ISLAMABAD, 1 September 2003 — At least three Pakistan Army officers are under investigation for possible links with extremist organizations, the military said yesterday.
“Three to four officers are under investigation,” military spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan told AFP.
The officers, who are not of a senior rank, are being interrogated “for possible links with extremist organizations,” he said.
Sultan did not identify the groups with whom the officers were suspected to have links.
He denied as “absolutely absurd” a report in a local daily that the officers were arrested from the southern Afghan province of Zabul, the scene of attacks against US forces operating in the area that have been blamed on loyalists of Afghanistan’s ousted Taleban regime and of radical guerrilla leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
The spokesman also rejected as “baseless” the newspaper’s report that a total of 16 army personnel were being interrogated.
“This is absolutely baseless, absurd, concocted and pure figment of imagination” of the reporter, Gen. Sultan said.
“The report is part of a campaign by vested interest to tarnish the image of the Pakistan Army.”
The Daily Times newspaper said yesterday that US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents had reportedly arrested a Pakistan Army major and three of his subordinates in Zabul province. It did not say why they were arrested.
The paper said that the FBI took the Pakistanis to the Jacobabad air base in southern Pakistan’s Sindh province and later handed them over to the Pakistan Army’s Field Investigation Unit (FIU) on the request of Pakistan. It claimed the FIU, acting on information provided by the officers, launched an operation and placed 12 more officers and non-commissioned personnel under investigation.
The military spokesman rejecting the report said “there was no FBI involvement.”
Meanwhile, paramilitary forces on the border with Afghanistan have arrested an Iraqi national suspected of links to Al-Qaeda.
