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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Recent Arrests in Punjab Suggest Other Al Qaeda Leaders Hiding There |
| 2004-08-01 |
| From the South Asia Analysis Group, an article by B. Raman, Director of the Institute for Topical Studies The Punjab Police had announced on July 26, 2004, that following an exchange of fire lasting 14 hours at an area called Islamnagar in Gujrat, a town in Punjab, about 175 km (110 miles) southeast of the capital Islamabad, the previous day, they had arrested 13 persons, suspected of links with Al Qaeda, of whom three were women and six children. The names of the four men arrested were given as Abdullah, Tanveer, Feroze and Saleem. One of the arrested men was described as a Pakistani national from Okara and the others were described as nationals of Kenya, Sudan and South Africa. One of the arrested women was described as an Afghan national and a 12-year-old girl as a Saudi national. It was stated that the police received the tip-off, which led to the raid and arrests, from an employee of a courier service through which the inmates of the house, who had been living there for 45 days, were receiving mail from abroad. The Police claimed to have recovered two Kalashnikovs, chemicals, dollars, euros and two laptop computers from the hide-out. According to another version, following the interrogation of a suspected Al Qaeda member, who had been arrested earlier, the police had picked up Tanveer from a hotel on July 24 and he had led them to the hide-out. The Police also claimed that one of the women was wearing a suicide jacket filled with explosives. |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |