Pakistan has arrested two more foreigners believed to be members of al Qaeda in the last 24 hours, local intelligence officials said Tuesday. They were the latest in a series of arrests of members of the radical Islamic network in Pakistan, which U.S. officials have said had led to information about a plot to bomb buildings in Washington and in the New York area. In the latest arrests, one of the men was apprehended at a bus stop in the Hafizabad town in Punjab province but the officials were unsure of his nationality. "He first said he was from Yemen but later changed his statement to say he was Egyptian," one of the officials who asked not to be named told Reuters. "We are still checking his nationality. He does not have a passport." | That's unusual, most people in Pakistan have half a dozen. |
In another swoop, authorities arrested a foreign al Qaeda suspect along with two Pakistanis who were traveling to the eastern city of Lahore, also in Punjab, from the nearby town of Sheikupura Monday night. No other details were immediately available about the arrests, which follow the capture of at least two important al Qaeda members last month.
Additional:
Among those arrested was Raja Waqar AKA Mahmoud The Weasel, a policeman assigned to the office of Punjab province's top politician. Waqar is suspected of informing al-Qaida-linked groups about the whereabouts of top government officials, a high-ranking intelligence official in the eastern city of Lahore told The Associated Press. Another detainee identified himself as Juma Ibrahim, a Syrian. He was arrested Sunday at a bus station in Hafizabad, a town near Lahore, and was turned over to Pakistan's spy agency, said district police chief Aslam Ghauri. A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a third man was arrested trying to board a plane in Lahore with questionable documents. He gave no further details. |