ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Friday five young Americans detained in the country for trying to join militants groups will be tried under Pakistani law and will not be deported unless police clear them of any crimes.
The men were arrested on Wednesday in Sargodha, about 180 km south of Islamabad, and are US citizens with origins in other countries, including two Pakistani-Americans, officials said.
“Five men are in custody of police and they will not be deported,” Malik told a press conference. “We will first see which laws they have violated. Once our law enforcement agencies clear them, only then can we deport them.”
Malik confirmed that US Ambassador Ann W. Patterson informed Pakistani authorities of the travel plans of five suspected terrorists, four of them US nationals. “Our joint intelligence agencies moved swiftly and apprehended them from Sargodha,” Malik added. “We are in the process of carrying out initial interrogation and when we will complete our investigation we will bring them to justice.”
Malik also announced the formation of a new anti-terrorism organization called the National Counterterrorism Authority. He said the new agency was being formed in accordance with the dynamically changing anti-terrorism methods. He said the authority would serve as a think-tank and carry out research on terrorism.
“We have to de-radicalize youngsters misled by several terrorist organizations, including Al-Qaeda, Tehrik-e-Taleban Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaishe Muhammad and other copycat groups,” he said
Richard Snelsire, a spokesman at the US Embassy in Islamabad, said that four of the five men had been confirmed as US citizens and had been questioned by FBI agents and been visited by a consular officer.
US Assistant Secretary of State Philip Crowley said a US Embassy team, including at least one agent from the FBI and an officer from the State Department’s regional security office, met the five detainees in Sargodha.
“All we really know is that these individuals were in the United States until recently. They made their way to Pakistan. And beyond that ... we are trying to talk to them, find out... what they were up to, what the implications are,” Crowley told reporters in Washington.
Asked if the US government had talked to Islamabad about extraditing or bringing the five back to the United States, Crowley replied: “Not to my knowledge. Not yet.”
Sargodha district police chief Usman Anwar told local television channels earlier Friday that the Americans had come to Pakistan to try and join militant groups and travel to the northwest Taleban heartland.
Pakistani authorities said that two of the men were Pakistani-Americans, while the others were Egyptian, Ethiopian and Eritrean, all with US citizenship.
— With input from agencies
