LAHORE, 18 March 2003 — Pakistani intelligence agents have seized six more suspected Al-Qaeda militants in the east of the country as their crackdown on the organization gather paces, sources said yesterday.
The six arrests since Sunday night were made thanks to information gleaned since the arrest of Al-Qaeda communications and logistics expert Yassir Al-Jazeeri this weekend and included his brother-in-law, the intelligence sources told Reuters.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said he had not received word of the reported arrests, but sources said they also included a Qatari national and at least three Afghans. “Security agencies arrested a relative of A-Jazeeri from (the town of) Gujranwala last night,” said one intelligence source. “The arrested person is a brother-in-law of Al-Jazeeri.”
Two other intelligence sources said more arrests were made in the early hours of yesterday in the eastern city of Lahore where Al-Jazeeri was picked up Saturday.
One intelligence source said investigators believed Al-Jazeeri had played a role in disseminating audio and videotapes of Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden to the media, although this could not be independently confirmed.
The Qatar-based television channel Al Jazeera, which has received several such tapes, denied any knowledge of Al-Jazeeri.
Pakistan’s intelligence agencies, working closely with FBI agents, have tightened the noose on Al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan in the last month after arresting the organization’s No. 3, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, on March 1 in Rawalpindi.
Mohammed is suspected of playing a leading role in planning the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and sources say his arrest helped lead to Al-Jazeeri’s arrest. Senior intelligence officials say they hope the trail will eventually lead toward Bin Laden himself, but admit they still have no idea where the man is. Mohammed was transferred to US custody shortly after his capture, but officials say Al-Jazeeri is still in the country under interrogation by Pakistani and FBI agents.
Intelligence sources said they were working their way through telephone numbers in a digital diary found in Al-Jazeeri’s possession, but said US experts were still trying to crack the security code on his computer. Pakistan, a leading ally in the US war on terror, says its security forces have detained over 440 suspected Al-Qaeda and Taleban militants since Sept. 11, 2001, and handed more than 340 over to the United States.
An anti-terrorism court yesterday refused to rule on a bail application by a man arrested along with Mohammed, saying the matter does not fall into its jurisdiction, officials said.
Judge Safdar Hussain Malik said that because police had not yet produced evidence or terrorism charges against the man, Ahmed Abdul Qadus, the bail application should be heard by a normal court.
