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| India-Pakistan |
| FBI, ISI follow track of Al Qaeda families |
| 2002-06-12 |
| The joint teams of FBI and ISI are following the tracks of wives and children of Arab nationals having links with Al Qaeda in the mountains along the NWFP-Punjab border. These women and children went missing after getting tipped to raids conducted four days ago at the residence and Madressah of former JUI MNA Maulana Shaheed Ahmad. A highly-placed source told Dawn on Tuesday that the army intelligence and personnel of Special Services Group had sealed all entry points into Punjab from Karak to arrest these Afghan women and their seven male companions who had taken refuge at the house of Maulana Shaheed Ahmad three months ago. That'll probably work about as well as sealing the Afghan-Pak border did... The raids were conducted at the Warana area in the Mombati village after the intelligence agencies bugged the telephone of Maulana Shaheed and detected suspicious conversations between some women in Arabic a few days ago. The Intelligence Bureau was asked to confirm the presence of these women and their relationship with Arab nationals after which a joint raid was conducted which proved futile. An inquiry is currently under way to ascertain how the news of expected raid was leaked to the suspects who later escaped to some unknown place. Ummm... Start with the little guy at the cop shop with the squinty eyes, the one they call Abdul the Weasel... A source who is privy to the investigations and raids told Dawn that there were 12 women, five children and seven men residing in the house of Maulana Shaheed who turned out to be the wives of some Arab nationals fighting in Afghanistan. Four of the men left for Karachi a fortnight ago leaving behind their rest of companions. "Honey, I'm gonna run down to Karachi for a few days and cut somebody's head off. If Abdul the Weasel calls, leave a pouch of gold on the front porch and go to your Aunt Fatimah's..." Last week, the FBI and army personnel cordoned off the residence of Maulana Shaheed. After holding talks with the Maulana they were allowed to search the place. However, the raiding team could not find any of the wanted women in the house. The authorities questioned Maulana and his son Shah Abdul Aziz. Later, both of them were released. Since then the telephones of Maulana's residence and Madressah are dead and nobody has seen them for the last many days. Wotta surprise. An official of the local police while confirming the raid said that police were usually not informed about the purpose of the operations conducted by the army. "Wudn't us coppers that tipped 'em off. Nope. Nope." A leader of JUI told Dawn that they had the resources to protect the lives of the fighters and their families and nobody would be allowed to harm them. They were at a safe place and in strong hands, he claimed. We knew they were in bed with al-Qaeda, so that doesn't come as any surprise. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |