Homeland Security

Pakistan arrests more al-Qaeda suspects

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Islamabad, August 3, IRNA -- Authorities in Pakistan said Tuesday 
that more al-Qaeda suspects have been arrested over the past couple of
days in the eastern Punjab province. 
A man was detained at airport in Lahore, the provincial capital, 
while trying to leave the country, and another man was arrested in the
town of Hafizabad, local correspondents said. 
The suspects are now being questioned about their activities in 
Pakistan, according to correspondents. 
A foreigner, who identified himself as Salman Juma Ibrahim, was 
arrested in Hafizabad from a bus station, a senior police official in 
Hafizabad, Aslam Ghauri said. 
The man has been handed over to secret agents for interrogation, 
Ghauri said. He said Ibrahim had no passport and possessed only a 
UNHCR card that allows him to live in Islamabad. 
There were conflicting reports about Ibrahim`s nationality. 
Sources said he first claimed he was from Yemen but later changed his 
statement to say he was Egyptian. Another source described him as 
Syrian national. 
Official sources said that another man had been arrested while 
planning to board a plane in Lahore with some documents. No other 
details were available. 
The sources said the arrested men are believed to have links to 
the other detained al-Qaeda suspects, including a computer expert 
arrested July 13 that has been identified as Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan.
Information provided by Noor Khan, also known as Abu Talha, and 
al-Qaeda suspect, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian arrested on July
25, was a major source for the US authorities to issue a warning about
a possible al-Qaeda attack on financial institutions in New York, 
Washington and New Jersey. 
Another report said that five Pakistanis believed to be al-Qaeda 
helpers have been arrested in recent days. 
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid earlier confirmed the arrests 
of several suspects. 
American daily New York Times reported yesterday that information 
extracted from a Pakistani computer expert Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan 
and Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani led a high level alert against a possible 
attack by al Qaeda on financial institutions in the United States. 
Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Monday the capture of Tanzanian-born 
Ghailani, wanted for his role in the bombings of two US embassies in 
East Africa in 1998 that killed 224 people, had given intelligence 
officers more material to work on. 
Pakistan says Ghailani, who had a $5 million bounty on his head, 
was captured on July 26th along with 13 others, including three women 
and five children, after a shootout in the city of Gujarat, 175 km 
southeast of Islamabad. 
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