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21 quizzed after raid on al-Q hideout in Waziristan
 | It's Karachi Quiz Time, the exciting new spinoff from the popular Bangla game show, RAB Quiz Time... |
Counter-terrorism experts in Pakistan are questioning 21 suspects captured at an al-Qaeda hideout for clues about the remnants of the terror network and the Taleban, an intelligence official said yesterday. | "You can tell us now or you can tell us later. We recommend telling us now." |
The suspects, said to include Afghans, were captured during the biggest-ever military operation in North Waziristan. Lieutenant-General Safdar Hussain, the senior army commander responsible for anti-terrorism operations in northwest Pakistan, said troops had destroyed a major al-Qaeda hideout and caught "some important men". | "By my count, we caught at least seventeen number threes and the chief goatherder. The other two guys said they took a wrong turn at Leeds and were to stubborn to stop and ask for directions." |
The hideout appeared sophisticated, with communications equipment to contact militants in Afghanistan, Gameboys, a cache of bombs, detonators and rockets, and a tiny Chinese-made remote-control drone aircraft used for surveillance, Lt-Gen Hussain said. He added that officials were checking to see whether the drone, with a wingspan of about three feet, could have been used to check the position of security forces or to carry weapons. | "You should see what it does with a grenade! Hek is so-o-o-o jealous." |
But Talat Masood, a retired Pakistani general and military analyst, said he thought that was impossible, calling the drone "ridiculous". He said: "It's a toy. It does not have the capability to carry any load whatsoever. You can't see how it's powered ... I'm not even sure it can fly." An intelligence official said "four or five important people" had been among the detainees from the raid on the hideout. He gave no other details. Pakistan's interior minister, Aftab Khan Sherpao, would only say security agencies had caught five suspects in recent operations against terrorists. | Everyone busy saying no more. |
Meanwhile, security forces yesterday detained a tribesman for suspected militant links in the same village in North Waziristan where the hideout was destroyed, and seized eight grenades and ten rockets, an intelligence official in Miran Shah, the main town in the region, said. This week's operations have coincided with a visit by the president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, to the United States, where he claimed that his country was winning the war on terror.| Watch for the Revolving Door of Justice (R) to magically get unstuck as soon as Perv is back in country. |
Posted by: Seafarious 2005-09-15 |
