Security forces arrested a local doctor and the wife of an Arab Al Qaeda explosives expert in a pre-dawn raid on a house here, triggering protest from Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) which termed the arrests as “American agenda,” officials and eyewitnesses said. “We foiled a subversive act,” Dir Lower District Coordination Officer Dr Attaur Rehman told reporters as JI activists blocked Chakdara Road to protest the raid, which also resulted in the arrest of paediatrician Dr Muhammad Rasool. Four suicide jackets, a Kalashnikov, a rifle and explosives were seized in the joint raid that included both paramilitary and army soldiers, Rehman said. “We had actionable intelligence that Muhammad Yousaf alias Abdur Rahim, a Saudi Arabian national, was in the house but he fled before we conducted the raid,” he added. A night watchman of the area where the raided house is located was also arrested for questioning. Daily Times learnt that the wife of the suspected Arab and his child were also taken into custody at an undisclosed location by authorities.
A colleague of Dr Rasool’s said the man had not been involved in politics and had been a regular member of preaching groups. “I am surprised he was arrested in connection with Al Qaeda,” he told Daily Times on condition of anonymity. Dir Lower district is regarded as the “stronghold” of outlawed Tehrik Nifaz Shariah Muhammadi of jailed leader Sufi Muhammad. The organisation mobilised thousands of volunteers to fight for Al Qaeda-backed Taliban in Afghanistan after 9/11. It was not immediately clear whether Dr Rasool had been directly charged for “links with Al Qaeda” or the Arab suspect was just using his house.