ISLAMABAD, 16 September 2005 — Pakistan has busted the biggest Al-Qaeda base in the tribal zone of North Waziristan and recovered 15 truckloads of arms and ammunition, a general said yesterday. They also arrested seven Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

The militant den was in a madrasa and a nearby compound owned by the son of a former minister of the hard-line Taleban regime that ruled Afghanistan until late 2001, Corps Commander Peshawar Safdar Hussain told reporters.

He said the owner, Sirajuddin Haqqani, whom he described as a senior Al-Qaeda insurgent, managed to escape from a nearby hide-out, which was also raided.

Yesterday’s arrests raised the number of militants held in a major search operation launched in the tribal region of North Waziristan to 28. “Today our focus is to see that the forthcoming parliamentary elections ... are held in a peaceful and smooth manner,” said Hussain.

Meanwhile Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said a member of Parliament belonging to JUI-F is being probed for his alleged links with suspected terrorist network. If the charges were proved against the MP, the government would take a stern action against him, he added.

Secret government agencies’ report revealed that the brother of JUI-F MP Nek Zaman had a close liaison with suspected terrorists hiding in North Waziristan Agency.

The minister said intelligence agencies are investigating the involvement of Nek Zaman and his brother for their alleged support to anti-state elements.

The interior minister said that a large number of foreign terrorists have been captured from the troubled tribal region of North Waziristan Agency (NWA) but he did not divulge the details of their nationalities.

However, the member of the National Assembly Maulana Nek Zaman of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal said that claims by the military that he was directly or indirectly supporting terrorists had “no truth.”

Calling himself “a democrat,” the MNA denied that any of his relatives had been arrested in connection with terrorism. “I am one who is helping peace to return to Waziristan,” Zaman said.

— Additional input from agencies