A suspect held in connection with the two assassination attempts on President Gen Pervez Musharraf has been shifted to Rawalpindi to face further questioning, an official told Dawn. Adnan Afridi, who along with a Tunisian, Khalifa bin Hassan, was arrested from Jamrud last week following a raid conducted by the Intelligence Bureau, had been shifted to Rawalpindi to what a senior government official described ’tie him up’ to the investigations in the assassination attempts on President Musharraf. Adnan, in his early twenties, has been an active member of the banned Jaish-e-Muhammad organization. The 35-year-old Hassan, an Al Qaeda suspect, is being questioned by the officials of military intelligence in Peshawar. The two suspects, the official said, had confessed a link between the banned Jaish-e-Muhammad and Al Qaeda at the operational and training level. Investigators said that Adnan and Hassan, who had initially identified himself as Abdur Rehman from Morocco, had participated in the fight against Indian troops in occupied Kashmir.
| Thought that sounded like a phony name... |
An official who described Hassan as ’very sharp and intelligent’ said the man fits into the picture of a facilitator. Adnan, on the other hand, because of his ties with Jaish-e- Muhammad and recovery of sophisticated remote controlled devices, timers and impact devices from the house, had strengthened suspicion of his links with the two attempts on the life of the president. Officials said that the Arab, who was captured in a wounded condition, following a gun fight, in Jamrud the following day, has identified himself as Abdul Bari from Syria. |