MULTAN, 22 October 2003 — Two Yemenis and a Pakistani suspected of having links with the Al-Qaeda terror network have been arrested.
The men, whose identities were not released, were arrested at a checkpoint late Monday in Faisalabad, an industrial city about 250 km (155 miles) northeast of Multan. A pistol and dozens of rounds of ammunition were found in their car when it was stopped during a routine security check on the road from Faisalabad, a police officer said.
The officer said two of the men said they were from Yemen, although they had no passports. He said their presence in Pakistan without documents raised suspicions of links with Al-Qaeda.
Police and intelligence agents were questioning them, he said. Interior Ministry officials in Islamabad were not immediately available to confirm the arrests.
In a raid earlier this month in Pakistan’s remote North West Frontier Province near the Afghan border, army troops killed eight Al-Qaeda suspects and captured 18 others. Two Pakistani troops were killed in the operation in the South Waziristan tribal region.
Four of the eight killed in the operation chose suicide rather than capture, The Nation newspaper reported yesterday.
The four took their own lives after comrades guarding their hide-out in Angor Adda were killed, said the daily, quoting unidentified “highly placed sources.” The military operation was launched the day after “a leading Arab-Canadian” arrived at the hide-out, which was run by his son. They were among the four who killed themselves.
