PESHAWAR, 18 August 2003 — The 16-year-old widow of a dead Al-Qaeda militant yesterday vowed to start court proceedings over the killing of her husband in a raid by intelligence agents in northwest Pakistan.
Khadija told AFP that she was bringing the issue to “the Peshawar High Court tomorrow against the illegal raid by authorities on my house in which my husband was killed”.
“It amounts to murder,” she said after her release from police custody.
Khadija was arrested after a gunfight at her house in Peshawar’s crowded Hayatabad neighborhood Thursday night.
Her husband Abdul Rehman, a Libyan national, was killed in the action, and Khadija was shot in the hand.
“My husband had a valid passport and visa for Pakistan and was not involved in any terrorist activity,” Khadija said.
Pakistani authorities said yesterday they were still looking for a man who is believed to have escaped the commando raid on the suspected Al-Qaeda hide-out.
Commandoes storming the home were attacked with a volley of bullets and grenades, they said.
“We have launched a manhunt for Algerian national Sheikh Ayub Suleman who is an important Al-Qaeda operative,” an official told AFP.
Paramilitary soldiers, police commandoes and plainclothed intelligence officials are combing the tribal belt towns of Bara and Jamrud, which lie along the 40-kilometer (25-mile) road from Peshawar to the porous Afghan border, the official said.
Authorities are also monitoring the Kacha Garhi Afghan refugee camp near Peshawar, the official said.
Pakistan’s military Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, often aided by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), has rounded up more than 500 Al-Qaeda suspects since Pakistan joined the US-led campaign against terror 20 months ago.
