The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has suspended one of its senior officers for helping a top Karachi businessman who is wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for alleged links to Al Qaeda. Karachi-based Saifullah Paracha managed to leave Pakistan for Dubai from Quetta airport despite being on the FIAâs Exit Control List.
| Comes as a surprise, huh? |
Sources said he was helped by an FIA shift in charge. They said he then went to Bangkok where he was arrested by the FBI.
| Whoops. Inconvenient, that... |
An official notification said, âThe competent authority in the Interior Division has ordered that the Quetta FIA shift in charge be suspended immediately, an inquiry be initiated against him and a report thereof be submitted to this division urgently.â
| "Bailiff! Whack his pee-pee!" |
Mr Parachaâs son is already in FBI custody in the US. Both are under investigation for alleged links to Al Qaeda. Members of their family said an Al Qaeda activists had contacted them in Karachi several months ago and asked for help in getting clearance from immigration counters at the Quaid-e-Azam International Airport. They said Mr Paracha refused to help them. âSaifullah is a businessman and sympathises with the Jamaat-e-Islami.
He was engaged in relief work in Karachi.
| The old arms and ammunition for widows and orphans ploy... |
He went to Afghanistan a number of times on business trips during the rule of the Taliban and initiated some projects there. But he had no links to Al Qaeda,â family members said.
They said his son, known as Junior Paracha, was a fresh graduate from Boston University and had been arrested in the US four months ago. |