At least 18 al-Qaeda suspects including a mid-level Nigerian operative carrying "messages" as he tried to board an overseas flight have been captured in Pakistan in the past 10 days, a senior security official told AFP today.
Among them are five foreigners, including the Nigerian man and the Tanzanian suspect in the 1998 east Africa US embassy bombings, the official, who is closely involved in the latest al-Qaeda hunt, said on condition of anonymity. "A Nigerian man, Mohammad Salman Eisa alias Ibrahim, was captured yesterday as he tried to flee the country through Lahore airport," the official said, referring to Pakistan's second largest city.
"I'm gettin' outta here!"
"No, you ain't!" |
"He was carrying some messages," he added, but refused to elaborate on their contents or to whom they were addressed. Ibrahim was "a low to mid-ranking al-Qaeda operative".
"Yer nuttin', Ibrahim! Nuttin'! Just a low-ranking al-Qaeda operative!"
"Stop! Stop! You're hurting my self-esteem!" |
The 13 other detainees were Pakistani tough guys militants who helped transport the foreign al-Qaeda operatives within Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province of which Lahore is the capital. The 18 detainees have all been arrested since July 25, when the Tanzanian suspect Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani and two South African al-Qaeda suspects were captured in the Punjab industrial town of Gujrat, which lies halfway between Lahore and the capital Islamabad. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid earlier told AFP of the arrests of several suspects "interlinked" with al-Qaeda suspects, but declined to give details. A second Nigerian man was picked up in the Punjab town of Hafizabad but interrogators had not determined whether he was linked to al-Qaeda. |