Pakistan questioning top Al-Qaeda suspect: minister
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Islamabad, July 30, IRNA -- Authorities in Pakistan are questioning a top Al-Qaeda suspect, wanted by the United States, who was arrested in the country`s eastern Punjab province on Sunday, said Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat Friday. Hayat said the arrested person, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian, was arrested by Pakistani police and intelligence agents in the city of Gujrat during a 13-hour gunbattle. His identification was established during intense interrogation over the past few days, Hayat told the private Geo television. Khalfan, married to an Uzbek woman, is on the FBI`s most wanted terror list for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. His wife was also arrested in the Sunday operation. Ghailani was among seven people about whom the United States said in May that it was seeking information amid fears of a possible attack in the near future. Hayat said Khalfan had a bounty of up to $25 million on his head. "He is being questioned to know if he has links with other suspects in Pakistan," the minister said, adding that he will not be handed over to the United States unless the investigations in Pakistan are completed. He said the security forces are also holding two South Africans, who were also arrested in the raid in Gujrat, some 160 km east of Islamabad. Pakistan says it has arrested some 600 Al-Qaeda suspects since the US-led coalition launched military operation against Al-Qaeda and Taliban in Afghanistan in October 2001. Top Al-Qaeda leaders including Abu Zubaida, Khalid Sheikh, and Ramzi bin al Shib were among those arrested in Pakistan`s major cities. TK/TSH/2325/1432
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