Pakistani intelligence agents have arrested two men from Germany near the border with Afghanistan -- they are suspected of having contact with Islamic terrorists. Berlin is trying to gain access to the prisoners, and is hoping to avoid a replay of the Kurnaz case.
For most foreign visitors, the road to Waziristan ends less than 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of Lahore, at a Pakistan military checkpoint. Beyond the checkpoint begins a journey through a mountainous no man's land dotted with small villages, past houses surrounded by high walls. Gun barrels jut from many a pickup truck with tinted windows. Getting out of the car here is not such a good idea.
Intelligence agencies are intensely interested in what goes on in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan. No other area is mentioned more frequently in discussions of where exactly Osama bin Laden's hideout may be located. Pakistani intelligence agents estimate the number of terrorists in the region to be above 2,000, with most thought to come from Uzbekistan and Arab countries. "Not the right place to study the Koran," in the opinion of Ernst Uhrlau, the president of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND). His agency characterizes the region as "al-Qaida's deployment zone."
In the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, it's not difficult to spot a European -- even when they're dressed in traditional garb like the two German men that showed up in northern Pakistan early this year. Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's intelligence agency, seized 29-year-old Nihad C. from Pforzheim, Germany, in Rawalpindi. Three days later an acquaintance of his, 30-year-old Michael N. from Oberhausen, was arrested in Raiwind.
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