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| India-Pakistan |
| Bin Laden tape suspects questioned |
| 2002-11-25 |
| Pakistani security officials are questioning a number of Arab and Afghan nationals in connection with the passing on of an audio tape of Osama Bin Laden to the Islamabad-based correspondent of Arab television network al-Jazeera earlier this month. The correspondent, Ahmad Zahdan, says he was given the tape on 12 November by an unidentified person who had immediately disappeared. "I turned around, and he was gone!" Pakistan's foreign ministry has refused to confirm or deny the arrests. That means yes. Newspaper reports have quoted unnamed security officials as saying that 14 Arab and Afghan nationals have been taken into custody from Islamabad and two other cities for questioning. Reports say that the suspects are being interrogated by Pakistani intelligence service and American FBI officials over their possible involvement in delivering Osama Bin Laden's tape to the al-Jazeera television network. "Agent Smith, would you please pass the truncheon? Here you are, Agent Ahmad. Nice to be working with you again." In the last year, Pakistani security forces assisted by the FBI have arrested a large number of al-Qaeda suspects including two key aides of Osama Bin Laden. Last week, a team of Afghanistan-based American troops had a meeting with the Pakistani authorities about stepping up surveillance in the border region to prevent al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters from carrying out any cross-border activities. Now that we have that "election" thing out of the way, we can get back to work. |
| Posted by:Steve |