the Muslim world. It also says it opposes democracy because the concept clashes with Islamic law, which is divine as opposed to man-made    READ MARE